35. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 914-959

The Queen's Hand

It takes Quentyn three days to die, and in the meantime the dragons wreak fiery havoc on Meereen. Only the rain prevents the city from being completely destroyed. Barristan now ponders the best way of getting the prince's remains back to Dorne.

He still holds faith that Daenerys is alive somewhere. Meanwhile, he has reluctantly assumed the role of the queen's Hand. Skahaz tells him that they have expelled all the Yunkai'i and sellswords from the city, and that the Unsullied are manning the watch. Meanwhile, the city nobles are demanding that Hizdahr be reinstated, and the Sons of the Harpy have resumed their attacks, with a death toll of twenty-nine in just two days. Skahaz presses Barristan to kill the hostages in retaliation, but he refuses.

Barristan goes to meet with the queen's council, and is pleased that Strong Belwas -- not so strong as he was before the poisoning -- makes an appearance. Barristan reports the death of Quentyn Martell and the imprisonment of Archibald Yronwood and Gerris Drinkwater. Various council members call for their deaths. Barristan sets that aside to discuss the mission of the Green Grace to the Yunkishmen to arrange for the return of their hostages. The plan is to offer gold for the three -- Daario, Hero, and Jhogo -- with the thought that the Yunkai'i will refuse whereas the leaders of the sellswords will accept, thereby driving a wedge between them. The idea had been Missandei's, Barristan recalls: "Eleven years of age, yet Missandei is as clever as half the men at this table and wiser than all of them."

And what will happen if the Green Grace returns with a refusal? "Fire and blood," Barristan replies very softly. He has had a beacon fire prepared on top of the pyramid, and if it is lighted that is the signal to attack the besiegers. He has maps of the enemy camps brought in, and they spend much of the rest of the day arguing over the best plan of attack. Finally someone asks what the dragons will do. Barristan believes the noise of the battle will attract the dragons, but he doubts that they will take sides: "The dragons will do what the dragons will do. If they do come, it may be that just the shadow of their wings will be enough to dishearten the slavers and send them fleeing."

After the others leave, Grey Worm remains behind to point out that if they attack, the Yunkai'i will kill the hostages. Barristan says he has considered that, as well as a way to prevent it. But he tells Grey Worm that he needs to visit the Dornishmen to tell them of Quentyn's death. Yronwood, whose hands were badly burned trying to extinguish the fire, takes the news stoically. But Drinkwater angrily denounces Daenerys: "He offered her his heart, and she threw it back at him and went off to fuck her sellsword."

Barristan will not allow any slanders of Daenerys. Privately, he thinks that she should have accepted Quentyn, but he tells Drinkwater that what they did was "folly ... buying sellswords, loosing two dragons on the city ... that was madness and worse than madness. That was treason." Drinkwater claims that Quentyn did it to prove his worthiness for Daenerys's hand, but Barristan knows better:

"I have spent my life around kings and queens and princes. Sunspear means to take up arms against the Iron Throne. No, do not trouble to deny it. Doran Martell is not a man to call his spears without hope of victory. Duty brought Prince Quentyn here. Duty, honor, thirst for glory ... never love. Quentyn was here for dragons, not Daenerys." 

Yronwood speaks up and agrees with Barristan, telling Drinkwater to shut up. He asks what is going to happen to them. Barristan tells them that the Shavepate wants them executed, but he would prefer their support. If they serve him, he will send them back to Dorne with Quentyn's bones. He asks what arrangement Quentyn had made with the Tattered Prince for the support of the Windblown in capturing the dragons. Yronwood admits that Quentyn was going to give him Pentos. So Barristan tells them that he wants to send them back to the Tattered Prince, along with some Windblown who are in the dungeons, and to tell him that he'll pay the price if he delivers their hostages unharmed. They agree to the plan.

Barristan returns to the queen's rooms and from the terrace sees Viserion's pale wings in the distance. Galazza Galare returns from her mission to the Wise Masters of Yunkai to say that they demand the reinstatement of Hizdahr. Barristan replies, "He shall be, if it can be proved that he did not try to kill our queen." He offers the Green Grace a seat on the council that will rule the city in the meantime. She declines, insisting that only the restoration of Hizdahr can bring about the peace the city needs.

As for the hostages, the Yunkai'i refused: "No amount of gold will buy your people back, I was told. Only the blood of dragons may set them free again." Barristan is disappointed but not surprised. Galazza Galare continues. Daenerys is dead, she says. "Let her dragons die as well." Their conversation is interrupted by the entrance of Skahaz, who announces that the Yunkai'i are preparing the trebuchets. Barristan says he's not concerned about them throwing stones.

But the Green Grace tells him they won't be throwing stones. "Corpses."

Daenerys

Drogon has taken her to the hill where he has made a home. She has been there a while as her burns begin to heal, but from it she has sighted a small stream. If she follows it, she reasons, it will take her to the river Skahazdhan, which she could follow to Slaver's Bay. "She would sooner have returned to Meereen on dragon's wings, to be sure. But that was a desire Drogon did not seem to share." Her efforts to steer the dragon had ended in frustration.

So she climbs down the hill, determined to return to her husband and the people they rule. Her clothes are rags, and having lost a sandal in the pit, she is barefoot. She finds wild onions and a cabbage-like plant to eat. "As she walked, she tapped her thigh with the pitmaster's whip. That, and the rags on her back, were all she had taken from Meereen." Her hair had burned off, and she feels the need of a hat in the midday sun, but her attempts to craft one have failed.

She turns and looks back at the dragon's hill, which she has come to call Dragonstone, and briefly thinks of going back there. She could eat whatever the dragon kills and ride out on him every day. But she decides against it, feeling that her duty lies elsewhere. During the first day she sees Drogon flying overhead and thinks that he has come for her, but he flies on.

She finds the ruins of a village that provide shelter from the elements at night. The next day she continues following her stream. She comes across a bush filled with green berries, but an hour after eating them she vomits them up. Diarrhea follows, and when she falls asleep she wonders if she will be strong enough to wake up again. She dreams of her brother Viserys, his head smoking beneath the molten gold. When she wakes, there is blood on her thighs, and she is frightened until she realizes that she is menstruating.

Weak and feverish, she commands herself to walk. About midday she sees the grass moving as if the wind were blowing it, but there is no wind. She hears the tinkling of bells and recalls the ones Khal Drogo used to braid in his hair. She picks up a stone from the river to defend herself, but then thinks of her bloodriders. Perhaps they have come to rescue her.

Then she sees a lone rider, a scout riding ahead of the khalasar, and knows she must hide from him. But he doesn't see her, and suddenly the dragon appears in the sky. The horse is frightened, and the rider turns and races away. She calls for Drogon, and he comes to her. She climbs on his back, and though she has lost her whip she is able to make the dragon turn and fly in the direction the rider had taken.

They fly over a herd of horses, which begin to stampede in terror. One horse falls behind, and Drogon breathes flame on it, then seizes it in his claws. The kill is too large to take back to the lair, so Drogon eats it there, and Daenerys shares in the meal. Then, as the sun begins to set, riders approach. She goes and stands by the dragon as Khal Jhogo and his riders appear through the smoke.

Epilogue

Ronnet Connington has arrived in King's Landing with news of the return of his uncle Jon Connington with Aegon Targaryen. Mace Tyrell, as Hand, presides over the council assembled to discuss this development. He is inclined to dismiss the threat to Storm's End, which is currently held by Stannis. "Let the castle pass from one pretender to another, why should that trouble us? I shall recapture it after my daughter's innocence is proved."

Kevan Lannister is less sanguine, either about Jon Connington's strength or about Margaery's innocence. Tyrell wants Tommen to declare Margaery innocent "and put an end to the foolishness here and now," but Kevan cautions that if they overrule the High Septon "it will only drive the pious into the arms of one or the other of these would-be usurpers." As for Prince Aegon, Randyll Tarly calls him "A feigned boy," but Kevan recalls that the body of the infant said to be Aegon had been mutilated so badly that proper identification was impossible. Only Tywin Lannister's testimony asserted that the murdered child was Aegon. And then, Kevan says, "We have these tales coming from the east as well. A second Targaryen, and one whose blood no man can question. Daenerys Stormborn."

