Chapter 69 Chapter 68: Sansa

In the tower room deep in Maegor's Tower, Sansa threw herself into total darkness. She drew the curtains on the bed, fell asleep drowsily, cried when she woke up, and fell asleep again when she was tired from crying.When she couldn't sleep, she curled up in bed, mourning and trembling.Servants came and went, bringing her three meals a day, but she could not stand the sight of food.So the plates of untouched food piled higher and higher on the table by the window until they became sour and smelly and the servants took them away. Sometimes she sleeps leaden, dreamless all night, and wakes up exhausted, even more tired than when she closed her eyes.But that's not bad, because if she is dreaming, it must be related to her father.Sleeping or waking, all she could see was him being pinned to the ground by the gold-cloaked guards, Ser Ilyn striding towards him, drawing "Ice" from the scabbard on his back, and... Then... At that time, she just wanted to turn her head away, she really wanted to turn her head away, but her feet were already weak, so she fell to her knees.And somehow, she just couldn't look away.The people around were yelling, didn't her Prince Charming smile at her just now?He actually smiled, and she thought everything was all right, but only for a moment, and then he said that.Her father's feet... all she remembered was a jerk in his feet... when Ser Ilyn... when his sword...

Let me die too, she told herself, and she found the idea not at all frightening.Had she thrown herself from the window, all her suffering would have ended, and years later bards would sing of her sorrow.She will be poured in pieces on the stone slabs below the tower, pure and innocent, shameful to all who betrayed her.Sansa walked across the bedroom a few times, opening the windows... but her courage left her just then, and she ran back to bed crying. The waitress tried to speak to her when the food came, but she ignored it.Once Grand Maester Pycelle came with a case of bottles and jars and asked her if she was ill.He stroked her forehead, ordered her to undress, and asked the maid to hold her hands and feet, while he touched her whole body.Before leaving, he left her a potion of honey and herbs, and told her to take a sip every night.She obediently complied, and then went back to sleep.

She dreamed of footsteps on the stairs of the tower, an ominous sound of leather against stone.Someone was slowly walking towards her bedroom step by step.All she could do was curl up behind the door, trembling, listening to him getting closer.She knew very well that it must be Ser Ilyn Payne with Ice in his hand, ready to take her head.But she had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no way to bolt the door.Finally, the footsteps stopped, and she knew that he was standing outside the door, silent, with a long pockmarked face and a pair of dead eyes.Only then did she realize that she was completely naked, so she quickly lay down on the ground and covered her body with her hands.The door opened slowly, creaking, and the tip of the giant sword pierced in...

When she woke up, she couldn't stop muttering: "Please, please, I'm very good, I'll be obedient, please don't kill me." But no one paid any attention to her. When they did come, Sansa heard no footsteps.It was not Ser Ilyn who opened the door, but Joffrey, her once Prince Charming.She was on the bed, huddled into a ball, unable to tell whether it was noon or midnight because the curtains were closed.She first heard the door slam open, and then the curtain was yanked open. She quickly stretched out her hand to block the sudden bright light, and found them standing high beside the bed.

"You're coming to court with me this afternoon," said Joffrey. "Go wash, change, and dress up like my betrothed." Sandor Clegane stood beside him, in a simple His brown coat, his green cloak, and his burnt face looked even more hideous in the morning light.Standing behind them were the two Kingsguard, wearing long cloaks of snow-white brocade. Sansa pulled the blanket up to her chin to cover herself. "No," she begged, "please... please let me go." "If you don't get up and change quickly, I'll ask my dog ​​to do it for you," said Joffrey.

"Please, my prince..." "I am the king. Dog, drag her down." Sandor Clegane grabbed her by the wrist and lifted her off the feather bed, letting her struggle feebly.The blanket slid to the floor, and she was wearing only a thin nightgown. "Son, do as he says," Clegane said. "Put on your clothes." He pushed her toward the closet with gentleness. Sansa pushed them away. "I did as the queen asked, and wrote a letter, and it was written as she said. You promised me to be merciful. Please, let me go home. I will not betray you, I will be very happy. Good, very obedient, I swear. There is no traitor in me, really. I just want to go home." Remembering that she should pay attention to etiquette, she lowered her head. "If it pleases you," she said weakly.

