Ⅲ 冰雨的风暴 Chapter80 珊莎
SANSA
她顿时苏醒,每根神经都绷紧,几乎不明白身在何处。梦中的她重回童年,和妹妹艾莉亚睡在一起。可惜现实中发出鼾声的不是妹妹,却是身边的侍女,这里也不是临冬城,而是高山上的鹰巢城。我则成了私生女阿莲·石东。房内又黑又冷,唯床上有几分暖意。黎明尚未到来。平日,每当梦见伊林·派恩爵士,她就会惊醒,可今天不一样。家,今天梦见的是家。
She awoke all at once, every nerve atingle. For a moment she did not remember where she was. She had dreamt that she was little, still sharing a bedchamber with her sister Arya. But it was her maid she heard tossing in sleep, not her sister, and this was not Winterfell, but the Eyrie. And I am Alayne Stone, a bastard girl. The room was cold and black, though she was warm beneath the blankets. Dawn had not yet come. Sometimes she dreamed of Ser Ilyn Payne and woke with her heart thumping, but this dream had not been like that. Home. It was a dream of home.
鹰巢城不是她的家。这里和梅葛楼差不多大小,纯白高墙外,唯有山脉和无穷无尽的虚空,一条长而险峻的小路通过长天堡、雪山堡和危岩堡,与底部的月门堡相连。她哪儿也去不了,什么都不能做。老仆人总说这里的厅堂回荡着当年她父亲和劳勃·拜拉席恩做琼恩·艾林养子期间留下的欢笑,可那是好久以前的事,而今她什么也感觉不到。姨妈身边的人不多,又很少准许宾客登上月门堡前来拜访。因此除了那位上年纪的侍女,珊莎的伙伴只有三岁婴儿般的劳勃公爵(其实他已八岁了)。
The Eyrie was no home. It was no bigger than Maegor’s Holdfast, and outside its sheer white walls was only the mountain and the long treacherous descent past Sky and Snow and Stone to the Gates of the Moon on the valley floor. There was no place to go and little to do. The older servants said these halls rang with laughter when her father and Robert Baratheon had been Jon Arryn’s wards, but those days were many years gone. Her aunt kept a small household, and seldom permitted any guests to ascend past the Gates of the Moon. Aside from her aged maid, Sansa’s only companion was the Lord Robert, eight going on three.
还有马瑞里安。讨厌鬼马瑞里安总是纠缠不休。年轻的歌手每天都为她们在席间弹奏,眼睛从未离开珊莎的身体。莱莎夫人近来不太高兴,于是乎格外宠爱马瑞里安,已经连着有两位侍女和一名侍酒因为歌手的言语被逐出城堡。
And Marillion. There is always Marillion. When he played for them at supper, the young singer often seemed to be singing directly at her. Her aunt was far from pleased. Lady Lysa doted on Marillion, and had banished two serving girls and even a page for telling lies about him.
姨妈好孤单。她的新婚夫婿在山下待的时间远远多于留在鹰巢城的光阴。现今他就在山下,一连四天与科布瑞家族会谈。从偷听来的只言片语中,珊莎知道琼恩·艾林的封臣们怨恨莱莎的婚姻,嫉妒培提尔获得峡谷守护者的权威。逮着姨妈不肯发兵援助罗柏的罪状,罗伊斯家族的本家处于公开叛乱的边缘,韦伍德家族、雷德福家族、贝尔摩家族及坦帕顿家族都全力支持青铜约恩的行动。山区原住民难以控制,老伯爵杭特又在这节骨眼上突然病逝,他的两名幼子不约而同地指责长兄谋害父亲。艾林谷一直没卷入战局,可如今莱莎夫人想保持和平的目标是越来越难以实现了。
Lysa was as lonely as she was. Her new husband seemed to spend more time at the foot of the mountain than he did atop it. He was gone now, had been gone the past four days, meeting with the Corbrays. From bits and pieces of overheard conversations Sansa knew that Jon Arryn’s bannermen resented Lysa’s marriage and begrudged Petyr his authority as Lord Protector of the Vale. The senior branch of House Royce was close to open revolt over her aunt’s failure to aid Robb in his war, and the Waynwoods, Redforts, Belmores, and Templetons were giving them every support. The mountain clans were being troublesome as well, and old Lord Hunter had died so suddenly that his two younger sons were accusing their elder brother of having murdered him. The Vale of Arryn might have been spared the worst of the war, but it was hardly the idyllic place that Lady Lysa had made it out to be.
