Chapter 75 — The Shape of a Coming War

Rodrick's report was short enough to fit on one sheet of parchment and serious enough that Arlan read it twice. Elton Caron had gathered six southern lords behind closed doors for three days, while Nightsong's smithies worked without pause and grain moved into storage faster than ordinary patrol needs could explain.

The numbers were worse. Elton's private strength had risen from roughly eight hundred men to fifteen hundred, and two hundred Unsullied had been contracted from across the Narrow Sea, according to reports from both a provisioning merchant and a contact near the port. Cade looked up sharply when Arlan summoned the household council. "Two hundred Unsullied?"

"Close enough to plan around," Rodrick answered. "I have two sources supporting the arrival. I would not swear that someone counted every man twice, but the order is real."

Arlan laid the parchment on the table. Elton was not merely replacing losses; fifteen hundred household troops, foreign professionals, opened armories, and accumulated grain meant preparation for sustained force, even if Nightsong continued describing everything as border security.

"The six lords?" Arlan asked.

Rodrick moved one finger down his notes. "Tauha has committed openly enough that I am comfortable saying it. Bryce appears to be following Elton's line. Four others have made no written promise my sources can find, but none warned Storm's End either."

"Waiting to see who bleeds first," Cade said.

"One of the oldest political arts," Rodrick replied.

Elton's bargain explained part of the enthusiasm. He had promised shares in FireStorm's iron, spirits, and glass trade if the coalition helped remove House Ashenblade, which told Arlan that Nightsong no longer regarded the holding as worthless mountain ground.

Its mine, workshops, and trade routes had become prizes worth dividing before they were taken. That made FireStorm more dangerous to attack, because other lords now had something to lose, but it also made the holding more tempting to men who preferred stealing a workshop to building one.

There was more. Elton had sent messages toward the Dornish border and gifts north toward the royal party, while one report placed Caron couriers among men attached to Queen Cersei's household and another suggested he was trying to cultivate Ser Jaime Lannister's favor.

Arlan did not mistake contact for alliance. "Until you have the letter or someone who handled it, we do not say House Lannister is backing him."

"Agreed," Rodrick said. "At present, we know Elton is trying to be heard."

Robert's household was still preparing the journey through the Stormlands. Arlan would not bring an accusation against House Lannister before that court on rumor alone. Rodrick placed a second sheet on the table. "He also wrote to Renly about Brienne."

Brienne's jaw tightened. "What did he call it?"

"A violation of knightly custom, corruption of Stormlands tradition, and evidence that Arlan is surrounding himself with armed outsiders. He describes the oath as a knighting despite the fact that it was not one."

"Convenient," Arlan said.

"Accuracy rarely survives when outrage has work to do."

Renly had neither endorsed the complaint nor publicly rebuked Elton. He had simply set the letter aside, which concerned Arlan more than anger would have because it showed exactly where Storm's End stood while a king approached its gates.

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Renly wanted quiet. Elton remained an entrenched marcher lord whose cooperation mattered, while FireStorm was a small holding that had become inconveniently difficult to crush; expecting Renly to destroy House Caron merely because Elton deserved it would be childish.

Every proposal protected something and exposed something else. Cade wanted one hundred recruits at once and a forward post near Blackstone Creek; waiting would leave the western boundary to farmers and two patrols. Wayne wanted the existing fifty trained before numbers diluted every signal they had built. Morton laid the harvest book open and showed that pulling another hundred able-bodied people from fields, mine works, and carts would reduce grain moved before the weather turned.

Brienne objected to fortifying the disputed water road without witnesses. "Elton wants a picture of FireStorm preparing an invasion. Give him earthworks beyond our clear boundary and he will not need to invent one."

Rodrick wanted the preparations kept small enough that his sources could continue watching without being forced to choose sides. If FireStorm exposed the network by arresting every suspicious courier, Elton would change routes before the real attack began.

Arlan chose the cost he could survive. Cade would screen one hundred recruits, but the first groups remained separate from the existing fifty and trained around harvest hours until danger became immediate. Wayne would prepare marked fallback positions inside FireStorm's recognized boundary, leaving the creek road open to merchants and neighboring witnesses. Bor guarded the mine, glassworks, and distillery with ordinary work crews rather than turning each site into a visible fort.

Morton closed the harvest book reluctantly. "The mine loses two shifts each week."

"Record it. I want to know what readiness costs before somebody calls it free."

Rodrick would watch grain, horses, hired men, and messages between Nightsong and the royal court without seizing couriers. Brienne would draft the warning delivered to any armed neighbor crossing the boundary, plain enough that no later witness could mistake threat for terms.

The decision left fewer hands in production, no fortified claim on Blackstone Creek, and an intelligence route still vulnerable to men they suspected. It also kept FireStorm from answering uncertainty with a public march that Elton could use. When the council dispersed, Arlan entered the locked delivery room to spend coin against the risk he had accepted.

Larry's listing remained available, while Balin Anvil's contact suited a standardized order under Arlan's current permissions. Arlan specified two hundred sets of heavy protective equipment with matching spears, shields, and one-handed axes; ten heavy ballistae; five hundred armor-piercing bolts; and maintenance tools. Balin's completed stock made immediate delivery possible for three hundred gold dragons.

[Order total: 300 gold dragons. Immediate delivery available from completed stock and component stores.]

Arlan read the specification and Morton's reserve figure before authorizing payment. Three hundred dragons bought survival margins for men; it also removed coin that could not reinforce roofs, purchase grain, or open the new iron vein.

Oak chests appeared across the stone floor in ordered rows, each bearing a dwarven anvil mark; Arlan did not immediately distribute them. Cade and Wayne would first select sample pieces for abuse tests against ordinary arrows, spear thrusts, repeated impacts, and forced marches; a salesman's claim from another world was not a substitute for knowing what a man could survive while wearing the thing.

Only after those tests would the equipment be issued by size and role. Nested plates, straps, mail reinforcement, spearheads, and axe heads had been packed by size, while the ballista components occupied the far side of the room in bundles too large for one man to move discreetly.

Three sample harnesses failed the first afternoon's abuse test in different ways. One held against an arrow but trapped heat until its wearer slowed. A shield grip split after repeated wet impacts. One plate skirt caught when a man climbed the quarry slope. The protection remained valuable; the failures determined who could wear it, where, and how the smiths would alter the next issue.

Obtaining equipment was no longer the difficult part. Training men to use it, keeping it repaired, and knowing when lighter gear served better would require more work than paying three hundred dragons. Arlan closed the nearest chest and summoned Cade and Wayne.

"We have work," he told them.

Outside, the smithy fires were already burning. In Nightsong, Elton was preparing for a war he had not yet declared; FireStorm would prepare for the one it could not afford to lose.