ASOS: Catelyn III (Chapter 20)
They carried the corpses in upon their shoulders and laid them beneath the dais. A silence fell across the torchlit hall, and in the quiet Catelyn could hear Grey Wind howling half a castle away. He smells the blood, she thought, through stone walls and wooden doors, through night and rain, he still knows the scent of death and ruin.
Entirely possible he's howling for you.
The blond boy had been trying to grow a beard. Pale yellow peach fuzz covered his cheeks and jaw above the red ruin the knife had made of his throat. His long golden hair was still wet, as if he had been pulled from a bath. By the look of him, he had died peacefully, perhaps in sleep, but his brown-haired cousin had fought for life. His arms bore slashes where he'd tried to block the blades, and red still trickled slowly from the stab wounds that covered his chest and belly and back like so many tongueless mouths, though the rain had washed him almost clean.
One got a knife to the throat, while the other has multiple piercing wounds to the torso.
Does he see Bran and Rickon as well? She might have wept, but there were no tears left in her.
Alyssa Arryn had seen her husband, her brothers, and all her children slain, and yet in life she had never shed a tear. So in death, the gods had decreed that she would know no rest until her weeping watered the black earth of the Vale, where the men she had loved were buried. - Catelyn VII, ASOS
Will they lay Sansa down naked beneath the Iron Throne after they have killed her? Will her skin seem as white, her blood as red?
"They died," said Rickard Karstark, yielding no inch of ground. "The Kingslayer cut them down. These two were of his ilk. Only blood can pay for blood."
"The blood of children?" Robb pointed at the corpses. "How old were they? Twelve, thirteen? Squires."
"Unsullied!" Dany galloped before them, her silver-gold braid flying behind her, her bell chiming with every stride. "Slay the Good Masters, slay the soldiers, slay every man who wears a tokar or holds a whip, but harm no child under twelve, and strike the chains off every slave you see." - Daenerys III, ASOS
Lord Karstark looked instead at Catelyn. "Tell your mother to look at them," he said. "She slew them, as much as I."
Catelyn put a hand on the back of Robb's seat. The hall seemed to spin about her. She felt as though she might retch.
"My mother had naught to do with this," Robb said angrily. "This was your work. Your murder. Your treason."
"How can it be treason to kill Lannisters, when it is not treason to free them?" asked Karstark harshly.
Lord Karstark spit out a broken tooth. "Yes, Lord Umber, leave me to the king. He means to give me a scolding before he forgives me. That's how he deals with treason, our King in the North." He smiled a wet red smile. "Or should I call you the King Who Lost the North, Your Grace?"
Probably regret that little love stunt you pulled in the previous chapter, huh Robb?
"Greatjon, keep Lord Karstark here till I return, and hang the other seven."
The Greatjon lowered the spear. "Even the dead ones?"
"Yes. I will not have such fouling my lord uncle's rivers. Let them feed the crows."
One of the captives dropped to his knees. "Mercy, sire. I killed no one, I only stood at the door to watch for guards."
"Lord Umber," said Robb, "this one was only the watcher. Hang him last, so he may watch the others die.
Outside the thunder crashed and boomed, so loud it sounded as if the castle were coming down about their ears. Is this the sound of a kingdom falling? Catelyn wondered.
"Near three hundred riders and twice as many mounts, melted away in the night." Robb rubbed his temples, where the crown had left its mark in the soft skin above his ears. "All the mounted strength of Karhold, lost."
Lost by me. By me, may the gods forgive me. Catelyn did not need to be a soldier to grasp the trap Robb was in. For the moment he held the riverlands, but his kingdom was surrounded by enemies to every side but east, where Lysa sat aloof on her mountaintop. Even the Trident was scarce secure so long as the Lord of the Crossing withheld his allegiance. And now to lose the Karstarks as well . . .
YIELD. MAKE PEACE. GO HOME.
"We need speak no falsehood. Only say nothing. Bury the boys and hold our tongues till the war's done. Willem was son to Ser Kevan Lannister, and Lord Tywin's nephew. Tion was Lady Genna's, and a Frey. We must keep the news from the Twins as well, until . . ."
"Until we can bring the murdered dead back to life?" said Brynden Blackfish sharply.
It's funny you say that...
"Lord Karstark's heir was at Harrenhal as well," Ser Brynden reminded him. "The eldest son, the one the Lannisters took captive on the Green Fork."
"Harrion. His name is Harrion." Robb laughed bitterly. "A king had best know the names of his enemies, don't you think?"
The Blackfish looked at him shrewdly. "You know that for a certainty? That this will make young Karstark your enemy?"
Harrion has been mighty quiet in this story so far. I don't like it.
Robb shook his head. "Even if Harrion were that sort, he could never openly forgive his father's killer. His own men would turn on him. These are northmen, Uncle. The north remembers."
The north remembers! First time we see this.
