The bell in the sept tower began to toll. Each clang was a hammer blow to her skull. The road to the Red Keep was a mile long. A mile of broken shells, horse dung, and the sharp, hidden edges of stones. Every step was a negotiation with pain. She had worn slippers of Myrish lace on soft carpets her whole life. Now, a shard of pottery sliced the ball of her foot, and she bit her cheek to keep from crying out.
Halfway there, her legs began to shake. Not from fear—she told herself it was not fear—but from exhaustion. The cold had seeped into her bones. The weight of a thousand eyes was a physical thing, pressing her down. She stumbled. Her knee hit the cobblestones, scraping skin. A wave of laughter broke over her.
The morning of the first day of the new moon dawned grey and spiteful. Rain had washed the cobblestones of King’s Landing during the night, leaving them slick as polished bone. Now, a humid, expectant stillness hung over the city. They had come to witness a queen fall. cersei shame episode
No.
For a heartbeat, she stayed there, on all fours, like a dog. She could feel the heat of the crowd’s hatred radiating toward her. She could lie down. Curl up. Let them drag her back to the sept. Let them kill her. The bell in the sept tower began to toll
She pushed herself up. The pain in her knee became a distant signal. The cold became a cloak. The blood from her foot left a faint red print on the stone, and she used it to mark her territory. She lifted her chin—bare, stubbled, naked—and she walked.
The gate of the Red Keep appeared on the rise. Her home. Her prison. Her birthright. It had never seemed so far. A mile of broken shells, horse dung, and
From her cell in the Great Sept of Baelor, Cersei Lannister listened to the growing murmur of the crowd. It was a sound she knew well—the beast of the mob, hungry for spectacle. She had fed it many times: traitors’ heads on spikes, hands broken, tongues torn out. Today, the beast would feast on her.