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Their grandfather, old Lord Rickard, had gone as well, with his son Brandon as Father’s brother, and two hundred of his best one south, with Arya and Sansa, and Jory and Hullen and Fat Toone, and they hadn’t co’s Landing and not to swear fealty, but to Riverrun, with a sword in his hand And if their lord father were truly a prisoner, that could htened Bran o, watch over hiods, as they watched him with the heart tree’s red eyes, "and watch over his men, Hal and Quent and the rest, and Lord Umber and Lady Mormont and the other lords And Theon too, I suppose Watch theods Help the theodswood and the red leaves stirred and whispered Summer bared his teeth "You hear them, boy?" a voice asked

Bran lifted his head Osha stood across the pool, beneath an ancient oak, her face shadowed by leaves Even in irons, the wildling moved quiet as a cat Summer circled the pool, sniffed at her The tall woman flinched

"Summer, to me," Bran called The direwolf took one final sniff, spun, and bounded back Bran wrapped his ar here?" He had not seen Osha since they’d taken her captive in the ood, though he knew she’d been set to working in the kitchens

"They are ods" Her hair was growing out, brown and shaggy It made her look hspun they’d given her when they took her e lets me have my prayers from time to time, when I feel the need, and I let him do as he likes underto entler than Stiv" She gave an aard bow "I’ll leave you There’s pots that want scouring"

"No, stay," Bran coods"

Osha studied hi Open your ears, listen, you’ll hear"

Bran listened "It’s only the wind," he said after a "

"Who do you think sends the wind, if not the gods?" She seated herself across the pool fro faintly as she moved Mikken had fixed iron manacles to her ankles, with a heavy chain between the as she kept her strides small, but there was no way for her to run, or climb, orThat rustling, that’s the?"

"They’re sad Your lord brother will get no help froods have no power in the south The oods there were all cut down, thousands of years ago How can they watch your brother when they have no eyes?"

Bran had not thought of that It frightened hiods could not help his brother, what hope was there? Maybe Osha wasn’t hearing theain He thought he could hear the sadness now, but nothing rew louder Bran heardout of the trees, naked and s "Hodor!"

"He ot your clothes"

"Hodor," Hodor agreed He was dripping wet fro in the chill air His body was covered with brown hair, thick as a pelt Between his legs, hisand heavy

Osha eyed hi iant’s blood in him, or I’m the queen"

"Maester Luwin says there are no iants He says they’re all dead, like the children of the forest All that’s left of them are old bones in the earth that men turn up with plows from time to time"

"Let Maester Luwin ride beyond the Wall," Osha said "He’ll find giants then, or they’ll find him My brother killed one Ten foot tall she was, and stunted at that They’ve been known to grow big as twelve and thirteen feet Fierce things they are too, all hair and teeth, and the wives have beards like their husbands, so there’s no telling them apart The women take human men for lovers, and it’s frooes harder on the wo they’ll rip a rinned at him "But you don’t knohat I mean, do you, boy?"

"Yes I do," Bran insisted He understood about s in the yard, and watched a stallionabout ityour clothes, Hodor," he said "Go dress"

"Hodor" He walked back the way he had co tree liht as he watched hiiants beyond the Wall?" he asked Osha, uncertainly

"Giants and worse than giants, Lordling I tried to tell your brother when he asked his questions, him and your , and o out from their fires and never come backor if they do, they’re not hts, with blue eyes and cold black hands Why do you think I run south with Stiv and Hali and the rest of theht, the brave sweet stubborn ers, but what does he know? He can call hi-beyond-the-Wall all he likes, but he’s still just another old black croho flen from the Shadoer He’s never tasted winter I was born up there, child, like my mother and her mother before her and her mother before her, born of the Free Folk We reether "I tried to tell your lordling brother Only yesterday, when I saw him in the yard ‘M’lord Stark,’ I called to hih me, and that sweaty oaf Greatjon Umber shoves me out of the path So be it I’ll wear ue A man on’t listen can’t hear"

"Tell me Robb will listen to me, I knoill"

"Will he now? We’ll see You tell hi the wrong way It’s north he should be taking his swords North, not south You hear me?"

