AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sometimes I wonder: what would become of this story if I had written with the POV's original structure? Well, I would have needed quite a few chapters to explore the events happening on this one. Some of the ideas have been in my head for a while, so please let me see your reviews. In fact, as we are approaching now the end of the story, its important for me to have your reviews, either they are bad or good. If you are reading in the shadows, say hi and let me know what you thought of all this. I know the are some mistakes and weaker points in the military strategies presented, but despite that I hope you can enjoy this read and the twists.
On the other hand, a lot of you has placed a few questions about a character that has been missing from Grand Maester Yandel's chronicle. You know who it is, if you are paying attention. Is this character dead? Alive? Hiding? Preparing something great? I will tell what happened before the story ends, rest assured.
Tomorrow, I believe I will publish the last chapters.
Have fun reading this!
To aid your lecture on this chapter, you can consult a map of King's Landing via the link on my bio.
Chapter III
The Battle of the Seven Gates
307 AC
As you may know, the walls surrounding the city of King's Landing had seven gates: facing North, there was the Dragon Gate and the Old Gate; facing West, the Gate of the Gods, the Lion Gate and the King's Gate; facing South, the River Gate, also known as the Mud Gate; and, at last, the Iron Gate, looking East, at the end of the Rosby Road. At the time the battle started, I was behind the walls of the Red Keep, back in the safety of the castle. I stood there until I fled, though I was too much shocked to remember the flight through the tunnels built by Maegor the Cruel.
My personal memories will be shared in the following pages. Besides that, any register about the battle was told to me by the survivors of this bloody and fiery event. I will attempt to describe every scene of this event as better as I can.
When Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen reached King's Landing, they found the city broken. However, to organize my mind and tell this story properly, I will tell the events from the incidents happening at each gate.
Part I
The Mud Gate
A battle happened in the high sea, as I have told, when the Royal Fleet led by Aurane Waters had met the ships of the Stag Queen. A fight ensued between the vessels, and there are even rumors that a few of the enemy's ships were boarded by men fighting for Queen Myrcella. However, as also previously noticed, the ships of Shireen Baratheon were nothing but a weapon, carrying flasks of wildfire. As soon as the fire was ignited on board of those ships, an explosion echoed through King's Landing.
"So, the bitch has truly wildfire." Queen Myrcella said, in her room at Maegor's Holdfast. She was wearing armor, as I recall, and carrying her little child in her arms. She had also a fever, that proved that childbirth was indeed taking its toll on the woman's body. "But don't fret, my ladies. My cousin is only trying to impress us. We have also wildfire and we will use it to roast the enemy inside their armors."
Even though she tried to seem strong before the few ladies in waiting refugeed with her, it was clear she was frightened. The green light coming from Blackwater Bay haunted her, promising a painful death if the city were to fall. Everyone could read that in her face.
Let me write here also that Queen Cersei, after her horrible deed against the Starks, was not part of the retinue of ladies in waiting making company to the queen in her vigil. The Dowager Queen had stayed in her rooms, locked behind doors. She had asked to be at her daughter's side during the fight, but Myrcella had refused. In that dark hour, though, I wondered how Cersei could have soothed our gracious queen and the fears taking hold of her heart.
Because she had reasons to be fretful.
She believed her army was fighting the Stag Queen's forces far away from the city, but the truth was very different: her fleet was now trapped among the flames brought by the ships of her cousin and half of her army was trapped on the Kingswood fighting men made of smoke and ashes. Two hours after the explosion, when the night was falling and the green flames could still be seen dancing in the twilight, an army knocked at the King's Gate. From there, they divided themselves into three squads with different numbers, to tackle the city at different fronts gate.
An army of around six thousand men marched along the walls of the city in order to take the Mud Gate. However, it was not an easy place to fight at the time and they failed miserably. The gate would later fall, but not when the men first advanced to it. You see, the flaming wreck of the ships had floated to the bank, close to the Mud Gate. There, small fires had started along the structures of the fish market. The wooden warehouses close to the gate had burned to the ground, and its ruins made it impossible for the men to reach the city's entry.
