章節 98: May the old Gods have mercy
Unexpectedly Ned and his guards weren't the first ones to arrive at Seagard, before him stood tents with the already known to him axes on the yellow field, flags fluttering on the top.
He gently kicked his horse with his heel ordering it to move.
When he entered the temporary camp, with his army he saw someone already waiting for him there.
"Lord Stark. I apologize for the insufficient welcome, but my Lord father and the Northern fleet are in battle as we speak so I hope you will excuse my lacking reception." Patrek Mallister bowed impatiently.
Eddard eyes grew with every word that he heard from the teen, if it was about the Northern fleet then it meant... his nephew...
Jumping down from the horse Ned walked up and ordered an explanation, just as he did so, the heads of the other houses under his banners arrived.
When Patrek filled the Warden of the North in on the recent events, Jon, the leader of Oldstones Dustin garrison hastened his step too, and came closer to Lords Karstark, Forrester, Umber and Hornwood.
Ned looked at the man clad in blood stained armour and listen in on his words.
"My Lords, in the name of Lord Dustin I request you send us your medics... we can't handle it on our own..." Jon lowered his head almost begging.
The last few days, ships with wounded and dead arrived at irregular times bringing with them the news of grim battle taking place. The Centurion himself hadn't slept for 3 days.
He, together with his men transported the wounded to their camp where they organized a temporary field hospital, doctors from Neverwinter, and even students from the Medicine Academy were being brought in to help, but they still needed time to arrive.
"Take what you need! Harrion, see to it personally!" Lord Karstarks and the rest gave the order without much thought. "Tell us the situation Centurion." they started to move through the camp glancing at the man's haggard look.
Shouts of pain and begging for help were heard from the tents, and the women from Seagard that volunteered to help were seen running around with bloodied hands and red dripping bandages in their hands.
The medics from Oldstones, Northern fleet and even maesters swiftly moved to help the suffering men.
The alliance Lords clenched their jaws not to say anything they might regret later, but the young ones?
"By the Gods... what is happening there?", "May the old Gods have mercy..."
Maege Mormont looked at the bloodied green, cloak with a roaring black bear at the muddy road and picked it up, her grip tightened as she thought about her daughters that went with the fleet. "Tell us what happened." her calm yet cold voice made the gathered people shudder.
"Three days ago we saw smoke on the horizon, Lord Mallister took his fleet and went to join the battle." Jon said as he walked with the other Lords, not only those of the alliance.
Even Ned joined them with Patrek following.
"What we know from the damaged ships that came back after, is that Lord Dustin with Houses Ryswell, Mormont and Glenmore used the element of surprise and attacked the fleet that was committed to raiding Seagard." the Centurion scrubbed his trembling hands together, trying to get the blood off from them.
"They are fighting for thee days? Impossible, they are probably running!" Lord Glover mocked not seeing the Dustin soldiers almost killing him with their eyes.
"They are not my Lord. The battle finished the next morning, we destroyed the Ironborn fleet, and Lord Dustin killed Rodrik Greyjoy, the heir to Iron Islands." Jon informed the rest. Ned even smiled. "But the Ironborn fleet that retreated from Lord Stannis came after, they are still battling and there are more and more wounded and dead coming." Jon pointed at the new batch being brought as they spoke on the opened carriage and transported on the stretcher to the tents for treatment.
"The last we herd, Lord Mormont was heavily wounded after fighting Victarion Greyjoy, Lord Dustin went to support him, but the outcome is yet unknown and that was half a day ago."
"Can you take us there?" Rodrik and Asher Forrester, Harrion, Eddard Karstark, Smalljon Umber and Daryn Hornwood stepped forward, their fathers proudly looking at their sons.
It was clear they didn't want to fight for glory, they wanted to join their friends that were in danger.
"If we could, we would send our reinforcements already, it's our Lord we are talking about!" Centurion said emotionally "Everyone here would be willing even to swim there if it would be possible, even if they would be to die just after. Some men even took the fisherman's boats from the small folk, fortunately before they sunk they were saved not long after they left. The ships that arrived are inoperable, we are working on patching them up even some, just to join the fight. We simply don't have enough ships!" when he said the last sentence, all the Lords looked at Ned, some with disappointment, some with anger...
The latter applicable for all the alliance Houses.
They were nobles, none of them was stupid and they were aware why the Northern fleet looked as it did.
"They should manage." Lord Bolton said enjoying the suffering of his enemies.
"The first fleet they attacked had 150 ships, we had only more than 100 and after the long battle they again had to fight 350 rested Ironborn men with what fleet they had left, even as Lord Mallister joined their chances are grim. Even you, Lord Bolton should be able to count their chances." Jon didn't respect the man, as one of the most important men in Oldstones he was privy to the intel he received every week.
"He's your genius child, you doubt your Lord?" Roose was looking for a reason to make the man a corpse, he was a Lord after all.
"And we all know how you "care" about children Lord Bolton. Lord Karstarks took a step forward challenging the man, Greatjon with a hand on his sword only one step behind him.
"What options do we have?" Ned asked the Centurion dissolving the tension.
"We can only wait my Lord." just as he said it, all the bells in the town rung out.
"They are coming back!" Patrek didn't wait for the rest and took of in the direction of the port praying for his Lord father wellbeing.
- - - Seagard Port - - -
All the Lords and the men from the Northern armies, as well as the Seagard men and civilians gathered around the port.
Each and everyone of them looked at the broken, burned and scarred ships slowly making their way to the port.
