Chapter 157: The Strange Captives

The Mud Gate, also known as the River Gate, faces the mouth of the Blackwater River and is the closest gate to Aegon's High Hill and the Red Keep.

"Fine. I will send people to contact the garrisons at the Mud Gate and the King's Gate over the next two days to see if we can win over some officers."

Garlan noted his grandmother's instructions while preparing to extract some information from the lower-ranking Lannister soldiers.

The Queen of Thorns, sitting in her chair, remembered one more thing: "Have Loras find a few noble Knights who frequent King's Landing, have them stay by my side that day, and have them carefully discern whether it is true as rumored that Tommen was... at Duskendale."

The Queen of Thorns resided long-term at Highgarden in the Reach, and like her granddaughter Margaery and grandson Garlan, she had not met the eight-year-old Tommen before.

Loras had stayed in King's Landing for over half a year and participated in two Tourneys, but he spent much of his time hanging around with Renly, and apart from public occasions attended by many nobles, he had not met Tommen very often.

"Yes. But Grandmother, do not be overly worried; even if Lord Randyll Tarly takes ten thousand men away, we still have over thirty thousand soldiers outside the city. As long as Cersei is in her right mind, she will not show us the slightest disrespect."

With a large army in hand, Garlan remained quite confident.

For the Reach, which was already more or less united, it was the person they chose who would become the King of the Seven Kingdoms.

Casterly Rock, the Sept of the Seven.

Unlike the Casterly Rock architecture most people imagined, the footprint of the Sept of the Seven was about the same size as a sept in a normal castle.

At this moment, Tywin's remains, having been prepared by the Maester, were resting in the very center of the Seven-Pointed Star base in the sept, with painted stone eyes covering Tywin's eyes, making the remains look somewhat eerie.

Genna Lannister, Aemon Frey, Damion, Lucion, and other members of House Lannister,

as well as Lady Alysanne Lefford, Tytos Brax, Lymond Lydden, Terrence Crakehall, Harys Hornwood Swyft, and dozens of other surviving Westerlands nobles, led by Ser Kevan, walked in turn before the remains of their liege lord to pay their respects.

The entire ceremony proceeded very slowly, and after the last noble finished mourning their liege lord, all the nobles and the more powerful Landed Knights were called by Kevan to the castle hall to begin discussing the next course of action.

"His Majesty Tommen's kingdom is facing unprecedented challenges: the Dragonrider, the Stormlands rebels, the North rebels... especially the threat from the Riverlands; an army of several thousand has already bypassed the mountains south of Stoney Sept and entered the territory of Deep Den..."

Kevan briefly summarized the current situation and then ordered each house to mobilize their territories again, preparing to deal with the offensive from the Riverlands.

Lord Lymond Lydden, Harys Hornwood Swyft, and other die-hard Lannister Jiaodu represented the nobles in pledging that they could do it.

But this made the other nobles feel dissatisfied.

Lady Alysanne Lefford said pointedly: "My house has even lost its territory; what should I use to conscript new soldiers?"

Her husband, Lord Leo Lefford, died in the Red Fork blocking battle led by Edmure Tully, the remaining Lefford members were rumored to have all died in the chaos of war, and her family's Golden Tooth was held in the hands of the Rivermen.

The status of House Lefford in the Westerlands was rather special, and Kevan dared not ignore Lady Alysanne's opinion, so he had to soothe her with repeated words.

Other nobles, seeing someone take the lead, also followed by stating their own demands.

"My father, Andros Brax, is still at Riverrun; shouldn't His Majesty Tommen and the Queen Regent find a way to trade him back?" Tytos Brax shouted.

He was Lord Andros's eldest son.

"And my lord, Lord Damon Marbrand; Ser Adam has worked himself to the bone for the Lannisters, you cannot just abandon his father."

A Landed Knight loyal to Castamere said.

Kevan hurriedly stated: "My mother also came from House Marbrand; I certainly will not let my cousin Damon stay in a water cell for long."

There were even members of the Lannister cadet branches asking Kevan to trade back Stafford and Daven, the father and son currently imprisoned at Golden Tooth.

The Westerlands noble captives were concentrated at Riverrun and Golden Tooth; currently, these two places still belonged to two different factions, and the nobles' demands for prisoner exchanges gave Kevan a headache.

The Westerlanders had no captives of equal rank to exchange.

Fortunately, the alliance between the Lannisters and the Reach was strong enough, and after cajoling and deceiving them for a long time, Kevan finally got this group of nobles to start following orders.

But the situation in the Westerlands itself was no better than in the Riverlands; the northern Castamere, The Crag, and other places had been ravaged once by Robb and the North Army, and the southern Cornfield, Oxcross, and other places had been mobilized to the limit.

