iii

Moreover, on that flank his archers seemed to be slowly winning the arrow duel. The other side showed the exact opposite, and the archers of House Vance had now split their attention, hitting his infantry as they tried to cross the ford. He could see dozen of his men dying from those arrows already, their chainmail and even plate no match for the arrows of their enemies at this close range.

The messenger raced off and moments later, the battle slowly shifted away from the right flank of the defenders line. Within moments of that, the song began.

Through his spyglass Tywin saw it happen. House Vypren controlled a portion of the line on the right flank, not the outermost portion which was given over to house Blanetree and Deddings, but the next bit, with Lolliston and Vance of Atranta holding the center and Shawney holding the left. It was the Shawney who were disorganized by the retreat of the light cavalry, and their line was already bending, forcing the small defenders reserve to reinforce them.

Over the noise of his army the song of his signal men reached across the Red Fork. The men under the Vypren banner, a black toad on a white lily pad backed by a green shield, turned to their right and began to assault the men of House Lolliston from the side. It worked even better than Tywin had expected, as he saw the banner of House Lolliston fall. He could make out one man falling from his horse who looked to have better armor than his fellows. Later on he would confirm that Lord Lolliston and his guard had all died under that sudden assault, the Vyprens proving to be vipers in truth.

With his infantry engaged with the rest of the defender's line holding them in place that left the heavy cavalry to exploit that breach. Without even being ordered to, they did so barreling into the suddenly disorganized House Lolliston line breaking it into pieces. As Tywin watched the men of house Loughton began to retreat in disarray, causing the breach to open even wider. "Order the infantry reserves in after the heavy cavalry. They are to exploit the breach, turn to the left as they get across, sweep the line and make certain that the Vance boys are either killed or captured."

Tywin did not want any of the House Vance troops to escape. They had proven far too capable in hit-and-run attacks up to this point, he did not want to have to deal with that again.

At the front of the line of heavy cavalry Daven laughed as he splashed across the Ford and into the disorganized Lolliston lines. His lance impacted one man as he spurred his horse over the defensive line of earthworks then pulled out his sword, cutting down one man then another as his horse galloped on through the infantry lines. The men whose spears might have been able to hold his cavalry at bay had turned aside to fight Vypren's men, and so were now easy meat for his horsemen. Behind him the rest of the heavy cavalry slammed into the already disorganized defenders routing them and moving on to circle back for another pass through.

Daven shouted orders to those around him, keeping a firm grip on his men while he turned looking for an appropriate target. He saw House Blanetree and House Deddings pulling back already, unwilling to stay and fight now that their initial infantry line had been broken by treachery. "Rally to me!" he bellowed, then pointed forward at the retreating Deddings. "After them lads!"

The Deddings were a small but relatively rich family, their holding like that of House Vance or Atranta actually on the other side of the red Fork. They had never been a powerful house, always hovering on the edge of noble and lordly status, but that balance was broken now as Daven led his men after them.

Lord Deddings turned, and saw the heavy cavalry racing down on his man. He tried to form up his infantry, tried to get a semblance of a spear line ready to receive them, but failed to do so in time, and the horse of the heavy cavalry rode his men down. Several horsemen were skewered from the saddle despite this, but the infantry's lack of a true line allowed the shock of the heavy cavalry hitting them to do its work. Deddings himself, his sons and two knights sworn to his family, realizing the battle was lost, spurred their own horses away. That was the final straw for his men, and they broke utterly.

Seeing the lord getting away, Daven rounded up two of his men and went after them, letting the destruction of Deddings's infantry to the other knights. Within moments he had caught up to the fleeing lord. Daven personally dueled with him for several moments, before an overhand blow shattered the other man's shield before cutting deep through his helmet, slicing into his head with a sound like a melon shattering. Over the next few hours Daven crushed house Deddings into the dirt, utterly breaking that house killing its Lord and both his sons, before harrying Blanetree, killing many of that houses' men over the course of the day, but failing to get Ser Blanetree himself.

