The Cockleswent wound through the fertile heart of the Reach like a lazy silver serpent. Golden waves of wheat and green pastures stretched endlessly along both banks, dotted with villages where thin trails of smoke rose from chimneys. What should have been a tranquil scene under the Seven's blessing was torn apart by the thunder of hooves and rising dust.
Ser Addam Marbrand sat atop his horse on a gentle slope, his cloak whipping in the midsummer wind. Beneath his helmet, his face was cold as his gaze swept over the open cedar woods ahead. Behind him, seven thousand Westerlands cavalry spread across the plain. The restless warhorses pawed the ground and snorted white vapor, while the faint clinking of armor merged into a low, oppressive hum.
"Damn Men of the Reach—can't shake them off."
Addam cursed under his breath, his eyes turning toward the distant white stone bridge spanning the Cockleswent. That bridge, the throat of Ashford, was the quickest route north to Bitterbridge, where he planned to join Damion.
After receiving word of Tywin's death and Viserys's landing in the Stormlands, he and Damion Lannister had promptly withdrawn from Highgarden. But the spoils they'd taken from the Reach required wagons and mules to carry, and the baggage train could only move along the Roseroad. Damion and Addam both knew that made them easy prey for the Reach's reinforcements.
They decided to split their forces. Ser Damion, with eight thousand cavalry and the supply train, would continue north along the Roseroad. Ser Addam, with the remaining men, would ride along the Mander, raiding villages and drawing the Men of the Reach's pursuit away. To buy Damion time, Addam's column advanced slowly, looping along the southern banks of the Cockleswent, burning and plundering as they went. The tactic worked. The Reach lords took notice.
The first to discover the Lannister army was Lord Ashford of Ashford. With only about a thousand men, he was in no position to fight back. When he learned his lands were under attack, he immediately wrote to his fellow Reach lords, begging for aid.
Though they had agreed at Highgarden not to interfere in the coming war between Lannister and Targaryen, they could not ignore Lannister forces raiding one of their own. Once it became known that Addam's force numbered under ten thousand, Ser Jon Fossoway was the first to respond.
After the Highgarden council, he had secured rule over the Meadhall, and now held both New Barrel and the Meadhall. Though the Meadhall had been sacked, its countryside remained untouched—Addam's raids were a direct insult to him. Upon receiving Lord Ashford's plea, Jon Fossoway gathered his men from New Barrel and sent his officers to Cider Hall and the now-lordless Highgarden lands to recruit displaced peasants into his army.
Soon, nearby lords from Old Oak and Red Lake joined him. Jon also received a joint letter from Ser Baelor and Lord Paxter Whitt, who sent part of their troops to reinforce him, instructing only that he drive the Lannisters out of the Reach without seeking battle.
Before long, Jon commanded an army of fifteen thousand men. He led them upriver along the Cockleswent to drive out Addam Marbrand.
At first, Addam was unsettled when he saw the Men of the Reach closing in. But he soon realized they weren't pressing the attack—they only wanted to force him to retreat. He understood their intent at once.
Once Viserys finished conquering the Stormlands, he would march north into the Crownlands. Then the Targaryens and Lannisters would clash, and the Reach could profit from their struggle.
Addam gave a cold, contemptuous smile. He had no desire to waste time on the Men of the Reach. He had just received word from Damion—his forces had already crossed the Bitterbridge. Even if the Reach army pursued, they would never catch up.
He planned to head north from Ashford to Bitterbridge, rather than continuing east along the Cockleswent into the Stormlands.
As Ser Addam pondered this, the army passed through a dense stand of birch and cedar trees, and the landscape suddenly opened before them. The white cottages of Ashford Town sprawled across the flatlands north of the Cockleswent River. The winding, tranquil waters separated the Ashford Meadows from the castle of House Ashford and the town itself.
