Carliene Stark

II Chapter 58

Carliene

They brought me broth for supper again and that night I was actually able to sleep, though it was filled with dreams again, most of which I did not remember by morning and others replaying the death of Lord Tarly. I woke in the morning with the edge of my breastplate pressing against my shoulder blade and causing my arm to feel numb. As I rose and moved it it felt like a thousand needles pricking my skin. It was awfully cold, causing me to stay in the cot, with the tattered blanket wrapped around my body. As I sat there I tried not to think about what kinds of fleas or bedbugs might nest within it. I had broth for breakfast and no other visitors for a while. I busied myself with trying to free my front from the blotches of blood that still clung to it. The red liquid had turned brown by now and became dry and crusty, which allowed me to scrape it from the leather and steel of my breastplate. It still stained my tunic though and I doubted I would be bale to get rid of that anytime soon. It unnerved me. To think these were remnants of a life. I disliked Randyll Tarly and was suspicious of him since the war council, and yet his death bothered me. It was not the first life I had taken, but the first in a while. And thinking about all the people he left behind made my stomach twist painfully.

I judged it to be midday when Ser Addam Marbrand returned and opened the door to my cell for me to step out. I did not refuse. Too much of my life had been wasted in locked rooms. To my dismay he had a Lannister guard with him, who waisted no time putting iron shackles on me. 

I raised my brow at the knight. "Really?" I challenged. 

He shrugged, half amused. "I was told not to take any chances" he lead his man to guide me out of the prison. I turned my head and tried to look into the cells of the lower levels, but I did not have enough time to recognise anyone or make out Luthor or Ser Ignor from the prisoners within them. 

It was good to breathe fresh air again, even though it was so cold that our breaths steamed slightly. The sky was grey, and it must have rained because there were a number of puddles that we had to avoid as we crossed the yard. We approached a small wheelhouse made of splintered wood and with bars in the small windows in the door. My stomach twisted, it reminded me so strongly of the one I had been kept in after the Red Wedding and taken all the way from the Twins to Casterly Rock. Before I could voice my distain a men stepped into my path, blocking my view. 

Lord Elwood had a wide smile on his square face, the sight of me in chains clearly pleasing him. "Lady Stark" he greeted, keeping his distance as Ser Addam took note of him. "Did you ever solve what was bothering you so?" he pondered teasingly. 

I balled my fists. Calm as the wolf. "I hope you know what you are doing, Lord Meadows. Storm's End may stand grounded against the wrath of the gods, but do you?" Clearly he had not expected me to respond so civilly, because he could only watch as they put me into the wheelhouse. 

My shackles were fastened to a chain, which in turn was fastened to the bench. The door was locked and someone knocked on the wood, signalling the coachman to depart. The wheelhouse jerked into motion and through the small window I saw the inner walls pass. Then the buildings of the outer castle, then the middle wall, then the blackened hedges of the labyrinth, then the outer wall and then there came the meadows and rolling hills. My attention turned to my restrains. testing the tightness of the shackles and how the chain was secured to the bench. Unfortunately it was all in order and I found no weak spot. Not that it would have done me any good, I was still locked in this carriage. 

I leaned my head back agains the uncomfortable bench, realising that this may well be the last time I had seen Highgarden. I always knew I would not stay there forever, but I could not deny that it had grown on me. I had felt more at peace there than I had anywhere else since leaving Winterfell all those years ago. And now I was supposed to go back to where it all began. That accurst city where I lost everything. If Cersei had burned down the whole of King's Landing and not only the Sept of Baelor the Realm would have been better off.