The Chronicles of Valyria,
Book 1 Resurrection
Chapter 27
It took less than the half hour Aurora had given them, for all remaining defenders to surrender. One by one, battered companies of sellswords and units of citizen-soldiers alike came back to the square before the palace. They were escorted by Westerosi soldiers and Golden Company men.
As they were marched past the victorious generals and their army, the vanquished threw down their weapons in a massive pile before being led out of the square and put into a hastily build prison camp located at the old slave market.
Gabrielle had flown off again after the Archon had surrendered and ten minutes later she came running from the direction of the southern gates, a unit of 500 Forlorn on her heels. The army that was gathered in the square parted for her like an opening gate, and she rushed towards her wife's side.
Aurora had been unable to keep on her feet, as her wound had proven more severe than she had originally let through. After accepting the surrender of the defending generals, she hadn't killed, she had retreated into the Archon's palace. She had refused any help and only took 50 Forlorn with her, leaving their military council to oversee the surrender of the remainder of the garrison.
Leaving the men following her to join the others in the square, Gabrielle forced her way through the lines of the defeated and ran up the stairs. "Where is she?" she asked to Oberyn and Dagmer who were nearest to her.
"She went inside, about 5 minutes ago," Oberyn replied, "She took some Forlorn and they locked the palace doors behind them. I'm guessing you're the only one who can get in."
She could detect a hint of worry in Oberyn's voice and as she looked to where Aurora had stood, she understood his worry. A pool of blood covered the steps and a trail of crimson drops led towards the palace doors.
Gabrielle didn't waste any more time and sprinted towards the doors which almost seemed to sense her approach as they opened on their own, revealing a double line of Forlorn with drawn steel that parted before her and closed back their ranks once she was through.
She didn't have to look far for her wife. Aurora was laying on the side of the hall, upon a bed made of pillows with several young women trying to remove her armor under the watchful eyes of half a dozen Forlorn.
Rushing to her lover's side, Gabrielle pushed the women away, not noticing the collars around their necks or the blood covering their hands and growled, "Leave us." The women quickly scurried away and Gabrielle pulled her helmet and gloves off. Seeing the exact location of the wound, directly on the hip joint, she muttered "Oh sweetie, this is worse than you said."
She quickly released the last few straps of her wife's armor and removed the breastplate, followed quickly by the left upper leg plate. She bared the wound on her left thigh and cursed. Turning to the two nearest Forlorn she said, "You, you hold her."
Said Forlorn immediately dropped their weapons and took a firm grip on Aurora's body, one holding her abdomen and the other her legs, keeping the wounded thigh elevated and giving Gabrielle the room to do what had to be done. Taking a firm grip on the broken shaft of the lance, she pushed.
An ungodly scream of pain echoed through the hall and all the 'normal' humans on the square looked up to the palace upon hearing it. The two Forlorn holding her down were nearly thrown across the hall as Aurora's arm struck out in a reflex, even within her blood-loss-induced unconsciousness.
Snapping her fingers, Gabrielle summoned half a dozen more Forlorn, all of them taking a firm grip on their general's body and keeping her down. Trying again, Gabrielle took a hold of the lance tip and this time she pushed it past the hip-joint, further tearing open her wife's flesh with the weapon's barbed edge. Giving it a final push she ignored the second scream and pushed the spear out through the back of Aurora's thigh.
Quickly grabbing the tip, she pulled the lance-tip out and immediately pushed her right index and middle finger into the back wound. Lighting her fingertips, she seared the major arteries closed, to stop Aurora from losing more blood than she already had.
Tearing her right wrist past one of the spikes on her shoulder plates she opened a cut and let her own blood flow into the wound, kick-starting Aurora's healing. She watched as the tissue of her leg knitted itself back together and the pale tint on her skin slowly began to be replaced by the normal color as her blood started to replenish itself.
As she was waiting for Aurora to wake up, she suddenly heard someone sneeze and upon looking in the direction of the sound, she saw the trio of young women she had so rudely send off earlier. "Please come here," she said gently and the women came scurrying towards her.
"I want to thank you for trying to help her," the women didn't respond but instead kept their heads lowered. "Look at me please."
When they looked up she growled softly and silently cursed the Archon. She saw the collars around their necks but as if that wasn't humiliating enough, each of them wore a short chain that was attached to a large nose ring as if they were cattle.
