Chapter 2: The Great Andal Massacre
Upon hearing the whereabouts of the exiled heretic Lord from Vale, Skyryder and his forces, Lord Greysor Cartwell was finally happy that they now are close in hand to avenge their King.
He was a man in his mid-thirties. He was a big man estimated to be six feet and seven inches, sinewy rather than muscular but standing straight as a lance. He had straight hair and a square-cut beard, both being the color of dirty yellow.
After the Battle of High Heart, the surviving Andals made a full retreat, all the way to the Crownlands. Once they recovered, many of the Andal Lords and knights started becoming bitter with deep shame of leaving behind their King, Erreg, that was dishonorably slain and great fury towards the cursed Skyrdyers. They decided once they build their forces to full strength, they were going to return to Riverlands and hunt down and wiped out the Skyryders.
Lord Greysor Cartwell was handpicked to lead them. He was the right-hand man of Erreg, and enforcer of his will and duty to bring the Faith of Seven to this heathen land.
He was born from the Hills of Andalos of Essos, the homelands of the Andals. Like evert Andal, from the day of their birth, Cartwell felt blessed by the gods of the Seven. He was raised with the belief that the Father pulled seven stars from the heavens to make the crown of King Hugor of the Hill, the first King of the Andals.
Yet Cartwell no longer lives in the lands of Andalos. He and his people migrated to Westeros, and the kingdoms of a barbaric race of men called the First Men. Seven had promised them kingdoms in a foreign land and it is their destiny to conquer these lands and forced these First Men brutes to submit to their gods or face fire and sword.
While in Westeros Cartwell met the Andal king named Erreg. Like Cartwell, Erreg was a passionate believer of the Seven and was committed in bring the Faith of Seven to all of Westeros. The two were very alike in mind, which is why Erreg handpicked Cartwell to serve as his right hand man. The two are ready to purged Westeros of these old gods, as well as these inhuman Children, in order to achieved their goals.
When they arrived in the Riverlands, Erreg wanted to focus on burning down High Heart, a place sacred to the children of the forest of the riverlands and protected by First Men River kings. The intent was to kill all the children of the forest which were regarded as inhuman creature, and then cut down the hill's weirwood grove, demon trees of false god.
"It would have work!" Cartwell thought bitterly. "If hadn't been for those heathered Skyryders!"
The Skyryders were the blame on why the assault on High Heart has failed. They suspected an easy victory since numbers were on their side. However, it was a dangerous error that costs them badly.
At High Heart Cartwell had witnessed how dangerous the crossbow really was. Many Andal Knights, the core of their army, were shot down by volley after volley of quarrel. But not their King, no quarrel could fell him.
But then came the shield wall, seven times did they charge it and six times they were denied, on the seventh charge they finally broke through, but their horses were spent and battle simply dissolved into a brutal widespread melee fighting. In the midst of that Carnage their king fought the heathen lord. The King would defeat the Skyryder lord yet made a mistake of turning his back which gives the savage enough time rise and stab him in the back.
With their King dead, Cartwell and the other were forced to retreat—leaving behind the dead body of their King, as well as many hundreds of their friends and comrades who became prisoners—and sacrifice lambs to the heathen's devilish gods. Upon hearing of the events known later as the Great Sentence of High Heart, Cartwell and the Andal lords and knights that were with him made a sacred vow to the Seven they will not rest until they find and killed Adrian Skyryder, the "Bloody-Handed Demon of High Heart".
Once the Andal army was at full strength after several months of recovery, Cartwell sends his party of scouts to search for Adrian Skyryder's whereabouts in the Riverlands. He thought they might be at High Heart, until his scouts reported that Adrian Skyrdyer was located at thin valley. For Cartwell this was the chance to avenge his King.
0o0o0
The Andal army finally arrived at three-day march. When they reach their destination, they find the savage waiting for them in the heart of the valley. From the looks of it, there seem to be about two thousand of them. However, the Andal army has increased their number up to ten thousand strong. They had the advantage in numbers.
Then Cartwell sees the primary target of his ire: Adrian Skyrdyer. The Skyryder's armor betrayed his identity which means there was nowhere for the savage heather to go. The time has come to exact justice in the name of the Seven.
"Sons of the True Faith!" Cartwell began a speech for all the lords, knights, and men-in-arms could hear. "The time has come to avenge our King who had been treacherously slain at High Heart. The time has come to bring justice to these damn heretics, for refusing the light of our gods. Most important of all—the time has come to killed Adrian Skyryder, the "Bloody-Handed Demon of High Heart". Show them no mercy!"
Cartwell's men responded with fierce roar and excitement and fury. Some of them were veterans of the Battle of High Heart many months ago and were deeply bitter of their defeat and the death of their king. They finally had the opportunity to make things right.
Wanting to soften them up, Cartwell has his archers rain down arrows on the savages within the valley.
However, the heathen was prepared, as they use their combined shield walls to protect themselves from rain of arrows. This kept up for half an hour until Cartwell decided enough forelaying around.
He tries using his cavalry to crash through the heathen shield wall, with his knights leading the charge. However, at the last second, the savages raised their spears and aimed them at the horses' hearts, killing the beasts of burden and the knights.
The attack was repelled, and almost the entire cavalry was annihilated. Frustrated, Cartwell ordered all forces into the valley and to encircle the savages. He was going put an end to this nonsense of defiance once and for all.
The Andal army marched into the valley and begin slowly surrounded the heathen. The heathens put up a fierce defense, hacked heads, arms, and legs off, and stabbed people in the heads, chests, and necks, and it was a very brutal fight. Not even one of them retreated or even begged for mercy. Not even their savage lord, Adrian Skyrdyer.
