Ned paused at the foot of the stair and pulled on his gloves. “It’s time we took our leave. Mybusiness here is done.”
Heward lurched to his feet, hurriedly gathering6 up his things. “As you will, my lord,” Jory said.
“I’ll help Wyl bring round the horses.” He strode to the door.
Littlefinger took his time saying his farewells. He kissed the black woman’s hand, whispered somejoke that made her laugh aloud, and sauntered over to Ned. “Your business,” he said lightly, “orRobert’s? They say the Hand dreams the king’s dreams, speaks with the king’s voice, and rules withthe king’s sword. Does that also mean you fuck with the king’s—”
“Lord Baelish,” Ned interrupted, “you presume too much. I am not ungrateful for your help. Itmight have taken us years to find this brothel without you. That does not mean I intend to endure yourmockery. And I am no longer the King’s Hand.”
“The direwolf must be a prickly beast,” said Littlefinger with a sharp twist of his mouth.
A warm rain was pelting7 down from a starless black sky as they walked to the stables. Ned drew upthe hood8 of his cloak. Jory brought out his horse. Young Wyl came right behind him, leadingLittlefinger’s mare9 with one hand while the other fumbled10 with his belt and the lacings of his trousers.
A barefoot whore leaned out of the stable door, giggling11 at him.
“Will we be going back to the castle now, my lord?” Jory asked. Ned nodded and swung into thesaddle. Littlefinger mounted up beside him. Jory and the others followed.
“Chataya runs a choice establishment,” Littlefinger said as they rode. “I’ve half a mind to buy it.
Brothels are a much sounder investment than ships, I’ve found. Whores seldom sink, and when theyare boarded by pirates, why, the pirates pay good coin like everyone else.” Lord Petyr chuckled12 at hisown wit.
Ned let him prattle13 on. After a time, he quieted and they rode in silence. The streets of King’sLanding were dark and deserted14. The rain had driven everyone under their roofs. It beat down onNed’s head, warm as blood and relentless15 as old guilts. Fat drops of water ran down his face.
“Robert will never keep to one bed,” Lyanna had told him at Winterfell, on the night long agowhen their father had promised her hand to the young Lord of Storm’s End. “I hear he has gotten achild on some girl in the Vale.” Ned had held the babe in his arms; he could scarcely deny her, norwould he lie to his sister, but he had assured her that what Robert did before their betrothal16 was of nomatter, that he was a good man and true who would love her with all his heart. Lyanna had onlysmiled. “Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man’s nature.”
The girl had been so young Ned had not dared to ask her age. No doubt she’d been a virgin17; thebetter brothels could always find a virgin, if the purse was fat enough. She had light red hair and apowdering of freckles18 across the bridge of her nose, and when she slipped free a breast to give hernipple to the babe, he saw that her bosom19 was freckled20 as well. “I named her Barra,” she said as the child nursed. “She looks so like him, does she not, milord? She has his nose, and his hair …”
“She does.” Eddard Stark21 had touched the baby’s fine, dark hair. It flowed through his fingers likeblack silk. Robert’s firstborn had had the same fine hair, he seemed to recall.
“Tell him that when you see him, milord, as it … as it please you. Tell him how beautiful she is.”
“I will,” Ned had promised her. That was his curse. Robert would swear undying love and forgetthem before evenfall, but Ned Stark kept his vows22. He thought of the promises he’d made Lyanna asshe lay dying, and the price he’d paid to keep them.
“And tell him I’ve not been with no one else. I swear it, milord, by the old gods and new. Chatayasaid I could have half a year, for the baby, and for hoping he’d come back. So you’ll tell him I’mwaiting, won’t you? I don’t want no jewels or nothing, just him. He was always good to me, truly.”
Good to you, Ned thought hollowly. “I will tell him, child, and I promise you, Barra shall not gowanting.”
She had smiled then, a smile so tremulous and sweet that it cut the heart out of him. Riding throughthe rainy night, Ned saw Jon Snow’s face in front of him, so like a younger version of his own. If thegods frowned so on bastards23, he thought dully, why did they fill men with such lusts24? “Lord Baelish,what do you know of Robert’s bastards?”
“Well, he has more than you, for a start.”
“How many?”
Littlefinger shrugged25. Rivulets27 of moisture twisted down the back of his cloak. “Does it matter? Ifyou bed enough women, some will give you presents, and His Grace has never been shy on thatcount. I know he’s acknowledged that boy at Storm’s End, the one he fathered the night Lord Stanniswed. He could hardly do otherwise. The mother was a Florent, niece to the Lady Selyse, one of herbedmaids. Renly says that Robert carried the girl upstairs during the feast, and broke in the weddingbed while Stannis and his bride were still dancing. Lord Stannis seemed to think that was a blot28 on thehonor of his wife’s House, so when the boy was born, he shipped him off to Renly.” He gave Ned asideways glance. “I’ve also heard whispers that Robert got a pair of twins on a serving wench atCasterly Rock, three years ago when he went west for Lord Tywin’s tourney. Cersei had the babeskilled, and sold the mother to a passing slaver. Too much an affront29 to Lannister pride, that close tohome.”
