Three days later.
Sallidcastle
"He is doing exactly the sa thing he did at the last town. Taking all the food before driving the people out." lcolm did like to state the obvious. "But what is the point of it?!" That was sothing Luceon would very much have liked to know himself.
"Good," Royce said, watching the stream of refugees move eastward. "The flow is taking shape."
"Hey, Ser Royce! Is now really the ti for sothing like this?! Should we not be making for Gulltown as fast as we can?!" Nobody liked carrying out orders that seed pointless, and now that there were many more n not privy to the plan, Ser Marcus had beco the voice of all the knights who had joined them.
Leaving his liege alone against a superior force, dragging his feet on the assault of Gulltown, spending his n's lives taking aningless towns. Looked at that way, Ser Royce's conduct had the sll of sabotage about it. The commander owed them an explanation, or he would be taken for a traitor, and no good would co of that.
"Even by the shortest route, the Blackfish will need at least a day to reach Lord Arryn's position, another to understand what our assault is aid at, and then four more to send a raven to Gulltown with instructions. It is absolutely vital that we finish all our preparations before that mont cos." Royce did not exactly illuminate things. "There are still four more towns standing between us and our objective." But he was cut off then by the cry of a falcon diving toward him. Given how calmly his guards reacted, this was evidently not unusual. The bird slowed and settled neatly onto Royce's outstretched arm. He plucked a letter from its leg and read.
"Lord Arryn has taken Grey Glen!" Those gathered were equal parts surprised and glad at the news. "We will have to pick up the pace. We split into two equal halves. My force and Ser Desmond Redfort's. Each takes two towns on the way, and mind the deadlines. Once you have them, do exactly what we have been doing here."
Word of Lord Arryn's victory lifted the soldiers' spirits. With clear orders from Robar Royce, the two forces separated and moved swiftly, taking a string of small towns and a dozen villages. Each taken settlent added more refugees to the roads, all of them making their way east. Since Royce's army swept through the towns along the border between Royce and Grafton lands while Redfort's force pushed them from the west, the people had nowhere to go but Gulltown.
…
Dangford
From the castle walls they saw the sa scene that had played out at every assault these past few days: the town taken, everything of value gathered up, the townspeople driven out. The conduct of brigands or sellswords, not of a true lord's host. And with every repetition, the discontent in the knights' hearts grew a little more.
"We take a town and instead of holding it we march straight to the next one, doing nothing but multiplying refugees." Ser lcolm's outrage had been building steadily, and he was finding more and more n willing to share it. "Seriously! What in the seven hells are they making us do this for?!"
"I understand it now." It had all been so simple, really. Nobody had just been looking from the right angle. "They are locusts."
...
The Blackfish's Camp.
"No ambush, then." Having heard the last of the scouts' reports, Ser Brynden was now certain that the lagging infantry faced no threat.
"Where could an army of four thousand have gotten to?" Harold Hardyng asked.
"Gulltown." The Blackfish lived up to his reputation, grasping at once where the army was headed. "Though Arryn is a madman if he believes four thousand n can take that city. Robert Baratheon took Gulltown by storm because the city was unprepared for him. Since the rebellion the Graftons have poured enormous sums into restoring its defenses, and by now it is one of the most formidable cities in the realm. Arryn will not take it." But the war council was cut short by a ssenger arriving with news from the eastern coast of the Vale.
"So Ser Robar Royce commands the second army, which he has further divided in two, and has taken six of our vassals' towns and any number of villages." Gerion Grafton summarized the report. "It seems the bastard has given up any claim to honor. They conduct themselves like brigands, not knights."
"That is so, Ser Grafton," the ssenger confird the words of the Gulltown heir. "But because the front line is shifting east, the refugees from the entire peninsula have no way to flee north."
"Refugees?" Ser Brynden asked.
"It appears that after each taking, all the inhabitants of Blacksford, Sallidcastle, Pressytown, Dangford, and Slton have abandoned their towns." The ssenger surprised those assembled. "The fate of Ironhill is still unknown, but I expect it unfolded the sa as the rest."
"Are you telling the entire peninsula is flooded with refugees wandering without direction?!"
"Not without direction." The Blackfish's eyes went wide as the full picture opened before him. "Arryn divided his forces and struck the towns strictly west to east, cutting off every road of retreat to the north. That gives us very nearly a hundred percent certainty that the refugees, every last one of them, will move south toward Gulltown."
"How long?! How long has my father been keeping his gates open to refugees?!" Ser Gerion asked in shock, and nobody answered him. "We must send a raven to Gulltown at once!"
"I am afraid it is already too late. Arryn knew the state of the city, I think, and understood that raw force would not take it. So he sent his cousin to forge a weapon capable of bringing Gulltown down. The refugees are the instrunt that will hasten the city's end. Very soon the city will shut its gates and go into full defense, but no one anticipated that it would have to absorb the displaced from every corner of the peninsula."
...
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