Robb turned his head to look at Theon once more. Bran had neverseen him so angry, yet he said nothing. Finally he knelt besideMaester Luwin. “How badly is my brother wounded?”

“Jon always said you were an ass, Greyjoy,” Robb said loudly. “Iought to chain you up in the yard and let Bran take a few practiceshots at you.”

ods be damned, think whatMance would give to have Benjen Stark’s own blood to hostage!”

Robb took his hand. “He won’t die, not Father,” he said calmly.“Still ... the honor of the north is in my hands now. When our lordfather took his leave of us, he told me to be strong for you and forRickon. I’m almost a man grown, Bran.”Bran shivered. “I wish Mother was back,” he said miserably.

Robb shook his head numbly, the pain plain in his eyes. “I don’tknow, and ... Bran, that’s not the worst of it. Father was caughtbeneath a falling horse in the ght. Alyn says his leg was shattered,and ... Maester Pycelle has given him the milk of the poppy, butthey aren’t sure when ... when he ...” The sound of hoofbeats madehim glance down the road, to where Theon and the others werecoming up. “When he will wake,” Robb nished. He laid his handon the pommel of his sword then, and went on in the solemn voiceof Robb the Lord. “Bran, I promise you, whatever might happen, Iwill not let this be forgotten.”

before Bran was born. “They killed Jory?” He remembered all thetimes Jory had chased him over the roofs. He could picture himstriding across the yard in mail and plate, or sitting at hisaccustomed place on the bench in the Great Hall, joking as he ate.“Why would anyone kill Jory?”

“So you are.” Robb sounded sad, and even a little scared. “Bran, Ineed to tell you something. There was a bird last night. From King’sLanding. Maester Luwin woke me.”

“Grey Wind was restless too,” Robb said. His auburn hair hadgrown shaggy and unkempt, and a reddish stubble covered his jaw,making him look older than his fteen years. “Sometimes I thinkthey know things ... sense things ...” Robb sighed. “I never knowhow much to tell you, Bran. I wish you were older.”

Robb seemed to admire Theon and enjoy hiscompany, but Bran had never warmed to his father’s ward.

“Are you ready?” Robb asked.

BRAN

She liked to hold them. They were so beautiful, andsometimes just being close to them made her feel stronger, braver,as if somehow she were drawing strength from the stone dragonslocked inside.She was lying there, holding the egg, when she felt the child movewithin her ... as if he were reaching out, brother to brother, bloodto blood. “You are the dragon,” Dany whispered to him, “the truedragon. I know it. I know it.” And she smiled, and went to sleepdreaming of home.

“I’d never ...” Why was he always so cruel? She had only wantedto help.

He was still her king, afterall, and her brother. They were both blood of the dragon.

She wondered ifall men were as false in the Seven Kingdoms. When her son sat theIron Throne, she would see that he had bloodriders of his own toprotect him against treachery in his Kingsguard.

“You hate this Lord Stark,” Dany said.“He took from me all I loved, for the sake of a few lice-riddenpoachers and his precious honor,” Ser Jorah

Eddard Stark ...”He spat

“Is he?” Dany asked. “A fool, I mean?”

all the pillow tricks Doreah had taught her, beforeDany had been able to make Drogo relent and allow Viserys torejoin them at the head of the column.

DAENERYS

agony in his leg.

WhenNed’s horse lurched back to its feet, he tried to rise, only to fallagain, choking on his scream. He could see the splintered bonepoking through his calf. It was the last thing he saw for a time. Therain came down and down and down.

“and Catelyn will most certainly slayTyrion.”Jaime Lannister poked at Ned’s chest with the gilded sword thathad sipped the blood of the last of the Dragonkings. “Would she?The noble Catelyn Tully of Riverrun murder a hostage?

“Still ... we wouldn’t want him to leave here entirely unchastened,so”—through the night and the rain, he glimpsed the white ofJaime’s smile—“kill his men.”

“I will bring the CityWatch,”

For the rst time in years, he found himself remembering RhaegarTargaryen. He wondered if Rhaegar had frequented brothels;somehow he thought not.

“I’ve also heardwhispers that Robert got a pair of twins on a serving wench atCasterly Rock, three years ago when he went west for Lord Tywin’stourney. Cersei had the babes killed, and sold the mother to apassing slaver. Too much an aront to Lannister pride, that close tohome.”