However, the men manning the battlements took charge of this moment to fire arrows and throw rocks from above, managing to kill a few hundreds of the foolish army that had come close to the Mud Gate. The battle there was more like a suicide mission. The Stag Queen's army had hoped to bring down the gate and from there take the Red Keep easily, but they had underestimated the wildfire and the damages it would provoke on the bank. So, it's for no reason that that stretch of the Blackwater Rush is now called the Graveyard of the Foolish Soldiers.
Conquering this gate could have ended the battle quickly, but in the end, proved only to be irrelevant.
Part II
The Gate of the Gods, the Lion Gate, and the King's Gate
My hand trembles when I recall that night, but I must endure the vivid horrors that tormented my mind and make sure this chronicle gets to its end.
As I have said before, the army of the Stag Queen advanced immediately toward the King's Gate after crossing the Barge Bridge. From there, they divided, trying to take the city from three different fronts. The Southern Front composed only by the Mud Gate proved to be a failure to the Stag Queen's cause, but not the Western Front, composed by the majority of the army: fifteen thousand men, trying to strike the city and conquer each one of his western gates. The remaining nine thousand swords marched to the Northern Gates, but I will get to them soon enough.
The City Watch was defending the capital against the army of the Stag Queen, throwing rocks to the armies on their doors. Queen Myrcella and the Alliance had tried to drag the war away from the capital, but they had prepared the walls to resist the fight. And so, the City Watch fought, as well as the Lannister army commanded by Lord Martyn. Arrows were fired, catapults threw rocks to the men striking at the gates and a few charges left each one of the gates to strike down the opponents. From those brave charges, as I have come to understand, no men come back. A few were found years later, confessing to having fled and deserted the battlefield.
Well, you may also be asking: there was not wildfire at the disposal of the City Watch? Why didn't they throw flasks from the battlements? Well, Martyn Lannister was commanding the city's defenses and his orders were strict: the wildfire shouldn't be used, unless strictly necessary. The recently appointed Lord of Casterly Rock didn't trust the substance for his instability, so was determined to use it only if there was not another way to fight.
After two hours defending the gates, it seemed the situation was controlled. The Lion Gate and the Gate of the Gods were defended. Informants traveling constantly between the Western Front and the North Front also reported the defense there was steady. If the dragons managed to return from the North, the battle could be won before the morrow. But it all depended upon the army that would march down the Kingsroad: who would have prevailed in the North?
Well, something else was happening that Martyn Lannister wasn't aware of.
You may have forgotten, after so many pages about war, blood, and strategy… but I mentioned that the sellswords that provoked the Red Tournament had been hired by Queen Shireen. And they had been infiltrated into the city thanks to Lord Varys, and hidden in barracks in Flea Bottom, waiting for the time to strike.
Well, it seemed the time had come.
It's important to notice here that eventually, during the battle, a riot started in the city. The refugees were frightened, and a few houses on the Flea Bottom were set afire, installing the chaos. Fear and terror spread through the slums like wildfire. That would later ignite events in the Northern Gate, as I will tell you soon. But as the mobs erupted, fighting against each other and lighting fires all over the capital, the sellswords hired by Shireen moved to seize the barrack close to the King's Gate where the wildfire was stocked.
It was there that started another fight.
While the men on the battlements fought the enemy breaking down the city's gates, the soldiers inside the city clashed swords with the hidden sellswords. The reports are confusing about this bit of the battle since most of the men there died. But according to Martyn Lannister, the Lion Gate and the Gate of the Gods remained controlled…
Nonetheless, a man – that some believe it was indeed a woman – managed to break the defense lines of the goldcloaks that were defending the barrack and threw a torch against a flask of wildfire.
An explosion took hold of the city, as the King's Gate was obliterated. I don't know how many men died there, but both sides suffered heavy losses. As the wall tumbled down, many men managed to climb the stones and evade the fire, invading the city at last.
"We are losing, aren't we?" Queen Myrcella asked when a soldier came to report the wall had been breached. "We are." She said, after hearing the report.
Her ladies in waiting had stopped their prayers to the Seven to hear the news.
At the time, the report was only about the explosion of the King's Gate. The news would grow grimmer as the time passed, but at that moment the Queen snapped, talking directly to her ladies.
"The city has been breached, but our men are still defending us." She assured, with a shaky voice.
"But where are the dragons, Your Grace?" Asked Lady Flayse Skoteworth. "Aren't they supposed to be here, fighting for us?"
