A/N: I know daily updates! Crazy! I am a good way into the story though. If I do stall at any point it will probably go back to every other day but I'm good at the moment! Enjoy this one anyhow!
Please let me know what you think.
:)
Seven
Karina
I missed him. It had been a week and I missed him. It wasn't just the feeling of having my naked body pressed against his, or the feeling of him pushing me to a pleasure that was indescribable. It was more, it was so much more. His smile. His laugh. The way he said my name just right. Even the way his eyes couldn't keep away from my chest whenever they fell on it. I missed everything about him and it hurt in ways I could never imagine. When I had drank the moon tea the day after he left I had almost broken down in tears. Horrible thoughts flooded my head as I sat there trying not to succumb to my emotions. What if he died? What if he never came back and I had just flushed away any hope of keeping a part of him?
I knew I couldn't allow a child to take form inside me though, it wouldn't be fair on any of us and it would hurt more people than I could even think of. Guilt slowly began to eat away at me the longer Theon was gone, I hadn't even thought about what I had been doing when I went to his tent that night. I just knew that I needed him to come back and I also knew that I wanted him; that resisting him and ignoring my feelings had become impossible. My promise to my father was broken, my honour was gone and it could never come back and that was what I regretted the most. I didn't regret giving myself to Theon, I could never regret that, but I had looked my father in the eye and made him a promise and the fact that I had broken it hurt more than I could have imagined.
Somehow I'd managed to carry on as normal, Coran didn't seem to keep so much of an eye on me anymore as Theon had gone. If he was still being more watchful I had no doubt that he would notice something was wrong with me. I could admit I missed Theon if I had to, my brother wasn't stupid, he knew I had feelings for Theon, but I knew I could never tell him that I'd acted on them. How far it had gone. He would never forgive me if I knew and I would never be able to forgive myself if that happened.
Robb
We were slowly making progress through the Westerlands, we had picked off several Lannister hunting parties as we made our way towards the coast. The Crag was our target, a small hold that were sworn banners to the lions, soon it would be ours, our foothold in the west to show Tywin Lannister that we were a serious threat. It wouldn't take much to overrun it, the Westerling's were a noble family but they were poor and had few men. Many of the Lord's thought that they may even willingly open the gates and surrender, I wasn't quite so hopeful, I doubted they would give up so easily and risk Tywin's wrath.
It would take us another few days to reach the Crag and in the mean time I just tried to keep my mind away from my father and my captive sisters. I would do anything to get them back, anything at all, except release the Kingslayer as my mother wanted. She was convinced that we could get them back with an exchange but I refused, I didn't believe that the Lannister's would honour any deal we struck with them. Besides, now I had been declared King I had more to think about than just my own family; thinking about being King made my head hurt and I shook it, trying to forget the whole thing. Eventually I would have to accept it, to embrace it. For now though I was happy to ignore it and just focus on the war.
"Is everything alright your Grace?" Olyvar asked from my side.
"Would you do me a favour?" I replied, turning to look at him.
"Of course your Grace," he answered at once.
"Call me Robb," I said and he smiled.
"Right enough," he said and I smiled back as we continued riding further west.
Theon
No.
He had said no.
It had been that simple and that sudden. There had been no affection in his cold eyes when I walked into the hall where he was sat. The hall I hadn't entered in so many years, not since I was a little boy. I waited for some recognition from him that I was his son but none came and my heart dropped, knowing then that this would not end as I had hoped. I tried anyway, I put across Robb's proposal and he had laughed at me. There was no humour in it though as he fixed me with his soulless eyes.
I didn't recognise him any more than he recognised me.
Whoever this man was he was not my father.
Asha hadn't been any friendlier but at least she had acknowledged that I was family and had offered to show me up to a room. A room, she had said. Not your room. I didn't belong here, that much was obvious. I belonged back in the North, I belonged with the Stark's and with Karina, the memory of her warm body entangled with mine the only thing that was bringing me any comfort on this Gods forsaken rock.
