DISCLAIMER: Don't own it. Nuh uh. Not mine.
I'd say I hope you're all enjoying November- boy, where did October even go?- but lets face it, by the time I post this chapter it'll probably be Christmas or something! Anyway, I don't have much to say this time, a part from thanks so much for sticking with STMS and especially to all of you that left reviews or pm'd me to let me know your thoughts! It's always so great to hear what you guys think! With that, I shall leave you to it! Over and Out xox
RECAP
Arya sneaks off at night against Gendry's orders (who is even surprised at this point?) and Gendry chats with the Brotherhood. In the morning he realizes she is missing, and the company make haste, but get stuck at the swollen ford. Arya has had a big head start and sneaks into the attacked village. She saves a girl from being raped, and then uses the rapists hair and blood to construct a crude glamour, in order to sneak into the raiders gathering better. She finds out that whoever was in charge terrifies the other men. She later takes one of the raiders captive, uses him to find out what she can and then somewhat brutally kills him, after coming to the conclusion that Euron is behind the attack and taunting her, while collecting slaves again. Meanwhile, the girl she saved meets Gendry, who has ridden ahead of the stuck Brotherhood with some other men and tells him what happened. Moments later Arya appears. Gendry sends the others back to the company so they can talk. They argue about what she did, before Gendry tells Arya that he knows she doesn't need protection but he still feels the need to protect her because of what she means to him. His words make Arya freeze and suddenly she is terrified because she feels torn between choosing the darker side of herself and the side that cares for Gendry. For a second she thinks that maybe its time to let go of all of the past and choose Gendry, until he discovers something that scares her.
Arya felt herself tense at his question, as if she had been plunged into the icy waters of the Shivering Sea. A million thoughts raced through her mind, one being how very, utterly foolish she had been.
After she had killed the raider in the woods Arya had made sure that her clothing and skin was blood free, scrubbing it from her hands and under her nails in a trickling stream off the Wendwater. She had straightened her clothing, taken off Haesten's clothes, the other man she had killed that day, and hidden it, along with his blunt, bent sword in a hollow tree. She had been certain she was spotless of any evidence of what she had done that day. She had been meticulous...
but not meticulous enough.
She had forgotten the braid.
Arya could still remember her first glamour. The Kindly man had sent her out with just her concealed finger knife, and told her what she needed to do. The girl she had chosen was one who was half dead in a side alley, no more than skin, bone and sickness. Arya had given her the gift, taken her blood and cut off a strand of lank hair. When she returned to the Temple she had been taught how to take another's appearance without a mask to hand. The Kindly Man had explained to her that a person could not change their face properly unless they had already made and worn the carefully made mask, but that a person could still conceal their identity through the use of glamours.
"Mummers change their faces with artifice, and sorcerers use glamours, weaving light and shadow and desire to make illusions that trick the eye. These you will learn to do," the Kindly Man explained to her. "But only when you are ready."
"And when will that be?" Arya had asked.
" All sorcery comes at a cost, child. Years of prayer and sacrifice and study are required to work a proper glamour," he told her lightly, smiling at her childish innocence.
Arya had been taught the ways to hide herself behind such sorcery, to use shadow and suggestion. Men see what they expect to see, whether it be because of a dead man's boots, a hank of hair, a bag of finger bones. With whispered words and prayer, a man's shadow could be drawn forth from such and draped about another like a cloak. And that was exactly what Arya had done with Haesten; she had smeared his blood across her forehead, where she had made her own sacrifice to the Many Faced God all those years ago. She had interwoven his hair with hers. She had taken his clothing, his armour and his weapons and she had made herself an illusion of him so strong that she had been able to walk into the raiders camp without arousing a single thought of doubt or suspicion.
But she couldn't tell Gendry that.
Couldn't tell him that she had stolen another mans likeness moments after she had slit his throat. Couldn't show him what she truly was, a cold blooded killer, with ice in her veins and murder in her heart. Not after he had just offered her light and hope and safety.
"Arya?"
Arya snapped back to reality as he set her gently on her feet. His brows were knitted together in bewilderment as he fingered the hastily made braid. In the shifting light it was easy to see that the softer, darker strands of hair were Arya's and the lighter, coarser hair was from another head entirely.
Arya forced herself to not bite her lip. "The braid?" She asked, her tone light with casual question. "Oh it's nothing. Just something silly."
Gendry lowered his thick brows, throwing his eyes deeper into shadow. "But what is it? Arya," he frowned in disgust, "is that someone elses hair? Surely it is, for its so coarse- Arya, what is this?"To Arya's object horror he leaned down and sniffed it, before pulling away sharply. "Arya, there's blood in it!"
