Only A Northern Song ~ Game of Thrones / Willas Tyrell ~

Chapter Eighty Six: Return to Riverrun

Nan was a decent enough travelling companion, even when Eddmina decided to remain silent.

It was the quietest she had been in months, too tired to pace around their tiny carriage, too travel-sick to sing, too worried and angry to even talk. In the week since they had left the Twins, the only time she spoke was to offer necessary courtesies, like thanking the servants who brought supper to her, or whispering gratitude to Nan whenever she removed the bonds of rope the guards wrapped around her wrists whenever she was permitted to leave the carriage. A rare occurrence, and she enjoyed fresh air and daylight as little as she had done in the Twins. it was a much more miserable journey than the one she had endured to the Twins, and would have done anything to trade places with the past version of herself who thought travelling in a carriage sewing with her mother instead of riding with Robb and Garlan was torture.

They seemed to travel at great speed, as if their party did not want to linger. No one spoke to her, so she had no idea why they so rarely stopped, why she was insulted any time she requested to stop just so she could stretch her legs and relieve herself. Her condition was not at all convenient to any of them, and she'd overheard the guards insulting her and the babe she carried multiple times. She'd overheard them talking about the Brotherhood that Jaime had mentioned too, the one supposedly terrorising the Lannisters, the one putting their journey at great risk. Eddmina didn't particularly care, she just hoped that if they were a threat they would get on with it and end the whole miserable affair quickly; anything to spare her from living as a Lannister and enduring the speed of the carriage any longer.

She never saw Lord Tywin, and rarely saw her husband. It was rare they stopped at all, but the few ocassions they stopped to sleep he would join her in her carriage. He didn't really speak of anything but the journey, the things they had ridden past, but when he tried to tell her that he had seen a flock of birds building nests she had to stop herself from hitting him. He'd seen her anger though, understood that she didn't want a husband who spoke of wildlife and nature, and the two of them fell silent and found sleep in each other's arms. It was strange and uncomfortable, yet the two of them seemed to find an odd comfort in it. Their world was terrible, their marriage was a sham, but at least they were in it together.

The carriage didn't have windows, nor did Eddmina keep track of the days they travelled, yet she still knew exactly when they arrived. Used to only hearing the ocassional shout from the guards and the noise of horseshoes and their carriage wheels churning through the dirt, their carriage faltered slightly, and she heard calls from all around them, voices that were marked with Riverland accents. The noise was all Eddmina had for a long time, listening to distant voices, desperate to make out conversations and figure out what they were saying. It was no good, as no one thought to speak clear enough when near the carriage.

Even when the carriage stopped properly, it was hours before anyone came to them, something that Nan struggled with more than Eddmina. While Eddmina remained curled up on the cushioned bench, tracing her fingers absentmindedly over her swollen belly as the baby kicked back at her, Nan kept getting up and trying the locked door, tutting and sighing, chewing her lip and folding her arms.

"Problem?" Eddmina asked boredly, struggling to sit up. Nan was quick to help her upright, but not before trying the door again.

"I thought we'd be allowed out by now, I've always wanted to see Riverrun," Nan answered, sounding impatient.

Eddmina let out a bitter laugh; Riverrun was not the sort of castle young girls dreamed about seeing. It was not even a castle she dreamed over, even if it had been home for months. In fact, she dreaded seeing it, knowing what she would be made to do the moment they allowed her out the carriage. The thought of being paraded out in front of her uncle, her presence being used to make him surrender and give up his ancestral home and all Tully rule sickened her more than the juddering of the highspeed carriage journey, the feeling of making herself a traitor burning through her and making her want to rip her skin off as she felt her whole body itch, but she was not going to tell Nan any of that. Instead she sat in her usual stubborn silence, thinking of nothing but how her back ached and how the baby seemed restless, and waited.