21. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 693-721

Catelyn

The noise of the music and the drums is getting to Catelyn. The rain continues outside and the hall in which the feast is being held is overheated and smoky. The guests are packed into the hall, and she is wedged between Ser Ryman Frey and Roose Bolton. The food is heavy and unappealing, and she eats sparingly, though "Robb ate it uncomplaining, and her brother was too caught up with his bride to pay much attention."

Catelyn notices the fixed smile on Roslin's face, and sympathizes with her discomfort, remembering her own wedding. She sees Robb's guards, Smalljon Umber and Robin Flint, seated near him, and Patrek Mallister and Dacey Mormont not far off. "A wedding feast was not a battle, but there were always dangers when men were in their cups, and a king should never be unguarded." She thinks, "Was there ever a wedding less joyful?" and then remembers Sansa's marriage to Tyrion.

Some dogs start to fight over a scrap of meat, and Catelyn is reminded that Grey Wind is not in the hall. Lord Walder had forbidden him, even though Robb assured him there was no danger from the direwolf. Walder had cited the attack on the party he sent to meet them, in which Petyr Pimple had fallen from his horse. "Have your wolf or have your wedding, sire. You'll not have both." Catelyn had seen Robb swallow his anger.

The noise in the hall grows worse when Greatjon Umber stands and starts to bellow a song while the musicians are playing an entirely different and incompatible tune. Roose Bolton murmurs his excuses and leaves the hall, so Robb comes over and sits down next to Catelyn in his place. He turns to Ser Ryman and inquires about Olyvar Frey, saying he wanted him to be his squire at they march north. Ser Ryman says Olyvar is not at the feast. "Gone ... gone from the castles. Duty." Robb then asks him about one of his cousins, Alesander, noting that he is a singer. He is away too, Ryman says, then begs their excuse and leaves.

Robb goes to dance with Dacey Mormont. Then Lord Walder gives a signal and others among the Freys begin pounding on the tables for silence. The patriarch announces that it is time for the bedding. "Roslin had gone white. Catelyn wondered whether it was the prospect of losing her maidenhead that frightened the girl, or the bedding itself." She recalls her own bedding and the men who helped strip her naked, many of whom had died after Ned rode south to become Hand. "Catelyn wondered how may of the men here tonight would be dead before the year was done. Too many, I fear."

Robb signals his agreement to the bedding, and there is a flood of bawdy jokes. The men surround Roslin and the women Edmure. "She knew she should join the throng of women round her brother, but she would only ruin their fun. As the throngs leave the hall, she sees that Robb has remained behind as well. She worries that Lord Walder might take that as another insult, but she sees that others have remained: Petyr Pimple and Ser Whalen Frey are asleep, Jinglebell is wandering around picking food off of plates, and Ser Wendel Manderly was still eating from a leg of lamb.

Dacey Mormont goes up to Edwyn Frey and asks him if he wanted to dance, but Edwyn rejects her so rudely that Dacey walks away looking pale. Catelyn wonders what's wrong. Even Ser Wendel senses something amiss. Then the musicians begin to play the song "The Rains of Castamere," which was written about the destruction of a house by the Lannisters. She sees Edwyn leaving, and hurries over to him. When she grabs his arm, she feels the rings of chain mail underneath his sleeve.

She slaps Edwyn, thinking about all of the Freys who are missing from the wedding. He pushes her aside, but Robb steps forward to block his way -- and is pierced by an arrow through one shoulder and then another through his leg. She looks toward the gallery and sees that half of the musicians have crossbows instead of instruments. As she runs toward Robb, something strikes her in the back and she falls.

Smalljon Umber overturns a table and throws it over Robb to protect him as arrows lodge in the tabletop. Robin Flint is being stabbed by Freys, and Ser Wendel is pierced by an arrow through his open mouth. Catelyn sees other defenders being cut down. The door flies open and "Ser Ryman Frey pushed into the hall, clad in steel from helm to heel. A dozen Frey men-at-arms packed the door behind him. They were armed with heavy longaxes."

Catelyn sees a dagger on the floor and crawls toward it, determined to kill Lord Walder. She sees Robb push aside the tabletop and rise to his knees. He has been pierced by three arrows, one of them through his chest. The music stops and Catelyn hears the howling of Grey Wind. Lord Walder cackles out, "Seems we killed some of your men, Your Grace. Oh, but I'll make you an apology, that will mend them all again, heh."

Catelyn grabs Jinglebell Frey by the hair, and cries out to Lord Walder, "Enough.... You have repaid  betrayal with betrayal, let it end." She presses the dagger to Jinglebell's throat and begs Walder to spare her son. Robb rises to his feet and she pushes harder on the dagger at Jinglebell's throat as Ser Ryman and Black Walder move in on her. She vows to Lord Walder, "I will trade your boy's life for Robb's. A son for a son." But the old man says, "that's a grandson ... and he never was much use."

A man in dark armor and a pale pink cloak spotted with blood stepped up to Robb. "Jaime Lannister sends his regards." He thrust his longsword through her son's heart, and twisted.

Catelyn cuts Jinglebell's throat. And as tears and blood run down her face, she feels someone grab her by the hair and hears someone say, "Make an end."

"Then the steel was at her throat, and its bite was red and cold."

Arya

They have passed the tents and are nearing the castle when Arya realizes that the drawbridge is down and the portcullis is being raised, removing the last impediments to their entrance. But the Hound knows something is wrong, and he halts the wagon and shoves her bodily from it, then reaches for the sword he has hidden beneath the front seat. A stream of armored riders, many of them carrying torches as well as weapons, pours forth from the gate.

Through the sound of the horses, Arya hears a wolf howling. "The sound shivered through Arya like a knife, sharp with rage and grief." Behind her the feast tents are going up in flames. From the castle she hears the music of "The Rains of Castamere," which Tom Sevenstrings had sung.

Three riders have spotted the wagon and are heading their way. Clegane cuts loose his horse, Stranger, and leaps on it, then heads toward the riders. Arya picks up a rock and for a moment wonders whom to throw it at. When she sees him outnumbered, she thinks for a moment of the butcher's boy, Mycah.

The third rider is heading for her, and she sees the two towers of the Frey sigil on his surcoat. "She did not understand. Her uncle was marrying Lord Frey's daughter, the Freys were her brother's friends." She cries out, "Don't!" but when the rider continues to charge she throws the rock at him, hitting his helmet glancingly but slowing him only for a moment.

She runs and the knight pursues, but suddenly he is felled from behind by an axe. The Hound rides up and Arya sees one Frey trapped beneath a dying horse, the other already dead. Clegane tells her to get his helmet and she retrieves it from a sack of apples in the wagon and throws it to him. She wants to go to the castle to see about her brother, but he says, "Do you think they'd slaughter his men and leave him alive?"

She looks toward the camp and sees the burning tents and the unarmored men fighting for their lives against the armored knights. A barrel crashes from the sky and bursts into flames, and she realizes that it was flung by a catapult. Clegane reaches out a hand for her and tells her to come with him. But she shouts out, "Robb's just in the castle, and my mother. The gate's even open."

Clegane rides at her, trying to keep her from heading to the castle. "You go in there, you won't come out. Maybe Frey will let you kiss your mother's corpse." But she eludes him and runs toward the castle, where the drawbridge is already rising.

She heard loud splashing and looked back to see Stranger pounding after her, sending up gouts of water with every stride. She saw the longaxe too, still wet with blood and brains. And Arya ran. Not for her brother now, not even for her mother, but for herself. She ran faster than she had ever run before, her head down and her feet churning up the river, she ran from him as Mycah must have run. 


His axe took her in the back of the head. 

Tyrion

He suffers through an uncomfortable dinner with his unhappy wife, who then excuses herself and goes to the godswood. When he suggests that he might accompany her and find out more about the old religion, Sansa tells him that she goes there only to pray silently and he would be bored. "He was tempted to ask what she prayed for, but Sansa was so dutiful she might actually tell him, and he didn't think he wanted to know."

