Trials and Tribulations of the Oathkeeper

Chapter 52: Mockingbird

―The Vale―

At the Eyrie...

Outside, snowflakes were beginning to fall on the Eyrie. But the Lady Regent of the Vale, Lysa Arryn, was in a foul mood with her handmaiden. She was dressed in a gown of cream-colored velvet and a necklace of sapphires and moonstones. Her auburn hair had been done up in a thick braid, and fell across one shoulder. "I've already told you; we've already bent the knee to that stag boy and that's the end of it! The knights of the Vale will stay in the Vale!" she shouted annoyed.

Eleana moved to keep up with her mistress. "Forgive me, mistress, but I really must protest! The ravens we received were a royal decree from the King himself. Should you refuse the command again—"

"I don't care what the decree was, girl!"

Lysa was in a foul mood, as lonely as she was. Her new husband Petyr Baelish seemed to spend more time at the foot of the mountain than he did atop it. He had been gone from the Eyrie for some time, meeting with the Corbrays. From bits and pieces of overheard conversations Eleana knew that the deceased Lord Jon Arryn's bannermen resented Lysa's marriage and begrudged Littlefinger himself his authority as Lord Protector of the Vale. House Royce came close to open revolt over Lysa's failure to aid Daveth in the rebellion against Renly, and Houses Waynwoods, Redforts, Belmores, and Templetons were giving them every support. Accompanying both of them was Marillion, a troubadour and singer wandering the Seven Kingdoms selling his musical skills in return for bed, board and coin. When he played for them at supper, the young singer often seemed to be singing directly at Eleana. Her mistress was far from pleased. Lysa doted on him, and had banished two serving girls and even a page for telling lies about him.

Eleana looked about uncertainly. Despite swearing an oath of fealty, Lysa still refused to provide support when the call was rung. Although she tried to persuade her mistress that failure to do so for the second time would only bring about unnecessary trouble, it would be for naught as Lysa again did not listen to reason.

They made their way to the High Hall, where the Moon Door stood in its foundation in the middle of the room. Above it was the highbacked chair of carved weirwood. The chair next to it was taller with a stack of blue cushions piled on the seat – reserved for the Lord of the Eyrie, Defender of the Vale and Warden of the East, but Robin Arryn wasn't there. Both Eleana and Lysa walked down the blue silk carpet between rows of fluted pillars slim as lances. The floors and walls of the High Hall were made of milk-white marble veined with blue. Shafts of pale daylight slanted down through narrow arched windows along the eastern wall. Between the windows were torches, mounted in high iron sconces, but none of them was lit. Her footsteps fell softly on the carpet. Outside the wind blew cold and lonely. Amidst so much white marble even the sunlight looked chilly, somehow... though not half so chilly as her mistress. On the wall behind them hung a huge banner, the moon-and-falcon of House Arryn in cream and blue.

Lysa glared at her handmaiden with such heated intensity, even as the soft chords Marillion were playing in the hopes of settling the widow Arryn down. "I raised you up from nothing. Took you in as my handmaiden after your mother passed away of a fever. You had nowhere else to go, yet I permitted you to stay by my leave," she stared her down, poking her rather hard. "I could have easily had you banished from my sight. I took you into my service since you were a little girl. And yet you constantly lean over my shoulder making such demands of me? Of my sweet Robin? Your liege lord? Tell me, girl: do you consider yourself above your station?"

Eleana shook her head. "N-no, mistress! I only meant that—"

"Oh, drop the coy deceiving act with me!"