chapter 43
I leave Ari without tying him to a tree because I am certain he will not gallop away while I´m gone we get to the walls on foot without incident no one has spotted us and the festivities are loud.
Once we are right up to the tall wall Einar the leader of House Stane and two other men start scaling the wall with a large rope tied around their bodies.
The walls on the Dreadfort are old enough so that there are cracks to grab onto but the cold makes it a very dangerous climb, but since we got the best rock climbers from an island of rocks I put my faith in them. My faith is rewarded when I hear a swoosh as the rope has been tied to the top and let down.
I go first my shield, bow, and quiver strapped to my back and my sword and axe on both sides of my hip as I grab the rope and start climbing up. My weapons and my helmet are the only metal I´m carrying on my body.
Once I reach the top I see almost all the men in the garrison are down there partying from my vantage point I see men taking turns raping women, who are most likely prisoners of the fort some of them are screaming but I notice some stopped even making a sound.
I see a couple of displays of flayed men and women tied to wooden posts, lit torches near them to make sure their bodies are displayed properly.
Only a few men are patrolling the walls and those who are I see are also drawn to the sights below instead of us, the real danger sneaking up on them.
I signal Einar and his men to go the right where the lighting is the darkest and quietly sneak up on those patrolling there while I take my bow and nock my arrow and without hesitation start picking off lone guards along the left side of the wall. Since we climbed to the highest part of the wall we remain unseen and have the best vantage point having succeeded in claiming the top of the walls.
I look at all the garrison below about two hundred men out in the open god knows how many there are inside the towers darkly I think to myself that were lucky they decided to torture their prisoners so openly. When we start fighting it will take time for those inside the towers and the main fort to realize that they are being attacked the noise is already so violent and loud, will they even be able to tell the difference? Maybe but it will definitely delay their response.
Now about half our forces have climbed up whisper for all the archers to find their best vantage points on the wall to shoot down at the Bolton men when the chaos starts, I even give Arsa the wierwood bow and tell the archers to keep anyone from getting to the doors and alerting those inside until we barricade them.
"If we manage to clear the yard the only way for the men to come into the yard is through the two towers and the main hall, That other building is the armory so it is unlikely there are a lot of men in there so those three entryways are the priority York, Magnar if we fail to barricade an entrance you will be the barricade understand"
"Aye," They both had fire in their eyes their blood boiling in anticipation of the bloody struggle.
while I take the fiercest warriors to follow me still quiet as death we approach the party Magnar and York on either side of me as we walk down the stairs a Bolton man going up to replace the patrol approaches the stairs I take my axe and throw It at him as a tomahawk before he can realize what is going on.
"Magnar, York you will follow me, we will be the big distraction in the middle everyone else goes on the flanks"
I give my final preparation orders as I make a sprint into the biggest gathering of Bolton men backs turned to us focused on raping of the women waiting for their turn with my longsword I announce our presence by nearly cutting the heads of three men at once but because I did not get the angle quite right the thirds man had his head dangle backward.
Before the men next to them can process what's going on York and Magnar bash and cleave through them, York with his giant axe and Magnar with his Warhammer as the blood rains down and the screams reach my ears. I´m already charging at the crowd of men who quite literally got caught with their pants down but it makes no difference to me as I start mowing them down with my longsword.
After slaughtering the crowd in the middle, we three working together are almost like an unstoppable force who descended on the unprepared I survey the chaos arrows are flying.
I look at the group on the flanks, one flank is already barricading a tower but the other flank is having more trouble as most of the Bolton men were on that side
"York, Magnar you two work together to barricade the entrance to the main hall!"
I yell as I run towards the tower my men are having the most problems with I focus on killing the men around it after almost clearing it the entrance door slams open as Bolton men start pouring out but "shield wall!" I yell to the men forming half a circle of fifteen men around the entrance and let the men on the wall shoot into the circle at the Bolton men pouring out the fighting so intense the corpses start to pile up at the door.
I look around and see it is a success for the most part, the other two entrances are barricaded the doors jammed shut but my side only has a shield wall around like a band-aid but we can make this work.
In the middle of the field there still are Bolton fighting and I focus on them so they can´t hit the back of the shield wall.
fighting in the field I see one of my men falling down on his back after being stabbed in the shoulder and I stab at the neck of the Bolton man before he can finish him off.
"You," I say to the man on the ground. "Go open the gate!" He immediately gets back up and runs to open the gate.
I go back to the shield wall which is down to ten men now, and I insert myself right in the middle shield and sword in hand to make sure not a single man leaving that tower gets past it.
As I´m fighting I see the bodies piled up on the entrance being pulled back in to make way for more soldiers I wonder why no arrows are shooting at the Bolton´s clearing the way until I look to my right to see Arsa here a part of the shield wall, the archers must have run out of arrows and have joined the fight.
"Fight!" I yell as the Bolton men in the tower have cleared the way and are now desperately charging at the shield wall throwing their lives away probably having figured out what our plan is.
I charge my shield forward with all my might making them fall back and cutting down a man to my right who is charging at Arsa a woman and an archer at the shield wall while she is a competent combatant this is not her forte so I charge forward into the circle knowing if they get past we´re doomed and yell again my voice louder than it ever has been "Fight!"
Becoming the focal point In a man-made blockade I start hacking and bashing with my sword and shield all the while I can regularly hear a sword clang off my helmet and feel cuts across my body until I feel someone grab me from behind and pull me back I stop myself from swinging my sword at when I see it was York he is the one who pulled me, I turn my head and see they had reformed the shield wall.
Gasping for breath I regather myself and nod at him standing side by side now at the center of the wall again we keep going not letting up.
Now the tower is truly secured I feel myself about to celebrate until I hear, bang! turning around I see a battering ram blasting open the main hall Bolton men sprinting out barreling over Magnar and towards us.
Shnk! Before they reach us Ari with a rider on it impales the Bolton man leading the pack and behind Ari men are pouring in through the main gate as I look to the sky to see the sun rising over the castle walls.