Note: As always, there are parts of this taken from A Song of Ice and Fire. But good news! We are truly getting into AU territory for sure now.

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CHAPTER 7: Blood Enough to Live

Lord Lothar Frey was nothing but forgiving about the slight his family had received. Remarkably forgiving.

"My apologies to you," Robb had told him gravely, before many after the funeral of Hoster Tully, "It was not right what I did. When a man, when a king, swears to do something he should do it. I will strive to make amends to you and your family, my lord."

But Lothar had merely waved away this solemn apology. "Nonsense, Your Grace. My father Lord Walder bid me to tell you that he was young once as well and knows what it is to be lose your senses to love and beauty."

If Robb didn't like the insinuation he had lost his sense when he married his wife, it didn't show on his face. All he said was, "I will thank your father for his kind words. And I would see that I make this up to him nonetheless."

And Robb had, to his credit, been arranging to do just that. Leveraging the new Lord Tully's mistakes in the battlefield, he had bid him to marry one of the Frey's. It had taken time, on Robb's part, but Edmure had agreed.

Lothar had informed them that he was his father's envoy, and he would accept the marriage pact when it was put to him.

"My sister Roslin will be overjoyed," he said.

Robb had smiled and said, "The wedding must be soon, I believe. We will depart for the wedding within a fortnight, my Lord. I would see this rupture between us healed with love quickly."

"Yes, the quicker the better," Edmure said gloomily later that night. He took a rather large mouthful of wine.

Robb's mother had also been less than thrilled. When Robb told her what Lothar Frey had said about his father, she snorted.

"Lord Walder has never lost himself to love," she said, and drank her own wine. Something was niggling her about the entire affair. She couldn't believe that Walder Frey would be so nonchalant about losing the chance to be father to a queen, and grandfather to kings in turn. No, something was amiss here… but she couldn't see it.

Robb had given her an odd glance. He was quite relieved about soothing things over with Walder Frey, as he believed he had. "The man's had eight wives. I'm sure he loved one of the them."

Catelyn wasn't. "Yes, eight wives and they seem little more than brood mares to him. No, Robb, you have to see it. I don't like what's going on here… the offense was too large to be easily forgiven like this, Lady Tully or no."

Robb and Edmure had both seemed insulted at that. And then there was no talking them out of it, and then they were preparing to leave for the Twins. For the wedding of Lord Edmure and Lady Roslin.

On the day they were set to depart for the Twins, a letter arrived. It was addressed to King Robb, but he was parting with his young queen in the godswood, and Lady Catelyn had taken the letter. She'd not meant to impose, but the feeling of dread was so thick in her throat that she couldn't stop herself from tearing into the paper as soon as she was alone.

It was sealed with the twin towers of Frey; Catelyn's fingers shook as she opened it.

Her eyes were wide with horror.

She dropped the letter to the desk in front of her and turned so quickly to take in the room. It had been the room she'd stayed in a Riverrun, but it was now a room she had thought she'd soon be leaving. All her things were gone, but she was looking for nothing. She crossed quickly to the door and threw it open.

There was but a single person in the hall. A young boy she didn't know, carrying a box of something to go with them to the Twins.

"Drop that," she commanded him, her voice sharp with her fear. "Go fetch the king and bring him here."

The youth was staring at her, openmouthed. He hadn't moved.

"Do it now!" Catelyn cried. "I am his mother! Go and bring him here at once!"

Still wide eyed, the youth hurried to put down his things and then walked from the hall. She resisted telling him to run, and then went back inside the room. She crossed it quickly and reread the letter again.

What were they going to do?


"Robb, don't you see?" Edmure was saying in his ear. "This is a grave and true threat! We cannot go to the Twins now! No, if you're still set on this marriage, we'd have to call the girl here. But," he said and seemed truly cheered by what he was saying, "Now that we know her family is a scheming, betraying bunch of vipers, I don't see why the marriage should go forward at all… uh, not that that doesn't grieve my to the heart, Your Grace."

Robb took all of Edmure's advice with a heavy pinch of salt. Lord Edmure had never wanted much to marry, and he seemed thrilled by the letter sent to Robb despite it's grim warning.

