Well, I didn't noticed until I started writing this chapter that the last time we heard of Davos was in the first chapter of this story, back in April. But worry not, I'll try not to write 14 chapters until his next POV.
Davos II
Davos had never seen the docks of Sunspear more crowded than then. The warm city had become a kind of second residence for him and his children since Stannis had married Princess Arianne. The docks were full of sailors loading supplies from one place to another and in the inns, there were mercenary soldiers drinking or looking for some Dornish prostitutes to sleep with. There weren't as many as Davos would have liked. When the king ordered him to go across the Narrow Sea with Prince Oberyn Martell to recruit as many mercenaries as they could, he probably did not expect them to return with less than five thousand men. Most of the captains of the sellsword companies had laughed in their face at King Stannis' slim prospects of victory compared to his brother Renly. Renly's army reportedly mustered around one hundred thousand men between horsemen and men on foot. Stannis's barely reached twenty thousand, counting with the mercenaries that Davos had managed to hire. The only companies that had agreed to fight for them were the Windblown and other minor companies of the free city of Myr. Davos had also managed to get Salladhor Saan, a notorious merchant, banker and pirate from the city of Lys. Before being knighted, Davos had worked for him and had often bought him cargo, and now the Lysene was willing to work for them… in exchange for a small price.
"When shall we set sail, Father?" asked his son Dale to his right. "The king sent my brothers and me to send his messages throughout the kingdom, but that will not win the war."
"You'd better be messengers to soldiers," Davos replied. "That way you will be safe."
"Don't be so sure. In Oldtown we were almost arrested by Lord Hightower's soldiers. And if I had dared to go to Lannisport my head would be nailed to a stake."
"As soon as the king gives the order to depart, you will be the first to know" promised Davos.
Davos bid his farewells to his son Dale and headed for one of the Shadow City inns. The dusty city was like a maze, with narrow alleys that it was easy to get lost if you didn't know them, but Davos had walked that way dozens of times. In one of those alleys he found the place he was looking for, an inn with a colorful wooden boat decorating the entrance. It wasn't the busiest in town, but it was Davos' favorite.
At one of the tables in the common room was sited Salladhor Saan and next to him were Prince Oberyn and the Tattered Prince, the captain of the Windblown. Seeing Davos, he gestured to him to approach. Davos occupied one of the chairs that were free and asked one of the waitresses for a strong wine. Dornish Red were very common in there, but for him they were too bitter for his like, so he used to ask for the strongest whenever he could, because they were usually much sweeter.
How much has the world gone crazy, if now a prince, a smuggler, a sellsword and a pirate sit at the same table.
"Sit next to us, Onion Knight and eat with us, " said the Lysene with a smile on his lips.
"I've already eaten, old friend. What I need is wine, wine and news."
"News we have many, but few favorable to our cause," replied the Tattered Prince.
The captain of the Windblown was an old man with completely gray hair and beard. The clothes he wore were poor and anyone could have mistaken him for a simple old sea wolf or a beggar. The mercenaries said that whoever rode to battle with Tattered Prince will return from war richer than a lord. Davos hoped they wouldn't be wrong.
"The Lord of Casterly Rock has sent his golden son to take charge of King's Landing. Meanwhile he sits in Harrenhal, waiting for what his enemies will do," the mercenary continued.
"And our friend, the young Stark does the same in Riverrun. Since his victory against Kevan Lannister he hasn't moved from there," added Oberyn Martell.
"In my humble opinion, we should attack King's Landing while old Lord Tywin is distracted by the Young Wolf," Saan said. "However, all our good king does is wait and wait."
The waitress came back with the wine and Davos gave her a copper coin.
"We may manage to take the city, as you say, that if Lord Tywin does not move his army from Harrenhal to defend it once he learns that we have sailed." He lifted up the jug and took a sip of the sweet wine, as black as the blood that will soon be spilled. "And Lord Renly..."
"He will crush us once he arrives with his army," ended Prince Oberyn for him. "Even if we manage to join forces with Robb Stark's, his hosts outnumber us by two of his men for each of ours. That at best."
"Ah, yes, the little brother," said Salladhor Saan. "There's our biggest problem. King Renly has already set off from Highgarden. Sorry, here we have to call him Lord Renly, sometimes I forget. The fact is that his grace's brother marches on the Roseroad with a powerful army on foot, knights in shining armor and his young and beautiful queen. Although not as beautiful as ours, of that I have no doubt. I'd give you all the wives I've left in Lys for spending a single night with her..."
