34. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 887-913

The Dragontamer

While Barristan is attempting his overthrow of Hizdahr, Quentyn Martell is working on something even more risky. Unable to sleep, he pours himself a cup of wine and lights a candle. And then he holds his hand in the candle flame. When he withdraws it with a yelp, Gerris Drinkwater appears, astonished at what the prince is up to. He suggests finding a whore might be a more pleasant solution to Quentyn's restlessness.

But Quentyn's mind is on Daenerys and his determination to marry her even though, as Drinkwater reminds him, she is already married. Drinkwater tries to discourage him from further pursuit of the queen, but Quentyn has his mind made up: He believes that she is still alive, and thinks he knows the way to find her. He wants to take one of the remaining dragons and ride out on it in search of her.

Drinkwater protests this mad idea, but Quentyn is adamant: "You have my leave to go. Find a ship and run home, Gerris." But when the hour of the wolf arrives, the three Dornishmen are preparing to attempt this plan. Archibald Yronwood frets that the dragons won't like the rain, and Gerris is gloomy, but Quentyn will not be denied. They put on their disguises: The outfits of the Brazen Beasts, a bull, a lion, and an ape. Yronwood chooses the bull, Quentyn naturally picks the lion, and Gerris is stuck with the ape. The Tattered Prince has helped them obtain the costumes, as well as the Beasts' password: dog.

The main gates are guarded by Brazen Beasts with the masks of a rat and a fox, but they yield their posts at the password. Hurriedly, because the real relief to the guards will probably show at any moment, they open the doors and bring in a wagon that they have hidden in a nearby alley. They are joined by other members of the Windblown, all except Pretty Meris disguised as Brazen Beasts. She tells them that the Tattered Prince is nearby with fifty men, waiting for them to bring out the dragon.

They descend into the pyramid and finally reach the iron doors of the dragons' pit. Four Brazen Beasts guard it. One wears a basilisk mask, but the other three are locusts -- the masks of Barristan's conspirators. When Quentyn utters the password, "dog," the reaction makes him realize that something has gone wrong. "Take them," he orders, and Yronwood swiftly kills the basilisk and Gerris intervenes to keep one of the locusts from killing Quentyn. The other sellswords come running and finish off the rest of the locusts.

Quentyn is still wondering why the password doesn't work when Pretty Meris tells him to get a move on. Yronwood shatters the lock on the doors with his warhammer, and pulls them open. Quentyn orders the cart brought forward: It contains a quartered ox and two sheep to feed the dragons. Gerris hands him a torch and Quentyn steps into the darkness.

The green one is Rhaegal, the white Viserion, he reminded himself. Use their names, command them, speak to them calmly but sternly. Master them, as Daenerys mastered Drogon in the pit. The girl had been alone, clad in wisps of silk, but fearless. I must not be afraid. She did it, so can I. The main thing was to show no fear. Animals can smell fear, and dragons.... What did he know of dragons? What does any man know of dragons? They have been gone from the world for more than a century. 

The air grows warmer as he enters the pit. He sees two glowing eyes, then dark green scales. The dragon's long neck uncoils until it is looking down on him. Quentyn croaks out the dragon's name, "Rhaegal," and calls for the food to be brought forward. Yronwood flings one of the sheep into the pit and the dragon snaps it up in midair.

Yronwood asks where the other one is, and Quentyn remembers that Viserion had been hanging from the ceiling when he visited with Daenerys. He shines the torch around and discovers that the dragon has hollowed out a cave in the masonry of the walls. As Viserion wakes and stretches and extends his wings, Quentyn calls for more meat. The plan had been to feed the dragons and then, when they are torpid after their meal, to chain them. But Drinkwater grabs Quentyn and tells him the plan won't work: "They are too wild, they...."

The dragon lands between them and the door. It stares at Pretty Meris, and Quentyn realizes it recognizes her as female. "He is looking for Daenerys. He wants his mother and does not understand why she's not here." Quentyn calls out the dragon's name, Viserion, and reaches for the whip at his belt, remembering that Daenerys had controlled Drogon with a whip. The dragon looks at him for a moment, but then turns away and heads for the door.

One of the Windblown fires a crossbow, causing Quentyn to protest, but too late. Viserion seizes the man by the neck and breathes fire, burning him while biting off a chunk of the man's throat. The Windblown pull back. The dragon looks at them for a moment and then returns to the corpse, tearing off a leg.

Quentyn calls out "VISERION!" and cracks the whip. The dragon raises his head and looks at him. Then there is a blast of hot wind, the sound of wings, Drinkwater calling his name and Yronwood shouting, "Behind you, behind you, behind you!"

When he raised his whip, he saw that the lash was burning. His hand as well. All of him, all of him was burning. 

Oh, he thought. Then he began to scream.

Jon

Queen Selyse has announced her firm opposition to rescuing the wildlings at Hardhome, but Jon is determined to defy her, even if it means he has to lead a rescue mission himself. This is fine with her: "Afterward some bard will make a stirring song about you, no doubt, and we shall have a more prudent lord commander." And now she introduces Gerrick Kingsblood, whom she calls "Gerrick of House Redbeard, ... King of the Wildlings." Jon knows that this is a royal line of her own devising, that although she claims Gerrick is "descended in an unbroken male line from their great king Raymun Redbeard," among the wildlings "that counted about as much as being descended from Raymun Redbeard's horse." But Selyse has devised a royal lineage so she can marry Ser Axell Florent to Gerrick's eldest daughter, and his other two to her knights.

Jon goes along with this charade until she announces that she intends for Val to "wed my good and leal knight, Ser Patrek of King's Mountain." Jon points out that this is not the way it usually works among the free folk, where a man usually steals the woman of his choosing from her kinfolk, risking "a savage beating if he is caught by the woman's kin, and worse than that if she herself finds him unworthy." Ser Axell sniffs, "A savage custom," and Selyse orders Jon to send Val to her for instruction "in the duties of a noble lady toward her lord husband."

Jon knows that this will not end well, but his efforts to tell Selyse that are squelched, and he withdraws. As he is leaving the queen's tower, Melisandre calls out to him. She asks where Ghost is, and he tells her that the wolf is not allowed to accompany him to meetings with the queen and that since the arrival of Borroq with his boar, he has not been able to let Ghost roam freely. She tells him that the attempt to rescue the people at Hardhome is doomed: She has seen it in her fires, that all of the ships are lost. He tells her he has reasons to doubt her visions:

"A grey girl on a dying horse. Daggers in the dark. A promised prince, born in smoke and salt. It seems to me that you make nothing but mistakes, my lady. Where is Stannis? What of Rattleshirt and his spearwives? Where is my sister?"

But Melisandre insists that his questions will be answered, and in the meantime, "I am you only hope." 

He still intends to lead a rescue party despite Selyse's determination not to help, and speaks with Leathers about gathering the men in the Shieldhall before the evening watch. When he reaches the armory, he finds two of his men on guard outside. When he asks why they are standing in the cold, they tell him that Ghost doesn't want them inside, and Mully says the wolf tried to bite him. "I never seen him like this, m'lord. All wild-like, I mean.

Inside, Jon finds Ghost pacing restlessly, and when he tries to calm him, "the wolf bristled and bared his teeth." Jon blames it on the boar. But Mormont's raven is upset, too, and keeps calling out, "Snow, snow, snow." Jon has Satin light a fire and sends him for Bowen Marsh and Othell Yarwyck. When they arrive, Yarwyck complains that he doesn't have enough builders to continue the work on the castles in the snowstorm that seems to be arriving. Jon suggests using wildlings, but Yarwyck grumbles about their unreliability. Jon is tired of the complaints of the steward and the builder about the free folk, and insists that it has to be done. Marsh of course sides with the queen on helping the people at Hardhome, and suggests sending all of the wildlings: "The more we lose, the fewer mouths we'll have to feed."

