Hey everyone,
This chapter is a pivotal one for the story and it took me a few weeks to write, edit and re-edit. It is my longest chapter yet! (I am a bit proud).
Please enjoy my version of events and this chapter!
Chapter 12: The Red Weddings
A few weeks later ….
Main Hall, Eastern Castle, the Twins, Northern Riverlands
Kenna sat at the high table clapping as Lord Edmure pledged himself to Roslin Frey. He looked quite smitten with her. Good for him, thought Kenna testily as she stabbed at her now cold food. Kenna was under no illusion that she would be smitten with her soon to be husband. Edwyn Frey, great grandson of Lord Walder Frey was a dull man if the past hours of his company were to be an indication of his future company. There was only so many times the tax system of bridge tolls could be a fruitful conversation. Kenna had filled his wine goblet up a few times hoping he might reach the point where he would become so drunk he might shut up or fall down some stairs and die. Either scenario Kenna would be happy with.
"My Queen, won't you join me in having some wine," Edwyn slurred.
"As I said before, I don't partake in drinking wine or ale," Kenna replied with all the civility she could.
Edwyn Frey had all the markings of a Frey, a pale complexion, a hooked nose, leering eyes, a thin frame, and no regard for personal space. The only redeeming characteristic was that he was the same age as Kenna. But at this point Kenna would have preferred an old man that might have died within a few years.
Kenna filled Edwyn's goblet up again as he tried to engage in another money related discussion. Luckily Ser Bryden Tully the Blackfish intervened by offering his hand for a dance. Kenna quickly accepted and the Blackfish whisked her away to the dance floor where many Northerners and Tully men were enjoying themselves. The Freys seemed to be avoiding the dance floor in the middle of the hall. They probably don't know how to dance or enjoy themselves, thought Kenna. Kenna's thirty odd Arryn guards were spread throughout the hall watching her movements like hawks on the hunt. None so more than Jasper who wore a dispassionate look on his face as he observed all the festivities.
"Not getting any last minute thoughts of doing a runner are you?" Bryden asked with a hint of a chuckle on his lips. "I am sure your flock of guards would be willing to carry you away in a heartbeat."
Kenna rolled her eyes at him as they followed the steps of the dance. "I had thought about murdering my way out of this marriage but Walder Frey seems to have a legion of sons that would serve as replacements," Kenna said when in a close embrace.
"I would advise again killing your Frey husband until we have defeated the Lannisters and Tyrells. Once that is done I'll pass you the dagger myself. But until then try to put a smile on your face. It currently looks like a slapped cow's arse, no offense your Grace" he said into Kenna's ear.
Kenna was about to refute that claim vigorously when the Blackfish twirled her and she got a glimpse of the hall. The Freys seemed to be everywhere, watching and waiting. Once the world had stopped spinning she was faced with Lord Umber who winked at her and offered his hand. Kenna released Bryden's hand, who gave her a little bow before he walked off to re-join the Tully men at the back of the hall.
The charms of the Northern Lords had started to wear off on her. She rather enjoyed their vulgar tongue and unabashed manners instead of the fake politeness of King's Landing and the snobbery indignation at the Eyrie.
Kenna let Lord Umber swing her around the dancefloor. By no means was Lord Umber a graceful dancer but every movement was filled with joy and drunk enthusiasm. Kenna genuinely smiled for the first time on her wedding day as she was flung around the dance floor passed from one Northern Lord to another until her hands were held by the King in the North.
"Your Grace, you look beautiful. I hope you are enjoying your wedding," Robb's rich baritone voice filled Kenna's ear.
"I fear I won't enjoy it as much as you enjoyed yours, your Grace," Kenna replied with a hint of jealousy.
Robb's hands tensed around Kenna's and he said in a low voice, "I love her and she loves me. She is with child and I won't apologise for the outcome of my actions."
Robb and Kenna gracefully performed the steps of the joyous dance as if they weren't having an intense conversation each time their head came close together. The Frey's watched each movement with eagle eyes.
"Yes and I am paying for that love," Kenna said while holding Robb's gaze. His eyes expressed sorrow for the position Kenna was in but not regret at his actions.
