2. A city on fire

Years later Sansa Stark would recall that night as the longest one in her life. She would've thought she'd already gone through enough before she came upon the Hound in her bedroom that night, but in truth her ordeal had just began. Since the moment they fled her chamber, her heart was at her throat.

Sansa kept close to the Hound as they came upon the drawbridge of Maegor's Holdfast. It was lowered and the men who were supposed to be guarding it this night had long fled! They crossed it quickly and soon enough they were running down the serpentine steps to get to the stables belonging to the white tower where she realized that Sandor Clegane must have slept in as a member of the Kingsguard. As the Hound prepared his horse, Sansa saw that his was the only horse in the stalls. Apparently the other White Cloaks had their mounts to battle with them.

She was still carrying her bearskin cloak under her arm. The Hound took the bundle and hid it in the saddlebag after he'd glanced over his shoulder to see if there was someone nearby. His sword was slung on the saddle within easy reach once Clegane was mounted; besides it Sansa saw his dog head's helm was attached to the saddle as well, though its left ear seemed to have been cut off- along with a horse blanket and inside the bag some apples were stored, along with the glitter of gold.

"What's that?" she asked him.

"Food and what remains of my winnings from your father's tourney. I've spent little of it as it is, so there's still more than enough to see us through this… But little bird, listen. If we are caught before we can leave the Red Keep, just cry out that I was kidnapping you for a ransom from the Starks, understood?"

"No! If I do that… Ser Illyn will chop off your head!"

He laughed hoarsely. "Lions or stags, if they cathc me neither will care what reasons we give them. I'll be doomed anyways."

Sansa thought that she would not do as he said, but she kept silent lest he argued back.

"Won't you wear your helm?" she asked, wanting to talk of something that wasn't the Lannisters chopping off more heads. "For protection?"

He laughed. "Besides making it easier for other to recognize me even at a distance and make me their target, I don't think it will matter much right now if I wear it or not."

He then climbed onto the horse and gave her a hand so that she could climb up behind him.

"Shouldn't I go in front?" Sansa asked.

"Later, but for the present I'll need space to move my sword. So make sure you grab on tight," he rasped.

Even before the big black destrier began to run, Sansa was already holding on, her arms gripping Sandor tightly. Muscled like a bull and so broad of shoulders and back that she could not link her arms around him completely, Sansa clung to his armor form as best she could. The iron studs on his jerkin dug into her chest, but she forgot about that quick enough. It was strange for her not to ride side saddle, and even more so to do it with a dress! But she kept quiet.

When they reached a postern gate of the Red Keep two scared guards stopped, saying that they could not go out by orders from the Queen Regent. Sansa remembered the servants who had tried to sneak away earlier only to be discovered and beheaded by Ser Illyn. She gulped.

"Has the smoke burned your fucking eyes as well as your wits?" the Hound snarled at the one who'd spoken. "Can't you see who I am, boy?"

The guard peered at the Hound closer and at last seemed to recognize him. The other one spoke up. "We know you ser, but we were instructed not to let anyone-"

His words were cut short as the Hound slid his throat open with his longsword. He'd drawn his sword so quickly Sansa had not known what had happened until she saw the man hit the floor. She gasped. Clegane looked at the other guard. "Don't call me ser. And I have my instructions as well. Will you open the bloody gate now?"

The young guard hastened to obey. Just as they were passing through the gate though, the Hound lashed out once more and killed the boy just as he'd killed his fellow guard. A small spray of blood found its way across her forehead from the man's neck.

"Why did you kill him as well?" she shouted at the Hound's back. "He opened the gate!"

"He saw you and knew me," he replied, as he pressed his horse on. "When the Lannisters start searching for you they'll offer anyone who has a worthy piece of information a reward. The gnat would've known you'd fled with me and gone to the queen expecting some silver... never suspecting Joff would end up killing him for a traitor for letting you fly away."

He laughed bitterly then. How can he laugh in moments like these? She was scared but saw the truth in his words. She felt as she had the day of the riot. But he saved me then as he is saving me now. If you have to be scared don't be scared of him. He is no knight but he is your only hope.

They rode through a city that looked like hell, and in the middle of the madness Sansa which never made her never give up her hold on the Hound. Inside the Red Keep, the air had smelled of fire and smoke, but outside Sansa could actually see the fire; the city was ablaze, and so much smoke was making her eyes cry. Back by the Blackwater it was green, but here in the streets new fires had erupted and chaos reigned. As Sandor Clegane turned his head to the right to tell her to grab even tighter, Sansa thought she glimpsed for half a heartbeat fear in his dark eyes. Gods! This hell must be even worse for him! Sansa thought, despairing. The look was gone in an instant though, replaced by his familiar scowl when she tried to hold him more closely. Sansa tried to sigh in relief, but couldn't even manage to open her mouth.

