Chapter 269 Winterfell

Winterfell was built on a natural hot spring. The talented city builder Brandon used pipes to transport the hot spring water between the walls to warm the rooms of the castle. There is even a greenhouse in the castle that is heated by the hot spring, so that fruits, vegetables and flowers can be grown even in the cold winter.

Such conditions make Winterfell, the core of the northern territory, have unique living conditions in the harsh northern winter.

In the ice and snow, except for the top of the castle's tower and the city wall, there are hot springs in the inner city that steam day and night. There is almost no snow in a large number of courtyards and small open-air spaces, and the soil is not frozen, only muddy and wet after the snow.

Even the winter town outside the outer wall, because of the extension of the castle's geothermal hot springs, although there are often people who get drunk and freeze to death on the street in winter, this town can be considered very livable in winter compared with other places in the north.

Under the cover of the long night, many guard towers on the outer wall of the fortress are lit with torches, illuminating the steam from this solid fortress.

Now the castle is bustling with people everywhere. There are 4,000 soldiers stationed in the castle. Every guardhouse and tower, even the ruined tower, has soldiers stationed there.

Even the large courtyard in the city has soldiers camped there.

But the soldiers from all over the castle are now mixed and each has its own way. The noise continues day and night.

There are the valley soldiers left by Sansa here - they dragged it until the long night fell and did not go to the Wall.

There are also Glover and Greyjoy's part of Aegon's coalition - Greyjoy was originally arranged by the royal family in the name of Aegon to go to the southwest of the North to seek to coordinate the ports of the Iron Islands with the Lannisport fleet at sea with the Iron Islands as the center, and try to develop a new sea supply line. Depart from Lannisport in the West, transit through the Iron Islands, and go to Bright Flame Bay in the North or the Sea Border City in the River. Unfortunately, the representatives of various places have just started to pull, and have not yet entered the formal negotiations and scouting, and the long night has enveloped the North and spread to the central part of the continent.

The project was unfortunately cancelled directly.

Asha Greyjoy had just seen that the royal family's plan for the Ironmen seemed promising, but the project plan was cancelled before she set off, so she wanted to meet with the king or Aegon in person. On the grounds that the Ironmen had rich experience in sailing at night in their pirate careers and were willing to take risks, she wanted the royal family to withdraw their order and hand over the task to the Ironmen.

Asha was willing to take the long night and cold winter to lead her Ironmen to explore and do some risky logistics and transportation work on the sea.

The Ironmen did not produce, but lived on looting. If they gave up looting, they basically had no hope of surviving the long night and cold winter. But at this time, if the Ironmen dared to think of looting, the Greyjoy family and the Ironmen would not need the long night and the White Walkers to do it, King Viserys would destroy them. Euron's fleet and the Lannister fleet had verified the power of the king's three-headed dragon for them, although these were only heard. But the disappearance of the Iron Fleet from Westeros and the defeat of Euron's main force in one battle were real.

King Viserys was very generous to those who worked, and Asha felt this deeply in the Moat Cailin. The Ironborn troops she led received a large amount of supplies just by receiving a number. In Winterfell, she saw the civilian labor promoted in the name of Targaryen and Stark, allowing the civilians who were taking shelter from the winter to participate in collective snow removal, collective logging, construction of walls around the winter town, and ordinary material transportation.

The affairs officers sent by the royal family did this kind of thing very systematically. After observation, Asha found that although this kind of labor was still nominally the nobles exercising their rights to recruit civilians for free for a period of labor, the subtle details had changed.

In Asha's view, the purpose of ordinary labor conscription is to build something, such as castle repairs. The nobles always hope that it will be as fast as possible, so as to reduce the food supply during the labor period, and the food provided by the general labor is fixed, which can barely maintain food and clothing.

