The sea and sky were a somber gray, and the cold wind snapped the old kraken banner atop the city walls.
Although winter had ended, mornings on Pyke remained cold and desolate.
Asha Greyjoy stood on the high terrace of Pyke Castle's main keep, overlooking Lordsport far below.
She had set out at the same time Aegor led the Western Expeditionary Army from King's Landing, bringing with her a small number of ironborn who had originally followed Victarion to Meereen to pledge allegiance to Daenerys, along with a small guard of Unsullied specially assigned by Daenerys. First, she traveled along the Goldroad all the way to Lannisport, where she boarded a Lannister warship, sailed under the kraken banner to Pyke, landed, and headed straight for the castle. By "showing her face," she easily entered Pyke Castle, which had lost its former lord. From there, in her capacity as Asha Greyjoy and Daenerys's special envoy, she sent messages to the islands, announcing the convening of a great council to discuss the survival and future development of the Iron Islands.
The ships in the harbor were densely packed, seemingly as crowded and lively as ever at first glance, but any ironborn with a memory could see that although many ships were crammed into the bay, they were all small to medium-sized longships and sloops, without a single major warship whose name could be called out.
It was not that they had failed to come, but that those "famous ships" had all received special attention from Daenerys's fleet in the great sea battle in Blackwater Bay outside King's Landing, and would forever remain on the seabed of those distant waters.
It had been a great victory, one for which she deserved the greatest credit.
But for some reason, looking down at the remnants of the Iron Fleet now pitifully squeezed into Lordsport, Asha could not feel happy at all.
"Ah-choo."
She sneezed without warning, immediately lost interest, wrapped her leather coat tightly around herself, and turned back into the smoky long hall.
This was the council hall where her father, the great Balon, had once summoned the heroes of the islands and twice incited rebellion. The huge hall, capable of holding nearly a thousand people, was currently only a third full. There was no music or singing, no finger dancing with thrown axes, and even the thralls walking back and forth pouring wine were few and far between. More than two hundred chieftains and captains sat dejectedly at the long tables, drinking ale expressionlessly. As Asha Greyjoy walked in from outside, countless gloomy gazes converged on her.
"Speak quickly if you have something to say. The chieftains and captains here have matters to attend to as well!"
A shout came from the crowd, though it was unclear who had spoken. Asha curled her lip dismissively. Two days ago, when receiving those who had come to attend the meeting, there had still been audacious men who dared to shout "Night's Watch whore" to her face, but after being publicly disciplined by the Unsullied she had brought, no one dared make such pointless provocations again.
The attendees had not all arrived yet, but waiting any longer was pointless. She strode onto the high platform where the Seastone Chair stood, but did not sit. Instead, she stood boldly with her hands on her hips, her gaze sweeping over every face below the platform.
Faces full of greenness or immaturity. Just as there were no major warships docked in Lordsport, there was not a single truly important elder sitting in the great hall of Pyke Castle. The chieftains or captains who were skilled in war and had prestige had all died in battle, and the few who had escaped and returned to the islands had chosen to hide at home and ignore her summons. The "Iron Fleet" Asha was about to assemble would be a collection of novices and weaklings. Its fighting strength was questionable, but looking on the bright side, given her status as a loser, if there truly had been old-timers in this hall, she might not have been able to keep them in check.
"Very well, close the doors." This was shouted to the Unsullied guarding the doors, which promptly closed with a rumble. Asha lifted her chin. "We will not wait any longer. The chieftains or captains who are not here today should pay the price for their lateness or arrogance. Congratulations to those present. You have the opportunity to receive the gifts I have brought to the Iron Islands."
She walked to the side of the Seastone Chair, picked up a roll of parchment, turned to face the attendees, and unfurled the item in her hand for everyone to see. "The first, the Queen's pardon!"