Gabrielle rose up back on her feet and approached the trio before her. Taking a hold on the face of the nearest one she inspected the ring and when she saw the ends were only pressed together, she pulled the ring open and removed it, swiftly followed by the collar. The other two swiftly got the same treatment and Gabrielle said, "From now on you three and every other slave in this city are free."
They looked at her as if she was crazy until it dawned on them that she was completely serious. They fell on their knees and tried to kiss her feet but she stepped backwards and said quickly, "Please don't."
When they placed their hands on the floor to push themselves back up, she saw the blood splatters on their hands and asked amazed, "Aren't your hands hurting?"
The trio looked just as confused as Gabrielle felt and they shook their heads in an identical motion. "May I have your hands?" she asked gently and as soon as the first complied, she felt it. It wasn't nearly as strong as it was with the twins or the Targaryens, but it was still noticeable. Trace amounts of dragon blood ran through their veins, though none of them showed any of the traditional signs in terms of hair and eye color.
Two of them had long black hair and blue eyes while the third had brown eyes and blond hair. The first two looked like sisters with roughly the same rounded facial features, while the third had a more elongated face.
"Where were you born?"
The question once again surprised them but they answered none the less. The two who looked like sisters both said, "In Selhorys."
The other one answered with, "Volantis,"
"I know what you're thinking and yes, you are probably right. But that can wait till later." Aurora's voice interrupted her thoughts. "For now, could you help me up, I believe it would be good for the morale of the army if they saw us both standing at the palace gates. No doubt my absence has already been noticed."
Gabrielle quickly knelt down and carefully helped her wife back on her feet. Aurora only wobbled a little as she stood upright, and a mere snap of her fingers was enough for two Forlorn to offer her a shoulder to lean on while Gabrielle re-attached the pieces of her armor that she had removed earlier.
Once done, Gabrielle took Aurora's arm and let her lean on her while they carefully walked back to the palace doors. Upon reaching them, the Forlorn opened them and formed a double line on both sides of the stairs.
When they walked through the doors, a cheer rose from their army as they saw Aurora back on her feet again. Oberyn, Dagmer and the Greatjon let out a sigh of relief as they saw her, as during their short absence, a gloomy mood had taken hold amongst their men, which was strengthened after they witnessed Gabrielle's worry and the screams of pain they had heard.
Aurora raised her hand and when the army was quiet, she spoke clearly and loudly, but with a tired tone in her voice. "Today we have won a great victory, but it is a victory that was hard won. Move through the city, gather the fallen and move them to the designated areas outside the gates. Once that is done, rest and recover your strength.
Part of the Forlorn will go from house to house and free every slave they find, you all do the same with the ones you encounter. I expect you all to keep the peace for now and tomorrow, after the dead have been laid to rest, we shall divide the spoils of this battle.
Our defeated enemies are not to be attacked or in anyway harmed, Gabrielle and myself will deal with them personally. Those of you in need of medical attention, are to be accompanied towards the healers' tents back in our own encampment."
The various elements of their army immediately began with their assigned tasks and Aurora and Gabrielle made their way towards the area where the defeated enemies were being kept under guard. They took nearly half the surviving Forlorn with them as they expected the 'recruitment process' not to go down without a struggle.
Upon arriving at their designation, the old slave market, Aurora ordered all non-Forlorn guards to leave the large square and then they began the process of dividing the captives in differing categories; sellswords about 1,800, city guards around 4,000, and citizen-soldiers, the largest group by far with around 14,000 survivors.
The sellswords were immediately taken apart to be 'recruited', while the others were subjected to a superficial mental search. The more violently inclined were immediately given the same treatment as the sellswords while the rest was merely searched for any weapons they might have hidden on their bodies.
XXX
They spent nearly nine hours doing this and by the time they were reasonably sure that they had removed most of the dangerous elements, it was already long past midnight and they were knackered. Being up and about for 2 days straight was taxing on any normal human, but add in the extreme physical exertion of combat and the mental tax of 'recruiting' more than 5,000 soldiers, and it was enough to bring even their super-human bodies past the point of exhaustion.
