Updating before my flight! Sorry about the delay, and sorry about possible autocorrect errors. I hate when my phone changes words to things that make absolutely no sense at all. I'll fix them while I wait for my second flight!
"Lord Baratheon, you can't be here!" the young guard said, trying his best to stop Gendry while he followed him. Gendry paid him not attention, and the guard desperately tried to be heard. "The Hand of the Queen hasn't given his permission-!"
"I couldn't care less what the Hand says!" Gendry muttered angrily, making the guard gasp. The poor fellow gulped and continued following Lord Baratheon nervously, not knowing how to handle the situation. He was very young and he had just recently become a guard in the Red Keep, and he wished there was an older and more experienced guard in his place to help him.
"My lord, I must insist! The Hand of the Queen has to give authorization in the Queen's place!" the guard exclaimed. "My lord, I must ask you to leave!"
"Then ask, but the answer will be the same," Gendry said as he walked through the dark tunnels. He didn't know the way because he had never been there before, but one of his men did know the way and was guiding him.
"I will have to report you to the Queensguard!"
"Then do it! I don't care, all I want is to find my wife!"
"She isn't here, my lord!"
"But the person that can take me to her is here," Gendry hissed, and he continued ignoring the guard. The man, realizing that he wasn't going to accomplish anything, left. He was surely going to tell the Queensguard of his presence there but Gendry didn't care that he did, as long as he had time to find the answers that he needed.
He followed the man that was guiding him, Addam, through the dungeons of the Red Keep towards the third level of cells. According to the sellsword, those cells were for the worst criminals of Westeros, while the second level was for highborns and the first level was for common criminals. The person they were looking for was in the third level for sure: even though she wasn't exactly a criminal like the ones that frequented that place, she had committed serious crimes against the people of Westeros. She had burned alive both innocent commoners and highborns, and the murder of innocents was something that Queen Daenerys Targaryen did not tolerate.
The raven had arrived to them days ago. Gendry was only hours away from Harvest Hall when one of his men told him the news: Arya and his son had left the castle to go to a fair, and they had not returned. The fair had been burned, the people slaughtered, and his own men had been killed. Arya and Robb had been nowhere to be found, and there had been no clues of who the people that had done that might have been. Arya and Robb had simply... vanished without trace.
Gendry had rode immediately to King's Landing accompanied only by a few of his men. The ones that he took to Harvest Hall had stayed there because he had promised aid, and the castle was still under siege. He couldn't call back the rest of his army from the other castles because they too were still fighting. He had no other option but to go to King's Landing and see what he could do once he got the answers that he needed.
The Queen wasn't in Westeros: she had travelled to Essos a fortnight ago, and she wasn't coming back yet. In her place was her Hand of the Queen, Jorah Mormont. Gendry had gone to the Red Keep and requested to see him, but after waiting for the man to arrive and growing impatient he had decided to deal with the matter by himself, and that was the reason why he was now in the black cells of the dungeons of the Red Keep.
He had never felt such fury inside in his entire life. Someone had dared to take away from him the two things he loved most on the world: his wife and his son. Whoever had taken Arya and Robb was going to pay, Gendry was going to make sure of that... And if any harm had been done to his family, the people responsible for it were going to understand the true meaning to the Baratheon words. Ours is the Fury.
They are going to know my fury now...
"Are you sure it's this way?" he asked Addam, and the sellsword nodded. "How do you know?"
"I was here once," the man replied, making Gendry frown.
"Here? I thought you said the black cells were reserved for the worst criminals in Westeros."
"They are."
Gendry didn't like something about the man's voice, and he wondered what in seven hells had the man done in the past to deserve being locked in that place. It had probably not been a wise choice to hire a sellsword into his service without knowing much about the man's life, and Genddy wondered if he had put his family in danger by having such a dangerous man near his family. He sent those thought away; Addam was being useful at the moment, just as he had always been, and that was all that really mattered.
"It's here," Addam said thence stopping I front of a heavy wooden door that had no bars. Everything was on complete darkness, except for the little light that their torches provided. Addam took out the key from his pocket that he had masterfully stolen from the guard, and he unlocked the door of the cells. Gendry stepped inside the cell with a torch in hand, and he aS followed by his men.
