Hugh Hammer (ASOIF/SI)

 A map was spread across the table of the Small Council chamber, it

 covered virtually all the polished surface, and was a detailed

 representation of the northern Reach and the region to the west and

 southwest of Kings Landing.

 Upon its surface were markers and counters representing the forces

 of the Greens and their approximate numbers, the Greens were

 pursuing a strategy of dispersal as opposed to concentration and

 were apparently hiding their forces either within towns or forests.

 Their forces only appeared to briefly concentrate for assaults on

 castles and walled towns. This strategy made the moves

 ponderously slow, but relatively safe from attack by dragons, for

 several weeks now Addam and Hugh had been flying off from the

 Dragonpit at dawn and returning at dusk, or sometimes even later.

 Their purpose had been to find and destroy any of the Greens forces

 they could find, and they had precious little to report on this front.

 To the south of Kings Landing the forces of the Stormlands were

 already massed at the very edge of the Kings Wood, but they had

 proven very difficult to find and root out by dragonfire, and the

 conventional forces available in Kings Landing were certainly not

 enough for the job.

 The Stromlander forces were apparently 'digging in', building earthen

 topped shelters and living quarters, and digging roofed trenches to

 hide their movements. According to their scouts, or at least the ones

 that returned, the edge of the Kings Wood was being turned into a

 vast defensive redoubt, but one carefully camouflaged and hidden,

 dug into the earth as opposed to built upon it.

 From the descriptions it would take a huge force to winkle out the

 Stromlanders if it came to that, and possibly using all of their

dragons to just burn the entire northern edge of the Kings Wood

 indiscriminately. But the weather had been miserable, raining and

 misty almost all the time, the Kings Wood was likely sodden and

 might not even burn that good when subjected to dragonfire.

 But the forces of Borros Baratheon remained barely two, maybe

 three days distant from the walls of Kings Landing, and a threat that

 they could not ignore. But paradoxically one that should it move to

 attack Kings Landing, they could likely destroy with their dragons

 before it made the walls of the city.

 And so the stalemate to the immediate south and west remained,

 while the enemy made its moves to the west, and here their dragons

 were again being stymied by the enemy, though not as thoroughly as

 by those of the Stormlamds.

 For here the enemy had to move, had to come out into the open, and

 had to take territory and positions. But still, the supposed

 advantages of their dragons were not as great as they should have

 been, the enemy was dispersed, they had even taken to only moving

 by night if the latest reports were to be believed. Their enemy would

 post small contingents of men and light cavalry along the routes to

 be taken, sometimes even laying a trail of stakes for the soldiers to

 follow in the dark. And these bodies of moving men would only move

 relatively short distances, often just from forest to forest hiding place.

 And the terrible weather also restricted their dragons, who disliked

 intensely the cold and the rain, and with the constant low cloud the

 ability of their riders to scan great areas of land was restricted to

 barely better than one could see from atop the battlements of a

 good-sized castle or keep.

 Prince Daemon, Addam, Hugh, and a scattering of Vale and

 Crownlander Lords were present in the Small Council chamber, her

 Grace was as usual absent. Queen Rhaenyra had withdrawn from

 the day to day running of the realm since the death of her third son

 and was rarely seen either at Court or even outside of her chambers.

 His suspicions about the eventual fate of their Queen were not his

alone, of that he was certain, but he kept his peace, for Daemon had

 the decisive upper hand currently in the endless power struggles that

 were the reality of ruling the Seven Kingdoms.

 Even in a Seven Kingdoms wracked by war and division, the

 jockeying for position never ceased, something he would have to

 drum into Addam's head, and also Alyn for that matter. Addam was a

 good lad, dutiful and true, Alyn liked fighting a little too much for his

 tastes and showed little sense or care in his dealing with others.

 Both lads would have to be taken more firmly under his wing if they

 were to have much of a chance in the years to come, and especially

 after his death. Addam needed sharpening up and Alyn needed

 tempering, and it would fall to him as their father to do this. Though

 not their acknowledged father of course, in memory of Rhaenys and

 to not give the tattletales and gossips any grist for their mills he had

 claimed them as Laenor's get.

 And Addam needed some toughening up also, the lad had told him

 of what had happened to Ulf, though he had left out the bit about him

 throwing up, that Corlys had heard from someone else in passing.

 That did not bode well for the lad, for spilling blood was a necessary

 aspect of the game that they played here. What was it that Addam

 had said Hugh called it? Oh yes. The 'game of thrones', an apt

 description Corlys supposed.

