A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

quick enough for Weese. “You
run
if you want to eat
tonight,” he shouted, his promises of a plump crisp capon already forgotten.
“And don’t be getting lost again, or I swear I’ll beat you bloody.”
    You won’t,
Arya thought.
You won’t ever again.
But she ran.
The old gods of the north must have been guiding her steps. Halfway to the
brewhouse, as she passing under the stone bridge that arched between Widow’s
Tower and Kingspyre, she heard harsh, growling laughter. Rorge came around a
corner with three other men, the manticore badge of Ser Amory sewn over their
hearts. When he saw her, he stopped and grinned, showing a mouthful of crooked
brown teeth under the leather flap he wore sometimes to cover the hole in his
face. “Yoren’s little cunt,” he called her. “Guess we know why that black
bastard wanted
you
on the Wall, don’t we?” He laughed again, and the
others laughed with him. “Where’s your stick now?” Rorge demanded suddenly,
the smile gone as quick as it had come. “Seems to me I promised to fuck you
with it.” He took a step toward her. Arya edged backward. “Not so brave now
that I’m not in chains, are you?”
    â€œI
saved
you.” She kept a good yard between them, ready to run
quick as a snake if he made a grab for her.
    â€œOwe you another fucking for that, seems like. Did Yoren pump your cunny, or
did he like that tight little ass better?”
    â€œI’m looking for Jaqen,” she said. “There’s a message.”
    Rorge halted. Something in his eyes . . . could it be
that he was
scared
of Jaqen H’ghar? “The bathhouse. Get out of my
way.”
    Arya whirled and ran, swift as a deer, her feet flying over the cobbles all the
way to the bathhouse. She found Jaqen soaking in a tub, steam rising around him
as a serving girl sluiced hot water over his head. His long hair, red on one
side and white on the other, fell down across his shoulders, wet and
heavy.
    She crept up quiet as a shadow, but he opened his eyes all the same. “She
steals in on little mice feet, but a man hears,” he said.
How could he
hear me?
she wondered, and it seemed as if he heard that as well. “The
scuff of leather on stone sings loud as warhorns to a man with open ears.
Clever girls go barefoot.”
    â€œI have a message.” Arya eyed the serving girl uncertainly. When she did not
seem likely to go away, she leaned in until her mouth was almost touching his
ear. “Weese,” she whispered.
    Jaqen H’ghar closed his eyes again, floating languid, half-asleep. “Tell his
lordship a man shall attend him at his leisure.” His hand moved suddenly,
splashing hot water at her, and Arya had to leap back to keep from getting
drenched.
    When she told Tuffleberry what Weese had said, the brewer cursed loudly. “You
tell Weese my lads got duties to attend to, and you tell him he’s a pox-ridden
bastard too, and the seven hells will freeze over before he gets another horn
of my ale. I’ll have them barrels within the hour or Lord Tywin will hear of
it, see if he don’t.”
    Weese cursed too when Arya brought back that message, even

though she left out the pox-ridden bastard part. He fumed and threatened, but
in the end he rounded up six men and sent them off grumbling to fetch the
barrels down to the brewhouse.
    Supper that evening was a thin stew of barley, onion, and carrots, with a wedge
of stale brown bread. One of the women had taken to sleeping in Weese’s bed,
and she got a piece of ripe blue cheese as well, and a wing off the capon that
Weese had spoken of that morning. He ate the rest himself, the grease running
down in a shiny line through the boils that festered at the corner of his
mouth. The bird was almost gone when he glanced up from his trencher and saw
Arya staring. “Weasel, come here.”
    A few mouthfuls of dark meat still clung to one thigh.
He forgot, but now
he’s remembered,
Arya thought. It made her feel bad for telling Jaqen to
kill him. She got off the bench and went to the head of the table.
    â€œI saw you looking at me.” Weese wiped his fingers on the front of her shift.
Then he grabbed her throat with one hand and slapped her with the other. “What
did I tell you?” He slapped her again, backhand. “Keep those eyes to
yourself, or next time