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."

9. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 232-252

Tyrion

The Shy Maid is enveloped in a thick fog and is moving downstream cautiously through the stretch of the Rhoyne known as the Sorrows. Ysilla says the fog "stinks of sorcery," and Tyrion doesn't disagree. Haldon Halfmaester warns against even breathing the fog because of "Garin's Curse," which Tyrion scoffs at: "Garin's Curse is only greyscale," a calcification of the skin that usually afflicts children, such as Stannis's daughter. But there is a severer and fatal form of the disease, as well as a swift-acting version known as the grey plague.

They tell one another various creepy stories about the stone men and the Shrouded Lord, until something disturbs the surface of the river. Young Griff, who is wielding one of the poles to push the boat away from submerged obstacles, tells them "cheerfully" that it was only a turtle. (Martin seems to slip here: He refers to Young Griff as "the prince," anticipating the revelation that comes a few pages later.)  Tyrion briefly observes something: "A half-seen shape flapped by overhead, pale leathery wings beating at the fog." But it is gone before he can get a better look. Then they encounter a boat going upstream, and there is an exchange between Yandry and someone on the other boat about Volantis, which is preparing for war between rival factions.

Tyrion and Griff have been getting on each other's nerves: When Tyrion makes one wisecrack too many, Griff tells him to shut up. Tyrion, who still has the poisonous mushrooms he found at Illyrio's, is tempted to slip them into Griff's food, though he has noted that Griff seldom eats very much. They come upon the ruins of a vast castle that Tyrion recognizes from his reading as "The Palace of Love." Haldon says that was the Rhoynar name for it, "but for a thousand years this has been the Palace of Sorrow. Then Young Griff calls out that there is a light ahead, and as they grow nearer to it the light becomes three beacons.

Griff identifies it as "The Bridge of Dream." It is inhabited by "stone men," people afflicted with the mortal version of greyscale, which spreads from the extremities throughout the body, eventually causing blindness, madness, and, when it reaches the inner organs, death. Griff warns that the stone men are usually weak and harmless, but can become aggressive when madness sets in. "On no account let them touch you."

As they grow closer to the bridge, Griff orders Young Griff to take Septa Lemore to her cabin. Young Griff argues that he wants to stay, and points out that "Haldor is staying, and Ysilla. Even Hugor." Tyrion says, "I'm less than half of Haldon, and no one gives a mummer's fart whether I live or die." But then he adds, pointedly, "You, though ... you are everything," which angers Griff. The argument is interrupted by a wail that comes from the bridge, and they nearly crash into it.

Once they are clear, Young Griff grabs Tyrion's arm and asks what he means, "Why am I everything?" Tyrion replies that if Young Griff is lost, "this whole enterprise is undone, and all those years of feverish plotting by the cheesemonger and the eunuch will have been for naught ... isn't that so." Young Griff says to his supposed father, "He knows who I am." And Tyrion thinks, "If I did not know before, I would now."

Tyrion takes his torch and shines it in Young Griff's face for a better look. He says that anyone might wonder why the son of a sellsword need instruction in the faith from "a soiled septa" and lessons in history and languages from a failed maester. "I must admit, you have noble features for a dead boy." Tyrion says his father "wrapped your corpse in a crimson cloak and laid you down beside your sister at the foot of the Iron Throne, his gift to the new king." Young Griff is confused until Tyrion reveals that his father was Tywin Lannister.

"Men will tell you that I am a kingslayer, a kinslayer, and a liar, and all of that is true ... but then, we are a company of liars, are we not? Take your feigned father, Griff, is it?" The dwarf sniggered. "You should thank the gods that Varys the Spider is part of this plot of yours. Griff would not have fooled the cockless wonder for an instant, no more than it did me.... Who better to raise Prince Rhaegar's infant son than Prince Rhaegar's dear friend Jon Connington, once Lord of Griffin's Roost and Hand of the King?"

Griff, or Connington, tells him, "Be quiet."

But Tyrion is in the grip of something like déjà vu:  They seem to be sailing past places they have already passed. And when the light ahead turns into three lights again and the Bridge of Dream once again come into view, they all realizes something is wrong. The current takes them toward the bridge again, and Yandry shoves the boat away, through a curtain of moss that dangles from the bridge. Then there is a crash behind Tyrion and the boat tilts, almost throwing him into the river.

Two stone men have leaped to the boat, one landing on the roof of the cabin, the other near the tiller. Duck knocks one of them off the boat with his pole, and the stone man sinks. Griff drives the other back with a torch and his sword, and Duck and Haldon come to Griff's aid. Griff's sword cuts off the stone man's arm, and Yandry and Duck drive the creature overboard as they get clear of the bridge.

But then they see that a third stone man is on board. He reaches out of Young Griff, who freezes at the sight of him. Tyrion knocks the boy down, and jumps over him, thrusting his torch into the creature's face and driving him backward. They are at the edge of the deck when the stone man suddenly grabs the torch out of Tyrion's hand and throws it overboard. There is a cry behind him of "The prince! Protect the boy!" Tyrion's only option is to throw himself at the stone man, who falls backward from the deck into the river, taking Tyrion with him.

As he sinks, Tyrion thinks, "I'll haunt the Seven Kingdoms.... They would not love me living, so let them dread me dead."

Davos


Wyman Manderly has agreed to see him, but Davos has been under house arrest for several weeks before he finally is ushered into his presence in a crowded hall. "Gods be good, though Davos, when he saw Lord Wyman's face, this man looks half a corpse." He is also enormously fat.


Davos requests a private audience with Lord Wyman, but it is denied. "Stannis may have enemies in this hall," he says. "I do not." Davos points out the half-dozen Freys in the room: "Not even the men who slew your son?" One of the Freys steps forward and claims that the events at the Red Wedding have been misrepresented, that Robb Stark "changed into a beast before our eyes and tore out the throat of my cousin Jinglebell, a harmless simpleton. He would have slain my lord father too, if Ser Wendel had not put himself in the way."


