Rivers of Fire and Blood

Arya III

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Ice and Fire Novels, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon TV shows. However, I decided to have a little play around with the characters. I do not earn any money from writing these stories, it is for my entertainment and is something I like to share.

Wearing the face of Salladhor Saan was a completely new experience for Arya. Firstly she'd not spent much time learning to be a man this before (except the one time a Walder Frey who was old, wiry and spindly and she didnt have to walk in his shoes, she didn't count him). Adapting to completely different body parts turned out to be almost as much of a learning experience as being blind, considering her initial inability to control them. The second was the size difference. No matter how much she had tried to be no one, she had almost always been a girl,which meant walking had become a challenge at the beginning, as Salladhor was much taller, broader and muscular than Arya. Thirdly was the voice, which was the easiest part. She had become accustomed to changing voices, there was an art to it, however his voice was much deeper than hers and it was harder to maintain than a female voice. Most of all, the hardest part to maintain by far was being the captain of a pirate ship when she knew very little of the job. Instead she was taking as much advice from Ser Davos as she could. It was also fortunate that Davos knew some of the men on board the ship which allowed her to get away with not knowing the names of all of those aboard. It turned out Salladhor was in charge of a lot of men and only knew the names of a select few, so her forgetting names was completely in character. What was odd on the ship was the amount of men coming down with a strange sickness.

Within hours of setting off from Sharp's Point, two of the ship hands had fallen sick. First came the vomiting and the shits, then came the fever and shortly afterwards death. The bodies were committed to the sea as was the pirate custom, however there was growing concern among the crew. Arya told them they would stop off at Davos ship and bring some of his crew on board just in case of any further illness, she then ordered the ship to be scrubbed. This didn't stop the sickness, another three had died by the time they took those from Ser Davos ship, The Wolf's Maid. They took on forty men, twenty deck hands and twenty for rowing. Ser Davos himself had been tied up during the raid to make it appear the ship was being attacked by pirates instead of him leading it. Arya insisted they took the wine, some food, clothes, especially furs, gold and weapons. After they left, Ser Davos was untied and more men began to die, although only the ones who sailed with Salladhor Saan seemed to suffer. Those beneath deck were mainly slaves and knew nothing other than to row, they could not tell of any plots or alter the course of the ship. Not one of these men fell ill with the sickness. Once all of the men who had sailed with and knew the pirate died, nobody else, except for the pirate himself who died in his cabin caught the fever.

Arya knew how to kill people and cover her tracks. To ensure they had a body for the pirate, they used one of the slaves below deck who had died of natural causes and could be wrapped to look like Salladhor Saan. Once all of the original pirates had been removed, only then could Arya appear as herself. To prevent the men questioning Ser Davos about how come Arya had magically appeared, he told them she had been kept hidden away from the sickness as she was a valuable hostage. As Ser Davos was not only their captain but Master of Ships, nobody was going to question his decision as to why they were sailing with a girl on board, or why they were sailing north instead of returning to their command near Dragonstone.

Salladhor Saan's death occurred just after they entered the Shivering Sea where they had already sailed past the Fingers. So much had happened with so many deaths, yet they had only been sailing for four days. The winds had been good and the slaves had been fed well, giving them more energy to row faster. They had also been promised freedom for fealty, which they had all sworn, and thus they were eating better and resting more. Some of the rowers on Ser Davos ship had been brought aboard to help relieve some of the pressure, these men also swore fealty, not that it meant much, none of them were fighting men and if they were to go up against the Unsullied it would be like lambs to the slaughter, but staying on board the ship was not an option.