22. A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 628-657

Brienne

Stunned and in pain, Brienne is being carried bound, "like a sack of oats," over the hindquarters of a horse. She hears Podrick calling out to her faintly, but then he falls silent. She drifts off into a dream in which she is being tormented by Biter, while others, such as Nimble Dick, Catelyn Stark, and Lord Renly, look on.

Finally the horse comes to a stop and she is taken from the horse. A girl gives her something to drink and tells her that her arm is broken, along with several ribs. The last thing she remembers from the fight is Biter attacking her, and she asks about him. The girl tells her, "He's dead. Gendry shoved a spearpoint through the back of his neck."

She gets a better look at the girl, who resembles Willow, back at the inn, and concludes that it's her sister, the innkeeper. The girl admits as much, and says her name is Jeyne Heddle. Brienne asks her to loosen the ropes tying her hands, but she says she can't. Then Gendry appears -- once again Brienne takes him at first for Renly -- and says, "M'lady means for you to answer for your crimes."

Brienne remembers the earlier mentions of a "Lady Stoneheart," and asks if she is the one he refers to. "Some call her that," he says. "Some call her other things. The Silent Sister. Mother Merciless. The Hangwoman." Brienne struggles to rise, but instead she faints into more dreams of struggle and capture.

When she wakes again, Jeyne is giving her a cup of onion broth. She asks for Gendry, but is told that he has returned to the inn to take care of Willow and the children. Then she gets a look at one of the men standing around her: "A yellow greatcloak was plastered to his shoulders, sodden and filthy. From his shoulders rose a steel dog's head, its teeth bared in a snarl." She protests that she had killed him, but the man now wearing the Hound's helmet says, "You got that backwards. It'll be me killing you. I'd do it now, but m'lady wants to see you hanged."

When Brienne protests that they shared bread and salt with Jeyne's sister, Jeyne replies, "Guest right don't mean so much as it used to.... Not since m'lady come back from the wedding. Some o' them swinging down by the river figured they was guests too."

They get back on the horses, and this time a leather hood covers Brienne's head. She passes out again and dreams of being back on Tarth, waiting for her betrothed. Blood pours from her mouth when she tries to speak: She has bitten off her tongue. Her betrothed mocks her, and when he turns away she sees that he is Jaime. She tries to call out for him, but her mouth is full of blood.

When she wakes again, she doesn't know where she is. Her clothes and armor are gone and she is wearing a thin woolen shift. Her arm is in a splint and her face is covered with bandages. When she stands and calls out, an old man in rags moves and says her name. He tells her they are being held in a cave, and asks if she is hungry. He tells her she has been suffering with a fever, but when he feels her forehead assures her that it has broken. Biter's savaging of her face had led to an infection. "We had to cut away some of the flesh. Your face will not be pretty, I fear.... My lady, that creature chewed off half your cheek."

She asks why bother to treat her wounds and splint her arm if she's just going to be hanged, and he admits to the irony of her situation. She had "fought bravely at the inn.... Whatever else you may have done, you won those wounds honorably, in the best of causes." She asks who they are, and he admits that they were once the king's men, and then they were a brotherhood, but now, "I do not know who we are, if truth be told, nor where we might be going."

She realizes then that he is the red wizard, Thoros of Myr, and that he was one of Dondarrion's band. But he tells her Lord Dondarrion is "gone out of the world" and "A grimmer shadow leads us in his place." He brings her food, and she asks about the others who were with her. Septon Merribald has been allowed to go on his way, he tells her, but "The others are here, awaiting judgment." She pleads for Podrick, who is "just a boy," but Thoros tells her that he has said he is a squire -- "The Imp's squire. He has fought in battles, by his own admission. He has even killed, to hear him tell it." She argues for pity and justice.

"Justice." Thoros smiled wanly. "I remember justice. It had a pleasant taste. Justice was what we were about when Beric led us, or so we told ourselves. We were king's men, knights, and heroes ... but some knights are dark and full of terror, my lady. War makes monsters of us all."

Then he hears others coming. "Our lady sends for you."

Four men appear, one of them wearing the Hound's helmet. She realizes now that it had been Rorge she killed, and that he had taken the helmet from him. Thoros is dismayed to hear this: "Is this true? A dead man's helm? Have we fallen that low?" Lem argues, "The sight of it will make my foes afraid." They escort her out of the cave and into a larger one centered on a firepit where outlaws are gathered. The only face Brienne recognizes is Jeyne Heddle's.

Behind a trestle table in a cleft in the rock sits "a woman all in grey, cloaked and hooded. In her hands was a crown, a bronze circlet ringed by iron swords." The one-eyed man presents her as "The Kingslayer's whore," to which Brienne protests.  A younger outlaw is holding her sword, Oathkeeper, which he places on the table in front of the hooded woman. Its pommel is in the shape of a lion's head. Thoros then places on the table the letter with Tommen's seal, which Lady Stoneheart takes to read.

Brienne protests that the sword was given her by Jaime because he "swore an oath to Catelyn Stark," but she is interrupted by the man in the yellow cloak: "...before his friends cut her throat for her, that must have been." Brienne realizes that her cause is hopeless, but she continues to explain that Jaime had promised to return Catelyn's daughters, and that he sent her out to find them. But Lem mocks all of her arguments, and then produces her companions. "Hyle Hunt had been beaten so badly that his face was swollen almost beyond recognition." Podrick supports him, and apologizes to Brienne for what has happened. 

Brienne turns to Lady Stoneheart and pleads that her companions had nothing to do with "Whatever treachery you think I may have done." She asks her to let them go. But the woman in gray says nothing for a moment, then reaches for her throat and produces sounds, "part croak, part wheeze, part death rattle." Brienne doesn't understand, but one of the men interprets the sound as a question about the sword's name. Brienne says it is Oathkeeper, but the woman hisses something that is interpreted as "Call it Oathbreaker.... It was made for treachery and murder. She names it False Friend. Like you."

Brienne asks to whom she has been unfaithful, and the interpreter says, "To her.... Can it be that my lady has forgotten that you once swore her your service?" Suddenly realizing that he means that Lady Stoneheart is Catelyn Stark, Brienne protests, "That cannot be.... She's dead." Lady Stoneheart lowers her hood and reveals the decayed face of Lady Catelyn. Thoros explains that she had been dead three days when they found her in the river. It was Beric Dondarrion who gave her the "kiss of life."

Brienne swears by the Seven, by her sword, that she had never betrayed Catelyn, who then produces more sounds that Lemoncloak interprets: "She says that you must prove your faith.... All she asks from you is Jaime Lannister." Brienne argues once again for Jaime's good faith, but to no avail: "The sword or the noose, she says. Choose, she says. Choose."

Brienne refuses, and she understands the next thing Lady Stoneheart croaks: "Hang them."

They are taken outside and strung to the trees. Brienne makes a last plea for Podrick, and as the noose tightens around her own throat she sees him struggling. "She screamed a word."

Cersei

Cersei is playing her part as she sits below the Iron Throne and in front of the assembled court protests the High Septon's decision. But Septa Moelle is insistent "that the young queen and her ladies cannot be released until and unless their innocence has been proved." The septa repeats the charges against Megga Tyrell and Elinor Tyrell -- "lewdness, fornication, and conspiracy to commit high treason" -- and the lesser one against Alla Tyrell -- "witnessing their shame and helping them conceal it" -- and finally against Queen Margaery -- all of the above "as well as adultery and high treason." Cersei feigns dismay at "such calumnies." But the septa's report of Ser Osney's confession causes a gasp and a buzz in the assemblage.

Once again, Cersei protests: "Margaery is a maiden!" But the septa says that she examined Margaery, Megga, and Elinor herself, as did other septas. The maidenheads of all of them were "not intact." Lord Merryweather asks, "Would you have us believe that all of these noble people lied to us?" But Septa Moelle says she can only attest to what she discovered in her examinations.  Cersei tries not to laugh, and says, "Grand Maester Pycelle, you shall accompany Septa Moelle back to Beloved Baelor's Sept, and return to us with the truth about our Margaery's maidenhead." Pycelle follows through: There's no need for him to do so. "Queen Margaery is no maiden. She has required me to make her moon tea, not once, but many times."

Cersei delights in the uproar that follows. But she rises with a stern face, has the gold cloaks clear the hall, and the Kingsguard exit with her. Secretly she rejoices in her triumph of the prophecy of Maggy the Frog: "No golden shrouds, no valonqar, I am free of your croaking malice at last." Her small council gathers around her in dismay, and Ser Harys Swyft predicts "blood in the streets" when Mace Tyrell hears the news. Cersei tells them that she will go to Baelor's Sept and see if there is anything she can do. 

Then she goes to Tommen with some blank arrest warrants for him to sign and seal. When he is gone, she fills in the names and gives them to Ser Osfryd Kettleblack to have the gold cloaks deliver them. He tells her that a crowd is gathering at Baelor's Sept. She hadn't expected this, though she knows the "smallfolk" love Margaery. She tells him to let the High Septon's own knights take care of the crowd, but to close the city gates. "No one is to enter or leave King's Landing without my leave, until all this is done and settled." The warrants are served, and by the end of the day all of the accused are in the dungeons except the Redwyne twins, who are supposed to be found falsely accused. They are "given comfortable chambers in a tower."

The next day she goes with Taena Merryweather to Baelor's Sept. Taena worries that Margaery may demand trial by combat, but Cersei has anticipated even that: A member of the royal family must be defended by one of the Kingsguard, and Margaery's brother, Ser Loras, is gravely wounded, while others are away, and Osmund is the brother of the accuser. That leaves only the elderly Boros Blount and Meryn Trant, "and Ser Meryn has been feeling ill of late. Remind me to tell him that when we return to the castle." Taena says she hopes she never offends Cersei.

The crowd at the sept is not particularly menacing, it turns out, and she is ushered in to the presence of the High Septon, though she has to wait until he finishes his prayers. She asks to see Margaery, and he agrees, though he asks her to come to seem him afterward. "We must pray together, you and I." Margaery is barefoot and shivering,, dressed in a "roughspun shift." She complains that the septas come every hour to ask her to confess, so she is unable to sleep. And she is astonished when Cersei tells her that her cousins have been accused as well.