Davos is astonished at the claim that Wendel Manderly was killed by Robb Stark, and when the man continues in his story to assert Robb's attendants all changed into wolves and attack the company, Davos asks his name. On learning it, he says, "Jared of House Frey, I name you liar." Ser Jared draws his sword, but Lord Wyman commands him to put it away.


The Lady Leona, Wyman's daughter-in-law, wife of the son held hostage at Harrenhal, urges him to send Davos away for fear of angering Cersei. Wyman assures her, "The Iron Thron shall have no cause to doubt us." But Davos has decided to be defiant, and calls Tommen "a usurper" and proclaims himself "the Hand of Stannis Baratheon, the First of His Name, the trueborn King of Westeros." Maester Theomore, who is in attendance on Lord Wyman, opines that Tommen, as "the issue of Robert's body," has prior claim over Stannis, to which Wyman assents. But Davos goes further, calling Tommen "bastard-born" and "sired by the Kingslayer, in defiance of all the laws of gods and men."

One of the Freys calls this "treason," and Ser Jared demands to meet Davos "on the field of honor." But Davos retorts, "What would a Frey know of honor?" sending the Frey contingent into fury until Wyman halts them. Lady Leona continues to proclaim that the Manderlys are loyal to the throne, and Davos realizes that she is afraid that the Lannisters will kill her husband if Lord Wyman declares for Stannis. He realizes the predicament that the Manderlys are in, but reminds Wyman of his fealty to the Starks: "Lord Stark has fallen, but his war goes on."

Lady Leona now plays the religion card, pointing out Stannis's conversion to Lady Melisandre's faith. Davos counters that most of Stannis's followers, himself included, still worship the Seven. Wyman then asks what Stannis offers in return for his support. Davos thinks, "War and woe and the screams of burning men," but speaks as the Hand of the king, not as himself: "The chance to do your duty." The answer doesn't carry much weight, and Ser Marlon Manderly, Wyman's cousin, and Maester Theomore advance their substantial objections. Finally, Wyman decides to put an end to the interview, and asks Davos if he has anything else to say: "I grow weary of your face."

Davos admits that supporting Stannis means that more will die, but he blames it on the Lannisters' theft of the throne. "What does Stannis offer you? Vengeance. Vengeance for my sons and yours, for your husbands and your fathers and your brothers. Vengeance for your murdered lord, your murdered king, your butchered princes. Vengeance!" And the speech earns an enthusiastic "Yes" from the young girl standing behind Wyman's throne. She urges Wyman to support Stannis because "They killed Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn and King Robb."

Her older sister urges Lady Wylla Manderly to keep quiet, and reminds her that she will be married to a Frey. But Wylla insists she won't, and asks Maester Theomore to remember the old fealty of the Manderlys to the Starks. Theomore says this was true, but "House Stark has been extinguished." Wylla retorts, "That's because they killed them all!" Rhaegar Frey speaks up to say that "loyalty is a virtue" and that he hopes Wylla "will be as loyal to Little Walder when you are joined in wedlock." And to add that the Starks have been "extinguished only in the male line," and that Arya Stark is on her way to marry Ramsay Bolton. Wylla retorts, "Ramsay Snow," but Rhaegar says that Ramsay will be Lord of Winterfell.

Wylla replies, "He won't ever be my lord! He made Lady Hornwood marry him, then shut her in a dungeon and made her eat her fingers." There are murmurs of agreement with Wylla in the hall. But Rhaegar persists, turning the blame back on Robb Stark: "He was a vile dog and died like one." There is quiet in the hall until Lord Wyman, who "was looking down at Rhaegar as if he were a roach in need of a hard heel," suddenly nods agreement. Rhaegar seems to have won the day, and only Wylla voices disagreement with his pronouncement that the Iron Throne is Tommen's by rights.

Then Wyman turns to Davos and pronounces him a traitor and a smuggler, "come to steal my gold and blood. You would take my son's head. I think I should take yours instead. Guards! Seize this man!" He orders Davos's head and hands brought to him before he dines. "I shall not be able to eat a bite until I see this smuggler's head upon a spike, with an onion shoved between his lying teeth."

7. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 179-202

Tyrion

Griff has cut off Tyrion's wine, and he is suffering "sweats and shakes" after drinking himself into a stupor on the ship, at Illyrio's, and on the overland journey. He has taken to sleeping on the roof of the Shy Maid's cabin because the air is fresher than below, and Duck snores. He would like to bathe in the river, but doesn't want Septa Lemore to see him naked. She, on the contrary, has no compunction about slipping out of her robes and slipping into the water before the boat gets under way for the day.

Tyrion watches her, of course, and he notices that she has stretch marks that indicate she has borne at least one child. When she comes back on board and dries off, she asks him if he has seen the big ridgeback turtle -- the Rhoyne is alive with all kinds of turtles. But he has missed it: he was watching her.

As the boat's owners, Yandry and Ysilla, get under way, Young Griff comes on deck, and Ysilla serves them breakfast. Afterward, Duck and Young Griff spar with blunted longswords, and Tyrion notices how skilled the handsome young man is becoming, especially when he lands a blow that knocks Duck overboard. When Tyrion laughs, Duck throws him over. But Tyrion can swim, and when when Young Griff extends a pole to allow him to climb on board, Tyrion turns a cartwheel as well. He says he learned how when he was performing with a mummer's troupe, but in fact his uncle had taught him when Tyrion was six or seven. Tywin put a stop to it, however: "The gods made you a dwarf. Must you be a fool as well? You were born a lion, not a monkey." Now Tyrion is glad for the opportunity to pretend to be a traveling entertainer, and Septa Lemore has helped refashion his clothes into suits of motley.

Duck has also told Tyrion to write down everything he knows about dragons, about which he had read a great deal. He also aids Haldon the Halfmaester with the lessons in languages, geometry, and history that Haldon is giving Young Griff. Tyrion listens as the boy recites something of the history of Volantis, particularly the two rival factions, the tigers and the elephants, that have competed to rule the city. Afterward, Tyrion plays cyvasse with Haldon, and observes, "Languages, history, songs, sums ... a heady stew for some sellsword's son." Tyrion continues to hint about his suspicions of the true identities of Griff and Young Griff by suggesting that he and Haldon play the game for secrets.

