A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

Holiness,” she said, “these sparrows are frightening the city. I want them gone.”
    â€œWhere should they go, Your Grace?”
    There are seven hells, any one of them will serve.
“Back where they came from, I would imagine.”
    â€œThey came from everywhere. As the sparrow is the humblest and most common of the birds, they are the humblest and most common of men.”
    They are common, we agree on that much.
“Have you seen what they have done to Blessed Baelor’s statue? They befoul the plaza with their pigs and goats and night soil.”
    â€œNight soil can be washed away more easily than blood, Your Grace. If the plaza was befouled, it was befouled by the execution that was done here.”
    He dares throw Ned Stark in my face?
“We all regret that. Joffrey was young, and not as wise as he might have been. Lord Stark should have been beheaded elsewhere, out of respect for Blessed Baelor . . . but the man
was
a traitor, let us not forget.”
    â€œKing Baelor forgave those who conspired against him.”
    King Baelor imprisoned his own sisters, whose only crime was being beautiful.
The first time Cersei heard that tale, she had gone to Tyrion’s nursery and pinched the little monster till he cried.
I should have pinched his nose shut and stuffed my sock into his mouth.
She forced herself to smile. “King Tommen will forgive the sparrows too, once they have returned to their homes.”
    â€œMost have lost their homes. Suffering is everywhere . . . and grief, and death. Before coming to King’s Landing, I tended to half a hundred little villages too small to have a septon of their own. I walked from each one to the next, performing marriages, absolving sinners of their sins, naming newborn children. Those villages are no more, Your Grace. Weeds and thorns grow where gardens once flourished, and bones litter the roadsides.”
    â€œWar is a dreadful thing. These atrocities are the work of the northmen, and of Lord Stannis and his demon-worshipers.”
    â€œSome of my sparrows speak of bands of lions who despoiled them . . . and of the Hound, who was your own sworn man. At Saltpans he slew an aged septon and despoiled a girl of twelve, an innocent child promised to the Faith. He wore his armor as he raped her and her tender flesh was torn and crushed by his iron mail. When he was done he gave her to his men, who cut off her nose and nipples.”
    â€œHis Grace cannot be held responsible for the crimes of every man who ever served House Lannister. Sandor Clegane is a traitor and a brute. Why do you think I dismissed him from our service? He fights for the outlaw Beric Dondarrion now, not for King Tommen.”
    â€œAs you say. Yet it must be asked—where were the king’s knights when these things were being done? Did not Jaehaerys the Conciliator once swear upon the Iron Throne itself that the crown would always protect and defend the Faith?”
    Cersei had no idea what Jaehaerys the Conciliator might have sworn. “He did,” she agreed, “and the High Septon blessed him and anointed him as king. It is traditional for every new High Septon to give the king his blessing . . . and yet you have refused to bless King Tommen.”
    â€œYour Grace is mistaken. We have not refused.”
    â€œYou have not come.”
    â€œThe hour is not yet ripe.”
    Are you a priest or a greengrocer?
“And what might I do to make it . . . riper?”
If he dares mention gold, I will deal with this one as I did the last and find a pious eight-year-old to wear the crystal crown.
    â€œThe realm is full of kings. For the Faith to exalt one above the rest we must be certain. Three hundred years ago, when Aegon the Dragon landed beneath this very hill, the High Septon locked himself within the Starry Sept of Oldtown and prayed for seven days and seven nights, taking no nourishment but bread and water. When he emerged he announced that the Faith would not oppose Aegon and his sisters, for the Crone had lifted up her lamp to show him what lay ahead. If Oldtown took up arms against the Dragon, Oldtown would burn, and the Hightower and the Citadel and the Starry Sept would be cast down and destroyed. Lord Hightower was a godly man. When he heard the prophecy, he kept his strength at home and opened the city gates to Aegon when he came. And His High Holiness anointed the Conqueror with the seven oils. I must do as he did, three hundred