However, the guidance work carried out by the affairs officer sent by the royal family is distributed according to work, with a special recorder. In the end, the reward is not directly arranged for a meal, but it will be converted into remuneration and directly given in copper coins. Participants can earn about 4-7 copper coins a day. Although there are also food points in the concentrated labor area, they need to pay. The food here is usually cheap, but the price is set according to the type, and only people with special wooden signs can buy it at the food point.

Asha has seen such a thing as a construction site canteen. But from a manager's perspective, Asha found that this kind of paid work is actually a way to send living supplies to civilians, but not directly, but in exchange for labor.

From these points, Asha judged that the royal family or the king himself is a person who will consider the ideas of local nobles, take into account the lives of civilians, be generous, insightful and have the means to be willing to conduct "fair trade" with nobles and civilians.

So the longer she stayed in Winterfell, the more she wanted to hurry to the Wall, meet the king or Aegon, and seek the "dangerous job" from the royal family for her Ironborn fleet. She thought very clearly that she would organize the Ironborn who were willing to fight to go to the Wall to participate in the king's great war, and if the fleet could not participate in the defense of the Wall, she would seek the exploration and transportation of the dangerous Long Night Sea Route supply line.

Perhaps the fate of the Iron Islands will be changed in the long night. Although sailing on the sea in the long night and cold winter is extremely dangerous, thinking of the Ibbenese whalers on the trembling sea, Asha believes that the Ironborn fleet in her hands is no worse than the Ibbenese.

Winterfell now also has the river coalition brought by Edmure.

After the arrival of the river troops Tully. Asha took the initiative to move out of Winterfell and moved into the winter town with the Ironmen. There was no way. Greyjoy and Stark lived in the same city. Although the Ironmen were arranged to go in when they passed by and caught up with the long night, they still felt too sensitive and awkward.

Especially in Asha's eyes, Aegon and Arya, the leaders of the North, were not there. Sansa, the so-called leader in Winterfell, was someone Asha felt that she would definitely not get along with. What's more, there was Theon Greyjoy, who was tortured by Ramsay and found from Bolton in Winterfell, who was a knot on both sides.

Although Lady Catelyn rarely appeared since returning to Winterfell, Asha felt that she should stay away from her after hearing about the lady's deeds. Avoid a situation that would make the two families lose face at this time.

Speaking of Catelyn.

The lady of Winterfell, who had died several times, was now sitting quietly in the room as if dead.

This was her room in Winterfell, the hottest one in the main castle.

There was no light in the room, and the fireplace was not lit. She just sat quietly in a dark corner between the bed and the wall of the room, letting herself be wrapped in darkness.

She had forgotten a lot of things, and the hatred in her heart after witnessing the fall of the Twins had also disappeared a lot.

When she was in the dark, she would have an unreasonable fear.

It was sad that fear was the strongest emotion she could feel now.

So she sat in the dark.

This made her feel like she was still a "person".

Her memory was a little fuzzy, but she still remembered that she had stayed in this room for thousands of days and nights before.

The walls around the room were warm even if there was no fire in the fireplace. She vaguely remembered that she used to like this warmth because it could evoke her memories of Riverrun. At that time, she did not love the icy north, but only loved Eddard and the children in the castle.

But now, she can only be in this place, and she can still recall Eddard's voice and smile and the children she used to have in her mind.

There was a knock on the door.

"Madam?"

Catelin did not answer.

But the door was still opened, and the firelight coming in from the corridor outside the door instantly attracted Catelyn. She had a desire for fire in her heart, but the fire would make her feel her "inhuman" side. So she suppressed that desire and continued to sit in the dark corner.

It was Harwin who came in, carrying boiled and chopped meat porridge and liquid food. The tall female guard Brienne opened the door for him.

After returning to Winterfell, Arya originally wanted to replace a woman to serve her mother.

But Lady Catelyn's appearance was horrible, and several women were frightened and even incontinent after seeing her. The reactions of these people stimulated Catelyn, and she once had the urge to strangle one of them, so later she let Harwin, who accompanied her during the Brotherhood Without Banners, take care of her.

