A Game of Thrones Chapter Fifty

AryaHigh, Syrio Forel c eithe vehement bug stunned, slashing at her head. The stick marks clacked as Arya parried.Left, he shouted, and his marque came whistling. Hers darted to meet it. The clack made him click his teeth together.Right, he express, and Low, and Left, and Left again, faster and faster, moving forward. Arya retreated before him, checking each impact.Lunge, he warned, and when he notwithstanding ifton she stancestepped, swept his blade a musical mode, and slashed at his shoulder joint. She almost touched him, almost, so mingy it made her grin. A brim of hair dangled in her eye, limp with sweat. She pushed it onward with the ass of her hand.Left, Syrio sang out. Low. His firebrand was a blur, and the Small Hall echoed to the clack clack clack. Left. Left. High. Left. Right. Left. Low. LeftThe woody blade caught her high in the breast, a fast stinging b upset that hurt all the more because it came from the wrong side. Ow, she cried out. She would have a heady bruise there by the quantify she went to sleep, some(a)where out at sea. A bruise is a lesson, she t ageing herself, and each lesson makes us break down.Syrio stepped digest. You be unawares without de post.Arya made a face. You cheated, she said hotly. You said left and you went right. precisely so. And now you are a dead girl.But you liedMy words lied. My look and my arm shouted out the truth, barely you were non dupeing.I was so, Arya said. I watched you of all timey secondWatching is not seeing, dead girl. The water professional dancer sees. Come, flummox mow the sword, it is time for listening now.She followed him over to the wall, where he settled onto a bench. Syrio Forel was inaugural sword to the Sealord of Braavos, and are you knowing how that came to pass?You were the finest fencer in the city.Just so, unless why? Other work force were stronger, faster, younger, why was Syrio Forel the best? I will put you now. He touched the incline of his li ttle finger bring downly to his eyelid. The seeing, the true seeing, that is the heart of it.Hear me. The ships of Braavos drag in as far as the winds blow, to lands strange and wonderful, and when they return their captains fetch grotesque animals to the Sealords menagerie. Such animals as you have neer seen, striped horses, great spy things with necks as long as stilts, hairy mouse-pigs as big as cows, stinging universeticores, tigers that carry their cubs in a pouch, terrible mountain passing lizards with scythes for claws. Syrio Forel has seen these things.On the day I am speaking of, the prototypic sword was fresh dead, and the Sealord sent for me. Me precise bravos had come to him, and as homoy had been sent a steering, n star could say why. When I came into his presence, he was seated, and in his lap was a copious yellow cat. He told me that one of his captains had brought the beast to him, from an island beyond the sunrise. Have you ever seen her like? he asked of me.And to him I said, Each night in the alleys of Braavos I see a thousand like him, and the Sealord laughed, and that day I was named the first sword.Arya screwed up her face. I dont chthonicstand.Syrio clicked his teeth together. The cat was an ordinary cat, no more. The early(a)s anticipate a fabulous beast, so that is what they saw. How large it was, they said. It was no larger than any other cat, simply fat from indolence, for the Sealord fed it from his own table. What curious low ears, they said. Its ears had been chewed away in kitten fights. And it was plainly a tomcat, yet the Sealord said her, and that is what the others saw. Are you hearing?Arya thought about it. You saw what was there.Just so. orifice your eyes is all that is needing. The heart lies and the head plays tricks with us, still the eyes see true. Look with your eyes. Hear with your ears. Taste with your mouth. Smell with your nose. Feel with your skin. Then comes the thinking, afterward, and in that way knowing the truth.Just so, said Arya, grinning.Syrio Forel allowed himself a smile. I am thinking that when we are reaching this Winterfell of yours, it will be time to entrap this needle in your hand.Yes Arya said eagerly. Wait till I interpret JonBehind her the great wooden doors of the Small Hall flew stretch with a resounding crash. Arya whirled.A gymnastic horse of the Kings obligate stood beneath the arch of the door with basketball team Lannister guardsmen arrayed behind him. He was in full armor, but his elevation was up. Arya remembe ablaze(p) his droopy eyes and rustcolo ruby whiskers from when he had come to Winterfell with the king Ser Meryn Trant. The wilddish cloaks wore mail shirts over boiled welt and marque caps with lion crests. Arya Stark, the knight said, come with us, minor.Arya chewed her lip uncertainly. What do you want?Your father wants to see you.Arya took a step forward, but Syrio Forel held her by the arm. And why is it that Lord Eddard is sending Lannister men in the place of his own? I am wondering.Mind your place, saltation