Chapter 223 The Second Letter

The sea was gloomy under the night. Looking far away, the hazy continent seemed like a huge monster lurking under the dark ocean, with only its head exposed. It was silent, but there was a deep sense of terror.

The cold wind blew on the thin linen shirt, bringing a burst of coolness. Standing on the bow of the deck of the Lady of Fortune, Captain Turner, who had a forked beard, was secretly a little anxious.

As a captain under the command of a certain governor of Pentos, Captain Turner had another mission when he returned from Seagull Town this time, which was to arrive at the sea area called Crab Claw Peninsula and wait for someone to come on board.

This mission had certain risks, because there were many ships traveling in the nearby sea area. If he was discovered, not to mention the danger to his life, there would be many troubles, so Captain Turner was very cautious about it.

However, no one knew what was going on. The agreed time had passed, but there was still no boat in sight. Captain Turner could not help but pace back and forth on the deck, cursing those mysterious stowaways in his heart.

Yes, Captain Turner knew who he was going to smuggle. In fact, this was not the first time he had done this kind of smuggling. At the same time, relying on his good connections in Seagull Town, he also understood why those people were so embarrassed-

The whole of Westeros was looking for them.

This involved the power struggle of the upper class in Westeros. Turner was not interested in it, but he was also paying attention to it, because this struggle would directly affect their business dealings. At the same time, he always wondered why they, Pentos, were involved in this struggle.

Relying on the advantage of being the closest to King's Landing, Pentos is very rich, but it is not strong among the nine major trading cities--

Many years ago, Pentos fought many battles with Braavos, another free trading city-state, over slavery. As a result, they suffered a series of defeats and had to sign a "peace agreement", which stipulated that Pentos people could not own more than 20 warships, hire mercenaries, sign contracts with free mercenary groups, or retain any troops beyond the city guards.

In this case, it is what Pentos people should do to get along with both sides, rather than rushing out to fight against a behemoth...

"Maybe it's the threat of those damn Braavos people?"

He guessed so. In the years since the signing of the agreement, Pentos has been subject to Braavos, a good neighbor that is not very close. If Braavos really puts pressure on the governors...

Captain Turner didn't think about it any more, because in his sight, several small boats swaying on the dark sea suddenly appeared, and the direction of the boats was exactly where the Crab Claw Peninsula was.

He breathed a sigh of relief, and then began to ask the people on the ship to get ready and return immediately after the stowaways came on board.

At the beginning, things went smoothly. More than a dozen stowaways who were wearing ordinary clothes but talking in mysterious words boarded the ship without any surprise. However, just as the sails of the merchant ship were raised and expanded to set sail, Captain Turner suddenly found that more than a dozen huge warships were faintly emerging in the sea around his ship!

In the dim environment, Captain Turner could not see the sails of these warships, but from their surrounding posture, it was obvious that they were not friendly. His face changed drastically, but he did not signal the ship to escape. Instead, he hurriedly grabbed a confidant sailor and whispered: "Hide those people before, let them wear crew clothes, go!"

The sailor nodded hurriedly, and Captain Turner took a deep breath and waited silently.

His merchant ship was not as fast or as capable as a war ship. If he moved rashly, he would be completely exposed. It would be better to disguise it, maybe he could get away with it.

Unfortunately, his plan did not succeed, because those ships surrounded them without any negotiation, and directly took control of Captain Turner's Luck Lady, and regardless of their excuses, they decisively detained all of them, including the pretenders who had boarded the ship before.

…

What happened in the waters off the Crab Claw Peninsula was very secretive, but it was not long before a letter sent from Dragonstone to the Red Keep in King's Landing completely exposed the matter.

When the letter arrived, Grand Maester Pycelle, who was in charge of sending and receiving letters, was playing with his favorite pet dog in the room. He couldn't help shivering after hearing the raven's ugly cawing, and then hurriedly ran to check.

Then a strange look flashed across his rosy and healthy cheeks.

"The matter of the River Bend has just ended, and they are ready to attack the Valley directly? This Lord Renly..."

Muttering to himself, the Grand Maester thought of the annoying little boy ten years ago, and couldn't help sighing. Then he took the letter and walked quickly to the outside of the Maester's Tower, ready to hand it to the king.

Recently, King Robert didn't want to go to the brothel outside the Red Castle, so Grand Maester Pycelle easily learned where the king was from the servants and met him in a garden.

"My brother wrote again?"

Although King Robert was fat, his voice was very loud. After hearing this, a bald old man sitting opposite him couldn't help but look at the letter that the Grand Maester handed to the king, secretly guessing the content inside.

A letter from the River Bend a while ago excited the members of the Royal Council, and also made the entire Red Castle discuss the Duke of Dragonstone who had disappeared for many years. Now this discussion has not completely stopped, but a second letter has come...

"Maybe it's another good news?" The bald old man, the Duke of the Vale and the Prime Minister, Jon Arryn, looked forward to it silently.

If it were before, he would not care about the letter sent by a young guy who had just reached adulthood, but the previous incident in the river bay was really well done, so it was difficult for him to ignore the young Duke of Dragonstone, or he had already paid enough attention to him.

However, the bald old man suddenly found that King Robert, who was reading the letter silently, suddenly looked up and glanced at him, and his expression seemed a little strange, which made the old duke's heart tremble.

"Bad news?" he asked hurriedly.

"Read it yourself, Jon." The fat king handed the letter over while speaking. The bald old man reached out to take it and hurriedly looked down. The solemn expression on his face gradually turned into a weird one.

There are a lot of contents in this letter, which can be roughly divided into two parts. One part is about the people of Crab Claw Peninsula and Pentos ships to protect the smuggled disciples, and the other part is a sharp accusation.

Lord Renly claimed in the letter that after he discovered the smuggling incident on Crabclaw Peninsula, he had invited Earl Graveson of Seagull Town to act together, but Earl Graveson refused to send troops, so he seriously suspected that Earl Graveson and his family were in collusion with Pentos, the smuggler, or in other words, they were in collusion with the Targaryen remnants behind Pentos.

He pointed out that during the uprising (War of the Usurper), Gulltown was the gathering place of the royalists in the Vale, and the Grafson family of Gulltown was also the leader of the royalists. Although they have surrendered now, they are still unwilling to give up, and there is a high possibility that they want to collude with Targaryen to cooperate with the outside world...

"What do you think of this, Jon?"

Seeing the change in the expression on the bald old man's face, King Robert asked seriously: "I killed Marco Grafson who stood on the side of Targaryen with my own hands. Maybe his nephew has a grudge against me?"

He asked this without hesitation, because if this was the case, it would mean that the Grafson family also betrayed Jon Arryn, the Duke of the Vale.

Just like when they rose up in the Vale to resist Targaryen, the former Earl of Gulltown raised troops to support Targaryen, and openly stood on the opposite side of Jon Arryn, the feudal lord.

"Without evidence, it is impossible to distinguish between true and false." The bald old man replied after hearing this.

"Didn't Renly say in the letter that he captured the merchant ship of Pentos?"

"This can only prove that Pentos is in collusion with the people of Crabclaw Peninsula and Targaryen, and it can't even prove it completely, because those disciples can't completely represent Targaryen."

The old man said, after looking at the letter in his hand with complicated eyes, he said to Robert opposite: "But maybe we can summon Earl Graveson to King's Landing to ask him."

I drank wedding wine yesterday and my head hurt. I'm not in a good state. I will resume tomorrow~