19. A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 690-728

Theon

An army is gathering outside Winterfell, and Maester Luwin has come to advise Theon to yield. There have been no responses to the birds Luwin sent to Theon's uncle and his father. Theon insists that there's enough food in Winterfell to last out a year's siege, but he is so outnumbered that resistance is pointless. He orders Luwin to send more ravens, to tell Wex to polish his armor, and to have the garrison assemble.

He tells the assembled men that Ser Rodrik Cassel and the Stark bannermen will attack before night, but that he intends to stay and resist the assault. "Those who would stay and fight, step forward." No one moves for a few moments, but finally seventeen men join him. The ten men his sister had brought are not among them.

Black Lorren tells him that the people of the castle will join the side of the attackers once the fighting begins, which Theon already knows. He has a deterrent planned. He goes to the watchtower and examines the banners of the gathered troops. There are no Glovers or Boltons or Umbers among them, he notes.

Then words comes that Ser Rodrik wants "to parley with Theon Turncloak." The epithet stings, though it's accurate: His mission had been to get his father's ships to attack the Lannisters. He calls down to the messenger that he will be coming out by himself. Ser Rodrik is waiting for him in the market square, and spits on the ground when Theon addresses him, and reminds him that Eddard Stark "raised you among his own sons, the sweet boys you have butchered, and to my undying shame I trained you in the arts of war." He orders Theon to surrender. "Those who murdered no children shall be free to walk away, but you shall be held for King Robb's justice."

Theon presents his terms: "You have until evenfall to disperse. Those who swear fealty to Balon Greyjoy as their king and to myself as Prince of Winterfell will be confirmed in their rights and properties and suffer no harm. Those who defy us will be destroyed." Ser Rodrick replies that he has two thousand men to his fifty. "Seventeen in truth," Theon thinks, then says, "I have something better than men." He gives a signal, then watches Ser Rodrik's face: "He is not surprised, he thought with sadness, but the fear is there."

The anger is, too. Ser Rodrik calls Theon a "Viper," and declares, "I ought cut you down here and now and put an end to your lies and deceits." Theon replies, "Forswear your oath and murder me, and you will watch your little Beth strangle at the end of a rope." Ser Rodrik offers to take his daughter's place as hostage, but Theon refuses. "If this host is still in arms before my gate when the sun sets, Beth will hang." He rides back through the gate, above which Beth Cassel, a noose around her neck, stands between the small heads of the miller's boys whom Theon had killed in place of Bran and Rickon.

Theon goes back to Ned Stark's chambers, aware that the attack will still take place and that they are outnumbered. He has Wex bring his bow, and he goes to practice firing arrows. "If I hang the girl, the northmen will attack at once, he thought as he loosed a shaft. If I do not hang her, they will know my threats are empty. He knocked another arrow to his bow. There is no way out, none." But then Maester Luwin appears with a way out: "Take the black." Ser Rodrik, he tells Theon, will let him join the Night's Watch if he surrenders. Theon seizes on the idea and begins to persuade himself to do it.

He has almost made up his mind to follow Luwin's advice when one of his men appears: "More men came up, hundreds of them, and at first they made to join the others. But now they've fallen on them!" When he hears the description of the new men's banners, Theon knows who they are.

The flayed man of the Dreadfort. Reek had belonged to the Bastard of Bolton before his capture, Theon recalled. It was hard to believe that a vile creature like him could sway the Boltons to change their allegiance, but nothing else made sense.

He goes to see this battle, followed by Luwin. The Dreadfort men had taken Ser Rodrik's men by surprise and are prevailing over them. It begins to grow dark and smoke from the burning inn hides what is happening. Then a column of horsemen emerge from the smoke and ride toward the main gate of Winterfell. It is led by a knight in dark armor and a red helmet. Three bodies are dumped before the gates: Ser Rodrik's, Leobald Tallhart's and Cley Cerwyn's. Maester Luwin falls to his knees in dismay and is sick.

Theon orders the gates opened for the Dreadfort men. The knight removes his helmet and Theon identifies him as Reek. But in fact he is the Bastard of Bolton, Ramsay Snow, who changed clothes with the real Reek, who was killed. He reminds Theon that he was promised a girl if he brought two hundred men, and instead he brought his father's garrison. Theon orders the kennel girl, Palla, brought out, but the Bastard wants Theon's own bedmate, Kyra. When Theon angrily protests, the Bastard backhands him with a mailed fist and Theon blacks out.

When Theon wakes up he finds that the Dreadfort men have taken Winterfell and are slaughtering his men. He sees Maester Luwin stabbed from behind. "'Save me the Freys,' the Bastard was shouting as the flames roared upward, 'and burn the rest. Burn it, burn it all.'" The last thing Theon sees is his horse, Smiler, running from the stables with his mane on fire.

Tyrion

In his delirium, Tyrion dreams of death and the dying. "My work, thought Tyrion Lannister. They died at my command." There are so many corpses that he thinks, "Why did I kill them all? He had known once, but somehow he had forgotten." There are silent sisters in gray moving among them, removing their armor and their clothes, and he tries to speak to them but realizes he doesn't have a mouth. "Smooth seamless skin covered his teeth. The discovery terrifies him."

