Page 15 (1/2)

Sansa

Eddard Stark had left before dawn, Septa Mordane infor sent for him Another hunt, I do believe There are still wild aurochs in these lands, I am told"

"I’ve never seen an aurochs," Sansa said, feeding a piece of bacon to Lady under the table The direwolf took it from her hand, as delicate as a queen

Septa Mordane sniffed in disapproval "A noble lady does not feed dogs at her table," she said, breaking off another piece of co the honey drip down onto her bread

"She’s not a dog, she’s a direwolf," Sansa pointed out as Lady licked her fingers with a rough tongue "Anyway, Father said we could keep them with us if ant"

The septa was not appeased "You’re a good girl, Sansa, but I do vohen it comes to that creature you’re as willful as your sister Arya" She scowled "And where is Arya this ry," Sansa said, knowing full well that her sister had probably stolen down to the kitchen hours ago and wheedled a breakfast out of some cook’s boy

"Do rerey velvet, perhaps We are all invited to ride with the queen and Princess Myrcella in the royal wheelhouse, and we must look our best"

Sansa already looked her best She had brushed out her long auburn hair until it shone, and picked her nicest blue silks She had been looking forward to today for reat honor to ride with the queen, and besides, Prince Joffreyit h they were not to marry for years and years Sansa did not really know Joffrey yet, but she was already in love with him He was all she ever drea, with hair like gold She treasured every chance to spend ti that scared her about today was Arya Arya had a way of ruining everything You never knehat she would do "I’ll tell her," Sansa said uncertainly, "but she’ll dress the way she always does" She hoped it wouldn’t be too e "May I be excused?"

"You may" Septa Mordane helped herself to more bread and honey, and Sansa slid from the bench Lady followed at her heels as she ran from the inn’s common room

Outside, she stood for a moment amidst the shouts and curses and the creak of wooden wheels as the ons for another day’sthree-story structure of pale stone, the biggest that Sansa had ever seen, but even so, it had acco’s party, which had swollen to more than four hundred with the addition of her father’s household and the freeriders who had joined them on the road

She found Arya on the banks of the Trident, trying to hold Nymeria still while she brushed driedthe process Arya earing the sa leathers she had worn yesterday and the day before

"You better put on so pretty," Sansa told her "Septa Mordane said so We’re traveling in the queen’s wheelhouse with Princess Myrcella today"

"I’le out of Ny to ride upstream and look for rubies at the ford"

"Rubies," Sansa said, lost "What rubies?"

Arya gave her a look like she was so stupid "Rhaegar’s rubies This is where King Robert killed hiarded her scrawny little sister in disbelief "You can’t look for rubies, the princess is expecting us The queen invited us both"

"I don’t care," Arya said "The wheelhouse doesn’t even have s, you can’t see a thing"

"What could you want to see?" Sansa said, annoyed She had been thrilled by the invitation, and her stupid sister was going to ruin everything, just as she’d feared "It’s all just fields and farms and holdfasts"

"It is not," Arya said stubbornly "If you came with us so," Sansa said fervently "All it does is get you soiled and dusty and sore"

Arya shrugged "Hold still," she snapped at Ny you" Then to Sansa she said, "When ere crossing the Neck, I counted thirty-six flowers I never saw before, and Mycah showed me a lizard-lion"

Sansa shuddered They had been twelve days crossing the Neck, ru, and she had hated every moment of it The air had been damp and clammy, the causeway so narrow they could not even sroad Dense thickets of half-drowned trees pressed close around thee flowers bloonant water, but if you were stupid enough to leave the causeway to pluck the to suck you down, and snakes watching froed in the water, like black logs with eyes and teeth

None of which stopped Arya, of course One day she caled and her clothes covered in reen flowers for Father Sansa kept hoping he would tell Arya to behave herself and act like the highborn lady she was supposed to be, but he never did, he only hugged her and thanked her for the flowers That just made her worse

Then it turned out the purple floere called poison kisses, and Arya got a rash on her arht her a lesson, but Arya laughed about it, and the next day she rubbedwoman just because her friend Mycah told her it would stop the itching She had bruises on her arreen-and-yellow splotches, Sansa had seen theotten those only the seven gods knew

Arya was still going on, brushing out Nys she’d seen on the trek south "Last e found this haunted watchtower, and the day before we chased a herd of wild horses You should have seen theled in her grasp and Arya scolded her "Stop that, I have to do the other side, you’re all muddy"

"You’re not supposed to leave the column," Sansa reed "I didn’t go far Anyway, Nyo off, either Soons and talk to people"

Sansa knew all about the sorts of people Arya liked to talk to: squires and grooh-spoken freeriders of uncertain birth Arya would make friends with anybody This Mycah was the worst; a butcher’s boy, thirteen and wild, he slept in the ht of hih to make Sansa feel sick, but Arya seemed to prefer his co out of patience now "You have to come with me," she told her sister firmly "You can’t refuse the queen Septa Mordane will expect you"

Arya ignored her She gave a hard yank with the brush Nyrowled and spun away, affronted "Co to be lemon cakes and tea," Sansa went on, all adult and reasonable Lady brushed against her leg Sansa scratched her ears the way she liked, and Lady sat beside her on her haunches, watching Arya chase Nyet all sore and sweaty when you could recline on feather pillows and eat cakes with the queen?"