The river widens when the Noyne flows into it, and Tyrion realizes that they are passing the ruins of Ny Sar and Nymeria's palace. A giant turtle surfaces near the boat and lets out a loud bellow. Ysilla is thrilled, and calls it a blessing. Yandry tells him and the others that it is "The Old Man of the River." And Tyrion thinks, "Gods and wonders always appear, to attend the birth of kings."

Davos

He is sailing into White Harbor on an old boat called the Merry Midwife, disguised as a sailor. He notices that the banners flying from the New Castle include neither the Lannister lion nor the Stark direwolf, which gives him hope that Lord Wyman Manderly can be persuaded to Stannis's cause. But then he sees a warship called Lionstar, which is flying the arms of King Tommen. "The Freys were here, and he would need to face them."

The captain asks how long Davos will be in White Harbor, and tells him he will wait only three days. If it takes him longer, Davos tells him, he shouldn't wait. Davos makes his way into the city and is surprised at the crowds. A merchant tells him that they have taken refuge there: "With that Bastard o' Bolton running loose, they all want to be inside the walls." Davos also learns that Manderly is raising an army, but not whether it's because he intends to join forces with Bolton.

In a tavern he listens to the gossip, and learns that one of Manderly's sons, Ser Wylis, is still alive and a captive of the Freys. He also overhears gossip about dragons, and someone comes up with the name of Daenerys. Having heard enough, and feeling that his attempt to get Manderly to side with Stannis is futile, he goes outside, trying to decide whether to make his plea anyway. It is too late to return to the ship, so he climbs the hill and presents himself at the postern of the New Castle: "'I need to see Lord Manderly at once,' he said. 'My business is with him, and him alone.'"

5. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 112-147

Tyrion

Tyrion awakes to find luggage being unloaded and readied for transfer to the river part of his journey. He is introduced to Haldon, who is known as Halfmaester, and to Ser Rolly Duckfield, known as Duck. Illyrio calls Tyrion Yollo, but Tyrion knows that's a Pentoshi name, and it's clear he isn't from Pentos, so he says he's called Hugor Hill.

Leaving Illyrio behind, Tyrion and the two men ride cross-country. They ride all night, Tyrion seated in front of Duck on the horse, and reach the Rhoyne the following day. As they near the river they are hailed by a boy standing on the roof of the cabin of the Shy Maid, their riverboat. It is Young Griff, "a lithe and well-made youth, with a lanky build and a shock of dark blue hair. The dwarf put his age at fifteen, sixteen, or near enough to make no matter." Also on board are an older couple and "a handsome septa in a soft white robe."

But when Griff himself makes an appearance, Tyrion thinks, "This one will be trouble." Griff immediately demands an explanation for the dwarf's presence, and Haldon gives him a letter that Illyrio had sent. In the cabin, Griff reads the letter, which tells about Tyrion's killing Tywin. Tyrion notices that although Griff claims to be a sellsword, he can read, which most of the mercenaries can't. In response to Griff's surprise at Tywin Lannister's death, Tyrion says,

"Lord Tywin was sitting on a privy, so I put a crossbow bolt through his bowels to see if he really did shit gold. He didn't. A pity, I could have used some gold. I also slew my mother, somewhat earlier. Oh, and my nephew Joffrey, I poisoned him at his wedding feast and watched him choke to death.... I mean to add my brother and sister to the list before I'm done, if it please your queen." 

Griff asks why Daenerys "should welcome the service of a self-confessed kingslayer and betrayer," and Tyrion points out that the king he killed -- or rather, claims to have killed -- was sitting on her throne. He asks if he can see the letter, but Griff burns it instead.

Tyrion has already begun to figure out the true identity of Griff and Young Griff, but he only hints at his suspicions now. When Griff asks how he plans to serve Daenerys, Tyrion says he knows how Cersei thinks ("if you call it thinking"), that he understands how one can beat Jaime in battle, and that he is well-acquainted with the loyalties of Tommen's court. Griff tells him to hold his tongue, and Tyrion replies, "As you say, my lord." Griff replies that he isn't a lord, and Tyrion thinks, "Liar."

Griff agrees to take Tyrion as far as Volantis, and beyond if he proves "obedient and useful."

Davos

In the town of Sisterton, where he is seeking passage to White Harbor, Davos has been taken prisoner and is escorted to see Godric Borrell, Lord of Sweetsister. The fleet that Stannis dispatched has been wrecked and scattered by storms, enraging Salladhor Saan, whose fleet it was. Saan had sent Davos ashore in a small boat, then set out to regroup his fleet.

Godric brings Davos up to date on the news of Tywin Lannister's death, but refuses to let Davos send a raven to Stannis to inform him. "I'll not have it said that I gave Stannis aid and comfort." But he accepts Davos as a guest and has food brought for him. This pleases Davos, because "even robber lords and wreckers were bound by the ancient laws of hospitality." He is less pleased when Godric tells him that Lord Wyman Manderly, whom Stannis has dispatched Davos to see, tells him that Wyman intends to cast his lot with the Lannisters. A contingent of Freys is on their way to White Harbor to bring Lord Wyman the bones of his son, who was killed at the Red Wedding, in atonement. "Lord Wyman and Lord Walder have made a pact, and mean to seal it with a marriage."

White Harbor is essential to Stannis's plans: "If Winterfell was the heart of the north, White Harbor was its mouth." So Davos pleads for Godric's help in getting there to compete with the Freys. Godric is stubborn, so Davos begins to play on his doubts about the stability of Cersei's rule. "This child king will not prevail against" Stannis, Davos argues. Godric points out that Tommen has the wealth of Casterly Rock and the support of Highgarden and the Boltons and Freys, but he admits that "in this world only winter is certain. Ned Stark told my father that, here in this very hall."

At the beginning of Robert's Rebellion, with a price on his head, Lord Eddard had been on his way home but was shipwrecked. A fisherman's daughter rescued him. "They say he left her with a bag of silver and a bastard in her belly. Jon Snow, she named him, after Arryn." Ned had made it to Sisterton and met with Godric's father, who saved him from being captured and beheaded.

