CHAPTER 9; THE DRAGON THAT KNEELED
As expected, after five days Caraxes was finally sighted and the ships full of mercenaries were sighted on the horizon. The lookouts soon carried the message to Vaegon who was having a little bread and milk for breakfast in the company of the Sea Serpent, and the lord commander of the royal guard Redwyne.
"Your grace" said the Sea Serpent "in less than two hours they will dock at the docks, we must mobilize our contingents"
"Agreed completely," Vaegon replied. "But withdraw your fleet… let them land… do you want an island? because they will find a mousetrap.
"As you command Your Excellency," Lord Corlys said, rising from the table to go with his officers. He knew that his ships were weak against a dragon, but on land they had an advantage, so they had to withdraw. But he was not afraid, they had Vhagar and a large armed contingent.
Vaegon then turned to face his lord commander.
"Is our army ready to receive them?" he asked.
"Yes, the grace of him," Sir Ryman replied. "Sir Harold is currently coordinating our troops. We have been prepared for three days, waiting for the arrival of Prince Daemon"
"Well," Vaegon said, withdrawing, "please meet me at the gates of the fortress. I will go as soon as possible"
The guards bowed to him, and Vaegon withdrew to his chambers. There his assistants carefully put dark armor on him, like that of the conqueror. The weight was weighing him down, and Vaegon was eager to get it off him as soon as possible. But he showed strength and walked step by step with difficulty, he even had to stop for a couple of moments to breathe. But he finally reunited with the seven of his royal guard. He really envied Sir Ryman for wearing his armor without any difficulty despite his age.
He then left the fortress, with Darkfire and his father's crown. There she took a seat in a chair for him, flanked by his royal guard. Beside him stood Vhagar dwarfing the stairs, while the troops of the Sea Serpent and the royal army were massed in strategic areas. He had made sure to place the ballistae to fire projectiles of wildfire, in the areas of passage. "I don't think they're not even halfway to the fortress" he thought, almost wanting to smile. He had the two most powerful and fearsome dragons in the known world at his service. And soon Daekarys would make an unforgettable appearance just by saying his name.
It was not at all strange that Daemon made Dragonstone his first stop. Being so proud of his Valyrian heritage, he was totally predictable. But aside from that, there was the fact that there were dragon eggs here, like the clutches Vermithor and Silverwing had had, that Daemon would covet for his own purposes.
Caraxes landed in the middle of the stairs, and Daemon dismounted. The scoundrel prince, he was quite changed and somewhat hardened. But he walked really furious, and with all the Valyrian pride in him. But he seemed surprised to find Vaegon, the royal guard, and Vhagar. Well, he surely expected the Castilian to surrender the fortress. A pity that it had been replaced a year ago. Now the new castellan, and a reinforcement of two dozen knights were at his side.
"It's been a long time," Vaegon said, squeezing darkfire in his hands. "It's good to see you again."
Daemon's face was cold, but it didn't hide his anger very well, but even so he smirked, which turned into a blade-sharp smile. While Vhagar and Caraxes looked at each other defiantly.
"Uncle, why are you wearing a crown?" Daemon asked with false innocence. "You come to surrender it to the true king?" he inquired referring to Viserys, and that is that he had made sure that Ansel's men had written enough documents for him and hired the best actors, they had even bribed several lords, to make him believe that Viserys had the West, the Lands of the rivers, and much of the Crownlands.
Sir Wyman Ryden, a towering seven-foot man who had been raised from soldier to officer of the watch to castellan, with certain income and privileges, thanks to his utter loyalty to Vaegon, stepped forward.
"Mind your words" Ryden warned him in a threatening tone "you are before his grace, Vaegon Targaryen, of the Targaryen house, first of his name, king of the Andals, the rhoynar and the first men, lord of the seven kingdoms and protector of the kingdom" he said with his hand on the hilt of his sword.
Caraxes roared, but Vhagar answered him with a roar that made even Vaegon tremble. Several mercenaries had already disembarked on the pier, beginning with the second sons, who rushed up the stairs, unknowingly approaching a death trap.
"My brother is the true king," Daemon said. "Prince Baelon's son, and you are trying to steal his inheritance, after killing our father," he accused Vaegon in a menacing voice.
But Vaegon remained unmoved.
"Sir Ryman," Vaegon said, referring to the lord commander of the royal guard, "what was my father's will?"
"King Jaehaerys made you prince of Dragonstone two years ago," Sir Ryman declared solemnly.
"Does anyone believe that I was responsible for my brother's death?" Vaegon inquired.
"No!" All the members of the royal guard and the other guards responded.
"He has poisoned your minds like he did my grandfather!" Daemon bellowed.