When he wakes again he finds himself in his own bed under a heap of blankets and furs. He is sweating profusely. "Fever, he thought groggily." He tries to remember the battle, and when he sees Ser Mandon, fear causes him to wet himself. He calls out for help but no one comes, and he falls back to sleep. He sees Cersei and his father standing over him, but thinks it must be a dream because Lord Tywin is supposed to be off fighting Robb Stark. Others appear, such as Varys and Littlefinger. He hears them talking but can't understand the words.

He realizes that they must have won the battle. "We must have, else I'd be a head on a spike somewhere. If I live, we won." He can sense that he is regaining control of his senses. The next time he wakes, Podrick Payne is standing over him but runs off when he sees Tyrion open his eyes.  He tries to call out but can't. Then he feels his face and realizes it is covered with bandages and plaster.

Podrick returns with a maester and asks if he wants something to drink. He sips through a copper funnel inserted through a hole in the plaster and bandages, but realizes that is is milk of the poppy and he's asleep before he can object. This time he dreams he's at a feast and his bravery is being celebrated. He kneels before Jaime and is made a knight. Shae is there, too.

When he wakes this time the room is cold and empty, and he feels the pain in his face and the right side of his body. He remembers that Ser Mandon Moore had tried to kill him and that Podrick had saved him. The room isn't his, and he gives out an angry moan. "They have moved me here to die." He dreams that he is in a seaside cottage with Tysha, his wife, but remembers how angry he was when he discovered the trick that had been played on him.

He wakes from another drugged sleep to see the maester's "soft pink face" over him, urging him to drink more of the opiate. He reaches and grabs the maester's chain and starts to choke the man. When the maester gets his breath back, Tyrion motions for him to remove the bandages on his face. The man protests, "You are not yet healed, the queen would...." That Cersei has had a hand in this infuriate him and he threatens the maester with a fist. Through the mask Tyrion orders, "Do. It."

The maester removes the bandages, and Tyrion feels the fiery pain as his faces is uncovered. The maester says it would have been wiser to keep the bandages on longer, but adds, "Still, it looks clean, good, good. When we found you down in that cellar among the dead and dying, your wounds were filthy." He tells Tyrion one of his ribs was broken and they were afraid he'd lose an arm because of the arrow wound in it, but "now it seems to be healing clean."

Tyrion asks the maester's name and learns that it's Ballabar. He asks for a looking glass, which the man is reluctant to provide. He also asks for wine. "No poppy." After two cups of wine, Tyrion feels ready to look at his face. There is a long gash starting under his left eye and extending to the right jaw. "Three-quarters of his nose was gone, and a chunk of his lip." He remembers Ser Mandon Moore extending his left hand and then a sword blow aimed at his head that he had dodged, though not enough to avoid the cut. "Cersei must have paid him to see that I never came back from the battle.... Another gift from my sweet sister."

He asks where he is, and learns that he is in Maegor's Holdfast over the Queen's Ballroom. "Her Grace wanted you kept close, so she might watch over you herself," Maester Ballabar tells him. He says he wants to be taken to his own chambers, but is told that the King's Hand has taken them over. He learns now that his father has been named Hand, and that it was Tywin's arrival with Lord Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers and Littlefinger that turned the tide of battle. "The smallfolk say it was King Renly's ghost, but wiser men know better."

Tyrion thinks who he can send for that he can trust, and finally asks for Podrick Payne. When Pod arrives, Tyrion tells him to send for Maeser Frenken, not Ballabar, and have him make dreamwine. He wants his own guard, and learns that Bronn has been knighted. Then he asks about Ser Mandon. "The boy flinched. 'I n-never meant to k-k-k-k-" All Tyrion wants to know for certain is that Mandon is dead, and when he's assured of that, he says, "Good. Say nothing. Of him. Of me. Any of it. Nothing."

Jon

They are trapped, and Qhorin Halfhand sends Jon for some brush to build a fire. He wonders if Ghost will howl for him when he's dead, the way Bran's wolf did when he fell. Only Jon and Qhorin remain of the five rangers in the party. Dalbridge, Ebben, and Stonesnake had been sent off on reconnaissance, and they had heard a horn that let them know that Dalbridge had been killed. Ebben had been dispatched back to Mormont and the rest of the expedition. Stonesnake's horse had been frightened by a shadowcat and broke its leg, so he remained behind to try to pick off the pursuers. "At every dawn and every dusk they saw the eagle soaring between the peaks, no more than a speck in the vastness of the sky."

One night Qhorin asks Jon to repeat the oath of the Night's Watch with him. Their horses are worn out, and Jon doubts that Qhorin's will last another day. Then Qhorin tells him, "If we are taken, you must yield." Jon refuses, but Qhorin says, "You will. I command it of you."

"If we are taken, you will go over to them, as the wildling girl you captured once urged you. They may demand that you cut your cloak to ribbons, that you swear them an oath on your father's grave, that you curse your brothers and your Lord Commander. You must not balk, whatever is asked of you. Do as they bid you ... but in your heart, remember who and what you are. Ride with them, eat with them, fight with them, for as long as it takes. And watch."

Jon agrees reluctantly. Then Qhorin has him build the fight "bright and hot," and ride away with him. They reach a place for the night that is hidden behind a waterfall, and Qhorin takes the first watch. The next morning they ride through a narrow passage that they have to persuade the horses through, and Jon thinks that they have lost their trackers. But when they emerge they see the eagle perched on a tree a hundred feet above them. Ghost tries to catch it but the bird flies off.