我睡不着,珊莎心想,脑袋好涨。她勉力推开枕头和毛毯,走到墙边,打开窄窗。
I am not going back to sleep, Sansa realized. My head is all a tumult. She pushed her pillow away reluctantly, threw back the blankets, went to her window, and opened the shutters.
鹰巢城上下雪了。
Snow was falling on the Eyrie.
雪花纷飞,如回忆一般轻柔而沉默。是它唤醒了我?下面的花园里,积雪已然很深,盖住青草,为雕像披上洁白的外衣,压弯了矮树枝头,令珊莎想起很久以前的夜晚,想起了长夏里的童年。
Outside the flakes drifted down as soft and silent as memory. Was this what woke me? Already the snowfall lay thick upon the garden below, blanketing the grass, dusting the shrubs and statues with white and weighing down the branches of the trees. The sight took Sansa back to cold nights long ago, in the long summer of her childhood.
离开临冬城那一天,是她最后一次见到下雪。当时的雪花没有今天这么大,她心想,当罗柏拥抱我时,它们就在他的发际融化,而艾莉亚的雪球怎么也做不工整。那个早晨的欢乐,令她不禁隐隐作痛。胡伦扶她上马,她迎着细雪,骑出城堡,离开故乡,奔向那辽阔无垠的世界。我以为我的歌谣将于兹开始,却不料到如今已几乎画上了句号。
She had last seen snow the day she’d left Winterfell. That was a lighter fall than this, she remembered. Robb had melting flakes in his hair when he hugged me, and the snowball Arya tried to make kept coming apart in her hands. It hurt to remember how happy she had been that morning. Hullen had helped her mount, and she’d ridden out with the snowflakes swirling around her, off to see the great wide world. I thought my song was beginning that day, but it was almost done.
她任窄窗大敞,开始换衣服。环绕花园的七座高塔阻挡了山风,但隔不断寒意。她穿好丝制内衣,亚麻布上装,温暖的蓝羊毛裙服,接着是一双长筒袜,系至膝盖的长靴,厚厚的皮手套和一件带兜帽的柔软白狐皮斗篷。
Sansa left the shutters open as she dressed. It would be cold, she knew, though the Eyrie’s towers encircled the garden and protected it from the worst of the mountain winds. She donned silken smallclothes and a linen shift, and over that a warm dress of blue lambswool. Two pairs of hose for her legs, boots that laced up to her knees, heavy leather gloves, and finally a hooded cloak of soft white fox fur.
雪花飘进房间,侍女下意识地裹紧毯子。珊莎打开房门,走下螺旋梯。当她接着打开通往花园的大门时,眼前的美景让她不由得屏住呼吸,惊讶于那份不属于人间的宁静。雪花飘啊飘,悠远的暗香与孤寂,它们沉甸甸、不受打扰地着陆。人间的全部色彩纷纷败下阵来,遁逃无踪,唯有黑、白和灰:白的高塔、白的雪和白的雕像,黑的影子与黑的树,灰的天空。一个纯粹的世界,珊莎心想,一个不属于我的世界。
Her maid rolled herself more tightly in her blanket as the snow began to drift in the window. Sansa eased open the door, and made her way down the winding stair. When she opened the door to the garden, it was so lovely that she held her breath, unwilling to disturb such perfect beauty. The snow drifted down and down, all in ghostly silence, and lay thick and unbroken on the ground. All color had fled the world outside. It was a place of whites and blacks and greys. White towers and white snow and white statues, black shadows and black trees, the dark grey sky above. A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here.
