Capítulo 38: Fairmarket
Moat Cailin, The Northern Realms
They were sitting in the solar of Moat Cailin, Aryan Stark, Eddard Stark, William Dustin, Greatjon Umber, Rickard Karstark, Howland Reed, Wylis Manderly and Roose Ryswell. Around them, other Lords and heirs were watching silently.
"What news about our military, William?" Aryan asked.
"We are eighty thousand here at the Moat and another ten at the Wolf's Bridge, ready to march South at your command." Replied William Dustin.
"Between Skagos and White Harbor, we have thirty thousand warriors ready for any unusual move from the Vale, the Sisters, Essos and Stannis. Karhold, Fort Cassel, Ramsgate and Widow's Watch have all been fortified. My brother Wendel is in command of the navy and Whoresbane Umber and Asher Forrester are in command of the army." Replied Wylis Manderly
"Twenty five thousand men between the Wall and the Gift to be ready for any unusual actions from beyond it. The force is under my son and Rickard's heir command." Said the Greatjon.
"Thirty thousand swords at the heart of the North between Winterfell and Cerwyn Castle under Rodrick Cassel and Cley Cerwyn's command." Said Ned Stark.
Aryan nodded and said with a smile "For the west, well, we have close to forty thousand swords ready for the ironborn under Galbart Glover, uncle Benjen and Torrhen's command are in charge of the navy at Wolf's Bay and Sea Dragon Point, and another twenty thousand will soon come for the squids with the ruler of the mountains."
That shocked the Lords and Jon asked "Ruler of the mountains?"
"Yes they decided that the strongest among them will always lead them in battle."
Roose Ryswell asked "So, who is he?"
Aryan laughed and said "He? Who said anything about a 'he'? William, did my message reach her?"
William smiled and said "It has. She has accepted your order."
Aryan smiled and said "I look forward to seeing what you can do, Tania Wull."
Robb said "I'm still shocked at the size of our army? Father only had twenty thousand during the rebellion."
Aryan replied "There is a few reasons why our military is that huge. First of all, during the rebellion, the North could field fifty thousand men, maybe more, but it took a huge time to gather them and uncle wanted to save our aunt so he took twenty thousand to be fast. Second of all, the North had a huge problem that was the small settlements all around our kingdom, and small settlements are difficult to defend so men wouldn't march South to war but stay to protect them, one of the first thing we did was group small settlements and create big ones, more easily defendable and we freed tens of thousands of able bodied around the North. Third of all, we ended the nonsense that women couldn't do manual labor or take arms, and with new tools, way more men could join as well as women, more than a eighth of our military is composed of women. And fourth of all, we of the North were always martial people and with the huge addition of the Free-Folk we gained even more men because you can't survive beyond the wall without knowing how to fight. Do not forget that the North was the second most populated kingdom after the Reach even if there were huge track of land deserted." He then turned to the commander of his army and said "William, choose thirty men, I want to see The Twins."
~
King's Landing, The Crownlands
"I WANT THEIR HEADS! ALL THEIR HEADS! TRAITORS! STANNIS! RENLY! THE TYRELLS! TRAITORS! THE TULLYS TOO!" screamed a mad boy in the meeting of the Small Council.
"Yes Joffrey, your grandfather will destroy all these traitors. Varys, tell me what is happening in my kingdom?" demanded Cersei.