Cersei tells her there will have to be a trial, and that the knights of the Kingsguard will defend her if she chooses a trial by combat. And suddenly Margaery gets wise to what is going on. She runs through the members of the Kingsguard herself, and "her brown eyes narrowed in suspicion. 'Blount or Trant,' she said at last. 'It would have to be one of them. You'd like that, wouldn't you? Osney Kettleblack would cut either one to pieces.'" When Margaery orders her to leave, Cersei is provoked at at having been seen through so easily, and assures Margaery that she only wants to help her.

"To help me to my grave. I asked for you to leave. Will you make me call my gaolers and have you dragged away, you vile, scheming, evil bitch?"

Cersei makes a dignified retreat.

Four septas escort her to a subterranean audience chamber where the High Septon is waiting. She suggests that instead of being tried by the court, over which Tommen would have to preside, Margaery might be tried by the Faith. He agrees, saying he had had the same thought. "A sacred court of seven judges shall sit upon this case. Three shall be of your female sex. A maiden, a mother, and a crone. Who could be more suited to judge the wickedness of women?" He also agrees that if she chooses trial by combat, it should be one of the Kingsguard.

"Cersei covered her face with her hands, as if in grief. When she raised her head again, a tear glistened in one eye." Then she says she'll return to the castle and take Ser Osney Kettleblack with her to be questioned by the small council. And she is shocked when he says "No." He will take her to Ser Osney, he says, and she begins to worry. He conducts her to a chamber protected with an iron door, which he unlocks.

Within, Osney Kettleblack hung naked from the ceiling, swinging from a pair of heavy iron chains. He had been whipped. His back and shoulders [had] been laid almost bare, and cuts and welts crisscrossed his legs and arse as well.

The High Septon explains to her that he had seldom "heard a man so pleased to be so guilty." So he has had him whipped to find out the truth: "Osney Kettleblack is guilty of treason and murder, and the wages of treason are death." Ser Osney now says he never touched Margaery Tyrell, but that he had had sex with Cersei: "She's the queen I fucked, the one sent me to kill the old Septon. He never had no guards. I just come in when he was sleeping and pushed a pillow down across his face."

Cersei makes a run for it. The elderly High Septon is no match for her, nor are the old septas who had escorted her. As she is trying to escape she remembers that Taena Merryweather is there: "Taena knows it all. If they take her too, and whip her...." But finally she is caught, overpowered, stripped, and thrust naked into a cell. And like Margaery she is awakened every hour by a septa who says, "I am come to hear you tell of all your murders and fornications."

A night and a day passes with only the hourly visits of the septa demanding confession. Finally, on the morning of the second day, Qyburn appears. He tells her, "You are to be tried before a holy court of seven, for murder, treason, and fornication." Margaery is to be tried by the same court, he says, and he has handed over the Blue Bard to the High Septon. "My whisperers tell me that they are whipping him, but so far he is still singing the same sweet song we taught him."

But Qyburn has been removed from the king's council, which is being run by Harys Swyft and Pycell. They have removed Osfryd Kettleblack as head of the City Watch, and have sent a raven to Casterly Rock, asking Kevan Lannister to become regent. "Mace Tyrell has abandoned the siege of Storm's End and is marching back to the city with his army, and Randyll Tarly is reported on his way down from Maidenpool as well." Lord Merryweather and his wife have fled. (Cersei is glad to hear that they let Taena go.) And Aurane Waters has left with his fleet. "Ser Harys fears he means to join Lord Stannis. Pycelle believes that he is sailing to the Stepstones, to set himself up as a pirate."

Cersei says, "I am lost, Qyburn." And when he hears that only a member of the Kingsguard can defend her, he doesn't disagree. But she asks him to send word to Jaime of her plight, and to write three times, "I love you." Qyburn agrees, but reminds her that her brother has no sword hand anymore. "If he should champion you and lose...."

We will leave this world together, as we once came into it. "He will not lose. Not Jaime. Not with my life at stake."

19. A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 529-560

Cersei

Sweet Cersei has returned from Dragonstone with the welcome news that Stannis's former citadel has fallen. This means that Cersei can devote the fleet's attention to the Shield Islands and the Mander, where the ironmen have been conducting raids. And word now has it that Euron's forces are preparing to attack Oldtown.

But the attack on Dragonstone has been costly: A thousand men have fallen, and Ser Loras is seriously wounded. Cersei hides her pleasure at this news and listens as Aurane Waters tells the full story. Then she goes to find Margaery and tells her that her brother is a hero, but first he was wounded in the thigh with an arrow and then some ribs were broken by a blow from a mace. But worst of all, "He was doused with boiling oil." The maesters believe he will not survive.

"Dying is not dead," Margaery replies, and won't listen to Cersei's assurances that the burns are too severe. Cersei retreats to her room, where she prides herself on doing something that her father would have approved of. She will raise a statue to Ser Loras, and everyone will be grateful. "As for his lady mother, if the gods are good this news will kill her." Taena arrives in the morning, after a sunrise that "was the prettiest that Cersei had seen in years," to tell her they had grieved all night but that Margaery still refuses to believe that Loras will die.

Ser Osmund comes a little later to tell her that four men have come to her with news about Tyrion, and one of them has brought a head. She sees the one with the head first, but it isn't Tyrion's, and she has the man hauled off for Qyburn to deal with. Another of the men claims that Tyrion is hiding in a brothel in Oldtown, "pleasuring men with his mouth." The second says he is in "a mummer's show in Braavos," and the third claims he's a hermit in the riverlands. Cersei suggests that each of them lead some of her knights to the dwarf and if it proves true they will be rewarded. "If not ... well, my knights have little patience for deception, nor fools who send them chasing after shadows. A man could lose his tongue." The men suddenly decide "that perhaps it might have been some other dwarf they saw."

She then goes to court, where she deals with various pleas, and meets a delegation from the Faith. She is displeased to see Lancel Lannister among the "pious fools," and that the High Septon has not attended in person. She is also annoyed that the Warrior's Sons have taken in on themselves to "battle wickedness" by preaching and praying against the local brothels.

"These sinners feed the royal coffers," the queen said bluntly, "and their pennies help pay the wages of my gold cloaks and build galleys to defend our shores. There is trade to be considered as well. If King's Landing had no brothels, the ships would go to Duskendale or Gulltown. His High Holiness promised me peace in my streets. Whoring helps to keep that peace. Common men deprived of whores are apt to turn to rape. Henceforth let His High Holiness do his praying in the sept where it belongs." 

Pycelle reports that Gyles Rosby is gravely ill, but Cersei scoffs at the report: "Lord Gyles has had that cough for years, and it never killed him before." She suggests that someone is trying to do him in, perhaps the Tyrells, perhaps Pycelle himself. She huffs, "You will return to Lord Gyles and inform him that he does not have my leave to die."

Finally all the tedious business is done, and she goes to have supper with Tommen, who is upset about Ser Loras's condition. He also says that Margaery says he should go to court and listen, which is the last straw for Cersei. Margaery talks too much, Cersei says. "For half a groat I'd gladly have her tongue torn out." To her surprise, Tommen grows angry and says, "Don't you touch her. I'm the king, not you." Furiously, she hauls Tommen by the ear to the door and tells Ser Boros Blount, who is standing guard, to take Tommen to his bedchamber and bring the whipping boy, Pate, to him. "This time I want Tommen to whip the boy himself. He is to continue until the boy is bleeding from both cheeks. If His Grace refuses, or says one word of protest, summon Qyburn and tell him to remove Pate's tongue, so His Grace can learn the cost of insolence."

When she goes to bed, she thinks about Lady Falyse, whom Qyburn has put in the black cells. She has received word of the death of Lady Tanda and of Lollys's ascension to Lady Stokeworth, with Bronn as her lord. And then she dreams of the visit she and Jeyne Farman and Melara Hetherspoon had made to the sorceress, Maggy the Frog. Jeyne had been so frightened she ran away, and Cersei reflects, "She was the wise one, though." Jeyne was still alive, married, and mother of a dozen children.

The old woman had tasted their blood and said they could each ask three questions. Cersei had asked when she would marry Prince Rhaegar, and Maggy had replied, "Never. You will wed the king." And that she would be queen "until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear." And when she asked if she and the king will have children, Maggy said, "Oh, aye. Six-and-ten for him, and three for you." Their crowns and their shrouds will be gold, "And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white neck and choke the life from you." Cersei didn't know what a valonqar is, and Maggy didn't tell her. But she had heard enough and told Melara to leave with her.

Melara hadn't had her three questions, however, and insisted on asking if she will marry Jaime. But Maggy said she won't marry anyone: "Your death is here tonight, little one." Cersei was eager to get away, so she picked up a potion from a table and threw it in the old woman's eyes. Maggy cursed her, but now in the dream Cersei hears again "The valonqar shall wrap his hands about your throat." And Tyrion's face leers down at her as his fingers dig into her throat. She wakes to find the coverlet wrapped around her neck, and sends her maid, Dorcas, to fetch Pycelle. She asks him for something to help her sleep without dreaming.

She breakfasts with Tommen, and feels better, then sends for Qyburn, whom she asks if Falyse is still alive. "Alive, yes. Perhaps not entirely ... comfortable." She asks if perhaps they should produce her, in an attempt to thwart Bronn, but Qyburn tells her, "I fear that Lady Falyse is no longer capable of ruling Stokeworth. Or, indeed, of feeding herself." He has learned quite a bit from her, however. So Cersei changes the subject. She asks him about her dream and about the sorceress: "The smallfolk used to call her Maggy." Qyburn asks, "Maegi?" and tells her that "Bloodmagic is the darkest kind of sorcery." Melara, whose death the maegi had foretold, "was one-and-ten, healthy as a little horse and safe within the Rock. Yet she soon fell down a well and drowned."

Qyburn asks if she is still grieving for her childhood friend, but Cersei can't even remember what she looked like. What she wants to know is if the prophecy the maegi made about her, about "another queen, who would take from me all I loved," can be prevented. Qyburn says that it can, and when she asks how, says, "I think Your Grace knows how."

And yes, she does. Several ways, in fact. She begins laying her plot by asking Ser Osmund Kettleblack if his brother Osney could defeat Ser Boros Blount in combat. He assures her that Osney could.

