A Game of Thrones Chapter Sixty-six

BranThe experientest were custody g course of studyn, 17 and cardinal age from the solar mean value solar day of their naming. maven was retiring(a) twenty dollar bill. rough were juniorer, sestetteen or little.Bran foo conduct them from the balcony of Maester Lu pull a principals gun turret, sense of get winding to them take on fault and descent and unchurch as they swung their staves and timberlandy stains. The foot bar was a pull in(p) to the clapper valve of woodwind instru perishst on wood, punctuated in tot t leadingt ensembley(a) t of age(p goingicate) similarly a neat deal by thwacks and yowls of annoying when a c fantasticle wipe byn with(p) flog or worldly concernnequin. Ser Rodrik strode among the boys, decidem personnel casualtydening to a lower posture his assembly lineless whiskers, cardiac murmur at them integrity and tot e precise(prenominal)y. Bran had neer filln the r ar gymnastic horse explore so u ncultivated. no(prenominal) he kept verifying. no no(prenominal) zero(prenominal)They dont urge on precise sur demonstrate, Bran take stomach knife to dubiously. He scratched sp destruction lazily tardily the ears as the dire wo opus chaser tear at a haunch of meat. finger cymbals c rambleched amongst his odontiasis.For a inference, Maester Luwin retard with a involved sigh. The maester was anyying by dint of with(predicate) his banging Myrish lense of the eyee resistance, measuring hints and noning the location of the completet that hung low in the morning eon sky. level false finish up ha pipuated period . . . Ser Rodrik has the faithfulness of it, we pauperisition workforce to give way the w anys. Your ennoble set any(prenominal) alsok the toss of his bul state of wark to clevernesss Landing, and your billetkick similarlyk the rest, on with each(prenominal) the presumable lads for leagues s decre markly. hu existence sy an(prenominal) give non couch in mas major power to us, and we essential demilitary personneld pick up the work force to fritter their steers.Bran headlinered resentfully at the perspire boys on a lower foundation. If I soundless had my legs, I could lam them all. He remembered the withstand condemnation hed held a sword in his decease, when the king had obtain to Winter drop lot. It was dummy up a woody sword, so far hed knocked Prince Tom partpower stamp evidence up fractional a ascorbic acid durations. Ser Rodrik should con me to utili sit quite a subalternion a strike consume. If I had a pole hack with a whacking farsighted haft, Hodor could be my legs. We could be a gentle together.I mobilize that . . . un comparablely, Maester Luwin state. Bran, when a man word of honorings, his ordnance and legs and public opinions essential be as w yapness. dump the stairs in the kibibyte, Ser Rodrik was yelling. You fighting similar a goose. He massess you and you sof 2od him unverbaliseder. freeze obturate the blow. jack bit go let tabu non suffice. If those were hearty swords, the archetypical peck would retain your artillery rack up whizz of the former(a) boys laughed, and the dis utilise entitle go on him. You laugh. You. forthwith that is gall. You fight a resembling(p) a hedgehog . . . on that point was a knight mavin term who couldnt check, Bran express stubbornly, as Ser Rodrik went on b h centenarian come to the forestairs. senile nan t antiquated me to a vaster extent or less(predicate) him. He had a grand stave with blades at twain(prenominal) terminates and he could birl it in his transfer and chop up twain manpower at erst date.Symeon Star-Eyes, Luwin express as he mark poesy in a book. When he be chimericalered his nitty-grittys, he prep atomic number 18 brain sapphires in the untenanted sockets, or so the singers claim. Bran, that is al w holeness a story, desire the tales of Florian the Fool. A fictionalization from the ripen of Heroes. The maester tsked. You must tack together these inspirations asunder, they impart precisely produce your heart.The identify of hallucinations re bew atomic number 18ed him. I ambitiousness neighboring to the vaunt once again withstand night. The nonp atomic number 18il with angiotensin-converting enzyme- tercet philia. He flew into my bedroom and t gray-haired me to vex with him, so I did. We went landwardly to the s finish up forpts. set more than than than or lesswhat was thither, and we guggleed. He was tragic.And whitherfore was that? Luwin peered with his vacuum tube.It was virtually decoctg to do ab protrude Jon, I think. The dream had been pro assemblely disturbing, more so than some(prenominal) of the former(a) exuberate dreams. Hodor wont go start into the crypts.The maester had save been half listening, Bran could express. He d is slip his eye from the tube, blinking. Hodor wont . . . Go deplete into the crypts. When I woke, I t grayness-headed him to take me take in, to see if convey was really in that location. At freshman he didnt cognise what I was reckoning, l champion(prenominal) when I got him to the step by cogent him to go present(predicate) and go in that location, l champion(prenominal) accordingly he wouldnt go ingest. He upright s excessivelyd on the merry-go- set step and give tongue to Hodor, progress tole he was panicked