[Chapter Size: 2400 Words.]
Third Person POV.
Westerlands.
...
...
Chaos took over the castle of the Golden Tooth, of House Lefford, as the defenders tried to fight against the men advancing through the broken gate, flooding the entire castle with battle and death. The enemy was extremely numerous: there were thirty thousand men marching to the West, and the Golden Tooth had been the first target.
Val, who led the men, was on the front line, fighting while continuing to behead her enemies with Nightfall in hand.
When she struggled to fight, being surrounded by enemies, arrows were fired, killing men who could not even see where they came from. They struck their necks, and the bodies fell agonizing to the ground, while Val breathed a sigh of relief and faced more enemies, shouting orders.
"Those two men are going to try to take Val from the side. Kill them." The voice came from above the walls, while none other than Daemon was sitting there on the stones, relaxed, watching the place descend into chaos below him.
His men continued to advance, suffering some casualties, while the castle's defenders died trying desperately to close the gate. But it was already too late: the free folk had surged forward with force after the gates were broken. No one would be able to stop them anymore. It was only a matter of time until the castle was taken, while thousands of men were still eager to enter and fight.
The person who heard Daemon's voice was Ygritte. She prepared the bow, aimed quickly, paying attention to the chaos and identifying where she should loose her arrows. Then she released the bow with full force, hitting the necks of the two men who were trying to take down the enemy commander, Val, easily noticed for being the most active voice on the battlefield.
Jon was not in that battle. He had only broken the gate and let his men do the work. He wanted to test them and left Val in command. He gave only an initial instruction to advance, while he would take care of the rear along with Ygritte. He merely pointed to where she should shoot, attentive to Val so that she would not be hurt, while Ygritte maintained a safe position.
Then, finally, the men began to drop their weapons and kneel after seeing that there were no chances. The Golden Tooth had been surrendered in less than ten minutes of battle.
"Well, we're done here. Let's go."
Daemon rose casually as he moved forward. Ygritte stared at him, feeling that she could not stop herself from watching his back, remembering how he seemed so unconcerned now. It reminded her very much of the man she had known before the wars, now without all that serious aura of a king. Maybe it was because he was not in direct command this time, she thought, as she hurried her steps to follow him.
"Please, my lady, mercy. We surrender." Lady Lefford was in the main hall, before Val, who had her sword drawn, pointed at the ground, watching and staring at the noblewoman responsible for the castle.
Lord Lefford had fallen in battle, by an arrow from Ygritte. The only one responsible for the castle was the lady, who had two daughters and a son of five namedays.
"In fact, it's not me who will choose your fate, woman," Val said, casting a glance over her shoulder. "You need to know what he will decide to do with you." She seemed to know when Daemon would appear, because he did so at that very moment.
Daemon was entering just then, with everyone opening a path for him, beside Ygritte, walking casually. He was not the one who commanded that battle; he only helped break the gate, which had the reputation of being impenetrable. At least Robb had never managed to breach it during his campaign in the south, giving up because it was too draining at the time.
"Your Majesty..." the lady began to tremble upon seeing him, recognizing him. "Ah, yes. You must be the Lady of the Golden Tooth, Lady Lefford. It must be a great satisfaction to serve as the lady of a house like the Lannisters: rich, powerful, and feared," Daemon said openly, his voice echoing through the hall, while everyone watched to see what he would do.
He was certainly mocking her. Everyone already knew of Daemon's declaration against the Lannisters: total war, extermination of the family.
"Please, Your Majesty, we have no choice. We must follow our lord. My husband fought for him, for the oath." The woman began to tremble even more, fearing for the lives of her children after losing the heir and her husband. She could not even mourn, trying to save the last Leffords of her house.
And if she were to place a bet between Tywin Lannister, waiting in King's Landing, trying to cling to a failed lineage to keep a king who seemed nothing more than a coward, while his army did not even come close to what Daemon had created in the North, and the man before her, Daemon Targaryen with a dragon and powers capable of killing and terrifying, the choice seemed obvious. It was not Tywin who had broken the gate with ease. How could she bet on Tywin, when that man could kill them all in vengeance for following the man who ordered the death of his half-brothers?
Daemon stared at her for a long moment, while the woman remained cowering, and his gaze shifted to the children gathered in a corner, looking in fear at their mother and all the men who had invaded the castle.
"Well, you may continue to be the lady of the castle until your son is old enough to rule. But there will be two conditions... First, I want an oath from you and from your son to me... And you will not hinder my army from passing through. I give you my word: if you attack any of mine while they are crossing to the West, I will unleash an attack with Winter and turn this castle into ashes in less than an hour. The Golden Tooth will no longer exist."
He paused. "I am sure you have already heard rumors about small castles in this realm, but you must also have heard of a castle as large and strong as the Dreadfort of the Boltons, which no longer exists. I am open to destruction. So I ask that you keep your word, and I will let your family rule this place during my reign," Daemon concluded, making his intentions extremely clear.
"It will be done, my lord. I swear by the new gods and the old that no harm will come to Your Majesty's army. The Golden Tooth will not interfere," she said, trembling and nervous before the threat.
Either she did what he wanted, or everything would be destroyed. As much as many could see it as pure murder, Daemon had already shown that he was willing to go all the way and not follow the silent rules of the wars of Westeros, and Tywin could use that. She already expected a letter ordering her to do exactly that, to sacrifice them in order to create propaganda painting Daemon as a tyrant... But she did not wish to die just to prove he was wrong. It was not worth it. Her family's castle would be completely destroyed, with no inheritance, no name, nothing left in the end.
