“我说，‘没有，女士，’然后又说，‘别叫我小家伙。我的名字是猫儿。’应该为我准备热辣酱才是。贝括有辣酱，他卖出的牡蛎是布鲁斯科的三倍。”

“I said, ‘No, my lady,’ and, ‘Don’t call me little one. My name is Cat.’ I should have hot sauce. Beqqo does, and he sells three times as many oysters as Brusco.”

猫儿也告诉过慈祥的人“黑珍珠”的事。“她真名叫贝乐洁·奥瑟里斯。”这是她了解到的三件事之一。

Cat told the kindly man about the Black Pearl too. “Her true name is Bellegere Otherys,” she informed him. It was one of the three things that she had learned.

“对，”牧师轻声说，“她母亲是贝罗娜拉，但第一任‘黑珍珠’也叫贝乐洁。”

“It is,” the priest said softly. “Her mother was Bellonara, but the first Black Pearl was a Bellegere as well.”

猫儿知道“癞皮猴”上的人们不关心交际花母亲的名字，她转而询问七大王国的消息和战争的情况。

Cat knew that the men off the Brazen Monkey would not care about the name of a courtesan’s mother, though. Instead, she asked them for tidings of the Seven Kingdoms, and the war.

“战争？”其中一人笑道，“什么战争？没有战争。”

“War?” laughed one of them. “What war? There is no war.”

“海鸥镇没有，”另一人说，“谷地没有。小公爵没让我们卷入战团，跟他母亲一样。”

“Not in Gulltown,” said another. “Not in the Vale. The little lord’s kept us out of it, same as his mother did.”

跟他母亲一样。谷地的夫人是她姨妈。“莱莎夫人，”她说，“她是不是……？”

Same as his mother did. The lady of the Vale was her own mother’s sister. “Lady Lysa,” she said, “is she …?”

“……死了？”满脑子想着交际花的雀斑男孩替她说完，“对，她被自己的歌手谋害了。”

“… dead?” finished the freckled boy whose head was full of courtesans. “Aye. Murdered by her own singer.”

“哦。”与我无关。运河边的猫儿没有姨妈。从来没有。猫儿推起小车离开癞皮猴号，在鹅卵石上一路颠簸。“牡蛎，蛤蜊，扇贝，”她吆喝，“牡蛎，蛤蜊，扇贝。”大部分蛤蜊卖给了挑夫，他们在给青亭岛的平底大运酒船卸货，其余的卖给了一群修补密尔商船的人，那艘船是在暴风雨中损坏的。

“Oh.” It’s nought to me. Cat of the Canals never had an aunt. She never did. Cat lifted her barrow and wheeled away from the Brazen Monkey, bumping over cobblestones. “Oysters, clams, and cockles,” she called. “Oysters, clams, and cockles.” She sold most of her clams to the porters off-loading the big wine cog from the Arbor, and the rest to the men repairing a Myrish trading galley that had been savaged by the storms.

沿码头继续往前，她遇到了塔甘纳罗，他背靠一根柱子坐着，身边是“海豹王”卡索。他买了些蚌壳，卡索吼了一声，让她握它的鳍肢。“跟我干吧，猫儿，”塔甘纳罗一边从蚌壳里吸出肉，一边怂恿。自从“醉女儿”用匕首刺穿小纳博的手之后，他一直在寻找新拍档。“我给的比布鲁斯科多，你闻起来也不会再像鱼。”

Farther down the docks she came on Tagganaro sitting with his back against a piling, next to Casso, King of Seals. He bought some mussels from her, and Casso barked and let her shake his flipper. “You come work with me, Cat,” urged Tagganaro as he was sucking mussels from their shells. He had been looking for a new partner ever since the Drunken Daughter put her knife through Little Narbo’s hand. “I give you more than Brusco, and you would not smell like fish.”

“卡索喜欢我的气味，”她说。海豹王吼了一声，仿佛表示赞同。“纳博的手还没好？”

“Casso likes the way I smell,” she said. The King of Seals barked, as if to agree. “Is Narbo’s hand no better?”

“三根手指无法弯曲，”塔甘纳罗在吞食蚌壳的间隙抱怨。“一个不能用手的贼顶啥用？纳博挑选要摸的口袋很在行，挑选婊子可不怎么样。”

“Three fingers do not bend,” complained Tagganaro, between mussels. “What good is a cutpurse who cannot use his fingers? Narbo was good at picking pockets, not so good at picking whores.”

