The Price of Crossing

Chapter Two

Robb had killed his first man today; it had not been how he thought it would be. When he had been a little boy, he and Jon had played at being knights from the songs, Aemon the Dragonknight and Symeon Stareyes and a dozen others and the memory made his heart ache, they had been so young and so stupid, and he wanted nothing more than to go back to those days.

But he could not, he was a man grown now and Jon was at the Wall, defending the north from the armies of wildings and Robb was warring in the south and it suddenly struck him that it could be years and years before he ever saw his brother again, if ever and that thought stung somewhere deep inside of him but he was at war now and so he pushed that thought away.

But doing so allowed the memories of the battle to come back to him, the taste of blood at the back of his throat and the heat of the battle all around him. The sounds of men dying because of him, both on his side and not. Two of Lord Karstark's sons were dead, poor Eddard and Torrhen, both slain by the Kingslayer before the other man had been taken captive, a noble and worthy death.

The man that Robb had killed, he wondered if he would have songs sung about him. He doubted it, he did not seem like the sort of man who appeared in the songs. He had been short, and bald with a scar that started at the top of his head and went down his nose and curved to the bottom his cheek. He had come at him with a long spear with a black iron head at the end of it.

He had jolted it out at him while Robb had been on the back of his horse, Ser Rodrik had taught him how to deflect such an attack and he did it with an easy motion and then he opened the man from neck to navel with a heavy slash.

The blood had been thicker than he thought it would be, it coated his blade and the man had fallen to the ground. The sounds he had made as he laid there dying, calling out for his mother or perhaps for the Mother Above that Robb's own mother worshipped. He had wanted to make a quick end to the man's suffering, but the battle was still going on, there hadn't been time.

He had left that man to die in agony.

There was a stinging at his eyes and Robb had to remind himself that he was a man grown now and he was leading men into battle, if he wept then they would never believe in him again and so he pushed all of his fear and his sorrow and his pain deep down inside of himself and waited for it to die, sending a silent prayer to the gods that they would harden his heart for the wars to come.

Grey Wind had left his side and padded away till Robb lost sight of him, he still had to endure a few more rounds of celebration before he could slip away back to his own tent.

When he got there, he found that his wolf had gotten there before him, resting its great head in Robb's lady wife's lap, his jaws nibbling delicately in a way that Robb didn't think Grey Wind would be capable of as Walda broke off pieces of honeycomb and fed it to the wolf. The sight made him smile, he had to still be a leader he knew but Father had told him that while he had to be cold and strong in front of his people, there was comfort to be found in the company of your lady wife.

"He's not a puppy you know, he's a direwolf. He should be hunting for his meals," Robb said as he allowed Olyvar to help him out of his armour and unbuckle his sword belt and then he sent the older boy away.

"Oh, don't you listen to him," Walda cooed at Grey Wind like he was a babe, scratching behind his ears. "He's just jealous that I'm not scratching behind his ears and feeding him treats, but that's only for good boys and you are the sweetest boy of them all." Grey Wind panted and Wanda squealed like he truly was nothing more than a cute pup and feed him another bit of honeycomb.

The sight of it warmed his heart and Robb walked over to the desk and filled a goblet with some wine, most of the food had been given by Lord Walder when they departed from the Twins with his men and with his granddaughter as well. Robb had intended to send Walda back to Winterfell with his lady mother but Lord Walder had made it clear that he wanted his granddaughter to accompany Robb on his marching and mother would not go.

"Grandfather likes to take care, in all things, if you are killed or captured then I am much as like to be the same and if that happens then he can say that there was little that he had to do with it," Walda had told him on the morning after their wedding when he found her waiting for him in the yard, dressed in green silk and yellow velvet. "He is an old man after all, he could just say that he was not consulted in any of it if we lose, he has sons and grandsons to spare after all."

Her words had made him frown at the time and they still worried him, what sort of man had he joined himself to and what sort of a life had his lady wife had to live within in the Twins if she was so comfortable with entertaining such an idea, but his head was already too full of troubled notions and so Robb pushed them away and pulled his chair to sit next to his lady wife and rub at his wolf behind his ears.

Grey Wind did not seem impressed with his efforts and instead kept all his attention on Lady Walda, who continued to feed him by hand and pet him gently before she turned her head to face him, her blue eyes were soft as a cloudless sky. "Are you well? I was worried for you, they sent me word when the battle was over, so I knew that you were alive, but they did not tell me if you were injured or not."

"I am well," Robb said before he took a sip of his wine and reached out to take his wife's hand gently, rubbing his thumb over the back of her knuckles as he had seen his father do to his mother's hand a thousand times before. He wondered how he felt when he did it, was it what Robb was feeling in that moment? "I...I killed my first man today; I've seen death before. I was seven years old when I first went out to see my father deal justice and over the years, I saw him take so many heads, but it was different when I was holding the sword."

