'A Game of Thrones Chapter Twelve\r'

'Eddard\r\nThe summons came in the minute of arc before the dawn, when the world was still and grey.\r\nAlyn move him roughly from his dreams and Ned stumbled into the predawn chill, groggy from sleep, to find his long buck saddled and the fairy already mountinged. Robert wore thickly brown gloves and a heavy fur cloak with a hood that coer his ears, and looked for altogether the world like a usurp in nonplusting a horse cavalry. â€Å"Up, desolate!” he ro bed. â€Å"Up, up! We return occasions of relegate to discuss.”\r\nâ€Å"By all means,” Ned verbalize. â€Å"Come inside, Your beautify.” Alyn get up the flap of the tent.\r\nâ€Å"No, no, no,” Robert verbalise. His breath steamed with all(prenominal) word. â€Å"The camp is full of ears. Besides, I lack to ride fall turn out and taste this rude of yours.” Ser Boros and Ser Meryn waited behind(predicate) him with a dozen guards custody, Ned saw. in that respect wa s no affaire to do that fuss the sleep from his eyes, dress, and mount up.\r\nRobert set the pace, impetuous his huge abusive destrier clayey as Ned galloped along beside him, trying to keep up. He call outed out a question as they rode, nevertheless the wind blew his words a counseling, and the poof did non hear him. After that Ned rode in silence. They soon left the fagsroad and likewisek off crosswise rolling plains dark with mist. By whence the guard had fallen back a undersized distance, safely out of earshot, besides still Robert would non s impoverished.\r\nDawn st unrivalled-broke as they crested a low ridge, and finally the ability pulled up. By thusly they were miles south of the main party. Robert was flushed and exalt as Ned reined up beside him. â€Å"Gods,” he swore, laughing, â€Å"it champion of smells rise(p) to get out and ride the mood a gay was meant to ride! I swear, Ned, this creeping along is enough to set out a art object mad.” He had neer been a patient man, Robert Baratheon. â€Å"That damncap fitting wheelhouse, the appearance it creaks and groans, ascent e existingly bump in the road as if it were a trade . . . I promise you, if that wretched thing breaks another axle, Im going to burn it, and Cersei mountain walk!”\r\nNed laughed. â€Å"I allow for lief light the torch for you.”\r\nâ€Å"Good man!” The faggot clapped him on the shoulder. â€Å"Ive half(a) a mind to leave them all behind and just keep going.”\r\nA grin touched Neds lips. â€Å"I do see you mean it.”\r\nâ€Å"I do, I do,” the king state. â€Å"What do you produce, Ned? Just you and me, two wheel knights on the kingsroad, our marques at our sides and the gods cheat what in front of us, and maybe a farmers young woman or a tavern dame to warfarem our beds tonight.”\r\nâ€Å"Would that we could,” Ned tell, â€Å"but we imbibe duties presently, my li egeman . . . to the realm, to our kidren, I to my lady wife and you to your queen. We argon not the boys we were.”\r\nâ€Å"You were never the boy you were,” Robert grumbled. â€Å"Mores the pity. And to that degree on that point was that mavin(a) epoch . . . what was her discover, that commonplace missy of yours? Becca? No, she was one of exploit, gods love her, black hair and these sweet big eyes, you could overmaster in them. Yours was . . . Aleena? No. You told me formerly. Was it Merryl? You know the one I mean, your bastards mother?”\r\nâ€Å"Her name was Wylla,” Ned replied with sedate courtesy, â€Å"and I would sooner not babble of her.”\r\nâ€Å"Wylla. Yes.” The king grinned. â€Å"She must(prenominal) have been a rare wench if she could make lord Eddard Stark forget his honor, even for an hour. You never told me what she looked like . . . â€Å"\r\nNeds mouthpiece tightened in anger. â€Å"Nor allow for I. Leav e it be, Robert, for the love you say you bear me. I disgrace myself and I dishonored Catelyn, in the sight of gods and manpower.”\r\nâ€Å"Gods have mercy, you simply knew Catelyn.”\r\nâ€Å"I had taken her to wife. She was carrying my child.”\r\nâ€Å"You are too hard on yourself, Ned. You always were. curse it, no woman wants Baelor the Blessed in her bed.” He slapped a hand on his knee. â€Å"Well, Ill not press you if you feel so strong about it, though I swear, at propagation youre so splenetic you ought to take the hedgehog as your sigil.”\r\nThe hike sun sent fingers of light with with(predicate) the pale white mists of dawn. A wide-cut plain blossom out out on a lower floor them, bare and brown, its flatness here and there relieved by long, low hum do bys. Ned pointed them out to his king. â€Å"The barrows of the First Men.”\r\nRobert frowned. â€Å"Have we ridden onto a burying ground?”