Of Lions, Wolves, and Dragons (Jon Snow)

54. Winter is Here

As she walked through Winterfell's gates, she spotted Jon, Tormund, and Sansa all standing together, while Davos was off on his own, staring at the upper level.  Joellyn noted that he looked angry, and she had never seen him angry before.  He didn't really seem the type to get angry.  She cast her glance upward to see what he was looking at and saw the Lady Melisandre was the only person standing on the upper level.  She wondered for a moment what she could have done to make Davos so upset.  Melisandre made Joellyn feel uncomfortable, but she never struck Joellyn as a bad person, just powerful and mysterious.  She let that thought pass, though, as she joined Jon, Tormund, and Sansa.

None of them greeted her, and their attention all seemd to be focused on something behind her, so she turned around to see what they were looking at.  Her heart fell for Jon and Sansa as she saw some of the Stark soldiers carrying in a body that definitely was not the body of a solider.  The last time she had seen Rickon, he was a small child.  As she looked down at his body, she still saw a child and it broke her heart to see arrows sticking out of his chest.  She hadn't gotten to spend any time with Rickon all those years ago, but it seemed that the gods just couldn't let the Starks have something go well without something also going horribly wrong.  They had fought so hard and taken back their rightful home, but they lost their youngest brother in the process, and that felt like a terrible price to pay.

The Stark men came to a stop in front of the four of them and seemed to be waiting for some sort of command from Jon.  She took his hand and squeezed it softly to let him know that she was there for him, and he said shortly thereafter, "We're going to bury my brother in the crypt next to my father."

The men nodded and carried Rickon's body away.  It provided a sense of relief to not be looking at his body anymore, but the weight of his loss still hung over the four of them.  Jon squeezed her hand, bringing her attention to him, and turned so that they could go into Winterfell.  They stopped just as soon as they started walking away, though, as Sansa said, "Jon."

They both turned to face Sansa, and she asked, in a voice heavy with emotion, "Where is he?"

Neither of them needed to ask for clarification on who she was asking about.  Jon had stopped short of killing Ramsay earlier, but Sansa was likely not through with him.  Jon paused only a moment before replying to her, "He's in the kennels."

Without waiting for a response, Sansa turned away from them and, Joellyn assumed, walked off in the direction of the kennels.  Joellyn watched Sansa walk away from them and felt a pit forming in her stomach.  To her knowledge, Sansa had never killed anyone and, though no one deserved to kill Ramsay Bolton more than she did, it made Joellyn uncomfortable knowing that was likely what Sansa was going off to do.  She looked up at Jon to try to gauge his reaction, but his expression was unreadable.  It seemed that they both had mixed feelings about it, so she asked, "Should I go with her?"

Jon shook his head, but Tormund was the one who responded, "No.  The girl deserves to kill the cunt that tortured her.  Without her, none of us would be standing here right now," then he walked away to help with the process of cleaning up outside of Winterfell's gates.

Joellyn pulled her hand away from Jon and put her head in her hands so that she could rub her eyes.  She knew that Tormund was right, but she rememberd how haunted she felt after she killed someone for the first time.  The man would have killed Brienne if she hadn't killed him, but she still felt guilty about taking someone's life.  Even the lives that she took today were haunting her in the back of her mind, and those were men that were trying to capture or kill her.

She felt Jon pull her hands gently from her face.  He smiled softly at her before saying, "There's no point in being out here in the cold.  Let's go inside and talk."