Still staring through his viewing glass Tywin smiled grimly. "Push the light cavalry across. Their lines are broken, harry them into the ground."

House Lolliston's men stood and fought where they were grimly, but without their lord and with their flank open they were slowly ground under. House Vance and House Shawney fought similarly, with House Shawney's men regaining coordination then slowly falling back but under good order now. That screw up had been because the heir of House Lolliston sent out with the light cavalry to run the archer probe down had tried to give orders to his line when they retreated, but now he and his men were following Lord Shawney's command as well.

Lord Stephen Shawney was an able commander, having fought against the Ironborn numerous times during the rebellion and even spent a year in Essos as a mercenary before being forced to return when his father died of old age to take up the Lordship. He knew when a battle was lost, and began to slowly pull his men back from the defensive line.

House Vance of Atranta had played the game of war magnificently up to this point, but this one mistake, coming out into the open, doomed them. With their lines broken the three sons of house Vance who were present each had a different idea of what to do, and as a consequence their men were stuck where they were.

That proved deadly, and as Lord Shawney began to fall back to the west deeper into their territory between the Blue Fork and Red Fork, House Vance's men were slowly being left behind. Without a central commander who knew what they were doing, they were quickly circled, more and more infantry coming up on every side and piling in forcing them away from prepared defenses and cutting them down.

Ronald 'the Bad' Vance, the oldest brother tried to break through with a force of hoarded heavy cavalry, but by that point there were too many of the infantry surrounding his position, and he couldn't get up enough momentum to break through. For any cavalry force momentum was everything, if a heavy cavalry man was pinned in place, he lost his greatest advantage, and that happened now. Ronald fell, pulled down by the infantry of House Lannister and slain. Yet his assault had given his two brothers, Hugo and Ellery, the chance to get away themselves with a small band of cavalry. They retreated from the battlefield, only to be caught the next day by Lord Marbrand and his House's light cavalry. Fighting to the death, they took an equal number of men down with them, but still fell.

In total, House Vance had lost almost all of the strength it had sent to war in this attempt to hold back the Lannister forces, having broken from their winning strategy and paying for it with almost total annihilation. If that would have been the case if House Vypren had not turned its coat would be debated years later by maesters who studied the War of Reformation, as this war came to be called. Reality however could not be changed, and the reality was that Tywin Lannister had won the day.

OOOOOOO

The next day dawned with Lord Tywin in full possession of the Kneeling Man's Ford, but his losses had been heavier than he had hoped. Several thousand men now lay dead, especially among his archers and infantry. The Riverlands archers had taken a truly deadly toll among his own, killing two for every one of them that went down, and until House Vypren had turned coat, the infantry line had held against his own men, their higher position and wider line allowing them to wreak a deadly toll when combined with his inability to bring his full numbers to play before their lines were broken, not having the room to spread out in the Ford.

Staring at the blood-soaked battlefield Tywin sighed shaking his head. "We lost."

"Sir?" said Ser Tybolt Heatherspoon, head of a house of landed knights sworn to the Lannisters. He was looking at his lord now in shock. "We won the battle."

"But lost the initiative you young idiot." Tywin said shaking his head. "It'll take days for our cavalry to regroup, either light or heavy." Tywin wasn't worried about them overreaching or riding into anything they couldn't handle, he had faith in his commanders, nor was he prepared to call them back. He wanted those Houses harried as much is possible, though Shawney had retreated too intact for that to occur to them, especially with his heavy cavalry already chasing down Blanetree.

He could've used them to break up the Shawney line, but he had mistakenly put them all under the command of Daven, who had gone after the first groups to break off rather than remaining engaged to hopefully be used against a better target. It had been an excellent tactical move, but showed his inexperience when dealing with a larger battle.

