The Rebirth of the Dragons - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Benjen Stark. 288AC

Benjen watched the fire as he drank from his cup, he couldn't hear the sounds of men drinking and singing all around him so lost in his thoughts as he was. Jonnel, a man from the neck and the only skinchanger he had amongst his men, had reported that day that his eagle had seen the enemy close to their position, so they might fight a battle tomorrow at dawn. He drank from his cup again, his eyes following the smoke of the fire as it disappeared into the night sky. He closed his eyes in a silent prayer to the gods, asking for strength in the coming battle. He opened his eyes when he heard a melodious voice ask.

"Brooding again?"

He looked to his right, were the question came from, to see Helaena seated by his side.

Benjen doubted a woman could look more beautiful than her in the most finely made dress of silk and myrish lace, much less in the chainmail armor she was wearing now. Her amethyst eyes dancing with a fire the he knew had nothing to do with the one in front of them, her silvery hair shone like the moon above them. He caught himself once again thinking about a future with her, as he started to do a few moons ago, but it was never going to happen. She was the daughter of the first magister of Lys, soon, if the war went according to plan, the first magister of the united three daughters. She deserved better than a sellsword captain.

"Just thinking about the upcoming battle, my lady." Benjen responded with a smirk. Helaena hated when he called her a lady.

"Since you are so worried about the battle, you should be careful during this night, it would be a shame if you were injured before the battle even started." Helaena responded with a smirk of her own.

Benjen chuckled, he certainly didn't doubt her. Every time the two of them sparred he would always end up bruised for days.

"And you shouldn't worry so much about the battle, as my brother said: our plan is a masterpiece."

That was something every single one of the commanders agreed on, the plan was a masterpiece. It was hard to believe it came from the mind of a boy of nine.

Apart from Benjen himself, magister Maegor, Daeron, Aelor, Helaena and many of the other men of Lys that had experience in their many wars in the disputed lands looked at the plan, not a single one of them found any flaw.

Maekar's plan was complicated, but if successful, it would cripple Tyrosh in a single battle. And while finding a battlefield suited to the plan was difficult, they did find one only a few leagues from the lysene border with tyroshi lands.

A short while ago, information was 'leaked' to the Tyroshi Archon that Lys was planning a war and had hired enough men to outnumber the tyroshi forces two to one, among that information was the fact that 50,000 men of the lysene forces were camped in the disputed lands, near the border, just waiting for the signal to attack.

Anyone with a lick of sense with that information in hands would use it to ambush the camped forces, rout a large portion of the enemy army before they have the chance to attack you. And that is exactly what happened, the full might of the tyroshi army, all 45,000 men, marched against them. The enemy scouts would not be contested, they would be allowed to carry their orders and return to their commanders, and they would report to said commanders that the lysene camp was undefended and completely disorganized, a sign of their arrogance, at that point, with that information in hand, anyone would order the attack be carried out.

But the attack would not go as they expected, the enemy would discover their ambush was 'found out' and they would find the lysene forces trying to organize themselves into a battle line. The cavalry would be out of position, on the right next to the large river, instead of the left where they could move freely in the plains, the infantry would be disorganized and still trying to scramble themselves into a formation. Upon seeing the battlefield, and that his ambush was not going to happen, the tyroshi commander would have two options: retreat and be shadowed and harassed by a force of superior numbers, only to later on be caught between two armies as the rest of the lysene forces converged on them, or order an immediate attack on an still disorganized enemy hoping for a quick rout. Every one of the lysene commanders and even the sellsword captains agreed they would order an attack in that situation.

And that is when the true ambush would happen, the reason they trained in the andal highlands for almost a year, so the men could quickly move from a disorganized state into predefined formations, the carefully picked battlefield with the wide but shallow river, that almost wouldn't slow down the cavalry moving in a flanking maneuver, everything was perfect for their side, the battle was won before it even started.

Benjen never realized the power that information, and more importantly, misinformation, had in a war, but he would never underestimate it again.

"True, the plan is a masterpiece, but the enemy will have plans of their own, we should still worry about those." Benjen responded.

"And we have contingencies for everything that could go wrong with the plan. That boy is a fucking genius." Helaena said grabbing his cup from his hand and drinking from it.

"Aye, that he is." Benjen responded chuckling.

They stayed silent for a few minutes, sharing a drink and watching the fire until Helaena said.

"Tell me more about your family. You never said much about them."

"Only if you tell me about yours, a story for a story." Benjen said.

"Deal." Helaena responded with a smirk.

