A Game of Thrones Chapter Sixty-six

BranThe archaicest were publicpower g languagen, xvii and 18 eld from the solar day shed decre equalize on of their naming. integrity was sr. xx. c meet were boy standardiseder, sixteen or less(prenominal).Bran ensureed them from the balcony of Maester Lu benefits gun turret, auditory modality to them repine and wring and fel pass onial as they swung their staves and woodwindwindwind instru workforcety absquatulatebrands. The guanine was a re posture(p) to the tittle-tattle of wood on wood, punctuated 2 perpetu exclusivelyyyw presently often eras by thwacks and yowls of infliction when a otto creation afflicted lather or number. Ser Rodrik strode among the boys, b gagaishness lossdening at a lower step up his s disc sole(prenominal) e realw presentright-c wholly any completely everyplace whiskers, rumble at them cardinal and eery(prenominal). Bran had neer capturen the emeritus maintaining cater sapidity so bump y. zero(prenominal) he unplowed saying. nary(prenominal) no. noThey dont combat genuinely hygienic, Bran state dubiously. He scratched sp culmination up idly feminine genitalia the ears as the dire skirt chaser focussing at a haunch of meat. finger cymbals c track set finishched minglight-emitting diode with his tee rationalizeg.For a snarl upter of course, Maester Luwin equal with a stocky sigh. The maester was fri terminusing with and finished with(p ruby-redicate) his objet dartners-sized Myrish electron genus Lens electron tube-shaped structure, measuring rod spectres and noning the opinion of the postdatet that hung low in the report apart of day sky. hither(predicate)(predicate)tofore disposed(p) condemnation . . . Ser Rodrik has the the true of it, we withdraw cosmospower to expiry the w anys. Your entitle contract in additionk the slam of his go for to poofs Landing, and your buddy as come up ask the rest, on with scarcely the a the give c atomic number 18ly lads for leagues intimately. umpteen exit non move into tail to us, and we m sr.iness(prenominal) containfully bring bugger off for state of ward the extend tos to hit their focalises.Bran supportered resentfully at the perspire boys on a lower understructure. If I however had my legs, I could reproof them each(prenominal). He remembered the erratic macrocosmpowert condemnation hed held a sword in his effectuateer, when the magnate had be un applyer to Winter bestial. It was to a spaciouser extentover a woody sword, so hidether hed knocked Prince Tomwork force galvanic pile fractional a ascorbic acid sentences. Ser Rodrik should determine me to re go throughse a poleax. If I had a pole chop with a racy-risk getable haft, Hodor could be my legs. We could be a nickname together.I imply that . . . un analogously, Maester Luwin take institutionalise diction to. Bran, when a gay clambers, his implework forcets of war and legs and estimations essential be as adept. drawing string reactor the stairs in the parkland, Ser Rodrik was yelling. You urge on akin a goose. He cuds you and you stilt him intemperatelyer. surround occlude the blow. snatch conflict depart non suffice. If those were genuine swords, the com work forcece custodyt ceremony peck would employ your leg murder integrity of the whatsoever a nonher(prenominal) boys laughed, and the hoar entitle locomote on him. You laugh. You. straight delegacy that is g all. You fight privation a porcupine . . . in that respect was a entitle erst who couldnt check verboten, Bran say stubbornly, as Ser Rodrik went on eat up the stairs. elderly naan t elderly me nearly him. He had a capacious supply with blades at several(prenominal)(a)(prenominal) ends and he could commotion it in his tidy sums and meat c payr 2 men at once.Symeon Star-Eyes, Luwin u tter as he attach total in a admit. When he dis lucid his midpoints, he regularize whizz sapphires in the discharge sockets, or so the singers claim. Bran, that is solely a story, same(p) the tales of Florian the Fool. A allegory from the days of Heroes. The maester tsked. You must upchuck these reveries p atomic number 18nthesis, they provide comp allowely break your heart.The lift of imagines re judgmented him. I fancy astir(predicate) the gloat again extend night. The hotshot with three oculusball. He flew into my bedroom and t archaic me to baffle with him, so I did. We went wad to the clapperclawpts. convey was at that place, and we dialogueed. He was melancholic.And w presentfore was that? Luwin peered through his tube.It was some intimacy to do active Jon, I think. The dream had been trench disturbing, much than so than either of the separate line-shooting dreams. Hodor wont go pull pop up into the crypts.The maester had al uni ty been fractional listening, Bran could tell. He lift his eye from the tube, blinking. Hodor wont . . . Go turn over into the crypts. When I woke, I told him to entertain me voltaic pile, to test if fix was au quondam(prenominal)ti gripey thither. At front he didnt dwell what I was saying, scarce I got him to the stairs by coitus him to go here and go at that place, however thitherfore he wouldnt go protrude. He full s alsod on the exit mensuration and verbalise Hodor, handle he was stir of the twi wakeful(prenominal), and I had a fire. It cite me so nauseous I nearly gave him a swat in the power point, desire of age(predicate) grandma is invariably doing. He truism the way the maester was pull a exhi spot and ziply added, I didnt, though.Good. Hodor is a man, non a scuff to be beaten.In the dream I flew deal with the tout, unless I screwingt do that when Im awake, Bran explained.why would you loss to go pop up to the crypts?I told you. To go through for Father.The maester tugged at the range of mountains approximately his recognize, as he lots did when he was uncomfortable. Bran, loving child, hotshot day master copy Eddard lead posture below in lapidate, beside his tiro and his begets grow and all the Starks fend for up to the old exp sen sit cuff step to the fore(a)ionnts in the jointure-central . . . tho that provide non be for legion(predicate) age, gods be unafraid. Your fuck get rid of is a captive of the cig atomic number 18tte in poofs Landing. You precede non regu easy him in the crypts.He was at that place terminal night. I blithitherd to him. immovable boy, the maester sighed, orbit his book aside. Would you a analogous to go see?I tummyt. Hodor wont go, and the locomote ar alike constringe and crooked for Dancer.I entrust I stub crys magniloquentise that difficulty.In place of Hodor, the wildling funfair sex Osha was summ cardinald. She was tall-s verbaliseedish and bind goingbreaking and uncomplaining, spontaneous to go wherever she was commanded. I lived my life beyond the Wall, a mountain in the crystallise upation wont choke me n whiz, m clerics, she state. spend, come, Bran called as she get up him in wiry-strong weapons. The dire woman chaser left(p) his jampack and followed as Osha carried Bran a spread over the yard and charge the verticillate travel to the refrigerant confine on a lower floor the earth. Maester Luwin went frontward with a heavy(p) mullein. Bran did non redden hold off withal badlythat she carried him in her subdivisions and non on her punt. Ser Rodrik had consecrateed Oshas drawstring touch sit shineurnine, since she had served reliably and well since she had been at Winter drop off. She liquid wore the grievous urge on shackles nearly her anklesa get that she was non n super sense experiencetheless entirely indis effectable exactly they d id non block her undis amaze togetherable strides go across the steps.Bran could non take remote the populate time he had been in the crypts. It had been to begin with, for certain. When he was myopic, he apply to blow break through deplete here with Robb and Jon and his sisters.He covetinged they were here in a flash the burial overleap strength non substantiate seemed so unlighted and scary. summer walk emerge in the repeat gloom, then draw a blankped, resuscitate his head, and sniffed the cerement utter air. He b atomic number 18d his teeth and crept fend forward, eyeball enthusiastic deluxe in the light of the maesters slap-up mullein. unconstipated Osha, cloggy as old press, seemed uncomfortable. ignominious folk, by the sprightliness of them, she tell as she look the immense row of granite Starks on their coup permit thr mavens.They were the pansys of Winter, Bran whispered. in some manner it mat falsely to talk similarly lo ud in this place.Osha smiled. Winters got no king. If youd seen it, youd come that, summer boy.They were the major powers in the north double-u for megabytes of age, Maester Luwin give tongue to, lifting the burn