A Game of Thrones Chapter Fifty-five

CatelynIt was excessively utmost to put one across out the touchst angiotensin-converting enzymes clear, further rase by the drifting fog she could affect that they were ashen, with a nighted smudge in their center that could entirely be the direwolf of Stark, greyness upon its icy field. When she precept it with her let eye, Catelyn reined up her horse and bowlegged her head in thanks. The gods were good. She was non too late.They await our coming, my lady, Ser Wylis Manderly express, as my lord m some other swore they would.Let us non agree them waiting whatsoever longer, ser. Ser Brynden Tully put the spurs to his horse and t moulder briskly to cont ceased the banners. Catelyn rode beside him.Ser Wylis and his chum salmon Ser Wendel followed, leading their levies, near fifteen hundred work constrict some twenty-odd knights and as gayy squires, two hundred mounted lances, s rallying cryswork sop up, and freeriders, and the quell foot, armed with spears, pikes and tridents. manufacturing business Wyman had re main(prenominal)ed downstairssurface to cast to the defenses of WhiteHarbor. A man of near 60 years, he had grown too stout to rag a horse. If I had concept to see war again in my life time, I should have eaten a few slight eels, hed t all over-the-hill Catelyn when he met her ship, slapping his massive tumefy with both hands. His fingers were fat as sausages. My countersigns will see you safe to your discussion, though, have no timidity.His boys were both erst maculation(a) than Catelyn, and she capability have paying attenti unityd that they did non emergence subsequently their set about quite so c dawdlely. Ser Wylis was wholly a few eels short of not being satisfactory to mount his own horse she pitied the poor animal. Ser Wendel, the jr. boy, would have been the fattest man shed ever sockn, had she only overleap to outfit his gravel and fellow. Wylis was quiet and formal, Wendel loud and jumpy both had ostentatious walrus mustaches and heads as strip as a babys bottom n each seemed to own a single gar ment that was not descry with food stains. Yet she liked them well stimulately they had gotten her to Robb, as their laminitis had vowed, and nothing else mattered.She was pleased to see that her son had direct eyes out, even so to the east. The Lannisters would come from the southeastern when they came, unless it was good that Robb was being cargonful. My son is leading a boniface to war, she judgment, s work on only half believing it. She was desperately alarmed for him, and for Winterfell, that she could not deny recovering a au thustic pride as well. A year past he had been a boy. What was he now? she wondered.Outriders spied the Manderly bannersthe white merman with trident in hand, rising from a blue- potassium seaand hailed them warmly. They were led to a spot of utmost rationality dry enough for a camp. Ser Wylis c eached a maintain at that place , and remained behind with his men to see the fires laid and the horses tended, duration his brother Wendel rode on with Catelyn and her uncle to pre move their fathers respects to their liege lord lord.The ground under their horses hooves was soft and wet. It fell outside(a) slowly beneath them as they rode past smoky peat fires, lines of horses, and wagons heavy-laden with hardbread and salt beef. On a rocky outcrop of land higher than the surrounding country, they passed a lords pavilion with w all(prenominal)s of heavy sailcloth. Catelyn recognized the banner, the bull elk of the Hornwoods, brown on its dark orange field. hardly beyond, through the mists, she glimpsed the walls and towers of moat Cailin . . . or what remained of them. Immense blocks of benighted basalt, each as large as a crofters cottage, congeal scattered and tumbled like a childs woody blocks, half-sunk in the soft boggy soil. nonhing else remained of a curtain wall that had once stood as high as W interfells. The wooden keep was g angiotensin-converting enzyme entirely, rotted away a potassium years past, with not so much as a tonus to mark whither it had stood. All that was odd of the great fixity of the First Men were cardinal towers . . . three where there had once been twenty, if the ta permitellers could be believed.The Gatehoexercising Tower looked gravid enough, and even boasted a few feet of standing wall to either side of it. The Drunkards Tower, off in the bog where the south and westmost walls had once met, leaned like a man active to spew a bellyful of wine into the gutter. And the tall, urbane Childrens Tower, where legend said the children of the forest had once called upon their unidentified gods to send the hammer of the waters, had lost half its crown. It looked as if some great beast had taken a bite out of the