Chapter 82 The final chapter

This road leads to Huangshi City, and it takes two bends to get to the top of the mountain.Overgrown with weeds, rocky and rugged, it is difficult to walk in a good season, let alone muddy after the snow last night.What an anomaly, that it snows in the Hejian Land in autumn, Meili thought gloomily.Of course, the snow didn't fall very much, and after the night, when the sun came out, it all melted.But in any case, Merry still felt that it was a bad omen.The heavy rains, floods, looting and wars some time ago have caused people to lose two harvesting opportunities in succession, and now they are almost missing even the third one.For the Riverlands, if winter comes quickly, famine is almost certain.Many residents will not have enough to eat, or even starve to death.Merry only wished he hadn't been one of them.With my luck, it's not impossible, I've never had luck.

Below the ruins of the ancient stronghold, there is a dense forest at the bottom of the slope, and dozens of bandits may be hiding in it.Aren't they looking at me? Merry looked carefully, but saw nothing but pines and grey-green sentinels, with gorse, ferns, thistles, sedges, and blackberry bushes between them. with.The foothills are covered with slender elms, ash trees and oak oaks.Just because no bandits are found doesn't mean there is no danger. Bandits always hide and attack decent people. In truth, Merry hated the forest, and hated the bandits even more. "Bandits ruined my life." He complained every time he was drunk.His father often scolded him for drinking too much and being noisy when he drank too much.His father was right, he thought wretchedly, being born in the Twins had to have something special, otherwise he would be easily forgotten, but being the biggest alcoholic in the city really wasn't going to help his future.I dreamed of becoming a peerless knight, but the gods mercilessly destroyed my nerves.Forget it, can't you even drink alcohol? At least alcohol can suppress headaches.My wife is naughty, my father despises me, and my children are all incompetent. What else can I do but drink?

I have a headache right now.Two large horn glasses of ale were downed at breakfast, and a small glass of red wine before he set off, but it wasn't enough for him.Merry felt his eyes swell, and there seemed to be thunder in his ears.Many times, the headache was so severe that he couldn't help crying, and the only thing he could do was to go back to the dark room, lie on the bed and cover his eyes with a wet towel, and at the same time cursed his luck and the cause of it. The nameless bandit of it all. The more he thought about it, the more anxious he became, and his head seemed to be getting more and more painful.If I get Petyr back safely, maybe luck will change.He brought the money, and he only needed to climb up to the deserted stone city on the top of the mountain, meet those damned bandits in the ruins, and make an exchange.Pay the ransom, it's easy, don't screw it up...but his head hurts so bad he can't even ride the horse.No, you have to reach the top of the mountain at sunset, that's the agreed time, you can't curl up on the side of the road and cry.Merry rubbed her temples with two fingers.Take another turn and you will reach the top of the mountain.A few days ago, when the news came, he volunteered to take on the task of paying the ransom without saying a word. His father squinted at him first, "You? Meri?" Then he hummed a string of ridicule from his nostrils, "Hey , Hey, hey." It was my father's signature smile.In the end Merry had to beg a lot to get the damned bag of gold.

Something was moving in the bushes by the roadside.Meili hastily reined in his horse and drew his sword, only to find that it was just a squirrel. "Fool," he scolded himself, pushing back the unsheathed longsword. "Bandits don't have long tails, seven hells, Merry, calm down." His heart was beating wildly, like a boy who had just entered the battlefield.I'm dealing with the Lightning King's mob, not the old Brotherhood of the King's Forest.But in his heart, he just wanted to run down the mountain and find the nearest tavern.A sack of gold could buy so much wine, enough to make him forget about Petyr the pimple-faced.Let them hang him, it's his own fault, wandering around with camp whores absurdly, an unsavory asshole.

There was a pounding in the skull, mild now, but he knew it could get worse at any moment.Merry rubbed the bridge of her nose, feeling that she shouldn't blame Petyr so much.Wasn't it the same when I was his age? The kid unfortunately had a pimple face, but it wasn't his fault.Whores were an irresistible temptation for a man who looked like Petyr.Poor boy, although he has a wife, this woman is his heart disease.She was twice his age, and it was said that she often slept with his brother Walder.There are countless gossips in the Twin River City every day, some of which are false and true, but Merry has no doubts about Petyr.Black Walder is a savage man who takes whatever he wants, and his brother's wife is nothing to him. As we all know, he once possessed Edwin's wife, had an affair with the beautiful woman Varda from time to time, and even had an affair with the seventh Mrs. Frey have an affair.No wonder he didn't want to marry, since all the cows were eagerly waiting to be milked by him, why buy one just for himself?

