A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

your betrothed in secret, but your mother threatened to harm herself if I stole another of her children, and I . . . I could not do that to her.”
    His tale grows ever stranger.
“Is that where Quentyn’s gone? To Tyrosh, to court the Archon’s green-haired daughter?”
    Her father plucked up a
cyvasse
piece. “I must know how you learned that Quentyn was abroad. Your brother went with Cletus Yronwood, Maester Kedry, and three of Lord Yronwood’s best young knights on a long and perilous voyage, with an uncertain welcome at its end. He has gone to bring us back our heart’s desire.”
    She narrowed her eyes. “What is our heart’s desire?”
    â€œVengeance.” His voice was soft, as if he were afraid that someone might be listening. “Justice.” Prince Doran pressed the onyx dragon into her palm with his swollen, gouty fingers, and whispered,
“Fire and blood.”

ALAYNE
    S he turned the iron ring and pushed the door open, just a crack. “Sweetrobin?” she called. “May I enter?”
    â€œHave a care, m’lady,” warned old Gretchel, wringing her hands. “His lordship threw his chamber pot at the maester.”
    â€œThen he has none to throw at me. Isn’t there some work you should be doing? And you, Maddy . . . are all the windows closed and shuttered? Have all the furnishings been covered?”
    â€œAll of them, m’lady,” said Maddy.
    â€œBest make certain of it.” Alayne slipped into the darkened bedchamber. “It’s only me, Sweetrobin.”
    Someone sniffled in the darkness. “Are you alone?”
    â€œI am, my lord.”
    â€œCome close, then. Just you.”
    Alayne shut the door firmly behind her. It was solid oak, four inches thick; Maddy and Gretchel might listen all they wished, but they would hear nothing. That was just as well. Gretchel could hold her tongue, but Maddy gossiped shamelessly.
    â€œDid Maester Colemon send you?” the boy asked.
    â€œNo,” she lied. “I heard my Sweetrobin was ailing.” After his encounter with the chamber pot the maester had come running to Ser Lothor, and Brune had come to her. “If m’lady can talk him out of bed nice,” the knight said, “I won’t have to drag him out.”
    We can’t have that,
she told herself. When Robert was handled roughly he was apt to go into a shaking fit. “Are you hungry, my lord?” she asked the little lord. “Shall I send Maddy down for berries and cream, or some warm bread and butter?” Too late she remembered that there was no warm bread; the kitchens were closed, the ovens cold.
If it gets Robert out of bed, it would be worth the bother of lighting a fire,
she told herself.
    â€œI don’t want food,” the little lord said, in a reedy, petulant voice. “I’m going to stay in bed today. You could read to me if you want.”
    â€œIt is too dark in here for reading.” The heavy curtains drawn across the windows made the bedchamber black as night. “Has my Sweetrobin forgotten what day this is?”
    â€œNo,” he said, “but I’m not going. I want to stay in bed. You could read to me about the Winged Knight.”
    The Winged Knight was Ser Artys Arryn. Legend said that he had driven the First Men from the Vale and flown to the top of the Giant’s Lance on a huge falcon to slay the Griffin King. There were a hundred tales of his adventures. Little Robert knew them all so well he could have recited them from memory, but he liked to have them read to him all the same. “Sweetling, we have to go,” she told the boy, “but I promise, I’ll read you
two
tales of the Winged Knight when we reach the Gates of the Moon.”
    â€œThree,” he said at once. No matter what you offered him, Robert always wanted more.
    â€œThree,” she agreed. “Might I let some sun in?”
    â€œNo. The light hurts my eyes. Come to bed, Alayne.”
    She went to the windows anyway, edging around the broken chamber pot. She could smell it better than she saw it. “I shan’t open them very wide. Only enough to see my Sweetrobin’s face.”
    He sniffled. “If you must.”
    The curtains were of plush blue velvet. She pulled one back a finger’s length and tied it off. Dust motes danced in a shaft of pale morning light. The small diamond-shaped panes of the window were obscured by