As the host trooped down the causeway through the black bogs of the Neck and spilled out into theriverlands beyond, Catelyn’s apprehensions grew. She masked her fears behind a face kept still andstern, yet they were there all the same, growing with every league they crossed. Her days wereanxious, her nights restless, and every raven that flew overhead made her clench her teeth.

She feared for her lord father, and wondered at his ominous silence. She feared for her brotherEdmure, and prayed that the gods would watch over him if he must face the Kingslayer in battle. Shefeared for Ned and her girls, and for the sweet sons she had left behind at Winterfell. And yet therewas nothing she could do for any of them, and so she made herself put all thought of them aside. Youmust save your strength for Robb, she told herself. He is the only one you can help. You must be asfierce and hard as the north, Catelyn Tully. You must be a Stark for true now, like your son.

Robb rode at the front of the column, beneath the flapping white banner of Winterfell. Each day hewould ask one of his lords to join him, so they might confer as they marched; he honored every manin turn, showing no favorites, listening as his lord father had listened, weighing the words of oneagainst the other. He has learned so much from Ned, she thought as she watched him, but has helearned enough?

The Blackfish had taken a hundred picked men and a hundred swift horses and raced ahead toscreen their movements and scout the way. The reports Ser Brynden’s riders brought back did little toreassure her. Lord Tywin’s host was still many days to the south … but Walder Frey, Lord of theCrossing, had assembled a force of near four thousand men at his castles on the Green Fork.

“Late again,” Catelyn murmured when she heard. It was the Trident all over, damn the man. Herbrother Edmure had called the banners; by rights, Lord Frey should have gone to join the Tully host atRiverrun, yet here he sat.

“Four thousand men,” Robb repeated, more perplexed than angry. “Lord Frey cannot hope to fightthe Lannisters by himself. Surely he means to join his power to ours.”

“Does he?” Catelyn asked. She had ridden forward to join Robb and Robett Glover, hiscompanion of the day. The vanguard spread out behind them, a slow-moving forest of lances andbanners and spears. “I wonder. Expect nothing of Walder Frey, and you will never be surprised.”

“He’s your father’s bannerman.”

“Some men take their oaths more seriously than others, Robb. And Lord Walder was alwaysfriendlier with Casterly Rock than my father would have liked. One of his sons is wed to TywinLannister’s sister. That means little of itself, to be sure. Lord Walder has sired a great many childrenover the years, and they must needs marry someone. Still …”

“Do you think he means to betray us to the Lannisters, my lady?” Robett Glover asked gravely.

Catelyn sighed. “If truth be told, I doubt even Lord Frey knows what Lord Frey intends to do. Hehas an old man’s caution and a young man’s ambition, and has never lacked for cunning.”

“We must have the Twins, Mother,” Robb said heatedly. “There is no other way across the river.

You know that.”

“Yes. And so does Walder Frey, you can be sure of that.”

That night they made camp on the southern edge of the bogs, halfway between the kingsroad andthe river. It was there Theon Greyjoy brought them further word from her uncle. “Ser Brynden says totell you he’s crossed swords with the Lannisters. There are a dozen scouts who won’t be reportingback to Lord Tywin anytime soon. Or ever.” He grinned. “Ser Addam Marbrand commands theiroutriders, and he’s pulling back south, burning as he goes. He knows where we are, more or less, butthe Blackfish vows he will not know when we split.”

ack to Lord Tywin anytime soon. Or ever.” He grinned. “Ser Addam Marbrand commands theiroutriders, and he’s pulling back south, burning as he goes. He knows where we are, more or less, butthe Blackfish vows he will not know when we split.”

“Unless Lord Frey tells him,” Catelyn said sharply. “Theon, when you return to my uncle, tell himhe is to place his best bowmen around the Twins, day and night, with orders to bring down any raventhey see leaving the battlements. I want no birds bringing word of my son’s movements to LordTywin.”

“Ser Brynden has seen to it already, my lady,” Theon replied with a cocky smile. “A few moreblackbirds, and we should have enough to bake a pie. I’ll save you their feathers for a hat.”

She ought to have known that Brynden Blackfish would be well ahead of her. “What have theFreys been doing while the Lannisters burn their fields and plunder their holdfasts?”

“There’s been some fighting between Ser Addam’s men and Lord Walder’s,” Theon answered.

