Chapter 48 Chapter Forty-Seven Arya

When they reached the top of the ridge and saw the river, Thornfon Clegane swore and reined in. The rain fell from the iron-black sky, piercing the brown-green turbulence like ten thousand sharp swords.It must be a mile wide, Arya thought.The tops of a hundred trees jutted out of the swirling water, their branches grasping blindly toward the sky like the arms of a drowning man.There was a thick mat of leaves on the bank, and in the distance, in the middle of the river, something pale and swollen, a deer perhaps, or a horse, drifted swiftly downriver.There was a low roar in the ears, as if countless vicious dogs were about to growl.

Arya writhed in the saddle, feeling the hoops of the Hound's mail digging into her back.He wrapped his arms around her, and put a layer of steel armor on the left burnt arm for protection. When the Hound changed his clothes earlier, she found that the flesh underneath was still unhealed and oozing body fluids.However, if the burns were painful to him, Sophie Clegane did not show it. "Is this the Blackwater River?" Riding thousands of miles in heavy rain and darkness, passing through roadless woods and nameless villages, Arya completely lost her sense of direction and didn't know where she was.

"This is a river that needs to be crossed, and that's enough to know." Clegane would give her answers from time to time, but he clearly warned her not to talk.Many warnings were given from day one. "If you hit again, tie your hands back," he said. "If you run away, tie your feet. If you shout or bite me again, just shut your mouth. We can ride together." , or put you on horseback, like a pig waiting to be slaughtered. You choose." She chooses to ride a horse.But at the camp the night before, she had waited until she thought he was asleep, and found a large jagged rock with which to smash the ugly head.Quiet as a shadow, she told herself, as she stalked closer, but it wasn't quiet enough. Maybe the Hound wasn't asleep at all, or woke up.Anyway, his eyes opened suddenly, the corners of his mouth twitched, and he snatched the stone away, treating her like a baby.The best she can do is kick him. "I'll spare you this time," he said, throwing the stone into the bushes. "If you're stupid enough to try again, I'll beat you up."

"Why don't you kill me like you killed Mycah?" Arya growled at him.She was still unconvinced at the time, more angry than fearful. As a result, he grabbed the front of her coat and pulled her to less than an inch from his burned face. "If you mention this name again, I will beat you until I kill you!" Every night after that, when he went to sleep, he wrapped her in the horse's mattress, tied her tightly with ropes from head to toe, like a baby in a swaddle. This must be the Blackwater, Arya decided, watching the rain beat against the river.The Hound is Joffrey's dog, and he will bring her back to the Red Keep to dedicate her to Joffrey and the queen.She wanted the sun to come out so she could tell the direction.The more she looked at the moss on the tree, the more confused she became.The Blackwater River is not so wide near King's Landing, but that was before the rain.

"The shoals for wading are certainly gone," said Sandor Clegane. "I don't want to swim there either." There was no way of crossing the river, she thought, and Lord Berry would catch up.Previously, Clegane had driven his mount desperately, turned three times to get rid of the pursuers, and even walked half a mile backward in the high stream... Arya looked forward to seeing the bandits every time she turned her head.She tried to help them by carving her name on a tree trunk while urinating in the bushes, but he caught him the fourth time, and that was it.It's all right, Arya told herself, Thoros will find me by the fire.But he didn't, at least not yet, and once across the river...

"The town of Harroway is not far," said the Hound. "Lord Root is there to serve Old King Andahar's two-headed water horse. Maybe you can ride him there." Arya had never heard of Old King Andahar, nor had she seen a horse with two heads, especially one that ran on water, but she knew it best not to ask.So he kept silent, sat upright, and let the hounds turn the horse's head and trot along the ridge and down the river.This way, at least the rain falls on the back.She had had enough of being half blinded by the heavy rain, and the water trickled down her cheeks as if she was crying.Direwolves never cry, she reminded herself again.

It was probably just after noon, but the sky was as dark as dusk.She couldn't count how many days she hadn't seen the sun, the rain soaked her bones, and she was sore from riding all day, and she had a little fever, runny nose, and sometimes trembling uncontrollably, but when she told the hound that she was sick, he Just growl at her. "Wipe your nose and keep your mouth shut," he told her.To this day, in fact, even he sleeps half the time when he rides, trusting his mount to pick its own rutted field lane or hunter's trail.It was a solid steed, almost as tall as a warhorse, but much faster.The Hound named him 'The Stranger'.Once, while Clegane was urinating against a tree, Arya tried to steal it, thinking she could ride away before he could turn around, and the Stranger almost bit her face off.To his master he was as docile as an old gelding, but to the others he had a terrible temper.She had never seen a beast that bit and kicked so neatly.

