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Robert snorted The anger was leaving hio is said to have a hundred thousand men in his horde What would Jon say to that?"

"He would say that even aas they remain on the other side of the narrow sea," Ned replied calmly "The barbarians have no ships They hate and fear the open sea"

The king shifted uncomfortably in his saddle "Perhaps There are ships to be had in the Free Cities, though I tell you, Ned, I do not like this doht for Targaryen in the war? They bide their tiive them half a chance, they willcrosses with a Dothraki horde at his back, the traitors will join him"

"He will not cross," Ned promised "And if by some mischance he does, ill throw him back into the sea Once you choose a new Warden of the East--"

The king groaned "For the last time, I will not name the Arryn boy Warden I know the boy is your nephew, but with Targaryens cli in bed with Dothraki, I would be mad to rest one quarter of the realm on the shoulders of a sickly child"

Ned was ready for that "Yet we still must have a Warden of the East If Robert Arryn will not do, nae of Stor there for aHe looked uncomfortable

"That is," Ned finished quietly, watching, "unless you have already promised the honor to another"

For a race to look startled Just as quickly, the look became annoyance "What if I have?"

"It’s Jaime Lannister, is it not?"

Robert kicked his horse back into e toward the barrows Ned kept pace with hiht ahead "Yes," he said at last A single hard word to end the slayer," Ned said The ruround now, he knew "An able and courageous man, no doubt," he said carefully, "but his father is Warden of the West, Robert In time Ser Jaime will succeed to that honor No one man should hold both East and West" He left unsaid his real concern; that the appointment would put half the armies of the realht that battle when the ene said stubbornly "At the moment, Lord Tywin looms eternal as Casterly Rock, so I doubt that Jai anytime soon Don’t vex me about this, Ned, the stone has been set"

"Your Grace, may I speak frankly?"

"I seeh tall brown grasses

"Can you trust Jaime Lannister?"

"He is uard, his life and fortune and honor all bound to aryen’s," Ned pointed out

"Why should II have ever asked of him His sword helped win the throne I sit on"

His sword helped taint the throne you sit on, Ned thought, but he did not permit the words to pass his lips "He swore a vow to protect his king’s life with his own Then he opened that king’s throat with a sword"

"Seven hells, so his mount to a sudden halt beside an ancient barrow "If Jaime hadn’t done it, it would have been left for you or uard," Ned said The time had come for Robert to hear the whole truth, he decided then and there "Do you remember the Trident, Your Grace?"

"I won et it?"

"You took a wound froaryen host broke and ran, you gave the pursuit into ’s Landing We followed Aerys was in the Red Keep with several thousand loyalists I expected to find the gates closed to us"

Robert gave an impatient shake of his head "Instead you found that our men had already taken the city What of it?"

"Not our men," Ned said patiently "Lannister men The lion of Lannister flew over the ra And they had taken the city by treachery"

The war had raged for close to a year Lords great and small had flocked to Robert’s banners; others had rehty Lannisters of Casterly Rock, the Wardens of the West, had re calls to araryen ods had answered his prayers when Lord Tywin Lannister appeared before the gates of King’s Landing with an ar had ordered his last ate

"Treachery was a coin the Targaryens kneell," Robert said The anger was building in hiain "Lannister paid them back in kind It was no less than they deserved I shall not trouble my sleep over it"

"You were not there," Ned said, bitterness in his voice Troubled sleep was no stranger to him He had lived his lies for fourteen years, yet they still haunted hiht "There was no honor in that conquest"

"The Others take your honor!" Robert swore "What did any Targaryen ever know of honor? Go down into your crypt and ask Lyanna about the dragon’s honor!"

"You avenged Lyanna at the Trident," Ned said, halting beside the king Promiseher back" Robert looked away, off into the grey distance "The gods be daave irl I prayed theain, as she was ood is it to wear a crown? The gods s and cowherds alike"

"I cannot answer for the gods, Your Graceonly for what I found when I rode into the throne room that day," Ned said "Aerys was dead on the floor, drowned in his own blood His dragon skulls stared down from the walls Lannister’s uard over his golden arilded He was seated on the Iron Throne, high above his knights, wearing a hellittered!"

"This is well known," the king coth of the hall in silence, between the long rows of dragon skulls It felt as though they atchingup at hie red with a king’s blood Mythe room behind me Lannister’s men drew back I never said a word I looked at hihed and got up He took off his hel it warm for our friend Robert It’s not a very co threw back his head and roared His laughter startled a flight of crows fro of wings "You think I should mistrust Lannister because he sat on ain "Jaime was all of seventeen, Ned Scarce ht to that throne"

"Perhaps he was tired," Robert suggested "Killing kings is weary work Gods know, there’s no place else to rest your ass in that damnable room And he spoke truly, it is a monstrous unco shook his head "Well, now I know Jaiotten I am heartily sick of secrets and squabbles andcoppers Come, let’s ride, you used to knoant to feel the wind in alloped up over the barrow, raining earth down behind him

For a moment Ned did not follow He had run out of words, and he was filled with a vast sense of helplessness Not for the first ti here and why he had co and teach him wisdom Robert would do what he pleased, as he always had, and nothing Ned could say or do would change that He belonged in Winterfell He belonged with Catelyn in her grief, and with Bran

A ned, Eddard Stark put his boots into his horse and set off after the king