Chương 2: Chapter 2 Yoren
(Hello everyone! So, this is a fanfic that I've been working on for a while now. I borrowed several elements from Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire. This is my first fanfic on this site, so constructive criticism is welcome. Appreciate!)
The woman's stirring woke Yoren just after dawn. "I must get to the kitchens," she said as she sat up in his sleeping cell in the bottom of the Hand's Tower. "I have to help make the breakfast."
"Aye," Yoren replied. "But first you'll lay with me one more time." He reached out and stroked her fat bosom. She squealed and slapped his hand away.
"Randy devil," she said with a grin. She was blond and plump and young, just the way Yoren liked them. He always took a woman his last night in the capital, and to the seven hells with his oaths. Sometimes he paid for it and sometimes he got lucky and a shy maid would lift her skirts for him. Some knew what he was and took pity on him, and others wanted to know if a black crow had a cock between his legs or if they were all gelded when they got to the Wall. This one had been no shy maid. He found her in the kitchens after he supped last night and asked her where the nearest whorehouse was. He knew where it was but he always asked a comely serving woman cause sometimes they were whores on the side. This one was no whore and asked for no coin and said a brave man of the Night's Watch need not pay for it. She stole a jug of ale from the kitchen and the two had retired to his sleeping cell. She couldn't have been older than twenty and Yoren felt all of his 48 years fall away as he plowed her senseless and screaming throughout the night.
She looked at him and saw he was stiff as a board again. She reached under the blanket and stroked him till he moaned. "Are all men of the Night's Watch so full up they need to do it four times in a night and a fifth in the morning?"
"Aye," he replied. "Especially when we only lay with a woman once a year. Come here child."
He pulled her down and tasted her lips. Soon she was on top of him, riding him and shuddering until he filled her with what little seed he had left. As they lay there afterward panting he advised her to drink some moon tea so she wouldn't get a big belly. Although she tried to refuse to take his coin he gave her a silver stag anyway and said she was worth a lot more.
As she dressed she asked when he was leaving for the Wall. "Today," he said.
"Is it true Lord Stark is going with you?"
He peered at her with narrowed eyes. "Where did you hear that?"
"All anyone in the kitchens was talking about last night. Someone heard Grand Maester Pycelle talking to the High Septon about it," she told him. "Said he was to take the black. After he confesses on the steps of Baelor this morning."
"Aye, 'tis true," said Yoren. "He's coming with me."
"Is he really a traitor?" she asked in a low whisper.
"Don't know," Yoren said. "Not my business and don't make it yours."
"Shame," she replied. "I liked him. He's a kind lord, not like most. Jon Arryn was too. Pity. Have they found his daughter?"
"What? Whose daughter you talking about?"
"Lord Stark's little one, Arya. I heard they can't find her."
"What's that?" Yoren asked sharply as he sat up.
"The Spider is offering coin for news of Arya Stark. She disappeared the day…the day the Lannisters killed the Hand's men."
Yoren sighed. "A terrible day. Now you best keep all these whispers to yourself. Safer that way. Off you go, and don't forget the moon tea."
After she left, Yoren had a quick wash from the cold water in the basin next to his bed. He drained the last of the ale in the jug, now warm and mostly dregs. Then he found the privy in the corridor, and soon after was dressed all in black with his weapons and bag of extra clothes and odds and ends. He made his way out of the Hand's Tower and was crossing the courtyard to the dining room off the kitchen where the Hand's guests could eat. Then he heard a voice behind him.
"I beg pardon, sir, but may I have a word?"
Yoren turned and saw a girl, tall, and with long auburn hair, wearing a pale blue dress. She was strikingly beautiful, and had lovely skin. But her face was sad, and next to her were two Lannister guardsmen.
"Aye, my lady, how may I be of service?"
"My name is Sansa Stark."
"The Hand's eldest daughter?"
"Yes," Sansa told him. "Are you from the Night's Watch?"
"That I am."
She wanted to say something but hesitated and glanced sideways at her two guards. Yoren looked at them. "You can keep an eye on her just as well from over there."
"Our orders are to not let her leave our sight," said one in a gruff tone.
