Page 58 (1/2)

Eddard

The straw on the floor stank of urine There was no , no bed, not even a slop bucket He remembered walls of pale red stone festooned with patches of nitre, a grey door of splintered wood, four inches thick and studded with iron He had seen thelimpse as they shoved him inside Once the door had slammed shut, he had seen no more The dark was absolute He had as well been blind

Or dead Buried with his king "Ah, Robert," hehand touched a cold stone wall, his leg throbbing with everyhad shared in the crypts of Winterfell, as the Kings of Winter looked on with cold stone eyes The king eats, Robert had said, and the Hand takes the shit How he had laughed Yet he had gotten it wrong The king dies, Ned Stark thought, and the Hand is buried

The dungeon was under the Red Keep, deeper than he dared ior the Cruel, who ht never reveal its secrets

He daold cloaks, the queen, the Kingslayer, Pycelle and Varys and Ser Barristan, even Lord Renly, Robert’s own blood, who had run when he was needed most Yet in the end he blamed himself "Fool," he cried to the darkness, "thrice-damned blind fool"

Cersei Lannister’s face seemed to float before hiht, but there was ame of thrones, you win or you die," she whispered Ned had played and lost, and his men had paid the price of his folly with their life’s blood

When he thought of his daughters, he would have wept gladly, but the tears would not corief and his rage froze hard inside hi did not hurt sohe could not say There was no sun and no moon He could not see to mark the walls Ned closed his eyes and opened theain He did not knohich wasWhen he slept, he drea dreams of blood and broken pro to do but think, and his waking thoughts orse than nightht of Cat was as painful as a bed of nettles He wondered where she hat she was doing He wondered whether he would ever see her again

Hours turned to days, or so it see, an itch beneath the plaster When he touched his thigh, the flesh was hot to his fingers The only sound was his breathing After a tian to talk aloud, just to hear a voice He made plans to keep himself sane, built castles of hope in the dark Robert’s brothers were out in the world, raising aronstone and Stor’s Landing with the rest of his household guard once they had dealt with Ser Gregor Catelyn would raise the north when the word reached her, and the lords of river and mountain and Vale would join her

He found hi as he had been in the flower of his youth, tall and handsoreat antlered hel his horse like a horned god He heard his laughter in the dark, saw his eyes, blue and clear as mountain lakes "Look at us, Ned," Robert said "Gods, how did we co We won a throne together"

I failed you, Robert, Ned thought He could not say the words I lied to you, hid the truth I let the heard him "You stiff-necked fool," he muttered, "too proud to listen Can you eat pride, Stark? Will honor shield your children?" Cracks ran down his face, fissures opening in the flesh, and he reached up and ripped the rinning,him When he opened his rey

Ned was half-asleep when the footsteps caht he drea but the sound of his own voice Ned was feverish by then, his leg a dull agony, his lips parched and cracked When the heavy wooden door creaked open, the sudden light was painful to his eyes

A gaoler thrust a jug at hirasped it with both hands and gulped eagerly Water ran froh his beard He drank until he thought he would be sick "How long?" he asked weakly when he could drink no aoler was a scarecrow of a man with a rat’s face and frayed beard, clad in a ," he said as he wrenched the jug frohters" The door crashed shut He blinked as the light vanished, lowered his head to his chest, and curled up on the straw It no longer stank of urine and shit It no longer ser tell the difference betaking and sleeping Theupon him in the darkness, as vivid as a dreaain, down from the Eyrie to the tourney at Harrenhal He could see the deep green of the grass, and shts and the sweet taste of wine He rehter, and Robert’s berserk valor in the ht He reolden youth in scaled white ar’s pavilion andAerys Afterward, Ser Oswell Whent helped Jaime to his feet, and the White Bull hihtower, fastened the snowy cloak of the Kingsguard about his shoulders All six White Swords were there to welco began, the day belonged to Rhaegar Targaryen The crown prince wore the ar black plate with the three-headed dragon of his House wrought in rubies on the breast A plume of scarlet silk streamed behind him when he rode, and it seemed no lance could touch him Brandon fell to him, and Bronze Yohn Royce, and even the splendid Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning

Robert had been jesting with Jon and old Lord Hunter as the prince circled the field after unhorsing Ser Barristan in the final tilt to claim the champion’s crown Ned remear Targaryen urged his horse past his oife, the Dornish princess Elia Martell, to lay the queen of beauty’s laurel in Lyanna’s lap He could see it still: a crown of winter roses, blue as frost

Ned Stark reached out his hand to grasp the flowery crown, but beneath the pale blue petals the thorns lay hidden He felt the at his skin, sharp and cruel, saw the slow trickle of blood run down his fingers, and woke, tre, in the dark

Promise me, Ned, his sister had whispered from her bed of blood She had loved the scent of winter roses

"Gods save ods did not deign to answer

Each tiht him water, he told hi the hters and the world beyond his cell Grunts and kicks were his only replies Later, when the stoed for food instead It made no matter; he was not fed Perhaps the Lannisters meant for him to starve to death "No," he told himself If Cersei had wanted him dead, he would have been cut down in the throne room with his men She wanted him alive Weak, desperate, yet alive Catelyn held her brother; she dare not kill him or the Imp’s life would be forfeit as well

From outside his cell came the rattle of iron chains As the door creaked open, Ned put a hand to the dalare of a torch made him squint "Food," he croaked

"Wine," a voice answered It was not the rat-faced h he wore the same leather half cape and spiked steel cap "Drink, Lord Eddard" He thrust a wineskin into Ned’s hands

The voice was strangely familiar, yet it took Ned Stark a ily when it came He touched thethis You’re here" The eunuch’s plump cheeks were covered with a dark stubble of beard Ned felt the coarse hair with his fingers Varys had transfor of sweat and sour wine "How did youwhat sort of ician are you?"

"A thirsty one," Varys said "Drink, my lord"

Ned’s hands fuave Robert?"

"You wrong me," Varys said sadly "Truly, no one loves a eunuch Givefroe you offered ht of the tourney, but nohis lips "Here"

Ned tried a s "Dregs" He felt as though he were about to bring the wine back up

"All h lords and eunuchs alike Your hour has cohters"

"The younger girl escaped Ser Meryn and fled," Varys told him "I have not been able to find her Nor have the Lannisters A kindness, there Our new king loves her not Your older girl is still betrothed to Joffrey Cersei keeps her close She cao to plead that you be spared A pity you couldn’t have been there, you would have been touched" He leaned forward intently "I trust you realize that you are a dead man, Lord Eddard?"

"The queen will not kill , and it had been too long since he’d eaten "CatCat holds her brother"

"The wrong brother," Varys sighed "And lost to her, in any case She let the Iers I expect he is dead by now, somewhere in the Mountains of the Moon"

"If that is true, slit my throat and have done with it" He was dizzy from the wine, tired and heartsick

"Your blood is the last thing I desire"

Ned frowned "When they slaughtered uard, you stood beside the queen and watched, and said not a word"

"And would again I seem to recall that I was unarmed, unarmored, and surrounded by Lannister swords" The eunuch looked at hi boy, before I was cut, I traveled with a troupe of ht me that each man has a role to play, in life as well as ’s Justice al, the Lord Couard must be valiantand the master of whisperers eous inforht" He took the wineskin back and drank