A/N: This one was a challenge. It always takes extra work writing a POV I've never written before (I have to research because I don't feel right winging it and that takes time). The Greyjoy chapters are also those I'm the least familiar with. I think I still wrote Victarion as a little smarter than he is. I was tempted to overhaul it again but decided to let it go rather than spend excessive time on one chapter.
In future Greyjoy chapters are more likely to be Theon or Asha (I am aware they have been neglected). There will be no Euron chapter, I'm sticking with book POV's, the only exceptions I made were Rickon and Aegon, Aegon for obvious reasons. I won't write Littlefinger for reasons already given. News from the Vale will eventually reach the rest of Westeros as happens in the books.
Aegon will be next, followed by the Davos chapter. I'm quite keen to write these and the following chapters but as already said life gets in the way so it will continue to be a chapter a week.

Thanks for the reviews, they are always appreciated. Feedback is welcome though some of your questions are so tempting, it is hard to resist the urge to spoil :D

Chapter 75: Victarion

Victarion Greyjoy watched sourly as the ships slowly negotiated their way through the Redwyne Straits. His men were unhappy too. They sailed to the other side of the world in the quest for dragons and a queen and it seemed they had neither. Daenerys, with her silver-gold hair and amethyst eyes refused him at every turn. She wanted his ships and all she offered in return for now was the Seastone Chair.

The men grumbled when they sailed to Meereen but Victarion swore he would have his prize. He consoled himself that Euron would not have her. No godless man can sit the Seastone Chair. The dragon queen would prove the worth of that. Victarion need not be a kinslayer, accursed by the gods. The dragon will do the work. Daenerys was incensed at Euron aspiring to be king. She tolerated no usurpers, she claimed.

Daenerys Targaryen did not use her dragons enough. They were magnificent creatures, formidable weapons of war and conquest but as much as this queen wanted to conquer she also wanted to be loved. The wench was weak but nobody would deny him rulership of the Iron Islands now that he sailed with the dragons.

We are getting closer each day.

The winds had favoured them as they crossed the Sunset Sea. Their journey however would not take them directly to the Iron Islands. Instead they were going ashore in the Westerlands. The Imp had a plan. Victarion had never disliked anybody as much as he disliked Tyrion Lannister. The dwarf seemed to be permanently laughing at him and Victarion mistrusted laughter. The queen did not however allow him to kill the Imp no matter how many times he suggested it. He had tried once when the small man began spinning his evil lies and japes and the attempt had been thwarted.

She is soft. He should have been put to death on the spot. He is an enemy, one of the lions.

His men believed that the red priest cursed them. The man was a trickster. That was certain. Victarion did as he asked, his men blew the horn but in the end the horn was not bound to him. The dragon queen claimed it and by some sorcery she was able to blow it without harming herself. The red priest claimed ignorance but Victarion was not convinced.

I should have offered him to the Drowned God the moment I saw him.

Things were changing now though. Moqorro remained by Daenarys' side from Meereen to Volantis but once the Volantenes were defeated Benerro took the red priests' place. The high priest claimed the greatest powers and the silver queen gave him her greater attention. Moqorro returned to Victarion with a look the iron captain knew well. Displacement did not suit all servants and something Moqorro saw in his flames displeased him.

"You do not trust me Lord Captain" the red priest said "but I can help you more than I ever have."

He accepted the company of the priest but watched him closely. In the meantime Victarion brooded bitterly on the memories. He dare not admit it to his men. They murmured amongst one another already. Daenerys did not allow them to reave, she denied them plunder and Victarion knew dissent brewed. Euron's absence and the presence of dragons quelled outright talk of rebellion. Victarion remained their commander but their loyalty was not as it used to be. They wanted their homes. They had been denied the true riches promised to them and they wanted home rather than the war the dragon queen offered. A war with no women and no spoils was not a true war for the Ironborn.

She may not even be queen.

He heard little of Aegon Targaryen. The man, if truly Rhaegar's son, had the stronger claim to the throne but he did not have dragons. Victarion knew how he would treat with such a man. He would kill him before he might assume the throne. Fire and Blood were the Targaryen words. He doubted Daenerys would take the same approach.

This Aegon must provoke her.

The silver queen became fearsome when provoked. All rivals fell if she felt they were unjust. Victarion learned this when he first met her. Mistakes had been made and it forced him to bide his time. All it would take for her to turn on this other Targaryen would be signs that he was not good to her people. If he were to turn out not to be a true dragon... Victarion heard tales of Viserys Targaryen. Daenerys own brother was not safe when he wronged her.

