-Chapter 208-

-Chapter 208-

-POV Salladhor Saan-

I abruptly pulled on my horse’s reins less than a hundred meters from the walls separating the port from the city as I heard two roars.

‘Roars I had already heard when I passed through King’s Landing,’ I thought, lifting my eyes to the sky just in time to see two dragons dive toward the walls and destroy Lys’ defenses before anyone could react.

I watched, horrified, as the dragons annihilated our defenses with brown and green flames, then spurred my horse and pulled on the reins to turn it around.

‘The only exits from this city are reserved for the nobles,’ I thought, pressing my heels into my horse’s flanks again.

“Captain… captain!”

I pulled on the reins of my horse and turned my head in the direction of my second-in-command, who was calling out to me.

‘Davario,’ I thought, watching him try to push through the crowd to reach me.

ROAR OF A DRAGON.

I turned my head toward the sound, and my heart raced as I saw the dragons finishing their fiery destruction of the crumbled walls, now turning their fury on the city.

‘Sorry,’ I thought, urging my horse to move faster toward the home of Tregar Ormollen, my primary financier.

‘He must know how to escape this cursed city,’ I thought, watching the dragons spew torrents of fire on the soldiers and mercenaries heading toward the port.

‘Fools! They risk their lives to defend those pigs,’ I thought, pressing my horse to an even faster pace.

---

-POV Tregar Ormollen-

‘No, this can’t be happening,’ I thought, watching the two dragons in the sky burn down the districts near the port without mercy.

‘How could this have happened?’ I asked myself.

‘The old bloodlines gave us their word. We were safe, it was…’ I thought, my legs trembling and on the verge of giving out under me.

“What is happening, my love?” asked Lynesse, naked under a sheet she had wrapped around herself, clearly terrified by the smoke, flames, and screams.

I turned to her and screamed, enraged by my loss of control over the situation, venting my frustration on her:

“What’s happening? Your damned Targaryen decided to attack us! He’s destroying everything my family and I have built over centuries!”

“What are we going to do?” Lynesse asked, fear deeply etched in her eyes.

I hesitated for a few seconds before finally saying to my guard captain:

“Prepare all our soldiers. We’re taking the tunnels. I have family and gold in Volantis.”

“How are we going to leave the island?” the captain asked.

“I have ships docked in a cove,” I replied, recalling the contingency measures I had prepared in case I was forced to flee Lys urgently.

‘At the time, I thought the city council would betray me, not that I’d have to flee from that cursed Targaryen,’ I thought, furious about leaving most of my fortune behind.

“And the slave soldiers?” the captain asked.

‘Those animals will rebel if they realize we’re abandoning them. They’ll try to sell us out for their freedom and recognition from that Westerosi pig,’ I thought, observing the slave soldiers whispering to each other while occasionally glancing at me.

“Promise them freedom and wealth if we make it to Volantis,” I said, disgusted to have to "negotiate" with such underlings for my own survival.

“Very well,” he replied with a nod before leaving to carry out my orders.

‘I will return, and when I do, I will burn everything that pathetic emperor holds dear,’ I thought.

---

-POV Aegor Velaryon-

“Aaaaaaaaah!” screamed a slave soldier as he drove a sword into the side of one of my sailors.

‘Bloody savages,’ I thought, kicking the man as he tried to crawl away from me, preventing me from finishing him off.

I felt no mercy as I drove my war axe into his throat, severing his head in a single clean strike.

‘That was easy,’ I thought, surveying the state of the port.

We had quickly secured the port, eliminating mercenaries and slave soldiers who tried to defend their masters by fleeing to the sea.

I pulled my axe free and continued advancing to the area where the gates separating the city from the port had once stood, now in ruins.

There, the Emperor awaited us, his back turned, arms crossed behind him, floating in the air.

I dared not disturb him, knowing full well he was aware of our presence.

I signaled my men to wait quietly for the Emperor to give his orders.

After a few moments, the Emperor raised an arm, and suddenly, the stones and debris of the gates began to float before being hurled to the sides.

Within seconds, the path was clear, and the Emperor turned toward us, slowly descending from the air.

He only spoke once his feet touched the ground.

“I observed the city through the eyes of my dragons,” he said, shocking me with the extent of his powers, though I feigned composure.

“The Third Imperial Fleet and the 14th and 15th Legions of the Empire are at your command!” I shouted loudly to ensure my men followed my lead. They quickly knelt one by one before the Emperor, who surveyed them briefly before turning to me.

