Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun
Chapter Eighty-Nine
By all the gods old and new he was tired, if the truth was to be told as it should be then he was actually moments away from falling asleep in his saddle but Ned knew that he could not do that, the men who followed you had to respect you and nothing was likely put an end to that respect quicker than if they saw their commander falling asleep like a swaddling babe or an old man.
So, Ned did what he had to do and whenever he felt like his head was getting to heavy to keep up and his eyes were about to shut he moved his hand low to pinch at his thigh, the sharp and sudden pain focusing his nerves. He just had to remember that no matter how tired he felt, it had to be a thousand times worse for the men in the foot who had to march through the cold and wet.
They were getting close to Riverrun now but it had been a long journey and it had not been safe one either.
Ashford seemed so far away now, he remembered the cheers of the men going up when they had captured the town. And he well remembered the screams of the dying when the retaliation to come and take the city back had come crashing down on their heads. At times, he was certain that he could still smell the smoke of the burning town when the wind picked up and even taste the ashes at the back of his throat.
It had been a clever plan when they had thought it up, long into the night at the Golden Tooth with candles melting down into pools of wax that stained the tables and threatened to burn the maps as the men standing around the table tried to stay awake for as long as they could, knowing that each moment that passed meant another moment for their enemies to move against them.
Jon Umber, at one point in those days and days they had spent planning, had suggested that they march on Lannisport, it's fleet was burning outside of it's walls and the town itself had been raided heavily by the Ironborn which meant that the city would be an easy prize for them to capture. More importantly, while Casterly Rock would be a difficult prize to capture as it was more mountain than castle even more so than the stony keeps of the knights of the Vale having an army so close to Lord Tywin's own seat of power had many advantages, not the least of which was cutting Lord Tywin off from it.
However, as Howland Reed had pointed out that strength might indeed turn out to be something of a poisonous fruit. The pride of House Lannister was said to be without equal and none was prouder than it's patriarch. Lord Tywin would not sit idle as his home was denied to him and the city that he was the shield of was sacked and occupied.
That prediction had at least turned out to be correct, Lord Tywin it seemed had ridden with Lord Randyll Tarly and his men into the Reach before turning his attention back to his own home land. The forces of the west had fallen into disarry, while they outnumbered the Dornishmen and were fighting in their own homeland they could not match the Dornish for sheer speed
They could strike hard at one location and then vanish before anyone they could respond to it in any sort of effective way, the news of the fleet outside of Lannisport being burned and the raid of the city itself as well as the fallen of the Golden Tooth would not have done much to improve the moral of the men of the west, if Ned was any judge at least.
But it seemed that Lord Tywin did not care overly much for their moral, so long as he had their obedience and their fear. With a great force of knights, both from the West most of him he had taken with him to King's Landing to attend Aerys's summons and knights that the lords of the Reach had placed under his command, he pushed himself past the border between the two kingdoms.
From there, he had rode to Crackhall. Lord Roland Crackhall had been keeping his strength close to home in order to defend his own lands and a few Dornish parties had all ready gored themselves on the boars tusks and when their liege lord came to them they had answered the call and Lord Tywin's force grew and grew.
And it did not seem to stop growing, it was almost like a royal progress. Only instead of stopping in villages to allow the lowborn to have a good look at them and to throw alms and bread at them, Lord Tywin brought fire and steel and blood in his wake. Dornish raiders were caught by the dozen upon the dozen, those that were not killed in the field with swords oft found themselves being hung by the gates of the villages and hold fasts that they had attacked.
And all of that almost seemed to be a kindness, as yet others were forced into crow cages to slowly starve to death as they endured rotten fruit and stones being flung at them. There had been some reports of torture in the dungeons of lord's castles, but how true that was and how much of it was hearsay was uncertain.
The Dornish did what they could to stop him, when more and more stories of what was happening to their countrymen reached their ears it only seemed to encourage them and perhaps for the first time Ned began to understand how they were able to resist the dragons for as long as they did and why in the end the Targaryens had only managed to win them over with marriage rather than with blades and fire.
But in the end, the men of the West were fighting for their home and their countrymen as well and in the end the efforts of the Dornish only served to slow Lord Tywin's progress down instead of stopping him. And each attempt was not without it's cost, scouting parties were sent ahead of the massive host in all directions which managed to intercept the raiding parties and often forced them to turn back.
But at the time, it had seemed that slowing down Lord Tywin was all that they needed. His goal at the end seemed simple enough for even a child to grasp quickly enough, he meant to gather as much strength to himself as he could before he marched on Casterly Rock. Word had reached them that Gerion Lannister had managed to make it back to the Rock after he had been ordered by his brother to retreat and he was laying siege to Lannisport which was being held by the Ironborn
But the levies that had been gathering at Casterly Rock were still there and if Lord Tywin managed to reach his home then that meant he would be able to field an army that was larger than any of their own forces and powerful enough to take the Golden Tooth back from them.
So, a decision needed to be made and it needed to be made as quickly as possible. In the end, the first attempt was that a large force of Dornishmen were sent to intercept Lord Tywin in the hopes that one of them would be able to put an end to him before they were overwhelmed. It was a sacrifice to be certain and all who were being sent knew that it was but they were more than willing to do so and if they managed to kill Lord Tywin than it would be a sacrifice worth the effort.
Alas, it turned out that it wasn't. With the sand steeds that the Dornish were famed for they managed to outpace Lord Tywin and laid in wait for him to arrive to spring their trap on him on the road to Lannisport but it was all for naught. The few survivors that had managed to stumble back to them had spoken of the savagery of Ser Gregor Clegane, how he and his men had fallen on them savagely and broke through their lines and pushed them back just enough for the Lion of Casterly Rock to savage them.
By that point, Umber's plan for striking at Lannisport was thrown out as even ignoring the army of levies that had been stationed outside of Casterly Rock that could fall on them at any moment but now that Lord Tywin was there any chance of taking the city was gone, and holding it was even more of a fool's hope than it would have been.
The boldest of Lord Quellon's reavers had remained with in the city, gorging on it's corpse. The stories that had reached of what had been happening within the city had not sat well with him, the branch of House Lannister that controlled the city had been put to the sword except for the eldest daughter who was also the heir and was apparently serving Cersei Lannister as a handmaiden.
He knew why they had needed his help, the Iron Fleet was the largest fleet in all of Westeros and at the time they had not any ships on the water at all and they would have need of them. But knowing you needed someone did not make it easier to bare them, not when the stories of murder and raiding and raping reached his ears.
It was even less easy to bare now that they had the fleet of Gulltown with them, but it was done now and there was naught that could be done about it. It would not bare well to think long on the fact that it had been Elia who had suggested that they try and win the Iron Islands to their side, it needed to be done and Ned knew that.
But those raiders who had remained within the city no doubt soon wished that they had not as Lord Tywin put a bloody end to them as he joined with his brother who had been laying siege to the city. Word reached them later that as soon as Tywin had arrived at the city and had taken the command from his younger brother, he had ordered that they storm the walls.
Ned supposed that even Tywin Lannister had to love his own brothers, despite the man seeing more like a pit viper to his eyes rather than an actual man, and they were now seeing his grief and rage and truly it was a terrible thing to even hear off after the fact. Lannisport was a gutted ruin and every single ironborn within the city was killed, and they were killed slowly.
Now, Lord Tywin was at the heart of his power and soon enough he would be coming for the Golden Tooth so something needed to be done and it needed to be done quickly. The Golden Tooth would need to be held or else the armies of the West would be able to sweep into the Riverlands and ravage the land and strike a final blow.
But they could not also simply stay where they, being trapped in the Golden Tooth would not help them as any army could simply keep them trapped within the castle while other forces could march south and into the Reach and get to the capital and from there into the Riverlands.
One plan they had thought of one the day, or maybe it was the day after he could not remember now, was to try and take Highgarden, or to at least threaten it enough that Lord Mace would be tempted enough to break his siege on Storm's End and give chase to them while allowing the forces of the Stormlands to regather themselves.
But after he had given it more thought, Ned was not so certain that it was much of a good idea. Highgarden was a strong castle and even with a small garrison, Ned doubted that it would fall that quickly and even if it did not and all they got instead was for Mace Tyrell to chase them away from Storm's End, that meant they would be trapped between Lord Tywin and Lord Mace.