Ned Stark grimaced30. Ugly tales like that were told of every great lord in the realm. He couldbelieve it of Cersei Lannister readily enough … but would the king stand by and let it happen? TheRobert he had known would not have, but the Robert he had known had never been so practiced atshutting his eyes to things he did not wish to see. “Why would Jon Arryn take a sudden interest in theking’s baseborn children?”
The short man gave a sodden31 shrug26. “He was the King’s Hand. Doubtless Robert asked him to seethat they were provided for.”
Ned was soaked through to the bone, and his soul had grown cold. “It had to be more than that, orwhy kill him?”
Littlefinger shook the rain from his hair and laughed. “Now I see. Lord Arryn learned that HisGrace had filled the bellies32 of some whores and fishwives, and for that he had to be silenced. Smallwonder. Allow a man like that to live, and next he’s like to blurt34 out that the sun rises in the east.”
There was no answer Ned Stark could give to that but a frown. For the first time in years, he foundhimself remembering Rhaegar Targaryen. He wondered if Rhaegar had frequented brothels; somehowhe thought not.
The rain was falling harder now, stinging the eyes and drumming against the ground. Rivers ofblack water were running down the hill when Jory called out, “My lord,” his voice hoarse35 with alarm.
And in an instant, the street was full of soldiers.
Ned glimpsed ringmail over leather, gauntlets and greaves, steel helms with golden lions on thecrests. Their cloaks clung to their backs, sodden with rain. He had no time to count, but there were tenat least, a line of them, on foot, blocking the street, with longswords and iron-tipped spears.
“Behind!” he heard Wyl cry, and when he turned his horse, there were more in back of them, cuttingoff their retreat. Jory’s sword came singing from its scabbard. “Make way or die!”
“The wolves are howling,” their leader said. Ned could see rain running down his face. “Such asmall pack, though.”
Littlefinger walked his horse forward, step by careful step. “What is the meaning of this? This is the Hand of the King.”
“He was the Hand of the King.” The mud muffled37 the hooves of the blood bay stallion. The lineparted before him. On a golden breastplate, the lion of Lannister roared its defiance38. “Now, if truth betold, I’m not sure what he is.”
“Lannister, this is madness,” Littlefinger said. “Let us pass. We are expected back at the castle.
What do you think you’re doing?”
“He knows what he’s doing,” Ned said calmly.
Jaime Lannister smiled. “Quite true. I’m looking for my brother. You remember my brother, don’tyou, Lord Stark? He was with us at Winterfell. Fair-haired, mismatched eyes, sharp of tongue. A shortman.”
“I remember him well,” Ned replied.
“It would seem he has met some trouble on the road. My lord father is quite vexed39. You wouldnot perchance have any notion of who might have wished my brother ill, would you?”
“Your brother has been taken at my command, to answer for his crimes,” Ned Stark said.
Littlefinger groaned40 in dismay. “My lords—”
Ser Jaime ripped his longsword from its sheath and urged his stallion forward. “Show me yoursteel, Lord Eddard. I’ll butcher you like Aerys if I must, but I’d sooner you died with a blade in yourhand.” He gave Littlefinger a cool, contemptuous glance. “Lord Baelish, I’d leave here in some hasteif I did not care to get bloodstains on my costly41 clothing.”
Littlefinger did not need to be urged. “I will bring the City Watch,” he promised Ned. TheLannister line parted to let him through, and closed behind him. Littlefinger put his heels to his mareand vanished around a corner.
Ned’s men had drawn42 their swords, but they were three against twenty. Eyes watched from nearbywindows and doors, but no one was about to intervene. His party was mounted, the Lannisters on footsave for Jaime himself. A charge might win them free, but it seemed to Eddard Stark that they had asurer, safer tactic43. “Kill me,” he warned the Kingslayer, “and Catelyn will most certainly slayTyrion.”
Jaime Lannister poked44 at Ned’s chest with the gilded45 sword that had sipped46 the blood of the last ofthe Dragonkings. “Would she? The noble Catelyn Tully of Riverrun murder a hostage? Ithink … not.” He sighed. “But I am not willing to chance my brother’s life on a woman’s honor.”
Jaime slid the golden sword into its sheath. “So I suppose I’ll let you run back to Robert to tell himhow I frightened you. I wonder if he’ll care.” Jaime pushed his wet hair back with his fingers andwheeled his horse around. When he was beyond the line of swordsmen, he glanced back at hiscaptain. “Tregar, see that no harm comes to Lord Stark.”
“As you say, m’lord.”
