Chapter 28

King's Landing had not changed. Court, the people, the streets, they were all as he remembered them. Ned did not like the city; its boisterous people, the intrigue and the hostile looks Catelyn threw his way. The Lord Hand spent his mornings, evenings and part of his nights in council meetings and private meetings with many influential lords. The man worked tirelessly to fix a broken realm. The Seven Kingdoms not only owed the Iron Bank but also Tywin Lannister. His father in law was not a forgiving man but so far had not asked for any of the money owed to him. That simple yet puzzling fact left Ned Stark restless and with a sense of doom, Petyr Baelish, the master of coin painted a rather bleak future for the crown.

Ned rubbed his neck and for the hundredth time wished Cersei was there with him. This was her element. She was adept at this, the intrigues, the lies, and the game as she called it. He closed his eyes and lay down on the bed. Bran was fine, he could maybe walk again or so Robb had written. His lady wife refused to write to him; Ned understood that it would take Cersei some time to forgive the fact that he had chosen to ride ahead and entrust Robb with his son. Ned had wanted to march back to Winterfell but the realm needed him and it was his duty as Hand of the King to reach King's Landing. Arya yelled at him and wanted to turn back with Robb and Bran. Joanna tended to Bran until the fever broke. Robb felt guilty and was anxious for Bran. "Jon would have never let this happen." His second oldest boy kept repeating. Only Tommen remained calm and gave him the strength and support he needed. "We have to go to King's Landing. Mother will take care of Bran." Tommen had said.

That night Robb and Bran went North. A smaller party with a few of the kingsguard to accompany Lady Sansa to the Eyrie, the young lady was to attend Robin's funeral. Ned had been through tragedy in his life but he had never seen such lifeless eyes. Sansa Arryn dreaded going home. The queen kissed her forehead and bid her goodbye. The woman had pleaded with Robert to let her niece accompany to King's Landing but Robert had said that as heiress she was to be in the Eyrie. She belonged there. Ned could not agree more. The young woman needed to oversee her knights and lands until she married.

Marriage contracts, tourneys and wedding feasts, Ned did not have the mind for such frivolities. The council however did. Lord Varys and Baelish bickered over the royal wedding and the fact that young Sansa Arryn was single and would need to be married. Lord Stark did not want to think about marriages, not the royal one in the least. Arya and Joanna did not speak to each other because of it. Daughters were very difficult. Cersei advised to give them time and space but Joanna seemed intent in avoiding her sister. She now spent all her time in court with the princesses while Arya…

Arya had her dancing classes. Ned accepted only after she implored and then threatened to run away back North. Tommen tried to keep her with him at all times but Arya was uncontainable. She spent most of her time with the prince. That much was clear to him. His daughter met with the young prince while taking her dancing lessons. They sparred and seemed to have formed a healthy friendship. It was the only worthy aspect of this situation. Arya liked her betrothed. She was so much like Cersei, sometimes it scared him what she would do if she hated her husband. He remembered those first years, before Robb. His lady wife was cold, quick tempered and almost childish. Ned would give anything to have her by his side but it would not be possible, not until Bran could travel, if he could.

There other important matters to attend. Ned Stark thought about Essos. Daenerys Targaryen was married to a Khal. A Dothraki horse Lord. Robert and his council members had wanted to kill the young girl. She was a threat to the realm they had said. Ned had to put his foot down and remind Robert that the girl and her brother were across the narrow sea; leagues away from them and that the girl could not even with a Dothraki army overcome the trained lords and the people of Westeros.

He did not know whom to trust. The matter of Jon Arryn was unresolved and Varys had hinted that Bran's fall was not an accident. He did not dare write to Cersei with the troubling prospect. Bran did not remember anything from his fall. He had no evidence or any idea of who would have done such a despicable thing. Baelish seemed to genuinely want to aid him. He had met Littlefinger three days before Bran fell. The master of coin had introduced himself and advised him to go to King's Landing right away. As soon as he set foot in King's Landing bloody Jaime Lannister became his shadow, accompanying him everywhere. He had asked him and the blonde fool replied honestly. "I am under oath. My sweet sister wants me to protect you Lord Stark." Ned did not like the way the man spoke about his wife. In a fashion, he felt jealous because this man had known his lioness since birth. They had memories together that Ned would never have with her. Those first years as he fell in love with his wife he could not help but be jealous of Jaime Lannister who featured in every of her happy stories. Robb and Jon grew up with stories of their uncle Jaime, heroic, brave and daring. Ned developed an unhealthy hatred of the man, added to the already low esteem in which he regarded the man.

His days were not easy. Robert had become a fool. He was not a good king. The council did nothing to contradict his wishes. The man he once regarded as a brother became a drunk and dissatisfied man. Lord Varys called an urgent council meeting. Ned was not surprised to see prince Gendry in attendance. As crown prince it was requested of him to attend a few of these in order to become accustomed with matters of the crown.

Lord Baelish, Varys. Ser Barristan Selmy, Grand Maester Pycelle and Renly were in attendance. The matter at hand was Daenerys Targaryen. Robert was set upon killing the girl.

"Our little bird has sung a song. Daenerys Targaryen is with child." Lord Varys enunciated.

"I told you Ned. We should have dealt with her months ago when she married the savage. Kill her." Robert said simply after drinking from his cup of wine.

"Robert, she is a child. Not older than Jon or your son for that matter…" He said clearly thinking that he could reason with his old friend.

"She is breeding and has an army of Dothraki screamers on her back." Robert growled.

"Perhaps the king is correct." Varys said silkily. Ned looked around the table for support. "She is a child."

Robert banged on the table. "She is a dragon spawn whore who opened her legs to a horse lord who happens to have forty bloody thousand men at his beck and call."

