Within the first few hours of being locked in the age Arya already felt bad for Gendry who was considerably taller than she was. While she could nearly stretch out to her full height Gendry looked like he was in considerable pain from being hunched over. Arya couldn't think about the various villages they would pass and whether or not those people were in danger right now. She couldn't think about what was waiting for the two of them in King's Landing and what Cersei was going to do. If she thought about those things she was going to have a nervous breakdown and she refused to show that kind of weakness around these men. So she listened.
The first thing Arya learned that while these were men working for the Lannister's they were not Lannister soldiers like she originally thought. They were hired mercenaries and judging by the way they knew her and Gendry's real names they were hired by Cersei to find them specifically. They told her that Cersei wanted them alive which meant that she had something in mind but that didn't make any sense to Arya. Her family was dead so there wasn't anyone to ransom her to or use her as a hostage. She was just a lone wolf without a pack. Cersei had slaughtered all of Gendry's half-siblings without thought, they heard rumors that the soldiers killed babies and teenagers alike, so why did she want Gendry alive? What made him different from his other bastard siblings aside from him possibly being the last one?
They were mercenaries and that meant that they had to know certain things. They would talk loudly about what was going on around Westeros and beyond. Some of these men came from Essos and they talked about a dragon queen that was going around conquering and killing. Arya knew her history and the fact that there was a daughter of the Targaryen's out there fascinated her. If there was anyone that could take care of the Lannister's for her it was this dragon queen and she wanted to learn more.
It wasn't until a week later when they were stopped for the night, that the leader walked up to her with a smirk. His name was Griffin and his men respected him like he was a knight.
"You two were making your way North," he said. Arya glanced at Gendry who didn't even acknowledge that Griffin walked up to them. He wasn't asleep, Arya knew what Gendry looked like when he was asleep, he was merely faking it or showing Griffin disrespect by refusing to even look at him. Arya leaned back against the bars and looked at Griffin with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, I see how it is, you think you can sit there quietly and it'll be okay for the two of you. Need I remind you both that the Queen Mother said that you needed to be alive. She didn't say anything about you needing all of your fingers or your hands."
"We were heading North," Arya said evenly as Gendry cracked his eyes open and stared at Griffin.
"The irony must not be lost on you then," Griffin said and Arya had no idea what he was talking about. He must have taken their silence as an indication that they didn't know what he was talking about and he laughed. "Oh, you don't know? I suppose when you keep to tiny ass villages you don't hear about the important information. You see if you'd made it to Winterfell you wouldn't be in this situation."
"What are you talking about," Arya snapped. "The Bolton's control Winterfell and they wouldn't give us sanctuary. If anything they'd flay us and leave our corpses out to rot."
"That they would but the Bolton's don't control Winterfell. A month ago, there was a battle and your bastard brother Jon Snow, your sister Sansa, with the help of the Knight of the Vale, took back Winterfell in the name of the Starks. They even named the bastard the King in the North. So, you see, if you had made it to Winterfell you'd be safe in your featherbed instead of heading South to the Queen Mother. That's what you get for constantly stopping to help the little people; missed opportunities." Griffin turned and walked back to the camp with the rest of the mercenaries.
When Arya was little she once fell through the ice and into freezing water. It knocked the air from her lungs and made her limbs feel heavy. Jon and Robb had reached into the water and pulled her out after only a few seconds but that information was like falling through the ice again. Gendry was saying her name and trying to get her attention but it wasn't working very well. He took her hands into his and she wanted to tell him not to do that because then Griffin and his men would know what they were to each other but Arya's tongue was like led in her mouth. She looked up and met his blue eyes and slowly began to breathe normally again.
"They're alive," she whispered. "They're alive and they have Winterfell. They were right there and I didn't go to them."
"I know but there isn't anything we can do about it right now," Gendry said.
"Now we know why Cersei wanted us alive," Arya said. "She has two very valuable hostages to trade to the North in exchange for something." She expected Gendry to agree with her or say something about how they had to be patient and wait. She didn't expect him to go strangely still and not say anything for a long time. Arya looked up and noticed that he was frowning like there was something wrong.
"Arya," Gendry's voice was so quiet that she could barely hear him and it sounded like he was talking to her like she was a scared animal. "Cersei doesn't have two valuable hostages; she has one." Arya opened her mouth to disagree with him but Gendry squeezed her hand. "What would the King in the North want with the unacknowledged bastard of a dead Baratheon king? What strategy would he gain by bartering for my life? I'm far more dangerous to Cersei and the Lannister's."
"You're my husband," Arya whispered and Gendry smiled sadly at her.
"Imagine you're your sister or your brother. Cersei Lannister tells you that not only does she have your younger sister she also has the bastard blacksmith that she willingly married," Gendry explained. "You told me that you used to tell Sansa and Jon that you wouldn't ever get married and that you weren't interested in it. If you heard from Cersei that you were married, wouldn't the first thing they would assume is that it was a trick somehow?" The last thing Arya wanted to do was agree with him but deep down she knew that Gendry was right. There was no reason the North would want anything to do with Southern politics like the Baratheons and the fate of that house. The North wanted independence from Southern politics and rule and Gendry was right in the middle of said Southern politics.
