Weeping Thorns

Chapter 23: The Lord Has Fallen

You know how they say nothing hurts worse than to see a loved one suffer?

It's entirely too true.

My horse had carried me through the crowded streets of Flea Bottom where people ran ramped with disease and hunger. I knew I didn't blend in. I stuck out like a sore thumb with my silk dress and wolf pelt cloak. Freedom was so close, I could nearly taste it on my tongue.

I prayed to any God that would listen, that my sisters got away safety. My faith was slowly dwindling into nothing but ash. My kind heart had me passing out my spare coin to the young and two women who carried freshly born babes. I knew the newborns wouldn't last long. Their faces were already burned from the sun and their lips were chapped beyond recognition.

Still, the poor thanked me and I trotted along. My father's condition was unknown, only that he had been betrayed and locked away. It took all my strength not to ride back towards the castle at full speed and free my father.

Whatever it took.

"Hurry Bruno! We'll miss the execution!" Two young boys ran under the legs of my stallion until the smaller of them tripped and landed face first into the dirt. I slid from the saddle and lead my horse to hover over the child. His brother stood guard a few inches back with a deep frown.

"What execution?" I questioned carefully. The brothers took a look at each other by stayed silent. My patience was wearing thin. These children did look hungry, and the clothes they wore, filthy. I reached into my cloak pocket and plucked a few coins and held them out.

The elder boy snatched them and pulled up his brother by the collar of his shirt.

"Lord Eddard is being charged with Treason against the boy King. I-I don't know if he'll be killed or not. I heard he could be sent to Castle Black." I narrowed my eyes and felt fear pound louder than my heart itself. I grabbed the leather saddle of my horse and pulled myself up to mount him.

No one would get in my way as my horse sat a steady gallop through the filthy streets. The peasants threw themselves out of my way, even riding up the steep steps. My grip on the reins couldn't have gotten any tighter. Blood trickled from my palms where my nails dug too deep.

As a neared the top of KingsLanding, I could already see the crowd forming. Soldiers held them back with harsh words and jabs of swords. Eyes turned towards the strange young woman on the dark horse but I could care less at that moment. I dismounted and pushed through the crowd. Yells and cheers filled my ears, growing louder with each passing second.

I managed to find myself near an old balcony with a small ladder leading up. It was decorated with shocked plants and the broken windows were long since shut. With practiced ease, I scaled the ladder and was able to gain a better view of the young King and his witch of a mother.

But a flash of red hair had my blood running cold. Sansa was standing by the queen with a satisfied smile playing on her lips. Had Cersei somehow turned Sansa against her own father? No, there was another reason. There had to be.

Now that King Robert had died, the royal family was in chaos. Joffery would take the throne and Cersei would be the queen regent. The guards were lined up in such a way that kept stragglers from harming their precious King.

The crowd began to roar with anger and hisses of disgust. My line of sight was blocked off by the bustling crowd until a pathway parted it down the middle. Two guards held tight to a beaten and stumbling man. At first glance, it looked to be just a normal staggering drunk.

But I knew that shaggy brown hair anywhere. This was Eddard Stark. All the nerves in my body snapped at that moment. My adrenaline being to pump furiously through my veins and further on. A hurdling rock nailed him in the cheek and shattered against the ground. Instead of persecuting the attacker, the guards laughed it off and shoved my father forward.