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Chapter 38: mobilising


TRYSTANE

“Stanis is likely to go up the East coast to White Harbor and Eastwatch-by-the-Sea,” observed my father.

“So we should go up the West and join up with the Ironborn forces,” added Arya. “Besides, I want to make sure Bear Island is all right.”

I can’t believe my wife is dragging me onto a ship again!


JON

“No! No! It can’t be true!” moaned the King. “The Other’s are just fairy stories told to scare small children into behaving!”

“You saw the wight, your grace,” I replied. “If there can be one wight, then there can be more of them.”

“It’s just so unbelievable!” whined the King.

“Tell me, has my father ever lied to you before, your grace?” I asked. “Would he ever lie about something this important?”

“Lord Stark has spent a lifetime cultivating a reputation for honor and forthrightness, your grace,” added Varys. “If the honorable Lord Stark says the Others are attacking The Wall, you can be certain of the truth of that, even if we didn’t have corroborating testimony from another source.”

The King put his head in his hands for a moment before looking up at me.

“Fuck it! Let’s go bash some Wight Walkers!” said the King. “Pycell, send out the Ravens. I’m calling the Banners!”

“Yes, your Grace,” answered Grand Maester Pycel.

“Jon, you did such a bang up job against the Wildlings, I think I’ll make you my chief general. You can run the whole war for me. Just send me where I can do the most good with my war hammer,” commanded the King.

“Thank you, your grace,” I replied before getting to work. “I recommend sending Renly back to Storms End to rally the Storm Lords. Stanis can then, bring them by Ship to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. Also of the Wildlings in the Stepstones have offered to come back and help us fight them when the time came. Stanis can transport them too. The Ironborn can transport the Westlanders up the West coast to Deepwood Motte. You and I should take the Crownlands’ forces up the King’s Road. We won’t need to Forage. I’ve arranged for Grain silos to be placed along the King’s Road. So that should help us travel faster. The Blackfish can meet us with the Vale knights at the Ruby Ford. We’ll go through the Riverlands and on to Winterfell first, then decide where to send forces when we know more about the situation. We shouldn’t wait on the Reach. They can catch up with us when they can. Same with Dorne.”

“Good plan! See that’s done!” commanded the King.



MARGAERY

“But I’m afraid it won’t be safe for you!” protested Bran.

“Look! It won’t be me,” I explained. “I’ll just be in a plant duplicate body. If it gets too rough, I’ll use the birth blossom to come back here, where I will be safe. But I don’t want you to face the zombies without me!”

“Should we wait for the King, or go on without him?” asked Bran.

“I think you should go as soon as you have your bannermen together,” I suggested. “You don’t even need to have them all in one place. You could have the Lords from the western Riverlands meet you at the Twins and the Lords from the eastern Riverlands meet you at Moat Cailin.”

“And you?” asked Bran.

“As soon as you leave here, I’ll use the birth blossoms to take me to Winterfell,” I replied. “I’ll already be waiting for you when you arrive.”


EDRIC

“But why can’t I go!?!” shouted Sansa. “I’m a fully qualified witch! You said so yourself! You need my wand to help you against them!”

“But what about the baby!” I protested. “You’re going to be a mother! You need to stay here and keep our child safe!”

I stepped closer and put my hand on her belly.

“I want our family to be safe,” I explained. “I want YOU to be safe. Besides, those who stay behind will need Lady Peverel to run the Twins.”

“I’m just afraid once you’re out in the war, you’ll fuck that Osha slut and make a bastard like my father did when he was newly wed,” admitted Sansa.

“There is nothing between Osha and me,” I soothed. “I made her captain of the guards based on merit, nothing else.”

“Well, if you’re not going to take me, do you at least want to take Mycella or Rosalyn with you to keep you warm at night?” asked Sansa.

“What are you talking about?” I protested. “I would never let another woman into my bed without you!”

“Well Margaery told me that you’d want my Ladies-in-Waiting to be your mistresses,” explained Sansa. “That why I picked them, instead of my friend, Beth. I knew Beth won’t want to share her self with my husband and have his bastards. In fact, I’m surprised you haven’t been with either of them already! Why haven’t you?”

