"Martin, George R.R. - Song Of Ice and Fire 03 - A Storm Of Swords" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin George R R)

A Lannister victory was ill tidings, but Catelyn could not share her brotherТs obvious dismay. She still had nightmares about the shadow she had seen slide across RenlyТs tent and the way the blood had come flowing out through the steel of his gorget. УStannis was no more a friend than Lord Tywin.Ф
УYou do not understand. Highgarden has declared for Joffrey. Dome as well. All the south.Ф His mouth tightened. УAnd you see fit to loose the Kingslayer. You had no right.Ф
УI had a motherТs right.Ф Her voice was calm, though the news about Highgarden was a savage blow to RobbТs hopes. She could not think about that now, though.
УNo right,Ф Edmure repeated. УHe was RobbТs captive, your kingТs captive, and Robb charged me to keep him safe.Ф
УBrienne will keep him safe. She swore it on her sword.Ф
УThat woman?Ф
УShe will deliver Jaime to KingТs Landing, and bring Arya and Sansa back to us safely.Ф
УCersei will never give them up.Ф
УNot Cersei. Tyrion. He swore it, in open court. And the Kingslayer swore it as well.Ф
УJaimeТs word is worthless. As for the Imp, itТs said he took an axe in the head during the battle. HeТll be dead before your Brienne reaches KingТs Landing, if she ever does.Ф
УDead?Ф Could the gods truly be so merciless? She had made Jaime swear a hundred oaths, but it was his brotherТs promise she had pinned her hopes on.
Edmure was blind to her distress. УJaime was my charge, and I mean to have him back. IТve sent ravens
УRavens to whom? How many?Ф
УThree,Ф he said, Уso the message will be certain to reach Lord Bolton. By river or road, the way from Riverrun to KingТs Landing must needs take them close by Harrenhal.Ф
УHarrenhal.Ф The very word seemed to darken the room. Horror thickened her voice as she said, УEdmure, do you know what you have done?Ф
УHave no fear, I left your part out. I wrote that Jaime had escaped, and offered a thousand dragons for his recapture.Ф
Worse and worse, Catelyn thought in despair. My brother is a fool. Unbidden, unwanted, tears filled her eyes. УIf this was an escape,Ф she said softly, Уand not an exchange of hostages, why should the Lannisters give my daughters to Brienne?Ф
УIt will never come to that. The Kingslayer will be returned to us, I have made certain of it.Ф
УAll you have made certain is that I shall never see my daughters again. Brienne might have gotten him to KingТs Landing safely . . . so long as no one was hunting for them. But now . . . У Catelyn could not go on. УLeave me, Edmure.Ф She had no right to command him, here in the castle that would soon be his, yet her tone would brook no argument. УLeave me to Father and my grief, I have no more to say to you. Go. Go.Ф All she wanted was to lie down, to close her eyes and sleep, and pray no dreams would come.

