Capítulo 109: 33
Chapter 33: Part XXXIIINotes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Disclaimer: I own nothing, just borrowing for a while.
----------
"It's so cold up there I saw wildfire flame freeze solid. I broke off a piece and put it in my coin-purse as a keepsake, bloody thing melted my coins when it thawed out."
Anguy the Archer – 312AC
----------
Small Council Chamber - King's Landing – 299 AC
The Grand Maester had found a map of Seven Kingdoms near as long as a big man was tall in the archives and Eddard Stark had spread it over the table, pleased to see that it showed more detail in the North than he had expected. "Direct communication with Lord Commander Mormont is proving difficult but we know that he has established a camp here at the Fist of the First Men in order to observe a known concentration of the Wildlings here in the Frost Fangs" he announced, using a dagger to point to the location on the map. "As you can see, this is quite some distance north of the wall and the terrain is almost as unwelcoming as the locals so it could be a while until we are able to receive a full account of the situation" he told them. "The Frost Fangs are cold, windswept and bleak, and I say that as a northerner, if Mance Rayder has concentrated his followers there instead of the forests to the East he must have a reason."
Tywin Lannister looked thoughtful. "Assuming he isn't stupid enough to try and assault the Shadow Tower directly, and instead intends to force a crossing of the gorge at the extreme western end of the wall, it's a pity the Night's Watch abandoned the castle Westwatch-by-the-Bridge years in years past for lack of men to garrison it" he observed. "Crossing the Bridge of Skulls would be a far easier undertaking than trying to lead an army down into the gorge itself and back up the other side."
"Even more so than you might think, it's steep and the bones of men that litter the place make the bridge's name well-deserved" Eddard Stark responded.
Always a man overburdened with a sense of self-importance Mace Tyrell was still preening from being granted the title of Master of Ships and his seat on the council and he made a show of wanting to contribute to the discussion. "One question, if I may, Lord Regent". "Not being particularly familiar myself with the lesser Houses of the North I was hoping you might provide us with some insight as to how a highborn of House Rayder came to desert the Night's Watch in such a shameful manner."
"House Rayder?" Stark repeated, looking puzzled by the question.
Tyrell nodded. "Yes. The House to which this self-proclaimed 'King-Beyond-the-Wall' belongs" he explained.
Petyr Baelish rolled his eyes as Tywin Lannister sighed. "There is no House Rayder, Lord Tyrell" Tywin told him in a disdainful tone . "The name 'Mance Rayder' was bestowed upon him by the Night's Watch."
Octavian gently coughed to interrupt. "If I might explain to our newest member" he began to speak, waiting for a nod of approval from the regent before continuing. "From what I've learned the man in question was a wildling infant adopted by the Night's Watch when they intercepted the warband he was with which was looting and pillaging homesteads on our side of the wall" he patiently explained as he scribbled something on a wax tablet he was using to make notes upon. "It's a joke of sorts, you see, Lord Tyrell" he told the Lord Paramount of the Reach, holding up the tablet towards him. "He was a raider of manses so they dubbed him 'Mance Rayder' as a play on words."
Tyrell tried not to blush with embarrassment as he looked at the wax tablet upon which the king had scratched 'Manse Raider' above 'Mance Rayder' with his stylus.
"I'm sure that many would have made a similar mistake, My Lord" Varys observed diplomatically. "There are so many Houses in Westeros even Maesters have trouble keeping track of them all and it does sound like a real name" he added sympathetically.
"The Night's Watch are known for bestowing names with a sense of humour, albeit a mite darker sometimes" Eddard Stark noted. "An officer of theirs, Qhorin Halfhand, earned his name thanks to a Wildling Axe" he gave an example. "According to my brother Benjen, Qhorin said that the worst part of it was having to relearn swordplay with his left hand."
"Given the lack of women on the Wall he would have needed to learn to use his left for another less savoury reason as well" Petyr Baelish joked, having the decency to look sheepish when Lords Stark and Lannister gave him a look of chastisement at the crudity of the jest. As a brothel keeper they both expected it of him, but they didn't want to encourage such behaviour nonetheless even if King Robert would have laughed uproariously.
"Do we have any notion as to how many Wildlings we might be talking about?" Ser Barristan Selmy inquired professionally as a veteran of several wars. "They might be rabble, but enough rabble with high morale who are heedless of casualties can defeat a real army simply by overwhelming them."
"Intelligences collected by the Night's Watch indicate that Mance Rayder may have managed to obtain the allegiances of perhaps some ninety tribes all-told, largely by playing upon their fears of these supposed Wights roaming abroad, Lord Commander" Varys told him. "Given that the Wildlings employ large numbers of so-called 'Spear-Wives' as well as having menfolk perform military duties, that might amount to a potential fighting force numbering some tens of thousands. They may actually represent the largest military host in all Westeros, greater in number than even the Reach can raise."
Renly Baratheon smiled. "We can only be grateful that at least they haven't got your magnificent heavy cavalry, Lord Tyrell" he observed. "I'm certain a charge by a thousand of your knights led by your son would scatter the wretches."
"We can only hope they're stupid enough to try and take on heavy cavalry in an open field without trained pikemen to guard their lines, my Lords" Barristan Selmy commented, doubting they would be. "Can we readily put together an army of sufficient numbers to stop them if it proves necessary?" he asked.