"Aye, and unless you're a blind man she won't be." After a second of hesitation the two men walked away toward the kitchen door and stood, and kept an eye on them.
"Thank you," Sansa said in a lower voice. "I just wanted to ask if you have seen my father."
"Not yet," Yoren told her. "But he will be coming with me today. After he confesses."
"The King said they were taking him to the Sept of Baelor to confess his treason."
"True enough," Yoren told her. "Then he is to take the black. We'll be leaving as soon as he joins my group at the Mud Gate."
"The Mud Gate? That is near the wharves. Are you taking a ship north?"
"No, the Kingsroad. The Mud Gate is closest to the castle and the prison. I gather them there so I don't have to drag my charges across the city to the God's Gate."
"My father's leg is broken," Sansa said, her voice full of worry. "It's not fully healed. He cannot sit on a horse."
"He can lie in a wagon till he's better," Yoren told her. "Not to worry my lady, I will take care of your lord father."
"Thank you. What is your name, kind sir?"
"Yoren, my lady."
"I may not have a chance to say good-bye to my father. If...if you could pass a message, I would be grateful. Tell him, tell him…I'm sorry."
"Sorry? Aye, I can tell him that, but he may ask what you are sorry for."
A tear rolled down Sansa's cheek. "It was me," she said in a soft sob. "I…I told them we were leaving. I told the Queen. I wanted to stay, I wanted to be Joffery's wife, to be the Queen some day. It's all my fault."
Yoren did not know what to say to her. The poor girl was on the verge of breaking down, confessing her mistakes to a stranger. He leaned in close and whispered. "Now, child, do not weep. You are not to blame. They are. They attacked your father, they arrested him, they put him in a dungeon, not you."
She nodded. "You are kind to say so, but I know it was my fault. And now my father is exiled for life, and I am a prisoner and my sister, they won't let me see my sister. Maybe she is dead."
"Dead? No, she's not dead," Yoren told her. He whispered in a lower tone. "I heard that no one can find her, that's all. I'm sure she is alive."
Just then the guards approached. "It's time, Lady Sansa," said one. "The Queen requests your presence for breakfast."
"Goodbye," she said to Yoren, trying to mask her emotions behind a wall of courtesy. "Thank you."
"Stay safe, my lady," Yoren said with a slight bow and then they were leading her away.
Yoren spit on the ground. "Bloody Lannister bastards," he grumbled and then he turned and went in the dining room and sat on a bench. He was alone and he knew why. All the other men he ate with the first few days he was here were dead. All Lord Stark's household members who had come to King's Landing were dead except his daughter and those few he sent off with Beric Dondarrion to fight Gregor Clegane in the Riverlands.
He ordered breakfast, bacon, black bread, boiled eggs, and ale to wash it down. He tried not to eat rich fare in King's Landing cause when he got back at the Wall he knew he would miss it too much. Better to not know a thing than to know it once and miss it the rest of your life.
Yoren brooded on if he should tell Ned Stark what Sansa had said or not. It was not his place to tell her father such a thing. The child feared she would never see him again and had need to confess. Yoren was no septon, though, and wanted naught to do with other's secrets. But she had told him and now he knew. He could tell Stark, or not. No need to decide today, Yoren concluded, as he drained his mug of ale. The road to the Wall was long and maybe sometime in the future his daughter would see him again and be able to unburden herself and have him absolve her in person.
He found his prisoners at the Mud Gate, with six gold cloaks of the City Watch guarding them. Hot Pie and Lommy Greenhands were grinning and joking about, some other ones were stretching and blinking in the sun. The three from the black cells were in an iron cage in the back of a wagon and were manacled at the ankles and wrists. A goaler, one he didn't know, gave him a key for the manacles. He handed Yoren a piece of parchment and an ink dipped quill.
"Sign here," said the goaler. Yoren signed. "They're all yours. May the Seven help you," the goaler said as he departed.
Yoren counted the prisoners and then looked at the wagons and horses and donkeys the realm had given him for the Wall. The wagons were loaded with bales of sourleaf, hides, and cloth, bars of pig iron, bags of flour, pease, and oats, more food, and some weapons. As he was inspecting the donkeys a boy with dark black hair and blue eyes approached him. He had a bulls head shaped helmet in one hand, a sack in the other, and a hammer in a loop on his belt. He looked strong and was tall, with big shoulders and muscular arms, more man than a boy.
