Barristan
Barristan thought this was a simple job when he first took it, protect the king, fight his battles and be immortalized in history, that was all Ser Barristan wanted. But of late being a King's guard has come with too many moral dilemmas. In the King's wood Robert had ordered him to not kill the boar and the boar killed the King instead and now it was revealed to him that the Queen's children were bastards. Was it his duty as a King's Guard knight to ensure that his Queen was loyal? Was it even his duty to ensure the legitimacy of his heir? It made no matter, King Robert has given Lord Eddard the regency and he has decided Joffrey is not Robert's heir. Barristan had decided to follow Eddard's orders.
May the stranger take the life of the wicked and leave the just on this Earth for today at least. Barristan thought. Most followers of the faith of the seven believe it to be ill luck to pray to the stranger but Barristan was taught from a young age, at harvest hall, to light a candle to the stranger before battle.
Every battle Barristan had prayed for a glorious death and every battle the stranger denied him. Today was different, today he wished to see it through.
Lord Eddard wore heavy plate armour over riveted mail which he wore over an arming jacket which he wore over a gambeson. His plate was heavy grey steel that had blood red runes painted onto it. Around his neck he wore a necklace of red werewood leaves and white werewood twigs. On his head he wore a padded coif over which he wore a riveted mail hood which was covered up by his grey steel great helm that had a rounded top. His ironwood couche shield, was painted grey, the direwolf of house Stark was painted on it in a lighter grey barely noticeable from afar. The Shield's handle went over Lord Stark's forearm. In his armour, the man looked like he was made of stone, a statue come to life.
Lord Stark had brought with him many weapons, a pole axe, a longsword, the Valyrian steel greatsword, Ice, and a war Lance but today his weapon of choice was a 8 foot tall spear that had an ironwood shaft, on one end was the spearpoint and on the butt of the spear was a steel ball, 5 foot from the spear point, the spear had a simple but stylish velvet handle where the spear was in balance. On his waist Eddard wore a one handed arming sword and a dagger with a dragon bone hilt.
Ser Barristan himself was armed with a longsword, given to him by King Aerys, a bastard sword and a dagger. He wore the resplendent white plate armour over steel scales which he wore over an arming jacket. His white great helm was worn over a padded coif. A ceremonial silk cape flowed from his shoulders.
Lord Eddard ordered Vayon Poole to guard the gigantic book on the lineages of Westeros as he left the room.
Varys was sent to sit with Eddard's daughters, septa Mordain and the girl Jeyne Poole. The older Stark girl was crying huddled together with her friend but the younger one was wearing riveted mail and wore a rapier on her waist with small helmet nearby. A bravosi man guarded the door to their room.
Gendry followed wearing his bull's head helmet. He was also wearing steel plate painted in Baratheon gold and had a ironwood Stark shield.
At the bottom of the tower, 20 Stark men waited for their leige Lord. They all carried the same ironwood spear and ironwood shield Lord Eddard had. Even the plate they wore was the same grey steel as Lord Eddard, the only difference was that their armour did not have blood red runes painted on it and none of them wore a werewood necklace.
"Jorey, take 5 men, guard the tower door. Do not open it until we return." Lord Eddard ordered with his voice that was muffled by his helmet.
"As you say my Lord." Jorey Cassel replied.
Lord Eddard took off his helmet before addressing the rest of his men.
"Men, in the name of the old gods and the oaths you swore to me before the heart tree, in the name King Stannis Baratheon the first of his name, bring down your spears upon our enemies who try and steal the Seven Kingdoms from it's rightful ruler."
His speech was solemn and cold, it was said as solemnly as if he was an executioner asking a man for his final words or a Lord sentencing someone for a crime. The lack of passion did not bother the Stark men though as they raised their polearms and made the noise in Lord Stark's stead.
The door of the tower of the hand opened, the warrior Lord of Winterfel was the first one to leave the tower. Outside, the yard swarmed with Lannister men and goldcloaks who seemed to be fighting for the Lannisters. Not a single Baratheon stag was seen save a few dead bodies.
The sight did not deter Lord Eddard though as he marched on the Lannister men who pinned down the men inside the Stark garrison. Archers fired arrows from the windows of the tower of the hand and the Stark garrison onto the Lannister soldiers below.
Barristan made the first kill. A man in full plate armor emblazoned with the Lannister lion charged Lord Eddard with a sword. Barristan unsheathed his sword, tossed it into the air and grabbed the sword by the blade going into a half swording stance. Barristan stepped forward and took a practiced swing at the poor man's head. The blade of his sword bent and sent the hilt of sword whipping forward as it straightened, in an arch towards the Lannister man's head. The man parried but the force was too great and the pommel of Barristan's long sword caved in his helmet and cracked his skull underneath. Blood gushed from the gaps and he was dead before he hit the ground.