"Keep it up!" Cartwell encouraged his men. "Don't stop until there is nothing left of them!"
The Andals became motivated by Lord Cartwell's words and begin press forward in killing every heathen in the Valley. The battle seems last all the day, yet it will not stop. It kept on going until the last of the heathens had made their last stand. One of them was Adrian Skyrdyer, their primary target of their fury.
With a sword in hand Adrian Skyrdyer, cut down any Andal that came at him. Yet, while he manage to slain twenty Andals, for every Andal he killed, five more took its place. It wasn't long before he was finally cut down by the superior weight of numbers around him.
"It's done!" Cartwell howls triumphantly. "Victory is ours! The "Bloody-Handed Demon of High Heart" is dead! Our King is avenged!"
"My Lord!" an Andal knight cried out. "Look!"
Cartwell turned his head to where his knight was pointing at. It was when he noticed movements coming from ridge of the valley. Looking closer, he discovered a large number of armed men, archers, in positioned, hundreds of them, perhaps thousands.
Startled, Cartwell looked around in all side, and discovered that there were more and more of them, in surrounding position, their aim gazed towards the Andal army that is dangerously crowded in the valley.
"Where the hell did, they come from?" Cartwell thought with horror. He was about to give orders for retreat to get out of the island when he heard an inhuman screeching cry. A cry of creature he was not familiar with.
Coming from the skies, Cartwell was in time to see seven strange, winged creatures, landing on the only entrance to enter and existed the valley.
They look like birds, perfectly resemblances of an eagle, along with the wings, and talons. However, eagles do not have the hindquarters of a big cat. They seem to be a crossbreed or hybrid or something.
The creatures were immensely huge. Four times bigger than an adult warehouse. Looking at their talons, Cartwell knew they are strong enough to tear apart knight armor as well as grown man at his size.
Cartwell spot one of the winged creatures was be mounted. By a man, as if he was riding these demons like a horse. Who was he? Is he controlling these things? Where did he come from?
It was at that moment that Cartwell noticed what the rider was holding. In his hand was a distinctive bronze blade in his hand—a sword Cartwell suddenly recognizes in an instant.
"No," Cartwell thought with shock and disbelief. "It... it couldn't be!"
It was the same blade wielded by the other heathen lord, Robert Skyryder, the same blade that slew their king by stabbing him in the back. But he was dead. It took but a moment for him to draw the immediate conclusion: They hadn't killed Adrian Skyrdyer. The man they had just slain was an imposter and the real one was standing was mounted on of the winged creatures.
It was a trap!
"Make peace with your Gods you forsaken bastards," the real Adrian Skyryder calls down on the doomed army, trapped in the valley. "For when your Seven asked you of how you met your demise—tells them that Adrian Skyryder, loyal servant to the True Gods of these lands, was responsible—LOOSE!"
0o0o0
The moment Adrain Skyryder gave the signal his archers begin firing a rain of arrows down into the valley. Thousands of arrows. Enough to block out the sun. Enough to cover the entire valley.
The valley was too small and thin for the entire Andal army to maneuver around to evade the arrows. Some of them tries to block the arrows with their shields. But there were too many and were firing from directions.
"He sacrificed his own men. He sent them to their deaths. All for the sake of trapping us. Cartwell thought.
Even from the distance Cartwell briefly looked at the man, Adrian Skyryder's eyes. He was staring down at them emotionlessly. Cold… his eyes were cold as the stranger itself.
He could only watch as some of his men tried to get their horses to ascend the hill only to slip and come tumbling back down. Or cut down by the rain of arrows. It was a horrible way to die. Surrounded, bottled in with the enemy attacking from afar.
Not even a chance to fight back.
Cartwell's armor was thick enough to protect him from the rain of arrows. Yet his warhorse beneath him fell dead. And he was helpless to do anything.
It was when Cartwell noticed the storm of arrows stops. No more arrows were raining down on him and his men. That was when he distinctly heard shouts and screams behind him, the sound of steel piercing flesh cries for honorable parley cut short. It was then he noticed the banners of House Skyryder behind them, with row upon row of spears with bands of crimson cloth tied near the socket of the spearheads.
Cartwell heard the inhuman creatures screeching in the air again. Turning around, he sees the winged monsters joining in the slaughter. Fast, furious, and deadly, the winged creatures were slaughter dozens of men for each instant, becoming gluttonous than the last.
This was a total massacre on a singular scale.
In defiance, Cartwell kept on fighting. He cuts down another as several soldiers advanced on him, the honorless curs. Yet for every savage he cut down, more take their place, pushing him back.
"Honorless Curs!" he roared. "Bloody dammed Honorless Curs!"
This was not the death he imagined. If he was going to died, he should not die like this! Not like this! He was good man! He does not deserve— Cartwell felt the last spear pierce the mail guarding his neck, and he knew no more.
Glossary
The Great Andal Massacre: The Great Andal Massacre was an event in which Adrian Skyryder tricked the Andal army into entering a thin small valley, where he, his seven Griffins, along with ground forces, inflicted a great slaughter. About 10,000 Andals; Lords, Knights, and men-in-arms, foot soldiers and horsemen alike, were killed to the last man. Not a single man escapes alive.
This Great Andal Massacre was marked as the darkest day in Andal history. The event further demonized House Skyryder before Andal eyes, who curse them bitterly in Nursery rhymes, "Shadow of Death" or "Children of the Stranger".