As for Brienne, she could have been Arya's guard. Arya was willing and happy to keep a seat for her in her tent, and was even willing to personally anoint her with holy oil to seal her as a true knight, the first female knight in the Seven Kingdoms.

But this stubborn female man did not agree. Although Catelyn wanted to kill her at one point, she believed that she had sworn allegiance to Catelyn, so she had to continue her mission after seeing Catelyn, unless Catelyn had assigned her.

Brienne's actions reminded Arya of the squire beside Sir Dondarrion, Lord Edric the Younger Dayne. He was Dondarrion's squire and had been by Dondarrion's side until his death.

Catelyn asked the first question: "I heard soldiers with riverland accents talking outside. Is it Edmure who came to see me?"

Only Harwin could understand her hoarse and unpleasant voice and gave the answer: "That sound is the riverland soldiers in the courtyard training, ma'am, if you think they are noisy, I will ask them to lower their voices."

Catelin's face was hidden in the black silk scarf, and only a pair of dead fish-like eyes were moving: "Where is Sansa, is she still busy?"

"There are many people in Winterfell now, and Miss Sansa is busy and exhausted."

Catelin's eyes flashed with a trace of resentment: "Why didn't she come to see me and ask for my help?"

A trace of sadness and bitterness surged in her heart: Is Sansa also like Arya, thinking that she did something wrong and is alienating her and punishing her?

She thought of Robb. The sadness in her heart increased a little more. Will every child be alienated from her in the end?

This sadness quickly turned into hatred. Is it because of her current horrible face? It must be, otherwise why would her children alienate her one by one?

She began to think about Bran and Rickon.

From Theon, they learned that the two children were still alive. Bran, her favorite, and Rickon, the youngest, were still alive.

The last letter Arya sent back from the Wall during the long night said that her bastard brother at the Wall had seen Bran's wolf, and Arya had also seen Bran in her dream, so he must be alive somewhere.

As for Rickon, Arya only told her that she was trying to find him and bring him back, but she didn't tell her where Rickon was and how to get him.

Oh, Arya.

Catelyn thought that she must have been too cold to her in Winterfell before, so Arya alienated her so quickly after they met again and didn't consult her when she encountered any problems. She regretted that she hadn't been nicer to Arya before. She wanted to tell Arya how much she loved her and wanted to ease the relationship with Arya.

But the damned long night brought Arya to the north.

She suddenly felt jealous of the bastard son. Arya left so many things in Winterfell to go to the Wall. She thought Arya loved her bastard brother more than she loved her mother.

But Sansa.

Catelyn wondered why Sansa didn't come to her? Sansa is now the acting city lord and must have countless problems to solve. Why not come to her mother for consultation? Does she know how much her mother wants to help her?

It must be Cersei Lannister!

Sansa suffered a lot in King's Landing, even though she didn't see her much and had little heart-to-heart conversations with her. But Catelyn could feel that Sansa was no longer the lady she was familiar with, no longer innocent.

Cersei and Joffrey must have brutally tortured Sansa in King's Landing!

They had taken Eddard from her, and they had taken her daughter Sansa's innocence!

They all deserve to die!

Because there were too many emotions lost in her heart, almost every major mood swing in Caitlin would eventually return to resentment, causing her inner resentment to grow.

There is no solution to this problem, and resentment is the source of strength that keeps Caitlin alive.

Speaking of which, it is precisely because of Caitlin's extremely self-centered nature that her character always leads her to find the key to the problem, the source of everything, that is, whether it is the alienation of relatives or the fear and disgust of others, the problem lies within herself.

And it is precisely because she can always blame others for problems and breed resentment to keep her self-awareness from collapsing that the power of the Red God chooses her.

After all, if her personal thoughts penetrate the source and find the key, her soul is enlightened, and her spirit is liberated, then like Dondarrion, she will feel exhausted by this way of "living" and develop self-destructive emotions.

