Strong woman

Two Ironborn grabbed the struggling Lady Dustin under her armpits and dragged her back to the meeting place.

"She's one fast runner my Lord!" breathing heavily one of the Ironborn with his hand still holding her tightly, trying to inflict to her as much pain as possible to dissolve her unruly attitude said while flashing his black teeth as the rest of the surviving squids laughed.

They undressed the dead Dustin men, taking from their bodies everything of any value. Even going as far as to break the dead men jaws to check for golden teeth.

Of course both men that held her didn't miss the chance to "mistakenly" grab their prisoner's tits to get a feel, just stopping when their Lord's eyes were on them.

She was a beautiful woman after all, maybe the Lord will allow them a taste later on.

"Is she now? Not fast enough as it seems." Rodrik squatted just in front of the Lady and grabbed her chin.

Her face now had few more wounds as his men apparently taught her a lesson for her disobedience.

"Was this necessary?" Rodrik asked his men about her swollen, broken lip.

Since some mud mixed with her blood at least it stopped the bleeding.

Holding his hands up to her chest Rodrik admired her exposed left, big breast.

He gently grabbed her torn vest and tried to push both sides together.

Even as his hand brushed over her pink nipple the Lady in front of him didn't react.

"Don't look at me like that Lady Barbrey, it was your son who trusted an Ironborn. We pay the Iron price. Always." Rodrik knew that if her eyes could kill, they all would be dead men by now.

"My Lord, what should we do with the bodies?" one of his men came up.

After Lady Barbrey heard them, she finally managed to look around.

All of her guards were dead, the ground where they were stacked changed it's color to bloody red.

She could see some of her attackers taking out their manhood's and relieve themselves with laughter on the small mountain formed by her loyal men bodies.

Ser Hadrian's head, like a trophy inserted on a spear at the top of it, even after his death he looked over his men.

Lady Barbrey wanted to cry, shout and struggle, but most of all she wanted to kill.

As the matriarch of House Dustin she wouldn't give these beast the pleasure of begging for her life.

She looked one last time at the desecrated head of the person that was like a second father to her, silently, she made them all a promise.

Rodrik was still thinking about the issue when he glimpsed at the silent Lady.

"A hard to kill bastards that one was." getting the woman's attention was easy, her angry look even aroused him a bit.

Because of her struggle, his previous work to cover her breasts was in vain.

"You will die a painful and long death Rodrik and I will be there to watch every second of it." Lady Dustin calmness was unnatural, but what threat did an Ironborn not hear.

Apparently her captors didn't like what she said as another backhand slap again opened her lip.

"I can't wait to be able to spend some time together with you my Lady." He laughed as did all his men "even if it's during a torture." Rodrik gestured at his men to take her away on to his ship.

"My Lord?" The man that asked about the bodies previously reminded his lord of his presence.

"Leave them here, there's no time for that, the fog is lifting. Let's go."

- - - Winterfell - - -

Brendan left in haste with his men after receiving the message, he quickly apologized to Lord Stark, but his uncle was understanding and just waived him off.

Even Lady Stark held her tongue, but the small smirk on hers and Septa's lips irked the boy.

"What happened?" all the youths were quietly following him afraid of asking, until Smalljon Umber and Harrion Karstark grabbed Brendan's shoulders and stopped him just outside the castle gates.

"They kidnapped my mother!" Brendan's clenched fists trembled. His emotions were raging inside of his head.

"What do you need from us?" Dacey gathered her courage and asked while stepping up to hug the new Lord.

"Go back to your Houses and gather as many men as you can without jeopardizing your own security." Brendan separated from her, in his heart he was thankful to them for not asking more questions. "I will need you all on this one..." he met the eyes of each of them.

"And we will be there." Harrion Karstark came up to him, he placed his hand on Brendan's shoulder and squeezed it giving the young boy more strength after which he nodded at Eddard, his brother and they swiftly left to gather their men.

The same thing happened to the rest of them.

Like a ritual they came up and shared their strength with Brendan and quickly left to arrange everything.

Now only the Martell girls and his sworn shields were left.

"Send falcons to each of the houses we trust, tell them to gather in Neverwinter as soon as they can. If they are late, we will go alone. Inform Qyburn we are returning and let him mobilize everyone he can." Brendan saw his loyal men and women fidgeting from excitement of revenge, what especially left a mark in his mind was how Bryce was just as worried about the whole ordeal as he was.

- - - Cape Kraken sea - - -

"Finally some peace and quiet!" Lord Harlaw looked at the binded to a chair Lady inside his ship cabin. "Do you even know how much effort it took me to organize all of this? So much work was needed just to get my hands on one of the most beautiful women in the kingdoms!" he chuckled enjoying the monologue and sound of his voice. "Oh, my apologies!" Rodrik took out the rug out of her mouth allowing her to speak.

"Why?" Lady Dustin just asked as she couldn't find a reason for it all.

"Why? That's a naive question not worth asking by one of your stature don't you think my Lady? The better one, if you would have to ask such a boring thing would be why not?" the Ironborn smiled, stood up and started slowly circling around his prisoner.

"Humor me." all her energy was now diverter from fighting for her life, to killing the man and every other Ironborn before her death.

"Ohh since you asked so nicely!" Rodrik happily went back to the chair.

Feeling his hand on her shoulder while he walked by her she imagined most painful ways of killing him.

"Now where do I start... as you know they call me the Reader, unfortunately for you, what you don't know is that as much as I love a good book I like reading people more. The biggest hassle was arranging all the pieces in one place without you noticing it." leaning forward he continued. "No matter how much I wanted to act before, your spies could hinder my plans so a big cleanup was needed."

