The King of Winters

Chapter 90

Argella

Dawn came soon, a dagger of light. Argella woke aching and alone and weary; weary of riding, weary of talks of marriage and war, weary of duty. She wanted go home to Storm's End, back to the Drum Tower where she would dance with the storm and defeat the wind with her arrows, back to the Rainwood where the animals were her friends and the rain her constant companion. She wanted to go back to the apple tree where she had won her knighthood, the hunting trails which had been a part of her life and the crashing waves of the Shipbreaker Bay that break upon Durran's Point. She might never get a chance to see all that again once she weds Andrew Stark. It doesn't matter where I live or what I do, I will always be a Baratheon at heart, she thought.

Outside her tent, men were stirring. She heard the whicker of horses, her mother complaining about the camp followers and ordering the servants, Lord Robin Peasebury sharpening his sword and sharing a laugh with Ser Hugh Herston. Argella wished they could all go back to their homes as well. None of them shared her thoughts though. Even she wasn't so enthusiastic at the thought of staying at home while her father and brothers marched for war. She had been more than happy when they said she would be coming with them as well. As she neared Riverrun however the grave thoughts of future crept in.

It was just the stupid thought of marriage. I should never have agreed to this, Argella thought. She was made to ride free and wild like the storms from the lands she hailed, to be like her namesake, a storm queen. Argella had only wanted to show that she was not afraid of some man wearing a crown, that she was better and braver than her namesake, yet as she closed in even she wasn't free of those bothering thoughts about her future husband. She wasn't afraid of him, Argella told herself. Dragonslayer or not if he thought to keep her cooped up in some tower, she will make him all the more sorry for it.

Her fingers seemed more clumsy than usual as she fumbled on her clothes. Pulling on her bow and quiver across her back, Argella stepped out of her tent.

Outside, Jack was stirring some venison into a kettle, while Herbert sat roasting a quail over a spitfire. "My lady," he said when Argella emerged. "Would you fancy a roast quail to break your fast this morning?"

"I am not feeling particularly hungry this morning, Herbert," she said. "Thank you for the offer."

"As you will, my lady." He bowed his head.

"Found some nettles and brewed a tea," Herbert announced. "Will m'lady take a cup?"

"Yes, with thanks."

She cradled the tea in her hands and blew on it to cool it. Jack and Herbert were men of Storm's End. Argella had known them all her life. She had raced with them in the plains around Durran's Point, hunted with them in the woods around Storm's End and had talked and laughed with them together since she has been a child. As they made their way north, past towns and holdfasts and green and burnt fields, they had seen bands of mailed men more than once, and glimpsed smoke on the eastern horizon, but none had dared molest them. Once Argella had ridden out with Gendry and uncle Renly chasing out some outriders as they were crossing the Gold Road into the southern Riverlands.

Once past the Gold Road, the worst was in sight. The fighting in the Riverlands had been brutal. Remnants of the war could be seen all around once they'd come past the Reach. Only for the past four days, they had seen no signs of war. The King was here they said, the people from the lands as they gazed upon the banners of crowned stag of House Baratheon. Andrew Stark was in Riverrun, that's why there hasn't been any fighting here so close to where the Dragonslayer had made camp.

Argella had not expected to get this far without fighting any opposition. They'd heard of the Targaryen army encamped in Stoney Sept. The scouts had first brought news of them as they were still crossing the Blackwater Rush. That night her father had discussed with his Lords whether they should cross the town or go around it. "The Targaryens are well dug in within the walls of Stoney Sept," Ser Philip Foote who had come to Storm's End as her mother's guard had argued. "We will take many casualties if we are to storm and take the town."