Screaming, Bran went backward out the window into empty air. There was nothing to grab on to. The courtyard rushed up to meet him. Somewhere off in the distance, a wolf was howling. Crows circled the broken tower, waiting for corn.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

He stood Bran up on the sill. “How old are you, boy?” “Seven,” Bran said, shaking with relief. His fingers had dug deep gouges in the man’s forearm. He let go sheepishly. The man looked over at the woman. “The things I do for love,” he said with loathing. He gave Bran a shove.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

Faces appeared in the window above him. The queen. And now Bran recognized the man beside her. They looked as much alike as reflections in a mirror. “He saw us,” the woman said shrilly. “So he did,” the man said. Bran’s fingers started to slip. He grabbed the ledge with his other hand. Fingernails dug into unyielding stone. The man reached down. “Take my hand,” he said. “Before you fall.” Bran seized his arm and held on tight with all his strength. The man yanked him up to the ledge. “What are you doing?” the woman demanded. The man ignored her. He was very strong.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

Everything happened at once then. The woman pushed the man away wildly, shouting and pointing. Bran tried to pull himself up, bending double as he reached for the gargoyle. He was in too much of a hurry. His hand scraped uselessly across smooth stone, and in his panic his legs slipped, and suddenly he was falling. There was an instant of vertigo, a sickening lurch as the window flashed past. He shot out a hand, grabbed for the ledge, lost it, caught it again with his other hand. He swung against the building, hard. The impact took the breath out of him. Bran dangled, one-handed, panting.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

Her hands buried themselves in his hair, his tangled golden hair, and pulled his face down to her breast. Bran saw her face. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was open, moaning. Her golden hair swung from side to side as her head moved back and forth, but still he recognized the queen. He must have made a noise. Suddenly her eyes opened, and she was staring right at him. She screamed.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

Inside the room, a man and a woman were wrestling. They were both naked. Bran could not tell who they were. The man’s back was to him, and his body screened the woman from view as he pushed her up against a wall. There were soft, wet sounds. Bran realized they were kissing. He watched, wide-eyed and frightened, his breath tight in his throat. The man had a hand down between her legs, and he must have been hurting her there, because the woman started to moan, low in her throat. “Stop it,” she said, “stop it, stop it. Oh, please…” But her voice was low and weak, and she did not push him away.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

The man sighed. “You should think less about the future and more about the pleasures at hand.” “Stop that!” the woman said. Bran heard the sudden slap of flesh on flesh, then the man’s laughter. Bran pulled himself up, climbed over the gargoyle, crawled out onto the roof. This was the easy way. He moved across the roof to the next gargoyle, right above the window of the room where they were talking. “All this talk is getting very tiresome, sister,” the man said. “Come here and be quiet.” Bran sat astride the gargoyle, tightened his legs around it, and swung himself around, upside down. He hung by his legs and slowly stretched his head down toward the window. The world looked strange upside down. A courtyard swam dizzily below him, its stones still wet with melted snow. Bran looked in the window.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

Bran was suddenly very frightened. He wanted nothing so much as to go back the way he had come, to find his brothers. Only what would he tell them? He had to get closer, Bran realized. He had to see who was talking. Bran looked down. There was a narrow ledge beneath the window, only a few inches wide. He tried to lower himself toward it. Too far. He would never reach. Bran studied the ledge. He could drop down. It was too narrow to land on, but if he could catch hold as he fell past, pull himself up…except that might make a noise, draw them to the window. He was not sure what he was hearing, but he knew it was not meant for his ears.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

“My husband grows more restless every day. Having Stark beside him will only make him worse. “He’s still in love with the sister, the insipid little dead sixteen-year-old. How long till he decides to put me aside for some new Lyanna?”

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

“You are as blind as Robert,” the woman was saying. “If you mean I see the same thing, yes,” the man said. “I see a man who would sooner die than betray his king.” “He betrayed one already, or have you forgotten?” the woman said. “Oh, I don’t deny he’s loyal to Robert, that’s obvious. What happens when Robert dies and Joff takes the throne? And the sooner that comes to pass, the safer we’ll all be.”

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

“Let Lady Arryn grow as bold as she likes. Whatever she knows, whatever she thinks she knows, she has no proof.” He paused a moment. “Or does she?” “Do you think the king will require proof?” the woman said. “I tell you, he loves me not.” “And whose fault is that, sweet sister?”

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

“His wife is Lady Arryn’s sister. It’s a wonder Lysa was not here to greet us with her accusations.” “You fret too much. Lysa Arryn is a frightened cow.” “That frightened cow shared Jon Arryn’s bed.” “If she knew anything, she would have gone to Robert before she fled King’s Landing.” “When he had already agreed to foster that weakling son of hers at Casterly Rock? I think not. She knew the boy’s life would be hostage to her silence. She may grow bolder now that he’s safe atop the Eyrie.”

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

“Lord Eddard has never taken any interest in anything that happened south of the Neck,” the woman said. “Never. I tell you, he means to move against us. Why else would he leave the seat of his power?” “A hundred reasons. Duty. Honor. He yearns to write his name large across the book of history, to get away from his wife, or both. “Perhaps he just wants to be warm for once in his life.”

