"Do you think Sansa will be safe in Meereen?" Jon asked Robb after he sent the raven out with Maester Aemon's help. "Isn't Dorne safe enough?" The raven was one of utter importance. One that had to reach Sunspear and only Sunspear. It was a letter of recommendation for Sansa, for when she would land in Meereen, in Daenerys Targaryen's service.
"If the Lannisters find out about our alliance, they will use the Tyrells and their vast armies to squash every one of us. Dorne is the nearest to them. If even her husband cannot guarantee her safety there..."
"Didn't you marry Sansa to Prince Oberyn so he could protect her?"
"She is protected," Robb said. "He delivered her from King's Landing. He loves her, with that paramour of his. Dorne loves her, and if Dorne sees that the safest course for Sansa is in Meereen, then she should go to Meereen. Sansa's a Greenseer too, and a Warg, can you believe it? She's doing all those things that we've only read and heard about from Old Nan."
Jon looked across the courtyard and found the Dornish soldiers that Robb brought with him shivering in the cold, even the Sand Snakes that Robb brought with him were huddled in double the furs a Northerner needed. "You trust them?" he asked his half-brother.
"I have to, Jon," Robb said. "If they wanted to bring me ruin, they could have done so a long time ago. Oberyn came to us in the Riverlands after I executed Lord Karstark. Our morale was so low, our forces stretched so thin... I had thought of going back to the Freys to apologize so we could have their men. The Red Viper came to us with ten thousand spearmen that they had hidden in the Riverlands and the Westerlands as traveling merchants. Without those Dornish spearmen and the Sand Snakes, my head would have been on a pike for Tywin Lannister now."
"Well, I'm glad that you're alive," he said. "You know, I was a right prick when I first came here. I thought I was gonna make a new life for myself, that I was going to put everything behind me. But, every day I spent up here made me think more of home, of Winterfell. When news that Father had died reached here, I wanted to go with you, but... my brothers made me stay. I never thought that you'd come up here though."
Robb sighed. "It was coming back North or defend Casterly Rock and wait for Daenerys Targaryen to come with her dragons," he answered. "Since I'd have to defend something anyways, I'd reckoned that it would be good strategy to come home. My bannermen hasn't seen their homes in three years... you can't take the North out of a Northerner. We won't do well in the South, well, except Sansa."
Jon smiled. "Well, let's hope you're able to get down even after winter sets," he said. "Wouldn't want to keep your Queen waiting."
"And what about you? I heard that you had a Wildling girl when you were acting as a spy..."
"Come off it, who told you that?"
"A king has his ways," Robb answered with a wink of an eye that Jon was sure would have broken the hearts of many a maid that laid eyes on him. "It's one of the perks... So are you going to tell me about her or not?"
"No," Jon rebuked. "Not until the Seven Hells freeze over."
Chuckling. "Alright, suit yourself," he said. "But if any woman comes up and does you in for leaving her, don't come running to me." For whatever reason, Jon fell completely silent, his head bent down onto the snow beneath them, as though he was trying not to remember something. "Jon, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."
"It's alright," Jon said before noticing that Nymeria had already come up to them.
"What is it, Nym?" Robb asked her.
"Your Grace, Prince Jon (Jon wandered why the Sand Snakes insisted on calling him that, although they were wise not to do so around the others), a village in the Gift was attacked. Wildlings descended upon them, killing all in sight. There was only one survivor"
Robb nodded and started descending the stairs. "The Wildlings, Nymeria, did the survivor describe them?" Jon asked Nymeria.
Nymeria shook her head. "The boy, Olly, he said that one of them threatened to eat his dead parents," she answered. "There was nothing else."
Jon hardened his expression as he went down the stairs, following Robb's footsteps. Robb had already gotten to the boy that Nymeria was talking about. He was sobbing quietly, and Robb was comforting him, having the boy sit on his lap. "Shh, child, as long as I'm here, nothing will harm you again," he told the boy. The boy said nothing, continuing to cry his eyes out.
No one sought to stop him. Jon shared a careful nod with Robb and watched as the Black Brothers gathered in the hall, shouting suggestions on what they should do to curb the wildling menace.
"We need to teach them a lesson about the way we deal with their kind!" shouted one of them, and the others around him chorused their agreement. "Three dozen bodies with slit throats tossed off the top of the Wall, seems like that would be a good lesson!"
Ser Alliser grimaced, then frowned. "If we go after them, we'll be giving them what they want," he told the others. "They want to draw us out, pick us off a few at a time."
"We have just over a hundred men, and that's including stewards, builders and me. We can't afford to lose a single man," Maester Aemon said. "We cannot over-rely on His Grace's men, because they might need to ride south if anything happens. We must remember our first responsibility, we are the Watchers on the Wall." They had all said their oaths, and they knew that they had to see it done. Robb was silent. The Night's Watch did not heed any King to start with anyways.
"There's got to be a way to protect them," Pyp said. But there was still silence.
"You're the champion of the people, Prince Snow," Ser Alliser said to Jon, an insult that Jon had long taught Robb to ignore. It would be folly to chastise him over such a small mistreatment, and it could be well a test for Jon's own humility, for they were all equal at the Wall. "What do you say to Brother Pyp's proposition."
