The Knight of the Laughing Tree

By the time Viserys arrived at Harrenhal with the royal party, the entire castle was already bustling with voices.

The banners of the great houses flew from the battlements: the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen, the direwolf of House Stark in the North, the roaring lion of House Lannister in the Westerlands, the trout of House Tully in the Riverlands, the moon-and-falcon banner of House Arryn in the Vale, the golden rose of House Tyrell in the Reach, the crowned stag of House Baratheon in the Stormlands, and the golden spear piercing a red sun of House Martell in Dorne.

There were many other banners as well. Almost all the nobility of the Seven Kingdoms had gathered here. After several days of rest, the tournament finally began.

Viserys had been given the best seat in the main stand, beside the gloomy "Mad King" Aerys and several great lords.

The Mad King kept drumming his fingers against the armrest, his gaze sweeping the crowd as though a plot for rebellion lurked behind every smile. This was his first time leaving the Red Keep since the rebellion at Duskendale.

Before the rebellion at Duskendale, the Mad King had actually been fairly normal. He had even fought in the War of the Ninepenny Kings. His earlier failing had been a certain fondness for other men's wives. It was precisely this fondness that led him to take an interest in the lord's wife at Duskendale, only to be seized by the lord and imprisoned and tortured for half a year. In the end, Barristan rescued him single-handedly. After that, however, his temperament changed drastically, and he began to show signs of becoming the Mad King.

Viserys knew why he had come this time: Varys had told him that Rhaegar intended to meet the lords from across the realm at the tournament and secretly discuss removing him from the throne. Viserys had been keeping Varys under constant surveillance.

Just as the tournament opened, the Mad King Aerys suddenly announced before everyone that Lord Tywin's eldest son, Jaime Lannister, would join the Kingsguard. Becoming a member of the Kingsguard meant giving up both inheritance rights and marriage.

Tywin prized his eldest son more than anything. Now that Jaime had been cloaked in white, it was as good as cutting off Tywin's line. After all, Tywin would sooner pass his title to his brother Kevan Lannister than to his dwarf son Tyrion. The two men had already been on bad terms, and now their relationship broke down completely. Tywin left on the spot and returned to the Westerlands.

Despite this interruption, the tournament continued.

Once the contests began, everyone grew more interested, Viserys included. After all, there was little entertainment in this world, and the few things that interested him were still beyond his reach. He could usually only pass the time with training and magic, but even that grew dull after a while. The tournament gave him something worth watching. War might break out afterward, but that did not stop him from enjoying the contests now.

Viserys's gaze swept over the noisy tournament grounds, then caught on a knight who had just entered.

The figure looked rather comical: a small, slight frame encased in obviously ill-fitting armor, like a child who had stolen an adult's clothes. The armor itself was a jumble of mismatched pieces, with rusty mail beneath a few unrelated plates. Even the old horse beneath the knight looked listless.

What truly made Viserys's heart skip, however, was the shield in the knight's hand. Against its white field stood the simple, striking outline of a weirwood, with a grinning red face on its trunk that seemed strangely eerie. He knew that device all too well. It belonged to the mysterious Knight of the Laughing Tree from the original story.

Viserys unconsciously straightened in his seat. In his previous life, he had read countless theories on online forums about this mysterious knight's identity.

The most popular theory held that the knight was Lyanna Stark. Supposedly, after witnessing several noble squires bullying Howland Reed, she had disguised herself as a knight to stand up for the little crannogman. That certainly suited her temperament, with its wolf blood.

Others confidently insisted that the Knight of the Laughing Tree was Howland Reed himself. In that version, Howland Reed had received help from the Children of the Forest on the Isle of Faces, become exceptionally powerful overnight, and returned to take his revenge in person.

Some even speculated that it was fourteen-year-old Benjen Stark, whose motives would have been the same as Lyanna's.

Now that mystery stood before him in the flesh, but with the visor in the way, no one could see whose face lay behind it.

Just as in the original story, the Knight of the Laughing Tree used superb horsemanship and skilled lance work to defeat three knights in succession. They were the nobles served by the squires who had bullied the crannogman: the Boar Knight, the Pitchfork Knight, and the Knight of the Two Towers, from House Brune, House Haigh, and House Frey respectively.

