This time there would be no failure, he had vowed. Arrogant men make no mistakes, wise men learn from them. His father had taught him that when he had been unable to catch a pirate ship on his first voyage at sea. He had stood by those words ever since.
This time he had arranged his fleet almost exactly in the reverse of the previous day. He had kept most of his warships on the inward flank of his fleet as the transports, with another two thousand men, sailed north. The attack on the transports yesterday had cost him nearly six hundred soldiers. His father had provided fewer men this day, spread more thinly amongst the transports so that a lost ship didn't mean so many lost men
"Keep rowing steady!" He ordered the Fury as he kept watch on the Rush. Would the enemy try to attack again? They had to know he would be ready for a second assault.
His plan was sound, though the confidence of some of his captains was shaken. Several of them had suggested putting a strong force of warships to watch over the mouth of the Rush and allow complete freedom of movement for the Transports. But that would divide his fleet, and besides, if he watched over the mouth then the strength of numbers he possessed would be negated. Instead, he could now draw any naval assault out into the bay and wrap around them with two pincers, destroying and capturing the entire Lannister Fleet, clearing the way for any future action on the seas, be that him assaulting the Rush or transporting more soldiers to the north to join the thousands already there.
"My Prince! Lannister ships emerging from the Rush!"
He snapped his gaze to the Rush. Sure enough, the chain had been fully lowered once again and the Lannister ships were coming out to do battle. But not as they had before. The Lannister ships that came out last time had been headed by war galleys with rams and archers, backed up by the larger vessels. This time the vessels in the lead were being led by ramshackle junks, hulks and merchantmen, some of them must be crewed by the holiest men for the gods to be keeping them afloat. One even began sinking already, bubbling beneath the waters of the bay. "Turn us around!" He called out, and his Oarmaster repeated the order. "Send the signal for Davos and Saan to sweep in from north and south, the rest of us turn here. The transports and the rest of the escort carry on to the north!" He pulled out his bow, which he'd kept on him this time, not left behind in his cabin like some upjumped squire.
The enemy ships in the front line, the drifting hulks were fanning out, with only a few warships following on behind them, like handlers on their hounds. Most of the enemy fleet was striking out as one iron fist, once more targeting the rear of his fleet. He could already see the Lyseni war galleys under the pirate chief racing forwards to meet them, moving faster than any ship in the Royal Fleet. Likely he would claim any ships he could seize himself as reward for his unpaid service so far. "Move in!" He ordered and his squadron of ships moved to intercept the Lannister Fleet, this time there would be no failure.
The ramshackle enemy vessels were still coming, the hounds obeying the masters coming on behind. "Trample them," he ordered. "No stopping!"
His ships pressed on. If the Lannisters thought that this pitiful shield would protect them, they knew nothing. Then his drums were met by the sound of a great number of enemy horns, rolling over the waves and riding the wind. "Press on!" He ordered, he couldn't halt now.
The horn was answered by the warships handling the junks. Flaming arrows arced from the warships into the hounds they commanded and the fires spread.
He cursed. The way the flames were moving, rolling across the wooden hull and slithering like serpents up the masts, those ships had been coated in oil, and now fire ships were charging his line. "Aim the scorpions and catapults!" He ordered calmly. He couldn't lose his cool, those ships were only a danger if they could smash into his own, and at the right angle. They were in a bay, there was no wind to carry the flames further, it would rely entirely on contact to do that. He was impressed that a Lannister had thought to try and break his formation with fire ships, but whoever commanded was clearly not a veteran of naval combat. "Scorpions aim below the water line. Let those ships take on water."
One of the fire ships was splintered as it's deck swallowed a boulder from his catapults Most of it sinking below the water, the few planks that splintered off from the main hull drifted aimlessly. Two of the fire ships knocked against each other. A fire ship's crew would have abandoned the vessel long before it was set alight, and that lack of control was telling. "My Prince!" Cried a man from the catapult at the fore of the ship. "Fire ship, right ahead!"
He made his way to the fore and saw that the fire ship in question was a low decked merchantman. "Keep pressing forwards," he said. "Crush it into the bay." Had it been a different day, they would have obeyed him without question, trusting his instincts, but those instincts had led to yesterday's failure, so there was a little hesitation before the Oarmaster moved them to action. They closed on the fire ship that was spinning slowly, like a dancer. "Brace!" He ordered just before they crashed into it. He needn't have, a great splintering sound rent the air as the Fury cleaved the fire ship in two, the flames being pushed away long before they could find a home on Fury's hull.
He looked to either side. Several of his captains had turned to let the fire ships pass them and flounder in the water. A mistake, he now just had to hope none of them caught his transports. Others had done as he had, aimed for the fire ships and crushed them. Those vessels with iron rams seemed almost eager to engage, smashing the ships apart and pressing on.
