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Arya

The scent of hot bread drifting fro the Street of Flour eeter than any perfume Arya had ever seon It was a plu at a crust that had fallen between two cobblestones, but when Arya’s shadow touched it, it took to the air

Her stick shistled out and caught it two feet off the ground, and it went down in a flurry of brown feathers She was on it in the blink of an eye, grabbing a wing as the pigeon flapped and fluttered It pecked at her hand She grabbed its neck and twisted until she felt the bone snap

Coeons were easy

A passing septon was looking at her askance "Here’s the best place to find pigeon," Arya told him as she brushed herself off and picked up her fallen stick sword "They come for the crueon to her belt and started down the street Aa load of tarts by on a theeled cart; the s of blueberries and lemons and apricots Her stomach made a hollow rumbly noise "Could I have one?" she heard herself say "A lemon, oror any kind"

The pushcart man looked her up and down Plainly he did not like what he saw "Three coppers"

Arya tapped her wooden sword against the side of her boot "I’ll trade you a fat pigeon," she said

"The Others take your pigeon," the pushcart man said

The tarts were still war her mouth water, but she did not have three coppersor one She gave the pushcartHe was short, with a little round belly, and when hea little She was just thinking that if she snatched a tart and ran he would never be able to catch her when he said, "You be keepin’ your filthy hands off The gold cloaks kno to deal with thieving little gutter rats, that they do"

Arya glanced warily behind her Two of the City Watch were standing at the round, the heavy wool dyed a rich gold; their sword at his hip, the other an iron cudgel With a last wistful glance at the tarts, Arya edged back froold cloaks had not been paying her any special attention, but the sight of the as far froet, yet even froh red walls Flocks of crows squabbled noisily over each head, thick as flies The talk in Flea Bottoold cloaks had thrown in with the Lannisters, their commander raised to a lord, with lands on the Trident and a seat on the king’s council

She had also heard other things, scary things, things thatRobert and been slain in turn by Lord Renly Others insisted that Renly had killed the king in a drunken quarrel between brothers Why else should he have fled in the night like a co had been killed by a boar while hunting, another that he’d died eating a boar, stuffing himself so full that he’d ruptured at the table No, the king had died at table, others said, but only because Varys the Spider poisoned him No, it had been the queen who poisoned him No, he had died of a pox No, he had choked on a fish bone

One thing all the stories agreed on: King Robert was dead The bells in the seven towers of the Great Sept of Baelor had tolled for a day and a night, the thunder of their grief rolling across the city in a bronze tide They only rang the bells like that for the death of a king, a tanner’s boy told Arya

All she wanted was to go ho was not so easy as she had hoped Talk of as on every lip, and gold cloaks were as thick on the city walls as fleas onwell, her, for one She had been sleeping in Flea Bottom, on rooftops and in stables, wherever she could find a place to lie down, and it hadn’t taken her long to learn that the district ell named

Every day since her escape froates in turn The Dragon Gate, the Lion Gate, and the Old Gate were closed and barred The Mud Gate and the Gate of the Gods were open, but only to those anted to enter the city; the guards let no one out Those ere allowed to leave left by the King’s Gate or the Iron Gate, but Lannister men-at-aruard posts there Spying down fro’s Gate, Arya saw the riders to open their saddlebags, and questioning everyone who tried to pass on foot

So the river, but the Blackwater Rush ide and deep, and everyone agreed that its currents icked and treacherous She had no coin to pay a ferrye on a ship

Her lord father had taught her never to steal, but it was growing harder to reet out soon, she would have to take her chances with the gold cloaks She hadn’t gone hungry much since she learned to knock down birds with her stick sword, but she feared soher sick A couple she’d eaten raw, before she found Flea Botto the alleys where huge tubs of stew had been si for years, and you could trade half your bird for a heel of yesterday’s bread and a "bowl o’ brown," and they’d even stick the other half in the fire and crisp it up for you, so long as you plucked the feathers yourself Arya would have given anything for a cup of milk and a lemon cake, but the broasn’t so bad It usually had barley in it, and chunks of carrot and onion and turnip, and so on top Mostly she tried not to think about the otten a piece of fish

The only thing was, the pot-shops were never empty, and even as she bolted down her food, Arya could feel the Some of them stared at her boots or her cloak, and she knehat they were thinking With others, she could al under her leathers; she didn’t knohat they were thinking, and that scared her even more A couple times, she was followed out into the alleys and chased, but so far no one had been able to catch her

