"Must you do your standing here?" he asked. "It's a long hard fall down these steps."“你非站在這里不可？”他問，“又高又陡，跌下去可不好玩。”

"Syrio says a water dancer never falls." She lowered her leg to stand on two feet. "Father, will Bran come and live with us now?"“西利歐說水舞者絕不會跌倒。”她放下腳，兩腿站立。“爸爸，布蘭現在會來跟我們一起住了嗎？”

"Not for a long time, sweet one," he told her. "He needs to win his strength back."“恐怕要等一段時間，小寶貝。”他對她說，“他得先恢復體力才成。”

Arya bit her lip. "What will Bran do when he's of age?"艾莉亞咬咬嘴唇。“布蘭長大以后要做什么呢？”

Ned knelt beside her. "He has years to find that answer, Arya. For now, it is enough to know that he will live." The night the bird had come from Winterfell, Eddard Stark had taken the girls to the castle godswood, an acre of elm and alder and black cottonwood overlooking the river. The heart tree there was a great oak, its ancient limbs overgrown with smokeberry vines; they knelt before it to offer their thanksgiving, as if it had been a weirwood. Sansa drifted to sleep as the moon rose, Arya several hours later, curling up in the grass under Ned's cloak. All through the dark hours he kept his vigil alone. When dawn broke over the city, the dark red blooms of dragon's breath surrounded the girls where they lay. "I dreamed of Bran," Sansa had whispered to him. "I saw him smiling."“艾莉亞，他有好多年的時間來尋找答案。而現在，我們只要知道他會活下去就好了。”鳥兒從臨冬城捎來訊息的那天晚上，艾德·史塔克帶著女兒們來到城堡的神木林。那是片足有一畝之廣的森林，種滿榆樹、柏樹和黑色三葉楊，俯瞰著河流。那里的心樹是棵大橡木，古老的枝干上爬滿煙莓藤蔓，他們在樹前跪下感謝神靈，一如在家鄉的魚梁木底。待到月亮升起，珊莎已經睡著，艾莉亞則多撐了幾個小時，最后也蜷縮在草地上，蓋著奈德的斗篷沉沉睡去。漫漫長夜，他獨自靜默禱告。翌日清晨，天光乍現，只見龍息草暗紅色的花圍繞著兩個躺臥的女兒。“我夢見了布蘭喔，”珊莎偷偷對他說，“還看見他笑呢。”

"He was going to be a knight," Arya was saying now. "A knight of the Kingsguard. Can he still be a knight?"“他以后會當上騎士，”這會兒艾莉亞說，“當上御林鐵衛的騎士。他還能當騎士嗎？”

"No," Ned said. He saw no use in lying to her. "Yet someday he may be the lord of a great holdfast and sit on the king's council. He might raise castles like Brandon the Builder, or sail a ship across the Sunset Sea,or enter your mother's Faith and become the High Septon." But he will never run beside his wolf again, he thought with a sadness too deep for words, or lie with a woman, or hold his own son in his arms.“不行。”奈德自覺說謊無益。“有朝一日他或能身居高位，成為國王的重臣。他可能會像‘筑城者’布蘭登那樣興建城堡，可能乘船橫渡日落之海，或是皈依你母親的信仰，當上總主教。”然而他再也不能和他的狼一并奔馳，他沉痛地想，這悲傷無言可喻，他也無法和女人同床共枕、抱著自己親生孩兒了。