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Arya

The one-eared black tom arched his back and hissed at her

Arya padded down the alley, balanced lightly on the balls of her bare feet, listening to the flutter of her heart, breathing slow deep breaths Quiet as a shadow, she told herself, light as a feather The to cats was hard Her hands were covered with half-healed scratches, and both knees were scabbed over where she had scraped thee fat kitchen cat had been able to elude her, but Syrio had kept her at it day and night When she’d run to hi, he had said, "So slow? Be quicker, girl Your eneive you more than scratches" He had dabbed her wounds with Myrish fire, which burned so bad she had had to bite her lip to keep fro Then he sent her out after more cats

The Red Keep was full of cats: lazy old cats dozing in the sun, cold-eyedtheir tails, quick little kittens with claws like needles, ladies’ cats all co the midden heaps One by one Arya had chased theht them proudly to Syrio Forelall but this one, this one-eared black devil of a toht there," one of the gold cloaks had told her "Older than sin and twice asthe queen’s father, and that black bastard hopped up on the table and snatched a roast quail right out of Lord Tywin’s fingers Robert laughed so hard he like to burst You stay away from that one, child"

He had run her halfway across the castle; twice around the Tower of the Hand, across the inner bailey, through the stables, down the serpentine steps, past the sold cloaks, along the base of the river wall and up more steps and back and forth over Traitor’s Walk, and then down again and through a gate and around a well and in and out of strange buildings until Arya didn’t knohere she was

Now at last she had hih walls pressed close on either side, and ahead was a blank lessforward, light as a feather

When she was three steps away froht, then left, went Arya, cutting off his escape He hissed again and tried to dart between her legs Quick as a snake, she thought Her hands closed around hi aloud as his claws raked at the front of her leather jerkin Ever so fast, she kissed hiht between the eyes, and jerked her head back an instant before his claould have found her face The to to that cat?"

Startled, Arya dropped the cat and whirled toward the voice The tom bounded off in the blink of an eye At the end of the alley stood a girl with a olden curls, dressed as pretty as a doll in blue satin Beside her was a plu sewn in pearls across the front of his doublet and a miniature sword at his belt Princess Myrcella and Prince Toe as a draft horse hovered over the uards

"What were you doing to that cat, boy?" Myrcella asked again, sternly To her brother she said, "He’s a ragged boy, isn’t he? Look at hied dirty sreed

They don’t know irl Sled froh the castle, clad in a jerkin ripped by cat claws and brown roughspun pants hacked off above her scabby knees You don’t wear skirts and silks when you’re catching cats Quickly she lowered her head and dropped to one knee Maybe they wouldn’t recognize her If they did, she would never hear the end of it Septa Mordane would be ain from the shame

The old fat septa moved forward "Boy, how did you come here? You have no business in this part of the castle"

"You can’t keep this sort out," one of the red cloaks said "Like trying to keep out rats"

"Who do you belong to, boy?" the septa de with you, are you ht in her throat If she answered, Tommen and Myrcella would know her for certain

"Godwyn, bring hiuardsripped her throat like a giant’s hand Arya could not have spoken if her life had hung on it Calm as still water, she mouthed silently

As Godwyn reached for her, Aryahis fingers brush her ar around hiot hi down the alley Swift as a deer The septa was screeching at her Arya slid between legs as thick and white as marble columns, bounded to her feet, bowled into Prince Tommen and hopped over him when he sat down hard and said "Oof," spun away fro full out

She heard shouts, then pounding footsteps, closing behind her She dropped and rolled The red cloak went careening past her, stu back to her feet She sa above her, high and narrow, scarcely ht the sill, pulled herself up She held her breath as she wriggled through Slippery as an eel Dropping to the floor in front of a startled scrubwoman, she hopped up, brushed the rushes off her clothes, and was off again, out the door and along a long hall, down a stair, across a hidden courtyard, around a corner and over a wall and through a low narro into a pitch-dark cellar The sounds grew more and more distant behind her

Arya was out of breath and quite thoroughly lost She was in for it now if they had recognized her, but she didn’t think they had She’d moved too fast Swift as a deer

She hunkered down in the dark against a damp stone wall and listened for the pursuit, but the only sound was the beating of her own heart and a distant drip of water Quiet as a shadow, she told herself She wondered where she was When they had first coetting lost in the castle Father said the Red Keep was smaller than Winterfell, but in her dreams it had been immense, an endless stone e behind her She would find herself wandering down gloo endless circular stairs, darting through courtyards or over bridges, her shouts echoing unanswered In some of the rooms the red stone walls would seem to drip blood, and nowhere could she find aSometimes she would hear her father’s voice, but always fro way off, and no row fainter and fainter, until it faded to nothing and Arya was alone in the dark

It was very dark right now, she realized She hugged her bare knees tight against her chest and shivered She would wait quietly and count to ten thousand By then it would be safe for her to co back out and find her way hohty-seven, the roohten as her eyes adjusted to the blackness Slowly the shapes around her took on forloo teeth She had lost the count She closed her eyes and bit her lip and sent the fear away When she looked again, the one Would never have been She pretended that Syrio was beside her in the dark, whispering in her ear Cal as a bear Fierce as a wolverine She opened her eyes again