Ned argued back. "Savages, untrained, undisciplined in the arts of war." His anger was rising.

"Forty thousand you honorable fool." Robert said angrily.

"She poses no threat to us." Ned could not believe Robert had changed so much as to think that it was fine to murder a pregnant girl.

"Oh Ned stop burying your head in the snow. What happens when this Targaryen whore gives the savage a son and he learns the wretch can have a claim to the Iron throne?"

Ned stood up. "I will have no part in this." There were several things he wanted off his chest but he merely glared at his oldest friend. Ned threw the Hand pin to the table. "I will be going back to Winterfell on the morrow."

Prince Gendry stood up. "Uncle Stannis would not agree to this. Lord Stark is correct father."

"Oh you foolish boy. You know nothing of strategy and war." Robert laughed derisively. "All of you leave." He said as he drank more from his cup.

"Your king commands you." He shouted once more. The small council hurriedly left and so did he.

Gendry tried to catch up with him. Jory was by his side as soon as he left the council meeting quarters.

"Have Poole collect all our things. We leave for Winterfell on the morrow. Send ravens through out the Kingsroad. I want Robb to turn back to Winterfell. Find him, he was to be here last week by our calculations. Send for Tommen and my daughters. I want them in the tower of the Hand tonight. We part early." He left the Red Keep then.

Eddard needed to meet with Jon Arryn's squire. It would be the last thing that he would do in the city before he left. He would go back North and be with his wife and children. This was a mistake from the beginning. He should have listened to Cersei.

His lioness, he missed her so much. He wrote every week but there had been no replies to his letters. She was punishing him for not answering to her feverish letters. Jon knew about his birth. Cersei pleaded even before he sent their sons back. Ned would have to face his eldest son and tell him the truth about the woman who gave birth to him. Cersei was his mother, the only one he ever knew. Eddard would not call the dornish woman Jon's mother.

An old sense of duty had enveloped him when he accepted Robert's proposal. It had always been Robert and him. They were best friends since they were seven years old. Robert led and Ned followed but his old friend did not know how to lead anymore. He was not the same man, power and years of debauchery had changed him to the point that Ned could scarcely find the bond they once shared.

"Lord Stark." The prince shouted. Ned stopped; in these past few weeks the young prince had proven to be a decent young man. The boy was not used to command. He resembled Robert greatly but his eyes were shy. He was not a man to take reins. It had always been Jon, Robb or even Tommen who led the young royal to hunting parties, and other activities. Gendry Baratheon was not bred to rule. He had been a hard working boy, a blacksmith apprentice not even a squire.

"My prince." Ned bowed. Gendry was anxious. "You can't take her."

Ned glared at the boy who backed down. "She is my daughter and is of Winterfell."

"She will be my wife." Gendry said with a determination he recognized as a Baratheon trait. "She will be my queen."

"My family and I will return to our lands. King Robert does not wish to see my face and I will not leave my daughter in this pit of snakes." Ned walked out of the Red Keep. Jaime Lannister at his heels.

"I will run away with her." Gendry said hopelessly.

"You will not." Ned said and mounted his horse.

"Young love. Once we were all fools in love." Lannister said with one of his ever-fixed little smirks as they rode away.

"I wonder how you would know. You are the youngest sworn Kingsguard after all." Ned commented with a chilly tone.

"Proud Lord Stark. You are an honorable man. My sister must spend many dull evenings with you. What a shame, since my sweet sister was always lively and charming. Did she ever tell you about the time when we jumped off a cliff? She told father…"

"Spare me." Ned said cutting him off. He did not know more reminders that this man had the privilege to know and share a lifetime with his lioness.

Jaime laughed. Eddard rode ahead. Hugh of the Vale was now a knight. He had been wounded in the Tourney three weeks ago but he was recovering well. Ned had tried to have words with the man but he had given one and a million excuses to not do so. Jory managed to reach him at last.

He was taken aback when he saw the silent sisters working on the body of Ser Hugh. He addressed one of the young sisters. "Fetch me the maester please." He said. Jaime Lannister waited outside the manse. An older man met him. "He died last night in his sleep."

"How? He looks strong and his wounds from the tourney were healing properly." The northern man asked. He was completely baffled.

"My Lord Hand, these things happen." The maester spoke with a definite tone.

"Are there any traces of venom?" He was blunt. This was too coincidental for his liking.

"I assure my lord that Ser Hugh was not murdered. His heart stopped. It simply stopped beating."

"Just like Jon Arryn's." He mused and left the manse.

He rode back to the Red Keep. "FATHER." A young man shouted from a crowd. He sounded like his son Robb.

Ned turned the horse, there in dirty clothes and a tired horse was his son.

"Lysa Arryn abducted uncle Tyrion." Three knights flanked his son; they were Vale knights.

"Lord Stark. We have the Imp. He is to stand trial for Lord Jon Arryn's and Lord Robin Arryn's death." A young man said. He looked like a Royce.

"Father. Men under Lysa Arryn's order ambushed nuncle Tyrion and me. They took him to the Vale and escorted me here." Robb growled angrily.

Eddard dismounted his horse. "My brother in law is innocent of this." Ned knew Tyrion since he was a lad. Tyrion would not be capable. He was not the sort to kill. Why would he? Tyrion had no motives in any case.

"You will give me my brother." Suddenly Jaime Lannister unsheathed his sword and the fight broke out. Jory had caught up to them and joined in. Robb punched one of his captors.

Ned saw as one of the knights aimed an arrow to his leg. He felt the burn and then fought too. The fight must have been no more than thirty or forty minutes and then the world went black. The last thing he saw was a Vale knight escaping.