CHAPTER 50: ARYA

Approaching the Green Fork in rain and mud, Arya and Sandor Clegane travel in a stolen wayn disguised as smallfolk, hauling casks of salt pork and pickled pigs’ feet. Outriders confront them, including Ser Donnel Haigh, but Sandor’s downcast deference and a tale of delivering a gift horse for Lady Whent get them waved through.

As they near the Twins, Arya’s anxiety grows, fueled by fever and memories of Roose Bolton and Harrenhal. The music from both castles carries over the swollen river, and Sandor notes they have missed the wedding but that the feast continues. The camps sprawl before them, banners sodden and indistinct in the drizzle.

At the wagon-hedge perimeter, Bolton men stop them. The sergeant, wearing the Dreadfort’s flayed man, dismisses their meat as unfit for the lordly feast and orders them to unload by the great feast tents, telling them to find a man named Sedgekins. Sandor accepts passage into the camp but keeps his focus on the castle.

They pass pavilions and crowded feast tents full of drinking northmen and raucous toasts for Edmure, Roslin, and the Young Wolf. Arya searches the camp for familiar faces, finding only strangers. Ignoring instructions to unload, Sandor drives on toward the castle gates, determined to bring Arya directly to Robb and Catelyn.