A/N Thank you all for your wonderful comments, and I hope that you will enjoy the chapter :D
THE THEIF
This place gave him the shivers, he couldn't understand how the Starks could stand the thought of having to spend the afterlife in such a dark and cold place. But then again, the Starks were cold themselves. He had never really met any of the Starks or talked to them, but everyone always said that they had winter in their bones and ice in their blood, so they must be a cold people.
He still couldn't believe his luck of having this job, if this worked out, he could live on his earnings for years without taking a single job. Jobs like this must pay well, not everyone could pull something like this off, no; only the best and most experienced thieves could do this and even then, most of them probably would have said no.
It wasn't a job for the faint of heart, only men like him could pull something like this off. Strong men, hard men only ventured into the crypts of Winterfell to take things from the dead.
He finally arrived at the statue. The former Lord of Winterfell stared at him with his stony eyes. He was judging him for what he was about to do. The sword in his lap was rusting and could not have been used for anything and the direwolf lying by the lord´s feet was snarling at him.
He walked slowly over to the stone coffin that held the bones of the former Warden of the North, the lid looked heavy and hard to move, but he was strong, and he could easily do this.
The stone lid had been heavy, but it hadn't presented a real challenge for him. He pushed the lid of the coffin and gave a wince at the stone on stone scraping. The sound alone made him want to rip his ears off.
He looked into the coffin that held the bones of the old man of the north, Cregan Stark. His bones had long lost anything that resembled meat and the remainder of the clothes that he had been buried in were almost gone. But the thing that surprised him was that the things that he had been supposed to take were not there.
He had been hired to take three big, colorful stones from the coffin of Cregan Stark, but they were nowhere to be found. He could feel fear tingle down his spine and cold sweat form on his brow.
Had he gotten the wrong name? Had he been tricked? He turned around and ran up the stairs, he knew that he didn't close the coffin, but who cared. The stones hadn't been in there and nothing had been taken, he just knew that he had to get out of there as fast as possible.
His heart was hammering in his chest, and not from the running, but from fear. He didn't want to be caught, he knew that the Starks wouldn't take lightly to their crypts being defiled and robbed, if he was caught, he would be killed or sent to the wall. He had no interest of spending his time on that frozen hell. On the wall the Starks had many friends and they would not take kindly to the man who had tried to rob the crypts of the ancient Kings of Winter.
He managed to get himself to Wintertown, where he was supposed to meet his contact. He wasn't sure if he should, maybe it would be better just to leave quietly from the north, maybe take a ship from White Harbor to the free cities. He could make a living there, there were a lot of fat purses just waiting for him to take them.
But the decision was taken from him, as a tall man walked into his path as he turned to walk into one of the alleyways.
The small alley was dark, and he couldn't make out his contacts' face as he had a hood on, but he knew that it was him, the dark cloak and the sound of the man's voice was unmistakable.
"Well, where are they? Give them to me." His voice was low and deep, and the Crownland accent rang through the quiet night.
"They weren't there, I looked everywhere." He tried to keep his voice from shaking but it was impossible. Fear was gripping him and holding him still as a shiver ran down his spine and making it hard for him to stand.
His contact was perfectly still, and his eyeless stare put more fear in his heart than all the swords and daggers he had ever encountered. Then his contact gave a nod and he felt an icy sting in his chest, as the man seem to look behind him. It was then he realized that they hadn't been alone in the alleyway, someone had followed them.
The last thing he saw was windburned face, crocked teeth and cruel dark eyes staring at him from underneath the hood.
EDDARD
He didn't know how long he had been sitting there, staring at the response from the man he had considered a brother. Ned had written Robert a half a year ago and Ned knew that it didn't take a raven this long to deliver a letter from the capitol to Winterfell.
The letter had been written by Jon Arryn and signed by Robert and had carried the sigil of the crowned stag. He had to reread it three times before he could comprehend the contents of the letter.
Robert had denied the request for funds, and he had written that the crown couldn't afford the expense of helping rebuild and man the castles on the wall. He had almost thrown the letter in the fire in his anger, but he had managed to stop himself. Instead he asked the guard to send for Sansa and Jon, they needed to hear of this moving forward.
Ned knew for a fact that Robert was always holding tourneys at every occasion he could think of, and the feast were numerous and very frequent in his court. But the lord of the seven kingdoms and the protector of the realm could not afford to spend money on helping the north man and repair the wall?