\r\nâ€Å" in that respec t are barrows everywhere in the north, Your Grace,” Ned told him. â€Å"This land is old.”\r\nâ€Å"And mothy,” Robert grumbled, pulling his cloak much tightly around himself. The guard had reined up well behind them, at the fag of the ridge. â€Å"Well, I did not influence you out here to talk of graves or bicker about your bastard. there was a rider in the night, from professional Varys in Kings landing place. Here.” The king pulled a paper from his hit and transfer it to Ned.\r\nVarys the eunuch was the kings master of whisperers. He served Robert now as he had once served Aerys Targaryen. Ned unrolled the paper with trepidation, thinking of Lysa and her terrible accusation, but the message did not concern doll Arryn. â€Å"What is the source for this information?”\r\nâ€Å"Do you recollect Ser Jorah Mormont?”\r\nâ€Å"Would that I might forget him,” Ned express bluntly. The Mormonts of Bear Island were an old house, pro ud and honorable, but their lands were cold and distant and poor. Ser Jorah had tried to boy mavin the family coffers by selling some poachers to a Tyroshi slaver. As the Mormonts were banner men to the Starks, his crime had dishonored the north. Ned had do the long journey west to BearIsland, to marvellousy to find when he arrived that Jorah had taken place beyond the reach of Ice and the kings justice. pentad days had passed since then.\r\nâ€Å"Ser Jorah is now in Pentos, spooky to earn a royal discharge that would allow him to return from exile,” Robert explained. â€Å" maestro Varys makes estimable use of him.”\r\nâ€Å"So the slaver has give way a spy,” Ned state with distaste. He handed the letter back. â€Å"I would rather he be arrange a corpse.”\r\nâ€Å"Varys tells me that spies are more than useful than corpses,” Robert said. â€Å"Jorah aside, what do you make of his embrace?”\r\nâ€Å"Daenerys Targaryen has wed s ome Dothraki horselord. What of it? Shall we send her a wedding gift?”\r\nThe king frowned. â€Å"A knife, perhaps. A impregnable sharp one, and a bold man to wield it.”\r\nNed did not feign surprise; Roberts hatred of the Targaryens was a madness in him. He remembered the choleric words they had exchanged when Tywin Lannister had presented Robert with the corpses of Rhaegars wife and children as a token of fealty. Ned had named that murder; Robert called it war. When he had protested that the young prince and princess were no more than babes, his new-fangled king had replied, â€Å"I see no babes. Only dragonspawn.” Not even Jon Arryn had been able to calm that storm. Eddard Stark had ridden out that very day in a cold rage, to fight the last battles of the war simply in the south. It had taken another shoemakers last to reconcile them; Lyannas death, and the grief they had shared over her passing.\r\nThis time, Ned resolved to keep his temper. â€Å"Your Grace, the girl is exactly more than a child. You are no Tywin Lannister, to s laugh innocents.” It was said that Rhaegars little girl had cried as they dragged her from beneath her bed to facet the swords. The boy had been no more than a babe in build up, and Lord Tywins soldiers had torn him from his mothers breast and dashed his mentality against a wall.\r\nâ€Å"And how long leave behind this one remain an innocent?” Roberts mouth grew hard. â€Å"This child ordain soon enough spread her legs and start breeding more dragonspawn to fire me.”\r\nâ€Å"Nonetheless,” Ned said, â€Å"the murder of children . . . it would be vile . . . dreaded . . . â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Unspeakable?” the king roared. â€Å"What Aerys did to your brother Brandon was unspeakable. The way your lord father died, that was unspeakable. And Rhaegar . . . how many times do you think he ravish your sister? How many hundreds of times?” His piece had grown so loud that his horse whinnied nervously beneath him. The king jerked the reins hard, quieting the animal, and pointed an sore finger at Ned. â€Å"I depart kill every Targaryen I crapper get my hands on, until they are as dead as their dragons, and then I bequeath piss on their graves.”\r\nNed knew repair than to defy him when the wrath was on him. If the years had not quenched Roberts thirst for revenge, no words of his would help. â€Å"You cant get your hands on this one, can you?” he said quietly.\r\nThe kings mouth twisted in a barbed grimace. â€Å"No, gods be cursed. Some pox-ridden Pentoshi cheesemonger had her brother and her walled up on his estate with pointy-hatted eunuchs all around them, and now hes handed them over to the Dothraki. I should have had them both killed years ago, when it was uncomplicated to get at them, but Jon was as bad as you. More brand I, I listened to him.”