JON XI

One step at a time, the main body of the army approached, over ten thousand Northerners getting impatient as they walked to the enemy, feeling left aside as their comrades from the vanguard, led by Jon Umber who charged first, fought Stannis' men in front of them. It was difficult to tell from where he stood on his horse, but Jon would say that for now, the battle was even. No side managed to take the advantage.

"Halt!"

Under Robb's command, the army froze, its progression stopped, the enemy still not far away. Jon was at the right wing of the army, commanding nearly half of the cavalry. The other half, on the left wing, was under the command of the Blackfish. Jon waited, as it was decided, until a horn was heard. It was the signal.

"Ride men! The North remembers!"

His fellow horsemen heeded Jon's words and rode forward with him and Ghost. The white direwolf could have run much quicker than he did, but instead he followed the pace of the horses, just a little ahead to not scare them. The distance between their ranks and the soldiers of Stannis looked enormous and long to travel. When they finally reached the enemy ranks, they still had to struggle in order to fight them. Their fellow Northerners were between the horsemen and the infantry of Stannis.

Ghost got through the lines very easily and jumped on the first soldier he found. The presence of a direwolf seemed to open a breach into the enemy lines, a breach the Greatjon's men let the cavalry use. They rode straight into it, piercing the heart of the enemy troops, pushing them back just enough.

Jon fought from an advantageous position, striking at all men below him. He slashed one across the face, cut another one's head, ripped the hand of a third. They kept fighting like this for just enough time. Then the horn was heard again, and Jon and the other horsemen rode away, leaving Stannis' men as quickly as they met them.

He saw that the men of the Greatjon had already retreated and were almost all back into Robb's ranks. As the cavalry retreated, rows of archers emerged from the northern army. Dropping his head, sticking it to the mane of his mount, Jon waited as he kept riding back to the right wing he came from. Then the arrows were unleashed. They flew over his head and fell upon what Jon believed to be Stannis' lines.

As soon as he was back with the bulk of the army, Jon made sure to reorganize the lines of the cavalry squadrons he was responsible of. In the meantime, he shot looks at the other side of the battlefield. Stannis' men had not chased them. They remained in place, their shields up. Robb had hoped the initial attack of Jon Umber's vanguard, followed by the intervention of the cavalry to cover an organized retreat back to the lines, then the planned retreat of the same cavalry to the lines, would push Stannis' men to counterattack. They would then be welcomed by a rain of arrows and reach the first rank of the northern army, exhausted from their run and the previous fight with Umber's men, facing fresh troops, which would either force Stannis to intervene with the bulk of his army or let him assist to the destruction of a part of it. But none of this happened. Stannis' men remained where they were, sustaining their archers' assault. Jon realized pretty quickly all this was just a waste of arrows.

Then the last thing they had been expecting happened. Arrows were shot back, decimating their archers and the first rank of their army. Men from the infantry came with their shields to protect their archers and quickly it became a fight of archers against archers. The range of the arrows Stannis sent to them increased, falling on further ranks as a few men fell there and there.

Now all men were firing at will, reducing to ashes the psychological effect of the attacks from both sides. There were some movements in the opposite army. For a moment, Jon thought Stannis was repositioning some of his troops, but he soon realized that instead he was sending men forward, farther than the archers actually shooting. Those men brandished bows and released the arrows they previously knocked… that fell directly on Jon and the other horsemen.

The arrows were dispersed, but a few men or their mounts were touched. Then a second volley came, causing more death. Jon looked around. The men were getting uneasy and for good cause. He looked at the row of archers firing on them. They weren't far. They were quite close in fact. Another volley of arrows was coming on them.

"Men, in formation," he shouted. They did as he told them. "Attack!"

They charged together, the men in the rear lines who didn't hear Jon followed those who rode in front of them. Almost at the same moment, Stannis' archers fell back and his cavalry came from his left wing. They made contact between the two armies, closer to Stannis' lines.

Jon was surprised to find himself fighting a knight with the sigil of House Florent on his breastplate. Weren't the Florent bannermen of House Tyrell? He parried, then hit twice before he parried again and tried to reach his opponent on the fist. His sword was deviated aside, leaving an opening. Another blow to the arm and he lost his equilibrium on his horse, then Jon delivered a final blow that sent him to the ground.

Ha faced another opponent with arms he couldn't recognize. Their duel saw no victor as they were interrupted by other knights. Jon saw more than one knight of White Harbor fall. The rest of their cavalry came to join them while Stannis reinforced his own cavalry with more horsemen coming from his left wing. How many horses did he have in reserve?

All of a sudden, a strong arm seized his right shoulder. He was about to hit back the man who did it, but the said man seized his fist that held his sword the moment he tried. Jon came face to face with Ser Brynden Tully.

