Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 59: Suspicion at Sea
This should be the longest time the merchant ship has stayed at sea since setting sail. Since leaving the port of Rees, the merchant ship has never landed on land again.

Although they still have to take the route from Lys to Volantis to go to Slaver's Bay, they will not stop in Volantis. Instead, they will go directly along the route from Volantis to Slaver's Bay, turn south, and make a big circle on the vast ocean, bypassing the peninsula and the ruins of the Sea of ​​Smoke where the ancient Valyrian Empire is located.

When the merchant ships turned eastward, marking a distant promontory at the southernmost tip of Valyria's Broken Peninsula, they were only halfway through the voyage.

From Rees to here, they had been sailing on the sea for more than ten days.

Viserys and Daenerys sat and stood in front of the window in the room. They looked into the distance, at the towering continental shelf that was looming at the end of their sight, slowly turning from due east of the merchant ship to due north. They could see that the blue sky there seemed no different from anywhere else.

But people fear that land. More than 400 years ago, that land suffered a "doomsday catastrophe". The peninsula was destroyed to form an island, and many lowlands were flooded, forming what people call the Sea of ​​Smoke today. It is said that the Sea of ​​Smoke is a dangerous sea area, with volcanoes and smoking reefs everywhere in the boiling sea water, and there may even be demons and sea monsters.

It is rumored that many people who went on expeditions to the Sea of ​​Smoke and Valyria never returned, and most people would rather avoid the Sea of ​​Smoke, believing it to be an ominous place.

The city of Valyria is said to be located in the center of the largest island in existence, surrounded by cliffs where the island once connected to the mainland.

The merchant ship entered the waters outside the Valyrian Peninsula three days ago. The ship was very far away from that land, and only occasionally could it see a piece of land in the distance. It was not until one day that Viserys observed dark smoke rising in the sky in the distance and asked Captain Grole, that he learned that it might be the active volcano on the Valyrian Peninsula. People also said that it was the devil in the sea of ​​smoke.

It was then that Viserys realized that they had been traveling in the waters off the Valyrian Peninsula for a long time.

This time, the merchant ship turned eastward at sea, which would be the closest they would be to the Valyrian Peninsula on this trip, because passing ships would use the protruding part of the broken island in the distance as a landmark to turn.

From here to the southeast is Sothoryos, to the east is the Gulf of Sorrow, Ghis, Qarth, the Jade Sea, as well as Asshai, Yi Ti and other lands that only exist in rumors.

They were a long way from Westeros, and Lys and Volantis had long been left behind.

Viserys was worried that something unexpected would happen in the waters of Volantis, but except for a heavy rainstorm, they arrived here smoothly without any setbacks. They were very lucky these days, neither encountering storms nor pirates, nor encountering the legendary giant sea monsters in the summer sea that would drag merchant ships to the bottom of the sea.

It’s a pity that the good luck of the past ten days could not continue today.

Viserys heard the warning sounds of the galleys ahead.

It's hard to imagine what it could be when you hear the warning siren on a sunny, calm day.

This is not an area controlled by any force, so there will be no fleets operating in this area, and pirates generally will not operate openly during the day.

The horn sounded three times, and the echoes were very long.

This means that the rowing boat ahead judged that it was encountering pirates.

Viserys withdrew his gaze from the north where the traces of Valyria's islands gradually disappeared, and looked at Daenerys who was also puzzled beside him: "It might be a pirate. Quick, put on your leather armor."

Daenerys responded and quickly walked back to the head of the bed, pulled out a box from under the bed, took out leather armor from it, and quickly put it on herself.

Viserys fastened the sword belt around his waist, adjusted himself a little, and hurried over to help Daenerys put on her leather armor. He put on her a black cloak embroidered with a single three-headed fire-breathing dragon on a black background and red on the inside out. This was embroidered by Viserys's maid Arnie when she was free at sea. He drew a sketch, and when Arnie was still there, she would embroider it in a corner every day when she had nothing to do.

Finally, Viserys helped Dany to tie up her hair and put the leather helmet with iron on her head, covering half of her face, leaving only her eyes, nose and mouth. She stood there straight after training for these days, and she really looked like a young knight.

Viserys was very satisfied with Daenerys's current appearance: "Let's go and take a look at the helm."