They rode along the river for hours, splashing and wading through two murky tributaries, before they reached at last where Sonny Clegane had spoken. "Earl Harroway's town," he announced, and was stunned by the sight before his words, "Seven Hells!" The town was flooded and uninhabited.The high water flowed over the embankment, and there were few buildings left in the town. Only the upper floor of a civil structure inn, the seven-sided dome of a collapsed church, and two-thirds of a round tower blockhouse were exposed above the water. In addition, there are individual moldy thatched roofs and numerous chimneys.

But Arya saw smoke rising from that tower, and a broad barge fast and chained to one of the arched windows.The boat has a dozen oar racks, and a huge wooden horse head at the bow and stern.This is the two-headed horse, she understood.In the middle of the deck was a wooden cabin with a thatched roof. The Hound put his hands to his mouth and yelled sharply. Two people stepped out of it, and a third person appeared in the round tower window, holding a loaded crossbow. "What do you want?" a third yelled through the swirling brown water. "Take us there," the Hound yelled back.

The people in the boat discussed for a while.One of them came to the railing, a hunchback with gray hair and thick arms. "It's not cheap." "All I have is money." Plenty of money? Arya thought suspiciously.The bandits had taken Clegane's gold, and perhaps Lord Beric had left him some silver and copper.It only takes a few copper coins to cross the river by boat... The boatmen began to discuss again.Finally, the hunchback turned and gave a cry, and six more men came out of the cabin, all wearing hoods to keep out the rain, and some others squeezed through the windows of the tower keep and jumped down the deck.Half of them looked quite like the hunchback, and seemed to be his relatives.The chains were undone, the long poles were taken out, and the heavy broad-bladed oars were snapped into the oarlocks.The ferry staggered slowly toward the shallows, its oars paddling smoothly on both sides.Sandor Clegane rode off the hill to meet him.