Those of the defenders that were still 'human' at the end were given food and blankets before they were locked up under guard of the normal soldiers. Aurora and Gabrielle took the 5,400 new recruits with them back to camp after equipping them with makeshift hoods to cover their faces.
When they passed through the southern gates, they stopped for a minute to take in the scene that awaited them. The blood-drenched fields before the gates were well lit by torches and bonfires while a seemingly endless stream of soldiers was still carrying bodies out from the city or from beneath the far end of the walls. The bodies were separated in separate fields, attackers, defenders, and sellswords. They were somewhat relieved that the field with their own men was not as densely occupied as the others, but there were still way too many of them.
"How many do you think?" Gabrielle asked softly as she sadly survived the field.
"At least 25,000 for them and maybe a third of that for us. As for the sellswords, I'm guessing around 7,000 overall. We gained about 2,500 Unsullied and I think we'll be able to draft another 5,000 Forlorn from the city population, so if I'm right, we'll get out of it with more men than we lost."
"What does that mean for our plans? How many can we count on to fill the ranks of the Legions?"
"We got 3,000 Unsullied and 14,000 Forlorn. Add to that about 11,000 sellswords and we got enough for about 4 Legions, not counting the Ironborn and the Dornish, nor the Unsullied Argyll is working on in Astapor."
"You think that's enough for what we have planned?"
"Not even close," Aurora replied coldly, being much better at thinking logically in this kind of situations than her more empathic wife. "If Varys is right, and I have no doubt he thinks he is, then Astapor, Yunkai and Mereen, can gather a combined army of 90,000. Most of them will be slave soldiers, but until we establish a solid reputation for both ourselves and our army, they won't dare to betray their masters.
Our only chance lies in surprising Astapor and then quickly marching on and subduing Yunkai, before they can join forces with Mereen."
"Why don't you just use the dragons to destroy their armies, it would save a lot of lives." A male voice cut through their soft conversation.
"We won't because that would be counterproductive to our goal Syrio," Aurora replied to the Braavosi who had come up to them from the gates. "We need an army that is both large, well-trained, well-equipped and above all, experienced in combat. Besides that, we have only two dragons available for now, it'll be at least 5 years before Saphirus and Violet are large enough to be ridden into battle. So, we need armies that can operate without our support, if they are reliant on dragonfire to do their job for them, they'll get lazy and if they get lazy they will get killed."
"That kind of makes sense," Syrio replied while he scratched himself behind his head. "but anyway, I came to get you as the sellswords are asking for you. Harry Strickland and some kind of 'prince' came looking for you, apparently there is a little problem."
"O great," Gabrielle replied while suppressing a large yawn.
"Did Harry say what it was about?" Aurora asked a little irritated that their bed would have to wait a little longer.
"He did not, but he looked rather serious so I'm guessing it won't be something insignificant."
After letting out an identical sigh, both ladies turned to the nearest Forlorn officer, the only colonel of the original three to survive the battle and Aurora said, "Colonel, get everyone settled in and make sure everyone has a place to sleep, we'll see in the morning about scrounging up some armor for them."
The man saluted and began shouting orders before the army marched off back to camp in orderly ranks.
"New recruits?" Syrio asked with a hint of disagreement in his voice as he led them back into the city to where he had last seen Harry Strickland and the Tattered Prince.
Aurora nodded and replied, "Yea, we had to replenish the ranks and luckily there was enough scum amongst the prisoners to be able to do so."
Syrio apparently decided to keep his mouth shut, but they could both sense his disagreement so Gabrielle decided to interrogate him a bit. "What is it that disturbs you the most Syrio?"
The Braavosi was silent for a while as he thought about his answer but finally he replied, "Everything you two do and say about slavery shows your utter disgust about the practice, but here you are, essentially enslaving thousands."
"I understand what you mean Syrio," Aurora answered him, "but look at it this way. If we don't do it, then where are we going to get soldiers? Besides our Forlorn we have only 12,000 men, not counting the Sellswords, and we need a large number more than that. If we have to train up fresh recruits we'll be forced to spends years to get them to the point where we need them to be and we don't have that time.
Also, any other conqueror would have either enslaved them, or outright killed them, so us giving them a second chance to live a meaningful life in service of the people they have suppressed and enslaved for years isn't that bad."