她如梦似幻地踏步出门,靴子在顺滑的白雪表面留下及踝深的孔洞,却没发出任何声音。她走过结霜的矮木丛,望着细瘦的黑树干,不知自己是否仍在梦中。飘飞的雪花犹如情人温柔的亲吻,划过脸庞,因体温而融化。她来到花园中央,站在倒塌、半埋没的哭泣女人雕像旁,闭上双眼,举头向天。她闻到雪花的舞蹈,品尝着雪的滋味。这是临冬城的滋味,清白的滋味,梦的滋味。
Yet she stepped out all the same. Her boots tore ankle-deep holes into the smooth white surface of the snow, yet made no sound. Sansa drifted past frosted shrubs and thin dark trees, and wondered if she were still dreaming. Drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover’s kisses, and melted on her cheeks. At the center of the garden, beside the statue of the weeping woman that lay broken and half-buried on the ground, she turned her face up to the sky and closed her eyes. She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams.
当她睁开眼睛,发觉自己已然下跪,却不记得其中经过。天空泛白,黎明来到。这是新的一天,她心想,指引着未来。可她渴望的却是回到过去,祈祷能回到过去。她应该对谁祈祷?这座小花园原本是要栽培成神木林的,但土壤过于细薄多石,鱼梁木难以生根。一座没有心树、没有神灵的神木林,和我一样,空虚,空虚。
When Sansa opened her eyes again, she was on her knees. She did not remember falling. It seemed to her that the sky was a lighter shade of grey. Dawn, she thought. Another day. Another new day. It was the old days she hungered for. Prayed for. But who could she pray to? The garden had been meant for a godswood once, she knew, but the soil was too thin and stony for a weirwood to take root. A godswood without gods, as empty as me.
她拾起一把雪,放在指间挤压,轻松地捏成湿湿沉沉的球。珊莎继续运作,指上运力,直到雪球浑圆、洁白而无瑕。夏天里的一场雪,有个早上,当她走出主堡,遭到艾莉亚和布兰联手伏击。他们一人握着十来个雪球,而她什么也没有。布兰站在密闭桥梁顶上,她抓不到,所以追的是妹妹。她俩奔过马厩,又绕着厨房追跑,直到双双喘不过气来。她本可捉住艾莉亚,却不防滑倒在冰面上。妹妹关心地跑过来看望,问她有没有受伤。当珊莎老实地回答“没有”时,劈面又挨了一个雪球。她不甘示弱,抓住妹妹的大腿,将其掀翻在地,把雪往头发里塞,直到最后乔里走来,将嘻嘻哈哈的姐妹俩分开。
She scooped up a handful of snow and squeezed it between her fingers. Heavy and wet, the snow packed easily. Sansa began to make snowballs, shaping and smoothing them until they were round and white and perfect. She remembered a summer’s snow in Winterfell when Arya and Bran had ambushed her as she emerged from the keep one morning. They’d each had a dozen snowballs to hand, and she’d had none. Bran had been perched on the roof of the covered bridge, out of reach, but Sansa had chased Arya through the stables and around the kitchen until both of them were breathless. She might even have caught her, but she’d slipped on some ice. Her sister came back to see if she was hurt. When she said she wasn’t, Arya hit her in the face with another snowball, but Sansa grabbed her leg and pulled her down and was rubbing snow in her hair when Jory came along and pulled them apart, laughing.
而今我有了雪球,又拿它来做什么呢?她望着手中可怜的小玩意儿,悲伤地想,这里没有人跟我打雪仗。珊莎松手,雪球砸在地上,碎了。但我可以做个雪骑士,她决定,或者……
What do I want with snowballs? She looked at her sad little arsenal. There’s no one to throw them at. She let the one she was making drop from her hand. I could build a snow knight instead, she thought. Or even …
她赶紧捏好三个雪球,合在一起,再补上新雪,塑成圆柱体。随后珊莎站起来,用小手指指甲在柱体上挖洞,作为窗户。顶端的城垛最难弄,她花了好长时间,才让柱体看起来像塔楼的样子。还有城墙,珊莎心想,还有主堡。她狂热地投入工作中。
She pushed two of her snowballs together, added a third, packed more snow in around them, and patted the whole thing into the shape of a cylinder. When it was done, she stood it on end and used the tip of her little finger to poke holes in it for windows. The crenellations around the top took a little more care, but when they were done she had a tower. I need some walls now, Sansa thought, and then a keep. She set to work.
雪花飘落,城堡升起。她搭起两道及踝高的雪墙,内墙高过外墙;她搭起塔楼和角楼、堡垒与阶梯;她搭起一座圆形厨房、一座方形兵器库,还有西墙内侧的马厩。开始工作时,她只想搭座城堡,但在心中,一直都明白这其实就是临冬城。积雪之下,她找到枯枝和落木,便折其末梢,用来做神木林。点点树皮则成了墓园中的碑石。手套和靴子结了冰,指头麻木,脚掌又湿又冷,但她浑不在意,只关心城堡。座座建筑在脑海中历历在目,犹如昨日才刚别离。藏书塔外壁有陡峭蜿蜒的石制螺旋梯;城门楼是两个巨型堡垒,中央一道拱门,堡垒顶上开了无数垛口……
The snow fell and the castle rose. Two walls ankle-high, the inner taller than the outer. Towers and turrets, keeps and stairs, a round kitchen, a square armory, the stables along the inside of the west wall. It was only a castle when she began, but before very long Sansa knew it was Winterfell. She found twigs and fallen branches beneath the snow and broke off the ends to make the trees for the godswood. For the gravestones in the lichyard she used bits of bark. Soon her gloves and her boots were crusty white, her hands were tingling, and her feet were soaked and cold, but she did not care. The castle was all that mattered. Some things were hard to remember, but most came back to her easily, as if she had been there only yesterday. The Library Tower, with the steep stonework stair twisting about its exterior. The gatehouse, two huge bulwarks, the arched gate between them, crenellations all along the top …
她一边做,雪一边往下滑,很快,旁边堆起的残雪,就和建筑物本身一样高了。当她细心拍打,描绘出城堡大厅的斜顶时,身后传来一声呼喊。她抬起头,看见侍女站在窗边,“小姐,您好吗?用早餐吗?”珊莎摇摇头,埋头继续工作。这次她在大厅顶部加上一个烟囱,那是壁炉的所在。
And all the while the snow kept falling, piling up in drifts around her buildings as fast as she raised them. She was patting down the pitched roof of the Great Hall when she heard a voice, and looked up to see her maid calling from her window. Was my lady well? Did she wish to break her fast? Sansa shook her head, and went back to shaping snow, adding a chimney to one end of the Great Hall, where the hearth would stand inside.
黎明犹如盗贼,偷偷潜进小花园。灰色的天空持续放亮,积雪之下,树枝和灌木显出暗绿的色泽。仆人们走进花园,默默地打量,她没有回头,于是人们又纷纷回到温暖的塔内。莱莎夫人裹一身镶狐皮的蓝天鹅绒长袍站在阳台上观察,但等她再度抬头,姨妈已不见了。骨瘦如柴、浑身颤抖的柯蒙学士将头探出鸦巢,向下审视了一会儿,目光中充满好奇。
Dawn stole into her garden like a thief. The grey of the sky grew lighter still, and the trees and shrubs turned a dark green beneath their stoles of snow. A few servants came out and watched her for a time, but she paid them no mind and they soon went back inside where it was warmer. Sansa saw Lady Lysa gazing down from her balcony, wrapped up in a blue velvet robe trimmed with fox fur, but when she looked again her aunt was gone. Maester Colemon popped out of the rookery and peered down for a while, skinny and shivering but curious.
桥梁始终做不牢固。兵器库和主堡之间,有一座密闭桥梁,还有另一座桥从钟塔四楼直通鸦巢的二层。但不管她如何细心琢磨,它们就是无法保持平衡。当桥梁第三次倒塌时,珊莎大声咒骂,绝望地坐倒在地。
Her bridges kept falling down. There was a covered bridge between the armory and the main keep, and another that went from the fourth floor of the bell tower to the second floor of the rookery, but no matter how carefully she shaped them, they would not hold together. The third time one collapsed on her, she cursed aloud and sat back in helpless frustration.
“把雪裹在棍子上面,珊莎。”
“Pack the snow around a stick, Sansa.”
她不知他已看了多久,也不知他何时回到鹰巢城的。“棍子?”她问。
She did not know how long he had been watching her, or when he had returned from the Vale. “A stick?” she asked.
“不错,如此方能支持雪的重量,来,”培提尔说,“我可以参观你的城堡吗,小姐?”
