14. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 372-394

Jon

Jon is sending out rangers beyond the Wall, and among them is his old enemy, Alliser Thorne, who says, "So the bastard boy sends me out to die." Jon keeps his cool, but Thorne threatens to come back as a wight and single him out. There are three groups of rangers, and Dywen is leading the one that includes Thorne. Jon thinks, "Thorne is in better hands than he deserves."

The commanders of the outlying posts have been seeing more activity from the wildings still to the north of the Wall, and have requested more men -- men that Jon doesn't have. He has sent some of the free folk who joined at Mole's Town, but this has only caused Cotter Pyke and Denys Mallister, the commanders of the castles, to complain. Pyke wrote, through Maester Harmune, "I wouldn't trust such to clean my chamber pot."

He sees Iron Emmett, the master-at-arms, training his men, and asks for his three best trainees. Then he spars with them, taking on all three at once. He demonstrates his skill, but when he's finished Rattleshirt is there, scoffing at Jon's taking on mere trainees and wondering if he has the skill to take on someone with experience. Jon accepts the challenge, telling Rattleshirt, "Stannis burned the wrong man," meaning Mance Rayder. But Rattleshirt replies, "He burned the man he had to burn, for all the world to see. We all do what we have to do, Snow. Even kings."

Jon orders real armor, not bones, for Rattleshirt, and observes that he seems taller and more muscular in mail and plate than in bones. The first blow Rattleshirt lands surprises him with its power and quickness, and he uses the two-handed greatsword he has chosen with more speed than Jon expected. Finally, both men lose their swords and wind up wrestling on the ground until two members of the Watch pull them apart. Rattleshirt snarls, "If I had me a dagger, you'd be less an eye by now."

When they have separated, Iron Emmett tells Jon, "he threatened your life, we all heard. He said that if he had a dagger--" Jon points out that Rattleshirt "does have a dagger. Right there on his belt." He recalls what Ser Rodrik, the master-at-arms at Winterfell, once told him and Robb: "There is always someone quicker and stronger.... He's the man you want to face in the yard before you need to face his like upon a battlefield."

They are interrupted by Clydas, who has a message from Ramsay Bolton. Jon reads it and learns that Moat Cailin has been taken, and that Roose Bolton is summoning the lords loyal to him to Barrowton to affirm their loyalty and to witness Ramsay's marriage to Arya. Jon is astonished at this news, having thought that Arya died in King's Landing. "By now she'd be eleven, Jon thought. Still a child." He tells Clydas that there will be no answer from him to the letter.

He is covered with bruises and that night "felt as stiff as a man of sixty years." His thoughts full of Arya, remembering when he had given her Needle, he goes out into the bitter cold. Ghost is there and follows him. Through Ghost he senses a thousand smells in the night, and then senses someone behind him: "Someone who smelled warm as a summer day." He turns and thinks he sees Ygritte, but when he speaks her name, Melisandre replies.

Then she tells him, "Do not despair, Lord Snow. Despair is a weapon of the enemy, whose name may not be spoken. Your sister is not lost to you." She says she has seen Arya in her fires, "fleeing from this marriage they have made for her. Coming here, to you. A girl in grey on a dying horse." Then she asks if she may touch Ghost. Jon warns her that he is not used to strangers, but the wolf comes to her, at first warily, but then shoves his nose into her warm hand. And when Jon calls to Ghost, the wolf looks at him as if he were the stranger.

Melisandre tells him, "Your Wall is a queer place, but there is power here, if you will use it. Power in you, and in this beast. You resist it, and that is your mistake. Embrace it. Use it." Jon is wary, and replies, "Dalla told me something once. Val's sister, Mance Rayder's wife. She said that sorcery was a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it." Melisandre says she was wise, but that even a sword without a hilt is a sword, "a fine thing to have when foes are all about." Then she tells him that of the nine raiders he sent out, three are dead. "They have not died yet, but their death is out there waiting for them, and they ride to meet it." Then she tells him to take her hand and let her save his sister.

Davos

He is in a cell in the Wolf's Den, waiting for Wyman Manderly to carry out his sentence. To his surprise, the cell is "large and queerly comfortable," and the food is excellent. His jailer/executioner, Garth, is disgusted at this: "The dead should not eat better than the living." He has warm, clean clothing, a fire, and when he asks for paper and ink and a book to read, they are supplied to him. He writes letters of farewell to his wife and his three sons, advising them to flee to Braavos if Stannis loses his war.

He is rereading his letters when the cell door opens and a man enters, telling Davos to come with him. He is surprised when the man says "please," a courtesy not usually extended to condemned prisoners. He asks the man's name and learns that he is Robett Glover, who tells him that Stannis has retaken Deepwood Motte, that Moat Cailin has fallen and that Ramsay Bolton is to marry Arya Stark and lay claim to Winterfell.

Still confused, Davos asks that his letters be delivered when he dies, but Glover informs him that he's not about to die. Glover leads him through a long series of cellars and tunnels and finally into a room where Wyman Manderly is sitting. Manderly apologizes for his treatment of Davos, and asks him to drink to the safe return of his son Wylis. A feast is being given for him now, and Manderly has excused himself from it on the pretext of visiting the privy.

He informs Davos that he has been executed and his head and hands displayed. They had executed a criminal who looked enough like Davos that when his head was dipped in tar no one will question it, and had trimmed the fingers of his hand to match Davos's. "My lord," he says, "I bear you no ill will. The rancor I showed you in the Merman's Court was a mummer's farce put on the please our friends of Frey." He had to pretend that he supported the Lannister claim to the Iron Throne for the sake of his hostage son, Wylis. If he had refused, "Wylis would die a traitor's death, White Harbor should be stormed and sacked, and my people would suffer the same fate as the Reynes of Castamere." Even after Tywin was killed, the Freys still threatened him unless he proved his loyalty, which he did by his treatment of Davos.

Davos comments on the risk he had taken, but Manderly assures him that if any of the Freys had climbed up and taken a closer look at the head over the gate, he would have blamed the jailers and executed Davos after all. He can't trust anyone, even his maester, who is a distant kin of the Lannisters, so he can't write to Stannis about his real situation. But he hates the Freys for murdering his son Wendel.

Davos assures him that Stannis can provide the justice he wants, but Glover and Manderly say that "Stannis Baratheon remains your king, not our own." But Robb died at the Red Wedding, Davos protests. That's true, Manderly says, "but that brave boy was not Lord Eddard's only son." He tells Glover to "bring the lad." Davos is confused, and when the boy appears Davos knows that he isn't Bran or Rickon, whom he assumes to have been murdered by Theon Greyjoy. He's much older than they would be, and he doesn't look like a Stark at all. He asks the boy for his name.

Glover explains that the boy is mute, and since there is no parchment to write on in the room, he hands the boy a dagger. He carves his name in a beam on the wall: Wex, Theon Greyjoy's squire. Through Wex they have learned that Theon is still alive, and have heard much about the Boltons' destruction of Winterfell and the atrocities committed by Ramsay Bolton.

Davos hopes that all of this will turn Lord Wyman to Stannis's side, but Wyman says he is still forced to submit to the Boltons and the Freys, and to attend the wedding of Ramsay and "Arya." However, "I can deliver King Stannis the allegiance of all the lands east of the White Knife, from Widow's Watch and Ramsgate to the Sheepshead Hills and the headwaters of the Broken Branch. All this I pledge to do if you will meet my price." He needs a smuggler, he says.

Davos is still confused, and Glover takes over the story. Wex had been at Winterfell when Ramsay Bolton killed the men of Winterfell as well as Theon's ironmen. He climbed a tree in the Winterfell godswood, where he hid until he heard Bran and Rickon, Hodor, Osha, Meera, and Jojen. "Four went one way, two another. Wex stole after the two, a woman and a boy. He must have stayed downwind, so the wolf would not catch his scent."

Davos realizes what Lord Wyman wants: Rickon. "Roose Bolton has Lord Eddard's daughter," Wyman says. "To thwart him White Harbor must have Ned's son ... and the direwolf. The wolf will prove the boy is who we say he is, should the Dreadfort attempt to deny him." If Davos can bring Rickon and Shaggydog to him, he will swear allegiance to Stannis.

Glover tells Wex to show Davos where the boy is, and Wex throws the dagger at the map on Manderly's wall. The location makes Davos want to ask to be sent back to his prison cell. It is a place "where men were known to break their fast on human flesh."

4. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 83-111

The Merchant's Man

Quentyn Martell is on a stinking ship, pretending to be the servant of Gerris Drinkwater, who is playing the role of a wineseller. Gerris fits the role of master better: He is tall and handsome, with an arrogant swagger. Prince Quentyn, on the other hand, is plain and stocky. Gerris is attempting to find passage from Volantis to Meereen, in support of Quentyn's plan to win the hand of Daenerys.

They have been in Volantis for twenty days, trying to persuade the captains of various ships to take them, but no one wants to brave the war being waged in Slaver's Bay. Finally, the captain of the ill-smelling Adventure agrees to take them for thrice his usual fee. Quentyn is suspicious of the captain, and they make no commitment. Their voyage started off badly: They lost three of their company aboard the Meadowlark when it was attacked by pirates.

As they walk through the market square in Volantis, they come upon a pair of dwarfs, putting on a show: They are dressed in wooden armor and jousting, one riding a pig, the other a large dog. Gerris wants to stop and watch this amusement, but Quentyn is in no mood. They go to the Merchant's House, where a quartet of sellswords are trying to recruit men for their army, the Windblown, which has been hired by Yunkai.

At their room, they are admitted by the third surviving member of the party, Ser Archibald Yronwood, an enormous man, who has been urging them to make the journey overland. Quentyn is still considering the possibility of the Adventure, but Gerris has turned against it after considering the prospect of having to "endure that stench for months on end." He says a new idea has just occurred to him.

Jon

Jon has summoned Gilly, to whom he says, "I have something hard to tell you." She asks if it's about Mance Rayder, who is threatened with execution, but he says that it's about Mance's son, whom Gilly is nursing. She pleads with Jon not to let Melisandre burn the child, as she has threatened to do in part of her dragon-summoning ritual. He says that the only way to do that is for her to leave with Mance's child, but she must leave her own behind: "Take both boys and the queen's men will ride after you and drag you back. The boy will still burn ... and you with him." He promises that he will find a wet nurse for her son and raise him at Castle Black.

She leaves, and Samwell Tarly appears a few minutes later, carrying a stack of books. Jon shows him a letter that Maester Aemon has drafted for him to King Tommen. He remembers Tommen, heavily padded, as a little boy fighting Bran with wooden swords: "Yet Bran's dead, and pudgy pink-faced Tommen is sitting on the Iron Throne, with a crown nestled among his golden curls." Sam observes that Jon hasn't signed the letter. Jon admits that he is worried about the implications: "No letter will make the Lannisters love us better. Not once they hear that we've been helping Stannis." But in the end he agrees to sign it.

