A Clash of Kings-Chapter 30

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Arya VII
A Clash of Kings chapter
AClashOfKings.jpg
POV Arya
Place Harrenhal
Page 334 UK HC (Other versions)
Chapter chronology (All)
Arya VI
Tyrion VII  ← Arya VII →  Catelyn III

Arya VIII

Arya is working for the understeward of the Wailing Tower doing various chores. When the Bloody Mummers arrive, Jaqen H'ghar, Rorge and Biter are with them. Arya thinks that Jaqen had not seen her, but he interrupts her sleep and tells her that he will kill three for her for saving him and his two companions. She avoids Jaqen for a while, but after hearing a story by Chiswyck, next time she sees him she whispers Chiswyck’s name in his ear. Several days later he falls to his death.

Synopsis

Arya wonders what King Harren Hoare had meant to name the five towers of Harrenhal, but they were now known as the Tower of Dread, the Widow's Tower, the Wailing Tower, the Tower of Ghosts, and Kingspyre Tower. She now sleeps in a niche in the vaults beneath the Wailing Tower. The work is hard, but no harder than the miles she was walking every day, and can be clean and the food is filling; she does not need to find bugs to eat. Hot Pie is assigned to the kitchens, and Gendry to the forge, while Arya works for the understeward Weese doing errands; running messages, drawing water, fetch food, and sometimes serve table in the barracks hall. Arya hates Weese and adds him to her list of names. She occasionally gets to see Hot Pie when she is sent to fetch the food for Weese and his charges; Arya does not want to learn the names Weese’s other charges since it hurt when people she knew died. She

Lady Shella Whent had only occupied parts of two towers, letting the rest of the castle go to ruin. She left a small staff when she fled, and this was inadequate for the host that now occupied the castle. As a result the Lannisters had to forage for servants to make more of Harrenhal habitable. Harrenhal covered three times the area of Winterfell, but its buildings were much grander: the stables handled a 1000 horses, the Godswood covered 20 acres, the kitchen was as large as Winterfell’s Great Hall, and the Hall of the Hundred Hearths could handle Tywin’s entire host (but he never did).

Some say that ghosts of Harren the Black and his sons occupy the Wailing Tower, but Arya knows that they died in the Kingspyre Tower; the wailing is from the wind, and the ghosts never trouble her. However she fears living men, including Ser Gregor Clegane and Tywin Lannister, who keep their apartments in the Kingspyre Tower. She considers marching up to Tywin and telling him who she is, but she figures she would never get close enough to him, and if she did, he would not believe her, and she would get a beating form Weese, who she feared more than the Mountain; he would hit you at the slightest provocation. On the road to Harrenhal she had felt like a sheep, but now feels like a mouse.

The lords and ladies never notice the grey mice under their feet, and Arya hears many secrets by just listening as she does her duties. The slut Pretty Pia working her way through every knight, the wife of the gaoler is pregnant either by Ser Alyn Stackspear or a singer Whitesmile, Lord Leo Lefford keeps a candle lit by his bed because of the ghosts, Ser Dunaver’s squire Jodge cannot hold his water at night, the cooks spit on the dispised Ser Harys Swyft’s food, and Maester Tothmure’s serving girl had told her brother that Tywin had ordered the maester to burn a message that Joffrey was a bastard, and to never speak of it again. She also hears from Weese that Stannis Baratheon and Renly Baratheon are both kings and have joined the fighting. Many of the Lannister men question how long Joffrey can hold the throne protected only by Gold Cloaks and is ruled by a eunuch, dwarf and a woman. There were also a number of reports of Beric Dondarrion being killed by the Bloody Mummers, but he had already supposed been killed by Amory Lorch at Rushing Falls, and twice by the Mountain

A fortnight later the queerest collection of men Arya has ever seen arrives, the Bloody Mummers. Weese tells her that she does not want to know them, and is told their name is told “The Footmen, girl. Toes of the Goat. Lord Tywin’s Bloody Mummers.” They call themselves the Brave Companions and their leader is the very tall stick thin Vargo Hoat. They are housed in the Widow’s Tower, for which Arya is thankful. On their first night Ser Harys Swyft’s squire is killed and two of the Bloody Mummers are wounded. Tywin hangs both along with one of Lord Lewys Lydden’s archers who was supposed to have started the trouble. They do not stay long, but before they leave she hears the Roose Bolton has occupied the Ruby Ford, and her brother is in Riverrun, which is much closer than Winterfell but she does not know where it lies with relation to Harrenhal; if only she could get away.