Brienne

They are traveling on, and they begin to find corpses hanging from the trees. Ser Hyle Hunt says what they are all thinking: "These are the men who raided Saltpans." But Brienne is more concerned about who had hanged them: "The noose was the preferred method of execution for Beric Dondarrion and his band of outlaws, it was said."

Finally they reach the inn that Septon Meribald knew was along the route, and they hear the sound of a forge. There are children in the inn yard, and Brienne introduces herself, Meribald, Podrick, and Ser Hyle. One of the children runs off to the forge and the hammering stops. A girl on the porch says her name is Willow and asks if they want beds. She tells them her sister Jeyne runs the inn, and they don't have many guests. "It's mostly sparrows on the roads these days, or worse." A boy's voice explains, "Thieves.... Robbers."

Brienne turns and sees the boy who had spoken, and gasps, "My lord?" For a moment she has taken the boy for Renly Baratheon. But he is, of course, Gendry, and she realizes that "Lord Renly's eyes had always been warm and welcoming, full of laughter, whereas this boy's eyes brimmed with anger and suspicion." When Septon Meribald asks if they have rooms for them, he says no, but Willow says yes. "They have food, Gendry. The little ones are hungry." The children, she explains, have just turned up there, sometimes having been brought by sparrows.

She and Podrick share a room. Septon Meribald will be going his own way from there on, Brienne plans to rise early and leave before Ser Hyle awakes. But when Podrick asks where they are going, she doesn't have an answer: East would take them to the Vale of Arryn, west to Riverrun, and north to Winterfell. Or, she thinks, she could just give up the quest, go south to King's Landing, confess her failure to Jaime, and take a ship home to Tarth.

The inn is full of children, and while they are waiting for dinner, Ser Hyle sits down by the fire with Brienne and proposes that they get married. She tells him to get lost. When dinner is served, Septon Meribald says grace, but notices that Gendry doesn't join in the prayer. When Meribald asks if Gendry doesn't love the gods, he says, "Not your gods," and leaves without eating. One little boy says that Gendry's god is the Lord of Light, and Willow hits him with her spoon to shut him up.

Brienne wraps some food in a cloth and takes it out to the forge for Gendry, telling Podrick to stay behind. She watches Gendry at the forge and thinks, "He has Renly's eyes and Renly's hair, but not his build. Lord Renly was more lithe than brawny ... not like his brother Robert, whose strength was fabled." He is sullen when she speaks to him, but she persists. She knows from his speech that he was born in King's Landing, and she says, "You have black hair and blue eyes, and you were born in the shadow of the Red Keep. Has no one ever remarked upon your face? ... In King's Landing you must have seen King Robert."

But before she can pursue her questioning, riders arrive. She counts seven of them, and tells Gendry, "you'll want a sword, and armor. These are not your friends. They're no one's friends." Then they see that the lead rider is wearing a helmet with "an iron snout and rows of steel teeth, snarling." Gendry says, "Him." But she says it isn't the Hound, just his helmet. Willow comes to the porch with a crossbow, but the lead rider threatens her obscenely. So Brienne steps forward with Oathkeeper drawn.

She has recognized her old tormentor, Rorge, and provokes him deliberately: "Shagwell said they cut your manhood off when they took your nose." He charges with his battleaxe, but she is the better fighter, and she cuts him down. "'Sapphires, she whispered at him, as she gave her blade a hard twist that made him shudder." But when she steps back to let him fall, she is attacked by Biter and loses her grip on Oathkeeper. He is on top of her, and she gropes for her dagger. He repeated slams her head into the ground, but she is able to slit his belly. Still, he gets the dagger out of her grip and breaks her forearm as he tries to wrench her head off.

Then he bites her cheek and tears off a mouthful of flesh. "He is eating me, she realized, but she had no strength left to fight him any longer. He opens his mouth again, and then his tongue sticks out at her, dripping blood. "His tongue is a foot long, Brienne thought, just before the darkness took her. Why, it looks almost like a sword."

18. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 590-619

Arya

They return to the hill known as High Heart, where Thoros builds a fire to see things in the flames, but when Arya looks at them she has the same experience that Davos had earlier: It just makes her eyes water. But Thoros fails to have any visions this time.

Gendry tells Thoros that he remembers him from when he was apprenticed to Tobho Mott, who called him "a sot and a fraud, as bad a priest as there every was." Thoros laughs and agrees that he was "no very holy priest," and that he only became one because his father sent him to the Red Temple when he was eight. He was sent to King's Landing as a missionary for R'hllor because "King Aerys so loved fire it was thought he might make a convert." It was King Robert who really liked him, especially because of the flaming sword trick that made Kevan Lannister's horse throw him. But he admits that Tobho Mott was right to complain about his setting swords on fire.

Beric speaks up behind him to say, "Fire consumes," in a way that silences Thoros. When Thoros asks what he's saying, Beric tells him, "Six times is too many," referring to his resurrections.

Later that night, Arya sees the tiny old woman return to sit by the embers of the fire and talk with Thoros, Lem, and Beric. She calls Dondarrion "the Lord of Corpses," which he tells her not to do, but asks her if she has news for them. In exchange for wine and a song from Tom (Lem refuses her request for a kiss with "a bit of tongue"), she tells them that Balon Greyjoy is dead and his heirs are fighting over the kingdom. Finally she calls out to Arya, "You cannot hide from me, child. Come closer, now." But when Arya gets closer, she says, "I thought it ws the lord who smelled of death...." And she begins to sob.

Thoros tells her not to frighten Arya, and Beric says they are taking her to Riverrun. But the old woman says that they aren't. If they want Arya's mother they should "seek her at the Twins. For there's to be a wedding." She asks for her song, so they wake Tom to sing to her. During the song, Arya asks what she meant about going to the Twins, and he promises to find out. A storm comes up, and the old woman disappears.

In the morning the rain continues, and several of the group have come down with fever and chills. One of them is Edric Dayne, known as Ned, squire to Lord Beric. Arya talks to him as they ride. He has been in battles alongside Beric, and she asks him if he has ever killed anyone. He protests, "I'm only twelve," which makes Arya think, "I killed a boy when I was eight." She reflects on the deaths she is responsible for, including the guard whose throat she cut and the ones Jaqen had taken care of for her.

Then he asks, "You have a baseborn brother ... Jon Snow?" And he tells her they are "milk brothers" -- his own mother had no milk to nurse him with, so he was nursed by Wylla, "Jon Snow's mother. He never told you? She's served us for years and years. Since before I was born." Arya is surprised by the news, and reminds herself to tell Jon that his mother's name is Wylla. He tells her his name, and that he is Lord of Starfall, which causes Gendry to snort, "Lords and ladies," so she throws a crabapple at him.

She recalls that there was an Arthur Dayne, known as the Sword of the Morning, and he tells her that he was his uncle and his wife, Lady Ashara, his aunt. "She threw herself into the sea from atop the Palestone Sword before I was born." Arya asks why she did that, and he says, "Your lord father never spoke of her?" She had met him and his brothers at Harrenhal, he says, and she died because "Her heart was broken." This strikes Arya as a stupid thing to do, though she realizes that Sansa would have thought it romantic. She asks who broke it, and Ned hesitates before telling her, "My aunt Allyria says Lady Ashara and your father fell in love at Harrenhal--"

Arya denies that her father loved anyone but her mother, but Gendry says, "He must have found that bastard under a cabbage leaf, then." She lashes out at him angrily, but he ignores her. "At least your father raised his bastard, not like mine. I don't even know my father's name. Some smelly drunk, I'd wager, like the others my mother dragged home from the alehouse." Arya is growing upset and she spurs her horse away from them. She catches up with Anguy the Archer and asks, "Dornishmen lie, don't they?" He tells her, "They're famous for it."

She spurs her horse on ahead, but Harwin come after her, warning her not to separate from the group. He has heard the conversation and tells her that the story about her father and Lady Ashara is an old one and that he doesn't really believe it. But even if it's true, it took place when her mother was betrothed to Lord Brandon, "so there's no stain o your father's honor." And as far as her suicide is concerned, it could have been from grief over the loss of her brother, the Sword of the Morning.

They reach an abandoned village, where they take shelter. Thoros builds another fire, and this time he he has a vision. Lord Beric tells him to call her over.

The red priest squatted down beside her. "My lady," he said, "the Lord granted me a view of Riverrun. An island in a sea of fire, it seemed. The flames were leaping lions with long crimson claws. And how they roared! A sea of Lannisters, my lady. Riverrun will soon come under attack."

Arya protests that her brother will beat them, but Thoros says he didn't see either Robb or her mother in the flames. The old woman had spoken of a wedding, and "she has her own way of knowing things." Beric asks if her uncle, Brynden Blackfish, would know her, but she doesn't recall ever meeting him. He decides not to proceed to Riverrun without better information.

Furious at this delay in her plans, Arya runs away. "She wanted Riverrun, not Acorn Hall; she wanted her mother and her brother Robb, not Lady Smallwood or some uncle she never knew." She hears people shouting her name as she runs, and suddenly "A mailed hand closed hard around her arm." It is Sandor Clegane.

Jaime

He is heading back to King's Landing, to his great relief, with an escort headed by Steelshanks Walton and with Qyburn, the de-chained maester, to look after his health. Qyburn rides up next to Jaime to let him know that he was the one who had sent a prostitute to his bed the night before: "Your fever was largely gone, and I thought you might enjoy a bit of exercise." But Qyburn doesn't know that Jaime had sent her away, anticipating his return to Cersei, so he burbles on, "Pia is quite healthy. As is your maid of Tarth." He assures Jaime that "her maidenhead is still intact. As of last night, at least."

Jaime is puzzled at this reassurance, and asked if Brienne's father had requested the examination. Qyburn is surprised that Jaime hasn't heard: Brienne's father had offered three hundred gold dragons for her return, but sent word that there were no sapphires on Tarth. Vargo Hoat turned down the amount offered.

When they stop for the night, Qyburn gives Jaime some dreamwine to ease his pain, and he falls asleep. In his dream, he has regained his sword hand and he is at Casterly Rock, but he finds himself surrounded by enemies, "a dozen tall dark figures in cowled robes that hid their faces." They are bearing spears, with which they prod him down a passageway into the darkness. He is in a watery cavern below Casterly Rock, and a thousand voices, the voices of Lannisters, but especially of his father tell him this is his place. Beside his father stands Cersei, holding a torch.

But then she turns to go, leaving him in the darkness, with a sense that there is something terrible where he is. He begs for a sword, and his father tells him he has been given one. He finds it under the water at his feet, and when he picks it up the sword glows, illuminating the gloom. He hears a splash behind him and sees Brienne, naked, bound with heavy chains. She begs him to remove the chains, and he slices through them like silk, and to give her a sword, which appears to him. It too glows with a silvery blue flame, further illuminating the dark.

He hears Cersei say in the distance that the flames will stay lighted as long as they are alive, but when he begs for her to stay with him he hears her footsteps moving away. Brienne asks what is living there in the darkness, and he tells her "Doom... Only doom." She tells him to get on her shoulders, so they can reach the mouth of the tunnel, and when he thinks that he could follow Cersei he begins to have an erection, which he tries to hide from Brienne. Then she points with her sword to show him that there are two riders coming toward them on pale horses.

He remembers how Eddard Stark rode his horse into Aerys's throne room, and he calls out asking, "Is it you, Stark?" But there is no answer, and then there are more horsemen, wearing armor made of snow. He begins to recognize them, and among them is Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. Brienne tells them that she swore an oath to protect Jaime, and he tells them that he killed the king to keep him from burning the city. But they continue to move forward, reminding him that he killed the king, and Rhaegar says, "I left my wife and children in your hands."

"Then his sword went dark, and only Brienne's burned, as the ghost came rushing in." He wakes in terror, with Qyburn beside him and Steelshanks standing over them. When he wakes fully, he tells them he wants to go back to Harrenhal, that he left something there. When Steelshanks protests, Jaime says that unless they go back, he will tell his father that it was he who cut off his hand. But if they do return, he'll see to it that he gets "a nice fat purse of gold as thanks."

That does the trick, and by dawn they are halfway back to Harrenhal. When they enter the fortress, Jaime hears a roar, "faint but ferocious," and the sound of laughter. He knows what has happened: "They had her in the bear pit."

He finds her there with no armor, but with a sword. The Bloody Mummers are in the seats around the pit, concentrating on the spectacle. Brienne is bleeding where the bear has raked one arm. Steelshanks tells him that it's not their business: "Lord Bolton said the wench was theirs, to do with as they liked." Jaime replies, "Her name is Brienne," and descends the steps to where Vargo Hoat is sitting, his left ear bandaged but bleeding.

Hoat is surprised to see him, but tells him that Brienne bit off his ear. "Thmall wonder her father will not ranthom thuch a freak." Jaime shouts out to Brienne to kill the bear, which is eight feet tall. "Gregor Clegane with a pelt, he thought, though likely smarter." But when Brienne lands a blow on the bear, there is no blood, and realizes that they have given her a blunted tourney sword.

He leaps into the pit and places himself between Brienne and the bear, which charges. Suddenly, the bear is pierced by arrows from Steelshanks's archers. Hoat protests, "You thlew my bear!" and the Mummers cry out for vengeance. But most of them are drunk, and there are twice as many of Steelshanks's men. So Hoat agrees to haul Jaime and Brienne out of the pit.

When they are well away from Harrenhal, Steelshanks angrily asks, "Are you mad, Kingslayer? Did you mean to die? No man can fight a bear with his bare hands!" Jaime replies that he hoped they'd kill the bear, because otherwise "Lord Bolton would have peeled you like an orange, no?"

And when Brienne, addressing him as "Ser Jaime" instead of "Kingslayer," asks why he came back, he thinks of the cruel things he could say, but says only, "I dreamed of you."

16. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 530-555

Arya

The outlaws are attacking the Bloody Mummers, and Arya wishes she could handle a bow: "She loved swordfighting, but she could see how arrows were good too." The battle is quickly over, and all but two of the Mummers are killed. Dondarrion lets them escape and take the word to Harrenhal about their defeat.

One of the men they capture is Septon Utt from Harrenhal, whom Arya remembers: "Shagwell the Fool said he always wept and prayed for forgiveness after he'd killed his latest boy." He is put on trial and swiftly convicted and hanged. Arya wishes only that they had hanged the Hound, too, but his burns had been treated and he had been given his sword, horse, and armor. They had kept his gold, however.

As they eat that night, Arya reflects that she has never seen Beric Dondarrion eat, though he would occasionally take a cup of wine. Nor did he seem to sleep. He constantly wore his breastplate, which now concealed the wound the Hound had given  him. He notices Arya looking at him, and asks if he frightens her. She tells him no, but that she is surprised to see him alive. Dondarrion asks Thoros how often he has brought him back to life, but Thoros gives the credit to R'hllor for the six times Dondarrion has been revived. But he adds that "each time is harder."

Dondarrion recalls the fights that caused each of his wounds, and Arya asks Thoros if he could bring back to life a man who had lost his head.

"I have no magic, child. Only prayers. That first time, his lordship had a hole right through him and blood in his mouth. I knew there was no hope. So when his poor chest stopped moving, I gave him the good god's own kiss to send him on his way. I filled my mouth with fire and breathed the flames inside him, down his throat to lungs and heart and soul. The last kiss it is called, and many a time I saw the old priests bestow it on the Lord's servants as they died. I had given it a time or two myself, as all priests must. But never before had I felt a dead man shudder as the fire filled him, nor seen his eyes come open. It was not me who raised him, my lady. It was the Lord R'hllor is not done with him yet."

Beric knows why Arya asked the question about the beheaded man, and says, "Your father was a good man." Harwin has told him much about Ned Stark, he says, and he would forgo the ransom for returning her if the outlaws didn't need the money so much. Arya then asks, "What if my brother doesn't want to ransom me?" Dondarrion asks why she would ask that, and she says, "my hair's messy and my nails are dirty and my feet are all hard." She knows her mother would disapprove. He laughs and tells her not to worry.

That night, when one of the men complains about his horse throwing a shoe, Gendry volunteers his services to the outlaws as a blacksmith. Arya is distressed: "He means to leave me too." Lord Beric says he would be better compensated if he stayed at Riverrun to serve Lord Tully, but Gendry says all he wants is "a forge, and food to eat, some place to sleep." When Dondarrion asks why he would choose to stay with them, Gendry says he liked what he had said about being "King Robert's men, and brothers," and that he didn't just execute the Hound but gave him a trial. So after others grill him on whether he realizes that he could be executed as an outlaw and Gendry stands his ground, Dondarrion takes his sword, administers an oath "to defend those who cannot defend themselves," and proclaims him "Ser Gendry, knight of the hollow hill."

But when he finishes, Sandor Clegane appears at the door, laughing at the ceremony. He has returned, he says, for his gold. "Maybe this time they'll kill him," Arya thinks. But instead, after an exchange of words, the Hound "looked at all their faces, every one, as if he were trying to commit them all to memory," then turns and walks out into the darkness and the pouring rain. Thoros observes that the Hound has lost everything: "He cannot go back to the Lannisters, the Young Wolf would never have him, nor would his brother be like to welcome him. That gold was all he had left, it seems to me." When someone suggests that they should hunt him down and kill him, Lord Beric says, "Clegane won his life beneath the hollow hill. I will not rob him of it." And Thoros concurs: "The Lord of Light is not yet done with Joffrey's Hound, it would seem."

The threat that the Hound poses to them troubles everyone, but no one more than Arya, who takes out the coin Jaqen H'ghar had given her, and thinks how many people she has lost: Jaqen, Hot Pie, and now Gendry, and the ones who are dead, like Lommy, Yoren, Syrio Forel, and her father. She whispers the names of those on her list she would like to kill, but realizes how few of them she can now visualize. Except for the Hound and his brother, and Joffrey and Cersei, she can't summon up the faces of the others.

In the morning, as they get ready to ride off, she tells Gendry, "If you want to be some stupid outlaw knight and get hanged, why should I care? I'll be at Riverrun, ransomed, with my brother."

Bran

They have reached the grasslands of the Gift and come upon a tower in the middle of a lake. Nearby is a ruined village, the first one they have come across since leaving the foothills. Meera feels uneasy in the open land, and Jojen asks who owns it. Bran tells them that the Night's Watch owns it. This part is called the New Gift, and it was given to the Watch by Good Queen Alysanne to honor the bravery of the men of the Wall, which she visited on her dragon. Beyond it is Brandon's Gift, the original tract of land owned by Brandon the Builder, or perhaps some other Brandon.

Jojen observes that the soil is fertile, and wonders why no one lives there. Bran says it's because they're afraid of the raids of the wildlings, which have increased since the Night's Watch has grown weaker. They look for shelter in the ruins of the village, but there is no roof on any of the buildings. A storm is coming, Jojen says. Bran remembers one of Old Nan's stories, and recognizes the tower as one in which Queen Alysanne had stayed. There are traces of gold at its top, which were put there in her honor, and there is supposed to be a causeway leading out to the tower. They find it, "a stone pathway three feet wide," mostly submerged. Meera leads them out onto it, using her frog spear to test the stones in front of them. The causeway doesn't run straight to the tower, but zigzags, a defense measure: "anyone approaching would be exposed to arrow fire from the tower for a long time."

Hodor almost slips and falls into the water twice, which frightens Bran. The water comes up to Hodor's waist, and up to the chest on Meera and Jojen. When they reach the tower they find the door has warped and can't be closed, and they enter an anteroom where there are steps leading both up and down, with iron gates barring the way. Bran looks up and sees another grate overhead: "A murder hole. He was glad there was no one up there now to pour boiling oil down on them." The grates in front of the stairs are locked and rusted, and Hodor is unable to budge them. But Bran reaches up to the grate over the murder hole and easily dislodges it, though it lands on his head when it falls.

Hodor boosts Meera and Jojen up through the murder hole, and Bran tells Hodor to find some large rocks and pile them up so he can climb up too. They find a way to the stairs and begin to climb to the top. The view from the top is impressive, but Bran is disappointed because you can't see the Wall. Then he realizes that they "must still be fifty leagues away," which makes him feel tired. (A league is three miles.)

He asks Jojen how they are going to get through the Wall to find the three-eyed crow, and Jojen says maybe they can find a passageway at one of the abandoned castles along the Wall. Bran says that his Uncle Benjen said the gates at the abandoned castle had been sealed, and that perhaps they should just head for Castle Black and tell the Lord Commander to let them through. But Jojen fears that they would be recognized: "one man willing to forswear himself would be enough to sell our secret to the ironmen or the Bastard of Bolton." Bran continues to argue for going to Castle Black, hoping to see Jon again, but Jojen suddenly shushes him.

