A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five

by George R. R. Martin

  “An old black tomcat with a torn ear,” Cersei told him. “A filthy thing, and foul-tempered. He clawed Joff’s hand once.” She made a face. “The cats keep the rats down, I know, but that one … he’s been known to attack ravens in the rookery.”

  “I will ask the ratters to set a trap for him.” Ser Kevan could not remember ever seeing his niece so quiet, so subdued, so demure. All for the good, he supposed. But it made him sad as well. Her fire is quenched, she who used to burn so bright. “You have not asked about your brother,” he said, as they were waiting for the cream cakes. Cream cakes were the king’s favorite.

  Cersei lifted her chin, her green eyes shining in the candlelight. “Jaime? Have you had word?”

  “None. Cersei, you may need to prepare yourself for—”

  “If he were dead, I would know it. We came into this world together, Uncle. He would not go without me.” She took a drink of wine. “Tyrion can leave whenever he wishes. You have had no word of him either, I suppose.”

  “No one has tried to sell us a dwarf’s head of late, no.”

  She nodded. “Uncle, may I ask you a question?”

  “Whatever you wish.”

  “Your wife … do you mean to bring her to court?”

  “No.” Dorna was a gentle soul, never comfortable but at home with friends and kin around her. She had done well by their children, dreamed of having grandchildren, prayed seven times a day, loved needlework and flowers. In King’s Landing she would be as happy as one of Tommen’s kittens in a pit of vipers. “My lady wife mislikes travel. Lannisport is her place.”

  “It is a wise woman who knows her place.”

  He did not like the sound of that. “Say what you mean.”

  “I thought I did.” Cersei held out her cup. The freckled girl filled it once again. The cream cakes appeared then, and the conversation took a lighter turn. Only after Tommen and his kittens were escorted off to the royal bedchamber by Ser Boros did their talk turn to the queen’s trial.

  “Osney’s brothers will not stand by idly and watch him die,” Cersei warned him.

  “I did not expect that they would. I’ve had the both of them arrested.”

  That seemed to take her aback. “For what crime?”

  “Fornication with a queen. His High Holiness says that you confessed to bedding both of them—had you forgotten?”

  Her face reddened. “No. What will you do with them?”

  “The Wall, if they admit their guilt. If they deny it, they can face Ser Robert. Such men should never have been raised so high.”

  Cersei lowered her head. “I … I misjudged them.”

  “You misjudged a good many men, it seems.”

  He might have said more, but the dark-haired novice with the round cheeks returned to say, “My lord, my lady, I am sorry to intrude, but there is a boy below. Grand Maester Pycelle begs the favor of the Lord Regent’s presence at once.”

  Dark wings, dark words, Ser Kevan thought. Could Storm’s End have fallen? Or might this be word from Bolton in the north?

  “It might be news of Jaime,” the queen said.

  There was only one way to know. Ser Kevan rose. “Pray excuse me.” Before he took his leave, he dropped to one knee and kissed his niece upon the hand. If her silent giant failed her, it might be the last kiss she would ever know.

  The messenger was a boy of eight or nine, so bundled up in fur he seemed a bear cub. Trant had kept him waiting out on the drawbridge rather than admit him into Maegor’s. “Go find a fire, lad,” Ser Kevan told him, pressing a penny into his hand. “I know the way to the rookery well enough.”

  The snow had finally stopped falling. Behind a veil of ragged clouds, a full moon floated fat and white as a snowball. The stars shone cold and distant. As Ser Kevan made his way across the inner ward, the castle seemed an alien place, where every keep and tower had grown icy teeth, and all familiar paths had vanished beneath a white blanket. Once an icicle long as a spear fell to shatter by his feet. Autumn in King’s Landing, he brooded. What must it be like up on the Wall?

  The door was opened by a serving girl, a skinny thing in a fur-lined robe much too big for her. Ser Kevan stamped the snow off his boots, removed his cloak, tossed it to her. “The Grand Maester is expecting me,” he announced. The girl nodded, solemn and silent, and pointed to the steps.

  Pycelle’s chambers were beneath the rookery, a spacious suite of rooms cluttered with racks of herbs and salves and potions and shelves jammed full of books and scrolls. Ser Kevan had always found them uncomfortably hot. Not tonight. Once past the chamber door, the chill was palpable. Black ash and dying embers were all that remained of the hearthfire. A few flickering candles cast pools of dim light here and there.