Would it be unqueenly for me to kick the King in the North in his southern region? Kenna questioned herself.
The music quietened at that moment and Lord Walder Frey's breathy voice filled the void. "We have had one wedding, and probably one bedding by now heh, it is time to have the another."
Lord Royce would have been the obvious choice to give Kenna away but he wasn't at the Twins. The man that would give Kenna away was the very same man that had forced this marriage on her. Robb Stark took Kenna's arm and guided her to the waiting Edywn Frey in the middle of the hall. Each step filled Kenna with more dread at what was about to become her new reality. I could still turn and run. I could just leave. No. A leader does what she must, not what she wants. Robb passed her to the waiting Edwyn Frey.
A high septon started the marriage vows once Kenna was beside her husband-to-be which Kenna and Edwyn dutifully repeated word for word.
High as Honour, Kenna kept thinking to herself throughout the ceremony in case her previous thoughts of escaping this wedding became actions.
Robb took his seat of honour beside his mother and watched as Queen Kenna Arryn married Edwyn Frey. He thanked all the Gods there were that he had avoided this fate.
The Freys were miserable people and he was extremely happy with his own wife and soon to be born son, or daughter if Talisa was right. Once the ceremony was complete the River Lords and Northern Lords gave a drunken cheer of "Queen over the Mountains, Queen over the Mountains," as if the new King over the Mountains didn't exist. He might not have to Kenna, since she hadn't so much as given him a glance since the ceremony had started. The Arryn contingent clapped but their demeanour was better suited to a funeral than a wedding.
Robb exchanged a look with his mother as they watched the hoard of Frey men carried Kenna of out of the hall, tearing at her dress as they went. It looked like she had an annoyed expression on her face, or it could have been outright rage, but there was no stopping that many Frey men as they rushed her away. Old Walder Frey must be very keen to get a royal grandchild or would it be great grandchild, mused Robb. It was hard to keep track of the Frey lineage due to there being so many of them. The Frey women feebly pushed Edwyn in the same direction that Kenna had been taken in. Both parties were followed by the unarmed Arryn guards despite some Frey men trying to block their path. They were easily shoved aside by the stone faced Arryn guards. The Frey men shot worried looks to Walder Frey but Robb and Catelyn were too busy enjoying the spectacle of the wedding celebrations to really notice the interaction.
With both weddings complete and oaths restored it was time to enjoy the rest of the night. Robb turned and smiled at his wife noticing how she rubbed her tummy. Things were swinging back in his favour; he just knew it.
Meanwhile Kenna had been deposited in a large bedchamber, her dress was ripped and torn but still intact. Bruises were starting to form all over her body where the Frey men had manhandled her. Fucking brutes the lot of them, Kenna brooded. She made her way to the desk that was opposite the bed and leaned on it hoping that by some miracle her husband had gotten lost on his way to her.
The door to the bedchambers was quickly opened and Edwyn Frey was practically thrown into the room by his female family members. He managed to remain on his feet but was swaying as he stood in the middle of the bedchamber with his glazed eyes darting between Kenna and the bed.
Kenna wasn't a young girl she knew what happened next. She just couldn't believe it would happened with a Frey. As High as Honour, Kenna reminded herself as she watched her husband make his way on unsteady legs towards her. Once he had made his way over to Kenna he reached past her and grabbed a wine jug from the desk just behind her and poured himself another goblet of wine. He offered to pour Kenna one but she declined.
"You know this night will be easier if you have some wine," Edwyn said slowly raising the goblet to his mouth.
"Wine dulls the senses and clouds the mind. I always want to see with perfect clarity," Kenna reasoned.
Edwyn put his half empty goblet down on the desk and put a cold hand to Kenna's face. "I guarantee you dear wife that you won't want to remember tonight in clarity."
Does he think that he is that bad in bed? Kenna thought puzzled by his words. Something doesn't feel right.
"What do you mean?" she asked. But after a few moments Edwyn other hand cupped the other side of her face and he pulled her into a rough kiss. His hands dropped from her face and started to drunkenly fiddle with the strings to her dress.
