A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

ships to be had in the Free Cities, though. I tell you, Ned, I do not like this marriage. There are still those in the Seven Kingdoms who call me Usurper. Do you forget how many houses fought for Targaryen in the war? They bide their time for now, but give them half a chance, they will murder me in my bed, and my sons with me. If the beggar king crosses with a Dothraki horde at his back, the traitors will join him.”
    â€œHe will not cross,” Ned promised. “And if by some mischance he does, we will throw him back into the sea. Once you choose a new Warden of the East—”
    The king groaned. “For the last time, I will not name the Arryn boy Warden. I know the boy is your nephew, but with Targaryens climbing in bed with Dothraki, Iwould be mad to rest one quarter of the realm on the shoulders of a sickly child.”
    Ned was ready for that. “Yet we still must have a Warden of the East. If Robert Arryn will not do, name one of your brothers. Stannis proved himself at the siege of Storm’s End, surely.”
    He let the name hang there for a moment. The king frowned and said nothing. He looked uncomfortable.
    â€œThat is,” Ned finished quietly, watching, “unless you have already promised the honor to another.”
    For a moment Robert had the grace to look startled. Just as quickly, the look became annoyance. “What if I have?”
    â€œIt’s Jaime Lannister, is it not?”
    Robert kicked his horse back into motion and started down the ridge toward the barrows. Ned kept pace with him. The king rode on, eyes straight ahead. “Yes,” he said at last. A single hard word to end the matter.
    â€œKingslayer,” Ned said. The rumors were true, then. He rode on dangerous ground now, he knew. “An able and courageous man, no doubt,” he said carefully, “but his father is Warden of the West, Robert. In time Ser Jaime will succeed to that honor. No one man should hold both East and West.” He left unsaid his real concern; that the appointment would put half the armies of the realm into the hands of Lannisters.
    â€œI will fight that battle when the enemy appears on the field,” the king said stubbornly. “At the moment, Lord Tywin looms eternal as Casterly Rock, so I doubt that Jaime will be succeeding anytime soon. Don’t vex me about this, Ned, the stone has been set.”
    â€œYour Grace, may I speak frankly?”
    â€œI seem unable to stop you,” Robert grumbled. They rode through tall brown grasses.
    â€œCan you trust Jaime Lannister?”
    â€œHe is my wife’s twin, a Sworn Brother of the Kingsguard, his life and fortune and honor all bound to mine.”
    â€œAs they were bound to Aerys Targaryen’s,” Ned pointed out.
    â€œWhy should I mistrust him? He has done everything I have ever asked of him. His sword helped win the throne I sit on.”
    His sword helped taint the throne you sit on
, Nedthought, but he did not permit the words to pass his lips. “He swore a vow to protect his king’s life with his own. Then he opened that king’s throat with a sword.”
    â€œSeven hells,
someone
had to kill Aerys!” Robert said, reining his mount to a sudden halt beside an ancient barrow. “If Jaime hadn’t done it, it would have been left for you or me.”
    â€œWe were not Sworn Brothers of the Kingsguard,” Ned said. The time had come for Robert to hear the whole truth, he decided then and there. “Do you remember the Trident, Your Grace?”
    â€œI won my crown there. How should I forget it?”
    â€œYou took a wound from Rhaegar,” Ned reminded him. “So when the Targaryen host broke and ran, you gave the pursuit into my hands. The remnants of Rhaegar’s army fled back to King’s Landing. We followed. Aerys was in the Red Keep with several thousand loyalists. I expected to find the gates closed to us.”
    Robert gave an impatient shake of his head. “Instead you found that our men had already taken the city. What of it?”
    â€œNot our men,” Ned said patiently. “Lannister men. The lion of Lannister flew over the ramparts, not the crowned stag. And they had taken the city by treachery.”
    The war had raged for close to a year. Lords great and small had flocked to Robert’s banners; others had remained loyal to Targaryen. The mighty Lannisters of Casterly Rock, the Wardens of the West, had remained