Ned was at a loss of words at the moment. This was not the boy he had grown up with, or maybe it was, maybe he had always been this way and Ned had just refused to see it. Not for the first time did he regret not placing Jon on the throne and becoming his regent until he became of age. But there was nothing he could do about that now, but to work his hardest to help Jon win back the iron throne.
Ned was sure of that Jon would make a better king than Robert, he wasn't likely to start drinking and whoring his way through life like his former best friend was trying to do.
As luck would have it, Ned had a brother, even though he was in the night´s watch. Half a year ago, Ned had written to Benjen and asked him to come to Winterfell. Benjen couldn't come at that time, as he was leaving on a ranging, but he had promised that he would come when he would return.
Ned had received a letter from his last brother the day before yesterday, and apparently, Benjen was on his way to the ancestral home of the Starks this very moment.
There was also the issue that of the crypts. This morning Ned had been woken up with the rising of the sun, by one of the guards. Apparently, someone had opened the coffin of Cregan Stark.
When he heard that, Ned had felt his heart drop and cold sweat form on his brow. It seemed that Jon had been right that someone had broken into the crypts to steal the dragon eggs in their last life.
He had spent hours in the crypts looking for any clues, but the thief had left nothing for them to find. Who could possibly know about the eggs? They had lain there silently for around one hundred years.
Ned was pulled out of his thoughts by a knock on the door. Jon and Sansa entered his solar and sat down in their usual chairs. They had been spending a large amount of time in his solar this last half a year, trying to come up with ideas on how to strengthen the north before the upcoming battles. Sansa was working on trade deals and Jon was working on plans for the abandoned castles all around the north, along with the castles on the wall.
Sansa wanted to make more trade deals with the Riverlands and the Vale, she wanted to strengthen the ties between them and the north. She also was making trade plans between the North and the free cities of Braavos and Pentos. Ned wasn't sure why she wanted to strengthen the ties between the North and the free cities, but as he had come to learn in the past half a year, Sansa had her reasons and she had a lot more knowledge of these things than Ned did.
Maybe it would be a good idea for him to get into contact with the former first sword of Braavos again. Arya had taken to the water dancing like a fish to water in the last life, and water dancing seemed to work well for those who weren't physically strong and would have to rely on being quick. That could benefit Sansa too.
Jon on the other hand had made some excellent plans for many of the castles on the wall, and he was now making plans for the abandoned castles that littered the north. He had started to draw up plans for Moat Cailin and he was almost done with the plans for Queen´s crown.
He had also finished with some of the smaller strongholds in the north, that were already being settled by some new minor lords that Ned had felt the need to reward for their services to the north and house Stark.
Ned was also glad that Jon was dragging Robb along with the planning of the castles. Robb needed to see what ruling the north was really like. And seeing that ruling wasn't just going off to battles and fighting wars, was good for him. Most of the duties of a lords involved mountains of paperwork.
He didn't want his children to make the same mistakes they had in last life and the tales that Jon had told him, still haunted him. The horrors Sansa had to suffer at the hands of the Bolton bastard, Petyr Baelish and that little shit Joffrey.
How Robb had been betrayed by those he thought were his allies and how they had desecrated his body after death. How little Arya had almost lost who she was, to become strong enough to survive in this world and how his youngest sons had both been murdered.
"I have something to tell you two." Ned tried to keep the tiredness out of his voice, but it slipped through anyway. The last few months were taking their toll on Eddard Stark.
"I have received a letter from Robert, he had denied the request for funds for the wall." Neither Sansa nor Jon looked surprised, Jon looked disappointed and a little angry, but not surprised. Sansa on the other hand, looked like she wanted to take a horse from the stables and ride to King´s Landing and give Robert the smack he deserved.
"Well, this will work for us in the long run." Sansa stated. Ned couldn't hold back his surprise, how could this benefit them? They had just been denied the funds they needed to start to rebuild the castles, now the weight of the rebuilding would fall squarely in the shoulders of the Northern lords.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jon nodding his head. "Aye, I agree, this could be an opportunity for us, when we need to rally the lord of the north against Robert Baratheon." Ned could see Sansa beaming at Jon, those two had been growing closer and closer in the past half a year, much to the irritation of Septa Mordane and his wife.