But not Caitlin. She and Cersei are essentially the same kind of people, but Cersei is in a higher position and is more unscrupulous, so she is more destructive.

Just when Caitlin's many inner emotions were turning into resentment, a unique and hoarse voice suddenly came from outside the door.

"Miss Brienne, please inform me that Petyr Baelish would like to see you."

When Catelyn heard this voice, all her resentment immediately pointed at the person who made the voice outside the door, "Littlefinger" Petyr Baelish.

How dare he come to see her!

There are always some people in this world who are pretentious and think that their intelligence can solve all problems.

They move with the trend and follow the trend. They are well versed in the way to protect themselves wisely, seek to settle down and benefit, crave power and status, and expect to become great people.

Littlefinger is undoubtedly this kind of person.

His original plan was not to get involved in the north, but to use the influence of the Vale to help Sansa to gain a relationship with Targaryen, and to use the influence of helping Sansa on behalf of Lysa to return to the Vale of Arryn to take advantage of the interests of the valley. Sit down.

But plans can't keep up with changes.

But when he found himself trapped in Winterfell for a long night, Littlefinger found that he would have the opportunity to show off his talents in front of the Targaryen royal family, so he took advantage of the situation and quietly changed his plan. I want to find an opportunity to use the Stark of Winterfell as a springboard to get on the Great Wall supply line, which King Targaryen attaches great importance to.

If you can get on the line with the Targaryen royal family and wait for the opportunity to gain momentum, you will not only be able to survive the terrible long night, but you may also gain more.

Caitlin is undoubtedly the most conspicuous stumbling block, blocking the way for Littlefinger to jump to Stark. At the same time, Caitlin is undoubtedly the best stepping stone that Littlefinger can think of, which can allow him to have Lannis. With a special background, a character who was destined to be ignored under the rule of King Targaryen maintained his influence around Sansa even as the people around Sansa became more and more complicated.

"Oh, Kate, how cruel the gods are," Littlefinger looked at her sadly as soon as he came in, and let out a long sigh, "Lisa would be so sad if she saw you."

Although the whole picture cannot be seen yet, the cold and cruel eyes and the dead-like skin color exposed from the scarf are enough to scare anyone. There are such ruthless people in this world who can forget fear and do whatever it takes for the sake of profit and status.

"Lysa will be sad for me?" Caitlin replied coldly, her voice hoarse as if she was about to be strangled to death, "Also, don't call me that!"

Littlefinger made a show of trying to listen.

Harwin had a cold face and was about to translate, but he saw the other party stretched out his hand to stop him and answered directly: "There is a misunderstanding between you and Lysa. Madam," he said with a sad face and full of regret, "Lysa is not alone in private. She told me once that she regretted not sending people from the valley to help you."

"lie!"

Littlefinger frowned, as if he couldn't bear it: "Oh, how could you sisters misunderstand each other to such an extent?"

"Some people say that you betrayed Ed!"

"No, madam, I want to save Lord Eddard. The environment in King's Landing at that time was complicated, and I wanted to help him, but he chose to believe in Janos Slynt. You can ask Miss Sansa about the situation at that time. Even later, Lord Eddard could have worn black, too, which we all regret."

"Sorry, stop being hypocritical. Lies!" Caitlin stared at her rolled eyes, "If you have the guts, tell me Ed's name again! And about the dagger! You were hiding in the Valley Army, I I can't find you to confront him, so now you come to find him! Brienne, Harwin, kill him!"

Catelyn became excited and looked at Harbin and Brienne resentfully.

Brienne heard Catelyn shout "kill" hoarsely, and she drew her sword.

"You can kill me!" Littlefinger became excited and shouted, "You can kill me, madam. If you don't want to listen to my argument, if you think my words are all lies, if you think that I am... I am trying to avoid confronting you by helping Sansa to count the accounts. If you think my blood can calm your pain and resentment," Littlefinger's voice was hoarse and angry, as if he was unable to defend himself and was willing to be killed. "I am willing to die. "

Caitlin raised her hand stiffly and stopped Brienne and Harwin: "Then let me ask you, have you betrayed Ed?"

