27. The Deal.
The morning of the funeral had been a rainy one. The skies were grey and the clouds were gigantic black masses, pouring water over those who had attended the funeral. They all stood there, holding umbrellas as black as the clouds over them to try to stop the rain from soaking them while they watched the coffin be descended six feet underground. The rain fell of the hard wood of the coffin and rebounded, and it filled the whole and made the earth wet and muddy. They would have waited another day to bury the coffin, but the rain hadn't been mentioned in the weather forecast. It had appeared all of a sudden, just as if the sky was weeping over that death.
It was the second funeral that Sansa attended in the last five months. Theon's funeral affected and hurt her a thousands times more than Renly's funeral, but she didn't cry. She had cried too much already over everything, she had cried do much that she felt dry inside of her. There were no more tears to shed because she had used then all up. She wanted to cry, because watching the coffin disappear down into the earth hurt like a knife to the heart. It didn't hurt so much as watching her father being buried, though. She had felt like she was dying during that funeral, and she hoped she didn't have to go through anything similar to that experience ever again.
There wasn't a body inside the coffin. Only bits and pieces of Theon had been found floating on the ocean, and some of them had washed ashore and discover by some people that passed by. It was like a macabre gore scene from a horror movie, and each time that Sansa closed her eyes and pictured it in her mind, she felt sick to her stomach. Theon' remains had been cremated after we has identified by the forensics; burying bloodied random pieces seemed too gore and distasteful to everyone. Most people from the Iron Islands had they ashes thrown to the sea after they died, but Theon's family didn't want to do that with him. The sea had killed Theon, and they preferred him to keep him buried in the ground, safe and away from all harm.
Theon's sister, Asha, was the only member from the Greyjoy family that attended the funeral. Their mother was too delicate and wouldn't be able to stand being there burying her child, and their father had buried too many sons. Sansa watched Asha during the funeral; the woman had a serene expression on her face the entire time, though her sadness and pain for the loss of her little brother was obvious in her eyes. She didn't cry. She didn't shed a single tear during the entire funeral, and Sansa admired her enormous strength. She knew that Asha loved her brother and she would have done anything to protect him, but she hadn't been able to protect him in the end. No one could have done anything... But Asha was not going to let that break her.
Robb was devastated. Sansa felt bad for him. Theon was Robb's best friend since childhood, and Robb had loved him like a brother. Jon was also hurt with Theon's loss, but his pain was nowhere near as bad as Robb's. The last time that Robb had cried was in their father's funeral, and that was probably the only time that Sansa had seen him crying like that. Robb was a very strong man, but he didn't handle loss well. Sansa longed to hug her brother and tell him that everything would be alright, but it was a lie. Theon was dead, and Sansa couldn't even comfort her brother because she couldn't be there for him, she would have to leave soon.
The coffin was already at the bottom of the hole, and Asha took a shovel and threw wet earth on it. Then she have it to Robb, who then gave it to Jon. Everybody that had known Theon and were their friends and loved him had their turn to say their last goodbye by throwing a little amount of earth on him. Sansa's turn came. She stepped away from under the black umbrella that had been sheltering her from the rain, and she was immediately soaked. She didn't care. She took the shovel from her brother Bran's hands, and then she picked up from wet dirt with it and positioned herself at the side of the grave hole, careful not to slip and fall inside. She remembered when she had had to do the exact same thing a little over a year ago, at her father's funeral. She had been shaking so much that she nearly dropped the shovel and started screaming there in front of everyone. She had managed to be strong back then, knowing that she had to do that for her family, for her mother and her siblings. She had to be strong for them back then, and now she had to be strong for herself. For some reason, something inside her told her that that would not be the last time that she would have to stand next to a new grave.
Her hand was firm when she dropped the dirt inside the hole. She gave her last goodbye to Theon, the funny and cocky boy that had once been like an older brother to her, that had made her laugh and that had also made her cry and that had played with her and that had always been peaking her as Arya's accomplice.