Sansa managed to pacify his wife, by playing it of as she was getting closer to all her siblings. Sansa and Arya were growing very close after the incident with the Septa. They were now rarely seen apart from each other and most often they were in the company of Jon and sometimes even Robb.
Ned had been very pleasantly surprised when Robb and gone and forgiven him for insisting that his sisters should learn how to fight, but that brought a question to Ned´s mind. Why did Ned need to be forgiven for teaching his daughters how to wield weapons? The women of the north had been using weapons for hundreds of years.
Not letting women learn how to defend themselves was a southern custom, not a northern one. It didn't take Ned a long time to figure out that it was because of the Septa and his wife that his son was holding on to these southern believes.
"But it does present problems for us to rebuild the wall and to man it." Jon said as he stroked his hairless chin. It seemed like this was a habit of his that he had carried with him to his past, even though he didn't have a beard to stroke yet.
Sansa nodded. "Yes, I agree, but that just means that we need to escalate our trade plans, so that it is easier for us to start on the wall." Ned wasn't sure on how long they sat there and discussed trade negotiation. It was strange sitting there and discussing trade with two people that were inhabiting bodies of children.
"There is another matter I wanted to discuss with you two." His partners in crime waited for him to continue. "There was a break in last night in the crypts." Ned could see Jon´s face turn stern and Sansa furrowed her brow.
"Someone was trying to get into the coffin of Cregan Stark." It wasn't a question; Ned could see that Jon already knew the answer Ned would give him. The warden of the North nodded his head.
"Thank the gods that you had already taken the eggs." Was the only thing Sansa said to this, there really wasn't anything else to say. Since whoever had gone in the crypts, hadn't taken anything nor was it likely that they would find out who exactly it was, there really wasn't anything they could do.
They sat in silence for a while, before Sansa broke it. "Is there any news on the Bolton issue?" Ned nodded again.
"Aye, the bastard has disappeared. The men don't know where he has gone too but I have made sure that they stay put. They have been finding bodies around the Dreadfort and are trying to identify them without rousing suspicion. But it is slow work." Sansa frowned at the news that the bastard had disappeared. Ned could understand that it didn't sit well with her.
Jon and Sansa left the solar after a while. But Ned would not have a moment to himself for long.
"Lord Stark." It was Ser Rodrik, he sounded shaken to his core. "You have to come to Wintertown, there has been a murder."
JON
He finished the last of the plans for the castles of the north and put them away for now. He had been spending so much time in the library, that Robb was starting to think that Jon was considering becoming a maester.
The heir to Winterfell was sitting opposite him with his head lying on his arms, and snoring loudly, much to Sansa´s annoyance. Jon, Robb and Sansa had been spending all their free time in the library to research their projects, and in that time, they had all grown very close.
But Jon had to admit, he was the closest to Sansa of all the Starks. They had gone through so much, that they couldn't talk to anyone else but each other about, and that kind of forced them to grow so close. They didn't feel comfortable talking about their experiences with lord Stark, Jon had felt awful enough tell his uncle once, he wasn't going to talk more in detail about everything that had happened after his death unless he had to.
Jon could tell that Arya and Robb had at first been annoyed by the fact that Jon had been spending so much time with Sansa, but they had quickly come around. After Jon had the talk to Robb about the girls and their weapons training and why it was needed, the heir to Winterfell seemed to start to accept Sansa´s presence in their lessons.
It was Sansa herself that had changed Arya´s mind about her, after the Septa Mordane incident, they had slowly grown closer than they had been before and if Jon didn't know better, he would have thought that they had always been this close.
Jon watched as Sansa made sure that Robb was asleep and that they were alone.
"So, how are they doing?" Jon didn't need a clarification on who she was talking about. Sansa was asking about his dragons that he had hidden away deep in the Wolfswood. Jon could always feel them in his mind, and he had started warging into them a few days after they had been hatched.
It was a strange experience to warg into the dragons, it was a little different from Ghost. But then again warging into Algernon, was not the same as warging into Earendil, nor was warging into the emerald dragon like warging into Illyrion. It was like each of the four creatures that he had warged into was different even though three of them were from the same species.