Sam says that he saw Gilly almost in tears as he was arriving, and Jon says he is sending her and "the boy" away -- not indicating that the boy is Mance's son, not hers. He asks Sam about what he has learned from his reading about the Others. Much of it is what they already know: The Others are vulnerable to obsidian, or dragonglass, and their thralls must be burned. "Some accounts speak of giant ice spiders too. I don't know what those are." But he has also read an account that speak of Others being slain by "dragonsteel." Jon wonders if this means Valyrian steel, and Sam says that was his guess, too. He needs more time to research it.

Jon breaks the news that Sam doesn't have more time: He is going with Gilly, along with Maester Aemon. If Melisandre needs royal blood for her spells, Aemon Targaryen fits the profile. Sam is to take Aemon to Oldtown, and either send Gilly on to his family at Horn Hill or Aemon will find a position as servant at the Citadel, where Sam is to study to become Jon's new maester. Sam's various fears come rushing out, but Jon shuts him up, forcing himself to be stern with his friend and with himself: "Kill the boy, Jon thought. The boy in you, and the one in him. Kill the both of them, you bloody bastard."  Sam leaves in distress, and Jon reflects on how difficult it was to follow the advice Maester Aemon had given him: "Kill the boy, Jon Snow. Winter is almost upon us. Kill the boy and let the man be born." He goes outside, where he hears that Stannis has sent a pair of men, Ser Richard Horpe and Ser Justin Massey, south on the kingsroad. He decides to let Stannis have his secrets.

In the morning he sees off Sam, Aemon, and Gilly before dawn. When they have left, he goes to meet with Bedwyck, a small man facetiously known as Giant, whom he has sent for. He tells Giant that he is garrisoning Icemark, one of the castles on the Wall, and putting him in charge of it, particularly to watch for climbers. When Giant asks if he is garrisoning all the castles he says yes, "but for the moment, it will just be Icemark and Greyguard." He intends to put Janos Slynt in charge of Greyguard.

Slynt, whom Jon had commanded to meet him at first light, doesn't show up until half the morning is gone. And when Jon tells him he is putting him at Greyguard, he is surprised, and then angry:

Slynt's face had turned the color of a prune. His meaty jowls began to quiver. "Do you think I cannot see what you are going? Janos Slynt is not a man to be gulled so easily. I was charged with the defense of King's Landing when you were soiling your swaddling clothes. Keep your ruin, bastard."

Jon tells him, "That was a command, not an offer," but Slynt continues to refuse.

Jon bides his time, and the next morning finds Slynt at breakfast with Ser Alliser Thorne. Jon enters accompanied by his supporters, and tells Slynt that he has had Slynt's horse made read for his ride to Greyguard. When Slynt defies him again, Jon asks if he is refusing the order, and Slynt replies, "You can stick your order up your bastard's arse." Jon orders Slynt taken to the Wall and hanged.

Slynt is dragged out, protesting, as the residents of Castle Black, including Stannis, come out to watch. Then Jon calls out, "Stop." He orders Dolorous Edd to fetch a block, and draws Longclaw. When he chops off Slynt's head, he looks at Stannis. "For an instant their eyes met. Then the king nodded and went back inside his tower."

31. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 1062-1097

Tyrion

There is a rattling of keys at his cell door and he thinks that the time has come. But it's Jaime, whom he hasn't seen since his brother returned, gaunt and mutilated. Tyrion's shock at the sight of him turns into "hysterical laughter," for which he apologizes: "Jaime, I am so sorry, but ... gods be good, look at the two of us. Handless and Noseless, the Lannister boys."

After some fraternal banter, Jaime tells him that he's to be beheaded tomorrow. But now it's 3 a.m. and Jaime has come to rescue him, with the help of Varys, who has provided a potion to put the guards to sleep. "Varys has agents in the Free Cities who will see that you do not lack for funds," Jaime says. Cersei will send agents after him, no doubt, and Tyrion should probably take a different name. This makes Tyrion comment that "when the Faceless Men come to kill me, I'll say, 'No, you have the wrong man, I'm a different dwarf with a hideous facial scar.'"

When Tyrion thanks him, Jaime says he owed it to him. He's reluctant to say why, but when Tyrion presses him on the nature of the debt, Jaime confesses that Tyrion's first wife, Tysha, was not a whore. She was in fact the daughter of a crofter. Their father had objected that she was lowborn, and that she had only married Tyrion for his money: "he said that you required a sharp lesson. That you would learn from it, and thank me later...."

Remembering how Tysha was raped by the guards, Tyrion is infuriated by Jaime's "I never knew he would do that. You must believe me." He snarls back, "Why should I believe you about anything, ever? She was my wife!" And he slaps Jaime backhanded, as hard as he can. Cursing Jaime and Cersei and their father, he walks away, but is forced to stop and let Jaime open the gates for him. "Give me the keys and go," he says. "I will find Varys on my own." Then he turns and asks Jaime if he can fight with his left hand. "Rather less well than you," Jaime replies. Tyrion says, "Good. Then we will be well matched if we should ever meet again. The cripple and the dwarf."

But Jaime has one more question for Tyrion: Did he kill Joffrey? His brother's doubt eats at Tyrion, who tells him, "Joffrey would have been a worse king than Aerys ever was. He stole his father's dagger and gave it to a footpad to slit the throat of Brandon Stark, did you know that?" Jaime admits that he had guessed as much, but still wants to know the answer to his question.

"You poor stupid blind crippled fool. Must I spell every little thing out for you? Very well. Cersei is a lying whore, she's been fucking Lancel and Osmund Kettleblack and probably Moon Boy for all I know. And I am the monster they all say I am. Yes, I killed your vile son."

Jaime turns and walks away, and Tyrion goes to find Varys. When he does, he tells the eunuch he should kill him for not helping him before the trial, but Varys points out that he would never find his way out of the tunnels. So Tyrion asks what has become of Sansa, and Varys is forced to confess that he has found no trace of her, and that Ser Dontos has disappeared as well. (Given Varys's powers as a spy, it's more likely that he is in on Littlefinger's plot.)

Tyrion must descend deeper into the dungeons, Varys tells him., and Tyrion thinks, "I arrived here a King's Hand, riding through the gates at the head of my own sworn me, ... and I leave like a rat scuttling through the dark, holding hands with a spider." Finally they reach a place with a mosaic of a three-headed dragon on the floor, and Tyrion recalls that Shae had described it to him once. They are, he realizes, under the Tower of the Hand. He sees a ladder, and realizes that it must lead to the Hand's bedroom. He insists on knowing the way, and Varys reluctantly tells him. Tyrion begins to climb.

When he reaches the top, he can hear the guards talking about his coming execution, and realizes how Varys's "little birds" gain their information. Finally he reaches the entrance to the Hand's chamber and discovers that it is through the fireplace. As he enters the room, a woman calls out, "M'lord?" It is Shae, who begins to apologize when she sees him: "I never meant those things I said, the queen made me. Please. Your father frightens me so." She is wearing his father's chain of office, the linked golden hands. He asks her whether she ever really enjoyed being with him, and when she answers, "More than anything ... my giant of Lannister," he thinks, "That was the worst thing you could have said, sweetling." He strangles her with the chain.

Then he takes Lord Tywin's dagger from the bedside table and a crossbow that was hanging on the wall. He slips into the hallway and goes to the privy, where he knows his father must be. Tywin betrays no surprise or fear when Tyrion opens the door, but tries to persuade him to put down the crossbow and go with him to his chambers, where he will arrange for Tyrion to take the black instead of being executed. Tyrion declines, but asks his father what he did with Tysha.

Tywin says he doesn't really know. "I suppose the steward sent her on her way. I never thought to ask." Tyrion asks where that would be, and when his father answers, "Wherever whores go," he fires the crossbow. At first incredulous that Tyrion has shot him, Tywin gasps, "You ... you are no ... no son of mine."

"Now that's where you're wrong, Father. Why, I believe I'm you writ small. Do me a kindness now, and die quickly. I have a ship to catch."

Samwell

Stannis is losing patience with the process of choosing a Lord Commander. "I have captives to dispose of, a realm to order, a war to fight," he tells the assembled Night's Watch. Janos Slynt tries to wheedle Stannis into endorsing his candidacy, but Stannis is having none of it, recalling Slynt's reputation for corruption. But what Stannis really wants is for the black brothers to cede their control of the Gift to him, and they are shocked by the request. And further shocked when he says he wants all of the abandoned castles along the Wall for his garrisons, leaving them only Eastwatch, Castle Black, and the Shadow Tower. "Garrison them as you always have, but I must take the others for my garrisons if we are to hold the Wall."

Melisandre proclaims that Stannis is the return of Azor Ahai, "the warrior of fire. In him the prophecies are fulfilled. The red comet blazed across the sky to herald his coming, and he bears Lightbringer, the red sword of heroes." Sam notices that Stannis looks "desperately uncomfortable" with this proclamation, but he doesn't contradict it. Then he dismisses the brothers, all except for Maester Aemon and Sam.

As uneasy as Sam usually is in Stannis's presence, he becomes more so when Stannis singles him out as "the one that killed the creature in the snow," and Melisandre calls him "Sam the Slayer." When Sam confirms that the dagger that killed the Other was dragonglass, Stannis says, "On Dragonstone, where I had my seat, there is much of this obsidian to be seen in the old tunnels beneath the mountain." He has ordered his castellan to begin mining it. Sam mentions that the dragonglass shattered when he tried to use it on the wights, and Melisandre says, "Necromancy animates these wights, yet they are still only dead flesh. Steel and fire will serve for them. The ones you call the Others are something more." Stannis calls them "Demons made of snow and ice and cold.... the ancient enemy."

Stannis also asks about their passage through the Black Gate at the Nightfort, which he plans to make his seat. Sam tells him that it would only open for a member of the Night's Watch, and Stannis says Sam will show him the gate. Sam is not even certain that it's still there. Then Maester Aemon asks if he can see the sword Lightbringer, with Sam serving as his eyes. Stannis agrees.

"It glows," said Sam in a hushed voice. "As if it were on fire. There are no flames, but the steel is yellow and red and orange, all flashing and glimmering, like sunshine on water, but prettier. I wish you could see it, Maester."

The maester assures Sam that he has seen it as "A sword full of sunlight." When Stannis sheathes it, it is as if the room grows dark, even though the sun is shining through the windows.

When Sam and Maester Aemon return to the maester's quarters, Aemon comments that he felt no heat from the sword. Sam says, "The air around it was shimmering, the way it does above a hot brazier." But the scabbard is wood and leather, the maester says, having heard it when the sword was drawn, and Sam confirms that it wasn't burnt or blackened. When the maester tells Sam he has no need of him until the time for voting, Sam brings up the danger of Janos Slynt's winning. Maester Aemon says that his position prevents him from favoring one contender over another, but he hints that Sam is under no such obligation. So Sam summons up his reserve of bravery and decides to try to sway the voting.

