Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun

Chapter Ninety-Seven

The sun was relentless in it's assualt, at this moment Ned understood the old saying that the Dornishmen had two favourite weapons, the sun and the spear and the sun was the one that was the more dangerous. The sun and heat had been the death of many an army as they cooked under plate and mail and boiled leather.

This was not the first time that he had been in Dorne but Ned was certain that he would never quiet get used to the heat, and considering what had happened the last time they had been in Dorne and how it had ended Ned did not think that he would truly have that many oppertunities to get used to it and so he would just have to suffer through it for now.

He had wanted to avoid Dorne, if the option was there but the truth of it was that it wasn't. They had scaled over every inch of Westeros that they could, hunting down any hint, even the slightest whisper of Lyanna. His sister was out there somewhere, he was not even going to entertain the thought that she was dead as he did not think he would be able to forgive himself if she was dead.

It had been weeks and weeks and weeks of hunting through out the Riverlands and the Reach, even the faintest whisper of a silver haired man and a dark haired girl was heard and because he was so desperate to find Lyanna that he had followed almost all of them to their ending, he did not think that the one an old woman in a small village had told him about Prince Rhaegar carrying his sister up a massive beanstalk to trade her for a golden harp that belonged to a giant was quite likely to be true after all.

But none of the other hopes that they had panned out, one disaster had them breaking into a large manse that dominated a village in the middle of nowhere only to find that they were breaking into the home of, and terrorizing, a merchant out of Lys and his Myrish wife and their children as well and Ned had to make it clear how truly sorry they were and told the merchant to present himself at King's Landing so he could be compensated for the damage that had been done to his door.

And the longer it took to find her, each time that each lead turned out to lead to nothing, the more Ned began to despair that they would never be able to find Lyanna and he knew that the rest of his men were feeling it as well. Most of the men were the same as those that had ridden out with him to war and so most of them were Northen and thus had known Lyanna, the thought that their Lord's daughter was out there somewhere was a pain to them as much as it was to Ned.

Brandon was feeling it keenly, Ned could see that clearly enough. Brandon and Lyanna had always been the closest of all of them, not close enough to not abandon her along with the rest of them but close enough that she was the only one he would come back for her if any of them were in trouble, so of course her continued absence would lay heavily on him.

He would give his brother the credit that during the fighting, he had not put Lyanna above the rest of the men as he would not put it beneath Brandon to ride off on his own to find her but instead his brother had stayed to help them fight, but now that the worst of the fighting was done and there was nothing else to focus his anger and concern on then it meant that he saw no reason to hold back.

There was tension in the air, Ned did not see how anyone could think that he did not want to find Lyanna but Brandon certainly seemed to think so even if he wasn't so foolish as to actually say something like that out loud where anyone could actually hear it. But he still managed to make his displeasure with the fact that they had still not found Lyanna known by constantly criticising him when a lead did not wind up leading to their sister.

Thankfully, the rest of his companions seemed to be with him and Ned knew that they would follow him for as long as he needed them to do so but he didn't want to be dragging them all over the country for the gods knew how long it would be. They had tried to make light of it, to sooth Brandon's rage and his own frustrations but it barely touched either of them, in truth.

Howland Reed had probably been the one who had stopped the worst of the fights, when it looked like a temper was about to flair or a jest was going to turn sour it always seemed he knew just what to say in order to calm all of them. If he were a fool then he might accredit to being due to magic that Howland had learned in the bogs of the Neck but Ned knew that wasn't the case, it was just a talent that some men had.

He didn't think that Elbert Arryn would come with him, considering that both his lady wife and the boy that he saw as a son were brought to King's Landing at the order of Lord Hoster but when Ned had asked it of him he had agreed to it without a second thought, though he could not deny that now he had come to regret asking it of him.

Not because he disliked Elbert's presence, he was not one of the men who were likely to cause a fight but because he felt guilty for taking Lady Catelyn's husband away from her considering that she most likely expected, now that the war was all but over, to have her husband at her side once again. Ned felt terribly guilty for her, after all that she had gone through at hands of one Stark or another and he hoped that she would find it in herself to forgive him when all was said and done.

