Renly received Ser Lowther in his command tent, a large affair that was three times the size of any of the common type used by the rest of the army, and was silk rather than cotton or wool, a gift from one of the more southern Reach houses. He, the Rainbow Guard, and his advisers were all there when Ser Lowther returned, drinking and laughing amused at how the Lannisters hadn't even tried to contest their crossing the river, a sure sign that they didn't have the numbers to beat off a real assault of the city.
Only Randyll was silent at that. Seeing that even his fellow older lords believed that was the case, he knew it would serve no purpose for him to naysay it now. He was mindful of the Olenna's 'suggestions' as well: "let the young fool get blooded, let him see what the real world is like, then if he falters, step in and take control." She had even given him a message to give to Mace upon that occasion.
While he didn't know it that message simply said "shut up and let the true warriors take over!" Short, simple and to the point, which Olenna had always felt was the best way to get through with her son's thick head.
When he heard that his terms had been rejected Renly shrugged philosophically. "I thought that was a long shot, but I had to try. It certainly would've made bringing the rest of the Lannister force to heel much more easily."
Unnoticed Randyll shook his head. If it were up to him, he would never have marched on King's Landing this quickly, not with the full army they had at least. No, he would have immediately assaulted the southwestern front of the Westerlands. With most of their forces in the Riverlands they would be open to an attacking force, and that would neatly remove the long term power base of the Lannisters. Of course besieging Casterly Rock would have been difficult, but putting the rest of the Westerlands to the torch wouldn't have been hard, and might have forced the other Westerlands Noble Houses to overthrow Tywin if he seemed to be reluctant to turn around and face Randyll in the open field.
Now I can only hope that the wolves hold the Lannister army in place at least. Given the size of the two forces, Randyll had decided that the Starks couldn't really defeat the Westerlanders, not completely. But they could hold them in place which would be just as good for the Reach.
"I could have wished that Cersei would see reason but it isn't as if we weren't prepared for a siege. Start building the siege weapons, Lord Cafferen, you are in charge of that. Lord Tyrell, I believe we should also spread the army out all around the city just in case. After that, we'll launch a few probing attacks using our light cavalry and archers before our siege weapons are ready. That way we'll be able to see of the defense has any weaknesses we can exploit, a commander on one wall or the other that isn't as quick to react as he should be or something of that nature." Renly went on.
Even in that he shows his lack of experience, Randyll thought darkly. Probing attacks on walls like that very rarely worked if the defense had enough men, archer assaults could work if you could keep them up long enough, but we don't even have wooden palisades for our own archers yet, while the parapets would provide the defenders cover of course.
Loras spoke up. "Wait a moment my liege. Ser Lowther said something interesting, that the city is already showing signs of a food shortage. I think the defenders might be weaker than we thought. So instead of doing probing attacks, let's set simply spread the army out, lull them into a false sense of security for a few days, make the defenders think that we'll wait until our siege weapons are ready before attacking. Then we send in a night assault. Or better yet, send it in right away, this very night on a segment of the wall that we haven't encircled yet!"
"An excellent idea!" Renly enthused. "If we can get through the outer wall of the city, then we can push them back into the Red Keep and besiege them there! And the Red Keep isn't nearly as tough a nut to crack as the rest of the city."
Mace nodded, looking proudly at his son, ignoring the official document Ser Lowther had passed to him outside the tent. "I agree, an excellent idea my boy! And, once we break the walls defenses, the smallfolk of the city will no doubt rise up. If they are already feeling the pinch against the Lannisters, cutting off the defenders on the wall."
The idea of relying on smallfolk made Randyll sneer internally, but it sounded as if it made sense. Of course that suppose that the defenders are idiots, and Rupert Serret isn't an idiot, nor is Jaime Kingslayer. Randyll looked around noticing everyone's enthusiastic expressions. I'm not going to win this argument, let's see if something can be done with it. "I agree the idea of launching a night attack is a good one my lords, but I think we should add a little more to Ser Loras' most excellent suggestion…"
Over the next few days Renly's army spread out around the northern edge of the city, still staying well out of siege weapon range while they built their own from wood taken from the Kingswood. The main concentration of the army faced the Lion Gate but they sent tendrils out covering all of the landward sides of the city. A second heavy concentration was built on the other side of the Blackwater as well, while scouts were sent down every road leading into the city. For the most part over the next few days there was no rush to battle, no skirmish. The besiegers simply enclosed the city while waiting for their siege weapons to be finished.
After a few days of lulling the defenders into a false sense of security, Renly ordered the sneak attack Loras had thought up. Lord Tarly however had added quite a bit to the plan, though Renly and the other Lords had not listened all of his suggestions.
Shanty towns had sprung up all around the city pressed up against its walls, most of whom were worse than even Fleabottom save the areas closest to the main gates. These shanty towns were empty of people yet they remained standing around most of the city. Though Renly and the others could see where work had begun to tear them down starting from the Gate of the Gods and moving out from there.
Now two catapults that had been built in the kingswood came forward, taking up a position at the outside of their own range in relation to the wall on the other side of the Blackwater. There they began to fire at the walls. At the same time streams of infantry made their way forward along the river's edge into the Fishmarket. This included thousands of the army's archers, who took up cover everywhere they could in the houses and former market stalls to fire at the defenders on the wall who had already begun to fire at them.
