The Shield Islands were made up of four islands blocking the mouth of the Mander River.
This was not the first time the Ironborn had occupied the Shield Islands.
Let alone the Shield Islands—Bear Island near the northern wildlands, and the Arbor at the southern tip of Westeros—had all been Ironborn territory in the past, or rather, lands forcibly seized by the Ironborn.
Just as the Ironborn had once occupied large swaths of the Riverlands, becoming the most dominant force among the Seven Kingdoms.
Yes, the Ironborn were in decline now, and the total area of the Iron Islands was smaller than that of a powerful earl's domain. But their ancestors had truly been glorious once.
More than ten thousand years ago, the Shield Islands were known as the "Mist Islands." The Ironborn conquered them, killed all the men, seized all the women as "salt wives," and transformed the islands into a forward base for raiding the Reach.
The Ironborn would sail their longships upstream along the Mander River, sometimes reaching as far as the Bitter Bridge a thousand kilometers inland, impossibly arrogant.
It took seven generations of the Gardener family—the rulers of the Reach before the Tyrells, holding a position similar to the Starks of the North—to drive the Ironborn out of the Shield Islands completely.
This was only because the Shield Islands were perilous, easy to defend and hard to attack.
The coastline was jagged and unpredictable, the waters treacherous, the islands large and steep, and the surrounding seas were shrouded in mist year-round.
The name "Mist Islands" said it all.
But such a perilous place felt like home to the Ironborn.
Euron had wagered everything, gathering the entire strength of the Iron Islands.
The Iron Fleet brought one hundred longships, and the Ironborn lords contributed more than three hundred warships, totaling over thirty thousand Ironborn pirates.
There were almost no able-bodied men left on the Iron Islands.
Such a huge force would be impossible to conceal anywhere else.
But winter had arrived, and the sea fog returned.
The Mist Islands, as in ancient times, enfolded the Ironborn in a protective embrace, hiding their ambush.
The fleet of the Arbor was indeed strong, but it had only a little over two hundred warships, far fewer than the Ironborn at full strength.
With overwhelming advantages in ships and manpower, along with the terrain and psychological edge of an ambush, the Ironborn held every advantage. And Euron had a final trump card: the sea monster.
Garlan led five thousand Tyrell elite troops and successfully landed, taking over Greyshield, Oakenshield, and Southshield one after another, without encountering any surprises.
The Ironborn received the gold dragons set aside as ransom, cursed and grumbled as they vacated the castles and coastal fortresses, leaving the islands to the Tyrells.
The Tyrell soldiers entered the castles and strongholds, completing the handover smoothly.
Garlan did not let down his guard, but he no longer expected anything unexpected today—until he landed on Greenshield, the island closest to the coastline.
Ten thousand Ironborn swarmed out from the fissures between the jagged cliffs on both sides like a flood, engulfing Garlan and the remaining two thousand soldiers—the other three thousand had been stationed across the three newly reclaimed islands.
The enemy held absolute numerical advantage and possessed countless pots of wildfire oil and heavy crossbows. The "valiant" Garlan was not Daenerys; he had no plot armor. He died honestly and swiftly on the field, and the two thousand soldiers perished with him.
The second son of House Tyrell was dead.
Garlan on Greenshield never lived to see the Arbor fleet's rescue. Almost at the same moment the Ironborn ambushed him, a gigantic red octopus—like a demon from the depths of hell—rose from the water and, like a naughty child crushing a scallion pancake, twisted the Arbor fleet's flagship into splintered wood.
Kevan Lannister had once told Cersei that Paxter Redwyne and Randyll Tarly, if secured, could bring martial peace to the realm and stabilize the kingdom.
As for Willas Tyrell, the heir of Highgarden in whom the Queen of Thorns had placed all her hopes—
One represented the present, the other the future. Both were among the brightest young talents of the Seven Kingdoms. Neither even had the chance to truly appear before being swallowed by the sea monster.
The sudden revolt on the Shield Islands could not possibly escape Highgarden's notice.
Even as she mourned the deaths of two grandsons and a nephew, the Queen of Thorns did not forget the threat lying just downstream—after all, the Shield Islands were directly below Highgarden along the Mander.
She immediately ordered the defenses of Highgarden to be reinforced, and sent ravens throughout the Reach requesting aid from its great houses.
The Reach lords did not delay upon receiving her message and mobilized immediately to assist their liege.
But there was a problem.
The main forces of the Reach had gone to King's Landing with Lord Puff Fish and Randyll Tarly.
Wasn't Daenerys participating in the "Honeywine Tourney" at Oldtown precisely because the Reach was short on troops and needed to hire sellswords to fill its defenses?
The five thousand elite soldiers Garlan had taken to the Shield Islands were all recruited from the tourney, and they had been lost in a single day.
Thus, with only twenty thousand Ironborn, Euron managed to surround Highgarden so tightly that not even water could flow through, repelling the reinforcing armies of several earls, including those from Cider Hall and Oakheart.
Just as Highgarden was about to fall into Euron's hands, the Queen of Thorns—perhaps in desperate panic—sent a plea for aid to Dragonstone.
Her action was strange, but her reasoning was sound.
First, she had grown up listening to legends, and she knew dragons could deal with sea monsters.
The sea monster had swum upstream into the Mander, lashing its tentacles wildly at the gates and walls on the river-facing side of Highgarden.
If the walls had not been thick and sturdy, and if the wildfire and heavy crossbows had not inflicted real damage on the creature, Highgarden would already have fallen.