Jon Umber had been asked to come with them as well, but after the death of his Father it seemed that some of the fight had been knocked out of him which seeing such a thing in a man of House Umber was...painful to see, in truth. But Ned could not hold it against him, Ned had only ever had the fear of losing his own Father but that by itself was a terrible thing to bear, if he actually did die then Ned knew that it would be a terrible pain for him to bear.

Losing his own mother had been hard enough.

There was only one man that he had commanded to be with him, and that was Prince Lewyn Martell. At his requst Lord Hoster had brought him to the capital from Riverrun but alas Elia had not been able to see him before they rode out. His wife's uncle was a silent man, he did not speak unless he was prompted to do so by someone else and when he did speak it was always no more than one or two word answers. He imagined that the man was still stewing the consequnces of his actions.

He had broken his vows, turned his cloak. It had been him who had taken the heads of the prisoners that had been brought before Aerys, it had been he who had taken off Robert's head and he had not forgotten that but if they needed to go to Dorne to find Lyanna then they would need a man who knew the land and Prince Lewyn seemed to be the best option of all those available, the Martell name had the weight that they would need to gain favour and shelter in the southernmost kingdom of Westeros.

He was his wife's uncle, so for now Ned decided that he would simply pretend that he couldn't see Robert's blood on his hands. Aerys was the one who had given the order and he was dead now and that would simply have to be enough, even if the justice that Ned had in mind for the man had been him stripped of his authority, his crown, and made to stand trial for his crimes before having his head taken off and not ending up with a sword in his back from a man sworn to protect him.

Mark Ryswell and Willam Dustin were there as well, as was Theo Wull and Ethan Glover and Mark Cassel. Nine of them, quiet a fellowship. Ned trusted all of them, well, as much as he could with Prince Lewyn considering they had not been on the same side until very recently and he had not still truly forgiven Brandon for his abandonment, not fully at least.

The nine of them had set out together and together they had scoured the Riverlands and the Crownlands and the Reach, the Stormlands had been ruled out as he did not think that even Rhaegar would be mad enough to hide Lyanna inside the kingdom that the man she had been promised to was lord off, Robert had still been alive back then after all.

Eventually, they ran out of places where they could truly look. The Reach was difficult for them to travel through, even if most of the armies of it were either returning to their homes or staying where they were until they were given orders to do something else. Only Lord Tyrell and Lord Redwyne still commanded forces outside of the Reach, laying siege to Storm's End and maintaining it's blockade by sea. At least, that was what they had gathered as they had hunkered down in taverns. Not drawing attention to themselves was a rather vital part of it after all.

Dorne was narrowed down to the most likely place that he would take her, after all Ser Arthur Dayne was Dornish and none had seen him for even longer than they had seen the Prince and he would certainly know of a place where Rhaegar could put Lyanna, somewhere out of the way. They had to find her, they just had to.

He entertained the idea of heading to Sunspear, Prince Doran was his brother-by-law after all and if he summoned all of his bannermen and commanded them to aid in the search for Lyanna then surely that would help to narrow the search. But in truth, Ned did not trust him after his plotting with his own Father and more importantly Dorne was a large land, it would take months and Lyanna did not have that much time.

Thankfully, Lewyn Martell had just as much if not more knoweldge of his homeland than his nephew did and was an invaluable asset. Indeed, he seemed much more talkative once he had arrived here than he had at any other point before this. He was glad of that, if nothing else. Starfall had been the center of their search, but according to Ser Lewyn he doubted that Ser Arthur would place her there, if for nothing else he doubted that he would put his family at more risk than they already were.

So, they search for abandoned castles and towers in Starfall's surrounded lands high in the mountains, there were many such fortifications in Dorne. It did not matter how large a castle was in Dorne, how long it had taken to built or how much coin was spent on it, if it's well ran dry then it had to be abandoned and in Dorne's long history a great many castles and towers had their wells run dry.

It took weeks, and weeks. How much time had he been away from his wife this time? It had been too long, once again. Had she given birth? She must have done, by now. He wanted to be back at her side so badly, more than anything else in the world and yet he would not abandoned Lyanna to her fate even if he wanted to do so.

Eventually, they found it. It was a squat and ugly little tower, nothing special about it at all and Ned had to imagine that was the point of it. When he saw the three men standing outside of it, clad in white, he thought that the heat from the sun had finally driven him utterly made but Brandon's cry of rage made it clear that he was seeing them as well.

