Note: thanks for all the great reviews last chapter. Special thanks to Lady-Silvanas who first suggested the the "Blue Wedding," as inspired by this line, "Beyond the edges of the banner, Jaime could see a large wooden panel painted in the azure blue and muddy red, that reminded him of the castle's previous owners."
It seems especially fitting, because the chapter "Red and Blue" was named for joining of Lannister Crimson and Frey Blue, but can also be taken as a reference to the Tullys of Riverrun.
For those of you that commented on the song in the last chapter, my inspiration was "El Paso," by Marty Robbins. If you have ever heard this song before (say during a certain TV show,) then you might see where this story is going.
Arya
Dawn came to To King's Landing.
Everytime, a party of lords came to King's Landing; a small company would be waiting outside the city for them. Today Arya's company had been tasked to escort a delegation of lords from Cracklaw Point, to the Red Keep. They waited just outside the old gate.
The company that she had joined under back in Pentos was mounted. Her comrades were a mix of Pentoshi, Volanteen Freedman, and Dothraki, with even a few Westerosi exiles such as herself.
The company commander, Ser Tumco Lho, whom everyone called the Basilisk, was a battle hardened veteran of the Targaryen army. His sigil was a red Basilisk on a black field. He rode ahead with an officer of the Gold Cloaks and an officer of the Golden Men. There was only one Lannister left in King's Landing, Arya knew, and few could match his hatred of Queen Cersei. This still did not change Arya's opinion of the Gold Cloaks.
As for the Golden men, Arya found them to be an even more sinister reminder of the Lannisters. Founded by Tyrion Lannister, the Golden Men were his personal bodyguard and his very own force of hired killers; there was no force in the Targaryen army like them. Even proud knights, showed a healthy fear of any man whose shield bore the golden handprint. And fear cuts deeper than swords.
The armor that marked them, for who they were, was anything but golden. It was black almost everywhere; the cloaks their officers wore were of darkest crimson, their gorgets gilded steel. The officer who rode with the party was a gaunt man from Volantis, with Tiger stripes tatooed on his forehead, and a demon branded into cheek that somehow reminded her of the hound. Arya knew what the brand meant of course.
The man at the head of the party introduced himself as Ser Bennard Brune, the knight of Brownhollow.
"I have the honor to be Ser Tumco Lho."
"Where did you get your knighthood … Ser?" Arya noticed that both men seemed to think themselves better than to the other.
The Basilisk stared at him with an easy look of bored contempt, "I got mine from Ser Barristan the Bold."
If Ser Bennard sensed the danger, he was hiding it well. "They say he knighted hundreds of foreigners, just like you." She knew that by foreigners he meant lowborn.
Ser Tumco only laughed. "When I saw other Westerosi knights here King's Landing, I had thought Ser Barristan japed about the value of a knighthood."
For a moment the two looked ready to fight. "Welcome to King's Landing," the officer of the City Watch interjected. Both men took the opening and Ser Tumco ordered the company to fall in line and escort the party to the Red Keep.
As the company made their way to the Red Keep, Arya noticed a familiar sight from Braavos.
"Wait, I know you." She called out.
The woman turned her head to face Arya. Her hair was as dark as a raven, her eyes were blue, and she could not have seen more than thirty namedays.
"Do I know you?" She asked.
Arya was not sure if she was wearing another face at the time. "You were the Sailor's Wife."
The woman did not like the reminder of her past in Braavos, and frowned.
"I was, before the happy port burned down."
"I'm sorry," Arya heard herself say.
"So were the men who did the deed. They thought that wearing a lion on their breast would protect them from the authorities, but there are no titles in Braavos or nobility, every man and woman is held acountable for their deeds."
Arya felt herself grin, "justice for Lannisters?" she asked.
The Sailor's wife nodded, "You hate them too?"
Ayra remembered her identity as Jeyne, and struggled not to bite her lip. "I come from the Riverlands, they killed my family."
"What are you doing in King's Landing?" Arya changed the subject.
"I had no prospects afterwards, the Iron Bank repossessed the land and I was homeless with a daughter to support. Then some man named Kettleblack offered me a job here in Westeros. We got a passage to Maidenpool, where I entered the service of the Brunes."
"Where is your daughter," Arya remembered a girl named Lanna who had seen three and ten namedays.
The Salior's wife looked suspiciously towards the Golden man, whose attention was somewhere else.
"Safe."
Tyrion
While Dany held court, Tyrion managed her war effort. Immediately following the Massacre at Riverrun, The Pipers, Vances, and Blackwoods declared for Queen Daenerys, the Mallisters, who participated, declared for Stannis who was currently besieging the Twins.
Devan Lannister was dead. Now there were few members of the once numerous House Lannister, to dispute his claim to Casterly Rock.
