章節 37: War
(Sorry if I didn't post a chapter for a while but I started an internship in a foreign country and my time on the Net is really limited, I will try to post more but it will be difficult until August.)
Winterfell, The Northern Realms
It has been a sennight since news of King Robert's death came to the Starks. Aryan was sad because he enjoyed the man and knew that his uncle will be sorrowful about the loss of his best friend. He was eating with his wife, his first son while the twins were sleeping when Marwyn came in the dining room with a letter. He took the letter, started reading it and chuckled.
"What is it, mon amour?" asked Gabriella
"The bastard boy wants me to go bend the knee and swear fealty to him."
She smiled and cleaned Leon's mouth who had food around it, "Did we receive news from Stannis or Renly?"
"None but I believe that Stannis will not stay quiet for long." Aryan was quiet a few minutes and was thinking before asking Ser Rodrick to call Jaqen in his solar. He went to his solar with his wife and waited for his spymaster which arrived rapidly.
"I need information of all movements in the Seven Kingdoms and movements in Essos who could be of interest to us."
"Yes, my Lord. Recently we lost contact with nearly all of our spies in Dragonstone. I suspect that they were all burnt by the Red Priestess, Melisandre."
"How is this possible? How could Faceless Men be easily found and burned?" Gabriella asked.
Aryan chuckled and said "Not every spies we have is a faceless man. The great majority of our information comes from locals of each territory who don't even know who they work for. Well, thankfully we didn't lose our eyes in Dragonstone, we still can get information with the excavation team who is mining dragonglass. Either way, Kinvara, I want you to be close to Dragonstone and that Red Witch but don't risk your life. I believe that she knew you were here the last time, that is the reason you didn't find anything, be more cunning this time." seeing Kinvara agree, he turned to Jaqen to have him continue. He was about to continue when one of the acolytes came to the room and gave him two letters. He started reading the first,
'To Lord Aryan Stark, Lord Paramount of the Northern Realms, Lord of Winterfell, and Warden of the North,
I propose an alliance between the North, The Reach and the Stormlands to face the Lannisters and my brother. In exchange for this alliance, I will have my firstborn son with the Queen Margaery Tyrell be wed to your daughter Ashara Stark. Let us bring prosperity to the realm together with me as King.
Renly of the House Baratheon, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm'
The more he read the letter the more his eyes became cold. He was very angry at the idea of someone wanting to use his daughter in exchange for his army. He would never let his darling daughter in King's Landing, he passed the letter to his wife who also became angry at the audacity of Renly.
"How bold of him. Especially knowing that we want nothing from the South, he's trying to lure us in with our daughter to control us and the North. Who does he think we are? I really wish to bring the might of the North on him." Gabriella said.
"Renly's writing and Renly's words but everything I see is the smell of the scheming old witch Olenna, Renly is too proud to ask us for an alliance. I'm pretty sure that even if we accept it, we would be the one who fork more soldiers and when we put Renly on the throne, he will start taxing us heavily in favor of the Reach." Aryan said before continuing "They talk about an hypothetical firstborn who isn't even here and would not be here for a long time, especially since Renly's little brother only wake up for the wrong Tyrell sibling. Well, let us ignore this letter."
"You won't retaliate, my Lord?" Marwyn asked with a smile.
Aryan rolled his eyes and said "If I had to kill every person who asked a marriage alliance for Ashara's hand, there will be no Lord left in the Seven Kingdoms."
He unsealed the second scroll and started reading it too,
'To all the Lords and Ladies of the Seven Kingdoms,
All men know me for the trueborn son of Steffon Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End, by his lady wife Cassana of House Estermont. I declare upon the honor of my House that my beloved brother Robert, our late king, left no trueborn issue of his body, the boy Joffrey, the boy Tommen, and the girl Myrcella being abominations born of incest between Cersei Lannister and her brother Jaime the Kingslayer. You will surely have in your possession a book named 'The Lineages and Histories of the Great House of the Seven Kingdoms', in that book you will learn that every single Baratheon since Orys Baratheon were born with black of hair and blue of eyes except the three incestborn bastards, this is also the reason why Jon Arryn got killed by the Lannisters twins. By right of birth and blood, I do this day lay claim to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Let all true men declare their loyalty.