Tywin turned aside from the view of the ford to stare at Lord Vypren. The lord was a thin, sallow faced man who moved in fits and starts, but was reputed to be very quick, with a snake's reflexes. "You played your role well." Tywin said sparing the man a nod. "Fairmarket will be yours, once we take it. That will happen well in the future however."

Lord Vypren nodded his head. "I am of course at your service Lord Lannister. Never let it be said that we are traitors to the crown, after all."

"Of course." Tywin said smiling thinly.

Over the next few two weeks the news of his victory at the ford spread, bringing several new houses to his banner. House Whent, house Wode, House Darry, all houses on the southern side of the Red Fork sent messengers to him, stating that they would bend the knee to the King. He ordered them to muster their men, and to besiege Raventree Hall.

With the uttered decimation of house Vance's forces and the death of three of its sons, House Blackwood remained the only powerful house on the southern side of the Red Fork with its forces intact that had not yet bent the knee. Their men were still hitting his supply line, but if he put their Castle under siege, it would force those men back home to defend it. Obviously of course such a move would take time, and news of those houses marching towards Raventree Hall would spread, giving Tywin the desired result.

At those orders Lord Bracken smiled his eyes lighting up with eagerness. Tywin looked at the man then nodded. "You may pull your forces back as well Lord Bracken. Leave enough men to continue to guard the supply lines from your castle up to our current position, but other than that go and claim your prize."

With that seen to, and news of Daven returning, Tywin dismissed Lord Bracken and the others to wait for his nephew alone in his command tent. He stared down at the map, estimating distances, travel times and other things. When he heard the flaps of his tent open and closed he said without turning around "I trust you have good news for me Daven?"

"Some good and some bad my Lord." Daven replied, moving in front of Tywin before taking a knee.

"Get up." Tywin scoffed, shaking his head. "What news?"

"My forces and I were able to harry House Deddings forces into the ground, if more than two or three of those men survived it would be a minor miracle. It will not include the Lord himself, or any member of his family that was here at the battle."

"Good." Tywin said nodding his head sharply. With Deddings out of the way that was one less family that could fight him on the southern side of the Red Fork. Their keep too would be a source of remuneration for his troops as well as supplies. "And what was the rest of the news?"

His nephew grimaced, tugging at his now unkempt goatee. "We were able to cut down at least half, maybe more than two thirds of the men wearing house Blanetree colors, that's what took us so long. But the rest of them reached the Ruby Ford, and I have to say that we made the right decision to cross here."

"That sounds ominous." Tywin said and though his words were lighthearted his gaze pinning Daven in place was not.

"I have no idea who is in charge over there my Lord, but those defenses made the ones here look like nothing. Ditches have been shoveled out of the earth on the other side of the Ruby Fork, with a full palisade thrown up after them, large ones, at least a man's height in places, and at worst coming up here on a normal man." Daven said gesturing at his waist. "Even worse, I think I saw some small catapults set up well behind the defense line. I lost over a dozen men trying to follow Ser Blanetree's men to archers, they looked like pincushions!"

Tywin grit his teeth shaking his head. He had hoped that the houses on the other side of the Green Fork would at least have taken a wait-and-see attitude, but if they had prepared that good a defense of the Ruby ford…

"We truly have lost the initiative." he said shaking his head.

"With respect uncle, I think we lost it the moment the Houses here joined together."

Tywin nodded. "I underestimated their loyalty to House Tully, or perhaps their hatred of us."

"The rumors that Lord Stannis has spread seem to have been the tipping point, uncle…"Daven said hesitantly, licking suddenly dry lips. "We took a few prisoners, and all of them were saying that no true man would, would bend the knee to a King who's…"

"Enough!" Tywin barked making his nephew shut up. "There is no way my daughter and son would have acted in such a manner, it is simply propaganda, well-chosen by Stannis I'll admit, but propaganda all the same." And Tywin was certain of that. Surely his catching them when they were young would have been enough to scare the two idiots. Whether or not that meant that the three royal children were illegitimate he did not know, nor care, really.