Before Syrio could respond they saw Harry Strickland standing in the middle of a market square in his blood-splattered gilded armor. As soon as Harry saw them he walked over quickly and said softly, yet urgently, "We need to talk somewhere private, and quickly."
Gabrielle motioned with her hand and said, "Lead the way Harry, we're all tired so let's get this over with." He nodded and immediately turned around, leading them to one of the houses surrounding the square.
They immediately noticed that the house was heavily guarded, more than fifty knights in gilded armor surrounded the house with drawn steel, all with an equally serious expression on their faces as Harry himself carried.
As soon as they were inside and the door had closed behind them Harry brought the news, "Myles Toyne is dead, as are most of the other officers."
Blinking a few times, both Aurora and Gabrielle had to digest the news until they were able to respond. Finally, Aurora sighed and asked, "What happened exactly, Harry?"
Swallowing a lump in his throat, Harry told them. "Apparently Horro went behind our backs to the Archon and betrayed us. He told them that we were considering joining you and warned them that the others were doing the same. To make a long story short, Tatters, myself and Balaq are the only ones of the upper echelon the free companies have left, everyone else was killed during the battle.
Balaq was able to survive the attempt on his life because he was considered a lesser threat and he and his men were able to fight their way out of the ambush. Tatters and myself though have your Forlorn to thank for our lives. After the battle was over we quickly realized that a large number of officers had died, much more than was reasonable, and after we interrogated a few of the prisoners, we found out that the Brave Companions you killed were actually sent to eliminate me, and Tatters had a similar experience when a company of Long Lances riders tried to charge into his unit. Luckily for him a company of your Forlorn were close and they immediately intercepted the charge, losing half their number in the process."
"Besides the officers, what kind of losses are we looking at?" Aurora's clenched jaw would show her irritation to those who knew what to look for, but Harry was not amongst them.
"I don't mean to be rude, but losing the officers is a lot worse than the men we lost."
"I'm sorry about Myles and the others Harry, but we have to look at the big picture. A few dozen officers are easy to replace, a few thousand men are not, so give me the numbers."
Harry was a bit dumfounded by her brutal honesty and after shaking his head he pulled a piece of parchment from within his chest plate and after checking it he said, "I lost 2,400 men and the others lost about the same."
"So, most of the sellswords lying outside the walls were on our side."
Harry nodded sadly at Gabrielle's statement and said, "I'm guessing it'll be easier now for you to recruit what's left of the free companies, they'll be desperate for some stability in their lives after this."
Nodding softly at this Gabrielle asked, "What happened to Horro by the way?"
"I think your Forlorn got him before we did as he's still missing, but I'll put his head on a pike before the walls once I've found it."
"You do that Harry, but in the meantime, can you keep them under control until tomorrow? We really need to sleep and we're too exhausted to deal with this now."
Harry nodded and replied, "I'm sure we'll manage. Most of my men are already back in their lodgings and asleep. Only a handful are still in the city looking for bodies or patrolling the streets. I will follow your example I think and go to bed, I've never been so tired in my life. I lost a lot of good friends today, I hope it will be worth it."
"So, do we Harry, so do we," Gabrielle said softly in goodbye before she and Aurora took their leave. They headed straight back to camp, confiscating two horses from a stable next to a large house. Upon reaching their tent they tied the horses to a post outside it and made their way inside. Helping each other to remove their armor, they just dropped it in a pile and crashed down on their bed, dressed in their smallclothes.
XXX
They slept for nearly twelve hours straight, waking up in the afternoon when a familiar voice said, "You need to get up now, your presence is needed in the city."
"Just five more minutes Ash," Aurora groaned as she pulled the blanket out of Ashara's hands and back over her head.
Being not even in the slightest impressed by that rebuke, Ashara grabbed a pitcher with water from the table that stood in the centre of the tent and upended it over their heads.
After they were done yelling bloody murder, Ashara said calmly, "If you're quite done, your presence is required in the city. Now get up before I call in Saphirus and Violet." Turning around Ashara left the tent again to let them get dressed.
Taking the threat for what it was, both ladies got out of bed and put on their armor, noticing the now dried blood that still covered it from yesterday's battle. "Where is a squire when you need one," Aurora muttered, only to receive an unexpected reply.
"I'm right here my Lady, outside the tent," Sandor's rasping voice spoke as he heard the rhetorical question. "Do you require any assistance?"
