Darken Rahl in Game of Thrones

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***

Admiral Closo Ro Haido was no longer the young salarian of the great fleet of Qarth as he had once been thirty years ago. He now commanded the vast fleet of not only his homeland, but the entire coalition of cities and countries of the Summer Sea that made up the alliance. Five hundred and sixty-three ships of varying shapes, configuration, and quality.

Among them were more than two hundred triem, fifty lochans from Zabhad, which carried many siege weapons and engineering creations from Asshai and the I-Tii Empire, more than a hundred ships of the Lang State, which carried selected mercenaries who were fiercer than tigers. At least that's what it seemed to the Admiral as he looked at these dark-skinned beasts that were mistakenly called humans. Half of them were pirates that often attacked Qarth's ships, but now they were allies.

The rest of the ships were galleys and dracars of various kinds of small towns, pirates and mercenaries of different colours.

Their first main objective is to capture the island at the entrance to the Slaver's Bay, Cedar Island.

According to intelligence, it is where half of the fleet of the newly created D'Haran Empire is based. It will also be a springboard for the capture of the entire bay and its cities. Although the rulers of the allied squadron could not agree on many issues, but they came to this step with a common opinion. The main thing to break the fleet that is on this island and capture the newly built shipyard and port. From there, they would see where the best place to attack would be.

Although Closo Ro Haido knew very well that along the coast is the same allied army of eighty thousand people on Yunkai.

At first, the admiral thought they would capture Astapor, but General Lin Song of Leng, who commanded the army, decided to capture the conventionally benevolent city of the former trio of slave trading cities. It seems that it is there that a rebellion against the emperor of this new nation is ripening. And the nobles decided to change their minds about going in somewhere else after all and wanted their independence back.

Perhaps Meereen will come over to their side as well. But that was not what worried the Admiral at the moment.There was something about this sea, something that kept the Admiral from relaxing. His gut told him that despite such a huge armada of ships that he had under his command, there was danger for them.

The spies who had managed to miraculously dig up reliable information that there were only one hundred and fifty ships of various purposes on Cedar Island. The numerical advantage was on their side, but the Quartian was still cautious.

Some time later, after much deliberation by the Admiral, they entered the fog. A boon for the armada, the captains had good experience travelling in such conditions and almost no ships collided with another. Only two ships with provisions were damaged, but immediately their contents were transferred to other ships, and the hapless captains decided to lose their heads for their blunders.

In two days more the armada sailed up to its destination.

The opponents discovered each other at dawn, off the southern promontory of Cedar Island. Upon seeing the Dharian fleet, the Quartian admiral held a meeting with some of the allied captains and commodores, and decided to fight with all the forces they had.

Against them came the enemy fleet with a hundred ships. They were drawn up in three groups. The first was near the cape and the entrance to the harbour, the second was off the east side of the cape a mile from the first group, and the third was a little further off the cape about five or six miles. When the armada had formed its formation, which was ten groups of fifty ships each, lined up in a diamond-shaped battle order, the third group of Dharian ships gave a slack, and fifteen ships gradually separated from it and went off in a westerly direction.

Admiral Haido only smiled at this, but still decided to send one of the ten groups that consisted of fast schooners to catch up with the cowards and capture these ships. "The 'eastern group' of Dharian ships made a manoeuvre to the southeast. In their direction went the pirate captain Russell, that led three groups of ships at once to the battle.

He with one group of Quartian ships and ships full of provisions and landing craft remained in the rear. All the others went to the main group of Dharian ships, which consisted of forty ships of various purposes, not counting a couple of barges that were in the rear of the warships. And also on that small group of ships, which still came from the "western squadron" of the Dharians in the form of ten light ships and became right in front of their main forces.

With a light breeze from the fleet, Russell slowly approached from the south-east downwind, trying to bring his line into contact with the Dharian group of ships.

Due to the chase, the battle did not begin until half an hour later, after first spotting and going into battle.

