Arianne V

In front of them, the Reach's army stood imposingly, extending to the riverbank, far enough away from them to be out of reach of their arrows. Behind them, the Dornish army was preparing in a similar formation. The only thing separating the two armies was an extensive grassy plain crossed by a small stream that flowed into the Honeywine river, which flowed erupted, as if nature could feel what was going to happen that day. In her hand she was carrying a spear with the banner of the Martell house while, near her, Ser Richard carried the banner of the Baratheon house.

"We are the first to arrive, my queen," Darkstar said when they stopped. Arianne had asked him to be part of her escort in the upcoming parliament between the Dornish army and the Reach's. After her uncle, Gerold Dayne was probably Dorne's most dangerous man, so his presence there made her feel a little safer, though he might be counterproductive. There were few, just under a dozen knights and lords had accompanied Stannis and her to parliament, but that was how it had been agreed with the Tyrells.

"Be cautious and prepare to return galloping back to the camp at any time. It could be a trap," Darkstar warned her.

Arianne took his advice into account, but she seriously doubted that Mace Tyrell would dare to attack them during peace talks. She had not meet the fat flower of Highgarden before, but from what Stannis and her uncle Oberyn had told her, the Warden of the South was nothing but a cowardly but terribly ambitious man. In that sense he was not like Tywin Lannister, and she doubted that the stratagems and the stabs in the back were his strong point.

Nevertheless, it never hurts to be cautious. Mace Tyrell's wife was a Hightower and his brother-in-law, Paxter Redwyne, was Lord of the Arbor. Surely, If I were him I wouldn't be too happy if a Dornish army had occupied both the Arbor and Oldtown in less than a week. To add more salt to the wound, her uncle Oberyn was among the negotiating party.

Arianne had warned Stannis of the past that her uncle and Lord Mace's son Willas had in common, as the former had left the other crippled after knocking him down in a tournament a few years ago. Still, Stannis had decided that the Red Viper would be present in the negotiations. Arianne was sure that his presence would not go unnoticed by the Lords of the Reach, more importantly, she hoped it would.

The more time she spent there, and observing how the two armies were already completely in formation, Arianne understood that Mace Tyrell did not intend to reach any kind of agreement with them, and that the only thing that went through his head was to completely destroy them, here and now. And there was no lack of reasons for it. First, her husband had humiliated him by attacking his most powerful vassals and with closer ties to his house, and now confronted the Lord of Highgarden himself. Arianne knew that her husband despised Lord Mace deeply, but it had not been until now that she began to discover how deep the hatred professed to him really was.

He's never forgotten the siege of Storm's End. He'll never forget it.

To some extent, Arianne was concerned that her husband's deep hostility towards Mace Tyrell along with his brother Renly's betrayal was clouding his mind in this war and prompting him to take actions he wouldn't have taken in another situation, although she could not deny that, for the time being, his campaigns had been victorious and had generated very little loss. However, the situation could turn against them at any time. If the tide turned against them today, everything achieved so far would have been worthless.

"My queen" called Darkstar, taking her out of her thoughts. "They're coming."

Indeed, in the distance the ranks of lancers opened to make way for an entourage of riders heading in their direction. As they approached, Arianne watched as the Tyrells' golden rose waved high on the banner leading the procession but was not alone. The Red Fox of the Florents and the grey tower of the Hightowers accompanied it, along with those of other houses she did not even recognize at the time.

When they finally arrived with them, Arianne observed Mace Tyrell for the first time in her life. The Lord of Highgarden was a plump man with curly brown hair and a pointed beard. He was wearing green armor with gold rivets and a sword tied to his belt. He wasn't wearing any helmet, so Arianne wasn't entirely sure if Mace Tyrell was planning to participate personally in the fight or not.

"Lord Tyrell" greeted her husband by bowing his head slightly. He was wearing a fairly simple gold crown on his head, exactly identical to the one Arianne was wearing. He was wearing armor without any embellishment, although Stannis had told her that he did not intend to participate in the battle directly, but instead he was going to lead the troops from behind.

"Lord Stannis" he greeted in turn. Her husband's jaw tightened so tightly that it looked like his teeth were going to burst. "And you must be Princess Arianne. I didn't expect to find you here, the battlefield is no place for a lady."

"I know several people who would differ from your opinion, Lord Mace. But don't worry about me, I'm not going to fight today," Arianne replied. "With a little luck, none of those present will have to."