"How can you offend your blood so much with so few words?!" Vaegon demanded furiously. The mercenaries had milled a safe distance away at the sight of Vhagar, but Daemon remained defiant.
"If you've got what it takes, get your ass off your chair!" the scoundrel prince yelled at him.
"Too many people have already died," Vaegon replied, "and I do not wish to kill my brother's last son."
Daemon's eyes widened at that statement.
"My brother!" he accused him drawing his sword "You have killed him!"
The royal guard drew his swords in unison, and Vaegon stared at his nephew sternly.
"When I was anointed king, I made my nephew Laenor prince of Dragonstone, but your brother and his wife fled from King's Landing. They tried to reach this island to claim dragons, but the Velaryon fleet forced them to detour to Seagullport. There they left for the Runestone, where they took refuge while Lady Arryn called her bannermen declaring herself an enemy of the kingdom" Vaegon spoke in a leisurely tone. Another of the reasons why he had insisted that the Sea Serpent stay away to surprise the army of mercenaries, but also to plant suspicion towards the Velaryons in Daemon's head "Naturally I led my army and marched. towards the Valley, we traveled the Long Way, until we reached the Nido de Águilas. I took the keep, and Lady Arryn flew. It was then that the news reached me that Gullport had fallen to the Velaryon fleet. And these marched towards the Runestone, but when they arrived, all your vassals were dead, for the Rhoyces, learning of the fall of House Arryn, retook their family's castle, and put the entire fortress to the sword. Your brother and his wife were so disfigured that they even handed over to your cousin, the severed hand of Viserys" he said gravely "when they were asked the reason for that, they argued that they had done it as revenge, since they maintain that you killed your wife and kicked him out of his ancestral home."
Daemon was silent for a moment. He had killed the one he called Bitch of bronzes, and the accusations reached Aenma's sister, fortunately she had had the good sense to recognize the worth of a dragon, so she ruled in favor of Daemon, who still remembered of smiling while the Rhoyces threatened to kill him.
Vaegon could detect that Daemon believed the story he had told him. And he wrinkled his face in anger at him.
"I'll chop off those bastards' heads!" Daemon bellowed.
"I will not allow you to take the lives of my loyal subjects," Vaegon shot back.
"Don't you love your blood that much?" Daemon asked him with a venomous voice. "If that's the case, I'll punish those sons of bitches!"
"I also love my subjects and the loyalty you show me," Vaegon said in a firm voice, "I cannot condemn anyone for doing their duty."
Then he got up from his chair with darkfire in his hand. But he didn't take away the fact that that armor was too big for him. He gave a signal, and soon thousands of footsteps were heard all around, and soon the hosts of Vaegon and the Velaryon were seen surrounding the mercenaries on the beach. The mercenaries soon faltered, finding themselves outmatched four in one. Even five hundred royal soldiers were coming up the stairs, cornering the second sons.
"I suggest you put down your rebellion" Vaegon said "kneel before me, like a good prince before his king"
Vaegon didn't want Daemon to get out of here alive at all. But he'd built the image of a compassionate monarch, and he couldn't tarnish it by being a kin-killer, at least not a public one. But he had to get rid of the rogue prince as soon as possible, he knew he would try something.
"As for you!" Vaegon said to the mercenaries. "I suggest you leave the way you came, or else face the consequences!"
Vhagar roared again with the same ferocity, and the sight of the wildfire ballistae, plus the readiness of the royal forces, caused the mercenary army to quickly fall apart. One of the advantages of mercenaries is that they would fight for anyone who could pay them. However, that did not make up for the fact that they had no ideology or homeland, and that, at the first severe complication, they would run away. The two thousand mercenaries turned and returned to their ships. The second sons turned back through the barrier made by the royal forces.
Daemon's face contorted in murderous rage, and it looked like he was going to do something crazy, so the royal guards stepped forward. But Caraxes was not a slave and he well understood the feelings of his rider.
"Face me if you have balls!" Daemon bellowed with true murderous rage.
"If you wish…Daekarys!" Vaegon bellowed with all his might.
And there was utter silence, for no one understood the meaning of what Vaegon had said. But then I hear the beating of wings tearing the sky. The sky darkened for a few moments at the beating of the wings. Then the single dragon greater than Balerion set its four paws on the craggy ground, sinking several feet. There Daekarys appeared, cocked his head from him, and the monstrous dragon looked with his green eyes, bright as emeralds at those present. Daekarys emitted such a monstrous roar that he froze the blood of all present, and made the stairs and the fortress itself tremble, causing several soldiers to fall. And he focused his shocking gaze on Daemon.
