Syrio Forel allowed himself a smile. “I am thinking that when weare reaching this Winterfell of yours, it will be time to put thisneedle in your hand.”“Yes!” Arya said eagerly. “Wait till I show Jon—”Behind her the great wooden doors of the Small Hall ew openwith a resounding crash. Arya whirled.

Such animals as youhave never seen, striped horses, great spotted things with necks aslong as stilts, hairy mouse-pigs as big as cows, stinging manticores,tigers that carry their cubs in a pouch, terrible walking lizards withscythes for claws. Syrio Forel has seen these things.

As his men died around him, Littlenger slid Ned’s dagger fromits sheath and shoved it up under his chin. His smile was apologetic.“I did warn you not to trust me, you know.”

The queen wore a gown of sea-green silk, trimmed with Myrish lace as pale as foam. On her ngerwas a golden ring with an emerald the size of a pigeon’s egg, on herhead a matching tiara.

e would have given all his titles forthe freedom to weep ... but he was Robert’s Hand, and the hour hedreaded had come

White fur and red eyes, Jon realized, disquieted. Like thetrees ...

They’repassing me out of training. I’m to be made a brother with the rest ofyou. Can you believe it?”

mockery.

Seat Stannis on the IronThrone and I promise you, the realm will bleed.

“I will give Lyanna your love,

So Ned bent his head andwrote, but where the king had said “my son Jorey,” he scrawled“my heir” instead. The deceit made him feel soiled.

The sound Viserys Targaryen made when that hideous iron helmetcovered his face was like nothing human. His feet hammered afrantic beat against the dirt oor, slowed, stopped. Thick globs ofmolten gold dripped down onto his chest, setting the scarlet silk tosmoldering ... yet no drop of blood was spilled.He was no dragon, Dany thought, curiously calm. Fire cannot kill adragon.

Viserys smiled and lowered his sword. That was the saddest thing,the thing that tore at her afterward ... the way he smiled. “That wasall I wanted,” he said. “What was promised.”

where menwhose braids were even shorter than their manhoods sat

Three quick strokesand it was done.

andlifted her into the air, as he might lift a child.

“My brother Rhaegar was a erce warrior, my sun-and-stars,” shetold him. “He died before I was born. Ser Jorah says that he was thelast of the dragons.”

Dan Ares wife

“The stallion who mounts the world!”

female

DAENERYS

Her hand touched his face, his hair. “Iffriends can turn to enemies, enemies can become friends. Your wifeis a thousand leagues away, and my brother has ed. Be kind to me,Ned. I swear to you, you shall never regret it.”“Did you make the same oer to Jon Arryn?”She slapped him.“I shall wear that as a badge of honor,” Ned said dryly.“Honor,” she spat. “How dare you play the noble lord with me!

“My brother found awoman to cleanse me

Ned thought, If it came to that, the life of some child I did not know,against Robb and Sansa and Arya and Bran and Rickon, what would Ido? Even more so, what would Catelyn do, if it were Jon’s life, againstthe children of her body? He did not know. He prayed he neverwould.

“Your brother?” Ned said. “Or your lover?”

“If you truly believed that, you would never have come.” Nedtouched her cheek gently. “Has he done this before?”

until heheard talk of some monstrous boar deeper in the forest.

Stop that weeping, child,” Septa Mordane said sternly. “I amcertain your lord father knows what is best for you.”

Arya made a face. “Not if Jorey’s his father,” she said. “He’s aliar and a craven and anyhow he’s a stag, not a lion.

ueen Naerys lovedPrince Aemon the Dragonknight

Their father sighed. “I did not call you here to talk of dresses. I’msending you both back to Winterfell.”For the second time Sansa found herself too stunned for words.She felt her eyes grow moist again.“You can’t,” Arya said.“Please, Father,” Sansa managed at last. “Please don’t.”