“That will give it strength enough to stand, I’d think,” Petyr said. “May I come into your castle, my lady?”
珊莎小心翼翼地道:“好,但别弄坏它,千万小……”
Sansa was wary. “Don’t break it. Be …”
“……小心?”他微微一笑,“小姐,请你把心放下,临冬城战胜过无数刚强的敌人,而我只是个小人物。这是临冬城,我没猜错吧?”
“… gentle?” He smiled. “Winterfell has withstood fiercer enemies than me. It is Winterfell, is it not?”
“是的。”珊莎承认。
“Yes,” Sansa admitted.
他沿墙游走,“好多年了,凯特随艾德·史塔克去了北方,我常常梦见这座城堡。在我梦中,这是个黑暗冰冷的地方。”
He walked along outside the walls. “I used to dream of it, in those years after Cat went north with Eddard Stark. In my dreams it was ever a dark place, and cold.”
“才不是!它非常温暖,不管外面下多大的雪,城内总是热气腾腾。墙壁中有管道,温泉的水通过它们流贯全城,而玻璃花园中永远都是盛夏。”她站起来,俯瞰雄伟的白色城堡。“可我不知该如何制作花园的玻璃顶棚。”
“No. It was always warm, even when it snowed. Water from the hot springs is piped through the walls to warm them, and inside the glass gardens it was always like the hottest day of summer.” She stood, towering over the great white castle. “I can’t think how to do the glass roof over the gardens.”
小指头敲敲下巴——莱莎已命他把小胡子刮个精光,“菱形窗格,对吧?行,找些嫩枝末梢,剥皮后编织起来,捆在一起就好。我帮你做。”他穿过花园,抖落积雪,寻找各种枝桠木条。随后,他一个大步跨越两道城墙,踩在校场中央。珊莎凑过去观察,只见培提尔的手灵巧而稳健,没多久就编出无数交叉格子,与临冬城的玻璃花园相差无几。“可是,玻璃只能靠想象了。”他把成品递给她,抱歉地说。
Littlefinger stroked his chin, where his beard had been before Lysa had asked him to shave it off. “The glass was locked in frames, no? Twigs are your answer. Peel them and cross them and use bark to tie them together into frames. I’ll show you.” He moved through the garden, gathering up twigs and sticks and shaking the snow from them. When he had enough, he stepped over both walls with a single long stride and squatted on his heels in the middle of the yard. Sansa came closer to watch what he was doing. His hands were deft and sure, and before long he had a crisscrossing latticework of twigs, very like the one that roofed the glass gardens of Winterfell. “We will need to imagine the glass, to be sure,” he said when he gave it to her.
“您编得真好。”她赞叹。
“This is just right,” she said.
他摸摸她的脸,“好美。”
He touched her face. “And so is that.”
珊莎不明白,“什么?”
Sansa did not understand. “And so is what?”
“你的微笑好美,小姐。让我再为你编一个吧。”
“Your smile, my lady. Shall I make another for you?”
“可以吗?”
“If you would.”
“当然可以,为你搭城堡是我最乐意的事,我的小姐。”
“Nothing could please me more.”
于是由她搭建玻璃花园的墙壁,小指头制作屋顶,完工之后,他俩协力将其延伸,又做了守卫室。她用木棍支撑桥梁,果真如他所言,再也没有倒塌。首堡是个老旧、低矮的圆形鼓楼,本身并不难做,可珊莎不明白怎么处理高台上的石像鬼。培提尔再度为她解难,“城堡不是正在下雪吗,小姐?”他指出,“雪中的石像鬼是什么模样?”
She raised the walls of the glass gardens while Littlefinger roofed them over, and when they were done with that he helped her extend the walls and build the guardshall. When she used sticks for the covered bridges, they stood, just as he had said they would. The First Keep was simple enough, an old round drum tower, but Sansa was stymied again when it came to putting the gargoyles around the top. Again he had the answer. “It’s been snowing on your castle, my lady,” he pointed out. “What do the gargoyles look like when they’re covered with snow?”
珊莎闭上眼睛,在回忆中搜寻,“它们看起来像白色的小柱子。”
Sansa closed her eyes to see them in memory. “They’re just white lumps.”
