Chapter 57 Chapter 57 Theon

The sky was overcast with clouds, and the forest was dead and gloomy.Theon fled for his life, roots gripping his feet, dead branches lashing his face, leaving a long, scarlet streak of blood between his cheeks.Without realizing it, he stumbled forward and smashed countless icicles in the forest, only to feel that he couldn't breathe.For mercy, he weeps.A thunderous howl came from behind him, making his blood run cold.Show mercy, show mercy.He glanced back, and there they were, wolves the size of horses with the heads of children.Ah, have mercy, have mercy.Blood as black as tar dripped from their mouths and fell into the snow, leaching holes.They ran closer and closer.Theon ran as hard as he could, but his legs didn't work.The surrounding trees had human faces, and they were all laughing at him. Laughter and howling were intertwined. The hot breath of the chasing beast filled his nostrils with the stench of sulfur and corruption.They were dead, dead, I saw them dead, he wanted to cry, I saw their heads soaked in tar.He opened his mouth, but he could only groan intermittently, and then something hit him, and he dodged quickly, calling out...

... As he fell, he hurriedly grabbed the dagger that had been kept by the bed.Thanks to the preparation in advance, the fall was not serious.Weeks quickly moved away from him.Reek stood behind the mute, his face gleaming in the reflection of the candle he held aloft. "What?" Theon called.Show mercy. "What do you want? Why are you in my bedroom? What do you want?" "Your Highness," Reek said, "Your Majesty has just arrived in Winterfell. You ordered her to notify you as soon as she arrives." "It's really slow." Theon muttered, combing his hair with his fingers.He already suspected that Asha was going to leave him to his own devices.Show mercy.He glanced out the window, where the first dim rays of dawn were sweeping over the towers of Winterfell. "Where is she?"

"Lauren took her and her men to the lobby for breakfast. Are you going to see her now?" "Yes." Theon threw the blanket away.The fire was reduced to ashes. "Wickes, get some hot water." Asha couldn't let Asha see him disheveled and sweaty.A wolf with a child's head...he couldn't help shivering. "Close the window!" The bedroom was as cold as the forest in a dream. All his dreams recently have been extremely cold, and each one has become more terrifying.Last night he dreamed of returning to the mill, kneeling on the ground and dressing the dead.Their limbs were almost stiff, and the corpse seemed to resist silently as he fumbled and moved with his half-frozen fingers.He pulled up their trousers and fastened their belts, slipped fur-trimmed boots on their stiff feet, and tied studded leather belts around their waists, which were so thin he could wrap his hands around them. "I don't want to do this," he told them as he did it, "but there's no other choice." The body didn't answer, it just grew colder and heavier.

The night before, it was the miller's wife who had dreamed.Theon had forgotten her name long ago, but remembered her body, the soft comfort of her breasts and the birthmark on her belly, the way she scratched his back during sex.In the dream of the night before, they slept together again, but this time she had teeth growing in her lips and cunt, tearing his throat and biting off his cock.It's just crazy.He also saw her die with his own eyes.She cried out to Theon for mercy, but Gema cut her down with an axe.go away, woman.It was he who killed you, not me.Didn't he also pay for his life?Fortunately, Ge Ma didn't disturb him in his dream.

He didn't feel at ease until Weeks came in with water.Theon washed off the sweat and drowsiness and changed into his best clothes.Asha had kept him waiting—and now it was her turn to wait.He chose a satin jacket with black and gold stripes, and a fine leather vest with silver buttons... Then he remembered that his wicked sister preferred swords to fine clothes, so he took off his clothes and changed them again while cursing.This time he put on rough black sweater and mail, with sword and dagger strapped to his waist—he would never forget the humiliation she had given him that night at his father's table.Hmph, what are you proud of, your baby?I have a knife too, and use it better than you.

Finally, he puts on the crown.It was a ring of cold iron as thin as a finger, studded with heavy black diamonds and nuggets of natural gold.There are some errors in the handwork, and the crown looks ugly, but it can't be helped.Mykon was buried in the cemetery at Winterfell, and the new blacksmith could only drive nails and horseshoes.This is just the prince's crown, Theon comforted himself, and when he became king, he would definitely make a new one. Outside, Reek, Uzi, and Cormon were waiting for him.Theon took them with him.These days, he takes his bodyguard with him wherever he goes, even when he goes to the bathroom.Everyone in Winterfell wanted him dead.On the night of his return from Oak River, "tough" Gema fell down the stairs and broke his back.The next day, Agha's throat was cut for no reason.Ghani the Red-Nosed is so nervous that he refuses to drink, and even sleeps fully armed, wrapped in a hood and helmet, and takes the noisiest dog in the barn with him, lest someone sneak up on him while he is asleep.But it was all in vain. One morning, the whole city was awakened by the wild barking of dogs.They found that the little guy was spinning around the well like crazy, his red nose was floating in the water, and he died.