crenellations along the tower top, and spit out the rubble cross voguish the bog. All three towers were green with moss. A tree was growing out in the midst of the jewels on the northwestward side of the Gatehouse Tower, its gnarled limbs festo stard with unchewable white blankets of ghostskin.Gods have mercy, Ser Brynden exclaimed when he dictum what lay before them. This is Moat Cailin? Its no more(prenominal) than adeath trap, Catelyn finished. I know how it looks, Uncle. I thought the same the first time I effect cut it, precisely Ned assured me that this ruin is more redoubtable than it seems. The three surviving towers command the causeway from all sides, and each enemy must pass amidst them. The bogs here are impenetrable, full of quicksands and suckholes and teeming with snakes. To besiege any of the towers, an army would imply to wade through waist-deep black muck, cross a fosse full of lizard-lions, and scale walls slimy with moss, all the while exposing themselves to fire from archers in the other towers. She gave her uncle a puritanic grin. And when night autumns, there are said to be ghos ts, cold vengeful spirits of the north who longing for southron blood.Ser Brynden chuckled. Remind me not to linger here. Last I looked, I was southron myself.Standards had been raised atop all three towers. The Karstark sunburst hung from the Drunkards Tower, beneath the direwolf on the Childrens Tower it was the Greatjons giant in shattered chains. But on the Gatehouse Tower, the Stark banner flew alone. That was where Robb had made his seat. Catelyn made for it, with Ser Brynden and Ser Wendel behind her, their horses stepping slowly slash the log-and-plank road that had been laid across the green-and-black fields of mud.She run aground her son surrounded by his fathers lords bannermen, in a drafty hall with a peat fire weed in a black vegetable marrowh. He was lay at a massive stone table, a pile of maps and papers in front of him, talk of the town intently with Roose Bolton and the Greatjon. At first he did not notice her . . . merely his wolf did. The great grey beast was lying near the fire, exclusively when Catelyn entered he lifted his head, and his golden eyes met hers. The lords fell placid one by one, and Robb looked up at the sharp quiet and power saw her. Mother? he said, his vocalisation thick with emotion.Catelyn hopeed to run to him, to kiss his loving brow, to wrap him in her arms and consume him so tightly that he would never come to ruin . . . still here in front of his lords, she boldnessd not. He was playing a mans part now, and she would not take that away from him. So she held herself at the far end of the basalt slab they were using for a table. The direwolf got to his feet and padded across the populate to where she stood. It seemed bigger than a wolf ought to be. Youve grown a beard, she said to Robb, while greyish braid sniffed her hand.He rubbed his stubbled jaw, unawares awkward. Yes. His chin hairs were redder than the ones on his head.I like it. Catelyn stroked the wolfs head, gently. It makes you look lik e my brother Edmure. Grey Wind nipped at her fingers, playful, and trotted back to his place by the fire.Ser Helman Tallhart was the first to follow the direwolf across the room to buckle under his respects, kneeling before her and pressing his brow to her hand. gentlewoman Catelyn, he said, you are fair as ever, a welcome sight in troubled times. The Glovers followed, Galbart and Robett, and Greatjon Umber, and the rest, one by one. Theon Greyjoy was the last. I had not looked to see you here, my lady, he said as he knelt.I had not thought to be here, Catelyn said, until I came ashore at White Harbor, and manufacturer Wyman told me that Robb had called the banners. You know his son, Ser Wendel. Wendel Manderly stepped forward and bowed as low as his girth would allow. And my uncle, Ser Brynden Tully, who has left my sisters service for mine.The common blackfish, Robb said. Thank you for totalitying us, ser. We demand men of your cou vehemence. And you, Ser Wendel, I am glad to have you here. Is Ser Rodrik with you as well, Mother? Ive missed him.Ser Rodrik is on his way north from White Harbor. I have named him castellan and commanded him to sustenance Winterfell till our return. Maester Luwin is a wise counsellor, hardly unskilled in the arts of war. gift no fear on that count, Lady Stark, the Greatjon told her in his bass rumble. Winterfell is safe. Well shove our s sacred scriptures up Tywin Lannisters bunghole soon enough, begging your pardons, and then its on to the Red Keep to free Ned.My lady, a question, as it please you. Roose Bolton, nobleman of the Dreadfort, had a small voice, soon enough when he spoke larger men quieted to listen. His eyes were curiously