He is working over the ledgers that Littlefinger left behind when his father summons him. He finds Cersei, Ser Kevan, Pycelle, and Joffrey there. Joffrey is "almost bouncing," and Cersei is smiling, which makes Tyrion a little uneasy. His father hands him a roll of parchment, and Tyrion reads: "Roslin caught a fine fat trout.... Her brothers gave her a pair of wolf pelts for her wedding."

Joffrey chortles, "He's dead!" Tyrion thinks of Sansa praying in the godswood. "The old gods paid no more heed to prayer than the new ones, it would seem." Cersei observes that Riverrun can't hold out now "against the combined power of Highgarden, Casterly Rock, and Dorne." And Tywin adds that "so long as Walder Frey holds Edmure Tully hostage, the Blackfish dare not mount a threat." The other northmen can be contained, and he intends "to offer generous terms" to any house that submits. He has also told Gregor Clegane to rid Harrenhal of the Brave Companions.

Joffrey wants everyone killed, of course: "They're traitors. I want them killed. I won't have any generous terms." And he wants Lord Frey to send him Robb's head so he can serve it to Sansa at his wedding feast. Ser Kevan protests that Sansa is now Joffrey's "aunt by marriage," and Cersei says Joffrey was only joking. But Joffrey wasn't: "He was a traitor, and I want his stupid head. I'm going to make Sansa kiss it."

Tyrion says, "Sansa is no longer yours to torment. Understand that, monster." Joffrey retorts, childishly, "You're the monster, Uncle." Tyrion replies that if he's a monster, Joffrey should remember, "Monsters are dangerous beasts, and just now kings seem to be dying like flies."

Sometimes you almost feel sorry for Lord Tywin, having to deal with the dysfunctions of his family. Finally he puts a stop to the quarrel but not before Joffrey talks back to him. Joffrey bristles at what he sees as his grandfather's weakness in not allowing him to serve up Robb's head to Sansa or cut out Tyrion's tongue for calling him a monster, and when Cersei tells him to apologize, he says, "My father won all the battles. He killed Prince Rhaegar and took the crown while your father was hiding under Casterly Rock."

Tywin responds "with a courtesy so cold it was likely to freeze their ears off." He sends Joffrey off to bed and tells Pycelle to prepare "some gentle potion to help His Grace sleep restfully." When Joffrey is gone, Tywin tells Cersei, "I did not fight a war to seat Robert the Second on the Iron Throne. You gave me to understand the boy cared nothing for his father." Cersei protests, but he sends her away, too.

Left alone with his father, and delighted that Cersei and Joffrey made him angry, Tyrion asks how long he has been plotting with Walder Frey to get rid of Robb Stark. Tywin dislikes the word "plotting," but implies that he had indeed done so. Then he says he is now wondering what to do about Oberyn Martell, who "has always been half-mad." Tyrion is inclined to agree. "The Red Viper is not going to be pleasant, I fear ... nor will he content himself with Ser Gregor's head alone." Then Tywin shocks his son by saying, "All the more reason not to give it to him."

Tyrion starts to protest that Oberyn knows Gregor Clegan killed Oberyn's sister Elia and her children, but Lord Tywin says Oberyn has no proof. If asked, he will tell Oberyn they were killed by Ser Amory Lorch -- who is, conveniently, dead -- and that Tyrion should tell him that, too. As for who gave the order, the story should be that Ser Amory acted on his own, expecting to be rewarded by the new king.

As for the carnage at the Frey wedding, Tywin says, "The blood is on Walder Frey's hands, not mine." Frey had planned to keep Catelyn a prisoner after assassinating Robb, "but perhaps something went awry." He continues,

"The price was cheap by any measure. The crown shall grant Riverrun to Ser Emmon Frey once the Blackfish yields. Lancel and Daven must marry Frey girls. Joy [illegitimate daughter of Tywin's brother Gerion] is to wed one of Lord Walder's natural sons when she's old enough, and Roose Bolton becomes Warden of the North and takes home Arya Stark." 

Tyrion is startled at the last: "Arya Stark is surely dead," he protests. But Tywin implies that Littlefinger knows of her whereabouts, and that she will be married to Lord Bolton's bastard son. And, he adds, "The north will go to your son by Sansa Stark ... if you ever find enough manhood in you to breed one."

Tyrion acidly replies, "And when do you imagine Sansa will be at her most fertile? ... Before or after I tell her how we murdered her mother and her brother?"

20. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 659-692

Jon

In acute pain and feverish from the leg wound, Jon rides on toward Castle Black. He reaches the kingsroad and follows it to Mole's Town, where he gets a fresh mount and some bread and wine, and warns the villagers that there are wildlings south of the Wall and that they should gather their things and retreat to the castle.

Dawn is breaking as he arrives, but there are no sentries to challenge him and few signs of life. In the armory he finds Donal Noye at the forge. Noye tells him that Jarman Blackwell had returned from a scouting trip and had spotted Jon among the wildlings, riding with them. He admits that it was true, but tells him that he was acting on orders from Qhorin Halfhand.

The garrison, Noye tells him, is scattered because wildlings have been sighted everywhere along the Wall. Jon tells him that Mance Rayder wants to spread them thin, but the attack will be there at the center. Bowen Marsh has done what Rayder wanted by scattering the forces. The aged Ser Wynton Stout was left as castellan, and there are only about forty men, the old, the infirm, and some trainees, left to defend against the attack from the south.

Noye takes him to Maester Aemon to be treated for his wound. Aemon tells him of Mormont's death at the hands of his own men, and that only a dozen men have returned, including Dolorous Edd and Grenn. As Maester Aemon and Clydas work on his wounded leg, he tells them and Noye about Styr the Magnar and his men, the Thenns. Mance, he tells them, was looking for the Horn of Winter, the legendary horn that can destroy the Wall. And he lets slip Ygritte's name, then finds it hard to explain about her.

Finally, when the wound is being cauterized, he faints. When he wakes he finds Pyp and Grenn there. Grenn tells about Sam killing the Other with the dragonglass knife, and Jon is amazed to hear his friend called Sam the Slayer. But they know only that Sam was left behind with Mormont. Aemon returns to tell Jon that he must rest and let the wound heal: They have rinsed it "with boiling wine, and close you up with a poultice of nettle, mustard seed and moldy bread." (Penicillin was around long before Fleming.) But Jon, of course, is unwilling to rest, and asks, "has word been sent to Winterfell? To the king?"

Maester Aemon breaks the news of the fall of Winterfell and Theon's treachery and the supposed death of Bran and Rickon. But Jon remembers the gray direwolf at Queenscrown. "If Bran was dead, could some part of him live on in his wolf, as Orell lived within his eagle?" When Grenn gives him something to drink, Jon falls asleep with his head full of questions, and dreams of naked Ygritte saying, "You know nothing, Jon Snow." They are in the hot pools at Winterfell, but suddenly he sees "her skin dissolving in the hot water, the flesh beneath sloughing off her bones until only skull and skeleton remained, and the pool bubbled thick and red."

Catelyn

They are nearing the Twins, where the rains have swollen the river and turned the moats into lakes. Catelyn cautions Robb again about offending Lord Frey, and advises him to ask for food and wine as soon as they arrive: "Once you have eaten of his bread and salt, you have the guest right, and the laws of hospitality protect you beneath his roof." Robb scoffs that he has an army to protect him, but he'll do as she says.

They are met by a contingent headed by Ser Ryman Frey, Lord Walder's grandson, and three of Ryman's sons: Edwyn, Black Walder ("a nasty bit of business," Edmure observes), and Petyr, known as Petyr Pimple, for reasons that are obvious. Grey Wind leaps forward with a snarl and Petyr's horse throws him. Catelyn moves her horse between the Freys and the direwolf, and Robb calls Grey Wind to his side. Black Walder asks, "Is this how a Stark makes amends?" Robb dismounts and offers Petyr his own horse, since Petyr's has run away.

