Chapter 26: Diary Of A Madman

Littlefinger

The room was quiet, the hallway was quiet, and no one would be approaching this room or even this side of the castle for some time. It would be the easiest thing to simply place the pillow on top of the brat's face and smother the life out of him, the baby boy who looked so much like Eddard Stark, like the Targaryen boy according to Sansa, like Brandon. Yes the boy had to die if his plans were to come to fruition, and Littlefinger would be the man to do it. He had not been able to kill Brandon Stark, that time so many years ago at Riverrun- had nearly died himself- but this time he would get his revenge on the Starks and this time, he would be the one to do the deed.

He advanced slowly towards the boy's crib, pillow in hand, breathing slowly, calmly. It was important he breathe normally, so that he didn't give away his attentions to anybody who might be happening to pass by, so that he did not wake the baby. This had to go perfectly; it would be the perfect crime. The first step on his way to complete control, he already had Sansa, he would remove Robb Stark, and then he would take Catelyn, he would have it all. He slowly lifted his arms up in the air, lifting the pillow with him, he looked at the baby's face, so like Brandon Stark, so like Eddard Stark, he felt the hatred begin to bloom in his stomach as it always did when he thought about the Starks- the baby was the symbol of all that had been taken from him, what should rightfully have always been his- then he looked at the girl, the boy's twin, who looked so much like Sansa, like Cat, that he felt his insides hurt, that should have been his granddaughter he was looking at not Eddard Stark's. He moved closer toward the boy's crib, and just as he was about to bring the pillow down to cover the boy's mouth and get the deed done once and for all, he heard footsteps approaching the room and brought the pillow down almost immediately.

"Petyr?" He sighed internally when he heard the voice. It was Lysa, she would never leave him alone. Obviously her brat of a son had been put to sleep, and now she would want him all to herself.

"Petyr, what are you doing here?" Lysa Arryn asked, her voiced laced with curiosity.

Littlefinger the expert liar, the expert manipulator schooled his face into a blank mask as he turned round to face Lysa. "I was just coming to see how the children were doing my love. Sansa's been so unwell recently. I thought I just do her a favour and check up on them."

It seemed Lysa had been fooled by that when she nodded and moved to turn away out of the room, but then she spotted the pillow in his hand and her eyebrows quirked up in confusion. "Why do you have that pillow in your hands Petyr? Were you planning on sleeping here tonight?" He could tell she was beginning to grow jealous, and more paranoid. She must think he wanted to spend time away from her, he had to change that thought before she began creating a scene that drew half the castle to where they were.

"No of course not my love. I brought the pillow because Sansa's maid said that her pillows needed changing so this is the one I brought." He said voice calm, though with a growing nervousness beginning to pool in his stomach when he saw that Lysa did not seem to buy whatever it was he was saying.

"Really, well you might be surprised to know that I visited my niece just now and her maids said that her pillows were fine and that she is doing fine. In fact I came to bring her, her children. So again Petyr I ask what were you doing here."

Littlefinger could have cursed the gods for this change in mood from Lysa, something must have happened to make her so unbelieving of his tales, what it was though he knew not. He only knew that he had to fix this situation fast before someone else, with a more discerning mind than Lysa Arryn came and questioned him. Putting on his best smile he said. "My love, what I said is the truth. I came here to check up on Sansa's babies and to make sure that nothing was amiss. The pillow is for Sansa, to make her feel more comfortable."

Lysa still did not seem convinced in fact when she spoke next her voice was laced with accusation. "Is that so Petyr. Well then, would you care to explain this to me." She held up a letter that bore the sigil of the three headed dragon and white direwolf of Jon Targaryen on it. He cursed inwardly, that letter would foil all of his plans now. He tried to speak, to explain away the letter but Lysa ploughed on. "Would you care to explain why we have a letter here from King Jon, my niece's husband asking that you give Sansa back to him or he will be forced to come and take her, himself with his dragons, when I heard you proclaim him dead."

"My love, that letter is a fake. Sansa's husband is dead, he was killed in battle. I..."

