The door to the Lord's bedroom flew open as Devan Seaworth entered. Devan always knew how to make a proper entrance, and he never ever knocked. His hair was as unkempt as ever and his jacket wasn't buttoned.
"A raven arrived with a letter from the island of Tarth, Lord Baratheon," he said. "You want to read it yourself?"
Gendry was sitting by the desk together with Stannis Seaworth, Devan's younger brother, engaged in studying books on the history of house Baratheon. Behind them, Steffon Seaworth, their youngest sibling, was busy climbing the canopy of Gendry's bed. Devan had at first taken on the task of teaching Gendry how to read himself but after a few squabbles between them during lessons, they had both agreed that Stannis, who was much more patient and studious than his older brother, would be a better teacher. Steffon had joined in on the lessons since Marya thought he also needed further schooling. Although Steffon usually spent most of the lessons trying to climb something, rather than studying his books. Steffon was not a child who liked to sit still.
"Give it to me and I'll try," Gendry replied. "Hopefully the Lord of Tarth's handwriting isn't too bad."
Gendry opened the letter and read it to himself. He definitely wasn't going to sound out the words out loud so that everyone could hear him struggling.
"If it says what I think it does, it's not good," Gendry said as he finished reading it. "So I'm kind of hoping my reading skills are failing me in this instance."
Devan took the letter out of his hand and read it himself.
"I'm afraid you've read it quite accurately," Devan said after he was done.
"Find Lord Penrose and Ser Swann and meet me in the Great Hall. We need to figure out what to do right away," Gendry replied.
"Will do, Lord Baratheon," Devan said and turned around and exited the room. The door made a loud bang as it closed after him and some of the painting of the walls swayed slightly. Devan certainly had a way of making a proper exit from a room as well.
Gendry turned to Stannis next to him after Devan had left the room.
"Sorry Stan, I'm afraid we have to end today's lesson early today," he said and got up from his seat. "Could you please try to get your brother down from the bed before he hurts himself?"
"Of course, Lord Baratheon," Stannis responded. "I've seen Steff climb way higher stuff than that though and he's never hurt himself."
"Well, get him down before he breaks the bed then. I would like to be able to sleep there tonight."
With that Gendry left the room to tend to the urgent matter. He made sure to close the door a bit more carefully than Devan has just done. Stannis was left trying to corral his younger brother down from the canopy of the bed.
***
Every time Gendry entered the Great Hall of Storm's End he had to remind himself that it was actually his hall, where he ruled from. It sounded as ridiculous every time. The hall took up a whole floor of the tower of Storm's End. It was round in shape just like the tower itself and high narrow windows on all sides let the sunlight in. Around the windows curtains in yellow velvet hung, attached so high up that Gendry couldn't help wonder how they had been put up there and by who. The walls were of grey stone, just like the rest of the castle, with carvings in intricate patterns. Tables were placed in a U-shape all around the room, ending in a table set a bit higher up on a stage at the furthest end. This was where the lord was supposed to sit while addressing his people. Because Gendry Baratheon was now suddenly someone who had people to address, people who were dependant on him. It all was still quite surreal, even as he had performed the duties of a lord every day for several months by now.
The table at the end was also where they usually had council meetings regarding matters concerning the Stormlands. As Gendry entered the room Lord Penrose, the castle advisor, and Ser Swann, the military advisor, were already seated by it. Devan, whose official title was personal advisor to the lord, was nowhere to be found though.
Gendry walked around the table and sat down on the Lord's chair, which had a higher back than the other ones. No, it was not a throne. That would be too ridiculous.
Devan entered the room just as Gendry sat down. But he didn't walk around the table, Devan Seaworth couldn't be bothered with stuff like that. Instead, he jumped up on the table, scooted slightly, and swung his legs over to get to his seat. Lord Penrose rolled his eyes as he saw Devan pulling this maneuver.
"Could you not walk around the table?" he asked.
"I could, but this was faster," Devan replied as he sat down in his chair and put his feet up on the table.
Lord Penrose looked over at Gendry with despair in his eyes. He seemed to wonder why this child had been appointed an official advisor position. The answer to that was that no matter how childish Devan was at times, he was the only person in the castle that Gendry trusted fully. He obviously couldn't tell Lord Penrose that though.
"Didn't you go get Lord Penrose and Ser Swann?" Gendry asked Devan. "So why are you arriving after them?"
"I had to go by the kitchen and get something to eat, I figured we might be here a while and I was hungry..."
Gendry didn't bother replying to that. It was impossible to keep Devan from eating these days, apparently, he was still afraid of starving. Sometimes he worried Devan would eat up all their food reserves at the castle.
