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Catelyn

My lady, you should have sent word of your co," Ser Donnel Waynwood told her as their horses clih road is not as safe as it once was, for a party as small as yours"

"We learned that to our sorrow, Ser Donnel," Catelyn said Soh her heart had turned to stone; six braveher this far, and she could not even find it in her to weep for the "The clansht We lost three men in the first attack, and twoman died of a fever when his wounds festered When we heard your ht us dooht, blades in hand and backs to the rock The dwarf had been whetting the edge of his axe andsome mordant jest when Bronn spotted the banner the riders carried before them, the moon-and-falcon of House Arryn, sky-blue and white Catelyn had never seen a rown bolder since Lord Jon died," Ser Donnel said He was a stocky youth of twenty years, earnest and homely, with a wide nose and a shock of thick brown hair "If it were up to me, I would take a hundred men into the mountains, root them out of their fastnesses, and teach them some sharp lessons, but your sister has forbidden it She would not even perht in the Hand’s tourney She wants all our swords kept close to hoainst what, no one is certain Shadows, some say" He looked at her anxiously, as if he had suddenly remembered who she was "I hope I have not spoken out of turn, my lady I meant no offense"

"Frank talk does not offend me, Ser Donnel" Catelyn knehat her sister feared Not shadows, Lannisters, she thought to herself, glancing back to where the dwarf rode beside Bronn The two of theen had died The littlethan she liked When they had entered the mountains, he had been her captive, bound and helpless What was he now? Her captive still, yet he rode along with a dirk through his belt and an axe strapped to his saddle, wearing the shadowskin cloak he’d won dicing with the singer and the chainen’s corpse Two score hts and men-at-ar son, and yet Tyrion betrayed no hint of fear Could I be wrong? Catelyn wondered, not for the first time Could he be innocent after all, of Bran and Jon Arryn and all the rest? And if he hat did thathim here

Resolute, she pushed her doubts away "When we reach your keep, I would take it kindly if you could send for Maester Colemon at once Ser Rodrik is feverish froallant old knight would not survive the journey Toward the end he could scarcely sit his horse, and Bronn had urged her to leave him to his fate, but Catelyn would not hear of it They had tied him in the saddle instead, and she had coer to watch over him

Ser Donnel hesitated before he answered "The Lady Lysa has commanded the maester to remain at the Eyrie at all times, to care for Lord Robert," he said "We have a septon at the gate who tends to our wounded He can see to your man’s hurts"

Catelyn hadthan a septon’s prayers She was about to say asparapets built into the very stone of the mountains on either side of theh for fourto the rocky slopes, joined by a covered bridge of weathered grey stone that arched above the road Silent faces watched froe When they had cliht rode out to rey, but his cloak was the rippling blue-and-red of Riverrun, and a shiny black fish, wrought in gold and obsidian, pinned its folds against his shoulder "Who would pass the Bloody Gate?" he called

"Ser Donnel Waynwood, with the Lady Catelyn Stark and her coht of the Gate lifted his visor "I thought the lady looked familiar You are far from home, little Cat"

"And you, Uncle," she said, s that hoarse, sain took her back twenty years, to the days of her childhood

"My horuffly

"Your home is in my heart," Catelyn told hiain"

"The years have not improved it, I fear," Brynden Tully said, but when he lifted off the helm, Catelyn saw that he lied His features were lined and weathered, and tirey, but the smile was the sahter in his deep blue eyes "Did Lysa know you were co?"

"There was no time to send word ahead," Catelyn told hi up behind her "I fear we ride before the storm, Uncle"

"May we enter the Vale?" Ser Donnel asked The Waynwoods were ever ones for ceremony

"In the name of Robert Arryn, Lord of the Eyrie, Defender of the Vale, True Warden of the East, I bid you enter freely, and charge you to keep his peace," Ser Brynden replied "Come"

And so she rode behind him, beneath the shadow of the Bloody Gate where a dozen are of Heroes On the far side of the stoneworks, the reen fields, blue sky, and snowcapped mountains that took her breath away The Vale of Arryn bathed in the ht

It stretched before them to the misty cast, a tranquil land of rich black soil, wide slow- rivers, and hundreds of small lakes that shone likepeaks Wheat and corn and barley grew high in its fields, and even in Highgarden the puer nor the fruit any sweeter than here They stood at the western end of the valley, where the high road crested the last pass and began its winding descent to the bottomlands two miles below The Vale was narrow here, no more than a half day’s ride across, and the northern mountains seemed so close that Catelyn could al over theed peak called the Giant’s Lance, a mountain that even mountains looked up to, its head lost in icy mists three and a half miles above the valley floor Over its host torrent of Alyssa’s Tears Even fro silver thread, bright against the dark stone