Merry cursed under her breath, kicked her feet hard, and urged her horse up the hill.So great was the temptation to spend money on wine that he knew that if he turned back, he would never see Petyr the Pimple-faced again in this lifetime. Lord Ward, who was about to turn ninety-two, was beginning to be deaf and near-sighted, and his gout was such that he had to be carried on a stretcher wherever he went.The sons unanimously agreed that the father's life was not long.When he dies, the situation will change drastically, and it is hard to say whether it will develop for the better.For all his irascibility, stubbornness, and harsh words, Father genuinely cared about all of his children, even those who disappointed or offended him, even those whose names he couldn't remember.If he dies, then...

Things were different when Sir Stevron was alive.The poor elder brother had been the heir for sixty years, but in the end he could not survive his father. He died in the army during the expedition with the Young Wolf Lord—"There is no doubt that he was tired of waiting."Cripple Rosso commented like this - the characters of his children and grandchildren are very different from their father.The heir to the Twins now was Stevron's eldest son, Sir Lyman, a simple-minded, stubborn, and greedy fellow.After Raiman came Edwin and Heyward, who were even worse. "Fortunately," said Cripple Rosso, "they hate each other more than we hate us."

Mei Li was not so sure, but felt that Rosso was more dangerous than them.Yes, it was Lord Walder's own idea to massacre Stark at Roslin's wedding, but the collusion with Roose Bolton and the use of songs as signals were all arranged by the lame Rosso.On the wine table, Rosso is a good companion, other than that, Meri dare not let his guard down.The rule in the Twin River City is: you can only trust your own brothers and sisters, and you can't trust too much. When the old man dies, he can't even trust his own brothers and sisters.The new Lord of the Crossings will leave some uncles, cousins, nephews, etc., but only those who are trustworthy or useful will get a chance.Everyone else will be kicked out of their homes.

Thinking about the future, Meili was so worried that she didn't know what to do.In two more years, he will be forty years old, too old to be a hedge knight... Besides, he has not been granted a title at all, and he can't even meet the conditions.He has no land, no money, only the clothes in his backpack, not even the horse he rides.His mind is not enough to be a bachelor, his piety is not up to the standard of a monk, and his character determines that he cannot be a mercenary.The gods are so stingy, they gave me nothing except my birth.Even if he was born in such a wealthy and powerful family, what's the use of being the ninth son? Counting grandsons and great-grandchildren together, the chances of Meri being the archbishop are higher than the possibility of inheriting the city of Twin Rivers.

I've had no luck, he thought bitterly, fuck, I'll never have luck.He was a stocky man, only of medium height, but very broad in shoulders and chest.He had grown fat and flabby in the past ten years, but he had once been as vigorous as Ser Hostyn, his half-brother, and considered Lord Walder Frey's strongest son.When he was a boy, he was sent to his mother's family to serve as a waiter to the Earl of Crakehall, and soon after, he was appointed as a squire by Lord Sumner.Everyone had been sure he would soon be Lord Merry, but bandits from the Brotherhood of the Kingswood had ruined everything.During that raid, his fellow squire, Jaime Lannister, was honored after he had slept with a camp whore and got a rash before being captured by a bandit woman called the White Hart.Although Earl Sumner redeemed him, in the ensuing battle, he was hit by a mace, not to mention smashing his helmet, and he was unconscious for half a month.I heard later that everyone believed that he must die at that time.

