The Shadow of Winterfell Chapter 4

Robb Stark

It only took a day for everything to go to hell.

One of theIr men-at-arms was killed, and another seriously wounded. All four of the men who desecrated aunt Lyanna’s tomb were dead, and the entire castle was on edge. That was without mentioning the royal party’s reaction, along with the king’s. King Robert had gone into a blind rage when he recieved the news of what happened, and Robb’s father had been only slightly less wrathful in his own fury.

Whispers about the perpetrators were spreading all over the castle like wildfire, with most originally pointing blame at the Dornish and the Targaryen loyalists. At first, Robb couldn’t help but agree, until a new wave of rumors began to spread, ones that made him rethink things. Fellow lords and smallfolk alike began to suspect the Queen, and Robb couldn’t help but agree.

He had seen Queen Cersei’s open distaste for King Robert’s love of Lyanna when they first arrived, as the King immediately went down to the crypts to visit her grave. Rumors of the Queen’s supposed dislike of Lyanna were being spread all over Winterfell, speaking of how Cersei Lannister was envious of Robert Baratheon’s deceased betrothed. It came with talk of how Queen Cersei was supposedly a petty and vengeful woman, someone who would have servants whipped for even the slightest misstep.

There was even talk of the betrothal between Sansa and Prince Joffrey being cancelled, even if neither the King nor his father had committed to it. That particular rumor made Robb think the Queen might have set this whole affair up just to end the betrothal negotiations. As for why she didn’t want Joffrey to marry Sansa, who could say? Robb certainly didn’t want Sansa marrying that ponce.

Is this what father warned of? He couldn’t help but wonder then, thinking back to the conversation they had in Lord Stark’s solar before King Robert arrived. His father had warned of treacherous plots and schemes that the southerners liked to play, but he didn’t think it would be anything like this.

He sighed and put those worrying thoughts out of his mind for now, instead focusing on his surrounding as he and the other men marched through the wolfswood. King Robert had orchestrated a hunt for them all to go on, and Lord Stark had agreed. It would be a way for them all to get their mind off what happened, and improve everyone’s mood.

“I take it you visit these woods often, Stark?” Tyrion Lannister asked from his side as they walked with the royal party through the woods.

“Aye.” Robb replied.

“And would you say these woods are dangerous?” Tyrion continued. “I’d hate for anything bad to happen after last night’s mishaps.”

Robb’s brows furrowed in thought. “There are some wildlings that hide in the wolfswood, although I doubt any of them would dare attack a party of this size.”

Indeed, most of the Kingsguard had accompanied them on their hunt, along with scores of men-at-arms for additional protection. How they would manage to sneak up on some game and kill it, Robb didn’t know, but this whole outing felt more like a social affair than an actual hunt.

King Robert was drinking heavily, all while talking to Robb’s father about old war stories and tales. How the man was able to hold so much wine after the previous nights celebrations, Robb did not know.

“My sister always said the King would go out drunk on one of his hunts and never return.” Tyrion said suddenly, sounding oddly serious. Robb looked oddly at him, and followed his gaze to the unruly King Robert. “Hopefully it’s not this one.”

/////

Hadrian Snow

Val was starting to become invaluable to him, and with her information he was able to get a lead on the perpetrator. The desecration of Aunt Lyanna’s grave had left everyone else scrambling to find a suspect, but not Harry, as he already had the woman responsible in his sights.

Senelle was one of Queen Cersei’s handmaidens, a prestigious position to hold for any woman in the Seven Kingdoms, and just why she would risk her position by committing such a crime was unknown to him. The simple solution was to believe Queen Cersei had orchestrated the entire thing, but Harry wanted to make sure first.

He could lose his head for making such an accusation against the Queen. And even though he could easily escape using his magic and run off, House Stark would surely pay the consequences of such foolishness.

After he learned from Val that Senelle was the one responsible, he snuck into her room and raided it while she was asleep. The royal party never detected his presence all the while, and Harry made sure to use a stunning spell on the woman so she didn’t wake up and see him.

He didn’t find anything incriminating, with the only suspicious items being an unusually large amount of gold along with an anonymous letter describing a rendezvous at the edge of the winter town. And it was that letter which led him to where he was now, invisible and hidden in a dark corner of an old abandoned storehouse.

The door to the old building opened, and an ugly man entered first. He looked no better than a wildling, unkempt and dirty, with the face of someone who had discarded their humanity. Harry had killed scum like him before, the worst kind of men, those who would kill and enslave anyone for meager coin.

