Notes:

Content Warning!

Contains descriptions of the aftermath of the Red Wedding at the Twins.

Other important notes at the end.

Roslin Frey, by marriage a Tully, awoke to the sound of someone pounding on her door.

She pulled the furs closer to her, exhausted. Even when she recognized her brother Perwyn's voice calling to her with urgency, she did not want to move. She had barely slept a full night since before she had been wed to Edmure Tully. She had not slept then out of guilt and fear. After the horrible murders at her wedding, she doubted that she would ever sleep a full night again.

"Roslin! Please! Roslin!"

Of course someone would try to wake her on one of the few nights in which she had actually managed to fall into a deep sleep. She ran her hands along her ever growing belly.

"It seems I will never sleep, between you and everyone else little one."

The child was ever a reminder of her guilt and of the horrors which her family had committed. She paused a few moments, willing her brother to cease pounding on her door, knowing that her wish was futile. Slowly, sleepily, she untangled herself from her coverings. She pushed herself up from the bed and grabbed her housecoat, wrapping it around herself.

In the dim candlelight she slowly made her way to the door. She fumbled with the lock before she succeeded in sliding the bold aside. Upon opening the door, she beheld her brother standing with two maids and four men, two of whom were holding bare swords while the other two held lanterns.

Roslin clutched her robe close to her chest, suddenly more alert. "What's wrong?"

"You are leaving," Perwyn informed her as she stepped back and allowed him into her room.

"Leaving?" The maids entered, one set a lantern upon a table, then both proceeded to open her chests and wardrobes. The women found a travel bag and began to stuff articles of clothing into the bag.

"Father is dead." He closed the door, leaving the men outside. "I am getting you to safety."

"Dead?" She stumbled over the word. "Dead? Safety? What's happening?" She ran her hands along her belly, attempting to sooth her child as much as she sought to sooth her own anxieties. Sleep fled from her and was replaced by a sickening sense of dread.

He met her eyes for a brief moment. "We are paying for our sins." He walked to her windows and drew back the curtains. She felt a chill race down her spine at the glow which shown through her windows. The other side of the Twins was aflame. "Our father has died. He was old enough that his heart may have failed, if truly he had a heart. When our brothers heard the news, some of them decided that they wished to seize possession of the Twins. This is the result."

Her throat felt suddenly dry as she stepped to the window and watched the fires burning brightly across the river. "Who started it?"

"Does it matter? Lady Joyeuse is dead, her throat was slit. From what the servants who escaped to this side of the river have said, the factions are loosely defined by who our mothers were. Our family is killing itself for control of the Twins."

"A judgment for our sins," she whispered. She stepped away from the sight of her home burning, trying not to think upon how many half-brothers, nieces, nephews, and other family may have already died. "Where is Olyvar? Where is Jyanna and her children?"

"Olyvar escorted Jyanna and her children to the docks. He is also gathering supplies. We are trying to get as many of the women and children on the river as we can, especially you."

"Me?"

"Your child is important, the true heir to the Riverlands."

"Riverrun has been given to the Lannisters, have you forgotten that?" Her child was the true heir to the Riverlands, but that honor had been lost. They had betrayed their King and their overlords and in the end had gained little. Yes, their half-brother Emmon now held Riverrun, but by right the lands belonged to her estranged husband. Instead of her child holding the rights to Riverrun, it had been given to the only Lannister in the Frey family. Roslin had been the one to seal their bloody pact and yet she would receive nothing but sorrow from the part she had played.

He pulled her into his strong embrace. "I have not forgotten anything. I have not forgotten what you were forced to endure or the part I played in the death of our King."

"You weren't there, they forbid..."

"I should have warned him," he snapped, startling the women who were still packing clothes for Roslin. "I should have told Robb what our father planned." He looked out the window again, at the glowing blaze of their house. "This is the price we have paid for not telling our King what our father planned. Dress quickly. I will be waiting outside."

He pulled away from her and walked out the door. The maids helped Roslin dress. They clothed her in thick wools and furs. She shook as they dressed her. She shook out of fear and anxiety. When she was readied, they left the room.

Perwyn led the way, down long corridors and flights of stairs. Thankfully their wing of the castle still remained rather quiet. The length of time until their side of the Twins erupted into fighting was anyone's guess.

They emerged from the castle at a series of boats which were moored beneath the bridge. The chill of the air bit through the many layers of Roslin's clothes. Or was it the screams which chilled her? Inside the castle there had been no noise from the outside world, but out in the open, the screams echoed across the water, shattering the calm of the night.

