GOT: P Chapter 21

White Harbor's gates shrank behind us. Shaky roads ahead. Breath white from mule and men.

Rae sat on the cart plank with the reins loose in her hands, jaw tight. Arry rode beside us, wrapped in a grey cloak, eyes everywhere.

I paced the air over them, two lengths up, wings easy.

Rae looked up and scowled. "Winterfell was the plan," she said, not shouting, each word a small slap. "You scratched it on my table. WIN-TER-FELL. Now you've turned me south and west. Riverlands are on fire now. No carts want it. Do you hear me?"

I heard her. I drifted lower and pretended I didn't.

"Rae," Gerrin tried from the trace, flat, "roads close. Word is, Freys take coin for the Twins, but beyond..."

"I know the talk," she cut in. "I asked for carts to Riverland. Three men told me 'Not for love.' You make me spend for a mule and a bed with wheels and hire two swords to ride my flanks because you.." She pointed the rein-end at me, then dropped it with a sharp breath. "Because you decided."

Right. I deserved that.

I slipped down to the plank, pressed my head against her shoulder, slow. Warmth, then a small nudge again. Don't push. Just be there.

"Don't you 'sweet' me," she said, but her mouth twitched, traitor that it is. I nudged once more, a feathered shove at her chin. She giggled, short, surprised, hand coming up to rub the feathers by my eye. She caught herself and cleared her throat like a captain caught smiling. "You're trouble," she said, softer. "The worst kind."

Arry watched from the corner, trying not to. Kids always watch. Her eyes went from Rae's hand to me and back. The corner of her mouth moved a finger's width. She looked away fast so I wouldn't see.

Garrad rode the outer left with a spear across his lap and a knife at his hip. "Road's yours, Rae," he said. "I give you my say plain: Young Wolf's in the Riverlands. The Stark. If there's sense to be found, he's the one'll spare some." He jerked his chin at me. "Your bird's pointing where the news is made."

Rae didn't answer. She kept the cart moving. The hired blades- a bearded Northman named Wullin and a quiet Riverman called Tyce paced ahead and behind, one eye on hedges. 

No other carts would go our way. Does that matter?

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By dusk the Twins stood over the Green Fork, lamps winking in arrow slits. The river ran brown and cold. The bridge between was made of iron.

We queued with the rest. Frey spears drifted along the line.

One guard leaned into the cart more than needed, eyes sliding over Rae’s hood and mouth. “Toll’s doubled after dark,” he said, lazy. “Pretty faces pay thrice.”

Rae’s voice stayed level. “We’ll pay the posted toll. And pass.”

He looked over her shoulder slow on purpose, then at Arry’s cloak, then to Garrad. “Posted toll is what I say.”

Garrad didn’t bite. “If you’re Frey’s man, set a number you can defend.” He laid a small purse on the cart rim. “Cart, pony, three riders. Count it, wave us on. Or fetch one who can count.”

They took the purse to the booth. An older guard with a scar came back, named a high number but not a stupid one, weighed the coin, and jerked his chin. “Go on, then.”

As we rolled, the first guard muttered low, “Frey likes pretty guests.”

Rae kept her eyes on the mule’s ears. We passed under stone, under holes meant for worse than rain.

I was not a shadow on their walls. I kept to the sky’s edge, above tower height, tucked in the dark seam where torch-glare dies far enough that necks never think to tilt. No silhouette on the moon, no glide across a lantern’s cone. Just cold air and patient circles.

From up there I marked what mattered anyway: the mouthy one’s limp right shoulder, the scarred one, the runner at the far post. Three faces, three walks.

On the far bank we didn’t stop till the towers were behind. Garrad pulled even. “Camp off-road,” he said. 

Rae nodded, still forward. “We pay where we must,” she said, more to herself than us. Then up though she couldn’t see me. “Stay close.”

I kept my circle tight and silent. Close it is.

And the guard who couldn’t keep his tongue? Unseen by him or his friends, I set his face in my mind and left it there. Not now. But I will come back. 

Soon.