He goes first to Cotter Pyke, because he is "the scarier of the two commanders," and Sam wants to face him before his courage weakens. Pyke thinks Sam is doing the maester's bidding, and Sam doesn't disabuse him of the notion, but he insists that there's no way he will give up his candidacy in favor of Ser Denys Mallister, though he doesn't really want the job. "I fight best with a deck beneath me, not a horse, and Castle Black is too far from the sea. But I'll be buggered with a red-hot sword before I turn the Night's Watch over to that preening eagle from the Shadow Tower."

So Sam goes to Ser Denys, who is courtly and elegant, and also falls under the impression that Sam is speaking for Maester Aemon. But he also refuses to consider his chief rival: "No, loath as I am to disappoint Maester Aemon, I could not in honor stand aside for Pyke of Eastwatch," whom he regards as ill-bred. As for the other candidates, he also considers them inferior, describing Janos Slynt as "venal and corrupt."

And then Sam introduces another possibility: "Lord Commander Mormont trusted him. So did Donal Noye and Qhorin Halfhand. Though he's not as highly born as you, he comes from old blood. He was castle-born and castle-raised, and he learned sword and lance from a knight and letters from a maester of the Citadel. His father was a lord, and his brother a king." Ser Denys recognizes that Sam is talking about Jon Snow, and says, "He is very young, but ... mayhaps." And then Sam slips in a lie: If they don't reach a decision tonight, he says, Stannis will name Cotter Pyke.

When he leaves Ser Denys, Sam is struck by the audacity of what he has just done, and has a moment of terror. But then he realizes how foolish his fear is: "How could he be so frightened of Cotter Pyke and Ser Denys Mallister, when he had seen a raven eating Small Paul's face?" So he returns to Pyke and drops the hint about voting for Jon, and the lie that Stannis plans to name Ser Denys if the vote doesn't succeed.

Jon

Stannis's offer to make him Lord of Winterfell has kept him awake all night, and now he gets a clout on the head from the trainee with whom he is sparring. It makes him remember when he was a little boy sparring with Robb. They had pretended to be famous heroes, but one time Jon had proclaimed himself Lord of Winterfell, and Robb replied, "You can't be Lord of Winterfell, you're bastard-born. My lady mother says you can't ever be the Lord of Winterfell." The memory so enrages him suddenly that he goes berserk on his opponent and has to be pulled off of him by two other trainees.

He comes to his senses and apologizes, then retreats to the armory by himself. But there he remembers Lady Catelyn's habitual coldness toward him. He tries to soak away the physical pain in a hot stone tub, but that reminds him of the hot pools in the godswood at Winterfell.

The weirwood was the heart of Winterfell, Lord Eddard always said ... but to save the castle, Jon would have to tear that heart up by its ancient roots, and feed it to the red woman's hungry fire god. I have no right, he thought. Winterfell belongs to the old gods.

And then he hears voices: Alliser Thorne and Bowen Marsh, discussing with Othell Yarwyck whom Tywin Lannister would prefer as Lord Commander, with Thorne putting in his plea for Slynt. He sits up in the bath, alerting them to his presence, then dries, dresses, and leaves. He realizes that the possibility is strong that Thorne will persuade others to decide for Slynt, "And what does that leave me, if not Winterfell?" He sits down to ponder his dilemma, realizing how deeply he had always wanted Winterfell, and imagining himself with Val, raising Mance's son and Gilly's there.

And then he senses a hunger: "It was food he needed, prey, a red deer that stank of fear or a great elk proud and defiant. He needed to kill and fill his belly with fresh meat and hot dark blood. His mouth began to water with the thought." Suddenly he realizes what is happening, as Ghost appears out of the woods, "leaner than he had been, but bigger as well," and races toward him. "When he reached Jon he leapt,and they wrestled amidst brown grass and long shadows as the stars came out above them."

He looks into the direwolf's eyes, and finds the answer to his dilemma.

He takes Ghost with him to the hall, thinking that they will but eat, but he finds the turmoil of electioneering going on instead. "His brothers crowded the benches and the tables, but more were standing and shouting than were sitting, and no one was eating. There was no food." He is puzzled, but then Pyp spots him and ghost, and gives out a shrill whistle. The hall grows quiet as Jon and the wolf enter.

Thorne breaks the silence: "The turncloak graces us with his presence at last." And Slynt says, "Look! The beast that tore the life from Halfhand. A warg walks among us, brothers, A WARG! This ... this creature is not fit to lead us!  This beastling is not fit to live!" Ghost bares his teeth, but Jon just asks what's going on. Maester Aemon is the one who tells him that his name has been put forth for Lord Commander."

Jon thinks it's a joke, and asks who nominated him. Dolorous Edd confesses to having done it. But Slynt sputters more of his outrage as both Cotter Pyke and Ser Denys Mallister speak up to say that Jon's candidacy is legitimate. Ser Alliser jumps on a table and calls for quiet, saying that Stannis has posted men at the doors to keep them there until they choose. He says that Othell Yarwyck, whom he and Bowen Marsh had been lobbying to vote for Slynt earlier, has something to say.

Yarwyck announces that he is withdrawing his candidacy, and was going to say they should vote for Slynt, which gets a hearty endorsement on Thorne's part. But now, he says, "I don't recall why I thought Slynt would be such a good choice," especially since Stannis had expressed his distaste for him. So he shrugs and says, "Pick who you want, just so it's not me." Slynt turns purple.

There is a call for the kettle, a big black pot into which the voting tokens are deposited by the voters. Sam and Clydas haul it out, but when the lid is removed a huge raven flies out of it. Sam shouts, "I know that bird! That's Lord Mormont's raven!" The raven flies to the table near Jon and caws, "Snow, snow, snow," then perches on Jon's shoulder. Ser Alliser speaks up to claim that Sam had trained the raven to do that trick. "They all say snow, go up to the rookery and her for yourselves. Mormont's bird had more words than that." Whereupon the raven asks Jon for corn, and when it doesn't get any, says "Kettle? Kettle? Kettle?"

The voting takes place, and when the results are announce, Jon is surrounded by friends. Cotter Pyke says, "if you muck this up, I'm going to rip your liver out and eat it with onions." Ser Denys says, more graciously, "Do not make me die regretful. Your uncle was a great man. Your lord father and his father as well. I shall expect full as much of you." The raven screams "Supper," and it is brought in. Pyp asks Sam how he got the raven to do the trick, and Sam says he didn't do it. "When it flew out of the kettle I almost wet myself."

Jon has a swallow of wine. "But only one. The Wall was his, the night was dark, and he had a king to face."

29. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 996-1026

Jaime

King Tommen is signing official documents as his council watches. Jaime is bored and sore, he has tried to use his left hand in a sparring match with Ser Addam Marbrand and got soundly beaten. Now he worries that Ser Addam will get drunk and spill the news that he beat the Kingslayer soundly in three matches.


Most of the papers Tommen is signing have to do with the aftermath of the death of Robb Stark: retribution against the Tullys, rewards for the Boltons, pardons for the Westerlings. Finally, Jaime leaves the signings in the supervision of his uncle, Kevan. Outside, he meets Steelshanks Walton who is accompanying "a skinny hollow-eyed girl wrapped in a heavy cloak." She greets him and says that perhaps he doesn't remember him, but they met "at Winterfell when King Robert came to visit my father Lord Eddard.... I'm Arya Stark."


It seems to Jaime that this girl is much older than the Arya Stark he met, but he doesn't comment on it. He says he hears that she is to be married, and she says her husband-to-be is Lord Bolton's son, who used to be Ramsay Snow, but Tommen has just signed a paper legitimizing him as a Bolton. As she departs, he wonders if she looks much like the real Arya who "was buried in some unmarked grave in Flea Bottom in all likelihood. With her brothers dead, and both parents, who would dare name this one a fraud?"


He passes the place where Gregor Clegane killed a stableboy in his duel with Prince Oberyn, and thinks that Clegane is paying the price for it, howling in agony as his wounds are being treated. Grand Maester Pycelle can't identify the poison Oberyn must have tipped his spear with when he wounded the Mountain. Tywin has ordered Pycelle to cure him, whatever it takes. He has promised Prince Doran of Dorne that Gregor will die, "But it must be seen to be the sword of the King's Justice that slays him, not a poisoned spear." News has also come from Dragonstone that Stannis has left the island with only a token guard, and that the Lyseni ships have left with most of Stannis's army. Tywin suspects that they are headed for Storm's End to try to rally support there, so he needs to keep the Dornishmen on his side.


Jaime goes to his quarters, where he finds Cersei waiting. She is upset because Tywin has dismissed her from the council and wants to send her to Casterly Rock, far away from Tommen, who is now to be married to Margaery. Jaime has no problem with the marriage: "Tommen's been lonely since Myrcella went to Dorne. He likes having Margaery and her ladies about." Cersei reminds him that Tommen is his son, too, and wants Jaime's support. He says he has always supported her, to the extent that he tried to kill Bran Stark. She replies that she didn't tell Jaime to throw Bran from the window. "If you'd gone hunting as I begged you, nothing would have happened. But no, you had to have me, you could not wait until we returned to the city."


Jaime takes this opportunity to ask Cersei if she was the one who sent the assassin to Bran's room, but she denies it. She says that even Robert Baratheon thought that Bran's death "would have been for the best. '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,' he told me." Her own children were present when he said it, she remembers, and jokes, "Perhaps Myrcella sent this man with the dagger, do you think so?" Jaime suddenly has the same realization that Tyrion had had: "Not Myrcella. Joffrey."


Cersei is puzzled, but Jaime explains that Joffrey had always wanted approbation from the man he thought was his father. "Tyrion almost died because of this bloody dagger," Jaime says. Perhaps he killed Joffrey to get even for that. But Cersei doesn't care why Tyrion killed Joffrey. The fact is, he's dead, and her daughter is in Dorne. "Tommen's all I have left. You mustn't let Father take him from me." She begs him to intercede with Tywin, telling him, "unless you stop him, Father is going to force me to wed again!"


Jaime's answer to this is to suggest she go tell their father that the only person she wants to be with is Jaime. She rejects this as insane: "Would you have us ripped apart, as Mother did that time she caught us playing?" The Targaryens married brothers and sisters, he insists, why not the Lannisters?  "We are not Targaryens!" she yells at him, and he tells her to quiet down. She insists that they can still do it, and begins to try to untie his breeches, but he stops her: not in the Lord Commander's chambers, he says, even though, as she points out, they did it in the sept.


She turns on him when he pushes her away, impugning his masculinity and saying, "You lacked the courage to avenge Joffrey, why would I think that you'd protect Tommen?" What if Tyrion had killed all three of their children? Would he have acted then? His reply only makes her more angry: "Tyrion is not going to harm Tommen or Myrcella. I am still not certain he killed Joffrey." She calls him a "great golden fool" and suggests that Ser Ilyn should give him Tyrion's head as a keepsake.


She should go, he says; she's making him angry. And she retorts, "Oh, an angry cripple. How terrifying." It's too bad that their father never had a real son: "I could have been the heir he wanted, but I lacked the cock." And she mocks his own, hanging from his breeches. When she has gone, he thinks, "I've lost a hand, a father, a son, a sister, and a lover, and soon enough I will lose a brother. And yet they keep telling me House Lannister won this war."


