Chapter XVII
Sandor leaned out the window of his room when he heard the doors of the fortress open.
A huge chariot drawn by four horses, completely covered in snow, entered slowly, and stopped in the middle of the parade ground. He had no doubt that it came from Landing. Virtually no one who had an interest in coming to Winterfell could have a means of getting around like that.
Before the door opened, he already heard him scream. He frowned. There was no way that damn dwarf could go unnoticed.
- I have come all the way covered with the thickest blankets that I have been able to find in Landing, and even so, my balls are frozen ...
Sandor put on his fur coat and left his room resigned. He had to fulfill his status as host ... He snorted loudly when he opened the door and the intense cold hit him in the face, with a single thought in his mind: "All this I do for her! All this I do for her! ! "
Tyiron immediately saw Sansa who greeted him with a smile on her lips, but he immediately realized that she was staring at the car where they had made the trip. He smiled and while she took her hands he said:
- Yes, Brienne is inside her with the child ..- Sansa saw her gaze light up- .. It's like looking Jamie in the eyes of her...
She put her hand to her mouth and looked at him tenderly.
- Oh! By the gods, Tyrion.
He lowered his head and shrugged her shoulders, trying to make light of it. He didn't get it.
- Life goes on Sansa ... and that child is the best gift he could give me ...
At that moment, Brienne came out of the car wrapped in thick blankets with a small bundle in her arms.
Sansa quickly went to her. She caressed her arm not knowing how to behave. Brienne bent her knee and lowered her head. Not in vain was she in the presence of a Queen ... but Sansa immediately made her get up.
-No ... you don't have to do that ... You shouldn't ...- she looked at the child who was sleeping peacefully- .. Oh! It's so beautiful ... .- she looked at Brienne-. ... you shouldn't have taken such a long trip ...
Brienne smiled.
-I would never have missed this wedding ... and I wanted you to meet him ... .- She noticed Tyrion who had met Jon and they were greeting each other with great cordiality. There had always been a special connection between the "dwarf" and the "bastard." She also saw Sandor arrive. They stared at each other for a few seconds. In the end, he bowed his head in greeting and smiled discreetly. Brienne returned the greeting and the smile, and returned to focus on Sansa, and her son -... It is the spitting image of Jamie ...- she sighed and smiled sweetly as she looked at him- . As you will understand, I could not call it otherwise. It's as if he had come back to me ...
Sansa noticed that Brienne's blue eyes were filling with tears.
-Tyrion told me that you too ...- she said pointing to her belly -... It's another miracle ...
Sansa smiled and nodded.
- It certainly is.
She turned around and looked at Sandor who stood with his arms crossed over his chest and looked at Tyrion, who wouldn't stop talking, as if he were going to kill him.
-It has been a surprise for everyone.- she added smiling.
Brienne nodded.
- Your future husband ..- he said while raising an eyebrow, and paused, remarking how amazing that too- .. It is quite a surprise in itself ... Life turned him into a dangerous man, devoid of all empathy. In a violent and selfish being, but inside him there was much more ..
Sansa looked at Sandor and sighing nodded. After a few seconds she turned her gaze from her to her newcomer and took her arm.
- Come with me ... I have prepared a room for you and the little one ... I swear it is the hottest in the whole castle, the one Tyrion usually uses when he comes ... Wait for me to tell him ... .- She added, smiling maliciously, bumping her shoulder with hers. She suddenly remembered something and she knew she had to tell the newcomer immediately. By the way, the giant killer is here...
Brienne stood up abruptly and rolled her eyes.
- OH NO!
Jon left the dining room, leaving his dinner companions there. Tormund had been sleeping the drunk for a while, since, he did not separate himself from the northern wine all day, and Brienne had retired to tend to her baby, but Tyrion, Sandor, Sansa and he, did not seem to be sleepy ... It had been a nice evening, but he needed to breathe some clean air and feel the cold on his face, before going to sleep. He had gotten used to the free life very early, of the free town, and the hard stone walls made him feel like it was hard for him to breathe. He went up to the open gallery and looked inside the walls.
He had a hard time imagining the life he had lived there. It seemed like centuries had passed ... his life together with Robb, along with Eddard, who was able to lie to his wife, Caitlin, to keep the promise she made to her mother. She ยด he she He was able to live with the shame that meant for him that his wife will think that she had been able to deceive him. He would have liked him to have told her everything ... but it couldn't be ... The ambition, greed and cruelty of the men who had ruled his destiny, in a direct or indirect way, had made impossible.
In his room he had looked in the mirror and although he was physically the same, except for a few gray hair that whitened his temples, and a few kilos less, he remained the same as the young man who had learned to handle the sword with Robb and Theon, and he had played alongside Arya and Bran ... and had endured Caitlin's undisguised contempt.
He lowered his head with a sigh. He had forbidden himself to remember ... there was so much sadness inside him that he was unable to bring out ... and when he remembered it only made it increase. Sybil's tenuous presence, in his new life, was helping him create new and fond memories, but it was still early ... he still couldn't, or didn't want to, break down his own walls.
His eyes drifted unintentionally, or not, there was the entrance to the crypt. There her mother was buried ... maybe he could come down to see her for a few seconds. He was about to start walking there, when he saw a small black dot approaching from the East road.
He moved closer to the small wall and stared. He was a rider, and he was fully covered. He watched him as he reached the fortress ... and as he got closer he knew right away who he was. Jon hurried down the stairs and after notifying the guards who were guarding the door, he went out through one of the small adjoining doors.
The living room door opened and Jon stepped into it, smiling. His voice echoed within the wide space and he silenced all voices.
- Look who just arrived!
Behind him, a fully cloaked Arya entered smiling.
Sansa quickly got up from the table, yelling her name. They melted into an embrace.
- I wanted to have arrived earlier, but it was difficult for me to get a ship from King's Landing ... Almost no one wants to come so far north ... .- she explained. "
- It doesn't matter sister told him, shaking her head energetically from one side to the other-. The important thing is that you are here ... I couldn't get married without you ...
- Well said little sister, well said ...
She broke away from Sansa and searched for Sandor with her gaze. She found him getting up from the table, going over to them. Tyrion, sitting by the fireplace with a glass of wine in his hand, was glad that the raven he sent beyond the Narrow Sea had found her.
- I have a few things to say to the boyfriend ...
He went to meet her. Sandor picked her up as he held her in his arms.
- Damn baby! .-he exclaimed, unable to release her- .. You had to come ... There is no way I can get rid of you ...
Arya just nodded ...
- You can be sure ...- she looked at him carefully still in her arms-. ... Not in vain did I take you out of that hell so that now you can make life impossible for my sister.
Sandor gave a small, wry smile. He felt Arya sink her head into her strong neck.
-No ... You can be sure that I will never hurt her .-he told the little traveler that she had turned her life upside down for a while, while he looked at Sansa who watched them silently along with Jon- . Sansa was the only one who could make me come back from the hell that I deserve ... and you brought her to me ...
Arya pulled away from him and looked him in the eye. She shook her head.
-I still find it hard to believe ...- she told him smiling.
Sandor raised his head desperately looking at the sky. It was the phrase he had heard the most times in the last few days.
- And me ... .- Jon said taking her by the shoulders and leading her to the table. She looked at Sandor for a moment and winked at him- .. but without a doubt it is the best for Sansa ... They are made for each other.
Arya grabbed him around the waist and nodded energetically.
They all sat down at the table again, while they brought more wine and some food for Arya. The arrival of the Stark's youngest daughter had been conveniently notified to Lord Gerald the moment she entered the castle.
As Arya devoured a good chunk of cheese washed down with some of her father's old wine, she told them where she had been the previous months, on Tyrion's orders sometimes and by her own discretion other times, everything she had seen and learned, and she showed them the new scars that populated her body, while an incredible smile of happiness covered her face ... but the capital surprise was taken by her, when Sansa told her that she was pregnant. She nearly choked to death, and suffered a fall from the bench where she was sitting. When she was able to recover, after the scare, she can only say:
- Fate plays with us ...- she looked at her Sansa and Sandor as if seeing them for the first time. She remembered that Sansa had told her that after Ramsay tortured her, she did not believe that she could have children, and that was a problem being queen in the North, Sandor ... OMG! She had seen that shattered body ... It was all too incredible, not to think that fate still held many surprises for them-. ... and now, I want to go to my old room ... I need a bathroom...
Sansa and Sandor looked at each other for a second.
- Regarding that ..- Sansa began raising her eyebrows -... I want to show you some reforms that we have done in the castle ..
Arya moved slightly away from her side.
- I've been riding for three days without stopping to get to your wedding ... you don't want to tell me that my room ...
Sansa took her arm, pulled her up.
- Relax, you will have your bathroom .. but there are some small changes that I must tell you about ...
To be continue