Kenna wouldn't let the comment go. She tried again between kisses. "What did you mean?"
Edwyn stopped fiddling with her dress and took another gulp of wine. "I didn't mean anything."
Kenna tried a different approach. She took the goblet from his hand and drank the remaining contents then let it fall to the ground with a clang. The motion and noise seemed to grab Edwyn's attention and he focused on her. Kenna's hands went to untie his breeches. A drunken moan escaped Edwyn lips as Kenna removed his breeches completely revealing his growing manhood. He trapped Kenna against the desk and caught her mouth again as his hands started to bunch her dress around her waist. Kenna's hands closed around Edwyn's member and started to slowly massage it as it grew in her hand.
"Tell me what you meant" she whispered in a low seductive tone, trailing kisses down his neck as Edwyn started to pant.
Edwyn let out a groan at the interruption but decided to appease his wife so that they could continue. "Tonight the King in the North gets what he deserves for breaking his oath to us. No more will the high Lords of Westeros laugh at us Freys. No more."
Robb Stark is in danger. I have to get out of this room.
Edwyn Frey continued his assault on Kenna's mouth while readying himself to penetrate Kenna's maidenhood. He didn't get the chance as Kenna swung the wine jug down onto his head. He staggered backwards but didn't fall to the ground.
Damn. He isn't as drunk as I thought.
Edwyn charged back at Kenna, pushing her against the desk while holding her down by the throat so that her back painfully bended against the desk.
"You shouldn't have done that dear wife," he sneered above her.
Panic flooded into Kenna's brain. Not like this. Her hands searched the desk as Edwyn focused on consummating their marriage with one hand on her throat and his other holding Kenna's hips in place.
Finally, Kenna's hands found an item on the desk, a letter opener, and with all her remaining strength she thrust it into the distracted Edwyn's windpipe. He released her instantly staggering backwards and kneeling on the floor. He tried to speak but the words came out as gurgles and spurts of blood started to drop to the floor where he knelt.
Kenna walked towards the paling Frey, "I am not your wife and I never will be." She removed the thin letter opener in one swift movement and watched as Edwyn fell face first to the stone floor.
Kenna took a moment to readjusted her dress and compose her face. There were a few Frey guards behind that door and her Arryn guards but she suspected that the Freys were armed somehow and her guards were not. Kenna walked to the door with the thin knife behind her back. She opened the door and shouted, "Edwyn has collapsed he isn't moving, help."
Two Frey guards rushed past her to crouch over Edwyn's body as Jasper went to her with a worried expression on his face. Before they could deduce what had happened she enclosed Jasper's hand around the handle of the letter opener and whispered, "Kill them."
Jasper was confused but didn't hesitate as he loomed over the two Freys huddled around Edwyn's corpse and dragged the knife over the first one's throat and stabbed the other to death as he reached for his own dagger hidden in his clothes.
The now bloodied Jasper turned to Kenna. "What now?" he questioned.
The other Arryn guards were filtering into the room and saw the three slaughtered Freys on the floor.
"The Freys have betrayed us. Our allies are in danger we need to reach them and get out of the Twins. Grab the dead men's weapons, we need to get to the wedding hall now," Kenna ordered while rushing out of the bloodied bedchambers.
Kenna and her party of thirty men reached the Great Hall door just as it closed. The Frey men who had shut the door turned to face Kenna's men and quickly realised their true intentions were known. The few Frey men unsheathed their daggers and advanced on the mostly unarmed Arryn soldiers. Kenna stayed back from the fighting but still felt every blow that felled an Arryn soldier. Left standing after a chaotic minute were a dozen uninjured Arryn soldiers. Music started to come through the closed Hall door. Kenna recognised the song. The Rains of Castamere.
"Get that door open now," yelled Kenna. The remaining Arryn guards compiled with her order and when the door opened it revealed a bloodbath.