Jon

Jon has tried to persuade Stannis not to execute Mance Rayder because of the King-Beyond-the-Wall's knowledge of the lands north of the wall and of the people who remain there. But Stannis and Melisandre are unmoved, and now she is presiding over his burning. He is placed in a cage over "a deep pit filled with logs, leaves, and kindling." When he sees this, he pleads, "This is not right. I'm not the king, they --" but a rope around his neck chokes off the words. The queen's men also bring out the Horn of Joramun, which was supposed to destroy the Wall.

Melisandre proclaims to the gathering, which includes a thousand captives in the stockade, "If the Wall falls, night falls as well, the long night that never ends. It must not happen, will not happen! The Lord of Light has seen his children in their peril and sent a champion to them, Azor Ahai reborn." She gestures toward Stannis.

The horn is set afire, and in the cage Mance Rayder "screamed incoherently of treachery and witchery, denying his kingship, denying his people, denying all that he had ever been." The wood in the pit catches fire and Mance's "screams become one long, wordless shriek of fear and pain." Jon notices that Val doesn't betray any emotion or look away. He gives an order and his men shoot arrows into Mance, cutting short his agony. Stannis looks displeased.

Then Melisandre commands the watchers, "Your false king brought you only death, despair, defeat ... but here stands the true king. BEHOLD HIS GLORY!" Stannis draws his sword, Lightbringer, which glows like "the sun made steel." He promises "food, land, and justice" to those who bend the knee to him, and orders the gates of the stockade opened. Queen's men hand each of the wildlings as they approach the fire pit a piece of weirwood: "A piece of the old gods to feed the new," Jon thinks.

A few people flee back toward the woods, but most come forward. "Behind them was only cold and death. Ahead was hope." Sigorn, the new Magnar of Thenn, is the first to kneel before Stnnnis, then Rattleshirt, who, Jon thinks, is "A small, malicious, treacherous man, as stupid as he is cruel." Others follow, and a deputation of Night's Watch show them the way through the Wall. But Jon wonders whether they will stay loyal to Stannis when Tormund Giantsbane and his followers arrive. Ser Alliser Thorne mutters his disapproval of this union with the wildlings.

Melisandre leads a chant of "One realm, one god, one king!" but Jon notices that Val doesn't join in the chant. Neither do the Night's Watch, who are sworn not to take part in political matters. A few wildlings, including four giants, remain at the stockade, and then disappear into the forest, leaving only corpses, which Jon orders burned. Bowen Marsh asks Jon if he really thinks the wildlings "will keep faith," and Jon admits that some will and some won't. "We have seen the face of our real foe, a dead white face with bright blue eyes. The free folk have seen that face as well. Stannis is not wrong in this. We must make common cause with the wildlings." But Marsh worries about letting "tens of thousands of half-starved savages through the Wall."

Marsh also warns Jon that there has been talk that he is "too friendly with Lord Stannis." Jon knows what he's been called: "A rebel and a turncloak, aye, and a bastard and a warg as well." He tells Marsh that Stannis helped them when they needed it, but Marsh worries that Stannis is a rebel and that they may have found themselves on the losing side. Jon says he isn't choosing any side, but that Tywin Lannister's death has changed things. He remembers his meeting with Tyrion, who had called him a friend, and finds it "hard to believe the little man had it in him to murder his own sire." He leaves Marsh to supervise the burning and tells him he will think about what he has said.

In the dining hall, Jon finds his old friends, Pyp and Grenn and Toad, making fun of Melisandre and her rituals, but he scolds them, remembering, "A lord may love the men that he commands, he could hear his lord father saying, but he cannot be a friend to them. One day he may need to sit in judgment on them, or send them forth to die." He goes outside, where he sees Val walking the battlements of the tower she is held in, and thinks of the choice Stannis had offered him: to become Lord of Winterfell and to take Val as his wife. "Instead he had chosen a black cloak and a wall of ice. Instead he had chosen honor. A bastard's sort of honor."

Ghost appears, and Jon tastes the hot blood in the wolf's mouth, but reminds himself, "I am a man, not a wolf." He goes to see Aemon's steward, Clydas, who talks to him about the cowardice Mance Rayder had shown. He drinks a cup of wine with Clydas and talks about Stannis brandishing Lightbringer. He had read about Azor Ahai in the book Maester Aemon left him, The Jade Compendium, and remembers Azor Ahai fighting a monster with Lightbringer, which made the creature's blood boil "and its body burst into flame." He wishes he could see how Stannis's sword performs in battle.

He returns to his room with Ghost, and reads a letter Ser Denys Mallister had written from the Shadow Tower asking for more men. He writes to Ser Denys and to Cotter Pyke, telling them that he is sending his friends Halder and Toad to the Shadow Tower and Grenn and Pyp to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. "This is my lot, he realized as he undressed, from now until the end of my days."

25. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 857-893

Davos

Davos watches as Melisandre leads a sunset ceremony glorifying R'hllor. Queen Selyse and Ser Axell Florent join in the responses enthusiastically, King Stannis not so much. "He is with them, but not of them, Davos thought." As for Davos, he is silently praying to the Mother to keep his son Devan safe.

Now Ser Andrew Estermont gives him the signal that it is time for them to move. A plot is afoot, and Davos thinks of his companions in it, "they will all be dead men soon, if this night's work goes badly." He has warned them that Melisandre may have foreseen their plans, and one of them advises killing her. But Davos knows from experience that this is precisely the sort of thing Melisandre sees first. When another protests about the clandestine nature of what they are about to do, Davos says, "I don't need men of honor now. I need smugglers."

Davos and Ser Andrew go to Maester Pylos's schoolroom, where the maester tells Edric Storm that he is to go with them. Pylos helps Edric into a hooded cloak, but when Davos asks if Pylos is going with the boy, he says no. Davos admires the maester's courage. When Edric is told that he is being taken to a ship, he asks if Princess Shireen is coming with them. When he's told she isn't, he asks to see her, but Davos explains that there isn't time.

Edric protests that he wants to see King Stannis, but Davos replies, "I am his Hand, I speak with his voice. Must I go to the king and tell him that you would not do as you were told? Do you know how angry that will make him?" And he shows Edric his lopped-off fingers as a demonstration of what happens when the king gets angry. Edric agrees to go with Davos.