She learns that there are captives from Battle of the Green Fork. They were given freedom of the castle is return for a pledge that they would not attempt to escape. Arya was hoping they could help her escape. There are three Frey brothers, and their bastard brother, but they were ransomed. There is also a very fat lordling that was always in the kitchen, one that wore a black cloak with white suns, and Lord Medger Cerwyn, who she recognized. She figures she can aid from Lord Cerwyn, but learns later that he died from his wounds.

Arya hears all sorts of rumors about Lord Tywin’s plans. Lord Tywin spent his days with his war council. Arya would often catch sight of him, and thought he was strong looking for an old man, and his face reminds her of her father, although they look nothing alike, and she could never picture Tywin laughing.

Ser Amory Lock arrives one afternoon, looking less frightening in the daylight. There were fewer men then she remembered and many wounded. She is told that they had ridden all the way around the lake chasing Beric Dondarrion and slaying rebels. Arya figures they are talking about the men of the Night's Watch. At the end of the column she see Jaqen H'ghar, Rorge and Biter with his body covered in half healed wounds. Jaqen H’ghar still smiles, and his cloths were filthy, but his hair washed and brushed. His eyes pass right over Arya, and she thinks he did not even notice her. Arya thinks that Gendry was right and she should have let them die. That night she says the names again: Weese, Dunsen (for taking Gendry’s bull helm), Chiswyck, Polliver (for Needle), Raff the Sweetling (for killing Lommy), the Tickler, the Hound (for killing Mycah), Ser Gregor, Ser Amory Lorch (for killing Yoren), Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn (for killing Syrio), and King Joffrey and Queen Cersei (for killing Eddard Stark, Tomard, Desmond and the rest). She thinks she might add three names to the list, but she was too tired to decide.

She is dreaming of wolves in the wild when she wakes with Jaqen H’ghar’s hand over her mouth. He murmurs

A boy becomes a girl.

She tells him that she was always a girl, and he replies

A man sees. A man knows.

She tells him she should have let him burn, and he tells her:

A man pays his debts. A man owes three.

She replies three, and Jaqen H’ghar continues:

The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life. This girl took three that were his. This girl must give three in their places. Speak the names, and a man will do the rest.

Arya asks him to take her to Riverrun, but he replies:

Three lives you shall have of me. No more, no less. Three and we are done. So a girl must ponder. But not too long.

He kisses her hair as he says this. She cannot see his face, as she nods, and he is gone with only whiff of ginger and cloves in the air. She thinks of those on her list, but they are all miles away. There is Weese.

The next morning Arya yawns in Weese’s presence, and he warns her not to let her mouth drop open again, telling her he will feed her tongue to his bitch, and twists her ear to make certain she heard. As she works she thinks of who she wants dead, and how being at war she should try to kill as many Lannisters as she could and how her father personally killed those he condemned to death. She is not sure she should trust Jaqen, and avoids, him, which is not hard to do.

Ser Gregor returns, and Weese sends Arya to see if they have cloths that need mending. She arrives to find Chiswyck talking, and does not want to interrupt because she might be hit. He is talking about when he were returning from the Tourney of the Hand with Ser Gregor, Raff, Joss Stilwood, and Eggon. They stopped at an alehouse where the brewer did not stop talking. They knew better than to talk because the Mountain was seething over the joust with the Knight of Flowers. The brewer’s girl was serving, and they were touching her. Finally Joss puts his hand up her skirt, and the screams, and runs to the kitchen. The brewer goes to Ser Gregor and asks that his men leave the girl alone. Ser Gregor has the girl brought before him, pays the brewer a silver, and takes her right there. A boy runs in from cellar and Raff sticks him with a dirk. After Ser Gregor is done, Tobbot takes the girl from the back. Ser Gregor tells the brewer the girl was not worth a silver, and wants change, and the brewer gives it to him. They all roar with laughter at the story. Arya sneaks away. When Weese learns she did not ask about the mending, he beats her bloody.

Two days later she sees Jaqen H’ghar in the Barracks Hall. Ensuring that Weese is not around, she works her way down to him filling wine cups until she reaches him and whispers “Chiswyck” in his ear. He gives no sign that he heard, but nothing happens until the third day when she hears that a man had fallen off the wallwalk the previous night. Some are saying Harren’s ghost flung him down and Arya thinks that she is the ghost in Harrenhal, and there is one less name on her list.

References and Notes