Arya bit her tongue- how stupid, stupid, stupid she was! "Look, it's just a stupid talisman sort of thing," she shrugged. "It's kind of morbid..." Kind of was nowhere near to the truth, but Gendry just raised a brow.
"A talisman?" He asked, suspicious.
Arya forced herself to blush and stepped around him, waiting for him to fall into step beside her. "When I was with the Dothraki they told me of it. I sacrificed a horse, cut off a hank of hair and burned the ends. The Dothraki believe that when the hair, if blessed correctly, is woven with yours then the horses spirit will keep you safe." She forced a laugh. "It's stupid, I know."
For a second Arya was certain that she hadn't fooled him, but then he chuckled and tweaked the plait that was made from the hair of a dead man. "Yeah, it is. I've never seen you wear it before," he said, as they reached Rogue. "I don't think I've ever even seen it at all."
Arya snorted. "Well, I don't know why I suddenly remembered it, but I had it hidden in my saddle bag. I must have put it there once long ago and forgotten about it," she shrugged. "I'll burn it later."
Gendry smiled. "Maybe you should hang on to it for now," he said in a jesting tone of voice. "After all, mayhaps a bit of added protection would be no bad thing for you." Arya elbowed him playfully for the jibe, though there was no malice in it.
"Maybe I should sacrifice you and hack off some of your hair," she teased as he swung up onto Rogues back.
"I'm not a horse though," he reminded her, pulling her up roughly, so that she nearly pitched right off the other side of the saddle.
"No, you're a horses arse," she clarified, regaining her balance. "And I'm sure that would please the horse god well enough."
"Anguy are you going to listen or not?" Gendry snarled as the freckled archer muttered something in Tom's ear, a smug smirk gracing his features. "Milady risked her life for this information."
Anguy snorted. "Don't we know it, you've been yelling about it for nigh on three days-"
"Anguy!" He snapped.
Arya rolled her eyes as the men began arguing, Anguy teasing Gendry mercilessly and Gendry responding by growing steadily more frustrated. Leaving them to bicker Arya pulled out her her knife and used the point of the blade to draw in the dirt. When she was done she knelt back, and raising her fingers to her lips, blew a loud and clear whistle.
"Are you going to bloody well listen or am I going to have to attack them by myself as well?" She asked with an eyebrow raised.
Gendry's face was dark with ill humour and he strode over to stand beside her kneeling form. "Over my dead body," he growled at her, his already poor mood worsened by Anguy's teasing.
"It will be if you lot don't bloody listen," Arya grumbled back as the others came to circle her diagram.
"Arya," Gendry growled, warning her.
Lem peered at the diagram closely from across the rough circle they had made. "This is the forest?" He asked, pointing at one of the lines she had drawn. She nodded. "And this is us, by the Wendwater?" She nodded again.
"After I crossed the Wendwater I rode out for a few miles, and then walked the rest on foot," she explained, demonstrating her route on the diagram. "I imagine it will take about three hours if we go on horseback, four if we do as I did. I suggest that stealth is more important on this attack than numbers."
"Surely numbers would be more beneficial?" The captain of Gendry's Household Guard, Darius, said. Arya liked him well enough; he was reserved, with shoulder length, sandy coloured, wavy hair, and light blue eyes, with a beak like nose. She had ridden with him several times before, and enjoyed his company better than most. "How many were there?"
"I counted about twenty men in the barn," she said, pointing at the rectangular shape in the centre of her diagram. "But I suspect there were around forty in total, stationed around the perimeter like so." She made small crosses around the diagram. "When I went-"
"Wait, you went into the centre of their camp?" Anguy asked, impressed.
"How else was I going to find out any of the information I needed?" Arya asked dryly. "Can I continue now?" Anguy nodded, and motioned for her to continue in mock seriousness. "As I was saying, when I was there it seemed that the majority of the guard was on the eastern side- they were likely anticipating any attack to come from Bronzegate. The other guard was here," she said, making another cross, "by the pen of captives. It's him we'll need to take out first. I suggest that one of us takes him out while the others wait in the trees for the say so."
"Let me guess," Gendry interrupted dryly. "You think that person should be you?"
Arya shrugged. "I know the layout the best. I'm least likely to be seen and I am the stealthiest out of all of you."
Before Gendry could protest Lem interjected. "Why not have our archer here just send a few arrows, that'd be quick enough." Anguy shifted his bow in agreement, clearly ready to do as Lem suggested.
