The King of Winters

Chapter-117

Asha

Every evening, from the western ramparts, Lady Allyria would look down at the army that had her castle surrounded. Everyday Asha would accompany her, for she had nothing else to do within the castle. In truth Asha would have preferred an assault of these idiots. She yearned for a fight, a taste of blood once more before she dies. All this waiting was making her go mad and she was not made for being cooped up within the castle. Though there wasn't anything left to do other than that. She had made her mind and now she was stuck here whether she liked it or not.

Today was no different. They visited the ramparts as they always did, watching the encircling army from the distance and safety of the castle. Sometimes even that wasn't as safe as she had once thought. Nigh a day passed without a few exchange of volleys between the archers on the walls and the ones opposing them. The higher position from the walls and the longer range favoured the defenders well with the archers of Starfall finding their targets more often than not. On some days some stray arrow from outside the castle would wound or kill one of their own.

Asha knew that it wasn't a start for a full frontal assault. Those arrows were just there to remind those inside the castle of their fate. There was no escape and no amounts of volleys of arrows was enough to break the siege. And Asha could see it. It did not matter of course. The Targaryens had them strangled with all the ten fingers. Everything had stopped in and around the castle, and there was nothing left to be seen the leagues beyond them. Just like she had suspected the attackers fell upon the port first, to cut off all the trade and any means of connection within the castle. The soldiers of Lady Allyria who defended the harbour were killed to the last men. Most of the smallfolk had run away and the boldest were captured by the slavers from the east. It was even hazardous for the dogs. She had thought that their ships would be burnt as well but the wise masters of the east had indeed proved to be wise for once. They had them tied up beneath their own colours in the port, all the ships that were taken from Starfall were added to their fleet as well, warships and trading galleys whose captains and crews were killed and replaced as the eastern host of Rhaegar Targaryen laid siege to the castle, as they were now returned to augment the fleets from Tolos, Yaros, and New Ghis.

Every single counsel they had for Lady Allyria proved worse than the one before that as the siege had started to take it's toll as weeks passed. Asha knew that it was the river which saved them from the inevitable so far. The Torrentine ran swift and strong throughout the year, the waters roaring as they battered everything on its path to the sea. She counted no less than ten thousand men, a force large enough to surround even a castle as big as Starfall on its defiat hill. And with such a large force even storming the castle wouldn't take long despite the courage or skill of the defenders. It was the tumbling moat that ran around Starfall that kept them safe. For now. Asha had not failed to see the army of the slavers working hard to build the siege engines and the means to get them across. They had cut down most of the timber from the forests in the surrounding lands.

Ser Garrison told Lady Dayne that much as well. "Outside our walls, the slavers have devoured our crops and slaughtered our herds. Most of the survivors from the villages say that they had all been taken over by the sellswords and free companies. The castle is encircled and we are cut off even from High Hermitage. The sellswords roam the hills of the Red Mountains now, hunting down all those they come upon."

"We can do something can't we?" asked Lady Allyria. "These are our people. We must protect them."

"We can not save all them, my lady," said Ser Walter.

The maester nodded. "Those who can't reach the safety of Starfall would surely go to High Hermitage or Blackmont or Skyreach. They shall be safer there."