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Chapter Eleven: The Flowers in the Corners
I knew more than I should about the Vale of Arryn. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that as the mistress of the Twins it was my job to keep informed about the surrounding Lords and Ladies.
Or perhaps it was because of a rather disturbing fact that had tinged Robb's victory since the end of the war. The fact that his sister, Sansa Stark had neither sent word nor been seen ever since entering the care of Lysa Arryn.
The sole reason that Robb hadn't stormed the fortress was - well, because it was a fool's errand. The Eyrie was located a dizzying length from the floor of the valley, giving it an aerial view of the narrow causeway that led to its gates. Those who wanted to get within striking distance of the stronghold needed to first pass through three individual castles located along the route. Some said that the causeway itself was so thin that a man needed to walk sideways to make it across the road, praying to the Seven's that the wind didn't pick up.
I had had the pleasure of staring into the arctic waves that rolled in my husband's eyes. I was more than assured that he would have scaled the side of the Eyrie himself to find his sister.
I suppose it was a mix of his mother and the letters of Petyr Baelish that had restrained the Wolf of the North. Or perhaps it was the look in her eyes as she pleaded Littlefinger's case - his honesty and good heart. I could see that struggle now between the mother and son, just beyond the flaps of my tent.
There they were, whispering, heads close together with Rob's brows furrowing further and further the more Catelyn spoke.
"This is completely and utterly unnecessary." I let out a sharp gasp as the medicinal woman tightened the bandages along my ribs, shivering as a dribble of sweat rolled down my back. My temperature had quickly gone from feverish to chilling. Or at least, that was the message that my brain was currently receiving from my body.
When I had first seen the odd lumpy way that my ribs were swelling, the bloated, purple mass, I had wanted to throw up. But then again, I had wanted to throw up since the moment that Robb had carried me to the medical woman that was currently fluttering between patients.
She was a strict, graying woman that reminded me strangely of an owl with her wide, brown eyes.
Those eyes snapped quickly to the tent flap as Catelyn slid into the room, her smile tense and her hands smoothing the crisp lines of her dress. Just past her shoulder, I saw the hulking form of my husband as he swept away, the tension in his body palpable.
"Massive injuries to the ribs," the old owl muttered, packing up her supplies and stepping back from where she had left me on a rickety old chair in the middle of a shoddy, makeshift tent that the remainder of the camp had forced together. It was to sort out the wounded from the dead.
The woman's eyes flicked grumpily from Catelyn to me. Both looked fidgety, shifting from one foot to the next.
"You may go," I grumbled, wincing as I tried to readjust myself into a more comfortable position, drawing the thick tunic that the older woman had given me down over my nakedness.
"My Queen." I didn't need to glance up to know that she had made a hasty curtsey and scampered off. She had more dire patients than a little girl with a boo boo on her ribs. I could hear them now, screaming, some gasping, final horrible breaths.
"It doesn't get better."
I jerked, whirling a bit too quickly and growing nauseous from the tug on my ribs that it caused. Catelyn's eyes were fixed on me, a sharp look there. It was almost as if she was trying very hard to determine what she should say next.
Finally, she forced a smile. "If you want, I could see-"
"No." I didn't entirely know what she was going to say. But I had the feeling that it required others to quiet their suffering so that I might shut my eyes for a bit. I stared blankly at the shadows running across the white canvas of my tent walls. How nice that I would get such a luxury while others died out in the field like common animals. "I need to hear them. Hearing them means that they are still alive."
I didn't say the second part. That it also reminded me of what had happened because of me. That people had suffered because of the fact that I was there with them. They wouldn't have dared attack Robb if he had simply gone with his own advisors and confidantes. In fact, the majority of the people killed had been my own entourage - a handful of housewives and stable hands that hadn't ever seen the green beyond the Twins.
I was a weakness meant to be exploited.
"You may go tend to the wounded." It sounded sharp, like broken glass, the way that I said it. Even the smile curling my lips felt like shards. It hurt. "I know that you want to and I must get dressed again."
To see my ribs, my stays, and corset - everything had to be taken off. It was going to be a delightful sort of torture to put it all back on.
