A Beast's Heart (english version)

8.

We still had one day to finish our march. And it seemed that we would reach our destination earlier than planned.
Far before Harrenhal itself, the Godseye loomed before us. A huge lake in the riverlands. The ruin lay at its northernmost point, that was our destination. So we walked along the shore, always keeping the water on our left. It was not far now, we could already make out the towers of Harrenhal. Or at least what was left of them.
One or two rays of sunlight made it through the cloud cover and made the water surface beside me glisten. Wind drove small waves before it. There would be more rain, you could smell it.
"Are we finally there?" asked Hot Pie angrily, panting heavily from the long walk, "I can't go on!"
"Look, you dumbass," Arya grumbled and stretched her arm forward, pointing her finger between the heads of two soldiers at the castle, "There it is!"
"What do you think will be waiting for us there?" asked Gendry and the three of them began their speculation. I held back, silently fixing my gaze on the water. Still waters run deep, it popped into my head and I considered. You've been talking far too much these last few days.
"Lenn, what about you? Do you have any ideas?"
I looked down at Arya and just shook my head. Then I looked ahead, fixated for the rest of the way on the black colossus towering before us. Who knew how long we would stay there? And who knew which of us would ever leave this place alive again?
"So, you miserable sons of whores, this is Harrenhal!" roared Ser Alrik, and murmurs spread. I barely listened, trying to imagine what this ruin might have looked like in the past. My mother had once told me about court life before she went to bed. About magnificent castles and palaces. Of beautiful women in pretty dresses and men who garlanded them with flowers and poetry. My mother knew how to create images, although things like these had never really been seen before. However, when I asked her how she knew all this, she had never given me an answer.
So now I tried to imagine Harrenhal in its heyday. But I just couldn't. There was just this huge pile of rubble and debris in front of us, some strong remnants of which had lasted. And when we finally reached the entrance gate and entered the huge courtyard, I felt sick to my stomach. The images created in my mind from Mother's stories faded completely as the acrid smell hit my nose. Feces, disease, sweat, despair and rot - I was sure this was what advanced death smelled like. The heavy air was torn by screams, each step staining my feet with a mixture of excrement, mud and even blood. As I hesitantly lifted my gaze, a drop of blood fell like a tear just below my eye. It came from a severed man's head that had been impaled on the wall. Thousands of flies buzzed around the dozens of corpses, feasting with the crows. I watched a bird pecking at a corpse's eye and had to suppress a gag. Torture was going on here for all it was worth! And I was now in the middle of it.
A colossus of a soldier reared up in front of Ser Alrik.
"Is this all of them?" he asked in a raspy voice and the black-haired man nodded.
"Yes, Ser Gregor, we found them all."
"Put them with the others in the pens there."
"Is not Harrenhal famous for its many dungeons? The pens are for cattle, aren't they?"
The giant, who turned out to be Ser Gregor, eyed Ser Alrik up and down.
"The dungeons are full. Do you see any cattle here?"
"No."
"Then the pens are empty and we can use them elsewhere. Now get those prisoners in there! When Lord Tywin hits here at the end of this week, I want order! Understood?"
"Yes, Ser Gregor," the soldiers shouted in unison and herded us into one of the pens under Ser Alrik's direction. Other prisoners slowly looked up at us, moving closer together. In many of their pairs of eyes I could see pure panic. All at once I wished we were still in the forest. This place already scared me in panic. Dozens of red capes and armour in a sea of flesh, mud and blood. Just with that thought, thunder rumbled over Harrenhal as I pushed myself into the far corner of the pen and forced myself to rest. Now more than ever I needed my full concentration....