“He’s promised to my aunt.” Ned looked uncomfortable. “That was before, though. Before he...” ... died? she thought, as Ned’s voice trailed off into an awkward silence. Their horses’ hooves made sucking sounds as they pulled free of the mud. “My lady?” Ned said at last. “You have a baseborn brother... Jon Snow?” “He’s with the Night’s Watch on the Wall.” Maybe I should go to the Wall instead of Riverrun. Jon wouldn’t care who I killed or whether I brushed my hair... “Jon looks like me, even though he’s bastard-born. He used to muss my hair and call me ‘little sister . “‘ Arya missed Jon most of all. just saying his name made her sad. “How do you know about Jon?” “He is my milk brother.” “Brother?” Arya did not understand. “But you’re from Dorne. How could you and Jon be blood?” “Milk brothers. Not blood. My lady mother had no milk when I was little, so Wylla had to nurse me.” Arya was lost. “Who’s Wylla?” “Jon Snow’s mother. He never told you? She’s served us for years and years. Since before I was born.” “Jon never knew his mother. Not even her name.” Arya gave Ned a wary look. “You know her? Truly?” Is he making mock of me? “if you lie I’ll punch your face.” “Wylla was my wetnurse,” he repeated solemnly. “I swear it on the honor of my House.” “You have a House?” That was stupid; he was a squire, of course he had a House. “Who are you?” “My lady?” Ned looked embarrassed. “I’m Edric Dayne, the... the Lord of Starfall.” Behind them, Gendry groaned.
“Lords and ladies,” he proclaimed in a disgusted tone. Arya plucked a withered crabapple off a passing branch and whipped it at him, bouncing it off his thick bull head. “Ow,” he said. “That hurt.” He felt the skin above his eye. “What kind of lady throws crabapples at people?” “The bad kind,” said Arya, suddenly contrite. She turned back to Ned reenex. “I’m sorry I didn’t know who you were. My lord.” “The fault is mine, my lady.” He was very polite. Jon has a mother. Wylla, her name is Wylla. She would need to remember so she could tell him, the next time she saw him.
She wondered if he would still call her “little sister.” I’m not so little anymore. He’d have to call me something else. Maybe she could write Jon a letter and tell him what Ned Dayne had said. “There was an Arthur Dayne,” she remembered. “The one they called the Sword of the Morning.” “My father was Ser Arthur’s elder brother. Lady Ashara was my aunt. I never knew her, though. She threw herself into the sea from atop the Palestone Sword before I was born.” “Why would she do that?” said Arya, startled. Ned looked wary. Maybe he was afraid that she was going to throw something at him. “Your lord father never spoke of her?” he said. “The Lady Ashara Dayne, of Starfall?” “No. Did he know her reenex?”