At most, the entire Westerlands could now only scrape together three or four thousand men, and that was only the total after adding the elite guard from Lannisport and the Casterly Rock garrison.

It did not end there; two pieces of news sent by the Maester made Kevan feel even more troubled:

The Warden of the North, Roose Bolton, demanded that the Iron Throne send two thousand reinforcements; his nephew Tyrion had been assassinated by an assassin left behind by Stannis, and even the body had not been found.

When Ser Kevan originally traveled a thousand miles for the funeral, he had deliberately not brought Tyrion back to the Westerlands in order to delay the dispute over the inheritance between Jaime and Tyrion.

He had not expected that this little bit of scheming would actually cost his nephew his life.

"Sigh! Maester Cressen, have the stonemasons carve a stone statue for Tyrion, as tall as possible, then bury it in the Hall of Heroes, and have a set of gilded armor custom-made to put on the statue. His life was full of indignity; let him have some dignity after death."

Kevan ordered.

The Hall of Heroes was a unique structure within Casterly Rock; all warriors among the Lannister family and their close kin who died for the family could be buried there, and Jaime and Tyrion often went there to play when they were children.

The Maester noted Ser Kevan's order.

After carefully considering the situation, Kevan felt that with this few men, the Westerlands could not hold Deep Den and Silverhill, and the lords of these two earldoms, Lydden and Serrett, were relatively important and could not be ignored.

"Send a raven to King's Landing, have the Reachmen send an army to rescue the Westerlands, the number of soldiers must be over ten thousand." He ordered the Maester again.

As for the plea for help from Duke Bolton in the North, he was temporarily powerless to do anything.

There were only two ways for an army of thousands to enter the North: by land from Moat Cailin, or by sea landing near White Harbor.

But these two places were still in the hands of Northmen loyal to House Stark, and on top of that, there were rebels in the Riverlands; even if Kevan and the Westerlanders had the wildest imaginations, they could not think of how to send troops into the North.

After completing all the remedial measures, Kevan appointed his cousin Myrianda Lannister as the new Castellan of Casterly Rock, while he would temporarily hold the title of Warden of the West himself.

After Kevan ordered most of the nobles to return to their territories to conscript peasant soldiers, this gathering of Westerlands lords ended hastily.

The Crownlands, near Duskendale.

A large military camp was arranged neatly along the coast, and the soldiers were doing what they were supposed to do in an orderly manner. The infantry on the watchtowers scanned the surroundings with sharp eyes, and within a mile outside the camp, there were Light Cavalry flying the banner of the striding hunter patrolling back and forth.

Brienne of Tarth, with her hands bound, and Lady Stoneheart were "escorted" by a squad of Tarly Cavalry, rode into this Reach camp, and were then taken by officers to the main tent.

After the female Knight had been captured once by the mercenaries led by Locke Holt, she had set out alone from the Riverlands King's camp and returned to the northern part of the Crownlands, preparing to seek the trail of Lady Stark.

She had not expected that while she found the person, she herself was captured by the Brotherhood Without Banners, and then almost hanged from a tree by the possessed Lady Stoneheart.

Fortunately, the Reach soldiers arrived in time, defeated this detachment of the Brotherhood Without Banners, and made Lady Stoneheart, like her, a prisoner of war with bound hands.

"We discovered a small number of members of the Brotherhood Without Banners, annihilated most of them, and obtained two strange captives. These two have special status, so we did not dare to kill them and brought them back for you to dispose of."

The officer briefly explained the cause and effect to the Commander, Lord Randyll Tarly.

Randyll, who was considering the march route, raised his head, waved for the officers and Attendants to leave, and stared in surprise at the large scar on the neck of "Lady Stark."

"Are you alright, My Lady?"

Lady Stoneheart made a "hoarse" sound, and Brienne of Tarth replied for her from the side:

"My Lady is still able to move. Your men killed her translator; Lady Stoneheart's throat leaks air, so she cannot speak for the time being."

Lady Stoneheart, whose eyes were entirely black, glared at Brienne with a ferocious and resentful expression.

Randyll examined "Lady Stark" with surprise for several moments before turning to the other acquaintance.

"My Lady of Tarth, may I ask which king you serve now?"

Because Brienne had previously joined Renly's Rainbow Guard, Randyll was very familiar with the only daughter of this great Stormlands lord.

It was he who had told Brienne about the soldiers' boring wagers, and the two had a decent relationship.

"Please call me Ser Brienne," the Lady of Tarth corrected the Earl of Tarly's mistake. "Since His Majesty Renly was killed by a shadow, I have not served any king, but have instead sworn my service to Lady Sansa Stark."

On this evening, Randyll Tarly, who considered himself well-informed, was shocked once again: "A shadow? His Majesty Renly was killed by a shadow? Can you elaborate?"

