Lyanna rode as fast as she could from the Dragon prince who seemed obsessed with her, he and two kingsguard as well as five Targaryen men had met her and her guard as she went on a ride to escape the confines of Riverrun where her Brother was to be married to the power hungry andal Tullys. Her guards had been shot with crossbows and Lyanna had not thought twice but began to flee towards Riverrun, she only made it a few meters before her horse was shot from beneath her, she fell to the ground, hitting her head and struggled to remain conscious.
"Arthur, bind her hands and feet, we'll take her back south." The prince said. Lyanna looked in shock at her brother-in-law who looked downright horrified before his look of horror was replaced with one of grim determination and Lyanna realised with horror that the man had chosen the prince over his own family and with that thought of disgust she fell unconscious.
The Red Keep, Kings Landing.
"Princess, we have to go, now, bring the children." her uncle Lewyn told her in a rushed voice. Elia had been spending time with her children in her chambers when her uncle barged in. She was confused but rushed to do as he said, Lewyn was notoriously calm and if hewas in such a panic then it must be extremely important, without even bothering to gather her thing she picked up her son and Lewyn grabbed her daughters hand, Lewyn opened a secret passageway in her bedroom that she knew led down to the docks, Lewyn had been the one to tell her about it and it was only known to the king and his master of whispers.
"What's happening uncle?" asked Elia, scared.
"Your husband kidnapped Lyanna Stark and Brandon Stark came looking for Rhaegar and demanded his head, Brandon and his squire where captured and the rest of his companions were killed including Elbert Arryn, we need to get out of here now, Doran and Ayden had planned for something like this and there's a boat waiting to take us to sunspear, hopefully in the commotion around Brandon they won't notice were gone until where already nearly there." Her uncle said as they reached the bottom of the tunnel.
"Will there be a rebellion?" asked Elia afraid, she felt rage at her husband and deep sympathy for Lyanna Stark. The girl would undoubtedly face a horrible fate in captivity for there was only one reason Rhaegar would take her and that was so he could get another child, the third dragon.
"Most likely, Aries has demanded Rickard Stark answers for his sons crimes and I don't doubt he will come, I highly doubt he will survive a night there and so Ned Stark will Rebel and with him the Vale and the Stormlands and Ayden, Doran will rebel to both honour the Alliance with Ayden and also to avenge the great dishonour brought apong you." her uncle said. Elia sighed tiredly, war it was then, she just hoped it would be her family that won it.
Just north of the Border of the Reach and Torrentine.
"Prince Lewyn It's good to see you." Ayden said, greeting his wife's uncle as the armies of the Torrentine and Dorne combined. They were gathered in a war tent with their lords to discuss strategy.
"And you Prince Ayden, I hope my grand nephew and niece are doing well." Lewyn asked him and he nodded in confirmation.
"What's the latest news?" Asked Ayden.
"Aries demanded the head of Lord Stark and Baratheon and both of us." Lewyn said. "The Starks have declared their Rebellion along with the Arryns and Baratheon's, I think ours needs no announcing though it wouldn't hurt to do it anyway, The Tullys have remained hush so far on there intentions though rumour has it Hoster is demanding Lord Eddard set aside your sister and along with Lord Arryn marry his daughters though I doubt Eddard would dream of accepting, The Reach has declared for the Iron Throne and has begun to mobilize there forces though that will take time."
"So Tywin remains in the West." Ayden said.
"Is there any way that he could be brought to either side?" Asked Lord Qorgyle who was also his second or so cousin as his grandfather had married a Qorgyle.
"Yes, Aerys could easily get him, if Jamie was released from his vows and Rhaegar married Cersei and Tywin was given his old position back than Tywin would agree, perhaps the Tullys could be roped in with Jamie marrying one of his daughters, as for us, no, Hoster would not risk rebelling against the family who gave his one their title just for one marriage to the Lord of the Vale that might not even result in children." Ayden said after a moment's thought.
"I see… so what's the plan of action?" asked Lewyn.
"We need to stop the Reach mobilising its entire force as one." Ayden said and Lewyn watched as the young man who he knew to be usually funny and fairly easy going turn into a veteran commander in the blink of an eye "Lord Lott, your son will lead the Dayne and Lott fleets and destroy the fleet of the Reach, after that he is to divide his forces, the Dayne fleet will return to port but will be on high alert in case the Ironborn or Lanniters set their sights on us, the remainder of the fleet will block trade coming or going from the Reach, I'd recommend the Mander be blockaded though I trust Jayden's judgment." Ayden said, speaking of his cousin and the heir of the Arbour. "That should at least somewhat occupy the coastal lords' attention and they may hold back a larger garrison fearing a siege. Now then, Lewyn I propose we divide our forces, Konnor Clyde should lead a quarter of the Cataphracts as well as 5,000 Infantry and take Brightwater keep, in total about 6,750 men. We will then lead my own men and the majority of yours towards Highgarden while at the same time one of you lords lead a decent contingent north towards Hornhill maybe about 10,000 or so men, that would leave us with about 32,000 Torrentine men and about 25,000 Dornish to march up the kings road and face whatever amount of forces Tyrell can muster, most likely the northern and western houses while the eastern and southern will be too busy with us and the Stormlanders. I would guess about 50,000 or so." Ayden said getting Nods of agreement.
