Previously on A Blog of Thrones, either Robert's final failure brought the chickens home to roost, or else Varys's plot ran exactly as planned.
You really can't tell with these sorts of things.
Catelyn has arrived at Moat Cailin to find the Northern army. She thanks the gods she's not too late, though she doesn't bother saying too late for what. At any rate, with her are a pair of very fat men and the army of House Manderly. They get to Moat Cailin, or perhaps I should say, they get to what's left of it. Catelyn notes that the walls were once as high as Winterfell's. Yeah, you think?
Bit of an interesting thing to note that it's the Stark, Karstark and Umber banners flying over the fortress's remaining towers, but Robb is talking to Greatjon Umber and Roose Bolton. Karstark has a symbolic role both within the story and without. He's a figurehead for the Bolton faction. (I'm riffing here; I've no idea if George wanted me to think this, but as I averred elsewhere, intent stops mattering once the author publishes the thing, so if you can somehow make the argument that the subtext of this post is, um, "hypnotize chickens," more power to you.) His death in the third book is (probably) the moment Robb's alliance completely falls apart irreparably.
Roose wants to know if Catelyn has Tyrion as a hostage. As much as I think Tyrion's vastly overrated, yikes. We also learn that Lysa's stupidity knows no end whatsoever. But that's no surprise.
Catelyn is afraid because Robb is still only a boy and let leading a host into battle. She makes a fair point, but then she goes a mucks it up by suggesting that he could have sent Roose Bolton or Theon Greyjoy to wage the war in his place. She also tells him that he has no choice but to fight. See, Catelyn manages to always be the smartest voice in the room, and at the same time completely wrong about everything. It's a gift. Truly amazing.
Anyway, we learn that even one of George's characters can't keep the names of George's characters straight when Robb refers to Lord Beric as Lord Derik. That causes a minor jolt of amusement during a section that entails we the readers flipping back to the map at the front to figure out where the Golden Tooth is, and also wondering when exactly Jaime Lannister became a "seasoned battle commander." Seriously when did this happen?
The talk eventually turns to Walder Frey, who controls an important bridge. Catelyn says not to trust him.
I'm just going to let the potency of that one fester. Along with the Greatjon's line about catching Tywin with his trousers down.
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