A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

raided.”
    â€œHow many men were there in this raiding party?” Ned asked.
    â€œA hundred, at the least,” Joss answered, in the same instant as the bandaged smith said, “Fifty,” and the grandmother behind him, “Hunnerds and hunnerds, m’lord, an army they was.”
    â€œYou are more right than you know, goodwoman,” Lord Eddard told her. “You say they flew no banners. What of the armor they wore? Did any of you note ornaments or decorations, devices on shield or helm?”
    The brewer, Joss, shook his head. “It grieves me, m’lord, but no, the armor they showed us was plain, only … the one who led them, he was armored like the rest, but there was no mistaking him all the same. It was the size of him, m’lord. Those as say the giants are all dead never saw this one, I swear. Big as an ox he was, and a voice like stone breaking.”
    â€œThe Mountain!”
Ser Marq said loudly. “Can any man doubt it? This was Gregor Clegane’s work.”
    Ned heard muttering from beneath the windows and the far end of the hall. Even in the galley, nervous whispers were exchanged. High lords and smallfolk alike knew what it could mean if Ser Marq was proved right. Ser Gregor Clegane stood bannerman to Lord Tywin Lannister.
    He studied the frightened faces of the villagers. Small wonder they had been so fearful; they had thought they were being dragged here to name Lord Tywin a red-handed butcher before a king who was his son by marriage. He wondered if the knights had given them a choice.
    Grand Maester Pycelle rose ponderously from the council table, his chain of office clinking. “Ser Marq, with respect, you cannot know that this outlaw was Ser Gregor. There are many large men in the realm.”
    â€œAs large as the Mountain That Rides?” Ser Karyl said. “I have never met one.”
    â€œNor has any man here,” Ser Raymun added hotly. “Even his brother is a pup beside him. My lords, openyour eyes. Do you need to see his seal on the corpses? It was Gregor.”
    â€œWhy should Ser Gregor turn brigand?” Pycelle asked. “By the grace of his liege lord, he holds a stout keep and lands of his own. The man is an anointed knight.”
    â€œA false knight!” Ser Marq said. “Lord Tywin’s mad dog.”
    â€œMy lord Hand,” Pycelle declared in a stiff voice, “I urge you to remind this
good
knight that Lord Tywin Lannister is the father of our own gracious queen.”
    â€œThank you, Grand Maester Pycelle,” Ned said. “I fear we might have forgotten that if you had not pointed it out.”
    From his vantage point atop the throne, he could see men slipping out the door at the far end of the hall. Hares going to ground, he supposed … or rats off to nibble the queen’s cheese. He caught a glimpse of Septa Mordane in the gallery, with his daughter Sansa beside her. Ned felt a flash of anger; this was no place for a girl. But the septa could not have known that today’s court would be anything but the usual tedious business of hearing petitions, settling disputes between rival holdfasts, and adjudicating the placement of boundary stones.
    At the council table below, Petyr Baelish lost interest in his quill and leaned forward. “Ser Marq, Ser Karyl, Ser Raymun—perhaps I might ask you a question? These holdfasts were under your protection. Where were you when all this slaughtering and burning was going on?”
    Ser Karyl Vance answered. “I was attending my lord father in the pass below the Golden Tooth, as was Ser Marq. When the word of these outrages reached Ser Edmure Tully, he sent word that we should take a small force of men to find what survivors we could and bring them to the king.”
    Ser Raymun Darry spoke up. “Ser Edmure had summoned me to Riverrun with all my strength. I was camped across the river from his walls, awaiting his commands, when the word reached me. By the time I could return to my own lands, Clegane and his vermin were back across the Red Fork, riding for Lannister’s hills.”
    Littlefinger stroked the point of his beard thoughtfully. “And if they come again, ser?”
    â€œIf they come again, we’ll use their blood to water the fields they burnt,” Ser Marq Piper declared hotly.
    â€œSer Edmure has sent men to every village and holdfast within a day’s ride of the border,” Ser Karyl