"You say that you want to avoid a bloodbath, and yet you attack my lands and my subjects like the snakes you are. I have come to speak out for the honor that is required of me as Lord of the Reach and Warden of the South, but do not expect me to let you go unpunished from this treason," Mace Tyrell spat.

"The only traitors here are you and all those lords I see behind your back. Or do you deny crowning my brother, violating the laws of succession of the kingdom?" said Stannis with a frown.

"And you haven't done the same? Yes, yes, I've already read that letter of yours, like the whole kingdom has, but you have no proof that what you were saying is true, am I wrong?"

"I didn't come here to be called a liar, let alone someone like you."

"And why did you come? You say you wanted to negotiate, but I haven't heard any proposals from you. What I do see are the despicable thieves and murderers you surround yourself with," Lord Mace said, pointing to his group, especially his uncle Oberyn.

"I think you're confused, my Lord. I don't remember stealing or murdering someone in my whole life. When I've killed, it was in the heat of a battle or an honorable duel," her uncle Oberyn replied, while pretending to be offended.

"The whole kingdom has heard of your despicable acts, Red Viper. How you empower your weapons with poisons to cripple or kill your opponents. The whole Reach knows how you left my son Willas crippled for life with one of your dirty tricks."

"Your son's horse fell on top of him during a tournament he shouldn't have participated in. The whole Reach knows. And as for the rest... you have no proof that it's true, am I wrong?" her uncle replied with a rogue smile.

Mace Tyrell turned red like a tomato upon hearing the response of the Red Viper and took his hand to the knob of his sword but was smart enough not to draw his weapon.

"I swear to the Seven above that before the sun sets today, I will pierce your black heart with my sword, Oberyn Martell," said one of the riders accompanying Lord Mace. Like the Lord of Highgarden, he was wearing a green armor decorated with two golden roses on the breastplate.

He looks very young. Is he his son? Or maybe some nephew?

"And you are?" asked her uncle still smiling.

"Ser Garlan Tyrell, " replied the young knight. "You would do well to remember this name."

"I promise you I won't forget it. But I must tell you, I don't understand your ill will towards me. Your older brother doesn't seem to hold any grudges against me for that unfortunate accident."

"My brother has a good heart. He is able to forgive even his enemies. To your misfortune, I am not like him."

"We do not have to come to this, Lord Mace, Ser Garlan. We just want to claim what's ours by right," Arianne intervened before the atmosphere got too hot. "Depose your banners and join our cause, just as the Starks and Tullys have already done. If you do, we will return you Oldtown and the Arbor, as well as the hostages we have taken. Those are our terms" Arianne gestured with her hand and her cousin Nymeria, who was part of her escort, got ahead of the party. Mounted with her was a skinny, nailed, emaciated man. His flesh seemed to be attached to his bones and was only covered by a few simple leather clothes. In any other situation, anyone would have mistaken him for a beggar.

"Who's that? What do you intend with...? No... it can't be… Paxter? Paxter is that you?" asked Mace Tyrell stunned. In an instant, his face had gone from being completely red to an absolute paleness.

The Lord of the Arbor tried to say something, but he was so weak that he couldn't emit even a single sound from his mouth. Her cousin had to hold him before he fell off the horse of how fragile and weak he was.

"You'll have to excuse us, Lord Mace. Our homeland, despite being so beautiful, is not as rich as yours. Unfortunately, we have not been able to feed him in the conditions that someone of his position would deserve, I beg you to forgive us," Arianne said, trying to disguise the enormous satisfaction that scene caused her. "Please consider his release as a sign of our goodwill in these negotiations."

Arianne had personally ordered the jailers to only feed him one onion every two days as long as he remained captive. In her opinion, it seemed a much better deal to her than what Stannis had received years earlier while besieged, but her husband had ordered that all captives be kept alive at least, until the war against Renly continued.

"Forgive you? Are you making fun of me? You say you want to me to join your cause. Well, here's my counteroffer. Swear allegiance to King Renly, free every of my subjects that you have prisoners, lower your banners, and return to the desert lands from which you should never have left. That or you will all die here today, that I swear" Lord Mace said.

"Never" retorted Stannis, his face impassive. "If it is a battle what you want, Lord Tyrell, you will have it." He made a slight move with his head and the entourage set in motion back with the bulk of the army, but not before Nymeria first give a slight nudge to Lord Paxter, who fell to the ground as if he were a sandbag.