Jon thanks them and walks out with them, thinking,

My brothers. The Night's Watch needed leaders with the wisdom of Maester Aemon, the learning of Samwell Tarly, the courage of Qhorin Halfhand, the stubborn strength of the Old Bear, the compassion of Donal Noye. What it had instead was them.

The drifts have piled up against the Wall, covering the ice cells. Jon has them dug out, and sends Cregan Karstark to a new cell under the Lord Commander's Tower. There are two corpses in the cells, but he decides to leave them there, intending to study them before burning them. Tormund Giantsbane arrives with fifty men, not the eighty that had been promised. He mocks the new King of the Wildlings. Jon starts to talk to him about what to say to the men when they meet at the Shieldhall, but he is interrupted by Clydas, who has received a letter.

Clydas is trembling as he delivers the letter, which is from Ramsay Bolton. It is addressed simply to "Bastard." It claims that Stannis is dead and that Ramsay possesses "his magic sword." He says he has captured Mance Rayder and "made him a warm cloak from the skins of the six whores who came with him to Winterfell." Rayder came there, he says, "to steal my bride from me."

I want my bride back. I want the false king's queen. I want his daughter and the red witch. I want his wildling princess. I want his little prince, the wildling babe. And I want my Reek. Send them to me, bastard, and I will not trouble you or your black crows. Keep them from me, and I will cut out your bastard's heart and eat it.

Jon reads it to Tormund, who is confused by the reference to Rayder, whom he thinks dead. Jon doesn't reveal the truth about Melisandre's trick of substituting Rattleshirt for Mance. Tormund thinks Ramsay is lying, but Jon recognizes that it reveals Ramsay's knowledge of the sword Lightbringer and the number of spearwives who accompanied Mance. He tells Tormund that they need to change their plans.

When the time comes for the meeting at the Shieldhall, he shuts Ghost inside because he is afraid that Borroq will be at that gathering. The crowd there is made up of five times as many wildlings as members  of the Watch. Marsh and Yarwyck are there, as is Borroq, though without his boar. Two of Selyse's knights, Ser Narbert and Ser Benethon are there too. Melisandre enters the hall as Jon tells the crowd that he needs to send the rescue mission by land, but that he will not be leading it, Tormund Giantsbane will. Borroq asks if Jon will be "Hiding here in Castle Black with your white dog," and Jon replies that he is riding south. When he reads them the letter from Ramsay, the hall goes wild. Tormund has to sound his horn to restore order.

"The Night's Watch takes no part in the wars of the Seven Kingdoms," he reminds them. But he intends to make Ramsay -- "This creature who makes cloaks from the skins of women" -- answer for what he has done. He won't ask any of his brothers to break their vows, but he will ride alone unless there are those who will come with him. A roar fills the hall. "I have my swords, thought Jon Snow, and we are coming for you, Bastard." He sees Marsh and Yarwyck and their men leave the hall, but is unconcerned: "No man can ever say I made my brothers break their vows. If this is oathbreaking, the crime is mine and mine alone."

He leaves the meeting with his guards, Horse and Rory, but they hear a terrifying scream from the direction of Hardin's Tower. There they find the giant, Wun Wun, holding a bloody corpse by one leg and swinging it against the walls of the tower. The giant has sword cuts on his belly and his arm. "The dead man was Ser Patrek of King's Mountain; his head was largely gone, but his heraldry was as distinctive as his face." Jon tells Leathers, who speaks the Old Tongue, to try to calm the giant, and tells the men who are gathering at the scene to put away their weapons for fear they'll agitate the giant even more.

Then he sees the flash of a blade in the hands of Wick Whittlestick, and realizes that it is aimed at him. He dodges the blow, which grazes his skin, and asks Wick why he is attacking him. "For the Watch," Wick says. Jon grabs his arm as he strikes again, and Wick drops the dagger. Jon reaches for Longclaw but is unable to get the sword free as Bowen Marsh appears, saying, "For the Watch," and stabs Jon in the belly. "When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold...."
 

24. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 632-660

Jaime

Jaime is making his way to Raventree, the besieged castle that is one of the last holdouts of Robb Stark's short-lived kingdom. If he can end this siege he can make his way back to King's Landing and deal with Cersei, whose call for help he has ignored. He goes to meet with Lord Jonos Bracken, who has been attempting to starve the castle into submission, but walks in on him in flagrante with a camp follower.

Once she is sent on her way and Bracken has dressed himself, Jaime talks with him about proposing terms of surrender to Lord Blackwood. Bracken wants to make sure that he takes a share of the lands now belonging to Blackwood. Bracken had been loyal to Robb Stark until the Red Wedding, when he switched allegiance to Tommen, so Jaime is not inclined to be terribly generous. Still he promises Bracken some of the lands he wants.

Under a flag of truce, Jaime goes to meet Lord Tytos Blackwood and arranges the terms of surrender. Blackwood agrees to all of them, but when it comes to naming a hostage he resists parting with his daughter, Bethany. Jaime finally agrees to take his "bookish" son Hoster, "a gangling, gawky boy" about sixteen. When he returns to Bracken with Hoster, the lord calls the boy a "weakling" and says "any one of my girls could snap him like a rotten twig." So Jaime takes the opportunity to order Bracken to send one of his daughters to King's Landing to serve the queen.

He summons Hoster to ride alongside him, and hears a good deal of the local history from the boy, whose interest in books reminds him of Tyrion until he remembers what his brother had done. The Brackens and Blackwoods have been fighting and intermarrying for centuries, and Jaime tells Hoster of his father's advice: "Never wound a foe when you can kill him. Dead men don't claim vengeance." But when Hoster asks if that's why the Lannisters killed all the Starks, Jaime has to admit that not all of the Starks are dead, including the one, Sansa, whom he had sent Brienne to find.

They camp at Pennytree, where the villagers have all taken refuge in the holdfast. Rather than force them out, Jaime tells his men to take shelter in the houses but not to steal anything. He is contemplating the tree that gives the town its name -- an ancient oak with hundreds of copper pennies nailed to it -- when  a scout arrives with none other than Brienne, who had asked to see him.

Jaime is startled by her face, and the fact that she looks ten years older. She tells him that she has found Sansa and that she's a day's ride away. "I can take you to her, ser ... but you will need to come alone. Elsewise, the Hound will kill her."

Jon

Melisandre is praying to R'hllor, with Queen Selyse and the queen's men in attendance, though Jon notices that many of the men are obviously not devout followers of the Lord of Light. He suspects that Stannis had a hand in selecting them. Alys Karstark is being married to Sigorn, the Magnar of Thenn. Alys's uncle, Cregan, had pursued her with four men, one of whom died in the fight they started. The living ones are now imprisoned in ice cells in the Wall.

Jon offers to have Satin show the queen the way to the wedding feast, but Ser Malegorn, one of the queen's men, steps up to say he will escort Selyse, intimating his contempt for the former male prostitute. As the royal party makes its way, the fool Patchface chants nonsense. Melisandre tells Jon that she has seen Patchface in her flames and considers him dangerous. Jon asks if she has seen Stannis, but she says whenever she tries, all she sees is snow. But she also tells Jon, "I see your face every time I look into the flames. The danger that I warned you of grows very close now."

Jon continues to doubt Melisandre's visions, and he reminds her that she was mistaken about the "grey girl on a dying horse, fleeing from a marriage" -- she turned out to be Alys, not Arya. But Melisandre insists, "The vision was a true one. It was my reading that was false. I am as mortal as you, Jon Snow. All mortals err." She urges him to keep Ghost close beside him.

Jon goes to the ice cell where Cregan Karstark is imprisoned and tells him that Alys is married. Cregan protests that she was promised to him by his father, Arnolf, but Jon insists that Arnolf is not the rightful Lord of Karhold. If Alys's brother, Harrion, is dead, then she is the heir, and she has married Sigorn. "A wildling. A filthy, murdering wildling," Cregan protests. Nevertheless, Jon says, Sigorn commands two hundred Thenns, and two of Cregan's men have admitted that Arnolf Karstark had conspired with Ramsay Bolton. "Yield the castle. Lady Alys will pardon the women who betrayed her and allow the men to take the black." Cregan says he will never do that.

