The Princesses War

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Chapter Two

The Wounded Lions

Tywin Lannister was not a young man. He was a feared man though, feared and respected by his enemies and vassals alike, they knew that if they were loyal to him they could rely on him, those who opposed him died. Yet, even as an older man, he still felt the emotions all men felt. He felt hatred, he hated his youngest son, he hated the fact that his daughter was a fool and, above all else now, he hated the Farosi.

As he walked through the corridors of Harrenhal, Lord Tywin thought about how much they had ruined everything, how they interrupted his plans. Many years ago, he was eating lunch at Casterly Rock on a balcony overlooking the sea when he saw a strange ship sailing towards Lannisport. When he had learned that the ship was from Farsos he quickly arranged a meeting between himself and the ships commanding officer, Captain Greenman. Tywin did not consider himself a superstitious man, so he didn't believe the stories of Farsos, that their king ruled their land from a palace made of emeralds, that their shores were guarded by a water goddess and the streets were paved with marble, but he had no doubt that their home was wealthy. If he could open trade with them it would add to his already great coffers or even gain a new ally to support him in Westeros. Unfortunately, Captain Greenman explained that a freak storm had blown them all far off course and they needed repairs. After giving him permission to remain in Lannisport for repairs Tywin barely thought about them, the Farosi had always isolated themselves from Westeros and it looked like they would remain that way.

Then the Ironborn attacked and Tywin had been helpless to stop them, his war fleet was destroyed and the only vessel which was able to fight was the Collier, under the command of Captain Greenman. After the battle was over, and it looked as if the water itself was afire, Greenman returned to Castelry Rock, his sky blue uniform black with blood, and his face grim. For an hour they talked until, at last, Greenman agreed to petition the Farosi Senate and their King Lukon to help in the coming war against the Ironborn.

Tywin regretted that decision. If he hadn't then perhaps they would not be in the current disaster.

With months the Farosi returned, a small number of warships, including Greenman's own, and an army of six thousand men, commanded by King Lukon himself. A thousand of them were cavalry, not as heavily armoured as the knights of Westeros, the rest were infantry, half of them armed with muskets and the other half with pikes. Apparently the Farosi were in the middle of reforming their army and this would be the last time formations of pikemen would take the field. Tywin saw that the Farosi fought well, on land and in their ships, their artillery on land sent many Ironborn ships at Fair Isle to the bottom of the sea and on land their musketeers cut down hundreds of Ironborn soldiers. He had tried to make alliances with them since then but for some reason they never seemed interested. He had tried to buy rifles from them, but they refused, he had invited their king for official visits, but they had turned him down. Now the reason was clear. After they took the capital, Princess Radwen sent out ravens to all of the great houses of Westeros declaring that House Cassius was descended from the bastard line of House Casterly and now they were going to take back their family's property. In other words, they aimed to destroy everything Tywin had ever built, to strip him of his name, his lands and his prestige.

What made everything worse was that no one seemed to care about the Farosi. They controlled the Arbor and the latest reports suggested that things were about to get worse. Yet the leaders of his army all focused on Renly, who yes, was dangerous, with the combined might of the North, Riverlands, Reach, the Lords of the Narrow Sea and the Storm Lands, he commanded one of the largest forces in the history of Westeros but Tywin knew that the greatest threat was in the Farosi which he would now demonstrate to his bannermen.

Tywin entered the meeting hall where his bannermen, Clegane, Brax, Crakehall, Lefford, Lorch and Marbrand, were waiting for him. Sitting there were also his sons, Jaime who had led what was left of his force, reduced to barely two thousand, the rest either dead or had retreated to the Westerlands or turning to banditry. Tyrion, to Tywin's annoyance, had survived his ordeal in the Vale and had brought with him a force of three hundred mountain clansmen. They were sitting around a table with a large map of Westeros on it, the positions of the various armies marked by wooden blocks topped with small flags. Tywin slowly walked around the table, acting as if he was studying the map when he really knew it already. Finally he came close to the position of the map which showed the Arbor, a marker topped with the unicorn and gryphon of House Cassius. Tywin stopped, picked up the marker and moved it across the painted sea to Oldtown.

'The reports are true. The Farosi have attacked Oldtown and captured the city.'

'How did it fall?' asked Adam Marbrand.

'We don't know yet. The Farosi fleet have also begun attacking towns and keeps along the south west coat of the Reach.'

'They're still just a wasp next to a bear,' said Lorch. 'We need to move against the Green's.'

Since the war began nicknames had been given to the rival factions, Renly's armies were known as the Greens, Tywin's the Reds, and the Farosi were called the Blue's, thanks to their army's universal blue coats. A name for this war was being whispered amongst the small folk, the Princesses War, in honour of Princess Radwen who was the face of the Farosi operations in Westeros.

'And they will soon become a swarm of wasps,' Tyrion rebuked the large oaf. 'With control of Oldtown they can now bring reinforcements straight into Westeros, as we speak I wouldn't be surprised if thousands of Farosi soldiers are coming across the Sunset Sea.'

'There's nothing we can do about them now,' Ser Kevan spoke up. 'What we must do is gather reinforcements from the Westerlands. We need to find a way to withdraw.'

'That's easier said that done,' Jaime finally entered the discussion. 'Ned Stark has taken full command of Renly's forces in the Riverlands, he commands the Tully and Stark soldiers and is gathering more men as we speak. With his son wedded to Walder Frey's daughter he has raised enough soldiers to challenge us.'

'He is still here,' Kevan pointed at Stone Hedge. 'More Tully soldiers are marching to join him, our first attack scattered them but now they're regrouping. We have two weeks, maybe three, until he marches on us.'

'Stark at Stone Hedge,' Tyrion said aloud, 'Radwen in Kings Landing. We can't retreat, we have to fight.'

'Stark is our immediate problem,' Tywin told them. 'We need to crush Farsos as well but for now we fight Stark. We will fight him, and we will crush him.'

'It won't be easy,' Jaime told everyone. 'At Raventree Hall we charged his riflemen and were cut to ribbons.'

Before this meeting he and Jaime met in private and agreed on what to say so it would look like Jaime was taking the initiative in this.

'With your experience against rifles what do you think we should do?' Tyrion asked before Tywin could.

'We can't use lines of heavy infantry in attacking them, we can't even use cavalry charges unless we want to lose thousands of men. The only way we can hope to fight them is if we change our way of making war. Our shields and armour are useless against bullets so why should we bother using them? I say we select five thousand of our men and train them to fight only with gambesons and small shields. Their job will be to lead the attack, to remain in a loose formation and run as soon as they get in range of the enemies rifles. The rest of the infantry will follow them. As the light soldiers keep the riflemen in a hand to hand fight they won't be able to fire and we have the advantage again.'

'Until we find a way of getting our own rifles it will have to do,' said Tyrion. 'It won't hurt to find more allies. Are the lords of the Crownlands loyal to us?'

'We don't know,' Marbrand told him.

'Then find out!' Tyrion told him.

'How? Northern raiders are attacking every scout I send out.'

'It doesn't matter now,' Tywin silenced the argument. 'We will face whatever Ned Stark sends against. We will crush his army and then we will make our next move. When we scatter his army we will march home and rebuild our force, we will take his armies rifles and turn them against him and the Farosi.'

AN: Chapter Two is here. Farsos takes Oldtown, the Lannister's are pinned at Harrenhal and Ned Stark gathers his armies in the Riverlands. Who will move next?

Please review, let me know what you think.

Review Responses:

Puffgirl1952 the 2nd: I'm glad you liked the first chapter and I hope you enjoyed this one as well.

Guest: Yep, it's here at last.