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Jon

Jon cliht be the last time ever Ghost padded silently beside hiates, and the yard was all noise and chaos, but inside the thick stone walls it was still war

He reached the landing and stood for a long e frohtened, and entered the room

Lady Stark was there beside his bed She had been there, day and night, for close on a fortnight Not for a ht to her there, and chah it was said she had scarcely slept at all She fed him herself, the honey and water and herb mixture that sustained life Not once did she leave the room So Jon had stayed away

But now there was no more time

He stood in the door for a moment, afraid to speak, afraid to come closer The as open Beloolf howled Ghost heard and lifted his head

Lady Stark looked over For a nize hi here?" she asked in a voice strangely flat and emotionless

"I caood-bye"

Her face did not change Her long auburn hair was dull and tangled She looked as though she had aged twenty years "You’ve said it Now go away"

Part of hiht never see Bran again He took a nervous step into the roo cold moved in her eyes "I told you to leave," she said "We don’t want you here"

Once that would have sent hiht even have ry He would be a Sworn Brother of the Night’s Watch soon, and face worse dangers than Catelyn Tully Stark "He’s uards?"

"Call the hi the bed between them, and looked down on Bran where he lay

She was holding one of his hands It looked like a claw This was not the Bran he reone froht over bones like sticks Under the blanket, his legs bent in ways that made Jon sick His eyes were sunken deep into black pits; open, but they saw nothing The fall had shrunken hi ould carry hie of those shattered ribs, his chest rose and fell with each shallow breath

"Bran," he said, "I’m sorry I didn’t co down his cheeks Jon no longer cared "Don’t die, Bran Please We’re all waiting for you to wake up Me and Robb and the girls, everyone"

Lady Stark atching She had not raised a cry Jon took that for acceptance Outside the , the direwolf howled again The wolf that Bran had not had tio now," Jon said "Uncle Benjen is waiting I’o north to the Wall We have to leave today, before the snows come" He remembered how excited Bran had been at the prospect of the journey It washim behind like this Jon brushed away his tears, leaned over, and kissed his brother lightly on the lips

"I wanted him to stay here with me," Lady Stark said softly

Jon watched her, wary She was not even looking at hi to hih he were not even in the room

"I prayed for it," she said dully "He was my special boy I went to the sept and prayed seven tie his mind and leave him here with me Sometimes prayers are answered"

Jon did not knohat to say "It wasn’t your fault," he ed after an aard silence

Her eyes found him They were full of poison "I need none of your absolution, bastard"

Jon lowered his eyes She was cradling one of Bran’s hands He took the other, squeezed it Fingers like the bones of birds "Good-bye," he said

He was at the door when she called out to hi, but she had never called hi at his face, as if she were seeing it for the first time

"Yes?" he said

"It should have been you," she told hian to weep, her whole body shaking with the sobs Jon had never seen her cry before

It was a long walk down to the yard

Outside, everything was noise and confusion Wagons were being loaded,harnessed and saddled and led froun to fall, and everyone was in an uproar to be off

Robb was in thecorown of late, as if Bran’s fall and his er Grey Wind was at his side

"Uncle Benjen is looking for you," he told Jon "He wanted to be gone an hour ago"

"I know," Jon said "Soon" He looked around at all the noise and confusion "Leaving is harder than I thought"

"Forfrom the heat of his body "Did you see hi hi to die," Robb said "I know it"

"You Starks are hard to kill," Jon agreed His voice was flat and tired The visit had taken all the strength fro "My mother"

"She wasvery kind," Jon told him

Robb looked relieved "Good" He smiled "The next time I see you, you’ll be all in black"

Jon forced hi do you think it will be?"

"Soon enough," Robb promised He pulled Jon to him and eed him back "And you, Stark Take care of Bran"