 Ser Hugh….who had cut open Ulf's belly with a remark that it was

 not personal, only business. That one bore watching, not that he was

 not keeping a very, very close eye on Ser Hugh the dragonrider. He

 knew of the offer that had been made by Daemon to the lad, and that

 said offer was of course contingent on their victory in this war. Which

 despite their current difficulties looked like a reasonable certainty it

 had to be said.

 Which put the recent communications he had received into an

 interesting light now did it not?

 Messages had reached him via circuitous means, purporting to be

 from Lord Strong, informing him of the wish of Lord Ormund

Hightower and Ser Criston Cole to put an end to this war by

 unconventional means.

 'Unconventional means' he laughed silently in the privacy of his own

 head, treachery more like it!

 He knew of the terms that Daemon had sent the Greens recently,

 and of how said terms were designed to be rejected out of hand,

 being little more than a list of insulting and degrading demands.

 Daemon wished to remake Westeros in his own image and to do so

 he needed to remake the Crownlands into a realm capable of

 matching any one of the Seven Kingdoms militarily, without relying

 on dragons. For Daemon wanted to go to war, wanted to conquer

 again and again once this war was over. He wanted the Stepstones

 back and he lusted after Dorne, of that Corlys was certain, and he

 did not want to have to rely upon the Great Lords for support in these

 endeavors.

 The Greens offered him what he already had, the Handship, and

 asked that he not attain or punish them for their part in the war. And

 in return they would ask for assistance in killing Daemon Targaryen,

 while they themselves would dispose of Prince Aemond. Their

 messages indicated that the death of Queen Rhaenyra at the hands

 of Prince Daemon was they believed to be a forgone conclusion.

 To, as they put it 'bind up the woes of the realm' they proposed that

 Prince Aegon, Rhaenyra's 1st son by Prince Daemon, be betrothed

 to Princess Jaehaera. Betrothals had been offered for Addam, Alys

 and Rhaena, good ones too, if the missives were to be believed.

 And what he had to ponder was if this offer was firstly real, and not

 some catspaw trick by Daemon to discredit him, were Lord Ormund

 and Cole in a position to deliver on their side of the bargain and

 thirdly would it be possible for the Greens to dispose of Daemon,

 even with his assistance?

 He did not give any further thought to the life of Queen Rhaenyra, he

 knew Daemon was only looking for a way to dispose of her that did

not bring any trouble for him, that was all that was delaying their

 Queen's demise. It troubled him not in the slightest that he was not

 outraged by these thoughts, their Queen was an obstacle to what

 Daemon wanted, and thus was bound to be removed. Daemon

 wanted power, lusted after power like he lusted after nubile young

 female flesh, and Rhaenyra, for all her talk of vengeance and

 retribution would unlikely to be willing to go as far as Daemon

 wanted.

 And the position of his granddaughter Rhaena also needed to be

 considered, Daemon appeared to have not changed his mind on the

 matter of wedding her to Ser Hugh, a strange consideration given

 how Daemon's own get were now in line for the Iron Throne. He

 would have been sure that Daemon would have immediately decided

 to betroth Rhaena to Aegon, but as of yet the Lord Protector had

 made no sign of doing so. Was Daemon waiting for an opportune

 time to announce this? He did not know; and his agents could tell

 him nothing on this matter, despite him pressing them on this very

 matter. The very fact that Daemon still seemed to be considering

 wedding his granddaughter to a bastard was unsettling enough, but

 the fact that Daemon had not immediately jumped at the chance to

 wed Aegon to Rhaena aroused all sorts of suspicions within him. He

 knew that as the largest supporter of the Iron Throne in terms of coin

 it made him and his as much a trusted ally as it did an enemy of

 Prince Daemon, and that despite the rewards and concessions he

 had wrung and was wringing out of the Iron Throne, a betrothal

 would be seen by many, himself included, as the only just and fitting

 reward for his loyalty. Even if the girl was Daemon's daughter she

 was his granddaughter, and he had a stake in her future, no matter

 what Daemon thought. She was the last legitimate fruit of his blood

 available to him, Addam and Alys, though good enough lads on their

 own, would always have the stigma of their bastardy hanging over

 them. Regrettable for his legacy, but unfortunately unavoidable,

 Rhaena represented his last chance at a true legacy, a legacy with

 one his greatgrandchildren sitting on the Iron Throne. And a legacy

 which Prince Daemon seemed to be determined to deny him…..

