Wife of the Wolf, Husband of the Sun

Chapter Seventy-Seven

Everything ached and she had to curse herself for being such a fool, and then she cursed herself again for knowing that she would still make the choice that she had done again. Quite how she managed to get past the walls of Winterfell was probably more a matter of having a blind fool's luck than anything to do with her plan.

She had burnt Ned's letter after she had read it a few more times and she was certain in herself that she was going to go through with what she was going to do after night had already fallen. The sky had already turned black and the moon was shinning down on them, when she made her move to put her plan, such as it was, into action.

The first thing she had done was write a letter that they would find in the morning once they had realized that she was gone, she tried her best to explain why she had decided to go through with this, all of her reasons but in truth she wasn't sure if she had done it well enough. Even to her, it seemed like a bunch of overly long nonsense that would have any man calling her mad. She made sure to write to Mors and Torrhen that she loved them, she needed them to know that if even neither of her sons could read as of yet.

Elia had then chosen a thick bear fur cloak which had been a wedding gift from Maege Mormont and had draped it around her shoulders before she had put on a pair of thick leather gloves with an ermine fur trim which if she remembered rightly had also been a wedding gift, though she could not remember quite who had given it to her as the northmen with their long shaggy hair and fierce beards did have a problem of looking fairly similar to one another.

Once she had been suitable dressed to keep off the worst of the cold she had made her way from her room to the stables, keeping her head held up high and making it seem as though nothing was wrong. If anyone thought that there was something wrong with her then they would go and tell the maester and the steward and the master-at-arms who, no doubt very courteously as she was the wife of their future lord, would then question what she was doing and Elia did not think she would be able to keep it form them, they would certainly find the letter after all. She had not taken any great pains to hide it, she had wanted them to find it. After all.

But she had sent word down that she would be staying in her chambers for the rest of the night, it would be in the morning that they would check and her plan had being gone by the morning and if anyone thought of her presence as odd then they would surely inform one of the men and one of the men would go and find the letter and all would have been lost.

But it had seemed as though she was more light of foot than she had ever thought of herself as soon enough she had found herself half away across the courtyard to the stables when she remembered that she was going to need food and so then had turned her path towards the kitchens instead. The cook was making the dough for the bread that would be used to make the morning's bread once Elia walked inside.

The cook had been surprised when Elia had walked in but had quickly gotten over that to ask what she needed, Elia said that she needed more food. That was always going to be a hard request to swallow as Winter had come and was now in full force and making sure they had enough food to last them through the cold and the dark and if anyone, even her, came asking for more than it could set a terrible precedent.

So, she had been quick to think of a reason why she needed the food and she had the best reason of all. The truth. With a few details that were not the truth. She told the cook that she had been commanded by Lord Rickard, who was feeling better enough to give some commands, to go and visit some of the castles and keeps in the North to see to the well being of their families, as most of their men folk had marched north and she would need some food to sustain her, there and back.

The cook was just a cook and it wasn't like she spoke to Lord Rickard, at all. The poor woman would only ever speak with the lady of the castle as management of the servants was a vital part of running the castle and so she had no reason to question her, if Elia had told her that Lord Rickard had told her to do something then she would have no reason to think she was lying.

Elia had informed her that she would not need much, she only planned to take a few guardsmen with her and planned to be back before long. The cook had nodded and sent her boy, Gage, to go and get her some bread, some potted hare, salt pork, a few apples, a few a pears, a few small wheels yellow cheese, six lengths of black sausages and a small jar of salt as well as two large skins of wine.

She gave her thanks to the woman and to her son and then made her way back to the stables, moving like nothing was wrong and holding her breath. She let go out of her breath once she was inside of the stables though she soon found herself regretting that when the stench of horseshit and rooting feed forced it's way up her nostrils and down her throat.

Elia had coughed her way through that and then walked through the stables, stopping for a moment to brush her hand over Swift Ash's long face and to run her fingers through his coat, until she found an empty stable. She walked up to the back wall and crouched down into a corner, trying to breath as quietly as she could. The only other sounds she could hear was the sound of the horses soft whining and their hooves rising and falling.

A few moments later, she heard footsteps coming in her direction. "Hodor." The voice was warm, soft, open and trusting and Elia cursed herself as she tried to make herself even smaller in the corner that she had chosen for herself. She did not think that Hodor would turn her over, he was a simpleton and Elia had never been anything but kind to him.