Sansa sat up. “Lady,” she whispered. For a moment it was as if thedirewolf was there in the room, looking at her with those goldeneyes, sad and knowing. She had been dreaming, she realized. Ladywas with her, and they were running together, and ... and ... tryingto remember was like trying to catch the rain with her ngers. Thedream faded, and Lady was dead again.

If this was what the Night’sWatch was truly like, she felt sorry for her bastard half brother, Jon.

It would have been unkind to say so,

steward’s daughter, after all, and no matter how much she moonedafter him, Lord Beric would never look at someone so far beneathhim, even if she hadn’t been half his age

but he was awfully old, almost twenty-two;

hero, so slim and beautiful, with golden roses around his slenderwaist and his rich brown hair tumbling down into his eyes.

From on high, Loras Tyrell seemedalmost as young as Robb.

And that may be precisely what Lord Tywin wants, Ned thought tohimself, to bleed o strength from Riverrun, goad the boy into scatteringhis swords. His wife’s brother was young, and more gallant thanwise. He would try to hold every inch of his soil, to defend everyman, woman, and child who named him lord, and Tywin Lannisterwas shrewd enough to know that.

Those as say the giants are alldead never saw this one, I swear. Big as an ox he was, and a voicelike stone breaking.”“The Mountain!” Ser Marq said loudly. “Can any man doubt it?This was Gregor Clegane’s work.”

“What proof do you have that these were Lannisters?” heasked, trying to keep his fury under control. “Did they wear crimsoncloaks or y a lion banner?”

A king should never sit easy,Aegon the Conqueror had said, when he commanded his armorers toforge a great seat from the swords laid down by his enemies. DamnAegon for his arrogance, Ned thought sullenly, and damn Robert andhis hunting as well.

“I will give you the Vale of Arryn.”

not theprisoner, big, with a strap in his hand, and he was hitting his father,driving him back, toward the abyss ...

paid her fair enough. A silver for each man, how many whorescommand that high a price? He sat me down in the corner of thebarracks and bade me watch, and at the end she had so many silversthe coins were slipping through her ngers and rolling on the oor,she ...” The smoke was stinging his eyes. Tyrion cleared his throatand turned away from the re, to gaze out into darkness. “LordTywin had me go last,” he said in a quiet voice. “And he gave me agold coin to pay her, because I was a Lannister, and worth more.”

First he made my brothertell me the truth. The girl was a whore, you see. Jaime arranged thewhole aair, the road, the outlaws, all of it. He thought it was time Ihad a woman. He paid double for a maiden, knowing it would bemy rst time.

me ... and he was no friend, only a man I rode with. Make nomistake, dwarf. I fought for you, but I do not love you.”“It was your blade I needed,” Tyrion said, “not your love.” Hedumped his armful of wood on the ground.

The Night’s Watch needs every man. Why kill one, to noend? Make use of him instead.”

know Chett can’t read,

“I nd I needless sleep as I grow older, and I am grown very old. I often spendhalf the night with ghosts, remembering times fty years past as ifthey were yesterday.

but the rangers were the true ghting heart of theNight’s Watch. It was they who dared ride beyond the Wall,sweeping through the haunted forest and the icy mountain heightswest of the Shadow Tower, ghting wildlings and giants andmonstrous snow bears

. Tyrion Lannister must know that as well. Yet the dwarffavored Lady Arryn with a mocking bow.

The weathered likeness of AlyssaArryn tottered and fell with a great crash, and Ser Vardis Egen wentdown beneath her

“Fight!” the boy screamed, his arms trembling as they clutched athis chair.

nodoubt meant to be Alyssa

It’s said poison is awoman’s weapon, begging your pardons, my lady.

was whispered, notoriously uninterested in the intimate charms ofwomen.

lone? You know as wellas I that you will never survive the high road. Ser Rodrik and I arereturning to Winterfell. Come with us, Uncle. I will give you yourthousand men. Riverrun will not ght alone.”Brynden thought a moment, then nodded a brusque agreement.“As you say. It’s the long way home, but I’m more like to get there.