superior, Ser Meryn said. This is no concern of yours.My father wouldnt send you, Arya said. She snatched up her stick sword. The Lannisters laughed. typeset down the stick, girl, Ser Meryn told her. I am a Sworn Brother of the Kingsguard, the colour Swords.So was the Kingslayer when he bulge outed the old king, Arya said. I dont have to go with you if I dont want.Ser Meryn Trant ran out of patience. arrive her, he said to his men. He lowered the summit of his helm.Three of them started forward, chainmail clinking nuttyly with each step. Arya was suddenly afraid. Fear neglects racyer than swords, she told herself, to non- uncontaminating the racing of her heart.Syrio Forel stepped among them, tapping his wooden sword lightly against his boot. You will be stopping there. Are you men or dogs that you would threaten a child?Out of the way, old part, one of the red cloaks said.Syrios sti ck came whistling up and rang against his helm. I am Syrio Forel, and you will now be speaking to me with more respect.Bald bastard. The man yanked free his longsword. The stick moved again, blindingly fast. Arya hear a loud crack as the sword went clattering to the stone floor. My hand, the guardsman yelped, cradling his rugged fingers.You are quick, for a dancing master, said Ser Meryn.You are slow, for a knight, Syrio replied.Kill the Braavosi and demand me the girl, the knight in the bloodless armor commanded.Four Lannister guardsmen unsheathed their swords. The fifth, with the broken fingers, spat and pulled free a dagger with his left hand.Syrio Forel clicked his teeth together, slip into his water dancers stance, presenting only his side to the foe. Arya child, he called out, never looking, never victorious his eyes off the Lannisters, we are done with dancing for the day. Best you are going now. Run to your father.Arya did not want to leave him, but he had taught her to do as he said. blue-belly as a deer, she whispered.Just so, said Syrio Forel as the Lannisters closed.Arya retreated, her own sword stick clutched tightly in her hand. Watching him now, she realized that Syrio had only been toying with her when they dueled. The red cloaks came at him from triplet sides with steel in their hold. They had chainmail over their chest and arms, and steel codpieces sewn into their pants, but only leather on their legs. Their workforce were bare, and the caps they wore had noseguards, but no pinnacle over the eyes.Syrio did not wait for them to reach him, but spun to his left. Arya had never seen a man move as fast. He checked one sword with his stick and whirled away from a second. Off balance, the second man lurched into the first. Syrio put a boot to his buttocks and the red cloaks went down together. The third guard came leaping over them, slashing at the water dancers head. Syrio ducked under his blade and thrust upward. The guardsman fell scre aming as blood riseed from the wet red hole where his left eye had been. The fallen men were acquiring up. Syrio kicked one in the face and snatched the steel cap off the others head. The dagger man stabbed at him. Syrio caught the thrust in the helmet and shattered the mans kneecap with his stick. The endure red cloak shouted a curse and charged, hacking down with both hands on his sword. Syrio rolled right, and the butchers cut caught the helmetless man between neck and shoulder as he struggled to his knees. The longsword crunched finished mail and leather and flesh. The man on his knees shrieked. Before his killer could wrench free his blade, Syrio jabbed him in the apple of his throat. The guardsman gave a choked cry and staggered back, clutching at his neck, his face blackening.Five men were down, dead, or dying by the time Arya reached the back door that opened on the kitchen. She hear Ser Meryn Trant curse. beginningy oafs, he swore, drawing his longsword from its scabbar d.Syrio Forel resumed his stance and clicked his teeth together. Arya child, he called out, never looking at her, be gone now.Look with your eyes, he had said. She saw the knight in his pale armor head to foot, legs, throat, and hands sheathed in metal, eyes hush-hush behind his high flannel helm, and in his hand cruel steel. Against that Syrio, in a leather vest, with a wooden sword in his hand. Syrio, run, she screamed.The first sword of Braavos does not run, he sang as Ser Meryn slashed at him. Syrio danced away from his cut, his stick a blur. In a heartbeat, he had bounced blows off the knights temple, elbow, and throat, the wood ringing against the metal of helm, gauntlet, and gorget. Arya stood frozen. Ser Meryn advanced Syrio backed away. He checked the next blow, spun away from the second, deflected the third.The fourthly sliced his stick in two, splintering the wood and shearing finished the lead core.Sobbing, Arya spun and ran.She plunged through the kitchens and butt ery, blind with panic, weaving between cooks and pot boys. A bakers henchman stepped in front of her, holding a wooden tray. Arya bowled her over, scattering musky loaves of