Tower of the Hand

Theon is awoken from a bad dream by the arrival of Wex and Reek.¹ Reek informs him that Asha has arrived. Theon bathes and dresses and falls in with Reek, Urzen, and Kromm to go see Asha. Winterfell has wanted him dead since the killings at the mill. That very night, Gelmarr the Grim died after falling down some stairs and breaking his back. The next day, they found Aggar with his throat slit. Several days later, Rednose showed up dead too. Theon thought Farlen the most likely suspect and needed to make an example, so he executed the kennelmaster. Farlen had remarked that Eddard always did his own killing, forcing Theon to do the deed himself. His first cut missed the neck, and it took three more cuts before the deed was done, leaving Theon sick. Lorren has told Theon they should abandon Winterfell, but Theon refuses to be driven from his seat. Asha awaits him in the Great Hall. She taunts Theon about killing Bran and Rickon, causing Theon to think back to the aftermath. When the bodies were brought back to Winterfell, Old Nan just gaped in shock while Farlen charged Theon and had to be restrained by Urzen and Cadwyl. Maester Luwin asked for leave to sew the heads back on the bodies and bury them in the crypt, but Theon refused the request, mounting the heads on the walls and burning the bodies.

Ahas only brought twenty men with her, of which she only means to leave ten. She is critical of Theon and mocks him some more before telling him they should speak in private. They go to Eddard's solar. Theon tells Asha that the siege of Torrhen's Square was broken. Asha has already heard and tells him that Dagmer is still alive and falling back. Rodrik and Leobald are now coming to retake Winterfell. The Umbers and Manderlys are stirring as well. Asha tells him that if he had razed the castle and brought Bran and Rickon back to Pyke as hostages, he would have performed a masterstroke, but he can never hope to hold a castle isolated from the sea in the middle of a hostile country. Theon still thinks Asha is jealous and trying to strip him of his prize and does not heed her advice to fall back now before it is too late. Asha is especially critical of Theon's murder of the children. Theon makes up a story that it was to avenge their brothers, Rodrik and Maron, but Asha is not impressed. Asha leaves. Reek approaches afterwards and says that for a bit of coin he may be able to rouse one or two hundred men for the defense of the castle. All he wants in return is Palla. Theon gives him silver, and he rides off. That night, Theon has another horrible nightmare. He sends for Maester Luwin, who gives him a sleeping draught, but Theon does not trust the maester and does not take it. He summons Kyra and fucks her savagely, but that does not help either. The next morning, he looks up at the heads on the wall. He thinks back to the mill, and how they killed the miller's boys, who were of an age with Bran and Rickon. Reek flayed the skin off their faces and dipped their heads in tar, and everyone assumed they were actually Bran and Rickon.