But the ice magic of the icy longsword had still frozen half of Robb's body stiff.
The female Other, who had been lying motionless in the stone coffin, twitched the fingers resting at her side again. A new icy longsword appeared and thrust toward Robb's heart.
Viserys, however, had been watching her all along. How could he let her succeed? The Blackfyre Sword swept sideways again, and the moment Valyrian steel met the icy longsword, the magic within the steel shattered the newly formed blade into ice fragments scattered across the floor.
Although Viserys had never intended to let Robb survive, he had no intention of letting him die just yet. After all, he had only gained Robb's trust with considerable effort, securing the North's full support for his confrontation with the Others at the Wall.
If Robb fell here today, the North would be leaderless for some time. The wavering Stark bannermen and the ambitious House Bolton might well turn on one another outright.
Then his entire plan to unite them against the Others might fall apart, and shipments of supplies to the Night's Watch and the Free Folk at the Wall would probably be delayed as well.
Then the female Other slowly opened eyes that might have been shut for thousands of years. They were ice blue, far deeper and colder than those of Others such as Benjen.
Her gaze first passed over the shattered ice on the floor, then swept across Robb, who had collapsed to one side, before settling lightly on the Blackfyre Sword in Viserys's hand.
Viserys immediately pulled Ygritte behind him and held the Blackfyre Sword across his chest. His knuckles turned pale with the force of his grip. What he had feared most had happened after all.
But he also noticed a trace