Excessive taking of the milk of the poppy was never recommended; it could lead to dependency on the milk and a puffy face, but Ned wished he'd had even a thimble to dull the pain in his leg now. But he couldn't, not now, not when everything hung in the balance. Damn Robert, damn him and his royal hide. Why did he have to hunt, why couldn't he have kept it until Stannis had come. He could have been here now, and Ned could have told him the truth. Whatever Robert's qualities as King, the realm was falling apart without him there, and so much could have been corrected. Raiders were loose in the Riverlands, burning villages and holdfasts, likely the Mountain under the direction of Tywin Lannister, a retribution for Catelyn taking the Imp. If Robert had been there himself he would likely have led the search for the raiders himself. He would have left Ned behind to run the Kingdoms while he gathered to him a host of knights and men at arms, joined at every stage by youthful knights and summer squires, eager to make a name for themselves. Tywin was powerful, in many ways overmighty, but even he couldn't stand against Robert. To act openly would be to invite retribution from the Hand of the King. He could command the North, call on the Riverlands through Cat; Robert's brothers were unlikely to sit by either, Renly was eager to prove himself in a real war and Stannis wouldn't let such a crime go unpunished, the Tyrells were by no means friends to the Lannisters, and young Loras had his father's ear and Renly's friendship. And he still held Theon. Balon Greyjoy was just across the water and his reavers were ready. Tywin would either lose his pet or his entire house. But no, of course he'd been hunting so it was left to Ned to settle.
And of course, if he were here, Ned could have revealed the truth to him. But now everything was in the air and unless he acted well here, it would all come crashing down around him.
A hammering at the door dulled the pain with distraction. "Enter."
It was one of his guardsmen. "My Lord, Lord Stannis has arrived and requests to see you."
Finally some good news. "Send him in."
It had been some time since Ned had seen the Lord of Dragonstone, not since the end of the Greyjoy Rebellion, but Stannis had always been rather distinct. He lacked the natural good looks of Renly and a young Robert, with the Baratheon square jaw more pronounced and his hair cut short, his stubble a dark shadow across his hard jaw and his face set like carved stone. Unlike Renly, his six foot frame was wrapped in a plain grey cloak and simple dark leather. Behind him came a slighter figure in a dark brown cloak, wrapped around her like a sheet, the hood pulled up to shadow her face. "Lord Stark," he said stiffly.
He rose to his feet gently. "Lord Stannis," he replied, taking up his cane to ease his walk around the desk. "It's good you've come. Is that her?"
Stannis glanced at the figure. "You can take your hood off now girl."
Thin pale arms reached up and lowered the hood revealing a girl's face, young, soft and innocent, framed by a silver waterfall of hair and set with brilliant violet eyes. So this was her. He could see the resemblance to her brother. The memory of putting Rhaegar on his pyre often dulled, he remembered the caved in breastplate more than the face; but the face of the man who had passed over his wife to crown his sister the Queen of Love and Beauty, the moment where all smiles had died carved into his memory for all time. "So you are Daenerys Targaryen, the last of your house," he said.
She glanced at Stannis, who wasn't looking at her, then looked back at him, lips quivering. She nodded.
"So you found her then?" He asked Stannis.
A pause. "Yes. And after I'd done as my brother asked, I'd have thought he'd be here to receive her. Mayhaps he'd even give me my birth given castle back, or even to tell me I'd done well by him."
Ned felt incredibly awkward in that moment. Better to move the conversation on. "My Lord, perhaps it is for the best, there is a matter that I must discuss with you, perhaps best done in private. If you like I can take custody of the girl; perhaps she could stay with my daughters-"
"I have a daughter," Stannis said, as though Ned had forgotten. He would never forget that voice. "And I have men here of my own. I will keep her with them, that Robert will be of no doubt who delivered her."
Ned wanted to protest, but there was more at stake than the fate of one girl. "Very well, but we had best still speak in private. She can remain outside for now."
Stannis nodded stiffly and then jerked his head at the door. Daenerys tucked her head down, avoiding the hard, accusing gaze, and left Ned's solar. "Perhaps it is indeed for the best that my brother is not here. For I have a matter to discuss with you as well," he said when the door had clicked shut. "But you go first, by all means, Lord Stark."
"Very well," he replied. What did Stannis wish to discuss with him. Was he to reveal what Ned had pieced together, perhaps a few other details. "It's about your brother in fact, and his children." Stannis' jaw twitched, like he was about to say something, but he didn't so Ned continued. "I have reason to suspect, and evidence to prove, that they are not in fact your brother's."
He paused to let that settle in. Robert's brother didn't move an inch, not even his eyes. "I know," he replied.
"You... you do?"
Stannis nodded. "And so did Jon Arryn. And now he is dead."
"Which is why you left," Ned finished. Stannis nodded. "I thought she would come for me next. I had to be sure that the truth survived."
"Who?"
"The Lannister woman of course," Stannis replied, impatient. "Who else would stand to benefit? Who else would have cause?"
There was a pause as the two realised that the one person they couldn't afford to fight with was the other. "So why did you not go to Robert."
"Lord Arryn was going to that very night. He'd arranged for me to raise his son, that would be my pretext for leaving the capital while he informed Robert. We both agreed it was better that I not be here at the time. With me there it would be seen as a grab to power, especially if I did it myself. But Jon... Robert always loved Jon as he never loved me. He would believe it from his mouth... and from yours."
