CHAPTER THIRTY – Kidnapped Take Two
"There ain't no journey what don't change you some."
-David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
Caryssa eyed the flames in front of her, the low-burning campfire that her captor had only acquiesced to after the Stark princess had mentioned feeling sick and light-headed, and then her hands.
Her wrists were on fire, but Caryssa still could not help but struggle against the rope; twisting, turning, wriggling until her flesh was torn and bleeding.
Between the burning of her wrists, the perpetual panic that she had been separated from her brother, and the damp ground she sat upon, Caryssa was uncomfortable. And seething. Seething more than anything.
"Princess, if you had just come willingly, there'd be no reason for the restraints," The traitorous giantess spoke softly, concern on her face, but she was obviously not too worried for the young woman's state, or she'd have removed her woven shackles. "I couldn't just let you run back to camp, to sound the alarm. Your mother ordered me to take the Kingslayer back to King's Landing, so that's what I'm doing."
She ordered you to take my husband in order to exchange him for her daughters, Caryssa thought, being uncharitable towards her mother's sworn shield, as she thought of what a mess the female knight had already made of her mother's task, And now the lions will have their own back, and three she-wolves instead of two, plus interest.
Caryssa said nothing aloud, simply grunted in acknowledgement, and in pain as the rope rubbed against her abused skin.
"You shouldn't have tried to shoot her-"
"Shut up, Kingslayer," Brienne kicked her other prisoner, glaring at him unkindly, before turning her face back to look over at her lady's daughter. Lady Catelyn and her firstborn did not share many physical characteristics, but the stubborn set of the princess' jaw and the simmering fire in her ice blue eyes was all Catelyn Tully. "Your mother said you've a talent for archery, princess. She said you never miss your mark."
"She doesn't." Jaime answered for his wife when it became clear she would not speak for herself.
"You only grazed me," The warrior gestured to the long, scabbed over wound across her ample right cheek, ignoring the Kingslayer, "Unless that was your intention."
"I intended to distract you, so I could run. I didn't account for your pain tolerance, nor my husband being so willing in aiding you with my abduction."
Brienne winced at Caryssa's cutting words.
This was certainly not what Lady Catelyn had intended when she had given Brienne the task of springing Jaime Lannister from his cage, but neither woman had planned on the princess stumbling across them mid-escape.
Brienne had only moments to decide on the best course of action, and the current road they were on seemed to be the only one to walk.
"I had no choice. I had to keep my oath-"
"I understand. A promise made should be a promise kept, and what else does a knight have if not their honor, but even you must see what a foolish mistake you've made," Her voice was as gentle as the rivers that surrounded her mother's childhood home, but Caryssa's words caused tumultuous storms of guilt and shame in her captor. "You seek to free my sisters, but in doing so, you are giving the Lannisters my brother's sole bargaining chip, plus another hostage for them to hold over his head. I understand why my mother has done this, but she has not thought it through."
"I think she thought it through, princess, over and over again since this war began and the Kingslayer became a hostage. Your mother has likely thought of this plan-"
Caryssa shook her head, and Brienne noticed that the young woman, just shy of her twentieth namesday, looked much older than she should. This war had aged her, as it had the King. It was a harsh reminder that the war rested heavily on the shoulders of the young, the inexperienced, while the old benefited.
"I'm tired. I'm going to sleep." The princess' tone left no room for argument, despite her being the captive, not the captor, and Brienne nodded in agreement.
"Wait. Where is Rhaenyra, sweet wife? How are we to sleep knowing you could sic your direwolf on us at any moment?" Jaime asked, as his wife maneuvered herself until she lay on the ground, facing away from the fire, and from them.
She looked small.
His wife had always held herself taller than her average height, pride and self-confidence making her loom above most others, and it unsettled the lion to see his mate shrink into herself.
"Following in the trees. She will only come when I call, and you do not have to fear, Jaime. You are currently more useful to everyone alive than dead," Caryssa answered, "Sleep well."
The lion and the warrior maid both glanced apprehensively at the trees, both steeling themselves against flinching at every snapping twig and rustling leaf.
The she-wolf would rest easy, knowing her wolf would protect her, but her two companions would stay awake, waiting for gleaming eyes in the dark and snarling teeth.
Rhaenyra hunted best at night, though she made sure not to go too far from where her mistress, her mate and their captor laid down for rest.
