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At Highgarden's south gate, Willas waved his cane through the air with all his strength, directing the defenders to attack the soldiers below the wall.
Unlike Lord Randyll, who had deep battlefield experience and a clear mind, Willas was young despite having read many books. He now commanded according to the war texts he had read.
When he had first led thirty thousand Reach soldiers toward Nightsong and been ambushed, the ambushers had clearly been fewer than his men. Yet as soon as he saw his hastily formed line broken, he had not even tried to reorganize a counterattack. He had followed the books: once the line broke, break out decisively.
With his great store of knowledge, Willas would have made an excellent staff officer discussing war in theory. But lacking battlefield experience, he was making the classic mistake of a commander who knew war only from books.
Facing the astonishing number of coalition attackers, Willas ordered his defenders to attack with full force from the start, punishing the surrendered Reach soldiers whom he had first abandoned and who had then been forced to assault the walls.
Most of the war books Willas had read stated that morale was one of the most important factors in battle. Heavy casualties could make enemy morale collapse quickly, eventually causing an uncontrollable rout.
Arrows and scorpion bolts rained from the south wall. The fighting below went as Willas expected at first. The defenders' arrows and the heavy bolts from scorpions caused huge casualties among the surrendered Reach men below.
Unlike at the north wall, these Reach soldiers could not even approach the wall under the defenders' full attack. Their morale fell quickly. After one man saw the comrade ahead of him skewered like meat on a spear by a scorpion bolt, he finally broke and ran.
That was when the Hundred Holy Men assigned by Ser Bonifer to enforce discipline began to act. The devout warriors split into two groups, each leading more than a thousand Stormland cavalry to hunt down the fleeing Reach soldiers.
The Hundred Holy Men showed no mercy while killing. To them, sending sinful men to the Stranger was mercy.
The deserters were quickly cleared away by the overseers. The remaining surrendered men could only grit their teeth and continue attacking.
They also knew Highgarden was hollow and weakly defended. If they took the wall, they still had a chance to live or even become rich. If they ran, death was certain.
Nearly ten thousand surrendered Reach soldiers slowly became corpses scattered below the south wall.
Ser Bonifer was ruthless enough to wait until the fodder troops were nearly all dead or wounded before launching the general attack.
As at Oberyn's side, the coalition formed from Stormlanders and Reach houses drove rams, ladders, catapults, and other engines into a fierce assault.
'We have already killed nearly a third of their force. Why is their morale still so high?'
On Highgarden's south wall, Willas stared in a daze at the enemy army rushing toward the castle with ferocious momentum.
After that brief shock, he immediately ordered the defenders to keep attacking. But the men on the south wall were clearly tired. The rhythm of their attacks was slowing.
A sharp hawk's cry came from overhead. Willas discovered that his hawk was circling above the Mander to the southwest, calling in warning.
Hawks flew faster and higher than ravens and were generally not shot down by the archers sealing the area. They could not deliver letters like ravens, but they provided at least some warning.
Urgent horns followed the hawk's cries.
Loras, nearest the southwest, was the first to see the numerous small and midsized oared warships covering the surface of the Mander, and the tall tower sigils flying above them.
'Excellent. House Hightower.'
Willas, who had been worried by the defenders' weakening state, smiled at the sight of the Hightower fleet on the river.
With House Hightower joining the battle, the balance of the siege would begin to tilt toward Highgarden.
House Redwyne and House Hightower were the wealthiest and most powerful houses in the Reach after House Tyrell. Perhaps by design under the old kings of the Reach, these two houses and House Florent of Brightwater Keep, once strong in soldiers, had checked and competed with each other in the southwest Reach.
House Hightower's position was special. This ancient house had submitted to the kings of the Reach in exchange for giving up a crown, and so had retained its privileged status. They preferred trade and commerce, disliked war, rarely involved themselves in Westeros's civil wars, and had long patronized the Citadel, which governed all the maesters of Westeros.
House Hightower's earlier support for Renly II and assistance in destroying Stannis's royal fleet at Oldtown had already surprised House Tyrell.
Unexpectedly, they had now come to help relieve Highgarden.
As the Hightower warships approached the Mander bridge near the west gate, dozens of burning pitch barrels were launched from the midsized oared vessels toward the two thousand coalition infantry there.
The scalding barrels smashed into the enemy formation and burst. Hot, sticky black-brown liquid splashed over the infantry nearby. The unlucky men rolled and struggled on the ground, howling, trying to scrape away the stinging, corrosive pitch.
The burning pitch also released choking black smoke that turned the eyes of the surrounding soldiers red and forced tears from them.
The Hightower fleet pressed the attack while the coalition infantry was in chaos. Dense volleys of arrows shot from the warships and fell over the formation, causing heavy casualties.
The coalition infantry, now fewer than two thousand, seemed stunned by the sudden attack. As the Hightower fleet closed on the harbor near the west gate, they failed to organize any proper resistance.
Gangplanks struck down from the midsized oared ships. Soldiers roaring with weapons in hand rushed across them and landed. Many small oared craft either drove straight onto the bank or had soldiers jump into the shallows and wade ashore.
In a short time, roughly a third of the Hightower fleet had reached the harbor area. Around five thousand soldiers landed and began attacking the coalition infantry on the Mander bridge.