CHAPTER 3
ARYA

The sky was as black as the walls of Harrenhal behind them, and the rain fell soft and steady, muffling the sound of their horsesТ hooves and running down their faces.
They rode north, away from the lake, following a rutted farm road across the torn fields and into the woods and streams. Arya took the lead, kicking her stolen horse to a brisk heedless trot until the trees closed in around her. Hot Pie and Gendry followed as best they could. Wolves howled off in the distance, and she could hear Hot PieТs heavy breathing. No one spoke. From time to time Arya glanced over her shoulder, to make sure the two boys had not fallen too far behind, and to see if they were being pursued.
They would be, she knew. She had stolen three horses from the stables and a map and a dagger from Roose BoltonТs own solar, and killed a guard on the postern gate, slitting his throat when he knelt to pick up the worn iron coin that jaqen HТghar had given her. Someone would find him lying dead in his own blood, and then the hue and cry would go up. They would wake Lord Bolton and search Harrenhal from crenel to cellar, and when they did they would find the map and the dagger missing, along with some swords from the armory, bread and cheese from the kitchens, a baker boy, a Сprentice smith, and a cupbearer called Nan . . . or Weasel, or Arry, depending on who you asked.
The Lord of the Dreadfort would not come after them himself. Roose Bolton would stay abed, his pasty flesh dotted with leeches, giving commands in his whispery soft voice. His man Walton might lead the hunt, the one they called Steelshanks for the greaves he always wore on his long legs. Or perhaps it would be slobbery Vargo Hoat and his sellswords, who named themselves the Brave Companions. others called them Bloody Mummers (though never to their faces), and sometimes the Footmen, for Lord VargoТs habit of cutting off the hands and feet of men who displeased him.
If they catch us, heТll cut off our hands and feet, Arya thought, and then Roose Bolton will peel the skin off us. She was still dressed in her pageТs garb, and on the breast over her heart was sewn Lord BoltonТs sigil, the flayed man of the Dreadfort.
Every time she looked back, she half expected to see a blaze of torches pouring out the distant gates of Harrenhal or rushing along the tops of its huge high walls, but there was nothing. Harrenhal slept on, until it was lost in darkness and hidden behind the trees.
When they crossed the first stream, Arya turned her horse aside and led them off the road, following the twisting course of the water for a quarter-mile before finally scrambling out and up a stony bank. If the hunters brought dogs, that might throw them off the scent, she hoped. They could not stay on the road. There is death on the road, she told herself, death on all the roads.
Gendry and Hot Pie did not question her choice. She had the map, after all, and Hot Pie seemed almost as terrified of her as of the men who might be coming after them. He had seen the guard sheТd killed. ItТs better if heТs scared of me, she told herself. That way heТll do like I say, instead of something stupid.
She should be more frightened herself, she knew. She was only ten, a skinny girl on a stolen horse with a dark forest ahead of her and men behind who would gladly cut off her feet. Yet somehow she felt calmer than she ever had in Harrenhal. The rain had washed the guardТs blood off her fingers, she wore a sword across her back, wolves were prowling through the dark like lean grey shadows, and Arya Stark was unafraid. Fear cuts deeper than swords, she whispered under her breath, the words that Syrio Forel had taught her, and jaqenТs words too, valar morghulis.
The rain stopped and started again and stopped once more and started, but they had good cloaks to keep the water off. Arya kept them moving at a slow steady pace. It was too black beneath the trees to ride any faster; the boys were no horsemen, neither one, and the soft broken ground was treacherous with half-buried roots and hidden stones. They crossed another road, its deep ruts filled with runoff, but Arya shunned it. Up and down the rolling hills she took them, through brambles and briars and tangles of underbrush, along the bottoms of narrow gullies where branches heavy with wet leaves slapped at their faces as they passed.
GendryТs mare lost her footing in the mud once, going down hard on her hindquarters and spilling him from the saddle, but neither horse nor rider was hurt, and Gendry got that stubborn look on his face and mounted right up again. Not long after, they came upon three wolves devouring the corpse of a fawn. When Hot PieТs horse caught the scent, he shied and bolted. Two of the wolves fled as well, but the third raised his head and bared his teeth, prepared to defend his kill. УBack off,Ф Arya told Gendry. УSlow, so you donТt spook him.Ф They edged their mounts away, until the wolf and his feast were no longer in sight. Only then did she swing about to ride after Hot Pie, who was clinging desperately to the saddle as he crashed through the trees.
Later they passed through a burned village, threading their way carefully between the shells of blackened hovels and past the bones of a dozen dead men hanging from a row of apple trees. When Hot Pie saw them he began to pray, a thin whispered plea for the MotherТs mercy, repeated over and over. Arya looked up at the fleshless dead in their wet rotting clothes and said her own prayer. Ser Gregor, it went, Dunsen, Polliver, Raff the Sweetling. The Tickler and the Hound. Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei. She ended it with valar morghulis, touched jaqenТs coin where it nestled under her belt, and then reached up and plucked an apple from among the dead men as she rode beneath them. It was mushy and overripe, but she ate it worms and all.
That was the day without a dawn. Slowly the sky lightened around them, but they never saw the sun. Black turned to grey, and colors crept timidly back into the world. The soldier pines were dressed in somber greens, the broadleafs in russets and faded golds already beginning to brown. They stopped long enough to water the horses and eat a cold, quick breakfast, ripping apart a loaf of the bread that Hot Pie had stolen from the kitchens and passing chunks of hard yellow cheese from hand to hand.
УDo you know where weТre going?Ф Gendry asked her.
УNorth,Ф said Arya.
Hot Pie peered around uncertainly. УWhich way is north?Ф
She used her cheese to point. УThat way.Ф
УBut thereТs no sun. How do you know?Ф
УFrom the moss. See how it grows mostly on one side of the trees? ThatТs south.Ф
УWhat do we want with the north?Ф Gendry wanted to know.
УThe Trident.Ф Arya unrolled the stolen map to show them. УSee? Once we reach the Trident, all we need to do is follow it upstream till we come to Riverrun, here.Ф Her finger traced the path. УItТs a long way, but we canТt get lost so long as we keep to the river.Ф
Hot Pie blinked at the map. УWhich one is Riverrun?Ф
Riverrun was painted as a castle tower, in the fork between the flowing blue lines of two rivers, the Tumblestone and the Red Fork. УThere.Ф She touched it. УRiverrun, it reads.Ф
УYou can read writing?Ф he said to her, wonderingly, as if sheТd said she could walk on water.
She nodded. УWeТll be safe once we reach Riverrun.Ф
УWe will? Why?Ф
Because Riverrun is my grandfatherТs castle, and my brother Robb will be there, she wanted to say. She bit her lip and rolled up the map. УWe just will. But only if we get there.Ф She was the first one back in the saddle. It made her feel bad to hide the truth from Hot Pie, but she did not trust him with her secret. Gendry knew, but that was different. Gendry had his own secret, though even he didnТt seem to know what it was.