Arrows were flying everywhere from every direction; Northmen were dying in their chairs either felled by the arrows or by Frey daggers. Kenna looked to the middle of the room, Robb Stark was standing aghast looking at his severely injured pregnant wife who was bleeding out on the floor. Catelyn was running towards Robb, urging him to move. As Catelyn reached her son, she was struck by multiple arrows as she fell into her son's arms she shouted for him to leave. Her words seemed to reach him as he started to carry his mother out of the room. Roose Bolton killed a few Freys that were converging on the King in the North and Lord Umber joined his liege lord and practical dragged the King in the North and his mother to the now open hall door. Kenna watched from the entrance as her men joined the fight and started dragging Northmen off the ground and killing as many Freys as they could before they were overrun.
Lord Bolton, Lord Umber, Robb and the injured Catelyn Stark reached Kenna at the entrance to the door. Jasper was right behind them and started to close the main hall door with Lord Umber. Lord Bolton spoke first, "We need to leave now my King. The Freys are slaughtering us," as he helped lower Catelyn against the wall into a sitting position.
"No we need to kill all these fucking weasels," Lord Umber bellowed once the hall door was fully closed.
Robb ignored both of his banner men as his mother coughed blood and said in a weak voice, "I love you Robb, please live, please just live." Her head rolled to one side and she closed her eyes.
"Mother?" Robb Stark shook his mother's shoulders.
"She is gone, we need to move now," Kenna said in a gentle tone kneeling beside Robb.
"We can't leave her here," Robb said in a distressed tone.
"She said for you to live, I suggest you concentrate on that notion. We need to move," Kenna replied.
"NO," Robb yelled. "I am going to kill ever last Frey in this castle even if I die doing it."
Lord Umber grinned before turning and dispatching an onrushing Frey in the hallway with only his hands as Jasper watched the other side of the hallway. Lord Bolton had a grim expression on his face as he spoke, "We need to regroup with the rest of our forces if we want to fight or flee." The Freys inside the hall had started banging on the door indicating they had finished with the Stark, Tully and Arryn men inside.
An enraged Robb agreed and their small party started to fight their way to the courtyard where the rest of the Northern forces would be. On the way to the courtyard Kenna and Jasper got cut off when a group of Frey soldiers burst through a door separating them from the Northmen.
"Keep going," yelled Kenna as she and Jasper backtracked their steps. Robb shot her a worried look but continued onwards.
Kenna and Jasper broke into a sprint to outrun the Frey soldiers behind them but bloodied Freys were now emerging from the wedding hall and blocking that hallway. Kenna looked at Catelyn's arrow ridden body as Jasper dragged her around a corner and up some stairs. They ran up the spiral stairs aware of the shouting from the Frey men below. They ascended until they came to a wooden door. Jasper hurriedly pushed it open and locked it when they were both on the other side. Kenna felt the nights' cold breeze hit her back. She turned. They had reached the bridge connecting the two Twin castles. Maybe if they could reach the other side they could escape.
This idea was dashed as soon as Kenna realised that there were Freys on the other side of the bridge advancing towards Jasper and Kenna. The door they had just slammed shut started to creak as Frey men pounded on it. Kenna and Jasper backed away from the door. The Freys on the other side of the bridge were getting closer.
Jasper held out the thin knife but knew it would be little use when surrounded by multiple better armed Frey's.
"My Queen, Kenna -," Jasper started.
"No don't do that, don't speak like this is the end."
"It is the end for me, but not for you," Jasper said while keeping an eye on the onrushing Freys.
"What do you mean?" Kenna asked.
Jasper guided her toward the edge of the bridge as the door burst open and Freys came spilling out. Freys were converging on their position from both directions of the bridge.
"I'm sorry for failing to protect you," Jasper said as he lifted Kenna onto the railing of the bridge and pushed her off the bridge.
Kenna couldn't hide the shock from her face as she fell through the cold air or prevent the scream of terror that followed her down. The last thing she saw before hitting the icy waters of the Green Fork was a sword protruding through Jaspers midriff as he watched her descent with sad eyes.
Robb Stark had regrouped with his men and was now leading an assault on the Twins. The Freys were not good fighters but most of the Northerners were drunk and wielding their weapons with recklessness.
