"It's a trap, Ned! A bloody trap!"
Greatjon Umber's voice echoed across the Lord Commander's solar where they had all gathered after news of the message spread. The Lord of the Last Hearth, Lord Stark, Benjen, the Lord Commander and Maester Aemon. And then amidst the sea of black and grey and northern rage were Rhaenys, Jon and Tyrion.
"He wants to meet, to parley?" the giant Northern lord continued, his face red. "It's madness!"
"I don't disagree that it's mad, Greatjon," Lord Stark said, dragging one hand across his face wearily. "But I can't just dismiss it either."
The Lord Commander took a sip of his morning tea, his old raven perched on his shoulder, before chiming in. "I understand what you're saying," Jeor Mormont said, directing his words to Lord Umber. "But things are changing, Greatjon. You've said it yourself, more and more wildlings are comin' onto your lands. Our rangers have had strange and worrying reports as of late," he said, his voice gruff and apprehensive.
"Perhaps the wildlings simply want some warmth," Tyrion commented with a smile, clearly not understanding why they were all so grim. "What else could it be?"
"It's not just wildlings that are fleeing these parts, my lord," the Lord Commander stated firmly and with an edge to his words. "Brothers have started to desert. Lord Stark can tell you that. And the last one who lost his head was no green boy - he was a man near as old as me and served longer on the Wall."
"The man," Lord Stark said, his tone grave. "He spoke of the dead. You believe his words, Jeor?"
"The dead?" Greatjon yelled.
"Dead! Dead!" the Lord Commander's old raven cawed. Lord Umber looked at it with wide eyes, before his expression turned to bewildered annoyance.
"As the bird said - the dead! But you can't be serious?" he asked the Warden of the North before looking to the Lord Commander. "Jeor?"he asked incredulously.
"Whatever made Gared run," Mormont said, speaking of the brother Lord Stark had beheaded, "he must have had a good reason." The Old Bear rose from his seat then and walked to his window, staring out into the white mists that had begun to sprinkle the air. "The days are getting shorter, Greatjon. And the wildlings are not running for something, they are running from something - but what?"
The Greatjon and Tyrion looked at the grizzled old man as if he were completely insane.
"How did he know that I was even here, that Jon and the Princess are here," Ned muttered, almost to himself. "He requests that they come. What game is he playing?" The message from the so-called King-Beyond-the-Wall had stated that he wanted to meet with Lord Stark to discuss matters of the north, but even more surprising was the fact that he wanted Rhaenys and Jon to come - or the 'dragon's children,' as he had scrawled in his missive.
"No." Benjen's voice was low and dangerous. It brought a silence to the room as it was the first time he'd spoken since he first gave Lord Stark the message. "Even if we go, they cannot come. It is not safe."
Rhaenys gaped at him. She'd barely had time to gather her wits about her after they sparred and they all came here. And now, not only did he see fit to ignore her, he would deny her this. She stood up then, bracing her hands on the table firmly. "The entire goal of his journey was for precisely something like this!" She caught Benjen's eyes then, both holding each other's gaze with a simmering energy, before he looked away. Jon eyed both of them warily, not missing the tension between them.
"I came by order of the King," Rhaenys continued, "to find out about this man and what is happening to drive his people south," Rhaenys reminded them. "I can go, Jon will stay."
Her brother shot up from his chair then. "I won't let you go without me, are you mad, Rhae?" he yelled indignantly.
"Peace, nephew, niece," Maester Aemon said gently though firmly, putting his pale, wrinkled hands up in the air in a gesture asking for calm. "While I believe caution is wise, I do not believe Mance Rayder plots something ill. From when I knew him during his time here, though it was many years past, he did not strike me as the devious sort, no matter that he deserted."
There was silence as the room considered the words of a man with nearly a century's worth of time. Finally Benjen spoke. "Lord Commander, if we are to do this, we should have Qhorin meet us from the Shadow Tower with some of his men. He knew Mance when he was a brother," Benjen said cautiously.
"Aye, will be smart to have someone who has some knowledge of him with us. I'll write to him straight away, he should be back at the Tower now as it is."
Benjen walked over to the table where a map was laid out. He scanned it with an intense focus, looking about different areas. "If Mance is in the Skirling Pass as our reports have said, we should have him come closer to us. We should not go too far from the Wall." Then he pinned an area with one finger, pointing into crudely drawn trees. "Here, we'll still be in the Haunted Forest. And it's not far from the Shadow Tower."