\r\n â€Å"Jon Arryn was a wise man and a good Hand.”\r\nRobe rt snorted. The anger was release him as suddenly as it had come. â€Å"This Khal Drogo is said to have a hundred special K men in his horde. What would Jon say to that?”\r\nâ€Å"He would say that even a one thousand million Dothraki are no threat to the realm, so long as they remain on the other side of the narrow sea,” Ned replied calmly. â€Å"The barbarians have no ships. They hate and fear the present sea.”\r\nThe king shifted uncomfortably in his saddle. â€Å"mayhap. There are ships to be had in the uncaring Cities, though. I tell you, Ned, I do not like this marriage. There are still those in the Seven Kingdoms who call me Usurper. Do you forget how many houses fought for Targaryen in the war? They bide their time for now, but give them half a chance, they will murder me in my bed, and my sons with me. If the beggar king crosses with a Dothraki horde at his back, the traitors will join him.”\r\nâ€Å"He will not cross,” Ned promised. â€Å"And if by some mischance he does, we will throw him back into the sea. formerly you choose a new Warden of the eastsideâ€â€\r\nThe king groaned. â€Å"For the last time, I will not name the Arryn boy Warden. I know the boy is your nephew, but with Targaryens climbing in bed with Dothraki, I would be mad to rest one stern of the realm on the shoulders of a unwell child.”\r\nNed was ready for that. â€Å"Yet we still must have a Warden of the eastbound. If Robert Arryn will not do, name one of your brothers. Stannis proved himself at the siege of Storms End, surely.”\r\nHe let the name hang there for a number. The king frowned and said nothing. He looked un satisfied.\r\nâ€Å"That is,” Ned finished quietly, watching, â€Å"unless you have already promised the honor to another.”\r\nFor a moment Robert had the grace to look startled. Just as quickly, the look became annoyance. â€Å"What if I have?”\r\nâ€Å"Its Jaime Lannister, is it not?”\r\nRobert kicked his horse back into motion and started pass the ridge toward the barrows. Ned kept pace with him. The king rode on, eyes straight ahead. â€Å"Yes,” he said at last. A single hard word to end the matter.\r\nâ€Å"Kingslayer,” Ned said. The rumors were true, then. He rode on dangerous ground now, he knew. â€Å"An able and courageous man, no doubt,” he said carefully, â€Å"but his father is Warden of the West, Robert. In time Ser Jaime will succeed to that honor. No one man should hold both East and West.” He left unsaid his real concern; that the appointment would put half the armies of the realm into the hands of Lannisters.\r\nâ€Å"I will fight that battle when the enemy appears on the field,” the king said stubbornly. â€Å"At the moment, Lord Tywin looms eternal as Casterly Rock, so I doubt that Jaime will be come through anytime soon. Dont vex me about this, Ned, the stone has been set.”\r\nâ€Å" Your Grace, may I speak frankly?”\r\nâ€Å"I seem unable to stop you,” Robert grumbled. They rode through tall brown grasses.\r\nâ€Å"Can you intrust Jaime Lannister?”\r\nâ€Å"He is my wifes twin, a Sworn buddy of the Kingsguard, his life and fortune and honor all bound to mine.”\r\nâ€Å"As they were bound to Aerys Targaryens,” Ned pointed out.\r\nâ€Å"why should I mistrust him? He has through with(p) everything I have ever strikeed of him. His sword helped win the rule I rag on.”\r\nHis sword helped taint the throne you sit on, Ned design, but he did not lease the words to pass his lips. â€Å"He swore a vow to protect his kings life with his own. then he open(a) that kings throat with a sword.”\r\nâ€Å"Seven hells, someone had to kill Aerys!” Robert said, reining his mount to a sudden halt beside an quaint barrow. â€Å"If Jaime hadnt done it, it would have been left for you or me.”\r\nâ€Å"We were not Sworn Brothers of the Kingsguard,” Ned said. The time had come for Robert to hear the whole truth, he obdurate then and there. â€Å"Do you remember the Trident, Your Grace?”\r\nâ€Å"I won my crest there. How should I forget it?”\r\nâ€Å"You took a wound from Rhaegar,” Ned reminded him. â€Å"So when the Targaryen host broke and ran, you gave the pursuit into my hands. The remnants of Rhaegars forces fled back to Kings Landing. We followed. Aerys was in the Red keep open with several thousand loyalists. I anticipate to find the gates closed to us.”\r\nRobert gave an zealous shake of his head. â€Å"Instead you found that our men had already taken the city. What of it?”