Chapter 31 Chapter Thirty-One Arya

Whatever name Harron the Black had given his tower was lost to time.These are now known as the Tower of Terror, the Tower of the Widow, the Tower of the Wailing, the Tower of the Ghost, and the Tower of the Burning Kings.Arya slept in a little corner under the great vault of the Wailing Tower, on a bed of straw.She was ready to take a shower and was given a large bar of soap.Although working hard, it is better than marching for several miles every day.Ali had to hunt for worms and beetles, but the weasel had bread every day, and oatmeal with carrot and turnip bits, and even a morsel of meat every two weeks.

Hot Pie's food was better, for he was at his place and made a living in the kitchen.The kitchen here, a round stone house with a vault, is in a class of its own.On weekdays, Arya ate at the trestle table in the basement with Weese and his men, but sometimes she was sent to the kitchen to fetch food so she could steal a moment to talk to Hot Pie.He kept forgetting that she was Weasel now, and kept calling her Allie knowing she was a girl.Once, he tried to slip her a slice of hot apple pie, but was so clumsy that the two cooks saw it.If the good thing is not done, I will eat a big wooden spoon instead.

Gendry went to work at the forge, and Arya rarely saw him.As for the people who worked with her, she didn't even want to ask for their names.So what if you know the name?If they were dead, it would only make it harder for her.Most of them were older than she and were happy to be alone with her. Harrenhal was huge and expansive, almost decayed in many places.The Countess of Hean had been in charge of the castle as a vassal of the Tully family, but she only used two of the five towers, and only the lower three floors, leaving the rest to crumble.Now that she had fled the battle, the small group of servants left behind naturally couldn't take care of the large number of knights, lords and noble prisoners under Lord Tywin's command. Therefore, in addition to looting houses and looting money and food, the Lannister family had to recruit more people to serve as servants.It is said that Lord Tywin intends to restore Harrenhal to its former glory and make it its new home once the war is over.

Weiss arranged for Arya to do some work like delivering letters, fetching water, and food, and sometimes asked her to serve the soldiers in the barracks hall above the armory.But her main job is cleaning.The ground floor of the Wailing Tower is now used as a storage room and granary, and the upper two floors house some guards, but the higher floors have been vacant for eighty years.Lord Tywin ordered that they should be made suitable for human habitation.In this way, there are countless floors to be cleaned, countless windows to be wiped, and countless broken chairs and beds to be repaired.The top floor is the lair of black bats like the one on the family crest of the He'an family, and the basement is inhabited by many rats... It is said that it is also haunted, and the ghosts of Harun the Black and his sons haunt there.

Arya thought that was silly.The Herrens had died in the Burning King Tower—that's why the tower was named—why had they come all the way across the courtyard to frighten her?The Wailing Tower only wailed when the north wind blew, but it was only because the air was blowing through the cracks in the stones that had been cracked by the heat.All in all, even if Harrenhal was haunted, they never came to bother her.She felt that the living were more terrifying than the dead. She was afraid of Wythe and Ser Gregor Clegane, and even more afraid of Lord Tywin Lannister who lived in the Burning King's Tower.That tower was the tallest and grandest, though it had been bent on one side under the weight of the melted and deformed rocks, and looked like a great half-melted black candle after the fires of the day.

She didn't know what Lord Tywin would do if he ran right up to him and confessed that he was Arya Stark, but she knew she had no chance of getting close, let alone talking, and anyway, even if she Having said that, he would never believe that Wes would beat her up afterward. Wythe, lowly and vain as he was, was almost as formidable as Ser Gregor.The Mountain kills as easily as he swats a fly, but most of the time he doesn't care about the flies.But Weiss always knows where you are, what you're doing, and even what you're thinking, even if you show the slightest bit of resistance, he wants you to look good.He had an ugly spotted bitch that was almost as bad as he was and smelled worse than any dog ​​Arya had ever seen.Once, a boy who cleaned the toilets pissed him off, and he set the dog on the boy.The bitch tore off a chunk of flesh from the boy's calf, and Wes laughed.

