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"Why? The war has gone on this long, and you showed no intention of submitting before. Why suddenly take the initiative to join House Lannister now?"
Hearing Lord Jason's words, a strange light flashed through Lord Walder's eyes. His expression showed complete disbelief as he asked the question.
"Because Robb Stark has allied with those squids!
"You must understand Seagard's hatred for the squids. We have built countless blood feuds with them over centuries.
"Seagard will never fight shoulder to shoulder with beasts who burn, kill, and plunder!"
After hearing Lord Walder's question, Lord Jason's face filled with disgust, and he answered in a vicious tone.
"Mm, mm... because of the blood feud with the ironborn?"
Lord Walder smacked his lips a few times, as if savoring Jason's answer. After thinking for a moment, he seemed to accept the explanation and continued,
"Little Jason, if I introduce you to House Lannister, it is the same as standing surety for you. If you prove uncontrollable and something goes wrong, I will certainly be implicated. So..."
Hearing Lord Walder address him in that patronizing tone, Lord Jason seemed to understand his meaning. He immediately smiled and answered, "Our two houses have both betrayed House Tully and joined House Lannister. We will surely be rejected by the other Westerlands houses, so we naturally belong to the same camp.
"I will certainly follow Lord Walder's lead, obey your commands in all things, and cause no trouble."
"Heh heh. I like clever men like you. Ah, I remember you have a son, yes?"
Lord Walder slowly rose from the black oak chair, walked up to Lord Jason, patted him on the shoulder in praise, then raised the matter of his son.
"Yes, Lord Walder. My son is named Patrek Mallister, and he is Seagard's only heir."
Lord Jason nodded and answered the old man whose hand rested on his shoulder.
"Your only heir? Then you should work harder. Take more wives, have more sons.
"Heh heh. I suggest marrying young maidens in the bloom of youth. Their honey is sweetest at that age."
Lord Walder began advising Jason to have more sons. By the end, a knowing smile appeared on his wrinkled old face, and he licked his lips.
"Of course, having fewer sons has its benefits. It saves them from all waiting for you to die so they can inherit.
"Our Frey whelps are too numerous. The castle can hardly hold them anymore. Especially the daughters. I truly wish I could marry a few off quickly!"
Without waiting for Lord Jason to answer, Lord Walder kept chatting, though his eyes never left him.
The hint in Lord Walder's words was already so obvious that Lord Jason could hardly fail to understand. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly, and he bowed. "Lord Walder, I have also been worrying over my son's marriage. If you permit it, our two houses can be joined by marriage."
"You ask for a marriage alliance? Mm. I permit it. Heh heh. I have several daughters who are not bad-looking. You can bring your son to choose. I do not mind."
Hearing Lord Jason's words, Lord Walder first pretended to be surprised, then considered briefly and nodded with a smile.
"Then tomorrow I will return and bring my son here. Once he decides which daughter of yours it will be, our two houses can settle the betrothal."
"No problem."
After Lord Walder and Lord Jason roughly settled the marriage alliance, their relationship seemed to grow much closer. Seeing that his goal had basically been achieved, Lord Jason said, "Lord Walder, why do I not accompany you to look at the sculpture of the Twins I had specially made for you?"
"Very well... someone! Is there anyone outside still breathing?"
Lord Walder nodded directly, then shouted toward the door of the audience hall.
Black Walder, who had been waiting outside, quickly walked in and saluted. "Great-grandfather, I am here. What are your orders?"
"That sculpture is at the southern castle, yes? Have them bring it to the northern castle.
"And Lord Jason's soldiers must be tired after pulling it so far. Make the handoff outside the southern castle. Our own men will pull it over.
"Remember to send Seagard's soldiers wine and food to reward them."
"Yes, my lord!"
After receiving the order, Black Walder saluted Lord Walder and Lord Jason in turn, then hurried toward the southern castle.
The bridge between the two castles was not short. It took a while before Black Walder arrived at the southern gate.
He understood the distrust hidden in Lord Walder's words, so he did not directly order the castle gate opened. Instead, he opened a small door wide enough for one man and walked out toward the Seagard soldiers waiting silently outside.
"I am passing on Lord Jason's order. He wants you to pull this sculpture to the castle gate, then return here and wait. Someone will bring you wine and food."
As soon as he stood before the nearly three hundred Seagard soldiers, Black Walder spoke to a young officer among them whose bearing was clearly different from the rest.
