The King of Winters

Chapter-111

Argella

The outriders came on them an hour from the Green Fork, as the wayn was slogging down a muddy road.

"Riders from the Twins, my lady," Ser Trent Wensington warned her as the three spurred toward them; a knight and two mail clad swordsmen, all mounted on fast palfreys. The captain of her guard lifted a hand and her party came to a slow stop behind her.

Argella was at the head of her convoy mounted on her courser dressed in her hardened boiled leathers and her bow and arrows at her back. Beside her Brienne followed and the maid of Tarth wore her armor like Ser Trent and the other male knights in her party, garbed in her cobalt blue armour as rich and deep as her eyes. She had slung her helmet from her saddle to allow the air grace her face. So long as she kept the helm off one could see it was her beneath the armour but with the helmet one could not see the difference between her and any other knight from her party. Argella herself wore boiled leather and oiled mail. This far in the north she didn't expect any battles to be fought though after Springveld she couldn't bring herself to go anywhere unprepared.

The riders split and circled them for a look before they came up close. Argella stayed away from them and waited patiently on their pleasure. The knight bore spear and sword while the swordsmen carried swords and bows of their own. The badges on their jerkins were smaller versions of the sigil sewn on the knight's surcoat; a black pitchfork on a golden bar sinister, upon a russet field. A Haigh, she knew at one and sworn to the Freys of the Crossing.

Argella had thought of getting to the North without encountering the Twins, however the crossing at the Trident and the Kingsroad had been controlled by Aegon Targaryen then when they had started the journey north before her husband reclaimed them. And the only way they had was through to the lands of Lord Walder Frey. And she did not look forward to it.

She might have risked crossing the Green fork rather than going through the castle but the river ran swift and deep here and the crossings that might be accessible in the summer had all but lost now with the autumn rains according to her guides. Argella would have rather swam across if it meant not gazing upon Frey's accusing eyes or the eyes of his daughters but with all her knights and horses behind her that would only cause more trouble than good.

The knight looked at the golden banner that hung heavily from the ebony staff held by one of her guardsmen. "Your grace," the knight said at once he recognised who she was. "You are a sight to sore eyes. We had been hoping to see you here for sometimes ever since Lord Hoster sent word that you were traveling to the North through the Crossing." He paid no attention to any of her party, looking long and hard at Brienne as if she were an Other.

"It is my pleasure to meet you as well, ser...?" Argella looked at the man with curious eyes.

The knight stiffened in his saddle and sat straight. He put his mailed fist over his chest. "Ser Donnel Haigh if it pleases you." The pitchfork knight gave a little awkward bow from atop the saddle. His garron shifted a little and he almost wound face first into the mud from the back of the horse before he fumbled at the reigns to hold onto it. That would have been a sight to see, a pitchfork in the mud. Argella giggled and Ser Donnell's cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"How did you know we were coming by?" Argella asked him. "I didn't send any letter."

"My lady has it right," Donnel said. "I must apologise that we are not your escort. Ser Ryman has command of these lands south of the Green Fork. To keep the Frey lands safe from any foes. We are on our way to the morning patrol."

Argella wondered how much their patrol was worth. She had not forgotten Springveld and the destruction the outlaws had brought over the village. She would want to have a talk with this Ryman Frey. If he was in charge of protecting the lands south of the Green Fork then it would have been his duty to do what was right about Springveld as well.