Crowns and Cruel Intentions || Game of Thrones

29| 𝔩𝔶𝔞𝔫𝔫𝔞

the riverlands, westeros

— WHEN LYANNA AWOKE TO CHAOS AMONGST THE MEN, SHE KNEW SOMETHING MUST BE VERY WRONG. This wasn't the normal, 'one-wrestling-match-got-a-little-too-out-of-hand' type of chaos. This was screaming and arguing and blades drawn as men flurried about and Catelyn tried to call their attention to calm them.

Robb had gone to the Crag and taken Marianna with him, so Lyanna did the only thing she could. She climbed onto a nearby stack of crates, stuck her fingers in her mouth, and blew out the loudest, longest, sharpest whistle any of them had ever heard. "EVERYBODY CALM THE FUCK DOWN!" she ordered rather ungraciously. "BANNERMEN, FRONT AND CENTRE. NOW!" A couple minutes of shuffling and calling and muttering amongst the men, and the brunt of the dissent had subsided, allowing the Lord Bannermen to make their way over. "What is the meaning of this?! Your king leaves to negotiate a surrender and everything immediately falls apart??"

"The Kingslayer has escaped!" Lord Karstark practically snarled. "He murdered my son, Torrhen!"

Several things flashed through Lyanna's mind all at once, and she nearly found herself short of breath before pulling her thoughts back into order. "Which way did he go? Did he take a horse?" the lords all looked at one another blankly, and flames rose in her chest as she hopped to the ground. "You mean to tell me that the Kingslayer has been missing since before dawn and you didn't put our hunters and trackers on his trail?!"

"I did." she glanced to her right and found Jay had appeared there. She shot him a grateful look. His cousin was dead and the great lords of the North were squabbling amongst themselves and the other men like children, but still, he did not fail her. Never even once. "He was mounted and fled southeast."

She sucked in a breath. "He's trying to get to Harrenhal." where Tywin Lannister was currently making base, however temporarily. If Jamie got so much as within five miles of that castle, they were screwed. "Gather the hunters and trackers. Three of the best of each. No more. Who would you say are our two best swords?"

"You and me." he replied honestly.

She huffed a dry chuckle. "Gather the three next best, then."

"Ten men and one woman won't make a difference against the Kingslayer, my Lady." Lord Umber protested.

"If we take a larger group, Lannister spies will know what has happened within the hour." she told him. "If Lord Tywin discovers his son is anywhere but under our closest guard, then we're all fucked. And Ser Jamie is out of practice. You overestimate him."

Less than twenty minutes later, Jay had rounded up the hunters, trackers and swordsmen Lyanna had asked for and horses for all of them. Lyanna slid Bittersweet into its sheath and climbed into the saddle. "No one rides off alone, no one engages Ser Jamie alone." they all gave their agreements, and she nodded, turning her horse with a tug of the reins. "Let's hunt!"

Jamie had a head start on them, but he was tired, and weaker than he was used to. He was also, as Lyanna had said, out of practice. Not just with a sword, but also with riding. And she doubted he'd ever been too good at stealth in all that golden Kingsguard armour he was used to wearing. Following the rising sun east and the water south, they caught up with him soon enough.

They were crossing a large field when Lyanna's party crested a hill and finally spotted the lone rider nearly halfway between them and the treeline ahead. We can't let him get there. She realised. He would lose them far easier in there than out here in the open. "Hiyah!" with a squeeze of her legs, her horse shot forward, down the other side of the hill and across the grass towards their prey, who most certainly knew they were coming by now. "Clove! Daryn! Cut him off!" The two were hunters, not soldiers, and that meant they were lighter in their saddles than Jamie or any of her other men. And as she'd hoped, it wasn't long before their horses crossed straight into Jamie's path.