Arya shook her head. "The only unobstructed shot wold be from here," she said, poking the drawing, "and even then you would have to shoot past the captives in the dark without hitting one. If you did it would be the end of our surprise attack, which we need for the rest of the plan to work with minimalized casualties." She cocked her head. "It would also mean that if you shot him, and someone noticed there wasn't someone there then there would be questions."
"In that case you can't be the one to take that guard out," Gendry said firmly. Arya was about to interrupt when he gestured at her. "If someone was to look out to check, and saw your tiny silhouette, there would be just as many questions raised. It needs to be a man if we want him to stand in as a decoy." Gendry looked like he was ready to defend his point, but he didn't need to.
"You're right," Arya conceded, studying the men before her. "It needs to be someone big enough to make a decent silhouette but small enough to be stealthy."
"Anguy?" Lem suggested, but Arya shook her head.
"No, we need an archer, it'll have to be someone else,." She studied the group, but it was Gendry that spoke.
"Lucky Dick," he suggested, motioning to a man towards the back of the group. "Dick, reckon you can do it?"
"Aye," he said, bowing his head. "Shouldn't be a problem, so long as me luck holds out." Arya nodded at him.
"Whats next?" Gendry asked, falling to a kneel just beside her, so that he was looking over her shoulder slightly.
"Once Dick gives the signal I would suggest that the men hiding here, in the tree line, come forwards, two at a time," she said. "Not to raise the attack, but so that they are near and ready for the next part. Now," she prodded the central diagram, "when I was there I payed attention to the layout of this building in particular. I think it was some sort of storage barn for the village, but the raiders seem to be using it as a base. There is only one window, and it is small and on the south wall. There is only one door, here, on the north wall, and opens outwards-"
"You noticed all of that?" One of the Household Guard asked, a youth with a hoop hanging from one ear. Arya nodded.
"Even if we had fewer in number I don't think they should pose a problem," Arya explained. "Their armour is sparse to non existent, their weapons are crude and they have no sense of unity."
"What if there is back up somewhere?" Darius asked dubiously.
"There isn't," Arya answered. "I heard them mention it while I was there. It's just them. Anyway, I think it would be best to catch them unawares anyway. Keep them all together. I would suggest that while the majority of us draw nearer, archers at the front, one slips around the back of the building and blocks up the window. It should then be fairly easy to smoke them out, whence the archers will be able to pick them off as they come. Any left can be rounded up by the rest of us. It'll be over in minutes." She sat back and surveyed the group, watching as they made sense of her plan.
"How do we smoke them out?" Tom asked. "You said there was only the window and the door, and if the window is blocked up and they have to leave through the door, unless there's a chimney there's no way to get smoke in." He pointed at the diagram frowning.
Arya shook her head. "There's a part of the thatch that has fallen away loose, it should be big enough to use. The person on the roof should be able to stick some smoking greenery there undetected, if all goes to plan."
"And if it doesn't?" Gendry asked suddenly. Arya turned slightly. "And what if the thatch just catches fire? Or the raiders notice it?"
"Gendry, the only other way would be to draw them into an open battle, which is a bad idea," Arya explained. "By drawing them into a fight it risks the lives of our men, regardless of how quickly we beat them. By catching them unawares like this we can be sure that none of ours get hurt."
"Apart from you, as I take it you mean to be the one on the roof," Gendry said hotly, glaring at her.
"Of course, I'm the smallest one here," she replied, feeling a spark of irritation. "All of you will be too heavy on the roof."
Gendry ignored her. "I don't want you there, Arya." Before she could argue he interrupted, standing up as she did the same. "You've already done your part. There's no need for you to be there."
"Then who would go on the roof?" Arya asked coldly, crossing her arms.
"Jack Be Lucky can change places with Dick, Dick is small enough to go on the roof," he said, nodding past her shoulder at Dick. Arya opened her mouth to argue, but he held his hand up. "I won't move on this Arya. You're staying here and that is final."
Arya narrowed her eyes. "Fine," she snapped. "I'll just stay here with Jayce then shall I? Or maybe I should ride off back to where we made camp two nights ago, if that would make you feel better?"
Gendry seemed to relax, his shoulders releasing the tension he had held there. "Yes, actually," he exhaled. "That would make me feel better."
Arya threw her hands up in exasperation. "I wasn't being serious, Gendry!" She snarled.
"Well, I am," he said firmly, crossing his arms. "I won't be moved on this, Arya."
Arya scowled. "What, so you trust me to make the plans, but not to execute them?" The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.
Gendry looked as though he wanted to strangle her. He breathed out forcefully through his nostrils, as if he were really a bull. "I trust you to pass a good judgement on what you saw and the information you gathered. I trust that you can fight and kill and everything else you seem so hell bent on proving. But I do not want you near this fight, and that is because even though you don't need it, I want to protect you." As he finished, Gendry made to turn away.