The young officer had blue eyes, a scarred face, and a sturdy build. In a hoarse voice, he asked, "My lord, are we not pulling it inside? The sculpture's base is solid wood. It is heavy."
"No need. I will call more men."
"Then we will pull it to the castle gate. After that, we will trouble you, my lord."
The young officer nodded and answered Black Walder.
"Mm. What is your name? Are you of House Mallister too?"
Looking at the young officer, whose speech and manner were obviously different from common soldiers, Black Walder asked curiously.
"My name is Joffrey Rivers. I am a bastard of House Mallister."
"Mm. No wonder you feel different from those rough soldiers."
Hearing the bastard's answer, Black Walder nodded and paid him no more attention, because the Seagard soldiers had already begun pulling the twin-tower sculpture.
The young officer called Joffrey secretly glanced at Black Walder, then at the Frey soldiers standing alert atop the southern castle. With a smile on his face, he began chatting casually with Black Walder.
The Seagard soldiers delivered the sculpture to the southern gate. The wary Frey soldiers did not open the gate until Joffrey and Black Walder completed the handoff and returned to their previous position.
Only then did the southern gate of the Twins slowly open. More than two hundred Frey soldiers streamed out, pulled the ropes, lifted the rolling logs, and began dragging the twin-tower sculpture into the castle.
Lord Jason's sculpture seemed to have been made exactly to match the height of the Twins' gate. It could be pulled straight into the castle.
Heave-ho, heave-ho!
With the Frey soldiers pulling with all their strength, the sculpture was quickly dragged inside. Then the southern castle gate was tightly closed again.
The bastard Joffrey watched the gate close once more. The corner of his mouth curved into a smile, and he murmured, "What a contradictory house. So cautious, yet so greedy.
"But greed is the root of many disasters."
"Lord Walder, the shape of this sculpture was modeled completely after the Twins. The two broad, thick vertical legs represent the strong castles on the north and south banks, while the thin connection in the middle represents the bridge!"
Standing with Lord Walder on the terrace of the northern castle, Lord Jason introduced the sculpture to him.
The twin-tower sculpture moving across the bridge of the Twins was shaped overall like the letter H. Perhaps to support the form, the two vertical legs on either side were especially thick, while the middle connection was relatively thin.
"Mm. I would rather know whether all those shining things on it are..."
Looking at the sculpture glittering under the sun, Lord Walder's attention clearly was not on its form, but on its decorations.
"Yes, Lord Walder. Its surface is entirely ornamented with gold and various gems. If one were to estimate its value roughly, it would be around two hundred thousand gold dragons."
Lord Jason knew what he wanted to ask and directly stated the sculpture's approximate value.
"Two hundred thousand gold dragons!"
Hearing the number, Lord Walder, who had always been able to keep his composure, raised his voice despite himself. He turned his head and stared at Lord Jason.
"I never knew Seagard was so wealthy. I truly underestimated you."
"Lord Walder, you did not underestimate us. We live in a place constantly harassed by squids. How could we have so much gold and so many gems?"
Lord Jason gave a self-mocking smile, then seemed to think for a moment before gritting his teeth and continuing,
"This wealth came from an ironborn longship we captured. By my guess, it should be plunder taken by the King in the North and the squids from the Westerlands."
"Heh. You intercepted the wolf pup's and the squids' wealth, knew it was too hot to hold, so you used the excuse of joining House Lannister to hand it over to me?"
Lord Walder sneered, as if he had seen through Lord Jason's true intent. He continued,
"If our houses were not about to join by marriage, would you have planned to tell me this?"
"Lord Walder, I..."
"Enough. I will not hold it against you. Heh heh. If you have more wealth this hot, send it all to me."
Looking at Lord Jason's embarrassed expression, Lord Walder waved a hand and turned back toward the lovely glitter of gold and gems, murmuring to himself.
Behind him, Lord Jason's embarrassed look vanished like a mask, replaced by a silent sneer.
"Ah!"
A Frey soldier pushing the twin-tower sculpture tried to pocket something and was suddenly kicked hard to the ground, crying out.
"What are you looking at? Keep pulling!"
Black Walder frowned and shouted at the soldiers who turned to look. The others immediately turned back and continued pulling the sculpture.
"Lord Walder, I... I..."
The soldier looked at Black Walder, so nervous that he could barely speak.
"Hand it over."
Black Walder stretched his hand before the soldier and said in a low voice.
The soldier on the ground hurriedly took a pure, dazzling ruby from his left sleeve and placed it in Black Walder's hand.