Although Merry didn't die, he could never go to the battlefield again.As long as he was tapped on the head lightly, he would have a numb headache and even shed tears.Thus, never being a knight, Earl Sumner sent him back to the Twins to face his father's utter contempt after a friendly showdown. From then on, Merry ran out of luck.His father took great pains to get back a girl from the Darry family for him. At that time, the Darry family was in full swing before King Aerys, and his great success seemed to be just around the corner.But Aerys lost his throne as soon as he opened his bride's buds.The Darry family was loyal to the Targaryen dynasty and had devoted all their efforts to help it out. As a result, half of their land and most of their wealth were confiscated, and they were reduced to second-rate. As for his wife, she was very disappointed with him when they first met, and then she gave birth to a daughter for him. —three grew up, one was stillborn, and one died in infancy—and until a few years ago a boy was born.His eldest daughter is a slut, and his second daughter is a glutton.When he found out that Ali had slept with no less than three grooms, he could only force her to marry the damned hedge knight.He thought it couldn't be any worse... Who would have expected Ser Pate, a fool, to challenge Gregor Clegane for fame! So Ali went back to her family as a widow, much to Merry's disappointment and to the grooms' delight. Merry could hardly believe her luck when Roose Bolton chose his Varda over his slimmer, more handsome nieces.The alliance with the Boltons was important to House Frey, and the covenant had been made by his daughter, and he thought he would be valued now, until the old man explained to him, "He chose her because of her weight, said Lord Walder, "do you think Bolton would care that she was your baby? A sow in clothes, that's why he likes it—I'm not too satisfied, your piglets just need to eat less, so the cost of our alliance can be cut in half." The final humiliation was accompanied by a smile as Cripple Rosso called him in to discuss their respective roles in Roslin's wedding. "Our brothers each have their strengths, and each of us has his place," his half-brother announced. "You, Merry, have only one specialty, and simple tasks can be done well. Damn, you Cup after cup I knocked Greatjon down, taught him not to stand, don't make him get up." I couldn't even finish that.The wine he fought with the big northerner was enough to kill three ordinary people, but when Roslin entered the bridal chamber, after the incident, the Greatjon still twisted the arm of the first soldier who rushed up and grabbed the long sword .Later, with the strength of a total of eight people, he was caught just now. The price was that two people were injured and one died. The Count used his teeth. Merry stopped for a while and closed her eyes.There were convulsions in his skull, as if the drums were still beating on the wedding day, boom, boom, boom, and he almost fell off his horse.I have to go, he reminded himself, Ser Lyman would be very upset if he didn't bring back the pimple-faced Petyr, besides, even though Petyr was a little beardless, he wasn't as cold as Edwin , nor Black Walder's bad temper.The boy will appreciate me in the future, and his father will appreciate my loyalty and keep me. To do all this, you must rush to the deserted stone city with gold at sunset.Merry looked up to the sky.It's time to stop shaking your hands.So he took the water bottle from the saddle, opened it, and took a deep drink.By gods, this wine is black as a mire, but coarse is coarse, and I can't live without it. The outer wall of Huangshi City used to surround the top of the mountain, like a crown on a king's head. So far, only the foundation remains, and several piles of waist-high gravel are covered with lichen.Mei Li walked along the ancient city wall for a long time, and came to the place where the gate tower was. The ruins here were a little taller, so he had to lead his horse to find a way to enter.The sun sank under a dark cloud in the west, and gorse and ferns covered the slopes, while weeds grew chest-high inside the walls.Meili drew out his long sword and scanned the surroundings vigilantly, but there were no traces of the bandits.Am I misremembering the date? He paused to wipe his brow with his thumb, but that didn't ease his uneasiness.Seven layers of hell, could it be... Somewhere in the city, through the bushes, there was a faint sound of music. Merry, despite his heavy cloak, trembled uncontrollably at the sound, so he took out his waterskin again and took a deep gulp.I could mount a horse, flee to the ends of the earth, flee to Oldtown, and buy a lot of fine wine with gold.Bandits are my nemesis.That nasty little bitch Varda burned a white deer on my ass so my wife despises me.No, no, I don't want to think about it.Edwin had no sons, and Black Walder would only have bastards, and Pimple-faced Petyr might be Lord of the Crossings one day, and he would remember the hero who saved him.He gulped down another gulp, stuffed the bag, and led the horse past rocks, gorse, and rustling bushes, and followed the music to the castle courtyard. The fallen leaves piled up high in the yard, like a pile of corpses after a massacre.A man in patched faded green sits cross-legged on a weathered grave, strumming a wooden harp.The music was soft and sad, but it was very