Arya pursed her lips. "Well, what about Tom?" She asked loudly. "You care about him don't you? You would want to protect him? So why don't you send him into the woods with Jayce?" Gendry's face blackened and he span around, storm in his eyes.
"Tom isn't the one I plan on marrying!" He thundered, towering over her as he raged.
"Oh, well that's very nice now, isn't it?" Tom muttered to Anguy, who snorted, as they watched the other two fighting. The others had retreated a ways away, but Anguy and Tom had seen this fight too many times. Didn't the fools realize how loud they were when they argued?
"Well I'm not either!" Arya thundered back, her fists clenched and shaking by her sides, before she turned and stalked off, rubbing her eyes roughly with the back of her wrist to stop the tears from cascading down her throat.
Gendry watched her go as she disappeared into the trees before turning and hitting a tree, his eyes thrown into the shadow cast by his knitted together brows. Why could she never be reasonable? Just once? Gods, she challenged him at every turn! It just wasn't right for a lady to ride into battle when she didn't need to, and it wasn't as if she hadn't already done more than enough. Gendry clenched his massive fists, wishing that there was a battle right then so that he could kill someone.
For all that Arya argued she was, she wasn't- and never would be- a soldier. She had no idea how to follow orders. Every single line he laid down she obliterated without so much as a second thought. For a minute Gendry wanted to rush after her, grab her by the shoulders and shake her until she couldn't stand. He wondered if she had ever had any discipline as a child; from what Sansa and Jon had said her mother had tried her best to turn her into a lady, while her father was somewhat endeared, if exasperated, by her behavior. Maybe Eddard Stark should have done us all a favour and put her over his knee years ago, he thought harshly, taking it back almost straight away. Wouldn't have hurt to have given her a fright though.
Gods, it was like she had absolutely no regard for her own safety. The way she never even seemed to consider the danger she put herself in, or hesitate to partake in something of high risk. Gendry knew she wasn't some precious doll, but damn it all she was still human, and a sword or, the gods forbid, a stray arrow, would kill her just as easily as anyone else, a fact that she seemed utterly oblivious to.
He had thought he had finally gotten through to her before; he had seen something there, something in her eyes as he told her about his need to protect her. She had chosen him, she had allowed him to make his point, so why had she gone so against him again now? Gendry would never understand her, or why she was so stubborn. Jayce hadn't argued when Gendry had told him he was staying behind. No one else had, either. Only Arya, as always.
"Damn her," he muttered to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose and exhaling heavily. "Damn her to the deepest hell there is."
"Well, Gendry, either you can stand there cursing her name to the heavens," Tom sighed, "or you can go after her and make up. You don't want to leave things on that note before a battle."
"There's barely going to be a battle at all," he grumbled, turning to face his old friend.
"Aye, and that's half the problem," Tom said, shrugging. "She bloody well knows that."
Gendry sighed and grit his teeth together, wishing he had something more substantial to unleash his wrath on. "She's so bloody stubborn," he growled, picturing her defiant expression as she stood before him, arms crossed and brow pulled down.
"She ain't the only one, lad," his friend sighed. "Now go, go on. It won't be long before we leave, and you don't want your head all tossed up in the fight, nor her thinking... whatever she's thinking."
"Probably that she'd like to gut me," Gendry griped, pushing away from the tree.
Anguy snorted loudly. "Give her some credit, my friend," he said lightly. "She's got more finesse than a butcher. Go on, go kiss and make up, or whatever it is you two do." Gendry threw him an irritated look, before striding off in the direction Arya had disappeared in to.
Anguy turned to Tom with a smirk as he stood up. "They're bloody perfect for one another, them two."
Tom chuckled and scratched his beard. "Aye," he said. "That they are."
Arya cursed him as she walked, cursing his stupid name and his stupid face and his stupid talk and his stupid... stupid everything! Why was he so damned protective of her? She wondered as she fumed through the trees, praying that at that moment he might fall and smack his head, and somehow realise what an idiot he was. He had seen how she had managed to enter the raiders camp undetected and leave it perfectly safe! A small part of her knew that that wasn't completely fair, as Gendry didn't know the tricks she had to ensure her safety... but that wasn't the point!
Why was it always about how she needed to prove that he could trust her, and never the other way around? What had he done to prove that she could trust him? Apart from saving your skin at the Twins, a snide voice in her head said, but she ignored it. All she would have even needed to do was climb onto a roof and hold a smoking branch in a hole. That was it! She wouldn't even have been in the thick of the action, like he would be.