Her sharp eyes cut through the dark, locking onto her prey with glee. Paws padded silently as the direwolf slunk through tree and thicket. It had been an hour since she had picked up the scent of a buck, after four days of rabbits, squirrels and one lost sheep, and the wolf was excited.
Her prey was in her sights.
The buck slept soundly, its ears pricking to the sound of a snapping twig just moments too late.
Rhaenyra's muzzle was painted red. Her teeth ripped and tore and gnashed, blood running down her throat.
Caryssa's eyes snapped open, the feel of flesh and sinew in her mouth.
Back in the days when the ancient Kings of Winter had ruled the North, members of the Stark bloodline had the ability to warg into wolves, like the skinchangers of the Children of the Forest.
This ability was passed down generation to generation for seemingly centuries, until one day the stories stopped.
Ned Stark had not known why, but Caryssa could hazard a guess.
She believed that when the Children of the Forest and Bran the Builder had erected the Wall and divided the North, it had trapped the direwolves on the northern side of it, thus separating the Starks from their sigil animals, their loyal companions, and so the gift was lost to history.
Until she and her brothers had found a dead direwolf surrounded by seven pups in the woods.
For months, since Rhaenyra had grown too large to really be called a pup any longer, Caryssa had begun to have dreams where she gazed through the eyes of her best friend.
Each time it felt so real, so vivid.
The young woman could catch scents no human would be able to find, could see perfectly into the darkness, could taste the iron tang of blood as Rhaenyra feasted.
Her father had always told her that she had the wolf's blood inside of her, like her Uncle Brandon and Aunt Lyanna, like Arya…
Caryssa winced as she pushed herself upright, both from the ache in her back and the thought of her youngest sister.
Had Arya truly escaped King's Landing?
Was she perhaps sleeping on the hard, cold ground, dreaming through Nymeria's eyes, as she did Rhaenyra's? Did she wonder whether she was losing her mind or if she really had the gift of their ancestors?
Did Arya think that Caryssa had abandoned her and Sansa to the lions?
"Your Highness, are you alright?"
Caryssa blinked and glanced over at the giant, towering woman, who had appeared from the edge of the woods, arms laden with broken sticks and branches for their fire. The older woman began to carefully stack her kindling, but her eyes did not leave the princess, nor did she bother to hide her concern.
"I'm fine. I suppose it would make me sound like the spoiled lady I am to say that I am struggling with sleeping on the ground."
"There likely wasn't ever a need for you to sleep on the ground."
"You may wear the armor of a knight and wield that sword as good as any of them, but I've heard of Tarth. You are the daughter of its lord, aren't you? Which means you likely did not have much cause to sleep on the ground yourself, but you make no complaints about a bad back or wearing that armor for days on end. You must be exhausted."
"I'm fine, Your Highness."
"What she means is she doesn't trust me to not try and kill her should she take it off."
Caryssa sighed as Jaime awkwardly pushed himself upright, his hands, like hers, still bound in front of him. She had wanted to continue talking to Brienne uninterrupted, perhaps convince the woman to simply drop her off at the next village or inn they came across, but Jaime working his usual irritating charm would definitely destroy any chance of her being able to build a rapport with the would-be knight.
"Go back to sleep, husband. Give that mouth of yours a rest."
"I haven't been asleep. Did you have bad dreams, wife? You woke up rather suddenly, I was worried."
His face wore a smirk, but she could see his green eyes in the glow of the fire. His eyes gave him away, always, and they did show concern, but she still could not trust him enough to tell him the truth.
And what could she say anyway?
He would honestly think her mad if she told him that she thought she was entering Rhaenyra's body through her dreams. They would both believe she had lost her mind, and she wasn't sure they would be wrong.
On the other hand, it might convince their captor that she was too incompetent to keep with them on their illicit travels back to the capital.
Knowing what little she did of Brienne of Tarth, she gave up that dream as improbable, so instead decided to lie.
"I dreamed of what your son did to my father," Jaime's smirk dropped at her words. She felt the Gods would forgive her for enjoying it. "I dreamed of what I will do to Joffrey when I get the chance. I'm stuck between throttling him with my bare hands, so I can watch the life leave his eyes as I choke it out of him, or cutting his head off in front of Cersei, as a small revenge for having my sister watch as he killed our father. Both options hold merit, I think. Brienne, which would you choose?"