“Sansa,” I said, as I took both her hands in mine. “Bran and Margaery have a wild marriage. This in mostly because Maegaery is such a wild woman. But you don’t have to be like her. You can be Lady Sansa Peverel, the woman I married, the woman I love, the mother of our child. I’m not interested in having a mistress. Having you is all the woman I need.”

“Oh Edric!” she cried, as she put her arms around me and pulled me into a kiss.

I’m glad I’m not as short as I was in my last life! I’d hate to make her bend over in her condition, just so she could kiss me.


TORMUND

It had been snowing for three days. It was only light flurries. Most of my people didn’t even notice it. And those that did, thought it reminded them of home. But I knew that snow was wrong in a place like this. This wasn’t a normal winter flurry. This was them! And so I began mobilizing the men and spear-wives who were willing to go back and help defend The Wall. I’d brought a good number over to this island by the time Stanis and his fleet showed. I greeted him at the dock when he came down the gangplank from his ship.

“I’m time,” said Stanis. “They’re attacking The Wall.”

“I thought that might be the case,” I replied. “Are the kneelers going to be joining us?”

“No, they were caught with their pants down!” snarled Stanis. “I told them! Seven hells I told them! But no one would listen to me! Except maybe that jumped up bastard Robbert made into his Hand. From the things my man Davos says, I think that Stark boy was getting prepared all along and just not telling Robbert what he was doing to his face. Lousy Stark!”

“Robert’s got a Stark working for him?” I asked. “Then there might be hope after all! I can’t imagine a Stark not taking the threat seriously. It must be like you said: he was getting ready while pretending he was not.”

“Well he did make me send half the dragon glass up North,” admitted Stanis. “That reminds me. We have a better weapon than fire against them. It turns out that weapons made from dragon glass kills wights. I have enough daggers, spears and arrows to equip all your people.”

“Then, let’s get them loaded!” I said.


JOFFREY

At first, the wights were coming over The Wall every few minutes. We had an anchor thing to keep Wildlings from climbing The Wall, and we used it on them. The anchor on a chain was supposed to swing down, scraping along The Wall to knock climbers off. But we couldn’t tell if it was doing any good. It was always as dark as night with a blizard cutting visibilty down to 20 feet. For all we knew the wights that fell climbing The Wall, could just get back up and try again. It’s not like they were in any danger of dying from a fall.

But after a few weeks, the wights dwindled to one an hour, then one a day. But that wight might come at any time, and it might be more than one, so we had to keep a constant guard on top of The Wall. And guarding the top in a blizzard, was twice as exhausting as it otherwise would be. It was wearing us out!


SAM

When my good friend, Jon Stark, asked me if the minute men could be used to keep order in the city, I had not expected that he would call upon our assistance so soon. It was fortuitous that I had created a force ready to step into that role as when Jon and the King had left, they had taken every man trained to fight in knightly fashion with them. The Gold Cloaks, the Crownland and Baratheon knights, even the usual guards of the Red Keep were removed as Jon had replaced them with a small portion of his own personal troops in order to assure the safety of his betrothed. In the power vacuum created by removing so many essential personages, the Small Council was left to rule the City, led by a certain Ser Davos, who was a native of Fleabottom and a brother freemason. And I had found myself thrust into the position of acting Master of Laws, as my Minute Men became the enforcers of the Law in this city. Since in the past, the law had always consisted of what ever the local lord’s latest whim was, I set myself to the task of writing a set of standardized laws that the criers could announce throughout the city, so that the people would know what was, and was not permissible. I even wrote a Bill of Rights, of sorts, so that the new enforcers of the law would know the limits of their own power.


MARGAERY

Once all the Riverland Lords from South of us had assembled outside Riverrun, Bran and I said our goodbyes and he departed for the Twins. I stood on the walls of the castles and watched him go until he was no longer in sight. After assuring myself that the drawbridge was up and the gates were closed, I proceeded to the Gods’ Wood. The snow was contiuing to fall and was already knee deep. I waded through it to the gardening shed. It took some doing to get the door open, the snow was blocking it and I had to scrape it out of the way! After I wrenched it open enough I was able to reach my hand in there and pull out the long handled shovel, which I used to shovel the snow out of the way so I could open the door completely. I leaned the shovel against the side of the shed. I didn’t want to have to go through this again. Then I starting taking off all my clothes and hanging in the shed. It’s a lot colder than I realized. Especially when I had to nakedly wade through knee deep snow to get to where I need to be! God! It’s cold! When I finally made it to the birth blossom and raised my arms, it seemed like it too forever for the flower to bend down and take me in. Was the cold making it move slower? Once I was in the warm embrace of the flower, I curled up into a fetal position and let my body go to sleep.