Behind the walls, the massive trebuchets were painstakingly turned on their axis as watchers on the wall began to shout out aiming information about the attacking catapults. The man on the trebuchet had practice fired them before, and all of them from the watchers to the men turning the huge things around knew their jobs.
While that battle was going on the southern side of the city, Loras was leading a small elite force of around two thousand men from the portion of the army nearest the Iron Gate. They moved as quietly as they could, entering the shanty town there. Here it was even grubbier and shabbier in comparison to any of the others, since the road out of this gate was the least used, and the area was also where a lot of the trash from the city tended to accumulate thanks to the tide of the bay.
They moved this quietly as possible, and didn't follow any kind of set order or path as they moved forward, barely keeping inside of one another. That was how Loras found himself at the back of the unit when he had started for the front. He felt himself wondering idly if the inhabitants of the town had fled entirely, or simply fled into the city. If they fled into the city, that simply means more mouths for them to feed, which is all to the good. If they fled entirely, well at least they'll be out from underfoot.
Looking ahead, Loras saw one of his men waving him down, then pointing up at the wall. There looked to be some dozen men still patrolling this portion of the wall, visible because of the light of braziers set here and there along it. Though the men themselves were not near enough to said fires for it to ruin their night vision, and at least a few were attending to the business of watching their front rather than turning to watch the battle occurring towards the harbor. Loras went to ground, lying in the dirt and mud next to a shed of some sort, thanking the Seven he had left his cloak behind.
A moment later the men on the wall turned their attention away, joining their fellows to stare across the city over to where the battle was going on the other side. Getting the all clear signal from one of the men in the lead, Loras stood up dusting himself off before moving around the small hut. Moving circuitously through the shanty town towards the walls, Loras followed his men each of whom were carrying rope ladders, all of them that the army had built in the last days.
Moving around what might have been a very low class stable, Loras came to another one though this one was much better built than most, having some actual stone here and there, plus all the wooden slats actually seemed nailed together. It even had a window. How extravagant. Loras thought to himself, laughing internally. Though why anyone in this pestilential place would want a window is beyond me.
He idly looked inside,cocking his head quizzically as he noticed what looked like a very large container of some kind set directly in the center of the one room that made up the building. It was very large, much larger than any family would need to keep water in, and a family living in a hut like this they wouldn't be able to afford that much wine. The incongruity of it struck him as odd, and he frowned thoughtfully.
Up on the wall Lord Harte was the one in charge of this section. He was angry because he had hoped that the Reach and Stormlanders would attack here so he could use the little surprise that the Queen had come up with to add to the defense. Of course he understood Serret's orders, that such a thing should only be used at the most opportune moment to destroy the most of the enemy it could. But still, a show of force at the very beginning might force the attackers to not try any other physical attack for fear of what might happen.
"There it is again." one of his men muttered, turning back from where he had been looking toward the sounds of battle occurring elsewhere to stare back over the portion of the wall he was in fact supposed to guarding.
"What are you talking about?" barked Lord Harte. "And if I catch any of you turning away from your posts again I'll have you flogged."
Around him his fellows hastily turned back to stare out into the night as alertly as they could appear, leaving the unfortunate armsmen to his fate. "Um, mi-milord I thought I heard something down below, but, but I can't make it out."
Lord Harte looked over the wall as well staring intently into the darkness of the shanty town far below. With the number of buildings down there clustered together so tightly and with no fires down there to see by the odds of spotting anyone moving were almost nil.
However as he leaned against the parapet he heard something as well. "Couldn't be more Stranger- damned squatters could it?"
"Most of them fled when the Queen began to remove the hovels around the God's Gate. Smallfolk might be stupid, but they can see what's happening as well as any."
"Then we might have some attackers moving down there hmmm…." He smiled wickedly. "You know what boys, I think we so need some more light down there." He turned to a nearby archer. "You, see if you can find one of the jugs down there, and light it up."
The man looked shocked for a moment. "Bu-but my lord, that's only supposed to be used on command of the Hand."
Harte growled at the man angrily. "Obey me man, or else I'll have you tossed of the wall."
The archer gulped, but nodded and took out an arrow, fitting it to his string.
Below Loras was still closer to the Blackwater Bay then he was to the city's walls. He was moving slower now, trying to puzzle out the mystery of that jug, and why he had seen two more like it in the last few houses he'd passed. They were worrying him, and he was just about to double back and open one of them up to see what was inside when he saw a fire arrow streak out from the top of the wall, just one. W-What?
Suddenly he heard screaming nearby, and there was a whoosh of flame. He raced around the corner of the building he had been using as cover from the wall, and stopped staring in horror. Wildfire! Those jugs were full of wildfire!
The fire arrow had hit a small jug that had been set in a dark alleyway between two huts, where light couldn't reach even when the sun was high overhead. After all, the Queen didn't want her little surprise to go off early. The wildfire spread quickly, racing up the walls on either side the heat of it igniting two larger jars set inside those two buildings.
Soon a conflagration began, spreading everywhere all around the small shantytown, engulfing hundreds of Loras men, including him. But Loras was still well away from where the fire began, and he was wearing full plate armor. It had made moving quietly through the night difficult, but now it protected him from the heat of the fire for a little bit as he turned, racing away and towards the water of the bay. He was almost there when a splash of wildfire impacted his armor from the back and side, covering his back plate, shoulder and a portion of his helmet with the noxious substance. He screamed as the heat from the flame quickly began to penetrate his armor, searing his skin. "GAHHHH!"
