Chapter 271
Please bear with me, I will try my best to make it up before the end of the month.Thanks.

"I'll impregnate you as soon as you can have children," Joffrey said, walking her across the practice range. "If the first child is a fool, I'll cut off your head immediately and find another wise wife. When will you have a child?"

He'd humiliated her so Sansa couldn't look him in the face. "Septa Mordane says a lot... most of the Housewives mature by the time they're twelve or thirteen."

Joffrey nodded. "This way." He led her into the gate tower of the Red Keep, to the stairs leading to the battlements.

Sansa jerked away from him, trembling, suddenly realizing where she was going. "No," she said out of breath, panicked. "Please, don't do this, don't take me there, I beg you..."

Joffrey pursed his lips. "I want to show you what happens to the traitor!"

Sansa shook her head frantically. "No, I don't want to see it."

"I could ask Ser Meryn to drag you up," he said. "You won't like it. You'd better do it." Joffrey held out his hand to her, and Sansa backed away, bumping into the Hound. .

"Be good, little sister," said Sandor Clegane, pushing her back to the king.The corner of his mouth on the burned side twitched for a moment, and Sansa could almost hear his unspoken words: He's going to get you up anyway, so do what he wants.

She forced herself to take King Joffrey's hand.Climbing stairs was a nightmare, every step was a struggle, like pulling your feet out of knee-high mud.The stairs seemed endless, with tens of thousands of steps, and boundless terror was waiting for her on the city wall at the top of the stairs.

From the battlements on top of the gate towers, the whole world lay below.Sansa could see the Great Sept of Baelor on the Visenya Hills, where her father had been executed.At the other end of Silent Sisters Street, stands the charred ruins of Dragon's Lair.In the west, the red sunset is half covered by the Gods Gate.Behind her is the vast ocean of the Aral Sea.To the south there are fish markets, wharves and the mighty Blackwater River, while to the north there are...

Looking north, she saw cities, streets, alleys, hills... more streets and alleys, and the city wall in the distance.Yet she knew that beyond all this worldly commotion lay open fields and farms and woods, and farther north, farther north, was Winterfell, and home.

"What are you looking at?" Joffrey said. "I want you to look at this, here."

A thick stone parapet surrounded the ramparts, reaching to Sansa's jaw, with battlements every five feet for the archers.Those heads were located between the battlements at the top of the city wall, inserted on the tip of iron spears, facing the city.Sansa had noticed it the moment she stepped onto the ramparts, but the view of the river, the bustling streets, and the setting sun was so beautiful.He can make me look, she told herself, but I can ignore it.

"This is your father," he said. "This one over here. Dog, turn your head around and show her."

Sandor Clegane reached up into the air and turned his head around.The severed heads were soaked in pitch so they could last longer.Sansa looked at her father's head calmly, without making a move.This doesn't look like Duke Eddard, she thought, doesn't look like real. "Excuse me, how long do you want me to watch?"

Joffrey seemed greatly disappointed. "Would you like to see other people's heads?" There was a long line on the battlements.

"If Your Majesty pleases."

So Joffrey led her down the passage, past a dozen heads and two empty spears. "I kept these two for Uncle Stannis and Uncle Renly," he explained.The others had been dead far longer than Father, with their heads at the point of guns much longer.Although soaked in asphalt, most are rendered illegible.The king pointed to one of them and said, "This is your nun." But Sansa couldn't tell it was a woman's head at all.The jaws of the skull had rotted away, and the bird had eaten one ear and most of the cheek.

Sansa had wondered what had happened to Septa Mordane before, but now that she thought about it, perhaps she already knew. "Why did you kill her?" she asked. "She was just a pious..."

"She's a traitor." Joffrey looked sullen, she seemed to have annoyed him. "You haven't decided on a name-day gift for me. How about I give it to you, what do you think?"

"If it pleases you, my lord," said Sansa.

As soon as he smiled, she knew he was mocking her. "Your brother is a traitor too, you know that?" He turned Septa Mordane's head back. "I remember meeting your brother when I went to Winterfell. My dog ​​called him the young master who played with wooden swords, isn't that right, good dog?"

"I said so?" answered the Hound. "I don't remember."

Joffrey shrugged petulantly. "Your brother defeated my Uncle James. Mother said he did it by tricks and deceit. When she got the news, she burst into tears. Women are weak creatures, and she was no exception, though always Pretending to be strong. She said we had to stay in King's Landing in case my two uncles attacked, but I didn't care. After my name day party, I'm going to raise an army and kill your brother with my own hands .Sansa Stark, this is my gift to you, your brother's head."

A sudden madness came to her heart, and she heard herself say, "Maybe my brother will give me your head."

Joffrey frowned. "Don't you make fun of me like that. A good wife never makes fun of her husband. Ser Meryn, teach her a lesson."

When the knight hit her this time, he held her chin tightly with one hand.He struck twice, first to the left and then harder to the right.Her lip was completely torn, and blood flowed down to her chin, mixed with salty tears.

"Don't you cry all day," Joffrey told her. "You look better when you smile."

Sansa forced a smile, fearful that if she didn't, he would tell Ser Meryn to beat her again.It's a pity that she laughed, but it was useless. The king shook his head in disgust: "Wipe off the blood, you are so ugly."

The outer parapet was as high as her chin, but the inner walkway was unobstructed, seventy or eighty feet from the courtyard below.One push will do, she told herself.There he was, just there, smirking with his wormy lips.You can do it, she told herself, you can do it, just do it.It doesn't matter if you die with him, it doesn't matter at all.

"Come here, little sister." Sandor Clegane crouched in front of her, just between her and Joffrey.He gently wiped away the blood gushing from the cracked lip for her, his movements were surprisingly gentle, making it difficult to associate with the big man in front of him.

(End of this chapter)

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