  The rest was shrouded in shadow … except beneath the open window, where a spray of ice crystals glittered in the moonlight, swirling in the wind. On the window seat a raven loitered, pale, huge, its feathers ruffled. It was the largest raven that Kevan Lannister had ever seen. Larger than any hunting hawk at Casterly Rock, larger than the largest owl. Blowing snow danced around it, and the moon painted it silver.

  Not silver. White. The bird is white.

  The white ravens of the Citadel did not carry messages, as their dark cousins did. When they went forth from Oldtown, it was for one purpose only: to herald a change of seasons.

  “Winter,” said Ser Kevan. The word made a white mist in the air. He turned away from the window.

  Then something slammed him in the chest between the ribs, hard as a giant’s fist. It drove the breath from him and sent him lurching backwards. The white raven took to the air, its pale wings slapping him about the head. Ser Kevan half-sat and half-fell onto the window seat. What … who … A quarrel was sunk almost to the fletching in his chest. No. No, that was how my brother died. Blood was seeping out around the shaft. “Pycelle,” he muttered, confused. “Help me … I …”

  Then he saw. Grand Maester Pycelle was seated at his table, his head pillowed on the great leather-bound tome before him. Sleeping, Kevan thought … until he blinked and saw the deep red gash in the old man’s spotted skull and the blood pooled beneath his head, staining the pages of his book. All around his candle were bits of bone and brain, islands in a lake of melted wax.

  He wanted guards, Ser Kevan thought. I should have sent him guards. Could Cersei have been right all along? Was this his nephew’s work? “Tyrion?” he called. “Where …?”

  “Far away,” a half-familiar voice replied.

  He stood in a pool of shadow by a bookcase, plump, pale-faced, round-shouldered, clutching a crossbow in soft powdered hands. Silk slippers swaddled his feet.

  “Varys?”

  The eunuch set the crossbow down. “Ser Kevan. Forgive me if you can. I bear you no ill will. This was not done from malice. It was for the realm. For the children.”

  I have children. I have a wife. Oh, Dorna. Pain washed over him. He closed his eyes, opened them again. “There are … there are hundreds of Lannister guardsmen in this castle.”

  “But none in this room, thankfully. This pains me, my lord. You do not deserve to die alone on such a cold dark night. There are many like you, good men in service to bad causes … but you were threatening to undo all the queen’s good work, to reconcile Highgarden and Casterly Rock, bind the Faith to your little king, unite the Seven Kingdoms under Tommen’s rule. So …”

  A gust of wind blew up. Ser Kevan shivered violently.

  “Are you cold, my lord?” asked Varys. “Do forgive me. The Grand Maester befouled himself in dying, and the stink was so abominable that I thought I might choke.”

  Ser Kevan tried to rise, but the strength had left him. He could not feel his legs.

  “I thought the crossbow fitting. You shared so much with Lord Tywin, why not that? Your niece will think the Tyrells had you murdered, mayhaps with the connivance of the Imp. The Tyrells will suspect her. Someone somewhere will find a way to blame the Dornishmen. Doubt, division, and mistrust will
eat the very ground beneath your boy king, whilst Aegon raises his banner above Storm’s End and the lords of the realm gather round him.”

  “Aegon?” For a moment he did not understand. Then he remembered. A babe swaddled in a crimson cloak, the cloth stained with his blood and brains. “Dead. He’s dead.”

  “No.” The eunuch’s voice seemed deeper. “He is here. Aegon has been shaped for rule since before he could walk. He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be, but that was not the end of his education. He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them. He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound, he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid. Tommen has been taught that kingship is his right. Aegon knows that kingship is his duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them.”

  Kevan Lannister tried to cry out … to his guards, his wife, his brother … but the words would not come. Blood dribbled from his mouth. He shuddered violently.

  “I am sorry.” Varys wrung his hands. “You are suffering, I know, yet here I stand going on like some silly old woman. Time to make an end to it.” The eunuch pursed his lips and gave a little whistle.

  Ser Kevan was cold as ice, and every labored breath sent a fresh stab of pain through him. He glimpsed movement, heard the soft scuffling sound of slippered feet on stone. A child emerged from a pool of darkness, a pale boy in a ragged robe, no more than nine or ten. Another rose up behind the Grand Maester’s chair. The girl who had opened the door for him was there as well. They were all around him, half a dozen of them, white-faced children with dark eyes, boys and girls together.

