Theon
The town of Seagard lay before them. He could see there were several ships in port, as well as the actual castle of Seagard itself, the seat of House Mallister.
Lord Jason had been raising men at Seagard according to the last reports they had heard, and so Robb had decided they would ride close to see if they could combine their strengths before they reached Riverrun.
Most his thoughts since they had parted were of Rhaenys and their children, oft wondering how well they were in the North now that he was gone. But more it was Rhaenys's words that rang in his head, that he needed to go home to Pyke before his father died.
They had met for a war council, briefly that now included Lord Mallister, however it was now finished. The Lord of Seagard had assembled a thousand mounted knights to join with their host, but now most had returned to their tents and pavilions, save for Theon, who remained in Robb's.
He looked at the map that was lain out. They had a little over six thousand men, now with Mallister, but the Kingslayer was said to have a host near three times their size laying siege to Riverrun.
"I had hoped for more men…" Robb confessed quietly. "Uncle says that we will be able to win, with what we have, but I'm not so certain."
"Has there been news from the east?" Theon asked, though he doubted there was, else Robb would've spoken of it during the war council. It had been the bastard, Jon who was tasked with commanding the foot to go south to fight against Lord Tywin.
"No," Robb replied.
Seagard was not far from the Isles, Theon remembered and he knew what he had to do. "My father sits at Pyke. I do not doubt he holds a grudge against Lord Tywin. Let me go to him, and I do not doubt he will raise his sails for you."
Robb seemed convinced by the notion. "How many men might he be able to provide in the field of battle?"
"I do not know… But ships… He could provide many ships. If we raid the Lannisters… Take what they value most… They'll be suing for peace soon enough," Theon promised.
"Good," Robb said with a nod. He didn't seem as certain as Theon was, but he was convinced all the same.
"I would leave on the morrow," Theon told him. "It would be better to deliver my message to him personally than by raven."
"Yes, go," Robb said. "You had best prepare for your departure if you are going."
Theon agreed, and he left Robb's tent to go find his own. His was not far from Robb's, and he began to pack things up. He hadn't unpacked much though, and before long some men had come to begin assisting him too.
Before much time had passed, Theon was mounted and riding for Seagard.
A Mallister came to greet him, though it wasn't Lord Jason, or his eldest son and heir, Patrek. Instead it was a second son, a boy of three and ten, who introduced himself as being named Preston.
They boy didn't make for much good as company though. All he spoke of was how he had wanted to go fight in the war, but father had deemed him too old. He had been arranged to squire for Lord Tytos Blackwood, but when Lord Tytos began marching men south, Preston hadn't been allowed.
I fucked your sister, and got her with child, Theon had half a mind to say, though he did not think Preston or Lord Jason would take kindly to that.
Theon was afforded a bedchamber in the castle, though the accommodations were modest.
He fell asleep quickly and began to dream. At first he dreamt of Pyke, and the people he had not thought of for a long time, his uncles, father, sisters, brothers and others.
But soon his dreams changed, and he found himself in his bedchamber with Rhaenys, them both naked. Rhaenys gave him a grin as she got onto the bed and crawled on top of her.
When he was finished in her, he sat up on the side of the bed, before Rhaenys walked over, and knelt between his legs, taking his cock in her mouth. It felt good to Theon until he found himself about to spill his seed again, when suddenly his pleasure turned to pain. He looked down and saw blood all over his groin and Rhaenys's mouth, and tried to scream, but in his dreams he couldn't.
Instead he could only watch what had been Rhaenys now seemed to be a dragon, and it began to open its mouth again when Theon woke.
Theon seemed to be covered in sweat, and he realized someone had started a fire in the fireplace that hadn't been started before. When he looked out the window, he saw it was raining, with it still being night time.
He spent the rest of the night trying to fall back asleep, though was unsuccessful, and when morning came, he finally rose and began to dress himself.
Today he dressed himself in garb that seemed proper for the heir to Pyke, a black doublet with a golden kraken sewn into it, and took what few things he needed, and began to make for the docks.