It just wasn't fair. Arya was better than all of the men he was taking with him, yet she had to stay at camp like some disobedient child being left at home. She was so tired of this argument they were having, and twas all his fault too! Arya kicked a tree in frustration and yelled in frustration.
"Arya."
She ignored him, huffing out a breath loaded with irritation, aimed at him.
"Arya, will you please talk to me?" He asked, his voice only a few yards behind her. "I'm trying to be reasonable here."
Arya spat. "Reasonable? What part of this is reasonable?" She span around, surprised to see how close he had gotten to her. "It is you who is being the unreasonable one!" She hissed, jabbing him in the chest.
He grabbed her hand and held it tight when she tried to snatch it back. "Why is it so unreasonable for me to want to keep you safe?" He asked, ignoring her attempts to pull away. "Tell me, Arya, because truly I don't understand."
"Because- because- it just is!" Arya snapped, aware of how childish she sounded. "You always talk about how you trust me, but the instant I want to do something you tell me you don't! So which is it?"
Gendry sighed and let his hand drop, without releasing hers. "I do trust you, alright? I trust you more than anyone else- Lem, Davos, hells, even Jon! You mean everything to me, Arya, and I won't lose you ambushing some stupid raiders!" He cursed under his breath. "Arya, what you need to understand is that my desire to protect you isn't for you- it's for me. For my peace of mind." He let go of her hand and moved them to her face, his fingers covering her ears slightly. Arya wasn't sure if she wanted to snatch away from them and curse him, or lean into them and sigh.
"Can you understand that?" He asked her, staring at her piercingly. When Arya made no reply he sighed. "Imagine it's Jon," he said. "You know full and well that he can protect himself better than most- but would you want him to be in danger if it wasn't necessary?"
Arya bit her lip. Of course she would never willingly put Jon in danger. "It's different," she insisted, though now she was not so sure. When Gendry began to pull away slightly, clearly having seen it in her face that she was lying, she hastened to explain. "Then would it be unreasonable for me to ask you not to fight?" She asked.
Gendry scoffed. "Of course it would be," he said. "They're my men. I can't send them off and not go myself."
"Well then you can't expect me to stay behind and do nothing either," Arya said, irritated by his double standard answer. "You can't just- you can't just expect me to sit back and do nothing. It's not in my nature; if you wanted a wife who will do what she is supposed to, and sit back while you have all the fun, then you should have asked for Sansa's hand, not mine!" When Arya was finished she found that she was out of breath from her outburst.
"Gendry, I'm tired of having this same argument, over and over again," she said, exhaling slowly as he glared at her from behind crossed arms.
"What, and you think I'm not?" He snapped, before sighing, and leaning against a tree, staring at her. Arya pursed her lips, but didn't back down. "I don't understand, Arya. I really don't. This need to- to prove yourself. Why?" He asked her, pushing away from the trunk and putting is hands on her slim shoulders, looking into her face.
Arya bit her lip. "I don't have a need to prove myself," she snapped. "You know what I am capable of, I-"
"But that's just it!" He snapped back, pushing her back against the tree he had just been leaning against. "I don't know what you're capable of, because you refuse to tell me!"
"That's because you don't need to know!"
"The hells I don't!"
The two glared at each other, Gendry's eyes as cold as ice, boring into hers which flamed with burning fire. In the back of her mind Arya was aware of their role reversal, and that it was strange to see Gendry like ice for once, instead of heat.
"You can't force me to stay behind with Jayce and the horses," Arya finally said, her tone firm.
Gendry pursed his lips. "As your lord I can command you." He stepped closer, and Arya could feel the heat radiating off of him.
She licked her lips before replying, trying not to notice the way his eyes lingered on her lips. "As your..." Arya hesitated, "trusted companion, I don't have to obey you." His eyes creased at her nominative, and she bit her lip. "And as a person who cares very deeply about you, you should not ask me to." She whispered the last part, her words falling past her lips like a sigh.
Gendry swallowed. "I'm not asking you to obey me, Arya," he said, a hint of irritation tinging his tone. "I'm asking you to do this for me. Hell's, I know you're better than any of us, but the idea of you being hurt- be it by an arrow, or a burning timber- Arya, please, just do this one thing for me. So that I don't have to worry." His voice was slightly harder again at the end, and Arya sighed.
She nodded once, curtly, and Gendry exhaled, before wrapping his strong arms around her torso. She felt him press his lips against her hair, inhaling her scent as he pressed her against his muscled chest. "Thank you," she heard him whisper into her hair. For a moment, Arya almost felt bad about lying to him.
Almost.