There is a rider approaching the village. Then the storm arrives and they have to leave the roof for the room below. Meera keeps her eye on the rider, and reports that he has taken refuge in the ruins of the inn and is building a fire. Bran says they should do the same, but Jojen says the smoke would attract the man's attention. They settle down to eat the remains of a duck Meera had snared and roasted the day before. Lightning and thunder begin, and Hodor grows frightened, crying out "HODOR!" whenever it flashes and rumbles. They try to quiet him, and then a lightning flash reveals to Jojen that other men have arrived at the village, "Too many to count," but not mounted.

Hodor grows more and more agitated as the storm increases, and they try to quiet him. Suddenly, he stops and sits down quietly. Bran had "reached for him, the way I reach for Summer. He had been Hodor for half a heartbeat. It scared him." Jojen says he saw one of the men pointing at the tower, but Bran reminds them that even if they tried, they couldn't get out to it unless they had a boat or knew about the causeway.

Bran then becomes Summer, crouching in the brush and watching the men. "He could hear them talking, and there beneath the scents of rain and leaves and horse came the sharp red stench of fear...."

13. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 441-473

Samwell

They have taken refuge at Craster's, where Sam is trying to feed some broth to Bannen, who is dying. There are other wounded men, and no supplies to treat them. Craster is feeding them, but stingily, and some of the survivors have begun to complain that Craster is holding out what he has stored away. In the loft above, Gilly is giving birth, angering Craster with her screams.

Sam goes outside to escape the sounds of death and birth. Some of the brothers are practicing archery, and when they see him they call him over to demonstrate how he had killed the Other. They do so mockingly, however, calling him by his new nickname, Slayer, which embarrasses him. When he turns around to avoid them, his boot gets stuck in the thick mud of Craster's yard and he extricates himself awkwardly, provoking more mocking laughter.

Grenn is splitting logs when Sam walks over to him, and he, too, addresses Sam as Slayer. Having witnessed what Sam did, Grenn is puzzled at his protest at the nickname. Sam explains, "It's just a different way of calling me a coward." But Grenn, who is a little slow, asks, "Wouldn't you rather be Sam the Slayer than Ser Piggy?" Sam replies, "Why can't I just be Samwell Tarly?"

Anyway, he says, it was the dragonglass that killed the Other, but some of the brothers don't even believe that, and think that he made up the tale. Dywen and Dolorous Edd believe it, however, and have Sam and Grenn tell the story to Lord Commander Mormont, who asks Sam for all the dragonglass he has. There isn't much of it. The cache Jon had found was full of dagger blades and spearheads and arrowheads, but he had taken only enough to make daggers for himself, Sam, and Mormont, plus a handful of arrowheads. Sam's dagger and Mormont's remain, along with nineteen arrows and a spear with a dragonglass head. The sentries passed around the spear, and the arrows have been divided among the best archers.

Sam wonders why the wights haven't attacked Craster's, and Grenn says that they only come when it's cold. Sam asks, "is it the cold that brings the wights, or the wights that bring the cold?" He also knows only that dragonglass works on the Others. It hasn't been shown that it can do the same thing to the wights. As he is reflecting on the miserable situation in which he finds himself, Mormont approaches and calls for him.

Sam is terrified of the Old Bear, but he comes anyway, even though Mormont gruffly chides him for his fear. He asks about the dragonglass and wonders why they haven't known of its power before. He says the Watch must have known at some time of its efficacy against the Others. "The Wall was made to guard the realms of men ... and not against other men, which is all the wildlings are, when you come right down to it." They have "lost sight of the true enemy. And now he's here, but we don't know how to fight him."

Sam stammers that the maesters call it obsidian, and Mormont replies, "They can call it lemon pie for all I care. If it kills as you claim, I want more of it." They are interrupted by the appearance of Craser, who says that Gilly has had a boy, which is what Sam feared, knowing that Craster's male offspring are given to the Others as a means of appeasing them. When Craster calls the baby "another squalling mouth to feed," Sam says the Watch could take him. Mormont turns on him angrily and tells him to go look after Bannen.

But Bannen is dead. Dirk claims that he would have survived if Craster had given him enough food, and an argument breaks out about Craster's stinginess. Bannen's body is burned at sunset, and Sam is surprised that the smell of burning flesh stirs his hunger. Reflecting on this, he grows nauseated and throws up. Dolorous Edd finds him vomiting and jokes about serving up Bannen with applesauce, and then about how if Sam ever died, "There's bound to be more crackling on you than Bannen ever had, and I could never resist a bit of crackling." He adds that Mormont has commanded them to move out at dawn.

The news that they are leaving pleases Craster, who prepares a feast from the horses the Watch has had to slaughter, adding some beer and bread. But the smell of the roasting horsemeat reminds Sam of Bannen, and he can eat only an onion that Craster's wives serve. There are only two loaves of bread, and when one of the men asks for more, the wife who is serving it shakes her head. This draws a loud protest from another man who, when Mormont tells him to be thankful for what he's been given, replies, "I'd sooner eat what Craster's hiding, my lord." Craster says, "I gave you crows enough. I got me women to feed."

The hungry men take this as an admission that Craster has "a secret larder," and others begin speculating that it contains ham and bacon and mutton, and other food they have been deprived of for a long time. Mormont rises to command silence, but Clubfoot Karl, who has become the leader of the dissidents defies him. Mormont stands his ground, and it appears to Sam that Karl is about to back down, but Craster makes the mistake of ordering the protesters out, wielding his axe.

When someone calls Craster "Bloody bastard!" he attacks swiftly with the axe. But Dirk is faster, and he grabs Craster by the hair and slits his throat. There is a commotion as the wives scream, and the Lord Commander, standing over Craster's body, cries out, "The gods will curse us.... There is no crime so foul as for a guest to bring murder into a man's hall. By all the laws of the hearth, we--" But he has lost control, and Dirk grabs one of the wives and puts his dagger to her throat, saying, "There are no laws beyond the Wall, old man. Remember?
 
Mormont orders Dirk to release her and moves toward him, but his way is blocked by Garth of Greenaway, and Mormont is seized by Ollo Lophand. Mormont reaches for his dagger, but Ollo stabs him in the belly. "And then the world went mad."

When the revolt has ended, Sam is cradling Mormont's head in his lap. Some of the men lie dead, and one has broken his neck falling from the ladder to the loft, where he intended to rape one of Craster's wives. Grenn has tried to get Sam to come with him and Dolorous Edd and some others, but Sam was too frightened even to run. Now Mormont tells Sam to go, to head for the Wall and tell the Watch about what happened on the Fist, about the wildlings, and about the dragonglass. He adds, "Tell my son, Jorah. Tell him, take the black. My wish. Dying wish."

Sam tells him, "It's too far.... I'll never reach the Wall, my lord.... I'd sooner stay with you. See, I'm not frightened anymore. Of you, or ... of anything." But a woman behind him says, "You should be." Two of Craster's wives are standing there with Gilly, who is holding her baby. They tell him that the worst of his men are in the cellar, eating Craster's stores, or in the loft, raping the younger women. He should be gone when they finish, they say, and they have two horses waiting for him and Gilly, who reminds him of his promise to help her.

"I said Jon would help you. Jon's brave, and he's a good fighter, but I think he's dead now. I'm a craven. And fat. Look how fat I am. Besides, Lord Mormont's hurt. Can't you see? I couldn't leave the Lord Commander."

One of the women tells him that Mormont is dead, and Sam realizes she's telling the truth. She urges him to take Mormont's sword and cloak and leave. Gilly pleads with him, too. And one of the old woman says that Craster's sons will be there soon: "The white cold's rising out there, crow. I can feel it in my bones. These poor old bones don't lie. They'll be here soon, the sons." 

Arya

She has been blindfolded, and when the hood is lifted from her head, she finds herself in a big room that has been hollowed out inside a hill. It is fed by tunnels, from which people are appearing and gathering around a firepit. Gendry has been hooded too, and when his hood is removed he asks where they are. Lem says, "An old place, deep and secret. A refuge where neither wolves nor lions come prowling." Greenbeard points out Thoros of Myr, "a tall thin man with oddments of old armor buckled on over his ratty pink robes." When Arya saw him last, at the tourney honoring her father, he had was fat, with "a smooth face and a shiny bald head." Now his face is "droopy" and he has "shaggy grey hair."

Now the Mad Huntsman enters with his prisoner, whom he has reluctantly agreed to take to Lord Beric for judgment. The prisoner is hooded too, and when the hood is yanked off Arya recognizes Sandor Clegane. The Hound recognizes Thoros and says he used to shave his head. "I lost my razor in the woods," Thoros says. "A year in the wild will melt the flesh off a man. Would that I could find a tailor to take in my skin." He adds, "I am not the false priest you knew. The Lord of Light has woken in my heart."

On the other side of the firepit, at the top of some steps carved out of the wall, a man has been sitting. He speaks up now, descending the steps:

"When we left King's Landing we were men of Winterfell and men of Darry and men of Blackhaven, Mallery men and Wilde men. We were knights and squires and men-at-arms, lords and commoners bound together only by our purpose.... Six score of us set out to bring the king's justices to your brother.... More than eighty of our company are dead now, but others have taken up the swords that fell from their hands.... With their help, we fight on as best we can, for Robert and the realm."

Clegane points out that Robert is dead, but the man replies, "Robert is slain, but his realm remains. And we defend her." The Hound scoffs, "Is she your mother, Dondarrion? Or your whore?" Arya is startled to realize that the man is Beric Dondarrion, who "had been so handsome, Sansa's friend Jeyne had fallen in love with him." But now he's "A scarecrow of a man" with a thick red-gold beard, "a bald spot above his left ear where his head had been smashed in," a missing eye and "a dark black ring all around his neck."

The Hound continues to defy them. "You took my sword, my horse, and my gold, so take my life and be done with it ... but spare me this pious bleating." Thoros promises that he will die, "but it shan't be murder, only justice." When some of Gregor Clegane's atrocities are cited, he replies, "Do you take me for my brother? Is being born a Clegane a crime? ... Who did I murder?" From all around the room, voices call out names, until the Hound cries, "Enough.... You're making noise. These names mean nothing. Who were they?" Dondarrion replies that they were people "who died on the points of Lannister spears or saw their bellies opened by Lannister swords."

