The King of Winters

Chapter - 77

TYRION

Dawn was breaking, and pale ripples of sunlight shimmered on the steel tips of a thousand spears like stars in the night sky, shattering when the cloud covered the sun and reforming when the sun joined with the spear. The two thousand Dornish spears who had come from Prince Doran Martell were taking their journey north by the Kingsroad to join prince Aegon Targaryen in the Riverlands.

Three thousand men had come down from the Prince's Pass under the command of Ser Ulwyck Uller to protect the realm against the King in the North and his band of traitors. A thousand of them had stayed back in King's Landing under the command of Prince Oberyn Martell to see to the defense of the capital city of the Seven Kingdoms while the other two thousand left to support Prince Aegon on the battlefield. Tyrion Lannister had accompanied Prince Oberyn Martell to the Mud Gate to send the Dornishmen off to war against the Wolf.

King's Landing is getting devoid of Targaryen power, Tyrion could see. Rhaegar was sending his close friends and allies out away from him, trying desperately to stop the onslaught of the Born King on his realm. The Hand of the King Jon Connigton was had left to the east hoping the get the assistance of his grace's powerful friends from Essos and the Free Cities. Rhaegar's own family was scattered all around King's Landing to deal with Stark and his allies. His eldest son is in Riverlands, trying to push out and lessen the grasp of the rebel faction. His sister, the Princess Daenerys is said to be flying between the Stormlands and the Reach, trying to deal with both Robert Baratheon and the Hightowers all at once. As powerful and fast as a dragon might be, even the majestic creature could not be at two places at once. His youngest son was at the Wall and his brother dead. Things weren't looking so well for the dragons, he could see.

He could understand his father's siding to the rebel faction better now. Lord Tywin never believed in half measures and as such a losing faction was never an option for the Lord of Casterly Rock.

What Tyrion could not understand however was the fact that why his father had chosen him to go to the court. Lord Tywin had always taken a great care to hide his shame, his dwarf son away from the eyes of the court. He had been confused as to why his father might have changed that bearing just for this task alone. He thought that he knew the answer now. No doubt his father must have thought that he would never survive King's Landing by the time this all ends. Small wonder why his father was so ready to send him to King's Landing to attend the crown prince's marriage in his own stead. After all losing Tyrion was not going to hurt or harm his father in any way. Lord Tywin would be more than happy to see him dead.

Prince Oberyn gave certain instructions to the army of the dornishmen under Ser Ulwyck before they left to join Prince Aegon. Word had come from Stormlands that Robert Baratheon had destroyed the reach army under the command of Randyll Tarly and was now moving north to join up with the rebels in Riverrun. The orders given to the dornishmen were straight and simple. They were send to counter the involvement of the stormlords and harass the army all the way.

"Whatever you do, don't try and fight a battle," Oberyn Martell told Ser Ulwyck. "Strike at their camps and baggage train. Ambush their scouts and hang the bodies from trees ahead of their line of march, loop around and cut down stragglers. I want night attacks, so many and so sudden that they'll be afraid to make camp and sleep. Free whatever prisoners you could find. Some of the Reach lords are held as captive in the warcamp."

Ser Ulwyck Uller nodded stiffly, his hand on the hilt of his sword. "All that you said will be done, my prince. We will make sure that they know of our presence."