"They are doing really well; they are growing really fast." Jon whispered back to her. It was no lie that the dragons were growing really fast, in fact hadn't he been warned about their growth, he would have been alarmed. When Jon had hatched them, they had been the size of large cats, but now a little more than a half a year after their hatching, they had grown to the size of garrons.
At their whispered conversation, Robb snorted awake and mumbled something that couldn't be understood even if they had a hundred years to decipher it. Both Sansa and Jon laughed at the heir to the north as he grumbled that they should have awakened him.
"Hey, I have a thought." This statement from Robb made Sansa raise an eyebrow.
"Careful not to hurt yourself." Sansa said with a grin. Jon snorted at that, if there was something that he enjoyed, it was listening to Sansa´s jabs at people. Even when it was at him, which happened more often than not.
"HA,HA, very funny." Robb´s tone didn't leave out the fact that he didn't find it at all funny. "I think that we should go out and hunt rabbits in the wolfswood tomorrow. What do you two think?" They had been going out to the wolfswood more often than in the past life to hunt, mostly to spend some time with Robb that didn't include the library, and Sansa wanted to know how to hunt in case she needed that skill.
Sansa seemed to think about it for a moment, before she nodded her agreement. "Sure, let´s ask father, he would never forgive us if we went out without his permission."
They left the library together and went to the great hall, were dinner was about to be served. As they waited for lord Stark, Sansa was talking their ears of about the trade agreement she was drawing up between the north and the Riverlands.
While Jon was very interested in what Sansa had to say, Robb on the other hand looked like he wanted to rip his ears off but was too polite to do it in front of his sister.
"FATHER!" Robb shouted as the lord of Winterfell entered the great hall. Ned Stark gave his eldest child a warm but tired smile. As he looked closer, Jon could see something was on Ned Starks mind. Was he still preoccupied by the letter from Robert Baratheon and the attempted theft of the dragon eggs? It appeared so to Jon.
The Warden of the north sat down in his usual seat. "Father can Jon, Sansa and I go hunting in the wolfswood tomorrow, and maybe Theon too if he wants to come." Theon had not been spending as much time with Robb as he had in the last life, Jon thought that it was because of him, Theon was making no attempt to hide his dislike for Jon. The dislike had only escalated when Jon had also started to spend time with Sansa.
Jon made sure that he never said a bad word to or about the ironborn, but for some reason he seemed to hate Jon more and more with every passing day.
"No, I have better things to do, I am going to start training with the men tomorrow." The ironborn gave Jon a nasty smirk, like he had achieved something that Jon had not.
Before Jon could stop his cousin, he said something that he shouldn't have. "Piff, big deal, Jon has been beating them black and blue for half a year." Jon closed his eyes at that, he didn't want to be dragged into this discussion. But Robb wasn't telling a lie, for the last half a year, Jon had been besting the grown men left and right, much to Ser Rodrik´s pride.
But Robb´s statement started a loud verbal fight, Jon wasn't sure what it was about, nor did he much care. It didn't take long for Lord Stark to cut into their argument.
"Enough you two, I don't want to hear any more of this." The hall was filled with silence for a while, but his uncle broke it again after some time.
"Robb, you and the others may go and hunt tomorrow, but I want you to take a few guards with you." Robb looked like he was about to protest, but he must have thought better of it. Jon was very glad when dinner was over.
ROBB
Robb was very happy to get out of the castle, even for a few hours. These past few months had been very busy for him, as he had spent them in the lessons with Luwin and Ser Rodrik and he had been helping Jon and Sansa with their projects.
Robb couldn't understand why it was so important to rebuild the castles around the north and the wall and establish trade routes now. It didn't make sense to him.
Then again there were many things that he didn't understand these days, like what had gotten into Theon. Robb didn't understand why he didn't like Jon. Jon had never done anything to the ironborn, but still he insisted on being an arse to Jon.
Robb looked over at Sansa and Jon, as their bastard brother was teaching her to set a rabbit trap. Those two had been growing closer and closer for the last few months. At first Robb had been jealous that Jon was spending time with her, but now Robb could see that he had been selfish.
But to him it was still strange to see Sansa being nice to Jon, sure she had never been exactly mean to Jon, but she had never been nice either. She had rather cold to him ever since she learned what the word bastard meant.
But know those two were as thick as thieves. Sansa was giggling at something Jon had said and she was turning a little red in the face, like she was getting to warm, but it was a little chilly outside, then again, maybe it was a girl thing. All girls were weird.
