Carliene Stark

II Chapter 60

Tyrion

Highgarden rose from the rolling hills, tall and proud and white walled. It could not quite compare to the Rock in grandeur or might, but I was told there was no place quite as luxurious as the home of the roses. Only it wasn't the home of the roses anymore. I shifted in my saddle uncomfortably, my left leg kept going numb and the armour I was wearing was heavy on my shoulders. It had sat amongst my belongings at Casterly Rock for years, and did not fit me as it should have. But if fit better than any other armour that had been made for me halfheartedly before any prior battles I partook in. I felt silly wearing it, more than a mummer than a commander, but I told myself that it made me fit in better with the army I was leading. 

"That's the red of the Lannisters raised above their towers" Lord Steffon Swyft spoke next to me, gesturing to the red fabric beating in the wind. 

"Yes, I see that" I mused as I watched the Unsullied slowly surround the castle. 

Steffon straightened in his saddle. "I was present at the siege of Riverrun" he told me. "How do you imagine we will take a castle of this size in our lifetime?" he pondered. "It is said they have enough rprovisions to last them a year. Do we have that kind of time?" 

I had to grin in slight amusement, looking over at him and then at Greyworm on my other side. "It is about time you met our queen. I think. It will do your imagination for warfare some good" before the Lord could press me on further siege tactics I turned to the leader of the Unsullied. "Have your men surrounded the castle?"

The eunuch gave a sullen nod. "No one enters. No one leaves"

"Well then" I gave a small sigh. "Then it is about time I had a talk with my cousin" I pulled at the reigns, clumsily urging the horse onwards. Ser Steffon and Greyworm followed behind me as we rode along the lines of soldiers, standing like statues with their round shields and spears, no emotions on their faces. They were most efficient in what they did and I was sure Westeros had never seen a more skilful or well-behaved army. And yet, they were awfully dull company. Foreign to any kinds of jests or jokes or hypothetical conversation. If our characters were rivers, theirs were man-made channels, straight as a spear and easy to travel. Mine I fancied more intriguing, a winding stretch of water, bending around boulders and forests, deep and narrow at some points and shallow and wide at others. There would be fish of every colour living within it and at sundown the whole surface would burn red like fire.

I stopped my analogy, when I noticed Lord Tyrell awaiting my arrival on his magnificent pale destrier. I gave him a polite greeting when we reached him and he fell in beside me. He looked concerned, as I imagined he would be, seeing as this was the first military confrontation he was a part in.

"Might you know of any secret passages or entrances to the castle" I demanded, thinking back to how we had easily taken the Rock only weeks before. "They might make this so much easier" I doubted that I would have the same luck twice, but there was almost hope. 

The young lord gave a sigh. "None that I know of unfortunately" he admitted. "Highgarden is more straightforward than the Rock, I suppose" he concluded. I had only known him for a day or two, ever since he and his handful of men, that managed to escape the castle, came upon our host. But I had grown to find him quite pleasant. Much more pleasant than anyone else from his house that I had the pleasure of meeting up until now. He was less ambitious than his sister, less overdone than his brother, less foolish than his father and less entitled than his grandmother. And all in all that made for a great character. Also he was one of the few people I had the pleasure of meeting in my life that did not make me feel like a dwarf, as strange as that may sound. I supposed it had something to do with his own affliction, but I made a point not to judge him on it either.