"I'm not happy at all," said Joffrey. "Mother says I must marry you anyway, so you must stay here, and be good." "I don't want to marry you," cried Sansa, "you cut off my father's head!" "He is a traitor. I never promised to spare his life. I only said that I would be merciful, and I really did. If he wasn't your father, I would have cut him up and skinned him, but I let him die simply. .” Sansa stared at him blankly, seeing him clearly for the first time.He wore a padded crimson coat embroidered with lions, a gold cloak, and a high collar to match his face.She couldn't help wondering why she thought he was handsome?His lips were red and soft, like worms found in the soil after the rain, and his eyes were false and cruel. "I hate you," she whispered.

King Joffrey grimaced. "Mother said the king shouldn't beat his wife. Ser Meryn." Before she could react, the knight pulled away her hand that was trying to cover her face, punched her hard and slapped her across the face.Sansa didn't remember falling, but when she came back she was on one knee on the straw mat, dazed.Ser Meryn Tran stood above her, bloodstained at the knuckles of his white silk gloves. "Are you obedient, or do you want me to let him teach you one more time?" Sansa couldn't feel her ear, and when she touched it, her fingertips were wet with blood. "I... am at your service, my lord."

"It's 'Your Majesty,'" Joffrey corrected her. "I'll see you at court." With that, he turned and left. Ser Meryn and Ser Arys followed him, but Sandor Clegane gave her a rough hand and lifted her to her feet. "Little sister, for your own good, do as he thinks." "What... what does he want? Please, tell me." "He wants to see you smiling and fragrant, as his beautiful fiancée," hissed the Hound. "He wants to hear you recite those beautiful words, just like the nuns taught you. He wants you to love him." ... afraid of him again."

Immediately after he left, Sansa fell limp on the straw mat again, staring at the wall in a daze until two maids timidly entered the room. "I need a bath, please prepare me hot water." She told them, "and perfume, and makeup powder, so that the bruises can be covered." The right half of her face was swollen and painful, but she knew that Joe Foley wanted her to look good. The hot water, which reminded her of Winterfell, strengthened her a little.She hadn't showered since her father's death, and was amazed at how dirty the water had become.The maid washed the blood off her face, brushed the dust off her back, and combed her starched hair into thick auburn curls.Sansa didn't talk to them except to order: they were Lannister servants, not her own, and she didn't trust them.When she was getting dressed, she specially chose the green silk dress, which was exactly the one she wore on the day of the tournament.She remembered how courteous Joffrey had been to her that night at dinner, and if she had put on this dress, it might remind him to be gentle with her.

