A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

this woman can be
relied on?”
    â€œI am certain of nothing in this fickle and treacherous world, my lord.
Chataya has no cause to love the queen, though, and she knows that she has you
to thank for ridding her of Allar Deem. Shall we go?” He started down the
tunnel.
    Even his walk is different,
Tyrion observed. The scent of sour wine
and garlic clung to Varys instead of
lavender. “I like this new garb of
yours,” he offered as they went.
    â€œThe work I do does not permit me to travel the streets amid a column of
knights. So when I leave the castle, I adopt more suitable guises, and thus
live to serve you longer.”
    â€œLeather becomes you. You ought to come like this to our next council
session.”
    â€œYour sister would not approve, my lord.”
    â€œMy sister would soil her smallclothes.” He smiled in the dark. “I saw no
signs of any of her spies skulking after me.”
    â€œI am pleased to hear it, my lord. Some of your sister’s hirelings are mine as
well, unbeknownst to her. I should hate to think they had grown so sloppy as to
be seen.”
    â€œWell,
I’d
hate to think I was climbing through wardrobes and
suffering the pangs of frustrated lust all for naught.”
    â€œScarcely for naught,” Varys assured him. “They know you are here. Whether
any will be bold enough to enter Chataya’s in

the guise of patrons I cannot say, but I find it best to err on the side of
caution.”
    â€œHow is it a brothel happens to have a secret entrance?”
    â€œThe tunnel was dug for another King’s Hand, whose honor would not allow him
to enter such a house openly. Chataya has closely guarded the knowledge of its
existence.”
    â€œAnd yet
you
knew of it.”
    â€œLittle birds fly through many a dark tunnel. Careful, the steps are
steep.”
    They emerged through a trap at the back of a stable, having come perhaps a
distance of three blocks under Rhaenys’s Hill. A horse whickered in his stall
when Tyrion let the door slam shut. Varys blew out the candle and set it on a
beam and Tyrion gazed about. A mule and three horses occupied the stalls. He
waddled over to the piebald gelding and took a look at his teeth. “Old,” he
said, “and I have my doubts about his wind.”
    â€œHe is not a mount to carry you into battle, true,” Varys replied, “but he
will serve, and attract no notice. As will the others. And the stableboys see
and hear only the animals.” The eunuch took a cloak from a peg. It was
roughspun, sun-faded, and threadbare, but very ample in its cut. “If you will
permit me.” When he swept it over Tyrion’s shoulders it enveloped him head to
heel, with a cowl that could be pulled forward to drown his face in shadows.
“Men see what they expect to see,” Varys said as he fussed and pulled.
“Dwarfs are not so common a sight as children, so a child is what they will
see. A boy in an old

cloak on his father’s horse, going about his father’s business. Though it would
be best if you came most often by night.”
    â€œI plan to . . . after today. At the moment, though, Shae
awaits me.” He had put her up in a walled manse at the far northeast corner of
King’s Landing, not far from the sea, but he had not dared visit her there for
fear of being followed.
    â€œWhich horse will you have?”
    Tyrion shrugged. “This one will do well enough.”
    â€œI shall saddle him for you.” Varys took tack and saddle down from a
peg.
    Tyrion adjusted the heavy cloak and paced restlessly. “You missed a lively
council. Stannis has crowned himself, it seems.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œHe accuses my brother and sister of incest. I wonder how he came by that
suspicion.”
    â€œPerhaps he read a book and looked at the color of a bastard’s hair, as Ned
Stark did, and Jon Arryn before him. Or perhaps someone whispered it in his
ear.” The eunuch’s laugh was not his usual giggle, but deeper and more
throaty.
    â€œSomeone like you, perchance?”
    â€œAm I suspected? It was not me.”
    â€œIf it had been, would you admit it?”
    â€œNo. But why should I betray a secret I have kept so long? It is one thing to
deceive a king, and quite another to hide from the cricket in the rushes and
the little bird in the chimney. Besides, the bastards were there for all