A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

lives with no certainty of success. And there is no need. Once you
dethrone Joffrey this castle must come to you with all the rest. It is said
about the camp that Lord Tywin Lannister rushes west to rescue
Lannisport from
the vengeance of the northmen . . .”
    â€œYou have a passing clever father, Devan,” the king told the boy standing by
his elbow. “He makes me wish I had more smugglers in my service. And fewer
lords. Though you are wrong in one

respect, Davos. There
is
a need. If I leave Storm’s End untaken in my
rear, it will be said I was defeated here. And that I cannot permit. Men do not
love me as they loved my brothers. They follow me because they fear
me . . . and defeat is death to fear. The castle must fall.”
His jaw ground side to side. “Aye, and
quickly.
Doran Martell has
called
his banners and fortified the mountain passes. His Dornishmen are poised
to sweep down onto the Marches. And Highgarden is far from spent. My brother
left the greater part of his power at Bitterbridge, near sixty thousand foot. I
sent my wife’s brother Ser Errol with Ser Parmen Crane to take them under my
command, but they have not returned. I fear that Ser Loras Tyrell reached
Bitterbridge before my envoys, and took that host for his own.”
    â€œAll the more reason to take King’s Landing as soon as we may. Salladhor Saan
told me—”
    â€œSalladhor Saan thinks only of gold!” Stannis exploded. “His head is full of
dreams of the treasure he fancies lies under the Red Keep, so let us hear no
more of Salladhor Saan. The day I need military counsel from a Lysene brigand
is the day I put off my crown and take the black.” The king made a fist. “Are
you here to serve me, smuggler? Or to vex me with arguments?”
    â€œI am yours,” Davos said.
    â€œThen hear me. Ser Cortnay’s lieutenant is cousin to the Fossoways. Lord
Meadows, a green boy of twenty. Should some ill chance strike down Penrose,
command of Storm’s End would pass to this stripling, and his cousins believe he
would accept my terms

and yield up the castle.”
    â€œI remember another stripling who was given command of Storm’s End. He could
not have been much more than twenty.”
    â€œLord Meadows is not as stonehead stubborn as I was.”
    â€œStubborn or craven, what does it matter? Ser Cortnay Penrose seemed hale and
hearty to me.”
    â€œSo did my brother, the day before his death. The night is dark and full of
terrors, Davos.”
    Davos Seaworth felt the small hairs rising on the back of his neck. “My lord,
I do not understand you.”
    â€œI do not require your understanding. Only your service. Ser Cortnay will be
dead within the day. Melisandre has seen it in the flames of the future. His
death and the manner of it. He will not die in knightly combat, needless to
say.” Stannis held out his cup, and Devan filled it again from the flagon.
“Her flames do not lie. She saw Renly’s doom as well. On Dragonstone she saw
it, and told Selyse. Lord Velaryon and your friend Salladhor Saan would have
had me sail against Joffrey, but Melisandre told me that if I went to Storm’s
End, I would win the best part of my brother’s power, and she was
right.”
    â€œB-but,” Davos stammered, “Lord Renly only came here because you had
laid siege to the castle. He was marching toward King’s Landing before, against
the Lannisters, he would have—”
    Stannis shifted in his seat, frowning. “
Was, would have,
what is
that? He did what he did. He came here with his banners and his peaches, to his
doom . . . and it was well for me he did.

Melisandre saw another day in her flames as well. A morrow where Renly rode out
of the south in his green armor to smash my host beneath the walls of King’s
Landing. Had I met my brother there, it might have been me who died in place of
him.”
    â€œOr you might have joined your strength to his to bring down the Lannisters,”
Davos protested. “Why not that? If she saw two futures,
well
. . . both
cannot be true.”
    King Stannis pointed a finger. “There you err, Onion Knight. Some lights cast
more than one shadow. Stand before the nightfire and you’ll see for yourself.
The flames shift and dance, never still. The shadows grow tall and short, and
every man casts a dozen. Some