Lysa interrupted him. "Yes so you keep saying. But when I spoke to Maester Coleman today, he told me that not only is my niece's husband very much alive, he recently destroyed Tywin Lannister and Mace Tyrell's hosts at the Trident with his three dragons, and that you sent some of our men to fight for the Lannisters! Explain that to me Petyr!"

He could not, not without giving away his whole game plan, and if there was anything he had learnt during his time in King's Landing it was to never say anything that might give the game away, even if that meant saying nothing. So he remained silent. Of course whoever had created the rules of the game of thrones had forgotten to mention what to do when confronted by a woman as paranoid as Lysa Arryn.

She seemed to take his silence as confirmation of some unknown insult, for she said, "I knew it."

"Knew what my love?"

"Don't my love me, Petyr Baelish. I knew it was too good to be true. I knew it, and I was told it, but I did not believe it. You've never loved me have you Petyr, it's always been Catelyn that you loved even when we were little children; you were always pining after Cat. And when Cat rejected you for Brandon Stark, you turned to me and used me, and spoiled me. You made it so that I could never have any proper and healthy sons for Jon Arryn. You made it so that Robert was born ill, it was your fault that he was born ill. Yours!" She was screaming at him now, he knew he had to get her to quieten down, so he moved closer towards her, she was rooted to the spot, and continued on with her rant unaware of the pillow he was slowly bringing up to cover her mouth. "I begged Jon to bring you to Gulltown, so that we could be closer together. I begged Jon to bring you to King's Landing so that we could be closer together. I did all you asked. I put the tears in Jon's wine; I put my own husband to death for you, so that we could be together. I did all of this for you, and what do you do? You kidnap my niece and bring her here when she is heavy with child, and you abuse her and do things to her that would shame any man. Admit it Petyr you have used and abused me for your own amusement and you are a sick and twisted little man, and I never want to see you again."

She began to move away from him, out of the room. He grabbed her by her elbow and tugged her in for a long and fierce kiss, and then pulled away and looked at her then, she was crying- she was always crying- and said "You're right Lysa, your right. But I can't have you blab about this to just anyone, which is why you must die." With that he crushed her against him and then brought the pillow down onto her face and held it there, whilst he heard her scream into the pillow and struggle against him. He held her there until she stopped moving, and then he laid her down on the ground, left the pillow beside her and walked out of the room.

Twenty minutes later, a guard who was walking past the room saw Lysa Arryn's lifeless body lying on the floor of the nursery and immediately began shouting for help, he brought Littlefinger into the room where the man mourned the loss of his wife and his step son's mother, and proclaimed in an angry tone that this was the work of the Lannisters. No one suspected a thing.

Grenn

It was cold, it was always bloody cold at Eastwatch whether that was because it was near the sea or because of the cold and the snow Grenn can never tell. He had stopped complaining of the cold long ago, there was never anytime anymore what with the Wights constantly trying to get over the bloomin' wall all the bloomin time, they were constantly on alert and were always trying to make up for the numbers they lacked. The attacks had become worse in recent days, ever since they had heard the bellowing of these ancient creatures that some said came from legend and others said were simply giants.

Whatever they were they had been attacking the wall with some ferocity since they had first been heard. Ramming the wall, and breaking it in several places but never actually entering into the lands beyond the wall. Something that did surprise and confuse many of the men, Grenn especially. Surely if the whole purpose of this attack was that they wished to get past the wall, then wouldn't they cross into the wall when they had an opening. Of course some argued that perhaps these giant ancient creatures were mainly distractions for they seemed to be constantly attacking during the day, wearing the men out for when the wights attacked at night. And once or twice they had even decided to attack during the night as well. That had of course led to many, many deaths and part of the wall had been caved in by the force of their rams, and yet had been fixed like magic the next morning.