The place stank of shit and sweat and sickness and humidity. The walls were made of dark stone and were dirty and covered in moss. There was some hay in the stone floor, but not enough to make if even close to comfortable. There was a bucket on a corner, and no windows. The fire of the torch illuminated the place, and Genddy found what he was looking for.
There, sitting quietly on a corner, was Melissandre.
Her stay in the dungeon had not diminished her beauty, but it was definitely decaying. She was dressed in a luxurious red dress anymore, but in dirty rags instead. Her hair was still red, but it was dry, and her face was pale and extremely thin. The red ruby that used to be around her neck had been taken away from her. Her eyes remained dangerous, though, and they shine with excitement when they saw the flames on the torches.
"Fire," she whispered. Gendry and the rest of the men just stared at her on silence while she reached out with her hands like spiders to the flames, trying to touch them. "The Lord of Light has come to me again... It's been so long. So long... The night is dark and full of terrors, and these cell are as dark as the longest night..."
"Your red god hasn't come to save you, witch," Gendry said. He remembered the last time that he had seen that woman. She fooled him and took his blood, then threw it to the fire as she said the names of doomed men. He had hated her for it ever since, and he hated that he needed her now. She was the woman that had convinced his own uncle that he needed to sacrifice him. She was the reason he had been separated from Arya, and the reason that he had had to run.
The woman looked at him with focused eyes. She studied his face, his blue eyes, his dark hair... Her expression changed to that of recognition and surprise, and she stood up from the cold hard floor and approached him with slow steps, but with her head held high. No matter how much time she had spent in that place or the conditions she loved in now, she still conserved some of her powerful dignity. Melissandre kept staring at Gendry and studying him. The surprise in her face transformed into something that surprised Gendry: melancholy.
"Lord Baratheon..." Melissandre whispered. Her voice was still strong like it was before. "It has been a long time."
"Since you fooled me and tried to kill me? Aye, it had been a long time," Gendry said, not bothering to keep the harshness of his feelings away from his voice.
Melissandre smiled.
"I did what I had to do to serve the Lord of Light," she said.
"You did what you had to do for power, and you failed. You were wrong all along, Stannis wasn't the man chosen for some great destiny," Gendry retorted. "But that is not why I'm here today."
"No? Then why are you here?" the woman asked with genuine curiosity, and a mocking half-smile.
Gendry didn't respond right away. He stared at the woman, debating in his mind whether if he was doing the right thing or not by coming to this woman for help. He had to leave his pride behind to do what needed to be done, and that was not something that he liked. The fact that he had to be in that place in that moment made disgusted him, but he had no other choice. He was going his for Arya and his son, for his family. No one could tell him where they were, and he needed to know if he was to save them before it was too late. But he couldn't save them if he didn't know what enemy he was fighting against, and he knew of no one else in Westeros with the power to tell him where he must go and look for his family. Melissandre had magic, and maybe that was what he really needed.
"My wife, Arya, and my son..." he finally murmured, hoping that he wouldn't have to leave that cell disappointed. He was trusting his gut. "They were taken days ago. No one saw who did it, no one saw what happened. The ones that witnessed it are dead, and I have no idea where to find them."
"Your wife? Arya Stark?"
"Aye."
"I saw a deep darkness in that girl's eyes... I saw murder in them."
"I don't care what you saw in them!" Gendry hissed. "She is my wife, and she is missing! Our son is missing too! His second nameday was little more than a moon ago! His name is Robb... He was named after his uncle. You do remember him, right? Do you remember Robb Stark?"
"I never met Robb Stark."
"No. But you do remember how you took my blood by force. You took it with leeches and you cast them into the fire while my uncle said his name... Over the years many people have tried to convince me that the Red Wedding happened because it had to happen, that it was men that decided that fate, not magic. But I will always remember... how you did your magic using my blood with the purpose of muttering the brother of the woman I love..."
"It was the Lord of Light's will," Melissandre said, raising her head.
"Was it? I don't think so. But even if it was, what you did was wrong, and now you are going to help me."
"Help you? You seek the help of the woman you blame for your misery?" Melissandre asked, again with a mocking tone.
"You used magic to provoke death, now you are going to use it to redeem yourself. Years ago you wanted the downfall of a Stark, but now you are going to help save one."
"How? I don't have the means or the power to change the fate of your wife and child."
