A Blog of Thrones (Chapter 39) Eddard X: Promise Be Dead

Previously on A Game of Thrones we were promised a duel. Now we get a flashback to another duel in the aftermath of yet another duel.

Now, dear reader, I have a confession to make. When I finished reading A Game of Thrones I put the book down, walked away, engaged in idle chitchat at my family's Thanksgiving party, and then about five minutes later bamboozled my grandfather by shouting "By the light of the seven, I know who Jon Snow's mother is!" right in the middle of dinner. I am of course completely right and nothing I've read in any subsequent book has dissuaded me.

But the truly ridiculous part is this: I did not take this chapter into consideration. I arrived at my conclusion without ever once considering the events that took place at the Tower of Joy.

I am either freakishly intuitive or an impulsive liar.

Or both.

At the close of Robert's rebellion, after the Trident, after the Sack of King's Landing, Ned Stark and six others rode to the Tower of Joy, where they were confronted by three members of the Kingsguard guarding Lyanna. Why were they doing that? I didn't ask myself. What was the promise that Lyanna went on about?  Gee.  Chapter 12, Eddard II. "He had lived his lies for fourteen years." I wonder.

Ned wakes up after having a nightmare about these events in the Tower of the Hand. It has been six days. This guy named Alyn has taken over from the late Jory, and he seems pretty competent. Of course, serving Ned Stark, he's sure to be dead by the end of the book. Arya's become a ferocious little animal - what, already? What about the wolf dreams and the assassiny bits? - while meanwhile Sansa does the only thing she's good for, nothing she prays.

He receives Robert, but Cersei is there as well. King Bob is all concern and forgiveness, whether it's because of his friendship with Ned or his frigid marriage with Cersei, or both. It all goes south when Ned mentions Robert's bastard daughter by a whore - apparently King Bob thought a whore would have more sense (than to name her Barra). Robert tries to get things back on track - voice of reason, this guy? We're boned. Ned killed five of Jaime's, a full hand's worth, see what I did there, while Jaime killed three of Ned's. Robert wants them to make a peace, but apparently Ned's not happy with a mere two-death advantage. Um, George, I think you mixed up their personalities in this scene.

Robert slaps Cersei, she says she'll wear the bruise as a badge of honor. "Wear it in silence," Bob says, "or I'll honor you again." Which might just be the most awesome line in this book, the wife-beating monster.

Robert reinstates Ned as Hand over Ned's objections. Hey wait the badge of office is a clasp in the first book. When does it turn into a necklace of linked hands? Must keep an eye out for that. Also for the man with the goose. He's been gone too long not to be up to something.