I do not own ASOIAF. I do not profit from this story, nor would I ever seek to do so. All credit for characters and setting to the wonderful GRRM.
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Sandor moved out of the shadows, sword drawn. This man had tortured Sansa, had made possible the capture of her father. Baelish was smart enough to have been able to help the other man escape the dark cells if he had wanted. Baelish had wanted war between Lannisters and Starks just to supplant power. The man would find a way to do the same thing to this queen with no trouble at all.
Heavy footsteps followed behind him. He took slight notice of the older knight, moving the same way, sword drawn toward Baelish, a look of rage on his face.
With one swift blow, Sandor decapitated the man drawing a sword at the side of the murderer, and Ser Barristan placed his sword at the neck of the other man.
"Your Grace, this man advocated for killing you and your child as soon as word reached us of your pregnancy by your Khal. This man is not your friend, no matter what he says. I beg Your Grace to believe me."
"And more besides. He is no friend to anyone but himself." Sandor growled low in his throat. "He would have betrayed his mother if he thought it was a way to put his arse on the Iron Throne."
The queen's face was hard as she looked them over. Her eyes were like rough cut amethysts. She wore a long black dress with red dagged sleeves embroidered with the three headed dragon of her house.
"That is an exaggeration, Clegane. I assure Your Grace—what is the past between us is the past. I have no thought of doing any harm to any who serves you loyally."
"Shut your mouth." Daenerys voice was quiet like a spark just as it ignited kindling. She stood in front of her throne. The room was almost entirely silent. Her violet eyes flashed with fire. Her fists clenched with fury. "What other crimes is he responsible for?"
Sandor looked her over. The young woman was apparently not so forgiving that she would allow a man who plotted against her or her child to ever live. It was not a surprise that the man would advocate for killing an unborn child. He did remember the day the king had bellowed about Lord Stark's stubborn refusal to follow his lead. It seemed to him that was the day or near the day that the Kingslayer fled the capital after brutally attacking Lord Stark and slaughtering his men because Lady Stark had taken the Imp.
"Killing an entire family in the Vale to advance his own interests, including one he took for his wife." Sandor said, his voice a growl. He shifted a bit remembering what little he had seen of Lady Arryn. She had not been a well woman, but she had not deserved to die pushed from a tower. "Poisoned them and pushed them off cliffs after they helped him attain high offices. Let the small people remain outside the city walls when they could not pay to get in to safety from the war. Let them die." He stole Sansa. He stole her and put her through the gods only knew what. He hoped he could lop the man's head off. He wondered what Sansa would think of such a delivery, probably not much. Her reaction to seeing all the heads of her father, his men, and even that septa—he could not put her through something similar. She never said what she planned to do with the man after he was delivered.
"I sense there is more to that story, and I will hear it in time."
"Only two men spoke against the assassination attempt of Your Grace. Myself and Lord Stark. He took Lord Stark captive. Lord Stark sought to do the right thing, and abide by the King's will. He played the friend to Stark in the night, but the next day he held a blade to his throat."
"He all but swung the sword that killed him. I guarantee he shed no tears for it, nor did he ever say a word about a young girl who was constantly beaten by the young king." He waited until she was almost broken. Sansa had only occasionally spoken with him about her time in the Eyrie. He had not pressed her. It was clearly a painful subject.
A play of emotions rippled over Daenerys' face.
"So that is it, I stole the bone you abandoned, Hound? Is that the reason for this vitriol?"
A scream echoed from the stairs in front of the queen. The ring of steel being drawn split the air.
Sandor moved back as the wolf-bitch drove her thin sword into the belly of Lord Baelish.
"You killed my father! You killed my father!" She tore the blade from his stomach with a wrenching motion. He screamed as she tried to shove it into him again, only to have it deflected by Ser Barristan. "You killed my father!"
Blood spilled from the wounds, and Baelish placed his hands over the wound as he collapsed to his knees. Sandor reached out and grasped the wolf bitch's arm that held her sword and lifted her gently. He remembered the last man he had seen her kill.
"Mercy. Mercy, Your Grace."
Glancing at the queen revealed a ferocity Sandor never knew could live in a woman, except the wolf bitch when she screamed all those questions and had to be wrenched away.
"You will die, Lord Baelish, for the crime betraying and attempting to have murdered your true Queen and future King."
"Mercy."
"Take him to Drogon. I imagine he is hungry."
Sandor felt a rush of fear and stepped back from Baelish, dropping the wolf bitch. The little queen was feeding Baelish to her dragon. He had seen the bursts of flame come from that beast's mouth. Baelish deserved the fate, but he wished Sansa would have been able to face him before his death. She had wanted it. But with it being her sister who had killed the man. Maybe that would make it all right, that a Stark accomplished the task. Better to let Baelish die now than try to save him for Sansa. He was too dangerous to allow to live—even the young queen knew that.
"Ser Barristan, Lyanna, take him to Drogon. Lyanna, return immediately. We have some matters to discuss."
Ser Barristan nodded. He sheathed his sword and grabbed Baelish's arms. The queen turned and looked at each of the other lords in the room in turn as she spoke her warning.
"Let this serve as a lesson to you. If you plot or have plotted against my life, you will pay with yours. There will be no more usurpers. I will annihilate them all, and my dragon will devour them. I am retaking the Kingdom, and all who stand in my way will perish in agony. All who betray me will perish more painfully."
Sandor moved to a place in front of the dais where Daenerys sat. This was only temporary. He would soon return to Sansa. He could not help thinking of the asset that it would be to the queen to have Sansa here with her. But he could not allow Sansa to fall into the hands of someone who would use her for a pawn and imprison her again. She was safe where she had been sent. Surely, the wolf bitch and Sansa would not both be wrong about this brother at the Wall. With him being Lord Commander, she would be safe.
