Chapter 27 Chapter 27 Arya

Fear hurts worse than swords, Arya told herself, but that didn't drive away fear.Fear was as much a part of her life as moldy bread, like blisters on her toes after a long walk. She thought that she had already tasted the taste of fear, but in the warehouse by the God's Eye Lake, she completely overturned her understanding.They stayed for eight days before the Mountain gave the order to go, and every day someone died. Every morning, after breakfast, the Mountain enters the warehouse and picks a prisoner at random for interrogation.The villagers never dared to look up at him, maybe they thought he wouldn't notice them if they didn't pay attention to him... But it didn't work, he picked whoever he liked.There's nowhere to hide, no tricks to pull off, no way to escape.

There was a girl who slept with a soldier for three days straight, and the Mountain picked her on the fourth day, and the soldier said nothing. There was an old man with a smile on his face, mending everyone's clothes, and talking about his son, who was away from home in King's Landing to serve in the Golden Robes. "He's the king's man," he always said, "like me, a loyal servant of the king, all for Joffrey." He babbled so much that the other captives nicknamed him It was called "All for Joffrey," and of course no one dared to say it in front of the guards. "It's All About Joffrey" was picked on day five.

A young woman with chickenpox all over her face from smallpox offered at trial that she would give anything if they promised not to harm her daughter.The Mountain let her finish first, and took her daughter away the next morning to make sure she kept her promise yesterday. Those who were not selected had to watch the entire interrogation from the sidelines to learn what would happen to rebellion and rebellion.The interrogation was conducted by a soldier known as "Notepad".The man was plain-looking and plainly dressed, and Arya would have thought him a villager if she hadn't seen him every day on errands. "The notepad has a way of making them yelp and shit," old hunchback Chiswick told them.He was the one she'd been biting, and he'd called her a vicious little one and hit her on the head with his armored fist.Sometimes he assisted Notepad in the interrogation, sometimes it was someone else.During this process, Ser Gregor Clegane just stood motionless watching and listening, until the victim died.

The questions are always the same: Is there gold hidden in the village?What about silver and jewels?What about food storage?Where is Lord Beric Dondarrion?Which villager helped him?Where did he go after he left?How many people are around him?How many knights, how many archers, how many infantry are there?How well equipped are they?How many people ride horses?How many people were injured?Have you ever seen other enemies?How many are they?When did we meet?What kind of flag are they flying?where did they goIs there gold hidden in the village?What about silver and jewels?Where is Lord Beric Dondarrion?How many people are around him?By the third day, Arya herself could recite it back and forth.

By questioning, they found some gold coins, a little silver, a large bag of copper plates, and a chipped wine glass studded with garnets—which two soldiers almost fought for.They also asked for news, some said that the Earl of Berry had ten old and weak soldiers with him, and others said that he had hundreds of knights in full armor; he may have gone to the west, perhaps to the north, or to the south; The boat crossed the great lake; he was either as strong as a buffalo or weak from blood loss.There is only one thing in common: no man, woman, or child survives the cross-examination of the notebook.Stay up until dusk at most.At night, their bodies were hung outside the fire for the wolves to eat.

Arya finally realizes that she is not a water dancer when they leave the warehouse.Syrio Forel would never let them knock him down, take his sword away, never stand by while they killed Romy the Green Hand; never would Syrio sit silent in a warehouse, let alone spineless The ground gang shuffled along among the captives.The sigil of House Stark is the direwolf, but Arya feels more like a sheep, one of a herd of sheep.She hated the cowardice of the villagers, and even more hated her own cowardice. The Lannisters took everything from her: her father, her friends, her home, her hope and her courage.Someone snatched her needle, another snapped her wooden sword at the knee.They even took away her silly little secret.The warehouse was big enough, and she could sneak a corner to urinate when no one was looking, but the road was different.She endured it as much as she could, but finally she had to squat by a bush and take off her pants in front of everyone.That's all she has to do, or she'll have to piss herself.Hot Pie was staring at her, moon-eyed, mouth parted, but the others didn't take a second look.Whether the sheep were male or female, Ser Gregor and his men did not seem to care.

Their captors did not allow them to talk to each other.Arya had learned her lesson from cracked lips, but someone couldn't control their tongue.A three-year-old boy wouldn't stop calling for Daddy, so they smashed his face flat with a barbed mace.Then the baby's mother started screaming, and "Sweetheart" Raff killed her too. Arya could do nothing but stand by and watch them die.What's the use of being brave?A woman singled out for interrogation tried to be brave, but in the end, died howling like everyone else.There are no brave men in this team, only cowards and starvation.Most of them were women and children, and a few men were either very old or very young; the strong men were all put on the rack, and left to the wolves and the crows.The only one who escaped was Gendry, and that was only because he admitted that he forged the bullhorn helmet; the blacksmith - even the apprentice blacksmith - was of great use, and it would be a pity to kill it.