“快乐梅丽也这么说。”猫儿很难过。她喜欢小纳博，尽管他是个小偷。“他将来怎么办？”

“Merry says the same.” Cat was sad. She liked Little Narbo, even if he was a thief. “What will he do?”

“他说去划桨。他觉得两根手指足够了，而且海王一直在雇佣桨手。我告诉他，‘不行，纳博，大海比淑女更冷淡，比婊子更残忍。你倒不如砍下那只手，然后去讨饭。’卡索知道我说得对。是不是，卡索？”

“Pull an oar, he says. Two fingers are enough for that, he thinks, and the Sealord’s always looking for more oarsmen. I tell him, ‘Narbo, no. That sea is colder than a maiden and crueler than a whore. Better you should cut off the hand, and beg.’ Casso knows I am right. Don’t you, Casso?”

海豹吼了一声，猫儿忍不住微笑。她又扔给它一只扇贝，然后独自离开。

The seal barked, and Cat had to smile. She tossed another cockle his way before she went off on her own.

猫儿到达快乐码头时，天已快黑了，小巷对面就停泊着“戏子船”。几个戏子坐在倾斜的船身上，一袋酒在他们手中传来递去，当他们看见猫儿的推车，便过来买牡蛎。她问他们，《醉酒七桨手》准备得怎样，“忧愁的”乔斯摇摇头。“昆斯终于撞到艾拉括跟斯洛伊上床，于是他们用道具剑决斗，然后双双气鼓鼓地离开。今晚只剩五位醉酒桨手了。”

The day was nearly done by the time Cat reached the Happy Port, across the alley from where the Ship was anchored. Some of the mummers sat up atop the listing hulk, passing a skin of wine from hand to hand, but when they saw Cat’s barrow they came down for some oysters. She asked them how it went with Seven Drunken Oarsmen. Joss the Gloom shook his head. “Quence finally came on Allaquo abed with Sloey. They went at one another with mummer swords, and both of them have left us. We’ll only be five drunken oarsmen tonight, it would seem.”

“桨手人数不足，只好用醉酒的程度弥补，”弥尔梅罗宣称，“比如我就能胜任。”

“We shall strive to make up in drunkenness what we lack in oarsmen,” declared Myrmello. “I for one am equal to the task.”

“小纳博想当桨手，”猫儿告诉他们，“你们有了他，就是六个。”

“Little Narbo wants to be an oarsman,” Cat told them. “If you got him, you’d have six.”

“你快去见快乐梅丽，”乔斯催她，“你知道少了你的牡蛎，她脾气得有多坏。”

“You had best go see Merry,” Joss told her. “You know how sour she gets without her oysters.”

然而当猫儿溜进妓院时，发现快乐梅丽坐在大厅里，闭着眼睛听戴利恩弹奏木竖琴。伊娜也在，她正梳理兰娜的金色长发。又是蠢笨的情歌。兰娜总爱央求歌手给她表演蠢笨的情歌。她是最年轻的妓女，才十四岁。猫儿知道，快乐梅丽给她定的价是其他姑娘的三倍，

When Cat slipped inside the brothel, though, she found Merry sitting in the common room with her eyes shut, listening to Dareon play his woodharp. Yna was there too, braiding Lanna’s fine long golden hair. Another stupid love song. Lanna was always begging the singer to play her stupid love songs. She was the youngest of the whores, only ten-and-four. Merry asked three times as much for her as for any of the other girls, Cat knew.

看到戴利恩厚颜无耻地坐在那里，她便怒从心起，只见他一边用手指拨弄竖琴，一边朝兰娜抛媚眼。妓女们叫他黑衣歌手，但现在他身上已几乎没有黑色。他用唱歌挣来的钱把自己由乌鸦变成了孔雀。今天他穿松鼠皮镶边的长毛绒紫披风，白色与淡紫色的斜纹上衣，以及刺客们那种五彩长裤，除了今天穿的，他还拥有一件丝斗篷和一件金线镶边的酒红色天鹅绒披风。他全身上下唯一的黑色是靴子。猫儿曾听他对兰娜说，他把黑衣服全扔进了水渠里。“我跟黑色划清界限了。”他宣布。

It made her angry to see Dareon sitting there so brazen, making eyes at Lanna as his fingers danced across the harp strings. The whores called him the black singer, but there was hardly any black about him now. With the coin his singing brought him, the crow had transformed himself into a peacock. Today he wore a plush purple cloak lined with vair, a striped white-and-lilac tunic, and the parti-colored breeches of a bravo, but he owned a silken cloak as well, and one made of burgundy velvet that was lined with cloth-of-gold. The only black about him was his boots. Cat had heard him tell Lanna that he’d thrown all the rest in a canal. “I am done with darkness,” he had announced.

