"Coins?" Loren asked, looking down at the two small gold disks on the table before him.
"Gold coins," Cersei said, her voice snapping like a whip.
Jaime, perhaps wisely, kept his tongue, but Tyrion decided to ask the obvious question. "Apart from informing us that there are actualy two coins in the treasury for us to rub together, what is it about these coins that you made you summon us at this uncommon hour?"
"Explain, uncle Kevan," Cersei commanded.
"I found these coins in the godswood, where we found Lord Sebaston, they were lying in his blood."
"And what do they tell you, uncle?" Jaime asked.
But it was Cersei who answered, a dark glower on her face. "Look at them."
Loren picked one up. It was an old coin, so worn he couldn't tell whose face was on them, Robert's maybe, certainly not Joffrey. Whoever it was they had a shock of straight hair sticking up from their head. "I don't know any king who looked like that." The size was also strange, it was smaller than most gold dragons. "How much has this coin been clipped? Half of the gold must have been stripped away." He frowned. If the coin was clipped, then how was the full image of the king on the coin, surely half of it should be gone. "Which king is this?"
"It's not a king," Tyrion said, looking at the other one with Jaime. "It's a hand."
"What gold coins have hands on them? We don't mint them and I never encountered one abroad."
A titter made them look at the only non-Lannister in the room. Lord Varys, who stood behind Cersei's shoulder. "Her grace tasked me with looking into this, my lord. After the Master of Coin was unable to answer that exact question. I was able to acquire this." He pulled an arm out of his sleeve and held up another small gold coin. "They are golden hands, the currency used in the Reach before Aegon landed and forced a single currency on the continent."
"The Reach?"
"You know it exactly, brother, the Tyrells."
Before Loren could object that anyone might have these coins, a thin argument even he didn't believe, Varys spoke again. "My lord, I found this coin in the possession of the Tyrells. According to their servants, they use them when forestalled on the road, a common brigand wouldn't know the difference between a dragon and a hand."
"And without access to the treasury at Highgarden, they have taken to using them for payment in the capital." Tyrion looked at Loren apologetically. "You were thinking it too, brother."
"Sebaston was many things, but he was not in Lord Tyrell's pocket."
"No one suggested it, my lord," Varys said calmly, although Cersei looked to be thinking it. "And they would be fools to try. He was your bannerman and appointed to the position by her grace, a few coins would hardly be enough to sway his loyalty, and such a leal lord would no doubt have informed on it."
"So who do you think dropped them?"
"I confess, I know not."
"They were found in the blood. Which means they were either lord Sebaston's or were dropped by his killer."
There was a cold silence around Cersei's table, colder than the late evening chill. "The killings did only begin after the Tyrells arrived in the capital." Kevan said quietly.
"And Margaery was the one who found one of the bodies, well, two of them actually."
"Are you truly saying that Margaery Tyrell is a murderer?" Loren replied. But then who here would say that I am a patricide?
"No one is saying that." Tyrion reassured him. "But this is evidence, are we going to ignore it?"
Loren turned the coins over in his fingers. "No. But we need more than this, a public accusation will bring our regime down."
"You think me a fool, we will find what we need to prove it." Cersei said. She fixed them all with a stern gaze. "You will all keep alert, be aware of any treachery from the Tyrells. I will not allow our family to fall."
"Of course, your grace," Loren replied. All the blood spilled, the soldiers who fell. He would not allow their deaths to be in vain and treason to succeed. "While I'm here, your grace, there are other matters I wish to discuss."
"No, my attention cannot be divided at this time."
"But-"
"You may address any concerns you have the next time we meet."
"And when will that be, your grace? Decisions have to be made." He was not the only one of the council who were stil waiting for direction from the queen regent before they could take action, but Cersei was hard to find these days, except when she wanted to be found.
She fixed him with a glare that reminded him of his father. "When I am ready." Her dismissal was clear.
They filed out of Cersei's rooms, leaving her alone with lord Varys and Jaime. "Hold a moment." Tyrion and Kevan looked to him and he gestured, making their guards fall back out of earshot. "You did not come to me first, uncle."
Kevan nodded. "I did not, nephew."
"Why?" Kevan always consulted with Tywin before acting.
"Because I thought you would order me to bury it, so as to preserve our relations with the Tyrells."
"Truly?"
"It is not conclusive evidence. At the least I thought you would not allow me to present the evidence to Cersei, out of fear for what she would do."
"So you went to her directly. And now, she will never believe the Tyrells had no hand in Sebaston's death, and thus no hand in Joffrey's death."
"And how would she act if we held this evidence and only presented it to her later? If the spider learned and told her that we had hidden it? I would not allow it."
"Allow it?" Loren spoke through gritted teeth.
Kevan nodded. "Yes. I served my brother as best I was able. I will not allow his children to tear our house apart. If I have overstepped my place, then reprimand me or send me back to the Rock. But do not believe I acted against your interests, I implore you."
"I will vouch for our uncle, Loren," Tyrion said. "I do not believe he intended any wrong to you."
Loren considered it, and nodded. "Very well."
"Then what shall we do now?"
