A Time for Wolves

Alayne

Maddy and Gretchel, the handmaids who had come with her and her new family from the Eyrie, came into her room. Alayne had already put on the dress she would wear that night, so that she would not have to ruin her hairstyle later to get dressed. She told the handmaidens how she wanted it: with many braids upswept in little buns and two loose locks that fell to the front. They praised her choice and got ready to work while the young lady looked attentively at her reflection in the mirror.

They had been living in the Gates of the Moon for almost a moon's turn now. She had already adapted to her new home, where she would live during all of the winter. Because, even though her father's plans involved getting her married before the spring, her future husband would come to live with her there, instead of being Alayne the one who moved away. Considering that Harry was heir to the Eyrie, this seemed to make sense. But Alayne did not like it, because she knew what had to happen for him to come into that inheritance.

If she were the same girl she had been two years ago, the thought of meeting Harry would make her blush and sigh with yearning and excitement, and she would be thrilled with the prospect of a marriage with a young and noble knight. But things were different now. She had already been betrothed once, to a young prince with shiny golden hair. And just then, when she thought her dreams were about to come true, her prince had turned into the worst monster she could ever imagine. She had also been married, and her marriage had been a nightmare. The only good thing she could recall from her time as a married lady was that her husband had never forced her to consummate their union. For all that, now she was not the same girl she had been. Even her name was different.

The only thing Alayne felt about the expectation of meeting her new betrothed, then, was insecurity and distrust. The only thing she could do was to hope that he would be a good man, and that he would be kind to her.

In that she thought while the handmaids styled her hair, combing and braiding it into complex and beautiful shapes. She was wearing a light green gown that she found very pretty. In this occasion she did not need to worry to keep her humble and bastard-like appearance, Petyr had told her, but he had also advised her to keep avoiding the colors of Houses Tully and Arryn. Her choice met those conditions.

She studied her reflection attentively. Her face was beautiful, but it had a sad expression. Alayne forced herself to smile and change it. She remembered being praised for her beauty, her lustrous auburn hair (that she no longer had), her deep blue eyes and her flawless bearing and behavior. Tonight she would appear in the same way as ever, and she would cause the same good impression she had always sought to have in the people she met. If the gods were good, which they seldom seemed to be, everything would go well.

After they finished with her hair she decided to go to the castle's sept. She had to walk quite a while to get there, because it was far from her room, but she had nothing better to do until Lady Waynwood arrived with her sons and her ward. When she got there she knelt before the mother's altar, as she so often did. She prayed for her betrothed to be a good man, and for him to be gentle to her. She also prayed to the crone, to guide her in her path that seemed to have no way out, and for the plan Petyr had confided her to be carried out without any unpleasant and unexpected events. And she prayed to the father too, asking him to forgive her for the sins she had unintentionally committed: her role in Joffrey's death, her lie about her identity, and her future marriage, at the expense of the first one that was still valid. And after that she thanked the maiden, because after all that had happened, she was still one. But she did not pray to the warrior, because she did not believe in knights anymore.

When she had finished, she stayed there for a while, looking at the statues. The mother with her sympathetic and merciful face, the father with his more severe and inflexible expression. The maiden, young, innocent and beautiful, and the warrior, strong and handsome under his shining armor. The crone, stooped over with her twinkling lamp, the strong smith, with his hammer. And the stranger, hidden under his hood. Alayne did not have a mother who cared for and took pity on her. Her father was Littlfinger, and she could not trust him. She would soon be no longer a maiden and her betrothed, the warrior, was a stranger to her. She had never received a crone's counsels or a smith's help. Which god could she trust in, then? The stranger? She did not want anything with death yet. Or maybe the Old Gods? But that was impossible. Alayne had been brought up by septas, and she only prayed to the Seven. Besides, there were no weirwoods in the Vale.

She stood up, resigned, and started back towards the castle. When she got in, Maddy and Gretchel told her, with some reproach, that her father was already with Lord Royce, Myranda and the guests in the dining hall. She went there as quickly as she could. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down so that they would not see her nervousness, and she got in. They were all sitting around the table, but Petyr rose to greet her, and the others followed him.

"Alayne, my dear daughter, where have you been? We were waiting for you," He said while he approached her to take her to the table, holding her hand.

"I was in the sept, father. You are a great man, but I'm only your natural daughter, and a husband like Harry is beyond anything I could ever hope for. That is why I went to the sept to thank the Seven for this wonderful gift," she lied. Now she had learned to lie well, and even Petyr was almost tricked with her answer. But she would be satisfied as long as the others believed her.

He smiled, pleased with her answer. "Alayne has been brought up by septas, and she prays very often. I hope you were not slighted by her delay," Petyr apologized. The others shook their heads and assured that they were not offended, and Littlefinger made himself in charge of the introductions.

"Surely you remember Lady Anya, of the Lords Declarants?" Alayne nodded, noticing how the woman averted her gaze, ashamed by the mention of the group she had joined to disempower Petyr. "This is her son, Ser Donnel, the Knight of the Gate. The younger man next to him is Wallace Waynwood. And the young knight by my side is ser Harrold Hardying, Lady Waynwood's ward, and your betrothed."