Hesitation flickered across Catelyn's face. "No. I couldn't possibly leave you alone-"
Grey Wind brushed briskly past her in the middle of her sentence, his eyes barely meeting mine before he was loping toward a sun-dappled sliver illuminating a section of the tent. Blood was still drying in his fur.
"See?" I quipped, forcing a healthy dose of delight into my voice. "Not alone."
There was a soft sort of smile tilting across Catelyn's face as she pulled the flaps of the tent away to slip out.
It was odd. Outside the creatures still went about their business like the smell of gunpowder and blood didn't disturb them in the least. I could hear the quiet call of the birds and the rustle of the wind as it ran it's fingers through the leaves of the trees. For a moment, I stayed where I was, staring blankly at the side of the tent that Catelyn had just disappeared through.
A weakness. That was what I was. My throat tightened at the thought, a deep sting opening up inside of me. Dark emotions roiled inside of me, clawing at my lunges until every breath was more painful than the last. I refused to be something to be exploited - a crack in Robb's defense. Worse - a life that was useless. Some kind of female puppet to be paraded and slaughtered.
A sharp whine snapped my attention back to Grey Wind, his ears flattened as he snarled at some spot just below… I gasped, jerking my feet higher from the ground as a snare of vines tunneled through a patch of grass beneath the table that I sat on, ripping the dirt into clumps of turned mulch. Relentlessly, they slithered along the table legs, touching at the wood almost delicately before curling around it. It was a deep, lush green spiked through with unsettling concord purple hues. Small buds flowered along the vine, blooming an unnaturally vivid hyacinth tone.
Fear quivered along my veins, my heart beating painfully as I stared down at the quickly growing cluster and the continued climb of the vine until it peaked over the edge of the table almost tentatively.
"By the Sevens," I breathed, fighting back tears. Almost shyly, it slid along the edge and then finally completely onto the table where it curled into neatly rolled loops. Like it was curling up next to the fire. Like it was some kind of loyal animal.
My hands trembled as I reached out. These - this came from me? My brows furrowed, a deeply unsettling panic gripping my heart. This was my power? What even was it? My fingers prickled at the sharp bristles that coated the vines.
What could a pile of useless plants do? What was the purpose if such a power wasn't even useful?
As if reading my venomous thoughts, it whipped out, forcing a yelp from my lips as it curled around a nearby chair. It moved so quickly - one moment a neat bunch of cords, the next all the way across the room. Beneath its force, wood splintered, the chair giving a groan beneath the crushing force of the vines. With a final death cry, the chair completely broke in half, wood shooting across the room. In a corner, Grey Wind gave a savage growl, his ears flattened.
Seemingly satisfied with itself, the vines slithered back, disappearing back into the ground amid the turned dirt at my feet. My muscles seized as the final strand disappeared, rubbing my ankle almost - I swallowed, shaken - affectionately. It had just completely decimated a chair in less than a minute. What else could my plants do? Numbly, I stared down at the dirt, unblinking as Grey Wind huffed out a breath, loping over to sniff suspiciously at my feet.
And more importantly, how did I even control it?
"We move in an hour." I jerked, gasping as I whipped around to stare at the imposing figure of my husband as he yanked the tent flap open and stormed in. His brows were furrowed, his expression thunderous as they swept grumpily around the small tent. Grey Wind had loped over to him already, his eyes staying fixed just below my feet.
Slowly, his eyes moved to the crushed remnants of the chair, narrowing further. "Was that like that when you came in?"
His eyes moved back to me when I remained mute, staring at him dumbly. He would require an answer. My gaze flicked nervously from the splintered remains of the chair and then back to him. How could I explain this? A deep, sinking dread filled me as I imagined Robb's face - his horror - when I started babbling on - about what? Magical powers? It was - unthinkable. Not the little Frey girl with her parade of sisters and cowardly father. Whatever would she do with powers?
I would become his mad wife. The wolf has married a nutter, they would say.
"Nothing," I blurted out, blinking back the sudden burst of hot tears that had begun to cloud my vision. Words clogged uncomfortable in my throat and I fought to clear them, coughing. "I-I don't remember what - It was like that when I arrived."
For a moment, his eyes stayed on me, my fear growing until it felt like I was swallowing water instead of air. I couldn't speak a word to him. Not about this. There was too much in those eyes - questions that I couldn't answer. Beside him, Grey Wind gave a sharp bark and for a moment, I was afraid that my husband spoke direwolf. Sharply, his eyes flicked down to his wolf, a long moment passing where they stared at each other. Irrational fear made me lightheaded.