When her uncle saw that she had stopped, he moved his horse closer and pointed "It’s there, beside Alyssa’s Tears All you can see from here is a flash of white every now and then, if you look hard and the sun hits the walls just right"

Seven towers, Ned had told her, like white daggers thrust into the belly of the sky, so high you can stand on the parapets and look down on the clouds "How long a ride?" she asked

"We can be at the mountain by evenfall," Uncle Brynden said, "but the climb will take another day"

Ser Rodrik Cassel spoke up froo no farther today" His face sagged beneath his ragged, nehiskers, and he looked so weary Catelyn feared he ht fall off his horse

"Nor should you," she said "You have done all I could have asked of you, and a hundred times more My uncle will see me the rest of the way to the Eyrie Lannister must come with me, but there is no reason that you and the others should not rest here and recover your strength"

"We should be honored to have therave courtesy of the young Beside Ser Rodrik, only Bronn, Ser Willis Wode, and Marillion the singer remained of the party that had ridden with her from the inn by the crossroads

"My lady," Marillion said, riding forward "I beg you allow me to accompany you to the Eyrie, to see the end of the tale as I saw its beginnings" The boy sounded haggard, yet strangely determined; he had a fevered shine to his eyes

Catelyn had never asked the singer to ride with them; that choice he had made himself, and how he had come to survive the journey when so many braver men lay dead and unburied behind them, she could never say Yet here he ith a scruff of beard thatfor having come this far "Very well," she told him

"I’ll come as well," Bronn announced

She liked that less well Without Bronn she would never have reached the Vale, she knew; the sellsas as fierce a fighter as she had ever seen, and his sword had helped cut theh to safety Yet for all that, Catelyn th, but there was no kindness in hi beside Lannister far too often, talking in low voices and laughing at some private joke She would have preferred to separate hireed that Marillion racious way to deny that sah she noted that he had not actually asked her permission

Ser Willis Wode re over their wounds Their horses were left behind as well, poor ragged things Ser Donnel promised to send birds ahead to the Eyrie and the Gates of the Moon with the word of their coht forth froy coats, and within the hour they set forth once again Catelyn rode beside her uncle as they began the descent to the valley floor Behind came Bronn, Tyrion Lannister, Marillion, and six of Brynden’s men

Not until they were a third of the way down the mountain path, well out of earshot of the others, did Brynden Tully turn to her and say, "So, child Tell me about this storm of yours"

"I have not been a child in many years, Uncle," Catelyn said, but she told hier than she would have believed to tell it all, Lysa’s letter and Bran’s fall, the assassin’s dagger and Littlefinger and her chancewith Tyrion Lannister in the crossroads inn

Her uncle listened silently, heavy brows shadowing his eyes as his frown grew deeper Brynden Tully had always kno to listento anyone but her father He was Lord Hoster’s brother, younger by five years, but the two of them had been at war as far back as Catelyn could re one of their louder quarrels, when Catelyn was eight, Lord Hoster had called Brynden "the black goat of the Tully flock" Laughing, Brynden had pointed out that the sigil of their house was a leaping trout, so he ought to be a black fish rather than a black goat, and from that day forward he had taken it as his personal emblem

The war had not ended until the day she and Lysa had been wed It was at their wedding feast that Brynden told his brother he was leaving Riverrun to serve Lysa and her new husband, the Lord of the Eyrie Lord Hoster had not spoken his brother’s name since, from what Edmure told her in his infrequent letters

Nonetheless, during all those years of Catelyn’s girlhood, it had been Brynden the Blackfish to whom Lord Hoster’s children had run with their tears and their tales, when Father was too busy and Mother too ill Catelyn, Lysa, Edmureand yes, even Petyr Baelish, their father’s wardhe had listened to the at their triu with their childish misfortunes

When she was done, her uncle reotiated the steep, rocky trail "Your father must be told," he said at last "If the Lannisters should march, Winterfell is remote and the Vale walled up behind its ht in their path"

"I’d had the same fear," Catelyn admitted "I shall ask Maester Colemon to send a bird e reach the Eyrie" She had other iven her for his bannermen, to ready the defenses of the north "What is the ry," Brynden Tully admitted "Lord Jon wasnamed Jaime Lannister to an office the Arryns had held for near three hundred years Lysa has commanded us to call her son the True Warden of the East, but no one is fooled Nor is your sister alone in wondering at the manner of the Hand’s death None dare say Jon was ave Catelyn a look, his ht "And there is the boy"

"The boy? What of hi of rock, and around a sharp turn

Her uncle’s voice was troubled "Lord Robert," he sighed "Six years old, sickly, and prone to weep if you take his dolls away Jon Arryn’s trueborn heir, by all the gods, yet there are some who say he is too weak to sit his father’s seat, Nestor Royce has been high steward these past fourteen years, while Lord Jon served in King’s Landing, and e Others believe that Lysa ather like crows on a battlefield The Eyrie is full of theht have expected that," Catelyn said Sdoift "Will Lysa take another husband?"