She greeted them one by one, observing and analyzing carefully but covertly her future husband, who met her gaze and did not look away from her even after he noticed her scrutiny. He was an attractive young man with deep blue eyes and sandy straight hair. His features were fine but masculine. His shoulders were broad and seemed to be hard with muscle. Alayne noted that he smiled at her. She smiled back, wondering nervously whether he found her pretty or was just trying to be polite. They sat at the table again, and then Petyr ordered the serving girls to bring the first course.

"But, shouldn't we wait for Lord Arryn to join us before we start eating?" Young Wallace complained.

"Lord Robert is a child. He is not used to staying up so late. He has already dined in his chambers, and he is asleep now. I hope you will forgive his absence," Petyr excused him. The guests accepted his apology and Myranda asked about the tourney in which Harry had been made a knight. The young guests were pleased with the topic and talked excitedly about it for a while, and Wallace said he hoped for the occasion to repeat itself, so he could earn his own spurs.

Alayne found herself thinking that the youngest knights of the Vale had never been in a battle, and they only showed their prowess in the lists, because the Vale had remained neutral in the conflict. They longed for war to show their strength and valor, but they did not understand the destruction and loss that it would cause. That saddened her a little, but it also cheered her, because these knights would gladly agree to fight to get Winterfell back. And the fact that they had not had to fight before meant that the Vale had not suffered any loss, and all its strength was now at her disposition.

After some time, Alayne asked shyly when the wedding could take place. "Well, Alayne, your father has told us that it has been a year since your first moon's blood," Lady Waynwood said. "If this is so, we can wait another year, so that your body can mature wholly, and you can get married after that, when you are ready to bear Harry's children. And if your lord father agrees, we can invite you to our castle, so that you can spend some time together and not be strangers when your wedding day comes."

"Don't you believe that I mistrust you, but I would not like to let my Alayne live with Harry before the wedding," Petyr intervened. "Besides, I think my daughter can get married this very year, in some moon's turns. There is no need to wait so long, because she is almost ready."

"I think she's ready too," Lady Myranda informed. "I was her age when I got married, and there are maidens who wed much sooner. I have heard that the Lord Paramount of the North has recently married an eleven-year-old girl. Arya Stark, I think she was called."

From that moment on, the conversation focused on the news about the noble houses and the war. But Alayne could not get the nine-year-old girl that had been Sansa's sister out of her head. When they finished eating and the guests retired to their chambers to sleep, she sought out Petyr, and asked him to rescue her sister.

"My dear Alayne, she is not your sister. She is only a girl who pretends to be Arya Stark at my command, to please the Lannisters. Now that they think they have Arya, they will not look for you. Now go to sleep, sweetling. It is late, and you must be tired."

When she got to her room she found Robert in her bed, crying. "Hey, Sweetrobin, what's wrong?" Alayne asked him, sitting by his side.

"I had a horrible dream," he answered, sobbing. "There were a lot of… dead things… everywhere… and they attacked us… and then the Others came…" She hugged him then, seeing how terrified he was, and tried to settle him down, reminding him that the Others did not exist anymore.

"The Others lived a long time ago, but many brave men (as you will be one day) fought them away, and they defeated them completely. One of them, Brandon the Builder, built the Wall, and since then the Others were trapped on the other side, very far from here."

"But, what if they decide to come to this side?"

"They can't, because at the Wall there are brave men too, like Brandon the Builder, who protect us. The Night's Watch, they are called. Have you ever heard about the men of the Night's Watch?"

"A little," he said, dubiously. "They are men who always wear black, and they don't get married or have children. And many of them are bad men, and they are sent there because they do terrible things."

"Some of them are," Alayne had to admit. "But there are others who are good men, and they fight to protect the children like us. I have met some of them," she told him, whispering.

"Who? Tell me, Alayne!" Sweetrobin said, eager to hear her story.

"I will tell you, but only if you promise not to tell anyone."

The boy gave her his word, and she started talking about Benjen and Jon Snow. Robert did not ask her how she knew them, but she made up an answer nonetheless. She told him that the First Ranger was her mother's brother, and that Jon was her cousin. She told him they were great warriors, trained in a beautiful castle in the North, and that they had gone to the Wall to protect the people who could not fight. She also spoke about the Night's Watch, and the Battle for the Dawn.

"But Benjen and Jon don't fight against the Others, because those monsters disappeared long ago, when other brave men defended the Wall. They protect us from the wildlings, who are bad men who live beyond the Wall," she concluded after explaining everything she knew about the Others, the Wall and the Night's Watch.

"Tell me about them!" He asked.

"Tomorrow," she promised, yawning. "Today I am too tired."

He insisted a little, but he was tired too, so soon he gave up and laid down on the bed with her to sleep. Before she could fall asleep, Sansa realized that however much she tried to be Alayne, she would never forget her past. And as long as there remained the slightest possibility of finding somebody of her family, she would not be able to give up on her hope to see them again.