These creatures had attacked that morning itself. Charging through in seemingly endless numbers. Ramming themselves against the Wall, breaking it and then swinging their clubs and hammers and whatever other weapons they had so that they were sweeping Black Brothers off of the Wall and onto the ground where if Grenn had seen correctly, his sworn brothers were eaten up by giant flesh eating wolves and spiders, that didn't even seem to be killed by fire or by oil or whatever it was that killed the wights. Cotter Pyke had told them that morning that they needed to find some sort of weapon, or way to keep the creatures out for the men on the wall had seen an approaching part of wights that evening as everyone else was having dinner. Of course the only other hope they had of holding the wall against these ancient creatures, the wights and the white walkers was in the dragon glass. But of course that in itself was a rarity, much of the dragon glass that the watch had been able to find had been found in Castle Black, buried deep in the cellars. And of course if what Grenn had heard was true they needed the dragonglass more than any of the other castles, for it seemed that the White Walkers were sending their wights to attack Castle Black in full force and some of the White Walkers had even ventured into the attacks as well from what rumours Grenn had heard at dinner, many days ago. Eastwatch itself it seemed was mainly being attacked by Wights and these strange giant creatures- that were not giants- but no one knew what to call them, though they were cutting a bloody path through everything.

Strangely enough the only time Grenn had actually seen the White Walkers had been on the Fist of the First Men when the ranging party led by Bowen Marsh the old pomegranate had been ambushed by the Wights and several of the creatures that ruled the night. Since then it had only been one long struggle against Wights, for it appeared that the White Walkers were still unable to cross the Wall, only the Wights could but they were clumsy and could be easily dealt with, if you had enough men on watch and enough fire to pass around. So it was with great surprise that Green heard one of his sworn brother's blow their horn three times signalling the attackers were White Walkers, drawing his sword and running out onto the battlements to get a better look, Grenn nearly shat himself there and then for what he saw terrified him like nothing else ever could. Coming towards them was a host of wights numbering in the thousands and being led by Three White Walkers all of whom were riding what looked like unicorns.

The closer they got the more nervous Grenn got as he waited for old man Pyke to bellow the command to unleash the fire, when the command finally came the undead army was roughly 100 yards away, the fire torches and barrels fell into the oil covered trenches in front of the wall and instantly lit up like a fireworks display, and it seemed that this drew the wights closer to them instead of away or maybe that was just because they had been running in that undead like state of theirs, and so it was with some grim satisfaction that Grenn saw the flames engulf the first hundreds of wights that did not stop before the flames, as their bodies were turned to ashes, more wights soon joined them until there was a huge pile of ash at the foot of the Wall in front of Eastwatch. This however, did not seem to disturb the White Walkers for though their army of thousands had been steadily reduced to a pathetic mess of undead creatures that were stumbling down to their deaths as the sun slowly rose up, Grenn saw a giant undead bear storming toward the Wall, and as the bear passed unscathed through the fire trenches at the front of the Wall and got up onto its hind legs Grenn saw that the bear was in fact freakishly tall, and had little to no trouble clawing a few of the men who had gotten too close to the edge of the wall to their deaths, and it seemed determined on getting on to the wall itself, Grenn could only hope and pray that it did not succeed.

Benjen

The attacks on Castle Black were becoming so frequent, that he was beginning to worry whether or not they would be able to last another day. Wights and White Walkers had been attacking frequently since that day when ancient animals had come back to life. They attacked in great numbers at all hours during the night, necessitating that those on Watch during the day had to stay awake at night also; it was a tiring process and one that did not seem to be bearing any rewards. They were losing far too many men, their numbers were scarce and their food supplies were beginning to run low. The one disadvantage of there being no Wildlings south of the wall was that they had very few men to actually man the walls and be part of patrols and so often as not, the wights and white walkers would sneak up on them unawares and would end up butchering more and more men. Benjen had sent out ravens to the northern houses asking for help, but so far had not yet received any reply. It made sense though, the majority of the north's strength was either south with Robb and Jon or had been killed fighting the Ironborn when they had invaded. All that was left now was old men and green boys. But whether or not there would be a wall left for them to fight for when help did eventually come, Benjen was unsure. Cracks were beginning to appear in the Wall, everywhere, wights slipped through and butchered men when they slept, white walkers though remained in the mist and shadow north of the wall, prowling through the darkness and sending more and more wights at them.