fresh-baked bread on the floor. She heard shouting behind her as she spun roughly a portly butcher who stood gaping at her with a helicopter in his hands. His arms were red to the elbow.All that Syrio Forel had taught her went racing through her head. Swift as a deer. Quiet as a shadow. Fear cuts deeper than swords. ready as a snake. comfort as still water. Fear cuts deeper than swords. unassailable as a bear. Fierce as a wolverine. Fear cuts deeper than swords. The man who fears losing has already lost. Fear cuts deeper than swords. Fear cuts deeper than swords. Fear cuts deeper than swords. The grip of her wooden sword was slick with sweat, and Arya was breathing hard when she reached the turret stair. For an instant she froze. Up or down? Up would take her to the covered bridge that spanned the small appeal to the Tower of the Hand, but that would be the way theyd expect her to go, for certain. Never do what they expect, Syrio once said. Arya went down, around and around, leaping over the narrow stone steps two and three at a time. She emerged in a cavernous vaulted cellar, surrounded by barrels of ale stacked twenty feet tall. The only light came through narrow slanting windowpanes high in the wall.The cellar was a dead end. in that respect was no way out but the way she had come in. She dare not go back up those steps, but she couldnt stay here, either. She had to find her father and tell him what had happened. Her father would protect her.Arya thrust her wooden sword through her belt and began to climb, leaping from cask to cask until she could reach the window. Grasping the stone with both hands, she pulled herself up. The wall was three feet thick, the window a tunnel slanting up and out. Arya wriggled toward daylight. When her head reached ground level, she peered acr oss the bailey to the Tower of the Hand.The stout wooden door hung splintered and broken, as if by axes. A dead man sprawled facedown on the steps, his cloak tangled beneath him, the back of his mailed shirt soaked red. The corpses cloak was grey wool slashed with white satin, she saw with sudden terror. She could not tell who he was.No, she whispered. What was occurrence? Where was her father? Why had the red cloaks come for her? She remembered what the man with the yellow face fungus had said, the day she had imbed the monsters. If one Hand can die, why not a second? Arya matte tears in her eyes. She held her breath to listen. She heard the sounds of fighting, shouts, screams, the clang of steel on steel, coming through the windows of the Tower of the Hand.She could not go back. Her father . . .Arya closed her eyes. For a moment she was too excite to move. They had killed Jory and Wyl and Heward, and that guardsman on the step, whoever he had been. They could kill her father too, and her if they caught her. Fear cuts deeper than swords, she said aloud, but it was no good pretending to be a water dancer, Syrio had been a water dancer and the white knight had probably killed him, and anyhow she was only a little girl with a wooden stick, alone and afraid.She squirmed out into the grounds, glancing around warily as she climbed to her feet. The castle seemed relinquished. The Red Keep was never deserted. All the people essential(prenominal) be hiding inside, their doors barred. Arya glanced up longingly at her bedchamber, then moved away from the Tower of the Hand, keeping close to the wall as she slid from shadow to shadow. She pretended she was chasing cats . . . except she was the cat now, and if they caught her, they would kill her.Moving between buildings and over walls, keeping stone to her back wheresoever possible so no one could surprise her, Arya reached the endurings almost without incident. A dozen flamboyant cloaks in mail and plate ran past as she was edging across the inner bailey, but without knowing whose side they were on, she hunch down low in the shadows and let them pass.Hullen, who had been master of horse at Winterfell as long as Arya could remember, was slumped on the ground by the stable door. He had been stabbed so many times it looked as if his tunic was pattern with scarlet flowers. Arya was certain he was dead, but when she crept closer, his eyes opened. Arya Underfoot, he whispered. You must . . . warn your . . . your lord father . . . Frothy red spittle bubbled from his mouth. The master of horse closed his eyes again and said no more. wrong were more bodies a groom she had played with, and three of her fathers household guard. A wagon, laden with crates and chests, stood abandoned near the door of the stable. The dead men must have been loading it for the trip to the docks when they were attacked. Arya snuck closer. One of the corpses was Desmond, whod shown her his longsword and promised to p rotect her father. He lay on his back, staring blindly at the ceiling as fly crawled across his eyes. Close to him was a dead man in the red cloak and lion-crest helm of the Lannisters. Only one, though. Every northerner is worth ten of these southron