"We have an agreement? Great. Then we would like to receive your hospitality. I want a large room for two nights." He asked, and the woman called the castellan and the maester to arrange things for Daemon, offering bread and salt.
Daemon spoke casually again. Quickly, the woman ordered the castellan and the maesters to meet the demands. Daemon organized the army with Val, keeping most of the men outside, while still leaving troops controlling the castle.
He found Val and Ygritte after dinner and ended up slipping out of the castle in secret with his wildling lovers, spending the night under the stars at a nearby waterfall after meeting her with her direwolves.
...
...
"Something wrong?" Val found Daemon beside the running waters, where he seemed thoughtful the next morning.
"Just thinking about what to do. I'll have to go east in a little while," he said, and she raised an eyebrow.
"Something wrong?" she asked, frowning.
"Yes. The attempt on Daenerys's life doesn't come only from that Blackfyre. The Lannisters sent twelve or fifteen ships north mixed with Bolton men... Their intention is to open a path to Winterfell and try to kidnap Daenerys," Daemon said calmly.
"And what do you intend to do?" she asked.
Daemon snorted at that.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to mount my dragon and burn all their ships while they're at sea. That's why I'm going east and I'll be back as soon as I'm done. They won't even know what hit them, and Tywin will wonder what happened."
He returned to the castle with them and, at midday, had lunch there and called Winter after the meal.
The dragon departed with him. In just a few hours, he was already in the middle of the sea, finding the ships that were flying no banners, disguised as merchants. They had no intention of going to White Harbor, but rather of heading to another coast, at Woolfield, freer to dock and reach Winterfell without encountering much resistance.
The only flaw in their plan was that they did not know that Daemon had been spying on them the entire time through his birds, amusing himself with every word Tywin said, claiming that they could handle the Targaryen.
When he sighted the ships, Daemon did not wait for nightfall to have a better attack; he merely made sure there were no other vessels on the sea at that moment and attacked. He simply advanced, and when the white mass was finally spotted by the men, it was already too late.
One by one, the ships were burned. They might not have been aligned like the two fleets he had destroyed before, which made everything easier, but it was still a simple number to deal with.
He left no survivors. All were slaughtered, with Daemon sparing no one, not even those in the sea, freezing them and offering only death.
Without witnesses.
Daemon returned to the West at the end of the day.
The next day, the army continued advancing toward the center of the realm.
It seemed that the entire kingdom was now watching them. They entered Marbrand territory and found only surrender. If the Golden Tooth had been defeated so easily, the Marbrands, who did not have enough men even to hold a siege against thirty thousand soldiers who had proven themselves to be far more than wildlings north of the Wall at that point, would be annihilated unilaterally.
Daemon merely shrugged and ordered his men to advance after the surrender, making them kneel and even swear fealty, declaring Daemon the true king and Joffrey nothing more than a bastard born of incest.
Daemon certainly took pleasure in seeing the houses of the West kneeling one by one and would love to see the old lion's face when the news spread.
The next territory they advanced into was the Sling, which panicked upon seeing the army marching toward its gates.
Upon reaching the lands of the Westerlings on the coast, there was another imminent surrender, but Daemon was not as merciful as he had been with the previous house. He did not do so because of the interruption of Robb's wife and the child she had carried for a time, who had not even properly formed in the womb before being poisoned and miscarried, simply because her Westerling family did not want trouble with Tywin. Moreover, they were directly connected to the Red Wedding.
Thus, when Daemon simply ordered that anyone who resisted be killed as they entered through the gates, the Westerling family panicked, begging for mercy. Some men still raised their swords, realizing that it would not be an easy surrender, and there was a one-sided slaughter among the guards.
Daemon stood with his sword resting on the wood of the execution platform, staring at the people before him.
"By royal decree, I am sentencing House Westerling to destruction. It took part in the Red Wedding, a product of betrayal and an act against the gods. I declared that all families related to it would be punished. Not only the Lannisters, Boltons, and Freys are involved; you also played your part."
He paused, his cold gaze on Jeyne Westerling crying in a corner. She was not on the execution platform out of respect for Robb.
"I may not execute you now, for I will allow Robb to decide your fate, granting you that mercy." Jon stepped toward Jeyne's father and mother in the next moment.
"You conspired with Tywin in the Red Wedding. That is why I condemn you to death," Jon declared.
They screamed, begging mercy for their parents, but Jon did not listen. He merely smiled coldly, raised Dark Sister with a certain grace, and cut one neck at a time.
In the end, they begged for mercy, but Daemon would not grant them that privilege. That day would be marked forever. House Westerling would cease to exist after that.
"Lock Jeyne Westerling in her chambers. She will not leave them. Her meals will be delivered, and she will be escorted to King's Landing. I will let Robb decide her fate," Daemon said firmly.
The woman stared at him with hatred and fear, but he did not care. It was not the first time he had done this, nor would it be the last.
The army advanced the next day, without wasting time, as the fleet awaited them at sea. They passed through Sarfield territory, which, upon learning of the destruction of the Westerlings, attempted to resist, but it was useless. There were all kinds of deaths before the castle finally surrendered completely.
This time, Daemon took part in the battle and personally led the massacre, killing mercilessly, including the son of Lord Sarfield, who did not even have a chance when he raised his sword against him.
Now, the army finally entered Lannister territory. Daemon sent a letter for all seven thousand men at sea to prepare to head toward Lannisport, for the army of thirty thousand men on land was about to join them.
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