Chapter 6

"You'll like Barrowton." His aunt Barbrey Dustin said with a gentle smile "There are a lot of horses there. You like horses don't you?"

"Your bribery skills need some work auntie." He drawled and she mussed his hair affectionately and murmured 'cheeky brat' as he packed the last of his bag inside the wooden trunk. It reminded him of the trunk that he used in Hogwarts when he was a young student.

Except that this trunk neither had an expansion charm nor a featherweight charm.

I was a wooden trunk. Simple as that.

Thankfully, the servants picked up the trunk for him as he frankly doubted that he would have been able to lift it himself. His young body was rather weak at this point.

"I'm going to miss this place." He said and meant it. He knew that he won't be gone for long but he was going to miss the relative comfort and safety provided by this castle from the harsh world out there.

Travelling on horses in a cold climate was not comfortable at all.

His aunt stayed silent as they moved out of the castle where both Roose Bolton and Maester Wolkan waited for him along with the aunt Dustin's guards who would escort him to Barrowton.

"Keep up your studies Domeric. You're a smart lad." Maester Wolkan said with a smile, the loyalty compulsion charm subtly making him more truthful and loyal to him.

"I will Maester Wolkan." He said with a smile before he moved onto Roose Bolton whose complexion looked far paler than it usually did. No one else noticed it as the man used leeches on himself on a weekly basis to keep himself healthy and had a natural pale complexion as a result. But he did and he knew that the Withering curse was already rotting him from the inside. The man was already dead. He just didn't knew it yet.

"Goodbye son." Roose Bolton said and he froze for a moment.

It was the first time Roose Bolton had called him a son. In fact, he didn't remember Roose calling him his son even when he recovered from the horse accident.

What with this sudden show of attachment?

He felt like he should read his mind to find out what Roose Bolton was thinking but he had already sentenced the man to die. He didn't want to violate his mind anymore.

So he simply nodded and climbed on the horse carriage Lady Dustin was seated in.

They left the castle soon afterwards and once they were at a sufficient distance from the castle, he wondered if Roose Bolton knew that he was going to die. And calling him his son was the last bit of affection that the cold hearted sociopath could manage.

He would probably never find out.

A week after departing from Dreadfort, a group of Bolton riders caught up to them and gave them the grave news.

Roose Bolton was dead.

He was the new Lord of Dreadfort and it's surrounding lands.