Chapter 2
RHEA ROYCE
In the mountainous land of Vale, few castles and lineages boast a history richer than that of the infamous Royces. House Royce, with their Bronze Armor and unbroken First Men lineage, were the only major House in the Vale that yet followed the Old Gods.
The prestigious and stories House of the Vale hosted many kings and queens during their time over the years. Though once the Halls of Runestone were filled with gaudy songs and frequent merriment, those times had long come to pass and now the castle boasted only a dwindling remain of the power that was House Royce.
Runestone, their ancient seat, was now under the rule of a woman, Rhea Royce. The daughter of the late Lord Yorbert Royce, who had passed away many years ago while serving as Hand to their liege, the Lady Jeyne Arryn of House Arryn. Rhea was not just any woman, she was wed into the Royal family, a match orchestrated by the good Queen herself, between the young heiress and the Prince Daemon, the infamous Rogue Prince.
An unhappy marriage, one that had lasted barely a few moons until it would break down completely, even the fruit of their solitary marital union unable to save the match.
The Gods had been merciful to Lady Rhea, that their one union with the infamous Prince would result in a pregnancy. And nine months later, Lady Rhea of House Royce would give birth to a son, and she would name him Aegon in defiance of her lord husband, who had chosen the name of his own sire for the child.
They would fight again over this, the Prine feeling the slight would mount his dragon and leave Runestone, abandoning both his lady wife and the child of their union, whose brown hair he called a blemish on his pure Dragonborn lineage.
A blemish, that had grown up into a young man feared all over the Vale.
And it was a missive concerning that very Prince that now sat in the Hands of the Lady of the Vale as she stood in the yard of Runestone, her mount ready beside her, prepared for her hunt when she had been stopped by the Maester of the Castle.
"The letter came late into the night, but I did not wish to disturb you, so I waited until the morning to give it to you, my lady," the master explained. However, his words meant little to Rhea. Helliweg had been their master for decades. The old man had taught her her letters and had later gone on to teach her own son the same, though Aegon was much younger when he had begun his lessons.
The letter was from the King himself, and was not the first of its kind received by Runestone or even the Eyrie for that matter, similar missives had come in the past as well beckoning House Royce to send its Prince to the capital, yet they had always found an excuse.
His ailing health had been the first one followed by her son's fostering under her own father at the Eyrie, and then had come the rebellion by Arnold Arryn, and the subsequent victory of Lady Jeyne, who would name her son as replacement for the position once held by his own grandfather, and there were a slew of other excuses they had relied on to keep him away from the capital, with each of them doing so for their own reasons.
Yet it seems there would be no excuse this time. The King's letter was stern and final, containing an implied threat, one that she did not wish to see materialized.
So, she grunted, and the missive crumped in her hands as she turned towards the Maester.
"It seems that the King has made his decision," she said tiredly as she jumped down from her horse, abandoning her plan for hunting for the day. Her mood soured at the letter.
"It was inevitable, my lady. Prince Aegon is the King's nephew, and it is no surprise that the Royal would wish to meet and get a measure of one of their own," he added as the servants came and took away her horse as she walked back into the castle.
And Hellwig was right, this was unavoidable, a part of her had known that. It was a miracle that such a day had not come sooner, yet she had an inkling that the lack if interest from her lord husband's actions and his inattentiveness to his duties must have stayed the King's hand.
"Where even is Aegon?" and that question highlighted her own failures as a mother, failures that she could not turn away from.
"From what I last recall, he must be leading his final assaults against the mountain clans, and it was another one of their excuses, and though herself, Daemon, and her father each had reasons of their own for keeping Aegon away from the capital, this crusade against was of his own making, an excuse of his own making to avoid the continuous inquiries from the capital.
"It has been about four years since he began this whole crusade," she recalled, and the old Maester nodded.
"It has been, but from the reports I have received, it seems to be reaching its conclusion, and all of Vale rejoices. None of the efforts to cull the mountain clans have ever been so successful. Prince Aegon has truly outdone himself," Helliweg remarked proudly as they walked through the famous Bronze Halls of the Runestone, the roof of the Halls a glinting bronze adorned with runes of the First Men, much like the armor worn by warriors of their House.
Many guards stood to salute her as she walked past them, answering their greeting with a nod as she made her way to her solar.
"My lady, will you accompany the Prince to the capital..."
"No," she answered before the master could finish his words. She was much aware of the rumors and gossip perpetuated around her over in the capital, and she had little wish to see herself shamed by her own husband.
"Aegon is old enough to do this on his own," and he had been so for many years. Even as a child, Aegon had been fiercely independent and headstrong, much like herself. Yet his brilliance was something foreign to her, as he would go on to learn his letters and numbers before any child she had ever known.
"I will write to Aegon and Lady Jeyne as well. The King's missive must have reached the Eyrie as well so they shall know that this time there is no way for us to avoid this, though I wish for Aegon to stop by at Runestone before he makes his journey to the capital," she ordered, and the master nodded.
"I shall bring my fastest crow from the rookery," he said with a bow before he walked out of her solar with firm steps, leaving her all alone.
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WILLAM ROYCE
The Vale was, in truth, a collection of mountain ranges. Its most iconic feature is its infamous knights who tried to live up to the words of their Liege Lord's House words. Life in the Vale was hard, perhaps not as hard as the North, yet hard nonetheless, as they were made to carve out a living for themselves in these rough and mountainous terrains.
