A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

she snatched Renly’s from its scabbard and raised it to catch Emmon’s
axe on the downswing. A

spark flashed blue-white as steel met steel with a rending crash, and Brienne
sprang to her feet, the body of the dead king thrust rudely aside. Ser Emmon
stumbled over it as he tried to close, and Brienne’s blade sheared through the
wooden haft to send his axehead spinning. Another man thrust a flaming torch at
her back, but the rainbow cloak was too sodden with blood to burn. Brienne spun
and cut, and torch and hand went flying. Flames crept across the carpet. The
maimed man began to scream. Ser Emmon dropped the axe and fumbled for his
sword. The second man-at-arms lunged, Brienne parried, and their swords danced
and clanged against each other. When Emmon Cuy came wading back in, Brienne was
forced to retreat, yet somehow she held them both at bay. On the ground,
Renly’s head rolled sickeningly to one side, and a second mouth yawned wide,
the blood coming from him now in slow pulses.
    Ser Robar had hung back, uncertain, but now he was reaching for his hilt.
“Robar, no, listen.” Catelyn seized his arm. “You do her wrong, it was not
her.
Help her!
Hear me, it was Stannis.” The name was on her lips
before she could think how it got there, but as she said it, she knew that it
was true. “I swear it, you know me, it was
Stannis
killed
him.”
    The young rainbow knight stared at this madwoman with pale and frightened eyes.
“Stannis? How?”
    â€œI do not know. Sorcery, some dark magic, there was a shadow, a
shadow.
” Her own voice sounded wild and crazed to her, but the words
poured out in a rush as the blades continued to clash behind her. “A shadow
with a sword, I swear it, I saw. Are

you blind, the girl
loved
him!
Help her!
” She glanced
back, saw the second guardsman fall, his blade dropping from limp fingers.
Outside there was shouting. More angry men would be bursting in on them any
instant, she knew. “She is innocent, Robar. You have my word, on my husband’s
grave and my honor as a Stark!”
    That resolved him. “I will hold them,” Ser Robar said. “Get her away.” He
turned and went out.
    The fire had reached the wall and was creeping up the side of the tent. Ser
Emmon was pressing Brienne hard, him in his enameled yellow steel and her in
wool. He had forgotten Catelyn, until the iron brazier came crashing into the
back of his head. Helmed as he was, the blow did no lasting harm, but it sent
him to his knees. “Brienne, with me,” Catelyn commanded. The girl was not
slow to see the chance. A slash, and the green silk parted. They stepped out
into darkness and the chill of dawn. Loud voices came from the other side of
the pavilion. “This way,” Catelyn urged, “and slowly. We must not run, or
they will ask why. Walk easy, as if nothing were amiss.”
    Brienne thrust her sword blade through her belt and fell in beside Catelyn. The
night air smelled of rain. Behind them, the king’s pavilion was well ablaze,
flames rising high against the dark. No one made any move to stop them. Men
rushed past them, shouting of fire and murder and sorcery. Others stood in
small groups and spoke in low voices. A few were praying, and one young squire
was on his knees, sobbing openly.
    Renly’s battles were already coming apart as the rumors

spread from mouth to mouth. The nightfires had burned low, and as the east
began to lighten the immense mass of Storm’s End emerged like a dream of stone
while wisps of pale mist raced across the field, flying from the sun on wings
of wind.
Morning ghosts,
she had heard Old Nan call them once,
spirits returning to their graves. And Renly one of them now, gone like his
brother Robert, like her own dear Ned.
    â€œI never held him but as he died,” Brienne said quietly as they walked
through the spreading chaos. Her voice sounded as if she might break
at any
instant. “He was laughing one moment, and suddenly the blood
was everywhere . . . my lady, I
do not understand. Did you see, did
you . . . ?”
    â€œI saw a shadow. I thought it was Renly’s shadow at the first, but it was his
brother’s.”
    â€œLord Stannis?”
    â€œI
felt
him. It makes no sense, I know . . .”
    It made sense enough for Brienne. “I will kill him,” the tall homely girl