Tywin went on in a much calmer tone. "I've already sent word to my brother to push the second echelon through the Golden Tooth to us here. I don't know where Stannis is or what he's doing, but perhaps our being here rather than further north might prove advantageous to us."

Left unsaid was the fact that his losses among his infantry forces and most particularly his archers meant that taking the remaining castles even the few between here and Fairmarket would be too costly. They would bleed his army dry, leaving no men left to take Fairmarket, especially since by that point he had no doubt the reinforcements from House Mallister would've arrived.

"Should we retreat to King's Landing milord?"

"No." Tywin replied shaking his head. "We might've lost the initiative for now, but I refuse to allow us to be pushed entirely on the defensive like that. King's Landing will be reinforced by Lord Serret and the force I ordered sent there already. No, we'll wait here for the second echelon, then either march north in force through Fairmarket to the Twins or against Renly or Stannis. For now, the Riverlanders showed us what we need to do. We'll fortify the ford here then fortify Harrenhall as well before taking Darry and Harrowway. That will force the Riverlanders and the Northerners to fight us in set, defensive battles where we can bleed them while husbanding our own forces."

Plus this will give me time to discover what Stannis is doing, and get an idea of how Renly is acting as a general. Perhaps it will turn out to be a good thing I was forced to remain here rather than moving further north…Tywin thought to himself grimly.

"I don't like it uncle, if you don't mind me saying. We're facing too many enemies. I would recommend we retreat entirely if we hadn't already brought several houses of the Riverlands to our side. As it is, perhaps we should… figure out ways to let them take the positions of most glory in any battle?"

"That is a good idea, and I know we are facing too many foes at present." Tywin said, being more open with his family member than he normally was, but willing to for this one moment. "But I don't think the North will arrive as quickly as the Riverlanders propaganda said they would. In fact I can guarantee it." Tywin finished, smiling grimly.

Directly after the battle he had sent a raven forward to the Twins containing a very simple message. 'Hold them, harry them. You wanted to be Lord Paramount, earn it, or else.'

OOOOOOO

Tugging at his close cropped salt-and-pepper beard Lord Blackwood stared out from one of the towers set into the walls of Raventree Hall at the army encamped outside his walls. "I think they brought enough men to the party don't you?" he said looking at his second-in-command, his firstborn son Brynden.

Both men had been leading separate groups or armsmen attacking Lannister supplies in Bracken land. That hated house had taken over the duty of supplying the Lannister army almost in its entirety.

Like his father Brynden was a tall man, thin of shoulders but quick of limb, and the same long hooked nose of their family. His eyes were also dark, and his hair long down to his shoulders like his father. In response to his father's comment he laughed though there was no humor in the sound. "For my part father, I would rather it was all Bracken men out there."

"Hah!" laughed the older man, shaking his head. "The Bracken's alone could never take Raventree Hall, not by siege and they know it." The castle of House Blackwood was old, but it had been renovated several times unlike many others in the Riverlands. It had stone walls five stories tall, with powerful towers at each corner and two more even larger guard towers over the only gate in the wall. It also had a moat around it.

"True," said his other son Lucas scratching at the beard he was trying and, his father had to be honest failing, to grow. For all that he was in his 20s the young man simply couldn't grow any hair on his face, much like his younger brothers. "But at the same time, I can't believe so many Houses went over to the Lannisters. I knew the Bracken's would jump at the chance to eliminate us, but the others?"

Tytos frowned, nodding his head at that. "Fear, ambition and the vagaries of battle have done for much of that my son. It would not surprise me to learn that many of those houses would back whoever seems strongest at the time." His contempt for that idea was plain to see and both of his sons nodded grimly though that didn't change the situation.

