A/N:AHAHA I'm not even sure this chapter makes sense, I mean some of it might sound hokey. It felt weird writing this after learning the GRRM ain't to fond of fanfics which I can totally understand. I mean he makes a good point comparing his characters to his children and allowing strangers to play with them. But the funny thing is I started writing fanfiction because of something he said. I mean i'm trying to write but sometimes finding that creative force is difficult( that is not to say fanfics are not creative whatsoever) but looking at characters that already exist and trying to think of how they would react helps sort things out. Anywhoos enjoy and if you read it, review it yeah. Show some love/hate :P
Chapter 8
She did not know where she was she merely followed Varys though the darkness before morning. The path was easy enough to follow even without the help of light, she had spent some time in blindness and from it she had learnt to see with her ears, nose, hands and feet. Her mind was somewhere else, floating above her not quite reachable.
Two young girls were waiting for her and the spider. The spider left her with them and they led her to a small makeshift dressing room. They didn't speak to her, only led her this way and that. The smaller girl began to wash her, to her discomfort. No one had washed her since she was twelve. It was very similar to the baths that she would had prepared for Lady Alla; she could smell the rose oil in the water. But how is rose water going to save Gendry?
She felt the tiny hand in her hair shifting strands into some strange design. When they were done the two girls led her to a chair that was draped with a sapphire dress, the type Sansa would have swooned at. It was something from overseas, the thin fabric was almost see through though smartly over at certain parts for a very flimsy attempt at modesty but the most spectacular element of the gown were the tiny crystal and silver rose blooms.
As the two girls slipped the dress on her, Arya felt her fingers tremble at her sides. The younger girl reached up and put a strange sort of diadem on her head. The diadem was old she could see the age of it in the fragile and old fashioned design with its tiny sapphires. When the older of the two girls brought over a looking glass for Arya to see herself. This was by far her greatest disguise, she was not Arry or Weasel, or Nan or Cat or Beth; she was that lost lady that never was, she was the ghost of winter. She wanted to cry when she thought of what her mother an father would have said if they were not beyond this world. There was a knock on the door.
"Is she ready yet?" It was not Varys so it must have been one of the three cloaked men. On the other side of the door were the two men she assumed Ser Jorah, Lord Connington were still cloaked but Aegon was dressed as finely as her in a silk-like purplish red tunic with silver and onyx dragons along the collar and sword hilt.
She couldn't see their expression but there was a heavy silence until the one cloak forced out, "She looks just like her."
The cloak then spoke to Aegon, telling him that ser Jorah would lead them to the city square. He turned to Arya and she could the see the hesitation in his movements as he pulled a roughspun cloak from under his own and handed it to her. She felt something solid with it as well. Digging through the folds of the fabric was a simple dagger. As if reading her mind he added, "Just in case."
He went to Aegon to give him a cloak too though he lingered longer, embracing the young man. The other cloaked man, Ser Jorah seemed distanced but she took it upon herself to ask what was going on. It took at moment for him to leave his reverie.
"At this moment, my lady, it is best not to ask." That was all he offered before leading the two of them along their way through the weird unused building, she assumed by the smell at one point a fisherman lived here. It was a long walk and she was grateful for the thinness of the dress. Neither Ser Jorah nor Aegon spoke to her so she was left with her thoughts which were trying to force together the fragments of what was happening. She was thinking about Gendry. He was always so gentle and quiet like her brother Jon, perhaps all bastards were like that and if they were why were they so isolated? Arya missed his coal black hair and blue eyes, she missed how flustered she could make him and his fits. She realized she was thinking about him as if he was already lost to her and that was not proper thinking.
A bell rang off in the not far distance, like a bell for prayers or celebration, calling the commoners to the square where she and Aegon blended in so well. The drew closer to the front. Arya still not understanding. Was she to kill someone? The sun was breaking out over the sky and Ser Jorah was fading into the background.
"The two of you stay together when the time comes remove your hoods and make sure the queen sees you."
Arya looked at Aegon who seemed to be ignoring her or at least refused to look at her. She wondered if clubbing him on the head would get his attention. She watched how he tried to control his facial muscle, there were little slips but the ultimate effect was that of frustration. She didn't know how to speak with him either. Their families had never been true allies not since the first Targareons had made the kings of the North bend to them, not since his father had stolen her aunt. There was that unresolvedness that hung between them. Like two parallel line, they could never connect. Arya decided to not even bother with a attempting the frivolous pleasantry her Septa had tried to install in her.
