Capítulo 267: 20
288 AC – Part IV
It didn't take us long to reach Castle Blacktyde after we had put the sorry business with the Faith Militant behind us. To borrow a passage from a well known children's book, I could state that it was a well hidden secret, so naturally everybody knew what happened. While annoying me slightly on the matter of operational security I nonetheless did not care overly much. As long as no one could actually prove anything and I was the first to state how things had come down then everything would be alright, as far as that was possible at least.
I still did not know how I would be transporting the troops after the next fight, having just too many of them by now. Having a few times the northern forces in militia and camp followers presented myself and the other lords with a not so little problem in multiple ways. Still, we were managing for now and taking the castle would likely ease our problems a little by the estimated death toll alone.
Scouts we had sent out reported that the castle and the surrounding minor town looked like a kicked over anthill. The outer walls were only three meters high and not very thick but had been steadily reinforced by rocks piled against it from the inside, which had also increased the space defenders could move on while fending off those seeking entrance against their will. Maybe 5,000 ironborn smallfolk had retreated into the town normally, maybe boasting half that number at most, seeking a safe haven from our approaching army.
Two well fortified gatehouses protected the major ways into the town, while a sturdy and already raised chain blocked off the harbor from hostile forces. We estimated that between 500 and 1,000 men would be fighting us, drawn from the smallfolk and likely with very little training. It might still be enough to put up quite the fight as they were fighting from behind fortifications while we would have to assault them over an open field with next to no cover.
Even after having taken the town we would still have to take the castle itself, walls twice as high and many times as thick as the town's ones. A wide moat surrounded the fortifications, separating it from the town it sat in the center very effectively. High towers and a drawbridge further secured the seat of house Blacktyde against assaults. The best trained defenders would be found here, likely right alongside the most supplies. Both would make putting the castle to siege a pain. More so as we had neither a siege engineer with us nor the materials to put together anything beyond ladders and a ram or two. While I had a rough idea how to put together a catapult or a trebuchet myself, the details – and details were brutally important with these things – escaped me, causing me to shelf yet another idea for now. A matter of time more than an oversight, really. We had known that we would be attacking castles at some point, yet had not come prepared for it beyond the most basic ideas because we lacked the right materials. Space on the ships had also been premium, leaving us without siege engines but those we could build with what we had at hand. We would have to make do.
Of course not everything was bleak. We had gained a lot of helping hands on our march and while most of them were little more than average laborers, quantity had a quality on its own. More so as both, northmen and thrall militia alike, were highly motivated while I suspected the Ironborn were mostly held together by fear and desperation.
"Taking the town will only take one concentrated assault.", grunts Mors Umber as we had again congregated in the command tent while our men put out earthen siege works around the army's camp. We had considered surrounding the town completely but that would have weakened our lines too much, instead a main camp and strong patrols were chosen.
"It is not the town I am worried about", grumbles Jeor from my side as he stares at the rough drawing placed on the table in front of us, the drawn lines showing the fortifications as our scouts had been able to spot and report them. "The castle will be the true challenge."
Tytos agrees with a scowl. "Aye. We do not have siege engines and ladders are not going to cut it for that one. A ram will help but it takes a long time to batter down the gates. One of the Forrester scouts reported them to have signs of ironwood and look to be very new as well. Age and salt will not have degraded them yet."
"Which is something that annoys me greatly, them having them in the first place I mean. Not the degradation part, that would not have happened for centuries.", mutters the Forrester lord in attendance, a pained look on his face. "I remember a shipment for the Lannisters going missing some years ago...seems it ended up here."
"Any chance of negotiated surrender?"
Turning to Theo Wull, who had thrown in the thought I sadly shook my head. "No. At least not yet. The messenger we sent had to turn back before the walls as half a dozen arrows were shot at him. It does not look like House Blacktyde is ready to roll over without a fight. Once we take the town this might be different."
"The harbor?", Theo continues to ask questions, only for me to shake my head again.
"Not feasible even if we had ships to actually assault it. The chain would stop anything in easy range of their archers, leaving us exposed. They have eight cogs and two longships in there, the last two which would be enough to contest the entrance against whatever we might throw at it. Worst case they could sink a cog or two, blocking the harbor for weeks without end."
"You know that we will have to take the ships first if we want to cut off escape, yes?", throws in Tytos at once, earning nods all around.