Littlefinger sighed: "Madam, betrayal requires trust first. You know your husband. Do you think your husband will trust me in King's Landing when King Robert dies?"

"Then let me ask you, does that dagger belong to Tyrion Lannister?"

"I knew you would ask me this again!" Littlefinger lifted up his cloak and took out a Valyrian steel keel-handled dagger from his waist, "I worked so hard to get this in my hands in King's Landing. When I rescued Miss Sansa from King's Landing, I brought it out specifically because I wanted Miss Sansa to use it to confront Tyrion and break off her engagement. The Lannister forced Miss Sansa to marry Tyrion. What a disgrace to Lady Sansa and the Stark family! Now that the dagger is here, I heard that Tyrion is in Eastwatch, and I would like to confront him if I have the chance!"

Littlefinger threw the dirty water of the dagger on Tyrion between them, and although the accumulated conflicts were always eased by various events, now that Littlefinger secretly rescued Sansa from King's Landing has been made public, The contradiction between them has become irreconcilable.

With Tyrion's intelligence, he must have guessed that Joffrey's death is inextricably linked to Littlefinger.

It’s not an exaggeration to throw a little more dirty water now. This matter involves the Stark family and the Lannister family during King Robert’s time, and now it is under the rule of King Targaryen. As long as Caitlin still has some brains, she should I know that for the sake of Stark's family interests, I shouldn't talk about such messy things in front of the king, and I can't expect King Targaryen to give Stark "justice."

As for Tyrion.

Who conquered the Westlands of the Lannister family? Tyrion, the Night Watchman, dares to leave the Great Wall and come to Winterfell?

Of course, Littlefinger is not afraid of confronting Tyrion, because he will never let this confrontation happen while Tyrion is alive.

Don't tell me that Littlefinger is trying to silence Tyrion. Littlefinger believed that even into the long night, he would not be the only one staring at Tyrion's head.

Caitlin didn't think so. She said, "You will have a chance to confront him."

"Then it seems that my life is temporarily saved." Petyr showed a difficult smile.

"I'm grateful that you saved Sansa." Caitlin still didn't trust him, "But tell me, Petyr, what do you want, what is your purpose here?"

"I heard about you, madam," he shook his head, his eyebrows drooped, his gray-green eyes were vaguely filled with tears, and his tone was sad, "Whether you believe it or not, Caitlin, I feel sincerely sad about what happened to you. I'm sorry, maybe I don't have the right to say this, and I shouldn't say this, as I am sympathizing with your experience, but I really, really regret it, very, very sorry."

Littlefinger answered the question incorrectly. But this is undoubtedly what he has been waiting to say for a long time and the attitude he expresses.

"That's enough!" Caitlin said in a cold tone, "I don't want to see you, you should go!"

Littlefinger sighed, Xu raised his hand and wiped the corners of his eyes, silently turned around and left the room.

Catelyn looked at the dragonbone-handled Valyrian steel dagger left on the dining table and fell into a long silence. With her knowledge of people, she would never have guessed that when Littlefinger left, the sad expression hidden in her heart was disdain and secret joy.

It seems that Littlefinger only came here to say a few words and was driven away by Catelyn. However, with the current relationship between Catelyn and Sansa, there is already a middleman who makes a profit in the relationship between their mother and daughter.

During the long night, it was impossible to tell the difference between day and night, only the sky forever occupied by darkness.

After Caitlin chased Littlefinger away, she blew out the lights in the room and sat in front of the table with the dragon bone-handled dagger for a long time, before falling asleep in a daze.

"Mommy."

She had a long-awaited dream, in which three-year-old Rickon was crying in front of her and calling her uneasily.