Everyone there was terrified in his presence, because that dragon gave off a stench of death that penetrated the depths of the bones. But soon terror gave way to shock as Vaegon beckoned and Daekarys lowered his head and opened his mouth so he could fit cos mammoths. There Vaegon entered the midst of the general commotion, in which the royal guards were faced with the dilemma of their lives. But after a few moments his king came out with another sword of Valyrian steel in her hand, touching the stone of the stairs again, while the dragon closed its mouth to look at the scene.
"I present to you Daekarys, better known as the Cannibal!" Vaegon spoke solemnly. "The dragon of Aurion!" he yelled "And the last living thing to behold the glory of old Valyria!" and then Vaegon raised his hand in the air. "This is Hellfire, Aurion's sword, and now my sword too!" and it shone with the light of the same sun, since its handle was made of gold, and it was covered with emeralds, there was no one there who was not amazed at such magnificence.
And Vaegon took advantage of the moment to aim Hellfire at Daemon.
"You say that I am not the true king" he spoke with the strength of an oak "But tell me Daemon, if I am not the true king Why does not the iron throne reject me? Why did my father designate me as his heir? Why do I have two dragons and you only one? Why do I have an army here, when you are here alone? Tell me nephew, what makes you think that you are better than me? Even if I died right now, Laenor would take my place, but if you died, tell me, who would mourn you? Your only legacy would be to find death while betraying your own blood" and Vaegon stepped forward "Now stop your efforts, before I forget that the blood of my brother and sister runs through your veins!"
Daemon is truly furious, and he wanted more than anything to skewer Darksister on that bastard, and he hesitated for a moment to do so. But, although he was impulsive, he knew that he was cornered. If he attacked Vaegon he not only wouldn't make it out there alive, that was for sure, Caraxes wouldn't stand a chance against that monster out of his sleeve. Added to that were the thousands of soldiers, the Sea Serpent would never allow him to get out alive. On the other hand, he had no support, not a single one, the valley had been flattened, and he assumed that he would not be allowed to occupy the possessions that he had earned so much by marrying that bronze bitch. But what he was not willing to accept was such a humiliating end in the chronicles. Finally, the rogue prince steeled himself, and after a moment's hesitation, placed Darksister at Vaegon's feet and prostrated himself before him. He would have time to settle accounts.
"You are right, the throne is your... majesty" Daemon said with some feigned regret "I beg you to find forgiveness for your nephew"
A few giggles were heard up and down the stairs, and even several lords laughed at the rogue prince. But Vaegon was dead serious. "Poor snake, if I spare your life it's because you can still be useful to me" Vaegon thought.
Then Vaegon turned and went back to where his guard was, going back to his room to remove that iron horror. But at the last moment he turned to where Vaegon was and looked at him almost like someone who looks at a worm that appears in the middle of the apple that he is eating.
"First you will have to atone for your faults…and believe me when I say that I don't want this…Daekarys!"
Sir Wyman's soldiers seized Daemon, and before he could catch Darksister, Sir Wyman himself put his sword to her neck, while Caraxes roared to help his rider. Then the monstrous dragon reared up and stared at Daemon, his breath heralding his death, and again unleashed a thunderous roar that frightened even Vhagar, causing hundreds of fainting spells. But the green-eyed dragon did not go towards Daemon, but with the speed of Vermax, it pounced on Caraxes. The bloody wyvern, I tried to fight him, but it was as if Tyrion Lannister was facing the most terrifying version of the Mountain.
Daekarys grabbed Caraxes's long neck with one of his forepaws, while with the other he slashed open his belly. Caraxes screamed when he felt how his guts were ripped out. He tried with all his might to spit fire and pierce the Daekarys' skin, but the dragon's skin was nearly impenetrable, leaving only a few scratches. For its part, the army was horrified by the brutality, and not a few soldiers fainted or vomited, while the Sea Serpent and his brother Vaemond looked on in utter horror, for the Cannibal was living up to his nickname, and was taking his claw to his mouth to eat the intestines of Caraxes, then it was the turn of the stomach, then his kidneys, and to make matters worse as a bloody wyvern, he remained alive until Daekarys ripped his heart out and ate it as if it were nothing more than a dumpling, leaving the stairs drenched in the dark blood of the dragon.
After the screams of the bloody wyvern ceased forever, only Daemon's cries of pain remained, who cursed and tried in vain to get away from Sir Wyman's men, who was forcing him to remain with his eyes open, so as not to miss the scene. . The coup de grace came when Daekarys separated his neck from the rest of what was left of the remains hearing an intense crack, and threw his head just a few steps from Daemon, while Sir Wyman himself grabbed him by the neck, and forced to see how Daekarys crushed Caraxes's skull with one leg, leaving the scoundrel prince with his eyes open, and his dragon's blood all over his body.
"From now on you will be Daemon the Dragonless"