Riding through the rainy night, Ned saw JonSnow’s face in front of him, so like a younger version of his own. Ifthe gods frowned so on bastards, he thought dully, why did they llmen with such lusts?

“And tell him I’ve not been with no one else. I swear it, milord, bythe old gods and new. Chataya said I could have half a year, for thebaby, and for hoping he’d come back. So you’ll tell him I’m waiting,won’t you? I don’t want no jewels or nothing, just him. He wasalways good to me, truly.”

I will,” Ned had promised her. That was his curse. Robert wouldswear undying love and forget them before evenfall, but Ned Starkkept his vows. He thought of the promises he’d made Lyanna as shelay dying, and the price he’d paid to keep them.

Robert’s rstborn hadhad the same ne hair, he seemed to recall.

Lyanna had only smiled. “Love is sweet, dearest Ned,but it cannot change a man’s nature.”

oes that alsomean you fuck with the king’s—”

Jory Cassel stoodbeside a rain-streaked window with a wry smile on his face,watching Heward turn over tiles and enjoying the view.

legant woman who wore a feathered gownover skin as black as ink.

Catelyn was at a loss for words. Jon Arryn’s son, she thoughtincredulously. She remembered her own baby, three-year-oldRickon, half the age of this boy and ve times as erce. Smallwonder the lords of the Vale were restive. For the rst time sheunderstood why the king had tried to take the child away from hismother to foster with the Lannisters ...

The boy grabbed forit eagerly, buried his face against her chest, and began to suck. Lysastroked his hair

It had been ve years, in truth; ve cruel years, for Lysa. Theyhad taken their toll. Her sister was two years the younger, yet shelooked older now. Shorter than Catelyn, Lysa had grown thick ofbody, pale and puy of face. She had the blue eyes of the Tullys, buthers were pale and watery, never still. Her small mouth had turnedpetulant. As Catelyn held her, she remembered the slender, high-breasted girl who’d waited beside her that day in the sept atRiverrun. How lovely and full of hope she had been. All thatremained of her sister’s beauty was the great fall of thick auburnhair that cascaded to her waist.

She remembered what her uncle had said of basketsand winches. “The Lannisters may have their pride,” she told Mya,“but the Tullys are born with better sense. I have ridden all day andthe best part of a night. Tell them to lower a basket. I shall ride withthe turnips.”

the bastard girlled Catelyn across, blind and trembling,

Catelyn Tully Stark swallowed what remained of her pride. “I ... Icannot do this, child,” she called out.

erhaps she wasbecoming a Stark at last

She sounded so like Sansa, so happy and innocent with herdreams. Catelyn smiled, but the smile was tinged with sadness. TheRedforts were an old name in the Vale, she knew, with the blood ofthe First Men in their veins. His love she might be, but no Redfortwould ever wed a bastard. His family would arrange a more suitablematch for him, to a Corbray or a Waynwood or a Royce, or perhapsa daughter of some greater house outside the Vale. If MychelRedfort laid with this girl at all, it would be on the wrong side of thesheet

“I was born a Tully and wed to a Stark,” Catelyn said. “I do notfrighten easily.

Mya Stone

“Mya Stone, if it please you, my lady,” the girl said.It did not please her; it was an eort for Catelyn to keep the smileon her face. Stone was a bastard’s name in the Vale, as Snow was in

Her dark hair wascropped short and straight around her head

Royce

I, however, am innocent as a littlelamb. Shall I bleat for you?” He grinned.

She swears that this time she will choose herlord husband.”

aughing, Brynden had pointedout that the sigil of their house was a leaping trout, so he ought tobe a black sh rather than a black goat, and from that day forwardhe had taken it as his personal emblem.

“As you wish,” she

Alyssa’s Tears

Brynden Tully

Catelyn said.Sometimes she felt as though her heart had turned to stone;

CATELYN

How big a fool do you take me for?”“Well, quite an enormous one, actually,” said Littlenger,laughing.

And when you have it, what then? Some secrets are safer kept hidden.Some secrets are too dangerous to share, even with those you love andtrust.

He oughtto thank him. It would be good to return to Winterfell. He oughtnever have left. His sons were waiting there.

Perhaps he and Catelynwould make a new son together when he returned, they were not soold yet.

