'She reckons they was ...special friends.' Locke's comment rang in her ears. She couldn't think about what it all meant right now, if anything, she was so very tired. There were random words circling in her head like puzzle pieces but she couldn't put them together. Concentrate on getting out of here first. Puzzles can wait.

She walked straight past the group of Northmen, as they rode out onto the King's Road. One of them stopped his horse next to her and she hesitated, but he leaned over the other way and vomited noisily onto the flagstones. The girl kept walking, clutching the axe to her chest.

Past the stables, ducking between the wagons, onto the track that led to the river. 'Gendry!' she whispered, peering through the gap in the hedge. If possible, the smell of the drains had got worse. 'Here,' he whispered back, invisible in the hedge's shadow.

She made to jump over the boggy ditch but misjudged the distance and landed ankle-deep in slush. She swore, tried to keep her other boot clear but overbalanced and had to put it down. Cold water rushed into both boots, her toes curled at the gritty consistency. She tried to move but the ooze was tenacious. She felt like she was sinking.

Gendry appeared in front of her, keeping his distance. 'Gods teeth, are you stuck? In the shit ditch?' He chortled.

'Stop fucking laughing and help,' she suggested irritably. She yanked upwards with one leg and then the other, but was worried she was going to fall forward onto her hands and knees. 'Take this,' she demanded, holding out the axe, 'It's weighing me down.' Gendry was laughing properly now, but he did manage to reach over and grab the axe from her.

'This ain't even heavy,' he said, twirling it in one hand like a baton.

'And stop showing off. It's heavy for me, alright?'

'Are you planning on getting out of that muck any time soon?'

'I'm stuck.' She put her hands on her hips. She could struggle out if she really tried, but it was late and she was exhausted. Gendry tossed the axe to one side and grabbed her forearm, linking them. He hauled her up out of the sludge. It clung to her ankles, made a sucking, popping sound when it finally gave her up. Gendry put his other hand on her waist and lifted her clear of the marsh entirely, putting her down on firmer ground.

'Since when did you get so strong?' she said. She took a step and her boots swilled with liquid. The bottoms of her pants wrapped around her legs, coated in filth.

'That smells... kind of bad,' Gendry observed, a wide smile on his face.

'No shit.' The girl squelched over to her axe and retrieved it. 'Even worse, I just got seriously ripped off by that godsdamned InnKeeper for this thing.'

'What did he sting you?'

The girl shook her head. 'Everything. All I had. Thirty-five coins and all my gems, too.'

'Ouch,' Gendry sympathised. 'I made them same axes and sold 'em in KingsLanding for fifteen coins apiece.'

'Yeah.' She frowned. 'You're not really helping.'

They walked back along the track to the river, Gendry carrying the axe, the girl sloshing with every stride. At the riverbank she sat down and took off her boots, rinsed them one at a time in the fast-flowing current. She put them upended on the grass to drain and waded in, letting the churning water clean the mud from her pants. It was icy cold, but served to wake her up. She leaned down and rubbed the material between her fingers, feeling the oily dregs lifting away.

'You probably got leeches on you,' Gendry remarked. He swung the axe in a chopping motion, pausing before it hit the ground and then re-hoisting it effortlessly. He sliced the weapon sideways, making an arc parallel to the ground. In his big hands, it looked like a child's toy.

'Spare me your leech obsession. They can't actually hurt you.' Satisfied that she was at least relatively clean, the girl waded back out of the river. 'Arya asked about us, you know.'

'Did she?' Gendry rested the axe head on the ground. He looked amused, but pleased.

'I think she feels a bit possessive of you.' The girl wrung out the ends of her pants, started pulling on her boots.

'What did you say?' He sounded worried, and it annoyed the girl for some reason.

'Don't panic. I said we were just friends'.

He smiled and nodded. Rubbed one hand across his head in a bashful gesture. 'Good.'

The girl thumped her boot on the ground with more vigor than was necessary, shook it out. 'Just be careful. She's not like us, Gendry.'

'What does that mean?'

'She's Highborn.'

'Highborns is people too,' Gendry said, defensively. 'Arya's no different from you and me. She thinks of me and HotPie as if we was her own family.'

The girl snorted. 'Really? Well I never met a member of the Nobility who cared for commoners beyond what they could get out of them. Goods, services, labour, protection... once they got it from you they tend to toss you aside faster than yesterday's ashes.'

Gendry had an obstinate expression on his face. The girl recognised it, knew it meant he had his mind set. 'With all respect,' he said tightly, 'You ain't exactly hung out with much Nobility to know what you're talking about.'