"No thank you Sandor, we'll manage." Aurora replied quickly.
"Huh," Gabrielle remarked dryly, "I guess the family has arrived." Her point was proved correct when a small red-haired missile raced into the tent together with a black haired one. They were followed closely by two small dragons, though small was a relative term. They were small for dragons, as they both stood at roughly the same size as a very small pony with wings.
"MOMMY," Ygritte yelled as she and Layla hid behind Gabrielle's legs in a futile attempt to get out of sight of Saphirus and Violet.
"What have you done now Ygritte?" Aurora asked as she almost literally kicked the dragons out of the tent.
"Nuthing," the two girls giggled unconvincingly. As Aurora raised her eyebrows Ygritte said softly to Gabrielle, "I woke them up from their nap when we wanted to play."
Gabrielle and Aurora both smiling shook their heads as Gabrielle picked Ygritte up from the ground and carried her outside followed by her wife who carried Layla.
They found Sandor standing dutifully outside their tent, waiting for instructions while Silvana, Lissena and Yara were trying to calm down the two dragons and Ashara was sitting on a bench, rocking little Elia in her arms. The Immortals were spread out in a rough circle around the group, keeping a close eye on anyone coming to close for their comfort.
A little further away they could see Alys Umber, apparently waiting for them to emerge from the tent as she immediately came walking over when she saw them emerge. Upon a snap of Gabrielle's fingers, the Immortals allowed her through and once she stood before them Alys said, "It is good that you're awake, there is trouble in the city. Apparently, some of the men didn't listen to your, 'no plundering', rule. And fights have broken out between several of the Sellsword companies, Harry Strickland is having trouble with controlling them in the absence of their former officers."
"O great," Gabrielle muttered while Aurora stomped off in the direction of the Forlorn camp to gather some men to come with them.
Ten minutes later they headed into the city, followed by the family, the Immortals and 1,500 Forlorn. As they made their way towards the Archon's palace, they saw sporadic signs of plundering and infighting, both those activities were immediately brought to a halt with brutal, and somewhat violent effectiveness.
Upon reaching the square, they saw that Harry was indeed having trouble keeping the various sellsword companies from having at each other. Members from the Second Sons and the Stormcrows were arguing with members of the Company of the Cat. The only thing keeping the various companies from breaking out into actual fighting was the large number of Golden Company men that separated them, and the thousands of other soldiers lining the square.
Oberyn and the Greatjon where standing on the stairs with Harry Strickland and the Tattered Prince, all four were yelling and trying to calm down the various free companies, not that they had even the slightest success though.
"Where is Dagmer hanging out?" Gabrielle asked Alys as she and Aurora were scanning the crowd for the loud-mouthed Lord Captain.
"He went down to the dye markets, apparently there were some issues there as well. Some of the released slaves had cornered their previous owners and were dispensing some of their own justice."
"Any casualties?" Aurora asked with a raised eyebrow.
"About a dozen when we had heard about it, which was fifteen minutes ago."
Mumbling softly at Alys' answer, Aurora marched into the square with Gabrielle and Alys flanking her. The Forlorn followed them while the family stayed behind under guard of the Immortals.
"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" Aurora's voice thundered over the square, immediately silencing everyone and drawing the attention from everyone.
Harry Strickland and the other three quickly descended the stairs and hurried over to them. As soon as they were standing before them, Aurora only had to raise her eyebrow to get Harry to explain.
"Some of those men took it upon themselves to, 'reserve', some of the better mansions for their own to plunder. They came head-to-head when the different companies tried to lay claim to the same mansions. A few fights broke out and eventually they brought their buddies to convince the others to give up on their claims. I brought in my own men to try and keep the peace."
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Aurora let out a sigh and muttered some indiscernible curses before looking back up. "OKAY LISTEN UP EVERYONE." Once she was sure everyone was listening she continued a bit softer, "The next person trying to claim anything will not be getting a single penny of their just share.
I know that many of you are worried about your future, now that your officers have been killed, but I'm going to give you an option to secure both your own future, and that of your families if you have any." This certainly drew the attention of everyone in the square as this was indeed a point most of them were worried about.
