Euron's order to retreat rather than pursue baffled Jaime. Believing it to be some sort of ruse, he dared not hesitate. After covering the withdrawal of the last soldier still able to move, he pulled back from the shore, watching as Euron led his men back to the beach, pushed several longships resting on the sand into the cold waters, leapt aboard, grabbed oars, and rowed out into the dark Ice Bay.
He actually retreated?
If Euron's original plan was simply to disrupt the production capacity of Ice Canyon Port—burning two warships and a few warehouses—and now, with that goal mostly achieved, he chose to withdraw while ahead, that seemed reasonable enough. But there were still many Ironborn who hadn't withdrawn, and he still held a considerable advantage. Even if he were planning to flee, why would he do so in such haste?
Yet Jaime didn't dwell on the reason for the enemy's panicked retreat. Ice Canyon Port had, in fact, been saved by deserters—or more precisely, by the first group of garrison soldiers who had retreated from the eastern Great Gorge defense line.
Because Ice Canyon Port had come under attack and was unable to carry out its planned defense measures, the westernmost quarter of the entire Great Gorge frontline, which was closest to the port, was the first to collapse. Many of the defenders hastily threw their Wildfire and retreated without even using many of their Dragonglass arrows. Their perfunctory defense and cowardly withdrawal without notice had undoubtedly doomed their comrades still holding the line. On the other hand, they inadvertently aided Ice Canyon Port, which was engulfed in battle. When dozens or hundreds of garrison troops who had fled from the Great Gorge appeared on the mountain path east of the fortress carrying torches, the Ironborn who had been preparing to launch a pincer attack on the gate—coordinating with the forces already inside—mistook them for Night's Watch reinforcements. Their assault was already faltering, and they immediately dropped their weapons and fled.
After opening the east gate, the Ice Canyon Port Commander quickly gathered the retreating garrison troops from the western Great Gorge. Their Dragonglass weapons were swapped for iron arms better suited for fighting living foes, and this hastily formed force—though far from elite—was enough to intimidate Euron Greyjoy, who knew nothing about the actual status of the Great Gorge defense. Forced to abandon the Ironborn still scattered throughout the port, who were setting fires and wreaking havoc, he withdrew in a hurry.
The Great Gorge defense plan was ironically inverted by the actions of the garrison: instead of the fortress dispatching troops to reinforce the Gorge, it was the retreating defenders of the Gorge who ended up rescuing the fortress.
---
The retreat of the King of the Iron Islands stripped the remaining Ironborn in the port of any chance of escape. After burning the last longships on the beach, the now-coordinated garrison of Ice Canyon Port quickly moved to assign troops and tasks to eliminate the enemy remnants that had infiltrated the fortress.
Since no civilians lived at the port, the only casualties were among the combatants. Still, the fortress was left in ruins. More than half of it was ablaze. One of the only three warships was destroyed entirely, another had caught fire but was barely salvaged thanks to the fact it had just launched and hadn't yet loaded much Wildfire. Only the flagship, Charging Wolf, which had already seen battle, survived intact due to the crew's experience.
Most of the granaries were destroyed by fire, and dozens of tons of shipbuilding timber donated from across the North were almost entirely consumed. Fortunately, the Wildfire warehouse, reserved for wartime, was located far from the harbor and did not cause a catastrophic explosion.
The true silver lining was that the core workshops of the shipyard were preserved. The elite Northmen stationed there had fulfilled the vital task Robb Stark had entrusted them. As soon as the attack began, they had gathered the Artisan technicians and their assistants—recruited from Bear Island and White Harbor—into a single secure location. Even as chaos spread across the rest of the port, they refused to abandon their post and repelled multiple small Ironborn raiding parties who attempted to torch the shipyard and kill the technical staff. Though most of the living quarters and storage areas were lost, the tools, equipment, and most importantly, the skilled craftsmen essential to the future of the Northern navy suffered no losses. It was the only piece of good news from this disaster.
Of course, not everyone saw it that way.
To ensure the success of their surprise attack, the number of Ironborn who landed via longships was relatively small. Had the garrison been properly organized, the defenders would not have suffered such heavy losses. Jaime's unit had fought multiple engagements to retake the port and had lost nearly half their number in the battle against Euron. Recruits from the New Gift had died, and of the fifty Westermen guards he had brought, only a little over twenty remained. He had bled and sacrificed to protect the North's military harbor, while the Northmen being protected had remained holed up in the shipyard, refusing to come out.
As the Kingslayer, wounded and defeated, gradually recovered his senses, fury surged up within him. He turned that rage on the Northmen.
"I sent men to call for your help! Why the hell wouldn't you come out? If the fortress had fallen, what good would guarding the shipyard have done?" Jaime bellowed at the Northmen commander, his eyes bloodshot and veins bulging. Were he not utterly exhausted, he would have stormed over and grabbed the man by the collar.
"Ser Jaime, please calm yourself. There are few in the North who know the art of shipbuilding. Houses and grain can be rebuilt and regrown, but once these men are lost, it is extremely difficult to replace them."
"That's horseshit!" Jaime exploded with rage. "Northmen lives count, but my Westermen lives don't? You just wanted to watch me die, didn't you? That's why you hid in there and didn't come out!"
"Please control your emotions, my lord. We honor your bravery and the sacrifice of your men, but we will not accept such malicious accusations." The Northmen commander had acted in good faith and naturally did not flinch from the charge. Months of simmering tension boiled over, and the bitter defeat against Euron became the final spark. A heated argument broke out between the two groups, and not even the Ice Canyon Port Commander could bring it under control.
...
Fortunately, the Ironborn's second wave of long-range attacks soon cut the quarrel short.
The Ironborn sailing fleet, which had previously acted as a diversion, had been wary of the devastating effects of Wildfire and hadn't dared to come too close. They had only circled at the outer edges of the trebuchet range, firing intermittently, their accuracy no better than chance. It appeared as if they were preparing to assault the port, but in truth, they were merely a distraction.
However, after the longships had successfully landed and broken into the fortress during the lapse in seaward defenses, the sailing ships quietly drew much closer.
According to the plan, once the two landing forces joined and overwhelmed the fortress, the sailing fleet would dock at the port and send reinforcements ashore. If the land assault failed, the ships would instead bombard the port at close range with incendiaries to cause further damage, then cover the retreat of the Ironborn forces boarding the longships.
After Euron's longship had pulled away from shore, he raised a torch in signal. The sailing fleet, which had gone silent for some time, resumed its barrage.
One flaming projectile after another arced through the sky and crashed into the fortress. Most of the watchtowers had already been damaged in the previous fighting or were ablaze. Their ammunition stores had either been depleted or were inaccessible due to the ongoing chaos. Only a few trebuchets and ballistae could be quickly brought back into action.
It took another half hour before the Night's Watch troops, now back in control of the port, were able to restore most of the defensive positions. After a few rounds of return fire, they finally managed to drive off the Ironborn fleet using their superior firepower.
The Ironborn assault was over, but the ordeal was far from finished. While there was plenty to do—dealing with prisoners, putting out fires, tending to the wounded, burying the dead—the garrison now faced an even greater threat.
Though the arrival of the retreating garrison troops had inadvertently broken the siege, no one had forgotten the significance of the Great Gorge. Its terrain and defensive structure meant that a breach at any one point could lead to the collapse of the entire line.
After hastily extinguishing fires and salvaging wartime supplies, the garrison of Ice Canyon Port put aside the cleanup and began preparing in full for the looming assault by the army of the dead.
(To be continued.)
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