The Mountain said they were to be taken to Harrenhal to serve Lord Tywin Lannister. "You are rebels and traitors. You should thank the gods. Lord Tywin gave you this opportunity. If you meet those outlaws, you will never be treated like this. Obediently obey and serve, and you will survive .” "It's not fair! It's not fair!" One night after they fell asleep, she heard a skinny old woman complain to the people around her, "We have never done anything treasonous, and the other gang did it all on their own. Those who come in can take whatever they want, just like this group of people.”

"But Lord Bailey did us no harm," whispered her friend, "and the red priest who was with him paid for everything." "Pay? He took my two chickens and slipped me a small piece of paper with a mark on it. I'm asking you, can I eat this old piece of paper? Will it lay eggs for me?" She looked around to make sure there were no guards around, and then spat three times, "This one for Tully! This one for Lannister! And one for Stark!" "It's shameful, what a crime," an old man sighed, "If the former king was still alive, he would never tolerate such a thing to happen."

"King Robert?" Arya couldn't help asking. "King Aerys, the gods bless him," said the old man.His voice was too loud, a guard wandered over slowly, the old man had two teeth knocked out, and no one spoke that night. Besides the captives, Ser Gregor brought home a dozen pigs, a cage of chickens, a scrawny cow, and nine wagons full of salted fish.The Mountain and his men had horses to ride, but the captives were all on foot, and anyone who fell behind because of weakness or was too stupid to escape was shot on the spot.Soldiers would lead the women into the bushes at night, and most of them seemed to be prepared and went quite obediently.There was a girl, prettier than the rest, who was taken out every night by four or five different men, and finally she couldn't help but stoned a soldier.Ser Gregor swung his hideous greatsword and beheaded her before all eyes. "Throw the corpse to feed the wolves," he ordered when he was done, handing the sword to the attendant to wipe it.