Mors shakes his head. "The Blacktydes will not leave their castle before it is too late to reach the ships. They know the facts just as well as we do. They can hold out a good long while against assaults, which actually lessens the risk of them getting on a ship might present us with. They will stay."
Massaging my temples I sigh. "Have any ravens been spotted?"
"Dozens", replies Jeor at once. "We managed to intercept a few but most got through. Addressed to other Ironborn houses, informing them of our presence and asking for aid. Depending on the overall situation of the war they might or might not come."
"So we have a time limit as well.", Lord Blackwood sighs and continues to chew on one of the hard jerky rations so common with the army. "Great."
I sigh, taking one of the rations as well as hunger makes itself known. "It is of no great concern in truth, Tytos. Even if the other houses want to reinforce them they will be too late by far to affect anything if we do not let this turn into a lengthy siege."
"If", he counters easily.
"Yes, if.", I grunt and point to the drawing. "Taking the town will be done in a day even if we are likely to lose good men doing it. The fortifications are not enough to stop us, nor are the men manning it. They are likely smallfolk without training one and all."
"So are most of our men", interjects Jeor Mormont, yet again being the voice of reason in our circle. I scowl lightly at the man before emitting a sigh and nodding, conceding the point.
"I think our men and auxiliaries are at a far lower risk of breaking than the ironborn levies are. The militia has a grudge that will take them over the wall by hate alone. This turning into a sack is a greater risk than them being turned back at the wall", interjects Theo Wull from the side, also chewing thoughtfully on one of the rations.
"Can we reasonably expect this to be anything less?", Lord Forrester asks quietly and silence settles around the table, faces moving before heads are shaken all around.
"Yes, I expect the same. This will be a bloodbath and there is too much history involved for words or threats to work.", I mutter.
"At least we can point them in the right direction", grumbles Tytos, pointing at one of the gatehouses furthest from the harbor. "Have them assault here in force, stiffened by some of our troops. The men will fight, the woman and children will move for the harbor at the slimmest chance of escaping."
Moving a finger to a stretch of wall closest to the harbor he continues. "We take most of our men here and make for the ships after breaking through. We take them and move in the opposite direction, meeting the militia somewhere in the middle. If the smallfolk encounters us we let them through, killing only men and boys bearing weapons. The others we can gather around the docks to take care of later."
"Our men-at-arms will listen where the militia does not.", nods Mors decisively. "We will still need to announce that we wish to spare any woman and children as well as the boys of fourteen and below as long as they are unarmed. Otherwise we have no leg to stand on if we keep the freedmen from killing all of the town's inhabitants. Make it clear that rape will not be tolerated and earn a beheading without fail."
"To summarize.", I start, faintly remembering my past life's negotiation training and the importance of being on the same page, waiting until I have the attention of every noble present before continuing. "We will assault the town after announcing who we want to spare and who we do not. The militia attacks the gatehouse, while we move over the wall and take the harbor. After that a methodical search through the town."
"Let us send another messenger tomorrow so that nobody can claim we did not try and attack shortly before first light the day after when they refuse to surrender. And they will refuse, make no mistake.", speaks up Tytos again after nodding at my summary. "Also, what about the castle?"
"Ignore it for now", grunts Mors. "The Blacktydes will not sally after seeing how the town is faring and we can attempt negotiation again after securing the surroundings. Maybe they will be more amiable after seeing their former thralls being let loose on the settlement."
I wince but do not counter the argument. By now I knew that the Umber lord preferred practicability over anything else and while brutal I could not fault his logic. Taking the town would turn into a bloodbath but there was preciously little we would be able to do about it without losing control of our own host. What nobody had voiced but everybody knew was that the militia would be taking the most casualties, hopefully bringing down the number of men we had to control in the first place to a number easier to manage.
The next day we send another messenger, this one sadly dying from a well armed arrow despite waving the flag of parley all the way. Half a dozen men holding shields above their head retrieve the corpse as the underlining rage within our host grows by yet another bit. Shooting messengers was just not done and they had attempted it twice and succeeded on top of it, earning them exactly no favors.
We start our assault the next morning, Lord Blackwood yet again taking control of the militia and two hundred of his own men to stiffen their spines. Mors Umber and Thorren Forrester join him, mostly to secure the line of command should someone manage to break through the lines and kill Tytos. It brought up the number of troops aiming for the gatehouse to roughly 3,000 mixed militia and men-at-arms. I did not expect the fortification to last long even though the only siege weapons involved were makeshift ladders and just as ramshackle rams.