When he sees the direction the bird took, he tells Jon that this is where they will make a stand. They hear a hunting horn and know that they'll be there soon. They see the wildlings appear on a ridge a half mile away. Jon counts fourteen, with eight dogs. Qhorin and Jon draw their swords. The wildlings halt ten yards away and their leader, wearing armor made of bones, comes forward alone. Qhorin addresses him as "Rattleshirt," which provokes the wildling. He is joined by a woman, one of the wildlings' "spearwives," who reaches into a sack and pulls out Ebben's head. Rattleshirt calls for the bowmen to aim.

"No!" The word burst from Jon's lips before the bowmen could loose. He took two quick steps forward. "We yield!" 


"They warned me bastard blood was craven, he heard Qhorin Halfhand say coldly behind him. "I see it is so. Run to your new masters, coward."

Jon goes down the slope to Rattleshirt, who says, "The free folk have no need of cravens." But behind him one of the archers removes her sheepskin helmet and says, "This is the Bastard of Winterfell, who saved me. Let him live." Rattleshirt, however, says he doesn't trust him, and the eagle "split the air with a scream of fury." Ygritte says the bird was a man before Jon killed him. Rattleshirt tells the spearwife, "Ragwyle, gut him." But she suggests they put him to the test first.

Jon says he'll do whatever they order him to do, and Rattleshirt orders him to kill Qhorin Halfhand. So Jon fights Halfhand, remembering, "You must not balk, whatever is asked of you." Halfhand almost overcomes him, and Jon "could feel his arms growing numb" when Ghost moves in and seizes Qhorin by the calf. Then Jon sees his opening and slashes at Halfhand's throat, cutting it with the very tip of the sword.

Jon thinks, "He knew what they would ask of me." He thinks of his companions on the Wall and wonders if he has lost them the way he lost his family at Winterfell. Rattleshirt still wants to kill him, but others remind him that he yielded and that he killed his brother of the Watch. Rattleshirt insists that he couldn't have done it without the wolf's help and that "He is a warg ... and a crow. I like him not." The others prevail, however. "These are a free folk indeed, thought Jon."

They burn Halfhand's body, and Rattleshirt claims some of the bones. Jon asks Ygritte if they are going back through the Skirling Pass, but she tells him, "There's nothing behind us.... By now Mance is well down the Milkwater, marching on your Wall."

Bran

Through the wolf's eyes, Bran sees the burning of Winterfell, "and in the sky he saw a great winged snake whose roar was a river of flame." He hears the barking of dogs and the screams of horses and men, but he and his brother stay hidden in the forest. In the morning, when the fire has died, they prowl through the ruins, frightening the crows away from the corpses. He and his brother find a dying horse and fight over it. He wins, and feeds first, then lets his brother feed.

Then he feels himself being pulled back into the darkness, as a voice whispers, "Bran, come back." "He closed his third eye and opened the other two, the old two, the blind two." Meera asks what he saw, and he tells her "It was Winterfell. It was all on fire. There were horse smells, and steel, and blood. They killed everyone, Meera." He drinks some water eagerly, and asks, "How long?" Jojen tells him that he has been away for three days. Jojen says that's too long, and when Bran insists that he ate, tells him, "The wolf ate.... Not you."

He asks for Osha, and she speaks to him out of the darkness. He tells her that he saw Winterfell burning, and she says it was a dream. But he insists that they have to go see if it was true. Osha is afraid that Thoren will catch her and flay her as he had threatened, so Meera tells Bran she'll go. Osha lights a torch, and Bran can see the tombs of the Starks. "And in the mouth of the empty tomb that waited for Lord Eddard Stark, beneath his stately granite likeness, the six fugitives huddled round their little cache of bread and water and dried meat."

Bran assures them that he has seen the ruins of the castle, so they prepare to go above. Bran is hoisted into the basket on Hodor's back, and they make their way past the effigies of the old Kings in the North. Osha goes first and is away long enough for them to grow uneasy. Finally she returns to say that something is blocking the door to the crypt and she can't budge it. Bran says, "Hodor can move anything."

When they reach the door, they take Bran from the basket as Hodor pushes and shoves at the door until finally it gives way. They emerge into the ruins of the First Keep. "Nearby some crows were pecking at a body crushed beneath the tumbled stone, but he lay facedown and Bran could not say who he was." Osha observes that they "made enough noise to wake a dragon," but no one has come to see what it was. And then they hear a sound, and Summer and Shaggydog appear.

They explore the ruins and discover Theon's men among the corpses, and one with the sigil of the Dreadfort. Summer gives a howl and runs to the godswood. They follow and find Maester Luwin lying prone by the pool under the heart tree. He is still alive and pleased to find that Bran and Rickon are, too, though he had known that neither of the boys Theon had killed was Bran because of the muscles in the legs. Bran tells him that they had doubled back and hidden in the crypt.

Osha wants to make a little so they can carry Luwin to get help, but he insists that he's dying. He tells Osha that the boys must be separated and taken to different places. He warns them that many of the people friendly to the Starks are dead, including Ser Rodrik. He tells Bran that he must be strong, and all of them but Osha to leave him now.

When she joins them shortly, she says Hodor should take Bran, and she will take Rickon. Meera and Jojen say they will go with Bran. They find some still-edible provisions in the kitchens. Bran watches Osha and Rickon and Shaggydog leave by the East Gate, then they go out through the Hunter's Gate. It is Jojen who decides which way to go: north.

Bran looks back at Winterfell and reflects, "It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I'm not dead either."

13. A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 498-532

Bran

Bran/Summer (in his dream they are one) hears a faint sound of steel scraping on stone, and he howls. Shaggydog joins him, his fur bristling at the hint of danger. He throws himself against the chained gate that keeps him in the godswood, but to no avail. He hears a shout in the night, and looks for a way over the wall. There is a tall tree, and the boy part of him remembers how to climb it, but the wolf part is unable. Then he hears the dogs in the kennels begin to bark: "They smelled it too; the scent of foes and fear." He hurls himself up the tree and gets a foothold so he can climb, but "suddenly he was sliding, stumbling. He yowled in fear and fury, falling, falling, and twisted around while the ground rushed up to break him...."

The falling wakes Bran, who realizes what is happening: "The sea has come. It's flowing over the walls, just as Jojen saw." He calls for help, but no one comes because Ser Rodrik has taken the guard off his door, needing every able-bodied man he could find to go to the defense of Torrhen's Square, which "was under attack by some monstrous war chief named Dagmer Cleftjaw." Bran calls for Hodor, but suddenly the door crashes open and a strange man carrying a dirk and with an axe strapped to his back enters, followed by Theon Greyjoy.

The sight of Theon is a welcome one, until Theon tells him, "I've taken your castle, my prince." Bran is confused: "But you're Father's ward." Theon replies that Bran and Rickon are his wards now, and that his men are gathering all the residents of the castle into the Great Hall. "You and I are going to speak to them. You'll tell them how you've yielded Winterfell to me, and command them to serve and obey their new lord as they did the old."

Bran refuses, but Theon insists that he will. He leaves, saying that he will send someone to dress Bran and bring him to the Great Hall. Bran waits, expecting to see Hodor or one of the servants, but it is Maester Luwin who comes to him. He explained that Theon's men swam the moat and climbed the walls. They killed Alebelly at the gate. Luwin sent off two ravens, but one was shot down.

Luwin helps Bran dress and tells him there is no shame in yielding the castle. One of Theon's men comes to carry Bran, and Luwin gathers Rickon on the way. They meet Meera and Jojen and the Freys as well. When they reach the Great Hall, Rickon says, "Theon's sitting in Robb's chair," and Bran tells him to hush.

Maester Luwin explains to Theon that the Freys are Catelyn's wards, and that Jojen and Meera had come to Winterfell to renew the oath of fealty the Reeds had sworn.  The last of the staff are driven into the hall, followed by the prisoner called Reek, who explains to Theon why he is there, and says that his real name is Heke.

Bran notices that there are only twenty of Theon's men there, and assumes that if he left guards on the gates and the armory there were only thirty of them in all. He tells the group that he has yielded Winterfell to Theon and that they should do what he asks. But the smith, Mikken, shouts out, "Damned if I will!" One of Theon's men silences him with a blow from the butt of his spear. When Theon speaks again, however, Mikken shouts something, then is silenced forever when he is stabbed through the throat. Hodor begins to shout "Hodor hodor hodor hodor," and is beaten by two of the men when Theon orders them to "shut that halfwit up." Theon continues to address the crowd.

"Torrhen's Square and Deepwood Motte will soon be ours as well, and my uncle is sailing up the Saltspear to seize Moat Cailin. If Robb Stark can stave off the Lannisters, he may reign as King of the Trident hereafter, but House Greyjoy holds the north now."

Reek speaks up and volunteers his services in support of Theon (and promises to "wash some" if needed), so Theon has one of his men give Reek a spear and has him swear "obedience to House Greyjoy and King Balon." Then Osha surprises Bran by stepping forward and saying she will fight for Theon too if he'll give her a spear. The man who killed Mikken grabs his crotch and says, "I've got a spear for you right here." But when Osha knees him in the groin and grabs the spear away from him, then knocks the man down with it, Theon tells her to keep the spear and swear her loyalty.

Hodor, bleeding and weeping, carries Bran back to his room.

Arya

Arya is in the kitchens, trying to persuade Hot Pie to give her a tart, when she hears the sound of a warhorn and the portcullis being raised. She swipes a tart and runs off to see what is happening. The mercenaries known as the Bloody Mummers are entering with cartloads of looted goods and a train of prisoners. There are at least a hundred of them, and she recognizes from their sigils that they're all men allied to Robb. Ser Amory Lorch appears and asks the leader of the Mummers, Vargo Hoat, what's going on. Hoat explains that his group attacked the forces commanded by Roose Bolton, and captured their commander, Robett Glover and Ser Aenys Frey. Lorch orders them sent to the dungeons.

Arya slips away from the crowd and finds Gendry in the armory. She tells him about the captives, and asks him to help her free them. The castle is poorly defended now, and there are almost as many men among the captives as there are among Ser Amory's men. "We just have to get them out and we can take over the castle and escape." Gendry is uninterested: He's a smith, he says, and it doesn't matter who he works for. "A sword's a sword, a helm's a helm, and if you reach in the fire you get burned, no matter who you're serving. Lucan's a fair enough master. I'll stay here." Arya reminds him that the queen is after him, and there must be some reason why she wants him, but he is unmoved.

