Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun
Chapter Seventy-One
The covers of the bed were soft and smelled like mint and the freshness of the mountains, just as they had done when he had still been a boy at the Eyrie. Ned honestly had not realized how much he had missed that scent until just this moment nor how much he had missed Jon Arryn or sleeping in the bedchamber that had been his since he had first come to the Eyrie.
For a moment, laying atop the covers with his head laid on the pillow stuffed with goose down and with the valley floor so far below him, along side all of his troubles it was easy to consider keeping his eyes shut and pretending that all that was happening below was not and that he was safe here, just so long as he kept his eyes shut.
But Ned knew that he couldn't do that, he could ignore what had happened. They had taken his sister, they had killed his Father's men. His wife and his sons and his babe that was still growing in Elia's womb were waiting for him to come back to them. So, after taking a deep breath to steady himself and to gather his courage, Eddard Stark opened his eyes.
The sunlight that flooded into the room was soft and warm with a hint of coolness on the breeze, he had been so tired the night before that he had forgotten to close the window shutters all of the way. He had been lucky that it had not been snowing the night before, otherwise he was certain that he would hear no end of it from Jon. Ned rubbed at his eyes and walked over to the shutters, closing them and making sure they were firmly shut before stepping away.
The Eyrie would be abandoned soon enough, most of the servants had already made their way down to the Gates of the Moon and only a few remained behind to tend to Jon Arryn before he made his own way down. The castle was beautiful and almost untouchable but in the Winter it could not be lived in, Robert used to tell him a story when they were boys, trying to scare him, of a Lord Arryn who had tried to out last the winter with his entire family in the high castle.
He had forbidden his wife and children to make their way down to the Gates, so certain he was that he had his servants chop enough trees down for wood to keep the fires going and that they had enough food in store to keep their bellys full through to Spring. He had sent most of the servants down to the Gates so the food would last longer and kept only those who he knew were loyal to him back to serve him.
It had been a long winter and as it raged, no word came down from the Eyrie as the heavy snows cut them off from the rest of the Vale. Spring came as it always did but still no word came down from the Eyrie, the winter had been so terrible and so long that even though it had turned to Spring the snow and the ice was still clinging to the peaks of the mountains.
They had to wait for three moons to pass before the snow and ice had melted enough for the path up to the castle to be passable and even then they waited until it seemed certain that no word would be sent down and only then did they send men up to find out what had happened to their lord.
From then on, Robert would change the story everytime about what the party of men would find when they climbed up into the Eyrie, the first time he had told the story to him when it had just been the two of them hiding under the covers of his bed, he said that the men had found the Lord of the Eyrie sitting in the lord's chair in the high hall with his hair having turned long and white with dried blood around his lips and a half eaten leg nestled in his lap.
The second time he told the story was when a new boy arrived at the Eyrie and that time, apprently the men did not find the lord but instead the lord's wife with her youngest child's head nestled in her lap with a long cut across his throat and where the Lady of the Eyrie's eyes should have been, there were only two large bloody craters.
Each time it was something new, Robert always seemed to enjoy scaring people and Ned had strong memories of some knight's poor squire running from the room after having soiled himself while Robert had laughed himself breathless. Jon had not been pleased when he had learned that Robert had been trying to scare the others and he had been sent to scrub clean the entire high hall after a feast.
Jon had told him to stay away from Robert while he cleaned up after the rest of them but even though he might have gotten punished for it Ned couldn't leave him on his own, he had gone and helped him to clean up and Robert, never seeming to know when it would be a good idea for him to stop, did an impression of Jon that would have made a mummer blush but Ned still laughed, he could always make Ned laugh.
Being back here made him sentimental and any other time he might have indulged in it but there wasn't time for that now, not when anything could be happening to Lyanna. He had wanted to speak with Jon about all of this the night before but he had been pushing himself and his party harshly on the high road so they would reach Jon as quickly as possible.
Lord Royce at the Gates of the Moon had suggested that he stay the night there and wait for Lord Arryn to make the journey down the mountain and if this had been only a simple visit to see the man who had fostered him then Ned might have agreed to it but he was half mad, half terrified from all that had happened and while he had offered those who had followed him the chance to remain below while he went up, he was going up.
Howland Reed simply replied that he owed his sister a debt and that where Ned went he would go as well and Martyn Cassel reminded him that it was his duty to come with him and to keep him safe, the guards under Martyn's command were ordered to remain behind at the gates so that they might rest while the three of them were given fresh mounts.
He never thought that he would be so foolish than to try and climb a mountain in the middle of a cold winter night but since Lyanna had been taken, he had not been thinking clearly. He was lucky that any of them managed to make their way up through the way castles without breaking a bone or falling off into the darkness that seemed endless.