Sansa gave the shovel to one of Theon's friends and returned to her place next to her husband. Joffrey had come to the funeral because he was supposed to accompany her now that he was also part of the family, and it would be strange if he didn't come. Sansa glared at him, but Joffrey didn't notice. No one noticed it because they didn't know Joffrey, but Sansa did know him, and she recognized the shadow of amusement in his green eyes. Sansa hated him, and she wanted him out of there and away from her, away from her family, away from Theon... She knew her husband well enough to suspect very dark things, things that made her stomach turn.
After the ceremony was done, everyone left. Sansa paid her respects to Asha, who thanked her, and then she said goodbye to her family. She took her time hugging her brother Robb; he needed it, and she couldn't care less that her husband was waiting for her and getting impatient. Only when she felt that it was fine to let go of Robb did she do it. She turned around and followed Joffrey away from the Pyke cemetery and towards the black car that was waiting for them.
Sandor had come with them to Pyke, and he was the one driving. Sansa wanted to run to his arms and bury herself between them. She wanted him to hold her and comfort her. She hated that day, and she hated that her friend was gone. She wanted to feel protected next to Sandor, because truth be told, she felt terrified at that moment.
Sandor drove them in silence towards the city of Pyke. They had to cross it to get to the airport. Everyone else was going to stay in Pyle for a day or two, but Joffrey wanted to return to King's Landing as soon as possible. He was sitting quietly next to Sansa in the car, looking out the window. The silence was tense inside the car. Sansa saw Sandor looking at her through the rear view mirror, and she saw that he felt saw and pity for her. He knew that she was going through a hard time because of Theon's death, and he wanted to comfort her but he couldn't. The corner of Sansa's mouth curled up a little bit with a tiny smile, letting him know that she was okay. She was going to be fine.
They were already driving through the streets of Pyke. There was no one on the streets because of the heavy rain, and it all looked grey and sad. Sansa had never been in the Iron Islands, and in other circumstances she would have liked to look around out the window and see how the city was, but she wasn't feeling like it at that moment.
Suddenly she heard Joffrey chuckle, and she looked at him while frowning. He was still looking distractedly out the window. He was probably thinking about something funny. Sansa felt her blood boiling in his veins, and she ignored Sandor's warning eyes reflected on the rear view mirror that told her to stay quiet. She couldn't stay quiet. She had bitten her tongue to stay quiet long enough.
"I know what you did to Theon," she murmured, but in the heavy silence of the interior of the car her voice sounded strong and clear.
Joffrey looked away from the mirror and turned his attention to her. He frowned, pretending to be confused and to not know what she was talking about. But Sansa knew that he knew very well what she meant. Again, she knew Joffrey too well.
"The sharks didn't find him," she said, this time louder than before. There was wrath in her voice, a wrath that had never been there before. Sansa was a calm and peaceful person, it wasn't in her nature to hate. She was loving, and sweet and careful and pleasing. But she hated Joffrey. She hated him more than she thought it possible to hate anyone or anything. That hate burned her insides, boiled the blood in her veins, and made her feel an anger that she had never ever felt before in her entire life. And she hated that Joffrey made her feel like that.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Joffrey said, still pretending to be confused. It made Sansa almost laugh bitterly. Since when did Joffrey try to pretend around her? He always loved telling her about the horrible things that he had done, that he did, that he could do to her and those she loved in the future.
"You sent him to them," she accused him.
She could see from the corner of her eye that Sandor was getting nervous. He was getting nervous because she wasn't supposed to be talking to Joffrey like that, and much less when there were other people present. Sandor wasn't supposed to be hearing that conversation, Sansa didn't know if Joffrey knew that Sandor knew everything that he had done, but she didn't care at that moment. She saw Joffrey looking at Sandor in the front seat for a moment, like he was trying to see the bodyguard's reaction. Sandor just acted like he had heard nothing, and Joffrey glared at Sansa. She spoke again.
