Chapter 121: Returning Laden with Spoils
"Marriage should be decided by one's parents," Margaery said, forcing a smile despite the frustration knotting in her chest. "Let us speak of this no more. Lord Egger, the lords of the Bronze Alliance have all been captured. Since His Majesty commanded you to accompany the army, I imagine he has no intent to execute them. I wonder, what will their ultimate disposal be?"
The Night's Watch could hardly influence such matters. Margaery appeared to be asking Egger, but she was actually directing the query toward Barristan. Her interest in this intelligence wasn't particularly high, but having just answered a question from the old knight, her instinct not to be at a disadvantage drove her to ask one in return. Information that seems useless can sometimes be put to great use, her grandmother always said.
"The primary instigators need not be mentioned. Aside from a few counts who led the rebellion, among the accomplices—roughly a dozen knights who commanded the soldiers defending the Bloody Gate and obstructing the King's peace—will be sentenced to take the black," the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard replied. These were secrets, but facing a Night's Watch officer and a lady of House Tyrell who would learn of them sooner or later anyway, there was no need for tight-lipped silence. "As for the seized castles, as long as the original masters are willing to acknowledge the treasonous acts of their heads of house and offer hostages, they will mostly be returned—though, of course, their domains will be significantly shrunken. The lands bestowed today upon the Blackfish and other heroes are all being carved out of the rebels' holdings."
...
That rebellion could be forgiven was almost unthinkable in the modern world, but in the Westeros of A Song of Ice and Fire, this solution was the most appropriate treatment, discussed and agreed upon by all. This bizarre political landscape, where sentiment and reason still played a role, was a distinct characteristic of this world.
The result of this leniency was actually influenced by several factors. First was Littlefinger's flight; his disappearance was as good as an admission that the rumors were true. Thus, the Bronze Alliance, whose rebellion appeared justified and evidenced, naturally won sympathy and support from many quarters.
Secondly, punishments like exterminating an entire house or executing the whole generation... simply didn't work in this era. The great Stag-Wolf-Fish-Falcon alliance had existed for decades from its inception to the present day. During that time, the major families of the Vale had intermarried with Houses Stark, Tully, and Baratheon to varying degrees. To apply collective punishment without limit... tsk, after the bloodbath, there probably wouldn't be a single noble left in Westeros.
These were the explanations Egger thought of for Robert, but the deepest and most important reason was likely that these Vale houses had shed blood for Robert during the Rebellion against the dragons, and the King simply didn't want to drive them to total extinction.
The sound of shattering plates drifted from the great tent where the wedding was being held. Whether the revelry had become too wild or an accident had occurred, Barristan remained uneasy despite the presence of two other Kingsguard beside Robert. Raising his flagon to drain the remaining liquid—completing the task assigned by the King—the old man bid farewell to Egger and Margaery and returned to the tent, his hand resting on his sword hilt.
Beside the bench, only a solitary man and woman remained, yet the atmosphere was anything but romantic.
As the Flower of Highgarden, Margaery had no reason to press her charms upon Egger's cold indifference. Combined with her current dejection, she had no desire for further probing conversation. She glanced at the Watchman and decided to return to her tent to sleep. "The Chief Logistics Officer is occupied with a myriad of affairs; I shall not disturb you further. I will stay in King's Landing for a few days before returning to Highgarden; I shall visit the office then to see this legendary Night's Watch industry for myself."
Egger breathed a sigh of relief. "I look forward to your visit, My Lady."
She held her head high, turned, and walked away without looking back. Her movements appeared elegant and poised, but Margaery's mind was a tangled mess: she had intended to be Queen, but now even the prospect of being a paramount's wife was slipping away. Jaime Lannister, as a Kingsguard, could not marry; Lord Arryn was young, sickly, and not long for this world; Renly Baratheon was intimately close with Loras—and since one Knight of Flowers was enough to secure the Stormlands, offering herself to make it a pair was a massive waste... Could it be that, aside from crawling into Edmure Tully's bed, she could make no other contribution to her family?
Crawling into bed was the ultimate secret technique her grandmother had taught her, one with immense lethality; the Queen of Thorns had used this very move to become a bride of House Tyrell... but using it on Edmure Tully carried a huge risk. If the man harbored a grudge over her previous coldness and rejection and threw her out, she would lose the last shred of dignity as the Flower of Highgarden!
As the most pampered daughter of House Tyrell, when had Margaery ever experienced such a series of rebuffs, where she couldn't even give herself away? In the dim firelight and night shadows, tears of resentment and humiliation glittered in the corners of her eyes. She quickened her pace and soon vanished from the Watchman's sight.
The farce caused by the runaway rumors finally subsided after nearly two months of ravaging the Vale. A single slip of paper had sparked a war; Egger's understanding of the phrase words are fearsome had reached a new height.
However, with the end of the suppression in the Vale and Littlefinger's flight, the power of the story Egger had fabricated was finally spent. The moment of a rumor's greatest power is during its continuous spread and fermentation; once it becomes a reality, it deflates like a punctured ball, quickly softening and vanishing from the public eye.
After all, no matter how terrifying a rumor is, it is at most a wild beast; standing next to a man-eating monster like war, it instantly appears harmless.
The day after the victory feast, the army of eighty thousand scattered like birds and beasts, everyone heading back to their homes. Those who hadn't died set off satisfied on the road back to their farms, leaving only a thousand elites from the Crownlands and the Vale at the foot of the Eyrie, waiting for when Lysa might come to her senses or run out of grain and open the gates.
The King had gathered the armies of six kingdoms to settle your rebelling vassals; even if you were innocent, you should at least show your face to offer thanks and swear fealty... especially since there was a problem. Jon Arryn had been Hand for over a decade; how many people's interests were tied to him? You, as his wife, poisoned him to hide an affair? Even if Robert didn't pursue it, the other Houses wouldn't let it slide.
Among the founders and core members of the Bronze Alliance—the rebel leaders in Robert's words—except for Lady Anya Waynwood, who was ordered imprisoned in the Red Keep due to her gender, more than twenty others were forbidden from ransoming themselves. They had to take the black. With so many nobles filling the ranks of the Wall, Mormont's plight of lacking capable men would surely be eased... Egger handed the matter entirely over to Yoren. With Robert providing a squad of soldiers to escort them to Castle Black, the wandering crow should be able to handle it.
The farce had been massive, and there were still many trivial matters to clean up, but those were of no concern to the Night's Watch. At dawn the day after the victory feast, Egger took his young squire and, along with the disbanded soldiers of the six kingdoms, once again passed through the battered and currently-repairing Bloody Gate, setting out on the road away from the Vale.
After a few days of traveling light, Egger returned to the bustling, life-filled capital of the Seven Kingdoms. Following familiar yet strange paths through twists and turns, he arrived before the doors of the Night's Watch Office he had created with his own hands.
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