After winning, the mysterious knight did not take their equipment, merely telling them to keep their squires in line from then on. The Knight of the Laughing Tree's outstanding performance also drew the Mad King's attention. He was already deeply suspicious, and the fact that this knight's identity remained unknown infuriated him.

After the day's contests ended, Aerys ordered the Knight of the Laughing Tree summoned and demanded that the knight remove the helm and reveal an identity. But the knight refused to yield simply because he was king, insisting that only defeat would earn anyone a glimpse of the face beneath the helm. Two knights immediately stepped forward to issue challenges. One belonged to House Baratheon, the other to House Lonmouth, whose arms were a crowned stag and a pattern of skulls and kisses respectively.

When the jousting began the next day, both knights were ready and waiting for the Knight of the Laughing Tree to enter. Before long, however, a squire reported that the mysterious knight had vanished. Furious, Aerys ordered Rhaegar to bring the knight back.

Rhaegar followed the hoofprints into the woods beside the Gods Eye. In less than half a day, he found his quarry at a secluded bend in a stream. Yet the sight before him made him freeze.

A young girl was bathing in the stream, droplets sliding from her long, dark brown hair and tracing the contours of her youthful, athletic figure. On the grass along the bank lay the rusty armor and the shield with the laughing face.

Hearing the hoofbeats, the girl spun around. Their eyes met, and Rhaegar immediately recognized the beautiful face he had seen before. The Knight of the Laughing Tree was Lyanna Stark.

"Turn around!" the girl snapped, embarrassed and angry.

Rhaegar silently turned his horse, listening to the rustle of clothes behind him. "All right." When he turned back, Lyanna was dressed, though her wet hair still clung to her cheeks. Embarrassment and irritation mingled in her gray eyes.

The two sat facing each other on smooth stones beside the stream, the atmosphere awkward. Lyanna lowered her head and clasped her hands, the tips of her ears turning red. The "flower of the North," famed for her wolf blood, finally showed the bashfulness of a girl her age.

"I never imagined that knight was you." Rhaegar was unusually at a loss.

Lyanna raised her head. "Now you know. Are you going to take me back to answer to the king?"

Silence stretched between them, but the awkwardness soon gave way to another feeling. Lyanna stole glances at Rhaegar, remembering the night she arrived at Harrenhal. This was the man who had played his harp at the feast, singing so mournfully and movingly that even a northern girl like her, who rarely cried, had felt her eyes redden.

"The song you sang that night," she said softly, a little shyly, "was beautiful. And very moving."

Gradually, they began to talk more freely. Lyanna spoke of her betrothed, Robert, who had enjoyed visiting whores from a young age and already had several bastards. He had even tried to lead her upright, straitlaced brother Ned astray.

"Father says it's a political marriage," she said scornfully. "But wolf blood runs through my veins. I won't spend my whole life like that."

Rhaegar watched the outspoken girl before him, remembering how she had dared to enter the tournament in disguise just to protect a crannogman.

"If you're willing, I want to be your lover." Lyanna stared at Rhaegar with fervent eyes.

Rhaegar was momentarily taken aback. This flower of the North certainly lived up to her reputation for being unrestrained. But he had to admit that he, too, was deeply drawn to this unusual girl.

After a long silence, Rhaegar replied quietly, "If we become lovers, our children will bear the stigma of bastardy forever."

At last, he turned his head and looked solemnly at Lyanna. "If you're willing, I'll dissolve my marriage to Elia and take you as my lawful wife."

Lyanna's eyes widened in surprise. Rhaegar continued, a note of obsession in his voice. "After giving birth to Aegon, Elia can no longer bear children. But the prophecy clearly says that 'the dragon has three heads,' so I must have three children."

He reached out and gently touched Lyanna's cheek. "I can't let our children be bastards. Even if I have to break the law and anger Dorne and the entire realm, I will make you my wife."

His shocking words left Lyanna breathless. She understood what they meant. Bigamy was a grave crime in the Seven Kingdoms and would not be recognized by the Faith, but dissolving a marriage on one's own was not permitted either.

She could only urge Rhaegar to stop. A secret marriage would be enough for her. She did not care about those things; even being only his lover would do.

Rhaegar, however, promised her that he would persuade Elia.

Then he took the shield bearing the laughing weirwood back to camp and told Aerys that the knight had disappeared. He had found only a shield.

But Rhaegar could never have guessed that a pair of eyes in the sky had watched everything he had done.