They walked swiftly to the boats and were greeted there by a strange assortment of people. Servants were loading the boats with supplies and children. Roslin noticed that the children of Lady Annara Farring, Roslin's younger half-brothers and sisters, were already on a boat which was being launched into the black waters of the river. In another boat was her good-sister Jyanna, the widow of her brother Benfrey, along with their young children.

Olyvar approached from the group and embraced Roslin. "I am glad that you are safe."

She gave him a shaking nod of her head in reply, she was too stunned to speak. She wished that she were still asleep and that this night were just a terrible dream.

Perwyn embraced their brother quickly, and then embraced her, kissing her brow. "Keep her safe Olyvar."

He gave a curt nod of his head, and took Roslin by the arm. "I will."

"Keep me safe? Aren't you coming with us?" Panic rose like a wave, slamming against her though she stood still on dry ground.

Perwyn shook his head. "I must try to help as many women and children out as I can. We have archers preventing the fighting from reaching this side of the Twins, but it will not last for long. Then we will have a long, bloody battle."

He stepped away from her, holding her gaze and Olyvar's for a few moments each. He then turned and walked back toward the door into the castle. Roslin felt her brother's grip on her arm, preventing her from running after Perwyn.

Olyvar walked her to the boats and helped her into one. Her maids entered the boat with her, and Olyvar followed. They were joined by several others before they pushed off from the muddy shore, and slipped into the icy black of the Green Fork.

The glow of the fires faded away before the screams. Even after Roslin had drifted asleep in the boat and awoke in the early morning light she was convinced that she still heard the screams. She ate little of the provisions which were in their boat. She could not stomach the idea of eating when she knew that her family was warring with itself.

The first of the bodies made its way down the river by mid-morning, just a babe who was only starting to walk. Then more followed slowly with the currents. A nephew. A niece. A half-brother. A servant. All were thrown into the river and floated along with the current, often faster than the boats.

Was this how it had been for those who had died at the Red Wedding? Some bodies had been thrown into the river. Some had been laid in a large burial mound. Some had been burned. Of the boy who had been king a worse mockery had been made.

She shuddered still at what had happened to Robb Stark. The night he had been murdered, her family had taken Robb Stark's head replaced it with that of his direwolf. They had paraded his corpse around for weeks. Then, when humiliating the corpse had lost its thrill, the boy's body and that of his wolf had been laid in the center of the bridge to be eaten by the birds. They had been left to rot until nothing remained except for bleached bones. Then the remaining bones had been flung into the river.

"We are paying for our sins..."

Olyvar wanted Roslin to look away, from the bodies in the river, but she refused. She had played a part in her father's schemes. She had wept endless tears before her wedding, but she had complied with her family's demands. How could she have refused? They had threatened to rape her or worse if she refused to marry Lord Edmure. Yet could she have prevented the deaths of thousands?

They left the river near Fairmarket, beginning their long hike south. They were able to hire a horse and cart in the town, which allowed for herself and the children to not have to walk the entire way to Riverrun. Not that the cart travelled easily in the muddy slush of the roads. To make matters worse, the air was bitingly cold and damp. The children were quickly falling ill with coughs and fevers. She feared that she would fall ill as well. She feared that her child would die.

She feared their destination. She feared Riverrun.

Riverrun was held by her half-brother Emmon and his wife Genna Lannister. She doubted that they would truly welcome her to Riverrun. How could she have faith in them when her kin at the Twins had proven to be so treacherous? How could she trust them when she carried a Tully within her?

She also feared for the safety of her brother Perwyn. Her brother who had chosen to remain behind at the Twins so that he might atone for his sins.

NOTES:

I know that I haven't posted in this story in months, and that has been partly intentional. I have been extraordinarily busy since January. I also came to a point where I realized that I needed to focus on one story and finish that story first. I chose Desert Wolves over any of my other stories for various reasons. I have not abandoned this story. I love this story! I am sooo happy that there are people who like it and read it! So this is what is going on with the story.

I will return to this story, don't worry about that part. I am not for a second going to forget or abandon this story... I have put way too much time into outlining and writing it to give up! (Plus I wrote the draft of the epilogue last year and want you to read that some day!) I am, however, going to do a complete revision/rewrite of the posted material. I have done revisions as I have gone and the story has improved each time, but I feel that at this point I can do an even better job than I have done before. I want this story to be my best possible effort and right now I know that it isn't. I have learned a lot about writing during my time writing in this fandom and want to apply what I have learned to all of my stories.

I didn't want to just post a note saying that this story will be revised because I hate to post something and then it's just a note and the reader was hoping for a chapter! So this is a real update, though the chapter is not a full chapter. There are about three chapters that should come before this one, so I couldn't do the whole chapter or you would be really confused.

Much love, and I hope you stick around!