A Shadow and a Wolf

Tyrion XXV

When Jon Snow rode forward to the enemy's lines, Tyrion cursed. What is he doing? He's going to get himself killed. The cavalry charged first, followed behind by the infantry. Tyrion didn't know for sure who was the other rider who followed Jon Snow closely, but he had a good idea of who it could be, especially if they considered how she knelt next to the small boy. Tyrion double cursed. He just witnessed Sansa's little brother die, and now her sister and her half-brother would get themselves killed as well. That was foolish. They were supposed to let Ramsay attack them, to let him make the first move, to let him reveal his strategy. Instead, they charged him without thinking.

Tyrion was standing on a hill with his personal guards, Bronn, Podrick and Ser Forley Prester. His father always took a position like this one during a battle, to have a perfect overview of the whole battlefield. Tyrion had this advantage here. He saw everything happen, and right now he didn't like what he saw.

First, Bolton's archers drew a flight of arrows that knocked Jon Snow and his sister on the ground. The Bolton cavalry charged, as their own cavalry was approaching. Tyrion saw with relief that both his half-brother-in-law and his sister-in-law had gotten on their feet, but with the Bolton cavalry heading towards them, he didn't give them much chance to live. Sansa would never forgive him. The two cavalries collided somewhere at the point where the Stark siblings were standing and Tyrion lost all sight of them. From where he stood, he could hear the clatter of swords, lances, shields and horses clashing together. It wasn't like the Battle of Blackwater at all. Tyrion had looked from afar as the enemy ships were destroyed by wildfire. He had seen the enemy coming close to the battlements. He had seen the battering ram approaching the Mud Gate and heard the crashing sounds each time it hammered the door. Then he had led himself the sortie outside the walls of King's Landing.

The only time Tyrion ever witnesses two armies crashing together in a field battle, he was on the field. He was among the men who fought. This time, he wasn't. It made it look so unreal, to see everything from afar. He heard the noises of battle, but they were faint. Looking at the battle this way gave the impression that it was no big deal, when it was. People were dying right under his eyes, and this looked so abstract. He wasn't in the heat of battle. The men looked like pieces on a board game.

A huge silhouette came at Tyrion's side. He knew it was the Blackfish immediately. "That's not how we imagined things," he said. He sounded as displeased as Tyrion was.

"No, not at all," Tyrion agreed.

Tyrion noticed after a moment something queer. The archers on the Bolton side were loosing arrows. Tyrion could see men falling at each volley. However, the men who were hit by these projectiles were from both sides in the melee.

"He's shooting arrows on our men and his men at the same time," commented Tyrion.

"Aye. Why is he doing this? He's killing his own men. No general would do something like that."

The Blackfish seemed to think that Ramsay was a fool or a monster, probably both. Tyrion, however, had no difficulty to imagine his father ordering his archers to fire on his own men if this could allow him to win the battle, or cover the retreat of his army. Tyrion remembered a great battle where a general ordered all his catapults and archers to fire on the enemy army while they fought his infantry, when it became obvious at the end of the battle that they had lost. It covered his escape. The general lived, only to be exiled when he came back in his city. He died alone on an isolated island a few years later.

"I doubt Ramsay cares about the men under his command," Tyrion said.

"Still, this is suicidal. He's losing men he cannot lose. That's stupid. I never saw something so stupid in my life."