This was her last impression of Rickon. At that time, she fainted due to Bran's fall. Her life and death were uncertain, and she was grieving beside Bran's bed all day long. It's not that she didn't hear Rickon's uneasy crying, but she was so absorbed in her sorrow that she didn't care about the other children.

She later realized that that was the last impression she left on Rickon, and she regretted it so much that her heart ached.

Suddenly she discovered that this dream was slightly different from her memory.

In front of him, Rickon was in a dark and cold environment, his wayward long hair was a little messy, and most of his body was in the darkness with his black direwolf named Shaggy Dog, looking uneasy and panicking as he called his mother.

"Mom is here."

She wanted to go forward, but suddenly, cold stones appeared in the darkness in front of her, including stone sculptures of roaring direwolves and stone statues of Starks.

She hadn't been there many times, but she recognized it. It was the tombs of Winterfell. She had always disliked the coldness and darkness there, and was afraid of how deep the stairs led to the cold underground.

The tomb was cold and dark, and the environment here made her feel uneasy.

"Rickon!" she called out, her voice hoarse and unpleasant, like the mute voice of someone strangled to death.

But Rickon has disappeared, and in front of him is a narrow and winding stone spiral staircase, leading to the underground tomb of an older king. A cold air was erupting from there, and there seemed to be something lurking inside. It was something extremely dark and terrifying, so much so that just feeling it made her body tremble.

She woke up with a start.

There was an inexplicable burning sensation on her skin that made her itch.

Caitlin felt uneasy lingering in her heart for the first time since she became like this. She stood up and walked to the window, opened it, and let the cold wind leak in through the window and whistle around her.

She raised her eyes to look at the dark sky of the long night, and her eyes slowly fell. In the looming firelight of the castle in the night, Catelyn used her horrifying eyes to look to the north of the city where the tombs of Winterfell were, where there were empty tombs. The cellar door was as dark as ink.

Caitlin had an impulse. She walked towards the door and opened it with a bang.

Brienne, who was changing shifts with Harwin outside the door, was startled: "Madam?"

"I'm going out, you don't have to come with me."

"Yes, ma'am."

Along the bridge of the main castle, Caitlin avoided the courtyard of the castle that was now occupied by various armies, and came directly to the tomb from the complex road.

"Sansa?" Here, Catelyn met her daughter holding a torch.

"Mother?" Sansa also saw her.

When the guards around Sansa saw her, they all straightened up and said, "Madam." No one dared to look at her.

Sansa was also afraid of her and asked cautiously: "Why are you here?"

"I dreamed about Rickon," she said.

"What?" Sansa tried to listen, but still couldn't hear what her hoarse voice said.

"." Caitlin closed her mouth.

Sansa was a little embarrassed, and then hurriedly explained, covering it up with her own words: "I dreamed about my father, and I wanted to come and see him. Do you do the same?"

Catelyn nodded to Sansa.

"You stay here." Sansa ordered the guards, then she held the torch and looked at Catelyn, "Mother?"

Caitlin stepped forward silently.

Compared to other places in Winterfell, this tomb is terrifyingly cold. Standing in front of the door, you can feel a chill sweeping up from the cellar.

It was dark inside the tomb, and Sansa's torch could only see a small part of it.

The mother and daughter were silent all the way downstairs along the dark wall.

Soon they reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the deep darkness of the tomb.

Caitlin had never liked it here before.

But now there were two sarcophagi containing her loved ones, though Eddard's tomb was empty, save for Robb's bones.

The thought of Eddard's empty tomb made Catelyn resentful of Greyjoy again. When Tyrion was Prime Minister, Lannister returned Eddard's body. However, on the way back to the North, the Greyjoy family raided the North. Then Winterfell fell, and Ned's body was missing. I don’t know if it has become a pile of dead bones in some corner.

She led the way, walking through the aisles between stone pillars. Sansa was exhaled by the coldness of the ground, and followed her silently.

