Disclaimer: I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. All the work done and not done was GRRM's.
Revan3363: Thanks for the review.
Schwapp's: Thanks. I tried to imagine the story in a realistic fashion after what happened in canon. Of course, soon butterflies and magic are going to make this story unrecognisable from a canon point of view.
Matt Quinn: Yes, the sellswords tend to have bad reputations, which often encourage a general to use them as a meat shield, and of course begins a vicious circle because the sellsword commit their atrocities on people who can't fight back. The Battle for King's Landing begins in two chapters (including this one).
The Dwarf and the Invincible Fortress
The Riverlands, the South, the West, the North: everywhere the human eye could watch, Westeros was in flames. But in this great conflict where too much kings and lords battled for supremacy among their peers, only one city really mattered in the end. King's Landing. The capital of the Seven Kingdoms, built three hundred years ago by Aegon the Conqueror, at a time where dragons ruled the skies and mighty armies clashed in epic confrontations. The dragons had disappeared, but the thirst for glory of the Andals and First Men descendants had not. From the lowest beggar to the Queen-Regent, everyone realised that sooner or later, a mighty army would come claim the Iron throne in the Red Keep. The only question, in fact, was who would arrive first...
The familial quarrels between the Baratheon Brothers (and the rest of the South) had been a god's present for Tyrion 'the Imp' Lannister, acting Hand of the King while his father was absent. As fifteen or so years of peace had passed since Robert's Rebellion, the capital city of Westeros had been totally and utterly unprepared for war. The Goldcloaks, the primary and most numerous force charged to defend the city, were utterly corrupt and unskilled concerning anything related to the arts of war. Scorpions, ballista and other siege engines were models that should have been replaced fifty years ago. Arrows, swords, armours and a whole list of other supplies that had to be in the stores had been sold to the highest bidder in time of peace. The formidable walls of King's Landing had also partially fallen in disrepair in certain places, leaving whole sections dangerously unprotected. It had often been said that Tywin Lannister had sacked by treachery the city in the last war because there hadn't been any other fast way to take it. Until Tyrion Lannister's arrival, such measures would have been absolutely not needed. Of course, there had been some half-measures ordered by the Queen-Regent Cersei Lannister, but most of them were those of a person that had never approached the vicinity of a battlefield. The Goldcloaks had been tripled in numbers, and the production of weapons of all sorts had been ordered in massive quantities. But as long as the underlying corruption that had led to the poor condition of the capital's defences was left unopposed, these measures were only a drop in the Narrow Sea.
The new Hand of the King wasted no time to act. Lord Janos Slynt, commander of the Goldcloaks and new master of Harrenhal (without having once sighted said castle) found himself arrested on grounds of high treason, corruption, murder, rape and a few other crimes that made his conviction an open case. "Lord" Slynt (as he wanted to be called) and two dozen of his worst officers were attainted of all their possessions, and given immediately the choice between the axe and the Night's Watch. Most chose the latter. The new commander, Ser Jacelyn Bywater, an old veteran knighted for his service during the Greyjoy's Rebellion, was the exact contrary of his predecessor, and began his efforts to rebuild the City Watch to a reliable standard. Despite being nearly 6 000 men strong , it was at the moment anything but reliable , having drunk , brutes , cowards who wanted bread , and above all , truly skilled men that Robert Baratheon had enlisted him nine years ago but who wholefully hated the Lannisters .Despite the adversity , work continued for the Lannister dwarf . The City's Watch was reinforced by Lannisters instructors, the buildings outside the walls were burned to avoid the enemy finding cover there. All the constructions near the River Gate were razed, a chain was forged to close the Blackwater Rush, important quantities of wildfire were prepared, and titanic ballista and catapults emerged from the smith's factories of King's Landing.
The political game hadn't been calmed in the slightest in the Royal Council with these military measures. In the power struggle between the Queen-Regent and the Hand of the King, things were turning sour and someone was going to pay. The someone in question was the Grand Maester Pycelle, who found himself in the black cells beneath the keep to have chosen the side of the Queen-Regent (according to the rumours). An attempt was also made to have the support of Dorne in the coming war. By betrothing Myrcella Baratheon to Prince Trystane Martell, offering a seat on the Royal Council and the men that had killed Elia Martell (who just happened to be Ser Gregor Clegane and Ser Armory Lorch), it was the hope of Tyrion Lannister to convince the Dornish Prince Doran Martell to enter the war on their side. This move in the Game of Thrones had however bloody consequences.
