Emboldened by the victory at Acorn Hall, and barely disheartened by the loss of supplies and the month-long wait, they marched on Pinkmaiden with soaring hearts.
Even his usually calm facade was broken by the sheer enthusiasm. He found himself swept by the emotion that permeated the entire army. At long last, Gideon truly understood how men could lose themselves in war. No matter the terrible cost, no matter the traumatism. It was something greater than him. And even without true allegiance to his cause, he roared alongside his comrades.
He saw Pinkmaiden castle, now no longer a mere dot in the distance. It stood tall. Not a true gargantuan castle like the wolf's den that was Winterfell or the oppressively tall Casterly Rock, still it had some presence. Sitting on a small hill, overlooking the Red Fork and with an impressive host of men defending it.
Even from afar, he could spot the sheer number with relative ease. The twin houses Vance had sent their men from Wayfarer's Rest and Atranta to keep their grasp on Pinkmaiden. They had failed to remain in control of their own keeps in any case, so they sought to at least remain near and keep a force that could, in the event of a definite loss for the Loyalists in the region, allow them to regain their castles and even push for more.
Both sides understood perfectly how vital this western keep was for the war. With the looming lions, neither could afford the other side controlling this specific keep. He reckoned House Piper probably hadn't been considered this important for ages. Still, even with the hundreds of men inside the castle, the loyalists had a force of tens of thousands of motivated soldiers.
And speaking of motivation, he remembered the speech Commander Slade had given to them. This siege could not be allowed to last. Even if they had to heavily damage the walls and the keep itself, it needed to be as swift as possible.
The Loyalists could not allow the Rebels any time to recuperate. And none could truly point out where their remaining forces even were. Reports were quite clear on the matter, the Copper Brotherhood was still out there, with a force large enough to be an actual problem should it have enough time to come to Pinkmaiden's rescue. And everything pointed towards them being able to make it in time.
The month lost due to the burnt supplies had killed the Loyalists' greatest advantage for this siege: speed.
However, there was still a slight chance. The Copper Brotherhood, even with quite a few rebel soldiers in their midst, held no true loyalty to the cause they served. They would not attack if they came to find an already lost battle. They would turn back and regroup with the recuperating forces.
So this was the plan. A thunder assault, swift enough to counter any reinforcements. The castle was no Riverrun, they had trebuchets and a sturdy battering ram. The army was quite obviously large enough to trample these dogs.
They could do it.
That is precisely what he told himself as they approached. Thankfully the clouds were starting to disperse. The rain would not last. He could not help but find a reassuring message in this. The system was turning him into quite the believer. Especially when it came to divine intervention; he was a living proof of it after all.
His ears rang with the sound of shouts and jeers on both sides. They hadn't even reached the castle and they could see the men on the walls already. As would probably become a usual occurrence for the rest of this conflict, he was placed in the vanguard. Surprisingly enough, he found both Constantine and Commander Oswyn with him. The former offered him a small smile when he glanced his way but Oswyn merely glared at him.
It was as though he was ordering him to focus on the coming assault. There was no need to do so. His every thought was concentrated on it. His muscles ached in advance and his teeth threatened to shatter due to the force with which he clenched his jaw.
Beryn had told him sieges were amongst the worst moments in a soldier's life. He could only hope this one would be as swift an affair as the lords had planned it to be.
" Arrows incoming! SHIELDS UP!" Commander Oswyn shouted as he brought his own metal door of a shield upward. Last time he had not wielded this absurdly large slab of metal. In fact, even Lieutenant Constantine had changed his armament somewhat, he now wielded an elegant longsword with a rather small heater shield.
Gideon had already placed his own shield in position, having seen the incoming arrows almost at the same time as the Commander. He missed the way the man's eyes narrowed at the sight.
They continued their march with some difficulty. Whilst they did, Gideon imagined that the secondary army was already reaching its planned position.
Before the siege, it had been decided that a cavalry force would be sitting some distance from the castle, on the northeastern flank of the hill, awaiting any potential sortie from the garrison or any reinforcement from the Coppers.
Beryn probably waited in anticipation with these men. He would miss out on the action, a shame truly. If there was a moment to shine in the hopes of a promotion, this was it.
The battering ram advanced, nestled in the middle of the Vanguard's ranks. Scores of infantrymen kept their shields positioned to protect the few men who pushed it forward. Whilst the ram in itself offered some protection, it only covered the top and not the sides. Skilled archers could easily stop its advance, especially when it would be sufficiently close to the walls. On the sides, several groups held tight on the large ladders prepared for the siege. They were quite sturdy as far as he'd seen, but it still remained to be seen if the walls could be scaled.
