Chapter Thirty-Two

Sunspear. Dorne.

While I'd not sent any messengers to the Dornish I was certain that by now they something of me since Dorne was the nearest of the Seven Kingdoms to the islands that made up the Stepstones. No doubt they had spies mixed in the pirates and slavers so as to be warned if the scum ever got too organised. The Dornish wouldn't want some pirate-king popping up and start organising large raids of Dornish settlements.

I didn't land to close to Sunspear since that could be seen as a hostile act and since I didn't wish to bake in the sun I waited inside my nice climate controlled pleasure craft until a large group of Dornish warriors on horseback arrived to greet me, or least to figure out what the hell was going on. Since they didn't panic when the ramp lowered and nor they did they attack I figured that they must have some idea of why I was here.

The man who strode up to the bottom of the ramp was Prince Oberyn Martell the famed Red Viper of Dorne if he felt any fear or confusion about myself or my vessel then he hid it very well and I didn't wish to reach out and touch his mind to find out how he felt in case he reacted badly. This man was clever and alert even if he did let his passions get the best of him. Something I'd seen when watching his fight with The Mountain.

This time I didn't bother having anyone announce me instead I introduced myself directly to the noblemen who I suspected would respect me more if I spoke to him prince to prince as it were.

"I am the Rogue Trader Lord-Captain Thrax" I said "You might know me as the new Prince of the Stepstones. I've heard a lot about you Prince Oberyn, such as not to find myself on the wrong end of your spear".

The royal smirked upon hearing that.

"Depends on which spear I use" he joked.

I smiled upon hearing that

"By now I'm sure you've heard of the Imperium and the chances we've been bringing about" I said.

Only the prince looked relaxed, the man he'd brought with him seemed ready for a fight, it would be foolish for them to attack with my battle harem so close by.

"We received a raven just this morning" I was told.

That was fast considering that I'd been in Kings Landing for only a week. Perhaps the ravens of Westeros had a bit of magic in them. It wouldn't surprise me much if the Maesters used magic with the ravens despite them supposed to be having an anti-magic agenda or at least a policy of downplaying the occult arts, bunch of hypocrites.

"Then you should know that we have no intent of invading you" I said.

Even if we had to outright conquer the other kingdoms we'd not try that with Dorne since it never ended well. This kingdom would have to be brought into the the fold using words not swords.

"Instead we wish to wish to become allies and allow Dorne to run its own affairs" I was now saying "We know how foolish it would be to try to force you to do anything".

If we really had to we could turn the sands to glass, however I'd rather let Dorne manage itself as long it paid lip service to the Imperium and gave us some sort of tithe. At some point the Lord-General would come to finalise such an agreement, since I'd agreed to lay the groundwork, only that could be a couple of years from now, so there was no need to rush.

Before the handsome prince could say anything about that I turned to the elderly Medicae at my side, he was the 40k version of a doctor and an expert on the kind of aliments the better class of Imperial citizens could suffer from as his job was to tend the senior officers of a ship.

"This is Medicae Januctus Mokus" I introduced "He's here to clear up your brother's gout problem".

Oberyn lost his smile.

"He wouldn't be the first healer to try" said the Red Viper.

I could well imagine that many had attempted to heal the ruler of this kingdom in the hopes of a rich reward.

"My people are much more advanced than the Maesters can ever hope to be" I stated "Allow my Medicae to try and I promise you will be impressed by the results. It will prove that we have much to offer your people".

The prince considered my words before speaking.

"My brother will decide for himself if he will try your treatment" said the Red Viper.

I felt sure that he be pleased with the result, and I had other gifts as well. By the time I was down here Dorne should be ready to support Viserys when the time came to place him on the throne.