One of the new moves proclaimed by the Royal Council had been to open the Kingswood to hunters, in order to starve any approaching army, train the Goldcloaks and more importantly feed the overcrowded city .It was not enough. The city, which received daily hundred of refugees, starved. There was too many people, and too little food. With the Rose Road closed , the Riverlands in the other side of the war , and enemy warships patrolling Blackwater Bay (although the threat had diminished with the battle of Storm's End ) , King's Landing could only count on the Southern Crownlands resources(mainly Stokeworth and Rosby ) , which were slim . Hunger gave birth to despair and anger, and the departure of Princess Myrcella Baratheon to Sunspear gave the common people an occasion to gather.
While the King Robert, pride of the Royal Navy of Westeros, departed the harbour with the Princess aboard, the situation degenerated on the way back to the Red Keep. Near Aegon's High Hill, a woman walked out of the crowd with a dead baby in her arms and blocked the royal party. Joffrey I Baratheon being naturally himself, disaster was unavoidable. Someone launched dung at the head of the king, and things got out of control. The king demanded the head of the culprit to Sandor 'the Hound ' Clegane, but in so large a crowd, it was a lost cause. Not that the common people were going to let Clegane kill the unknown thrower. Curses, new launch of dung came in the way of the Royal Party, further inflaming the tension in both sides. Suddenly, the mass of poor citizens advanced, pressing the horses of the men and women mounted in a smaller and smaller space. Violence broke out, as the Kingsguard, the Goldcloaks and the Lannisters guards used their swords to fight their way out.
The street fighting, while lasting less than a quarter of an hour, was a scenario that had nothing to envy to the Riverlands skirmishes happening at the same time. Ten Goldcloaks died , and another thirty-six were wounded .Five Lannisters guards perished in the defence of their House .Ser Aron Santagar , the Red Keep's master of Arms , had been beaten to death by no less than twenty people . Ser Preston Greenfield of the Kingsguard had his skull crushed by rioters before being cut in multiple parts (his arm and legs were never found). Lollys Stokeworth was the victim of a general rape .Tyrek Lannister, Tygett Lannister's only son, disappeared that day in the confusion, and was never seen again. The High Septon's body (and his Diadem Crown) were in such a state the body was only recognised due to his corpulence .It was only by the actions of Sandor Clegane that Sansa Stark was not killed in the riot.
In punishment for the outburst of violence, no one save the City's Guard was authorised anymore to go out at night in the city, with death being the sentence if caught. Travel, even by day, became severely limited. As the Hand of the King was in charge of the repression, a good part of the unpopularity fell back upon the shoulders of Tyrion Lannister. Not troubled in the least, the Imp took measures that would cause endless headaches in the future. A delegation from the North, leaded by Ser Donnel Locke had arrived to negotiate the release of prisoners. In hindsight, the "talk" between Tyrion Lannister and Donnel Locke reflected the disastrous situation of the Westerlands: the Northern knight was able to propose the freedom of a hundred Western knights for the release of each daughter of the defunct Eddard Stark plus his Valyrian sword Ice. Ser Jaime Lannister was not even included in the bargain . Tyrion Lannister refused the offer and sent back a counter-offer to Riverrun with two hundred Lannister guards to secure the North allegiance, although it was only a plot to secure the release of his brother. An emissary of the Night's Watch appearing before the throne in the person of Ser Alliser Thorne, potential traitors were sent to the Wall. And when news of King Renly's death reached King's Landing, the Hand of the King didn't hesitate to send Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish to Highgarden to wed the king to Margaery Tyrell, despite the fact that the chances of alliances were slim at best: Stannis had too many hostages of the Reach in his possession.
In very little time, the Imp had consolidated his power in the capital by ruse and force of arms. This influence was going to be tested by fire. After having secured the allegiance of Bronzegate and the rest of the Stormlords, King Stannis Baratheon had put his army in movement. The champion of R'llhor was coming to take the throne by steel and fire. Without an army, without food and without any intelligence of the major troop movements, Tyrion Lannister was left alone to defend the capital. One of the biggest battle Westeros had ever seen was about to begin...