Arthur Dayne rose to his feet, the Sword of the Morning looked terrible. Like he not had a single night of sleep and not anything to eat either, Ned might have had it in him to feel sorry for him once in a different life but he had abducted Lyanna and he had killed his Lord Father's men and so any sympathy he might have had froze inside of him and died a quick death.

He smiled sadly, and for a moment Ned wanted to punch him. What right did he have to feel any sort of sorrow now? His actions had brought about the death of tens of thousands, some of those that had died at his own hand. Ned hated him, it was an odd realization to come to, he should have known that already but he really, truly hated him so very much.

"I looked for you at the Trident." He spoke to them, to the three of them. For lack of any other words to say, he did not have the words to express his fury in anyway close to how he felt it and so he spoke the only words that came to him in that moment, he spoke them with as much loathing and hate and sorrow and grief as he could muster.

"We were not there." Ser Gerold Hightower replied, a massive man and he looked a great deal better than Ser Arthur did in that moment and Ned wondered if he hated him more or less because of that. "We did not think that we had the need to be, with some of our finest brothers there but it seems that we wrong, and wrong about some of their mettle. Hello, Ser Lewyn."

"My brothers, it is over." Ser Lewyn spoke, stepping forward and for a moment Ned thought that Brandon was going to pull him back, was going to hit him. For a moment, Ned wanted him to but in the end he put his hand in front of Brandon to stop him and allowed the knight to speak. "Rhaegar is dead, his blood stained the waters of the Trident, Aerys is dead as well. Queen Rhaella and Prince Viserys are fled. But Ser Barristan and I have bent our knee and have been shown mercy, you can do the same. My brothers, you do not have to die here."

"Ser Barristan is a good man, noble and true and an honorable brother. But you, you did not bend your knee before you turned your cloak. Many stories have reached us here, Prince Lewyn." Oswell Whent spoke then, rising to his feet as he tossed away his whetstone. His grip around his sword hilt was tight. "To trust in you was a mistake, you are no better than that kingslaying fucker who put a sword in the King's back."

"He was a mad man, a monster. Did we all of us not break our vows, when we shut our eyes and closed our ears to the sounds of Queen Rhaella as he raped her in their bedchamber? When he burned children whose only crime was to feed themselves, when he burned the High Septon for not doing what he wanted him to do." Lewyn shuddered. "He made of me a butcher, his lead of mercy was steel instead of fire. There was no justice in it, no mercy."

"We were sworn to obey, now and then." Ser Arthur Dayne spoke as he unslung Dawn from the hilt on his black, pale as milk and seeming to glow. "If obeying was easy, if it was always right to do so, then they would not make us swear. But swear to obey was what we did, he was our king and to disobey was treason."

"Even if it kept us up in the night?"

"Even then." Ser Arthur spoke, and Ned wanted to be sick when he realised that tears were running down the Sword of the Morning's face, silent as the tears that were running down Prince Lewyn's at the same tme.

Ser Lewyn swallowed roughly, and drew his own blade. His features hardened. "Well, it seems in the end that I am more Dornishman than knight after all."

"And now it begins." Ser Arthur spoke.

"Now it ends." Ned replied.

It should have been easy, the nine of them against the three white knights. They were all fine warriors, each of them. It should have been over even before it began.

But there were the knights of the Kingsguard, some of the finest blades that Westeros had ever known and indeed would more than likely ever know and it was clear very quickly that none of what had been told about them had been puffed up, at least not by that much.

Theo Wull was the first to fall, he had let our a war cry that would have shamed an Umber and tried to bring his axe down on Ser Arthur Dayne's head but he had been quick to step to the side, shoving Dawn through his his middle. The starmetal blade seemed to ignore the armor, it burst out of his back dripping in blood.

Ethan Glover was felled by Oswell Whent, they trade blow after blow after blow but Ethan made one mistep, that was all it took, and Oswell took full advantage of it. He buried his blade in the meat of his neck before ripping it free, causing Ethan to fall to the ground while his hands scrambed to try and hold shut the wound but Ned knew that it was all ready too late for him.