Then she thinks about finding Jaqen, who still owes her a death. She remembers Old Nan's stories about people who had been granted wishes, and how "you had to be especially careful with the third wish, because it was the last. Chiswyck and Weese hadn't been very important. The last death has to count." She goes to the godswood and finds the sword she had made herself out of a broomstick and practices the moves Syrio Forel taught her. She climbs a tree and dances out onto the limbs to practice keeping her balance.

When she tires, she climbs down and tries to pray to the old gods, but thoughts of how they have never made her prayers come true anger her. Her father prayed to them often, she recalls. "I don't care if you help me or not. I don't think you could even if you wanted to." A voice behind her says, "Gods are not mocked, girl." It is Jaqen. She begins to ask him questions: How did he know she was there? How did he make Weese's dog kill him? Are Rorge and Biter human or demons? "Is Jaqen H'ghar your true name."

"Some men have many names. Weasel. Arry. Arya," and adds, "My lady of Stark." She is surprised that he has uncovered her identity, but asks him to kill the guards and help the men in the dungeons escape. He reminds her that he owes her only one more death. Killing one guard won't be enough, she says, but he persists: "Three lives were snatched from a god. Three lives must be repaid. The gods are not mocked." She thinks for a moment and asks if he will kill anyone she asks for, and when he says yes, she makes him swear. He replies, placing his hand in the mouth of the face in the weirwood, "By all the gods of sea and air, and even him by fire.... By the seven new gods and the old gods beyond count, I swear it."

They kneel face to face and she whispers in his ear: "It's Jaqen H'ghar."

He is surprised and upset, but suddenly there is a knife in his hand. "A girl will weep," he says. "A girl will lose her only friend." She replies that he's not her friend. "A friend would help me.... I'd never kill a friend." He asks, "A girl might ... name another name then, if a friend did help?" And when she says she might if he helps, he puts the knife away and says, "Come." She is startled that he wants to act so soon, and he replies, "A man hears the whisper of sand in a glass. A man will not sleep until a girl unsays a certain name. Now, evil child."

They leave the godswood and hear a noise of celebration in the castle. Jaqen asks her again to say another name "and cast this mad dream aside," but she refuses, so he orders her to obey his instructions. She is to go to the kitchens and ask Hot Pie to make broth for a hundred men. "A girl will help make broth, and wait in the kitchens until a man comes for her. Go. Run." She does what he tells her, and when the kettles are hot, Jaqen arrives with Rorge and Biter. Jaqen and Arya carry one of the kettles between them, Rorge takes one, and Biter carries two.

They take them to the Widow's Tower, where the men are imprisoned, and the guards let them pass. They descend into the dungeons where there are eight men guarding the prisoners. They gather around the table, and first Rorge and then Jaqen and Biter heave the scalding broth in the guards' faces.

Arya pressed back against the wall as Rorge began to cut throats. Biter preferred to grab the men behind the head and under the chin and crack their necks with a single twist of his huge pale hands. Only one of the guards managed to get a blade out. Jaqen danced away from his slash, drew his own sword, drove the man back into a corner with a flurry of blows, and killed him with a thrust to the heart. The Lorathi brought the blade to Arya with heart's blood and wiped it clean on the front of her shift. "A girl should be bloody too. This is her work." 

The prisoners are freed quickly, and Arya notices that that the wounded ones don't seem as badly wounded as they had when they arrived. And Robett Glover asks if the broth was Hoat's idea. He also asks if they are members of the Brave Companions (i.e., the Bloody Mummers). Jaqen introduces himself as "once of the Free City of Lorath," and his "discourteous companions" Rorge and Biter. Since Biter is currently nibbling on the fingers of one of the dead guards, he doesn't need to say which one he is. When he turns to Arya, she says, "I'm Weasel."

When Rorge and Biter have left with the freed men, Jaqen H'ghar stays behind with Arya. He realizes that she is confused, and he explains, "A goat has no loyalty" -- the Bloody Mummers switched sides on the road, and the imprisonment was only a ruse. Eventually, the prisoners would have been freed to take over the castle without Arya's intervention. Jaqen still wants to "hear a certain name unsaid."

"I take back the name," Arya says, and then asks if she still has a third death coming to her. Jaqen points out the eight bodies: "The debt is paid." She agrees that it has been. And then he says, "A god has his due. And now a man must die." She protests that she has unsaid the name and he doesn't need to die, but he says, "My time is done."

Jaqen passed a hand down his face from forehead to chin, and where it went he changed. His cheeks grew fuller, his eyes closer; his nose hooked, a scar appeared on his right cheek where no scar had been before. And when he shook his head, his long straight hair, half red and half white, dissolved away to reveal a cap of tight black curls.

Arya is "too astonished to be afraid," and asks how he did it, and if she could learn to do it too. She would have to come with him to learn, he says. But she still wants to go home to Winterfell. "Then we must part," he says, and presses a small iron coin in her hand. "If the day comes when you would find me again, give that coin to any man from Braavos, and say these words to him -- valar morghulis." She repeats the words, but begs him, "Please don't go, Jaqen." He replies, "Jaqen is as dead as Arry." He has her repeat valar morghulis once more, and walks off into the darkness.