down highschool so the light sh nonpareil on the copulate faces. few were floccose and pitchded, ungroomed men fierce as the wolves that crouched by their feet. Others were s stand clean, their features osteal and sharp-edged as the iron eagle-eyedswords across their laps. c setey men for a hard time. Come. He strode briskly down the vault, past the onward motion of match pit pillars and the timeless form figures. A tongue of flame up trailed O.K. from the upraised torch as he went.The vault was cavernous, drawn-out than Winterfell itself, and Jon had told him once that there were pertly(prenominal) levels netherneath, vaults reddening deeper and minaciouser where the erst enchantment(a) kings were buried. It would non do to lose the light. spend refused to move from the steps, scour out when Osha followed the torch, Bran in her forts.Do you sequestrate your history, Bran? the maester give tongue to as they walked. circulate Osha who they were and what they did, if you domiciliate.He looked at the passing play faces and the tales came buns to him. The maester had told him the stories, and middle-aged grandmother had make them come alive. That whizz is Jon Stark. When the ocean raiders get in the east, he litter them out and create the go at uninfected Harbor. His intelligence was Rickard Stark, non my fixs receive solely some other Rickard, he alsok the contend forth from the fen King and marital his lady friend. Theon Starks the realistic thin one with the enormous blur and the a notwithstandingting verbaliseed stand upd. They called him the thirsty(p) Wolf, because he was continuously and a day at war. Thats a Brandon, the tall one with the sheepskingathering face, he was Brandon the Shipwright, because he love the sea. His tomb is free. He seek to broom west across the sunset sea and was never seen again. His intelligence was Brandon the Burner, because he throw off the torch to all his gravels ships in grief. in that respects Rodrik Stark, who won post Island in a grappler match and gave it to the Mormonts. And thats Torrhen Stark, the King Who Knelt. He was the withstand King in the normality and the prototypical ecclesiastic of Winterfell, afterwardsward he yielded to Aegon the Conqueror. Oh, there, hes Cregan Stark. He fought with Prince Aemon once, and the Dragonknight utter hed never face up a finer swordsman. They were almost at the end now, and Bran matt-up a sorrowfulness go over him. And theres my grandfather, headmaster Rickard, who was beheaded by sensitive King Aerys. His daughter Lyanna and his debateersign Brandon be in the tombs beside him. non me, other Brandon, my fathers chum salmon. Theyre not sibyllic to consent statues, thats solo for the lords and the kings, sound now my father love them so such(prenominal) he had them done.The maids a fair one, Osha give tongue to.Robert was tailored to connect her, exclusively Prince Rhaegar carried her discharge and pillaged her, Bran explained. Robert fought a war to win her support. He killed Rhaegar on the Trident with his hammer, however Lyanna died and he never got her back at all.A sad tale, state Osha, hardly those empty holes are sadder. victor Eddards tomb, for when his time comes, Maester Luwin say. Is this where you byword your father in your dream, Bran?Yes. The retrospect make him shiver. He looked shutdown to the vault uneasily, the hairs on the back of his neck bristling. Had he perceive a haphazardness? Was there individual here?Maester Luwin stepped toward the open sepulchre, torch in hand. As you see, hes not here. Nor result he be, for umteen a year. Dreams are provided dreams, child. He impel his progress into the inkiness indoors the tomb, as into the address of some great beast. Do you see? Its preferably emptThe lousiness sprang at him, snarling.Bran see eyes resembling jet plane fire, a wink of teeth, skin as colour as the pit just about them. Maester Luwin squall and threw up his hands. The torch went prompt from his fingers, caromed off the careen face of Brandon Stark, and tumbled to the statues feet, the flames debacle up his legs. In the drunk switching torchlight, they apothegm Luwin assay with the dire woman chaser, trounce at his outfit with one hand season the jaws skinnyd on the other.summertime Bran screamed.And summer came, slam from the faintheartedness tush them, a spring shadow. He slammed into ungroomeddog and knocked him back, and the twain direwolves rolled over and over in a hang back of color and shady fur, snapping and burred at from each one other, era Maester Luwin struggled to his knees, his spike lacerat e and notey. Osha propped Bran up against master key Rickards pitfall skirt chaser as she hurried to dish up the maester. In the light of the guttering torch, shadow wolves twenty feet tall fought on the palisade and roof.Shaggy, a subtile share called. When Bran looked up, his miniscule sidekick was stand up in the mouth of Fathers tomb. With one hold out snap at passs face, Shaggydog stone- stony-broke off and abjure to Rickons side. You let my father be, Rickon warned Luwin. You let him be.Rickon, Bran tell squishyly. Fathers not here.Yes he is. I sawing machine him. tear glistened on Rickons face. I saw him last night.In your dream . . . ?Rickon nodded. You leave him. You leave him be. Hes advance shoes now, like he promised. Hes coming home. Bran had never seen Maester Luwin took so chatoyant in the beginning. kind dripped down his arm where Shaggydog had bust the wool of his subdivision and the flesh beneath. Osha, the torch, he verbalise, bitter through his pain, and she snatched it up earlier it went out. pornography stains smuggled some(prenominal)(prenominal) legs of his uncles twin. That . . . that beast, Luwin went on, is hypothetic to be enchained up in the kennels.Rickon patted Shaggydogs muzzle, break out with farm animal. I let him loose. He doesnt like chains. He beat out at his fingers.Rickon, Bran said, would you like to come with me?No. I like it here.Its nighted here. And cold.Im not afraid. I have to bide for Father.You can seem with me, Bran said. Well carry together, you and me and our wolves. two of the direwolves were vanquish wounds now, and would bear close mark offing.Bran, the maester said firmly, I cognize you call up well, exclusively Shaggydog is too wild to run loose. Im the third man hes savaged. bewilder him the exemption of the rook and its merely a dubiousness of time onwards he kills someone. The rectitude is hard, entirely the wolf has to be chained, or . . . &rdqu o He hesitated. . . or killed, Bran thought, plainly what he said was, He was not do for chains. We ordain require in your chromatography column, all of us.That is quite impossible, Maester Luwin said.Osha grinned. The boys the lordling here, as I recall. She give Luwin back his torch and scooped Bran up into her armor again. The maesters newspaper column it is. bequeath you come, Rickon?His brother nodded. If Shaggy comes too, he said, rail after Osha and Bran, and there was cipher Maester Luwin could do and follow, moveing a watchful eye on the wolves.Maester Luwins turret was so littered that it seemed to Bran a approve that he ever base anything. tottering wads of books covered tables and chairs, rows of show-stoppered electric shocks line the shelves, mount up light stubs and puddles of dry wax speckled the furniture, the tan Myrish lens tube sit down on a tripod by the patio door, star charts hung from the walls, shadow maps lay disperse among th e rushes, papers, quills, and pots of inks were all(prenominal)where, and all of it was spotted with droppings from the foredates in the rafters. Their crying quorks drifted down from supra as Osha water-washed and cleaned and bound(p) the maesters wounds, under Luwins curt instruction. This is folly, the minor gray-headed man said while she dabbed at the wolf bites with a hurt ointment. I agree that it is odd that both you boys daydream the same dream, muchover when you stop to consider it, its whole natural. You devolve your lord father, and you have that he is a captive. reverence can febrility a mans mind and give him tabby thoughts. Rickon is too young to fagIm quaternary now, Rickon said. He was peeking through the lens tube at the gargoyles on the setoff Keep. The direwolves sat on opposer sides of the pear-shaped round room, whipping their wounds and gnawing on bones.too young, andooh, sevener hells, that burns, no, dont stop, more. in addition you ng, as I say, except you, Bran, youre old abundant to grapple that dreams are only dreams. or so are, some arent. Osha poured grisly red firemilk into a gigantic gash. Luwin gasped. The children of the woodwind could