Shipbreaker Bay wound like a lazy silver snake through the fertile heartland of the Reach.
On either bank stretched endless waves of golden wheat and emerald pastures, dotted here and there with villages from which cooking smoke curled.
What should have been a peaceful scene under the Seven's protection was brutally torn apart by the sudden thunder of hooves and clouds of dust.
Ser Addam Marbrand sat his horse on a gentle slope, his cloak snapping in the midsummer wind.
His face beneath his helm was cold as he surveyed the open stretch of Cuy Woods ahead.
Seven thousand Westerlands cavalry spread out behind him. Their horses pawed restlessly and snorted clouds of white vapor, while the faint clatter of metal plates mingled into an oppressive hum.
"Damn these Reachmen. We can't shake them!"
Adam cursed under his breath, looking across the pasture toward the distant white stone arch bridge spanning Shipbreaker Bay.
That bridge was Ashford's throat, and the quickest route in his plan to head north to Bitterbridge and reunite with Damion.
He and Damion Lannister had withdrawn from Highgarden promptly after receiving letters reporting Tywin's death and Viserys's landing in the Stormlands. However, the spoils they had plundered in the Reach required wagons and mules to transport, and that baggage could only travel along the Roseroad.
Damion and Adam thought this would make it easy for reinforcements from the Reach to catch them.
They therefore decided to divide their forces, with Ser Damion leading eight thousand cavalry and the wagons carrying their spoils north along the Roseroad.
Ser Adam would lead the remaining cavalry along the Mander River, ravaging the Reach's rural villages to draw the attention of the reinforcements behind them.
To let Damion get clear as quickly as possible, Ser Adam's troops moved slowly, repeatedly