Part Eleven
For the rest of the day, Arya and Gendry spent their time looking over the room and trying to see if there was any way for them to get out safely. Arya realized that they could use the chairs and tables as weapons but it wasn't nearly enough to up against the various soldiers with armor and swords. There didn't seem to be anything in the room that was meant to kill them. As far as Arya could tell it was just a normal chamber used to house someone that the crown could consider dangerous but didn't want to insult either. She could remember similar rooms in Winterfell when she was young.
The bed seemed fine as well and as the sun began to set Arya wanted to lie down and get some sleep. However, Tommen seemed to keep his word and just as the sun was down there was a knock at the door. Arya was on her feet in seconds and Gendry stood close by like they had any chance of fighting if the guards were coming to take them back to the cells. Instead, there was an old woman standing in the doorway with a tray of food and Arya could see the guards watching them.
"The King has graciously decided to feed you," the guard said. "If this servant is harmed we will take your fingers." They both nodded silently and the servant walked into the room. She set down the tray and Arya could smell a warm stew with some fresh bread and her stomach grumbled. Griffin and his men hadn't fed them very well.
"I promise the food is safe," the old woman said and she gestured for them to sit. Arya glanced at Gendry who shrugged. They needed to eat. The woman watched them sit down to eat and then began to tidy up around the room.
"What's your name?" Gendry asked after a moment of silence. The woman turned and looked at him oddly like she didn't understand the question.
"Alsy," she replied. "My name is Alsy, ser."
"I'm no ser," Gendry replied immediately. "But thank you for the food. We realize that it must have been hard to come in here to feed two prisoners essentially."
"Yes, thank you," Arya said and Alsy smiled.
"I remember you Lady Arya," she said. "You were such a little thing and all of us servants would wonder what dark corner of the keep we were going to find you in." Arya blushed when Gendry smiled at her. "And you ser, you look so much like your father and your uncle. It's like seeing ghosts." Gendry froze in his chair and looked up at Alsy like she was a warrior about to kill him. Instead, she was smiling warmly like it wasn't a big deal.
"You know who my father is? Because that is dangerous information to know," Gendry said but Alsy waved him off.
"I've been serving in this castle since the Rebellion. I'd recognize someone with your blood a mile away," Alsy said. "You do look like your father while he was young but also look so much like your Uncle Renly. The Lady Arya no doubt saw him walking around the keep when she was here last." That was true and Arya did think that Gendry did look a lot like Renly. It was one of the reasons that she thought it was a Baratheon. Gendry looked a little pale though, like he was afraid of something, and it as making Arya nervous. The food looked okay and it tasted fine but she wouldn't put it past the Lannister's to try and kill them with poison. She was about to ask him if he was okay when Gendry seemed to snap back to attention.
"Alsy," he said and the servant turned around so she could look at him. She smiled warmly. "I never knew my father or my Uncles. I never knew anyone in my family and now they're all gone. My mother died so she couldn't tell me anything and now they're all gone." Gendry paused as he clenched his fists like he wasn't sure he had the strength to ask what he wanted to ask. Arya reached over, took one of his hands into hers, and squeezed it. "Could you tell me about them?"
"I would be honored," Alsy said.
The next day Alsy came with their meals and some new clothes for them to wear along with the promise to clean up the things they wore on their backs. Arya was reluctant to give up anything to these people but Alsy seemed to be rather trustworthy. She sat down at one of their chairs and began to fix the various holes in their clothes and the parts that had worn thin. She told Gendry about the family that he would never know with the kind of honesty that Arya didn't see from servants very long. Alsy seemed to know that while there was a Baratheon on the throne that didn't mean that was the house with the power.
Gendry didn't seem too surprised when Alsy said that she didn't think Robert ever really wanted to be king and sort of accidentally ended up in the position when he tried to save Lyanna. She looked at Arya knowingly and Arya knew that Alsy was making the same connection that a lot of people seemed to when it came to her and Gendry.
"I know we look like them but we aren't them," Arya said as she took Gendry's hand and smiled at him.
"I know. I hope your ending is much happier," Alsy said.
"She's the only family I have left," Gendry said.
"Oh, I find that hard to believe," Alsy said and they both turned to look at her oddly.