\r\nâ€Å"Not our men,” Ned said patiently. â€Å"Lannister men. The lion of Lannister flew over the ramparts, not the crown stag. And they had taken the city by treachery.”\r\nThe war had raged for close to a year. Lords great and small had flocked to Ro berts banners; others had remained loyal to Targaryen. The mighty Lannisters of Casterly Rock, the Wardens of the West, had remained aloof from the struggle, ignoring calls to arms from both rebels and royalists. Aerys Targaryen must have thought that his gods had answered his prayers when Lord Tywin Lannister appeared before the gates of Kings Landing with an army twelve thousand strong, profession loyalty. So the mad king had legitimate his last mad act. He had opened his city to the lions at the gate.\r\nâ€Å"Treachery was a coin the Targaryens knew well,” Robert said. The anger was building in him again. â€Å"Lannister paid them back in kind. It was no less than they deserved. I shall not swage my sleep over it.”\r\nâ€Å"You were not there,” Ned said, harshness in his voice. Troubled sleep was no stranger to him. He had lived his lies for fourteen years, yet they still haunted him at night. â€Å"There was no honor in that conquest.”\r\nâ€Å"T he Others take your honor!” Robert swore. â€Å"What did any Targaryen ever know of honor? Go tear down into your crypt and ask Lyanna about the dragons honor!”\r\nâ€Å"You avenged Lyanna at the Trident,” Ned said, halting beside the king. Promise me, Ned, she had whispered.\r\nâ€Å"That did not bring her back.” Robert looked away, off into the grey distance. â€Å"The gods be damned. It was a hollow victory they gave me. A crown . . . it was the girl I prayed them for. Your sister, safe . . . and mine again, as she was meant to be. I ask you, Ned, what good is it to wear a crown? The gods mock the prayers of kings and cowherds alike.”\r\nâ€Å"I cannot answer for the gods, Your Grace . . . still for what I found when I rode into the throne room that day,” Ned said. â€Å"Aerys was dead on the floor, drowned in his own blood. His dragon skulls stared down from the walls. Lannisters men were everywhere. Jaime wore the white cloak of the K ingsguard over his gilt armor. I can see him still. notwithstanding his sword was gilded. He was put on the Iron Throne, high above his knights, article of clothing a helm fashioned in the shape of a lions head. How he glittered!”\r\nâ€Å"This is well known,” the king complained.\r\nâ€Å"I was still mounted. I rode the length of the hall in silence, in the midst of the long rows of dragon skulls. It felt as though they were watching me, somehow. I halt in front of the throne, looking up at him. His golden sword was crosswise his legs, its edge red with a kings blood. My men were filling the room behind me. Lannisters men drew back. I never said a word. I looked at him seated there on the throne, and I waited. At last Jaime laughed and got up. He took off his helm, and he said to me, ‘Have no fear, Stark. I was only keeping it warm for our friend Robert. Its not a very comfortable seat, Im afraid. â€Å"\r\nThe king threw back his head and roared. His lau ghter startled a flight of crows from the tall brown grass. They took to the air in a wild beating of wings. â€Å"You think I should mistrust Lannister because he sat on my throne for a few moments?” He shook with laughter again. â€Å"Jaime was all of seventeen, Ned. merely more than a boy.”\r\nâ€Å"Boy or man, he had no right to that throne.”\r\nâ€Å"Perhaps he was tired,” Robert suggested. â€Å"Killing kings is weary work. Gods know, theres no place else to rest your ass in that damnable room. And he spoke truly, it is a monstrous uncomfortable chair. In more ways than one.” The king shook his head. â€Å"Well, now I know Jaimes dark sin, and the matter can be forgotten. I am heartily sick of secrets and squabbles and matters of state, Ned. Its all as tedious as counting coppers. Come, lets ride, you utilize to know how. I want to feel the wind in my hair again.” He kicked his horse back into motion and galloped up over the barrow, raining earth down behind him.\r\nFor a moment Ned did not follow. He had run out of words, and he was filled with a vast sense of helplessness. Not for the first time, he wondered what he was doing here and why he had come. He was no Jon Arryn, to curb the wildness of his king and teach him wisdom. Robert would do what he pleased, as he always had, and nothing Ned could say or do would change that. He belonged in Winterfell. He belonged with Catelyn in her grief, and with Bran.\r\nA man could not always be where he belonged, though. Resigned, Eddard Stark put his boots into his horse and set off after the king.\r\n'