It wasn't his sword who killed them, the Hound replies. Thoros says, "You serve the Lannisters of Casterly Rock." Clegane admits that he once did so, "Me and thousands more. Is each of us guilty of the crimes of the others?" And then he denounces the pretensions of knighthood:

"A knight's a sword with a horse. The rest, the vows and the sacred oils and the lady's favors, they're silk ribbons tied round the sword. Maybe the sword's prettier with ribbons hanging off it, but it will kill you just as dead. Well, bugger your ribbons, and shove your swords up your arses. I'm the same as you. The only difference is, I don't lie about what I am. So kill me, but don't call me a murderer while you stand there telling each other that your shit don't stink. You hear me?"

Then Arya charges forth: "'You are a murderer!' she screamed. 'You killed Mycah, don't say you never did. You murdered him!"

The Hound is puzzled for a moment, and asks, "And who was this Mycah, boy?" Arya protests that she's not a boy, and that Mycah was a butcher's boy. "Jory said you cut him near in half, and henever even had a sword." It dawns on Clegane suddenly: "The little sister. The brat who tossed Joff's pretty sword in the river.... Don't you know you're dead?" Dondarrion asks if he killed the butcher's boy, and Clegane admits it: "I was Joffrey's sworn shield. The butcher's boy attacked a prince of the blood." Arya protests that it was she who attacked Joffrey, and when Dondarrion asks if he saw the boy attack him, the Hound admits, "I heard it from the royal lips. It's not my place to question princes." Besides, he says, Arya's sister confirmed the story that Mycah had attacked Joffrey. Sansa lied, Arya insists, and as Thoros and Lord Beric confer, thinks, "They have to kill him. I prayed for him to die, hundreds and hundreds of times."

Finally, Dondarrion presents their decision. Since "no one here knows the truth or falsehood of the charge," it must be decided by trial by battle. Arya protests the decision, knowing the Hound's prowess with a sword. Harwin covers her mouth with his hand, but she thinks, "No, they can't, he'll go free." Clegane mocks the decision, by scoffing at the potential opponents. But Dondarrion steps forth and says that he will fight the Hound. "Arya remembered all the tales. He can't be killed, she thought, hoping against hope."

When Dondarrion is being prepared for the fight, his chest is bared, revealing the scars when a lance that should have killed him pierced his body. "Gendry sucked in his breath. 'Mother have mercy.'" Arya hopes that the Hound is frightened as well. As Dondarrion and Clegane step forth to oppose each other, Thoros offers a prayer to R'hllor: "Show us the truth or falseness of this man. Strike him down if he is guilty, and give strength to his sword if he is true. Lord of Light, give us wisdom." Then Lord Beric draws the edge of his sword across the palm of his left hand, and as the blood from the wound drips on the blade, the sword takes fire. Arya asks Gendry if it is wildfire, but Gendry says, "No. This is different.This is...." "...magic?" Arya finishes.

The battle is fierce, but it turns when the fire spreads to the Hound's shield, and then to his left arm. Cries of "Finish him!" and "Guilty!" begin, and Arya joins in eagerly. But suddenly, "The Hound gave a rasping scream, raised his sword in both hands and brought it crashing down with all his strength." And when Dondarrion blocks the cut, his flaming sword snaps in two and the Hound's blade "plowed into Lord Beric's flesh where his shoulder joined his neck and clove him clean down to the breastbone."

As Dondarrion falls face forward, with the Hound's sword still in him, Clegane rolls in the dirt to put out the flames on his arm. "Arya could only think of Mycah and all the stupid prayers she'd prayed for the Hound to die." Then the Hound, weeping, calls out for help, "Please." Arya is astonished to see his tears. Thoros sends someone to tend to his burns. Others carry Lord Beric into the darkness of one of the tunnels.

Arya is protesting the outcome of the fight, but Harwin tells her "R'hllor has judged him innocent." Furious, "She yanked Greenbeard's dagger from its sheath and spun away before he could catch her." Gendry also tries, but she is too fast. When she gets closer to the Hound, she is shocked at the burned flesh. He looks at her and says, "You want me dead that bad? Then do it, wolf girl. Shove it in. It's cleaner than fire." But then he collapses and Tom Sevenstrings saves him from falling. She hesitates, but once again says, "You killed Mycah.... Tell them. You did. You did."

"I did." His whole face twisted. "I rode him down and cut him in half, and laughed. I watched them beat your sister bloody too, watched them cut your father's head off."

Lem grabs the dagger from her hand, and she screams, helplessly, "You just go to hell!"

Behind her a voice says, "He has." She turns to see Beric Dondarrion standing behind her with his bloody hand on Thoros's shoulder.

11. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 382-412

Sansa

Being fitted for her new dress delights Sansa and fills her head with more romantic notions about Willas, the man she expects to marry. Then Cersei enters and surveys how Sansa looks, and suggests she wear the moonstones Joffrey had given her. Once that is added, she nods approvingly and says, "Yes. The gods have been kind to you, Sansa. You are a lovely girl. It seems almost obscene to squander such sweet innocence on that gargoyle."

Sansa is puzzled, and when Cersei adds a maiden's cloak -- a garment apparently worn by a bride -- to the outfit, she is terrified. Then Cersei says the septon and the wedding guests are waiting, and Sansa cries out "No." It's then that she learns she is about to be married to Tyrion. She thinks then that she should have taken Ser Dontos's advice and fled, but when she tries to run she is stopped. Ser Meryn Trant and Ser Osmund Kettleblack are there to escort her. Cersei tells them to carry her if they have to, but be careful with the gown -- "it was very costly."


When Ser Osmund tells her, "almost gently," to be brave: "Wolves are supposed to be brave, aren't they?" She pulls herself together and reminds herself that it was Tyrion who saved her from being beaten. When Joffrey meets her and says, "I'm your father today," she bristles and talks back to him, so he bullies her by reminding her that he can marry her off to "the pig boy" if he wants to. She begs Joffrey not to marry her to Tyrion, but just as she is doing so, Tyrion himself appears and asks if he may speak to her privately.


He takes her aside and tells her that he is sorry to be doing this, especially so suddenly, but his father "felt it necessary, for reasons of state." He tells her she has to marry either him or his cousin Lancel, whom he knows to be still recovering from his wounds and may not live. She doesn't want to marry any Lannister, but knows she has no choice in the matter. "You were kind to me, I remember," she tells him, and they go off to be married.


At the ceremony, she realizes that none of the Tyrells are present, having been thwarted in their plans to marry her to Willas. Joffrey cops a feel as he removes her maiden's cloak. Tyrion is a foot and a half shorter than she is, and when it comes time for him to place his cloak on her as a sign of his protection, he is unable to reach high enough. He tugs on her skirt, a suggestion that she kneel, but she stubbornly ignores him: "Why should I spare his feelings, when no one cares about mine?" she thinks. The guests begin laughing and Joffrey orders Ser Dontos to get down on his hands and knees. "And so it was that her lord husband cloaked her in the colors of House Lannister whilst standing on the back of a fool."


When she sees the look on Tyrion's face, however, she is ashamed, and she kneels in front of him as they exchange a kiss. Still, when the septon pronounces them wed, "She had to bite her lip to keep from sobbing."


The Tyrells are at the wedding feast, but only Margaery acknowledges her, giving her "a sad look." The Queen of Thorns never looks at her, and the other women and girls she had thought of as friends ignore her completely. She sits there, not tasting the food, dreading the custom known as "the bedding," in which she would be carried to the marriage bed by the men, who would undress her along the way, making ribald jokes, while the women performed the same task with Tyrion. When the dancing starts, she asks Tyrion if he wants to lead the dance with her, but he replies, "I think we have already given them sufficient amusement for one day, don't you?" She sits there with him, watching the others dance, until Ser Galan Tyrell asks if he may dance with her.


Ser Galan not only dances with her but also conveys the sympathies of the Tyrells. He adds, too, that he has noticed how she looks at his brother, the Knight of Flowers, and tells her, "Loras is valiant and handsome, and we all love him dearly ... but your Imp will make a better husband. He is a bigger man than he seems, I think." It's another glance at Loras's still-veiled homosexuality. The motions of the dance bring her into contact with others, and finally with Joffrey, who says, "You shouldn't look so sad. My uncle is an ugly little thing, but you'll still have me." When she protests that he's marrying Margaery, he says he can still "have other women," and "My uncle will bring you to my bed whenever I command it." She stumbles through the rest of the dance, and then Joffrey proclaims, "It's time to bed them! Let's get the clothes off, and have a look at what the she-wolf's got to give my uncle!"


Tyrion, who has been drinking all the while, looks up and says, "I'll have no bedding." Joffrey says that he will if he commands it, and Tyrion drives his dagger into the table and says, "Then you'll service your own bride with a wooden prick. I'll geld you, I swear it." Sansa pulls away from Joffrey, ripping her sleeve, and Cersei whispers to her father, "Did you hear him?" But Lord Tywin rises and says, "I believe we can dispense with the bedding. Tyrion, I am certain you did not mean to threaten the king's royal person." Tyrion apologizes and says he made a bad joke because he envied Joffrey's "royal manhood. Mine own is so small and stunted." And if Joffrey cuts out his tongue he "will leave me no way at all to pleasure this sweet wife you gave me."


There is uneasy laughter, and Tywin excuses Tyrion on the ground of obvious drunkenness. Tyrion grabs Sansa and makes some bawdy jokes, then they leave quickly. Alone in the bridal chamber, Tyrion asks for another cup of wine, saying, "I am not truly drunk, you see. But I mean to be." Sansa pours herself a cup, hoping that things will go easier if she is drunk too. Tyrion tells her how different this wedding was from his first, and then asks Sansa how old she is. She says she will be thirteen "when the moon turns," and Tyrion is shocked at how young she is, but says, "Shall we get on with this, my lady?" He tells her, "My lord father has commanded me to consummate this marriage."


