A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

her eyes terrible to look upon. They claim she led the outlaws.”
    â€œLed them?” Jaime found that hard to believe. “Beric Dondarrion and the red priest . . .”
    â€œ. . . were not seen.” Lady Mariya sounded certain.
    â€œDondarrion’s dead,” said Strongboar. “The Mountain drove a knife through his eye, we have men with us who saw it.”
    â€œThat’s one tale,” said Addam Marbrand. “Others will tell you that Lord Beric can’t be killed.”
    â€œSer Harwyn says those tales are lies.” Lady Amerei wound a braid around her finger. “He has promised me Lord Beric’s head. He’s very gallant.” She was blushing beneath her tears.
    Jaime thought back on the head he’d given to Pia. He could almost hear his little brother chuckle.
Whatever became of giving women flowers?
Tyrion might have asked. He would have had a few choice words for Harwyn Plumm as well, though
gallant
would not have been one of them. Plumm’s brothers were big, fleshy fellows with thick necks and red faces; loud and lusty, quick to laugh, quick to anger, quick to forgive. Harwyn was a different sort of Plumm; hard-eyed and taciturn, unforgiving . . . and deadly, with his hammer in his hand. A good man to command a garrison, but not a man to love.
Although . . .
Jaime gazed at Lady Amerei.
    The serving men were bringing out the fish course, a river pike baked in a crust of herbs and crushed nuts. Lancel’s lady tasted it, approved, and commanded that the first portion be served to Jaime. As they set the fish before him, she leaned across her husband’s place to touch his golden hand. “
You
could kill Lord Beric, Ser Jaime. You slew the Smiley Knight. Please, my lord, I beg you, stay and help us with Lord Beric and the Hound.” Her pale fingers caressed his golden ones.
    Does she think that I can feel that?
“The Sword of the Morning slew the Smiling Knight, my lady. Ser Arthur Dayne, a better knight than me.” Jaime pulled back his golden fingers and turned once more to Lady Mariya. “How far did Black Walder track this hooded woman and her men?”
    â€œHis hounds picked up their scent again north of Hag’s Mire,” the older woman told him. “He swears that he was no more than half a day behind them when they vanished into the Neck.”
    â€œLet them rot there,” declared Ser Kennos cheerfully. “If the gods are good, they’ll be swallowed up in quicksand or gobbled down by lizard-lions.”
    â€œOr taken in by frogeaters,” said Ser Danwell Frey. “I would not put it past the crannogmen to shelter outlaws.”
    â€œWould that it were only them,” said Lady Mariya. “Some of the river lords are hand in glove with Lord Beric’s men as well.”
    â€œThe smallfolk too,” sniffed her daughter. “Ser Harwyn says they hide them and feed them, and when he asks where they’ve gone, they lie. They
lie
to their own lords!”
    â€œHave their tongues out,” urged Strongboar.
    â€œGood luck getting answers then,” said Jaime. “If you want their help, you need to make them love you. That was how Arthur Dayne did it, when we rode against the Kingswood Brotherhood. He paid the smallfolk for the food we ate, brought their grievances to King Aerys, expanded the grazing lands around their villages, even won them the right to fell a certain number of trees each year and take a few of the king’s deer during the autumn. The forest folk had looked to Toyne to defend them, but Ser Arthur did more for them than the Brotherhood could ever hope to do, and won them to our side. After that, the rest was easy.”
    â€œThe Lord Commander speaks wisely,” said Lady Mariya. “We shall never be rid of these outlaws until the smallfolk come to love Lancel as much as they once loved my father and grandfather.”
    Jaime glanced at his cousin’s empty place.
Lancel will never win their love by praying, though.
    Lady Amerei put on a pout. “Ser Jaime, I pray you, do not abandon us. My lord has need of you, and so do I. These are such fearful times. Some nights I can hardly sleep, for fear.”
    â€œMy place is with the king, my lady.”
    â€œI’ll come,” offered Strongboar. “Once we’re done at Riverrun, I’ll be itching for another fight. Not that Beric Dondarrion is like to give me one. I recall the man from