Chapter 31. The King in the North!
Brynden Tully led the vanguard in a night assault on the Lannister camp north of the Red Fork. Robb took the main force, including Lord Jason Mallister's troops and Arthur's Rangers, toward the western camp. The attack came too quickly for the besiegers to form clean lines. Men woke to horns, screams, and horses crashing through tents. A proper camp became a slaughter yard in minutes.
The Lannister men tried to form defensive knots around banners and fires, but the cavalry broke through them before they settled. Knights were dragged from saddles. Men stumbled from bedrolls with swords half-drawn. Fires overturned, spreading sparks across trampled canvas. War at night was confusion with teeth, and the Lannister camps had not expected the wolves to arrive so quickly.
Inside Riverrun, Lord Tytos Blackwood saw the attack and led the defenders out from the walls. The sortie struck the Lannister flank just as Robb's charge hit from the front. The western camp broke first, then the northern camp. On the southern side, Ser Forley Prester saw the shape of the disaster and did the sensible thing. He withdrew with four thousand men before the trap closed around him.
By dawn, the siege of Riverrun was broken.
When sunlight touched the towers of Riverrun, Robb Stark rode into his mother's home surrounded by northern and river lords. Men cheered from the walls. Tully banners flew again without Lannister soldiers camped beneath them. The victory should have brought joy, but the council hall filled quickly with the weight of news carried from King's Landing.
Lord Eddard Stark was dead, beheaded on the steps of the Great Sept of Baelor by order of Joffrey Baratheon. Arthur heard the words and felt his face still. He had known it might happen. Memory had warned him. Still, hearing it as fact changed the thing. Ned Stark, Lord of Winterfell, Warden of the North, a man who had once questioned Arthur beneath cold northern eyes, was dead because a boy with a crown had mistaken cruelty for strength.
The hall erupted. Some men shouted for revenge. Others argued for caution. Lord Stevron Frey advised waiting, letting Renly Baratheon and Tywin Lannister bleed each other before the Riverlands and North moved again. Arthur hated that it made sense. The Riverlands were wounded badly and needed time to breathe.
Lord Tytos Blackwood disagreed at once. He urged pressing the advantage, attacking Harrenhal, driving the Lannisters fully from the Riverlands before they regrouped. Others spoke of Renly, Stannis, alliances, oaths, kingship, law, succession. The hall became a storm of voices, every man certain enough to be dangerous.
Arthur stayed quiet until Greatjon Umber rose and crushed the room with his voice.
"Renly Baratheon is nothing to me. Stannis is nothing to me. We have our own king. Robb Stark. King in the North!"
The shout caught fire. Northern lords answered first. Then river lords bound by blood, grief, or necessity joined them. The cry rose again and again until the hall shook with it.
"King in the North! King in the North!"
Arthur joined the roar because not joining would have been idiotic. Inwardly, he felt no great stirring. Who wore the crown mattered less to him than where the armies marched, where coin could be made, and where Newroot would survive. Crowns made men louder. They did not make grain grow faster or soldiers cheaper.
Robb Stark was hailed as King in the North and King of the Trident. Once the shouting settled, decisions followed quickly. Robb would remain at Riverrun to coordinate the war against the Lannisters. Catelyn would go south to negotiate with Renly and Stannis. Theon Greyjoy would be sent to the Iron Islands to treat with his father, Balon. Envoys would also be sent to King's Landing.
Arthur's mouth twitched when he heard Theon's mission. Sending a hostage raised among Starks back to an ambitious father who hated both the North and the Riverlands sounded like handing a torch to a drunk man in a hay barn and calling it diplomacy. He said nothing. He did not have the rank to save highborn men from themselves.
After the council, Lord Jason Mallister prepared to return toward Seagard, bringing Ser Gawen Westerling as a prisoner from the fighting. Arthur expected to follow. He had no desire to remain in Riverrun as another minor blade waiting to be thrown into whatever problem the new king found next.
Lord Jason had other plans.
"Ser Arthur," he said, "you do not need to return to Seagard with me. Your holdings around Stony Sept need attention. Stabilize the area, gather refugees, restore production, and watch for raids from the Westerlands by land or sea. Seagard will support you when needed."
It was exactly what Arthur wanted, which meant the gods had either become generous or were preparing to charge interest later. He accepted at once.