New chapter! Thanks for all the support!
x
The Street of the Silent Sisters began on Visenya's Hill and ran all the way to the Great Sept of Baelor. At that moment, the entire street was packed with people, men and women, old and young, all making their way toward the sept.
The wolf's howl, which had once thrown everyone into panic, now seemed to matter little.
Among the smallfolk heading toward the Great Sept of Baelor, some only wanted to see the commotion, while others hoped to receive a few alms from the nobles.
Almost no one truly mourned King Robert's death.
Small and agile, Arya forced her way through the crowd, running as fast as she could toward the Great Sept. She wanted to reach the intersection in front of the sept, then turn toward the Gate of the Gods, where the wolf's howl had come from.
The only route she knew was the one her father had taken when he brought her and Sansa to King's Landing. She did not know the smaller alleys and side streets. If she tried, she would surely get lost.
"Ahhh!"
"Run!"
"Son, come here!"
After squeezing through the crowd with tremendous difficulty, Arya was about to reach the intersection when chaos suddenly exploded ahead. Everyone turned around, screaming in fear and fleeing in panic.
Moving against the flow of people, Arya was shoved from every side, like a small boat caught in a towering wave. Fortunately, thanks to her Water Dancing training, she managed to move her feet nimbly and avoid the worst of the collisions. Then she hid behind a large block of stone beside the street.
When most of the crowd had already fled, Arya climbed onto the stone block and peeked at what was happening at the intersection.
A blood-covered Gold Cloak was hurled near her.
The man's neck was attached to his head only by a few scraps of flesh. From the wound, it was clear that most of his neck had been torn away by a bite.
Bloodwind!
Looking past the Gold Cloak's body, Arya immediately recognized the direwolf fighting against a large group of Gold Cloaks.
At the intersection before the Great Sept of Baelor, nearly fifty Gold Cloaks, armed with spears and longswords, were facing the beast, who had circled around through the Street of Steel and appeared there.
These fifty Gold Cloaks were precisely the guards from the Red Keep's south gate whom Crey had sent toward the Gate of the Gods. On the way, they had run straight into him.
The result of the battle, however, was obvious.
Without the restraint of wildfire, it was nearly impossible for an ordinary man to withstand more than two swipes from his claws.
Inside the Great Sept of Baelor, hearing the screams outside and the sharp cries of despair, Joffrey, Cersei, and the others came out accompanied by members of the Kingsguard and the Gold Cloaks.
From the top of the sept's immense staircase, they immediately saw the monstrous, blood-soaked wolf massacring their soldiers.
"Jaime... Uncle Jaime went with men to help, didn't he? How did that monstrosity appear here? Does that mean Uncle Jaime..."
Seeing his men being slaughtered by the giant wolf, Joffrey, who usually enjoyed bloody scenes, spoke with a pale face.
"Impossible. Jaime must have passed by it and missed it. Otherwise, he would certainly have killed that creature."
Cersei's white face was rigid with coldness as she answered with absolute conviction.
Joffrey, however, barely listened to her words. Afraid that the wolf would come up after him once it killed all the Gold Cloaks below, he immediately gave Barristan Selmy an order:
"Ser Barristan, take everyone with you and kill that creature!"
"As you command, Your Grace."
Barristan nodded and called the other five members of the Kingsguard, as well as the seventy Gold Cloaks who remained after Jaime had taken three detachments with him. All of them began descending the steps.
Still crouched on the stone block, Arya saw the movement on the sept's staircase. Having no idea how powerful Bloodwind truly was, her heart tightened with worry.
After all, there were now more than a hundred Gold Cloaks in total, along with that terrifying Lord Commander of the Kingsguard her father had spoken of before, Barristan.
Unable to hold herself back, Arya suddenly stood on the stone block and began jumping, waving her arms wide and shouting with all her strength.
"Bloodwind, run! There are too many of them!"
But the battle cries, screams of pain, and chaos of combat completely drowned out her voice.
Under normal conditions, someone immersed in battle would focus entirely on the fight. But the giant wolf was not fighting for survival. He was massacring them for enjoyment.
Because of that, while tearing apart another Gold Cloak's body with one paw, his ears twitched slightly, and he turned his head toward Arya.
Pup.
Seeing Arya, he immediately passed that thought to Robb.
At that instant, inside the Red Keep, Robb had just coldly severed the right arm of a Gold Cloak with Ice when he clearly felt the strong thought coming from Bloodwind.
Now that the wolf was getting closer and closer, the bond between them was also becoming clearer.
The moment he received the thought Pup, Robb understood. Bloodwind had found Arya.
Ever since his wolf had appeared so imposingly before her during the campaign against the wildlings, Arya had kept coming to Robb with Nymeria, asking how she could make Nymeria grow like him.
Besides that, whenever she could, she tried to pet him. At even worse moments, she even wanted to ride him.
Already annoyed by all of that, Bloodwind often sent Robb thoughts like: Pup... can eat?
Naturally, Robb had made the prohibition absolutely clear through their bond.
Robb's original plan, in fact, had been to reunite with Bloodwind and then use the scent from Arya's old clothes, kept in the caravan wagon, to have the wolf search for her throughout King's Landing.
After all, a wolf's sense of smell was even sharper than a dog's. For Bloodwind to find Arya by scent would be extremely easy.
Bring her to me... and don't eat her.
While dodging a desperate thrust from a Gold Cloak and, in the same movement, cutting off the man's foot with Ice, Robb sent the thought.
At the intersection before the Great Sept of Baelor, as soon as he received Robb's order, the giant wolf erupted with power all at once and charged toward Arya without caring about anything in his path.
"Fall back! Something is wrong with that wolf!"
Sensing the brutal change in its state, Barristan, already on the staircase, shouted to the men behind him and quickened his descent.
The creature knocked down the last Gold Cloak still standing between him and Arya and reached her in only a few steps.
Then he turned, lowered himself halfway, and the height of his back became exactly right for Arya to climb up from the stone block.
Without hesitating for even a second, Arya climbed onto the wolf's back, now covered in thick, sticky blood.
But the wolf's armor was so slippery and blood-soaked that Arya simply could not steady herself and risked falling off at any moment.
As she groped around desperately, she found a shallow, smooth hollow in the front part of the armor, roughly the size of a basin. Her eyes lit up, and she immediately pushed her body forward, fitting herself into it.
It was precisely a riding seat that Robb had ordered built into the armor, with footholds just below it. Unfortunately, Arya's legs were still too short to reach them.
When Arya finally settled in, the wolf rose again.
At that exact moment, Barristan was already rushing toward them with the members of the Kingsguard and the Gold Cloaks.
But the direwolf remembered Robb's order perfectly. After picking up Arya, he had no intention of continuing to fight.
He leapt onto the stone block and, from there, launched himself onto the roof of a low house beside it.
As expected, the roof could not bear his weight and immediately cracked with countless fissures, on the verge of collapsing.
But before that could happen, Bloodwind had already used the roof only as a foothold and leapt again, this time landing on the street that led toward the Red Keep.
Barristan stopped for an instant, unsure whether he should prioritize Joffrey's protection or continue pursuing the monster.
That was when he heard hoofbeats behind him.
Turning his head, he saw Jaime riding toward him at high speed, with another man seated behind him and holding a wooden crate.
x
x
x
If you're enjoying the story so far, consider supporting me on Patreon ❤️
You'll get weekly early access to chapters, along with some exclusive content:
https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheDevotedReader