The King of Winters

Chapter-122

Andrew

A hundred knights and as many northern warriors awaited him outside Maidenpool. His honor guard had gotten bigger as he moved further south. Half were his own northmen sworn to his father, the others recent friends and allies he had made. With his cousin leaving for Starfall the honor of carrying his own Royal standard was given to Daryn Hornwood and Eddard Karstark carried the white banner of the House Stark with the grey wolf racing across the icy field. Along with Olyvar, Edmund Blackwood and Michael Mertyns would also share the honor of squiring for the King.

His destrier was being held by Michael Mertyns in the yard of the Maidenpool. He still held the stallion's reins as Andrew mounted. His newer squire was tall and straight as a spear, with strong arms and legs, chestnut brown hair and brown eyes. His cloak was the same grey as that of the Starks, but his surcoat showed the white owl of House Mertyns. "Thank you, Michael," Andrew said as he got on Spirit. "Go and join the others. We have a long journey ahead."

The greater part of his army awaited him beyond the walls of the town; Ser Andar Royce with his outriders, Lord Glover and the baggage train, the Company of the Rose of Asher, the archers of Eustace Hunter, the Maesters with their cages full of ravens. The army itself was divided into three contingents, the vanguard led by Andrew and the larger main force made up by the Arryn knights led by Lord Arryn and the rear protected by Lord Stannis and those under his command, a mix of Northerners, Valemen and Riverlanders and Stormlanders alike. A great host, all in all; no less than twenty thousand strong in total. He had a much larger force with him when he reached Maidenpool. But a considerable portion of the army, including the finest knights were sent to relieve the siege at Starfall. He needed them there more so than he needed them here. Numbers were the last thing needed for the capture of King's Landing. Two other armies were already marching against the city, a large force of Stormlords and the Riverlanders; the last bird they'd received suggested that Lord Robert had scoured the lands in his path and cleared them of any Targaryen and had already invaded the Reach, capturing the Ring of Roxton and Ivy Hall of the Kidwells. He was now moving towards the important market town of Tumbleton.

Tumbleton was the thriving market town which stood on the headwaters of the mighty Mander, right alongside the Roseroad and overlooking it running south to Highgarden. The town was the seat of House Footly and whoever controlled it and the small stout castle
overlooking the town controlled the Roseroad, severing the connection between King's Landing and Highgarden. Lord Tyrell had been the foremost ally of Rhaegar Targaryen. When the war broke out all across the Seven Kingdoms, Lord Tully struck first hoping to take the town and the castle garrisoned by no more than four hundred men. They had been beaten back by Ser Garlan Tyrell though who had defeated the Tullys in a series of battles and put them under siege in Riverrun, until Andrew defeated them right beneath the walls of Riverrun, rescuing the banner of Lord Hoster and capturing the infamous knight Ser Garlan Tyrell.

That had been his first victory. He had not forgotten that. Where his men had failed in their first attempt to capture Tumbleton they were preparing for the second attempt, this time under Lord Robert. His goodfather wrote that the Targaryens had not been sitting idle. House Footly itself had a token force to defend the town and castle. But thousands more had come upriver from Bitterbridge, Longtable, and farther south from Dorne. The arrival of a strong force of Reachmen swelled their numbers further, and stiffened their resolve. Some Crownlanders from the Hand's army had also been sighted in and around the town, according to Lord Robert. Some Dornishmen came from their victory at the Stormlands, and a score of landed knights and petty lords whose lands lay along the banks of
the Blackwater and the Mander.

Lord Robert informed that the forces gathered under Rhaegar Targaryen's banners at Tumbleton numbered near twelve thousand, according to their scouts and the prisoners they had taken in the Ring and Ivy Hall. Lord Robert himself led a Stormlander army of fifteen thousand strong, and it seemed plain to him that Tumbleton would not be so easy to fall as the Ring or Ivy Hall did. No doubt the arrival of the fresh levies were most welcome by the defenders of Tumbleton. That would only harden the resolve despite the news of the defeat death of Prince Aegon in the Trident. There was also the news of Lord Randyll Tarly, the commander of the Royalist Forces in the south, contesting with the Hightowers to secure the hold of the Reach for Rhaegar. His goodfather was racing to Tumbleton to prevent Lord Tarly from liking up with the army at Tumbleton.