"She says yes, provided she finds a man who suits her," Brynden Tully said, "but she has already rejected Lord Nestor and a dozen other suitable men She swears that this time she will choose her lord husband"

"You of all people can scarce fault her for that"

Ser Brynden snorted "Nor do I, butit see at courtship She enjoys the sport, but I believe your sister intends to rule herself until her boy is old enough to be Lord of the Eyrie in truth as well as name"

"A woman can rule as wisely as a ht wolance "Make no mistake, Cat Lysa is not you" He hesitated a moment "If truth be told, I fear you may not find your sister as helpful as you would like"

She was puzzled "What do you ’s Landing is not the sairl ent south when her husband was named Hand Those years were hard for her You e was made from politics, not passion"

"As washas been happier than your sister’s Two babes stillborn, twice as ods gave Lysa only the one child, and he is all your sister lives for now, poor boy Small wonder she fled rather than see him handed over to the Lannisters Your sister is afraid, child, and the Lannisters are what she fearsaway froht, and all to snatch her son out of the lion’s ht the lion to her door"

"In chains," Catelyn said A crevasse yawned on her right, falling away into darkness She reined up her horse and picked her way along step by careful step

"Oh?" Her uncle glanced back, to where Tyrion Lannister washis slow descent behind them "I see an axe on his saddle, a dirk at his belt, and a sellsword that trails after hiry shadow Where are the chains, sweet one?"

Catelyn shifted uneasily in her seat "The dwarf is here, and not by choice Chains or no, he is my prisoner Lysa ant him to answer for his crimes no less than I It was her own lord husband the Lannisters ainst theave her a weary shed, in tones that said she rong

The sun ell to the west by the tian to flatten beneath the hooves of their horses The road widened and grew straight, and for the first ti Once they reached the valley floor, the going was faster and they reenwoods and sleepy little ha across a dozen sunlit streams Her uncle sent a standard-bearer ahead of the froh, and below it his own black fish Farons and merchants’ carts and riders from lesser houses moved aside to let them pass

Even so, it was full dark before they reached the stout castle that stood at the foot of the Giant’s Lance Torches flickered atop its ramparts, and the horned e was up and the portcullis down, but Catelyn saw lights burning in the gatehouse and spilling from the s of the square towers beyond

"The Gates of the Moon," her uncle said as the party drew rein His standard-bearer rode to the edge of the atehouse "Lord Nestor’s seat He should be expecting us Look up"

Catelyn raised her eyes, up and up and up At first all she saas stone and trees, the looht, as black as a starless sky Then she noticed the glow of distant fires well above them; a tower keep, built upon the steep side of thedown froher and her a third, nospark in the sky And finally, up where the falcons soared, a flash of white in the o washed over her as she stared upward at the pale towers, so far above

"The Eyrie," she heard Marillion murmur, awed

The sharp voice of Tyrion Lannister broke in "The Arrynsto make us climb that mountain in the dark, I’d rather you kill ht here and make the ascent on the morrow," Brynden told him

"I can scarcely wait," the dwarf replied "Hoe get up there? I’ve no experience at riding goats"

"Mules," Brynden said, s

"There are steps carved into the mountain," Catelyn said Ned had told her about them when he talked of his youth here with Robert Baratheon and Jon Arryn

Her uncle nodded "It is too dark to see them, but the steps are there Too steep and narrow for horses, but uarded by three waycastles, Stone and Snow and Sky The mules will take us as far up as Sky"

Tyrion Lannister glanced up doubtfully "And beyond that?"

Brynden smiled "Beyond that, the path is too steep even for mules We ascend on foot the rest of the way Or perchance you’d prefer to ride a basket The Eyrie clings to the reat winches with long iron chains to draw supplies up froe for you to ride up with the bread and beer and apples"

The dwarf gave a bark of laughter "Would that I were a pumpkin," he said "Alas, rined if his son of Lannister went to his fate like a load of turnips If you ascend on foot, I fear I must do the same We Lannisters do have a certain pride"