Varys wanted to raise an eyebrow in contempt when he hear 'my kingdom' from the Lannister Queen but maintained his demeanor, "As you know, Stannis send ravens to all House of the Seven Kingdoms. He has with him the Royal Fleet, the Lords of the Narrow Sea and thanks to Lord Baelish friendship with the Tullys, we found out that the Tullys will support Stannis. Lord Tywin has assembled two hosts of thirty thousand strong, one under Ser Jaime's command and another under himself. Ser Jaime was supposed to attack the Riverlands and attack them but he was wary of the Northern Army at Wolf's Bridge and Moat Cailin. So, he chose wisely to stay at Golden Tooth. They have been a couple of skirmishes but nothing blew out. The Blackfish has returned and has been put in charge of the Riverlands military by Lord Hoster Tully. His heir Edmure wasn't happy about that decision to sideline him. The Arryns were also supposed to support Stannis but Lady Arryn decided to seal the Bloody Gate and will not participate in this war. Dorne is still quiet but Prince Doran has sealed Prince's Pass. Renly married Margeary Tyrell and joined the might of the Reach to the Stormlands has a host of more than a hundred thousands with him at Highgarden, he crowned himself King. Eldon Estemont was a smart man, when they decided to flee the city he took Paxter Redwyne twins with him. So we have no fleet to defend King's Landing and Lannisport's fleet is merely a shadow of his former self. Stannis has the Royal Fleet, Renly has the Redwyne fleet and we have to be wary of the three other great fleets of the Seven Kingdoms, the Iron Fleet, the Stark Fleet and the Manderly Fleet."
Cersei was seething and said to Grandmaester Pycelle "Send a raven to Aryan Stark, tell him that his King commands him to bring his army to smash the rebels and bring the Northern fleets to defend King's Landing and Lannisport."
Pycelle nodded, knowing very well, that there will be no answer from the North. Baelish decided to ask "I am no military man but who do you think will attack first?"
Before anyone could answer the doors of the Small Council opened and a whistle was heard, everyone looked back to see Tyrion Lannister marching to the table in armor while looking at Joffrey and smiling "Beloved nephew!" he then sat at the head of the table.
Cersei, furious, asked him "What are you doing here? This is the Small Council."
Tyrion feigning confusion replied "Yes.. Well. I do believe the Hand of the King is welcomed at all Small Council's meetings."
"Father is Hand of the King!"
"Yes. But in his absence..." he took out a letter and pass it to Varys while smiling and watching his sister's reaction. Varys read it and said "Your father has named Lord Tyrion Hand in his stead while he fought..."
"OUT! All of you! OUT!" Varys, Pycelle, Baelish and Slynt all left the meeting.
"How did you trick father into this?"
"If I was capable of tricking father, I'd be emperor of the world by now. You brought this on yourself."
"I did nothing."
"Quite right, you did nothing when Renly Baratheon and the Redwyne twins left the city in the middle of the night. Now the might of the Reach, the Stormlands and the Redwyne Fleet is against us."
"Renly Baratheon is a conceited moron."
"Who has a hundred and fifty thousand swords as well as commander like Randyll Tarly, Mathis Rowan and Paxter Redwyne. Do you understand that there is a chance that we lose the war?"
"What do you know about warfare?"
"Nothing. But I know our enemies hate each other almost as much as they hate us and I know that Aryan Stark is not impressed with Renly and that Stannis and his priestess will earn his ire if they decide to burn a Godswood like they burn Septs."
There was a silence for a few seconds before Cersei said "Joffrey is King."
Tyrion nodded and replied "Joffrey is King."
"You are here to advise him."
Tyrion nodded and Cersei asked "Who will strike the first blow? We can be sure that it won't be the wolves or the snakes."
But she was wrong. Because the first climax of this war was an attack by the North. It was more a slaughter than an attack.
Historians will call this battle : 'The fall of The Twins.'
~
The Crossing, The Riverlands
"My Lord, we are nearing the borders of the Twins." Torgen, one of the ten guardians of the North spoke out. Torgen was nearly seven feet tall and broad shoulders and an even broader chest. He was one of the ten guardians of the North, an order than Aryan created nearly ten years ago. In which he searched for the best warriors on his land and had them trained sixteen hours a day with teachers from all around the world. The ten best were chosen. Nine men, one woman. Aryan created a rule that there should always be a Guardian in Winterfell and there should always be a Guardian in Moat Cailin. He marched South with half of them. Torgen the dual axe wielder, Marissa a long sword wielder, Brynnard a spear wielder, Jonah a bastard sword wielder and Desmond a greatsword wielder.