Done in the Light of the Lord, under the sign and seal of Stannis of House Baratheon, the First of His Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, and Lord of the Seven Kingdoms.'
Aryan quickly asked Marwyn to bring him the book, which he asked one of the acolytes to find, it arrived in Aryan's hand in less than ten minutes and he started to read it "Lord Orys Baratheon, black of hair, blue of eyes. Lord Axel Baratheon, black of hair, blue of eyes. Lord Lyonel Baratheon, black of hair, blue of eyes. Lord Steffon Baratheon, black of hair, blue of eyes. King Robert Baratheon, black of hair, blue of eyes. Prince Joffrey Baratheon... Golden-haired, green of eyes..." he smiled and started chuckling "What a master move by Stannis. It seems that we underestimated him when we thought he was only a competent battle commander."
Gabriella smiled and said "Indeed."
He turned to Jaqen and said "I want to know every single Lord's reaction and position to this letter." seeing Jaqen nod he said "Now, continue."
"Viserys Targaryen was killed by Khal Drogo a few moons ago after threatening Daenerys' child. As for the Young Griff we found out that his father is also in the Company and is called Gryff. We will start digging deeper to know more about them and when we find their identities we will t..." he couldn't finish talking when an acolyte rushed in the room panting. Seeing the displeasure in Aryan's eyes he apologized "Apologies my Lord, but you need to see this."
Aryan, intrigued, followed him out and seeing people looking at the sky he also reciprocated. And in the sky, he saw it, a red comet was traversing the sky. Everyone was talking about it but Aryan wasn't pleased by it. "Harwin." he said in a low voice but nearly everyone heard it. Harwin immediately arrived and bowed to Aryan who said "Send your fastest rider to Jon, I want him in Winterfell, and I want him here before a fortnight."
Harwin nodded and went to prepare his fastest rider. Aryan was looking in the sky and starting muttering but Gabriella, Jaqen, Kinvara and Marwyn heard him "Who did it? Who hatched dragons?"
~
It has been five days since the rider came with a message to return to Winterfell as soon as possible, and he finally started to see Winterfell. He speeded up his worse and looked behind him, he already missed Ygritte and Val but his cousin wanted him to come fast and the two of them weren't used to horse riding and couldn't make the trip at his pace.
He immediately saw his cousin waiting for him, he jumped down his horse and gave it to Harwin, he walked and hugged Aryan. He then immediately saw Gabriella with Leon and the twins, he played with Leon and made him giggle and took the twins in his arms.
They had lunch together and he started to tell about his relationship with the freefolk and what he did since he last saw them. After the lunch, his cousin asked him to follow him to the crypt. They went to a secret room where there was a throne made of ice. It was not regular ice that you could come across in nature... It was mystical. In front it was two batch of dragon eggs, one batch had only two eggs while the other batch had more than forty. Curious, he asked "What is going on, cousin?"
"You will hatch those two eggs, get them in your room, put your blood on the eggs and place them in the fire."
"What about the other forty?"
"Forty-two. I will try to sacrifice the same number of bandits to revive the eggs and with the power of the throne and of my magic, turn them into ice dragons while reviving them."
Jon frowned "Don't I need to sacrifice people for hatching mine?"
Aryan raised his eyebrows "Why would you do that? The eggs I gave you are still alive, they don't need anything other than your father's house words, 'Fire and Blood'. Go on, tell me when they hatch, I already have created a place for when they grow up."
Jon nodded and asked "If we can hatch all these eggs, we will have forty four dragons?"
"I doubt it. What I am trying to do is very complex and was never done before, if we can still have a third of them survive it would be a success and even after, they would need at least half a decade to be tempered after changing to an opposing nature. So we will have only your two fire dragons for now. Anyway, ice dragons are for the future of our House, using ice dragons against our current enemy will be counter-productive." he chuckled.