Outside their wall was an army, of around eight thousand or so, though only a bare two thousand were flying the Lannister flag. The rest were all made up of other Riverlands Houses, the Whents, Wodes, Lychesters, Darrys and of course Brackens.

"It's a shrewd move by the old gold shitting bastard." Tytos went on, shaking his head. "I don't think he really believes they'll be able to take us, not by assault at any rate, but they pen us in place, forced us to pull our strength back to defend Raventree Hall rather than raid his supply lines."

Indeed, Tytos and Lucas had both been leading such raids when news of the defeat at the Toad's Treason had reached them. They had immediately begun to pull their various raiding parties back but arrived back barely ahead of the first group of reavers to reach their lands.

Luckily, Lord Hoster's initial message to his lords had enabled Blackwood to begin to draw in supplies from his lands, as well as order his smallfolk to prepare to abandon their properties and pull back to his keep at a moment's notice. This added to the number of mouths they had to feed of course, but it also added to the force he could put on the wall, so much so he actually had more men in his walls then the besiegers, though not nearly as many were trained armsmen.

And he thought grimly to himself, that'll force that army out there to bring in its own provisions. No army can really despoil the land as well as the smallfolk who own it, they'll learn that to their cost in the coming days. I wonder how long Bracken can continue to supply both the Lannister force and this army at the same time.

Brynden nodded, unconsciously echoing his father's thoughts. "We've got plenty of provisions, plenty of manpower, and our own well. We could hold out for years here, tying up that force out there easily."

"We won't have to hold out for years." Lucas said grimly. "One way or the other."

Tytos looked at his sons smiling thinly, a smile they both returned. Three days before the battle at the crossing had occurred news had flown out from Riverrun on Raven's wings. The North was on the march, and the man who had killed the Mountain That Rode was leading them to the defense of his grandfather and his country.

"We can hold." said Tytos grimly loosening his sword and his scabbard. "We can hold until the wolves come to relieve us. And then." he said grimly looking over at his sons " Then we ravens feed on Bracken blood once more."

"Pity it can't be the Bloody Mummers." Lucas growled, his eyes flashing with anger. "What they did to House Smallwood still needs to be paid for, whatever rumor says Tywin did to the Goat."

Brynden scoffed, pushing his brother's shoulder playfully. "You'd only prefer that because you're enamored of Lady Carellen." The Smallwood ladies had escaped with the aid of a few loyal knights sworn to their house during the surprise assault that took Acorn Hall. Lord Theomar hadn't been so lucky, and had died when Vargo Hoat set fire to his keep. "Or is it lady Ravella you fancy? She may be old, but that body!"

While Lucas blushed and pushed his older brother back Tytos rolled his eyes at their antics.

Just then a voice shouted out from the army surrounding Raventree hall, ending the lad's merriment. Jonos Bracken's voice made Tytos and his sons all grit their teeth angrily. "Blackwood! I know you can hear me! Surrender, you can't hope to win! If you surrender now, I'll spare you and your family!"

Tytos looked out from the murder hole he had previously been using, trying to find where Jonos was, but he couldn't. But I don't have to see him to respond appropriately to that little bit of idiocy. He moved over to an interior murder hole, shouting down into the courtyard of his castle. "Hoster, Ben, could you give that bastard out there our response?"

Both his younger sons laughed, then began to work frantically with their men, loading up a large catapult that had been constructed inside the walls. Moments later a load of stones was sent hurling into the sky, to land among the besieging army, causing screams and cries of agony and shock.

Tytos raced back to the murder hole, shouting out. "That for your offer, your traitorous dog! I'll never submit to a child of incest, or to Bracken scum!" With that, the siege of Raventree Hall began.

OOOOOOO

The small dock by the edge of the Neck where the Kingsroad wound its way out of the Neck was used by men of the swamps to transport their goods down into the Riverlands had no name. It never grew to need one. It was simply a series of buildings to house any trader heading down into the Riverlands, as well as their goods. Most of the time it had at least a few traders, but now however it was lifeless.