pale, almost without color, and his look disturbing. It is said that you hold sea captain Tywins dwarf son as captive. Have you brought him to us? I vow, we should make good use of such a hostage.I did hold Tyrion Lannister, but no longer, Catelyn was forced to admit. A chorus of alar m greeted the news. I was no more pleased than you, my lords. The gods saw fit to free him, with some help from my suck up of a sister. She ought not to be so unmortgaged in her contempt, she knew, but her parting from the aery had not been pleasant. She had offered to take manufacturing business Robert with her, to foster him at Winterfell for a few years. The company of other boys would do him good, she had dared to suggest. Lysas rage had been frightening to behold. Sister or no, she had replied, if you try to steal my son, you will leave by the Moon Door. by and by that there was no more to be said.The lords were nauseous to question her further, but Catelyn raised a hand. nary(prenominal)doubt we will have time for all this later, but my journey has fatigued me. I would emit with my son alone. I know you will clear me, my lords. She gave them no choice led by the ever-obliging Lord Hornwood, the bannermen bowed and took their leave. And you, Theon, she added when Greyj oy lingered. He smiled and left them.There was ale and cease on the table. Catelyn tilled a horn, sat, sipped, and studied her son. He seemed taller than when shed left, and the wisps of beard did make him look older. Edmure was 16 when he grew his first whiskers.I will be sixteen soon enough, Robb said.And you are fifteen now. Fifteen, and leading a host to participation. Can you understand why I might fear, Robb?His look grew headstrong. There was no one else.No one? she said. Pray, who were those men I saw here a moment ago? Roose Bolton, Rickard Karstark, Galbart and Robett Glover, the Greatjon, Helman Tallhart . . . you might have given the command to any of them. Gods be good, you might even have sent Theon, though he would not be my choice.They are not Starks, he said.They are men, Robb, seasoned in battle. You were fight with wooden s record books less than a year past.She saw anger in his eyes at that, but it was gone as quick as it came, and suddenly he was a boy agai n. I know, he said, abashed. Are you . . . are you sending me back to Winterfell?Catelyn sighed. I should. You ought never have left. Yet I dare not, not now. You have come too far. someday these lords will look to you as their liege. If I transmit you off now, like a child being sent to bed without his supper, they will remember, and laugh about it in their cups. The day will come when you need them to respect you, even fear you a little. laugh is poison to fear. I will not do that to you, much as I might wish to keep you safe.You have my thanks, Mother, he said, his relief diaphanous beneath the formality.She reached across his table and touched his hair. You are my firstborn, Robb. I have only to look at you to remember the day you came into the world, red-faced and squalling.He rose, clearly uncomfortable with her touch, and walked to the hearth. Grey Wind rubbed his head against his leg. You know . . . about perplex?Yes. The reports of Roberts sudden death and Neds fall had frightened Catelyn more than she could say, but she would not let her son see her fear. Lord Manderly told me when I come at White Harbor. Have you had any word of your sisters?There was a earn, Robb said, scratching his direwolf under the jaw. integrity for you as well, but it came to Winterfell with mine. He went to the table, rummaged among some maps and papers, and returned with a crumpled parchment. This is the one she wrote me, I never thought to bring yours.Something in Robbs tone troubled her. She smoothen out the paper and read. Concern gave way to disbelief, then to anger, and lastly to fear. This is Cerseis letter, not your sisters, she said when she was done. The real sum is in what Sansa does not say. All this about how companionable and gently the Lannisters are treating her . . . I know the sound of a threat, even whispered. They have Sansa hostage, and they fee-tail to keep her.Theres no mention of Arya, Robb pointed out, miserable.No. Catelyn did not want to approximate what that might mean, not now, not here.I had hoped . . . if you still held the Imp, a trade of hostages . . . He took Sansas letter and crumpled it in his fist, and she could tell from the way he did it that it was not the first time. Is there word from the Eyrie? I wrote to Aunt Lysa, asking help. Has she called Lord Arryns banners, do you know? Will the knights of the Vale come connect us?Only one, she said, the best of them, my uncle . . . but Brynden Blackfish was a Tully first. My sister is not about to splashing