THANK YOU
Jon Smith
Angel Pena Gutierrez
alucard
Christian Mordal
Nick grey
Knightwolf91
Ben McMahon
Maqets1
MaskedMonk
Leaping Lemur
Edwin torres
weird song
doompie
Zelx
Lazies
For supporting my Patreon or Buymeacoffee
Support me and read advance chapters at my patreon or buymeacoffee
5 Chapters for 1$
10 chapters for 3$
20 chapters for 10$
35 chapters for 20$
50 chapters for 30$
buymeacoffee.com/Shashankbhatt
Patreon.com/Shahsank_bhatt
_________________________
[HARRENHAL]
[LORD TYWIN LANNISTER sits in council with SER KEVAN LANNISTER and other Lannister bannermen. LADY ARYA STARK attends to them and listens intently]
"He looks well" Joanna smiled seeing her good brother. Kevan was always a good man and kind too.
"King's Landing will fall an hour after Stannis lands his force. It's not too late for King Joffrey, Cersei, and the court to ride west to safety."
"Surrender the Iron Throne?"
"Better than seeing their heads mounted on the city gates. Stannis will execute them all."
"I think Kevan Lannister cares more for Cersei and her bastard than Tywin does" Oberyn whispered.
"Tywin insist on family honour above all. Abandoning the capital is no honor" Doran explained.
"You can almost feel sad for the boy... Almost..." Oberyn chuckled.
"It's not a bad thing to feel bad for them" Elia countered with a shrug.
"It is not" Oberyn agreed.
"But?"
"But I'd rather keep my pity for someone actually worth it" Oberyn shrugged.
"No, a king who runs will not be king for long. He's a Lannister. He'll stand and fight. Stannis, two days from the capital and the wolf at my doorstep."
"The scouts assure us Robb Stark remains north of Ashemark."
"Ha! The last time the scouts assured us of Stark's movement, he lured us into a trap. Which is why my son is his prisoner."
[ARYA serves wine to the table.]
"Too close to Casterly Rock."
"He sent a splinter force to recapture Winterfell. The Greyjoys have done us a great favour. Stark won't risk marching on Casterly Rock until he's at full force."
"He's a boy and he's never lost a battle. He'll risk anything at any time because he doesn't know enough to be afraid."
Rickard silently agreed with the man. With inexperience and the flush of youth, comes a certain narrowed vision of battle. The tunnel vision could be a boon and a curse, a gamble above all.
[TYWIN ponders for a while by the hearth. He makes his decision.]
"We'll ride at nightfall. I want a full night's march before he knows we're on the move. Clegane, you'll maintain a garrison here at Harrenhal. Track down this brotherhood and destroy them. The girl has proven herself a good servant. She'll stay on with you. See that he doesn't get drunk in the evenings. He's poor company when he's sober, but he's better at his work."
Ned's already tense demeanour tensed further. Arya needed to leave right away, before that beast Gregor got his hands on her.
Ned's eyes shifted to Catelyn, who showed grief and worry. He knew what she grieved, but she was worried for Arya. Brandon was wrong, she may favour two but she loved all the children she bore.
[THE NORTH]
"Mance is gonna march on the Wall. When he does, one brother inside his army will be worth a thousand fighting against it."
"He plans to use you as a mole" Robb whispered.
Jon said nothing, nodding only. He understood it too.
Robb looked a his brother. He understood that there will be the things he can learn from the current Jon if he doesn't wants to repeat the mistakes of future him.
"They'll never trust me."
"They might. If you do what needs to be done."
"What?"
[QUORIN yelling]
"How does it feel knowing those men all died so you could skip through the snow with your little savage girl?"
"I didn't"
"I should have known better, trusting a traitor's bastard."
Jon tilted his head at that, knowing what's coming next he was hoping for another question to pop up but it didn't appear.
Ned stared a Jon, knowing exactly what was going through the boy's head at that moment. Oh, how he needed to talk to him.
[QHORIN pushes Jon roughly, sending him tumbling down the side of the hill. The LORD OF BONES confronts QUORIN.]
"He's not yours to kill, crow."
[The LORD OF BONES pushes QHORIN forward. YGRITTE pauses and looks sympathetically down the slope at JON, reconsidering him. JON sits up and looks back at her.]
