A/N: Getting back in the swing of things. Writing is getting easier. And, as a little tidbit, I have been working on this rewrite for a year now.

Sara the Maid

She was a wolf in a den of lions, hiding in plain sight.

Playing the part of a maid was easy. Initially, Sara had worried that she'd be thrown out of the castle, given the men on the gate weren't supposed to let anyone in. However, Sara wasted no effort in completing the first set of gruelling tasks set by her supervisor, Barbara, cleaning chamber pots and scrubbing floors. When the castle steward asked about the young girl who was let in against orders, he was told that she was making up for the maid who'd broken her neck. It would be detrimental to castle life if they threw the new maid out into the streets again – especially with winter upon the castle – so the steward made no further fuss.

During the first days at the castle, Sara knew she could not simply being crossing off names from her list. No matter how long she wait to act, the moment the first throat was cut, she would be suspect number one, meaning she had to bide her time and replace a maid who had already been working in the castle. Bella was the maid Sara chose: a doe-eyed, brunette of a similar height and build. She was also beautiful, in a common sort of way. To convincingly replace Bella, Sara would need to study how the girl talked and acted; so, she befriended Bella.

Sara used her first night in the castle to sneak down to the chamber storing the dragon skulls. They were as intimidating as she remembered: huge, jet black pieces of bone that gave anyone who saw them a good impression of how terrifying it would be to face a living dragon. It was inside one of these skulls that Sara hid her extra faces, Needle and her purse, keeping her dagger on her person – just in case. She didn't immediately return upstairs. Instead, Sara explored the skull chamber. Doing so allowed her to find a small opening at the bottom of a wall that looked something like a drain. Crawling inside took her into a passageway running paraelle to the wall. Further exploring proved that the passageway led into the secret web of tunnels said to run through the walls of the Red Keep. Sara spent each of her nights sneaking out of her bedchamber and finding out where each of them led. She even moved her things into one of them to keep them better hidden.

When word began to spread throughout the castle that Dragonstone had been captured by northmen, Sara knew what she'd do after finishing her list. Once the last of the three names was crossed off, she would steal a boat from the harbour and row out to the fortress, revealing herself to be Arya Stark and demanding safe passage back to Winterfell. The only people able to reliably say she was who she said she was would be Jon and Sansa, so they would have no choice but to take her to see them; and once she was back in Winterfell, she would be safe forever.

Studying Bella meant spending weeks upon weeks with her, picking up her ways of speaking and small mannerisms she made with her hands or face or body. Unfortunately, taking this time to be thorough meant that the army from Highgarden arrived before she could make her first move. Sara seethed as she and Bella watched the men crowd the entrance bailey from one of the many windows in the Red Keep. More men would be patrolling the castle corridors and city streets, throwing her plan to take Ser Ilyn's head to the Great Sept of Baelor out of the window. She would have to settle for a simple slit throat.

It wasn't just Lannister men returning from Highgarden, there was also men loyal to a lord of the Reach named Randyll Tarly. Sara saw him once or twice: a hard faced man with no hair and eyes that could cut steel. He was also accompanied by his son, Dickon. The other maids would swoon at the sight of him. Even Sara had to admit he was rather handsome, with a strong jaw, well-kept hair and his father's eyes, though they were not quite as sharp. The only thing leaving something to be desired was Dickon's beard: it was little more than a thick patch of brown, peach fuzz covering his jaw and upper lip. He's the sort of lordling Sansa would've fawned over.

One face that frequented Sara's new life as a maid in the Red Keep was that of Clout, the guardsman with brown, lanky hair who had spoken up to allow her entry into the castle. He was always checking on her in his spare moments, asking how she was getting on. She would answer his questions, best she could, avoiding anything that suggested who she truly was. As much as he put on a friendly face, there was something about him that left Sara uneasy. She couldn't say as to why; it was just a feeling.

The face she saw the least of was Cersei Lannister; in fact, Sara hasn't seen her at all. The self-styled Queen of the Seven Kingdoms was a reclusive woman – even in her own home – keeping to the upper floors. Sara did see plenty of the Ilyn Payne, however, watching a number of his executions. She took the time to learn where in the castle his chambers were located and how to access them through the secret tunnels: such information would come in very useful for when she finally took Ser Ilyn's life.