Ser Ryman says, "I do not see the woman," by which he means, insultingly, Jeyne Westerling. Catelyn offers her apologies, but Black Walder says that Lord Walder will be displeased. They have rooms prepared for Robb, Catelyn, and Edmure, and for the lords bannermen, but they say they can't feed or shelter the troops, who will be housed in three large tents on the far bank.

Edmure tells Catelyn that he is offended that Lord Walder himself didn't come to greet his future son-in-law, but she reminds him that Walder is ninety-one, which is old to go riding in the rain. Though she thinks to herself that Lord Walder usually travels in a covered litter, and wonders, "A deliberate slight? If so, it might be the first of many yet to come."

When they reach the gatehouse, Grey Wind stops and howls and bares his teeth. Catelyn thinks, "He does not like this place." But Robb persuades the wolf to enter, and Walder Rivers says, "It's the sound of the water her fears.... Beasts know to avoid the river in flood." Lothar suggests summoning the master of hounds to find a kennel for him, but Robb points out that he's not a dog, and tells Ser Raynald to stay with Grey Wind. "I won't take him into Lord Walder's hall like this." Catelyn thinks this is a good idea, because it "keeps the Westerling out of Lord Walder's sight as well."

The aged and toothless Lord Walder, who has "something of the vulture about" him, "and rather more of the weasel," is seated in the hall with his eighth wife. At their feet is a man of fifty with "large, amiable, and vacant eyes," and Catelyn remembers "that one of Lord Walder's brood had fathered a halfwit long years ago." He is Aegon Frey, known as Jinglebell, and Catelyn wonders if he is there to mock Robb.

After greeting them, none too courteously, Walder sends for Edmure's bride and asks about Queen Jeyne. Robb delivers his apology for the marriage, but Walder doesn't exactly accept it. Instead, he summons his daughters and granddaughters to parade before him as evidence of what Robb could have chosen from. Then Robb is expected to apologize to them, saying, "I come before you to ask forgiveness, that the Freys of the Crossing and the Starks of Winterfell may once again be friends." But the phrase in the apology that Lord Walder picks up on is, "No words can set it right."

Then Ser Benfrey enters with Roslin, who is small, pretty and shy. Catelyn notices, "Her brother's face had lit up at the sight of her." Edmure asks why Roslin is crying, and she assures him, "I weep for joy, my lord." Lord Walder puts an end to any sentiment, and tells Lame Lothar Frey to show his guests to their quarters. Robb says he needs to see to his men, and Catelyn suddenly remembers the bread and salt, so she says, "Some food would be most welcome. We have ridden many leagues in the rain."

Lord Walder orders some food and drink. "Catelyn tasted the wine and nibbled at some bread, and felt much the better for it. Now we should be safe, she thought." Their rooms are comfortable, too, and Edmure is pleased with his bride-to-bed. Catelyn worries that she is "Too small and delicate. Childbirth will go hard on her," but she reassures her brother. After changing her clothes, she goes back downstairs "in search of some Freys."

She finds them in the hall, drinking. Lame Lothar introduces her to his "Brothers, half-brothers, good brothers, and nephews." Then she asks to see the maester, explaining, "A woman's complaint." She is shown to Maester Brenett, whom she consults about Roslin's fitness for childbearing, which he assures her is all quite in order. Next she goes to see Robb, who is there with Roose Bolton, among others. She "could feel gloom in the room," and Bolton tells her more about the fall of Winterfell.

"Some of your people were taken back to the Dreadfort by my son, Ramsay," Bolton tells her. She points out, "Your bastard was accused of grievous crimes.... Of murder, rape, and worse." But he assured her that Ramsay is determined to atone for his past and "swears that he shall not sheathe his sword so long as a single Greyjoy remains in the north." Robb asks about Theon Greyjoy, and Bolton produces "a ragged strip of leather" that he claims is "The skin from the little finger of Theon Greyjoy's left hand." He presents it as a "small token of revenge." As for the rest of Theon, he is "now rightful King of the Iron Islands. A captive king has great value as a hostage."

Catelyn is outraged at the idea that they might "free the man who killed my sons," but Bolton continues to defend the notion of holding Theon as a bargaining ploy. Robb reluctantly agrees: "Keep him alive, then. For the present. Hold him secure at the Dreadfort till we've retaken the north." And after talk about the movements of the Lannisters and of Gregor Clegane south of the Trident, Robb announces his intentions "to start for the Neck as soon as my uncle has been wedded and bedded. We're going home."

Arya

The Hound has commandeered a wagon and some salt pork and pickled pigs' feet, pretending to be a farmer on the way to the wedding at the Twins. When they are stopped on the road, he claims that he is delivering them on the order of Lady Whent, who is also sending Stranger, Clegane's stallion, as a wedding gift for Lord Tully. They send him on his way.

Arya goes along with the ruse because she is getting closer to a reunion with her mother and her brother. "There was nothing between her and her mother but a castle gate, a river, and an army ... but it was Robb's army, so there was no real danger there. Was there?" On the other hand, Roose Bolton, whom she had fled at Harrenhal, killing one of his guards to escape, would be there.

What would he do if he saw her? He probably won't even know me. She looked more like a drowned rat than a lord's cupbearer these days. A drowned boy rat. The Hound had hacked handfuls of her hair off only two days past. He was an even worse barber than Yoren, and he'd left her half bald on one side. Robb won't know me either, I bet. Or even Mother. She had been a little girl the last time she saw them, the day Lord Eddard Stark left Winterfell.

They begin to hear the music as they draw near the castle, and Clegane says they've missed the wedding but the feast is still going on. "There were hundreds of horses and thousands of men, most of them milling about the three huge feast tents." The musicians in the two castles are playing different tunes, "so it sounded more like a battle than a song."

It is dark, so Arya is unable to single out the banners for the various houses. When they reach a checkpoint, the guards stop them, and tell them the castle's closed, but they can unload the goods by the feast tents. The drinking has been going on for hours, and Arya hears all sorts of noises, mixed with the music from the castles as they grow nearer. She keeps hoping to see someone she knows from Winterfell.

When they reach the feast tents, she hears someone shout, "Here's to Lord Edmure and Lady Roslin" and then, "Here's to the Young Wolf and Queen Jeyne." Arya wonders who Queen Jeyne is, but the mention of the Young Wolf makes her realize that these are northmen, so she suggests that they stop.

Clegane reminds her, "Your brother will be in the castle.... Your mother too. You want them or not." She agrees that she does, and he whips the horses to speed up, saying, "It's your bloody brother I want."

19. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 620-658

Catelyn

Jeyne rides up to bid farewell to Robb as they set out for the wedding. Catelyn had insisted that she stay behind: On the one hand, Lord Walder Frey might be insulted by her absence from the festivities, but on the other, he might take it as a reminder of Robb's breach of faith. She tells Robb, "you have too much of your father in you to sit there while he insults Jeyne to your face." Of the Westerlings, only Jeyne's brother, Ser Raynald, is part of the wedding party, serving as Robb's banner-bearer. Brynden Blackfish has been left in charge of the defense of Riverrun.

The steady rain befits Catelyn's mood, in which she meditates on what is ahead for her: "two dead sons, an empty bed, and a castle full of ghosts." She wishes for news of Brienne and the mission to retrieve her daughters, but has to tell herself, "I must be strong for Robb. If I despair, my grief will consume me." Her brother, on the other hand, is fretting only about whether the daughter of Walder Frey will be pretty enough. Catelyn snaps at him, "You'd be wiser to pray that Roslin is strong and healthy, with a good head and a loyal heart."

And then she rides off, though she regrets losing patience when she remembers how disappointed she was at first sight of Ned Stark, who was shorter and plainer than his brother Brandon, to whom she had first been engaged. "Even when he took her maidenhood, their love had more of duty to it than of passion. We made Robb that night, though, we made a king together."

Their path takes them through the Whispering Wood, which had been the site of Robb's first great victory, and the signs of that battle still remain, including "a face peering out at her, the shape of the skull beginning to emerge from beneath the melting brown flesh." She wonders if Ned's bones had ever reached Winterfell before the war sealed off all roads leading there.