“Hand no longer,” Ned told him. “The king and I have quarreled.We shall be returning to Winterfell.”

“OnBraavos there is a society called the Faceless Men,” Grand MaesterPycelle oered.

And make certain I never look on your faceagain, or I swear, I’ll have your head on a spike!”

“I wish him every success.” Ned unfastened the heavy clasp thatclutched at the folds of his cloak, the ornate silver hand that was hisbadge of oce. He laid it on the table in front of the king, saddenedby the memory of the man who had pinned it on him, the friend hehad loved. “I thought you a better man than this, Robert. I thoughtwe had made a nobler king.”

“Now, poison ... the tears of Lys, let us say. KhalDrogo need never know it was not a natural death.”Grand Maester Pycelle’s sleepy eyes icked open. He squintedsuspiciously at the eunuch.

“Whereas Daenerys is a fourteen-year-old girl.” Ned knew he waspushing this well past the point of wisdom,

Roose Bolton urged us to cut his throat,

Varys gave the king an unctuous smile and laid a soft hand onNed’s sleeve. “I understand your qualms, Lord Eddard, truly I do. Itgave me no joy to bring this grievous news to council. It is a terriblething we contemplate, a vile thing. Yet we who presume to rule mustdo vile things for the good of the realm, howevermuch it pains us.”

If the babe dies in infancy, we need not fear.

once you cut their heads o.”

“Do you knowmy brothers?” she asked excitedly. “Robb and Bran are atWinterfell, and Jon’s on the Wall. Jon Snow, he’s in the Night’sWatch too, you must know him, he has a direwolf, a white one withred eyes. Is Jon a ranger yet? I’m Arya Stark.” The old man in hissmelly black clothes was looking at her oddly, but Arya could notseem to stop talking. “When you ride back to the Wall, would youbring Jon a letter if I wrote one?” She wished Jon were here rightnow. He’d believe her about the dungeons and the fat man with theforked beard and the wizard in the steel cap.

Jon’s the bastard, I bet.”

pretending that Nymeria was paddingalong beside her in the darkness.

“This is no longer a game for two players,if ever it was. Stannis Baratheon and Lysa Arryn have ed beyondmy reach, and the whispers say they are gathering swords aroundthem. The Knight of Flowers writes Highgarden, urging his lordfather to send his sister to court. The girl is a maid of fourteen,sweet and beautiful and tractable, and Lord Renly and Ser Lorasintend that Robert should bed her, wed her, and make a new queen.Littlenger ... the gods only know what game Littlenger is playing.Yet Lord Stark’s the one who troubles my sleep. He has the bastard,he has the book, and soon enough he’ll have the truth. And now hiswife has abducted Tyrion Lannister, thanks to Littlenger’smeddling. Lord Tywin will take that for an outrage, and Jaime has aqueer aection for the Imp. If the Lannisters move north, that willbring the Tullys in as well.

It seemedto Arya there was something oddly familiar about him.

“The fools tried to kill his son, and what’s worse, they made amummer’s farce of it. He’s not a man to put that aside. I warn you,the wolf and lion will soon be at each other’s throats, whether wewill it or no.”

Another skull loomed ahead, the biggest monsterof all,

Huge empty eyes stared at her hungrilythrough the gloom, and dimly she saw the jagged shadows of longteeth.

The septa wasscreeching at her. Arya slid between legs as thick and white asmarble columns, bounded to her feet,

Panic gripped her throat like a giant’s hand. Arya could not havespoken if her life had hung on it. Calm as still water, she mouthedsilently.As Godwyn reached for her, Arya moved. Quick as a snake. Sheleaned to her left, letting his ngers brush her arm, spinning aroundhim. Smooth as summer silk. By the time he got himself turned, shewas sprinting down the alley. Swift as a deer.

“What were you doing to that cat, boy?” Myrcella asked again,sternly. To her brother she said, “He’s a ragged boy, isn’t he? Lookat him.” She giggled.“A ragged dirty smelly boy,” Tommen agreed.

At the end of the alley stooda girl with a mass of golden curls, dressed as pretty as a doll in bluesatin. Beside her was a plump little blond boy with a prancing stagsewn in pearls across the front of his doublet and a miniature swordat his belt.

and that blackbastard hopped up on the table and snatched a roast quail right outof Lord Tywin’s ngers.