“Not a day’s ride from here, we found two Lannister scouts feeding the crows where the Freys hadstrung them up. Most of Lord Walder’s strength remains massed at the Twins, though.”

That bore Walder Frey’s seal beyond a doubt, Catelyn thought bitterly; hold back, wait, watch, takeno risk unless forced to it.

“If he’s been fighting the Lannisters, perhaps he does mean to hold to his vows,” Robb said.

Catelyn was less encouraged. “Defending his own lands is one thing, open battle against LordTywin quite another.”

Robb turned back to Theon Greyjoy. “Has the Blackfish found any other way across the GreenFork?”

Theon shook his head. “The river’s running high and fast. Ser Brynden says it can’t be forded, notthis far north.”

“I must have that crossing!” Robb declared, fuming. “Oh, our horses might be able to swim theriver, I suppose, but not with armored men on their backs. We’d need to build rafts to pole our steelacross, helms and mail and lances, and we don’t have the trees for that. Or the time. Lord Tywin ismarching north …” He balled his hand into a fist.

“Lord Frey would be a fool to try and bar our way,” Theon Greyjoy said with his customary easyconfidence. “We have five times his numbers. You can take the Twins if you need to, Robb.”

“Not easily,” Catelyn warned them, “and not in time. While you were mounting your siege,Tywin Lannister would bring up his host and assault you from the rear.”

Robb glanced from her to Greyjoy, searching for an answer and finding none. For a moment helooked even younger than his fifteen years, despite his mail and sword and the stubble on his cheeks.

“What would my lord father do?” he asked her.

“Find a way across,” she told him. “Whatever it took.”

The next morning it was Ser Brynden Tully himself who rode back to them. He had put aside theheavy plate and helm he’d worn as the Knight of the Gate for the lighter leather-and-mail of anoutrider, but his obsidian fish still fastened his cloak.

Her uncle’s face was grave as he swung down off his horse. “There has been a battle under thewalls of Riverrun,” he said, his mouth grim. “We had it from a Lannister outrider we took captive.

The Kingslayer has destroyed Edmure’s host and sent the lords of the Trident reeling in flight.”

A cold hand clutched at Catelyn’s heart. “And my brother?”

“Wounded and taken prisoner,” Ser Brynden said. “Lord Blackwood and the other survivors areunder siege inside Riverrun, surrounded by Jaime’s host.”

Robb looked fretful. “We must get across this accursed river if we’re to have any hope of relievingthem in time.”

“That will not be easily done,” her uncle cautioned. “Lord Frey has pulled his whole strength backinside his castles, and his gates are closed and barred.”

“Damn the man,” Robb swore. “If the old fool does not relent and let me cross, he’ll leave me nochoice but to storm his walls. I’ll pull the Twins down around his ears if I have to, we’ll see how wellhe likes that!”

“You sound like a sulky boy, Robb,” Catelyn said sharply. “A child sees an obstacle, and his firstthought is to run around it or knock it down. A lord must learn that sometimes words can accomplishwhat swords cannot.”

Robb’s neck reddened at the rebuke. “Tell me what you mean, Mother,” he said meekly.

“The Freys have held the crossing for six hundred years, and for six hundred years they havenever failed to exact their toll.”

“What toll? What does he want?”

She smiled. “That is what we must discover.”

“And what if I do not choose to pay this toll?”

“Then you had best retreat back to Moat Cailin, deploy to meet Lord Tywin in battle … or growwings. I see no other choices.” Catelyn put her heels to her horse and rode off, leaving her son toponder her words. It would not do to make him feel as if his mother were usurping his place. Did youteach him wisdom as well as valor, Ned? she wondered. Did you teach him how to kneel? Thegraveyards of the Seven Kingdoms were full of brave men who had never learned that lesson.

It was near midday when their vanguard came in sight of the Twins, where the Lords of theCrossing had their seat.

The Green Fork ran swift and deep here, but the Freys had spanned it many centuries past andgrown rich off the coin men paid them to cross. Their bridge was a massive arch of smooth grey rock,wide enough for two wagons to pass abreast; the Water Tower rose from the center of the span,commanding both road and river with its arrow slits, murder holes, and portcullises. It had taken theFreys three generations to complete their bridge; when they were done they’d thrown up stout timberkeeps on either bank, so no one might cross without their leave.

