"We agreed on twenty," Robb growled.
"And now we need to renegotiate that," Tywin said calmly. There was no wind today, so the bridge remained calm apart from the simmering hatred the two negotiating parties had for one another. "Ten hostages, to be delivered immediately."
He sat back in his chair. "Immediately?"
"Ser Garlan and I have identified the appropriate individuals."
Garlan Tyrell sat forward and spat his next words with hatred. "From House Tyrell, you will receive my cousins, Hobber Redwyne, son of my father's sister Mina, and his sister Desmera. Leo Tyrell, son of my grandfather's brother Moryn. Finally sers Garse and Gareth Flowers, sons of my grandfather's brother Garth."
Garlan slid across a parchment confirming the names and birth connections to Lord Mace. "Why two sets of siblings and one who is not? Is there anything I should know about this Leo?"
"We hold our cousin dear. He has been trained in arms but he has recently left study at the Citadel. He volunteered when we were looking for hostages."
Robb wondered what kind of man volunteered to be held as surety for Tywin Lannister's good behaviour. No matter, he was a close enough connection, and if the Tyrells cared for him, then he would serve to cool any retribution they might deliver.
He took the parchment and turned to Tywin. "And from House Lannister?"
"My brother Kevan's son Martyn and his daughter Janei. My brother Gerold's natural born daughter Joy. My nephew Daven Lannister and my own granddaughter Joanna." Kevan closed his eyes at the thought of passing over his children, but he made no complaint. Robb had no children himself, and could only think of what it must mean to pass two of the off as hostages for good behaviour.
Robb fought to keep his face from reacting in shock. Cousins and nephews he was sure that Tywin might be able to give away, but his own grandchild? He had insisted originally that all candidates be within a generation of the heads of each House, so that he could be saddled with incontinent elders and bastards three generations down that had no prospects beyond being a cupbearer or page boy. But at least both houses had proposed close candidates, and even the bastards seemed to be well integrated with their families.
"Very well," he conceded.
"We will have those hostages delivered to you immediately, we can arrange the swap to be made with Ser Jaime, my father and the other prisoners you hold."
"And my sister?"
Now Kevan spoke. "As a symbol of our new peace, we believe it appropriate that you attend the wedding of your fellow king Joffrey to his Queen Lady Margaery. You may take your sister home with you after the ceremonies."
"Absolutely not," Robb said immediately. "I will send a representative to attend Joffrey's wedding on behalf of my kingdom, but thanks to the damage your armies have done, there is much I must repair at home. You will deliver Sansa to me immediately."
"We believe it appropriate that Sansa be collected from King's Landing."
You mean that you want the diplomatic coup of me attending King's Landing to show that I will not support Shireen Baratheon, Robb thought. "If Sansa is not to be delivered, then neither will Ser Jaime, or Lord Mace."
"My father needs to help prepare the wedding, he is the father of the bride."
"And Ser Jaime is the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, he must also be there for the preparations."
"Joffrey has lasted this long without Ser Jaime, and I don't doubt that you have been preparing the wedding for weeks or months already without Lord Mace. If you insist that Sansa be collected by my representative, then my representative will deliver the final hostages. And my garrisons will remain in place in your castles until my sister is back with me."
They tried to get him to move via other comments and cunning wheezes, but Robb was immovable on the rest of these matters, and short of conceding their fresh demands, they had nothing to offer him that would make him. So they moved on to the next topic that Joffrey's representatives now wished to renegotiate.
Robb would not have agreed to this, but his scouts were already reporting that soldiers and supplies from King's Landing were reinforcing the castles that stood against him. With Stannis Baratheon himself dead, they were free to put more strength in his way. If this war resumed it would be harder for him. The Lannisters' bargaining position had strengthened with Stannis' death and they were pushing back, seeing how far they could push before Robb decided they had pushed too far. This next topic in particular, was vital, that of the titles he and Joffrey held as Kings.
Robb had initially pushed for a complete separation of titles. Robb would be the King of the North Westeros and Joffrey would become the King of the South Westeros, with clear dividing lines between the two. When the Lannisters had been at their weakest, when Robb had them by the balls and Stannis by the throat, they had agreed, now that was clearly no longer acceptable to them.
"Joffrey has inherited the Kingdom of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men from his father," Tywin said. "Your conquests do not strip him of that inheritance."
"Ths First Men reside in the north," Robb reminded them. "A few scattered holdings in the south do not make Joffrey their king. As King in the North, I am the rightful overlord of the First Men, not he. Joffrey will relinquish that title. And to claim kingship of the Andals, he claims kingship over the men of the Trident, who have placed themselves, willingly under my lordship."
"'A few scattered holdings in the south do not make Joffrey their king'" Tywin reminded him. "Unless you are claiming that the title "King of the First Men," which you wish as yours, grants you right to lordship to the First Men lorships in the south, then it is clear that Joffrey does not claim Kingship over the Riverlands by virtue of Andals simply living there. Do you believe he also claims lordship of White Harbour and House Manderly? They are also Andals by blood, are they not?"
Robb kept his anger from showing on his face. It was as true as it was thin. Under the thousands of years since the Andals first invaded, there had been plenty of intermingling of First Men and Andals. There was no way to separate the two of them with a clean ruled line. That much was true. But what was also true was that that claim of lordship could be used as a future excuse for Joffrey, his son or his son's son to try a reconquest of the Riverlands, once their lands had recovered from this war.
"Very well, but Joffrey will relinquish the title Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. He may name himself 'Lord of the Six Kingdoms south, east and west of the Trident' in it's place."
"Lord of the Seven Kingdoms is also a title he has inherited from his father," Garlan said.
