A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

summer,
he
remembered,
with sunlight in her hair . . .
    Ser Meryn Trant guarded the queen’s door this night. His muttered “My lord”
struck Tyrion as a tad grudging, but he opened the door nonetheless. The song
broke off abruptly as he strode into his sister’s bedchamber.
    Cersei was reclining on a pile of cushions. Her feet were bare, her
golden hair artfully tousled, her robe a green-and-gold samite that caught the
light of the candles and shimmered as she looked up. “Sweet sister,” Tyrion
said, “how beautiful you look tonight.” He turned to the singer. “And you as
well, cousin. I had no notion you had such a lovely voice.”
    The compliment made Ser Lancel sulky; perhaps he thought he was being mocked.
It seemed to Tyrion that the lad had grown three inches since being knighted.
Lancel had thick sandy hair, green Lannister eyes, and a line of soft blond
fuzz on his upper lip. At sixteen, he was cursed with all the certainty of
youth, unleavened by any trace of humor or self-doubt, and wed to the arrogance
that came so naturally to those born blond and strong and handsome. His recent
elevation had only made him worse. “Did

Her Grace send for you?” the boy demanded.
    â€œNot that I recall,” Tyrion admitted. “It grieves me to disturb your revels,
Lancel, but as it happens, I have matters of import to discuss with my
sister.”
    Cersei regarded him suspiciously. “If you are here about those begging
brothers, Tyrion, spare me your reproaches. I won’t have them spreading their
filthy treasons in the streets. They can preach to each other in the
dungeons.”
    â€œAnd count themselves lucky that they have such a gentle queen,” added
Lancel. “I would have had their tongues out.”
    â€œOne even dared to say that the gods were punishing us because Jaime murdered
the rightful king,” Cersei declared. “It will not be borne, Tyrion. I gave
you ample opportunity to deal with these lice, but you and your Ser Jacelyn did
nothing, so I commanded Vylarr to attend to the matter.”
    â€œAnd so he did.” Tyrion
had
been annoyed when the red cloaks had
dragged a half dozen of the scabrous prophets down to the dungeons without
consulting him, but they were not important enough to battle over. “No doubt
we will all be better off for a little quiet in the streets. That is not why I
came. I have tidings I know you will be anxious to hear, sweet sister, but they
are best spoken of privily.”
    â€œVery well.” The harpist and the piper bowed and hurried out, while Cersei
kissed her cousin chastely on the cheek. “Leave us, Lancel. My brother’s
harmless when he’s alone. If he’d brought his pets, we’d smell them.”
    The young knight gave his cousin a baleful glance and pulled the door
shut forcefully behind him. “I’ll have you know I make Shagga bathe once a
fortnight,” Tyrion said when he was gone.
    â€œYou’re very pleased with yourself, aren’t you? Why?”
    â€œWhy not?” Tyrion said. Every day, every night, hammers rang along the Street
of Steel, and the great chain grew longer. He hopped up onto the great canopied
bed. “Is this the bed where Robert died? I’m surprised you kept
it.”
    â€œIt gives me sweet dreams,” she said. “Now spit out your business and waddle
away, Imp.”
    Tyrion smiled. “Lord Stannis has sailed from Dragonstone.”
    Cersei bolted to her feet. “And yet you sit there grinning like a harvest-day
pumpkin? Has Bywater called out the City Watch? We must send a bird to
Harrenhal at once.” He was laughing by then. She seized him by the shoulders
and shook him. “Stop it. Are you mad, or drunk?
Stop it!
”
    It was all he could do to get out the words. “I can’t,” he gasped. “It’s
too . . . gods, too
funny . . . Stannis . . .”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œHe hasn’t sailed against us,” Tyrion managed. “He’s laid siege to Storm’s
End. Renly is riding to meet him.”
    His sister’s nails dug painfully into his arms. For a moment she stared
incredulous, as if he had begun to gibber in an unknown tongue. “Stannis and
Renly are fighting
each other?
” When he nodded, Cersei began to
chuckle. “Gods be good,” she gasped, “I’m