The conspirators have tied up the guards, and all goes smoothly as Davos escorts Edric to the waiting boat, telling him, "It's the start of your life's great adventure. May the Warrior defend you." Edric replies, "And may the Father judge you justly, Lord Davos." He goes with the men to the boat that will take him to the ship.

Davos now steels himself and goes to see Stannis, not knowing what the king's reaction will be. The Chamber of the Painted Table is empty when he enters, so he lights a fire and waits. Finally Stannis arrives with Melisandre. They are arguing about Melisandre's vision of the deaths of the three kings, and Davos is able to tell Stannis that her vision has come true: Joffrey is dead. The news had been brought by Lyseni traders.

"They must send for me now," Stannis says, but Melisandre reminds him that Tommen will succeed to the throne, and that now is the time to wake the dragons. "'Give me this boy,' she whispered, 'and I will give you your kingdom.'" But Davos tells Stannis that the boy is gone: "He is aboard a Lyseni galley, safely out to sea." He watches Melisandre's reaction and "saw the flicker of dismay there, the sudden uncertainty. She did not see it!"

Melisandre says, "You will bring him back, my lord. You will." But Davos replies, "The boy is out of my reach.... And out of your reach as well, my lady." She glares at him, but Stannis sounds "more tired than angry" when he questions Davos's loyalty. Davos replies,

"Four of my sons died for you on the Blackwater. I might have died myself. You have my loyalty, always." Davos Seaworth had thought long and hard about the words he said next; he knew his life depended on them. "Your Grace, you made me swear to give you honest counsel and swift obedience, to defend your realm against your foes, to protect your people. Is not Edric Storm one of your people? One of those I swore to protect? I kept my oath. How could that be treason?"

At Stannis's prompting, Melisandre argues once again that Edric Storm had "the power of kingsblood in his veins." But Davos persists in his contention that a king protects his people, causing Stannis to ask, "Must I learn a king's duty from an onion smuggler?"

Davos kneels and offers his head, asking Stannis to hear him out first. Stannis draws the sword Lightbringer and tells Davos to be quick about it. So Davos produces the letter about the attack on the Night's Watch and begins to read it "by the light of the magic sword."

Jon

Jon has a dream in which he is rejected by the dead in the crypt at Winterfell,who tell him, "You are no Stark." He hears sounds of feasting in the Great Hall, and knows that he isn't welcome there. He calls out to Ygritte to forgive him as the crypt grows darker, and he sees "only a direwolf, grey and ghastly, spotted with blood, his golden eyes shining sadly through the dark." He wakes to remember that the wolf had been gray, not white like Ghost, and wonders if the Thenns had hunted Bran down and killed him.

Then he hears a horn, and goes out to see his fellow members of the Watch heading toward the Wall. "It is Mance, he thought. He has come at last. That was good. We will fight a battle, and then we'll rest. Alive or dead, we'll rest." He goes to wait for the winch to take him to the top of the Wall with others. When Satin asks him if it's Mance Rayder, Jon says, "We can hope so," knowing that a battle with wildlings was preferable to an encounter with the Others and the wights.

When he reaches the top of the Wall he can tell that it's Mance and his forces because of the torches. "The Others did not light torches." Donal Noye orders the trebuchets to fling barrels of flaming pitch, and Jon sees the mammoths moving below, a hundred of them. When the sentry's horn sounds, the wildlings answer with their own horns, as well as drums and pipes.

Pyp cries out that they're at the gate, which is the only way the wildlings have of breaching the Wall. The gate is only the entrance to a crooked and narrow tunnel, with three locked and chained iron grates within, each "protected by a murder hole." The gate itself is wood, nine inches thick, but the mammoths and giants could demolish it.

As the wildlings gather at the base of the Wall, jars of lamp oil are set ablaze and tipped over the edge, followed by a big barrel of pitch. They can hear the screams from below. Noye commands the archers to release arrows into the darkness. Then he calls for two bowmen and two spearmen to join him in the tunnel below, to defend it if they break through the gate. And he puts Jon in charge of the Wall, to Jon's surprise.

The battle rages through the night, and the trebuchets do so much work that one of them finally breaks down. Jon takes up a longbow, feeling how stiff his fingers are. "His fever was back as well, and his leg would tremble uncontrollably, sending a white-hot knife of pain right through him." Dawn breaks, and then they get a glimpse of the foe.

Beneath the trees were all the wildlings in the world, raiders and giants, wargs and skinchangers, mountain men, salt sea sailors, ice river cannibals, cave dwellers with dyed faces, dog chariots from the Frozen Shore, Hornfoot men with their soles like boiled leather, all the queer wild folk Mance had gathered to break the Wall. 

Then the mammoths, ridden by giants, begin their attack on the gate, pushing a ram mounted on wheels.

The sheer numbers of the wildlings frighten the men on the Wall, so Jon calls out to them, "The Wall will stop them. The Wall defends itself.... Mance wants to unman us with his numbers. Does he think we're stupid? ... The chariots, the horsemen, all those fools on foot ... what are they going to do to us up here? Any of you ever see a mammoth climb a wall?" The laughter that follows the question gives him the impetus to carry on with his speech, and he has the men with the warhorns "sound for battle." He calls on the archers to aim for the giants with the ram. He laughs, "like a drunk or a madman, and his men laughed with him."

He gives out orders to various men as the wildlings begin to show their lack of discipline. The wildling archers waste their arrows shooting at the men atop the Wall, seven hundred feet above. Jon keeps control of his archers, telling them precisely when to shoot. He gives similar orders to the men at the catapults which fling "a hundred spiked steel caltrops." The wildlings are caught in a death trap. "The ram was down and done, he saw, the giants who'd pushed it dead or dying." A mammoth is running loose, trampling wildlings. Jon orders Grenn and Pyp to drop barrels of burning oil on the men below.