The screams of men fighting and dying echo through the gloom of the early morning together with the screeches of metal hitting metal, easily reaching my position hidden behind a useful hill close to the harbors walls. We agreed to wait for the true scale of the assault to become obvious to the Ironborn, hopefully drawing men from the other parts of the wall and making our own entrance all the easier. The minutes tick by as the roar of battle reaches a fever pitch and the orange glow of fire starts to lighten up the night, someone obviously having had enough motivation to fire burning arrows into the town itself.
"Well then, lads.", I state loudly while standing up, hundreds of men doing likewise with many carrying ladders. "You know the plan, go!"
"The North remembers!", I roar as loud as I can, the men taking up the rallying cry at once, racing forwards to the wall becoming ever more visible as the sun continues to creep over the horizon.
"The North remembers!"
We face next to no resistance, most of the defenders having been drawn to the much more obvious fighting on the opposite side of the town. We still lose a few men to arrow, spear and stone before the first men are over the wall, the battle instantly moving to the top of the wall as the scarce remaining reavers struggle to fight off the invaders with the determination of the damned.
By the time I crest the wall myself there are already easily a hundred northmen ahead of me, moving down the wall killing the defenders and spreading out on the inside to secure a beachhead. I wait for another hundred men to assemble before starting to move in the direction of the harbor.
"Remember your priorities!", I shout to the force moving me by. "Ships first, everything else second!"
"Aye, Lord Ryther!", the answering shout comes from many a throat and I nod, following after the men with another hundred men as soon as they have crossed the wall. Moving to the harbor I shake my head in wonder, knowing that this had been far easier than I expected. Either we had completely overestimated the number of defenders or the main assault had drawn a lot more attention than we had banked on – or both. Still, at the core of it the tactic was very basic and any competent commander would have known not to leave other areas as undefended as we found them to be. So, no real commander either? Curios indeed and something we likely would only find out once the battle was over.
The only problem we encountered in the harbor were the longships, both having been manned by some competent archers that made taking them a pain. They surrendered after my men reached them, knowing that any further resistance would be the height of stupidity and that they could not escape with the chain in the way. Some of my more competent men had made the tower controlling the chain a target of high priority, taking it before it could lower the chain and enable the ships to escape. I would have to remember the man, a youth named Darrell, in the future. The initiative spoke as well of him as forgetting about the chain spoke badly of myself and the other nobles. Having the ships escape would have been a pain and then some.
I was already crackling mentally at the thought of increasing the ships available to me yet again, hoping to throw any other loot at my fellow lords again. I likely would not even have to share the ships with the Mormonts this time around as the four longships they had already gained would be the limit of what they could reasonably support for now. That would of course change with every year we could keep reavers and wildlings off their shores, finally allowing Bear Island to build up some after getting it teared down time and time again as enemy raids hit the island. Long term this would hopefully increase the power of yet another house of unshakably loyal to the Starks and friendly to me. So much opportunity…
Runners keeping eyes on the other fight arrived at the harbor a few minutes after we had secured the ships and were reorganizing to roll up the town from behind. The gatehouse had been taken but it had been a bloodbath, just as expected. Neither thrall nor ironborn had been willing to give an inch, the mix of hate and desperation making the battle one for the bards – if any had been present – would have sung for decades at the very least. Roughly 800 defenders had tried their best to keep the militia from entering the town and they had even succeeded for a time, killing many freedmen below the walls or on the wall. At some point the numerical advantage had inevitably carried the day, the fortifications not being extensive enough to hold the militia back.
Tytos and his men had tried to take prisoners but by the time they reached the relevant parts of the battle everything had been over and no reaver was taken alive. The freedman had turned all but berzerk as they revisited humiliations and tortures of a lifetime on their former overlords. Not that the men defending the wall likely had anything to do with that but the freed thralls cared little as they painted the wall red. This of course led to more casualties than strictly needed on our side as the freedman took stupid risks in their quest for revenge, often paying with life or limb before reaching their prey.
Roughly half of the militia had been wounded in some way or been turned into a cooling corpse in the vicious melee, the northern forces suffering almost no losses due their better training and position behind the main host. Once the wall was taken the freedmen spread into the town with very little organization, looting and killing at their hearts content. I grimace at the predictable action and the fact that we likely would be forced to hang a lot of them for rape come morning. While we had not forbidden the sack – for one should only make rules that could be enforced as well – we had made that single fact perfectly clear. Rape and die.