Grand Maester Pycelle notes that there have been too many stories about "A silver-haired queen with three dragons" to fully discount them. But Tyrell says she is "Queen of Slaver's Bay," which is "At the far end of the world." Still, Kevan insists that they should act now to quell Connington's attacks, before Daenerys decides to move on Westeros. Tyrell simply reiterates, "After the trial." Pycelle suggests trying to buy off the Golden Company from its support of Connington, but the treasurer, Harys Swyft, says "our vaults contain only rats and roaches."

Kevan changes the subject to Cersei's trial, with Ser Robert Strong as her champion. Tyrell wants to know exactly who this champion is: "He does not speak, he will not show his face, he is never seen without his armor. Do we know for a certainty that he is even a knight?" Kevan wonders if this Ser Robert is even living. Meryn Trant says he doesn't eat or drink and Boros Blount says he has never been seen to use the privy. He has his suspicions about the man, but he doesn't share them. All he can say is that Tommen named him to the Kingsguard "and Qyburn vouches for the man as well." The important thing is for him to win, so Cersei's innocence will be confirmed. If she is found guilty, this means that her children are illegitimate: "If Tommen ceases to be a king, Margaery will cease to be a queen." This is a potent argument to use on Mace Tyrell. Anyway, he tells the council, he will see to it that Cersei behaves, sending her back to Casterly Rock after the trial.

Kevan leaves the council with Pycelle and Harys Swyft, who complains about the cold: Snow has been falling on King's Landing. In his chambers, Kevan prepares himself to dine with Cersei and Tommen. Boros Blount is guarding them, but all of the attendants are novices chosen by the High Septon, who "had insisted that no girl spend more than seven days in the queen's service, lest Cersei corrupt her." His meal with them is interrupted by one of the novices who says that Grand Maester Pycell urgently requests to see Kevan.

The message was brought by a boy of eight or nine. Kevan gives him a penny and sends him to warm himself by a fire, saying that he knows the way to Pycelle's quarters. A girl shows him into Pycelle's chambers, where Kevan sees a giant white raven sitting in the open window. "The white ravens of the Citadel did not carry messages, as their dark cousins did. When they went forth from Oldtown, it was for one purpose only: to herald a change of seasons."

Kevan says, "Winter," but he has hardly spoken the word when something slams into his chest. He looks down and sees an arrow protruding from between his ribs. It is the way his brother died, he thinks. Then he sees Pycelle slumped over his desk, a bloody gash in his head. Kevan draws an obvious conclusion: "Tyrion." But a voice says that the dwarf is "Far away."

Varys is standing there, holding a crossbow.

"This pains me, my lord. You do not deserve to die alone on such a cold dark night. There are many like you, good men in service to bad causes ... but you were threatening to undo all the queen's good work, to reconcile Highgarden and Casterly Rock, bind the Faith to your little king, unite the Seven Kingdoms under Tommen's rule.... Your niece will think the Tyrells had you murdered, mayhaps with the connivance of the Imp. The Tyrells will suspect her. Someone somewhere will find a way to blame the Dornishmen. Doubt, division, and mistrust will eat the very ground beneath your boy king, whilst Aegon raises his banner above Storm's End and the lords of the realm gather round him."

Kevan still believes that Aegon is dead, but Varys assures him that he is alive and that he has been educated to rule. "Tommen has been taught that kingship is his right. Aegon knows that kingship is his duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them."

Then Varys apologizes for going on with his speech, prolonging Kevan's suffering. He whistles, and half a dozen children enter, "white-faced children with dark eyes, boys and girls together." In their hands are daggers.

5. A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 116-144

Jaime

He has resisted offers from other members of the Kingsguard, such as Loras Tyrell, to stand vigil over his father's bier, though his joints are stiffening and he feels a throbbing where his sword hand should be. "My hand is hungry for a sword. I need to kill someone. Varys, for a start, but first I'd need to find the rock he's hiding under." He had waited for Varys the night of Tyrion's escape, taking the eunuch by surprise in his own chambers and drawing him into the plot to free Tyrion. He now wonders if Tyrion killed Varys, too, and thinks about the maze of tunnels and passages that he had discovered in the castle after his father's death. If Tyrion had killed Varys, "it might be years before his bones were found."

During the search he had found a mosaic of the three-headed dragon, and remembers when he last saw Prince Rhaegar, whom he had begged to let someone beside himself guard the king. Rhaegar had told him that he planned to call a council to deal with the problems caused by the madness of Rhaegar's father, but of course he never returned from the battle. "He was right more than he knew. When the battle was done, there were changes made," changes that resulted from Jaime's killing King Aerys.

He is surprised that he feels no grief standing over his father's corpse, as first the lords and ladies do homage and later the common people. He thinks about how the investigation of the murder had been botched: The turnkeys who had been found asleep were killed, and Ser Boros Blount claimed that Cersei had ordered it, so Ser Osmund and his brothers did the deed. "I told Varys no one was to be harmed in this escape, Jaime thought, but I should have told my brother and my sister." And he remembers what Tyrion had told him about Cersei: "... she's been fucking Lancel and Osmund Kettleblack and Moon Boy for all I know...."

As the stench from the corpse increases, he thinks of the smell of the battlefield where the crows feasted on the slain: "How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king?" He knows the crows are gathering over Baelor's Sept.

Every crow in the Seven Kingdoms should pay homage to you, Father. From Castamere to the Blackwater, you fed them well. That notion pleased Lord Tywin; his smile widened further. Bloody hell, he's grinning like a bridegroom at his bedding.

Jaime laughs outloud at this notion, aware that the smile on Tywin's face is caused by the accelerating decomposition, and at the irony of "standing vigil for a father I helped to slay, sending men forth to capture the brother I helped to free." He thinks of Brienne on her quest for Sansa, and alternates between "Stupid stubborn ugly wench" and praying, "Father, give her strength," uncertain whether the Father he invoked was the deity imaged in the sept or the one lying dead before him.

At midnight the septons and septas enter for their devotionals, and after they have left Cersei enters. She is dripping wet from the rain, and is disguised as "a tavern wench in a heavy roughspun cloak." She reminds him of the time she disguised herself to get past their father's guards so they could meet at an inn. She tells him that Kevan has refused to serve as Hand, and that he had revealed his knowledge of their incest. She also voices her suspicions that the High Septon knows as well, and pleads with him again to become Tommen's Hand, and speaks of him as "our son." He refuses, harshly, and says, "Tommen is no son of mine, no more Joffrey was.... You made them Robert's too." For a moment he wants to take her in his arms, but he resists, even when she pleads. "I was made for a battlefield, not a council chamber. And now it may be that I am unfit even for that." She leaves, angrily.

When dawn comes and the light shines in on the corpse, it is "rotting visibly. His face had taken on a greenish tinge, and his eyes were deeply sunken, two black pits. Fissures had opened in his cheeks, and a foul white fluid was seeping through the joints of his splendid gold-and-crimson armor to pool beneath his body." One of the septons faints during the morning devotions, and the addition of incense creates "a sweet rotten smell that made Jaime want to gag."

When the nobility arrives that morning, Cersei and Tommen are accompanied by Ser Osmund Kettleblack, and Jaime remembers Tyrion's mocking accusation that she had been fucking him. Having seen Ser Osmund naked in the baths, Jaime is revolted by the image that comes to mind and assures himself, "She would not do that. The Imp lied." She and Tommen climb the steps to kneel before the bier, but Tommen is horror-stricken.

"Pray," she whispered, and Tommen tried. But he was only eight and Lord Tywin was a horror. One desperate breath of air, then the king began to sob. "Stop that!" Cersei said. Tommen turned his head and doubled over, retching. His crown fell off and rolled across the marble floor. His mother pulled back in disgust, and all at once the king was running for the doors, as fast as his eight-year-old legs could carry him.

Jaime calls for Ser Osmund to relieve him and goes after Tommen, whom he takes outside "where the air was as fresh and clean as King's Landing ever got." He consoles the boy, who asks Jaime how he could bear the smell. Jaime recalls having his own rotting hand hanging around his neck, and tells him, "A man can bear most anything, if he must." He had smelled a man being roasted alive by King Aerys. "The world is full of horrors, Tommen. You can fight them, or laugh at them, or look without seeing ... go away inside."