Soon, exactly forty two bandits were dragged by Aryan special unit 'The Black Wolves' each of them had their legs broken and their hands tied behind their back. They were each made to kneel before an egg each in a circle. Aryan sat on the Throne of Winter and put his hands on the armrest. Immediately, the snarling wolves red eyes of the throne started glowing and different runes started to appear around the eggs. Forty two ice spikes were made and each of them pierced the hearts of the bandits with their blood flowing on the eggs. Then, when all the bandits were dead and the blood of their hearts squeezed till the last drop the eggs started to get frozen and the runes started to glow for a few minutes.
After a few minutes, only sixteen eggs, remained, the rest turning onto the dust, but all of them emitted a chill that gave Jon goosebumps. Aryan stood up pricked his finger a put his blood on each of the egg, who surprisingly absorb the blood, he then said "That's a shame, I thought that I could sell all the eggs who were sacrificed... Well, whatever, sixteen is more than I anticipated. We will hatch when they are ready. They respond to the Stark blood now, always and forever."
That night Jon successfully hatched two dragons, a red one named Rhaenix, for the sister he never got the chance to meet, and a grey one name Lyannix, for his mother.
~
Aryan, Gabriella and Jon decided to hide the dragons in the crypt for the time being before they grow up and move them to their place. Aryan was eating with the both of them when Jaqen barged in with Ser Rodrick, Aryan with his eyes dismissed all the servants and listened to what he had to say "Tywin found out that the Tully's will join Stannis and try to dethrone Joffrey. He has called Jaime Lannister back and is prepared for a large invasion of the Riverlands. He also contacted a few sellswords companies. He will soon unleash the Mountain and his men on the smallfolk of the Riverlands."
"How did he find out?"
"Baelish."
Aryan let out a small chuckle "Impressive. Every time I believe that this little worm couldn't annoy me more, he surpasses himself. Where is the Blackfish?"
"He is the Knight of the Bloody Gate. Hoster Tully is bedridden. When the Lannisters start invading, Edmure Tully will lead the Riverlords."
"Bloody hell. Tell William Dustin to bring the army near Castle Cerwyn."
"Do you have to go, mon chéri?"
"Yes, I have to, if Edmure dies, one of Ned's sons will inherit the Riverlands and I don't want anything to do with that. And even if Hoster is a cunt, the Blackfish is a good man who taught Jon a lot. And last but not the least, the firstborn of the Lord Paramount of the Riverlands is my aunt, yet Tywin plan to invade the land of my kin like I don't exist." he chuckled and continued "Slaughtering the Reynes and Tarbeck's and sacking an undefended city made him fell invincible. He believes everyone is afraid of him. His desecration of reality shall not go unpunished. Ser Rodrick, tell Marwyn to call the Lords."
~
It has been a fortnight since Marwyn send ravens to the Lords and all of them were here in Winterfell. The following morning Aryan and ten thousand troops started to march to Castle Cerwyn to regroup with his army and the rest of his bannermen.
Gabriella and Jon were watching him leave after that she turned around and started, she then arrived at her husband's solar and sat down, she looked at Jon and said "We can't hide the fact that we are going to war with a huge army for long. Do you know what is the first thing that will happen when words gets out?"
Jon nodded "Ironborns."
Gabriella smiled and summoned Ser Rodrick "Ser Rodrick, bring me hundred of your most trusted men in the hall."
In the hall, Gabriella was watching a hundred men and said to them "Go to our western coast and warn them to be ready to evacuate all villages and fishing boat, engage all defenses and..." she then smiled with an air of innocence and said with that smile "Slaughter every single squid who breathes our lands' air."
~
Castle Cerwyn, The Northern Realms
Aryan and his army arrived near the castle and they saw the army ready near, more than fifty thousand were already here, twelve thousand were waiting at the Moat. He spend the night in Castle Cerwyn before arriving with his cavalry in front of his army who was already marching, he stopped his horse, rose his left hand and close it in a fist, not a single noise appeared after that, he then said in a calm voice but every single soldiers heard it "All troops. Advance." he then advanced in front of a cheering army.
After the Dance of Dragons and Robert's Rebellion, the Northern Army is once again marching down south, for war.
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