Page 31 (2/2)

"Kill asped

"Let hio of Tyrion’s hair, reluctantly

Tyrion took a deep breath "How did Littlefinger tell you I caer of his? Answerthe tourney on Prince Joffrey’s name day"

"When ht of Flowers, that was his story, no?"

"It was," she admitted A line creased her brow

"Riders!"

The shriek cae above the up the rock face to watch the road while they took their rest

For a long second, no one moved Catelyn Stark was the first to react "Ser Rodrik, Ser Willis, to horse," she shouted "Get the other uard the prisoners--"

"Ar to his feet and seized her by the arm "You will need every sword"

She kneas right, Tyrion could see it The reat houses; they would slaughter Stark and Lannister with equal fervor, as they slaughtered each other They h to bear sons Still, she hesitated

"I hear them!" Ser Rodrik called out Tyrion turned his head to listen, and there it was: hoofbeats, a dozen horses orfor weapons, running to their mounts

Pebbles rained down around thee He landed breathless in front of Catelyn Stark, an ungainly-lookingout from under a conical steel cap "Twenty men, maybe twenty-five," he said, breathless "Milk Snakes or Moon Brothers, by uess They must have eyes out, m’ladyhidden watchersthey knoe’re here"

Ser Rodrik Cassel was already ahorse, a longsword in hand Mohor crouched behind a boulder, both hands on his iron-tipped spear, a dagger between his teeth "You, singer," Ser Willis Wode called out "Helphis woodharp, his face as pale as milk, but Tyrion’s man Morrec bounded quickly to his feet and ht with his arrip on Catelyn Stark "You have no choice," he told her "Three of us, and a fourthusfour men can be the difference between life and death up here"

"Give ain after the fight is done"

"My word?" The hoofbeats were louder now Tyrion grinned crookedly "Oh, that you have, my ladyon ht she would spit at him, but instead she snapped, "Ar away Ser Rodrik tossed Jyck his sword and scabbard, and wheeled to meet the foe Morrec helped himself to a bow and quiver, and went to one knee beside the road He was a better archer than swordsman And Bronn rode up to offer Tyrion a double-bladed axe

"I have never fought with an axe" The weapon felt aard and unfamiliar in his hands It had a short haft, a heavy head, a nasty spike on top

"Pretend you’re splitting logs," Bronn said, drawing his longsword from the scabbard across his back He spat, and trotted off to foren and Ser Rodrik Ser Williswith his hel black silk plus don’t bleed," Tyrion said to no one in particular He felt naked without armor He looked around for a rock and ran over to where Marillion was hiding "Move over"

"Go away!" the boy screaht!"

"What, lost your taste for adventure?" Tyrion kicked at the youth until he slid over, and not a moment too soon A heartbeat later, the riders were on them

There were no heralds, no banners, no horns nor drus as Morrec and Lharys let fly, and suddenly the clans out of the dawn, lean dark men in boiled leather and loved hands were clutched all swords and lances and sharpened scythes, spiked clubs and daggers and heavy ironreatsword

Ser Rodrik shouted "Winterfell!" and rode toso a spikedTyrion felt a sudden urge to leap up, brandish his axe, and boom out, "Casterly Rock!" but the insanity passed quickly and he crouched doer

He heard the screaen’s sword raked across the naked face of a h the clansht and left Ser Rodrik haround each other as they traded blow for blow Jyck vaulted onto a horse and galloped bareback into the fray Tyrion saw an arrow sprout from the throat of the man in the shadowskin cloak When he opened his mouth to scream, only blood ca so his head with his woodharp as a horse leapt over their rock Tyrion scrambled to his feet as the rider turned to co his axe with both hands The blade caught the charging horse in the throat with a rip as the anied to wrench the axe free and lurch clumsily out of the way Marillion was less fortunate Horse and rider crashed to the ground in a tangle on top of the singer Tyrion danced back in while the brigand’s leg was still pinned beneath his fallen mount, and buried the axe in the man’s neck, just above the shoulder blades

As he struggled to yank the blade loose, he heard Marillion asped "Gods have "

"I believe that’s horse blood," Tyrion said The singer’s hand ca in the dirt like a spider with five legs Tyrion put his heel on the grasping fingers and felt a satisfying crunch "Close your eyes and pretend you’re dead," he advised the singer before he hefted the axe and turned away

