Chapter 2; The crossing decides

Once the new Lord Walder was already cleaning up in a doublet covered with a bearskin cloak. He walked towards the lord's hall, where all of his children, both legitimate and illegitimate, were waiting for him. There he took his rightful seat as lord of the twins. He kept his face completely hard and stern, but inside he was a little scared. In his other life he had attended numerous personnel evaluations, and he could tell that the Freys were not what he would call a "dream team," but his first step was to identify those who could be useful to him. When he read those damn books to try to get closer to his son, he never thought they would be of any use to him, but who was going to tell him. He knew perfectly well that he had absolute power within that house, but it was time to optimize.

"Let my firstborn step forward," he ordered in an authoritative voice.

Then Stevron Frey, a fifty-year-old man, weasel-like features. But he was brave, kind and reasonable, reasons that made him worthy of being his father's right hand.

"Father," he said politely, "what do you want?"

"Tell me, Stevron," said Lord Walder, frowning, as he gave him Lord Tully's message. "How much is the life of a Frey worth?"

Stevron looked nervous for a moment, but he responded.

"Father, the life of a Frey is worth a lot"

"Lie!" shouted Lord Walder sullenly. "To those distinguished lords we are not worth a shit!" and he paused "But you are worth a lot to me! Well, with all your virtues, and defects that are many, you are worth a lot to me! "You are my blood, my family and family is above all" and there was a somewhat convinced nod "now Lord Tully wants me to move my armies, to risk my family, just for his pathetic alliances" he said fiercely "We "We do not have a distinguished ancestry, but we build our wealth with our work, without coming to bother anyone!" He shouted "Stark, Tully, Baratheon or Arryn, I don't want to know anything about his wars or his fucking stupidity... Send a blank message to our dear Hoster!" He said, causing some giggles from the younger ones. "Let's hope he understands, he has always been very short-sighted."

And there was general assent. Perhaps because no one argued with the old lord, or because they did not want to go to war, but everyone obeyed his will.

"Now everyone out!" he yelled "You no Stevron!"

Stevron stood still, waiting for his father's orders, until they were finally alone in the living room.

"Prepare our forces," he ordered, "I want to evaluate them, both them and our weapons... it is better to be cautious."

"Yes, father," he replied without objecting, "but Lord Tully…"

"We have also sworn allegiance to the Targaryens," he spoke somewhat softly. congratulating his two daughters with their betrothal…yes…and write to Lord Stark that, if he wishes to use the crossing, he can do so…for fifty thousand gold dragons" he said with a malicious smile.

"But father…" his firstborn thought he was very risky.

"Don't worry, Stevron, the wolf is too worried about the war and his indomitable sister, gold is the least of it, and they won't dare attack us, not when Baratheon needs to get to the Stormlands," he said happily, "thank you, Son, you can leave."

That his father thanked him was what struck Sir Stevron the most before he left.

The new Lord Walder was thinking about his moves. For the moment he would remain neutral, and would try to seek the maximum possible benefit. That was a Walder Frey thing. But if he wanted to successfully carry out his mission, he couldn't afford to be neutral at all. "It doesn't pay to support Robert either," he thought; that man only listened to Jon Arryn and Ned Stark. If Robert won, he would have to compete for influence not only with him, but also with Tywin Lannister. It was an undeniable fact that House Frey was despised by everyone. Which pushed him to Rhaegar's side. Prince Targaryen was not a bad man, but he was too obsessed with the prophecy, although he was absolutely right that there would be an apocalypse. "Yeah. "I can use Aegon's dream to charm him, and as a last resort I could help him bring back the dragons." Not that he specifically liked the idea, but the dragons could be very useful against the white walkers. But everything happened because of the battle of the Trident. If he wanted to earn Rhaegar's gratitude, House Frey must not only fight, but must be the one to decide the battle, preferably at the most uncertain moment. That would also bring some honor. Furthermore he couldn't immediately declare himself a supporter of the Targaryens when he was surrounded by rebels on all sides. Well, it was certain that the same thing would happen to him as to Gulltown.

After pondering for a while, he went to the nursery. There he saw Roslyn, his last legitimate daughter, who was barely a year old, next to him, a year older than him, was Olywar, who looked very energetic. He would have to make plans for them soon. But what he had decided was not to take another wife, now he had already been widowed for the fifth time, and frankly taking wives like that often, especially so young, was not good at all. He also stopped calling maids to warm his bed, something that surprised everyone and everyone, and even softened his attitude a little with all of his children.

When Stevron showed him the figures, they were not negligible. He had a force of around four thousand men. In addition to eight hundred horses. Financially, the Freys' finances were solid. Lord Frey's stinginess resulted in a treasure of two hundred thousand gold dragons. But he needed to establish a true professionalization of his army, as well as recruit archers, and war machines such as ballistae. They would be very useful in the not so near future.