They were accompanied by two guards from Winterfell, that looked a little bored. They were standing a close by and talking together quietly.
Suddenly Jon went completely still. "What is it Jon?" Sansa asked their brother quietly. But Jon didn't answer, he just pulled her behind him and kept his eyes on the trees in front of them, the two guards had stopped talking and were watching Jon with interest.
Then something came whizzing from the tree line and Robb could see an arrow sticking out of one of their guard's chest. The guard must have been dead before he hit the ground.
Then five men rushed out of the trees and ran towards them, but Jon grabbed a dagger that he always had on his belt and threw it at one of the men, the dagger landed in the man's eye, and the men that had run out of the trees stared at the body of their friend in shock.
They must have been surprised that a ten-year old had killed one of their own.
Jon grabbed Sansa´s arm and dragged her to Robb and pushed her into his arms, as he did that, Jon went to the downed guard and took his sword and ran to the men that had started to run to them again. Robb could see that Sansa´s face had lost all color and she looked petrified as she stared at their attackers.
"Take Robb and Sansa back to Winterfell." Jon shouted as he charged at the men.
The guard that was still living grabbed Robb and Sansa and dragged them away. The guard picked up Sansa and threw her over his shoulder and ran with her back to Winterfell, while dragging Robb after him. The last he saw of Jon was him fending of their attackers to buy them time to escape.
Sansa was screaming the entre time that they needed to go back for Jon, that Jon was going to get hurt. But the guard didn't stop until they reached the castle gates.
His feet were numb as they reached the castle, and Robb thought that his heart would never stop beating so fast. Robb could spy his father and mother come running out of the castle, Robb had never seen his father look so pale in his life. The guard managed to explain what had happened, and the Lord of Winterfell roared with anger as he ran to the stables with around twenty men following him.
Lady Stark, ran to her two eldest and hugged them close, but she lost the grip on Sansa.
Robb´s sister tried to run back to where they had come, she was crying and screaming that they needed to save Jon, but one of the guards managed to stop her. Robb couldn't recall seeing his sister in this kind of hysterics before, not even when Arya had ruined one of her favorite dresses.
Robb watched on as Sansa was being dragged into the castle by the guard, followed by their mother, Lady Stark was most likely taking Sansa to maester Luwin to get her some dreamwine so that she would calm down. But before they could get her into the castle, Sansa bit the guard's hand and he released her with a yelp.
Sansa was running back to the gate, but this time Robb was the one that caught her. He hugged her as tight to his body as he could. "Sansa." He whispered in her ear. "Jon is going to be fine, Father had gone to get him, and Jon is the best sword in Winterfell, it will take more than a few bandits to take him down." Sansa stopped fighting him, and just sobbed into his chest.
They must have been standing there for a while, they didn't move until they could hear the shouting of men just outside the gate, Robb could hear the shouting for a maester.
He could see his sister turn even paler at those words. Their father was the first to enter the castle courtyard, and in his arms was the limp body of Jon Snow.
Jon had four arrows imbedded in him. One was in his thigh, one in his side and one in his shoulder, but the one that worried Robb the most was the one that was sticking out of his chest. The lord of Winterfell ran into the castle with Jon in his arms, and Sansa seeing what was happening rushed after him.
Robb´s mother then rushed after her elder daughter, leaving Robb as the only Stark in the courtyard.
Then four guardsmen came into the courtyard, they seemed to be dragging someone into the yard with a lot of difficulty.
That someone was one of the ugliest souls Robb had ever seen. The young man was big boned, and his skin was pink and blotchy, his hair was long, dark and dry looking but it was his eyes that disturbed Robb the most, they were a dirty grey color, so pale that they seemed almost colorless.
The entre time as the guards dragged the young man to the dungeons, he was screaming profanities and threats. The young man reminded Robb of a wild dog that had been beaten so many times that he had turned mad.
As he watched the guards drag the man that had been a part of the ambush, Robb couldn't help but to wonder what the motive had been. But he doubted that he would find any answers here, so he turned around and entered the castle, he had to find out if Jon was going to live.
Robb needed Jon, they were not just brothers, they were best friends, if Jon died, the young man that the guards had dragged into the dungeons would pay dearly.
