Ⅲ 冰雨的风暴 Chapter65 艾莉亚
ARYA
每天早晨醒来的时候，她都可以感觉到内里的空洞。这不是饥饿，尽管她吃得很少。这是个空荡的地方，一种虚无，原来兄弟姐妹父母们所在之处化为乌有。她的头也很疼，虽然比之前好些，但仍相当强烈。艾莉亚对此已经习惯，肿块终会消解，心中的空洞却依旧如故。这空洞永远不会好起来，睡觉时，她告诉自己。
She could feel the hole inside her every morning when she woke. It wasn’t hunger, though sometimes there was that too. It was a hollow place, an emptiness where her heart had been, where her brothers had lived, and her parents. Her head hurt too. Not as bad as it had at first, but still pretty bad. Arya was used to that, though, and at least the lump was going down. But the hole inside her stayed the same. The hole will never feel any better, she told herself when she went to sleep.
有的早晨，艾莉亚根本不想醒来。她宁愿蜷在斗篷下，闭紧眼睛，再度入睡。若猎狗不来管她，她会没日没夜地睡。
Some mornings Arya did not want to wake at all. She would huddle beneath her cloak with her eyes squeezed shut and try to will herself back to sleep. If the Hound would only have left her alone, she would have slept all day and all night.
然后做梦。做梦时最棒。她几乎每晚梦到狼。一大群狼，由她领头，而且她最为高大、强壮、机敏、迅捷。她跑得比马快，打得比狮子强，每当咧牙露齿，人类便纷纷走避。她从不肚饿，毛皮替她保暖，无惧寒风凛冽。她有许多兄弟姐妹，成群结队，凶猛可怕，而且统统听命于她，永远不会离开。
And dreamed. That was the best part, the dreaming. She dreamed of wolves most every night. A great pack of wolves, with her at the head. She was bigger than any of them, stronger, swifter, faster. She could outrun horses and outfight lions. When she bared her teeth even men would run from her, her belly was never empty long, and her fur kept her warm even when the wind was blowing cold. And her brothers and sisters were with her, many and more of them, fierce and terrible and hers. They would never leave her.
如果说她的夜晚属于狼，白天则属于狗。桑铎·克里冈天天早上准时叫她起床，不管她喜不喜欢。他会用刺耳的声音咒骂她，或将她提起来摇晃。有回他把一盔冰水倒在她头上。她跳了起来，一边颤抖着洒水，一边想踢他，结果他只哈哈大笑。“擦干净，然后去喂该死的马。”他吩咐，而她乖乖照办。
But if her nights were full of wolves, her days belonged to the dog. Sandor Clegane made her get up every morning, whether she wanted to or not. He would curse at her in his raspy voice, or yank her to her feet and shake her. Once he dumped a helm full of cold water all over her head. She bounced up sputtering and shivering and tried to kick him, but he only laughed. “Dry off and feed the bloody horses,” he told her, and she did.
他们现在有了两匹马，陌客和一匹栗色矮母马，艾莉亚给它取名“胆小鬼”，因为桑铎说它很可能跟他们一样，是从孪河城逃出来的。屠杀发生后的第二天早上，他们在田野里遇见游荡着的它，背上没有骑手。作为坐骑，它很不赖，但艾莉亚无法喜爱胆小鬼。陌客就会反抗。但她还是尽力照料它，这总比跟猎狗同骑要强。况且胆小鬼虽然懦弱，但年轻力壮，艾莉亚觉得，如果情势危急，它会跑得比陌客快。
They had two now, Stranger and a sorrel palfrey mare Arya had named Craven, because Sandor said she’d likely run off from the Twins the same as them. They’d found her wandering riderless through a field the morning after the slaughter. She was a good enough horse, but Arya could not love a coward. Stranger would have fought. Still, she tended the mare as best she knew. It was better than riding double with the Hound. And Craven might have been a coward, but she was young and strong as well. Arya thought that she might be able to outrun Stranger, if it came to it.
猎狗不再像以前那样看紧她，有时似乎并不在意她是走是留，晚上也不再把她捆进马褥子。我要趁睡熟时杀死他，她告诉自己，却从未付诸行动，我要骑着胆小鬼逃跑，他抓不住我，她心想，但也未付诸行动。该去哪儿？没有临冬城了，舅公在奔流城，可他们彼此不认识。橡果厅的斯莫伍德夫人或许会收留她，或许不会，况且艾莉亚甚至不肯定自己能找到橡果厅。有时她觉得该回沙玛的客栈——若洪水没将它冲走的话——跟热派做伴，搞不好贝里伯爵还能重新找到她。安盖会教她如何用弓，然后就可以同詹德利一起当土匪，像歌谣里的“白鹿”温妲那样。
The Hound no longer watched her as closely as he had. Sometimes he did not seem to care whether she stayed or went, and he no longer bound her up in a cloak at night. One night I’ll kill him in his sleep, she told herself, but she never did. One day I’ll ride away on Craven, and he won’t be able to catch me, she thought, but she never did that either. Where would she go? Winterfell was gone. Her grandfather’s brother was at Riverrun, but he didn’t know her, no more than she knew him. Maybe Lady Smallwood would take her in at Acorn Hall, but maybe she wouldn’t. Besides, Arya wasn’t even sure she could find Acorn Hall again. Sometimes she thought she might go back to Sharna’s inn, if the floods hadn’t washed it away. She could stay with Hot Pie, or maybe Lord Beric would find her there. Anguy would teach her to use a bow, and she could ride with Gendry and be an outlaw, like Wenda the White Fawn in the songs.