Coming to the shore he swiftly pulled off his helmet and dove in, trying desperately to put out the fire. "EYYAHHHHH!" It was only when he fully dunked himself in Blackwater Bay that the flames at last went out, but the searing heat from the steam from the water caused him to scream again as it burned him further. Even so, he was able to retain enough sense to push himself out of the water and stumbling north along the shore away from the city.
Thankfully the conflagration had been seen by the rest of the Army, and dozens of men race forward on horseback getting as close as they could to the flames to shout the names of various comrades who had been part of Loras' forces. Several of them saw Loras and raced forward as soon as they saw he wasn't covered in wildfire, pulling him further away then up onto a horse before they tied him there. Then they raced off, taking him straight to a healer.
Having heard about the disaster Renly and Mace raced through the army from their command post near the Lion Gate. It took them several hours to find the tent where Loras had been placed, by which time the healers were working on him desperately, having recognized him the moment he was brought in. One of them turned to the tent flap as Renly and Mace barreled through, a few of the Rainbow Guard following in Renly's wake.
He moved over to them speaking quietly. "My lords, Ser Loras is unconscious at present, we gave him something to keep him comatose while we work. His life is in no danger but…"
"I want to see him." Mace replied, growling the words. "I want to see my son!"
Renly nodded agreement and the healer sighed. "It's not a pretty sight my lords, burn wounds never are especially when they're brand-new, and especially when they are caused by wildfire." The healer spat to one side muttering about how all alchemists should be slaughtered and sent to the Stranger who no doubt would know his own.
"I want to see my son." Mace reiterated.
The healer sighed again but moved to one side allowing them further into the tent. Loras laid on a cot at the far end, along with a few other survivors. There hadn't been many. Caught in the close confines of the shanty town while the wildfire raged all around them they had no place to go. Only the ones on the outskirts in particular the ones nearest the water had survived a bare fifty out of the original two thousand.
Mace choked off a sob as he saw his son. The skin of one side of his face looked badly scalded. Despite not actually having been touched by the flames the sheer heat had done its deadly work. His shoulder too looked raw, as if it was a slab of meat rather than something belonging on a living human.
For his part Renly looked at his lover in shock and horror, shaking his head. "Whatever you need to heal him you will have, healer." he said, looking over at Mace. "Will you wish to stay with him, Lord Tyrell?"
The older man nodded jerkily, and turned to order one of his men to go fetch him a chair. Renly reached over gripping the older man's shoulder, not looking down at his lover again, the sight was just too sickening.
He quickly left the tent followed by his Rainbow Guard. They moved back through the camp towards his tent, his mind almost blank, sickened by what he had just seen. Suddenly this whole affair seemed far more deadly and real than he had previously thought.
Back at his command tent Renly told the other lords gathered there what he had seen. "Needless to say we need to rethink our strategy here. If all of the small shanty towns in the fish market have such traps in them."
"Could the alchemists have made that much wildfire?" Asked Lord Appleton.
"Even a little is too much." Renly barked back, most of his normal easy-going manner having fled him. "We will wait, retain our siege lines and send out scouts to safely dispose of the wildfire jugs before we try another full on assault." He carefully did not look over at Randyll, who had suggested sending in scouts initially, along with the feint idea.
For his part, Randyll was philosophical about things. Yes, he was saddened to hear how Loras had been injured but the loss of 2000 men in an army their size wasn't exactly a high price to pay for Renly being forced to listen to him. It would've been worse of course, but the moment he heard the screams and saw the flickering flames Randyll had sent runners to the commanders of the feint, and ordered them to pull their men back out of Fishmarket. With the trick already played he had no doubt that Serret would have ordered that portion of the wildfire trap to be ignited as well, which would've cost the army much more dearly.
Indeed Serret and Cersei, who had come up with the plan in the first place, had been most angry that it had been sprung with so little return. Lord Harte had been stripped of command of the wall and Serret had Jaime beat him black and blue in a spar for his idiocy.
With none of the lords in any mood to socialize or drink, most of them left Renly's tent quickly after being given their new orders. Only Randyll remained and he moved over to where Renly was sitting slumped on a field chair. Renly looked up at him coldly, but when he spoke, his voice was calm. "So what would you suggest we do now, my Lord Tarly?"
OOOOOOO
Ranma and his army had not been idle since putting castle Vypren to the torch. They had moved swiftly southwest, as if making for House Lolliston's keep, moving as quickly as the army could while not completely exhausting themselves. Thanks to the training the northern contingent had been put through this was decently quick for a force their size even with the Mallister contingent not having gone through the same training.
They were several days travel away by the time their scouts began to find themselves sometimes taking fire.
Well ahead of the rest of the army Meera was racing along the path of the army through the woodlands, with several of her scouts/hunters around her. Here it really was woodlands, scattered dense copses of trees and heavy bushes set on small hills filled with small streams interspersed with flat, open areas, many of which had been farms at one point. Though of course, the farmers had fled long since with numerous armies so close. Farmers tended to be uneducated but they were not stupid, and they could read much more than a change in weather on the wind.
