A Feast for Dragons

Kings in the North. Torrhen was the last.”
    “The King Who Knelt.”
    “Aye, my lady. After him they were only lords.”
    “Until the Young Wolf. Where is Ned Stark’s tomb?”
    “At the end. This way, my lady.”
    Their footsteps echoed through the vault as they made their way
between the rows of pillars. The stone eyes of the dead men seemed to follow
them, and the eyes of their stone direwolves as well. The faces stirred faint
memories. A few names came back to him, unbidden, whispered in the ghostly
voice of Maester Luwin. King Edrick Snowbeard, who had ruled the north for a
hundred years. Brandon the Shipwright, who had sailed beyond the sunset. Theon
Stark, the Hungry Wolf.
My namesake
. Lord Beron Stark, who made
common cause with Casterly Rock to war against Dagon Greyjoy, Lord of Pyke, in
the days when the Seven Kingdoms were ruled in all but name by the bastard
sorcerer men called Bloodraven.
    “That king is missing his sword,” Lady Dustin observed.
    It was true. Theon did not recall which king it was, but the
longsword he should have held was gone. Streaks of rust remained to show where
it had been. The sight disquieted him. He had always heard that the iron in the
sword kept the spirits of the dead locked within their tombs. If a sword was
missing …
    There are ghosts in Winterfell. And I am one of them
.
    They walked on. Barbrey Dustin’s face seemed to harden with
every step.
She likes this place no more than I do
. Theon heard
himself say, “My lady, why do you hate the Starks?”
    She studied him. “For the same reason you love them.”
    Theon stumbled. “Love them? I never … I took this
castle from them, my lady. I had … had Bran and Rickon put to death,
mounted their heads on spikes, I …”
    “… rode south with Robb Stark, fought beside him at the
Whispering Wood and Riverrun, returned to the Iron Islands as his envoy to
treat with your own father. Barrowton sent men with the Young Wolf as well. I
gave him as few men as I dared, but I knew that I must needs give him some or
risk the wroth of Winterfell. So I had my own eyes and ears in that host. They
kept me well informed. I know who you are. I know what you are. Now answer my
question. Why do you love the Starks?”
    “I …” Theon put a gloved hand against a pillar.
“… I wanted to be one of them …”
    “And never could. We have more in common than you know, my
lord. But come.”
    Only a little farther on, three tombs were closely grouped
together. That was where they halted. “Lord Rickard,” Lady Dustin observed,
studying the central figure. The statue loomed above them—long-faced, bearded,
solemn. He had the same stone eyes as the rest, but his looked sad. “He lacks a
sword as well.”
    It was true. “Someone has been down here stealing swords.
Brandon’s is gone as well.”
    “He would hate that.” She pulled off her glove and touched
his knee, pale flesh against dark stone. “Brandon loved his sword. He loved to
hone it. ‘I want it sharp enough to shave the hair from a woman’s cunt,’ he
used to say. And how he loved to use it. ‘A bloody sword is a beautiful thing,’
he told me once.”
    “You knew him,” Theon said.
    The lantern light in her eyes made them seem as if they were
afire. “Brandon was fostered at Barrowton with old Lord Dustin, the father of
the one I’d later wed, but he spent most of his time riding the Rills. He loved
to ride. His little sister took after him in that. A pair of centaurs, those
two. And my lord father was always pleased to play host to the heir to
Winterfell. My father had great ambitions for House Ryswell. He would have
served up my maidenhead to any Stark who happened by, but there was no need.
Brandon was never shy about taking what he wanted. I am old now, a dried-up
thing, too long a widow, but I still remember the look of my maiden’s blood on
his cock the night he claimed me. I think Brandon liked the sight as well. A
bloody sword is a beautiful thing, yes. It hurt, but it was a sweet pain.
    “The day I learned that Brandon was to marry Catelyn Tully,
though … there was nothing sweet about
that
pain. He
never wanted her, I promise you that. He told me so, on our last night
together … but Rickard Stark had great ambitions too.
Southron
ambitions that would not be served by having his heir marry the daughter of one
of his own vassals. Afterward my father nursed some hope of wedding me to
Brandon’s brother Eddard, but Catelyn