SEQUEL TO POPPY
❝ The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of Earth. Darkness will be your cloak. Your shield. Your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong. ❞
GAME OF THRONES - SEASON 4-7
THE POPPY SAGA - 3
THE MOR...
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By the time Harrenhal came into view Robb had turned a sickly pale. Hermione, abandoning her attempts to heal his opening wounds, simply used a piece of her shift to bandage him. A few leagues back she had decided Camelot was where they needed to go. Robb wouldn't make it much longer and wherever she was being led to would just have to wait until he was healed.
Approaching the ominous castle with caution, she had sent Grey Wind ahead to scope out the place before they rode in. The last Hermione recalled Harrenhal being marked as one of the Lannister camps on Robb's old maps. Though, a the closer they rode, the more she noticed there seemed to be an absence of anything signifying their presence.
There were no guards, no banners, no horns being blown.
"Weird," Hermione muttered as she edged their horse further on.
Robb coughed which turned into a wheeze. His body pressing further into Hermione's back. "Maybe it's a sneak attack," he sighed. "We should wait until Grey Wind comes back."
"No, look." Hermione pointed just over Harrenhal's tallest towers which scraped the clouds. There was no smoke. "Surely, if they were still here they'd be burning wood and coal to keep warm and make weapons."
Robb snuggled closer to her. Harrenhal was one of the great castles in Westerosi history. With five towers, two gates and over two hundred hearths—one hundred of them were just in the great hall—Hermione had even learned that the library wasn't so bad to look at either. Surely through the years some of the books had been stolen or burned, but there had to be something good in there to read. Originally, Harrenhal was the seat of House Hoare, it was burned down by dragon fire during Aegon's Conquest because Lord Hoare refused to bend the knee.
As their horse neared the north gate, Hermione saw Grey Wind approaching which meant the coast was clear. Though, the red and gold helmet he had in this mouth caught her off guard. "What's that you got?" Hermione called reaching down to take it from his mouth. The helmet obviously belonged to Lannister men, though Grey Wind had come back unharmed so maybe they had vacated the castle.
Urging the horse forward, it was only once they crossed the open gate did Hermione let out a small gasp.
Bodies lined the courtyard ground and wall. They hung over balcony banisters and from tower windows. Hundred of Lannister men had seemingly been murdered all at once. As if some army had swept through and killed them without so much as a drop of blood spilled.