I hadn't even been allowed to see my mother. She was sick, my father told me, seeing me might make things worse. That had stung but I already knew better than to argue with him. When I'd asked Asha about her she had avoided my eyes and quickly changed the subject which just made my apprehension and unease grow even further. I had to get out of here, I was doing no good here doing nothing when I could be helping fight the war.
"Theon? Father would see you," Asha's voice roused me as I stared out over the waves.
"Really?" I questioned as I turned to her, seeing her smile faintly at my surprised tone.
"Really," she confirmed before turning and walking towards the keep.
I followed her progress, my heart pounding as I thought about what he wanted. Perhaps he had changed his mind. Perhaps he realised that helping Robb, that allying with Robb, was the best course of action. I let myself hope as I followed Asha into the hall, bowing shortly as she did before my father and standing patiently to wait to hear what he had to say.
"Who are you boy?" he asked.
"Theon Greyjoy," I said at once, unsure where he was going with this.
"Who are you?" he repeated again, his cold eyes boring into mine.
"Your son," I tried and something like a smile spread across his face.
"Are you a soft Stark boy?" he asked me then.
"No," I said, not daring to say anything else.
"Prove it," he hissed.
"How?" I asked him, my heart pounding, whatever this was it wouldn't be good.
"You're going to sail to the North … and you're going to take it," he spat.
Jeyne
The Stark banners were fluttering in the distance, I could see them from my rooms as I gazed out towards the east. We hadn't expected to get dragged into the war like this and yet here we were, for some unknown reason the Stark heir had come to take the Crag, our small insignificant home. My father had ordered the men to fight at first but then he had realised it was no good. He sent me and my siblings to our rooms while he gave the order to surrender, it was pointless losing any more men. Perhaps the Stark heir would be more likely to show mercy if we gave up willingly. I shuddered at the thought of what he could do to me, of what any number of his men could do to me if they were so inclined. Women suffered most in war, I many only be a girl of fifteen but I knew well enough what happened to women at the hands of their enemies.
"Jeyne!" it was my brothers voice calling and I turned from the window as he burst through the door.
"What is it?" I asked Raynald at once.
"Stark's hurt, they need you to help tend him," he told me in a hurry.
"Why would I help?" I questioned him incredulously.
"Because his men are roaming the Crag, and if he dies there will be no one to keep them in check," he told me and I understood the underlying meaning.
"How bad is it?" I asked, moving towards the door.
"Just an arrow graze across his ribs, but it needs dressing," he said, leading me down the hallway.
The man that had named himself King in the North was being housed in our finest guest rooms which irritated me slightly as Raynald gestured for me to go in. I did as he bid me and stopped dead as I took in the appearance of the Stark boy. I was shamed to note how handsome he was, even with the grimace of pain that graced his features as he sat on the edge of the bed, a man pressing a blood soaked rag to the wound in his side.
"My Lord," I said, he may have named himself King but this was not the North.
"My Lady," he responded, pain underlying his soft, northern tones.
"May I see?" I asked, gesturing to his side.
"Olyvar, let her see," he said to the man with the rag.
"Yes Robb," Olyvar agreed at once and I tried to hide my surprise at his informal words.
I moved to take Olyvar's place then as he moved away, kneeling at the side of the bed and touching my fingers ever so gently around the skin of the wound, trying to see without aggravating it how bad it once. Stark inhaled sharply as I examined him the best I could, it didn't seem to be a bad injury, just a glancing blow really, he was lucky. The blood made it seem worse than it was, often it was the smallest of cuts that bled the most.
"It's little more than a graze, it won't need stitching, I will clean it and dress it," I told him.
Robb
She was beautiful.
I couldn't help but notice that as she swept around the room, arranging bandages and preparing hot water so she could cleanse the wound in my side that she had instructed me to hold a clean compress to while she readied everything else. I had dismissed Olyvar and her brother had left of his own accord which I was glad of. All my attentions could be on her now, on the way her shiny chestnut curls tumbled down her back, the way her hips swayed slightly as she walked. Her deep brown eyes that were almost black and the fullness of her ruby lips, lips that were just begging to be kissed.