"Shut off pirate. It's my niece you're talking about," Oberyn Martell said.
"Don't lecture me good prince. If I wasn't your niece, you'd be thinking the same thing I was."
Prince Oberyn let out a laugh at hearing the comment of the Lysene and had a drink of the glass of wine in front of him.
"Has he taken his wife with him? Are you certain?" asked Davos trying to re-engage the conversation.
"He does it as a token of his power. He must be very sure of his victory," the Tattered Prince said. "In my opinion we should send a few assassins to kill him and his wife in the middle of the night. Just by doing that half his army will disperse and the other half will join us. It would be the wisest thing to do."
"Killing a brother... What you propose is cursed in the eyes of men and gods," Davos said incredulously.
"What can I tell you. I'm a twisted, evil old man. In this life we must take every opportunity to take out our enemies, Sir Davos. Do not doubt for a second that Lord Renly would have no qualms about doing so if he were in our place."
"Anyway, we must warn the king of this news," Davos said after taking another sip of his drink.
"Don't worry, Sir Davos. I briefed him on this morning's war council," Prince Oberyn said. "Although his Grace grinds his teeth so hard when I say something that surprises me that he still has his teeth intact. Anyway, I think he likes me more now than a few years ago, when we first met. Looks like after ten years of marriage, my niece softened him a little bit. You know him longer than I do, Sir Onion. When will you think the king will order us to move? At this rate the Young Wolf will not leave any Lannister alive and my spear is thirsty for lion blood."
"I think soon. And more now that Lord Renly marches towards King's Landing," Davos said.
"Lord Father," said a voice behind him. Davos turned and saw his son Devan, elegant in his squire's attire. "His Grace commands you to appear before him in the Tower of the Sun. I left a horse at the entrance of the inn so you can go there immediately."
Davos rushed his glass of wine and got up. "Excuse me, my lords. It seems that the king claims me."
Will he give us the order to finally set sail?, Davos wondered. It wasn't just the mercenaries the ones that were getting impatient. The great Dornish lords were also impatient and many were eager to attack King's Landing and shed Lannister blood. Most also did not dislike attacking the Stormlands or the Reach, as there were many old quarrels between the border lords of both kingdoms. Whether we set sail for King's Landing or march against Renly's army, we have no chance of victory, our enemies are too numerous. Despite everything, he climbed on the back of the horse and headed to the Old Palace.
As he walked through the corridors of Dornish Princes' palace, Prince Doran Martell appeared before, sitting in his wheelchair while the captain of his guard, the norvosi giant Areo Hotah dragged him down the aisles. Queen Arianne's father was an old man, in his fifties, but the terrible gout case he suffered made him appear much older than he was. Most of his hair had turned grey and he covered his legs with a blanket to cover his horrible swollen joints. When he saw him, he gave the order to his captain to stop.
"Sir Davos, it's always a pleasure to see you," Doran Martell said kindly.
"The pleasure is mutual, my prince."
"Our king takes you for a sharp and frank man. Tell me, how do you see our possibilities?"
"Complicated, to say the least." He meant to say awful, but he held back his tongue.
"Yes, that's what I said to the king. We have foes everywhere and our allies are a lot of leagues away from us and, like us, they're surrounded by enemies. And I'm afraid time doesn't play in our favor either. Every day that passes, Renly's hosts as well as those of the Lannisters grow, and they will continue to do so as long as the winds are favorable to them."
"Sometimes the winds can take us to a storm," Davos replied.
"Yes" said the prince with a faint smile. "The same thing happened to the Targaryens. It looked like the Rebellion was finished after Ashford, but they were too complacent and now their dynasty is practically over. I am no longer entertaining you; our king needs your counsel."
Davos said his farewells to the prince of Dorne with a slight reverence and continued on his way to the court-martial chamber. The room they had chosen was on the same floor as Prince Doran's rooms, so that Prince Doran could attend without much difficulty.
Stannis was sitting at the table, with a large leather map of the Seven Kingdoms so large that it occupied the entire table. Next to him was his wife, Princess Arianne. Queen Arianne, Davos reminded himself. On the map were several tokens representing the different armies of the houses of Westeros.
"Take a look at this letter," said the king when he saw him.
