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“Lord Eddard, that was not a band of raiders. That was a fleet.”
Ned sat upright upon the stone direwolf throne passed down from the Kings of Winter.
Maester Luwin, his financial advisor Kral, and Robb sat at the long table nearby.
Winterfell’s foster sons stood to either side of Ned: Domeric Bolton, heir to the Dreadfort, and Theon Greyjoy, both in mail, both with swords in hand.
Sansa, Bran, and Arya stood beside Catelyn.
Septa Mordane held little Rickon.
Jon Snow had appeared among the onlookers, deliberately keeping well away from Catelyn.
The Greatjon Umber, Lord of Last Hearth, had a scabbed wound across his brow.
Blood had dried in his hair, and his armor was spattered with it.
The huge, fierce warrior looked especially enraged.
“In all my years, I have never seen so many Skaggs. Damned cannibal tribes.”
Skaggs was the name northerners used as a slur for the Skagosi.
They called themselves stoneborn and lived on Skagos, separated from the Greatjon’s lands only by the Bay of Seals.
Recently, stoneborn pirates had rampaged through the lands of House Umber, House Karstark, and House Bolton.
They destroyed watchtowers by the saltworks, attacked fishing villages, abducted children and women, and killed everyone else.
Maester Luwin asked, “Lord Umber, how many were there?”
The Greatjon spat on the floor.
“By the time I led Umber horsemen to the shore, there was a pirate army in front of me. More than five hundred, at least. All cannibal warriors with sharp axes and longswords, wearing leather armor and mail.”
Luwin frowned.
“That seems unlikely. According to the Citadel’s records, the stoneborn are much like the wildlings beyond the Wall. They lack smiths and can scarcely smelt steel or forge weapons.”
Roose Bolton, Lord of the Dreadfort, spoke from beneath his scarlet cloak.
“May I ask, Maester Luwin, from what age your records on the stoneborn come?”
Luwin considered for a moment.
“Roughly five hundred years ago.”
Roose Bolton’s soft voice was full of mockery.
“Five hundred years? Five hundred years ago, Aegon the Conqueror had not yet brought dragons to Westeros. Now the dragons are extinct, and the Targaryen dynasty lies in its grave. Yet you judge the present stoneborn by stale words in old history books?”
“I tell you this. When I led Dreadfort horsemen against those savages, their equipment was no worse than that of castle soldiers, and far stronger than my hastily gathered farmer levies. Farmer-soldiers fight with hammers and sickles. The enemy carried fine steel axes.”
Such equipment was far too good for the stoneborn.
That wild island of Skagos somehow held so much armor and so many sharp weapons that Ned could hardly understand it. Find the original chapter at g.com.
Had Mance Rayder, the King-beyond-the-Wall, truly extended his influence into Skagos as Ned had once speculated?
The cunning wildling king might have reached some agreement with the stoneborn chiefs, but that would not explain so many weapons and suits of armor.
The wildlings beyond the Wall lacked smiths as well.
If Mance had good arms and armor, he would never be generous enough to give them to the stoneborn.
Or perhaps some hostile power inside the Seven Kingdoms had shipped weapons and armor to the stoneborn by sea.
That possibility was very real.
The sea lanes west of Skagos through the Bay of Seals saw frequent traffic.
Many ships from the Seven Kingdoms and the Free Cities passed that way to trade with the brothers of the Night’s Watch at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, or even with wildlings.
Some slaving ships treated the lawless lands beyond the Wall as a paradise for catching slaves.
Since the North lacked naval strength, it would not be difficult for some power hostile to Winterfell to slip into Skagos, strike bargains with savage stoneborn in the deep mountains, and supply them with arms and armor to attack the North.
Ned could not help wondering who stood behind it.
The first man he suspected was Tywin Lannister of Casterly Rock.
Buying an enemy’s enemy and turning him to one’s own use fit Tywin’s methods.
Casterly Rock had more gold than it could spend, and it had the wealth to fund the stoneborn against Winterfell.
But what benefit would Tywin gain?
The direwolves of the North and the lions of the west had never cared much for each other.
During Robert’s Rebellion, Robert killed Rhaegar at the Trident and laid the foundation for the rebels’ victory, but the Lannisters had struck the final blow against House Targaryen.
Tywin used Grand Maester Pycelle to trick King’s Landing into opening its gates.
In Robert’s name, his men sacked the city and carried off great wealth.
His son, Jaime “the Kingslayer” Lannister, slew the Mad King Aerys with a golden sword.
After Robert was crowned, he married Tywin’s daughter Cersei.
House Lannister placed its daughter on the queen’s throne, while Robert’s trusted man Jon Arryn became Hand of the King.
The Lannisters and Robert’s rebels divided the fruit of victory.
If Tywin truly stood behind the stoneborn attacks on the North, the only reason would be that he meant to overthrow Robert’s rule.
Ned was Robert’s close friend.
If a stoneborn rebellion pinned down the northern armies, Tywin could calmly play the game of thrones in the south and reach for the Iron Throne.
The thought chilled Ned’s spine.
Was winter truly coming?
Aside from Tywin, supporters of the Targaryen royal family exiled across the narrow sea could also be behind this.
Viserys was the only living son of the Mad King Aerys and the younger brother of Rhaegar.
He had a younger sister, Daenerys.
Both Viserys and Daenerys were too young to pose a threat by themselves, but who could say whether plotters behind them might raise the dragon banner and stir rebellion in the realm? Get faster updates on novelping . com.
Across the narrow sea, there was no shortage of ambitious rich merchants, princes, and archons.
The Golden Company also sheltered many descendants of the Blackfyre rebels.
Ned did not doubt that some northerners could be among them.
Could someone beyond the narrow sea have planned this attack?
Of course, the enemy might also come from within the North.
Ned thought of the sharp-tongued widow Lady Barbrey Dustin, Lord Ryswell of the Rills, and Roose Bolton, who was in the hall now.
Lady Barbrey had always had a poor relationship with Ned.
She had never forgiven him for burying her husband’s bones in distant Dorne.
Before she married, she had been the lover of Ned’s brother Brandon.
Her father had once wished to marry Barbrey to Brandon, only for Ned’s father, Lord Rickard, to refuse.
After Brandon died, Barbrey had always felt that Ned had taken Brandon’s Winterfell.
Barbrey was a daughter of the Rills, and Roose Bolton was her former goodbrother.
The alliance centered on Lady Barbrey between Barrowton, the Rills, and the Dreadfort had grown too large in the North.
To check his bannermen, Ned had taken Domeric Bolton, heir to the Dreadfort, as his foster son and kept him at Winterfell, ensuring their loyalty.
Had that act instead angered Lady Barbrey and Roose Bolton?
Ned believed Lord Rodrik Ryswell of the Rills would not rebel, but Lord Ryswell was old.
Could he still restrain his daughter Barbrey and his former goodson Roose Bolton?
Ned looked across the hall at Roose Bolton’s eyes, pale as dirty ice.
The man had come to Winterfell with the Greatjon Umber and Lord Rickard Karstark to petition for Winterfell’s help against the stoneborn pirates.
Roose’s lands lay on the North’s east coast, close to Skagos.
The Dreadfort held rich, broad lands around the Lonely Hills and the Weeping Water, with a large population, deep strength, and no lack of ambition.
Could Roose Bolton have staged all of this himself and then come soft-spoken to Winterfell with a petition?
The more Ned thought, the more it felt as if wolves were howling inside his skull.
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