Chapter 9

Ned

They were in the process of finding and dealing with the hidden loyalists when one of Jon's spies reported that a Lannister army was seen moving along the Gold Road towards King's Landing. They had decided then to keep all the injured behind, let them come in their time, while the cavalry and uninjured soldiers had continued toward King's Landing at an even pace. He had to be careful in not straining the soldiers or horses too much. No one knew if the Lion was going to oppose them or help them in King's Landing, so he had to keep his men as fresh as possible for a battle when they reached the city. At the same time, he had to ensure that all hidden loyalists were dealt with, and he had given Mark Ryswell and Theo Wull the responsibility of dealing with them, as well as bringing the marching soldiers to King's Landing, as he and the cavalry rode ahead to see what the Lion had planned.

They had passed Hayford when one of the scouts had come with the news of Lannister banners on the gates, and they had made all possible haste once they received the news. They were too late; that was his first thought as soon as he entered the city. Chaos was an understatement for what he was seeing. More than once did his bile rise and it was through a sheer will that he managed to keep it down. He was in a hurry to reach the Red Keep but he could not ignore the cries of the smallfolk of King's Landing. Destroyed and burnt houses and shops, toddlers crying for their mums, women crying for their babies and men, women in tattered clothes looking blankly at nothing, dead women, dead men, young boys and girls with blood running down their legs, dead babies, and much more littered their path.

He knew that war was hardest on the smallfolk. However, reading about it, listening to it, thinking about it, or threatening to do it was nothing compared to seeing it with his own eyes. And seeing the handiwork of the Lannister army shook him to the core; the scenes would haunt his dreams for some time, he was sure; and even though they stopped haunting him, he would never forget them for the rest of his life, and he would never forget who was responsible for such horrors.

Whenever and wherever he saw Lannister soldiers in the act, he sent northern soldiers to deal with them. After the third time, he gave William Dustin 100 horse and men to bring the northern justice to the mad lions.

The Northern party was made up of hardened lords; lords and men who had witnessed wilding raids on their lands: war-hardened lords and men who had proved their mettle in the Rebellion, as well as against the wildlings and bandits; there were even some men who had accompanied his Lord Father in the War of the Ninepenny Kings and survived; lords and men who survived the atrocities of the winter in the North; and yet, the party had been rendered mute by the horrors visited by the Lannister army upon the smallfolk of the city, for they had never seen a sack on such a large scale, never seen so many smallfolk suffering in one single place, and they reached the Red Keep in stony silence.

The Madder Prince was dead and the Mad King would join him soon, but Tywin Fucking Lannister had unleashed his own brand of madness on the city of King's Landing.

There were still a few pockets of resistance holding out in the Red Keep, and they ended up helping the Lannisters in breaking those up. Tywin Lannister had taken up residence in the Tower of the Hand, and he ignored it because he knew that if he confronted the Lion and could not keep his mouth in check, he would make an enemy for life. Based on the information he had gotten from Ser Selmy, he sent Lords Manderley, Umber, and Bolton to get a hold of the treasury, the barracks, and the docks. He wanted Aerys and he took the Stark men to the throne room to bring about justice for his Lord Father and Brandon.

It took him some time to find the throne room, but Ser Selmy's directions worked well enough, at least whatever he remembered from the interrogation. The Lannisters had once again beaten them to the throne room. When he and his men entered the throne room, whatever conversation had been taking place died down. He saw the Mad King lying in a puddle of blood at the base of the stairs to the throne, and he saw a Lannister Kingsguard, Ser Jaime Lannister he assumed, with a sword dripping with blood, seated on the Iron Throne.

"What in the hells happened here?" He asked the man-boy on the throne.

"Lord Stark, I presume."

"Yes, and you must be Ser Jaime Lannister."

"The one and the only," he answered with a smirk and a mock bow. "And to answer your question, I have killed the king."

"Kingslayer," the word left his mouth before he even knew what he was going to say. And he could see the change on the boy's face. The haughty, smirking boy vanished and in his place was a hard, closed-off man with flinty eyes and a grim set to his mouth.

"Hnn, the throne is yours, Lord Stark. Do with it as you please. I have things to take care of."

He wondered if he should stop and arrest the man, but the Lannister numbers stopped his hand and his mouth. Another battle here would lead to the unnecessary loss of northern lives, and he did not want that. The Lannister was almost at the door when he spoke again.

"Ser Jaime, I would like to meet your father. Can you arrange it?"

"I will see what I can do, Lord Stark."

By the time he came to terms with the death of the Mad King, the Kingsguard had already left the throne room. He remembered asking for a meeting with Tywin Lannister but had not gotten the chance to ask about the queen or the prince and the princesses before the Kingslayer had stalked out of the room. He immediately set out to find the other royals only to find that the queen and her son had left for Dragonstone only a few days before and that the prince and the princesses were missing. He tasked some of his men to find the missing royals and then he set out about securing whatever important structure came to his mind, including the Black cells. In the Black cells, he found a dirty and malnourished but alive Northman later identified to be Ethan Glover.

