A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

wanted to be a knight. For this, at least.” Dontos lurched back to his feet and took her arm. “Come. Be quiet now, no questions.”
    They continued down the serpentine and across a small sunken courtyard. Ser Dontos shoved open a heavy door and lit a taper. They were inside a long gallery. Along the walls stood empty suits of armor, dark and dusty, their helms crested with rows of scales that continued down their backs. As they hurried past, the taper’s light made the shadows of each scale stretch and twist.
The hollow knights are turning into dragons
, she thought.
    One more stair took them to an oaken door banded with iron. “Be strong now, my Jonquil, you are almost there.” When Dontos lifted the bar and pulled open the door, Sansa felt a cold breeze on her face. She passed through twelve feet of wall, and then she was outside the castle, standing at the top of the cliff. Below was the river, above the sky, and one was as black as the other.
    â€œWe must climb down,” Ser Dontos said. “At the bottom, a man is waiting to row us out to the ship.”
    â€œI’ll fall.” Bran had fallen, and he had loved to climb.
    â€œNo you won’t. There’s a sort of ladder, a secret ladder, carved into the stone. Here, you can feel it, my lady.” He got down on his knees with her and made her lean over the edge of the cliff, groping with her fingers until she found the handhold cut into the face of the bluff. “Almost as good as rungs.”
    Even so, it was a long way down. “I
can’t
.”
    â€œYou must.”
    â€œIsn’t there another way?”
    â€œThis is the way. It won’t be so hard for a strong young girl like you. Hold on tight and never look down and you’ll be at the bottom in no time at all.” His eyes were shiny. “Your poor Florian is fat and old and drunk, I’m the one should be afraid. I used to fall off my horse, don’t you remember? That was how we began. I was drunk and fell off my horse and Joffrey wanted my fool head, but you saved me. You
saved
me, sweetling.”
    He’s weeping
, she realized. “And now you have saved me.”
    â€œOnly if you go. If not, I have killed us both.”
    It was him
, she thought.
He killed Joffrey
. She had to go, for him as much as for herself. “You go first, ser.” If he
did
fall, she did not want him falling down on her head and knocking both of them off the cliff.
    â€œAs you wish, my lady.” He gave her a sloppy kiss and swung his legs clumsily over the precipice, kicking about until he found a foothold. “Let me get down a bit, and come after. You will come now? You must swear it.”
    â€œI’ll come,” she promised.
    Ser Dontos disappeared. She could hear him huffing and puffing as he began the descent. Sansa listened to the tolling of the bell, counting each ring. At ten, gingerly, she eased herself over the edge of the cliff, poking with her toes until they found a place to rest. The castle walls loomed large above her, and for a moment she wanted nothing so much as to pull herself up and run back to her warm rooms in the Kitchen Keep.
Be brave
, she told herself.
Be brave, like a lady in a song
.
    Sansa dared not look down. She kept her eyes on the face of the cliff, making certain of each step before reaching for the next. The stone was rough and cold. Sometimes she could feel her fingers slipping, and the handholds were not as evenly spaced as she would have liked. The bells would not stop ringing. Before she was halfway down her arms were trembling and she knew that she was going to fall.
One more step
, she told herself,
one more step
. She had to keep moving. If she stopped, she would never start again, and dawn would find her still clinging to the cliff, frozen in fear.
One more step, and one more step
.
    The ground took her by surprise. She stumbled and fell, her heart pounding. When she rolled onto her back and stared up at from where she had come, her head swam dizzily and her fingers clawed at the dirt.
I did it. I did it, I didn’t fall, I made the climb and now I’m going home
.
    Ser Dontos pulled her back onto her feet. “This way. Quiet now, quiet, quiet.” He stayed close to the shadows that lay black and thick beneath the cliffs. Thankfully they did not have to go far. Fifty yards downriver, a man sat in a small skiff, half-hidden by the remains of a great galley that had gone aground