A woman entered behind him then, who he recognized as Senelle, and she divested the hood of her cloak to reveal a snotty woman with lots of makeup and quite a bit of jewelry. Harry was able to learn her background with a bit of work, finding her to have the resume of a high-class courtesan in King’s Landing before she somehow ended up as a handmaiden to the Queen.

He could only assume she had grown up in a brothel with no family to speak of, learning to use her body to get ahead in life. It was a common tale for whores, those women who were truly desperate and eager for coin. And it would only make sense that some secret benefactor was orchestrating all of this madness through her, and that was who Harry was looking for.

A noise suddenly got his attention, and he looked to the back of the old storehouse to see a small hatch open. A cloaked intruder slipped through the small hole, being careful not to make a sound, and hid behind a stack of crates before watching the scene with interest. For a brief moment, Harry saw beneath her hood, and glimpsed red hair along with aristocratic womanly features.

Sansa? He wondered if that was who the intruder was for a brief moment, before dismissing that thought. The only girl he could see doing something like this was Arya, and she didn’t match her height nor hair. He turned his gaze back to Senelle and what was clearly a hired thug of sort.

“You have the payment I was offered?” The thug demanded.

Senelle sniffed with disdain and sat a large stack of gold down on the crate. It was more gold than most smallfolk would ever come across in a lifetime, and it would certainly make sense if Cersei Lannister was her backer if she was throwing gold around like that.

The lowlife across from Senelle eyed his payment greedily, and Harry had a feeling he would just take the gold and run. “And what’s to stop me from just killing you and running off with it?”

Just like I predicted. He mentally grumbled, grasping his own blade and readying himself to intervene. But for some reason Senelle looked perfectly calm, and reached for something in her cloak.

She pulled out a dagger, and it had a certain glint to its blade that Harry couldn’t recognize. The redhead slammed it into the wooden crate, and it was easily buried to the hilt. His eyebrows raised in astonishment, acknowledging either the woman must be insanely strong or that the dagger must be astonishingly sharp.

“You can take the dagger, as well as the gold.” Senelle said calmly. “After completing the job you’ll receive twice as much gold as is in front of you.”

The thug looked down at the dagger and gold before he grinned. “It seems that the Mockingbird pays well, I’ll make sure Lord Stark gets the message.”

The meeting was done then, but right as the two were about to leave, fate seemed to intervene. A loud crash sounded from across the room, and Harry turned to see the other intruder had fallen, knocking over a crate in the process.

The two were on her in an instant, and Harry watched as the thug pulled back her hood to expose her face as Senelle watched.

“Jocelyn? Just what are you doing here?” Senelle asked the new woman, seeming to recognize the intruder. “Does Cersei know about this?”

“N-No… It’s just me.” The intruder, named Jocelyn, stuttered.

“Good.” Senelle suddenly smirked. “Kill her.”

The thug grinned and pulled out the dagger from earlier to slit her throat, and that was when Harry moved. He was on them in an instant, his invisibility dissapearing as he pulled out his own blade. The man noticed him at the last moment, but by then it was too late. Harry struck, running his blade through the man’s abdomen.

The man dropped the dagger in shock, and Jocelyn picked it up. The girl turned to Senelle, and proceeded to stab her in the chest. By the time Harry dislodged his blade, there was nothing left for him to do.

“T-They almost killed me.” The woman, Jocelyn, stuttered in shock, looking down at Senelle’s dead body and then at Harry. “Y-You saved me.”

He opened his mouth to speak, only for the woman’s eyes to roll back in her head as she fell unconscious. He caught her before she hit the ground, realizing she was clearly some sort of highborn woman who was out of her depth in a dangerous situation like this.

Harry couldn’t help but sigh, looking over the bodies of Senelle and the hired thug and looting anything important. He took the strange dagger, which he noticed was made of Valyrian steel, along with a letter carrying the Arryn seal that the thug carried.

This letter must be important. He broke the seal, despite knowing that reading the mail of a Great House could get him hanged. I doubt it’s legitimate anyways, as no high lord would trust a thug with something so important.

The last thing he expected was for the letter to be addressed to Catelyn Stark, from her sister, Lysa Arryn. It was a letter that alluded to backstabbing and treachery in the case of Jon Arryn’s death, all the while eagerly pointing the finger at House Lannister. And it just so happened that the same people delivering such a letter had done their utmost best to undermine Cersei Lannister, likely to drive a wedge between House Stark and House Lannister.

‘It seems that the Mockingbird pays well’ Harry remembered the thug’s words from earlier. Someone called the Mockingbird must have set this all up. Just who is he?

