House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

Island of Driftmark.

High Tide was the seat of the Sea Snake, Lord Corlys Velaryon, one of the richest and most powerful lords of the Seven Kingdoms. Having accumulated countless treasures from Essos, Corlys built High Tide to replace the damp and crowded ancestral seat of the Velaryons, Driftmark Castle, and to house the Driftwood Throne.

The castle is built from pale stone, the same material used at the Eyrie. Its slender towers are crowned with hammered silver roofs that shine in the sun. When the waters of Blackwater Bay are at high tide, the castle is connected to the island of Driftmark only by a bridge.

At this moment, the entire island of Driftmark was surrounded by about sixty ships, all of them circling the island like an imposing wall, floating on the sea.

In the castle’s kitchen, an old cook skillfully opened a fish and removed all its organs with a single pull. He began cleaning the fish’s scales extremely fast and, after finishing, threw the fish into a barrel of water scented with lemon.

This process repeated itself many times before the old cook heard a raven’s caw and lifted his head to see a raven holding a small scroll on one of its legs. The raven seemed to look directly into his eyes, as if it could see his dirty soul.

The old cook stopped cleaning the fish and reached out with his blood-covered hand and pulled the small scroll off one of the raven’s legs. He threw some of the fish’s inner organs to the raven and opened the scroll, revealing its contents.

After reading the contents, the cook threw the paper into the fireplace, where there was a large cauldron. However, before the fire fully consumed the scroll, a name could be seen.

Laenor.

The raven cawed and turned its head at a strange angle and, with a flap of its wings, flew toward its home.

The cook went back to cleaning the fish as if nothing had happened, but the cleaver in his hand seemed heavier, cutting off the fish’s head with a loud, precise sound.

He was Lyrios’s informant at High Tide, he oversaw three other spies, had worked for decades for House Velaryon, and was a trusted man. After all, he made all of House Velaryon’s food.

At this moment, this informant, who had lain dormant for almost fifteen years, was now revealing himself for the first time.

-

In the dead of night, when the moon was at the peak of the night sky, three people got up at the same time. They dressed quickly and hid daggers under their clothes. The three looked at each other and nodded.

Despite being heavily guarded, this was High Tide, a robust and powerful castle, especially at this moment, when it was surrounded by warships. So, the guards had a fairly casual attitude, not thinking any fool would dare even try to enter the castle.

These people knew every corner of the castle, every shadow of it, every moment the guards’ patrol passed. They had grown up in this castle and perhaps knew it better than its own creator, Lord Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake.

The three spies advanced through the shadows, moving slowly and without making any unnecessary noise. When the guards’ patrol passed, they stayed motionless in the shadows until the patrol disappeared at the end of the corridor, then continued on their way.

After almost thirty minutes, the three spies caught sight of the door they were looking for. There were two guards beside the door. They wore plate armor and looked upright and firm in their duty. Different from the relaxed guards from before. Showing they were House Velaryon’s elite.

The three spies looked at each other and saw the solemn look in each other’s eyes. There was no way to face those two knights in plate armor with mere daggers. It was suicide.

Making some hand signals to convey what he was thinking, the first of the spies stepped back; the other two spies followed behind in complete silence.

At a safe distance, the three began speaking in low voices.

"We can’t fight the two knights." The second spy spoke in a calm tone. "Knights are invincible without another knight to fight them."

A knight in plate armor was no joke. That armor was the pinnacle of medieval technology, just like moated castles. You don’t face a fully armored knight without similar armor.

The other side could attack without worrying about actually being wounded, while you would simply be sliced apart like a cake, since you could not defend against all the blows of a fully armored knight.

"We can use the window." The first of the spies spoke, making the second and third look at him as if he were a genius.

"Let’s do that; the gaps in the stones are enough to hold us." The third spy spoke with a cold smile.

So the three spies did as they had planned. They opened a small wooden window and slipped their own bodies through it. They held onto the gaps in the stones used to build the castle and climbed slowly toward Laenor’s room.

Which did not take long, since they were already close to begin with.

The first spy looked down and saw the waves crashing violently against the island and swallowed hard. He knew he would be dead if he fell from that height. If they did not die from the fall, the Kind Aunt would kill them. The Kind Aunt was what the locals called the sharks that passed by Driftmark at certain times of the year.

