A Clash of Kings (72 page)

âœou were whoring or wenching. Get on with the tale.â/p>

Edmureâ™ cheeks flamed as red as his beard. âœt was the hour before dawn, and I was only then returning. When Long Lew saw my boat and recognized me, he finally thought to wonder who was standing below barking commands, and raised a cry.â/p>

âœell me the Kingslayer was retaken.â/p>

âœes, though not easily. Jaime got hold of a sword, slew Poul Pernford and Ser Desmondâ™ squire Myles, and wounded Delp so badly that Maester Vyman fears heâ™l soon die as well. It was a bloody mess. At the sound of steel, some of the other red cloaks rushed to join him, barehand or no. I hanged those beside the four who freed him, and threw the rest in the dungeons. Jaime too. Weâ™l have no more escapes from that one. Heâ™ down in the dark this time, chained hand and foot and bolted to the wall.â/p>

âœnd Cleos Frey?â/p>

âœe swears he knew naught of the plot. Who can say? The man is half Lannister, half Frey, and all liar. I put him in Jaimeâ™ old tower cell.â/p>

âœou say he brought terms?â/p>

âœf you can call them that. Youâ™l like them no more than I did, I promise.â/p>

âœan we hope for no help from the south, Lady Stark?âasked Utherydes Wayn, her fatherâ™ steward. âœhis charge of incestÂ.Â.Â.ÂLord Tywin does not suffer such slights lightly. He will seek to wash the stain from his daughterâ™ name with the blood of her accuser, Lord Stannis must see that. He has no choice but to make common cause with us.â/p>

Stannis has made common cause with a power greater and darker
. âœet us speak of these matters later.âCatelyn trotted over the drawbridge, putting the grisly row of dead Lannisters behind her. Her brother kept pace. As they rode out into the bustle of Riverrunâ™ upper bailey, a naked toddler ran in front of the horses. Catelyn jerked her reins hard to avoid him, glancing about in dismay. Hundreds of smallfolk had been admitted to the castle, and allowed to erect crude shelters against the walls. Their children were everywhere underfoot, and the yard teemed with their cows, sheep, and chickens. âœho are all these folk?â/p>

âœy people,âEdmure answered. âœhey were afraid.â/p>

Only my sweet brother would crowd all these useless mouths into a castle that might soon be under siege
. Catelyn knew that Edmure had a soft heart; sometimes she thought his head was even softer. She loved him for it, yet stillÂ.Â.Â.Â

âœan Robb be reached by raven?â/p>

âœeâ™ in the field, my lady,âSer Desmond replied. âœhe bird would have no way to find him.â/p>

Utherydes Wayn coughed. âœefore he left us, the young king instructed us to send you on to the Twins upon your return, Lady Stark. He asks that you learn more of Lord Walderâ™ daughters, to help him select his bride when the time comes.â/p>

âœeâ™l provide you with fresh mounts and provisions,âher brother promised. âœouâ™l want to refresh yourself before─

âœâ™l want to stay,âCatelyn said, dismounting. She had no intention of leaving Riverrun and her dying father to pick Robbâ™ wife for him. R
obb wants me safe, I cannot fault him for that, but his pretext is growing threadbare
. âœoy,âshe called, and an urchin from the stables ran out to take the reins of her horse.

Edmure swung down from his saddle. He was a head taller than she was, but he would always be her little brother. âœat,âhe said unhappily, âœord Tywin is coming─

âœe is making for the west, to defend his own lands. If we close our gates and shelter behind the walls, we can watch him pass with safety.â/p>

âœhis is Tully land,âEdmure declared. âœf Tywin Lannister thinks to cross it unbloodied, I mean to teach him a hard lesson.â/p>

The same lesson you taught his son?
Her brother could be stubborn as river rock when his pride was touched, but neither of them was likely to forget how Ser Jaime had cut Edmureâ™ host to bloody pieces the last time he had offered battle. âœe have nothing to gain and everything to lose by meeting Lord Tywin in the field,âCatelyn said tactfully.

âœhe yard is not the place to discuss my battle plans.â/p>

âœs you will. Where shall we go?â/p>

Her brotherâ™ face darkened. For a moment she thought he was about to lose his temper with her, but finally he snapped, âœhe godswood. If you will insist.â/p>

She followed him along a gallery to the godswood gate. Edmureâ™ anger had always been a sulky, sullen thing. Catelyn was sorry she had wounded him, but the matter was too important for her to concern herself with his pride. When they were alone beneath the trees, Edmure turned to face her.