"I only need you to tell me who took her," Gendry explained. "Only that. Give me a name, and our debt will be paid."
"I don own you anything."
"You do, Melissandre. You took my blood. Now I want some magic in return."
"No," the woman said, though her voice had weakened considerably since she first started talking to Gendry. It seemed that she was hesitating.
Gendry took a step forward, ready to threaten her or extortionate her or deal with her or so anything that it took that he would get the name that he needed to go and save his family. A name, a name was all he needed. Then he would know where to start looking and he would go to save them no matter what it took. He was about to start speaking again when suddenly he was interrupted by Addam. The sellsword wasn't talking to him, though, he was talking to Melissandre. He was doing if in Valyrian, and Gendry frowned as he listened to the man talking to the Red Woman in the foreign language. Melissandre looked surprised once again, and she stared at Addam with wide eyes. Her eyes widened even more eventually, so she was clearly shocked by what the man was saying to her. Gendry wished he could understand what was being said, but he had never studied Valyrian, so he had no other option than sanding there listening cluelessly while the sellsword and the witch spoke. They appeared to be bargaining. At some point Melissandre took a step back and shook her head, and Addam took a step forward and kept talking. He mentioned Arya's name and Robb's name, that was all that Gendry managed to pick up from the conversation. Addam pointed towards him with his head for a second, and Melissandre locked her eyes on Gendey again. Once Addam was done speaking, Melissandre remained in silence for a few very long and very tense moments, until she finally spoke again in the Common Tongue.
"Just a name?" she asked. "And the debt will be paid?"
"Just a name, and it will be paid," Gendry nodded. He wasn't lying; if the Red Woman managed to tell him who had taken his family away from him he would forever forget about her. The resentment that he felt towards her for what he believed had been dirty trickery that led to much suffering for him and Arya later on would disappear, and he would be free. He wouldn't hate her anymore, and he would forgive her for lying to him and using him like she did years ago.
Melissandre made her decision, and she nodded her head once. Then she looked at the torch that Gendry carried.
"I will need to take a closer look at the fire," she said, and Gendry took a step forward and put the torch in front of her.
She stared into the flames for a long time, so long that Gendry had to move his gaze away from the fire because his eyes were dry and itching, but Melissandre didn't even blink. She remained staring into the dancing flames all that time, and the tense silence and the waiting was making Gendry nervous and irritated. Was the woman trying to fool him? Was she mocking him? What took so long? Gendry had a short temper and little patience, but he made his best effort to remain listen and he tried to wait. He didn't want to break Melissandre's concentration of it was true that she was really seeing something in the flames. She sensed his uneasiness.
"Give time to the Lord of Light to show me what he wants me to see," she said softly. "I haven't seen fire in a long time, the visions aren't as familiar to me as they were before."
"But will they come?" Gendry asked. He didn't care how long it took as long as he ended up getting answers.
"Yes, my lord. They will..."
Melissandre frowned then, and she took a step closer to the fire. Gendry did the same, curious and impatient.
"What is it?"
"I see colors."
"Colors? Of a House?"
"Maybe. I see grey. I see blue."
As soon as he heard those two colors, Gendry knew immediately which House Melissandre was talking about. He felt as if a black veil covered his hard and turned it into the deepest darkness. He should have guessed, he should have known... It was obvious! Arya had had her revenge on them, and now they had their revenge on her when she was weaker than ever. Gendry swore to himself that if any harm came to her or their son, he would lay waste to that House once and for all...
Before he could say anything out loud, Melissandre spoke again.
"I see a castle. Two castles, they are identical. A river, a bridge..."
"House Frey," Gendry muttered enraged.
He turned around and left the black cell, but not before ordering his men to take Melissandre with them. He was probably going to need her later on. This time he knew the way out of the dungeons of the Red Keep and he didn't have to follow anyone's lead. He emerged into one of the keep's big rooms, and right before turning the corner on the way out he almost crashed against the Hand of the King, Ser Jorah Mormont, who was on his way to the dungeons and was escorted by the young guard that had unsuccessfully tried to stop Gendry from reaching the black cells.
"Lord Hand," Gendry greeted the man, and Ser Jorah did the same with a nod of his head before his expression became severe.
"My men tell me you entered the dungeons by force," the man said. Although he expression was severe, his voice was calm, but threatening at the same time. It was a voice that warned you to watch your step and be careful with what you did or said, but Gendry was not afraid. "Why?"