If my rivals fall away I might still have my prize.

Daenerys had not truly rejected him. She told him she would not marry again yet. She wanted to reclaim Westeros. After she secured the throne she might marry but not before. If there were no rival, he still might be king. He might still rule and bring back the Old way as he originally intended. If he took her to wife, the dragons would be his.

Euron will still die screaming.

Those thoughts consoled him as they exited the Redwyne Straights and approached Whispering Sound. The ships at the head of the fleet, those Victarion sent ahead as lookouts returned to report that Oldtown was under the control of the Ironborn. Around the same time ships which had sailed around the Arbor rather than through the Straights reported that it too was under Ironborn rule.

Daenerys and her advisers boarded the Iron Victory to hear his reports. Victarion was pleased to see the Imp did not join them.

"Euron said he wanted Westeros" Victarion grumbled. "He did not wait while I was gone."

Daenerys gave him a steely look. "He does not have Westeros. Your brother has no right to the Seven Kingdoms, the throne was my fathers and it belongs to my family. Your people must relinquish their claim on these lands."

Her advisors nodded their agreement. Archmaester Marwyn stood apart as the only one not to look satisfied.

"What are your plans for the Citadel?"

The silver queen looked in the direction of Oldtown with the same expression she had in Volantis before fire rained down.

"They would kill me and they wish my children, my dragons dead."

Marwyn spat. "The grey sheep will be pissing themselves at the sight of them so close now."

Victarion eyed that archmaester distrustfully. The man wore the chain of the Seven yet he spoke of those in his order with disrespect. A man like that could not be trusted. He knew Daenerys kept him at arms length even though she did listen to him. The young woman turned her attention back to Victarion.

"You are the Captain of the Ironborn fleet. I ask you to speak with your people. If they submit to my rule they will not be harmed."

Victarion seethed. This woman dictated terms to him. She was responsible for his men's unhappiness. The Ironborn served under no greenlands master. He wanted to tell her this but as he opened his mouth the black dragon screamed and flew overhead. The shadow it cast darkened not only the Iron Victory but the waters around them. He nodded stiffly instead and flexed the fingers of his burned arm.

The time of the Ironborn will come.

Daenerys and her advisors left the ship. He watched them go thinking to himself that there was a time he would have killed almost every one for their disrespect. They were enemies. His word was iron, his men knew it and these people made a liar of him. He remembered Asha's words at the Kingsmoot. She urged them to have peace with the greenlands, not war. They were fool words but Victarion sometimes doubted now. Those doubts however did not last. He would finish Balon's work as he told his men at the Kingsmoot.

The men in Oldtown received him well enough. Iron Victory and the Iron Fleet were known to every man from the Iron Islands. A cheer went up as the ship docked. Victarion knew the sight of the fleet impressed. The ships lost in the voyage to Meereen had been replaced by an even greater number. Volantene galleys made up many new additions.

The cheers gave way to confusion as his other companions disembarked. Victarion glowered at the eunuchs but they did not react. They had orders from their queen and nothing short of death would deter them from accompanying him. Shadows crisscrossed from movement overhead and when Victarion looked up, the white and green dragons were wheeling back and forth in the sky. That was good.

"I have returned from far in the East, as far as Meereen with dragons and the Targaryen queen" he proclaimed.

They cheered again though not as loudly as they had at his arrival. He heard mention of the Crow's Eye and his moment of pride soured. His brother would take the credit for this success too. He gave the order to seek the dragons, he made the ironborn his and Victarion's successful return would be attributed to Euron's plan.

One of the men stepped forward. "What riches do you bring from the East?"

Victarion did not answer immediately. Tolos and Volantis were both sacked. Meereen was plundered less due to the damage inflicted but still plundered. The ironborn claimed little from it. All spoils belonged to Daenarys and she gave sparingly. Women were not to be taken by his men, even those who were spoils of war. The Old way was punished under her watch and Victarion struggled to hold his tongue.

"These women should feel honoured" he had told her.

"I was one of those women" she responded. "I will not suffer any woman to be enslaved as I was. It is no honour."

He tried to argue that they were not slaves and that he abhorred slavery too but Daenarys did not want to hear about the Old way. She looked upon it as unjust and savage, she who had lived amongst the Dothraki. If he wanted to remain her ally, to hope to take the Seastone Chair and more he must hold his tongue and bide his time. He instructed his men to leave the women and accepted the punishment for disobedience in anger but in silence.