Catelyn wondered how large a waterfall her own tears would makewhen she died

Rhaegar ... Rhaegar won, damn him. I killedhim, Ned, I drove the spike right through that black armor into hisblack heart, and he died at my feet. They made up songs about it.Yet somehow he still won. He has Lyanna now, and I have her.” Theking drained his cup.

“By all rights, you ought to be in skirts

“My lady wife isblameless, Your Grace. All she did she did at my command.”

“A man in your place should count himself fortunate that his headis still on his shoulders,” the queen declared.

“Six days and seven nights.”

A storm of rose petals blew across ablood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death.

Then there was a stirring in the rear of the chamber. “I’ll stand forthe dwarf,” Bronn called out.

Marillion clumsily plucked a gay note on hisnew woodharp with the ngers of his broken hand.

burning tower,

His brother never untied a knotwhen he could slash it in two with his sword.

Did anyone outside the Vale even suspectwhere Catelyn Stark had taken him?

Jaime might be leading a host throughthe Mountains of the Moon even now

and the bluewould start calling to him too

Small wonder the Eyriehad never been taken.

But Tyrion’s mood had been too foul for sense. To his shame, hehad faltered during the last leg of their day-long climb up to theEyrie, his stunted legs unable to take him any higher. Bronn hadcarried him the rest of the way, and the humiliation poured oil onthe ames of his ange

Small wonder the sky cells drove men mad.

He held the plate out at arm’s length, over theedge where the cell ended and the sky began.

Bran could see the relief on his brother’s face.

Robb turned his head to look at Theon once more. Bran had neverseen him so angry, yet he said nothing. Finally he knelt besideMaester Luwin. “How badly is my brother wounded?”

“Jon always said you were an ass, Greyjoy,” Robb said loudly. “Iought to chain you up in the yard and let Bran take a few practiceshots at you.”

ods be damned, think whatMance would give to have Benjen Stark’s own blood to hostage!”

Robb took his hand. “He won’t die, not Father,” he said calmly.“Still ... the honor of the north is in my hands now. When our lordfather took his leave of us, he told me to be strong for you and forRickon. I’m almost a man grown, Bran.”Bran shivered. “I wish Mother was back,” he said miserably.

Robb shook his head numbly, the pain plain in his eyes. “I don’tknow, and ... Bran, that’s not the worst of it. Father was caughtbeneath a falling horse in the ght. Alyn says his leg was shattered,and ... Maester Pycelle has given him the milk of the poppy, butthey aren’t sure when ... when he ...” The sound of hoofbeats madehim glance down the road, to where Theon and the others werecoming up. “When he will wake,” Robb nished. He laid his handon the pommel of his sword then, and went on in the solemn voiceof Robb the Lord. “Bran, I promise you, whatever might happen, Iwill not let this be forgotten.”

before Bran was born. “They killed Jory?” He remembered all thetimes Jory had chased him over the roofs. He could picture himstriding across the yard in mail and plate, or sitting at hisaccustomed place on the bench in the Great Hall, joking as he ate.“Why would anyone kill Jory?”

“So you are.” Robb sounded sad, and even a little scared. “Bran, Ineed to tell you something. There was a bird last night. From King’sLanding. Maester Luwin woke me.”

“Grey Wind was restless too,” Robb said. His auburn hair hadgrown shaggy and unkempt, and a reddish stubble covered his jaw,making him look older than his fteen years. “Sometimes I thinkthey know things ... sense things ...” Robb sighed. “I never knowhow much to tell you, Bran. I wish you were older.”

Robb seemed to admire Theon and enjoy hiscompany, but Bran had never warmed to his father’s ward.

“Are you ready?” Robb asked.

BRAN

She liked to hold them. They were so beautiful, andsometimes just being close to them made her feel stronger, braver,as if somehow she were drawing strength from the stone dragonslocked inside.She was lying there, holding the egg, when she felt the child movewithin her ... as if he were reaching out, brother to brother, bloodto blood. “You are the dragon,” Dany whispered to him, “the truedragon. I know it. I know it.” And she smiled, and went to sleepdreaming of home.