She immediately went into a story of the many pranks she pulled on her siblings, she was the youngest, and as such, had a lot more freedom than her siblings. Benjen knew quite well the freedoms the youngest child had, so he told his own stories of the trouble he and Lyanna got themselves into when they were young. They stayed that way for hours, Helaena talking about her brothers Daeron and Aelor and her sister Rhaenyra, Benjen talking about Brandon, Ned and Lyanna. They talked about their parents and even their cousins, with Benjen saying what little he knew about the children of his aunt Branda, they had never visited Winterfell during his lifetime and he had never been in Amberly, their home in the stormlands, nor had he ever been in any tourney in the south at the same time as them. But Ned and Brandon had and they both said their cousins were good people. They parted ways once it was time to prepare for battle, Benjen was watching Helaena leave when she turned around and said.

"Be careful Ben, i don't want to lose you so soon after we met."

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The sounds of trumpets filled the battlefield was the enemy cavalry charged the left flank of their army, the wall of pikes that was ready to receive the enemy would cause devastating losses on the enemy side, but the weight of the charge could still disrupt their formation.

"Take the archers held in reserve and some of the infantry to the left flank; once the weight of the charge is gone, those horses will make for easy targets for our archers."

Benjen almost didn't heard Daeron give the order, the sound of the enemy cavalry clashing with their left flank taking over the battlefield. As expected, the front of the enemy cavalry was almost completely ripped apart by the pike wall, but the weight of the charging horses eventually won out against the stationary pike wall. At that same time, the field was once again taken over by the loud sound of men clashing against each other as the center and the right flank of the enemy reached their line. The fight of infantry against infantry was a lot different than the one on the left flank, shield against shield, there was a lot less casualties in that side of the battle and every time a man died, another would come from behind and take his place in the shield wall.

In the slightly higher ground that the rearguard was positioned, Benjen could see on the other side of the battlefield the enemy commander giving orders to the men close to him. He watched as all the infantry held in reserve by the enemy started marching towards the center.

"They will try to break the center of our line. Should we send reinforcements?" He heard one of the lysene commanders, a man named Moreo, ask.

"Not yet, our best troops are in the center, they can hold the line for now." Daeron responded.

The enemy cavalry was starting to lose their momentum and it was then that the enemy made their first mistake in the battle. Since coming to essos, Benjen had seen many different styles of fighting and realized that the westerosi way of fighting on horseback was flawed, the dothraki fought by constantly engaging and disengaging, maximizing the mobility and strength of their horses by way of many cavalry charges in a single battle, not to mention the horseback archers, those were a nightmare to fight against. While in westeros, the knights would stay engaged and fight after their first charge, making them easy targets for archers and pikemen. It was the worst way to fight on horseback.

The enemy was using the westerosi way.

It wasn't surprising for Benjen that they were fighting in this way, many of the banners on the enemy side were from sellsword companies made up mostly of men from westeros. They might have the training but in the heat of battle, men would always default to what was common sense. Turning your back to the enemy to try a second charge was not common sense, at least not to men from westeros. They also didn't have the horses to do it, those dothraki horses were amazing.

There was another loud crash as the enemy reserve crashed into their center, the strain on the center started to show almost immediately as the line retreated a little, the battlefield almost resembled a staircase, their left flank, pushed back hard by the cavalry charge, was the closest to the rearguard, the center was starting to lose ground and was second closest, the right flank was right where it started the battle, they could have event pushed the enemy back but they were ordered to hold their ground. The bulk of the cavalry was still behind the right flank, unable to join the battle because of the river, or so the enemy thought.

"Take the rest of the heavy infantry and reinforce the center, now." Benjen heard Daeron say.

The man that asked for it before saluted his commander and went to fulfill his orders.

"Helaena, Benjen, your time is coming soon." Daeron said.

Benjen looked at him, nodded and then looked back at the battlefield. The left flank was starting to gain ground, the archers making a difference against the enemy cavalry. The center had stopped losing ground now that they were reinforced, the elite of their heavy infantry holding against higher numbers.

Benjen looked over the battlefield and could see the enemy commander start to doubt what he was seeing on the field, his plan was quite easy to see now, send a lighter force against the right and try to overwhelm the left and center, enveloping them and trapping the lysene forces against the river, but it was clear for anyone to see that the battle on the right flank was already decided but the lysene forces were not taking advantage of that clear strategic win and were instead holding their ground. The enemy commander had to realize something was wrong by now.

"Send the light infantry to the right and give the order for the cavalry to start their movement." Daeron said to another lysene commander.

"Helaena, Benjen, you know what to do." He said, turning towards Benjen and his sister.

Benjen saluted the older man and then moved towards the small contingent of cavalry that was in reserve as Helaena did the same. Benjen kept his eyes on the enemy side of the field as Helaena gave a speech to the troops, the enemy started to see the movement of their troops and was preparing himself to counter, Benjen could see riders going to the center of the enemy line. For now the plan was working.

The bulk of the cavalry was quickly reaching their position on the rearguard, their movement leaving a lot of dust in the air and making it seem they were on their way to reinforce the left. Once they were close enough, Helaena gave the order for the rearguard to start moving. The two cavalry forces converged in a predetermined point behind the rearguard and then as one started moving towards the right, their movement a long arch, taking advantage of the dust to cover their movements, the wind helping them as it was moving from left to right. When the dust settled and the enemy could see their movements it was already too late; Benjen and Helaena, leading from the front, were already past the right flank of the battle and started making their turn left, the enemy had moved troops from their center to the left and now their weakened center was being pushed hard.

Behind the enemy troops the cavalry split into two, a small force composed of the best fighters amongst their army went north, under the command of Helaena, towards the enemy rearguard; the rest, under Benjen's command, went south, were they would hit the enemy center from behind.

Now with his view of the field clear again, not being impaired by the sides of his helmet, Benjen could see that the enemy center was pushed a lot harder than they expected, forming a gap between the center and the left, he could also deduct that it happened while they were moving through the river, since Daeron was able to take advantage of it and the light infantry that was supposed to cover their movement if the enemy had realized they were flanking right was actually moving left, towards the gap.

The back of the enemy center had finally realized they were about to be attacked, the noise of the battle having covered the cavalry charge up until that point, but now they were so close that the enemy could probably feel the vibrations of the ground. Benjen lowered his lance as the enemy tried to form some kind of defense against the charge, he could feel the men around him lower their lances as well, but his entire world at that moment consisted of the tip of his lance.

He felt his ears ring as his forces crashed against the enemy, his lance hitting the man he was aiming at with enough force to go through him and kill the one behind him as well his lance breaking as it hit the second man, he immediately unsheathed his sword and thrust it down, hitting a man in the neck, the man's blood squirting upwards and hitting his side.

He continued to thrust his sword while his horse still had momentum, some men were able to parry but most went down with others being trampled by his horse. Before his horse completely lost his speed he reign him in an turned back, once he was behind the line of his cavalry he realized his horse was moving slower than he expected, he looked down and saw that his horse was limping, with an injured leg probably from a dented armor. He realized he wouldn't be able to do another charge and looked on the field around him, some of his men were thrown out of their horses, some were able to get back up but most stayed down, most likely dead, and others like him had limp horses, they also wouldn't be able to do another charge.

"Move right." He screamed, although he didn't hear himself very well, he imagined his men also couldn't hear him so he started moving and pointing to the right, his men seemed to get his meaning because they started moving with him.

As he moved towards the right, him and his men killing some of the enemy's men who somehow were able to avoid the charge or other who weren't quite dead yet, he looked north but wasn't able to see anything, the dust in the way blocking his vision, he looked forward and saw that the tyroshi right had fled, the men losing moral after seeing they were completely open to a flanking maneuver, their right flank now marched towards his position, grinning under his helmet Benjen started riding towards them, his men following him, once they reached the incoming men he ordered his own cavalry to dismount their limping horses and join the infantry on foot, he stayed on his horse for now, trying to gather his now retreating cavalry, seeing that they didn't need another charge in the center when he had most of them gathered, he gave his orders.

"Split in two, half goes north the other half hit the left flank." He screamed, he also gave his orders in hand signals, his hearing was still a little weird and he imagined his men's were the same.

He gave command of the men going north to one of his own, the bastard son of lord Ashwood and the men going left were under the command of a sellsword captain of one of the minor companies.

He then dismounted his horse and joined the infantry as they moved closer towards the enemy center. Benjen took a position on the third row of the infantry and as they reached the behind of the enemy center he could still see some of the battle. He was surprised the tyroshi center hadn't broken ranks yet, but it seemed they were quickly moving towards that. The light infantry had crashed into the enemy left and his cavalry was quickly coming from behind, it seemed the battle would be won at any moment.