Daenerys keenly noticed that Viserys' eyes lingered on her flat chest for a moment after she put on the leather armor, but he showed a satisfied expression. She was a little unsure of his attitude.

When they reached the deck, Captain Grole was already at the helm, steering the ship leisurely, eating an apple while steering. When he saw Viserys coming up with Daenerys fully armed, he took out a new one from his pocket and asked him if he wanted some.

Viserys did not take the apple. Instead, he asked, "What is this? Are there pirates in the daytime?"

"That's hard to say." The captain stuffed the apple back into his pocket and reached for the apple in his mouth. "We'll see in a moment."

While they were waiting, before they saw the pirates, they heard several short blasts from the rowing boat ahead.

Grolai casually spat out the fruit core and said, "False alarm." He paused, spat, and added, "I encountered a ghost ship. What a bad sign." Ghost ships refer to ships that are occasionally found floating on the sea when sailing on the sea, and they seem to be empty. These ships are considered ominous because terrible things must have happened on them. They have mysteriously disappeared or sunk at sea, and their reappearance often brings with them the breath of the underworld.

This seemingly superstitious idea is actually very logical, because an empty ship at sea often means that all the crew members have died, either due to a plague at sea, or being massacred, or the shipwreck was spit out again from an earthquake on the seabed, which is not a good thing.

After a while, the Cedurian saw the ship that had given the rowing boat ahead a warning horn.

It was a ship that was painted entirely black, with a torn sail that was also black. It was floating aimlessly in the sea north of the Cydurion in the absence of wind.

Viserys could see faint white markings on the black sails of the ship. The shape of bones.

"Damn it." Captain Grolai took out a telescope from his pocket, looked over there and couldn't help cursing, "It really is a pirate ship, with a bloody eagle hanging on the bow. The means are so cruel, it must have dried up in the wind. I'm afraid that two groups of pirates had a fight nearby not long ago."

Daenerys heard a term she had never heard of before: "Blood Eagle?"

Grolai bared his teeth, looking very uncomfortable: "It's better if you don't know what it is, miss."

Viserys said to Grolet, "Lend me the telescope."

Grolai said worriedly, "Sir, this is not worth seeing."

"I know what that is." Viserys held out his hand. "Show me."

Grole shrugged and handed the telescope to Viserys.

He aimed at the ghost ship and saw that the black sail was indeed a white skull mark, with some brown marks faintly visible, which must be dried blood. The bow of the ship was a winged eagle sculpture, and on the eagle sculpture hung a shriveled corpse that seemed to have wings.

Blood Eagle is a type of torture. The torturer makes two cuts on the victim's back near the chest along both sides of the spine, then breaks the ribs, and finally uses both hands to pull the victim's lungs out of the chest. Because the two lungs extending from the back look like folded wings, this punishment is commonly known as Blood Eagle.

Through the telescope, it can be clearly seen that the corpse has not yet completely rotted or been eaten by seabirds, which means that the ship became a ghost ship just a few days ago.

The road ahead may not be smooth.

Viserys returns the telescope to Grolai and then sees how he will handle the situation.

Grolai held the rudder and thought seriously for a long time, then sent a signal to the navigator on the mast.

Soon, the navigator took the horn from his waist and blew a few blasts.

When the sailors heard the call, the boatswain immediately called for help from the crew at the capstan that connected the Cedurian and the rowing boat in front. Dozens of sailors began shouting and pulling the capstan. The several huge ropes connecting the merchant ship and the rowing boats were shaking on the sea, and the merchant ship and the rowing boats were gradually approaching with the sailors' calls.

The distance between the rowing boats and the merchant ships was visibly shortened, until the three ships could almost hear each other's shouting, and the sailors stopped.

From this moment on, the three ships sailed in this very tight manner for several days. During the day, additional guards were added to the masts, and at night the merchant ships did not save fuel. The watchmen kept the lights on and remained on duty until dawn.

In the past few days, since I encountered the ghost ship, I occasionally see broken planks and barrels floating on the sea.

It is not a good sign to encounter these at sea for several days in a row.

It was as if there were ships ahead of them and travelling the same route as them, throwing objects into the sea. Otherwise, why would they have to sail on the vast ocean and encounter these things?

Over the past few days, Viserys even felt a little uneasy in Captain Grole, whose face was always calm.

However, the ship continued to move towards Slave Bay, neither hurried nor slow.

(End of this chapter)