但这都是笨念头，跟珊莎的梦想一样。热派和詹德利有机会就离开了她，而贝里伯爵的土匪与猎狗只想拿她换赎金。没人想跟她在一起。他们不与我同一族群，就连热派和詹德利也不是。我想那些真是太笨了，像个笨蛋小女孩。根本不是狼。
But that was just stupid, like something Sansa might dream. Hot Pie and Gendry had left her just as soon as they could, and Lord Beric and the outlaws only wanted to ransom her, just like the Hound. None of them wanted her around. They were never my pack, not even Hot Pie and Gendry. I was stupid to think so, just a stupid little girl, and no wolf at all.
因此她留下来同猎狗结伴。他们每天骑马赶路，从不在同一地方睡两次，并尽量避开市镇、村庄和城堡。有次她问桑铎·克里冈，他们要上哪儿去。“去远方，”他说，“知道这点就行。我不想浪费口舌，也不想听你乱喊乱叫。妈的，真该让你跑进那座该死的城堡。”
So she stayed with the Hound. They rode every day, never sleeping twice in the same place, avoiding towns and villages and castles as best they could. Once she asked Sandor Clegane where they were going. “Away,” he said. “That’s all you need to know. You’re not worth spit to me now, and I don’t want to hear your whining. I should have let you run into that bloody castle.”
“是啊。”她赞同，同时想起了母亲。
“You should have,” she agreed, thinking of her mother.
“如果我让你去，你早就死翘翘了。妈的，你该感谢我，并为我唱支甜美的小曲儿，像你姐姐那样。”
“You’d be dead if I had. You ought to thank me. You ought to sing me a pretty little song, the way your sister did.”
“你也拿斧子砸她了？”
“Did you hit her with an axe too?”
“我是拿斧背砸你的，愚蠢的小母狼。如果用斧刃，你的脑浆这会儿还在绿叉河里漂呢。闭上该死的乌嘴，我要把你交给静默修女会，她们会把多话的女孩舌头割掉。”
“I hit you with the flat of the axe, you stupid little bitch. If I’d hit you with the blade there’d still be chunks of your head floating down the Green Fork. Now shut your bloody mouth. If I had any sense I’d give you to the silent sisters. They cut the tongues out of girls who talk too much.”
他这么说不公平。除了那一次，艾莉亚根本不说话。日子一天一天地过去，他俩什么也不说。她太过空洞，无话可说，猎狗则太愤怒。她可以感觉到他体内的怒火，从他脸上的表情、从他扭曲紧绷的嘴唇、从他瞧她的眼神，都看得出来。每当他拿斧劈柴，便会进入一种令人颤栗的愤怒状态，他会疯狂地劈砍树干、落木或者断枝——柴火根本不用劈那么细。在那之后，他往往精疲力竭，躺倒下去立刻睡着，连火都没生。艾莉亚憎恶这种情形，也憎恶他。那样的夜晚，她会长长久久地瞪着斧头。它看来十分沉重，但我打赌自己能挥动。而且不会用斧背砸他。
That wasn’t fair of him to say. Aside from that one time, Arya hardly talked at all. Whole days passed when neither of them said anything. She was too empty to talk, and the Hound was too angry. She could feel the fury in him; she could see it on his face, the way his mouth would tighten and twist, the looks he gave her. Whenever he took his axe to chop some wood for a fire, he would slide into a cold rage, hacking savagely at the tree or the deadfall or the broken limb, until they had twenty times as much kindling and firewood as they’d needed. Sometimes he would be so sore and tired afterward that he would lie down and go right to sleep without even lighting a fire. Arya hated it when that happened, and hated him too. Those were the nights when she stared the longest at the axe. It looks awfully heavy, but I bet I could swing it. She wouldn’t hit him with the flat, either.
在流浪途中，他们也会瞥到其他人：田里的农夫，放牧的猪倌，挤牛奶的姑娘，沿满是车辙的道路传递消息的侍从。她也从来不想跟他们搭话，仿佛对方生活在一片遥远的土地上，讲的是奇特陌生的语言，他们跟她毫无关系，反之亦然。
Sometimes in their wanderings they glimpsed other people; farmers in their fields, swineherds with their pigs, a milkmaid leading a cow, a squire carrying a message down a rutted road. She never wanted to speak to them either. It was as if they lived in some distant land and spoke a queer alien tongue; they had nothing to do with her, or her with them.