你是守夜人军团的成员，她心想。戴利恩正在唱某个蠢笨的淑女从某座蠢笨的塔楼上跳下来，因为她蠢笨的王子死了。淑女应该去干掉杀害王子的人。而歌手应该待在长城。戴利恩刚出现在快乐码头时，艾莉亚冲动得想问他是否愿意带她回东海望，结果却听他告诉蓓珊妮，自己永远也不会回去了。“硬邦邦的床，腌鳕鱼，站不完的岗，那就是长城，”他道，“况且，东海望没一个人有你一半漂亮。我怎么忍心离开你呢？”猫儿听他对兰娜说过同样的话，还有对“猫舍”的一个妓女，甚至在“七灯之院”表演的晚上，他对“夜莺”也说过。

He is a man of the Night’s Watch, she thought, as he sang about some stupid lady throwing herself off some stupid tower because her stupid prince was dead. The lady should go kill the ones who killed her prince. And the singer should be on the Wall. When Dareon had first appeared at the Happy Port, Arya had almost asked if he would take her with him back to Eastwatch, until she heard him telling Bethany that he was never going back. “Hard beds, salt cod, and endless watches, that’s the Wall,” he’d said. “Besides, there’s no one half as pretty as you at Eastwatch. How could I ever leave you?” He had said the same thing to Lanna, Cat had heard, and to one of the whores at the Cattery, and even to the Nightingale the night he played at the House of Seven Lamps.

胖子揍他那晚我要在就好了。快乐梅丽的妓女们仍时时拿这件事当笑话。伊娜说她一碰那胖子，他的脸就涨得像甜菜根一样红，但当他开始惹麻烦，快乐梅丽把他拖了出去，扔进运河。

I wish I had been here the night the fat one hit him. Merry’s whores still laughed about that. Yna said the fat boy had gone red as a beet every time she touched him, but when he started trouble Merry had him dragged outside and thrown in the canal.

猫儿正想着那胖小子，回忆自己如何从泰洛和渥贝罗手里解救他，“水手之妻”出现在她身边。“他唱的歌真好听，”她用维斯特洛通用语喃喃低语，“诸神一定钟爱他，给了他这样的嗓音，还有那张漂亮的脸。”

Cat was thinking about the fat boy, remembering how she had saved him from Terro and Orbelo, when the Sailor’s Wife appeared beside her. “He sings a pretty song,” she murmured softly, in the Common Tongue of Westeros. “The gods must have loved him to give him such a voice, and that fair face as well.”

他脸虽漂亮，心却肮脏，艾莉亚想，但没有说出来。戴利恩同“水手之妻”结过一次婚，“水手之妻”只跟与她结婚的人上床。快乐码头有时一晚上要举行三四次婚礼。通常由浑身酒气、精神亢奋的红袍僧艾泽黎诺主持，不然就是尤斯塔斯，他曾当过外域圣堂的修士。倘若红袍僧和修士都不在，会有妓女跑去“戏子船”，带回一名戏子。快乐梅丽总是说戏子扮演僧侣要比真正的僧侣强很多，尤其是弥尔梅罗演得可好了。

He is fair of face and foul of heart, thought Arya, but she did not say it. Dareon had once wed the Sailor’s Wife, who would only bed with men who married her. The Happy Port sometimes had three or four weddings a night. Often the cheerful wine-soaked red priest Ezzelyno performed the rites. Elsewise it was Eustace, who had once been a septon at the Sept-Beyond-the-Sea. If neither priest nor septon was on hand, one of the whores would run to the Ship and fetch back a mummer. Merry always claimed the mummers made much better priests than priests, especially Myrmello.