That was when he heard the horn being sounded, once, twice, three times. He ran out of his solar, grabbed his sword and ran down the stairs. He saw it clearly from where he was, a huge host of wights and white walkers and even some of the ancient giant creatures that had been attacking Eastwatch were heading their way. "Defensive positions now!" Benjen screamed. They had to hold the wall at all costs. He used the winch cage to stand on top of the wall with some of the men. "Ready the fires!" Fires were readied; they waited, and waited and then when the Wights were close enough Benjen bellowed "Release the fire!" And torches and whatever else could be set on fire was thrown by the black brothers of Castle Black into the horde of wights that was making its stumbling way down to Castle Black. The usual trenches and torches of fire seemed to hold back the wights for a while and the few that stumbled blindly into the flames were reduced to ash never to rise again. However, it seemed that the flames did little to hold back the White Walkers, and the ancient giants that walked with them. They walked through the flames as if they were receiving nothing more than a bath. He heard a high pitched noise coming from the assembled group of White Walkers and then the next thing he saw was the giants swinging their clubs and weapons at the wall and he watched horrified as his fellow black brothers were swept off the wall and down onto the ground, where he heard their screams of pain.

The wights were still advancing though, and more and more fire was being used, wights fell, white walkers and the giants advanced further and further. Until there was no more fire left for them to throw. "Retreat! Retreat back to the castle!" Benjen shouted, just as he was about to enter the winch cage he heard a loud cracking noise, and watched as the winch cage fell to the ground crushing many of the black brothers who were attempting to retreat back inside. Then to his horror, he saw the men who had been crushed by the winch cage rise up with broken bones and limbs and begin to attack their fellow black brothers who were all still trying to flee, he watched horrified as the wights began eating into the black brothers killing them and then helping them rise up from the dead as well, and the process repeated itself over and over again until Benjen thought that he might go mad from watching it. Wights were clamouring up the wall as well from the other side, and whatever black brothers there still were on the Wall being hard pushed to defend themselves. Benjen, found himself locked in combat with some three or four wights at the same time. He had his dragon glass dagger that he had found in the cellars of Castle Black in one hand and his sword in the other. He swished with his sword drawing the wights back, and then when one of them stumbled on uneasy feet toward him he plunged the dagger into its chest, causing a high pitched scream to emanate. Its compatriots were more stable on their feet and began dancing around the blade, and soon had Benjen pushed up against the wall, breathing heavily and cut in several places. His sword was knocked from his hand, and one of the wights soon had its teeth locked around his right hand, he struggled to shake the creature off, but it held on tightly, he screamed as he finally managed to shake the creature of by plunging the dragonglass dagger into its eye, only to lose two of his fingers as the creature fell, dead.

Two more wights remained, and yet when Benjen moved to attack them they retreated backwards until they fell of the wall. Benjen soon realised that he had been led into a trap, for as he stood on the edge of the Wall looking down he heard the bellowing of a giant, and its club swinging toward him, he did not manage to avoid it and he was winded by the impact of the club striking him in the chest, causing him to fly back and hit a crevice in the Wall. As he began to stumble back up, he heard the high pitched screaming of the giants and the White Walkers and then a more threatening sound. A sound so primal it stirred ancient fears into the hearts of those that heard it. The sound of death, the King of Death.

Jon

They advanced on King's Landing at a quick pace. Jon and Danaerys riding their dragons, Ser Barristan leading the men on horseback. Robb had been left with some 500 men to protect him at the Trident, when the city had been taken and he was well enough to travel Jon had asked him to come to King's Landing. They flew mostly in silence, he and Danaerys both still brooding after their latest argument. Danaerys wished to use their dragons to take the city, but Jon had argued against such a notion and had felt vindicated when Ser Barristan had pointed out that using the dragons to take the city could go against them in every way possible. This was mainly because, there were stacks and stacks of wildfire buried deep beneath the city from the time when Aerys Targaryen had ruled and those stacks had laid dormant beneath the city since the time of the rebellion. If the dragons were to be used, and should their flames per chance catch the wildfire the whole city would burn and they would be left with nothing but ashes and charred ruins.