The mammoths begin to flee, and the center of the attack collapses, causing the flanks to fall back too. Cheers go up from the men of the Watch, and suddenly Jon feels the pain and weariness. He asks Pyp to help him to the lift, and puts Grenn in charge of the Wall. He wants to eat and to rest, and to get something for the pain, but when they reach the ground he first wants to check on the tunnel and Donal Noye.

He waits as Pyp goes for Maester Aemon who has the key to the grates. They make their way through the narrow tunnel until they can see light on the other side, which Jon realizes is bad. Pyp observes that there is blood on the floor. The last twenty feet of the tunnel had been the scene of a bloodbath. The door had been torn from its hinges and a giant had crawled through, killing Donal and his four men. But Donal had stabbed the giant in the throat before dying. Jon recognizes the giant as "Mag the mighty. The king of the giants."

Jon squeezes through the carnage and finds a dead mammoth and three more dead giants. He returns to tell them that they need to block the tunnel with rubble and ice and anything else they can find. "Ser Wynton will need to take command, he's the last knight left, but he needs to move now, the giants will be back before we know it."

But Maester Aemon says that Ser Wynton is too old and senile to remember even this crucial advice. Jon must be in charge until the garrison returns.

"Donal chose you, and Qhorin Halfhand before him. Lord Commander Mormont made you his steward. You are a son of Winterfell, a nephew of Benjen Stark. It must be you or no one. The Wall is yours, Jon Snow."

Arya


The grief is so profound that it overshadows everything, even the lump on her head left by the flat of the Hound's axe. She wants to curl up and sleep through her depression, but he won't let her do it. When she does sleep, she dreams of wolves: "A great pack of wolves, with her at the head." But he continues to wake her and force her to take part in their travels. They have found another horse, that she has named Craven "because Sandor said she'd likely run off from the Twins the same as them."

He no longer keeps a close watch on her, though she still tells herself, "One night I'll kill him in his sleep," and could easily ride away on the new horse. But she has no place to go unless she can find her way back to Lady Smallwood's or rejoin Beric's outlaws. But she has decided "None of them wanted her around. They were never my pack, not even Hot Pie and Gendry. I was stupid to think so, just a stupid little girl, and no wolf at all."

She has asked Clegane where they are going, but he said only "Away."

She could feel the fury in him, she could see it in his face, the way his mouth would tighten and twist, the looks he gave her. Whenever he took his axe to chop some wood for a fire, he would slide into a cold rage, hacking savagely at the tree or the deadfall or the broken limb, until they had twenty times as much kindling and firewood as they'd needed.

One day they come across a survivor of the massacre of the northmen at the twins. He is feverish and dying of an infected wound in his shoulder. He asks for wine, but the Hound tells him, "I can give you water, and the gift of mercy." He accepts, and Arya brings him water in the Hound's helmet, and the Hound provides the mercy with his dagger, gently driving it through his heart. Arya asks if they will bury him, but the Hound says, "Leave him for the wolves and wild dogs. Your brothers and mine." On his body, Clegane finds some money and a dagger. He keeps the former and gives her the latter.

They reach the Mountains of the Moon, and turn eastward. He tells her, "You have an aunt in the Eyrie. Might be she'll want to ransom your scrawny arse, though the gods know why." But Arya wants to go back to the Twins, arguing that they don't know if her mother is dead and they should rescue her. The Hound refuses. When Arya falls asleep that night she dreams that she is with the wolf pack. They are feasting on the bodies of the dead at the Twins, and she picks up her mother's scent. Then she sees her: "something pale and white drifting down the river, turning where it brushed against a snag." She drags the body to the shore. "Rise, she thought. Rise and eat and run with us." But men arrive and she and the other wolves flee.

The next morning, Clegane says, "This thing about your mother...." But Arya answers, "I know she's dead. I saw her in a dream." He looks at her for a long time, then nods and they ride on. They find a village where they get food and shelter. But the villagers tell him that the way to the Eyrie is too dangerous. "If you don't freeze or starve, the shadowcats will get you, or the cave bears. There's the clans as well." The ones that went away to the war are back, and more fierce than ever.

The Hound decides that they should stay there, but the village elder tells him he can't. They will only be extra mouths to feed when winter sets in. And he has been recognized as "King Joffrey's dog," so they don't want him there to attract trouble. So they leave and turn south. He decides that they'll go to Riverrun. "Maybe the Blackfish wants to buy himself a she-wolf." But she doesn't really know her uncle, and "Every time she made for Riverrun, she ended up someplace worse."

She suggests they go to the Wall because her brother is there, but he argues that it's a thousand leagues away, and they would have to fight their way through "thousands of bloody buggering northmen." She responds, "Have you lost your belly for fighting?" He looks like he is going to hit her, but the rabbit they are roasting is done and he eats instead. "I don't give a rat's arse for you or your brother. I have a brother too."

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."

10. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 344-381

Davos

Davos's cell is warm and full of rats, but he is regaining his strength, thanks to a visit from Maester Pylos. He is also eating regularly, and can count the days by the visits of the two jailers who bring him his meals. He calls one Porridge, because he brinks breakfast, and the other Lamprey, because he once bought half a lamprey pie, though it was too rich for the still-malnourished Davos to keep down. The jailers, however, never answer any of his questions about the war or whether his son Devan is still alive. Still, the regular attention makes him believe, "They are keeping me alive, for some purpose of their own."

And then one day he has a visitor, though not one he's particularly eager to see: Melisandre. She comments that the cell is a dark place, and points to the torch burning outside of it: "This is all that stands between you and the darkness, Onion Knight. This little fire, this gift of R'hllor. Shall I put it out?" He says no, of course, but he refuses to beg. Then she says that she is like the torch: "We are both instruments of R'hllor. We were made for a single purpose -- to keep the darkness at bay."

He retorts that she is "the mother of darkness," as he saw when she gave birth to the terrible shadow at Storm's End. She replies that it takes light to give birth to shadow, and anyway, he needn't fear that happening any time soon: "the king's fires burn so low I dare not draw off any more to make another son." Davos, on the other hand, she proposes, has enough fire left, and if he really wants to serve Stannis, he should come to her chambers. "I could give you pleasure such as you have never known, and with your life-fire I could make...." He completes her sentence: "...a horror." And he calls on the Seven to protect him.