When the stern hit the hillside, the boatmen opened a wide door under the carved wooden horse's head, and stretched out a heavy oak plank.The Stranger balked at the water's edge, but the Hound clamped the horse's belly between his knees and urged him up to the gangplank.The hunchback was waiting for them on deck. "Wet through, ser?" he asked, smiling. The Hound's mouth twitched. "Damn it, all I want is your boat, don't talk about it." He rolled off his horse, dragged Arya down and stood beside him.A boatman reached for the Stranger's reins. "No." Clegane said, before it was too late, the horse started kicking people at the same time.The boatman jumped back, slipped on the rain-soaked deck, and sat down, cursing. The hunchbacked boatman stopped smiling. "We'll take you across the river," he said grimly. "One guinea. The horse adds another. The boy wants one." "Three gold dragons?" Clegane let out a piercing laugh. "Three gold dragons can buy this damn ship!" "Maybe last year. Now that the water level is so high, I need extra people to pole and paddle to ensure that I don't get swept down a hundred miles and slide into the sea. You choose, or pay three gold dragons, or teach this A bloody horse walks on water." "I like honest robbers. It's up to you. Three golden dragons...pay when you reach the north shore safely." "I want it now, or we won't leave." The man stretched out a thick and callused hand, palm up. Clegane unsheathed his sword with a click. "You choose yourself, either you get gold coins on the north bank, or you get a knife on the south bank." The boatman looked up into the Hound's face.Arya could see that the other party was very dissatisfied.A dozen or so people gathered behind him, all strong men with oars and hardwood poles, but no one stepped forward to help him.Together they might overwhelm Thorn Clegane, but three or four would probably die before the Hound was overpowered. "How do I know you will keep your promise?" After a while, the hunchback asked. He won't, she wanted to yell, but bit her lip. "In knightly honor," said the Hound gravely. He's not even a knight.She didn't say it either. "Well then," said the boatman, "come on, we can get you across the river before dark. Tie up the horse, I don't want him scurrying about halfway. If you and your son want to keep warm, there is a a brazier." "I'm not his stupid son!" Arya roared angrily—it was worse than being treated like a boy.She was so angry that she almost identified herself, but Sang Feng Clegane grabbed her by the collar of her clothes and lifted her off the deck with one hand. "Shut the damn beak! How many times have I told you?" He shook Arya so violently that her teeth chattered, before letting go. "Go in and dry it, and do as others tell you." Arya obediently complied.A red light shone from the great iron brazier, filling the room with a sullen, stagnant heat.It would have been nice to stand beside it to warm her hands and dry her clothes, but she slipped out the front door as soon as she felt the deck begin to move beneath her feet. The two-headed horse slid out of the shallows and marched through the flooded "Halloway", passing chimneys and rooftops.A dozen men paddled vigorously, and four others used long poles to prop them aside if they got too close to rocks, trees or collapsed houses.The hunchback is at the helm.The rain beat against the smooth planks of the deck, splashing on the towering carved wooden horse heads at the front and rear.Arya was drenched again, but didn't care.She wanted to see, waiting for a chance to escape.The man with the crossbow still stood in the round tower window, his eyes following the ferryboat as it glided by below.She wondered if this was the Lord Root the Hound had mentioned.He doesn't look like a Jazz.But she doesn't look like a lady either. Once out of town and into the river, the current suddenly became stronger.Through the gray mist of the rain, Arya could make out a tall stone pillar on the far bank, clearly marking the approach, and then realized that they had been swept off course and were heading downstream.The oarsmen paddled vigorously, struggling with the furious river.Numerous leaves and broken branches passed by in circles and swiftly, as if ejected from crossbows.Men with long poles leaned to prop away anything that came too close.In the middle of the river, too, the wind picked up, and whenever Arya turned her head to look upstream, the rain hit her face.The deck shook violently underfoot, and the Stranger hissed and kicked. If I jumped over the edge, the river would carry me away, and the hounds wouldn't notice.She turned her head and saw Sandor Clegane trying to calm the frightened steed.This is the best opportunity.But I might be drowned.Though Jon had said she swam like a fish, even a fish could be in trouble in this river.Better to drown than to go back to King's Landing, though.She thought of Joffrey, and she crept quietly to the bow.The river was full of brown mud, which looked more like soup than water when it was whipped and stirred by the rain.Arya wondered, wondering how cold it would be in there.Anyway, it couldn't be more humid and cold than it is now.She put one hand on the railing. Before she could jump, she was suddenly attracted by a loud shout.The boatmen rushed forward with long poles in their hands.For a moment she didn't understand what was happening, and then she saw it: a big black tree uprooted, coming at them.Tangled roots and branches poked out of the running water like the outstretched tentacles of a giant kraken.The oarsmen paddled frantically, trying to duck out of the way lest they be knocked over or poked through the hull.The hunchbacked old man turned the rudder and the bow horse swerved downstream, but too slowly.The brown and black tree shone slightly, coming down like a battering ram. When the long poles of the two boatmen managed to touch it, it was no more than ten feet away from the bow.A pole snapped, making a long crackling sound of "crack-crack-crack", as if the ferry was torn apart under their feet.The second man finally pushed the trunk away hard, just enough to deflect it.The tree brushed the transition boat inches apart, its branches clawing at the horse's head.However, when it seemed to be safe, the upper branch of the monster in the water swept away with a "bang", causing the ferry to tremble violently, and Arya slipped and fell to one knee in pain.The man with the broken pole wasn't so lucky. She heard him scream as he fell sideways, and the rushing brown water swooped down on him. When Arya got up, he was gone.Another boatman grabbed a bundle of rope, but didn't know whom to throw it to. Maybe he'd wash up somewhere downstream, Arya tried to tell Keji, but the thought seemed so hollow that she lost all will to swim.Sandor Clegane yelled at her to go back inside or beat her hard.She obediently complied.It was evident at this moment that the ferry was in a desperate struggle to get back on course with the river, which was determined to wash it out to sea. When it finally landed, it was a full two miles downstream from the landing site.The boat hit the embankment so hard that another pole broke, and Arya nearly fell again, and Sandor Clegane lifted her onto