But the mules knew the way and Ned knew that all he had to do was trust in them and they would get him there safely, Howland Reed had an affinity with them and he was so silent for the entirety of the journey that once or twice he had not dared to look back at him for fear of seeing that he was not there, that he had ridden off the edge.
But when they had finally made it to the Eyrie, one would assume that Howland Reed had gone through a brisk morning ride in the middle of summer for how much it had bothered him. Poor Martyn, despite coming from the North and enduring brutal winters in the past, was shaking viciously in his saddle and had been clutching the reins so tightly that for a moment Ned thought that they might have been frozen together.
It had been the Eyrie's steward that had allowed them entrance into the castle, the same good man who had been steward when Ned had been there as a boy, and the gods only knew what he thought when the three of them came out of the darkness shivering, but the man knew him and had ordered the servants to see them all to rooms and to bring them food to warm their bellies while he went to inform Lord Arryn of their arrival.
Ned had been brought to his old chambers and a fire had been built for him and a copper tub had been filled with steaming hot water and when Ned sunk into it he couldn't deny that the feeling of the water on his skin was the best thing that he had felt since the last time he had felt Elia touching him. Once he had been bathed and he dressed himself in the clean sky blue satin doublet and the soft white lambswool trousers, his supper of boiled mutton and wild turnips and chopped carrots was brought to him.
They had apologized for the quality of his supper, most of the stores of the Eyrie had been emptied out and sent down to the Gates, but Ned had devoured the meal like it was the best food that had ever passed his lips. The ride through the Vale had been hard and cold, the mountain clans would have seen any smoke from their fires so all they had been able to do for warmth was to huddle close to one another and food had been nothing more than hard biscuit and anything they had been able to forage that would not kill them.
Cooked meat and soft vegetables was worth more than any feast, the steward had come to him while he had been eating to inform him that Jon was still asleep and that the conversation would need to wait until the morning. Ned had wanted to say that it was too important to wait that long, that every single moment was another moment when Lya could have been-
It was another moment when they could have taken Lya further and further away and hid her somewhere where they would never be able to find her, regardless he hadn't said anything, the journey through the Vale and up the Giant's Lance had been tiring as it was and the warm meal filling his belly and the hot bath had reduced him to barely being able to keep his eyes open.
The call of his pillows had been too great for him to resist and as soon as the steward had left and his head had fallen on to the pillows, he was lost. Now, as he stood on the balcony and looked out into the bright blueness of the sky and with the gentle rumble of Alyssa's Tears echoing off into the distance, he had to hope that he had not been too weak.
There was a knock at the door but the steward did not wait for him to come and open it, he walked in and glanced over Ned breifly. "My Lord, Lord Arryn is breaking his fast in his solar and invites you to attend him. Please follow me." The steward turned and walked out of the room and Ned, despite being younger, had to hurry to keep up with the man.
It was strange to see the Eyrie so empty, in his youth sunlight had flooded into every hall and the air had been filled with laughter as he and Robert and all the other boys that had called it home got themselves into some sort of trouble or another. Well, to be true it was more like Robert was the one who kept getting them into trouble and the rest of them just somehow found themselves getting dragged along for the ride.
But there was no laughter now and the steward and Ned's footsteps echoed like war drums as they made their way through the halls, it almost seemed like an entirely different world to the one that he lived in now. This was a castle of childhood dreams, of fears and tears and great adventures and first kisses and he was a boy no longer. Maybe the truth of it was that he no longer belonged there as a man.
He shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts, none of that mattered at that moment. He had not returned to the Eyrie to think back on old memories and weep to see that he would never be that again. He had come to get Jon's aid, his council. Jon Arryn was one of the most respected Lords in all Seven Kingdoms, and as Lord Paramount of the Vale and Warden of the East, one of the most powerful.
Jon would know what to do, he had to know what to do.
Jon was waiting for him in his solar just as the steward had promised that he would be, he was not sitting behind his oak desk but at the head of a table which must have been moved into the room at some point since the last time that Ned had been there, which was back before his Father had sent the letter to the Vale to inform him that he had to return home, that he had been betrothed.
The food that had been placed before the Lord of the Vale was simple, but filling. A bowl of porridge, smaller bowls filled with blueberries and blackcurrant and half a loaf of bread with a bowl of slightly melted butter next to it. Jon looked up from the letter that he had clutched in his hands when Ned and the steward entered and for a moment it looked like he was trying to smile at him but could not manage it. "Ned." He loosened his grip on the parchment and placed it down on the table. "I'm glad to see you, more than you can know."
"I'm glad to see you as well Jon, I wish I could say that I've come to see you just because the mood took me but I can't. Something has happened and I cannot make any sense of it." It still made no sense to him even after all the days he had to think on it, why Rhaegar would do such a thing? The chaos it would cause, the bloodshed.