Something about Danaerys' insistence on living up to the Targaryen words- because to Jon they were not the words he truly related to, for no matter the truth of his parentage he was a son of the north- in almost everything she did, be it living or commanding. Jon had noticed how she had acted around Robb, flirting with him and doing things that were completely no appropriate, he had told her that Robb was married and was to be a father very, very soon, and all she had said to that was that his wife would never know. Jon had been outraged by that and told her to stay away from Robb at all costs unless they were in a war council. He knew that he would need to deal with the whole ruler situation between himself and Danaerys once King's Landing was theirs and it was something he dreaded. He knew Danaerys would more than likely push for co-rule and he would gladly give that to her, if only she did not insist on marrying him, she was his aunt and more importantly Sansa was still alive and well, although she was in the Vale still and Jon still hated himself for leading the march on King's Landing when really all he wanted to do was fly to the Vale and rescue Sansa and then kill Lord Baelish with his own two hands.

Jon and Danaerys brought their dragons to land just outside the gates to the city, and gave them to one of the camp followers to keep an eye on. Ser Barristan rode up with Jon's horse and Ser Jorah with Danaerys' horse, as expected the gates to the city were closed to them. Jon turned to look at Danaerys and saw that she had the same battle lust and mad glint in her eyes as she did when they had fought at the Trident, he shivered, and said "Remember, we are not using our dragons to take the city. It is too dangerous."

Danaerys merely nodded, Jon sighed and then turned to Ser Barristan and said, "Bring the rams." Ser Barristan nodded and shouted for the rams to be brought forward. Jon stood nearby as he watched his men ram the gates of King's Landing in, he watched as his archers took down the archers that manned the walls of King's Landing. And then when the gates to the city had broken down, he drew his sword from its sheath and led the charge into the city.

They were met by a score of gold cloaks all of whom had their weapons drawn, but as they were not mounted, and Jon and his men were they were cut down easily. Jon swung, hacked and spliced through the men who stood in his way, and he could feel through his connection to Ghost, as the direwolf tore into one man's throat after another, all the while his direwolf was growling. Outside Jon heard the dragons roar. He resumed his hacking and slashing, working his toward Aegon's High Hill. Danaerys close on his heels alongside Ser Barristan and Ser Jorah. On the steps leading up to the Red Keep, Jon found his way blocked by several gold cloaks and red cloaks. He sighed internally, drew his sword once more and began hacking and slashing through the men, as the bodies' fell he heard the dragons outside the city walls roar with what he assumed was triumph, they were getting closer now.

There were more men guarding the entrance to the Red Keep, and Jon hacked and slashed his way through them as well. Though he did receive several nicks to his armour, some which dented it and drew blood, but he rode on regardless. Once the men at the entrance to the Keep were killed, he pushed open the doors and rode through the Red Keep, place in his mind- the throne room. The throne room was as expected guarded by two knights of the Kingsguard, who they were Jon knew not, he only knew that if he wished to enter the throne room he would need to kill them.

So it was with deep regret that he dismounted from his horse and advanced forward, Ser Barristan a shadow behind him, Ser Jorah still mounted guarding Danaerys. One of the white knights- a broad chested man with short bandy legs- advanced forward sword drawn, toward Jon. The man lunged forward and Jon managed to raise Blackfyre up in time to block the man's swing. Their swords broke apart and then the man lunged forward once more, this time Jon swerved to his left to avoid the swing. Then he swung his sword and the man blocked the swing. Then the man swung his sword and managed to get past Jon's sword and nick Jon in the place where one of the gold cloaks had dented his armour and wounded him, Jon scrunched his face up with pain. But then retaliated swinging and hacking at the white knight, like a mad man. He kept swinging and hacking at the man until his sword was stained red all over and his armour was covered in blood- whose blood he could not tell anymore- and the white knight lay dead on the ground before him. His eyes unseeing. He turned to see that Ser Barristan had dealt with the other white knight, and then sheathing Blackfyre, Jon mounted his horse and then nodded at the door, Ser Barristan pushed the door open and then mounted his own horse. Jon rode into the throne room of the Red Keep riding a black stallion, and found Joffrey Waters sat on the Iron Throne wearing red gilded armour, looking all the world like a miniature Jamie Lannister.