Bran nodded "I’ll tell hiht, when they feasted in the Great Hall, Robb was not with them He took his meal in the solar instead, with Lord Rickard and the Greatjon and the other lords banner march to come It was left to Bran to fill his place at the head of the table, and act the host to Lord Karstark’s sons and honored friends They were already at their places when Hodor carried Bran into the hall on his back, and knelt beside the high seat Two of the serving men helped lift hier in the hall It had grown quiet "My lords," Hallis Mollen announced, "Brandon Stark, of Winterfell"

"I welcome you to our fires," Bran said stiffly, "and offer you meat and mead in honor of our friendship"

Harrion Karstark, the oldest of Lord Rickard’s sons, bowed, and his brothers after hier two talking in low voices, over the clatter of wine cups "sooner die than live like that," muttered one, his father’s namesake Eddard, and his brother Torrhen said likely the boy was broken inside as well as out, too craven to take his own life

Broken, Bran thought bitterly as he clutched his knife Is that what he was now? Bran the Broken? "I don’t want to be broken," he whispered fiercely to Maester Luho’d been seated to his right "I want to be a knight"

"There are sohts of theclever boy when you work at it, Bran Have you ever thought that you ht wear a ht learn"

"I want to learn ic," Bran told him "The crow prohed "I can teach you history, healing, herblore I can teach you the speech of ravens, and how to build a castle, and the way a sailor steers his ship by the stars I can teach you to measure the days and mark the seasons, and at the Citadel in Oldtown they can teach you a thousand things ic"

"The children could," Bran said "The children of the forest" That reodswood, so he told Luhat she had said

The ive Old Nan lessons in telling tales, I think," he said when Bran was done "I will talk with her again if you like, but it would be best if you did not trouble your brother with this folly He has iants and dead men in the woods It’s the Lannisters who hold your lord father, Bran, not the children of the forest" He put a gentle hand on Bran’s arm "Think on what I said, child"

And two days later, as a red dawn broke across a ept sky, Bran found hiatehouse, strapped atop Dancer as he said his farewells to his brother

"You are the lord in Winterfell now," Robb told hi frorey, and on it the snarling face of a direwolf His brother wore grey chainer at his waist, a fur-trimmed cloak across his shoulders "You must take my place, as I took Father’s, until we come home"

"I know," Bran replied miserably He had never felt so little or alone or scared He did not kno to be a lord

"Listen to Maester Luwin’s counsel, and take care of Rickon Tell hi is done"

Rickon had refused to come down He was up in his chamber, redeyed and defiant "No!" he’d screamed when Bran had asked if he didn’t want to say farewell to Robb "NO farewell!"

"I told him," Bran said "He says no one ever comes back"

"He can’t be a baby forever He’s a Stark, and near four" Robb sighed "Well, Mother will be ho back Father, I promise"

He wheeled his courser around and trotted away Grey Wind followed, loping beside the warhorse, lean and swift Hallis Mollen went before the white banner of House Stark atop a high standard of grey ash Theon Greyjoy and the Greatjon fell in on either side of Robb, and their knights forlinting in the sun

Unco the wrong way, he thought For an instant he wanted to gallop after hi, but when Robb vanished beneath the portcullis, the one

Beyond the castle walls, a roar of sound went up The foot soldiers and townsfolk were cheering Robb as he rode past, Bran knew; cheering for Lord Stark, for the Lord of Winterfell on his great stallion, with his cloak strea beside him They would never cheer for hiht be the lord in Winterfell while his brother and father were gone, but he was still Bran the Broken He could not even get off his own horse, except to fall

When the distant cheers had faded to silence and the yard was empty at last, Winterfell seemed deserted and dead Bran looked around at the faces of those who remained, woe stableboy had a lost and frightened look to his face "Hodor?" he said sadly

"Hodor," Bran agreed, wondering what it meant