"Lysa was never brave. When we were girls together, she would run and hide whenever she'd done something wrong. Perhaps she thought our lord father would forget to be wroth with her if he could not find her. It is no different now. She ran from King's Landing for fear, to the safest place she knows, and she sits on her mountain hoping everyone will forget her."
Catelyn, rewind. Back up. Listen to yourself. She ran for fear or because she'd done something wrong?
"The knights of the Vale could make all the difference in this war," said Robb
I've asked only that she open the Bloody Gate for us, and provide ships at Gulltown to take us north. The high road would be hard, but not so hard as fighting our way up the Neck. If I could land at White Harbor I could flank Moat Cailin and drive the ironmen from the north in half a year."
Thanks for providing all this unnecessary detail! What a great plan that would have been! Take an army, land at White Harbor, and avoid the Boltons Greyjoys at Moat Cailin. They'll never see it coming!
Now we only need a fleet! Wyman?
Under that gaze, Edmure's face reddened. "Spare his life, I mean. I don't like the taste of it any more than you, sire. He slew my men as well. Poor Delp had only just recovered from the wound Ser Jaime gave him. Karstark must be punished, certainly. Keep him in chains, I say."
"A hostage?" said Catelyn. It might be best . . .
Lord Rickard's fought at my side in half a dozen battles. His sons died for me in the Whispering Wood. Tion Frey and Willem Lannister were my enemies. Yet now I have to kill my dead friends' father for their sakes." He looked at them all. "Will the Lannisters thank me for Lord Rickard's head? Will the Freys?"
"No," said Brynden Blackfish, blunt as ever.
"All the more reason to spare Lord Rickard's life and keep him hostage," Edmure urged.
I suppose holding him hostage is the best option, but I don't know how he can live after butchering children. I'm as lost as Robb on this one.
They were asleep in their beds, naked and unarmed, in a cell where I put them. Rickard Karstark killed more than a Frey and a Lannister. He killed my honor.
Let me stop you right there, Robb.
We are kin, Stark and Karstark."
"This kinship did not stop you from betraying me," Robb said. "And it will not save you now. Kneel, my lord."
Lord Rickard had spoken truly, Catelyn knew. The Karstarks traced their descent to Karlon Stark, a younger son of Winterfell who had put down a rebel lord a thousand years ago, and been granted lands for his valor. The castle he built had been named Karl's Hold, but that soon became Karhold, and over the centuries the Karhold Starks had become Karstarks.
Was the rebel lord a Bolton?
"Old gods or new, it makes no matter," Lord Rickard told her son, "no man is so accursed as the kinslayer."
Catelyn's chapter is being hugged by two Lannister boys.
I don't believe Jaime will kill Cersei, I'm only pointing it out.
When he was gone, Catelyn retreated to her father's solar, to sit once more beside Lord Hoster's bed.
"It will not be much longer," Maester Vyman warned her, when he came that afternoon. "His last strength is going, though still he tries to fight."
"He was ever a fighter," she said. "A sweet stubborn man."
"Yes," the maester said, "but this battle he cannot win. It is time he lay down his sword and shield. Time to yield."
To yield, she thought, to make a peace. Was it her father the maester was speaking of, or her son?
"Oh." Queen Jeyne wet her lips. "Robb has not eaten all day. I had Rollam bring him a nice supper, boar's ribs and stewed onions and ale, but he never touched a bite of it. He spent all morning writing a letter and told me not to disturb him, but when the letter was done he burned it.
This comes almost immediately after the above conversation.
I suspect this is Robb writing a letter to Tywin, but changing his mind. Stubborn lad.
"Jeyne," she called after, "there's one more thing Robb needs from you, though he may not know it yet himself. A king must have an heir."
A king must have an heir. An heir. When a king is declared, he must marry, and have an heir.
The girl smiled at that. "My mother says the same. She makes a posset for me, herbs and milk and ale, to help make me fertile. I drink it every morning. I told Robb I'm sure to give him twins. An Eddard and a Brandon. He liked that, I think. We . . . we try most every day, my lady. Sometimes twice or more."
Groan. Nice little parallel with Hoster and Lysa.
And by nice, I mean awful.
Robb Stark will father no children on his fertile Frey, you have my word. - Tyrion III, ASOS
I told Robb I'm sure to give him twins. An Eddard and a Brandon. He liked that, I think. We . . . we try most every day, my lady. Sometimes twice or more." The girl blushed very prettily.
A Ned and a Brandon, eh? I'll be keeping that in mind.
Could always be a coincidence, but I sense something is happening here.
Sansa had the grace to blush. She blushed prettily. - Arya I, AGOT
The girl did seem to have a good heart, just as Robb had said. And good hips, which might be more important.
Yeah, I definitely sense something is happening.
"You have a good heart, my lady," she said to Sansa. - Sansa V, ASOS
I wish I could delete everything from my brain and read these books again for the first time, because I don't see how the Red Wedding could be shocking. Every chapter is doomsday.