"I don't think your mother-"
"My mother likely has her own plans for those who have harmed this family, and I can only imagine how brutal the scenarios are in her head," Caryssa smiled dryly, "You don't mess with a mother's children, and kill her husband, and expect to find the Maiden still in her. No, widows and the mothers of dead children, they are ruled by the Stranger."
Brienne eyed her.
"Your mother said you follow the Old Gods. Who are you ruled by?"
"The Old Gods don't have names. They just are."
"The Northerners pray to trees, wench, did you not know? They mutter their prayers to ancient trees with carved faces, like the fabled Children of the Forest once did."
Caryssa rolled her eyes at Jaime's attempt to rile her up. He did not believe in any Gods, old, new or otherwise, so felt perfectly comfortable in mocking her beliefs. The bedraggled lion was not one to mince his words to spare her feelings, but it did not bother her as perhaps it should.
Brutal honesty was, at the very least, honesty.
"The Children of the Forest and my ancestors held back the White Walkers and it was with the aid of their magics that Bran the Builder constructed the Wall that protects the Seven Kingdoms from all things dark and unimaginable. You can doubt their existence, but there is physical evidence that they were as real as you or me," Caryssa rose to her feet, toeing dirt onto their fire to smother the flames. "The sun will be rising soon. We should get moving if you don't want to get caught, and I need to relieve myself before we start our march."
The two women ignored the instant complaints of their male counterpart and set about covering the remnants of their temporary camp to begin their march once more.
Caryssa had not relaxed a single moment since Brienne and Jaime had stumbled across her and Rhaenyra in the Whispering Woods, just outside the borders of the Young Wolf's encampment.
Now the tension in her body was causing her babe to start what felt like a riot inside her womb, tiny limbs bashing against her innards, thanks to her idiot husband and their equally moronic captor deciding to duel in the middle of a bridge on the River Road, right in the open for any Northern guard, Lannister soldier or travelling bandit to spot them.
Caryssa shuffled backwards to keep out of the way of swinging steel, dropped to her knees by the bridge's wall to use it as shelter, and began cursing her companions.
"Fucking children," Caryssa seethed, her eyes flitting between the clashing clods, their surroundings, and the rope around her wrists. She lifted the twine to her teeth and began teasing the knots undone. "What was…Mother thinking? These two…twits will kill each other…before they ever get close…to King's Landing."
Brienne and Jaime's fight had started when the trio came to the river and faced a difficult choice; cross the bridge, which would expose them and possibly lead to them being captured, or cross the river, which could have led to them being swept away by the current or Jaime escaping.
The would-be knight chose the bridge, and Caryssa's smart-mouthed husband had taunted her for her choice, before plopping himself down "to rest", which had just been a ploy to steal Brienne's second sword from her to cut himself free of her leash.
Brienne, of course, immediately withdrew her own sword.
Thus, the current idiocy began and Caryssa's chance to escape arrived.
If she could just free her hands, that is.
With Brienne and Jaime both distracted by their childish squabbling, Caryssa could reunite with her direwolf in the tree line and then, together, they could follow the River Road back to Riverrun and back to Robb.
Rhaenyra would keep them safe, and Caryssa could be back with her family,
"It seems my wife has had the same idea as me," Caryssa turned her head to see Jaime and Brienne both paused, their eyes on her, just as she managed to loosen her binds. "Now the question is; who do you give chase to? The princess or the Kingslayer? Do you protect your lady's daughter, or do you follow your lady's command?"
The princess rose slowly to her feet, letting the rope drop to the ground, and pulled her bow from her back.
She knocked an arrow, and both the Maid of Tarth and the Lion of the Rock flinched as she pulled her bowstring taut, aiming in their direction.
"Your Highness, lower your weapon-"
Caryssa released the arrow and hit her mark.
Brienne and Jaime spun on their heels as they heard the thump of a body hitting the stone ground behind them.
"Bandits!" Caryssa shouted, as several men on horseback spilled out of the trees, blocking off the other side of the bridge.
They would not be able to outrun them.
Their only choices were to stand and fight, or surrender, and, foolish though it may prove to be, Caryssa would not be taken prisoner by men who held no banners and sold to the highest bidder, or worse.
She unclasped her cloak, needing it out of the way, and knocked her next arrow.
Jaime and Brienne glanced at each other, nodding in wordless agreement to fight together, as the bandits leapt from their horses, weapons drawn, to converge on the pair.
