Lord Eddard Stark arrived almost a moon later, with him was a Northern army consisting of nearly 30,000 men. He had been travelling for just over two moons and they had finally arrived at the assembly point for the armies who have remained loyal to King Joffrey Baratheon. Alongside him was Jon, who had begged to be brought along. He had been debating whether or not to tell him of his true birth but had decided against it; Jon was officially a Stark now, it mattered not who his mother and father were, he had told him just that when Jon had enquired on his return. Jon wasn't exactly happy with that but he had no choice but to accept it. Alongside the 25,000 Northern army were around 15,000 Riverlanders. Both he and Edmure Tully, who had accompanied him, had not brought their full army capacity with them. After all winter was coming.
He told his men to go and set up camp with the other soldiers and then left to find his King. He imagined that it would be an awkward meeting, after all but a few moons ago he had practically told Joffrey to go stuff himself. Nevertheless, he was here now, putting Northern lives on the line, the past was the past. He and Jon walked in relative silence until they arrived at the King's office. Ser Jaime was guarding the door, he nodded, all traces of his normal arrogance gone. He disappeared inside the room for a moment before reappearing. He stepped aside and we entered the King's temporary office.
POV change
I stood as the Warden of the North and to my surprise Jon entered the room.
"Lord Stark." I nodded at Eddard. "Lord Stark." I nodded at Jon this time. "I was not expecting you."
"I wanted to come, your Grace, it's about time I see combat, I imagine I will be seeing a lot of it in the future and I doubt I will be missed much at Winterfell." He explained.
The Lord Paramount of the North frowned but I didn't want this to turn into something so I quickly responded.
"Well, while I hope you don't see much combat in the future I am glad to have you here, we need all the help we can get..."
An hour or so later I had assembled all of the major Lords in the office. There was the usual suspects: Lord Tywin, Lord Eddard, Lord Edmure, Ser Barristan and Lord Randyll, who despite his best efforts had been unable to obtain the support of any of the houses of the Reach. I had also allowed the lords to bring two of their bannermen to be apart of my War Council. Lord Tywin had chosen Ser Kevan and Lord Westerling. Lord Eddard had brought Greatjon Umber and Lord Bolton, though I presume the second one was out of necessity. Lord Edmure has brought Lord Tytos Blackwood and Lord Jonos Bracken. Ser Barristan and Lord Randyll obviously didn't bring anyone.
After everyone had filtered in I started the meeting. "My Lords, I will not sugarcoat the situation we are in. We are outnumbered by a large margin. Lord Tywin tells me that Renly's army is around 100,000 men strong. On the other hand our own army has the strength of around 75,000. Though what I will say is this: armies even weaker than their opponents' have conquered, and this is what we shall do. We will defeat the pretender and then you're men can go home and prepare for the winter we all know is coming. Now Lord Tully I dread to ask but I noticed a distinct lack of House Frey. Where are they?"
"Your Grace, it appears that they are going to wait and see who will win the conflict before they commit any men." He looked and sounded angry, his dislike of House Frey is well known.
I nodded in understanding before saying "I shall personally remind them of their duty in a letter in a moment."
I looked at the map that was spread across my desk and placed a wooden carving of a stag at Crakehall and Cornfield. Then I spoke. "Reports suggest that as we started to assemble here, Renly's army advanced and took the keep of House Swyft. Since then however, they have not moved."
"Your Grace." Lord Randyll spoke. "If we can draw them north-west towards Silver Hall, then we can trap them between the river and the mountains, if we attack them from in front and behind, then they will have no where else to go."
I nodded, it was a good idea. Thank god that I had his brain on my side, though there was only one problem. "It's a good idea, my Lord, however I don't think it likely that they will send their entire army."
"Of course, Your Grace, I doubt all of our 70,000 men would fit, but however many they send as long as we have enough men to encircle them and to plug any gaps we will crush them." He explained.
"Well then that is what we shall do, but how will we bring them towards Silver Hall?" I asked.
Here Lord Bolton spoke up, his voice virtually a whisper, "We raid their camp over and over, each night, steal food, weapons, other supplies, kill a few men. They'll get angry we slowly draw them away from where they are, pretend to be running away and we lead them either to Silver Hall, or anywhere along the way which would be a good place to attack them." He explained, his voice chilling.
I acted as if his tone didn't send shivers down my spine and smiled. "Excellent, thank you Lord Bolton." He nodded. "Let's give the men a few days to recuperate from their long marches and then we shall march south. Now you're all dismissed, I have a letter to write." The Lords bowed and left.
After they had left I withdrew some parchment from a draw in the desk and started writing a letter to Walder Frey. It read:
Lord Walder Frey, Lord of the Crossing
I, Joffrey of the House Baratheon, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, do hearby order you to obey your oaths of fealty not only to your Liege Lord but also to myself, your King. If you do wisely heed my words march your men to Casterly Rock, if not you will face the consequences of breaking your paths.
Signed,
Joffrey of the House Baratheon, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm.
After finishing the letter I folded it and sealed it with the Royal seal before standing and leaving to find someone to send the letter. I was walking down one of the corridors in the keep, towards where I assumed the ravens would be (the tallest tower) when the Maester of the keep called out to me when he saw me.
"Your Grace, I have a letter for you!"
I took the letter from him and asked him to then send my letter. The parchment given to me bore the seal of House Harlow. I opened it and read the message.
Joffrey of the House Baratheon, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm.
I regret to inform you that I must refuse your request to send the Ironborn to fight for your cause, while I support you in your struggle and declare you as the one true king there is not enough support on the Iron Islands for war. Therefore I must officially declare neutrality. You needn't worry about the order of ships that you placed; they will still be delivered post haste.
Signed, Lord Rodrik Harlow, Lord Paramount of the Iron Islands.
I sighed at the contents of the letter, with the Ironborn on side the war would have been a lot easier, we would just have to make do with what we've got. May the seven help us.
A/N
Thanks for your patience, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Make sure you leave a review!
Sorry for uploading again, there were a few errors that needed to be fixed urgently. Thanks to Tom-Borr for pointing them out to me!
