A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

have slain all five of you with his left hand while he was taking with a piss with the right. I learned from Prince Lewyn of Dorne and Ser Oswell Whent and Ser Jonothor Darry, good men every one.”
    â€œDead men, every one.”
    He’s me
, Jaime realized suddenly.
I am speaking to myself, as I was, all cocksure arrogance and empty chivalry. This is what it does to you, to be too good too young.
    As in a swordfight, sometimes it is best to try a different stroke. “It’s said you fought magnificently in the battle . . . almost as well as Lord Renly’s ghost beside you. A Sworn Brother has no secrets from his Lord Commander. Tell me, ser. Who was wearing Renly’s armor?”
    For a moment Loras Tyrell looked as though he might refuse, but in the end he remembered his vows. “My brother,” he said sullenly. “Renly was taller than me, and broader in the chest. His armor was too loose on me, but it suited Garlan well.”
    â€œWas the masquerade your notion, or his?”
    â€œLord Littlefinger suggested it. He said it would frighten Stannis’s ignorant men-at-arms.”
    â€œAnd so it did.”
And some knights and lordlings too
. “Well, you gave the singers something to make rhymes about, I suppose that’s not to be despised. What did you do with Renly?”
    â€œI buried him with mine own hands, in a place he showed me once when I was a squire at Storm’s End. No one shall ever find him there to disturb his rest.” He looked at Jaime defiantly. “I will defend King Tommen with all my strength, I swear it. I will give my life for his if need be. But I will never betray Renly, by word or deed. He was the king that should have been. He was the best of them.”
    The best dressed perhaps
, Jaime thought, but for once he did not say it. The arrogance had gone out of Ser Loras the moment he began to speak of Renly.
He answered truly. He is proud and reckless and full of piss, but he is not false. Not yet
. “As you say. One more thing, and you may return to your duties.”
    â€œYes, my lord?”
    â€œI still have Brienne of Tarth in a tower cell.”
    The boy’s mouth hardened. “A black cell would be better.”
    â€œYou are certain that’s what she deserves?”
    â€œShe deserves death. I told Renly that a woman had no place in the Rainbow Guard. She won the mêlée with a trick.”
    â€œI seem to recall another knight who was fond of tricks. He once rode a mare in heat against a foe mounted on a bad-tempered stallion. What sort of trickery did Brienne use?”
    Ser Loras flushed. “She leapt . . . it makes no matter. She won, I grant her that. His Grace put a rainbow cloak around her shoulders. And she killed him. Or let him die.”
    â€œA large difference there.”
The difference between my crime and the shame of Boros Blount
.
    â€œShe had sworn to protect him. Ser Emmon Cuy, Ser Robar Royce, Ser Parmen Crane, they’d sworn as well. How could anyone have hurt him, with her inside his tent and the others just outside? Unless they were part of it.”
    â€œThere were five of you at the wedding feast,” Jaime pointed out. “How could Joffrey die? Unless you were part of it?”
    Ser Loras drew himself up stiffly. “There was nothing we could have done.”
    â€œThe wench says the same. She grieves for Renly as you do. I promise you, I never grieve for Aerys. Brienne’s ugly, and pighead stubborn. But she lacks the wits to be a liar, and she is loyal past the point of sense. She swore an oath to bring me to King’s Landing, and here I sit. This hand I lost . . . well, that was my doing as much as hers. Considering all she did to protect me, I have no doubt that she would have fought for Renly, had there been a foe to fight. But a shadow?” Jaime shook his head. “Draw your sword, Ser Loras. Show me how
you’d
fight a shadow. I should like to see that.”
    Ser Loras made no move to rise. “She fled,” he said. “She and Catelyn Stark, they left him in his blood and ran. Why would they, if it was not their work?” He stared at the table. “Renly gave me the van. Otherwise it would have been me helping him don his armor. He often entrusted that task to me. We had . . . we had prayed together that night. I left him with her. Ser Parmen and Ser Emmon were guarding the tent, and Ser Robar Royce was there as well. Ser Emmon