The King's Castle

"So the landlady of the Inn at the Crossroads really is called Martha?"

Titus asked, looking utterly astonished.

"Yes. Her surname is Haigh. She's a fat woman who chews tobacco from morning till night."

Eddard jumped in with the answer, as usual.

Robert added:

"The landlady's hair has already gone gray, but she certainly cooks a fine meal, and the inn's home-brewed ale is wonderfully rich... What, a southerner like you knows an innkeeper in the Riverlands?"

The two brothers had been discussing the Vale delegation's route and the inns they had stayed at along the way. They did not understand why he was making such a fuss.

Having confirmed the landlady's name, the Earl of Starpike could only think, Good grief!

That name alone deserves a little more respect. What if Landlady Martha has two boys someday and names them Clark and Bruce?

The danger level would be off the charts.

That day, Titus and the others chatted and laughed, then raced their horses along the Gods Eye again.

Eddard's little red horse was good, but Titus's Black Pearl was better. Robert, who once again came in dead last, felt thoroughly embarrassed and, as usual, blamed his defeat on his horse being inferior.

He was particularly fond of Titus's magnificent black steed and had even proposed swapping mounts with the boy for a race, only to be firmly refused.

The third brother is supposed to ride the black horse. Nothing wrong with that.

Having failed to secure a change of horses, Robert pursed his lips and moved on to other subjects.

From Eddard, who could never keep his mouth shut, Titus learned that Robert had once slept with a maid at the Eyrie and fathered a bastard daughter. The little black-haired girl, named Mya, was now two years old.

Perhaps the nobles of Westeros had long since grown accustomed to such things, or perhaps Eddard and Robert's brotherly bond was strong enough. Whatever the reason, Titus saw no sign that the brother-in-law held any dissatisfaction toward his sister's intended husband.

Vast as the Gods Eye was, it still had an end.

The riders soon saw the lake water turn green, with many black swans resting in its warm waters, and knew they were nearly there.

Titus wondered whether he should first visit the Isle of Faces in the middle of the lake.

At the end of the Dawn Age.

Through the intervention of farsighted individuals on both sides, the First Men, who had entered Westeros by way of the Arm of Dorne, and the Children of the Forest, the continent's native inhabitants, had signed a pact on this island to end the war they had waged against one another for centuries.

To celebrate that hard-won peace, a face had been carved into every weirwood on the island, so that the Old Gods could witness the making of the pact.

After the peace treaty was signed, the mysterious order of the Green Men had also come into being, charged specifically with guarding this weirwood-covered island in the lake.

Titus had good reason to believe that there were Skinchangers on this island, and probably quite a few of them...

He was weighing the risks of visiting the island when Oswin's singing interrupted him:

Vines entwined the withered wood,

Over the earl's grave they grew.

The black old castle lay desolate,

Overgrown with weeds and earth.

Whose footsteps sounded, faint and hazy?

White candles warmed the empty room...

Bored along the way, Titus had used rumors of Harrenhal's haunting to tell everyone ghost stories. He had also taught them a song that he claimed to have heard from a bard from an island in the southeastern seas.

The loud-voiced Ironborn had taken a liking to it the moment he heard it and often showed off his singing voice among the party.

Titus shook his head. You used to be in the Kingswood boy band. You ought to stick to the street-bro, gangsta-rap style. What's with all this pointless moaning? Not real at all. No wonder the Ironborn haven't been getting anywhere these past few years.

In truth, rumors of hauntings and curses had persisted ever since Harrenhal was burned by Dragonfire.

Their source was the brutal Harren, known as Black Harren.

When House Hoare's male line had died out, House Volmark of Harlaw had claimed that, because one of their ancestors was a sister of Harwin "Hardhand" Hoare, they had inherited the Hoare bloodline and throne, and were therefore entitled to inherit the half-ruined Harrenhal as well.

Aegon the Conqueror had naturally had no need to pay the Volmarks any heed, while the current rulers of the Ironborn, House Greyjoy of Pyke, were even more scornful of their claim.