婚礼喧闹欢乐，人们喝下许多酒。每次猫儿推着车碰巧路过，“水手之妻”都坚持让新婚丈夫买点牡蛎，说是圆房时能更加坚挺。她这么做是出于好心，她平时还很爱笑，但猫儿感觉她的笑中似乎有点悲哀。

The weddings were loud and jolly, with a lot of drinking. Whenever Cat happened by with her barrow, the Sailor’s Wife would insist that her new husband buy some oysters, to stiffen him for the consummation. She was good that way, and quick to laugh as well, but Cat thought there was something sad about her too.

据其他妓女说，“水手之妻”每当月经来潮时，就会造访列神岛，她知道那里的所有神祗，甚至包括那些已被布拉佛斯人遗忘了的神。她们说她去为自己第一个丈夫祈祷，她真正的丈夫，在海上失踪了，当时她跟兰娜差不多大。“她认为如果找对了神，也许神灵会操控风向，将她的爱人吹回来，”认识她最久的独眼伊娜道，“但我祈求这种事千万别发生。她的爱人死了，我能从她的血里尝出来。若他真回到她身边，将是一具尸体。”

The other whores said that the Sailor’s Wife visited the Isle of the Gods on the days when her flower was in bloom, and knew all the gods who lived there, even the ones that Braavos had forgotten. They said she went to pray for her first husband, her true husband, who had been lost at sea when she was a girl no older than Lanna. “She thinks that if she finds the right god, maybe he will send the winds and blow her old love back to her,” said one-eyed Yna, who had known her longest, “but I pray it never happens. Her love is dead, I could taste that in her blood. If he ever should come back to her, it will be a corpse.”

戴利恩的歌终于结束。当最后一个音符在空气中隐去，兰娜叹口气，歌手将竖琴放到一边，把她抱到怀里。他刚开始轻轻触摸她，猫儿就大声说，“牡蛎，有人要吗？”快乐梅丽突然睁开眼。“好的，”女人道，“拿进来吧，孩子。伊娜，去弄点面包和醋。”

Dareon’s song was finally ending. As the last notes faded in the air, Lanna gave a sigh and the singer put his harp aside and pulled her up into his lap. He had just started to tickle her when Cat said loudly, “There’s oysters, if anyone is wanting some,” and Merry’s eyes popped open. “Good,” the woman said. “Bring them in, child. Yna, fetch some bread and vinegar.”

膨胀的红日悬在一排桅杆后的天空中，猫儿揣着鼓鼓一袋钱币离开快乐码头，推车空了，只剩盐与海藻。戴利恩也要离开，他边走边告诉她，他答应今晚要在绿鳗客栈唱歌。“每次在绿鳗客栈表演，我都能挣到银币，”他夸耀，“那儿有船长和货主出没。”他们穿过一座小桥，沿曲折偏僻的小巷前进，日头的影子越来越长。“很快我就能在紫港表演，然后是海王殿，”戴利恩续道。猫儿的空车在鹅卵石上嗒嗒作响，奏出轻快的乐章。“昨天我跟妓女们一起吃鲱鱼，一年之内，我将跟交际花一起享用帝王蟹。”

The swollen red sun hung in the sky behind the row of masts when Cat took her leave of the Happy Port, with a plump purse of coins and a barrow empty but for salt and seaweed. Dareon was leaving too. He had promised to sing at the Inn of the Green Eel this evening, he told her as they strolled along together. “Every time I play the Eel I come away with silver,” he boasted, “and some nights there are captains there, and owners.” They crossed a little bridge, and made their way down a crooked back street as the shadows of the day grew longer. “Soon I will be playing in the Purple, and after that the Sealord’s Palace,” Dareon went on. Cat’s empty barrow clattered over the cobblestones, making its own sort of rattling music. “Yesterday I ate herring with the whores, but within the year I’ll be having emperor crab with courtesans.”

“你的兄弟呢？”猫儿问，“那个胖子。他找到去旧镇的船了吗？他说他本来要跟乌莎诺拉小姐号一起出航。”

“What happened to your brother?” Cat asked. “The fat one. Did he ever find a ship to Oldtown? He said he was supposed to sail on the Lady Ushanora.”

“我们都要去。那是雪诺大人的命令。我告诉山姆，扔下老头，但蠢胖子不肯听。”最后一缕落日在他发际闪耀。“好了，现在太迟了。”

“We all were. Lord Snow’s command. I told Sam, leave the old man, but the fat fool would not listen.” The last light of the setting sun shone in his hair. “Well, it’s too late now.”

