Ned Stark Lives! Part 3

by cbstevp

The war against the Others continues as new factions from Dorne and the Vale join the fight. But a formidable new player joins the field as Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons return to Westeros. Meanwhile Jon Snow continues his mission to seek out and defeat the Great Other. Only the gods know who will win and who will lose, and who will sit the Iron Throne.

25. Chapter 25 Arya

Ned Stark Lives! Part 3 Chapter 25 Arya

"Arya."

"Go away."

"I want to talk to you."

"You tried to kill me."

"I was angry. You invaded my mind. You cannot imagine what that is like."

"Sorry. I can't help myself."

"I understand. But we need to talk."

"You're a dragon. Dragons don't talk."

"I do."

"Why?"

"You tell me. That's why we need to talk. Who made me?"

"The gods."

"No, not the gods. Men made me, of stone…but who made me of flesh?"

"Melisandre."

"Who's that?"

"A witch. She wanted to kill my husband."

"Gendry."

"Yes. How do you know his name?"

"His blood is my blood. I told you this when you entered my mind the first time. His name was in your mind and now I know it. Where is he now?"

"Sleeping."

"Where is Melisandre now?"

"Dead. You ate her."

"I…yes, I remember…my first taste of flesh. Tell me more."

"Look, what do you want to me to say? I don't know why you are alive, I don't know why you can talk, and I don't know why you are in my head. All I know is I am a warg, I can control animals…but they never talk to me."

"Never?"

"Never….until now."

"Interesting."

"What's interesting?"

Silence.

"Hello?" she said, first in her mind, where the conversation had taken place, and then aloud. "Hello?"

"Who are you talking to?"

"Gods, Gendry, I…no one."

She was on the balcony, looking across the city at the Dragonpit, when the voice started talking in her head. It was a woman's voice, deep and rich, and to Arya it was familiar but unknown, as if she tried to remember a word that was on the tip of her tongue but she could not taste it. It wasn't the first time she had heard the voice. It had happened once before, the day before, when she had connected with Elianta, the day the dragon had tried to kill her. Arya thought she was going mad at first but now knew she wasn't. This was something new, not like when she had connected with Nymeria or that cat on Dragonstone.

They were in the Red Keep, on a high floor of a tower, with guards on their door and no way to come and go without being watched. Five days they had been in the city before being discovered…in such a stupid way. It was all her fault and she kicked herself afterwards.

That first night when they had arrived they found a room over a pub, a place Gendry knew from his life in the city, a place he and his mother had lived in and she had worked in before she had died. The place where Robert Baratheon must have found her. It was his grandfather's place, Gendry said, but he was dead even before his mother. Both had died of the cough. That's all he knew to call it, the cough, and Arya knew what he meant, for she had known a serving woman who had died of the same thing in Winterfell. Who owned the pub now Gendry did not know but they had rooms to let, for one silver stag a night, said the pub owner, a fat man with a thick brown beard and curly hair going grey. He smelled like sour wine to Arya.

There was only one room free so all four of them had to cram in there. The room was small, had just the one bed, which Hot Pie and Gendry told the girls to take while they sleep on the floor using their cloaks for warmth and backpacks for pillows. The bed was lumpy and smelled and Arya had trouble sleeping. She lay awake in the dark, thinking how her life had led to this point, all the troubles that came to her and mistakes she had made herself. Once more she was without her two favorite things, Needle and Nymeria, both left behind in Duskendale. She tried again to connect to Nymeria, as she had tried on the ship coming here, but again had no luck. Finally, exhaustion took over and she fell asleep.

After a breakfast of greasy sausages of some unknown meat and stale bread and watered down ale, Arya knew there must be a better place to stay in the city. She told the others she wanted to move.

"I have gold. We need a better place, with two rooms at least, and two beds," she whispered and they all agreed.

"I know a place," Hot Pie said after a moment. "The Traveler's Inn…if its still here."

If it's still here…words they did not have to ask on what he meant. Much had changed since they had last been here more than a year ago. Much had been burned and destroyed in the battles. The whole of Flea Bottom was almost gone, the pub Gendry's grandfather had once owned on the very edge of the area the fires had burned out. The rubble had been cleared away and now in the place of Flea Bottom was a wide street, half covered in cobblestones. They heard Stannis had planned to make it a boulevard with trees and walking paths, but the work had stopped after the Tyrells had taken over the city.

The Traveler's Inn was still there, close to the Mud Gate it was, a three story building, favored by merchants and other seafarers for over a hundred years. A gold dragon got them a set of room's on the third floor for a week, with two separate bedrooms and a small kitchen between that had a small hearth and a wash basin and small table. They would have to share a privy closet out in the hallway with other tenants, and there was also a small room with a common bathtub as well. A silver star would get them enough hot water for the tub, and a copper for a bar of soap and another copper for wood for the hearth. They could take meals in the common room or buy food for themselves in the city. The innkeeper had looked at them oddly, four very young people dressed in plain garb, and he clearly thought they did not have the money he demanded for the rooms. But when he saw their gold his look changed.

The first night was very awkward. Hot Pie and Shelia went off to their room and before long Gendry and Arya could hear them making love, the bed and Shelia both making noise.

"Gods," Arya said as she lay on their bed, still dressed. "Can't they be more quiet?"

"I…yes, they should be," Gendry said as he stood by the door, his hand on the latch. "I should say something."

"No…let them be," she told him. "It's been months since they've been alone…come here."

He came to the bed, and sat on its side, not making a move to lie with her. "Gendry…just hold me…please."

"Aye," he said and he lay down and she nestled in his strong arms and then he pulled the blanket up around them and they lay there like that all night, still with their clothing on. She wanted to get undressed but let it be…for now.

In the morning Gendry and Hot Pie went out to buy food with some silver she gave them. Then she had a talk with Sheila as they sat at the small table in the small kitchen getting warm from the hearth's fire.

"Look," she began. "Last night…see, the two of you, I know it's been a while, but…it was a bit loud."

"Oh…oh…did you hear us?" Shelia asked, very embarrassed.

"Yes."

"Oh, dear. I'm sorry," she stammered. "We'll stop."

"No! You just…try to be more quiet."

She smiled. "If we can."

Arya laughed and so did Shelia. "We didn't hear you," Sheila said.

"Because we did nothing…ever," Arya replied in frustration.

"Why not?"

"I haven't…I mean, I'm not woman."

"Oh… and he won't…oh, I understand."

"Yeah." They were silent for moment and it felt awkward so Arya just had to ask. "What's it like?"

"What's…? Oh! Well…it can be wonderful…with the right person." Then Shelia's face turned somber. "My lady…"

"Don't call me that."

"Sorry…Arya…what are we going to do?"

"I don't understand."

"What are we doing here, in the city? We can't just sit here forever."

"No, we can't," Arya replied. "But for now it's the best thing to do. We got money and a room so it's not so bad. I once lived on the street for a week when the Lannisters were after me. I guess we will just wait and see what happens."

"What's going to happen?"

"Someone will win…and then we'll have peace."

"But the Others are out there."

"Yes…but Aegon has a dragon and Daenerys Targaryen is in the west and she has three dragons. I bet the Others can't stand up to a dragon's fire. They will melt and the wights will burn."

"Then what will happen?"

"Then we'll have another war," Arya said with a sigh. "Between the people, between Aegon and Stannis."

"What of Daenerys?"

"She'll be there somehow…bloody hell. It'll be a mess." Her father and brother and the rest would be in the middle of all that too, on the side without dragons.

The door opened and Hot Pie came in, all flustered, in his hands two full sacks which he promptly dropped on the floor. "Arya! Sheila!"

"What is it?" Shelia asked they came to his side.

"Gendry…they took him!"

"Who did?" Arya asked, her heart in her throat.

"The soldiers, for the gates they said. Led by this woman."

"What woman?" Sheila asked next.

"I don't know…she was eyeing us as we were buying potatoes in the market. She kept looking at Gendry. Then she asked him to come with her…to an inn, to get a drink. But he refused, said he was married. Then she asked him what he did and he said he was just a laborer. She said he should be carrying a spear and took him for her gate. She's some kind of commander. She had five men with her so he couldn't run away."

"Which gate?" Arya demanded.

"I don't know!"