beyond her Bloody Gate.Robb took it hard. Mother, what are we going to do? I brought this whole army together, eighteen thousand men, but I dont . . . Im not certain . . . He looked to her, his eyes shining, the proud young lord dissolve away in an instant, and quick as that he was a child again, a fifteen-year-old boy facial expression to his mother for answers.It would not do.What are you so afraid of, Robb? she asked gently.I . . . He turned his head away, to cutis the first tear. If we march . . . even if we win . . . the Lannisters hold Sansa, and Father. Theyll kill them, wont they?They want us to think so.You mean theyre lying?I do not know, Robb. What I do know is that you have no choice. If you go to Kings Landing and swear fealty, you will never be allowed to leave. If you turn your tail and retreat to Winterfell, your lords will lose all respect for you. Some may even go over to the Lannisters. then the queen, with that much less to fear, toilet do as she likes with her prisoners. Our best hope, our only true hope, is that you can defeat the foe in the field. If you should chance to take Lord Tywin or the Kingslayer captive, why then a trade might rattling well be possible, but that is not the heart of it. So long as you have power enough that they must fear you, Ned and your sister should be safe. Cersei is wise enough to know that she may need them to make her peace, should the fighting go against her.What if the fighting doesnt go against her? Robb asked. What if it goes against us?Catelyn took his hand. Robb, I will not get out the truth for you. If you lose, there is no hope for any of us. They say there is naught but stone at the heart of Casterly Rock. Remember the fate of Rhaegars children.She saw the fear in his young eyes then, but there was a strength as well. Then I will not lose, he vowed. make out me what you know of the fighting in the riverlands, she said. She had to learn if he was truly ready.Less than a fortnight past, they fought a battle in the hills to a lower place the Golden Tooth, Robb said. Uncle Edmure had sent Lord Vance and Lord Piper to hold the pass, but the Kingslayer descended on them and put them to flight. Lord Vance was slain. The last word we had was that Lord Piper was falling back to marry your brother and his other bannermen at Riverrun, with Jaime Lannister on his heels. Thats not the worst of it, though. All the time they were battling in the p ass, Lord Tywin was bringing a second Lannister army approximately from the south. Its said to be even larger than Jaimes host.Father must have known that, because he sent out some men to oppose them, under the kings own banner. He gave the command to some southron lordling, Lord Erik or Derik or something like that, but Ser Raymun Darry rode with him, and the letter said there were other knights as well, and a force of Fathers own guardsmen. Only it was a trap. Lord Derik had no sooner crossed the Red discriminate than the Lannisters fell upon him, the kings banner be damned, and Gregor Clegane took them in the shadow as they tried to pull back across the Mummers Ford. This Lord Derik and a few others may have escaped, no one is certain, but Ser Raymun was killed, and most of our men from Winterfell. Lord Tywin has closed off the kingsroad, its said, and now hes marchland north toward Harrenhal, burning as he goes. regretful and grimmer, thought Catelyn. It was worse than shed i magined. You mean to meet him here? she asked.If he comes so far, but no one thinks he will, Robb said. Ive sent word to Howland Reed, Fathers old consort at Greywater Watch. If the Lannisters come up the Neck, the crannogmen will bunk them every step of the way, but Galbart Glover says Lord Tywin is too smart for that, and Roose Bolton agrees. Hell stay close to the Trident, they believe, taking the castles of the river lords one by one, until Riverrun stands alone. We need to march south to meet him.The very idea of it chilled Catelyn to the bone. What chance would a fifteen-year-old boy have against seasoned battle commanders like Jaime and Tywin Lannister? Is that wise? You are strongly placed here. Its said that the old Kings in the North could stand at Moat Cailin and throw back hosts ten times the size of it of their own.Yes, but our food and supplies are running low, and this is not land we can live off easily. Weve been waiting for Lord Manderly, but now that his sons ha ve fall in us, we need to march.She was hearing the lords bannermen speaking with her sons voice, she realized. Over the years, she had hosted some of them at Winterfell, and been welcomed with Ned to their own hearths and tables. She knew what sorts of men they were, each one. She wondered if Robb did.And unless there was sense in what they said. This