Chapter 61: Luring the Enemy

When scouts from House Mormont and House Glover reported to Eddard Stark that a large force of Rockborn warriors and Unicorn Cavalry had emerged from the southern valleys, a smile crossed his lips. The enemy had finally taken the bait.

Eddard had led the Northern army on a brutal campaign—razing Frost Clan's Frosthall and Ice Dragon Clan's Icedrake Keep, burning Rockborn farmlands, and plundering the sacred dragon remains of the Ice Dragon Clan. He had even threatened to sell captured Rockborn women and children into slavery in the Free Cities and salt the land itself. All of this was done to enrage the Rockborn, forcing them to abandon Deep Abyss Keep and engage in open battle before the Northern army's dwindling supplies ran out. Now, the trap had been sprung. The enemy was coming.

"Who leads them?" Eddard asked the scout commanders, Ser Ferran and Robert Glover.

Robert Glover pondered for a moment. "It's likely the Lord of Driftwood Hall, Billy of House Stern. Among the banners carried by the Rockborn cavalry and Unicorn Riders, many bore the emblem of leafless driftwood—House Stern's sigil."

Ser Ferran added, "We also saw the banners of the Frost Clan and the Ice Dragon Clan. Their numbers exceed a thousand, with more than twenty unicorns." The destruction of their strongholds had clearly provoked their chiefs into seeking vengeance.

Eddard's eyes gleamed. "And you saw no sign of Deep Abyss Keep's red-and-black jagged sigil?"

"None."

That meant Samlor Crowl, the Stone King, had not deployed his full Rockborn host from Deep Abyss Keep. Eddard split his forces, assigning three thousand men to Lord Roose Bolton of the Dreadfort, ordering him to join forces with Lord Galbart Glover of Deepwood Motte and establish a camp outside Deep Abyss Keep. There, Northern soldiers felled trees, constructed siege towers, and built trebuchets—creating the illusion of an imminent siege.

This ruse ensured that the Stone King dared not move recklessly.

After sacking Icedrake Keep, Eddard's army pressed northward. On the surface, the Northern host appeared strong, but in reality, their food supplies would barely last ten days.

Ser Marlon Manderly had set sail to gather provisions from the Umbers, Karhold, and the Dreadfort, yet his fleet had not returned. Eddard feared that the Ironborn wench, Helen Pyke, had once again struck at their supply ships. That damned she-pirate was a constant plague on the Northern army's supply lines.

The deeper they marched into Skagos' interior, the farther they moved from the coast and their supply lines—growing ever more vulnerable.

To solve the food crisis, Eddard took drastic measures. The unicorns slain in their last skirmish were butchered and distributed among the troops. He ordered the hill tribes to hunt—goats, boars, and geese became meals for the Northern soldiers. Occasionally, they found small stores of grain in pillaged villages, but the amounts were meager.

The army encamped outside Deep Abyss Keep was also suffering. According to a message from Lord Bolton, not only had no supply ships arrived, but captured Rockborn prisoners revealed that Magnar Rhaeson of the Skagos Clans was leading over a thousand Rockborn warriors toward Deep Abyss Keep—a new threat.

If this war dragged on, the Northern army's supplies would be exhausted. Fortunately, Eddard's strategy had worked—the Rockborn, as expected, were too furious to remain behind their walls. Their chieftains, driven by rage at the destruction of their homes and the enslavement of their people, had taken the field.

Eddard smiled. "If we can crush House Stern, the Frost Clan, and the Ice Dragon Clan, we'll have won half the war. Victory is within reach. Ferran, take three hundred mounted archers and harass them—lure them to Snowfall Valley."

Snowfall Valley was a battlefield of his choosing—a vast open plain leading into a northern highland. Any force trying to charge up the incline would be torn apart by Northern archers.

Ser Ferran and his horse archers rode out.

Eddard then summoned Barrel-Belly Wull, Ser Donnor Flint, and Cley Reed—commanders of the mountain clans, warriors as skilled in rugged terrain as the Rockborn themselves.

Pointing at the valley entrance, Eddard ordered, "Each of you will take a hundred warriors and climb the hills overlooking the valley. When Ferran's horse archers draw the enemy in, push down boulders and block their retreat."

The mountain chiefs nodded and departed.

Next, Eddard called Jory Cassel, Captain of the Winterfell Guard.

"Have the men pile dry branches throughout the valley. Prepare fire arrows. Once the Unicorn Riders enter our kill zone, we burn them alive."

Jory saluted and left to carry out the orders.

Meanwhile, Chief Gawen of the Frost Clan, Lord Eysten of the Ice Dragon Clan, and Billy Stern of Driftwood Hall led their warriors forward, seething with fury. Over a thousand Rockborn infantry, Unicorn Riders, and slingers rode alongside them, their mounts scrawny but determined.

Lord Eysten spat, "I will slay those who burned my castle! I will offer their blood to the Old Gods!"

Chief Gawen snarled, "Aye! Let Eddard Stark and his dogs feed the Weirwoods with their corpses!"

Suddenly, arrows rained down—several slingers and foot soldiers fell with pained cries.

Billy Stern, Gawen Frost, and Eysten Ice Dragon turned toward the attack's source and saw Ser Ferran and his mounted archers grinning at them.

Ferran smirked. "Rockborn, your homes are ash, your women and children will be sold into chains, and yet you still dare fight? Kneel before the Warden of the North, and you may yet live!"

Billy Stern roared with rage. "Kill that bastard and his riders!"

The Rockborn cavalry charged first, followed by the Unicorn Riders and infantry, their battle horns sounding a bloodthirsty rhythm.

Ferran raised his hand, and his archers wheeled their horses around, galloping away, with Ferran at the rear.

The Rockborn cavalry's scrawny Skagosi horses had no hope of matching the speed of the Northern archers' steeds. Whenever Ferran and his riders pulled ahead, they would turn and fire arrows, sending Rockborn warriors tumbling from their saddles.

The trap was set.

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