Chapter One is below if you missed it.
Dawn was close.
The ship of the Iron Wolves was approaching the Isle of Cedars.
Kaelor opened his eyes.
He looked around and realized he was back inside his cabin. The moment he tried to sit up, a sharp pain tore through his head. He pressed one hand against it and remained still until the room stopped spinning.
Then he remembered.
Vaelia.
He rose at once, crossed the cabin, and pulled the door open.
Two soldiers stood outside waiting for him. Neither reached for a weapon. They made no attempt to stop him. Instead, they stepped aside and allowed him to pass.
Kaelor seized one of them by the front of his armor.
“Where is Vaizor?”
The soldier remained calm.
“He is waiting for you in his study.”
Kaelor released him.
His hands closed into fists as he walked through the corridor. His jaw was tight, and his eyes remained fixed ahead.
He reached Vaizor’s study and threw the door open.
Vaizor stood before the window with his hands behind his back, looking out toward the approaching island.
White bandages covered most of his head and face.
Kaelor crossed the room without a word, grabbed him by the throat, and drove him against the wall.
“What did you do to Vaelia?”
His fingers tightened.
“I will kill you for this.”
Two soldiers moved forward.
Vaizor raised one hand and ordered them to stop.
The bandages around his face were slowly turning red. The veins in his eyes stood out as Kaelor crushed his throat. Saliva ran from the corner of his mouth while he struggled to breathe.
He tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
Vaizor lifted one hand and motioned for Kaelor to wait.
Kaelor stared into his eyes and held him there until his body began to weaken.
Only then did he loosen his grip.
“What did you do to her?”
Every part of him waited for the answer.
Vaizor dragged in a broken breath. He tried to form a word, but his voice would not come.
Kaelor’s hands tightened again.
Vaizor touched his throat and swallowed painfully.
“I tried to help her,” he whispered.
He raised a hand, asking for another moment, then moved toward his chair. He sat down, reached for a cup, and tried to drink.
Kaelor’s patience was disappearing.
Vaizor set the cup down.
“I tried to help her,” he repeated, his voice stronger now.
“She had hidden aboard the ship. We found her inside the hold.”
Kaelor said nothing.
“A slave was tending the horses when he discovered her. He called for my soldiers. Before they arrived, she attacked him with a knife and left him close to death. My men saw the blood and came to me.”
Kaelor looked at him with open disbelief.
“Vaelia would never do that.”
His voice rose.
Yet a thought had already entered his mind.
What if she really had followed him?
What if she had boarded the ship because she could not bear to be left behind?
Vaizor looked directly into his eyes.
“I swore an oath to protect the weak.”
The words came short and sharp.
“I went to help her. I asked how she had come aboard. My soldiers were holding her, and I offered my hand to help her stand.”
He pointed toward the bandages covering his face.
“She answered by cutting me open with a Valyrian steel dagger. One she had probably stolen.”
Kaelor went still.
He had given her that dagger so she could protect herself.
That meant something was wrong.
He stepped closer to Vaizor.
“I heard you,” he said.
“You wanted her head. You wanted to kill her.”
Vaizor cut him off.
“She tried to murder one of my men. The punishment for that is death by beheading. Then she tried to kill me.”
He rose from the chair.
“Do you believe that if I had wanted to hurt a little girl, I would now carry these scars across my face?”
He pulled at the edge of one bloodstained bandage.
“I will be disfigured for the rest of my life. I have fought the strongest men in the world and survived. If I had wanted to harm or kill a child, tell me, Kaelor…”
“…which of us would have been left with the scar?”
Silence filled the room.
Vaizor raised his hand.
A guard opened the door.
“Bring him in.”
Two soldiers entered with a man between them.
He had been one of the slaves chained inside the hold.
Now he was clean and dressed in ordinary clothes, though blood stained the fabric around his side.
Vaizor approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I am sorry for what that girl did to you.”
The man kept his head lowered.
He stared at the floor.
Kaelor could not accept what he was hearing.
“Lies.”
He struck Vaizor’s desk with his fist.
The man flinched.
Then he dropped to his knees.
“It was my fault,” he said quietly.
“Forgive me, High Commander Vaizor. I beg you. It was a moment of weakness.”
Vaizor watched him without speaking.
“I could not resist. The girl tempted me, and I tried to hurt her. That is why she stabbed me. I tore her dress. She had the body of a woman… and a long scar across her thigh.”
Kaelor’s eyes widened.
He saw Vaelia again in the courtyard, surrounded by fire.