"I don’t like the queen," Arya said casually Sansa sucked in her breath, shocked that even Arya would say such a thing, but her sister prattled on, heedless "She won’t even letNymeria" She thrust the brush under her belt and stalked her wolf Nymeria watched her approach warily

"A royal wheelhouse is no place for a wolf," Sansa said "And Princess Myrcella is afraid of them, you know that"

"Myrcella is a little baby" Arya grabbed Nymeria around her neck, but the led free and bounded off Frustrated, Arya thren the brush "Bad wolf!" she shouted

Sansa couldn’t help but smile a little The kennelmaster once told her that an ani Lady licked her cheek Sansa giggled Arya heard and whirled around, glaring "I don’t care what you say, I’ot the stubborn look thatwillful

"Gods be true, Arya, soo by myself then It will be ever so much nicer that way Lady and I will eat all the lemon cakes and just have the best time without you"

She turned to walk off, but Arya shouted after her, "They won’t let you bring Lady either" She was gone before Sansa could think of a reply, chasing Ny the river

Alone and hu way back to the inn, where she knew Septa Mordane would be waiting Lady padded quietly by her side She was als to be nice and pretty, the way they were in the songs Why couldn’t Arya be sweet and delicate and kind, like Princess Myrcella? She would have liked a sister like that

Sansa could never understand hoo sisters, born only two years apart, could be so different It would have been easier if Arya had been a bastard, like their half brother Jon She even looked like Jon, with the long face and brown hair of the Starks, and nothing of their ladyAnd Jon’s mother had been common, or so people whispered Once, when she was littler, Sansa had even asked Mother if perhaps there hadn’t been soruhed and said no, Arya was her daughter and Sansa’s trueborn sister, blood of their blood Sansa could not think why Mother would want to lie about it, so she supposed it had to be true

As she neared the center of caathered around the queen’s wheelhouse Sansa heard excited voices buzzing like a hive of bees The doors had been thrown open, she saw, and the queen stood at the top of the wooden steps, s, "The council does us great honor, ?" she asked a squire she knew

"The council sent riders fro to escort us the rest of the way," he told her "An honor guard for the king"

Anxious to see, Sansa let Lady clear a path through the crowd People ot closer, she sao knights kneeling before the queen, in areous that it ht wore an intricate suit of white enameled scales, brilliant as a field of new-fallen snoith silver chasings and clasps that glittered in the sun When he removed his helm, Sansa saw that he was an old raceful for all that Frouard

His companion was a reen He was the handsomest man Sansa had ever set eyes upon; tall and powerfully made, with jet-black hair that fell to his shoulders and frareen eyes to match his arnificent rack shiold

At first Sansa did not notice the third stranger He did not kneel with the others He stood to one side, beside their horses, a gaunt gris in silence His face was pockmarked and beardless, with deepset eyes and hollow cheeks Though he was not an oldabove his ears, but those he had grown long as a worey chainmail over layers of boiled leather, plain and unadorned, and it spoke of age and hard use Above his right shoulder the stained leather hilt of the blade strapped to his back was visible; a two-handed greatsword, too long to be worn at his side

"The king is gone hunting, but I knoill be pleased to see you when he returns," the queen was saying to the two knights who knelt before her, but Sansa could not take her eyes off the third aze Slowly he turned his head Lady growled A terror as overwhel Sansa Stark had ever felt filled her suddenly She stepped backward and burasped her by the shoulders, and for a ht it was her father, but when she turned, it was the burned face of Sandor Clegane looking down at her, his mouth twisted in a terrible irl," he said, his voice rasping "Do I frighten you so much?"

He did, and had since she had first laid eyes on the ruin that fire had h it see as the other Still, Sansa wrenched away frohed, and LadySansa dropped to her knees to wrap her ar, she could feel their eyes on her, and here and there she heard hter

"A wolf," a man said, and someone else said, "Seven hells, that’s a direwolf," and the firstin ca voice replied, "The Starks use theer knights were looking down on her and Lady, swords in their hands, and then she was frightened again, and ashamed Tears filled her eyes

She heard the queen say, "Joffrey, go to her"

And her prince was there

"Leave her alone," Joffrey said He stood over her, beautiful in blue wool and black leather, his golden curls shining in the sun like a crown He gave her his hand, drew her to her feet "What is it, sweet lady? Why are you afraid? No one will hurt you Put away your swords, all of you The wolf is her little pet, that’s all" He looked at Sandor Clegane "And you, dog, aith you, you’re scaring my betrothed"

The Hound, ever faithful, bowed and slid away quietly through the press Sansa struggled to steady herself She felt like such a fool She was a Stark of Winterfell, a noble lady, and someday she would be a queen "It was not him, my sweet prince," she tried to explain "It was the other one"

The two stranger knights exchanged a look "Payne?" chuckled the young reen arently "Ofttihtens me as well, sweet lady He has a fearsome aspect"

"As well he should" The queen had descended from the wheelhouse The spectators parted to ’s Justice, you have put the wrong man in the office"

Sansa finally found her words "Then surely you have chosen the right one, Your Grace," she said, and a gale of laughter erupted all around her

"Well spoken, child," said the old hter of Eddard Stark I aular the uard" He bowed