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Sansa
Sansa rode to the Hand’s tourney with Septa Mordane and Jeyne Poole, in a litter with curtains of yellow silk so fine she could see right through theold Beyond the city walls, a hundred pavilions had been raised beside the river, and the coames The splendor of it all took Sansa’s breath away; the shining arold, the shouts of the crowd, the banners snapping in the windand the knights thehts s," she whispered when they found the places that her father had proh lords and ladies Sansa was dressed beautifully that day, in a green gown that brought out the auburn of her hair, and she knew they were looking at her and ss ride forth, each uard took the field, all but Jaime Lannister in scaled armor the color of milk, their cloaks as white as freshfallen snow Ser Jai gold froolden sword Ser Gregor Clegane, the Mountain That Rides, thundered past them like an avalanche Sansa reuested at Winterfell two years before "His arraved with ainst harm," she whispered to Jeyne Septa Mordane pointed out Lord Jason Mallister, in indigo chased with silver, the wings of an eagle on his helar’s bannerled over the warrior priest Thoros of Myr, with his flapping red robes and shaven head, until the septa told the sword in hand
Other riders Sansa did not know; hedge knights froarden and thefreeriders and new-h lords and the heirs of lesser houses Younger reat deeds as yet, but Sansa and Jeyne agreed that one day the Seven Kingdoms would resound to the sound of their names Ser Balon Swann Lord Bryce Caron of the Marches Bronze Yohn’s heir, Ser Andar Royce, and his younger brother Ser Robar, their silvered steel plate filigreed in bronze with the same ancient runes that warded their father The twins Ser Horas and Ser Hobber, whose shields displayed the grape cluster sigil of the Redwynes, burgundy on blue Patrek Mallister, Lord Jason’s son Six Freys of the Crossing: Ser Jared, Ser Hosteen, Ser Danwell, Ser Erandsons of old Lord Walder Frey, and his bastard son Martyn Rivers as well
Jeyne Poole confessed herself frightened by the look of Jalabhar Xho, an exile prince froreen and scarlet feathers over skin as dark as night, but when she saw young Lord Beric Dondarrion, with his hair like red gold and his black shield slashed by lightning, she pronounced herself willing to marry him on the instant
The Hound entered the lists as well, and so too the king’s brother, handsome Lord Renly of Storm’s End Jory, Alyn, and Harwin rode for Winterfell and the north "Jory looks a beggar a these others," Septa Mordane sniffed when he appeared Sansa could only agree Jory’s arrey plate without device or orna fro Yet he acquitted hi Horas Redwyne in his first joust and one of the Freys in his second In his third match, he rode three passes at a freerider named Lothor Brune whose armor was as drab as his own Neither man lost his seat, but Brune’s lance was steadier and his blows better placed, and the king gave him the victory Alyn and Harwin fared less well; Haras unhorsed in his first tilt by Ser Meryn of the Kingsguard, while Alyn fell to Ser Balon Swann
The jousting went all day and into the dusk, the hooves of the great warhorses pounding down the lists until the field was a ragged wasteland of torn earth A dozen tiether, lances exploding into splinters while the commons screamed for their favorites Jeyne covered her eyes whenever a irl, but Sansa was reat lady kne to behave at tournaments Even Septa Mordane noted her coslayer rode brilliantly He overthrew Ser Andar Royce and the Marcher Lord Bryce Caron as easily as if he were riding at rings, and then took a hard-fought match from white-haired Barristan Selainst men thirty and forty years his junior
Sandor Clegane and his ior the Mountain, see down one foe after the next in ferocious style The or’s second joust, when his lance rode up and struck a young knight froet with such force that it drove through his throat, killing him instantly The youth fell not ten feet froor’s lance had snapped off in his neck, and his life’s blood flowed out in slow pulses, each weaker than the one before His arht streak of fire ran down his outstretched arht Then the sun went behind a cloud, and it was gone His cloak was blue, the color of the sky on a clear summer’s day, trimmed with a border of crescent moons, but as his blood seeped into it, the cloth darkened and the moons turned red, one by one
Jeyne Poole wept so hysterically that Septa Mordane finally took her off to regain her composure, but Sansa sat with her hands folded in her lap, watching with a strange fascination She had never seen a ht, but the tears would not come Perhaps she had used up all her tears for Lady and Bran It would be different if it had been Jory or Ser Rodrik or Father, she told herself The young knight in the blue cloak was nothing to her, sootten as soon as she heard it And now the world would forget his na for him That was sad
After they carried off the body, a boy with a spade ran onto the field and shoveled dirt over the spot where he had fallen, to cover up the blood Then the jousts resuor, and Lord Renly to the Hound Renly was unhorsed so violently that he sees in the air His head hit the ground with an audible crack that olden antler on his helm One of the tines had snapped off beneath him When Lord Renly cli Robert’s handsoreat favorite He handed the broken tine to his conqueror with a gracious bow The Hound snorted and tossed the broken antler into the crohere the coold, until Lord Renly walked out a them and restored the peace By then Septa Mordane had returned, alone Jeyne had been feeling ill, she explained; she had helped her back to the castle Sansa had alht in a checkered cloak disgraced hi Beric Dondarrion’s horse, and was declared forfeit Lord Beric shifted his saddle to a new ht off it by Thoros of Myr Ser Aron Santagar and Lothor Brune tilted thrice without result; Ser Aron fell afterward to Lord Jason Mallister, and Brune to Yohn Royce’s younger son, Robar