“I’d never ...” Why was he always so cruel? She had only wantedto help.

He was still her king, afterall, and her brother. They were both blood of the dragon.

She wondered ifall men were as false in the Seven Kingdoms. When her son sat theIron Throne, she would see that he had bloodriders of his own toprotect him against treachery in his Kingsguard.

“You hate this Lord Stark,” Dany said.“He took from me all I loved, for the sake of a few lice-riddenpoachers and his precious honor,” Ser Jorah

Eddard Stark ...”He spat

“Is he?” Dany asked. “A fool, I mean?”

all the pillow tricks Doreah had taught her, beforeDany had been able to make Drogo relent and allow Viserys torejoin them at the head of the column.

DAENERYS

agony in his leg.

WhenNed’s horse lurched back to its feet, he tried to rise, only to fallagain, choking on his scream. He could see the splintered bonepoking through his calf. It was the last thing he saw for a time. Therain came down and down and down.

“and Catelyn will most certainly slayTyrion.”Jaime Lannister poked at Ned’s chest with the gilded sword thathad sipped the blood of the last of the Dragonkings. “Would she?The noble Catelyn Tully of Riverrun murder a hostage?

“Still ... we wouldn’t want him to leave here entirely unchastened,so”—through the night and the rain, he glimpsed the white ofJaime’s smile—“kill his men.”

“I will bring the CityWatch,”

For the rst time in years, he found himself remembering RhaegarTargaryen. He wondered if Rhaegar had frequented brothels;somehow he thought not.

“I’ve also heardwhispers that Robert got a pair of twins on a serving wench atCasterly Rock, three years ago when he went west for Lord Tywin’stourney. Cersei had the babes killed, and sold the mother to apassing slaver. Too much an aront to Lannister pride, that close tohome.”

Riding through the rainy night, Ned saw JonSnow’s face in front of him, so like a younger version of his own. Ifthe gods frowned so on bastards, he thought dully, why did they llmen with such lusts?

“And tell him I’ve not been with no one else. I swear it, milord, bythe old gods and new. Chataya said I could have half a year, for thebaby, and for hoping he’d come back. So you’ll tell him I’m waiting,won’t you? I don’t want no jewels or nothing, just him. He wasalways good to me, truly.”

I will,” Ned had promised her. That was his curse. Robert wouldswear undying love and forget them before evenfall, but Ned Starkkept his vows. He thought of the promises he’d made Lyanna as shelay dying, and the price he’d paid to keep them.

Robert’s rstborn hadhad the same ne hair, he seemed to recall.

Lyanna had only smiled. “Love is sweet, dearest Ned,but it cannot change a man’s nature.”

oes that alsomean you fuck with the king’s—”

Jory Cassel stoodbeside a rain-streaked window with a wry smile on his face,watching Heward turn over tiles and enjoying the view.

legant woman who wore a feathered gownover skin as black as ink.

Catelyn was at a loss for words. Jon Arryn’s son, she thoughtincredulously. She remembered her own baby, three-year-oldRickon, half the age of this boy and ve times as erce. Smallwonder the lords of the Vale were restive. For the rst time sheunderstood why the king had tried to take the child away from hismother to foster with the Lannisters ...

The boy grabbed forit eagerly, buried his face against her chest, and began to suck. Lysastroked his hair

It had been ve years, in truth; ve cruel years, for Lysa. Theyhad taken their toll. Her sister was two years the younger, yet shelooked older now. Shorter than Catelyn, Lysa had grown thick ofbody, pale and puy of face. She had the blue eyes of the Tullys, buthers were pale and watery, never still. Her small mouth had turnedpetulant. As Catelyn held her, she remembered the slender, high-breasted girl who’d waited beside her that day in the sept atRiverrun. How lovely and full of hope she had been. All thatremained of her sister’s beauty was the great fall of thick auburnhair that cascaded to her waist.