In the end, he made another decision. Ashford might not seem like all that important a prize at first glance, certainly not as ripe a fruit as Highgarden at the very least but it would allow them to be poised to launch an attack on Lord Mace's siege at any moment and as well make it that much harder for him to get any fresh men or supplies, even if it was not quite as commanding as the Golden Tooth.
He knew that some thought it was to small a prize, his own brother, William Dustin and Jon Umber among them but he had made his decision and he would not be swayed from it. He decided that his army would be overwhelmingly Northmen as well as a number of the forces of the Vale, including Elbert Arryn as well as his cousin Denys and a large number of Royces, he also took a few of the Dornish with him in case he had need of them.
While both some Northmen and Valemen remained behind, the defense and holding of the Golden Tooth had been left to the men of the Stormlands. If Lord Tywin was to bring a storm down on them, then who better to weather it? Most of the Dornish men that still remained at the Golden Tooth, mostly the forces of Lord Fowler and Lord Ladybright, were dispatched in order to harry Lord Tywin as best as they could. If they wanted to hold the Tooth, then they would need to make sure that the army that came to them was one that was limping.
With the defenses seen to, Ned rode with his army as fast as possible. They rode just before dawn and kept any stopping to the barest, speed was crucial here. He also knew that Ashford needed to look as uninteresting to them as possible, if the King's forces knew where they were heading then they would rush to defend it.
So, he kept the army on the path that made it look like they were heading straight for Highgarden, it was only when they were past Goldengrove that they did break their current path and hurry onward to Ashford. It seemed that the ruse had worked, the town was lightly held as no doubt it did not expect an attack from their own homeland now with Lord Randyll hunting down the Dornish raiders and with Lord Mace being the more impressive target in the Stormlands.
The town fell to them within a week, the town might have been lightly held but it's defenders were not about to give up their town easily, and a victory was a victory so the cheers went up, louder than any bell. But Ned knew that they could not rest and that plans would need to be made for whatever happened next.
But alas, he had only just summoned his commanders when word came to them from their scouts. A large army was marching on them and at it's head was Ser Jon Connington, the Knight of Griffin's Roost and the Hand of the King. Apparently, he had been laying in wait at Highgarden for them and word must have somehow gotten to him about the siege.
They had only just taken the city, so it was something of a scramble to get the defenses ready in time. He was glad that he had brought the Dornish with him now as they without question agreed to go and slow Jon Connington down and that time they had brought them had probably been the reason that had been able to hold Ashford that time.
The army that had appeared outside the walls of the town was beaten and bloodied the, his wife's countrymen might not fight with honor as Ned understood it but he would call any man a fool who mocked them for being cowards. One misstep, and it would be the end for them as they were overwhelmed by forces much larger than their own.
It might have been that he had been getting better at assessing a situation, but Ned knew as soon as he laid eyes on that army that they would not be able to take the town back from them. Jon Connington clearly had wanted to get there as fast as possible and he had paid the price for it but even so the Mad King's Hand did not turn away, instead he simply pressed onward and made it clear that even if he could not, he was going to try and take the city.
Ned rode out to meet him with all the strength that he could muster. To be sure, it was more than Lord Jon had at his own disposal but it did not matter how advantageous a battle was to one side, no battle was without it's cost. Blood had soaked the ground and the bodies littered the ground like the leaves of trees in the midst of autumn.
But in the end, despite all of the horror, they had won. Jon Connington's army had smashed against them and had broken, and broken badly if Ned was any judge of that. In the feast hall of the castle that shared the same name as the town that night there had been songs and the smashing of ale horns together stories of home and simple reversely in the fact that they were still alive.
He knew that he was meant to enjoy it, he had a little bit. But it hadn't stopped gnawing on him in the back of his head that for each man that was celebrating in the hall that night, there were still dozens if not hundreds if not thousands that would never celebrate again. Men who would never see their homes again, who would never drink a horn of ale or eat a leg of lamb or see their families ever again.
Ned knew that it had to come to war, in the end. But all the same, knowing that seemed to sour any taste of victory. For one moment that night, when he been sitting at the high table and sipping his ale and picking at whatever had been on his plate that night, he couldn't remember now a pie perhaps, he found himself wondering if it would not have been better to allow Brandon to lead instead.
