Game of Thrones: Knight's Honor-Chapter 349: Trampling Guest Rights

"Does Lord Stannis have no chance of winning?" Sansa asked with concern after reading the battle report from King's Landing.

"What you really want to ask is whether your brother Robb can still win the war, isn't it?" Margaery saw right through her and then added, "Instead of worrying about Stannis, you should pay more attention to the warning letter you sent. From Robb Stark's actions, it looks like he never received it."

"That's impossible," Sansa replied, unable to hold back. "He must have received my warning. Otherwise, he would never have gone through with another marriage alliance with House Frey. Rebuilding ties and gaining the support of their forces—that's the smartest thing he could have done."

"The smartest thing? Marrying into House Frey?" Margaery scoffed, mimicking Lothor's sharp tone. "Did you leave your brain in your bedroom today? Weasels are notoriously petty. Robb Stark stomped all over their pride, and now they're the ones proposing a new alliance? Doesn't that seem suspicious to you? Or are you still stuck in those knightly tales, believing that everyone should be as noble and forgiving as a storybook hero, who turns the other cheek after being slapped?"

Sansa flushed at the sarcasm, but soon pushed it aside and focused on the intelligence from Riverrun. She began reading with Margaery's perspective in mind, reevaluating the alliance between House Frey and House Tully—and soon, the truth became clear.

Her face went pale. "House Frey is planning to betray Robb?"

"At least your brain's still working," Margaery muttered. She glanced at Sansa and sighed. "But it's already too late. According to this report, Robb Stark should already be at The Twins. Even if Lord Lynd wanted to help, flying there on dragonback would still take too long."

She turned toward Lynd as she spoke.

Lynd looked at Margaery, then at Sansa, and said, "It's already too late. Even if Neltharion flew straight there, it would be deep into the night before we arrived. Whatever was meant to happen... has likely already happened."

At those words, tears began to spill from Sansa's eyes. She barely managed a whispered apology before fleeing from Lynd's study.

Watching her friend run off in tears, Margaery's expression softened. She couldn't help but imagine how she'd feel if she knew Garlan or Loras were about to die and she was powerless to stop it. The thought alone made her chest tighten.

"Lord, is it that you really can't save Robb Stark, or that you don't want to?" she asked, meeting Lynd's gaze with rare seriousness.

"Why would you think I don't want to save Robb Stark?" Lynd asked, setting down the report in his hand.

"Because you want Sansa to become the Lady of Winterfell," Margaery replied, a knowing look on her face. "Everything you've been teaching her lately—those are the things only a lord or lady would learn. If that's not your goal, why bother training her at all?"

"Your reasoning is sound," Lynd said with a smile. "But by that logic, you've been doing the same things Sansa has. Am I grooming you to be the Lord of Highgarden?"

Margaery blinked, caught off guard. For a moment, she pictured herself ruling Highgarden—and then panic struck. She quickly shook her head, flustered.

"No, no! I must've guessed wrong. I definitely guessed wrong!"

Her anxiety made sense. For her to become the Lord of Highgarden, her father and all her brothers would have to die.

"You seem to have forgotten that Sansa still has two living brothers," Lynd said, pulling a special intelligence report from a nearby pile and handing it to her. "By the line of succession, she isn't next in line for Winterfell."

Margaery accepted the report at once and began reading with full attention.

In the past, she and the others had only been allowed to read standard military reports and open intelligence. Classified reports like this, tied to Summerhall's secrets, were strictly off-limits—even when they were left openly stacked on Lynd's desk. None of the girls had dared to touch them.

They had always been curious about what those documents contained. Now, with the opportunity in hand, Margaery was eager to satisfy that curiosity.

The report began with recent events beyond the Wall—specifically, the two Stark boys who had escaped Winterfell. They had already arrived at the Wall, but strangely, they hadn't gone to Castle Black. Instead, they had gone to Icemark.

Margaery remembered that her brother Willas was stationed at Icemark. She was sure that couldn't be a coincidence. Something else had to be going on—something not included in the report.

The rest of the report focused on the decisions made by Samwell Tarly, the acting Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. His policies included distinguishing between different wildling tribes, sending envoys to negotiate with the more peaceful ones, sowing division among the wildling coalition, and constructing farms and wildling settlements on the Gifted Lands.

Seeing this, Margaery couldn't help but ask, "Is Samwell Tarly the eldest son of Lord Randyll Tarly?"

"Yes," Lynd nodded.

Margaery chuckled. "Looks like Lord Randyll misjudged him. His eldest son is clearly no simple man! If he saw him now, given the ranks, he'd have to bow to the acting Lord Commander of the Night's Watch—his own son."

Lynd corrected her, "No, I wouldn't say Randyll misjudged him. House Tarly doesn't need a tactician like Sam, skilled in politics and strategy. They need a commander who can lead their knights into battle. Sam's talents just aren't the kind that fit within House Tarly's needs."

Margaery shook her head slightly in disagreement but didn't argue. She kept reading the report in her hands.

The following intelligence was more unusual. It mentioned, for example, that a boatman from Lorath had repeatedly spotted Ice Dragons over the Shivering Sea, drawing ever closer to the northern tip of Essos.

It also noted White Walkers appearing near the southern edge of the Frostfangs. Wildling tribes under Lynd's control had already engaged them. Obsidian weapons had proven even more effective than expected, and weapons tailored to counter wights were working as intended.

The final line of the report mentioned the appearance of winged people in Asshai.

Margaery set down the report and asked curiously, "Are these the winged people from the legends of the Winged City?"

