Last chance for honour

Chapter 34

"You told me you needed me here, with you and Tommen" Jamie raised his voice "and now you're asking me to leave and take back Riverrun?" Cersei waited a moment before speaking "the Freys are our allies, you'll take back Riverrun, to remind Westeros what Lannisters are, and what we do to our enemies" there was a rage clouded in her voice.

Jamie didn't care about the Freys, the Lannisters didn't need them, he knew his sister knew that. He couldn't understand why she didn't want him at her trial. He was the only one that knew the real her, the side that loved her children. He wished how he could take away all the poison and hatred from her. He had know her all his life, he had loved her all his life, a love he thought he couldn't live without before Sansa.

"I told you I needed you, I didn't say I only needed you here... You need to show the strength of the crown, of the Lannisters, you will sit at the head of our army and take that castle back, because it's ours and you can" she was stood in front of him now, her head raised looking at him. "For Tommen" she grasped her hands around his arms gently, trying to pull him closer to her. Jamie raised his head, looking away from his sister.

She pulled herself into him, resting her head against his chest. He couldn't bare to look at her, being this close to someone only reminded him of Sansa, of her gentle touch. It hurt to even think her name.

"She's gone Jamie, forget about her. I'm here, just like I always have been".

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Sansa looked around the courtyard, filled with Boltons, Karstarks and Umbers. She watched Lord Umber talking to his men, she could still feel that burning rage that resided in her. He did this, she remembered the first time she saw him. He had sworn his house to the Starks and this is how he honoured that oath. She remembered the feast, the day he arrived in Winterfell, she remembered him laughing with her father and Robb, she remembered him taking her hand and saying to her father "she's a beauty Ned, a perfect image of her mother." She remembered how she had smiled at those words, and thought him a kind, honourable and loyal man.

Now she wanted him dead.

Sansa followed Ramsey down the steps, walking past Lord Umber, she didn't give him the grace of looking at him. She followed him down the steps till they were underneath the castle. He stopped at the door, two guards unlocked it. "There... as promised" he smiled at Sansa. She walked past him and down the few steps that led to the dungeons.

The room was dark, she could barely make out the bars in the darkness. The only sound she could hear was the whimpering of her little brother, alone and afraid. She walked past a few empty cells until she reached the one that was tightly locked. He was curled up tightly in the corner, with his head buried into his chest, resting on his knees. It hurt to see him like this.

"Rickon" his eyes snapped up, as if he expected someone else. He remained frozen to the spot, unable to move. She knelt down her hands wrapped around the bars. "It's Sansa... Do you remember?" He slowly nodded his head. She looked at his face, it was covered in blood. He started to come closer to the bars, crawling as he used to when he was young. He threw him self against the bars in Sansa's direction. She grasped him tightly in her arms, almost as thought the bars had disappeared.

"You need to do as he says, he won't hurt you as much that way" she strained her words, hearing them echo around the dungeon walls. "I'm frightened Sansa, please make it stop, I don't want him to hurt me anymore" his crying he turned into howling.

She wasn't stupid she knew Ramsey had someone watching and listening. She pulled Rickon close to her, "listen to me, I'm going to get you out of here, you have to trust me, I'm not going to let him hurt you again" her words were barely a whisper, but she knew he had heard them from his grip tightening around her arms. "I'm your sister and I'm going to protect you" her lips barely moved, she couldn't risk anyone but Rickon hearing. "You are a Stark, we will survive this".

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Jamie laid awake in the darkness, he could hear his men outside through the tent drinking and shouting at one another. He thought of how simpler his life would be without love, perhaps he would have been a better person if he hadn't loved his sister. He tried to think of what he could have been if he had never had loved Sansa. She was the only person whose love felt right. He could bare to think of himself without that love, even if it wasn't real anymore.

He remembered how he wanted to protect her, to help heal what his family had done to hers, at first he felt as though it was his duty, his last chance of honour to care for her. But it was his love for her, he wished more than ever that she was here lying next to him right now.

The more he thought about her the more it hurt, he remembered the night she had told him she loved him. It wasn't like the repeated phrase she spoke to Joffrey. It was real, he could almost see the way she was looking at him as she said it.

How could a love that felt so real be shattered into nothing?

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