Tommen knows what he means: "I ... I used to go away inside sometimes ... when Joffy...." But he doesn't get a chance to name what his brother had inflicted on him, because Cersei appears behind them and corrects the name to Joffrey and chides Tommen for shaming her. She continues to scold him until Jaime says, "Cersei, enough." She retorts that he was supposed to stand vigil for seven days and seven nights until the wake was over, but he says it's over: "Go look at him." Their argument is interrupted by the arrival of Mace Tyrell, who expresses concern about Tommen and asks if he can do anything. Jaime suggests that he take supper with Cersei and discuss it.

When he leaves, Cersei rounds on Jaime and asks, "why am I having supper with that grasping fool and his puerile wife?" She is not going to name him Hand, if that's what Jaime wants. It isn't: Jaime wants her to ask him to take Storm's End. "Either he will deliver Storm's End to you, or he will muck it up and look like a fool. Either way, you win." Cersei considers the idea, but says that Tyrell plans to stay until the marriage of Tommen and Margaery. So let the marriage take place right away, Jaime says, "and send him off to play at war."

"Why, our Lord of Highgarden might even lose his life in such a venture," Cersei says with a smile. And Jaime replies, "Especially if his patience runs thin this time, and he elects to storm the gate." To which Cersei observes, "for a moment you sounded quite like Father."

Brienne

She has reached Duskendale, but the gates are shut, and she has to stay outside with farmers and other people who are waiting for them to open. She is halted at the gate by the captain of the guards, who wants to know her business in the town, and she says she is there to see the Lord of Duskendale or his maester. The captain notices the emblem on her shield, and she explains that the arms aren't hers. As it happens, he says, his sister paints arms on shields, and tells Brienne where to find her.

Brienne takes his advice and goes directly to the captain's sister, who tells her she can have the work done by the next morning. So she takes a room in the inn nearby and bathes, remembering how Jaime had gotten into the tub with her at Harrenhal. She tries to think of Renly instead, but can't remember his face. Then she goes to the castle, but finds that the lord is away, so she speaks with the castellan, Ser Rufus Leek. She presents the letter with Tommen's signature that Jaime had given her, but Ser Rufus can't read, so he sends her to the maester.

He tells her that he's been deluged with requests for information about Dontos Hollard, but he can only retell the history of the destruction of House Hollard, of which Dontos was the last. So she has run up on another dead end. Pondering her options, Brienne decides that the best would be to try the Eyrie, because "Lady Lysa would surely welcome her sister's daughter." But as she is thinking, she takes a wrong turn, and backtracking she collides with "a scrawny lad with straight, thin hair and a sty beneath one eye." He looks "vaguely familiar" to her, but when she asks if they know each other, he turns and runs away.

She returns to the inn, where the common room has become crowded. But someone behind her offers his seat, and when she turns around she sees that he's a dwarf with a "veined and bulbous" nose and "dressed in the brown roughspun robes of a holy brother." She tells him she had met other brothers on the road, and he says there are hundreds of them heading for King's Landing. He asks for her story and she says she's looking for her sister, who may be traveling with a knight or perhaps a fool. He remembers seeing a fool at Maidenpool. "He had a furtive air to him," the dwarf says, and he saw him once again at the Stinking Goose, where he "was seeking passage for three across the narrow sea."

She wonders why Ser Dontos would seek passage for three instead of just two; perhaps the third was Tyrion? Then later "some of Lord Tarly's soldiers visited the Goose looking for him, and a few days later I heard another man boasting that he'd fooled a fool and had the gold to prove it." The man's name was Nimble Dick, the dwarf recalls. Brienne tries to decide if this fool could have been Ser Dontos, and whether she should go "To Maidenpool, to look for a man named Nimble Dick in a place called the Stinking Goose?" She could take a ship that would take her north from Maidenpool if the contact with Nimble Dick doesn't pan out.

She listens to the talk at the other tables about the death of Lord Tywin and the "vile little dwarf" who killed him. There is talk about who will rule until Tommen comes of age, and someone suggests the Kingslayer, but the innkeep spits in the fire and calls Jaime an "oathbreaker," so Brienne decides she's heard enough. She goes to her room where she dreams of Renly's death again, except that when she looks "the dying king was not Renly after all but Jaime Lannister, and she had failed him."

In the morning the captain's sister brings her the freshly painted shield, which is so beautifully done that Brienne pays her half again what they had agreed upon. And she sets off, traveling north toward Maidenpool. She finds a marker at the burial site of the northern troops who had been killed in a battle with Lord Randyll Tarly, and says a prayer for them and for Catelyn and Robb. She is reminded of the night when Catelyn had been told that Bran and Rickon were dead, and how Catelyn talked about brushing Sansa's hair. Brienne vows again to find Sansa.

It begins to rain, and she takes shelter in the ruins of what she realizes is a Hollard castle, where Ser Dontos might have been born. She is looking for wood to make a fire when she hears the sound of a rider. It turns out to be the boy she bumped into in Duskendale. He rides past the castle. "He is stalking me, she realized, but that's a game that two can play." She follows him, with the rain muffling the sound of her horse, sneaks up behind him, and gives his piebald horse a smack on the rump with the flat of her sword.

The horse throws the boy, and she stands over him and demands to know who he is. His mouth is full of dirt from the fall, but finally he stammers out his name: Podrick Payne. She asks if he is spying on her for Varys or the queen, but he explains that he is Tyrion's squire, and he's looking for Sansa. "His face twisted in sudden anguish. 'I'm his squire,' he repeated, as the rain ran down his face, 'but he left me.'"  





 

4. A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 87-115

Arya

She is aboard the Titan's Daughter, heading for Braavos, which the captain's son tells her is home.

But that was stupid. Her home was gone, her parents dead, and all her brothers slain but Jon Snow on the Wall. That was where she had wanted to go. She told the captain as much, but even the iron coin did not sway him. Arya never seemed to find the places she set out to reach. Yoren had sworn to deliver her to Winterfell, only she had ended up in Harrenhal and Yoren in his grave. When she escaped Harrenhal for Riverrun, Lem and Anguy and Tom o' Sevens took her captive and dragged her to the hollow hill instead. Then the Hound had stolen her and dragged her to the Twins. Arya had left him dying by the river and gone ahead to Saltpans, hoping to take passage for Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, only....

Only now she was going to Braavos, which might not be so bad, she guesses, since Syrio Forel and Jaqen H'ghar had been from Braavos.

She has a new name: Salty, because she had come aboard at Saltpans. And now they are approaching the colossus, the Titan of Braavos, which she had heard about in Old Nan's stories, except in them it was a living giant, and in fact it's only a statue. The thought of Old Nan reminds her of Winterfell, but she puts it out of mind: "All men must die," she tells herself, remembering the Braavosi phrase Valar morghulis, which had gained her passage on the ship. She has learned a few more Braavosi words and phrases on the ship, some of them from Denyo, the captain's youngest son.

She asks Denyo if the Titan is the god of Braavos, and he tells her, "All gods are honored in Braavos," where there are temples of various religions. But for Arya, none of the gods have any meaning, since they didn't protect her family from harm. In her mind she recites once again the list of people she wants dead, but there are only six left, now that Joffrey and Polliver and the Tickler are dead, and she had left the Hound dying without giving him the coup de grâce he had asked for.

As they get closer to Braavos, the gigantic statue bestriding the entrance to the harbor becomes visible. Suddenly it gives out "a mighty roar," startling Arya. The ship sails between its legs and she looks up to see faces peering out of the murder holes above it. They pass by what Denyo tells her is "The Arsenal of Braavos," which is "bristling with scorpions, spitfires, and trebuchets," and pass countless ships and docks and quays. She is surprised that the city has no walls, but Denyo tells her, "Our galleys are our walls. We need no other."

The captain, Ternesio Terys, appears and tells her that a boat will take her ashore. She had wanted to stay with the ship, but he has no need for her on the crew. So she finds herself in a boat gliding among the many islands that compose the city, along canals crossed by bridges. "They have no trees, she realized. Braavos is all stone, a grey city in a green sea." In the distance she sees "a massive  grey stone roadway of some kind, supported by three tiers of mighty arches marching away south into the haze." The boatman, Yorko Terys, explains that it is an aqueduct that "brings fresh water from the mainland."