When she was dressed, she sat and waited, drinking a glass of buttermilk and nibbling a few sugar biscuits to stop the churning in her stomach for a while.It was noon when Ser Meryn came to see her.He put on a full suit of pure white armor: finely wrought gold-wire white scales, a high golden sun-helmet, knee-guards, gauntlets, and boots of gleaming iron, and a heavy woolen cloak trimmed with gold. Lion buckle.His helmet had its visor removed, revealing a stern face; two big bags under the eyes, a wide and surly mouth, rusty hair mixed with a little gray. "Miss," he bowed, as if he didn't remember beating her bloody face three hours ago. "Your Majesty ordered me to escort you to court." "If I refuse, did he tell you to hit me?" "Miss, are you refusing?" He looked at her with emotionless eyes, indifferent to the bruise he had caused earlier. Sansa suddenly understood that he didn't hate her, he didn't love her, he didn't feel anything for her at all.To him, she was just a... thing. "No," she said and stood up, wanting to get mad and beat him up, just like he beat her, and she wanted to warn him that when she became queen, if he dared to touch a single hair of her, he would be punished. Banish him forever... But she still remembered the Hound's words in her heart, so she just said: "I will obey His Majesty's will." "Me too," he replied. "Yes...but, Sir Meryn, you are not a real knight." Sansa knew Sandor Clegane would laugh at that.Others might have cursed at her, might have warned her to shut up, or even begged her to forgive, but Ser Meryn Tran did nothing, because he didn't care. Except for Sansa, the audience balcony was empty.She lowered her head, fighting back tears, watching Joffrey sitting on the Iron Throne below, adjudicating the affairs of state with justice.Out of the ten cases, he found nine of them boring, so he handed them all over to the imperial council, while he moved restlessly on the throne.Lord Baelish, Grand Maester Pycelle, and Queen Cersei had their hands full, but when the king occasionally decided to go out himself, not even his lord mother could dictate the situation. A thief was dragged up, and he told Ser Ilyn to chop off his hand right there in the throne room.Two knights had a dispute over a certain piece of land, and the court asked him to settle it, but he ordered them to duel tomorrow to settle it, and added: "Until death." The head of the man who was beheaded. She said she loved him very much and hoped that he could be buried whole. "You love a traitor, so you are a traitor too," Joffrey said, and two gold cloaks dragged her into the dungeon. At the end of the council table sat the frog-faced Lord Slynt, clad in black velvet and shining gold cloak, nodding to each of the king's verdicts.Sansa looked at his ugly face carefully, remembering how he pushed her father to the ground and let Ser Ilyn beheaded for public display, and she only hoped to get revenge on him severely, hoping that some hero could bring "him" down too On the ground, beheaded for public display.But in her heart, a voice whispered: There are no heroes anymore.She recalled what Lord Petyr had said to her in this hall before, "Little sweetie, life is no more than a ballad," he told her, "One day, you may be disappointed." It seems that in real life, the monster often wins , she said to herself, and then the hound's cold hiss like metal rubbing against stone echoed in her ears: "Little sister, for your own good, do as he wants." The defendant in the last case was a fat tavern singer who was accused of composing music to mock the late King Robert.Joffrey sent for his woodharp, and ordered him to play it there for all to hear.The singer burst into tears and vowed never to sing the song again, but the king insisted.The lyrics are actually quite interesting, roughly describing the fight between Robert and the pig.Sansa knew that the pig was the boar that killed the king, but some lines in the song seemed to be alluding to the queen.After the song was over, Joffrey announced that he was going to make an exception. The singer could choose to keep his fingers or his tongue, and he had a day to decide.Janos Slynt nodded approvingly. Sansa was relieved that the afternoon's court affairs were finally over, but her ordeal was not over.After the master of ceremonies announced her retreat, she hurriedly fled from the audience stand. Unexpectedly, Joffrey was waiting for her at the bottom of the winding stairs, with the Hound and Ser Meryn beside him.The young king examined her carefully from top to bottom. "You look much prettier than ever." "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your compliment," Sansa said.Although it was against his will, he nodded and smiled when he heard it. "Walk with me," Joffrey ordered, holding out his hand, and she had no choice but to take his.In the past, touching his hand would make her tremble, but now she has goose bumps all over her body. "My name day is coming," said Joffrey as they left the back of the throne room. "We will have a great feast, and I will have many presents from people. What will you give me?" "I...I haven't decided what to give, my lord." "Your Majesty," he said sharply, "you're a stupid girl, aren't you? Mother told me so." "She really said that?" After these days of experience, she thought his words had lost the power to hurt her, but they didn't.The queen has always been kind to her. "Oh, of course it is true, and she was worried that our children might be as stupid as you, but I told her not to worry." The king gestured, and Ser Meryn opened the door for them. "Thank you, Your Majesty," she murmured.The Hound was right, she thought, I am a little bird who repeats what I am taught.The sun had set on the western walls, and the masonry of the Red Keep was as dark as blood in the twilight. "I'll impregnate you as soon as you can have children," Joffrey said, walking her across the practice range. "If the first child is a fool, I'll cut off your head immediately and find another wise wife. When will you have a child?" He'd humiliated her so Sansa couldn't look him in the face. "Septa Mordane says much . . . most court ladies reach maturity by the time they are twelve or thirteen." Joffrey nodded. "This