A Sapphire in the Snow

Chapter 3

Brienne sat astride her mount atop the hill that overlooked Winterfell.  Even traveling with the utmost urgency, it had taken several weeks for her to arrive. The fortress was bustling with activity.  To one who did not know better, it seemed as though nothing had ever happened there.  Brienne did know better.  Her mind traveled back to the battle.  She saw once again the trenches ablaze and being overtaken by the army of the dead. She remembered all those who had been lost, and the price The North had paid.  Brienne could almost feel Jaime beside her when she recalled standing together with him and fighting as one.

She had hoped returning to Winterfell would not bring up other unwanted memories, but it did. Brienne felt the familiar emptiness as she recalled Jaime in this place with her.  She had vouched for him on her honor, and he had made her proud.  She had given him her heart, as well as her body. She had thought her future would be shared with him, but he had left her.  Now looking over the site of her greatest triumph and her greatest defeat, Brienne swore to herself that she would not allow Jaime's memory, in the last place she had seen him, to torture her any longer. She wiped the tears from her cheek with the back of her hand, and swallowed the pain. There was work to be done, and she had been entrusted with it. She would not let Queen Sansa down.

Brienne smiled to herself when she thought of Sansa, yet her grin was tinged with concern that pulled at the corners of her mouth. King Bran had been worried about the loyalty some bannermen held for his sister. A divided North was not an aggravation the young queen needed right now.  Brienne's memories traveled once more to the last few weeks after the battle that she had spent at Winterfell as Queen Sansa's Sworn Shield.  It was still with disbelief that she remembered the day a half dead traveler had stumbled up to the gates, his face covered with a worn filthy cloak. He had demanded to see the queen and had the collapsed as if reaching Winterfell had been his entire life's goal.  It was Sandor Clegane, apparently returned from the dead.

Sansa had insisted he be taken to bed and nursed back to health in her own royal chambers. She refused to leave his side while his strength slowly returned to him. When Clegane could speak again, he had told the queen of the battle with his brother, The Mountain, and of falling from the Keep tower through the flames and into an underground canal that ran beneath the city. His brother had been impaled and burned to death in the descent.  Sandor had landed in the subterranean passageway filled with water from the sea, and had survived to make his way back to his Queen. When he could stand, he and Queen Sansa were married within a fortnight. They had loved each other for years, and were finally given their happy ending. A pang to jealously ran through Brienne as she questioned why it could not have been Jaime who had survived the destruction to return to her at Winterfell.  She forced the idea down as soon as it formed in her mind, and chastised herself for her selfishness.

Her proud smile grew as she thought of how bold and strong Sansa had become. The Queen had shocked her Northern bannermen when she declared that she would remain Stark, officially, as monarch only and that in the eyes of the old gods and the new she would take her husband's name as Lady Clegane. Her scandal deepened further as she added that their children would carry their father's name, and would wear Stark as their duties required. It was clear that Clegane did not care what name his wife or their future offspring would go by, but Sansa remained resolute. She would not take her husband's children nor his legacy from him.  Sansa forced the northern hand when she told them that if they did not agree with her wishes, they could remove her from the throne that day, and choose someone they thought more suitable. They did nothing, and she remained Queen. It seemed there was something prophetic in her words when a few months later it was announced that she was expecting her first child. Brienne had by then, already accepted the honor of leading King Bran's Kingsguard, and was forming her legion at the Red Keep In Kings Landing. Had Clegane not been there to assume the role of Queen Sansa's Sworn Shield, Brienne would never have left her side.  Now, the Queen in the North had further need of her, and Brienne was anxious to begin her duties. Spurring her horse toward Winterfell, she swore to leave bitter memories in the past and focus on the future.
—————————————————
Brienne rode up to the gates of Winterfell, and straight through. Some who knew and remembered her, acknowledging greetings to her.  She had spent so much time here protecting the Stark girls that she felt as though she belonged here, oddly at peace.  Brienne felt at home in the North, somehow. Almost as if wherever else in the world she found herself, something was always calling her back here.  She was proud that she could once more help Queen Sansa make the North a strong realm.