Snippet #1499629

"Lass, it's like you've lost half your heart," Old Walter's voice carried with it a disappointment that Leliana would not have been able to bear had she been younger. She was full aware of exactly what he was getting at and that he knew much more about her intentions than she was letting on to him.

Leliana shook her head at his words - slowly at first, but then with more conviction. "No, I never lost it," the smile on her face was a rueful one, hinting at melancholy, so unlike the wolfish grin she often wore. "I gave it away."

"And what did you receive in return?" Walter was eying her with a wary expression, watching her with his wrinkle-encased brown eyes from his spot sitting atop one of the crates. His wooden leg was touching the ground just barely, while his good foot was firmly planted down on the ship's deck.

"Freedom?" Leliana's answer was more a question that anything else and even she caught the way it hitched upwards on the last syllable.

"It's not freedom you needed in your life, lass," Walter sighed and heaved himself off the crate, making a tutting noise beneath his breath as he began to hobble away from her, "it's guidance."

"Walter, wait," she whirled away from her previous spot - the one where she had previously been leaning against the railing and staring out into the endless-seeming waters ahead of the Firestorm.

Leliana caught up to the old sailor, lightly grasping his upper arm with her hand to make him stop. Walter stopped and looked down at her; the look in his eyes almost made her want to be sick - she did not want to face the accusation there. Leliana looked away, focusing her gaze on a spot to the side of Walter's face.

"I'm getting married," she said in a soft voice, one that bordered on the sort of tone a child might use when trying to explain a wrongdoing to its elder.

"Then I wish you the best of luck," he said nothing more than that. Walter simply stood there until Leliana finally removed her hand from his arm, at which point he turned and resumed walking away. Leliana did not watch him go - she went back to staring out into the sea. This was what she had forced herself to learn how to face - how else was she supposed to survive in such times were she not hardened? And what if she had stayed in Winterfell? The Mummers would have come and slaughtered everyone without a word.

No. No, they wouldn't have. They wouldn't have come at all.

She swallowed hard the lump that had formed in her throat. This is my fault. And I will do the one thing I am able and willing to - I will ignore it. After all, a man is like a deer and a deer dies so easily from an arrowhead.

It made so much sense. So much sense.

---

He and Sirena had been left on land when Lionel and the others sailed off, given only a set of simple orders and nothing more. To say that Ammon had been at all impressed would have been a dirty lie. The two of them would still go to the Red Keep and see what was going about at court, but it was now more due to an actual interest than the desire to fulfill the order of some one-eyed bigot who probably would not know what to do with a woman if she was naked and had her legs splayed open before him.

But, in times of war and backstabbing politics, being in the eye of the storm sounded like a swell idea - especially if killing was involved. Were Ammon and Sirena actually going to carry out the orders? Doubtful, but they would still go to the Red Keep just for kicks.

The journey would take them a while, but if they stole horses at regular intervals and rode the beasts down until their hooves broke off, then they would be able to make good time. Ammon was aware that the Mander River, nearby the mouth of which they had been left, would lead them back around and past Highgarden, near all the way to King's Landing. Ammon expected to be at the Red Keep in no more than two weeks,much less than that if they stuck near the river and had fresh horses.

Getting their first set of horses from a small coastal town - one as of yet untouched by the war - was easy. All they had had to do was kill the stable-boy, and that was easier than taking a sip of wine. The one thing that made this whole journey to King's Landing that much more enjoyable was that he had company with him in the form of Sirena. She was both fun to speak with and fun to sleep with, and that was like hitting two birds with the same stone.

Sirena was never like any of the wives Ammon had had in the past. Some part of him figured that if he ever wed her and offered her a sack of gold, she would roll her eyes and punch him in the eye - and then shove him down on the ground and bang him so hard they would both be walking funny in the morning.

"We'll need to change the beasts soon," he told her after their third day of near non-stop riding. The two horses had begun to grow weary, having never been pushed so hard before, and especially not by a pair of Mummers who could care less about whether the equines lived or died - as long as they got them where they wanted to be going. "I hope we hit another town soon, I'd hate to have to walk."