Land of the King

Chapter 63: The War for the Rhoyne

"Keep your wits sharp men, and your eyes peeled on the sky," Aragost ordered his men.

The original plan, based on their last communication with Garin, had been to land at Volantis, either to help Garin assault the city, or help him defend it from the expected Valyrian counterattack. That entire plan had all gone up in flames, quite literally.

A day after contact was lost with Garin, the Arnorian armada was hailed by a number of Rhoynar commanders. They reported that most of Garin's army had been annihilated outside Volantis and that they had led the survivors to the ruins of Sarhoy where they were now beset by a Valyrian army and supporting dragons. The fleet had almost turned back then, but Aragost had ordered them to press on. They would not abandon their allies in their time of need.

Still though, to land at a port not entirely secure while the skies were filled with dragonfire was no easy feat. It was times like this that made Aragost once more question if he had made the right decision in choosing to lead the fleet.

When the Rhoynar had called for aid after Sarhoy had been destroyed, the choice had been between Aragost himself and his youngest brother Túrin to lead the fleet that was planned to aid them. While Ciryaher was commanding overland regiments deploying from Pentos and Myr, the King had had two other sons to choose from. Many had expected him to choose his third son, a well-known veteran and war hero of the First War but Aragost had asked to be sent.

It had been from a need to prove himself, but also to spare his brother another war. Unlike his younger brothers, Aragost had seen little action in the War for the Stepstones. As the first in line to the throne, he had remained in Vinyambar with his father for the most part, helping to oversee the war effort from the rear and occasionally leading convoys. He had seen little of the horrors of that war and consequently had little first-hand experience of anti-dragon warfare.

If Aragost was to lead Arnor in the wars to come against Valyria, the wars that his goodsister continued to predict, he needed to gain that experience. Perhaps even more importantly, Aragost had felt guilt that his baby brother would be sent off to fight yet another war in his stead. The War for the Stepstones had left scars on all of them, but none more so than Túrin. Aragost could not, would not, force his brother to go through it all again, and with the line of succession secured by his sons and nephews, he had felt that it was his duty to lead the armada.

It should have been an easy war. With the combined might of Arnor and the Rhoynar under Garin, it should have been easy to hold the Rhoyne against Valyria. Now however with the Rhoynish armies all but destroyed, could he win this war? He had to try at the very least, failure was not an option. If they failed here, Arnor itself could come under threat.

"Your Highness, our scouts have sighted Sarhoy. The Rhoynar are still holding out but the dragons appeared to have left," his lieutenant, Amandil, informed him.

"That's because they're coming here. Load the windlances and have the water mages ready their spouts, the dragons will be showing up any moment," Aragost ordered. Though he had not fought in the First War, years of training had not gone to waste and Aragost knew that the most likely reason the dragons had left Sarhoy had been to attack their fleet.

"Dragons!" someone shouted at that moment, confirming Aragost's thoughts.

Aragost looked up to the sky and saw blasts of fire aimed for the fleet. As one particular column of flames edged closer to his ship, he felt the world slow. Was this it? Was he about to die here?

In the next moment the sound of vaporising water filled the air as their water mages shielded them from the flames but it had not saved them all. All across the fleet, the screams of dying men haunted him as ships went up in fire and the smell! By Eru the smell of burning flesh, it was like pork, well done, but knowing who that flesh had belonged to made his stomach turn.

Yet in the midst of all of this, the Arnorians retaliated with force, soon the sun was shrouded by a hail of arrows and bolts. The Arnorian archers worked in tandem with the water mages, the mages shielding them from the fires and trapping the dragons in place for the archers to slaughter them. All the while the armada slowly pushed onward to Sarhoy. The Arnorian fleets had long since learned to operate like a war machine against the dragons, and in that moment, it showed.

