A Tale of Stags and Lions - Mine is the Fury (Game of Thrones)

Chapter Eight - Loyalty

Fanart: By Zephyrhant on Deviantart

Word Count: 4305

Inn at the Crossroads – 298AC

"Prince Lyonel" The men greeted as Lyonel entered the common room of the Inn at the Crossroads.

It was all urgent. His grandfather, granduncle and Uncle Tyrion were all there accompanied by Ser Addam, Ser Harys Swyft, the Mountain and other great fighters.

He sat down next to Tyrion "My Lords"

"How is your eye?" Tywin asked snapping around to him.

Lyonel touched his scar on instinct. It ran from about the middle of his forehead down his eyebrow through the left side of his eyelid, stopping half way down his cheek. He was conscious of it, it was stitched very well, him being a Prince and all, he got the best nurses and maesters working on it. He was worried his eyelid would look weird or droopy but it turned out looking okay.

"It's healing well Grandfather, thank you" he replied.

"Robb Stark took your Uncle Jaime hostage"

For once, Tywin looked truly upset.

"So I've heard" the Prince comforted "But they won't harm him, Joffrey still has his sisters"

He tried not to wince when thinking of Ned. The news of his execution reached camp soon after the battle, Joffrey was merciless. Lyonel couldn't believe what idiots him family produced. Jaime let his arrogance get him captured and Joffrey let his cruelty start an all out war. He thought Lannisters were suppose to be intelligent. A bitter thought of 'like father, like son' passed through his mind before he could push it away.

He felt a certain pain knowing Ned was killed. He thought of the fact he was a good man and that he stood up for his right to the throne. He thought of the misery he felt when his father died and about how Sansa and Arya must feel right now.

"How could this happen?" Ser Harys Swyft exclaimed "How? Even after the Whispering Wood, you had Riverrun ringed in iron, surrounded by a great host" he paused "What madness made Ser Jaime decide to split his men into three separate camps? Surely he knew how vulnerable that would leave them?"

"I would have done the same" Kevan responded calmly "You have never seen Riverrun, Ser Harys, or you would know that Jaime had little choice in the matter. The castle is situated at the end of the point of land where the Tumblestone flows into the Red Fork of the Trident. The rivers form two sides of a triangle, and when danger threatens, the Tullys open their sluice gates upstream to create a wide moat on the third side, turning Riverrun into an island. The walls rise sheer from the water, and from their towers the defenders have a commanding view of the opposite shores for many leagues around. To cut off all the approaches, a besieger needs to place one camp north of the Tumblestone, one south of the Red Fork, and a third between the rivers, west of the moat. There is no other way, none"

Lyonel thought how smart Riverrun was built to come up with such a system. Only a large army could truly siege them.

Kevan turned to a soldier that must have come from Jaime's side "You said they came at night?"

The man nodded "The Blackfish led the van, cutting down our sentries and clearing away the palisades for the main assault. By the time our men knew what was happening, riders were pouring over the ditch banks and galloping through the camp with swords and torches in hand. I was sleeping in the west camp, between the rivers. When we heard the fighting and saw the tents being fired, Lord Brax led us to the rafts and we tried to pole across, but the current pushed us downstream and the Tullys started flinging rocks at us with the catapults on their walls. I saw one raft smashed to kindling and three others overturned, men swept into the river and drowned, and those who did make it across found the Starks waiting for them on the riverbanks"