GOT/ASOIAF: Ruler Beyond The Ice Chapter 624 626: Twilight of the Lion

Chapter 624 626: Twilight of the Lion

After the light rain, the sun emerged from behind the clouds, casting bright but gentle light across the land. The moisture carried in the breeze was warmed by the sunlight. Warmth and humidity, the conditions needed for all things to recover, were already present, and such weather was becoming more frequent. Even a blind man could sense that spring was approaching.

After the long summer, this winter had been as long and cold as predicted. That it might end before people ran out of grain and began eating seed stock was excellent news for the entire realm. Yet standing by the riverbank under the sunlight and warm wind, Tywin Lannister's expression was colder and stiffer than the frozen ground of the Lands of Always Winter.

Good weather had ruined everything.

Two weeks earlier, when Tywin received the report from the Golden Tooth about the peace terms Daenerys had offered the Westerlands, his first reaction was that sending Tyrion to negotiate had been a mistake.

The Lannisters had friends throughout the Seven Kingdoms. After Daenerys rode north on her dragon to the Gift, she neither sought revenge on Jaime for killing her father, nor did she persecute Joffrey, Tommen, and Myrcella after they took the black. After subduing the North, she even pardoned House Stark's past betrayals and accepted them into her ranks.

One piece of news after another gradually formed a clear impression of Daenerys in Tywin's mind. She was not mad. She had clear goals and a sharp mind. As long as he was willing to extend an olive branch, she would likely accept it eagerly and try even harder to win him over, using the strength of the Westerlands to complete her restoration.

Based on this judgment, when he received the Declaration of Conquest and the secret negotiation terms delivered by Aegor on behalf of Daenerys at Casterly Rock, he immediately agreed to allow Tyrion to attend the meeting. At that time, he thought that perhaps by using Tyrion's friendship with Aegor, the Westerlands might secure the most favorable terms for joining her cause.

Yet the terms they brought back were that Tywin must abdicate and take the black, and Tyrion would succeed him as Lord of Casterly Rock.

Utter humiliation.

To Tywin, who valued family honor above all else, these terms clearly meant that Daenerys did not merely reject the support of the Westerlands. She intended to slap House Lannister in the face.

Worse still, Tywin did not even know the truth. Was this truly a clever move by Daenerys or Aegor, using status to drive a wedge between father and son, or had Tyrion himself proposed it out of ambition, seeking the support of the Night's Watch and Daenerys while betraying his family's interests, hoping to push him aside and seize the birthright he had always spoken of?

Anger and suspicion grew together. Tywin decided to personally lead a great army out of the Westerlands to the outskirts of King's Landing. Either he would renegotiate reasonable terms with Daenerys, or he would unite with Stannis, the Riverlands, and the Golden Company to defeat her, eliminate the last remnant of the Mad King's line, and carve out a future for his house.

However, just as he was mobilizing supplies and preparing the army, Kevan and Tyrion both rushed back to Lannisport from the Golden Tooth. Not only did they stop his plan to march through the Riverlands, they also reported every detail of the negotiations, solemnly assuring him that the Night's Watch possessed a new weapon far more terrifying than dragons, and that the Westerlands could never win a war against Daenerys.

The situation immediately became complicated.

Emotionally, Kevan had been his closest companion since childhood. He would never conspire with Tyrion to deceive him.

Rationally, Kevan was second only to Tywin in the Westerlands. There was no reason or possibility for him to help Tyrion, whose position as the third most important Lannister was barely certain, seize power.

By the time calculations allowed him to personally visit the Golden Tooth and investigate how Aegor had frightened them, the Night's Watch was already marching toward King's Landing without pause. There was no time.

If they were not lying together, there could be only one conclusion.

His brother and son, two Lannisters of noble blood, had been frightened into opposing war by a mere Night's Watchman using some small trick.

How absurd. How humiliating. How infuriating.

If Tyrion alone held that opinion, Tywin could have ignored it. But Kevan and Tyrion both firmly opposed war. The weakness of centralized authority now appeared clearly. After suppressing the power and voices of lesser lords, dissent within the core circle carried enormous weight. Though Kevan and Tyrion were only two men, they effectively turned the situation into two thirds of the ruling council opposing Tywin.

Since Jaime had been forced to take the black, Kevan and Tyrion had become Tywin's deputies in military, political, and economic matters. Calling them his right and left hands was no exaggeration. If both opposed the campaign, even Tywin's authority might not be enough to mobilize the full strength of the Westerlands.

Originally the war plan had two routes. Tywin would lead the southern force from Deep Den along the Gold Road toward King's Landing, threatening the rear of Daenerys's siege. Kevan would lead another army from the Golden Tooth into the Riverlands, seize Harrenhal, and block support from the North, the Riverlands, and the Vale.

Now Kevan refused to lead the second army. Most Westerlands lords were already under Tywin's control. Yet he could not find another commander with the prestige and ability to take Kevan's place.

After fierce arguments failed, Tywin finally compromised.

The northern force was canceled. He would personally lead a single army along the Gold Road through the Reach toward King's Landing, avoiding the threat that Aegor had issued that any Westermen entering the Riverlands would be treated as enemies. Once near the capital, he would personally negotiate with representatives of Daenerys and Aegon VI and decide the next step.

If the two Targaryens married, he would admit defeat, take the black, and go to the Wall.

If he reached an agreement with Aegon, he would join the Golden Company and help the young king resist his ambitious aunt.

If he reached an agreement with Daenerys, the Westerlands army would tie down the Riverlands army and assist her attack on King's Landing.

And if neither accepted his support, he would raise the banner of the stag and declare himself a loyal supporter of the crown. Whoever attacked King's Landing would be his enemy.

Fence sitting was dishonorable, but it ensured survival. With the wealth of the Westerlands and his token of loyalty, whichever side won would be forced to accept the Lannisters as allies.

It was a perfect plan.

Yet everything went wrong.

Because the leadership failed to reach agreement quickly, the army departed Lannisport one day late. Normally this could have been corrected, but temperatures had risen near freezing. Snow and ice on the Gold Road melted during the day under the sun and marching feet, turning into mud, then froze again at night. The Westerlands army marched east through mud almost the entire way.

A late departure, slower progress, cautious movement through mountain passes. Small delays accumulated until a journey meant to take several days stretched to nearly ten.

After a week of marching through the Westerlands and into the Reach, Tywin learned from scouts that the Golden Company and Riverlands army had been defeated during Aegon and Margaery's battlefield wedding. The army that held superiority in numbers and equipment had collapsed under sudden attack and fled in panic.

The good news was that the two Targaryens had not formed an alliance. The bad news was that Tywin could not understand how such a defeat was possible.

How could Daenerys attack Aegon south of the Blackwater while also besieging King's Landing? How could an army of fifty thousand well supplied troops be defeated in a single day so completely that they fled the battlefield entirely?

Soon more strange reports followed. Near the mouth of the Blackwater, Daenerys's fleet fought Euron Greyjoy's Iron Fleet and Stannis's royal fleet. She defeated both. Euron died. The Iron Fleet fled. The royal fleet was destroyed.