A Time for Wolves

Jon V

The letter Clydas handed him was sealed in pink, and it came from Winterfell. He immediately knew it was nothing good: the traitor Boltons were occupying Winterfell, after all, as the seal confirmed. And when he finished reading it, his only consolation was to think that Ramsay could be lying. Because, if King Stannis had been truly murdered, what could he do? The right thing to do would be swearing his loyalty to the queen Shireen, but it would do no good. In those complicated times they needed a strong leader, and Stannis had already had many problems to keep his people quiet. How would a ten year old girl do that?

Besides that, the letter threatened him directly. I want my bride back, it said. I want the false king's queen. I want his daughter and his red witch. I want this wildling princess. I want his little prince, the wildling babe. And I want my Reek. Send them to me, bastard, and I will not trouble you or your black crows. Keep them from me… and I will cut out your bastard's heart and eat it.

Of course, Jon knew that Arya was at the Wall, but he preferred not to let Ramsay know that. The only ones who knew were those living at the Wall, and there were very few of them who could write, none of which had sent any letter to inform anyone about Arya's presence in Castle Black. The changes that had been made in the Wall, then, remained a secret for the rest of the world. Or almost, Jon corrected himself in his thoughts. Because there was one person, in a castle in the Vale of Arryn, who had received a letter in which Jon explained every detail of the situation at the Wall, what they knew about Stannis and, as had been requested, about Arya's whereabouts.

What should he do, then? Answer the letter? Tell Ramsay that, as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, he took no part in what happened in the rest of Westeros? Or should he threaten him with his life? Or maybe march to Winterfell without warning, help Stannis (if he was still alive) and take his family's castle once and for all?

Seated at his desk, in the silent intimacy of his room, Jon pondered on that for a long time. And while he did that, he thought also of the many unresolved matters he still had to find a solution for. Rickon's issue, for example, was one of them. Jon had refused to submit his little brother to the queen as a ward, and she had refused to accept him as Lord of Winterfell until he yielded. And he was aware of the fact that Rickon needed to have a proper education, and that neither him nor the spearwife who had protected him so far could give it to him, but he did not want to hand the child over without his consent. Besides, Selyse had other reasons to want Rickon as her ward: if she brought Rickon up and he lived with her for what was left of his childhood, she could win his loyalty for life. And he was a boy, while the queen had only a daughter. So she could be considering the possibility of a union between their houses. But only trying to imagine Rickon as Lord of the Seven Kingdoms made Jon's head ache.

And if he had not enough dilemmas with that, there was Sansa. They had not been particularly close as children: she was a little lady and, to make it worse, Catelyn's junior version, while he was his father's bastard. But she was alive, and Jon was the only one who knew. She had not asked for a rescue, but he was not going to let his sister be locked up and forced to abandon her identity without even trying to do anything about it.

He could only face one problem at a time, though, and the first one was Ramsay's letter. And he decided that he had to attack: he would not know anything for certain if he stayed at the Wall waiting for Ramsay to come get him, but if he marched to war and personally got Winterfell back it would be different. He needed to be quick, though, because he had to be back in Castle Black before the Others decided to attack the Wall.

His final decision was, then, not to answer the letter and to take them by surprise. Jon knew that Stannis had, thanks to him, most of the military strength of the mountain clans and houses Umber, Mormont and Karstark, while Davos had won over house Manderly, which had the advantage to be inside the castle, and that the enemy trusted them. His plan had high probabilities of succeeding, then.

He would go accompanied by the men and women of the free folk who would care to go with him, and he would leave the Wall under Bowen Marsh's command. Because, even if their opinions were seldom alike, the crannogman was respected by his sworn brothers, he was loyal to the Watch, and his performance as First Steward was remarkable. He would probably have no trouble commanding the Watch, provided that Jon managed to take most of the wildlings south with him.

The decision was publicly announced during lunchtime, and Jon made clear that he would accept the support of any sworn brother or man of the Free Folk who volunteered to join him, but that the decision was theirs, and he would not command them to march against their will. Some men of the Watch seemed annoyed, but after he had said that and put Marsh in charge no one dared to complain. Tormund showed loudly his enthusiastic will to march with him, and his followers did the same. Some others also agreed to join him, but not so loudly. Satisfied, Jon declared that they would set off in a week, and he withdrew right after that, headed for his chambers.

But before he could get there he heard a man's agonizing scream, and without even thinking he ran to the place where the noise came from. When he found the man, he saw that his arm had just been cut off, and that his life's blood was swiftly escaping his body. There was another man in sight, who had his sword unsheathed and was facing the giant Wun Wun, who had shallow cuts in different parts of his body. Jon understood what had happened and he decided that, as he could not communicate with the giant, he should try to convince the man (a queen's man, he knew now that he had approached him) to stop fighting.

