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Chapter 2
Skull Island.
It was a barren wasteland where nothing grew and no water source existed. The island wasn't large either, you could easily walk from one end of it to the next in under an hour. It didn't even have any significant geographic features. The entire island was just a giant rock formation jutting out from the sea and forming a small mountain that looked like a closed fist from a distance. There were no settlements on the island either, no man or woman lived here. The only true inhabitants of the island were the seagulls and the occasional seals. The only sound that could be heard in all of the island was the cawing of the gulls and the howling of the wind.
What it did have was skulls. Hundreds of skulls. Thousands of skulls. Tiny pyramids made out of skulls rose into the air, some of them twice the height of a man. Dozens of these little pyramids dotted the entire island.
"There must be hundreds of thousands of them," I muttered in awed terror as we stood among the skull pyramids. "Millions of them."
"It took thousands of years to built all of this, my lord," Captain Maero whispered. "Thousands of years of blood. All the people who had been killed on these islands over all that time are here."
I shivered.
The empty eye sockets of the grinning skulls were staring at me. Thousands and thousands of murdered dead, staring at me with their shadowed eyes. Their gaze weighed down on me like a true physical weight on my shoulders. Their empty stares made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
I felt light headed.
If I hadn't been alone and had to keep up appearance for my men, I'd have turned and fled.
"Men have gone mad on this island," Captain Maero said at just the wrong moment. "They came back screaming that the dead were calling them."
Shut up, you fool!
I gulped and hid my clenched fists inside my cloak, "Were is the temple?"
The captain pointed, and I set off in that direction, carefully not looking at the grinning skulls watching us pass by. Behind me, I heard my two companions scramble to catch up.
"This is an evil place," Saerin muttered as he followed behind me with a jug of wine clutched to his chest like a hug pillow. "My lord, I have the most unsettling feeling, like the gods of the freehold do not approve of us being here."
I sighed, "We will not worship this nameless god. We're leaving as soon as this is done."
"Yes, my lord," Saerin bowed his head and clutched his jar tighter.
Our destination was the ruins of the old temple that had once stood in this island. After thousands of years though, it was now reduced to its foundations and a couple of crumbling stone towers.
Well, that was not strictly true.
There was one other thing left of the old temple that had once stood here.
Right in the middle of the ruins stood a rectangular block of stone roughly the length and width of a man, carved with strange runes and figures that had become unrecognizable with age and exposure.
An alter.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and stepped up to the alter. Wordlessly, Saerin handed me the wine jar, and I tilted it over the alter and let the wine flow our slowly, letting the liquid wash over its surface. Then I reached into my cloak, drew out a small ivory figurine of a dragon, and placed it upon the alter before genuflecting. Beside me, I saw both Saerin and Captain Maero do the same.
I didn't know any prayers for this god, so I settled on a general prayer dedicating my offerings to the god and requesting his blessing and a safe journey.
And that's done.
Still, I didn't relax until we were back in the little row boat we came in and the two sailors that manned it were taking us back to the Dancer, putting distance between us and the island of skulls.
"That was….." I paused. "A most unsettling experience." I honestly didn't know if there really was a god in that island or if it was just me getting spooked. I did know that I was not going back there.
"There are many strange and dark gods in this land," Captain Maero said. He was chosen for this voyage because he had sailed to Sothoryos multiple times before. He was a man of pure Valyrian stock who was in his early forties who knew ships the way a rider knew dragons. "There are even worse gods than this in the jungles."
Magnificent!
If a
Valyrian says that a god is a bit much, then it really is serious.
I began to wonder if I made a mistake with this voyage. Maybe I should have led an expedition into Sarnor and rallied them against the Dothraki horde.
Without dragons.
At least the Dothraki will only kill us horribly.
"We will deal with it as it comes," I said, because it was too late to change my mind now. Like it or not, this had to be done. "When we get back, come to my cabin after you get the ships moving again," I told Captain Maero. "We need to plan our journey from here on out more carefully. It's time we had a proper meeting."
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My cabin was well appointed and had a lot of comforts, and one of them was a large writing desk that currently had a large map of the Basilisk Isles spread out over it.