Arianne did not even turn to watch as the Reach's knights ran to help the frail Lord of the Arbor but instead spurred her horse and placed herself next to her husband at the head of the entourage.

"I liked your performance Stannis. The truth is, you never cease to amaze me," Arianne said smiling when she was up to Stannis' horse.

"You were the one who insisted that I should try to reach an agreement with the Tyrells before the battle, but as you can see, that's impossible. If it had been up to me, I would never have dealt with that rat," Stannis said, releasing a derogatory snort.

"I didn't expect you to come to an agreement either, really, though you've certainly done everything you can to keep it from being so. My uncle, Lord Redwyne... anyone else would think that what you wanted was to provoke him."

They exchanged an accomplice look and suddenly they both laughed. Stannis's was a dry and abrupt laugh, but still his rejoicing was remarkable.

"Mace Tyrell is not a brilliant commander, far from it, and anger will make him even more prone to make mistakes. Randyll Tarly was not among the lords who accompanied him, nor was Mathis Rowan. The only ones who accompany him are young lords eager for vengeance and glory."

"And Lord Florent seemed to be about to pee on himself as soon as we showed Paxter Redwyne," Arianne added. "Actually, I wasn't sure if releasing him was going to be a good idea. Do you think he survived the fall?"

"Does it matter? His lands are ours and his forces have been decimated, Paxter Redwyne no longer has any value to us."

"True, but you won't deny me that getting back at him after all these years doesn't give you some personal satisfaction, does it? Did you like watching Nymeria pull him off the horse? The truth is, I had wavered between doing that or telling her to slit his neck from ear to ear. I know she would have preferred to do the latter, but we don't want the rest of the kingdom to consider us vicious murderers, do we?"

Stannis sketched an almost imperceptible smile upon hearing her comment but said nothing else all the way until they finally arrived with the rest of the army.

They rode among the orderly rows of foot soldiers who opened their way as they advanced. The waving banners, the spears, the shields... everything seemed out of some fantasy tale. But these stories did not describe the deafening tumult of the soldiers, or the stinking smell of sweat and horse feces permeating the environment.

At last, they stopped on a small hill behind the front lines, from which she could see almost the entire battlefield. A privileged place, as described by Stannis. Before arriving, Stannis stopped just enough time to instruct the rest of his companions. Her uncle Oberyn was sent to command the right flank, along with her cousin Nymeria, while Darkstar was assigned the left flank. Lord Harmen Uller would be in charge of leading the center, while the rest of the lords were assigned to various positions. Only a few knights remained with them and accompanied them to the top of the hill, where they were awaited by a dozen more knights, who had been tasked with protecting and escorting her and Stannis back to Oldtown in case the tide of the battle turned against them.

Mounted on his horse looking at the horizon, Stannis looked like a true king, even though for his simple and unremarkable clothes he could be mistaken for any of the free riders who were part of his army if not for the crown he still wore over his head. As she looked at him, Arianne noticed a curious detail. On his right arm, tied above his elbow, he wore a cloth of frayed orange torn from the years.

"Do you still keep it? I'm surprised you didn't get rid of that rag a long time ago. If I knew you were still keeping it, I'd have given you a new one," Arianne said surprised.

"You don't have to. I'm good with this one," Stannis replied.

"Why do you keep it? It was just the gift of a little girl who dreamed of shining knights."

"What can I say... You know I don't usually believe in superstitions, but it's brought me luck wherever I've gone till this day. And besides, the little girl who gave it to me did it so happily that it would be a shame to get rid of it, don't you think?"

"Wow, you sure know how to make a girl happy," Arianne said, blushing. "I just hope it brings you luck one more time."

"I don't think I'll need it this time. Look."

Arianne turned and looked at the battlefield. From that position, she could clearly observe the disposition of the two armies. The Reach's army appeared to have adopted a very simple formation, with a large number of infantry in the center protected by cavalry units on both flanks. Suddenly, trumpets were heard in the distance and the Tyrell army began to move towards them slowly.

On the other hand, the way her husband had deployed to the Dornish army was... strange to say the least. Arianne had not attended the last war council meeting where plans for the impending battle had been discussed, as she knew nothing of military strategy and preferred that her future vassals to be oblivious with that fact as long as possible. But at that moment, practically alone, she had no qualms about asking Stannis what that irregular disposition was all about. From what little she knew, armies usually used to be deployed in the same way that Lord Mace had done, with cavalry on both flanks so that they could protect the infantry and, in turn, surround the enemy. Stannis, on the other hand, had deployed the entire Dornish cavalry on the right flank. The horses were so close together that Arianne found it impossible for them to maneuver when the Tyrell cavalry charged them. What would her husband be thinking about doing that? Had he gone mad?