She would replace Bella the same night. The moment Ser Ilyn's corpse was found, it would set the castle on high alert. By then Sara would need disappear. A great deal of suspicion would go immediately to the girl who arrived weeks before Ser Ilyn's death. All the information would suggest that Arya Stark dyed her hair red and posed as a maid to get inside the Red Keep. Jaime Lannister's army would be called down from the Riverlands. The list would have to be finished before he returned.

Killing Cersei would only cause chaos amoung those in power. The news would leave the city: 'Arya Stark has assassinated the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.' Knowing this, Sara formed an alternate escape plan: should she be unable to commandeer a boat, she would travel south into the Kingswood. News of Daenerys Targaryen's passage north hadn't escaped her ears during her time in the city. If Sara told the Dragon Queen who she really was, then perhaps Daenerys would protect her, even reward her. And it wasn't at all unlikely that would need to be the plan she acted on. Euron Greyjoy was Lord of the City Docks and he would undoubtedly have his men keep a keen eye out for a teenage girl on her own, looking to obtain a small, one person boat. Sara wasn't particularly interested in finding out what Greyjoy might do if he caught her.

Sara was eventually forced to act when Lord Randyll asked to see her several weeks following his arrival. She was breaking her fast with the other maids when Barbara came into their dinning room and told them all their daily tasks. When she reached Sara, Barbara also told her to go up to Lord Randyll's chambers once she had finished eating.

It was a long walk. Clout was assigned as one of two who would escort her, seeing that he'd persuaded her admittance into the castle. The other person escorting her was Lord Randyll's son, Dickon.

"I tell ya, I don't know why y' papa wants to see this one," Clout told Dickon as the three of them walked. "She's a good servin' wench. Does 'er job, good an' proper."

"Be that as it may, my father wants to talk to her," Dickon replied. "If I were you I wouldn't question my father's decision once we're in his presence."

"Why not?"

"He won't take very kindly to it."

"Fuck that. He'll 'ear what I 'ave to say whether he likes it or not."

Dickon sighed, shook his head and didn't push the topic any further.

Walking into Lord Randyll's chamber, he was sat at an oak table, writing on a piece of parchment with a white feather quill. His eyes rose, stabbing Sara the moment they landed on her. The Lord of Horn Hill gave no indication as to what he was thinking: his expression stone. It left Sara feeling very vulnerable. Those eyes will pick up on any signs that might suggest I'm lying.

"So this is the maid you let in, Clout," Lord Randyll said after an uncomfortable silence.

"It is m'lord, though I don't know why you'd want to talk to 'er," Clout replied. "She's been no trouble since she arrived."

"Did I ask your opinion?" Lord Randyll said coolly.

"No."

"Then do not give it! You can wait without while I talk to this maid. Is that quite understood?"

"Yeah."

"Then remove yourself."

Clout slunk out the door they entered through and Dickon joined his father at the table. Both men wore thick green tunics with a red huntsman embroidered over the chest: the Tarly arms. Dickon's features were less chisled than his father's, seeming much more capable of kindness. Sara couldn't imagine the younger Tarly ever growing up to look as stern as the older.

"What is your name, girl?" Lord Randyll demanded.

"Sara, my lord," she answered, curtsying.

Lord Randyll's eyes shifted ever so slightly. "So you've spent a great deal of time at court wherever you came from. Either that or you've picked up how to speak properly in the short time you've been here."

"I thought that I should do my best to fit in, my lord."

Tarly's frown deepened. "Very well. Where did you come from before arriving at King's Landing?"

He suspects I might be Arya Stark. We would expect me to lie. "The Riverlands, my lord."

"Where in the Riverlands?"

"A village close to Seagard."

"And who is the ruling House in Seagard?"

"Mallister. Their arms are a silver eagle on an indigo field," Sara replied, doing her best to make the added information sound natural: it could easy come across as a rushed answer to an expected follow-up question. Lord Randyll's frown somehow curled deeper. He let the silence drag out for a long time before giving another follow-up question:

"Do you know who Arya Stark is?"