He certainly did not seem to have any regrets about the men they had to kill, he had forsaken the high table to go and sit among the men. The men from the North, the Dustins that he had been fostered with will William Dustin almost like a second shadow and the men of the sellsword company that Brandon had found himself with across the Narrow Sea.
Brandon Stark, a sellsword. If Lord Rickard could see him now then Ned was certain that he would die from the sheer indignity of it. Or perhaps in the end he would not care, perhaps his Father would much prefer Brandon to be like this. Someone who fought and killed for money yes, but he did that to feed and care for his love and his children who he had abandoned his wife and the son who had not even been born yet when he had left them.
And he was out of the way now, which was what his Father had wanted when he realized that he was never going to be able to change Brandon into the heir he wanted and his brother simply had not seemed to care at all. Ned wondered if either of them even missed one another, when the war was over he might ask Brandon if he would come back to Winterfell, not to stay as he doubted either Brandon nor their Father would want that, but simply to try and mend the way that things had been left as they had.
Of course, that was working on the assumption that any of them would still be alive when the war was done and if he had learned anything since it had all started it was that at any moment any one of them could die, though he did have to admit that he did not like to think about that much, even if he really should if he expected to lead.
It was never easy, was it?
Regardless of if it was or not, it all had to be done. He wondered if it more comforting to other people when they thought that because it really was not to him. At all, in point of fact.
He wasn't allowed much time to consider that nor how his family seemed to be constantly collapsing in on itself, perhaps half a moon after they had defeated Jon Connigton and sent him and his army limping away, Lord Randyll Tarly marched on them and just like he had once done to Oberyn, he caught them entirely by surprise and so they had little warning when it came to preparing the defenses of the town.
It wasn't enough, the Lord of Horn Hill attacked with such an overwhelming force that the defense that they had been able to muster against him was quickly overwhelmed and they were forced to abandon the town in short order, Lord Randyll himself did not seem so concerned with taking the town back as he did denying it them and so was well prepared to burn it down, smoke had risen so high that it could been seen from miles around at the town burned.
It then came to the fact that he had to make a quick decision as to where to go as they could not stay as they would be no use to anyone trapped in the town's castle, the Stormlands were closer of course but Mace Tyrell and all of his strength were waiting outside the walls of Storm's End and to be caught between both armies was something he did not wish to risk.
In the end, going back to the Westerlands had it's own share of risks but something else he had learned when it came to war was that no decision was ever completely without risk, and sometimes the risks were terrible indeed, but just because it carried some risks did not mean that it was the wrong choice to make and Ned had to make one and so he gathered his bloody forces and they began to hurry back to the Westerlands.
Thankfully, if there was a god for well fortune it seemed to be smiling down on them, Lord Tywin had been distracted away from trying to take the Golden Tooth by a large force of Dornish raiders that had taken them in the rear and ate at the tail of his host and demanded his attention. Ned doubted those raiders knew what they did for him and his forces, but it was appreciated none the less and it allowed for them to reach the Golden Tooth almost entirely unmolested.
The castle had held strong against any attempt to take it back, but it had clearly been a strain on the defenders that he had left there and he was certain that they were glad to see them if only so they could reinforce the walls. No doubt there would be another assault before too long and if that happened, then the castle needed to be held in order to stop Lord Tywin's forces from flooding into the Riverlands.
He had thought about going to see Obara while he was there, but he decided against it. It was hard to make sense of what she had done, it was even harder to forgive her for it. It was even harder to face her when he not so very long ago was considering taking her head off. It had to be considered, of course, and he knew that some among the lords that journeyed with him thought that he had made a mistake and in the end maybe he had.
But what would having executing Obara have actually changed? Lord Tywin would still be at war with them, sending him the head of the girl who had killed him would really not be likely to calm his wrath.
In the end, it had been the thought of Elia which had stayed his hand. The thought of her safe in Riverrun, waiting for him to come back to her and then reading on a raven's scroll that he had taken her niece's head off was too awful a thing to consider, the way that she would look at him. Perhaps it was weak of him, perhaps it was even selfish of him but it was done and that was the end of it.
Obara had stayed confined to the chambers that she had been confined to after she had killed the Golden Tooth's maester and Ser Kevan, she was given three meals each day and a servant would come to empty her chamber pot twice a day and once during the night. Maybe being shut away from the world for as long as she had been would be enough of a punishment.
