"What?" Eddard felt as though a cold wind had jolted him awake, chilling him to the bone.
"Is it serious?" Eddard asked anxiously.
Ser Barristan Selmy's face twitched. "It was a demon. Please come with me, Lord Eddard."
Grief weighed on Eddard's heart as he hurried after Barristan and Jon toward the king's tent.
"What is that?" Eddard looked up and saw the blood-red comet in the sky. It was red all over, its long tail almost bright enough to light half the sky.
"The Red Comet. Some call it the king's messenger. But look, my lord, this is an ill omen." Ser Barristan Selmy sighed.
Eddard gazed at the red comet. The first thing the Red Comet had brought him was terrible news.
Chapter 154: Death and a will
Eddard walked in desperate haste, yet it felt like the longest road he had ever traveled, like the road that had led him to see his sister for the last time.
"This was the boar." Ser Barristan Selmy pointed at the boar's carcass some distance outside the king's tent. The stench of blood assailed them.
"Old Gods." Eddard's face went white. It was the fiercest boar he had ever seen, with two long tusks and an enormous body that looked like a great bear of the North. More importantly, the dark red blood on its tusks and hide showed how deeply the king had been wounded and how fierce the struggle had been.
"Where was the king wounded?" Eddard could not help asking.
"Lord Eddard, I have never seen such grave wounds. The boar's tusks tore the king open from his groin to his chest," Ser Barristan Selmy said quietly.
Eddard stared at Ser Barristan Selmy in silence.
"I know what you wish to ask, Lord Eddard." Ser Barristan Selmy's