"All of my brothers and sisters were killed," Gendry said slowly but Alsy shook her head.
"Your father had many suitors and they were not limited to King's Landing. It wouldn't surprise me if you had a half brother or sister running around of the other seven kingdoms." For as long as Arya had known him Gendry only had her for family and she watched as Alsy knocked his entire world off-center by casually mentioning that he might have family hiding somewhere in the seven kingdoms.
Alsy had to leave to get them some dinner and left them alone as Gendry stared at the wall like he couldn't believe what he just heard. Arya thought she was alone until Griffin told her that Jon and Sansa were alive and well in the North and she imagined that Gendry was experiencing something similar only on a deeper level,
"Do you think Cersei knows?" he asked quietly. "Do you think she knew to send out notices to all of the kingdoms to kill all of us?"
"She might have," Arya said. "But you Baratheon bastards are tenacious, you're survivors, and I think there probably are more of you out there. And when we're safe again we're going to go out there and try to find some of them."
"We will?"
"Yes, of course, we'll go find them and bring them North so damned Southern politics can't touch any of you ever again," she replied. Gendry leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead.
After Alsy brought them dinner and clean clothes she said that she had other duties to attend to but she was told that she had time tomorrow before the King would want to see them again. It was time for the trial at the Sept and there was a chance she wouldn't even see them tomorrow, let alone have time to speak. She left them some food wrapped in cloth just in case no one came to feed them and wished them goodnight.
Arya climbed into the far too comfortable bed with Gendry that night and they held onto each other. She wanted to take advantage of the bed and the locked door but the idea of the soldiers breaking down the door if they heard him "defiling" her was enough to cool the blood in her veins. They held each other close and Arya tried to enjoy this holding pattern that they were stuck in until Tommen could convene a court to decide if they were going to live or die. She preferred action to this and the rumor that there was a Stark girl in King's Landing again was going to reach the North eventually. Jon and Sansa had to know that she was alive and they would have to petition her return. She was sure of it; even if her sister didn't think much of her years ago they were still family. They still meant something to each other.
"I wanted to thank you," Gendry said into the darkness.
"What did I do exactly?" Arya asked.
"You keep fighting for me and I want you to know how much I appreciate it."
"We fight for each other because that's what you do when you love someone and decide to marry them," Arya replied as she leaned forward and kissed him gently. "For some reason, I keep deciding to honor our vows." They both laughed quietly and settled down to sleep. There was nothing they could do right now and they weren't of any use to anyone if they didn't sleep.
The castle was busy the next day and Arya could hear people running around as they prepared for the trial. She didn't know exactly what was going on but she hoped that they would be over soon so they could speak with Tommen again. She had a feeling that if she could appeal to him then maybe Gendry's life would be spared. Tommen seemed keen on the idea of having a half-sibling even if it was by marriage and the fact that he didn't threaten to cut off Gendry's head immediately seemed like they were going in the right direction.
At least Arya had to see it that way because there wasn't any other option. In the back of her mind, she knew that things often didn't go well for the people in her family and that her and Gendry were likely living on borrowed time but she couldn't think of it that way or she would collapse in on herself.
There wasn't anything to do in this room and Alsy didn't come around with breakfast so Arya didn't see any reason to get out of bed at all. While she didn't trust the guards to keep out of the room if she decided to lay with her husband if they couldn't hear anything then there wasn't any reason to come into the room. So Arya spent her morning and afternoon in Gendry's arms, talking softly about anything and everything, while occasionally stopping to kiss him breathless. It was the kind of relaxing feeling that they didn't get to explore outside of these walls and if they couldn't do anything until the trial was finished then she planned to take advantage of this.
They were both half-asleep in the middle in the afternoon when there was a loud explosion and the entire Red Keep shook. Arya jumped out of the bed and looked around as she waited to see if the entire keep was coming down.
"What the hell was that?" she asked. Gendry scrambled out of the bed and stumbled over to their window which looked out over the city.
"Oh gods," he whispered as he went extremely pale. Arya raced over and looked out the window. The Sept, which usually stood tall and looming over the city, was gone. There was a pile of rubble where it once stood and there were green flames reaching out into the sky. The buildings surrounding the Sept were heavily damaged and Arya could only imagine how many people just died.