"I'm here to take the black," said the boy.
Yoren looked him over. "That so? And why would you want to do a stupid thing like that?" Yoren always questioned those who volunteered. He needed to know their history to know if they would be of any use and what they were running away from.
"Cause no one here wants me," said the boy. "My master told me this morning he was kicking me out, said I wasn't good enough and he had wasted seven years teaching me for nothing."
Yoren looked at the hammer and helmet. "You an armorer's apprentice?"
"Not anymore."
"You make that helmet?"
"Yes."
"What's your name boy?"
"Gendry."
"Gendry what?"
"Just Gendry."
"Where's your folks?"
"My mum is dead, long time ago. Never knew my father."
"So you're a bastard. That would make you Gendry Waters."
"I guess so."
"So your master kicked you out and you decides to take the black."
"He told me to come here if I wanted a place to live and food to eat. I got nowhere else to go."
"He gave you no reason?"
"Said I was no good. Said the Wall needed men."
"Aye, that we do," Yoren said and then softened his tone. "Look, Gendry, your master may have been just doing you a kindness. That helmet, you said you made it. Any man can see you are good at your trade. More than good. Now tell me the truth. You in any kind of trouble? You get some girl with a big belly?"
Gendry flushed. "No. Just…" Then he hesitated, and said no more.
"What? Tell me it all or you can stay here and rot."
Gendry sighed. "People been coming to see me, asking questions."
"What people?"
"Important people. The king's Hand…Hands…came to see me."
"Who? Which Hand?" Yoren asked, very surprised.
"Lord Arryn and then Lord Stark."
Why in seven hells would they want with this boy, Yoren thought. He don't look like much. Yoren looked at him carefully. But maybe he did look like someone, someone important. "What did they want?"
"Asking me questions about my mum, that's all." Yoren peered at him more closely. He had met the late king once or twice when asking for men for the Wall. He even drank with him one night telling stories about the Wall and the wild world beyond it. King Robert drank himself into a stupor but kept laughing and asking for more wine as Yoren told him about his adventures. He couldn't be sure but this boy had the Baratheon look.
"Right, you want to take the black, we'll take you. Go join the others."
Gendry nodded, mumbled his thanks, and then moved towards the wagons. Yoren turned and shouted at the prisoners. "You lot wait here. I'll be back soon enough. Any man tries to run the gold cloaks will drive a spear up his arse." No one said a word. Yoren spat and turned and walked away.
As he started walking across the city towards the Sept of Baelor many people also started heading that way. After a long walk he found himself hemmed in on many sides by the crowds that were gathering. The gold cloaks tried to keep them orderly but there were too many. Yoren no sooner found a spot where could at least see the steps when there was a yell behind him. The crowd roared as Eddard Stark was dragged by four gold cloaks though the crowd. He was limping and in pain, Yoren could see, and he looked like he hadn't shaven or bathed in weeks. But Ned Stark was a proud man and he kept his head held high even as people spit at him and yelled obscenities and called him a traitor.
Then Stark saw something and it drew his eyes to the left. Yoren followed his look and saw what he was looking at. On the statue of Baelor in front of the Sept sat a young boy…no, a girl. Yoren had only seen her once but knew who she was. Skinny, filthy, with long brown hair, wearing boy's clothes. The girl had a long face and the look of her father. A short dirk was in her belt on her right side.
As Ned Stark passed he saw Yoren and he looked at him sharply. "Baelor," he shouted above the noise of the crowd and Yoren understood. He muscled his way into the crowd but they pressed him tight and pushed him back towards the steps of the Sept of Baelor. Yoren could not move and had no choice but to wait until it was over.
Up on the steps were the Queen, the huge rotund High Septon, Sansa Stark, and many others, most of whom Yoren did not know. The fat bald one, that had to be the eunuch, the one they called the Spider. The thin man next to him was Lord Baelish. Yoren knew him because every time he came to the capital it was to Baelish he went begging to for the wagons and food and other supplies the Wall needed. Baelish begrudged him every copper spent for the Wall, even when Robert was alive and ordered Balish to give the Wall all they asked for. There were also several of the Kingsguard and Lannister men on the steps. Then Yoren noticed the new King was not there, nor Grand Maester Pycelle. Something was amiss.
