Chapter 265 - Killed Six Times

Jon had a warm room prepared deep in the castle at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.

Brothers of the Night's Watch hauled in a bed. One leg was half an inch too short, they'd wedged a wood shim under it to keep it steady, but the mattress was thick, two wool blankets folded on top, and an old washed-out cotton quilt spread over all of it.

Jon pressed a hand to the quilt. Thick enough. He had someone set a candle on the windowsill.

Rickon had been waiting in the doorway the whole time. Only when Jon beckoned did he walk in, pull off his boots, and climb onto the bed.

Jon sat down at the bedside and rested his hand on top of Rickon's head, palm against the brown hair roughened dry by the wind, and slowly stroked it twice.

Rickon closed his eyes. His lashes cast fine, broken shadows in the candlelight. His breathing came quick at first, then gradually slowed and deepened, and within moments he was fast asleep.

Jon sat a while longer. Then he drew his hand back, stood, and blew out half the candle, leaving a sliver of dim light on the windowsill. He gently pulled the door shut behind him and stepped out.

The corridor was colder than the hall. He had just closed the door when he saw Harwin leaning against the opposite wall, waiting.

"You're very different now," Harwin said.

Jon turned to face him.

The torch in the corridor threw a long, slanted shadow across his face, lighting one half and leaving the other in darkness.

"The cold wind blows the boyishness away. Anyone who survives in a place like this is a hard man."

Harwin was quiet for a few breaths. "I never knew you carried so much resentment. But no matter what — you should not have let your enemy go. You will always be a man of Winterfell."

"My grievance is with Lady Catelyn alone. Robb and I were close. I would have gladly died in his place."

"The Lannisters are my enemies too. But Tyrion is innocent. He never had any part in the vicious schemes his family devised."

"And the Mountain?" Harwin's voice hardened. "You should not have let the Mountain go either. Do you know what he did at Harrenhal? Do you know how many people he has killed?"

Jon's brow creased.

"The first time I ever saw him was when he came with Tyrion to hunt wights. Before that, I knew nothing of his past."

"Your father sent 20 Winterfell guards with Lord Beric Dondarrion to bring Gregor Clegane to justice. Only 6 of us came back alive, and we were all scattered."

Jon stood in the corridor and listened.

"It was a trap," Harwin said. "Lord Tywin sent the Mountain across the Red Fork to kill and burn. All of it just to draw your father out."

"He was certain Lord Eddard would ride west himself to deal with Gregor Clegane."

"Fortunately, the Kingslayer didn't know Lord Tywin's plan. When he heard his brother had been taken, he attacked your father in the street at King's Landing."

Jon's brow didn't loosen. "Why did Tywin send the Mountain to kill and burn across the Red Fork in the first place?"

"Because Lady Catelyn had seized Tyrion Lannister at an inn. Tywin used that as his pretext for war."

When Harwin continued, his voice neither quickened nor slowed. It had the sound of an old story pulled from the bottom of a chest, told so many times that every detail had worn smooth.

"The Kingslayer's guards drove a lance through your father's leg. Lord Eddard couldn't lead the men himself, so he sent Lord Beric instead and gave him 20 Winterfell guards."

"I was one of those 20. Thoros rode with us, and Ser Raymun Darry, Ser Gladden Wylde, and a lordling named Lothar Mallery."

Harwin paused. His gaze drifted from Jon's face to a shadow stretched long on the floor by the torchlight.

"Gregor was waiting for us at the Mummer's Ford. His men were hidden on both banks of the river. The moment we crossed, they hit us from the front and the rear at the same time."

"I watched the Mountain kill Ser Raymun Darry with a single blow. It was a terrible thing to see. He didn't just sever the arm — cut clean through arm and elbow both — he killed the horse under him too."

His throat moved. "The lions came at us from every direction. I was certain I was dead. In that moment, Lord Beric's voice rang out over the chaos and steadied our line."

"We closed around Thoros and hacked our way through. A hundred and twenty men had set out. By nightfall, fewer than forty were left."

"Lord Beric was gravely wounded. That night Thoros pulled a foot-long spearhead out of his chest and poured boiled wine into the wound."

Jon asked quietly, "He survived?"

"We all thought he wouldn't last till dawn. But Thoros sat with him by the fire and prayed the whole night through. At daybreak, the lord opened his eyes. He was stronger than he'd been the night before."

"It was 2 weeks before he could mount a horse again. But his courage lifted all of us."

"We couldn't fight after that. The Mountain was only Tywin's vanguard. The Lannister army crossed the Red Fork soon after, burning and killing as they went."

"Too few of us to face them head on. All we could do was harry their flanks. But we made a pact among ourselves, when King Robert marched west to crush Tywin's rebellion, we would rise and join him."

"Then the news came. Robert was dead. Your father was dead. Cersei Lannister's brat sat on the Iron Throne."

He turned and looked at Jon.

"The whole world turned upside down. We were the Hand's men, sent to bring a traitor to justice. In the end, we were the traitors."

"And Lord Tywin, the man who ordered the Mountain to butcher villages, became the Hand of the King."

Jon had listened through all of it without interrupting. Only when Harwin's words came to their end did he ask, "And Lord Beric? Was he the one who led the Umber forces to Castle Black?"

Harwin shook his head.

"Lord Beric was killed 6 times. 6 times he came back. Then we found Lady Catelyn's body on a shallow stretch of riverbank. She had been dead 3 days. Her body had already begun to rot. The fish had gnawed her skin into pits and hollows."

"Lord Beric kissed her and passed his flame of life into her. He himself died for good."

Silence settled over the corridor.

Wind pressed through the cracks in the window and set the wall torch guttering. The shadows on the floor swayed once, then went still.

Jon sank into thought.

Harwin watched the look move across Jon's face, something shifting behind the eyes, and seemed to sense the moment had come for a long conversation to reach its conclusion.

"You see?" he said. "Not one Lannister is innocent. If we ride out now to chase the Imp, we might still catch him."

Jon raised his head.

He looked at Harwin steadily, his gaze calm. "What I'm thinking about right now is something else entirely. You've all come to the Wall. When Bolton's hunters find their way to the gates of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, I need to know how to deal with that."

He turned and walked toward the hall. Harwin moved to follow. Jon's hand came up without looking back.

"Let me think alone."

➤ Next: Ramsay Bolton's Letter