Faint sneers and disdainful snorts arose in the long hall. The chieftains and captains sitting in the front rows were expressionless. The Iron Islands were different from the nobles of the Reach or the Golden Company. There was the stormy, reef-strewn Ironman's Bay between them and the mainland, and the slaver alliance across the Narrow Sea to the east was also causing trouble. At this moment, launching a campaign to suppress rebellion or a retaliatory military action against the Iron Islands would be a choice with an extremely low chance of success and poor value for the cost to Daenerys. Pardoning them in exchange for loyalty was actually the only feasible path.
For Asha to call this a gift was truly laughable.
"I know you all find this laughable." Asha was not surprised. She slowly raised the unfinished pardon document, which had not yet been filled in, and walked forward to the edge of the high platform. "But once I tell you more of the inside information I know, you will not think that way anymore." She looked down from above at the few young new chieftains in the front row. "You must have already heard the news that the Reachmen were soundly defeated outside Highgarden by the Western Expeditionary Army led by the Hand of the Queen, Aegor. But due to how slowly news travels, I fear you have not yet learned that he has now taken control of the surrendered Oldtown, is based in the Hightower, has subdued the Arbor, and is beginning to assemble a combined fleet of the Reach."
"The Reach fleet will definitely bypass Dorne to meet the Anti-Dragon Mother Alliance's warships in the Narrow Sea. They will not have time to come north and deal with us remnants who have little to offer."
Asha looked at the speaker and nodded in agreement. "If it were the Queen herself based in the Hightower and assembling the fleet, then without a doubt, that statement would be correct. But the problem is that the person there is Aegor West, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. From what I know of him, this man is extremely petty and vengeful, and has always adhered to the paranoid political view of pacifying the realm before confronting external enemies. Coincidentally, the ironborn once invaded and harassed Ice Canyon Port, which is under the jurisdiction of the Night's Watch, and burned his ships."
There were rumors that Asha had long since become Aegor's plaything. For the ironborn, it was certainly shameful for their princess to be captured and possessed by an outsider, but it gave Asha's claim of understanding this man a high degree of credibility. As for the ironborn invading Ice Canyon Port...
"That was clearly Euron's doing!" a red-haired man with a scar on his face argued loudly from the back row. "And almost everyone who participated in the attack on Ice Canyon Port has already gone to meet the Drowned God."
"Moreover, the ships burned at that time were not the Night's Watch's. They belonged to the North, right?"
"Of course I know what happened." Asha raised her hand to quiet the scattered discussions. "But the problem is, that man has set his sights on the ironborn and wants revenge on all of you. What can you do? I have sworn allegiance to him and to the Queen, and he has ordered me to prepare to guide the Reach fleet to land on the Iron Islands. I absolutely cannot break my oath or defy his command. The only thing I can do is quickly bring you the pardon, turning you from enemies into friendly forces, people he cannot attack."
More intense discussion and argument erupted. Most people did not believe this explanation, but no one dared guarantee that Asha was bluffing. Besides the ring of Unsullied soldiers standing along the walls, there was another very important reason. These new chieftains, who had only risen to power because their fathers and brothers had died in battle, had no prestige to convince the masses, and none had the ability to unite the Iron Islands against outside enemies. In short, none of them could bear the consequences if they guessed wrong.
"We are considering accepting the pardon and surrendering," someone shouted amid the uproar. "But the Queen must have given us some conditions, right?"
"The second gift." Asha opened another roll of parchment and said loudly in a crisp voice, "The Queen's plan for the future livelihood and development of the Iron Islands, abbreviated as the Iron Price Plan!"
The iron price, in Iron Islands culture, was actually a refined way of speaking of swords and referred to the old way of reaving. That the Queen would use this term, one popular only on the Iron Islands, to name a policy plan truly astonished the ironborn. Everyone temporarily stopped arguing and once again focused their attention on the daughter of Balon Greyjoy.
"The land beneath our feet is called the Iron Islands, originally named for the abundance of iron ore on the islands. Of course, at this point, someone here will surely want to refute me and say that it has nothing to do with iron ore, and that the name comes from the strong and unyielding nature of our ironborn. I have no intention of debating that, but I only want to emphasize one point. The Iron Islands are indeed extremely rich in iron ore, and the quality is quite competitive." Asha rolled up the parchment again and tossed it to the chieftains in the front row, knowing that some of them could read anyway. "It was only because the disadvantage of shipping costs outweighed the not-so-significant advantage in quality, and because the overall demand for iron in the Seven Kingdoms was not large, that it ultimately lost out in competition and failed to be effectively developed and used."