Away from the silver queen and her advisers he counselled his men. "The Old way will return. You will see once we return to Westeros." They nodded amongst themselves but he saw their doubts. "My word is iron." he told them. It had been before Meereen and it would be again.

Victarion tried to think now as these men who had not seen him in years, who followed Euron and offered allegiance only to the Crows Eye, looked upon him expectantly. He did not have Euron's skill with words. He still remembered that from the Kingsmoot but he must needs tell them something.

"Dragons are worth more than any riches" he told them. "With dragons we can finish Balon's work. The silver queen will claim Westeros, we will end the Lions and the Roses."

They looked at one another and agreed with him before asking him to drink with them. The eunuchs stayed outside and Victarion drank deeply from the good wine on offer.

"Did the Roses give you much fight?" he asked. It surprised him that they held the Arbor let alone Oldtown. The men looked at one another again.

"They had another foe to contend with" one man offered. "The Tyrells were busy opposing the Targaryen prince. He has won every battle and almost all of Westeros has flocked to his side. He marches on Kings Landing as we speak."

Victarion thought on it. Daenerys wanted to claim Westeros but she spoke with hope of family too. If she knew of a battle at Kings Landing she might rush to intercept but chances were higher that she might aid this prince. If he took the crown rivalry was more certain. Victarion's hatred of Euron certainly grew with his brother having the driftwood crown. Daenerys did not take commands well.

"What of Casterly Rock?" Victarion asked.

"It holds for the Lannisters" was the reply.

"You must meet Daenerys" he decided. "Tell her nothing of this. She wishes to conquer and we must show her that the Ironborn are her friends. This prince is another foe for her to defeat."

They agreed enthusiastically enough. Victarion wondered how Benerro had not seen the Targaryen prince taking Westeros in his flames. Unless he has and he does not tell her everything. The high priest spoke of a different war, a war against the Great Other but Daenerys dwelled on the Seven Kingdoms, those taken from her father.

"He will not fall easily" one of the men said as he refilled Victarion's goblet. "He has the wolves on his side. There is word that the Stark Queen is a sorceress."

Victarion clenched the goblet in his hand. The Starks had fought against the Greyjoys, they were a rival he thought to see no more of. They learned that the North were allies, the Northern girl having made an alliance. A crown was not part of that news.

"We have our own sorcerors and we have dragons" he said grimly. "The prince married her?"

That would be good news. Daenerys spoke of the Starks as bitterly as she did of the Lannisters. This news would cement the rivalry.

"No" came the reply and laughter echoed through the room. "The North crowned her though there are rumours he wants her to share his bed. She cast some spell on him. He does her bidding."

Victarion brushed aside the laughter though he did not like it. He did like what he heard. Daenarys would not like it. That was good. The men followed him out to the docks, looking upon the dragons. Euron had given them instructions they told him. They were to welcome his Targaryen bride to be as their future queen. Victarion smiled grimly.

She will never be Euron's queen.

Daenerys came ashore in all her beauty, her black beast landing behind her. His wings made a clamour of noise and smoke rose from his nostrils. The Ironborn stood back until she beckoned to them.

"If you submit to my claim Drogon will do you no harm."

The men shot a look at Victarion before kneeling before her. He stayed close by her side, seeing her rage as she learned of the Northern crown and feeling that the gods were on his side when no word of the impending attack on Kings Landing reached her ears. It helped that the Imp remained on the ship, plotting with sellswords how to implement the attack on Casterly Rock.

They did not linger in Oldtown. Daenerys sent some of her own men ashore in equal numbers to the Ironborn.

"You will keep those in the Citadel contained" she told them. "When we take Casterly Rock a raven will be sent. Find out what you can of their plans. If you hear of any harm planned against me you will kill the plotters as a message to the others. I do not wish to kill them all and suffer the wrath of the Seven"

Somebody has tempered her original plan. This one is weaker.

Victarion temporarily brushed aside his thoughts of how soft she was and gave the order to sail on to Casterly Rock, sending messengers to the Arbor. He wished to speak with the men in person but no time could be lost. His own men would suffer no more delays. The Rock must fall then his eye could turn to Euron and the Targaryen prince.

The gods were on his side, both the Red God and the Drowned God. The Seastone Chair would be his but he would not stop there. He would have the fairest woman in the world. Delays would matter little. The prize would be his and the Seven Kingdoms with it.