familiar to Merry: in the high hall of kings, Jenny danced with the ghost of the dead king... "Get up," Merry, "you cannot sit on a king." "Old Tristephon won't care about my skinny ass, he's the 'hammer of justice', and he hasn't heard a ballad for a long time." The bandit said and jumped down. He was small and pointed, Very sly in appearance, but that mouth smiled so brightly that it almost touched the ear.A few thin brown hairs hung down his forehead, he brushed them away with his hand not holding the piano, "Do you remember me, my lord?" "I don't remember," Mei Li frowned, "Who are you?" "I performed at your daughter's wedding banquet. It was my favorite work. The Pater she married is my relative, and we in Qiquan have been dating for generations-of course, he is still so stingy when paying the money "The man in green shrugged, "Why doesn't your lord father let me go to the Twin River City to perform? Do you think I'm not good enough? I heard that he likes to sing loudly, oh, yes." "Where's the money?" asked a gruff voice behind him. Merry's mouth was parched.Damn bandits, have been hiding in the bushes.It was the same with Yulin that time, as soon as you caught five guys, ten people rushed out to rescue them. Cautiously, he turned his head and found that they surrounded him, including old men with sullen faces and bad words, and boys who were younger than Pimple-faced Petyr and had no beards.Some of them were clothed in coarse cloth, some in leather, and a few had armor stripped from the dead.Among the crowd was a woman wrapped in a hooded cloak three times her size.In the panic, Meili couldn't count the exact number of people, but the other party said there were at least a dozen, or even more than twenty. "I'm asking a question." The speaker was a bearded giant with crooked green teeth and a cracked nose, taller than Merry but not as thick-waisted.A black iron half-helm wore on his head, and a patched yellow cloak hung over his broad shoulders. "Where's the money?" "In the saddlebag, one hundred gold dragons," Merry cleared his throat, "bring Petyr out, and we'll give each other—" Before he finished speaking, a short, one-eyed bandit stepped forward and grabbed the saddlebag sharply.Meili reached out to stop him, but stopped in mid-air, watching helplessly as the bandit cut open the tether and took out a coin to bite. "The taste is right," the one-eyed man weighed the bag, "and the weight is right." They took the money, but they wouldn't give me Petyr, and Merry tensed. "This is the agreed ransom, not a penny," he wiped his breeches with sweat on his palms. "Which one of you is Beric Dondarrion?" Dondarrion was an earl before he fell into the grass, so he had some honor. "Do you still have to ask? Of course it's me," said the one-eyed man. "You're a fucking liar, Jack," cried the bearded man in the yellow cloak. "It's my turn to be Lord Berry." "So I'm Thoros, then?" the singer smiled. "My lord, it's a pity that everyone wants to see Lord Berry. Times are hard, and wars are raging, and we can't satisfy everyone. But don't be afraid, we will Adhering to the standards of adults to deal with you." The more he said "Don't be afraid," the more frightened Merry became.The pounding in his skull started again, and if this continued, he would have to cry. "You took the money," he declared, "give me back my nephew, and I'm leaving." Petyr wasn't actually his nephew, but that was a casual explanation. "He's in the godswood," said Yellowcloak. "We'll take you to him. Noki, lead the horse." Merry gave the reins reluctantly, seemingly having no other choice. "My waterskin," he heard himself say, "here, let's all take a sip and—" "We don't drink with you bastards," Huang Cloak declared briefly, "Here, come with me." The fallen leaves crunched underfoot, and with every step Merry felt another blow to the temple.The wind howled, the crowd was silent, and when the last ray of sunlight lingered, they climbed up the ancient round hill where the main castle used to be, and saw the godswood behind. Pimple-faced Petyr hung from the branch of an old oak tree with a rope around his long thin neck.His eyes protruded from his dark cheeks, and he stared accusingly at Merry.You're late, they seem to say, but I'm not late, I'm not late! I'm on time! "You killed him," he hissed. "Look, this guy is outspoken." The one-eyed man laughed. It was as if a wild bull was on the rampage inside Merry's head.Our Lady of Mercy, he thought. "I brought the agreed upon ransom." "You've done a good job," the singer said kindly. "We'll put the money to good use." Merry didn't dare to look at Petyr anymore, he felt the bitter taste of bile in his throat, "You...you have no right..." "We have the rope," said the yellow cloak, "and this is our power." Two bandits grabbed Merry by the arms and tied them tightly behind her back.He was too shocked to resist. "No," he said only this, "I'm here to redeem Petyr, you said you won't hurt him if you get the gold before sunset..." "Alas," said the singer, "you have seen us too, my lord. Unfortunately, that is a lie." The one-eyed bandit came up with a coil of hemp rope, tied one end around Merry's neck, pulled it tight, and tied it in a knot under the ear.At the other end, he threw it over the trunk of the oak tree, and the big man in the yellow cloak caught it on the opposite side. "What are you going to do?" Merry knew the question was stupid, but