Gendry surveyed the burnt village before him, his eyes sweeping from left to right. In the darkness all he could see were shadows of crumbling walls and a few flickering lights coming from the barn that Arya had described. Gendry peered over his shoulder, signalling the men behind him. They began to creep forwards, closer to the treeline, hiding away from the light of the moon.
Gendry felt a pang of relief as he nodded for the first group to make their way forwards, watching as they ran to the first building and crouched behind the broken walls, glad that Arya had returned to the Wendwater crossing with Jayce. He watched carefully; the guard stood exactly where she had said he'd be, at the far side of the pen. He could see the silhouettes of the villagers there, huddled together against the cold. He nodded to Jack, who returned the sentiment before darting out swiftly, half crouched over.
As he reached the nearest building, Gendry raised two fingers behind him and flicked them, signalling for them to move forwards, archers at the front. In groups of five they moved hastily to their positions, most behind the different walls of the burned houses, some crouched behind barrels or hay carts, anything substantial enough to hide them from view. Gendry peered around the corner, looking for Jack to make his move on the guard... but he couldn't see him. Gendry's brows knitted together; where was he?
The guard was still stood, exactly as he had been moments prior, at the corner of the pen. Gendry pursed his lips, his fingers tightening around the hilt of his sword. Just as he was about to ask if anyone had seen Jack, Gendry saw him, moving carefully towards the guard. Gendry waited with bated breath; if the guard made a noise the game was up.
Jack crept closer and closer, and Gendry saw him reach for his knife. Gendry swallowed, raising himself a little higher up to see better. Lem uttered an oath beside him. Jack was only yards away now, but the guard still hadn't moved. Gendry felt his heartbeat quicken; thinking about it, the guard had yet to move at all. Gendry could have sworn he had been stood exactly the same, when they first arrived.
He looked at Anguy, the next wall over. Something wasn't right, it was too... quiet. Gendry felt his eyes widen. The make shift tavern was all but silent. He waved at Anguy, who peered over, and even in the dim moonlight Gendry could see confusion written across the archers face. At Gendry's look, Anguy notched an arrow, aiming it around the corner, ready to fire. Something was off, Gendry was sure- the raiders couldn't have just disappeared, the villagers were still there, but Gendry couldn't hear any laughter or talking coming from the target building.
He clenched his jaw, and returned his focus to Jack, who seemed to be hesitating. Gendry nodded at him, and Jack stood up from his crouch and dashed at the guard, his knife raised. Gendry waited for the guard to react, to struggle, but there was nothing. Jack pressed his knife to the man's throat, but there was... nothing. He watched as his friend faltered, and moved away, before crouching and signalling at Gendry.
"What's wrong?" Lem asked, nudging him. Gendry shook his head, and, checking the door of the tavern, made a dash across the short space between his cottage and Jack, running half bent over, his blood pounding in his ears.
"What's going on?" He hissed, as he reached Jack.
"See for yourself, Lord," Jack said, his face perplexed and horrified all in one. Gendry grit his teeth, looking over his shoulder at Anguy. He angled his sword so that the moonlight flashed on the blade, the signal for the archers to move forwards. There was no time to go through each of the intricate steps Arya had detailed in her plan. For a split second, Gendry wished that she was here; she would know what to do. Somehow she always seemed to know exactly what was going on, her observational skills second to none. She would probably already have an explanation for the strange guard and the silence surrounding the barn. Gendry dismissed the thought; with everything going as wrong as it seemed it was lucky that she wasn't here- there was no way she would have listened to orders, she would have already been on the roof by now. Gendry shook his head minutely, pushing her from his head; he needed a clear mind.
Clenching his fingers around the hilt of his sword, Gendry moved smoothly towards the silhouette. His footsteps made little noise, but he couldn't help but think that Arya would have been completely silent. It was disconcerting how stealthy she was. With bated breath,Gendry made his way towards the figure, ready to slip his sword between his shoulder blades, or his knife under the ear- yet the guard hadn't moved. He looked back at Jack, who nodded.
Eyebrows creased, Gendry moved to the front of the guard, waiting for him to react with a shout... but there was nothing, just as when Jack had approached him the first time. Then Gendry saw why.
The man was dead.
A stake had been pushed through the top of his neck, just above the space between his shoulder blades, the sharp point driven into the ground between his legs. Blood stained the front of his armour, and Gendry could still see it ebbing out slowly from his sliced neck. His eyes were open but unseeing, glassy and cold, reflecting the moonlight, and Gendry could see himself in them. A shiver ran down his spine as he took it in, the corpse that had been forced into a standing position. What was going on? Gendry exhaled shakily; he had never seen something so chilling.