“就是这样。”猫儿说，他们踏入一条蜿蜒的小巷，里面黑沉沉的。

“Just so,” said Cat as they stepped into the gloom of a twisty little alley.

等猫儿回到布鲁斯科的房子，夜晚的雾气已开始在小水渠上方聚集。她放下推车，在布鲁斯科的帐房里找到他，然后把钱袋“砰”的一声扔到他面前的桌子上，又“砰”的一声扔下一双靴子。

By the time Cat returned to Brusco’s house, an evening fog was gathering above the small canal. She put away her barrow, found Brusco in his counting room, and thumped her purse down on the table in front of him. She thumped the boots down too.

布鲁斯科拍拍钱袋。“很好。但这是什么？”

Brusco gave the purse a pat. “Good. But what’s this?”

“靴子。”

“Boots.”

“好靴子很难找，”布鲁斯科说，“但这双对我来说太小了。”他提起一只，斜眼打量。

“Good boots are hard to find,” said Brusco, “but these are too small for my feet.” He picked one up to squint at it.

“今天晚上月亮黑了。”她提醒他。

“The moon will be black tonight,” she reminded him.

“你赶紧回去祈祷吧。”布鲁斯科推开靴子，倒出钱币清点。“Valar dohaeris．”

“Best you pray, then.” Brusco shoved the boots aside and poured out the coins to count them. “Valar dohaeris.”

Valar morghuns，她心想。

Valar morghulis, she thought.

她穿行于布拉佛斯的街道，雾气从四周升起。当她推开鱼梁木门，进入黑白之院时，略微有点颤抖。今晚燃烧的蜡烛不多，犹如黯淡的星星。黑暗中，所有神祗都是陌客。

Fog rose all around as she walked through the streets of Braavos. She was shivering a little by the time she pushed through the weirwood door into the House of Black and White. Only a few candles burned this evening, flickering like fallen stars. In the darkness all the gods were strangers.

在地窖里，她解开猫儿破旧的斗篷，将猫儿沾有鱼腥味的棕色上衣从头上脱出来，踢掉猫儿浸满盐渍的靴子，钻出猫儿的内衣裤，然后在柠檬水里沐浴，洗掉运河边的猫儿身上特有的气味。她从水中出来时，已用肥皂把身子擦洗得干干净净，褐发贴在脸颊上，猫儿不见了。她换上于净的袍服和一双柔软的布拖鞋，去厨房向乌玛讨些食物。牧师和侍僧已吃过了，厨师给她留了一块美味的炸鳕鱼和一些黄芜菁泥。她狼吞虎咽地吃下去，洗好碟子，然后去帮流浪儿准备药剂。

Down in the vaults, she untied Cat’s threadbare cloak, pulled Cat’s fishy brown tunic over her head, kicked off Cat’s salt-stained boots, climbed out of Cat’s smallclothes, and bathed in lemonwater to wash away the very smell of Cat of the Canals. When she emerged, soaped and scrubbed pink with her brown hair plastered to her cheeks, Cat was gone. She donned clean robes and a pair of soft cloth slippers, and padded to the kitchens to beg some food of Umma. The priests and acolytes had already eaten, but the cook had saved a piece of nice fried cod for her, and some mashed yellow turnips. She wolfed it down, washed the dish, then went to help the waif prepare her potions.

她的任务是取东西，爬上梯子，找流浪儿需要的药草。“甜睡花是种慢性毒药，”流浪儿边告诉她，边用槌臼研磨。“几小粒便能减缓心脏跳动，抑制癫痫病发作，使人平静坚强。一撮确保一夜无梦安眠。三撮会使睡眠没有终点。它很甜，因此最好混在蛋糕、派饼和蜜酒里。给，你可以闻到那甜味。”流浪儿让她嗅了嗅，再派她爬上梯子找一只红玻璃瓶。“这种毒药比较猛烈，嗅不到也尝不出，更容易隐藏。人们叫它‘里斯之泪’。它能溶于酒或水中，扰乱肠胃，像肠疾一样致人死亡。你闻一下。”艾莉亚嗅了嗅，什么味道也没有。流浪儿将“里斯之泪”放到一边，打开一只矮胖的石罐。“这种药膏里添加了石蜥的血，涂在煮熟的肉类上很香，吃了之后却癫狂暴躁，人兽皆然。被石蜥毒感染的老鼠甚至会去咬狮子。”