She proclaims them false gods, and proclaims a Manichean creed:

"The night is dark and full of terrors, the day bright and beautiful and full of hope. One is black, the other white.There is ice and there is fire. Hate and love. Bitter and sweet. Male and female. Pain and pleasure. Winter and summer. Evil and good." She took a step toward him. "Death and life. Everywhere, opposites. Everywhere, the war." 

He is puzzled by her reference to the war, and she explains that she doesn't mean the conflict over the throne of the Seven Kingdoms: She's not there just "to put yet another vain king on yet another empty throne." (So much for Stannis.) She is there to fight on behalf of "R'hllor, the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Flame and Shadow" against "the Great Other whose name may not be spoken, the Lord of Darkness, the Soul of Ice, the God of Night and Terror." She asks which side he is on. All he can say is that he is "full of doubts."

But this pleases her: "The good knight is honest to the last, even in his day of darkness. It is well you did not lie to me.  I would have known." And she asks why he wanted to kill her. He says he'll tell her if she tells him who betrayed him. She replies that no one betrayed him: "I saw your purpose in my flames." So if she's so good with fire, he asks, why did she let them burn in the attack on King's Landing. Those weren't her flames, she says. She wasn't even there, she reminds him, and things would have turned out differently if she had been. It was Stannis's fault: "his pride proved stronger than his faith," and he surrounded himself with unbelievers. But he has learned his lesson.

Davos reflects bitterly that it took the deaths of his sons to teach Stannis a lesson. But she prophesies a future victory for Stannis: "He is the Lord's chosen, the warrior of fire. I have seen him leading the fight against the dark, I have seen it in the flames." She leaves him to reflect on her prophecy. "And because R'hllor is the source of all good, I shall leave the torch as well."

Left alone he reflects on what she has said, and for a while stares at the torchlight trying to see something in it, "but there was nothing, only fire, and after a time his eyes began to water."

Then three days later, he receives a cellmate. There is the sound of a struggle, and Ser Axell Florent and two guardsmen arrive with the prisoner, who pleads his innocence and demands to see the queen. And when he cries out, "I am the King's Hand!" Davos recognizes Alester Florent, Axell's brother and Queen Selyse's uncle. Alester is able to answer Davos's questions about what happened on the Blackwater, including the loss of the ship Fury which had been captained by Alester's nephew, Imry, and on which Davos's son Maric had been oarmaster. Imry had led the fleet up the Blackwater.

Alester has been imprisoned for treason because he believes the loss of the fleet and of Stannis's allies means defeat for the king. "The best hope that remains is to try and salvage something with a peace. That is all I meant to do. Gods be good, how can they call it treason?" So he has written a letter to Tywin Lannister, proposing that Stannis give up his claim on the throne, retract his words about Joffrey's illegitimacy and incestuous birth, in exchange for being allowed to remain as Lord of Dragonstone and Storm's End. He also proposed marrying Stannis's daughter, Shireen, to Tommen. "The terms ... they are as good as we are ever like to get."

Davos agrees that they are probably good terms, but asks what the king thought of them. Alester says the king "is not in his right mind." He is under the sway of Melisandre. "This talk of a stone dragon ... madness, I tell you, sheer madness." Davos is as ignorant as we are of this talk, though we know more about what's happening with live dragons than either of them does. So given the king's debility, Alester took it upon himself to sue for peace: "Stannis gave me his seal, he gave me leave to rule. The Hand speaks with the king's voice." About this, Davos knows better: "It is not in Stannis to yield, so long as he knows his claim is just." And he would never marry Tommen, born of the same incestuous relationship as Joffrey, to his daughter.

Alester insists, "He has no choice." But Davos knows better about this: "He can choose to die a king."

Jon

Jon has gone to look for Ghost, and to bid him goodbye. There is no way the direwolf can cross the Wall. So Jon tells him to go to Castle Black and wait for him there. "They will know you at Castle Black, and maybe your coming will warn them." Ghost bounds away, but Jon doesn't know whether he has understood the command or is just chasing after a hare.

He judges from the terrain that they are somewhere between Castle Black and the Shadow Tower at the westernmost end of the Wall, and probably closer to the latter. As he returns to the camp, he berates himself for not killing Mance Rayder when he had the opportunity, even if it meant losing his own life. But instead he has ridden off with Styr the Magnar, Jarl, and a company of Thenns and raiders, as well as Ygritte. They have become lovers, and though he is torn with guilt for breaking his vow of chastity as a member of the Watch, he also cannot resist her. "Was this how it was for my father, he wondered. Was he as weak as I am, when he dishonored himself in my mother's bed?"

He is summoned to Magnar by one of the Thenns. Jarl, who is the lover of Mance Rayder's sister-in-law, has joint command with Magnar, who resents sharing the power. But Jarl had crossed the Wall a dozen times, so his skill is particularly valuable on this mission. Magnar wants to know more details about how often the Watch patrols the Wall, and Jon tells him what he has to, though he tries to hold back as much information as possible. He also overestimates the strength of the Watch at the places which are guarded. Jarl challenges these numbers, but Jon doesn't back down.

They are camped in a system of caverns, and Jon finds Ygritte in one with a pool fed by a waterfall. She tells him legends of the caverns that supposedly go under the Wall, and of a King-beyond-the-Wall named Gorne who supposedly found it, as well his his brother Gendel who supposedly got lost in the caverns and whose descendants still live there, feeding on the unwary humans who come upon them. Ygritte has developed a catchphrase, "You know nothing, Jon Snow," whenever she has a bit of lore that he is unfamiliar with, and she uses it often. On the other hand, there's something she knows nothing of, which is cunnilingus, and when Jon practices it on her, she is duly impressed.

When the torch starts to burn down, he suggests that they leave. But they don't.

His guilt came back afterward, but weaker than before. If this is so wrong, he wondered, why did the gods make it feel so good?

 
Danerys

Daenerys has gone to the Good Masters of Astapor with an astonishing offer: to buy all of the Unsullied. She is wearing a Qartheen gown that bares her left breast, and after she makes her offer, "She could not quite make out all that they were saying, but she could hear the greed."

