A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

Wall, he must have come by way of Winterfell. “Do you know my brothers?” she asked excitedly. “Robb and Bran are at Winterfell, and Jon’s on the Wall. Jon Snow, he’s in the Night’s Watch too, you must know him, he has a direwolf, a white one with red eyes. Is Jon a ranger yet? I’m Arya Stark.” The old man in his smelly black clothes was looking at her oddly, but Arya could not seem to stop talking. “When you ride back to the Wall, would you bring Jon a letter if I wrote one?” She wished Jon were here right now.
He’d
believe her about the dungeons and the fat man with the forked beard and the wizard in the steel cap.
    â€œMy daughter often forgets her courtesies,” EddardStark said with a faint smile that softened his words. “I beg your forgiveness, Yoren. Did my brother Benjen send you?”
    â€œNo one
sent
me, m’lord, saving old Mormont. I’m here to find men for the Wall, and when Robert next holds court, I’ll bend the knee and cry our need, see if the king and his Hand have some scum in the dungeons they’d be well rid of. You might say as Benjen Stark is why we’re talking, though. His blood ran black. Made him my brother as much as yours. It’s for his sake I’m come. Rode hard, I did, near killed my horse the way I drove her, but I left the others well behind.”
    â€œThe others?”
    Yoren spat. “Sellswords and freeriders and like trash. That inn was full o’ them, and I saw them take the scent. The scent of blood or the scent of gold, they smell the same in the end. Not all o’ them made for King’s Landing, either. Some went galloping for Casterly Rock, and the Rock lies closer. Lord Tywin will have gotten the word by now, you can count on it.”
    Father frowned. “What word is this?”
    Yoren eyed Arya. “One best spoken in private, m’lord, begging your pardons.”
    â€œAs you say. Desmond, see my daughter to her chambers.” He kissed her on the brow. “We’ll finish our talk on the morrow.”
    Arya stood rooted to the spot. “Nothing bad’s happened to Jon, has it?” she asked Yoren. “Or Uncle Benjen?”
    â€œWell, as to Stark, I can’t say. The Snow boy was well enough when I left the Wall. It’s not them as concerns me.”
    Desmond took her hand. “Come along, milady. You heard your lord father.”
    Arya had no choice but to go with him, wishing it had been Fat Tom. With Tom, she might have been able to linger at the door on some excuse and hear what Yoren was saying, but Desmond was too single-minded to trick. “How many guards does my father have?” she asked him as they descended to her bedchamber.
    â€œHere at King’s Landing? Fifty.”
    â€œYou wouldn’t let anyone kill him, would you?” she asked.
    Desmond laughed. “No fear on that count, little lady. Lord Eddard’s guarded night and day. He’ll come to no harm.”
    â€œThe Lannisters have more than fifty men,” Arya pointed out.
    â€œSo they do, but every northerner is worth ten of these southron swords, so you can sleep easy.”
    â€œWhat if a wizard was sent to kill him?”
    â€œWell, as to that,” Desmond replied, drawing his longsword, “wizards die the same as other men, once you cut their heads off.”

EDDARD
    â€œR obert, I beg of you,” Ned pleaded, “hear what you are saying. You are talking of murdering a child.”
    â€œThe whore is pregnant!”
The king’s fist slammed down on the council table loud as a thunderclap. “I warned you this would happen, Ned. Back in the barrowlands, I warned you, but you did not care to hear it. Well, you’ll hear it now. I want them dead, mother and child both, and that fool Viserys as well. Is that plain enough for you?
I want them dead.”
    The other councillors were all doing their best to pretend that they were somewhere else. No doubt they were wiser than he was. Eddard Stark had seldom felt quite so alone. “You will dishonor yourself forever if you do this.”
    â€œThen let it be on my head, so long as it is done. I am not so blind that I cannot see the shadow of the axe when it is hanging over my own neck.”
    â€œThere is no axe,” Ned told his king. “Only the shadow of a shadow, twenty years removed … if it exists at all.”
    â€œIf?” Varys asked