“那就喝点葡萄酒吧。”他倒满一杯推给她。“敬我们的船长。说真的，与阿博金酒相比它更接近于尿，但是就算尿也比那些水手们喝的黑沥青一样的朗姆酒好。它可能能助你入睡。”

“Have some wine, then.” He filled a cup and slid it toward her. “Compliments of our captain. Closer to piss than Arbor gold, if truth be told, but even piss tastes better than the black tar rum the sailors drink. It might help you sleep.”

女孩没动那杯酒。“谢谢，大人，但是还是不了。”她退了退。“我不应该打扰您的。”

The girl made no move to touch the cup. “Thank you, m’lord, but no.” She backed away. “I should not be bothering you.”

“你是说你准备一生都用来逃跑？”提利昂在她能溜出门前说。

“Do you mean to spend your whole life running away?” Tyrion asked before she could slip back out the door.

这制止了她。她的脸一阵潮红，他开始担心她是不是又要开始哭了。但是她没有，只是努力地努了努嘴，接着说，“你不也在逃。”

That stopped her. Her cheeks turned a bright pink, and he was afraid she was about to start weeping again. Instead she thrust out her lip defiantly and said, “You’re running too.”

“我是在，”他承认，“但我是逃往而你是逃出，这之间可有天壤之别。”

“I am,” he confessed, “but I am running to and you are running from, and there’s a world of difference there.”

“我们要不是因为你才不用逃跑。”

“We would never have had to run at all but for you.”

她当面说出这些可算鼓足了勇气。“你是在说君临还是瓦兰提斯？”

It took some courage to say that to my face. “Are you speaking of King’s Landing or Volantis?”

“都是。”泪珠开始在他眼中打转。“所有的事。你为什么不能按国王要求的那样和我们一齐格斗？你又不会受伤。骑上我们的狗或者猪来取悦一个男孩又会让大人您损失什么呢？那只是取乐而已，他们也就会嘲笑你一下，但就这些了不是么？”

“Both.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “Everything. Why couldn’t you just come joust with us, the way the king wanted? You wouldn’t have gotten hurt. What would that have cost m’lord, to climb up on our dog and ride a tilt to please the boy? It was just a bit of fun. They would have laughed at you, that’s all.”

“他们本会嘲笑我，”提利昂说。但是我反过来让他们嘲笑了乔佛。那不是个聪明的计谋吗？

“They would have laughed at me,” said Tyrion. I made them laugh at Joff instead. And wasn’t that a clever ploy?

“我哥哥说那是件好事，逗人发笑。一件高贵而荣誉的事。我的哥哥说……他……”泪水终于滑下她的脸。

“My brother says that is a good thing, making people laugh. A noble thing, and honorable. My brother says … he …” The tears fell then, rolling down her face.

“对你哥哥的事我感到很抱歉。”提利昂曾对她说过这些话，那是在瓦兰提斯，但那时她是如此的沉浸于悲伤中让他怀疑她是不是听到了。

“I am sorry about your brother.” Tyrion had said the same words to her before, back in Volantis, but she was so far gone in grief back there that he doubted she had heard them.

她现在听到了。“对不起，你是对不起。”她的嘴唇在颤抖，她的脸颊湿润，她的眼睛是红肿的窟窿。“我们当晚就离开了君临。我哥哥说那样最好，在有人怀疑我们是不是与国王的死有关联而拷问我们。我们先去了泰洛西。我的哥哥想那已经够远的了，但那不是。那里我们认识一个杂耍的人，多年来他一直在醉酒神喷泉前杂耍。他年纪大了，双手不像从前那样灵活了，有时候他会弄掉他的球满广场的追它们，但是泰洛西人们还是会笑着将钱币扔给他。接着一天早上我们听说了有人在特里欧斯（意为三重奏）之庙那发现了他的尸体。特里欧斯有三个脑袋，在神庙的门边有座巨大的他的雕塑。老人被切成三段粪便放进特里欧斯的三张嘴里。但是当把他的尸体接起来后发现，他的头不见了。”