But often when he did not know what to do with a situation he would say his name over and over again and with each time he uttered it, it would be louder than the last time he did. It would draw someone's attention to her and to that person she would need to explain why she was cowering in the corner of a stable and that would be the end of all her plans.

But again, if there was ever a god of luck it seemed to have been on her side that night. Hoder had stopped at every single one of the pens, giving the horses their late night feed but he expected the pen that she had taken to be empty and so he did not even stop to glance inside it as he walked past, humming something to himself as he went to the next pen.

Hodor finished with the other horses and then made his way back the way he had come and once again, he had not even glanced at Elia and once the sound of his footsteps and his humming had faded away, Elia let out a sigh of relief and then cursed herself again for forgetting where she was as the foulness rushed in once again.

Once she had been certain that she could suffer waiting in there without bringing up the contents of what she had for supper, she waited. She waited until the night was at it's blackest and the chill in the air was at it's sharpest. Only then did she stand up, and make her way to one of the other pens. She loved her Swift Ash, but he would not do for what she meant to do.

These northern horses were not like Sand Steeds, their coats were as shaggy as any she had seen on a wild dog or a wolf and they seemed much taller and broader than any Sand Steed. They were all of them stallions, Lyanna had not liked the idea of riding a palfrey and Ashara had never liked riding at all and Lady Catelyn had taken her palfrey back with her to her father's castle in the Riverlands after Brandon had shamed her. There had been another palfrey, but Lyanna had been forced to ride that when she and her honor guard began their journey to Storm's End.

So, it would have to be a stallion. Swift Ash was a stallion but he was also not as big as a proper horse. And they were big beasts, but she had come to far to back away now. She looked them all over till she found the one that seemed to be the calmest, the most gentle. It was bigger than any horse she had ever tried to ride but it had nuzzled her hand when she touched it and had readily eaten an apple she had offered.

So in the end, that horse had been the one she had chosen. She had never saddled her own horse before but she had seen Oberyn saddle his own because he trusted no one else with his own steed and she had seen stable boys do it a hundred different times. So she found one of the saddles hanging on the far wall and brought it back to the horse and simply tried to remember how they had done it.

It certainly looked right, at least she had hoped so. She managed to climb on and put her feet in the stirrups and gently urged the stallion forward and out into the stables before riding forward towards the lower gate. The night was dark and the cold was terrible and any man who was on the walls that night would not have been blamed for huddling close to their fires for the warmth.

But the fire blinded them as well, in the dark and far below on a horse one rider would look as much the same as any other. As Elia rode closer to the gate, a guardsman on his watch called down to her. "Who goes there?" The voice was gruff, full of both irritation and suspicion.

A woman would have no reason to go out riding in the middle of the night and snow so now it was the time to see how good her mummery skills, if she had any, actually were. She thought on how her brother would speak to another man and thought of how Ned's voice sounded and tried to deepen her own voice to get close to that. "Lord Rickard wanted me to go to Winter's Town, to go and ask the bar maid something, to see if we can have any extra barrels of ale."

Her voice sounded like a boy whose voice had only just cracked and also was in the middle of a terrible cold and Elia was certain that it wasn't going to work but maybe because of how cold it was, or how tired he was or maybe he only wanted to not question his lord, many knew how Lord Rickard was intimidating and had no tolerance for being disrespected, and so after a few moments of silence that seemed to last an age the guard spoke again. "Fine, you only going on your own? Barrels is heavy."

"Just going to see if they have any barrels." The effort to put on that voice really hurt her throat but she pushed through it. "If they don't have any to give, then the lord doesn't want a whole party riding out for nothing. If they do have some then a few more can come and help me get them back in the morning, will you raise the gate?"

"All right, all right. Keep your fucking nuts on." The man growled, fouler words had never been used to her and Elia had taken that in a good sign as the man disappeared into the gate house. A moment later the portcullis rose and the drawbridge fell and Elia did not wait for the guard to come back, she rode the horse across the drawbridge and rode as fast as she could away from the castle.

Even with the thick fur cloak over her shoulders the chill was still sharp enough to be felt and to be riding on horseback only made it worse but she gritted her teeth and stood against it and urged the horse to go faster, she had given birth to two babes and had her heart torn out when she lost her third, she had been forced away from her husband and had to cross long oceans to get back to him and she had been betrayed by her own brother.

A long, lonely and cold ride was nothing compered to all of that. Even with the snow still softly falling all around her, she only had her focus on the horizon. Winter had come and the snow had been falling for days, not a heavy snowstorm but it had been unrelenting in it's showers and so even on a northern horse which was bred for deep snows, it was slow going.