Aryan stopped in his track and his troop halted as he dismounted from his horse. He looked to one of the Black Wolves and ordered him to bring a map of the entire area. Soon the map of the entire Crossing was laid out in front of him on the ground. He sat down on the ground and began to look through the map. He then looked in the sky and saw Hedwig, his bonded golden eagle and warged in him to watch the area surrounding the Twins.
Aryan and William Dustin started to converse of the surrounded villages and Aryan decided to sit down to create a strategy without a care in the world. Something that shocked a few of his soldiers.
Suddenly, Aryan's guards were disturbed by the sound of hooves as a group of thirty horsemen came upon them. They saw the sigil of House Frey on them.
"Who the hell are you lot? And exactly what are you doing here?"
William Dustin looked at him and said "Black Walder and Lame Lothar, your liege lord called the banners for help. Why have you not answered?"
Lothar smirked and said "We are still gathering men, it takes time. But it isn't a northern heathen's problem." The Freys soldiers laughed but did not see a few northmen closing their retreat.
One of the soldiers said "You barbarians shall comme with us to see Lord Wal..." but he was cut off by Torgen surging from behind him and cutting him in half from the waist down. But the death rattled Freys soldiers and horses and more voices started to get heard.
"There's more of them." One of William Dustin's soldiers said, his voice steady as he withdrew his blade.
"Torgen?" Aryan asked still seated and without even looking up.
"I believe they outnumber us four to one." the dual axe wielder replied with a lazy shrug.
"Will that be a problem?" Aryan asked.
Brynnard smirked and said with his spear in hands "Take all the time you want, my Lord." as he attacked the Freys with such viciousness that left holes in their soldiers chest head or stomach. The rest of the party started to slaughter the Freys soldiers who were overwhelmed as they didn't fight together.
A few minutes later, he stood up and saw all the Freys soldiers dead and Black Walder and Lothar on their knees in front of William Dustin. He didn't even spare them a look and asked the Lord of Barrowtown "Why are they still breathing?"
The two of them didn't have a chance to say anything before their throats were slit. "Burn the bodies." Aryan commanded at his men before saying to William Dustin "That fool Walder Frey overestimate the defenses of his keep, he thinks himself untouchable that he didn't even repair a few of the breaches. Send word to Lord Reed, tell him that I need a dozen crannogmen and a couple of small skin boats." William nodded and went to talk to a soldier to send a raven.
Aryan took out his communication mirror and called Jaqen and told him "Send me your three best men at infiltration. And send another man to burn the Inn of the Kneeling Man to the ground."
"It will be done."
William came back and asked "What do you wish to do in the Riverlands?"
Aryan looked South and smiled "A couple of years ago, I received ravens from Jason Mallister and Tytos Blackwood. Both Houses of the First Men, both followers of the Old Gods, maybe less from the Mallisters. They shared their concerns for the Tully heir and since then I've been corresponding with them quite often and they frequently implied that they wouldn't mind swearing allegiance to antoher. Now that this war began, I've started to wonder."
"My Lord?" asked William.
Aryan grinned "The Twins, Wolf's Bridge, Seagard, Oldstones, Raventree Hall, Fairmarket. Everything south of Fairmarket is annoying to defend and has irritating borders with the Vale and the Westerlands but from Fairmarket, the northern riverlands have quite good defenses and with our stone masons who could clearly improve them. I've started to wonder if I shouldn't conquer them all in the name of the North and the Stark of Winterfell. And what better way to spit on Hoster Tully's face for trying to have me named a bastard than to take a quarter of his kingdom? The fool thought that I forgot and forgave, just as foolish as the Freys that think that we don't begrudge them for their actions during the Rebellion but..."
William finished his sentence with a smile "The North Remembers. Well, you promised that House Tully will still be Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, you never mentioned how big said Riverlands were going to be."
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