Davos Seaworth felt like a scrawny sheep caught between two lions.
His arrival was like a stone cast into stagnant water, stirring ripples far more turbulent than he had imagined.
"Your Grace!"
He dismounted and, without even pausing to catch his breath, dropped to one knee in the mud a hundred paces before Stannis's lines.
His voice was earnest.
"Lord Lynn!"
He turned toward the other side and inclined his head slightly, offering the courtesy of a commoner to a lord, neither servile nor arrogant.
Stannis's cold, hard face grew frostier still at the sight of Davos.
"Davos Seaworth, you dare show your face before me."
"Your Grace, I did not come to beg your forgiveness." Davos raised his head, worry etched across his weathered face.
"I came for Westeros, for the countless innocent lives on this land."
He rose and turned toward Lynn, then Stannis, spreading his arms as though his own body could separate the two sides poised for battle.
"Both of you, stop!"
"Winter is coming, and the long night stretches ahead. Westeros cannot withstand another bloody civil war!"
"We should unite to stand against that long winter night."
"The North has already proven its strength. Lord Lynn has protected his people."
"Your Grace, Stannis, you are King Robert's own brother, the rightful heir to House Baratheon."
"Why can't you both give a little ground?"
Davos's voice rose with emotion.
"Let the North be independent!"
"Let the Neck mark the border. The King in the North will swear fealty to the Iron Throne, but pay no taxes and owe no military service."
"Better the Seven Kingdoms become six than the whole kingdom turn to ashes in the fires of war!"
To Davos, this was the most reasonable proposal possible.
It acknowledged Lynn's absolute rule over the North