"Aye, you've got the right of it, Ben," the Lord Commander said, walking to the table to look over the map. "There, before the river. We can send word to Denys and Qhorin," he said, speaking of the commander of the Watch's westernmost castle and the veteran ranger respectively, "they should get the raven by end of day."
Lord Umber and Lord Stark walked over to look over the map as well, Lord Umber still muttering about how it was all madness.
"How…" Jon began carefully, his brow furrowed in thought. "How did he gather all these different clans?"
"And why?" Rhaenys added, her voice low with warning.
"Why! Why!" the raven called.
"That," Maester Aemon said with authority as he clasped Rhaenys's hand gently in his, "is the reason you all must go."
It was a few days later that they finally set out. It allowed her to spend more time with Maester Aemon before they left, holed up in the library together. Benjen avoided her like she was one of the dead. More than that, she knew that he had tried to convince Lord Commander Mormont to not let her come with the group - an argument he had lost. She was sick and tired of trying to figure him out, sick of trying to understand her own feelings - or rather, of trying to ignore what she knew she felt. So instead put her mind's energy towards the coming journey and meeting.
After receiving word from the commander of the Shadow Tower, Lord Commander Mormont had a raven sent out to Mance Rayder with place and time for the parley. With the Stark and Umber guards and rangers joining, they were near twenty in the group as they went below into the icy, dark tunnel beneath the wall.
When they emerged on the other side and the light shone on the once more, Rhaenys felt like they were truly at the edge of the world. Before them lay the Haunted Forest - wild, dark and thick. As they rode through the dense forest, the air was ominous and knowing somehow, as ice-covered leaves cracked underneath the hooves of their horses. Even when they did not ride by weirwoods, Rhaenys felt like the forest watched them.
They made camp for the night in an area the rangers deemed to be safe, and the next morning, they were expecting to meet with Qhorin Halfhand and a group of brothers from the Shadow Tower. When morning broke, the group gathered around to break their fast with some of the basic provisions they had brought and waited for the other group to arrive.
The air felt impossibly fresh where they were, it was exhilarating. As she took a deep breath, Rhaenys closed her eyes letting the crisp air fill her lungs. It was then that she heard the noise of a bird in the air, and her eyes shot open. She recognized the cry, she realized. As she scanned the skies, she finally found it.
It can't be, she thought. It was the eagle that was with them before they reached the Wall. Why is it following us? She shook her head, thinking she must be crazy. But almost in a daze, she rose and began to trail it as it circled another patch of wood nearby. Before she realized it, she had trailed away from the rest of the group.
Back at the campsite, Jon came back from washing at a nearby stream. As he packed away his washing cloth, he looked around the group for his sister, but could not find her.
He rose from his satchel and went to Benjen. "Uncle, have you seen Rhaenys anywhere?" Jon asked, his face tense.
"No, can't say that I have." He had decidedly been avoiding her as much as possible in fact. The more Benjen was around the Princess, the harder it was becoming to control his emotions. "Why? What's wrong?"
"I can't find her and no one else seems to know where she is. Maybe I'm worrying for nothing?" Jon said tentatively but Benjen could hear the concern in his voice. Not wanting to draw attention, he pulled Jon to the outer part of the site.
"How long has it been?" he asked his nephew quietly.
"I don't know, she was at the campsite when I left, but I was gone for a bit at the stream. When I came back, she was gone."
Benjen's mind went in a hundred different directions at once. This is what comes of letting your emotions get the better of you , he thought ruefully. If he had just been able to look at her, he could have kept an eye on her.
It was then that Rhaenys returned, emerging from the trees holding plants in her hands, looking as though she were in a daze of thought.
"Rhae! Where were you?" Jon asked in a frenzy, rushing to her.
She took a step back, waking from her thoughts suddenly. "I - I was…" What was she supposed to say? I went after an eagle because I thought it was following us. Gods, maybe I'm as mad as grandfather. "I just went for a walk. And I found some plants that Maester Aemon told me about for healing. What's wrong? Did something happen?"
"'Did something happen?' Rhae! You didn't tell anyone where you went! There could be wildlings close by or worse!" he whispered angrily.
He was right, she had been foolish - but she was not about to admit that. She already felt like this group of men did not want a woman in their midst. So instead she rolled her eyes - though if she had been reading the air floating between herself and the two men, she would have realized a mocking tone was not the best path. "Jon, I was not that far away and was not gone for long. And I had a dagger with me, you know I can fend for myself," she told him in a lecturing tone, trying to brush him off. "There's no need to be so dramatic," she said with a small laugh.
Now it was Benjen's turn to speak. He turned to look at her and any lightness she felt died in an instant when she saw the look in the First Ranger's eyes.
"You think this is funny? Do you think you know the wildlings? How they fight? What were you thinking?" he seethed.
Her eyes widened hearing his tone. Now he speaks to me? Taking deep breaths, she tried to calm her emotions as she responded. "As I told my brother, First Ranger, I was not that far and was armed to protect myself."
"This isn't the sparring ground in Winterfell or King's Landing, Princess. When we fight out here, beyond the Wall, there are no rules and it is not one-on-one. Tell me, have you fought wildings before?" He was fuming now and the tension between the two of them was only rising. "I knew you shouldn't have come here," he let out, his words cold as the snow around them.
Now any semblance of remaining calm was near gone. She had tried to be patient, she had asked him to explain why he was angry with her - and to no avail. And now he speaks to me like this?
"Jon," Rhaenys gritted out. "Would you please excuse us for a moment? I would have words in private with First Ranger Stark." She handed Jon the plants in her hands and turned back to face Benjen.
Jon looked at her and then to his Uncle and then back to her. I know that tone, he thought. That is the tone she uses before she erupts . He gave them both a quick nod and walked off.
"First Ranger, may we walk into the woods a bit for some privacy? If you deem it safe, of course." Bitter sarcasm dripped out of the last words.
He huffed before walking to a path and gesturing for her to follow. They walked in silence a few minutes before he stopped.
"Rhaenys -"
She scoffed. "So now you can talk to me?"
"Gods! Do you really not understand that you put yourself in danger? Can you be that thick?"
She stared at him incredulously. "Thick? I was barely a few steps from where we are now! How is that dangerous!"
"And if you had been attacked, how do you imagine the King would react?" he asked, stepping towards her.
She tossed her head back, laughing. "So that's what worries you. Well, I'm back now and I shall not wander off again. You don't have to worry about the Crown's wrath. Happy?"
"Happy? Am I happy ?" Benjen ran both hands through his hair fiercely, not realizing - or perhaps caring - that he had ripped away the tie that normally kept part of his long hair wrapped away from his face. Now his dark locks flew wild, whipping in the air above his cloak as he paced between two trees.
He finally stopped in front of her. "Do you think that's all this is about? Did you not see how frantic Jon was worrying about you?" He sounded almost like he was pleading now. His eyes seemed to have lost a bit of the anger present before, though not all by any measure.
They were now face to face, and she stared up at him intently. "And you? Why do you even care? You've barely acknowledged me since we left Winterfell. I'm surprised you even remember I'm here!" She knew she sounded a bit childish, but she didn't care. In that moment, it felt like the woods were drawing on the tension in the air as the wind howled around them causing tree branches to shake.
His eyes widened when she said that. He had been avoiding her but what else was there to do? "In case you forgot, I have a duty here, a job. And I've been seeing to it. I'm sorry I have not been around to entertain you, Princess."
She flinched as if he had hit her, and he knew he had spoken ill. The mask of anger on his face cracked more and he stepped towards her, but she took a step back.
"I did not realize that it was so painful for you to speak to me." Her whole body felt like it was trembling now - in rage, in pain, and something else underneath it all. Why did he bother speaking so much with me at Winterfell if he thinks so little of me? She could feel her chest rising and falling faster and faster as her breath quickened. "I don't even know why we are arguing about this now! I won't leave my confines again. Will that satisfy you? Hmm, are you satisfied?" she asked in one angry rush.
Something in the air, something between them, stilled at that moment. They both had paused, breathing heavily in their fury, staring the other down. Rhaenys was trying to beat down the emotions rising in her, her mouth parted to try to make her own tension dissipate; Benjen was staring at her so intently, it felt like her knees would give way from beneath her.
And it was then that everything changed.
She took one step to walk away from him but before she knew it, she gasped as her back was pressed against a pine tree and Benjen's lips crashed into hers. The rough bark was pressing into her spine, but she didn't care. Any pain faded away as their kiss deepened, their mouths frenzied. Benjen's hands fell quickly from the back of Rhaenys's head to her waist, pulling her hips into him, clutching her fiercely. And when his tongue entered her mouth, she let out a small whimper of surprise and pleasure. She wove her hands into his long hair - Gods I've wanted to touch this hair for so long now . Instinctively she brought one leg up to wrap him closer to her, locking him into her body as much as she could, soliciting a low growl that tumbled from the back of Benjen's throat. And as he moved against her body, he was met with a gasping moan from her when she felt his hardness press into her thigh.
Desperate sighs filled the air and the way they kissed each other, Rhaenys wondered if they would swallow the other whole - and she wished they would, that they could.
But suddenly Benjen broke the kiss - pulling away from her with a strangled cry, stepping back and panting for air.
It was as though Rhaenys had lost control of all her senses now. She heard nothing but a buzz; but her body - every part of her felt like she was truly fire made flesh in that moment. And her eyes could only see him and his beautiful blue-grey eyes that were staring into her now, with a torment brewing in them.
Rhaenys touched her fingertips to her lips. "Benjen," she said in a whisper, trying to comprehend what had just taken place. Much of her hair had come undone from her braid, flitting around her flushed face.
Looking at him, she didn't know if she had seen so many emotions at once in a person's eyes - lust, confusion, longing, anger. He slowly moved back towards her, his hands rising to cup her cheeks, gently pushing some of hair behind her ear. She brought her hands to hold his face as well, tracing down the long scar near his eyebrow. For a few moments, they simply stood - face to face, gazing at the other - catching their breath, both wondering what had just happened; what they had done.
Finally Rhaenys spoke. "Was that your wolf blood then," she asked quietly through breaths, wanting to avoid what she knew he would soon say.
"I think you bring it out." They both let out a small laugh. He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers. "I should not have done that," he uttered, still trying to catch his breath.
She caressed his cheeks almost rhythmically, her eyes closed now as well. "It was not just you, Benjen. I wanted that to happen...for longer than I think I even know." Her voice was gentle but he could hear the determination behind it. "Is... this ...why you have been avoiding me?"
He sighed, pulling his head from hers and when he looked into her eyes again, she could see the defeat in them. "You know that nothing can come of it." His voice was shaking now. "I...I cannot break my vows. And this is already dancing too close."
Of course I know that! she wanted to scream. Swallowing those words down and their harsh reality made speaking even more difficult. "I know, it's just...what now?" The words came out in a broken whisper but sounded louder as the woods had quieted around them. She pulled his face to hers. "I don't want you to break your vows, I would never ask you to do that. But I…I know we have not known each other long, but I care for you, Benjen. Do you feel like this as well?"
His throat was tight as he swallowed before answering yes. It was barely a whisper, but the breath of his answer crystallized in the cold air, a frozen testament.
"I don't know how to not feel like this. Tell me how, tell me how you will," she pleaded trying to hold back tears but they began to fall regardless.
He brought his thumb to her cheek, brushing at the tears. His eyes followed his fingers as they traced her wet grief. When his thumb grazed over her pink, kiss-swollen lips, she let out a shaky breath. His eyes, as they moved back to hers, were still a dark storm of desire and confusion.
"Push the feelings down and far away. That's all we can do. You'll be gone soon and then we will go on as we must." Even though she knew it was true, none of it made her feel better. How can it be possible to feel so bad after so much joy in an instant?
His hands fell away from her face. "We should go, the other men should be arriving by now."
He moved to leave, but before they walked away, she grabbed his hand to stop him. "Just promise me you'll at least talk to me while we're still here," she whispered but it sounded as fierce as a command. "That's all I ask. After that, you probably won't have to see me again, so it won't matter."
He closed his eyes, his brows furrowing in pain. He looked down at her hand for a few moments, his thumb tracing circle around her hand. What have you done? What have you unleashed? But when his eyes rose to her face again, he knew he could not deny her. So he brought her hand to his lips slowly, laying a tender kiss on her skin.
"I promise."
Nearby, red sap flowed from the eyes of a heart tree. The wind slept and the tree's leaves lay limp on the ground.
Well that was a slow burn of 18 chapters to get to that point - drop a review and let me know what you thought!
Thanks to new reviewer Caver Floyd! Love to know what people think - and that there are people interested in this very rare pair.