Chapter 11

  EDDARD STARK

  The King’s retinue was set to arrive any sed now as the whole of Winterfell gathered in the yard for the wele. There was excitement in the air, the guards, the people, everyone seemed rather excited to have the King of the nd grag them with his presence.

  His wife and children seemed excited as well, except for one of them. Cregan’s eyes were steeled as he tio look at him as if asking him to see it for himself.

  See the truth for himself.

  And as the herald souhe horns, he heard it the sound of a horse’s hoofs thumping on the ground before he saw it as well, as a warhorse rode into the yard, a carriage lingering behind it as they bent their k his following.

  The Bck Horse came to a halt in the ter of the yard as Eddard k on one knee and saw stools being pced beside it. As he saw leather boots jump off the horse and onto the steps before they came upon him right above him.

  He saw a hand being him to stand up, and as he did, he found himself looking into the blue eyes of Robert Baratheon, a much older and much fatter Robert Baratheon. The whole court followed him, their lord, and rose up as well while Robert looked him down before speaking up.

  “You have grown fat,” and Eddard heard a few chuckles from behind as he found himself staring at his friend’s own protruding belly as he raised a brow. And that was answer enough as he saw Robert’s lips turn up as they both began to chuckle as the man ed his arms around him.

  “Ned!” he hugged him as a brother, and he felt some of the tension leave him as he realised that despite the years, his friend had not ged. And perhaps that was even more damning as he saw the carriage doors open as the Queen walked out of the carriage, led by her than her own brother.

  “Cat!” Robert moved on and hugged Catelyn, like a long-lost sister, as he ruffled Ri’s hair before ing to face him once more as the tensiohe yard.

  “Nine years, Ned. Nine years where have you been all this time?” Robert questioned as Eddard looked towards his friend once again, his eyes catg but a glimpse of the younger Prind Princess.

  “Guarding the North for you, yrace,” Robert scoffed.

  “We shall see about that,” as he moved forward to his right, where Robb stood, followed by the rest of his children.

  “You must be Robb,” he shook hands with his eldest before he praised Sansa, who stood beside him, fan was the only one who could reign in Arya, and as Rreeted his children, he found himself face to face with the Queen.

  “Yrace,” Catelyn gave a small bow as the Lannister ut forward her hand, giving him a stiff smile as Eddard k and gave her a chaste kiss on her hand.

  “Yrace,” and she smiled.

  “Lord Stark,” she greeted as his eyes moved beyoo the three children, and a chill cut through his heart. Their faces, their eyes all Lannister as he had heard.

  As he had feared.

  “You are the same as ever, huh boy,” Robert’s voice came from the side as his friend stood face to face with his sed son, Cregan.

  “Not even your family make you smile. You truly do carry wolf blood in you,” he said as he spped him on the shoulder before moving on as Eddard’s eyes moved back to the eldest Prince, and in a sed, he saw it.

  Jealousy. Envy. And Lannister blood, all of it, a he did not wish to believe it. He could not, as he heard a small whisper from the side.

  “Where is the I...” but the word was left unsaid as he heard Arya hiss in pain.

  “What did I warn you about?” Cregan’s chastisement followed soon after as Robert’s voied through the yard.

  “e, Ned, I wish to pay my respects, and a hush fell over the yard at those words, and the Queen’s face stiffened for all knew whom it was that Robert wished to pay his respect to,” and as Eddard turowards his King and friend, the Queen’s voice rang out.

  “We have been riding for months. I am sure that the dead wait,” she cut in sharply, a Robert did not spare her a gurning towards him as he ordered once more before he began moving once more.

  “Ned!” he called out again, ign and insulting her as Eddard could do little more than follow suit. Yet as he walked, his mind a raced as the faces of the three Royal children tio fsh in his mind.

  And with a final gnce, he followed suit as he saw the Prining to greet his children, moving on from Sansa tan, whom he eyed with disdain before he moved on as Eddard found himself at a much troubling cross-road.

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  ROBERT BARATHEON

  Robert Baratheon cursed the cruelty of the Gods once more as he stood face-to-face with her statue. He found it dull and rather mispced, for nothing could do her justiason, no God.

  “Did you have to bury her here?” for he khat she would hate it here in this damp pce. She liked freedom and would have hated this boorish pce.

  “She should be on a hill somewhere, with the Sun shining down on her,” as it would on a flower, on the Winter Rose, which was cut into her hair.

  “She was my sister. This was where she belonged,” Ned answered, and that was a lie. An absolute lie.

  “She belonged with me,” he thundered, yet she was taken from him. The very thing he had fought for. He had won a throne, gold, and a Lannister wife, a he would not hesitate to give it all up for her. For not even a sed.

  “Tell me about Jon, Arryn?” Ned’s voice came from the side, and Robert felt a pang ret and sadness hit him. He had loved that man; he was amongst his only family left. And his death had left him both alone and vulnerable. For all his faults, Robert Baratheon was not blind, especially to his faults. He khat he had little to no i i of copper ting and ruling.

  her was he suited to it all. His i y in crag skulls and bedding whores.