She remembered what her uncle had said of basketsand winches. “The Lannisters may have their pride,” she told Mya,“but the Tullys are born with better sense. I have ridden all day andthe best part of a night. Tell them to lower a basket. I shall ride withthe turnips.”

the bastard girlled Catelyn across, blind and trembling,

Catelyn Tully Stark swallowed what remained of her pride. “I ... Icannot do this, child,” she called out.

erhaps she wasbecoming a Stark at last

She sounded so like Sansa, so happy and innocent with herdreams. Catelyn smiled, but the smile was tinged with sadness. TheRedforts were an old name in the Vale, she knew, with the blood ofthe First Men in their veins. His love she might be, but no Redfortwould ever wed a bastard. His family would arrange a more suitablematch for him, to a Corbray or a Waynwood or a Royce, or perhapsa daughter of some greater house outside the Vale. If MychelRedfort laid with this girl at all, it would be on the wrong side of thesheet

“I was born a Tully and wed to a Stark,” Catelyn said. “I do notfrighten easily.

Mya Stone

“Mya Stone, if it please you, my lady,” the girl said.It did not please her; it was an eort for Catelyn to keep the smileon her face. Stone was a bastard’s name in the Vale, as Snow was in

Her dark hair wascropped short and straight around her head

Royce

I, however, am innocent as a littlelamb. Shall I bleat for you?” He grinned.

She swears that this time she will choose herlord husband.”

aughing, Brynden had pointedout that the sigil of their house was a leaping trout, so he ought tobe a black sh rather than a black goat, and from that day forwardhe had taken it as his personal emblem.

“As you wish,” she

Alyssa’s Tears

Brynden Tully

Catelyn said.Sometimes she felt as though her heart had turned to stone;

CATELYN

How big a fool do you take me for?”“Well, quite an enormous one, actually,” said Littlenger,laughing.

And when you have it, what then? Some secrets are safer kept hidden.Some secrets are too dangerous to share, even with those you love andtrust.

He oughtto thank him. It would be good to return to Winterfell. He oughtnever have left. His sons were waiting there.

Perhaps he and Catelynwould make a new son together when he returned, they were not soold yet.

“Hand no longer,” Ned told him. “The king and I have quarreled.We shall be returning to Winterfell.”

“OnBraavos there is a society called the Faceless Men,” Grand MaesterPycelle oered.

And make certain I never look on your faceagain, or I swear, I’ll have your head on a spike!”

“I wish him every success.” Ned unfastened the heavy clasp thatclutched at the folds of his cloak, the ornate silver hand that was hisbadge of oce. He laid it on the table in front of the king, saddenedby the memory of the man who had pinned it on him, the friend hehad loved. “I thought you a better man than this, Robert. I thoughtwe had made a nobler king.”

“Now, poison ... the tears of Lys, let us say. KhalDrogo need never know it was not a natural death.”Grand Maester Pycelle’s sleepy eyes icked open. He squintedsuspiciously at the eunuch.

“Whereas Daenerys is a fourteen-year-old girl.” Ned knew he waspushing this well past the point of wisdom,

Roose Bolton urged us to cut his throat,

Varys gave the king an unctuous smile and laid a soft hand onNed’s sleeve. “I understand your qualms, Lord Eddard, truly I do. Itgave me no joy to bring this grievous news to council. It is a terriblething we contemplate, a vile thing. Yet we who presume to rule mustdo vile things for the good of the realm, howevermuch it pains us.”

If the babe dies in infancy, we need not fear.

once you cut their heads o.”

“Do you knowmy brothers?” she asked excitedly. “Robb and Bran are atWinterfell, and Jon’s on the Wall. Jon Snow, he’s in the Night’sWatch too, you must know him, he has a direwolf, a white one withred eyes. Is Jon a ranger yet? I’m Arya Stark.” The old man in hissmelly black clothes was looking at her oddly, but Arya could notseem to stop talking. “When you ride back to the Wall, would youbring Jon a letter if I wrote one?” She wished Jon were here rightnow. He’d believe her about the dungeons and the fat man with theforked beard and the wizard in the steel cap.

