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Bran

The Karstarks ca three hundred horsemen and near two thousand foot from their castle at Karhold The steel points of their pikes winked in the pale sunlight as the colu out a slow, deep-throated er than he was, boouard turret atop the outer wall, peering through Maester Luwin’s bronze far-eye while perched on Hodor’s shoulders Lord Rickard hi beside hiht-black banners emblazoned with the white sunburst of their House Old Nan said they had Stark blood in the back hundreds of years, but they did not look like Starks to Bran They were big men, and fierce, faces covered with thick beards, hair worn loose past the shoulders Their cloaks were made of skins, the pelts of bear and seal and wolf

They were the last, he knew The other lords were already here, with their hosts Bran yearned to ride out a, the jostling crowds in the , the streets rutted and torn by wheel and hoof But Robb had forbidden hiuard you," his brother had explained

"I’ll take Suued

"Don’t act the boy with me, Bran," Robb said "You know better than that Only two days ago one of Lord Bolton’sOur lady mother would skinthe voice of Robb the Lord when he said it; Bran knew that meant there was no appeal

It was because of what had happened in the ood, he knew The ave him bad dreams He had been as helpless as a baby, no more able to defend himself than Rickon would have been Less, evenRickon would have kicked theer than Robb; if his brother was alrown, so was he He should have been able to protect hio, before, he would have visited the town even if itover the walls by hiet on and off his pony by hih to knock Prince Toh Maester Luwin’s lens tube The ht him all the banners: the mailed fist of the Glovers, silver on scarlet; Lady Mormont’s black bear; the hideous flayed man that went before Roose Bolton of the Dreadfort; a bull moose for the Hornwoods; a battle-axe for the Cerwyns; three sentinel trees for the Tallharts; and the fearsoiant in shattered chains

And soon enough he learned the faces too, when the lords and their sons and knights retainer cae enough to seat all of them at once, so Robb hosted each of the principal banneriven the place of honor at his brother’s right hand Soave him queer hard stares as he sat there, as if they wondered by what right a green boy should be placed above them, and him a cripple too

"How many is it now?" Bran asked Maester Luwin as Lord Karstark and his sons rode through the gates in the outer wall

"Twelve thousand h as hts?"

"Few enough," the ht, you il in a sept, and be anointed with the seven oils to consecrate your vows In the north, only a few of the great houses worship the Seven The rest honor the old gods, and nahtsbut those lords and their sons and sworn swords are no less fierce or loyal or honorable A man’s worth is not marked by a ser before his name As I have told you a hundred tihts?"

Maester Luwin sighed "Three hundred, perhaps fourahts"

"Lord Karstark is the last," Bran said thoughtfully "Robb will feast hiht"

"No doubt he will"

"How long beforebefore they go?"

"He must march soon, or not at all," Maester Luwin said "The winter town is full to bursting, and this army of his will eat the countryside clean if it ca the kingsroad, barrow knights and crannogun in the riverlands, and your brother has o"

"I know" Bran felt as miserable as he sounded He handed the bronze tube back to the rown on top He could see the pink of scalp showing through It felt queer to look down on hi up at him, but when you sat on Hodor’s back you looked down on everyone "I don’t want to watch anymore Hodor, take me back to the keep"

"Hodor," said Hodor

Maester Luwin tucked the tube up his sleeve "Bran, your lord brother will not have tireet Lord Karstark and his sons and make them welcome"

"I won’t trouble Robb I want to visit the godswood" He put his hand on Hodor’s shoulder "Hodor"

A series of chisel-cut handholds ranite of the tower’s inner wall Hodor hu against his back in the wicker seat that Maester Luwin had fashioned for hiotten the idea from the baskets the women used to carry firewood on their backs; after that it had been a si sohtDancer, but there were places Dancer could not go, and this did not shame Bran the way it did when Hodor carried hih with Hodor it was hard to tell The only tricky part was doors Soot that he had Bran on his back, and that could be painful when he went through a door

For near a fortnight there had been so s that Robb ordered both portcullises kept up and the drawbridge down between the colu the ed fro their lords into the castle They wore black iron halfhelms and black woolen cloaks patterned with the white sunburst Hodor trotted along beside theainst the wood of the drawbridge The riders gave theuffaw He refused to let it trouble him "Men will look at you," Maester Luwin had warned him the first time they had strapped the wicker basket around Hodor’s chest "They will look, and they will talk, and soht No one mocked him in his bedchamber, but he would not live his life in bed

As they passed beneath the gatehouse portcullis, Bran put two fingers into hisacross the yard Suddenly the Karstark lancers were fighting for control, as their horses rolled their eyes and whickered in dis and hanging on desperately The scent of the direwolves sent horses into a frenzy of fear if they were not accustoone "The godswood," Bran reminded Hodor

Even Winterfell itself was crowded The yard rang to the sound of sword and axe, the rus The are, his ha as sweat dripped off his bare chest Bran had never seen asRobert had come to visit Father

He tried not to flinch as Hodor ducked through a low door They walked down a long dilanced up froold Bran would have liked to touch hih for his hand to reach

The godsas an island of peace in the sea of chaos that Winterfell had becoh the dense stands of oak and ironwood and sentinels, to the still pool beside the heart tree He stopped under the gnarled li Bran reached up over his head and pulled his up through the holes in the wicker basket He hung for a ainst his face, until Hodor lifted him and lowered him to the smooth stone beside the water "I want to be by o soak Go to the pools"

