34. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 887-913

The Dragontamer

While Barristan is attempting his overthrow of Hizdahr, Quentyn Martell is working on something even more risky. Unable to sleep, he pours himself a cup of wine and lights a candle. And then he holds his hand in the candle flame. When he withdraws it with a yelp, Gerris Drinkwater appears, astonished at what the prince is up to. He suggests finding a whore might be a more pleasant solution to Quentyn's restlessness.

But Quentyn's mind is on Daenerys and his determination to marry her even though, as Drinkwater reminds him, she is already married. Drinkwater tries to discourage him from further pursuit of the queen, but Quentyn has his mind made up: He believes that she is still alive, and thinks he knows the way to find her. He wants to take one of the remaining dragons and ride out on it in search of her.

Drinkwater protests this mad idea, but Quentyn is adamant: "You have my leave to go. Find a ship and run home, Gerris." But when the hour of the wolf arrives, the three Dornishmen are preparing to attempt this plan. Archibald Yronwood frets that the dragons won't like the rain, and Gerris is gloomy, but Quentyn will not be denied. They put on their disguises: The outfits of the Brazen Beasts, a bull, a lion, and an ape. Yronwood chooses the bull, Quentyn naturally picks the lion, and Gerris is stuck with the ape. The Tattered Prince has helped them obtain the costumes, as well as the Beasts' password: dog.

The main gates are guarded by Brazen Beasts with the masks of a rat and a fox, but they yield their posts at the password. Hurriedly, because the real relief to the guards will probably show at any moment, they open the doors and bring in a wagon that they have hidden in a nearby alley. They are joined by other members of the Windblown, all except Pretty Meris disguised as Brazen Beasts. She tells them that the Tattered Prince is nearby with fifty men, waiting for them to bring out the dragon.

They descend into the pyramid and finally reach the iron doors of the dragons' pit. Four Brazen Beasts guard it. One wears a basilisk mask, but the other three are locusts -- the masks of Barristan's conspirators. When Quentyn utters the password, "dog," the reaction makes him realize that something has gone wrong. "Take them," he orders, and Yronwood swiftly kills the basilisk and Gerris intervenes to keep one of the locusts from killing Quentyn. The other sellswords come running and finish off the rest of the locusts.

Quentyn is still wondering why the password doesn't work when Pretty Meris tells him to get a move on. Yronwood shatters the lock on the doors with his warhammer, and pulls them open. Quentyn orders the cart brought forward: It contains a quartered ox and two sheep to feed the dragons. Gerris hands him a torch and Quentyn steps into the darkness.

The green one is Rhaegal, the white Viserion, he reminded himself. Use their names, command them, speak to them calmly but sternly. Master them, as Daenerys mastered Drogon in the pit. The girl had been alone, clad in wisps of silk, but fearless. I must not be afraid. She did it, so can I. The main thing was to show no fear. Animals can smell fear, and dragons.... What did he know of dragons? What does any man know of dragons? They have been gone from the world for more than a century. 

The air grows warmer as he enters the pit. He sees two glowing eyes, then dark green scales. The dragon's long neck uncoils until it is looking down on him. Quentyn croaks out the dragon's name, "Rhaegal," and calls for the food to be brought forward. Yronwood flings one of the sheep into the pit and the dragon snaps it up in midair.

Yronwood asks where the other one is, and Quentyn remembers that Viserion had been hanging from the ceiling when he visited with Daenerys. He shines the torch around and discovers that the dragon has hollowed out a cave in the masonry of the walls. As Viserion wakes and stretches and extends his wings, Quentyn calls for more meat. The plan had been to feed the dragons and then, when they are torpid after their meal, to chain them. But Drinkwater grabs Quentyn and tells him the plan won't work: "They are too wild, they...."

The dragon lands between them and the door. It stares at Pretty Meris, and Quentyn realizes it recognizes her as female. "He is looking for Daenerys. He wants his mother and does not understand why she's not here." Quentyn calls out the dragon's name, Viserion, and reaches for the whip at his belt, remembering that Daenerys had controlled Drogon with a whip. The dragon looks at him for a moment, but then turns away and heads for the door.

One of the Windblown fires a crossbow, causing Quentyn to protest, but too late. Viserion seizes the man by the neck and breathes fire, burning him while biting off a chunk of the man's throat. The Windblown pull back. The dragon looks at them for a moment and then returns to the corpse, tearing off a leg.