Barbrey looked without a surprise as this was a logical thing to do.

"Three years! Three fucking years! The pests were so hard to find, but the closer we've got to today, the more frantic and chaotic they were. I must admit, that seeing some of them risking their lives to send a simple message was heartwarming." Rodrik laughed. "No ships left out from Harlaw Island accept my own trusted men, it did help that some of the spies talked after a gentle "persuasion" and as you know we, Ironborn are good at persuading people. False reports were send regularly at the optimal a safest for us intervals. You know, not to fast and not long enough to be suspicious."

"And the last period you didn't care, as no change could affect the already implemented plan." Lady Dustin finished for him.

"You see?! It's so easy to speak to a smart woman! Then there was the implementation. Thanks to you, my House is now the strongest one in the Ironman's Bay! 400 warships and 14 thousand men, not even your House can compare right? And that's only my branch, the cadet branches have their own forces. You see, we Ironborn don't need anyone's permission to extend our forces and you basically payed for it! I just had to give the most discontent men under my rule cleaning the house at the same time to you." Rodrik calmed down a bit, he was enjoying the moment too much.

"And that traitor?" Barbrey didn't forget about the man.

"Him? Simple discontent soul blaming his incompetence and greed on your lack of vision, you don't have to worry about him my Lady, his body will be offered to the Drowned God soon." seeing the woman's anger he continued "or would you prefer to kill him yourself? He was basically ours already one year ago when you posted him as a commander of that village." for Lord Harlaw the man was as irrelevant as a speck of dust.

"So you knew I won't travel with a big security detail not to alarm any spies in Neverwinter and the surroundings of our deal, and I had to be there personally or you wouldn't go through with the agreement right?"

"That was the only logical action, you were on your own lands, with additional men from the village there was no threat, I was a trusted ally... at least as trusted as an Ironborn could be, right. Thanks to that worm we killed the original detachment and placed my men in their place, genius right?"

"But you still didn't answer my question. Why?"

"That's the easy part Lady Barbrey, gold, land, power, prestige... I can go on and on."

Lady Dustin was taken aback, she didn't want to believe that a smart man as Rodrik would go only for that.

"And you will have none of it, and even loose the ones you already have. My son is the Lord of Neverwinter now, and even if he wasn't, do you think my father would allow you to raid and pillage my lands?" Barbrey laughed listening to the man untill she heard his next sentence.

"And why would I do something so unbecoming to my Lady wife's lands..." his evil smirk made her more angry, but 'Lady wife'? Barbrey though she heard wrong.

"I would rather die than to even consider it." she spat on his face.

"Oh you will my Lady, right after I will rape you and after breaking you let my men enjoy your body to their fullest, and I will still become the Lord of Neverwinter after that." he wiped his face, anger burned in his heart.

"My liege Lord will never approve the marriage under threat!"

"Oh, that I am sure of... but what if other Houses confirm our freshly born and passionate love?" he was smiling again triumphantly as the blood drained from the woman's face. "Tell me... wife, how are your relationships with the Bolton's, Whitehill's or... I don't know, let's say Frey's... I think if I invite them to this happy event it will be enough... I might even give them a taste of you. I'm sure they would appreciate the gesture." Rodrik pushed his chair closer to her.

Placing his hand on her knee, the Ironborn Lord felt the texture of her leather pants under his fingers, he slowly moved his hand higher, his face now only a few centimeters from hers as he whispered to her ear.

"You probably are still thinking that there is your son right? You shouldn't... What will he do to save his mommy, will he lead an attack on the Old Wyk if I tell him to? Normally, he might even survive, but what if... by some unfortunate accident they will know of his landing place... and even if he survives," Rodrik licked her ear "he would have to come here to get you... after his unfortunate death in battle, yours in an accident, who will inherit the title to your land...?"

His finger was already touching her garden.

Not hearing any answer, he hope she was enjoying his fingers just as he was enjoying her wet place.

Rodrik pulled back his head a bit to look into her eyes...

What welcomed him was a forehead making a swift connection to his nose. Hearing the crouching sound Lady Barbrey, still trembling and disgusted by the man touching her privates ignored the pain that assaulted her head.

"You will regret what you have done, she struggled to close her legs, but the bindings on her feet securely prevented her from doing so.

"You bitch!" Rodrik roared in anger and kicked her in the chest just after he got up.

Lady Dustin's chair flipped as she fell back on her hands tied at her back, her wrists hurt as her body wight now rested on them.

The woman was fighting to catch a breath, but as the kick landed directly at her solar plexus, the feeling was terrible, she felt like being drowned, her panicking eyes almost pleadingly demanded air.

It didn't work...

Rodrik in his fury came upon her, his blood dripped front the broken nose down his face on to the ground and at his victim alike as his rage took over.

His knee pressed on his prisoners chest blocking any hope of air reaching her lungs, he now couldn't care less that she was a noble Lady of an old House or even a woman at that.

His punches rained on the defenseless victim, more and more blood spilled, but he didn't stop, his sanity already pushed to the back of his mind.

With each punch he enjoyed the shouts of pain of a high toned woman's voice.

Only after the doors to his cabin opened and his guards stormed inside and pulled him back did he look at her.

Coved in blood and violet bruises surrounding her almost closed eyes, blood flowing freely from the gush on the top of her head where his House ring struck.

Even when she caught up blood from the wounds inside her mouth or the bloodied nose, he didn't react.

"Let the bitch stay like that! No one is to touch her!" he stormed outside to look for someone to help him with his nose.

As the doors close only the bare wooden walls were the witnesses to the muffled, painful sobs... Only the blood mixed with tears dropping on the floor the signs of a strong woman's struggle slowly breaking apart...