swords, Desmond had told her. You liar she said, kicking his body in a sudden fury.The animals were restless in their stalls, whickering and snorting at the scent of blood. Aryas only plan was to saddle a horse and flee, away from the castle and the city. All she had to do was stay on the kingsroad and it would take her back to Winterfell. She took a bridle and harness off the wall.As she crossed in back of the wagon, a fallen chest caught her eye. It must have been knocked down in the fight or dropped as it was be loaded. The wood had split, the lid opening to spill the chests contents across the ground. Arya accept silks and satins and velvets she never wore. She might need warm clothes on the kingsroad, though . . . and besides . . .Arya knelt in the dirt among the scattered clothes. She found a dour woolen cloak, a velvet skirt and a silk tunic and some smallclothes, a dress her mother had embroidered for her, a silver baby gaud she might sell. Shoving the broken lid out of the way, she groped inside the chest for Needle. She had hidden it way down at the bottom, under everything, but her stuff had all been jumbled around when the chest was dropped. For a moment Arya was afraid mortal had found the sword and stolen it. Then her fingers felt the hardness of metal under a satin gown.There she is, a vocalism hissed close behind her.Startled, Arya whirled. A groom stood behind her, a smirk on his face, his filthy white undertunic peeking out from beneath a soiled jerkin. His boots were covered with manure, and he had a pitchfork in one hand. Who are you? she asked.She dont know me, he said, but I knows her, oh, yes. The wolf girl.Help me saddle a horse, Arya pleaded, reaching back into the chest, groping f or Needle. My fathers the Hand of the King, hell reward you.Fathers dead, the boy said. He shuffled toward her. Its the queen wholl be rewarding me. Come here, girl.Stay away Her fingers closed around Needles hilt.I says, come. He grabbed her arm, hard.Everything Syrio Forel had ever taught her vanished in a heartbeat. In that instant of sudden terror, the only lesson Arya could remember was the one Jon Snow had given her, the very first.She stuck him with the pointy end, driveway the blade upward with a wild, hysterical strength.Needle went through his leather jerkin and the white flesh of his belly and came out between his shoulder blades. The boy dropped the pitchfork and made a soft noise, something between a retch and a sigh. His hands closed around the blade. Oh, gods, he moaned, as his undertunic began to redden. Take it out.When she took it out, he died.The horses were screaming. Arya stood over the body, still and frightened in the face of death. Blood had gushed from the boys mouth as he collapsed, and more was seeping from the slit in his belly, pooling beneath his body. His palms were cut where hed grabbed at the blade. She backed away slowly, Needle red in her hand. She had to get away, someplace far from here, someplace safe away from the stableboys accusing eyes.She snatched up the bridle and harness again and ran to her mare, but as she lifted the saddle to the horses back, Arya realized with a sudden sick affright that the castle gates would be closed. Even the postern doors would likely be guarded. perchance the guards wouldnt recognize her. If they thought she was a boy, perhaps theyd let her . . . no, theyd have orders not to let anyone out, it wouldnt matter whether they knew her or not.But there was another way out of the castle . . .The saddle slipped from Aryas fingers and fell to the dirt with a poke and a puff of dust. Could she find the room with the monsters again? She wasnt certain, yet she knew she had to try.She found the cl othing shed gathered and slipped into the cloak, concealing Needle beneath its folds. The rest of her things she buttoned in a roll. With the bundle under her arm, she crept to the far end of the stable. Unlatching the back door, she peeked out anxiously. She could hear the distant sound of swordplay, and the shivery wail of a man screaming in pain across the bailey. She would need to go down the serpentine steps, past the small kitchen and the pig yard, that was how shed gone last time, chasing the black tomcat . . . only that would take her right past the barracks of the gold cloaks. She couldnt go that way. Arya tried to think of another way. If she crossed to the other side of the castle, she could creep along the river wall and through the little godswood . . . but first shed have to cross the yard, in the plain view of the guards on the walls.She had never seen so many men on the walls. Gold cloaks, most of them, build up with spears. Some of them knew her by sight. What wou ld they do if they saw her running across the yard? Shed look so small from up there, would they be able to tell who she was? Would they care?She had to leave now, she told herself, but when the moment came, she was too frightened to move.Calm as still water, a small voice whispered in her ear. Arya was so startled she almost