"Heh. What a beautiful ruby. It should be worth quite a bit. You have good eyes."
Black Walder lifted the ruby toward the sun and examined it carefully, praising him.
"I..."
Rip!
The soldier was just about to beg for mercy when Black Walder drew his sword with lightning speed and cut open his throat.
Stagger, stagger, stagger!
The soldier, attacked without warning, clutched his neck and stumbled back until he reached the edge of the bridge.
Black Walder raised one large foot and kicked him into the swift Green Fork below.
After doing all this, he wiped the blood from his sword with a handkerchief and sheathed it. Then, with practiced ease, he hid the fine ruby in his own sleeve.
The twin-tower sculpture was soon dragged beneath the northern tower of the Twins. After Lord Walder personally inspected the gold and gems on its surface, he ordered Black Walder to lead men in collecting every last piece of this astonishing wealth.
The Frey soldiers busied themselves carefully prying off gold and gems. Lord Walder held a welcome feast for Lord Jason in the hall where there would now never be a Red Wedding.
Night gradually fell. The gold and gems on the surface had been stripped clean, leaving the twin-tower sculpture covered in pits of every size as it stood quietly beneath the northern tower.
After losing the astonishing wealth that had adorned it, the sculpture's importance plummeted. Only four Frey soldiers remained on guard to either side.
Ah... choo!
One Frey soldier standing on the left side of the sculpture sneezed loudly and shivered in the cold.
Perhaps it was an illusion, but he felt the air around him beginning to cool.
He heard a faint sound. The Frey soldier wiped his runny nose with the back of his hand, then turned to the source.
He saw that on the left leg of the twin-tower sculpture, over the dark wooden outer shell, a fine layer of white particles had appeared. It looked somewhat like the frost on winter mornings.
Crack, crack, crack!
On the wooden shell of the sculpture's left leg, the frost thickened and spread. In the end, it condensed into a thin layer of ice crystals.
"Uh..."
The Frey soldier, already somewhat sick, was now full of disbelief. This was a warm long summer night. How could the left side of the sculpture be icing over?
He wanted to call the other guards, but he did not know what to say. Should he tell them to beware a sculpture growing ice?
Better to look more carefully.
As the thought rose, the Frey soldier unconsciously stepped closer to the sculpture, widened his eyes, and leaned his head in to study the strange ice.
Crack!
The moment his head approached the frozen left leg, a furry wolf paw broke through the wooden shell, now like glass. The sharp claws on the paw sank deep into his face.
The Frey soldier, suddenly struck so heavily, immediately let out a heart-rending scream, startling the other three guards nearby.
Crack!
The other three guards had only just turned to see the screaming soldier when the fully frozen wooden shell on the sculpture's left leg burst apart. Ice shards flew in every direction.
A huge monster wreathed in white mist appeared before them. Its right paw stomped down hard, crushing the screaming soldier beneath it and ending his shrieks at once.
"What is that thing?"
"A monstrous giant wolf! The King in the North's monstrous giant wolf!"
"No! The King in the North is attacking the Twins!"
When the three Frey soldiers saw Bloodwind, they immediately realized this was the monstrous giant wolf of the King in the North, recently spread through every rumor.
Bloodwind had been trapped inside the dark, oppressive sculpture for nearly a day, and his mood was foul. It reminded him of the unpleasant memory of being shut inside the special wagon two or three months ago.
After stomping the noisy Frey soldier beneath him to death, the direwolf, white mist swirling around his body, charged swiftly at the other three Frey soldiers.
One Frey soldier standing outside was knocked flying by Bloodwind. The other two were not so lucky.
Struck by Bloodwind's terrifying jaws and sharp claws, one died and one was maimed at once.
Chatter, chatter, chatter!
The soldier knocked away had not been struck hard enough to suffer a serious injury. But after brushing against the white mist around Bloodwind, his whole body had been frozen stiff, his mouth trembling uncontrollably, his teeth clicking together.
Bloodwind shook his jaws, flinging away the half corpse he had bitten through, then lowered his head and finished off the Frey soldier on the ground whose legs had been sheared away by his claws.
He turned his crystal-clear eyes toward the last soldier, who had been frozen too stiff to move properly, and padded toward him.
The Frey soldier, as if under a freezing spell, was so stiff he could not control even his facial expression. Only the terror in his eyes kept rising until it swallowed him.
Clack!
The wooden shell of the right leg of the twin-tower sculpture was torn away by one swipe of Bloodwind's paw. Gendry, curled up inside with a long-handled warhammer, saw that the time had come and excitedly climbed out.