The castle has been taken by morning, and Arya returns to work, "mopping up dried blood." She sees "people looking at her strangely" and hears jokes about "weasel soup." That evening the new master of Harrenhal, Roose Bolton, arrives. He is an ordinary-looking man except "for his queer pale eyes." The fool Shagwell pulls her over to him and introduces her as "the weasel who made the soup." Bolton asks how old she is, and it takes Arya a moment to remember that she is ten. He asks what her real name is, and she says it's Nymeria, but that her mother called her Nan. He asks if she's afraid of leeches, and she says, "They're only leeches. My lord." He indicates that his squire is afraid of them, but that he believes "Frequent leechings are the secret of a long life. A man must purge himself of bad blood." He makes her his cupbearer for as long as he's at Harrenhal.

The banners of the Lannisters and Ser Amory Lorch are hauled down and the "flayed man of the Dreadfort and the direwolf of Stark" are raised in their place. Ser Amory is paraded naked to the bear pit and kicked in by Shagwell.

Daenerys

Continuing her quest for ships and sailors, Daenerys visits the palace of the warlocks, which is "a grey and ancient ruin" that Xaro Xhoan Daxos calls the Palace of Dust. Everyone advises her not to enter it, but Daenerys is stubborn, and when Pyat Pree appears, she takes his arm. He warns her to follow his instructions carefully, "The House of the Undying Ones was not made for mortal men."

Inside it, she will find herself in a room with four doors, counting the one she entered through. Always take the door to the right, he says. If she comes to a stairwell, go up. Never go downstairs. Some doors will be open, and inside them she will see things, some horrible, some wonderful; some will be visions of the past, and some of the future, and some of things that will never be. Don't enter them until she comes to the "audience chamber." People may speak to her as she proceeds, and it's up to her whether she answers them or ignores them. "When you come to the chamber of the Undying, be patient. Our little lives are no more than a flicker of a moth's wing to them. Listen well, and write each word on your heart."

At the entrance, which is a door shaped like a mouth in a wall shaped like a face, a dwarf no taller than her knee holds on a tray "a slender crystal glass filled with a thick blue liquid: shade of the evening, the wine of warlocks." Pyat Pree tells her to drink it and it will open her eyes and ears to the truths revealed inside. The first sip tastes like "ink and spoiled meat," but as it comes to life in her when she swallows it becomes "all the tastes she had ever known, and none of them."

She enters, and keeps moving through rooms, always taking the right-hand door, until she reaches a long hallway in which the only doors are on the left; on the right are a row of torches mounted on the wall. Drogon, who has been perched on her shoulder, unfolds his wings and flies "twenty feet before thudding to an undignified crash." The carpet underfoot is moldy but had once been gorgeous, and there are sounds like rats scurrying in the walls, which attract Drogon's notice.

Most of the doors on the left are closed, but strange sounds come from them. Daenerys tries not to look in the ones that are open, but she can't help it. One room contains mutilated corpses. "In a throne above them sat a dead man with the head of a wolf. He wore an iron crown and held a leg of lamb in one hand as a king might hold a scepter, and his eyes followed Dany with mute appeal." The next open door showed her the house where she had lived in Braavos, a house with a red door that was one of the few pleasant memories of her childhood remaining.

Another door shows her a man whom she at first takes for Viserys and a woman nursing a baby they have named Aegon, "What better name for a king?" The woman asks if he will make a song for the baby, and he says, "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." His eyes meet Daenerys's and he says, "The dragon has three heads."

She walks on until she reaches a staircase that descends into darkness. She knows she's not supposed to go down them, but all the doors are on the left, and behind her the torches are going out. In the darkness she hears something "shuffling and dragging itself slowly along the faded carpet." Drogon hears it too, she realizes, and she is panicked about what to do when she realizes that the last door on the left is the first door on the right. She plunges through it into another room with four doors, and keeps going through room after room, always to the right, until she starts getting dizzy.

Finally she reaches another room, and the door facing her is open. It's round and shaped like a mouth, and she can see Pyat Pree outside. He says it's too soon for her to have reached there and she must have taken a wrong turn. He reaches out a hand and says he'll show her the way. But then she notices a closed door on the right and opens it. He calls out to her, "Stubborn child. You will be lost, and never found," and when she goes through the door she can hear him screeching, "No, to me, come to me, to meeeeeee."

There is a stairwell inside, climbing upward, though she remembers that from the outside the building had no towers. On the right, a set of beautiful but "somehow frightening" doors made of ebony and weirwood, with "strange interwoven patterns" in the grain, have been thrown open. She goes into a great hall where there is a gathering of wizards, male and female, in a variety of costumes, and the sound of "the most beautiful music she had ever heard." A man rises and welcomes her: "Come and share the food of forever. We are the Undying of Qarth." Others join in the welcome.

She starts to go forward, but Drogon leaps from her shoulder and perches on top of the ebony-and-weirwood door and starts to bite it. She goes to the door, which is very heavy, and finds behind it a hidden door, to the right of the one through which she had entered. The wizards call out to her to come to them, but she goes through the door that had been hidden, which is "old grey wood, splintery and plain," and finds herself in "a chamber awash in gloom."

There is a long stone table in the room, and above it floats "a human heart, swollen and blue with corruption, yet still alive." There are blue shadowy figures around the table, but "no sound but the slow, deep beat of the rotting heart." Then she hears voices saying "mother of dragons ... dragons ... dragons ... dragons." She sits in the empty chair at the foot of the table and introduces herself as "Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros." She asks them to speak to her "with the wisdom of those who have conquered death."