"I refuse to accept that," Arya said even though she knew she was lying. "I won't let this happen. I refuse to let this happen." Gendry didn't say anything but he looked like he was trying not to be patronizing to her about this whole thing. He didn't tell her that she was wrong and there wasn't anything they could do. He didn't tell her that there was a good chance Cersei would kill him immediately and leave her to rot until some sort accord could be struck.
Instead, Gendry did what he always did which was comfort her without words. It was cold and despite the fact that it would likely give away how important they were to each other he took Arya into his arms and held her close. He shifted his large cloak so it covered both of them and while it wasn't nearly warm enough it helped. Arya clenched his shirt into her fists and tried to think. They couldn't get to King's Landing, they had to escape before that, or there wouldn't be any chance of survival.
As the night went on Arya whispered that she had a plan to get them out of here. They needed to wait until the next time they were let out of the cage and then they could fight. If Gendry noticed that she was being a little insistent about them getting away right now he didn't call her on it. Instead, he just agreed and pulled her closer to his body. Arya would have killed for the opportunity to kiss him, hold him close like she ached to, but she refused to give these men another excuse to hurt either of them. If the Brotherhood would have hurt Gendry for touching her there was no telling what these men would do and she refused to risk it no matter how much she wanted to touch him.
They moved away from each other as soon as the sun rose and Griffin and his men began to move around the camp. Arya glanced at Gendry and nodded to him. The last week or so they hadn't done much to show these men that they had a fighting spirit. A week was just long enough for them to get complacent and they think that Arya and Gendry weren't going to fight back. She intended to take advantage of that today. The moment they got away she planned to ride North as fast as humanly possible. As soon as they found some of Jon's men they would be safe. She could explain to her family who Gendry was and why they needed to keep him safe from the Lannister's.
Two of Griffin's men opened the cage and gestured for the two of them to come out.
"Come on. We don't have much time," one of them said. Gendry climbed out first as one of the men roughly took his arm. Arya followed and ignored the finger-shaped bruises that this man was no doubt digging into her skin. She glanced at Gendry and nodded. It was now or never.
The man holding her never saw it coming. Arya wrenched her arm free and punched him as hard in the stomach as she could. He was winded and when he doubled over in pain Arya threw her knee into his nose. She relished the sound of it breaking and he fell to the ground. Another hand went to grab her but Arya didn't let them hold onto her for long. They were too used to fighting men who moved slow and hit hard. She was quick and got away. She swept her foot out and knocked the man onto the ground. Arya took the sword he was holding and turned to her help Gendry.
Gendry wasn't as good at fighting as she was and while Griffin and his men might have underestimated her they didn't hold back when it came to Gendry. He was on his knees and there was blood on his hands, running from his nose, and on his split lip. Griffin was holding him by the hair and there was a knife to his throat. There were four men lying on the ground around them either unconscious or possibly dead.
"The way I see it you have three options," Griffin said. He pushed the knife into the skin of Gendry's neck and Arya could see a thin trail of blood. "The first option is you turn around and run. The minute you do that I'm going to slit this bastard's throat and send all of my men to find you. Maybe we catch you, maybe we don't, but he'll be dead no matter what. The second option is you try and fight to free him. The moment you take a step toward me with that sword in your hand I'm going to slit his throat. I can see you're a decent fighter but you're not that fast. You won't be able to save him. The third option is you put the sword down and you surrender. I won't kill this bastard and the two of you get to live to see another day." Griffin smirked as he watched her carefully. "You obviously care about his life so what's it going to be?"
"Arya, you need to run," Gendry said and he hissed in pain as Griffin pushed the knife into his throat. He was trying to sacrifice himself for her and she wasn't going to allow that. Arya clenched her jaw and tried to figure out if there was something else she could do. She tried to see another option besides the three that Griffin had set but she couldn't. There wasn't another option and she couldn't live with herself if she let Gendry die so she could getaway.
"Don't hurt him," Arya said as she tossed the sword to the ground and raised her hand in surrender. Two of the remaining soldiers, including the one whose nose she had broken, grabbed her arms.
"Smart choice Lady Stark," Griffin said. He forced Gendry to his feet and pushed him toward the cage. They didn't get the chance to relieve themselves and it didn't seem like Griffin was feeling generous. He shoved Gendry into the cage and gestured for Arya to join him. "Since you two decided to act like two savages you can do your business in a bucket until you've learned your lesson." Griffin tossed the old bucket into their cage and slammed the door shut. The man whose nose she had broken was glaring at her like he was going to kill her but Arya wasn't paying attention to him. She knelt beside Gendry and touched the cut on his neck.
"You should have run," he said as she looked at his wound.
"If it was me, would you have?" Arya asked but Gendry didn't reply. He knew as much as she did that neither of them could ever abandon the other. They couldn't do it as dirty and starving children in the Riverlands and they couldn't do it now. Arya tore a piece of her cloak and tied it around Gendry's neck to try and keep the wound from bleeding too much and began to look his bloodied knuckles over. Griffin knew that they were fighters now, that they hadn't given up, and he knew they cared about each other.
Arya knew it was going to get worse from now on.