It took only three days for him to earn a place in her evening prayers. "Wythe," she said, placing him chief of honour, "Dunson, Chiswick, Polliver, Raff 'Sweetmouth'. Notepad and the Hound. Ser Gregor, Ser Amory, Ser Ilyn, Ma Ser Lin, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei." She couldn't allow herself to forget one of them, otherwise how would she seek revenge and kill them in the future? On the way here, Arya felt like a sheep, and when she got to Harrenhal, she felt like a mouse.Not only was she wearing a messy wool skirt, she was as gray as a mouse, but she was always trying to survive in the cracks and black holes of the castle like a mouse, and she had to be careful to dodge at any time, so as not to offend powerful adults.

Sometimes she thought everyone was rats trapped in thick walls, even knights and lords, for the size of the castle dwarfed even Gregor Clegane.Harrenhal occupies three times the area of ​​Winterfell, and the buildings are even more vastly different.Its stables held a thousand horses, its godswood covered twenty acres, its kitchens were like the great halls of Winterfell, and its own halls were grandly called the Hall of the Hundred Hearths, though It was exaggerated (Arya had tried to count, but one time it was thirty-three, another time it was thirty-five), but it was wide and open enough for Lord Tywin to feed the entire army, although he had never done so.Regardless of the walls, doors, windows, halls, and stairs, everything can only be described as huge, and it doesn't seem like it was built for humans. This reminds Arya of the giants living outside the Great Wall in the old Nan's story.

Lords and ladies never pay attention to squirrels under their feet, so Arya only needs to prick up her ears to hear secrets when she runs around on her errands.For example, Pia, the "little beauty" in the storeroom, is actually a slut who has had an affair with almost every knight in the castle; the jailer's wife is pregnant, but the real father of the child is either Ser Erin Stockby or A singer named "White Smile" Walter; Lord Lefford laughed at the haunting at the dinner table, but always lit a candle by the bedside when he slept; Sir Dunagh's squire Georgie wets the bed when he sleeps; The cooks all despised Ser Harris Swyfer and spat in his food.Once, she even overheard Maester Tosmeure's maid telling her brother that Joffrey was a bastard, not a legitimate king at all. "Lord Tywin told the master to burn the letter, and never mention this dirty thing again," the girl whispered.

She had also heard that King Robert's younger brothers, Stannis and Renly, had joined the fray. "They have made themselves kings," Wythe said. "There are more kings than rats in castles these days." Even the Lannisters were beginning to wonder how long Joffrey could sit on the Iron Throne. "This kid has no soldiers at all except those useless gold robes, and eunuchs, dwarfs and women are in charge of his affairs!" She heard a little lord talking to himself between the cups, "The real fight What's the use of these fellows in a war?" Here and there someone spoke of Beric Dondarrion.A fat archer said he had been killed by the "Blood Mummers," but the others just laughed. "He was killed once by Rocky in front of the Rapids Falls, and twice by the Devil's Mountain. I bet a silver deer, this time he also died restlessly."

