Next morning the ironmen all gathered on a hill. Aeron Greyjoy raised his bony hands. "We were born from the sea, and to the sea we all return," Aeron began, softly at first, so men would strain to hear. "The Storm God in his wrath plucked Balon from his castle and cast him down, yet now he feasts beneath the waves in the Drowned God's watery halls." He lifted his eyes to the sky. "Balon is dead! The iron king is dead!"
"The king is dead!" a bunch of other priests shouted.
"Yet what is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger!" Aeron continued. "Balon has fallen, but an iron king shall rise again, to sit the Seastone Chair and rule the isles."
"A king shall ride!" the other priests said. "He shall rise!"
"But who?" Aeron's voice thundered. "Who shall sit in Balon's place? Who shall be king over us?"
"I will," came the answer from below. "I am Vilu Daskar, terror of the high seas."
The corsair stoat ascended the hill to stand beside Aeron. "Who the fuck are you?" Asha's friend Tris Botley shouted. "You're not a Greyjoy!"
"Where is it written that your king must be a kraken?" Vilu Daskar said calmly.
"Nowhere, but I'm pretty sure he has to be a human being!" another voice shouted.
"Our kings have always been Greyjoys," said a man named Ralf the Limper.
"And how has that worked out for you?" Vilu asked. "Look at yourselves. Poor. Hungry. Miserable. Confined to your tiny islands, at the mercy of the Iron Throne. If you make me your leader, I will make you great again. What do you say?"
There was total silence.
"Who's next?" Aeron called.
Angrily Vilu Daskar slunk down the hill. Yara stepped up to take his place. "Let me be your queen," she said. "I was the one who seized Moat Cailin from the Northmen, and I'm the one who'll continue to hold it. If I'm elected queen, I will expand our fleet. The mainlanders won't be able to take away the territories we've conquered. I am the kraken's daughter! I'll give you the same as what you got from Balon, only more so! That's all I have to say."
Then Asha took the stage. "My sister may be the kraken's daughter, but I am too, and I was born first. I came into the world five minutes before she did, but that's all it takes. Yara is playing you for fools. We can't win this war. The mainlanders are too strong for us. But I've been talking with Lady Glover. She says if we hand back Deepwood Motte, Torrhen's Square, and Moat Cailin, the Northmen will cede us Sea Dragon Point and Stony Shore. Those lands are thinly peopled, yet ten times larger than all the isles put together. What's it to be? Will you follow me to peace and victory, or follow my sister to war and more defeat?"
Then Victorian came forward. "My nieces have the weak hearts of women. We already hold the Stony Shore. Why hand back anything? We are the ironborn. We pay the iron price for everything we take. Stony Shore's not enough for us. Moat Cailin's not enough either. If I'm king, I will give you the entire north! So, why don't you let these little girls go back to their dolls and elect a real leader?"
Many voices shouted, "Victarion!" but others were shouting "Asha!" and still others shouted "Yara!" It seemed as though some savage storm was about to engulf them all. Aeron was worried a fight would break out…
And then the sound of a horn split the air.
GAROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Everyone fell silent. The crowd parted to reveal Balon's oldest brother, Euron Greyjoy, standing at the back of the assembly with his pirate crew. The man who'd been blowing the horn toppled over and died, but no one noticed. All eyes were on Euron.
"Ironmen!" he said. "You have heard my horn. Now hear my words. I am Balon's brother, Quellon's oldest living son. My brother would have you be content with the cold and dismal north, my nieces with even less… but I will give you all of Westeros, from the Wall to Dorne!"
"How are you gonna do that?" Asha called. "We can't even hold the north!"
"Maybe you can't, but I can," he said. "Westeros has been conquered before, or haven't you heard of Aegon Targaryen?"
"I've heard of him," said Yara. "But he had dragons."
"An' so shall we," said Euron. "I know where there are three dragons. With the horn you just heard blowing, I can bind them to my will. Surely that is worth a driftwood crown."
"Euron! Crow's Eye! Euron!" At first it was only his crew shouting, but other voices joined in until the cry rang from a thousand throats. "EURON! CROW'S EYE! EURON KING! EURON! EURON! EURON! EURON! EURON!"