By now I had nearly five hundred northerners with me at the harbor, allowing us to build up a cordon and expand it slowly and methodically outwards, spreading from the harbor like a slowly expanding bubble that protected whatever happened to be within. It only takes minutes for the first ironborn smallfolk, driven to flee by the raging militia, to appear within sight of our troops. They only hesitated for a bare moment at our appearance before continuing in our direction, begging for mercy as soon as they were within hearing distance. While approaching an enemy force would be considered suicide for any reasonable smallfolk in most cases here it turned out to be a little different, the civilian reavers far preferring taking the risk with the northmen to facing their former thralls.
We let them through easily, taking any weapons and escorting them to the harbor's edge, where they were told to sit down and wait. No one made any trouble, not that I expected there to be any. The trickle of fleeing smallfolk soon turned into a flood and we are hard pressed to sort through them as fast as they appear but we manage, half a dozen reavers hiding amongst the peasants being easily found and killed for the attempt. It takes nearly an hour for the gap between the two invading forces to close completely, leaving no enemy reaver alive outside the castle's walls. Of the smallfolk roughly 2,000 survived in the protective lines of our northmen, much to the displeasure of the still raging militia. Not that I cared overly much for their feelings, cold math telling me that a lot of civilians would be found put to death in their homes as the cleanup started, likely having died defending their few belongings from the freedmen.
As expected the Blacktydes never left their castle during the battle.
We send another messenger to the gates, hoping for a change of mind and a negotiated surrender that would spare us further bloodshed. This time the man got a shield up in time to catch the arrow heading for his face, clearly telling us that the ironborn nobles did not consider giving up an option just yet. It took us the remainder of the day to clean up after the battle, only trading some arrows with the castle's defenders as we got within range or targets of opportunity presented themselves.
Having gathered in one of the larger warehouses at the harbor, I and my fellow lords exchanged what we knew and what we would do.
"How is the militia faring?", I ask Tytos, who yet again gnaws sullenly on some jerky, the action having become a habit by now.
"Decently, considering that they lost roughly a thousand men at least temporarily. Rough count is eight hundred dead with two hundred more heavily wounded. The gods will decide their fate in the days to come. Of the remainder many are wounded in some way as well but expected to recover within a fortnight."
"Those are some ridiculous losses.", whistles Thorren and shakes his head. "I knew that we expected higher death rates amongst the militia but this is something else. Most – nearly all – forces would have broken long before suffering this much death. What happened?"
"As soon as the fighting joined they turned berserk.", states Tytos flatly, gaze far away as he recalls the recent battle. "There was little mind or reason to their actions beyond the will to kill the defenders. With even some of either the losses would have been half as high, if that. There was no controlling their rage and I hope this will quench their thirst for blood, for the militia will not survive a second ´victory´ such as this."
"If they cannot be expected to follow orders then a second battle like this might be just what we need as they will cease to be a problem afterwards.", states Mors Umber with brutal honesty, causing me to wince at the truth behind his words. While I had suffered losses this high in the past as well they had never been quite as dumb as these had turned out to be.
Suddenly Thorren smirks. "Give the information of just why many men will not be returning to their families to the womenfolk."
Everybody around the table winces as Lord Forresters smirk turns into an evil smile, being married to the last. "Ah..yes...that would do it.", I mutter and shake my head at the simplicity of the solution. No man wanted to return to a cold bed or – in case of the younger ones – to a disapproving mother. This would do nicely indeed. "How are our own losses?"
Mors Umber shrugs. "Negligible. A dozen men at the harbor wall and some more taking the ships in addition to some injuries but that is it." A pleased silence settles over our group for a moment, enjoying the results of a plan – founding the militia – that while only half working had still succeeded in the most important part, keeping our men alive and well.
"Now, what to do about the ironborn smallfolk? We cannot hold them forever, lacking the resources."
I turn to Theo, who had posed the question we all had been thinking about since they first peasants turned up to seek shelter behind our lines. "If the Blacktydes surrender today… nothing. If they do not, drive them off into the countryside while we set the town on fire."
Getting a lot of raised eyebrows for my advice I elaborate. "We cannot feed them and have no use for them, while I have use of their homes. We cannot assault the castle with what we have, at least not directly."
Turning to until now silent Jeor Mormont, I ask a question. "In a fire, what kills the most people?"
The man answers, somewhat confused at the seemingly rhetorical question. "The fire?"
"No", I shake my head, raising a finger, "the smoke."
