They climbed the oak walkways clinging to the cliffs and reached the summit of Torturer's Deep.
From the height, Lo Quen looked down over the natural marvel below.
The entrance was a narrow, twisting fissure, hundreds of feet tall, just wide enough for a single ship to squeeze through. On either side rose steep, slick black cliffs, riddled with cracks and holes.
To the left lay a near-right-angled, treacherous bend in the fjord. Once past it, the view opened suddenly wide.
Beneath the sheer cliffs stretched a vast, fan-shaped natural harbor, as though a giant hammer had smashed out a hollow in the rock.
The water was broad and calm. Ships were tied with ropes to crude wooden docks or simply anchored in the bay. Among them were three of Crab Claw's larger warships and more than a dozen rowboats.
Yet even with nearly twenty vessels inside, the harbor's surface seemed scarcely touched. At a glance, it could hold a hundred ships with ease.
"This is a natural haven," Lo Quen remarked in awe.
"You're right, Lord," Roro said proudly, pointing out across the bay. "Not only is the harbor natural, but the cliffs around it are honeycombed with sea caves. People live in them, and they're used to store grain and weapons."
The two walked along the cliff above the caves, then followed another walkway back down toward the base.
The shoreline wasn't sandy beach but a vast platform carved by the sea at the cliff's base, lined with sea caves of all sizes.
These were the pirates' dens—dwellings, warehouses, prisons, even crude forges.
At their mouths lay piles of clutter, nets, and ship-repair tools. The stone walls were blackened with soot.
Last night's battle had spared the cliffside walkways and some of the wooden sheds. The main cavern halls cut into the rock remained largely intact.
Outside, shadows moved busily. Pirates who had surrendered worked under the cold stares of Dragon Soul Guards, clearing away the wreckage of battle.
The roar of waves striking the cliffs reverberated through the abyss, magnified by the cavernous walls until it became a constant thunder.
Lo Quen and Roro entered Crab Claw's core stronghold—the great sea-carved cavern that served as his hall.
At once, the sharp tang of brine filled their nostrils.
The space was immense, so vast that even their footsteps echoed sharply against the stone floor.
Torches burned all along the walls, casting light into every jagged recess until the cavern shone almost like day.
The floor was uneven, scarred with deep diagonal grooves, as though some massive blunt tool had ground across it again and again.
Above, stalactites of every shape hung from the towering dome, cold droplets gathering and falling with a steady drip that echoed through the cavern.
But the most striking feature was the massive map carved directly into the stone wall.
Its lines were bold yet precise, covering a wide span of rock. Scattered across it were countless shapes, large and small.
Roro Uhoris bowed slightly. "Lord, that is the Stepstones and the surrounding seas. Every island, reef, and sandbar is marked. Important points are marked with charred wood or colored shells. It took Crab Claw more than ten years to complete it."
Lo Quen's eyes scanned the stone-carved map. "Where are we now?"
"Here, Lord." Roro stepped forward quickly and pointed to the southeast corner.
There, a shape ringed with dense short lines had been carved, beside it a crude skull symbol.
"This is Torturer's Deep. See? It's ringed by natural reefs like a moat, nearly impossible for large warships to approach." Roro traced a circle around it, then pointed toward several larger shapes. "The surrounding major islands are quite far from us. But here..."
His finger shifted to the eastern edge of the map, near the southwest jut of Essos. "That's close to the Disputed Lands."
But Lo Quen's attention had already drifted north and west.
There, two shapes loomed, many times larger than the others, like colossal twin gates.
"And these two?"
"Those are Bloodstone Isle and Grey Gallows Isle," Roro said, his voice carrying a trace of awe. "They're the two largest islands in the Stepstones, one to the north and one to the south, like a pair of fangs guarding the throat between Dorne and the Stepstones. Almost every ship trying to reach the Narrow Sea or the Summer Sea from the Dornish coast has to pass right under their watch."
Catching something in Lo Quen's intent gaze, he hesitated, then added, "But Lord, that's the domain of the 'Prince of the Narrow Sea,' Salladhor Saan. His fleet has more than twenty triple-banked war galleys, far larger than our rowing boats, plus countless merchantmen, cogs, whalers, and swift longboats. His power in those waters is nothing short of terrifying."
"Salladhor Saan?" The name was not unfamiliar to Lo Quen.
A pirate lord from Lys, he had once backed Stannis during the War of the Five Kings. But when Stannis marched north to the Wall and the promised gold never came, Salladhor lost faith. On one mission, while ferrying Davos the Onion Knight to White Harbor, he abandoned him and returned to the Stepstones to resume his trade in piracy.
"Yes, Lord. He comes from House Saan of Lys. For centuries, that family has lived by piracy and smuggling. Their power is vast—everyone in the Stepstones knows them."
Roro's tone dripped with caution and unease when speaking of that sea lord.
Lo Quen gave a slight nod, his fingers idly tapping the cold stone map. "Tell me then, aside from this so-called 'Prince,' what other powers here are worth naming?"
Roro obeyed without hesitation, pointing to marks on the map as though reciting from memory.
He indicated an island in the center, shaped like a shattered jaw.
"This is Jawbreak Island. It's ruled by a mad pirate chief called 'Shipbreaker' Caggo. He's a lunatic, followed only by outlaws. His favorite tactic is to ram merchant ships with his iron prow, sink them, then scavenge the wrecks—hence his name. His base is Jawbreak Island Cave, a natural sea cavern. Easy to defend, hard to storm."
He moved his hand to a cluster of dense dots on the central part of the map.
"This is Weeping Reef. That belongs to 'Salt Widow' Marla. A ruthless woman—her husband and brothers all died at sea, but she clawed together a following through sheer will. She's a master of ambushes, using the treacherous currents and reefs around Weeping Reef to strike. Few ships marked by her ever escape."
Finally, Roro pointed toward the northern part of the chart, at an island shaped like a broken spear.
"This is Broken Spear Isle. It holds the black market village of Spear Handle. Officially, it's a free port run by merchants for smugglers, but everyone knows Tyrosh is behind it—one of the Nine Free Cities. It's the Stepstones' largest den for fencing loot and resupply. Weapons, slaves, spices, contraband… with enough coin, anything can be bought there. Its defenses are strong—rumor says Tyroshi regular troops are stationed there, disguised as sellswords."
Lo Quen rubbed his chin, his gaze sweeping across the marked powers carved into the map.
His thoughts raced, already weighing how best to break through this fractured and chaotic sea, to gather this tangled pirate web into his own grasp.
Roro, mistaking his silence for concern that other factions might covet Torturer's Deep, quickly sought to reassure him. "Lord, you needn't worry. The Stepstones have always been like this—today I take from you, tomorrow you kill me. Nests change hands constantly."
He tapped the reefs marked on the map. "Torturer's Deep is strong and remote. Unless someone has a blood feud or stands to gain a fortune, no one will bother coming all this way to gnaw at a hard bone. Their true focus will always be raiding the merchant ships passing through. That's where the steady flow of gold lies."
Lo Quen smiled faintly and shook his head.
His gaze burned into Roro, and that smile made Roro's chest tighten with unease.
"It isn't them attacking me that I fear," Lo Quen said. His finger drew a wide circle across the map, encircling Bloodstone, Grey Gallows, Jawbreak, Weeping Reef, Broken Spear Isle… and beyond. "What I'm thinking is which one to strike first, until all of them are gone."