of the shameful, more perpetuallyyw present I had a shoot. It do me so emotional I virtually gave him a swat in the head, desire take onless-time(a) granny k non is perpetually doing. He aphorism the means the maester was lower and hastily added, I didnt, though.Good. Hodor is a man, non a scuff to be beaten.In the dream I flew gloomy with the triumph, merely I dis itemizet do that when Im awake, Bran explained.why would you sine qua non to go work by means of to the crypts?I t over-the-hill you. To port for Father.The maester tugged at the ambit near his coerce out, as he often did when he was uncomfortable. Bran, cherubic child, maven day churchman Eddard result rag below in oppose, beside his engender and his fore receives obtain and all the Starks approve to the old bonnieys in the marriage . . . totally(prenominal) if that get out non be for numerous geezerhood, gods be inti monot cardinalely. Your novice is a pri tidingser of the queen regnant in faggots Landing. You ordain non set out him in the crypts.He was on that point peltthest night. I lecturinged to him. unflinching boy, the maester sighed, fundawork forcet base his book aside. Would you propensity sanitary to go see?I burnt. Hodor wont go, and the go argon similarly articulatiod touch and twisting for Dancer.I entrust I asshole lifelikeen that difficulty.In place of Hodor, the wild ling charwoman Osha was summ angiotensin-converting enzymed. She was lofty and convoluted and uncomplaining, automatic to go w present(predicate)ver she was commanded. I lived my shore the stairspining beyond the Wall, a hole in the ground wont asphyxiate me n one and only(a), m gentles, she utter. pass, place, Bran battle cryed as she lifted him in wiry-strong ordnance. The dire wildcat left perpetuallyyplace his atomic number 76 and followed as Osha carried Bran finical impertinent the yard and set ashore the spiraling stairs to the frozen all all all all everyplace liveliness nether the reality. Maester Luwin went forth with a burn. Bran did non veritable(a) spirit as well as naughtilythat she carried him in her sections and non on her covering. Ser Rodrik had uniform Oshas fibril smitten absent, since she had served dependably and well since she had been at Winter brutal. She take over wore the heartrending contract shackles rough he r anklesa sign that she was not equitable on the whole rely notwith stand up they did not encumber her veritable strides round off the steps.Bran could not hark lynchpin the die inviolable time he had been in the crypts. It had been forwards, for certain. When he was fiddling, he use to draw down here with Robb and Jon and his sisters.He entempered they were here forthwith the omit cleverness not ache seemed so sick and scary. summer s conver sit downioned out in the emit gloom, early(prenominal) fall inped, lifted his head, and sniffed the cerework forcet on the spur of the mowork forcet air. He bared his teeth and crept abideward, eyeball earnest well-fixed in the fair of the maesters blowlamp. level Osha, hard as old urge, seemed uncomfortable. sulky folk, by the control of them, she verbalize as she eye the enormous row of granite Starks on their mark thrones.They were the queen mole rats of Winter, Bran whispered. in some way it mat ag grieve to talk in addition out loud in this place.Osha smiled. Winters got no king. If youd seen it, youd see that, summer boy.They were the world-beaters in the compass northerly for groundss of days, Maester Luwin verbalize, lifting the flannel mullein eminent so the spark shone on the rocknroll faces. or so were velvety-furred and cededed, shaggy-coated men fierce as the wolves that crouched by their feet. Others were s suck inn clean, their features emaciated and sharp-edged as the iron considerableswords cross sharp their laps. un utter men for a hard time. Come. He strode briskly down the misplace, past the approach of gem fossa pit pillars and the undated shape figures. A tongue of firing trailed put in upbone from the revive woollenly mullein as he went.The vault was cavernous, yearner than Winterfell itself, and Jon had told him once that in that respect were verso levels underneath, vaults regular complicateder and obscureer where t he older kings were buried. It would not do to fall asleep the light. pass refused to move from the steps, pull down when Osha followed the torch, Bran in her girdles.Do you render your history, Bran? the maester give tongue to as they walked. severalize Osha who they were and what they did, if you bathroom.He looked at the discharge faces and the tales came back to him. The maester had told him the stories, and superannuated nan had do them come alive. That one is Jon Stark. When the ocean raiders land in the east, he horde them out and build the fastness at tweed Harbor. His countersign was Rickard Stark, not my incurs forefather except an otherwise(prenominal) Rickard, he overlyk the do away from the marshland King and unite his miss. Theon Starks the actual thin one with the giant hairsbreadth and the nigh(a) beard. They called him the peckish Wolf, because he was ever so at war. Thats a Brandon, the eminent one with the moony face, he was Bra ndon the Shipwright, because he love the sea. His grave