It was interesting territory, very different from any Meera had been through before, but hunting andscouting were the same…At that moment an arrow buzzed by Meera's ear, and she flung herself forward, thanking the old gods for Ranma and Arya's training. She landed, splashing into a small rivulet before rolling while she shouted, "Ambush, 'ware left!"
Another arrow slammed into the ground an inch from her head in the muck of the rivulet, but this time she saw where it was coming from. Pulling out an arrow from her quiver at her thigh, Meera fired back with the recurve bow that she had been given made from the bones of the lizard lion Ranma had killed.
It had a very heavy pull, but she had trained for years on a normal one, and then months on this bow. Her arrow flew out slicing through foliage to bury itself in the chest of the second archer to fire on her just as dozens more arrows flew out from around the same area.
Her scouts weren't all armed with bows, and only one of them had a northern longbow. He ducked behind a tree, holding his bow diagonally for a moment then leaped out, firing back while around them men went down, dead or injured from the sudden arrow assault.
Meera gestured to one of the nearest scouts. "Head back to the army, tell them we've run into trouble!"
The man, a Karstark armsmen, nodded, crouching low and crawling away through the foliage while Meera and the longbow man began to duel with their attackers, none of whom seemed to be in any rush to leave their position and close with them. Not five minutes later she heard a howl and grinned viciously.
As soon as the report got back to them Ranma and the wolfsworn had raced ahead of the army on a diagonal, intending to take the ambushers from the side quickly before they could escape. They ran into a lot more opposition than they had anticipated however, with over two hundred men hiding there ready to ambush the army.
They had also created small, simple bulwarks using downed trees and other things and despite being taken in their own flank, they responded with alacrity. Daryn was hit by an arrow, which went deep into the meat of his thigh, while Ranma was forced to block or smack aside over a dozen arrows. Roger and Hathan were even forced to break off theircharge, being on horseback they were much larger targets than the others, and they couldn't close quickly enough thanks to the foliage.
Despite this, the other's went through the Westerlanders like a thresher through wheat. Ice hewed them apart, sending limbs, heads and bodies flying. Dacey's greatsword hewed a path to one side, while Arya leaped and bounded everywhere, using the trees above as springboards, showing she had truly become at home with the Aerial Style that Ranma had been teaching her. In fact thanks to that and her own shorter stature she was doing as much damage as any of the other two wolfsworn combined.
Nymeria and Fenris howled in from the other side of the Westerlander defensive position, ripping and tearing at the men, who now were trying to break off and run. They had left it too late however, and with the wolfsworn in among them they had to stay and fight, a losing proposition despite their numbers.
"Meera, you okay?"Ranma shouted over the din of battle, bringing ice around one handed to block a sword blow from someone wielding a longsword, riposting quickly, the tip of his blade catching the other man in his gorget while at the same time his fist lashed out, catching another man in the side of the head.
"I'm alright!" Meera replied, firing an arrow at an archer trying to aim further down the trail at Roger, one of many clumped in the middle of their position who was still trying to fight as best they could. Her arrow struck the man in the side, causing him to cry out.
Then he and the other men who hadn't yet put their bows down began to wish they had, because Ranma and Edd had broken through to them. They dropped their bows, scrambling at their sides for their holdout daggers, but too late.
Moments' later the battle was over and Ranma moved to help Daryn, who was leaning against a tree, grimacing at the arrow in his thigh. "Hold on Daryn, we'll get that out of you in a second.
"Don't, it's a broad head, not a bodkin, you'll do more damage if you yank it out too quickly." The Hornwood heir gasped. "Just wrap it up, we can take it out when we get back to the rest of the army."
"Fine, but you're going to be sitting on one of the baggage animals for a bit my friend." The army had ditched all of their wagons and were now relying on pack mules to lug around most of their supplies.
"Fine by me." Daryn responded, wincing as Ranma went to work bandaging him with a bit of torn cloth from one of the dead. "You think we're likely to run into more of these little ambushes?"
"Probably." Ranma grunted, pulling the makeshift tourniquet tight over his friend's wound. "If I was Tywin, I'd try anything to slow us down, pin us in place and then wipe us out before we can 'wise up' and try to head down to the Ruby Ford again."
At that point Meera and Arya joined them, with Meera apologizing profusely for not having spotted the ambush in time. "You did Meera," Ranma corrected her, reaching over to ruffle her hair. "Scout's are supposed to either spot or spring ambushes, it's just the first is, y'know, better than the other."
Hefting his friend easily onto his back, Ranma went on, ignoring Daryn's mortified expression of the smirks the rest of his friends and even the scouts were sporting at his predicament. "Let's get back to the army, then, we'll change our route a bit, head slightly further north."
This worked for a few days and the Army advanced without further incident. But soon blocking forces began once more to ambush their scouts along the southern side of the army and at the front. This time however, Meera, once more in the lead, spotted them. She reported back quickly, switching out with one of the Shawney men. "They're ahead of us again, at least four hundred men this time, and they've taken up a position along a ridgeline, I don't think we could get close to them without taking fire. We could bring up our own archers but…"
She went on to describe the blocking position this group had taken. The ridgeline was actually the remains of a large hill that had been worn away at some point in the past to barely anything. But the top if it was still tall enough to give a commanding view of the surrounding lands, most of which were flat rolling fields and small rivers, with only a few trees in this particular area. There were a dozen cottages, all empty of course, and the fields had been picked clean.