She heard them now. “Sorry. You are sorry.” Her lip was trembling, her cheeks were wet, her eyes were red-rimmed holes. “We left King’s Landing that very night. My brother said it was for the best, before someone wondered if we’d had some part in the king’s death and decided to torture us to find out. We went to Tyrosh first. My brother thought that would be far enough, but it wasn’t. We knew a juggler there. For years and years he would juggle every day by the Fountain of the Drunken God. He was old, so his hands were not as deft as they had been, and sometimes he would drop his balls and chase them across the square, but the Tyroshi would laugh and throw him coins all the same. Then one morning we heard that his body had been found at the Temple of Trios. Trios has three heads, and there’s a big statue of him beside the temple doors. The old man had been cut into three parts and pushed inside the threefold mouths of Trios. Only when the parts were sewn back together, his head was gone.”

“送我老姐的礼物。他是另一个侏儒。”

“A gift for my sweet sister. He was another dwarf.”

“一个小个子的男人，是啊。像你，还有奥博。格罗特。你对他也感到抱歉吗？”

“A little man, aye. Like you, and Oppo. Groat. Are you sorry about the juggler too?”

“直到现在我才知道你所说的这个杂耍艺人……但，是的，我对他的死感到抱歉。”

“I never knew your juggler existed until this very moment … but yes, I am sorry he is dead.”

“他因你而死，你手上沾满了他的血。”

“He died for you. His blood is on your hands.”

这番控诉刺痛了他，紧跟着乔拉·莫尔蒙的话。“我的姐姐的手才沾满了他的血，还有那些个杀了他的畜生。我的手……”提利昂翻过手，认真检视着它们，捏成了拳。“……我的手沾满了已经结痂的旧血，是啊。叫我弑亲者吧，你不会错的。弑君者，对此我也会负责。我杀了母亲啊，父亲啊，侄子啊，情人啊，男人们和女人们啊，国王啊妓女什么的。一个歌手由此惹怒了我，所以我炖了他。但是我没有杀过什么杂耍艺人，也没杀侏儒，我也不是你该为你那该死的哥哥责备的人。”

The accusation stung, coming so hard on the heels of Jorah Mormont’s words. “His blood is on my sister’s hands, and the hands of the brutes who killed him. My hands …” Tyrion turned them over, inspected them, coiled them into fists. “… my hands are crusted with old blood, aye. Call me kinslayer, and you won’t be wrong. Kingslayer, I’ll answer to that one as well. I have killed mothers, fathers, nephews, lovers, men and women, kings and whores. A singer once annoyed me, so I had the bastard stewed. But I have never killed a juggler, nor a dwarf, and I am not to blame for what happened to your bloody brother.”

佩妮抓起那杯他刚刚倒给他的葡萄酒直接泼到他脸上。就像我那甜美的姐姐一样。他听见厨房门被摔上的声音但是没有看见她的离去。他的眼睛黏黏的而世界都是模糊的。真和她交了个好朋友。

Penny picked the cup of wine he’d poured for her and threw it in his face. Just like my sweet sister. He heard the galley door slam but never saw her leave. His eyes were stinging, and the world was a blur. So much for befriending her.

提利昂·兰尼斯特缺乏和其他侏儒相处的经验。他的领主父亲不欢迎任何让他想起他儿子畸形的事物，所以有这类的戏子的剧团很快就知道要远离凯岩城和兰尼斯特港，以防招致他的不悦。长大些，提利昂听报告说有个侏儒弄臣在多恩领主佛勒那儿，一个侏儒学士为五指半岛服务，一个女性侏儒居于静默姐妹之列，但是他却从没有一丁点打算来找出他们。更不可信的传闻也传入过他的耳中过，诸如一个侏儒女巫出没于河间地的某座山上，一个君临的以与狗交配而闻名的侏儒妓女。他自己甜美的姐姐告诉了他最后一个，甚至暗示若他想试一试的话可以帮他找到个发情的婊子。当他礼貌的说她是不是在指她自己的时候，瑟熙将一杯葡萄酒直接泼在他脸上。我想起来了，那是红的，而现在这杯是金的。提利昂用袖子擦了擦脸。他的眼睛依旧黏在一块。