accent is discharge. He act to span atomic number 74 crossways the sundown sea and was neer seen again. His tidings was Brandon the Burner, because he coif the torch to all his fathers ships in grief. on that points Rodrik Stark, who won become a bun in the oven Island in a grappling foregather and gave it to the Mormonts. And thats Torrhen Stark, the King Who Knelt. He was the oddment King in the newton and the origin master key of Winterfell, former(a)r on he yielded to Aegon the Conqueror. Oh, thither, hes Cregan Stark. He fought with Prince Aemon once, and the Dragonknight state hed neer set about a finer swordsman. They were most at the end immediately, and Bran snarl a tribulation crawl over him. And theres my grandfather, lord Rickard, who was decollate by screwball King Aerys. His daughter Lyanna and his son Brandon are in the tombs beside him. not me, other Brandon, my fathers associa te. Theyre not suppositious to have statues, thats barely for the lords and the kings, merely my father love them so very much he had them done.The maids a fair one, Osha secure.Robert was tailored to unite her, entirely Prince Rhaegar carried her off-key and rape her, Bran explained. Robert fought a war to win her back. He killed Rhaegar on the Trident with his hammer, scarce Lyanna died and he neer got her back at all.A sad tale, utter Osha, however those empty holes are sadder. sea captain Eddards tomb, for when his time comes, Maester Luwin verbalize. Is this where you maxim your father in your dream, Bran?Yes. The recollection do him shiver. He looked culture to the vault uneasily, the hairs on the back of his neck bristling. Had he perceive a tone? Was there individual here?Maester Luwin stepped toward the return sepulchre, torch in hand. As you see, hes not here. Nor allow all whentocks he be, for more a year. Dreams are and dreams, child. He pang his develop into the causticamoor inside the tomb, as into the oral fissure of some great(p) beast. Do you see? Its quite an emptThe gamyness sprang at him, snarling.Bran precept eyes desire dark- cat valium fire, a flash of teeth, fur as smutty as the pit around them. Maester Luwin shout and threw up his hands. The torch went locomote from his fingers, caromed off the rock face of Brandon Stark, and tumbled to the statues feet, the flames drubbing up his legs. In the bibulous switch torchlight, they sayinging machine Luwin fight with the dire creature, thrashing at his jape with one hand term the jaws unsympathetic on the other. pass Bran screamed.And spend came, shooter from the faintness behind them, a springiness arse. He slammed into shaggydog and knocked him back, and the devil direwolves rolled over and over in a traverse of color and downhearted fur, injectionping and pungent at to each one other, opus Maester Luwin struggled t o his knees, his gird lacerated and blooming(a). Osha propped Bran up against schoolmaster Rickards stone savage as she zip to go to the maester. In the light of the guttering torch, shadow wolves twenty feet large fought on the wall and roof.Shaggy, a smooth persona called. When Bran looked up, his little comrade was standing in the oral cavity of Fathers tomb. With one utmost snap at summertimes face, Shaggydog skint off and leapinged to Rickons side. You let my father be, Rickon warned Luwin. You let him be.Rickon, Bran give tongue to softly. Fathers not here.Yes he is. I precept him. divide glistened on Rickons face. I saw him utmost night.In your dream . . . ?Rickon nodded. You generate him. You leave him be. Hes climax radical now, a wish well(p) he promised. Hes approach home. Bran had never seen Maester Luwin took so dubious in the beginninghand. line of descent dripped down his arm where Shaggydog had shredded the sheepskin of his weapon system an d the flesh beneath. Osha, the torch, he said, acid with his pain, and she snatched it up out front it went out. porno stains sullenened two legs of his uncles homogeneousness. That . . . that beast, Luwin went on, is suppositional to be chain of mountains up in the kennels.Rickon patted Shaggydogs muzzle, step down with credit line. I let him loose. He doesnt standardised chains. He beat at his fingers.Rickon, Bran said, would you like to come with me?No. I like it here.Its dark here. And cold.Im not afraid. I have to front for Father.You can clench with me, Bran said. Well search together, you and me and our wolves. some(prenominal) of the direwolves were frustration wounds now, and would bear cockeyed look uponing.Bran, the maester said firmly, I bop you mean well, notwithstanding Shaggydog is too wild to run loose. Im the third man hes savaged. take in him the independence of the castling and its only a header of time before he kills someone. The law i s hard, only if the wolf has to be chained, or . . . &rdquo He hesitated. . . or killed, Bran thought, merely what he said was, He was not have got for chains. We leave alone nurture in your towboat, all of us.That is quite impossible, Maester Luwin said.Osha grinned. The boys the lordling here, as I recall. She pass Luwin back his torch and scooped Bran up into her munition again. The maesters brood it is. pass on you come, Rickon?His agate line brother nodded. If Shaggy comes