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A moment later the two chaht was attended by two young squires, the sellsword by the Eyrie’s en was steel from head to heel, encased in heavy plate are circular rondels, enail of House Arryn, protected the vulnerable juncture of arm and breast A skirt of lobstered et encircled his throat Falcon’s wings sprouted from the temples of his helm, and his visor was a pointed metal beak with a narrow slit for vision

Bronn was so lightly arht He wore only a shirt of black oiled ringuard, and a ave sos, and discs of black iron were sewn into the fingers of his gloves Yet Catelyn noted that the sellsword stood half a hand taller than his foe, with a longer reachand Bronn was fifteen years younger, if she was any judge

They knelt in the grass beneath the weeping wo each other, with Lannister between them The septon re at his waist He lifted it high above his head, and the light shattered Rainbows danced across the I voice, the septon asked the gods to look down and bear witness, to find the truth in this rant hiuilty His voice echoed off the surrounding towers

When the last echo had died away, the septon lowered his crystal and made a hasty departure Tyrion leaned over and whispered souards and brushed a blade of grass from his knee

Robert Arryn, Lord of the Eyrie and Defender of the Vale, was fidgeting iht?" he asked plaintively

Ser Vardis was helped back to his feet by one of his squires The other brought hiular shield almost four feet tall, heavy oak dotted with iron studs They strapped it to his left forearm When Lysa’s master-at-arms offered Bronn a similar shield, the sellsword spat and waved it away Three days growth of coarse black beard covered his jaw and cheeks, but if he did not shave it was not for want of a razor; the edge of his sword had the dangerous glimmer of steel that had been honed every day for hours, until it was too sharp to touch

Ser Vardis held out a gauntleted hand, and his squire placed a handsoraved with a delicate silver tracery of a uard fashioned into the shape of wings "I had that sword crafted for Jon in King’s Landing," Lysa told her guests proudly as they watched Ser Vardis try a practice cut "He wore it whenever he sat the Iron Throne in King Robert’s place Isn’t it a lovely thing? I thought it only fitting that our charaved silver blade was beautiful beyond a doubt, but it seeht have been ; she eary of futile arguht!" Lord Robert called out

Ser Vardis faced the Lord of the Eyrie and lifted his sword in salute "For the Eyrie and the Vale!"

Tyrion Lannister had been seated on a balcony across the garden, flanked by his guards It was to him that Bronn turned with a cursory salute

"They await your coht!" the boy screa as they clutched at his chair

Ser Vardis swiveled, bringing up his heavy shield Bronn turned to face hi The sellsword backed off a step The knight ca his shield before him He tried a slash, but Bronn jerked back, just out of reach, and the silver blade cut only air Bronn circled to his right Ser Vardis turned to follow, keeping his shield between the each foot carefully on the uneven ground The sellsword gave way, a faint s, but Bronn leapt away frohtly over a low, moss-covered stone Now the sellsword circled left, away froht’s unprotected side Ser Vardis tried a hack at his legs, but he did not have the reach Bronn danced farther to his left Ser Vardis turned in place

"The ht, coward! " Other voices echoed the sentiment

Catelyn looked to Ser Rodrik Her ave a curt shake of his head "He wants to ht of arest man"

She had seen men practice at their swordplay near every day of her life, had viewed half a hundred tourneys in her ti different and deadlier: a dance where the smallest misstep meant death And as she watched, the memory of another duel in another time came back to Catelyn Stark, as vivid as if it had been yesterday

They met in the lower bailey of Riverrun When Brandon saw that Petyr wore only helm and breastplate and ed her for a favor he ht wear, but she had turned him away Her lord father proave her token, a pale blue handscarf she had e trout of Riverrun As she pressed it into his hand, she pleaded with him "He is only a foolish boy, but I have loved hirieve me to see hirey eyes of a Stark and proht was over alrown, and he drove Littlefinger all the way across the bailey and down the water stair, raining steel on hi from a dozen wounds "Yield!" he called, ht on, gri at their ankles, Brandon finally ended it, with a brutal backhand cut that bit through Petyr’s rings and leather into the soft flesh below the ribs, so deep that Catelyn was certain that the wound was mortal He looked at her as he fell andout between his otten that

That was the last tiht before hiht passed before Littlefinger was strong enough to leave Riverrun, but her lord father forbade her to visit him in the tohere he lay abed Lysa helped their maester nurse him; she had been softer and shyer in those days Edmure had called on him as well, but Petyr had sent him away Her brother had acted as Brandon’s squire at the duel, and Littlefinger would not forgive that As soon as he was strong enough to be moved, Lord Hoster Tully sent Petyr Baelish away in a closed litter, to finish his healing on the Fingers, upon the ept jut of rock where he’d been born