Setting those thoughts aside, the first spy held tight to the gaps in the stone with only one hand and drew his dagger. He used the dagger and placed it between the gap in the wood and moved the tip of the dagger, trying to find the window’s latch.

As soon as the tip of the dagger touched something metallic, the first spy showed a happy expression.

However, he did not know that the small sound of the dagger striking the latch made a creature open its cold gray eyes. The creature was perched on one of the wooden beams in the ceiling. It moved gracefully under the wood, its eyes fixed on the room’s window.

Suddenly, with an almost inaudible sound, the window’s latch moved delicately, before opening with a particularly clear sound in that silent environment.

The window opened with a soft creak and three figures slipped into the room.

Laenor, in bed, noticed nothing unusual. A seven year old child had little sense of danger, not to mention one who had never been in danger in his life.

The three spies looked around and moved delicately, making almost no noise so as not to alarm the guards outside the room. Their mission was to kill the dragon hatchling while it was sleeping and then knock Laenor unconscious to cut off his ear.

Or rather, that was what they thought would happen.

To prevent anything, the second spy went to the door of the room and locked it with an extremely subtle motion. Seeing that the guards did not react, the man let out a sigh of relief and casually looked up at the ceiling.

He caught a glimpse of a silvery gray shadow with a pair of cold gray eyes looking at him from the shadows.

When the second spy was about to say something, the silvery gray shadow lunged at him and, soon after, a childish roar was heard.

Gray flames covered the second spy’s entire field of vision, before the infernal pain of being burned alive made him scream like a pig in agony.

"ARGHHHHHHH!!!!" The sharp scream of pain shattered the castle’s entire silent atmosphere.

The sound of the door being forced open was heard, followed by men’s shouts.

"Stop whatever you’re doing!!!"

"Don’t you dare hurt Lord Laenor!!!"

Laenor naturally woke up because of everything happening. He woke up startled and looked around in panic. He grew even more panicked seeing a man being burned alive by gray flames.

The first and third spies also panicked; they looked at each other and each split off. The first spy ran toward the dragon, and the third spy went toward Laenor.

Seeing this, Seasmoke, sensing his rider was in danger, flapped his wings and flew toward Laenor with a predatory look. The small dragon, which was the size of two cats, looked especially fierce.

Little Laenor, seven years old, froze seeing the man approaching with a dagger. He did not react; he just stood completely frozen and even wet himself from the terror he was feeling.

Seasmoke arrived at that moment; he did not release flames; he lunged straight at the third spy’s face. Like an eagle, he used one of his claws to tear out the third spy’s eye.

"ARHGGGG!!!" The third spy groaned in pain as his eye was torn out but reacted quickly and swung the dagger at the dragon. Being in a panic, the dagger struck Seasmoke’s wing but still made the dragon let out a pained shriek.

That pained shriek was enough to snap Laenor out of his state of panic. Seeing Seasmoke letting out cries of pain, he showed an expression of rage and lunged at the third spy.

"STOP HURTING SEASMOKE!!!" The boy shouted as he threw punches at the third spy’s stomach.

Naturally, such attacks caused no damage; they only served to irritate the third spy even further.

"Shut up!!!" With his face bloodied and full of rage from the pain, the man shoved Laenor away.

Laenor fell backward and hit his head on the corner of the table beside his bed. With a particularly clear and nauseating sound, the boy’s small body fell to the floor while blood slowly stained the floor of the room.

The boy’s eyes were still open as he lost consciousness.

A weak murmur sounded on his lips.

"Seasmoke... run..."

Seasmoke, sensing the danger in his rider’s state, the dragon fell into a state of fury. He began spewing flames from his mouth, burning the third spy and also the bed’s sheets, starting a fire in the room.

"ARHGHGHHGHG!!!!!!!" The guards were terrified by the men’s screams inside the room and slammed even harder against the door, finally breaking it open with a crash.

They entered the room and saw only one of the assassins still standing. The other two were rolling on the floor, trying to put out the fire, ashes covering them.

However, the guards did not pay attention to them; they just stared wide-eyed at the small body lying in a pool of blood.

"LAENORRR!!!!"

"BRING WATER!!!"

"QUICK!!!!"

The castle had woken up completely.

------

Note: Originally, Laenor dies in this Chapter, but I changed my mind at the last minute and rewrote the ending. I found a better fate for him.

Read the advanced Chapters on my Patreon!

/GOTSW

Read my other books:

House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos

Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.

Game Of Thrones: The King’s Court Wizard