Tyrion Lannister had scant experience with other dwarfs. His lord father had not welcomed any reminders of his son’s deformities, and such mummers as featured little folk in their troupes soon learned to stay away from Lannisport and Casterly Rock, at the risk of his displeasure. Growing up, Tyrion heard reports of a dwarf jester at the seat of the Dornish Lord Fowler, a dwarf maester in service on the Fingers, and a female dwarf amongst the silent sisters, but he never felt the least need to seek them out. Less reliable tales also reached his ears, of a dwarf witch who haunted a hill in the riverlands, and a dwarf whore in King’s Landing renowned for coupling with dogs. His own sweet sister had told him of the last, even offering to find him a bitch in heat if he cared to try it out. When he asked politely if she were referring to herself, Cersei had thrown a cup of wine in his face. That was red, as I recall, and this is gold. Tyrion mopped at his face with a sleeve. His eyes still stung.

直到风暴降临那天他都再没看到佩妮。

He did not see Penny again until the day of the storm.

那天咸咸的空气凝重低沉，但是西方的天空是一片火烧似的红，周围燃烧着一条条亮如兰尼斯特深红的云彩。水手们在甲板上奔波着钉上活门，整理绳索，清理甲板，绑紧任何没绑紧的东西。“恶劣的狂风要来了，”一个人警告他。“‘没鼻子’最好下去。”

The salt air lay still and heavy that morning, but the western sky was a fiery red, streaked with lowering clouds that glowed as bright as Lannister crimson. Sailors were dashing about battening hatches, running lines, clearing the decks, lashing down everything that was not already lashed down. “Bad wind coming,” one warned him. “No-Nose should get below.”

提利昂想起了那个他在横渡狭海时遭遇的风暴，那种脚下的甲板的剧烈颠簸，船体发出的可怕的嘎吱声，葡萄酒和呕吐物的味道。“‘没鼻子’会待在原地。”若神灵想让收回他的话，他宁愿被淹死而非被自己的呕吐物给呛死。头顶上的船帆缓缓的波状鼓动着，如同从长眠中唤醒过来的野兽的毛，紧接着是一声爆裂，让船上每个人都回头看发生了什么事。

Tyrion remembered the storm he’d suffered crossing the narrow sea, the way the deck had jumped beneath his feet, the hideous creaking sounds the ship had made, the taste of wine and vomit. “No-Nose will stay up here.” If the gods wanted him, he would sooner die by drowning than choking on his own vomit. And overhead the cog’s canvas sail rippled slowly, like the fur of some great beast stirring from a long sleep, then filled with a sudden crack that turned every head on the ship.

风暴赶上了他们，将船扯离既定航线。在他们身后是血红天空上的一团相互堆叠着的黑云。到上午十时左右，他们能看见西边的撕裂天空闪电，紧接着就是远处的雷鸣。海变得更加狂野了，深色的海浪拍打着“臭烘烘的管家”号的船体。这时候船员们才开始降帆。提利昂在船中央挡路，所以他爬上了前船楼盘腿坐下，尽情享受冷雨鞭打脸颊的滋味。船上上下下的颠簸，比他骑过的任何马都要剧烈，从浪尖滑入谷底，让他震至骨髓。即使这样，也比锁在空气不足的舱位里对外界一无所知的好。

The winds drove the cog before them, far off her chosen course. Behind them black clouds piled one atop another against a blood-red sky. By midmorning they could see lightning flickering to the west, followed by the distant crash of thunder. The sea grew rougher, and dark waves rose up to smash against the hull of the Stinky Steward. It was about then that the crew started hauling down the canvas. Tyrion was underfoot amidships, so he climbed the forecastle and hunkered down, savoring the lash of cold rain on his cheeks. The cog went up and down, bucking more wildly than any horse he’d ever ridden, lifting with each wave before sliding down into the troughs between, jarring him to the bones. Even so, it was better here where he could see than down below locked in some airless cabin.