They pass by a variety of temples, including one to R'hllor, with whom Arya is familiar from her encounter with Thoros of Myr.  Finally Yorko deposits at a dock with steps leading to a temple with a black tile roof. Bidding her "Valar dohaeris," he rows away. She tells herself, "I am a wolf, and will not be afraid," pats the hilt of Needle, and takes the steps two at a time to the doors at the top. The left-hand door is pale weirwood that reminds her of the heart tree at Winterfell. The right-hand door is ebony, and in the center of each is a carved moon face. She tries to open them, but they don't budge, then pounds on them. Finally she takes out the iron coin and says "Valar morghulis," and the doors open.

When the doors close behind her, it takes a while for her eyes to grow accustomed to the darkness. She hears whispering and weeping and other sounds, including water. Statues of all sorts of gods surround her. When she reaches the center of the temple she finds a pool of water ten feet across, and a young man weeping by it. He dips his fingers in the water and sucks them. She decides he must be thirsty, so she takes a stone cup, dips it in the pool, and gives it to him. He says, "Valar morghulis" and she replies, "Valar dohaeris." Then he drinks from the cup and stands up, revealing a blood stain below his belt. "You're stabbed," she says, but he doesn't answer. He goes to an alcove in the wall, and she realizes that there are people in other alcoves who are dead or dying.

She startles when someone touches her, then realizes it's a small girl with hollow cheeks, who speaks to her in a language she doesn't recognize. Arya asks if she knows the Common Tongue and a voice behind her says, "I do." It is a tall man in a hooded robe like the one the little girl is wearing: the right side is black and the left side is white. He tells her she is in the House of Black and White. She says she is looking for Jaqen H'ghar, but he doesn't know the name. Then he asks for hers. When she says "Salty," he says, "No.... Tell me your name." She tries Squab, and Nan, and Weasel, and Arry, but he knows they aren't her real name. Finally she says, "I am Arya, of House Stark."

He accepts that as her real name, and says, "the House of Black and White is no place for Arya, of House Stark." She has no place to go, she says. "Do you fear death?" he asks, and when she says no, he lowers his cowl. "Beneath he had no face; only a yellowed skull with a few scraps of skin still clinging to the cheeks, and a white worm wriggling from one empty eye socket." He croaks, "Kiss me, child."

Arya decides not to be frightened, so she kisses him where his nose would be, then takes the worm and starts to eat it. It fades away before she can put it in her mouth. "The yellow skull was melting too, and the kindliest old man that she had ever seen was smiling down at her." He says no one has ever tried to eat the worm before and asks if she is hungry.

"Yes, she thought, but not for food."

Cersei

She and Tommen are on their way to Tywin's funeral. She is fussing at him for wanting to ride his horse and throw pennies to people, for opening the curtains to the litter, for not sitting up straight, and then getting annoyed because he is so obedient: "A king had to be strong. Joffrey would have argued." He observes that there aren't many people in the street, and she blames it on the rain though she knows that there was no love for Tywin Lannister in the city.

There aren't many mourners at the Great Sept of Baelor, either. The morning service is for the aristocracy, and Cersei knows she will have to return for the evening service for the common people, "so that the smallfolk might see her mourn. The mob must have its show. It was a nuisance. She had offices to fill, a war to win, a realm to rule. Her father would have understood that."

The elderly High Septon meets them, wearing the crystal-and-gold crown that Tywin had given him to replace the one that was lost when the mob tore the previous High Septon to pieces on the day Myrcella sailed for Dorne. Cersei realizes to her annoyance that this High Septon had been appointed by Tyrion. She examines his expression to try to discover what Tyrion might have told him about her.

At least I will not be expected to don mourning for Tyrion. I shall dress in crimson silk and cloth-of-gold for that, and wear rubies in my hair. The man who brought her the dwarf's head would be raised to lordship, she had proclaimed, no matter how mean or low his birth or station. Ravens were carrying her promise to every part of the Seven Kingdoms, and soon enough word would cross the narrow sea to the Nine Free Cities and the lands beyond. Let the Imp run to the ends of the earth, he will not escape me. 

Jaime is standing vigil at the head of Lord Tywin's bier. She leads Tommen up to kneel by the body, telling him, "Weep quietly.... You are a king, not a squalling child. Your lords are watching you." The body is dressed in splendid armor, but Cersei is bothered by the expression on her father's face: "The corners of her father's lips curved upward ever so slightly, giving him a look of vague bemusement." She blames Pycelle for the preparation of the corpse. "He had been a great man," she thinks. "I shall be greater, though. A thousand years from now, when the maesters write about this time, you shall be remembered only as Queen Cersei's sire."

Tommen interrupts her thoughts by asking her, "What smells so bad?" She thinks, "My lord father," but she says, "Death." Tommen begins to fidget and her knees begin to ache as the service goes on. She sees her Uncle Kevan kneeling with his son Lancel beside him, and thinks Lancel looks worse than her father does. Lord Gyles is coughing and covering his nose with a red silk handkerchief, and she realizes that he can smell it, too. Pycelle's eyes are closed, and she vows to have him whipped if he has fallen asleep. She sees Margaery Tyrell, Tommen's future wife, and notices how much like her brother, the Knight of Flowers, she looks. She wonders "if they had other things in common," and reflects on how many ladies she has in attendance on her. This is yet another glance at Loras Tyrell's homosexuality, but also a segue into Cersei's wondering which of Margaery's attendants she can recruit to spy on her.

By the time the service ends the smell has grown stronger, and she thinks she hears someone say "privy," but can't locate the offender. Lady Falyse approaches her outside and says that her sister Lollys has gone into labor and that her mother wants to name the child, if it's a boy, Tywin. Cersei is furious at the idea: "Your lackwit sister gets herself raped by half of King's Landing, and Tanda thinks to honor the bastard with my lord father's name? I think not." Falyse looks like she has been slapped.

Then she encounters the aged-looking Lancel, and comments on his coming marriage to one of the Freys, but he is unhappy. "It is cruel, Cersei. Your Grace knows that I love--." She cuts him off and finishes the sentence, "--House Lannister." Lancel goes on about how the High Septon had helped him when he was ill, and how he said Lancel was spared "for some holy purpose, so I might atone for my sins." Cersei wonders, "What has this mewling fool told the High Septon? And what will he tell his little Frey when they lie together in the dark?" She regrets having slept with Lancel, but not so much that he will talk about it -- she could always denounce it as a lie, "the braggadocio of a callow boy smitten by her beauty" -- as that he'll talk about having gotten Robert Baratheon drunk on drugged wine before the hunt in which he was killed.

She gets some good news from Lady Merryweather, who is from Myr, and tells her that she has written to her friends in the Free Cities, telling them so seize Tyrion if he should appear there. Cersei is intrigued by the beautiful and voluptuous woman. "This one is ambitious, and her lord is proud but poor." She calls her by her first name, Taena, and says, "I know that we shall be great friends." But they are interrupted by Mace Tyrell, who says, "We shall never see his like again." Cersei thinks, "You are looking at his like, fool." And then he tells her that Tywin had promised the office of master of coin to his uncle Garth, and that he's on his way to take up the position. She puts a stop to this quickly, telling him, "I have asked Lord Gyles Rosby to serve as our new master of coin, and he has done me the honor of accepting." Tyrell is taken aback, and sputters that "your lord father assured me...." But his mother, Lady Olenna, the Queen of Thorns," intervenes:

"It would seem that Lord Tywin did not share his plans with our regent, I can't imagine why. Still, there 'tis, no use hectoring Her Grace. She is quite right, you must write Lord Leyton before Garth boards a ship. You know the sea will sicken him and make his farting worse." Lady Olenna gave Cersei a toothless smile. "Your council chambers will smell sweeter with Lord Gyles, though I daresay that coughing would drive me to distraction. We all adore dear old uncle Garth, but the man is flatulent, that cannot be gainsaid. I do abhor foul smells." Her wrinkled face wrinkled up even more. "I caught a whiff of something unpleasant in the holy sept, in truth. Maybe you smelled it too?" 

