Sacrifice Is a Beautiful Thing (Jojen Reed)

C H A P T E R 7

Mara POV

Bran and I were sitting in his room side by side, watching the fire silently.

Jojen entered the room unbidden, with Meera close behind.

I stood up.

"Tell me the bad thing you dreamed," Bran commanded, "The bad thing that is coming to Winterfell."

Jojen took a deep breath, "It is the sea that comes. I dreamed that the sea was lapping all around Winterfell. I saw black waves crashing against the gates and towers, and then the salt water came flowing over the walls and filled the castle. Drowned men were floating in the yard. When I first dreamed the dream, back at Greywater, I didn't know their faces, but now I do. That Alebelly is one, the guard who called our names at the feast. Your septon's another. Your smith as well. "

Bran was confused and incredulous, "But the sea is hundreds and hundreds of leagues away, and Winterfell's walls are so high the water couldn't get in even if it did come."

"In the dark of night the salt sea will flow over these walls. I saw the dead, bloated and drowned."

I laid a hand on Bran's shoulder. "I have seen it too." Jojen's gaze flickered to me, then back to Bran, gauging his reaction.

Bran swallowed hard, "We have to tell them. Alebelly and Mikken and Septon Chayle. Tell them not to drown."

Jojen said, "It will not save them." The pronouncement hung in the air like a stifling burial shroud.

I closed my eyes. I couldn't deny it.

***

The following days, Bran tried to warn people, but no one heeded his words. They merely scoffed at him.

Over a game of tile we were playing, Meera tried to reassure that Bran that perhaps the prophecies wouldn't come true, but Jojen shook his head. "The things I see in greendreams can't be changed."

I averted my face from the fire, letting the shadows mask my emotions.

Meera asked angrily, "Why would the gods send a warning if we can't heed it and change what's to come?"

"I don't know," Jojen said sadly.

"If you were Alebelly, you'd probably jump into the well to have done with it! He should fight, and Bran should too."

"Me?" Bran looked afraid. "What should I fight? Am I going to drown too?"

Meera looked at him guiltily. "I shouldn't have said."

I could tell that she was hiding something. So could Bran. "Did you see me in a green dream?" he asked Jojen, "Was I drowned?"

"Not drowned." Jojen spoke as if every word pained him. "I dreamed of the man who came today, the one they call Reek. You and your brother lay dead at his feet, and he was skinning off your faces with a long red blade."

Meera rose to her feet. "If I went to the dungeon, I could drive a spear right through his heart. How could he murder Bran if he was dead?"

"The gaolers will stop you," Jojen said. "The guards. And if you tell them why you want him dead, they'll never believe it."

"I have guards too," Bran reminded them. "Alebelly and Poxy Tym and Hayhead and the rest."

Jojen's mossy eyes were full of pity. "They won't be able to stop him, Bran. I couldn't see why, but I saw the end of it. I saw you and Rickon in your crypts, down in the dark with all the dead kings and their stone wolves."

No, not Bran. No. 

Bran asked desperately, "If I went away to Greywater, or to the crow, someplace far where they couldn't find me..."