The good side of that meant that any pursuit that might come after her was also going to be slowed as well. All the same, Elia focused on keeping a good speed. It was a long ride to Moat Cailin and one random thaw in the middle of the night when she choose to stop would mean the end of her. And so, lonely rider that she was, carried on.

She passed Winter's Town and carried on down the King's road, she had thought briefly of chartering passage down the white knife down all the way to White Harbor but the river could have been frozen and a Dornish woman buying a horse in the city was word that was going to reach Lord Wyman and it was not word that she wanted or needed. No, the road was the safer bet.

Eventually, her eyes grew too heavy and the cold and the snow seemed to be pressing down on her and Elia knew that she had to stop if she did not wish to fall asleep in her saddle and wake up on the ground, assuming such a fall did not break her neck of course. Luckily for her, by the time the siren's call of sleep had come calling to her, Castle Cerwyn was only an hour in front of her.

By the time she had reached the castle, the cold seemed to have invaded her and a small cough forced it's way up from her chest. She called out for the guards when she rode up to the castle gate and when no one came for a moment she thought that perhaps no would and she had lost herself and she would freeze to death out in the cold.

She took a deep breath, the air stabbing along the walls of her throat, and called for the guards again and that time someone popped their head and she quickly informed them who she was and if she could beg the hospitality of their roof. The guard popped their head back and was gone for such a long time that for a moment Elia had thought they abandoned her.

But then the gates opened and Elia rode the horse inside the castle's courtyard and a man dressed in grey velvet and rubbing at his eyes was waiting for her. The man was the castle steward as he was quick to inform her when a stable boy ran up and helped her off of her horse, the hospitality of Castle Cerwyn was hers for as long as she had need of it and if he would follow her then he would show her to some chambers where she could rest her head.

Elia had thanked him for his kindness and the man had nodded and turned and walked inside and Elia was grateful to be out of the cold even if Cerwyn did not have the same way to heat it's walls that Winterfell did. As the man lead her to the room he had prepared for her, they had of course fell into conversation and he asked the questions that Elia supposed anyone would.

What had brought her to Castle Cerwyn in the middle of the night? Why did she not bring any guards with her? Was there some great matter that Cerwyn needed to answer for? Had Lord Rickard sent her to come to them for some reason?

Thankfully, Elia had thought of all the questions that she would need to answer for. As she was the future Lady of the North and almost all of the men had marched off to war, Elia had thought it would do well of her to visit some of the lords to ensure they were well and Cerwyn was merely her first stop on the way and as for why she had arrived at night, she had merely wanted to get there as quickly as she could and she had misjudged the distance and the time it would take her to arrive.

Lord Rickard had not commanded her to come but he had voiced no objection and that wasn't entirely a lie so she had no reason to feel bad about lying as it was not a lie, with most of the men of the marching south then what true need did she have of any guards and the lands between Winterfell and Cerwyn were the most peaceful in any land, all said it was so.

The steward had studied her as she answered all of his questions and Elia wasn't sure if he believed her or not but he asked her no more questions as they finally arrived in the chamber that was prepared for her, wolf furs covered the bed and sweet smelling rushes covered the floor. The Steward apologized for the bareness of the room, they had not been expecting a guest. He also asked her if he would have need of anything from him, such as food or perhaps a bath.

Elia thanked him for his kindness but also informed him that all she would need for the moment was a decent night of rest. The steward had nodded and withdrawn from the chamber but not before he had apologized to her for Lady Cerwyn being unable to attend to her, she had only just gone to her covers when Elia had arrived but she would be much pleased to break her fast with her on the morrow.

Elia had smiled and spoke of how much she would like that indeed and then the steward finally withdrew. Elia had sighed when the door had shut and his footsteps had faded away before she walked over to the bed, not changing out of her riding clothes and only stopping to take her boots off and letting the cloak fall to the ground before she crawled under the covers.

She shut her eyes and sunk into the warmth of the bed for a moment and shut her eyes and when she opened them again, a soft pale light was bleeding into the room through the closed shutters and as much as Elia might have liked to go back to sleep and rest for another few hours, she knew that she could not do so.

Guards from Winterfell could be pursuing her at any moment and so she had to be quick, she found her boots and shoved them on her feet and shrugged her cloak on as well before having a quick breakfast of apples, cheese and a bit of wine from the skin and did a bit to sooth the cough in her chest that Elia had to pray would not settle there.

