A very emotional chapter for Margaery.
MARGAERY XIX
The water slowly followed the stream in a fluid pattern, seldom bothered by a few big rocks that forced the current to circle the obstacle before it resumed its path. A sweet breeze whistled through the leaves of the trees, accompanying a few singing birds that made the scenery similar to that of a few monasteries Margaery got to visit in the Reach.
The scenery would have been idyllic without her men in red and green armor filling their gourds, sharpening their swords, boiling stew and discussing between them who reminded her of their current situation, not to mention Catelyn Stark and Brienne of Tarth who stood alone, away from her, whispering to each other. But what prevented Margaery from enjoying the moment more than anything else was the memory of her brother, a sword emerging through his face, then falling back, his head in ruins, his nose gone, his mouth and eyes barely distinguishable where the point of the weapon pierced.
As Margaery stared at the current, she remembered a time, long ago, in Highgarden, back when she was only a child and barely beginning to understand the role she would have to play for the future for her house and to forge her own place in the world. She was ten. Loras was eight. On a very hot day, a day that was so hot that her grandmother needed three different people to fan her, she convinced her father to release Loras from the obligation to train and to accompany her with her friends and cousins to the Mander, where they would bath.
Margaery had always been a wonderful swimmer, better than most of her friends, but Loras, always busy training with a sword or with a bow, had never learned to swim. Margaery had brought her little brother with her to the river. She remembered how afraid he looked, and how reluctant he was to just place his feet into the water. She almost pushed him in, then took his hands and showed him how to swim. They had laughed a lot, and what was supposed to be an insufferable day because of the heat had become one of the most beautiful day of her life, when she got to spend it all with her little brother.
That little brother was gone now. He had died, right in front of her. She would never see his cocky smile or hear him laugh again, nor ride a horse in a tourney, and she would never argue with him again over his stupidity. All that was left was a body with a messed face, a body that her parents might not be able to recognize if she didn't tell them he was their son.
A tear rolled on her left cheek. She wiped it with the back of her hand. They couldn't bring his body with them. Who knew what they had done of it? Now that Renly was dead, who knew what Stannis would make of it? Margaery's family might not even be able to give her brother a proper burial. He would never rest peacefully in the crypts of Highgarden along with their ancestors.
She heard someone sitting by her side, but she kept looking at the stream of water running in front of her. A river was alive as long as its current didn't stop and kept going on. A human was stopped when the blood stopped running through its veins. Loras' blood didn't run anymore. It had stopped, and there was no way to start it again.
"How are you?" Catelyn Stark asked. Margaery didn't answer. Nothing would change what happened. "We are at the northern edge of the Kingswood…"
"I know." She knew these lands much better than Catelyn Stark did. She didn't need the Lady of Winterfell, or former Lady of Winterfell, to tell her where they were. They were in the Crownlands, the lands she and Tyrion controlled.
"Lady Brienne and I will go separate ways. We will avoid King's Landing and keep heading north until we make it back to my son's army," Catelyn told her.
"Very well. Have a safe journey."
She stared back at the water running. She heard a deep breath from the person sitting next to her. "Margaery, we need to talk about what happened to Bran."
She knew it was coming. Of course, Catelyn Stark would want to discuss it again before they parted ways. Well, she had no envy to talk about it. She just lost her brother, and she had no wish to listen to filthy accusations against her and Tyrion.
"I know that you believe Lord Tyrion has nothing to do with…"
"Because he has nothing to do with it." She cut the Lady of Winterfell before she could finish her sentence. "I know my husband, and I'm telling, Lady Stark, he had nothing to do with this. If you want someone to blame for the injuries to your hands, then find someone else."
Catelyn Stark needed some time before she replied. "My son would be dead if it wasn't for his wolf. And the dagger…"
"This dagger does not belong to Tyrion."
"How can you be so sure…"
"And how can you be sure that whoever told you the weapon belonged to Tyrion was honest?"
"I would trust this person with my life."
"And I trust mine with Tyrion, and he trusts me with his life as well." She stared back straight in the eyes of Catelyn for the first time. "I've been married with him for years. Perhaps it seems a short time for you, but for me it's not. I know my husband, and no matter what you believe, I know he didn't send assassin against your son, and I know he would never do that, because he had no reason to kill your son."
She turned her eyes back to the water. Another moment of silence went on before Catelyn spoke again. "I believe Bran surprised the queen and Ser Jaime together in that tower, that he was pushed, and that when the Lannisters found out it didn't kill him, they sent a man to finish him."
Margaery scoffed. "You believe Stannis?"
"My husband believed it too?"
"And it's reassuring for you to know that your husband believed that a kinslayer, a man who murdered his own brother with dark magic, was the most fit to be king?"
Margaery knew what she saw, and she knew that Lady Brienne and Catelyn knew what they saw too. She saw the shadow, and she saw its face, first in the mirror, and then when it turned toward her. It was the face of Stannis Baratheon. When Renly died by his hand, his kingsguard rushed into the tent, and they instinctively believed that Brienne had killed him. Margaery and Catelyn tried in vain to tell them Brienne didn't do it, but the knights didn't listen. While Brienne fought against the two men, another fight took place outside the tent, where the knight accompanying Catelyn and some of Margaery's men engaged the other kingsguards of Renly. The kingsguards had prevailed, but at a high cost. Loras was the only survivor of the melee, and he entered the tent to find Margaery with Catelyn and Brienne crying over Renly's body. Loras came to the same conclusion as the other knights and attacked Brienne. Margaery tried to stop him, only to find herself on the ground with Brienne. Loras was about to finish Brienne when Ser Mandon Moore walked in and killed Loras from behind.
The action didn't stop to come back to Margaery's mind. The sword piercing her brother's head from neck to face, erasing the look of pure hatred that had been there the instant before as he was about to kill an innocent woman. Then the sword being quickly removed, and her brother's now lifeless body slowly falling, first on his knees, then lying face to the ground. And she remembered the horrible mess his face was when she turned the body to look at him, hoping against all odds that Loras was still alive.
Then there was the loud sound of two swords meeting over her head, and then Lady Brienne's sword slashing across Ser Moore's neck. Margaery had seen nothing, but Brienne and Catelyn both claimed he was about to kill her. Brienne had deflected the fatal blow before the point of the sword sank into Margaery's neck.
Catelyn had convinced her they had to escape. Shooting one last look at her brother's body, Margaery had realized then that they would be blamed for all this and they needed to leave immediately. She thought of nothing else, and she discreetly led Catelyn and Brienne to her men who were ready to leave. Thus they had escaped Renly's camp. His men now most likely fought under Stannis's banner. Margaery had allowed Catelyn and the lady knight to follow her without discussion. Catelyn was an ambassador and Brienne now her sworn shield, and as such they were not to be harmed or arrested, but Margaery seldom talked to them during the journey, lost in her thoughts about Loras' death.
"Lady Margaery," Catelyn resumed, "I get it. You know your husband, but I knew mine as well, and I had over fifteen years and five children to know him. Believe me when I tell you that he would never have claimed that Joffrey was born of incest had he not been sure of that, and he would never have been sure without having found indisputable proof. As hard as it is to accept and to believe, Cersei and Jaime Lannister are the parents of Joffrey, Tommen and Myrcella. And someone tried to kill my son after he fell from a tower, a tower where I found a blond hair on the floor a few days later, and while most of the people had gone hunting. Among the few people who were still inside Winterfell at this moment were the Kingslayer and Cersei. And no one knew where they were when Bran fell. This cannot be a coincidence, not when someone told me the dagger belonged to their brother."
Margaery heard but didn't listen. Though despite the fact she wasn't listening, she heard very clearly all the same and the words made their way into her brain. She found herself wondering where had Cersei and Jaime been that day? She couldn't remember. Though there was a discussion with Tyrion that came back to her mind, when she asked him questions about how the hunt was.
"Eddard Stark is still going to King's Landing. I couldn't talk him out of it. Too bad Jaime wasn't there. The hunt would have been much funnier with him."
Jaime Lannister wasn't with the hunting party. Then he had to be at Winterfell. If he was at Winterfell… She and Tyrion thought that Brandon Stark could have been pushed, even though they couldn't admit it in public for the repercussions it would have on their houses. They thought he might have surprised a discussion between Cersei and people about Jon Arryn's death, and that was the reason why the boy was almost killed. Cersei denied it, and Ser Jaime as well, but could they trust them? Cersei tried to kill Tyrion more than once, and Jaime was very close to his sister. Too close? Was it possible after all…
No, that couldn't be. Tyrion would know about this had his siblings pursued a romantic relationship. This couldn't go unnoticed, not from Tyrion. They had agents in the capital and were far more observant than Robert Baratheon, who was drunk more often than not. Tyrion knew his family, especially Jaime. He couldn't have ignored this. Unless he didn't know his brother and sister as much as he thought. The alternative explanation was simply impossible.
Still, even if that was true, had Bran surprised Cersei and Jaime together during the act, as unlikely and distasteful as it seemed, Jaime Lannister was the kind to defy his enemies in duel to deal with them, to do it public and in the open. He wasn't the kind of man who sent someone to do his dirty work. Cersei, on the other, was quite capable of sending an assassin to kill a child. But this dagger belonged to Joffrey. Cersei wouldn't have given such a weapon to a man to murder someone. That would have led directly to her. Cersei was dangerous, rash and ready to do anything, but she wasn't stupid. Not to this level. Who could be stupid enough to arm an assassin with his own blade?