He dragged his mind back to the meeting, which had concluded the

 latest round of disposition reports, the only really interesting titbit was

 the march of the forces of the North under Lord Cregan Stark, who

 were making their way south along the Kings Road through the

 Riverlands. Autumnal weather and some issues with securing

 supplies for the march southwards were delaying the northern

 forces, assessed at twenty thousand strong. A strong force, but not

 one that would absolutely tip the balance in their favor against the

 rebels in the Reach or against the Stormlanders, but welcome

 enough all the same.

 When nobody seemed to be willing to make any further comments

 and it was obvious that Prince Daemon was getting frustrated at this

 apparent stalemate Hugh asked for permission to speak, to which

 Prince Daemon replied that as a Dragonrider he needed no

 permission to speak in this company. This caused many of the

 assembled Lords to bristle and from their mutterings and movements

 to consider objecting, but all were at least wise enough to keep their

 mouths closed and not openly challenge Prince Daemon.

 "It seems to me that our enemies have become adept at reducing

 the advantages that we have in dragons, at least with respect to their

 forces in the field."

 "Aye, that is true, but you did not ask permission to speak just to tell

 us that, did you Ser Hugh?" snapped Prince Daemon.

 "Indeed not your Grace, these armies of our enemies are spread out

 all over the map, but most of them are either static or semi static,

 and they are not foraging for their supplies, our spies tell us that.

 Static armies can scour the land clean of supplies in a few days

 often, no, these armies are being supplied with their food and

 fodder."

 "And what of it? No true knight would care for any of this, this

 distraction! We needs march to the Reach and take the enemy in

 battle!" asked one of the Vale Lords, the sneer plastered across his

 face as contemptuous as the tome of his voice.

The room went instantly quiet at this, Prince Daemon's eyes

 spearing the man and holding his gaze.

 "You will apologize to Ser Hugh Lord Darran, or I will send you back

 to the Lord of Ironoaks courtesy of the Silent Sisters!"

 Before the Lord could reply Hugh tactfully continued "Lord Darran

 actually makes a valid point, for a convention army, the supply lines

 of a foe are often beyond their reach, but for an army that has

 dragons, their supply lines are vulnerable. We have been

 encountering ever increasing numbers of scorpions and cross bows

 when we attack the soldiers of the Greens, though so far our

 dragons have only been slightly wounded, but it is only a matter of

 time before either the dragons or their riders suffer a serious injury. I

 propose that instead of attacking the front lines we concentrate our

 attacks along these rivers."

 Here Hugh gestured to the map "these rivers must be being used to

 ferry grain and other supplies to the enemy, then said supplies are

 probably picked up at these towns and villages" here Hugh again

 pointed to the map "for distribution of the armies of the Greens. If we

 fly along these rivers and burn everything along them for say, twenty

 leagues downstream from these points, in a few days we should

 start having an impact on the enemy supply position."

 Lord Darran, through foolishness, pigheadedness' or a genuine wish

 to have his view heard was the first to comment on Hugh's plan "that

 will not win us this war though."

 "No it will not Lord Darran, in that you are correct. But what it will do

 is give us back the initiative and allow us time until Lord Cregan gets

 here. That northern host of his is cavalry heavy, not southern knights

 but the more mobile and swifter northern cavalry. We will starve out

 our enemies and force them to either wither and die in place or move

 out to find food, and if they move the dragons and Lord Cregan's

 cavalry will be perfectly placed to defeat them in detail."

"Ser Hugh's proposals have some merit; I would ask that he has

 words with several of the more experienced Lords and a Maester or

 two to calculate the level of traffic that should be going up those

 rivers to keep the enemy supplied. Then we can calculate how many

 boats and small ships that the dragons need to destroy to be

 effective." Prince Daemon added, dismissing the meeting.

 But before it broke up Hugh added "if there are any bridges over

 these rivers, they should be destroyed also, to further hamper

 movement behind the enemies' positions…."

 "There are a few at least that I know off" he added, "and I'm sure

 there are quite a few more I don't know of. The Maesters will be able

 to give you a full reckoning of all the bridges in the area, they are

 marked on this map, but it is at least fifty years old and probably out

 of date."

 Hugh gave him a bow and left the room, the others all filling out, he

 collected Addam and they headed off to their quarters in the Tower of

 the Hand.

 He had much to think about and ponder, and a decision of some

 note to make.