Her part was mostly fetching, scrambling up ladders to find the herbs and leaves the waif required. “Sweetsleep is the gentlest of poisons,” the waif told her, as she was grinding some with a mortar and pestle. “A few grains will slow a pounding heart and stop a hand from shaking, and make a man feel calm and strong. A pinch will grant a night of deep and dreamless sleep. Three pinches will produce that sleep that does not end. The taste is very sweet, so it is best used in cakes and pies and honeyed wines. Here, you can smell the sweetness.” She let her have a whiff, then sent her up the ladders to find a red glass bottle. “This is a crueler poison, but tasteless and odorless, hence easier to hide. The tears of Lys, men call it. Dissolved in wine or water, it eats at a man’s bowels and belly, and kills as a sickness of those parts. Smell.” Arya sniffed, and smelled nothing. The waif put the tears to one side and opened a fat stone jar. “This paste is spiced with basilisk blood. It will give cooked flesh a savory smell, but if eaten it produces violent madness, in beasts as well as men. A mouse will attack a lion after a taste of basilisk blood.”

艾莉亚咬紧嘴唇。“它对狗有效吗？”

Arya chewed her lip. “Would it work on dogs?”

“对暖血动物都有效。”流浪儿扇了她一巴掌。

“On any animal with warm blood.” The waif slapped her.

她一只手捂住脸颊，吃惊更甚于疼痛。“你干吗？”

She raised her hand to her cheek, more surprised than hurt. “Why did you do that?”

“思考时会咬紧嘴唇的是史塔克家族的艾莉亚。你是史塔克家族的艾莉亚吗？”

“It is Arya of House Stark who chews on her lip whenever she is thinking. Are you Arya of House Stark?”

“我是无名之辈。”她生气了。“你是谁？”

“I am no one.” She was angry. “Who are you?”

她没指望流浪儿回答，对方却开了口。“我出生时是一个古老家族的唯一子嗣，贵族系谱的继承人，”流浪儿答道，“母亲在我很小时就死了，我对她没有记忆。我六岁那年父亲再婚，继母对我很好，直到她生下自己的女儿。从此以后，她的愿望就是要我死，好让自己的亲生骨肉继承财产。她本该寻求千面之神的帮助，却又无法承受他所要求的牺牲，因此她设法给我下毒，把我变成了你现在看到的这个样子。然而我没死，当红手之院的医师把她干的事告诉我父亲之后，父亲来到这里，将所有家产连同我一起奉献。千面之神听取了他的祈祷，我被带到神庙侍奉，而父亲的妻子接受了恩赐。”

She did not expect the waif to answer, but she did. “I was born the only child of an ancient House, my noble father’s heir,” the waif replied. “My mother died when I was little, I have no memory of her. When I was six my father wed again. His new wife treated me kindly until she gave birth to a daughter of her own. Then it was her wish that I should die, so her own blood might inherit my father’s wealth. She should have sought the favor of the Many-Faced God, but she could not bear the sacrifice he would ask of her. Instead, she thought to poison me herself. It left me as you see me now, but I did not die. When the healers in the House of the Red Hands told my father what she had done, he came here and made sacrifice, offering up all his wealth and me. Him of Many Faces heard his prayer. I was brought to the temple to serve, and my father’s wife received the gift.”

艾莉亚谨慎地打量她。“这是真的吗？”

Arya considered her warily. “Is that true?”

“里面有真话。”

“There is truth in it.”

“也有谎言？”

“And lies as well?”

“有一件事不是事实，还有一件有所夸大。”

“There is an untruth, and an exaggeration.”

流浪儿讲自己的故事时，艾莉亚一直观察着她的脸，但对方没有透露任何信息。“千面之神拿走了你父亲三分之二的财产，并非全部。”

She had been watching the waif’s face the whole time she told her story, but the other girl had shown her no signs. “The Many-Faced God took two-thirds of your father’s wealth, not all.”

“就是这样。那是我夸大的部分。”

“Just so. That was my exaggeration.”

艾莉亚咧嘴一笑，但当她意识到自己在笑，连忙收起表情。控制你的脸，她告诉自己，笑容应是仆人，当你召唤时才出现。“哪一部分是谎言呢？”

Arya grinned, realized she was grinning, and gave her cheek a pinch. Rule your face, she told herself. My smile is my servant, he should come at my command. “What part was the lie?”

“没有。我撒谎说自己在撒谎。”

“No part. I lied about the lie.”

