The Unseen Scribe
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The Rebirth of the Dragons - Chapter 12
🕑 Added 2023-06-20 23:52:02 +0000 UTCChapter 12
Eddard Stark. 289AC
Ned prepared for battle as they got closer to the town of Lordsport.
He hated that his men would have to fight in a contested landing, but as lord Blackwood had said, he was suffering from success. His men were able to conquer both Blacktyde and Orkmont in record time; Varys' information was right, Blacktyde was almost empty, once they reached the island, Ned was able to talk the young lord Baelor Blacktyde into surrendering without a fight, there was a little loss of moral as his men complained about not fighting the ironborn, but Ned would gladly hear those complains, because some of those men who were complaining might not have been alive if he ordered an attack.
In Orkmont things went a little different.
The castle was well defended; Ned prepared himself for a long siege and it seemed it would go that way until two moons after the siege started a few of his men found something interesting. The rock beneath the soil of the hill the castle was built on was quite weak and easy to mine, so he ordered his men to start mining. It took another moon for the men to reach the foundations of the castle wall, they had to mine slowly and start from far away, it was the only way not to alert the defenders of what they were doing, once they reached the foundations of the castle wall they started to mine at it, weakening the wall until they saw that the wall was ready to collapse, once it was done, Ned ordered the men to start a large fire in the cave below the wall.
They only needed to wait a little more than two hours for a large portion of the wall to collapse, the weakened foundations and the fire doing exactly what Ned expected. Once the wall collapsed the battle was easy, the enemies had lost their defensive position and were outnumbered by Ned's troops three to one, it was almost laughably easy to conquer the castle, they lost only 700 men and that was mostly before they cleared the still somewhat narrow chokepoint that was the breach on the wall.
Lord Orkwood had surrendered quite quickly once Ned's troops were inside his walls, but he certainly wasn't graceful in defeat. The man surrendered but still tried to make trouble for Ned multiple times, trying to flee from the castle at night, leading a few of his household guard that survived the battle in a foolish attempt to take over the armory and retake the castle, and an attempt to poison the food that Ned and his war council would eat one night, one of the servants of the castle was willing to betray his lord and alerted Ned of his poisoning attempt, apparently the lord Orkwood had forced himself on the servants wife, claiming the right to first night, something that was illegal since the reign of king Jaehaerys. Luckily no one died during his attempts or else Ned would have been forced to execute him, but his last attempt to poison Ned and his lords, as well as the accusations of the servant, gave Ned enough of a reason to put the man in chains instead of confining him to his bedchambers. Lord Orkwood now waited below the deck; Ned would present him in front of Robert so the man would receive the king's justice for his crimes.
Because of the quick victory in Orkmont, his men were now claiming him to be the 'hungry wolf' reborn, no matter how much Ned tried to stop it, not that he tried too hard to stop it. He was once called the 'quiet wolf', but with the amount of servant girls and handmaidens Ashara had brought into their bed since the last year, some in the north were starting to call him the 'lusty wolf', he much preferred to be known by the same epithet as his ancestor.
A large smile appeared on his face as his thoughts moved north, to his home. In her last letter Ashara had given him good news, apparently their lovemaking the day he left for the war had taken root and she was now pregnant. They were truly blessed by the gods, two moons before the start of their seventh year of marriage and they already had four children with a fifth on the way.
He hoped the war ended quickly, he wanted to be in Winterfell for the birth of his child; he wanted to be there to have another good natured fight with Ashara about what to name the child. They both agreed in naming their firstborn Brandon, they also agreed in naming the twins Sansa and Arya, but they fought fiercely about the name of their fourth child; Ned wanted to name the boy Rickard or Rickon, in honor of his father, while Ashara wanted to name the boy Arthur, in honor of her brother. They ended up agreeing on Edwyle, the name of Ned's grandfather and the father of Vorian Dayne, last King of the Torrentine and namesake of Ashara's favorite uncle.
"Smiling before a battle, Ned; that is unlike the 'quiet wolf' i've known since i was a child." Ned heard a familiar voice say.
