Timett son of Timett stood on a ladder, his sword dripping with blood.
"Push!" he screamed. "One more push and the castle is ours!"
The Burned Men swarmed up the walls. The defenders were breaking. Timett could already taste the victory.
Boooo-oooo-oooo-m!
The horn blasted again. Closer. Louder.
Timett froze. He turned his single eye toward the eastern forest.
A massive cloud of dust was rising above the trees, blotting out the sun.
Through the haze, he could almost see... thousands of spears? Banners?
The ground seemed to tremble with the march of an immense host.
"Lowlander reinforcements..." Timett whispered, his face draining of color. "So many... how can there be so many?"
It looked like an army of two thousand men at least. Knights. Heavy infantry.
"Ahhhhhh!" Timett roared in frustration.
"Down! Everyone down!!"
"Retreat!!"
"Follow me!!"
He had been tricked. The Lowlanders had baited him into exhausting his strength against the walls, and now their main force was here to crush him.
Anger filled his chest. Anger at the lies, anger at the stone house he almost had.
But he wasn't stupid.
If he stayed, his depleted, exhausted, wounded band of six hundred would be crushed between the castle and this new army.
The Mountain Clans would be wiped out.
"Move! Back to the mountains!"
The wildlings on the walls heard the order. They saw the dust cloud. The bloodlust vanished, replaced by panic.
They scrambled down the ladders, abandoning the assault.
Inside Deepden, the defenders watched in disbelief.
"Reinforcements!!" a soldier cried. "They're running! The savages are running!"
"We're saved!!"
Cheers erupted from the battered walls.
Lord Lover and Ser Harrold stood stunned.
"Father... whose army is that?" Harrold asked, voice trembling. "It's huge!"
Lord Lover shook his head. He didn't know. But Deepden was saved.
"Should we sally out? Chase them?" Harrold asked eagerly.
"No," Lord Lover said, sheathing his sword. He narrowed his eyes. "Something feels... strange."
In the Eastern Forest.
Solomon's army was running in circles.
"Faster! Kick up the dirt!"
Lauchlan screamed at his men, waving a bundle of branches like a madman.
Three hundred soldiers, along with a few dozen captured mules and sheep, were sprinting back and forth in a clearing. They dragged branches, beat the ground with cloaks, and shouted at the top of their lungs.
The air was thick with choking dust.
"Cough! Cough!"
Soldiers spat mud. They were covered in grime, looking like they had rolled in a pigsty.
They had no idea why they were doing this. But Lord Solomon had just drowned an army with a river. If he said "run in circles," they ran in circles.
"My Lord... cough... what are we doing?" Lushen asked, wiping grit from his eyes.
Bronn leaned against a tree, watching the spectacle with a smirk. He looked surprisingly fresh for a man who had swum through a corpse-filled river.
"Idiot," Bronn said. "Your lord is scaring the savages with a ghost story."
"They think we are thousands strong. So we make noise like thousands."
Lushen looked at him with newfound respect.
Solomon glanced at Bronn. "You think it's stupid?"
"I think it's hilarious," Bronn chuckled. "A bunch of farmers beating the dirt to scare a one-eyed maniac."
"But if I were a savage... I'd attack. Call the bluff."
Solomon shrugged. "Normal people don't think like you, Bronn. Timett is paranoid. He's lost half his men to shadows. He sees monsters in every bush now."
"What if the castle garrison comes out? Or the wildlings charge us?" Bronn asked.
"If they chase us, we run," Solomon said simply. "We're light infantry. We disappear."
Bronn stared at him.
If this works, Bronn thought, this kid is going to be a legend.
Three hundred peasants defeating thirteen hundred savages? Lifting a siege without fighting?
And I... the 'Chief Killer'... I'll be famous too.
Bronn pushed off the tree. "I'm going."
"Where?" Solomon asked.
"Hunting chiefs," Bronn grinned, tossing his dagger. "Timett has a nice price on his head."
"Come back!" Solomon ordered sharply.
Bronn froze. The dagger clattered to the ground. He turned slowly.
"You know the terrain," Solomon said. "Take a squad. Get ahead of the wildlings."
"Make noise on their flanks. Make them think our vanguard is shadowing them."
"Herd them back to the mountains. Don't let them turn around."
Bronn frowned. "And if they catch me?"
"I trust your abilities, Bronn," Solomon smiled that creepy, knowing smile again. "You always find a way out, don't you?"
Bronn scowled. He hated that the kid was right.
"Fine. But this costs extra."
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