当风暴袭来，夜晚笼罩了他们，而提利昂·兰尼斯特的紧身衣则湿透了，但是不知为何他感觉兴奋得很……而当他发现乔拉·莫尔蒙在他们的舱室里喝得烂醉倒在呕吐物里时，就更高兴了。

By the time the storm broke, evening was upon them and Tyrion Lannister was soaked through to the smallclothes, yet somehow he felt elated … and even more so later, when he found a drunken Jorah Mormont in a pool of vomit in their cabin.

侏儒在晚餐后一直逗留在餐厅，与船上的厨师一起用黑朗姆酒庆祝生还，他是个只会说一句通用语（操）的油腻腻的笨拙瓦兰提斯人，但是在锡瓦斯棋上狂野的很，尤其是喝醉了的情况下。他们那晚玩了三局，提利昂赢了第一局但是后两局则满盘皆输。接下来他认为这足够了，于是跌跌撞撞的决定回甲板上从朗姆酒和大象之类的东西里清醒一下。

The dwarf lingered in the galley after supper, celebrating his survival by sharing a few tots of black tar rum with the ship’s cook, a great greasy loutish Volantene who spoke only one word of the Common Tongue (fuck), but played a ferocious game of cyvasse, particularly when drunk. They played three games that night. Tyrion won the first, then lost the other two. After that he decided that he’d had enough and stumbled back up on deck to clear his head of rum and elephants alike.

他发现佩妮在前船楼上乔拉爵士平常逗留的地方，倚在那个丑陋的半腐烂的船首像边的栏杆上，眺望着漆黑的海。从后面看，她看起来像个孩子一样幼小脆弱。

He found Penny on the forecastle, where he had so often found Ser Jorah, standing by the rail beside the cog’s hideous half-rotted figurehead and gazing out across the inky sea. From behind, she looked as small and vulnerable as a child.

提利昂觉得还是让她一个人待着不要打搅的好，但是已经太迟了。她已经听到了动静。“雨果·希山。”

Tyrion thought it best to leave her undisturbed, but it was too late. She had heard him. “Hugor Hill.”

“若你愿意的话。”我们都知道的很清楚。“我很抱歉打扰了你。我还是告退好了。”

“If you like.” We both know better. “I am sorry to intrude on you. I will retire.”

“别。”她看上去苍白沮丧，但是不像刚刚哭过。“我也很抱歉，那杯酒。杀了我哥哥或者那个泰洛西的可怜的老人的不是你。”

“No.” Her face was pale and sad, but she did not look to have been crying. “I’m sorry too. About the wine. It wasn’t you who killed my brother or that poor old man in Tyrosh.”

“我也参与其中了，虽然非我所愿。”

“I played a part, though not by choice.”

“我很想念他，我的哥哥，我……”

“I miss him so much. My brother. I …”

“我理解。”他想起了詹姆。把你看做幸运的吧，你的哥哥在能背叛你之前就死了。

“I understand.” He found himself thinking of Jaime. Count yourself lucky. Your brother died before he could betray you.

“我想过去死，”她说，“但今天当风暴来临而我想这艘船可能会沉，我……我……”

“I thought I wanted to die,” she said, “but today when the storm came and I thought the ship would sink, I … I …”

“你发现你其实还是想活下去。”我也在那儿。我们还是有些共同点的。

“You realized that you wanted to live after all.” I have been there too. Something else we have in common.

她的牙生的歪斜，这让她很吝惜她的笑容，但现在她还是笑了。“你真的炖了一个歌手吗？”

Her teeth were crooked, which made her shy with her smiles, but she smiled now. “Did you truly cook a singer in a stew?”

“谁，我？不，我不做饭。”

“Who, me? No. I do not cook.”

当佩妮咯咯笑起来时，她又听起来像那个甜美的年青女孩了……17岁，18岁，不超过19岁。“这个歌手，他做了什么？”

When Penny giggled, she sounded like the sweet young girl she was … seventeen, eighteen, no more than nineteen. “What did he do, this singer?”

“他写了手关于我的歌。”因为她是他的秘密宝藏，是他的耻辱和他的福气。而一条锁链和一座监狱与一个女人的吻来说却一无是处。他奇怪这些词是如此快的涌入他的脑海。也许它们再不会离开他。金手总是冷手，但是女人的手则是温暖的。

“He wrote a song about me.” For she was his secret treasure, she was his shame and his bliss. And a chain and a keep are nothing, compared to a woman’s kiss. It was queer how quick the words came back to him. Perhaps they had never left him. Hands of gold are always cold, but a woman’s hands are warm.

