LIONS AND WOLVES | Robb Stark

14. Freeing Jaime 𓃬

JAIME LANNISTER ESCAPED HIS CHAINS IN THE NIGHT, after murdering Ser Alton Lannister and strangling Torrhen Karstark. When Joanna found out, she immediately sent a party out after him, instructing them to bring him back unharmed. 

Robb had gone to the Crag to negotiate their surrender and much to Joanna's frustration, he had taken Talisa with him. She wasn't thrilled with the arrangement and had made it clear to Robb before he left. Now, though, she had more pressing matters to worry about than her husband wandering off with a pretty woman.

"Your Grace!" shouted a man, rushing into her tent.

Alden, who had been assigned to Joanna's protection, stopped him. "Do not enter without an invitation."

"Forgive me, Your Grace," the man said, breathless. "But I have news."

"What news do you bring?" Joanna asked, getting to her feet and approaching the man. "Stand down, Alden. We needn't have any infighting."

"They've caught the Kingslayer," the man said.

Joanna heard the distant cheers from outside of her tent, ones that she had passed off as the men getting a little too rowdy with one another. Now, though, she understood what they meant.

Rushing out of her tent, to shouts of "Hang him!" and "Gut him!" Joanna ignored Alden's shouts to slow down as he chased after her. She ran to where the crowd was thickest, spotting Alayna amongst the men, fighting them back as they tried to reach Jaime. She was closest to the Kingslayer, a hand gripping Jaime's sleeve to try and avoid being separated by the crowd.

One man struck him hard on the back and knocked Jaime into the mud, taking Alayna down with him. The men descended on the two of them.

"Stop!" Joanna shouted, pushing at the men. "Stop this!"

Alayna was scrambling to her feet, covered in mud and looking ready to kill.

"Get back!" Lord Karstark yelled furiously. "I want his head!" A dozen men put themselves between Jaime and Lord Karstark. "Any man who stands between a father and his vengeance asks for death!"

Joanna shoved between the men to get to the middle. "Lord Karstark, please-"

"Get out of the way, Your Grace," he spat. "Before I kill you and all. Lannister scum."

"How dare you address me like that?" Joanna asked. "I am your queen, regardless of how you feel about me, and this man is our prisoner."

"This monster killed my son," Lord Karstark argued.

"And crippled mine!" Catelyn Stark shouted, forcing her way through the crowd to stand in solidarity with Joanna. "He will answer for his crimes, I promise you. But not here."

"I will have his head," Lord Karstark replied. "And if you two try and stop me-"

"You will strike us down?" Catelyn asked, her voice furious. "Have you forgotten me, ser? I am the widow of your liege lord, Eddard Stark. I am the mother of your king. This is your queen." Catelyn gestured to Joanna. "The wife of your king."

"And where is our king now?" asked Lord Karstark.

"You know very well," Catelyn replied. "He has gone to the Crag to accept the surrender."

"Aye, gone to the Crag," Lord Karstark said. "But not to negotiate. He brought that foreign bitch with him."

"How dare you!" Joanna snarled.

Alden reached for his sword. "Threatening my queen is an act of treason. Let us not forget, Lord Karstark, that she is your queen too."

"Treason?" asked Lord Karstark. "How can it be treason to kill Lannisters? The only reason our queen isn't dead already is because the king had too much sympathy for a fatherless girl."

"Be careful how you speak of me, Lord Karstark," Joanna warned. "I understand your grief, My Lord. Better than most, I understand it, but in the name of my husband, the King in the North, and on my word as Queen in the North, stand down."

"When your husband returns, I will demand this murderer's head," Lord Karstark warned.

"Wise men do not make demands of kings," Joanna said.

"Fathers who loved their sons do," Lord Karstark replied. "I will have his head."

As Lord Karstark walked away, Alayna shoved away a few more Stark men who were crowding Jaime. "That's it. Show's over. Piss off, the lot of you."

"Thank you for fighting on my behalf, Lady Stark," Jaime spoke up. "And for defending my niece from these barbarians she has chosen to take up arms with. I would have come to your defences, but-"

"Take him to the stockades," Catelyn demanded. "Bind him with every chain you can find."

"You've become a real she-wolf in your later years," Jaime called, as Alayna and Alden dragged him to his feet. "There's not much fish left in you."

"And gag him!"

𓃬

Catelyn Stark visited Jaime Lannister amidst cries for the Kingslayer's head. "I need to be alone with him."

"My Lady, our orders-"

"Your orders, which I've just gave you, are to leave me alone with him," Catelyn replied sharply.

When the guard was gone, Jaime said, "Come to say goodbye, Lady Stark? I believe it's my last night in this world and as such, I was wondering whether you could fetch me my niece. I'd like to say goodbye."

"I will do no such thing," Catelyn replied. "Your actions have cast a shadow over Joanna that she had trouble shaking in the first place. You will not see her again."

"Oh, well that is a shame," Jaime replied, eyeing Brienne. "Is that a woman?"

"Do you hear them out there?" Catelyn asked. "They want your head."

"Old Lord Karstark doesn't seem to like me," Jaime replied.

"You strangled his son with your chains."

"Oh, was he the one on guard duty?" Jaime asked. "He was in my way. Any knight would have done the same."

"You are no knight," Catelyn said, her voice cold. "You have forsaken every vow you ever took."

"So many vows," Jaime drawled. "They make you swear and swear. Defend the king. Obey the king. Obey your father. Protect the innocent. Defend the weak. But what if your father despises the king? What if the king massacres the innocent? It's too much. No matter what you do, you're forsaking one vow or another. Where did you find this beast?"

"She is a truer knight than you will ever be," Catelyn said. "Kingslayer."

"Kingslayer," Jaime repeated, drawing in a sharp breath. "And what a king he was. Here's to Aerys Targaryen, the second of his name, Lord of the Seven Kingdom, Protector of the Realm, and to the sword I shoved in his back."

"You are a man without honour," Catelyn's voice was low.

"Do you know, I've never been with any woman but Cersei," Jaime said. "So, in my own way, I have more honour than poor old dead Ned. What was the name of that bastard he fathered?"

"Brienne..."

"No, that wasn't it," Jaime said, as Brienne stepped forwards. "Snow. A bastard from the North. Now, when good old Ned came home with some whore's baby, did you pretend to love it?" he tutted. "No, you're not very good at pretending. You're an honest woman. You hated that boy, didn't you? How could you not hate him? The walking, talking reminder that the honourable Lord Eddard Stark fucked another woman."

Catelyn glared once at the Kingslayer before demanding of Brienne, "Your sword."

Jaime inhaled a sharp breath and tried not to close his eyes. He would stare death in the face and he would die without flinching.

But that wasn't what happened.

Catelyn Stark cut the ropes binding Jaime Lannister and freed him from all but the chains around his wrists. When he was standing, Catelyn gave the order for Brienne to take him, and in the dead of night, Catelyn Stark committed treason by letting their most valuable prisoner go free.