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"Straps, is it?" Stiv said He drew a dagger from a sheath at his belt "There’s ways to deal with straps"

"You some kind of cripple?" asked the short woman

Bran flared "I’o of aunt hed "The boy’s a Stark, true enough Only a Stark would be fool enough to threaten where s"

"Cut his little cock off and stuff it in his ested the short woman "That should shut hily, Hali," said the tall woods be daive to have Benjen Stark’s own blood to hostage!"

"Mance be dao back there, Osha? More fool you Think the white walkers will care if you have a hostage?" He turned back to Bran and slashed at the strap around his thigh The leather parted with a sigh

The stroke had been quick and careless, biting deep Looking down, Bran glis had parted Then the blood began to flow He watched the red stain spread, feeling light-headed, curiously apart; there had been no pain, not even a hint of feeling The big runted in surprise

"Put down your steel now, and I promise you shall have a quick and painless death," Robb called out

Bran looked up in desperate hope, and there he was The strength of the words were undercut by the way his voice cracked with strain He wasacross the back of his horse, his sword in a gloved hand

"The brother," said the rey stubbly face

"He’s a fierce one, he is," mocked the short woht us, boy?"

"Don’t be a fool, lad You’re one against six" The tall woman, Osha, leveled her spear "Off the horse, and thron the sword We’ll thank you kindly for the mount and for the venison, and you and your brother can be on your way"

Robb whistled They heard the faint sound of soft feet on wet leaves The undergrowth parted, low-hanging branches giving up their accureen Suasped Hali

"Direwolves," Bran said Still half-grown, they were as large as any wolf he had ever seen, but the differences were easy to spot, if you knehat to look for Maester Luwin and Farlen the kenneler legs in proportion to its body, and its snout and jaere aunt and terrible about the snow Fresh blood spotted Grey Wind’sbaldlike a wolfskin cloak to waresture "Take them"

Robb shouted, "Winterfell!" and kicked his horse The gelding plunged down the bank as the raggedand heedless Robb’s sword caught hiht blood The rab for the reins, and for half a second he had the him down He fell back into the strea wildly with his knife as his head went under The direwolf plunged in after him, and the white water turned red where they had vanished

Robb and Oshaspear was a steel-headed serpent, flashing out at his chest, once, twice, three ti the point aside On the fourth or fifth thrust, the tall woman overextended herself and lost her balance, just for a second Robb charged, riding her down

A few feet away, Summer darted in and snapped at Hali The knife bit at his flank Suain This ti the knife with both hands, the small woman stabbed down, but the direwolf see He pulled free for an instant, his mouth full of leather and cloth and bloody flesh When Hali stu her backward, teeth tearing at her belly

The sixth ebut not far As he went scraed fro wet He shook the water off and bounded after the running oing for the throat as the screa man slid back doard the water

And then there was no one left but the big rabbed his arround, his legs tangled under him, one foot in the stream He could not feel the cold of the water, but he felt the steel when Stiv pressed his dagger to his throat "Back away," the man warned, "or I’ll open the boy’s windpipe, I swear it"

Robb reined his horse in, breathing hard The fury went out of his eyes, and his sword ar Su blue snakes fro Bran could not tell whether she was alive or dead The grey stubbly , but Osha was on her knees, crawling toward her fallen spear Grey Wind padded toward her, dripping wet "Call hi man shouted "Call them both off, or the cripple boy dies now!"

"Grey Wind, Summer, to me," Robb said

The direwolves stopped, turned their heads Grey Wind loped back to Robb Summer stayed where he was, his eyes on Bran and the rowled His muzzle et and red, but his eyes burned

Osha used the butt end of her spear to lever herself back to her feet Blood leaked from a wound on the upper ar down the big man’s face Stiv was as scared as he was, he realized "Starks," the man muttered, "bloody Starks" He raised his voice "Osha, kill the wolves and get his sword"

"Kill the near those monsters"

For a moment Stiv was at a loss His hand treainst his neck The stench of the man filled his nose; he smelled of fear "You," he called out to Robb "You have a name?"

