TitoVillar
patreon
GOT Chapter 95: Seizing the Initiative
🕑 Added 2025-08-26 05:28:12 +0000 UTCJust as the stalemate deepened, Maester Moser—who had been silent since Kal rejected his earlier words and had sat in deep thought—suddenly seemed to realize something.
His eyes lit up, and he raised his head to look at Kal.
“Ser Kal, do you know when Lord Eddard Stark’s army is likely to arrive?”
Moser’s voice carried an edge of urgency.
“Perhaps we could alter our strategy. At that time, we might let the smallfolk of Blackwood Vale enter Raventree Hall, and then your army could take command of the castle and defend it against the enemy’s coming assault.”
“And besides, the Lannisters do not yet know what has happened here. If we send word to King Robert and Lord Stark with the greatest speed, perhaps we can still seize an advantage in timing.”
“By then, we might even be able to strike them from within and without, and swallow this entire host of Lannister soldiers spread across the land!”
Maester Moser’s idea was an ideal one, but once he voiced it, even Hoster Blackwood—who had been rattled by Kossi’s earlier words—suddenly looked alight with hope.
“Maybe… maybe this could truly work—!”
Yet before either lord or servant could indulge further in their optimism, Kal shook his head, breaking apart their fragile illusion.
“Maester Moser’s counsel is good. I won’t deny it. But should we not consider whether it is far too idealistic?”
“Though the current situation does indeed call for us to avoid the Lannisters’ edge for now, and wait until Lord Eddard Stark leads the northern host southward—when that happens, these rampaging Lannister troops will surely be destroyed.”
“But it is clear that such a hope is unlikely.”
“Let us not speak of whether the Lannisters are fools, or fools enough not to notice their rear being struck—” Kal paused deliberately here.
Then he tapped a finger against the map spread across the long table before him. His voice was even and calm.
“Even if nothing else, simply waiting for the northern host to march this far south would take no small amount of time.”
“And if we place all our hopes upon such a passive, fate-driven scheme, and it fails, then the price will be paid with the lives and blood of the smallfolk… and our own as well.”
“After all, we have only two hundred men fit for battle. Raventree Hall is not Riverrun—no fortress stronghold. Otherwise, we could never have retaken it with just two hundred men in the first place, nor rescued you from the enemy’s grasp.”
Kal’s words cut with stark realism. Faced with so direct a truth, both Hoster and Moser darkened, lowering their heads in silence.
Indeed. Kal Stone’s vanguard numbered only two hundred. The strength of Raventree Hall’s forces had been reduced to almost nothing after Lord Tytos Blackwood had marched away with them.
And for Kal Stone to have struck by night, retaken Raventree Hall, and wrenched it from the hands of the Lannister host with only two hundred men—that was already a miracle.
And now they expected him, with so few men, to resolve the crisis engulfing the land—was this not forcing the impossible upon him?
But then what was to become of Raventree Hall?
The more the matter was weighed, the darker the picture grew. At the thought of it, young Hoster Blackwood—barely come of age—could not help but bury his face in his hands.
“Young lord…” Seeing Hoster’s trembling shoulders, Maester Moser, heart aching, patted him gently.
“My lord, what are we to do next?”
“If we were simply to leave—”
Looking at the boy weeping under the weight of war and blood, Kossi could not bear it; he turned his head toward Kal, though he left the rest of his words unsaid.
“This is indeed a problem.” Kal, of course, knew what Kossi meant.
His brow furrowed. He slapped the table before him, rose to his feet, and fetched a small wooden carving, setting it down upon the map at the mark of their current position.
After a moment of thought, he continued: “No one expected Tywin Lannister to move so swiftly.”
“And judging by the situation, his true purpose is simply destruction—to stall Lord Eddard Stark’s advance.”
“So, if we leave now, Raventree Hall will inevitably fall back into Lannister hands, and what awaits its people then will be an even crueler slaughter.”