Instead, he went on with addressing the urgent matter at hand.
"I called you all here because I just received a letter from Lord Selwyn of Tarth. The island is under attack from the remainders of Euron Greyjoy's Iron Fleet. Apparently, the fleet has been hiding out on Dragonstone since the end of the war. They want to claim the island for themselves, as they have no interest in going back to the Iron islands to serve under Yara Greyjoy. Lord Selwyn is asking for my help in fending them off."
"But you have no fleet. Lord Selwyn himself commands the only fleet in the Stormlands," Ser Swann responded.
"The Iron islanders have burnt Tarth's fleet. They're trapped on the islands, unable to defend themselves from the attacks. The Iron Islanders are pillaging the island and Lord Selwyn fears for the safety of the women and children."
"But how can we help them without a fleet?."
"I don't know, but we need to come with something. Because Lord Selwyn has always supported me and I'm not about to let him down when he needs my help."
"My father has some ships." Devan suddenly piped up. "When he was knighted by your uncle Stannis he was given about ten ships to command. They are anchored by Cape Wrath. It's not too far to sail from there to Tarth."
"Ten ships are not going to do much against the Iron fleet, boy," Lord Penrose responded..
"I'm not going to fight the Iron fleet with them, Lord Penrose. But if we go at night we might be able to bypass their ships and get the women and children out of the islands."
"We need men for the ships though," Gendry said ."Ser Swann, are any of your men trained in sailing?"
"Not my men," Ser Swann replied. "But when we signed up the commoners for the army we asked what their previous trade had been and a few of them have worked in the harbor or on merchant ships. I should be able to find those men."
"Very well. Then that's the first thing we will do," Gendry responded. "We will try to get the women and children off the islands as soon as possible using the Seaworth ships. But we will still need to fight the Iron Fleet somehow."
"Can't the king help us?" Ser Swann asked.
"The king has no fleet either," Gendry replied. "And I'm not sure he would help us if he did. He's busy trying to quench the Redwyne Rebellion."
"You should have sent a marriage proposal to Desmera Redwyne's father as I told you to do," Lord Penrose said. "Lord Redwyne has the biggest fleet in the kingdom. Then he would have helped us now."
"Lord Redwyne would never have given his daughter to me, you know that Lord Penrose. He needed to marry her to someone with an army big enough to defend his claim to Highgarden. Marrying her to Lord Arryn accomplished that. And even if Robin had declined Lord Redwyne would never have given her to me."
"You could have tried at least."
"What would have been the point? He doesn't respect me. He calls me a bastard lord. Although so do you, Lord Penrose..."
"I've never said that to you."
"Not to me, but about me. I don't care if you call me that though. I am a bastard and I am a lord so I guess it fits. But regardless, that marriage would never have happened."
"Yara Greyjoy could perhaps help us," Lord Penrose suggested. "They're her people. And she got the only other remaining fleet in Westeros. Send her an offer."
"An offer of marriage? I've met Yara Greyjoy and I don't think she wants to marry me, or any man for that matter."
"That isn't important when it comes to war and politics."
"Well, if you haven't noticed I'm the only Baratheon that there is. If there are to be more Baratheon's I need to enter a marriage with the possibility of children. And I don't want to try to bed Yara Greyjoy! She'd probably kill me if I tried."
"KAKLONK!" was heard as Devan fell of this chair laughing.
"Sorry, Lord Baratheon," he said as he got up from the floor. "I was just imagining it in my head..."
"Then what else could you offer?" Lord Penrose said without even looking over at Devan and whatever he was doing.
"Dragonstone. The Iron Islands are so far away from the rest of the kingdom that Yara could use a bastion close to the capital. Dragonstone is unclaimed since the war. I could offer her that."
"You'd give away Dragonstone? It's an important castle for the Stormlands."
"I don't care about Dragonstone. In fact, I wish I've never set my foot there. I have no qualms about giving it away."
"Whatever happened to you at Dragonstone isn't important for the Stormlands. You can't just give away a castle like that!" Lord Penrose said and stood up and pointed at Gendry as he shouted.
"I can give away whatever I want, Lord Penrose. As I keep reminding you of I am the Lord Paramount of the Stormlands and I do get to decide what I do. Even if you don't like it," Gendry replied and stood up too.
Arguments like this one were a daily occurrence at these meetings. It seemed to be hard for Lord Penrose to accept that Gendry actually could make decisions.
Ser Swann sighed as the two men started to squabble again and stood up as well.
"Could you two calm down a bit? And you call Devan a child, Lord Penrose. But you two are the ones getting into childish arguments every day. And besides, this argument is pointless. Yara Greyjoy wouldn't get here in time anyway, she'd have to sail around the whole kingdom. The islands would be ravaged by then."