He looked back at Anguy, and then, inhaling deeply, started towards the barn door. He could hear Jack hissing his name, before cursing, the sound of light footsteps falling lightly behind his. Gendry kept as low as he could, though he knew before he got there that he wasn't going to be attacked. The whole thing had to be a rouse, Arya had been right- they must be hidden in the trees or something, ready to ambush. A chill ran down his back- he had only brought the men needed for Arya's plan.
As he neared the door, Gendry could see something across the width of it. His eyebrows creased- a metal rod, some kind of crowing bar, was slotted across, as well as a few wooden planks, each with one end on the ground so that they formed a large X across the doorway. Gendry cursed inside his head, wondering how they could have fucked up o spectacularly as they had... until he remembered.
Arya had said the door opened outwards.
The door wasn't locking him out; it was locking them in.
Perhaps Bronze Gate patrolmen had already been by? But then, why were the villagers still huddled in the pen, watching him with fearful eyes? Gendry looked over his shoulder at Jack, who shook his head in question.
Gendry steeled his nerve- he had to know what was happening. He slid the bar from the door, and wrenched the others aside. Once it was clear, he signalled for the archers to move closer. Waiting until he heard the sound of arrows knocking on wood as the archers prepared, Gendry raised the latch, and pulled the door open, his sword raised up high, the point facing inwards.
In retrospect, Gendry did not know what he had expected. He had expected to find either a room full of raiders, waiting for him, or an empty barn. Even just a couple of watchmen. What he had not expected was a room filled with corpses. Dead bodies littered the room, some on the floor, others slumped at their tables. The room stank of blood and pus and ooze. It was not what he had thought to find.
But what surprised him most was not the scores of corpses, or the lack of movement, or the horrific smell. What he had least expected to find was sat in the middle of the room.
"Arya?"
Arya sat in a chair, her feet kicked up on a table dangerously close to a dead mans pool of blood and vomit, while she leaned back in the chair, cleaning her knife with a cloth that appeared to have been pulled roughly from a person's neck.
Arya tilted her head. "Gendry," she greeted him. He felt rather than heard Jack move up beside him, and gag at the grisly sight before him. "You're late."
Gendry could feel every nerve, every vein, every pore in his body thrumming with fury as Arya kicked her feet off the table, stowing her knife in her belt. He lowered his sword unconsciously, exhaling shakily with barely contained rage.
He had asked her to stay behind. She had agreed, nay, promised him, that she would. That she would stay safe. Yet here she was, sat among the corpses like the Stranger, radiating smugness. Gendry didn't understand; he had seen her ride back with Jayce, watched her as she went.
Without thinking, Gendry sheathed his sword and strode across the room, uncaring that Jack and the others, who had arrived silently, were watching. He reached for Arya and yanked her roughly from her chair by her shirt, ignoring her huff of indignation. With a snarl he wrenched her closer, pulling her face up towards his as he growled.
"Talk," he commanded, unable to express his anger with words. "Talk now, Arya, else I will not be able to stop myself from doing something you won't like." He shook her as he spoke, balling up the fist of her shirt in his hand.
Arya pursed her lips, and Gendry felt a vein in his forehead throb as he recognised her expression. She was irritated. She was irritated. "Gendry, calm down will you?" She said, trying to step away, but entirely forgetting the body behind her. Gendry used the opportunity to yank her closer, lifting her onto her tiptoes. His feet were planted square on the ground as he snarled down at her, yet Arya seemed more amused than afraid. "Don't be stupid, G-"
"STUPID?" He shouted, unable to contain his anger any longer. Her hands clutched at his as he lifted her square off the ground and swung her around, pressing her back roughly onto the only clear space of the table top. She gasped as he slammed her down, leaning over her, his lips pulled back over his teeth. "Arya, I swear to the whatever fucking Gods there are, if you don't start talking, I don't care who's watching, I will knock you out and send you tied up in a god damn cart to Storms End, do you understand?" Arya snarled at him, and he slammed her back into the table surface, fuming. "Do you understand?!"
He watched as Arya seemed to war with herself, before she bit her lips. "You weren't going to let me come," she started. This, she would later reflect, was the worst thing she could have said.
"This is exactly why I didn't want you to come!" He shouted, feeling his rage boil over. He wanted to bend her over the fucking table, teach her a lesson once and for all- she couldn't keep doing this! He wouldn't have it! "You directly disobeyed me!" He yelled, watching as her hair fluttered from the force. He heard as the others backed out of the room. "I don't even know what to say, this time Arya- what is this?"
