Game of Dragonborn. [BOOK 1/2]

Chapter 199 - Division of the Army.

[Chapter Size: 2600 Words.]

Third Person POV.

Monte Cailin.

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Monte Cailin was very different from how Daemon had left it when he departed.

There was no longer so much mess; Stannis' own men had cleaned everything that had been left after Reed's men rescued the last hostages of the war.

But Ramsey Bolton's body was still outside the castle, although they had to remove it from the entrance because of the stench. When they passed by the camp of the men from the Stormlands, they saw his flesh already rotting, with vultures still finishing eating him. It was a body that should have been removed long ago, but since it was the king himself who had done that, anyone who came here kept the body and poured some herb-infused liquids over it to preserve it a little longer and keep vultures and other animals away from the smell.

In the end, the Bolton bastard had become a bizarre, fully reddened creature, without skin, displayed as a war trophy and a reminder of what the king himself could do.

In the next days at the castle, they began discussing which groups would be sent to each front and what the best strategy would be. While Daemon spoke before his men, he said he would send a group, once they reached the Riverlands, to attack the West from both sides, while another part would go to King's Landing.

In the attack on the West, there would be men coming from the sea after sacking Pyke, advancing toward the West, where the kingdom — lacking the Lannister army, which was stationed in King's Landing — found itself in a difficult situation, having to deal only with Daemon's army without an adequate force of their own.

Daemon knew he could not place too much of the free folk's strength into going to Pyke, so he assigned at least half of the Northerners to sail to the Iron Islands, leaving the other half under the command of House Stark and the other Northern lords.

Lord Tallhart and Lord Glover would be going to Pyke, leading the five thousand Northerners. Daemon also placed Tormund with three thousand free folk, believing that fighting against the ironborn would be a good opportunity for him to command the free folk, as he had already done in the West.

He was already somewhat accustomed to the Northerners and the free folk, so it was wise to place him there. Stannis, however, would not be smart to send to Pyke, so Daemon directed him straight to the South.

Stannis also made an agreement with Daemon and the Starks after receiving the offer to leave his wife and daughter in Winterfell, where they would be safer than continuing to travel through war. The former queen, Selyse Baratheon, and former princess, Shireen, were sent to the Stark stronghold to stay with the pregnant queen, and the Stark children who were there would remain in the place, all protected.

Daemon spent most of the day in meetings with the men, devising strategies and analyzing where each of Westeros' key pieces lay, now divided into three factions:

First, the Northern and free folk alliance, together with the Baratheons of the Stormlands.

The Lannisters on the other side still maintained control of the Crownlands, with their army stationed before King's Landing and leaving the West untouched.

And the third faction, about which Daemon continued to learn more. He discovered that the one who helped the Tyrells escape King's Landing was Varys, who seemed highly interested in that faction composed of the Golden Company and some mercenary groups hired in Essos, joining forces with the Tyrells and the Dornish, while Daemon was still trying to gather more information about them.