She watched the people and saw their anger, fear and frustration, barely contained. People were like drops of water, in a mass they all mixed together hiding truth and threats; a single pebble could influence the entire bucket and cause the water to overflow. She was sure these people had received more then their fair share of pebbles. She saw the worn looks on their faces they were a people beaten and were coming to the square to avoid another.
"Cersei had all the well-able men conscripted if any protested either they or their children were killed." Aegon whispered to her.
As she looked on the crowd she noticed that their weren't many young men mostly the too young, the too old or the too female.
"How?"
"There has been no true threats to her regency since king Stannis was killed. Now she is the only regent." At that Arya could tell he was lying she wanted to argue him but then the bell went again. A thin man garbed as the high Septon walk forward on the platform in a robe that looked like something passed down numerous times. He looked malnourished all but his eyes which were dark and determined. He was surrounded by guards and knights from a sort of wall behind the
"Citizens, you have been called forth on this day of the seven to observe the most grievous of sins treachery. What separates men from animals if not their honour? Today, we see snakes in the skin of men."
With that a path was cleared and three men were led to the platform. Arya felt time still as she watched them drag their way to the front. She could tell they had been beaten recently. There was a flowering bruise on Lem's cheek and Anguy's lip was split. Gendry didn't seem that injured but for the limp in his walk. She felt guilty thinking of all the times she could have tried to spring them from their cell or how she could be free when they weren't.
Something like terror of seizing her. Flashes of something deeply hidden in the back of her mind was forcing itself forward. It was the same place only a different time and different accused. The crowd didn't pelt the three men with rotten fruit as they did her father, it was more like a memorial than a mob. The queen subject were only hers out of some passive resign and hopeless fear. And the two crowd in her head fought for dominence, for realization.
She was panting, there was a sweat crawling down her spine. She had to look forward and see her the new king of Westeros, a pouty lipped boy barely older than herself. She could see her sister looking on the young king with a hope and watched as he shattered it, as the death like Ilyn Payne walked forward, holding Ice. It was too much. She should be here. She should have stayed in Braavos, being no one was better than being someone, the very alone Arya Stark.
Aegon grabbed her hand, bringing her back to this present. His violet eyes right on her for the first time taking away any thought she had of running, he was reminding her of the mission at hand, steadying her. She took his hand and looked forward, straightening her back she watched.
The queen came out in a dress of grey humbleness sashed with a rope of pearls. She looked on the people with distaste. She looked somehow unsure, her flitted all aroundArya saw the man to her side though her was more a giant than anything else. Where wore a pure white suit of armour but still Arya felt a chill of cruelty about him. Arya had learned long ago that much could behind in the outer shell of a man as a worm could hide in an apple.
The queen stepped forward to address the crowd forcibly gathered here. Arya squeezed harder on Aegon hand.
" Good People of Kings Landing, we are trapped in a time of tumult after the demise of the last false king and as we struggle to our previously obtained glory there are some who would selfishly seek to tarnish all that we have worked for." She turned to the men on the platform. "The men before stand guilty of treason and as consequence are sentenced to death!"
Arya felt herself lean forward as Gendry was pushed up to the execution block. Aegon squeezed her hand but it didn't stop the little sound that left her mouth. She felt every heartbeat and it was only her heart that she heard though only Gendry on the same path as her father was what she saw.
A cloud of smoke took the attention away for the queen's speech and murmur took hold of the crowd.
"Now!" Aegon hissed. He ripped of his cloak and so she copied him . He had taken her arm as a lord would take a lady's. She stood up taller and forced her eyes away from Gendry and the other and on to the queen who's eyes had doubled in size. Arya heard some hushed voices and saw the people around her and Aegon step back.
"…. Targareon"
"Lady Lyanna"
"They're back.."
"They're ghosts"
The older people who had known her aunt looked at her with both awe and terror. Her face was to be her aunts , a woman she had never met, the one who started a war. Arya kept her eyes on Queen Cersei, she let every memory of what the Lannisters had done to her family surface and she found herself moving forward with the deadly grace that only a true wolf could bear. The Queen had never looked so terrified .
The tension and confusion were like static in the air, almost tangible. The queen began screaming for guards to apprehend them. Arya looked to Aegon, wondering if they were meant to be martyrs for the realm when a loud explosion took the square. The entire space filled with dust and powder making it impossible to see anything. A hand grabbed her other arm.
"Hurry!" It was the voice of Ser Jorah as she guided her along the cobblestone, blindly. The smoke was starting to clear and looking back , Arya saw the chaos as people scrambled this way and that. The most disturbing was looking on the platform and seeing no Lem, Anguy or Gendry.
...