Of course he couldn't let the murder continue unchecked, otherwise everything would be messed up.Farlan was the prime suspect, so Theon himself presided over the trial, convicted him, and sentenced him to death.However, this brought unexpected embarrassment.When the master tamer knelt down and stuck his head into the stake, he said, "Lord Eddard will do it himself." Theon did not want to be underestimated, so he had to handle the ax himself.His hands were sweaty, and the handle of the ax slipped out of his grasp as he slashed down, and the first blow landed between Fran's shoulders.Next, he chopped three times in a row, before he cut off the bones and tendons, and separated the head from the body.He just felt dizzy and dizzy.In the past, they sat at the same table, chatted happily, and talked about the past of hunting dogs and hunting.I have no choice, he wants to scream at the corpse.The Ironborn can't keep their secrets, they must die, and then someone has to be responsible.What he felt guilty about was that he couldn't let him die simply.Ned Stark never needed more than one quick blow to decapitate a human being.

After Fran's death, the murders ceased, but his men became increasingly tense and gloomy. "You guys are not afraid to go to war," Black Loren told him. "The problem today is that we can't see or touch, and we live among the enemies. No one knows whether the servants here want to kiss you or kill you, and no one knows whether the servants here want to kiss you or kill you. Tong is filling you with wine or poison. I suggest you evacuate quickly." "I am the Prince of Winterfell!" Theon cursed. "This is my territory, no one can drive me away, no one can! God and I can't do it!"

Asha.This is all her doing.My dear sister, may the White Walkers kill her.She wants me to be finished, so that I can legitimately become my father's heir, so I have been slowing down, ignoring his repeated urging orders, and letting him sit here in sorrow. Now she sat in the high seat of the Stark chief, tearing the capon with her fingers.Her men were drinking and sharing stories with Theon's men, and the noise filled the hall so that no one noticed his presence. "What about the others?" he asked Reek.The people at the long table were less than fifty, and most of them belonged to him.The halls of Winterfell are big enough to hold ten times that number.

"All the staff are here, Your Royal Highness." "All—how many did she bring?" "Twenty by my count." Theon strode towards his sister who was lying lazily.Asha had been laughing at her men's one-liners, but she stopped when she saw him approaching. "Look, here comes the Prince of Winterfell." She threw the bone in her hand to the sniffing dogs in the hall, and twisted her big mouth under the hooked nose into a mocking smile. "Or is the Prince of Fools here?" "What a jealous woman." Asha smacked the grease from her fingers, and a lock of black hair fell between her eyes.Her men clamored for bread and bacon, few of them, but loudly. "Jealous, Theon?"