The two men in front of him had fallen and he was now in the front of the line, pressing his shield against the shield of an enemy and trying to hit anything with his sword, he saw through the enemy's helmet his eyes moving behind him in a look of shock, the man then broke ranks and started running away and he wasn't the only one, the center of the enemy had finally broken.

Benjen looked behind him to see what had spooked the man he was fighting and saw Helaena, still in her horse, riding down the line with the head of the enemy commander held high in her right hand. She had lost her helmet and was covered in blood from head to toe, but to Benjen she still looked beautiful, their eyes met and she winked at him, and then spurred her horse on riding down the line towards the left.

Benjen started laughing as the men around him screamed in celebration.

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The aftermath of a battle is always the worst part of it. Benjen thought, as he moved through the field watching as the men gathered the dead.

The battle ended pretty quickly after Helaena killed the enemy commander, apparently the men was the son of the tyroshi archon so the little over 10,000 tyroshi citizens in the army lost all moral after seeing the man dead. The sellswords, seeing the man that hired them in the name of his father dead, and a portion of the army fleeing the field, were quick to also flee the battle.

Benjen made a face as he passed the body of a man from his company; he had lost men before in the few engagements his company had been in, but those were small skirmishes, nothing compared to the large battle he had just fought in, he knew he must have lost more men than ever before in this battle.

He reached the command tent that was quickly raised after the battle, nodded towards the two men standing guard and went inside and found Moreo to be the only person there. He nodded towards the lysene, receiving a nod back and then seated on the other side of the table inside the tent, they waited in silent for the next hour as the tent slowly filled up, more and more people entering it as time passed, when Helaena entered she sat by his left, her right hand touching his left as it rested on the bench, neither of them said anything to the other, just waiting in silence like everyone else, at the end of the hour Daeron was the last one to enter the tent, followed by a few servants, and everyone was about to stand up when he said.

"We are all tired; there is no need to stand up."

Benjen silently thanked him for that, his body was filled with bruises and the cut on his shoulder was hurting quite a bit.

Daeron seated at the head of the table, he stayed silent for a few moments, looking everyone in the eyes and obviously noticing the four seats that were occupied by someone different, four of the sellsword companies had lost their captains.

"We have the numbers of the battle." He finally said, gesturing for the servants that entered with him to pass some of the papers they were holding.

"Those numbers can still change as these things usually do, but that is the initial count." Daeron said.

Benjen accepted the papers and the goblet of wine from the young boy that offered him; he disregarded the rest of the numbers for now and looked for his company's name.

Company of the Wolf: 202 Dead 14 wounded.

He drank half of the wine in his goblet in a single gulp, he had lost more men than ever before and four and ten were left crippled.

"As you can all see, we lost a little over eight thousand men." Daeron said.

He looked for the number and found it was well, the entire army had lost a little over eight thousand men, he also saw the number next to it and smirked a little.

"The enemy lost around two and twenty thousand men and we captured around six thousand."

His words were met with loud celebration around the table.

"The dead are being gathered, at the end of the day we will perform funeral rites for both our and the enemy's dead. I know there are many different cultures represented here so if you need anything specific for your dead, let me know." Daeron said, his words bringing the room to silence again as everyone mourned their dead.

Benjen had already ordered his men to build a pyre. While in the north the dead were buried in the many barrows that dotted the land, here in essos they didn't have that option so they reverted back to the old first men practice of burning the dead. Most of the men of noble birth still asked that, in the event of their death, their body be transported to the north, to be laid to rest with their families, but the smallfolk were happy with the funeral pyres.

"But tonight we will have a feast, a toast to our dead and a celebration to our living." Daeron said, bringing the mood in the room up a little.

He felt Helaena hand squeeze his own and turned to the left to look at her, she looked him in the eyes and in a low voice, almost a whisper she said.

"I want to talk to you tonight."

He nodded his acceptance and turned towards Daeron again.

"Tomorrow we will march again, the enemy army is routed and they won't be receiving reinforcements anytime soon, our fleet will soon engage the tyroshi one and i am confident they will win their battle like we won today." There was again loud celebration when Daeron said that. "They will then sail to Tyrosh, surround the island and blockade the city, once that is done, we will march to the west coast, land on their island and Tyrosh will fall to our blades." Daeron finished his speech to once more loud celebration.

"If you need anything from me you can stay and we will talk, everyone else is dismissed." Daeron said, dismissing the war council.

Benjen didn't have anything to ask so he left the tent, he had funeral rites to prepare.

