The Dornish Marches

The longsword was tossed high into the air.

Then cold steel flashed.

The blade, severed in two, fell pitifully onto the Myrish carpet before the desk.

Surprise showed in Titus's eyes. This was his first time testing the sword; he had not expected cutting another sword in two to be so effortless and clean.

Question Jon, understand Jon, become Jon, surpass Jon...

Using a fine sword like this often really did make a man feel fearless.

Titus bade farewell to his predecessor, sheathed Orphan-Maker, and strode out of the study.

Outside Starpike's main keep-Starpike-twenty household soldiers had already formed up under Parker and Bowen's command, quietly awaiting him.

These Peake household troops needed years of training before they were ready, and thus possessed military discipline far beyond that of household guards elsewhere in the Reach.

The soldiers carried spears and wore swords at their hips, and several also carried shields and bows. Their leather armor gleamed in the sun, while pointed composite round helmets concealed most of their faces, leaving only resolute jaws exposed.

As captain and deputy captain of the Earl's guard, Parker and Bowen wore full sets of iron helmets, gorgets, fine mail shirts, mail skirts, and greaves.

Behind them stood the Reach's renowned warhorses, tall and powerfully muscled, pawing the ground and snorting white vapor.

Titus's gaze swept over the Peake soldiers holding twelve-foot spears. He knew that all of them wore boiled leather armor issued by the household.

This hardened leather armor had metal rings sewn onto only its vital areas. Though light and reasonably effective against slashing attacks, it offered rather weak protection against arrows, spears, and other weapons thrusting en masse at vital points.

At present, the entire Peake force was equipped this way.

House Peake was still poor, after all.

Doubting whether his household could scrape together ten thousand gold dragons in cash, Titus considered replacing his men's equipment while giving Ser Robinson and Maester Greg instructions on matters to be handled after he left the castle.

Once he had finished, he turned and walked toward an exceptionally magnificent black horse.

This was Titus's mount, Black Pearl-a name that happened to be shared with the title of the courtesans passed down through generations of House Otherys in Braavos, the most unusual and most powerful port city among the Free Cities of Essos.

Unlike the Highgarden warhorses led by the guards, Black Pearl was a sand steed from Dorne.

Ordinary sand steeds were slender and swift, with fine necks, handsome faces, and graceful builds, closely resembling the Arabian horses of his previous life.

According to Dornish legend, these horses could run for two days and a night without feeling the slightest fatigue.

Their coats were usually bay, gold, or gray, though the skin beneath was always black; the horses needed it to protect their bodies from the scorching desert sun.

Among these warhorses, a pure black coat was already quite uncommon, and one that grew taller than a Highgarden warhorse was rarer still.

Titus planted one foot in the stirrup, pressed one hand against the saddle, and vaulted smoothly onto the black horse's back in one crisp movement.

"Move out!"

Turning his horse, Titus said nothing more. He waved a hand and rode forward at the head of the party.

The magnificent black horse's hooves flew, whipping up a rush of wind as he raced along the paths within the castle.

The guards followed close behind, each with two horses, and the sudden thunder of hooves made the ground tremble faintly.

First, they passed through the Great Addison Gate, named after Big and Little Addison-another pair of warrior brothers from House Peake's ancestral history, skilled in combat-and Titus's party emerged beyond the main keep's walls.

The walls surrounding Starpike formed the inner defensive ring of this peculiar "mountain city."

The outer defensive ring consisted of natural rock faces and a tall, thick wall built from massive stones across the opening on the valley's northern side.

With the advantage of the terrain and its massive walls, House Peake had withstood vast armies here.

Whether the enemy came from the south or the north, rock-solid Starpike had never fallen.

They rode all the way to the outer gate.

Titus squeezed his horse's flanks. Black Pearl threw up his head and neighed, accelerating through the already open Golden Bowl Gate.

Behind him, forty horses surged forward in perfect formation like a tide, following their Earl as he galloped east.

They left the dust rising behind them to drift across the market street that had sprung up outside the gate...

Hooves beat out a powerful rhythm across the open country.