Before the man could say another word, Kaelor attacked him.
He threw him to the floor and struck him again and again.
His fists split open.
Blood covered his knuckles.
Still, he did not stop.
He wanted to break the man’s skull beneath his hands.
Vaizor watched the slave’s eyes while the soldiers stood ready around them.
Before Kaelor could kill him, Vaizor caught him by the shoulder.
“What he has confessed cannot be forgiven.”
Kaelor turned toward him, breathing heavily.
“His head must be taken. Will you do it… or shall I?”
Kaelor rose like a man possessed.
He brought his boot down against the slave’s head.
The skull broke beneath his heel.
Blood and bone scattered across the floor.
Kaelor remained standing over the body.
His eyes would not leave what remained of the man’s face.
Vaizor reached down and pulled him upright.
“You have just become a true Iron Wolf,” he said.
“You brought justice to a child, but we were too late to save her.”
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Waves crashed violently against the jagged rocks of Old Valyria.
Vaelia clung to one of them with all the strength she had left.
One hand held the rock.
The other still held her dagger.
She dragged herself upward until her body collapsed across the stone.
For several moments, she did not move.
Her dress was torn. Her shoes were gone. The skin of her feet had softened and split from the water, and her lips were cracked from the salt.
She coughed and vomited seawater onto the rock.
Then she lifted her head.
The sun was beginning to rise.
For hours, she had seen nothing but black water and a black sky. Now violet spread across the horizon, touched with gold.
Water still ran from her clothes and hair.
She gathered her long black hair in both hands and tried to wring the sea from it as she moved carefully across the rocks.
Then she felt something behind her.
The hairs along her neck rose.
Vaelia turned sharply.
There was nothing there.
Only dead trees and broken stone.
Her strength failed her.
She lowered herself onto the wet rock and stared toward the sunrise.
A shallow pool had formed beside her where the sea had gathered between the stones.
In its reflection, she saw a shape approaching from behind.
Vaelia jumped to her feet and stumbled away.
A gray, stone-covered man stood before her.
His eyes were empty.
He lunged.
Vaelia twisted aside and ran toward the dead trees.
Two more emerged from between them.
She ran with everything she had left.
She did not look behind her.
She looked only ahead.
The broken ground cut into her bare feet, but she did not slow down.
In her panic, she remembered what she had read about creatures like these.
They had once been men.
Now they were Stone Men.
She could not allow them to touch her.
One touch could end her life.
The path ended beneath a steep wall of black stone.
Vaelia tied the dagger against her body with a strip torn from her dress, freeing both hands.
Then she began to climb.
Her bleeding feet left red marks across the rocks.
The Stone Men followed below.
Vaelia climbed until she reached the top.
A dark cave opened before her.
She entered without hesitation.
Inside, the silence was so complete that she could hear her own heartbeat.
She ran deeper into the darkness.
She could no longer see the Stone Men behind her.
She could see nothing ahead.
Then warm air moved across her face.
Two red eyes opened above her.
Vaelia stopped.
Her breath caught in her throat.
The darkness turned red.
A vast black beast opened its mouth, and light began to grow inside it.
Vaelia turned her head.
A Stone Man stood only a few steps away, his ruined face pale in the sudden glow.
He reached toward her.
The light became red fire.
Flame filled the cave.
At the final moment, Vaelia threw herself to the left.
Her body escaped the worst of the fire.
Her right hand did not.
She fell and screamed as the flames consumed it.
The enormous black dragon turned its head toward her.
Vaelia tried to crawl away.
A savage roar shook the cave.
She froze among the ashes, her burned hand trembling beneath her.
The dragon lowered its head.
Its jaws opened.
Enormous teeth surrounded her, and thick strands of saliva fell across the ground beside her.
Vaelia remained still.
She looked into its red eyes, terrified.
Then, in a soft and trembling voice, she began to sing in High Valyrian.
It was a small song Kaelor used to sing to her at night when she was afraid.
The dragon struck the cave wall with its tail.
Stone broke from the ceiling.
It spread its vast black wings, their membranes dark red in the firelight, passed over her, and flew upward through the opening above.
Vaelia remained alone in the center of the cave.
Ash covered her body.
Pain moved through every part of her.
In the darkness, only her trembling voice could be heard.
Morghūltas hae qēlītsos, yn hen jēdrarro, hae qēlos, avy ozurnēbas…
She died like a little star, but high among the heavens, like a star, she watches over you…
end of chapter two
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