The Stark men sort of made a phalanx as they advanced on the small Lannister force outside the garrison. Barristan did not have a shield and was outside the Stark formation but it did not matter as Barristan killed three before Lord Eddard killed his first.
Sword play is all about remembering the basic stances and counters. One man,clad in full plate armour charged him with his sword high up in the air, Barristan switched to an ox guard, parried his downward cut and countered by thrusting forward with the point of his sword precisely slipping through the sight holes in the man's helmet, killing him. A man in brigandine and gambeson used a long point guard in an attempt to keep Barristan at bay. Barristan took a wrath stance with his sword behind his head, side stepped his opponents blade and cut his left arm off, the man collapsed from blood loss.
The gruesome sight did not make any of the Stark men flinch, they were all veterans of war, the men had probably scaled the walls of Pike or may have even been Barristan's enemy at the Trident. The Lannister men and the bastard in the bull helmet were not so tried and tested however.
As the Stark phalanx advanced the men inside the garrison joined the fight and the small Lannister force was now attacked from two sides. Those who could fled but those that stayed behind were only spared if they gave up their weapons Andrew armour. The weapons that were taken were left inside the tower of the hand. A stark man had died in the skirmish and they also left one man who was stabbed who had died in the tower of the hand.
Lord Eddard had a small force of five and thirty men with him now and they advanced on the next group of Lannister men who were stabbing and jabbing with spears at a doorway. Many began running the moment they realized that they were outnumbered. The fighting was brutal and the five men at the other side of the doorway joined the fight once they saw the Stark men. Some men tried to surrender but were denied the opportunity. Eddard Stark was afraid the Lannister men would return and pick up their weapons and he did not have the troops to guard the equipment or the men that surrendered. Those that remained behind refusing to fight were executed.
It was messy work, for the first time since his first battle Ser Barristan was not drunk on glory. He noticed the smell of shit and piss that hung in the air, as he slid his sword through the throats of crying men who were begging for their life. Lord Stark somehow managed to make this act seem noble. He took the helmet off the face of the men and looked into their eyes before he slit their throats with his black Valyrian steel dagger.
Lord Stark left the skirmish with four more men than when the fighting began. Three Baratheon men had died defending the doorway and a Stark man had been stabbed in the face by a dagger through his vision slit. He was sent back on his own to the tower of the hand.
As Lord Eddard's forces continued to March, Barristan realized that the Lannister men outnumbered them, but they were spread out and disorganised. Here and there there would be a small force crowding around a door, trying to kill the Baratheon men at the other side. Lord Eddard and his men fell upon them like a grey avalanche, each skirmish left Lord Stark with more men than before.
Barristan wondered if this was how Lord Eddard won the battle of the bells. Rushing from building to building, rescuing the Baratheon men who were hiding from the forces of Jon Connington who had crushed Robert Baratheon's army in battle just days before. The singers poetically praise Robert's hammer and his strength but if the Northmen hadn't assembled and rode south to Stony Sept as swiftly as they did, Robert would be dead and Lord Eddard would have been King. And a good King he would have been. One who would not have left it to Barristan to prevent his wife's bastard from taking the throne.
The Starks and the Tullys with their thirty thousand men beat the Targaryen forces so badly at Stony Sept, which was very close to King's Landing, that Aerys Targaryen had decided to exile Jon Connington and appoint a new hand of the King.
The Baratheon men told Lord Stark that Joffrey was expecting the small council to assemble in the throne room and was huddled inside there with forty Lannister men, twenty gold cloaks, and four knights of the King's Guard. Ser Barristan expected the Queen to stay there. Twenty men would be enough to defend the room as it only had three entrances and every member of the King's Guard would know that.
As they got closer to the throne room Lord Eddard chose to avoid the main hallway and split his men up to send them through smaller corridors where the Lannister numbers were not a great advantage for them. More than once the Baratheon loyalists would emerge out of a corridor to reunite, surround and destroy a small Lannister force.
The men marched on when they met a branching narrow corridor, Lord Stark went one way with half his men and let Barristan lead the other half through the other corridor which was only wide enough for four men to stand side by side with each other.
In the narrow corridor Barristan met with a small force of Gold Cloaks, they were armed with spears which they wielded two handed. They wore riveted mail with padded gambesons underneath. Padded coif, an iron half helm and a mail hood guarded their heads. They were lead by a knight of the King's Guard. Though he wore an enameled steel great helm, his ceremonial silken cape gave away his identity as the knight who was ordered to stand vigil over King Robert Baratheon's dead body. Ser Barristan spoke to him.
"I order you to stand down." He talked to Arys Oakheart in a voice that could be heard by all the Gold Cloaks.
"The Stark men you fight with are traitors my lord." The knight answered. Ser Arys, like most of the men, had no clue of the Lannister woman's treachery. In his mind, Lord Commander Barristan is the traitor and he is the hero who is protecting the King. It was strangely comforting for Ser Barristan's to know that Arys Oakheart will die thinking of himself as a hero.