“The city has another wall separating the affluent districts from the more… common areas. I will use the dragons to push the inhabitants toward the city center. With luck, they’ll break through the gates for us,” the Emperor said, his tone cold and devoid of emotion toward the collateral damage of this strategy.

‘A practical approach to minimize our losses,’ I thought, reluctantly admiring his methods.

“Do the same. Push the people toward the center, but do not advance too quickly. Give them time to flee,” the Emperor continued, emphasizing the need to allow the inhabitants time to escape.

‘He’s counting on fear. If any defenders have family among the civilians, they might open the gates despite orders from the nobles,’ I thought, narrowing my eyes skeptically at the strategy’s potential success.

“I do not want this city sacked. Kill only armed men or anyone resisting the Empire’s authority. We are not here to loot Lys’ wealth but to incorporate it into the Empire,” he ordered.

I nodded and responded, “Understood. We will not disappoint you.”

“Perfect,” he said, bending his knees.

I furrowed my brow, wondering what he was about to do, but I didn’t have the luxury of speculating long.

He leapt onto the battlements in a cloud of dust before propelling himself even higher and faster into the air.

His green dragon surged in the same direction, slowing in midair to allow him to latch on before soaring toward the city center.

‘He’s a god; there’s no other explanation,’ I thought, snapping myself out of awe to give my men their orders.

---

-POV Salladhor Saan-

“OPEN THE GATES!”

“PLEASE!”

“WE’RE GOING TO DIE, OPEN THE GATES!”

I watched the crowd of tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, gathered beneath the five-meter-high walls, raging inside at how trapped we were.

‘This is going to be a massacre,’ I thought, looking up at the dragons circling above, still unleashing torrents of flames and drawing ever closer to the city center.

I noticed the peculiar way the dragons moved, quickly realizing their strategy. They were herding us, closing the circle tighter and tighter.

‘If they manage to trap everyone here, they’ll exterminate us all in one fell swoop,’ I thought grimly.

Still on my horse, I forced it to rear up, grabbing the attention of the panicked crowd.

I yelled as loudly as I could:

“They want to sacrifice us! To them, we’re already dead. So we might as well die fighting!”

The once chaotic noise of the crowd fell into a stunned silence.

Then, a single man picked up a stone and hurled it at one of the guards on the wall.

That was all it took.

The stone struck its target, and the spark lit the flame.

The crowd erupted into a cacophony of rage-fueled screams.

Men surged through the masses, returning with makeshift ladders, while hidden mercenaries revealed themselves, launching arrows at the defenders above.

‘What are they doing?’ I wondered, watching as some began climbing on top of each other, creating human ladders to reach the walls.

One man managed to grab hold of the wall despite losing his right hand in the attempt.

He screamed like a madman, using his injured arm to drag down a defender who had tried to repel him.

Both the climber and the guard fell from the wall, crashing to the ground.

Before the guard could rise, a man from the crowd smashed his head with a large stone, killing him instantly.

The crowd roared in triumph, galvanized by the sight of the fallen guard.

Spurred on, they intensified their efforts, constructing makeshift grapples, battering rams, and even crude siege towers to scale the walls.

‘They’re fighting as if demons were at their heels,’ I thought, glancing toward the dragons still circling above, their fiery breath inching closer to the city center.

‘Perhaps demons truly are,’ I considered, watching as a group of men carried a massive tree trunk through the crowd.

‘A battering ram,’ I realized, instantly understanding their plan.

---

-POV Tregar Ormollen-

“Where is my captain?” I shouted, furious as I searched my residence for the leader of my mercenary fleet.

‘I specifically ordered that fool to stay under my roof!’

‘He must have gone down to the brothels near the port,’ I thought, my anger simmering.

‘Of course, at the very moment I need him most, the idiot is off chasing whores,’ I fumed silently.

I forced myself to remain calm, not wanting my men—or, more importantly, the slave soldiers—to sense the fear bubbling inside me. If they did, they’d turn on me in an instant.

“Master! Master!” an out-of-breath scout called, rushing toward me.

“What is it?” I demanded, annoyed by the interruption.

“The mercenaries, the slaves, and the common folk… they’ve all rebelled! The gate is about to fall!” the scout cried, his eyes wide with terror.

“We need to leave immediately!” my guard captain declared, his voice trembling.

‘How dare this insect speak to me in such a tone?’ I thought, fixing him with a cold stare.

“Darling,” Lynesse murmured softly, tugging on my sleeve.

I glanced at her and then at my children, all huddled in fear inside the carriages. My resolve wavered.

‘We cannot die here,’ I thought, swallowing my pride.

“Fine. Let’s go. And pray the gods are on our side,” I said, slamming the door of the carriage shut.