“这不结了吗?石像鬼难做,小白柱子却是容易的。”果真如此。
“Well, then. Gargoyles are hard, but white lumps should be easy.” And they were.
残塔也做出来了。他俩共同搭起一座微斜的高塔,然后并肩跪地,小心地将其抚平。完工后,珊莎把手指戳进塔顶,掏出一点雪花,扔到培提尔脸上。他轻呼一声,雪花滑进衣领中,“你欺负我呢,小姐。”
The Broken Tower was easier still. They made a tall tower together, kneeling side by side to roll it smooth, and when they’d raised it Sansa stuck her fingers through the top, grabbed a handful of snow, and flung it full in his face. Petyr yelped, as the snow slid down under his collar. “That was unchivalrously done, my lady.”
“难道不该吗?你带走我时,保证要送我回家。”
“As was bringing me here, when you swore to take me home.”
她不知自己哪儿来的勇气,敢于如此和他说话。是临冬城给我的勇气,她心想,在它的城墙里面,我有力量。
She wondered where this courage had come from, to speak to him so frankly. From Winterfell, she thought. I am stronger within the walls of Winterfell.
他的面色转为严肃,“是的,我说了谎……还有另一件事,我说的也是谎话。”
His face grew serious. “Yes, I played you false in that … and in one other thing as well.”
珊莎肠胃打结,“还有一件事?”
Sansa’s stomach was aflutter. “What other thing?”
“我告诉你为你搭城堡是我最乐意的事,我骗了你,还有一件事让我更开心,”他凑近来,“这个。”
“I told you that nothing could please me more than to help you with your castle. I fear that was a lie as well. Something else would please me more.” He stepped closer. “This.”
珊莎想回避,但他握住她的手,猛然吻了她。她虚弱地挣扎,他却靠得更紧,嘴唇印入嘴唇,吞噬了话语,舌尖有薄荷的味道。半晌之间她屈服了……接着忙扭头挣脱,“你干什么?”
Sansa tried to step back, but he pulled her into his arms and suddenly he was kissing her. Feebly, she tried to squirm, but only succeeded in pressing herself more tightly against him. His mouth was on hers, swallowing her words. He tasted of mint. For half a heartbeat she yielded to his kiss … before she turned her face away and wrenched free. “What are you doing?”
培提尔理理斗篷,“亲吻我的白雪公主。”
Petyr straightened his cloak. “Kissing a snow maid.”
“你……你应该去吻她,”珊莎不安地扫视莱莎的阳台,上面空空如也,“她才是你妻子。”
“You’re supposed to kiss her.” Sansa glanced up at Lysa’s balcony, but it was empty now. “Your lady wife.”
“我吻过她,莱莎没理由抱怨。”他浅浅一笑,“你真该拿镜子照照,我的小姐,你实在太美了。在皑皑白雪中,你好似一头可爱的小熊,而脸庞爬满红晕,气喘吁吁。你出来多久了?外面很冷,让我给你一点温暖吧,珊莎。来,手套脱掉,把手给我。”
“I do. Lysa has no cause for complaint.” He smiled. “I wish you could see yourself, my lady. You are so beautiful. You’re crusted over with snow like some little bear cub, but your face is flushed and you can scarcely breathe. How long have you been out here? You must be very cold. Let me warm you, Sansa. Take off those gloves, give me your hands.”
“不!”他的声音好像马瑞里安,她不由得想起海滨婚宴那晚的情景,只是这次罗索·布伦不可能来救她,因为他是培提尔的人。“您不能吻我。您忘了吗?说好的,我是您女儿……”
“I won’t.” He sounded almost like Marillion, the night he’d gotten so drunk at the wedding. Only this time Lothor Brune would not appear to save her; Ser Lothor was Petyr’s man. “You shouldn’t kiss me. I might have been your own daughter …”
“说好的,”他淡淡地承认,带着一丝悔恨的微笑,“可你不是我女儿,不是我真正的女儿。你是艾德·史塔克和凯特的种,但在我眼中,你比当年的凯特还要美,真的。”
“Might have been,” he admitted, with a rueful smile. “But you’re not, are you? You are Eddard Stark’s daughter, and Cat’s. But I think you might be even more beautiful than your mother was, when she was your age.”