Ser Barristan had found Ser Arys to be one of the noblest of the King's Guard, which is why he chose him to stand vigil over the body of King Robert beside Barristan. When he heard of the fighting The knight must have rushed down to protect the boy he thought was his new King.
"The Stark men fight for the King, Cercei's children are bastards." As he said it Arys Oakheart gave no signs of doubting Prince Joffrey, Arys Oakheart will do his duty to the bitter end.
"I never thought I'd live to see this day Ser! You who say Jaimie had profaned his blade to slay the King now lift yours in rebellion against the King you swore to defend! WHERE IS YOUR HONOUR?"
Ser Barristan thought about his prayers to the stranger and how they never come true. For years Barristan had prayed for glorious death in battle and every battle the stranger denied him. Today he had asked the stranger to spare the righteous and take the wicked and yet here stands Ser Arys Oakheart, angry and wanting to take Ser Barristan's head
"This man is a traitor and an oathbreaker!" Arys Oakheart told the Gold Cloaks under his command and the fighting began.
Using their spears two handed gave the Gold Cloaks longer reach over the Stark men who used their spears one handed and so Barristan had to get creative to close the distance.
Barristan unsheathed his dagger with his left hand and threw it at the face of the first Gold Cloak at the right side of the corridor. The blade cut into his skull and killed him instantly. Barristan rushed into the opening of the spearwall, killed the man behind the man that just died before stabbing the man to his left in the throat. The men loyal to Eddard Stark rushed forward.
Half of Ser Arys Oakheart's men abandoned him as Ser Barristan Selmy cut down a third Gold Cloak. Ser Arys Oakheart remained undeterred however, as he used his sword in a half swording stance to smash his way through the nine men who had followed Ser Barristan into the corridor. The pommel of his sword crashed into the grey steel helmet of two Stark men. After the two men collapsed Arys ripped off the horned helm of Robert's bastard ,who was hiding behind the more battle tested men, with his left hand and prepared to stab his face with the longsword which was in his right.
Ser Barristan Selmy dived at Ser Arys Oakheart and tackled him to the ground. As he fell Arys cut off the ear off of Robert's Bastard. Ser Arys struggled violently against Barristan's grip but Barristan managed to get under Arys and expose him to the Stark Spears who had now won the skirmish.
The men stabbed at the noble knight who laid helplessly on the floor pinned down by his former mentor, friend, role model and brother. The Stark men had good spears but a knight of the King's Guard had good armour. The spears dented the steel plate but could not cause mortal harm. When they stabbed at the gaps between the armour they found steel scales protecting Ser Arys Oakheart's body. The men did not stab at the head, where the spears would be at its most effective, for fear that they might hit Ser Barristan by mistake.
Ser Arys screamed and kicked with each stab of the spear
"Stop struggling!" Ser Barristan shouted out with tears filling his eyes in a failing attempt at convincing Ser Arys to forsake his duties as a King's Guard knight.
Robert's bastard stood over Barristan now with his face covered in blood and a war hammer in his hand. He raised it up and brought it down. Ser Arys's breastplate buckled and he cried out in pain but he wasn't dead. The bastard was strong but not as strong as his father yet. He raised his hammer up high again but this time his face became that of Robert the rebel, the castle walls vanished and were replaced by rivers. Barristan had transformed into Rheagar and the hammer was coming down towards him.
He is about to kill me! Barristan thought wanting to scream.
The hammer crashed down on Aerys's breastplate. My father! Barristan thought, still thinking himself Rheagar Targaryen, the man he failed to protect. Ser Aerys was still alive as Robert the King brought his hammer up again. The river became Harvest Hall. King Robert transformed into a stranger wearing a white cloak, it's face covered in shadow. The hammer had transformed into a scythe and Barristan Selmy had become wheat grass.
This time the breastplate caved in and the noble Aerys stopped struggling. Blood spurted out of his helmet. Barristan returned to the real world in the Red Keep, outliving someone he cared for yet again.
The Baratheon bastard sat down, dizzy from blood loss and effort, as a man from the storm lands bandaged him.
Of the two Stark men Arys Oakheart had hoped to take to the grave with him, one had recovered with only a dent to his great helm while the other sat down next to the bandaged bastard with blood trickling down from his sturdy helmet. He still stirred though but Barristan knew he was no longer fit to fight. He and the seven men had left that were fit to fight headed for the throne room.
At first it seemed the other Baratheon loyalists hadn't reached the throne room but when Barristan looked inside he found nothing but corpses of Lannister and Baratheon men. The Baratheons were lead by Thoros of Myr, who no doubt joined Lord Stark after hearing about his friend's cheating wife. The Red Priest lay dead now, his sword lay beside him, still set aflame by his wizardry.
Eight Lannister guardsmen lay dead on the floor, the other twelve who were no doubt guarding the throne room and the bastard of Cercei were missing.