"Look at the water!" one small folk man signaled and everyone did, but what they saw only made the weak hearted women sob and the men tremble in anger.
Behind every ship, a red line was formed just from the blood that was dripping down from the decks into the sea.
Everyone though about their husbands, brothers, sons and friends that partaken in the battle.
Slowly the first eagle sail ships docked, even before they did, the men on the decks shouted for medics to be ready.
Just as the wooden board connected the ship with the pear the first wounded were transported out.
Lord Mallister was the first to come down shouting orders at his guards.
"Bring every carriage, every door or plank! We need to transport the wounded to the field hospital! Everyone is to help! That's my decree!" he moved to the side letting the people behind him help the wounded disembark.
"Men of the North! Help your brother's and sisters!" Lord Stark watched the bloodied and mangled men and women being transported from the ships as swiftly as possible.
He caught a glimpse on the Dustin Centurion, Jon as he moved around maneuvering between the ships like looking for something or someone.
"Did you see Elena? She is my sister, serving in the first!" not getting any reply he moved to the next Praetorian he saw. "Elena, she is part of the first!" he looked again. "Elena! Elena!"
Ned just watched with wounded heart, 'What if I allowed them to build the fleet, they always said this might happen and yet...'.
Just as the first ships were pulled away after getting their wounded unloaded new ones took their place, ships were pushed to the sandy beach not being able to wait for their turn, small boats transported the other heavy wounded from other ships, it was a total chaos.
"My Lord." Jory Cassel pointed with his chin where the Stag banner ships started to enter the port.
Ned had a really bad feeling about it seeing the three Dustin banners flying frigates surrounding the Fury, Stannis Baratheon ship, stubbornly blocking his path, not even hiding the animosity by discreetly, or even not so discreetly pointing the scorpions at it.
"This can't be good..." Ned already felt the bad premonition, fortunately, when he looked to the side he saw something that warmed his heart.
The young noblemen, soldiers and even knights moved together with the small folk helping to transport the wounded out.
They already got rid of their armours, and the leather clothing was already dirtied by blood and mud, but even Smalljon Umber did his part by grabbing the heavy wagons that got stuck with other Umbers men and pushing them free.
The young Karstark boys were running and bringing supplies from the Dustin camp, hot water and bandages, they even didn't step away from cleaning the wounds preparing the wounded to be stiched.
Forresters and Hornwood boys pressed the bleeding wounds with their hands, blocking the blood from flowing, only paying attention to their job at hand and following the commands of small folk women that were more experienced then them.
Eddard looked at their fathers, their puffed up chests and eyes filled with pride... 'Will Robb be like that as well?' he hoped he would, but only time would tell.
"My Lord please stop!" Lord Stark looked to the newly docked Ironborn ship where the shouts came from.
He couldn't believe what he saw.
"Fucking let me go! We don't have time for this! Take the rest of the critically wounded and bring them to the shore!"
"Brendan..." he whispered as his legs moved subconsciously bringing the man closer.
"But my Lord, your wounds!" one of the Praetorians wanted to stop his Lord.
"Old Gods be my witnesses if you don't stop and do as I say I will cut your cock and feed it to you!" Brendan bit his lips till they started bleeding, at least this helped him forget about his other pain.
The Praetorian did as ordered and grabbed one of the critically wounded Praetorians and moved behind his Lord.
Just behind them Noya supported struggling Dacey as the latter was bleeding heavily with pale face. They did not escape Maege sight as she hastily moved closer.
Brendan walked with the Praetorian, holding her in a princes carry and moved to the medics.
"Help! Help!" he shouted gaining some attention.
Some of the white clad men hastened to him and placed the wounded Legionare on the stretcher and unbuckled the armour revealing a good looking woman with a heavy gush on her stomach, bleeding profusely.
We managed to block the bleeding with her aid kit, we administered 2 doses of pain numbing potion but she needs help.
For Brendan each and everyone of his men was like family, that too was the reason why he implemented specific procedures of field aid to be followed.
The medical staff looked at the armour of the girl where Brendan as per procedure wrote with blood symbols that indicated what was done to her up till now.
"Elena!" he heard in the distance.
The name that was shouted was the same one as on the freely hanging dog tags on the girls neck.
Catching the person that shouted with his eyes Brendan recognized the man, after all, he was the one who sent him to supervise Oldstones garrison.
"Jon! Here!" his hand was heavy and his voice hoarse, but that was enough as the Centurion came running.
"My Lord!" he dove on his knees, his shaky hands trembled as he looked at his sister.
"She's alright for now, we stopped the bleeding, take her to the doctor!" Brendan couldn't hold it anymore and just dropped to the muddy ground, his backs were killing him.
"My Lord! You!" the medics wanted to rush to him.
"I'm alright! Help her!" Brendan just stayed on his back not moving, trying to coupe with the pain.
Everyone worked hastily when the voices in the distance got louder.
From the direction of the field Hospital wagon after wagon came with clad in white men and women.
Behind them, more carriages carrying medical supplies emerged with a Seaworth cavalry Knights escort.
"You know my Lord, I'm starting to get really irritated with how you always get yourself hurt." the calm and collected voice from one of his mentors and family members reached Brendan as he looked to the side, moving as little as possible.
Just as Lord Dustin smiled after hearing the familiar voice, Qyburn took out some vials from his bag and sprinkled some powder on Elena's wound and fed her a potion making her pale face gain some color.
The medics, doctors and nurses from Neverwinter arrived.
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