” He had dabbed her wounds with Myrish re,

The Red Keep was full of cats:

“You won it from him in a wager, during the tourney on PrinceJorey’s name day.”“When my brother Jaime was unhorsed by the Knight of Flowers,that was his story, no?”

I never betagainst my family.”

wo of Lord Bracken’s men-at-arms,Kurleket and Mohor,

. “I’m willing if she is,” he said.

Let them have the bitch, Tyrion thought, and welcome to her, yetsomehow he was moving.

ver Kurleket’sbody.

Tyrion put his heel on the graspingngers and felt a satisfying crunch

Tyrion felt a sudden urge toleap up, brandish his axe, and boom out, “Casterly Rock!” but theinsanity passed quickly and he crouched down lower.

Catelyn Stark stared at Tyrion with a coldness on her face such ashe had never seen.

Just for a moment, he thought he saw a icker of doubt in hereyes, but what she said was, “Why would Petyr lie to me?”“Why does a bear shit in the woods?” he demanded. “Because it ishis nature. Lying comes as easily as breathing to a man likeLittlenger. You ought to know that, you of all people.”She took a step toward him, her face tight. “And what does thatmean, Lannister?”Tyrion cocked his head. “Why, every man at court has heard himtell how he took your maidenhead, my lady.”“That is a lie!” Catelyn Stark said.

“Let him speak,” Lady Stark commanded

A Lannister alwayspaid his debts. Kurleket would learn that someday, as would hisfriends Lharys and Mohor, and the good Ser Willis, and thesellswords Bronn and Chiggen

and the rst to rise to aidCatelyn Stark back at the inn

et this seven-times-damned she-wolf Catelyn Stark had outwitted him at every turn.

“The eastern road.You said we were riding for Winterfell!”Catelyn Stark favored him with the faintest of smiles. “Often andloudly,” she agreed. “No doubt your friends will ride that way whenthey come after us. I wish them good speed.”

I was about to settledown to a warm re and a roast fowl, and that wretched singer had toopen his mouth, he thought mournfully

sellsword Bron

“Thank him for us, then. If you ever see him again.” Chiggengrinned, showing yellow teeth, and swallowed the raw meat in twobites. “Tastes well bred.”

Chiggen butcher

“Asking questions,” Varys said, slipping out the door.

The tears of Lys, t

Prince Aemon the Dragonknight

Littlenger lovesLittlenger.

“But you, Lord Stark ... I think ... no,I know ... he would not kill you, not even for his queen, and theremay lie our salvation.”

Lord Varys?

Law and custom gave the baseborn few rights.Gendry, the girl in the Vale, the boy at Storm’s End, none of themcould threaten Robert’s trueborn children ...

Ned remembered Robert’s rst child as well, a daughter born inthe Vale when Robert was scarcely more than a boy himself. Asweet little girl; the young lord of Storm’s End had doted on her. Heused to make daily visits to play with the babe, long after he hadlost interest in the mother. Ned was often dragged along forcompany, whether he willed it or not. The girl would be seventeenor eighteen now, he realized; older than Robert had been when hefathered her. A strange thought.

“Dance of theDragons,

That night at the feast, Eddard Stark was more hopeful than hehad been in a great while. Robert was in high good humor, theLannisters were nowhere to be seen, and even his daughters werebehaving. Jory brought Arya down to join them, and Sansa spoke toher sister pleasantly. “The tournament was magnicent,” she sighed.“You should have come. How was your dancing?”“I’m sore all over,” Arya reported happily, proudly displaying ahuge purple bruise on her leg.“You must be a terrible dancer,” Sansa said doubtfully.

“Small honor and twenty thousand golds.” Lord Renly smiled.

Gregor Clegane killed the horse with a single blow of suchferocity that it half severed the animal’s neck. Cheers turned toshrieks in a heartbeat. The stallion went to its knees, screaming as itdied. By then Gregor was striding down the lists toward Ser LorasTyrell, his bloody sword clutched in his st. “Stop him!” Nedshouted, but his words were lost in the roar. Everyone else wasyelling as well, and Sansa was crying.

twining black vines and tiny blue forget-me-nots. Thecommons realized in the same instant as Ned that the blue of theowers came from sapphires; a gasp went up from a thousandthroats. Across the boy’s shoulders his cloak hung heavy. It waswoven of forget-me-nots, real ones, hundreds of fresh blooms sewnto a heavy woolen cape.