The regrouped Stark host rallied around Robb Stark and smashed its way back through the corpse ridden hallways of the Twins and tore through the Frey resistance. Robb Stark found himself back in the Wedding hall but now his men were the ones that stood on the balcony and stood over dead Frey bodies. Grey Wind since he had been released from his cage hadn't left Robb's side and had ripped apart any Frey man foolish enough to approach Robb. Both Robb and Grey Wind stalked into the wedding hall and spotted their prey.
Lord Walder Frey still sat in his chair. His face no longer held that smirk it had an hour ago. Robb spotted Talisa's dead body. The blood had dried on her clothes, her hands still rested on her tummy protectively. Robb's anger was rising again. He walked towards Lord Walder Frey when he saw his Mother's body propped on a chair beside Walder Frey. It was missing its head.
"Where is my Mother's head?", Robb shouted at Lord Walder Frey.
Lord Walder Frey shifted uncomfortably under Robb's furious gaze. "In the Green Fork with the rest of the trout, making its way to back to Riverrun."
"You threw Lady Catelyn's head into the river" Lord Bolton said in disbelief.
Lord Umber started to charge at Walder Frey but Robb stopped him. "He is mine," he simply said.
Robb walked slowly towards Walder Frey with is sword trailing behind him on the stone floor. Each step Robb took seemed to increase the old man's terror. Walder Frey stood from his chair but as an old man there was no hope of outrunning the young wolf or his revenge.
Robb reached Walder Frey and held his sword in position to strike, "Any last words my Lord," Robb asked, his eyes shimmering with fury.
Lord Walder Frey seemed to accept his death was imminent and said, "The Lannisters' send their regards."
Robb lunged with his sword and it pierced Lord Walder Frey's torso. Robb pushed his sword further through Walder Freys midriff until the hilt was where his heart was supposed to be. Walder Frey screamed in agony but kept standing until Robb retracted his sword and slashed at the old man who flopped to the floor. His blood dripped down the steps leading to the high table. Robb looked between his mother's decapitated body and his wife's lifeless pregnant corpse and screamed in aguish at everything he had lost.
Author's Notes:
So thoughts on my version of the Red Wedding?
No Bolton betrayal due to the Arryn involvement. Roose Bolton in my story didn't abandon Robb due to his lack of political experience because Robb had the support of the Arryn to make up for that.
No Arya needed this time, Robb has destroyed the Frey's root and stem but at what cost?
Robb surviving the Red Wedding was one of the big ideas I had for ARC I. ARC II is where all my crazy ideas really start to happen and ARC I was supposed to be set up for them but it has grown into its own story with some crazy moments of its own.
Shout outs:
JimmyHall24 – Happy? The Freys are no more.
jean d'arc – I felt bad writing all the insults aimed at Robb and making Edmure a bit of a doormat but I really wanted the whole his "marriage is the apology line". If I was Kenna, I'd want to take Robb's head off. Not cool breaking oaths and making other people pay for it. I think Robb got a harsh lesson in this chapter BUT he lives to implement what he has learnt :)
Guest – I think he shows his anger in the second half of this chapter and shows his guilty conscience in the next. Thanks for commenting.
Fallondyson – Your wish is my command :P
Next up: Robb takes stock of what he has lost, Lord Bolton goes in search of Kenna,the Mountain makes his return,and Qyburn really is the best maester this side of the Narrow Sea.
Please review and subscribe if you are enjoying my story :)
PS: I think Friday has become my weekly posting day.
R.I.P
Edwyn Frey (letter opener/small knife to the throat)
Died trying to force himself on Kenna. He only lasted one chapter but he was a Frey and they all needed to die so I don't feel bad.
Catelyn Stark (Multiple arrows to the chest)
Died saving Robb at the Red Weddings, which I think fits with her character. All she ever wanted was to protect her children so I thought it was fit for her to die saving Robb.
Jasper Egen (Sword through the back, Mad King Style)
Died pushing Kenna off the Twin's bridge. He was fun to write but I always knew his character was going to kick the bucket but I hope you guys enjoyed his inclusion in the story and he fleshed out the Arryn side of the story a bit more.
Walder Frey (Sword through the front)
Died revealing the Lannisters' complicity in the planning of the Red Weddings to Robb. I felt no pity killing him off and really enjoyed writing the killing blow so to speak.