"If you stop trying to break the table with my back then I'll bloody well tell you," Arya snapped, trying to squirm out of his hold. Gendry caught her hands and pressed them into the table on either side of her head. Glaring at him, Arya conceded that it was better to let him take out his anger now than have him give her the cold shoulder for the rest of the way to Storms End. "I knew that you wouldn't listen, and that you wouldn't be prepared- don't look at me like that, you weren't and you know it too, or else this wouldn't have taken you by surprise!"
"Surprise?" Gendry asked, his eyes narrowed dangerously. "Surprised? Hells, Arya, I think I moved past surprised the second I opened the door!"
Arya refrained from rolling her eyes. "Gendry, if you'd let me up I'd explain it to you. I'm not saying anything until you do." Arya raised her eyebrows ever so slightly in challenge, and waited while he glared at her. After hesitating for a few seconds, he slowly relaxed his grip on her wrists before letting go. Arya pushed herself up, wincing.
"It was simple," she said casually. "I waited until you had gone and then convinced Jayce that this," she pulled a knife from her belt and passed it to him, "was yours, and that I would need to give it back to you before you attacked. Told him to go ahead and I'd catch up." She shrugged. "He's probably still wondering where I am. Poor boy, he'll need to be a bit quicker on the uptake in future."
"Arya," Gendry growled.
Arya sighed. "I gave you false directions so that you would go the long way, took a shortcut, sneaked into camp again, dumped poison in the outside ale keg, waited for dark, killed the guard and locked the door. Most of them died from the poison, and I slit the throats of those who didn't. It was over before you even got here." She shrugged. "Was that brief enough for you?"
Gendry didn't react. Arya bit the inside of her lip, wondering if she had actually pushed him too far this time, if maybe she should have just left it. She tried not to fidget as she waited, waited for him to shout, swear and storm out.
And then suddenly his lips were crashing down on hers, one hand on her neck and the other on the small of her back, pushing her closer to him as he consumed her. Arya's eyes flew open in shock as he kissed her, aggressively, angrily, passionately. After a moment she responded, melting against him, her hands braced against his collarbones. He pushed forwards roughly so that he was stood between her knees as she sat on the table, leaning down over her. Arya tilted her face up to meet his, but then he was gone, or at least, his mouth was.
He broke away, breathing heavily, his forehead pressed against hers as he held her to him. Arya bit her lip, and his eyes drifted to the movement. Arya watched him as he moved his thumb to her lip and pulled it away from her teeth, lingering on her mouth afterwards.
"I should be angry at you right now," he said lowly, his voice husky. It sent shivers down her spine. "I should be shouting at you, telling you that I can't stand to look at you."
"Then why aren't you?" Arya asked, surprised to find her own voice rough as well. She swallowed.
Gendry watched the way her throat contracted tightly before answering. "Because... I'm just relived that you're alright. That you're safe." He closed his eyes for a second, eyelashes fluttering lightly against her skin, before pulling away and straightening up. His face hardened slightly as he towered over her. "I don't understand how you did it, and while I hope you'll tell me in time, I know that you won't." Arya bit her lip again, and he gazed at her, his eyes softening involuntarily. "Just... I care about you, Arya. I know you don't want to hear it," he added hastily, pushing her back down as she stood to get up, "but I do. I care about you more than I have ever cared about anyone before. And it frightens me when you do things like this, because I don't want anything to happen to you. Do you understand that, Arya?" His gaze was so intense, so heated, that Arya opened her mouth and no words came out.
"I... thinks so," she mumbled, surprising even herself. She never mumbled. "I suppose I haven't really thought of it like that before. It doesn't frighten me, but I never really considered how others saw it." And she hadn't, or at least, only so far as what they thought of her abilities, her reputation.
Arya looked around her at the room. She imagined that to anyone else it was a a scene of chaos and horror... but to her it was nothing. The carcasses meant as much to her as the walls did, or the tables. I know death, she thought numbly, and death knows me. Death and I are old friends. No wonder Dick had run out to be sick.
"Are you ever going to tell me the truth of how you did this?" Gendry asked quietly.
Arya smiled wryly. Of course he knew her well enough to ask. "Not tonight, Gendry." She leaned her forehead against his chest, and inhaled his scent as he wrapped his arms around her. "Not tonight."
Ok, I know that chapter was shorter than usual, but I figured it was better to bang out a couple of shorter ones than one long one! I really, really am sorry about how long its taking me to update at the moment, I've just been so busy lately and things keep getting in the way. On another note I realized that this story has been published for a year now! That's fun! Anyway, reviews are much appreciated, thanks for bearing with me, and I hope you enjoyed the latest drama of this chapter! Over and Out! xox