He had learned to read a few years ago. He was born in Flea Bottom in King's Landing, so no one had taught him to write in his childhood. It was not until Devan's birth that Davos asked Maester Cressen to teach him and his future children to read. Now, years later, he had become a literary man, though all he read were some letters and messages and he had never dared to read a book.
"A Dornish whore will never be my queen," the message said.
The letter was signed by Lord Bryen Caron of Nightsong. He was one of the vassal lords of the Baratheons of Storm's End and, like almost all of them, had sworn allegiance to Lord Renly, the king's brother. In fact, Lord Bryen now formed part of Renly's newformed kingsguard, or Rainbow Guard, as he had named them.
"You could read the rest of the letters I have on the table and the messages won't be much different," Stannis said irritated. "As Renly's older brother, these lords should swear allegiance to me. I am their rightful king and lord, but they will use any kind of excuse to deny it. I could be married to a Stark, a Tully or an Arryn for all that matters, they would find any other reason to deny me their support."
"Your Grace. You haven't called me to read the insults to you or your lady wife, have you?"
The queen let out a giggle.
"Always straight to the point, as always. It's one of the qualities I've always liked about you," the king said. "Well, I'll be frank with you. I want you to prepare your ship, we'll be setting sail as soon as possible. I have waited for the lords of Westeros to declare their support to me, but it seems that only the Starks and the Tullys remember what loyalty and honor is, and if I keep here waiting, they will abandon me too, so it's time to act."
"Your Grace, I am yours to command, now and always. But do you think it's wise? Our enemies are very numerous, if we march against them, our chances of victory will be slim."
"True, but if I do not act as soon as possible, my cause will be forgotten. All the Dornish lords I have met feel the same way. My father-in-law believes that we must act cautiously, but act after all, while his brother wants us to march through the Boneway to Harrenhal and put Lord Tywin's head on a pike. Harmen Uller suggested that we march through the Prince's Pass and take Horn Hill and the rest of the castles on the Marches. I want to hear your opinion; what do you think I should do?"
Davos looked at the map and kept meditating for a few seconds. "King's Landing is vulnerable at the moment, but Lord Tywin can reinforce it with his troops if necessary, and even if we were able to take it, we have no chance of defending it against Renly's troops. In my opinion, Renly is our biggest problem right now, we should weaken him until we can face him."
"Sometimes I think you should have married Sir Davos, my husband. You both think alike," the queen said with a smile.
"As you say," said Stannis ignoring Arianne's joke and grinding his teeth, "Renly is our main concern. As the younger brother he should have supported me, but like the lords who follow him, his unmeasured ambition has weakened us considerably. They believe that if they follow the greatest herd, they will emerge from this war richer and more powerful. Well, no more entreaties. It's time to remind them of the price of betrayal."
"Renly has gathered his army in Highgarden and marches along the Roseroad with most of it as we speak. But by doing so he has left his southern flank vulnerable," Arianne said, pointing to the map. "Let's attack there and the lords who march with him will have to return with their troops to defend their castles and lands."
"Excuse my abruptness, your Grace, but attacking the castles of the Marches will be difficult and costly, and it may weaken us more than your brother."
"You are right, Sir Davos, but we must still attack Renly, weaken him in some way. Fortunately, we have the most powerful fleet of Westeros right now so we'll have to use it appropriately. The Young Dragon boasted that he had conquered Dorne with his armies, but it was Alyn Velaryon and his fleet who actually defeated the Dornish and enabled Daeron to march with his armies. Now, I have to do something similar. Two important objectives are within our reach and taking them will reinforce our cause more than taking a few castles in the Red Mountains will. But to take one of them I'm going to need of your skills."
"I will do as you command me, as I have always done."
"Good. Once the fleet is ready, I want you to take a handful of ships and a few soldiers. You will do what you do best, being unnoticed."
The king rose and Davos followed his gaze to a point on the map. Beside him, the queen's smile got enlarged and she seemed to see a hint of mischief in her brown eyes. "Oh… my cousin is so going to like this."
"Your Grace... years ago I stopped being a smuggler, a crime for which I remember you've already punished me. I don't know if I should..." Davos replied nervously, fearful of the huge enterprise in which he was about to participate.
"Well, I need you to be one once again. I don't know of anyone else who can successfully carry out such a mission."
"If that's what you need from me, my skills are at your disposal," Davos said obediently. If this goes well, I will certainly be remembered for more than a few simple onions…
"Good, good. And as you do that, I'm going to pay an old friend a visit."