There was open fire from the Dharian side by the slingers and archers that were on board. Russell responded by holding his fire for as long as possible to allow his ships to get closer. Though he lost four fast ships in the process. The commander of that group pulled forward, trying to block the line of the part of the armada that followed them, endeavouring to close in on the enemy and force his squadron into a "line" battle by skirmishing rather than boarding. And he succeeded, began a heated firefight without boarding.

In the centre, where most of the allied armada clashed with a much smaller force, but because of the successful and rather unusual formation of another Dharian commander, they got bogged down in the boarding pile and failed to take advantage of their numerical superiority.

The battle dragged on. The Quartian Admiral did note that his opponent fought with a bravery and skill that made him respect himself. He even wanted to meet the skilful naval commander in person after his capture. But his smile was rather quickly replaced by bulging eyes and an open mouth of surprise and horror.

Because of the heated battle, the captains had completely forgotten about the distance they should have kept between each other, so as not to be one solid block of wood.

Only some ships that were further away from the immediate battle and only used their archers to help their allies kept the distance that actually saved them.

The ten ships that took the brunt of the battle were lined up and chained together, they were stuck to the cluster of the enemy and that's when almost all of their crews were killed. The barrage of fire of bright violet colour poured down in a river from these ten ships on the ships of the armada, which was stuck in itself. And now the position that allowed the use of all crews for boarding could not move away from the impending threat that slowly but surely crept like a blanket over the whole wood pile. Only a few ships of the armada were able to escape the hot and dangerous violet flames. In whose tongues thousands of sailors died agonising deaths.

At the same moment a small flotilla of about forty vessels of the same configuration with Dharian sails appeared from the western side of the island. And Captain Russell had almost lost his battle. His opponent lured the pirate to the shoal and eventually the battle took on a boarding style, where took part, as it would later turn out famous impecunious. And they captured almost all the ships. Except for the two on which Russell escaped, and another pirate commander-captain.

He was about to blow the signal to retreat, but realised that another flotilla of thirty-five ships was approaching from the south, but not Dharian. They were led by the ship of a very famous Lisenian pirate Salador Saan, who, as the admiral realised, was on the side of the Empire.

And the place where there was burnt part of the Dharian ships, and the allied fleet boiled water, and white vapour rose into the sky, creating a white veil.

The ships were burning underwater because of this, and there was steam. From which, in turn, a squadron emerged in a wedge in a new battle order that rushed towards Admiral Haido.

They were surrounded.

They had lost.

And the Admiral did the only thing he could do, he raised the white flag.

A short time later, the naval battle that Admiral Mathis, his grandson and Salador Saan fought was dubbed "The Disgrace of the Summer Sea". It was one of the biggest and most epic battles in the history of the world.

***

A fortnight later, the River Worm. Not far from Astapor.

Rhys stretched sweetly. He was a little uncomfortable in this armour. The new protective armour of Valyrian steel that Darken Rahl had forged for him personally had been painted red at first. But then Darken had commanded him not to dye it bright red unless it was first covered in the blood of his enemies. So Rhys volunteered for a small expedition that was led by Daario Naharis, who was appointed as another new general of D'Hara's army. This small army of twenty thousand men was to lift the siege of Astapor, which was besieged at once by thirty thousand of the enemy's soldiers. This was accomplished and the enemy, having lost several thousand men, retreated beyond the local Worm River. Master Kraznis was glad of this and presented the Emperor with an additional four thousand impecunious and those joined the forces that were under the command of the former mercenary.

Despite his appearance, which is strange to Rhys's eye, he wears a trident-shaped beard, dyed blue, as is his hair, is blue-eyed, his moustache is painted gold, and his nose is hunchbacked. He is flexible, has a gold tooth, and is dressed rather shouty. Not that the guy cared about how anyone dressed, but something about it annoyed him. However, Rhys did not disregard Naharis's real military talent and accepted his command over him without any problems. Rhys himself was commander of a company of three hundred men: a hundred Dothraki, a hundred slingers, and another hundred mercenary swordsmen.