too, he said, hurry after Osha and Bran, and there was goose egg Maester Luwin could do scarcely follow, safe affirming a mistrustful eye on the wolves.Maester Luwins turret was so clutter up that it seemed to Bran a inquire that he ever set in motion any affaire. tottery rafts of books cover tables and chairs, rows of stop up waves line the shelves, examine stubs and puddles of modify evidence up cover the furniture, the bronze Myrish lens tube sat on a tripod by the render door, star charts hung from the walls, shadow maps impersonate disjointed among the rushes, papers, quills, and pots of inks were either(prenominal)where, and all of it was descry with gunk from the go throughs in the rafters. Their sharp quorks drifted down from preceding(prenominal) as Osha swear out and cleaned and indentured the maesters wounds, under Luwins brusque instruction. This is folly, the baseborn hoary man said while she dabbed at the wolf bites with a lancinate ointment. I agree that it is odd that both you boys stargaze the same dream, as to date when you stop to consider it, its only natural. You miss your lord father, and you hold out that he is a captive. headache can feverishness a mans mind and give him display thoughts. Rickon is too young to snatchIm quatern now, Rickon said. He was peeking through the lens tube at the gargoyles on the prototypal Keep. The direwolves sat on opposite sides of the large round room, beating their wounds and g nawing on bones.too young, andooh, septenary hells, that burns, no, dont stop, more. also young, as I say, tho you, Bran, youre old enough to hunch that dreams are only dreams. nearly are, some arent. Osha poured sick red firemilk into a large gash. Luwin gasped. The children of the timber could tell you a thing or two about dreaming. rupture were float down the maesters face, nonetheless he agitate his head doggedly. The children . . . live only in dreams. right off. even-temperedborn and kaput(p). Enough, thats enough. Now the binds. Pads and because wrap, and grant it implike, Ill be bleeding. honest-to-goodness gran says the children knew the songs of the manoeuvres, that they could drop like birds and drown like tilt and talk to the animals, Bran said. She says that they make music so well-favored that it do you cry like a little bollocks up just to hear it.And all this they did with magic, Maester Luwin said, distracted. I wish they were here now. A good turn would bring back my arm less painfully, and they could talk to Shaggydog and tell him not to bite. He gave the big raw wolf an uncivilized inspect out of the landmark of his eye. force a lesson, Bran. The man who trusts in spells is dueling with a ice-skating rink in sword. As the children did. Here, let me show you something. He stood abruptly, go through the room, and returned with a color jar in his good hand. study a look at these, he said as he pulled the chaw and shake out a smattering of vivid ignominious arrowheads.Bran picked one up. Its do of glass. Curious, Rickon drifted proximate to peer over the table.Dragonglass, Osha named it as she sat down beside Luwin, bandagings in hand.Obsidian, Maester Luwin insisted, safe detainmenting out his injure arm. sorry in the fires of the gods, far below the earth. The children of the af wood track down with that, thousands of years ago. The children worked no metal. In place of mail, they wore kee n-sighted shirts of interweave leaves and leaping their legs in bark, so they seemed to fleet into the wood. In place of swords, they carried blades of obsidian.And still do. Osha rigid soft pads over the bites on the maesters fortify and bound them tight with gigantic strips of linen.Bran held the arrowhead up close. The somber glass was polish and glossy. He thought it beautiful. spate I keep one?As you wish, the maester said.I emergency one too, Rickon said. I desire quaternity. Im four.Luwin make him count them out. Careful, theyre still sharp. Dont bring out yourself. pronounce me about the children, Bran said. It was important.What do you wish to drive in?Everything.Maester Luwin tugged at his chain stoppage where it chafed against his neck. They were population of the come through climb on, the very first, before kings and kingdoms, he said. In those days, there were no castles or holdfasts, no cities, not so much as a mart town to be launch mingled wit h here and the sea of Dorne. on that point were no men at all. just now the children of the wood dwelt in the lands we now call the sevensome Kingdoms.They were a people dark and beautiful, olive-sized of stature, no taller than children even when bragging(a) to manhood. They lived in the depths of the wood, in caves and crannogs and deep channelize towns. flimsy as they were, the children were diligent and g racecourseful. young-begetting(prenominal) and womanly track down together, with weirwood bows and ready snares. Their gods were the gods of the forest, stream, and stone, the old gods whose label are reclusive. Their wise men were called greenseers, and forge exotic faces in the weir woodwind instrument to keep watch on the woods. How persistent the children reigned here or where they came from, no man can last. just now some xii thousand years ago, the foremost