It is the ninth year of summer.1 Lord Eddard Stark and twenty men2 are riding out to a holdfast to dispense the king's justice. Eddard's son Bran is excited because he has never been allowed to come along before. The man was captured in the hills outside a small holdfast. Robb believes the man must be a wildling sworn to Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall, and that makes Bran think of the tales Old Nan has told him about wildlings, including that they are slavers, slayers, and thieves, consorted with giants and ghouls, and lay with the Others to sire half-human children. When they arrive at the holdfast, they discover the accused is an old man dressed in black who has lost his ears and a finger to frostbite.3 Bran sits between Robb and Jon with the banner of the Starks of Winterfell, a grey direwolf racing on a white field, flapping over their heads. Lord Eddard questions the man briefly, and then Theon Greyjoy brings him his sword, Ice, forged of Valyrian steel. After handing his gloves to the captain of the guard, Jory Cassel, Eddard executes the man in the name of Robert Baratheon, the First of his Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, by the word of Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North. The head lands by Theon, who laughs and kicks it away. Jon, Bran's bastard brother, calls Theon an ass and compliments Bran on his poise during the execution.
On the way back to Winterfell, Robb comments that the deserter died bravely, but Jon notes he was already paralyzed by fear.4 Robb and Jon race ahead, but Bran holds back. Eddard comes up to him and explains that the man was a deserter from the Night's Watch and the penalty for desertion is death. He also explains that he had to execute the man himself because his family are of the blood of the First Men, and the First Men believe that the man who passes sentence should also carry it out. At that point, Jon reappears and beckons Eddard to come see what he and Robb have found. The party is shocked to see they have discovered a dead direwolf and her five live cubs, three male and two female.5 Theon comments that there has not been a direwolf seen south of the Wall in two hundred years, and Hullen, the master of horse, is uneasy that a direwolf has been discovered in the realm after so long. Many in the party are further disquieted when it is revealed the direwolf has an antler stag lodged in its throat, the apparent cause of death.6 Theon prepares to kill the pups, but Bran and Robb protest. Hullen's son, Harwin, points out they cannot keep the pups, and Hullen and Eddard agree. Jon points out that the number and gender match Eddard's children7 and says they were meant to have the pups. Bran is impressed that Jon has referenced both of Bran's sisters and even baby Rickon and given up any right to a wolf for himself to save the pups. Eddard relents and tells Jory and Desmond to gather up the pups. A little farther on, Jon hears something and goes back to discover a sixth cub, white with red eyes, which he takes for himself.8