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

They were talking about Father, Bran realized. He wanted to hear more. A few more feet…but they would see him if he swung out in front of the window. “We will have to watch him carefully,” the woman said. “I would sooner watch you,” the man said. He sounded bored. “Come back here.”

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

“Robert will listen to Stark. Damn them both. “I should have insisted that he name you, but I was certain Stark would refuse him.” “We ought to count ourselves fortunate,” the man said. “Give me honorable enemies rather than ambitious ones, and I’ll sleep more easily by night.”

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

“Don’t you see the danger this puts us in?” the woman said. “Robert loves the man like a brother.” “Robert can barely stomach his brothers. Not that I blame him. Stannis would be enough to give anyone indigestion.” “Don’t play the fool. Stannis and Renly are one thing, and Eddard Stark is quite another.”

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

“I do not like it,” a woman was saying. There was a row of windows beneath him, and the voice was drifting out of the last window on this side. “You should be the Hand.” “Gods forbid,” a man’s voice replied lazily. “It’s not an honor I’d want. There’s far too much work involved.” Bran hung, listening, suddenly afraid to go on. They might glimpse his feet if he tried to swing by.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

Bran was moving from gargoyle to gargoyle with the ease of long practice when he heard the voices. He was so startled he almost lost his grip. The First Keep had been empty all his life.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

You could go straight up to where the gargoyles leaned out blindly over empty space, and swing from gargoyle to gargoyle, hand over hand, around to the north side. From there, if you really stretched, you could reach out and pull yourself over to the broken tower where it leaned close. The last part was the scramble up the blackened stones to the eyrie, no more than ten feet, and then the crows would come round to see if you’d brought any corn.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

That brought you up to the blind side of the First Keep, the oldest part of the castle, a squat round fortress that was taller than it looked. Only rats and spiders lived there now but the old stones still made for good climbing.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

He knew two ways to get [to the broken tower]. You could climb straight up the side of the tower itself, but the stones were loose, the mortar that held them together long gone to ash, and Bran never liked to put his full weight on them. The best way was to start from the godswood, shinny up the tall sentinel, and cross over the armory and the guards hall, leaping roof to roof, barefoot so the guards wouldn’t hear you overhead.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

His favorite haunt was the broken tower. Once it had been a watchtower, the tallest in Winterfell. A long time ago, a hundred years before even his father had been born, a lightning strike had set it afire. The top third of the structure had collapsed inward, and the tower had never been rebuilt. Sometimes his father sent ratters into the base of the tower, to clean out the nests they always found among the jumble of fallen stones and charred and rotten beams. But no one ever got up to the jagged top of the structure now except for Bran and the crows.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

Most of all, he liked going places that no one else could go, and seeing the grey sprawl of Winterfell in a way that no one else ever saw it. It made the whole castle Bran’s secret place.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

He liked the way the air tasted way up high, sweet and cold as a winter peach. He liked the birds: the crows in the broken tower, the tiny little sparrows that nested in cracks between the stones, the ancient owl that slept in the dusty loft above the old armory. Bran knew them all.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

He liked how it felt too, pulling himself up a wall stone by stone, fingers and toes digging hard into the small crevices between. He always took off his boots and went barefoot when he climbed; it made him feel as if he had four hands instead of two. He liked the deep, sweet ache it left in the muscles afterward.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

Then for a while the guards would chase him whenever they saw him on the roofs, and try to haul him down. That was the best time of all. It was like playing a game with his brothers, except that Bran always won. None of the guards could climb half so well as Bran, not even Jory. Most of the time they never saw him anyway. People never looked up. That was another thing he liked about climbing; it was almost like being invisible.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

Later, Maester Luwin built a little pottery boy and dressed him in Bran’s clothes and flung him off the wall into the yard below, to demonstrate what would happen to Bran if he fell. That had been fun, but afterward Bran just looked at the maester and said, “I’m not made of clay. And anyhow, I never fall.”

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

Since his father would not forbid it, [Catelyn Stark] turned to others. Old Nan told him a story about a bad little boy who climbed too high and was struck down by lightning, and how afterward the crows came to peck out his eyes. Bran was not impressed. There were crows’ nests atop the broken tower, where no one ever went but him, and sometimes he filled his pockets with corn before he climbed up there and the crows ate it right out of his hand. None of them had ever shown the slightest bit of interest in pecking out his eyes.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

“So be it. If you must climb, then climb, but try not to let your mother see you.” Bran did his best, although he did not think he ever really fooled her.

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII

His mother was terrified that one day Bran would slip off a wall and kill himself. He told her that he wouldn’t, but she never believed him. Once she made him promise that he would stay on the ground. He had managed to keep that promise for almost a fortnight, miserable every day, until one night he had gone out the window of his bedroom when his brothers were fast asleep. He confessed his crime the next day in a fit of guilt. Lord Eddard ordered him to the godswood to cleanse himself. Guards were posted to see that Bran remained there alone all night to reflect on his disobedience. The next morning Bran was nowhere to be seen. They finally found him fast asleep in the upper branches of the tallest sentinel in the grove. As angry as he was, his father could not help but laugh. “You’re not my son,” he told Bran when they fetched him down, “you’re a squirrel.”

A GAME OF THRONES: BRAN II

#asoiaf #asongoficeandfire
#agameofthrones #agot
#branstark #bran
#branII