PROLOGUE

She woke up to the sounds of wind buffeting the wooden stable. Ruined from time and put to the torch by whatever army had walked through, the stable offered little protection but had been the first location in days she could sleep in without the constant threat of Lions or Wolves.

But she escaped the wolves once, and she would do again if she had to.

She climbed out of the muck and rotten slop and made her way towards any direction she chose. She had made her way from the Dreadfort to the Riverlands and she could go all the way to the Arbor if she wanted to.

The wolves had killed each other, because she wanted them to. That soldier had stabbed himself and his horse because she told him to. She told them what to do, and they obeyed.

She sat down and went to sleep.

But the ravens ahead awoke, flying through the skies, telling her of her direction, obeying her every word.

She stood up with new purpose. She walked past the stable, over the ruins and ash, around the stems and branches and roots that seemed too eager to take over where man had failed. She liked trees. As a girl she had prayed to them, the trees with faces. A tree had once beckoned her beyond the wall, in a dream, but that was pointless. Trees were gods in the fool's eyes. She knew the truth though. She was the only God that was needed.
She walked into the forest. There was a man there, hanged from a high branch. His feet were taken off clean, and his hands as well. His clothes were stained with blood and his face was singed. This comforted her. It was every man's fault, what he did to her. Ramsay and his Reek.

There was a bear in the woods. Around 300 steps, but she could sense it.

She told it to leave. It left.

She felt odd when she told them to leave. She felt like she was them. That did not frighten her though. Nothing did. Not Anymore.

She continued walking. She would never stop, not until she got to the dwarf. And he would be the first one to die.