"They will come." Myrcella said, and I remember on her lips trembled, even though we could feel the heat in the room. "Now, keep on with your prayers, Lady Falyse." She said, angrily. "And can someone take the child away?" She ordered, commanding the milk maid to leave the Holdfast immediately. "The little one's crying is making me mad. Take him to where I can't hear him."
Someone said, there in the dark room, as the queen turned her back to return to her chair, that she seemed more like Cersei Lannister than ever. Well, except in one thing: The Dowager Queen would never separate herself from her children willingly. I heard those words, but I can't say who proffered them.
Meanwhile, back in the Lion's Gate, Martyn Lannister – astounded with what had happened to the King's Gate – gathered his men. Since the wall was completely lost, he had to attempt saving the city with another strategy. The only chance to stop the Stag Queen was by protecting the Red Keep and thus defending the only way up to the castle. So, he retreated at full speed back toward the Red Keep, sending word to Lord Sam Ruttermore, the Commander of the City Watch, to leave the Northern gates and join him.
But that would never happen.
At least four thousand men carrying the banner with the burning heart invaded King's Landing from the breach on the wall. Meanwhile, Martyn Lannister made his way to Aegon's Hill at full speed, escaping the mobs emerging from the hell that had become of Flea Bottom.
Part III
The Old Gate and the Dragon Gate
Let's go back a while again, shall we?
We know so far that the Fish Market was in flames, as most of the Blackwater Bay, blocking the way to the Mud Gate. Meanwhile, I have also shared with you how the barracks close to the King's Gate were taken by the sellswords hired by Queen Shireen, resulting in the explosion of the entire stock of wildfire left inside. So, Martyn Lannister, in the utmost despair, retreated his forces from the Lion's Gates and the Gate of the Gods, hoping to mount a line of defense on the bottom of Aegon's High Hill.
But where were the men led by Lord Sam Ruttermore, defending the Old Gate, the Dragon Gate, and even the Iron Gate?
Well, I reported on previous pages that nine thousand swords fighting for Queen Shireen were sent to attack the Northern Gates, right? And so they did. The goldcloaks fought bravely, repelling the men from the walls. Even when the Old Gate was knocked down with a battering ram, the situation was taken back in control and the entry secured by goldcloaks. The men from the City Watch placed spears on the ground, blocking the space of the gate, and fighting the adversaries on the battlefield outside the city's boundaries.
However, when the King's Gate exploded, the goldcloaks saw from afar the sellswords with the flaming heart banner crossing the ruins of the wall. A man, called Jerome Stone, who had worn a goldcloak for twenty-one years, understood then that the battle was lost. There was no purpose defending a wall that had been breached. Fearing for his life and, as other goldcloaks said later, for his family somewhere in the slums of Flea Bottom, the man Jerome went to Lord Sam.
"King's Landing is lost, my lord." He claimed as the men stopped their fight to contemplate the green flames spreading a few miles away. "There is no purpose fighting for a queen that is losing her head before dawn."
"Are you a coward, ser?" Bellowed Lord Sam Ruttermore, pushing his subordinate. "Or are you a turncloak?"
"I'm telling you the battle is done, my lord… And I'm doing what's best for me and my family."
"The battle is done when the battle is won." Lord Ruttermore said, pushing again Jerome Stone. "So, pick up your fucking sword before I fuck you in the arse with it."
And Jerome Stone picked up his sword indeed, but only to cut Lord Sam's head. As soon as the Lord Commander's head rolled along the ground, chaos installed among the goldcloaks. Men from the City Watch tried to attack Jerome, but other goldcloaks raised their swords to defend their new leader. The Watch that had been fighting so bravely was broken, divided between the ones still decided to fight for Queen Myrcella and the ones now willing to bend the knee to the Queen Shireen.
One of the goldcloaks opened the Dragon Gate, and more men carrying the flaming heart banner came through. The city had, at that point, two points of invasion and soon would have three, when the men managed to remove the spears blocking the way to the Gate of the Gods.
About Jerome Stone, no one knows what happened to the man. Some tales said he survived, and that he is now living in Dragonstone as a stableman, hiding from the truth of his crimes. Others said Jerome was lost among the fires of Flea Bottom, after finding his family lost to the flames. And there is, of course, the tales that say Jerome was indeed a hero and was actually trying to defend Lord Sam Ruttermore from another man.