"I'm sorry, dear. But I'm afraid to tell you that your dear wife doesn't have a mind for strategy as good as yours. Could you explain to me why you're so confident?"

"Hmph, let me explain it to you then," sighed Stannis. "Our numbers are very similar, so if I were to adopt the same disposition as him, it would most be that this became a battle of attrition without a clear winner. No, our victory must be absolute. In addition, Mace Tyrell has not considered the layout of the land. At first glance it may seem like a simple plain, but there is a crucial element."

"The Honeywine," answered Arianne immediately.

"That's right. In another situation his cavalry would crush our men on foot and ravage our flank, but here the river prevents that from happening. His cavalry will not be able to surround us and will crash into the Darkstar's lancers, becoming completely useless."

"While on the right flank our cavalry will far surpass them. But why put them together so much? In that position our numerical advantage will be useless, won't it?" Arianne asked hesitantly.

"If they fought like this, we'd be at a clear disadvantage, just like you say. But I have no intention of them doing so. I've instructed your uncle, as soon as their cavalry is close enough, they'll break ranks and charge them before they can react in time. If they're positioned like this, it's to pretend they're many less and so the surprise factor is greater. By the time Mace Tyrell has noticed, his left flank will be gone..."

"And his army will be trapped between our cavalry and the river," Arianne finished completely astonished, as if the world's best-kept secret were revealed to her. Stannis's plan was so simple that she couldn't understand how she hadn't figured it out before. Well, neither she nor Mace Tyrell apparently.

The Reach's army continued to advance to forced marches as the trumpets kept ringing, their sound getting closer and closer. It was then that from the ranks of her army, the drums began to rumble with a snug sound, completely silencing the enemy and for a moment Arianne thought she would have to cover her ears so as not to be deaf, but luckily the volume of the drums dropped enough not to have to.

The ranks of spearmen opened to let the Dornish archers pass by, while the Tyrells' ranks did the same with their own. A rain of arrows veered through the sky, drawing an ascending arc to where the Tyrell archers had been located. The arrows fell on them like water drops, and many of them fell collapsed through the arrows, but those left standing did not get scared and threw their own shock. Then Arianne heard it.

The sound was distant and dampened by the noise of the drums, but the groans of pain coming from their own ranks were unmistakable even from that distance.

The firsts to die, Arianne thought sadly. They won't be the last.

The archers fired a few more times, some of their arrows hitting the infantry of both armies. From that distance, the number of fallen seemed very similar on both sides.

Meanwhile, the Reach cavalry was getting closer and closer to both flanks of their army.

"Give Lord Uller the order to charge with center as soon as the Tyrell cavalry reaches our left flank," Stannis ordered one of his escorts, who nodded and galloped to the front to transmit the orders to Lord Harmen.

At that moment, the sound of trumpets resumed from the right flank of Dorne's army, da-DAAA-da-DAAA. Arianne saw the rider going to the head, who wore a spear with the Martell house banner tied in it shouting something inaudible from that distance. Thousands of voices responded in unisonous, so the cavalry broke ranks and galloped towards the Tyrell riders who had advanced past their infantry and were already approaching them.

The Reach mounted knights slowed down as they were surprised by the number of riders looming over them. However, the knight leading the charge did not become frightened and continued to gallop towards the Dornish and mercenary cavalry, whose ranks were opening more and more as they approached the point that, when the time came that the two armies collided, the Dornish cavalry had already managed to surround the outer flank of the Tyrell knights.

The crash was brutal. The scene would have been incredibly shocking for anyone who saw it, but even more so for Arianne, as it was the first time she had witnessed one. Everything was so... chaotic. Gone were the neat ranks of riders with the banners in the wind and instead they had been replaced by a wave of riders fighting each other without any order. Her only way to try to figure out what was going on was to look in the direction the horses looked, although that resource soon proved useless, too, as the knights moved back and forth looking for the next enemy to face.