"Are you often so bad at lying?" The question jarred through me, making me flinch back into myself. His gaze was hard, unflinching as they held mine, his jaw hard with reigned anger. "Did someone enter this tent, wife? Tell me if you were caught again."
Caught-? He thought that the rebels might have attacked again.
"I- No," I breathed, jerking forward so sharply that my ribs gave a sharp cry of agony. Wincing, I clutched at them through the thick weavings of my tunic. "If there was trouble then I would have called for you."
"Don't try to flatter me, Willa darling," he purred and I stilled at the wild look that had crept into his eyes as he stalked closer to me. Quickly, too quickly for my untrained eyes to catch, his massive hand was cupping the side of my neck, his thumb tipping my chin up. His eyes burned silvery in the light, a nerve in his chin ticking almost imperceptibly. "We all know that I would be the last one to hear my name on your lips."
I stuttered over words, blinking rapidly up at him. I didn't know how to respond to him. He was a puzzle - an enigma. One moment he was clutching me to his chest - so gently, too gently - and the next he was looking at me like within the next sentence he would devour me.
"Do you hate me so?" he breathed, his eyes filled with an agony that bordered on rage. Sharply, his gaze flicked to my lips, drawing nearer until our breath mingled and a tingling rolled through me. "Odd how an attack happened so close to the Twins."
My brows rose at the implication, my chest tightening as confusion turned to a roaring fury. "You can't possibly-"
His lips curled back in a vicious snarl, his hand tightening further at my throat. "I can, Willa Frey-"
"Strange," I spat, clawing at his fingers, returning his snarl with one of my own. "I thought I was a Stark now. Will you revoke my title so quickly, kingling? I thought you would at least bed me once more before you lost interest."
His eyes lit to a luminous hue, a savage growl tearing from deep inside of him.
"Tell me you didn't betray me," he hissed.
"Why should I tell you something that every dimwit should already know? I may have married an animal but I didn't think I married a buffoon as well," I spat at him, my free hand going to shove wildly at his chest. He didn't budge an inch. "If you believe that I am insane enough to orchestrate the attack of my new husband and the potential murder of myself then believe what you must."
Robb's eyes remained hard, his hand staying firmly around my neck as he stared down at me. Slowly, the rage abated. How many men had died in this ambush? Rob would know. While I had been huddled in this tent, he had counted the dead and injured. He had seen them bleed, heard their dying whimpers as they went to the Stranger.
"You've met with your advisors?" I whispered, my earlier rage softening into near non-existence. His eyes flicked away, his hand loosening. Was it shame that I saw there? "It was an inside job?" He remained silent, his jaw working around something as a few dark curls fell into his eyes. "I didn't know the route until we were already treading it. Did you mention it to my fath-"
"I wouldn't trust Walder Frey with the scraps for my dog," he hissed, his shoulders going up. I gulped down a breath, sitting farther back. What could I say to that? I blinked back the sting of tears. I was his daughter. For a moment, Robb shut his eyes tightly, letting out a long breath. "I'm sorry. He-"
"My father is a coward and a liar," I whispered tightly, looking anywhere but into his eyes. "It was smart of you not to trust him with your route."
Robb didn't say anything for another moment. Beside him, Grey Wind watched our exchange intently. "It had to be someone who knew of our route. It had to be someone close to me."
"Were any drawings mapped out?"
"None. It would have been too much of a risk to have it written out so blatantly."
There was a traitor in his men.
"Who was the first to be killed?" I edged, trying to snake my head around all the lines that seemed to be drawn through this web.
His brows furrowed for a moment. "A small group of men at the back - mainly guards for…" His words wandered off into silence, his eyes flashing a dark silver.
"If," I started, trying to choose my words carefully, "I was to receive information, I would want the person who could betray my identity to be killed first - something that might look like an accident. And if I were to betray a king than I would want to know that my future would be ensured. The only person that could give me that assurance would be someone of great power or great persuasion."
"God, how did I marry someone so beautiful and smart?" Robb was across the room in seconds, the blue of his eyes returning in the light that crept in. One hand tangled in my hair, another grasping my nape to tug me closer to him as his lips met mine in a searing kiss.