再说，被人看到也不安全。时不时会有一队骑手经过蜿蜒的田间道路，高举佛雷家族的双塔旗帜。“他们在猎杀漏网的北方人，”对方经过时猎狗道，“听见马蹄声，赶紧低头，这里没有朋友。”
Besides, it wasn’t safe to be seen. From time to time columns of horsemen passed down the winding farm roads, the twin towers of Frey flying before them. “Hunting for stray northmen,” the Hound said when they had passed. “Any time you hear hooves, get your head down fast, it’s not like to be a friend.”
有一天，在某个由倒下的橡树根构成的泥穴里，他们面对面遇上另一位孪河城事变的幸存者。他的纹章是一个披白丝带跳舞的粉红少女，自称替马柯·派柏爵士效劳，当弓箭手，虽然弓已经丢了。他左肩与手臂交界处扭曲肿胀，据说是钉头锤砸的，锤子打碎了肩膀，并使得锁甲深嵌入血肉之中。“北方佬干的，”他哭泣道，“胸口有小血人的北方佬。他看到我的徽纹，还开玩笑说，红色的男人和粉色的少女，应该凑成一对。我为他的波顿伯爵祝酒，他为马柯爵士祝酒，我们共同为艾德慕公爵、萝丝琳夫人及北境之王祝酒，然后他就要杀我。”说这番话时，他眼里满是炽热的光，艾莉亚看得出，那是真实情感的流露。他肩膀肿得出奇，整个左半身沾满脓血。一股恶臭的味道，闻起来就像尸体。那人恳求给他酒。
One day, in an earthen hollow made by the roots of a fallen oak, they came face to face with another survivor of the Twins. The badge on his breast showed a pink maiden dancing in a swirl of silk, and he told them he was Ser Marq Piper’s man; a bowman, though he’d lost his bow. His left shoulder was all twisted and swollen where it met his arm; a blow from a mace, he said, it had broken his shoulder and smashed his chainmail deep into his flesh. “A northman, it was,” he wept. “His badge was a bloody man, and he saw mine and made a jape, red man and pink maiden, maybe they should get together. I drank to his Lord Bolton, he drank to Ser Marq, and we drank together to Lord Edmure and Lady Roslin and the King in the North. And then he killed me.” His eyes were fever bright when he said that, and Arya could tell that it was true. His shoulder was swollen grotesquely, and pus and blood had stained his whole left side. There was a stink to him too. He smells like a corpse. The man begged them for a drink of wine.
“有酒的话，我早喝了，”猎狗告诉他，“我可以给你水，还有慈悲。”
“If I’d had any wine, I’d have drunk it myself,” the Hound told him. “I can give you water, and the gift of mercy.”
弓箭手瞧他良久，“你是乔佛里的狗。”
The archer looked at him a long while before he said, “You’re Joffrey’s dog.”
“现在我是自己的狗。要不要水？”
“My own dog now. Do you want the water?”
“要，”那人咽了口口水，“还要慈悲，谢谢。”
“Aye.” The man swallowed. “And the mercy. Please.”
他们刚在不远处经过一个小池塘。桑铎把头盔交给艾莉亚，让她跋涉回去装水。烂泥溅上靴子，她把猎狗的头盔当桶子，水从眼孔漏出，但底部仍储了许多。
They had passed a small pond a short ways back. Sandor gave Arya his helm and told her to fill it, so she trudged back to the water’s edge. Mud squished over the toe of her boots. She used the dog’s head as a pail. Water ran out through the eyeholes, but the bottom of the helm still held a lot.
见她回来，弓箭手竭力抬脸，好让她把水倒进嘴巴。她倒得有多快，他就咽得有多快，咽不下去的流下脸颊，渗进棕色的血块，直到胡须里满是淡粉色水滴。水倒完后，他抓住头盔舔钢铁。“好爽，”他说，“酒就更好了。我想喝酒。”
When she came back, the archer turned his face up and she poured the water into his mouth. He gulped it down as fast as she could pour, and what he couldn’t gulp ran down his cheeks into the brown blood that crusted his whiskers, until pale pink tears dangled from his beard. When the water was gone he clutched the helm and licked the steel. “Good,” he said. “I wish it was wine, though. I wanted wine.”
“我也想。”猎狗几乎是温柔地将匕首插进那人胸膛，用身体的重量将刀尖送入外衣、锁甲和下面的衬里。然后他把武器拔出，一边在死人身上擦拭，一边看着艾莉亚。“那是心脏所在的位置，小妹妹。那是杀人的方法。”
“Me too.” The Hound eased his dagger into the man’s chest almost tenderly, the weight of his body driving the point through his surcoat, ringmail, and the quilting beneath. As he slid the blade back out and wiped it on the dead man, he looked at Arya. “That’s where the heart is, girl. That’s how you kill a man.”