Bloodwind had been hidden in the left side of the sculpture, while Gendry and nine brave Winterfell warriors had hidden in the right.
"Quick, I think the screams came from below!"
After all of them climbed out, the first soldier's scream had already alerted the guards on the northern castle, who began coming down toward the bridge.
Now that they had entered the Twins, Bloodwind could probably have slowly slaughtered the whole castle by himself if allowed to go all out.
But he was Robb's blood pact companion. He firmly carried out Robb's command, turning with Gendry and the others toward the southern castle.
At the southern gate of the Twins, the Frey soldiers on the wall discovered that the Seagard soldiers who had camped quietly outside the gate were rising and coming toward it.
"Something is wrong. Go notify Lord Walder!"
The captain guarding the southern gate frowned as he watched their movement and ordered the guard beside him.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The guard beside him nodded and had not taken two steps before a rain of arrows fell from the sky ahead. One arrow struck him directly in the head. He fell, blood flowing from beneath his corpse.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Ring the bell! Ring the bell!"
The captain of the southern gate reacted and immediately shouted at the other guards.
Dong, dong, dong!
The Twins' peace was shattered by the alarm bell. Many members of House Frey were shocked and had no idea how to respond.
After all, to them, the sturdy Twins had never been attacked in centuries.
"Ah! Something is coming across the bridge. It is so fast!"
On the southern castle wall, the captain was having nearly a hundred Frey soldiers with crossbows return fire at the Seagard soldiers outside the gate when a cry came from behind him.
He immediately turned toward the bridge. A huge white blur was rushing toward the southern gate at terrifying speed and was nearly on them.
"Twenty crossbowmen, shoot that white thing! Quick!"
Clearly sensing that the white blur was no good thing, the captain immediately organized crossbowmen to attack it.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The twenty crossbowmen fired a volley, but it had no effect at all.
The white blur seemed to know they were attacking. Though it looked huge, it was astonishingly agile, turning in advance and avoiding every bolt.
After dodging the crossbow bolts, the white blur, already close to the southern gate, rushed beneath the wall. Immediately, miserable screams began rising from below.
Gulp.
Hearing the sounds from beneath the wall, the captain did not even have the courage to lean over and look. He swallowed nervously and shouted to the crossbowmen, "Aim at the stairs. That white thing will come up from there!"
"Y-yes!"
The crossbowmen, reloading their weapons, stammered their answer.
They were just as nervous. Fear of the unknown covered their hearts like a shadow.
Several minutes later, the screams below the wall stopped one after another, leaving dead silence.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
A black shape flew out from the stairway. The tense crossbowmen pulled their triggers at once, sending bolts at it.
The black shape fell onto the wall. It was a Frey soldier's corpse, covered in blood and bristling with crossbow bolts.
Before the crossbowmen could reload, the white blur leapt from the stairway right after it and landed among them, beginning a merciless slaughter.
Seeing the crossbowmen die one after another, the captain fled toward the rear of the wall in panic. While running for his life, he looked back and finally saw clearly that the white blur was a terrifying giant wolf wreathed in white mist.
The white blur was naturally Bloodwind. After the ambush outside King's Landing, he had remembered crossbows well.
When he was attacked by crossbows on the bridge, he had already prepared his hunting tactic. It was the old trick of throwing a corpse to draw the bolts, then seizing the chance to attack.
As expected, the crossbowmen took the bait, and Bloodwind easily slaughtered them all.
So it did not matter if a trick was old, so long as it worked.
When Gendry, breathing hard and holding his long-handled warhammer, ran to the southern gate, Bloodwind had already dealt with every Frey soldier who dared resist and had taken the southern castle.
The clever Frey soldiers who threw away their weapons and knelt in surrender were still kneeling on the ground, not daring to rise.
If Bloodwind had possessed nimble human fingers and could open the southern gate, there would have been no need for Gendry and the others.
Clack, clack, clack!
The southern gate of the Twins was opened by Gendry and his men. The first to enter was the bastard Joffrey.
Seeing him enter the gate, Bloodwind immediately jumped before him, wagging his steel-whip-like tail so hard it cut through the air as he begged for praise.
"Bloodwind, well done!
"Brothers, this castle is ours now. We should not casually damage our own property."
The man scratched Bloodwind's chin with one hand and tore the disguise from his face with the other, revealing his true appearance.
He was the King in the North, Robb Stark.
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