Five days along the route, word arrives that the continuing rain has washed out the bridge they had planned to cross, sweeping away two of the horses and one of the riders who had gone ahead to scout. This means an even longer and slower route, and Catelyn frets that Lord Walder "may take this delay as a deliberate insult." After eight more days they reach Oldstones, where the rain stops briefly. She recalls camping there once with her father when she was twelve. Petyr Baelish, Littlefinger, was with them too.

She finds Robb alone except for Grey Wind, and they talk about the history of the place. He tells her that he had hoped to leave Jeyne pregnant, but is uncertain if he did. She says he is still young.

"Young, and a king," he said. "A king must have an heir. If I should die in my next battle, the kingdom must not die with me. By law Sansa is next in line of succession, so Winterfell and the north would pass to her." His mouth tightened. "To her, and her lord husband, Tyrion Lannister. I cannot allow that. I will not allow that. That dwarf must never have the north." 

She agrees, and says that he must name another heir. She talks of some distant family connections, but he reminds her that his father had a son who is still alive. She returns to her old antipathy to Ned's bastard, but Robb persists, "Jon's more a Stark than some lordlings from the Vale who have never so much as set eyes on Winterfell." She reminds him that as a member of the Night's Watch Jon has sworn a lifelong vow neither to take a wife nor to own lands. And he replies that the Kingsguard take a similar oath, yet the Lannisters had no compunction about taking away the white cloaks from Barristan Selm and Boros Blount. "If I send the Watch a hundred men in Jon's place, I'll wager they find some way to release him from his vows."

She persists, "A bastard cannot inherit." But he has an answer for her: He can be legitimized by a royal decree. She argues back, "I know you trust Jon. But can you trust his sons? Or their sons? ... If you make Jon legitimate, there is no way to turn him bastard again. Should he wed and breed, any sons you may have by Jeyne will never be safe." And she reminds him that Theon Greyjoy had been raised with him, and that he killed Bran and Rickon. Robb protests that Jon is no Theon, but she continues: What about Arya.

Arya, he says, is dead. "Why do you lie to yourself? Arya's gone, the same as Bran and Rickon, and they'll kill Sansa too once the dwarf gets a child from her. Jon is the only brother that remains to me. Should I die without issue, I want him to succeed me as King in the North." She tells him, "Do not ask it." And he cuts off the discussion: "I don't have to. I'm the king." And he walks off with Grey Wolf following.

The rain returns, doing nothing to lift Catelyn's gloom. But one day news arrives that lightens everyone's mood: Balon Greyjoy is dead. He had been crossing one of the bridges on the Pyke when a storm came up and blew it to pieces, carrying him with it. And shortly after his death, his pirate brother Euron had returned and taken the throne. Robb points out that Theon is the rightful heir, and that Balon's brother Victarion, who now holds Moat Cailin, commands the Iron Fleet. And someone else mentions Asha, who has taken and holds Deepwood Motte. "What's true for the brothers is even more true for her," Robb says. "She will need to sail home to oust Euron and press her own claim." He begins to plot a strategy that involves joining forces with Roose Bolton and the Freys.

Then he turns to Catelyn. She will go with Lord Mallister to Seagard until the war is over. She thinks, "Is this my punishment for opposing him about Jon Snow? Or for being a woman, and worse, a mother?" She realizes that she has been under suspicion since she released Jaime Lannister, and says she would rather return to Riverrun. But Robb has an answer for that: "I left my wife at Riverrun. I want my mother elsewhere. If you keep all your treasures in one purse, you only make it easier for those who would rob you. After the wedding, you shall go to Seagard, that is my royal command."

And then he picks up a sheet of parchment, saying that he doesn't want to leave matters as chaotic as Balon Greyjoy did at his death. He commands them "to fix your seals to this document as witnesses to my decision."

"A king indeed, Catelyn thought, defeated." She hopes that the military campaign he has just mapped out is a trap that works "as well as the one in which he had just caught her."

Samwell

Exhausted, Sam has reached an abandoned village that he desperately hopes is Whitetree, the one closest to the Wall and Castle Black. He and Gilly and the baby have been traveling for days, and one of their horses has died. Weak from childbirth, she needs the remaining horse more than he does. Leaving her and the baby in the village's longhall, he goes to search the houses. The weirwood in the village is not as large as the one at Whitetree, he decides, but he prays at it, hoping for guidance to the Wall.

When he returns, she has a fire going. He talks to her about the Wall and the castles beyond it, remembering the food and the warmth and the friends. When she asks him to sing a "southron song" for the baby, he remembers one that he and his mother used to sing about the Seven to his younger brother, until his father made them stop, fearing that the songs would make his brother as much of a sissy as Sam.

They have only a few sausages left, and after they eat he goes outside to relieve himself and take care
of the horse. He decides that it's too cold to leave the horse outside, so he brings it into the longhall and then beds down with Gilly and the baby. He dreams that he is back home at his father's castle, but that it's his own castle now, and his friends from the Watch are there: Jon, Lord Mormont, Grenn, Dolorous Edd, Pyp, and Toad. They are feasting, and after the feast he goes up to bed where Gilly is waiting, "wearing nothing but a big shaggy fur, milk leaking from her breasts."


He wakes suddenly to bitter cold. The horse is whinnying and the room is full of dark shadows. One of the shadows moves, and Gilly says, "He's come for the babe." Sam recognizes the shadow as Small Paul, though his "hands were coal, his face was milk, his eyes shone a bitter blue." On his shoulder sits a raven, who is pecking at Paul's cheek.


Sam tells Gilly to quiet the horse and take it out of the room. He assures her that he has the dragonglass dagger that he had taken from Lord Mormont's body before leaving Craster's Keep. He keeps talking to Paul, trying to distract him from what Gilly is doing, but the horse rears and Paul turns toward it.


Sam lunges at the wight and stabs at it again and again, but the blade shatters on the chain mail that Paul is wearing, and seems to have no effect on him. The wight grabs him by the throat, its hands "so cold that they seemed to burn." Sam finds his steel knife and stabs again, but loses his grip on the blade. He squirms and kicks in the wight's grasp but to no avail until he begins to fall forward. "Small Paul was big and powerful, but Sam still outweighed him, and the wights were clumsy, he had seen that on the Fist."


When they fall, the wight loses his grip with one hand, and Sam desperately grabs for a chunk of smoldering wood from the fireplace, which he thrusts into Paul's mouth, shattering his teeth. The wight's grip doesn't loosen, but as Sam is beginning to lose consciousness he sees smoke coming from the mouth and then Paul bursts into flames.


Sam heads for the door and calls out for Gilly. She stands there by the weirwood, holding the baby.

The wights were all around her. There were a dozen of them, a score, more ... some had been wildlings once, and still wore skins and hides ... but more had been his brothers. Sam saw Lark the Sisterman, Softfoot, Ryles. The wen on Chett's neck was black, his boils covered with a thin film of ice. And that one looked like Hake, though it was hard to know for certain with half his head missing.

They have killed the horse and are tearing out its entrails. Gilly screams, and the raven echoes her. And then the weirwood and the other trees suddenly come alive with ravens, "hundreds of them, thousands." Sam sees them spread their wings and suddenly attack the wights, pecking at their flesh. "All around him the wights flailed at the black wings and sharp beaks that assailed them, falling in an eerie silence with never a grunt or cry." They ignore Sam, however, and he runs to Gilly, pulling her after him.


Then there is a shout: "Brother!" And a man dressed in the blacks of the Watch rides up on an elk, "ten feet tall at the shoulder, with a rack of antlers near as wide." The elk kneels, and the man reaches down to pull Gilly up and then Sam. "Only when he grasped the offered hand did he realize that the rider wore no glove. His hand was black and cold, with fingers hard as stone."


Arya


They have reached a broad, swollen river. Arya is seated on the horse in front of the Hound, and they have ridden so long in rain and darkness that she has no idea where they are. "It's a river we need to cross," he tells her, "that's all you need to know."