  “Your boy should have told you,” he asked. He had those eyes. Same as Jon, intelligent eyes, eyes that held wisdom in them. He had had that gaze as a child, even when he had e to the capital, and given he had mao survive and thrive for as long as he had, that the boy was no idiot.

  “He did, but I wish to hear from you as well,” and Robert chuckled.

  “The boy’s ats would be more valuable than mine own. He was far closer to Jon than I was. I had barely gotten sober, but by then, he was long gohe fever had burnt right through him in but a single night,” and tragic that it was, that man’s death.

  And now, with him gone, he needed someone else by his side. Someone else to rule the realm and help him set things straight for the future. Especially given how hopeless his own successor was.

  “I need you, Ned,” he said as he turo face the mahought of as a brother, a true brother uh Stannis and Renly, who had ruly cared for him.

  “With me in the capital, not here where you are of no bloody use to anyone,” he said as Ned’s lips thinned, as Robert carried on, wasting no time in doling out the very order he had e to deliver all this way.

  “You helped me wihrone, now help me keep it,” he spoke as his friend’s eyes widened.

  “Eddard Stark, I would name your hand of the King,” he spoke graciously, as a King would, the honorable fool that he was k down.

  “I do not deserve that honor,” and he chuckled.

  “I am n to honor you, Ned,” he spoke as he helped him up.

  “Stand,” he ordered as his old friend rose up to his feet.

  “I am trying to get you to run my kingdom while I drink and whore myself to an early grave,” but he hoped not. He hoped to die fighting. He had dreamt of it. Dying while fighting a battle unlike any oing out while swinging his Warhammer.

  “I am needed here, in the North,” and he knew a thousand men who would burn their daughters for the honor his friend was trying to reject. They would burn their wives and daughters for it, all those honorless curs, if only that would make them the Hand of the King.

  But not Ned.

  “You are here, in the capital,” he spoke sharply, a bit frustrated by this hand-wringing.

  “You should curse the Gods for taking Jon Arryn from us,” he spoke as he turowards her statue, and then his gaze moved to the one beside it, the one of his father.

  “If only the man had mao live another decade, maybe even half of that, then I could have named someone else in your stead,” and Ned seemed surprised by those words.

  “Your boy, Cregan. He has the mind for it. Jon spoke well of him. Quiet he may be, but Jon said that the boy had the makings of a good lord and an eveer Hand,” and in his owhe old man was a good judge of character.

  But the boy was too young, and the realm too fractured. He failed in one of his hopes when he called the boy to the capital to foster, trying to build a radeship between Ned’s child and his own.

  Another kind of kinship had been fostered, much to the dismay of his own dy wife. Oween that boy and his own daughter, and while it was not what he had hoped for. It was good enough, for the boy was young and with years to learn, he would make for the perfect successor to his own father and could help his own son, Joffrey, rule over the Seven Kingdoms, as Jon and Ned had done so for him.

  “Cregan has little i in politics,” and he doubted that.

  “But the boy has a mind for it,” he cut in as Eddard’s lips thinned.

  “We were meant to rule together, you and I,” he spoke warmly as his eyes nded on her face again, and her face was so full of life in his dreams.

  “And if she had not died, then we would have been bound by blood,” and both he and the realm would have beeer for it. Now, he may be King, but he was miserable without her.

  “But we still have time; we both have children of our own, and it is not too te to for a possible match,” and he saw Ned’s eyes widen at his words.

  “A match for the future. Ohat would strehe realm” and earn him much ire from his own dy wife.

  “Cregan shall wed my daughter Myrcel,” he announced as Ned’s eyes widened.

  “He is a sed son, Robert. This is too m....”

  “I am not asking them to wed today,” Robert cut in sharply as he saw his friend’s lips thinned.

  “She is too young for now. But perhaps in a few years, they would wed, and the realm would be stronger for it. And then, if the Gods are merciful, you could one day e back to these nds and leave it all in your boy’s hand,” Rhed as he imagined Ned getting frustrated by all the politid leaving it all to his son as he did to Jon and now him.

  “Cheer up, you fool. I have given it much thought, and this is the best for the realm. That boy is much like you, and he would take care of that girl and her brother. He is a Stark, and I would much rather trust my own daughter with a Stark than some southern prick like me,” because, as always, Robert was aware of his faults.

  As King. As a father. And as a husband.

  “Let me talk to the boy,” Eddard spoke, and he shook his head.

  “Talk to him as much as you want, but my mind is made. My girl likes the boy enough, and so do I. They will wed when she bees a woman. Until then, the boy shall tio foster with me and learn what it means to rule the realm,” he anded.

  “Though you will have to do the teag. Seven know ,I am not well suited for that,” he chuckled as he walked out of the crypts, a happier man, a better King, and most importantly, a tent father in his head.

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