A Feast for Dragons

a brother long away? Nor
you, Asha? How fares your lady mother?”
    “Poorly,” Asha said. “Some man made her a widow.”
    Euron shrugged. “I had heard the Storm God swept Balon to
his death. Who is this man who slew him? Tell me his name, niece, so I might
revenge myself on him.”
    Asha got to her feet. “You know his name as well as I. Three
years you were gone from us, and yet Silence returns within a day of my
lord father’s death.”
    “Do you accuse me?” Euron asked mildly.
    “Should I?” The sharpness in Asha’s voice made Victarion
frown. It was dangerous to speak so to the Crow’s Eye, even when his smiling
eye was shining with amusement.
    “Do I command the winds?” the Crow’s Eye asked his pets.
    “No, Your Grace,” said Orkwood of Orkmont.
    “No man commands the winds,” said Germund Botley.
    “Would that you did,” the Red Oarsman said. “You would sail wherever
you liked and never be becalmed.”
    “There you have it, from the mouths of three brave men,”
Euron said. “The Silence was at sea when Balon died. If you doubt an
uncle’s word, I give you leave to ask my crew.”
    “A crew of mutes? Aye, that would serve me well.”
    “A husband would serve you well.” Euron turned to his
followers again. “Torwold, I misremember, do you have a wife?”
    “Only the one.” Torwold Browntooth grinned, and showed how
he had won his name.
    “I am unwed,” announced Left-Hand Lucas Codd.
    “And for good reason,” Asha said. “All women do
despise the Codds as well. Don’t look at me so mournful, Lucas. You still have
your famous hand.” She made a pumping motion with her fist.
    Codd cursed, till the Crow’s Eye put a hand upon his chest.
“Was that courteous, Asha? You have wounded Lucas to the quick.”
    “Easier than wounding him in the prick. I throw an axe as
well as any man, but when the target is so small . . .”
    “This girl forgets herself,” snarled Pinchface Jon Myre.
“Balon let her believe she was a man.”
    “Your father made the same mistake with you,” said Asha.
    “Give her to me, Euron,” suggested the Red Oarsman. “I’ll
spank her till her arse is as red as my hair.”
    “Come try,” said Asha, “and hereafter we can call you the
Red Eunuch.” A throwing axe was in her hand. She tossed it in the air and
caught it deftly. “Here is my husband, Nuncle. Any man who wants me should take
it up with him.”
    Victarion slammed his fist upon the table. “I’ll have no blood
shed here. Euron, take your . . . pets . . . and go.”
    “I had looked for a warmer welcome from you, brother. I am your elder . . . and soon, your rightful king.”
    Victarion’s face darkened. “When the kingsmoot speaks, we shall
see who wears the driftwood crown.”
    “On that we can agree.” Euron lifted two fingers to the
patch that covered his left eye, and took his leave. The others followed at his
heels like mongrel dogs. Silence lingered behind them, till Little Lenwood Tawney
took up his fiddle. The wine and ale began to flow again, but several guests
had lost their thirst. Eldred Codd slipped out, cradling his bloody hand. Then
Will Humble, Hotho Harlaw, a goodly lot of Goodbrothers.
    “Nuncle.” Asha put a hand upon his shoulder. “Walk with me,
if you would.”
    Outside the tent the wind was rising. Clouds raced across
the moon’s pale face. They looked a bit like galleys, stroking hard to ram. The
stars were few and faint. All along the strand the longships rested, tall masts
rising like a forest from the surf. Victarion could hear their hulls creaking
as they settled on the sand. He heard the keening of their lines, the sound of
banners flapping. Beyond, in the deeper waters of the bay, larger ships bobbed
at anchor, grim shadows wreathed in mist.
    They walked along the strand together just above the surf,
far from the camps and the cookfires. “Tell me true, nuncle,” Asha said, “why
did Euron go away so suddenly?”
    “The Crow’s Eye oft went reaving.”
    “Never for so long.”
    “He took the Silence east. A lengthy voyage.”
    “I asked why he went, not where.” When he did not
answer, Asha said, “I was away when Silence sailed. I had taken Black
Wind around the Arbor to the Stepstones, to steal a few trinkets from the
Lyseni pirates. When I came home, Euron was gone and your new wife was dead.”
    “She was only a salt wife.” He had not touched another woman
since he gave her to the crabs. I will need to take a wife when I