Arya did not know who the "Blood Mummers" were until two weeks later, when the group returned to Harrenhal.They were the weirdest people she had ever seen.Men with braided bells and bronze skin marched under the banner of the blood-horned black goat; Lancers rode horses with black and white stripes; men in robes made of bird feathers; a slender clown in a green-and-pink plaid costume; swordsmen with bizarre mustaches dyed green, purple, and silver; tattoos; a lanky figure in a monk's robes, a benevolent figure in a maester's gray, a sickly figure in a leather cloak trimmed with long blond hair. Walking in the front was a tall man as thin as a bamboo pole. His thick black beard grew almost from his chin to his waist, making his gaunt face look longer.His mount was also a strange black and white striped horse, with a black iron helmet shaped like a goat's head hanging from the saddle horns.Around his neck is a chain made of coins of various sizes, shapes and materials. "You're not going to like these guys, Weasel," Wes said, seeing her staring intently at the goat-helmet man.Two of his drinking companions were with him, both Lord Rafford's soldiers. "Who are they?" she asked. A soldier laughed: "They? 'Foot Hunters', little sister. They are the toes of the goat, Lord Tywin's 'Blood Mummers'." "Hey, be smart about me! If she loses her limbs, you'll be responsible for scrubbing those damn stairs," Weiss said. "They're mercenaries, little weasel sisters. They call themselves 'The Warriors' .You must not use any other name in front of them, or they will torture you. That goat helmet is their chief, Lord Vargo Hurt." "Fart, what a grown man he is," said the second soldier. "I've heard Ser Amory say that he's just a spitting, self-important wandering mercenary." "Well," said Weiss, "if you don't want to be cut to pieces, you'd better call him your lord." Arya looked again at Vargo Hurt.How many monsters did Duke Tywin raise? The "brave band" lived in the Widow's Tower, so Arya was thankful that she didn't have to serve them.The night they arrived, they clashed with the Lannisters.Ser Harris Swyfer's squire was stabbed to death, and two members of the "Blood Mummers" were wounded.The next morning, Lord Tywin hanged them both on the gate tower, along with a Layton archer.Wythe said the archer was the one who started all the trouble by making fun of the mercenaries at Beric Dondarrion.After the hanged man stopped kicking, Vargo Hurt and Ser Harris embraced and kissed each other as Lord Tywin watched, vowing to love and respect each other forever.Arya thought the way Vargo Hurt lisped and spit was funny, but she wasn't stupid enough to laugh. The Blood Mummers did not stay long at Harrenhal, but during this time Arya had heard one of them mention that Roose Bolton's Northern troops had taken the Ruby Bank on the Trident. "Lord Tywin will beat him to the ground as he did on the Green Fork if he crosses the river," said a Lannister archer, but his companions were unimpressed. "That old slippery Bolton won't cross the river now. He won't move until the little wolf cubs set off from Riverrun with the pack of savage northerners and a whole pack of wolves." Only then did Arya know that her brother was not far away!Riverrun was much closer than Winterfell, though she wasn't sure where it lay from Harrenhal.I must find out, I know I can, I must escape from here.Arya bit her lip at the thought of seeing Robb's face again.I would love to see Jon too, and Bran and Rickon, and Mother, and even Sansa... I'll kiss her and beg her forgiveness then, like a real lady.She will love it. Earlier, she had heard gossip in the yard that there were thirty or forty captives at the top of the Tower of Terror, all captured during the Battle of the Green Fork.Most of them were allowed to move freely in the castle, in return for vowing not to escape.They swore they wouldn't run away, Arya told herself, but they didn't say they couldn't help me escape. The captives also dined in the Hundred Hearth Hall-but the seats were separated from others-and they were usually free to move around.There are four brothers who practice fighting with sticks and wooden shields in the Flowstone Garden every day.Three of them belonged to the Freys of the River's Crossing, and the other was a bastard there as well.But they did not stay long, and one morning two brothers came to their house, under banners of peace, and brought a chest of gold coins, and redeemed them from the knights who had captive them.The six Foyles left together. No one came to ransom the northerners.Hot Pie told her about a fat nobleman who used to hang around the kitchen, always looking for something to eat.His beard was so thick that it covered his mouth, and the clasp of his cloak was a trident made of silver and sapphire.He was a prisoner of Lord Tywin himself, and another fierce young man with a beard was the property of some hedge knight who was trying to make a small fortune out of him.This fierce-looking young man likes to walk alone on the city wall, wearing a black cloak with a pattern of white sunbursts printed on it.Sansa must have known who he and the fat