"I am Robb Stark, the heir to Winterfell"

"This is your brother?"

"Yes"

"You want him alive, you do what I say Off the horse"

Robb hesitated a moment Then, slowly and deliberately, he dismounted and stood with his sword in hand

"Now kill the wolves"

Robb did not move

"You do it The wolves or the boy"

"No!" Bran screamed If Robb did as they asked, Stiv would kill them both anyway, once the direwolves were dead

The bald man took hold of his hair with his free hand and twisted it cruelly, till Bran sobbed in pain "You shut your mouth, cripple, you hear me?" He twisted harder "You hear me?"

A low thruasp as a half foot of razor-tipped broadhead suddenly exploded out of his chest The arroas bright red, as if it had been painted in blood

The dagger fell away fro man swayed and collapsed, facedown in the streao swirling off in the water

Osha glanced around as Father’s guardsmen appeared from beneath the trees, steel in hand She thren her spear "Mercy, uardse, pale look to their faces as they took in the scene of slaughter They eyed the wolves uncertainly, and when Summer returned to Hali’s corpse to feed, Joseth dropped his knife and scra Even Maester Luwin seemed shocked as he stepped from behind a tree, but only for an instant Then he shook his head and waded across the stream to Bran’s side "Are you hurt?"

"He cut ," Bran said, "but I couldn’t feel it"

As the maester knelt to examine the wound, Bran turned his head Theon Greyjoy stood beside a sentinel tree, his bow in hand He was s A half-dozen arroere thrust into the soft ground at his feet, but it had taken only one "A dead ene of beauty," he announced

"Jon always said you were an ass, Greyjoy," Robb said loudly "I ought to chain you up in the yard and let Bran take a few practice shots at you"

"You should be thankingyour brother’s life"

"What if you had missed the shot?" Robb said "What if you’d only wounded him? What if you had made his hand juht have been wearing a breastplate, all you could see was the back of his cloak What would have happened to my brother then? Did you ever think of that, Greyjoy?"

Theon’s san to pull his arrows frouardsmen "Where were you?" he demanded of them "I was sure you were close behind us"

The , est of them, his beard a soft brown fuzz "Only first aited for Maester Luwin and his ass, begging your pardons, and then, well, as it were" He glanced over at Theon and quickly looked away, abashed

"I spied a turkey," Theon said, annoyed by the question "Hoas I to know that you’d leave the boy alone?"

Robb turned his head to look at Theon onceFinally he knelt beside Maester Luwin "How badly is my brother wounded?"

"No more than a scratch," the maester said He wet a cloth in the stream to clean the cut "Two of them wear the black," he told Robb as he worked

Robb glanced over at where Stiv lay sprawled in the strea waters tugged at it "Deserters frorimly "They must have been fools, to come so close to Winterfell"

"Folly and desperation are ofttimes hard to tell apart," said Maester Luwin

"Shall we bury them, m’lord?" asked Quent

"They would not have buried us," Robb said "Hack off their heads, we’ll send them back to the Wall Leave the rest for the carrion crows"

"And this one?" Quent jerked a thumb toward Osha

Robb walked over to her She was a head taller than he was, but she dropped to her knees at his approach "Give me my life, m’lord of Stark, and I am yours"

"Mine? What would I do with an oathbreaker?"

"I broke no oaths Stiv and Wallen flen off the Wall, not ot no place for women"

Theon Greyjoy sauntered closer "Give her to the wolves," he urged Robb The woman’s eyes went to as left of Hali, and just as quickly away She shuddered Even the guardsmen looked queasy

"She’s a wo," Bran told him "She said they should keep me alive so they could take me to Mance Rayder"

"Do you have a name?" Robb asked her

"Osha, as it please the lord," she ht do well to question her"

Bran could see the relief on his brother’s face "As you say, Maester Wayn, bind her hands She’ll come back to Winterfell with usand live or die by the truths she gives us"