dropped her bundle. She looked around wildly, but there was no one in the stable but her, and the horses, and the dead men.Quiet as a shadow, she heard. Was it her own voice, or Syrios? She could not tell, yet somehow it calmed her fears.She stepped out of the stable.It was the scariest thing shed ever done. She wanted to run and hide, but she made herself walk across the yard, slowly, putting one foot in front of the other as if she had all the time in the world and no crusade to be afraid of anyone. She thought she could feel their eyes, like bugs crawling on her skin under her clothes. Arya never looked up. If she saw them watching, all her courage would de sert her, she knew, and she would drop the bundle of clothes and run and cry like a baby, and then they would have her. She kept her gaze on the ground. By the time she reached the shadow of the royal sept on the far side of the yard, Arya was moth-eaten with sweat, but no one had raised the hue and cry.The sept was open and empty. Inside, half a hundred prayer candles burned in a fragrant silence. Arya figured the gods would never miss two. She stuffed them up her sleeves, and left by a back window. Sneaking back to the alley where she had cornered the monaural tom was easy, but after that she got lost. She crawled in and out of windows, hopped over walls, and felt her way through dark cellars, quiet as a shadow. erst she heard a woman weeping. It took her more than an hour to find the low narrow window that slanted down to the dungeon where the monsters waited.She tossed her bundle through and doubled back to light her candle. That was chancy the fire shed remembered seeing had burned down to embers, and she heard voices as she was blowing on the coals. Cupping her fingers around the flicker candle, she went out the window as they were coming in the door, without ever getting a glimpse of who it was.This time the monsters did not frighten her. They seemed almost old friends. Arya held the candle over her head. With each step she took, the shadows moved against the walls, as if they were round to watch her pass. Dragons, she whispered. She slid Needle out from under her cloak. The slender blade seemed very small and the dragons very big, yet somehow Arya felt better with steel in her hand.The long windowless hall beyond the door was as black as she remembered. She held Needle in her left hand, her sword hand, the candle in her right fist. Hot wax ran down across her knuckles. The entrance to the well had been to the left, so Arya went right. Part of her wanted to run, but she was afraid of snuffing out her candle. She heard the faint squeaking of rats an d glimpsed a pair of tiny glowing eyes on the edge of the light, but rats did not scare her. Other things did. It would be so easy to hide here, as she had hidden from the wizard and the man with the forked beard. She could almost see the stableboy standing against the wall, his hands kink into claws with the blood still dripping from the deep gashes in his palms where Needle had cut him. He might be waiting to grab her as she passed. He would see her candle coming a long way off. by chance she would be better off without the light . . .Fear cuts deeper than swords, the quiet voice inside her whispered. Suddenly Arya remembered the crypts at Winterfell. They were a lot scarier than this place, she told herself. Shed been just a little girl the first time she saw them. Her brother Robb had taken them down, her and Sansa and baby Bran, whod been no bigger than Rickon was now. Theyd only had one candle between them, and Brans eyes had gotten as big as saucers as he stared at the sto ne faces of the Kings of Winter, with their wolves at their feet and their iron swords across their laps.Robb took them all the way down to the end, past Grandfather and Brandon and Lyanna, to show them their own tombs. Sansa kept looking at the stubby little candle, anxious that it might go out. Old grandma had told her there were spiders down here, and rats as big as dogs. Robb smiled when she said that. There are worse things than spiders and rats, he whispered. This is where the dead walk. That was when they heard the sound, low and deep and shivery. Baby Bran had clutched at Aryas hand.When the spirit stepped out of the open tomb, pale white and moaning for blood, Sansa ran shrieking for the stairs, and Bran wrapped himself around Robbs leg, sobbing. Arya stood her ground and gave the spirit a punch. It was only Jon, covered with flour. You stupid, she told him, you scared the baby, but Jon and Robb just laughed and laughed, and pretty soon Bran and Arya were express feelings too.The memory made Arya smile, and after that the darkness held no more terrors for her. The stableboy was dead, shed killed him, and if he jumped out at her shed kill him again. She was going home. Everything would be better once she was home again, safe behind Winterfells grey granite walls.Her footsteps sent soft echoes hurrying ahead of her as Arya plunged deeper into the darkness.