"I agree, Lord Yronwood will lead the smaller Dornish host." Lewyn said after thinking over his plans. After planning out the more intricate and tedious matters they retired for the night, The next day they learnt that Robert Baratheon was leading a host to smash his rebellious lords and Lord arryn was doing the same, while at the same time Eddard was leading a large host of some 25,000 northerners down through the neck. Trayl had managed to raise the southern Reachmen including the Florrents, the Tarlys and the Beesburys whom together could only field some 20,000 men, while a huge amount for only three houses it would not be a great threat to their plans though the Reach houses obviously knew what that there keeps would be captured unless they managed to halt the Torrentine army. Randal Tarly, one of the very few Reachmen Ayden considered competent, was leading the opposing force.
Ayden sat in the command tent in his army's camp thinking of his strategy. They would most likely meet Tarlys force along the Kingsroad just north of Honeyholt, keep off the Beesburys, it had been left with a decent garrison and Aden had left a small portion of about 5,000 men to besiege it. Along that Road was the honey lake, a relatively small lake but large enough that you couldn't really see across it. He had decided to use this to his advantage, he had sent a force of 10,000 men led by Prince Lewyn and Yuri, the commander of the Cataphracts having been elected by the other commanders after the previous ones death. It consisted of mostly Calvary, about 5,000 Cataphracts and 3,000 Dornish Horsemen as well as 2,000 dornish archers and infantry. His force would line out about a quarter of the way up of the road and Ayden knew that Tarly would attribute his smaller than expected numbers to many thing, mayhaps he had sent more man than needed to besiege the castles, perhaps a Lord had rebelled somewhere in Dore or the Torrentine and forces had to be sent, perhaps the Ironbron had begun to reave or perhaps there had been a falling out between the Tornish and the Torrentinemen, Information traveled slowly in Westeros and Ayden was making sure that no Reach scouts were able to learn anything. He had confidence in the plan and defeating a disunited reach force would be so much easier than a united one.
Just North of Beesbury.
"We've learned that a portion of the southern force has moved to march on Brightwater keep." The scout said. His scouts had been getting into skirmishes with Torrentine and Dornish ones and as such had not been able to gather any real information so far but he knew they were close to the southron force. Randyl Tarly's men were most likely outnumbered but he had heard rumours that there had been a rebellion in the Torrentine though nothing had been confirmed and he was reluctant to believe it. Though a captured Torrentine scout had confirmed this claiming that the Clydes had rebelled and 10,000 men had been sent to deal with them, this might have completely sold most commanders but Randyl was a brilliant commander and knew this could very well be a faint. However he did not have the men to do anything about it if it was but he resolved to be more passive with his cavalry just in case.
They lined out along the Bank of the Honey lake with the kingsroad in the middle of the Battle field, he placed his infantry in a wedge formation with his flanks angled more defensively, his center was the strongest with 5,000 of his 14,000 infantry positioned there while his 4,000 archers were spread out just behind them with his Calvary forming a reserve, in total he had manager to scrape together some 23,000 men. He was somewhat relieved to see at most 32,000 men across from him. He got even more relief when he saw no sign of any Clyde banners, perhaps there was some truth to what the scout said after all.
"Archers to the front." He commanded and a war horn signaled the command, certain frequencies signaled different things. Sure enough his archers which outnumbered the reach ones pushed up to the front, with a smile Ayden saw that Tarly had kept his horse in reserve, brilliant commander that he was he must have feared a flanking maneuver, oh well that just gave him another opportunity. With no cavalry to respond to the Torrentine archers he would be free to just sit back and skirmish confident that the reach archers would not be enough to do anything to respond.
And so his army began to advance in an orderly battle line not allowing any part of it to push further ahead and become isolated. Eventually the archers of the Reach armed with the longbow where able to benign to lose their shots, his own and the dornish archers used recurve bows which while cheaper and more versatile where not as good at range, his archers, who were at the front, took some casualties as they advanced before they got in range and as one 7,000 archers loosed there arrows and began to hit the Reach archers hard, after about half an hour of hard skirmishing it became clear that it would be his archers who would win the engagement, the archers of the reach unable to deal with the numbers and elite quality of the Torrentine archers. His arches then turned their sights on the infantry and began to rain arrows on them, Tarly ordered them into a shield wall and that helped but they were slowly bleeding the Reach lines, however Ayden agreed with Tarlys response, If Tarly moved his infantry he would have to abandon the defensive position on the slight hill on the road and his Cavalry would have to find gaps if they wanted to charge the archers and even if they did manage to do that the archers were not alone and would hastily retreat behind the Halberds and pikes of the Torentine and the famed spears of Dorne, not an ideal thing for calvary to charge into. Ayden had only his 1,000 companion cataphracts and about 2,000 Dornish Calvary one his flanks but he decided to make some use of them.
