Here is chapter five, sorry for being late, I was lazy and put off translating it for a while TT
Chapter 5: Riverrun
Previously:
Arya returned to the room where she had chosen to sleep the night before speaking with her uncle. He had finally accepted - after she had coolly reminded him that SHE had freed him, not an army of men - that she would leave for Riverrun alone. He would summon Lord Mallister, whom he knew had only bent the knee under heavy threats, and would ally with him to take back his lands. At the same time he would look after the Frey children and wives left. For now they had been locked in their rooms and would be let out once there were men to watch them. The servants had acknowledged without argument the change of Lordship, just as the people had.
Arya left her mare in the Frey's stables. Nymeria had offered to carry her while they traveled to the Twins, but Arya hadn't wanted to leave her horse behind then. However in a forest a wolf did run faster than a horse, and, on Nymeria's back, she would only need six or seven days to reach Riverrun.
Arya followed the directions her uncle Edmure had given her and arrived with her pack into the Forest of Whispers. It was the perfect place for them to stay as it stood a few hundred meters only from one of the bridges leading into the city.
Before she had left him Arya had asked Edmure to give her the names and description of the five most loyal men he had in Riverrun. She entered the city alone and without any trouble, passing easily for some nearby farmer's son looking for work as a servant in the Riverlands' capital. She found the first man on her list easily. Alister Fisher had been the Master of Arms of the castle, a prestigious title, but had been demoted to captain of a City Watch brigade. However he was still well known by the townspeople, and Arya had only to ask one innkeeper after buying some ale to learn where she could find him.
- "What d'ya want, boy?" a guard asked, inspecting her clothes and obviously finding them lacking.
- "'M Sorry, Ser. I bring a message from My Lord Ser Torrhen, for Ser Captain Fisher."
She was let in without another question. Arya had borrowed a random name amongst the few minor Lords of the Riverlands she remembered from her childhood lessons.
- "A message from Torrhen?" The Captain asked. "What does he want with me?"
Arya gave the parchment and whispered.
- "I bring a message from a Lord, but his name is not Torrhen, Captain." Arya knew her voiced had changed from a second ago. It carried again her northern accent and the softness of a girl's voice. Her manner of speaking was more Lady than commoner, and the man in front of her was bound to hear it. The captain looked at her with frowning eyes.
- "Read the letter," Arya said simply.
She had asked her uncle to write a few lines, because his men would recognize his writing and it would be the proof she needed to convince them.
"The one carrying this message is my niece, Lady Arya Stark of Winterfell. She freed me from the Twins. Lord Frey is dead. Obey her as you would obey me and she will free our city."
After checking no one could see her except the captain, Arya took off her wig. The man bowed to her.
- "My Lady," he said with a lowered voice.
- "Captain, may I assume that you will help me take back your city?" Arya asked simply.
- "Yes, My Lady."
- "Very well. Tonight I will arrange for the Drawbridge near the Forest of Whispers to malfunction and not be raised. By the time it is repaired it will be too late." Arya stopped, thinking of her plan. "When the sun disappears behind the horizon you and the men still loyal to the Tullys will have to rebel. My army and I will enter by the bridge."
Arya took a flask from her pouch.
- "How many men do you think you can find? You need to tell only the ones whose loyalty you are absolutely sure of, or the Freys might hear of our plans."
- "There are a thousand Tully men left in the city, My Lady, but I won't have time to reach them all. We have been scattered, obviously so that we can't organize a rebellion."
- "It will not matter. Lord Tully has given me other names after yours, I will find them once I am done here. A last thing, Master at Arms," Arya said, giving the man the flask. "On the clothes of every trustworthy fighting man you will put a drop of this. It has no effect whatsoever, good or bad, but you will understand what it does before the end of the night. Please do not tell anyone the bridge by which I intend to enter, and do not mention my presence if at all possible. Do I have your word?"
- "Yes, My Lady, I will do as you have ordered."
Arya didn't go see the last man on her list. As the third man he still worked in the castle, which made him more difficult to approach, but that was not what made her hesitate. While the four other men had all been demoted this one had been highly promoted when the Freys had taken the city after the Siege of Riverrun. He might be trustworthy, but Arya preferred not to take her chances. Four men were enough. She had left them with enough potion for each fighter in the city to get a drop, they wouldn't run out of it.
Before she left the city she stopped near one of the mechanisms supposed to raise and lower the drawbridge. In the service of the Many Faced God she had learned how to create any trap, and of course how to stop any mechanism and make it look as if it were a normal malfunction. Even in the middle of the day, in a crowded street, it was easy for her to slip in the shadows and modify the mechanism so it would fail to raise the bridge. Once the fault was found, an hour or so before night when the bridges were raised, they would still need to wok on it for two hours to find the problem and repair it; but it would be too late and the wolves would be in.
The following events were much simpler than she had expected. Most of the guards were Tully men, kept because the Freys lacked men and because they had had not opportunity to die for their House, since the Tullys had surrendered.