He looked to his right and saw his old friend Willam Dustin, the man had long brown hair that reached his shoulders, a well kept beard, grey-blue eyes and large, muscled arms.
"Just remembering that i have a pregnant wife waiting for me back home." Ned responded.
"Aye, the 'lusty wolf' attacks again, by the gods Ned, i remember your wedding in Starfall, it wasn't that long ago. And now you already have four children with a fifth on the way, give Ashara a rest." Willam said in a teasing tone.
Ned laughed a little at his friends comments; he had a more reserved personality and wasn't one to laugh in front of people he didn't knew, but Willam was one of the few friends who could get him to do it.
"But I understand your happiness, i can't wait till the war is over so a can go back to my Barbrey and our little Kyra" Willam said.
Ned winced slightly like he did every time the name of Barbrey Dustin was said in his presence, his friend was happy with his marriage, but Ned could never forget that his brother had dishonored the lady Dustin and taken her maidenhead. Although, to be fair, Brandon wanted to marry Barbrey Ryswell, he never agreed to the betrothal with Catelyn Tully, it was the idea of their father and his maester Walys. Ned was quite happy when the old maester died only a few moons after he returned to Winterfell when the war ended, he still blamed the old maester for putting ideas of 'playing the game' in his father's head, betrothing Brandon to Catelyn Tully, even the betrothal of Lyanna to Robert that Ned was the one to propose, but his father and Walys pushed for it harder than he did. Even if the war started because of Rhaegar and Lyanna being stupid; Ned still thought that the mad king wouldn't have burned his father if his father were not trying to 'play the game' in the south.
"You talk about me and my five children Willam, but you've been married for longer than i and still only have one daughter. Even Howland already has two children." Ned teased his friend back.
"Aye, he has, but we both know that is more because of Jyana than Howland himself, shy as he is, he would probably only fuck his wife once a year if he could." Willam responded.
They laughed at the joke, both knowing that if Howland had been there to hear it, they would be bruised almost from head to toe next time they spared with the little crannogman. Ned had only seen Howland lose a fight once, and that was a spar against his goodbrother, Arthur, all those years ago in that tower in Dorne; not even Ser Barristan or ser Gerold, could defeat him.
"We better stop with these jokes, before he hears us and give us a beating." Ned said, causing Willam to laugh again.
"Aye, he would do that." Willam responded.
"Let us be serious now, there is a battle coming soon." Ned said.
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Ned prepared himself to leave the ship and join the fight, not a single ship of the iron fleet had survived in Lordsport, so they were able to land unopposed on the docks of the town, that is, unopposed except for enemy archers and catapult fire. A few men went down to enemy arrows, and a few ships were lost due to enemy catapults, but they were able to land on the city somewhat safely.
The few ships that landed had a rough time; Ned could see fighting already happening at the docks, Robert swinging his war hammer with enough force to send men flying. Ned could see the fighting was going better for the enemy, the narrow paths of the docks were more beneficial for the enemy's tightly packed shield wall than the still disorganized royal forces, it was difficult to organize a proper battle line while your troops were landing.
Their ship docked and lord Umber was the first to leave, the enemy had a shield wall waiting for them as they landed, it didn't make much of a difference, as lord Umber, charged at them without even drawing his sword, his large frame, fully clad in plate armor, seemed almost like a wall of steel running towards the enemy line as he used the outside of his arms to bat away spears in his path, clearing some landing ground for the rest of Ned's ship, something they used quickly.
Ned was the third to leave the ship, lord Mormont going before him; the sword of the lord of Bear Island was almost a blur, showing why he was one of the best fighters in the north. Ned went next, unlike lord Umber he drew his sword and didn't charge the shield wall, trying to stay just out of the range of their spears and organize his men into a proper battle line.
"Form a line, Interlock shields." Ned screamed.