If his cousin had not been slaughtered at his own wedding, he would have had to face his distant cousin. He had to feel sorry for Devan Lannister, murdered at his own wedding. The man deserved better than that. He felt more remorse over the death of aunt Genna; he always had good relations with his father's siblings. How dare Cersei blame me for killing uncle Kevan. Tyrion was still unsure if his sister had arranged Kevan's death.
Tyrion had nothing to do with this grusome bit of business, nor did he intend to claiming credit for it. He would have to reward the Blackwoods, the Pipers, and both branches of house Vance sooner rather than later.
Belicho entered his solar and delivered a thin stack of documents. They were reports sent to him by his own spies. The spy network that he had founded after the sack of Volantis was small, but effective. The network was slowly growing, and he was relying on it more and more. Varys was most certainly on Aegon's side, which made it difficult to trust the information on his desk.
Cersei had been given faulty intelligence, by her master of whisperers, Qyburn. Tyrion did not doubt that the spider's web frequently misled Lord Qyburn.
He read the first dispatch; Euron Crow's eye was going to attack Highgarden. It came as no surprise to Tyrion; The Tyrells were skilled opportunists that might as well have taken a weathervane for their sigil.
Now, Mace Tyrell's prodigious appetite for power had casued the Tyrells to overextend themselves. The Hightowers, Tarlys, and Redwynes declared for Aegon. The Rowans who had been commanded to take Storm's End for the glory of the Tyrells turned cloaks much to nobody's surprise. Most recently the Ashfords and Oakhearts joined Aegon.
The queen on the iron throne had reaped some profit from the chaos in the Reach. The houses of Footly, Caswell and the Red Apple Fossoways had declared for Daenerys. Combined they could muster at least 6,000 men.
The Green apple Fossoways were one of the few houses still loyal to the Tyrells, no doubt Garlan Tyrell had managed to mend relations with his in-laws.
The second report showed that Cersei was indeed at Antlers, as she had been for the past fortnight. Her retreat to Harrenhal had been surprisingly slow, partly due to her piteous attempts to gather swords. At this rate, Baelish would reach Harrenhal shortly before her. Tyrion wondered if Littlefinger was going to sell him Cersei. He certainly wasn't going to follow Cersei for long if he knew what was good for him, and he had 20,000 swords to Cersei's 2,000.
The Wedding at Riverrun had left Cersei with no one to run to save Littlefinger. The Freys had lost most of their strength and the Twins were now besieged on both sides of the Blue Fork. The remaining banners of the Riverlands openly defied Cersei. Most of the Westerland forces had not arrived in time for wedding thanks to Cersei's order for Lord Devan to be in Harrenhal before her, and wisely retreated for the Golden Tooth.
Tyrion had been shocked to learn that Jaime was held in Riverrun as a prisoner, but felt relieved to hear of his escape.
He wondered if he was going to meet Jaime when he took an army to the Riverlands. The queen had ordered him to to take a small army to Riverrun after the news of its fall. Daenerys would remain in King's Landing a little while longer before marching her main force to Bitterbridge.
Captain Mantarys entered the Solar, with a knight in tow.
"My lord hand, I bring Ser Bennard Brune at her grace's behest."
Mantarys offered a sealed document which no doubt contained Ser Bennard's orders as well as his.
He opened the document and sure enough Ser Bennard would take the forces of Cracklaw Point with Tyrion.
"How many men have you brought, Ser Bennard?" Whatever the knight was thinking, his face betrayed nothing.
"Three hundred, my lord."
Tyrion continued reading as he spoke with Ser Bennard.
He poured a cup of wine for himself and another for his guest.
"I would ask you to return to Cracklaw Point and gather more swords, but I am afraid we must leave tomorrow for Riverrun."
The third report on his desk announced that Jon Snow had been legitimized by Stannis Baratheon was Jon Targaryen.
Tyrion nearly choked at that. Was the boy that Tyrion met four years ago truly the heir of Stannis. He was sullen enough to be. It explained that Jon had proclaimed himself the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. It was said that he wore Prince Rhaegar's signet ring, and if that wasn't enough, he carried Rhaegar's infamous weirwood harp with silver strings. If this was true, then the honorable Ned Stark of all people had pulled off one of the greatest deceptions of the last century in fear of Robert Baratheon's fury. And I thought that Jon Snow had none of his mother's features.
"What do we have for an army?" Ser Bennard asked with curiousity.
Tyrion shifted his focus to the question at hand.
"I will take two hundred of my golden men, with your three hundred. Lords Stokeworth and Sunglass will bring a combined four hundred. I bargained with Daenerys to bring the Second Sons along. She was kind enough to grant me another one hundred under Ser Tumco Lho and Ser Larraq each." No doubt Ser Barristan's suggestion, his knights were not only superb fighters, but often seen as loyalty officers. Tyrion's own organization was inspired Barristan's knights, but Ser Barristan the Bold surely saw it as a gross perversion of his own training program.
He noticed Ser Bennard grimace in displeasure. Many knights, especially the pious ones frowned on the idea of knighting dark skinned foreingers who did not follow the faith of the Seven. Not even a knighthood from the legendary knight was enough to wash out their intolerence.
