A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)

by George R.R. Martin

if that was a smile, it was the queerest she had ever seen.

Save him if you can, and gentle the rage inside him.

let his courage fail him and every man desert him.

“Is your red flower still blooming?”

“How apt. The men will bleed out there, and you in here.”

dark against a lemon sky,

Davos heard a man scream as the arrows found him.

“Piss on wildfire and your cock burns off,”

spitfires were belching death,

The current had him in its teeth

Even wildfire does not burn forever.”

The groaning of the great hinges sounded like the moans of a dying giant.

“Did you think we hired you to fight in a tourney? Shall I bring you a nice iced milk and a bowl of raspberries? No? Then get on your fucking horse. You too, dog.”

“Water? Fuck your water. Bring me wine.”

“They say I’m half a man,” he said. “What does that make the lot of you?”

Eyes of wildfire,

The guests laughed, but it was a joyless laughter, the sort of laughter that can turn into sobbing in half a heartbeat.

Their bodies are here, but their thoughts are on the city walls, and their hearts as well.

tonight all the food was flavored with fear.

“Tears,” she said scornfully to Sansa as the woman was led from the hall. “The woman’s weapon, my lady mother used to call them. The man’s weapon is a sword. And that tells us all you need to know, doesn’t it?”

but after the madness of battle, soldiers often seem to want flesh more than coin.

“You little fool. Tears are not a woman’s only weapon. You’ve got another one between your legs, and you’d best learn to use it. You’ll find men use their swords freely enough. Both kinds of swords.”

I was taught to smile and sing and please. He was heir to Casterly Rock, while I was to be sold to some stranger like a horse, to be ridden whenever my new owner liked, beaten whenever he liked, and cast aside in time for a younger filly. Jaime’s lot was to be glory and power, while mine was birth and moonblood.”

“Drink,” she commanded coldly. “Perhaps it will give you the courage to deal with truth for a change.”

“Those are brave men,” he told Ser Balon in admiration. “Let’s go kill them.”

The blood gushed out in a scarlet fountain,

they made battle as graceful as a dance.

A naked man fell from the sky and landed on the deck, body bursting like a melon dropped from a tower.

cold shrimp-and-persimmon soup

Bruvah eeuugghh

Dany found her thoughts returning to the Palace of Dust once more, as the tongue returns to a space left by a missing tooth.

daughter of death, slayer of lies, bride of fire.

“Worms have crawled up your nose and eaten your wits.”

“Khaleesi, we saw him strike you. Would you see the color of his blood?”

“I let each man cut me once, before I kill him.

Elmar’s eyes got as big as boiled eggs.

Leeches terrified him, especially the big pale ones that looked like jelly until they filled up with blood.

“I am not a man to be undone, ser.”

It was best never to make Roose Bolton ask twice.

“Terrible times breed terrible things, my lord.”

I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth.

“I’m not an owl,” said Arya. “I’m a wolf. I’ll howl.”

Arya slid her dagger out and drew it across his throat, as smooth as summer silk.

ladies cheered as lustily as cutthroats at a cockfight.

“Stannis is the true king! A monster sits the Iron Throne, an abomination born of incest!”

They say the Iron Throne can be perilous cruel to those who were not meant to sit it.

Where’s Wex? I’ll not go to my grave in dirty clothes.

“Only blood can wash out blood,”

a shiver, not a tremble. Even brave men shiver.

this is despicable.” “Oh, I know,” said Theon. “It’s a dish I tasted myself, or have you forgotten?

“The noose I wore was not made of hempen rope, that’s true enough, but I felt it all the same. And it chafed, Ser Rodrik. It chafed me raw.”