Jon goes to the wedding feast, but it only reminds him of how low the supplies at Castle Black are becoming. He talks with Alys about the situation at Karhold, where supplies are also running low, and suggests that she send the old men and the boys to the Wall rather than have them die alone in the snow. Clydas arrives with a letter brought by a raven from Eastwatch to say that the rescue mission has set off for Hardhome and that Ser Glendon Hewett is in charge at Eastwatch. Jon worries about this: Hewett was friends with Alliser Thorne and had been "a crony of sorts with Janos Slynt."

When Alys gets up to dance with Sigorn, Ser Axell Florent sits down beside Jon to press once again the idea of marrying Val. His coarseness angers Jon and they exchange words. But then the sound of a horn is heard. It is followed by a second, and Jon realizes that Val has completed her mission to Tormund Giantsbane.

22. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 579-604

Jon

As if he didn't have enough to deal with, Queen Selyse descends upon Jon with her retinue, so he meets her with a company of Night's Watch: "It would never do to come before this queen without a retinue of his own, if half of what they said about her was true. She might mistake him for a stableboy and hand him the reins of her horse." Even so, when he kneels before her she asks to see the lord commander, and he has to inform her, "My brothers chose me for that honor. I am Jon Snow."

She introduces him to Axell Florent, whose reputation has preceded him -- unfortunately. But more importantly, she brings with her Tycho Nestoris, of the Iron Bank of Braavos, who has come there to meet with Stannis. She asks to be taken to Melisandre, and Jon obliges. But on the way they encounter the giant, Wun Wun, who startles the queen's party but bows politely before her. "Even kneeling, he loomed over them." Selyse is unimpressed and asks, "Lord Snow, what is this bestial creature doing on our side of the Wall?" She doesn't like it when Jon says, "Wun Wun is a guest of the Night's Watch, as you are."

As Selyse and her company depart in a huff, Jon halts the banker, who agrees to talk with Jon in his solar. Tycho explains that he has come to Stannis about the debts that the Iron Throne has refused to pay. If Stannis is less obdurate about the debts, the bank might consider dealing with him. Jon tells Tycho that Stannis is away, marching on the Boltons, but he can supply horses and provisions to get him to Deepwood Motte and from there to go in search of Stannis, though he thinks to himself, "And you may well find his head upon a spike."

But Jon also wants a favor from the bank. He would like to borrow the three ships Tycho has at his disposal as well as enough gold to see the Watch through till spring. They haggle for an hour over the terms, helped along by the wine that Satin, Jon's steward, brings them. "By the time Jon Snow signed the parchment the Braavosi drew up, both of them were half-drunk and quite unhappy. Jon thought that a good sign." He intends to use the ships to rescue the people Mother Mole has led to Hardhome.

He conducts Tycho to the mess hall, where Ser Axell joins them and asks Jon about "this wildling princess His Grace King Stannis wrote of." Jon has persistently tried to correct the error of calling Val a princess, but to no avail. He also doesn't want to reveal that she has gone on a diplomatic errand for him. When Jon persists in keeping Val's whereabouts secret, though he knows that rumors of her departure have leaked out, Axell gets huffy: "My lord, have you forgotten who I am?" He can speak to the queen and "have this wildling girl delivered naked to the hall for our inspection." Jon says he doubts that the queen would violate the rules of hospitality in that way and takes his leave.

Back in his solar he reads over the agreement he had made with Tycho, regretting its necessity -- "when the choice is debt or death, best borrow" -- and wondering how the Iron Bank will deal with the reluctance of Cersei to repay: "When princes failed to repay the Iron Bank, new princes sprang up from nowhere and took their thrones. As poor plump Tommen may be about to learn," Jon thinks.

He dozes off in his chair, and is awakened by the news, "A girl's been found." He thinks of Val at first, but then remembers Melisandre's vision of a girl, supposedly Arya, riding a dying horse toward the Wall. She has been taken to Maester Aemon's chambers, and as he walks there he wonders what he can do to save her if it does prove to be Arya.

For a moment he thinks it is his sister, but she is almost as old as he is. And she soon reveals herself to be Alys Karstark, fleeing from a marriage to her cousin Cregan. He remembers meeting her some ten years ago at Winterfell with her father, whom Robb had beheaded for killing prisoners. She asks if there is a blood feud between her and Jon, but he assures her that when a man joins the Watch he puts all feuds behind him. She is glad to hear this because she has no one else to turn to "but the last son of Eddard Stark." Although she is the rightful heir to the family castle, Karstark, a marriage would deny her that right.

Jon tells her that he has nothing to offer her in the way of support, but he will write to Stannis requesting that he protect her. But she laughs bitterly and says, "Stannis will be dead before he gets your message." Arnolf Karstark is headed to Winterfell to support Roose Bolton. "Lord Stannis is marching to a slaughter." She kneels and begs Jon to protect her.

The Blind Girl

As for the real Arya Stark, she is better off than either Alys or the faux Arya, Jeyne Poole, except that she's blind. She still dreams wolf dreams, and she still recites her prayer for the deaths of her tormentors (most of whom are in fact already dead). And she still serves in the temple in Braavos, having learned to rely on her remaining sense: "Hear, smell, taste, feel, she reminded herself. There are many ways to know the world for those who cannot see."

She can even sense the presence of the kindly man by scent: "Men had a different smell than women, and there was a hint of orange in the air" from the orange peels he likes to chew. He asks her his usual question, "And who are you this morning?" And she replies with her usual answer, "No one," to which he says, "A lie." She is "that blind beggar girl." She has taken the name Beth, from a girl she once knew at Winterfell.

Then he asks if she would like her sight back. Perhaps tomorrow, she replies. "Not today." He asks where she went begging last night, and she tells him, "The Inn of the Green Eel." And he asks another usual question: "what three new things do you know that you did not know when last you left us." She replies with the scraps of gossip she has heard, but thinks, "It is snowing in the riverlands, in Westeros," which she has learned through her wolf dreams. "But he would have asked her how she knew that, and she did not think that he would like her answer."

She goes about her daily chores, using a stick to aid her. Every evening the waif brings her a cup of a bitter potion to drink, and Arya asks how long she will be blind. The waif's reply is, "Until darkness is as sweet to you as light, ... or until you ask us for your eyes. Ask and you shall see." But she holds off asking because she knows she will be sent away then. The waif has taken charge of her training since she became blind, and has trained her in poisons and potions and in the language of Braavos. She has lost her accent, but the kindly man wants her to learn High Valyrian and the languages of Lys and Pentos, too.

She also plays the lying game with the waif, learning to detect a lie by the sound of the words when it is spoken to her. Her training with Syrio Forel has helped her keep her balance when she encounters unfamiliar terrain. But she has endured cuts and bruises and burns while moving around the temple and the city, though many fewer now than when she started. One of her duties is to find the dead people in the temple on the mornings after they had drunk from the pool that puts an end to their lives. She helps lay out the bodies, and to sort through the coins and possessions of the dead.

One day she is doing this when she hears the door open behind her. She calls out, "Who is there?" but the answer, in a "deep, harsh, cold" voice is "No one." Then she feels movement and reaches out for her stick, holding it up to protect her face. There is a blow of wood on wood that almost knocks the stick out of her hand. She slashes back with her stick but misses, and the voice taunts her, "Are you blind?" She listens and when she hears a sound strikes out and makes contact. The voice says, "Good." The battle continues, and she receives more blows and makes fewer hits.

When it's over she returns to her task with the bodies, remembering when she was Cat, selling fish on the street. She liked that life the best, but after she killed Dareon, the singer who had deserted Samwell and Maester Aemon, the kindly man and the waif had given her the potion that blinded her.

