A Clash of Kings-Chapter 26

It is eight days before they leave the village. On each of the days one of them is tortured by the Tickler for information about where valuables and food is hidden (with little result) and the whereabouts of Lord Beric Dondarrion (for no information). Finally they are marched to Harrenhal to serve under Tywin Lannister. Arya, after complaining about being assigned to the kitchen, is assigned to the understeward in the Wailing Tower, Weese.

Synopsis

Fear has become part of Arya's daily life as she walks the hard, rutted roads among a group of prisoners of Gregor Clegane and his men, a kind of fear she had never known until she was held captive in that storehouse at the shore of the Gods Eye. It had been eight days before they left that place on Clegane's command, and every day she had seen someone die.

The Mountain had come into the storehouse each morning after breakfast to pick one of them to be interrogated. The village folk did not dare to look at him, maybe hoping they would escape his attention. But there was no way to hide from him, no way to be safe. He just chose whoever he liked. There was that girl he picked on the fourth day who had slept with a soldier three nights running; yet the soldier said nothing. There was that old man he picked on the fifth day, who had mended their clothing and told them so often that his son served in the City Watch and did all for Joffrey that the other prisoners had actually started calling him All-for-Joffrey. There was that mother with a pox-scarred face who had told Clegane everything she knew on the expectation they would spare her daughter for it, only to see her daughter be picked the next morning to make certain the mother held nothing back.

The interrogations always went down the same way. They were done in front of the whole group, so that everyone knew what happened to rebels and traitors. They called the ordinarily looking man who did the questioning the Tickler. He was assisted by Chiswyck, the old stoop-shouldered man who had smashed Arya's head when they caught her, or by someone else, with Clegane just watching and listening until the prisoners died, which they invariably did. The questions were always about valuables or food hidden in the village, about the whereabouts of Beric Dondarrion and his band and about who of the villagers had assisted them. They found a few valuables from the interrogations, but only got wildly inconsistent information about Dondarrion and his men. The longest someone survived the Tickler's treatment was evenfall. The bodies were hung by the fires as food for the wolves.

The time in the storehouse has taught Arya that she is no Water Dancer. Syrio Forel would have never let them knock him down, take his sword, just watch as Lommy Greenhands was killed, or sit meekly by in that storehouse doing nothing while others died. She hates the villagers for being sheep almost as much as she hates herself for being a lamb, not a direwolf as the sigil of her house suggested. By now the Lannisters have taken everything from her: father, friends, home, hope, courage, Needle. They broke her wooden sword in front of her. They have even made her expose her secret of being a girl. She was still able to pee in privacy at the storehouse, yet on the open road that was not possible, as long as she had tried to hold it. Hot Pie had gaped at her when she skinned her breeches at a brush in front of all, but nobody else even looked. Clegane's men didn't care at all.

Their captors have forbidden them to talk and they punish those who disregard the order, as Arya has learned herself by getting her lip broken. They smashed with a spiked mace the face of a boy who wouldn't stop calling for his father; then Raff the Sweetling killed the boy's mother as well when she started screaming. Arya sees no purpose any longer in being brave, so she watches people die and does nothing. One woman who was questioned tried to be brave, but she died screaming just as the rest did. There are no brave ones left on this march, only women and children and very old or very young men. The other men were chained to the gibbet and left as food for wolves and crows. They only spared Gendry because he admitted that he had forged his helmet himself, as blacksmiths are too valuable to be killed.

The Mountain told them that they were taken to Harrenhal to serve Lord Tywin Lannister, a last chance given to rebels and traitors, which they should take: "Obey, serve, and live." Arya heard people arguing about this when they went to sleep that night. An old woman complained that it wasn't just what was done to them as they didn't commit any treason. Dondarrion's men had just come and taken everything from them, as Clegane's did. Unlike the Mountain's men, Dondarrion's did the village folk no harm though, another woman pointed out, and Thoros of Myr even paid for what they took. Only with signed papers, the old woman replied, and those didn't lay eggs as the chicken they took from her used to. Having made sure that no guard was looking, she spat three times for all Lannisters and Starks and Tullys. An old man said that the old king would have never stood for this sin. Arya, forgetting herself, asked whether he was talking about King Robert, yet the man had meant King Aerys. Then a guard had interferred, the old man lost his two remaining teeth and everyone fell silent.

