Chapter 42 — "The Summoning"
Robb found his father in the yard
Ned was doing what Ned did — walking the walls, checking the guard rotations, He turned when he heard Robb coming and read his son's face with the practiced eye of a man who had been reading Robb's face for fifteen years.
"Walk with me," Ned said.
They walked.
Robb told him everything.
Not the Joffrey version — the real version.
The grey Direwolf returning to visit its siblings. Joffrey ordering the Hound to take it. Alacric and Jon intervening. Finally how the direwolves snarl at the Royal prince and how Prince Joffrey started running like a kid.
Ned listened without interrupting.
When Robb finished they walked in silence for a moment.
Ned looked at the yard below.
"Prince Joffrey will have gone to the queen, although nobody was harmed but it's still a stain on prince reputation and I don't think Queen will hold back her anger on this one." Ned said.
"Yes, father. Even Big brother Alacric warned us. Says there is also a grudge between him and the Lannisters. So that would worsen the situation as well."
"And the queen would go The King"
"Probably he will call us to discuss the matter," Robb said.
Ned was quiet for a moment.
"You did nothing wrong," Ned said. "I want you to understand that. You defended your family's direwolves on your family's ground. That was correct." He paused. "But correct and simple are not always the same thing."
Robb looked at him.
"Robert is going to want to address this," Ned said. "In whatever way he addresses things. Be present. Be respectful. Say what needs saying and nothing more. "
"And Alaric," Robb said.
Ned's expression moved through something briefly.
"Alaric can speak for himself," Ned said.
"He's been doing it successfully for four years. But try to calm him down and don't let his anger out. If that happens it is trouble. If I could I would avoid him bringing in the matter but he directly involved. So take care of his anger , Don't let him erupt out." Ned said to his hier.
Ned sighs Alacric his nephew reminds him of his brother, Brandon Stark. His anger fanned off a Rebellion. He sighs thinking at what this could led to.
The summons came at midday.
Not formal — Robert didn't do formal when he could do direct. A household knight moving through the castle with the message that His Grace wanted everyone in the great hall and everyone meant everyone.
The great hall had a different quality in daylight without a feast in it — larger somehow, the banners higher, the stone more present. Robert sat at the high table.
Ned to his right. Composed. Present.
Cersei to Robert's left. Anger could be seen on her face.
Joffrey beside his mother with the expression of a young man who had been told to sit still and look dignified and was managing one of the two.
The Stark children came in together — Robb first, then Jon, then Arya, then Sansa, then Bran. Rickon had been kept elsewhere. The direwolves had been kept outside on Ned's instruction, which had required a conversation with Arya that Ned had apparently won by a narrow margin.
Alaric came in with Harys. Harys positioned himself near the door with the professional instinct of a Warlord
Robert looked at the assembled room.
"Right," he said. "Someone tell me what happened yesterday."
Joffrey spoke first.
He told his version with the confidence of someone who had rehearsed it and believed that rehearsal made it true. The direwolves attacking without provocation. The danger to his person. The Bastards refusing to control their animals. The bastard Snow interfering with the Hound's duty.
Robert listened.
Looked at Robb.
"Now you," he said.
Robb told his version. Clean. Direct. The wolf returning to visit the pups. Joffrey ordering the Hound to take a direwolf. Jon and Alacric intervenes in that to stop very politely. The wolves reacting to the threat.
Robert looked between them.
"The wolf bit no one," Robert said.
"No Your Grace," Robb said.
"That filthy Moved toward Joffrey. He could have been bit." Queen spills her venom.
"The wolves were reacting to the Hound moving toward them Your Grace," Robb said.
Cersie shouted "They are wild creatures in a castle full of people. son and heir among them. He could have been dead."
"Prince Joffrey was trying to take the wolf Your Grace...," Jon said quietly from the end of the Stark line who usually wouldn't say a thing but saw Alacric opening his mouth. So to keep him quiet he opened his.
Joffrey's eyes went to Jon and he interrupted
"You will address me with respect you bastard," Joffrey said.
The room went slightly quieter.
Alacric looked at Joffrey with little rage barely controlled.
"Joffrey," Robert said.
Joffrey subsided.