The kindly man had told her that they would have taken her eyes from her anyway, to help her to learn to use her other senses, but not for half a year. Blind acolytes were common in the House of Black and White, but few as young as she. The girl was not sorry, though. Dareon had been a deserter from the Night's Watch; he had deserved to die.

But the kindly man disagreed that she had the right to take a life. In the temple, he explained, "We are but death's instruments, not death himself. When you slew the singer, you took god's powers on yourself. We kill men, but we do not presume to judge them. Do you understand?" She said yes, but thought no. And he told her she was lying. "And that is why you must now walk in darkness until you see the way. Unless you wish to leave us. You need only ask, and you may have your eyes back." So she didn't ask.

In the evening she goes out to beg, and before she does, the waif disguises her by making her ugly. She had never cared for being pretty, even though her mother and her sister had urged her to try. "But they were all dead now, even Arya, everyone but her half-brother, Jon. Some nights she heard talk of him, in the taverns and brothels of the Ragman's Harbor. The Black Bastard of the Wall, one man had called him." She knows her way to the various places where she begs, and tonight goes to a tavern called Pynto's. The cats at Pynto's recognize her from when she was Cat of the Canals.

The next morning when she tells the kindly man the three things she has learned, she says the Sealord had seized a slave ship called the Goodheart, which was carrying hundreds of slaves. "They were wildlings from Westeros, from a place called Hardhome," she says, and they had been taken by two slave ships. On the way back they had run into storms, and the Goodheart had put in to Braavos for repairs. The other ship may have made it to Lys, and if so there may be more slavers sent to Hardhome.

The kindly man asks what is the third thing she has learned, and she tells him she knows he's the one who has been hitting her when she lays out the corpses. She gives him a rap on the knuckles with her stick. He asks "how would a blind girl know that?" She thinks, "I saw you," but says, "I gave you three. I don't need to give you four."

That evening when the waif gives her the potion it is different. And in the morning she sees "a tallow candle burning where no candle had been the night before, its uncertain flame swaying back and forth like a whore at the Happy Port. She had never seen anything so beautiful."

22. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 722-754

Davos

Salladhor Saan has brought the news to Stannis:

"The Red Wedding, the smallfolk are calling it. They swear Lord Frey had the boy's head hacked off, sewed the head of his direwolf in its place, and nailed a crown about his ears. His lady mother was slain as well, and thrown naked in the river."

Davos is shocked at the violation of the code of hospitality: "At a wedding.... As he sat at his slayer's board, a guest beneath his roof. Those Freys are cursed." Ser Axell Florent and Queen Selyse piously invoke the name of R'hllor, but Stannis observes, "This sounds more like Walder Frey's handiwork than any god's."

Melisandre claims to have seen in her flames the rising of more kings to take the place of Balon Greyjoy and Robb Stark. "You must show the realm a sign," she urges. "A sign that proves your power!" But Stannis scoffs at the idea of his having any power at all: He has "thirteen hundred men on Dragonstone, another three hundred at Storm's End." The only fleet he has at hand belongs to Salladhor Saan, and he has no money to hire mercenaries.

But what he does have, the queen and Ser Axell remind him, is the bastard son of Robert Baratheon. Melisandre presses the point: "Give me the boy for R'hllor ... and the ancient prophecy shall be fulfilled. Your dragon shall awaken and spread his stony wings. The kingdom shall be yours." Davos holds his tongue as Ser Axell and the queen kneel before him, claiming that burning the boy will bring the stone dragon to life and even break the curse of barrenness that has made the queen unable to bear Stannis a son.

Stannis begins to waver when Melisandre says, "From his king's blood and his untainted fire, a dragon shall be born." He really would like to see a dragon. He remembers going with Robert to Aerys Targaryeon's court, where the dragon skulls were displayed. Stannis had been about four and Robert five or six, and they "agreed afterward that the king had been as noble as the dragons were fearsome." Later, however, their father told them that the man on the throne that day wasn't Aerys, who had cut himself on the protruding blades of the Iron Throne, "so his hand had taken his place. It was Tywin Lannister who'd so impressed us."

Still, he thinks about how impressed people would be if he could show them his dragon. Then Davos ventures forth to say, "I know little of dragons and less of gods ... but the queen spoke of curses. No man is as cursed as the kinslayer, in the eyes of gods and men." Melisandre protests that there are no gods apart from "R'hllor and the Other, whose name must not be spoken." Davos persists in asking her why she needs Edric Storm (he shrewdly repeats the name, knowing that as long as they think of him as a person they'll be more reluctant to kill him).

"Only death can pay for life, my lord," Melisandre replies. "A great gift requires a great sacrifice." The greatness resides in the king's blood in his veins, and she reminds him that the blood in the leeches that Stannis burned has already taken effect. But Davos says, "Robb Stark was murdered by Lord Walder of the Crossing, and we have heard that Balon Greyjoy fell from a bridge. Who did your leeches kill?" And Stannis points out that she's still short a king. Melisandre replies:

"To be sure, Your Grace. One king might die by chance, even two ... but three? If Joffrey should die in the midst of all his power, surrounded by his armies and his Kingsguard, would not that show the power of the Lord at work?"

"It might," Stannis agrees. "Or not," Davos adds, hoping he hasn't gone too far, and remembering the murderous shadow that Melisandre gave birth to.

Stannis dismisses them, but Davos stays behind to plead the case for sparing Edric Storm's life. But Stannis is torn between his need of Melisandre's help and his skepticism about her powers. The glowing sword she gave him, Lightbringer, didn't help him on the Blackwater, but he would really like a dragon. And he tells Davos he, too, has seen things in the flames: "a king, a crown of fire on his brows, burning ... burning, Davos. His own crown consumed the flesh and turned him into ash."

"If Joffrey should die ... what is the life of one bastard boy against a kingdom?" he asks. And Davos replies, "Everything." Stannis glares at him and sends him away, "before you talk yourself back into the dungeon."

Outside, Davos smells the sea and wishes he could sail away on it. He looks at the gargoyles and grotesques on the buildings, and the dragon figures carved everywhere. Even the buildings are designed in the shape of dragons. He wonders, "What if they were real dragons, somehow turned to stone?" He finds Salladhor Saan standing there, and asks if he's still angry with him for quashing Ser Axell's plan to invade Claw Isle. Salladhor says he has forgiven but not forgotten. He also says that he has heard that Davos is unpopular at court and is finding new friends elsewhere.

Davos has indeed been doing that, seeking out people who are not followers of Melisandre's religion and gaining their confidence. Salladhor tells him to be careful: "You are grown so very great now, yet the higher a man climbs the farther he has to fall." As he leaves Salladhor, Davos reflects on the truth in his statement. He is on his way to see Maester Pylos, who is teaching him to read, a skill that he is certain the king's Hand should have mastered. He arrives to find his own son, Devan, the Princess Shireen, and Edric Storm finishing up their lesson with Pylos. Edric has been reading about his father's battles, and recounts them with pride.

For his own lesson, Davos is reading from the letters that have been sent to the king. "His first duty was to help his king rule, and for that he must needs understand the words the ravens brought." There are no new letters, so Pylos gives him an old one. It turns out to be addressed to the "five kings," and to be about the attack by the King beyond the Wall and his wildlings. "We fear Mormont slain with all his strength," he reads, haltingly at first.

When he realizes what he's reading, he asks if Stannis has seen the letter. Pylos tells him that he took it to Lord Alester when he was still the Hand, but he declined to send a reply: "'His Grace lacks the men to fight his own battles, he has none to waste on wildlings,' he said to me." Davos remembers his own visit to the Wall at Eastwatch, and the wildlings he had met who, he tells Pylos, "seemed men like any other men, some fair, some foul." Burt something about the letter bothers him:

If Melisandre knew of this letter.... What was it she had said? One whose name may not be spoken is marshaling his power, Davos Seaworth. Soon comes the cold, and the night that never ends.... And Stannis had seen a vision in the flames, a ring of torches in the snow with terror all around.

