As they passed through the battleground, Catelyn glimpsed signs of the carnage that had been;
穿越戰場時,凱特琳看到去年留下的遺跡:
an overturned helm filling with rain, a splintered lance, the bones of a horse.
被雨水沖刷腐蝕的頭盔、斷裂的長矛、戰馬的尸骨。
Stone cairns had been raised over some of the men who had fallen here, but scavengers had already been at them.
石冢隨處可見,標示著人們的葬身之地,但食腐動物并沒將死人放過。
Amidst the tumbles of rock, she spied brightly colored cloth and bits of shiny metal.
四處傾覆的石頭之中,時而可見鮮明的布料和閃爍的金屬。
Once she saw a face peering out at her, the shape of the skull beginning to emerge from beneath the melting brown flesh.
有一張臉默然地望向她,腐敗的棕色血肉下,頭骨輪廓若隱若現。
It made her wonder where Ned had come to rest.
她想起奈德,不知丈夫此刻在何處安息。
The silent sisters had taken his bones north, escorted by Hallis Mollen and a small honor guard.
靜默姐妹們帶著尸骨北返,由哈里斯·莫蘭率一小隊榮譽護衛加以保護。
Had Ned ever reached Winterfell, to be interred beside his brother Brandon in the dark crypts beneath the castle?
他抵達臨冬城了么?他有沒有在城堡下的黑暗墓窖里陪伴哥哥布蘭登?
Or did the door slam shut at Moat Cailin before Hal and the sisters could pass?
莫非于行程途中,卡林灣便已被占領?
Thirty-five hundred riders wound their way along the valley floor through the heart of the Whispering Wood,
三千五百名騎兵伴她踏過深谷河床,穿越囈語森林的中心,
but Catelyn Stark had seldom felt lonelier.
但她卻從未感到如此孤單。
Every league she crossed took her farther from Riverrun,
每走一里,就離奔流城遠了一里,
and she found herself wondering whether she would ever see the castle again.
她竟覺得自己再也看不到那座出生于斯的城堡了。
Or was it lost to her forever, like so much else?
諸神也要把它,像其他東西一樣,從我生命中奪走嗎?
Five days later, their scouts rode back to warn them that the rising waters had washed out the wooden bridge at Fairmarket.
五天之后,斥候們飛騎回報,高漲的河水沖垮了位于美人市集的木橋。
Galbart Glover and two of his bolder men had tried swimming their mounts across the turbulent Blue Fork at Ramsford.
蓋伯特·葛洛佛帶著兩個膽大士兵試圖在公羊渡騎馬泅過暴虐的藍叉河,
Two of the horses had been swept under and drowned, and one of the riders;
結果損失了兩馬一人,
Glover himself managed to cling to a rock until they could pull him in.
葛洛佛本人死死攀住一塊石頭,方才幸免于難。
“The river hasn’t run this high since spring,” Edmure said.
“自春季以來,河流還沒有這樣高的水位,”艾德慕評價,
“And if this rain keeps falling, it will go higher yet.”
“可看這氣象,如果雨持續不停,勢必將繼續上漲。”
“There’s a bridge further upstream, near Oldstones,”
“上游荒石城附近,還有另一座橋,”
remembered Catelyn, who had often crossed these lands with her father.
凱特琳往年常陪同父親穿越河間地,此刻記憶派上了用場,
“It’s older and smaller, but if it still stands—”
“那一座雖然陳舊又狹小,但——”
“It’s gone, my lady,” Galbart Glover said.
“它也沒了,夫人,”蓋伯特·葛洛佛道,
“Washed away even before the one at Fairmarket.”
“早在美人市集的這座之前就被沖掉。”
Robb looked to Catelyn.
羅柏望向母親,
“Is there another bridge?”
“還有別的橋嗎?”
“No.
“沒有,
And the fords will be impassable.”
而且看目前的架勢,渡口想必統統無法運行,”
She tried to remember.
她想了想,
“If we cannot cross the Blue Fork, we’ll have to go around it, through Sevenstreams and Hag’s Mire.”
“我們過不了藍叉河,只好繞過去,經過七泉和女巫沼澤。”
“Bogs and bad roads, or none at all,” warned Edmure.
“沒錯,不走泥潭和爛路,眼下就到不了目標,”艾德慕警告,
“The going will be slow, but we’ll get there, I suppose.”
“嗯,犧牲一點速度,我們能抵達孿河城。”
“Lord Walder will wait, I’m sure,” said Robb.
“好吧,就讓瓦德大人多等等,”羅柏決定,
“Lothar sent him a bird from Riverrun, he knows we are coming.”
“羅索在奔流城時給他傳過信,他知道我們的起程日期。”
“Yes, but the man is prickly, and suspicious by nature,” said Catelyn.
“他是知道,可這家伙生性多疑,又極敏感,”凱特琳說,
“He may take this delay as a deliberate insult.”
“他將把這次延誤當做一次蓄意輕慢。”
“Very well, I’ll beg his pardon for our tardiness as well.
“很好,到時候我會為了耽擱的時間特別向他致以歉意。
A sorry king I’ll be, apologizing with every second breath.”
我真是個可悲的國王,隨時準備賠禮道歉,”
Robb made a wry face.
羅柏疲憊地道,
“I hope Bolton got across the Trident before the rains began.
“我希望波頓在三叉戟河漲水之前過了渡口,
The kingsroad runs straight north, he’ll have an easy march.
國王大道一路往北,他的行程比我們容易,
Even afoot, he should reach the Twins before us.”
即便統率步兵,也很可能趕在我們之前抵達。”
“And when you’ve joined his men to yours and seen my brother married, what then?”
“當兩軍會合,參加完艾德慕的婚禮后,下一步怎么做?”
Catelyn asked him.
凱特琳問他
“North.”
“北上。”
Robb scratched Grey Wind behind an ear.
羅柏撓撓灰風的耳背。
“By the causeway?
“通過堤道?
Against Moat Cailin?”
強攻卡林灣?”
He gave her an enigmatic smile.
國王朝她高深莫測地一笑,
“That’s one way to go,”
“還有別的路,”
he said, and she knew from his tone that he would say no more.
他保證。從口氣聽來,她知道他此刻是不會多說的了。
A wise king keeps his own counsel, she reminded herself.
明智的君主懂得保守秘密,她提醒自己。
They reached Oldstones after eight more days of steady rain, and made their camp upon the hill overlooking the Blue Fork,
之后八天,雨水沒有停息,末了他們終于抵達荒石城,在俯瞰藍叉河的山丘上安營扎寨,
within a ruined stronghold of the ancient river kings.
這里有遠古河流王們的要塞遺址。
Its foundations remained amongst the weeds to show where the walls and keeps had stood,
野草堆中,昔日高墻深壘聳立的地方,今天還可以看到地基,
but the local smallfolk had long ago made off with most of the stones to raise their barns and septs and holdfasts.
但大多數石材早已被當地居民取走,以搭建谷倉、圣堂和房屋。