Cersei lies and says she didn't, and vows to get rid of Lady Olenna as soon as possible. She retrieves Tommen and asks Lord Gyles to share the litter with them. When she offers him the job of master of coin that he has supposedly already accepted, "he began coughing so violently that she feared he might die right then and there." After he accepts, she tells him, "should the question arise, you joined the council yesterday." He coughs "into a square of red silk, as if to hide the blood in his spittle. Cersei pretended not to notice." She can get someone else when he dies, and perhaps recall Littlefinger, who is already having trouble with the lords of the Vale.

Back in her rooms, she is visited by Qyburn, who tells her that when Tyrion and Varys disappeared, a jailer named Rugen also vanished. She knows this, but he adds that under Rugen's chamber pot there was a loose stone that covered a hiding place for valuables. The hole was empty, but Qyburn dug in it and finds an old gold coin bearing "the sigil of House Gardener," the precusor of Highgarden. Cersei wonders if this indicates that Mace Tyrell had been secretly plotting with Tyrion. She warns Qyburn not to tell anyone about it, and pockets the coin.

Qyburn has more news: "The poison on the Viper's spear was manticore venom from the east." Cersei says that Pycelle ruled that out because manticore venom kills instantly. But Qyburn says the poison had been "thickened somehow, so as to draw out the Mountain's dying." It may have been the result of a spell. Cersei scoffs at the idea of magic, but Qyburn proceeds, saying that Ser Gregor's "veins have turned black from head to heel, his water is clouded with pus, and the venom has eaten a hole in his side as large as my fist. It is a wonder that the man is still alive, if truth be told." Cersei complains that his screaming frightens Tommen and wakens her sometimes. She thinks they should call in Ilen Payne to put an end to him. But Qyburn wants to move Ser Gregor to the dungeons, where his screaming won't be so troublesome, and he can "tend to him more freely." In short, he wants to know more about this poison.

Cersei gets the point, and asks why the Citadel took away his chain. Qyburn calls the archmaesters "craven" and cites Marwyn, the ones the novices referred to as the Mage, as calling them "The grey sheep." Qyburn wanted to do some unconventional experimentation:

"For hundreds of years the men of the Citadel have opened the bodies of the dead, to study the nature of life. I wished to understand the nature of death, so I opened the bodies of the living. For that crime the grey sheep shamed me and forced me into exile ... but I understand the nature of life and death better than any man in Oldtown." 

Cersei is, to say the least, "intrigued." She lets Qyburn take charge of the Mountain, reminding him that she needs the head to send to Dorne. She tells him she will provide him with the finances he needs and that he should buy some new robes. "Need I say that it will go ill for you if any word of your ... labors ... should pass beyond these walls?" Her secrets are safe with him, he assures her.

Her mind goes back to the gold coin from Highgarden and what link it might have to her father's death. She wonders if Tyrion has anything to do with the swift decomposition of Tywin's body, and if there's a possibility that he influenced Pycelle or the High Septon to bring it about. But her suspicions are interrupted by the arrival of her uncle Kevan to dine with her. Before she can ask him to become the Hand, he anticipates the offer, noting that Jaime has refused the job. She needs someone older anyway, she says, and he points out that Mace Tyrell is older. "Never," she says, adding, "The Tyrells overreach themselves." He admits that Tyrell would be a bad choice as hand, but cautions her against making an enemy of him. He has heard about the encounter over the position of master of coin, and says she was "unwise to shame him in front of half the court."

But as for the matter of becoming the Hand, he will do it only "so long as you name me regent as well as Hand and take yourself back to Casterly Rock." Tywin had told him of his plans to send her "back to the Rock and find a new husband for you." Her anger grows, but she controls it. He persists: "Open your eyes and look about you, Cersei. The kingdom is in ruins. Tywin might have been able to set matters aright, but...." She says she will set it aright with his help, but he persists, and the argument rages until she shouts "The king is my son!" and he replies, "from what I saw of Joffrey, you are as unfit a mother as you are a ruler."

She flings a cup of wine in his face. He rises with "a ponderous dignity" and asks her leave to go, warning, "You would be wise not to take me lightly, Your Grace ... and wiser still not to make of me a foe." She asks if this is a threat, and he says he is counseling her. "If you will not yield the regency to me, name me your castellan for Casterly Rock and make either Mathis Rowan or Randyll Tarly the Hand of the King." Both of them are bannermen for the Tyrells, which only adds to Cersei's suspicions. But he makes the point that by making either of them hers, she strengthens herself and weakens Highgarden. At the same time he realizes that his advice is futile: "You may make Moon Boy your Hand for all I care. My brother is dead, woman. I am going to take him home."


She wonders how much Mace Tyrell had paid him. And as he leaves, he reveals that he knows that Jaime is Tommen's father.

26. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 894-926

Tyrion

He is informed that he will be tried and judged by Mace Tyrell, Oberyn Martell, and his own father, but he can also choose a trial by combat. But Ser Kevan, his uncle, informs Tyrion that Cersei has named Gregor Clegane as her champion, which causes him to have second thoughts about that option. Bronn had succeeded as his champion at the Eyrie, but probably won't be persuaded to go against the Mountain.

In the meantime, he is under house arrest, which makes locating witnesses on his behalf somewhat difficult. He will be allowed access to his squire, Podrick, however. So when Podrick arrives Tyrion sends him in search of Bronn. Podrick is so long in returning, that Tyrion turns his mind to other things, such as figuring out who did poison Joffrey. He decides that it must have been Sansa, though he can't imagine who her accomplice might be in locating the poison, and sends word to his uncle that she should be found.

Podrick finally returns the next day with Bronn, who reveals that he is to marry Lollys, Lady Tanda's daughter, who is pregnant from being raped during the riots. When Tyrion points out to Bronn that Lollys is not the heir to Stokeworth, since she has a married elder sister, Falyse, Bronn point out that Falyse has been married for ten years without giving birth. Besides, Falyse could always die before Lady Tanda does. "Tyrion wondered whether Cersei had any notion of the sort of serpent she'd given Lady Tanda to suckle." Bronn turns down the offer to fight Gregor Clegane: "Either the Mountain spills my guts, or I kill him and lose Stokeworth. I sell my sword, I don't give it away."

When Bronn leaves, Podrick tells Tyrion he's sorry. But Tyrion replies, "Why? Is it your fault that Bronn's an insolent black-hearted rogue? He's always been an insolent black-hearted rogue. That's what I liked about him."

The day of the trial arrives, and Tyrion is ushered to the packed Throne Room. The first witness against him is Ser Balon Swann, who testifies about Tyrion's bravery at the battle of the Blackwater, and says, "I will not believe he did this thing," which surprises Tyrion. But Ser Balon also recalls that Tyrion "knocked the king to the ground and began kicking him" on the day of the riot. And Meryn Trant follows Balon to the stand to recall the same incident, as well as the time Tyrion stopped Joffrey's humiliation of Sansa, reminding him of "what had happened to Aerys Tergaryen. And that when Ser Boros Blount defended the king, Tyrion "threatened to have him killed." Ser Boros confirms the story.

The three Kettleblacks testify next, recalling Tyrion's threats to Cersei. "He said he would wait for a day when she was happy, and make her joy turn to ashes in her mouth," Osney testifies, without mentioning that Tyrion was protesting the whipping of Alayaya. Ser Osmund claims that Joffrey had told him to guard him against Tyrion, "for my uncle loves me not. He means to be king in my place." Tyrion can't restrain himself and shouts, "Liar!" but is admonished by his father. Cersei begs him to put Tyrion in chains, but is turned down.

On the second day, the maesters who conducted the autopsy say they found no sign of choking on the pigeon pie and that Joffrey was killed by poison. Grand Maester Pycelle is shown a number of poisons and tells the court that Tyrion had stolen them from his chambers when he had Pycelle imprisoned. Tyrion asks if any of them caused the kind of choking that Joffrey experienced, and Pycelle admits that they don't, and that you need a poison known as "the strangler." Tyrion asks if any of it was found, and Pycelle replies no, "You used it all to kill the noblest child the gods ever put on this good earth." The characterization so infuriates Tyrion that he blurts out, "Joffrey was cruel and stupid, but I did not kill him." Once again, Tywin warns him to keep quiet. Then there is a parade of witnesses to what happened at the wedding, including the detail of Tyrion emptying the chalice onto the floor after Joffrey began choking.

