Sorry for being late. I was very busy with the Holidays.
Jon gets in trouble.
JON VIII
The sound of clashing swords dominated the fields around him. The gaps of silence were filled with human cries, hooves and neighs of horses. With one last effort, Jon hit his opponent's hand, making him drop his sword. Another strike and the knight tumbled off his mount to the ground.
All around there was only chaos. Robb's horsemen fought red knights. These men were suited just like those Jon sparred with in the training grounds of Casterly Rock not long ago. Maybe he patrolled through the Westerlands with some of them.
He didn't have time to think about it further for he rushed towards another opponent. Their short duel came at a draw for other men from both sides came upon them, forcing the two to change the enemy they engaged. Jon nonetheless had time to notice the long blond hair under his helmet.
Jon fought many men with red armors this day. Some fell to his knees and died, others survived. He couldn't remember all details of the battle. What he knew is that the losses were heavy on both sides. His brother's cavalry was forced to fall back when an infantry of red cloaks charged them. Their own infantry arrived just in time to balance the forces, charging the flank of the enemy... only to be charged on the flank as well. The knights of House Lannister stopped Jon and his fellow horsemen from attacking their troops from behind and Jon found himself stuck into another melee of cavalrymen.
Not far away, the Tullys were attempting a sortie from Riverrun, and the sortie failed. The Northerners were repelled. In the end, Robb had no choice but to call the retreat.
As Jon rode away from the battleground, he looked behind just in time to see one of the knights remove his helmet, shaking his head to reveal yellow hair falling on his shoulders and a beard of the same color. Daven Lannister looked at him, raised his sword then rode back to his encampment as well.
It happened a few hours ago. For the second time since the beginning of this war, Jon fought the people he lived with for months. Now he was inside Robb's command tent, looking outside at the pouring rain that started right after the battle ended. This was not going to make freeing Riverrun easier. Their first attempt had failed, and now that the Lannisters knew they were here, they couldn't count on the advantage of surprise anymore.
"We've lost the element of surprise." Rose Bolton echoed his thoughts. "And with this rain, I don't expect we will be able to defeat the Lannisters tomorrow. The state of the land will not allow us to launch a decisive assault."
"A little rain will not stop the Northerners," the Greatjon declared.
"Probably not, but it will slow us down enough for the Lannisters to resist any attack, especially now that they are prepared. We should have been more careful in our advance."
"The Lannisters knew we were coming. Our men were harassed all along the way to Riverrun. A large part of the lands were devastated. They knew we would come to Riverrun and they prepared for that. We didn't move quickly enough," Ser Wylis concluded.
"There's no point in discussing the past. We must worry about tomorrow and the days that will follow. This battle is not over. I will not give up on Riverrun." Robb declared.
"Our men need rest. Let's use this rain to our advantage. We can fortify our positions while it lasts then send another assault when the time is ripe and they are ready," the Lord of the Dreadfort suggested.
"What if the Lannisters take Riverrun in the meantime, while we are busy digging trenches and putting up wooden walls?" Lady Mormont asked.
"I doubt they will be able to take Riverrun tomorrow if they couldn't take it in the previous weeks. Lord Hoster certainly has enough men and provisions to last for years."
"What do you think, Jon? You spent time with the Lannisters. You met Ser Stafford. What do you think his next move will be?"
As soon as his brother said his name, the heads of the most powerful lords in the North turned to him. He fought two battles with their men and earned their respect, although he could still feel the disdain some felt due to his bastard origins, and the hatred Lord Karstark had for him since he freed the man who killed his son in battle.
"It's not Ser Stafford we must worry about, but his son, Ser Daven. He's the one commanding their troops for real. I saw him on the battlefield today, leading their cavalry. He's the one who pushed us back. I don't know what his plans are, but we can be sure that he'll be waiting for us. Though I don't see how he could take Riverrun right now. The Tullys must have damaged some of his siege engines if the Lannisters had any when they made their sortie."
Jon hoped that the Lannisters couldn't take Riverrun as much as he believed it. Most of the lords seemed satisfied with his answer. It was still difficult for Jon to look into the eyes of these men and speak to them as equals.
"We will not fight tonight, that's for sure. Lord Bolton is right, our men are tired and many are wounded. Let them rest and heal. Tomorrow we will decide what to do. We cannot allow recent events to urge us into inconsiderate attacks. Today's events showed the consequences of it. The priority is to free Riverrun, not to free it quickly. You may dispose."