"But by conquest I do have the right to take that title from him, as he will no longer be the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms."
"It doesn't mean that he is claiming your territory," Kevan said.
"Aegon the Dragon claimed Lordship of the Seven Kingdoms without holding Dorne. That title was used by successor after successor to try and take Dorne by force. I will allow no title that encompasses a part of my realm and might be used as an excuse to try and take it."
"Joffrey is a proud boy. We can do much in his name while he is a boy, but there is no greater guarantee to restarting warfare between our kingdoms than to humiliate him before he has even become a man," Tywin said to Robb.
"Then Joffrey can bear the consequences that will ensue, from gods and men, if he chooses to attack me without just cause. But I will give him no cause. Joffrey accepts a title that is clear against any control of any of my territory and swallow his pride, as I am swallowing my pride in making peace with my father's murderer."
"King Robb-" Kevan began.
But Robb was having none of it. "We have been holding these negotiations in good faith, and for that I commend all three of you," he said. "But every clause you try to renegotiate makes me question how much faith you are putting into these talks. I have accomodated reasonable requests, but you are demanding I leave the door open to future claims on my kingship. I will not negotiate on those terms." Robb knew he was in a small window. Right now there were no messengers arriving from the many spies and scouts he had sent south to gather news saying that there were en masse defections from Shireen Baratheon to the Lannisters. That meant that right now she was still a threat, and as long as she was a threat, he had leverage, but the more time passed the more likely it was that defections would begin and the the Lannisters would get more and more belligerent. Robb had been negotiating from a position of secure strength, and with that position he had secured all he had wished in terms of borders, taxes and castles. But now his position was not as superior, so it was time to take a risk. He raised a hand and beckoned back at the far side of the bridge. Olyvar hurried up at the signal.
"What is this?" Tywin demanded.
Robb ignored him. "Olyvar, send a message back to the army, tell them to start packing up the camp and getting ready to ride."
"At once, Your Grace," Olyvar bowed and retreated. He knew not to do it just yet. He and Robb had agreed some preprepared messages with different meanings. Olyvar knew to make a performance for the Lannisters, but nothing more for now.
Robb turned back to the negotiators. "I will not negotiate on this any longer. You will accept the termsI have laid out regarding Joffrey titles and my own, as well as everything that has been agreed upon until this point. We will have the documents drawn up and seal them."
"And if we do not?" Garlan asked.
"Then I have armies in the field under better commanders than you can bring to bear. My brother Tristan commands near the Golden Tooth and I assure you, Lord Tywin, he is most aggrieved that he missed out on our campaign into the Westerlands." By now tales of Tristan's invasion of the Reach were well known, and he could see that Tywin had heard them as well. "My grand uncle Brynden the Blackfish commands the castles you gave us as guarantees in the northern crownlands, with a large train of trebuchets and siege engines. He will tear down every castle that remains to you on that frontier while I move to join him with the main army, including the hardened veterans who have been with me at every battle where I defeated your brothers and sons. And don't think I have forgotten the Reach. I was hesitent to give the command to Lord Bolton, for in truth, I do not like him, but he asked me so nicely to be permitted to finish the work he started that I couldn't resist. He will be more than happy to make another road of corpses from the Mander to the sea." Not all of it was true. His brother did not command near the Westerlands, he was busy trying to restore order to the riverlands, but he doubted that Tywin or his companions knew that. Lord Bolton did indeed command near the Reach, but he lacked the strength to do what Robb had threatened, but the threat of him creating another corpse road would play on the minds of the Tyrells. "And I have ravens ready to fly. Five of them, from different locations, you have no chance of shooting down them all." Robb said. "At one word from me they will wing their way to Dragonstone. Stannis Baratheon may have demanded all seven kingdoms, but Shireen and I got on very well when she visited Winterfell with King Robert. She was very reasonable, I'm sure that she would agree to ruling six. And if she did desire to rule all seven, well, she and I are both as yet unmarried, I'm sure an arrangement could be made."
He looked at each of the negotiators in turn, keeping his expression cool. "What do you say, Ser Garlan. I will be leaving here with a sealed treaty, or to return to war, which would you prefer? How about you Lord Tywin? Ser Kevan?" He watched each man think, realise, and acquiese. "Bring up the maesters, let's have this document drawn up."
It was not a simple process. Two maesters drew up each document, making sure they were worded appropriately, in accordance with treaty custom, with all the legal and appropriate declarations. After they were done, Robb and Tywin read each of them to ensure they were identical and as agreed. Then Robb sent word for all lords in his camp to come and present their seals, as did all the lords in the Lannister and Tyrell camp. Each lord was presented with two strips of parchment onto which was poured a circle of wax. Each lord affixed their seals to the two strips of parchment and, very carefully, each maester sewed the parchment onto the larger treaty. Then, two larger strips of parchment were presented each to Tywin and Robb, and they affixed their own seals in golden wax, Tywin pressing the royal seal in, and Robb using his own. Those seals were the size of their palms, by far dwarfing the others.
And so, on the bridge at Yore, witnessed by lords and merchants and peddlers and priests, Robb Stark, First of his Name, King in the North and of the First Men, Lord of the Kingdoms of the North and Trident, and Protector of the Realm, sealed his peace agreement with the representatives of Joffrey Baratheon, First of his Name, King of the Andals and Rhoynar and Lord of the Six Kingdoms of the South, signed their peace treaty. At last, after many years of struggle and hardship, Robb Stark had claimed the usury owed for the murder of his father.
"I did it, father," he whispered as his lords and soldiers wept and cheered, "the north is free, and I swear, I will not disappoint you as it's king."