The world seemed to take on the colors of red, black, green and orange as men died everywhere. Several shops and houses burned away as people ran like madmen all around them. Screams sounded through the night and children could be heard calling for their mothers, while the woman wept in agony as men raped them. Sansa was terrorized by the savagery of it. Men and women alike were breaking into bakeries and warehouses to steal and plunder. She even saw some sellswords still dressed as Lannisters guards looting some silver cups and plates from a rich merchant's house while the merchant stood by his front door, tearing at his hair.. Sansa turned away agitated, just as a handsome sellsword drove the point of his sword right through the merchant's heart.

The Hound avoided Flea Bottom, for which Sansa was thoroughly relieved. If things were this bad so close to the castle, then she did not want to imagine how Flea Bottom was faring. Instead he led them through small streets and alleys for a time until Sansa recognized the Guildhall of the Alchemists. We're close now, she thought. Everywhere they rode, riots were sprouting, and from far away she thought she could hear the desperate singing that was taking place in the Great Sept of Baelor, where hundreds had gathered to beseech the gods for mercy. Holding on to Sandor Clegane was the sole purpose of her being alive and sane by now. When a particularly large crowd saw them pass by, someone yelled out to seize them from their horse, but upon a second look, no one dared confront the Hound even now. He must have looked half mad himself- only one man tried to grab the reins of the horse but the Hound rode him down. And this time Sansa did not care that the man had not been spared. She was glad of the Hound's ferocity then. Gods, let the others be too craven to come closer!

The gods saw fit to listen, for they managed to reach the Lion's Gate without any more problems. Sansa vaguely seemed to recall that the Hound had said he would go through the Iron Gate, but the thought came and went in the blink of an eye. As the great gates loomed closer Sansa could see that the gold cloaks were unable to suppress the flood of people that were trying to escape the city, but by the time they reached them the gates had finally been flung open and she saw that most of the guards had joined in with the crowd and deserted. She could see that people were still eyeing the dark horse sourly but they let them be as they rode themselves, and left the capital finally behind. Sansa had no wish to turn around for one last look at the place in which she had once been so happy…

Outside King's Landing's tall walls peasants had made their homes around small fields and the tourney grounds. Some had fled their houses by the threats of the siege, but others still remained, hoping to protect their small belongings and defend their daughters from the men pouring from the city. They have nowhere to go, so they stay and try to bear whatever befalls them. They have an odd sort of courage, Sansa thought fleetingly as they rode through their little hovels.

The Hound suddenly turned left and rode some distance from the city walls, towards the King's Gate where part of the fight was taking place. The other people who had run through the Lion's Gate were heading north, but they had turned south! Sansa wanted to scream to the Hound that they were going the wrong way but never found her voice. Her legs and arms already ached terribly from the strain of holding on tight to the saddle and to Sandor Clegane, and the smoke in the air made it impossible for her to open her mouth without coughing. Abruptly the Hound turned east and made for the Blackwater Rush where it met the Goldroad. Just beyond the King's Gate fire poured upwards towards the sky, in impossible towers of flame. The gate rattled and boomed under the force of a ram, while the ground shook to explosions. They weren't close to the actual battle, but wounded soldiers had managed to run away all the way from the battle to where they were riding by. Most seem to appear suddenly out of the night, but others were staggering due to grievous wounds as they came upon them. But thankfully not one tried to take the horse this time.

Sansa sat behind Clegane and turned her head to her left. From what she could see of The Blackwater through the smoke and cinder in the air, she thanked the gods that she had been born a girl and had not been expected to fight in that madness. Arrows and screams wrenched the air as Sansa gazed at the distant waters and what had once been the Fishmarket. There was a sort of eerie beauty to the scene, she marveled. Big green flames were erupting all around the river as big ships exploded with thunderous sounds... Yet soon enough they left King's Landing and the madness of the struggle behind them. Sansa soon saw trees gathering in the distance and they came upon the Roseroad unexpectedly. We're making for the Kingswood, but why? Lord Stannis is there along with the Imp's clansmen! He's burned so much of it, this is folly. Has the Hound truly gone mad?

Yet they encountered no one as they entered the dark forest, foreboding under night's shadows. The men who belonged to Stannis were not so far away from Blackwater Rush. And besides, those soldiers were concerned with looking towards the bloodshed going in front of them, not who or what may be fleeing besides them. They saw no scouts and met no trouble on the road. Tyrion Lannister's clansmen were nowhere to be seen either. Sansa started to think that maybe she'd been too harsh on judging Clegane so. He seems to know what he is doing, thank goodness. Neither of them ever knew that they were lucky enough to evade Tywin Lannister's armed force coming up from Highgarden with the Tyrell's now supporting Joffrey.

Dawn was still an hour away by the time they reached the point where the Roseroad left the woods and went on towards Bitterbridge and Highgarden. Suddenly though the Hound turned his horse south and abandoned the road just as it began to camper up and down hills. They had been keeping to the shelter of the trees but now they entered the Kingswood completely. As the trees enveloped them and the path was no longer clearly marked ahead of them, no signs of the onslaught could be seen this far from the Blackwater. Sansa Stark could only wonder where she had found the courage to have made it so far in such a short amount of time…