"You may all be dismissed to your regular activities. Lord Clegane, I would speak further with you."
"Aye, Your Grace."
The other lords filed out slowly. Sandor shifted, trying not to think too hard on Sansa. He would go to her side as soon as he was able.
"I do not require your presence, Lord Tully."
He rose and nodded.
"Very well, Your Grace. I shall go and see if there has been any message from my wife about our soon to be born child."
The queen sank back into her chair.
Sandor had to fight not to glower when the queen called him lord. He knew that now he technically was a lord, though he did not cherish the title.
"Clegane, what do you know of the Lords of the Vale?"
"Not much, except that they wanted Baelish punished for killing the heir to the Eyrie and Lord Protector of the Vale. He also killed the Lady of the Vale and framed another for it. They intended to kill him when he stumbled to the Quiet Isle, a place of monks and prayer and meditation." He stopped before saying more. She could not be allowed to know about Sansa. She might hurt her for crimes of the past—crimes committed from before she was even born.
"How do you know this?"
"I was injured and tended to by the Elder Brother of the Quiet Isle. I was there when he arrived in the company of some unsavory characters, all of whom are now dead." Sandor left out the part of how and why they died.
"Why did they die?"
"They tried to hurt someone who had sought sanctuary on the island. I did not allow them. They are long washed out to sea by this time." He shifted on his feet.
"And what of Lyanna's father? You said Baelish killed Lord Stark."
He choked out the girl's false name. Apparently, the little queen had already known that she had a Stark. "Lyanna is the best to tell you about that. I did not know Lord Stark very well. He was not fond of my face." the way one of his daughters seems to have become.
"Do you know her?"
Squeak.
Lyanna walked into the room confidently.
"I think you two have some explaining to do, and we will wait until my Hand arrives."
Lyanna lowered her hood.
"I have arrived, your Grace."
Sandor felt his blood boil as he saw the Imp, He might have known that Tyrion would survive Cersei's pitiful hunters. Her hunters did not even know whom they were looking for. Tyrion always had been the smart one. Sansa's husband. His hand moved to his sword. Making him the 'quarter man' as he had suggested would free Sansa. Sansa did not want the Imp for a husband.
"Clegane."
"Little Lord."
The noseless dwarf looked at him placidly.
"Strange rumors, I've been hearing. You ran from fire once. Now you have run to it. I have even heard that you left one Lannister for another."
"Speak sense, Dwarf." How could he know that he had been with Sansa? He was certainly inferring it. It had been smart to send Sansa away. She would not want to be with Lord Imp. At least, she would be safe from him.
"Not that this is not entertaining, but I was hoping that we would get to a point. There is clearly much more going on. Care to start, Lyanna?"
The conversation dragged on for hours. Ser Barristan rejoined them and stood as a silent sentinel.
Sandor glowered at the Imp, unable to prevent his thoughts from wandering to how wonderful it would be to take his head off and knowing that it was not possible to do so without dying. He promised to return to Sansa. He would have to tell her that the Imp was yet alive and that he had seen him.
"So Tyrion, you are married to this Heiress of Winterfell?"
"In name only, Your Grace, as I have told you. The girl would not have me, and I could not take what she was unwilling to give."
"So are you still Lord of Winterfell? Will the North listen if you summon them?"
Tyrion laughed hollowly.
Sandor stared at the little man. It was laughable to consider the possibility of Northern Lords coming to a man who was married to a Stark and happened to have misplaced her.
"If I had Sansa, they might perhaps come to me for her sake alone. But she disappeared the night of Joffrey's death. You do have another Stark." He pointed one of his stubby fingers at Lyanna.
"That was how you planned to rally the North to my side. You are Arya Stark."
The young girl did not acknowledge her name.
"I, too, have had to change who I was to adapt to situations that spiralled out of my control. Do you truly believe that the North will rally to you?"
Sandor felt himself tremble inside. Everything was falling apart.
"If they believe a girl is the daughter of Lord Eddard, they will help her. The only thing they would go to first would be a son of Lord Eddard, and his true-born sons have all been murdered."
"If we have both daughters of Lord Stark, they should surely come to your fight, Your Grace," Tyrion offered quietly. "Perhaps, we should investigate Lady Brienne's tale."
Sandor felt his heart fall into his stomach. Had the giant wench betrayed them? At least Sansa was not at the Keep any longer. They would not have her, but he might fail to keep his word to her. He might be killed for the knowledge he had kept from the queen.
"Clegane, I have heard a story about a man having another man's wife in a castle in the Westerlands."
"Search Clegane Keep if it please you, Lannister. You will nothing but a castle of orphans."
"In that case, where is she?" Tyrion sipped some wine.
"None of your damn business," the wolf bitch spoke up. "You can't have her, Imp."
"Lya—Arya Stark. Where is your sister? She can not be anywhere safer than here with me. I have promised you justice for what happened. No harm will come to your sister. I swear it on the soul of my murdered son, that I will bring no harm to her. Tell me where she is so we may bring her to safety."
"A girl doesn't know."
Sandor stared at the queen hard, remembering his words to Sansa. 'A dog can smell a lie.'
"If you mean that, allow me to go to her and keep her safe," Sandor spoke up. He fell to his knees. If he could go to Sansa immediately, he could keep her safe.
"You know where she is."
"I sent her away somewhere she would be safe. But journeying anywhere these days is always a danger. I will serve you by protecting her. She trusts me."
"Why should I not just send her husband? He can demand the northern lords turn her over and they will have no choice."
"They will make your hand a finger before they give her up. She wants nothing of him. He can tell you the whys of that. She will see me, and she will see the wolf—sister here."
"Where is she?"
