Eda rode with her king, his strong arms keeping her pinned to the dead horse, body close to his.
She wasn't at home on a dead horse - not because they were dead, but because she never felt home on any horse.
He laughed when she grudgingly admitted that.
When he asked her why, were they were too big?
She explained - quite the opposite - too small.
They felt unsteady and fragile - and she never fully trusted that she wasn't too heavy for even the largest steed to cause it discomfort.
.
He really laughed at that - what nonsense.
She was the only person in the world who could make him laugh like this, make him laugh at all.
It was one of the reasons she was so special - how could he ever explain to her what seeing him as a man for the first time in a millennia.
Seeing a being separate from his station and power and simply speaking to him about mundane things like this
made her one and only human worthy to be at his side?
He was becoming overly sentimental again - something else Edaline and only she did to his ancient being.
He pointed out the animals she consumed for her dinner were probably in discomfort with all the killing as were creatures that made up her leathers.
She shrugged at that without any remorse.
"I need to eat to live, and I like meat, I don't NEED to ride horses very often, and I don't like it so everyone wins, me and the horse"
and proceeded to eat the adorable bunny she killed a while earlier.
He asked what animal she would like to ride and she promptly replied
"Polar bear! Or an elephant (she read of them once) or a dragon" something big and with teeth - something she was sure could hold her and would be dangerous enough to be capable of only letting those they chose willingly ride them.
He chuckled, she really was a funny thing - he didn't have the heart to tell her a horse who didn't want to be saddled could easily kill a man.
He also knew better than to point out that size and ferociousness had nothing to do with each other and she, who barely reached up to his shoulder but would challenge powers of winter itself to get her way, should know that.
But it just reminded him that he needed to figure out a way to obtain a dragon.
He focused his mind trying to see the entire picture of events as they were unfolding.
Even for an ancient power like him - things of now and of the very near future if he could glance that far, were laid out as subtle puzzle pieces with no distinct edges.
Like a shattered mirror reflecting hundreds of events from various directions floating down a rapid river past his eyes.
And placing the people and the places and the when took skill and energy.
But he did see something that made him smile.
Keeping his promise to Edaline to spare her Not Brother would turn out to be a good thing after all it seems if he saw things correctly.
And to think, without her, he wouldn't even have this marvelous idea to get a dragon in the first place.
And to think, without her, he wouldn't even have this marvelous idea to get a dragon in the first place!
The power of it excited him.
He dipped his head and bit hard on her neck like he knew she loved - possessively running his hands up her body and stroking her breasts just the way she adored.
They were far ahead of everyone else, and it was time to stop for a break.
She leaned into him stretching out like a jungle cat.
"Already my love?"
He didn't answer, he wanted her right there in the ice and snow, a mile from where her stupid crow brother surely was.
He pulled her off the horse and slammed her on the ground.
Shredding her clothing in the process.
Ignoring her gentle reminder that she would now have to find new things to wear again.
He was too hard, too ready, he just wanted her naked and squirming and screaming for him with the urgency of their first time together.
And when he took her hard and fast and ignoring that branches were scratching up her soft skin until at some point she cut her head a bit on a sharp stone.
But she was the one who didn't let him stop to check on her.
"I am so close, KEEP FUCKING ME - DON'T YOU DARE STOP"
And she smeared her blood on his lips and kissed him again.
And that taste of her warmth drove him over the edge as they both came for what seemed like eternity.
Some distance away Jon Snow paused on his horse.
"Did you hear that? He asked Tourmand.
"Hear what? I hear the wind picking up and the snow rolling of the mountain tops in the distance - they must be closer than I thought."
"No, I could have sworn, I heard my little sister's voice…" said the Lord Commander.
"Aye mate" and the giant laid his huge hand on Jon's shoulder remembering what fate most likely took little Eda.
"Winter forests in here parts have a way to play tricks on our minds" he said darkly.
"Do not let noises in the darkness distract you - we must make haste"
Edaline was annoyed. "I look like something from your army"
He ran his icy hands over the tatters if her clothes and didn't answer He thought she looked the best this way, wild with bites and bloody scratched drying on her and blood on her hands.
His favorite swollen just-kissed by ice just mouth.
Taste and smell of her blood never failed to drive him over the edge.