  And in their hands, the daggers.

  WESTEROS

  THE BOY KING

  TOMMEN BARATHEON, the First of His Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, a boy of eight years,

  his wife, QUEEN MARGAERY of House Tyrell, thrice wed, twice widowed, accused of high treason, held captive in the Great Sept of Baelor,

  her lady companions and cousins, MEGGA, ALLA, and ELINOR TYRELL, accused of fornications,

  Elinor’s betrothed, ALYN AMBROSE, squire,

  his mother, CERSEI of House Lannister, Queen Dowager, Lady of Casterly Rock, accused of high treason, captive in the Great Sept of Baelor,

  his siblings:

  his elder brother, {KING JOFFREY I BARATHEON}, poisoned during his wedding feast,

  his elder sister, PRINCESS MYRCELLA BARATHEON, a girl of nine, a ward of Prince Doran Martell at Sunspear, betrothed to his son Trystane,

  his kittens, SER POUNCE, LADY WHISKERS, BOOTS,

  his uncles:

  SER JAIME LANNISTER, called THE KINGSLAYER, twin to Queen Cersei, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard,

  TYRION LANNISTER, called THE IMP, a dwarf, accused and condemned for regicide and kinslaying,

  his other kin:

  his grandfather, {TYWIN LANNISTER}, Lord of Casterly Rock, Warden of the West, and Hand of the King, murdered in the privy by his son Tyrion,

  his great-uncle, SER KEVAN LANNISTER, Lord Regent and Protector of the Realm, m. Dorna Swyft,

  their children:

  SER LANCEL LANNISTER, a knight of the Holy Order of the Warrior’s Sons,

  {WILLEM}, twin to Martyn, murdered at Riverrun,

  MARTYN, twin to Willem, a squire,

  JANEI, a girl of three,

  his great-aunt, GENNA LANNISTER, m. Ser Emmon Frey,

  their children:

  {SER CLEOS FREY}, killed by outlaws,

  his son, SER TYWIN FREY, called TY,

  his son, WILLEM FREY, a squire,

  SER LYONEL FREY, Lady Genna’s second son,

  {TION FREY}, a squire, murdered at Riverrun,

  WALDER FREY, called RED WALDER, a page at Casterly Rock,

  his great-uncle, {SER TYGETT LANNISTER}, m. Darlessa Mar-brand

  their children:

  TYREK LANNISTER, a squire, vanished during the food riots in King’s Landing,

  LADY ERMESANDE HAYFORD, Tyrek’s child wife,

  his great uncle, GERION LANNISTER, lost at sea,

  JOY HILL, his bastard daughter,

  King Tommen’s small council:

  SER KEVAN LANNISTER, Lord Regent,

  LORD MACE TYRELL, Hand of the King,

  GRAND MAESTER PYCELLE, counselor and healer,

  SER JAIME LANNISTER, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard,

  LORD PAXTER REDWYNE, grand admiral and master of ships,

  QYBURN, a disgraced maester and reputed necromancer, master of whisperers,

  Queen Cersei’s former small council,

  {LORD GYLES ROSBY}, lord treasurer and master of coin, dead of a cough,

  LORD ORTON MERRYWEATHER, justiciar and master of laws, fled to Longtable upon Queen Cersei’s arrest,

  AURANE WATERS, the Bastard of Driftmark, grand admiral and master of ships, fled to sea with the royal fleet upon Queen Cersei’s arrest,

  King Tommen’s Kingsguard:

  SER JAIME LANNISTER, Lord Commander,

  SER MERYN TRANT,

  SER BOROS BLOUNT, removed and thence restored,

  SER BALON SWANN, in Dorne with Princess Myrcella,

  SER OSMUND KETTLEBLACK,

  SER LORAS TYRELL, the Knight of Flowers,

  {SER ARYS OAKHEART}, dead in Dorne,

  Tommen’s court at King’s Landing:

  MOON BOY, the royal jester and fool,

  PATE, a lad of eight, King Tommen’s whipping boy,

  ORMOND OF OLDTOWN, the royal harper and bard,

  SER OSFRYD KETTLEBLACK, brother to Ser Osmund and Ser Osney, a captain in the City Watch,