Wherever he went, the Lannisters already had a foothold, if not complete control. Wherever they did not have complete control, he ensured that the army under his control established control for themselves. To say things were tense would not do justice to the atmosphere in the Red Keep. His army was ready to spit and stomp on the Lannisters and the Lannisters were ready to return the favor. There were times when the two sides had almost come to a fight, and barring a few incidents, two of which required intervention from himself and Kevan Lannister, major mishaps had been avoided. That one day had, however, strained the nerves on both sides. Swords were brandished and words were exchanged regularly. He felt at least 50 times during the day that a skirmish would break out between the two. Thus, it was an immense relief when Jon and Robert rode into the Red Keep.

His blood was boiling. He had expected that the prince and the princesses were missing because they had managed to escape in the chaos; he was wrong and naive still. Tywin Lannister had built his reputation based on actions, not words. And the Lion had built on it even more in the sack; three bodies he presented to the new King, bodies so disfigured and tortured that only a few features could be made out. Those features, the Lion's declaration, and Lord Varys' confirmation were enough though; Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon were dead. It was almost too much for he imagined Lya in the place of the woman's body. He was about to explode when Robert called him out.

"What? What is it? Go on. I can see that you are not happy with this."

And he could contain it no longer. "Not happy, not happy you say. Are you happy with this? Is this what we fought for? Do you fashion yourself another Mad King then, killing innocents and being happy with it? Does killing children make you happy?"

"You knew that this had to happen you fucking moron. Besides, I do not see any children, I see only dragonspawn. Lord Tywin has done us a great service."

"Great service! He has punished you, you fool. What he has done is lost you valuable hostages. Do you think the Dornish would let this go? "This man," he pointed toward a stony-faced Tywin before continuing, "has ensured that the war continues with the Dornish."

"Lord Tywin has ensured that there are fewer contenders to my throne. Do you fear the Dornish, let them come. They will meet the bloody end of my war hammer. No more words out of your mouth Ned; I am the King, this is my decree. Lord Tywin has done me a great service. Now, everyone out."

And that was the end of King Robert's first day at court.

Jon caught up with him before he could stalk out of the Red Keep.

"Ned," he could hear Jon holler, and he stopped.

"We should speak in private, Ned."

"Very well, Jon," he sighed, "lead the way."

They ended up going into a room near the throne room. They waited until they could hear silence before Jon started speaking.

"What were you thinking, Ned. Antagonizing Tywin Lannister is not a good idea at this time, especially not in the court. Do you want him as an enemy? Not to mention it shows disunity amongst us."

"And is praising him a good idea then? Dorne is forever lost to Robert."

"What is done is done, Ned. Now we pick up the pieces and move on. Prince Doran is a reasonable fellow, we can and will come to terms."

"And Tywin remains free of any consequences. What about the Kingslayer? Will he remain free of the consequences too?"

"Ned, you fool, do you think all problems can be solved through justice? The Kingslayer, as you call him, did you a favor, killed the man who killed your father and brother, and you still have an issue with him?"

"The Kingslayer killed his king, the king he was supposed to guard. Will he be rewarded for the act? And if he is, will you trust any man to guard Robert's back afterward? We will never agree on the Lannisters, Jon. Do you think these were isolated incidents? The kingslaying and raping and killing of the Targaryeans, those are only parts of it. When you rode into the city, you saw only the aftermath of the sack. You only saw smoking houses; my men doused the fires, my men pulled burning smallfolk from the fires, my men gave them food and water. You only saw relief camps, my men built them, my men are protecting them even now. You only saw hanging Lannister soldiers, my men caught them raping and looting, my men caught them starting the fires, and my men gave them justice. And this in a city that had opened its gates and as good as surrendered. If I had been late, you would find an empty treasury and a burnt city to rule. Do you think the whole army went out of Tywin's control? Do you think he did not know what his army was going to do? And I suspect he knew exactly what the Mountain and his beasts were going to do, ordered it himself I say, and you know it too."

His piece said, he walked out of the solar before Jon could argue any further. Tywin and the Lannisters were not to be trusted, ever. The sack and the raping and killing of the Targaryeans had shown him that much.

Author Notes:

Right, first of all, heartfelt apologies to readers expecting a quicker update. Shit happened in real life. Lost a job, procrastination, lost the muse, got a shitty job with terrible hours and low pay, searched for another one like crazy until I found one, more procrastination, wrote terrible stuff in the meanwhile and discarded, more procrastination and laziness, you guys know the deal. Rest assured, I am not abandoning the story, but updates will be slow.

In case anyone is wondering about the use of princesses (plural), it is for Elia and Rhaenys.