The King of Winters

Chapter-116

They crossed the southern half of the road by the midday before stopping to dine on the oaten biscuits baked with nuts and dry fruits and salted pork. There was some wine that Lady Cerwyn had given her, no doubt to curry some favour from her.

As the men put up a fire and had the pork suspended over it, Argella sat down with the northmen and asked them of all the questions she had about the place and their King and everything else she wanted to know about. They answered all the questions she had and even ones that she didn't.

She looked at Brienne then sitting alone with a bowl of crab stew clasped in her hands, looking deep into the flames as if she was searching for some answer. Argella stood up and walked over to her before sitting down.

"Are you not liking the food, Brienne?" Argella asked her. "You have hardly touched the stew."

Brienne looked embarrassed at being caught by her. "No, my lady... " she stammered. "I was just thinking about something."

"I hope you don't regret following me here," Argella placed a hand on her forearm, thick and muscled beneath her pale, slender fingers. "You wish to be with my father or brother perhaps, serving on the battlefield."

“Its hardly what I wish for, your grace,” Brienne replied. “I am most honoured to be named as your sworn shield. I heard from Lady Cerwyn's maidservants that the old queen had a female companion as well, one who was also her sworn shield.”

“Queen Ashara?” Argella asked. "Andrew's mother." She had heard a lot of her goodmother's exploits, but this was new for her though. She didn't know Ashara Dayne had a female sworn shield.

“Aye, couldn't be anyone else but her,” Brienne declared solemnly.

“Is that true, Eyron?" Argella asked one of her soldiers from the North who was sitting close by. “Did Andrew's mother have a female sworn shield?”

“Her grace did,” Eyron replied. “Dacey Mormont was her name. When Lord Eddard was crowned as the King in the North Lady Ashara was crowned as the Queen of Winterfell with him. That very same day she accepted the service of Dacey.”

“That was a crazy woman,” Jacks added laughing. “Mormont women are all crazy, more so than their men. Your grace would love them.”

“What happened to her?” Argella asked.

The smiles on their faces waned. “She died doing what she was supposed to do,” Eyron said after a moment's silence. “She died protecting the queen."

Starfall, thought Argella. Yes. One more fallen name to that bloodstained castle. She had not known so many people had died there. Argella had heard about Starfall and what had happened there. Everyone spoke of how King Eddard and his noble Queen were butchered and how the Sword of the Morning died valiantly protecting his sister from the King he'd sworn to protect until his last breath. Now the singers sang of the Prince who returned from the dead, from Starfall as King. But none spoke about the thousand others who had perished along with them. Everyday Argella found new names. Karstark, Umber, Glover, Manderly, Dustin, Wull, Liddle, Flint, Hornwood, Ashwood, Tallhart, Forrester, Lake, Locke, Branch, Boggs, Moss, Marsh, Slate, Stout and now Mormont. It seemed every single house in the North had lost someone there. High lords or low all those who had gone with their King perished with him and none returned. That left a bitter taste in her mouth. She had been shielded away from Rhaegar's atrocities from her childhood that Argella never had any ill thoughts about him. For her he had always been her husband's enemy or her father's. The was how she’d been fooled. Now she knew why these northerners hated him so much and was willing to follow Andrew to hell just to throw the Targaryens away.