Cp1

Chapter 1

I had decided. What I needed first was more men. Preferably men who were decently trained and would have their first loyalty to house Tully… and me… rather than some vassal lord of mine. I'm sure Riverrun could raise any number of peasant levy's and landed knights, but having a well trained and well armored cadre of heavy infantry had to help. Thankfully, Riverrun's training field was hard to miss. Even luckier, the master-of-arms was one of the few people I had managed to put a name to.

"Ser Desmond. A fine morning." I gave him my best lordly nod.

"Lord Edmure! Good Morn'! Care for a bout?" The portly man gestured to where a few squires, or knights, or whoever, were banging away at each other with blunted swords. An activity that honestly sounded like an easy way to get a concussion. Best nip that in the bud.

"Ahh, no thank you Ser. So much to do… with ahh, father ill of course. I just don't have the time. But I was hoping we could talk a few moments about the guard."

The old man's face scrunched up in an almost comical depiction of confusion. "The guard? Has Ser Ryger been going on about the evening watch again?"

Who the heck was Ser Ryger? Well never mind, best push on. "Ahh no, I'm not here about the evening watch. I'm sure Ser Ryger will tell me all about it later. No, I wanted to talk about increasing the size of the guard. I want to put out a call to likely young men in the area, in the whole Riverlands if we can. Get the word out we are recruiting, and that the pay is high. I know it can't happen over night, but I want to see us increase the force substantially."

There. That sounded professional enough. I wasn't exactly sure the size of the current guard in Riverrun, but they were hard to miss with those absurd fish crest helmets, and I would estimate that there had to be under two-hundred of them. In my head, I was envisioning seeing if I could increase that to a thousand, maybe even two thousand. If we had enough time before the war kicked off, that might give us that solid core of well-armed trained infantry.

"My Lord… what does Ser Ryger think of this if I may ask?" He sounded troubled. Again with this Ryger character? Who was he? Why didn't the name ring a bell? Wasn't Desmond the master of arms? He seemed the logical person to be talking to on this subject. Was Ryger some fearsome Tully knight, maybe who died early in the books?

"I'm not asking Ser Ryger. I'm asking you Desmond. I want to increase the size of the guard significantly. What do we need to see that done?"

"How significantly my lord?" Desmond was looking warier and warier. "Ser Ryger…" Desmond must have seen something in my face because he trailed off and started anew. "That is to say, it's no easy thing to increase the guard, that's why so few houses have one of any size My lord. There's plenty of likely lads who would jump at the chance of some pay and adventure. But we would have to train them, that could take months or years if they are peasants. We have to feed them. Pay them. A guard to do honor to house Tully must be properly equipped. It all takes time and money my lord. And for what purpose? We don't have work for half the guard as it is."

I put on my best pompous lord face. "What for Ser? As the Starks are want to say, 'Winter is Coming.'" Yes, I actually got to use the line 'winter is coming' in actual Westeros! But Desmond didn't look too impressed with that, so best to try a different tact. "That is to say, the realm has been restless of late. Better to prepare now then in the middle of a crisis. Best to prepare in peace time while we have the luxury. It is expensive, yes. But we can afford it." I hoped so anyway. What was the state of our finances? "But you are right. It will cost time and money to train and equip them. So it's best to start now. I am charging you with completing this task, Ser Desmond, because I know your long service to House Tully, and I know you can handle the task." There. That seemed to make the man puff up with pride a bit.

"My Lord, I'm honored. But you are making it clear this will be a huge undertaking… and. I am sorry My Lord but I must ask. Why is Ser Ryger not being consulted?"

Again with this Ryger fellow! Who was he? "I will consult with Ryger as well of course." Whenever I figured out who the hell he was. "But I am trusting you with starting this task off. Put the call out through the Riverlands we are looking for likely lads. Get the blacksmith working at full speed. I want all the new guard to have solid equipment. Armor, shield, sword. It doesn't need to be fancy or ornate." With any-luck we could lose the silly fish-crest helmets. "However, it must be good quality. I trust you to find guardsmen who can help you in the training as well. The practice yard may not be large enough, and you may want to find a likely field outside the castle."

Ser Desmond was looking visibly distraught. "Not fit in the castle My Lord? How many men are you talking about?"

The moment of truth now. I took a deep breath. "At least a thousand Ser. But I'd prefer closer to two thousand."

Desmond looked like he was about to go into some form of shock. "My lord! My lord!" It took him a solid minute to find his train of thought. "That.. That's not a guard, that's an army. People will think we are preparing for war. And the cost alone…" he trailed off uncertainly.

"And that is why I am tasking you with this task and not Ser Ryger. We need your experience. And do not worry about the cost. You are to start immediately. I will speak with the Maester and the Steward. You will have all the funds you need, you may pick anyone to help you, but you are to start right away."

Ser Desmond sent me another hesitant look. "My Lord… your father. That is, Lord Hoster. He knows of your plan? I can't imagine he would approve of such a… a…" he was clearly searching for a non-offensive word, "a bold undertaking. Perhaps we should consult with him?

Best to nip that in the bud, the last thing I wanted was my 'father' getting involved in this. "That is quiet alright Ser Desmond. Father is ill as you well know, I won't have you troubling his health." Poor Desmond looked embarrassed at the thought of disturbing Hoster, so I pushed on. "I'll tell Lord Hoster… that is father… myself. But *I* am acting in his stead. And you have your orders. I want to see the blacksmith forging weapons by midday, I want word that we are recruiting sent out by nightfall, and I want to see men training by the end of the week. And you aren't to stop until we have two thousand elite Tully Guards armed, trained, and capable of holding their own. That's an order."

Did I even have the authority to give an order with Hoster still around? It seemed I must have. Ser Desmond looked about three seconds from a full fledged panic attack, but he was bowing to me and striding off with more haste than I thought he had in his portly frame.

That said, he raised a good point; several of them in fact. From Desmond's reaction, this was a very dramatic order. Would my 'father' approve? I would have to make sure I broke the word to him properly. It wouldn't do for some well meaning retainer to beat me to the punch, and I didn't want to test my authority against his.

Plus, I really had no idea if we could actually afford a guard that large. I knew the Lannisters had a large guard, and Kingslanding had the gold-cloaks. But I wanted my guard to be better trained than a bunch of Goldcloaks, and I didn't have the gold of the Lannisters or the wealth of a major city to draw on.

Really though, I wasn't looking at a permanent guard that size. I had to hope that the reason no guard that size existed wasn't a lack of funds so much as it was a waste of funds in peace time. But I had the advantage of knowing war was coming soon, and the wealth of the Riverlands was going to be trampled under Lannister boots. Better to spend it now in hopes of having a stronger force loyal to me when things started to go south.

I would just have to trust and hope that we had enough time, and that Desmond was capable enough, to train a bunch of peasants into half decent soldiers. At least they would not have to patrol or do anything but train day in and day out until war broke out. Whenever that happened. That still left any number of questions to deal with. First off, who the hell was this Ser Ryger and why did Desmond think I should be consulting him? How was I going to make sure Hoster didn't derail my plans? How much time did I have until war broke out? And, most immediately, the question of funding.

The next step was perhaps a visit to the Riverrun Maester to make sure I hadn't just put House Tully in the red. Vyman I recalled his name was. Well, actually the next step was figuring out where in this castle the Maester actually was. Perhaps one of the towers? Maesters kept the Ravens I knew, and the birds must need a tower, so that seemed logical. Sadly, Riverrun lacked anything resembling an elevator, so I was seeing a large number of stairs in my future.