杀人的一种方法。“我们要不要埋他？”
That’s one way. “Will we bury him?”
“埋他？”桑铎问，“他不在乎，我们也没铲子。留给狼和野狗吧，留给你我的兄弟。”他专注地看了她一眼。“我们只管‘征集’。”
“Why?” Sandor said. “He don’t care, and we’ve got no spade. Leave him for the wolves and wild dogs. Your brothers and mine.” He gave her a hard look. “First we rob him, though.”
弓箭手口袋里有两枚银鹿和近三十个铜板。他匕首柄上有颗漂亮的粉红宝石，猎狗将其掂了掂，然后扔给艾莉亚。她接住刀柄，插入皮带，感觉稍好了些。它虽不比“缝衣针”，终究是铁器，可以防身。死人还有一袋箭，但没弓的箭不管用。他的靴子对艾莉亚来说太大，对猎狗又太小，只好留下。她还拿了他的圆盔，尽管它盖到了她鼻子底，她得稍稍翘起来才能走路。“他一定有马，否则逃不掉，”克里冈边说边四处张望，“但我敢说，妈的早跑远了。没人知道他在这儿待了多久。”
There were two silver stags in the archer’s purse, and almost thirty coppers. His dagger had a pretty pink stone in the hilt. The Hound hefted the knife in his hand, then flipped it toward Arya. She caught it by the hilt, slid it through her belt, and felt a little better. It wasn’t Needle, but it was steel. The dead man had a quiver of arrows too, but arrows weren’t much good without a bow. His boots were too big for Arya and too small for the Hound, so those they left. She took his kettle helm as well, even though it came down almost past her nose, so she had to tilt it back to see. “He must have had a horse as well, or he wouldn’t have got away,” Clegane said, peering about, “but it’s bloody well gone, I’d say. No telling how long he’s been here.”
等他们抵达明月山脉脚下，雨差不多停了。看到太阳、月亮和星星，艾莉亚觉得他们在往东去。“我们去哪儿？”她再次问。
By the time they found themselves in the foothills of the Mountains of the Moon, the rains had mostly stopped. Arya could see the sun and moon and stars, and it seemed to her that they were heading eastward. “Where are we going?” she asked again.
这次猎狗回答了她，“你在鹰巢城有个姨妈，诸神保佑，也许她会为你这瘦东西付赎金。上得山路，就沿它一路去血门。”
This time the Hound answered her. “You have an aunt in the Eyrie. Might be she’ll want to ransom your scrawny arse, though the gods know why. Once we find the high road, we can follow it all the way to the Bloody Gate.”
莱莎姨妈。艾莉亚觉得没什么指望。她要母亲，不要母亲的妹妹。她不认识莱莎姨妈，就跟不认识黑鱼舅公一样。我们当初应该进城堡的。母亲又不是真的死了，还有罗柏。佛雷家不一定要杀他们。也许佛雷侯爵只是把他们抓起来。也许他们正被绑在地牢里，或者被带往君临，好让乔佛里砍掉他们的脑袋。我们并不清楚。“我们应该回去，”她突然决定，“我们应该回孪河城去找我母亲。她不会死的，我们去救她。”
Aunt Lysa. The thought left Arya feeling empty. It was her mother she wanted, not her mother’s sister. She didn’t know her mother’s sister any more than she knew her great uncle Blackfish. We should have gone into the castle. They didn’t really know that her mother was dead, or Robb either. It wasn’t like they’d seen them die or anything. Maybe Lord Frey had just taken them captive. Maybe they were chained up in his dungeon, or maybe the Freys were taking them to King’s Landing so Joffrey could chop their heads off. They didn’t know. “We should go back,” she suddenly decided. “We should go back to the Twins and get my mother. She can’t be dead. We have to help her.”
“我还以为满脑子歌谣梦幻的是你姐姐，”猎狗咆哮，“没错，佛雷也许会留你母亲一命，以收取赎金。但七层地狱，凭我一人之力根本无法把她弄出来，妈的。”
“I thought your sister was the one with a head full of songs,” the Hound growled. “Frey might have kept your mother alive to ransom, that’s true. But there’s no way in seven hells I’m going to pluck her out of his castle all by my bloody self.”
“你又不是一个人，我也会来。”
“Not by yourself. I’d come too.”
他发出一声响，似乎是笑声，“这会把那老头吓得尿裤子的。”
He made a sound that was almost a laugh. “That will scare the piss out of the old man.”
“你怕死！”她轻蔑地说。
“You’re just afraid to die!” she said scornfully.
克里冈哈哈大笑，“我不怕死，只怕火。现在，安静点儿，否则我把你舌头割下，为静默姐妹们省点麻烦。我们去谷地。”
Now Clegane did laugh. “Death don’t scare me. Only fire. Now be quiet, or I’ll cut your tongue out myself and save the silent sisters the bother. It’s the Vale for us.”