But the most important pieces of siege equipment remained the four large trebuchets that advanced almost lazily behind the lines. He could swear with a hand over his heart that he would probably just abandon the defence of the castle if he'd been the one seeing those come up in the distance.
And it appeared that the defenders had really nothing to destroy the trebuchets unless they could sally out and somehow reach them.
'Highly doubt they'd be able to make it that far. Unless the Coppers pull off another miracle, this should be an easy victory. Remains to be seen how costly it'll be.'
As they inevitably approached the walls, the arrows still raining upon them with no indication of ever stopping, Gideon felt…something.
Eyes upon his person. A piercing gaze regarding him coldly. He shivered but held strong as his own sickly pink orbs swept the walls. He couldn't really see anything that stood out. Apart from the numerous archers in a competition to see who could drop him the fastest, there was nothing.
How vexing.
But as always, the system provided. He almost wished it hadn't.
[ A Side Quest has been updated! ]
Side Quest: The Siege of Pinkmaiden
Side Objective n°3: Defeat The Forsaken Knight in single combat.
His eyebrows shot up fiercely.
'The fucking what!?'
That was one terrifying title for a Knight. Was he some sort of Heretical knight? Possibly, but then again, only a few places in Westeros were truly fanatically loyal to the faith of the Seven. He couldn't have received this title from such places as he would have been arrested for being 'Forsaken', whatever this meant. And the rest of Westeros wouldn't comment on his heretical views anyway, least of all the Riverlands or the North.
So he was supposed to defeat some renowned and possibly infamous Knight, in single combat no less. Well, that was one objective he would not be completing. So long as the siege succeeded, he would be fine. The others could handle this threat on their own. He had only begun his journey to become an actual warrior a month ago, this was entirely too early….
Right?
He shook away these thoughts. No sense in getting distracted during this crucial moment.
They'd reached the main gate. He dared to look back and what he saw made bile rise in his throat. Entirely too many corpses, a whole field of them. He supposed that was how sieges went. The main issue was really that they couldn't protect themselves effectively from the arrows from from varying directions all the whilst protecting the ladders, trebuchets and the battering ram.
Thus was the cost. But it felt like ashes smeared on pastry. Was this really going to become a habit, to look back on every inch gained and see just how many men they lost for it?
Again, the length of the war was justified in these moments, even with all the incompetence Edmure Tully was supposed to be capable of mustering.
These dogs…
He saw those around him, equally as afraid as they were pumped to slice into Rebel meat. And the men around the battering ram shook it with such power, he almost imagined those were a dozen Robert Baratheon manning it.
" The ladders! GET UP THIS DAMNED WALL!"
Commander Oswyn shouted not far from here. At the same time, the walls shook, and so did Gideon. The trebuchets had fired. He heard panicked shouts upon the walls. Finally, they'd realized just how utterly fucked they'd be if those trebuchets could continue their work unhampered.
Their own archers fought back, with far less accuracy given their lack of training for the most part, but they suppressed the Rebels quite fiercely. They could not just fire at them half as easily with a hail of arrows blotting out the sun.
He did wonder if this tactic was not a bit too risky, however. Surely with this shoddy accuracy and the fact that their troops were in the line of fire anyway, they would actually be shooting at their own men at the same time.
But he was no officer. He was here to heed orders and take lives. And that satisfied him. Responsibilities were the cemetery of dreams.
But he would not be able to take lives if this damn gate simply refused to cave in. And it would not. And whilst they constantly banged upon the heavy gates, arrows poured out of the murder holes and caught careless infantrymen, one after the other. The majority held strong and simply waited, with their shields in place and a chipped confidence in this whole plan.
Suddenly, he saw upon the walls the mass of archers and knights who had climbed up to meet the incoming Loyalists on the ladders. He saw this mass lose a rather significant portion. A large part of them ran away, but not quite in fright, and Lieutenant Constantine, seemed to immediately catch on to what was happening.
He ordered another soldier to hold onto the ladder, as he himself had been doing until now and began to climb rather aggressively. At the same time, he was shouting at Commander Oswyn to follow him. Gideon caught the words exchanged and froze instantly.
" For fuck's sake, I knew this would happen! They found the digging force! Commander, we need to take those damn walls quickly or they'll collapse the tunnels!"
He looked at the west flank of the castle, where the rest of the Rebels had gone running off to. A droplet of sweat ran down his forehead.
'We were supposed to dig a tunnel under the walls!?'
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A.N: Hey y'all, just wanted to say comments and reviews will be appreciated as like many authors, I function with interaction be it positive or negative. And it also helps me know what I'm doing right and what I'm completely messing up