Quentyn calls out "VISERION!" and cracks the whip. The dragon raises his head and looks at him. Then there is a blast of hot wind, the sound of wings, Drinkwater calling his name and Yronwood shouting, "Behind you, behind you, behind you!"

When he raised his whip, he saw that the lash was burning. His hand as well. All of him, all of him was burning. 

Oh, he thought. Then he began to scream.

Jon

Queen Selyse has announced her firm opposition to rescuing the wildlings at Hardhome, but Jon is determined to defy her, even if it means he has to lead a rescue mission himself. This is fine with her: "Afterward some bard will make a stirring song about you, no doubt, and we shall have a more prudent lord commander." And now she introduces Gerrick Kingsblood, whom she calls "Gerrick of House Redbeard, ... King of the Wildlings." Jon knows that this is a royal line of her own devising, that although she claims Gerrick is "descended in an unbroken male line from their great king Raymun Redbeard," among the wildlings "that counted about as much as being descended from Raymun Redbeard's horse." But Selyse has devised a royal lineage so she can marry Ser Axell Florent to Gerrick's eldest daughter, and his other two to her knights.

Jon goes along with this charade until she announces that she intends for Val to "wed my good and leal knight, Ser Patrek of King's Mountain." Jon points out that this is not the way it usually works among the free folk, where a man usually steals the woman of his choosing from her kinfolk, risking "a savage beating if he is caught by the woman's kin, and worse than that if she herself finds him unworthy." Ser Axell sniffs, "A savage custom," and Selyse orders Jon to send Val to her for instruction "in the duties of a noble lady toward her lord husband."

Jon knows that this will not end well, but his efforts to tell Selyse that are squelched, and he withdraws. As he is leaving the queen's tower, Melisandre calls out to him. She asks where Ghost is, and he tells her that the wolf is not allowed to accompany him to meetings with the queen and that since the arrival of Borroq with his boar, he has not been able to let Ghost roam freely. She tells him that the attempt to rescue the people at Hardhome is doomed: She has seen it in her fires, that all of the ships are lost. He tells her he has reasons to doubt her visions:

"A grey girl on a dying horse. Daggers in the dark. A promised prince, born in smoke and salt. It seems to me that you make nothing but mistakes, my lady. Where is Stannis? What of Rattleshirt and his spearwives? Where is my sister?"

But Melisandre insists that his questions will be answered, and in the meantime, "I am you only hope." 

He still intends to lead a rescue party despite Selyse's determination not to help, and speaks with Leathers about gathering the men in the Shieldhall before the evening watch. When he reaches the armory, he finds two of his men on guard outside. When he asks why they are standing in the cold, they tell him that Ghost doesn't want them inside, and Mully says the wolf tried to bite him. "I never seen him like this, m'lord. All wild-like, I mean.

Inside, Jon finds Ghost pacing restlessly, and when he tries to calm him, "the wolf bristled and bared his teeth." Jon blames it on the boar. But Mormont's raven is upset, too, and keeps calling out, "Snow, snow, snow." Jon has Satin light a fire and sends him for Bowen Marsh and Othell Yarwyck. When they arrive, Yarwyck complains that he doesn't have enough builders to continue the work on the castles in the snowstorm that seems to be arriving. Jon suggests using wildlings, but Yarwyck grumbles about their unreliability. Jon is tired of the complaints of the steward and the builder about the free folk, and insists that it has to be done. Marsh of course sides with the queen on helping the people at Hardhome, and suggests sending all of the wildlings: "The more we lose, the fewer mouths we'll have to feed."

Jon thanks them and walks out with them, thinking,

My brothers. The Night's Watch needed leaders with the wisdom of Maester Aemon, the learning of Samwell Tarly, the courage of Qhorin Halfhand, the stubborn strength of the Old Bear, the compassion of Donal Noye. What it had instead was them.

The drifts have piled up against the Wall, covering the ice cells. Jon has them dug out, and sends Cregan Karstark to a new cell under the Lord Commander's Tower. There are two corpses in the cells, but he decides to leave them there, intending to study them before burning them. Tormund Giantsbane arrives with fifty men, not the eighty that had been promised. He mocks the new King of the Wildlings. Jon starts to talk to him about what to say to the men when they meet at the Shieldhall, but he is interrupted by Clydas, who has received a letter.

Clydas is trembling as he delivers the letter, which is from Ramsay Bolton. It is addressed simply to "Bastard." It claims that Stannis is dead and that Ramsay possesses "his magic sword." He says he has captured Mance Rayder and "made him a warm cloak from the skins of the six whores who came with him to Winterfell." Rayder came there, he says, "to steal my bride from me."