Jon’s the bastard, I bet.”

pretending that Nymeria was paddingalong beside her in the darkness.

“This is no longer a game for two players,if ever it was. Stannis Baratheon and Lysa Arryn have ed beyondmy reach, and the whispers say they are gathering swords aroundthem. The Knight of Flowers writes Highgarden, urging his lordfather to send his sister to court. The girl is a maid of fourteen,sweet and beautiful and tractable, and Lord Renly and Ser Lorasintend that Robert should bed her, wed her, and make a new queen.Littlenger ... the gods only know what game Littlenger is playing.Yet Lord Stark’s the one who troubles my sleep. He has the bastard,he has the book, and soon enough he’ll have the truth. And now hiswife has abducted Tyrion Lannister, thanks to Littlenger’smeddling. Lord Tywin will take that for an outrage, and Jaime has aqueer aection for the Imp. If the Lannisters move north, that willbring the Tullys in as well.

It seemedto Arya there was something oddly familiar about him.

“The fools tried to kill his son, and what’s worse, they made amummer’s farce of it. He’s not a man to put that aside. I warn you,the wolf and lion will soon be at each other’s throats, whether wewill it or no.”

Another skull loomed ahead, the biggest monsterof all,

Huge empty eyes stared at her hungrilythrough the gloom, and dimly she saw the jagged shadows of longteeth.

The septa wasscreeching at her. Arya slid between legs as thick and white asmarble columns, bounded to her feet,

Panic gripped her throat like a giant’s hand. Arya could not havespoken if her life had hung on it. Calm as still water, she mouthedsilently.As Godwyn reached for her, Arya moved. Quick as a snake. Sheleaned to her left, letting his ngers brush her arm, spinning aroundhim. Smooth as summer silk. By the time he got himself turned, shewas sprinting down the alley. Swift as a deer.

“What were you doing to that cat, boy?” Myrcella asked again,sternly. To her brother she said, “He’s a ragged boy, isn’t he? Lookat him.” She giggled.“A ragged dirty smelly boy,” Tommen agreed.

At the end of the alley stooda girl with a mass of golden curls, dressed as pretty as a doll in bluesatin. Beside her was a plump little blond boy with a prancing stagsewn in pearls across the front of his doublet and a miniature swordat his belt.

and that blackbastard hopped up on the table and snatched a roast quail right outof Lord Tywin’s ngers.

” He had dabbed her wounds with Myrish re,

The Red Keep was full of cats:

“You won it from him in a wager, during the tourney on PrinceJorey’s name day.”“When my brother Jaime was unhorsed by the Knight of Flowers,that was his story, no?”

I never betagainst my family.”

wo of Lord Bracken’s men-at-arms,Kurleket and Mohor,

. “I’m willing if she is,” he said.

Let them have the bitch, Tyrion thought, and welcome to her, yetsomehow he was moving.

ver Kurleket’sbody.

Tyrion put his heel on the graspingngers and felt a satisfying crunch

Tyrion felt a sudden urge toleap up, brandish his axe, and boom out, “Casterly Rock!” but theinsanity passed quickly and he crouched down lower.

Catelyn Stark stared at Tyrion with a coldness on her face such ashe had never seen.

Just for a moment, he thought he saw a icker of doubt in hereyes, but what she said was, “Why would Petyr lie to me?”“Why does a bear shit in the woods?” he demanded. “Because it ishis nature. Lying comes as easily as breathing to a man likeLittlenger. You ought to know that, you of all people.”She took a step toward him, her face tight. “And what does thatmean, Lannister?”Tyrion cocked his head. “Why, every man at court has heard himtell how he took your maidenhead, my lady.”“That is a lie!” Catelyn Stark said.