"Then we need to swing wide." Ranma decided, frowning for a moment then he smirked. "Let's swing south, we haven't done that yet, and I bet we'll surprise whoever Tywin put in command of these holding actions."
His order went out quickly, and the army once again changed its line of advance.
OOOOOOO
The sudden move southwest did indeed surprise the Westerlanders for a few days, but then the Northerners and their Riverlands allies ran into even heavier blocking forces, forcing the army to fall back along their path before once more heading northwest. Their own scouts reported that the main Westerlander army had also kept between them and the Red Fork regardless of their own maneuvers.
This time they were at last able to come within sight of the House Lolliston's keep, but as they feared it was in enemy hands. Ranma scowled at it staring at it through a spyglass. "Damn, so much for that hope. Ah well, it was faint at best."
He looked over at the lead Shawney scout, a man who had previously served as a Lolliston armsmen before the battle at the ford where he had joined the more organized Shawney forces in their retreat. "You said there's a hill or something nearby?"
The man nodded. "It's a decent enough position, if'n ye've got the numbers fer it, though it don't have anythin' like cover."
"How much you want to bet that they've got a blocking force set up there?" Asked Roger sardonically.
"No bet," Ranma said shaking his head. "No bet on that anyway but… I bet they'll think we'll try the same thing we've been trying the past few days, trying to get around them, or try to take them in the flank. So instead, we're going to take them at the run."
Moments later as fire arrows flew out from the woods surrounding the old Lolliston Castle Ranma's army quickly moved on. The archers and 200 of the Mallister men were left with a few of the remounts so that they could catch up.
Within another hour of marching the Army was in sight of the blocking position the scout had warned them about. It was a natural ditch where some long gone stream had carved out the land enough to give the defenders some cover. The land around it was also somewhat more barren the normal in the area, and a few stones here and there seemed to indicate that it had been worked farmland at one point or another before the river dried up and with it the land around them.
With enough men this could be a very dangerous position, provided you understood the use of polearms anyway. No one besides Ranma and his men however truly did understand that, at least not to the level necessary to make a simple ditch a defensive bulwark against attackers. Yet there were over 200 men in that position, spread out along the empty streambed. Though only 50 or so were archers.
With the fire in the Lolliston castle visible in the distance the men here had been warned of the army's coming, but they were not prepared for the army to simply keep on coming the moment it hit the open area around the ditch. Normally the army would've fallen back, the archers would've been brought up and a long range duel between the two would've begun. Ranma wasn't doing that this time. Instead he ordered his men to charge with the cavalry in the fore, plus Fenris himself, Nymeria and Arya in the center of their formation.
The bows of the Westerlanders and the scattered Riverlanders who had joined them were not the longbows of the North. Tywin had understood he needed to break up the Vypren's remaining people to make certain that they didn't run off. He needed the local lord's knowledge of the land too much to let that happen, and so had spread his men out among all the smaller forces searching out the enemy. The Riverlanders bows were better than the Westerlanders, made of better wood and larger in the main, but they weren't as large as northern bows nor did they have the more powerful draw of the Northerners, lacking the slight recurve at the tips that made the Northerner's bows stronger even in proportion to their size. This meant the enemy's bows lacked the necessary penetrating power to fight full plate armored knights under fifty yards. Nor were the men as well trained as the Northerners.
With the heavy cavalry in the lead the men in the ditch couldn't get at the more lightly armored men behind them unless they shot arching style, which was unaimed, and easily blocked by simply having the infantry raise their shields. Then as the men in the ditch thrust up their weapons, makeshift spears for the most part, to receive them, the knights veered off to either side. The men in the ditch were still gaping at that when the infantry that had been charging behind the knights slammed into them and into the ditch. The archers got off one volley at close range that cost the northerners a good dozen men.
Ranma had left Ice behind on purpose, able to tell there wasn't enough space in the ditch for him to swing it, but his hands and feet were just as deadly. Arya was with him, holding a long dirk in either hand but she was also using her legs to good effect. The rest of the wolfsworn, and Patrek, who was armed at the moment with a short-hafted mace smashed their way into the ditch with relative ease at the head of the infantry. They lost only a few more men getting into the ditch due to simple surprise at the knights veering off as they did plus the fact the spearmen weren't bunched up enough to stop the infantry from getting underneath their weapons.
All of the men who had attacked the ditch were armed with shorter-hafted weapons rather than the pole arms and the regular longswords of their enemies. In the ditch, that proved a deadly advantage. Even Roger, who was much more at home with his long-hafted axe than any other weapon, had opted for a morningstar, which he used to smash aside two men in a single blow, before a kick from him shattered the leg of another man, opening him up for a pommel strike from Dacey, who was guarding his back in the melee of the ditch. That man's skull shattered under that blow, and Dacey's return blow opened the guts of another.
Those few men that tried to escape the ditch at either end of the former riverbed ran straight into the heavy cavalry that had circled around them. A few escaped jumping out of the ditch away from the attacking army before the heavy cavalry could fully encircle them, but they were very few and far between.
Ranma leaped out of the ditch, looking down at his blood-soaked hands shaking his head. It wasn't getting any easier for him. Still, would I really want it to be? Shaking his head clearof such thoughts he looked over at Roger and Hathan, who had swiftly joined him. "Reform the cavalry," he ordered, "Uncle, you and Patrek do the same for the infantry."