For his own part, Aragost could do little more than oversee their defense. It was strangely humbling. For all the power that he had as the Crown Prince of Arnor, before the dragons of Valyria, he was all but powerless. What could one man do against such beasts? But as his confidence in his own abilities wavered, Aragost's pride and trust in his countrymen had never been stronger. Many of his armada had been veterans of the first war and they had reacted to the dragon attacks with practiced ease. While Aragost and others who had seen little action in the First War had panicked momentarily, the veterans had pulled through and fought back with practiced ease. How many such attacks did the men fight in the first war? How many did Turin fight, he wondered.

In the sky above their fleet the dragons fell from the sky one by one, the onslaught of Arnor's arrows and anti-dragon weapons and magic proving too great. Though they had destroyed several ships the price had not been worth it, he knew, more than half a dozen dragons collapsing dead, many more being injured. Seeing that, the Valyrians pulled back, allowing the armada to land their troops.

"Your Highness, we must be careful while landing the troops. It is possible the dragons will return to strafe us while we are distracted," Amandil advised.

"Unlikely. Why attack us now, when they'll have so many better opportunities to turn us into ash? Still, no harm being prepared. Have the water mages and the scorpion crews remain alert. The rest of the men will have to unload as fast as possible," Aragost ordered.

As they disembarked, the Arnorians were greeted with cheers by the Rhoynar. Aragost was approached by the leader, General Lewyn Arran with whom he had spoken with over the glass candles when the distress call had been sent out.

"Prince Aragost, it is good to see you. We had thought all hope lost until the dragons suddenly left. It turned out they had gone to destroy your fleet," he said.

"And they did not succeed. Our losses were light, I believe I have some 60,000 men still."

General Arran's face fell somewhat, "Not that we are not grateful Prince Aragost, but we had hoped for more,"

"You must understand General. We had expected to rendezvous with Garin at Volantis, not save the survivors of his army."

"Yes, the Valyrians dealt us a great blow at Volantis. Yet between your 60,000 men and mine own forty thousand, we could hardly stand against Valyria. The Rhoynar are spent! We sent near our whole military force with Garin, we have no more strength to give!"

"Fear not General, I have already sent word back to Arnor. Even as we speak, my brother Ciryaher is gathering a new force in the Flatlands. They plan to march across to the Rhoyne to reinforce the northern cities, but their approach will be dangerous to say the least. Is there truly no more strength that the Rhoynar can spare? Do not your women fight as your men do?"

"We have many more, men and women alike, yet they are not trained to fight. If we commit them, it will be like sending sheep to the slaughter!" the General protested.

Aragost grimaced, "You will find General, that the Valyrians will slaughter them nonetheless." As he gestured around to the ruins of Sarhoy, the Rhoynar's faces turned grim.

"In any case, Sarhoy is a strong defensive position. We can hold out here long enough for reinforcements from either Tálnandor or Lys to reinforce us and the fleet can continually resupply us."

"You do not intend to sally forth to defend the cities?" General Arran asked.

"Not at the moment no. We don't have the strength to do it and we'll be vulnerable trying to march north in dragon territory. In Sarhoy we are safe, and we can threaten Volantis easily. Mount our anti-dragon weapons all over these ruins and with the Rhoyne and the sea nearby, the Valyrians will find it hard to flush us out and our fleet can resupply us long enough for our reinforcements to arrive."

"What of our cities then? All our homes and families are at risk, you would have us sit here like cowards and abandon them?"

"Certainly not. Remember, my brother Ciryaher is marching. His army will no doubt be able to reinforce Chroyane –"

"Chroyane is gone."

Aragost snapped to the General.

"We received word over the glass candles four days ago that the Valyrians were at the gates of Sar Mell. We lost contact with Chroyane shortly after."

"I'm sorry. But we don't have the numbers or the time. I have to send word to my brother. If Chroyane has fallen, the fastest route to the frontlines will be through Ghoyan Drohe and the riverine fleets there."

General Arran was about to continue speaking when suddenly they all heard a cry.

"DRAGONS!"

They took them unawares then, even with their expected return, none had thought they would come back so quickly. The fires billowed through the ruins, eviscerating those not in cover and scorching their unsecured supplies and weapons.

