Carliene Stark

Chapter 20

Carliene

I dreamt I was a wolf again. But this time was not pleasant. I wasn't free like in my usual dreams, but rather locked up in some wooden pen, with a roof keeping me from jumping out. Iron bars at the top let in the old light. There were men around me, I could smell them and hear them. Their sweat, their drink, their loud noises. They sounded content, still I was nervous. Something was wrong and I turned and twisted in the cage, growling and scratching at the wood. There were sudden screams from the men outside and it set the hair on my back stand on end. They howled in unrest as the smell of blood filled the air. I snarled and jumped against my confinements, wanting to tear my teeth into those attacking my pack. But the wooden walls would not yield. As the screams faded I could hear footsteps closing on, their boots squishing through the mud. I snarled as they looked through the iron bars, pointing wood at me. I bared my teeth and howled at them in fury. But I could not get to them, I was trapped in a pen like livestock. Easy picking for any predator. Their sticks clicked and I yelped in pain. It tore into my back and my sides, I could feel in pulsating through my shoulder and stomach as war blood ran down my leg. Their sticks clicked again and I fell to the muddy ground. My breath growing shallow as I tasted my own blood. 

I sat up with a sudden bolt, gasping loudly into the night. It was dark and at first my mind had me believe I was still in my nightmare. The Kingslayer woke up beside me, trying to grab something from his nightstand with his missing had in reflex, loosing his balance and falling off the bed. "Seven hells" he cursed as he got up. 

I kicked the blankets from me and ran my hands over my body, my fingers searching all the places I had felt the arrows hit me. It was so real. The pain ha been real. 

"What in seven hells was that?" he asked as he climbed back into the bed. 

I swallowed, trying to calm my breathing, by hand still massaging my shoulder. It felt so real. So threatening. I could feel a hot tear run down my cheek and quickly wiped it away with the back of my hand, confused why I would cry. The Kingslayer sighed as I did not answer and lay back down with a yawn. I sat in the darkness, loosing all sense of time, unable to calm my breath and heartbeat. 

When sleep finally came, it was deep and dreamless and as I awoke I was alone in the chamber. The dim light of morning told me that the sunrise was only just upon us, still the Kingslayer seemed to have left already. Knowing that actually calmed me down and I stretched out in the large bed, before getting up. It seemed to be too early for the chambermaids as well since I once again had to dress myself. I went for a brown gown, embroiled with little roses and a beige bodice, along with a long-sleeved undershirt to cover up my arms and my chest. I opened my braid and decided to leave my hair in the curls that had formed over night. 

I half expected Ser Bronn to be waiting for me outside the chambers, but there were only the usual Lannister guards, who made no attempt on stopping me as I headed down the hall towards the dinning hall. I enjoyed how empty the castle was this early in the morning, though the servants were already hard at work. The washerwoman hanging white sheets in the yard and the steam coming from the kitchen pointing out that the kitchen staff was already preparing the meals for the day. I had expected the dinning hall to be deserted as well, bust to my dismay I met Lord Kevan already sitting at the long table, parchment among his breakfast plates. Sadly I had advanced already too far into the room to simply turn around and avoid him. 

His pale eyes met me briefly, a frown sprouting on his elderly face. Somehow the years seemed to have been less kind to him than to his elder brother. 

"Good morning" I greeted politely. 

"You're up early" he remarked, before looking back at his parchments.