Finally, they came to the tombs of Eddard and Robb. The statues on the closed sarcophagus are carved with their appearance in life, with a huge stone sculpture of a roaring direwolf crouching at its feet. Father and son sat side by side, staring into the eternal darkness with eyes that could no longer see.

Looking at the two faces where the sculptor mastered the charm, Caitlin felt an uncontrollable sadness welling up in her heart.

She turned her face away, not wanting them to see even the slightest bit of her current appearance, even just her eyes. She looked at the mausoleum still continuing to extend forward and submerged into the depths of darkness, and began to shift her thoughts, wondering why she dreamed that Rickon was here?

"Father." Sansa raised the torch, lowered her head in salute, and whispered to Eddard's tomb.

Hearing Sansa's voice, as a mother, Catelyn felt that she should say something, but thinking that Sansa couldn't understand the sound of her hoarse voice, she just stood there in silence.

Woo——woo——woo——

A low horn sound came from the direction of the exit. In the tomb, the sound was so far away, as if coming from outside the world.

But Sansa stood up immediately, her face turned pale: "What's wrong, it's the three horns promised by the king, and there are white ghosts appearing around Winterfell?"

No time to remember Eddard and Robb anymore. Catelyn and Sansa immediately walked out of the crypt, and Sansa went straight to the castle hall.

Caitlin originally wanted to go, but thinking about her current state, how she had frightened Arya's army at the Twins, so she did not choose to follow her, but returned to her room along the same route, and met her on the restoration road. Brienne and Harwin, who came to look for them, thought about it and simply took the opportunity to let them escort them to the city wall to observe the situation.

For some reason, she felt that the strange dream she had about Rickon was no accident.

As soon as she arrived at the north wall where the trumpet sounded, Caitlin saw that the dark sky was covered with black clouds under the long night. A blizzard seemed to be coming from far north of the city. At the front of the terrible celestial phenomenon caused by the blizzard, There were dozens of lights like fireflies heading towards Winterfell along the snow-covered King's Road.

Woo——woo——woo——

The sound of huge horns sounded all around.

As if in response, the same horn sounded in the east and south directions of the city.

This means that the wall commanders guarding the city discovered White Walkers appearing in the east, south, and north directions of Winterfell at the same time.

All Catelyn saw was a blizzard. She wondered if the blizzard was a sign of the coming of the White Walkers.

Looking at the fireflies that seemed to be swallowed up at any time in front of the terrible sky in the north, a cold wind blew over the top of the city, and Catelyn suddenly felt a chill in her body.

——

At the edge of the snow curtain in the north of the city, a battle and chase was going on.

Rickon Stark and Ali Karstark were riding on an old horse that was skinny, exhausted, dying, and limping.

Ali wanted to whip the old horse hard.

A wight suddenly jumped up at the edge of the field of vision, bringing up a pile of snow-white ice foam.

The horse had no time to speed up and dodge, and was pounced on by the wight.

The wight's black, cold, and frost-covered hands tore open the horse's belly with unimaginable strength, and was pulling out the horse's intestines with bloody hands.

The old horse screamed miserably, and its belly was bleeding. The blood spilled on the snow and a pale steam rose.

Rickon and Ali fell down immediately. Rickon fell flat on his face and rolled to the side weakly, gasping for breath.

The hairy dog ​​rushed over and pounced on a wight that attacked Rickon and bit it.

Osha ran wildly, using all her strength to press the torch in her hand into the broken body of the wight.

The wight instantly burned up, frost dripped from its beard, its flesh turned black, its mouth opened, flames came out, and the blue light in its eyes was slowly fading.

"Run! Run!" A knight threw away his armor and weapons while running, came close, picked up Rickon and ran wildly without caring about his life.

The hairy dog ​​followed closely behind.

Ali had just stood up from the snow pile, and before she could find the right direction, she was pulled up by the wild woman Osha and ran wildly.

More and more people followed behind, including knights of the Manderly family who threw away their armor and weapons, and sailors who screamed and ran away like crazy.