The ringing clash of steel on steel jarred Catelyn back to the present Ser Vardis was co into him with shield and sword The sellsword scra lithely over rock and root, his eyes never leaving his foe He was quicker, Catelyn saw; the knight’s silvered sword never carey blade hacked a notch from Ser Vardis’s shoulder plate

The brief flurry of fighting ended as swiftly as it had begun when Bronn sidestepped and slid behind the statue of the weeping wo a spark off the pale h

"They’re not fighting good, Mother," the Lord of the Eyrie coht"

"They will, sweet baby," his mother soothed him "The sellsword can’t run all day"

So wry jests as they refilled their wine cups, but across the garden, Tyrion Lannister’s mismatched eyes watched the cha else in the world

Bronn ca left, aiht side Ser Vardis blocked, but clumsily, and the sellsword’s blade flashed upward at his head Metal rang, and a falcon’s wing collapsed with a crunch Ser Vardis took a half step back to brace himself, raised his shield Oak chips flew as Bronn’s sword hacked at the wooden wall The sellsword stepped left again, away froht Ser Vardis across the stoash when it bit into the knight’s plate

Ser Vardis drove forward off his back foot, his own silver blade descending in a savage arc Bronn slaht crashed into the weeping woered, he stepped backward, his head turning this way and that as he searched for his foe The slit visor of his helm narrowed his vision

"Behind you, ser!" Lord Hunter shouted, too late Bronn brought his sword doith both hands, catching Ser Vardis in the elbow of his sword arm The thin lobstered runted, turning, wrenching his weapon up This tiround The swords flew at each other, and their steel song filled the garden and rang off the white towers of the Eyrie

"Ser Vardis is hurt," Ser Rodrik said, his voice grave

Catelyn did not need to be told; she had eyes, she could see the bright finger of blood running along the knight’s forearm, the wetness inside the elbow joint Every parry was a little slower and a little lower than the one before Ser Vardis turned his side to his foe, trying to use his shield to block instead, but Bronn slid around hier His cuts were leaving their ht’s ar on his breastplate, a long one along the front of his gorget The ht ar by its strap They could hear his labored breath, rattling through the air holes in his visor

Blind with arrogance as they were, even the knights and lords of the Vale could see as happening below theh, Ser Vardis!" Lady Lysa called down "Finish hi tired"

And it en that he was true to his lady’s co backward, half-crouched behind his scarred shield; the next he charged The sudden bull rush caught Bronn off balance Ser Vardis crashed into him and slammed the lip of his shield into the sellsword’s face Alered back, tripped over a rock, and caught hold of the weeping wo aside his shield, Ser Vardis lurched after hiht arers now, yet his last desperate bloould have opened Bronn from neck to navelif the sellsword had stood to receive it

But Bronn jerked back Jon Arryn’s beautiful engraved silver sword glanced off thewoman and snapped clean a third of the way up the blade Bronn put his shoulder into the statue’s back The weathered likeness of Alyssa Arryn tottered and fell with a great crash, and Ser Vardis Egen went down beneath her

Bronn was on hi as left of his shattered rondel aside to expose the weak spot between ar on his side, pinned beneath the broken torso of the weeping woroan as the sellsword lifted his blade with both hands and drove it down and in with all his weight behind it, under the aren shuddered and lay still

Silence hung over the Eyrie Bronn yanked off his halfhelrass His lip was sht him, and his coal-black hair was soaked with sweat He spit out a broken tooth

"Is it over, Mother?" the Lord of the Eyrie asked

No, Catelyn wanted to tell hi

"Yes," Lysa said gluuard

"Can I arden, Tyrion Lannister got to his feet "Not this littledown in the turnip hoist, thank you very an

"I presume that House Arryn reh as Honor"

"You promised I could make hian to shake

Lady Lysa’s face was flushed with fury "The gods have seen fit to proclaim him innocent, child We have no choice but to free him" She lifted her voice "Guards Take ht Escort them to the Bloody Gate and set them free See that they have horses and supplies sufficient to reach the Trident, and oods and weapons are returned to theh road"

"The high road," Tyrion Lannister said Lysa allowed herself a faint, satisfied smile It was another sort of death sentence, Catelyn realized Tyrion Lannister must know that as well Yet the dwarf favored Lady Arryn with abow "As you command, my lady," he said "I believe we know the way"