What we know for sure is that the order sent by Lord Martyn Lannister never reached Lord Sam in time. The Young Lion of Casterly Rock advanced toward the Red Keep, with the remnants of his force, without knowing the battle was truly lost.
The fires of Flea Bottom quickly spread, installing chaos through the city. The Palace of the Lords were the Starks had been installed was destroyed. The Dragonpit was invaded by sellswords, who took advantage of women and men that had hidden there from the threats invading their city. Rape, murder, and plunder started.
And Lord Martyn stood there, on the bottom of Aegon's Hill, praying for a miracle, when the roofs of the Great Sept of Baelor were also put to flames.
King's Landing was lost and soon the sellswords would reach the castle… and who could detain them?
There were still no signs of the dragons.
Part IV
Mother
Meanwhile, inside the Red Keep, the informant that had been bringing news to Queen Myrcella hadn't come back for a while. That had to mean something and, as Queen Myrcella said before her ladies in waiting, that had to mean the city was truly lost.
"But don't fear." The Queen ushered to her companions, with a nervous smile. "I will surrender myself to Shireen Baratheon and make sure she pardons all of you, my ladies. I will even raise the drawbridge to assure your protection while I negotiate my surrender with my cousin."
At least, that is what the queen said to her ladies before raising the drawbridge to lock them inside.
"The only surrender my cousin will accept is my head served on a plate. I will flee the city." She said to me and Lord Willas, as soon as the drawbridge was closed. The Lord of the Reach had been on the Red Keep, accompanying the battle unfurling at the gates in the Small Council's room.
"Flee, Your Grace? There is no way out." Lord Willas answered promptly.
"There are paths beneath this castle, paths that can take me away from the city…" Myrcella said, exchanging a glance with Ser Aerys Oakheart, her loyal queensguard.
"Your Grace, this is madness. Even if you manage to flee the Red Keep, you could lose yourself among the chaos. You could be raped." Lord Willas adverted. "But if you surrender now, maybe your cousin will spare your life. I truly believe Shireen Baratheon won't commit kinslaying…"
"Or maybe she will." I said to the young queen, urging her to flee and save her life. "You must flee, Your Grace. The men fighting in our city are no westerosi. They are sellswords. They will take the castle and plunder it. They will rape you and smash your child's head into a wall."
"Yes." Queen Myrcella said, making no effort to hide the tears streaming down her face. "I have to flee, Lord Willas. There is no other way." She paused, holding firm the hand of the Lord of the Reach. "Come with me, my lord."
"I was never a good runner, I'm afraid." He said, smiling sadly before looking to his lame leg. "I will stay behind, Your Grace."
And so, arrangements were made to remove the queen and her child from the castle. I would accompany her, as well as Ser Aerys Oakheart other guards of her Queensguard that were not fighting at the moment on the battlefield. And, of course, despite all the crimes she had committed, Queen Cersei was also allowed to accompany us.
By that time, a battle was already happening on the bottom of Aegon's High Hill. We could hear the screams, and also the clash of swords, as we waited on the Throne Room. The milkmaid and the prince were still on their way from the bedchamber to where they had been moved after leaving Maegor's.
It was the darkest hour.
And even now, remembering the fear in my bones, I can also remember the relief when I heard the flap of wings over the clash of swords. I recall the infamous Ballad of King's Falling, that is sung since the Battle of the Seven Gates and those two verses that still makes me shiver.
As the city burned like a star,
Two dragons were finally seen from afar.
The dragons had come, after all.
But as soon as they saw the city in flames, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen understood what Edric Storm had said to Arya Stark. He could have been defeated, but they seemed to have won the war.
Would justice really be served to Shireen Baratheon?
Well, at the looks of it, it didn't seem like it would. The dragons flew high, hiding among the clouds to protect themselves from arbalests or any projectile that could harm them again. And they flew directly to the Red Keep, landing on a courtyard large enough for the creatures, and close to the Iron Throne's room.
"The city is broken." Daenerys claimed, as soon as she entered the room. "We have been fooled again."
"Can't you fight them?" Myrcella asked, throwing herself to the knees of Daenerys Targaryen. The young queen was relieved to see the Mother of Dragons, as if she could save the city, after all. Maybe they wouldn't have to flee. Maybe.
In that eerie moment, Daenerys Targaryen, that had finally the Usurper's Daughter at her feet, couldn't hide her discomfort. Oh, the Dragon Queen was not her father, I can say you that. Graciously, she grabbed Myrcella by the shoulders, to make her stood up on her both feet.
"There are too many men." Answered Jon Snow, who seemed also somber with the heavy defeat they had endured. "And they have arbalests, Your Grace. In fact, we already got a taste of what they can do to us… Rhaegal was hurt during our battle North."
"So, the city is indeed lost." Myrcella said, turning her back to the Dragonriders. "I have to flee, and I have to do it now."
"Wait." Cersei Lannister emerged from the shadows where she had maintained herself, surprising all of us that were present there. "The dragons may not be able to defend our city… But they can save you and the child."
The Dowager Queen said, advancing another step. She was thinner thanks to her days in captivity, and she looked paler than before. As she took another step, she looked directly not to her daughter, but to Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow.
"Take my daughter away from this wretched city. Take her to somewhere peaceful and warm, away from crowns and thrones. Take her to a place where she will be happy. And take also my grandson…" She stopped, falling also on her knees before the Dragonriders. "I ask this of you as a Mother."
Daenerys Targaryen exchanged a glance with Jon Snow, and her eyes relaxed a few seconds on the Iron Throne built by Aegon the Conqueror.
"Yes." She said.
The Dragon Queen extended a hand to the very same people she had seen as her enemies all her life.
"There is no time to lose, then."
The remembrance of that moment is mostly lost to me.
I know I was crying during that time, while saying my goodbyes to Queen Myrcella, suspecting we would never see each other again. I would leave the Red Keep with Queen Cersei and a small retinue of Queensguards. After Daenerys' insistence, the ladies in waiting in Maegor's Holdfast and all the servants at the keep would also leave the fortress through the tunnels underneath the castle.
"I want every single person out of this place." Daenerys instructed Lord Willas. "If they have a chance to survive this, make sure they do."
But I never hoped to survive and to escape through the ruins and chaos of the city.
Strangely, I did.
But Queen Myrcella wouldn't have the same luck.
Arrangements were made while the gates at the bottom of Aegon's Hill were finally brought down. Jon Snow took the babe in his arms and mounted Rhaegal once again, to fly toward West. He was head to somewhere far away, perhaps Harrenhal or Casterly Rock. Meanwhile, Daenerys Targaryen helped Myrcella mount Drogon, so they could fly toward East and seek refuge in Dragonstone.
As soon as the creatures flew, we turned to the windows to see them go away.
Part V
The Iron Gate
It seems the Iron Gate was never broken.
In fact, I suspect there was never a real fight there since the principal efforts were concentrated on the Old Gate and the Dragon Gate. However, there was a small squad placed at the this forgotten gate, composed by eleven men, who were tending to an arbalest . They had been left behind by other men who had invaded the city, but who had no use for an arbalest when there were no dragons in the sky.
Even so, that was not true at the moment.
When the two dragons left the Red Keep, the men decided to prove their fortune. They had been away from the battle and were not part of the pillage and fighting happening behind walls. But what if they could really slay a dragon?
They pointed thearbalest to the sky, aimed toward the black dragon flying overhead and shoot to kill. The long iron spear hit the dragon right away when he was mid-flight, and with a roar and a last rain of fire, the creature came down, crashing into the Blackwater Bay with two queens on his back.
I saw the dragon fall into the water and the great wave that emerged from where he had fallen.
"May the Gods help us…" I said, falling into my knees.
And I remember Queen Cersei screaming, and the echoes of that scream will never be silent inside my head.
Queen Myrcella Baratheon, First of Her Name, also called the Dawn Queen, had met her end on the back of a dragon, next to a Targaryen. Her body was never found, but she surely died on the waters of the bay that night.
As of today, I still don't know how I left the Red Keep after witnessing such a terrible sight. The small group on the Throne Room was hastily led to a passage and from there to tunnels and paths that landed us next to the Mud Gate. I recall the screams of Queen Cersei through the dark. The breath of Lord Willas behind me. The choir of sobs of the ladies in waiting dragging themselves along the war. The tears on the face of Ser Aerys Oakheart while leading the way.
Our Good Queen had lost her war, and we had lost her.