"Are you mad, boy? Tell your men to fall back immediately!"

"What?" He wasn't sure he heard well in the chaos that surrounded them.

"You heard me! Orders from your brother. We fall back. We won't gain anything by keeping fighting there."

Jon realized it was true. Robb had not moved his infantry. If Stannis decided to move his, Jon's brother might not arrive in time to help them and their cavalry would suffer great losses. And with the way the battle was going, they had no chance to overrun Stannis' cavalry.

Jon rode around, shouting and yelling to his men to fall back. They did so in nothing that resembled an orderly fashion. As they rode back to their lines, Jon realized that the cavalry of Stannis' army was not pursuing them. However, his archers came back into place and fired again. More vulnerable as they rode their backs turned on them, more horsemen fell this time. Jon brought them to a safe distance and tried to assess the casualties. They had lost several men, either dead or now captive of the enemy. The game of shooting arrows had resumed between the archers of each side, no one gaining the upper hand.

Jon understood at this moment. They had thought Stannis would want to deal with them swiftly so he could proceed with the conquest of the kingdoms actually in war against him. As such, he ought to pursue the soldiers of the North and the Riverlands if they flew away. But he did no such thing. He just camped on his positions, waiting for them to attack him. Jon noticed the field where Stannis positioned his army was a little elevated when compared to the rest of the plain. This gave him a slight advantage. He wasn't going to attack them, and Robb wasn't going to give into his trap. The two kings remained on their positions. It was like this for the whole day, each side trying to provoke the other. A few skirmishes took place. Jon participated to two of them, but no large-scale battle happened. When the night came, both armies went back to their camp with the situation unchanged.

Later, Jon was with Robb and the Blackfish. None of them were too happy with what happened today.

"Stannis doesn't seem in any hurry to destroy you, which means he's buying time," the Blackfish said.

"Could he have reinforcements on their way? He might be waiting for them," Jon suggested.

"Maybe, though if he does I think he would have told us about it when we first met," Robb pointed out.

"We should increase the patrols all around the camp, and the number of scouts to avoid any surprise," the Blackfish advised.

"Aye, I agree. Let's do it."

Ser Brynden Tully walked until he was face to face with Robb. "I'm not helping you because I think you are right."

"I know. You made it very clear from the beginning."

"The riverlords who are here might have proclaimed you their king, but I haven't, and neither Hoster nor Edmure have. But we are now at war with Stannis, and he's not the kind of man to give people a second chance. Once you've betrayed him, you're a dead man in his eyes. He won't rest until we're dead. I chose to fight with you because you are the son of my niece, just like I chose to fight with your father because Catelyn was his wife."

"I'm aware of that, but the lords who are here with you also called me their king. They're here because of that."

"Don't forget they called Stannis their king before as well." The Blackfish turned away. Jon could say he was angry, but also worried. He looked back to Robb as he was about to leave the place. "You better defeat Stannis and quickly. Your men want to head back north, mine don't want to see their lands invaded again."

"We better defeat him. He's our enemy to us all now."

The Blackfish nodded. "And tell your half-brother to not charge the enemy against your orders in the future. He could have gotten us all killed."

He left. Robb turned to look at Jon.

"He's not wrong. You shouldn't have launched an attack on Stannis' archers."

"They were shooting arrows on us. My men were dying."

"Ser Brynden's men as well, and he didn't attack. You can consider yourself lucky I sent him to rescue you, or else you and your men could have all remained on the battlefield. This is no place for heroic actions, Jon. We must hold the lines and do as I say, or else the army is without cohesion and direction. You've seen how Stannis' men are disciplined. We cannot allow ourselves to be less than they are. Some knights and minor lords were captured by Stannis because of your decision."

Robb looked at a map of the terrain, displaying where Stannis' lines and camp were positioned. Jon remained silent, realizing the consequences of his charge on the enemy lines.

"I think I know what Stannis is doing. He's testing our unity, the loyalty of our bannermen. He's hoping some of them will turn on me, or maybe the riverlords will abandon us. He's on a favorable position and he's using it. He'll just let us smash against him and push us back again and again. At least, that's what he hopes for. He doesn't have much time, but he's got more than us. And while we're clawing at each other, the Lannisters and the Tyrells are reinforcing themselves." Robb shook his head.

"I wish he accepted your offer," Jon said.

"Aye, I do too. But now we need to defeat him, and to defeat him quickly."

"Then nothing changed. We must still find a way to win this battle."

Robb looked at him, a small smile creeping on his face. "Aye. It's quite simple. Either we win or we die. It's not much different from before."

Jon looked at the map, suggesting an idea to Robb for tomorrow's battle. While they discussed, the rain began to fall outside.


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