man were, but Arya had never been interested in titles and sigils.Whenever Septa Mordane told the history of noble families, she would wander off and look forward to the end of get out of class. She only remembered Earl Seven.His domain is very close to Winterfell, so he and his son Clay often visit.But as fate would have it, he was the only prisoner who never showed his face.He had been lying in bed in his tower cabin, and Arya had been thinking about how to sneak past the doorman to meet him.If he could recognize her, he would help her out of honor.As the earl, he must be rich, aren't all lords rich?Perhaps he could bribe Lord Tywin's sellswords to send her to Riverrun.My father often said that most mercenaries only recognize money but not people. One morning, however, she happened to see three women in the hooded gray robes of the Sisters of Silence loading a dead body into a carriage.The body was sewn into a fine silk cloak emblazoned with the battleaxe.Arya asks who the dead man is, and a guard tells her Lord Seven is dead.This sentence was like kicking her in the stomach.Anyway, he can't save you, she thought, watching the sisters drive the carriage out of the city gate, he can't even save himself, you stupid mouse, don't dream. From then on, she returned to cleaning and scrubbing all day, delivering letters back and forth, and eavesdropping behind doors.Everyone has different opinions. Some people say that Lord Tywin will leave for Riverrun soon, some people say that he will send his troops south to attack Highgarden by surprise, and some even scoff at the first two claims, because Stannis is the biggest threat , Your Excellency the Duke will definitely go to defend King's Landing.There are still many gossips, such as the Lord sent Gregor Clegane and Varger Hurt to eliminate the thorny Roose Bolton; the Lord sent the Raven to send a letter to the Eagle's Nest City, intending to marry Lysa Arryn Lady, to win the Vale; my lord bought a ton of silver to forge a magic sword that would kill the Stark wolf; my lord wrote to Lady Stark to beg for peace, so that the Kingslayer will soon be Let go, wait. Ravens come and go every day, but Lord Tywin hardly stays at home, busy holding military meetings.Arya glimpsed him a few times from a distance—once he was walking on the ramparts, accompanied by three maesters and the fat captive with the bushy beard.Once he rode out of the city with his princes to inspect the camp.But usually he stood in the vaulted balcony, watching the people practicing in the Flowstone Garden below.There he stood, clasping the golden orb on the hilt of his sword with both hands.It is said that Lord Tywin loves gold very much. She heard a servant joke that the Duke even has gold in his shit.For an old man, Lord Lannister looked strong, bald but with a thick, stiff golden beard.Somehow, his face reminded her of her father, even though they looked nothing alike.It's no big deal, he's just wearing a Duke Zhang mask, she told herself.I remember one time my mother told my father to put on the Duke's mask so that he could deal with something, and my father laughed when he heard it.But she couldn't imagine that Lord Tywin would laugh at something. One afternoon, she was waiting in line at the well to fetch water when she heard the creaking of the hinges of the east gate.A large group of people rode through under the iron gate.When she caught a glimpse of the manticore pattern on the leader's shield, a surge of hatred rushed through her body. In clear daylight, Ser Amory Lodge looked less terrifying than he had looked in the firelight, but the pig's eyes were just as she remembered them.A woman at the well said that he and his men had chased Beric Dondarrion along the lake, looking for rebels.We are not rebels, Arya thought. We are the Night's Watch, and the Night's Watch is impartial.Ser Amory's men were fewer than he remembered, and many were wounded.May their wounds fester!May they all die! Then she saw three people walking at the end of the line. Rorge wore a black half-helm, and a wide iron nose guard made it difficult to see that he had no nose.Hunk Fang rode beside him, and the poor steed looked like it might crush him at any moment.He was covered in healing burns, and his appearance was even uglier and more terrifying than before. Jaqen H'ghar was still smiling, still wearing the old and dirty coat, only his hair had been washed and combed.Her long, half-red, half-white hair fell to her shoulders, shining brightly, and Arya heard the girls giggling and admiringly admiring each other. Had I known, I would have let the fire burn them to death.Gendry was right, I should have listened to him.If she hadn't thrown the ax, they would have died long ago.For a moment, she was terrified of being recognized, but they didn't pay her the slightest attention as they rode past.Only Jaqen H'ghar glanced roughly in the direction she stood, looking straight past her.He doesn't recognize me either, she thought, no wonder Ali is a tough boy with a short sword.And I'm just a gray mouse poking water. She spent the rest of the day scrubbing the steps of the Wailing Tower.At