The fact that Lady Stark was clearly a corpse had shocked Randyll once, and now another explosive piece of news reached his ears.

"That is correct. It was a shadow in the likeness of Stannis that assassinated His Majesty Renly." Brienne also wanted to find a rational old lord to pour out what she had seen with her own eyes, so that the world would know she had not betrayed His Majesty Renly.

Thus, the female knight began from when Renly led twenty thousand troops and their ally Lady Stark to confront his brother outside Storm's End, continuing until the shadow assassination, and finally to how she and the other lady were released by the Rainbow Guard Robar Royce.

"After that, we headed north, intending to return to Riverrun, but a Lannister cavalry unit attacked us on the way. I... I failed to protect this lady, and then..."

Seeing that Randyll Tarly still had the interest to listen, Brienne poured out everything that had happened over the following months to the Earl of Horn Hill.

After listening, even the stern Earl of Tarly could not help but click his tongue in wonder.

"This world has changed. The old oaths and the order built by knights have begun to collapse; magic, kinslayers, and oathbreakers have begun to run rampant."

He recalled the magic he had once performed for his eldest son Samwell, wondering why those two warlocks had failed while shadow magic and necromancy could succeed.

Ser Brienne also echoed: "Indeed, I am the only true knight left. Oaths are discarded at will, the royal family can even kill their own kin, and the Small Council of the Iron Throne is controlled by a foolish Queen, eunuchs, conspirators, and butchers."

Because Grand Maester Pycelle's public image was still considered decent, Brienne did not speak ill of him.

After fiddling with her throat for a long time, Lady Stoneheart finally spoke her first sentence in the tent:

"Are you working for the Lion House? I will kill you sooner or later."

Resurrection did not make Lady Stoneheart cherish her new life; instead, it infinitely solidified her hatred for House Lannister.

Randyll Tarly shook his head. "I am working for the Tyrells, the Wardens of the Reach. Whether it was Renly or the current Tommen, I only pledged my loyalty after my liege lord had already done so."

Although he had been robbed of the Brightwater Keep he had set his heart on, this Earl, who still maintained the style of an old-school figure, retained some loyalty to the Tyrells—at least on the surface.

"What is the difference? Are you not still killing for the lions?" Lady Stoneheart's target of resentment shifted to Randyll Tarly. "I will kill you sooner or later."

Her pitch-black pupils made the Earl of Tarly feel a chill, so he summoned an attendant to properly settle the two strange women.

Regardless of what "Lady Stark" said, Randyll decided to first follow Kevan's orders and lead this Reach Army north to attack until they took Maidenpool and other places.

On the south side of the Mountains of the Moon, the Riverlands Army camp.

The tall and sturdy Hosteen walked proudly into the camp hidden in the dense forest. Behind him, several captives from the Vale were being marched forward by Frey soldiers in chainmail with swords and shields.

"I have captured another important prisoner. This time, His Majesty should finally be able to reward me with a fief."

Upon encountering a Knight of Yalan Cheng, Hosteen said this.

Hugo Vance looked at the captives behind the Frey in surprise.

"By the Seven, I think this prisoner alone is worth a barony."

As the Commander of scouts, he naturally recognized that the important prisoner Hosteen spoke of was none other than Symond Templeton, the master of Nine Star City and the strongest Landed Knight in the Seven Kingdoms.

The two then took Ser Templeton to find their king.

In the great tent, after Arthur finished listening to Hugo Vance's introduction, he hurriedly had Podrick remove the rag from Ser Symond Templeton's mouth so that the old knight could speak.

"My men were rude."

The Riverlands King first expressed his apologies to the old knight, then dismissed Hosteen: "Your fief will be near Stoney Sept. The specific scope will depend on your future battle achievements, but at the very least, your title will be a Viscount. You may leave now."

Hosteen was very satisfied with the King's arrangement; he bowed and left with his head held high.

According to Arthur's previous casual chats with Sansa, he learned that the master of Nine Star City had some kinship with House Stark.

In fact, the youngest son of Earl Roma Royce had married a certain Miss Stark, and the three noble daughters born to them had successively married into the three great Vale families of Waynwood, Corbray, and Templeton, which gave House Stark many distant relatives in the Vale.

Since it was no longer a secret that Sansa was about to marry the Riverlands King, Arthur tried to win over this old knight.

"Ser Symond, I am considered the fiancé of Miss Sansa Stark, so between you and me, we are actually relatives!"

Arthur personally moved a chair over for the old knight and let him sit down to talk.

"No need to drag in other things. I am simply here under orders to contact you to kill Lyn Corbray."

PS: Seeking recommendation votes and monthly tickets.

(End of chapter)