House Frey had put its strength out into the field, and the first move had been to send a small band of raiders to harass the crannogmen from house Haigh. They descended on the docks enforcing the crannogmen there to pull up stake and retreat into the swamp. None of the traders died, but several of them sported broken arms and bruises from the beatings of the Haigh men. These were not warriors after all, these were tradesmen, not even hunters really since the hunters gave them the goods to trade away.

The hunters of the crannogmen came out that night, and four of the five men of house Haigh on guard died under their bows and tridents before they faded back into the Neck as easily as a lizard lion. The next day, the men of House Haigh pulled back from the Neck slightly, and began to dig in, waiting for their lords to arrive.

All that however was a more of a sideshow at present. House Frey had sent a group of cavalry to reinforce House Erenford, another Erenford beholden to them. Erenford had put forth its entire strength under Ser Erenford down to the new port being constructed where the Bite was closest to the Kings Road. A hunter tracking a cougar had reported seeing the work, and gotten word back to Erenford who passed it on to Old Walder.

Much like the small dock by the Kingsroad the original position Ranma and the others had talked about was used irregularly at best, when House Manderly sent a raven indicating White Harbor wished to trade for medicines. The original dock was also close enough to the Neck to put men there in danger of the various bugs that carried diseases to those who didn't have any immunity to them. So after talking to a few ships captains, Wendel had made a command decision to start to create the supply depot from scratch a half day's sailing further down.

This position wasn't quite as close to the Kingsroad, being five days ride away rather than three days. The ground there was rocky hardscrabble and not very hospitable. Ostensibly under the control of House Erenford, there was nothing there to draw any settlers or even crannogmen to it. Here however the near constant wind coming off the Bite kept the bugs away, which was a major plus, and some of the stones were large enough to be used to help construct the depot in various ways.

The makeshift dock was still small, but it had allowed them to put ashore the men and materials to start work on the depot. Wood brought all the way down from House Cerwyn's land and then transshipped here was quickly put in place. The men, over a hundred carpenters brought down from White Harbor plus the infantry troops under their direction quickly went to work. Soon they had built longhouses for the men, which would double later as a way point for the army's supplies. From there they had then begun to put up a small barricade around the depot, but work on that had just started when the forces of Erenford neared.

Moreover, the entire force from House Manderly and Locke had been put ashore. But the horses, even after only two weeks at sea, needed some days to recuperate after the sea voyage to get their legs back. Therefore it was up to the infantry to protect the depot, backed by the bows of House Locke, five hundred archers sent down to represent them in the army the North had mustered.

It was this sight that greeted Ser Erenford at the head of a force of his own house, almost six hundred men plus three hundred more sent to him by House Frey. His orders had been simple: find out what they were doing on the shore of the Bite, and if they were doing something that would bother House Frey either in the war or in the long term, stop them.

Looking at the number of men already down there, as well as the defenses that were being put up Ser Emmon Erenford made a decision. This decision would haunt his house for its remaining lifetime which could, because of said decision, be measured in less than two months.

"We hit them now." He decided, looking around at his men mostly heavy and light cavalry. "If we can break them now, before those horses down there get their legs under them, we can drive them back into the sea and put that place to the torch."

"In fact." Emmon went on looking around at two men in particular. "Get some torches now, there's nothing like a fire during a battle to divide the enemy's attention."

Ser Erenford should not be blamed for his ignorance. Throughout human history, there has been a sort of misconception about cavalry, tied in with the ego of the human mind. A person who is sitting up on a horse looking down at other men tend to believe that he is a better man than they are, that he is somehow stronger, more honorable. Tied into this is that horses have always been the purview of the rich. But despite this, a well-trained, well led and organized infantry force that stands its ground and has any kind of polearm, a spear, halberd, a bayonet on top of a rifle, or a pike could eat a cavalry charge for lunch.