The bridge's malfunction did not alert anyone, which meant that it was a common occurrence. Behind Nymeria's eyes, who had a much better night vision than she did, Arya watched men trying to repair the bridge without any success. As the sun disappeared completely, Arya and her wolved attacked. Two hundred meters separated the edge of the forest from the city walls. In the dark night the guards didn't even notice her until she was a few meters from the bridge, but then it was too late. All the loyal soldiers had started shouting the Tully name and attacking the Freys. Aya released her wolves on them. Their instructions were simple. Attack any fighting man not wearing the smell Arya had made them smell before, except if the man surrendered. The potion, odorless to a man, had a very strong smell for a wolf. Arya had needed to jump from her body to Nymeria's for two hours to find the perfect ingredients. The mix had no real property except for its odor to wolves, and probably other animals too. It would repel the wolves and make them attack the real enemies.
Except Arya no human in the city had expected the wolves, however the young girl saw that the Tully men recovered very quickly from the shock, especially since the ferocious beasts only attacked their enemies. Arya killed a few guards on her way but didn't pay much attention to them. There were too many Tully men and the battle was almost won from the start. The men would have rebelled on their own were it not for the threat of their Lord's assassination at the Twins and then the retaliation of the four thousand men there.
The citadel was very well guarded in case of an attack, with well established security measures. However those mechanisms would need guards to implement them, soldiers to shoot arrows to kill their enemies, men to watch over the walls. But all the guards, from one camp and the other, were fighting for their lives or their city and didn't pay much attention to actually guarding doors and walls.
Arya had not trouble entering the castle with fifty wolves behind her.
Black Walder was a clever man, apparently. He had kept a whole Frey brigade as his personal guard. However he had probably not expected to have an enemy attack at the same time as a rebellion, nor that the enemies would be wolves.
The funny thing, Arya thought, was the fact that the men could have killed Arya's wolves if they really tried to. At least they could have killed a few of them. But most men, when faced with half a hundred wolves, including one taller than a horse, seemed to freeze in their breeches, unable to think properly. The sight had something unnatural, so many wolves were not supposed to stand in a castle and attack. At worst you could find them in a forest, if you were very unlucky, but in a castle? So men stood still and let themselves be devoured by the wolves. Even when they tried to attack, they were not trained to fight wolves, but swords. If you stopped a wolf's jaws he could still kill you with its claws, or run between your legs and jump at you from behind.
And so Arya's pack tore the men apart while the young girl fought their Lord Commander. She killed the man quickly and observed the room where knew Frey stood with his last men. It was one of the most defensible room in the castle, with a small door permitting men to only enter one by one, but the room was large and was probably filled with swordsmen.
However the narrow door was perfect for the wolves, they could come a lot faster than men and two by two. More than that they had no trouble fighting in a small space, contrary to the Frey men who had to back out into Frey's room. A new wolf would then enter the room, and then a new one until the fifty beasts who had come there with Arya were inside, except Nymeria who was too big to enter. Arya followed them in, leaving her direwolf to guar the door.
Black Walder was staring at his men's corpses scattered about in the room, wolves tearing their meals apart and sometimes growling at each other or at him. He looked so shocked Arya had to refrain not to laugh.
- "Are you alright, Lord Frey?" Arya asked. "No one had bitten your tongue, I hope?"
Arya was not wearing her usual wig but had attached her black hair in the Tully manner, in her mother's honor, since she was avenging her tonight. And also there was the fact that she couldn't remember how to do any other hairstyle. She remembered, little girl, as she watched her mother dress her own hair.
- "Who are you?" Asked Black Walder. "And you are mistaken, I am not Lord Frey."
- "I am Arya Stark of Winterfell," the young girl answered, watching him pale and savoring her victory. "And you are Lord Frey, Black Walder, since I executed the Late Lord Frey and all his heirs standing at the Twins."
That, more than her army of wolves, more than the guards' rebellion, seemed to break Black Walder.
- "It's a lie, it cannot be true," the man answered, obviously trying to convince himself. "The Stark girl has died years ago and the Twins are impregnable."
- "By an army of men, maybe," Arya answered. "But I am not a man, and my army includes none. As for my name, it does not matter whether you believe me or not. I am here to kill you, Frey. Believe that."
Men arrived through the doors, but as the wolves didn't attack them Arya turned to look.
- "Guards, I am Arya Stark, niece of your true Lord Edmure Tully, and I order you to lock this man in the dungeons and to bring me all the living Freys you can find."
Arya mostly disliked being a "Lady", but when the men bowed and obeyed immediately the reflected that it was sometimes quite useful.
All Freys were brought to her in the following hour. Some had tried to hide, others to run away, but they had all been captured, except two of Black Walder's brothers– or cousins or nephews, Arya wasn't quite sure – who had been killed.
There were only twenty Freys, including four children and three women. The others were young men not yet married but who had been able to fight three years ago.