“那一定是首很糟的歌。”

“It must have been a very bad song.”

“不太算。它不算像‘卡斯特梅的雨’那样的，但是它的某些部分是……好吧……”

“Not really. It was no ‘Rains of Castamere,’ mind you, but some parts were … well …”

“它怎么唱的？”

“How did it go?”

他大笑。“不，你不会想听我唱歌的。”

He laughed. “No. You do not want to hear me sing.”

“我妈妈在我们小时候从唱歌给我们听。给我哥哥和我。她总说若你喜欢这首歌的话无关嗓音好坏。”

“My mother used to sing to us when we were children. My brother and me. She always said that it didn’t matter what your voice was like so long as you loved the song.”

“她是不是……？”

“Was she …?”

“……一个小个子？不，但我们的父亲是。他自己的父亲在他三岁时把他卖给了奴隶贩子，但当他长大后成为一个有名的戏子后，他让赎身自由了。他游历过所有的自由城邦和维斯特洛伊大陆。在旧镇人们总叫他‘跳豆’。”

“… a little person? No, but our father was. His own father sold him to a slaver when he was three, but he grew up to be such a famous mummer that he bought his freedom. He traveled to all the Free Cities, and Westeros as well. In Oldtown they used to call him Hop-Bean.”

他们当然这样叫他。提利昂试图不去回避。

Of course they did. Tyrion tried not to wince.

“他现在也死了，”佩妮继续。“我的妈妈也是。奥博……他是我最后的家人了，而今他也走了。”她扭开头看向大海。“我该怎么办？我该去哪儿？我没有谋生的手段，只有这个侏儒骑士秀，而那需要两个人。”

“He’s dead now,” Penny went on. “My mother too. Oppo … he was my last family, and now he’s gone too.” She turned her head away and gazed out across the sea. “What will I do? Where will I go? I have no trade, just the jousting show, and that needs two.”

不，提利昂想。那不是你想去的地方，女孩。别向我要求那个。甚至不要想。“给你自己找个孤儿，”他建议。

No, thought Tyrion. That is not a place you want to go, girl. Do not ask that of me. Do not even think it. “Find yourself some likely orphan boy,” he suggested.

佩妮看起来没听到。“侏儒骑士秀是父亲的主意，他甚至训练好了第一头猪，但是后来他病了，没法骑它，于是奥博取代了他的位置。我一直骑着狗。我们为布拉佛斯的海王表演过一次，他大笑不止，然后他给了我们每人一件……很贵重的礼物。”

Penny did not seem to hear that. “It was Father’s idea to do the tilts. He even trained the first pig, but by then he was too sick to ride her, so Oppo took his place. I always rode the dog. We performed for the Sealord of Braavos once, and he laughed so hard that afterward he gave each of us a … a grand gift.”

“我老姐是在哪里找到你们的，布拉佛斯？”

“Is that where my sister found you? In Braavos?”

“你姐姐？”女孩不解。

“Your sister?” The girl looked lost.

“瑟曦太后。”

“Queen Cersei.”

佩妮摇头。“不是她，在潘托斯一个男人找到我们，奥斯蒙，不，奥斯瓦尔德，都差不多。奥博和他见面，不是我，奥博负责所有的演出安排。我哥哥总是知道该做什么，接下来该去哪里。”

Penny shook her head. “She never … it was a man who came to us, in Pentos. Osmund. No, Oswald. Something like that. Oppo met with him, not me. Oppo made all of our arrangements. My brother always knew what to do, where we should go next.”

“我们接下来该去弥林。”

“Meereen is where we’re going next.”

她困惑的望着他“你是说魁尔斯，我们正取道新吉斯去往魁尔斯。”

She gave him a puzzled look. “Qarth, you mean. We’re bound for Qarth, by way of New Ghis.”

