Part 2 of 3 of the Battle of Blackwater. And a new POV enters the story.
DAVOS I
Davos Seaworth had fought in his life. As he grew up in Flea Bottom, he fought with the other children, and sometimes with the men. Not that he was looking for battle. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He always tried to avoid fighting. He never liked it, and he was also far from being the best when it came to fists. Still, sometimes he had no choice and his fists, or a stick when he could get his hand on one, were his last line of defense.
As he grew up and became a smuggler, he kept the same philosophy. Only fight when you must. That's what his father used to tell him, and it proved very useful as he sailed across the seas, smuggling stolen goods from Braavos to King's Landing, from Pentos to White Harbor, from Old Wyk to Oldtown, from the Arbor to the Summer Islands, from Lys to Myr, from Lannisport to Gulltown. A smuggler's best tool was to be subtle and discreet, everything Davos had been ever since the day he was born.
Today his skills at secrecy and keeping a low profile were not of much use. The king had decided they would fight to take King's Landing. Not that they had much choice. Joffrey and the Lannisters were not going to open the gates and let him take the Iron Throne without a word or a fight if he asked gently. Only fight when you must. This time, they must fight.
And so Davos fought.
Leading his men like he led his ship, the Black Betha, he brought them towards the Kingslander. The tide was for them, but the current was for the enemy. The two ships collided. Davos had to grip the helm to not lose his foot. That was a first time for him. He sailed away from ships usually. He didn't ram into them. But now he did.
"Board her!"
His crew threw the grappling lines before the Kingslander's crew could. Davos drew his sword and led his men over the ship's rail.
"For Stannis!"
His men roared together as they jumped on their enemies. Davos flung his sword at the first man he came upon, who blocked it.
He had never been a man of war, and having lost four fingers on the right hand, Davos was never expected to become a man of war. But after Stannis knighted him, it was part of his duties as a landed knight to learn how to fight in a decent manner in the very least. And so for the past seventeen years, Davos worked to be able to fight with his left hand.
Today, it proved helpful. The moment his opponent blocked his blow, he lurched towards Davos who deflected the sword. Deflecting a blow was easier than blocking it. Matthos thought he was growing old, and he was not wrong. Davos was an old and tired man, and an inexperienced one when it came to fighting.
While the younger lads went forward, driving the enemy away, Davos met a stalemate with his own opponent. He allowed this man to make him back down, until Davos was at the rail. Then the young man he was fighting lurched forward again and Davos just ducked. His opponent hurt the rail, and Davos pushed him overboard, into the space separating the two ships and into the waters of Blackwater.
Davos looked around to see the captain and spotted him near the helm. Stannis' men were climbing the stairs leading to it. The first couldn't make it, cut down by Joffrey's men in an advantageous position over them. Those who followed were more successful. When Davos joined them, it was only to witness the captain being killed by his son, Matthos.
Few in the crew were still fighting. Most yielded. The ship was theirs. He thought the crew of the Kingslander was quite reduced, judging from the number of prisoners and victims on the bridge. Their fleet was also smaller than he expected. King Robert's Hammer was not there, and so were a few other ships.
He looked at the city. Their men had breached the Mud Gate and were pouring inside. The knights who barred their way to the city were gone. Stannis had been very suspicious about their new friend, and so Davos was, but they couldn't deny he helped them a lot. Thanks to the plans he provided, Stannis could send a few men inside the city to open the gates for their army, and now King's Landing was falling.
Still, it all felt too easy. Far too easy. Where were the powerful armies of the Westerlands? Their latest reports told there were about twenty thousand men camping outside the city walls. Where were they now? Perhaps they moved to intercept Robb Stark's host.
Fire covered the shore. Boats berthed far away from these positions where wildfire kept consuming, forcing the men to take a longer but safer route to the gate. No more arrows were shot from the battlements. Joffrey's forces no longer fought.
Davos caught something not far from the gate. A glow, different from all the others on the battlefield. A green glow. A glow that turned into fire.
"Matthos, get down!"
His son didn't understand what was going on until it happened. A sharp green light blinded him, forcing him to look away, in the direction of the deck. Davos, his back turned on events, rushed and tackled his son to the floors while a wave of heat hit them. Protecting Matthos with his own body, Davos turned to see a column of green flames coming from the shore. But the green flames were not the only thing to see in the black sky. There were also debris flying all around, rocks and stones and wood falling all around. One fell not far from the Black Betha. Another hit its mast, and the sails were set ablaze.
"Lower the sail! Quench the fire!"
Another block of stone hit the ship at the bow, causing minor damage. Lucky enough, he carried no fire with him. Davos and his crew managed to deal with the fire quickly enough. Others didn't have the same chance.
Around them, a few ships were now burning, and one was already sinking although not on fire. He must have been hit by several blocks that created holes in its hull.
Bringing back his gaze to the origin of the explosion, he looked at where had been the Mud Gate not long ago. It was gone, along with a large part of the battlements around it. The explosion had wiped out a part of the city walls from the face of the world. And not only a part of the city walls. King's Landing was now on fire.
"Wildfire."
Davos whispered the word as he looked upon the tragedy that unfolded under his eyes. The shore, the city gate, the walls, the city itself were afire as the cries of burning men reached their ears. Davos didn't need his eyes to understand what was happening. Within a few hours, the city would be in ruins. He could see in his mind Flea Bottom, the place where he grew up, burning.
"I told you, Father," his son said next to him. "The Lord of Light is with us. His fire is giving us the victory."
"I doubt it, my boy. This is Stannis' city that's burning right now. If the Lord of Light is on his side, then he has a very strange way to show it."
It may look short for the first chapter told from the Onion Knight's perspective. I could have added more details, about Stannis' preparations before the battle for example, but the truth is it wouldn't have been much different from the preparations of Stannis in the books or the show. I wanted to stick to the battle we were already in.
We shall Davos' like again. From now on, he will be a POV character and our main hindsight into the action taking place on Stannis' side.
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Next chapter: Cersei