He sends for Ser Loras Tyrell and Brienne. Loras admits that, after talking with her, that Renly's death may have happened as she says. He dismisses Loras and asks Brienne to stay. He compliments her dress, saying the blue matches her eyes and thinking, "She does have astonishing eyes." She returns the compliment about his white cloak. Then he tells her about the false Arya Stark being sent to wed Ramsay Bolton, saying he wanted to prevent her from "galloping off to rescue her." She worries about what will happen when Bolton discovers the truth, but he thinks he already knows: "Lannisters lie, remember? It makes no matter, this girl serves his purpose just as well" since all the rest of her family is dead except for Sansa, who has vanished.


Brienne says she doesn't believe that Sansa killed Joffrey, and from Jaime's responses she realizes that he doubts that Tyrion did it either. He smiles. "See, wench? We know each other too well. Tyrion's wanted to be me since he took his first step, but he'd never follow me in kingslaying." He
thinks Sansa did it and Tyrion is protecting her. When she insists on Sansa's innocence, he says, "There's the stubborn stupid wench that I remember." As always, she starts to correct him: "My name is...." "Brienne of Tarth," he finishes for her, and then says he has a gift for her.


It is the magnificent sword of Valyrian steel. He order her to take it, and to call it Oathkeeper. But, he adds, it "comes with a price." He wants her to find Sansa and keep her safe. "How else are the two of us going to make good our stupid vows to your precious Lady Catelyn?" She stammers in surprise, having expected anything but this from Jaime, "I ... I though...."

"I know what you thought." Suddenly Jaime was sick of the sight of her. She bleats like a bloody sheep. "When Ned Stark died, his greatsword was given to the King's Justice," he told her. "But my father felt that such a fine blade was wasted on a mere headsman. He gave Ser Ilyn a new sword, and had Ice melted down and reforged. There was enough metal for two new blades. You're holding one. So you'll be defending Ned Stark's daughter with Ned Stark's own steel, if that makes any difference to you." 

She starts to apologize, but he cuts her off and tells her to do whatever she wants. "I don't want to look at you anymore." She says, "Jaime...." But he cuts her off: "'Kingslayer,' he reminded her." She persists, trying to ask why he would protect someone who killed Joffrey. He thinks, "Because Joff was no more to me than a squirt of seed in Cersei's cunt. And because he deserved to die." But he says, "Sansa Stark is my last chance for honor," and dismisses her.


When she is gone, he opens the White Book and brings his entry up to date, including the loss of his hand and his rescue by Brienne.


Jon


Jon is in a literal cage, buffeted by winds, suspended over nothingness, after four days "in a cell five by five by five, too low for him to stand, too tight for him to stretch out on his back." Ser Alliser had told him he would die there in one of the rooms carved out of the base of the Wall and originally designed to store food. But Maester Aemon had informed Janos Slynt that he couldn't hang Jon, and had written to Cotter Pyke, who testified that Jon wasn't a turncloak. So he and Alliser Thorne have decided to send Jon to parley with Mance Rayder, who has requested the meeting.


Jon realizes that he has no choice: Rayder is likely to kill him, but so are Thorne and Slynt if he refuses the assignment. Jon asks what terms they are attempting to reach with Rayder, but Janos Slynt says, "Janos Slynt does not make terms with lawless savages, Lord Snow. No, he does not." Ser Alliser is more direct: "We're not sending you to talk with Mance Rayder.... We're sending you to kill him." So now, as the cage is being lowered, Jon realizes, "With Maester Aemon insisting on Jon's innocence, Lord Janos had not dared to leave him in the ice to die." But he knows that even if he kills Mance Rayder, or just attempts to kill him, the others of the free folk would take his own life.


He walks through the corpses at the foot of the Wall toward the camp, and sees a rider coming out to meet him. It is Tormund, who offers him a ride. Jon says he'd rather walk, and as they go Tormund congratulates him on the fight the Watch had put up. He asks about Jon's limp, and Jon tells him that it was from one of Ygritte's arrows. Tormund drinks from his waterskin to Ygritte's memory, which he offers to Jon, who swallows the fiery mead it contains and repeats Tormund's tribute: "To Ygritte, kissed by fire!" He thinks of Ygritte, "You died brave in battle, storming the castle of a foe. I'm going to die a turncloak and a killer."


Rayder is waiting outside his tent, and says, "You must be very brave or very stupid, Jon Snow, ... to come back to us wearing a black cloak." Harma Dogshead is with him and says they should kill him and send his body back up and ask for someone else. The skinchanger adds that he "can soar above the Wall, and see with eagle eyes," which, as Rayder says, means that they know how undermanned and ill-provided the Watch is. He tells Jon to come inside the tent and for everyone else to remain outside.


Dalla is lying under a pile of furs inside, attended by Val. Jon tells her he was sorry when Jarl fell from the Wall, and she replies, "He always climbed too fast." Mance says they will stay, as they know what he has to say. Jon realizes that he will have to kill him in front of them, just as Mance and Dalla's child is about to be born. Rayder is wearing his sword, but no armor, and Jon looks around at the other weapons stored there.


Then he spots "A warhorn, a great bloody warhorn." And Rayder confirms that it's "The Horn of Winter, that Joramun once blew to wake giants from the earth." He has had it all along. Jon asks, "If this horn is all the songs say, why not just sound it and be done?" It is Dalla who replies:

"We free folk know things you kneelers have forgotten. Sometimes the short road is not the safest, Jon Snow. The Horned Lord once said that sorcery is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it."

And Rayder says that he had hoped not to use it, that his attacks would succeed. But even now, he says, "The truth is, you are too few and we are too many." He could continue the fight and eventually prevail, attacking on all fronts, he says, "but you'd bleed me, and my people have bled enough." But now there's something else to be considered: "You saw the Fist of the First Men. You know what happened there. You know what we are facing." The Others are growing stronger. He has brought his people to the Wall ostensibly to attack it, but in fact, "I've come with my tail between my legs to hide behind your Wall." If he sounds the Horn of Winter, the Wall may fall, and plenty of his followers want him to do that. But if the Wall falls, Dalla says, "what will stop the Others?"


So Mance Rayder asks the Night's Watch to open the gate and let them settle on the other side of the Wall. "If they do, I will give them the horn, and the Wall will stand until the end of days." Jon ponders the consequences of such a massive influx of people into the Seven Kingdoms and asks, "If we let your people pass, are you strong enough to to make them keep the king's peace and obey the laws?" But Rayder says they will make their own laws. "We will not kneel to you."

Jon knows that there is no way to persuade Slynt and Thorne to accept the offer. Rayder says that if it's refused, Tormund "will sound the Horn of Winter three days hence, at dawn." Jon also knows that if he returns without killing Rayder, Slynt and Thorn will take it as proof that he is a turncloak. He is pondering the options, which include destroying the horn here and now, when he hears the sound of another horn. He and Rayder go outside to see what it means.

Something is coming from the east. Jon asks if it's the Others, but Mance says they never come during daylight. He calls for his horse and his armor, and Varamyr the skinchanger summons up second sight to report that an army is approaching: "Men. Men on horses. Men in steel and men in black." Mance turns angrily to Jon, who vows that he has no idea what is happening. All around them people are preparing to fight. Jon reaches for Longclaw and then sees rangers emerging from the woods. "They wore black mail, black halfhelms, and black cloaks." They begin their attack on the wildling camp, as Jon assures Mance that he had no knowledge of it.

Mance admits that Jon may be telling the truth: "Those look like Eastwatch men. Sailors on horses." And then a scout rides in to tell him that more, "a host of iron men," are arriving.  Mance leaves Varamyr to look after Dalla and to keep an eye on Jon. "The skinchanger was a head shorter than Jon, slumped and soft, but that shadowcat could disembowel him with one paw." It blocks Jon's way into the tent, where the Horn of Winter is.

But suddenly the skinchanger is screaming in agony, and Jon looks up and sees his eagle on fire. The shadowcat runs away, and Varamyr's wolves are fighting each other. Val runs from the tent to see what has happened, and asks where Mance has gone. Dalla has gone into labor, she says. There are war trumpets all around, and Jon knows that the wildlings have only horns, not trumpets. An army is emerging from all sides, and Jon sends Val back into the tent to care for Dalla.

As more and more men appear, "not only knights now but freeriders and mounted bowmen and men-at-arms in jacks and kettle helms," Jon tries to make out the banners they are carrying. Many of them are "yellow banners with a red device," and he doesn't recognize the arms. He sees Mance's horse on her hind legs as a spear penetrates her chest, and Mance disappears from sight. Someone is waving Harma's head on a pole. Then Jon begins to be able to make out the banners, "a yellow one with long pointed tongues that showed a flaming heart, and another like a sheet of beaten gold, with a black stag prancing and rippling in the wind."

For a moment Jon thinks of Robert Baratheon, but then he hears the name the soldiers are crying: "Stannis! Stannis! STANNIS!"

27. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 927-959

Sansa

She is on board the Merling King, and has "been sick for most of the voyage ... sick with terror, sick with fever, or seasick." She has dreamed of Joffrey clawing at his throat, and of Tyrion, who, she tells Littlefinger, didn't kill Joffrey. Littlefinger says that he may not have killed Joffrey, but Tyrion had been married before and "when he grew bored with her, he made a gift of her to his father's guardsmen."

They near the Fingers, and Littlefinger tells her they will be going ashore. The ship is going on to Braavos, and they will stay at Littlefinger's "ancestral home" before leaving for the Eyrie, where he is to marry Lysa Arryn. This is all news to Sansa, who had hoped that she was going to Winterfell. But he reminds her that Winterfell has been destroyed and that she has no family left.

Sansa barely knows her aunt Lysa, but she assumes that she will treat her kindly in memory of Catelyn. "And the Vale of Arryn was beautiful, all the songs said so. Perhaps it would not be so terrible to stay here for a while." But the tower and the bleak and rocky setting where they land for their stay is not pleasant, as Littlefinger acknowledges when one of the servants tells him about their dinner: "Ah, cold salt mutton. I must be home. When I break my fast on gulls' eggs and seaweed soup, I'll be certain of it."

They make their way across a strand that is slick with seaweed and covered with sheep droppings. When they are settled, he tells her that she must conceal her identity: "If Sansa Stark should be seen in the Vale, the eunuch will know within a moon's turn, and that would create unfortunate ... complications." So she must pretend to be his illegitimate daughter, Alayne Stone, whose "mother was a gentlewoman of Braavos, daughter of a merchant prince." Sansa is embarrassed at being thought a bastard, but agrees to go along with it as a kind of game.

Sansa had decided that Ser Dontos must have killed Joffrey, but Littlefinger is amused at the idea. "No, all Dontos had to do was lead you from the castle ... and make certain you wore your silver hair net." He also reveals that he has operatives at work in the castle, and calls over his servant, an old man named Oswell. He is the father of three sons, he says, and all of a sudden Sansa realizes that he's a Kettleblack. Tyrion had dismissed Cersei's guards and sent Bronn to hire sellswords. When Littlefinger got word of it, he introduced Bronn to the Kettleblack brothers.