“弥林。你会为龙后表演然后赢得你那么重的黄金。不过你得先多吃点东西，这样你在陛下面前就会更漂亮和丰满。”

“Meereen. You’ll ride your dog for the dragon queen and come away with your weight in gold. Best start eating more, so you’ll be nice and plump when you joust before Her Grace.”

佩妮还是没有恢复笑容。“只有我自己的话，我只能骑着狗绕圈，即使这能够取悦女王，接下来我该去哪里？我们从不在一处久留。他们第一次看见我们时笑的前仰后合，但是第四次或者第五次时，他们在我们表演之前就知道我们要做什么，于是他们就不再笑了，所以我们只能去些新的地方。我们在大城市能够赚到更多的钱，但我最喜欢小城镇。那里的人们没有银鹿，但是他们在自家的餐桌上邀请我们吃饭，小孩子们跟着我们跑来跑去。”

Penny did not return the smile. “By myself, all I can do is ride around in circles. And even if the queen should laugh, where will I go afterward? We never stay in one place long. The first time they see us they laugh and laugh, but by the fourth or fifth time, they know what we’re going to do before we do it. Then they stop laughing, so we have to go somewhere new. We make the most coin in the big cities, but I always liked the little towns the best. Places like that, the people have no silver, but they feed us at their own tables, and the children follow us everywhere.”

那是因为他们在寒酸的小镇上从来没看见过侏儒，提利昂想。孩子们会围观一只双头山羊。直到他们厌倦了它的哀鸣然后宰了它做成晚餐。但是他可不想再让她哭了，于是他说，“丹妮莉丝心地善良而又慷慨大方。”看起来她该听这个。“毫无疑问她会在她的宫廷给你找到一个地方，一个安全的地方，我老姐鞭长莫及。”

That’s because they have never seen a dwarf before, in their wretched pisspot towns, Tyrion thought. The bloody brats would follow around a two-headed goat if one turned up. Until they got bored with its bleating and slaughtered it for supper. But he had no wish to make her weep again, so instead he said, “Daenerys has a kind heart and a generous nature.” It was what she needed to hear. “She will find a place for you at her court, I don’t doubt. A safe place, beyond my sister’s reach.”

佩妮转过来对着他。“你也会在那吧。”

Penny turned back to him. “And you will be there too.”

除非丹妮莉丝认为她需要些兰尼斯特鲜血来为我哥哥对坦格利安所做的还债。“我会的。”

Unless Daenerys decides she needs some Lannister blood, to pay for the Targaryen blood my brother shed. “I will.”

在那之后，侏儒女孩似乎更多的出现在甲板上。第二天下午三点左右，空气温暖，大海平静，提利昂在船中部遇到她和她带斑点的猪。“她的名字叫做美丽，”女孩害羞的告诉他。

After that, the dwarf girl was seen more frequently above deck. The next day Tyrion encountered her and her spotted sow amidships in midafternoon, when the air was warm and the sea calm. “Her name is Pretty,” the girl told him, shyly.

美丽的猪和女孩佩妮，他想。有人应该回答点什么。佩妮给提利昂一些橡果，他用手喂给美丽吃。不要以为我没有看见你在做什么，女孩，他想，大猪抽动鼻子，哼哼地叫。

Pretty the pig and Penny the girl, he thought. Someone has a deal to answer for. Penny gave Tyrion some acorns, and he let Pretty eat them from his hand. Do not think I don’t see what you are doing, girl, he thought, as the big sow snuffled and squealed.

不久他们开始一起吃饭，有些晚上只有他们两个，其他时间他们和莫阔罗的卫士一起吃。手指们，提利昂这样称呼他们，他们是炎手团的人，一共有5个。佩妮用甜甜的嗓音发笑，提利昂很少听见她这样笑。她受伤太深了。

Soon they began to take their meals together. Some nights it was just the two of them; at other meals they crowded in with Moqorro’s guards. The fingers, Tyrion called them; they were men of the Fiery Hand, after all, and there were five of them. Penny laughed at that, a sweet sound, though not one that he heard often. Her wound was too fresh, her grief too deep.