Arya kept glancing at the needle, which was stuck in the waist of a black-bearded and bald soldier named Polliver.It was a good thing he took it, she thought, or she would have killed Ser Gregor with it, and then he would have split it in two and thrown it to the wolves. Polliver wasn't as bad as the others, though he had snatched the needle.When she'd first been captured, the Lannister soldiers had been nameless strangers to her, wearing nose helmets and looking alike, but as time went on she got to know them all.You have to know who is lazy and who is cruel, who is smart and who is stupid.You must know that, though that man nicknamed "The Mouth" had the worst tongue she had ever heard, he would give you an extra slice of bread if you begged him, and jolly old Chiswick and soft-spoken Whispering Raff will just slap you backhanded. See with your eyes, hear with your ears, Arya grinds her hate as Gendry once polished his horned helm.She hated the bullhorn helmet that now wore on Dunson's head, and she hated him for it; she hated Polliver for taking the Needle, she hated old Chiswick for being smug, and she hated Raff the Sweetmouth especially with his long The gun pierced Romy's throat.She hated Ser Amory for Yoren, Ser Meryn Tran for Syrio, the Hound for Mycah the Butcher's Son, and Ser Ilyn and Prince Joffrey and the Queen for killing her father. Tom, Desmond, and even Sansa's Lady Wolf.Only the notepad was too scary, she didn't dare to hate it.Sometimes, she almost forgot he was there, because when he wasn't presiding over an interrogation, he was just a soldier and quieter than most.His face is featureless, no one will pay attention to him. Every night, Arya repeated their names. "Ser Gregor," she whispered to the stone she slept on, "Dunson, Polliver, Chiswick, Raff the Sweetmouth. The notepad and the Hound. Ser Amory, Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn , King Joffrey, Queen Cersei." Back at Winterfell, Arya would go to the sept with her mother (or the godswood with her father) to pray.There were no gods on this road to Harrenhal, and those names were her only prayers. Day after day, along the shore of the lake, walking by day and repeating names by night, until at last the trees thinned and there were rolling hills, winding streams, and sunny fields.On the plain, the skeletons of several burnt manors stood up like charred teeth.They walked for another day before they could vaguely see the towers of Harrenhal looming over the blue lake. It would be all right by Harrenhal, the captives reassured each other, but Arya wasn't so sure.She remembered the story of Old Nan, the castle built of fear, and Harren the Black, who mixed the blood of babies with the mortar—and Old Nan always lowered her voice when she said this, and the children had to rely on It was audible in the past—but Aegon's dragon breathed fire through the great stone wall, scorching Harren and all his sons.Arya bit her lip as she walked forward on her callused feet.Not for long, she told herself, the towers were only miles away. But they walked for a whole day that day, and walked for a long time the next day, before they finally reached the edge of the large army camp under Lord Tywin's command, that is, a small town in ruins to the west of the castle.Looking at Harrenhal from a distance is easy to give people an illusion, because it is too huge.A huge wall rises from the lake, steep and abrupt like a cliff, and the battlements are lined with ballistas made of wood and iron, which look as small as bugs. There were many banners along the lake, on the tents of the soldiers of the West. Although Arya could not make out the arms on the banners, she could smell the Lannister troops.From the smell, Arya concluded that Lord Tywin had been stationed here for some time.The urinals outside the camp were overflowing, swarmed with flies, and pale green fuzz grew on the pickets that surrounded the camp. The gatehouse of Harrenhal was as big as Winterfell's main keep, and its walls were cracked and faded, and it was terrible.From the outside of the city wall, only the tops of the five giant towers can be seen, the shortest of which is one and a half times the height of the tallest tower in Winterfell, but they don't stand tall like normal towers, and Arya thinks they look like old people Rough and curved fingers are groping for the passing clouds.She remembered how Old Nan had told how the stone walls had melted like candles and flowed down the steps and windows, glowing a dark, hot red light, toward the place where Harron hid.Right now, Arya believed every word of the story, the towers grew weirder and more misshapen than the last, jagged and broken and out of balance. "I don't want to go in!" Hot Pie screamed as the gates of Harrenhal flung open to them. "It's haunted!" Chiswick heard the words, but this time he just smiled, "Bread boy, you choose: either stay with the ghosts, or become one of them." So Hot Pie went in with the others. The captives were driven into a large wooden and stone structure bathhouse full of echoes, where they were forced to strip off their clothes and scrub their bodies vigorously in a scalding hot water basin.Two savage-looking old women supervised them, commenting bluntly as if they were new donkeys.When it was Arya's turn, Mrs. Emmabel marveled at her feet, and Mrs. Harrah felt the calluses on her fingers from long practice with her needle. "I bet this guy's a good butter churner," she said. "Look at you, a farmer's son, right? Well, never mind, boy, in this world, if you work hard, you'll get your chance. Climb up, if you don't work hard, you will be beaten. What's your name?" Arya couldn't tell her real name, but neither could Ali, it was a boy's name and they could tell she wasn't a boy. "Weasel," the little girl flashed into her mind at the first moment, and she immediately replied, "Romy calls me a weasel." "He lives up to his name," Mrs. Emmabel sniffed. "Hair is a flea nest. We'll cut it off and send you to the kitchen." "I want to tend the horses." Arya liked horses, and if she worked in a stable, she might be able to steal one and get away. Mrs. Harrah slapped her so hard that her swollen lips split open again. "Stop talking too much, or you will suffer! No one asks for your opinion!" The blood in her mouth tasted salty and metallic, and Arya dropped her gaze, saying nothing.She would never dare hit me if the needle was still in my hand, she thought sullenly. "The horses of Lord Tywin and his knights are taken care of by their grooms and attendants, so there is no need for a villain like you!" Mrs. Emmabel said, "The kitchen is warm and clean, and you can eat enough and sleep warmly every day. Could have done well there, but look you're not a smart master. Hala, I reckon I'd better throw this guy at Wes." "All right, Emmabel." So they gave her a gray slub wool skirt and a pair of ill-fitting shoes, and sent her away. Weiss, steward of the Wailing Tower, was a pudgy man with a fleshy rosacea and a glaring cluster of red boils at the corners of his full mouth.A total of six people including Arya were assigned to him, and he inspected them with sharp eyes, "The Lannister family is very generous to their servants, you guys are not worthy to serve adults, but now you are at war, so you have to take care of them." That’s it. If you work hard and do your duty, you may be able to rise to my position one day; but if you make an inch and act presumptuously in front of the adults, look back and see how I deal with you!” He walked back and forth in front of them in a vigorous manner step, instructing them never to look nobles in the eyes, never to speak by themselves, never to block the way of adults and so on. "My nose never lies," he boasted. "I can smell contempt, I can smell arrogance, I can smell disobedience, and if you let me smell a little bit of these stenches, you will pay the price. From you, I only Want to smell a smell: fear."