The Princesses War

I own nothing but my OC's

Chapter Six

No shortage of food

'Hurry up!' Jon ordered his men as they raced into the stables and mounted their horses.

When Jon climbed onto his own he led them into the courtyard at a quick trot where they joined the rest of their regiment of Light Horse, their colonel shouting orders while infantry already raced along the courtyard towards the gates, their leaders commanding them forwards with drawn swords.

'Jon!'

He looked across the courtyard to see Radwen, escorted by her usual guard's, moving at a dignified but quick pace. Jon, for his part, rode towards her and they stopped, him looking down to her, her looking up at him.

'Stay safe out there.'

'Don't worry about me. Just stay here and keep your guards with you.'

'It's not like I have much other choice. Colonel Donnah would rather have me locked in my room.'

'We just need to disperse the crowds. You'll be safe here.'

'I know. Can you just promise me you'll keep yourself safe?'

'Snow!' Captain Lowhill shouted. 'We're going now!'

'I promise,' he told Radwen and then quickly rode back towards his men, the whole regiment of horse, six hundred men on their horses, armed to the teeth, waiting to hear their colonels orders.

Colonel Relini, the commander of the 21st Regiment of Light Horse, was an agile man of forty five with a wide, wire like moustache.

'Rioters have been seen all over the city,' he told them. 'The largest crowd, around five hundred, attacked the ration warehouses this morning but the constables were able to hold them off. Right now the rioters are rampaging through the city, looting houses and destroying Farosi businesses. Our mission is to persuade them to return home. Your captains have their orders. Good luck,' he drew his revolver and held it in the air. 'Crown! Senate! People!'

'Crown!' Jon, and every other soldier repeated. 'Senate! People!'

And with that they galloped through the gates of the Red Keep and into Kings Landing, a city in chaos. Jon could see smoke rising from several fires, the air was filled with the distant sounds of gunfire and a constant hum from hundreds of instances of violence.

'With me!' Lowhill ordered his company and Jon followed close behind and they galloped towards the old embassy.

After going through several streets, Jon and Lowhill at the head of the company, Jon had to ask his superior something important.

'Sir, we're not going to kill these people?'

'Only if we have to,' he answered. 'Use the flat of your sword to strike them.'

'Thank you sir.'

Jon had Stark blood in him, his house had always cared for those under their rule more than many other lords of Westeros.

This whole situation could only be described as madness. Late in the previous day a group of locals had been going around the city proclaiming that the Farosi had been hoarding all of the food and that the Princess and the council had been ignoring the ration limits. The next morning a crowd emerged practically out of nowhere at the warehouses storing the rations and they tried to storm it. The strange thing was that there wasn't a food shortage. Everyone had been given liveable rations and Princess Radwen had been extremely insistent on everyone following the rules of rationing, making dealing with black market goods punishable by public flogging.

'It just takes a couple of bloody annoying gits to ruin everything,' Corporal Donley had remarked about it.

'You're certainly right Corporal.'

Now though, they rode into a wide street where about twenty ren were throwing bricks and rocks at a shop.

'Charge!' Lowhill bellowed and Jon followed, pointing his sword forwards, all of the others around him doing the same as they thundered towards the rioters who had already began to flee.

Jon brought down his sword onto one of the rioting men, the flat of the blade beating into the man's skull, knocking him to the ground. In a matter of seconds the street was clear and Jon saw Lowhill nod a few times.

'Come on!' he ordered and they continued their ride through the city, seeking out rioters and charging them, forcing those who would disturb the peace to return home.

After doing this a third time they all stopped at the sound of gunfire breaking out close by.

'To the shooting!' Lowhill commanded and they rode at a good pace, but not a gallop, where they saw about fifteen Constables, wearing their older blue coats and bowler hats, clutching shotguns and crouching behind a barricade made from crates and barrels, as well as pieces of furniture.

They would fire over the barricade, each barrel releasing lethal ammunition before they would crouch again to reload. From his position on horseback he looked over the top of the constables to see who they were firing at. About fifty yards away, down the street, he saw another barricade occupied by dozens of men, locals, wearing pieces of armour, armed with a mix of cudgels, spears, shotguns and revolvers.

'Keep back!' Lowhill ordered and dismounted while most of the company moved away on their horses around a corner to be out of the enemies field of fire. 'Snow, you and your troopers with me.'

'You heard him men! Dismount!'

'Squad Five with the horses!' Osoni barked.