More of his men had left the ship by that point; some moved to his left, others to his right, forming a battle line with Ned right at the center; his old friends were by his side, to his left, stood Willam, his shield interlocked with Ned's own, to his right, stood Ethan Glover, the former squire of his brother Brandon, also had his shield interlocked with Ned's. Ned saw lord Umber take a spear to the leg, he was in front of them, still smashed against the enemy shield wall, and even his well made plate armor wasn't enough to deal with the amount of enemies he was fighting against.
"Forward." Ned screamed, ordering his men to move, trying to put the now injured lord Umber behind their line.
The smallfolk they were up against had no chance to fight against Ned's men, most of them were of noble birth and equipped with better weapons and armor, so even against a larger number of enemies in a defensive position, they were still able to make progress. They quickly were able to pass lord Umber, the man wanted to stay in the front of the line but, Ned ordered him to go behind, his injured left leg was limiting his mobility and he was visibly putting more of his weight on his right leg, something that could disrupt the shield wall if he stayed in front. They continued to move forward, driving the enemies out of the pier and into the town. He looked to his right and as little as he could see from the center of his battle line, he still realized that the right was having troubles.
When they were given five piers to land in the docks, Ned made his battle strategy pretty clear. He picked five ships to land first, the ships that would land to the far right and far left were mostly filled with smallfolk, with a few minor lords to command them; the ships in the middle was one that held more experienced soldiers, mostly household guards from the many lords, all three were supposed to clear the pier and them send their backlines inside, towards the inner left and inner right, were the ships that held the lords would land.
Looking over the battle field now, he could see that the smallfolk were having troubles, both the right and the left were nowhere close to clearing the piers; the center was a little better, they had almost cleared the pier, to the left, the other ship that held the lords had also cleared their pier. Ned's strategy went wrong, but he immediately adapted, sending three lines from the back of his formation towards the right, the center didn't need any reinforcements at the moment; looking to the right he saw Lord Blackwood, who was in command of the other ship, had done the same, sending his men to help the left.
Ned turned his attention back to the fighting, using his sword to catch the spear between his weapon and his shield, applying enough pressure to break the shaft; pressing his advantage by closing the distance and driving his sword into the neck of the man in front of him. He saw two other men going down, as Willam and Ethan finished their opponents in a similar way.
The three of them continued to down enemies, sometimes helping each other when they saw an opening; Ned was starting to feel the strain on his shield arm, so he called for the second line to advance, the first line retreating to the back of the formation, the fresher troops almost immediately downed the front of the enemy shield wall.
At the back of the formation, Ned had a lot more freedom to look around and survey the battlefield; the center of his troops had cleared the pier and were now connected with Ned's own shield wall, the right and left had also cleared the pier but were still a little far from the shield wall; Lord Blackwood had also connected his troops to the main line. He looked behind to see that the second group of ships was already docked and the men were leaving them.
While his own troops were fighting a battle with many flanks of their own, they were actually in the right flank of the battle as a whole. Ned looked to the left and saw, beyond his troops, the center of the battle; Robert still at the front of the line, crushing a different enemy with every swing of his war hammer, the white clocks of the kingsguard moving around him, as they tried to protect their king who insisted in fighting out of formation, he could see the quite distinctive blonde hair of the kingslayer; he imagined that the men fighting him weren't having a good time, as much as Ned disliked him, he still respected his fighting ability.
The sight of Robert having fun fighting might have one day filled Ned with happiness, in the days were Robert was his brother in all but blood, but these days he could only remember the mad glint in Robert's eyes as he stepped over the bodies of two dead children to seat on the iron throne.
Ned turned his attention to his side of the battle again; his men were finally connected into a single battle line, instead of fighting five different battles, they had cleared the piers but were still holding ground on the docks; Ned knew he would have to divide his troops again as they advanced through the town towards the castle that was the seat of house Botley, the narrow streets would be perfect spots for ambushes. With that in mind, Ned divided his men into three groups, each one going through a different street; less than that, they would be too crowded in the narrow streets, more, they would be spreading themselves too much and subjecting the men to more ambushes.
