A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

Xhondo.
Xhondo would not understand what I was saying. Or if he did, he’d just tell me to fuck the girl again.
“Fuck” had been the first word of the Common Tongue that Xhondo had learned, and he was very fond of it.
    He was fortunate that the
Cinnamon Wind
was so big. Aboard the
Blackbird
Gilly could have run him down in hardly any time at all. “Swan ships,” the great vessels from the Summer Isles were called in the Seven Kingdoms, for their billowing white sails and for their figureheads, most of which depicted birds. Large as they were, they rode the waves with a grace that was all their own. With a good brisk wind behind them, the
Cinnamon Wind
could outrun any galley, though she was helpless when becalmed. And she offered plenty of places for a craven to hide.
    Near the end of Sam’s watch, he was finally cornered. He was climbing down a ladder when Xhondo seized him by the collar.
“Black Sam come with Xhondo,”
he said, dragging him across the deck and dumping him at the feet of Kojja Mo.
    Far off to the north, a haze was visible low on the horizon. Kojja pointed at it. “There is the coast of Dorne. Sand and rocks and scorpions, and no good anchorage for hundreds of leagues. You can swim there if you like, and walk to Oldtown. You will need to cross the deep desert and climb some mountains and swim the Torentine. Or else you could go to Gilly.”
    â€œYou do not understand. Last night we . . .”
    â€œ. . . honored your dead, and the gods who made you both. Xhondo did the same. I had the child, else I would have been with him. All you Westerosi make a shame of loving. There is no shame in loving. If your septons say there is, your seven gods must be demons. In the isles we know better. Our gods gave us legs to run with, noses to smell with, hands to touch and feel. What mad cruel god would give a man eyes and tell him he must forever keep them shut, and never look at all the beauty in the world? Only a monster god, a demon of the darkness.” Kojja put her hand between Sam’s legs. “The gods gave you this for a reason too, for . . . what is your Westerosi word?”
    â€œFucking,”
Xhondo offered helpfully.
    â€œYes, for fucking. For the giving of pleasure and the making of children. There is no shame in that.”
    Sam backed away from her. “I took a vow.
I will take no wife, and father no children.
I said the words.”
    â€œShe knows the words you said. She is a child in some ways, but she is not blind. She knows why you wear the black, why you go to Oldtown. She knows she cannot keep you. She wants you for a little while, is all. She lost her father and her husband, her mother and her sisters, her home, her
world.
All she has is you, and the babe. So you go to her, or swim.”
    Sam looked despairingly at the haze that marked the distant shoreline. He could never swim so far, he knew.
    He went to Gilly. “What we did . . . if I could take a wife, I would sooner have you than any princess or highborn maiden, but I can’t. I am still a crow. I said the words, Gilly. I went with Jon into the woods and said the words before a heart tree.”
    â€œThe trees watch over us,” Gilly whispered, brushing the tears from his cheeks. “In the forest, they see all . . . but there are no trees here. Only water, Sam. Only water.”

CERSEI
    T he day had been cold and grey and wet. It had poured all morning, and even when the rain stopped that afternoon the clouds refused to part. They never saw the sun. Such wretched weather was enough to discourage even the little queen. Instead of riding with her hens and their retinue of guardsmen and admirers, she spent all day in the Maidenvault with her hens, listening to the Blue Bard sing.
    Cersei’s own day was little better, till evenfall. As the grey sky began to fade to black, they told her that the
Sweet Cersei
had come in on the evening tide, and that Aurane Waters was without, begging audience.
    The queen sent for him at once. As soon as he strode into her solar, she knew his tidings were good. “Your Grace,” he said with a broad smile, “Dragonstone is yours.”
    â€œHow splendid.” She took his hands and kissed him on the cheeks. “I know Tommen will be pleased as well. This will mean that we can release Lord Redwyne’s fleet, and drive the ironmen from the Shields.” The news from the Reach seemed to grow more dire with every