It took her half the day to find Gendry. She wanted to run off right away but Sheila told her to calm down and eat something first. Hot Pie's sacks were full of bread and vegetables and some apples and even some cheese. It had all cost nearly thirty silvers, the prices being so high everywhere because of the siege. The baker said that the flour was rationed and soon non-citizens and those without a proper job in the city would get no bread at all no matter how much money they had.

"Maybe it's good he's in the army now," Hot Pie said and Arya punched him hard in the arm.

Gate to gate they went, her and Hot Pie, and they finally found him at the Gate of the Gods. There was no mistaking Gendry up on the walls as he was taller than every other man. He had on chain mail and wore a surcoat with the three headed Targaryen sigil on it. They shouted to him but he did not hear them over the noise of some men repairing the walls nearby. An old sergeant stopped her when she tried to get in the door by the gatehouse.

"Whoa, little one, this is no place for you," he said.

"I need to speak to my hu…brother. The tall one called Gerold." The names they had decided on the first night here, though Hot Pie kept forgetting his, which was stupid cause he decided to call himself Harry, which was almost like Hot Pie, and even closer to Arry, the name Arya once went by when she first met Hot Pie and Gendry.

"Gerold is it…or Gendry?" the sergeant asked.

She was taken aback. "I…how do you know that?"

"I used to work in the Street of Steel nearby Master Mott's shop. I know your brother well…but he is not your brother, is he?"

"No," she admitted. "Do you know who I am?"

"Aye. Not to worry, I won't say a word. I will fetch him. Wait here."

She was mad at Gendry when she saw him and he was sheepishly embarrassed by his stupidity. "Sorry," he said about ten times before she shushed him.

"Can't you leave here?" she asked.

"No…have to defend the gate. They hang deserters."

"Who was the woman?" Arya asked next.

"From Dorne," he told her. "Someone said she's called Lady Nym, the daughter of a prince."

"She's no lady if she asked you to her bed."

He flushed. "She didn't. It was just a drink she wanted."

"I bet. Hot Pie said she was eyeing you up and down."

Now he turned even redder. "Aye, she did, but I told her I was married."

"Good…just remember that."

"Arya…I'm not going to do anything with her."

She sighed. "No…just…you're a man and…"

"Arya…I love you!"

Now she felt embarrassed for being stupid. "Sorry. Just…take care of yourself. If the Others attack, don't try to be brave."

"I won't." But she knew he would, and that was one of the reasons why she loved him.

She came to see him the next few days without any trouble. There was an attack one night but it was at the Lion Gate. The next morning she and Hot Pie went to see him again.

And that's when the real trouble began.

She was there, the one called Lady Nym, and when the sergeant let Gendry down to see her, Lady Nym followed him. By now Gendry had a short sword and a big hammer he had found, both at his belt to go with the spear he had been given the first day.

"Who is this?" Lady Nym asked as they talked in the street by the gate.

Arya turned at the sound of her voice. "I'm his wife."

Lady Nym laughed. "You are but a child." She was beautiful with raven black hair in along braid down her back, deep, wide, brown eyes, and lustrous lips. Her beauty only made Arya angrier.

"And you're a witch who tries to steal other women's men!" she shouted back. The Dornish woman's face grew dark and she pulled out two daggers.

"I have killed men and women both for less of an insult," she said, flipping the daggers around in her hands, showing her skill with manipulating them, as if that would frighten Arya. It did not.

Arya grabbed Gendry's sword off his belt and turned to face the woman. "I've killed as well," Arya snarled back. "One more won't bother me at all."

A crowd began to gather and it all would have ended in bloodshed had not Prince Oberyn showed up and stopped it…and soon they were hostages. Lady's Nym's parting words about Arya not being a woman who had never even made love to her husband stung Arya to the quick, but then things happened so fast she soon let go of her anger.

A king they met, people of great importance as well, and then a dragon they saw…and Arya's world turned upside down.

Across the stone floor of the great Dragonpit was the beast called Elianta. The last time Arya had seen her she was still turning from stone to flesh. But the eyes Arya remembered, the big glowing yellow eyes, almost like gold. And the teeth as well, those huge fangs that had grasped the red woman and flung her up and into the gaping maw of a mouth. Now as they crossed the floor Aegon went on about how he tried to fly her but had no success. Then Arya's eyes and the dragon's eyes locked and Arya was suddenly looking out though those massive eyes.

She could see it all, Aegon and Gendry and her, with the knight called Ser Rolly and other men behind them, and there was Prince Oberyn arriving with more men, worry on his face. And in the dragon's mind she felt a powerful force, something so strong and unyielding, unlike anything she had ever experienced with Nymeria or the cat named Bubbles on Dragonstone.

Then she heard the voice. "Who are you?"

"Arya," her mind said back before she could stop herself.

"Arya…what are you doing to me?"

"I don't know."

"Stop!"

"I can't help it!"

Then there was a silence and then the voice spoke again. "What am I?"

"A dragon…don't you know?"

"A dragon? Yes! A dragon! How wonderful! Who are they? Those by your side."

"King Aegon. You belong to him."

"I belong to no one!"

"Oh…sorry."

"Who is the other? I think I should know him."

"No, you don't!"

"Yes…his blood is my blood, is it not? I must know him."

"NO! LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

"I feel…what do I feel? I feel as you feel for him…is it…love?"

"Yes," she said in a meek voice. "Please don't hurt him."

"I would never hurt my own blood, Arya. Tell me his name."

"Why?"

"TELL ME!"

And the dragon's head began to move towards Gendry and she fought with it, to keep it from attacking him. But then she knew it would not attack him, knew it would not harm him…knew it loved him…for he was part of her…yet not all. Something was inside the dragon, fighting to understand, to get out, and Arya felt this powerful force ripping her mind apart. Suddenly she could stand it no more and broke the contact and collapsed.

Then Elianta tried to kill her. Flames shot towards her, and she turned out of their path just in time. She was shaking, scared, and she wanted nothing more to do with the dragon. As she and Gendry were escorted back to their rooms she thought the guards would talk about what had just happened in the Dragonpit but instead they only talked about an event that happened at the Sept of Baelor.

"Six people dead," one guard told another.

"Who did it?" his companion asked.

"Don't know. But I heard it was just one man."

"It was!" said another guard. "I heard one of the Dornishmen with the prince say it was a Faceless Man."

"Here? In King's Landing?"

"Yes. And the six ones who died were Faceless Men, too!"

This news Arya and Gendry talked on when they were finally escorted to the rooms selected for them. There were two rooms, with a large bed and a divan, a table and chairs, and a privy closet, with even a bronze bathtub and a large hearth. Wine and ale, with fruit, bread, and cheese were already on the table. They sat and ate with gusto as they talk on all what happened at the sept.

"It must be Jaqen," Arya said as she chewed on some hard cheese and soft bread.

"Why would they want to kill one of their own people?"

"He told me he had been doing jobs without orders from Braavos."

"What do you mean?"

"He's killed people without orders. Like Melisandre. I think the Lannisters paid him to do that."

"Can't he take on contracts without telling anyone back in Braavos?"

Arya screwed up her face. "Hmmm…I don't know. But that's not why they were really mad. He…he…nevermind."

"What?"

"I can't tell you…it's his secret."

"Okay."

She looked at Gendry oddly. "You don't want to know?"

"I do, but if it's his secret then don't tell me. The less I know the better. In case someone makes me drink some funny tea again."

"She's dead. That won't happen again…I think," Arya told him. They had both had that experience on Dragonstone, questioned at length by the Queen and the red woman. And both had spilled all they knew, except Arya hadn't told them everything, had fought it somehow, had managed to make her mind flee to the cat Bubbles.

After they ate they were tired. But again there was just one bed. "Take it," he told her, going to the divan.

"No…come on, we've slept together before."

But this time he shook his head. "Arya…I…sorry…when we are together I can't really sleep."

"Why not?"

He turned a bit red. "Please don't make me explain it."

She understood…or at least she thought she did, because she found it hard to sleep in his arms as well. "Okay. Then let me sleep on the divan. You're too big for it."

He argued and she argued back and finally she relented. He lay down on the divan and it was too short for him, as she knew it would be, his feet sticking out over the end. She wanted to protest some more but was too tired. She took a pillow and a blanket from the bed and gave them to him, kissed him good night and went to the bed. She blew out the candles beside the bed, undressed to her small clothes and climbed into the bed under the only remaining blanket. Only when she was almost asleep did she realize she had forgotten to tell him what had happened with the dragon, talking in her mind.