She clumsily undresses, and when she finally looks at him, "There was hunger in his green eye, it seemed to her, and fury in the black. Sansa did not know which scared her more." He says, "You're a child," and she says she has "flowered." He tells her that "abed, when the candles are blown out, I am made no worse than other men. In the dark, I am the Knight of Flowers." He is also, he says, generous and loyal, he has proved he is not a coward, and he is "cleverer than most." "Kindness is not a habit with us Lannisters, I fear, but I know I have some somewhere."


"He is as frightened as I am, Sansa realized." But she realizes that all she feels for him is "pity, and pity was death to desire." He tells her to get in bed, "We need to do our duty." She lies there with her eyes closed as he undresses, and shudders when his hand touches her breast. Then he tells her to open her eyes, and she sees him sitting there, naked and erect. But he tells her, "I cannot do this." He will wait, no matter what his father says, "Until you have come to know me better, and perhaps to trust me a little." And when she asks, "And if I never want you to, my lord?" he recoils for a moment and then says "that is why the gods made whores for imps like me" and leaves the bed.


Arya


They have reached the town of Stoney Sept, where Harwin says Arya's father won a battle known as the Battle of the Bells because the septons rang the bells to warn people to stay indoors. The town shows signs of more recent fighting, and it's only when the gatekeeper recognizes them that he opens a portal for them. They hear from the captain of the gate about the atrocities that have been committed in and around the town, and of the outlaw known as the Huntsman who is looking for revenge on the Lannisters for the rape of his wife and sister, the torching of his crops, and the killing of six of his dogs, whose bodies were thrown down his well.


In the marketplace there are a dozen "crow cages" in which naked men are held, unable to sit or lie or to defend themselves against the attacks of the crows, until they die. They were caught by the Huntsman, and when Arya hears that they are men loyal to Robb she is shocked. As they pass, some of the living men in the cages beg for water. Arya gets down from her horse and goes to the fountain to take a cup to one of them. A townsman protests, but Harwin says to let her be, and Lem says that Beric Dondarrion "don't hold with caging men to die of thirst." Gendry gives her a boost as she lets them drink by pouring the water on them. Then Anguy takes his bow and arrow and puts all of the prisoners out of their misery. "Valar morghulis," Arya thinks.


There is an inn on the market square, and "The buxom red-haired innkeep howled with pleasure at the sight of them," greeting most of the men by name. She spots Gendry, and comments on his strong arms, making him blush. Tom Stevenstrings says, "Tansy, you leave the Bull alone, he's a good lad." They are welcomed into the inn where Arya notices that there are "more serving wenches than any inn could want, and most of them young and comely. And come evenfall, lots of men started coming and going at the Peach." Tansy has two of the women carry Arya off to be bathed and then dressed "like one of Sansa's dolls in linen and lace" before they allow her to sit down and eat.


Arya whispers to Gendry, "I bet this is a brothel," which makes him blush again and say, "A brothel's no place for a highborn lady." One of the girls overhears this and says she's "a king's daughter.... They say King Robert fucked my mother when he hid here, back before the battle."

The girl did have hair like the old king's, Arya thought, a great thick mop of it, as black as coal. That doesn't mean anything, though. Gendry has the same kind of hair, too. Lots of people have black hair.

Her name is Bella, she says, and she tries to get Gendry to go with her. But he refuses and goes outside.  She overhears Tansy telling Lem and Harwin that Catelyn "and this other wench, the one who slew Renly" had spend the night in Jaime's cell, and that the next morning "Lady Catelyn cut him loose for love." To herself Arya denies that it's true, and feels "sad and angry and lonely, all at once." Then a drunken man sits down beside her, taking her for one of the prostitutes, but Gendry returns and scares him away by saying she's his sister. Arya is angry, not because he saved her from the man's attentions but because he said he was her brother. This makes Gendry angry: "I'm too bloody lowborn to be kin to m'lady high." She denies that that's how she meant it, but he tells her to go away, and she does.


In the room at the top of the house where they sleep, she gets out of the linen and lace and into her tunic, then lies down to sleep.

She dreamed of wolves that night, stalking through a wet wood with the smell of rain and rot and blood thick in the air. Only they were good smells in the dream, and Arya knew she had nothing to fear. She was strong and swift and fierce, and her pack was all around her, her brothers and her sisters. They ran down a frightened horse together, tore its throat out, and feasted. And when the moon broke through the clouds, she threw back her head and howled.

She wakes in the morning to the barking of dogs. There are dozens of them in the square, and a dozen riders open the crow cage and pull the fat man out of it and feed him to the dogs. One of the men says, "Here's your new castle, you bloody Lannister bastard" to a bound prisoner.


The noise wakes the others, and Tom says, "The Mad Huntsman's come back with another man for the cages." Arya says she heard them say he was a Lannister, and Gendry asks if they have caught the Kingslayer. Then Arya recognizes the prisoner. "The gods had heard her prayers after all."


Jon


Ghost is still gone when the party begins to scale the Wall. The forest grows right up next to it, giving them a start on the climb. Jon notices that the Thenns are increasingly uneasy as they get nearer to the Wall. "They have never seen the Wall before, not even the Magnar, Jon realized. It frightens them." But Jarl and his group are not afraid, having made the climb before. There are a dozen of them, including Jarl, and he divides them into three teams of four. He tells them that Mance has promised a sword for each of the members of the first team to reach the top.


Jarl's team climbs a tree that has grown up next to the Wall, and Jon watches as Jarl moves from the treetop onto the side of the Wall, then kicks toeholds in the surface of the ice with his spike-tipped boots. Using hammers, axes, and iron stakes, the first two men begin climbing the Wall while the third is just reaching the top of the tree. The other two teams are farther behind, not having found trees that were so well-placed.


Styr complains that they're not climbing fast enough and worries that they'll be spotted by a patrol of the Watch. Jon knows that climbing ice is harder than climbing stone and that the blocks of which the Wall is composed may be frozen solid, but their surfaces are wet and slick and that air gets trapped when the ice refreezes, making it fragile. They hit bad ice around noon when a piece that Jarl has looped his rope around gives way and big chunks fall on the climbers in his team. But they hold on, and Jarl is left dangling below the team until he regains a handhold.


The team led by Grigg the Goat catches up with Jarl's team. The four led by Errok are still behind. Jarl's and Grigg's teams move up side by side, but after six hours Jarl has moved ahead again. But then there is a loud crack and "a sheet of ice a foot thick and fifty feet square broke off from the Wall and came tumbling, crumbling, rumbling sweeping all before it." The ice landed even were Jon was watching, and he pulls Ygritte down to shield her from it. A chunk of ice breaks the nose of one of the Thenns. Jarl and his team have disappeared.


They find Jarl impaled on a splintered tree branch and the three other men still roped to him. One of them is still alive, but so badly injured that one of the Thenns responds to his plea of "Mercy" by putting him out of misery with a blow to the head from a stone mace. They gather wood and build a pyre. "The dead were burning when Grigg the Goat reached the top of the Wall. By the time Errok's four had joined them, nothing remained of Jarl and his team but bone and ash."


As the sun is setting, the teams on top of the wall lower ropes, which are attached to rope ladders that are uncasked below. The Thenns begin the climb, and by midnight Jon and Ygritte have joined them at the top. Two of the Thenns have fallen from the ladder, but they are the only other casualties of the climb.

8. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 273-310

Catelyn

Two boys, Tion Frey and Willem Lannister, squires captured and held as hostage, have been murdered by a group led by Lord Rickard Karstark, seeking retribution for the death of his own sons. The bodies of the murdered boys make Catelyn think of Bran and Rickon, and she wonders if Robb does too. Karstark, brought in as prisoner by Greatjon Umber, is defiant, and blames the deaths on the boys on Catelyn, for releasing Jaime Lannister.

Robb, who is furious, orders Karstark's men hanged, but says he will deal with Karstark himself. But before he can do so, Brendyn Tully arrives, and Robb goes to speak with him privately, bringing his mother with him. The Blackfish reports that all of Karstark's men have left. "Near three hundred riders and twice as many mounts," Robb comments, "melted away in the night." Catelyn silently blames herself for the situation, which leaves Robb "surrounded by enemies to every side but east, where Lysa sat aloof on her mountaintop." Moreover, Willem Lannister was Ser Kevan's son, which could be taken as a pretext to do harm to Sansa, as Catelyn knows to her agony.

Edmure suggests that Lord Karstark not be executed but be kept prisoner, a hostage that will ensure the loyalty of his son. But Robb is not willing to do this. He asks Catelyn if her sister is going to answer her calls for help, and she admits that she has no doubt that her messages have reached Lysa and been ignored: "Lysa was never brave." The Blackfish agrees: No help should be expected from that quarter. Robb now knows how uneasy lies the head that wears the crown:

"Gods be good, why would any man ever want to be king? When everyone was shouting King in the North, King in the North, I told myself ... swore to myself ... that I would be a good king, as honorable as Father, strong, just, loyal to my friends and brave when I faced my enemies ... now I can't even tell one from the other. How did it all get so confused? Lord Rickard's fought at my side in half a dozen battles. His sons died for me in the Whispering Wood. Tion Frey and Willem Lannister were my enemies. Yet now I have to kill my dead friends' father for their sakes." 

He puts on his crown and says, "Lord Rickard dies." Edmure protests, but Robb says he has no choice. "Rickard Karstark killed more than a Frey and a Lannister. He killed my honor. I shall deal with him at dawn."

The executioner is waiting at dawn, but Robb takes the axe from him. "He dies at my word. He must die by my hand." Lord Rickard reminds Robb of their kinship. "The Karstarks traced their descent to Karlon Stark, a younger son of Winterfell who had put down a rebel lord a thousand years ago, and been granted lands for his valor. The castle he built had been named Karl's Hold, but that soon became Karhold, and over the centuries the Karhold Starks had become Karstarks." But Rickard's last words are, "Kill me, and be cursed. You are no king of mine." The blow Robb delivers kills him, but it takes three blows to sever the head.

Later, Jeyne comes to see Catelyn, wondering what she can do to console Robb, but all she can do is counsel patience. She also takes the opportunity to remind her daughter-in-law that she needs to produce an heir. Jeyne tells her that her mother "makes a posset for me, herbs and milk and ale, to help make me fertile. I drink it every morning." When she leaves, Catelyn remarks once again that she has good hips for child-bearing.