"My wife and son disappeared," Gendry explained. "They were taken by force and all the witnesses were slaughtered. All my bannermen are being attacked and I sent my men to war against an unknown force. I needed to know who this faceless enemy was before going to kill them and get my family back."
"And you came to the dungeons for answers?"
"The witch can see visions in the flames, and I believe in her magic. It was my only choice."
"And what was her answer?"
"House Frey," Gendry muttered between gritted teeth, full of spite. He had always hated that family for the pain that they had caused Arya, but now he had personal reasons to hate them, and the feeling had doubled its strength.
"House Frey? They don't have enough men to attack the Stormlands."
"But they have the coin to hire armies of sellswords to do it for them," Gendry retorted. "It wouldn't be the first time that it had happened."
"What are you going to do?" Ser Jorah asked.
"I don't have my men, and I can't attack the Twins with a little more than two dozen men. If I could get help from the Queen..."
"The Queen is in Essos," Jorah interrupted him. "If you want her dragons, she took Drogon with her. Lady Sansa and Prince Jon went on a diplomatic mission to Qarth and they took Rhaegal with them, and Viseryon is beyond the Wall helping the Night's Watch fight against White Walkers and wights. I'm afraid, Lord Baratheon, that you are out of luck."
Gendry cursed under his breath, unable to believe that that was happening to him. He had nothing; no army to attack with, and no dragons to help him. And he was completely sure that the Crown wasn't going to order House Frey to stop that madness; the only proof that Gendry had that they were responsible for what was happening in the Stormlands and the kidnapping of his wife and son was the word of a crazy Red Witch that had seen it in the fire. Truth be told, the only reason why he was trusting her was because what she said made sense, of course it would be the Freys that would attack Arya; they must have found out that it was her that killed Walder Frey in the Twins years ago.
The Freys were going to have their revenge on his family, and he had no way of saving them... He couldn't rode to the Riverlands and attack the Twins on his own! The men he had weren't enough to lay siege to the castles!
"Won't the other Houses help?" he dared to ask.
"They might. All of Westeros despises House Frey since the war ended, but you don't have the time to send them a raven and wait for their reply. Even if they say yes, it would take them weeks to ride to the Twins," Ser Jorah pointed out.
Gendry felt a deep weight inside of him that crushed his hopes of ever winning that battle against the Freys. Ser Jorah was right, he didn't have enough time to wait for other Houses to help him. Even if he wanted to call back his own men from the places he had sent them to all over the Stornlands, he wouldn't have enough time to wait for them.
"What am I going to do?" he whispered, beginning to sound desperate. "Can't you spare any of your men? Please?"
"I can give send goldcloaks with you to aid you of a fight were to happen," Ser Jorah said. "I know you don't like them, but times have changed and the goldcloaks are now decent soldiers, our Queen made sure of that. I can also send with you as many Unsullied as I can spare."
"Thank you," Gendry said with genuine gratitude and relief. It was true that he still didn't like the goldcloaks, but any help that he got was well-received, and the Unsullied were brave and fierce and incredibly skilled warriors. They would all greatly increase his chances of emerging from that situation victorious. "I am taking the prisoner Melissandre with me. I need her. As soon as I am done with this I will return her to the dungeons, you have my word."
"Very well," Ser Jorah agreed. "When will you ride for the Twins?"
"I should have been there days ago," Gendry said as he resumed walking and made his way down the halls of the Red Keep. "I'm not losing any more time."
Gendry rode away from King's Landing with the men that had been promised to him by the Hand of the King, which were enough to actually stand a chance if there was to be a fight. He sent ravens to his men in the Stormlands, asking for help if any men could be spared. He hoped that some could be able to answer his cry for help; his bannermen were loyal men that knew that he was a good Lord, and they all loved Arya and their son. Gendry was sure that, should any soldiers be able to leave the Stormlands to answer Gendry's call, they would ride day and night to meet him at the gates of the Twins.
It took him and his men days to reach the Twins in the Riverlands. They rode as fast as the could for as long as they could without killing the horses and exhausting themselves, and they made it to the Twins during the sunrise one morning.
