Chapter 103 – All for Faith
There was nothing he could do about it right now. He would just have to warn them again during training when he got back. Drogon nodded to the old man to show he understood, then went back to eating.
After just a couple of bites, a sudden thought struck him.
That old man just called the golden dragon my kin. Those two grab sheep without paying and even injure people—doesn't that indirectly ruin my reputation?
A bad reputation would inevitably affect the collection of faith power. Realizing this, Drogon snorted sharply. He stopped Aka and the old man, who were about to leave, bit down on the backpack slung across his back, and shook out a gold coin, nudging it toward the old man with his claw.
Aka immediately understood and said to the elder,
"The Dragon God is paying you for the sheep on behalf of his kin."
The old man was startled by the gold coin.
"A few sheep aren't worth a gold coin. I—I'll offer them to the Golden Dragon as a gift."
A single gold coin was enough to buy all his sheep. How could he dare accept it?
Aka looked at Drogon. Seeing that he clearly had no intention of taking the coin back, Aka spoke again,
"The Dragon God has always been generous. Please accept it."
The old man glanced at Drogon's enormous, fearsome body and no longer dared refuse. He bent down and picked up the coin.
Seeing the coin accepted, Drogon tipped his backpack again, spilling out a small pile of gold coins and pushing them toward Aka.
Aka stared at the pile, momentarily confused. Drogon usually paid only after eating—and even then, it was never this much.
When Aka still didn't understand, Drogon glanced at the old man, then at the coins on the ground.
"You… you want me to deliver this money to the khalasars whose sheep were taken by the Golden Dragon?" Aka asked, quick to catch on.
Drogon nodded and went back to finishing the remaining half of the roast sheep.
For the sake of his faith power, it seemed he would have to foot the bill for his little brother and sister.
As for how Aka would find the affected khalasars—and how he would give them the money—that was Aka's problem to solve.
Aka hesitated for a moment, then picked up the gold coins from the ground. He was no longer just Drogon's devout believer—he was now the Dragon God's spokesperson on the grasslands. Naturally, he had his own ways to accomplish the task Drogon had entrusted to him.
After finishing his meal with Aka's khalasar, Drogon still wasn't full. He went on to two more medium-to-large khalasars before finally satisfying his hunger. This made him suspicious—his appetite had nearly doubled. Unless his Devouring talent had mutated again, no amount of increased training should have caused such a dramatic change.
Once he had eaten his fill, he treated the flight back as digestion time—then it was straight back to training.
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Outside the Eyrie in the Vale, a young girl and a scar-faced swordsman with his hair tied in rough strands were approaching from the distance.
They were Sandor Clegane—the Hound—and Arya Stark, survivors of the Red Wedding at the Twins.
Sandor had never delivered Arya to Catelyn Stark, and naturally never received any ransom. Instead, he simply kept traveling with her.
After joining the Brotherhood Without Banners, led by Lord Beric—one of her father's former bannermen—Arya had thought she'd finally found a place to belong.
But Beric and his red-robed priest betrayed their own companions for a sack of gold dragons. They sold Gendry—the blacksmith who had joined the Brotherhood and who was also King Robert's bastard son—to Melisandre, another priestess of the Lord of Light.
While with the Brotherhood, Arya learned that her mother and brother Robb had not died, but had escaped back to Riverrun.
She had planned to use the Brotherhood to rally the remaining northern forces and lift the siege of Riverrun. Instead, not only did she fail to gather many loyalists—her friend Gendry was openly sold.
Furious, Arya left the Brotherhood with Sandor and decided to seek out her aunt Lysa Arryn at the Eyrie, hoping to borrow troops to relieve Riverrun.
"I don't think your blood kin will lend you soldiers to save your mother," Sandor said as they walked. "Helping them means making an enemy of the Lannisters. The Eyrie may be easy to defend, but she might not want to provoke such a powerful foe."
Sandor had opposed the idea from the start and had been grumbling nonstop ever since Arya decided to head for the Eyrie.
"As long as I see my aunt, you'll get your ransom. Everything else is none of your business!" Arya snapped.
After listening to him complain the entire way, Arya had reached her limit. She hadn't expected him to keep nagging even when they were nearly there.
"That's assuming you get to see her," Sandor shot back.
Ignoring him, Arya quickened her pace toward the Bloody Gate—the famed entrance to the Eyrie.
The Bloody Gate was built between two sheer cliffs, formed by twin watchtowers connected by arched gates. It was the only passage to the Eyrie—a true choke point where one man could hold off ten thousand.
And it wasn't just a single gate, but a series of layered arches forming a powerful defensive complex.
At the first gate, more than a dozen soldiers stood on two levels, with guards posted before the iron bars and a commanding officer at the front.
"Who seeks passage through the Bloody Gate?" the broad-built commander demanded as Arya and the Hound approached.
Arya guessed he was the Knight of the Gate and spoke politely,
"Valiant Knight of the Gate, I am Arya Stark. I've come to see my aunt, Lady Lysa."
"Lady Lysa passed away yesterday," the knight—Ser Donnel—replied sternly. "You may not pass."
"Aunt Lysa is dead?" Arya hadn't expected to hear such news after all the hardship she'd endured to get here.
Sandor's scarred face showed brief shock as well. He never imagined that the relatively young Lady Arryn would die so suddenly.
"How did she die? May I go in to see her?" Arya asked.
She had only met Lysa once as a child and felt little personal grief. Truthfully, her desire for Vale troops far outweighed her sorrow.
"That information cannot be disclosed. Please return," Donnel said, still showing her due respect as the late Lady Arryn's niece.
"Please let me in," Arya pleaded. "Aunt Lysa was very close to me when I was young. I never imagined she'd pass like this. Please—just let me see her one last time."
She forced a few tears into her eyes, letting them tremble convincingly.
Watching her performance, Sandor turned his head away in disbelief. He couldn't understand how Eddard Stark—upright and rigid as he was—had raised such a cunning, sharp-witted daughter.
Compared to Arya, her sister Sansa truly looked like the Lady of Winterfell. Arya, on the other hand, felt more like a feral girl roaming the world.
Ser Donnel, worn down by her persistence, finally said honestly,
"There is an interrogation underway inside the Eyrie. It is not appropriate for you to enter at this time."