Getting out of Castle Cerwyn was much easier, most everyone was still asleep so she managed to get to the yard quickly enough though she did have to wake a bleary eyed stable boy into getting her horse saddled and the guardsman on the wall was quicker to open the gate and so in a matter of moments Elia was reading away from the castle.

The snow was not as thick on the ground and it seemed that it was not falling from the sky anymore, no doubt another storm of snow would come later in the day to make up for that but while it meant for the moment her horse would an easier go of it, so would any pursuit and she was still to closer to Winterfell and so she urged her horse to gallop, as quickly as he could.

The North was vast, even when it was fully peopled it was often rare to see any large groups of people away from their villages or towns but now, with most of them having marched off to war, the North seemed to have been abandoned. It did make travailing safer as she had claimed to the steward but the sense of isolation was strong.

She made decent time, but even one rider was not going to make it all the way from Winterfell to Moat Cailin in a single day and so when the sky turned dark and her eyes started to drop she knew that she needed to find a place to stop, but the North being as vast and thinly peopled as it was often meant that there were few settlements.

When it seemed that all hope was lost, a desperate idea popped into her head when she caught sight of a hedge next to an old rotting fence. There were plenty of stories of old knights taking cover under hedges for shelter. If they could do it, then she could do it as well. She got off of her steed and tied him to the old rotting fence, hoping that it was tight enough to old him before she walked over to the hedge.

She was able to fit underneath it easy enough and covered herself with her cloak and shut her eyes and then felt something began to land on the cloak. It was snowing once again.

When she woke, the gods were clearing making up for the light dusting they had night before and Elia had to dig her way out through the snow that had pilled up next to the hedge. The horse was clearly not pleased at having to wait out in the cold and the snow but Elia did not have the time to be concerned about that, she fed him a few apples, untied him and then they were off.

Again, they did not stop as by now pursuit was going to behind her and to be sure the men of Cerwyn and the men of Winterfell would have joined together to bring her back and her lead ahead of them was a thin one. The snow might indeed have been a blessing even as it slowed her own going. She rode across the blinding white land for what seemed an eternity.

When the sky turned dark, she caught sight of fires in the distance and even with her eyes being weighed down and the cough, much worse than it had been she noted dimly, she knew that it was Moat Cailin, it had to be. She urged the horse onward and soon enough the ground turned sodden as the marshes of the Neck pressed on the dryer land of the North.

It was not isolated here, there were so many men that for a moment Elia dared to hope that perhaps Ned had not gone south but she soon overheard that the young lord had gone south with a small host of men and other lords and that put the end to that hope. None saw her, in the heaving throng she was merely another soul. A woman on a horse.

She was making her way down the causeway in a matter of moments, and here was the worst part. She was going to have to sleep while riding. The causeway was a straight path, surely the horse would know to stick to it but even so she stayed awake until she could not force herself to be awake for even a moment longer and thus gave herself to the dark.

When she woke, the sun was shinning and the sound of strange insects chirping met her ears and Elia laughed, which caused another fit of coughing, and hurried the horse on, into a gallop to take her down. She was going to make it, she had to.

She made good time, there was not much snow in the causeway and she kept any stops to a minimum but again that night she would sleep in saddle. She could have tried to find a castle to slumber in, but the only castle in the Neck that she knew of was Greywater Watch and it moved and she did not much fancy taking any hospitality from the Reeds.

Not after Howland Reed had so cruelly lied to her, to Ned.

That night she slept in saddle, and the night after that and indeed the night after that but it was worth it. By mid-morning, she had arrived at the other side of the Neck and she was nostalgic to see that the inn where she and Ned had stayed the night once they had reached the other side of the Neck, was still there.

The innkeep was not as nice as last time, however. It seemed that caring for their smaller party of what had been no more that twenty men plus Ned and Elia was not the same as having a party of five hundred highborn shits, to use the innkeeper's choice of words, descending on his property and ravaging his stores.

Thankfully, angry as he was, he did not turn her away and allowed her to stay for the night. And it would just be the one night, she was on the other side of the Neck now and the thought of pursuit was less of a concern by this point but the longer she stayed in any one place, the chances were more and more likely that Ned got further and further away from her.

In the morning she had paid for the night and traded her clothes, finely made, with the clothes of the innkeeper's daughter. The bear cloak and the gloves were hard to part with but it was something that had to be done and once all was done she climbed on to her horse and rode after her husband, the innkeep had told her she had heard one of the lords mention something of the Stormlands.

