“The king is eight. Our first duty is to protect him, which includes protecting him from himself.
Use that ugly thing you keep inside your helm. If Tommen wants you to saddle his horse, obey him. If he tells you to kill his horse, come to me.”
“Aye. As you command, my lord.”
“Dismissed.” As he left, Jaime turned to Ser Balon Swann. “Ser Balon, I have watched you tilt many a time, and fought with and against you in melees. I’m told you proved your valor a hundred times over during the Battle of the Blackwater. The Kingsguard is honored by your presence.”
“The honor’s mine, my lord.” Ser Balon sounded wary.
“There is only one question I would put to you. You served us loyally, it’s true... but Varys tells me that your brother rode with Renly and then Stannis, whilst your lord father chose not to cal his banners at al and remained behind the wal s of Stonehelm all through the fighting.”
“My father is an old man, my lord. Wel past forty. His fighting days are done.”
“And your brother?”
“Donnel was wounded in the battle and yielded to Ser Elwood Harte. He was ransomed afterward and pledged his fealty to King Joffrey, as did many other captives.”
“So he did,” said Jaime. “Even so... Renly, Stannis, Joffrey, Tommen how did he come to omit Balon Greyjoy and Robb Stark? He might have been the first knight in the realm to swear fealty to all six kings.”
Ser Balon’s unease was plain. “Donnel erred, but he is Tommen’s man now. You have my word.”
“It’s not Ser Donnel the Constant who concerns me. It’s you.” Jaime leaned forward. “What will you do if brave Ser Donnel gives his sword to yet another usurper, and one day comes storming into the throne room? And there you stand al in white, between your king and your blood. What wil you do?”
“I... my lord, that will never happen.”
“It happened to me,” Jaime said.
Swann wiped his brow with the sleeve of his white tunic.
“You have no answer?”
“My lord.” Ser Balon drew himself up. “On my sword, on my honor, on my father’s name, I swear... I shal not do as you did.”
Jaime laughed. “Good. Return to your duties... and tell Ser Donnel to add a weathervane to his shield.”
And then he was alone with the Knight of Flowers.
Slim as a sword, lithe and fit, Ser Loras Tyrell wore a snowy linen tunic and white wool breeches, with a gold belt around his waist and a gold rose clasping his fine silk cloak. His hair was a soft brown tumble, and his eyes were brown as wel , and bright with insolence. He thinks this is a tourney, and his tilt has just been called. “Seventeen and a knight of the Kingsguard,” said Jaime. “You must be proud. Prince Aegon the Dragonknight was seventeen when he was named. Did you know that?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“And did you know that I was fifteen?”
“That as well, my lord.” He smiled.
Jaime hated that smile. “I was better than you, Ser Loras. I was bigger, I was stronger, and I was quicker.”
“And now you’re older,” the boy said. “My lord.”
He had to laugh. This is too absurd. Tyrion would mock me unmercifully if he could hear me now, comparing cocks with this green boy. “Older and wiser, ser. You should learn from me.”
“As you learned from Ser Boros and Ser Meryn?”
That arrow hit too close to the mark. “I learned from the White Bull and Barristan the Bold,” Jaime snapped. “I learned from Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, who could have slain all five of you with his left hand while he was taking with a piss with the right. I learned from Prince Lewyn of Dorne and Ser Oswel Whent and Ser Jonothor Darry, good men every one.”
“Dead men, every one.”
He’s me, Jaime realized suddenly. I am speaking to myself, as I was, al cocksure arrogance and empty chivalry. This is what it does to you, to be too good too young.
As in a swordfight, sometimes it is best to try a different stroke. “It’s said you fought magnificently in the battle... almost as well as Lord Renly’s ghost beside you. A Sworn Brother has no secrets from his Lord Commander. Tell me, ser. Who was wearing Renly’s armor?” For a moment Loras Tyrel looked as though he might refuse, but in the end he remembered his vows. “My brother,” he said sullenly. “Renly was tal er than me, and broader in the chest. His armor was too loose on me, but it suited Garlan well.”
“Was the masquerade your notion, or his?”
“Lord Littlefinger suggested it. He said it would frighten Stannis’s ignorant men-at-arms.”
“And so it did.” And some knights and lordlings too. “Wel , you gave the singers something to make rhymes about, I suppose that’s not to be despised. What did you do with Renly?”
“I buried him with mine own hands, in a place he showed me once when I was a squire at Storm’s End. No one shall ever find him there to disturb his rest.” He looked at Jaime defiantly.
