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had dawned clear and cold, with a crispness that hinted at the end of summer They set forth at daybreak to see athem, nervous with exciteh to go with his lord father and his brothers to see the king’s justice done It was the ninth year of summer, and the seventh of Bran’s life

The man had been taken outside a s, his sword sworn to Mance Rayder, the King-beyond-the-Wall It made Bran’s skin prickle to think of it He res were cruel men, she said, slavers and slayers and thieves They consorted with giants and ghouls, stole girl children in the dead of night, and drank blood from polished horns And their woht to sire terrible half-human children

But the man they found bound hand and foot to the holdfast wall awaiting the king’s justice was old and scrawny, not er to frostbite, and he dressed all in black, the saht’s Watch, except that his furs were ragged and greasy

The breath ofair as his lord father had the ed before them Robb and Jon sat tall and still on their horses, with Bran between the to pretend that he’d seen all this before A faint wind blew through the holdfast gate Over their heads flapped the banner of the Starks of Winterfell: a grey direwolf racing across an ice-white field

Bran’s father sat sole in the wind His closely tri hirirey eyes this day, and he seemed not at all theand talk softly of the age of heroes and the children of the forest He had taken off Father’s face, Bran thought, and donned the face of Lord Stark of Winterfell

There were questions asked and answers given there in the chill of , but afterward Bran could not recall ave a coed man to the ironwood stump in the center of the square They forced his head down onto the hard black wood Lord Eddard Stark disht forth the sword "Ice," that sas called It was as wide across as a man’s hand, and taller even than Robb The blade was Valyrian steel, spell-forged and dark as se like Valyrian steel

His father peeled off his gloves and handed theuard He took hold of Ice with both hands and said, "In the name of Robert of the House Baratheon, the First of his Na of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, by the word of Eddard of the House Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, I do sentence you to die" He lifted the greatsword high above his head

Bran’s bastard brother Jon Snow moved closer "Keep the pony well in hand," he whispered "And don’t look away Father will know if you do"

Bran kept his pony well in hand, and did not look away

His father took off the le sure stroke Blood sprayed out across the snow, as red as surnmerwine One of the horses reared and had to be restrained to keep fro Bran could not take his eyes off the blood The snows around the stu as he watched

The head bounced off a thick root and rolled It came up near Greyjoy’s feet Theon was a lean, dark youth of nineteen who found everything ahed, put his boot on the head, and kicked it away

"Ass," Jon h so Greyjoy did not hear He put a hand on Bran’s shoulder, and Bran looked over at his bastard brother "You did well," Jon told him solemnly Jon was fourteen, an old hand at justice

It seeh the wind had died by then and the sun was higher in the sky Bran rode with his brothers, well ahead of thehard to keep up with their horses

"The deserter died bravely," Robb said He was big and broad and growing every day, with his , the fair skin, red-brown hair, and blue eyes of the Tullys of Riverrun "He had courage, at the least"

"No," Jon Snow said quietly "It was not courage This one was dead of fear You could see it in his eyes, Stark" Jon’s eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black, but there was little they did not see He was of an age with Robb, but they did not look alike Jon was slender where Robb was raceful and quick where his half brother was strong and fast

Robb was not impressed "The Others take his eyes," he swore "He died well Race you to the bridge?"

"Done," Jon said, kicking his horse forward Robb cursed and followed, and they galloped off down the trail, Robb laughing and hooting, Jon silent and intent The hooves of their horses kicked up showers of snow as they went

Bran did not try to follow His pony could not keep up He had seen the raggedof thehter receded, and the woods grew silent again

So deep in thought was he that he never heard the rest of the party until his father moved up to ride beside him "Are you well, Bran?" he asked, not unkindly

"Yes, Father," Bran told him He looked up Wrapped in his furs and leathers, reat warhorse, his lord father looiant "Robb says the man died bravely, but Jon says he was afraid"

"What do you think?" his father asked

Bran thought about it "Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?"

"That is the only time a man can be brave," his father told him "Do you understand why I did it?"

"He was a wildling," Bran said "They carry off women and sell them to the Others"

His lord father sain In truth, the ht’s Watch No erous The deserter knows his life is forfeit if he is taken, so he will not flinch from any crime, no matter how vile But you mistake me The question was not why the man had to die, but why IRobert has a headsman," he said, uncertainly

"He does," his father ads before him Yet our way is the older way The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that thethe sword If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die

"One day, Bran, you will be Robb’s banner, and justice will fall to you When that day comes, you must take no pleasure in the task, but neither must you look away A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is"

That hen Jon reappeared on the crest of the hill before them He waved and shouted down at them "Father, Bran, coain

Jory rode up beside them "Trouble, my lord?"

"Beyond a doubt," his lord father said "Come, let us see what mischief my sons have rooted out now" He sent his horse into a trot Jory and Bran and the rest came after

They found Robb on the riverbank north of the bridge, with Jon still mounted beside him The late summer snows had been heavy this moonturn Robb stood knee-deep in white, his hood pulled back so the sun shone in his hair He was cradling so in his arm, while the boys talked in hushed, excited voices

The riders picked their way carefully through the drifts, groping for solid footing on the hidden, uneven ground Jory Cassel and Theon Greyjoy were the first to reach the boys Greyjoy was laughing and joking as he rode Bran heard the breath go out of hi to keep control of his horse as he reached for his sword

Jory’s sas already out "Robb, get away from it!" he called as his horse reared under hirinned and looked up from the bundle in his arms "She can’t hurt you," he said "She’s dead, Jory"

Bran was afire with curiosity by then He would have spurred the pony faster, but his father e and approach on foot Bran jumped off and ran

By then Jon, Jory, and Theon Greyjoy had all dismounted as well "What in the seven hells is it?" Greyjoy was saying

"A wolf," Robb told him

"A freak," Greyjoy said "Look at the size of it"

Bran’s heart was thuh drift to his brothers’ side

Half-buried in bloodstained snow, a huge dark shape slurey fur, and the faint s to it like a woots, a wide mouth full of yellowed teeth But it was the size of it that er than his pony, twice the size of the largest hound in his father’s kennel

"It’s no freak," Jon said caler than the other kind"

Theon Greyjoy said, "There’s not been a direwolf sighted south of the Wall in two hundred years"