Ned would lead the group going through the center street, the left would be under the command of Lord Blackwood, the right, Ned put under the command of Lord Bolton. He didn't trust the man; Ashara had said many times that the lord of the Dreadfort would betray Ned if given an opportunity. Ashara had spent years in the vipers nest that was kings landing, she was better in politics than Ned ever was, so when she said the man was untrustworthy, Ned listened to his wife. But right now, the man was the best option to lead men against a well defended enemy.
Ned waited for two more groups of ships to dock before he ordered the troops to move, with more men on each group, they were able to move somewhat safely through the town, his men moving slowly and carefully through the narrow streets; there was a tense moment when they got caught between the enemy shield wall at front and a group archers on a side street, but the archers were hit from behind by a few of the men under the command of lord Bolton, as they also advanced through a different street. When they reached the halfway point between the docks and the castle, Ned started to see rocks flying overhead, that was a sign that the ships had unloaded most of the troops and were now turning their mounted catapults towards the castle walls, just as planned.
Once they reached the castle, they stayed out of range of the archers while the catapults concentrated fire into a single section of the wall, it took hours until the wall started to show signs of the battering they were taking, from there it took around another hour and half for that section of the wall to collapse. By then, dusk was settling and the men were tired, they had been fighting the entire day, but they needed to take advantage of the breach on the wall, if they waited to attack the next morning, they would be subjecting themselves to setting camp in enemy territory and the defenders of the castle would have time to set some fortifications in place to try and defend the breach, so when Robert gave the command to attack, Ned led his men forward.
The fighting inside the castle was just as brutal as the fight on the streets, the defenders being helped by the cover of darkness as the night settled were able to bleed them more than they should be able to. The courtyard of the castle was red with blood as Ned fought his way into the main hall, by that time it was impossible to have any organization and the fighting was being done mostly in many scattered individual duels. Ned walked inside the main hall side by side with Robert, the larger man giving him a smile before they broke open the doors; Ned was once again reminded of the time that smile would have brought him happiness.
Shaking his head to stop the distraction, Ned walked into the main hall immediately parrying a sword strike, turning his body and using the enemy's own momentum to make him fall, the enemy was finished by a sword thrust from Ser Balon Swann, who walked a few steps behind Ned. They fought their way through the main hall until they were fighting near the raised dais; Ned fought a young man who was quite fast, but had no strength behind his strikes, there was more fighting going around him; Robert fought lord Botley himself, Stannis, the kingslayer, Ser Balon Swann, and many other also fought their own duels. The fighting ended when Robert knocked down lord Botley and the man finally surrendered. They walked outside, and having seen their lord had surrendered the Botley men threw down their weapons, causing the royal side of the battle to scream in celebration.
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Ned walked towards the war chamber of Pyke, the siege of the Greyjoy castle was in some ways a lot easier and in others harder than the Botley one, the walls were much stronger so it took a lot more time to create a breach, it was also better manned and defended so the battle was bloodier on the outside, but once they did breach the walls the battle was easy; Thoros of Myr charging in with that flaming sword of his was enough to scare some of the defenders on its own, Ned was also quite happy that the second man through the breach was lord Mormont, the bear lord fought like a warrior from the age of heroes during the battle, it gained him a knighthood from Robert, not that many in the north cared about it. But, as it happens in any battle, there were a lot of casualties; Ned was still thinking of how to give the news to Old Nan that her grandson Beron, had died; he knew the man since he was a child, and Old Nan was almost like a grandmother to him, she had nursed Starks since the time of his great grandfather.
He walked inside the room and saw that all of the lords were already there; Stannis looked a lot more like his father Steffon than Robert did, he was just as tall and broad shouldered as his older brother, but unlike Robert he hadn't inherited any of the softer features from his mother Cassana, Ned didn't knew much about Robert's younger brother, but what he did knew painted the lord of Storm's End as a honorable man with a strong sense of duty; Lord Tywin Lannister hadn't changed much since the last time Ned had seen him, tall, with thin but muscled arms, side-whiskers and those cold, calculating green eyes, the man looked just as dangerous as ever; Lord Paxter Redwyne, thin and with thin orange hair, the man looked uncomfortable, which Ned imagined was because he was on firm land, the man was known to be more comfortable in the open seas than on dry land; Lords Mallister and Blackwood were also there and Ned moved towards the open seat next to them.