And his sweet little Edaline didn't just humor that particular desire of his - she reveled in it, embraced it, would probably fuck him on a bed of blades and sharp nails if she could.
Because what got Edaline flowing and wild more than anything else was driving the powerful and mighty king of ice out of his mind and on his knees with desire.
He smiled at that, he didn't mind occasionally being conquered by his little queen in that way.
She really was the most perfect woman that ever existed in any life he remembered.
This unlife or his life as a human man.
Did she even know that?
The intensity of his emotion for her and possibly that he might lose her was the closest he felt to fear in millennia.
Did she know that too?
Once again his thoughts darkened with suspicion that this was all a setup, a trick.
But he looked at her trying to tie her clothing back together and angrily cursing him under her breath and thought - no.
No magic could make this furious ball of humanity come up with such colorful phrases.
"Head wounds bleed a lot - even small cuts" she snapped annoyed that he asked about it at all.
"I am fine"
Which was all true, but he found humor that he was more concerned about it than she was.
Mortals just didn't realize how easy death could come upon them.
And he knew only few ever bothered to study it - try to pathetically replicate his magic of raising dead flesh.
They were often not in favor with the rest of their ilk.
Raising the dead were a forbidden subject in many Westeros circles.
Edaline told him of the first time the Lannisters came to their keep. She was but a girl.
But she met the filthy prince Joffrey formally and later… not so formally.
A few years younger than him she made herself scarce during the feasts - unlike most other children, so she was surprised to come face to face with the little boy in the darkest corner of the barn.
"This is no place for a little prince" Eda snapped at her intruder.
"Nor is it for a lady!"
Retorted the little lion prince - but he looked around fearfully - he wasn't suppose to be here either.
"I… have business here" she said darkly…
"Like what?"
The little boy was curious in spite of himself. She rolled her eyes but answered.
"See the pigs in that pen? They are heavy with litters, but they are ill, their litters all have been born dead. Or die right after birth."
" The swine keeper keeps them away from the rest but I want to see if I can make them stay alive or breath life into them. Now shut up… the timing is important"
"That is necromancy! And not for girls!" hissed the prince, but he looked slightly scared and impressed.
"Why are YOU here" she narrowed her eyes looking at the small knife in his hand.
"I…"
"You've been killing the small animals around the farm! You little beast!"
"I…."
He didn't look remorseful, just afraid that he got caught.
She thought for a moment.
"You can kill the piglets that are born alive, they are doomed to die in pain anyways, make it fast - I will show you other sick animals that need to go and I want to study. Leave the healthy and those that can still recover, and make it clean. No pain. So only when I watch - I don't trust you to not make the ill ones not suffer"
The prince looked at her dumbfounded but slowly nodded. So an unspoken demented partnership - a perversion of what her father and the king shared, was forged over piles of hog shit.
So that second fateful time the king and his golden kids descended upon Winterfell, and the short time she spent in the capital before leaving for home ahead of her sisters - she was the only Stark the young prince did not torment.
He still tormented her sisters and eventually killed her father.
His fear of her did not extend far enough to protect them.
But he never as much as disrespected her or looked her way crossly.
Perhaps he simply remembered the precision with which her knife dissected the dead animals, or the specific instructions she barked to him to ensure the little bodies were buried and not a trace of blood was left behind on their fine clothes.
She in turn, also remembered the darkness and emptiness in the little boy and begged her father to let her Leave.
Being around him as a boy she was able to ensnare his type of darkness with her own, use it as she used any other tool, channeling it, keeping him from harming the cats and dogs and others at their home.
The black hole of filth and depravity grown Joffrey blossomed into - she got physically ill just being around him.
His darkness was different from her king, the velvet soothing smooth caress that she wanted to drown in.
Joffrey's darkness was a vacuum. She was glad when he died.
She really hoped Sansa did it.
She told her king that story once - he was curious and amused about trying to resurrect the piglets.
After all, raising the dead was his...specialty.
She shrugged.
"Supposedly I was born dead, really dead and cold and came back to life all on my own when the midwife was about to bury me in the snow, I was trying to see how to do it, and um...I wanted to save the baby piglets."
He wasn't sure why he was remembering that story of hers now or how much he believed it. From what he knew infants born like she was describing were beyond help - save by powers like his, but the midwife was old and tired and must have missed a heartbeat in newborn Eda.