That evening, Tyrion's uncle, Ser Kevan, tells him, "If you were to admit your guilt before the throne and repent of your crime, your father would withhold the sword. You would be permitted to take the black." Tyrion recalls that "Those were the same terms Cersei offered Eddard Stark. We all know how that ended." But Kevan reminds him that Lord Tywin was not involved in that betrayal, which Tyrion has to admit. He tells his uncle he will think about the offer, and spends the night trying to decide whether to trust his father. He is aware of the consequences of confessing: "They will call me kinslayer till the end of my days. For a thousand years or more, if I am remembered at all, it will be as the monstrous dwarf who poisoned his young nephew at his wedding feast."

The next day, Varys is called to testify. He tells of Tyrion's scheme to separate Joffrey from the protection of Sandor Clegane, and of his talking with Bronn about "the benefits of having Tommen as king." Varys has notes on all of Tyrion's movements and threats that confirm Tyrion's malice toward Joffrey. The weight of the evidence is seriously prejudicial, particularly as it is so meticulously documented. At the end of it Tywin asks Cersei if all the witnesses have been produced, and she tells him there is one more. Tyrion feels a kind of gratitude that it's almost over: "After this farce of a trial, execution will almost come as a relief."

That night, Prince Oberyn pays him a surprise visit. He tells Tyrion that Cersei "needs another husband, and who better than a prince of Dorne? Ellaria believes I should accept. Just the thought of Cersei in our bed makes her wet, the randy wench." Of course, Cersei won't consent unless he agrees to convict Tyrion. But he has no love for Cersei.

"To be sure, I have much to thank your sister for. If not for her accusation at the feast, it might well be you judging me instead of me judging you." The prince's eyes were dark with amusement. "Who knows more of poison than the Red Viper of Dorne, after all? Who has better reason to want to keep the Tyrells far from the crown? And with Joffrey in his grave, by Dornish law the Iron Throne should pass next to his sister Myrcella, who as it happens is betrothed to mine own nephew, thanks to you."

Dornish law doesn't apply in King's Landing, Oberyn admits, but that doesn't mean that civil war couldn't result from the claim. When Tyrion says that his father would never support Myrcella over Tommen, Oberyn replies, "Your father ... may not live forever." And Tyrion remembers that Oberyn suspects Tywin of having ordered the rape and murder of Elia, Oberyn's sister: "He wants the head that spoke the words, not just the hand that swung the sword."

Tyrion presses the point: "It was Ser Gregor Clegane who smashed Prince Aegon's head against a wall and raped your sister Elia with his blood and brains still on his hands." But when Oberyn asks if Tywin gave the order, Tyrion can't bring himself to admit it. Oberyn recognizes it as "a very feeble lie," but says he might be able to save Tyrion. He is only one of the three judges, Tyrion says. How could Oberyn save him?

"Not as your judge. As your champion."

Jaime

He has moved into the Lord Commander's quarters, and is spending his days at Tyrion's trial. Tyrion has given no sign that he has seen him, and perhaps hasn't even recognized him. Cersei has kept her distance since the day they had sex in the sept, so Jaime is estranged from his whole family.

He has at his side an enormous book formally known as The Book of the Brothers, but usually called the White Book. It is a history of the Kingsguard, into which each member records his deeds. The records need updating, and Jaime decides he will take care of that once he learns to write with his left hand. He reads through the entry for Ser Barristan Selmy, and observes that his own entry is slender in comparison.

But he sets aside the book when the other members of the Kingsguard arrive, starting with Ser Osmund Kettleblack. There are six of them in all present, with Ser Arys Oakheart away in Dorne. In addition to Ser Osmund, there are Ser Boros Blount, Ser Meryn Trant, Ser Balon Swann, and Ser Loras Tyrell.

Jaime had served with Meryn Trant and Boros Blount for years, adequate fighters, but Trant was sly and cruel, and Blount a bag of growly air. Ser Balon Swann was better suited to his cloak, and of course the Knight of Flowers was supposedly all a knight should be. The fifth man was a stranger to him, this Osmund Kettleblack. 

He begins by pointing out that all five of them were present at the wedding feast, but Joffrey is dead anyway. He observes that this makes Tyrell angry and Balon ashamed, but the other three betray no emotion. And then he asks if Tyrion poisoned Joffrey. It is Meryn Trant who says he must have been the one to poison the wine, and Ser Boros says that spilling it demonstrates Tyrion's guilt. But Ser Balon says the dais was full of people, and that everyone was looking at the doves that flew from the pie. "No one was watching the wine cup."

It's the Knight of Flowers who speaks up to accuse Sansa, "who had reason to want Margaery dead, as well as the king." And she fled afterward. This gives Jaime some hope that Tyrion might be innocent, and he thinks about consulting Varys to find out how Sansa might have escaped. But for now his task is to manage the Kingsguard in protecting Tommen. The first thing he does is to order Ser Boros to "taste everything Tommen eats or drinks." Ser Boros is furious at the idea: "I am no food taster! I am a knight of the Kingsguard!"

But Joffrey knows how Boros yielded Tommen to Bronn. Cersei had stripped him of his white cloak because of it, but Tywin had restored it. He tells Boros that he "will find carrots and pease less threatening than" Bronn. "You should have died before you let Tommen be taken." Boros retorts, "As you died protecting Aerys, ser?" As a "cripple," Boros says, Jaime should be the one to taste the food. He reaches for his sword, and Jaime tells him to go ahead and draw it, "and we shall see how your two hands fare against my one." Boros spits at Jaime's feet and walks out -- to Jaime's relief, knowing that he is still no match for any of them with his left hand.

Then he turns to Ser Osmund and says he doesn't know him and asks where he served. Osmund's answer reveals that he had been a sellsword, and even the source of his knighthood -- "Ser Robert ... Stone. He's dead now, my lord" -- is questionable. Jaime wonders, "What was Cersei thinking when she gave this one a white cloak?" Jaime reflects that at least Kettleblack knows how to fight, so he tells him to go.

Next it's Meryn Trant's turn, and Jaime questions his role in helping Joffrey abuse Sansa. He asks him to point out in the White Book "where it is in our vows that we swear to beat women and children." Trant replies that he was just following the king's orders, and Jaime tells him to obey the Queen Regent, the King's Hand, and the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard from now own. Tommen "is eight. Our first duty is to protect him, which includes protecting him from himself.... If Tommen wants you to saddle his horse, obey him. If he tells you to kill his horse, come to me." He dismisses Ser Meryn.

Then he tells Ser Balon that he has seen him fight and "The Kingsguard is honored by your presence." Balon warily thanks him, and Jaime continues, "but Varys tells me that your brother rode with Renly and then Stannis, whilst your lord father chose not to call his banners at all and remained behind the walls of Stonehelm all through the fighting." Balon replies that his father is an old man, "Well past forty. His fighting days are done." As for his brother, he was wounded in the battle and afterward pledged fealty to Joffrey with the other captives. But Jaime says it's not his brother he's concerned with but Balon. What will he do if his brother joins with another usurper and Balon has to defend the king against him. Balon assures him, "that will never happen." But it happened to Jaime himself, he reminds Balon. Embarrassed, Balon says, "On my sword, on my honor, on my father's name, I swear ... I shall not do as you did."

The answer pleases and amuses Jaime, who tells Balon to return to his duties and tell his brother "to add a weathervane to his shield." This leaves only the Knight of Flowers. There is a spell of measuring up against each other: both had been called to the guard as young men, Loras at seventeen, Jaime at fifteen, and both had distinguished mentors. "He's me, Jaime realized suddenly. I am speaking to myself, as I was, all cocksure arrogance and empty chivalry. This is what it does to you, to be too good too young." Then he reminds Loras that a member of the Kingsguard has no secrets from the Lord Commander and asks who was wearing Renly's armor in the Battle of the Blackwater. Loras hesitates before admitting that it was his brother, Garlan, and that the idea was Littlefinger's.