Sansa remembers that Ser Osmund had been near Joffrey that night, and jumps to a conclusion: "So one of the Kettleblacks put the poison in Joff's cup?" But Littlefinger says they are too untrustworthy to enlist in a plot. Sansa is stymied in her attempts to identify the poisoner, until Littlefinger says, "I will wager that at some point during the evening someone told you that your hair net was crooked and straightened it for you." The Queen of Thorns, Sansa remembers in surprise. "You cannot mean ... she wanted to take me to Highgarden, to marry me to her grandson...."

Willas Tyrell would have bored Sansa, Littlefinger says. When he went to Highgarden to negotiate the marriage of Margaery and Joffrey, the Queen of Thorns kept asking questions about the king. Littlefinger praised Joffrey, but let his servants tell the Tyrells' servants the truth about him. He also planted the idea of Loras Tyrell's joining the Kingsguard, which appealed to Mace Tyrell. "Lady Olenna was not about to let Joff harm her precious darling granddaughter," but her son wanted Margaery to marry a king. The king didn't have to be Joffrey, however. "We shall have another wedding soon, wait and see. Margaery will marry Tommen."

The intricacy of the plot astonishes Sansa, but she's grateful to be away from King's Landing. Finally, after eight days, Lysa arrives with her retinue, which includes a septon "and a handsome singer with a wisp of a mustache and long sandy curls" -- Marillion, who had come to the Eyrie with Tyrion and stayed on. Sansa is surprised at how homely Lysa is, and how much older than Catelyn she looks. Sansa curtsies deeply when she is presented to her, but "Lysa Arryn did not seem greatly pleased to see her," and is put out to learn that she's Littlefinger's bastard. But uppermost in her mind is marrying him, so she arranges for the wedding to take place immediately.

Lysa is so eager to be bedded by Littlefinger that she warns him, "after all these years of silence and whisperings, I mean to scream when you love me. I am going to scream so loud they'll hear me in the Eyrie!" And so she does. Sansa goes outside to escape the noises from the bridal chamber, and when she returns everyone in the tower is drunk, including Marillion, who introduces himself and then makes a serious pass at her. She fends him off as well as she can, but to no avail. She is in serious difficulty when Ser Lothar Brune, who had come to the tower with Littlefinger, appears and draws a dagger, telling Marillion to go, and giving him a cut to make the point. He tells her, "Lord Petyr said watch out for you."

When she heard Lothar's voice, Sansa had at first thought it was Sandor Clegane's. That night, she sleeps badly and dreams of her wedding night, in which Tyrion and the Hound are merged into a single person. The next morning, she is summoned to speak with her aunt -- Littlefinger has told Lysa who Sansa really is. Lysa tells her she looks like Catelyn, but when Sansa thanks her she is informed that it wasn't a compliment. "If truth be told, you look too much like Catelyn. Something must be done. We shall darken your hair before we bring you back to the Eyrie, I think."

Then Lysa tells her that she loathed Jon Arryn and was always in love with Littlefinger, but her father forbade his marrying her. She asks about her marriage to Tyrion and is glad to hear that it was never consummated. She assures Sansa that Tyrion will soon be dead and asks, "How would you like to marry your cousin, the Lord Robert." Sansa knows that Robert is a sickly boy, but politely says, "I ... can scarcely wait to meet him, my lady. But he is still a child, is he not."

Lysa says that Robert "is eight. And not robust." But she adds, "The seed is strong, my lord husband said before he died. His last words.... I see no reason why you should not be wed as soon as we know that your Lannister husband is dead. A secret wedding, to be sure." He likes to be read to, and to play games, "but you must always let him win."

Jon

They have relocated to the top of the Wall, leaving Castle Black to Maester Aemon and a handful of old or ill men unfit for the work of defense. Jon catches a few hours rest when he can in the warming shed.  The wildlings are regrouping and rebuilding, in the meantime firing arrows when they can. The Watch has a telescope, and Jon can identify some of the people he had known, including Dalla, who is immensely pregnant.

The wildlings are building a turtle, a kind of upside-down ship covered with mammoth hide, so they can approach the Wall. The Watch has run out of oil and pitch, and their supply of arrows is running low as well. There are no fletchers to make any more, and when Jon sent to Mole Town for help, the news came back that the village had been deserted. Jon wonders if it is time for them to leave as well.

Word comes that the turtle is on the move, and Jon has the warhorn blown to alert everyone. If the turtle manages to breach the gate, it will come down to hand-to-hand combat in the narrow tunnel far below. Jon knows that the men are waiting for his orders, and he sends some to the catapults and the scorpions, and tells the rest to ready their bows with fire arrows, though he knows they won't be much use against the turtle. Sure enough, their fire gutters out in the wet mammoth hide. One of the trebuchets is still out of order, and the wildlings have devised a route out of reach of the working one.

The only thing they can do now is try to crush the turtle when it arrives at the Wall. They have prepared barrels full of rocks and water which has frozen solid overnight. They roll them to the edge of the Wall and line them up above the gate. Jon leans out so far over the edge that he almost tips over, but Pyp catches him in time. Finally, they roll the barrel over, hear it bounce off the side of the Wall and then crash into the turtle. The men inside the turtle begin to scatter. They roll the next one over. "By the time they were done, the front of Mance's turtle was a crushed and splintered ruin, and wildlings were spilling out the other end and scrambling for their camp." They were safe for another day.

Jon goes down to Castle Black to get some sleep, and when he wakes four men are standing over him with a lantern. They order him to get up and go with them. They are dressed in the black of the Night's Watch, so he obeys, and when they get to the Lord Commander's solar he finds Maester Aemon with Ser Alliser Thorne and some other brothers. Thorne says, "Here's the turncloak now, my lord. Ned Stark's bastard, of Winterfell."

Jon protests that he is no turncloak, but the man seated behind the Old Bear's table says, "We shall see." When Thorne says, "Lord Snow, he likes to call himself," Jon protests that it was Thorne who started calling him that. He remembers that Mormont had sent Thorne to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, so he assumes that the others are from that castle and asks how many men they have brought to defend the Wall.

"It's me who'll ask the questions," the jowly man replied. "You've been charged with oathbreaking, cowardice, and desertion, Jon Snow. Do you deny that you abandoned your brothers to die on the Fist of the First Men and joined the wildling Mance Rayder, this self-styled King-beyond-the-Wall?"

Maester Aemon speaks up to say that he and Donal Noye had heard Jon's story and were satisfied that his explanations were true, but the man behind the table insists on hearing them for himself. So Jon begins his story of the mission with Qhorin Halfhand again, only to be interrupted by mockery from Ser Alliser Thorne. When Jon talks back to Thorne's insults, the man behind the desk tells him he is to address Thorne as ser, and himself as "m'lord." He is Janos Slynt, he tells Jon, and he is commander at Castle Black until Bowen  Marsh returns. He adds, "I will not suffer to hear an anointed knight like the good Ser Alliser mocked by a traitor's bastard." And then he asks Jon if he denies having slept with a wildling woman.

Jon will not dishonor the memory of Ygritte by denying it, and protests when Ser Alliser calls her an "unwashed whore." When Slynt says, "You admit to being an oathbreaker, then," Jon can only admit that he had broken his vows with Ygritte, as half of the Watch had done with the whores of Mole's Town. And he continues to protest that he never turned his cloak and had escaped the wildlings at the first opportunity.

Slynt then orders "the other prisoner" to be brought in. Jon doesn't recognize him at first, but it's Rattleshirt, who says that Jon is the one who killed Qhorin Halfhand. Slynt asks Jon if he is going to claim that Halfhand ordered Jon to kill him, and Jon can only reply, "He told me to do whatever they asked of me." Slynt and Thorne express their contempt for his answer, and they reject his further account of the situation in which he and Halfhand had found themselves. To prove his loyalty, Jon removes the glove and displays the hand he burned saving Mormont from the wight.

Septon Cellador now adds to the case against Jon by mentioning that he "refused to say his vows properly in the sept" but instead took them "before a heart tree. His father's gods, he said, but they are wildling gods as well." But Maester Aemon steps up to defend Jon:

"My lords, when Donal Noye was slain, it was this young man Jon Snow who took the Wall and held it, against all the fury of the north. He has proved himself valiant, loyal, and resourceful. Were it not for him, you would have found Mance Rayder sitting here when you arrived, Lord Slynt." 

But Slynt will have none of it. Jon's father died a traitor, and Jon will be hanged. He orders him taken to an ice cell. But when Ser Alliser seizes him, Jon grabs him by the throat and almost throttles him before the others can intervene. Thorne says, "You see for yourselves, brothers. The boy is a wildling."

7. A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 299-340

Tyrion

As he approaches Cersei's chamber, Tyrion hears a singer, but the music stops when he enters. The singer is Ser Lancel Lannister, who used to be King Robert's squire, but was knighted after his death. He is sixteen years old. Ser Lancel leaves grudgingly when Tyrion says he wants to speak to Cersei privately.

He has news for her: "Lord Stannis has sailed from Dragonstone." Immediately Cersei is on him about making preparations to defend the city, but he is laughing so hard that for a moment he can't quite get the rest of it out: "He hasn't sailed against us," he tells her. "He's laid siege to Storm's End. Renly is riding to meet him."

Cersei is so delighted by this news that she even hugs Tyrion. When she is finished laughing, she asks if there is a chance the Baratheon brothers will decide to join forces instead of fighting each other, but Tyrion insists, "They are too different and yet too much alike, and neither could ever stomach the other."

He suggests that they drink to "brotherly love," and while he's pouring the wine he manages "to sprinkle a pinch of fine powder" into Cersei's cup. She is so beautiful when she smiles as they toast Stannis and Renly that "He almost felt sorry for poisoning her."

The next morning, word comes to him that Cersei is "indisposed." "Not able to leave her privy, more like," he thinks, and he goes to the meeting in the throne room with Ser Cleos regarding Robb's peace terms without her. As Hand, he has the right to sit in the Iron Throne, which at least gives him the opportunity to look down on the people in audience.

He calls for Ser Cleos and rejects Robb's terms, then presents his own:

"Robb Stark must lay down his sword, swear fealty, and return to Winterfell. He must free my brother unharmed, and place his host under Jaime's command, to march against the rebels Renly and Stannis Baratheon. Each of Stark's bannermen must send us a son as hostage. A daughter will suffice where there is no son. They shall be treated gently and given high places here at court, so long as their fathers commit no new treasons." 

As expected, Cleos says that Robb will never agree to those terms. Tyrion continues, telling him that an army is massing at Casterly Rock that will march on him from the west while Tywin's army marches on him from the east. He can't expect support from Stannis and Renly because they are at war with each other, or from the Prince of Dorne, because he "has consented to wed his son Trystane to the Princess Myrcella."

He offers an exchange of prisoners, and the return of Ned Stark's bones "as a gesture of Joffrey's good will." But when Cleos says that Robb asked for the return of his sisters and of his father's sword, Tyrion replies that he can have Ice when he concludes a peace with them and his sisters when "he frees my brother Jaime, unharmed." Until then, "they shall remain here as hostages. How well they are treated depends on him." Silently, he hopes that they can find Arya before Robb finds out that she's missing.

Then he calls on Vylarr, the head of the Lannister household guards, and tells him that he and the rest of the Lannister guards are to accompany Cleos back to Riverrun. Astonished, Grand Maester Pycelle rises to protest that "your father, Lord Tywin himself, he sent these good men to out city to protect Queen Cersei and her children." Tyrion replies that the Kingsguard and the City Watch are sufficient protection. Then he asks if anyone else has anything to bring forward.

From the back of the hall, Ser Alliser Thorne pushes forward to demand a hearing. Tyrion feigns surprise that Alliser had come to court. Alliser insists that he must speak to the king. "The matter is too grave to be left to servants." Tyrion explains that Joffrey was "playing with his new crossbow" -- which Tyrion had given him to keep him occupied -- and says, "You can speak to servants or hold your silence."

Alliser reluctantly agrees, and begins to tell the story of the attack on the Watch and the Lord Commander by the undead rangers. The story sounds so preposterous that someone sniggers, and Tyrion begins to suspect that a trick is being played on him by Varys or Littlefinger or Pycelle. "A dwarf enjoyed at best a tenuous hold on dignity. Once the court and kingdom started to laugh at him, he was doomed." But at the same time he remembers the sense of dread he had felt when he stood on top of the Wall with Jon and his wolf and looked out at the lands beyond the Wall.

He saves face by making fun of Alliser and his story, especially when he reveals that the dead man's hand he brought with him has rotted away. And he tells Littlefinger to supply Alliser with a hundred spade to take with him on his return. "If you bury your dead, they won't come walking." The court laughs. He tells Ser Jacelyn Bywater to round up more prisoners to send to the Night's Watch, and when Alliser protests that "The Wall must be held," points out that he has done just that by ordering more men. He adds, "Give my warm regards to Lord Mormont ... and to Jon Snow as well."

Afterward, Varys expresses his admiration of Tyrion's tactics: "You appease the Stark boy with his father's bones and strip your sister of her protectors in one swift stroke. You give that black brother the men he seeks, rid the city of some hungry mouths, yet make it all seem mockery so none may say that the dwarf fears snarks and grumkins. Oh, deftly done." Littlefinger is less generous in his praise, and confesses, "I do not relish being played for a fool. If Myrcella weds Trystane Martell, she can scarcely wed Robert Arryn, can she?" Tyrion offers a mild apology, but Littlefinger leaves unappeased.

Tyrion asks Varys to walk with him. The eunuch says that Cersei will not part with her guard, but Tyrion says she will if he explains that it's part of his scheme to free Jaime. Varys says, "This would doubtless involve the four men your man Bronn searched for so diligently in all the low places of King's Landing. A thief, a poisoner, a mummer, and a murderer." Tyrion, unsurprised that Varys has sniffed this out, says that he has been looking for a way to get them into Riverrun, and by disguising them as guardsmen, "They'll ride in by the main gate, flying Lannister banners and escorting Lord Eddard's bones.... So I must send the true guardsmen as well as the false ... as you'll tell my sister."

Tyrion then finds his men Timett and Shagga and tells them to come to his chambers at midnight. Shortly after midnight, Shagga kicks down the door of Grand Maester Pycelle's room, and Timett tears the curtains from around the bed, revealing a naked serving girl and the naked Grand Maester. Pycelle protests, "I am an old man, your loyal servant...." Tyrion replies that it wasn't very loyal to send only one of the copies of the letter to Doran Martell and to give the other to the queen.

Pycelle tries to blame it on Varys, but Tyrion says that he told Varys he was sending Tommen to Prince Doran to foster. He told Littlefinger that he was going to marry Myrcella to Lord Robert. "I told no one that I had offered Myrcella to the Dornish ... that truth was only in the letter I entrusted to you." Pycelle persists in trying to blame first Varys and then Littlefinger, but Tyrion says, "Shagga, cut off his manhood and feed it to the goats."

Pycelle screams and wets the bed, and Shagga hacks off three-quarters of Pycelle's beard with his axe. "How long have you been spying for my sister?" Tyrion demands, as Shagga takes hold of what's left of Pycelle's beard. Pycelle confesses that he has always served Tywin Lannister, and surprises Tyrion by saying that it was he who told King Aerys Targaryeon to open the gates, leading to the Sack of King's Landing. He had hoped that Tywin would take the throne, he says, "but Robert was too strong, and Lord Stark moved too swiftly...."

Tyrion confronts Pycelle  about the poisoning of Jon Arryn.  "I saw the tears of Lys among your potions. And you sent away Lord Arryn's own maester and tended him yourself, so you could make certain that he died." Pycelle denies it, but when Shagga's blade draws blood from his throat he admits that he sent away Maester Colemon because he was trying to counteract the poison with purgatives. "It was not me who gave him the poison, though, I swear it.... Varys will tell you, it was the boy, his squire, Hugh he was called, he must surely have done it, ask your sister, ask her."

Tyrion orders Pycelle taken off to the black cells.

Arya

After eight days in the storehouse by the Gods Eye, Arya and the other prisoners have been marched to Harrenhal. Each day a prisoner was called out and questioned by a man known as the Tickler. The questions were always the same, centering on Lord Beric Dondarrion and his followers and helpers. "No one ever survived the Tickler's questioning; no man, no woman, no child. The strongest lasted past evenfall. Their bodies were hung beyond the fires for the wolves."

On the march, Arya loses all sense that she might be the "water dancer" that Syrio Forel had tried to teach her to become. "The direwolf was the sigil of the Starks, but Arya felt more like a lamb, surrounded by a herd of other sheep. She hated the villagers for their sheepishness, almost as much as she hated herself." She has lost Needle and her wooden sword was broken over the knee of one of the Lannister men. She has revealed herself as a girl when she has to urinate in sight of the others, surprising Hot Pie. Gendry had been spared because "smiths, even apprentice smiths, were too valuable to kill."

As they march, Arya begins compiling a list of hates: Dunsen because he has taken Gendry's helmet, Polliver because he has Needle, Chiswyck because he hides his cruelty behind a façade of jolliness, Raff the Sweetling because he killed Lommy, Amory Lorch for killing Yoren, Meryn Trant for killing Syrio, the Hound for killing the butcher boy Mycah, Ser Ilyn and Joffrey and Cersei for her father and all the others, including Lady, Sansa's wolf. She repeats their names every night as if praying.

Finally they reach Harrenhal, which is immense. Hot Pie doesn't want to enter it because he's heard that it's haunted, but Chiswyck gives him a choice: "Come join the ghosts, or be one." Inside they are made to strip and bathe. When they ask her name, she says it's Weasel, "naming the first girl she could think of." When they say she is being sent to work in the kitchen, she says she'd rather tend the horses, thinking she might be able to steal one and escape. But she gets slapped for insolence, and told that the grooms and squires take care of the horses. "The kitchens are snug and clean, and there's always a warm fire to sleep by and plenty to eat," but since she mouthed off, she's being assigned to Weese, the understeward for the Wailing Tower, who says, "I can smell defiance, I can smell pride, I can smell disobedience. I catch a whiff of any such stinks, You'll answer for it. When I sniff you, all I want to smell is fear."

Daenerys

They have arrived at Qarth, which the warlock Pyat Pree acclaims as "the greatest city that ever was or ever will be." It is surrounded by three walls, the outer of red sandstone carved with figures of animals. The middle one is grey granite with scenes of battle, and the innermost is black marble covered with scenes of sexual coupling. She is greeted by small children scattering flowers in her path. The architecture of the city is rich and fanciful and the people are tall and pale and dressed in "linen and samite and tiger fur." The merchant prince Xaro Xhoan Daxos says that she can have anything she sees that takes her fancy.

Daenerys replies that all she wants is ships and swords to win back the red castle at King's Landing. Ser Jorah, who is riding at her side, advises her, "You would do well to avoid both these men, Your Grace." Daenerys tells him that she hopes to use Xaro's wealth and Pyat Pree's power to get her crown. But Jorah says, "I would not linger here long, my queen. I mislike the very smell of this place."

They show her to immense and opulent lodgings and take their leave. "Last of the three seekers to depart was Quaithe the shadowbinder. From her Dany received only a warning. 'Beware,' the woman in the red lacquer mask said." When Daenerys asks whom she should beware, Quaithe says, "Of all." Jorah agrees, though he says he doesn't like her any more than he does the others. It bothers Daenerys that she has never seen the woman's face, and she is reminded of the treachery of Mirri Maz Duur. She tells her bloodriders to keep watch, especially on the dragons. Then she sends Rakharo to check out the parts of the city they haven't been shown yet, and Jorah to the waterfront to find out about the ships and if there has been any news from Westeros.

She is feeding the dragons when Jorah returns with Quhuro Mo, a ship's captain who wears "a cloak of green and yellow feathers and had skin as black as polished jet." He was in Oldtown half a year ago and he tells Daenerys of the death of Robert Baratheon. Jorah adds that Joffrey has taken the throne, but the Lannisters are in charge. Quhuru Mo adds that Lord Stark has been seized for treason. "'Ned Stark a traitor?' Ser Jorah snorted. 'Not bloody likely. The Long Summer will come again before that one would besmirch his precious honor.'" But Daenerys is not willing to concede any honor to anyone who betrayed the Targaryens.

When Quhuru Mo takes his leave, she tells him, "Come to me in King's Landing when I am on my father's throne, and you shall have a great reward." But after he leaves, Jorah warns her not to broadcast her plans. And since Joffrey is on the throne, he thinks nothing has changed. She disagrees. She has "the blood of the dragon," she proclaims. He warns, "Even dragons can die." She admits that dragons die, then kisses him on the cheek: "But so do dragonslayers."

Bran

Bran watches Meera as she captures Summer with a net. When she releases the wolf, Bran calls him and they wrestle, with the wolf snarling and yapping. Meera asks if the wolf ever gets angry, and Bran says, "Not with me." Sometimes he tears Bran's clothes, but never draws blood. She says he would have drawn her blood if he'd gotten free of the net, but Bran insists that he wouldn't because "He knows I like you."

Meera and Jojen have stayed on at Winterfell and have become Bran's "constant companions," though they are both older than he is -- Bran has just turned nine, and Meera is almost sixteen. When Bran begins to struggle to sit up against a tree, Meera starts to help him, but he tells her not to, and finally rolls and pushes his way upright. He asks her if the master-at-arms at Greywater Watch taught her to fight with a net, but she says they don't have any knights, or a maester. When Bran asks who keeps their ravens, she says they don't have any because ravens can't find Greywater, "Because it moves." He asks if he could visit them, and she says he would be welcome, so he decides to ask Ser Rodrik when he returns from settling a dispute that has arisen.