艾莉亚觉得他并不会真的割她舌头，只是说说而已，就像“粉红眼”曾说要拿鞭子狠狠抽她一样。但她不打算试探，毕竟桑铎·克里冈和“粉红眼”不同。“粉红眼”不能把人劈成两半，或用斧子砍杀，连用斧背砸人都不会。
Arya didn’t think he’d really cut her tongue out; he was just saying that the way Pinkeye used to say he’d beat her bloody. All the same, she wasn’t going to try him. Sandor Clegane was no Pinkeye. Pinkeye didn’t cut people in half or hit them with axes. Not even with the flat of axes.
当晚入眠时她想着母亲，不知道该不该趁猎狗睡着时杀他，好自己去救母亲。她闭上眼睛，母亲的脸就在前面。如此接近，几乎可以嗅到……
That night she went to sleep thinking of her mother, and wondering if she should kill the Hound in his sleep and rescue Lady Catelyn herself. When she closed her eyes she saw her mother’s face against the back of her eyelids. She’s so close I could almost smell her …
……她真的嗅到她了。气味非常微弱，被其他味道所掩盖——包括苔藓、泥土和水流，腐烂的芦苇和人所发出的臭气。她缓缓穿过松软的地面，来到河边，舔几口水，抬头闻嗅。天空铁灰，云层密布，绿色的河水中满是漂浮物。尸体充塞于浅滩，被流水击打挪动，有的直接被冲上了岸。她的兄弟姐妹群集在周围，撕扯丰厚的血肉。
… and then she could smell her. The scent was faint beneath the other smells, beneath moss and mud and water, and the stench of rotting reeds and rotting men. She padded slowly through the soft ground to the river’s edge, lapped up a drink, then lifted her head to sniff. The sky was grey and thick with cloud, the river green and full of floating things. Dead men clogged the shallows, some still moving as the water pushed them, others washed up on the banks. Her brothers and sisters swarmed around them, tearing at the rich ripe flesh.
乌鸦也在这儿，一边朝狼群尖叫，一边拍翅膀，空中满是羽毛。它们的血更热，其中一只正要起飞时，被她的姐妹咬住了翅膀。她也想抓鸟，想要尝热血的味道，想要听骨头在齿间碎裂，想要用温暖的血肉填饱肚子，不要冷的。她很饿，周围到处是肉，但她知道自己不能吃。
The crows were there too, screaming at the wolves and filling the air with feathers. Their blood was hotter, and one of her sisters had snapped at one as it took flight and caught it by the wing. It made her want a crow herself. She wanted to taste the blood, to hear the bones crunch between her teeth, to fill her belly with warm flesh instead of cold. She was hungry and the meat was all around, but she knew she could not eat.
气味更强烈了。她竖起耳朵，听狼群低吼，乌鸦怒叫，羽翼拍打，河水奔流。远方某处，传来马匹的声响和人类的呼叫，但那并不重要。气味才重要。她再度嗅闻空气。就在那儿，她看见了，苍白的物体顺流漂下，碰上什么东西转了个方向。芦苇在它面前弯腰。
The scent was stronger now. She pricked her ears up and listened to the grumbles of her pack, the shriek of angry crows, the whirr of wings and sound of running water. Somewhere far off she could hear horses and the calls of living men, but they were not what mattered. Only the scent mattered. She sniffed the air again. There it was, and now she saw it too, something pale and white drifting down the river, turning where it brushed against a snag. The reeds bowed down before it.
她穿过浅滩，溅起水花，发出嘈杂声响，扎入深处。腿脚搅动河水，水流强劲，但她更壮。她跟从鼻子的指引向前游去，水中的气味浓烈潮湿，但牵引她的不是这味道，而是一丝刺鼻的冰冷红血，一股郁郁作呕的死亡气息。她追逐它，就像平时在林间追逐红鹿。末了，她用牙齿逮到一条苍白的手臂，不断摇晃，想让它动起来，嘴里却只有血与死亡。她以疲倦的身躯，费尽全力将尸体拖回岸边，拽上泥泞的堤坝，一个小兄弟悄悄游荡过来，舌头耷拉在嘴角。她不得不龇牙咆哮，将他赶走，否则他便要进食了。此时她抖落毛皮上的水，那白色的物体脸朝下躺在泥地，死肉苍白生褶，冰冷的血从喉咙里渗出。起来，她心想，起来，跟我们一起进食，一起奔跑。
She splashed noisily through the shallows and threw herself into the deeper water, her legs churning. The current was strong but she was stronger. She swam, following her nose. The river smells were rich and wet, but those were not the smells that pulled her. She paddled after the sharp red whisper of cold blood, the sweet cloying stench of death. She chased them as she had often chased a red deer through the trees, and in the end she ran them down, and her jaw closed around a pale white arm. She shook it to make it move, but there was only death and blood in her mouth. By now she was tiring, and it was all she could do to pull the body back to shore. As she dragged it up the muddy bank, one of her little brothers came prowling, his tongue lolling from his mouth. She had to snarl to drive him off, or else he would have fed. Only then did she stop to shake the water from her fur. The white thing lay facedown in the mud, her dead flesh wrinkled and pale, cold blood trickling from her throat. Rise, she thought. Rise and eat and run with us.
