Iron and Blood: a Theon & Sansa Story

Chapter 65

Sansa
Sansa spent the days reading and sewing, making clothes that would fit her as she grew. The room that she and Theon shared was big and bright, with blue linens and a canopy over the bed. Arya was given her own room next door, though she and Theon spent so much time in the practice yard behind the tower, Sansa hardly ever saw her when they were not sharing meals.

Asha Greyjoy was well-loved by her father's men. She knew her strengths, and one of them was brutish honesty: she told every Ironborn man, woman, and child, that she watched her father, Balon Greyjoy, fall to the son of Karl Krag as he fought to protect his good-daughter at the door of her castle. Rumors that the king had instead by killed by a little girl were disregarded as particularly foolish. Karl Krag had evidently been a difficult man. Respected, Theon explained, but selfish and reserved.

No one had ever declared Asha queen. Theon suggested that the Ironborn were unlikely to call Asha anything but their dead king's daughter for the rest of her life. To most, Theon was the rightful King of the Iron Islands, despite his insistence that he did not want the title. Still, Sansa thought he made for a good leader: he advised Asha on most decisions, and the people on Pyke came to care for him as they had when he was a boy.

Sansa rarely left the tower. She was certain the Ironborn still thirsted for her blood, and as her stomach swelled, she thought it best not to let the people know she was expecting Theon's child. Her weight returned to her body, flushed her arms and legs with the color they had lost in her thinness. With each moon that passed, the pain in Sansa's back and hips grew more intolerable. Maester Wendamyr knew little about childbirth and women's bodies, which left Sansa with little guidance, since none of her three sole companions had ever borne any children. More troubling was that women in the Iron Islands gave birth underwater where the sea met the shore. No midwives were allowed on Pyke, since requiring their assistance was considered an omen of weakness for the child being birthed. Sometimes, all Sansa could do was worry about it.

Asha was kind enough to sit and talk with her some days; each time they spoke, Sansa appreciated how similar Theon's sister was to her own. Arya had grown comfortable on the island, Sansa could see. She was a Northerner, stubborn and loyal to her roots, but she appreciated the strength of the Ironborn, especially Asha, and she would carry that strength with her if she ever got the chance to return to the North. Sansa hoped that she would.

Sansa's favorite part of every day was the evening, when Theon and Arya would return from their daily activities for dinner. They would tell stories and joke about what they had seen on the streets or at the docks. Some days, Asha supped with them, but she was often busy with Maester Wendamyr, who was not allowed outside the castle walls for the rest of his days. Theon had made clear the Maester would die serving House Greyjoy, even if he tried to escape that fate early.

After dinner, when Theon went to meet with his sister, Sansa and Arya played some silly little wooden board game that had no rules, as far as Sansa could tell. When it got late, Sansa put Arya to bed, which reminded her of Winterfell more than anything else. Lady Catelyn had often left Sansa in charge of seeing her siblings to bed and telling them stories until they fell asleep.

Arya did not care for stories, but she liked when Sansa talked about home. One night, even long after she knew Arya had fallen asleep, Sansa stayed for hours at her bedside, smiling as she described her childhood and the people she loved. They were so far away now. Some nights, Sansa feared she would never see any of them again.

Sansa always stayed up reading until Theon returned from Asha's solar, which she had repurposed after her father's death. The smile on Theon's lips when he opened their chamber door brought Sansa so much joy that she often forgot about the pain in her body. While she did not complain often, Theon seemed to sense her troubles, and would do everything and anything to help her feel better.

He always climbed into bed and kissed her gently on the cheek before he placed a hand on her stomach to indicate his excitement. All day and all night, he blabbered about the baby: whether it would be a girl or a boy, what color its hair would be, how they would build a crib to keep beside their bed. It nearly drove Arya and Asha mad, Sansa could tell, but she hoped he never stopped.

Life felt, in a way, rather ordinary. Sansa could not have asked for anything more: she was happy and felt safe most of the time. Her most significantly troubles were her aching bones, which eventually made it difficult to rise from her bed in the mornings.

Five moons into her pregnancy, the pain was excruciating. She cried through the nights, even with Theon beside her, and none of Maester Wendamyr's medicines seemed to help. One night, when Theon returned from meeting with Asha, he evidently decided he could bear witness no longer.

"I'm going to return to the mainland," he declared. "I need to find a midwife for you there."

Sansa felt her heart drop. "What?" she whispered. "You can't leave me here alone."

He assured her that she wasn't alone—that she had Asha and Arya and Asha's closest advisors, who came to care for the woman many believed to be rightful Queen of the Iron Islands, because she had married Balon's heir. She was a mummer's queen to them, but they treated her like royalty, even called her Your Grace when they spoke with her in the tower.

Sansa especially liked the man Theon called Kal. He had no family name, on account of his abandonment on Pyke by some merchant passing through nearly fifty years ago. By Kal's description, he was raised by several different beggars, including one woman who breastfed him until she died. At least that's what Kal's other parents in the streets had told him, which he relayed to Sansa one day to the best of his memory.

She liked to walk up and down the stairs and through the castle corridors when she was alone all day. As Kal made his rounds, he walked with her, told stories and listened to her thoughts as if she were a daughter. He mentioned to Sansa that the only woman he had ever loved died in labor. Kal got to hold his daughter for the few moments that she drew breath. Sansa did not ask him about it after that, since it made her tremble with fear all that night, as she imagined what might happen to her own baby.

Still, Kal was otherwise a stranger to Sansa. He was not Jory Cassel or Ser Rodrick: he was sworn to the house that Sansa's father had crushed and demoralized. She did not trust Theon to leave her alone with only the Ironborn.

But he was insistent, and even Sansa had to admit she understood. Her pain scared her, and without a midwife to care for her as the ninth moon drew closer, Sansa feared she might die without ever knowing anything was wrong.

"I will sail along the shore in our fastest ship," Theon promised her. "I will go no further than Greywater Watch. With Howland Reed's help, I will find a midwife to return with me."

Sansa knew better than to argue with him: no one else could be trusted to make the trip. She asked Theon if she could travel with him, but he reminded her that every Northerner believed Ned Stark's daughters were stolen away by the Ironborn and would do anything to return her to Winterfell if they caught sight of her on the mainland.

"Everyone in the North knows you by your beauty," he noted with a smile. "None outside Winterfell will know who I am." He ran a finger down her cheek. "And more importantly, if anything were to happen to the ship on the way, I want you and the baby to be safe."

Sansa didn't want to think about it. She pushed the thought from her mind and refused its entry for the rest of the night.

This was the only way.