Chapter 100 — The Red Sun Sails

Three Braavosi merchant ships entered Rainwood's harbor three days after Rodrick finalized the agreement. Their cargo began moving inland before curiosity around the docks could become a useful report for Elton.

Twenty wagonloads reached FireStorm by secondary mountain roads: wheat, salt, herbs, fine steel, and smaller quantities of imported goods. Morton checked the grain first and then checked it again, because relief was not a substitute for inventory.

Each caravan carried two manifests, one sealed at Rainwood and another marked at the eastern bridge. Three sacks had gained weight from damp; a crate of herbs had lost one jar to a broken wheel. Morton entered both differences before accepting the cargo. The merchants' factor signed beside him, preserving a disagreement small enough to settle before it became the measure of trust between voyages.

"Two hundred large grain sacks in the first delivery," he reported, using the practical shipping count after Rodrick converted the foreign merchants' bulk measure into FireStorm's ordinary accounts. "Another hundred each month under the current contract. With our existing stores, we reach the harvest without cutting ordinary rations."

For the first time since Elton's new blockade began, the council room relaxed. The initial delivery did not make FireStorm self-sufficient, but it proved the blockade was porous enough to survive. More importantly, the route could be repeated without asking a Caron toll keeper to discover a conscience every month.

Bor slapped Rodrick hard enough on the shoulder to move a smaller man. "You found a road through the sea."

"I found merchants," Rodrick said. "They found profit. Do not confuse the two with charity."

Rodrick brought back prices, broker names, and an offer from lenders willing to accept glass cargo as collateral. Arlan filed the last as information, not permission to borrow. The ships also brought news: Robert's royal party was finally preparing to leave King's Landing and was expected in the Stormlands in roughly two months, while Elton continued feeding accusations toward anyone close enough to repeat them.

Arlan divided the work. Morton controlled storage and converted every foreign weight into FireStorm's measures before accepting a delivery. Rodrick maintained the three merchant partnerships and compared their separate accounts. Cade changed wagon escorts and departure hours so the secondary tracks did not become a predictable road merely because the first journey succeeded.

The first outbound convoy reached a discreet Rainwood anchorage half a month later and stopped there for five days.

Balin's reinforcement drawings assumed frames set closer together than those in the three Braavosi-style carracks. During a shoreward test, the recoil from one heavy ballista split a deck knee on the second ship. Wayne halted every mounting before the merchant captain could dismiss the sound as green timber.

The Braavosi shipwright wanted the weapons removed. FireStorm's carpenters wanted to follow the drawings. The dwarf artisan overseeing the fittings crawled beneath the deck, measured the actual ribs, and rejected both answers. They shifted the mounts above paired frames, added oak knees and iron straps, then fired each weapon with a full bucket load hanging from the adjacent deck. No second timber split.

The delay cost food, berth fees, and one favorable tide. It also exposed a separate error: the Pentoshi cargo clerk counted casks by a local mark that included two smaller vessels as one. Morton forced all three partners to sign a manifest showing both their measures and FireStorm's actual pieces before a crate entered the hold.

A note about provenance: this chapter was copied without permission, while the author's official page carries their published version.

Only then did FireStorm's first dedicated overseas caravan stand ready.

Three Braavosi-style carracks formed the little fleet. Their two-deck hulls drew more water than the river craft common along smaller coasts, but they were built for the Narrow Sea and could make roughly eight knots under favorable wind. None belonged to FireStorm outright without financing arrangements through the merchant partners, yet the voyage operated under Arlan's cargo, seal, and appointed commander.

Dwarf-designed reinforcement protected key frames and vulnerable fittings without covering the ships in useless weight. Two of the ten heavy ballistae were mounted on each vessel, while the remaining four stayed in reserve for replacement, shore testing, and future hulls. Bolt lockers were fixed beneath the fighting decks.

The flagship was named Red Sun, using FireStorm's established trade mark rather than replacing House Ashenblade's formal arms. A simplified red sun appeared on the prow and sail, recognizable to merchants who already knew the liquor and glass bearing the same mark.

Wayne would command the expedition. Before entering Arlan's service, he had traveled Narrow Sea routes aboard merchant vessels, knew the habits of ports beyond Westeros, and spoke enough trade Common Tongue to avoid depending entirely on interpreters.

Ten Black Armor veterans accompanied him. Their equipment was adapted for shipboard fighting: lighter plate, crossbows, and swords that would be more useful on a deck than formation spears. Wayne had them drill boarding defense before departure, including the unpopular exercise of moving through narrow passages without knocking sailors overboard.

Morton handed Wayne the cargo manifest personally. Fifty barrels of the best aged Red Sun Flame filled the principal hold beside two large padded crates of crystal glass. Ten glass wine services bearing crowned stag designs were packed separately as gifts for officials and contacts in Braavos, including one intended for the Sealord's household if the merchants could arrange a proper presentation.

Every valuable crate was wrapped against spray and secured so it could not become a weapon during bad weather.

Rodrick supplied the less visible cargo: notes on the Free Cities, merchant names, codes, secret-writing methods, known Stepstones pirate routes, and instructions for sending intelligence home without placing FireStorm's entire network in one letter.

"Braavos first," he told Wayne. "Listen more than you promise. We need prices, politics, shipyards, and reliable routes. News concerning Valyria, Unsullied markets, and Dragonstone is useful, but do not risk the ships chasing tavern stories."

Wayne accepted the packet. "Understood."

Arlan gave him the Ashenblade trade seal last. "Profit is third. Ships and people are first and second."

Wayne frowned. "Which is first?"

"People. A ship can be replaced."

The answer removed any ambiguity about pirates. The ballistae existed so Wayne could fight when necessary, not so he would hunt Stepstones crews to prove the equipment worked.

"If a small force corners you and you can break it, break it," Arlan said. "If a fleet can take the ships, run before pride makes the decision for you. Bring back information even if the cargo goes overboard."

Wayne closed his hand around the seal. "I will bring them home."

Lines were cast off under a cold autumn wind. Sailors hauled canvas upward, the lead captain sounded a departure horn, and the three carracks moved away from the pier one by one.

Brienne stood beside Arlan while the Red Sun turned toward open water. "He has good ships."

"He has ships we hope are good. The sea gets a vote."

She glanced at him and almost smiled.

The sails shrank against the horizon until the trade mark could no longer be seen. FireStorm's first goods had crossed the Narrow Sea in other merchants' holds; this was different. Men carrying Arlan's seal were now responsible for finding the route, surviving it, and returning with enough knowledge to make the second voyage less uncertain than the first.

Elton had tried to close FireStorm inside the southern marches. Three small ships were not an empire, a navy, or even much of a fleet.

They were an opening, and by sunset the horizon was empty except for the route they had taken.