All the lords left them alone at Robb's command. Jon's brother was looking down on the map. Slowly, his hand crawled over the table to the tiny piece of parchment he refused to get rid of since they received it.
"They'll be free, soon."
Jon didn't know if he was trying to convince Robb or to convince himself. The only news they had from Winterfell came from Ramsay Snow, Lord Bolton's natural son. People would soon begin to say that the Lord of Winterfell put all his hopes in the hands of bastards. His bastard brother rode by his side and took part to his war councils, and the bastard son of one of his lords led the siege to free Winterfell.
When Robb sent a message to Ramsay to spare all the Ironborn if they surrendered peacefully except for Theon, Lord Bolton said he expected Theon's men to turn on him, maybe even to kill him. Jon wouldn't be bothered too much if that happened, but Robb wanted Theon to be kept prisoner until he came back in the North and executed him.
Ramsay couldn't tell them if Bran and Rickon were alive. Ser Rodrik Cassel was dead for sure. They hung his body on the battlements of Winterfell for everyone to see, along with with his head on a spike. Jon wished their father had never taken Theon for a ward. What he did was betrayal, treason. Robb sent him to the Iron Islands to negotiate an alliance with Balon Greyjoy, and Theon came back to seize the castle where he grew up with them, taking Bran and Rickon as hostages in the process. If anything happened to them...
Jon understood Robb for wanting to kill Theon himself. Above all questions of justice, he wanted to kill Theon with his own hands as well.
"Do you think Theon killed them?" Robb asked him.
Jon took a very long time before he managed to answer. "He can't have done this."
"I'm telling myself the same thing over and over again, Jon. But Theon already betrayed us, and we both know what the Ironmen are capable of."
"He wouldn't go that far." Wouldn't he?
"I wish I could be sure of it."
"Me too," Jon finally replied. He tried to divert the subject. "Any news from Lady Stark?"
"None yet. We know for a certainty she left Dragonstone with King Stannis from her last message. And then there's this message from Lady Lannister, claiming she's riding with her and that she's safe, pretending she will come back as soon as possible. How can we believe her? The Lannisters are very good at lying."
Indeed, they were. A small part of Jon's mind was telling him they were not all liars. He thought of his discussion with Mira, before the Battle of the Kingsroad. Because of her declarations, some of the men started to claim the Forresters could not be trusted. That was not something Rodrik and Lord Gregor deserved, nor the people who followed them from Ironrath. Mira should have thought about the consequences of her words before she spoke so harshly before the lords of the North.
"Is there anything we can do for her? Is there a way to find Lady Stark?" Jon asked, trying to didn't care very much for Lady Stark, at least not on a personal level, no more than he cared for Lord Karstark or Lord Glover. He only cared for her as the Lady of Winterfell. But she was Robb's mother and he didn't want his brother to face more griefs than he already did.
"No. I'm afraid all we can do is wait. And pray."
Pray, indeed. He remembered the way Mira used to pray, sitting on her knees, the light of torches in the godswood of Casterly Rock making her almost black hair shine. Was she praying for Lady Stark right now, as the night was falling on them, or did she pray for Margaery Lannister? Did she even pray to the Old Gods? Perhaps she was praying to the Seven.
It kept raining. Jon saw the few men daring to fare outside hurrying to find cover or hugging with their comrades in the nearby watching post. Rain was hitting hard, making sounds that mimicked hammer blows against nails, while a lighting cleared the dark skies and the ground all alike. A few seconds later, thunder burst and echoed through the camp. Why was the sound always following the sight?
"You really think they can't take Riverrun?"
"I don't see how they could," Jon said.
Though he had to admit Daven could have a few tricks in his sleeve. After all, he could come to the same conclusions than they did. He could guess they wouldn't attack again. Their encampment was some distance from his father's army and he could try to use the darkness and the element of surprise to seize Riverrun. Robb had tried the surprise on the Lannisters, why wouldn't Daven use it against the Tullys. They may not be expecting an assault on their walls. Their father used to say no fortress was impossible to take. Two Red Kings of the Dreadfort took Winterfell and burned it to the ground, and Winterfell was stronger than Riverrun in some aspects.
They couldn't take Riverrun. Jon and Robb couldn't allow it. Arya was there.