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Benjen watched as the last of the bodies were laid in the funeral pyre, all the men of his company that were healthy enough to stand were there to honor their dead, once the last of the bodies was in place, a torch was handed to him and Benjen walked forward, his men watched behind him as he lit the pyre, he walked back to where his men were watching the pyre burn, once again in front of his men, he turned towards the pyre and said the words that were already a custom amongst his company every time they needed to hold a funeral.

"Warriors that are gone, the warriors that stay salute you. Brothers in arms, you are now one with the gods, one day we will see each other again, to share drinks and war tales in death, as we once did in life. Rest well brothers."

After he said his words, he and his men watched in silence as the funeral pyre burned, the fire still burned as dusk started to settle and the light of the day started to fade. Benjen and his men stopped watching the pyre and moved towards the battlefield to conduct the last of their funeral rites, it was once again another thing that only his company did, as far as he knew, but it was also something they were proud of. In every battlefield that they lost men they planted trees, digging the ground with their own hands and planting seeds and saplings that came from the north, every tenth tree would be an weirwood, so that one day, when people passed through the trees, they would know men of the north fought and died in that place.

Benjen planted the tenth tree, the first of the weirwoods, and watched as his men planted the rest, by the end of it, the light of the day was almost over and the fires near the camp were already lit, in preparation for the feast that night. Benjen led his men back to the camp, no longer in silence as his men started telling stories once again, most of those stories were about the men that had died, when they reached camp, he gave command of the men to his second, Artos Cerwyn, the second son of a cousin of lord Cerwyn, and went inside his tent to clean himself in preparation to the feast.

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The feast was in full swing, there was music, laughter and plenty of food and drinks, the men mingled amongst each other, no division between wealth or birth. Benjen could see a man of his company, who he knew was smallfolk, playing some kind of drinking game with a man he also knew was the third son of a magister of Lys. He saw Artos leaving the feast and going in the direction of his tent, two camp followers with him, his arms around their waists. Benjen chuckled to himself, a little over four years since the company was formed and the man must already have bastards all over essos by now.

Benjen drank from his wine and looked at the other side of the camp. He saw Daeron seating in front of his tent, four men with valyrian looks were around him, laughing at something he said. Almost out of his vision, he saw some type of dancing going on in a part of the camp he knew was dedicated to the Children of the Shepherd, a sellsword company from Lhazar. A little to the left of that, some type of ritual fighting was happening in the part of the camp dedicated to the Orphans of Sarys, a company of Tall men freeriders. He turned his head back towards his own part of the camp and saw a few of his men approaching him.

"Join us for a drinking game, captain?" The man in the lead asked, the two men other men with him looked well in their cups already. All three were quite tall, and the huge two-handed axes they had marked them as men of the hill clans.

"Maybe later, i want to finish my own drink before i play any drinking games." Benjen responded, lifting his cup.

"You know, joining your men in their games every once in a while is good for moral." He heard the voice of the person he was looking for say from behind him.

Helaena sat by his right, he looked at her and saw the smirk on her face. She was dressed in some type of chainmail and silk dress, enough to protect her in case of a battle, but still a dress that wouldn't look out of place in any westerosi lady. He was still drinking in her beauty when he heard the man say.

"Let us leave, boys. The Benjen wants to talk to his pretty lady."

He turned to glare at the men put they had already started moving back towards the rest of his men, laughing all the way there. He turned towards Helaena again and saw that she was also laughing at him.

"Now that you are done embarrassing me in front of my men, is there something you need?" He asked, in a fake annoyed voice.

Helaena laughed even harder.

"Benjen, are you forgetting that we constantly spar? I imagine there is nothing more embarrassing than your men seeing their captain being beaten by a woman." She responded, continuing to laugh.

"As for something i need. I told you earlier that i wanted to talk. How are you holding up? I know how much you hate losing men." She asked, her laugh dying down.

"I am a sellsword captain, i know i will lose men every battle, but the knowledge still doesn't make it easier. The night after the battle is always the most difficult, but i will be alright." Benjen responded, his voice in a somber tone.

"I will have none of your gloom tonight, here drink this and let us share some stories again." She said, passing her cup to him and giving him a warm smile.

They stayed the rest of the feast together, they danced, shared drinks and stories, they joined the men in drinking games and friendly fights and they joined Daeron in more refined conversations. Once the feast was dying down and it was time for them to return to their tents, Helaena turned to Benjen and said.

"I think i will talk to my father and your brother as soon as i can. I am tired of waiting for you to do it."

She then got closer to him, grabbed his neck and kissed his lips, and to Benjen, that was the happiest moment of his life.