The girl stood up and faced him. 'What's that s'posed to mean? You think I'm too common to understand how they think? You think you're better than me now, 'cause you been hanging out with Lady fucking Stark?' Maybe she was over-tired, but Gendry's stubbornness infuriated her. 'I met a lot of people in my work, more than you. I know how the ones in castles think of the ones that sell them their goods, build them their keeps and sow their crops. Shoe their horses, make their armour.' She glared at him to drive home the point. 'I'm just saying, open your eyes. Don't play your royal fantasies; don't go being a hero for some little Lady, who won't even remember you when this is all over.'

Gendry returned her glare. 'I know what I'm doin'.'

'Good. Well don't forget to be calling her M'Lady.' The girl simpered sarcastically, made a poor attempt at a curtsey.

'Stop bein' such a cockweed,' Gendry sighed. 'I ain't seen you act like this before.'

'Yeah well. I guess we've been moving in different circles.'

'Hey, I grew up in the same circles as you, girl, had to look after meself same as you. Y'think it's easy bein' a bastard in KingsLanding? I know about them that's got Royal blood and them that's got peasant blood, and I know what side I'm on. I ain't stupid.'

Abruptly, Arya's words floated into the girl's head. 'Know your enemy.' She didn't know why they occurred to her right now, but they made her pause, hold back what she was about to say. She turned to look away from Gendry, out over the river. Her mind emptied of all other thought. Gods but I'm tired. She felt a little delirious. The rushing of the waves filled her head, and she imagined the water pouring into her skull, washing it clean of all the confusion swirling within it.

Neither of them spoke for a moment.

'You grew up in KingsLanding,' she said, turning back to face Gendry. 'What do you know about the Royal family?'

'Nothin.' He looked sulky. 'Is this 'bout how I think I'm better than you, again? 'Cause I can assure you that workin' all the daylight hours in Mott's smithy don't leave much time for hobnobbing with the Royals.'

'No, forget that,' the girl waved his assumptions away. 'I'm sorry I said all that. That's not what I mean. I just wondered what you know of them. As people. You must've seen them, right? During... parades and stuff?'

'Yeah. I seen 'em. We left after the old King died, though, so I ain't seen much of the new King. When he was a Prince, he was kind of skinny. Blonde hair. All the Royal kids had blonde hair.'

'The old King, what was he like.'

'Fat.'

'Who else was there?'

'The King's brother was on the Council... he left the Capital around when we did, when the war started. He was a bit soft lookin'. Like he ain't never got his hands dirty.'

'They're both dead now though, right?' I don't care about them.

'Yeah. So, the Queen... yeah. Beautiful. Meant to be the most beautiful woman in the Seven Kingdoms, but I dunno 'bout that. I never seen her up-close. Then there was her brothers, the Lannisters. The Imp was always drunk, I heard. Or in brothels. Or, drunk in brothels. The Kingslayer was said to be the best swordsman in the Kingdoms, but I don't know 'bout that either. That's all I know, really.' Gendry shrugged. He spun the axe restlessly in one hand.

'Thanks.' The girl smiled. Felt bad for arguing with him. 'How do you do that, anyway?' She motioned for him to give her the weapon.

'Do what?' Gendry grinned, handing her the axe.

'You know. Make it look so easy.' The girl heaved the axe to her shoulder, but when she went to lift it higher the weight made her feel like she was going to tip. Gendry stepped in behind her, folded his arms under hers. 'Lift it up with both arms, close to your body, like this,' he adjusted her grip. 'Then look where you're aimin' to hit. Don't take your eyes off the spot. Push up all in one go, then let the weight of the head bring it down.' He demonstrated, taking her arms along in the movement with his. 'This blade pulls to the right a bit, so aim 'bout an inch or so to the left of what you wanna hit. You should get it.'

She tried on her own. It was hard to get it off her shoulder, and the head swung down faster than she expected. It landed with a thud on an angle off her left, the blade buried deep in the dirt.

Gendry pressed his lips together. 'Mmm-hmm. Were you... aimin' for that?'

'Aim?' the girl puffed. 'I can't even barely lift the thing.'

'You'll get a feel for it,' Gendry assured her.

'Fuck.'

They walked along the bank. She felt despondent. How was she going to accurately cut the chain without risking Jaime's hands? She had no more coin to purchase anything else. She didn't even have a horse to carry this thing back on. Gendry had done his best in advising her on what to buy, but unlike him, she hadn't spent the last ten years smashing shit with hammers.