Robert looked at the ceiling for a moment. The expression of a man adding things up and finding the sum more complicated than he wanted it to be.
"The wolves," Robert said. "They need to be controlled. I won't have—"
"They are controlled Your Grace," Arya said.
"Arya," Ned said.
"They are," Arya said. Not backing down but modulating — the specific modulation of a girl who had been told to say what needs saying and nothing more and was trying to stay on the right side of that instruction.
"They've never attacked anyone. They reacted to someone trying to take one of them. That's not wild. That's—"
"That is still a threat," Cersei said. "To the prince."
"The prince was trying to take—" Arya started.
"Arya," Ned said again. More weight this time.
Arya stopped.
Robert looked at Ned.
"Ned," he said. "Your children's wolves nearly attacked my son."
"Nearly," Ned said. "And with respect Your Grace — Joffrey was attempting to take a direwolf against the wishes of my children on my ground. The wolves reacted accordingly."
"I understand that," Robert said. "But I have a queen telling me her son was endangered and I have to address that."
Ned remained quiet.
Robert looked at him for a long moment.
The room held its breath in the specific way rooms held breath when two men who had known each other for thirty years had arrived at the edge of a disagreement.
Alaric spoke.
"Your Grace."
Robert looked at him.
"The direwolf is the sigil of House Stark," Alaric said. "It has been for eight thousand years. These wolves came south of the Wall — something that hasn't happened in two hundred years — and found the Stark children " He paused. "In the North that means something. Taking those wolves or harming them would mean something. Not just to the Stark children. To every northern lord who hears about it." He held Robert's eyes. "And they would hear about it Your Grace. Things like that travel." Alacric was very polite. He had learned enough from Lord Edywn Starke
Nobody liked the way Alacric spoke.
Robert looked at him.
"What do you mean boy, " Robert said. Even he now more serious
"I'm telling you it's both Your Grace," Alaric said. "Personal and political. Those are Lord Stark's children's wolves. They are also the direwolf of House Stark made flesh. Removing them would be felt as a statement about how the crown values this house.It is also about your relationship with my Uncle and Lord of Winterfell."
The room was quiet.
Robert looked at Ned.
Ned said nothing. Which was its own statement.
Robert sat back.
Rubbed his face with the hand that wasn't holding the cup.
"The wolves stay," he said. "But they are kept away from the royal party. Controlled. If there is another incident—"
"There won't be, I would take care of it myself, Your Grace" Robb spoke as Hier of Winterfell and Lord Eddard Stark
"If there is," Robert said firmly. "We revisit it. And it will not be pretty." He said with firm and a threat in his time.
He looked at Joffrey.
"You will not approach the direwolves again," he said.
Queen Cersie "Robbert..."
Joffrey's face did several things.
"Father—"
"That is not a discussion," Robert said.
Robert looked at the room. At Ned. At the Stark children. At Alaric
"Actually," Robert said. His voice changing — the specific shift from the man managing a crisis to the man who had something else on his mind that had been waiting for the right moment. He looked at Ned. "Stay a moment. The rest of you can go."
The room began to empty.
Cersei rose.
Looked at Robert.
Looked at Alaric as he passed.
The look lasted one second.
Alaric met it
Neither of them spoke.
She turned and left
At the door Alaric paused.
He didn't look back.
But he heard Robert's voice behind him — lower now, the feast hall voice gone, the old friend voice present instead.
"Ned. We need to talk properly. About the Handship."
The door closed behind Alaric.
In the corridor Harys fell into step beside him.
"Well,"
"His grace's talking to Ned about the Handship right now."
Harys was quiet for a moment.
"And Queen's face when she looked at you, It really took us way back. We and Lannisters are really at odds now." he said.
"Yes," Alaric said.
"That's—"
"I know what that is Harys."
They walked.
"The Kingslayer was watching you," Harys said. "The whole time. From the moment you spoke."
Alaric said nothing.
Alaric thought about the eyes he had felt on him from the far end of the room.
Behind the closed door of the great hall Robert Baratheon was talking to Ned Stark about the Handship and the future of the realm.
In the corridor Alaric Snow walked away from it knowing exactly what was being said and knowing exactly where it was going to lead.