After that, things ran together The daas full of shouts and screams and heavy with the scent of blood, and the world had turned to chaos Arrows hissed past his ear and clattered off the rocks He saw Bronn unhorsed, fighting with a sword in each hand Tyrion kept on the fringes of the fight, sliding fro out of the shadows to hew at the legs of passing horses He found a wounded clans hily, but Tyrion was glad of any protection at all Jyck was cut down from behind while he sliced at a man in front of hi face had been snized the dirk as he plucked it froh his belt when he heard a woainst the stone face of the mountain with three men around her, one still er clutched aardly in her maimed hands, but her back was to the rock now and they had penned her on three sides Let theht, and welcoht the first man in the back of the knee before they even kneas there, and the heavy axehead split flesh and bone like rotten wood Logs that bleed, Tyrion thought inanely as the second man came for him Tyrion ducked under his sword, lashed out with the axe, the man reeled backwardand Catelyn Stark stepped up behind hiagealloped off suddenly

Tyrion looked around The ene had ended when he wasn’t looking Dying horses and woundedTo his vast astonishers and let the axe thunk to the ground His hands were sticky with blood He could have sworn they had been fighting for half a day, but the sun seemed scarcely to have moved at all

"Your first battle?" Bronn asked later as he bent over Jyck’s body, pulling off his boots They were good boots, as befit one of Lord Tywin’s men; heavy leather, oiled and supple,

Tyrion nodded "My father will be so proud," he said His legs were cra so badly he could scarcely stand Odd, he had never once noticed the pain during the battle

"You need a wolint in his black eyes He shoved the boots into his saddlebag "Nothing like a woman after a en stopped looting the corpses of the brigands long enough to snort and lick his lips

Tyrion glanced over to where Lady Stark was dressing Ser Rodrik’s wounds "I’hter, and Tyrion grinned and thought, There’s a start

Afterward he knelt by the stream and washed the blood off his face in water cold as ice As he liain at the slain The dead clansed men, their horses scrawny and undersized, with every rib showing What weapons Bronn and Chiggen had left them were none too i man in the shadowskin cloak who had dueled Ser Rodrik with a two-handed greatsword, but when he found his corpse sprawled on the stony ground, the one, and Tyrion saw that the blade was badly notched, its cheap steel spotted with rust Sround

They had only three dead; two of Lord Bracken’s men-at-arms, Kurleket and Mohor, and his own man Jyck, who had e A fool to the end, Tyrion thought

"Lady Stark, I urge you to press on, with all haste," Ser Willis Wode said, his eyes scanning the ridgetops warily through the slit in his helone far"

"We must bury our dead, Ser Willis," she said "These were brave men I will not leave them to the crows and shadowcats"

"This soil is too stony for digging," Ser Willis said

"Then we shall gather stones for cairns"

"Gather all the stones you want," Bronn told her, "but do it without s to do than pile rocks on dead , for one" He looked over the rest of the survivors "Any of you who hope to be alive cohtfall, ride with us"

"My lady, I fear he speaks the truth," Ser Rodrik said wearily The old knight had been wounded in the fight, a deep gash in his left arrazed his neck, and he sounded his age "If we linger here, they will be on us again for a certainty, and we h a second attack"

Tyrion could see the anger in Catelyn’s face, but she had no choice "May the gods forgive us, then We will ride at once"

There was no shortage of horses now Tyrion , who looked strong enough to last another three or four days at least He was about to mount when Lharys stepped up and said, "I’ll take that dirk noarf"

"Let him keep it" Catelyn Stark looked down from her horse "And see that he has his axe back as well We ain"

"You haveup

"Save them," she said curtly "I trust you no one before he could frame a reply

Tyrion adjusted his stolen helun the journey, with his wrists bound and a hood pulled down over his head, and decided that this was a definite i as he could keep the axe, he would count hiame

Ser Willis Wode led them out Bronn took the rear, with Lady Stark safely in the middle, Ser Rodrik a shadow beside her Marillion kept throwing sullen looks back at Tyrion as they rode The singer had broken several ribs, his woodharp, and all four fingers on his playing hand, yet the day had not been an utter loss to hinificent shadowskin cloak, thick black fur slashed by stripes of white He huddled beneath its folds silently, and for once had nothing to say

They heard the deep growls of shadowcats behind theone half aover the corpses they had left behind Marillion grew visibly pale Tyrion trotted up beside him "Craven," he said, "rhymes nicely with raven" He kicked his horse and er, up to Ser Rodrik and Catelyn Stark

She looked at hiether

"As I was saying before ere so rudely interrupted," Tyrion began, "there is a serious flaw in Littlefinger’s fable Whatever you may believe of ainst my family"