He turned looking over at where Meera was leading up the scouts out into the open area along with the archers and Mallister men who had been left behind to burn the castle. They had lost a few men, but as he had thought, there weren't many men left to guard the ruins of the castle. The fire had merely finished the work the Lannisters had already done. "Meera, get your men out in front, I want us at least twenty leagues from here before sundown." Around him the men groaned, but complied, their morale high from the relatively easy victory.
OOOOOOO
The army did indeed march the twenty leagues Ranma wanted yet even so, they hadn't gone far enough to escape the scouts that Lord Plumm, who was in charge of this angle of the chase, had set out. Like the other lords in charge of pinning the northerners in place, he had broken up his archers and a portion of his armsmen into smaller groups, sending them forward, while keeping half of his strength in a more central location well ahead of the main Lannister army.
Plumm's scouts were slightly better than most of the skirmishers Meera and her people had been dealing with. They were comprised mostly of former poachers and bandits that Lord Plumm had forced into his service with a simple choice of serving him or being sent to the Night's Watch well before this war began. Since the start of this campaign a few had attempted to run, but he had made the rest of them watch as he drew and quartered them when they were captured. That had enforced their loyalty, and they served him well now.
"They're heading straight west?" Philip Plumm asked sharply looking at one of his he felt anything for the death of over a third of his command in the two clashes that had occurred he gave no sign.
"Aye milord." The man said nodding his head not looking him in the eyes as he knelt in front of him.
"Where in the world are they going then? I thought they were trying to get back to Fairmarket but if they're heading straight west, that takes them away from the straight line back to Fairmarket from here."
The man didn't answer, knowing his Lord would not appreciate a lowly scout's thoughts on that matter. Inside however, he was wondering if the Stark-led army was simply leading them around for some reason. Over a week had passed since the fall of House Vypren's castle and the northerners had been very cagy about seeking battle, yet never tried to pull away entirely or return to Fairmarket.
Lord Plumm thought for a moment then he nodded decisively. Turning to one of his knights he ordered, "Get the men ready for a forced march. The Northerners have marched all day and fought a battle as well. If we can move fast we can catch them off-guard and exhausted."
The knight looked hesitant. "My Lord, Lord Lannister said we were not to try to fight a pitched battle merely slow them down enough for the main force to catch up."
"We're not fool, we're going to try a night attack. If we can attack them by night and destroy their supplies, we'll force them to either retreat straight back to Fairmarket, which means Lord Lannister might be able to get ahead of them with the rest of the army or simply besiege the town and wipe them out that way."
At the moment Lord Lannister was two days south and a little east of the former Lolliston Castle, and if he tried he might be able to get in front of the Northerners by simply marching for Fairmarket on a straight line.
Lord Plumm honestly didn't think they would be able to accomplish that, the Northerners were too Seven-damned fast on the march, and for all his youth the Stark boy had proven to be a wily tactician. Still, the Northerners had been having all of these small skirmishes almost entirely their own way, oh there had been one or two excellent ambushes that claimed a dozen or so of their men here and there, but on the whole it had been the Westerlanders that had been slowly bleeding lives.
They desperately needed to pin these Northerners down, then bring up the rest of their army and crush them as Lord Lannister had said. "If we need to take a chance to do it, I'm certain Lord Lannister will understand."
OOOOOOO
That night the northern army camped out in one of the small copse of trees that dotted the Riverlands. Despite not being large enough to be called woodland, there were still more than large enough for the army to hide in.
Everyone was tired, including Meera and her scouts except for Ranma who was in his tent. He was ready for bed but he needed to go over his plans. Ranma didn't want to show it, even to his friends, but he was getting worried. While the idea of splitting up some of his force and trying to create little holding actions here and there to slow the Northerners down wasn't exactly revolutionary, Ranma had hoped that it would take a while for Tywin to think of it. In fact, he had hoped that Tywin would try to march to Fairmarket straightaway, which would allow him and his army to attack the Westerlanders supply line and then force the Lannisters to retreat to their fortification on the other side of the Kneeling Man ford.
Lord Tywin hadn't even tried that, and what was worse he was keeping his main force on the move yet always to the south of Ranma and his men enough to keep them from marching on the Red Fork. He knows I want to try and get around him, then try and cross the red Fork somehow Ranma thought, frowning as he looked at the map. Has he realized what I'm trying to do, or does he just 'know' that I don't want to face that fort he threw up on the other side of the Kneeling Man's ford?
Worse, we haven't been able to break off contact with the scouts that have been tailing us. I can't break off the next attack group if they'd be spotted right away! He reached down absently, rubbing Fenris on the muzzle while the giant direwolf rumbled in pleasure, uncaring of his human's worries.
Ranma continued to look down at the map, thinking hard as he went over the information that the scouts as well as Lord Shawney and the rest of the Riverlanders who knew this area had told him. At the speed we can go, we're within four days of the Red Fork from here if we head straight for it, but Tywin is within two or three days travel with his main force and he is within our line so could cut us off with a large enough force to hold us in place for the rest of his army, damn it! I need to do something, Jon's attack is important, but it can't do enough damage on its own without follow up attacks, not right away. At least the first phase is working, but even there, I can't afford to…
Just then Fenris sat up, his ears twitching and he growled his teeth bared. Ranma looked down at him, their minds instantly linking. At that moment he heard what Fenris had heard, the jingle of harness, and movement from the south. But Ranma had put his tent up at the southernmost edge of the camp…
When the implication of that hit him Ranma instantly grabbed up Ice and ran out of the tent shouting "To arms! To arms!"
