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"Rickon," Bran said, "would you like to come with me?"

"No I like it here"

"It’s dark here And cold"

"I’m not afraid I have to wait for Father"

"You can ith ether, you andwounds now, and would bear close watching

"Bran," theis too wild to run loose I’ed Give him the freedom of the castle and it’s only a question of time before he kills someone The truth is hard, but the wolf has to be chained, or&rdquo He hesitated

or killed, Bran thought, but what he said was, "He was not made for chains We ait in your tower, all of us"

"That is quite irinned "The boy’s the lordling here, as I recall" She handed Luwin back his torch and scooped Bran up into her arain "The maester’s tower it is"

"Will you coy co after Osha and Bran, and there was nothing Maester Luwin could do but follow, keeping a wary eye on the wolves

Maester Luwin’s turret was so cluttered that it see piles of books covered tables and chairs, rows of stoppered jars lined the shelves, candle stubs and puddles of dried wax dotted the furniture, the bronze Myrish lens tube sat on a tripod by the terrace door, star charts hung fro the rushes, papers, quills, and pots of inks were everywhere, and all of it was spotted with droppings from the ravens in the rafters Their strident quorks drifted down froed the maester’s wounds, under Luwin’s terse instruction "This is folly," the sreyointree that it is odd that both you boys dreamed the same dream, yet when you stop to consider it, it’s only natural You miss your lord father, and you know that he is a captive Fear can fever a hts Rickon is too young to comprehend--"

"I’h the lens tube at the gargoyles on the First Keep The direwolves sat on opposite sides of the large round roo on bones

"--too young, and--ooh, seven hells, that burns, no, don’t stop, h to know that dreams are only dreams"

"Some are, soash Luwin gasped "The children of the forest could tell you a thing or two about drea down the edly "The childrenlive only in dreah Now the bandages Pads and then wrap, and "

"Old Nan says the children knew the songs of the trees, that they could fly like birds and swim like fish and talk to the animals," Bran said "She says that they made music so beautiful that it made you cry like a little baby just to hear it"

"And all this they did with ic," Maester Luwin said, distracted "I wish they were here now A spell would healand tell hilance out of the corner of his eye "Take a lesson, Bran The lass sword As the children did Here, let " He stood abruptly, crossed the rooood hand "Have a look at these," he said as he pulled the stopper and shook out a handful of shiny black arrowheads

Bran picked one up "It’s lass" Curious, Rickon drifted closer to peer over the table

"Dragonglass," Osha nas in hand

"Obsidian," Maester Luwin insisted, holding out his wounded arods, far below the earth The children of the forest hunted with that, thousands of years ago The children worked noshirts of woven leaves and bound their legs in bark, so they seemed to melt into the wood In place of swords, they carried blades of obsidian"

"And still do" Osha placed soft pads over the bites on thestrips of linen

Bran held the arrowhead up close The black glass was slick and shiny He thought it beautiful "Can I keep one?"

"As you wish," the maester said

"I want one too," Rickon said "I want four I’m four"

Luwin made him count them out "Careful, they’re still sharp Don’t cut yourself"

"Tell me about the children," Bran said It was important

"What do you wish to know?"

"Everything"

Maester Luwin tugged at his chain collar where it chafed against his neck "They were people of the Dawn Age, the very first, before kings and kingdoms," he said "In those days, there were no castles or holdfasts, no cities, not so much as a market town to be found between here and the sea of Dorne There were no men at all Only the children of the forest dwelt in the landscall the Seven Kingdoms

"They were a people dark and beautiful, srown to manhood They lived in the depths of the wood, in caves and crannogs and secret tree towns Slight as they were, the children were quick and graceful Male and fe snares Their gods were the gods of the forest, streaods whose nareenseers, and carved strange faces in the oods to keep watch on the woods How long the children reigned here or where they came from, no o, the First Men appeared fro the Broken Arm of Dorne before it was broken They ca horses No horse had ever been seen on this side of the narrow sea No doubt the children were as frightened by the horses as the First Men were by the faces in the trees As the First Men carved out holdfasts and farave them to the fire Horror-struck, the children went to war The old songs say that the greenseers used dark ics tothe Arm, but it was too late to close the door The ent on until the earth ran red with blood of men and children both, but er, and wood and stone and obsidian make a poor match for bronze Finally the wise of both races prevailed, and the chiefs and heroes of the First Men roves of a sreat lake called Gods Eye

"There they forged the Pact The First Men were given the coastlands, the high plains and bright s, but the deep woods were to remain forever the children’s, and no more oods were to be put to the axe anywhere in the real, every tree on the island was given a face, and afterward, the sacred order of green men was formed to keep watch over the Isle of Faces

"The Pact began four thousand years of friendship between ods they had brought with theods of the wood The signing of the Pact ended the Dawn Age, and began the Age of Heroes"

Bran’s fist curled around the shiny black arrowhead "But the children of the forest are all gone now, you said"

"Here, they are," said Osha, as she bit off the end of the last bandage with her teeth "North of the Wall, things are different That’s where the children went, and the giants, and the other old races"

Maester Luwin sighed "Woht to be dead or in chains The Starks have treated you ently than you deserve It is unkind to repay the the boys’ heads with folly"

"Tell me where they went," Bran said "I want to know"

"Me too," Rickon echoed

"Oh, very well," Luwin doh the Age of Heroes and the Long Night and the birth of the Seven Kingdoms, yet finally there came a time, many centuries later, when other peoples crossed the narrow sea

"The Andals were the first, a race of tall, fair-haired warriors who caods painted on their chests The wars lasted hundreds of years, but in the end the six southron kingdo in the North threw back every army that tried to cross the Neck, did the rule of the First Men endure The Andals burnt out the ood groves, hacked down the faces, slaughtered the children where they found them, and everywhere proclaiods So the children fled north--"

Suan to howl

Maester Luwin broke off, startled When Shaggydog bounded to his feet and added his voice to his brother’s, dread clutched at Bran’s heart "It’s co," he whispered, with the certainty of despair He had known it since last night, he realized, since the crow had led him down into the crypts to say farewell He had known it, but he had not believed He had wanted Maester Luwin to be right The crow, he thought, the three-eyed crow

The howling stopped as suddenly as it had begun Suan to lick at a mat of bloody fur on the back of his brother’s neck Fros

A raven landed on the grey stone sill, opened its beak, and gave a harsh, raucous rattle of distress

Rickon began to cry His arrowheads fell from his hand one by one and clattered on the floor Bran pulled hied him

Maester Luwin stared at the black bird as if it were a scorpion with feathers He rose, slow as a sleepwalker, and moved to theWhen he whistled, the raven hopped onto his bandaged forears "A hawk," Luwin h" He took the letter fro as thehis brother all the harder

"You knohat it is, boy," Osha said, not unkindly She put her hand on his head

Maester Luwin looked up at therey wool robe and tears in his bright grey eyes "My lords," he said to the sons, in a voice gone hoarse and shrunken, "wewe shall need to find a stonecarver who knew his likeness well"