The King of Winters

Chapter 41

Andrew

Andrew Stark stood beside the wooden frame near the grave, dressed all in white and grey, House Stark's colors. His fingers curled around the floral crown, the flowers and leaves all withered and turned to yellow and brown now.

There was no sun in the sky at dawn and even the beautiful garden turned dim and eerie today. The first light of day slanted down through the high trees, washing over the wooden frame in a red gloom. Her golden hair did not gleam in the light this time. Her fires had died out just like the way the sun would hide in a foggy day.

He wanted to run his hands through it, smell her sweet life in the golden locks, kiss those blood red lips and see the glitter in the green eyes of hers for one last time. But he couldn't bring himself to touch her. Not after what he had done. He killed her as much as the bowman did. He did it. The archer may have loosed the arrow that slew her, but it was him who pushed her away from one blade to the path of another.

Slynt had the right of it. I brought her into this the moment I saw myself in her room.

A cool breeze left the leaves rustling in the trees. Andrew was alone with Joy, amongst the trees and the breeze and the pleasant sweet smell of the flowers. His head ached from the hit of the wood, and his legs felt almost numb. His arms and back ached heavily with all the work he'd done to dig the grave. Frost sat leaning against the tree where he had kissed Joy once. The thought hurt more than any blade or arrow has ever done.

Slynt and his friends were lying down in the bottom of the canal, feeding the eels but they were just the tools that had made the sword which did the deed and the man who wielded it still lived in the Red Keep. Rhaegar was behind it, that much he knew. Janos Slynt had said that again and again before Andrew gutted him. 

His grief was so hard that it felt as if a hand was crushing his heart from the inside. It was queer, but he had no tears running down his cheeks. Even his tears has betrayed him like the gods had done. Perhaps there are no tears left in him for crying, he must have spent all of them in the past for his father and mother.

He had dressed Joy in her finest gown of blue myrish lace with the sleeves designed in the pattern of various leaves and vines and flowers. The cuffs of her sleeves were adorned with bright sapphires; her hands placed neatly over her stomach. Even in death she was beautiful, he thought, and kind. 

He gripped the crown tightly in his and placed it gently on her head. Grief choked him as it had never done before. Andrew caressed her cheeks one last time. The color had gone from them and she looked pale. It should've been me to lie down here now, not her. The gods have truly taken everything from him and left him as a shell to still live in this world. He closed his eyes once more, close those tears and the grief as he had done a hundred times before. He kissed her one last time, pressing his lips onto hers. Her kisses had always been warm but now her lips were cold.

Drops of tears slipped down his cheeks as he saw her for the last time, the woman he loved, the girl who made him happy, his love and his life. Andrew brushed off the tears in his sleeve, swallowed his grief and pressed his hand over the chain he had given her. His mother had given the pin to him and he had given it to Joy as a chain. Both of them were dead but he was still alive. He kissed her once more and with a heavy heart placed her in the grave. 

The rowing back was as quiet and sad as the grave. The wound was so fresh to think about anything else. Braavos stood hidden in the fogs and so was his life, hidden to him with all the grieving and mourning. There was nothing left for him in Braavos anymore, nothing left for him in his life. Nothing but his vengeance. Rhaegar was still alive while all his loved ones died on his actions and no matter how far he tried to move away from his life there will be blades and price over him and the ones around him. If the dragon thinks he can play the wolf he is very mistaken.