Chapter 24: A Black Pearl
109 AC, The Narrow Sea
Sargoso Saan was a pirate. One would not normally proudly declare themselves that, but Sargoso firmly believed people should not shy away from embracing what they were. After all, he was proud to be a pirate, of sailing the seas, and earning riches from the hands of those unworthy and weak. It was something that his father taught him, which his father had taught him before him, that the strong ruled over the weak. It was simply the way of the world, as cruel as it might be.
The Saan family was proof of that, for they were the dagger of the Free City of Lys. Each generation, a Saan became a pirate lord and raided ships on Lys’s orders, earning the rest of their family riches and protection within the city. Sargoso had such an honour recently, having been tasked to attack certain ships that sailed to Qarth, and given free rein over the Basilisk Isles. That had suited him fine at the time, but recent events had changed things.
Daemon Targaryen had burned magisters who came to him in good faith, destroyed their fleet, a merchant fleet at that, which had gotten the Triarchy to decide that they could not allow the Rogue Prince to rule the Stepstones.
Honestly, Sargoso couldn’t have given more of a shit about the situation if it weren’t for the fact that the Triarchy had commanded him to take his fleet from the Basilisk Isles and prepare for war. As much as he disliked the idea of fighting a Dragonlord, he could not disobey them, not with the rest of the Saan family in Lys at stake.
Though his position made him somewhat valuable, which is why he was left with as much autonomy as long as his fleet participated in the blockade of the Stepstones, something that was more meant to pressure the Dragonless King of the Sunset Kingdom than his brother. However, after moons of… nothing, it seemed that nothing would really come of it.
Sargoso would have been bored enough to steal a ship and start raiding again if it weren’t for his new assignment, mainly the capture of one of the Sea Snake’s infamous giant galleys, which he named Galleons. According to the rumours, it was a monster of a ship designed by the Velaryons, which was somehow extremely fast for its size, which had allowed it to all but destroy the Triarchy’s fleet in their previous war and conquer the Stepstone alongside Daemon Targaryen. Agents of the Triarchy were informed that Corlys Velaryon was using it to trade with Braavos, and they wished to take it, study it, and then eventually build their own.
Looking at the ship in question, with a small part of his fleet, half a dozen ships, surrounding it, Sargoso could not help but think that it was certainly worth the trouble, for it was a beauty, a magnificent treasure of the sea, and soon, it would be his.
The Galleon’s Captain had already tried to ram through one of Sargoso’s ships, but the encirclements held. It would have worked on an unprepared group of pirates, of course, but Sargoso had used his finest ship for this mission, one that was as good as, if not better than, the Triarchy’s flagships.
Sargoso saw the Galleon’s crew realising what that meant for them and readying their defences, preparing to fight, even as they were caught unawares and outnumbered. A fight meant that they would likely have fewer prisoners and thus, fewer slaves to inevitably sell, but that was hardly an issue with the ship being a prize. He respected that; such a treasure was worth being fought over, to be truly earned with blood.
He spoke up loudly, “Fire!”
Lysono, one of his oldest crew, yelled out the command, and many horns were sounded to signal the attack. Each of the ships fired one bolt after another, though they did so carefully as to avoid the hull of the ship. He had said that he would take the hands and tongue of whoever hit the hull, in fear of destroying the ship in question. Sure, scorpion bolts would barely create small holes, not enough to make a ship of the size of the Galleon sink, but Sargoso was paid far too much gold to steal the ship for him to risk sinking it. Thankfully, his crew had done as they were told and aimed to attack the guards and archers who were fending off the assault.
As he saw the blood and death before him, Sargoso smiled and yelled out, “Grapples!”
Lysono relayed this command, and he saw his ships all send grapples, ready to board the Galleon. The ship’s defenders were impressive, but they were obviously not prepared for an assault of this magnitude, and not while being surrounded like this. He could see the sailors try to cut the ropes, which were then targeted by his scorpions.
There were scorpions on the Galleon, of course, which was slowing down the assault greatly, but eventually, some of his crews slipped through and boarded the ship and secured it.