马匹的声响迫使她回头。他们从下风处来，所以她没闻出，而对方几乎快要到了。骑马的人类，黑色、黄色与粉色的翅膀翻滚飞舞，手中还有闪闪发亮的长爪子。一些年轻兄弟咧牙露齿，准备守护食物，她啮咬他们，将他们统统赶开。这是野外的法则：鹿、兔子和乌鸦在狼群面前奔逃，狼群则逃离人类。她把冰冷苍白的战利品弃置于泥沼之中，留在拖上来的地方，毫无愧色地逃跑了……
The sound of horses turned her head. Men. They were coming from downwind, so she had not smelled them, but now they were almost here. Men on horses, with flapping black and yellow and pink wings and long shiny claws in hand. Some of her younger brothers bared their teeth to defend the food they’d found, but she snapped at them until they scattered. That was the way of the wild. Deer and hares and crows fled before wolves, and wolves fled from men. She abandoned the cold white prize in the mud where she had dragged it, and ran, and felt no shame.
次日早晨，猎狗无须咒骂艾莉亚，或把她摇醒。这是自孪河城以来，她第一次比他起得早，甚至主动梳洗马匹。他们沉默地吃着早餐，最后桑铎道，“关于你母亲……”
When morning came, the Hound did not need to shout at Arya or shake her awake. She had woken before him for a change, and even watered the horses. They broke their fast in silence, until Sandor said, “This thing about your mother …”
“没关系，”艾莉亚阴郁地说，“她死了。我梦见了她。”
“It doesn’t matter,” Arya said in a dull voice. “I know she’s dead. I saw her in a dream.”
猎狗看了她好久，然后点点头。这事没有再提。他们策马向群山前进。
The Hound looked at her a long time, then nodded. No more was said of it. They rode on toward the mountains.
山势渐高，路遇一个孤立的小村庄，周围环绕着灰绿色的哨兵树和高大靛青的士卒松，克里冈决定冒险进入。“我们需要食物，”他说，“也需要休整。他们不大可能知道孪河城发生的事，运气好的话，他们甚至会不认得我。”
In the higher hills, they came upon a tiny isolated village surrounded by grey-green sentinels and tall blue soldier pines, and Clegane decided to risk going in. “We need food,” he said, “and a roof over our heads. They’re not like to know what happened at the Twins, and with any luck they won’t know me.”
村民们正在家园周围建造一道木栅栏，看到猎狗宽阔的肩膀，便提出以食物、住宿及少量金钱，让他干活。“有红酒，我就干。”他朝他们吼。最后，他满足于麦酒，每晚喝到睡着。
The villagers were building a wooden palisade around their homes, and when they saw the breadth of the Hound’s shoulders they offered them food and shelter and even coin for work. “If there’s wine as well, I’ll do it,” he growled at them. In the end, he settled for ale, and drank himself to sleep each night.
他想把艾莉亚卖给艾林夫人的念头却于此间夭折。“从我们这儿再往上走会有冰霜，山路要开始下雪，几乎无法通行，”村长道，“即使你没被冻死饿死，也会教影子山猫或穴居熊逮住，更可怕的是原住民。灼人部自独眼提魅打仗回来之后变得无所畏惧，而半年之前，冈恩之子冈梭尔刚带领石鸦部袭击了离此不到八里远的一个村子，抢走所有女人，抢走每一粒粮食，男人也被杀死大半。他们现在有铁器，精良的长剑和锁甲，整个山路都被控制——石鸦部、奶蛇部、雾子部，所有的高山氏族，纷纷猖獗。也许你能解决一些，但最终他们会杀了你，并把你女儿抢走。”
His dream of selling Arya to Lady Arryn died there in the hills, though. “There’s frost above us and snow in the high passes,” the village elder said. “If you don’t freeze or starve, the shadowcats will get you, or the cave bears. There’s the clans as well. The Burned Men are fearless since Timett One-Eye came back from the war. And half a year ago, Gunthor son of Gurn led the Stone Crows down on a village not eight miles from here. They took every woman and every scrap of grain, and killed half the men. They have steel now, good swords and mail hauberks, and they watch the high road—the Stone Crows, the Milk Snakes, the Sons of the Mist, all of them. Might be you’d take a few with you, but in the end they’d kill you and make off with your daughter.”
我不是他女儿，艾莉亚如果没那么累，一定会喊出来。如今她不是谁的女儿。她什么也不是。不是艾莉亚，不是黄鼠狼，不是娜娜，不是阿利，不是乳鸽，甚至不是癞痢头。她只是个白天跟着狗儿跑，夜晚梦到狼群的笨女孩。
I’m not his daughter, Arya might have shouted, if she hadn’t felt so tired. She was no one’s daughter now. She was no one. Not Arya, not Weasel, not Nan nor Arry nor Squab, not even Lumpyhead. She was only some girl who ran with a dog by day, and dreamed of wolves by night.
