Ch 76 News Travels Part 1

A loud horn bellowed from atop the walls of the Winterfell, and almost immediately there was a quick flurry of activities as guards ran forward to open the gate.

A few minutes later, a small but wide procession consisting, of guards, hunters blacksmiths, and merchants arrived, some on horses and some on pulling carts. Leading from the very front were three Starks children, one big red-haired one and two small black-haired ones.

Each of them had bright expressions on their faces as they rode into the courtyard on their personal horses.

Robb Stark, with his tall height, and solemn expression he inherited from his father made him look more a man than a boy and on either side of him were his two excitable siblings whose eyes were restlessly searching for something.

"Sansa!! Mother!!" Bran and Arya screamed simultaneously when they finally caught sight of their target, and then without waiting for Harwin's help, both of them dismounted from their ponies and excitedly ran towards their sister and mother who were waiting for them along with their brother Rickon.

"Slow down, you two," Catelyn lightly admonished, "You should not run—" she abruptly grunted, not even able to finish her sentence as her little children, who were not so little anymore, ignored her warning and slammed into her midriff hugging her tightly.

Not to mention the mama's boy Bran, but even Arya had missed her fiercely after not seeing their mother for so long.

"Hmm, If I did not know any better, I would have guessed that you two missed your poor mother..." Catelyn commented with a quirk of her lips as she rubbed their little heads, "But that cannot be true, after all, you both had been so eager to get away from home, even going as far as to give up eating so that your father would allow you to go,"

"I-I did not miss you," Arya denied with a pout as she hurriedly pushed away from her mother as if she hadn't been the one eagerly hugging her just a few seconds ago, "Bran was the one who was always crying mother along the way,"

"No, I was not,"

"Yes, you were,"

And so they went as the sibling easily got into their familiar back and forth with their mother and their sister watching with exasperated but fond smiles on their faces.

"Ro! Ro!!" Baby Rickon squeaked excitedly and pulled away from Sansa, who was carrying him, with his hands stretched out towards his biggest red-haired brother, who was finally free and coming towards them.

"Oh, ho, Rickon, you have gotten quite big, haven't you?" Robb said exaggeratedly while taking his little brother into his arms, "I feel like I have not seen you in years," he said while rubbing the toddler's belly making him giggle in delight.

"It has not been that long, has it?" Bran said confusedly while trying to count on his fingers, "I don't think Rickon has gotten any big either..."

"We have only been gone for three moons," Arya snorted proudly as she remembered one of the merchants mentioning the time he had been away from his shop, "Robb is just being stupid,"

Robb rolled his eyes at his cheeky siblings while Cately tried to reprimand Arya, "Don't call your brother, stupid, Arya,"

"But—"

"So how was the White Harbour, Bran," Sansa interrupted loudly before the Mother-Daughter pair could go on their usual route, "I was so envious when you three got to go, and I didn't,"

"It was amazing, Sansa, and so—so! big," Bran exclaimed with stars in his eyes while stretching his hands as wide as they could go.

"Yes! Yes! And there were so many people there, that you would not believe it, Sansa," Arya jumped in with an excited expression on her face, "I have never so many people together in one place before a-and I once even got lost in the port market for a bit," she recounted with a pleased expression as if getting lost was something to be proud about.

"And everything was so white and clean,"

"A-And I saw ships that were bigger than a castle,"

"And the knights, I saw the knights, Sansa. The Knights!!" Bran jumped, excitedly waving his hands in the air, "There were so many of them,"

"I saw them too,"

"And—"

While the children were eagerly regaling their tales of their first trip outside of Winterfell, each trying to outdo the other, Robb had finished greeting his mother and asked her something that had confused him since he entered the castle, "Where is father? Is he not in Winterfell?"

"No, he is, and he was even supposed to welcome you with me but..." Catelyn replied a bit distractedly, as most of her attention had been grabbed by Arya's tale of what happened when she met the fat Lord Manderly and his granddaughters, "A letter suddenly arrived and he went away with the Maester and he had been in his solar since,"

"Letter? From whom?"

"I don't know, he did not tell me, but—"

Before Catelyn could continue, the answer to Robb's question arrived in the form of the guard captain of Winterfell.

"Lord Robb!" Jory Cassel called as he approached them from the Great Hall's direction.

"Jory, How have you been?"

"I have been well," Jory nodded with a smile before he continued in a low voice, "Your Father called you to his solar,"

Robb was confused as to why his father was calling for him the moment he entered Winterfell, but he nodded nonetheless, "I understand." he said while handing Rickon to his mother, "I will go change my clothes and then meet—"

"No, I think it would be better if you meet with him first," Jory insisted quietly.

"Oh," Robb looked surprised for a moment before complying, "Very well, lead the way, then," he said before following after Jory, leaving behind his Mother who was now interrogating Arya on her choice of attire when she presented herself before the Manderly's.

"Do you know why Father is calling for me, Jory?" he asked as they walked along the long cold hallways of the castle.

"I don't, he just told me to get you immediately," Jory replied, then he hesitated for a moment before continuing, "But he looked very serious when I saw him, so I do not think it is good news,"

"Hmm," Robb nodded nonchalantly, but he increased his pace nonetheless so that barely a few minutes passed before he was standing in front of the solar.