The meadows lay south of the river, while the castle and town stood to the north, joined by a white stone arch bridge roughly thirty feet long and ten feet wide. The flat, verdant meadows on the southern bank served as the common grounds for the townsfolk of Ashford.
In the 209th year after Aegon's Conquest, the Ashford Tournament had been held on these very meadows. It was here that Duncan the Tall and his squire, Aegon V, took part in the tourney that erupted into the Trial of Seven. In 282 A.C., during the War of the Usurper, the Battle of Ashford was also fought here. In that battle, Lord Randyll Tarly's forces defeated Robert Baratheon's Stormlands army, forcing Robert to flee north to Stoney Sept in the Riverlands.
When Addam led the Lannister cavalry into this green expanse, they saw the northern bank of the Cockleswent bridge fortified for war. The bridge's northern end was barricaded with sandbags, chevaux-de-frise, and sharpened stakes, while the white castle of Ashford loomed faintly beyond. About a thousand men of House Ashford stood ready behind the bridge fortifications and makeshift walls, clad in chainmail and armed with spears and bows. Their eyes were locked on the Westerlands host.
"Lord, we have little time left."
Steffon Swyft, heir to Cornfield, rode up beside him. His family's lands bordered the Reach, and they had suffered heavy losses during Gendry's earlier invasion of the Westerlands. His gaze toward the Men of the Reach burned with hatred.
"Jon Fossoway, that green-apple bastard, has been trailing us for two days now. If we delay any longer, things will turn against us..."
Addam raised a hand to silence him. "I know, Steffon. Damion should have already crossed the Bitterbridge safely with the spoils convoy. Now it's our turn to shake off these buzzing flies. Go. Tell the bridge garrison to open the way. We're only passing north, leaving Ashford untouched. But if they dare to resist... once our army crushes this bridge, we'll mount their heads on pikes for all to see."
A fierce glint flashed in Steffon Swyft's eyes. He spurred his horse, galloping down the slope with several retainers at his side. They thundered toward the bridgehead like arrows loosed from a bow.
He reined in his horse just outside arrow range and shouted to the knight standing atop the bridge fortifications, the sigil of House Ashford emblazoned on his surcoat, repeating Addam's command.
"Pah!"
The knight spat a wad of phlegm in disgust, then bellowed back with contempt, "Lannister lackeys! Did you speak of honor while you burned and pillaged the Reach? The whole Seven Kingdoms know you for treacherous beasts! You'll only cross Ashford over our dead bodies!"
Steffon's face turned dark red as his hand went to his sword hilt.
Addam watched from the slope, realizing negotiation was useless. Without hesitation, he drew his longsword. The blade flashed cold beneath the overcast sky.
"First squad, dismount and raise your shields! Take that bridge!"
Addam's roar echoed across the battlefield.
The signal flag rose. Hundreds of Westerlands cavalrymen dismounted at once. Heavy iron-rimmed oak shields slammed to the ground, forming a solid wall of steel. With synchronized, thudding steps, the iron hedgehog began to advance toward the bridgehead.
"Fire! Kill them!"
The knight of Ashford's cry rang with grim resolve. A dense storm of arrows shot up from behind the bridge's fortifications, their shrill whistle cutting through the air as they struck the Westerlands' shield wall.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Most arrows glanced off the heavy shields or buried themselves in the wood. A few found their mark through narrow gaps, followed by muffled groans and the sound of soldiers collapsing.
The Westerlands formation wavered for a heartbeat before pushing forward again, driven on by the officers' shouts. The shield wall rolled across the grass before the bridge like an advancing tide.
"Hold steady! Spearmen, prepare!"
The voice of the Ashford knight was hoarse, trembling with tension.
Just as the Westerlands' shield wall came within twenty paces of the palisades, and the spearmen braced to countercharge—
"Woo—woo—woo—"
A deep, resonant horn blast erupted suddenly from the cedar woods behind the Westerlands' flank.
Addam Marbrand turned sharply, his pupils contracting in shock!