I woke up in my plant duplicate in Winterfell, still inside the birth blossom. I straightened my arms and legs, which made the birth blossom bend over, so I could slide out of the flower, into hip deep snow!

“Jesus H. Christ on a stick! That’s cold!” I cursed, as I could feel the cold hitting me. My top half was actually colder than the bottom because the snow was much warmer than the air! I could see that someone had shoveled a path from the entrance of the Gods’ Wood to the Heart Tree and more importantly, the hot springs! I fought my way through the snow until I go to the path. I had planned to run for the castle, but by the time I’d made it to the path, I feared I would get frostbite. So instead, I ran for the hot spring and jumped in. The sudden change of the hot water really hurt! But I stayed in the water with only my head sticking out while I warmed myself back up. It felt good to relax in the hot water as I watched the dense flurry of snowflakes gently drift down in the windless air. Winterfell seemed quieter than the other times I had been here. At first the snowflakes would melt when they hit my head, but then they started to accumulate if I didn’t brush them off. When I decided I had recovered enough, it was time to get out and make a run for it. The cold air on my wet body felt even worse than before I got in! I ran out of Gods‘ Wood. The central courtyard had been shoveled, but the snow was starting to accumulate again. The cold was making it harder to run. I was starting to stumble when I passed the stables. Willis was standing outside them. He took one look at me and yelled:

“Cat!” before he picked me up bridal style and yelled: “Brian! run ahead of me and open the door!”

His son came shooting out of the stables and ran ahead of us to open the doors as the stablemaster, Willis carried me into the Great Hall. Most of the people in Winterfell were here, seated at the tables for their noon meal. On the dais at the High table sat my in-laws, the Starks: Lord Ned, Robb, Dacy, Rickon and Edmina Snow. Cat was there too, bringing out another plate of rolls for the table. She was as leaf brown as I was.

“Mother?” asked Rickon as Edmina squeeled out: “Mama!” at the same time.

“No. I’m not your mother,” I said, as Willis set me by one of the large fireplaces where there was a big roaring fire.

I shifted my colours to a more normal human colouring.

“I’m your Aunt Margaery,” I explained, as I tried to warm myself and everyone in the entire Great Hall stared at my nakedness. “Could someone bring me a towel so I can dry off? Some clothes would be nice too!”

“I’ll get it!” offered Cat, as she raced from the room.

“Your appearance was unexpected,” said Ned. “What brings you here today?”

“Bran is on his way with the Riverland army to help you fight the Wight Walkers,” I explained, as I stood there with my back to the fire and my hands behind my back desperately trying to warm my hands and butt from the cold. “I came ahead to help with the fight. But I didn’t realise it would be this cold!”

People continued to stare at me. But I didn’t care. This wasn’t that weirdness that happens in my first trimester of pregnancy. I’m usually not very modest, normally. And right now, cared a lot less about who saw my parts than I did about warming them.

Cat ran in with a bundle of linens.

“Thanks!” I said, as I grabbed the towel off the top and started drying my self off.

She held up the dress and tried to block me from the view of others. But I just ignored her as I dried off my hair, then worked my way down drying myself throughly before wrapping it around my hair, again. I then took my time, tying the small clothes on before I let Cat help me into the dress. The towel fell off in the attempt and I wrapped it around my damp hair again as a kind of turban. Cat then rushed to set me a place at the high table and I went up there to join the Starks. Everyone was still staring at me.

“I’d heard rumors that you display yourself like this at Riverrun, but I hadn’t believed they were true until now,” said Robb.

“Oh, this wasn’t on purpose,” I explained. “This was accidental. I’d asked Sansa to keep a dress for me in the gardening shed, but the snow was too deep in the Gods‘ Wood for me to even attempt to dig it out.”

“I’ll have a man dig it out and clear you a path to it after dinner,” pronounced Ned.