"Father," he called while knocking on the door, "You called for me,"

"Come in," came his father's familiar deep voice and Robb immediately opened the door, and saw his father sitting behind his desk with the Maester sitting on one of the two chairs in the front, with both of them sporting grave looks on their faces.

"Sit," he was ordered and then, not asking him about his recent trip as Robb had expected Eddard handed him a letter, "Read this,"

By now, Robb's confusion had turned into complete bewilderment as he took the letter in his hands and saw that it was from Lord Manderly.

Now more than a little nervous, wondering if the wealthiest Lord under his father had sent him a letter complaining about him or his conduct on his trip, he rolled the letter open. But the moment he read the words written on the small piece of parchment in his hands, all his confusion turned to shock and amazement, "What?! Jon killed a Pirate King?"

"So he did not tell you about this either?" Lord Stark sighed as he leaned back in his chair with a disappointed look on his face.

"I told you, My Lord," Maester Luwin said with a small shrug, "Robb would not keep such a thing from you if he had known about it,"

"I know, but... I had hoped," Eddard sighed in frustration before shaking his head.

"But wait, Father, is this news really true? Has it been confirmed? if so, why did Lord Manderly not mention this to me while I was there?" Robb asked with a dazed expression as he finally finished reading the letter and realised that in the short time that he had been gone from Winterfell, and was out of touch with Tiger, Jon's shadow cat, such a big incident had happened in Essos without his knowhow.

"He must have only gotten the news recently, as the letter arrived barely a few hours before you did, but that is not important," he said while looking at Robb with a grim look that immediately him sit up straight, "What is important, is that I had to get such an important piece of news about my own son from the Manderly's. I know how 'close' you keep in touch with Jon, so tell me, why were you not even aware that Jon was entangled with the likes of this Pirate King?"

'Damn you, Jon,' Robb internally screamed at his brother, swearing to beat the shit out of him, the next time he saw his ugly face, for putting him in this situation, "I think, Father, that Jon was probably concerned that if he told you about it, you would worry and—"

"Of course, I would worry," Eddard let out irritatedly in an unusual show of emotion, "These are not common bandits he is up against, but cruel merciless pirates, without a shred of honour or compassion in their blood. And Jon is out there fighting them with his life on the line, with me none the wiser, how am I not supposed to worry?"

There were a few seconds of silence after Eddard finished his tirade before the good Maester cleared his throat and hesitantly spoke, "I do not think Jon is at fault here, My Lord. The Northern Wolf Shipping, that your son established in Essos, is turning out to be very very lucrative, so it was obvious from the start that it would attract all kinds of greedy people... And I feel that with his intelligence, Jon must have thought things through before deciding to attack the pirates,"

The old man was quite fond of young Jon, who had spent almost half a decade learning under him in the Winterfell library, asking him all kinds of curious questions that made even the experienced maester think deeply.

"You do not understand, Maester," Eddard sighed while massaging his forehead, "If it were just one or two pirate captains, I would not be this worried but this is a well-established Pirate King we are talking about here and one that controls almost one-third of the route that goes through the Stepstones. He would have had more ships and sailors under him than even the Manderly's, and the letter clearly states that Jon not only killed the Pirate King but also dismantled his whole fleet... and that is not something to be taken lightly,"

"But, if that is true, My Lord, then where did Jon even get the man for something like this?" Maester Luwin asked with a frown on his face, "Because I did not think that the shipping company under him already possessed enough men to do this?"

"No. As far as I know, he doesn't even have close to that number of men," Eddard denied with a thoughtful look on his face as he wondered how much he even knew about his own son these days.

The moment Robb heard the Maester's question, his eyes abruptly widened as he suddenly remembered something, and after a brief moment of hesitation he decided to open his mouth and come clean, "Er, Father, I may know something about that,"

"What?" Eddard eyes immediately narrowed as he turned back to his son, "What do you mean?"

"Do you recall the massive order that all the blacksmiths in the Blacksmith Alley had been working on for the month leading to my trip to White Harbour?"

"Yes, of course. What of it?"

"Well, you remember how I had told you that the client was a sellswords company called the Company of the Rose from Essos and that it had some Northern roots" he said to which Eddard slowly nodded as he seemed to realise where his son was going with this, "I think that Jon somehow completely brought that company under him and has them working for him."

"Hmm... and how many men does this company have," Eddard asked after a few seconds of silence.

"I would guess around five hundred,"

"That should still not be enough for him to risk something like this,"

"But if you add his other skills..." Robb slowly added in a low voice with a meaningful glance that immediately had his father's eyes light up comprehension but made the Maester frown in confusion.

But before they could continue with their conversation, all three of them suddenly heard a hushed cry of delight from outside the thick door.

"What?! Jon defeated a Pirate King?" came the amazed whisper from Arya.

"Shush, Arya! Not so loud," hissed Sansa in a panicked tone.

"Robb, go deal with your siblings," Eddard said in a tired tone.

"Yes, Father," Robb said with a somewhat relieved tone as he immediately sprung up from his seat to go towards the door. He was quite thankful for his sibling's interruption, as their eavesdropping gave him the excuse to no longer face his father's intense interrogation.

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