The first time they made camp she had waited until she thought he was asleep and tried to smash his head with a rock, but he had taken it away from her. After that, he tied her up at night. He had also caught her trying to leave signals for the outlaws by scratching her name on tree trunks, and put an end to that. Once she tried to steal his horse while Clegane was taking a piss, but the horse would respond only to its master and had tried to bite her.


The Hound recognizes the town, which is flooded so that only chimneys and upper stories appear above the waters. But there is a ferry that agrees to take them across. Arya wonders what he intends to pay with, since the outlaws have taken his gold, and the ferrymen say it will cost him three dragons to cross, payable in advance. But Clegane shows them his longsword and says, "Gold on the north bank, or steel on the south." After getting a good look at him and realizing that he could easily kill three or four of them before they overpowered him, the ferrymen agree.


"There's a brazier in the cabin if you and your son want to get warm," one of them says, which provokes Arya to protest, "I'm not his stupid son!" and Clegane to shake her so hard her teeth rattled. But the warmth from the heater is enough to make her stand by it and dry off, though once the boat gets under way she goes back outside again.


The current is so strong that they can't cross directly but go some ways downstream. And so much debris is being driven so fast that men with poles are kept busy keeping it away from the boat. Nevertheless, she persuades herself that swimming would be the best way to escape, and that even if she drowns, that fate would be better than what awaits her if Clegane is taking her to King's Landing. But just as she is about to jump overboard, a huge uprooted tree rushes toward the boat, and the attention of everyone on board is directed toward preventing the collision. One man is knocked overboard and swept away. Arya thinks better of trying to swim for it.


When they finally reach the other side, they are two miles downriver from the usual landing, and the ferryman demands six dragons -- "Three for the passage, and three for the man I lost." Clegane puts Arya on the horse, then thrusts a parchment into the man's hand, the note that Dondarrion had given him earlier for the confiscated gold: "A dead man's note, good for nine thousand dragons or nearabouts," he says, springing into the saddle and galloping off. Arya repeats her litany of the men she wants dead, concluding it with "And the Hound, the Hound, the Hound."


When the rain stops and they decide to call it a night, Arya is shivering with fever and sneezing. He catches her looking at his dagger as he cuts a piece of sausage for her, and says, "Don't even think about it." She lies and says she wasn't, but he knows better. "What good would it do you if you did get away? You'd just get caught by someone worse." She says, "There is no one worse," and he replies, "You never knew my brother."


She corrects him: She did know Gregor Clegane. "Him and Dunsen and Polliver, and Raff the Sweetling and the Tickler." He is surprised, and she tells him about the village by the lake where she and Gendry and Hot Pie were caught.

Clegane's mouth twitched. "Caught you? My brother caught you?" That made him laugh, a sour sound, part rumble and part snarl. "Gregor never knew what he had, did he? He couldn't have, or he would have dragged you back kicking and screaming to King's landing and dumped you in Cersei's lap. Oh, that's bloody sweet. I'll be sure and tell him that, before I cut his heart out." 

She has heard him talk about killing his brother before, but it still surprises her. "'Didn't you ever have a brother you wanted to kill?' He laughed again. 'Or maybe a sister?'" And then he senses the old tension between her and Sansa. He tells her that he saved Sansa's life and that she sang him a song, but she doesn't believe him.

Then he asks, "Where do you think we're going?" and when she says King's Landing, he mocks her: "Stupid blind little wolf bitch." He's done with the Lannisters, he says. The river was the Trident, and they're going to the Twins. "It's going to be me who hands you over to that mother of yours. Not the noble lightning lord or that flaming fraud of a priest, the monster." If her brother has any sense he'll hire him, he says. "Maybe I'll even kill Gregor for him, he'd like that."

She says Robb will never take him, "Not you." But he replies, "Then I'll take as much gold as I can carry, laugh in his face, and ride off." So he tells her to shut up "and maybe we'll even be in time for your uncle's bloody wedding."

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

Catelyn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Davos

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Catelyn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jaime

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Arya

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 188-226

Catelyn

Robb has arrived at Riverrun, and Catelyn is eagerly awaiting her son. She can't go to meet him because she is still denied the run of the castle, and the return of Ser Robin Ryger after his boat was sunk by Brienne, foiling the recapture of Jaime, has only put her in more disrepute. Moreover, some news has come that caused a stir, making about forty men leave the castle in what seems to be anger, but no one will tell her what it was.

Finally the summons comes to meet Robb in the Great Hall. It's crowded when she arrives, and she has an uneasy feeling as she moves through the crowd. Robb, on the dais, looks harder and leaner and battle-worn, but also regal. There are several people on the dais she doesn't recognize, including Robb's squire. She wonders if they are prisoners, but realizes that they wouldn't be on the dais with Robb. As she approaches him, "it seemed to her that it was not anger she saw in her son's eyes, but something else ... apprehension, perhaps? No, that made no sense. What should he fear? He was the Young Wolf, King of the Trident and the North."

Ser Brynden Tully, the Blackfish, comes down from the dais and hugs her, and Robb greets her as "Mother." He tells her about the wound, an arrow through the arm, that he suffered, and assures her that it has healed. And she says, "They will have told you what I did. Did they tell you my reasons?" He knows it was an attempt to rescue his sisters, and she says, "I had five children. Now I had three."

But Lord Rickard Karstark comes forward to remind her of his sons, killed by Jaime, and to say, "You have robbed me of my vengeance." Jon Umber, the Greatjon, interposes himself between Catelyn and Karstark to say, "It was a woman's folly. Women are made that way," but Karstark rejects that excuse: "I name it treason." Robb cries out, "Enough," and Catelyn tells Karstark she "would gladly make amends" for what she did. But Karstark is not satisfied, and leaves the hall angrily.

Robb tells her they must talk and signals for the steward, Utherydes Wayn, to dismiss the audience. As the company leaves, she realizes what she has been missing in the hall: Grey Wind, Robb's direwolf, is not there. Finally she is there with only Robb, her three uncles, and the six strangers she had seen on the dais. Robb presents the Lady Sybell Westerling, her brother Ser Rolph Spicer, her son Ser Raynald Westerling, his sister Elenya, his brother and Robb's new squire Rollam Westerling. And finally a shy young woman: "'Mother,' he said, 'I have the great honor to present you the Lady Jeyne Westerling, Lord Gawen's elder daughter, and my ... ah ... my lady wife.'"

Catelyn thinks first that Robb's only a child, second that he is already pledged to marry one of Lord Walder Frey's daughters, and third, "Mother have mercy, Robb, what have you done?" But she has no choice except to welcome her new daughter-in-law, and to remember that the girl is now a queen. At least, she observes, she has "good hips" and "should have no trouble bearing children, at least."

When the Westerlings have left, Catelyn observes that Lady Jeyne's father, Lord Gawen, is sworn to Tywin Lannister and is now imprisoned by Jason Mallister, held as a hostage at Seagard. "We wed without his consent, I fear," Robb admits, "and this marriage puts him in dire peril." She also observes that by the marriage, he has lost the allegiance of the Freys, and asks how many swords he gained by the marriage.

"Fifty. A dozen knights." His voice was glum, as well it might be. When the marriage contract had been made at the Twins, old Lord Walder Frey had sent Robb off with a thousand mounted knights and near three thousand foot. "Jeyne is bright as well as beautiful. And kind as well. She has a gentle heart."

Catelyn is flummoxed by what she sees as Robb's stupidity, but she just asks him "how this came to be." He replies that when they took the Crag, the Westerling castle, he was wounded and the wound festered. Jeyne nursed him through the fever, and when the news came of the fall of Winterfell and the deaths of Bran and Rickon, "That night, she ... she comforted me, Mother." "And you wed her the next day," Catelyn says.

Robb insists that "It was the only honorable thing to do" and that he's "made a botch of everything but the battles." She agrees that he has: "Not only have you broken your oath, but you've slighted the honor of the Twins by choosing a bride from a lesser house." Robb replies that the Westerlings are "an ancient line, descended from the First Men," but Catelyn says this will only make Lord Walder angrier: "It has always rankled him that older houses look down on the Freys as upstarts."