"My family and myself, with our army and everyone who wants to follow us will go to Valyria, to rebuild and repopulate it. We will need an experienced army to help us defend it against any who would want to take its treasures for their own. Join us in our journey and enlist in our army. If you do, each and every one of you will get new weapons and armor, in addition to training in our tactics and way of fighting. You will get a steady salary for at least the next 20 years and your families will get a place to live in safety.
We had already offered these terms to your leaders, but they didn't have the chance to pass them onto you all before the battle began. You have until tomorrow at nightfall to decide. Those of you who want to accept, can sign up at our camp, we'll set up a tent for that as soon as we return."
She now turned her attention to the Westerosi soldiers as she continued, "This same offer goes for anyone from Westeros who wants a chance at a better life. We'll be in need of all kinds of craftsmen. Many of you have already been informed of this by the King or your own liege-lords, but we want to give you the option once more."
When she was sure everyone understood her words, she added with a warning tone in her voice, "Now I expect all of you to show an appropriate level of respect as we go to pay our fallen their final honors, after that, we'll feast and drink in their memory."
Not saying a word more, Aurora turned around and followed by Gabrielle, their family, the council, Harry and Tatters, she walked back out of the city towards the large open area before the walls where massive funeral pyres had been prepared.
The fallen, both attackers and defenders, had been stripped of their weapons and armor before being dressed in simple linen clothes and being piled on top of the pyres. Due to the large number of bodies, they couldn't make individual pyres, so they had made 80, each for more than 500 bodies.
During the night, a large number of the Forlorn had been working on scavenging armor and weapons from the areas near the walls and now their full number was waiting for them, standing at attention, as a kind of honor guard for the fallen next to each of the pyres. The roughly 2000 Forlorn who had fallen during the battle were placed on separate pyres and the 5400 that had taken their place were standing amongst the others, in differing scavenged armor, but all with their heads covered apart for the eyes.
As the remains of their army, in addition to many tens-of-thousands of freed slaves and other spectators spread out beneath the walls and on the fields around the pyres.
They waited for a while as the crowd spread out around them and after roughly half an hour, acting as one, pairs of Forlorn split off from around each of the pyres and came walking towards them, each carrying an unlit torch.
By the time the group was gathered before them, twilight had set in and the sky was slowly dimming to show the first stars of the evening.
Sandor came forward holding a single torch, not a small achievement for the scarred boy as he had gained a significant fear of fire since his ordeal, and held it before the Ladies. They each put one of their hands on the torch and a soft purple glow quickly grew around their hands until the torch burst into flames. Sandor's pupils widened a bit in fear but his hand never shook as he held the burning torch before him.
As he turned around, he found the six members of the council standing in a half circle before him, each holding a torch of their own. Holding the torch out to them, the six men held their own torches against his and the purple fire quickly took hold. As their torches were lit, they turned around and passed the fire on to the waiting Forlorn who spread it amongst themselves.
When all of them were lit, the Forlorn slowly walked back to their groups around the pyres and waited until the last had taken their place. When they had, they stuck their torches between the oiled wood and in a mass of conflagrations, the pyres caught fire and shot their flames high into the evening sky.
A respectful silence had descended on the crowd as the first torches were lit and a deep silence kept in place, only broken by the sound of the flames. Ygritte and Layla had been picked up by Aurora and Gabrielle when they felt the overwhelming sorrow of loss that seemed to spread out over the crowd and they had clamped their arms around the legs of the Ladies. Behind them, Ashara and the three other girls stood silent with a hand each on the necks of Saphirus and Violet. The dragons were staring at the purple fire as if they were hypnotized and acted remarkably subdued when compared with their normal rambunctious behavior.
The flames burned remarkably fast and the pyres were fully consumed by the dragonfire within half an hour. The ritually burning of the dead had one effect that neither of the Ladies could have predicted, nor would know about for a while yet. So many being consumed by magical fire gave life to something neither of them had knew about nor wanted to happen.
Hundreds of miles away from them, on the other side of the Disputed Lands in the great city of Volantis, all of the priests and priestesses in the great Temple of the Lord of Light had the same feeling. An inner fire lit itself within their chests and small tongues of fire leaped from their hands and eyes. All over Essos the same happened to all the priests and priestesses of the god known as R'hllor. With the return of dragon fire, came the return of magic and the Red Priests knew they had to find the source of this new-found power.