Titus, who was well read in history, was rather more interested in whether that sister of Harwin Hoare had been named Audrey.

From the books in Starpike's library, he had learned that House Hoare, which had risen from Oakmont, had once been quite formidable.

Harras "Limp-Hand" Hoare had defeated Loron Greyiron II, a descendant of the Grey King, in a Finger Dance contest and inherited the throne of the Iron Islands.

They had then led their Ironborn followers on campaigns east and west, bringing the power of the Iron Islands to its peak. At one point, they had controlled numerous lands along the western coast of Westeros and, after the Storm King, had become the second outsiders to conquer the lands of the three rivers.

At the height of their power, House Hoare had held the titles of King of the Iron Islands and King of the Riverlands simultaneously, sometimes combined as King of the Isles and the Rivers and the Hills.

Such great achievements could be seen in their very sigil-

It consisted of four quarters divided by crossed iron chains, bearing, respectively, a golden longship, a green pine tree, a cluster of purple grapes, and a black raven in flight.

The longship represented the Iron Islands west of the continent, the pine tree represented Bear Island in the North, the grapes represented the Arbor in the Reach, and the raven represented Raventree Hall in the Riverlands' interior. All these places were bound together by iron chains, showing just how vast the territory once controlled by the Hoares had been.

During Black Harren's reign of more than forty years, he had brought the Riverlands nothing but poverty and death, and so no one loved him.

Even the priests of the Drowned God, whom the Ironborn worshipped, had always resented House Hoare's tolerance of the Andals' faith in the Seven, secretly describing the Hoares as outsiders with "black hair, black eyes, and black hearts."

The Hoares' enemies had gone further, calling them "Black Blood" to distinguish them from the salt blood flowing through the veins of true Ironborn, believing their bloodline had been tainted by the Andals.

Unfortunately, although the Hoares were not known for their valor, they possessed extreme cunning and cruelty. Their vassals did not love them, but neither did they dare provoke their wrath.

Only when Aegon I arrived... and especially his dragon, Balerion the Black Dread, did the Hoares' great and small vassals muster what courage they had left. They could hardly wait to overthrow their cruel Ironborn monarch beneath the dragon's wings, and the foremost rebel was Edmyn Tully.

When Harrenhal was burned and the Black Blood line extinguished, Aegon I had naturally handed rule of the Riverlands to Edmyn, who had first risen in revolt. From then on, the Tullys became Lords Paramount of the Riverlands.

Although Lord Edmyn Tully of Riverrun had been appointed Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, and Harrenhal stood at the very heart of the region, Aegon I Targaryen had nevertheless granted this "king's castle" to Quenton Qoherys, the master-at-arms of Dragonstone, whose family had served House Targaryen for generations.

Unfortunately, after the War of Conquest, the castle seemed to have become a great burden. Its grounds were too extensive, and its upkeep far too expensive.

The castle had changed hands several times, and almost every house that received it had met with misfortune.

Rumors began to circulate among the common folk that Harren, whose reign of terror had left its shadow behind, had mixed human blood into the mortar used to build the castle, and that some evil magic prevented anyone from holding it forever.

The Targaryen royal family naturally did not readily believe such malicious, heretical talk. Once the previous house was finished, the king would act as though nothing had happened and bestow the castle upon a new favorite.

After the Hoares, the houses granted the castle had included Qoherys, Harroway, Tarth, Strong, and Lothston...

Now it was the Whents' turn.

Titus thought that House Whent was the seventh, and according to occult lore, even if there really was a curse, it ought to end with this house.

The number seven was that magical, whether in magic or religion.

With a keen interest in the continent's largest castle and Harren's curse, Titus and his four companions arrived at their destination.

From far away, they could already see the five extraordinarily tall towers thrusting into the sky beside the lakeshore.

Harrenhal, home of House Whent, the hosts and venue providers for this tournament, stood before them.

House Hoare: