Hagon
It was midday, but there was no sign of the sun on the dark grey sky. In the light rain Prince Hagon Hoare walked through the muddy siege camp the Ironborn had erected few days ago around Dunstonbury, the great white castle of House Manderly. They had been victorious in the Battle of Mander's Mouth nearly a week ago, but that victory had come at a heavy cost. Their fleet had been reduced to around three hundred ships, and thousands of Ironborn and Farman men had died, hundreds more injured. Among the injured was Hagon's friend Quenton Farwynd.
Entering one of the tents reserved for the injured Hagon was for a moment overtaken by the smell. The stench of death. On one of the bunks he spotted his friend, laying quietly on his back with an empty look in his eyes. Hagon's eyes quickly shifted to Quenton's right arm… or rather what was now just a bandaged stump ending at the elbow. Quietly he sat down on a stool next to his friend.
"Quenton," Hagon said quietly, and stiffly Quenton turned his eyes to him.
"Hagon… I thought you would've gone by now," he spoke with a quiet and depressed tone.
"Gone where?" Hagon asked calmly.
"To raid… They've sent raiding parties to the countryside, right?"
"They have," Hagon confirmed with a sigh. "You think I'd leave you behind?"
Quenton raised up his stump arm and looked Hagon to the eyes. "You think I'll be much of a raider with this?"
Hagon felt uncomfortable and turned his gaze down. "You still have your left hand," he muttered.
"Fuck you, Hagon," Quenton spat. "It's over, my life is over. What is an ironborn warrior without his swordhand?"
"You shouldn't speak to me like that," Hagon reminded his friend strictly. "I am your prince, and I saved your life."
"It would've been better if you didn't," Quenton responded coldly and shifted his gaze away.
Hagon eyed Quenton silently for another moment, before shaking his head slightly and taking his leave. Right as he stepped out of the tent, he heard horns sounding from the Mander. Rushing at the northern edge of the camp, Hagon saw a dozen longships of House Drumm approaching them from the west. Looks like Roryn the Reaver hasn't abandoned us after all, he thought with a thin smile forming on his face.
"You missed a great battle, Lord Drumm!" Hagon yelled as he went to greet Roryn and his men as they made their landing on the riverbank.
"Maybe so, prince, but I took Raylansfair for us," Roryn Drumm responded with an unabashed tone, a wolfish grin forming behind his black beard. Hagon could see there was plenty of plunder in the Drumm ships.
"You acted against King Harmund's orders," Hagon pointed out calmly, to which the Drumm lord merely chuckled. "I'm sure the Haggler will understand," he said nonchalantly, and gestured for two of his men who then carried a chest full of gold and silver to them.
"Come, let's go and meet the King," Roryn said with a sharp smirk.
As they entered the war pavilion, it was occupied by King Harmund, Lord Ulfric Harlaw, Lord Dagon Greyjoy, Ser Sandor Farman, Harrick Hoare and Karin Orkwood. Lord Drumm was quick to kneel before the King, while his men carried the chest of gold and silver at the feet of His Grace.
"King Harmund, I bring you treasures from the town of Raylansfair, as well as news that the town and its castle are currently under our occupation."
"Any noble hostages?" Harmund asked nonchalantly while inspecting the treasure chest.
Roryn hesitated for a moment before answering. "There was only an elderly bastard knight there, acting as castellan," he explained. "He told us Lord Raylan had left the town with his family upon hearing about our fleet pillaging the Shield Islands. I had the man killed. He was of no value, Your Grace."
Harmund studied Roryn with his eyes for a moment, before giving him a nod. "I understand," he said with a sigh. "You've put me in a tough situation, Lord Drumm. Your actions may have been useful to us, but they were nonetheless made without my consent. You could have simply asked for a permission to raid Raylansfair, and I may have granted it, but instead you did it on your own authority. So, what am I to do with you?"
Roryn narrowed his blue eyes, clearly insulted by the mere suggestion that he would be punished for his deeds. However, before he could speak up, Lord Harlaw cleared his throat. "Your Grace, perhaps he could lead the mission we were speaking of earlier," he suggested with his formal and polite tone.
"What mission?" Hagon was quick to ask, looking at his father with a raised eyebrow.
Harmund crossed his arms and took in a deep breath, before speaking up. "Our scouts have informed us that King Greydon is amassing an army at Highgarden, as was to be expected. It is also to be expected that Lord Osgrey is doing the same in the northern Reach, and Lord Hightower in Oldtown. We might also have no more than a moon's turn before we must either retreat from Mander or face the Redwyne fleet. Before such decisions are to be made however, we must learn if the Lannister host led by Prince Tymond has succeeded on their march to the eastern parts of the Reach. We must send ships up the Mander."
For a moment silence lingered in the pavilion. They all knew that the deeper inland you sailed your ship on a hostile territory, the greater the risk was that that ship would never see the sea again.
"If that is your wish, I will gladly lead the mission, Your Grace," Roryn finally spoke up, a thin smirk on his face. "To be the first Ironborn in generations to raid the Mander all the way up to the Stonebridge? Aye, that's a challenge I can embrace."
"Good," King Harmund said nonchalantly. "Just remember, your primary goal is to find the Lannister host."
"I understand, Your Grace."
"I will go with him," Hagon suddenly spoke up, receiving a surprised glare from both Harmund and Roryn.
"For what reason?" Harmund asked strictly.
"My brother is with the Lannisters, is he not?" Hagon then asked with a playful smirk. "Perhaps I just miss him, father."
