The King of Winters

Chapter-78

Daenerys

Dany watched her army march along the Rose road from the sky, perched on Drogon's back. The dragon was annoyed at the pace her troops were moving along beneath them. He was waiting for blood and battle, snorting plumes of smoke from his nostrils. He was made for war, not for waiting and watching men march from one place to another. The wind blowed against her face. Dany tightened her grip on Drogon's horns. Her legs tightened around the dragon's neck. She kicked him, and Drogon threw himself into the sky headfirst with a roar. She used her hands and feet and turned him north by east, the way her scouting party had gone to screen the road in front of them. Dany did not want to leave any of her men alone and undefended.

She had turned back from the Stormlands as soon as she heard about Oldtown and the betrayal of the Hightowers. Her brother had found the new traitors to be much more dangerous to be left unchecked in the lands ruled by her betrothed's family. And so Dany had left the Lords Tarly and Rowan and their forty thousand strong army to deal with Robert Baratheon and his Stormlords to turn back for Oldtown. She burned castles and holdings to relieve them from the enemies' grasp as she made her way back from the Stormlands to King's Landing. Rhaegar had given her a hastily mustered troops of some three thousand men on her march into the Reach.

On the sixth day of her flight upon the lands of the Reach she had learned of the defeat of the reachmen by the Stormlords under Robert Baratheon. Had she been with them, Dany could have turned the loss into a victory with the help of Drogon. But her brother had given her other orders to follow. Lord Tyrell had set forth before towards Highgarden with his entire retinue from King's Landing to get the ten thousand swords her betrothed Willas had gathered around him. Had it been just her and Drogon she would have been sitting in the gardens of Highgarden, nibbling sweet melons and sipping arbor gold with Willas. But the men she led did not possess the wings of the dragon and Dany was not ready to leave them unguarded while the news of the Hightowers declaring for the rebels circled around. There was always a chance that her army could come upon any foes in the Reach and he should be there to help them win the day.

The march from King's Landing to Bitterbridge seemed so long for Dany and Dragon. No matter how quick her men set the pace, it was too slow for Drogon. Her goodfather had sent word that he was resting his men at Bitterbridge while they were crossing a small village past the Tumbleton nearby the Mander. Dany knew he would be waiting for her there, not wanting to tread into the Hightowers' reach without the help of her dragon.

They were still a half day's ride from Lord Tyrell's camp when she spied the first presence of her good father's forces in the lands around them. Ser Robin Rosby had ranged ahead to scout, and he came galloping back with word of a far-eyes watching from the roof of a distant windmill. Dany had looked at the scouts leaving from the back of Dragon. She followed after them to announce her presence and not to scare them off unnecessarily.

In a dozen heartbeats they were past the scout, as he galloped far below. To the right and left, Dany glimpsed places where the grass had grown into thick hedges on either side of the Rose road. Drogon let out a loud shriek that sent shivers to her bone. A small herd of horses appeared below them. There were other riders too, a dozen or more, but they all turned and fled at the first sight of the dragon. 

By the time Dany's party reached the mill, the scouts of her goodfather were long gone. Dany returned back to her men and they pressed on, covering not quite a mile before Lord Mace's outriders came swooping down on them, forty men mailed and mounted, led by a brawny and swarthy giant of a knight with the golden rose of House Tyrell stitched on his surcoat.

When he saw her banners, he trotted up to her alone. "Your grace," he called, "I am Ser Hosman of Red Lake, as it please you. The sight of your fair face is a great sight during these difficult times." He looked at her dragon out of the corner of his eye and then turned her attention back to her. If he was unnerved by the sight of the dragon, he hid it wonderfully. He paid no more mind to the dragon than he would do for some horse.