He wanted guards, Ser Kevan thought. I should have sent him guards. Could Cersei have been right all along? Was this his nephew’s work? “Tyrion?” he called. “Where … ?”

“Far away,” a half-familiar voice replied.

He stood in a pool of shadow by a bookcase, plump, pale-faced, round-shouldered, clutching a crossbow in soft powdered hands. Silk slippers swaddled his feet.

“Varys?”

The eunuch set the crossbow down. “Ser Kevan. Forgive me if you can. I bear you no ill will. This was not done from malice. It was for the realm. For the children.”

I have children. I have a wife. Oh, Dorna. Pain washed over him. He closed his eyes, opened them again. “There are … there are hundreds of Lannister guardsmen in this castle.”

“But none in this room, thankfully. This pains me, my lord. You do not deserve to die alone on such a cold dark night. There are many like you, good men in service to bad causes … but you were threatening to undo all the queen’s good work, to reconcile Highgarden and Casterly Rock, bind the Faith to your little king, unite the Seven Kingdoms under Tommen’s rule. So …”

A gust of wind blew up. Ser Kevan shivered violently. “Are you cold, my lord?” asked Varys. “Do forgive me. The Grand Maester befouled himself in dying, and the stink was so abominable that I thought I might choke.”

Ser Kevan tried to rise, but the strength had left him. He could not feel his legs.

“I thought the crossbow fitting. You shared so much with Lord Tywin, why not that? Your niece will think the Tyrells had you murdered, mayhaps with the connivance of the Imp. The Tyrells will suspect her. Someone somewhere will find a way to blame the Dornishmen. Doubt, division, and mistrust will eat the very ground beneath your boy king, whilst Aegon raises his banner above Storm’s End and the lords of the realm gather round him.”

“Aegon?” For a moment he did not understand. Then he remembered. A babe swaddled in a crimson cloak, the cloth stained with his blood and brains. “Dead. He’s dead.”

“No.” The eunuch’s voice seemed deeper. “He is here. Aegon has been shaped for rule since before he could walk. He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be, but that was not the end of his education. He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them. He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound, he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid. Tommen has been taught that kingship is his right. Aegon knows that kingship is his duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them.”

Kevan Lannister tried to cry out … to his guards, his wife, his brother … but the words would not come. Blood dribbled from his mouth. He shuddered violently.

“I am sorry.” Varys wrung his hands. “You are suffering, I know, yet here I stand going on like some silly old woman. Time to make an end to it.” The eunuch pursed his lips and gave a little whistle.

Ser Kevan was cold as ice, and every labored breath sent a fresh stab of pain through him. He glimpsed movement, heard the soft scuffling sound of slippered feet on stone. A child emerged from a pool of darkness, a pale boy in a ragged robe, no more than nine or ten. Another rose up behind the Grand Maester’s chair. The girl who had opened the door for him was there as well. They were all around him, half a dozen of them, white-faced children with dark eyes, boys and girls together.

And in their hands, the daggers.

WESTEROS

THE BOY KING

TOMMEN BARATHEON, the First of His Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, a boy of eight years,

—his wife, QUEEN MARGAERY of House Tyrell, thrice wed, twice widowed, accused of high treason, held captive in the Great Sept of Baelor,

—her lady companions and cousins, MEGGA, ALLA, and ELINOR TYRELL, accused of fornications,

—Elinor’s betrothed, ALYN AMBROSE, squire,

—his mother, CERSEI of House Lannister, Queen Dowager, Lady of Casterly Rock, accused of high treason, captive in the Great Sept of Baelor,

—his siblings:

—his elder brother, {KING JOFFREY I BARATHEON}, poisoned during his wedding feast,

—his elder sister, PRINCESS MYRCELLA BARATHEON, a girl of nine, a ward of Prince Doran Martell at Sunspear, betrothed to his son Trystane,

—his kittens, SER POUNCE, LADY WHISKERS, BOOTS,

—his uncles:

—SER JAIME LANNISTER, called THE KINGSLAYER, twin to Queen Cersei, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard,

—TYRION LANNISTER, called THE IMP, a dwarf, accused and condemned for regicide and kinslaying,

—his other kin:

—his grandfather, {TYWIN LANNISTER}, Lord of Casterly Rock, Warden of the West, and Hand of the King, murdered in the privy by his son Tyrion,

—his great-uncle, SER KEVAN LANNISTER, Lord Regent and Protector of the Realm, m. Dorna Swyft,

—their children:

—SER LANCEL LANNISTER, a knight of the Holy Order of the Warrior’s Sons,

—{WILLEM}, twin to Martyn, murdered at Riverrun,

—MARTYN, twin to Willem, a squire,

—JANEI, a girl of three,

—his great-aunt, GENNA LANNISTER, m. Ser Emmon Frey,

—their children:

—{SER CLEOS FREY}, killed by outlaws,

—his son, SER TYWIN FREY, called TY,

—his son, WILLEM FREY, a squire,

—SER LYONEL FREY, Lady Genna’s second son,

—{TION FREY}, a squire, murdered at Riverrun,

—WALDER FREY, called RED WALDER, a page at Casterly Rock,

—his great-uncle, {SER TYGETT LANNISTER}, m. Darlessa Mar-brand

—their children:

—TYREK LANNISTER, a squire, vanished during the food riots in King’s Landing,

—LADY ERMESANDE HAYFORD, Tyrek’s child wife,

—his great uncle, GERION LANNISTER, lost at sea,

—JOY HILL, his bastard daughter,

—King Tommen’s small council:

—SER KEVAN LANNISTER, Lord Regent,

—LORD MACE TYRELL, Hand of the King,

—GRAND MAESTER PYCELLE, counselor and healer,

—SER JAIME LANNISTER, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard,

—LORD PAXTER REDWYNE, grand admiral and master of ships,

—QYBURN, a disgraced maester and reputed necromancer, master of whisperers,

—Queen Cersei’s former small council,

—{LORD GYLES ROSBY}, lord treasurer and master of coin, dead of a cough,

—LORD ORTON MERRYWEATHER, justiciar and master of laws, fled to Longtable upon Queen Cersei’s arrest,

—AURANE WATERS, the Bastard of Driftmark, grand admiral and master of ships, fled to sea with the royal fleet upon Queen Cersei’s arrest,

—King Tommen’s Kingsguard:

—SER JAIME LANNISTER, Lord Commander,

—SER MERYN TRANT,

—SER BOROS BLOUNT, removed and thence restored,

—SER BALON SWANN, in Dorne with Princess Myrcella,

—SER OSMUND KETTLEBLACK,

—SER LORAS TYRELL, the Knight of Flowers,

—{SER ARYS OAKHEART}, dead in Dorne,

—Tommen’s court at King’s Landing:

—MOON BOY, the royal jester and fool,

—PATE, a lad of eight, King Tommen’s whipping boy,

—ORMOND OF OLDTOWN, the royal harper and bard,

—SER OSFRYD KETTLEBLACK, brother to Ser Osmund and Ser Osney, a captain in the City Watch,

—NOHO DIMITTIS, envoy from the Iron Bank of Braavos,

—{SER GREGOR CLEGANE}, called THE MOUNTAIN THAT RIDES, dead of a poisoned wound,

—RENNIFER LONGWATERS, chief undergaoler of the Red Keep’s dungeons,

—Queen Margaery’s alleged lovers:

—WAT, a singer styling himself THE BLUE BARD, a captive driven mad by torment,

—{HAMISH THE HARPER}, an aged singer, died a captive,