Roryn let out a hearty laugh. "I'll gladly have the lad sailing by my side, Your Grace."
"Your Grace, I would like to go as well," the young Harrick Hoare suddenly spoke up. His bodyguard Karin Orkwood looked at him with a shocked expression on her face. "I came here to become a true ironborn, a raider like my ancestors. I don't think I can achieve that by sitting on a siege camp."
"Fine, I shall allow it," Harmund said with a hint of frustration in his words, shifting his gaze from Harrick to Hagon, and then back to Roryn again. "Twenty ships will sail up the Mander, no more. Try to reach the Lannister host as quickly as possible, send ships back in case you come across anything worth reporting, and do not engage with enemy forces if you can avoid it."
They left early next morning. The raining had stopped, but there were still some clouds darkening Hagon's mind. He hadn't gone to see Quenton again before leaving, and his friend's last words to him echoed in his mind as he watched the shores of Mander slipping by them. Have I denied him both the life and death of a warrior?
"You look awfully sour for a man sailing towards untold plunders, captain," the Swine spoke with his deep and raspy voice, waking Hagon from his thoughts. The prince then forced a small smile on his face. "I shall be happier once I get to bloody my blade again."
They slipped past Highgarden during the third night after they left from Dunstonbury. Some of the reachman guards spotted them and tried to shoot at them with arrows, but to no avail. On the seventh day they reached the confluence of Cockleswhent and Mander. For that night they made camp at the riverbank directly opposed to sturdy white castle built on a small hill in a tight meander of the river. From the golden banners with red apple Hagon could tell it was Cider Hall, the seat of House Fossoway. Some movement could be seen on the battlements now and then, but otherwise the castle and the village beside it were as silent as a grave.
They continued up the river in the first light of the morning, and began to raid villages, inns and farmsteads located near the river. Many of them were outright abandoned, but even those that weren't had hardly any able-bodied men to defend them. During the ninth day they also came across a motherhouse located on a small isle in the middle of the river. Roryn and his men had their way with the terrified septas and silent sisters, but Hagon was not in the mood for such. Instead, he decided to approach Harrick and Karin, who were looking for hidden treasures in the sept, also abstaining themselves from the raping.
"Found anything?" Hagon asked, while Harrick and Karin were pushing a statue of the Father from its platform. They had already done the same for the statues of the Mother and the Warrior.
"There was silver under the first two," Harrick said, excitedly nodding towards the silver cups and plates piled next to the crumbled statue of the Mother. "I bet you there's some under each of these."
"Wouldn't mind some help here, prince," Karin quipped, and with a nod Hagon rushed to help them. With a loud thump the statue of the Father came down on the stone floor, its head separating from the body as well as one of its hands. On the hole beneath was hidden only one object: an ancient golden crown. With widened eyes Hagon grabbed the crown, looking at its eleven points of yellow gold and the dark blue sapphires embedded in its band. On the front of the crown was engraved the head of a fox.
"Well, you certainly look enthralled by it," Karin remarked dryly with a raised eyebrow.
"It must have belonged to one of the ancient kings of the Reach," Harrick said with an admiring tone. "Perhaps all the way from the Age of Heroes."
"What is it with men and crowns?" Karin asked, rolling her eyes.
Hagon let Harrick to haul most of the treasures found in the sept but kept the crown for himself. They spent the night in the motherhouse and continued their journey in the morning. Some of the raiders were now dragging new salt wives with them.
On the thirteenth day they sailed past Longtable, the seat of House Merryweather located at the confluence of Blueburn and Mander. There looked to be an army of few hundred to a thousand men camped outside the castle, though it didn't look to be very well organized. Some of the soldiers yelled at them and shot at them with arrows, perhaps attempting to goad them into a fight, but the ironborn just laughed and showed them the women they had taken from the motherhouse.
Next morning they finally came across Lannister scouts, who told them that the westerman army had crushed a Reachman army at Stonebridge six days ago and was now stationed there. Two ships were immediately sent back to report this to King Harmund, but the rest of them continued towards Stonebridge. They arrived there during sunset, and what caught Hagon's eyes immediately was the crumbled walls of the Caswell castle. They anchored their ships at the dockside of the town, and marched through its streets to the keep. As they got closer, they could hear the music and laughter from inside getting louder.
Hagon barged into the great hall with Harrick, Karin and Roryn coming close behind him. At the dais were seated the two Lannister princes, several westerman lords, and in the very middle Prince Harmund the Handsome and… Gwynesse Goodbrother. Hagon had forgotten that the Goodbrother girl had accompanied the Hoares on their visit to Casterly Rock, and now apparently to the war as well. This is a wedding feast, he suddenly realized, an astonished grin forming on his face. Finally, as he made his way closer to the dais his brother noticed him.
"Hagon," Prince Harmund greeted him with a slightly baffled tone.
"Hello brother!" Hagon responded cheerfully and spread his arms theatrically. "And congratulations, I take it?"
Harmund gulped subtly before nodding. "Yes, Lady Gwynesse and I have been wedded today."
"I must say I am surprised by your choice of bride, brother," Hagon said sincerely. "Was your union blessed by a septon?"
"Of course," Harmund answered tensely.
"Pity," Hagon said with a small sigh. "It is always a shame to see old traditions die."
"What are you doing here, Hagon?" Harmund asked, a frustrated look in his dark eyes.
"I was sent by our father, who is currently besieging Dunstonbury, to fetch you and your Lannister friends." Hagon took another step closer to the dais and stared his brother intensely to the eyes. "There is a war to be fought."