They were too fast, and too strong. Ser Arthur with his blade should not be able to move as quickly as he was, Dawn was a greatsword after all but Dayne used it like it weighed nothing, none of them could get close to him unless he wanted them to do so and if they got close to him and if they did so then it was because he wanted them to do so, and if that happened then they would be punished for their mistake.

Ser Lewyn and Elbert Arryn were fighting Oswell Whent, at the same time as Brandon, Willam, Mark Ryswell and Mark Cassel were fighting the Lord Commander, which left Ned and Howland with Arthur Dayne. He was too good, Ned was only barely managing to stoop the man from cutting him in half but each time that it happened his arms burned from the strain of it.

A moment later, the hilt of the greatsword bashed into his nose and Ned let out a cry as a sharp dagger of pain rushed through him, blood splattering across his face. His sword was out of his hand and Arthur Dayne was striding towards him and Ned knew that all was lost, it was over. He failed and now he was going to die.

I'm sorry Elia, I'm sorry Lya. I tried.

Was someone singing?

Someone was, it was Howland. He had dropped his sword and was walking towards Ser Arthur, Ned was about to scream at him to ask him what it was that he was doing but he couldn't find the words. All of the air seemed to have left him, it hurt his head to look at Howland. His face was...it was changing, somehow. He couldn't really say how, it was so hard to think. His skin was molting away from the bones and his eyes were shifting to a burning gold.

He couldn't see what was happening to anyone else, his focus was locked on Howland and Arthur. Dawn dropped against the ground and Ser Arthur did nothing but stare as the changed Howland continued to sing, an old song which Ned was certain that he did know the words too such a very long time ago. But he had forgotten, they had all forgotten.

Ser Arthur drew a knife, undid his gorget and without blinking, stabbed himself in the throat. He kept staring at Howland as he did so, and only broke looking at him when he ripped out the knife and fell to the ground. Dead.

When Howland came to sit by him, his face had returned to normal but his eyes were still burning gold, it was impossible to look away from his eyes. "What are you?" Ned asked, at least he thought he asked it. Maybe he only thought it.

"Ned, listen to me. Ser Arthur was about to kill you, I stabbed him in the back of the throat before he could do so. Do you remember that?" Howland asked, his voice echoing all around them like they were in the middle of a cave. "You are going to remember it that way, that is the way that it happened. I stabbed him in the back, it was dishonorable but it was needed. I stabbed him in the back, that was how it happened. Remember that."

Ned felt dizzy, he was so tired. He leaned back against the ground as the sun beamed down at him, baking him. He did not stir until Howland reached down to help him up to his feet. His big green eyes were filled with concern. "Ned, are you all right? Gods, I think he broke your nose. We need to clean it, do we have any water?"

"I'm fine Howland." Ned shrugged him off, wiping the blood away and trying not to wince as he brused against his nose. They had more important things to worry about and while he knew it wasn't fair, he knew that Howland did it to save his life and that Ser Arthur had forsaken any mercy but it still sat wrong with him even so.

No knight should die from a knife in the back.

But, that could wait for now. There was more to do/

A horried gasp escaped him when he caught sight of Ser Lewyn, he was leaning over Elbert Arryn whose arm beneath the shoulder was five feet away from the rest of his body, the headless corpse of Ser Oswell was laying closer to the arm than they were. Ned span around to look for the others, to look for Brandon.

Lord Commander Gerold Hightower was dead, and for a moment Ned allowed himself to feel happy when he saw that both of the Marks and Willam were standing around him and seemed to be unharmed and Brandon was making his way to the door of the Tower of Joy, but his relief only lasted for a moment when he saw that Brandon was stumbling to the door with his arm pressed against his belly.

"Leave it." His brother gasped at him as Ned came running over to him, he reached up to pull his arm away so he could get a better look at the wound but Brandon used his other arm to push him away, and even dying Brandon was still stronger than him. "I said to leave it!" Brandon roared, anger and pain in his voice and terror in his eyes.

"Brandon, you're hurt. You need to sit down, we can find you a maester." Ned spoke, trying to keep his voice even. Trying to pretend that the blood wasn't coming out as fast as it was, trying to pretend that what he knew was happening wasn't actually happening. Trying to pretend, that he was not actually weeping.