Arianne would have continued to observe the confrontation if another event had not also caught her attention. On the left flank, the remaining Tyrell cavalry had almost reached Gerold's spearmen, who endured impassively. As Stannis had hoped, the enemy charge was a complete failure. Half of the horses stopped cold as soon as they were near the spears and stopped charging. Some of the men who rode them flew out due to the inertial impact of the sudden stop and fell in the midst of the lancers, who finished them without mercy. The rest did not run have better luck, dying through the steel spears before they could reach the men who wielded them. Some managed to get to the line of spearmen and cause some damage in the front rows before they died, but it was not enough to break the solid Dornish formation, which bravely resisted the attack.

"Charge!" rumbled a voice. "Charge! Charge!" many others replicated at the same time. As planned, the center of the army advanced to the Tyrell's vanguard as the archers who had advanced earlier retreated through the ranks of lancers, threw their bows to wield sledgehammers, axes or short swords instead and ran back to the vanguard. The strength of the Tyrell center, which was making a similar move, was confused by the ferocity of the Dornish charge, as well as by the failure of their cavalry on the left flank, which were trying to form up again to attempt a new charge on the spearmen.

At that point, virtually all soldiers on both sides were engaged in combat in a more or less chaotic way, being the spearmen of the left wing of the few who still maintained their initial formation.

"Isn't this how you imagined it?" asked Stannis after a few minutes.

"No, actually. Everything is too chaotic, it looks like the melee of a tournament, but multiplied by a hundred. Are you able to see what's going on?" said Arianne as she looked back and forth on the battlefield.

"It's not easy," Stannis acknowledged. "Normally I'd tell you to look at the banners, but in this case it's best to be guided by the color of the soldiers' clothes. Except for mercenaries, our men wear garments with yellowish or reddish tones. The Tyrells, however, use greenish tones. In any case, it is usually best not to lose sight of your troops during the battle and follow all their movements. That way you won't get any unexpected surprises."

"Like which?" she asked confusedly.

"Like the annihilation of your left wing. Look, they're done," Stannis said, pointing to the right flank.

Indeed, as her husband had said, the Dornish cavalry seemed to be reorganizing the line, while some men on foot or on horse tried to flee without any type of order. A few tried to get back to the center of the Tyrell army, but most were simply fleeing as far as they could.

The trumpets sounded again and the Dornish riders charged against the unprotected left flank of the Tyrell army. It was such a massacre that Arianne did not know whether she should feel euphoric about such victory or horrified by what her eyes saw.

Most of the Dornish cavalry crossed the ranks of the Tyrell army from the left flank as if they were paper, while another large group of riders surrounded them further and attacked the confused army from the rear, causing soldiers to retreat only by a narrow strip between the river and the Dornish riders. Within minutes, the Tyrell army panicked and tried to retreat chaotically. The cavalry on the right wing, which was embarking on a new charge against the ranks of spearmen that was barely maintaining their formation, was surprised by the tide of soldiers pouncing towards their position trying to flee down the narrow corridor through which retreat was still possible. As the pincer closed and the only escape route was cut off by the Dornish cavalry, the remains of the Reach army were forced to retreat into the river and cluster further and further, until they finally began to throw themselves into the Honeywine trying to flee.

It didn't work out.

The weight of the armor caused most of those naive poor men to drown shortly after they entered the river while those who were skilled enough to take them off before doing so were swept away by the downstream before they could even reach the other bank.

The encirclement became more and more narrow, so much that Tyrell soldiers were forced to get so close to each other that they did not seem able to even fight, and died on the spot without being able to even raise their swords in order to defend themselves.

"Leave alive any man who drops their weapons and swears allegiance to our cause," her husband told several of his guards, who rushed to pass on the new orders.

If there's any left alive by the time they get there.

Sorry it took me so long to post a new chapter (again) but the longer this story progresses the harder it is for me to take it to something resembling a conclusion. At first it was only goning to be an attemp of an Arianne x Stannis fic and I feel like it spiraled out of control a long time ago.

And yet, I regret nothing about it XD.

My inspiration for the battle of this chapter was the Battle of the Trebia, the first mayor battle between Hannibal and Roman forces in the Second Punic war. Maybe the outcome of the battle is too onesided but I couldn't see it going any other way, as Mace Tyrell is always described as a bit of a fool in terms of strategy in the book series, on contrary to Stannis. Also, I had to balance the Reach's strength somehow, as it's the most powerful of the Seven Kingdom's by a long distance (described as capable of mustering an army two or three times bigger than any other region).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for all of you and see you in the next chapter.