Besides the prisoners, Clegane's band is also taking pigs, chickens, a cow, and wagons of salt fish to Harrenhal. The Mountain and his men are riding horses, but the captives have to walk and are killed if they cannot keep up or try to flee. The guards pick women at night and go into the bushes with them, receiving almost no resistance. There was one girl, prettier than the rest, who had to go with four or five different men each night, until she finally hit a guard with a stone one day. Clegane himself beheaded her with his massive two-handed great-sword and made everyone watch. He commanded that the body was to be left for the wolves. Arya has a side-look at Needle, worn at the hip by a black-bearded, balding man called Polliver, thinking how good it is that they had taken the sword from her, as she would have used it to stab Glegane that moment – and that would likely have ended with her being left as food for the wolves as well.

Polliver is hardly the worst of the lot, Arya thinks. By now she knows every one of Clegane's men, when they were only nameless strangers the night she was caught. It's important to keep in mind who of them is lazy or brutal, smart or stupid. The one they call Shitmouth has the foulest tongue she ever heard, yet he will give you an extra piece of bread if you ask, while jolly old Chiswyck or Rafford will only hit you. Arya observes them and listens to their talk, polishing her hates the way Gendry used to polish his helmet. She hates Dunsen for wearing Gendry's helmet, Polliver for taking Needle and Chiswyck for thinking he's funny. She hates even more the people she knows are responsible for the death of ones close to her: Raff the Sweetling for the death of Lommy, Amory Lorch for the death of Yoren, Meryn Trant for the death of Syrio, the Hound for the death of Mycah, Ilyn Payne and Joffrey for the death of her father, Cersei for the death of her father, Fat Tom, Desmond and the rest, even for the death of Lady, Sansa's direwolf. The Tickler is almost too scary to hate, though. There are times Arya almost forgets that he is coming along with the band, as he is completely inconspicuous when he isn't torturing people, just another soldier and actually quieter than most of them. Arya has started whispering to herself the names of the people she hates, she does it every night now. In Winterfell, she used to pray with her father at the godswood and with her mother in the sept, but on the road to Harrenhal, whispering those names has become the only prayer left to her.

As they approach Harrenhal, Arya thinks about the stories from Old Nan that Harren Hoare had built the castle with mortar mixed with human blood, and how King Aegon had roasted Harren and his sons within. She thinks it cannot be far when she first see the castle, but they had to march that day and most of the next. When they reached the castle the stench from the overflowing latrines and the flies were horrible, and the gatehouse was as large as Winterfell’s Great Keep. Hot Pie did not want to go in because of the ghosts, but went in when given the other choice of joining the ghosts.

After they were all stripped and scrubbed, each of the captives is brought before Goodwife Amabel and Goodwife Harra. When it is Arya’s turn she gives her name first she thinks of, Weasel. Goodwife Harra examines her calluses on her hands from training with Needle, and assumes it is from churning butter; that she was a farmer’s girl. Arya is told her that she now has a chance to improve her station in life working in the kitchens. When Arya exclaims she would prefer tending horses, and gets a slap that breaks her lip and is told that there are grooms and squires for that duty; the kitchens are snug and clean and there is always a warm place to sleep and plenty to eat. She is told she is not a cleaver girl and gets assigned to Weese, the understeward in the Wailing Tower.

There are six of them sent to Weese and he tells them that the Lannisters are generous to those that serve, which is more than any of they deserve. If they work hard they might rise as high as him, but he can smell disobedience, and only wants to smell fear.

References and Notes

• Analyses and summary of the chapter in the course of a 10th reread by Slynt.
• Review and summary by Leigh Butler.