[KING'S LANDING]
[BRONN and LORD TYRION LANNISTER sit in his chambers. TYRION is attempting to read, but he is annoyed by BRONN's fingernail scraping with a knife.]
"Do you have to do that here?"
"I like to keep me hands clean."
"Yes, but do you have to do it here?"
[BRONN looks at TYRION, then throws the knife down on the desk in front of him.]
"Trouble in paradise?" Jaime teased.
"Fuck off" Tyrion rolled his eyes.
"You should start wearing the gold cloak."
"I don't want to wear a gold cloak."
"You're the commander of the City Watch. You shouldn't be dressed like a common man."
"I forgot I named him Commander" Tyrion muttered.
"A cloak slows you down in a fight. Makes it hard to move quietly. And the gold catches the light, so you're nice and easy to spot at night."
"The man has fighting brains" Jaime complimented.
"And for nothing else" Tyrion sighed.
"Well, you're not sneaking through alleyways any longer. You're supposed to stand out."
"Why do the gold cloaks wear gold cloaks?" Tommen asked.
"Daemon Targaryen, brother of Viserys I Targaryen made the City Watch wear them so they had something to pride themselves in, a symbolic identity" Jon Snow explained instead.
Tommen looked very interested.
"We had a deal and wearing a gold cloak wasn't part of it."
"Fine, fine. No gold cloak."
[TYRION goes back to his work. BRONN sucks his teeth and drums his finger, continuing to look at TYRION.]
"Why are you staring at me?"
[BRONN scoffs]
"You don't want me cleaning me nails. You don't want me looking your way. Why am I here?"
"To help me plan the defence of King's Landing."
[BRONN laughs as he stands up, and begins to pace around.]
"Stannis will be here any day."
"And he will not be kind" Tyrion muttered under his breath.
[BRONN picks up a book from the pile as he walks past.]
"And one of these explains how to beat him?"
[TYRION gestures to the volume that he is reading.]
"A History of the Great Sieges of Westeros. By Archmaester Shevelathin. Shevelatesh."
"Chevalteesh. I'd swap all your books for a few good archers."
[VARYS enters.]
"My Lord Hand. Commander. I must compliment you on the gold cloaks' performance these last few weeks. Did you know there has been a marked drop in thievery?"
Tyrion raised a brow. That was no mean feat.
"I did not know. And how did you accomplish this marked drop in thievery?"
"Me and the lads rounded up all the known thieves."
"For questioning?"
"No. It's just the unknown thieves we need to worry about now."
That made more sense.
"We talked about this."
"Aye, we talked about it. Have you ever been in a city under siege? Maybe this part's not in your books. See, it's not the fighting that kills most people. It's the starving. Food's worth more than gold. Noble ladies sell their diamonds for a sack of potatoes. Things get bad enough, the poor start eating each other."
Stannis looked haunted, being reminded of a siege he'd been the subject of. His dreams were still plagued by those memories. He glanced at Renly, who seemed aloof. He wouldn't remember. Good. He was a child when it happened, he shouldn't remember it.
[BRONN sits back down at the table.]
"The thieves, they love a siege. Soon as the gates are sealed, they steal all the food. By the time it's all over, they're the richest men in town."
"He's got a head for combat and the foresight to think what might happen in a siege. He's not a bad find, brother" Jaime complimented.
"You doubted my choice?" Tyrion faked looking insulted.
Jaime snorted.
"Given the circumstances, my lord, I believe extreme measures are warranted."
[BRONN nods]
"Ah. "The Great Sieges of Westeros." Thrilling subject. Shame Archmaester Ch'Vyalthan wasn't a better writer."
[TYRION grabs a parchment and unrolls it.]
"Stannis knows King's Landing. He knows where the walls are strongest, and he knows which gates are weakest. The Mud Gate. A good ram will batter it down in minutes, and it's only 50 yards from the water. That's where he'll land."
"And if Stannis does attack the Mud Gate, what is our plan?"
"We could throw books at his men."
"We don't have that many books."
"We don't have that many men, either."
"You could throw the Wildfire at them" Myrcella suggested, before shrinking when her uncle and father turned to her. But she quickly composed herself, like her mother would. "Mother and Joffrey were planning to use the Wildfire, so it's there. Use them to even the battlefield."
Both men looked pleasantly surprised.
"Not a bad course of action. Not bad at all" Tyrion complimented with a smile.