After Titus's party had ridden five leagues east, a dense forest stretched across their path.

This was where Titus Peake and Lora Blackmont had first met.

The party entered the forest of towering ancient trees. The branches of the tall trees intertwined into a canopy that blotted out the sky and sun, allowing sunlight through only in scattered golden flecks. Thick fallen leaves covered the ground, rustling continuously beneath the warhorses' hooves.

Startled flocks of birds kept taking flight through the woods at the intrusion of these uninvited visitors.

As he galloped along, Titus saw a white bird of prey that looked like a falcon circling overhead, seemingly scanning the flocks in flight for its lunch.

A pity he had business to attend to; otherwise, it would have been fine weather for hunting.

By the time they had swiftly crossed the forest, the sun had climbed to its zenith.

Titus ordered the party to slow down and stop for a short rest and something to eat.

He sat beneath a tree, drawing on his past memories as he observed the differences in temperament between the guard captain and his deputy.

Parker was loyal and straightforward, agile, and exceptionally quick to act; Bowen was flexible in handling matters and had fewer scruples, making him suited to dirty work.

The captain and his deputy had quite complementary temperaments.

That gave Titus considerably more confidence.

After all, this journey had been hastily arranged, and they had yet to confirm the precise situation at Nightsong. Even a mighty dragon could not overpower a local snake; they had no advantage in numbers, making the quality of each individual especially important.

Withdrawing his gaze from the two men distributing food, Titus chewed his dried meat and looked east, toward Nightsong.

Nightsong, the ancestral seat of House Caron.

It lay at the southwesternmost edge of the Stormlands, in the Dornish Marches east of Starpike. The castle stood atop sheer cliffs at the northern end of the vast Red Mountains, overlooking the Prince's Pass that led straight into Dorne.

It took the name "Nightsong" because its lofty towers would "sing."

The "Dornish Marches" was a geographical term spanning both the Stormlands and the Reach, and also broadly referred to the extensive regions where those two lands bordered Dorne.

This region consisted of grasslands, plains, wilderness, hills, and marshes stretching for hundreds of miles, along with, of course, the Dornish people's natural barrier-the Red Mountains.

For over a thousand years, war had ravaged the Marches without cease.

The powers of the Stormlands, the Reach, and Dorne had fought over it repeatedly, and only about a century ago, when Dorne nominally joined the Seven Kingdoms, had this situation changed.

Yet the four Dornish Wars, the conquest of Dorne launched by Daeron Targaryen I, the "Young Dragon," and the Marcher lords' Vulture Hunts... all showed that war had never left this land that served as a buffer between the regions.

As the front line of the fighting against Dorne, this land had always suffered from war, and the castles of the Marches were therefore usually famed for their strength... castles whose masonry was insufficiently sturdy or whose sites were insufficiently difficult to assault had long since been stormed and razed.

In such an environment, the lords of the Marches also maintained a powerful military tradition.

Titus did not believe those nobles in the center of the continent, who drank and made merry with nothing but wealth to their names, could survive here.

The Dornish Marches as a whole were effectively divided into two parts.

In the east, the Stormlands lords were, from east to west:

House Swann of Stonehelm;

House Dondarrion of Blackhaven;

These two houses had to hold the Red Watch at the easternmost end of the Red Mountains, a strategic military position guarding against Dornish incursions north, while also watching the lunatics of House Wyl at the other end of the Boneway and their masters, House Yronwood, the "Bloodroyal" and "Wardens of the Stone Way."

House Yronwood was one of the most powerful noble houses in Dorne, second only to House Martell, and its words were "We Guard the Way."

As Sunspear's most powerful vassals, House Yronwood, once the "High Kings of Dorne," had never abandoned the idea of replacing their liege lords. Whenever an opportunity arose, they would try to challenge House Martell's position.

Though not as unwavering in their original purpose as House Peake, House Yronwood had also taken part in three Blackfyre Rebellions over the years.

They were veteran rebels.

It could be said that every upheaval in the kingdom was a carnival for the lesser nobles of each region.

Especially those powerful houses strong enough to challenge their liege lords.

Map of Starpike: