a song of ice and fire : game of thrones
top 10 chapters/pov’s || #4 eddard
or dead. buried with his king. “ ah, robert, “ he murmured as his groping hand touched a cold stone wall, his leg throbbing with every motion. he remembered the jest the king had shared in the crypts of winterfell, as the kings of winter looked on with cold stone eyes, the kings eats, robert had said, and the hand takes the shit. how he had laughed. yet he had gotten it wrong. the king dies, ned stark thought, and the hand is buried.
he found himself thinking of robert more and more. he saw the king as he had been in the flower of his youth, tall and handsome, his great antlered helm on his head, his warhammer in hand, sitting in horse like a horned god. he heard his laughter in the dark, saw his eyes, blue and clear as mountain lakes. “look at us ned,” robert said. “gods, how did we come to this? you here, and me killed by a pig. we won a throne together…”
the younger girl escaped ser meryn and fled,” varys told him. “i have not been able to find her. nor have the lannisters. a kindness, there. our new king loves her not. your older girl is still betrothed to joffery. cersei keeps her close. she came to court a few days ago to plead that you be spared. a pity you couldn’t have been there, you would have been touched.” he leaned forward intently. “i trust you realize that you are a dead man, lord eddard?”
the thought of jon filled ned with a sense of shame, and a sorrow too deep for words. if only he could see the boy again, sit and talk with him… pain shot through his broken leg, beneath the filthy grey plaster of his cast. he winced, his fingers opening and closing helplessly. “if this your own scheme,” he gasped out at varys,”or are you in league with littlefinger?”