"Lay down your sword," Jon ordered him, but the man stared at him as if he were mad. "Sheath your sword, if you want to stay alive." Jon was aware that they were now surrounded by men, because those who had been eating had also heard the screams, and they had come to see what was going own. "Your fellow will die, and you won't save him by losing your own life. You are scaring the giant, and he will attack you if you don't stop threatening him." Trembling, the knight decided to obey him. He backed away, and slowly sheathed his sword. After that he walked away, slowly and without taking his eyes off Wun Wun.The giant was also watching him attentively, relaxing a little bit while he came out of sight. Finally, when everyone was quiet and the tension faded, Jon commanded that the dying man to be taken to Clydas's chambers, so that he could be tended to. It was not that he thought that he had chances to survive, but he would suffer less with treatment.

This time he did go to his chambers, and he told Satin to bring Rickon to him. While his steward sought his brother he sat down in his armchair and closed his eyes, tired, and he wondered if things would ever get calmer at the Wall. Jon's strongest skills were his abilities to fight and to plan attack and defense strategies, but he lacked the cunning needed to deal with kings and queens in a time of war and chaos. There was nothing he would like better than to go down to the practice yard and challenge somebody, as if being fit and trained was his only responsibility. But because of his sworn brother's choice and the unfortunate events that had destroyed his family, he had now many things to worry about.

"My lord, here is your brother," Satin said, making his eyes shot open. He had not heard his silent footsteps approaching him.

"Tell him to come in," Jon ordered, while he prepared to meet the youngest of his siblings, and the one he knew the least.

The boy came in, but he stopped standing by the door, without saying a word, until the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch told him to take a seat in front of him. He obeyed, then, but he still looked warily at Jon.

"Rickon, I wanted to tell you that I refused Selyse's offer to take you as her ward. But I only did it because you didn't want it. And if I agree with Stannis's wife in one thing, it is that you need a conventional education: you can't be Lord of Winterfell and be unable to read, and you have to know something of history, at least of the northern houses. If you won't be Selyse's ward, I will have to ask her to let you be tutored by the Baratheon's maester. But she may refuse, because we have offended her when we rejected her offer, and in that case, the closest thing we have to a maester at Castle Black is Clydas, and he is not nearly as good. The choice is yours, Rickon. Are you sure you don't want to be the queen's ward?"

"I'm sure," he said with the stubborn attitude he shared with most of his siblings. "The queen won't let me see my mother. I won't let them take her away from me."

Jon knew, at this point, that the 'mother' Rickon was talking about was not Lady Catelyn, whom he barely remembered, but Osha, the wildling woman that had looked after him the previous years.

"I can talk to her and convince her to let you see her. She can even be your sworn shield, because she can fight."

"And what about my siblings? I don't want to part from Keit and Lyra."

"I will see if Selyse agrees to take Lyra as a ward, too. I don't think she'll refuse to give her daughter a friend to play with. And Keit will remain at the Wall for the time being, helping to defend it but without taking the black. You won't have to part from them."

"If they let me keep my family, I accept. But I will not stand by and let them take it away from me again."

"Don't worry about that, Rickon. I will see that Her Grace accepts your terms. You may leave," Jon replied, feeling how sadness overcame him as he realized that the boy believed that the Stark family was already lost, and the only one that counted was the one he had found after. He had no hope of seeing his true siblings again, and Arya and Jon were strangers to him: he had not seen them since he was three years old, and the first thing he remembered about them was, possibly, their reunion at the Wall.

His brother (if he was that still) bowed slightly and withdrew without a word. Jon found himself wondering if things would be different for Rickon had Robb been the survivor, instead of him. And if it was Bran instead of Arya. They had been with him for more time, and he did remember them. But Jon and Arya had only been names for Rickon, as Rickard, Brandon and Lyanna were to Jon.

But leaving the sad reflections that the conversation had caused him aside, Jon was pleased, because he had already solved the problem of his heir's education. Or almost: he had yet to speak with Selyse, which he planned to do the following day. And in the meanwhile, he could start planning Sansa's rescue. But that seemed difficult, and far away. He had not the least idea of which situation she was in. Was she a prisoner? A hostage? What did they intend to do with her? Get a ransom for her rescue? Exchange her for someone else? Or maybe she was free, and she was just hiding so that she could keep her freedom? Was there someone helping her? Until he had more information, he could not do anything. But Jon vowed to himself that, if by the time they got Winterfell back he did not hear from his sister again, he would make a plan like the one Melisandre had offered to bring Arya. He would rescue her silently and stealthily.