Chapter 102 99

The Vale. 298 AC.

Lord Yohn Royce.

Silence settled over the hall. Axel's companions said nothing, out of deference to their liege's own quiet, and the lords, reading the disposition of the Falcon's eye's inner circle, had no wish to break it either. Everyone waited for Axel's response, but he did not hurry to give one. Lord Melcolm ventured to press his point further:

"It would have cost us nothing to crush Stannis. We would never have had to sign this... agreement." No one had been especially pleased with the terms between Axel and Stannis, but no one had dared challenge the decision either. "My lords, Westeros is consumed by war. These fools are tearing each other's throats out and have no attention to spare for us. The rebellion has not inflicted serious damage on our lands, and we can restore order quickly. If we declare ourselves independent, we can fulfill the hopes of thousands of people and restore our former glo..." He was cut off.

"Thank you, Lord Melcolm. I take your meaning." Axel's calm voice brought Melcolm's vision to an abrupt halt.

Yohn looked around the room and found that the great majority of those present showed not rejection but anticipation, a hunger to act. When the dragons had come, the proud lords of the Vale had bent their heads not out of any deep desire to do so. In a single stroke, the banner houses had dropped down the social and aristocratic ladder of power. They had gone from being vassals of kings to being vassals of a vassal, and for a long time they had received nothing good from the dragon dynasty's rule. Yohn was an experienced lord, and at first glance, independence seemed like the logical step.

"The Kingdom of the Mountains and the Vale," Axel said, as if turning the words over slowly. "A kingdom that stood for more than six thousand years, against two hundred and eighty years of Targaryens and less than twenty years of Baratheons. The age of celebrated heroes, of ballads and legends. We do not know whether those times were better than ours or not, but in those days we certainly had more freedom. Lord Melcolm is right that we could have crushed Stannis without difficulty. We could declare independence and for the next two or three years no one would trouble us. It is an excellent option. But not now." He finished with finality.

"My lord, but why? We have a hardened army, abundant food stores, the resources of the entire Vale, the Mountains of the Moon to keep our enemies from reaching us, and your authority is at its peak!"

"The Vale cannot, at this moment, become a separate and self-sufficient kingdom. We are not ready, not politically, not economically, not militarily. Breaking with all of Westeros at once would be foolish, and we have no private arrangements with Essos. Our economy is bound to other regions, and separation would be a heavy blow to it. Militarily the picture is no brighter. Over the course of the entire campaign we lost fewer than four thousand swords. The Tollett ambush cost us eight hundred, five hundred fell at Grey Glen, eleven hundred at Gulltown counting the engagements with Stannis, five hundred in the ambush against me, four hundred in the general engagement, roughly three thousand three hundred in all, though with the wounded the figure is considerably higher. By the Vale's measure, that is an extremely small number, but the men we lost were our finest, our knights. A quarter of all our casualties came from their ranks, and they are our principal strength. Replacing them quickly is not possible. I share the love all of you hold for our homeland and wish it nothing but good. For now, independence is not a benefit but a burden, so let us not speak of it further."

If anyone still wished to argue, they held their tongues. Yohn himself understood and accepted Axel's reasoning. He had addressed only the most obvious problems facing the region, and there were already many of them. Yohn was glad that his nephew had gained the wisdom not to rush his own coronation. What warmed his heart even more was the knowledge that the Vale's future was in safe hands, and the phrase "for now" gave him no cause for concern.

...

Lord Axel Arryn.

The council had been exceedingly productive. When lords are guided toward the right frame of mind and assigned clear, limited roles, they produce, to one's surprise, quite useful advice and observations. To my own regret, my councillors understood the temperament of the Vale's common people better than I did, and they managed to turn a rough draft into a workable plan. Responsibilities were divided, and we parted to carry them out.

Uncle Yohn, Andar, and Desmond would remain in Gulltown to stabilize the situation on the eastern peninsula. There was no shortage of work for them: thousands of refugees, a dozen abandoned towns, hundreds of burned villages. The Grafton domain needed to be restored as quickly as possible. Desmond, for particular reasons, had been placed in charge of the reconstruction efforts. All of my men who had followed us through Essos went with him. House Royce would assist him in this, drawing on my personal funds. Family is family, but one cannot ask men to work for gratitude alone.

Robar, with a complement of men, had ridden out to hunt down deserters from all factions. War, famine, and devastation are the finest fertilizer for bandits and marauders. They had to be put down before they spread across the entire region. The Hunters, the Redforts, the Templetons, the Melcolms, and all the remaining lords were similarly burdened with responsibilities and had dispersed to their own domains.

I myself took three thousand men and rode to put the final seal on the civil war, and to bring the Eyrie back under my authority. Nestor Royce had written that he had secured it after capturing the Rotten Fish and Robert, but after his blunder of allowing the Blackfish to pass through the Moon Gate into the Vale, he had lost a considerable measure of my trust. Three thousand swords would restore my peace of mind and help me deal with the knightly houses in my own domain, for only a quarter of them had fought for me, half for the Trout, and the rest had kept comfortably out of the way. Exile, confiscation of property, execution: it would all depend on the degree of their impudence and the state of my temper.