A GHOST IN WINTERFELL

As relentless snow buries Winterfell, a man-at-arms is found dead below the inner wall, quickly dismissed as a drunken fall. Ramsay punishes a freerider who praised Stannis by casting him from the Battlements Gate. The garrison trades rumors of Stannis unseen in the storm while horses suffer and the gods seem to turn against them.

Deaths mount: Ser Aenys Frey’s squire freezes naked in the lichyard and a Flint crossbowman is found with a broken skull. Tensions erupt in the Great Hall, with Freys demanding a sortie and Wyman Manderly mocking their losses. Roose Bolton watches silently, uneasy, as factions bristle.

The new stable collapses under snow, killing horses and grooms. Soon after, Ramsay’s man Yellow Dick is discovered murdered, his genitals shoved in his mouth, a killing that cannot be dismissed as accident. Roose orders secrecy, but the tale spreads, and Ramsay vows savage vengeance. Amid the stench and crowding, Abel sings while Theon endures taunts and flees into the storm.

Roose summons Theon, questions his nocturnal wanderings, and examines his maimed hands. Barbrey Dustin and Roger Ryswell argue Theon lacks the strength for the murders; suspicion shifts among houses, with Aenys Frey naming Manderly and Dustin reminding all that “the north remembers.” Roose releases Theon with a warning.

At the hour of the wolf, a warhorn moans from the woods and drums boom, stoking whispers that Stannis has come, though the storm hides all. Seeking solace, Theon prays before the weirwood, hears his name and “Bran” in the rustling leaves, and breaks down over his past crimes. Holly, Rowan, and another washerwoman confront him; teasing and threatening by turns, they promise an end to Ramsay’s torments—but only after Theon “sings for Abel,” and they take him to the lurking singer, revealing an organized conspiracy within Winterfell.