Jojen says that it would be good if Bran left Winterfell soon. Meera tells Bran that Jojen "has the greensight.... He dreams things that haven't happened, but sometimes they do." Jojen protests against the "sometimes." Bran asks Jojen to tell him what's going to happen, but Jojen says he will if Bran will tell him about his dreams.

Bran denies that he has dreams, though of course he does. And Meera says, "All of Winterell knows you wake at night shouting and sweating, Bran." Jojen asks what frightens him so much, but Bran refuses to admit anything. So Jojen tells him, "I dreamed of a winged wolf bound to earth with grey stone chains.... It was a green dream, so I knew it was true. A crow was trying to peck through the chains, but the stone was too hard and his beak could only chip at them." Bran asks if the crow had three eyes, and Jojen says it did. "When I was little I almost died of greywater fever. That was when the crow came to me." Bran blurts out that the crow came to him after he fell.

"'You are the winged wolf, Bran,' said Jojen. 'I wasn't sure when we first came, but now I am. The crow sent us here to break your chains.'" They tell him that the crow is beyond the Wall, and that when Jojen told their father what he'd dreamed, he sent them to Winterfell. Bran asks how he can break the chains, and Jojen says he must open his eye: "You have three [eyes]. The crow gave you the third but you will not open it."

Bran decides not to pursue the subject any further, but Jojen persists: "Did you dream of a wolf?" Bran gets angry: "I don't have to tell you my dreams. I'm the prince. I'm the Stark in Winterfell." And when Jojen asks if the wolf in his dream was Summer, Bran yells, "Stop it!" Summer has grown agitated too, and is moving toward the weirwood, baring his teeth. Jojen continues, "When I touched Summer, I felt you in him. Just as you are in him now." Bran protests, but Jojen says, "I felt you. I felt you fall. Is that what scares you, the falling?"

Bran admits to himself that he is afraid of the falling, and of "the golden man, the queen's brother, he scares me too, but mostly the falling." But he doesn't want to tell anyone. "If he didn't talk about it, maybe he would forget." Jojen asks, "Do you fall every night, Bran?"

Summer begins to growl and bare his teeth, stalking toward Jojen. Meera steps between the wolf and her brother, who tells Bran that it's his anger and fear that is animating Summer. "Part of you is Summer, and a part of Summer is you. You know that, Bran." Meera pleads with Bran to call Summer back. Bran calls, but gets no response. Then Shaggydog appears from the weirwood, responding to his brother's anger. Both wolves threaten the brother and sister, though Jojen remains calm. Meera calls to her brother to climb a tree, and they do so, as Shaggy snaps at her foot and Summer howls.

Bran calls for Hodor, and asks him to chase away the wolves. Shaggydog disappears into the wood and Summer comes back to Bran and lies down beside him. Meera and Jojen leave, though Jojen promises, "We'll talk again."

Bran has Hodor take him to see Maester Luwin, whom Bran tells, "Meera says her brother has the greensight.... You told me that the children of the forest had the greensight. I remember." Luwin admits that he did, but the children of the forest are gone. Bran tells him that Jojen has dreams that sometimes come true. Luwin says that's true of all of us, and reminds him that both he and his brother Rickon had dreamed of their father in the crypt before they knew that he was dead. But most dreams don't come true.

Then he talks about the maester's chain collar. Each link is forged from a different metal to represent the various disciplines the maester learns at the Citadel in Oldtown. "Black iron is for ravenry, silver for healing, gold for sums and numbers." He shows Bran the one of Valyrian steel. "Only one maester in a hundred wears such a link. this signifies that  have studied what the Citadel calls the higher mysteries -- magic, for want of a better word." He studied magic, and tried to practice it, but to no avail. "Sad to say, magic does not work."

But Bran objects that it does sometimes, as in the dream he and Rickon had. "And there are mages and warlocks in the east...." Luwin says that they call themselves that, but if there ever was real magic it has died out. "The dragons are no more, the giants are dead, the children of the forest forgotten with all their lore." He says, "Jojen Reed may have had a dream or two that he believes came true, but he does not have the greensight. No living man has that power."

Bran repeats what Luwin said to Meera that night, but she holds out the possibility that Luwin is wrong. Then she tells him about a dream Jojen had about Bran and the Frey brothers.

"You were sitting at supper, but instead of a servant, Maester Luwin brought you your food. He served you the king's cut off the roast, the meat rare and bloody, but with a savory smell that made everyone's mouth water. The meat he served the Freys was old and grey and dead. Yet they liked their supper better than you liked yours." 

Bran says he doesn't understand, but she says her brother says he will, and they'll talk again when he does. That night he persists in his conviction that Luwin is right: "'There's no magic, and the stories are just stories.' And he would never walk, nor fly, no be a knight."

Tyrion

It is midnight, and Lancel Lannister has come to see Tyrion with an order from Cersei to release Pycelle. Evidently Cersei has asked Ser Jacelyn Bywater to release the Grand Maester and he has refused, so she wants him arrested for treason. Lancel tries to threaten Tyrion by putting his hand on his sword and calling him "Imp," but Tyrion sees the threat and raises it: "One cry from me and Shagga will burst in and kill you. With an axe, not a wineskin."

The reference to the doped wine that Lancel, as squire, gave to Robert Baratheon during the boar hunt causes him to redden. And Tyrion goes further: "Tell me -- did Cersei have you knighted before or after she took you into her bed?" Tyrion can see from Lancel's reaction that what Varys had told him was true.

Lancel tries to bluff his way by telling Tyrion to "withdraw these filthy accusations," but Tyrion goes on: "Have you given any thought to what Joffrey will do when I tell him you murdered his father to bed his mother?" And Lance breaks down: "The queen gave me the strongwine! Your own father Lord Tywin, when I was named the king's squire, he told me to obey her in everything."

"Did he tell you to fuck her too?" Tyrion replies, and continues to rub it in. When he says, "Wait here. His Grace will want to hear this," Lancel falls to his knees and begs for mercy. He promises he will end the relationship with Cersei. But Tyrion, finding it "hard not to laugh," has other plans:

"My father told you to obey my sister? Very well, obey her. Stay close to her side, keep her trust, pleasure her as often as she requires it. No one need ever know ... so long as you keep faith with me. I want to know what Cersei is doing. Where she goes, who she sees, what they talk of, what plans she is hatching. All. And you will be the one to tell me, won't you?"

So Lancel swears he'll spy on Cersei for Tyrion. And Tyrion tells him he'll release Pycelle, but he won't restore him to the council. As for Ser Jacelyn, he tells Lancel to say he believes he can win him over to her from Tyrion's side. He also warns Lancel not to get Cersei pregnant: "I want no more nephews, that clear?"

When Lancel leaves, Tyrion regrets what he and Cersei are doing to the boy, who "was unlikely to live out the year." He summons Bronn and they ride to Chataya's brothel and the secret passage that takes him to Shae. On the way he thinks, "The only way to defeat my sister is to play her own game, and that was something the Lords Stark and Arryn would never do. Small wonder that both of them were dead, while Tyrion Lannister had never felt more alive."

When he sees Chataya, he reflects on her "elegance and dignity" even though she was a prostitute, and remembers that she regards herself as a priestess and not a whore. "Perhaps that is the secret. It is not what we do, so much as why we do it. Somehow that thought comforted him." And after having sex with Shae, he reflects:

It is real, all of it, he thought, the wars, the intrigues, the great bloody game, and me in the center of it ... me, the dwarf, the monster, the one they scorned and laughed at, but now I hold it all, the power, the city, the girl. This was what I was made for, and gods forgive me, but I do love it.... And her. And her.

 

13. A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 542-582

Sansa 

After three days, Sansa receives word that the queen wants to see her. On the first day she had wept and pleaded with the guards to be allowed to see her father, and that night Jeyne Poole was put in the same room with her. "'They're killing everyone,' the steward's daughter had shrieked at her." Sansa tried to be brave and console her friend, but for the next two days, Jeyne had cried constantly. The servants who brought their meals wouldn't answer questions, and the guards wouldn't respond to her pleas to see the queen. A bell began to toll at the end of the second day, and Sansa realized that it meant the king was dead.

On the morning of the third day, a member of the Kingsguard takes her to see Cersei in the council chambers. She is seated at a table with Littlefinger, Pycelle, and Varys, all of whom are dressed in mourning. When the queen learns that Jeyne Poole has been put in with her, she's upset: "The gods only know what sort of tales she's been filling Sansa's head with." Littlefinger says he'll find somewhere else to put her. Sansa begins to be frightened, but Cersei tries to soothe her by assuring her, "I do hope you know how Joffrey and I love you." When Sansa hears that, she feels better. "Her prince loved her. Nothing else mattered."

But then Varys says, "Your father is a traitor, dear," and Pycelle tells her that Ned has been plotting "to steal Prince Joffrey's rightful throne." When Sansa protests that he wouldn't do that, the queen shows her a letter to Stannis from Ned, inviting him to take the throne. She says, "You are innocent of any wrong, we all know that, and yet you are the daughter of a traitor. How can I allow you to marry my son?"

Sansa protests that she loves Joffrey. "It wasn't fair to take him away from her on account of whatever her father might have done." And Cersei assures her that she understands: "Why else should you have come to me and told me of your father's plan to send you away from us, if not for love?" She had indeed sneaked away from Septa Mordane to see the queen and tell her of the plans. She now pleads with the queen to let her marry Joffrey. "I'll be a queen just like you, I promise."

Cersei then asks the council for their opinion, and both Varys and Pycelle give their opinion that the daughter of a traitor can't be trusted. But Littlefinger observes, "She reminds me of the mother, not the father.... She is the very image of Cat at the same age." This shouldn't be much of a recommendation, since Catelyn is the one who kidnapped Tyrion, and Cersei also recalls that it was Arya who sicced her wolf on Joffrey.

"I'm not like Arya," Sansa blurted. "She has the traitor's blood, not me. I'm good, ask Septa Mordane, she'll tell you, I only want to be Joffrey's loyal and loving wife."

So Cersei turns to the councilors and observes that "if the rest of her kin were to remain loyal in this terrible time, that would go a long way toward laying our fears to rest." Pycelle observes, "Lord Eddard has three sons," but Littlefinger dismisses them as "Mere boys.... I should be more concerned with Lady Catelyn and the Tullys." So Cersei asks Sansa to write to her mother and to Robb and "tell them how Lord Eddard betrayed his king," and tell them to come to King's Landing and pledge their loyalty. Then, she says, there will be no question about her marrying Joffrey. Sansa suggests that she might talk to her father first, and asks what will happen to him. Pycelle says, "That is a matter for the king to decide."

When she hears that the decision is up to Joffrey, Sansa feels better. Maybe he'll let her father go back to Winterfell, or maybe go into exile for a few years, and then after she becomes queen she can persuade Joffrey to pardon him. So she agrees to write letters to Catelyn and her brothers, and to her Aunt Lysa and her grandfather, Hoster Tully. After she finishes the letters, she reads a while in her favorite book of romances. "It was not until later that night, as she was drifting off to sleep, that Sansa realized she had forgotten to ask about her sister."