Eddard Stark frowned. "If I raised all the Stark bannermen in the North I can place forty-five thousand men under arms but that would include boys and old men and it would take months to have them all properly trained and equipped, let alone organised into companies fit to take the field" he said. "The last time a Wildling army invaded it was considerably smaller and they still managed to get a hundred leagues south past the wall, half-way to Winterfell, before we could stop them."
"So on that basis we shouldn't underestimate them you think, Lord Stark?" Octavian queried.
"Raymun Redbeard, the King-Beyond-the-Wall seventy years past, took my own great-grandfather's head at that battle so I for one am not about to dismiss the threat of the Wildlings" Stark replied evenly. "I'll have to let you know that there were more than a few Northerners bitter that we saw no aid from the south in that war but we were still expected to send men to help you lot keep the Blackfyres down" he added with a hint of rebuke.
Tywin pointed at the map on the table himself. "It's doubtful that an army of southerners could have marched that far quickly enough to help anyway, not given the distances involved, but the attempt at least would have been a sensible gesture by King Maekar to his Northern subjects" he observed. "Which brings us neatly to the matter-at-hand" he continued. "After discussing the situation earlier with the Lord Regent it is proposed that we demonstrate greater forethought than our forebears and dispatch reinforcements forthwith."
Eddard Stark nodded. "If we want to get men from the south to the wall in a timely fashion we'll have to move them most of the way by sea and I want this to be an endeavour that involves all Seven Kingdoms and the Riverlands" he said. "To that end I propose to command Balon Greyjoy to raise a company of men under arms and transport them with all haste to reinforce the Shadow Tower and garrison Westwatch-by-the-Bridge. I'll have to make sure that my people know that the Ironborn are there to reinforce them not to reive though, and I'm sure it'll be a strange day for all concerned" he added with considerable understatement.
"Greyjoy's ships can get there faster than anyone else, further detachments from the Westerlands and Reach will follow after" Tywin further explained the plan. "I'm sure that our Master of Ships can persuade his bannerman and good-brother Lord Paxter Redwyne to provide the necessary transportation" he checked.
"Of course" Tyrell confirmed. "Paxter has oft remarked to me on the size of his fleet and the quality of his warships, he should be only to happy to put part of it to sea in a noble cause" he said. "And what of the Royal Fleet?" he asked.
"We propose to also reinforce the Night's Watch at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea with companies from the Vale and the Stormlands and the Royal Fleet can assist with that" Eddard Stark told him. "The Northern Houses will further reinforce Castle Black while men from the Riverlands march up the King's Road to join them."
"What of Dorne? I'm not sure the climate up there will agree with them" Petyr Baelish joked.
"True enough, it might be sensible to give them an option to send money, grain and other supplies if they prefer to contribute their share in something other than men turning blue in the cold" Renly suggested humorously.
"That may be worth consideration, Lord Regent" Tywin reasoned. "It'll be bad enough for my own bannermen, and Lord Tyrell's" he pointed out. "The Dornish don't even know what snow is."
"I'll consider it" Stark replied. "Just so we're all clear we're not proposing to send a vast army to the wall unless it proves necessary" he told the council. "Merely enough soldiers so that the Wildling Horde cannot simply smash them aside as they likely thought to do with the Night's Watch" he said. "The Wall is formidable enough to not require tens of thousands to defend it, it's just too damn long for a thousand men to do so adequately which is likely why Lord Commander Mormont sought to go on the offensive with his Great Ranging. Putting Mance Rayder on the backfoot was his best option in the circumstances."
"I thought he went out looking for Wights" Baelish quipped sardonically.
"That may have been part of it, perhaps he even found some, but our more pressing concern at the moment is the huge warband of the living heading our way, Lord Baelish" Stark replied, ignoring the man's tone. "If we hear news of two-thousand Wights getting across the wall rather than a mere two we'll re-evaluate the situation but until then my worry is the King-Beyond-The-Wall not the Night King."
"Isn't the Night King just a fairy story told to scare children?" Mace Tyrell scoffed. "I mean no offence of course" he added quickly knowing that Northerners were a humourless, superstitious lot.
Eddard Stark looked at the new Master-of-Ships askance. "That he is, My Lord. Best hope we're not living in one" he advised.
Notes:
Note from the Author:
The Wall is three hundred miles long (one hundred leagues) with nineteen castles set along it although by 299AC the Night's Watch only boasts a thousand men meaning that it can barely garrison three of them. At the extreme western end of the Wall stands the Shadow Tower which has a garrison although there is another castle, Westwatch-by-the-Bridge, guarding the Bridge of Skulls.
Mance Rayder, King-Beyond-The-Wall is a more immediate problem than Wights, A previous holder of the position, Raymun Redbeard, invaded the Seven Kingdoms with an army of Wildlings in 226AC, being eventually defeated in the Battle of Long Lake though not before he slew Willam Stark. The Starks tend to take wildling armies very seriously.
House Redwyne from the Reach are vassals of House Tyrell and possess one of the three most powerful fleets in Westeros. It's quicker to sail to the north than walk and thanks to the Greyjoy Rebellion Westeros has fairly recent experience in transporting and supplying troops by sea.
Estado de energía semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Piedra de
Poder