"Isn't it? With only thirty men, I took Winterfell overnight. It took you a whole month to take Deepwood Castle with a thousand elite soldiers." "Yeah, I'm no match for you, great warrior. But brother—" She downed the half-corner of ale and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "——I just saw your head hanging on the city gate. Tell me the truth, who is better at martial arts, the cripple or the baby?" Sean felt the blood rushing straight to his face.He didn't feel the slightest pleasure in these heads, and he felt extremely worried when the two headless children's corpses were displayed in front of the whole city.Then Old Nan stood and watched silently, her soft, toothless mouth opening and closing soundlessly.Farran rushed at him, growling like his hounds, until Uzi and Kadway knocked him unconscious with the butts of their spears.Why are they doing this to me?He stood in front of the two fly-covered corpses, puzzled. Only Maester Luwin held back his anger and stepped forward, the little gray man with a stone face begging Theon's permission to sew the children's heads back on so they could rest in the catacombs with the rest of the Starks. among. "No," Theon told him. "Cannot be buried in the crypt." "Why, my lord? Surely they cannot hinder you now. And there they belonged, where the bones of all the Starks—" "I said no." He had to hang his head on the city wall, and the two headless bodies were burned to ashes together with the fine clothes that day.Afterwards, he knelt among the broken bones and ashes to find the melted scrap of silver and jade—what was left of Bran's wolf-head brooch.He keeps this. "I gave Bran and Rickon a favor," he told his sister. "It's their own doing." "You're not the same yourself, little brother." His patience was at an end. "You only brought twenty people, how do you want me to defend Winterfell?" "Ten," Asha corrected. "The rest have to escort me back. You won't have the heart to let your dear sister take risks in the primeval forest alone, will you, good brother? I heard that direwolves haunt the forest at night." She stood up from the large stone seat stand up. "Come on, let's find a private place to talk privately." She was right, Theon realized, and it annoyed him that he had to follow her decision.I shouldn't have come to the hall at all, he regretted it, I should have called her to see me. It's too late to say anything now.Theon has no choice but to take Asha to Ned Stark's study.After entering the house, looking at the ashes of the extinguished fire, he blurted out: "Dagmer suffered a defeat in Torrhen's Square—" "Yes, the old knight broke the shield wall he arranged." Asha said calmly, "What do you think? This Ser Rodrik knows the terrain, but Cleftjaw knows nothing. Many northerners still ride horses. Ironborn doesn't Adhere to the discipline of facing the armored cavalry. Fortunately, Dagmer is still alive, and he led the remnants back to the Rock Coast." She knows a lot more than I do, Theon realized, and it made him even more irritated. "Victory finally gave Rambad Tallha enough courage to go out of the city and join Rodrik's army. I also learned that the Earl of Manderly sent a dozen barges up the White Knife River, full of knights, infantry, horses and siege troops. Machinery. The troops of Amber's family are also assembled on the other side of the Mo River. Before the full moon, I must have an army to defend the city, but you only give me ten people?" "I shouldn't give it to you alone." "I order you—" "Father ordered me to take Deepwood Motte," she interrupted. "Not to rescue my little brother." "To hell with Deepwood Motte," he said, "it's just a wooden urinal on a barren hill. Winterfell is the heart of the North, and how can I hold it without an army?" "That's something you should have thought before you took the city. Oh, well done, I congratulate you, but that's all you've got. You should have leveled the castle and taken the two little princes back to Pike as hostages , you could have done your part and won the whole war for us." "You'd love me to do it, wouldn't you? You'd love to reduce my prey to ruins and ashes." "Your prey will destroy you. Sea monsters are born in the sea, Theon, have you forgotten all these years with wolf cubs? Our strength lies in our longships. My wood The urinal is close to the sea, so it can receive supplies and get reinforcements when needed. Winterfell, hundreds of leagues deep into the mainland, is surrounded by forests, hills, and enemy manors and castles. Make no mistake, this place Your enemies are within a thousand miles. You made it happen with your own hands—when you hung those heads on the gate tower." Asha shook her head. "How the hell did you become such an idiot? Put the kid..." "They're blatantly offending me!" he yelled at her. "This is also a blood debt. Have you forgotten how Ed Stark killed Rodrik and Marlon?" This sentence came out inadvertently, and Theon immediately understood that his father would accept this reason. "One life for another, I have given my brother's soul to rest in peace." "Our brother," Asha reminded him, with a half-smile that showed she dismissed talk of vengeance. "Did you bring their spirits from Pike, brother? I thought they were only haunting Father." "How can a shy girl understand a man's desire for revenge!" That's right, even if his father didn't appreciate the great gift of Winterfell, he would affirm Theon's act of revenge for his brothers! Asha laughed it off. "Have you ever thought that this Sir Rodrik has the same desire at this moment? Forget it, Theon, no matter what your virtues are, after all, you are my blood relatives, and I am the mother who gave birth to both of us." I came here for a reason. Come back to Deepwood Motte with me, and burn down Winterfell before it's too late, and get away quickly." "No," Theon said, adjusting the crown on his head. "The castle is mine, and I will keep it." My sister stared at him for a long time. "You can stay here if you want," she said, "you can stay here for the rest of your life." She sighed. "I said you are a fool, anyway, what do shy girls know?" Walking to the door, she gave him a last mocking smile. "You know, it's the ugliest diadem I've ever seen. DIY?" She let him stand there trembling, and walked away swaggeringly, and sure enough, she evacuated Winterfell after feeding and drinking the horses.She left half of her