他很快让她叫这艘船“恶臭的管家”，而当他叫“美丽的培根”时她称呼他更糟糕的名字。作为补偿提利昂决定教她锡瓦斯棋。虽然他很快意识到这一点也不明智。“不，”他说，一次又一次，“会飞的是龙，不是大象。”

He soon had her calling the ship the Stinky Steward, though she got somewhat wroth with him whenever he called Pretty Bacon. To atone for that Tyrion made an attempt to teach her cyvasse, though he soon realized that was a lost cause. “No,” he said, a dozen times, “the dragon flies, not the elephants.”

那天晚上，她来问他是否愿意和她一起“冲刺”。“不，”他回答道。不一会他就意识到或许此“冲刺”非彼“冲刺”（你懂的）。他的回答仍然会是不，但是他也许不会这么直接。

That same night, she came right out and asked him if he would like to tilt with her. “No,” he answered. Only later did it occur to him that perhaps tilt did not mean tilt. His answer would still have been no, but he might not have been so brusque.

回到船舱他把这告诉了乔拉·莫尔蒙，提利昂在他的吊床里翻来覆去，睡去然后醒来。他的梦里充斥着灰色、石化的手臂，从浓雾里伸出来抓到他，还有通向他父亲的阶梯。

Back in the cabin he shared with Jorah Mormont, Tyrion twisted in his hammock for hours, slipping in and out of sleep. His dreams were full of grey, stony hands reaching for him from out of the fog, and a stair that led up to his father.

最后他放弃了，来到甲板上呼吸晚上的空气，Selaesori Qhoran号巨大的船帆已经卷起，甲板上空无一物，一个大副在船尾，莫阔罗坐在船中部他的火盆旁边，一点火星仍在余烬中起舞。

Finally he gave it up and made his way up top for a breath of night air. The Selaesori Qhoran had furled her big striped sail for the night, and her decks were all but deserted. One of the mates was on the sterncastle, and amidships Moqorro sat by his brazier, where a few small flames still danced amongst the embers.

整个西边的天空只能看见最明亮的星，一道暗红色的光横贯天空照向东北，那是淤血的颜色。提利昂从没看见过这么大的月亮。诡异而肿胀，看起来就像吞下了太阳而正在发烧。它的倒影漂浮在船前方的海上，随着波纹发出红光。“现在什么时间？”他问莫阔罗。“这不可能是日出，除非东方移动了，天为什么这么红？”

Only the brightest stars were visible, all to the west. A dull red glow lit the sky to the northeast, the color of a blood bruise. Tyrion had never seen a bigger moon. Monstrous, swollen, it looked as if it had swallowed the sun and woken with a fever. Its twin, floating on the sea beyond the ship, shimmered red with every wave. “What hour is this?” he asked Moqorro. “That cannot be sunrise unless the east has moved. Why is the sky red?”

“瓦雷利亚上空总是火红一片，雨果·希山。”

“The sky is always red above Valyria, Hugor Hill.”

他感到背后汗毛倒立。“我们接近了么？”

A cold chill went down his back. “Are we close?”

“比那帮人想要的所要近得多，”莫阔罗用他低沉的嗓音说。“在你的日落国度里，听说过那故事么？”

“Closer than the crew would like,” Moqorro said in his deep voice. “Do you know the stories, in your Sunset Kingdoms?”

“我知道有些水手的传说任何看那片海岸的人都死了。”他自己可不信这种传闻，就像他的叔叔一样。吉利安·兰尼斯特在提利昂18岁那年出海去瓦雷利亚，希望重新寻回兰尼斯特家族遗失的宝剑还有其他在末日浩劫下留下的财富。提利昂非常想和他一起去，但是他的领主父亲称那次航海为“傻瓜的探寻，”禁止他参与。

“I know some sailors say that any man who lays eyes upon that coast is doomed.” He did not believe such tales himself, no more than his uncle had. Gerion Lannister had set sail for Valyria when Tyrion was eighteen, intent on recovering the lost ancestral blade of House Lannister and any other treasures that might have survived the Doom. Tyrion had wanted desperately to go with them, but his lord father had dubbed the voyage a “fool’s quest,” and forbidden him to take part.