  NOHO DIMITTIS, envoy from the Iron Bank of Braavos,

  {SER GREGOR CLEGANE}, called THE MOUNTAIN THAT RIDES, dead of a poisoned wound,

  RENNIFER LONGWATERS, chief undergaoler of the Red Keep’s dungeons,

  Queen Margaery’s alleged lovers:

  WAT, a singer styling himself THE BLUE BARD, a captive driven mad by torment,

  {HAMISH THE HARPER}, an aged singer, died a captive,

  SER MARK MULLENDORE, who lost a monkey and half an arm in the Battle of the Blackwater,

  SER TALLAD called THE TALL, SER LAMBERT TURN-BERRY, SER BAYARD NORCROSS, SER HUGH CLIFTON,

  JALABHAR XHO, Prince of the Red Flower Vale, an exile from the Summer Isles,

  SER HORAS REDWYNE, found innocent and freed,

  SER HOBBER REDWYNE, found innocent and freed,

  Queen Cersei’s chief accuser,

  SER OSNEY KETTLEBLACK, brother to Ser Osmund and Ser Osfryd, held captive by the Faith,

  the people of the Faith:

  THE HIGH SEPTON, Father of the Faithful, Voice of the Seven on Earth, an old man and frail,

  SEPTA UNELLA, SEPTA MOELLE, SEPTA SCOLERA, the queen’s gaolers,

  SEPTON TORBERT, SEPTON RAYNARD, SEPTON LUCEON, SEPTON OLLIDOR, of the Most Devout,

  SEPTA AGLANTINE, SEPTA HELICENT, serving the Seven at the Great Sept of Baelor,

  SER THEODAN WELLS, called THEODAN THE TRUE, pious commander of the Warrior’s Sons,

  the “sparrows,” the humblest of men, fierce in their piety,

  people of King’s Landing:

  CHATAYA, proprietor of an expensive brothel,

  ALAYAYA, her daughter,

  DANCY, MAREI, two of Chataya’s girls,

  TOBHO MOTT, a master armorer,

  lords of the crownlands, sworn to the Iron Throne:

  RENFRED RYKKER, Lord of Duskendale,

  SER RUFUS LEEK, a one-legged knight in his service, castellan of the Dun Fort at Duskendale,

  {TANDA STOKEWORTH}, Lady of Stokeworth, died of a broken hip,

  her eldest daughter, {FALYSE}, died screaming in the black cells,

&n
bsp; {SER BALMAN BYRCH}, Lady Falyse’s husband, killed in a joust,

  her younger daughter, LOLLYS, weak of wit, Lady of Stokeworth,

  her newborn son, TYRION TANNER, of the hundred fathers,

  her husband, SER BRONN OF THE BLACKWATER, sellsword turned knight,

  MAESTER FRENKEN, in service at Stokeworth,

  King Tommen’s banner shows the crowned stag of Baratheon, black on gold, and the lion of Lannister, gold on crimson, combatant.

  THE KING AT THE WALL

  STANNIS BARATHEON, the First of His Name, second son of Lord Steffon Baratheon and Lady Cassana of House Estermont, Lord of Dragonstone, styling himself King of Westeros,

  with King Stannis at Castle Black:

  LADY MELISANDRE OF ASSHAI, called THE RED WOMAN, a priestess of R’hllor, the Lord of Light,

  his knights and sworn swords:

  SER RICHARD HORPE, his second-in-command,

  SER GODRY FARRING, called GIANTSLAYER,

  SER JUSTIN MASSEY,

  LORD ROBIN PEASEBURY,

  LORD HARWOOD FELL,

  SER CLAYTON SUGGS, SER CORLISS PENNY, queen’s men and fervent followers of the Lord of Light,

  SER WILLAM FOXGLOVE, SER HUMFREY CLIFTON, SER ORMUND WYLDE, SER HARYS COBB, knights

  his squires, DEVAN SEAWORTH and BRYEN FARRING

  his captive, MANCE RAYDER, King-Beyond-the-Wall,

  Rayder’s infant son, “the wildling prince,”

  the boy’s wet nurse, GILLY, a wildling girl,

  Gilly’s infant son, “the abomination,” fathered by her father {CRASTER},