Loras goes on to say that he will defend King Tommen, but that Renly "was the king that should have been. He was the best of them." Jaime admires Ser Loras's loyalty, but he has a duty left for him: Brienne. Loras insists that she won her place in the Rainbow Guard with a trick. Jaime reminds Loras of the trick he used by riding "a mare in heat against a foe mounted on a bad-tempered stallion." But Loras insists that Brienne killed Renly. "Or let him die." Which brings them back to Joffrey's death: "There were five of you at the wedding feast.... How could Joffrey die? Unless you were part of it." When Loras says there was nothing they could have done, Jaime tells him that's exactly what Brienne said of Renly's death. "Show me how you'd fight a shadow. I should like to see that."

Ser Loras insists that Brienne's flight with Catelyn Stark is evidence of her guilt. But he admits that there is no way a sword could have pierced Renly's armor. "If not her, though ... how could it be a shadow?" Jaime tells him to go to Brienne in her cell, ask her questions and listen to her answers. "All I ask is that you judge her fairly, on your honor as a knight." He dismisses Loras, but the knight turns at the door and says, "if she's innocent, then Robar and Emmon...." But he can't finish the sentence, and Jaime is left to think, "The Knight of Flowers had been so mad with grief for Renly that he had cut down two of his own Sworn Brothers, but it had never occurred to Jaime to do the same with the five who had failed Joffrey."

7. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 227-272

Arya

On the third day after setting out from the inn with Harwin and their other new companions, Arya realizes that they're not traveling north toward Riverrun: The moss is growing on the wrong side of the trees. Gendry thinks it's just because the road here takes a southward turn, and that they're taking a short cut, but Arya doesn't believe it. After all, he says, Lem and Tom live here, so they should know the way. They have left Hot Pie at the inn, where he is happily baking, so Gendry is the only companion left she can fully trust.

But there is Harwin, of course, whom she tells about finding his father, Hullen, dying when she fled from King's Landing. She also tells him of her subsequent adventures, omitting the stableboy she had stabbed while escaping and the guard at Harrenhal whose throat she cut. She also leaves out Jaqen H'ghar and the men he killed for her. She still sometimes mutters "Valar morghulis" under her breath sometimes, and recites her list of the men she wants dead.

Harwin tells her that of the twenty men her father sent from King's Landing with Beric Dondarrion, only six survived the trap Lord Tywin set for them, expecting that Eddard would be with them and that Gregor Clegane would kill him. Jaime, however, had been unaware of the plan so he attacked her father in King's Landing. That's when Lord Eddard broke his leg and was unable to ride west with the others. Harwin was among the survivors of the ambush, and Lord Beric was wounded but recovered. After hearing of Lord Eddard's execution, everything changed:

"We'd been sent out by the King's Hand to deal with outlaws, you see, but now we were the outlaws, and Lord Tywin was the Hand of the King. There was some wanted to yield, but Lord Beric wouldn't hear of it. We were still king's men, he said, and these were the king's people the lions were savaging. If we could not fight for Robert, we would fight for them, until every man of us was dead. And so we did, but as we fought something queer happened. For every man we lost, two showed up to take his place. A few were knights or squires, of gentle birth, but most were common men -- fieldhands and fiddlers and innkeeps, servants and shoemakers, even two septons."

At one village, Arya hears that Jaime has escaped from Riverrun. That night she dreams of Winterfell, except that she is outside the walls, slogging through mud up to her knees, and when she nears the gates the stone walls dissolve into smoke. She is surrounded by wolves. "Whenever she looked at them, she remembered the taste of blood."

The next day the sun is out, and her suspicion that they are going south is confirmed by its position. She takes out her map and confirms that they are riding away from Riverrun. She protests to the others, and they admit that they're not going to Riverrun, they're taking her to Beric Dondarrion, who will "know what's to be done with you." Anguy tells her, "We bring him all our highborn captives." Until this moment she hadn't know she was a captive and immediately she spurs her horse into running away.

She leads them on a furious chase, but eventually Harwin catches up to her and brings her to a halt. "I thought you were my father's man," she says to him, but he tells her that now her father's dead he belongs to "the lightning lord," Beric Dondarrion, and to his brother outlaws. They aren't in opposition to Robb, but they serve "the smallfolk." He asks if she will come peacefully, and she says she will. "For now."

Samwell

He is exhausted, slogging through the steadily falling snow with the others of the Night's Watch who have escaped from the attack on the hill fort. "They had been fifty when they fled the Fist, maybe more, but some had wandered off in the snow, a few wounded had bled to death ... and sometimes Sam heard shouts behind him, from the rear guard, and once an awful scream.... They are behind us, they are still behind us, they are taking us one by one."

He can see the torches around them, "The Old Bear's ring of fire, he reminded himself, and woe to him who leaves it." He berates himself: "Fat and weak and useless, even my wits are freezing now." His thoughts turn to Maslyn, who had been caught by a wight and lifted into the air by his throat and his head nearly ripped from his body. "The dead have no mercy left in them, and the Others ... no, I mustn't think of that, don't think, don't remember, just walk, just walk, just walk."

And then he falls, and weighed down by the layers of clothing and mail that he's wearing, struggles to get up, then gives in to fatigue and sinks back to the ground. He thinks that the snow will cover him, and it will be warm underneath the snow. He has done his duty, he thinks. The Lord Commander wanted him to tend to the ravens, and he had written out the messages about the initial attack to send to Castle Black and the Shadow Tower. "I got the birds off. I did that right, at least." In the confusion of the attack on the Fist, however, the Lord Commander told him to get off more ravens. Sam had written about how they had held off the attackers with fire arrows, how the wights had kept coming, how they had broken into the camp, how they were cutting their way free and heading for the Wall, and then how they had lost.

Grenn finds him fallen in the snow and tries to get him on his feet. "You'll freeze, or the Others will get you. Sam, get up!" A man with a torch comes up and tells Grenn to leave him and save himself, but Grenn keeps trying to hoist Sam from the ground. Finally the man says, "If you take the torch, I can take the fat boy." And suddenly he is lifted up, and he recognizes the man who is carrying him as Small Paul, who had earlier been one of the conspirators with Chett. He is saving Sam because he wants "the Old Bear's raven, the one that talks," and thinks Sam can get it for him. But Sam tells him the ravens have all flown, and remembers that he had forgotten to send any of the messages he had written before he released them from the cages.

He recalls more of the escape from the Fist, finding himself on a horse and Lord Commander ordering the men to form a wedge to move down the south face of the hill. His horse almost threw him when they were attacked by a bear, "dead, pale and rotting." Thoren Smallwood charged at the bear but was killed by it. They charged down the hill, trampling the wights underfoot, and into the forest. But a man on foot pulled him from the saddle and rode off on his horse. Sam had lain there weeping until he was discovered by Dolorous Edd. Then he found himself walking with the others.

Now he is being carried by Small Paul, who is told by one of the men passing them that they're falling behind. When Small Paul says that Sam had "promised I could have a bird... I want me a bird that talks, and eats corn from my hand," the man calls him a fool and rides on. Grenn realizes that they have fallen behind the rest of the men and are alone, and Small Paul says he can't carry Sam anymore.

Then a horse appears through the woods. But it is dead, and seated on it is "a rider pale as ice." Sam feels "a cold so savage that his bladder felt frozen solid. The Other slid gracefully from the saddle to stand upon the snow. Sword-slim it was, and milky white. Its armor rippled and shifted as it moved, and its feet did not break the crust of the new-fallen snow." Grenn thrusts the torch at it, and the Other cuts it in two. The burning torch falls into a snowdrift and is snuffed out. Small Paul charges at the Other with his axe, but the creature impales him with its sword, and his weight pulls it from the Other's hand.

Sam is weeping and praying, but he hears voices telling him to fight -- his father's, and Alliser Thorne's, and then Jon's.

And then he was stumbling forward, falling more than running, really, closing his eyes and shoving the dagger blindly out before him with both hands. He heard a crack, like the sound ice makes when it breaks beneath a man's foot, and then a screech so shrill and sharp that he went staggering backward with his hands over his muffled ears, and fell hard on his arse. When he opened his eyes the Other's armor was running down its legs in rivulets as pale blue blood hissed and steamed around the black dragonglass dagger in its throat. It reached down with two bone-white hands to pull out the knife, but where its fingers touched the obsidian they smoked.