“I will defend King Tommen with all my strength, I swear it. I will give my life for his if need be. But I will never betray Renly, by word or deed. He was the king that should have been. He was the best of them.”
The best dressed perhaps, Jaime thought, but for once he did not say it. The arrogance had gone out of Ser Loras the moment he began to speak of Renly. He answered truly. He is proud and reckless and full of piss, but he is not false. Not yet. “As you say. One more thing, and you may return to your duties.”
“Yes, my lord?”
“I stil have Brienne of Tarth in a tower cell.”
The boy’s mouth hardened. “A black cell would be better.”
“You are certain that’s what she deserves?”
“She deserves death. I told Renly that a woman had no place in the Rainbow Guard. She won the melee with a trick.”
“I seem to recall another knight who was fond of tricks. He once rode a mare in heat against a foe mounted on a badtempered stal ion. What sort of trickery did Brienne use?” Ser Loras flushed. “She leapt... it makes no matter. She won, I grant her that. His Grace put a rainbow cloak around her shoulders. And she killed him, Or let him die.”
“A large difference there.” The difference between my crime and the shame of Boros Blount.
“She had sworn to protect him. Ser Emmon Cuy, Ser Robar Royce, Ser Parmen Crane, they’d sworn as wel . How could anyone have hurt him, with her inside his tent and the others just outside? Unless they were part of it.”
“There were five of you at the wedding feast,” Jaime pointed out. “How could Joffrey die?
Unless you were part of it?”
Ser Loras drew himself up stiffly. “There was nothing we could have done.”
“The wench says the same. She grieves for Renly as you do. I promise you, I never grieve for Aerys. Brienne’s ugly, and pighead stubborn. But she lacks the wits to be a liar, and she is loyal past the point of sense. She swore an oath to bring me to King’s Landing, and here I sit. This hand I lost... well, that was my doing as much as hers. Considering all she did to protect me, I have no doubt that she would have fought for Renly, had there been a foe to fight. But a shadow?” Jaime shook his head. “Draw your sword, Ser Loras. Show me how you’d fight a shadow. I should like to see that.”
Ser Loras made no move to rise. “She fled,” he said. “She and Catelyn Stark, they left him in his blood and ran. Why would they, if it was not their work?” He stared at the table. “Renly gave me the van. Otherwise it would have been me helping him don his armor. He often entrusted that task to me. We had... we had prayed together that night. I left him with her. Ser Parmen and Ser Emmon were guarding the tent, and Ser Robar Royce was there as wel . Ser Emmon swore Brienne had... although. .”
“Yes?” Jaime prompted, sensing a doubt.
“The gorget was cut through. One clean stroke, through a steel gorget. Renly’s armor was the best, the finest steel. How could she do that? I tried myself, and it was not possible. She’s freakish strong for a woman, but even the Mountain would have needed a heavy axe. And why armor him and then cut his throat?” He gave Jaime a confused look. “If not her, though... how could it be a shadow?”
“Ask her.” Jaime came to a decision. “Go to her cel . Ask your questions and hear her answers.
If you are still convinced that she murdered Lord Renly, I wil see that she answers for it. The choice will be yours. Accuse her, or release her. All I ask is that you judge her fairly, on your honor as a knight.”
Ser Loras stood. “I shall. On my honor.”
“We are done, then.”
The younger man started for the door. But there he turned back. “Renly thought she was absurd.
A woman dressed in man’s mail, pretending to be a knight.”
“If he’d ever seen her in pink satin and Myrish lace, he would not have complained.”
“I asked him why he kept her close, if he thought her so grotesque. He said that all his other knights wanted things of him, castles or honors or riches, but al that Brienne wanted was to die for him. When I saw him all bloody, with her fled and the three of them unharmed... if she’s innocent, then Robar and Emmon.. ” He could not seem to say the words.
Jaime had not stopped to consider that aspect of it. “I would have done the same, ser,” The lie came easy, but Ser Loras seemed grateful for it.
When he was gone, the Lord Commander sat alone in the white room, wondering. The Knight of Flowers had been so mad with grief for Renly that he had cut down two of his own Sworn Brothers, but it had never occurred to Jaime to do the same with the five who had failed Joffrey.
He was my son, my secret son... What am I, if I do not lift the hand I have left to avenge mine own blood and seed? He ought to kil Ser Boros at least, just to be rid of him.
He looked at his stump and grimaced. I must do something about that. If the late Ser Jacelyn Bywater could wear an iron hand, he should have a gold one. Cersei might like that. A golden hand to stroke her golden hair, and hold her hard against me.
His hand could wait, though. There were other things to tend to first. There were other debts to pay.