She awoke before him, at dawn and let him sleep as she dressed and went out on the balcony. It was a grey day, cold and cloudy, and almost as dark as night. As she stood there the dragon began to talk to her again and then went silent.

"Who are you talking to?" Gendry asked after she had said 'hello' aloud and she was surprised by him coming out on the balcony.

"Gods, Gendry. I…no one."

He leaned on the balcony railing and was silent for a moment. "Arya…what happened with the dragon yesterday?"

"I entered its mind."

"I know. But why did it want to kill you?"

"It was mad, I told you."

"Nymeria never wanted to kill you."

"That's different," she answered. "Nymeria I raised from a pup. She loves me."

"And Elianta loves me, you said."

"Not like I love you." She touched the back of his neck and rubbed her hand in his hair. He shook her off and turned and went back into the rooms.

She felt a pain of rejection and followed him, her eyes looking at him with hurt in them she knew. He saw the look and felt ashamed.

"I'm sorry." He came to her and held her tight and kissed the top of her head and she felt better.

"What are we going to do?" she asked as she nestled in his strong arms.

"I don't know. Everywhere we go people what to hurt us. Stannis' wife wants us dead. Oberyn Martell wants you as a hostage. King Aegon…him I don't understand."

"I think he wants to be our friend."

"Maybe."

"Maybe we can use that…to get some freedoms...and maybe escape."

He held her by the shoulders and looked down at her. "We can't run Arya, not this time. There's no where to go."

He was right and she knew it. No ships were leaving the city and the Others were out there. In here was the safest place…safer in the Red Keep than the Traveler's Inn. "What about Hot Pie and Sheila?"

"Hot Pie saw us being taken so he knows where we are," Gendry replied. "He should know better than to try and find us."

"Maybe. At least they have a place to stay and that money I left."

There was a knock on their door. Gendry answered it and it was some serving women, sent by the King. They had hot water for the tub, fresh towels and soap, and breakfast, of fried bacon, bread, butter, jam, apples, and a jug of ale. With them was a fussy man who had two young girls with him who had armfuls of clothing. The man said in a high pitched voice that the King insisted they be clad in new clothing. Arya wanted to protest but Gendry seemed glad, for he had been wearing the same clothing since being thrown in the dungeon on Dragonstone. When they had escaped Duskendale he had come straight from that dungeon and so had nothing to change into.

Soon Arya was in the bathtub behind a dressing screen while Gendry was being sized for clothing, and soon he was getting clean while she was fitted for clothing. His beard had grown during his time in the dungeons and she wanted him to shave it off but he liked it and so she relented.

The clothing was nice and warm and well fitted by the time the fussy man and his girls were done. Breeches and woolen shirts and sweaters and a new jacket for him, while it was dresses and wool stockings for her, and new boots and cloaks and gloves for both. For once she did not protest having to wear a dress, as her own clothing was filthy and had to be taken away to get cleaned.

The reason for all this became apparent at midday when the King invited them to dine with him. They were escorted by guards to another tower of the Red Keep, and here in a large room they found the King with Prince Oberyn and Lord Connington.

"Welcome," Aegon said. "Please sit."

They did, sitting across from each other at the end of the table, with Oberyn by Arya and Connington by Gendry and Aegon at the head of the table. Soup was brought by servants, fish soup, with potatoes and carrots and it was very good. On the table already was bread and cheese and a salad in a big bowl and some slabs of what looked like dried beef.

"Thank you," Arya said to the servant, a girl maybe as old as Sansa, who looked at her with surprise, as if no one had ever thanked her before.

"I trust your quarters are good," Aegon said after the servants left.

"They are," Arya said. "As are the clothes. Thank you, Your Grace."

"How was the food in Duskendale?" Oberyn asked.

"Don't know, my lord," said Gendry as he spooned up his soup. "All I got was bread and weak ale and a bit of soup sometimes."

"He was in the dungeon almost the whole time," Arya explained. "So was I for a while."

"But the town is well supplied?" Connington asked.

"Yes," Arya said, and then her eyes narrowed, as she suddenly realized what they were doing. "Look, I'm not going to tell you anything about my father or the rest or how many men they have and all that, so just forget it." She was about to stand to leave but then the dragon's voice in her head spoke. "Stay." She did not know why but she listened and stayed.

"Not to worry," Aegon told her. "Yet I do wonder why your father stays by Stannis' side. Stannis wanted to kill your husband, did he not?"

"We already told you it was his wife," Arya replied. "Stannis set Gendry free."

"He just opened the cage?" Oberyn asked. "Seems like his wife would be mad about that."

"No, wasn't him," Gendry answered and then he caught the look Arya was giving him. "It was…Ser Davos."

"Ser Davos opened your cage?" Connington said in surprise. "But on Stannis' orders?"

"He didn't say so," Arya told him. "But we believe it was like that. He certainly took us on his ship. Look we told you all this yesterday. Stannis let us go so he wouldn't have to kill Gendry so the army would stay together."

"Yes, you told us," Oberyn replied. "But we were wondering if someone else came with you."

"No one," Arya said right away.

"I seem to recall more than you two coming through the Mud Gate that night," Oberyn said.

"Just some people," Gendry said. "Don't know who they were."

"And what of the fat boy who called himself Hot Pie?" Oberyn wondered.

"My friend when I lived here before," Gendry answered. He had now stopped eating, and looked worried. Arya tried to kick him under the table but her leg was too short to reach his shin.

"They know," said the voice in her head again.

"About what?" she asked in her mind.

"About your friend…the killer."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know what you know."

"That's impossible."

"Is it?"

"Arya?" Gendry said, staring at her. "The King asked you a question."

"Sorry, Your Grace. What was it?"

"I was wondering if you could explain about being a warg," Aegon said.

"It's unnatural," Connington said, looking at her as if she was something ugly under his shoe.

"Not in the North," Arya shot back. "Many people are wargs among the wildlings."

"Really?" Oberyn said. "Can they all enter a dragon's mind?"

"I...I wouldn't know, my lord. There aren't any dragons anymore. I mean, there haven't been, until now."

"It's not safe, Your Grace," Connington said, his eyes still on Arya. "If she can control Elianta…"

He was interrupted by Oberyn's laughter. "The dragon tried to kill her! She cannot control it."

"No, I can't," Arya agreed. And then she asked the voice in her head. "Can I?"

"We'll see," came the reply. "All you have to do is get on my back."

"Fat chance. You'll try to kill me again."

"I won't try to kill you again."

"Yeah, right."

"No, truly…I like talking to you."

"As if I'd trust you. I won't give you the chance to kill me. If I control you it will be as a warg, not a rider."

She waited for the dragon to answer her but it didn't and she found the silence disturbing. But then when she came back to the real world Ser Rolly Duckfield was in the room and was speaking to the King.

"…thought he was dead but not yet," Ser Rolly was saying.

"I must go see him," Aegon said. He stood and looked at them, his face filled with concern. "Forgive me. One of my commanders is ill. Please continue the meal. I insist."

"I will come as well," Connington said. "Prince Oberyn?"

"It would be rude to leave our guests alone."

They all stood as the King and Connington left with Ser Rolly.

"Who's sick?" Arya asked when they were gone.

"Homeless Harry Strickland," Oberyn told them, and it seemed like he cared not. "Commander of the Golden Company…a fat headed pig if there ever was one."

"I thought they were your allies," Arya said as she ate some more soup.

"Yes, of a sort," Oberyn replied, his tone infected with scorn. "Allies…who will not fight without getting paid first. Sellswords do not make good allies. I hear from Pycelle that Stannis refused to hire sellswords. Maybe he is not so stupid. The Golden Company will sit on their asses getting drunk and whoring and eating through our stores while the rest of us die."

"Kick them out into the snow," Arya suggested.

"Were it so easy, little one," Oberyn replied. "So…tell me about the Faceless Man who came with you?"

The turn in the conversation was so abrupt and unexpected Gendry almost choked on a piece of fish and Arya clattered her spoon off the side of her bowl.

Oberyn laughed as Gendry coughed. "You two are not made for intrigue. So, tell me."

"There's nothing to tell," Arya said as she poured some ale from a jug for Gendry and gave him the cup, coming to his side to make sure he was fine. He swallowed the ale and seemed better. "Nothing to tell," he aped her as Arya sat by his side in Connington's empty chair.