Gendry had learned enough during his years as Lord to know that it wasn't wise to start an open conflict with the Freys right away, with only the Red Woman's word as proof that his accusations were valid. He approached the first tower holding a white flag to avoid a fight at first.
The Freys had been alerted that he was coming, and they were waiting for him at the gates when he arrived. He stopped his horse and halted the men that accompanied him, and he glared at the current Lord Frey. The man didn't want to meet him inside the castle, but he also knew that he wouldn't be able to avoid Gendry, this he had come out of the castle to meet with him. Gendry glared at him before getting off his horse and stepping forward to meet the man: lord Edwyn Frey, grandson of Walder Frey.
"Welcome, Lord Gendry," lord Edwyn said with a mocking smile. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?"
"My wife, Arya Stark, and my son Robb were abducted from our lands," he said, trying to keep the accusatory tone away from his voice. He didn't want to seem too menacing, but at the same time he didn't want to appear weak. However, lord Edwyn took his words in the offensive way.
"Are you accusing us, lord Gendry?"
"You can't deny that there are good reasons to suspect that House Frey might have something to do with any harm that comes to House Stark," Gendry pointed out.
"The Red Wedding happened years ago. The war is over. Go back to where tumor come from and stop insulting my famiky."
"I'm just saying the truth! And I'm not leaving here until I make sure that my wife and my son are not here. If you don't have them you have nothing to fear, lord Frey. If my family is not here I will leave, and I will go search for them somewhere else."
"They are not here," lord Edwyn insisted. "Besides, why would I trust your word?"
"Why would I trust your word, lord Edwyn? House Frey lost it's credibility long ago," Gendry shot back. He could see that Edwyn Frey wasn't grinning anymore, and instead he was gritting his teeth and making him look even uglier than he already was. "Let my men come inside the Twins. I promise, if they find nothing we will leave a never come back. And if you don't agree, fine," Gendry held up the paper that he had been carrying all the way from the capital so that everyone could see it. "This is from the Hand of the Queen. In name of Queen Daenerys, he orders you to let my men search your castle. There will be severe consequences if you refuse."
"You dare threaten me in my own door!" lord Edwyn exclaimed, his face red and swollen with rage.
"I don't threaten you, my lord," Gendry said, his voice calm and cold and his eyes fierce and clear like the sky after a deadly storm... Only that the storm hadn't yet started, and Gendry wouldn't stop himself from releasing his wrath going House Frey and anyone who dared stand in his way to get his family back safe and as soon as possible. "I'm just warning you."
Edwyn Frey had to give up in the end, and he allowed Gendry's men to search the Twins. Gendry selected his five most loyal men to go inside the Twuns and search every single room, every single corner and under ever single stone to look for his wife and son. They went in, and hours passed until they came back out again empty handed. Edwyn Frey grinned victorious upon Gendry's shock when his men told him that Arya and Robb were nowhere to be found there. They had searched everywhere, as ordered, and Gendry believed them.
He had to stay true to his promise and leave the Twins behind. They were already riding away when Addam approached Gendry on his horse to talk to him.
"The Freys lied to you," the sellsword said.
"You heard what the men said, Addam, they weren't there," Gendry murmured, feeling beaten. If his wife and son weren't there, then where in seven Hells where they?! Where was he supposed to go looking for them?!
What if I never find them? he thought, horrified and panicked. What if it's too late? What if I have lost them forever?
"There is a secret dungeon, inside the river," Addam insisted. "Very few people know of that place. The water doesn't flood it, and it's very difficult to find. Your men didn't find place, but I can. If Arya and Robb are there, I can save them."
"If what you are saying is true, then it's almost impossible to achieve! If the dungeons are underwater, how are you going to get to them?"
"I have my ways, Lord Baratheon," the sellsword assured him. "It isn't the first time I have sneaked inside the Frey unseen. Besides... I will do whatever I have to do to save Arya and her son, just like you are willing to do anything that it takes to find and save them."
Upon hearing those words, Gendry halted his horse. Addam did the same, and Gendry looking at him, slightly frowning and confused. It was most unusual to hear a com mom sellsword speaking like that of his Lady and her family.
"Why?" Gendry wanted to know.
He got no spoken answer. Instead, he saw Addam face change it's features to that of a familiar man, one he hadn't seen in years, with red and white hair.
Far away from there, locked inside a dark and strange place, Arya opened her eyes.