Jon drew his revolver, keeping it in his right hand, and raced towards the barricade, keeping low to the ground, his troopers with carbines in hand behind him.

'Whose in charge?' Lowhill asked the constables.

'Me,' answered one of them. 'Ser Horace Ridge.'

'Alright Ridge, what's going on?'

'We,' he answered, clearly annoyed that Lowhill didn't use his title, 'were trying to send this mob home when some of them pulled out weapons. It looks like they raided the store houses we kept the old Gold Cloaks equipment in.'

'Shit.'

'I'd guess that maybe a third of them have firearms. The rest have spears and clubs.'

'One charge and we'll throw them back,' Jon said and looked over the top of the barricade, firing three times before ducking.

'No. The enemy have spears and this street's too narrow to outflank them.'

'Than what are your orders?'

'Tell the men to dismount and mix bayonets.'

'We're going to charge them?'

'That's right.'

'Sergeant,' Jon ordered his second in command.

'I'm on it sir,' he then raced away to the rest of the company. 'Dismount the lot of you and fix bayonets! Time to give these wankers a fucking they'll never forget!'

'Rather rough man, isn't he?' asked Lowhill.

'Yes sir,' Jon agreed.

'I wouldn't have him any other way sir,' Donley added on with a grin.

Very quickly most of the company, except for those who had to keep an eye on the horses, were assembled in ranks, crouching low with their carbines and fixed bayonets in hand.

'Troop One will lay down fire and then the company will charge. Constables will retire.'

'Yes Captain,' Horace reluctantly agreed and then he and his men pulled back.

'Remember men,' Lowhill told them all, 'those bastards are now armed. This is a borderline revolt and all of them are now considered armed enemies of the United Kingdom of Farsos and Westeros. Prepare to attack!'

'Prepare!' Jon ordered his men as they moved into two ranks, still crouching.

'Attack!'

'Attack!'

Jon rose to his feet and ran past the barricade with his men, taking up a position to the right as his men stood in two ranks, Jon could almost feel the bullets flying past him.

'First rank, kneel!' Jon ordered and he watched his men follow his commands, proud of their discipline. 'Take aim! FIRE!'

The first rank of his men let loose a deadly barrage or bullets towards the enemy and through the smoke he saw many of the rioters in their front rank fall dead.

'Second rank, take aim! Fire! First rank, take aim. Fire! Second rank, take aim. Fire!'

Of course he knew the enemy weren't just waiting to be shot at. His men were falling as well. Several of them had fallen to the ground, but because of the range and the enemies weapons they were probably just wounded. He saw Trooper Hensin take a shot to the leg and he dropped his weapon, falling to the ground and growling in pain. Lowhill took position next to Jon and drew his sword before he cleared his throat.

'CHARGE!'

With that there was a battle cry from all the men of the company as they charged. Jon felt his feet moving and he was sprinting forwards, firing his revolver as he went.

Bang, bangm bang, click, click.

It was emptied so he shoved it into his holster and again drew his sword as they crashed into the enemy barricade. Jon barged one man into the ground and then slashed him across the neck. All around him was a whirling chaos of stabbing, punching and screaming and Jon knew he was certainly a part of it. After running another man through with his sword he finally realised that the enemy was retreating.

'What now?' Jon asked Lowhill after getting his breath back.

'We crush this rebellion before it gets out of hand.'

Just after that several other light horsemen thundered down the street, led by a Lieutenant from one of the other companies who he recognised but didn't know.

'Captain Lowhill?' he asked the captain.

'What is it?'

'Captain Chasterman needs you now. The rioters stormed the embassy and they've taken the royal family to the Dragon Pit.'

'Bollocks,' Lowhill sighed, his eyes wide.

'Now is it out of hand?' Jon asked him.

…

And so they did. Late that night, after hard fighting, Jon, in a different uniform which had been cleaned, walked towards Radwen's rooms. After knocking her heard Radwen respond, louder than usual.

'Come in.'

Inside he saw Radwen sitting behind her desk, a dozen scrunched up balls of paper on the desk in front of her, another sheet which had writing on it and one bottle of wine, half drank, another one that was empty and a full to the brim glass.

'Hello Jon,' she said and wiped her eyes.

'Are you alright?'

'Well, over the past day there's been a riot which, erm, grew into a revolt and, ah wonderful, the mob breaks Cersei and her children out of the embassy and takes them to that bloody stupid ruin on top of the hill and proclaim Joffrey King of Westeros. Now,' she took a very long and very fast drink from her glass, 'ah, now I am writing a letter to my father to explain all of this.'

