Chapter 25: Family

Though Princess Arienne still hated the girl, Myrcella, for being a catalyst for the decimation of House Martell by Ellaria Sand and the Sand Snakes, she felt pity for the poor girl. Looking at the blonde dropped in dark grey and black fabric and furs, she was washed-out looking, especially in the muted grey light caused by the snow clouds; her skin becoming pale and sick looking with dark puffy, red eyes to match. Arienne supposed that the girl was both scared and mourning for Trystane too.

After asking the handmaiden Arienne shared with Myrcella (Arienne was with two handmaidens when the loyalists came to save her) to leave, Myrcella stood from her spot at the small alcove overlooking the battlements of the Dreadfort. Arienne and Myrcella paused at each other for a few moment before Myrcella broke that awkward silence.

"Have soldiers arrived to save us?" She asked quietly.

"Your Lady aunt, Lyra Lannister, has come to our aid," Arienne replied flatly; she was trying to control her anger towards the other princess. Though Arienne knew it wasn't actually her fault, a part of her still hated the girl.

"Has my uncle, Jaime, come as well?" Myrcella brightened a bit at this.

Arienne sat down at the small table with two seats made of iron with embroidered cushions, and motioned for Myrcella to join her.

"I'm afraid not," Arienne replied, pouring herself that awful mead. When they took over the Dreadfort, Arienne realized why the Boltons were generally disliked by their own vassals; the man had not respect for his own men's lives! Arienne was shocked that Roose had left so little supplies and weaponry for his men guarding the Dreadfort while he ruled in Winterfell. Growing up in Dorne, Arienne had never drank anything like she drank wine, so she'd never developed a taste for mead or any other drink. The mead that the men managed to make- how could anybody possible handle this castle sober? Was genuinely awful too, however, the past two days had been quite hard, and at the moment, Arienne honestly didn't care about the taste of the mead.

"Lord Lannister is unable to come to our aid right now, but Lyra has brought two hundred members of the Lannister calvary in addition to having around two thousand soldiers waiting at the Twins," Arienne needed to explain the situation to Myrcella. It wasn't fair to keep the girl in the dark about things that could be life or death for her, for them all. Draining the ale by the end of explaining their numbers to Myrcella, Arienne added gravely, "but we still don't have the numbers to take on the Boltons." Arienne knew that the Boltons would fight her and the Loyalists when they attempted to head South; currently, House Martell is allied with the Crown and Arienne is currently giving shelter to Princess Myrcella, and considering that Sansa Stark, a fugitive of the Crown, just married into House Bolton, they would try to stop Arienne and Myrcella from getting to the Crown. It seemed to Arienne that the Boltons are hoping to wait out the War and allow every one else's army decimate each other so that come Spring, the Crown didn't stand a chance against a newly allied North.

Tia came in, out of breath as if she had been running' "Princess Arienne. A raven just came from Winterfell!"

Before leaving Tia with Myrcella while she headed for the lord's solar, Arienne looked back at Myrcella, fear consuming her face, and attempted to give the girl a reassuring look.

Having spent all night in her mother's room with her corpse, Lyra awoke from nightmares of death consuming her mind. Feeling ice cold and dirty, Lyra realized that she'd fallen asleep in the corner adjacent to her mother's bed, and stood, brushing herself off. Walking to her mother's side, Lyra kissed her on her forehead before leaving.

"I'm sorry Mother," Lyra whispered to her as her mother slept in death.

Exiting her mother's room, the guards straightened back up.

"Lady Lyra," one of the guards spoke, "I guarded your mother from in Sunspear and now I guard her in death. You have my sincerest condolences." He offered.

Forcing a small smile, Lyra thanked him for his kindness before leaving to find Arienne. Going down the dingy stone hallways, Lyra walked past Arienne's steward. Asking him if he knew where the princess of Dorne was, the man took her to the Lord's Solar. Walking in, Princess Arienne, Ser Dezial, and Ser Addam were gathered around a table, looking as if Lyra had just interrupted an important conversation.

When the steward closed the door behind him, Lyra asked; "Something's wrong isn't it."

Ser Addam, giving Lyra the scroll said, "Lady Lannister...we're in more danger than we initially thought."

Looking at the scroll, Lyra read aloud:

To the Dornishmen and Lady Lannister

You have been caught by our men illegally entering our land and taking over our castle, the Dreadfort.

You are thus invaders and will be treated as such.

Get out of the North immediately or I will flay your men and rape and flay you along with your cousin, Sansa Stark, Lady Bolton.

Surrender Lady Bolton if you have her, or you will suffer the consequences.

Lord Ramsey Bolton

Natural Born Son of Roose Bolton, Warden of the North and Lord of Winterfell.

"I recommend that we send a raven to Lord Lannister and alert our remaining army," Ser Addam advised Lyra.

"And do what? The moment we head South for the Neck, the Boltons and their banner men will have us slaughtered!" Lyra told the knight, fear quivering in her voice.

"We have all been talking, Lyra," Arienne began, "Isn't your cousin, Jon Snow, a member of the Night's Watch. At her cousin's reply of "yes", Arienne continued; "We've recently learned that he has risen to the rank of Lord Commander.

At this news, Lyra couldn't help but to smile to herself. Jon was always so much like his father, Ned, always wanting to be "honorable", loyal, kind, and dutiful just like the former Lord Stark. Jon was always so talented with a sword too, Lyra would probably argue that Ned Stark's bastard had more raw talent as a swordsman that his true born son, Robb Stark. Due to these qualities, Lyra always felt like her cousin, Jon, would rise in the world, bastard or no. Lord Commander of the Night's Watch suited him perfectly in Lyra's opinion.

Continuing on explaining the plan they'd worked out in Lyra's absence. They would send a raven to King's Landing, explaining their situation and that Princess Myrcella Baratheon was with them at the Dreadfort. While Ser Ty Lannister would be sent to the Twins and gather the remaining of Lyra's Lannister army and lead them North, meeting them at the Wall; which is where everyone else was to seek refuge. The Wall was supposed to be politically neutral, but it was well know that if fugitives of the North needed to go somewhere, the Wall was likely to give them shelter. Of course, that was usually small groups of men on the run from the law who would join the Night's Watch eventually. The Wall didn't often take larger groups of soldiers. However, Jon was Lord Commander, and if anyone was likely to help them, it would be Lyra's cousin. She and Sansa were, after all, his only family left alive.

After they agreed upon their plan, Ser Dezial and Ser Addam left the two women in the Lord's Solar while they attended to their respective forces to ready for the wall.

Trying to smooth down her disheveled hair, Lyra asked the question she was burning to know since she'd heard of the Martell party taking refuge up North; what happened in Dorne?

Arienne finished another cup of that awful mead before answering. Regaling her tale of how they had landed only a day at Sunspear before the political tension that was forming before, finally came to a head with the death of Prince Oberyn and the continued good relations with the crown and House Lannister. Lyra's mother saw her last living brother and Aero Hotah get stabbed by Ellaria and Obara Sand. Princess Meria took one of the fallen soldier's sword and attempted to defend herself until the Loyalists realized the situation and came to the Princess's rescue. Managing to take Tyene Sand hostage, Meria had Trystane and Arienne alerted to be taken by boat to the Trident. Everyone believed that Cersei poisoned Lyra, so they did not want to have to make deals with her, but they knew that Lyra would at least try to help restore Arienne to her rightful seat in Sunspear. However, after the storm, they realized that the cut Meria had received while she was fending off Obara and Ellaria, was covered in a poison meant to kill a victim slowly after the battle was over. Meria had learned from Oberyn to try and leech or bleed the poison out, but by the time they'd realized what was happening, bleeding or leaching Meria wouldn't have saved her.

Listening carefully, Lyra's emotions had gone dull in the past twenty four hours, but she did become angry at the mention of Tyene. "Where is she?" Lyra wanted to know.

Leading her cousin down to a dungeon, Lyra looked through the many barred rectangular holes looking into the rooms, most of them had large crosses with four leather straps. Seeing this and evidence that they'd been there for many years, she supposed that despite the Stark's ban on flaying, House Bolton continued to flay in secret anyways. Leading her to the cell at the corner, which was larger and open compared to the rest, the guard left her with Tyene Sand, alone.

The young woman, who was not much younger than Lyra herself, faced the wall with a barred window, looking outside to the grey wasteland. They were feeding Tyene well and doing their best to treat her with dignity as Prince Oberyn's bastard daughter, as Lyra surmised, looking at the trays with crumbs and a bed with furs to keep her warm, as well as the Sand Snake covered in furs. Her hair was much shorter from the last time Lyra saw her cousin. She'd probably cut it as part of mourning for her father.

"Why?" Lyra asked. She wanted to know why the people she loved would do something as horrible as this.

Turning around to face her, Tyene looked Lyra over before smiling, "They've managed to make a real Lannister out of you," she mocked. "I hardly hear any Dornish when you speak."

"Why Tyene? Why would you all have your cousins, your aunt, and your uncle, the Prince, killed when we all took you in and treated you as family. Angry tears began to prick Lyra's eyes.

"After my father, Prince Oberyn, the only father figure you had after your own father so stupidly got himself and his own father killed by Mad King Aerys, was killed by Crown and the Lannisters, and Doran said that he would do nothing, we realized that House Martell was weak and its heir were weak," Tyene said, silently fuming anger. Tears beginning to stream down her eyes, she added, "House Martell was in dire need of strong leadership in order to lead the people of Dorne to war against the usurpers and their lap cats, the Lannisters. Though family was in power." Lyra met her cousin eye-to-eye as she finished,"sometimes, sacrifices must be made."

As soon as everyone was ready, they all slipped out as quietly as they could to head North towards the Wall. The Boltons were expecting them to go South, so the Martells and the Lannisters all figured that they would be less guarded North. Lyra just hoped that Ser Ty would even make it down to the Twins, let alone enable the rest of Lyra's Lannister army come to their aid.

Everyone in the combined Martell and Lannister parties rode a horse if they could find one, while the rest tried to catch up as best as they could. Even Princess Myrcella and Tyene Sand rode horses, along with the heaviest furs they could find, for their trek to the Wall. Tyene, however, was bound to her horse's saddle and a guard rode behind her to make sue that she didn't try escaping. When this was suggested, Lyra agreed, just to be safe, however, she doubted that even if Tyene found herself in a position to escape, she likely wouldn't; the Boltons were labeling the Dornish and the Lannisters as "invaders" and the climate of the North makes it impossible that Tyene could even survive without her captors.

They were also taking Princess Meria's corpse along with them. Even Lyra had argued that if Meria were alive, she'd tell them to forget her body and get to the wall as soon as possible. However, as the new Ruling Princess of Dorne, Arienne told Lyra that she could not allow anyone in the Royal Family to not be given a proper burial at him in Sunspear. Loading Meria's corpse on a cart, as dignified as possible given the circumstances, they carried her with them to the Wall.

Riding as fast as they could while also trying to not draw attention, the Martell-Lannister party rode all day and continued riding through the night

Ass hurting from the long and hard ride Danyl just made back from scouting the small Lannister party at the Dreadfort, the Bolton soldier smelled the air. It smelled of cooked beef, mead, and potatoes. Danyl's stomach hurt when the smell hit his nostrils; he hadn't eaten since sunrise and the sun was now gone.

Walking through the new, large oak doors to the Great Hall where the Lord of Winterfell's seat, currently occupied by the new Lord Bolton, was located at the head of a dias. Walking up the steps of the dias, Danyl cautiously approached Lord Bolton and handed him the raven's scroll, saying, "From a raven we shot down. It looked to be headed in the direction of King's Landing."

Dismissing the soldier, Ramsey opened and broken the crimson Lannister seal. Smiling gleefully at the scroll's contents, he crumpled it and tossed it into the fire. A servant came and served Ramsey his beef and potatoes, along with a sausage. Ever since castrating Theon Greyjoy to turn the man into Reek, Ramsey enjoyed taunting the traitor with sausages, and as a result, he developed a taste for them.

Digging into the warm meal, Ramsey delightfully thought to himself; a battle is coming!

Next: Jaime finally returns to King's Landing and the Martell-Lannister party arrives to the Wall.