"I'm sure it does, Uncle," said Robb, keeping his voice light. He didn't raise his eyes from the letter. "Send for the Blackfish, I would speak to him. And tell the Northern lords there's been a delay… a matter I needed to attend to. If you see Lord Lothar… don't make any estimates of when we will be leaving… just say something pretentious about the matter a king must attend to, or something. I don't know, but keep it light. Don't let him know we've received this."

When Edmure was gone, he and his mother were alone in the room. She hadn't said a word since handing him the letter.

Now he looked to her, trying to keep his face clear. "What do you make of this?"

She looked at him and blinked once. There was a loaded silence, and then, "I make of it what there is to make. If your squire speaks truly, then-"

"Olyvar is a boy of twelve," Robb interrupted her. He was fighting to seem dismissive, but there was apprehension on his face. "I'm not sure if we can rely upon his words to be truthful. Or accurate."

"How can you-?"

"But still," he said over her, "if the mood is truly so against us that Olyvar would… would think this, then I'm sure we'll need to delay the trip anyway. I won't go to the Twins until I'm sure to make a friend of Lord Walder. And it is friends I need, not more enemies."

"Yes," Catelyn said, seizing on what he had said, "We will need to delay at the very least. A fortnight or more, to be sure. Robb, even if we doubt the truth of what Olyvar accuses his family of, we cannot gamble our lives on that assessment. Yes, he is young. Yes, he may not have understood what he overheard, but you are wrong if you think the boy is not earnest, and that he is not devoted to you. If he risked writing to you, it is because he truly believes the Frey's have forged an alliance with the Lannisters, and that they plot murder!"

Robb nodded along with her slowly, his face drawn and worried. "But what of guest right? Mother it's almost too much to believe."

Catelyn could have smacked him. She didn't know how she had raised such a truly foolish child. "Robb, Your Grace," she said with icy courtesy, fighting to keep her voice in her control and failing. She sounded impatient and angry to her own ears, "this letter is nothing short of a godsend! Think of what Lothar has been feeding us, that Lord Walder completely understands and is more than willing to marry his daughter to Edmure instead. Does that sound like the Lord Walder you met? No, of course it does not! It doesn't sound like him, because it's nothing but lies! And why would they lie to us, if not to get us to come to the Twins? If not to hold our trust for just a little longer! Robb, we cannot risk going!"

There was a silence as the king thought and Catelyn tried to regain her breath. She hadn't meant to yell. The king's face was turned toward the ground, and his shoulders slumped. His face told her he was thinking hard, and she waited, hardly daring to breath and not daring to say anything else.

"Yes," he said at last. "Yes, Mother you have the right of it. Don't know what I was thinking… But what are we to tell the Freys? It may be worse if we only put them off for a few weeks, and then what? A few weeks more?"

Catelyn privately didn't think there was anything worse than death, and that was certainly what they would have found at the Twins if not for this letter. If not for Olyvar Frey. But she didn't contradict what he had said now that he was agreeing with her.

Instead, she sat down and said consideringly, "I suppose we could invite him here. But no, that would only be more insulting. First, we snub his daughter's hand and break a marriage pact, then we tell him we'll marry Edmure to the girl at the Twins, then we tell him he must come here? No."

Not to mention that Lord Walder had not left the Twins so long as anyone could remember. He had too many sons and grandsons to need to go anywhere himself, he had said to her once. And he was right. There was no way he would meet them here.

"If we had pressing business at Riverrun that prevented us from leaving," Robb said, but without much hope.

"Such as what?"

They had fallen back into silence, both thinking hard, when Edmure and Ser Brynden entered the room. Robb looked immediately to Edmure. "Did you speak to Lothar Frey?"

"No," said Edmure. "Didn't even see him. I spoke to Lord Umber though, and Lord Mallister. Both seemed anxious to leave, but I told them the king had urgent business to attend to and we would not be departing today."

"Doubtlessly word will get around," Catelyn said, "And Lord Lothar will hear sooner rather than later. We must have an excuse ready."

