[Chapter Size: 2400 Words.]
Third Person POV.
Riverlands.
...
...
The crossing of the Twins was carried out immediately by the army when the groups separated from the coalition of Daemon's military forces that had begun to move now that the Freys had been overthrown.
Stannis's army would head south along the King's Road, which connected directly to King's Landing. There was no need to relocate the entire army within the Riverlands, since there were only a few remaining Lannisters and other Freys who were not at the Twins.
"We will be in contact at all times, Lord Stannis, so do not hesitate to request any emergency from my animals. And in a few minutes I can reach you with my dragon," Daemon said to the Lord of Storm's End, while he himself nodded along with the other lords behind him, who would be accompanying the lord.
With that, Daemon simply turned, took his horse, and headed toward the entrance of the Twins, with the lords in command, ready to accompany him after completing a few things he himself had demanded of them.
"Any news from the ships in the North, Your Majesty?" Lord Stark asked now that Daemon was with them, watching Stannis's army leaving the camp they were in and heading for the King's Road, from where they would continue south.
"They are still arriving at the Iron Islands, but they will reach them in a few days. I expect to conquer one or two castles before departing for Pyke with my dragon."
"After what you did to the Freys, I doubt we'll face any resistance...", Robb murmured.
"Perhaps. It doesn't matter now. In any case, we will begin restoring order throughout the Riverlands. Does anyone know anything about where your uncle, the heir of Riverrun, is?" Daemon asked about Edmure Tully, while he had given an order to his more literate men to read the letters inside the Freys' offices after searching the Twins.
He was not in the Twins, and he should have been with his wife, a Frey, pregnant somewhere.
Daemon did not really care much; he had only given the order to search and remove all the remaining prisoners from the Red Wedding who were still kept alive, none of them important. The women and children were treated and placed in the tower, with men from the North remaining as the garrison of the place, since the region now belonged to them. It was a good strategic point to keep the Twins under the control of his men, even though no further battles were necessary in that area.
"No, there is no sign of where Edmure Tully is...", Robb said.
"And the Umbers?" Daemon asked again.
The two Umbers could be dead. They had suffered greatly in Daemon's own attack with the Thu'um when they encountered each other, after he had brought down the Mountain. Since then, they had not taken part in any other fight and ended up being captured when the camp was attacked. They could be dead — or not.
Perhaps they even held great resentment toward Daemon himself, after he broke the legs of the two great Jons, so much so that Daemon had named Ned Umber the rightful heir of Last Hearth. Even so, if he could capture the Umbers alive, he would. And there were no broken legs he could not mend. After all, he had already healed a paraplegic boy.
"Your Majesty," Lord Glover said, taking the paper. "Here are some important pieces of information... They're from Lord Frey himself. He did not send this letter, but he intended to. It says he demands the main prisoners the Lannisters captured from the Twins, which indicates they were with the Lannisters, which is quite obvious." He justified himself immediately; after all, if they weren't with the Freys, who else would they be with? "And it says here that Lord Bolton took some of them in Harrenhal..."
As soon as Daemon heard that, he replied: "Well, let's continue. We'll discuss this on the way. I don't want to waste more time here. Let's move into the Riverlands at once. I want any Frey soldier or bandits who formed in the region eliminated. We must pacify these war-torn lands, just as we did with the North, cutting out the plagues with a precise stroke."
Everyone nodded. They soon got in line and began crossing through the Twins, reaching the other side of the river.
Seagard was the next point Daemon would go to. Rumor had it the place was devastated by the Ironborn — it was one of the closest points to the Iron Islands. While the army marched south, ignoring Seagard and heading to Hag's Mire, a small fortress among the rivers and lakes of the region, and after it, they would go to Oldstones.
Daemon mounted Winter as soon as she landed, heading west until she rose again in flight.
Upon arriving, what lay before them was a heavily fortified coastal stronghold, with towers built between enormous rocks, connected only by bridges. But Daemon did not find the city or fortress in its splendor; instead, he found a great trail of destruction. The men of the Iron Islands had not only attacked the North, but also the West, the Reach, and the Riverlands.
There were burned houses all throughout the town below the fortress, and even the castle walls were destroyed, showing marks of having burned until they could withstand no more. Only a few people walked through the area, and their way of moving made it clear they seemed depressed and exhausted.
Daemon descended, hearing some distant screams as a few people noticed the dragon landing outside the city. He asked Winter not to roar, but her arrival was still noticed, especially by the guards trying to maintain the city. They stared at Winter with terrified looks, whispering in fear.
Daemon let Winter go and approached the gate, which had recently received heavy repairs — if one could call it that, since the wood was all patched together.
"Who goes there?" a man exclaimed, suspicious and cautious. Daemon had no fear of approaching. The presence of the dragon might reveal who he was, yet the man still needed to ask.
"My name is Daemon Targaryen, rightful king of Westeros, as you should have heard by now. I am here to see your situation. We have just come down south with my army supporting my claim to the throne. We are here to pacify the Riverlands," Daemon declared with no difficulty for his voice to reach the wall and beyond. "And who might you be?" he asked in return.
"My name is Ser Marq Piper, King Daemon Targaryen... The Freys… what happened to them? Or what will happen to them?" the man asked. The Freys were now considered the natural lords of the Riverlands, but their enemy had arrived with an army that made Robb's former host seem small in comparison, not to mention the white dragon before him, known for bringing down entire fortresses with ice instead of fire.