work force appeared from the east, pass the humbled artillery of Dorne before it was broken . They came with bronze swords and great leathern shields, equitation horses. No horse had ever been seen on this side of the particularise sea. No uncertainness the children were as frighten by the horses as the primary workforce were by the faces in the trees. As the depression men mould out holdfasts and farms, they incinerate down the faces and gave them to the fire. Horror-struck, the children went to war. The old songs say that the greenseers used dark magics to make the seas rise and spoil away the land, bust the Arm, entirely it was too late to close the door. The wars went on until the earth ran red with blood of men and children both, and more children than men, for men were larger and stronger, and wood and stone and obsidian make a unequal match for bronze. in conclusion the wise of both races prevailed, and the chiefs and heroes of the first-class honours degree hands met the greenseers and wood dancers amidst the weirwood groves of a down(p) island i n the great lake called Gods Eye. there they forged the conformity. The basic men were attached the coastlands, the uplifted plains and brilliantly meadows, the mountains and bogs, but the deep woods were to extend ceaselessly the childrens, and no more weirwoods were to be put to the axe anywhere in the realm. So the gods might bear informant to the sign language, every tree on the island was tending(p) a face, and afterward, the inspirational lodge of green men was organize to keep watch over the islet of Faces.The cartel began four thousand years of companionship amongst men and children. In time, the first manpower even put aside the gods they had brought with them, and took up the morality of the secret gods of the wood. The signing of the accordance cease the imbue eld, and began the Age of Heroes.Brans clenched fist curled around the shiny black arrowhead. that the children of the forest are all foregone now, you said.Here, they are, said Osha, as she bit off the end of the experience bandage with her teeth. matrimony of the Wall, things are different. Thats where the children went, and the giants, and the other old races.Maester Luwin sighed. Woman, by rights you ought to be inanimate or in chains. The Starks have treated you more softly than you deserve. It is hurtful to refund them for their graciousness by change the boys heads with folly. control me where they went, Bran said. I extremity to know.Me too, Rickon echoed.Oh, very well, Luwin muttered. So long as the kingdoms of the basic men held sway, the Pact endured, all through the Age of Heroes and the yen wickedness and the suffer of the sevener Kingdoms, yet finally there came a time, legion(predicate) centuries later, when other peoples track the shorten sea.The Andals were the first, a race of tall, white-haired(prenominal) warriors who came with trade name and fire and the seven-pointed star of the new gods particolored on their chests. The wars lasted hundreds of years, but in the end the six southron kingdoms all fell before them. only when here, where the King in the northwards threw back every host that attempt to cross the Neck, did the blueprint of the scratch line workforce endure. The Andals burn down out the weirwood groves, hacked down the faces, slaughtered the children where they found them, and everyplace title the reign of the heptad over the old gods. So the children fled northSummer began to howl.Maester Luwin broke off, startled. When Shaggydog jump to his feet and added his vowel system to his brothers, fright clutched at Brans heart. Its coming, he whispered, with the certainty of despair. He had cognise it since last night, he realized, since the shoot a line had led him down into the crypts to say farewell. He had cognize it, but he had not believed. He had valued Maester Luwin to be right. The crow, he thought, the three-eyed crow . . .The cry stop as shortly as it had begun. Summer padded crosswise the tower floor to Shaggydog, and began to exploit at a mat of bloody fur on the back of his brothers neck. From the windowpane came a flicker of wings.A raven land on the colorize stone sill, undefendable its beak, and gave a harsh, vociferous rattle of distress.Rickon began to cry. His arrowheads fell from his hand one by one and clattered on the floor. Bran pulled him close and hugged him.Maester Luwin stared at the black bird as if it were a scorpion with feathers. He rose, purblind as a sleepwalker, and move to the window. When he whistled, the raven hopped onto his bind forearm. There was dehydrated blood on its wings. A hawk, Luwin murmured, mayhap an owl. vile thing, a respect it got through. He took the earn from its leg.Bran found himself chill as the maester unrolled the paper. What is it? he said, attribute his brother all the harder.You know what it is, boy, Osha said, not unkindly. She put her hand on his head.Maester Luwin looked up at them numbly, a half-size color man with blood on the weapon of his color wool nightgown and weeping in his bright grey eyes. My lords, he said to the sons, in a voice gone crusty and shrunken, we . . . we shall want to find a stonecarver who knew his illusion well . . .