Brynden Blackfish diplomatically interrupts these recriminations and suggests that they go somewhere more private. As they are leaving, she asks Robb where Grey Wind is. He says he is outside, and that "Jeyne's anxious around him, and he terrifies her mother." This doesn't make Catelyn feel any better about the marriage: "He is part of you, Robb. To fear him is to fear you." And when he tells her that Grey Wind bares his teeth when Jeyne's uncle, Ser Rolph, come around, Catelyn is even more concerned: "Send Ser Rolph away. At once." When Robb resists, she insists:

"Robb." She stopped and held his arm. "I told you once to keep Theon Greyjoy close, and you did not listen. Listen now. Send this man away. I am not saying you must banish him. Find some task that requires a man of courage, some honorable duty, what it is matters not ... but do not keep him near you.... Any man Grey Wind mislikes is a man I do not want close to you. These wolves are more than wolves, Robb. You must know that. I think perhaps the gods sent them to us. Your father's gods, the old gods of the north. Five wolf pups, Robb, five for five Stark children."

Robb reminds her there was a sixth, for Jon, whom Catelyn has conveniently omitted. And he argues that he stopped believing in the wolves when he heard of Bran and Rickon's deaths: "Small good their wolves did them." But he agrees that he'll find some pretext for sending Ser Rolph away, "Not because of his smell, but to ease your mind. You have suffered enough."

When they are in private, it is Edmure Tully's turn to be scolded, first by the Blackfish and then by Robb. Edmure had been commanded only to defend Riverrun, and not to wage a campaign against the Lannisters at the fords, which Edmure had been boasting about. Robb's aim had not been to attack Lannisport or Casterly Rock, but to lure Lord Tywin further west, and distract him from what was happening at King's Landing: "'Lord Stannis was about to fall upon King's Landing,' Robb said. 'He might have rid us of Joffrey, the queen, and the Imp in one red stroke.'" When Edmure delayed Lord Tywin it gave time for word to reach him about what was happening in the east, so that he could turn and rescue King's Landing.

Once the wedding of Joffrey and Margaery is over, Robb says, the Lannisters will turn their attention to him instead, and they'll have the Tyrells on their side, and possibly the Freys. Catelyn says that Robb's "first duty is to defend your own people, win back Winterfell, and hang Theon in a crow's cage to die slowly. Or else put off that crown for good, Robb, for men will know that you are no true king at all." Robb says that the last news he had had was that Ser Rodrik was about to retake Winterfell, and that he may have done it already. "We must win back the Freys," he says. "I am willing to give Lord Walder whatever he requires ... apologies, honors, lands, gold ... there must be something that would soothe his pride...."

"'Not something,' said Catelyn. 'Someone.'"

Jon

He is watching giants riding mammoths. The giants are "more bearlike than human," as much as fourteen feet tall, covered with hair. "Their sloping chests might have passed for those of men, but their arms hung down too far, and their lower torsos looked half again as wide as their upper." They also smell very bad, "but perhaps that was the mammoths." Tormund, who is with Jon, is full of tall tales about the giants and of his other exploits, but he is also teasing Jon for not having sex with Ygritte, who has been sleeping next to him every night and making her availability plain. But Jon is still trying to keep his vow of chastity, and he has tried to get Ghost to sleep between them. He is also shocked by the sexual mores of the wildlings, who don't regard bastardy as a stigma. He gives as his excuse for not having sex with Ygritte his determination not to bring another bastard into the world.

He is coming to know the various subcultures among the wildlings, most of whom, he has discovered, have never even seen the Wall and don't speak the Common Tongue of Westeros. He is following Qhorin Halfhand's order to "Ride with them, eat with them, fight with them.... And watch." He is becoming more aware of the difficulty of his task, and of the possibility that he may have to kill their leader, Mance Rayder, "a man he half admired and almost liked," to save Winterfell and the north from "Rattleshirt and Harma Dogshead and the earless Magnar of Thenn."

He knows they are drawing near to the Fist of the First Men and that "Mormont will not run.... He is too old and he has come too far. He will strike, and damn the numbers." He also knows that it's not the thousands of wildlings they need to kill but just one: Mance Rayder. "The King-beyond-the-Wall was doing all he could, yet the wildlings remained hopelessly undisciplined, and that made them vulnerable." The vast majority of them are on foot, not on horseback or on mammoths.

He is riding beside Ygritte, and she and others have been singing a song, "The Last of the Giants," when suddenly she cries out: "JON!" There is the sound of wings and "Blue-grey feathers filled his eyes, as sharp talons buried themselves in his face." He falls from his horse, but the eagle clings to his face, flapping and pecking. When he comes to, Ygritte is bending over him and the eagle has disappeared. He can't see out of one eye, but Ygritte tells him it's blood from the lacerations to his face. Tormund is there as Rattleshirt rides up and the eagle reappears and settles on the giant's skull he wears as a helmet. He orders Jon to come with him to see Mance Rayder.

As they ride, Jon sees the Fist of the First Men rising above the trees, and wonders if Mormont has attacked the wildlings. But as they get closer, he sees first one dead horse and then another. Blood is everywhere inside the garrison, and ravens are flapping around the dead animals. Jon wonders what has happened to Sam. A few tents are still standing, and Mance Rayder is in one of them. He gives Jon a "grim and cold" look as he enters, and says, "tell me how many they were. And try and speak the truth this time, Bastard of Winterfell."

With the pain from his wounds, Jon finds it hard to think, but he decides that his only recourse is to stick to the truth: "There were three hundred of us." Rayder says he should never have lied to them, and asks whose tent this was. Jon says, "You did not find his body?" Rayder says, "The next time you answer me with a question, I will give you to my Lord of Bones." As Rayder moves closer, Jon's hand moves toward his sword, but Rayder notices. Finally, Jon tells him: "The Old Bear." And when Rayder asks who is commanding at Castle Black, Jon tells him that Bowen Marsh is, which elicits derision from Rayder. But he also admits that if he had tried to storm the hill, he would have lost five men for every one defending it.

Rayder also knows that the garrison has been attacked by the wights, and "when the dead walk, walls and stakes and swords mean nothing," so the Watch may have done him a favor by drawing their attention away from his own forces. He dispatches various of his men to see if the wights can be located, making sure that they all have torches.

Rattleshirt wants to kill Jon, but Ygritte steps forward to defend him. He asks Jon if he and Ygritte are lovers, and Jon lies, "Yes." So he says they are to go with Jarl and Styr, "Over the Wall. It's past time you proved your faith with something more than words, Jon Snow." Styr protests, but Rayder points out that Jon "knows the Watch and he knows the Wall, ... and he knows Castle Black better than any raider ever could."

Rattleshirt threatens Jon, but Ygritte points out Ghost on top of the ringwall, glaring at Rattleshirt, so he moves off. When they are alone, Jon says he didn't ask her to lie for him, and she says didn't. She said "that we fuck beneath your cloak many a night. I never said when we started, though." And then she tells him to find another place for Ghost to sleep that night.

Sansa

Sansa is being fitted with a new gown, and is surprised to hear that the orders have come from Cersei and not from Margaery or her grandmother. She has been spending time with the ladies of the Tyrell court and enjoying herself, though she feels a little superior to them: "Their dreams were full of songs and stories, the way hers had been before Joffrey cut her father's head off. Sansa pitied them. Sansa envied them."

Margaery has been talking to her about her brother Willas, and calling Sansa sister, which has led her to give Margaery more warnings about Joffrey's cruelty. But Margaery dismisses her fears: She has her brother Loras to protect her, she says. Sansa is not so sure:

Joff might restrain himself for a few turns, perhaps as long as a year, but soon or late he will show his claws, and when he does ... The realm might have a second Kingslayer, and there would be war inside the city, as the men of the lion and the men of the rose made the gutters run red.