If I answer with a rough description, he will ask how I know any of it. If I answer claiming not to know anything, he will have no information to help him decide whether or not I'm lying. That would be better.

"Who's that? A lord's daughter?"

"Surely you've heard of Robb Stark?"

"Of course. The Young Wolf. He's the one that Lord Walder Frey killed."

"Arya Stark is Robb Stark's youngest sister, and she slaughtered a gathering of Freys around two months ago now."

"First I'm hearing of it."

"But I thought you were from Seagard."

"I must have left before the news reached my home village."

"And you never heard the news during your journey south?"

"Must have."

Tarly's frown deepened for the third time. "Very well. You are dismissed. Go about your business for the day, but I will be wanting to speak to you each morning before you begin your duties in the castle. If you do not attend willingly, I will send guardsmen to collect you. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal, my lord."

"Send in the soldier Clout once your without."

Sara was mildly panicking throughout her morning duties. He isn't stupid. My arrival alone makes him suspect me. Even though I was taught how to lie in the House of Black and White, he will scrutinise anything I say. The prospect of seeing Lord Randyll every morning was too much of a risk to take. She would need to kill Ser Ilyn tonight, replacing Bella prematurely. Sara began her work come lunch time.

"Do you remember how I said there was dragon skulls in a chamber beneath the castle?" Sara asked Bella with a hushed voice.

"Yes," Bella replied, her dark brown eyes lighting up at the mention of dragons.

"Well, I was thinking that tonight we could take a look down there finally."

Bella's face dropped. "I don't know. What if we're caught? We'll punished if we're found outside our rooms after curfew."

"Don't worry, I know secret way that we can use without worrying about being caught."

"Alright." Her face rose a bit. "Have you been down there before?"

"Of course I have."

"And are the dragon skulls scarey?"

"Terrifying."

A strange smile rose on Bella's lips, as if she were pleasured by the idea of being scared. "Then I will be waiting for you tonight."

The afternoon was more bearable than the morning, but not by a huge margin. There was always the possibility that Lord Randyll had made up his mind that she was indeed Arya Stark in disguise. It left Sara looking over her shoulder while she worked and flinching at the sound of armour rattling as soldiers & guardsmen walked through the corridors on their patrols. The light in the grey sky got dimmer & dimmer. Nightfall can not come too soon today. And when it did come, Sara found she still couldn't relax. She was fidgiting throughout supper and as she lied in bed, waiting for enough to pass for the castle to fall asleep.

Bella was wide awake when Sara went to her bed. The two young maids left their living quarters and began the journey down to the skull chamber, lighting their way with Bella's small, bedside candle. Sara carried a skin of water. They slowed every time they heard a guard walking close by, causing them to hide in whatever alcove or opening they could. Thankfully, it no longer posed a problem when Sara took her friend into a specific opening, descending the stairs it sat at the top of before stopping with only a third of the staircase left before them.

Sara turned to the wall on their right and applied pressure to a pale-red brick, pushing it two centimeters into the wall and producing a clear, audible click from the mechanism within. Not ten seconds later, a section of the wall popped open, becoming a door. Bella was struck dumb. The bricks of the wall were attached to a steel door on large hinges that Sara pushed open, allowing access into a tunnle running along the insides of the walls. Once both of them were through, the door was closed behind them. Now inside, Sara pointed out that the brick she'd pushed was attached to the door by a hinged lever that activated the mechanism inside the door when the brick was pushed into the wall.

Down a passage way and along another, the two girls came to a ladder in a cylindrical shaft with doorways on either side whenever it reached a new floor. The ladder stretched far above the floor they were on while also sinking deep below. Down was the direction they climbed, Sara going first and Bella following after her. Both of them had to be careful of stepping on their skirts as they went, though Sara found it easy considering she'd done it plenty of times before.

The bottom two storeys of the ladder were at the centre of a chamber wider than the shaft above. Sara led the way through a doorway, keeping hold of Bella's hand, because they had to put out the candle before climbing down the ladder. Lucky, Sara had memorised the path through the thin passage ways leading to the skull chamber.