One of his first decisions was to double the soldiers' pay, and establish a powerful training plan based on the Roman Empire, imposing iron discipline. There were hardly any objections, and those that existed were quickly silenced. During those days he designed a steel forge, for someone like Millard it was not difficult, given that he had worked in the steel sector in his day. He tried to create the first steel swords, of course they were not exactly cheap. No, this required a foundry, but they provided lighter and more resistant weapons, although not as much as the Valyrian steel, worse if much better than what could be found in Westeros. As for the archers, he recruited about five hundred among the peasants, with the promise of two golden dragons a year. And every day they practiced with bows, but finally he decided to use crossbows. They were not difficult to manufacture, and applying Adam Smith's principles, in less than a week he already had four hundred good quality crossbows.

By then, the payment had already arrived, courtesy of Lord Tully. Eddard Stark passed by with his northern army. There were no more than fifteen thousand, because the North was large, and given the rush he could not gather more standard bearers. Lord Walder watched the army march through the crossroads with a rather sombre Ned Stark. It wasn't necessary to say anything to him, not that they had much to say to each other, even so as a sign of good will, he gave them a couple of tons of grain and several oxen as a gift. And the silent wolf thanked Stevron.

"Have a good trip, Lord Stark… I wish you good luck," said Lord Walder, watching the wolf army retreat from his balcony. Ned Stark was going to need a lot of luck.

In the following months the battles of Summerhaven took place, with Robert's three victories in a single day. Then came Ashford, where Lord Tarly defeated Baratheon, while that idiot Mace Tyrell put Storm's End under siege. With the new year came the Battle of the Bells, where the idiot Connigton was defeated when the idiot could have put an end to the war, although he ended up going into exile.

But old Walder had calmed down in his domain, waiting for there to be a clear victor to firmly support. At least that was what he had made everyone believe, when in reality an army of four thousand very robust infantry soldiers, seven hundred horsemen and five hundred archers, in addition to about twenty Roman ballistas, who would shoot a good number of fiery arrows.

Even an inept like Aerys would eventually realize the threat that Robert Baratheon represented to the dynasty, so after several months Prince Rhaegar reappeared to command the royal army. Of course the decisive battle would take place on the Trident, where forty thousand royalists would face thirty-five thousand royalists.

Ruby ford

As soon as Lord Walder heard the news, he mobilized his army calmly, since his soldiers needed to be rested. Throughout the journey, Lord Walder rode a horse to the surprise of his men. Millard had a hard time learning to ride a horse, but he finally managed it, but not without a couple of scares. But he along with him carried a hidden banner next to that of House Frey, which he would not reveal until the appropriate time.

By the time they reached Ford Rubí, the battle was already in full swing, and as expected there was no clear winner.

Some knights like Prince Lewin were already dead, while others like Sir Barristan Selmy were still littering the ground with corpses.

"Archers in position!" Lord Frey ordered, now turning to the infantry and cavalry. "Listen to me carefully, today we will decide the fate of the seven kingdoms, so I order you to show all your brutality with the enemy. Those who comply will be rewarded, those who do not will face the consequences, is that clear?"

For a moment there was expectation among the army, because it was not yet known which side they were going to fight on. Lord Frey looked at his standard bearer and beckoned to her. Then everyone could see the three-headed red dragon. The archers and ballistae positioned themselves, while five hundred cavalry and three thousand five hundred soldiers of robust, and even more importantly well-equipped, infantry prepared for the signal.

"Charge!" shouted Lord Frey as he pointed with his sword at the army of the Valley, which was having a fierce battle with the royalists of said kingdom, and a good part of the remains of the army from the battle of the bells.

Four thousand soldiers, with several of the lord's most brutal scions, entered the battle at a medium pace at first, to attack the Arryn army from the right flank. For then a hail of fiery arrows and burning tar-coated steel fell upon the bulk of Lord Arryn's army. Lord Walder had trained the archers so that if they were not sure they could hit the riders, they would shoot at the horses. In a few minutes chaos broke out among the Arryn ranks. Although the ballistae were imprecise, the huge concentration of soldiers made it easy for several dozen to die, unfortunately it caused some friendly fire, but at that time that was irrelevant.

At least a fifth of the valley's cavalry perished under the arrows. Especially the horses, who dragged their riders on the ground, to die trampled by both friendly and enemy feet. Others were finished off by Darry soldiers or soldiers from other houses. Some dying horses felled others, before crushing two or three soldiers.

"Good start," said Lord Walder, "let the archers and ballistae direct their attention to the Stormmen," ordered his son Stevron.