He had taken his sister and killed his Father's men, there could be no forgiveness for that.
"Does it have anything to do with this raven I received from King's Landing the night that you arrived?" Jon asked as he gestured to the letter on the table, his face had turned grim. "Ned, I do not know how this could have happened. Robert was to play a vital part in what was to come but we didn't inform him of it, not till everything else was settled."
Robert? What did any of this have to do with Robert? A feeling like he had swallowed a cask full of stones came over him and suddenly Ned wished he had something to drink. "Jon, what does the letter say? What's happened?"
"The King had declared him a traitor." For a long, almost endless, moment after Jon had spoken Ned felt like he wasn't able to breathe. If Jon noticed then he did not comment on it. "Robert apparently rode up to the Red Keep with several knights and younger relatives of the houses of the Stormlands and commanded Prince Rhaegar to come out and fight him to the death, he spoke of wanting his betrothed back."
Jon stared at him for a long moment. "Is that why you've come here Ned? Has something happened to your sister?"
A thousand words danced at the end of Ned's tongue, it was a sick sort of jest that he had pushed himself and his companions so harshly to get here and yet now he was here standing in front of Jon he could not find the right words to say. "What's happened to Robert?" If he was named traitor then the King would surely show him no mercy.
"I am uncertain, I must believe that he still lives for the moment." Jon said as he picked the letter back up and squinted his eyes at one specific part of the paper, his eyes going back and forward again and again as he read it to perhaps be sure he had read it correctly. "It is written here that Robert and most of the men who came with him have been imprisoned below the Red Keep to face judgement, some of the men died in the struggle to capture them as did some of the Red Keep's guards."
I should have gone to him, in that moment it was all that Ned could think. He had sent Stannis back to Storm's End in the hope that his friend's younger brother would be able to keep him calm, would be able to stop him from doing anything foolish until Ned had spoken to Jon and they had come up with a plan. Ned did not blame Stannis, few people could stop Robert from doing whatever he wanted when he had set his mind to it expect for Ned. He could have stopped him, he was sure that he could.
And now his friend, his brother as much as Brandon and Benjen, was rotting in the Black Cells below the Red Keep with the gods only knew how many others with his judgement to be delivered by a Mad King. And even if the King was not mad, was as sober and clear headed and rational as any man was capable of being, no King would be expected to judge with mercy the man who had threatened his son, the crown prince of the realm.
In his head, Ned knew the truth. Robert was already dead, unless the King suddenly became merciful overnight then Robert would be burned alive as soon as King Aerys saw fit to do so. But in his heart, the place where Robert was still a little boy with a mane of black curls and laughing blue eyes who had dragged him along behind him in the first few terrifying weeks in the Eyrie, who had laughed at him but rubbed his back as he emptied his stomach after they had both shared a flagon of wine, who had dragged him to a brothel when Jon had taken them both to Gulltown and offered to buy him a woman and promised not to tell when he could not go through with it, there that truth would take no root.
"What else does it say?" Ned asked as he gathered his strength, refusing to put any more thought into that until the very last moment that there was nothing they could do for Robert. "Surely that cannot be all of it."
"It is not. Along with Robert being pronounced a traitor the King had ordered that both of his brothers come to King's Landing in order to swear their fealty." Jon's face, if it was possible, became even grimmer then. "I have written a raven to Storm's End to tell young Stannis that he is to do no such thing, alas I do not know the young man and his brother has been taken. Do you think that he will do as I ask?"
In truth, Ned did not know. He had meet Stannis once or twice when he joined Robert for visits back to Storm's End but they did not speak overly much to one another, even back then the young man had been solemn and sober and Ned had wondered if that was what other people thought of him when they saw him, and in truth they had probably spent more time talking when he had come North to be part of Lyanna's honor guard and even then they did not speak perhaps more than half a dozen times.
"I don't know Jon, if the King commands him to do it? I'm not sure, chances are likely he might have already decided and ridden off by the time your Raven reaches Storm's End." If it had been Brandon or Lya or Benjen who had been taken, Ned was not certain that he would be able to stop himself from going and trying to do whatever he could to help his siblings.
"Then until we know for certain, we shall simply have to hope that he shows restraint." Jon sighed and shook his head and he looked so tired in that moment before he spoke again. "I am afraid that is not the end of it, I have also been summoned by the King to come to court as well. As have you, as I fostered Robert the King would like certain reassurances that I have not corrupted your minds with thoughts of treason."
And considering that Jon had been planning treason for a long time against the King, that was the last thing any of them needed. Not that the King needed proof of course to be certain that he was surrounded by traitors. Ned for himself never thought he would live to see a day when he was accused of treason, except he supposed in the end he was guilty just as Jon was. He was fully aware of the plans his Father, Jon Arryn, Hoster Tully and Doran Martell had laid out and yet he said nothing.