he just couldn't believe what was happening before him, "How dare you hang the Freys!" The yellow cloak laughed loudly, "Well said, that pimple-faced kid also said the same thing." No, no, it can't be! How could it be! "My father will redeem me. I'm worth a lot, at least twice as much as Petyr." The singer sighed: "Master Walder has bad eyesight and gout, but he is not a fool. He will never fall for the same trick twice. I am afraid that next time he will give away not one hundred golden dragons, but one hundred gold dragons." Elite soldiers." "He will!" Merry tried to sound tough, but his voice gave him away. "He will send a thousand elite men to catch you all." "He'll find us first," the singer said, glancing at poor Petyr, "and we've only got one life for him, right?" He played a melancholy note on his woodharp, "Okay, don't pee your pants .You just answer me one question and I'll tell them to let you go." For the sake of his life, Meili can say anything, "What do you want to know? I swear, as long as it is clear, I will tell you." The bandit gave him an encouraging smile, "Okay, actually, we're looking for a desperate dog." "Dog?" Merry was puzzled. "What dog?" "The dog's name was Sonny Clegane. Soros said he'd been to the Twins. We found the boatman who punted him, and the farmer he robbed on the Kingsroad. See you at the wedding Ever passed him?" "You mean the Red Wedding?" Merry's head nearly split open, but he tried to remember. It was a chaotic night, though someone did report that Joffrey's dogs were haunting the Twins. "He didn't go into the castle. At least he didn't go to the main banquet... Maybe he was at the bastard party, maybe he was at the camp, but... no, someone said..." "He has a little girl next to him," the singer suggested, "a very thin girl, about ten years old. It could also be said to be a boy." "No," Merry said, "I haven't heard of that." "No? Oh, what a pity. Come on, let's go, let's go." "No," Merry screamed, "No, you can't do that, I gave you the answer, and you said you'd let me go." "I said 'tell them to let you go'," the singer said, looking at the yellow cape. "Lemon, let him go." "Go to hell with you." The big bandit shouted roughly. The singer turned back to Merry with a helpless shrug and began playing "The Day You Died Black Robin." "I beg you," Merry's last courage disappeared with the shaking of his legs, "I have not hurt you. I have brought the money as you asked. I have also answered your questions. I have children's people." "And Young Wolf Lord can't even have children," said the one-eyed man. Merry couldn't think because of the buzzing in his head. "He insulted us, the whole country is laughing at us, we must redeem our honor." That's what my father said. "Perhaps, we lowly people don't understand the honor of a lord," the yellow cloak wrapped the rope three times around his hands, "murder is understandable." "That's not murder," he said in a shrill voice, "it's vengeance, and we have a right to vengeance. It's a war! Aegon, Aegon, poor demented, nicknamed 'The Bells Ring', he's got nothing Do, but Lady Stark slit his throat. We lost more than fifty people in the camp, Keira's husband Ser Gauss Goodback died, Jerry's eldest son Ser Tytos died... he Hit in the back of the head with an ax... Stark's direwolf killed four wolfhounds, and also bit off the arm of the keeper of the kennel, and then taught random arrows to shoot through it..." "So you sewed a wolf's head on Robb Stark to vent your anger," said the Yellowcloak. "That's what my father did. My father did it. All I have to do is drink, and you can't kill people just because of drinking." Meili suddenly remembered something, a life-saving straw, "It is said that the Earl of Berry always tried before he convicted, I won’t kill innocent people. You have no evidence! The Red Wedding was done by my father, Lyman and Duke Bolton killed people, Rosso tampered with the big tent, and placed crossbowmen on the balcony, Black Walder led The army leveled the camp...they are the ones responsible, not me, I just drink...you have no proof!" "Unfortunately, you're wrong again," the singer turned to the hooded woman, "ma'am?" When the woman stepped forward, the bandits made way silently.She lifted the hood, and Merry's heart stopped beating.No, no, I clearly saw her dead.She died for a day and a night before we stripped her body and threw her naked body into the river.Raymond cut her throat from left ear to right ear.she died! Cloak and collar hid the ugly scar from her brother's blade, but her face was even scarier than ever.After the flesh and blood were soaked in the river water, it became the color of coagulated milk. Half of the hair was gone, and the rest was gray and fragile, like a centenarian.Under the scarred scalp, her face was broken into pieces, and in the middle was the black blood she dug out with her nails.The scariest thing is her eyes, in which there is only naked hatred. "She can't talk—" the big man in the yellow cloak explained, "—you hateful bastards cut too deep. But she remembers everything." He turned to the dead woman. "What do you say, ma'am? Does he have a share?" Lady Catelyn never took her eyes off Merry.She nodded. Merry Frey opened his mouth to plead, but the noose blocked all words.His feet were off the ground, and the twine sank deep into the soft flesh under his chin.Rising, he spasms, kicks, struggles, rises, rises, rises...