Rhys did not understand why the army that had advanced to Yunkai and Meereen should not have been defeated. Those two cities had decided to secede from the Empire and even more than that they had managed to raise a militia of nearly sixty thousand for two and joined the fifty thousand commanded by the general from New Guice.

Of course, Daario had posted outposts so as not to be overrun by a surprise attack from the other sides. But Reece was surprised by Darken's position. The man clearly had some plan for the two rebellious cities with the mighty army that was there and for the whole army of prisoners from the battle at Cedar Island that had been stationed there for the time being as well.

And even had some plans for the dragons that had grown to the size of a horse, and their wingspan was each 3-4 metres long. And the Darken dragon that frightened even Reece with its appearance and behaviour was even a bit bigger. For three months before the first battles began, Ral had been feeding the young dragons all kinds of meat without limit, and, as he said, "feeding" them with his strength. This made the young emperor's pale face even paler and gave him bags under his eyes.

Even if it was still too early to release this nine dragons on the battlefield. But after all, half of all the Dothraki in the Dothraki Sea were already serving the empire, and swearing the rest in was a matter of time. He could still use them, but for some reason he gathered their leaders in Vaes-Dothrak, who he made lords of and even gave surnames consonant with their former titles: Khaling, Khalor, Khaleesion, and so on.

Eventually, just before the battle of the River Worm, Rhys cast aside his heavy thoughts and provided the clever combinations that Darken had clearly planned for his own greater gain from the war and plunged fully into the battle.

The opponents lined up in front of each other, with only the river separating them. The Dhaarians were the first to strike.

At first Daario sent forward mounted scouts and one squadron of Dothraki, and when they were attacked by the allied forces of the cities of the Summer Sea, trying to throw them back into the river, he moved himself with the remaining squadrons of his former thousand mercenaries and Dothraki, trying to lead the cavalry aslant to the river.

Thus, from his right flank, Daario struck at the centre of the enemy's position, where the enemy cavalry had huddled together in an attempt to throw off the Dharian advance party. After losing several warlords, the enemy withdrew.While the mercenary and Dothraki horsemen battled the enemy cavalry, the Dharian legionnaires easily forced the Worm and attacked the enemy infantry.

Soon the entire enemy army had turned to flight. Except that Rhys commanded one of the four groups that snuck behind enemy troops and blocked one of the wastes that travelled through the mountains. The enemy army was effectively trapped. However, Daario decided not to stop and immediately threw a phalanx of legionaries against them and surrounded them on all sides with cavalry. In destroying this army, Darken Rahl's subjects suffered the most casualties in the battle. Only some six hundred men. At the same time, they captured over seven thousand enemy soldiers. They got a wagon load of loot, army treasury, whores, provisions, as well as a couple of important hostages.

Reese's unit suffered a minor reorganisation. He lost almost a hundred soldiers due to his dangerous location (almost all of the slingers. But at the same time, with a broad gesture of Naharis' soul, he gained two hundred more infantrymen, and was planted as military commandant in Astapor.

And Daario Naharis himself, after a short rest and a celebration in honour of the victory, departed to the north.

***

Another week later. Cedar Island. The gladiatorial arena of the ruins of Velos.

Darken Rahl sat in a refurbished alcove that once belonged to some aristocrat or ranks of the ancient city. Now it served as the Emperor D'Hara's place of creation for dozens of duels that went on simultaneously, to the death. Already the time has passed noon. And the fighting has been going on since dawn. Not even gladiators or slaves, but captured pirates and mercenary barbarians from Sotoros with coal-black skin. As it turns out, all is not well between the locals of Sotoros and the pirates. And being captured by the D'Harans has not reconciled them. On the contrary.

They fought in their pens and killed enough of each other. Out of over a hundred thousand captives, about ten thousand did not survive.