After enough time, Sargoso decided to set foot on his new ship. The Pirate Lord waved his hand, and his crew obeyed, rowing to move his ship towards the Galleon, and Sargoso smiled as he prepared to board the ship.
His men had been prepared, having done this half a hundred times before, creating a board of wood to attack the ship. The first few of his crew ran forward with their axes raised and met the few remaining guards who were protecting the ship.
Sargoso felt a wide smile grow on his face, one that looked forward to the coming conflict. He took out his crossbow, one of the best ones ever made in Myr, and joined his men in the fray.
The first thing that Sargoso noticed was strange was the fact that there had been more corpses than he expected on the ship, both part of his crew and the guards protecting them. On a merchant ship, that meant one thing: that there was someone important on this ship, maybe a noble or an emissary, someone that he would be paid handsomely for bringing back to Lys, perhaps enough to make up for his men dying.
For now, the Galleon came first, and he would see about some possible nobles later. Sargoso casually raised the crossbow, killing one of the guards, as he hit him in the eye. He followed with another, before deciding to leave the final arrow for an emergency, as he would not need to reload.
Instead, he unsheathed his sword, and the battle seemingly stopped as the sight of Valyrian Steel seemed to give them pause. Sargoso always loved seeing the look on his victims’ faces as they realised that he was no mere pirate, but something… more.
The weapon was interesting. He had taken it from the corpse of one of the Old Blood of Volantis, or at least, that was what he remembered the lackwit screaming at him. He died all the same, shitting himself, before being thrown into the ocean, much like most of his crew, if only because he irritated Sargoso with his annoying voice.
He would admit that he loved the rush that his weapon brought him. He didn’t give it a name and didn’t care if it had one in the first place. All he cared about was how effective it was at killing, and it had not disappointed, carving through everything around him as if it were not even there. Truly, the rumours of Valyrian Steel were not overblown.
Sargoso docked as he saw one of the guards attempt to kill him from behind, and with a casual slice of his sword, cut him through the waist in two. Further down, he saw a few bowmen who were ready to attack him. He rolled and stabbed one of the crewmen in the heart, but kept the body upright, using it as a shield.
He felt the impact of a volley of arrows hitting the corpse in the back, and he yelled out, “Take care of the fucking bowmen, you fucking sons of whores.”
Finally, it seemed that the idiots that he took on as his crew used their heads and fired at the bowmen, giving Sargoso enough breathing room to throw the corpse back and continue his charge. He quickly parried one of the attackers coming at him, until he found himself standing before someone in full plate. Was it a knight? He knew that the plate was expensive in the Sunset Kingdoms and that their holy knights, or whatever the fuck they called themselves, wore it to knock each other from horses or something as useless.
Still, the armour itself was bloodied, almost entirely covered in blood. He could barely see the lips and skulls on the crest on his bloodied shield. There was no doubt that whoever that was had killed much of his crew, which actually made Sargoso’s lips twitch upwards into a bloodthirsty grin. Finally, a worthy opponent, and more importantly, a potential hostage.
The knight ran at him, his sword raised, and Sargoso immediately knew that, while talented, he was inexperienced. The boy had likely not been in a single fight to the death before this day. He had not seen the desperate manoeuvres that a man would do to not die. After a handful of exchanges, Sargoso had gotten bored enough to show the green boy a few tricks, using his Valyrian Steel sword to cut through the shield entirely, unbalancing the knight, before kicking him in the knee.
He felt some glee at the crack of the sound, especially as the young man screamed in pain, but before he could do anything, another figure in plate ran at him and tackled him away. While doing so, the man punched him in the face with a bloodied gauntlet, making Sargoso’s head spin.
Sargoso retaliated with a knee to the belly and heard a gasp of shock to know that the hit had connected well. He pushed his attacker away and slowly stood up, his head still spinning by the impact. He spat out a mouthful of blood and a couple of teeth, snarling at his carelessness. He swore he’d carve the whoreson that attacked him.