“噢,培提尔,求你,”她的声音好虚弱,“求你……”
“Petyr, please.” Her voice sounded so weak. “Please …”
“城堡!”
“A castle!”
前方传来一声稚气、高亢的尖叫,小指头离开珊莎身边。“劳勃大人,”他草草一鞠躬,“您出门怎能不带手套?冷着咧。”
The voice was loud, shrill, and childish. Littlefinger turned away from her. “Lord Robert.” He sketched a bow. “Should you be out in the snow without your gloves?”
“这座雪城堡是你做的吗,小指头大人?”
“Did you make the snow castle, Lord Littlefinger?”
“大部分是阿莲做的,大人。”
“Alayne did most of it, my lord.”
珊莎补充,“我在搭建临冬城呢。”
Sansa said, “It’s meant to be Winterfell.”
“临冬城是什么地方?”以八岁男孩的标准,劳勃生得过于瘦小,斑驳的皮肤,湿黏黏的眼睛,不管上哪儿都抱着一个破烂的布偶。
“Winterfell?” Robert was small for eight, a stick of a boy with splotchy skin and eyes that were always runny. Under one arm he clutched the threadbare cloth doll he carried everywhere.
“临冬城是史塔克家族的城堡,”珊莎告诉未婚夫,“是北方最壮观的城堡。”
“Winterfell is the seat of House Stark,” Sansa told her husband-to-be. “The great castle of the north.”
“它看起来好小一点点呀,”男孩跪在城门楼前,“看,巨人攻城啰。”他把布偶放在雪地中,推向城堡。“轰隆,轰隆,我是无敌的巨人,”他唱道,“哈依,哈依,快开门!教我砸扁了可住不了人。”他摆动布偶的腿,敲下城门楼的两个堡垒。
“It’s not so great.” The boy knelt before the gatehouse. “Look, here comes a giant to knock it down.” He stood his doll in the snow and moved it jerkily. “Tromp tromp I’m a giant, I’m a giant,” he chanted. “Ho ho ho, open your gates or I’ll mash them and smash them.” Swinging the doll by the legs, he knocked the top off one gatehouse tower and then the other.
珊莎承受不了,“劳勃,住手!”他非但不听,反而再次操纵布偶前进。一尺长的城墙应声倒掉。她伸手去抓他胳膊,扯住的却是布偶,只听“嘶”地一声巨响,薄布条随即断裂,不知怎地,她竟把布偶的头给扭了下来。劳勃手中只剩腿脚和躯干,破布和碎屑遍撒在雪地里。
It was more than Sansa could stand. “Robert, stop that.” Instead he swung the doll again, and a foot of wall exploded. She grabbed for his hand but she caught the doll instead. There was a loud ripping sound as the thin cloth tore. Suddenly she had the doll’s head, Robert had the legs and body, and the rag-and-sawdust stuffing was spilling in the snow.
劳勃公爵嘴唇发抖,“你——你——你杀杀杀杀杀杀杀了他。”他哭号道,接着浑身痉挛。起初较为微弱,但半晌之后,他便倒在城堡上,四肢无法遏抑地剧烈抽动。白塔、雪桥被打得满天飞舞,珊莎满心恐惧地目睹临冬城的毁灭,还是培提尔·贝里席走过来抓住继子的手腕,大声召唤学士。
Lord Robert’s mouth trembled. “You killlllllllled him,” he wailed. Then he began to shake. It started with no more than a little shivering, but within a few short heartbeats he had collapsed across the castle, his limbs flailing about violently. White towers and snowy bridges shattered and fell on all sides. Sansa stood horrified, but Petyr Baelish seized her cousin’s wrists and shouted for the maester.
