A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

slipped around it in the night. It’s said the direwolf
showed him the way, that Grey Wind of his. The beast sniffed out a goat track
that wound down a defile and up along beneath a ridge, a crooked and stony way,
yet wide enough for men riding single file. The Lannisters in their watchtowers
got not so much a glimpse of them.” Rivers lowered his voice.

“There’s some say that after the battle, the king cut out Stafford Lannister’s
heart and fed it to the wolf.”
    â€œI would not believe such tales,” Catelyn said sharply. “My son is no
savage.”
    â€œAs you say, my lady. Still, it’s no more than the beast deserved. That is no
common wolf, that one. The Greatjon’s been heard to say that the old gods of
the north sent those direwolves to your children.”
    Catelyn remembered the day when her boys had found the pups in the late summer
snows. There had been five, three male and two female for the five trueborn
children of House Stark . . . and a sixth, white of fur and red
of eye, for Ned’s bastard son Jon Snow.
No common wolves,
she
thought.
No indeed.
    That night as they made their camp, Brienne sought out her tent. “My lady, you
are safely back among your own now, a day’s ride from your brother’s castle.
Give me leave to go.”
    Catelyn should not have been surprised. The homely young woman had kept to
herself all through their journey, spending most of her time with the horses,
brushing out their coats and pulling stones from their shoes. She had helped
Shadd cook and clean game as well, and soon proved that she could hunt as well
as any. Any task Catelyn asked her to turn her hand to, Brienne had performed
deftly and without complaint, and when she was spoken to she answered politely,
but she never chattered, nor wept, nor laughed. She had ridden with them every
day and slept among them every night without ever truly becoming one of
them.
    It was the same when she was with Renly,
Catelyn thought.
At the feast, in the melee, even in Renly’s pavilion with her brothers of
the Rainbow Guard. There are walls around this one higher than
Winterfell’s.
    â€œIf you left us, where would you go?” Catelyn asked her.
    â€œBack,” Brienne said. “To Storm’s End.”
    â€œAlone.” It was not a question.
    The broad face was a pool of still water, giving no hint of what might live in
the depths below. “Yes.”
    â€œYou mean to kill Stannis.”
    Brienne closed her thick callused fingers around the hilt of her sword. The
sword that had been his. “I swore a vow. Three times I swore. You heard
me.”
    â€œI did,” Catelyn admitted. The girl had kept the
rainbow cloak when she
discarded the rest of her bloodstained clothing, she knew. Brienne’s own things
had been left behind during their flight, and she had been forced to clothe
herself in odd bits of Ser Wendel’s spare garb, since no one else in their
party had garments large enough to fit her. “Vows should be kept, I agree, but
Stannis has a great host around him, and his own guards sworn to keep him
safe.”
    â€œI am not afraid of his guards. I am as good as any of them. I should never
have fled.”
    â€œIs that what troubles you, that some fool might call you craven?” She
sighed. “Renly’s death was no fault of yours. You served him valiantly, but
when you seek to follow him into the

earth, you serve no one.” She stretched out a hand, to give what comfort a
touch could give. “I know how hard it is—”
    Brienne shook off her hand. “No one knows.”
    â€œYou’re wrong,” Catelyn said sharply. “Every morning, when I wake, I
remember that Ned is gone. I have no skill with swords, but that does not mean
that I do not dream of riding to King’s Landing and wrapping my hands around
Cersei Lannister’s white throat and squeezing until her face turns
black.”
    The Beauty raised her eyes, the only part of her that was truly beautiful. “If
you dream that, why would you seek to hold me back? Is it because of what
Stannis said at the parley?”
    Was it?
Catelyn glanced across the camp. Two men were walking sentry,
spears in hand. “I was taught that good men must fight evil in this world, and
Renly’s death was evil beyond all doubt. Yet I was also taught that the gods
make kings, not the