Some said it had been Gregorwho’d dashed the skull of the infant prince Aegon Targaryen againsta wall, and whispered that afterward he had raped the mother, theDornish princess Elia, before putting her to the sword.

and back at Winterfell there was a simpleminded stableboynamed Hodor who dwarfed them al

a riderless bloodbay was trotting o in search of grass while Ser Jaime Lannisterrolled in the dirt, golden and dented.

. If he could prove that theLannisters were behind the attack on Bran, prove that they hadmurdered Jon Arryn, this man would listen. Then Cersei would fall,and the Kingslayer with her, and if Lord Tywin dared to rouse thewest, Robert would smash him as he had smashed RhaegarTargaryen on the Trident. He could see it all so clearly.

Renly says he has this sister, a maid offourteen, lovely as a dawn ...”

The thought of Jorey on the throne,with Cersei standing behind him whispering in his ear.

the way she guards her cunt, you’d think she had all the goldof Casterly Rock between her legs

ViserysTargaryen ever try to win back his father’s throne.

kinging

You never knew Lyanna as I did, Robert,” Ned told him. “Yousaw her beauty, but not the iron underneath. She would have toldyou that you have no business in the melee.”

One was Sansa’s age, with long golden curls; theother perhaps fteen, sandy-haired, with a wisp of a mustache andthe emerald-green eyes of the queen.

Lancel

“Your Grace,”one was saying, almost in tears

, and it was illfortune to look on the face of death.

In the pale dawn light, the young knight looked as though hewere sleeping. He had not been handsome, but death had smoothedhis rough-hewn features and the silent sisters had dressed him in hisbest velvet tunic

A woodenknight, all painted up, every joint pegged separate and xed withstrings, so you could make him ght.

Pretty littletalking girl, you believe that, you’re empty-headed as a bird fortrue.

“No one could withstand him,”she managed at last, proud of herself. It was no lie.Sandor Clegane stopped suddenly in the middle of a dark andempty eld. She had no choice but to stop beside him. “Some septatrained you well. You’re like one of those birds from the SummerIsles, aren’t you? A pretty little talking bird, repeating all the prettylittle words they taught you to recite.”“That’s unkind.” Sansa could feel her heart uttering in her chest.“You’re frightening me. I want to go now.”

The feastwas over, and the beautiful dream had ended with it.

Lannister stumbled and fell.

She wasdrunk on the magic of the night, giddy with glamour, swept awayby beauties she had dreamt of all her life and never dared hope toknow.

He was too beautiful to hate.

“Your mother was my queen of beauty once,” the man saidquietly. His breath smelled of mint. “You have her hair.” His ngersbrushed against her cheek as he stroked one auburn lock

When Sansa nally looked up, a man was standing over her,staring. He was short, with a pointed beard and a silver streak in hishair, almost as old as her father. “You must be one of herdaughters,” he said to her. He had grey-green eyes that did notsmile when his mouth did. “You have the Tully look.”

ansa had neverseen anyone so beautiful. His plate was intricately fashioned andenameled as a bouquet of a thousand dierent owers, and hissnow-white stallion was draped in a blanket of red and white roses.

ansa had almostforgotten about Jeyne.

When LordRenly climbed to his feet, the commons cheered wildly, for KingRobert’s handsome young brother was a great favorite. He handedthe broken tine to his conqueror with a gracious bow. The Houndsnorted and tossed the broken antler into the crowd, where thecommons began to punch and claw over the little bit of gold, untilLord Renly walked out among them and restored the peace.

but Sansa sat with her hands foldedin her lap, watching with a strange fascination. She had never seena man die before. She ought to be crying too, she thought, but thetears would not come. Perhaps she had used up all her tears forLady and Bran. It would be dierent if it had been Jory or SerRodrik or Father, she told herself.

His cloak was blue, the color of thesky on a clear summer’s day, trimmed with a border of crescentmoons, but as his blood seeped into it, the cloth darkened and themoons turned red, one by one.

He overthrew Ser Andar Royce

but when shesaw young Lord Beric Dondarrion, with his hair like red gold andhis black shield slashed by lightning, she pronounced herself willingto marry him on the instant.