"You killed him," she hissed bitterly, full of anger and also fear. She was more afraid of Joffrey than she had been in the entire past year, because it was the first time that he had done something that horrible since he killed her father. She never forgot the monster that she was married to, but Theon was a terrible reminder.
Joffrey didn't pretend to have no idea of what she was saying anymore. She saw him smirk and heard him chuckle lowly again, amused by the anger in his wife's eyes. It was something new to him, and even though he liked seeing her afraid and submissive, seeing that new side of her was entertaining to him. It just angered Sansa even more.
"So what if I did?" he asked. He wasn't going to pretend anymore, he didn't care that someone else was listening to them. Sandor knew most of his secrets, and he also knew that he had been behind Ned Stark's death, so Joffrey didn't care anymore that his most trusted bodyguard learned about everything else. He was ignorant of the relationship between Sansa and Sandor, and he didn't know that Sandor already knew everything, including that that marriage was a farse.
"You promised you wouldn't harm my family!" Sansa cried. "That was the deal! If I married you, they would be safe!"
"Theon Greyjoy wasn't your family," Joffrey said calmly, and a little bit irritated. "I promised not to harm anyone with the Stark last name. And anyways, I said they would be safe once you became my wife. You might be my wife in a paper, but not really... Not yet."
Sandor almost slammed his foot on the brakes and he almost turned around to put his hands around Joffrey's neck and strangle him to death. How did he dare...? How did he dare tell the little bird that he might still harm her family unless she slept with him?! Sansa had endured many horrible things because of that little shit, but she definitely did not deserve to be under such pressure, threatened with something so awful and lowly and disgusting. Sansa saw his expression on the read view mirror again, and she lightly shook her head to prevent him from reactions in any way that could have consequences for both of them. So Sandor kept driving, and Joffrey and Sansa kept glaring at each other.
"We have a deal about that too," Sansa reminded him, and Joffrey made a face.
"You can't have everything, my love," he said mockingly. "It's about time you learned that. And now stop bitching about it," he hissed. "I haven't touched your family, as promised. People only considered by you to be your family do not enter the package."
"Why Theon?" Sansa asked. Her voice shook a little bit. "He didn't do anything to you."
"Sansa, I think we should have this conversation in private," Joffrey said, looking to the front seat again, where Sandor was. He knew that there was no danger in Sandor hearing all that, but he was beginning to feel uncomfortable.
Sansa didn't want to have that conversation in private. She didn't want anything to do with Joffrey in private, she wanted him as far away from her as possible. She wanted to talk about Theon's death right then and there, in that car, with Sandor present. That car was the safest place on Earth for her at the moment, the place where she felt more secure in every single way. She could draw her strength from Sandor, she felt bold enough to face Joffrey if he was there.
"Why Theon?" she insisted, with a certain edge to her voice that cut like steel.
"Because he was a nuisance," Joffrey finally confessed to her. He felt a certain pleasure when he said those words, pleasure in the fact that they hurt Sansa because they revealed the monster that hid underneath that charming face. Pleasure because they also revealed how far Joffrey was willing to go to get rid of the people that bothered her. He was a killer, a cold-blooded murderer that had already taken two lives, and would not hesitate to take another. It scared Sansa, and Joffrey enjoyed it. "He stood in my way, but now he can't stand in my way no more!"
"Then what stops you from doing the same to my brother?" Sansa asked. Her voice was trembling. "What stops me from telling everyone the truth before you do something like this again?"
"I can't do this again," Joffrey scoffed, laying back on his seat. "Two accidents? No, Theon's death won't surprise anyone, but if your damn brother showed up dead right now it would be bad, so don't worry. Beside, I have more use for him alive."
"You are going to burn in hell!" Sansa yelled all of a sudden, surprising both Sandor and Joffrey.
Sandor looked at her worried, and Joffrey stared at her furious. Sansa moved looked away, unable to hold Joffrey's gaze anymore, it had already been too much. She could feel Joffrey getting angrier and angrier with her with each passing second.