men behind as promised, and fled through the Hunter's Gate that Bran and Rickon had used to escape. Theon stood on the wall and watched them go.Watching her sister disappear into the mist of the wolf forest, doubts arise from the bottom of my heart: Why don't I listen to her?Not going with her? "She's gone, isn't she?" Reek was beside him. Theon hadn't heard him approach, hadn't smelled him, and was the last person he wanted to see right now.This guy knows too much, and it's uncomfortable to let him dangle around.Why don't I kill him with the others?The thought made him anxious.Others are easily fooled by Reek's appearance, but in fact he can read and write, and is even more cunning. I really don't know when he will betray himself. "His Royal Highness, please allow me to say a few words: Sister Ling's act of abandoning you is really chilling. These ten people are far from enough." "I know very well," Theon said.Isn't this exactly Asha's purpose? "Hey... maybe I can help you," said Reek. "Give me a horse and a bag of coins, and I'll go get you helpers." Theon narrowed his eyes. "How much can you raise?" "Maybe a hundred, maybe two hundred. Maybe more." He smiled, pale eyes twinkling. "I'm a native northerner with a little reputation, and there are many people who will work for me Reek." Two hundred men are not considered an army, but a castle as strong as Winterfell does not need thousands of guards, as long as they know which end of the spear to use to kill, it is enough to turn the situation around. "Well, if you do what you say, I will be generous. Tell me, what reward do you want after the task is done?" "Well, Your Highness, since I followed Lord Ramsay, I haven't touched a woman." Reek said, "I have been eyeing that Pala for a long time, although she has been budded, but..." He had gone too far with Reek and there was no turning back. "Bring two hundred people back, and she's yours. If one is missing, I'll let you fuck a pig." As the sun went down, Reek set off, taking a bag of Stark silver and Theon's last hope.Talk is better than nothing, I'm afraid I'll never see this cunning guy again, he thought bitterly, but he refused to give up on this last straw. Tonight he dreamed of the feast Ned Stark gave the day King Robert arrived at Winterfell.The hall was filled with singing and laughter, and the cold wind was howling outside.At first, Xi En just drank fine wine, ate barbecue, joked and looked at the maids, full of joy...Suddenly, the whole hall was darkened, and even the music was no longer pleasant. After a burst of discordant noise, there was a strange tranquility, All notes stop.Suddenly, the fine wine in his mouth turned bitter, he hurriedly raised his head from the cup, it turned out that all the people dining at the same table were dead. King Robert sat in the middle, with a great gash in his stomach and entrails spilling onto the table, and beside him was the headless Lord Eddard.On the bench below, the corpses sat neatly, toasting to each other, the grey-brown carrion fell off the bones like slime, and maggots crawled in and out of the empty eye sockets.He knew them, everyone: Jory Cassel and Fat Tom, Porter and Kane and Hullen the Stablemaster, the great company that had gone south to King's Landing and never returned.Mikken and Chayer sat side by side, one dripping blood, the other dripping water.Benford Tallhar and his army of hares filled nearly the entire long table.Also, the miller's wife, Fran...even the wildling that Theon shot in Wolfwood to save Bran. There were other faces here, faces he had never seen before, only in stone carvings.The slender girl with a crown of blue roses and a blood-stained white dress with a sad face must be Lyanna.Her brother Brandon stood beside her, their father, Lord Rickard, behind her.Along the walls, shadowy figures moved in the darkness, pale figures with long, stern faces.Seeing them, Theon felt fear piercing through him like a knife.The towering door crashed open, and a freezing wind poured into the hall.Robb stepped out of the dark night, advancing slowly; Gray Wind's eyes were burning, and he followed suit.The man and the wolf had dozens of serious injuries and were covered in blood. Theon woke up screaming, scared Weeks out of his wits, and fled the room naked.Presently guards came rushing in with swords in hand, and he bade them go to the maester.By the time Luwin arrived, bleary-eyed and disheveled, Theon had downed a glass of wine, his hands had stopped shaking, and he was ashamed of his panic. "Just a dream," he murmured, "just a dream. It means nothing." "It means nothing," Luwin agreed sternly, leaving behind a patch of sleeping pills, which Theon emptied into the urinal as soon as he was gone.Luwin was a maester, but he was human, and no one liked him.Yes, he wants me to sleep peacefully, preferably...not awake at all.He had the same longing as Asha. He summoned Kayla, kicked the door shut, mounted her, and fucked the bitch with fury he had never seen in his life.When he was done, she was crying, with bruises and tooth marks all over her neck and breasts.Theon pushed her off the bed, threw a blanket, "Get out!" But he still couldn't sleep. Dawn finally came.He put on his clothes, walked out of the room, and climbed up the outer city wall.Between the battlements, the bitter autumn wind swirled endlessly, making his cheeks flush and his eyes stinging.Sunlight filtered through the dead trees, and the forest below turned from gray to green.To the left, he looked at the towers rising above the inner walls, crowned with gold by the rising sun.In a sea of ​​green, the red leaves of the weirwood danced with the brilliance of fire.This is Ned Stark's tree, he thought, this is Stark's forest, Stark's castle, Stark's sword, Stark's god.This is their place, not mine.I am Greyjoy of Pyke, born to ride the winds and waves of the vast salt sea with the kraken crest carved on my shield.I should leave with Asha. On the iron gun of the gate tower, the head stared silently. Theon looked back at them silently, Wind taking his cloak with ghostly little hands.The miller's children were about the same age as Bran and Rickon, and the same shape and color.When Reek flays their faces and soaks their heads in tar, the grotesque rotting flesh can easily be mistaken for the heads of princes.People are such fools.I said it was a sheep's head, and they could find the horns.