也许他没错。自“笑狮”离开兰尼斯特港已经将近十年过去了，而吉利安仍未返航。八面玲珑的泰温大人派出人马追寻他的脚步最远只到达瓦兰提斯，在那他半数的随缘都抛弃了他于是他买来奴隶以替代。没有哪个自由人会愿意乘一艘船长公然声称要起航去“烟海”的船。“所以我们看到那些是映在云上的‘十四火焰’？”

And perhaps he was not so wrong. Almost a decade had passed since the Laughing Lion headed out from Lannisport, and Gerion had never returned. The men Lord Tywin sent to seek after him had traced his course as far as Volantis, where half his crew had deserted him and he had bought slaves to replace them. No free man would willingly sign aboard a ship whose captain spoke openly of his intent to sail into the Smoking Sea. “So those are fires of the Fourteen Flames we’re seeing, reflected on the clouds?”

“十四或者一万四。有什么人胆敢数清他们？对于凡人来说深入的看那些火焰可不明智，我的朋友。那些火焰是神的怒火，没有人间的火焰可以预知匹敌。我们都是微不足道的生物，人类。”

“Fourteen or fourteen thousand. What man dares count them? It is not wise for mortals to look too deeply at those fires, my friend. Those are the fires of god’s own wrath, and no human flame can match them. We are small creatures, men.”

“其中的一些比另一些更弱小。”瓦雷利亚。据记载，在末日浩劫那天，每座绵延500英里的山脉都碎裂开来，向空气中喷出岩块浓烟和火焰，那火焰是如此的滚烫饥渴，连天上的飞龙也被吞没焚毁。大地开裂，吞没了供电，神庙，整个城镇。湖水沸腾或者变成酸液，高山尽碎，燃烧的喷泉喷薄着熔岩知道上千英尺的高空，龙晶和恶魔的黑血从红云中瓢泼而下，直到北方，地面崩碎坍塌，而怒吼的大海冲入。世界上所有丰饶的城市在一瞬间不复存在，预言中的帝国也在一天之内消失，‘长夏之地’尽为焦土汪泽与荒芜。

“Some smaller than others.” Valyria. It was written that on the day of Doom every hill for five hundred miles had split asunder to fill the air with ash and smoke and fire, blazes so hot and hungry that even the dragons in the sky were engulfed and consumed. Great rents had opened in the earth, swallowing palaces, temples, entire towns. Lakes boiled or turned to acid, mountains burst, fiery fountains spewed molten rock a thousand feet into the air, red clouds rained down dragonglass and the black blood of demons, and to the north the ground splintered and collapsed and fell in on itself and an angry sea came rushing in. The proudest city in all the world was gone in an instant, its fabled empire vanished in a day, the Lands of the Long Summer scorched and drowned and blighted.

一个建造于血与火之上的王国，瓦雷利亚收割了它自己播种的粮食。“我们的船长难道准备验证诅咒？”

An empire built on blood and fire. The Valyrians reaped the seed they had sown. “Does our captain mean to test the curse?”

“我们的船长更愿意离那片海洋50里格之遥，远离那受诅咒的海岸，但是我命令他走最近的陆。其他人也在搜寻丹妮莉丝。”

“Our captain would prefer to be fifty leagues farther out to sea, well away from that accursed shore, but I have commanded him to steer the shortest course. Others seek Daenerys too.”

格里夫，和他的小王子。那些关于黄金团向西起航的传言难道是声东击西？提利昂考虑说些什么，接着好好想了想。看起来红袍僧的预言只有一个英雄。另一个坦格利安只会混淆他们。“你曾在火焰中看过其他人么？”他谨慎地问道。

Griff, with his young prince. Could all that talk of the Golden Company sailing west have been a feint? Tyrion considered saying something, then thought better. It seemed to him that the prophecy that drove the red priests had room for just one hero. A second Targaryen would only serve to confuse them. “Have you seen these others in your fires?” he asked, warily.

“只有他们的影子，”莫阔罗说。“其中最引人注目的是，一个有着一只黑眼和十根长臂的高个的古怪的身影，在一片血海上航行。”

“Only their shadows,” Moqorro said. “One most of all. A tall and twisted thing with one black eye and ten long arms, sailing on a sea of blood.”