She has also been warned by Ser Dontos not to marry Willas: "I tell you, these Tyrells are only Lannisters with flowers." He wants her to go through with their plan to escape: "The night of Joffrey's wedding, that's not so long, wear the silver hair net and do as I told you, and afterward we make our escape." But Sansa says she doesn't want to escape now. Ser Dontos tries to make her see reality: The Tyrells want her to marry Willas because it gives them a claim to Winterfell. She leaves him and avoids the godswood after that, but he has planted a doubt in her mind. She assures herself that Robb will get married and produce an heir. "Anyway, Willas Tyrell will have Highgarden, what would he want with Winterfell?"

She fills her head with romantic images of being married to Willas, though occasionally she brings herself back to reality: "Willas Tyrell was twice her age, she reminded herself constantly, and lame as well, and perhaps even plump and red-faced like his father. But comely or no, he might be the only champion she would ever have." And then she dreams she marries Joffrey instead and on their wedding night he turns into Ilyn Payne, the headsman. She worries again about Margaery and when she goes to the sept she prays to the Mother to protect Margaery and to the Warrior for Loras.

Then she thinks of the new dress Cersei has ordered for her, and assumes it is for the wedding. "She could scarcely wait to wear it."

2. A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 52-92

Bran

The wolves, Summer and Shaggydog, are howling so much that others at Winterfell are complaining. No one can explain to Bran why they are howling, though Maester Luwin theorizes that they are howling at the comet, which produces its own theories from Osha, who thinks the comet means "Blood and fire, boy, and nothing sweet." And from Septon Chayle, who interprets it as "the sword that slays the season," and when the white raven arrives bringing its prophecy of winter, his theory seems to have been validated. Old Nan thinks the comet means dragons.

Bran, remembering the howls of the direwolves when his father died, is worried that their howling signifies a death. "Had some enemy slain the King in the North, who used to be his brother Robb? Had his bastard brother Jon Snow fallen from the Wall? Had his mother died, or one of his sisters?" He wishes he could think like a direwolf so he could interpret their howls, and he begins to howl himself. The sound brings the guard Hayhead to see what's wrong, and he tells Bran to stop. Bran continues, so Hayhead goes to fetch Maester Luwin, who thinks he should sleep.

When he sleeps, he turns into a wolf, he tells Luwin, who thinks Bran should spend more time with the other children in the castle. But Bran tells him he hates the other children, referring particularly to the two boys named Walder Frey whom Catelyn has taken in as wards -- part of the agreement with Lord Walder that earned his support of Robb in the fight against the Lannisters. There has been an incident involving one of the Frey boys and Rickon's wolf Shaggydog that has led to the wolves being banished to the godswood. Luwin fully supports this restriction on the wolves: "The truth is, those sweet pups you and your brothers found in the snow have grown into dangerous beasts. The Frey boys are wise to be wary of them."

But Bran resumes his howling, so Luwin leaves, "With a look that was part grief and part disgust." Bran grows quiet when he is alone again, and reflects on the incident that led to the direwolves' banishment. The two Walders, known as Big Walder and Little Walder, are cousins. When they arrived at Winterfell they were given Jon Snow's old room, which Bran resents. The boys had devised a game that involved one of them standing on a log in the pool in the godswood and trying to keep others from crossing the log. The children of the various castle servants and and officials join in the game, and the sound of their laughter and splashing made Bran bitterly resent that he was unable to join in. But then Rickon joined the game, and when Little Walder knocked him off the log, Shaggydog attacked Little Walder. The wolves and the children were separated after that.  To make matters worse for Bran, Rickon and the Walders became good friends after that, scandalizing Bran by taking the Frey boys into the family vaults.

Maester Luwin returns with a sleeping potion, and Osha carries Bran to the bed. After he drinks the potion, Osha stays behind and asks, "Is it the wolf dreams again?" Bran nods yes, and she tells him, "I see you talking to the heart tree. Might be the gods are trying to talk back." And Bran falls asleep and dreams that he is a wolf, prowling the grounds of Winterfell. "Beyond its sky-tall man-cliffs the true world was calling, and he knew he must answer or die."

Arya

As they travel northward, the group of recruits for the Wall encounter hundreds of people fleeing southward from the conflicts, heading toward King's Landing. Some of these refugees warn them that they're going the wrong way, and one man, a merchant, tries to buy the supplies Yoren is carrying. "It's war, they'll take what they want, you'll do better selling to me, my friend." They begin to come across graves by the roadside, and one day a member of their own party, a sellsword named Praed, is found dead. Yoren distributes Praed's belongings to the recruits, giving his longsword to the boy known as the Bull.

They stop at an inn that has a bathhouse, but though she smells bad and is covered with lice and fleas, Arya doesn't dare strip for a bath. Again they are warned by the southward travelers at the inn: "There's no going north. Half the fields are burnt, and what folks are left are walled up inside their holdfasts." Yoren reminds them that the Watch is neutral in civil conflicts: "Tully or Lannister, makes no matter. The Watch takes no part." Arya resents this because her grandfather is Lord Tully, but she keeps her silence, even when she hears, "And the Starks are in it too, the young lord's come down, the dead Hand's son...." She is startled to realize that he must mean Robb.

Another man says, "I heard the boy rides to battle on a wolf," though others scoff. And a man says, "It's been a bad year for wolves.... Around the Gods Eye, the packs have grown bolder'n anyone can remember." A woman chimes in that the pack leader is "a she-wolf, a bitch from the seventh hell." Arya wonders, "Was the Gods Eye near the Trident? She wished she had a map. It had been near the Trident that she'd left Nymeria," driving her wolf away with stones. "She probably wouldn't even know me now, Arya thought. Or if she did, she'd hate me." But when a man says he'd heard that the she-wolf had walked into a village and taken a baby from its mother's arms, Arya can't contain herself, and blurts out, "Wolves don't eat babies." Yoren intervenes to keep her from attracting more attention, and kicks her out of the inn.

Outside, one of the men chained in the wagon calls to her. "He was the youngest of the three, slender, fine-featured, always smiling. His hair was red on one side and white on the other." His fellow prisoners are a man with a hole where his nose should have been, and a bald man who hisses at her. When he opens his mouth she can see he has a stump where a tongue should have been. The first man apologizes, "A man does not choose his companions in the black cells." He tells her his name is Jaqen H'ghar and he is from the Free City of Lorath. The one without a nose is Rorge, and the other is Biter. "Biter cannot speak and Biter cannot write, yet his teeth are very sharp, so a man calls him Biter and he smiles." Remembering Syrio's maxim, "Fear cuts deeper than swords," Arya gets closer to the trio. Biter lunges for her, and she hits him between his eyes, driving him back temporarily. He strains forward again, but to no avail and sinks back.

Jaqen H'ghar says, "A boy has more courage than sense." Suddenly Arya feels a hand on her shoulder, and turns around, raising her stick sword. But it's the Bull, who reminds her that Yoren said they should stay away from the three. She tells him they don't scare her, but he says, "Then you're stupid. They scare me." As they walk back toward the inn, she asks him, "Want to fight?" He is surprised by the challenge, but as she moves into a fighting position he looks beyond her at something. It is a group of men from the City Watch. She pulls the Bull with her into a hiding place.

The leader of the group dismounts and tells the recruits in front of the bathhouse that he has a warrant for a boy. Arya whispers to the Bull, "It's me they want." Yoren comes out and the officer shows him the warrant, which has the queen's seal on it. Yoren looks at the warrant and says it's not valid because the boy is in the Night's Watch. Any crimes he may have committed have been superseded by that. The officer draws a sword and says he has five men to back him up. Yoren replies that he has thirty, and the boys begin to produce weapons.

Arya emerges from hiding and draws Needle. The officer scoffs at her, "Put the blade away, little girl, no one wants to hurt you." Arya protests that she's not a girl, but realizes that something's wrong. She insists, "I'm the one you want." But when the Bull comes forward to join her, the officer proclaims, "He's the one we want."