'You'll get it,' Gendry said again, encouragingly. 'You're a tough girl. You gotta learn to handle an axe if you're gonna be tough.'

The moon was high above them in the centre of the sky, the stars scattered and smudged all about, like light shining through a threadbare cloak. It must be well past midnight, she thought. They reached the spot where she'd sat skipping stones earlier, and there they stopped.

'You could stay here the night, you know. Head off in the morning,' Gendry offered.

'Nah. The kids'll be sleeping. I don't want to wake them up.' She rested the head of the axe on the ground, leant on it. 'Besides, I got places to be.'

'Well.' Gendry smiled shyly. 'C'mere.' He pulled her into a hug. She felt herself relax in his embrace, the solid warmth of him. She felt sad, and didn't know why. He stepped back. 'Good luck with gettin' that... chain issue sorted.'

'You should come with me, you could cut the chain like that,' the girl snapped her fingers.

'I would if I could but... ' Gendry looked into the trees, to where somewhere nearby a small campfire burned. 'I can't leave the others. Arya, HotPie. They need me.'

'Of course. Tell them thanks for the food. And, thank you for coming to the Inn with me.'

'It was a pleasure,' Gendry said. 'Worth it to see you stuck in shit.'

She pretended to look hurt. 'Hanging out with the posh kids is making you cruel, Gendry Waters.' They grinned at each other. The girl looked at the ground, thinking. 'Speaking of Arya...'

'Don't start this again.'

'Shh, it's not that,' she laughed. 'I just wanted to know if... did she ever talk to you about a dog she had?'

'A dog?' Gendry looked uncertain.

'Yeah. One that she taught to come when she whistled. It ran off one day.'

'I dunno, I don't think so.' He wrinkled his brow as if struggling to remember. 'There was this one time when we was at Harrenhal, eatin' dinner -'

'You were at Harrenhal?'

'Yeah, that's where we been since the war started. We got captured by Lord Lannister's men.'

'You're lucky you got out when you did. I heard hundreds of people were killed there.'

'Yeah I owe Arya for that one.'

'Anyway,' the girl prodded, not wanting to hear about Arya's no doubt amazing escapade. 'The dog?'

'Oh yeah. Well it weren't a dog, as such, it were a wolf-pup. Arya said she had this wolf-pup, back when she lived in Winterfell. They all did.'

'A wolf-pup?' The girl couldn't stop herself rolling her eyes, just a little. 'Fucking Highborns, always have to be different.'

'I'm ignoring your classist digs,' Gendry said, in a morally superior tone. 'Anyhow, we were talkin' about... gettin' back at people who done you wrong, or somethin', and she's told us 'bout this wolf she had, that attacked some teenager who was hurting a friend of hers. And then she had to make it run away, so they couldn't find it.'

'They were buried together... She was a good wolf. She never hurt anyone.' Arya's words, speaking in the girl's head again. She rubbed her eyes. 'No, that can't be right. The wolf died. It didn't run away.'

'Well, I dunno what wolf you're talking about,' Gendry went on, 'But Arya's wolf definitely ran away. She said it bit the teenager on the hand, when he was holding his sword to her friend's face. She was the one made the wolf go.'

The girl saw clearly in her mind's eye the face of Guts, on the bridge-road, his thin lips curved in a smirk as he held his knife to her face, angled it along her cheek. She saw the shadow loom up behind him. Suddenly the vision blurred. She blinked. Now there was a different face in front of her, still with a similar smirk, but holding a massive sword to her cheek. It was bright daylight, and around them was the river bank, the water burbling loudly, not a road at dusk. Instead of Guts' dusty black coat, this teenager had on a brown tunic made of finest leather, with long sleeves made of silk. A jewel glittered on his finger as he angled the sword, pressing deeper. His hair was clean and blonde, and his eyes were light, but when he looked into hers they were Guts' eyes, full of sadistic pleasure. She felt the cold bite of the steel on her cheek, and the hot blood running down.

A grey and black flash leapt behind the teenager, growling, and clamped onto his sword arm. Then she was falling backwards and the vision blew away like smoke.

She blinked again and stepped back. She was standing next to Gendry, and it was night, the crickets burring in the earth, mist in the trees. Gendry had his hand on her arm, his forehead creased with concern. 'Hey, are you alright? You wanna sit down a minute?'

'I'm fine,' she pushed him away. She smiled. 'It's alright, I'm fine. Thank you.'

And thank you Mycah, she thought. Thank you for showing me. Now, it all makes more sense.