"Lord Lott, your in command until I return, i'm going to lead the Cataphracts and let them use their bows as we screen the battle lines, I hope to bait dome sort of response, if Tarly send out his cavalry charge the dornish calvary into them, I will join them in the charge, and withdraw the archers behind the infantry, if he sends infantry I will retreat back and we will move up our forces." Ayden said to his uncle.
"Aye Prince Ayden, good luck nephew and be careful." His uncle said and yaden nodded and rode down to his right flank where he joined his cataphracts who had been watching the battle with steely eyes from behind their golden masks.
"Ready your bows boys, where going to see if the famed companion cataphracts are a juicy enough target for Tarly to move from his arse." Ayden called to them from the front of the formation, he reached into his saddle bag and attached his white and purple mask that denoted him as the Prince of the Torrentine to his helmet. He took out the bow that was hung on the quiver on the side of his horse and tucked his lance in between his legs keeping it secure as he rode. They formed up in a long line that was four men wide and 250 men deep, the aim of this formation was so that a constant stream of arrows could be fired as the head of the line turned back around and fired again like a deadly centipede. They began to advance across the field, coming more central on the field and releasing arrows that did serious damage to the formation, his companion cataphracts just as capable on horse as the archers where on foot such was their training.
After about five circles he saw the Reach knights pour into formation from gaps opened up in the lines for the cavalry to move through. In response he gathered his men into a better formation, The Reach knights began their advance and Ayden saw his archers withdraw behind the first line of infantry and then they started targeting the Knights. At first the knights of the Reach began at a slow pace and gradually began to speed up, in response the Dornish Calvary on the flanks appeared and started their charge, Ayden put away his bow and raised his lance.
"For the Torrentine." He called and as one in a move drilled by the cataphracts since they choose that profession over an orphanage they began to charge at full speed in an organised fashion at the calvary of the Reach, the clash was a brutal thing but of course the Cataphracts had the longer lance, there was two handed and long while the reachmen used a shorter lighter lance, with expert aim the lances of the Cataphracts found there mark and the charge of the reach was negated nearly completely as before there lances where even in range they were speared off their horses instantly dead, he knew it was likely that somewhere along the line a lance had probably travelled through one man and hit another behind them such was the quality and length of the cataphract lances. Ayden dropped his lance and drew his sword and began to make corpses of men who could not deal with the skill and experience of the cataphracts. Summer knights all of them, Ayden thought grimly as his sword caught the neck of a boy no older than seven and ten. Such was the way of war he supposed.
"Move up the infantry, those cataphracts are making corpses of our knights." Tarly commanded. The cavalry fight was in the center of the battle field along the kings road with the dornish on either flanks and the one thousand or so companion cataphracts in the center who had nearly broken through the center cavalry line and would surely then wrap around and encircle either side, he needed to do something and fast. "Tell the remaining archers to drop their bows and join the back lines of the infantry" he said. His archers were nearly out of arrows anyway and only about 1000 remained anyway, he could see the body of his archer that seemed to paint the field all the way across the battlefield in front of his men. His orders were followed and his infantry began to advance and he saw the southern infantry do the same, their archers were still firing, now once more on his infantry not wanting to risk friendly fire on the cavalry engagement. His men had to break the shield wall to move forwards and he grimaced as he saw just how many of his men were being killed by arrows.
By the time the infantry had reached where the cavalry had once been his knights were dead and the southern horsemen retreated back to the flanks and Prince Ayden had returned to his command position. He had expected the southern infantry to hold position and let his men fall upon their spears, pikes and halberds but to his surprise they began to move forward, weapons bared. His eyes widened as he came to a dreadful conclusion. Suddenly that belated horn blew and he got his confirmation when he heard a long response form somewhere behind him, he turned around and saw what must have been 7,000 cataphracts along with Dornish horsemen sprinting, appearing from the side of Honey lake, they formed up and began there charge and Randyl knew the battle was lost, some of his men turned and saw this and desperately tried to flee but they had nowhere to run, in front of them was the infantry, behind them was the flanking cavalry and either side was the lake and open field where the companion cataphracts who were occupying that side of the field would have no problem cutting you down as you fled. He grimly drew his sword along with his 50 or so house guards and charged into the incoming line of Cataphracts, if he was going to die he was going to die fighting Heartsbane in hand. He didn't last past the first charge, an expertly aimed lance piercing straight through his body and out the other side.
So... what do you think, a first victory and the Reach open for the taking, I sure hope Rhaegar doesn't come back and sort out an alliance with the Lannisters and Tully's or something crazy like that, how crazy would that be...