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The air in the courtyard had gone solid.
The crossbow caught the sunlight and threw it back cold.
That bolt was aimed at Tywin Lannister's heart, steady as a promise.
Joffrey's face was twisted, flushed with a sickly, intoxicating excitement. He had never felt it like this before , this total, absolute power over life and death.
The Gold Cloaks behind him gripped their spears, tips leveled at the Lannister guards in their crimson cloaks. The Lannister guards had locked into an impenetrable shield wall, Tywin sheltered behind it, their longswords drawn and facing the Gold Cloaks across the open ground.
Both sides stared. Muscles coiled. One word, and blood would hit the stones.
No one moved first.
Because the man with the bolt at his chest was Tywin Lannister. Warden of the West, Lord of Casterly Rock, Hand of the King.
Tywin's face was carved stone. Not a flicker of anything unnecessary. He simply looked at his mad grandson, those pale green eyes like a still pool with no bottom.
Joffrey heard the threat in Tywin's voice. He wasn't afraid. He laughed harder.
"The Mad King didn't dare — but I dare!"
"Because I am the true king. What was Aerys, anyway?"
"You old fool. Today I'll show you who really owns the Red Keep!"
His finger settled on the trigger.
Then, at that razor edge: blades bared, bows bent, the whole courtyard one exhale from slaughter , a woman's voice drifted in from somewhere behind the crowd. Soft. Almost incongruous.
"Your Grace." A pause. "You are, of course, the Red Keep's only master."
Everyone turned.
Liana walked out of the courtyard's side door in a simple, elegant blue gown. She didn't look at anyone. She moved straight through the two lines of soldiers as if they weren't there, crossed the open ground, and came to Joffrey's side.
Then she lifted her skirts and, under a hundred stunned stares, knelt gracefully at his feet.
"My King. Please, calm your anger."
Her voice was quiet. It carried something strange in it , a warmth, a steadying weight.
"It isn't worth dirtying your hands for a rebellious subject."
The madness on Joffrey's face hitched.
He looked down at her. The girl knelt at his feet with her face tipped up, those clear eyes holding nothing but pure, unguarded worship and worry for him. Not a trace of anything else.
"A rebellious subject?"
He turned the words over in his mouth. Something shifted in his expression , something approaching pleasure.
"Your Grace." Liana lowered her voice until only he could hear her. "You are the King of the Seven Kingdoms. Your power is absolute."
"Lord Tywin is merely the Hand you appointed."
"Every scrap of authority he has comes from you."
"He defied your will. He used force to coerce you. Is that not treason?"
"He ignored a king's dignity , held his king down on a bench and beat him like a disobedient child. In all of Westeros, in ten thousand years, nothing so outrageous has ever happened..."
"Is that truly the story you want posterity to remember of you?"
Each sentence landed like a small hammer, precise, finding the exact soft spot in Joffrey's vain and fragile heart.
"The Hand exists to serve you. Not to replace you."
"Since he is no longer loyal, you have every right to take back what you gave him."
"You are the King. One command is all it takes to strip him of everything."
"And after that, he won't be the Hand anymore. He'll be nothing but a vassal who dared raise his hand against his king."
"A traitor."
The wild light in Joffrey's eyes dimmed. Something else took its place , a dawning, giddy revelation.
Yes.
How had he not seen it?
He was the King.
Every drop of Tywin's power flowed from him. He had given it. He could take it back. That was the righteous ground to stand on. Even Ned Stark had slunk back to the North at one word from him. What did Tywin have on Ned?
"Ha — hahahahahaha!"
Joffrey flung the crossbow aside and laughed until his whole body shook with it.
He grabbed Liana by the arm and pulled her up off the ground, crushing her against his chest.
"Brilliantly said! Brilliantly said!"
"You — you are worth more than every useless fool around me put together!"
He pressed a hard kiss to her cheek, then released her and stepped forward. Arms spread wide, like a bad actor who had just stepped into the finest role of his life, he addressed the whole courtyard.
"I , Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, King Joffrey Baratheon!"
"Hereby declare!"
His voice was sharp and rang off the stones.
"Tywin Lannister , for his treason and his faithless heart —"
"Is stripped, effective immediately, of his office as Hand of the King!"
"All seats on the small council are revoked!"
He leveled a finger at Tywin. The satisfaction on his face was naked and ugly.
"You are no longer my Hand!"
"You are nothing but a traitor from the Westerlands!"
For the first time, something moved across Tywin's face.
Joffrey wasn't finished.
"Anyone who helps Tywin is standing against their king!"
"I will take the head of every man who defies me!"
"And I won't stop there. I'll put his entire family in the ground. Every last one of them!"
A ripple moved through the Lannister guards.
They served House Lannister. But they served the King on the Iron Throne more.
The King had just stripped the Hand of his office.
So what exactly was the man standing in front of them , Lord Tywin , now?
A vassal openly defying the crown. A traitor.
The Lannister captain's face went through several changes. He didn't want that word attached to his name.
"Lord Hand, " he began, uncertain.
"Lord Tywin."
Another voice cut him off, cold and flat.
A Gold Cloaks centurion stepped forward and leveled his spear at the captain.
"You heard His Grace's command."
"Drop your weapons. Kneel. Now."
"Or we cut you down where you stand."
The captain glanced at Tywin , that face like still water, giving nothing , then at the Gold Cloaks, and the killing intent hanging off every one of them.
He made his choice.
With a clatter of steel on stone, his longsword hit the ground.
"I , we , pledge our loyalty to His Grace the King!"
He dropped to one knee.
It went through the formation like a domino falling. Half the Lannister guards behind him followed , weapons clattering down, men kneeling. They weren't willing to fight an entire kingdom for a man who had just been stripped of his title.
The other half, the true loyalists, went pale and closed in tighter around Tywin, a last, shrinking ring of steel.
Tywin looked at the men kneeling in the dirt. He looked at his grandson, crowing with triumph, drunk on himself. And then he looked at Liana , standing just behind Joffrey, head slightly bowed, eyes downcast, the very picture of someone who had done nothing at all.
He had lost.
Not to blades. To a few words from a girl he had never once thought to take seriously.
He had underestimated the world. And he had overestimated his own authority.
"Withdraw."
One word, pressed out between his teeth like it cost him something.
He didn't look back.
With his remaining dozens of loyal guards closing around him, the man who had held the entire kingdom in his fist retreated quickly into the depths of the castle , not like a lion, but like something driven off. No last stand, no hesitation.
His retreat was swift. Surgical. Utterly decisive.
"Don't let them go! Seize that traitor!"
Joffrey shrieked after them.
The Gold Cloaks gave a few token steps of pursuit and stopped.
Nobody wanted to hunt the former Hand and his last men through the Red Keep's labyrinthine halls.
And besides , before Lynn had left, his orders had been simple: read the room. Back whichever side looks stronger. Keep your people alive. No need to bleed for the Lannisters.
Because their real loyalty was to Lord Ned and Lord Lynn. Joffrey could be handled with a smile and a bow.
"Hahaha! He ran! The old bastard actually ran!"
Joffrey watched Tywin's retreat with tears of laughter rolling down his face.
He had won.
With his own brilliance. His own authority. He had broken Tywin Lannister.
He spun around and swept Liana off her feet, lifting her into the air.
"Did you see that? My beauty! I am the true King!"
"You're my lucky star! My goddess of wisdom!"
He set her down, cupped her face in both hands, and announced it to the whole courtyard at full volume.
"From this day forward , you will be my Queen!"
"I will throw you the grandest wedding this city has ever seen!"
The right amount of surprise crossed Liana's face. The right amount of shyness. She pressed her head into Joffrey's chest.
"Everything... as Your Grace commands."
"Ha! Good!"
Joffrey was radiant. He pointed at the sealed sept doors.
"Open them!"
"Bring out my mother! Cersei!"
"Let her see what a great king her son truly is!"
The doors ground open.
Cersei emerged, hollow-faced, leaning on her handmaidens. She looked at the wreckage of the courtyard. She looked at her son , laughing, bright-eyed, somewhere past reason. Confusion filled her eyes.
Joffrey charged at her and pulled her into a crushing embrace.
"Mother! You're safe! I drove him off! That old bastard is gone! I saved you!"
Cersei could barely breathe. Her expression only grew more lost.
Liana stood in the middle of the ruined courtyard, a soft, humble smile settled on her face.
Her eyes drifted past Joffrey's celebration, past all of it, toward the direction where Tywin had vanished.
The sky above King's Landing felt different now.
This game needed a new player. A new set of rules.
She looked down at her pale hands.
These hands had just knocked loose the foundation of House Lannister.
The corner of Liana's mouth curved , just slightly. Barely enough to notice.
This was only the beginning.
➤ Next: Sansa's Assist
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