"Ned," Brandon spoke and Ned didn't think that he had ever heard his big brother sound like that, even at Riverrun when he had been out of his head due to the Milk of the Poppy he had not sounded like that. He was crying too, now. "We know what this means, I know I'm an idiot but don't think for a moment that I am this stupid. I'm done, just please. We need to get to Lyanna."

Ned nodded, killed his tears and allowed the winter in his blood to freeze the pain. He glanced back at the men, Mark Ryswell and William Dustin were now trying to help Lewyn to help Elbert but they had so little, there was so little that they could do for him and Ned know in that moment that Lady Catelyn would never forgive him.

The other Mark and Howland Reed stepped closer, and Ned nodded at them and the four of them made their way into the Tower of Joy. Mark stayed below, to guard the door in case it was needed while Howland and Ned helped Brandoned up the stairs as best they could, though the stairway was narrow so it was difficult for the three of them.

They reached the room at the top of the tower and Ned kicked open the door, a scream went up as a small group of women backed away from a bed in the middle of the room, backing away into the corner and there in the bed, after what felt like a lifetime of not seeing her, was his sister.

Had she always been so small, had she always been so pale? Ned stepped forward and nearly stumbled and if it weren't for Howland then Ned was certain that he would have fallen and brought Brandon down with him, Lyanna smiled at the both of them as they got closer to the bed and despite everything Ned found himself smiling back.

"You both look terrible." Ned laughed, he couldn't help himself. Brandon laughed too, but he let out a groan when he stopped and Lyanna clearly tried to rise from the bed but she let out a groan of her own, a whimper actually like she did not have the strength to make anything else and Ned did not understand at all.

But then, he smelled the room. He smelled the roses, and the smell of cooper underneath it and then he had the babe cry in the midwife's arms and Ned understood all too well. And now that he thought about it, he wished that he had pissed on Rhaegar Targaryen's corpse after all.

The three of them sat their together, in silence. They had all know what happened, they all knew what was happening. Nothing really needed to be said, in truth. They all joined hands, and simply sat their for as long as they could without needing to say anything. They just looked at one another, and those looks said all that was needed.

Brandon, as usual, went first. Ned cried silently, Lyanna would have screamed and sobbed but she was too tired to do so. Instead, she simply reached up and ran her fingers through his hair while she cried her own tears. In the next few moments, she looked into his eyes and Ned looked into hers and a thousand words were said between them.

Promise me, Ned.

I promise Lya, I promise.

And then she was gone, and Ned was alone.

He didn't really know how long he was sat there next to them, but what brought him out of his thoughts was Howland stepping closer to him with a bundle in his arms. He offered it, and Ned took it and neither of them said a word. It was a boy, with grey eyes that saw nothing and spare bit of dark brown hair and Ned would have thanked the gods for that.

But he didn't want to, not now. Maybe not ever again.

He rose, and words were said to the midwives and then they were back downstairs and outside the tower and words were said to the men they had come with and Ned had sworn all of them that still lived to slience, Elbert had been suffering and there was nothing they could so so steel had been the mercy that gave him.

They pulled the tower down to make graves for the dead, even if all that Ned wanted to do was leave the bodies of the Kingsguard out for the dessert dogs to come and find, to make a meal out of all of them but he did not say that. Not a word of it. Once it was done, they began to make their long way back home. He needed to bring Lyanna and Brandon home.

They made camp for the night, the babe was with one of the midwives who was also a wetnurse. She had told Ned her name but Ned could not remember what it was, he was not entirely sure if he could not remember his own name at the moment. He just stared into the fire as he listened to men speak around him in hushed tones.

Howland sat down next to him, and did not try to speak to him which Ned was very grateful for indeed. They just stared into the fire together, and watched it burn.

End of Chapter Ninety-Seven

Another chapter done and welp-

Some characters who died during these events still die, some who died lived and some who were meant to be here at all were here instead and hoo-boy, this was a doozy. I think it was one of the chapters that I waffled on the most as I was considering how I wanted events to pan out, but in the end this is what I decided on.

Hope you enjoyed, but we aren't done yet as the next chapter we go to Oberyn over at Storm's End.

And...yeah.

Please leave a review, a follow and a favourite if you enjoyed.

(Also, I think I should mention that this chapter, the last one and the next one don't run together concurrently. Up until now I've tried to make that be the case, but these three chapters are an exception)

With a lot of love,

Discordant Symphony.