守卫和女仆们立刻赶来控制发病的男孩,柯蒙学士也旋即出现。对鹰巢城众人而言,劳勃·艾林公爵的癫痫病早已司空见惯,莱莎夫人把大家训练得只要孩子一哭,便产生条件反射。学士按住小公爵的头,一边呢喃安慰的话语,一边喂下半杯安眠酒。慢慢地,劳勃的发作减弱,终至停止,只有双手还在微微抖动。“把他抱去我房间,”柯蒙叮嘱守卫们,“待会用水蛭吸点血。”
Guards and serving girls arrived within instants to help restrain the boy, Maester Colemon a short time later. Robert Arryn’s shaking sickness was nothing new to the people of the Eyrie, and Lady Lysa had trained them all to come rushing at the boy’s first cry. The maester held the little lord’s head and gave him half a cup of dreamwine, murmuring soothing words. Slowly the violence of the fit seemed to ebb away, till nothing remained but a small shaking of the hands. “Help him to my chambers,” Colemon told the guards. “A leeching will help calm him.”
“都是我的错,”珊莎把布偶的头拿给大家看,“我把他的玩具弄坏了。但我不是故意的,我……”
“It was my fault.” Sansa showed them the doll’s head. “I ripped his doll in two. I never meant to, but …”
“公爵大人动手拆了城堡。”培提尔解释。
“His lordship was destroying the castle,” said Petyr.
“是巨人干的,”小男孩抽抽咽咽地诉说,“不是我,是巨人把城堡推倒的。她,她把他杀了!我恨她!她这野种,我恨她!我才不要被吸血!”
“A giant,” the boy whispered, weeping. “It wasn’t me, it was a giant hurt the castle. She killed him! I hate her! She’s a bastard and I hate her! I don’t want to be leeched!”
“大人,您血液里有毒素,”柯蒙师傅道,“毒素让您恼怒、发抖。快来吧,听话。”
“My lord, your blood needs thinning,” said Maester Colemon. “It is the bad blood that makes you angry, and the rage that brings on the shaking. Come now.”
他们带走了男孩。这就是我的夫君,珊莎望着临冬城的废墟,漠然地想。雪已停,气氛却更凄冷。她不知在结婚典礼上劳勃大人是否也会颤抖。乔佛里至少身体还算健康。一阵莫名的狂怒攫住了她,她拣起一根断枝,穿过布偶的头,插在临冬城覆灭的城门楼上。仆人们都吓呆了,只有小指头哈哈大笑,“倘若故事属实,这可不是临冬城城墙上挂的头一个巨人脑袋哦。”
They led the boy away. My lord husband, Sansa thought, as she contemplated the ruins of Winterfell. The snow had stopped, and it was colder than before. She wondered if Lord Robert would shake all through their wedding. At least Joffrey was sound of body. A mad rage seized hold of her. She picked up a broken branch and smashed the torn doll’s head down on top of it, then pushed it down atop the shattered gatehouse of her snow castle. The servants looked aghast, but when Littlefinger saw what she’d done he laughed. “If the tales be true, that’s not the first giant to end up with his head on Winterfell’s walls.”
“故事终究只是故事。”她扔下这句话,离他而去。
“Those are only stories,” she said, and left him there.
回到房间,珊莎立刻脱下湿漉漉的斗篷和靴子,坐到火炉边。她不敢心存侥幸,今天的事一定脱不了干系。或许菜莎夫人也会将我赶出城去。姨妈对胆敢冒犯的人总是格外严厉——而没有什么能比欺负她儿子更让她恼火的了。
Back in her bedchamber, Sansa took off her cloak and her wet boots and sat beside the fire. She had no doubt that she would be made to answer for Lord Robert’s fit. Perhaps Lady Lysa will send me away. Her aunt was quick to banish anyone who displeased her, and nothing displeased her quite so much as people she suspected of mistreating her son.
走就走,月门堡好歹比鹰巢城大得多,也更有生气。奈斯特·罗伊斯男爵固然脾气暴躁严厉,但城堡其实由他女儿米兰达当家,而每个人都赞她开朗快活。即便珊莎的私生身份也不会带来太多困扰,劳勃国王的私生女不也在下面服务么?据说她和米兰达小姐是好朋友,亲如姐妹。
Sansa would have welcomed banishment. The Gates of the Moon was much larger than the Eyrie, and livelier as well. Lord Nestor Royce seemed gruff and stern, but his daughter Myranda kept his castle for him, and everyone said how frolicsome she was. Even Sansa’s supposed bastardy might not count too much against her below. One of King Robert’s baseborn daughters was in service to Lord Nestor, and she and the Lady Myranda were said to be fast friends, as close as sisters.