the Stranger's back like a puppet.The boatmen stared at them with dull, weary eyes, hunched and outstretched hands. "Six golden dragons," he demanded, "three for the ferry fee, and the other three to compensate for my lost manpower." Sandor Clegane fumbled in his pocket, stuffing a crumpled roll of parchment into the boatman's palm.I'll give you ten" "Ten pieces?" The boatman was confused, "What exactly is this?" "The IOUs of two dead men are equivalent to about nine thousand gold dragons." The Hound mounted his horse, sat behind Arya, and smiled maliciously. "Ten of them belong to you. One day I will come to get the rest of the money, so be careful not to spend them all." The other party squinted at the parchment, "Words. What's the use of words? You promise to give gold coins, and guarantee it with the honor of a knight." "Knights have no honor at all, thank me for teaching you a lesson, old man." The Hound kicked the Stranger and galloped away in the rain.The boatmen swore behind their backs, and--two men threw stones, but Clegane ignored the stones and the curses, and soon disappeared into the shadowy bushes, and the roar of the river died away. "The ferry won't be back until tomorrow morning," he said, "and the gang won't take paper promises until the next batch of fools arrives. If your friends are going to give chase, they'll have to bloody swim over!" " Arya curled up on her stomach, silent. Valar morghulis, she thought gloomily, Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei, Dunson, Polliver, Raff the Sweetmouth, Ser Gregor and the Notepad, the Hound, the Hound, the Hound ! When the rain cleared, she was shaking and sneezing so badly that Clegane had to stay overnight and even try to light a fire.The wood gathered turned out to be too damp; not enough to ignite sparks no matter how hard one tried.Finally, in disgust, he kicked all the logs away. "Damn it, seven hells!" he swore, "I hate fire." They sat on the wet stones at the base of the oak trees, ate cold dry bread, stinky cheese and smoked sausage, and listened to the slow patter of stagnant water dripping from the leaves.The Hound sliced ​​the meat with the dagger, and his eyes narrowed as he caught Arya looking at the dagger. "Don't even think about it." "I didn't." She lied. He snorted in appreciation and offered her a thick slice of sausage.Arya tore at the sausage with her teeth, and kept her eyes on the Hound. "I never beat your lady," said the Hound, "but I will if you make me. Stop trying to kill me. It won't do you any good." She was speechless, so she gnawed on the sausage and stared at him coldly.Tough as a mountain, Arya thought. "At least you will look at my face, not bad, little wolf girl. Do you like this face?" "Don't like it. It's all burned out and ugly." Clegane offered her a piece of cheese with the point of his dagger.What good will it do you if you really run away, little fool? Only to be caught by worse people. " "No," she insisted, "there's no one worse than you." "You haven't seen my brother. Gregor once killed someone because of snoring, and that person was his own subordinate." He grinned, and the burned side of his face immediately tightened, twisting horribly.There is no lip on that cheek, and only a stump of ear remains. "Actually, I know your brother." Arya then thought that maybe the Mountain was worse. "He, and Dunson, and Polliver, and Raff the Sweetie, and Notepad." The Hound seemed surprised. "How could Eddard Stark's precious little girl know these people? Gregor never takes his pet rat to court." "I met them in the village." She ate the cheese and reached for a piece of hard bread. "The village was built by the lake, and Gendry, me, and Hot Pie were caught there, and there was Romy the Green Hand, but Raff the Sweet Mouth killed him right then because his foot hurt and he couldn't walk. move." Clegane's mouth twitched. "Catch you? My brother got you?" He laughed, an unpleasant sound, half guttural, half growl. "Gregor doesn't know what's in his hand, does he? Surely he doesn't, or you'll be dragged back to King's Landing and thrown into Cersei's arms with all your kicking and shouting. Oh shit, that's wonderful Now, I'll remember to tell him the truth - before digging out his heart." This wasn't the first time he'd talked about Kill Devil Mountain. "He's your brother," Arya said suspiciously. "You didn't think of a brother who killed himself?" He laughed again, "Or sister?" He must have seen some reaction on her face, so he moved closer. "Sansa. Right? She-wolf wants to kill cute little birds." "No," Arya snapped back, "I'm going to kill you!" "Because I cut your little friend in half? I didn't kill him alone, I promise you that. You think I'm a monster, don't you? Well, I saved your old lady anyway. The day the mob dragged her off her horse, I went in and brought her back to the castle, otherwise she would have ended up like Norris Stokeworth. She sang to me afterwards, you don't know Well, didn't you? Your old lady sang me a sweet little song." "You lied." She said immediately. "Damn it, you don't even know half of what you think you know. Blackwater River? The Seven Hells. What the hell are you thinking? Where do you think we're going?" The disdain in his voice made her hesitate. "Back to King's Landing," she said, "and you will give me to Joffrey and the queen." She knew suddenly that it was wrong, from the way he asked the question.But she had to say something. "Stupid and blind little she-wolf." His voice was rough and hoarse, like steel rubbing against each other. "Fuck your mother Joffrey, and your mother's queen, and your mother's monstrous monstrosity. I have nothing to do with their cities, nor with the Kingsguard, nor with the Lannisters. Dogs and lions What does it matter, I ask you?" He reached for the water sac, took a swig, then wiped his mouth and handed the sac to Arya, "This is the Trident River, little sister. The Trident River! No Blackwater. Draw a map in your head if you can, we'll get to the King's Row tomorrow, then we'll go fast and take the Twins. It's me, not the noble one, who will deliver you to your mother The Lightning King and that fake monk playing with fire, that monster!" Seeing the look on her face, he grinned. "You thought your robber friend was the only one who smelled the ransom? Dondarrion robbed me of my property, so I stole you. I value you at twice the money they stole from me A lot. I might get more if I sold you back to the Lannisters, as you fear, but I wouldn't do that. Even dogs get annoyed by kicks. Well, if that's less Lord Wolf, with the intelligence the gods bestowed on a toad, will make me a lord and ask me to serve him. He needs me, though he may not understand it himself. I seem to be greeted with Gregor's head, he will like it of." "He will never take you in," she said sternly, "he won't take you in." "Then I'll take as much gold as I can, laugh in his face, and ride away. If he won't take me, it would be wise to kill me, but he won't, and from what I've heard, he Too much like his father. It's nothing to me, a winner anyway. You too, little wolf girl. So, stop yelling and biting at me, I'm bored. Shut up and do as I say , maybe in time for your uncle's damn wedding."