Now while his house wasn't rich, Emmon Erenford was a knight, a cavalryman down to his toes. He firmly believed in the might of the cavalry charge. Moreover, he could not see the organization in the work going on down there. He could not see that there was always at least one group of a hundred men standing idle near the edge of the supply depot.

He could not see that among the workers busily creating log houses, or enlarging the wharf for greater cargo capacity, were men who did not stray far from hidden bows. While Emmon could see the infantry down there were better armored than most, he didn't see the giant pikes the heavy infantry had been trained with. Those were hidden near where the infantry were helping the carpenters. Wendel was a wily man, and had prepared for trouble from the get go.

Worse, the terrain was against Erenford. The land here was hardscrabble with very few trees and only scattered boulders that a large group could use as cover to get closer. Even his scouts couldn't get very close without running the risk of being seen.

The Freys commander, one of old Walder's numerous sons shook his head. "I, I don't know Ser Erenford. That's awfully good armor those men down there are wearing, especially if they aren't expecting trouble. Besides, from what your scouts could tell us we barely outnumber them. I think we should wait for more reinforcements. We can keep them locked up instead, and find out why they're building a port here in the first place."

"No we can't." Erenford said shaking his head sharply. "Didn't you hear the scouts report about the number of heavy horses they've unloaded? Those aren't draft animals man, those are warhorses! My scouts might not know how to count very high, but they could tell that there were more horses down there than we've got. If we let those horses recover from their voyage, they'll be able to match us."

As a knight himself, Emmon knew that heavy cavalry could prey very easily on light. They weren't quite as fast of course, but they moved fast enough, and their heavy armor and heavier weapons made them deadly against the mostly leather armor of light cavalry. His force only had around a hundred-fifty heavy cavalry, less than a fifth of what was down there.

The Frey man looked at the scouts. Both of them nodded agreement. Sighing against his better judgment he nodded in turn. "Alright. That's a bit more overt than my father wanted us to be, but I think he'll understand the reasoning."

Within moments, a little under a thousand men on horseback thundered over the scrub towards the supply depot, coming up over the small rise they had been hiding behind. With no cover they were spotted immediately, but rather than the panic and shock that Ser Erenford had expected to see, three horn blasts rang out. First one horn sounded from near the edge of the depot, obviously some kind of warning. Then two more from deeper within the northerner's position, signaling some kind of order, Erenford thought.

In response the hundred men near the outskirts of the encampment grabbed up helmets and pike. Their sergeants, men chosen from among the levies for their intelligence and strength of character by Jon during their training, began to bellow orders. Quickly they moved out of the encampment moving into a tight line abreast two deep to face the oncoming rush of cavalry. The sides of their line were anchored on one side by the unfinished palisades stretching down to where the galleys and their scorpions could take the attackers under fire and on the other the wall of the outermost longhouse.

Elsewhere archers put down their tools, grabbing up their bows and quivers rushing for their positions while the actual carpenters ducked inside the nearest longhouses.

Wendel, despite being a knight himself was his father's son, an organizer. He had absorbed everything about the need for organization in an army, and had drilled his men on certain horn calls on the trip down here. Moreover the pikemen he had may have been levies from White Harbor, but they had been sent up to Winterfell to train under Jon Snow. These were not barely-trained levies, men taken from all walks of life from farmers to city folk suddenly given a weapon and told to go fight. Nor were they warriors, not trained practically since boyhood like most armsmen were, but pikes were a simple weapon in comparison to a longsword.

No, these were soldiers, and that made them a very different kettle of fish. If they had been dropped into Rome, the Roman legionnaires would've known their own despite their weapons. If they had been dropped into the army of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, they would've fit right in with a pike regiment (after several more months of training and experience).

At another signal the pikes came down, held firmly in the hands of the men behind them, a bristling wall of metal points facing out against the Erenford cavalry that was attempting to ride them down. At the sight, more than one of the mounted men faltered, but the others, as infected with the disease of cavalry ruling the battlefield as their head of house, continued with the charge. Their horses however began to try and shy away, slowing their advance.