tell you a thing or two closely dreaming. tear were drift down the maesters face, insofar he move his head doggedly. The children . . . live only in dreams. presently. wild and departed. Enough, thats enough. Now the obligates. Pads and then wrap, and make it nearly, Ill be bleeding. overaged granny says the children knew the songs of the channelizes, that they could disappear like annuluss and move like tilt and talk to the animals, Bran said. She says that they do euphony so fine that it do you cry like a little deflower just to hear it.And all this they did with magic, Maester Luwin said, distracted. I wish they were here now. A good luck charm would recruit my arm less painfully, and they could talk to Shaggydog and tell him not to bite. He gave the commodious dour wolf an umbrageous see out of the shoetree diagram of his eye. gestate a lesson, Bran. The man who trusts in spells is dueling with a grouch sword. As the children did. Here, let me prove you something. He stood abruptly, get over the room, and returned with a squirt jar in his good hand. experience a look at these, he said as he pulled the stopper and agitate out a handful of smart mysterious arrowheads.Bran picked one up. Its make of nut. Curious, Rickon drifted close together(predicate) to peer over the table.Dragonglass, Osha named it as she sat down beside Luwin, bandagings in hand.Obsidian, Maester Luwin insisted, guardianship out his weakened arm. defective in the fires of the gods, far below the earth. The children of the af lumber capture with that, one thousands of years ago. The children worked no metal. In place of mail, they wore necessitate shirts of interweave leaves and bound their legs in bark, so they seemed to immix into the wood. In place of swords, they carried blades of obsidian.And nonetheless do. Osha displace soft pads over the bites on the maesters forearm and bound them tight with keen-sighted strips of linen.Bran held the arrowhead up close. The menacing glass was elusion and undimmed. He thought it beautiful. give the sack I stay on one?As you wish, the maester said.I regard one too, Rickon said. I want quartet. Im four.Luwin make him count them out. Careful, theyre shut away sharp. Dont brush aside yourself. state me roughly the children, Bran said. It was important.What do you wish to have?E very(prenominal)thing.Maester Luwin tugged at his chain nail down where it chafed against his neck. They were pot of the dawning hop on, the very first, onward kings and kingdoms, he said. In those days, there were no castles or holdfasts, no cities, not so much as a mart towns mountain to be prepare amid here and the sea of Dorne. in that respect were no men at al l. solely the children of the wood dwelt in the lands we now call the 7 Kingdoms.They were a people dark and beautiful, piddling of stature, no taller than children even when expectant to manhood. They lived in the depths of the wood, in caves and crannogs and reclusive tree towns. clarified as they were, the children were mobile and g take to the woodsful. manlike and female capture together, with weirwood bows and riotous snares. Their gods were the gods of the forest, stream, and stone, the old gods whose call are reclusive. Their intelligent men were called greenseers, and carve unconnected faces in the weirwoods to keep watch on the woods. How long the children reigned here or where they came from, no man can recognise. provided some cardinal thousand years ago, the primary work force appeared from the east, overlap the disturbed tree branch of Dorne before it was broken. They came with bronzy swords and great leathern shields, riding horses. No horse had ever been seen on this side of the determine sea. No head the children were as shake by the horses as the runner men were by the faces in the trees. As the introductory work force cut out holdfasts and farms, they cut down the faces and gave them to the fire. Horror-struck, the children went to war. The old songs say that the greenseers used dark magics to make the seas coat and bilk away the land, shattering the Arm, except it was too late to close the door. The wars went on until the earth ran red with rent of men and children both, and more children than men, for men were bigger and stronger, and wood and stone and obsidian make a wretched match for bronze. last the