"You two are terrible liars," Oberyn replied, with a slight smile. "I have heard all the stories, about an assassin at Casterly Rock, who Tyrion Lannister said was paid by Stannis. Yet, there is another rumor, that Tyrion and Cersei insulted the Iron Bank, and the banker was this assassin. And still more, not rumors this time, about how the Tyrell children escaped from this city, from the very tower you are in now. Many guards died with their throats cut but no one heard a thing. I lived in Essos for five years. I know how the Faceless Men work. And this sounds like a Faceless Man's work…perhaps the same one who is now in this city, a man whose own people want him dead. Six of them he killed in mere moments. He must be some man to have done that."

"He…no, we don't know him…anyone," Arya said, almost slipping up.

Oberyn stood. "If you meet this person you don't know tell him I will find him and kill him some day."

Arya couldn't help herself and the words were out of her mouth before she could stop herself. "He'll kill you first!"

Now Oberyn did laugh and Arya cursed her stupidity. Oberyn started to leave the room. "Wait!"

He stopped. "Yes?"

"He's not here to kill the King, if that's what you think," Arya quickly said. "He helped Gendry escape from that cell so had to leave with us. He's my friend."

"Why are you friends with a Faceless Man?" Oberyn asked, seemingly intrigued by all this.

"She saved his life," Gendry said.

"You saved a Faceless Man's life?" Oberyn replied, surprise on his face. "Tell me more."

"Why should we?" Arya asked, giving Gendry a look that said 'shut up'. "You said you wanted to kill him. He's not here for the King…he just wants to be left alone."

"That I cannot do. A Faceless Man in our midst is dangerous…especially one who helped Stannis Baratheon avoid some unfortunate circumstances. Faceless Men do not do that because they are friends with girls and their husbands. Even if you saved his life. They do it for money."

"This one does not always," Arya retorted. "He hates the red priests and their god. Stannis' wife worships the Lord of Light. This man had a sister, and the red woman's people killed her and made him a slave so he hates all who pray to the Lord of Light. That's why he helped us."

"This goes against all I know of Faceless Men," Oberyn told them, frowning slightly. "They put aside their past when they become assassins. They live only for their order. They kill only when hired to do so. Faceless Men do not do things for revenge."

"This one does," Arya told him. "Stannis' wife wanted Gendry dead. This man helped us escape only for the reasons I told you."

"So he told you, you mean."

"I believe him."

"Maybe…or maybe Stannis and Ser Davos hired him for the job, to help them avoid complications with your father and the rest. And maybe this man is still working for them here in the capital. Where is he now, this Faceless Man who is your friend?"

"I don't know. You won't find him. He can look like anyone."

"I know. Tell him I wish to speak to him."

"I don't know where he is."

Oberyn smiled. "Soon he will visit you perhaps. When he does, tell him I want to talk to him."

"So you can kill him? You'll die first!"

"Yes, I am sure he can kill me if he wishes. He killed six of his own people, not an easy thing to do. I always take the measure of a man before I fight him and this man I know would always win. And I wouldn't even see him."

"Then why do you want to talk to him?" she asked.

"So I can hire him," Oberyn said.

That was unexpected. "Why?"

"Why is my business. Do what I ask."

"Why should we?" Gendry asked.

"Because there are worse places to sleep in the Red Keep than your comfortable rooms," Oberyn said and then he turned and left them.

"Bloody hell," Gendry swore when Oberyn was gone. "Think he'll put us in the dungeons?"

"No…Aegon won't let him I bet," she replied, but she was not entirely confident of her assertion. "This is getting out of hand."

Gendry picked up his ale cup and looked at it strangely. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Wondering if they put something in our ale to make us talk."

"No…that's just stupid us, running off at the mouth again."

"We didn't tell him that much."

"Too much," she answered. Stupid, so stupid, everything they had done since they had come here. And now Jaqen was being hunted by his people and wanted by Oberyn Martell. "But why would he want to hire him?"

"To kill someone…why else?" Gendry said.

"Why else indeed," said the voice in her head. "But who does he want dead? His enemies, of course. Tyrion Lannister, maybe? Your father, perhaps?"

"Shut up," Arya said, irritated. Only when Gendry gaped at her in surprise did she realized she had said it aloud by mistake.

"What did I say?" Gendry asked, looking hurt.

"No…sorry…not you…I…gods…I have to tell you something." And so she did, about the voice in her head, about a dragon talking to her. To his credit he did not say she was crazy, for he knew what she was, a warg, and knew he she had been in Elianta's mind already.

"You can't tell anyone else," Gendry said, his voice barely a whisper, his eyes darting to the guard just outside the open door of the room. "They'll think you're mad."

"I know. Just…let's not talk about it. That way we can never slip up. Okay?'

He agreed and then they finished eating, not knowing when they would eat such good fare again. But they did not go to the dungeons, and Jaqen did not seek her out and Oberyn spoke no more of it. Through various servants who brought them meals and from their guards, who let things slip, they did learn of things happening in the Red Keep.

The main news was that the man named Harry Strickland had almost died, but didn't, and the men of the Golden Company said he was poisoned, but Grand Maester Pycelle it was his heart that was weak. Still, the Golden Company was angry and refused to fight without a new contract and new coin in their pockets.

Of the Others there were forays, probing the different gates, in large numbers but not enough to overwhelm. To Arya's mind it was like Winterfell again, looking for a weak point, or making the defenders so nervous they spread their men out everywhere and so were strong nowhere.

The night after their talk with Oberyn, Arya went out on the balcony while Gendry was sitting at a desk trying to practice his reading again with a book on the history of King's Landing. It was a book made for children, easy to read, and it was a book Arya had read once, given to her by Maester Luwin. Aegon had sent a pile of books for them and by chance this one was there. It was not the exactly the same, a copy, but the pictures looked the same, and so were the stories. The only part she really liked was the story of the Dance of the Dragons and about how the dragons used to fight each other. That would be a sight to see. Gendry didn't want to read but they had time and he had to improve someday.

Out in the cold air on the balcony she walked and she stretched her mind out again to find Nymeria but again she failed and only found the dragon.

"She is far away," Elianta said. "Where?"

"Nymeria is in Duskendale."

"You miss her."

"Yes."

"And your family?"

"Of course."

"Who is Jaqen H'ghar?"

That surprised her. "How…he's my friend."

"An assassin." The voice was cold and Arya sensed anger behind it.

"Don't worry. Even he couldn't kill you."

"Yes, he could. He... "

But no more words came. Arya waited and there was only silence and the voice came no more that night.

The next few days went on like this, with meals taken in their room, or with Aegon occasionally, and he sometimes came to see them, to ask more about being a warg, and the battles they had at the Wall and at Winterfell…and about Jon. Much he wanted to know about Jon, and they told him about Lightbringer and how they had found it, and what Jon could do with the sword as they had heard from the family he had met going north.

One day a messenger came to their room and said Aegon wished to see them. They thought it was for a meal but the messenger took them to the armory on a lower level of the Red Keep. He was standing there looking at a display on a wall, with Ser Rolly and Ser Balon Swann, his two Kingsguard men, standing nearby as always. On the wall there was a huge spear, a massive war hammer, a shield with the Baratheon stag on it, and a great war helm with a stag's antlers.

"I thought you might want to see these," Aegon said, his voice somber. "They belonged to Robert Baratheon."

Arya stared at the instruments of death, instruments that had been used to kill Aegon's father Rhaegar Targaryen, used by Gendry's father at the Trident. The helmet had one antler bent, and the shield had several dents in it, and the hammer had long grooves and notches in places. The hammer had two different battle functions, with one side the flat head and the other side a large spike.

"That was the spear he carried when the boar killed him," Aegon told them. "And that is the hammer he used to kill my father."

"I'm sorry," Gendry said, though he didn't need to be, for he had not killed Rhaegar and he never knew about Robert being his father until after he was dead.

Aegon shrugged. "It was war, a war for the love of a woman."

"Lyanna," Arya barely whispered.

"I have heard people say that my father kidnapped and raped her," Aegon said. "But this wasn't true, was it?"

"It wasn't," Arya told him. "I know that now. My father told us the whole story. They were in love."