Walda stared into his eyes for a moment and let out a small sigh. "When I was a little girl I had a cousin, his name was Walder. Most of them are called Walder, but this one was my favourite. He was everyone's favourite, at least that was what I thought when I was still just a little girl. He was known as comely Walder around the Twins and we were fast friends, he didn't mind playing with a girl and I thought that I might wed him when we both came of age."

"He was smart and courteous and witty, he even made grandfather smile once I swear it so. One day were playing atop the battlements, Waldar loved to climb right to the top of the staff which flew our standard and scream out for the whole world to hear, he was such a little boy, but he always seemed so very tall to me." There were tears in his wife's eyes now and Robb reached out to gently wipe them away as they began to fall.

"There was a small stone hut atop the battlements, I think it was used as a sleeping hut by the guardsmen during siege times when the guards needed to swap over but at that time it was just being used to store old broken bows and torn cloth and ripped up beds, all that sort of thing. We had used it in our games before, we'd pretend that it was a hidden cove filled with treasure or a hiding place for a den of outlaws."

"Well, I was inside the hut when it happened, I heard Walder shouting for help and I ran to the door and I saw," His wife shuddered and sobbed, and Robb was about to tell her that she didn't need to go on, but she continued before he could say anything. "There was someone there, in a thick roughspun cloak, and they picked him up and placed him on one of the crenels and pushed him off the wall."

"I had to hide; I was a young girl, but I wasn't stupid. I know that if whoever it was knew I was there, knew that I saw what they had done then they would kill me as well and so I hide behind an old, stained feather mattress until the sun went down but even then, I was too scared to move, I was terrified that they would be waiting for me outside."

"They found me the next morning and I was brought before my grandfather; he was not the sort of man who knew how to give comfort to a terrified little girl and even if he knew how he would not. They had found my cousin earlier that morning, his body had washed up on the shore, he was swollen and horrible to look on from what I was told later."

"Grandfather asked me what happened, he commanded me to tell it true or he would have my tongue out and have me shipped off to the silent sisters. But once again I wasn't stupid, I knew that if I told the truth then whoever had pushed Walder would come for me next, so I lied, I said that Walder was playing the fool and climbed on to the crenel and he simply slipped and that was the end of it."

Robb could not help himself, he frowned. "My lady, you should have told the truth of it. Your cousin was murdered, your grandfather may still have a kinslayer living within his halls. Justice should have been served."

"What justice could there have been?" Walda asked with a sigh and Grey Wind nudged her palm with his nose, the action did not make the woman smile but it did make her raise her hand and gently pet the direwolf. "I did not see who it was that pushed him, I saw someone in a robe and I had no way to tell if it was a man or a woman. If I had told it true, then suspicion would have torn the Twins apart. Walder's own mother still thinks that I am the one that pushed him, during one feast she nearly stabbed me, and Grandfather had to send her away to become a Septa."

"House Frey is large and ambitious, and to survive you have to become hard inside. I did so but became soft on the outside. Make no mistake, I enjoy eating. No doubt I would be fat regardless but perhaps I also knew that no one takes a fat woman seriously, if all they saw was a fat, dumb woman when they looked at me then what threat could I pose, who would listen to me if I told them anything important."

Robb was silent, imagining a world for a moment where he had to worry about one of his brothers killing him for a secret. He couldn't see it, Bran was a happy little boy who loved to smile and laugh and Rickon was a baby who looked at him like he hung the sun and the moon and Jon was his best friend as much as he was his brother, he had taken his first steps with Jon's hand in his.

"The reason I am telling you all of this is because, while I have never taken a life before and I pray that I shall never have to, living in the Twins was its own sort of battlefield. I still sleep with a knife under my pillow." Walda shrugged her shoulders and rose from her chair. "In truth, I shall be glad to never set foot there again when this war is over."

"You won't have too." Robb assured her as he rose after her, stepping close to her and taking hold of her hand once again. "Once we march on King's Landing and free my father and my sisters we will go home, Winterfell will be your place then."

Walda smiled at him and leaned into press a kiss to his cheek, Robb tilted his head to capture her lips and was about to deepen it when Grey Wind suddenly started to howl and Walda looked at the direwolf with her face becoming as pale as the moon. "What is wrong with him?"

Robb was about to kneel and comfort him when the flaps of his tent pulled aside and his mother walked in, her face was pale and her eyes were red and teary and in her hand was clenched a piece of parchment paper and in that moment, Robb knew.

Father

End of Chapter Two