Given the vast mountain ranges spread across the land, one would think they are rich in jewels and other valuable minerals, yet one problem has always hampered any such initiative.
And that problem was none other than the infamous Mountain clans of the Vale. They numbered into the thirties and lived in caverns running deep into the mountain ranges and would often attack caravans and villages, looting them and killing hundreds in their attacks.
The mountain clansmen hampered trade to and from Vale and made any effort at mining impossible. For hundreds of years, the knights of the Vale had fought a losing battle against them, yet those times were coming to an end.
And wasn't it a strange coincidence that such a thing was happening when Vale was being ruled not by a powerful and imperial knight but by a woman? And though Lady Jeyne had played her own part in all this, the truth was that this change was being heralded by none other than his own cousin, the Bloody Prince, Aegon Targaryen.
Of the Thirty Mountain clans, more than half had chosen to bend the knee with the Eyrie granting them titles to their lands, giving them access to food and furs as she made to incorporate them into the fold.
The negotiations had taken a better part of a year and had drawn much ire from the lord of the lands, yet few of them could speak against their liege lady for the insult they had dolled onto her when they had sided with one of her cousins merely a few years ago.
The rest of the Vale celebrated the news as their villages and roads became safer, yet words alone could not sort everything out.
Many a clan had refused to bend the knee, spitting on the generosity of their liege lady believing themselves to be infallible and unbeatable in the mountain passes they had lived in all their lives.
Yet they did not seem so infallible to him now as he lay there at the edge of the cliff looking at the battle that was taking place infront of him, as knights of the Vale met the last remnants of these clans in battle.
The mountain clansmen charged into a wall of steel, flying the Arryn banner. A shower of arrows was fired at the knights who put up their shields, and the Falcon of the Eyrie continued to stand tall as he quickly made a note of the archers and the caverns being used by them, the other scouts alongside him all had hand-drawn maps in hand as they mapped out the terrain and enemy encampments as their fellow knights suffered barrage after barrage from the mountain clansmen.
"Do we have them all?" he asked as he saw the clansmen rushing to the side to attack the army from the flanks,
"Yes, my lord. Prince Aegon's maps were correct. The entrance to their caverns is hidden in that pass right there. There are about a hundred or so archers stationed there," his scout informed him.
And he nodded as he saw the knights pulling back, drawing the clansmen with them.
"Light up the flare. We have to block the entrance to give them no chance of retreat," he said. At his command, the men began to prepare themselves. As one of them stepped forward and lit his arrow before letting it loose into the skies above.
A similar arrow was fired from the other side as the men geared up.
Unlike their main force, their armor was lighter, yet their shields were larger to make it easy for them to carry out their assigned task.
And so, at his command, him and his men began to rush toward the archers and the cisterns hidden behind them as stealthily as they could.
Willam walked right up to the archer, who kept firing arrows at the man below, when suddenly he noticed his presence, turned to them, and jumped back in surprise. Yet he was too late, as Willam had already drawn his blade and jumped forward.
"AHHHH!" and with a swing of his blade, the man's head was cut off as he and his men fell onto the Mountain clansmen.
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SER JOFFREY ARRYN
Wave upon wave of Mountain clansmen crashed into their shield wall, yet the formation held steady, retreating back a step or two with each onslaught, yet never more than that.
At the head of the formation, just behind the shield wall, stood their commander and the one who had brought them their triumphs against the Mountain clansmen over the past years, Prince Aegon Targaryen.
It was a dangerous position behind the front lines, yet his boldness inspired the men to stand strong against this onslaught when suddenly Joffery Arryn spotted two arrows donning the skies above.
"WE HAVE THE SIGNAL!" he shouted, and he saw the Prince nod as he raised his banner.
"Spears at the ready!" Prince Aegon's voice boomed as the Mountain clansmen prepared for another attack, and when they rushed and eventually crashed into the shield wall, the battle truly began.
"NOW!" the prince shouted as he raised his blade. Spears were thrust forward as the men from the second row stepped forward, skewered the mountain clansmen with their spears, and began to push forward.
"Archers!" he shouted, and their small unit of longbowmen, hidden behind them on the hill, knocked their arrows at his company.
"LOOOSE!" and then arrows hailed down on the mountain clansmen from above, killing them as the knights of the Vale began their charge,
The clansmen outnumbered them two to one, a deliberate and dangerous ploy enacted by Prince Aegon as he bought time for Ser Willam and his men to locate and block the entrances their caverns.
And then he saw a fiery arrow take to the skies once more and realized that the enemy archers were down and Ser Willam had control over their cave entrances.
"ARCHERS DOWN! PUSH WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT!" and with that, all of the knights began their attack as they crashed into the Mountain clansmen. The better armor and training allowed them to even their numerical disadvantage rather easily.
Their charge was being led by none other than Aegon Targaryen, the young Prince living up to his epithet of the Bloody Prince as he charged into the Mountain clansmen caked in blood, cutting them down with his blade.
And then a horn blew, and the Mountain clansmen began to retreat, yet panic grew in their ranks when the expected cover from their archers never came.
"KNIGHTS OF THE VALE!" Prince Aegon roared as he raised his sword in the air.
"This is our chance to end this blight from our lands once and for all! Do not let them ESCAPE! CHARGEEEE!"
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