The King of Winters

Chapter-124

Argella

On a cold morning as the snowflakes started drifting slowly from the sky, her scouts returned back with the captives. Argella watched them curiously as Black Donnel and his riders dumped them down in front of Argella. Lord Hugo Wull adviced that she retire back to her pavilion while they wrung out information from them. But Argella insisted that she stay. She wanted to see and be there just like the men.

And as he promised Big Bucket wrung out every information the sellsword had as Argella watched along with Brienne. By the time the man gave it all up, he had lost four of his toes and two thumbs. His fellow riders, had fared much better. They weren't so brave then as their names suggested anymore, these Brave Companions as they called themselves.

When they had served their purpose Argella insisted Big Buckets to cut off their heads in vengeance for the scouring of the village of Oldbrook by the sellswords on their way here. No doubt these three had their hands in it of course.

“I would like them to be put on the walls of Winterfell,” Argella said.

Big Bucket gave a smile. He hacked through the wounded men's necks himself, tied the three heads together by the hair, and threw them at her feet. “Gifts for the little queen,” he said.

Argella would have liked to leave them there for the crows and wolves to pick at their remains but she didn't even want to look at the sight of them in her camp anymore. “Dip them in the tar and cold should preserve them,” she instructed the Liddles.

The tales of the destruction of the village had wound up her taste for patience and waiting. Argella couldn't wait here while these monsters kept pillaging her lands.

“I want to know where this village is,” Argella asked her men as she walked back to her pavilion. “And I need to know the path through which they are coming.”

Ser Trent stood outside the entrance of her tent, along with Eyron Slate. Here in the North, the duty of guarding her fell upon their shoulders. In the days of Andrew's father the Wolfsguard were supposed to protect the Royal family, but they had all died in Starfall. And Andrew had not replaced them yet. The best of the Northern warriors had left to the South with her husband and it was said that Eyron Slate was one the finest warriors the North had to offer. She had made Eyron, Lucifer Branch, Jon Waterman and Andrew Ashwood her own Queensguard as well as her companions, and they were placed under the command of Ser Trent. Argella had seen them fight in the yard of Winterfell, and had been thrilled to find them just as good as the knights of her father if not more. There were others as well, like Morgan Liddle and Donnel Flint, who was called as Black Donnel, but just now she needed them more to command her army than to protect her person.

Her army had grown in size than it was when they left Winterfell, with only the men they had available in the castle, most of them the hill tribes who had come from the Northern mountains, maester Walys had told her, each one proud and loyal as much as any of her husband's Lords. Each had brought a good amount of men with them, a strong retinue of men both old and young, wielding axes and swords and spears; ranks of spearmen, axemen, archers; grizzled veterans of a hundred battles and green boys off to fight their first. They were led by the chiefs and champions astride shaggy garrons, as their hirsute fighters trotted beside them, clad in furs and boiled leather and old mail. Some painted their faces brown and green and tied bundles of brush about them, to hide amongst the trees. Argella had been fascinated by them at first but then she learned how effective scouts they made. They always managed to bring back captives and heads everytime they rode out and not once her army was surprised by any foes.

Most of the horse she had in Winterfell were her father's knights who had come with her to see her safely in Winterfell, and she dared not go without them. Lord Wyman wrote that the army they were supposed to face against was larger considerably, both in infantry and in cavalry. And the information they'd gathered from the captives said the same. She dared not fight against a much larger army with infantry alone, and she needed scouts and outriders as well.