The Blackfish looked at Robb. "Your Grace, might I ask what has occurred that prevents us from leaving today?"

"I think it has prevented us from leaving at all," Robb said and tossed the letter to him. He sat down to read, and his face grew very solemn as he did.

"Well?" Robb asked when he finished reading.

"I think you are wise to stay here, Your Grace. Even if the boy is mistaken in what the Freys mean to do, and I'm not sure he is, he cannot likely be mistaken about Lannister envoys being allowed to come and go. If nothing else, the letter tells us the Lannisters and Freys have formed an alliance… and I would not quickly doubt the boy when he speaks of this so-called 'Red Wedding' they were allegedly planning. You all know of the Raynes of Castamere, I'm sure."

He didn't need to elaborate. The story was a well-known display of Tywin's might. He did not suffer betrayals, and he did not suffer enemies.

"So what do we say?" Catelyn asked into the grim silence.

They talked for a while and eventually found a suitable reason.

Later that evening Robb convened a small council of the present lords, including Lothar Frey.

"Her Grace was pregnant," Robb told a his lords. They seemed not to catch his past tense, because he was awash in congratulations and claps on his back. He kept his face cold. "You mistake me, my lords. She was pregnant. Last night Her Grace woke to great pain in her stomach… and blood on the sheets and when a maester was fetched he could barely save her life… and he could not save our child's. My wife almost died. I cannot leave her now. No, for now we must stay at Riverrun, I fear."

He watched their faces and wondered if any would dare dispute the tale. There was only silence, though, and he looked casually to Lothar to see his reaction. His mother had worried there was an insult in staying behind because of the woman he had taken as when he was meant to marry a Frey, which had started the trouble to begin with. Robb had agreed with her, and said only, "Good, let us insult them. We can hardly be friends anymore, can we?"

And now Lothar's face had reddened. His face was concerned, but Robb thought he could see some anger there. He wondered if Lothar was in on the Red Wedding, or if he had just been told to get them to the Twins for a wedding.

Tentatively, and without even a trace of anger, Lothar said, "How can this be, Your Grace, I saw Queen Jeyne just this morning, with you and with others, talking merrily?"

Robb nodded somberly. "This is so… Her Grace has been drugged greatly for the pain, but if you look carefully you can see it in her eyes. Did you not see how she held her stomach, my lords?" Jeyne had done no such thing, but now they nodded sympathetically, eyes on their feet. Robb lowered his voice more and said, "But she did not wish to be alone… she's taken it very hard… we were going to call the child Eddard… But, alas, she has since retired to our chambers. The maester is with her now."

Lothar appeared to buy this, as did the other lords. "Your Grace, I… I hate to bring this up now in such a delicate time for you and your queen but… I wonder when the wedding will go on, if not now? Perhaps in a fortnight?"

Robb nodded, pretending to look thoughtful. "Perhaps… perhaps, or, well, I was thinking… Lady Roslin is going to have to travel here, is she not? She will, after all be Lady Tully, and this is her home. I'm sure it would be a great comfort for her to have family with her in this strange place, as my own wife drew comfort from her own family here… Would it not be convenient and kinder to the girl as well as timely if she merely travelled here for the wedding? Your lord father would be most welcome with his party, and he could stay as an honored guest for as long as he desired."

He gave Lothar no time to voice concerns before he had risen. "My lords, I must leave you now. I'm afraid my wife has need of me in this sad time. I would thank you keep what you have heard to yourselves. Lord Lothar, I would be most obliged if you would write a letter to Lord Walder with what we discussed and invite him here on my behalf for the wedding. Oh, it shall be such a grand occasion, the better to cheer us all."

With a smile he'd made wan and halfhearted, he left then. He didn't acknowledge any of their kind words in this dark time, playing the grieving almost-father and horror-struck husband well.

Of course, he knew the Freys would never come here, at least not Lord Frey himself, but the ball was in their court, and it would be their turn to find an excuse now. When he fell asleep that night, he was plagued by nightmares of death at the Towers, of the Red Wedding that would never be, and of Jon dying on the Wall or fighting with Wildlings.

How had it all gotten so tangled and complicated?