A Time for Wolves

Arya VI

She hugged her brother tightly and said goodbye to him. They would meet again soon, Jon told her in an attempt to reassure her. And they probably would, but there was no way of knowing it for certain. He was marching, as he had been planning for a long time, to Winterfell. Tormund's wildlings were going with him, and so were five hunred men from the Vale, at Hardying's command. But Harrold himself would stay at the Wall with the rest of his men, to defend it in case the Others attacked.

Sansa had publicly revealed her identity, and she had washed the dye off her hair. Now they all treated her with a deference only surpassed by the one they showed the queen and Melisandre. She was flawlessly dressed with a beautiful blue gown that matched her eyes, but it was simpler than what she had worn in King's Landing, because the clothes she had brought to the Wall were the ones she had worn as Alayne. Her hairstyle, however, was elaborate, because the queen had put one of her handmaids at her disposition as soon as she learned of Lady Alayne's true identity. Her eyes were a bit watery that morning, but she had not shed tears.

Rickon was wearing breeches and a tunic he had borrowed from Devan, and he had a heavy cloak above it that looked too big for him. He looked sad, because he had already started to see Jon as a brother, and Arya knew he really loved him. He was not crying, but his bleak expression showed it clearly. Jon tried to cheer them all, but Arya knew he did not like to have to leave his family (or what was left of it) again.

"Don't worry, Rickon. I will be back soon, I promise. You'll see: I will retake Winterfell, and when the war is over you will live there, at home. Winterfell and the North will be yours."

"I will be back soon, you say. That's what Robb said when he left. I'll be back soon, and I'll bring mum back with me. But he did not come back, and now I will not see himor mum again, ever," said the boy, who now seemed to be about to start crying.

"But Jon will really come back. He has already faced much worse things beyond the Wall. He will survive this battle, and he will come back to Castle Black, where he belongs," Sansa assured him, sounding convinced.

Arya remained silent, because she did not find any reason to lie, and the truth was unknown. Her eyes went moist when Jon gave her one last hug and whispered "Fare well, little sister, until our roads meet again", but she dried them with her sleeve, and nodded slightly. Finally, he mounted on his horse and marched off, with the rest of the leaving party following him.

When they disappeared from sight in the horizon, Arya looked away from the road and made for the winch elevator, because she had the watch on top of the Wall. At the beginning of her watch, Arya told herself that everything would be fine. She repeated to herself over and over again that Jon would not have need of her, and that she was better in Castle Black than fighting for Winterfell, but she could not convince herself.

She had already been through the terrible experience of losing her family, and she had worked very hard to find Jon again. She could not stand by and let him leave her just like that. If there was a way she could follow him without them stopping her… And then she knew. She was going to need somebody's help, but that could not be so hard to get. As the hours of her watch went by, she designed her plan.

When the watch shift changed, Arya went silently to the kitchen and stole many loaves of bread and a bottle full of water without being seen. She put them in a bag that she left in her room, and then she went to the yard, where she practiced her swordplay with Rickon, Keit and Devan, the last one being the only one that posed a real challenge for her.

When she practiced with her brother, she told him her plan. She could see the excitement in his eyes when she told him quickly and in whispers what it consisted in. But he was visibly disappointed when Arya told him the part she wanted him to play in it. She had to ask him many times before he accepted. And even when he did, he seemed offended to be left behind. Arya reminded him then that he was the queen's ward, and that she would realize too soon if Rickon went missing.

That night, at midnight, both of them went out of their rooms, and they met outside the armory. They hugged one last time, whispered some parting words, and Arya gave Rickon one of the horns that the watch used to announce the coming of rangers, wildlings and, lately, of the Others. He went to the Wall and she headed to the armory to pick a crossbow and some quarrels. After that she went to her room to pick up her bag, and she waited for the sign.