"Lord Stannis, it is an honor to see you again. I hope you are in good health." Ned said, greeting the brother of the king first, as was expected.
"Thank you for your kind words, Lord Stark. Apart from a cut i suffered in the battle i am well enough." Stannis responded.
"Lord Tywin, congratulations on your victory in ten towers." Ned greeted the old lion next.
"Thank you, Lord Stark, and i offer congratulations of my own, for your next child, the fifth one i believe." Tywin said.
Ned narrowed his eyes, he still hadn't revealed that information to anyone, and he knew that apart from him, the only letter Ashara had sent was to her own family in Starfall, so the old lion had a spy either in Winterfell or in Starfall.
"Thank you, Lord Lannister." Ned responded with all the calm he could muster.
"Lord Paxter, it is an honor to meet you, Wendel has spoken quite highly of you." Ned greeted the lord of the Arbor next.
"Lord Stark, the honor is all mine to meet someone of your many accomplishments. As for Wendel, we became good friends while he was fostered with by father at the Arbor, by i'm sure i don't need to tell you of the friendships that can emerge from such situations." Paxter responded.
"True enough, Lord Paxter." Ned responded.
"Tytos, Jason; how goes the day?" He greeted the Blackwood and Mallister lords more familiarly; they fought most of the war under his command after all.
Before the men could respond him, there was a booming sound as the door opened and Robert walked into the room, Ser Balon Swann, the lord commander of the kingsguard following him. Ned was still surprised every time he looked at Robert, it probably wasn't noticed by most people, few knew Robert as well as he did, but Robert had gained weight in these last few years, he had a hint of a belly now and his face was rounder. It was another thing that convinced Ned he didn't knew Robert anymore, the Robert he grew up with was a warrior, he would never be that out of shape.
"Let us be quick about this, there is no more fighting to be done, but there is still wine to be drank." Robert said, seating on the chair at the head of the table.
"Tell me what you all think should be done to Greyjoy." Robert asked, his booming voice still as strong as ever.
"I believe the safest option would be to kill him or send him to the wall, your grace. He did rebel against your rule." Stannis said, in a cold indifferent tone. There was no love lost between the brothers.
"I agree with lord Stannis, your grace. It is the prudent path to take." Tywin said.
Ned internally smirked, his task was made almost too easy now that both Stannis and Tywin had agreed on a course of action, Robert most of the time took pleasure in denying them both.
"By the gods, Ned, you don't have to be that quiet all the time, speak your mind and give me the advice i brought you here for." Robert said smiling at him.
Ned prepared himself to present his 'advice' in the best way possible, his task was quite specific, but he could probably achieve it, especially now that Stannis and Tywin had agreed on something.
"I believe you can show mercy, your grace. Let him bend the knee, take his remaining children as wards of the crown and take the Seastone chair so no one can claim the title of iron king again." Ned responded.
He added the taking of the Seastone chair because he knew it would appeal to Robert; he remembered how, in their younger days, Robert was always interested in spoils of war. He realized that Robert liked his suggestion by the glint on his eyes.
"Lord Mallister, what is your suggestion?" Robert asked.
"I agree with lord Stannis, your grace. It is the sensible thing to do." Jason responded.
"And what about you, lord Blackwood?" Robert asked again.
"I also agree with lord Stannis, your grace." Tytos responded.
Ned now was starting to fear his suggestion wouldn't be taken, Robert didn't care for politics but he still knew just as much as Ned about it, both being trained by lord Arryn. And since Ned knew it was difficult to accept his suggestion without anyone agreeing with him, Robert certainly knew as well.