"Yes…he loved her but not my mother." Aegon sighed after he said this. "My father did many wrong things, but he was not a kidnapper and rapist. Arya, I will have your father proclaim this to the realm someday, to wash the taint from my father's name."

"I am sure he will do it…if you pardon him."

"I will," Aegon replied. "I need him. I need all the lords, to rule this fractious kingdom of seven."

They were silent for a moment and then Aegon looked at Gendry. "Your father is near here."

"Sorry, Your Grace?" Gendry asked in confusion

"His tomb…it is nearby."

He led them from the armory and up a flight of stairs and soon into a small courtyard where there was snow on the ground and a few trees, bare of leaves now. In the center was a large stone sarcophagus with the Baratheon stag carved into its lid. At the head of coffin on the lid was carved some lettering. 'Robert of the House Baratheon, the First of his Name' it read.

Gendry walked up to it and laid a hand on the lid. "I never knew he was my father."

No one said a word for a long while and Arya finally went up to him and put her small arm through his large one and lay her head on his arm and stood with him as tears coursed down his cheeks.

Later they went back to their rooms with Aegon and had a lunch served there. "I wish Elianta would fly. Then maybe I could go north to help Jon Snow," Aegon said after they had eaten. Arya, Gendry, and Aegon stood in the cold on a balcony looking out over the city to the Dragonpit as they talked. "The books I read only tell on how the dragonriders sat on the dragon and how they sometimes used magic horns or used whips and commands in High Valyarian to command the dragons," Aegon told them. "I have done this…and still she resists."

"Tell him to unchain me," said the voice of Elianta suddenly. "Tell him to release me from the Dragonpit. Then I will fly."

Arya wanted to say nothing but then she spoke and the words came out before she could stop herself. "Why don't you unchain her…move her outside the pit onto the platform. Then try again."

"I have suggested this," Aegon told them. "But my advisors are worried she will run free and attack the city or simply fly away."

"He is the King, he can do as he wishes."

"You're the King…aren't you?"

"I am."

"You need Elianta to defeat the demons."

"Yes…I will think on this."

Ser Rolly stepped out on the balcony. "Your Grace. You have things to do."

"What? Oh, yes. I must go. I need to inspect the walls. Goodbye for now."

He had not been gone long when suddenly there seemed to be a great commotion in the city. Noise came from everywhere, especially from the walls. Cheering it sounded like.

"It must be for Aegon," Gendry said.

"No…something else." They ran onto the balcony again and looked out and then… there…a speck, coming closer, getting bigger…a dragon! Flying!

"Is it Aegon?" Gendry asked in awe.

And then the dragon flew right by their tower and around it and on its back they saw a woman, dressed in blue, and she had complete control of the black dragon whose back she rode on.

"It's her!" Arya yelled. "Daenerys Targaryen!"

"At last."

Arya barely heard the comment in her head as she ran to get dressed in her boots and cloak and gloves. As they went out the door the guard asked where they were going.

"Wherever the dragon lands," Arya told him.

"Wait! You can't just wander anywhere!"

"Watch me," Arya said as she brushed past him, Gendry on her heels. "Come if you wish but nothing will stop me from seeing the dragon and the queen on its back."

"What dragon? What queen?" the befuddled guard asked. He had been in the hallway and saw and heard nothing she guessed.

"Daenerys Targaryen has come home," Arya told him and on they went.

She was beautiful was all Arya could think when she first laid eyes on Daenerys Targaryen. Her hair was shorter than she thought it would be, but she had wondrous eyes, like Aegon's, and a nice smile. She kept staring at Gendry, and Arya knew why, but still she felt jealous, and wished later she hadn't gotten so angry.

Daenerys was busy, meeting the King and the rest, and had little time to talk to them and so she left. The dragon was there, the one called Drogon, Arya learned, and she and Gendry watched him from afar, but closer than anyone else dared. The dragon was smaller than Elianta but still big enough to kill them easily. He had some kind of harness of ropes around his neck for Daenerys to use when riding. They could feel his heat even from many feet away, and Arya got nervous, remembering the last time she was this close to a dragon.

"Don't get into his head," Gendry told her in a bare whisper.

"I won't, I promise. Once was enough." She didn't want two dragons in her head talking. She and Gendry had talked on why Elianta talked to her but Nymeria never did and the only conclusion they came up with was that somehow dragons were special in more ways than one.

They stayed but a short while and then the guard escorted them back to their rooms. It was near nighttime and food had been brought for them. The fare was simple, dried beef, boiled potatoes, fried onions, and ale, but filling and delicious and Arya was glad they had food, for she remembered Oberyn saying that day he met them that the city was being put on reduced rations. After they ate the sun went down on another gloomy day and all across the city lamps and fires were lit for the coming night. Gendry went back to his attempts to learn to read and Arya helped him for a while and then she got bored as he was doing fine without her.

Out on the balcony she went again, needing air, even if was freezing, to overcome her feelings of being trapped. She could wander the keep but there was nothing much to do. She found herself reaching out to Elianta and soon made the connection.

"How are you?" she asked.

"Happy."

"Why?"

"Aegon was here today. He and some others. They argued on releasing me from my chains. Aegon insisted. Soon I will fly."

"When?"

"I don't know. But it will be good to be free again."

"Don't leave the city…we need you."

"Why?"

"To kill the Others."

"Yes…the demons. Yet I hear there is another dragon now."

"There is…he is called Drogon."

"He? A male dragon?"

"I…I don't know. Are you female?"

"Of course."

"The books say there is no way to tell. How do you know?"

"I don't know. I just feel like I am female. Since the new dragon arrived I have been feeling…desire."

Arya gulped. "Desire."

"Yes, Arya…don't you feel desire?"

"Yes," she admitted.

"For Gendry."

She felt herself get flush. "Yes."

"Why don't you act on those desires? He is your husband after all."

"I can't…I'm not a woman."

"Yes, you are a woman."

"He won't touch me."

"Then touch him. Now."

Arya did not know why but she felt herself moving back inside…moving toward Gendry where he sat on the divan, reading the book by candlelight. He was her husband…he was her man…she felt the need…something inside her was boiling up, and her body began to feel hot.

She sat beside him. He didn't even looked up. Then he frowned and pointed at the page in the book with his finger. "Arya…what's this word?"

"I don't know," she said but somehow felt it wasn't her voice.

He looked at her in puzzlement. "What's wrong with your voice?"

"I…Gendry…" and then her hands were on his shoulders and she kicked the book away with her left knee and she straddled him and kissed him full on the lips.

"Arya!" he gasped as he broke the kiss. "Arya…stop!"

"No, no, don't stop, we must, we need to do this or we are not man and wife," she said as she continued to kiss him. "They can make me marry the Frey boy…we have to or we can never be together…please, Gendry…please!"

He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around him and he carried her to the bed. Finally, she would know what it was like to…but then his strong arms shoved her off him and onto the bed where she landed by herself. But she would not be rejected so easily, now that the dragon had been awoken inside her.

"What are you doing?" he asked in shock as she began to unbutton her dress.

"Talking my clothes off."

"Stop…please stop…it's not time."

She stopped. "You don't love me?"

"I do, you know that! I would die for you! But this is not yet the time. We agreed…"

Now she felt an anger raging inside her. "You are not a man!" she snarled and she got up and grabbed her cloak and gloves. "I need to take a walk. Don't follow me."

He was too stunned to speak and then she was out the door and half way down the hall before she realized what she had done. A guard was right beside her, she not even seeing him or hearing him until now. "Where are you going?" he demanded.

"I…I don't know." She looked back at her room door. What did I just do? she thought to herself.

"Go back to your room, my lady."

"No," said Elianta. "You need to do something first."

"What?" she asked in her head.

"Find Daenerys Targaryen."

"I…yes…she will understand. Maybe she is with her dragon."

She looked at the guard. "I want to see the dragon again."

The guard sighed. "Very well. Come."

As they started walking she looked at him. "Where is Daenerys Targaryen?"

"Near here. Why?"

"I just…ohhh!" And there the Dragon Queen was, walking around a corner, looking for a way out of her ancestors' home, for she was lost, wanting to find her way to her dragon. She lied when Daenerys asked where Gendry was, saying he was sleeping, for it would have been too hard to explain what happened, for Arya barely understood it herself.

"Go with her, Arya," said Elianta, in a commanding tone. "Find the dragon…show me where he is."

