A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

Septon.
    It was only a word, one little word, but to Cersei it felt like a splash of icy water in the face. She blinked, and her certainty flickered, just a little. “Ser Osney will be held securely, I promise you.”
    â€œHe is held securely here. Come. I will show you.”
    Cersei could feel the eyes of the Seven staring at her, eyes of jade and malachite and onyx, and a sudden shiver of fear went through her, cold as ice.
I am the queen,
she told herself.
Lord Tywin’s daughter.
Reluctantly, she followed.
    Ser Osney was not far. The chamber was dark, and closed by a heavy iron door. The High Septon produced the key to open it, and took a torch down from the wall to light the room within. “After you, Your Grace.”
    Within, Osney Kettleblack hung naked from the ceiling, swinging from a pair of heavy iron chains. He had been whipped. His back and shoulders been laid almost bare, and cuts and welts crisscrossed his legs and arse as well.
    The queen could hardly stand to look at him. She turned back to the High Septon. “What have you
done
?”
    â€œWe have sought after the truth, most earnestly.”
    â€œHe told you the truth. He came to you of his own free will and confessed his sins.”
    â€œAye. He did that. I have heard many men confess, Your Grace, but seldom have I heard a man so pleased to be so guilty.”
    â€œYou
whipped
him!”
    â€œThere can be no penance without pain. No man should spare himself the scourge, as I told Ser Osney. I seldom feel so close to god as when I am being whipped for mine own wickedness, though my darkest sins are no wise near as black as his.”
    â€œB-but,” she sputtered, “you preach the Mother’s mercy . . .”
    â€œSer Osney shall taste of that sweet milk in the afterlife. In
The Seven-Pointed Star
it is written that all sins may be forgiven, but crimes must still be punished. Osney Kettleblack is guilty of treason and murder, and the wages of treason are death.”
    He is just a priest, he cannot do this.
“It is not for the Faith to condemn a man to death, whatever his offense.”
    â€œWhatever his offense.” The High Septon repeated the words slowly, weighing them. “Strange to say, Your Grace, the more diligently we applied the scourge, the more Ser Osney’s offenses seemed to change. He would now have us believe that he never touched Margaery Tyrell. Is that not so, Ser Osney?”
    Osney Kettleblack opened his eyes. When he saw the queen standing there before him he ran his tongue across his swollen lips, and said, “The Wall. You promised me the Wall.”
    â€œHe is mad,” said Cersei. “You have driven him mad.”
    â€œSer Osney,” said the High Septon, in a firm, clear voice, “did you have carnal knowledge of the queen?”
    â€œAye.” The chains rattled softly as Osney twisted in his shackles. “That one there. She’s the queen I fucked, the one sent me to kill the old High Septon. He never had no guards. I just come in when he was sleeping and pushed a pillow down across his face.”
    Cersei whirled, and ran.
    The High Septon tried to seize her, but he was some old sparrow and she was a lioness of the Rock. She pushed him aside and burst through the door, slamming it behind her with a
clang
.
The Kettleblacks, I need the Kettleblacks, I will send in Osfryd with the gold cloaks and Osmund with the Kingsguard, Osney will deny it all once they cut him free, and I’ll rid myself of this High Septon just as I did the other.
The four old septas blocked her way and clutched at her with wrinkled hands. She knocked one to the floor and clawed another across the face, and gained the steps. Halfway up, she remembered Taena Merryweather. It made her stumble, panting.
Seven save me,
she prayed.
Taena knows it all. If they take her too, and whip her . . .
    She ran as far as the sept, but no farther. There were women waiting for her there, more septas and silent sisters too, younger than the four old crones below. “I am the
queen,
” she shouted, backing away from them. “I will have your heads for this, I will have all your heads. Let me pass.” Instead, they laid hands upon her. Cersei ran to the altar of the Mother, but they caught her there, a score of them, and dragged her kicking up the tower steps. Inside the cell three silent sisters held her down as a septa named Scolera stripped her bare. She even took her