Crow cages, Arya knew.
鴉籠,艾莉亞知道這種刑法——
The crows were mostly outside the cages, splashing in the water or perched atop the bars; inside were men.
烏鴉在籠外,拍打著欄桿;人在里面,至死方休。
Lem reined up scowling.
檸檬皺眉勒住韁繩,
“What’s this, now?”
“怎么回事?”
“Justice,” answered a woman at the fountain.
“正義的制裁,”水池邊的婦人回答。
“What, did you run short o’ hempen rope?”
“哦,你們的麻繩不夠用了?”
“Was this done at Ser Wilbert’s decree?” asked Tom.
“威爾伯特爵士下的令?”湯姆問。
A man laughed bitterly.
一個男人苦澀地笑道:
“The lions killed Ser Wilbert a year ago.
“威爾伯特爵士一年前就給獅子宰啦。
His sons are all off with the Young Wolf, getting fat in the west.
他兒子們追隨少狼主,去西境養得肥肥的,
You think they give a damn for the likes of us?
怎會在乎我們這幫賤民?
It was the Mad Huntsman caught these wolves.”
抓住狼仔的是‘瘋獵人’。”
Wolves.
狼。
Arya went cold.
艾莉亞一陣冰涼。
Robb’s men, and my father’s.
是羅柏的人,我父親的人。
She felt drawn toward the cages.
她不由自主地騎向這排籠子。
The bars allowed so little room that prisoners could neither sit nor turn;
柵欄里的空間如此狹小,被囚禁的人既不能坐下,
they stood naked, exposed to sun and wind and rain.
也不能轉身,只能光著身子站立,暴露于陽光和雨露之下。
The first three cages held dead men.
頭三個籠子里的人已經死了,
Carrion crows had eaten out their eyes, yet the empty sockets seemed to follow her.
食腐烏鴉吃掉了他們的眼睛,空空的眼眶注視著她。
The fourth man in the row stirred as she passed.
第四個人在她經過時動了起來。
Around his mouth his ragged beard was thick with blood and flies.
他嘴邊長滿凌亂的胡須,其中都是血和蒼蠅。
They exploded when he spoke, buzzing around his head.
當他開口說話,蒼蠅便一下子飛散開來,圍著他的腦袋嗡嗡作響。
“Water.”
“水,”
The word was a croak.
嘶啞的聲音說,
“Please … water …”
“求求你……水……”
The man in the next cage opened his eyes at the sound.
隔壁籠子里的人聽見聲音,也睜開眼睛。
“Here,” he said.
“這兒,”他道,
“Here, me.”
“這兒,我,給水。”
An old man, he was; his beard was grey and his scalp was bald and mottled brown with age.
他是個老人,灰色的胡須,禿頂上布滿斑斑點點的棕色老人斑。
There was another dead man beyond the old one, a big red-bearded man with a rotting grey bandage covering his left ear and part of his temple.
老人后面又有一個死者,紅色的大胡子,一條襤褸的灰繃帶纏在右耳和太陽穴上,
But the worst thing was between his legs, where nothing remained but a crusted brown hole crawling with maggots.
最可怕的是兩腿之間只剩一個結了棕色硬痂的洞,里面爬滿蛆蟲。
Farther down was a fat man. The crow cage was so cruelly narrow it was hard to see how they’d ever gotten him inside.
再往后是個胖子,鴉籠如此之小,無法想象當初他們是如何將他弄進去的。
The iron dug painfully into his belly, squeezing bulges out between the bars.
柵欄痛苦地壓進他的肚子,皮肉則從鐵條間鼓出來,
Long days baking in the sun had burned him a painful red from head to heel.
終日曝曬使他從頭到腳都灼成了鮮艷的紅。
When he shifted his weight, his cage creaked and swayed,
當他移動時,籠子一邊搖晃,一邊吱嘎作響。
and Arya could see pale white stripes where the bars had shielded his flesh from the sun.
艾莉亞看到他皮膚上蒼白的條紋,那是被鐵條遮擋住陽光的地方。
“Whose men were you?” she asked them.
“你們是誰的手下?”她問他們。
At the sound of her voice, the fat man opened his eyes.
聽見她問話,胖子睜開眼睛。
The skin around them was so red they looked like boiled eggs floating in a dish of blood.
眼睛周圍的皮膚紅得如此厲害,以至于艾莉亞聯想到漂浮在一碟鮮血之上白煮蛋。
“Water … a drink …”
“水……喝水……”
“Whose?” she said again.
“誰的?”她又問。
“Pay them no mind, boy,” the townsman told her.
“別管他們,小子,”鎮民告訴她,
“They’re none o’ your concern.
“不關你的事。
Ride on by.”
你走你的路。”
“What did they do?” she asked him.
“他們干了些什么?”她問他。
“They put eight people to the sword at Tumbler’s Falls,” he said.
“他們在翻斗瀑砍死八個人,”他解釋,
“They wanted the Kingslayer, but he wasn’t there so they did some rape and murder.”
“說是要找弒君者,找不到,就開始強暴和謀殺。”
He jerked a thumb toward the corpse with maggots where his manhood ought to be.
他用大拇指比比那具本該是命根子的地方卻爬滿蛆蟲的尸體。
“That one there did the raping.
“那家伙肆意下流,罪有應得。
Now move along.”
好啦,快走吧。”
“A swallow,” the fat one called down.
“一口,”胖子朝下面喊,
“Ha’ mercy, boy, a swallow.”
“行行好,孩子,就一口。”
The old one slid an arm up to grasp the bars.
老人抬起胳膊抓住欄桿,
The motion made his cage swing violently.
他的籠子劇烈搖晃起來。
“Water,” gasped the one with the flies in his beard.
“水,”胡子里滿是蒼蠅的人喘著氣說。
She looked at their filthy hair and scraggly beards and reddened eyes, at their dry, cracked, bleeding lips.
她看著他們骯臟的頭發、凌亂的胡須和通紅的眼睛,看著他們因干渴而開裂出血的嘴唇。
Wolves, she thought again.
他們是狼,她心想,
Like me.
和我一樣。
Was this her pack?
這就是她的族群嗎?
How could they be Robb’s men?
他們怎可能是羅柏的手下?
She wanted to hit them.
她想揍他們,
She wanted to hurt them.
狠狠地揍他們;
She wanted to cry.
她也想哭喊。
They all seemed to be looking at her, the living and the dead alike.
所有的北方人——不論死活——似乎都期盼地瞧著她。
The old man had squeezed three fingers out between the bars.
老人從鐵柵桿間擠出三根指頭,
“Water,” he said, “water.”
“水,”他說,“水。”
Arya swung down from her horse.
艾莉亞從馬上一躍而下。
They can’t hurt me, they’re dying.
他們傷害不了我,他們都快死了。
She took her cup from her bedroll and went to the fountain.
她取出鋪蓋卷里的杯子,向噴泉走去。