It was unexpected. So unexpected that my body reacted immediately, ignoring the pain as I leaned into it, returning his kiss with all that I had. I wanted him everywhere. I wanted his hands under the tunic and his eyes searing into me the way that they had the night of our wedding. A deep groan rolled from his as he tugged sharply at my hair, biting down on my lip before diving deeper.
My mind fizzed as I arched further into him, my hands reaching out to pull desperately at his shirt. What was it about him that made me so hungry? I gave a whimper as his free hand slammed into the table beside my hip, his shoulders hunching as he leaned further over me.
"Goddamnit, Willa," Robb snarled, his hand untangling from my hair as he nipped at my lips. I wanted more. I wanted to be kissed like before. My hands tugged at his shirt, a soft mewl bursting from my lips. Why did I sound like that? He gave a harsh groan, his hand yanking at my hip, forcing my shirt higher as his hands skimmed across the naked skin. "You drive me mad."
"Your grace."
I froze, blinking a couple of times as I tried to think again - think of anything except Robb. I took a breath. And how good he smelled. His eyes snapped viciously as he snapped around, still leaning around me protectively. Reality slowly seeped in, making me painfully aware of how I was only wearing a tunic and that Robb had pressed his way between by bare legs, a rather impressive bulge pressed against me.
I took another strangled breath.
"What, Tarbor?" he snarled. His voice sounded savage, his shoulders crowding even more in around me, causing my vision to very nearly be limited to his chest only. I gasped as one of his hands yanked down my tunic, laying possessively on my thigh. A deep rumble built in his chest, echoed darkly by Grey Wind, his hackles raised as he stalked closer and closer to the quivering man at the door.
"Your men-"
"Eyes on me," he barked and I thought I heard the sound of a man jumping at the sharp command.
"You - you - You're council -"
"Get out," Robb hissed, only stepping back once the young man scrambled away. His eyes darkened as he watched me tug down the hem of my tunic even more. My face felt like a lit fire. How could I have lost control like that? What had come over me? I forced my eyes up, suspicion making me bold as I took in the intimidating build of my husband. Slowly, his chest expanded in a deep breath. "My council wanted to know my… thoughts. I wanted to come speak with you first."
In other words, they had wanted him to confront me and hoped for me to be turned out immediately. A heaviness settled on my shoulders, making me shrink for a moment. They hated me. They didn't trust me. I gulped, closing my eyes for a brief moment. What could I do - little Willa in her tower with her vines and fancy tales. I had run a household for over ten years now. I blinked, coming back to the stale air in the tent and the watchful gaze of Robb as he waited for me.
Something in my softened as I stared into those deep endless eyes. Although I didn't want it, he was mine. I didn't really know what that meant. But there was something there - an odd, tense connection that seemed to spark and burn me every time he was near. We were tethered together and I needed to win over his men - no matter how daunting the task seemed to be.
I winced as I slid from the table, the aches of my ribs returning in blinding ferocity now that the spell of Robb had worn away.
"May I -" I hesitated, trying to gather the right words. Finally, I met his gaze, trying to let all of the walls down to give him complete honesty. Something in his eyes flickered. "I want to gain the trust of your advisors and I - I would like to attend this meeting."
Surprise lit his face before a smirk curled his lips, his eyes twinkling. Slowly, like I might bolt, he leaned forward, his lips warm and soft as they grazed my forehead. His stubble tickled there, making me recall the harsh rasp of it against my lips. How they stung right now. "You are welcome wherever I might go."
I blinked, trying to not let the surprise register on my face as he pulled away. "I - I will need to get dressed."
Briefly, his eyes flicked to my ribs, a shadow crossing over before he whistled, making Grey Wind snap to attention from his post at the tent flap. "Grey Wind will lead you when you are finished."
"Thank you, your Grace."
Suddenly, his eyes flicked to a spot just over my shoulder, the greys lighting in confusion before they darkened once more. Slowly, they moved back to me, staying there for an unnerving second before he nodded, sweeping away.
Confused, I glanced behind me. It was like ice water had been doused on me.
Curling up in the corners of the tent were a variety of lavender flowers, vibrant in the musty light of the room.
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