Chapter 34: Storming Blacktyde! - Part 5
When Damian arrived at Blacktyde's coast and came down from his ship, he was greeted by Ser Wendel, Lady Maege Mormont and Arslen.
"Damian, Damian. Look at you!" Ser Wendel laughed as he came forward with open arms. "From fighting squids in their territory to capturing one of the major Island of Iron Islands on your own and now this. You are making one hell of a name for yourself in this war, my boy.
"It's very nice of you to say that, Ser Wendel. But I've yet to fight in a real war." Damian was pleased to hear the praise from his sword instructor but he didn't let himself get arrogant over a small victory.
"Don't sell yourself short, Damian Stark. We heard from Lord Stark that you captured Lonely Light without losing a single man. And you are what, four and ten," praised Lady Maege.
"Lady Maege Mormont, It's got to see you again after so many years. How are you?" Damian said after kissing the back of her hand.
"You still remember this old lady." She joked.
"I do. And you are not old, my lady. You look as ravishing and beautiful as the first day I saw you at Harvest Festival back at Winterfell." Damian said as he stared straight into the woman's eyes.
"Oh my, you are making me blush. You are a charmer, Damian. I was thinking of introducing you to my daughters, but I think I might have to hide them from you and... keep you for myself." Lady Maege chuckled and whispered the last part in Damian's ears.
"By the time they greeted each other, Dacey Mormont, Jory and Selea also alighted from the ships and walked up to them.
"Damian, it seems I can't hide my eldest daughter from meeting you. So let me introduce you to her." Lady Maege started seeing her eldest daughter coming back.
"Meet my eldest daughter, Dacey Mormont." Lady Maege introduced.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, my lady." Damian greeted and kissed her backhand when she held it out to him.
"My Lord, the pleasure is all mine," Dacey curtsied. She might prefer the sword to sewing needles but she was quite comfortable with her feminine side and the etiquette that came with it.
"Thank you, for your timely message about the Ironborn ships or we would have been stuck on this island."
"It was my duty to inform you and I had the means so I did it without any trouble."
"Right, the Falcon. It's such a beautiful creature. How did you get to make him do what he did?" Dacey asked in a low voice. She was truly interested if Damian was what she thought he was. "You don't have to tell me if it's not something you wish to tell. Taming a Falcon and getting it to send letters to random places like in a battlefield is rare."
Damian understood what she was insinuating. If he kept showing his falcon's skill, it would take no time for the Northern Lords to know his identity as a Warg. Rare as they are south of the wall, most of the Lords are aware of the legends. But he doesn't have to tell everyone from his own mouth, let them guess if he is a warg or not on their own.
"His name is Ace. He is very smart. Do you want to meet him?" Damian asked her. Not waiting for her reply, he looked up in the sky and whistled loudly.
A few seconds later, a loud screech rang in the air as a bird came swooping down. The falcon unfurled its wings to slow down its descent before it landed right on Damian's outstretched arm.
"It's beautiful. Ace was it?" Dacey eyes turned bright when she finally saw the bird.
"Yes, Ace. You can pet him on the head if you like. You can too, lady Maege." Damian then told Ace to hop on Dacey's arm and allowed the ladies to have fun with his bird.
Jory informed him about the losses they suffered which wasn't much. Only a single warrior died in their group. It was Arslen who suffered the greatest casualties. The men under Arslen were a mix of system recruits and real humans that he recruited from the neck. Five of them died with three having been dealt serious injuries.
"There's is no way, we can bring their bodies back so we will burn them here, store their ashes in jars and bury them in their hometown after the war ends," Damian said to Arslen who he took aside to talk for a moment. As for the system recruits, they would be buried in the space world.
The sun was about to set when everything at the coast was taken care of like dividing the loot they got from Ironborn and the prisoners. The seven longships were also divided. The Mormonts, the Manderley and the Mallisters got one longship each while Damian got the last four. He got more as a reward for making them aware of the Ironborn threat.
Unfortunately, Damian didn't have enough men to operate those four ships on the sea and he was having his hands full with the other four longships in his command.
"Damian, even if you don't have enough men now, you can still recruit later on when you get your Lordship. How about this, I will keep them with me for now and later on when the war ends and we go back, you can have them back." Ser Wendel offered with a smile.
"Lordship?" Damina raises a brow.
"I'm sure, Lord Stark would award one to you with your current track record." Ser Wendel smiled.
Hearing that Damian agreed to Ser Wendel's suggestion.
They then marched back to the camp that was put up some distance away from Blacktyde's castle. Of course, this time Ser Wendel left a sizable force of five hundred men to protect their ships in case another Ironborn fleet comes to destroy them. Damian also left Sirius along with forty men in charge of his fleet and the Thralls that came with them from the Lonely Light.
. . .
The next morning, outside the camp, the army was gathered. The three houses had approximately a combined strength of two thousand and five hundred men while Damian had seventy men under him.
The strategy to take down the castle was already prepared last night. House Blacktyde would be asked for a parley and if they still deny it, then they would be shown the faces of captured Ironborn prisoners like Donnel Drumm.
This would let House Blacktyde know that no more help would be coming for them. If it didn't work then, it would leave Ser Wylis no choice but use violent means to take down the castle.
Unfortunately, House Blacktyde didn't agree to talk with them. Parading the Ironborn did have an effect on House Blacktyde but they still remained stubborn and kept their gates closed.
"It seems they have decided to fight it out. It matters not. We will start attacking the walls as we have decided beforehand. Damian, Lady Maege and my brother Ser Wendel will attack the castle's southern wall with a thousand and two hundred men. Ser Ormund and I will attack from the front, that is the eastern gates with the rest of the men. They don't have enough men and we are going to use that to overwhelm them by spreading their forces to defend two walls" Ser Wylis explained.
He was right. Damian had scouted the castle from above with the help of his companion and found that House Blacktyde was short-handed. They couldn't defend every single wall. At most two at a given time, that also for a short amount of time. Damian was sure they would win the castle after fighting for an hour or two.
When they took their positions some distance away from the southern wall, Damian came to Ser Wendel and Lady Maege waiting for the signal from Ser Wylis to start the siege. Dacey was also standing with them.
"Damian, it's your first time, right?"
"Yes, it is, Ser Wendel. Never had I ever charged at the gates with arrows and stones raining down at me. The thought of being killed by a stray arrow before I even get to raise my sword at the enemy is making me nervous." Damian said truthfully.
"That's what your helm, shield and armour are for, Damian, to save you from arrows. The only thing you need to look out for is the stones and boiling oil being thrown from the walls down at us." Ser Wendel explained
"You don't have to be the first one to charge, Damian. That's the job of our soldiers. We only need to wait for our men to open the gate for us before we charge into the castle or secure footing on the wall," added Lady Maege.
Just as they were talking, a horn was blown from the direction where Ser Wylis's army was stationed. That was the signal to start the siege.
Ser Wendal raised his sword and pointed it towards the castle, "Men, Charge!"
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