“Let him speak,” Lady Stark commanded

A Lannister alwayspaid his debts. Kurleket would learn that someday, as would hisfriends Lharys and Mohor, and the good Ser Willis, and thesellswords Bronn and Chiggen

and the rst to rise to aidCatelyn Stark back at the inn

et this seven-times-damned she-wolf Catelyn Stark had outwitted him at every turn.

“The eastern road.You said we were riding for Winterfell!”Catelyn Stark favored him with the faintest of smiles. “Often andloudly,” she agreed. “No doubt your friends will ride that way whenthey come after us. I wish them good speed.”

I was about to settledown to a warm re and a roast fowl, and that wretched singer had toopen his mouth, he thought mournfully

sellsword Bron

“Thank him for us, then. If you ever see him again.” Chiggengrinned, showing yellow teeth, and swallowed the raw meat in twobites. “Tastes well bred.”

Chiggen butcher

“Asking questions,” Varys said, slipping out the door.

The tears of Lys, t

Prince Aemon the Dragonknight

Littlenger lovesLittlenger.

“But you, Lord Stark ... I think ... no,I know ... he would not kill you, not even for his queen, and theremay lie our salvation.”

Lord Varys?

Law and custom gave the baseborn few rights.Gendry, the girl in the Vale, the boy at Storm’s End, none of themcould threaten Robert’s trueborn children ...

Ned remembered Robert’s rst child as well, a daughter born inthe Vale when Robert was scarcely more than a boy himself. Asweet little girl; the young lord of Storm’s End had doted on her. Heused to make daily visits to play with the babe, long after he hadlost interest in the mother. Ned was often dragged along forcompany, whether he willed it or not. The girl would be seventeenor eighteen now, he realized; older than Robert had been when hefathered her. A strange thought.

“Dance of theDragons,

That night at the feast, Eddard Stark was more hopeful than hehad been in a great while. Robert was in high good humor, theLannisters were nowhere to be seen, and even his daughters werebehaving. Jory brought Arya down to join them, and Sansa spoke toher sister pleasantly. “The tournament was magnicent,” she sighed.“You should have come. How was your dancing?”“I’m sore all over,” Arya reported happily, proudly displaying ahuge purple bruise on her leg.“You must be a terrible dancer,” Sansa said doubtfully.

“Small honor and twenty thousand golds.” Lord Renly smiled.

Gregor Clegane killed the horse with a single blow of suchferocity that it half severed the animal’s neck. Cheers turned toshrieks in a heartbeat. The stallion went to its knees, screaming as itdied. By then Gregor was striding down the lists toward Ser LorasTyrell, his bloody sword clutched in his st. “Stop him!” Nedshouted, but his words were lost in the roar. Everyone else wasyelling as well, and Sansa was crying.

twining black vines and tiny blue forget-me-nots. Thecommons realized in the same instant as Ned that the blue of theowers came from sapphires; a gasp went up from a thousandthroats. Across the boy’s shoulders his cloak hung heavy. It waswoven of forget-me-nots, real ones, hundreds of fresh blooms sewnto a heavy woolen cape.

Some said it had been Gregorwho’d dashed the skull of the infant prince Aegon Targaryen againsta wall, and whispered that afterward he had raped the mother, theDornish princess Elia, before putting her to the sword.

and back at Winterfell there was a simpleminded stableboynamed Hodor who dwarfed them al

a riderless bloodbay was trotting o in search of grass while Ser Jaime Lannisterrolled in the dirt, golden and dented.

. If he could prove that theLannisters were behind the attack on Bran, prove that they hadmurdered Jon Arryn, this man would listen. Then Cersei would fall,and the Kingslayer with her, and if Lord Tywin dared to rouse thewest, Robert would smash him as he had smashed RhaegarTargaryen on the Trident. He could see it all so clearly.

Renly says he has this sister, a maid offourteen, lovely as a dawn ...”

The thought of Jorey on the throne,with Cersei standing behind him whispering in his ear.