The silver bracelet she’d hoped to sell had been stolen her first night out of the castle, along with her bundle of good clothes, snatched while she slept in a burnt-out house off Pig Alley All they left her was the cloak she had been huddled in, the leathers on her back, her wooden practice swordand Needle She’d been lying on top of Needle, or else it would have been gone too; it orth ether Since then Arya had taken to walking around with her cloak draped over her right arm, to conceal the blade at her hip The wooden sword she carried in her left hand, out where everybody could see it, to scare off robbers, but there were men in the pot-shops ouldn’t have been scared off if she’d had a battle-axe It was enough to eon and stale bread Often as not, she went to bed hungry rather than risk the stares

Once she was outside the city, she would find berries to pick, or orchards sheso for roots in the forest, even run down sos to run doere rats and cats and scrawny dogs The potshops would give you a fistful of coppers for a litter of pups, she’d heard, but she didn’t like to think about that

Down below the Street of Flour was aalleys and cross streets Arya scra to put distance between her and the gold cloaks She had learned to keep to the center of the street Soons and horses, but at least you could see therabbed you In soainst the walls; the buildings leaned in so close they al of s hoop Arya stared at the the times she’d played at hoops with Bran and Jon and their baby brother Rickon She wondered how big Rickon had grown, and whether Bran was sad She would have given anything if Jon had been here to call her "little sister" andShe’d seen her reflection in puddles, and she didn’t think hair got anyto the children she saw in the street, hoping to ive her a place to sleep, but sheThe little ones only looked at her with quick, wary eyes and ran away if she ca brothers and sisters asked questions Arya couldn’t answer, called her names, and tried to steal froe had knocked her down and tried to pull the boots off her feet, but Arya gave her a crack on her ear with her stick sword that sent her off sobbing and bleeding

A gull wheeled overhead as she lanced at it thoughtfully, but it ell beyond the reach of her stick It made her think of the sea Maybe that was the way out Old Nan used to tell stories of boys who stoay on trading galleys and sailed off into all kinds of adventures Maybe Arya could do that too She decided to visit the riverfront It was on the way to the Mud Gate anyway, and she hadn’t checked that one today

The wharfs were oddly quiet when Arya got there She spied another pair of gold cloaks, walking side by side through the fish market, but they never so much as looked at her Half the stalls were empty, and it seemed to her that there were fewer ships at dock than she realleysthe water as their oars rose and fell Arya watched the the river

When she saw the guardsrey woolen cloaks trimmed hite satin, her heart alht of Winterfell’s colors brought tears to her eyes Behind thes Arya could not read the nae, Myrish, Braavosi, perhaps even High Valyrian She grabbed a passing longshoreman by the sleeve "Please," she said, "what ship is this?"

"She’s the Wind Witch, out of Myr," the man said

"She’s still here," Arya blurted The longshoreed, and walked away Arya ran toward the pier The Wind Witch was the ship Father had hired to take her hoes ago

Two of the guardsether while the third walked rounds, his hand on the po like a baby, she stopped to rub at her eyes Her eyes her eyes her eyes, why did

Look with your eyes, she heard Syrio whisper

Arya looked She knew all of her father’s ers "You," the one walking rounds called out "What do you want here, boy?" The other two looked up from their dice

It was all Arya could do not to bolt and run, but she knew that if she did, they would be after her at once She irl, but he thought she was a boy She’d be a boy, then "Want to buy a pigeon?" She showed hiuardsman said

Arya did as he told her She did not have to pretend to be frightened Behind her, the men went back to their dice

She could not have said how she got back to Flea Botto hard by the time she reached the narrow crooked unpaved streets between the hills The Bottosties and stables and tanner’s sheds, mixed in with the sour smell of winesinks and cheap whorehouses Arya wound her way through thebrown coeon was gone It must have slipped from her belt as she ran, or someone had stolen it and she’d never noticed For a ain She’d have to walk all the way back to the Street of Flour to find another one that plu

Arya glanced up, listening, wondering what the ringing meant this time

"What’s this now?" a fat ods ha’mercy," wailed an old woman

A red-haired whore in a wisp of painted silk pushed open a second-story"Is it the boy king that’s died now?" she shouted down, leaning out over the street "Ah, that’s a boy for you, they never last long" As she laughed, a nakedher neck and rubbing the heavy white breasts that hung loose beneath her shift

"Stupid slut," the fat ’s not dead, that’s only su dies, they ring every bell in the city"

"Here, quit your biting, or I’ll ring your bells," the wo hi?"

"It’s a su," the fat e scah a puddle The old wo Other people wereup the hill to see what the noise was about Arya ran after the slower boy "Where you going?" she shouted when she was right behind hilanced back without slowing "The gold cloaks is carryin’ hi hard

"The Hand! They’ll be taking his head off, Buu says"