Opening my hands wide I explained further. "In any fire you are likely to find bodies unharmed by the fire but dead nonetheless. They are killed by breathing the smoke, burning themselves from the inside even though they look perfectly fine on the outside. Smoke is not stopped by castle walls or a moat, freeing us of the need to overcome either for the measly cost of a town we do not own anyway. The Blacktydes will either leave their home to escape the fumes or they will die where they are, leaving us to capture a dead castle after the fires have died down."
I get apprehensive and a little horrified looks from most of the lords present at my plan. Living in a time without electrical light or heating meant that every last one of them had inhaled smoke at some point in their lives, so they knew very well the pain involved. Faces are working around the table as the lords picture the effects before their minds' eyes, some growing pale at what they come up with without ever seeing a fire like what I was describing.
"We will need to withdraw a good way while still keeping an eye on the town.", cautions Chief Wull in a near whisper, still shaken at what we were likely about to do as no one expected the Blacktydes to give up. Why should they? From their perspective all they had to do was wait until we left again.
"Aye.", I sigh. "We will loot the town of everything valuable and edible while smashing any oil or likewise in a way to make everything burn better and cause more smoke. After that, a last chance for the Blacktydes to surrender."
I did not have to state what would happen after the likely refusal.
A day later the surviving smallfolk left the half destroyed town with only what they had on their backs, glad to be alive but fearing for their future. I felt for them, knowing that many of them would not make it with what we had allowed them to carry off. Even so they had at least a chance, small as it might be. Not interfering in the first place would have seen them dead and/or raped during the battle, a fact that they all knew. Driving them off also wasn't unheard of, so I earned less hate for the act than I expected, it having been this way for a long time.
House Blacktyde refused surrender or even negotiation a third time a few hours later, even so they could spot the freedmen looting and wrecking the town around them with great glee. If any talk had happened I might even have told them what we intended and let their imagination drive them to surrender but I wasn't willing to risk my men more than I already had, every messenger having been shot at since our arrival. House Farwynd had dealt with us fair and square after getting beaten and been left off relatively light because of it. House Blacktyde did not and would not.
As dusk fell we retreated from the town in good order, having gathered enough food to last us at least a month even with the numbers we had. The ships had been stuffed to the gills with smallfolk and sent on to Blackport, easing the strain on our supplies further. We managed to stuff roughly 1,500 people into the cogs with just about as much comfort I would expect to find in tinned goods. As intended I had claimed the ships on the promise that the loot within the castle would be split evenly between the others after we had taken the fortification.
Mors is the one to light the fire, flames quickly spreading around the town, greatly helped by the preparations we had done to ease just that. It does not take an hour before every house around the castle is alight, drawing in oxygen and while throwing out carbon monoxide and other harmful gasses. We watch in silence from a nearby hill, out of the current direction of the wind of course, as the castle of house Blacktyde vanishes in the smoke. I feel a shudder shaking my hardened soul, picturing the defenders and other inhabitants choking on the smoke or very air around them as they fought to starve off the end.
My stoic face does not show the emotions hidden beneath as we continue to watch in silence, the encroaching night being lightened up for miles around by the orange flames consuming the settlement. The fires burn the entire night with great intensity and only peter out in the middle of the next day, finally allowing us to approach again.
No member of house Blacktyde and their household had emerged.
Moving into the town again with wet rags before our faces, ash quickly coating us as the fine powder is thrown up with our every step. Avoiding some still slightly burning parts of the town we make for the center, no sound but the crunching ones we cause ourself reaching our ears. It is unsettling enough to rattle even the most steadfast of us. We find the castle's gates open, a few bodies lying not far away. A look at the corpses tells me that they did not die easy, their bodies bent in painful looking angles and faces drawn into a grimace of agony. Even though they appeared to be completely unharmed otherwise, the light ash coating did not hide the fact that the fire never reached their bodies.
We find the castle completely silent as we walk through the corridors, nothing human having survived the smoke inhalation forced upon them. I feel my already wounded soul break a little more with every small form we discover in the tomb, for the castle was nothing else by now. Searching through the rooms I finally find my price as I open yet another door, the room behind containing a big desk full of letters and a shelf with a lot of books and other assorted gatherings of knowledge.
Seating myself I grab the first letter and start to read, just as glad to be distracted as I was to finally get some news of the greater war. I would deal with my guilt later...or hopefully never. Yes, that sounded quite nice.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder