Jeyne
From atop the Great Keep of Riverrun Jeyne watched the battle unfolding below her. Up there, Jeyne could see for miles around the castle.
Lord Vance and Piper had been sent first to go hold the pass beneath the Golden Tooth, though they had been beaten in the hills there by the Kingslayer, Lord Vance slain, and Lord Piper having led the remnants of the broken host in retreat back to Riverrun.
Lord Hoster himself had then brought a larger host to meet the Kingslayer only for him to be slain in battle too, by the hand of Lord Quentyn Banefort, and his heir, Ser Edmure was captured too, while the younger brother, Ser Elmar and her good-father, Lord Tytos had retreated with the remaining men as well, and been forced to dig in for a siege.
Yet now there was another host. It was Stark they chanted, and she could recognize a direwolf amidst the host too. Robb had come, she realized, and must have beaten the force that had ridden off earlier to deal with some raiders.
That force had been led by the Kingslayer personally too, as had all the others, which meant Robb must have beaten the Kingslayer in battle.
They were descending on the Northern and Western camps, Jeyne saw, and the Lannister host laying siege seemed to be in complete disarray, while Lord Tytos was beginning to assemble men to lead a sortie.
She could see the full battle below her, but from her vantage point she could only faintly hear it.
The draw bridge that allowed for crossing of the moat between the Tumblestone and Red Fork to the west had been lowered, and some Lannister men had been foolish enough to take the bait, rushing at the castle rather than trying to defend against the host attacking them, only to be killed by archers on the walls. Most of the corpses dropped onto the bridge, but a few were close enough to the edge that they fell into the moat, and the flowing water began to carry them away.
This battle seemed to be folly, and Jeyne quickly descended from the Keep, and decided to wait below. She spotted Lady Walda praying with her ladies in the Sept, and one of them even, Lady Wynafryd, was a Northerner.
Jeyne decided praying was a good idea. Not to the gods of the south though, but to her own gods, the Old Gods of the North, and began to make for the Godswood.
She was alone here, and she knelt before the Weirwood Tree, and began to pray.
Brynden had been captured by the Kingslayer in the battle beneath Riverrun too, perhaps even slain, so she supposed she ought to pray for him first.
Jeyne figured she ought to still be at Raventree Hall now, but she had been brought to Riverrun by Lord Tytos to tell her story of the raids that the Lannisters had been carrying out. Afterwards it had been Ser Elmar who had been sent by Lord Hoster to speak to her father and the King in King's Landing, and she had been brought with him.
Some god must have answered her prayers as the King had not been there that day, and was off hunting instead. He was dead now too, though it had meant her father had been thrown into a cell.
She and Ser Elmar had arrived at Riverrun not long after word of the first battles had started to come, and so now she had been under siege there.
He had told her that the castle was large enough to hold provisions for two years, maybe even three if they stretched it, and they could fish to get more when their supplies ran thin, but that would have been with a minimal garrison. They had hundreds more men than they needed, and nowhere near full stores, which mean they would only be able to hold out for a few moons turn.
It seemed the gods had answered her prayers then with this battle below, that could break the siege, which made it come easily enough to her now. Jeyne prayed for Robb who was doing battle in the camps below, and for a victory. She prayed for their father too, and that he would be freed soon, and her sisters and Bran who were doubtless still captives in the city as well.
For a long time Jeyne was left undisturbed in the Godswood of Riverrun.
She supposed there was more that she was there for than just for victory and the safety of her family. Jeyne remembered the letter her father had given her in King's Landing when she had left, promising not to break it until she had an audience with Lord Hoster. Jeyne had hoped that perhaps the letter would reveal who her mother was, but it hadn't.
If Robb was out there, she would need to show it to him as soon as he could, she realized, even though he would not like the message that it had. The Queen had not truly fathered her children by the King, but the Kingslayer, and Bran had seen them together too.
He'd wed a bastard at Winterfell, like her, not a highborn maiden princess like he'd been told he was marrying.
She remembered how at first when she had married Brynden, how he often shunned her bed, and how she had thought it was because he didn't like her for being a bastard. Robb wouldn't be like that she hoped, but she could hardly be certain.
Somehow Jeyne wondered if this was her fault, for how jealous she had been of Robb, if she had brought this down on him. It was a foolish thought she knew, but still. Jeyne decided to turn her mind away from Robb and his wife.
Silently she waited in the Godswood, whilst all around her she knew men were dying in battle, but there was nothing she could do to change it.
She must have lost track of time though, as before long she heard someone rushing through the Godswood. It was Brynden she saw, long and tall, with raven black hair.
"What happened?" Jeyne asked him when she realized who it was. She supposed she already knew though what had happened.
"Your brother… He descended on the camps and lifted the siege…" Brynden said, a little out of breath. "We're free."
Jeyne nodded. "When will Robb be here?" She asked softly.
"Soon," Brynden told her. Her husband seemed a little thinner now after being captive for some time, and it made him look a little more handsome. But he and his brothers already were thin as it was.
"You came here to pray?" Jeyne wondered.
Brynden only gave a nod in response. "I'll leave you here then," she told him, and began to exit the Godswood.
She felt relieved, knowing that at least one of her brothers had come, and that they were no longer under siege.
It took her some time to find her way from the Godswood to the main gate of the castle. She had stopped to go up the main gate for a time, and saw that the drawbridges were all down now, and even some direwolf flags were flying from the castle's battlements.
All throughout the castle she saw men were in a good mood, men praising the Young Wolf, who she could only guess was Robb.
At the main gate she saw men were coming into the castle. Most of them were nobles, but she didn't see Robb amongst them yet. Some desperate part of her wanted to catch a glimpse of Jon too, and twice she could've sworn she saw him, but the men were clearly not her brother.
Where are you Jon? She wondered in her mind.
Away, a voice seemed to whisper in her mind. It sounded so much like Jon's voice too.
She looked around again, but still couldn't see Jon anywhere. I'm going mad, aren't I? Jeyne thought to herself.
It was quite obvious though when the brother who had come to Riverrun had arrived. Men were cheering for her brother as he stepped into the castle. It was for his victories she realized, and for how he had beaten them. She had spotted a familiar golden figure enter the castle earlier, in irons, and she realized he truly had beaten the Kingslayer.
Robb didn't look like the boy he had been at Winterfell, and looked a lot like his uncles now. She spotted Ser Edmure next to him, who was taller than Robb, and had a fuller beard, and more unkempt hair, but they still looked more similar than she had realized.
Jeyne watched as Robb spoke with several different men in turn, and she supposed it would be some time before he would be able to speak with her. She waited and waited for some time, until Robb finally caught sight of her, and came to her.
"We need to speak… Alone…" She told him, and Robb nodded. He turned around, and talked to a few more men, but when he had finished, he took her arm, and they began to walk.
She knew that he didn't know his way around the castle yet, so she guided them, taking them up to the battlements, from where they could look out over the field below.
The river ran red with blood still, and hundreds of corpses still were strewn about the field, waiting to be buried, while men were busy in the field where just hours before had been one of the Kingslayer's Camps.
When he was finally with her alone, she stood on her tippie toes and placed a kiss on his cheek. He had grown even taller now, while Jeyne hadn't grown much since they parted ways.
Robb's armor was covered with dry blood, but his face seemed clean enough. A sword hung from his side too, that hadn't been there when last she saw him. Jeyne supposed she should have expected it, but it still seemed a bit strange.
It was Robb who broke the silence between the two of them. "Jon… He came south. He didn't join the Night's Watch," he told her.
"Is he here?" Jeyne asked a little excitedly, at the prospect of seeing her twin again. She supposed she ought to have known he had from her dreams, but if he had come.
Her hopes were dashed though when she saw the grim look on Robb's face, and him shaking his head. "No," Robb told her. "He went with our other host."
Did Jon not want to see her? She wondered if Jon knew of her shame and didn't want to see her because of that. But Jeyne knew her brother better than that, and that he would still want to see her even with that.
"He'll come to you soon," Robb promised her. Jeyne felt better with that, but she still wanted Jon to be there now. She wondered if Jon hadn't come because he didn't want to come to Riverrun. If that were true, she couldn't entirely blame him then, she didn't like it much here either.
"What will you do now?" Jeyne asked him. She wanted to know, before she gave him the letter, perhaps even cruelly.
"Make peace. Get father back, Go home," Robb said, pausing after each one. It made sense to Jeyne at least, and the Lannisters would have no choice but to make peace now that they had been beaten three times.
"And the Princess?" She said suggestively, unsure why, or what she wanted to hear from him. Was it because she was so cruel wish Robb would say the words first?
"What about her?" Robb asked. "Myrcella waits for me at Winterfell…"
Jeyne took out the letter, not quite sure if she wanted to give it to him yet. As a child she had always been taught that Dark Wings brought Dark Words. She was a Blackwood by marriage, so she supposed it was only fitting she give him the terrible news.
"Is she unwell?" Robb said, starting to panic, as he quickly snatched the letter out of her hand, while Jeyne could feel nervousness building in her.
After he had finished he looked up, his eyes filled with disbelief. "How… How could he possibly?"
"I'm sorry Robb," she said, giving him a hug. Jeyne hoped her brother would be alright, but she could not be certain that he would. When they broke apart she noticed there was a tear coming from one of his blue eyes, that Jeyne wiped away for him.
"I need to be alone," he told her after that, and she nodded, and walked away, leaving him by himself on the battlements of the castle.
Author Notes:
Bit of an oof here for Robb here obviously. He's won and then gets a giant smelling turd of news dumped on him that his wife is a baseborn ambomination born of incest. We shall see how this impacts Robb's decision making soon.
Our next chapter will be taking us to King's Landing, so yay for that too I guess.
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