Steel clashed against steel.
Arrows sung as they cut through the air.
Blood spattered across the moss-covered stone of the bridge.
The horses squealed and scatter, as Rhaenyra bounds out of the woods and across the bridge.
The direwolf pounced, knocking over a large, muscled and bronzed warrior, who had barged past Brienne and Jaime to cut down Caryssa, and the woman nearly dropped her bow in surprise when the dark giant screamed in terror as the wolf tore his arm from his body.
Soon silence fell, and the only three that still stood were Brienne and her two captives.
Bodies littered the ground, the stench of death filled the air…and the she-wolf doubled over to empty her stomach.
The Kingslayer turned to check on his wife and froze.
Brienne, who had been eyeing the bodies of the dead to make sure they were all just that, moved to check on the princess, and her eyes widened.
"Your Highness…you're with child?"
A/N:
So...I'm back! *jazz hands*
It has been over a year and a half since I last posted, which was not what I planned, but that's what happened. I'm sorry it's been so long. I've been quite open about my struggles with my mental health, and that's the reason I haven't posted. I was close to posting around March/April, but then COVID got real serious and I had a bit of a breakdown because of it. So yeah, that happened.
But I'm doing slightly better now! And to any of my readers that have sleeping difficulties because of their depression/anxiety, I fully recommend investing in a weighted blanket. I don't even fully understand how it works, I'm pretty sure it's magic, but I've been actually sleeping through most of the night for about a solid week since I got it, so if you have about £30 spare, buy a weighted blanket!
Okay, so the big reveal has arrived. The direwolf is out of the bag. Jaime has officially seen Caryssa's bump!
I'm so sorry about the quality of this chapter, and the cliffhanger I decided to leave it on, but if I kept editing and editing this until I was satisfied with it, it would never see the light of day and it'd be another year and a half before this story got updated.
Also, for clarification's sake, just in case anyone is confused of the timeline, I have baby Starkister being conceived shortly after their wedding in late-298 AC, and she is now between six and seven months pregnant, give or take.
Second also, I reworked my plan for this part of the story, thanks to a few reviews I've read, mostly saying that they hoped Caryssa's inclusion would change some events of the story. Well, ta-da! I hope you notice the major change included in this chapter!
Anyway, I won't prattle on much longer, but I do want to thank everybody who commented on the last chapter and on the note I posted asking for opinions on where to take the story in the future. It means so much to me that you guys still comment and favourite this story, especially those of you who leave such lovely words for me to read and those of you who have been leaving comments since the beginning. It warms my heart when I start recognising usernames, you have no idea what that means!
So thank you so much to:
Guest (1), Purplestan, ukitakeitalialover041757, Sparky She-Demon (thanks for being such an awesome friend this year!), firstofhername, chocolatenoose, BrittStar1199, NicoleR85, Vintage Ally (I read all of your comments and seriously thank you for taking the time!), otherworlder81, Padfootette, HPuni101, TheDarkLightWithin, IggyTheNugget, Guest (2), Silent Wolf Singer, Euphoria - Singularity, Gentle Blossom, ayienne, Psycho Mutt, cashy7183980, Bella-swan11, H.R.E.R, KatherineKatrinaBloomSalvatore, shipwreck321, RagingRaven, Pocket Bug, Alvia the Ginger, Cleo9427, OneWhoReadsTooMuch, BlackLove31, sweetchill, Guest (3), IOwnAnxiety (LOVE your username!), CrimsonMother, Laurel, Vwchick, Guest (4), Rhaenylis Starmartell, Illyari, Eliza, annabelleigh1996, KPx50, Guest (5), Sugar007, Sebastians Stans, painted heart, Chiquita-Juliet, Ayy. lerner, Oricke, Shadow Wolf 15846, XxXMoonstoneEye19720XxX, xrayahsunshinex, Kaioo, Brooklynhills, Lucy Greenhill, Violet97mc, GiggleboxGirlie, sailoryoongi, Boo33, Daphne Ackerman, Guest (6), RoxyNoName, Cherryhacola, Guest (7), jleeluv14, Guest (8) and MusesOwnMyMind (I love your username and it is so me!).
I'm not going to say when I'll be able to update again, but I hope it's soon.
I hope everyone stays safe, and please wear your masks when out in public!
I love you guys,
SALStratton!