Ice in one hand he turned just as a dozen riders rode out of the surrounding night making right towards him. Ranma didn't hesitate, Ice coming around in a smooth ark to smash through one man's lance cutting deep into his horse and leg before continuing on as Ranma turned in a full circle while jumping into the air. His next blow came in at head height, slicing a man's head clean off armor and all before his leg lashed out at a third rider slamming into the man's shield with enough force to shatter the shield and the arm that had been holding it flinging the man out of the saddle with a cry.
Behind him Fenris howled aloud, before ripping and tearing at another horseman and horse. All around them the horses heard that terrible howl and skittered away in terror, something that affected even the mounted attackers elsewhere. But further away in the camp the attack continued, overwhelming the men on watch quickly and getting into the camp itself.
On the outer edge of the camp the defenders however were slightly more rested than the rest of the army, having bunked out while their fellows had made the camp. They held just long enough for many of the rest to grab up weapons and shields. Most of them however were still unarmored, and a ferocious melee erupted all over the camp.
"The North and the Riverlands!" Ranma bellowed, charging towards the nearest clump of men. "The North and the Riverlands!"He didn't know how many attackers that there were, the firelight from the fires of the camp wasn't enough to tell, but he knew that this attack couldn't possibly be that large, or else his scouts would've warned him that such a force was nearby. That means this is just another kind of holding the attack… they'll go after our supplies!
Putting one man down, Ranma spotted Meera and Arya coming out of their shared tent, and shouted, "The supplies! Grab some men and guard the supplies!"
No normal ears could've heard that bellow through the clamor of battle and the screams of the wounded and dying, but Arya was linked with Nymeria who was guarding her back tearing savagely into any of the attackers that tried to circle her. Thanks to that she did hear, and she shouted back an acknowledgment grabbing Meera whose trident had stuck in one man's armored stomach. "Come on!" she shouted, pulling at her. "Leave it, we need to get to the supplies!"
Arya raced on through the clamor of battle, killing any man who came at her, but ignoring most of the clumps of combat around her to get to the supplies. She grabbed as many men as she could along the way, and by the time she reached where the supplies were stored in the center of the camp she had a good fifty men, most of whom were unarmored but armed. They took the main force of attackers who had pushed through the camp to the supply train in the rear, and Arya led the way howling like Nymeria. "King in the North! King in the North!"
Roger and a few of his men had been bumped down near the horses. Over a dozen of the attackers had attacked from up out of the dark nearest the horses intending to scare them off. When Fenris howled however, their own horses shied and tried to bolt despite the best efforts of their riders, and they were forced to spend precious seconds trying to get them under control.
This allowed Roger and the rest of the cavalrymen to bolt upright and get back into the saddle. Roger himself bellowed "The Rills, the Rills for the King in the North!" as his ki-infused ax flew around, shattering one shield and slicing into a knight's chest before coming back around to parry a sword blow with so much strength that he nearly threw that man out of the saddle, allowing Roger time to get up into the saddle of the nearest horse.
Beside him Hathan and his squire were both in the saddle quickly, with the boy following his knight closely as Hathan slew three knights in quick succession, their horses still shying as the howls of the direwolves rebounded around in the fire lit night. Hathan's next ki-enhanced blow decapitated another man who was wearing what looked like better armor than most in the firelight, though Hathan had no time to notice as four more came at him, forcing him on the defense until another man was able to get into the saddle and relieve some of the pressure.
Arya's Fang flew left and right, slicing into two men before she leaped up on top of another man's horse pulling his head back and snapping his neck with a wicked wrench of her arm. Then she urged his horse into another man's horse, Fang flashing out to bury itself deep in the man's armored side right where his plate armor joined along his side. She wrenched it out with difficulty, then turned still on horseback and shouted orders, trying desperately to organize the defense of the supplies.
Patrek's voice soon joined her, and he led a force of Mallister men into the attackers from the other side, getting in front of them now and pushing them away from the bags of supplies. "Form shield wall!" he bellowed "Form shield wall, Seven-damn you!"
The sergeants took up his bellow, and soon enough there was a ring of shields around the supplies. With more and more men from the camp around them joining the battle that signaled the turn of the tide.
Nearby, Merry hid in her tent, shuddering a little as the sounds of battle reached her from outside but knowing better than to rush out just yet. In one hand she held a holdout dagger Alayaya had given her and which Ranma had trained her in somewhat during their voyage up to White Harbor. She gasped when the tent flap was flung open, and two men wearingunfamiliar colors rushed in, looking over their shoulders fearfully.
One of them looked at her, and Merry gulped. Since she had been in her sleeping bag (which was really just two small but heavy blankets stitched together) she was wearing her night shift, which was rather small on her these days, clinging to her like a second skin.
The man smirked at her evilly. "She mus' be some kind o' camp slut, still with the battle goin' agin us, she might make a good shield!"
While the other man turned to watch the entrance to the tent the first man reached for her, but Merry struck out with her dagger cutting into his hand. "Don't touch me!"