They had been at the Golden Tooth for a week when their scouts brought them the news that had sent a chill down all of their spines as they considered what it could mean, Lord Tywin was not making another push to try and regain the castle and the pass and instead he had taken his armies and was now riding into the Reach and it looked as though he was now riding into the Stormlands.
But it was the raven from Riverrun that had sent them riding on to the castle as fast as they could, pushing their horses to their breaking point in a blind and desperate attempt to get there.
Prince Rhaegar had turned up once again, which by itself was becoming something of a headache for them as the smallfolk might not care overly much for the King they never saw hiding behind the walls of his city but they had loved their prince well enough and Ned was certain that some of them must have seen where he had gone but none of them spoke a word of it to them.
Roose Bolton had suggested that they questioned them harshly in order to find out where he had gone but Ned would not hear of it, not only were the answers that they were likely to get not be the right ones but they had already trampled their fields and burned their homes, he did not wish to make it any worse for them.
But now he had to wondered if that had been another mistake, if he was just dancing from one folly to another as now not only had Prince Rhaegar returned but he had placed himself at the head of an army in the Crownlands had had served Jon Arryn and Hoster Tully a defeat that had forced them to retreat back into the Riverlands and back to Riverrun.
But it seemed that Prince Rhaegar was truly not his Father, the King's strategy, if in truth it could be called that, had seemed to be to keep all of his own strength around King's Landing in order to keep himself safe and to throw any attacks back from wherever they had been launched from as he waited for Mace Tyrell to bring him Renly's head while Lord Tywin, Lord Randyll and Jon Connington fought the rest of his battles for him.
Rhaegar had not chosen that, instead according to the raven they had received he was now pushing into the Riverlands and more than likely was going to make a push for Riverrun itself. Lord Hoster was readying his armies to try and stop them from crossing the Trident and they needed Ned to come back and help them, to bring his men with him.
And now that journey was finally nearing it's end, finally. Every ache he felt was deep and throbbed and all he wished to do was sink into a feather bed and fall into the perfect blackness of sleep but he couldn't, not yet at any rate. Just one more battle, one more and another and another and another and maybe then. Maybe then it was done.
It was so quiet when they finally reached Riverrun, it was almost as if the world knew what was waiting for them and was holding it's breath to see what would happen. The roar of the drawbridge was almost deafening as it was lowered, ripping through the silence as easily as a blade could rip through the unprotected flesh of a man.
Ned rode across the bridge and as soon as he was across it and he saw Elia across the year, not a single twinge of pain matter to him anymore. He jumped off of the horse and rushed over to her.
She might have let out a sob when Ned's arms came up to encircle her or maybe it was his, he honestly could not tell. The warm weight of his wife in her arms eased all the pain away and Ned did not care for even a single moment whoever was looking at them, if they thought that indulging in his wife's affection and comfort in public made him weak than so be it.
In that moment, he cared for naught else.
After another long moment, he stepped away from her and looked at her closely. She was garbed in a red velvet gown with a large gold and black diamond necklace around her neck. While it was naught compared to the cold in the North, there was a chill in the air that signaled to all that it was Winter and thus the fur that she wore over her dress was no surprise.
What did it rip his breath away from him, that made him feel like someone had him him over the head with a war hammer for how cloudy he felt in that moment, was when he looked down at her belly and saw that it was swollen in much the same way that it had been when Elia had been carrying Mors and Torrhen, when she had been carrying the babe that had not lived in the world when it had come out of her in a rush of blood.
It was another babe, in that moment all he wanted to do was fall to his knees and kiss the round belly but he knew that might be too much for even his most ardent supporters and so he cleared his throat and pulled away from her but he still kept hold of her hands, rubbing his thumb over the back of one of them. "How do you feel?"
It was the first words he had spoken to her in over half a year and it made him feel like such a fool but what else could he say? Elia at least did not seem to find any fault with his words as she smiled at him and brought up one of her hands to come to rest on his cheek, the tenderness of the touch warmed his heart and he hoped that she did not mind how much his beard had grown since she had last seen him, between planning a war, fighting it and riding so that he could fight it, it had meant that he did not truly have the time to find a looking glass and a razor to tend to it.