dusk, when she dragged the bucket back to the cellar, her hands were bleeding and her arms were shaking with soreness.Arya was too tired to eat, so after begging Wes, she crawled back into the straw to sleep. "Wythe," she yawned, "Dunson, Chiswick, Polliver, Raff the Sweetmouth. Notepad and the Hound. Ser Gregor, Ser Amory, Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn , King Joffrey, and Queen Cersei." She thought perhaps three more names should be added to the prayer, but she was too tired to decide tonight. She dreamed that packs of wolves were galloping wildly through the forest, and suddenly a strong hand was over her mouth, like smooth, warm, solid rock.She woke up immediately, writhing to break free. "Girls don't say anything," someone whispered close to her ear, "Girls keep your mouth shut so no one can hear you, and whisper among friends, okay?" Arya's heart pounded, and she nodded reluctantly. Jaqen H'ghar took his hand away.It was pitch black in the basement, and even though his face was inches away, she couldn't see it clearly.Yet she could smell him, his skin smelled fresh and soapy, and his hair was perfumed. "Boys become girls," he murmured. "I was a girl. I thought you didn't recognize me." "Someone's eyes see. Someone sees the truth." She remembered that she should hate him. "You scared me. You're with them now, and I'd have burned you if I had known. What are you doing here? Go away, or I'll call Wes!" "Someone has a debt to pay. Someone owes three." "Three?" "The red god is the creditor, lovely girl, only death can exchange for life. The girl took three lives that belonged to him. The girl has to take out three to repay. The girl says the name, and someone will do the work." So he wants to help me, Arya thought, with a sudden glimmer of hope that made her dizzy. "Take me to Riverrun! It's not far, and we'll steal two horses, and—" He raised a finger and placed it on her lips. "You have three lives, no more and no less. After three, we will be cleared. The girl must think clearly." He kissed her hair lightly, "but not for too long." By the time Arya lit the stub of her candle, there was only a faint aftertaste in the air, a hint of ginger and cloves.The woman sleeping in the other corner turned over in the grass and complained about the light, so she had to blow out the candle.Closing her eyes, she saw faces: Joffrey and his mother, Ser Ilyn Payne, Ser Meryn Tran and Sandor Clegane...but they were thousands of miles away in King's Landing , and Sir Gregor only stayed for a few nights, and then took Raff, Chiswick and Notepad and they went out to plunder.Ser Amory Lodge had just come back, and she hated him almost as much, didn't she?She wasn't sure, and there was Wes in the lead. The next morning she decided to make Wes a priority.Because of lack of sleep, she yawned and was caught by Weiss. "Weasel," Weiss grunted, "the next time I see you lounging with your mouth open like this, I'll pull out your tongue and feed it to the bitch." He grabbed her ear and gave it a hard twist to make sure she was impressed , and then told her to go back and wipe the steps, until the third floor was wiped before dusk. Arya considered her death list as she worked.She pretended their faces were imprinted on the steps so she could muster the energy to scrub hard.Now the Starks and Lannisters are at war, and she's a Stark, so she should kill as many Lannisters as she can, that's what wars are all about.However, she felt that she should not entrust Jaqen, but should kill them herself.Whenever my father sentenced someone to death, he always brought up Han Bing and performed the knife himself. "If you're going to take a man's life, you should at least look him in the eye and hear his last words," she had heard her father tell Robb and Jon. So she avoided Jaqen H'ghar the next day, and the day after that.It's not difficult.She was too small, and Harrenhal was too big for rats to hide everywhere. Then Ser Gregor came back, sooner than expected.This time his team was not driving sheep-like captives, but a flock of real sheep.It is said that he lost four of his men in Lord Beric's night raid, but the ones Arya hated were unscathed.They live on the second floor of the Wailing Tower, and Weiss is responsible for serving and drinking. "These guys can't get enough," he complained. "Weasel, go up and ask them if they have any clothes to mend. I'll get a woman to do it." Arya ran up the stairs she had scrubbed clean, entering the door unnoticed.Chiswick sat by the fire, ale in hand, boasting of his anecdotes.She didn't dare to interrupt, for fear that her lips would be cut again. "At that time, the Prime Minister's tourney had just ended, but the war had not yet come," Chiswick was saying. "The seven of us followed Ser Gregor back to the West. Raff was there at the time, and Joss Steele Jr. Wood, he was knight's page at the tourney. Well, we came across a ditch, and the water was so high with the rain that we couldn't get through it, but there was a tavern nearby, so we went to rest. Moments later, Sir called the brewer, and told him our glasses had to be full till the water receded. Fright! You