Darken found out what was the matter, and then one enigmatic smile and four days later, he set up the gamesmanship. Offering both sides and the mercenary barbarians and pirates this deal. They fight each other to the death - only one side wins. Pirates against mercenaries, whoever survives has the right to return home or serve him faithfully. And take revenge on those cities of the Summer Sea that have abandoned them meanly and cynically to slaughter.

To the surprise of many in the Emperor's inner circle, almost all of the prisoners agreed.

There were some attempts to rebel and escape. There were about 7,000 of these idiots. They were slaughtered by his brave soldiers from the First Cohort. And then, over the next three days, or four if you counted today, thousands of captives died in bloody and brutal battles.

Darken, clad in black fine robes that were framed with precious sapphires, amethysts, rubies and diamonds sipped his wine and savoured the spectacle. His hair was being tousled by one of the Mord-Sith, while the other was going to prepare his hair for the new hairstyle he was about to wear. After all, his hair had grown back noticeably lately. The pallor had subsided. It had been caused by severe magical exhaustion, and now it had not only returned to its former colour, but even because of these 'games' it had gained even more of a tan.

And now Darken Ral was even more like his current father in appearance than before. This pissed him off a bit, but on the other hand he was even kind of glad about it. After all, even from such a small thing, he had figured out how to capitalise on it.

The bloody spectacle ended only at sunset. In the end, thirty-five thousand black mercenaries won. Many of them were wounded, but they would be healed. The main thing is that Rahl has gained an angry and almost loyal crowd of madmen who want the blood of his enemies. And all it took was a few pretty speeches and a bit of mind magic applied with pinpoint blows to the crowd.

The bodies were quickly dumped into special deep pits that went down deep under the arena. The blood that had been spilled during all this time also flowed there through special channels in the arena.

Having finished with congratulating the victors and giving a few orders, he left alone to the secret rooms of the structure, where, using a secret passage, he descended to the deepest depths under the arena.

He came out to a vast void beneath the ground that was filled with a bright light. In the centre was a huge bloody pool where floated the very corpses of those killed in the arena. Another man would have gone mad or vomited from the smell of corpses and blood that oozed into the air, but Ral walked with a broad smile to the edge of the pool and gazed into the red calamity. After a while it bubbled, and immediately a huge dragon covered in blood emerged from it. The only thing that wasn't red on him was his eyes. They were a bright purple colour. It was the four-legged dragon Darken had been preparing for himself.And now, nearly four months since his first flight in the sky, he was already the size of a four-storey manor house in height. It was about forty-five metres long and had mighty wings, which was hard to denote in size as they were folded behind its back, and a tail as long as the dragon's torso.

- My mate. My brother. I regret that I could not similarly increase the development and power of your younger brothers. Alas, the pain, fear, strength, and death of those men who were thrown to you, fuelled by my spells, was only enough for you. But that's not a bad thing. On the contrary. It means that you will be the First and Foremost of all your fellows. You are the strongest favourite of my pets. You are proud, fierce, majestic and powerful. And although you haven't taken a name yet, or rather I haven't given you one. But I think very soon you'll be able to earn it rightfully on the battlefield. You want blood?

- Gr-a-r-a-r-a-r-a!!! - roared the dragon contentedly.

- Do you want victories?

- Gr-a-r-a-r-a-r-a!!!

- Do you want to be the Lord of the Inferior Beings called humans on an equal footing with me? Do you want to be by my side and help me achieve all the victories, power, glory and honour?

- Gr-a-r-a-r-a-!!!! - The black dragon roared with even more excitement and desire.

- Well, I am glad of that. Then let me sit on you and right today we will go to the place where you will show yourself for the first time my brother!

The dragon bowed to him and Darken immediately saddled him. And then mentally relayed the command to his 'brother' to melt the ceiling of the underground cavern they were in.

Bright flames the colour of the eyes of the two creatures that were there rushed upwards. The stones did not crumble or crack, they melted and flowed down the walls of the cave, and very quickly the infernal heat opened a wide passage to the heavens. Ral and his dragon flew up to the cries of the frightened people on the ground and headed somewhere to the north.

To be continued...