There are eight slave brokers, each with a company of body slaves, and she has brought Irri and Jhiqui, Whitebeard and Belwas, her bloodriders, and Ser Jorah. Kraznys mo Naklos asks if by all she means, in addition to the eight thousands, the six centuries who are waiting to make up another thousand once the trainees are promoted to their ranks. She says she does, "and the ones who are still in training as well. The ones who have not earned the spikes."

This sets off an argument among the brokers, some of whom say they can't sell boys who aren't fully trained, while others insist, "We can, if her gold is good." Moreover, if they sell them all, it will be ten years or more before they can train enough new Unsullied, but one fat man argues, "Gold in my purse is better than gold in my future." Kraznys tells her the consensus: She can have the eight thousands and the six centuries now, and in a year they'll have another two thousands to sell her. But she insists on all of them: "Tell the Good Masters that I will want even the little ones who still have their puppies. Tell them that I will pay as much for the boy they cut yesterday as for an Unsullied in a spiked helm."

When they say no, she says she will pay double. One of them who speaks the Common Tongue asks if she really has the gold and the goods to pay that much. She says they have inspected the cargo on her ships; does she have enough?  They say she has enough for one thousand, but only five centuries if she pays double. She offers to throw in the three ships, and they say that would add up to two thousands, but that they are being generous in offering that. Finally, reluctantly, she plays her trump card: "'Give me all,' she said, 'and you may have a dragon.'"

The members of her retinue are shocked, and Whitebeard goes down on one knee to beg her not to do this. She orders Jorah to take him away, and apologizes to the brokers for the interruption. She knows that she has them where she wants them. Finally one of the brokers calls it a deal, as long as they can choose which dragon. And the one they want is Drogon, the largest. When it is agreed on, Kraznys even throws in the slave girl, his interpreter, as "a token of a bargain well struck."

She leaves them, feeling ill, but when she sees Whitebeard, she tells him he may disagree with her all he wants in private, but never to question her judgment in front of others. He submits. Then she asks the slave girl, in High Valryian, if she has a name. When the girl realizes that Daenerys has spoken the language that she was supposedly translating, she says, "Oh." Daenerys asks if that's her name, and the girl asks her forgiveness and says, "Your slave's name is Missandei, but...." Daenerys tells her she isn't a slave anymore, and tells her to ride in the litter with her. If she wants to leave her, she may, but if she stays she will be one of her handmaids. Missandei decides to stay.

Daenerys warns her that the journey will be difficult and she might be killed. Missandei replies, in High Valryian,"Valar morghulis." Daenerys translates the phrase: "All men must die."

She learns more from her new handmaid about the Unsullied: It is true that they have no fear and that the "wine of courage" has removed all sense of pain. They are so obedient that, "If you told them not to breathe, they would find that easier than not to obey." And what will she do with them once she has won her war and claimed her throne. They make excellent guards and watchmen, Missandei says, and she can always sell them. Daenerys says that men are not bought and sold in Westeros, and even if she did sell them, could their new owners tell them to fight against her. Missandei says, first, that Unsullied aren't men, and second that they do whatever their owner commands: "They do not question, Your Grace. All the questions have been culled from them." The only solution to that problem would be to have them kill themselves, which they would do.

Daenerys realizes that this last troubles Missandei, and she asks why. "Three of them were my brothers once, Your Grace," she replies.

Back at the ship and in private, Daenerys gives way to tears. But then she argues with the captain, Groleo, about trading the ships, and the anger gives her strength. She calls her bloodriders and Ser Jorah to her cabin, and later goes out on deck where Jorah joins her. She asks him, "Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves?" He has no answer, and she goes back to her cabin, where she dreams that she is Rhaegar, mounted on a dragon, confronting "the Usurper's rebel host" who are armored in ice. The dragonfire melts them.

She awakes feeling triumphant, but she senses someone in her cabin. She calls out for her handmaids, but a woman tells her that they are all asleep. Then she says,

"Remember. To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow."

She recognizes the words, and cries out, "Quaithe?" But when she opens the door, letting in the light and waking Irri and Jhiqui, there is no sign of the "woman in a red lacquer mask." She tells the girls she had a dream, and to go back to sleep, but she doesn't sleep again that night.

The next morning she and all of her people, including the Dothraki and the captains and crews of the ships, enter Astapor in a caravan transporting the goods from the ships. The three dragons are chained and restless. In the Plaza of Punishment, where slaves are "racked, and flayed, and hanged," the Unsullied and the trainees are all gathered, and the slave brokers are waiting. At a command from Ser Jorah, the trade goods are unloaded from wagons and piled before the slavers. When this is done, Daenerys tells them that there is much more on the ships, which are also part of the deal, so that the only thing remaining is the dragon.

Daenerys gives Kraznys mo Nakloz the end of the chain that restrains Drogon, and in exchange he gives her the whip that signifies her authority over the Unsullied. "The handle was black dragonbone, elaborately carved and inlaid with gold. Nine long thin leather lashes trailed from it, each one tipped by a gilded claw. The gold pommel was a woman's head with pointed ivory teeth." Kraznys calls it "The harpy's fingers."

Daenerys mounts her horse and raises the whip, then rides among the ranks of the Unsullied, crying out "YOU ARE THE DRAGON'S NOW! YOU'RE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR! IT IS DONE! IT IS DONE!" Only one of the slavers notices that she is speaking Valyrian. The others are struggling to control Drogon. She rides back to them, accompanied by her bloodriders. Kraznys says, "He will not come." She replies, "There is a reason. A dragon is no slave," and she lashes out at Kraznys with the whip. "The harpy's fingers had torn his features half to pieces with one slash." And then she calls out to Drogon, "Dracarys."

The dragon incinerates Kraznys, and the bloodriders take care of the rest of the slavers. Then she calls to the Unsullied to kill the Good Masters, the soldiers, and the slave drivers but to "harm no child under twelve, and strike the chains off every slave you see." She calls out, "Dracarys," and the Unsullied echo the word. "And all around them the slavers ran and sobbed and begged and died, and the dusty air was filled with spears and fire."