Archers began to fire and men to tumble out of their saddles but that was more of a sideshow to the slaughter that those pikes wreaked on the Calvary when the two forces met. Pikes outreached lances by a wide margin. Those heavy pike heads smashed into and through breastplates, slicing into horseflesh and riders with equal ease. Cries of the wounded began to abound, some even cried to the Seven to aid them, but there was no such help here.

Even where the weight of the charge got past the first row of pike, they only ran into the second. In one or two places where they could push that pike or this one aside in the second row, cut down a man here and there they couldn't enlarge the holes before more men came up, the dismounted heavy cavalry of Manderly cutting their horse's stomachs from below. And always those pikes kept stabbing, stabbing forward.

Wendel bellowed commands to his men, backing up the pikes killing what few men could break through the two person line. Soon however more pikemen came up from behind them, reinforcing the two deep formation of infantry. "Hold them!" he bellowed, "Hold them!"

Killing one man by thrusting his sword up into his side underneath his chest plate, he pulled the man down. Then with difficulty Wendel lifted his heavy body into the saddle of the horse before it could bolt, regally not noticing that a few of his fellow knights had to push him up given his girth. He pulled the horse around as it tried to race away, maddened by the smell of blood and not particularly well-trained alas. Still, Wendel did not become a knight by not having horse skills. Seconds later he had his makeshift mount under control and turned it gazing out over the battle.

The front of the battle was a snarl now, the initial cavalry rush having broken against the pike but the man behind them still pressing forward for now. That wouldn't last. Their horses, mad with the smell of blood and hearing the screams of their wounded herd-mates would bolt regardless of what their riders wanted. Unless they can get around the front of the pike line on the other side of the longhouse. He spotted the next group of pike and shouted "Break into groups of twenty five, first two guard the left flank, one to a side!"

The men did so, their sergeants following his order quickly. Soon there was a line of pike on facing out from the edge of the longhouse, anchored further by its edge now being within range of the ships out in The Bite.

He held back the remaining pikemen, waiting, waiting for the moment when the cavalry charge rebounded on itself. Wendel was a veteran, admittedly more against bandits, pirates, and a particularly recalcitrant minor house from the former Bolton lands than real war. Despite that, he was extremely well-trained, and his father and Lord Stark had both gone on at length about 'the moment'. It was that brief moment when an attacker realizes his attack has failed, but before he does anything about it. When the attackers morale broke enough for them to start to run, but before they did so en-masse.

Wendel watched from his vantage point at the back of the infantry formation and saw it. The horses began to override their rider's control, and those riders too were now panicking, trying to break off. But those at the back, especially the few with torches, were stopping them from pulling away quickly. He signaled one of his men who had remained behind the main battle with a horn. "Sound advance."

With that command the last two hundred plus pikemen joined the battle. At the horns bellow all the infantrymen along the main line of battle began to march forwards, the men at the back pushing the men in front of them forward, their pikes all leveled in one direction.

The cavalry broke. No, it didn't break, it shattered. It had barely been holding the space it could when faced with two lines of pike, with five, and all of them now marching forward rather than holding station, they couldn't even do that. On that bloody field the strength of House Erenford broke, shattered in its entirety along with Emmon Erenford, who had been among the first to die having led the charge like any knight should. It was but the first of the death blows to rain on that house, and the losses among the Freys the first but not the last that house would take as well.

For the present Wendel didn't care about that, all he cared about was that the depot was safe for now. Even as he ordered the archers of House Locke forward to hunt down the remaining attackers, even as his fellow knights moved forward to finish off the wounded, he turned back gazing out into the sea. There, Wendell saw the quartet of galleys waiting patiently to offload. The sight, with his House's flag waving from every ship and from above the depot, made him smile.