"Why?"

"I want to see him through your eyes."

Arya followed the Dragon Queen, but as they walked Arya began to feel a gnawing of something unsettling. Something was not right. How could Elianta see through her eyes? She was the warg, not the dragon. So she found herself searching and looking through Elianta's eyes…and there was only a brief glimpse, and she knew Elianta was fighting her intrusion. She saw Aegon and many guards in the Dragonpit, and Oberyn was there as well, and Aegon was moving past Elianta to…release her chains.

Arya shook away the brief image and she was standing by Daenerys and her dragon. Daenerys was mad because they were feeding her dragon too much and she would never be able to fly him in the morning. Arya was asking her about Gendry, that maybe Gendry could fly one of her dragons…and then Daenerys got sick, twice.

Arya moved her into the old barrack's kitchen where she had once eaten with her father's men, seemingly so long ago now. "Water, please," Daenerys said and Arya ran off and came back in a few moments with a cup of water from a water barrel she knew was by the hearth.

Daenerys drank the water and thanked Arya. "You must be getting sick," Arya said. "Maybe a fever."

"No, I don't feel hot. It's the sight and smell of Drogon eating that did it."

"That's funny. I guess you've seen that before."

"Yes…and worse. Men…on fire. It never bothered me."

Then Arya thought she knew why she was sick. "Maybe you're pregnant."

Daenerys just stared at her. "What?"

"My mother is pregnant and my brother's wife, too," Arya told her. "They are in White Harbor now. I bet they had their babies by now." She was sure they must have because Lord Umber had said their time was near when he left White Harbor and that was weeks ago. "Anyways, when we were at Winterfell before my father and brother Robb went to the Wall they both got pregnant and started getting sick…though that was mostly in the mornings."

"No…I can't be pregnant." Daenerys said with a shake of her head, her eyes wide.

Arya wondered why she would say that and then thought she knew. She had heard that Daenerys' husband, the leader of the Dothraki, had died. "Oh…no husband, yes?"

"Yes,…but I…yes, no husband."

Arya suddenly felt the same, as if she was all alone, with no man in her life. "Yeah…I kinda known about that, too."

"What do you mean? I thought you were married."

Married but never as man and wife, she thought. "Gendry and I, we…we never…I mean…"

"Oh…I see."

"I haven't flowered yet," she explained, unable to hide the sadness and frustration she felt. "Still a little girl to many people. We don't even share a bed. We love each other but he won't touch me until I flower…which I guess is proper, though sometimes…" Wait, she thought, didn't I just try to get him to take me to bed? Why did I do that? I love him, we have a promise…

Then bells began to ring and she knew what that meant. "An attack!" she said aloud.

And before she could speak again her mind was overwhelmed by the dragon…its power engulfing her, its eyes trying to see through hers, her mind invaded, and then she was falling and hitting the floor and she was speaking but it was not her voice…and then she knew who the dragon was. It was not Elianta who was speaking all this time. It was someone else.

It was Melisandre, the red woman...and she wanted to kill them all.

"Daenerys Targaryen," the voice said aloud through Arya's mouth. "I knew you would come someday. I saw it many times. You are the true enemy of my lord and my king. Now it is time for you to die! With fire!"

NOOO! Arya wanted to scream and then she saw through Elianta's eyes…saw her flying over the city, flying in a circle, gaining height, and down below on the roof of the Dragonpit where canvas and wood had covered the hole all was now in tatters, the canvas and wood on fire, burning and falling from the domed roof…and inside the Dragonpit other things were on fire…men…rolling on the floor and twisting in agony

Arya fought to control the dragon but her mind was too powerful with the red woman controlling her, for that was what was happening now. Somehow Melisandre had entered Elianta at the moment of death and was now in control.

Arya's eyes opened and Daenerys was bent over her. She had to tell her. "What? No, no….I can't control her…please…no!" Arya almost screamed. "You must leave…run, get on your dragon and go!"

"What is happening?"

"She wants to kill you! Kill all of them! Aegon, you, all of you!"

"WHO IS IT?!"

The name was on her lips and then it felt as if her mind was ripped in two and Arya felt no more.

Drifting she was, on a cloud of pain and memories, of her childhood in Winterfell, and all her family and the people of the castle were still there. Jon was ruffling her hair and calling her little sister, Mikken was making her a sword, Old Nan was telling a story, Harwin was teaching her how to ride, and Gage the cook was showing her how to roll the small fish in the flour to make them fry perfectly. Sansa…Sansa was teasing her, calling her names…Arya Horseface was the worst, and she cried, but only when alone. Her mother was telling her she could be pretty if she would just clean the mud off her face and out of her fingernails. Her father always said she was pretty. Robb as well, and he never chased her away when she asked him about swords and fighting and such. Theon was there, always with a smirk on his face, as if he had a secret…or maybe he was just hiding his fears. Bran was climbing the walls…but would not anymore. Rickon was always playing and running and laughing.

Then a day came when her father and brothers and Theon left and came back many days later with six direwolf puppies…and one was for her. She raised it and loved it and called it Nymeria…and for once she was happy.

Then it all fell to pieces. The King came, and her father was summoned, and so she went with him. For a time it was good…she even learned to use her sword…but then everything changed. People died, her father was arrested, and she…she killed a boy.

And then she met another boy…and fell in love.

She didn't mean for it to happen. He was handsome, to be sure, but he was a big idiot, following her around like he was a lost puppy. But slowly things changed. She liked being with him, and he never treated her like a high born. She was afraid when she knew he liked her in that special way, for he was almost a man and she still a girl. But he was kind and noble and her fears went away. She knew it could never be, knew he could never be hers and she his, for that was not how their world worked. Yet when Sansa and Jeyne came to the great castle and Jeyne had eyes for the boy, Arya felt an anger rise up in her and she wanted to punch Jeyne in the face hard enough to knock her teeth loose.

And so she knew she was in love.

Love for him and love for her family kept her going for the long dangerous times ahead…so much blood and death and many familiar faces were now gone.

But not his, he was still there…and she had…gods what had she just done to him. No…not her. The red woman did that, the red woman was inside her, made her lust for Gendry bust through in such an unseemly way, and now the power the red woman had was keeping Arya down, keeping her mind dark, and her mouth silent as she…I must fight…I must hold onto the things I love, I must…awake!

"NOOOOOO!" Arya screamed and she leaped up off the floor so fast and hard she almost knocked Daenerys over.

"Arya! Who is it? Who is doing this?"

"Melisandre!"

"Stannis' red priestess? But I heard she is dead."

"Dead, yes, but her spirit lives on in Elianta." And then she saw the fires outside the kitchen and men crying for help. "What has happened?"

"She's trying to kill Drogon! Kill me! You must help me!"

"I can't kill a dragon."

"How can that woman talk through you? What is her connection to you?"

"I'm a warg, I can enter animals' minds."

"Warg? I…no, there is no time. Do it, please…please save my child."

"Where are they?"

Outside Daenerys ran and she looked into the sky and then she screamed. "DROGON!"

Arya was by her side, standing amid dead and dying men, looking up, but there was no sign of the dragons.

"Where are they?" Daenerys asked, almost in tears.

"We must get higher…there, the Tower of the Hand!"

She ran to the other side of the courtyard and into a set of doors. She had lived here once, knew it well. The entrance foray was crowded with cowering servants and men at arms, terrified to go outside. They shoved their way through, Daenerys shouting at them to step aside, and the force of her personality and the look of wild anger on her face made them move aside quickly. They reached the central stairway and up they went. It was one of the tallest towers in the city and climbing the stairs soon had them gasping for breath. But on they pushed. "We must keep going," Daenerys said when the pain in Arya's legs was almost too much to bear.

Suddenly she got a flash of Elianta's mind and saw through her eyes. She was over water, and in the distance she could see the city.

"Elianta is over Blackwater Bay," she said.

"How do…where is Drogon?"

"I can't see him."

"Gods! Come on!"

On they went, struggling at the end, winded and legs on fire, but finally they made it to the upper floor. A frightened servant told them where the short stairway to the upper battlements was and they finally made it to the roof through a trapdoor.

Here were five men and a loaded heavy scorpion, a weapon that looked like a giant crossbow. But the men weren't manning it, they were looking out over the city, pointing and shouting.

"There goes the Street of Steel again!" one shouted and they rushed to their side and gasped at the sight.