They dragged Stark on his lame leg up to the steps and forced him to his knees. Gradually the crowd quieted and Stark spoke.
"I am Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Hand of the King and I have come before you to confess my treason in the sight of gods and men."
The crowd began to shout at him, calling him traitor. Stark spoke louder. "I betrayed the faith of my king and the trust of my friend Robert. I swore to defend and protect his children, yet before his blood was cold I plotted to depose and murder his son and seize the throne for myself. Let the gods old and new bear witness to what I say. Joffrey Baratheon is the one true heir to the Iron Throne, and by the grace of the gods, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm."
Then someone cast a stone and it hit Eddard Stark in the face. He staggered and blood sprang from a gash on his forehead. The crowd roared and more rocks came sailing towards the steps. The Kingsguard and Lannister men protected the Queen and the others, but Ned Stark received a few blows to the body from more rocks before the gold cloaks stood in front of him.
Yoren heard a girl's high voice behind him, screaming, "Leave him alone!" He turned and there she was, Arya Stark, her left hand on her sword hilt, pushing and wiggling her way through the crowd, her eyes moist with tears for her father. Yoren stooped low and blocked her path.
"Get out of my way!" she yelled and in the noise only Yoren heard her clearly.
"Girl, do you know me?" he shouted as he grabbed her by the shoulders.
She hesitated and for a second he thought she would draw her sword. "You're from the Night's Watch," she said.
"Aye, and your father is coming with me," he told her and the girl's eyes widened. "They aren't to kill him! He's to take the black!"
"But...he confessed!"
"It's part of the deal," Yoren told her. "Now you calm down and I'll get you out of here and you can come with us."
"What about Sansa?" Arya asked, her eyes searching for her sister behind him. "She's right there!"
"There's naught I can do for her unless you want to get us all killed," Yoren told her, and then the crowd started to grow silent again and they heard someone talking. Then Queen Cersei was speaking and it grew very quiet. Yoren and Arya looked toward the steps. Cersei was standing nearby Ned Stark, looking serious, yet glowing with joy at the same time.
"Lord Stark has confessed his crimes," Cersei shouted to the crowd. "For his crime of treason he is stripped of all titles and all lands, which pass to his son. The King, my son, has decided to show Eddard Stark mercy for the love his father once held for this traitor." She turned to look at Ned Stark. "Eddard Stark, you will take the black and become a man of the Night's Watch, to live out your days defending the realm from the wildlings beyond the Wall, as penance for your treason. Do you accept these terms?"
"I do, Your Grace," Stark said in a loud clear voice. But the crowd screamed for justice and there was more shouting and shoving and rocks thrown as the royal party and Stark and were led away from the steps of the Sept of Baelor and back into the Sept itself.
"Come on!" Yoren shouted to Arya and he dragged her through the crowd back the way he had come.
"I want to go with my father!" she yelled at him once they got into an alley.
"You'll do no such thing!' Yoren yelled back. "The Lannisters got your sister and they want you, too. I'm going to get you out of the city and take you home. I owe your father that much at least, for all the support the Starks of Winterfell have given the Wall over the years. Do you want to go home to Winterfell?"
"Yes," Arya said and then chewed her bottom lip. "But what about Sansa?'
"Child," Yoren said with a sigh. "There is nothing we can do for her. She is hostage to your father's word."
"We could rescue her."
"We would die. Most likely she would, too. You want that?"
"No."
"Good. Now they'll be searching for a nice high born lady…"
"I'm not a lady!"
"No?" Yoren had to laugh and she scowled at him. "No you certainly don't look it. Which is good. Except for the hair. You'll be traveling with men which will turn you over for a copper and their freedom if they know who you are." He pushed her against a wall. "Here, we have to take care of your hair."
"What?"
Yoren pulled out a dagger. "You're near enough a boy no one will know but the hair has got to go."
