A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

rebellion against the
Usurper, and Ned Stark called his banners to help his friend Robert. The final
battle was on Pyke. When Robert’s stonethrowers opened a breach in King Balon’s
wall, a priest from Myr was the first man through, but I was not far behind.
For that I won my knighthood.
    â€œTo celebrate his victory, Robert ordained that a tourney should be held
outside Lannisport. It was there I saw Lynesse, a maid half my age. She had
come up from Oldtown with her father to see her brothers joust. I could not
take my eyes off her. In a fit of madness, I begged her favor to wear in the
tourney, never dreaming she would grant my request, yet she did.”
    â€œI fight as well as any man,
Khaleesi,
but I have never been a
tourney knight. Yet with Lynesse’s favor knotted round my arm, I was a
different man. I won joust after joust. Lord Jason Mallister fell before me,
and Bronze Yohn Royce. Ser Ryman Frey, his brother Ser Hosteen, Lord Whent,
Strongboar, even Ser Boros Blount of the Kingsguard, I unhorsed them all. In
the last match, I broke nine lances against Jaime Lannister to no result, and
King Robert gave me the champion’s laurel. I crowned Lynesse queen of love and
beauty, and that very night went to her father and asked for her hand. I was
drunk, as much on glory as on wine. By rights I should have gotten a
contemptuous refusal, but Lord Leyton accepted my offer. We were married there
in Lannisport, and for a fortnight I was the happiest man in the wide
world.”
    â€œOnly a fortnight?” asked Dany.
Even I was given more happiness than
that, with Drogo who was my sun-and-stars.
    â€œA fortnight was how long it took us to sail from Lannisport back to Bear
Island. My home was a great disappointment to Lynesse. It was too cold, too
damp, too far away, my castle no more than a wooden longhall. We had no
masques, no mummer shows, no balls or fairs. Seasons might pass without a
singer ever coming to play for us, and there’s not a goldsmith on the island.
Even meals became a trial. My cook knew little beyond his roasts and stews, and
Lynesse soon lost her taste for fish and venison.”
    â€œI lived for her smiles, so I sent all the way to Oldtown for a new cook, and
brought a harper from Lannisport. Goldsmiths, jewelers, dressmakers, whatever
she wanted I found for her, but it

was never enough. Bear Island is rich in bears and trees, and poor in aught
else. I built a fine ship for her and we sailed to Lannisport and Oldtown for
festivals and fairs, and once even to Braavos, where I borrowed heavily from
the moneylenders. It was as a tourney champion that I had won her hand and
heart, so I entered other tourneys for her sake, but the magic was gone. I
never distinguished myself again, and each defeat meant the loss of another
charger and another suit of jousting armor, which must needs be ransomed or
replaced. The cost could not be borne. Finally I insisted we return home, but
there matters soon grew even worse than before. I could no longer pay the cook
and the harper, and Lynesse grew wild when I spoke of pawning her jewels.
    â€œThe rest . . . I did things it shames me to speak of. For
gold. So Lynesse might keep her jewels, her harper, and her cook. In the end it
cost me all. When I heard that Eddard Stark was coming to Bear Island, I was so
lost to honor that rather than stay and face his judgment, I took her with me
into exile. Nothing mattered but our love, I told myself. We fled to Lys, where
I sold my ship for gold to keep us.”
    His voice was thick with grief, and Dany was reluctant to press him any
further, yet she had to know how it ended. “Did she die there?” she asked him
gently.
    â€œOnly to me,” he said. “In half a year my gold was gone, and I was obliged
to take service as a sellsword. While I was fighting Braavosi on the Rhoyne,
Lynesse moved into the manse of a merchant prince named Tregar Ormollen. They
say she is his chief

concubine now, and even his wife goes in fear of her.”
    Dany was horrified. “Do you hate her?”
    â€œAlmost as much as I love her,” Ser Jorah answered. “Pray excuse me, my
queen. I find I am very tired.”
    She gave him leave to go, but as he was lifting the flap of her tent, she could
not stop herself calling after him with one last question. “What did she look
like, your Lady Lynesse?”
    Ser Jorah smiled sadly.