When they finally reached the skull chamber, through another door built into the wall, it was lit by torches scattered about the room, hanging from the walls and great pillars in iron sconces. The skulls sat on the ground, varying in size and intimidating even now they posed no threat of harm to those who entered the chamber. Bella was awestruck the moment she laid eyes on them. She gingerly approached one, placing a shaking hand on the jet black bone – enamoured. While Bella focused on the skull, Sara picked up a chunk of brick the size of an apple, it's pale-red surface rough to the touch. Slowly, she crept up behind her occupied prey, before planting a heavy blow against the back of Bella's head, spending her to the ground.

"S-sara," she managed before a second blow silenced her.

The blunt force traumer caused no bleeding, as Sara had wanted. Without hesitation, she dropped the rock and began to strip Bella down to just her smallclothes, folding each garment before pulling out a knife and rolling Bella over, getting her long, brown hair out from underneath her body. Bella's eyes were still open. Sara checked the pulse on the neck; it was beating. She changed that quickly, dragging her knife over the Bella's throat.

Blood spurted from the wound, flowing down pale skin onto the floor. Sara rolled up her sleeves before working the knife around the bottom of Bella's jaw, up the back of the left jaw, over the top of that ear, down & along the rear hairline until making it over the next ear then down the right jaw and finishing where the cut started. By the end, blood coated the entire blade as well as the fingers holding the knife.

Sara began carefully pulling the skin away, working at the underside with the knife, exposing muscle and bone and making Bella's head a red & white ball on top of a pale-skinned body. It was a slow process. At the end, Sara cleaned her hands with the water from the skin she brought with her. She also cleaned the inside of her new face and the knife she'd used to cut it off. The dead body, Sara dragged into the tunnel they'd entered through, hiding it in a passage way branching off from the chamber at the bottom of the ladder.

Making her way back up the ladder with a new face and clothes, she knew that if she returned to the maids' quarters there was the chance she would wake someone. It would be better to do that as Bella. No one saw the two of them leave, of that she was sure, so if she woke someone reentering the maids' quarters, then she could claim to not be involved with her own disappearance; no one would be any wiser. The best case scenario would be to sneak into Bella's bed without waking anyone; that way morning would be the first time anyone noticed Sara was missing – long after she had become Bella.

An advantage of having used the route to the skull chamber she had was that she could use the ladder to reach Ser Ilyn's bedchamber. The secret tunnels of the Red Keep were an intricate web with many connected threads. Knowing the route she would lead Bella to skull chamber with, Sara had done her best to find the path that could take her from the skull chamber to Ser Ilyn's chamber. Even without light, Sara made the journey quickly, carrying with her Bella's face and clothes.

Coming to the secret doorway leading into the bedchamber of the Queen's Justice, Sara placed the face and clothes on the floor before pulling out her knife again. She pressed in a brick in the wall to her right, withdrawing the bolt holding the secret door closed. It opened into the solar of Ser Ilyn's chambers. Quietly, Sara shuffled toward the bedchamber door.

Lifting the latch slowly, she pushed open the door, poking her head inside once the gap between door & frame was wide enough. Her prey lied on a small bed, underneath thick blankets that rose and fell with his breathing. The room was pitch black save for the thin sliver of moonlight spilling through the gap between the window shutters. Sara slipped inside, making no sound.

Carefully, she walked a semi-circle around the bed to figure out which way Payne was facing so she could approach from behind him. Moving more slowly than ever, Sara crept toward the bed, knife in hand. Reaching it, she stretched out her arm – holding her knife firmly – and placed the edged blade against Ilyn Payne's throat. Whether he woke at the touch of metal, Sara did not know; too quickly did she drag the blade against his skin, parting it. Blood poured out the wound, staining the bed clothes red.

Once back inside the secret tunnel, Sara took off her face and dress, replacing them with Bella's. Reaching the maids' quarters, she fell asleep a different person, grinning at her success. Only two names left. The Mountain and Queen Cersei.

A/N: If all goes well, the next chapter should be up tomorrow, but don't get used to that sort of upload speed.