Jon

The body to which the hand Ghost found in the woods was attached has also been located and identified as that of Jafer Flowers. Along with it was another corpse, that of a man named Othor. Both of them had belonged to the group of rangers that went out with Benjen Stark.

Ghost had led them to the corpses after the dogs refused to take the scent from the severed hand. Jon and Samwell have returned with the search party, but Sam refuses to look at the bodies until Jon reminds him that he was tasked to do so by the blind Maester Aemon. And when he finally does so, he can hardly take his eyes off them.

Lord Commander Mormont and Ser Jaremy Rykker, the chief of the rangers, are there, too. Mormont is chiding Rykker because the dead men had apparently been killed "almost within sight of the Wall," but the watch had heard or seen nothing. From the gash in his neck, Jafer Flowers was apparently killed with an ax. Othor has wounds "that covered him like a rash." The hands of the corpses are black. Othor's eyes are open, "blue as sapphires."

Rykker is inclined to blame the killing on the wildlings in the forest, but Mormont is certain that if the party had come under attack by wildlings that close to the Wall, Ben Stark would have returned for reinforcements. Rykker thinks that they must have been attacked elsewhere and that these two men escaped from the attack and ran back to the Wall, where the enemy killed them before they reached safety. "The corpses are still fresh, these men cannot have been dead more than a day...."

But Sam suddenly says, "No." Jon realizes this is an uncharacteristic thing for Sam to do: He is terrified of the officers, especially Ser Jaremy, who replies, "I did not ask for your views, boy." Jon urges them to let Sam speak, and when he does, Sam insists that if the corpses were fresh there should have been blood where Ghost gnawed off the hand. But on the wrist of the corpse the blood was dry. Jon likens it to "a black dust." Rykker insists that they must be fresh: "They don't even smell." But Sam continues, pointing out there are no worms or maggots on the bodies, and that the animals -- apart from Ghost -- haven't touched them. "And Ghost is different," Jon says. "The dogs and the horses won't go near them." Mormont orders the dogs brought nearer, and they refuse to approach the bodies.

Sam continues: There are bloodstains on their clothes, but none on the ground around them. The old forester, Dywen, suggests that they might have been killed elsewhere and brought here and left as a warning, but then observes that he didn't remember Othor as having blue eyes. "Ser Jaremy looked startled. 'Neither did Flowers,' he blurted, turning to stare at the dead man." One of the rangers then says, "Burn them," and another agrees. But Mormont orders them brought back to the Wall so Maester Aemon can examine them.

When they try to load the corpses onto horses, the animals go mad, resisting them. So finally the rangers fashion stretchers to carry them back by hand. As they ride back, Jon notices how warm the weather is. "Too warm. The Wall was weeping copiously, had been weeping for days, and sometimes Jon even imagined it was shrinking." This kind of warm spell in the north was called a "spirit summer," and was thought to presage the onset of winter. Jon remembers Old Nan's tales of the long winter in which "the Others" came, "leading hosts of the slain. They fed their dead servants on the flesh of human children."

Mormont calls Sam over, and says, "You're fat but you're not stupid, boy.... You did well back there. And you, Snow." When they reach the other side of the Wall, the Lord Steward tells Mormont that a bird has arrived and he needs to come read the message at once. Mormont tells Jon to see to his horse and have Ser Jaremy put the corpses in a storeroom until the maester can examine them. As Jon tends to the horse, he notices others looking at him, so when he's done he seeks out Pyp in the common hall. Pyp tells him of the death of the king.

When he returns to the Lord Commander's Tower, a guard tells him that Mormont wants him. Mormont is reading a letter, and when Jon enters he asks for a cup of wine and tells him to pour one for himself. When Jon does, Mormont tells him to sit and to drink. Jon knows that the letter has something to do with his father. "Lord Eddard has been imprisoned," Mormont says. "He is charged with treason." Jon's first reaction is that the charge is a lie. Mormont says he will send a letter to the councilors: "Whatever your father has done, or hasn't done, he is a great lord. He must be allowed to take the black and join us here. Gods knows, we need men of Lord Eddard's ability." Jon knows that even traitors have been allowed to take the black and serve on the Wall.

But would Joffrey listen to this suggestion? Mormont suspects that the decision really lies with Cersei. "A pity the dwarf isn't with them. He's the lad's uncle, and he saw our need when he visited us." It's too bad, he says, that Jon's mother took him captive. Jon protests, "Lady Stark is not my mother," and asks about Arya and Sansa. Mormont says the letter from Pycelle doesn't mention them, and then says, "I hope you are not thinking of doing anything stupid, boy." He reminds Jon that his duty lies with the Night's Watch now.

At supper in the common hall, his friends are all supportive, and Jon thinks of them as his brothers. But then he hears Ser Alliser Thorne say, "Not only a bastard, but a traitor's bastard." Jon leaps over the table with his dagger and lunges for Ser Alliser. Sam, Pyp, Grenn, and Toad quickly intervene to stop Jon from killing Ser Alliser. Jon is taken back to his sleeping cell and his knife and sword are taken from him, pending a hearing before the high officers. There he is visited by the Lord Commander, who reminds him that he told him not to do anything stupid. "And to think I had high hopes for you."

He is left alone in his cell with Ghost, and he dozes off until he is awakened by Ghost, scratching at the door and baring his fangs. It has turned cold. He decides that Ghost is only bothered by the presence of a guard outside his door, so he gets up and opens the door.

His guard was sprawled bonelessly across the narrow steps, looking up at him, even though he was lying on his stomach. His head had been twisted completely around.

Ghost runs past him and up the steps to the Lord Commander's room, then looks for him to follow. There are sounds from the room above, so Jon takes the sword from the guard and goes up the stairs where he sees "a shadow in the shadows, sliding toward the inner door that led to Mormont's sleeping cell." The figure is hooded but "its eyes shone with an icy blue radiance." Ghost leaps for the figure and knocks it down, and Jon rips the curtain from the window, letting in the moonlight. He sees the black hands of the figure around Ghost's throat.

Jon brings the sword down on the figure's arm, cutting it off and freeing Ghost. He slashes at the figure's face and as he does so he recognizes Othor, whose corpse they had brought back from the forest. The severed arm grabs at his ankle, and Jon frees himself from it and flings it across the room. The body lurches toward him and knocks him down, and when he opens his mouth to scream it jams its fingers into his mouth. Then Ghost pulls the body off of him, and as Jon, semi-conscious, looks for the sword he sees Lord Mormont enter, carrying an oil lamp. Jon grabs the lamp and sets the curtains he pulled down on fire, then reaches into the flames and throws the burning cloth at the figure, praying, "gods, please, please, let it burn." 

Bran

Bran is watching the armies of the houses loyal to the Starks gather, wishing he could be out among them. At least Robb has given him a seat at his right hand when he meets with the bannermen. He asks Maester Luwin how many men have gathered, and is told that it's in the neighborhood of twelve thousand. He hands Luwin the telescope that he has been looking through, then asks Hodor to take him back to the keep.

Then he decides instead to visit the godswood, which is the only quiet place in Winterfell with the troops gathering. There he asks Hodor to leave him by the pool and to go bathe in the hot springs. Summer comes and sits by him. He prays that Robb won't have to go away and that his mother and father and sisters will come home. And that his little brother Rickon will understand what's happening: Rickon "had been wild as a winter storm since he learned Robb was riding off to war, weeping and angry by turns." His wolf, Shaggydog, had become as wild as Rickon, and has had to be chained up in the kennels, which only makes Rickon more upset.

Bran has watched Robb, who is not yet sixteen, handle the older men he is expected to command. "Robb answered each of them with cool courtesy, much as Father might have, and somehow he bent them to his will." He had met defiance from Lord Umber, known as the Greatjon, who threatened to take his troops home if he had to take a position he didn't like in the march. The Greatjon had started a fight in the hall, but Robb gave a quiet command and Grey Wind flattened Lord Umber and bit off two of his fingers.

Clive Mantle as Lord Umber, the Greatjon

 And somehow after that the Greatjon became Robb's right hand, his staunchest champion, loudly telling all and sundry that the boy lord was a Stark after all, and they'd damn well better bend their knees if hey didn't fancy having them chewed off.

Afterward, however, Robb came to Bran's room to confess how frightened he had been and how he wished his Father were there. No one seemed to know where Lord Eddard was now, and there were all sorts of lurid rumors flying about. Then Robb received Sansa's letter telling them that Robb and his mother were summoned to King's Landing to swear loyalty to Joffrey, and that when she marries Joffrey she will plead for her father's life. "And she says nothing of Arya, nothing, not so much as a word. Damn her! What's wrong with the girl?" Bran can only think of how everyone he loved had gone south and not returned, and that now Robb was going too.

As he's praying for them all to come home safely, Osha appears. He hasn't seen her since they took her captive, but he knew that she now worked in the kitchens. She says she comes there because they are her gods too. "Beyond the Wall, they are the only gods." She tells him that if he listens he can hear them. It's only the wind in the leaves, he says, but she says, "Who do you think sends the wind, if not the gods?" When he asks what they are saying, she says, "They're sad. Your lord brother will get no help from them, not where he's going. The old gods have no power in the south."

Hodor returns, stark naked, and Bran has to remind him that he forgot his clothes. Osha says he must have giant blood, and when Bran says Maester Luwin says there are no more giants, she claims that there are beyond the Wall. "My brother killed one. Ten foot tall she was, and stunted at that. They've been known to grow big as twelve and thirteen feet." There are worse things beyond the Wall, she continues.

"The cold winds are rising, and men go out from their fires and never come back ... or if they do, they're not men no more, but only wights, with blue eyes and cold black hands."

Then she tells him that she tried to tell Robb something but he didn't listen. Bran says he'll tell him, so she says, "You tell him he's bound on marching the wrong way. It's north he should be taking his swords. North, not south."

Robb wasn't at the feast that night in the hall, and Bran was the one called on to give the welcome. He overhears someone saying he'd "sooner die than live like that," and someone else "said likely the boy was broken inside as well as out, too craven to take his own life." Bran tells Maester Luwin that he doesn't want to be broken, that he wants to be a knight. Luwin says, "There are some who call my order the knights of the mind," and asks if he has ever thought of becoming a maester. "There is no limit to what you might learn." Bran says he wants to learn magic and to fly. This is not what Maester Luwin has in mind, however, and he says, "Bran, no man can teach you magic." Bran replies that the children of the forest could, and he is reminded of what he told Osha he'd tell Robb. But Maester Luwin dismisses her words as "folly."

Two days later, Bran says goodbye to his brother, who tells him, "You are the lord in Winterfell now." But Rickon refuses to say goodbye to Robb. Bran tells Robb, "He says no one ever comes back." Robb promises that their mother will be home soon and that he'll bring their father. As Robb rides off, Bran remembers Osha's words, and almost rides after him to tell them to him.