The King

Chapter Seventeen

When you corner an animal, to a situation that is not to its liking it becomes more violent, as it has to fight for its life, but what happens in the case of humans, what happens when they feel cornered? They defend themselves to protect themselves, or they decide to hide, each person could react differently to that event.

Roose Bolton felt very cornered since Harry Stark came up as the ruler of the North, his former allies turned their backs on him and did not want to negotiate anything with him, because Harry Stark was doing an excellent job, the Lords could fill their bellies with food and whatever drink they chose and not only them but their people as well. That was something that didn't have to happen, with Richard Stark, not all the Lords were happy that the Starks still ruled the north, and it was exploited by the Boltons to gain allies. But with Harry, it was something very different, the worst of it was that the boy had him under control, he could see several groups that watched in terror day and night, rain or shine, they were always watching his castle, the boy didn't trust the Boltons one bit.

And he was not going to hide it at all, that's why he had to talk to Harry just to release a little bit of the weight of the surveillance so that he could act with more freedom, obviously to be able to betray him. He knew that within a year, the Greyjoys were going to be a coup, where he was going to support them with the purpose that they support him to take the North.

So he came to Winterfell to pay a visit, the first thing he saw was a large group of recruits being trained by men in strange armor, he could not identify their faces because of the masks they had. This no doubt he had to inform Varys, that he was going since he was another of their benefactors, that the golden company could help him in case the Greyjoy failed, he was going to go a long way to take the North, and in case the descendants of dark fire, had dragons it was better to have them as allies.

When he and his companions got off their horses, he saw that several archers were aiming at them, distrust was what he felt about being in this place. Several men were watching them, and they did not hide at all that they were watching them.

Although Roose Bolton did not notice something, Ashara was in the crowd with Elia Martell, since long ago Harry said that every time someone close to the Boltons set foot in Winterfell, they had to have no contact with their Mother and Sister, and of course with Elia and her children, since Roose was going to try to attack from that end.

For those who were covered by a coat and placed on their backs as if they were simple people, it helped a lot that the Persians, who were the soldiers that could be seen with the naked eye, had Roose's full attention. Who did not realize that the Spartans and Vikings that inside Winterfell and other castles had clothes, normal, like a civilian, just to make a surprise attack, they were slowly approaching them as if they were simple workers. That was the level of protection that each castle had. Although Spartans and Vikings could indeed be spotted in their clothing, there were many more who were hidden. Anyone could be one of those men, a salesman, a servant, many options could be right but at the same time could be wrong, so if you knew that secret, you better know the faces of all the soldiers of the North, and you will live in paranoia all your life.

- "Roose Bolton" - Benjen was the man that at any time you could find him in Winterfell, as the trip was not so long, with the horses they currently had, visit his nephew and see if he did not need something, it was easy, Eddard could not, as his trip would be much longer, a day's journey, instead his was three hours or four, plus with visits like these, it was better to be next to his nephew.

- "I was curious how our Lord's work is going" - Roose did not bring the look of the archers, there was no blind spot where he was, if he made a move he was going to have thirty-five archers shooting arrows, it was very good security from this point of view - "And it gave me the curiosity to visit Winterfell."