A Wolf in the Sands

Prologue

They came back as the top of the winter snow was still hard from the cold grip of night. Rode silently with their small entourage through the silent winter town watching them with thousands of eyes and not a single cheer, entered the yard, looking as tiny as they never had in the eyes of the boy watching them from a window at the second floor of the Great Keep before suddenly turning and running downstairs. They had returned. They were back.

Shock jolted him when he saw how aged his father looked. It looked like he had left for Brandon's wedding not a few moons but a few years ago. He had then been accompanied by two hundred of the best men of the North, shining in rich furs and gold, his eyes alight with pride and contentment with the upcoming reaping of all his years of work, with the few white streaks in his dark brown hair only making him look more distinguished; now, he was returning almost alone, covered in snow and mud as if he couldn't have been bothered to change the clothes he had left King's Landing with. His eyes were hollow and red-rimmed, sunken deeply into his gaunt face. On the temples, his hair was pure white. Brandon was changed as well, pale and worn out. From time to time, his hand reached for the sword before his mind remembered that there was no need for him to draw the blade out now.

"Where is Ned?" was Benjen's first question.

"He'll be home in a few days," his father replied.

Benjen didn't dare ask the other question that was searing his chest. While waiting for them, he had planned to ask when he was alone with his father or Ned, out of fear of Brandon's unpredictable reaction. But now, he changed his mind. He'd ask Brandon as soon as they were alone. Pity for his father was a strange, uncomfortable, unwelcome feeling. Rickard Stark had always been the rock in Ben's life, all their lives. It wasn't right for him to look like half an Other.

"You want to ask about Lyanna, don't you?" his father asked when they were in his solar and Benjen knelt before the fireplace to start the fire. "No," Rickard said. "It's fine," he added, although his lips were blue and his hands looked frozen.

Ben didn't dare say anything, he just nodded.

"No one knows where she is," his father said. "They're somewhere in Essos." He paused. "It's a good thing she isn't here," he said bleakly. "I would have done something I'd have regretted till the end of my days."

Any desire Benjen had to defend his sister died under that grim gaze.

"As you know, I swore loyalty to the new king," Rickard said.

The babe. Would Aegon Targaryen turn as mad as his father and grandfather? "I know," Ben said guardedly.

"What you don't know because I didn't want to get it to you by ravens is the deal we struck with the Princess Regent."

Now, Ben fell silent. Brandon's taut jaw told him that the deal in question had been a tough thing for both of them, so of course, it would be not to his liking either.

"She offered me a marriage in the exchange for the Baratheon match that we lost."

Wouldn't Stannis Baratheon accept Lyanna if she reappeared, Ben wondered and then realized how ridiculous it was.

"You know that she was wed before she wed Rhaegar?"

"Yes," Ben said reluctantly.

"Her eldest daughter by the marriage to the Dornish heir, Ilana Jordayne, is eight. In Dorne, there are different rules. One day, the girl will become the Lady of the Tor. I do consider the match right for you."

Benjen stared at him in horror. All the tales he had heard about Dornish people sprang to his mind. Treacherous. Savage. Eating snakes. But he knew better than object.

"There is something else as well," his father went on, as if he couldn't wait to finish and be done with it. "I tried to argue the point but that was something that she would not be swayed from. The Princess insists that you leave for Dorne and squire for her brother, Alor Gargalen. She thinks that's her best chance to assure harmonious life for her daughter."

Now, disgust turned to fear, painful fear. Living in Dorne, with Alynna Gargalen's family, people who would no doubt hate him because of Lyanna… But if that was the price of peace? So many Northern men had lost their lives while Ben, as uncomfortable as it might be, would live, even far away.

"I have no doubt that she'll be terribly spoiled," he said, trying to show manhood and light acceptance.

"Most likely," Brandon said. "But her beauty will be a reward enough. You have seen her mother, she's famed for her beauty… and they say her father was extremely personable. The daughter of that marriage would grow up to be a fabulously beautiful young lady, they say. And she's already started."

Do you think I care, Benjen wanted to scream but he couldn't, not when they were so broken. Do you think I'll be overjoyed by her beauty? I'll hate her face, I'll hate all of her just like they all will hate me…

And then, startled, he wondered if he had said it aloud because Brandon looked at their father and then made a gesture at Ben to stay silent.