The King of Winters

Chapter - 119

She got dizzy thinking about how she ought to receive them all and sit in some feast for hours long in a pretty gown. Still sleep wouldn't come. I am not going back to sleep, Argella realised. She pushed her pillow away reluctantly, threw back the blankets, went to her window, and opened the shutters.

Snow was falling on Winterfell again.

Outside the flakes drifted down as soft and silent as memory. It is so beautiful. Already the snowfall lay thick upon the ground below, blanketing the grass, dusting the walls and gargoyles with white and weighing down the branches of the trees in the godswood. The sighttwas so beautiful it made her smile despite the cold. Her chambers was called the Queen's chambers, the tallest in Winterfell's great keep and the finest. It had belonged to Queen Ashara they said and overlooked the godswood and the Wolfswood beyond.

She had last seen snow the day she'd arrived in Winterfell. That was a lighter fall than this, she remembered. The  snow flakes were melting in her hair and a shake of her hair had left snowflakes swirling around her. It had surprised her how the rugged land turned so magical just like that.

Argella left the shutters open as she dressed. It would be cold, she knew, though the twin walls of Winterfell encircled the keep and protected it from the worst of the winds. She donned silken smallclothes and a linen shift, and over that a warm dress of blue lambswool. Two pairs of hose for her legs, boots that laced up to her knees, heavy leather gloves, and finally a hooded cloak of soft white fox fur.

Her maids had filled the bucket with hot water and Argella washed her face and her mouth with it as the snow began to drift in the window. The snow and cold wind chilled her skin when she was done. Argella eased open the door, and made her way down the large stair. When she opened the gates to the godswood, it was so lovely and peaceful. The world held it's breath and the snow drifted down and down, all in ghostly silence, and lay thick and unbroken on the ground. All color had fled the world outside. It was a place of whites and blacks and greys. White towers and white snow and white statues, black shadows and black trees, the dark grey sky above. A pure world, Argella thought.

She stepped into the godswood silently. Her boots tore ankle-deep holes into the smooth white surface of the snow, yet made no sound. Argella drifted past frosted branches and large dark trees, and wondered if she were still dreaming. Drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover's kisses, and melted on her cheeks. At the center of the godswood, stood the heart tree with the weeping red eyes. The snow had dusted over his red leaves as well, looking like bloodstains on snow. The weirwood was not as large as the one in Storm's End but it was the face that caught her eye. A sad melancholic face that reminded her very much of Andrew. She couldn't keep gazing at it for more than a minute, not with the red sap marring it like blood.

Argella turned her face up to the sky and looked at the beautiful grey clouds. She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. Much like the rain and storms were the taste of Storm's End.

She moved over to the edge of the three pools at the far end of the godswood beneath the wall that enclosed the godswood, where hot springs beneath always kept the pools warm. Argella had taken a great liking to them as soon as she had found them on the first day of her exploration. Ripples were running across the surface of the water and bubbles were emerging from the water. She was suddenly at content there and found the need to shed her clothes despite the cold.

Argella stripped off the woolen tunic and breeches and the leathers she wore, and padded out to where the largest pool sat beneath the moss covered wall, flanked by the other two on either side. The air was harshly cold that it made her skin flush pink at once. However the water was deliciously hot. It felt so good to close her eyes and float, knowing she could rest as long as she liked.