“Still … we wouldn’t want him to leave here entirely47 unchastened, so”—through the night and therain, he glimpsed the white of Jaime’s smile—“kill his men.”
“No!” Ned Stark screamed, clawing for his sword. Jaime was already cantering off down thestreet as he heard Wyl shout. Men closed from both sides. Ned rode one down, cutting at phantoms48 inred cloaks who gave way before him. Jory Cassel put his heels into his mount and charged. A steel-shod hoof49 caught a Lannister guardsman in the face with a sickening crunch50. A second man reeledaway and for an instant Jory was free. Wyl cursed as they pulled him off his dying horse, swordsslashing in the rain. Ned galloped51 to him, bringing his longsword down on Tregar’s helm. The jolt52 ofimpact made him grit53 his teeth. Tregar stumbled to his knees, his lion crest36 sheared54 in half, bloodrunning down his face. Heward was hacking55 at the hands that had seized his bridle56 when a spearcaught him in the belly57. Suddenly Jory was back among them, a red rain flying from his sword. “No!”
Ned shouted. “Jory, away!” Ned’s horse slipped under him and came crashing down in the mud.
There was a moment of blinding pain and the taste of blood in his mouth.
He saw them cut the legs from Jory’s mount and drag him to the earth, swords rising and falling asthey closed in around him. When Ned’s horse lurched back to its feet, he tried to rise, only to fallagain, choking on his scream. He could see the splintered bone poking58 through his calf59. It was the lastthing he saw for a time. The rain came down and down and down.
When he opened his eyes again, Lord Eddard Stark was alone with his dead. His horse movedcloser, caught the rank scent60 of blood, and galloped away. Ned began to drag himself through themud, gritting61 his teeth at the agony in his leg. It seemed to take years. Faces watched from candlelit windows, and people began to emerge from alleys62 and doors, but no one moved to help.
Littlefinger and the City Watch found him there in the street, cradling Jory Cassel’s body in hisarms.
Somewhere the gold cloaks found a litter, but the trip back to the castle was a blur33 of agony, andNed lost consciousness more than once. He remembered seeing the Red Keep looming63 ahead of himin the first grey light of dawn. The rain had darkened the pale pink stone of the massive walls to thecolor of blood.
Then Grand Maester Pycelle was looming over him, holding a cup, whispering, “Drink, my lord.
Here. The milk of the poppy, for your pain.” He remembered swallowing, and Pycelle was tellingsomeone to heat the wine to boiling and fetch him clean silk, and that was the last he knew.
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收听单词发音
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1
amiably
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| adv.和蔼可亲地，亲切地 | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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buxom
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| adj.（妇女）丰满的，有健康美的 | |
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forfeits
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| 罚物游戏 | |
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wry
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| adj.讽刺的；扭曲的 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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pelting
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| 微不足道的，无价值的，盛怒的 | |
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hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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giggling
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| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的现在分词 ) | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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prattle
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| n.闲谈；v.（小孩般）天真无邪地说话；发出连续而无意义的声音 | |
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14
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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relentless
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| adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的 | |
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betrothal
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| n. 婚约, 订婚 | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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freckles
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| n.雀斑，斑点( freckle的名词复数 ) | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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freckled
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| adj.雀斑；斑点；晒斑；（使）生雀斑v.雀斑，斑点( freckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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stark
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| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
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vows
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| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
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23
bastards
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| 私生子( bastard的名词复数 )； 坏蛋； 讨厌的事物； 麻烦事 （认为别人走运或不幸时说）家伙 | |
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lusts
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| 贪求（lust的第三人称单数形式） | |
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25
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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rivulets
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| n.小河，小溪( rivulet的名词复数 ) | |
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blot
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| vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍 | |
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affront
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| n./v.侮辱，触怒 | |
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grimaced
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| v.扮鬼相，做鬼脸( grimace的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31
sodden
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| adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑 | |
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32
bellies
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| n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的 | |
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blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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blurt
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| vt.突然说出，脱口说出 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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38
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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40
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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41
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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42
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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tactic
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| n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的 | |
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44
poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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45
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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46
sipped
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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48
phantoms
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| n.鬼怪，幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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49
hoof
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| n.(马，牛等的)蹄 | |
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50
crunch
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| n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声 | |
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51
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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52
jolt
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| v.（使）摇动，（使）震动，（使）颠簸 | |
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53
grit
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| n.沙粒，决心，勇气；v.下定决心，咬紧牙关 | |
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54
sheared
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| v.剪羊毛( shear的过去式和过去分词 )；切断；剪切 | |
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55
hacking
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| n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动 | |
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56
bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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58
poking
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| n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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59
calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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60
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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61
gritting
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| v.以沙砾覆盖（某物），撒沙砾于( grit的现在分词 )；咬紧牙关 | |
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alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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63
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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