FOREWORD Bernard Cornwell

"Its quality: the field of structures along the stream with a knight's safeguard hung before every entryway; the long columns of smoothflags waving in the breeze; the glimmer of daylight on splendidsteel and plated prods." Welcome to Westero, the fictional universe so handily made by George R. R. Martin, and as that brief look at a competition field recommends, it is a spot that isn't new. The setting is the universe of the Arthuriansentiments and of high valor, where extraordinary palaces and powerful fortifications are possessed by rulers, aristocrats, knights and their women. We are stunned in Westeros by the approaching pinnacles of Harrenhal, the delicateextravagances of Qarth or the extraordinary ocean fortification of the Ironborn, while the individuals who live in those heartfelt spots match their grandness. Ladies are shown in ermine and sandsilk, while men are terrible in calfskin and the steel of war. In the tunes of Westeros, Brienne of Tarth tells Catelyn, "All knights are chivalrous, all servants are delightful, and the sun is continuously sparkling." Be that as it may, the melodies remain. George R. R. Martin has taken that universe of heartfeltgallantry and generally inhabited it with beasts of avarice, aspiration, and savagery. "This world," Davos Seaworth reflects, "is bent past expectation." A Melody of Ice and Fire, that is, theseries of books, of which A Conflict of Rulers is the second, offer few prizes for the ethical.Readers of the main novel, A Round of Privileged Positions, will remember Master Eddard Distinct as a worthy person, a gallant man, an adored spouse, and a devoted councilor to his lord, but as A Conflict of Rulers unfolds, he becomes a villain.