"All the Freys who were at the Twins are dead. At least the adults. We just left there, with my army advancing through the Riverlands. I brought them down a few hours ago, to be frank..." Daemon declared, while the man stared at him with suspicion. Though it sounded fantastical, he looked at the dragon, believing such a creature could indeed have burned them all.
"Where is your lord? I request an audience with him," Daemon said, breaking the silence the man had created.
"Give me a minute...", he replied in a dry tone, calling his men and telling them the obvious.
Lord Jason Mallister appeared shortly afterward, speaking with the knight who had been talking to Daemon.
"Open the gate..." he finally said, his tone tense but firm.
"Are you sure, my lord?" Ser Marq murmured.
"We have no choice... He has a dragon, and the North has already turned back to him at this point." Lord Mallister said, glancing nervously at his son, Patrick Mallister.
"Very well, you heard your lord! Open the gate! Let him in!" Ser declared as the gate began to open. Daemon walked inside.
What he found was a multitude of curious eyes staring at his armor marked with the symbol of the three-headed dragon, and at his fierce gaze, which few could sustain for long. Even so, everyone looked, hoping he would help them after the siege by both the Ironborn who had invaded the city and the Freys. The Mallister house had been loyal to Robb; they would not bow to the Freys after what happened at the Red Wedding.
The people were starving. Daemon noticed that immediately. In any case, he shifted his gaze toward the lord who cautiously approached him.
"You must be Jason Mallister, the lord of Seagard..." Daemon said, while also seeing a younger version of him, the heir of Seagard.
The man, still watching him and studying him with very cautious eyes, nodded before simply kneeling before Daemon.
"I have heard the stories of Your Majesty… I also heard what you did in the North. Some men traveling from there told us that you defeated the Night's Watch, the Boltons, the Ironborn… You brought all the North and even Stannis Baratheon to your cause, gaining your uncle's army and the army of Storm's End as well," he said with a certain reverence, clearly impressed.
"Then those reports are true," Daemon confirmed. "I am marching with my army through the Riverlands now, bringing down the last remnants of Frey and Lannister resistance. The Riverlands have suffered too much already; what we must create now is prosperity." He spoke eloquently to the crowd.
"It is as you say, the Riverlands have suffered enough, Your Majesty. I beg that you have mercy on us. We have been suffering since the Lannisters began their attacks… then the Freys betrayed us, stabbing us in the back, while the Ironborn were already raiding us. Unfortunately, our city fell once. What remains of the city… is what you see here. Most of the women were taken, and the men and children were brutally killed by the Ironborn. We do not have much; otherwise, I would gladly gather my men to join your cause," he replied.
"Rise," Daemon requested, and the man obeyed, allowing the king to continue: "The Boltons have already fallen, and I killed Walder Frey myself... As for the Ironborn, they will be dealt with soon. Since we drove them from the North, we have planned to attack Pyke. More than sixty ships are heading to the Iron Islands at this very moment. That will be the North's answer. And I will advance alongside my dragon."
"That is reassuring… Your Majesty." The man nodded, satisfied to hear that their enemies were being punished.
"Furthermore, I will send a garrison here to help defend the city, to tend to the wounded, and also to bring food," Daemon said, while the man looked at him gratefully, as did many others.
After that, Daemon asked him to show the fortress while he inspected the damage and studied how he would repair the city. The place would need gold, of course, but Lord Mallister seemed quite competent despite his circumstances.
After they spoke a little more, Daemon mounted Winter and shot into the sky. Hag's Mire offered no resistance — the fortress was empty — and in Oldstones there were some men who, upon seeing the massive army of more than 100,000 men, immediately came out surrendering.
Daemon mocked them as he ordered them all to wear black, since they were Frey soldiers guarding the ancient fortress; even though they were not from the main family, they were low-ranking soldiers and had taken part in all the destruction those vermin had caused.
He had already sent a force of 200 men to Seagard, along with wagons of supplies to last at least two moons, given the number of people Daemon had seen there under Lord Mallister's care.
They found some resistance groups — bandits using camps in the nearby regions. Daemon assigned some men to hunt them in organized groups, while his direwolves helped guide his soldiers. There were Tully men and others from noble Riverland houses, even Northerners who had not managed to cross to the other side and had been forced to hide, joining together to resist the Freys. They joined the army after a few conversations.
Other fortresses, such as Sevenstreams and Harren's Fort, were all abandoned, taken by outlaws or even servants who lived there without a lord.
The villages around the region were all destroyed, with an atmosphere filled with terror. Many were completely abandoned. They found more resistance soldiers trying to pacify the area after the events at the Twins, but many of the villages were in worse ruins due to the banditry that had arisen in the region than from the war itself, since they were still a bit far from where the war had truly taken place. Even the Freys had tried to deal with it because it had begun to trouble them, with their supplies being attacked and stolen, as they were putting more effort into trying to retake Riverrun than eliminating the rebels.
Even so, the soldiers they encountered all behaved the same way — they immediately knelt. That meant a great deal because Lord Stark was there supporting Daemon, and his uncle still carried a very strong symbol in Westeros.
As for Robb, some ignored him, others looked at him with anger. Robb had to endure the pain and rage of many due to the Freys' cowardly attack, which everyone considered a consequence of his decisions during his military campaign.
Regardless, Daemon continued assigning groups to hunt bandits in the region and retake the fortresses, naming mainly the knights who knelt before him.
In the end, Daemon said he would depart the next day. They were to continue tending to the Riverlands, while the free folk and the Northern lords would take care of Pyke once and for all.
He mounted Winter as they advanced directly toward Wendish, with Winter heading toward the Iron Islands and the Northern ships finally arriving and already sighting the main island — soon the dragon would be with them.
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