Jaime

They are riding through a desolate landscape, with destruction on all sides. Jaime's mind is on Cersei, and he thinks that maybe the stories about them have opened a new possibility: "there was nothing left to hid. Why shouldn't I marry Cersei openly and share her bed every night? The dragons always married their sisters. Septons, lords, and smallfolk had turned a blind eye to the Targaryens for hundreds of years, let them do the same for House Lannister." They could even marry Joffrey to Myrcella and send Sansa home. He had already decided that they should send Sansa back to her family: "the notion of keeping faith when they all expected betrayal amused him more than he could say."

Suddenly they are under attack. An arrow hits Jaime's gelding and he has to cling to its neck to keep from being thrown. Ser Cleos is less skillful; he is thrown from his horse but his foot is caught in the stirrup and he is dragged along the ground. Brienne is still mounted on her horse, but she has an arrow lodged in her back and another in her leg. Jaime calls out to her that the archers are behind a wall, and he charges them, hoping that Brienne will follow. She does, and the archers flee.

They go in search of Cleos and find him dead, his foot still caught in the stirrup and his head bashed in from being dragged across the rocky ground. Jaime lays claim to his horse and his clothes, shocking Brienne with his callous attitude toward his own cousin. He pulls Cleos's sword from its scabbard and pivots to find Brienne ready to parry his blow. Even though his hands are still chained, he is able to meet her blows, and they fight for some time until he realizes that he is tiring. "She is stronger than I am."

Finally, as they are fighting in a stream, he slips but manages to cut her thigh before he strikes a rock with his knee. Finally she gets the better of him and cries, "Yield, or I'll drown you!" Suddenly laughter rings out around them. There are armed men on both sides of the brook. "The scum of the earth surrounded them: swarthy Dornishmen and blond Lyseni, Dothraki with bells in their braids, hairy Ibbenese, coal-black Summer Islanders in feathered cloaks. He knew them. The Brave Companions."

Immediately there is talk from Rorge of raping Brienne, and Jaime feels compelled to defend her against that. He asks who is in charge, and a cadaverous man identifies himself as Urswyck the Faithful. He also addresses Jaime by name: "It takes more than a beard and a shaved head to deceive the Brave Companions," he says. Jaime knows them as the Bloody Mummers, and he asks, "Where's the goat?" Urswyck says that he'd better not call Lord Vargo Hoat that to his name, and Jaime is surprised to hear that Harrenhal has supposedly been promised to Lord Vargo: "Has my father taken leave of his senses?" he wonders.

Then Urswyck informs him that they no longer serve the Lannisters. "We now serve Lord Bolton, and the King in the North." When Jaime expresses his contempt for that, two of the Mummers grab him and Rorge punches him in the stomach with a mailed fist. Brienne calls out that he's under her protection, and dives into the brook to retrieve her sword. It takes four of the men to restrain her and to beat her into submission.

They are dragged back to the plow horse and bound back to back on it. Jaime calls Urswyck over and tries to bargain with him: Take him to King's Landing and collect a ransom. "Hers as well, if you like. Tarth is called the Sapphire Isle, a maiden told me once." (He knows that it's really called that because of the blueness of its lake.) But Urswyck isn't fooled by the offer of ransom, or even of a knighthood, when Jaime brings it up. "I have heard enough, Kingslayer. I would have to be a great fool indeed to believe the promises of an oath-breaker like you."

As they ride toward Harrenhal, Brienne asks him why he lied about the Sapphire Isle, and Jaime says, "The sooner they know how little you're worth in ransom, the sooner the rapes begin." She is silent for a while after that. Late in the day they find Vargo Hoat and more of the Brave Companions sacking a sept and using the corpse of the septon for target practice. "Kingthlayer," Hoat greets Jaime, "You are my captifth." Brienne introduces herself, and Rorge drags her off the horse and begins kicking her. Urswyck tells him not to break any bones: "The horse-faced bitch is worth her weight in sapphires."

Jaime again tries to bargain with Hoat, promising ransom money. Hoat says, "But firth I mutht thend him a methage." Jaime is knocked to the ground and his arms are pulled out in front of him by the chain. A fat Dothraki raises "a huge curved arakh, the wickedly sharp scythe-sword the horselords loved." Jaime refuses to show fear. But when the blade comes "shivering down, almost too fast to see," he screams.

Arya

They are searching for Beric Dondarrion, but so far have only been told to ask the Lady of the Leaves. They reach a forest and in the middle of it a member of the group who is called Jack-Be-Lucky blows a signal on his horn. Rope ladders unfurl from the trees, and Arya climbs with the others into a hidden village in the treetops, presided over by "a stick-thin white-haired woman," the Lady of the Leaves. She tells them that Lord Beric is dead: He was caught by the Mountain, Gregor Clegane, who "drove a dagger through his eye." But Lem tells her it's an old story, and that the lightning lord didn't die of having an eye put out. The woman is pleased to hear that Dondarrion isn't dead, but otherwise has no clue to his whereabouts.

The next village they come to has been destroyed, but in the ruins of its sept an old septon remains. He tells them the village was burned by "Northmen ... Savages who worship trees." Arya is both "angry and ashamed" at the characterization. There are a dozen men living in the vault under the sept, but they have no news of Dondarrion either, even though one of them has a lightning bolt on his cloak.

When they rest for the night, Anguy lets Arya try his bow, but she's unable to draw it. He promises to make her a lighter one when they reach Riverrun. But Tom Sevenstrings says they'll only stay at Riverrun long enough to collect ransom for Arya's return. Lord Hoster hangs outlaws and his son hates music. Lem says it's Tom that the son, presumably Edmure, hates, and Tom retorts, "Well, he has no cause. The wench was willing to make a man of him, is it my fault he drank too much to do the deed?" So presumably Edmure has several weaknesses. And this particular one became the basis for a song Tom wrote.

Arya is more interested in the idea that she will be ransomed, and Harwin says, "You will not be the first highborn captive we've ransomed. Nor the last, I'd hope." Arya then worries what will happen if if Robb doesn't pay the price they want for her. The next day they reach a hill called High Heart, which is encircled by the "huge pale stumps" of what was once a circle of weirwoods, and had been a sacred place for the children of the forest. "No harm can ever come to those as sleep here," Tom tells her.

That night, a storm comes up and blows the coverlet off of Arya. She runs after it, and then hears voices around the fading coals of the campfire. Tom, Lem, and Greenbeard are talking to a tiny, wrinkled old woman.

"The old gods stir and will not let me sleep," she heard the woman say. "I dreamt I saw a shadow with a burning heart butchering a golden stag, aye. I dreamt of a man without a face, waiting on a bridge that swayed and swung. On his shoulder perched a drowned crow with seaweed hanging from his wings. I dreamt of a roaring river and a woman that was a fish. Dead she drifted, with red tears on her cheeks, but when her eyes did open, oh, I woke from terror. All this I dreamt, and more. Do you have gifts for me, to pay me for my dreams?"

The symbols in her dreams are more suggestive for the reader than they are for Lem, who scoffs at them, but Tom Sevenstrings agrees to sing a song for her. Arya doesn't recognize it, but thinks that Sansa would. Singing is not one of Arya's skills. The next morning she asks Tom if the children of the forest still live on High Heart, and he knows that she saw the old woman. He tells her "she's only an old dwarf woman," but that "she knows things she has no business knowing, and sometimes she'll tell you if she likes the look of you." He also says that they now have a lead on Dondarrion.

Arya asks why, if he's their leader, he's so hard to find. Harwin says that he doesn't tell people his plans so no one can betray him. He doesn't want people following him around, either, because that way he keeps his followers scattered so they "can strike in a dozen places at once, and be off somewhere else before they know." If someone captures them, they can't torture them and find out where Lord Beric is. Arya is reminded of the way the Tickler had tortured the people around the Gods Eye to try to find him.

That day they ride to Acorn Hall, where Lady Smallwood welcomes them, but also scolds them for "dragging a young girl through the war," and is even more scandalized when she finds out that Arya is highborn. She has Arya scrubbed and scented and dressed "in girl's things," none of which Arya takes well to. When Lady Smallwood talks about her own daughter and her love of dancing, she asks Arya what she likes to do. Arya finally comes up with "Needlework," and when Lady Smallwood says that it's "restful," Arya says, "not the way I do it." And when she's asked if she works at it every day, Arya says, "I did till I lost Needle. My new one's not as good." When Arya goes down to supper in her feminine finery, "Gendry took one look and laughed so hard that wine came out his nose, until Harwin gave him a thwack alongside his ear."

Lady Smallwood tells them that the lightning lord passed by a fortnight ago, and that they were driving sheep. "Thoros gave me three as thanks. You've eaten one tonight." She says that she's heard of famine near Stoney Sept and the Threepenny Wood, and that she would look for Lord Beric there. She also says that some of Robb's followers came by looking for Jaime. Arya asks who they were, which surprises Lady Smallwood, but she describes the sigil, which Arya identifies as the Karstarks.  She thinks that if she could find them and slip away from the outlaws, they might take her to Riverrun.

Lem asks how Jaime escaped, and Lady Smallwood says, "They claimed that Lady Catelyn set him free." Tom says, "That's madness," and Arya refuses to believe it, though she holds her tongue. Harwin, however, says to Arya that she shouldn't be hearing such talk, and the others agree. Greenbeard tells her, "Be a good little lady and go play in the yard while we talk, now." Arya leaves, angrily, but Gendry follows her and they go to the smithy. He asks if the Thoros being talked about is the same one who was at King's Landing, "A red priest, fat, with a shaved head?" When Arya tells him she thinks so, he remembers that Thoros used to come to the forge where he apprenticed. His master disapproved of Thoros's flaming swords because they ruined the steel, but Thoros only used cheap swords that he dipped in wildfire.

Gendry compliments her on looking like "A proper little girl," and says, "You even smell nice for a change." She tells him he stinks, and they begin to wrestle until they are dirty and her dress is torn. When they return to the hall, Harwin bursts out laughing and says, "She was much the same at Winterfell." Lady Smallwood makes her take another bath and dresses her in something even more feminine. But it's too delicate to ride in, so when they set out the next day Lady Smallwood gives her some riding clothes that her son wore before he died at the age of seven.

Arya apologizes for tearing the acorn dress and says it was pretty. Lady Smallwood replies, "Yes, child. And so are you. Be brave."