He turned and saw that it was a young man. His helmet had fallen from his head during their altercation, and he could see youthful purple eyes staring at him with hatred, with blood splatter around his cheeks, likely originating from one of Sargoso’s crew.
The boy unsheathed his sword, and Sargoso tightened his grip on his own.
The Pirate Lord would admit it easily. The boy was good, very good, with a sword. He was not the best Sargoso fought against, but he could grow to be a fearsome warrior if he dedicated himself to the sword.
The boy obviously knew the dangers of Valyrian Steel weapons, given how he dodged most strikes and redirected his thrust. He could count on one hand the number of people who had done so expertly, and none so young. Suddenly, after the boy parried one of his attacks, he jumped forward and hit Sargoso’s wrist with his other hand, in a way that made him unclench instinctively.
It was not much, but it was enough that the grip of his weapon loosened slightly, and the boy used this to hit the Valyrian Steel Sword cleanly, sending it flying to the ground.
Sargoso’s eyes widened as he saw the boy raising his sword, ready to kill him, and he quickly retaliated by spitting a mouthful of blood into the boy’s eyes, taking him by surprise. It was enough to kick him away from him, take out his crossbow, and fire it at his enemy. The boy was able to dodge out of the way, though it hit his shoulder. The boy let go of his weapon at the pain, which allowed Sargoso to jump at him and hit him in the face, knocking him down.
With the boy down, he took out a knife from his boot, knelt down, and held the weapon to the boy’s throat. It was obvious that this was who these people were trying to protect, and he growled out, “You lost, boy…”
It was the easiest way to take the boy hostage. Given his training and Valyrian eyes, the boy was important, probably enough to stop any resistance to avoid causing him harm, ending this raid decisively in Sargoso’s favour. Only, the boy in question did not surrender; his eyes were not afraid of the blade held to his throat. Instead, he smiled viciously, “So have you.”
That was the pain that began in his stomach as his eyes widened as he looked down and saw a dagger seemingly made of black glass in his chest.
He felt his grip on the knife lessen as the world began to spin. He was losing blood, a lot of blood. It was almost as if it were a pool of it staining the deck. He noticed that some of it neared a piece of parchment, a drawing of… something. It almost looked like a man with wavy hair and striking eyes. Ones filled with power. He swore that he felt the eyes flash green for but a moment, though that must have been the blood loss.
He was dying, and yet, he continued staring at this strange drawing of this strange man, his blood spilling from his gut, staining the parchment, and despite it all, he swore that he continued seeing the power within it, the power within the eyes of the man within it.
It was simply so captivating, even as Sargoso felt his life draining away.
He ignored how the sky continued to darken, as the clouds gathered unnaturally in the sky. He ignored the sound of the thunder rumbling in the distance or the sea shaking the ship violently. He ignored the unnaturalness of what was occurring, and instead, his mind was captivated by the blood-soaked piece of parchment.
He continued to do so, even as he felt himself slip away and the world darkened.
A part of him refused to believe that this was the end, that he, Sargoso Saan, grandson of Saathos Saan, who was once the Pirate King of the Basilisk Isles, would perish at the hand of a boy due to his own carelessness.
And yet, that part continued to fade away, as the memories of the drawing and the green, all-consuming eyes filled with so much power were etched within him, until he took his last breath. And so ended the tale of Sargoso Saan, Pirate Lord of the Basilisk Isles, unknowing of what his blood might have stirred.
AN: This story is still relatively new, so if you'd like me to continue it, please let me know in the comments what you think of the rewrite so far.
As for this chapter, well, Laenor is technically witnessing the first sign of magic (that is not dragon-related), and it was technically his doing. I hope that I didn't overdo it, though. Also, I know almost nothing about naval warfare or ship boarding, so let me know if I made any mistakes in that regard.
As I said before, I am planning on uploading more of this story (outside of normal uploads). I have a bit of a backlog of chapter drafts for this story that I’ll try to go through when I can. As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this chapter depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.