It came in a few minutes: three long blows, one following the other. Arya waited a bit more, until all the men of the castle had heard and, in consequence, were going to the Wall to fight, or cowering in Castle Black. When she considered that enough time had passed, she went to the stables, which were deserted, saddled a horse, and set off in a fast gallop, decided not to stop until she saw, in the distance, the campfires of Jon's army.

As soon as she saw the fires and the tents in the horizon she stopped her horse and tied it to a tree by the Kingsroad. She did not want to go near them, yet. She would have time for that later, when they got further away from the Wall and they could not send her back to Castle Black. She sat on the grass, ate some bread and drank some water from her bottle before she went to sleep, using her cloak as a bed.

For a week, her routine was always the same: walking the Kingsroad during the day, sleeping at night and, from the third day on, looking for food and water whenever she could. That was really hard at the beginning, but on the fifth day of her journey she reached the Last River, and she could finally recharge her bottle. Besides, that same night she found the wolfwood, where she could hunt a rabbit with her crossbow. That night she managed, with great effort, to light a small fire to cook it.

After the first week she started to go nearer the army, so near that she knew they could see her, if they happened to glance attentively in her direction. However, she did not dare show herself openly until the third week. It was the eighteenth day of her journey, and she camped only a few hundreds of feet behind them. As it was to be expected, they saw her, and a group of wildlings approached her to find out who she was. They recognized her at once and took her to Jon. He was surprised, and visibly angry.

"Arya! Oh, gods! What are you doing here?"

"I'm riding to Winterfell. I'll go with you, wherever you go. You are my pack, aren't you?"

"Aye, Arya. But I would have liked to be able to ride to battle knowing that my little sister is safe…"

"Safe at the Wall, fighting against the Others?" Arya cut him off. "Accept it, Jon: nobody is safe now. And if I had to choose where to risk my life, my choice will be where you are. Besides, I want to know that you are well, too, and the only way I can know is if I am with you."

"Fine, Arya," he accepted with a sigh. "But when the time to fight comes, you will stay out of it, in the camp."

Arya agreed, and she was invited to sleep in Jon's tent. They were together for the rest of the journey, until they got to a small town near Winterfell. A three days ride, in normal circumstances. It was not snowing, but the ground was covered with snow because of the last ice storm, and riding there was hard. It would take them more than that to reach the castle then, Arya guessed.

But instead of moving forward, they camped there. They found some of Stannis's men in the houses and towers. Jon asked to speak to whoever that was in charge, and Arya could hear the conversation.

"Lord Commander, I am Ser Justin Massey. His Grace left me in charge of the provisions and of the men who remained here. Most of them are sick or wounded, but there are prisoners too. And Lady Alysanne Mormont is here as well, with your sister."

"My sister? I don't think it could be…" Jon started to say, but Ser Justin stopped him.

"Yes, your sister Arya is here. We have not taken Winterfell yet, but she has managed to escape and get to us. With Theon Greyjoy's help, of course. He is here too, as a prisoner of King Stannis."

That surprised Arya: someone had claimed to be her. She wondered who that girl was, and why she was pretending to be Arya. Especially considering that she had had to lie, and say that she was another person, because her identity endangered her life.

"Very well, Ser Justin. Bring Arya to me, please. And I would also like to have a word with Theon Greyjoy," Jon asked.

"I will bring your sister at once, Lord Stark. After that I can take you to see Greyjoy, but I cannot leave you alone with him. I must make sure that he remains alive, so that His Grace can execute him publicly, and you have far too many reasons to wish to kill him," Massey explained.

Jon accepted that and Ser Justin went away to seek out the girl who claimed to be Arya. She waited in silence for the moment to come in which Jon pointed out the fraud. Some minutes later the knight reappeared, followed by a dark-haired and brown-eyed girl that walked staring at the floor, presumably aware of the fact that she would soon be discovered and defeated. And Arya knew her: she was Jeyne Poole, the steward's daughter and Sansa's best friend.