He looked down at Jocelyn’s unconscious form. Hopefully she will know.

/////

Val

Her time as Harry’s eyes and ears around Winterfell was less eventful after the previous night’s events. Most of it was spent eavesdropping on smallfolk gossip and watching confrontations take place between Stark and Lannister men-at-arms as tensions rose.

Already the Stark guardsmen were trying to make their southron counterparts lives as hard as possible. Barely anyone was being allowed in and out of Winterfell, with every piece of baggage being searched for anything suspicious. She was lucky that her stealth skills were up to par, and combined with Harry’s own knowledge of Winterfell, she was able to get around the castle without incident.

She made her way down one of the castle’s hallways before stopping in front of an old stone statue of Theon Stark holding an axe. A quick glance around showed no one nearby, and Val reached out and grasped the statue’s axe. She pulled, and the statue magically sunk into the wall, revealing a hidden staircase leading upwards.

It was one of the handful of secret passageways around the castle Harry had either created or discovered, and they had been extremely useful in escaping the Winterfell crypts the night before.

Val eventually reached the top of the stairs and walked out from behind a bookshelf, arriving in Harry’s quarters. It was warm and toasty, complete with a roaring fire along with floating candles.

Harry’s room was full of all sorts of complicated contraptions, no doubt powered by his strange magic, and Val had yet to figure out how any of it all worked. Books lined the walls in multiple shoves, complete with several workstations, and even a kitchen taking up part of the space. As well as all that, there was even a shitter, along with a room that cleaned all of his clothes.

But that wasn’t what got Val’s attention as she entered. Instead it was the redhead comfortably sitting on Harry’s bed, all the while he examined a letter at his desk. Harry might have stolen her, but that didn’t Val wasn’t at least somewhat territorial about her man.

“Who the fuck is she?” Val gestured dismissively at the redhead, trying to convey her annoyance through her tone.

The woman opened her mouth to speak, but Harry did so first. “Jocelyn Swyft.”

“You fucking her too?”

“No.” Val got a strange pleasure from seeing the flustered look on the woman’s face. “I ran into her on my outing earlier.”

“And how did that go?” Val asked, taking off her cloak and putting it on a nearby hanger as she did so.

“Senelle is dead, and I managed to find out she was working for someone called the Mockingbird. The problem is, well…”

“We don’t know who the Mockingbird is.” Jocelyn Swyft finished for him, acting timid. “But I can start asking around and see if anyone knows anything, my Lord.”

Val looked at Harry with a raised brow at that, wondering just what the deal was with the woman. Did he steal her?

She was well aware that stealing women wasn’t a thing in the south, and yet it was almost like the girl was subservient to Harry for some reason. The very fact he had brought her here, to his personal magical quarters, meant he clearly trusted her.

“She owes me a debt for saving her life.” Harry caught her strange look, and answered her question. “Besides, I figured that it would help to have more allies in this situation.”

Val snorted in amusement. “You say that like she isn’t going to be sucking your cock anytime soon.”

Jocelyn’s face went red in embarrassment once again, and Val had to try and not laugh at how weak the southerner was.

/////

Bran Stark

The guards were even more numerous after what happened to aunt Lyanna’s tomb, making his climbing that much harder to get away with.

It left only the most dilapidated parts of the castle available for him to climb, which was why he was climbing the broken tower. Guards never thought to look up, and wouldn’t notice him at such a tall height, and from the top of the very tower he could see far and wide across Winterfell. He was even able to see the King’s hunting party leave from his spot, and after they all dissapeared into the wolfswood, Bran decided it was time to climb down.

He carefully began the long process of descending then, feeling out for strong stones with his feet before placing his weight on them. His hands would then carefully feel for grooves to hold onto, as he lowered himself slowly.

It was as he was only part of the way down that a stone he grasped with his right hand came loose. The old rock he grasped in his hand violently ejected from the wall, and Bran didn’t let go in time. It flew from the tower and Bran came with it, leaving him once again staring up at the open sky as he fell.

Only this time, Harry wouldn’t be there to catch him.

A/N:

After some thought, I’ve decided to age up the younger generation. Harry and Robb are 19, with Joffrey and Sansa being 18. Myrcella is aged up considerably to be born right after Joffrey, and will turn 18 soon.

I am basing this story more on the show than the books, as the show characters look older anyways, so this isn’t that big of a deal. But for those who want me to be more particular, this affects the story by having Robert’s Rebellion take place 2-3 years earlier.