Elianta was wrecking havoc on the city below, flames shooting out of her maw as she flew low over the Street of Steel. Already they could see fires in other places, building up, and shouts and screams filled the air. Arrows, and crossbow bolts, and scorpions were being fired up at Elianta but most bounced off her tough hide.

"We must stop her!" Daenerys shouted. "Get inside her head!"

Arya closed her eyes and reached out and made the connection. "What are you doing, Elianta?"

"I am not Elianta as you know too well."

"Melisandre."

"Yes…and now the city of my enemies must burn to pay for their sins and their crimes against the people of Westeros!"

"These are innocent people!"

"No one in this sewer is innocent…but I will stop if you tell me one thing."

"Anything!"

"Where is Jaqen H'ghar?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"He killed me. I know that wasn't Stannis on Dragonstone. It was the assassin. Now he must die in a blaze of fire!"

"Stop…I will find him!"

"Lies. He is in the city…so the city will burn and so will he."

Arya broke the contact. "She is mad, she wants to burn it all!"

But Dany wasn't looking at her, she was looking for her dragon, her eyes scanning the skies. "DROGON!" she yelled to the skies but there was no answer. Daenerys turned her angry eyes on the scorpion and the men standing there.

"What's wrong with you? Kill that dragon!" she screamed at them.

"It's too far away, my lady," a man with sergeant's markings answered her.

"I will bring her closer," Arya said and then she made the connection again. "Elianta… will you stop if I give you Daenerys?"

"YES!"

"She's on the Tower of the Hand's roof."

Arya now could see through Elianta' eyes as she turned towards the high tower. On she flew and Arya could feel her anger, the burning desire to kill her enemies. Arya was oblivious to the noise around her, keeping her mind in Elianta's…and then the heavy scorpion was fired…it was heading right for Elianta's chest and Arya used all her will power to make her stay on the flight path even as Melisandre and Elianta's dragon instincts fought to make her turn. At the last moment their combined power was too great for Arya and Elianta turned aside just in time to avoid the scorpion bolt hitting her chest. The dragon dipped below the level of the upper battlements and let fire loose from her mouth, engulfing the floors of the tower below them. Screams they heard from below as people died. The smoke was thick and full of the smell of charred flesh.

"For that I will make you cry," Melisandre told her. "I will take from you what you love most in the world!"

"NO…PLEASE STOP!" Arya shouted in her mind and she saw through Elianta's eyes the dragon turning and moving towards another tower, the one where Arya and Gendry had their rooms. "NO! DON'T KILL HIM!"

But it was too late, as the flames came out and bathed the tower's upper floors, including the one where she and Gendry had been staying. "GENDRY!" she screamed aloud.

Her heartbreak turned to rage and now she poured all her anger into Elianta's mind, directed at the ghost of the red woman. "I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THAT!" she yelled.

The red woman laughed. "You are a child! I am fire, pure fire now. I will kill my King's enemies, all his enemies. Your father included, all your family will die screaming in flames. Tree worshipers cannot have a place in our realm. The Seven cannot have a place. The Lord of Light will rule from the Wall to the Arbor!"

"The old gods will not stand for you, witch!" Arya told her in her mind. "I call on all their power to come to me now! Old gods, hear my prayer and give me the strength to cast down this witch before she destroys all I love!"

And she felt fear coming from Melisandre as Arya's mind surged with renewed power. She grasped Elianta's mind and now she had control, total control, control she had never felt before even when in Nymeria's mind. She could feel as if she was the dragon. She felt her wings beating, feel the fire building inside her... but the red woman was in there as well…and there was only one thing to be done.

"I am sorry, Elianta," she said and then she flew the dragon straight into the flaming tower, smashing her body hard into the walls, destroying brick in a wide swath, crumbling floors, breaking windows, and bringing great pain to the beast.

The smash and pain jolted Arya's mind out of the dragon's body, and the screech Elianta made shattered windows across the Red Keep. From her perch Arya could see the dragon's body tumbling, falling, smoking, hitting battlements down below, twisting and tumbling some more before landing in the streets just outside the Red Keep.

A great shout went up and down below people from all over began to converge on the dragon, brandishing weapons. But she was not dead yet. Fire burst forth and a dozen soldiers and citizens died in agony and the rest backed off.

Arya turned to find the Dragon Queen. "Daenerys… oh…wow."

Behind her Drogon had just came in for a landing, coming from the seaward side, looking uninjured from whatever happened between him and Elianta. "Get on with me," Daenerys said to her, excitement in her voice, but before Arya could react the soldiers behind the Dragon Queen had drawn swords and picked up spears.

"Kill the beast!" the sergeant shouted. But before they could tell the soldiers to stop and before the soldiers could even scratch the dragon he had turned and attacked them. With his long tail he knocked two of them off the battlements and their screams were hideous as they fell. A third soldier was eviscerated by the right wing claw, his guts spilling out on the stone roof as he died, while a fourth was near bitten in half. The sergeant had dropped his sword and cowered behind the scorpion. One puff of flame reached out for him but before it could reach him he had turned and jumped off the tower, not even screaming as he fell to his death below.

"Elianta isn't dead!" Arya said when the short battle was over.

"We must finish her. Get on!"

Daenerys climbed on the dragon's back and grasped the rope harness with one hand and held out the other hand to Arya. She did not even hesitate and was soon on the dragon's back. It was very warm, and the scales were rough on her bottom. Drogon seemed to buck for moment, as if he did not want two people on his back. Daenerys said something to him, in High Valyrian Arya knew, but not the words or their meaning. Whatever she said helped as the dragon seemed to calm down.

"HOLD ON!" Daenerys shouted and then as the dragon leaped over the battlements Arya Stark wrapped her arms around the Dragon Queen's waist and screamed as she became a dragonrider… well, passenger.

Down they went, Arya's cloak flapping behind her, the cold wind in their hair and faces, but Arya hadn't felt this warm in ages. She would have laughed with joy but she knew not if Gendry was dead or not and could only feel a deep hole in her heart, for her last words to him had been in anger and she feared she would never get a chance to tell him how sorry she was or how much she truly loved him.

Elianta was moving, slowly, and Arya could see in the glare of the fires she had a broken wing, the left one, and was dragging her right leg as well. But she still had flame and teeth and claws that could kill them.

"Burn her!" Arya shouted on the wind.

"I don't think dragons can burn!"

"Yes, they can! In the Dance of the Dragons they did!" Thank you for teaching me about dragons Maester Luwin, she thought.

Down Drogon went and when they were above Elianta, Daenerys gave the command "Dracarys!'", and a long gout of flame reached out from Drogon and engulfed the injured dragon. Her screams were hideous as she twisted and turned and her wings caught fire. She flapped her wings furiously and beat out the flames but Arya could see they had injured her as they flew higher. Then Elianta's head craned up and a gout of flame reached out for them and just missed Drogon's tail.

"Don't kill me, please," came the voice in her head. "I am Elianta. Melisandre is gone."

"Lies,"' Arya retorted. "Dragons can't talk…you were always Melisandre!"

For an answer came more flames, but this time they were not directed at Drogon, but at the city buildings nearby. "If I die, so does the city," Melisandre said. "The Mad King once wanted to burn it, Stannis told me. I will finish the job!"

"We must stop her!" Arya told Daenerys, leaning close to her ear so her words would not be lost on the wind.

Drogon turned to fly lower but then from the buildings nearby them came flights of arrows, and bolts, and spears. "Kill the dragons!" came many shouts.

"NO! Stop!" Arya tried to shout back but they did not hear her and then an arrow hit her in the upper right leg.

Pain shot through her body and her grip was loosened on Daenerys' waist. More arrows and bolts came up and some hit the wings and body of Drogon and some pierced the skin and wing membranes. Drogon screeched and tilted one way, and then another, and then he turned almost sideways…and Arya lost her grip.

Her scream was the last thing she would voice in the world she knew, her last sight the city on fire, her last smell that of ash and soot…but she was wrong. She hit something soft, a shop awning of canvas, and it ripped and tore as she burst through it and landed on some crates that broke under her weight. More pain shot through her left side, and she knew something had broken in her body.

Arya now had a new fear. The building she had landed beside was on fire. She crawled out of the wreckage into the street…and there was Elianta, not fifty feet away. Arya tried to stand but couldn't, the pain in her wounds too great. The dragon slowly advanced towards her.