She begins to make out the figures around the table, old men and women, "wrinkled and hairless," dressed in rotting clothing. Gradually she begins to hear them whisper that they live and know.  She says she saw visions of things in the hall and asks what they meant. She begins to hear their voices: "mother of dragons ... child of three ... three heads has the dragon ... three fires you must light ... one for life and one for death and one to love ... three mounts you must ride ... one to bed and one to dread and one to love ... three treasons will you know ... once for blood and once for gold and once for love ..." She tells them she doesn't understand, and asks them to show her. She sees Viserys screaming as the molten gold kills him. "A tall lord with copper skin and silver-gold hair stood beneath the banner of a fiery stallion, a burning city behind him." A "blue-eyed king who cast no shadow" raises a red sword. There is a cloth dragon carried on poles through a cheering crowd. A stone beast flies from a tower that is smoking. Her horse trots through grass to a stream under a sky full of stars. A corpse stands smiling at the prow of a ship. A sweet-smelling blue flower grows from a chink in a wall of ice.

The visions keep coming faster and faster: The shadows dancing in the tent, a little girl running to a house with a red door, Mirri Maz Duur shrieking in the flames, "a dragon bursting from her brow." A silver horse dragging the corpse of a naked man. A white lion running through tall grass. Naked crones emerging from a lake and bowing to her. Slaves with bloody hands calling out to her, "Mother!" She opens her arms to give herself to them.

Then suddenly Drogon's wings are beating around her and the dragon is screaming as she realizes that the Undying surround her, reaching for her, "licking, sucking, biting." She can't move until there is a sudden glare in the room and she sees Drogon tearing at the heart, shredding its flesh, "and when his head snapped forward, fire flew from his open jaws, bright and hot." Around her the Undying are on fire. She pushes through them to the door and calls for Drogon, who flies to her. She finds herself in a serpentine passageway with no doors but only stone walls until she reaches "a door like an open mouth" and runs through it into the sunlight.

Behind her, smoke is rising from the roof of the Palace of Dust and coming through the cracks in the walls. "Howling curses, Pyat Pree drew a knife and danced toward her, but Drogon flew at his face." Jhogo's whip sends the knife flying, and Rakharo wrestles the warlock to the ground. Jorah Mormont is there and puts his arm around her shoulder.

17. A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 729-761

Bran

Ser Rodrik Cassel has returned to Winterfell to train more men, but Bran, who watches the training with Maester Luwin, is not impressed with the way things are going. And he is, of course, depressed by his inability to fight. So he tells the maester about the dream he has had: A crow with three eyes has flown into his bedroom and told him to go down into the crypt; there he met his father and talked with him. He had been particularly bothered by how sad his father seemed. That morning, he had asked Hodor to take him down to the crypts, but Hodor was frightened to go down into them.

Maester Luwin tries to reassure Bran that his father isn't in the crypts, and that he won't be for many years. He is a prisoner in King's Landing, he says, so he can't possibly be there. Bran insists that he wants to go see for himself, so Luwin asks Osha to carry Bran. Luwin goes, too, as does Summer. But at a certain point the wolf balks and will go no farther, even when Bran, in Osha's arms, continues. Bran tells Osha what he knows about the lords buried there, and mentions that his father's brother, Brandon, and sister, Lyanna, are there too, represented by statues even those are supposed to be reserved for lords only.

Art Parkinson as Rickon Stark

They reach the place reserved for Eddard Stark's tomb, which is where Bran had dreamed of seeing him. Luwin assures him that his father isn't there, but when he reaches inside the empty tomb, something springs out and sinks its teeth into Luwin's hand. Bran screams for Summer, who comes and attacks. The attacker turns out to be Shaggydog. Bran's little brother Rickon emerges from the tomb and calls off Shaggydog. 

"You let my father be," Rickon says to Luwin. Bran tells Rickon that their father isn't there, but Rickon insists that he is, that like Bran he saw him in his dreams. "He's coming home now, like he promised." Luwin is clearly puzzled that the two boys should have had the same dreams. And although he resists Bran's suggestion that he and Rickon and their wolves should go to the maester's tower to wait for their father's return, he finally gives in.

There Osha dresses Luwin's bite wounds, and the maester tells them about the legends of the children of the forest, the people of the Dawn Age before the arrival of the First Men. Luwin tells the boys that the children are all gone now, but Osha insists that they still exist north of the Wall. Luwin dismisses this notion as superstition, but as he continues with his story, suddenly first Summer and then Shaggydog start to howl. When the wolves stop howling, a raven arrives. It has dried blood on its wings.

Bran starts to shiver while Luwin reads the letter the bird has carried. "What is it?" he asks, holding Rickon tightly. Osha says, "You know what it is, boy." Luwin turns to them with tears in his eyes and says, "we shall need to find a stonecarver who knew his likeness well...."

Sansa

The torment of what she had witnessed has not left Sansa when Joffrey appears in her room and orders her to appear in court that afternoon. "If you won't rise and dress yourself, my Hound will do it for you," he tells her. Sandor Clegane picks her up from her bed and pushes her toward her wardrobe, though he does so "almost gently."

Sansa backed away from them. "I did as the queen asked, I wrote the letters, I wrote what she told me. You promised you'd be merciful. Please, let me go home. I won't do any treason, I'll be good, I swear it. I don't have traitor's blood, I don't. I only want to go home."

