A Gale of Wolves, Chapter 4: Jon
“I think she’s come to take back Winterfell, Your Grace,” he answered, then dared to add, “just as I think she’ll be wanting you to call her Lady Stark.”
The king looked doubtful, even as he grasped Jon’s meaning. “Lady Stark of Winterfell? A woman as Warden of the North?”
“A woman whose mother rode with her son through every one of his victories,” Jon pointed out, though not without feeling the irony of his own admiration for Lady Stark. While she’d lived, her hatred of him had been like the noonday sun: too bright to note any detail of her beyond the outline. Now with her safely dead and gone he could see her more clearly, and in some of King Robb’s success he suspected more of the mother’s political maneuvering than the son’s military brilliance. “A woman who survived King’s Landing when stronger men all around her were dropping like flies, including our own father. I haven’t seen Sansa since she was a child, Your Grace, but I’d not underestimate her.”
“You think the lords will rally to her?” asked Stannis, clearly still skeptical. “They were failed badly by her brother, and she has no call on their loyalty except her maiden’s name.”
“It’s a powerful name, Your Grace. The direwolf has flown its banner over the North for centuries; the Boltons can’t wipe out that memory no matter how much blood they spill. If Lyanna Mormont and all the rest of them want a King in the North whose name is Stark, well.” He tucked Sansa’s message into his breast pocket. “It seems you’ve found her.”
*note: chapters will be posted once a day from April 18 to May 11. Some will be shorter than others, but hopefully this schedule will work for people who a) like to know when they can read the whole thing in one go and b) like to read chapter by chapter as they come.