Just this last trip Mya thought. One last trip between Stone and Snow an all the supplies from the Eyrie would be down and she would have no need to brave the treacherous path for as long as winter held.

"Slow down girl! Lord Baelish ain't paying me to slip off a cliff and die!"

Brune could yell all he pleased. Mya and her mules moved as fast as they needed, as fast as was safe. She wasn't going to slow down for some upjumped hedge knight from a barren piece of land where a hill might pass for a mountain.

"I said slow down wench!"

Mya could tell Lothor Brune was upset. Once she would have worried about that, but she was such good friends with Lord Baelish's daughter she knew Brune would never raise a hand against her. Then she heard the mule speed up.

"I said…slow down!"

Mya felt an armored hand crack against the back of her head and felt the trickle of blood hit the back of her neck. The next thing she knew he was on top off her.

"I always dreamed it'd be this way ya know. You all in your leather and mail, writhing, fighting. This'll be so sweet Mya…"

"You'll be killed bastard! Littlefinger's daughter is my friend and she'll have your head you…"

An armored fist struck Mya on the face as Brune laughed.

"Oh yer right sweetling. His daughter will be so displeased."

She felt Brune rip her breeches down and felt him fumbling for his when the man was upon them. Lothor drew his breath in tight, a dirk at his neck. She didn't know where he'd come from, she hadn't even heard him, but she had never been so glad to see a man, even if his face was hidden. Then he spoke…

"Lothor, Lothor, Lothor…do you remember my voice Lothor?"

Brune squirmed and tried to get away, but the cloaked man was too strong.

"Y-yes ser. I remember."

"And what did I say when last we spoke?"

"Y-y-you said that…that if I ever tried to take a girl against her will…t-t-that…that you'd cut my throat s-ser."

Mya saw a dazzling glimmer of white teeth from under the cloak and heard the cloaked man laugh "Uhhaha! That's exactly what I said Lothor! Good man!"

The smile disappeared instantly with a grimace replacing it "So if you remember what I said…why are you doing it? Please…enlighten me."

Lothor tried to wrench himself free of the cloaked man's grasp again with the same result. The man in black was too strong.

"S-s-ser…I'm s-s-sorry. Please s-ser. P-p-please don't c-c-cut my throat!"

The cloaked man held Lothor Brune there for what seemed like eternity. Mya wanted him to die, no one had ever tried to rape her. But despite that, she was a baseborn bastard. What could she expect? Finally the cloaked man spoke.

"Well…I suppose I won't cut your throat Lothor but…"

"Oh thank you ser! Thank you, thank you thank..."

Suddenly Lothor Brune was falling. Mya saw the shove, heard the scream, she even half-imagined she heard the thump of Brune hitting the ground. All at once she was angry at this cloaked man who came out of the darkness.

"You said you wouldn't kill him!" She yelled as she tried to strike him. He caught her arms easily and gently and pulled her close and whispered in her ear.

"Did I? I seem to recall that I wouldn't cut his throat. And obviously that's not what I did Uhhah, Uhahah!"

Mya stopped struggling and sagged in the cloaked man's arms, overwhelmed with everything that had just happened.

"Why?" she said. "Why did you do that? Why save me?"

The cloaked man gathered her up and sat them both against the hard stone wall of the mountain.

"What do you think of that Mya Stone?" he said as he stretched his arm across the horizon.

"The Vale you mean?"

"Uhhahaha. No Mya. I mean the world. What do you think of that?"

"The world?"

"Yeah. Would you like to see it?"

"But…but what about…"

"The mules? What about the castle that'll be empty for the entire winter? What do you have here? From what I've seen the rest can tend the mules well enough."

"Will they blame me for Brune's death?"

"Hmmmm…probably. Definitely. You were the last seen with him. So pick one. The whole world to travel, or the Vale?"

Mya thought a moment. The cloaked man made sense, there really was nothing to keep her in the Vale but the mules and the Eyrie.

"Alright…I'll come. But first tell me your name."

The cloaked man smiled that same dazzling smile. "Well…sometimes I'm no one. But for the most part I'm Ben."

Mya Stone nodded and followed Ben back down the mountain.