"Green fire," she whispered as she remembered hearing about how Stannis Baratheon lost his siege of King's Landing. "Someone used wildfire."
"Arya, the King said that the trial was going to be at the Sept today," Gendry whispered as he looked out. "The entire royal family was supposed to be there including most of court as well."
"Tommen could be dead along with his Queen and maybe even Cersei," Arya said and she needed to sit down. The idea that Cersei Lannister might be dead made her entire world tilt on the side because that was something Arya always assumed would never happen. Gendry was staring out over the city; the Street of Steel wasn't that far from the Sept and she wondered how many people he knew died in this explosion. They needed more information and they needed it fast. There was no telling what would happen to the city with the Sept being destroyed but it wasn't going to be good for anyone involved. Gendry seemed distracted as he watched part of his home burn to the ground but Arya was focused. They never had the meeting with Tommen and she wasn't sure anyone else knew that he had declared them family at least to some extent. They were not safe. Arya got herself dressed quickly and banged her fist against the door.
"Hey, guards! What's going on? What happened out there?" she yelled as she continued to hit the door. Arya could hear people scrambling to outside but she couldn't make out any words. They were yelling and talking quickly but they seemed to be ignoring her. Gendry seemed to have snapped himself out of his shock and began to bang on the door as well. They called out for anyone but they were ignored. No one even told them to stop hitting the door or stop yelling. Whatever was going on was big enough that no one cared about them.
"They aren't going to tell us anything," Gendry said.
"Then maybe it's time we got out here," Arya said. "They clearly aren't paying attention to us; this might be our only shot."
"The door is locked from the outside," Gendry said. "We have no weapons and no way of picking the lock. Also, just because the guards aren't yelling at us doesn't mean they aren't standing there ready to cut us down at a moment's notice." He was right but that didn't mean she was okay with that. Gendry reached forward and took her into his arms. "I know you hate being helpless."
"More than anything," Arya whispered.
"But trying to escape out of the Red Keep while things are like this is not smart and you know it. We both know it. I don't want to stay any more than you do but we have to wait and see what happens," he reasoned. Arya nodded and they ate a little more of the food that Alsy had left for them. They looked out into the city and tried to see if there was any way to determine exactly what had happened. The hours seemed to crawl by and Arya wasn't sure how much longer she could take this. The sun was beginning to set and the last of their food was gone. There was a little water left but not nearly enough to last them several days and starving them didn't seem like something Tommen would do.
They were lying on the bed together, wrapped around each other when the doors were kicked open by the guards. They smirked when they saw the two of them together.
"Isn't this adorable. Is this the first time you've been able to provide a featherbed for your lady, bastard?" one of them asked. They were being baited, she knew that, but that didn't stop her from picturing how she wanted to smash this man's face in. She could tell that Gendry felt the same way but wisely said nothing.
"The Queen has demanded an audience with both of you," the other guard said and Arya blinked. She didn't know that much about the queen, just that she was a Tyrell and beloved by the people, and Arya had no idea why she would want to meet the two of them. She glanced at Gendry who shrugged as two more guards filed in and they were forced out of the room and into the keep.
It seemed that the chaos from earlier in the day was still very much in progress at the Red Keep. The guards were running around as servants and maids looked around frantically. She could see people in dark corners paying and others were crying. The Sept was the center of the Seven and Arya could not imagine what the faithful people of the city were feeling after having it taken away from them. Tommen spoke highly of his faith to her and she knew he must have been heartbroken.
The doors to the throne room open and Arya tried to ignore the dark feeling that settled into her stomach as she was forced toward the throne. From a distance, she didn't recognize the woman that sat on the iron throne but as she got closer Arya felt her blood run cold. Years ago her hair was long and golden and she wore lovely silk dresses. Now her hair was cut short like a boy and the dress she wore was black and looked like armor.
"Queen Cersei, may we present the two prisoners you requested," the guard said and Arya's worst nightmare came true and it became apparent just who died in that explosion today; Tommen Baratheon was no longer the King of the Seven Kingdoms. His mother, Cersei Lannister, was Queen and she was smiling down at them with deadly intent.