"Will it be enough?"
1,500 men would certainly not be enough, with Stannis in the Riverlands, but it was still better than the clansman he came here with though.
"Small and stunted I may be, but my reach is long, and my shadow longer still."
Asha
The weather had cleared with the rise of the sun, and the assault was soon to begin.
The Twins even though it stood alone, would be a tough nut to crack. A pair of gates would have to be breached even before reaching the moat that extended from the river.
It did not matter however, the Northmen were chomping at the bit to assualt the walls. Many had lost brothers, fathers or sons within the sight of this ugly grey castle.
The besiegers outnumbered the defenders seven to one, or so Stannis said.
This would be her first battle since Deepwood Motte, Stannis had denied her the opportunity to fight, but his new heir was more accomodating of her wishes.
Jon Snow, or Targaryen as he called himself now, was Stannis Baratheon's heir. She had offered to fight as one of his shields, which he accepted much to her surprise, but only after his great white direwolf smelled her and did not growl. Prince Jon explained that his direwolf could smell hostility or ill intent; He is eccentric enough to be a Targaryen.
Some doubted whether or not he was actually a Targaryen. He was definitely a Stark, even more so than young Rickon Stark who Theon did not actually kill. Jon Targaryen or not was the living embodiement of the North. For all the times, someone told her that the North Remembers, whether it was a northern lord or simply the unforgiving land itself, she had expected Robb Stark's cousin to hold her with malice.
Once again, Asha was pleasantly surprised. He told her that he had made a point of not hating someone just because of their blood. At the twins, though his principle was sorely tested.
A warhorn signaled the beginning of the assault. Four sets of ladders went forward, their bearers carefully trudging through the snow. A few score of dauntless souls followed them shorty after, their shields over their heads. As they approached the castle, the ladders on the flanks, veered off to so that the bearers could climb the outer waycastle from the sides.
The sounds of battle were soon to be heard as the first to fight went over the top. The warhorn sounded to signal that they had gained a foothold.
They began to move forward, Jon sounded his horn to signal the advance. They encounted no opposition along the way save a few stray quarrels.
By the time she climbed a ladder, the foothold had grown somewhat. The outermost wall from which they fought, was so small that armored defenders were now being pushed from their positions to the waycastle courtyard below. Soon, the Freys were pushed from the waycastle.
Between the waycastle and the east bastion were two small covered bridges that spanned the moat. The heavy wooden doors that stood between her and the castle were strategically placed half a flight of stairs down from the wall. This prevented the use of any battering ram.
Asha followed Jon as he ordered his way past the armored masses of Baratheons, to reach the heavy doors.
"Liddle, fetch me a keg," Jon barked.
Morgan Liddle came back seconds later with a small barrel that smelled of pitch. He set it down in front of the door, and another man broke the keg open. Jon motioned for everyone to stay back as the man soaked a black cloak in the pitch and smeared it on the door. He pulled out a dagger and used it to stick the cloak to the door, before closing the barrel and moving it from sight. "Botley, the torch," the prince gestered towards Tris.
Tris moved forward and lit the pitch from the fringe of the hung cloak. The flames ate the pitch soaked garment hungrily.
Collectively those around her crouched to avoid the unpleasant fumes of burning pitch that ate away the heavy oak door.
After a time that seemed like hours but could not be longer than half an hour, the door was a charred ruin. A Stormland veteran came forward with a two handed great hammer, and battered the smoking door from its hinges.
A burly northmen was the first to enter the door with a pavise shield, only to find the bridge and its twin to the right empty. The process was repeated on the next door, exept this time, it was done under fire. Before the barrel was put away, she filled an empty flask with the smelly black substance. This time, when the door collapsed, quarrels emerged from every possible angle.
Asha grabbed one of her throwing axes, and was the second person to climb the staircase leading to the gatehouse. The man in front of her was felled by a Frey man at arms holding a longaxe. Before he could continue his charge down the staircase, her sharp little husband cleaved through his mail as if it where soft cheese.
She jerked her axe from the man's chest as he tumbled down the stairs. After climbing a few more steps, half a dozen quarrels flew over her head. This would be the gatehouse Asha realized. Her hand went to the flask on her belt, which she opened and stuffed the opening with a scrap of cloth. A torch was hanging from a sconce on the wall, which someone removed and handed her.
Asha lit the dry cloth and threw the brittle flask into the mist of the enemy. Screams echoed throughout the walls when it burst. Without hesitation, Asha lept to the top of the staircase, and loosed her throwing axe on the nearest target, and lifted her shield in time to intercept a quarrel. A few men moved past her and cleared the gatehouse of Freys.
The battle was far from over, but when the loud sound of the drawbridge coming down on the moat drowned out all sounds of battle and cries of anguish, Asha knew that the battle for the East Keep was won.
Next up: Davos, Sansa, and Cersei