Chapter 25: A Fated Fall
"What happened?" Cersei's eyes widened in panic as she heard the boy's scream.
"He fell." Jaime spun around from the window, snatched up his cloak, and threw it over his shoulders. "Quickly, we have to get down there."
"Who fell?"
"Bran Stark, Lord Eddard's second son!"
"Damn it," Cersei hissed, her composure instantly shattering. "Did he see us?"
"No, but we can't take chances. Move as fast as you can. I have to get down first and intercept that Crow!"
Half a minute earlier, when Egger had parted ways with the two passing guards and returned to his training spot in the old inner ward, Bran had already climbed from the guardroom roof to the outer wall of the First Keep. He was traversing sideways along a familiar "route" toward the Broken Tower. Knowing he couldn't physically stop the boy, Egger had shouted intentionally loud—not hoping Bran would listen, but praying the pair inside the First Keep would react in time.
The first half of the plan succeeded, but things did not go as envisioned. From his vantage point in the courtyard, Egger saw it clearly: this time, Jaime didn't actually push Bran. The Kingslayer had simply popped his head out of the window, and the sheer shock had sent the boy plummeting.
...
With the dull thud of a heavy sack hitting the earth, the boy lay silent. His eyes were clamped shut, his body motionless. The corn he had intended to carry to the top of the tower to feed the crows was scattered across the ground—a bright, mocking yellow.
Egger stood frozen beside the fallen boy, his mind a chaotic mess. Instinct told him to call for help immediately, but with the Lannisters still inside the First Keep, his ticket away from the Wall was as good as burnt. Worse yet: after all that meddling, he hadn't prevented the fall—he had merely implicated himself. He had been shouting at the boy right as he fell; if responsibility were to be assigned, was it Egger's distraction or Jaime's jump-scare that carried more weight?
A lowly Night's Watchman causing the nephew of the First Ranger and the son of Lord Stark to fall from a tower? Egger shuddered to think of his prospects.
Footsteps thundered as Jaime sprinted from the entrance of the First Keep, rushing to Bran's side to check for a pulse. A moment later, he stood up. The easygoing nonchalance was gone from his eyes, replaced by a piercing, predatory light.
The Kingslayer seized Egger by the collar. Since they were of similar height, he didn't lift him off the ground, but the arrogant Lannister spoke in a voice that nearly trembled: "Tyrion says you're the sharpest soldier he's ever met. Then you should be smart enough to understand that this boy fell on his own. That's better for both of us. Do you take my meaning?"
Fell on his own? Egger forced himself to calm down. He quickly grasped the implication. There was no fourth witness to the accident. If Bran simply fell, then at least until the boy woke up, they wouldn't have to debate whose fault it was.
But he realized he couldn't accuse Jaime, nor could he take the fall alone. "I understand... Yes, he fell on his own. But I'm just a soldier; I'm afraid no one will believe my word."
Jaime glared at him fiercely. Seeing that Egger wouldn't be bullied into submission, he relented. "I can testify for you, but you cannot involve... Her Majesty the Queen."
Egger nodded rapidly. "Of... of course. Her Majesty has nothing to do with this."
On any other day, Jaime wouldn't have deigned to speak a word to a common Crow. But today, they had first met unavoidably while scouting the location, and now they were co-conspirators in Bran Stark's tragedy. Silence was no longer an option.
They quickly and simply aligned their stories. As the conversation ended, a tense Cersei emerged from the keep, and Egger left the ward to raise the alarm.
No member of House Stark had met with tragedy since the end of the Usurper's War. Winterfell descended into a chaos it hadn't seen in years. Guards scrambled to carry the boy back to the Great Keep on a litter, while Lady Stark and Maester Luwin were notified. Everyone with medical knowledge, including the royal physician from King's Landing, joined the effort to save him.
It wasn't until the King's hunting party returned in the evening that anyone emerged from the sickroom.
Night fell. Bran's direwolf howled outside the window, its mournful cries for its little master echoing through the castle. Egger lay in his bed, tossing and turning.
Bran's love for climbing was common knowledge; nearly every resident of Winterfell had feared for the brat at some point. To Jaime and Egger, this fall was a terrifying complication, but to the rest of the castle, it was merely a long-feared worry finally turning into reality—a tragic accident.
Despite Egger being scared to death, no one actually suspected a Night's Watchman. It wasn't until Eddard Stark returned that the head of the house remembered to summon the Ranger who had first discovered his son. With the testimony of the two guards Egger had spoken to and Jaime Lannister's corroboration, the Warden of the North simply frowned and dismissed him with a wave of his hand.
On the surface, it seemed the incident hadn't caused Egger any trouble, but it wasn't that simple. He was truly afraid now—this fated fall made him question everything.
He was a thorough materialist who believed everything could be explained by science—systematic knowledge. He believed that even the magic of the White Walkers or the Lord of Light followed rules he didn't yet understand. He had believed that with time, he could master those rules.
But after all his maneuvers over the past few days, Bran had still fallen at the same time and place as in the original story. Was this a mere coincidence, or was some unseen force pushing the plot along its original tracks?
...
Egger forced himself to stop thinking about unseen forces. He had more immediate, practical problems. While he wasn't a public suspect, he was now inextricably linked to the narrative. If the story continued and a certain assassin entered Bran's room to offer "mercy," the Starks would certainly begin to investigate the fall with fresh eyes.
Once that investigation started, people would remember the Crow who insisted on training in a desolate courtyard and happened to be the first on the scene. By then, he might have already left the Wall with Tyrion. Even though the dwarf had nothing to do with the fall or the assassination, he bore the Lannister name. If the Starks branded Egger as a Lannister collaborator, he'd be finished. He couldn't wash his name clean in the Trident, let alone the Yellow River.
A Night's Watchman conspiring with Lannisters against a Stark? The North's premier family could easily have the Lord Commander recall him or declare him a deserter.
And on the other hand, would the Lannisters leave him alone? Given Cersei's cruelty and paranoia, a Crow who potentially knew her secret—and refused to take the blame quietly—who was also getting close to her hated brother? Any one of those reasons was enough for her to want him dead.
He was caught between a rock and a hard place.
He had tried to stay on the fringes of the Great Game, but his first attempt to interfere had resulted in him getting burned without even catching the fox. Had he known, he wouldn't have touched this mess!
Egger was filled with regret, but searching for a solution was the only way forward. What could he do now to break this deadly deadlock?
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