Jeyne Poole confessed herself frightened by the look of JalabharXho, an exile prince from the Summer Isles who wore a cape ofgreen and scarlet feathers over skin as dark as night,

hetwins Ser Horas and Ser Hobber, whose shields displayed the grapecluster sigil of the Redwynes,

Bryce

She did not know what was more satisfying: the sound of a dozenswords drawn as one or the look on Tyrion Lannister’s face.

He plans totake a new wife on his ninetieth name day, and has asked your lordfather to honor the wedding with his presence.”

and found Catelyn. He looked at her for a moment,puzzled. She turned her face away, but too late. The dwarf wassmiling. “Lady Stark, what an unexpected pleasure,” he said. “I wassorry to miss you at Winterfell.”

And may he choke on it, Catelyn thought, but it was Branshe saw choking, drowning on his own blood.

my lord of Lannister

Another singer had once bedded a girl her brother fancied;

“As you say, my lady,” Ser Rodrik agreed. It was only when shelaughed that he realized what he’d done. “The old courtesies diehard, my—my daughter.” He tried to tug on his missing whiskers,and sighed with exasperation

It must not come to war, Catelyn thoughtfervently. They must not let it.

irascible Lord Frey

LadyWhent, last of her line, who dwelt with her ghosts in the cavernousvaults of Harrenhal;

he Blackwoods and the Brackens, everenemies, whose quarrels her father was obliged to settle;

Catelyn could just make out the muddycrossing where the two great roads met.The crossroads gave her pause

Catelyn envied him that; she had come to fearso much

It is only water, Ser Rodrik,” Catelyn replied. Her hair hung wetand heavy, a loose strand stuck to her forehead, and she couldimagine how ragged and wild she must look, but for once she didnot care.

“The bald one? No, not him. He never said no word, just glared atme, like I was some raper who done for his daughter.”“Mind your lthy tongue,” the master said. “This is the King’sown Hand.” The boy lowered his eyes. “A smart boy, but stubborn.

The master called over a tall lad about Robb’s age, his arms andchest corded with muscle.

The Knight of Flowersbought all his armor here, Tobho boasted, and many high lords, theones who knew ne steel, and even Lord Renly

cross the fabric was blazoned a night skyslashed with purple lightning. “Make way for Lord Beric!” the ridershouted. “Make way for Lord Beric!” And close behind came theyoung lord himself, a dashing gure on a black courser, with red-gold hair and a black satin cloak dusted with stars. “Here to ght inthe Hand’s tourney, my lord?” a guardsman called out to him. “Hereto win the Hand’s tourney,” Lord Beric shouted back as the crowdcheered.

emptying a bucket ofslops on the heads of the combatants

Inside was a miniature painted in thevivid Myrish style, of a lovely young girl with doe’s eyes and acascade of soft brown hair. Renly had seemed anxious to know if thegirl reminded him of anyone, and when Ned had no answer but ashrug, he had seemed disappointed. The maid was Loras Tyrell’ssister Margaery, he’d confessed, but there were those who said shelooked like Lyanna. “No,” Ned had told him, bemused. Could it bethat Lord Renly, who looked so like a young Robert, had conceiveda passion for a girl he fancied to be a young Lyanna? That struckhim as more than passing queer.

but Stannis was a dierent sort of man; a bare yearyounger than the king, yet utterly unlike him, stern, humorless,unforgiving, grim in his sense of duty.

Ned wished he were here now, to winkle the truth out ofthis damnable book.

Stannis ever got that ugly daughter of his. He goes to his marriagebed like a man marching to a battleeld, with a grim look in hiseyes and a determination to do his duty.”

Fat and awkward and frightened he might be, but Samwell Tarlywas no fool. One night he visited Jon in his cell. “I don’t know whatyou did,” he said, “but I know you did it.” He looked away shyly.“I’ve never had a friend before.”“We’re not friends,” Jon said. He put a hand on Sam’s broadshoulder. “We’re brothers.”

Hours later, as the castle slept, three of them paid a call on hiscell. Grenn held his arms while Pyp sat on his legs. Jon could hearRast’s rapid breathing as Ghost leapt onto his chest. The direwolf’seyes burned red as embers as his teeth nipped lightly at the soft skinof the boy’s throat, just enough to draw blood. “Remember, weknow where you sleep,” Jon said softly.

he reached inside thedeer, ripped out its heart, and held it in his st, red and dripping—“or this.”

“If you do not, then on the morrow we shall have a hunt, andsomewhere in these woods your horse will stumble, and you will bethrown from the saddle to die ... or so I will tell your mother.

“two men came tothe castle, warlocks from Qarth with white skin and blue lips.

nother dressed him in his mother’sclothing and paraded him through the bailey to shame him intovalor.

And then I nd myself in front of the door tothe crypts. It’s black inside, and I can see the steps spiraling down.Somehow I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m

Most nights it’s my father, but sometimes it’sRobb instead, or my little sister Arya, or my uncle.”

It was Ghost who knew what to do. Silent as shadow, the paledirewolf moved closer and began to lick the warm tears o SamwellTarly’s face. The fat boy cried out, startled ... and somehow, in aheartbeat, his sobs turned to laughter.

He sat down on the frost-coveredground and began to cry, huge choking sobs that made his wholebody shake.

“It must have been warmer where you come from.”

He could think here, and hefound himself thinking of Samwell Tarly ... and, oddly, of TyrionLannister. He wondered what Tyrion would have made of the fatboy. Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it, the dwarfhad told him, grinning. The world was full of cravens whopretended to be heroes; it took a queer sort of courage to admit tocowardice as Samwell Tarly had.

“I would not,” Grenn insisted. “I’d run away faster than you.” Hestopped suddenly, scowling when he saw Pyp’s grin and realizedwhat he’d just said.

“You don’t want to know what his mother calls him.”

“My name is Samwell Tarly, of Horn ...” He stopped andlicked his lips. “I mean, I was of Horn Hill, until I ... left. I’ve cometo take the black. My father is Lord Randyll, a bannerman to theTyrells of Highgarden. I used to be his heir, only ...” His voicetrailed o

JON

Littlenger ngered his small pointed beard. “You are slow tolearn, Lord Eddard. Distrusting me was the wisest thing you’ve donesince you climbed down o your horse.”

“Lord Petyr,” Ned called after him. “I ... am grateful for yourhelp. Perhaps I was wrong to distrust you.”

, or lie with a woman, or hold his own sonin his arms.

“Father, will Bran come and live with us now?”“Not for a long time, sweet one,” he told her. “He needs to win hisstrength back.”Arya bit her lip. “What will Bran do when he’s of age?”Ned knelt beside her. “He has years to nd that answer, Arya. Fornow, it is enough to know that he will live.” The night the bird hadcome from Winterfell, Eddard Stark had taken the girls to the castlegodswood, an acre of elm and alder and black cottonwoodoverlooking the river. The heart tree there was a great oak, its

Yes, Ned thought as the door swung shut, but whom?

“Dark wings, dark words,” Ned murmured. It was a proverb OldNan had taught him as a boy.

“I have heard it said that poison is a woman’s weapon.”Pycelle stroked his beard thoughtfully. “It is said. Women,cravens ... and eunuchs.” He cleared his throat and spat a thick globof phlegm onto the rushes. Above them, a raven cawed loudly in therookery. “The Lord Varys was born a slave in Lys, did you know?Put not your trust in spiders, my lord.”

“An adventure,” Bran repeated wistfully. He heard his brothersob. The room was so dark he could not see the tears on Robb’s face,so he reached out and found his hand. Their ngers twined together.

Yes,” Robb said with such hope in his voice that Bran knew hewas hearing his brother and not just Robb the Lord. “Mother will behome soon. Maybe we can ride out to meet her when she comes.Wouldn’t that surprise her, to see you ahorse?” Even in the darkroom, Bran could feel his brother’s smile. “And afterward, we’ll ridenorth to see the Wall. We won’t even tell Jon we’re coming, we’lljust be there one day, you and me. It will be an adventure.”

Robb carried Branup to bed himself. Grey Wind led the way, and Summer came closebehind. His brother was strong for his age, and Bran was as light asa bundle of rags, but the stairs were steep and dark, and Robb wasbreathing hard by the time they reached the top.He put Bran into bed, covered him with blankets, and blew outthe candle. For a time Robb sat beside him in the dark. Bran wanted