The answer came immediately. Who was stupid enough to execute a powerful lord and have half of Westeros against him when it could be avoided?
"The dagger does not belong to Tyrion," she said.
Catelyn didn't sigh openly, but Margaery she did it in silence. "Lady Margaery…"
"Because I had this dagger made myself."
When she stared back at Eddard Stark's widow, an expression of complete incomprehension was on her face.
"This dagger was the gift Tyrion and I gave to Joffrey on his name day. I ordered the blacksmiths of Casterly Rock to forge it. I carried it with me on our way to King's Landing and I gave it to Joffrey myself. I never saw the dagger again afterwards. And I'm telling you that Tyrion cannot have won back the dagger into a bet because he didn't make any for the whole tournament. Anyway, Tyrion never bets against his brother, so he could never have won it the way you heard."
Catelyn was stunned. "The dagger… It is Joffrey's… Why would he lie to me?"
"I think Joffrey did this. I think he tried to kill Bran." The words came out of her mouth before she realized it. "He's the one who did it," she stated in the end.
"You're sure?"
"Yes." Something else came back to her mind, something that happened back at Winterfell. "I heard Robert Baratheon talk to Cersei after your son's fall. We kill our horses when they break a leg, and our dogs when they go blind, but we are too weak to give the same mercy to crippled children. Joffrey was there. He heard."
"You said it was Joffrey who did it, not Robert."
"Joffrey is a boy who was hungry for a pat on the head from Robert. You've seen Robert, what kind of king he was. Do you think he was a good father? Do you think he was close to his children? There are stories all around the Red Keep of Joffrey's cruel attempts to make his father proud of him. He killed a cat that was pregnant and then opened the belly to show the unborn children to Robert. He thought he would impress Robert this way. He executed your husband after he promised to spare him, had his kingsguard beat your daughter because she said things he didn't like. Do you really think he wouldn't be cruel or stupid enough to send an assassin after Bran?"
Catelyn Stark was frozen for a very long time. "Joffrey… he did all this."
"It seems we're in all this mess because of the stupidity and the cruelty of one spoiled child," Margaery summarized.
"For how long have you known this?" Catelyn asked on an accusing tone.
"I just pieced all this together. It never came to my mind before that Joffrey could have done this. I should have thought better."
Catelyn Stark's breathing had become quick. "Robb will never allow this to pass. Joffrey cannot remain king."
"And who would you have in his stead? Stannis? He just murdered his brother using dark magic. Do you really think he will make a better king?"
"You cannot say that you will let Joffrey be king after what he did?"
"He is my nephew. What else do you want me to do? What would you do if you were in my place? Would you be ready to kill your husband's nephews if he had had any?"
"And what if Stannis and Ned were telling the truth about Joffrey? What if he's really born of an incest?"
Margaery sighed. "Even if that was the case, what other choice do we have? You've seen what Stannis is ready to do to take the throne. Is that really the kind of man you want to rule the Seven Kingdoms?"
"He is the rightful king."
"And so was the Mad King when your families rebelled against him."
"He murdered the man I was supposed to marry and his father."
"And Stannis murdered his brother, his own flesh and blood. I don't see any improvement."
"It is easy for you to say. You lost no one…"
"I just lost Loras! He died! He died fighting for a pretender. He died because the man he served was killed. If Stannis hadn't murdered Renly, none of that would have happened. I would still have a brother."
Catelyn Stark didn't reply to this at first. Her expression smoothed. "I'm sorry. I don't know what it is to lose a brother. My lady mother had several miscarriages, but I never truly lost one, or saw one dying right in front of me."
"He was my little brother. The only brother I had."
Margaery had to fight tears from breaking out.
"Margaery." She thought it was the first time Catelyn called her only by using her first name. "I know you are in pain. You lost a brother, but I lost a husband. You must understand how I feel about the man who killed him. Joffrey cannot sit on the Iron Throne. I know he is family for you, I know it is not easy, but…"
"You have no idea how it is," she interrupted Catelyn again. "You have no idea what it is to deal with a spoiled boy who kills for fun every day, to try to keep seven kingdoms from falling apart when the boy in question and his mother do everything to destroy them. To deal with a woman who tried to kill my own husband and who threatened to strangle me in my sleep. Do you have any idea what it is to deal on a daily basis with Cersei Lannister and her son?"
"What?"
