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Eddard

Through the high narros of the Red Keep’s cavernous throne roo dark red stripes upon the walls where the heads of dragons had once hung Now the stone was covered with hunting tapestries, vivid with greens and browns and blues, and yet still it seemed to Ned Stark that the only color in the hall was the red of blood

He sat high upon the ion the Conqueror, an ironwork rotesquely twisted metal It was, as Robert had warned him, a hellishly uncomfortable chair, and neverrown harder by the hour, and the fanged steel behindshould never sit easy, Aegon the Conqueror had said, when he coreat seat froon for his arrogance, Ned thought sullenly, and da as well

"You are quite certain these were ands?" Varys asked softly from the council table beneath the throne Grand Maester Pycelle stirred uneasily beside hier toyed with a pen They were the only councillors in attendance A white hart had been sighted in the kingswood, and Lord Renly and Ser Barristan had joined the king to hunt it, along with Prince Joffrey, Sandor Clegane, Balon Swann, and half the court So Ned must needs sit the Iron Throne in his absence

At least he could sit Save the council, the rest must stand respectfully, or kneel The petitioners clustered near the tall doors, the knights and high lords and ladies beneath the tapestries, the sold or grey: all stood

The villagers were kneeling: men, women, and children, alike tattered and bloody, their faces drawn by fear The three knights who had brought theands, Lord Varys?" Ser Rayands, beyond a doubt Lannister brigands"

Ned could feel the unease in the hall, as high lords and servants alike strained to listen He could not pretend to surprise The west had been a tinderbox since Catelyn had seized Tyrion Lannister Both Riverrun and Casterly Rock had called their banners, and ar in the pass below the Golden Tooth It had only been a an to flow The sole question that remained was how best to stanch the wound

Sad-eyed Ser Karyl Vance, ould have been handsoestured at the kneeling villagers "This is all the remains of the holdfast of Sherrer, Lord Eddard The rest are dead, along with the people of Wendish Town and the Mumers He never trusted what a man told him from his knees "All of you, up"

In ones and twos, the holdfast of Sherrer struggled to its feet One ancient needed to be helped, and a young girl in a bloody dress stayed on her knees, staring blankly at Ser Arys Oakheart, who stood by the foot of the throne in the white aror, Ned supposed, the King’s Hand

"Joss," Ser Ray man in a brewer’s apron "Tell the Hand what happened at Sherrer"

Joss nodded "If it please His Grace--"

"His Grace is hunting across the Blackwater," Ned said, wondering how a man could live his whole life a few days ride fro looked like Ned was clad in a white linen doublet with the direwolf of Stark on the breast; his black wool cloak was fastened at the collar by his silver hand of office Black and white and grey, all the shades of truth "I a’s Hand Tell me who you are and what you know of these raiders"

"I keepI keptI kept an alehouse, e The finest ale south of the Neck, everyone said so, begging your pardons, one now like all the rest, m’lord They come and drank their fill and spilled the rest before they fired my roof, and they would of spilled ht me M’lord"

"They burnt us out," a far in the dark, up from the south, and fired the fields and the houses alike, killing theh, m’lord They had no mind to steal our stock, not these, they butchered my milk cohere she stood and left her for the flies and the crows"

"They rode down my ’prentice boy," said a squat e around his head He had put on his finest clothes to come to court, but his breeches were patched, his cloak travel-stained and dusty "Chased hi at hi and the boy stuh"

The girl on her knees craned her head up at Ned, high above her on the throne "They killed my mother too, Your Grace And theythey" Her voice trailed off, as if she had forgotten what she was about to say She began to sob

Ser Rayht shelter in their holdfast, but the walls were tiainst the wood and burnt theates to flee the fire, they shot the out, even wo babes"

"Oh, dreadful," murmured Varys "How cruel can men be?"

"They would of done the same for us, but the Sherrer holdfast’s made of stone," Joss said "So one said there was riper fruit upriver, and they made for the Muainst his fingers as he leaned forward Between each finger was a blade, the points of twisted swords fanning out like talons from arms of the throne Even after three centuries, soh to cut The Iron Throne was full of traps for the unwary The songs said it had taken a thousand blades to make it, heated white-hot in the furnace breath of Balerion the Black Dread The ha had taken fifty-nine days The end of it was this hunched black beast es and barbs and ribbons of sharp metal; a chair that could kill a man, and had, if the stories could be believed

What Eddard Stark was doing sitting there he would never comprehend, yet there he sat, and these people looked to him for justice "What proof do you have that these were Lannisters?" he asked, trying to keep his fury under control "Did they wear crimson cloaks or fly a lion banner?"

"Even Lannisters are not so blind stupid as that," Ser Marq Piper snapped He was a swaggering banta and too hot-blooded for Ned’s taste, though a fast friend of Catelyn’s brother, Ed them was mounted and mailed, my lord," Ser Karyl answered calswords, with battle-axes for the butchering" He gestured toward one of the ragged survivors "You Yes, you, no one’s going to hurt you Tell the Hand what you toldtheir horses," he said, "it arhorses they rode Many a year I worked in old Ser Willum’s stables, so I knows the difference Not a one of these ever pulled a plow, gods bear witness if I’ands," observed Littlefinger "Perhaps they stole the horses from the last place they raided"

"Howparty?" Ned asked

"A hundred, at the least," Joss answered, in the sarandmother behind him, "Hunnerds and hunnerds, ht than you know, goodwoman," Lord Eddard told her "You say they flew no banners What of the armor they wore? Did any of you note ornaments or decorations, devices on shield or helrieves me, m’lord, but no, the armor they showed us was plain, onlythe one who led the him all the saiants are all dead never saw this one, I swear Big as an ox he was, and a voice like stone breaking"

"The Mountain!" Ser Marq said loudly "Can any ane’s work"

Ned heardfrom beneath the s and the far end of the hall Even in the galley, nervous whispers were exchanged High lords and smallfolk alike knehat it could ane stood bannerhtened faces of the villagers Sht they were being dragged here to na as his son by iven them a choice

Grand Maester Pycelle rose ponderously fro "Ser Marq, with respect, you cannot know that this outlaas Ser Gregor There are e as the Mountain That Rides?" Ser Karyl said "I have never met one"

"Nor has any man here," Ser Raymun added hotly "Even his brother is a pup beside him My lords, open your eyes Do you need to see his seal on the corpses? It was Gregor"

"Why should Ser Gregor turn brigand?" Pycelle asked "By the grace of his liege lord, he holds a stout keep and lands of his own The ht!" Ser Marq said "Lord Tywin’s "

"My lord Hand," Pycelle declared in a stiff voice, "I urge you to reht that Lord Tywin Lannister is the father of our own gracious queen"

"Thank you, Grand Maester Pycelle," Ned said "I fear we otten that if you had not pointed it out"