"Ser Balon, you are the lord commander of my kingsguard, a member of my small council, you also have a voice here. So, what do you say?" Robert asked, looking at the kingsguard.
Ned watched as the kingsguard took some time to gather his thoughts before he responded.
"I agree with Lord Stark, your grace. The iron born respect Lord Balon enough to fight a war that was doomed from the start, i believe allowing him to bend the knee would keep the realm more stable." Ser Balon responded.
Ned had to stop himself from showing a reaction; after the way Robert addressed him, having ser Balon agree with him was a major draw towards his suggestion. He watched as Robert stopped to think, about a minute later he said.
"We will go with Ned's plan. The boy will be going to Winterfell with him, while the girl will be going to kings landing, Jon can take her as a ward."
That wasn't what Ned needed; he was stopped from voicing his issues with it when lord Lannister did it for him.
"Your grace, there is much resentment against the ironborn in the north, lord Stark might not be able to keep the boy safe. Wouldn't be better to take the boy as a ward of the crown, or let him be fostered by another house in the south?"
He internally thanked the old lion, even if externally he showed some annoyance, after all, the man had just subtly implied that Ned couldn't keep a ward safe within his own home.
"Ned will keep the boy safe, and i won't be dealing with annoying brats like Ned and i were to Jon while were in the Eyrie." Robert said, laughing towards the end as he raised his cup in Ned's direction.
Ned didn't even try to change Robert's mind, he knew by that tone of voice that there was no point in doing it.
"As you command, your grace. Now, we still need to talk about gold and other forms of war reparations." He could see the annoyance in lord Tywin's face when he responded.
As soon as the Lannister lord spoke the word gold, Robert rose from his seat causing all the others to also raised themselves, as to not be seated while the king stood.
"You can all count coppers amongst yourselves, i have wine to drink." Robert said, leaving the room.
"Well, at least this time he didn't say women to fuck." Lord Stannis said once his brother was out of the room, to the visible annoyance of lord Tywin. Robert made no point in hiding the fact that he fucked a whore each night, even in front of his good-father.
They stayed in the room for another hour and half, discussing gold and other reparations of war, which the iron islands would have to pay. All the while Ned thought about how his task wasn't perfectly completed, he only hoped that having only one of the Greyjoy children in king's landing wouldn't change queen Rhaella's plans too much.
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Ned watched as lord Mormont danced with Lynesse Hightower, his queen of love and beauty; the young woman was pretty enough, nothing close to his Ashara, who in Ned's opinion, was the most beautiful woman to ever exist; but she had a somewhat valyrian look to her, close to what Ned remembered of queen Rhaella. Ned remembered another tourney, a long time ago, and all the trouble that it caused. But the current situation was a lot different than that one; Lynesse Hightower was not promised to anyone and lord Mormont was widowed; Ned realized he might be looking at the future lady of bear island based on the looks the young woman was giving Jorah.
Ned was distracted from his musings when a servant approached lord Lannister; Ned felt sorry for the young boy, Robert was present on the raised dais, drinking and enjoying the feast after the tourney, together with the other high lords in attendance; approaching a place where the king was, without being invited, was a major breach of decorum, and a man like Tywin Lannister would certainly punish the boy. Ned was close enough to hear the boy say.
"My lord, there was a problem in the guest quarters; Lady Asha Greyjoy is not on her guest chambers."
Ned imagined the girl must have snuck out of her room to enjoy the feast; it was quite petty of both Robert and Tywin denying the girl from doing so.
"My lord, there was a piece of paper on her bed." the boy said, handing a piece of paper to lord Tywin.
Ned saw lord Tywin visibly pale, which was quite unlike the old lion, he never showed reactions like that, but when Robert picked the paper and screamed, Ned realized something big had happened. It took quite a bit of maneuvering on his part, but he was finally able to see what was written on that piece of paper he didn't hide his surprise, as he finally realized what queen Rhaella plan was. The piece of paper still in Robert's hand held two words, words that anyone in the seven kingdoms would recognize.
Fire and Blood.
