Chapter 265: Disbanding and Returning Home?
The subtext of letting the clansmen decide was, of course, that Robb was washing his hands of the matter and letting Egger handle it. Though many of his larger objectives remained unfulfilled, Egger had at least secured this bottom line and kept his promise to Asha, which wasn't a total loss—though even if he had broken his word, a prisoner could do little against him.
Watching the Young Wolf's retreating back, Egger suddenly realized: this boy now possessed the true bearing of a Lord.
Status, position, and experience can rapidly transform a person's mindset and way of dealing with the world. This was true for himself, and it was equally true for Robb Stark.
Moat Cailin had surrendered near evening, so the Northern army stationed miles to the south naturally couldn't cross the long causeway to return home immediately. The following day, ten thousand Northern soldiers struck camp at dawn. They spent most of the morning navigating the final stretch of the Neck through Moat Cailin. After a lavish lunch, the victory celebration began in earnest.
Winter was fast approaching, but the temperature here at the Neck—the boundary between North and South—remained above freezing. The Northern assembly point a few miles north of the Moat was a scene of fiery activity. Ten thousand Northern soldiers gathered here; in this familiar and safe territory north of the swamps, the weary men finally let down their guard. They enjoyed fine food, drank deeply of wine, and boasted to anyone who would listen about their campaigns following their lords.
These were veterans who had endured the sieges of the Golden Tooth, Sarsfield, Oxcross, Ashemark, and the Crag, and who had thrice defeated the Reach's rose armies in the field at Crakehall, King's Landing, and Bronze Gate. They had plundered the mines of the Westerlands, enjoyed the glory of defeating world-renowned generals like Randyll Tarly, and had even looted a few Reach villages on their trek back from Storm's End...
The Northmen returned laden with gold, grain, and glory. Though they were several thousand fewer than when they set out, every man who survived was a lucky one.
Given the fact that they had actually participated in the liberation, even the Gift Army led by Egger shared in the glow. While the Night's Watch interfering in internal affairs would be a scandal if leaked, now that Robb Stark had established the official narrative of 'Mountain Clan volunteers' and pointedly ignored the fact that half were Wildlings, the Northmen felt a genuine sense of kinship toward these allies from the Gift. After weeks of failing to storm the fortress, no rational soldier or commander wanted to continue gnawing on a bone as tooth-breaking and meatless as Moat Cailin. The appearance of the Night's Watch and the Daughter of the Kraken, and the subsequent successful surrender, had allowed everyone to breathe a sigh of relief.
The revelry and celebration lasted from noon until midnight. Egger moved through the Northern camp, sharing wine and conversation with countless soldiers and lords, gathering news from their lips. Some of it was unknown to him; some were versions quite different from what he recalled.
Lord Hoster Tully had passed away. Having been bedridden for years and approaching seventy, the news was not unexpected. This meant that Robb's uncle, Edmure Tully, was now the Lord of Riverrun.
The "Last Targaryen," the "Mother of Dragons" Daenerys Targaryen, seemed to be thriving in Slaver's Bay, ten thousand miles away. Instead of becoming mired in difficulties in Meereen as in the original timeline, she reportedly controlled Astapor and Yunkai, forming a sort of city-state confederacy with Meereen. The latest news suggested the Dragon Queen was busy negotiating and skirmishing with external forces trying to help the Great Masters reclaim their cities, seemingly enjoying the chaos.
And as her three dragons grew, the situation was becoming clearer by the day.
The Westerlands had not lifted their gold controls after the war; instead, Tyrion Lannister was using the post-war reconstruction as an opportunity to continue expanding his bank. Barristan Selmy was loyally serving as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard at Stannis Baratheon's side... Without the counsel of these two, Daenerys was actually doing better? Was this Targaryen girl more politically gifted than both of them combined!?
After deeper conversations with soldiers returning from the south, Egger discovered the reason: Petyr Baelish, whom Egger had chased across the Narrow Sea with a single note, had somehow become Daenerys's Hand of the Queen!
There was no doubt that for the task of helping an exiled princess reclaim a kingdom, Littlefinger was more capable than Tyrion and Barristan the Bold combined... but how on earth did this happen?
The world had truly gone off the rails. Egger felt a wave of dizziness, though whether from the wine or the news, he couldn't tell. He soon lost the energy to ponder it further: as more wine went down, the hospitable Northmen became even more enthusiastic, and certain people with low alcohol tolerance were soon slipping into a daze.
After finally escaping a mob of Northern men trying to claim him as a brother, and drunkenly fending off several knights who tried to sneak into his camp to see the Daughter of the Kraken (and perhaps do a few other things), the noisy and chaotic day finally ended.
The next day, the Northern army resumed its march north. Along the way, like a rocket shedding boosters after takeoff, various lords led their respective houses back to their own lands: Manderly, Karstark, Locke, Dustin... House after house, group after group split off from the main force. By the time the column passed Barrowton and neared Castle Cerwyn, the once-massive army had mostly dispersed. Even including Egger's Gift Army and the prisoners, they numbered fewer than ten thousand.
This phenomenon was of much greater concern to Egger than the new Lord of the Riverlands, Tyrion's bank, or even Daenerys. In the south, the war between Stannis Baratheon and the potentially fake Aegon Targaryen continued. Yet Robb Stark was disbanding his army under these circumstances. This meant the Northern forces would not turn back south to defend the Iron Throne after reclaiming their home.
Although Egger believed Varys was the one who poisoned Eddard Stark, on the surface, it was House Tyrell who had murdered the former Warden of the North. Would the "Young Wolf" truly set aside the blood-feud for his father? Would the other Northmen agree? One had to realize that in this era—especially in the vast, sparsely populated North—assembling an army was much slower than one might think. Now that Robb had disbanded the host, even if he intended to recall them, it would take at least a month!
Without the North's participation, and with the Lannisters of the West hiding behind their mountains licking their wounds and ignoring the world... even if the Riverlands and the Vale still supported Stannis, the Royalist strength would not be enough to crush the Reach and eliminate the rebels. As winter descended, the war could not go on indefinitely. Even without a detailed deduction, Egger realized through intuition alone: Westeros was irreversibly drifting toward a split into two parts.
Was this a boon or a bane for his plans? Egger couldn't be sure for the moment, but he was certain of one thing: if Robb Stark hadn't impulsively proposed to the Freys but had instead cautiously and rationally reached out to House Tyrell for a marriage alliance, there would have been no foundation for this war to even begin. Of course, given that he himself had enjoyed the wine, food, and services of the cooks and servants generously provided by House Frey at the victory feast, he had no standing to criticize someone else's choice of in-laws.
Carrying a heavy heart and many thoughts, Egger led his Gift folk in the wake of Robb Stark's remaining army, arriving once again beneath the walls of Winterfell.
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