"Cersei tried to kill Tyrion. She tried to have him poisoned, and when she failed, she tried to turn his bannermen against him. And I suspect that Ser Mandon Moore was following her orders when he tried to kill me. She's the one who came up with the idea that he should travel with me to Storm's End."
"But… How could she… Lord Tyrion is her brother. How could she try to kill her own brother?" She could see how Catelyn Stark was shocked by the revelations.
"To her, Tyrion is not her brother. She hates him. She's hated him since the day he was born."
"Why?"
"Because Lady Joanna Lannister died the day Tyrion was born. Cersei blamed him for her death. Tywin Lannister did the same when he was still alive. He didn't want Tyrion to succeed him. His will said Casterly Rock was to go to Jaime, but Jaime was a kingsguard and not interested in ruling. So Tyrion became Lord of the Westerlands, but Cersei resents him. She believes she should have Casterly Rock for herself. So, excuse me, but you know nothing, Catelyn Stark."
Another silence followed. "Margaery, I beg you to consider that Joffrey might be what Stannis claims. The man's actions don't mean that he's wrong. Ned cannot have been certain of that and wrong at the same time. I know that, at least. I'm just asking you to consider the possibility that Joffrey might just be what I think he is."
Margaery thought about it. She would need to talk with Tyrion when she returned. "I will think about it."
Catelyn Stark seemed relieved. "Look, my eldest son risks his life every day as we're at war, Arya is lost and no one knows where she is, Sansa is a prisoner to Joffrey, and my two sons are either dead or hostages to the Ironmen. I beg you, they're my children."
"Then you must convince Robb to make peace with Joffrey."
"He will never do it, not when he hears the truth about Bran. And I cannot blame him."
"Then prepare to blame someone else when all your children are gone. Because as long as you will be at war with Joffrey, Sansa will remain his prisoner, you will not be able to find Arya, Robb's life will continue to be at risk, and your armies will not be able to save Bran and Rickon while they are busy fighting in the Riverlands."
"We cannot make peace with people like Joffrey, Cersei or Jaime."
"Are their heads more valuable to you than your children?" Catelyn didn't answer. "Perhaps I was right after all. You're not worthy to be a mother."
Margaery stood up and proceeded to walk. She had enough of this. Loras just died, and she had to argue with people who just didn't want to listen.
"Margaery." She turned back to look at Catelyn who now stood as well, and who approached her. "I will do what I can, I promise. I will do everything to convince Robb to make peace with Joffrey, but… I don't think he will."
"Make him do. I will continue to watch over Sansa and to look for Arya. I will keep them safe. You cannot reach Joffrey or Cersei or Jaime. I can. Let me deal with them."
She wouldn't let them get away with this anyway, with or without promise to Catelyn Stark. If the three of them had something to do with the attempt of murder on the Stark boy, and if Jaime and Cersei truly had an affair like Ned Stark claimed, they would see what the Lady of Casterly Rock was capable of.
Catelyn Stark nodded, but Margaery didn't allow her to walk back to Brienne. "One thing. Who told you about the dagger?" Her face went blank. She wouldn't answer. "Very well. Can you give me the dagger in this case? I'll need it to deal with Joffrey in King's Landing."
Reluctantly, she gave it to Margaery. One of her men arrived at this moment.
"My lady, we're ready to go."
Margaery nodded. "Just give me one minute, alone."
She walked away until she was far enough from everyone. As she distanced herself from them, the pain came back, her breathing accelerated. She grabbed the trunk of a tree and sobbed, clutching the dagger from the other hand.
Loras, you fool! I told you. You should never have followed Renly. Why did you have to be so stupid? She had managed to avoid her grief while she spoke with Catelyn, but she needed to get this out. Loras was dead. She would never see him again. He was gone. She just wanted him to come back, but she knew it wouldn't happen. Tears kept falling from her eyes, covering her cheeks and turning her vision into a blur. She felt her legs collapsing. She ended knees and hands on the ground, the dagger still in the right. Loras was dead. Ser Mandon Moore killed him. Cersei Lannister killed him. Joffrey killed him.
Okay, I have a great announcement to make. Some of you complained about the fact I follow the canon TV show too closely. I have the great pleasure to tell you this comes to an end with the next chapter. From now on, this fanfiction will make a much different story from the TV show. We are actually talking about the War of the Five Kings taking an entirely different direction and fates of many characters changing drastically. There will be a Battle of Blackwater, but the battle itself and its outcome will be very different. The time for "A Rose and a Lion" telling Game of Thrones with very minor changes is over.
The next update will take place in the middle of August, in four weeks. I know this is a long waiting, but I will release five chapters at the same time, all taking place within the same day and night, that mark the great change in the story, so that should be worth the wait.
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Next chapter: Tyrion