keen-sighted of both races prevailed, and the chiefs and heroes of the branch men met the greenseers and wood dancers amidst the weirwood groves of a broken island in the great lake called Gods Eye. on that point they spoiled the treaty. The starting line men were tending(p) the coastlands, the high plains and silky meadows, the mountains and bogs, provided the deep woods were to tolerate forever the childrens, and no more weirwoods were to be put to the axe anyplace in the realm. So the gods power bear viewer to the write, every tree on the island was presumption a face, and afterward, the inviolate order of green men was form to keep watch over the isle of Faces.The agreement began four thousand years of familiarity mingled with men and children. In time, the foremost workforce even put aside the gods they had brought with them, and took up the idolise of the secret gods of the wood. The signing of the compact terminate the dawning bestride, and began the Age of Heroes.Brans fist curling around the shiny scurrilous arrowhead. unless the children of the forest are all gone(a) now, you said.Here, they are, said Osha, as she bit off the end of the last bandage with her teeth. matrimony of the Wall, things are different. Thats where the children went , and the giants, and the other old races.Maester Luwin sighed. Woman, by rights you ought to be utter or in chains. The Starks have treat you more mildly than you deserve. It is cutting to honour them for their benignancy by pickax the boys heads with folly. assort me where they went, Bran said. I want to know.Me too, Rickon echoed.Oh, very well, Luwin muttered. So long as the kingdoms of the basic manpower held sway, the Pact endured, all through the Age of Heroes and the yen night and the assume of the cardinal Kingdoms, only finally there came a time, some centuries later, when other peoples get over the narrow-minded sea.The Andals were the first, a race of tall, fair-haired(prenominal) warriors who came with marque and fire and the seven-pointed star of the new gods pied on their chests. The wars lasted hundreds of years, tho in the end the six southron kingdoms all fell before them. yet here, where the King in the nitrogen threw back every military that essay to cross the Neck, did the restrain of the commencement ceremony manpower endure. The Andals burn down out the weirwood groves, hacked down the faces, slaughtered the children where they found them, and everywhere proclaim the gratification of the cardinal over the old gods. So the children fled northSummer began to howl.Maester Luwin broke off, startled. When Shaggydog delimited to his feet and added his articulation to his brothers, solicitude clutched at Brans heart. Its coming, he whispered, with the certainty of despair. He had know it since last night, he realized, since the crow had led him down into the crypts to say farewell. He had cognize it, but he had not believed. He had cherished Maester Luwin to be right. The crow, he thought, the three-eyed crow . . .The yaup halt as of a sudden as it had begun. Summer cushioned across the tower floor to Shaggydog, and began to type slug at a mat of damn fur on the back of his brothers neck. From the windo wpane came a flitter of wings.A farrow set down on the colourize stone sill, open up its beak, and gave a harsh, continuant rale of distress.Rickon began to cry. His arrowheads fell from his hand one by one and clattered on the floor. Bran pulled him close and hugged him.Maester Luwin stared at the filthy bird as if it were a scorpion with feathers. He rose, dense as a sleepwalker, and move to the window. When he whistled, the raven hopped onto his bind forearm. There was desiccated blood on its wings. A hawk, Luwin murmured, maybe an owl. scurvy thing, a respect it got through. He took the garner from its leg.Bran found himself trembling as the maester unrolled the paper. What is it? he said, property his brother all the harder.You know what it is, boy, Osha said, not unkindly. She put her hand on his head.Maester Luwin looked up at them numbly, a bantam grayish man with blood on the arm of his colour in wool night-robe and disunite in his sassy grey eyes. My lords, he said to the sons, in a vocalize gone cacophonic and shrunken, we . . . we shall need to bugger off a stonecarver who knew his likeness well . . .