She struggled and tried to kick him but he hacked and cut and soon enough he had cut enough of it that she looked more like a boy. "That'll do till you get out of the city."
She felt her head. "I hate it! It's all lumpy!"
"Matters not to me, long as no one knows who you are. And when you takes a piss you do it in the woods. Come on. I suppose they're bringing your father to the Mud Gate and we got a long road to travel. When you gets there you are not to talk to him nor show any sign you recognize him, or anything till we are far from the city at least. You're Arry the orphan boy from now on."
"That's a stupid name. It's not even a real boy's name."
"'Tis too. I had a cousin named Arry."
"I think you mean Harry."
Yoren scowled at her. She had a mouth, that was for sure, and wasn't afraid to talk back. "No, I mean Arry. It's your name now. Arry."
"Okay. I'm Arry." He heard her grumble about it being a stupid name as they walked out of the ally and into the city.
She said nothing for a while as they walked through the crowded streets. They heard more than one person grumble that they let the traitor Stark go.
"He's not a traitor," Arya mumbled. " Why did he confess?"
"Cause they got your sister, I told you already."
"She's stupid for getting caught."
Yoren knew the real truth, but held his tongue. "She's not tough like you, is that it?"
"I would have killed them all."
Yoren snorted. "Holding a sword and playing with it is not the same as killing a man."
"I was taking lessons, I wasn't playing. My sword is called Needle."
"That so? I'll let you keep your Needle but see you don't stick no one with it. We're traveling with a rough bunch, so mind yourself around them."
Soon they came to the Mud Gate. Yoren told Arya to wait over there where Lommy, Hot Pie, and Gendry were standing near the donkeys. She had no sooner turned around and walked over there when a wagon and many men on horses rode up. Two Lannister men dragged Eddard Stark out of the back of the wagon. "Here's the scum," said one. He handed Yoren a sealed scroll. "That's for his son, if you find him. He runs away or joins his son, it's your head. And his daughter's."
"Aye," said Yoren. "I'll see he makes it to the Wall." With that the Lannister men and the wagon left.
"My lord," Yoren said as he helped Ned Stark stand steady. Blood still flowed a bit from a wound on his forehead. Yoren sat him in the back of one of his wagons. Yoren washed the wound with wine. He then gave him the skin to drink. "My daughter?" Stark gasped after he had drunk deeply.
"Over there," said Yoren and nodded towards the donkeys.
Stark drank some more and peered. "Where?"
"The short one with the bad haircut and the sword. Boy named Arry."
"Arry? Right. Good idea, that haircut. Many thanks for helping her...him." Stark squinted again, and Yoren knew his eyes were having trouble in the daylight after so long in the dark cell. "That big lad, the one with the helmet. What's his name?"
"Gendry. Said he knows you."
"Aye. Call him over."
Yoren turned and yelled. "Gendry! Over here!"
Gendry came over and dipped his head. "My lord."
"I'm no lord anymore," Stark told him. "Just a black brother like you once we take our oaths. I need a favor, lad."
"Anything," Gendry said right away.
"You see that little boy with the sword?"
"Yes," Gendry told him after a quick look.
"Can you keep an eye on him?"
"Yes. Why…my lord."
"Because I asked. I'd be eternally grateful."
"I can do that, my lord."
"You have my thanks. And I told you I am no lord."
Gendry screwed up his face. "Right. But it's maybe better if we call you lord still."
"Boy makes sense," said Yoren. "Men will listen to a lord."
"You're in charge," Stark told him. "I'm not. Just get us out of here, before they change their minds about letting me keep my head."
"As my lord commands," Yoren said with a smirk and Stark just sighed and leaned back in the wagon on a bale of cloth. Yoren saw him look over at his daughter and she was staring at him. Stark gave a slight shake of his head and the girl nodded once. Then the fat boy Hot Pie spun her around and he and Lommy were shouting something at her. She pulled her sword and waved it at Hot Pie's face and his eyes got big and he backed off. Then Gendry was there, waving his fist in Hot Pie's face and soon the fat boy and Lommy took off toward the front of the column. Gendry stood there talking to Arya, looking at her sword.
Yoren looked at Stark who had a smile on his face. "She...he... might not need a bodyguard after all."