这是个宁静的村庄。他们占有两张虱子不多的稻草床，食物普通但管饱，清新的空气里则有松树的味道。然而艾莉亚很快认定，自己讨厌这地方。村民们都是胆小鬼，甚至没一个敢看猎狗的脸，至少不会看很久。有些妇女想给她穿裙子，想让她做针线活，但她们不是斯莫伍德夫人，她全不干。有个女孩喜欢跟着她，她是村长的女儿，与艾莉亚年纪相仿，但不过是个孩子，擦破膝盖就会哭，而且走到哪里都拿着一个笨乎乎的布娃娃。娃娃被做成有点像士兵的模样，因此女孩称他为“兵爵士”，并夸耀它如何保护自己安全。“走开，”艾莉亚告诉过她几十次，“别来烦我。”但她不肯听，于是最后艾莉亚夺过她的布娃娃，把它撕裂，用一根手指将肚子里的碎布掏出来。“现在他真的像个兵了！”她说，然后将布娃娃扔进小河里。从此以后，女孩不再纠缠，艾莉亚则每天梳洗胆小鬼和陌客，或在树间行走。有时她会找根棍子，练习“针线活”，练着练着就会想起孪河城的事，于是便对树猛劈，直到棍子断裂。
It was quiet in the village. They had beds stuffed with straw and not too many lice, the food was plain but filling, and the air smelled of pines. All the same, Arya soon decided that she hated it. The villagers were cowards. None of them would even look at the Hound’s face, at least not for long. Some of the women tried to put her in a dress and make her do needlework, but they weren’t Lady Smallwood and she was having none of it. And there was one girl who took to following her, the village elder’s daughter. She was of an age with Arya, but just a child; she cried if she skinned a knee, and carried a stupid cloth doll with her everywhere she went. The doll was made up to look like a man-at-arms, sort of, so the girl called him Ser Soldier and bragged how he kept her safe. “Go away,” Arya told her half a hundred times. “Just leave me be.” She wouldn’t, though, so finally Arya took the doll away from her, ripped it open, and pulled the rag stuffing out of its belly with a finger. “Now he really looks like a soldier!” she said, before she threw the doll in a brook. After that the girl stopped pestering her, and Arya spent her days grooming Craven and Stranger or walking in the woods. Sometimes she would find a stick and practice her needlework, but then she would remember what had happened at the Twins and smash it against a tree until it broke.
“也许我们该在这儿待一阵子。”两周后，猎狗告诉她。他麦酒喝得太多，但头脑还清醒，不像胡说。“鹰巢城是去不了的，佛雷家会继续在三河流域搜捕幸存者。似乎这儿需要会用剑的人，以防原住民过来打劫。我们可以住下来，找个办法给你姨妈送信。”艾莉亚听到这话，脸耷拉下来。她不想留下，但也没地方可去。第二天早上，当猎狗出去砍树运木头时，她爬回床上睡觉。
“Might be we should stay here awhile,” the Hound told her, after a fortnight. He was drunk on ale, but more brooding than sleepy. “We’d never reach the Eyrie, and the Freys will still be hunting survivors in the riverlands. Sounds like they need swords here, with these clansmen raiding. We can rest up, maybe find a way to get a letter to your aunt.” Arya’s face darkened when she heard that. She didn’t want to stay, but there was nowhere to go, either. The next morning, when the Hound went off to chop down trees and haul logs, she crawled back into bed.
但那高高的木栅栏完工之后，再没活可干，村长明确表示，他们不能留下。“到冬天，我们喂饱自己都困难，”他解释，“而你……你这样的人会带来流血。”
But when the work was done and the tall wooden palisade was finished, the village elder made it plain that there was no place for them. “Come winter, we will be hard pressed to feed our own,” he explained. “And you … a man like you brings blood with him.”
桑铎的嘴抽搐了一下，“原来你知道我是谁。”
Sandor’s mouth tightened. “So you do know who I am.”
“没错。事实上，这儿确实无人造访，但我们会上市场，去赶集。我们听说过乔佛里国王的狗儿。”
“Aye. We don’t get travelers here, that’s so, but we go to market, and to fairs. We know about King Joffrey’s dog.”
“等那些石鸦什么的到来时，你会很高兴自己养了一条狗。”
“When these Stone Crows come calling, you might be glad to have a dog.”
“也许吧。”那人犹豫了一下，然后鼓起勇气。“但他们说你在黑水河失去了战斗的欲望。他们说——”
“Might be.” The man hesitated, then gathered up his courage. “But they say you lost your belly for fighting at the Blackwater. They say—”
“我知道他们说什么。”猎狗的嗓音像两把锯子互相摩擦，“付工钱，我这就走。”
“I know what they say.” Sandor’s voice sounded like two woodsaws grinding together. “Pay me, and we’ll be gone.”