However, the Arnorians yet again proved their mettle, as the archers and the anti-dragon artillery on the walls did their job and the dragons attacking the city were repelled. However, with growing horror, he realized that most of the dragons were missing.

'The ships!' he realized in horror, 'They're burning our ships!' With most of the archers dismounted and the artillery being moved, there weren't enough defenses there.

"The ships!" he shouted, "Focus the defenses on the ships!"

At his command, many of their archers, mages and artillery focused on the dragons there, driving them off not long after but the damage had been done. Aragost could only stare in horror at the burning ships in the harbour. Even with water magic, he knew there was no saving those ships now.

With a grimace he turned to General Arran, "It seems you will have your wish after all General."

Shortly after, Aragost and his highest ranking officers were in a room with their Rhoynish counterparts. Strewn all over the table was a sea of maps.

"With the loss of the fleet, staying in Sarhoy is a death sentence," he reported grimly. Damn the Valyrians. He should have suspected the first attack on their navy had been too quick and light. They let them sail right into this trap on purpose. "Right now, if we stay here, we will slowly starve to death as the Valyrians burn us out. Our only option as of now is to break out of the encirclement surrounding us and make west."

"West? To Arnor? What about our people? We are thankful to you for saving us, but we will not join you in abandoning our people," General Arran replied, fear clear on his face.

"Patience General, I haven't finished yet. As it stands, the Valyrians will annihilate us if we try and go north directly. However, if we divert west, they will assume we are retreating to Arnor and will likely not pursue us very far. At that point we double around and head north. We move parallel to the Rhoyne, but we shall give it a wide berth, especially around Chroyane."

"That's risky, we'll be away from both the sea and the Rhoyne during that time, without water cover, we are at great risk if the Valyrians discover our deceit, especially given how slow we shall be moving the artillery," Amandil pointed out. He was right, and it was here that he knew the hardest sacrifice needed to be made.

"Aye that is true, but risks have to be taken in war. To minimise those risks as much as possible we will only take the light artillery, just enough to defend us from any stray dragons. The heavy artillery shall remain here with a small garrison. If I am right, the Valyrians won't attack us directly, but wait and bide their time. A small garrison with all that heavy artillery should be able to deceive them for enough time. Tomorrow, the garrison will take the few seaworthy ships and flee back the way we came.

The rest of us, meanwhile shall make a break for it tonight towards the north. As a diversion, we'll have a part of the army openly head west to link up with the reinforcements from Tálnandor as a distraction while the rest of us change course. With any luck, we'll be able to slink north undetected and rendezvous with Prince Ciryaher and his army. It's a new moon tonight, it should hopefully be enough to allow us to sneak through," he finished.

Looking around, he could see the worried faces on the men, and he could understand. It was a risky plan. If the Valyrians discovered them and attacked in force, away from the Rhoyne, they might be overwhelmed. If the Valyrians had a strong perimeter set up already, they could all burn tonight. So many ifs, and yet what else could they do?

"Prepare the troops. Tonight, we break out of Sarhoy."


As night fell, the Arnorian-Rhoynar army had assembled in the western half of Sarhoy. Sadly, they had no horses with which to make their diversion easier but they would have to make do.

Slowly they marched out of Sarhoy near the coasts of the sea. Their archers were looking at the sky at all times, their eyes peeled for any dragons while their water mages were alert to summon water from the nearby sea at the ready.

To reduce the risk of detection and casualties, no lamps or lighting of any kind were being used at all. The army was marching in the dark. Thankfully the Dúnedain had superior night vision and superior eyesight in general so they were not walking blind, but their Rhoynar allies were sticking rather close to them.

While Aragost personally hoped the patrolling dragons didn't spot them, it might be better if they saw the vanguard heading west as it would confirm to the Valyrians that they were fleeing back to Arnor, or they would see their formation breaking and the bulk of the army heading north and the plan would fail, so perhaps it would be better if they didn't at all.