The Other melts away, leaving only the obsidian dagger, and when Grenn reaches down to pick it up, he drops it immediately because it's too cold to handle. When he is finally able to pick it up, Sam tells him to keep it. "You're not craven like me." Grenn replies, "So craven you killed an Other," and then points out the dawn through the trees. That would be the east, he says, and if they keep walking in that direction they can catch up with Mormont and the remaining men of the Watch.

Tyrion

Lord Tywin has called his council together and takes his seat at the head of the table with Cersei on one side and his brother Ser Kevan on the other. Tyrion is at the foot of the table. Grand Maester Pycelle is there, sitting as far from Tyrion as possible. In addition to Varys and Littlefinger, the others present include Mace Tyrell, Paxter Redwyne of the Arbor, Mathis Rowan of Gardengrove, and the High Septon. Tyrell and Redwyne congratulate Tyrion on the success of his chain. And Kevan says his son Lancel has told him how brave Tyrion was. Tyrion thinks that Lancel has better be saying nice things about him, considering what he knows about his relationship with Cersei.

Cersei wants to begin by talking about the plans for the wedding, but Tywin wants a report from Varys on the war. He reports on a victory at Duskendale, which Littlefinger observes is a "terrible defeat for the north," although one in which "Robb Stark played no part. The Young Wolf remains unbeaten in the field." Tywin says that Robb has returned to Riverrun, "abandoning the castles he took in the west," and that preparations are being made to attack Riverrun when he moves north.

Ser Kevan says that Balon Greyjoy, calling himself King of the Isles and the North, has offered to join them in alliance. Tywin observes that Greyjoy now controls the Neck and that Winterfell has fallen, and that Greyjoy's ships could be turned against Lannisport and Highgarden. Greyjoy wants only to be recognized as king of "everything north of the Neck." Redwyne scoffs at the idea that there's anything in the north worth having, and Tyrell says, "Let King Balon finish the northmen whilst we finish Stannis."

Tywin observes that they still have to deal with Lysa Arryn, "whose husband was conspiring with Stannis Baratheon at the time of his death." Tyrell thinks there's nothing to worry about from her because she's only a woman, and Redwyne says she hasn't "committed any over acts of treason." But Tyrion reminds them that Lysa threw him into a sky-cell and put him on trial for his life, and that she hasn't sworn fealty to Joffrey as she was ordered to do. He offers to take an army and "sort out Lysa Arryn."

But Tywin has another solution to the problem: marry Lysa to Littlefinger, who proposes to woo her and "deliver you the Vale of Arryn without a drop of blood being spilled." When Lord Rowan questions whether she will have him, Littlefinger replies, "She's had me a few times before." And now that he's Lord of Harrenhal, there is no problem about her marrying someone beneath her. Tyrion raises one objection: Littlefinger "is our wizard of coin, and we have no one to replace him." But he finds that the matter is already settled: Lord Tywin tells Tyrion, "You are admirably suited to the task, I believe."

That settled, Lord Redwyne wants to return to the matter of the alliance with Balon Greyjoy, but Tywin is content to let the matter rest for the time being: "Granted enough time, a better option may well present itself." Tyrion wonders what his father is up to, and recalls him saying, "Some battles are won with swords and spears, others with quills and ravens."

Then they talk about the wedding preparations, and when Mace Tyrell hears that a contingent from Dorne is expected, blusters about not having given them permission to cross his lands. Tywin reminds him that Prince Doran is coming at his son's invitation, "not only to join in our celebration, but to claim his seat on this council, and the justice Robert denied him for the murder of his sister Elia and her children." And Kevan points out that when Joffrey marries Margaery and Myrcella marries Prince Trystane, they'll "all be one great House."

Then there's a dividing-up of "the fruits of victory," in which Tyrell gets the lion's share. And Varys gives a report on various international news, including an item that "Sailors back from the Jade Sea report that a three-headed dragon has hatched in Qarth." And when Cersei proposes executing the gold cloaks who deserted during the battle, Varys suggests that they be sent to the Night's Watch because there have been reports of "wildlings astir." Tywin dismisses that idea and wants their knees broken, so that "any man who sees them begging in the streets" will learn the lesson. Tyrion argues that they break only a few knees and send the rest to the Watch, which "is grievously under strength." But Tywin thinks that the wildlings are a problem for the Starks and the Greyjoys. "King Robb and King Balon both claim the north. Let them defend it, if they can. And if not, this Mance Rayder might even prove a useful ally."

There being no more business, Tywin dismisses everyone except his immediate family: Kevan, Cersei, and Tyrion. When they're alone, Tyrion proclaims his distrust for Littlefinger and his suggestion that he be made master of coin, and he and Cersei fall to insulting each other until Tywin puts an end to their "unseemly squabbling." And Kevan says that Littlefinger demonstrated his loyalty by reporting the Tyrell plan to marry Sansa to Willas Tyrell. Tyrion is surprised that the news came from Littlefinger and not from Varys, and Cersei is furious that anyone should be trying to do something to her hostage without her permission.

Tywin says the marriage won't take place. "I will not have the rose and the direwolf in bed together." He will prevent it by marriage. He tells Cersei "So long as you remain unwed, you allow Stannis to spread his disgusting slander.... You must have a new husband in your bed, to father children on you." Cersei protests furiously: "Three children is quite sufficient. I am Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, not a brood mare! The Queen Regent!" But Tywin is adamant: "You will marry and you will breed." And after going through a number of possibilities, as Cersei says, "No, no, no," he decides that solidifying the alliance with Highgarden is the best option, and that she will marry Willas Tyrell, unless she can come up with a better idea. Seething, Cersei says she will need a few days to think it over, and asks her father's leave.

Tyrion is delighted by Cersei's plight, but not for long. His father then turns to him and tells him, "It is past time you were wed." Tyrion knows what he has in mind: "You mean to wed me to Sansa Stark. But won't the Tyrells take the match as an affront, if they have designs on the girl?" Not if Tyrion marries her before the wedding of Joffrey and Margaery, his father says. They had given them no hint that they were thinking of Sansa for Willas. And Kevan adds that "any lingering resentments should be soothed by the offer of Cersei for ... Willas."

Tyrion rubbed at the raw stub of his nose. The scar tissue itched abominably sometimes. "His Grace the royal pustule has made Sansa's life a misery since the day her father died, and now that she is finally rid of Joffrey you propose to marry her to me. That seems singularly cruel. Even for you, Father." 

But Tywin says he's not interested in Sansa's happiness. "Our alliances in the south may be as solid as Casterly Rock, but there remains the north to win, and the key to the north is Sansa Stark." He tells Tyrion that he has proposed marrying him to other houses, but has always been rejected on the grounds that the proposal was an insult. If he doesn't marry Sansa, he will find "some little lordling who'd gladly part with a daughter to win the friendship of Casterly Rock. Lady Tanda has offered Lollys..." Tyrion shudders at the thought.

When Tyrion protests that he had always hoped to marry someone who wanted him in her bed, Tywin cruelly says, "If you think your whores want you in their bed, you are an even greater fool than I suspected." The reminder that he might become Lord of Winterfell through the marriage does appeal to him, but he points out that it's more likely that Robb Stark will produce an heir with "one of those fertile Freys" he has sworn to marry. And here Tywin reveals something that he didn't tell the council: "The Young Wolf has taken Gawen Westerling's eldest daughter to wife."

Tyrion is stunned at the news, not least because of Robb's breaking "his sworn word." It is Ser Kevan who reveals more about the family Robb has married into:

"Gawen is a good man, but his wife is Sybell Spicer. He should never have wed her. The Westerlings always did have more honor than sense. Lady Sybell's grandfather was a trader in saffron and pepper, almost as lowborn as that smuggler Stannis keeps. And the grandmother was some woman he'd brought back from the east. A frightening old crone, supposed to be a priestess. Maegi, they called her."

Tyrion is not bothered by the lineage, but he is still amazed at Robb's behavior: "He forswore himself, shamed an ally, betrayed a solemn promise. Where is the honor in that?" Ser Kevan observes, "He chose the girl's honor over his own. Once he had deflowered her, he had no other course." Tyrion is still pondering the enigma of this strange marriage when his father reminds him, "You will marry Sansa Stark, Tyrion. And soon."