They sent her to Riverrun after Mira brought her back and now she was there, imprisoned inside a surrounded castle, and Robb and Jon failed to free her.
Jon supposed he shouldn't be so dramatic. Arya proved she could look after herself. She survived Harrenhal and escaped, with the sole help of Mira. She had thousands of men standing between her and Daven's troops. And even if they got to her... Jon hoped he hadn't been wrong about Daven, and that he would make sure nothing came upon Arya. He wasn't Joffrey, after all.
Unless of course Arya tried to stick him with the pointy end. That brought a smile back to Jon.
He and Robb remained in the command pavilion, short exchange of words being followed by heavy silences, disrupted by the sound and light of the storm raging outside. The discussion wandered until it came to Teron Hill.
"You shouldn't have released him," Robb told him.
"Lord Karstark wanted his head."
"I wasn't going to give it to him."
Jon hesitated before he replied. "Teron is not a bad person. He just happened to be on the wrong side. If he was born in the North, he would have been among your best soldiers."
"Maybe, Jon. I didn't know him as well as you did, but he was not in our army. He was an enemy, and you let him go."
"I made him swear to not return to the Lannisters."
"Do you think he will keep his promise?" Robb seemed curious more than he was skeptical.
"He's a friend of mine. He will remain true to his word."
Robb looked down. "Try to explain that to Lord Karstark."
Jon's shoulders dropped. "I'm sorry. I should have talked about this with you before."
"Yes, you should have. I already get a lot of problems from the Lannisters, Jon. I don't need my own bannermen to give me problems as well. At least, no more than they already do," Robb said with a tired voice.
"Do you wish me to speak with Lord Karstark?"
"No. We discussed about it. I told him it was your right to release that knight. He wasn't pleased, but he didn't go farther than words. And like mother says, words are winds."
As he said it, the wind got stronger outside, the flaps of the tent almost opening full.
"I better go. I'm on first patrol tomorrow."
"Have a good night, Jon."
A good night, Jon didn't have. The storm didn't calm down. At some point, he was taken out of bed by a guard who told him they had problems keeping the horses still and the tents planted. As a result, by the time morning came, Jon and most of the people inside the camp were still working.
By then, the storm receded, but not the rain. It kept pouring at a relentless pace. It was a good thing that Robb positioned their camp on a hill and not in the valley below, for there were places where small lakes had formed and climbed to a man's knee.
The wall erected by the heavy rain prevented them from seeing farther than down the hill. They had no view on the Lannister camp and couldn't distinguish Riverrun. Jon led a scouting party. They needed almost an hour in the water, sliding on wet grass and getting stuck into mud, before they could glimpse the towers of the Tully castle. As soon as they did, a group of Lannister cavalry fell upon them. Jon lost two of his men. A little less than an hour was necessary to come back to camp and report the events. Robb was with Lord Karstark and Lord Bolton, probably the two last men he wanted to spend time with.
"Seems like you fell into the same trap than we did, boy," Richard Karstark said. "My men and I had the same problem. We saw the towers of the castle and the next moment Lannisters fell upon us. They caught one of my men."
"It seems like Ser Stafford and his son are making sure we don't take them by surprise again," Roose Bolton noted.
"If they can find us so easily, that means their horsemen are probably all patrolling. I say we send all our cavalry and give these bastards a lesson."
"What if they set another trap?" Jon intervened. He couldn't let the northern lords take such a risk. "I saw Daven set up traps for the bandits who set traps on smallfolk and merchants in the Westerlands. He's good at this. If we come with the full cavalry, you can be sure he will be ready. Anyway, we see nothing with that rain."
"Neither they do. We can set a trap of our own and surround them before they can realize it if we work carefully."
"Such a plan would be unwise, my lord," Roose Bolton declared. "The Lannisters need to defend their siege positions near Riverrun's walls. Setting a trap for them would be a loss of time at best. They won't waste resources trying to attack us in this rain. All they do is probably defend their positions and we cannot take them in our actual state and with this weather. The best use of our time is to heal our men and fortify our own positions to be ready when the sky will be cleared."
"You are too cautious, Lord Bolton."
"Maybe, but I'm still alive."
"So am I."
"Can the same be told about your son?"
The Lord of the Dreadfort had said it with a placid voice and an indifferent expression, but Rickard Karstark was fuming. Robb stepped in before it went too far.