"I am well enough, we are well enough." The hand that had not been resting on his cheek came up to rest on her own belly, a tender smile spread on her face and it broke Ned's heart when he realized that it was the happiest that he had seen her in far too long a time, at least since they were both back in Winterfell with their sons. "The Maester has insisted that I do not walk around too much and that I rest as much as I can but I wanted to come and greet you, he's also been very attentive of any sign of anything going...wrong."
Her voice took on a heavy note and her smile faltered and Ned hated himself for making her remember and so he cleared his throat and tried to get the both of them away from the painful memories. "Lord Hoster is waiting for me, I assume?"
"He is." Elia at the very least seemed to appreciate the distraction from their grief and she stepped back away from him and folded her hands in front of her belly, an armor of courtesy. "His brother has ridden out to meet with the armies, Jon Arryn has gone with him but Lord Hoster wished to wait for you and your men before he marched. He's in his solar."
"Then I will go and tend to him, I beg your pardon my lady." Elia nodded and Ned followed her into the castle, until they reached a diverging path with Elia taking the one that would take her back to her chambers and Ned picking the one that would take him to Lord Hoster's solar. It was only when he was halfway to the solar that he realized that he forgot to ask Elia what sort of state that Oberyn was in.
The lord of Riverrun was waiting for him inside his solar, it might have only been half a year but Hoster Tully looked like he had aged closer to ten since Ned had seen him last. A pile of maps being spread across a desk had become something of a familiar sight to him as of late and the dark rings under Hoster's eyes spoke to him of many sleepless nights spent trying to ensure victory and survival.
"Eddard, you're here. That's good." Hoster muttered and then he looked back down to the maps on the desk a heavy frown spread across his features. "When I was a young boy, younger than my Edmure is now, my Lord Father took me on a progress through out the Riverlands. It was the first time I had truly seen all of the kingdom that my father was the lord off, there was reading the names of castles and looking at the drawing of the rivers on maps but none of that could ever compare to seeing it with my own eyes."
"I don't think that anything could be more beautiful then what i saw on that progress." Lord Hoster got a far away look in his eyes and a soft smile spread across his face, replacing the frown and the age that looked like it had been added on to him overnight almost seemed to vanish. "I climbed the great stone weirwood in the godswood at Raventree Hall, we visited Saltpans, Fairmarket and Harroway and my father told me to watch how the common people lived as they went about their day, yes they owed us fealty but we owed them protection and peace."
"Once, when my Father took me to Seagard, the Lord of Seagard at the time had his son Jason show me about the city. Of course, all i wished to see was the great bronze bell that was used to alert the people of the town of an ironborn raid. It was certainly impressive to look on, you know when I actually stepped closer to the bell I was certain that I saw something was carved into the bronze. It reminded me of the runes that the Royces have in that old armor of theirs."
"Of course, it is possible that I was mistaken. You see to see it that close you would need to break into the tower that holds the bell, and the only way that Jason Mallister was going to agree to that was if he was utterly drunk. So, a few pitchers of a fine red from Dorne later and we managed to break into the tower and stumble up the stairs without breaking our necks."
"Now, of course seeing the bell was one thing but I wished to hear it. It made perfect sense to the both of us at the time, of course we were both completely senseless from the wine but we did not consider that of course and so we did not see any problem with ringing the bell that meant an attack was about to begin."
"No one died, though one man did break his leg." Hoster laughed and rested his hand over his eyes and Ned did find that he did have to spend some effort to not let a grin appear on his face. "Gods, the look on my Father's face. I thought that he was going to burst like an overripe melon. Oh, I miss the sour faced old man. I never thought that I would."
"Of course, the both of us were punished for it. We were tasked to clean the entire castle and to muck out the stable yard while the servants had a day of rest. Still, I would do it again. And of course Jason Mallister became one of my dearest friends that day. And when the both of us took our lord father's seats, I knew that I could depend on him and naught has changed to this day."
"Jason and all of his strength is now march to join with my brother in the field, to stand against Prince Rhaegar's force." Lord Hoster rose from behind his desk as he spoke. "Looking at these maps I thought I would be able to make a plan, but I've seen most of these places. If I fail, then the walls of Raventree Hall could be pulled down, all the towns could burn and the bell of Seagard might ring for real. It is selfish of me, to have hoped that this war would never have spilled beyond my borders?"