"We cannot go, we will never see freedom again and that is if the King is in a good mood, chances are we will all feed the flames of his pyre. It seems then that the time has come. I have sent ravens to Winterfell, Riverrun and Sunspear and I expect I will hear replies soon enough. I will send birds to my lords to call on their armies and we will see if all our plans will come to naught and if loyalty and vows stretch to the support of a madman." Jon looked up at Ned again. "You did not answer my question, has something happened to your sister?"
Ned felt like a terrible brother, in all the chaos he had almost forgotten entirely about Lya. "The Prince took her." That was not enough, Jon looked at him like he had sprouted a second head from his shoulder. "We were taking Lya down to Storm's End so she could be wed to Robert, she said that she wished to go to the Isle of Faces on the God's Eye so she could ask the gods for one more blessing, I saw no harm in it." And in truth he had never been able to deny Lya anything, none of them had.
"So while the rest of us stayed in an Inn on the shore I sent Lya to the isle with guards, she didn't come back and when we went to look for her." His blood turned to frost when he remembered the sight of the butchery that had meet his eyes. "Lya was gone and the guards had been killed, one of them survived long enough to tell us that Prince Rhaegar had taken Lyanna away with him."
Jon was quiet for a long moment after Ned had finished speaking. When he finally did speak, it was very quiet. "Ned, I need you to listen to me now. I can imagine how you are feeling, I mainly imagine it ends up with wanting to inflict a great deal of harm to the Prince and I promise you, you will have that chance but I also need you to see how this is helpful."
Before Ned could exclaim how it was helpful that his sister had been carried off, Jon continued to speak. "This war that will break, it is not a war that will be fought with just swords and spears. It is a fight for the hearts and minds as well, we must be seen as in the right to rebel. One would hope that the King burning people alive for the slightest of crimes would be enough, but imagine how many lords and knights would consider pledging their support to us once they learn of this? That the crown prince can swoop down and take a young girl, betrothed and on her way to be wed, as his prize? Rhaegar may have won this war for us already in one fell swoop."
Lyanna wasn't a prize, and she wasn't a pawn to be used in a way. Lyanna was his baby sister and she was out there somewhere, taken captive and having...gods, Ned didn't want to think about what could be happening to her right now. But even so, Ned could see that Jon was right to an extent. Many would join their side if they learned what happened to Lya, he had to hope so.
And Jon was right about another thing, he really did wish to hurt Rhaegar Targaryen at this very moment.
"I understand Jon, I promise that I do. So, what now?"
"Now? Now you head back to the North, no doubt your Lord Father will have summoned his own bannermen once he has learned of this, considering there are not hundreds of Northmen beating down my door I assume that you sent some back to inform him of it?" Jon waited for Ned to nod before carrying on. "You must go back now as well, but riding back would take to long, and no doubt would not be as safe. Ride for Gulltown and take ship from there."
Ned nodded and listened as Jon informed him of what he was to do. The King would no doubt have sent letters to every single house of note in every Kingdom, meaning their treachery would be known on every lips. Taking ship would be faster and it would be safer but getting there would mean that he would have to travel beneath notice.
Jon had his steward produce three brown roughspun cloaks, one shorter than the others that Ned had to assume was for Howland Reed and well as three rough iron swords. Ned, Howland and Martyn for their own safety would have to pose as common sellswords in order to reach Gulltown without drawing any unwanted attention on to them.
Ned informed both of his companions of the plan when they all began to make their way back down to the Gates of the Moon, Howland shrugged softly and accepted the role and the cloak but Martyn had frowned when he had been told that he would need to leave the guardsmen he had brought to keep Ned safe here but he did not question it overly much once it was fully explained to him.
Jon had written down before they had left so three freshly feed and freshly watered horses, fine mounts Ned noted but not entirely out of the league of a sellsword to buy if he had been paid well, were waiting for them. Jon gave them a few parting words, they mounted their steeds and they slipped off into the early morning sunlight.
Now, there was nought to do but hope for the best and ride.
End of Chapter Seventy-One
Another chapter done and dusted, and the fellowship of the saving Lyanna Stark rides out into the early morning light. I always found it interesting, why did Ned choose these specific men to come with him to the Tower of Joy in canon? We're never really given any hints expect for the fact that Lyanna saved Howland at Harrenhal. So, I wanted to build on that.
Anywho, seeing more direct political fallout now and Ned is on his way back to the North. Place your bets, did Stannis go to the capital?
Next chapter with either be a Jaime one or an Elia one, but for the moment I am leaning more towards Jaime. But we shall see.
Lots of love to everyone, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please consider leaving a review, a follow and a favorite.
DiscordantSymphony