“是吗？还是你现在也在撒谎？”

“Did you? Or are you lying now?”

流浪儿不及回答，慈祥的人微笑着走进屋子。“你回到我们这儿来了。”

But before the waif could answer, the kindly man stepped into the chamber, smiling. “You have returned to us.”

“月亮黑了。”

“The moon is black.”

“是的。跟离开我们时相比，你多了解到哪三件事？”

“It is. What three new things do you know, that you did not know when last you left us?”

我多了解到三十件事，她差点说出口。“小纳博的三根手指无法弯曲。他想当桨手。”

I know thirty new things, she almost said. “Three of Little Narbo’s fingers will not bend. He means to be an oarsman.”

“了解这件事有好处。有别的吗？”

“It is good to know this. And what else?”

她回想一天的经历。“昆斯和艾拉括发生争斗后离开了‘戏子船’，但我认为他们会回来。”

She thought back on her day. “Quence and Alaquo had a fight and left the Ship, but I think that they’ll come back.”

“你是认为，还是你知道？”

“Do you only think, or do you know?”

“只是认为。”她不得不承认，尽管她很肯定，戏子跟其他人一样要吃饭，而昆斯和艾拉括的水平还不够去“蓝灯笼”。

“I only think,” she had to confess, even though she was certain of it. Mummers had to eat the same as other men, and Quence and Alaquo were not good enough for the Blue Lantern.

“就是这样，”慈祥的人道，“第三件事呢？”

“Just so,” said the kindly man. “And the third thing?”

这次她没犹豫。“戴利恩死了，就是那位睡在快乐码头的黑衣歌手。他果真是守夜人的逃兵。他们割了他的喉咙，将他推进水渠，并拿走了他的靴子。”

This time she did not hesitate. “Dareon is dead. The black singer who was sleeping at the Happy Port. He was really a deserter from the Night’s Watch. Someone slit his throat and pushed him into a canal, but they kept his boots.”

“好靴子很难找。”

“Good boots are hard to find.”

“就是这样。”她试图让自己的脸保持平静。

“Just so.” She tried to keep her face still.

“我在想，谁会于这件事呢？”

“Who could have done this thing, I wonder?”

“史塔克家族的艾莉亚。”她注视着他的眼睛，注视着他的嘴巴，注视着他下巴的肌肉。

“Arya of House Stark.” She watched his eyes, his mouth, the muscles of his jaw.

“那个女孩？我以为她早已离开布拉佛斯了。你是谁？”

“That girl? I thought she had left Braavos. Who are you?”

“无名之辈。”

“No one.”

“你撒谎。”他转向流浪儿。“我嗓子很干。请帮我拿一杯红酒，再给我们的朋友艾莉亚拿一杯热牛奶，她回来了让我们很意外。”

“You lie.” He turned to the waif. “My throat is dry. Do me a kindness and bring a cup of wine for me and warm milk for our friend Arya, who has returned to us so unexpectedly.”

艾莉亚穿行于城中时一直在寻思，假如她告诉慈祥的人戴利恩的事，他会怎么说。或许他会生她的气，或许他会赞许她给予歌手千面之神的恩赐。这次对话在她头脑里演练了数十遍，好像戏子排戏一样。但她从没想到会喝热牛奶。

On her way across the city Arya had wondered what the kindly man would say when she told him about Dareon. Maybe he would be angry with her, or maybe he would be pleased that she had given the singer the gift of the Many-Faced God. She had played this talk out in her head half a hundred times, like a mummer in a show. But she had never thought warm milk.

牛奶来了之后，艾莉亚将它喝下。有一点点烧焦，回味苦涩。“现在去睡吧，孩子，”慈祥的人说，“明天你必须侍奉。”

When the milk came, Arya drank it down. It smelled a little burnt and had a bitter aftertaste. “Go to bed now, child,” the kindly man said. “On the morrow you must serve.”

当晚，她又做梦了，但跟其他梦不同，这个梦里，没有狼群。她独自逡巡，在房顶跳跃，于运河边安静地行走，追逐迷雾中的阴影。

That night she dreamed she was a wolf again, but it was different from the other dreams. In this dream she had no pack. She prowled alone, bounding over rooftops and padding silently beside the banks of a canal, stalking shadows through the fog.

第二天早晨醒来时，她瞎了。

When she woke the next morning, she was blind.