Another three months passed.
Early one morning, with snow and wind sweeping across the land, Winterfell received a messenger from King’s Landing.
Covered from head to toe in snow and ice, the man produced a letter sealed with the King’s red wax seal the moment he dismounted.
In the Lord’s study, Eddard Stark took the letter and broke the seal.
It specifically mentioned that Varys, “the Spider,” had recently received a piece of intelligence.
The Targaryen remnants who had long remained in hiding had surfaced in Braavos.
Ser Willem Darry, the foster father of the Targaryen siblings, was dead.
Viserys and Daenerys had also disappeared from Braavos, and their present whereabouts were unknown.
King Robert had issued a proclamation throughout the Seven Kingdoms: “Anyone who finds Viserys or Daenerys may turn them over to the Crown and receive a generous reward.”
“Anyone who dares harbor or conceal them will be deemed an enemy of the Iron Throne.”
Eddard pressed the letter hard against the table, his brow deeply furrowed.
As a man who placed great value on honor, he found such methods deeply distasteful.
They were only two defenseless children.
They had no lands, no army, not even a single person truly sworn to their cause.
How could they possibly pose any threat to Robert?
But now that the Crown’s order had spread throughout the Seven Kingdoms, the situation across the Narrow Sea would only become more dangerous.
The siblings were also connected to Jon, which weighed even more heavily on Eddard’s mind.
Fortunately, he had already sent two household knights across the Narrow Sea.
He could only hope nothing unexpected had happened there.
Otherwise…
For years, Jon had repeatedly dreamed of that Targaryen girl and the white dragon that appeared beside her.
Though the two children were separated by thousands of miles, they could speak to one another in their dreams.
By the Old Gods, Eddard could think of no explanation other than ancient magic.
Was this the mysterious bond between the Targaryen Kingsblood and dragons?
Or did that enormous dragon, thousands of miles away, possess some unknown power?
Eddard rubbed his aching temples.
Benjen, Howland Reed, Maester Aemon of the Wall.
More and more people were becoming involved in this secret.
With Benjen already gone from Winterfell, Eddard realized he now needed someone reliable at his side.
His wife came to mind.
For all these years, Catelyn had despised Jon because she had always believed he was a bastard born from her husband’s betrayal of their marriage.
Eddard had never defended himself.
He had allowed the rumors to spread because they formed a shield around Jon.
But the situation was becoming more dangerous by the day.
If the secret were ever exposed, or if disaster came to Winterfell, Catelyn’s hostility toward Jon could become their deadliest weakness.
He needed his wife to know the truth instead of continuing to see Jon as a thorn in her side.
Footsteps sounded outside the room, and the door suddenly opened.
“Ned, what does the letter say?
You’ve been sitting there completely lost in thought.”
Catelyn stood in the doorway with a piece of unfinished embroidery in her hands, watching her husband with concern.
Ned rarely became so distracted.
He had not even noticed the cold wind that entered with her.
“Close the door, Catelyn.”
Eddard took a deep breath and turned the letter face down on the table.
His expression grew solemn.
Catelyn paused, then turned and firmly shut the door before setting her needlework on the corner of the table.
She crossed to the desk and sat down.
The gravity on her husband’s face made her chest tighten for no reason she could name.
“Has something happened?”
Eddard moved closer and sat before her.
Taking Catelyn’s hand in his, he spoke in a low voice.
“Catelyn, I need to tell you a secret.
A truth that should have been told long ago.”
Catelyn frowned, unease stirring within her.
“What secret?”
“It’s about Jon’s birth.”
At the sound of that name, disgust almost instinctively crossed Catelyn’s face.
“That bastard?”
“Catelyn, Jon is not my bastard.”
Eddard spoke each word clearly.
Catelyn tightened her grip on her husband’s hand and stared into his eyes, searching his face for the slightest trace of a jest.
“What are you saying?
You admitted it yourself to all of The North back then…”
“To protect him.
To protect my sister’s child.”
Eddard cut her off and continued, “Before I tell you anything else, I need you to swear an oath to me.”
“Not a single word of what I am about to tell you can ever leave this room.
You cannot tell anyone, no matter who they are.
Not even Robb.”
The resolve in Eddard’s eyes sent Catelyn’s heart pounding.
The study fell deathly silent, broken only by the occasional crackle of pine charcoal in the hearth.
She remained frozen for a long while before drawing several deep breaths.
“I swear.
I will never reveal this secret to anyone.”
Grief filled Eddard’s face as he began to recount what had happened at the Tower of Joy six years before.
“Lyanna did not die of a fever.
She died in childbirth.”
Catelyn’s breath caught, her eyes widening slightly.
“Before she died, there in the Tower of Joy, she placed her newborn child in my arms.”
Eddard’s voice had turned hoarse.
“She had secretly married Rhaegar Targaryen.
When the child was born, Lyanna named him…
Jaehaerys Targaryen.”
“By the Seven!
Ned!”
Catelyn shot to her feet.
The name “Rhaegar” ripped open memories she had buried for years.
Brandon’s imprisonment in King’s Landing.
Great Lord Rickard being burned alive by the Mad King.
The war that had swept across the Seven Kingdoms.
Images she had deliberately buried in the deepest reaches of her memory rose to the surface once again.
And one of the events that had set it all in motion was Rhaegar Targaryen.
Never could she have imagined that the child her husband had brought back to Winterfell six years ago was actually Rhaegar Targaryen’s son.
It was madness.
“That boy…
that boy is truly Rhaegar’s son?!”
Catelyn’s voice rose sharply.
“You brought Rhaegar’s son back to Winterfell?
You deceived the entire Seven Kingdoms…
If Robert finds out, he’ll kill us!
He’ll raze Winterfell to the ground!”
“You gave me your word, Catelyn!”
Eddard gripped her shoulders with both hands, his voice almost pleading.
“He is Lyanna’s only child left in this world!
She was my only sister!”
Catelyn stared at the man before her, the man with whom she had shared so many years of her life.
What she had always believed to be her husband’s betrayal was, in truth, a secret that could bring ruin upon the entire House Stark.
“And that isn’t all, Catelyn…”
Seeing the stunned look on his wife’s face, Eddard revealed something even more unbelievable.
“That child…
he also has a dragon, born at the same time as he was.
It is hidden now in an underground cavern in the North.”
A dragon?
The Targaryen Bloodline…
the dead Lyanna…
a dragon beneath the Wall…
Catelyn stared at her husband without speaking for a long time.
Then, suddenly, she remembered how coldly she had treated that child all these years.
The look on Jon’s face the first time he called to her.
The cautious way he stood beside the dining table.
The way he instinctively averted his eyes whenever he saw her.
That child had done nothing wrong.
He did not even know why she despised him.
Catelyn’s fingers slowly curled into her palm, and her face grew paler by the moment.