Lynd nodded. "Yes. They belong to one of the families from the Winged City. They've decided to migrate and temporarily settle near Asshai."

"Asshai..." Margaery said dreamily. "Such a distant place. I hope I get the chance to see it one day."

Lynd shook his head, dashing the fantasy. "I wouldn't recommend it. Just looking at that city is unsettling. The longer you stay, the more it feels like your soul is being drained. Eventually, you lose all sense of emotion."

Margaery wasn't convinced. "In Corlys Velaryon's journals, he mentions seeing Elissa Farman's ship docked at Asshai. Is that true?"

"It is," Lynd confirmed. "Her ship is still docked there. The people of Asshai revere it. They maintain it regularly, and to this day, it's still seaworthy."

"Then..." Margaery seemed eager to ask more.

But Lynd raised a hand, cutting her off. "If you want to know more about Asshai, ask Maester Marwyn when he visits next. He lived there for some time and knows far more about it than I do." He pointed to the special report Margaery had just finished. "For now, take that report to Sansa. She should read it."

Margaery nodded and hurried off with the document in hand.

...

After she left, Lynd didn't return to his papers. He sat in thought for a moment, then picked up a sheet of parchment, quickly wrote a few lines, sealed it, rang a small bell, and handed the note to the attendant who entered.

"Send this by falcon to Dacey immediately," he ordered.

The attendant accepted the sealed letter and left.

...

Guest right was one of the most sacred laws in all of Westeros. Both the Faith of the Seven and the beliefs of the Old Gods upheld this custom, and both laid out severe consequences for those who violated it.

For countless years, nobles and commoners alike had respected this sacred law. Incidents of breaking guest right were extremely rare. The most infamous of them all was the tale of the Rat Cook.

The story tells of a Night's Watch cook at the Nightfort who, in revenge against a visiting king, killed the king's son after guest right had been established. He baked the prince into a pie and fed it to the king.

Though the cook had every right to seek vengeance, the gods punished him not for the murder itself, but for the betrayal of guest right. He was cursed—transformed into a giant she-rat doomed to eternal hunger, a hunger that could only be sated by devouring her own offspring.

Almost every adult, child, and elder in Westeros knows the ballad of the Rat Cook and can hum its tune.

Because of this, the sacred law of guest right is deeply ingrained in their minds from a young age. Even the most ruthless criminals will abide by this law.

And yet, House Frey of the Twins trampled this sacred law. After establishing guest right with Robb Stark and his retinue, they launched a sudden attack during the wedding feast—when all were off guard—and brutally slaughtered the unarmed Robb Stark and his men in the banquet hall. The Frey soldiers also ambushed the Northern army's camp and massacred them almost entirely.

But punishment for violating guest right came swiftly. The very next evening, while House Frey was still celebrating their so-called victory and cleaning up the aftermath, Robb Stark's loyalists—Lady Dacey Mormont of Bear Island, Lord Yohn Royce of Runestone, and Brynden Tully, acting Castellan of Riverrun—appeared outside the Twins and launched an assault. Catching the Freys completely unprepared, they seized the gates and stormed into the castle.

Upon confirming the deaths of Robb Stark and the others, Dacey Mormont ordered Yohn Royce and Brynden Tully to block both exits from the Twins, while she led her Bear Island warriors and Great Bear soldiers into the city for a brutal retaliation.

Nearly every member of House Frey, including Lord Walder Frey himself, perished in the slaughter. Only a few saw the situation for what it was and fled, leaping into the Green Fork River. Their fate remains unknown.

Edmure Tully, Lord of Riverrun, who had come to the Twins for the arranged marriage, had been placed under house arrest by the Freys. During the chaos of Dacey Mormont's assault, he was killed by panicked Frey kin in a final act of desperation. His new bride was also slain by her own brothers.

The massacre lasted from that evening until the early hours of the next morning. All the nobles of the Twins, along with their extended families, were executed by Dacey Mormont's Bear Island warriors. Just as she was about to turn her blade on the common folk, Brynden Tully intervened, unwilling to let it go any further. Though he too was heartbroken by the deaths of Robb Stark and Edmure Tully, he believed Dacey's vengeance had gone too far.

Yohn Royce also pleaded with Dacey, arguing that enough blood had been shed. Only then did she relent and sheath her blade.

Afterwards, Dacey Mormont instructed Ser Patrek Mallister, who had hurried from Seagard, to take command of the Seagard forces and assume temporary control of the Twins as acting lord. She then returned to Riverrun alongside Brynden Tully and Yohn Royce to await further developments.

News of House Frey's betrayal of guest right and the massacre of Robb Stark and other Northern lords—alongside Dacey Mormont's bloody vengeance—spread across Westeros almost simultaneously.

While all condemned House Frey's treachery, they were also shaken by the scale of Dacey Mormont's slaughter. According to a post-battle report by acting Lord Patrek Mallister, of the roughly 100,000 people living in the Twins, only about 30,000 survived. Some 70,000 had perished overnight at the hands of Dacey and her Bear Island warriors. Though many of the dead were nobles and soldiers, a significant number were innocent townsfolk. The Bear Island warriors, lost to bloodlust, no longer distinguished between foe or bystander—if you lived in the Twins, you were a target.

By the time Brynden and Yohn managed to intervene, many civilians had already been killed.

And so, the title of "Bloody She-Bear" began to spread across Westeros.

With Robb Stark's death, the war for the throne was effectively over. But the consequences of what had happened were just beginning to unfold.