Pylos notices his behavior and asks if he is ill. "I am frightened, Maester, he might have said." But instead he asks Pylos for another letter. This one, he tells the maester, is "Too ... troubling."

Jon

The smoke of burning Mole's Town is visible from Castle Black, so they have been alerted that Styr and his wildlings are approaching. Jon is still in pain from his leg, but Maester Aemon has given him a crutch. Donal Noye has taken charge of the preparations to defend the castle, which lies open to the south, and Jon is ready to do whatever he can.

His thoughts turn inevitably to Ygritte, but he has to force them down: "Ygritte, stay away. Go south and raid, go hide in one of those roundtowers you liked so well. You'll find nothing here but death."

They have mounted black-clad scarecrows everywhere: decoys to make the wildlings think their forces are ten times more numerous than they are. There are six on top of the King's Tower with Jon, as well as two living brothers-in-black, Deaf Dick Follard and a boy who had been raised in an Oldtown brothel whom they called Satin. The tower is next to the Wall at the foot of the wooden stairs that zigzag up its side.

Jon remembers his Uncle Benjen telling him that the reason Castle Black is undefended on its southern side is that the Night's Watch is pledged to be neutral in any internal disputes. Its sole task is to defend attacks from the north, which is what the Wall is for. But no one seems to have anticipated that the foes might cross the Wall and then attack from the south. "We are caught between the hammer and the anvil," Jon realizes. So the plan is to move all essentials to the top of the Wall and to concentrate on defending the gate. A rampart of barrels of nails, salted meat, timbers, bales of grain and of cloth and so on is built ten feet high around the entrance to the gate and the foot of the stairway up the side of the Wall.

Villagers from Mole's Town are either climbing the stairs or being hauled up by the lift to the top of the Wall. The garrison itself consists of "old men, cripples, and green boys," and some of them still don't trust Jon because of his time with Mance Rayder: "They still think me a turncloak. That was a bitter draft to drink, but Jon could not blame them. He was a bastard, after all. Everyone knew that bastards were wanton and treacherous by nature, having been born of lust and deceit." He also has some enemies he made earlier, such as Rast, whom he threatened with having his throat torn out by Ghost because he wouldn't stop tormenting Samwell Tarly.

In addition to members of the garrison, Donal Noye is also trying to whip some of the villagers into shape to defend the castle, outfitting them with weaponry and armor. The women and children have been given tasks carrying water and tending fires.

The day passes without an attack, but when night falls the horns blow, signaling the approach of the wildlings. He and Satin and Deaf Dick take their positions, bows and arrows at the ready. He sees dark shapes slipping around below, but waits until they are close enough for a sure shot. Their arrows begin to hit the mark as the moonlight makes the wildlings increasingly visible. They are close enough that Jon can recognize some of his former companions, but what he really wants is a good shot at Styr, the Magnar of Thenn.

The wildlings have set fire to the common hall, and then Deaf Dick call's Jon's attention to the roof of the armory, where two wildlings have climbed, one with a torch. Deaf Dick aims his crossbow but misses. And then he is struck by an arrow from below and plunges a hundred feet to the ground. Jon looks down at the body and sees, not ten feet from it, Ygritte. He raises his bow and aims, but can't bring himself to release the arrow.

The stables are on fire, and the movements of the wildlings through the buildings is clearly visible. Jon limps over to Satin and they go to the north parapet, looking down on the gate and the makeshift barricade. The Thenns are attacking the barricade, and are an easy target. Jon realizes that he is out of arrows, so he goes to fetch more. As he does so, the trap door to the roof opens. Jon reaches for Longclaw and kills the first man through the opening with a blow to the head. He calls for Satin, who kills the next man with an arrow. Then they fetch a kettle of boiling oil and pour it down on the Thenns below. Jon shuts the trap door and puts the kettle on top of it.

They go back to the parapet where the battle has begun to turn in favor of the wildlings. The citizens of Mole's Town begin to flee, and the brothers are outnumbered. The gate has been taken, and no one has fallen back into the tunnels to defend it. The Thenns begin to climb the stairs, and although Jon and Satin manage to kill a few, there are too many of them. The brothers defending the fourth landing are cut down and the archers on the fifth landing begin to retreat.


Jon tells Satin to fetch the torches, and as he is bringing them, Jon sees Styr on the barricade, calling to the half-dozen Thenns following him. A horn sounds from the ninth landing of the stair, where Donal Noye is standing. Jon lights a fire arrow from a torch and shoots it at "the casks and kegs and sacks" at the foot of the stairs. They are full of lard, oil, and combustible wood. Fire arrows are coming from above, setting the steps aflame. The wildlings have no way to go. And then the heat from the fire melts the ice on the side of the Wall, "and the whole lower third of the stair broke off, along with several tons of ice. That was the last that Jon Snow saw of Styr, the Magnar of Thenn."

Satin helps Jon, who is crippled by pain, down the tower steps, past the bodies on them. He walks through the destroyed buildings and past the bodies of wildlings, some of whom he recognizes. He finds Ygritte with an arrow in her chest, but he knows from the feathers that it wasn't one of his. Her eyes open when he kneels beside her. He tells her that Maester Aemon will treat her wound and give her something for the pain.

"You're not going to die, Ygritte," he assures her. "You're not." And she says, "You know nothing, Jon Snow."

14. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 474-502

Catelyn

Lord Hoster Tully is dead, and his funeral is being prepared. But in the meantime, emissaries have arrived from the Tullys in response to the proposal of marriage. Edmure Tully, who has inherited Riverrun from his father, is furious that the emissaries are Lame Lothar Frey and Walder Rivers, Lord Walder's bastard son. "'Walder Frey should be flayed and quartered!' he'd shouted. 'He sends a cripple and a bastard to treat with us, tell me there is no insult meant by that.'" Robb, whose own marriage is the cause of the rift with the Freys, is more conciliatory.

The funeral involves sending Lord Hoster's body downriver in a boat, and then setting it on fire with a flaming arrow. It is Edmure's duty to shoot the arrow at the boat as it goes downstream, but he botches it three times before handing the bow to his uncle, Ser Brynden, who succeeds in igniting the pyre. Edmure goes off to sulk. He has taken his father's death so hard that Catelyn has lied and told him that Lord Hoster whispered Edmure's name at the end, when in fact his "last word had been 'Tansy.'"

There had been no word from her sister Lysa even about her father's death, let alone about sending troops to support Robb. Catelyn has also not heard from King's Landing, where she hoped Brienne had arrived with Jaime, and might even be on the way back with Sansa and Arya.

Lothar Frey now apologizes for intruding on the funeral and asks for an audience with Robb. He says that his father "instructed me to say that he was young once, and well remembers what it is like to lose one's heart to beauty."

Catelyn doubted very much that Lord Walder had said any such thing, or that he had ever lost his heart to beauty. The Lord of the Crossing had outlived seven wives and was now wed to his eighth, but he spoke of them only as bedwarmers and brood mares. Still, the words were fairly spoken, and she could scarce object to the compliment.

After others have expressed their condolences, Robb asks if he may speak to Catelyn. They go to the godswood, where he broods on the mistakes of diplomacy that have been made, and says, "I have won every battle, yet somehow I'm losing the war.... The ironmen hold Winterfell, and Moat Cailin too. Father's dead, and Bran and Rickon, maybe Arya. And now your father too." And now he tells her something that he has waited until after the funeral to reveal to her: Sansa's marriage to Tyrion.

Catelyn wonders why this arrangement was made, and Robb proposes that it was done to gain Winterfell for the Lannisters: "With Bran and Rickon dead, Sansa is my heir. If anything should happen to me...."

She clutched tight at his hand. "Nothing will happen to you. Nothing. I could not stand it. They took Ned, and your sweet brothers. Sansa is married, Arya is lost, my father's dead ... if anything befell you, I would go mad, Robb. You are all I have left. You are all the north has left."