But Joffrey insists that his mother still wants her to marry him, so she has to stay. When she says she doesn't want to marry him because he chopped off her father's head, he replies, "I never promised to spare him, only that I'd be merciful, and I was. If he hadn't been your father, I would have had him torn or flayed, but I gave him a clean death." And when she says she hates him, he replies, "My mother tells me that it isn't fitting that a king should strike his wife," so he has Ser Merwyn Trant do it for him. When she recovers from the blow, she says she will do what he wants.

Bathed and dressed, she appears in the balcony for the court session in which Joffrey dispatches various pleas with arrogance and cruelty. When it's over she finds him waiting for her at the foot of the stairs. He orders her to walk with him. "I'll get you with child as soon as you're able," he tells her. "If the first one is stupid, I'll chop off your head and find a smarter wife."

When she sees that they are going to the battlements, she backs off and refuses to accompany him, but he bullies her into it. "He can make me look at the heads, she told herself, but he can't make me see them." When they reach her father's head, Joffrey orders Sandor Clegane to turn it so she can see the face. "The severed head had been dipped in tar to preserve it longer. Sansa looked at it calmly, not seeing it at all. It did not really look like Lord Eddard, she thought; it did not even look real."

Joffrey is disappointed at her lack of reaction, and takes her to see the other heads. There are two empty spikes that, he tells her, he is saving for Stannis and Renly Baratheon. Then he points out the head of Septa Mordane. To Sansa it doesn't even look like a woman. "Why did you kill her?" she asks, and he says she was a traitor. "Joffrey looked pouty; somehow she was upsetting him."

Then he says that Robb is a traitor too. "Your brother defeated my uncle Jaime. My mother says it was treachery and defeat. She wept when she heard." So he says for his name day he's going to raise and army and kill her brother. "That's what I'll give you, Lady Sansa. Your brother's head." She replies, "Maybe my brother will give me your head." So he has Ser Merwyn hit her again.

As they reach the edge of the parapet, she thinks of pushing him to his death seventy or eighty feet below. "It wouldn't even matter if she went over with him. It wouldn't matter at all." Then Sandor Clegane kneels before her, between her and Joffrey, and dabs at the blood from her split lip. "The moment was gone."

Daenerys

She dreams feverishly of dragons, of her brother Viserys, of Khal Drogo, of her brother Rhaegar. And when she awakes, they find her crawling toward the dragon's eggs. Ser Jorah takes her back to bed, and she struggles to get up again. Her maids and her guard Jhogo are there, and Mirri Maz Duur gives her something to drink that puts her to sleep again. She wakes again and asks for the dragon's eggs, then drifts off.

The third time she wakes, she is holding one of the eggs. She realizes that her fever has gone, and calls for water and dates to eat. She asks for Ser Jorah, and for a warm bath, and for Mirri Maz Duur. And then she remembers Khal Drogo. The maid Irri tells her, "The khal lives," but Daenerys senses that something is not right. Then she asks for her child, wondering why she hadn't thought of him until now. The terrified maid tells her that the baby died.

When Jorah and Mirri Maz Duur arrive, they find her standing over the other dragon eggs in the chest. She asks Jorah to touch one of the eggs and tell her what he feels. He says, "Shell, hard as rock.... Scales.... Cold stone." She seems to be the only one who feels the heat in them. Then she asks him about the child, and he is embarrassed and stammers, "They say the child was...." Finally Mirri Maz Duur completes the statement: "Monstrous." He was deformed and stank of the grave, she says, "He had been dead for years." Daenerys counters that he had been "alive and strong when Ser Jorah carried me into the tent." Mirri Maz Duur insists, "Death was in that tent, Khaleesi."

Ser Jorah had killed her son, Dany knew. He had done what he did for love and loyalty, yet he had carried her into a place no living man should go and fed her baby to the darkness. He knew it too; the grey face, the hollow eyes, the limp. "The shadows have touched you too, Ser Jorah," she told him. The knight made no reply. Dany turned to the godswife, "You warned me that only death could pay for life. I thought you meant the horse." 

Mirri Maz Duur replies, "That was a lie you told yourself." Daenerys asks to see Khal Drogo: "Show me what I have bought with my son's life." Outside she finds an abandoned camp, with only a few people too infirm to move with the khalasar, and the servants who have sworn loyalty. The weak and blind Khal Drogo is lying on the ground. "This is not life, for one who was as Drogo was," she tells Mirri Maz Duur, and demands, "When will he be as he was?"

"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east," said Mirri Maz Duur. "When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child. Then will he return, and not before." 

Daenerys tells Jorah and the others to leave her alone with Mirri Maz Duur. She turns on the woman in fury: "You knew what I was buying, and you knew the price, and yet you let me pay it." It was revenge for the destruction wrought on her people, she replies: "The stallion who mounts the world will burn no cities now. His khalasar shall trample no nations into dust." Daenerys says she saved the woman's life, but Mirri Maz Duur replies, "Look to your khal and see what life is worth, when all the rest is gone." Daenerys calls for her guards and has Mirri Maz Duur bound hand and foot.

She has Khal Drogo taken to her tent, where she bathes him, then she takes him outside, "for the Dothraki believed that all things of importance in a man's life must be done beneath the open sky." She does what she can to rouse him, "Yet Drogo did not feel, or speak, or rise." So she goes into tent for a soft silk cushion, "knelt, kissed Drogo on the lips, and pressed the cushion down over his face." 

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

Sansa 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bran

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

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

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

Clive Mantle as Lord Umber, the Greatjon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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