The one

Arya got to her feet,warily The heads were all around her She touched one, curious, wondering if it was real Her fingertips brushed a h The bone was smooth beneath her hand, cold and hard to the touch She ran her fingers down a tooth, black and sharp, a dagger made of darkness It made her shiver

"It’s dead," she said aloud "It’s just a skull, it can’t hurt me" Yet somehow the monster seemed to know she was there She could feel its eloo in that died away froer than the first For an instant she could feel its teeth digging into her shoulder, as if it wanted a bite of her flesh Arya whirled, felt leather catch and tear as a huge fang nipped at her jerkin, and then she was running Another skull looest monster of all, but Arya did not even slow She leapt over a ridge of black teeth as tall as swords, dashed through hungry jaws, and threw herself against the door

Her hands found a heavy iron ring set in the wood, and she yanked at it The door resisted ainward, with a creak so loud Arya was certain it could be heard all through the city She opened the door just far enough to slip through, into the hallway beyond

If the room with the monsters had been dark, the hall was the blackest pit in the seven hells Calave her eyes a rey outline of the door she had coers in front of her face, felt the airShe was blind A water dancer sees with all her senses, she re one two three, drank in the quiet, reached out with her hands

Her fingers brushed against rough unfinished stone to her left She followed the wall, her hand skih the darkness All halls lead somewhere Where there is a way in, there is a way out Fear cuts deeper than swords Arya would not be afraid It see hen the wall ended abruptly and a draft of cold air blew past her cheek Loose hairs stirred faintly against her skin

From somewhere far below her, she heard noises The scrape of boots, the distant sound of voices A flickering light brushed the wall ever so faintly, and she saw that she stood at the top of a great black well, a shaft twenty feet across plunging deep into the earth Huge stones had been set into the curving walls as steps, circling down and down, dark as the steps to hell that Old Nan used to tell the up out of the darkness, out of the bowels of the earth

Arya peered over the edge and felt the cold black breath on her face Far below, she saw the light of a single torch, small as the flame of a candle Two ainst the sides of the well, tall as giants She could hear their voices, echoing up the shaft

"found one bastard," one said "The rest will coht"

"And when he learns the truth, ill he do?" a second voice asked in the liquid accents of the Free Cities

"The gods alone know," the first voice said Arya could see a wisp of grey s like a snake as it rose "The fools tried to kill his son, and what’s worse, they made a mummer’s farce of it He’s not a man to put that aside I warn you, the wolf and lion will soon be at each other’s throats, whether ill it or no"

"Too soon, too soon," the voice with the accent coood is war now? We are not ready Delay"

"As well bid me stop time Do you take me for a wizard?"

The other chuckled "No less" Flames licked at the cold air The tall shadoere al the torch cliht, his companion beside him Arya crept back away froainst the wall She held her breath as the men reached the top of the steps

"What would you have me do?" asked the torchbearer, a stout man in a leather half cape Even in heavy boots, his feet seeround A round scarred face and a stubble of dark beard showed under his steel cap, and he wore mail over boiled leather, and a dirk and shortsword at his belt It see oddly familiar about him

"If one Hand can die, why not a second?" replied the man with the accent and the forked yellow beard "You have danced the dance before, my friend" He was no one Arya had ever seen before, she was certain of it Grossly fat, yet he seeht on the balls of his feet as a water dancer old and pale silver, crusted with rubies, sapphires, slitted yellow tiger eyes Every finger wore a ring; some had two

"Before is not now, and this Hand is not the other," the scarred man said as they stepped out into the hall Still as stone, Arya told herself, quiet as a shadow Blinded by the blaze of their own torch, they did not see her pressed flat against the stone, only a few feet away

"Perhaps so," the forked beard replied, pausing to catch his breath after the long climb "Nonetheless, we must have time The princess is with child The khal will not bestir himself until his son is born You kno they are, these savages"

TheArya heard a deep ruht, slid down out of the ceiling with a resounding crash that almost made her cry out Where the entry to the well had been was nothing but stone, solid and unbroken

"If he does not bestir himself soon, it may be too late," the stout ame for two players, if ever it was Stannis Baratheon and Lysa Arryn have fled beyondswords around the his lord father to send his sister to court The girl is a maid of fourteen, sweet and beautiful and tractable, and Lord Renly and Ser Loras intend that Robert should bed her, wed her, and a Yet Lord Stark’s the one who troubles h he’ll have the truth And now his wife has abducted Tyrion Lannister, thanks to Littlefinger’s e, and Jaime has a queer affection for the I the Tullys in as well Delay, you say Make haste, I reply Even the finest of jugglers cannot keep a hundred balls in the air forever"

"You are ler, old friend You are a true sorcerer All I ask is that you work your er" They started down the hall in the direction Arya had come, past the room with the monsters

"What I can do, I will," the one with the torch said softly "I old, and another fifty birds"

She let the after them Quiet as a shadow