She now suggests that he make peace with the Lannisters: "You would not be the first king to bend the knee, nor even the first Stark." But he refuses to consider it. "The Lannisters killed my father." And when she says, "Do you think I have forgotten that?" he replies, "I don't know. Have you?" She leaves, angrily.

The chill between them remains at supper, when Lothar Frey delivers another bit of bad news: Lord Walder has received a letter from his grandsons who were Catelyn's wards at Winterfell, the two Walders. "Winterfell is burned," he tells them. He blames the burning on Theon Greyjoy, not on the Bastard of Bolton. Ser Rodrik Cassel was killed, he tells them, and many of the people at the castle as well. The women and children, along with the two Walders, were taken to the Dreadfort. "All I can tell you is that my nephews claim it was this bastard son of Bolton's who saved the women of Winterfell, and the little ones." When Robb asks about Theon Greyjoy, Lothar says he doesn't know.

Then he tells them that his father has agreed to the marriage of Edmure to sixteen-year-old Roslin Frey, but on the condition that Robb apologize in person "for the insult done to House Frey." Robb agrees readily to that condition. Edmure, however, suggests it might be better if he met Lady Roslin first, but Walder Rivers replies, "You must accept her now, my lord.... Else my father's offer is withdrawn." And Lothar says that his father insists that the marriage must take place at once.

Robb asks Lothar and Walder to excuse them, and they take their leave. Edmure is furious at what he sees as an insult, but Catelyn puts it down to Lord Walder's injured pride. And Robb reminds him that they can't afford another slight to the Freys. Moreover, he says, he wants to return to the north, to see about Winterfell, and find out "what this bastard of Bolton's is about, or whether Theon is still alive and on the loose." And Catelyn insists that the wedding "must happen." Brynden Blackfish joins in the urging, and Edmure capitulates.

Davos

In their cell, Lord Alester tells Davos that someone is coming. The guard appears, followed by Ser Axell Florent and four guardsmen. Alester is certain that it is he who has been sent for, but it turns out to be Davos. Alester cries out in dismay as Davos is removed from the cell and Axell tells the jailer to take the torch as well, leaving his brother in pitch darkness.

Davos asks if he is being taken to Melisandre and is told that she will be there, but that the summons came from Stannis. His legs are aching by the time they reach the top of the stairs and emerge onto a bridge that connects the prison tower to the Stone Drum. In the middle of the bridge, Axell stops and tells Davos that if it were up to him, he would burn both Davos and his brothers as traitors. And he adds, "His Grace must make me his Hand, in place of his traitor brother. And you will tell him so." Davos says nothing, but Axell says that the queen wants him to have the appointment, as does Salladhor Saan, but Stannis seems to have some reason for hesitating. So Davos must "join your voice to ours. Tell him that I am the only Hand he needs. Tell him, and when we sail I shall see that you have a new ship." And he backs Davos up against the waist-high wall of the bridge, then shoves him a little farther out so that he is leaning over the void below. "Do you hear me?"

Davos says, "I hear," and they proceed to the Chamber of the Painted Table, which centers on "a massive slab of wood carved and painted in the shape of Westeros as it had been in the time of Aegon the Conqueror." Davos is shocked by the sight of Stannis, who seems to have aged ten years since he last saw him before they sailed for the Battle of Blackwater. But he seems to smile when he sees Davos, who kneels before him. Stannis tells him to rise: "I have missed you, ser. I have need of good counsel, and you never gave me less." Then he adds, "So tell me true -- what is the penalty for treason?"

Davos answers that the penalty is death, and then he realizes that Stannis is not talking about him. He thinks of his cellmate, and says, "Sire, Lord Florent meant no treason." Stannis thinks otherwise, arguing that Alester's proposal to marry his daughter to Joffrey, "a bastard born of incest," was treasonous. Then he talks of how his brother Robert could convert his enemies into friends, while "it would seem that I inspire only betrayal. Even in mine own blood and kin." Ser Axell speaks up to plead that Stannis give him "the chance to prove to you that not all Florents are so feeble."

Stannis tells Davos that Ser Axell wants to resume conflict with the Lannisters, and asks him to outline his plan for doing so. They would capture Claw Isle, a few hours' sail from Dragonstone and the seat of House Celtigar. Lord Adrian Celtigar had fought for Stannis on the Blackwater, but had gone over to Joffrey and now remains in King's Landing. Axell proposes laying waste to Claw Isle "so the realm might see the fate of those who bed with Lannisters." When Axell finishes with his proposal, Stannis asks Davos what he thinks of it. Davos remembers Axell's threats, but he decides to be honest: He thinks it is "folly ... aye, and cowardice."

Axell's outraged cry is silenced by Stannis, who asks Davos to continue. Davos says, first, that there aren't any Lannisters on Claw Isle. And that Lord Celtigar "is an old done man, who wants no more than to end his days in his castle, drinking his fine wine out of his jeweled cups." But Celtigar went to battle when Stannis called on him to do so. "Claw Isle is weakly held, yes. Held by women and children and old men. And why is that? Because their husbands and sons and fathers died on the Blackwater, that's why.... These smallfolk are no traitors...."

But Ser Axell insists that they are: The men who followed Celtigar committed treason when they joined him in pledging loyalty to Joffrey. Stannis appears to agree with Axell: "It is every man's duty to remain loyal to his rightful king, even if the lord he serves proves false." Davos fears that he has already lost the argument, but he plunges ahead: "As you remained loyal to King Aerys when your brother raised his banners?" Axell breaks the "Shocked silence" that follows Davos's riposte by drawing his dagger and shouting "Treason!" But Stannis tells him to put away his knife and leave them, and to send in Melisandre.

As they wait for Melisandre, Stannis reminds Davos that he can cut out his tongue the way he chopped off his fingertips, but he admits that the decision to follow Robert in his rebellion against Aerys was not easy, but having done it, he feels justified in asserting that he is the rightful king, and that he has a duty to try to claim the Iron Throne. And then he asks Davos why he wanted to murder Melisandre.

"Four of my sons burned on the Blackwater," Davos replies. "She gave them to the flames." But Stannis says the fires were not her work. "Curse the Imp, curse the pyromancers, curse that fool of Florent who sailed my fleet into the jaws of a trap." Melisandre, he says, "remains my faithful servant." So was Maester Cressen, Davos replies. "She slew him, as she killed Ser Cortnay Penrose and your brother Renly." But Stannis claims that Melisandre prophesied Renly's death, but didn't kill him. She was with him at the time. "And it was Melisandre who told me to send for you when Ser Axell wished to give you to R'hllor.... Does that surprise you?"

Davos admits that it does. Then Stannis says that Edric Storm, Robert's bastard son from Storm's End,  is ill, and that Maester Pylos has been leeching him. The illness is not serious, but Melisandre says "There is power in a king's blood." He points to the Painted Table and comments that there are no borders on it: "It is all one. One realm, for one king to rule alone." Davos says, "One king means peace." Stannis says he will "bring justice to Westeros," and that Axell's plan to lay waste to Claw Isle is "evil, just as you said." Then he says, "On your knees, Onion Knight."

Davos is startled, but when Stannis repeats it as a command he complies. Stannis draws his sword, Lightbringer, asks Davos to swear to serve and defend him, and proclaims, "Then rise again, Davos Seaworth, and rise as Lord of the Rainwood, Admiral of the Narrow Sea, and Hand of the King." Davos protests that he is lowborn and illiterate and that Stannis's lords won't obey him. They'll make new ones who will, Stannis insists. And when Davos protests that there are others better fitted for the office of Hand, Stannis names a few, but says, "I trust none of them as I trust you, my lord of Rainwood. You will be my Hand. It is you I want beside me for the battle."

They're not strong enough for a battle with the Lannisters, Davos protests.

"It is the great battle His Grace is speaking of," said a woman's voice, rich with the accents of the east. Melisandre stood at the door in her red silks and shimmering satins, holding a covered silver dish in her hands. "These little wars are no more than a scuffle of children before what is to come. The one whose name may not be spoken is marshaling his power, Davos Seaworth, a power fell and evil and strong beyond measure. Soon comes the cold, and the night that never ends." She placed the silver dish on the Painted Table. "Unless true men find the courage to fight it. Men whose hearts are fire."

Stannis says she has shown him what she means in the flames: He saw a high hill in a forest, with men dressed in black surrounded by "shapes moving through the snow" and he "felt a cold so terrible I shivered." Davos is terrified by the conviction in the king's voice, but doesn't understand what he's talking about. Melisandre says that it means that "Westeros must unite beneath her one true king, the prince that was promised, Lord of Dragonstone and chosen of R'hllor."

Stannis says he doesn't understand why R'hllor should have chosen him, and why Renly couldn't have joined forces with him. He dreams of Robert, who was so good at fighting. "The Lord of Light should have made Robert his champion. Why me?" Melisandre tells him it's because he is "a righteous man." Stannis touches the covered silver dish. But Melisandre warns him, "this is not the way," that there is a better way to achieve what they want: "Give me the boy, Your Grace. It is the surer way. The better way. Give me the boy and I shall wake the stone dragon."

But Stannis refuses Melisandre's request. "My daughter has grown fond of him. And he is mine own blood." The boy has his brother's blood, Melisandre insists. "A king's blood. Only a king's blood can wake the stone dragon." But whatever Melisandre has in mind for Robert's bastard, Edric Storm, remains unspoken. Stannis doesn't fully believe in her. "The dragons are done," he insists. The Targaryens tried to bring them back and failed. They have the leeches, and they'll have to do.

Melisandre throws some powder onto the brazier and it flames up, then she takes the dish to Stannis and raises the lid, revealing three blood-fattened leeches. "The boy's blood, Davos knew. A king's blood." Stannis picks up a leech, and Melisandre tells him, "Say the name."

"'The usurper,' he said. 'Joffrey Baratheon.'" He tosses the leech into the fire and picks up the second.

"'The usurper,' he declared, louder this time. "'Balon Greyjoy.'" After he tosses the second leech on the flames, he picks up the third and looks at it for a longer time.

"'The usurper,' he said at last. 'Robb Stark.' And he threw it on the flames."

4. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 105-145

Daenerys

Daenerys has gotten her wish: She is at sea, with her dragons flying around her, and her Dothraki contingent miserably seasick and fearful.

No squall could frighten Dany, though. Daenerys Stormborn, she was called, for she had come howling into the world on distant Dragonstone as the greatest storm in the memory of Westeros howled outside, a storm so fierce that it ripped gargoyles from the castle walls and smashed her father's fleet to kindling.

The captain of Balerion, the ship on which Daenerys is sailing, is Groleo, "an old Pentoshi like his master, Illyrio Mopatis." He was initially leery of having dragons on board because of the risk of fire, but so far they have behaved and even kept down the number of rats on board. Drogon in particular is growing fast, and Daenerys thinks that in a year or two he may be large enough for her to ride.

She is standing on deck with Ser Jorah and Whitebeard, whose real name is Arstan, discussing dragon lore. Jorah is not fond of Whitebeard or of Strong Belwas, the eunuch whose squire Whitebeard claims to be. But Daenerys is drawn to him because Whitebeard claims to have known her father, King Aerys II, who had died before she was born, and her brother, Prince Rhaegar. When Whitebeard makes a reference to Ser Jorah's second wife, Lynesse, who "had ruined him, and abandoned him," Daenerys has to keep the peace between the two.

Whitebeard goes on to tell a story of the young Prince Rhaegar, who "was bookish to a fault," he says, until one day he read something that no one has identified but which changed him into a warrior. And speaking of warriors, Strong Belwas appears and orders Whitebeard to fetch food for him. His departure gives Jorah the opportunity to reiterate his warning to Daenerys: "This Arstan Whitebeard is playing you false. He is too old to be a squire, and too well spoken to be serving that oaf of a eunuch." Daenerys has to admit to herself that his suspicions make sense, especially since she has already survived two assassination attempts, although Whitebeard was the one who foiled the second. But, she reassures herself, she has Ser Jorah and her bloodriders to protect her, not to mention her dragons.

A wind comes up and fills the sails of the ship, which had been becalmed. So they begin to make headway again, though Ser Jorah asks, "to what, my queen?" That night, Daenerys is feeding her dragons when Ser Jorah comes to her cabin. She demonstrates to him how well they are eating by calling out, "Drogon, ... dracarys," and tossing a piece of pork into the air that the dragon sears with his fiery breath before gobbling it down. But when Ser Jorah asks, "Dracarys?" the three dragons turn toward him and Viserion belches out a flame that makes Jorah back away. Daenerys explains that the word means "dragonfire" in High Valyrian, and that she has trained them to respond to the word."I wanted to choose a command that no one was like to utter by chance."

Ser Jorah then asks if they can speak privately, and Daenerys sends her handmaids, Irri and Jhiqui, away. Then she asks what is troubling him, and he says, "Strong Belwas. This Arstan Whitebeard. And Illyrio Mopatis, who sent them." This isn't news to Daenerys, who is sitting naked in bed underneath a coverlet that she pulls higher. He reminds her of the prophecy of the warlocks in Qarth that she will be betrayed "Once for blood and once for gold and once for love." She says that the first was fulfilled by Mirri Maz Duur. Which leaves two, he observes, and comments, "Never forget, Robert offered a lordship to the man who slays you."

Daenerys interrupts a fight between two of the dragons and as she does the cover slips from her chest. She hastily covers herself again, and notes, "The Usurper is dead." But, he points out, his son rules in his place: "A dutiful son pays his father's debts. Even blood debts." She agrees that might be a problem, but asks what this has to do with Whitebeard and the eunuch. After all, Whitebeard killed the manticore. He asks, "Khaleesi, has it occurred to you that Whitebeard and Belwas might have been in league with the assassin? It might all have been a ploy to win your trust." When she laughs at the idea, he also reminds her that Belwas and Arstan are in the employ of Illyrio, as are the captains of the three ships they are sailing upon. "The warlocks said the second treason would be for gold. What does Illyrio Mopatis love more than gold?"

She says she knows that Illyrio is "devious" and "clever," but that she will "need clever men about me if I am to win the Iron Throne." Besides, he and her bloodriders will protect her. As far as the risk of trusting men like the three he is questioning is concerned, "how am I to win the Seven Kingdoms without such risks?" She grows angry as he continues to challenge her innocence, but he tells her he has a plan: Instead of sailing directly to Pentos, she should tell Captain Groleo to sail for Slaver's Bay instead. There she can recruit an army of the men known as the Unsullied. He tells her a story of how a force of Unsullied defeated a much larger horde of Dothraki. If they hire an army of Unsullied and then proceed overland to Pentos, "when you break bread with Magister Illyrio, you will have a thousand swords behind you, not just four."

She asks what she is to pay for this army with, and he notes that the ships are carrying trade goods from Qarth. If Illyrio "is sincere in his devotion to your cause, he will not begrudge you three shiploads of trade goods. What better use of his tiger skins than to buy you the beginnings of an army?" She begins to see the logic of his argument, but asks what if Captain Groleo, Arstan and Strong Belwas oppose the plan. He replies, "Perhaps it's time you found that out."

Excitedly, she jumps out of bed and starts to get dressed, eager to see Groleo at once. But as she is pulling on her clothes, Jorah puts his arms around her and kisses her. She doesn't pull away at once, and when she does she begins to scold him. But he declares that he should have kissed her a long time ago. He calls her "Daenerys," which she corrects to "Your Grace!"