You could have told me, Ned didn't put voice to his thoughts. "So you went and found Robert's bastards, and the book."
"And then he died," Stannis finished.
"He died," Ned repeated. "So now we must act."
"When my brother returns from his hunt, yes," Stannis confirmed, nodding. "We must indeed act. This rot must not go any further."
"And it won't," Ned assured him. "As soon as Robert returns, I mean to present the evidence and reveal the truth."
Stannis considered it, but nodded. "He'll listen to you, he loved you as he loved Jon, perhaps more than him. Certainly more than me." Not again.
"He'll hear the truth, and Robert will act on it. I promise this much to you, Lord Stannis."
Stannis nodded. "Renly will be pleased as a rabbit with a carrot," he muttered darkly. "He's been scheming to make the Tyrell girl Robert's for some time now, and soon she'll be a queen."
"She will?" Ned asked.
"Even with Cersei and her abominations dealt with, Robert will need a new wife to father true children on," Stannis pointed out. "Renly has been trying to push her into the court for years now."
So that was why he asked me about her, Ned realised. Renly had shown him a portrait of the girl, asking if she looked like Lyanna; she didn't really. He'd thought that Renly simply fancied himself a younger Robert, with a younger Lyanna to take to wife himself, but he wanted her for Robert... He'd better not suggest that to Robert, Robert would refuse to marry the girl then, claiming that she was nothing like Lyanna. If he married again at all. He remembered what Robert had said to him once. I dream of giving up the crown. Of taking my warhammer and sailing across the Narrow Sea where I can war and whore. That's what I was made for Ned. He had two brothers, one of whom with an able son and daughter of their own. If Renly so wanted this Margaery to become queen, perhaps he could wed her to Stannis' heir Lyonel, a stoic and quiet boy who looked up to his father and loved his sister. Though why Renly didn't seek the girl himself he didn't know, the daughter of Highgarden and the Lord of Storm's End would be an enviable match. "Perhaps," Ned said not wanting to reveal what Robert had told him in confidence. Not only that, but Robert would be a different man after Cersei was torn down. He may decide to remain and father children just to spite her. "But if I am to reveal the truth, then perhaps it is best if I do so alone," he said. Lord Stannis had been right to leave, he saw, with him there it seemed self serving and opportunistic. "How many men can you raise?"
Stannis ground his teeth. "A scant five thousand, if that. But I have the Royal Fleet."
Ned nodded. The thinly peopled islands of the Narrow Sea were not ideal to raise a strong host. Aegon himself had landed with few men but three dragons. But they didn't need to take Seven Kingdoms, just one city. "That may be enough. If I were to recommend, my lord, you should return to Dragonstone and raise your host. As soon as I reveal the truth I shall send for you to secure the city."
Stannis nodded. "Lannister roots run deep here, they will need to be purged, one and all, and we will have to act before Lord Tywin knows what has happened. I can bring enough men to hold the city, disarm the city watch if needed, and man the walls against a Lannister uprising." Ned could tell the man had something else to say. "Robert will certainly be more amenable to someone... if they were to bring him the Targaryen he has hated for so long."
"You mean me to have her?"
Stannis nodded, his neck so stiff it looked likely to shatter. "Indeed, though, I'll warn you, she's partial to falsehood and grand storytelling. If she says anything, take caution in believing it. Especially about my son. It was Lyonel who found her aboard a merchant's ship, she's developed some obsession with slandering him. Or maybe that was just to me." He pulled his glove a little tighter onto his hand.
Ned nodded. "Very well. I'll take note of it."
"Lord Stark," he said. "This city is about to become very messy. If you like, I could take your daughters with me. We could say they are visiting Shireen."
Ned wanted that more than anything. He had been surprised Stannis had offered, he was about to raise the point with the man. But that would alert Cersei, and he didn't know Lord Stannis. They seemed joined in this, but what if he were to use them as hostages to force him to support his claim? That didn't seem like the Stannis he knew and remembered; but that was nine years ago, and Robert had gone from muscle to pork in that time; and Stannis had to stew on an Island unless he was at court where it seemed he put up with japes aplenty from his fellow councellors. That could change a man... any man. And that wasn't even counting what others had done. Perhaps it had been the fostering arrangement that tipped off the Lannisters to Jon Arryn's plan. "No," he said. Lord Stannis looked affronted at the abruptness of the statement. "I do not wish to do anything that may tip off the Lannisters to what is about to happen. I'll keep them here and under watch."
"A fair reason, Lord Stark. Just remember that I offered." He took a breath and looked at the window. "I should return, my ship is waiting. If I am to leave, better it be now." He shook his head. "The sooner Cersei and her abominations are dead, the better."
He marched from the room and Ned made his way around to sit at the table. They would die, wouldn't they? He'd seen the way Robert looked at his children at Winterfell. He felt no affection for them, if anything he was disappointed in them. He remembered well the red ruin of Rhaegar's children, draped in Lannister scarlet to disguise the blood. Whatever Robert said they fought to bring an end to such madness as the murder of innocents. Did they not deserve their chance?
Robert wasn't here yet, though he had already requested he return. There was one last chance to prevent all of that. "Owen," he called and his guardsman entered.
"M'lord?"
"I need you to take a message to the Queen, ask that she meet me in the godswood. There is something important we must discuss."