Anyone looking closely would have seen that besides soldiers wearing Hightower armor with the tall tower sigil, there were also many Essosi sellswords in varied dress.
With wealthy Oldtown in their hands, House Hightower could easily recruit two or three times the soldiers of ordinary nobles. If they truly faced a life-and-death crisis and spent the full wealth of Oldtown, they could raise an astonishing number of men.
Facing Hightower troops two or three times their own number, the coalition infantry commander wisely chose to retreat without fighting. He withdrew toward Ser Bonifer's army at the south wall.
The Hightower soldiers took the Mander bridge without effort and roared mockery at the enemy fleeing into the distance.
"Open the gate. I am Garth Hightower of House Hightower, come in answer to Lady Olenna's call to support Highgarden!"
A broad-shouldered young commander with a lord's confidence walked out from the Hightower soldiers, reached the west gate, and shouted to the defenders above.
"It is Garth 'Greysteel' Hightower. I have seen him before."
"Even if it is him, we cannot open the gate at will in wartime."
"Should we send someone to report to Lord Willas or Lord Randyll?"
"Did you not hear? House Hightower came to support Highgarden. They are friends. How long will a messenger take going and returning? If we delay the battle, the guilt will be serious."
On the west wall, several Tyrell officers argued fiercely over whether to open the gate. The commander with authority lowered his head and weighed the matter, unable to decide.
Garth frowned at the officers speaking on the wall. He suddenly looked back at the five thousand increasingly impatient Hightower soldiers and nodded slightly.
Among them, a soldier in Hightower armor quietly took a gem from inside his armor. It was milky white, translucent around the edges, with a faint blue glow at its center.
The soldier looked up at the Tyrell officers on the west gate and whispered in an unknown language. The pale blue glow of the gem deepened until it turned ocean blue.
The Tyrell officers, including the commander, fell silent. Then, stiffly, they spoke together.
"House Hightower has come to support us. Open the gate."
"Open the gate!"
The surrounding defenders heard their commander give the order and did not dare delay. The command passed down, and the defenders beneath the west gate opened the unusually thick iron-bound oak doors from within.
As soon as the gate opened, Garth waved behind him. Nearly five thousand Hightower soldiers poured through in poor formation.
"Welcome, Lord Garth. I am-"
The Tyrell officer guarding the gate smiled and began to speak. Garth drew his sword with sudden speed and cut open the man's throat.
"What are you doing!"
About a hundred men guarded the bottom of the west gate. Seeing Garth kill their captain, they drew swords and shouted.
The answer was a prepared volley from the Hightower soldiers behind him.
Dozens of Tyrell guards were shot dead on the spot. The remaining dozens were surrounded and butchered by the Hightower men who rushed in like beasts.
After clearing the gate, Garth, his face speckled with blood, led the fierce Hightower soldiers up the stairways on both sides of the wall.
Before long, the several hundred Tyrell soldiers on the west wall had been slaughtered.
"Leave three hundred men to hold this gate until my brother lands with the rest of the army. Hightower soldiers, follow me to the north gate. Bright Banner Company, take the sellswords to the south gate."
After assigning tasks to his family soldiers and the sellswords, Garth led the way along the wall toward Highgarden's north gate.
At the north gate, the two flamethrowers had run dry and become useless. The fires below the gate, however, were still crackling, and the attackers could not enter Highgarden through the north gate for the moment.
Oberyn, in his distinctive leather armor, thrust his golden-snake spear through the right eye of a defender, smiled, and leapt gracefully from a battlement onto the north wall.
Several defenders surrounded him at once.
The golden-snake spear stabbed as fast as a striking viper. In only a few thrusts, the men clutched their bleeding throats and fell.
With Oberyn established on the wall, Martell soldiers began climbing the ladders behind him, expanding the foothold bit by bit.
Seeing that even the many defensive engines could not drive the enemy back, Randyll left the round tower with Dickon. Drawing Heartsbane, he said, "Dickon, if this wall falls, take as many Tarly soldiers as you can and retreat to the second wall.
"Use the route we drilled these past two days. Remember, you must live."
"Father, I..."
Dickon heard what sounded like final instructions and began to answer. A sudden noise rose from their left.
Steel rang. Men shouted. Someone cried that Highgarden had fallen.
Randyll and Dickon listened carefully. The clamor was a mixture of weapons striking, battle cries, and screams.
"Damn. The west gate must have fallen."
"How? The enemy's main attacks were at the south and north gates."
"There is no time to think. Call our Tarly men. Retreat to the second wall at once!"
Father and son exchanged a few quick words, then Randyll abandoned the north wall, which could no longer be held, and led several hundred Tarly soldiers down the stairs in haste.
Highgarden, with its many engines and strong, high walls, had not even lasted through the first day of siege before its first wall fell.
In the harbor outside the west gate, Baelor Hightower was directing soldiers to move aside the many ships Garth had left after landing when a scout in the watch tower shouted, "A large fleet is approaching from behind! Redwyne banners!"
Baelor sneered. "Paxter Redwyne, that old fox. He must have feared the name of betraying his liege, so he waited until we broke the gate before coming."
His voice turned cold. "If not for that person's orders, I would wipe out House Redwyne as well."
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