Yoren has intervened, however, and has his sword at the officer's throat. The officer drops his sword and the six gold-cloaked riders retreat, but their leader vows, "The next time I catch you, I believe I'll have your head to go with the bastard boy's." They ride off, and Yoren tells his recruits to get ready to ride all night to put some distance between themselves and the gold cloaks. Then he tells the Bull, "Queen wants you bad, boy."

Arya wants to know why the queen wants the Bull, and she asks him his name. "'Gendry,' he said, like he wasn't quite sure." Yoren tells Arya and Gendry to take the two fastest horses and if the gold cloaks show up to head for the Wall as fast as possible.

Jon

Samwell is in the library searching for maps in preparation for an expedition beyond the Wall to search for the still-missing Benjen Stark. Jon has gone to fetch him because the Commander has grown impatient for the maps. Sam is in awe of the collection: "Jon, the books, have you ever seen their like? There are thousands!" Jon is indifferent, however, and hustles the reluctant Sam away.

Sam's reluctance stems from the fact that he is part of the expedition. Jon assures him that the expedition's forces are so numerous, "You'll be as safe as if you were back in our lord father's castle at Horn Hill," which is no comfort to Sam: "I was never very safe in my father's castle either."

The gods play cruel jests, Jon thought. Pyp and Toad, all a lather to be a part of the great ranging, were to remain at Castle Black. It was Samwell Tarly, the self-proclaimed coward, grossly fat, timid, and near as bad a rider as he was with a sword, who must face the haunted forest. The Old Bear was taking two cages of ravens, so they might send back word as they went. Maester Aemon was blind and far too frail to ride with them, so his steward must go in his place.

As they emerge from the library, Jon notices how empty the grounds seem. Many of the men are off in Mole's Town at the brothel, having a last indulgence before the journey, while others are in the sept. "Some men want whores on the eve of battle, and some want gods," Jon thinks. He sees the new master-at-arms, who replaced his enemy Ser Alliser Thorne, training some new recruits that the armorer Donal Noye describes to him as "A brigand, a barber, a beggar, two orphans, and a boy whore. With such do we defend the realms of men." Jon talks with Noye about the surprising news that his brother Robb has become a king.

They find Lord Commander Mormont impatiently waiting for the maps and arguing with jThoren Smallwood, a ranger who had been an ally of Ser Alliser Thorne, and is no friend of Jon and Sam. Smallwood is arguing that Mormont should remain at Castle Black and name him First Ranger and let him lead the expedition, but Mormont is having none of  it. Smallwood leaves, though "On the way out, he frowned at Jon, as if it were somehow his fault." Mormont says he'd sooner name Sam First Ranger than Smallwood.

Mormont is disappointed with the maps Sam has located, complaining that they are old. Jon points out, "The villages may come and go, but the hills and rivers will be in the same places," which Mormont agrees is true. He asks Sam if he has picked out the ravens for the journey, and Sam, who is terrified of Mormont, stammers that Maester Aemon is going to select them. Mormont wants the best ones: "If it happens that we're all butchered out there, I mean for my successor to know where and how we died." The reminder of the danger of the journey "reduced Samwell Tarly to speechlessness." Mormont dismisses him, and Sam gladly leaves.

Mormont asks Jon if the hand that was burned in the encounter with the undead Othor has recovered enough for him to handle the sword Longclaw, and Jon removes his glove to show him the scars. Maester Aemon has given him some salve and advised him to exercise the hand every day. Mormont commends Aemon, and asks Jon, "Do you know that he might have been king?" Jon knew that Aemon was of the Targaryen royal family, but hadn't realized that he was that high in the line of succession. Mormont discusses the Targaryen lineage and says that it was the political infighting that caused Aemon to come to the Wall.

Jon asks why Mormont raises the subject, and Mormont observes, "Your brother Robb has been crowned King in the North. You and Aemon have that in common. A king for a brother." He and Aemon both took vows, Jon says, but Mormont scoffs, "Give me a man for every vow I've seen broken and the Wall will never lack for defenders." He then describes the contrast between the life Robb will lead as a king and the one Jon will lead as a member of the Watch. "Tell me that none of this troubles you, Jon ... and I'll name you a liar, and know I have the truth of it." Jon retorts that even if it troubles him, what can he do about it, "bastard as I am?"

"What will you do?" Mormont asked. "Bastard as you are?"

"Be troubled," said Jon, "and keep my vows."

Catelyn

A crown has been made for Robb from bronze and iron, "the metals of winter, dark and strong to fight against the cold," and Catelyn observes that Robb finds it heavy and uncomfortable. He is holding court, and Ser Cleos Frey has been brought before him. Robb, sitting with his unsheathed sword across his lap, tells Ser Cleos to rise. "Ser Cleos had been taken during the battle in the Whispering Wood, where Grey Wind had ripped out the throats of half a dozen men," so he exhibits fear when the wolf comes forward and sniffs at him. He addresses Robb as "my lord," and is loudly corrected by Lord Umber, the Greatjon: "Your Grace."

Robb tells him that he has been brought from his cell to carry a message to Cersei Lannister in King's Landing. It contains the terms of a peace between him and the queen: She is to release Sansa and Arya and send them home; cancel Sansa's betrothal to Joffrey; when they reach Winterfell he will release Willem Lannister and Cleos's brother Tion, who are Cersei's cousins; she will return Eddard Stark's bones and the remains of the members of his household guard; she will also return his father's sword, Ice; she will command Tywin to release the knights and bannermen he took captive; when he does so, he will release his own captives, except for Jaime Lannister; and finally "King Joffrey and the Queen Regent must renounce all claims to dominion over the north."

There are cries, led by Greatjon Umber, of "The King in the North!"

He adds that he's sending a map of borders beyond with Tywin must withdraw, and release his people from taxes and his lords and knight from any oaths of fealty to the Iron Throne and the houses of Baratheon and Lannister. And the Lannisters must "deliver ten highborn hostages," who will be treated as "honored guests" as long as the peace holds, and two of these hostages will be released every year for the duration of the peace.

More cries of "Stark, Stark, King in the North!" and a howl from Grey Wind.

After it's over, Catelyn tells him that he did well, though she thought "that business with the wolf was japery more befitting a boy than a king," and she noticed that Lord Rickard Karstark walked out when the talk of peace began. Catelyn's brother, Edmure, says he is also uneasy with the talk of peace as long as the Lannisters are out pillaging and slaughtering. He says they should be marching on Harrenhal instead, and worries that "Lord Karstark is a northman. It would be an ill thing if he were to leave us."

Catelyn sides with Robb, though with reservations: "An offer had to be made -- though a wiser man might have offered sweeter terms." Robb retorts, "Any sweeter and I would have gagged." Catelyn reflects that "he was still a youth of fifteen," and it had been hard to persuade him to make even this offer. She "was finding that kings do not listen half so attentively as sons." She is still concerned about Arya and Sansa and that if any harm comes to Jaime Lannister, "Cersei will pay us back blood for blood."

When Robb suggests that she might retreat to a safer place, or even return to Winterfell, Catelyn becomes more aware of how strained their relationship is becoming. She is worried about his reliance on Theon Greyjoy, whom she does not trust. So she goes to visit her father, who is on the brink of death, and finds her uncle, Ser Brynden Tully, the Blackfish, there. He gives her news of the fighting and unrest that is spreading across the land, and of the disintegration of the alliances forged during the war. Gregor Clegane has been doing Tywin Lannister's dirty work everywhere.

"Lannister wants to provoke us to battle," Brynden says, and Catelyn worries, "Robb is like to give him that wish." He replies, "My first rule of war, Cat -- never give the enemy his wish." What Tywin most wishes, he says, is for Robb to attack Harrenhal, Lannister's fortress. But even worse, he says, is that "a new host is gathering at Casterly Rock," commanded by Ser Stafford Lannister, a cousin of Tywin's and the brother of Tywin's deceased wife.

The only way to prevail, Brynden suggests, is by drawing Tywin out of Harrenhal. And one way to do that would be to stir Renly Baratheon to attack.