CHAPTER 137

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CHAPTER 137

290 AC

POV THIRD PERSON

Lord Stark approached the walls of the keep and cried out as he gasped.

"Lord Volmark, let's not cause more death; surrender to us."

"Will you swear you will spare my and my family's life if we surrender?"

Aermir stepped up and came close to Ned,

"My lord, if we spare their life, the second we leave here, they will not honor their promise and will join up with other lords, and we can't leave men here to hold this position."

"You are right, but we will lose more men if we fight."

He came closer to me and said,

"If Druid is not thinking of returning to help us, I don't want to waste my men's lives when I can prevent the fighting."

Then with a louder voice, he said,

"Lord Volmark, let's talk about your surrender, I might not want to waste precious lives here, but if you act unreasonable, I have no other choice but the break your house."

Aermir thought this was a useless bluff.

"My Lord, they would know you wouldn't do that. They are a zealot bunch. To them, we are insulting their god, and they wouldn't even blink their eyes to die for their god."

Anyone that knew Ned Stark, even a little bit, would know he would never massacre a family, and Aermir knew this wouldn't work.

"I don't need bluffs, Lord Stark; we all know you would never end an entire family. My men do not mind dying while defending their homes against invading forces that insult the Drown God with their presence. If you cannot offer something, we can accept. We do not mind paying the iron price."

Aermir must accept that The Ironborn might be pieces of shit, but they are tenacious shits; they do not give up. The army of the North was stationed in and around the castle, a tent had been prepared for Lord Stark, and Ned was considering how they could circumvent this problem inside the tent. There wasn't much inside the tent; there was a big table in the middle with maps scattered on it. In the corner was a portable bed.

Ned looked at that bed and thought he was already missing his own bed and the warmth of his wife. After a heavy sigh, he turned his attention to the maps. He wanted to achieve an outcome that would cause as few casualties as possible, but they were rebels; he couldn't just leave them as they were, or like Aermir said, they would come after us. Just then, Aermir entered the tent.

"Did you call for me, my lord?"

"Yes, do you intend to act as Druid?"

"No, Druid is only going to act when the king or the Northern army is starting the assault. I am only going to open the gate; I will not do any more fighting than that, but after the fighting, I am going to come and heal all our men. I would have asked to meet with you if you hadn't called for me. My Lord, will you assign me to scout so I can leave the camp as I wish and come back as the druid after every battle."

"Okay, I will do that, but what do you mean, king? How are you going to help him?"

"I have sent one of my familiars that could destroy a castle gate; this way, I am helping him too?"

"But you said you wanted to help the North rise up from its poor state. Why don't you help more in this war?"

"Because this is not our war; it is Robert's war."

Hearing Aermir say that, Ned turned a little sour and said.

"You shouldn't talk like that about your king, you might be a knight, but you are not a titled noble yet. Even then, you can't talk like that."

"My Lord, of course, I will not talk like that in front of someone else, but I trust you. You know that whatever I do, I am doing it for the North. As for our good king, my Lord, please be honest. Did he ever do one thing that would warrant my or northern people's respect other than the fact he is the king? That is why I will show him respect when I am outside, but to people I trust, I am going to state my mind."

"I have never seen a commoner like you; you do not have the engraved obedience they have; you act like everyone is your equal."

"Yes, I am trying to change and adapt the life here, and how I act caused many problems. I even made an enemy out of Lord Glover, but I am getting the hang of it."

Aermir sighed and continued speaking.

"Since I am not going to help as the druid, what are you going to do about Volmarks?"

"If I don't give full pardon, they won't surrender; even if they do, we can't turn our backs on them. If I demobilize their army after they surrender, the soldiers will go to other nobles this time and fight alongside them against us. I have to think more about this."

Aermir thought for a while and said

"My Lord, even if The King executes the Greyjoys. He will not take all the Iron Island nobles' heads. He wouldn't touch people like Volmarks. So, promise that you will protect him, his family, and his land but ask him and his sons to be your guest until the war ends. Ohh, and you can ask them to release the thralls they keep; in the North, we will need a workforce."

"We don't even have enough food to feed our own people, and you want me to take more in?"

"My Lord, if we want to raise the Northern economy, we need a workforce. As for the food shortage, I have some plans for that, and I believe I can get us ready for the next winter. I am sensing this summer is going to be a long one.