Yoren walked over to them. "What was that all about?"
"Nothing," said Arya right away, putting her sword back in her belt.
"He wanted his sword," Gendry told Yoren.
"I want no fighting."
Gendry smiled. "He knows better now."
"Good. You two get on a couple of those donkeys. You can ride, can't you?"
"I can," said Arya. "I've been riding many…once."
"Never," Gendry told him. "But I'll try."
"I'll show you how," Arya told him and they walked over to where the donkeys were.
Yoren marched back and climbed on the first wagon in the column, the one with Stark in the back and yelled to the column. "It's a thousand leagues to the Wall and winter is coming! Let's move!"
With that he gave a sharp command to the driver of his wagon and then sat down as they approached the Mud Gate. The gate was open for the daily traffic and soon they were through with no fuss at all. Yoren sat in the back with Ned Stark. Stark took a long drink from the skin of wine he had and handed it back to Yoren, who also took a drink. Stark was looking back at the column. Yoren thought he was looking for his daughter but then he pointed to the cage with the three from the black cells.
"What did they do?"
"Rapists and murderers," Yoren told him. "They'll try to escape first chance they get."
"Aye. Best you arm some of the more trustworthy ones," Stark told him. "There's reports of fighting in the Riverlands also. Least there was before I was arrested."
"I've heard it's still going on," Yoren said. "Men of the Night's Watch take no part in the realm's disputes."
"That's true, but outlaws won't care what color you wear if you got horses and food."
"Aye," Yoren said and he spat over the side. "We best post guards tonight and arm the men."
"Maybe we should take a ship?" Stark suggested.
Yoren had had the same thought but he hated ships. "Don't do so well on ships. Bad stomach. I'm also to find your son's army and bring them you and this scroll. Any idea what's on it?"
Stark shrugged. "No idea. Perhaps it's their terms to restore peace. What word of my son?"
"Some say he is south of the Twins now."
"Did the Freys join him?"
"Don't know."
"Old Walder Frey, the Late Walder Frey, Robert called him," Stark said, seeming to reminisce. "Late for the Trident, late to King's Landing. Hardly a Frey died or even got a scratch in Robert's Rebellion. Then he had the nerve to feel slighted when Robert gave him no rewards or no new lands after it was all over."
Yoren spat. "He's a tight-fisted old man who hates all. He always let me cross his bridge but begrudged me room and board for my charges. Made us sleep outdoors, even in the rain, and not a crust of bread or a drop of ale or wine he let slip out of his tight fists."
"He has to feed his brood."
"There's enough of them to make an army by themselves," Yoren said with a laugh.
Stark's face grew cloudy. "My son's army is facing Tywin Lannister and the Kingslayer. They have a bigger army."
"I'd bet a purse of gold that one northman can take ten Lannisters any day."
"Maybe. But Robb's just a boy." Stark sounded like a worried father and well he should be, Yoren thought. Despite his boast he knew the Lannisters were trouble. Tywin Lannister had a reputation as the best field commander in the Seven Kingdoms. While Robert Baratheon had had endless strength and courage, Tywin Lannister had cunning and gold, and not all battles were won with strength and courage.
"Some boys have to grow up fast," Yoren said. "I was his age when I went to the Wall."
Stark looked at him. "Did you volunteer?"
Yoren laughed. "All black brothers volunteer. I killed a man if that's what you want to know. He killed my brother so I killed him. Justice was done but the law says I was still a murderer so they said take the black or hang from a rope."
"The law is not always fair."
"No," said Yoren as the wagon rocked under them. They were now passing beside the outer walls of Kings Landing, circling to the north and making for the Kingsroad. Yoren looked at Stark. "I question all men who join the Night's Watch. You're the highest born man I ever recruited, but I still have to ask. I would have some truth from you about what happened back there, Lord Stark. Why did you try to take the throne?"
Stark looked at him for a long moment. "I swore to keep silent about it. I will tell you all, when we reach the Wall."
Yoren did not like this, but he knew Stark was a man of his word, so he nodded. "I hope it is a worthy tale."
"Aye," said Stark with grim look to his face. "One they will be telling long after we pass. But it's not over yet."
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