Dark Wings (Sandor Clegane)

Chapter Forty

"Did he steal you or something?" Thoras asked Jaslin as they sat around a campfire and supped on bowl of warm rabbit stew.

"No" Jaslin laughed.

"It's just, and I mean no offence m'lady, but you're a pretty little thing, and he, well Clegane ain't no Tyrell, if you get what I'm saying".

"Exactly" Jaslin winked.

At the other side of the camp fire, Sandor stood next to the riverbank and pissed into the water.

"I knew her father. A good man, an honourable man. You've been keeping the Lady Frost safe all this time Clegange?" Beric asked him from behind.

"Aye".

"Well she's doesn't seem to fear you, so I can only assume that she is not some prisoner of yours. Strange circumstances though, if you don't mind me saying".

"Whole fucking worlds turned into a strange circumstance".

"And the stark girl? I assume you found her once she ran from us"

"Aye, she was with us for a time".

"And what do you plan to do now?" Beric smiled.

Sandor had no idea and no words to answer the question. Looking over at Jaslin, he watched her smile with the group as she drank from a skin of wine.

"You ought to join us. We could use you and the girl. We're here for a reason Clegane. The lord of light is keeping me alive for a reason, we are part of something larger than ourselves" Beric continued on as Sandor remained silent.

"Lots of horrible shit in this world happens for a reason larger than ourselves" Sandor grunted.

"Cold winds are raising in the north" Beric sighed as Jaslin came over to the men.

"Are you're going to go stop them?" She asked with a smile.

"We need good people to help us".

"Last time you saw me, you wanted to execute me" Sandor scoffed as he walked over to his wife.

"True enough, but the Lord of Light gave you the power to defeat me. Why?"

"I beat you becuase I'm better than you Beric" Sandor laughed.

"Perhaps, but good and bad, young and old, woman and man, the things we are fighting tend on killing them all. You're a born fighter Clegane, but you can still help and lot more than you've hurt".

Later that night Jaslin and Sandor lay by the an old oak tree in the camp with the Brotherhood. After Berics words, Sandor had remained silent, contemplating on what the fuck he was suppose to do, and Jaslin could sense the turmoil within.

"What do you think? What is going on inside that mind of yours Sandor" Jaslin asked as she rested her head on his chest.

"Nothing to worry you on" he grumbled and began to stroke her lower back.

"Don't you lie to me Clegane. I can always tell when you lie".

"Woman, I worry about what we are to do now. There is no safety in this world, not any more. Before you I would not have cared, but I'll be damned if any harm come to you again. That's what torments my mind".

"We could travel with the Brotherhood" Jaslin suggested.

"Have you lost all your wits woman. You want to go off with this bunch of fire worshippers to defeat some made up enemy"

"What if it was not made up. Sandor, when I was at the wall with Jon he told me of the things we had seen, things he had killed. The Stark words are true, winter is coming and we must prepare for a potentially greater enemy than some wine soaked lions from the south. We have no other place to go expect North. If we travel with these men we have greater chance of surviving, we may even find word or Sansa or Arya along the way".

"Looks like my lady has already made up her mind" he smiled through twisted lips.

"Yes, but this time she knows he husband will follow".

"Aye he will" he grumbled and buried his face in her hair.

Over the next two weeks, Jaslin and Sandor travelled with the Brotherhood. The further they travelled north, the heavybthe snow became and the colder the night grew. The brotherhood only had on spare horse after another had broken it's leg, so Jaslin rode with Sandor, her arms wrapped tightly around him from behind as she tried to shelter herself from the cold.

"Bad night to be out to be outdoors" Thoros sighed as the sky grew darker and the snowy winds blew harder against these shivering bodies.

"You got powerful magic to figure that out. Did the Lord of Light whisper that in your ear. It's snowing thoros, it's windy, it's going to be a cold night" Sandor mocked.

"Is he always such a grumpy old bear?" Thoros smiled at Jaslin.

"This looks like a good place to spend the night" Beric interrupted as they approached an old farm, it's owners long gone by the look of things.

Once the group had stopped and seen to the horses, Jaslin went to help Thoros build a fire. Sandor and Beric had sat down at the dining table, pulling them cloaks firmly across them as they finally found shelter from the wind.

"I don't pretend to know what our Lord wants from me. I only know that he wants me alive" Beric smiled at the man.

"If he's go high and powerful why the fuck does he not just tell you what he wants" Sandor grunted as he turned to look back at Jaslin who had walked to her husband's side.

"Clegane, come here, I was t to show you something" Thoros called out.

Sandor didn't reply, not trusting the man as he looked to his wife, who simply shrugged.

"Don't worry, the fire won't bite" he continued with a smile as he knelt by the flames.

"Its just my fucking luck I'd end up with a bunch of fire worshippers" Sandor grumbled as he raised form his seat.

"Aye, almost seems likes divine justice" Beric smiled.

"What do you want" Sandor groaned as he approached the fireplace.

"Look into the flames".

"I don't want to look into the damned flames".

"You saw me bring Beric back from the dead after you cut him down. Don't you want to know what gave me the power?"

"I've been asking for a fortnight, but no one wants to tell me".

"No one can tell you, only the flames can tell you" Thoros replied with a grave tone as he turned back to watched the dancing flames.

As thoros urged Sandor to look harder into the flames, Beric turned to Jaslin and smiled. "You have your own magic as well. I can sense it, you are no ordinary woman Lady Jaslin Frost. You too are here for a reason".

"Is that so Ser, prey, tell me what it is you think you know" Jaslin  smiled.

"I you see things from eyes of another. Your house was once filled with magic and powers not known to this word. Dead for 1000 years, yet here you stand and here the world is".

Jaslin thought back to the words Maester Aemon had spoke at Castle Black. How he had told of her wargs and the abilities and how house had come from magical starts. Perhaps there was reasoning for her to skill be here, perhaps there was reasoning for it all.

"Keep looking, what do you see?" Thoros asked Sandor again as Jaslin came out of her own mind and back to reality.

"Ice, a wall of ice. Where the wall nets the sea. There's a castle there. A mountain, it looks like an arrow head. The dead are marching past, thousands of them. And... ice blue eyes, not the dead though".

Sandor quickly looked back from.the fire, a look of fear across his face as he turned to Jaslin and stared at her.

"I saw your eyes".