I shook my head then as she came towards me, her expression neither warm nor cold. I wondered what she thought of me, I was her enemy after all and yet here she was having to tend to me. She knelt on the bed next to me then and her fingers brushed mine as she went to move the compress away from my side. The contact send tingles rushing down my spine and I moved my eyes to her face, she was looking to my wound not to me but I could see the light blush that had risen in her cheeks. Had she felt it too?
Jeyne wasn't the first beautiful woman I had ever encountered but she was the first one I had ever thought seriously about kissing, about touching, about joining myself completely with. She was the most alluring thing I had ever set eyes on and I cursed myself and my mother for the stupid deal she had made to cross the Twins, the stupid deal that I had agreed to. Had I known what was here waiting for me at the Crag I would have found another way, I would have marched hundreds of miles along the banks of the Trident until the water level was low enough for us to cross. If only I had known, if only someone had told me about Jeyne Westerling.
Her chest was right under my nose now, the tips of her long curls brushing against the bare skin of my chest as she bent over to clean and dress my wound. I couldn't help but stare at her breasts, they weren't large but they were more than a handful I would guess, trying not to imagine gently caressing them, kneading them in my hands as she moaned out beneath me. The thought of her naked made me want to blush, I had never seen a naked woman; I had always assumed I wouldn't until my wedding night. Now though I wanted nothing more than to move my hand from my side and to the lacings of her dress and rip the silky material from her.
Without thinking I let my hand move, not to her ties but to the ends of her hair, hesitantly letting my fingers twirl one of the curls. It was as soft as I had imagined it to be and I felt the desire pulse even higher through me. How was it she was having this effect on me? She had barely spoken to me and yet I wanted her so badly I was almost willing to forget the marriage that had already been arranged for me. Roslin Frey. Perhaps I should have asked Olyvar about her, she was his sister after all. He could have put my fears about her aside, he could have made me excited about marrying her. It was too late now though as Jeyne's hands brushed my bare skin again as she bandaged the wound, her arms wrapping around my torso so she could pull the length of bandage around me. I somehow resisted pulling her against my chest, it took all of my self-control but somehow I managed it.
Eventually she tied the bandage and moved away after a moment, was it my imagination or did she linger longer than was strictly necessary? When she pulled back I realised I still had my fingers twirled in the ends of her hair, she looked at me then, those dark pools dragging me in. Inviting me to swim. To drown. It would be so very easy to tug lightly on that lock of hair, to encourage her forwards, to press my lips against hers. I toyed with her hair a moment longer, her eyes still fixed firmly on mine as I did so. Finally I let it go and she shifted from the bed at once.
The moment was gone.
How I wished I could have it back.
Karina
Being stuck in the camp while the others were at the Crag was driving me mad, Robb was injured and I wanted desperately to go and tend to him. The messenger he had sent though assured me that it was not a bad wound and that I was best staying in camp with those soldiers who really did need me. I wished they would come back soon though, Lady Stark was acting oddly and I wasn't sure what to do about it. She had been behaving strangely ever since she had come back from treating with King Renly, whose death she had witnessed. She had arrived just before the battle for the Crag and had spoken to no one but Robb and the large, blonde warrior woman she had brought back with her. Renly's death was rather a mystery but it wasn't one I was bothered with solving as I walked up and down the rows of stretchers, tending to any man who looked as though he needed my attention.
When I was done I wandered outside and up the small hill to the west of camp from which there was a beautiful view of the sea. The sun was setting when I reached the top and let myself slump to the ground to regain my breath from the climb. I looked out over the sea as the final rays caught the surface of the water beautifully. Theon was out there somewhere, somewhere hidden amongst the waves was Pyke. I wondered if he was thinking of me, if he was gazing longingly out over the waters and thinking of me. I ached for him, but I knew even when he came back it wouldn't be the end of it, that things would never be simple for us. Us. Was there an 'us'? Did he think of me and him as an 'us'? Or did he think of me and him as me and him? Was I just a girl, a girl who was there, a girl to take pleasure from in comfort one last time before he sailed off into the unknown?