"To solve the problem that the ironborn have few ways to make a living besides fishing and reaving, the Queen has promised me that the Iron Islands will be designated as the royal family's exclusive steel supplier. The royal government will purchase steel from the Iron Islands every year at market price, bear the shipping costs, and impose no upper limit while guaranteeing a minimum quantity. This will ensure that the islands have their own source of economic security, without having to follow the old way to improve their lives..."
So this iron price was truly money from iron.
Asha briefly introduced the outline of the Iron Price Plan on the platform, while a large number of chieftains below had gathered around the few literate men, listening to them read out the key part of the contract, the guaranteed minimum purchase quantity.
Soon someone noticed that the number was abnormal. "That is too fake. The entire Seven Kingdoms cannot use that much iron in a year!"
"Whether it can be used or not, the royal family will purchase at least this quantity at market price every year, ensuring that the Iron Islands have their own legal economic income. And the ironborn must repay Her Grace the Queen with loyalty. That is the core of the Iron Price Plan!" Asha paused her speech and first addressed this reasonable doubt for everyone. "Cannons can be cast from iron, and even if this much cannot be used for the time being, that does not mean it cannot be used in the future. Even if it cannot be used in the future, if the iron ingots pile up there, rust, rot, and turn into dust, that is the Queen's business, not yours. Do you all understand what I mean?"
The questioning voices faded, and the buzz of discussion once again became the main sound in the long hall. If this contract was true, then Daenerys's handling of the Iron Islands' rebellion could only be described as repaying grievance with virtue, unbelievably generous.
Such an unreasonable outcome naturally had its own particular cause.
The Iron Price Plan was genuine. The only thing Asha had not told the truth about was that this was not Daenerys's idea at all, but something she had fought for from Aegor.
The quality of the local iron ore might indeed be good, but it was by no means so excellent that mainlanders would be willing to pay extra shipping costs to buy it. The essence of this plan was the royal government providing financial support to the Iron Islands. And this, in turn, was something Aegor had specially tailored for her, taking into account that Asha had risked her life, offered herself, and even presented him with a set of Valyrian steel armor of immeasurable value.
There were two reasons for not disclosing this inside information. First, Aegor needed to play the role of a petty and vengeful man in this persuasion to surrender. Second, Asha was afraid that the generous policy she had obtained by risking her life and body might wound the worthless yet stubbornly fragile pride of the men of the Iron Islands, causing unnecessary complications in this plan that deceived both sides.
However, if someone thought that the Iron Price Plan was Aegor using public property to pay for keeping the Iron Islands' princess, and using gold from the royal treasury to pay for the Valyrian steel armor he wore, that would be completely wrong.
The essence of this strategy was actually the same as "ceding the fertile southern Reach to Dorne." It was about putting shoes on the feet of barefoot desperadoes, creating weaknesses for Dorne and the Iron Islands that had not existed before, using a small amount of resources to tame the unruly commoners of remote regions, and sacrificing a small amount of short-term interest in exchange for the long-term stability and unity of the realm.
"The third gift!" Asha shouted, drawing everyone's attention back. At her call, several Unsullied soldiers carried up two large cloth bags. When they were untied, large pieces of red and black cloth rolled out. She picked up one piece. It was a black banner with a three-headed red dragon. "The sooner you hang the Queen's banner on your ships, the sooner you will be safe. Furthermore, I am requisitioning one hundred medium-sized longships to head south to Oldtown as quickly as possible and join the combined fleet Aegor is assembling. Use loyalty to shut that petty man's mouth, so he cannot even find a reason to oppose the Iron Price Plan."
She took a deep breath and threw out the last major piece of news. "House Greyjoy will relinquish its claim to the leadership of the Iron Islands. Who gains it will depend on the upcoming expedition to the Free Cities!"
(To be continued.)