"Sandor, stop the car!" Joffrey ordered, and Sandor had to obey. He pulled over right in front of a little shop that sold candles, and as soon as the car stopped Joffrey turned around to face Sansa again. He was ready to yell at her, to threaten her, to talk all that shit that he used to tell her, but Sansa wasn't in the car anymore. She had opened her door and had left the car, adventuring into the empty streets alone. She got immediately soaked by the pouring rain, and the cold air of winter hit her like a hundred knives piercing her skin. When he saw her, Joffrey cursed.
Joffrey opened the door to get out of the car and go after his wife. Sandor was about to open his own door, but Joffrey stopped him.
"Stay in the fucking car, Clegane!" Joffrey muttered. Anger was pouring out of every single pore in his body, and it was obvious in his enraged expression as he got out of the vehicle and slammed the door.
Sandor had to force himself to stay in the car. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't go against Joffrey's orders. But he didn't take his eyes off Joffrey as the young man walked away from the car and after his wife. Sansa was already well away from the car, but her husband ran and caught up with her. He grabbed her arm and forced her to stop and turn around. They were both soaked, and the heavy falling rain made it almost impossible to see them well. Sandor could only see that they were arguing loudly, but he could hear what they were saying. He wondered what would happen if anyone else heard them. Some curious neighbor might be alarmed by their loud and angry voices and come out of the safe warmness of his house to see what all the fuss was about, and gods knew what he could find out. Sansa wasn't biting her tongue that day. What she had said in the car moments ago would have gotten her in a hellhole of trouble had she said it in front of anyone else that wasn't Sandor and that Joffrey didn't trust. Maybe she was screaming the whole truth there, in the middle of Pyke, and no one could stop her. Joffrey couldn't stop her.
Joffrey was still grabbing Sansa's arm, and she was now silent and Joffrey was the one that was shouting. Sandor couldn't hear him, but he saw him. He was alert for in case he had to get out of the car. He would defend Sansa of he had to, even of that meant a lot of trouble for him. Joffrey continued shouting and Sansa started shouting again. She managed to pull away from Joffrey and make him let go of her. She started walking away, and Joffrey stayed there watching her leave. For a second Sandor actually believed that Joffrey was going to let Sansa go...
But then he saw the Governor clenching his fists, and he quickly crossed the distance that already separated him from Sansa. He called his wife several times until she turned around, and when she did Joffrey raised his hand, as if he were about to slap her. Sansa cringed.
Joffrey hadn't yet lowered his menacing hand when Sandor jumped out of the car, leaving the door open, and ran towards them. It took him two seconds to reach his boss and Sansa.
"Enough!" he barked, infuriated.
Joffrey's hand was still up in the air, ready to down and hit Sansa at any moment. He didn't strike her, and he turned around to glare at his bodyguard.
"I told you to stay in the car!" he hissed.
Sandor usually tried to be disrespectful to avoid trouble at work. He wasn't going to hold back anymore, not now.
"Go back to the car, the two of you," he ordered. "Now!"
"You don't give orders to me!"
"You are in the middle of the capital of the Iron Islands, for fuck's sake! Everyone is going to see you, or hear you!" he actually wanted people to hear them, so that part of the truth about Joffrey could start being unveiled, but he didn't want to wait for that to happen while the prick hit Sansa in public. He would not just stand there to watch and let it happen, and Sansa had had enough pain for one day during the funeral, she did not need a new beating to make things even worse. "Go to the car!"
Surprisingly enough, Joffrey obeyed him. The little prick was fuming, but he left his wife and returned to the car that had been carelessly parked under the rain. Sansa didn't move. She just stood there, getting even more soaked with each passing second. Her eyes were fixed on Joffrey's back, and Sandor knew by her expression that her thoughts weren't being pleasant. At the same time she looked emotionally exhausted, too tired to even start walking back to the car. Sandor helped her.
"Come on, little bird," he said in a very low voice so that only she could hear him. "Come back to the car."
He placed his hands gently on her shoulders, to guide her back to the car, but she protested.