"Gods be good, I do hate this. It was never meant to be like this." The Lord of Riverrun laid his hands on the desk and bent his head and then he shook it before he looked back up at Ned. "But it's done, and we cannot change that now. The important thing now is that you are here, your men will need time to rest I imagine which is fair enough. It will another few hours before dusk comes, I intended to march then."
Ned did not think that he could see anything wrong with that, time was of the essence now and they would need to push the men harshly if they wished to get where they needed to be in time. "Do you have all the strength that you need?"
"Almost all of my bannermen have answered my call. Mooton is dead of course, and may the traitor wander lost in the darkness for all of time, and his sons are prisoners in their castle. Lord Walder has not bestirred himself from his castle even though many a raven and a rider have I sent to him, he had better come lest he wish to suffer the same fate as Mooton did."
Ned nodded and then he rose from his own chair. "My Lord, if you will pardon me then it seems that there is little and less that needs to be discussed tonight. If you will allow me, then I shall leave you to prepare yourself for what is to come and I hope that you will allow me the same. If there is only a few hours of peace left, then I would wish to spend them with my wife."
"Of course, I understand. I also understand that she is with child again, my congratulations to the both of you. Princess Elia mentioned that she wishes to have a daughter, considering you already have a spare and an heir then I can see nothing wrong with that. Daughters can bring a man such joy, even in the harshest of times." Lord Hoster glanced to the side for just a moment, his arms crossing over his chest. "And sometimes they can cause you such fear that you wonder why you bother."
Ned did not know what to say to that. Lady Catelyn was the injured party when it came to what happened between her and Brandon and no one with a lick of sense in their heads could blame her for what happened and he was once again thankful that his brother had shown some sense and elected to remain outside of the castle walls. Ned did not know the Lady Lysa well, but he could not understand what she could have done that caused her Father any fear.
But regardless, it was not his place and so he simply thanked Lord Hoster for his blessing and he then left the room when the lord of the castle finally dismissed him. It was a long walk back to the chambers that he had shared with Elia, and the aches that he had been suffering during the ride now seemed to come back in full force and it was hard not to wince as he walked.
But all of the pain was worth it when he walked into the room and saw Elia sitting in a chair, her hands resting on her belly and a tender smile on her face. Ned simply only had eyes for her that he honestly did not notice that anyone else was in the room until a cough, one that sounded both annoyed and weak at the same time, cut through the air and drew his attention.
Oberyn Martell certainly looked a great deal better than the last time that Ned had seen him, but considering that his goodbrother had been hovering on the cusp of death that was truly not saying very much. He was still a great deal paler than he had been before and there were dark circles under his eyes, but the smirk on his face was still the same and there was much more color then there had been in him before. "Well brother dear, have you missed me terribly?"
Ned smirked back at him and walked over to him, bringing his hand down to rest on his shoulder. "I am glad that you are not dead, let us leave it at that for now." Ned glanced down at his chest, he was garbed in a fine silk tunic and no doubt underneath that were bandages so he could not see the state of the wounds for himself, but the smell of rot was gone so that was a decent enough sign. "How do you feel?"
"Better, not that my sweet sister nor my daughter will hear of it." Oberyn then sent a mock glare over to Elia who with great grace ignored it and simply tapped her fingers against her belly, and if her smile in that moment looked more like it was a smirk than Ned did not pay attention to it. "Speaking of daughters, I am surprised that Obara has not come to see me yet. No doubt she was not happy when she heard that I injured, if I know her."
"She...was not." He didn't know, how could he not know. Behind him, Ned heard Elia rising from her chair and in that moment he understood everything terribly. Elia had not told him what Obara had done. Ned never considered himself a good liar, but it seemed that now he had no choice but to try to be. "I left her at the Golden Tooth, she's a fine warrior and you taught her well. We need to hold the castle and I thought she would do better there."
Oberyn narrowed his eyes at him, they were so very dark that they were near enough black, and Ned wondered if he would be able to see through the lie. If he did, then he did not call attention to it. Instead, he simply settled back into his chair for a moment and shrugged his shoulders. "That seems a wise enough decision to me, and my worries for her as a Father are soothed somewhat by knowing she will not be in any direct harm, at least for awhile, so I thank you for that."
Oberyn then leaned forward and began to push himself to his feet, her features screwed up in pain and Ned rushed forward to support him. "Oberyn, you need to rest." Elia spoke as she rose from her own chair and walked over to the other side of her brother, resting her palm on his shoulder. "Please, sit back down."
"I'm fine, I'm not a cripple. I suddenly feel very tired and I wish to lay down and sleep in a bed and I am certain that you wish to spend some time with your husband before he marches off to the next battle, they never seem to stop do they." Oberyn said with a laugh which he then regretted as his features crumpled in pain once again.
"All right, fine. But will you please sit back down until we get Nymeria to come and help you get to your bed?" Elia asked gently and it seemed that her brother could not deny her and so he sat back down in the chair and Ned found himself walking to the door and asking the guards to go and fetch Nymeria Sand for him.
She certainly looked a great deal happier than the last time that Ned had seen her, she was taller as well. Ned soon found himself wondering when it was that children were meant to stop growing, he wondered how much taller Mors and Torrhen had grown since he had seen them last. He hoped that he could see them again soon.
Soon it was just him and his wife and he turned to face Elia, he would never want anyone in his family, certainly not anyone as dear to him as Elia, to think that they would ever have to be afraid of him and so he tried to keep his voice as calm as possible. "He doesn't know, does he? He doesn't know that Obara killed Kevan Lannister and the maester of the Golden Tooth and I had to confine her to chambers. You didn't tell him.
"No." Elia let out a heavy sigh and walked closer to the heath and warmed herself up by the fire. "I did not tell him, I thought that it would be for the best for him not to know."
"He is her Father, surely he does have a right to know."
"Maybe he does, when he's stronger, when he's not in so much danger." Elia shook her head. "When your scroll telling us what had happened finally reached us, Oberyn had only been awake for about a week. He was still very ill, I thought that the word of it would kill him. So, I decided that it would be for the best if word of what had happened be kept from him until he was stronger."
"He seems stronger to me, and yet still you have not told him."
"Stronger is not strong, he is still weak. I do not wish for him to be set backwards." She stepped closer to him and laid her hand on his arm and looked into his eyes. "Ned, please, for me. Don't tell him. Just, wait until the war is over. He will be stronger by then, he is stronger every day. When the war is done, he will be back to normal and then we can tell him and he and Doran can deal with Obara. Please Ned."
Ned sighed and shook his head, though he did not pull away from her. "I do not like lying, people speak of them as though some lies are harmless or indeed that they are for the best but I have never known that to be the truth, lies are always for the best for the person speaking them and not for anyone else. I would not wish anyone to lie for me, ever."
Elia was quiet for a long moment and then stepped away from him, her arms came up to hold herself like a sudden chill had come over her though the room seemed warm enough to Ned though having lived in the North and the high peaks of the Vale for most of his life it was possible that he was not best judge of how cold a room should be.
"Ned, I...I need to-" She shook her head then. "Ned, I need Oberyn not have any more trouble than he already has. Please, I beg of you. Do not tell him, you say that you can not think of a time when a lie has ever helped anyone? Well, trust in me when I say that I can think of at least one time when it has been. So please my love, please. Do not tell him."
Ned sighed. "All right."
"Thank you." Elia walked back to him and soon enough she was back in his arms with her face buried into his chest and Ned brought up a hand to rest on the back of her head and closed his eyes, just enjoying her closeness to him.
He only had a few hours with her, he did not want to spend them fighting over a lie.
He simply wanted this, a little moment of perfection.
End of Chapter Eighty Nine
So, if anyone's been playing close attention then they should probably hear a hidden meaning between Elia and Ned's conversation, at least it's hidden when it comes from Elia's side.
Also before anyone jumps to the wrong conclusion, no Lysa is not pregnant. Baelish, if everyone remembers, was sent away from Riverrun and he was not out of his mind with milk of the poppy so Lysa could not take advantage. It's just that Lysa's still upset over losing her betrothal to Jaime that she's shut herself away from the world.
So, the next chapter in the big nine o and we go to a POV we've not had in a while, I hope you will look forward to it.
With much love,
DiscordantSymphony