In the end it caor, Jaislayer, and Ser Loras Tyrell, the youth they called the Knight of Flowers
Ser Loras was the youngest son of Mace Tyrell, the Lord of Highgarden and Warden of the South At sixteen, he was the youngest rider on the field, yet he had unhorsed three knights of the Kingsguard thatin his first three jousts Sansa had never seen anyone so beautiful His plate was intricately fashioned and enameled as a bouquet of a thousand different flowers, and his snohite stallion was draped in a blanket of red and white roses After each victory, Ser Loras would remove his helle white rose from the blanket and toss it to some fair maiden in the crowd
His last er Royce Ser Robar’s ancestral runes proved small protection as Ser Loras split his shield and drove hior in the dirt Robar layas the victor made his circuit of the field Finally they called for a litter and carried hi Sansa never saw it Her eyes were only for Ser Loras When the white horse stopped in front of her, she thought her heart would burst
To the other iven white roses, but the one he plucked for her was red "Sweet lady," he said, "no victory is half so beautiful as you" Sansa took the flower tiallantry His hair was a old She inhaled the sweet fragrance of the rose and sat clutching it long after Ser Loras had ridden off
When Sansa finally looked up, aHe was short, with a pointed beard and a silver streak in his hair, alhters," he said to her He had grey-green eyes that did not smile when his mouth did "You have the Tully look"
"I’m Sansa Stark," she said, ill at ease The man wore a heavy cloak with a fur collar, fastened with a silver h lord, but she did not know him "I have not had the honor, my lord"
Septa Mordane quickly took a hand "Sweet child, this is Lord Petyr Baelish, of the king’s small council"
"Your mother was my queen of beauty once," the man said quietly His breath sainst her cheek as he stroked one auburn lock Quite abruptly he turned and walked away
By then, thedecreed that the last three , before theof the day’s jousts and the matches to coin the feast Sixslowly on wooden spits while kitchen boys basted them with butter and herbs until the meat crackled and spit Tables and benches had been raised outside the pavilions, piled high with sweetgrass and strawberries and fresh-baked bread
Sansa and Septa Mordane were given places of high honor, to the left of the raised dais where the king himself sat beside his queen When Prince Joffrey seated hihten He had not spoken a word to her since the awful thing had happened, and she had not dared to speak to hiht she hated him for what they’d done to Lady, but after Sansa had wept her eyes dry, she told herself that it had not been Joffrey’s doing, not truly The queen had done it; she was the one to hate, her and Arya Nothing bad would have happened except for Arya
She could not hate Joffrey tonight He was too beautiful to hate He wore a deep blue doublet studded with a double row of golden lion’s heads, and around his brow a sliht as the ht ignore her or, worse, turn hateful again and send her weeping from the table
Instead Joffrey sallant as any prince in the songs, and said, "Ser Loras has a keen eye for beauty, sweet lady"
"He was too kind," she deh her heart was singing "Ser Loras is a true knight Do you think he in to will do for him, or perhaps h to enter the lists, I shall do for theon of iced summerwine, and poured her a cup She looked anxiously at Septa Mordane, until Joffrey leaned over and filled the septa’s cup as well, so she nodded and thanked hiraciously and said not another word
The servants kept the cups filled all night, yet afterward Sansa could not recall ever tasting the wine She needed no wine She was drunk on the lamour, swept away by beauties she had dreaers sat before the king’s pavilion, filling the dusk withthrough the air The king’s own fool, the pie-faced simpleton called Moon Boy, danced about on stilts, all inmock of everyone with such deft cruelty that Sansa wondered if he was simple after all Even Septa Mordane was helpless before hih Septon, she laughed so hard she spilled wine on herself
And Joffrey was the soul of courtesy He talked to Sansa all night, showering her with coossip, explaining Moon Boy’s japes Sansa was so captivated that she quite forgot all her courtesies and ignored Septa Mordane, seated to her left
All the while the courses came and went A thick soup of barley and venison Salads of sweetgrass and spinach and pluarlic Sansa had never eaten snails before; Joffrey showed her how to get the snail out of the shell, and fed her the first sweet morsel himself Then came trout fresh from the river, baked in clay; her prince helped her crack open the hard casing to expose the flaky white flesh within And when thea queen’s portion fro as he laid it on her plate She could see fro him, yet he uttered not a word of coeon pie and baked apples fragrant with cinnaar, but by then Sansa was so stuffed that she could not e more than two little le whether she an to shout
King Robert had grown louder with each course Fro a coor of plates and cutlery, but they were too far away for her to make out his words
Now everybody heard him "No," he thundered in a voice that drowned out all other speech Sansa was shocked to see the king on his feet, red of face, reeling He had a goblet of wine in one hand, and he was drunk as a man could be "You do not tellhere, do you understand? I rule here, and if I say that I will fight to Sansa saw Ser Barristan, and the king’s brother Renly, and the short man who had talked to her so oddly and touched her hair, but no one made a move to interfere The queen’s face was a ht have been sculpted froathered her skirts around her, and stor behind