âœou do not have the strength to meet the Lannisters in the field,âshe said bluntly.

âœhen all my strength is marshaled, I should have eight thousand foot and three thousand horse,âEdmure said.

âœhich means Lord Tywin will have near twice your numbers.â/p>

âœobbâ™ won his battles against worse odds,âEdmure replied, âœnd I have a plan. Youâ™e forgotten Roose Bolton. Lord Tywin defeated him on the Green Fork, but failed to pursue. When Lord Tywin went to Harrenhal, Bolton took the ruby ford and the crossroads. He has ten thousand men. Iâ™e sent word to Helman Tallhart to join him with the garrison Robb left at the Twins─

âœdmure, Robb left those men to
hold
the Twins and make certain Lord Walder keeps faith with us.â/p>

âœe has,âEdmure said stubbornly. âœhe Freys fought bravely in the Whispering Wood, and old Ser Stevron died at Oxcross, we hear. Ser Ryman and Black Walder and the rest are with Robb in the west, Martyn has been of great service scouting, and Ser Perwyn helped see you safe to Renly. Gods be good, how much more can we ask of them? Robbâ™ betrothed to one of Lord Walderâ™ daughters, and Roose Bolton wed another, I hear. And havenâ™ you taken two of his grandsons to be fostered at Winterfell?â/p>

✠ward can easily become a hostage, if need be.âShe had not known that Ser Stevron was dead, nor of Boltonâ™ marriage.

âœf weâ™e two hostages to the good, all the more reason Lord Walder dare not play us false. Bolton needs Frey’s men, and Ser Helman’s as well. I’ve commanded him to retake Harrenhal.”

“That’s like to be a bloody business.”

“Yes, but once the castle falls, Lord Tywin will have no safe retreat. My own levies will defend the fords of Red Fork against his crossing. If he attacks across the river, he’ll end as Rhaegar did when he tried to cross the Trident. If he holds back, he’ll be caught between Riverrun and Harrenhal, and when Robb returns from the west we can finish him for good and all.”

Her brother’s voice was full of brusque confidence, but Catelyn found herself wishing that Robb had not taken her uncle Brynden west with him. The Blackfish was the veteran of half a hundred battles; Edmure was the veteran of one, and that one lost.

“The plan’s a good one,” he concluded. “Lord Tytos says so, and Lord Jonos as well. When did Blackwood and Bracken agree about
anything
that was not certain, I ask you?”

“Be that as it may.” She was suddenly weary. Perhaps she was wrong to oppose him. Perhaps it was a splendid plan, and her misgivings only a woman’s fears. She wished Ned were here, or her uncle Brynden, or . . . “Have you asked Father about this?”

“Father is in no state to weigh strategies. Two days ago he was making plans for your marriage to Brandon Stark! Go see him yourself if you do not believe me. This plan will work, Cat, you’ll see.”

“I hope so, Edmure. I truly do.” She kissed him on the cheek, to let him know she meant it, and went to find her father.

Lord Hoster Tully was much as she had left him—abed, haggard, flesh pale and clammy. The room smelled of sickness, a cloying odor made up in equal parts of stale sweat and medicine. When she pulled back the drapes, her father gave a low moan, and his eyes fluttered open. He stared at her as if he could not comprehend who she was or what she wanted.

“Father.” She kissed him. “I am returned.”

He seemed to know her then. “You’ve come,” he whispered faintly, lips barely moving.

“Yes,” she said. “Robb sent me south, but I hurried back.”

“South . . . where . . . is the Eyrie south, sweetling? I don’t recall . . . oh, dear heart, I was afraid . . . have you forgiven me, child?” Tears ran down his cheeks.

“You’ve done nothing that needs forgiveness, Father.” She stroked his limp white hair and felt his brow. The fever still burned him from within, despite all the maester’s potions.

“It was best,” her father whispered. “Jon’s a good man, good . . . strong, kind . . . take care of you . . . he will . . . and well born, listen to me, you must, I’m your father . . . your father . . . you’ll wed when Cat does, yes you
will
. . . ”

He thinks I’m Lysa
, Catelyn realized.
Gods be good, he talks as if we were not married yet
.