Passage had been arranged for him the previous night by the man who Lord Jason was leaving behind as castellan, while Theon was led there by some men from Pyke. He didn't fail to note the poor looks he received as they went through the town, all the way to the port, and even from the men who were escorting him.
The only relief came when they were finally on their way to Pyke.
Theon was on a ship named the Myrham, a fat-bellied trading cog from Oldtown, that for some coin had been willing to take him to Pyke.
His journey though took longer than he would've liked. It felt good to be on the open sea once more, but time was of the essence now.
More to his liking had been the captain's daughter, who had come to his bed on their first night over the open sea. She was pretty enough, he supposed, and after so long riding in a host where the only women to bed were unwashed camp followers, she seemed much better than them.
The captain didn't seem to approve of it, but he did not try to stop him either, and eventually they reached the Isles.
The Myrham had begun to dock on the isle of Pyke, at Lordsport. When last he had left, off to Winterfell, to become Lord Eddard's ward, he had been a boy of nine. Now, ten years later, he was a man of nine and ten.
He had wed and become a father to children of his own, which he hoped might impress his father some.
Theon wondered if perhaps he had made another.
As he disembarked, he thought of how the Captain's daughter had begged him to take her as a salt wife, to bring back the traditions of old, and while for a moment he thought it might impress his father, he decided against the notion.
It made him think of Lady Perianne at Winterfell instead, which he decided to push those thoughts aside.
As the last of Theon's things were being taken from the ship, he heard a woman's voice call out to him. "Theon!" She said, and within moments her arms were wrapped around him.
It took him several moments to realize it was Elenei, and not Asha or his mother, though he had not seen any of them in ten years. When he looked over his sister, she looked much older than she ought to be. She had been seven and ten when he had last seen her, but now she didn't look any younger than forty, her black hair well streaked with grey,
Theon hugged her back and even lifted her effortlessly off the ground.
When they broke apart, he examined his sister even more closely. He was taller than her now, and she seemed to be thinner than he remembered, almost frail even.
There was the faintest hint at a tear in her blue eyes too. The port had been burned and pillaged when last he saw her, but it seemed to have healed, yet Elenei looked much worse than she had then.
"Are mother and father here?" He finally managed to ask her after standing in silence for a few moments.
Elenei shook her head. "Father waits at the castle with our uncles, and mother is on Harlaw."
Theon wasn't sure if he should be disappointed or not. He supposed he might be able to pay a visit to Harlaw when the war was over, but until then his mother would have to wait.
"Torwyn, come meet Theon," Elenei called out.
A little further off Theon noticed a boy who seemed to only be a little older than Bran emerge, and he looked a good deal like Elenei. Only his eyes were a lighter blue, and his squared jaw seemed to differentiate the two, that and the faint wrinkles on Elenei's face too.
The boy walked a little nervously up until he was next to Elenei and looking at him with wide eyes.
"Your son?" Theon asked about the lad.
Elenei nodded. She had been betrothed before the war he remembered, though her betrothed had died in battle, as their brothers had, and he did not recall ever hearing of any marriage between her and some other man though.
"Do you have other children waiting for you in the castle?" He asked again.
She shook her head, and had a sad look on her face. "Torwyn is all I have," she said sadly. "You have children of your own don't you?"
Theon nodded in response. "Casella and Goren… They are with their mother at Winterfell."
"The former princess?" Elenei asked.
"Aye," Theon responded. It seemed fitting, a former prince and a former princess when it was put like that.
"We should get back to the castle," Elenei said
He knew she was right. The sun was beginning to set, and it would be best to be at Pyke before dark.
Horses were already there for them, which meant that they were able to begin riding before long. As they rode, he started to remember more of the castle and island.
Familiar places, and even a few familiar faces, though there weren't very many. He and Elenei spoke the whole ride though, of what had happened on the isles after Theon had left. Asha had been married off to one a Redwyne of the Arbor at the King's direction, while Elenei had been impregnated with Robert's bastard son, Torwyn, who had taken a great toll on her.
As they grew closer, Theon studied the castle that would one day be his. It was not as great as it once was, when it was a full fortress atop a single island, after the waves had brought down much of it, making the castle stand together on three separate tall islands, each with their own separate keeps connected by bridges.
Father would be waiting in the Sword Tower, the furthest and tallest of the towers away from the main keep, too.
When they were almost to the keep though, matters turned to him. "Why did you come home, Theon?" Elenei asked him.
"There's a war, one we must needs fight in," Theon said.
Elenei didn't seem too pleased by that. "The last war we fought cost me my brothers, my sister, my betrothed and my maidenhood. The one before that cost us our grandfather. What will this one cost?"
Those who die will die deaths of glory and honor this time, Theon thought to himself. "We will win this time."
"How? You would have us go to war with Lord Tywin wouldn't you? It is said the Kingslayer had smashed the Riverlords in battle," Elenei said.
"So he did," Theon told her. "But we are not the Riverlords are we?"
Elenei only had a sad look on her face. "And who will need to die this time? The promise of gold and glory will not serve me when it's you, or father or Torwyn who dies in battle."
"We do not have a choice. The time to rise again is now, with the realm fractured. The Greenlanders have little fear for the Ironborn." Theon said. "And Lord Tywin is vulnerable," he said.
He didn't tell her about Robb's movements, since he didn't think there was much need to tell her of them. Robb though would be engaging both of the Lannister hosts in the Riverlands, and leave the west unprotected.
Elenei only seemed disappointed in his words though.
They rode the rest of the way in silence to the Sword Tower. When he entered, men seemed to make way for him, until he finally found himself standing before his lord father.
Balon Greyjoy only looked a little different from when Theon had last seen him. His face was gaunt, and lined, his white hair now ran all the way to the small of his back, and his black eyes seemed even harder than Theon remembered.
He hadn't paid his father much thought in his years at Winterfell.
"Ten years… And you finally return," his father began to say.
"Aye," Theon said.
"I remember the boy that left my castle then, but you are a stranger to me. Even Asha paid visits often enough," he said.
That's because she was given to the Redwynes, he thought ruefully. "You might have been able to pay a visit to Winterfell. When I wed, Lord Eddard sent word to Pyke inviting you to the wedding but you refused. When my daughter and son were born… You refused."
"And I would again. Stark is no friend of mine. I suppose you hope the Targaryen girl of yours might impress me, but I assure you that I am not your uncle," Lord Balon said back.
"I am a man now, not a boy," Theon told him.
"Perhaps you are… But what sort? You come here on Stark's orders I don't doubt," his father said.
"I come on my own accord," Theon replied. This was his idea, not Robb's.
"What do you come for then?" Balon asked him.
For a moment Theon thought perhaps to say what Rhaenys had told him at Winterfell. That if he was to rule Pyke one day, he'd need to return, but he didn't. "Lord Tywin and the Kingslayer are busy engaging with the Starks in the Riverlands. He leaves the west vulnerable, a ripe fruit, fit for picking."
Lord Balon seemed only humored by the suggestion, but Theon continued. "My uncles burned the fleet the Lannisters had at Lannisport. We would sack the city with ease. And with Asha wed to House Redwyne, they will not sail against us. The Sunset Sea is ours my lord, and all the plunder of the west that we could need."
"So Stark did send you to beg my aid in his war against the Lannisters then…"
"I am no longer their hostage," Theon reminded him. Surely he had to see it.
"Perhaps not… But you left your wife and children at Winterfell I take, and Asha is with her husband in King's Landing. They are still hostages," his father said.
"You will do nothing?" Theon asked in disbelief. "Our time to act is now."
"This plan of yours… It may yet have merit, but I will need time to consider. I will certainly not wage a war to free Stark from some cell, or on behalf of his son," said Lord Balon.
"There's no time…" Theon insisted. It might be too late, even now, they certainly didn't have time to wait for his father to sit and think.
"And that is where you are wrong. Take some time to rest, I'm sure your sister will be glad to show you the way, and you would do well to remember what it means to truly be Ironborn."
Author Notes:
Thanks for all your feedback as always, and here's a friendly reminder that I don't own ASOIAF.