He turned his gaze forwards. He was approaching the enemy warship, a two hundred oar galley he recognised as Queen Cersei, the carved lion figurehead making it plain. "Hold the catapults," he ordered, "save the boulders for harder targets. Archers, scorpions, prepare to clear the deck."
He notched an arrow to his bow and moved to the side with his crew. He heard the grunt and grind of wooden decks smashing together and sliding alongside. "Draw!" He ordered as the ships aligned. "Loose!" Fury had height over Queen Cersei. Size as well, his archers shot their arrows at any target they could see. The crew had nowhere to hide and a dozen were cut down on the first volley, the rest scattering. He pulled his bowstring back and shot an arrow at the oarsman, catching him in the heart and dropping him like a sack. This is his time. He notched arrow after arrow and, by the time the deck was mostly cleared, he had killed four directly, knocked one over the edge of the railings into the sea, and wounded another three. "Grapples!" He called. "Take that ship!"
The grapples were hurled over to the Queen Cersei and the vessel was pulled in. To say they stormed the ship would be an overstatement, by the time his men had crossed to the enemy ship, the rest of their crew surrendered easily. "Disarm them," he ordered. "Raise my father's flag and make this ship ours." He assigned men from the Fury to take the officer's positions and ensure the rowers knew their new loyalties, before returning to his flagship. "Cast off!" He called and the grapples were released as his ship continued to the battle.
But there was little need. The Lannisters had met his shield and bounced off it. Saan's ships were swarming in as his own squadrons rushed south to close the jaws. King Robert's Hammer was forming the anchor of a retreat, it's catapults and scorpions working overtime to drive his ships away as the Lannister Fleet retreated. They backed water up behind the Boom Chain
"Call a halt, they're beaten." The drums and flags gave the signals that he ordered. "Speed back into formation, I want a tight shield around those transports."
He wanted to drop to his knees and offer his thanks to the gods, but he had to keep watching, watching everywhere, all the time, he could not allow another moment of laxity to bring tragedy.
But the tight vigil was kept and no more Lannister attacks took the fleet as they made their way to the landing site to the north.
()()()
"So the garrison has no idea that you're here?" He asked Lord Adrien Formont.
The broad lord of Standfast Keep shook his head. "No, we've established our own lookouts, as tight as a Braavosi banker, but they've seen nothing." Another boatload of spearmen disembarked , filing up the beach to set themselves up with the rest of the army gathering north of the city.
He nodded. He'd picked the landing site because it was so far north that the southern end of his fleet couldn't see King's Landing at all. Hopefully that put them far enough north that the Lannisters wouldn't know what they were doing, and it seemed to have worked. "Keep up the good work my lord. Soon enough we'll be ready to assault the city."
"I will my prince," he bowed in reply.
As Lord Adrien departed to continue overseeing the camp, Ser Davos approached him. "A far more successful journey, my prince," he commented as a boatload of archers filed up and past them. "Though at this rate we may take a week to get the entire army across the bay."
"Too long," Lyonel muttered, "we need more trips or more men in each boat, every day we delay the assault to allow time for this is another day that Lord Tywin could learn of our movements and bring his army down upon us from Harrenhal."
"We have options, my lord," Davos assured him gently.
Lyonel fixed the former smuggler with a stern eye. "Ser Davos you have always spoken true and from the heart to my father, I would have you do the same to me."
Ser Davos nodded. "My prince I know this bay like the back of my hand, so do many of the captains of your father's fleet. We could transport men across at night to double our journeys, and attacking out into the bay against a moving fleet is futile, we could bring another force over under cover of darkness, bring this force up to five thousand by the time dawn crests the horizon."
"And in a mere matter of days we could have the entire army here," Lyonel finished. "A fine idea. Bring me names, Ser Davos, captains with the ability to do this, I don't want a single vessel lost to a jutting rock when I return to the fleet the next day. Keep the lordlings out of this as well, I don't trust them with such a delicate task."
Davos nodded. "As you command, my prince."
Lyonel passed out orders to keep up the disembarking and returned to Fury, slipping into his cabin and kneeling at the small wooden altar that he'd had brought onto it. He uttered thankful prayers to the gods that he was successful this day. Perhaps his sin hadn't been so great as to award the Lannisters total victory after all, perhaps it was just enough to be punished with the previous day's setbacks. That had to be correct. Hadn't it? He closed his eyes and tried to pray but the face of his sister swam before his eyes. He tightened his eyelids, pressing them together so tightly it almost hurt. However much he wanted her here he couldn't bring harm upon her pure soul. He shook his head fiercely, banishing any thoughts of his sister from them, this was the time for the gods, any other thought could lead to sin.
