"I am sending Qyburn with you, to look after you on the way to King's Landing," Roose Bolton said on the morn of Jaime's departure.
"What about Hayley Smith?" Jaime asked. "What are you doing with her?"
"I'll leave that up to Vargo Hoat," Roose smiled. "I'm putting him in charge while Gideon and I are gone."
"Where are you going?" Jaime asked.
"Oh, let's just say we have a wedding to go to."
Jaime didn't think anything of this. He was just anxious to be gone, to put Harrenhal, the Bloody Mummers, and Hayley all behind him. He knew Cersei was waiting for him back in the Red Keep. Jaime had decided that when he got back, he was going to ask Cersei to marry him. It didn't matter that she was his sister. The Targaryen kings had married their sisters all the time.
Qyburn tried to make conversation with him a few times as they rode along, but Jaime just ignored him. He was still pissed at Qyburn for replacing his hand with a tentacle. All day, that tentacle was flopping around, independent of Jaime. He couldn't control it at all. It was like it wasn't even hooked up to his brain.
At night, Jaime hoped to dream of Cersei⦠but he dreamed of Hayley instead. The dream was hazy, but he got the sense that she was in trouble and needed him to save her.
He still couldn't shake the feeling when he woke up in the morning. "I never should have left Hayley in the care of Vargo Hoat," he thought. "This is the man who cut off my hand. What will he do to her?"
"We have to go back," he told Qyburn. "I left something at Harrenhal."
"Fine with me," said Qyburn. "I left some things behind too."
When they got back to Harrenhal, Jaime stood before the gates and shouted, "You in there! Open your gates, or I'll kick them down!"
A guard came. "What are you doin' back here?"
"I forgot something," Jaime said.
The guard let him in. "Get what you came for and be gone again quickly. Otherwise Lord Vargo will be takin' your other hand."
They had put Hayley in a pit with a bear. She had a sword, but it was just a wooden one.
Vargo Hoat was watching from the bleachers. Jaime accosted him. "Pull her out of there right now!"
"Thith ith none of your conthern, Kingthlayer. Lord Bolton thed the wench wath ourth, to do with ath we liked. If you want to get her out, you'd better go in after her yourthelf."
"Okay, I will." Jaime jumped in.
Hayley was surprised to see him again. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Something stupid. Get behind me."
"I'm the one with the sword."
"Yeah, a wooden one. Get behind me!"
"ROAR!" roared the bear as he charged toward them. Jaime realized he didn't know what to do. What had he been thinking, jumping in there without a weapon? How could he fight a bear barehanded?
Fortunately, his tentacle made itself useful for once. Of its own accord, it lashed out and hit the bear across the face. The bear didn't like that! He backed off.
The tentacle lunged forward, dragging Jaime with it, and struck the bear in the balls. The bear roared again, in pain this time. Then the tentacle wrapped itself around the bear's throat and choked him until he was dead.
When it was all over, Jaime stood up, panting. For the first time, Hayley was looking at him with something besides disgust. Could it be admiration? And when Jaime looked back down at his tentacle, there was something other than disgust for once on his face too.
"Hayley leaves with me," Jaime proclaimed. "Any man who tries to stop her will get the same as the bear."
Jaime and Hayley climbed up out of a pit. Qyburn appeared by Jaime's side, holding a large black bag. "I collected all my things," Qyburn said. "We can go now."
"Maybe this new arm isn't so bad after all," said Jaime. He looked at Qyburn. "And maybe you're not so bad either."
"Ser Jaime?" It was the first time Hayley had called him by name. "I am grateful, but you were well away. Why come back?"
A dozen quips came to mind, each crueler than the one before, but Jaime only shrugged. "I dreamed of you," he said.