Loren ran his fingers through his hair. "I will speak with lord Tyrell. Fear not-" he added, seeing the expressions on their faces. "I'll tell him naught about the coins. But the Tyrells still outnumber us around the capital, even with the forces sent o the Stormlands. I will ask him to send some soldiers to escort the Most Devout to the Starry Sept. If he refuses, it will be further evidence that the Tyrells intend to make a move on power. If not, then it is evidence in his favour."
"Will you at least take guards?" Tyrion asked.
"No. My lifeguards are with my wife and children. There they will remain."
"Nephew!" Kevan chided him. "That you walk around the castle without guards after what happened to Lord Sebaston is wrong enough. To walk into the lair of the Tyrells unprotected after what we've learned is madness."
"Lord Tyrell is hardly the peak of fitness, he is no danger to me."
"But Garlan Tyrell is deadly. I have seen him training and would not give Jaime a clean victory in his prime. He is a better sword than you," he said imploringly. "Loren, take guards, take the ones you gave me if you do not wish to leave your family unprotected. I have wanted to spend some more time with my niece by any measure."
"I am not unprotected," he said with finality. "And if the Tyrells are the assassins, then let them try, they will fail."
"How can you be so certain?"
Loren rolled up his sleeve slightly, revealing the shirt of chainmail he was wearing beneath his doublet. "I wear it every day. And this assassin seems to have a love of cutting throats." He let his sleeve fall and reached up to his high collar and pulled it down. The gorget beneath was tight and uncomfortable, but would allow him to survive a first strike, and then the assassin would be his. "I always take precautions, brother, do not fear for me."
The next day, Loren summoned Kevan and Tyrion to join him. "Leave your guards at the door," he told Tyrion who walked down the steps into the cellar to join him and Kevan.
"A dark place to meet," Tyrion muttered. The only light from the room came from the braziers. The toches in brackets hung unlit. The light flashed of the bones of dragons as it faded into the black. "Especially given what took place here."
"Why meet here, Loren?" Kevan asked. "Have we become conspiriators?"
"No. We're here to answer a question that Lelia posed to me last night." It had been a long day, convincing the Tyrells to part with two thousand soldiers had not come easily, but Lord Tyrell had agreed, and neither Margaery or Garlan had objected, knowing the importance of subverting the High Septon. Maybe they truly did have nothing to do with it.
"What question?"
Loren stepped to the edge of the light and turned. "Why the servant?"
"The servant?" Tyrion asked.
"This is where the servant was murdered."
Loren nodded. "I was telling my wife and family about it, and Lelia asked. Why kill a servant. With every killing, the assassin risks exposing themselves. They have targetted knights of the Kingsguard, the old High Septon, the Hand of the King the King himself… and a servant. Why? What did they gain from killing a simple servant whom most seemed to like, according to your interrogations Kevan?"
"That's what all the other servants said, yes."
Tyrion nodded. "It's a reasonable question. I assume you have an idea, if no proof."
"What if he came across the assassin, and was murdered for his silence."
"You think the assassin wanders around, hooded and cloaked and the servant just happened to stumble across them."
"No, I wander if the assassin is someone everyone would know. Let's imagine, for now, that Lord Tyrell was himself the assassin. What business does Lord Tyrell have here in this cellar? None. Only servants ever come down here. And if that servant started talking about meeting Lord Tyrell in the cellar then everyone would know, and everyone would ask."
"Well let's take that a little further. If Lord Tyrell is the assassin, then why is he in this cellar. It's just a cellar."
"Is it? Who knows where Maegor's little mice holes lead. If the servant chanced upon the assassin, whomever it is, when they were emerging from a hidden passage, the servant would never forget. And when another killing happened, he would remember, and speak of it." He turned and looked into the darkness. "I would not keep him alive to do so, were I the killer." He took three torches from nearby brackets and passed them out. "We assumed the killer murdered the servant here then left out the main door. Let's find out if that's true."
The three of them lit their torches and began to search the room, examining the nooks and crannies, looking for anything that might have been missed when the cellar was searched the first time.
After a long search Tyrion called. "Here!"
They hurried over. Beneath the skull of Balerion the Black Dread, Tyrion found a wall tile that slid back when he pushed on it in the right place. They knelt down to look. The tunnel stretched out before them into the darkness. "Well one thing is for certain," Loren said. "Lord Tyrell is definitely not our assassin."
"No, his girth would be stuck. Even ser Garlan would struggle. But…"
"What is it?"
"Margaery. She may have curves, but she could fit down here. As could many of her ladies."
"I still don't believe Margaery is a murderer," Loren said. But Tyrion was right, it would be a rare knight indeed who could fit down there. Has a woman truly been killing all of these men?
"Do you want me to go and look?" Tyrion asked. "I'm sure I could fit in."
"There may be a killer in there, Tyrion. No. But both of you stay alert. If our assassin is using Maegor's tunnels, then we are in more danger than we thought."
"But that doesn't explain Joffrey." Kevan said. "Maegor never built tunnels into the central holdfast, it is one rule he was adamant on. And besides, the Tyrells were not fixtures in court during Robert's reign. How would a new arrival learn how to use the tunnels for assassinations so quickly?"
"I do not know the answers to your questions," Loren said. "But we need to find them and quickly, I don't know if this court can survive another killing."
