Robert Arryn. I am sworn to protect him. How can I do that if his mother steals him away?”
“I will take him as ward, if you wish,” Ned said. “Lysa should consent to that. She and
Catelynwere close as girls, and she would be welcome here as well.”
“A generous offer, my friend,” the king said, “but too late. Lord Tywin has already
given hisconsent. Fostering the boy elsewhere would be a grievous affront38 to him.”
“I have more concern for my nephew’s welfare than I do for Lannister pride,” Ned declared.
“That is because you do not sleep with a Lannister.” Robert laughed, the sound
rattling39 among thetombs and bouncing from the vaulted ceiling. His smile
was a flash of white teeth in the thicket40 of thehuge black beard. “Ah, Ned,”
he said, “you are still too serious.” He put a massive arm around Ned’sshoulders.
“I had planned to wait a few days to speak to you, but I see now there’s no need for it.
Come, walk with me.”
They started back down between the pillars. Blind stone eyes seemed to follow
them as theypassed. The king kept his arm around Ned’s shoulder.
“You must have wondered why I finally camenorth to Winterfell, after so long.”
Ned had his suspicions, but he did not give them voice. “For the joy of my
company, surely,” hesaid lightly. “And there is the Wall. You need to see it,
Your Grace, to walk along its battlements andtalk to those who man it.
The Night’s Watch is a shadow of what it once was. Benjen says—”
“No doubt I will hear what your brother says soon enough,” Robert said.
“The Wall has stood forwhat, eight thousand years? It can keep a few days
more. I have more pressing concerns. These aredifficult times. I need good
men about me. Men like Jon Arryn. He served as Lord of the Eyrie, as
Warden of the East, as the Hand of the King. He will not be easy to replace.”
“His son …” Ned began.
“His son will succeed to the Eyrie and all its incomes,” Robert said brusquely. “No more.”
That took Ned by surprise. He stopped, startled, and turned to look at his king.
The words cameunbidden. “The Arryns have always been Wardens41 of the East.
The title goes with the domain42.”
“Perhaps when he comes of age, the honor can be restored to him,” Robert said.
“I have this yearto think of, and next. A six-year-old boy is no war leader, Ned.”
“In peace, the title is only an honor. Let the boy keep it. For his father’s
sake if not his own.
Surely you owe Jon that much for his service.”
The king was not pleased. He took his arm from around Ned’s shoulders.
“Jon’s service was theduty he owed his liege lord. I am not ungrateful, Ned.
You of all men ought to know that. But the sonis not the father. A mere43
boy cannot hold the east.” Then his tone softened44. “Enough of this. There
isa more important office to discuss, and I would not argue with you.” Robert
grasped Ned by theelbow. “I have need of you, Ned.”
“I am yours to command, Your Grace. Always.” They were words he had to say,
and so he saidthem, apprehensive45 about what might come next.
Robert scarcely seemed to hear him. “Those years we spent in the Eyrie … gods,
those were goodyears. I want you at my side again, Ned. I want you down in
King’s Landing, not up here at the end ofthe world where you are no damned
use to anybody.” Robert looked off into the darkness, for amoment as melancholy46
as a Stark. “I swear to you, sitting a throne is a thousand times harder thanwinning one.
Laws are a tedious business and counting coppers47 is worse.
And the people … there isno end of them. I sit on that damnable iron chair and
listen to them complain until my mind is numband my ass15 is raw.
They all want something, money or land or justice. The lies they tell …
and mylords and ladies are no better. I am surrounded by flatterers and fools.
It can drive a man to madness,Ned. Half of them don’t dare tell me the truth,
and the other half can’t find it. There are nights I wishwe had lost at the Trident.
Ah, no, not truly, but …”
“I understand,” Ned said softly.
Robert looked at him. “I think you do. If so, you are the only one, my old friend.”
He smiled. “LordEddard Stark, I would name you the Hand of the King.”
Ned dropped to one knee. The offer did not surprise him; what other reason could
Robert have hadfor coming so far? The Hand of the King was the second-most
powerful man in the Seven Kingdoms.
He spoke37 with the king’s voice, commanded the king’s armies, drafted the king’s laws.
At times heeven sat upon the Iron Throne to dispense48 king’s justice, when the
king was absent, or sick, orotherwise indisposed. Robert was offering him a
responsibility as large as the realm itself.
rotherwise indisposed. Robert was offering him a responsibility as large
as the realm itself.
It was the last thing in the world he wanted.
“Your Grace,” he said. “I am not worthy49 of the honor.”
Robert groaned50 with good-humored impatience51. “If I wanted to honor you,
I’d let you retire. I amplanning to make you run the kingdom and fight the wars while
I eat and drink and wench myself intoan early grave.” He slapped his gut and grinned.
“You know the saying, about the king and hisHand?”
Ned knew the saying. “What the king dreams,” he said, “the Hand builds.”
“I bedded a fishmaid once who told me the lowborn have a choicer way to put it.
The king eats,they say, and the Hand takes the shit.” He threw back his head and
roared his laughter. The echoesrang through the darkness, and all around them
the dead of Winterfell seemed to watch with cold anddisapproving eyes.
Finally the laughter dwindled52 and stopped. Ned was still on one knee, his eyes
upraised. “Damn it,Ned,” the king complained. “You might at least humor me with a smile.”
“They say it grows so cold up here in winter that a man’s laughter freezes in his
throat and chokeshim to death,” Ned said evenly. “Perhaps that is why the Starks
have so little humor.”
“Come south with me, and I’ll teach you how to laugh again,” the king promised.
“You helped mewin this damnable throne, now help me hold it. We were meant to
rule together. If Lyanna had lived,we should have been brothers, bound by blood
as well as affection. Well, it is not too late. I have ason. You have a daughter.
My Joff and your Sansa shall join our houses, as Lyanna and I might oncehave done.”
This offer did surprise him. “Sansa is only eleven.”
Robert waved an impatient hand. “Old enough for betrothal53.
The marriage can wait a few years.”
The king smiled. “Now stand up and say yes, curse you.”
“Nothing would give me greater pleasure, Your Grace,” Ned answered. He hesitated.
“Thesehonors are all so unexpected. May I have some time to consider?
I need to tell my wife …”
“Yes, yes, of course, tell Catelyn, sleep on it if you must.” The king reached down,
clasped Nedby the hand, and pulled him roughly to his feet. “Just don’t keep me
waiting too long. I am not themost patient of men.”
For a moment Eddard Stark was filled with a terrible sense of foreboding.
This was his place, herein the north. He looked at the stone figures all around them,
breathed deep in the chill silence of thecrypt. He could feel the eyes of the dead.
They were all listening, he knew. And winter was coming.