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"As you say, ht I ask why--"
"Best not," Ned answered crisply
The godsas eods Ned’s leg was screarass beside the heart tree "Thank you" He drew a paper froil of his House "Kindly deliver this at once"
Tomard looked at the name Ned had written on the paper and licked his lips anxiously "My lord"
"Do as I bid you, To he waited in the quiet of the godswood, he could not say It was peaceful here The thick walls shut out the cla, the entle wind The heart tree was an oak, brown and faceless, yet Ned Stark still felt the presence of his gods His leg did not seem to hurt so much
She came to him at sunset, as the clouds reddened above the walls and towers She came alone, as he had bid her For once she was dressed sireens When she drew back the hood of her brown cloak, he saw the bruise where the king had struck her The angry plu was down, but there was nobut what it was
"Why here?" Cersei Lannister asked as she stood over hiods can see"
She sat beside hi blond hair reen as the leaves of su time since Ned Stark had seen her beauty, but he saw it now "I know the truth Jon Arryn died for," he told her
"Do you?" The queen watched his face, wary as a cat "Is that why you called me here, Lord Stark? To pose me riddles? Or is it your intent to seize me, as your wife seized my brother?"
"If you truly believed that, you would never have coently "Has he done this before?"
"Once or twice" She shied away from his hand "Never on the face before Jaime would have killed him, even if it meant his own life" Cersei looked at him defiantly "My brother is worth a hundred of your friend"
"Your brother?" Ned said "Or your lover?"
"Both" She did not flinch froether And why not? The Targaryens wed brother to sister for three hundred years, to keep the bloodlines pure And Jaime and I are more than brother and sister We are one person in two bodies We shared a wo my foot, our old host of a smile flitted over her lips
"My son Bran"
To her credit, Cersei did not look away "He saw us You love your children, do you not?"
Robert had asked hiave her the same answer "With all my heart"
"No less do I love ht, If it caainst Robb and Sansa and Arya and Bran and Rickon, ould I do? Even ainst the children of her body? He did not know He prayed he never would
"All three are Jaime’s," he said It was not a question
"Thank the gods"
The seed is strong, Jon Arryn had cried on his deathbed, and so it was All those bastards, all with hair as black as night Grand Maester Malleon recorded the last o, when Tya Lannister wed Gowen Baratheon, third son of the reigning lord Their only issue, an unnae and lusty lad born with a full head of black hair, died in infancy Thirty years before that a iven hihters and a son, each black-haired No es, always he found the gold yielding before the coal
"A dozen years," Ned said "How is it that you have had no children by the king?"
She lifted her head, defiant "Your Robert got me with child once," she said, her voice thick with contempt "My brother found a woman to cleanse me He never knew If truth be told, I can scarcely bear for him to touch me, and I have not let him inside me for years I know other ways to pleasure hier up tois usually so drunk that he’s forgotten it all by the next "
How could they have all been so blind? The truth was there in front of them all the time, written on the children’s faces Ned felt sick "I remember Robert as he was the day he took the throne, every inch a king," he said quietly "A thousand other woht have loved him with all their hearts What did he do to reen fire in the dusk, like the lioness that was her sigil "The night of our wedding feast, the first time we shared a bed, he called me by your sister’s na of wine, and he whispered Lyanna"
Ned Stark thought of pale blue roses, and for a moment he wanted to weep "I do not knohich of you I pity most"
The queen seemed amused by that "Save your pity for yourself, Lord Stark I want none of it"
"You knohat I ood leg, just above the knee "A true ers brushed lightly against his thigh, the gentlest of pro Hand Joff will not coain, least of all me" Her hand touched his face, his hair "If friends can turn to eneues away, and my brother has fled Be kind to ret it"
"Did you make the same offer to Jon Arryn?"
She slapped hie of honor," Ned said dryly
"Honor," she spat "How dare you play the noble lord with me! What do you take me for? You’ve a bastard of your own, I’ve seen him Who was the mother, I wonder? Some Dornish peasant you raped while her holdfast burned? A whore? Or was it the grieving sister, the Lady Ashara? She threw herself into the sea, I’m told Why was that? For the brother you slew, or the child you stole? Tell me, my honorable Lord Eddard, how are you any different from Robert, or me, or Jaime?"
"For a start," said Ned, "I do not kill children You would do well to listen,returns from his hunt, I intend to lay the truth before hione by then You and your children, all three, and not to Casterly Rock If I were you, I should take ship for the Free Cities, or even farther, to the Summer Isles or the Port of Ibben As far as the winds blow"
"Exile," she said "A bitter cup to drink froar’s children," Ned said, "and kinder than you deserve Your father and your brothers would do well to go with you Lord Tywin’s gold will buy you comfort and hire swords to keep you safe You shall need them I promise you, no matter where you flee, Robert’s wrath will follow you, to the back of beyond if need be"
The queen stood "And what of my wrath, Lord Stark?" she asked softly Her eyes searched his face "You should have taken the real Jai’s Landing fell, and made him yield it up That was your moment All you needed to do was climb those steps, and sit Such a sad mistake"
"I have ine," Ned said, "but that was not one of them"
"Oh, but it was, around"
She turned up her hood to hide her swollen face and left hiodswood, under a blue-black sky The stars were co out