Tears stung my eyes then. I didn't want to be that girl but I knew Theon well enough to know that there was a damn good chance that I was. In an instant I was on my feet, I wasn't going to brood about him anymore, I was done with brooding about him. When I stamped back down into camp it was in uproar, men flying each and every way, some even mounting horses and riding off in all directions into the night. For a second I thought that we were under attack but I dismissed it at once as I saw a crying Lady Stark being led into her tent by two guards. I wanted to demand to know what they were doing with her but before I could my eyes landed on the cage where the Kingslayer had been.
The cage that now stood empty.
I stared for a moment, a sick feeling creeping into my stomach as all the pieces slotted together.
Coran
I had a thirst on thanks to the little blonde serving girl who had been all too eager to satisfy my every want. Meghan her name was and she had worn me right out, climbing astride me stark naked and fucking me so hard the bed had slammed against the wall. I'd had her several times more after that in several different positions and now she was passed out on my bed, her body completely and utterly spent. I pulled on my trousers and boots then and went for the door, thinking that I would head down to the kitchens and find me a flagon of wine, the Gods knew I could use it. When I got down there I quickly found what I was looking for and took my time in drinking a good cup of red. It wasn't quite Dornish but it hit the spot well enough and I knew after a few more I would sleep just as well as the curvy little blonde in my bed.
I replayed my time with her again in my head as I wandered back towards the room I had been housed in, raised voices catching my attention though as I walked across the main entrance hall. I approached them instead and found the Greatjon looking troubled as a messenger fled out of the main door.
"What is it?" I asked fearfully, nothing that made fearless Jon Umber look troubled could be good.
"The Kingslayer's been released," he told me, his tone dark.
"You mean escaped?" I questioned, surely no one would have let him go on purpose.
"I mean released," the Greatjon spat.
"By who?!" I asked, my heart pounding, who in the name of the Gods would do such a thing?
"Lady Stark," he said grimly and I could do nothing but stare.
I wasn't quite sure how I managed to find myself walking towards Robb's rooms, unable to believe that I had actually volunteered to tell him what his own mother had done. When I knocked on the door I found myself hoping that he wouldn't answer, that he would be asleep, that I would at least have until morning to think up some words to explain it to him. I had no such luck though, his voice calling for me to come in. After a hesitation I did what I was bid and let myself in.
Robb was sat up against the pillows with only a few candles for light as he pored over a smaller version of the map of Westeros that he kept in his main command tent. I swallowed hard as he looked up and smiled at me, this was the last thing in the world that I wanted to do. The last time I had felt this nervous was before I had warned Karina that she shouldn't be getting herself involved with Theon. That conversation had gone better than I'd anticipated, I hadn't ended up with a black eye at least. Somehow though I knew that this one probably wasn't going to go quite as smoothly.
"Is something wrong?" Robb asked, no doubt sensing my apprehension.
"We've had a message from the camp," I grimaced and he stared at me, his map forgotten.
"What's happened? Who …?" he started and I knew he was thinking more of his family were dead.
"The Kingslayer has been released," I told him quietly, cutting his question short.
"How can he have possibly escaped?!" Robb raged then and I cringed, the worst still yet to say.
"Not escaped Robb, released," I stressed and he stared at me.
"Who?" he asked, but I could see it in his eyes that he was already thinking the worst. He knew.
"Your mother," I told him.
A/N: So I've introduced Jeyne! A new pairing to keep you occupied while Theon and Karina are apart!
Thoughts on her?
I know a lot of people hate her, but call me a romantic (or stupid) but I do genuinely think she loved Robb.
Her mother on the other hand ... don't even get me started!
Anyway, hope you enjoyed!
:)
