Part 12:

Ser Barristan Selmy had seen many castles, keeps, and fortresses, he'd even broken into a couple (and out of a couple more) over his fifty-odd years. He had been young when he had killed Maelys the Monstrous, yet age had not withered him. He had served three Kings, 'The Sickly', 'The Mad', and 'The Usurper', yet he had only travelled five of the Seven Kingdoms, he had never stepped foot in The Vale, and, until they had reached The Neck, he had never touched foot on Northern soil. His feet had only touched the Iron Islands for war.

The Neck itself had seemed a land all of its own, and once it had been, the Kings Road was well maintained, but not well used, the Crannogmen preferred to travel by boat. The marshes and trees were full of eyes, Ser Barristan had seen them and listened in disappointment as others commented that the place was empty and inhospitable. The Crannogmen were quiet and reclusive, secretive and careful, they did not trust strangers, and they did not rush out to greet their King. It made Ser Barristan wonder what strange power the Starks must have to make these secretive people rise up to a Direwolf's howl?

Ser Beric Dondarrion, one of Prince Joffrey's retinue, had seen the eyes in the reeds and trees, and so had his squire, young Ned Dayne, that gave Barristan hope that some young men still knew how to use their eyes. Neddy was an interesting lad, much like his uncle, and Barristan trained with the boy every opportunity that he could, which wasn't often. The boy had potential to become the next Sword of the Morning, but many are born with great potential… Prince Rhaegar had the potential to be a great king, and even King Aerys had been full of promise prior to the Defiance of Duskendale.

They had stopped at Moat Cailin for a day, having been offered shelter in the partially completed new keep, with the drunken tower glaring at them. It would take decades of work to repair the old towers, if it could be done at all, but the new keep had been under construction for over two years. They had started by digging and building a system of moats and dams to dry out the ground so deep foundations could be laid on sure ground. The Labyrinth of waterways would likely also become part of the keeps defence, there was no way to get the wheelhouses in, and Queen Cersei was very displeased at having to walk through muddy paths and cross a dozen different bridges by foot.

It was said that twenty towers had once stood here, maybe more, but only three remained, yet the draining of the ground had found old foundations and plenty of rock to build from, it was said that in come cases there were two or three levels of the old towers still intact, and strange items had been found, weirwood bows engraved with old runes, cashes of dragon glass arrow and spear heads, glass candles, and much more that the men would not speak off.

Some of the men were Crannogmen, others appeared to be from House Stark, House Manderly, and other parts of the North. The build was being overseen by Howland Reed and Wendel Manderly, and two more different men you could not find. Howland looked just like every other Crannogman in attire, only the Lizard-lion belt buckle gave away that he was somebody of importance, he was short and slim, and wiry. A bronze knife hung at his belt, but he carried no sword, he was a humble and quite man who looked as if he could step into a marsh and disappear at a moment's notice.

Wendal Manderly on the other had was tall and wide, loud and boisterous, proud and joyful. His head was bald, but the huge 'walrus' moustache made it look as if all of his hair had simply migrated to his face. It was possible that he was more round than he was tall. His clothes were well made, and reasonable quality, but stained. Yet they seemed to work well together. Ser Barristan had assumed that Moat Cailin was being rebuilt for Lord Stark's younger son, but the two Lords had been quick to correct him.

"There must always be a Stark at Winterfell." Howland had said gravely.

"We prefer to keep an heir and a spare there was well, to be honest." Wendel had added with a chuckle and a smirk.

Howland had ignored the big man's attempt at humour and continued to explain. "Lord Bran will remain at Winterfell until Lord Robb has sired a son or two, that's how it has always been, Moat Cailin is being rebuilt for Jon Snow."

"Jon Snow?" Ser Barristan had questioned in surprise. "And you are giving up lands for this? Does that not concern you?"

Howland Reed had smiled at that. "I would not expect you to understand, Ser Barristan, I…"

"Howland swore an oath." Wendel said quietly, it was the first time that Barristan had seen the man take anything seriously since their arrival. "Robb Stark will have many bound to him when he is Lord of Winterfell, myself among them, but Howland Reed is bound to Jon Snow."

Ser Barristan shook his head. "How…?"

"It was the end of the war," Howland Reed said quietly. "Lord Stark had a sister to bury, a new King to negotiate terms with, and a newborn babe to protect and get safely home to Winterfell. I could only assist him with one of those tasks, would that I could have aided with more."

Barristan nodded. "I swore my Kingsguard oath to Ser Gerold Hightower, while King Jaehaerys bestowed the white cloak upon me… I understand oaths." He said quietly.

Howland Reed paused and cocked his head at that. "Do you?" He said quietly. "Rhaegar could have used you at the Trident."

It was odd, if Barristan had been at the Trident Howland would have been his enemy, yet Howland seemed to be reproaching him for failing his Prince. "Rhaegar was not the King." Barristan replied quietly, but he knew, if the Kingsguard had come to Rhaegar and said that they would back him against his father Rhaegar would have been King, or King Regent at least… perhaps they could have stopped the madness?

~~/~~

Ser Barristan had decided that the Kingsroad in the North was some of the best road in all of Westeros, a compliment to the efforts of Lord Stark, for sure. Even with the two large, groaning, wheelhouses they reached Castle Cerwyn with reasonable speed. Medger Cerwyn, put himself, and his own family, into the servants quarters to accommodate the King and Queen, but he was at a loss as to what to do about Lady Yaya and her children. Yaya was gracious and offered to stay in her wheelhouse, if only baths could be arranged.

There was no big feast, and Queen Cersei complained about both the accommodation and the food, they ran out of wine and she complained about that too, yet Barristan noticed that although the guests were given meat and wine, Medger Cerwyn and his people only ate leak and potato soup, and only drank watered down mead. They were not a rich House, and as such, were not provisioned to accommodate a royal visit. Ser Barristan choose the soup, as did Ser Beric and Ned Dayne… yes, the boy had potential.

The next day they made the final push to Winterfell, King Robert was impatient and pushed them to go faster than they should have, the wheelhouses screeched and groaned like stranded Leviathans, suddenly Queen Cersei's wheelhouse threw a wheel and poor princess Myrcella was on the side of the road, losing her breakfast, while a dozen men tried to fix it. Prince Joffrey decided to help by laughing at her, but Ned Dayne quickly got her some water to wash her mouth out and let her lean on him as she walked back to the wheelhouse.

Soon after, Winterfell came into view in all it's cold grey glory, it was easy to believe that this had been built by the same builders that had built Storms End and the High Tower, the same builders that had built The Wall. The Starks were no less majestic, or grim, than their home, it only took a glance to see that Lord Eddard was doing his best to communicate a strong visual message. There were actual direwolves, albeit young, the Seven only knew where he had found four grey direwolves, a white one, and a black one? Yet he had a direwolf to represent each of his children, including his ward. Although he had four grey direwolves to his right he only had three children there… one of the girls was missing, and from what Barristan had read about the descriptions of the Stark children, the missing girl had to be Sansa… that wouldn't bode well.

It was widely known that Sansa had been allowed to go to Pentos with her mother when she was younger, but King Robert had been of the assumption that the girl would have well and truly returned by now. It had been King Robert's intent to wed Sansa to prince Joffrey, he had been so focused on the idea that he likely didn't even know that the other girl (Arya if Barristan recalled correctly) existed. And this was no southern girl in a pretty dress…

She stood like a soldier, hands loose and ready, her eyes seemed to take in everything, in the moment that their gazes locked he felt as if she was evaluating him, she was just a girl, yet the Warrior had clearly placed his strength and courage into her. She had an elongated short sword with a handle carved of Weirwood, a whip, and a bow of rare dragon bone, she wore leather armour and high boots, her furs were cleverly crafted.

Behind her stood three warrior-maidens, all older than her, their armour was consistent with hers, each had an iron sword, a whip and a bow, but only one maiden's bow was dragon bone, the young woman seemed familiar, an instant later Barristan realised that it was Mya Stone, that was intriguing... He brought his attention back to Lord Stark and his King.

The young man to the left of Lord Eddard had to be Jon Snow, at a glance he seemed to look more like a Stark than the young man on the right, but first glances can be deceiving. Jon had the colourings of a Stark, but Robb had the build… Robb had his father's shoulders and chest, Jon had the long face, but there was something a little too delicate about it, both lads had curls, but Jon's were far tighter, he was slender and his movements were more graceful, there was just something…

King Robert got it wrong, despite the fact that Robb's gorget had direwolves on it and Jon's was unadorned, despite the fact that Robb was on his father's right, despite every visual que that had painstakingly been put into place, King Robert got it wrong. Neither Jon nor Robb seemed offended, if anything Robb seemed amused, he did not feel threatened by Jon in any way. That was more than could be said about princes Joffrey and Tommen.

Arya not being what King Robert had expected, and not being Sansa, threw the King as predicted, but he recovered well. Then Cersei was there, and so was Yaya, and it was all just a mess again. Of course, instead of helping keep peace, King Robert demanded to be taken to Lyanna's crypt immediately, that only escalated things even further.

"The dead can wait." Queen Cersei had argued. But whilst the dead may be patient, the King was not.

A couple of quick words between Lord Stark, Robb and Jon, then Robb was approaching the Queen and offering her his arm, leading her one way, and Jon was approaching Lady Yaya, offering her his arm and leading her in the opposite direction. Ser Barristan was impressed at the smoothness with which they handled it.

Yet later, when all were bathed and changed, no arrangements could please Queen Cersei. Ser Barristan understood her being upset about Yaya's presence, but that wasn't a matter than Lord Stark had any control over, it was Robert who had insisted that Yaya and her children would walk in with them. Just as it had been Robert who had insisted on the inclusion of Arya's warrior-maids, likely due to Mya being one of them. Maybe it was over a month of watching Cersei tear down every Lord who had put a roof over their heads? Maybe he was just tired? Maybe he was getting too old for all this? But, whatever the reason, something in him snapped, and he made a comment to the Queen that was less than polite. He was ashamed of that, especially as the King feed off of the action, but the words could not be retracted.

~~/~~

The Stark children, and Lady Arya's Warrior-maids, were impressive, as were their horses. They had spent the last week doing weapons and riding displays. From mounted archery to formation jumping, to horse dancing, to whip displays, it was all so foreign! There were a handful of Dothraki women at Winterfell, they had come back from Essos with Sansa's former guards, yet these few women had made a huge cultural impact on House Stark, it seemed even the servants knew a few Dothraki phrases.

One event that had truly impressed had been the 'whip dancing', four people cracking whips rhythmically whist a fifth danced around them and tried not to get hit. It was a test of observation, speed, and agility. Barristan wasn't sure who had impressed him more on that one, Arya or Jon? Prince Joffrey had laughed and clapped when a whip had caught Jorelle around the ankles and pulled her down, but she had regained her feat, the whips had restarted, and she had completed the dance. She'd limped for two days afterwards, but it was still very impressive.

Days passed, Lord Eddard still refused to be King Robert's hand, stating that his children, and the North needed him here. Robert still believed that Ned could be persuaded. Robert wanted Sansa sent for and brought back to Westeros, he was still convinced that she and Joffrey should marry. Ned admitted that he had sent a party for her a month ago, after receiving news of Catelyn's death, but that he hadn't heard anything from them yet.

Robert made no attempts to be subtle about his mistress and Cersei's growing rage could only be matched by Ned Stark's growing embarrassment, Ned Stark was almost relieved when Robert suggested a hunt, at least he was until he realised that Yaya would be joining them. The King insisted that Robb, Arya, and her maidens attend as well, and Prince Joffrey… the King had never invited Joffrey on a hunt before and Barristan could only conclude that in absence of Sansa the King might attempt to wed Joffrey to Arya. Ser Barristan wasn't so sure how the wild little wolf would react to that?

~~/~~