A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

long.”
    Lady Falyse’s face was bruised and swollen, her eyes red from her tears. Her lower lip was broken, her clothing soiled and torn. “Gods be good,” Cersei said as she ushered her into the solar and closed the door. “What has happened to your face?”
    Falyse did not seem to hear the question. “He
killed
him,” she said in a quavery voice. “Mother have mercy, he . . . he . . .” She broke down sobbing, her whole body trembling.
    Cersei poured a cup of wine and took it to the weeping woman. “Drink this. The wine will calm you. That’s it. A little more now. Stop that weeping and tell me why you’re here.”
    It took the rest of the flagon before the queen was finally able to coax the whole sad tale out of Lady Falyse. Once she had, she did not know whether to laugh or rage. “Single combat,” she repeated.
Is there no one in the Seven Kingdoms that I can rely upon? Am I the only one in Westeros with a pinch of wits?
“You are telling me Ser Balman challenged Bronn to
single combat?
”
    â€œHe said it would be s-s-simple. The lance is a kn-knight’s weapon, he said, and B-Bronn was no true knight. Balman said he would unhorse him and finish him as he lay st-st-stunned.”
    Bronn was no knight, that was true. Bronn was a battle-hardened killer.
Your cretin of a husband wrote his own death warrant.
“A splendid plan. Dare I ask how it went awry?”
    â€œB-Bronn drove his lance through the chest of Balman’s poor
h-h-h-horse.
Balman, he . . . his legs were crushed when the beast fell. He screamed so piteously . . .”
    Sellswords have no pity,
Cersei might have said. “I asked you to arrange a hunting mishap. An arrow gone astray, a fall from a horse, an angry boar . . . there are so many ways a man can die in the woods. None of them involving
lances.
”
    Falyse did not seem to hear her. “When I tried to run to my Balman, he, he, he
struck
me in the face. He made my lord c-c-confess. Balman was crying out for Maester Frenken to attend him, but the sellsword, he, he, he . . .”
    â€œConfess?” Cersei did not like that word. “I trust our brave Ser Balman held his tongue.”
    â€œBronn put a dagger in his
eye,
and told me I had best be gone from Stokeworth before the sun went down or I’d get the same. He said he’d pass me around to the g-g-garrison, if any of them would have me. When I ordered Bronn seized, one of his knights had the insolence to say that I should do as Lord Stokeworth said. He called him
Lord Stokeworth!
” Lady Falyse clutched at the queen’s hand. “Your Grace must give me knights. A hundred knights! And crossbowmen, to take my castle back. Stokeworth is mine! They would not even permit me to gather up my
clothes!
Bronn said they were his wife’s clothes now, all my s-silks and velvets.”
    Your rags are the least of your concern.
The queen pulled her fingers free of the other woman’s clammy grasp. “I asked you to snuff out a candle to help protect the king. Instead you heaved a pot of wildfire at it. Did your witless Balman bring my name into this? Tell me he did not.”
    Falyse licked her lips. “He . . . he was in pain, his legs were broken. Bronn said he would show him mercy, but . . . What will happen to my poor m-m-mother?”
    I imagine she will die.
“What do you think?” Lady Tanda might well be dead already. Bronn did not seem the sort of man who would expend much effort nursing an old woman with a broken hip.
    â€œYou have to help me. Where am I to go? What will I do?”
    Perhaps you might wed Moon Boy,
Cersei almost said.
He is nigh as big a fool as your late husband.
She could not risk a war on the very doorstep of King’s Landing, not now. “The silent sisters are always glad to welcome widows,” she said. “Theirs is a serene life, a life of prayer and contemplation and good works. They bring solace to the living and peace to the dead.”
And they do not talk.
She could not have the woman running about the Seven Kingdoms spreading dangerous tales.
    Falyse was deaf to good sense. “All we did, we did in service to Your Grace.
Proud to Be Faithful.
You said . . .”
    â€œI recall.” Cersei forced a smile. “You shall stay here with us, my lady, until such time as we find a way to win your castle back. Let me pour you another cup of wine. It will help you