"Your Grace," he conceded, "the dragon has three heads, remember. You have wondered at that, ever since you heard it from the warlocks in the House of Dust. Well, here's your meaning: Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhaegar, ridden by Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya. The three-headed dragon of House Targaryen -- three dragons, and three riders.... Rhaenys and Visenya were Aegon's wives as well as his sisters. You have no brothers, but you can take husbands. And I tell you truly, Daenerys, there is no man in all the world who will ever be half so true to you as me." 

Bran

Bran is seeing through Summer's eyes, racing through the woods in which he comes upon a pack of wolves. They recall for him his own pack, the five direwolf cubs "and a sixth who stood aside." He recalls their scents, particularly the "angry brother with the hot green eyes" he knows to be nearby even though he hasn't seen him for a while. And he remembers the sister who died: "Four now, not five. Four and one more, the white who has no voice." The other pack has killed a deer when he comes on them, and he fights them off so he can eat.

Then Hodor says "Hodor," and he begins to turn into a boy again, reluctantly. They are "down in the damp vault of some ancient watchtower that must have been abandoned thousands of years before." Jojen tells him, "You were gone too long," but Bran had wanted to eat the deer, not the frogs that Meera has gone to hunt. Jojen then asks him if he marked the trees he had seen in his vision, because Bran has learned to open "his third eye and put on Summer's skin," ranging the woods as the wolf does to seek out pathways for them. But he has forgotten to do the tasks that would help them navigate, clawing the trees so they can locate where he has been roaming. "He meant to do the things that Jojen asked, but once he was a wolf they never seemed important."

Jojen is worried that Bran has begun to lose himself so he asks him to say who he is. "'Bran,' he said sullenly. Bran the Broken. 'Brandon Stark.' The cripple boy. 'The Prince of Winterfell.'" But he recalls that Winterfell has been burned and its people have abandoned it. "How can you be the prince of someplace you might never see again?" Jojen also has him remember that "Bran the boy and Summer the wolf" are two distinct beings. "Remember that, Bran. Remember yourself, or the wolf will consume you. When you join, it is not enough to run and hunt and howl in Summer's skin."

Bran promises to do so, though he wonders, "What good is it to be a skinchanger if you can't wear the skin you like?" He offers to go back and perform Jojen's tasks now, though he really wants to go back and eat the deer and fight with the wolves first. But Jojen knows what Bran has in mind and tells him he has to eat as Bran now. "A warg cannot live on what his beast consumes."

Meera returns with two trout and six frogs, which reminds him of how the Walders, the Frey cousins who had been sent as wards to Winterfell, "used to say that eating frogs would make your teeth green and make moss grow under your arms. He wondered if the Walders were dead. He hadn't seen their corpses at Winterfell." But he eats the stew that Meera makes from her catch and decides he likes it, though not as much as deer.

Jojen says they should move on tomorrow, though Meera argues for staying where they are safe. He wants them to go to the Wall because that's where he has had the vision of the three-eyed crow. Meera suggests that they should find some horses and trade for them, but Jojen says no.

"Look at us, Meera. A crippled boy with a direwolf, a simpleminded giant, and two crannogmen a thousand leagues from the Neck. We will be known. And word will spread. So long as Bran remains dead, he is safe. Alive, he becomes prey for those who want him dead for good and true.... Somewhere to the north, the three-eyed crow awaits us. Bran has need of a teacher wiser than me."

Their argument is interrupted by the howl of a wolf, and Bran says it isn't Summer. He feels rebellious toward Jojen, who is always telling them what to do, so he argues that they should follow Meera's advice and steal horses, or steal a boat and make their way to Riverrun, but neither Meera nor Jojen supports his plan. Hodor begins repeating his name over and over, to their annoyance, so Bran tells him to go outside and practice with his sword. They have three swords that they took from the crypt at Winterfell.

Bran then asks Jojen what he meant about needing a teacher, and Jojen says that he is "only a boy who dreams," but Bran has the potential to be more than that: "You are the winged wolf, and there is no saying how far and high you might fly ... if you had someone to teach you." Meera says they will be safe there until the war ends, and that if they leave they risk being captured. But it may be that the risk is worth taking. Only Bran can decide.

So Bran tries to think what they should do. If they leave, they might be captured "by the ironmen or the Bastard of Bolton." If they stay, they would be safe: "He would stay alive. And crippled." He would always be crippled, no matter where he went, unless Jojen's dreams were true. "'I want to fly,' he told them. 'Please. Take me to the crow.'"

Davos

They are nearing Dragonstone, and Davos sees smoke coming from the top of the mountain. "Dragonmont is restless this morning, Davos thought, or else Melisandre is burning someone else." He has vowed to revenge himself for his sons' deaths. "I will cut the living heart from her breast and see how it burns. He touched the hilt of the fine long Lysene dirk that the captain had given him."

He is still weak from his ordeal. "If he stood too long his legs shook, and sometimes he fell prey to uncontrollable fits of coughing and brought up gobs of bloody phlegm." The captain, Korane Sathmantes, has told him how the battle at King's Landing ended with Stannis fleeing from the Lannisters and the ghost of King Renly. As they enter the harbor, the captain tells him that Salladhor Saan, the prince who leads the Lysene fleet, wants to see him, but Davos insists that he must see the king first. The captain says that no one sees the king, and that he must see Salladhor first, and Davos is too weak to argue with him.

Salladhor is on board a Pentoshi ship that once belonged to Illyrio Mopatis, but which he has seized under his new authority as Lord of Blackwater Bay, a title granted by Lord Alester Florent, the Hand of King Stannis. He gives Davos the good news that his son Devan was rescued from the battle. But when Davos says he wants to see the king, he tells him that "you will be finding him changed, I am fearing. Since the battle, he sees no one, but broods in his Stone Drum. Queen Selyse keeps court for him with her uncle the Lord Alester." The only person Stannis sees is Melisandre.

"Queer talking I have heard, of hungry fires within the mountain, and how Stannis and the red woman go down together to watch the flames. There are shafts, they say, and secret stairs down into the mountain's heart, into hot places where only she may walk unburned."

When Davos talks of his plan to kill Melisandre, Salladhor tells him to be quiet, that talk like that is dangerous. He is unwell and should take to his bed. But insists that his bed is in the castle, as is his son. Melisandre is in the castle, too, Salladhor says. "While we were burning on the river, she was burning traitors," he warns. "If you kill the red woman, they will burn you for revenge, and if you fail to kill her, they will burn you for the trying." But Davos is persuaded that he was saved for the express purpose of making "an end of Melisandre of Asshai and all her works. Why else would the sea have spit me out?" Seeing that there is no reasoning with Davos, Salladhor tells him to go.

As he walks from the harbor to the castle, Davos finds the city nearly deserted. The castle gates are shut, and he pounds on them until a crossbowman looks down from the barbican and tells him to go away. When he identifies himself as Davos, the onion knight, the guard doesn't believe him. Davos asks for some men he once knew and is told that they are all dead. But finally the guard tells him to wait there, and when he comes back sends him to the sally port.

When he's inside the walls he is told to wait again in Aegon's Garden. While he is there, the fool Patchface enters, followed by the Princess Shireen, who chases after him. When they are gone, a small boy runs out of the hedge and knocks Davos down. "Jet-black hair fell to his collar, and his eyes were a startling blue." A coughing spasm seizes Davos as he picks himself up, and the boy asks if he should send for the maester. Davos says he'll be all right, and the boy asks his name. When he says he's Ser Davos Seaworth, the boy says he doesn't look like a knight, but when Davos says he's "the knight of the onions," he knows the story of how the smuggler saved the besieged city.

"I am Edric Storm," the boy says, "King Robert's son." Davos had already realized that from the boy's Baratheon features. They talk about how Stannis had chopped off Davos's fingertips, and Edric says that his father wouldn't have done that. Davos thinks, "Robert was a different man than Stannis, true enough. The boy is like him. Aye, and like Renly as well. That thought made him anxious."

But their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Ser Axell Florent and a dozen guards. Ser Axell says, "I have come to take you to the dungeon," and tells the guards, "Seize him, and take his dirk. He means to use it on our lady."