Winterfell was right in front of them. God knows how long they walked in the snow, twenty days? A month?

No one wanted to die here.

How many people froze to death, fell behind, disappeared, fell into snow pits, and never woke up after falling asleep. Wasn't it just to bring Rickon Stark to Winterfell for a chance to survive in the long night?

Winterfell was clearly in sight, why was it caught up by the White Walkers at this time!

Someone cried loudly while running: "This is not fair..."

But more of them were screams that stopped abruptly and were not human voices.

Rickon was dizzy and dizzy in the arms of the knight who was running desperately, and his ears were filled with the knight's heavy breathing. The knight ran so fast, even faster than Yali's old horse. The wights around him were pulled farther and farther away, and the people behind him were knocked to the ground by the wights and died screaming.

Rickon was only a six-year-old boy, but he already knew what death was. He gnashed his teeth, his heart filled with impotence and anger.

When his anger reached a certain critical point, his consciousness entered the body of the Shaggydog.

The direwolf was strong and vigorous. He pounced on the chasing wight like crazy, tearing off its black arms and head.

"No! Rickon!" Osha saw the Shaggydog suddenly fall behind and pounce on the wight, and shouted loudly, "Don't go back!"

But Rickon was so angry that he couldn't hear her voice at all.

He didn't control the Shaggydog to catch up.

Suddenly, he saw a white walker pounce on a knight. Rickon remembered him. On the island of Skagos, it was the knight who reached out to him and pulled him onto the boat. During the journey, he was also the one who always guarded him and ensured his food.

He controlled the Shaggydog to pounce on the wight, pounced on the ghost, and tore off its arm.

But when he looked back, the knight's stomach was already covered in blood and his eyes were losing their luster.

"Help!"

Before he could be distracted, he saw another familiar person behind him. It was the captain of the merchant ship. On the way, he would always secretly give Rickon and his party some sweet rock candy, so that they could hold it in their mouths to maintain their strength.

Rickon controlled the Shaggy Dog to pounce on another wight and clear the way for him.

But screams came from behind him, and the wight in the other direction pounced on him to the ground, and the black frosted hand pierced his throat.

"No!"

Rickon controlled the Shaggy Dog to continue to save people. Familiar faces and unfamiliar faces fell to the ground and died in front of him.

He could do nothing!

He was only six years old, but at this moment he felt an unprecedented sense of powerlessness.

This made him irritable, angry, and uncontrollably roar loudly!

When he vented his anger, the screams belonging to humans stopped completely at some point.

At this time, Rickon was horrified to find that he had brought the Shaggy Dog into the snow curtain of the blizzard.

The surroundings were suddenly quiet, with only the rustling sound in his ears.

It was the sound of heavy snow.

Strangely, Rickon found that in the snow curtain of the blizzard, the wind was surprisingly quiet.

He finally felt fear and uneasiness again.

Suddenly, black shadows appeared in the snow curtain of the blizzard, and Rickon bared his teeth at them and pretended to run.

But strangely, these rows of wights seemed to be unable to see him, just silent, quiet, and cold as they walked past him.

Rickon didn't understand why, but felt that the hairy dog ​​seemed to have become a reef in the middle of a huge river at this moment, and all the water flowing through it made way for him.

This strange scene made Rickon feel a great fear in his heart. He felt cold all over and his heartbeat stopped in the hairy dog's body.

Until a certain moment.

A tall black shadow slowly walked in front of him.

A dead horse.

The horse was covered with frosted bloodstains, and it looked hideous.

"Child."

A sound like the breaking of ice penetrated the snow curtain and the rustling footsteps of countless White Walkers.

Rickon looked up and saw a tall figure wrapped in black and gray mottled clothes from head to toe on the dead horse.

The hood covered his face.

"Don't be afraid."

The rider's voice was emotionless, as if it was squeezed out by two pieces of black ice, as cold as ice.

Rickon looked at the rider blankly, and saw that his pupils were burning with blue flames.