Her father’s hands clutched at hers, fluttering like two frightened white birds. “That stripling . . . wretched boy . . . not speak that name to me, your duty . . . your mother, she would . . . ” Lord Hoster cried as a spasm of pain washed over him. “Oh, gods forgive me, forgive me,
forgive
me. My medicine . . . ”

And then Mae1ster Vyman was there, holding a cup to his lips. Lord Hoster sucked at the thick white potion as eager as a babe at the breast, and Catelyn could see peace settle over him once more. “He’ll sleep now, my lady,” the maester said when the cup was empty. The milk of the poppy had left a thick white film around her father’s mouth. Maester Vyman wiped it away with a sleeve.

Catelyn could watch no more. Hoster Tully had been a strong man, and proud. It hurt her to see him reduced to this. She went out to the terrace. The yard below was crowded with refugees and chaotic with their noises, but beyond the walls the rivers flowed clean and pure and endless.
Those are his rivers, and soon he will return to them for his last voyage
.

Maester Vyman had followed her out. “My lady,” he said softly, “I cannot keep the end at bay much longer. We ought send a rider after his brother. Ser Brynden would wish to be here.”

“Yes,” Catelyn said, her voice thick with her grief.

“And the Lady Lysa as well, perhaps?”

“Lysa will not come.”

“If you wrote her yourself, perhaps . . . ”

“I will put some words to paper, if that please you.” She wondered who Lysa’s “wretched stripling” had been. Some young squire or hedge knight, like as not . . . though by the vehemence with which Lord Hoster had opposed him, he might have been a tradesman’s son or baseborn apprentice, even a singer. Lysa had always been too fond of singers.
I must not blame her. Jon Arryn was twenty years older than our father, however noble
.

The tower her brother had set aside for her use was the very same that she and Lysa had shared as maids. It would feel good to sleep on a featherbed again, with a warm fire in the hearth; when she was rested the world would seem less bleak.

But outside her chambers she found Utherydes Wayn waiting with two women clad in grey, their faces cowled save for their eyes. Catelyn knew at once why they were here. “
Ned?
”

The sisters lowered their gaze. Utherydes said, “Ser Cleos brought him from King’s Landing, my lady.”

“Take me to him,” she commanded.

They had laid him out on a trestle table and covered him with a banner, the white banner of House Stark with its grey direwolf sigil. “I would look on him,” Catelyn said.

“Only the bones remain, my lady.”

“I would look on him,” she repeated.

One of the silent sisters turned down the banner.

Bones
, Catelyn thought.
This is not Ned, this is not the man I loved, the father of my children
. His hands were clasped together over his chest, skeletal fingers curled about the hilt of some longsword, but they were not Ned’s hands, so strong and full of life. They had dressed the bones in Ned’s surcoat, the fine white velvet with the direwolf badge over the heart, but nothing remained of the warm flesh that had pillowed her head so many nights, the arms that had held her. The head had been rejoined to the body with fine silver wire, but one skull looks much like another, and in those empty hollows she found no trace of her lord’s dark grey eyes, eyes that could be soft as a fog or hard as stone.
They gave his eyes to crows
, she remembered.

Catelyn turned away. “That is not his sword.”

“Ice was not returned to us, my lady,” Utherydes said. “Only Lord Eddard’s bones.”

“I suppose I must thank the queen for even that much.”

“Thank the Imp, my lady. It was his doing.”

One day I will thank them all
. “I am grateful for your service, sisters,” Catelyn said, “but I must lay another task upon you. Lord Eddard was a Stark, and his bones must be laid to rest beneath Winterfell.”
They will make a statue of him, a stone likeness that will sit in the dark with a direwolf at his feet and a sword across his knees
. “Make certain the sisters have fresh horses, and aught else they need for the journey,” she told Utherydes Wayn. “Hal Mollen will escort them back to Winterfell, it is his place as captain of guards.” She gazed down at the bones that were all that remained of her lord and love. “Now leave me, all of you. I would be alone with Ned tonight.”

The women in grey bowed their heads.
The silent sisters do not speak to the living
, Catelyn remembered dully,
but some say they can talk to the dead
. And how she envied that . . .

Chapter Forty
Daenerys

The drapes kept out the dust and heat of the streets, but they could not keep out disappointment. Dany climbed inside wearily, glad for the refuge from the sea of Qartheen eyes. “Make way,” Jhogo shouted at the crowd from horseback, snapping his whip, “make way, make way for the Mother of Dragons.”

Reclining on cool satin cushions, Xaro Xhoan Daxos poured ruby-red wine into matched goblets of jade and gold, his hands sure and steady despite the sway of the palanquin. “I see a deep sadness written upon your face, my light of love.” He offered her a goblet. “Could it be the sadness of a lost dream?”