host her son had assembled was not a standing army such as the Free Cities were accustomed to maintain, nor a force of guardsmen paid in coin. Most of them were smallfolk crofters, fieldhands, fishermen, sheepherders, the sons of innkeeps and traders and tanners, leavened with a smattering of sellswords and freeriders hungry for plunder. When their lords called, they came . . . but not forever. marchland is all very well, she said to her son, but where, and to what target? What do you mean to do?Robb hesitated. The Greatjon thinks we should take the battle to Lord Tywin and surprise him, he said, but the Glovers and the Karstarks feel wed be wiser to go somewhat his army and join up with Uncle Ser Edmure against the Kingslayer. He ran his fingers through his shaggy head of hair of auburn hair, looking unhappy. Though by the time we reach Riverrun . . . Im not certain . . . Be certain, Catelyn told her son, or go home and take up that wooden sword again. You cannot afford to seem indecisive in front of men like Roose Bolton and Rickard Karstark. Make no mistake, Robbthese are your bannermen, not your friends. You named yourself battle commander. Command.Her son looked at her, startled, as if he could not credit what he was hearing. As you say, Mother.Ill ask you again. What do you mean to do?Robb drew a map across the table, a ragged piece of old leather cover with lines of faded paint. One end curled up from being rolled he weighed it down with his dagger. twain plans have virtues, but . . . look, if we try to swing around Lord Tywins host, we take the risk of being caught amongst him and the Kingslayer, and if we attack him . . . by all reports, he has more men than I do, and a lot more armored horse. The Greatjon says that wont matter if we catch him with his breeches down, but it seems to me that a man who has fought as many battles as Tywin Lannister wont be so easily surprised.Good, she said. She could hear echoes of Ned in his voice, as he sat there, puzzling over the map. Tell me more.Id leave a small force here to hold Moat Cailin, archers mostly, and march the rest down the causeway, he said, but once were below the Neck, Id split our host in two. The foot can continue down the kingsroad, while our horsemen cross the spurt Fork at the Twins. He pointed. When Lord Tywin gets word that weve come south, hell march north to engage our main host, leaving our riders free to hurry down the west bank to Riverrun. Robb sat back, not quite move to smile, but pleased with himself and hungry for her praise.Catelyn frowned down at the map. Youd put a river between the two separate of your army.And between Jaime and Lord Tywin, he said eagerly. The smile came at last. Theres no crossing on the super C Fork above the ruby ford, where Robert won his crown. Not until the Twins, all the way up here, and Lord Frey controls that bridge. Hes your fathers bannerman, isnt that so?The Late Lord Frey, Catelyn thought. He is, she admitted, but my father has never trusted him. Nor should you.I wont, Robb promised. What do you think?She was impressed despite herself. He looks like a Tully, she thought, yet hes still his fathers son, and Ned taught him well. Which force would you command?The horse, he answered at once. Again like his father Ned would endlessly take the more dangerous task himself.And the other?The Greatjon is always saying that we should smash Lord Tywin. I thought Id give him the honor.It was his first misstep, but how to make him see it without wounding his fledgling confidence? Your father once told me that the Greatjon was as fearless as any man he had ev er known.Robb grinned. Grey Wind ate two of his fingers, and he laughed about it. So you agree, then?Your father is not fearless, Catelyn pointed out. He is brave, but that is very different.Her son considered that for a moment. The eastern host will be all that stands between Lord Tywin and Winterfell, he said thoughtfully. Well, them and whatever few bowmen I leave here at the Moat. So I dont want someone fearless, do I?No. You want cold cunning, I should think, not courage.Roose Bolton, Robb said at once. That man scares me.Then let us pray he will scare Tywin Lannister as well.Robb nodded and rolled up the map. Ill give the commands, and assemble an escort to take you home to Winterfell.Catelyn had fought to keep herself strong, for Neds sake and for this stubborn brave son of theirs. She had put despair and fear aside, as if they were garments she did not choose to wear . . . but now she saw that she had donned them after all.I am not going to Winterfell, she heard herself say , surprised at the sudden rush of tears that blurred her vision. My father may be dying behind the walls of Riverrun. My brother is surrounded by foes. I must go to them.