Jon looked at Ser Alliser square in the eye. "Mance Rayder is coming," he said coolly. "If the Wildlings breached the Wall, they'll roll over everything for 1000 miles before they reach an army that can stop them. We need to shore up Castle Black and we need to defend the Wall."
"Surely, with the Northern Army here, it would be a lot easier," Robb assumed, but to his dismay, Jon shook his head.
"Robb, Mance Rayder's armies are one hundred thousand strong. Even if you are at full strength, you can't defeat that number," Jon added. "It'll need all of Westeros to do it and currently as we are, we cannot defeat such a force."
Robb fell silent immediately. It was the first time that he had heard anything about the numbers that Mance Rayder had. Maester Aemon's message had said nothing of the sort and Jon did not reveal anything until now. However, his thoughts were interrupted by horn blasts that only the Black Brothers could recognize.
"Rangers returning," Pyp proclaimed, and the entire hall moved towards the gate, leaving Robb with Olly.
Jon was the first one through, finding Grenn and Edd. Edd looked at Jon and said, "Thought you'd had blue eyes by now." Jon only put Edd's arm around his shoulder and helped him to walk back to the courtyard.
"What took you so long?" Ser Alliser asked Grenn and Edd.
"We were held up," Edd replied.
"By what?"
"Chains," Grenn answered, holding up his bloody wrists.
"We were guests of the mutineers at Craster's Keep," Edd added.
"And the mutineers stayed?" Jon asked them, bending down, his eyes level to theirs.
"They're not going anywhere," Grenn continued. "They've got Craster's food and his wives."
"Poor girls," Edd said. "Never thought they'd miss their daddy."
"Karl's running things now, he's the one that put a knife through Craster's mouth."
Robb noticed that there was a sudden change in Jon's expression. If he had been concerned before, Jon was panicking. Only he could see it. Only he had seen such an expression in Jon before, when they were children and he had broken Catelyn's favorite ornament after playing catch in the great hall with him and Theon. "Jon, is there something wrong?" he asked.
"We need to ride north and kill them all," Jon proclaimed.
Ser Alliser obviously did not agree with him. "We just went over this, boy, justice can wait."
"It's not about justice!" Jon exclaimed. "I told the Wildlings that we had over a thousand men at Castle Black alone. Karl and the others know the truth as well as we do. How long do you think that they'll keep that information to themselves when the Wildlings are peeling their fingernails off? Mance has all he needs to crush us, he just doesn't know it yet. As soon as he gets his hands on them, he will, then he'll throw his full strength at us." Jon gave a look at Obara and asked, "Captain Sand, how many men has His Grace brought with him here?
"Three thousand currently at Queensgate. More will come if King Robb gives the order," Obara said.
"It will take a full day's ride or more from Winterfell," Jon said. "We won't have the time. And even if every one of us kills 30 wildlings each in one night... there's still not a thing we can do to stop them."
"I don't think I can kill 30 wildlings in a night," Pyp said.
"Nym, send word to all the lords in the North, tell them to prepare for any eventuality of a Wildling attack. They've all been properly fed and rested and they should get to work immediately." Robb said to Nymeria. "Obara, go to Queensgate and tell them to double the guard, and move some of their best men to Castle Black. It's the only thing we can do... for now."
"Yes, Your Grace," the Sand Snakes said, with their heads bowed before moving on to execute their missions.
"I can't do much," Robb told Ser Alliser and Maester Aemon. "But I swear that as long as I'm alive, all of you will still have some hope."
Ser Alliser just nodded. To say anything more would be excessive. The Night's Watch were removed from the politics of the Seven Kingdoms, but if the King in the North wants to freeze and die with them, he was welcomed to.
"A woman's armor doesn't necessarily mean armor itself," Ellaria told Brienne as they walked through the marketplace at Sunspear. "Sansa's lady mother, Lady Catelyn, always said that a lady's armor was her courtesy, but it is even more than that. A lady's armor is what she is. What she wears, the words she speaks, her wit and her beauty."
"Cersei used to say that a woman's greatest weapons were a tears and what's between her legs," Sansa added, her words laden with sarcasm.
"Cersei, although sometimes crazy, is right," Ellaria said. "You, Lady Ambassador, should sometimes heed her. She isn't Queen Regent for so long just because she's cunning, but because she knows how to use them."
However, Brienne begged to differ. "Why would a woman ever debase herself to such... tactics?" she asked, probably directing the question to both Ellaria and Sansa. "Doesn't her honor mean anything?"
"Honor is a word that men use to control everything they have," Ellaria explained. "Their families, their women and their underlings. Honor can't save you when you need saving the most. What men fear the most is what they do not understand and what they cannot predict: a woman who knows that she is free, unchained and unfettered. That is what they fear the most, and when you know that, they can never control you."
Brienne raised an eyebrow. "So what does it have to do with me, shopping around for dresses, jewelry and... frilly things?" she asked Ellaria further.