"YA bitch!" the man gasped, then gasped again as Merry's knife came back, slicing into his forearm, which began to bleed heavily. "Stupid whore!" He grabbed at her, but Merry retreated and a moment later the man collapsed to his knees, the blood running down from his forearm in an unending stream. "What the…"
Merry held up her blade watching as the man bled out from where she had cut one of his primary arteries. The other man however turned to her, his longsword raised. "You fuckin' cunt, ya killed me mate, I gonna gut ya like a fish fer that!"
He moved forward, smacking Merry's blade out of her hand. He pulled his blade back to stab her but then gasped as a sword point burst out from his armored chest. The blade receded then a hand grabbed his body by the shoulder and flung it out into the night. "Are you alright Merry!?"
Merry nodded, staring at him with relief. "Thanks to you, Ranma."
Taking her at her word Ranma nodded, though he couldn't stop himself from noticing how her nightshift clung to Merry, emphasizing her budding curved. He gulped a little flushing as he looked away. Damn, Merry isn't a little girl any longer is she?"Um, ya might want ta get dressed before ya come out, okay? I don't want a riot on my hands on top of everything else."
Merry gasped, covering herself with her hands though she also smiled a little smile at how Ranma had noticed she was growing up. I promised Daenerys that I wouldn't do anything but it's still nice to know I can affect his Stark self-control. "Of, of course!"
Nodding at that Ranma left the tent, sighing slightly with relief. He began to bellow orders again and soon began to instill some order in the chaos of the continued clamor of battle. The attackers didn't break off however, grimly staying and fighting to the last man.
Ranma didn't know this at the time and wouldn't learn it for a few months, but this was because Lord Plumm had died in the first few moments of the battle, along with three more of his knights thanks to Roger and Hathan. With him and most of his commanders dead there was no one left to order a retreat, and Lord Plumm had long since either elevated men who showed initiative or crushed such if the man wasn't the right sort, IE noble.
Thirty minutes after the battle had begun it ended, with Edd killing the last man standing as he tried to run off.
Ranma let the point of Ice fall, grounding it in the ground at his feet as he sighed sadly looking around the fire-lit camp, hearing the shouts of the sergeants calling their men to order, over the screams of the wounded and dying. Thank the old gods that the fires didn't get out of control and that the attackers didn't think of using it. He looked at Patrek and the others who were nearby. "Get a count of the wounded and dead." He ordered simply. "Let's get this camp organized again."
Behind him Merry came out fully dressed now, looking around at for her helpers and began to shout her own orders. "And someone find maester Martyn."
It turned out that Martyn was dead, killed in his tent by one of the men who had snuck in before the cavalry hit the outskirts of the camp. He and two of his chosen helpers were dead but the majority of the supplies were still intact. Merry quickly began to organize the wounded into the same system she had run back in Fairmarket, splitting the injured into groups of severity and working furiously to save those she could while one of her helpers made the passage of those they couldn't save as easy as possible.
The sun was peeking over the western sky before the camp was back to normal. Once again the commanders gathered together to go over what they learned. Meera reported first. "They snuck up on some of the guards on the southern edge, killed two of them, I found their bodies, their throats were slit from behind. They then snuck some of their men into the camp from that side. The rest of the guards didn't notice." she went on grimly shaking her head. "But there were only a few men inside the camp before you shouted your warning, Ranma."
"It was bad enough." Merry replied sharply, her eyes showing her tiredness as she leaned against Fenris. "We lost at least 690 dead, and another 29 won't make it through another day. I've made them as comfortable as I can, but another 203 are injured, 70 so severely I'd recommend that we send them back to Fairmarket, and twenty more are so injured that we can't move them."
"Do all you can Merry." Ranma said patting her on the head gently sighing sadly at the look of grief in her eyes from, well, being human really. She can't save everyone, but Merry doesn't seem to have realized that, has she? "How many of the sergeants did we lose?"
"Only two thankfully." Rickard replied to that question. "Both of them were on the southern side of the camp, and they and their men died there to the bastards who had snuck in before you shouted your warning."
"How many of the attackers escaped, do you think?" Asked Dacey.
"Not many." Roger replied shaking his head. "They stayed and fought for some reason even when the game was blown. Surprising, I didn't think that the Westerlanders were that fanatical."
Ranma shrugged unconcern at that, pulling at his ponytail thoughtfully as an idea occurred to him. "Get me my map," he said thoughtfully. "This might work to our advantage."
Everyone looked at him in surprise, but Luke who was standing respectfully behind Hathan rushed off to do his bidding, and came back with his map quickly. "Show me where we are on this again?" Ranma asked.
Nursing a broken arm Lord Shawney pointed out where he thought they were, then called over one of his chief scouts to make certain. Eventually Ranma nodded. "That's what I thought, good. I think it's time to break off the second force. Given the size of the force that hit us I bet they used all their forces nearby on this. And after an attack like this, even though we beat it off there's no way that the Westerlanders will realize how badly they hurt us. Even if they do have scouts still watching us we might fool them if we also send off our most severely injured up to Fairmarket."
Merry smiled grateful that Ranma was taking her suggestion even if he was doing it for more pragmatic reasons than she had put it forth for.
"Daryn pick out your men from those who can swi…"
"No." Daryn said shaking his head.