Eddard was shaken, though not by Robert's complaints about Stannis. He knew the two brothers did not get along. It was the dragons that troubled him.
He had heard scattered rumors about the Dragonlord in the east, but he had never imagined Robert would be so worried about him. News rarely reached the North, after all. Apart from White Harbor, there was almost nowhere to gather intelligence, so he still knew little about the power of dragons.
If dragons truly were that terrifying, then the threat facing the Seven Kingdoms far outweighed their internal struggles.
Robert saw his hesitation. "Think of Lyanna. If she were still alive, would she want you hiding in Winterfell, watching the Seven Kingdoms descend into chaos until the Targaryens returned with dragons to take their revenge? Come help me."
Eddard felt as though he could not breathe. He had never expected Robert to invoke the dead to plead with him. He looked at his sister's stone likeness and thought that, were she still alive, she might well return with the Targaryens and their dragons to take revenge on Robert herself.
But he would never say that aloud. His chivalrous sense of duty also made him feel that he and his family owed Robert a debt.
"I'm no good at the games they play in the south, Robert. You know that."
"I don't need you to understand those damned games."
Robert spoke urgently. "I just need you sitting there, watching them with that damned sense of honor of yours. Let those maggots know there's still a northerner beside the king who speaks the truth. I'm not asking you. I'm commanding you, as your king and as your brother."
Eddard looked at the face before him, at once familiar and strange. His guilt toward Robert finally led