It made a certain amount of sense, Robert had been Ned's friend and if the stories that Robert and his brother were dead were true then Ned would go to Storm's End first to confirm it and so Elia hurried that way, her clothes were her new shield now. She was in more danger than she had been but anyone would not see her as anything special, a man's daughter on his horse, riding to the market to pick something up and nothing more.

She galloped to cross the distance and went slow only when she had too, hiding in the abandoned ruins of old watch towers or under hedges when she needed to rest. She had thought of making a stop at Riverrun but anytime she stopped at a castle, she ran the risk of not being let go. Lord Hoster might have sided with the King and she could be made a hostage.

The journey was hard and long and the cough she had gained was now a rough hacking that came with every single breath but soon enough she had made her way into the Stormlands and followed the road down to Storm's End, arriving two days after she had crossed the broader into the land of storms.

Ned had left half a day before she had arrived at the massive castle, Lord Ederon Estermont and Lady Mary Mertyns informed her when she was allowed into the castle. She had been a half dead mess and near collapsed to the floor when she heard that and when she opened her eyes again she was in a bedchamer with the covers pulled up to her chin.

The Maester informed her that she had been asleep for almost three whole days and outside the sound of what had to be a terrible storm was raging and Elia saw no more need to wait, the cough had eased off and the fever was almost completely gone. The Maester had fluttered around her like a humming bird, compelling her to return to her bed but Elia had no time for him.

She needed to be with Ned.

A beautiful dress was lain out for her and at any other point she might have spent a moment or two to appreciate it but she did not have the time for it now. She pushed past the maester and threw open a trunk at the foot of the bed they had placed her in and retrieved a thick woolen shirt, lambswool pants, a pair of old riding leather boots and a pair of gloves as well and put them on as the Maester, a sweet old man if not a little tiresome, continued to badger her.

And badger her he did as she pulled on an old worn riding cloak and made her way out into the hallway, his objections echoed after her as she made her way down the stairs and towards the courtyard. When he called for the guards to stop her, she broke into a run. Soon enough, what seemed like half the castle was on her feels and she ran out into the courtyard.

Quite what Lord Ederon, Lady Mary and the young King Renly thought as she ran out into the yard with so many pursuers, she wasn't sure she wanted to know. Lord Ederon called off the men and walked over to her, he was an old man, older than the maester even, but he seemed to have the energy of a much stronger, much younger man.

He had tried to reason with her, pointing out that she was unwell and that she had been incredibly fortuitous that nothing had befallen her on her long journey from Winterfell to Storm's End but she was still unwell and Lord Eddard would be deeply displeased were anything to happen to her. Lady Mary had tried to help him as well, pointing out to her that Ned would no doubt return to Storm's End as soon as he was able and now he had a war to fight, if she wished to help him the best she could do would be to stay where she was.

Elia could not deny that they spoke sense, the sanest thing to do would be to listen to them and yet she had abandoned the sanest course of action when she had left Winterfell. She could not turn away from this now, she would not do it. Lord Ederon seemed as though he was a moment away from commanding the guards to carry her back to her chambers but Lady Mary stopped him and pulled him to the side so they could discuss something.

As his regents spoke King Renly came up to her and Elia looked down at him and saw a little boy who only be playing with other children his age, perhaps it was her own instincts when it came to her own sons but she wanted to send him to his room and have warm food brought up to him. Whose brilliant idea was it to make this little boy a king?

He certainly did not seem worried about it, he seemed to take it all like it was some grand adventure. Quick to inform her that he was a king and that when he was a man grown, he was going to make it the law that a tourney was thrown every day and the lowborn would be able to eat honey cakes every day on his birthday. A sweet boy.

His two regents returned to her then and informed her that they would let her go, but she would be taking a guard with her, Lady Mary suggested thirty, Elia suggested ten and Lord Ederon made up the comprise and commanded twenty guards to go with her. Like with every compromise, no one was happy about it.

And that was that and she was off with ten men in tow, the storm was still coming down heavily and Elia hoped that it would have slowed them down long enough that they would be able to catch up before to long but it seemed that the luck the gods had given her in the North had not followed her down into the south, not a few hours after they had left Storm's End, the rain began to lighten even if it did not left.

They were trailing her husband's host for what seemed an eternity, it was not hard to follow their tracks to be sure but even with their small number compared to the host they were days ahead of them and they were unlikely to catch up with them till the host arrived at Summerhall.

A host is a giant moving body, and the size of the one that had been sent to the old ruined castle was massive. They came to the fringe of the host when it was not far from Summerhall, the front must have come to a stop but riding the through the host would have taken to long to do and Elia wanted, she needed, to see her husband and so she rode up to the side of the host and began to ride to the front.

At some point while she was riding, the command came up for the host to hold it's place and Elia urged her horse on. She needed to see what was happening and soon enough, when she reached the end and was overlooking Summerhall, she understood.

The sight of so many Dornish sigils, of her own sigil, was the most beautiful sight that she had ever seen in her entire life. Elia rode down to the camp with her tail in tow, riding through the center until she came to a tent that had the Martell sun pierced by the spear hanging over it. A guard standing outside of the tent ran up to her. "Who commands here?" She asked him. "Is it Ser Manfrey Martell or is it Prince Oberyn?"

"It is Prince Oberyn, my Lady." The guard spoke, uncertainty covered his every word and Elia could see the truth of it in his eyes. He did not know her.

"Please go inside and inform Prince Oberyn that his sister, the Princess Elia, waits without and needs to speak to him as soon as he is able." Elia commanded, trying to remember how Mother spoke when she gave commands and to put on her voice as well as she could, though to be certain Doran did it better than her.

It worked well enough, the guard nodded and ran inside the tent and one of the guards that had been sent with her came up and helped her other her horse and a stabbing sensation ran up her thighs as the blood rushed back into place. She had not been on her feet for more than a few moments when the guard came rushing out. "Please, follow me Princess."

She did follow him into the tent and when her eyes landed on her husband for the first time in far to long a time, she changed her mind. He had to be the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She ran over to him and soon found herself bundled in his strong arms and for a blissful, perfect moment, she did not have to be strong anymore.

Of course, nothing good could last and Elia sound found herself meeting the part of her husband that could terrify anyone. "What are you doing here? Have you gone mad? You should have stayed in Winterfell, in the North, where it was safe. What if something had happened to you? What if you had been taken hostage, you could be tied to a pyre and burned alive, what were you thinking you little fool."

Elia glanced at her older brother, hoping for some aid but it seem that Oberyn was in a mind with Ned on this occasion. Of course he would be, well, she only had one move left for her to play. She began to cough, loudly. It was still lingering in her chest but it was not as bad as it could be but she truly played it up and soon she found herself in a chair with Ned apologizing for upsetting her and Oberyn pressing a skin of spiced Dornish Red into her hands to chase away the cough.

It was true, all she needed was a swallow of home and she already felt better. She looked at her younger brother and spoke. "Oberyn, could Ned and I please have a moment alone?"

For a moment, it seemed as though her brother was about to protest but he seemed to think better of it and nodded before he stood up. "Very well, this is just my personal tent. When you're both done here, meet me in the ruins of the castle. It's where we're going to plan our next offensive." And with that, Oberyn turned and left them both alone.

"What happened to the babe?" The words were enough to make her blood run cold and as Elia stood, she turned to face him and saw that Ned's eyes were focused on her stomach. Her stomach that was flatter than the last time he had seen it, the stomach that was flatter long before it should have been if any babe was to survive.

Elia tried to speak, she tried to explain, to reason why she had come all this way after losing the babe. And yet the words would not come, the mention of the babe was too much. She bowed her head and began to sob, to wail and soon once again she was in Ned's arms and Elia wrapped her own arms around him as they stayed together, Elia saying nothing when she felt something wet landing against the top of her head.

After what seemed like an eternity of holding one another, Ned was the one to pull away first. He cleared his throat and his eyes were red and his voice was gruffer than usual when he spoke. "You still should not have come, it was too dangerous. There is nothing that you can do to help, I have half a mind to send you back now."

"That would be a waste of men and of time, you know it is so."

"How did you get past the men at Moat Cailin?"

"You left tens of thousands of men and most of them were too worried about a host marching North towards them to worry about a single solitary rider making her way south." Elia moved towards him and took his hand and stared into his grey eyes. "I am here and it is done, they tried to keep up apart again and again and again. Don't let them, not again."

Ned stared at her for a long moment and let out a heavy sigh, brushing his hand over his face. "Does my Father know that you're here?"

Elia opened her mouth, she wanted to tell Ned the truth about what had happened but he was already upset with the news about the babe, she could not make it worse with the news that his Father might die at any moment. She could not do it, she would not do it. So, she lied. "No, he does not know that I left Winterfell, no one does. Well, they will know by now. But if I had told him I was going to come to your, he would have forbidden me. He would have placed guards on my room door to stop me from leaving. I couldn't have that."

Ned sighed once again and paced back and forth for a few moments before he let out another sigh. "Alright, alright." Ned walked over to her and pulled her close once again. "I did miss you, my love. More than I have the words to say and you're right, I can't send you back now. So, I guess we're stuck together. To the end."

"To the end." Elia wanted to stay there in that moment, just the two of them. But the world would not leave them alone forever and there was work to be done and so she pulled away from Ned first this time and took hold of his hand. "We should go."

Ned nodded and lead her out of the tent and the both of them began to make their way to the ruined castle in the middle of the camp, she had seen the old castle one, when she had been travailing through the Stormlands with her Mother and Oberyn on the progress that would take them in the end to Casterly Rock, even then she had found it to be foreboding.

Even now, in the middle of all these tents with thousands of men all around it, there was still something about it that sent a shiver up her spine. They walked into the main hall where some lords she recognized, mainly the Dornish and Northern lords, and some she did not, what she had to assume would be the lords from the Stormlands, were gathered around a long trestle table which had a dozen or so maps spread out across it.

"Aunt Elia!" A voice called out and Elia turned her attention as a long legged Dornish maiden with her long black hair bound into a braid with golden and crimson wire came up to her with a smile on her lovely face and it was then that Elia realized that she was looking at Nymeria and she tried not to let her shock show as she pulled the girl close for an embrace. "I've missed you."

"And I you." Elia said as she held the girl at an arm's length after the hug came to an end. "You've gotten so tall, but Nymeria what are you doing here? It's not safe for you."

"Two accusations that I could just as quickly throw back at you, I would not stay away. I could not. Do not be needlessly concerned Auntie, Father has made it very clear that I am to be as far away from the heat of battle as it is possible to be. Prince Doran sent me to be here as maid to Lord Blackmont's heir." Nymeria then turned her attention to Ned and went to embrace him. "Hello Uncle Ned."

"Hello Nymeria." Ned seemed even more shocked than she was and Nymeria quickly pulled away and walked over to a corner in the room and came back with an ornate box carved out of yew.

"Uncle Doran also wanted me to give this to you, I did not think I would be doing so as soon as now but...well, here you are." Nymeria said as she pressed the box closer to her and Elia took and studied the box for a moment before she opened the lid. Inside, placed atop a smell velvet cushion, was a long dagger.

Elia picked up the blade and handed the box back to her niece as she studied it for a long moment, her knowledge of weaponry was limited but she knew enough to know that the blade was castle forged steel and the handle seemed to marble, a wolf and stag danced on the grip with long thorny vines encircling them while a trout jumped out of the river.

High above them all, a sun with a face blazed in all of it's glory.

There was some message here, there had to be. If Doran simply wanted to send her a gift in order to make amends to her then he would not do so with a weapon, it would be a gift he would send to Oberyn to make amends to him. Know, there was some sort of scheme here and she would have no part in it. She placed the knife back in the box, thanked her niece and walked over to the table.

Oberyn noticed her first and smirked at her as she approached. "Ah sister, you remember my son, do you not? My brave Barbaro." Oberyn said with a laugh in his eyes as he pushed Obara, dressed in armor that covered her chest and had her arms bound in silk and iron. Her face was firm, and unreadable to the most but in her eyes there was amusement as well. "He's come to done you proud."

"I...see." And she did see, and she was going to slap him up the head, and Obara as well, for being such fools. But not was not the time for that. "My lords." She nodded to the rest of them around the table as Ned stepped up to stand beside her, a poisoned barb was at the tip of her tongue and ready to be thrown when she caught sight of Howland Reed.

But it was not the time.

"Where do we stand?" Ned asked as he pulled the nearest map closer to him.

"At the moment, an impasse." An older man who reminded her somewhat of Lord Ederon spoke with his arms crossed over his chest. "None of us are quite sure what are next plan of action is to be, some want to lay siege to the capital as soon as we can while others are of the opinion that we should try and woo the Riverlords over to us."

"And some of us would like to be alive at the end of this war." Lord Cyrus Blackmont spoke with his heir and daughter Larra at his side, his deep brown eyes narrowing at Ned as he spoke. "Here me now my lords and ladies, we must move into the Reach and into the Westerlands from there. They are loyal to the King, Prince Doran's friends at court have proven that, we must burn their fields, raid their towns and sack their castles. Make such a war undesirable to them to continue to fight while their homes burn and their families die."

"That maybe how Dornish men fight." A growling man with a badge of a black swan and a white one over his heart. "But it is not how the men of the Marches fight, we do not attack innocents in order to win a war."

"No, but you will gladly turn a blind eye if your men steal food from a farm to keep your stores up when you march or rape a peasant girl." And just like that, hell descended and for a moment Elia thought that swords were going to be drawn but Ned slamming his hands down on to the table made everyone stop for the moment and look at him.

"Thank you." Ned turned his attention to Oberyn. "I have never truly fought with Dornish men before, Oberyn. How would you be best used? How are we to deploy you?"

Oberyn was silent for a moment as he thought. "And Dornish man in a fight is a Dornish man who is going to fight to his last breath, any Dornish man in a fight is not going to die alone. But a Dornish man in a pitched battle is going to be a Dornish man who is dead before too long. We need space, we need to be able to move."

Her brother sighed. "We would be better as scouts, outriders and yes my Lord, raiders. Send us to cut off a host from their supply train, to rain arrows down on their foot. Only the horselords across the Narrow Sea can claim to be better at shooting arrows from horseback." He looked up then and any laughter in his eyes was gone, replaced now with only a hardness. "And yes, we will need to raid up into the Reach and the Westerlands."

"They out number us, and do so easily. And if the Riverlords declare for the King...we need to split their focus as best as we can do so, make it hard for them to fight. That is the best way to use us." When Oberyn was finished speaking, a silence had fallen on the hall and then Ned nodded, pushed forward another map and spoke on a different matter.

It was odd, for all Ned often said that Winterfell was never meant for him, when he needed to be a leader he did it without batting an eye. It may not be a a skin that he liked to wear overly much, but that did not mean that it was a skin that did not fit him.

When they spoke of Gulltown and how it had declared loyalty to the King, Elia realized something. "We need ships." Everyone turned to look at her then and she stepped forward. "The king has the royal fleet, the lords of the Narrow Sea have their own ships, the Lannisters have their own fleet at Lannisport and the Reach has the Redwyne fleet. With Gulltown for the King, that fleet is for them too. We have no presence at sea."

"She's right." Lord Selwyn Tarth spoke. "I have a few ships, to fend off raiders and the like but not enough to fight a battle at sea with any of those fleets, we'd be crushed in moments."

Dorne and the North had no power at sea and already another argument was forming, Elia decided to cut it off at the pass. "We need the Ironborn." None seemed to pleased at that solution but Elia did not give them a moment to answer. "We need them, my lords, that is just the truth of it. They have a large fleet and are the finest sailors, or so they like to claim. We need them."

"And how are we to get them." The old man who must have been an Estermont asked.

"Lord Selwyn, if you would be so kind as to lend me a ship. I will go and treat with Lord Greyjoy." Ned and Oberyn were the first to protest, and a dozen other lords seemed ripe to join them. "My lords! I do not intend to go on my own, I will need an escort if I am to be taken seriously. A hundred knights or so but the fact remains that we need them, you know we need them, and you have a war on land that needs to be fought. This is something that I can do."

There was debate, but Lord Selwyn soon found himself siding with her and offering her two ships to carry her and her escort to the Iron Islands and Elia groaned inside as she remember the last time she had needed to sail around the continent to get somewhere she needed to be, but this was her idea and so she merely nodded.

Once Lord Selwyn had offered his aid, others fell in line though Ned and Oberyn's support was more than a little grudging. Elia took her leave of the lords then, saying she would allow them to make her own plans while she turned in for the night. She left the ruined castle and made her way back to Oberyn's tent.

A bed roll had been placed on the ground but it was clearly only for one man and the bed was for more than one and Elia climbed over to it, shut her eyes and tried to sleep. Hoping, not for the first time, she had not made a terrible mistake.

End of Chapter Seventy-Seven

And that's that. So, this and the last chapter were both meant to be one chapter originally and all told from Ned's P.O.V but the more I thought about it and the more I planned it out the more I realized it wouldn't really work from Ned's perspective and it would be more than a little over long. I hope that this works better.

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Next chapter we have a new P.O.V, it will be a character we've seen before and the chapter will also have another character in it that we have not seen in a little bit.

Please consider leaving a review, a follow and a favorite.

With a ton of love,

DiscordantSymphony