Chapter 3: Lord Stark Arrives at Court

The procession entered through the Gate of the Gods in the mid-morning, when the sun was still low enough to throw long shadows across the cobbles and the smell of the city had not yet risen to its full ambition. Elspeth heard it before she saw it — the creak and thud of horses, the particular purposeful rhythm of a retinue that had been riding for weeks and had not yet allowed itself to stop moving, even here, even at the end.

She was in the gallery above the outer yard by the time the first outriders passed beneath her, and she had not arrived there by accident.

She had woken at dawn, dressed quickly in the grey wool, and told Mira she wished to take air before the ladies assembled. This was not untrue. She had walked with the careful, unhurried step of a woman who had nowhere particular to be, and she had arrived at the gallery above the outer yard with seven minutes to spare, which was the sort of margin that made the difference between being seen to watch and simply being present when something happened. She had positioned herself at the far end, near a pillar, where she was in shadow and the angle of sight was clean.