- "My Ladies," Arya said, looking at the three women. "Are you born Freys?"
The women shook their heads silently, probably too scared to speak.
- "Very well then." Arya gave them the potion she had given the women at the Twins and watched them take it.
- "Soldiers, Knights, loyal men of the Tullys'. I am Arya Stark, Daughter of Winterfell, and I came here to avenge my mother, Lady Catlyn Tully, and kill the Freys still alive. Tonight, they will die.
Whispers came through the crows, men looking at the wolves, befuddled.
- "A week ago I attacked the Twins, punished Walder Frey and his House for their betrayal against my brothe. I have found your Lord, my uncle Edmure, and freed him. He is ruling the Twins with his wife and daughter. He will come back to Riverrun as soon as he has pacified the north of the Riverlands.
The men were now watching Arya with some adoration, and she frowned a bit. She wasn't there to win any hearts but to take her revenge against traitors.
- "Ser," she spoke to one of the guards who had commanded a major part of the Tully guards, "you have helped me greatly in my vengeance. What is your name?"
- "I am Beor Keath, Your Highness."
It took a moment for Arya to understand that he was addressing her and not some prince or princess standing right beside or behind her. Robb had been a King, and so as her sister she was a Princess. At least according to this man.
- "Ser Keath, you loyalty is inspiring."
The man bowed.
- "My lady, my sword is sworn to the Tullys, but until the Seven take me back you will have my loyalty."
He looked sincere, and Arya saw that he wasn't the only one to see things in that way.
- "My uncle Edmure is your Lord, and you will have a lot to do to pacify the Riverlands. Tell me, Ser Keath, is the Tully Counselor still alive?"
Her grandfather's counselor was in fact alive and well, and he had been demoted, which enhanced Arya's trust in the man's loyalty a great deal. She summoned him to the apartments the servants had quickly prepared for her.
- "My Lady," he said, bowing low when he saw her. Arya imagined his slightly frightened look could have something to do with the fact that Nymeria and three other wolves were standing in the room and looking at him. The others were scattered around the castle and the city, mostly eating the corpses of the men they had killed. Once they were full they would go back to the forest and wait for her there.
- "You must be Sailers." Arya said.
- "Yes, My Lady. I had the honor of being your Lord Grandfather's counselor."
- "Vey well. Speak to me honestly, then, and take a seat." Arya waited for the man to sit in front of her and started to speak with a serious tone. "Coming back to Westeros I had no other goal than to avenge my family, and maybe find out if my sister is alive somewhere. Other than that I have heard rumors about by younger brothers, and will need to search for them too. However, by attacking the Freys at the Twins I freed my uncle Edmure, and to kill the Freys here I have liberated your city. I do not regret it, and I certainly do not desire for the Frey, the Lannister and the Bolton's treason to have any benefit for the traitors. However my goal was vengeance, and I seam to be facing more than individuals now."
- "My Lady..." the counselor started, not knowing where to start.
- "Tell me one thing, Counselor, what are the chances of House Tully staying the masters of the Riverlands once I leave the city?"
- "My Lady, here, the people have hoped for the Tully's return for a long time. The Lannisters, the Little Stag and the Tyrells are too occupied fighting the Martells and the Mother of Dragons to attack us. The North alone could be a real threat to Lord Edmure now."
Arya kept quiet, thinking. After a moment, she answered.
- "I intend to kill Roose Bolton and his bastard, and to retake the North. What do you expect the Vale to do?"
- "Lord Baelish, Protector of the Vale, has been strangely silent these past years. However the Lord of the Vale is your cousin, and the Blackfish serve under his command. But your arrival is a… surprise, for everyone."
- "You can say it, everyone thought me dead, Counselor. But I am alive, and determined to seek vengeance. Where is the Targaryen Princess?"
- "According to the last letters sent to Lord Frey by the Lannister Queen, she is in Blackmont and fights with her dragons."
- "What are her chances of winning?" Arya asked, frowning.
- "If she only had men, I would say she has more chances of loosing than of winning, My Lady. But she has dragons, and they are still growing. They are now bigger than two horses side by side, from what I have heard. It won't happen in a few days, but she will probably destroy the Lannisters and the Tyrels, if Winter doesn't destroy her first. It is a fight for time, now. If the Kingslayer stalls long enough he can win.
The young girl stayed silent for a long time, then asked.
- "Once the Riverlands pacified, what will be the Tully strength?"
- "It is almost certain that with all the Freys dead, and with the Lannisters unable to help, even the most reluctant Lords will bow to the Tullys once more without much of a fight, My Lady. In that case, and with no other enemy to fight, your uncle will have a force of ten thousand men able and ready to march soon, and probably five thousand more in the following months.
- "I see… please have a quill, some ink and the best parchment you can find." Arya said after a while.
She started to write.
I hope you liked it! Next chapter is called "Daenerys", I will let you guess what it is about ^^.