Second, Highgarden's forces were depleted and could not hold out much longer. Even if others wished to help, distant water could not save a nearby fire.
The Dragon Queen had dragons. She could arrive within two days.
The problem was that Daenerys had no reason, no time, and no desire to save Highgarden.
Facing the anxious maesters Marwyn and Pycelle who had rushed over to inquire, Daenerys sneered:
"The vanguard of the allied army is almost at Meereen. Every day I must ride my dragon to burn away the enemies surrounding the city. How would I possibly have time to go to Westeros?
"And I swore an oath: I will end the Long Night, and until it is over, I will not participate in the civil wars of the Seven Kingdoms.
"Besides, the Citadel violated guest right and tried to kill me. Wasn't the Queen of Thorns the mastermind behind that?"
"Your Grace, if it were anyone else and anything else, I would not advise you. But what Euron is doing violates all laws of gods and men," Marwyn said urgently.
"What new information did you receive?" Daenerys asked curiously.
There were no detailed accounts in Olenna's letter about what happened that day, most likely because she herself did not know the exact course of the Shield Islands incident.
"News has arrived that after the battle, Euron held a sacrificial ritual and used the corpses of the fallen to offer tribute to an evil god," Pycelle said, his face pale.
"Impossible." Dany immediately shook her head. "Maester Pycelle, you are not a practitioner of the arcane and may not truly understand the nature of sacrifice.
Only the blood and souls of the living attract evil gods. Sacrificing corpses is not impossible, but the effect is extremely weak."
Marwyn sighed. "In theory, that is indeed the case. But after Euron completed the sacrifice, he clearly received an immense reward. His sea monster nearly doubled in size.
I suspect that what Euron sacrificed was not corpses, but the war and the slaughter itself.
Perhaps the war that annihilated the knights of Greenshield and Highgarden was the real offering, while the bodies were only the final step of the ritual."
Dany glanced at the Bull-Necked Scholar in surprise, not expecting him to have such profound insight.
"This is a novel idea, and it seems quite reasonable," she said.
Marwyn shook his head. "It's not novel. This is the doctrine of the Storm God.
After receiving the news, I began studying the gods worshipped by the ironborn—the Drowned God and the Storm God.
Both encourage killing. The Drowned God leans toward pillage and rape, while the Storm God craves large-scale slaughter and destruction.
The ironborn plunder and raid, following the ancient path of the Drowned God. Whether his priests can gain power from him is uncertain.
But this time, the ironborn waged a war of conquest and bloodshed in the Storm God's name, and the Storm God truly responded to Euron."
The Storm God and the Drowned God see each other as eternal enemies, yet both are old gods of the ironborn.
Aside from the ironborn and a few islanders from other small isles, almost no one else worships them.
It is like how few in the West worship the Daoist Three Pure Ones of the Celestial Empire.
The ironborn are a unique race of the First Men, with their own pantheon.
Belief in the Drowned God is the mainstream value among them, just as angels and demons both exist in Western theology, yet normal people worship angels.
To outsiders, the Drowned God—who encourages raiding and rape and drives the ironborn to reject farming even unto death—seems almost identical to a demon.
But to the ironborn, the Drowned God is an angel.
Just as demons tempt humans to fall, in the faith of the ironborn, the Storm God specifically lures the ironborn toward destruction.
The Drowned God resembles the Christian God: he preaches his doctrine, brings the souls of his followers into his watery palace (which resembles the Dragon King's crystal palace of legend), and holds a feast where mermaids fulfill the wishes of the faithful. Is that not paradise?
A saying widely spread among the ironborn is: "What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger."
It is similar to how foreigners often say "God bless."
And it refers to the Drowned God.
Ordinary ironborn may worship the Storm God, just as American universities often have demon-worship clubs (as seen in movies).
But Euron's devotion to the Storm God is essentially a betrayal of his own kind.
It is simple: the Pope of the Vatican personally crowns you Emperor of Europe, and you choose to worship demons instead.
"That man hid himself too well. He fooled everyone. Before and after, it's almost as if he were two different people," Maester Pycelle said heavily.
The two maesters of Dragonstone were deeply shaken, but Dany felt very little.
She had already confronted her allies, confronted Balerion, confronted the greenseers, confronted numerous evil gods, confronted fate, and had even stood against R'hllor. She had challenged heaven, earth, and deities alike. There was nothing left that could frighten or startle her.
A mere Storm God, a mere Euron—at most, they left a faint ripple in her heart.
"That's it?" The Dragon Queen's expression was calm, as if Jack Ma were reading his wife's credit card bill for the month.
Marwyn hurriedly said, "Your Grace, Euron's sea monster was originally blood-red, with tentacles twenty meters long.
But after completing the sacrificial ritual on the Shield Islands, the creature almost doubled in size. Its tentacles now exceed thirty meters, and the soft suction cups have sprouted rows of pale, hook-like fangs.
They look like the mouths of monsters—and they can actually eat like mouths.
The corpses of Ser Willas, Earl Garlan, Earl Redwyne, and dozens of nobles were devoured by the creature's tentacles. It was horrific beyond words!"
"Well, that is interesting." Dany pondered. The sea monster seemed capable of evolving—or rather, becoming more demonic—through sacrifice.
Seeing that Dany still appeared unmoved, Marwyn added, "The creature's outer form also changed. Its body is now dark red. Its slippery skin is dotted with black, demon-like spots, almost like unopened eyes.
If those eyes ever open, it may be able to wield sorcery. We must not raise a tiger to invite disaster."
"How do you know all this in such detail?" Dany asked, puzzled.
(End of chapter)
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