"No..." she whimpered. "I don't want to go..."
"Little bird, please," he begged her. He didn't want her to have to go back to the car, but she had to go. Joffrey was waiting, and things were already bad enough. "Please. I won't let him hurt you."
She believed him. She tore her gaze away from Joffrey and the car and she looked at Sandor. He saw in her eyes that she wanted to hug him and kiss him, but of course she couldn't. She needed some comfort, and he hated not being able to give it to her. But what he could do was try to make things a bit less worse for her. But first he didn't to get her back inside the car, away from the rain. They were both soaked to the bones and the air was cold; Sandor feared that Sansa might get sick.
"Please," he begged again, and finally Sansa took a step forward, and then a second, and a third.
Sandor guided her back to the car and opened the door for her. She sat inside again, where it was warm and dry, and Sandor have her his jacket. Even though it was wet, it would keep her warmer than her simple and soaked black dress would. Joffrey just ignored both of them.
In silence, Sandor went back to the driver's seat, and drove them to Pyke's airport. Only Joffrey spoke again during that entire time. His voice was full of poison, bitter and hateful and angry. He didn't talk to Sansa, but to Sandor instead.
"Forget about everything you have heard here today. Is that clear?" It wasn't a question. It was a warning.
Sandor nodded. He never lied before, but now he did. That was a lie. He couldn't never forget.
There were mere weeks left until the Election Day arrived. Winter had already arrived in the South of Westeros, located in the Southern Hemisphere unlike the state of the North. The winters in King's landing weren't as harsh as they were in other places of Westeros, but snow had been falling for several days already. They didn't get severe snow storms in that part of the country, but it had snowed enough that King's Landing had already two feet of snow in the streets.
Joffrey say again on his black leather chair behind his deal at his office. He had a hot cup of coffee in his hands, and he could look at the front yard of the Red Keep mansion from his window. His siblings Tommen and Myrcella were there, having a snow fight. There laughs reached Joffrey's office and annoyed him, but he had to beat them. He knew that his siblings had invited Sansa to go and play with them in the snow, but she had refused. Joffrey remembered when they were younger and he had spent some time in the North, and Sansa had loved to played in the snow with her siblings. Joffrey had despised them all, even the younger ones. Sansa's tomboy sister, Arya, had snuck up on him and thrown a huge snow ball to his face. Joffrey remembered when he heard the news that she had disappeared. He had never felt happier. He hoped they would find her at some point, dumped in some ditch. He had hated Bran Stark too, but soon after he had the climbing accident and he had broken his spine. Joffrey had felt like celebrating after that. Now he hated the eldest, Robb Stark... He wished that he could do to him what he did to the man's beloved daddy, or what he did to his precious friend. It would make Joffrey's day if he could get rid of Robb Stark in the bloodiest of ways, it would fill him with the deepest satisfaction to see his corpse, his name on the news... But that couldn't be. Too many deaths had already happened, and that pissed Joffrey off.
He only had one way of dealing with Stark now, and it was through the deal that he had spoken with his grandfather about. It was the deal for which he had ordered Theon's tragic and horrific death... He hoped all that wasn't in vain. He wanted his plan to work, he wanted a way of winning even of he lost on the end...
Robb Stark arrived at his office at the time that was scheduled. He had stopped wearing black weeks after Theon's death, but he wasn't dressed in more lively colors. His impeccable suit was grey, unlike Joffrey's navy blue. Starks and grey...
Joffrey shook his hand, and put up his best act.
"Robb," he greeted the man. They both had known each other long enough to be able to speak to each other using first names. "It's good to see you."
"It's good to see you too, Joffrey," Robb said.
Joffrey knew that Robb was lying as much as he was lying. He hated seeing Robb, and Robb hated him. It had always been like that, and the fact that they were now brothers-in-law didn't help much to the situation. Robb still didn't like that his sister had married Joffrey, even though he genuinely believed that she was happy. But he wasn't such a big idiot as his father was, and Joffrey knew it.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Joffrey said. He knew he had to be empathetic of he wanted his plan to work.