"Well she's our only option, isn't she? There are only two fleets in the kingdom," Lord Penrose retorted.
"There are. But there are other fleets outside Westeros," Ser Swann replied.
"You mean Dorne?" Gendry said. "They are much closer. But why would Ellaria Sand help us? And please don't tell me I should marry her, Lord Penrose."
"Ellaria Sand already has several children, I don't think she seeks marriage," Ser Swann replied."Although she is a bastard herself so I guess your humble beginnings wouldn't be a problem. But if Tarth falls the Iron fleet would soon be Dorne's problem as well, so it should be in their interest to help us. She might ask for something in return though."
"So we'll send her a letter asking for help? Letting her decide what she wants in return?" Gendry asked.
"I think that's the only thing we can do. It's the only way we can save the islands." Ser Swann confirmed.
"Then that's what we'll do. I'll write a letter to her," Gendry said.
Actually, he would let Stannis write the letter. He could do it himself, but his writing skills still left a lot to be desired. His handwriting was not much better than Steffon's and it was probably better if it didn't look like a child had written the letter.
***
Ellaria Sand was handed the letter from Lord Baratheon by her daughter Elia as she sat on her throne in Sunspear. She looked at the letter with a smile on her face and the smile remained as she read it
"I hope you paid the Iron fleet generously," she said to her daughter. "Because their attacks did just what I hoped. The new lord Baratheon is asking for our help. And he will get it. To a steep price."
***
The response from Ellaria Sand arrived at Storm's End a few days later. Lord Penrose handed Gendry the letter as he walked into the Great Hall to attend their usual morning council meeting. Devan was away on the mission to get the women and children from Tarth so it was only Gendry, Lord Penrose, and Ser Swann there.
Gendry opened the letter and looked at the ornate Dornish handwriting. He had never read anything like that before. And Devan usually still proofread most things for him to make sure he didn't miss anything. But Devan wasn't there.
"So what does it say, Lord Baratheon?" Lord Penrose asked after Gendry had sat there staring at the letter for a couple of minutes.
"Give me a moment," he replied. "I'm not used to Dornish handwriting."
"Sure, blame the handwriting..." Lord Penrose said and sighed. "You just don't want to admit that you can't actually read. I know you try to hide it from me, but now when that annoying boy is gone you can't hide it anymore. Just give the letter to me and I'll read it."
Gendry glared at Lord Penrose. Of course, he was going to try to catch him in this lie now. But the lie was no longer a lie. He took a deep breath and looked down at the letter again. He could make out most of the letters in it now and then started to form words.
"She writes that she will send some of her ships to the island of Tarth as soon as possible, they should be able to take out the Iron Fleet quite easily," he said while still glaring at Lord Penrose. "But she wants something in return. She wants control of the Sea of Dorne."
He handed the letter to Lord Penrose who was looking at him with shock on his face. He looked at the letter to confirm that it actually said what Gendry said it did and seemed to be able to find no fault.
"If she gets control of the Sea of Dorne... then she could very easily invade us if she wanted to," Ser Swann said. "Then she can sail her armies here without us knowing about it. And she could tax anyone sailing on it. Including merchants and fishermen from the Stormlands."
"That's true. So that's the sacrifice we would make," Gendry responded. "The question is, what choice do we have? We can't save Tarth any other way. If we message Yara Greyjoy or Lord Redwyne now they would arrive too late, if they even would come. The island and its inhabitants would be ravaged."
"So we sacrifice Tarth or the Sea of Dorne then," Lord Penrose said. "It's your choice, Lord Baratheon."
"It is my choice, but I do want your opinions on it," Gendry replied. "I don't know everything, as you like to remind me of. Even though I do know how to read..."
"I say we give her the Sea of Dorne," Ser Swann said. "We don't have a fleet to sail on it anyway. And since we know about the risk we can set out watchtowers by the coast."
"Thank you, Ser Swann. Lord Penrose, what is your opinion? You know these lands better than anyone."
Lord Penrose looked over at him, seemingly a bit surprised at the compliment and the fact that Gendry was even asking his opinion.
"I agree with Ser Swann," he said. "We need to defend Tarth to any cost. Because we need the support of Lord Selwyn. But we also need to show the other Stormlords that you will protect them at any cost in the case of an attack. It will keep them loyal to you."
"Thank you, Ser Penrose. I agree with both of you. We need to do what saves the most lives and land right now and taking the Queen of Dorne's help will do that. Then we can prepare for whatever threat comes next in due time."
There would be another threat. There always was. There was always someone else to fight. Someone else to save.