'Are you drunk?' he asked her.

'Erm, yes,' she responded and, for the first time, seemed to notice the empty bottle. 'Oh, Queen damnit, I feel like an idiot. Jon, do you mind sitting down?'

'Of course,' he said and sat in the chair before her desk. 'Well, what are you going to tell the King?'

'I honestly don't know. When I found out that Joffrey had been taken to the Pit I told Curn that he could use the cannons to force them out.'

'It made sense.'

'We lost two hundred men storming the Dragon Pit. That's not the work of rioters.'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean, after it was all over and Joffrey and the others were recaptured we, the Provisional Council I mean, had a meeting over it and I explained my intentions. I was going to send a letter detailing everything that had happened to the Senatorial Department of Foreign Affairs.'

'Is that the right department?'

'No and that's the point. The letter would have be seen by the Lord Senator of Foreign Affairs who would pass it onto a committee in his department who would agree to send it to the Department of Law Enforcement who would bounce it around another committee. While they're doing this I would also have sent a letter directly to my father explaining to him how we dealt with a minor riot and eliminated an enemy conspiracy without many details saving us all a lot of trouble.'

'Then what's the problem?'

'Colonel Donnah.'

'What's he done?'

'He's already sent a raven to the Arbor and they'll send its letter back to Farsos and then it will land on the desk of the High Inquisitor.'

'Oh fuck.'

High Inquisitor Borsin, otherwise known as the head of His Majesties Military Police, was one of the few people in Farsos who could go and see the king at a moment's notice.

'Exactly. Now I have to explain to my father what's going on, send it in a raven and pray that he reads mine first. The last thing anyone needs is this reaching the papers.'

'What was he doing anyway? Donnah I mean. This isn't a military police matter.'

'It is now, more or less. Was anyone in the corridor outside?'

'Just your guards.'

'Good. Now, what do you know about Colonel Donnah's career?'

'Not much.'

'Most of it is secret anyway. In his first ever mission as a Colonel in the Military Police he was sent into Gwaithol, this was in the war just after our fleet was annihilated. He and fifty others had to undermine the enemy war effort at home by encouraging unrest in the cities, you know, food riots things like that. They were caught by the enemy and put on one of their prison ships for five years before he escaped.'

'What's this got to do with anything?'

'This mission was commanded by Colonel Freman?'

'Freman?' Jon asked, now that was a surprise. He was on the most wanted list of Farsos but his crimes weren't specified.

'That's right. While in prison he defected to Gwaithol, since then we've had no idea where he's been. He planned the effort to undermine the Gwaitholi war effort and todays events, according to Donnah, are an exact match of his methods.'

'Freman's here in Westeros?'

'We believe so. Worse, with this in mind Donnah went through the letters his agents across Westeros have been sending him and the results are, oh goodness, the results are worrying.'

'Am I actually allowed to hear this?'

'Probably not but I don't care right now. The letters from all of his agents in the Iron Islands had slight changes in hand writing, so small that anyone not looking for them wouldn't see them. The changes began two months before this war began.'

'But if Freman's doing this and he's working for Gwaithol,' Jon said now he felt true fear, 'does it mean Gwaithol's going to enter the war?'

'I don't think so. They're not ready to fight us again but if they can fund proxy wars.'

'So Freman's in the Iron Islands and has removed our spies there. Damn. But why the Iron Islands?'

'I don't know but,' she said and finished that glass of wine, 'but we need to keep an eye on them,' she took a forlorn look at the letter and shook her head. 'What's the point? It won't get there before the Inquisitor sees Donnah's letter anyway. I just need to forget about everything for a while.'

'You'll be taking a long holiday when the war's over?'

'Of course. When the war's over we'll be getting married and we can have a long holiday together.'

Jon again felt the guilt tearing at him. He had promised to spy on her, again he had been doing a piss poor job at that, and now, the way Radwen looked at him with some measure of happiness for the first time since he had gone in there, it made him feel sick.

'Yes,' he answered.

'If there's some good news,' she said and walked towards the rooms drinks cabinet, 'it's that King Robert left Westeros with an empty treasury but a full wine cellar. Let's have a few.'

AN: Chaos in Kings Landing, conspiracies from Gwaithol and a ghost from Colonel Donnah's past.

So, let me know what you think of this chapter, I love reading feedback and I hope you all enjoyed this one. Please review, have a great day.