"Hodor" Hodor stoodswood, beneath the s of the Guest House, an underground hot spring fed three sht, and the wall that loomed above was thick with ht like a treed wildcat when threatened with soap, but he would happily i a loud burp to echo the spring whenever a bubble rose froreen depths to break upon the surface

Summer lapped at the water and settled down at Bran’s side He rubbed the wolf under the jaw, and for a moment boy and beast both felt at peace Bran had always liked the godswood, even before, but of late he found hier scared him the way it used to The deep red eyes carved into the pale trunk still watched hiods were looking over hiods of the Starks and the First Men and the children of the forest, his father’s gods He felt safe in their sight, and the deep silence of the trees helped hi, and dreaods

"Please o away," he prayed softly Heripples across the pool "Pleasehiirls And make itmake it so Rickon understands"

His baby brother had been wild as a winter storry by turns He’d refused to eat, cried and screaht, even punched Old Nan when she tried to sing him to sleep, and the next day he’d vanished Robb had set half the castle searching for him, and when at last they’d found him down in the crypts, Rickon had slashed at the’s hand, and Shaggydog had coreen-eyed dee on the arh It had taken Robb hi him to bay Farlen had the black wolf chained up in the kennels now, and Rickon cried all thewithout him

Maester Luwin counseled Robb to remain at Winterfell, and Bran pleaded with him too, for his own sake as much as Rickon’s, but his brother only shook his head stubbornly and said, "I don’t want to go I have to"

It was only half a lie Soainst the Lannisters, Bran could understand that, but it did not have to be Robb His brother iven the command to Hal Mollen or Theon Greyjoy, or to one of his lords bannered him to do just that, but Robb would not hear of it "My lord father would never have sent men off to die while he huddled like a craven behind the walls of Winterfell," he said, all Robb the Lord

Robb seeer to Bran now, transforh he had not yet seen his sixteenth name day Even their father’s bannermen seemed to sense it Many tried to test him, each in his oay Roose Bolton and Robett Glover both demanded the honor of battle command, the first brusquely, the second with a se Mormont, dressed in h to be her grandson, and had no business giving her cohter she would be willing to have hihter with him, a plump, homely maid of thirty years who sat at her father’s left hand and never lifted her eyes frohters, but he did bring gifts, a horse one day, a haunch of venison the next, a silver-chased hunting horn the day after, and he asked nothing in returnnothing but a certain holdfast taken froe, and leave to dam the White Knife, if it please the lord

Robb answered each of theht have, and somehow he bent them to his will

And when Lord Umber, as called the Greatjon by his men and stood as tall as Hodor and twice as wide, threatened to take his forces home if he was placed behind the Hornwoods or the Cerwyns in the order of march, Robb told him he elcome to do so "And e are done with the Lannisters," he pro Grey Wind behind the ear, "illyou for an oathbreaker" Cursing, the Greatjon flung a flagon of ale into the fire and bellowed that Robb was so green he rass When Hallis Mollen moved to restrain him, he knocked hiest, ugliest greatsword that Bran had ever seen All along the benches, his sons and brothers and sworn swords leapt to their feet, grabbing for their steel

Yet Robb only said a quiet word, and in a snarl and the blink of an eye Lord U on the floor three feet away and his hand dripping blood where Grey Wind had bitten off two fingers "My lord father taught e lord," Robb said, "but doubtless you only meant to cut my led to rise, sucking at the red stue h"

And soht hand, his staunchest cha all and sundry that the boy lord was a Stark after all, and they’d damn well better bend their knees if they didn’t fancy having theht, his brother came to Bran’s bedchamber pale and shaken, after the fires had burned low in the Great Hall "I thought he was going to kill me," Robb confessed "Did you see the way he thren Hal, like he was no bigger than Rickon? Gods, I was so scared And the Greatjon’s not the worst of them, only the loudest Lord Roose never says a word, he only looks at me, and all I can think of is that roo the skins of their enemies"

"That’s just one of Old Nan’s stories," Bran said A note of doubt crept into his voice "Isn’t it?"

"I don’t know" He gave a weary shake of his head "Lord Cerwyn hter south with us To cook for hiirl in ht I wishI wish Father was here"

That was the one thing they could agree on, Bran and Rickon and Robb the Lord; they all wished Father was here But Lord Eddard was a thousand leagues away, a captive in so for his life, or even dead No one seemed to know for certain; every traveler told a different tale, each uards on the walls of the Red Keep, i Robert was dead at Father’s hands The Baratheons had laid siege to King’s Landing Lord Eddard had fled south with the king’s wicked brother Renly Arya and Sansa had been murdered by the Hound Mother had killed Tyrion the I his body fro on the Eyrie, burning and slaughtering as he went One wine-sodden taleteller even claiaryen had returned fro a vast host of ancient heroes on Dragonstone to reclaim his father’s throne

When the raven ca a letter marked with Father’s own seal and written in Sansa’s hand, the cruel truth seeet the look on Robb’s face as he stared at their sister’s words "She says Father conspired at treason with the king’s brothers," he read "King Robert is dead, and Mother and I are summoned to the Red Keep to swear fealty to Joffrey She says we must be loyal, and when she marries Joffrey she will plead with hiers closed into a fist, crushing Sansa’s letter between the, not so irl?"

Bran felt all cold inside "She lost her wolf," he said, weakly, reuardsmen had returned from the south with Lady’s bones Suun to howl before they crossed the drawbridge, in voices drawn and desolate Beneath the shadow of the First Keep was an ancient lichyard, its headstones spotted with pale lichen, where the old Kings of Winter had laid their faithful servants It was there they buried Lady, while her brothers stalked between the graves like restless shadows She had gone south, and only her bones had returned