Valyria was famous for her dragon riders. But there was much more to the freehold than just the dragons. We were architects, we were sailors, we were explorers, and we were adventurers. We were the most advanced civilization that this world has ever produced, even with the blood sacrifices and the orgies.
So, the
map spread out across the table was quite detailed. It showed the Basilisk isles and the northern coast of Sothoryos all the way to Basilisk Point. All the major islands were named, and on the largest of the islands, there was a city clearly marked.
"Gogossos," Captain Maero tapped the location on the map with his index finger. "It'll be the last civilized city before we voyage into the unknown. The men will be most grateful if my lord lets them spend some time in the city before the voyage proper begins. I hope my lord will not deny them this boon…."
"Not at all," I assured him and he bowed. "We need to arrange for supplies and meet with the magister of the city anyway. Even after our work is done, we can spare a few days for the men to go into the city."
Gorgossos was nothing compared to the cities of the peninsula, it was really a glorified penal colony. However, it was still a Valyrian colony, and we didn't cut corners with our cities. I myself had never seen it, but I was sure that it would be a sight to see.
"What about this?" I asked as I tapped another island that lay on our path to Gorgossos. "The Isle of Toads?"
"Its a small island, my lord," Captain Maero made a face. "The natives are savages. Nothing worth anything to anyone there."
"Really?" I closed my eyes and tried to recall my research. Valyrian explorers had done a pretty through job of mapping out these islands. "Isle of Toads….the Toad Stone!" I snapped my fingers. A mysterious black stone carved in the shape of a toad located in the heart of the island. None of the books I read knew just who had built it. They just reported that it had been here since before the Ghiscari first came to this part of the world.
It was fascinating.
"We'll stop there," I decided. "A few days there, and then we'll move onto Gogossos."
"Very well, my lord," Captain Maero bowed. "I was planning to beg your permission to stop and replenish our water before we went on. With your permission, we could do it there. We could also see if there is good hunting on the island. The men will enjoy the chance to have fresh meat."
"Excellent," I waved my hand, giving my blessing. "After that, we'll sail straight to Gogossos. Once there, we will plan the rest of our journey after we have spoken to the city's magister."
"Very well, my lord."
"How is our supply situation?" I asked, coming to the other matter at hand. "Do we have enough provisions for the men until we reach the city?"
"Yes, my lord," Maero nodded. "We have more than enough to last us until we come into port in Gorgossos. Still, the men will be glad to have some fresh meat and the chance to catch some good fish."
Most of the food we had stocked up on had been dried fruit, dried meat, dried fish, and wine. It was edible enough and could be made to last a long time, but eating it day in and day out was not a pleasant experience. Even I had to endure this diet, simply because there was no way to preserve better quality food during such a long voyage.
I did have knowledge of modern refrigeration techniques, but I couldn't just draw up plans for such devices off the top of my head. I was no Tony Stark or Victor Von Doom to produce technology from almost nothing. I would need time and a lot of experiments to turn the theory I understood into a practical device.
For better or for worse, I would have to work with the tech level I had available to me right now.
For now.
However, the moment my immediate concerns were dealt with……. I had plans.
"Very well," I said loudly, breaking off from my line of thought. "We will do this. Is there anything more that needs my attention?"
Captain Maero bowed, "No, my lord. I will go and give the orders to the men. With your permission?"
I waved my hand in blessing, and he left.
Saerin moved forwards from where he had been waiting patiently and produced a pitcher of wine and a goblet, both made out of silver and carved with images of grapes and wines. He filled out the goblet and held it out to me, and I wordlessly took it.
As I stood in my cabin and sipped my wine, my eyes went to the painting that hung above my writing desk.
I had it commissioned before I left, and it showed the city of Valyria as seen from dragonback. The great towers and temples of the city were shaded gold in the light of the dawn, and the great harbor was already busy with ships leaving their berths with their sails unfurled.
"We might never see it again," I said as I drained my goblet. Actually I knew that I wouldn't. I had left Valyria for the last time.
"You will not fail, my lord," Saerin stepped forward and refilled my goblet. "You will return home with much honor. You will outdo your noble mother's illustrious ancestor."
No, I will not.
This really was the end for the freehold of the dragonlords. I had tired to warn them. Dany had tried to warn them. They didn't listen.
Now it was up to us.
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