way." He led her into the gate tower of the Red Keep, to the stairs leading to the battlements. Sansa jerked away from him, trembling, suddenly realizing where she was going. "No," she said out of breath, panicked. "Please, don't do this, don't take me there, I beg you..." Joffrey pursed his lips. "I want to show you what happens to the traitor!" Sansa shook her head frantically. "No, I don't want to see it." "I could ask Ser Meryn to drag you up," he said. "You won't like it. You'd better do it." Joffrey held out his hand to her, and Sansa backed away, bumping into the Hound. . "Be good, little sister," said Sandor Clegane, pushing her back to the king.The corner of his mouth on the burned side twitched for a moment, and Sansa could almost hear his unspoken words: He's going to get you up anyway, so do what he wants. She forced herself to take King Joffrey's hand.Climbing stairs was a nightmare, every step was a struggle, like pulling your feet out of knee-high mud.The stairs seemed endless, with tens of thousands of steps, and boundless terror was waiting for her on the city wall at the top of the stairs. From the battlements on top of the gate towers, the whole world lay below.Sansa could see the Great Sept of Baelor on the Visenya Hills, where her father had been executed.At the other end of Silent Sisters Street, stands the charred ruins of Dragon's Lair.In the west, the red sunset is half covered by the Gods Gate.Behind her is the vast ocean of the Aral Sea.To the south there are fish markets, wharves and the mighty Blackwater River, while to the north there are... Looking north, she saw cities, streets, alleys, hills... more streets and alleys, and the city wall in the distance.Yet she knew that beyond all this worldly commotion lay open fields and farms and woods, and farther north, farther north, was Winterfell, and home. "What are you looking at?" Joffrey said. "I want you to look at this, here." A thick stone parapet surrounded the ramparts, reaching to Sansa's jaw, with battlements every five feet for the archers.Those heads were located between the battlements at the top of the city wall, inserted on the tip of iron spears, facing the city.Sansa had noticed it the moment she stepped onto the ramparts, but the view of the river, the bustling streets, and the setting sun was so beautiful.He can make me look, she told herself, but I can ignore it. "This is your father," he said. "This one over here. Dog, turn your head around and show her." Sandor Clegane reached up into the air and turned his head around.The severed heads were soaked in pitch so they could last longer.Sansa looked at her father's head calmly, without making a move.This doesn't look like Duke Eddard, she thought, doesn't look like real. "Excuse me, how long do you want me to watch?" Joffrey seemed greatly disappointed. "Would you like to see other people's heads?" There was a long line on the battlements. "If Your Majesty pleases." So Joffrey led her down the passage, past a dozen heads and two empty spears. "I kept these two for Uncle Stannis and Uncle Renly," he explained.The others had been dead far longer than Father, with their heads at the point of guns much longer.Although soaked in asphalt, most are rendered illegible.The king pointed to one of them and said, "This is your nun." But Sansa couldn't tell it was a woman's head at all.The jaws of the skull had rotted away, and the bird had eaten one ear and most of the cheek. Sansa had wondered what had happened to Septa Mordane before, but now that she thought about it, perhaps she already knew. "Why did you kill her?" she asked. "She was just a pious..." "She's a traitor." Joffrey looked sullen, she seemed to have annoyed him. "You haven't decided on a name-day gift for me. How about I give it to you, what do you think?" "If it pleases you, my lord," said Sansa. As soon as he smiled, she knew he was mocking her. "Your brother is a traitor too, you know that?" He turned Septa Mordane's head back. "I remember meeting your brother when I went to Winterfell. My dog ​​called him the young master who played with wooden swords, isn't that right, good dog?" "I said so?" answered the Hound. "I don't remember." Joffrey shrugged petulantly. "Your brother defeated my Uncle James. Mother said he did it by tricks and deceit. When she got the news, she burst into tears. Women are weak creatures, and she was no exception, though always Pretending to be strong. She said we had to stay in King's Landing in case my two uncles attacked, but I didn't care. After my name day party, I'm going to raise an army and kill your brother with my own hands .Sansa Stark, this is my gift to you, your brother's head." A sudden madness came to her heart, and she heard herself say, "Maybe my brother will give me your head." Joffrey frowned. "Don't you make fun of me like that. A good wife never makes fun of her husband. Ser Meryn, teach her a lesson." When the knight hit her this time, he held her chin tightly with one hand.He struck twice, first to the left and then harder to the right.Her lip was completely torn, and blood flowed down to her chin, mixed with salty tears. "Don't you cry all day," Joffrey told her. "You look better when you smile." Sansa forced a smile, fearful that if she didn't, he would tell Ser Meryn to beat her again.It's a pity that she laughed, but it was useless. The king shook his head in disgust: "Wipe off the blood, you are so ugly." The outer parapet was as high as her chin, but the inner walkway was unobstructed, seventy or eighty feet from the courtyard below.One push will do, she told herself.There he was, just there, smirking with his wormy lips.You can do it, she told herself, you can do it, just do it.It doesn't matter if you die with him, it doesn't matter at all. "Come here, little sister." Sandor Clegane crouched in front of her, just between her and Joffrey.He gently wiped away the blood gushing from the cracked lip for her, his movements were surprisingly gentle, making it difficult to associate with the big man in front of him. The moment was fleeting, and Sansa lowered her eyes. "Thank you." After he finished wiping, she thanked him, because she was a good girl and she had to remember to be polite anytime and anywhere.