"I know the girl," Jon said in a calm voice. "But her name is not Arya Stark, and she is not my sister. The girl you have brought to me, Ser Justin, is called Jeyne Poole. She was the daughter of my father's steward. She is not my sister, but I would like to take her under my protection all the same."

"I am so sorry, Lord Stark. We were so sure… It was not my intention to give you false hopes."

"You didn't, ser. I knew right from the beginning that you did not have my sister, for Arya has traveled with me from the Wall. She is here," Jon revealed.

"It's me: Arya, of House Stark," she announced herself.

After Jon gave Justin a quick explanation about how Arya had turned up in Castle Black, they started to interrogate Jeyne.

"Tell me, Jeyne. Why did you tell them you were my sister?" Jon asked her sternly.

"They made me do it. Lord Tywin Lannister sent me to Winterfell to… to marry Ramsay. They told me to say… that I was Arya. They threatened me... Theon told me… told me that I must not… that I must not forget… mi name. 'You are Arya Stark', he said. He forgot his… and Ramsay… he…-Jeyne broke off then, and she burst into tears. Arya understood that she had been forced to pose as her, and that it had not been her idea. It seemed that she had been through terrible situations, and Arya pitied her.

"It is fine, Jeyne. Don't worry, you are not in trouble for this," Jon tried to calm her. "Massey, could you please escort Jeyne back to her room? And Arya too: Jeyne must be the most suitable roommate for her, here. And after that, take me to see Greyjoy, please," Jon asked him.

They took them to a big room with two beds, and the knight set a mattress on the floor, because without Arya there were already two people in that room: Jeyne Poole and Alysanne Mormont. Alysanne was kind and offered to sleep on the mattress, so that Arya could have her bed. Arya only accepted after the woman insisted. Jeyne told Arya what had happened to her, with Alysanne's help in the most traumatic moments of her story.

And Arya learned then that Jeyne had lost her father too, that she had been trained in a brothel and forced to marry a terrible man that mistreated her, and that she feared she was pregnant with his child. In turn, Arya told her that Sansa and Rickon were alive and in the Wall, and that she could see them when Stannis retook Winterfell and they came back, or she could travel to the Wall with Arya. That helped Jeyne to pull herself together enough to sleep, and Arya and Alysanne fell asleep soon after.

The next morning, Jon and Arya broke their fast together, and she asked him why he had wanted to speak with Theon.

"I wanted an explanation. I have never liked Theon, but I would never have imagined that he would do what he did. Besides, I always thought he was fond of Robb."

"And what did he say?"

"He told me that he had just wanted to belong somewhere. That, as he knew he would never be a Stark, he tried to prove that he could be a Greyjoy, and that is why he took Winterfell. He told me that he knows it was the worst mistake he could ever have made, and that if he could choose again, he would rather die in the Red Wedding with Robb."

"Do you believe him?"

"I do. Theon tried to mock me and laugh at my questions at the beginning, but when I told him that I knew that Bran and Rickon were alive he could not meet my eyes any longer. It was then that he told me this."

"Will you forgive him?" Arya asked. She trusted her brother's judgment, so she truly believed that Theon was sorry. But as sorry as he could be, she believed that the man who had grown up with her brothers and had then betrayed them in that horrible way did not deserve to be forgiven.

"No, I will not. I can't forgive him, because it was not me whom he betrayed. Robb was his king, and his best friend: it is to him that he should apologize. And to Bran, to Rickon, and to the boys he killed to pass them for our brothers. I don't think that Theon will be forgiven until he dies, and maybe not even when he is dead."

She did not ask anything else, and they stayed silent for a while. Now that she knew this, Arya pitied Theon. He had lost his family a long time ago, and when he got it back, they had rejected him. The only thing he had wanted was to be part of a pack, like the one of the Starks, but he had ended up being hated by everyone. She hoped they would give him a quick painless death, which was the best thing she could wish for him.

Sometime later Jon parted from her, to ride to Winterfell. This time she did not follow him, and waited patiently to hear from him instead, as she had promised that she would.