离开时，猎狗得到满满一袋铜板，一袋酸麦酒，以及一把“新”剑。老实说那把剑很旧，但对他而言是新的，他用在孪河城夺来的长柄斧——在艾莉亚头上敲出一个包的斧子——跟某村民交换得到。不出一天，麦酒就喝光了，但克里冈每晚磨剑，一边为每个豁口和锈斑而诅咒换剑给他的人。如果他失去了战斗的欲望，为什么要在乎自己的剑是否锋利呢？这问题艾莉亚不敢问，但思考得很多，他带她逃离孪河城不是因为害怕吧？
When they left, the Hound had a pouch full of coppers, a skin of sour ale, and a new sword. It was a very old sword, if truth be told, though new to him. He swapped its owner the longaxe he’d taken at the Twins, the one he’d used to raise the lump on Arya’s head. The ale was gone in less than a day, but Clegane sharpened the sword every night, cursing the man he’d swapped with for every nick and spot of rust. If he lost his belly for fighting, why does he care if his sword is sharp? It was not a question Arya dared ask him, but she thought on it a lot. Was that why he’d run from the Twins and carried her off?
回到河间地，雨势已然渐小，洪水也开始退降。猎狗转而向南，折回三叉戟河。“我们去奔流城，”他一边烧烤杀死的野兔，一边告诉艾莉亚，“希望黑鱼会出钱买狼女。”
Back in the riverlands, they found that the rains had ebbed away, and the flood waters had begun to recede. The Hound turned south, back toward the Trident. “We’ll make for Riverrun,” he told Arya as they roasted a hare he’d killed. “Maybe the Blackfish wants to buy himself a she-wolf.”
“他没见过我，甚至不知道我是否真的是我。”艾莉亚厌倦了去奔流城的念头。她仿佛往奔流城走了好多好多年，却从来没有到过。每次向奔流城出发，结果总是抵达某个更糟的地方。“他不会付钱的，只会绞死你。”
“He doesn’t know me. He won’t even know I’m really me.” Arya was tired of making for Riverrun. She had been making for Riverrun for years, it seemed, without ever getting there. Every time she made for Riverrun, she ended up someplace worse. “He won’t give you any ransom. He’ll probably just hang you.”
“随便，让他试试看。”他转了转烧烤着的食物。
“He’s free to try.” He turned the spit.
听他说话，不像是失去了战斗的欲望。“我知道我们可以去哪里。”艾莉亚说。她还剩一个哥哥。别人不要我，琼恩会要我的。他会叫我“我的小妹”，然后弄乱我的头发。然而这段路很长，她觉得自己一个人无法走到。她连奔流城都到不了。“我们去绝境长城。”
He doesn’t talk like he’s lost his belly for fighting. “I know where we could go,” Arya said. She still had one brother left. Jon will want me, even if no one else does. He’ll call me “little sister” and muss my hair. It was a long way, though, and she didn’t think she could get there by herself. She hadn’t even been able to reach Riverrun. “We could go to the Wall.”
桑铎的笑声一半像是咆哮。“小母狼想加入守夜人，是吗？”
Sandor’s laugh was half a growl. “The little wolf bitch wants to join the Night’s Watch, does she?”
“我哥哥在长城。”她固执地说。
“My brother’s on the Wall,” she said stubbornly.
他嘴角抽搐了一下。“长城离这儿有千里之遥。妈的，我们得冲过该死的佛雷家领地，然后才刚到达颈泽。那些个沼泽有蜥狮，天天拿狼当早点。即使真的抵达北境，也没缺胳膊少腿，半数城堡里还有铁乌贼，那帮该死的北方人也不是什么好货。”
His mouth gave a twitch. “The Wall’s a thousand leagues from here. We’d need to fight through the bloody Freys just to reach the Neck. There’s lizard lions in those swamps that eat wolves every day for breakfast. And if we did reach the north with our skins intact, there’s ironborn in half the castles, and thousands of bloody buggering northmen as well.”
“你怕他们？”她问，“你失去了战斗的欲望？”
“Are you scared of them?” she asked. “Have you lost your belly for fighting?”
片刻之间，她以为他会打她。但野兔已烤成棕黄，表皮松脆，油脂渗出来滴进炊火，发出噼噼啪啪的爆裂声。桑铎将它从棍子上取下，用大手撕开，扔了一半到艾莉亚怀里。“我的欲望没问题，”他一边说，一边扯下一条腿，“但我才他妈的不在乎你或者你哥哥。我也有个哥哥。”
For a moment she thought he was going to hit her. By then the hare was brown, though, skin crackling and grease popping as it dripped down into the cookfire. Sandor took it off the stick, ripped it apart with his big hands, and tossed half of it into Arya’s lap. “There’s nothing wrong with my belly,” he said as he pulled off a leg, “but I don’t give a rat’s arse for you or your brother. I have a brother too.”