At these words, Kal slowly raised his head, meeting the eyes that had all turned toward him.
Then, drawing the dagger with the dragonbone hilt from his belt, he drove it hard into the map at the spot marked Blackwood Vale.
And there, before Hoster’s gaze—shifting from despair to growing hope—everyone heard Kal speak in a voice sharp and resolute: “Since we have already pulled out the nail the Lannisters drove into this land, we cannot allow them to hammer it back in again.”
“Otherwise, the blood we’ve spilled here and the efforts we’ve made will all have been wasted!”
“So, I have decided—we will remain here!”
“Before I set out, I gave my word to the king: that I would serve as his vanguard, cutting through every thorn in his path!”
“And now has come the time for me to fulfill that promise!”
As he spoke, Kal’s lips curved into a faint smile.
The final decision of the council was settled by Kal.
With his choice, the fate of House Blackwood and their lands was sealed as well.
For this, Hoster Blackwood was deeply grateful to Kal.
He pledged again and again that House Blackwood would never forget the aid Kal had given them.
Kal only smiled faintly and paid it no further mind.
Once the resolution for war was set, Kal immediately began to prepare for what must come next.
The first step was strategic planning.
After all, with the troops at his disposal and the position they now occupied, it was just as Kal had said earlier—
He could not simply hole up inside Raventree, this small valley city, and foolishly try to defend it.
All the more so with only two hundred men at his command—men who, at their core, were trained as cavalry.
If he were truly stupid enough to try that, then once the scattered Lannister forces regrouped and a host of two to three thousand men closed in on them, the only option left would be to down a few potions, go on an unstoppable rampage, and slaughter them all single-handedly.
Though admittedly, that would be a rather impressive sight.
It might even earn him some sort of legendary title in the future—“Man-Dragon,” or something of the sort.
“We must strike first!” Kal declared.
“If we tie ourselves to Raventree and resist here, then the situation will only grow more dire.”
“Only by abandoning that crutch can we seize the initiative and lead the enemy by the nose!”
Having settled on the direction, Kal laid out the plan he had already formed in his mind.
To ensure everyone understood, he explained step by step while carving marks into the map with a small wooden figure.
“We have greater mobility—enough to turn defense into offense!”
“At that time, we will become wolves. No—wolf packs!”
“We will be hunters, chasing them, tearing into them. And when the enemy shows the slightest weakness, we will sink our fangs into their throat in a single strike, sending them into the Stranger’s embrace!”
As Kal spoke on for a good ten, twenty minutes, the eyes of those gathered grew steadily brighter.
None of the men present were fools. Kal would not have allowed them to sit here if they were.
So as he laid it out in detail, they came to recognize just how superior this tactic truly was.
“If the enemy so much as casts its gaze toward Raventree, they will suffer our attack.”
“If the enemy comes for us, they will never catch us. The ghosts of the First Men will drift above the heads of these Lannisters!”
Jon grew more and more excited the longer he listened, his face so flushed one might think he had wandered into the wrong place altogether.
Yet no one mocked him, for anyone with even a shred of military sense could grasp how brilliant the tactics Kal was describing truly were.
Seeing that the others had taken his meaning, Kal felt greatly pleased.
“Yes. All we need are a few guides familiar with the terrain nearby, and we can achieve our goal with ease,” Kal said, turning his gaze toward Hoster Blackwood.
“House Blackwood will give you its full support, Ser Kal Stone!”
Seeing that Kal still thought to include the Blackwoods at such a moment, Maester Moser, fearing Hoster might fail to grasp it in time, hurried to speak up.
Though Hoster did not quite understand Moser’s intention, his simple heart led him to give all the support he could.
“I can order the few remaining soldiers in Raventree to join you, Ser Kal. They will all heed your command!”
With united will and shared purpose—
What endeavor could not succeed?
Was this not the very reason Kal had gone in such a wide circle, pressing with both persuasion and pressure?