"We need more information about the Lannisters. Lord Karstark, Lord Bolton, tell your men to keep patrolling. We must watch the Lannisters the best we can. But tell them to be careful and to fall back the moment the Lannisters are falling on them. I don't want to lose any more men today."
Robb did lose other men on this day, five more before the sun set down, and the rain didn't quiet down. The following day was no better. The storms were back, and a lighting struck their encampment situated on a hill. Five men died, several more were injured. The patrols kept going out and returning without having been able to see anything of matter, most of the time after spotting Lannister cavalrymen higher in number than they were or after being ambushed by these same cavalrymen. They lost six more men to them.
The third day saw the disappearance of storm, but the rain remained just as strong. During dinner, the lords told each other that winter was indeed coming, for the rains of autumn hit them hard in the face, in all senses of the term. Eight more horsemen were lost that day.
On the fourth day, the rain calmed down. It was still there, but far weaker than during the previous days. You could see more than a few feet ahead of you. Despite the fact you couldn't get outside without being completely wet, the morale of men got better. The camp's fortifications were well established now, and Robb increased the patrols. Jon found himself riding next to Torrhen Karstark, the second son of Lord Rickard Karstark and now the heir to Karhold following his brother's death.
They rode quietly, their mounts advancing slowly but ready to react to any aggression.
"I hope you don't think I'm going to kill you, bastard."
The remark was unexpected. "I suppose it means you would like to see me dead."
"My father certainly would."
"What about you?"
The heir to Karhold didn't respond immediately. "You're a fair warrior, and I know you killed more than your share of Lannisters on the Kingsroad and here. I would rather keep you in our ranks and alive than try to kill you and let you defect to the Lannisters."
"I would never do such a thing."
Torrhen shrugged. "So you say. Maybe, maybe not. I cannot know. Who knows, with bastards? What is stopping you from riding to the other side and laying your sword at Joffrey's feet, if he was to grant you Winterfell? Quite an improvement from your bastard status, wouldn't you say?"
"I would never betray Robb. He's my brother."
"Half-brother. Harrion, on the other hand, was my brother, and you let the man who killed him escape. What's telling me you didn't leave him a message for the Lannisters? Our battle plans? Our strategy? Our weaknesses? Maybe that's how they knew we were coming and how to deal with our scouting parties."
"Are you accusing me of treason?"
Torrhen Karstark looked straight into his eyes. "No, because Lord Stark would never believe it. At least, not without proofs. But it wouldn't surprise me that you're a traitor, and if I ever find out anything to prove it, be sure that I'll kill you and present a traitor's head to your brother. Consider yourself warned, bastard."
Jon moved his mount away from Torrhen. Did he believe he was a traitor only because he was a bastard? Or would he think anyone who set free a prisoner was a traitor? Was he the only one to think so? Jon discreetly looked around him. The men who followed them didn't seem to be watching him closely. Still, he felt he would need to be more careful in the future.
The towers of Riverrun became visible very quickly, and they grew as their group moved forward. And then they came, a group of riders.
"Ready, boys!"
All men unsheathed their swords the moment they heard Torrhen's command, but they realized pretty quickly that something was wrong. The horsemen riding to them were carrying a standard, and this standard was blue. As they approached further, a trout became visible on it.
"Don't attack. They're friendly," Jon ordered before they did something they would regret, though he wondered how these men could get out of Riverrun. Did Edmure Tully manage to defeat Ser Stafford's army?
They were about twenty men, all clad in blue, and they stopped when they arrived at the level of Jon and his comrades.
"You are Lord Stark's men?"
The heir to Karhold was the one to reply before Jon could. "Aye. My name is Torrhen, of House Karstark. Who are you?"
"Ser Vance, of House Chambers. We have..."
He didn't have time to complete his sentence for a rain fell upon them. Not a rain of water like before. A rain of arrows. Torrhen took one in his arm, and Jon struggled to keep his horse calm.
They came from the woods, men in rusted armor, a few with swords, but others with lances and maces and slingshots. Jon managed to deflect the lance that came for his horse and to cut his assailant's hand.
"My lord!"
Over the melee, he heard the cry very distinctly. Jon barely had time to engage another foe before they all fled into the forest, covering their escape with arrows and stones thrown at them from the woods.
When Jon looked back at his companions, he saw that ten were lying on the ground, injured or dead. One of them had three arrows in his body, including one in the neck. He was Torrhen Karstark.
As you can see, problems are beginning for the Stark army.
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