The fire stopped short, while they positioned themselves towards the left flank. But when the trumpet sounded, the bulk of the Freys had surrounded the Valley's forces, despite the fact that they practically doubled them, causing chaos among their ranks and the fierce combat with the royalists. The surprise factor and the fury with which they entered on the other flank soon swept away the Valley's forces.

As Lord Walder had ordered, his hosts showed no mercy, even finishing off the wounded, and soon the Rhoyce had been massacred. There were several horses fleeing the battlefield with their riders with their heads severed. Although it should be noted that Lord Arryn was sensible enough to retreat with what was left of his host to retreat. But with only minimal losses, the deaths among the Valley forces numbered in the thousands, with at least two-thirds of their cavalry massacred, put to flight or seriously wounded.

With no time to waste, the arrows focused on the Baratheon forces. However, not as many fell as Lord Walder had expected. Regardless, his army soon added to the forces of the crown lands, splitting the Stark and Tully forces in two. The latter to whom Lord Walder had ordered all incendiary ammunition to be launched. Ned Stark tried to break the siege in search of his friend, but Sir Barristan was charging against the Karstarks so he had to give up to go to the aid of his vassal.

"He is a better guardian of the North than his brother could ever be," Lord Walder said to his son, as well as his entourage. When at a signal from the lord two hundred crossbowmen marched.

The orders were to shoot at will. Rhaegar might be a good warrior, but he stood little chance against an out of sorts Robert. Lord Walder had seen him kill at least twenty soldiers as he advanced with his men.

The army at the crossing had rushed at them now, but the momentum was no longer the same, and the Stormers were better led. However, the numerical superiority soon became evident. Under Waldron's command, more than a thousand men and two hundred cavalry charged against the stag. But these were very combative, even if it did not matter because escorted by another five hundred soldiers, the crossbowmen infiltrated the battlefield, and positioned themselves in forced marches, where Prince Rhaegar would find death, unless they arrived in time. . However, more than a hundred crossbowmen were killed by troops from House Bracken, which got on Lord Walder's nerves, although he hid it by frowning.

But soon more than fifty took up positions under the protection of Waldron's men. They began to fire their arrows, and shot down several dozen, but the situation was so chaotic that hunting the deer was more difficult than fishing in the middle of a storm. Lord Walder was on the verge of breaking one of his few teeth because of his nerves. But when the dragon and the stag were just a few steps away, an arrow pierced Robert Baratheon's side. He didn't stop him, but it blinded him with rage long enough for Rhaegar to run his sword through his neck. Even so, the deer with his last breath raised his club and wounded the prince, not in his chest, but in his shoulder, leaving his left arm useless for life, as well as a few broken ribs. . Fortunately, his men helped him.

"What a moment," Lord Walder acknowledged with a sigh of relief.

In any case, the news of Robert Baratheon's death at the hands of Rhaegar had meant victory. Without their leader, the people of Tormen were killed without mercy. Waldron was one of his most brutal children, so this was a real diversion for him. And despite certain things he had a deep loyalty to his father, whom he aspired to gain favor with. He then dismounted from his horse, and cut off Robert's corpse head, and impaled it on a pike, causing the royalist army to roar.

As soon as word of Robert's death became known, the Riverlands forces retreated. The Tullys had been greatly affected by the rain of fire. But Lord Darry's attack directly threatened Lord Hoster's own life, who was seeing how the different houses of the riverlands that until that moment were loyal to him, abandoned the battlefield, with the exception of the Blackwoods, who They continued to fight fiercely. However, the truth is that the die was cast, for the northerners, Lord Bolton was the first to realize it, so he retreated to his men, before being surrounded, leaving the Umber and Manderly to their fate, which They were taken prisoners. Jorah Mormont was on the verge of losing consciousness from her injuries, while at least a fifth of her troops were dead or wounded. Ned Stark had better luck in supporting Lord Karstark and they both fought with everything they had. But they were surrounded.

And Waldron, at the head of his soldiers, proudly raised the pike, with the head of him who was a brother to Ned in everything except blood.

"I have orders to bring you back alive!" cried Waldron, "Surrender now and be a prisoner of the lord of the crossroads, or die here and let your wife and child suffer the wrath of the king in your place!"

That ended up breaking Ned, who, with a stoic face, but sunken eyes, threw his family's ancestral sword to the ground, and surrendered. He couldn't allow Cathelyn and little Robb to fall into the hands of Aerys, he would rather tear out his own heart a thousand times before what happened to Brandon happened to Catheyn, or something even worse. The swords fell to the ground, in response to his lord.

The chronicles of that day would say that the brave Rhaegar crushed the rebellion, with the help of the venerable Lord Frey, who at that time was heading with his entourage to the prince's tent.

In the next chapter, Lord Frey will speak to Rhaegar about Aegon's dream, and will play his own game of thrones. Thanks for Reading this chapter.