didn't come to look into his pig eyes, which glistened at the sight of silver coins! He quickly put The ale was brought out, and my daughter was called to help. The ale was so thin, it was like yellow urine, which didn't make me very happy, and Sir didn't like it very much. Because of the heavy rain, his business has been very bad lately. You idiot! He didn’t even look at Sir’s expression, and tell you that from the beginning to the end, Sir didn’t say a word, only pressed his lips tightly. Everyone Knowing that he was still thinking about that little flower knight's insidious tricks, so he didn't answer, only the brewer was talking, and even asked about the performance of the lord in the tournament. So, the Jazz just gave him a hard look. Chiswick chuckled, drank the ale in one gulp, and wiped off the foam with the back of his hand. "Meanwhile, his daughter was serving us drinks, a fat little thing about eighteen—" "Thirteen, I think," said Sweetie Raff lazily. "Oh? Whatever, it's a mess anyway. Aegon got drunk and groped her twice, and maybe I groped a little myself, and Raff's chap encouraged little Stilwood to drag the girl upstairs. , to complete her bar mitzvah. Finally, Joss got his hand under her skirt, and she screamed, dropped the flagon, and ran into the kitchen. Well, it should have stopped there, only the old fool Just went to the sergeant and complained, told us not to touch his daughter, and reminded the sergeant that he was an anointed knight." "Ser Gregor was ignoring us for fun, and now he notices, you know what he does? He ordered the girl to be brought before him. So the old fellow dragged her out of the kitchen, hey, can that be Whom to blame? Only himself! Sir looked at her, and said, 'Just her, she's the bitch you care about?' The old fool went straight to Sir Gregor, 'Excuse me, I Lena is not a bitch, ser.' Ser said without batting an eye, 'She is now.' Then he tossed a silver coin to the old man, tore off the chick's dress, and in front of her father , I did her on the table. She struggled and wriggled like a rabbit, and made a lot of noise. The look on the old man's face at that time made me laugh so hard that I spit wine out of my nose. Finally there was a boy Hearing the sound, he rushed out from the cellar, probably his son, so Raff had to do it, and stabbed a dagger in his stomach. At this time, the jazz had finished his work, and went back to drink, and everyone took turns. Torbert—you Know what he's good at - turn her over and enter from the back. When it was my turn, the girl stopped struggling, hehe, maybe she finally found it quite comfortable, but to be honest, I would rather women twist. In the end The exciting part is in the back: After everyone finished, Sir asked the old man for change, because his daughter is not worth a silver coin... Haha, he said, "You old man needs to be sensible, hurry up and get a copper coin, beg the master's forgiveness, and thank you We take care of the business and take care of the crowd!'” There was a roar of laughter, the loudest of which was Chiswick himself, who seemed so pleased with his story that his nose dripped down into his tangled gray beard.Arya stood in the shadows of the stairwell, watching him, saying nothing.Finally, she tiptoed back to the basement, and Wes found that she hadn't asked about the clothes, so he took off her pants and whipped her with a cane until her thighs were bleeding.Arya closed her eyes tightly, silently reciting the formula Syrio taught her, forgetting all the pain. Two days later, Wes sent her to serve dinner in the barracks hall.As she poured out the flagon for the soldiers, she caught a glimpse of Jaqen H'ghar across the aisle, eating on a tray.Arya bit her lip and looked around cautiously to make sure Weese wasn't around.Fear hurts worse than swords, she told herself. She took a step forward, and another step, and one step, and gradually she felt less like a mouse.She walked down the bench and filled the glasses on the table one by one.Rorge was sitting on Jaqen's right, already drunk, so he didn't pay attention to her.Arya leaned closer, and whispered in Jaqen's ear, "Chiswick." The Lorras remained as calm as if he hadn't heard. The flagon was empty before she knew it, and Arya hurried back to the basement, refilled it with the keg, and returned quickly.During this short period of time, no one died of thirst, and no one noticed her leaving. On the second day, nothing happened, and the next day was the same, except that on the fourth day, when Arya and Wes went to the kitchen to pick up dinner, she heard the conversation between Wes and the cook. "You know? One of the Mountain's men fell walking on the Wall last night and broke his stupid neck," he said. "Drunk?" the woman asked. "Aren't they drunk one day! But some suspicious guys insisted that he was thrown down by Herron's ghost!" He snorted to show his complete disbelief. It wasn't Harren, Arya wanted to say, it was me.With a single whisper, she killed Chiswick, and two lives to follow.I am the ghost of Harrenhal, she thought.There was one less name to hate that night. ※※※※※※※ ① HOAT means goat in English.