Robb thanked him, and an extreme sadness covered his features for a fraction of a second before going back to normality. Joffrey would have pulled of he could. Why had the Starks have to be so emotional? It was pathetic.
"Please take a seat," he invited Robb to sit down, and offered him a cup of coffee. Robb declined it politely. "You must be exhausted."
"Yes," Robb nodded. He had travelled down to the capital from the North to be in his party's headquarters during the Election Day, and to do political stuff that he needed to do before then. The campaign was still going on, after all. "But cut to the point, Joffrey. What do you want?"
Yes, definitely Robb Stark wasn't as stupid as his father was. He knew that there were specific intentions behind Joffrey's invitation. The fact that he had still accepted to go to meet Joffrey meant that he was interested in what the man had to say. Joffrey's plan could work.
"We have both lost the men that were going to be our Vice Presidents," Joffrey started saying, trying to keep a calm and neutral tone. He wanted to sound a bit casual, he couldn't let anything give away that all that was a plan that had led to Theon's death. "And not only that, they were our family. Theon was your best friend since childhood, practically your brother, and Renly was my uncle. They were people we trusted... It is very hard, if not impossible, to replace people like that."
"It is," Robb agreed. "That's why I haven't chosen yet who I will choose for Vice President in case that I... Well, in case that I win."
Joffrey knew that Robb hadn't chosen anyone yet. He had been carefully following all of Robb's moves during all that time, making sure that everything was going well with the plan. He needed time to pass between Theon's death and the day that he actually proposed his deal to Robb, and he had to make sure that no one else stepped in the way during that time. Luckily, no one had.
"I haven't chosen anyone either since uncle passed away," he said. He could see Robb frowning.
"Renly was going to be your Vice President?"
"Yes. Or I his, it depended on which way it went. But now that he is gone... I can't find anyone that is remotely like my uncle. I feel that I can't trust anyone the same way," Joffrey lied. He hated having to talk like that, but he was doing what needed to be done. He saw that Robb was surprised, but the man said nothing for some time. He seemed to be thinking very hard... And then his expression have away that he had come up with an idea. Joffrey suspected that Robb had figured out what he was about to propose.
He was right.
"You want me to be your Vice President," Robb said, "or you to be my Vice President... Depends on who wins."
Joffrey nodded. He was glad he didn't have to explain anything.
"We are family now," he said. "Who better than each other to rely on?"
"Does Sansa know about this?" was the first thing that Robb immediately asked right after Joffrey mentioned that they were family.
Joffrey nodded again. He had informed his wife of his plans, and even though she hadn't liked them one bit, he had made her agree to say that she liked them should anyone asked her about them.
"What does she think about this?"
"She likes it. If you don't believe me, feel free to go and ask her. I believe she's in the library, reading."
Robb didn't need to go. He just sat there on the leather armchair, thinking really hard about what Joffrey had just proposed... When minutes passed and Joffrey still did not hVe an answer, he continued trying to persuade his brother-on-law.
"Think about it, it's a win-win situation. We keep the family together, and we would make a great team. The Lannisters have power all over the country and could help you in many ways... And the North is a powerful weapon. The North and the Lannisters together... Think about it, Robb. We can make this country the greatest in the world."
Robb knew that Joffrey was right... But then again, he didn't know anything about Joffrey's real intentions, nor did he know anything about the Governor's dark and cruel nature... He didn't know anything, and so he didn't know any better to make the right decision.
"I accept," he said after minutes and minutes and minutes of tense silence and expectation.
Joffrey fought hard to hide the grin that wanted to appear in his mouth. He forced himself to smile cordially, appearing to Robb as if he was happy and thankful when in truth he was victorious.
Joffrey never lost. He always got what he wanted, one way or another...
Both Governors stood up from their chairs and a shook hands, sealing their deal.
Next chapter is the Election Day! Who will win...?