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

by George R.R. Martin

Even Lannister men questioned how long Joffrey would hold the Iron Throne.

She could not imagine Lord Tywin ever laughing at anything.

only death may pay for life.

“next time I see that mouth droop open, I’ll pull out your tongue and feed it to my bitch.”

“If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look him in the face and hear his last words,”

‘My Layna’s no whore, ser,’ right to Gregor’s face. Ser, he never blinks, just says, ‘She is now,’ tosses the old man another silver, rips the dress off the wench, and takes her right there on the table in front of her da, her flopping and wiggling like a rabbit and making these noises.

Hply f

By then Ser’s done, so he goes back to his drinking and we all have a turn.

Omg...

Tobbot, you know how he is, he flops her over and goes in the back way. The girl was done fighting by the time I had her, maybe she’d decided she liked it after all, though to tell the truth I wouldn’t have minded a little wiggling. And now here’s the best bit … when it’s all done, Ser tells the old man that he wants his change. The girl wasn’t worth a silver, he says … and damned if that old man didn’t fetch a fistful of coppers, beg m’lord’s pardon, and thank him for the custom!”

Oh my fucking god?

She had killed Chiswyck with a whisper,

I’m the ghost in Harrenhal, she thought. And that night, there was one less name to hate.

Gods do not forget,

The first to arrive must wait on the other, and Renly would do no waiting.

It is a sort of game kings play, she told herself. Well, she was no king, so she need not play it.

“I am sorry for your lord’s death,” he said, “though Eddard Stark was no friend to me.”

How they loved to promise heads, these men who would be king.

“My son reigns as King in the North, by the will of our lords and people. He bends the knee to no man, but holds out the hand of friendship to all.”

“Kings have no friends,” Stannis said bluntly, “only subjects and enemies.”

“The Iron Throne is mine by rights. All those who deny that are my foes.” “The whole of the realm denies it, brother,” said Renly. “Old men deny it with their death rattle, and unborn children deny it in their mothers’ wombs. They deny it in Dorne and they deny it on the Wall. No one wants you for their king. Sorry.”

LOOOOL

You each name yourself king, yet the kingdom bleeds, and no one lifts a sword to defend it but my son.”

“Listen to yourselves! If you were sons of mine, I would bang your heads together and lock you in a bedchamber until you remembered that you were brothers.”

The naked threat fanned her fury.

“If you step in a nest of snakes, does it matter which one bites you first?”

“A man should never refuse to taste a peach,”

Remember what the Starks say. Winter is coming.”

Some of the light seemed to go out of the world when Stannis slid his sword back into its scabbard.

It is past time I went back to Riverrun to close my father’s eyes,

I may be a poor envoy, but I am a good mourner,

“I was leading Mace Tyrell’s van when you were still sucking on your mother’s teat, Guyard.”

“They trained you well, little bird.”

The sight of them was enough to tie her insides in knots.

After the slaughter, the northmen feasted on the flesh of the slain.”

Cap

Horror coiled cold hands around Sansa’s throat.

“Lady never hurt you, but you killed her anyway.”

He was armed with a “morningstar” whose head was a melon.

“Leave her face,” Joffrey commanded. “I like her pretty.”

“She has the blood of a wolf.” “And you have the wits of a goose.”

“I am not threatening the king, ser, I am educating my nephew. Bronn, Timett, the next time Ser Boros opens his mouth, kill him.” The dwarf smiled. “Now that was a threat, ser. See the difference?”

“The queen will hear of this!” “No doubt she will. And why wait? Joffrey, shall we send for your mother?”

Learn to use your ears more and your mouth less, or your reign will be shorter than I am.

“Fear is better than love, Mother says.” Joffrey pointed at Sansa. “She fears me.” The Imp sighed. “Yes, I see. A pity Stannis and Renly aren’t twelve-year-old girls as well.

Outside stood a hard-faced woman with leathery brown skin, three necklaces looped about her scrawny neck. One was gold and one was silver and one was made of human ears.

He was wearing his chain of office, a necklace of linked golden hands.

Those who survived are spreading wild tales and swearing that the old gods of the north march with your brother.”

“Sorcery is the sauce fools spoon over failure to hide the flavor of their own incompetence.

but the truth was that food had lost its savor in a world without Ned.

When they took his head off, they killed me too.

“Each of the Seven embodies all of the Seven,”

incest was a monstrous sin to both old gods and new,

like their dragons the Targaryens answered to neither gods nor men.

“When my brother falls, see that no insult is done to his corpse.