"NOW YOU DIE!" Melisandre said with relish in her mind.

"HELP ME!" Arya yelled at some nearby men, but they cowered and turned and ran away from the advancing dragon and fires…all but one man.

He was tall and large, and in his hands was a great spear, a boar spear she knew, and on his back was a great war hammer, and on his head was a helmet with stag antlers, with one bent at an awkward angle. And Arya wept for she knew that could only be one man.

Gendry came out of a side street to the right just behind Elianta where she couldn't see him. He broke into a run and by the time Arya saw him clearly he was running past the dragon's left wing and had launched himself into the air, the boar spear in his huge hands high over his head and now it was plunging down into Elianta's neck near the head and through the neck and by chance piercing a space between the street's flagstones, pinning the great beast to the ground.

A bellow of rage came from the dragon's mouth, and her head twisted and turned and knocked Gendry to the side. Then she lost sight of him as a long burst of flame reached out for Arya…but she was not there. Something had grasped her cloak, gripped her, lifted her, something strong, dragging her into the air, and she twisted her neck and saw the great black dragon above her, one claw in her cloak, and Elianta's flames just missed her again.

Up they went and she feared she would fall again and so as they passed over a flat roof that wasn't on fire Arya twisted her body and screamed as pain torn through her left side. But the twist made her cloak come loose from the claw and down she fell, far, but not too far. With a grunt and a flash of pain she landed on the roof and moments later Drogon landed nearby. Daenerys ran to her side and helped her sit up, just in time to see the end, along with hundreds of more who had come out onto the roofs and streets and walls.

Elianta's head twisted and screamed and tried to unpin her neck from the great spear, which was now on fire, with pools of black blood forming around the dragon. Her body was not moving at all and Arya wondered if her neck was broken. But the head was still moving and had teeth and flame, and Arya feared she would cause damage. Then she saw Gendry was on his feet again and approaching the beast.

"Who is it?" Daenerys asked.

"My husband," Arya said with pride and tears in her eyes.

Elianta stopped twisting her head, and laid her head on the street, a low moan coming from her mouth. The great war hammer was in Gendry's hands now and he stood over the massive head of the pinned dragon. All was quiet but the crackle of flames and the moaning of the dragon.

"Please stop him," came Melisandre's cry in her head. "I don't want to die again!"

"Too bad. Say hello to the Lord of Light."

And then the hammer came up and over his head, the spiked end forward and down it came, smashing into the dragon's skull just above and between the eyes, piercing her brain, all his massive strength behind the blow, and Melisandre's scream was long and agonizing and Arya truly hoped she was dead for good now.

Then came a great shout from the crowds of people, a yell of joyous relief that flowed across the city. And then she heard one voice louder than the rest. "The King has returned! Long live King Robert. Long live King Robert the Dragonslayer!"

"The Dragonslayer! King Robert the Dragonslayer!" another voice joined in and soon it was being shouted across the whole city.

Soon many eyes turned to Daenerys and Drogon on the nearby rooftop. "There's another one!" a woman shouted. "Kill it before it destroys us all! Dragonslayer! Help us!"

Many men began to move their way, and many bows and crossbows were raised and being loaded. "You'd better go!" Arya said to her.

"But I mean them no harm! I helped save them!"

"They won't care. Go! I will explain it all to Aegon and the rest. Please, before they hurt you…or you them."

"You are hurt!"

"I'll be fine. Just go…please." Her ribs screamed in agony as she spoke.

Daenerys had tears in her eyes again and then she mounted Drogon and as they took off a few arrows followed them but missed the mark in the darkness and smoke. Arya watched as the Dragon Queen flew off into the darkness and out of the city to the west.

"ARYA!" came his sudden shout from the nearby street.

"Up here!" she tried to shout back, but she was too weak to make much noise.

A few moments later he was by her side, the helmet off, his hair and dark beard matted with sweat. "Are you hurt bad?"

"Just a bit…the arrow…and my ribs I think."

"We'll get her to a healer, my lord," said an older woman who had come as well. She wrapped a cloth around the arrow to stop the blood flowing. "It's not bleeding much, but must be taken out carefully, my lord," she advised.

"I'm no lord," Gendry said to the woman. Behind Gendry now Arya could see more people.

"No, he's the King! King Robert!" a man shouted and more took up the call.

"He's no king, he's a bastard," said a new voice and it was Oberyn Martell, with many soldiers, coming onto the roof from a stairway. "You people, your city is burning and the wights may attack. Go, put out these damn fires, all of you."

"But the King and his lady…," protested an old man and Oberyn put a dagger to his throat.

"There is only one King and that is Aegon Targaryen," he said in a low growl. "This is but a bastard of Robert Baratheon, not him, not his real son. Tell everyone that. Go…or die."

They went, grumbling, and Arya heard more than one voice say, 'King Robert'. That was going to be trouble to come she knew.

Gendry gently picked her up in his strong arms and carried her to the Red Keep, trying not to jostle her or cause her pain.

"I'm sorry," she said in a whisper as she nestled her head into his chest.

"For what?"

"What I did earlier…to you. It wasn't me. Gendry…Melisandre was inside the dragon…inside me."

"Gods. How?"

"I don't know."

"No one can know…we'll talk later, when you are rested and healed."

As they moved he was the focus of great attention. Everywhere people were shouting 'King Robert' and 'Dragonslayer' and if it wasn't for the flames, Gendry's face would have been the reddest thing in the city. Everywhere people were fighting the fires now, and Arya later learned that Ser Davos took charge, for he had implemented a fire fighting plan when he had been Hand of the King after the wildfire explosion had almost destroyed the city. It took two days to put all the fires out and later all said Ser Davos saved the city. Luckily the Others and wights hated fire for no attacks came. She also learned Ser Davos had been arrested along with Grand Maester Pycelle earlier in the day, for the maester had been accused of being a spy for Stannis and they wondered if Davos was part of it all. Only through Willas Tyrell's actions was Ser Davos released from house arrest to lead the fight against the flames.

But that came later. First there was more tragic news. As they finally entered the Red Keep, all the inner courtyard was crowded with wounded and burnt people, with more people moving about trying to help them. Arya was taken to a room inside on the ground floor, the gate guard's barracks, and placed on a bed while a maester was summoned. Gendry bent to her arrow wound but she told him not to touch it, to wait for the maester. The bleeding was not too bad and was slowly and except for the pain she felt in no danger. As they waited Oberyn asked what had happened.

"Elianta broke free and went wild. With Daenerys and Drogon and Gendry's help we killed her," Arya said, not willing to tell him anything else yet, if ever.

"Not broke free," Oberyn said, his voice heavy with worry. "Aegon released her." And then his face clouded over and he sat down on a nearby chair. Now she could see Oberyn's clothing was singed and his face was grimy with ash.

"My lord, what is the matter?" Gendry asked. "Where is the King?"

"With some maesters…I hope. In a house in the city now, soon to be moved here...I hope."

The pain in Arya's wounds suddenly seemed less important. "What happened to him?" she asked.

"Fire…dragonfire…his whole left side," Oberyn told them, his eyes glassy. "Elianta… she tried to kill him, but I pulled him out of the way…but not far enough. He is badly burnt…all except his face…his arm is the worse…he may lose it…if he lives."

"Gods," Arya said. She felt terrible. It was all her fault, she had persuaded him to unchain the dragon…she had…no…Melisandre had done that, just like she had made her try to drag Gendry into bed. Yet if only she had told them about Melisandre…but no, she did not know about Melisandre until a short while ago. The red woman had entered her mind and used her for what she had wanted.

Oberyn looked at her and spoke and she snapped out of her thoughts. "Where is Daenerys?" he asked.

"She had to flee, they wanted to kill her and her dragon," Arya told him.

"She saved us, fought Elianta." Gendry said. "I saw it all as I tried to get behind the dragon."

Oberyn stared at him. "But you killed the beast. They will never forget that… Dragonslayer."

"I'm just a smith, my lord," Gendry said, clearly uncomfortable.

"Not anymore."

They were silent for moment and then Arya had to ask. "What will happen now, my lord?"

"We must get Daenerys back," Oberyn told them. "We need her dragons, even if the people hate them, to kill the ice demons. And we need her. If Aegon dies, she will take the Iron Throne…and be our Queen."