A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

the edge of the pool
beneath the great spread of the heart tree, where Lord Eddard used to kneel to
pray. Ripples were running across the surface of the water when they arrived,
making the reflection of the weirwood shimmer and dance. There was no wind,
though. For an instant Bran was baffled.
    And then Osha exploded up out of the pool with a great splash, so sudden that
even Summer leapt back, snarling. Hodor jumped away, wailing “Hodor,
Hodor
” in dismay until Bran patted his shoulder to soothe his
fears. “How can you swim in there?” he asked Osha. “Isn’t it
cold?”
    â€œAs a babe I suckled on icicles, boy. I like the cold.” Osha swam to the
rocks and rose dripping. She was naked, her skin bumpy with gooseprickles.
Summer crept close and sniffed at her. “I wanted to touch the
bottom.”
    â€œI never knew there was a bottom.”
    â€œMight be there isn’t.” She grinned. “What are you staring at, boy? Never
seen a woman before?”
    â€œI have so.” Bran had bathed with his sisters hundreds of times and he’d seen
serving women in the hot pools too. Osha looked different, though, hard and
sharp instead of soft and

curvy. Her legs were all sinew, her breasts flat as two empty purses. “You’ve
got a lot of scars.”
    â€œEvery one hard earned.” She picked up her brown shift, shook some leaves off
of it, and pulled it down over her head.
    â€œFighting giants?” Osha claimed there were still giants beyond the Wall.
One day maybe I’ll even see one . . .
    â€œFighting men.” She belted herself with a length of rope. “Black crows, oft
as not. Killed me one too,” she said, shaking out her hair. It had grown since
she’d come to Winterfell, well down past her ears. She looked softer than the
woman who had once tried to rob and kill him in the wolfswood. “Heard some
yattering in the kitchen today about you and them Freys.”
    â€œWho? What did they say?”
    She gave him a sour grin. “That it’s a fool boy who mocks a giant, and a mad
world when a cripple has to defend him.”
    â€œHodor never knew they were mocking him,” Bran said. “Anyhow he never
fights.” He remembered once when he was little, going to the market square
with his mother and Septa Mordane. They brought Hodor to carry for them, but he
had wandered away, and when they found him some boys had him backed into an
alley, poking him with sticks.
“Hodor!”
he kept shouting, cringing
and covering himself, but he had never raised a hand against his tormentors.
“Septon Chayle says he has a gentle spirit.”
    â€œAye,” she said, “and hands strong enough to twist a man’s head off his
shoulders, if he takes a mind to. All the same, he better watch his back around
that Walder. Him and you both. The

big one they call little, it comes to me he’s well named. Big outside, little
inside, and mean down to the bones.”
    â€œHe’d never dare hurt me. He’s scared of Summer, no matter what he
says.”
    â€œThen might be he’s not so stupid as he seems.” Osha was always wary around
the direwolves. The day she was taken, Summer and Grey Wind between them had
torn three wildlings to bloody pieces. “Or might be he is. And that tastes of
trouble too.” She tied up her hair. “You have more of them wolf
dreams?”
    â€œNo.” He did not like to talk about the dreams.
    â€œA prince should lie better than that.” Osha laughed. “Well, your dreams are
your business. Mine’s in the kitchens, and I’d best be getting back before Gage
starts to shouting and waving that big wooden spoon of his. By your leave, my
prince.”
    She should never have talked about the wolf dreams,
Bran thought as
Hodor carried him up the steps to his bedchamber. He fought against sleep as
long as he could, but in the end it took him as it always did. On this night he
dreamed of the weirwood. It was looking at him with its deep red eyes, calling
to him with its twisted wooden mouth, and from its pale branches the three-eyed
crow came flapping, pecking at his face and crying his name in a voice as sharp
as swords.
    The blast of horns woke him. Bran pushed himself onto his side, grateful for
the reprieve. He heard horses and boisterous shouting.
More guests have
come, and half-drunk by the