"You and Sansa are not standing up against men in Essos," Ellaria said. "You are standing up against a woman. She knows how to handle men. Women are even harder to deal with than men, my dear Brienne, if you are a woman. Your opponent will have everything you have, tears, tits, cunts... you will need to outsmart her, make her feel less bristled in your company."
"That is just silly!" Brienne exclaimed. "So you're saying that as women, we should hide everything that we're capable of, after all the time it takes us to gain those skills, just so that our opponents can underestimate us so we can defeat them? Isn't that hypocritical?"
"It's how you stay alive, Brienne, when you play the game," Sansa said. "It's how I survived King's Landing."
"I'm sorry, Princess, I didn't mean..."
"It's alright, Brienne," Sansa added. "It's all part of life, I guess."
Those words made Brienne feel as though she was back in her father's keep, being her awkward self again. However, Sansa was not angry with her, nor was Ellaria any disappointed in her. They knew that she was entitled to her own views, and they knew that she was merely venting her frustrations.
"So, if a dress can also be an armor, when would that be?" Brienne asked Sansa and Ellaria. "Wait... how am I going to fight if I'm wearing a dress?"
"You can wear these riding trousers underneath your dresses," Ellaria told Brienne. They can carry everything for you. Straps for knives and daggers, concealed pockets for caltrops and poisons..." As she spoke, she showed Brienne everything about those trousers. "They are worn by Dornish women who take the path of the sword. Seamstress Marnia here, she's my daughters' favorite. She can make the most beautiful evening gowns, and the best armors with chest plates that fit your breasts well."
Seamstress Marnia, a middle-aged woman who was portly with a smiling face said, "When I was a young girl, I was the bodyguard to Prince Oberyn's mother, but when I had my children, I decided to retire from active duty and make a new living. You'll be in good hands."
"But I thought they don't make women's clothes for people like me..."
"Nonsense!" Seamstress Marnia returned. "It is a seamstress's duty to make clothes for everyone, now come!"
As Brienne was brought into the back of the shop, Ellaria turned to Sansa. "She is going to be responsible for your life, so we must treat her well," she said. "Brienne has a beautiful sense of duty and honor, you will do good to use it to your advantage."
"I will," Sansa said. "Thank you, for everything." She knew that saying those words out of a sudden felt so out of place, but since her fate and duties had already been spelled out to her, she knew that the time of her leaving Dorne was inevitable. Robb and Doran needed her as their ambassador and Oberyn wanted her safe from the Lannisters. If they caught her, then they would use her against them, she could not be a liability. That was why she was going to be shipped off to Meereen, to plead Daenerys Targaryen to bring her dragons to the fight.
"I'm going to miss you when you leave," Ellaria said, playing with a lock of Sansa's red hair. "I'm going to miss seeing how you move against Oberyn and I, the taste of our lips with his..."
"I'll come back, I swear," she said. "I'll do everything to make sure that happens."
Ellaria nodded and kissed her forehead. "I know you will, my love," she said. "Your coming to us in these months was a preparation of who you are meant to be. I might not have your gifts, but I knew when I first saw you, my love. You are meant to do great things. All Oberyn and I can do for you is make sure that you have the skills to do them, either by your mind, by the blade, or... with your charms and wit."
"Oberyn thinks that I can entice the Silver Queen if I wanted to," Sansa said. "But I don't think that she's... like us..."
"She might or might not be," Ellaria said. "Whatever it is, do not force her or yourself to do what you are not willing to do. That is the only word of caution that I will give you, be it in politics or in the bed."
Sansa smiled. It was a great irony to her, that Ellaria held the same political astuteness as Oberyn, Doran or even herself, but she was less than willing to participate in their games. She did not need it, because all she needed was her strange little family around her. Her lover and his family, mixed with their children. Many other women found her strange, and deviant, but Sansa loved her for it.
"Now come, we should go and see how well Brienne is doing with Marnia," Ellaria said. "They make quite the interesting pair, no?"
Giggling, Sansa nodded. "You're doing this not because you want Brienne to look softer and less threatening," she said to Ellaria. "You're doing this because you like to see her suffer in dresses."
"Come now, my love, do I look like I enjoy the suffering of others?" Ellaria asked. "It will do her much good and Marnia is a beloved friend of House Martell..."
"I look utterly ridiculous," Brienne proclaimed when she came out with Seamstress Marnia. She was wrapped in pins and yards of silk and leather.
"That's because I'm not done with the outfit yet," Seamstress Marnia bit back. "You'll have to stand still if you don't want to be stuck by pins."
"Ellaria, Princess, are you sure that... ow!"
"I told you to hold still, didn't I?"
Ellaria chuckled and looked towards Sansa. "We will have three sets of those, Marnia, as quickly as you can make them."
Marnia thanked Ellaria and Sansa as they passed her the coins needed for the purchase, while Brienne quickly took out every pin that she knew was stuck to her.
HAN: Poor Jon, even with Robb on the Wall, he's being bullied here and there.
Also, please try not to start on any big debate from what you've derived from Brienne's day out with Sansa and Ellaria. Everything that they've said are their views and not mine.
I know my posting has been very slow lately. Work's caught up with me and I have no excuse beyond that.
Enjoy!