"Dragon spotted!" the sentry shouted and the archers readied to shoot but Aragost countermanded.

"Wait!" he ordered. It was a dark moonless night. With how high up the dragon was, what was the chances the rider would see them? He knew full well he was taking an enormous risk, but if the dragon and the rider hadn't seen them, they could sneak by the Valyrian encirclement easier.

His heart was pounding in his chest as he watched the dragon fly off into the distance. Almost collectively the entire army breathed a sigh of relief. While they could fight back, they would surely have lost many if the dragon had descended on them.

Finally, after a few more hours of marching, the army reached the point where they would divert north. Aragost surrendered his command over the vanguard of the army and gave their new commanding officers his last orders.

"Continue onwards west to link up with our forces coming from Tálnandor. Light your lamps about two hours from now. The Valyrians need to believe our army is heading west and when they see your vanguard all lit up, they will expect the rest of the army will be behind you. Good luck."

"You too Your Highness," the man said before bowing his head slightly in respect. Aragost nodded to him in turn before sending him and the rest of the diversion party west.

Turning back to the rest of his army, Aragost ordered them to change course and led them north. Perhaps the easiest part of the plan was over. Now came the hard part. Trying to march dozens of miles undetected in dragon territory without water support.


Weeks later, Aragost arrived in the camp of his brother with his army intact, albeit slightly smaller. Their journey had been quite harrowing as they had been almost detected a few times and quite a few soldiers were lost to desertion and skirmishes with the Valyrians.

Thankfully their true size and numbers had only been detected after they had reached the Rhoyne some miles north of Chroyane, at which point the whole army felt a lot safer with their water support restored.

To Aragost's surprise however, the Valyrians never contested them in force and if he didn't know better, he would say they were letting them head north unimpeded. He would discover the reason when he reunited with his brother.

"So, other than nearly everybody dying, do we know what happened in Chroyane?" Aragost asked when he was told.

"No. Almost all the stories agree that there was something magical and that the Rhoyne swallowed Chroyane whole, but other than that, we don't really know what happened." Ciryaher replied. "The most common story is that Garin invoked Mother Rhoyne for help, and as far fetched as that seems, out of all the stories it somehow makes the most sense. Whatever it was, a large part of Valyria's strength is gone, and the ruins are now permanently encased in an eerie fog. From some of the deserters we caught there has even been talk of some mysterious disease…" Ciryaher said, obviously deep in thought.

"Whatever it is, it certainly explains how we got here so easily."

"True. In any case," Ciryaher said, "what remains of Chroyane is a misty sunken ruin, that is for sure. Still, the Valyrians have taken and garrisoned it. With Chroyane impassable, any attempt of ours to push south will surely fail, but with all the Rhoynar south of Chroyane either dead or slaves, that may not be as problematic as we thought at first. The Valyrians also can't ship men and supplies north on the river which would make holding the north easier."

"Small comforts at least. It wasn't supposed to be like this. The people were promised a short glorious war, where we would aid Garin and the Rhoynar in driving Valyria from the Rhoyne. Now Garin and his army are gone, and even with the stunt he pulled in Chroyane, we are losing. How long do you think we can hold the north? How much longer do you think the will of the Arnorian people to sustain this war will last? Memories of the First War are still fresh in their minds. None want to see anything like the losses we had back then. If only Garin hadn't been such a fool, if he had waited, perhaps this would have all gone differently." Aragost said bitterly.

"We can never know. Perhaps Garin and us combined could have crushed Valyria, perhaps not. It is useless to dwell on the past. What matters is the here and now. I don't know how long we can hold out up here. Sooner or later, the Valyrians will deal with whatever is happening in Chroyane and then they shall attack again, and Norvos and Qohor are nipping at our heels. I am not entirely sure if we can even still win this war, but I'm damn well going to try. Are you with me Aragost?" Ciryaher demanded, offering his hand.

Aragost looked up to see his brother's determined face. "You're right. We might not win this war, but Eru damn us if we let the Rhoyne go without a fight."