The timber had long since given way to stone. The Twins—two squat, ugly, formidable castles,identical in every respect, with the bridge arching between—had guarded the crossing for centuries.

High curtain walls, deep moats, and heavy oak-and-iron gates protected the approaches, the bridgefootings rose from within stout inner keeps, there was a barbican and portcullis on either bank, andthe Water Tower defended the span itself.

One glance was sufficient to tell Catelyn that the castle would not be taken by storm. Thebattlements bristled with spears and swords and scorpions, there was an archer at every crenel andarrow slit, the drawbridge was up, the portcullis down, the gates closed and barred.

The Greatjon began to curse and swear as soon as he saw what awaited them. Lord RickardKarstark glowered in silence. “That cannot be assaulted, my lords,” Roose Bolton announced.

“Nor can we take it by siege, without an army on the far bank to invest the other castle,” HelmanTallhart said gloomily. Across the deep-running green waters, the western twin stood like a reflectionof its eastern brother. “Even if we had the time. Which, to be sure, we do not.”

As the northern lords studied the castle, a sally port opened, a plank bridge slid across the moat,and a dozen knights rode forth to confront them, led by four of Lord Walder’s many sons. Theirbanner bore twin towers, dark blue on a field of pale silver-grey. Ser Stevron Frey, Lord Walder’sheir, spoke for them. The Freys all looked like weasels; Ser Stevron, past sixty with grandchildren ofhis own, looked like an especially old and tired weasel, yet he was polite enough. “My lord father hassent me to greet you, and inquire as to who leads this mighty host.”

“I do.” Robb spurred his horse forward. He was in his armor, with the direwolf shield ofWinterfell strapped to his saddle and Grey Wind padding by his side.

The old knight looked at her son with a faint flicker of amusement in his watery grey eyes, thoughhis gelding whickered uneasily and sidled away from the direwolf. “My lord father would be mosthonored if you would share meat and mead with him in the castle and explain your purpose here.”

His words crashed among the lords bannermen like a great stone from a catapult. Not one of themapproved. They cursed, argued, shouted down each other.

“You must not do this, my lord,” Galbart Glover pleaded with Robb. “Lord Walder is not to betrusted.”

Roose Bolton nodded. “Go in there alone and you’re his. He can sell you to the Lannisters, throwyou in a dungeon, or slit your throat, as he likes.”

“If he wants to talk to us, let him open his gates, and we will all share his meat and mead,”

declared Ser Wendel Manderly.

“Or let him come out and treat with Robb here, in plain sight of his men and ours,” suggested hisbrother, Ser Wylis.

Catelyn Stark shared all their doubts, but she had only to glance at Ser Stevron to see that he wasnot pleased by what he was hearing. A few more words and the chance would be lost. She had to act,and quickly. “I will go,” she said loudly. I will go,” she said loudly.

“You, my lady?” The Greatjon furrowed his brow.

“Mother, are you certain?” Clearly, Robb was not.

“Never more,” Catelyn lied glibly. “Lord Walder is my father’s bannerman. I have known himsince I was a girl. He would never offer me any harm.” Unless he saw some profit in it, she addedsilently, but some truths did not bear saying, and some lies were necessary.

“I am certain my lord father would be pleased to speak to the Lady Catelyn,” Ser Stevron said.

“To vouchsafe for our good intentions, my brother Ser Perwyn will remain here until she is safelyreturned to you.”

“He shall be our honored guest,” said Robb. Ser Perwyn, the youngest of the four Freys in theparty, dismounted and handed the reins of his horse to a brother. “I require my lady mother’s returnby evenfall, Ser Stevron,” Robb went on. “It is not my intent to linger here long.”

Ser Stevron Frey gave a polite nod. “As you say, my lord.” Catelyn spurred her horse forward anddid not look back. Lord Walder’s sons and envoys fell in around her.

Her father had once said of Walder Frey that he was the only lord in the Seven Kingdoms whocould field an army out of his breeches. When the Lord of the Crossing welcomed Catelyn in the greathall of the east castle, surrounded by twenty living sons (minus Ser Perwyn, who would have madetwenty-one), thirty-six grandsons, nineteen great-grandsons, and numerous daughters,granddaughters, bastards, and grandbastards, she understood just what he had meant.

Lord Walder was ninety, a wizened pink weasel with a bald spotted head, too gouty to sta............