I want my bride back. I want the false king's queen. I want his daughter and the red witch. I want his wildling princess. I want his little prince, the wildling babe. And I want my Reek. Send them to me, bastard, and I will not trouble you or your black crows. Keep them from me, and I will cut out your bastard's heart and eat it.

Jon reads it to Tormund, who is confused by the reference to Rayder, whom he thinks dead. Jon doesn't reveal the truth about Melisandre's trick of substituting Rattleshirt for Mance. Tormund thinks Ramsay is lying, but Jon recognizes that it reveals Ramsay's knowledge of the sword Lightbringer and the number of spearwives who accompanied Mance. He tells Tormund that they need to change their plans.

When the time comes for the meeting at the Shieldhall, he shuts Ghost inside because he is afraid that Borroq will be at that gathering. The crowd there is made up of five times as many wildlings as members  of the Watch. Marsh and Yarwyck are there, as is Borroq, though without his boar. Two of Selyse's knights, Ser Narbert and Ser Benethon are there too. Melisandre enters the hall as Jon tells the crowd that he needs to send the rescue mission by land, but that he will not be leading it, Tormund Giantsbane will. Borroq asks if Jon will be "Hiding here in Castle Black with your white dog," and Jon replies that he is riding south. When he reads them the letter from Ramsay, the hall goes wild. Tormund has to sound his horn to restore order.

"The Night's Watch takes no part in the wars of the Seven Kingdoms," he reminds them. But he intends to make Ramsay -- "This creature who makes cloaks from the skins of women" -- answer for what he has done. He won't ask any of his brothers to break their vows, but he will ride alone unless there are those who will come with him. A roar fills the hall. "I have my swords, thought Jon Snow, and we are coming for you, Bastard." He sees Marsh and Yarwyck and their men leave the hall, but is unconcerned: "No man can ever say I made my brothers break their vows. If this is oathbreaking, the crime is mine and mine alone."

He leaves the meeting with his guards, Horse and Rory, but they hear a terrifying scream from the direction of Hardin's Tower. There they find the giant, Wun Wun, holding a bloody corpse by one leg and swinging it against the walls of the tower. The giant has sword cuts on his belly and his arm. "The dead man was Ser Patrek of King's Mountain; his head was largely gone, but his heraldry was as distinctive as his face." Jon tells Leathers, who speaks the Old Tongue, to try to calm the giant, and tells the men who are gathering at the scene to put away their weapons for fear they'll agitate the giant even more.

Then he sees the flash of a blade in the hands of Wick Whittlestick, and realizes that it is aimed at him. He dodges the blow, which grazes his skin, and asks Wick why he is attacking him. "For the Watch," Wick says. Jon grabs his arm as he strikes again, and Wick drops the dagger. Jon reaches for Longclaw but is unable to get the sword free as Bowen Marsh appears, saying, "For the Watch," and stabs Jon in the belly. "When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold...."
 

26. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 687-716

Daenerys

Irri, Jhiqui, and Missandei help Daenerys get ready for the reopening of the fighting pits. Ser Barristan waits for them at the palanquin, which will be guarded by Brazen Beasts, the guards who wear bronze masks of various animals. Barristan voices his uneasiness about the guards, wishing that she were attended by Unsullied instead, who are more trustworthy. But Daenerys feels she needs to make an example by placing her trust in these men.

Barristan also tells her that the sellsword army known as the Windblown are willing to come over to her side, but their leader, the Tattered Prince, wants Pentos as his reward. Pentos is not hers to give, she replies, and in any case she owes an obligation to Magister Illyrio whose home is there. He arranged her marriage to Khal Drogo, presented her the dragon eggs, and even sent Barristan, Belwas, and her admiral, Groleo, to her. "I will not repay that debt by giving his city to some sellsword."

She takes her place on the palanquin beside Hizdahr and they are borne to Daznak's Pit as the crowds cheer their procession. Strong Belwas walks ahead of the palanquin and Barristan rides beside it. Behind them, farther back, are Quentyn Martell and his companions. Suddenly the procession halts: One of the bearers of a palanquin has collapsed and is blocking the way. Daenerys orders him revived and given food and water, but Barristan suspects a trap. Hizdahr assures him that their enemies, the Sons of the Harpy, have been quieted.

They reach the pit and descend to their ringside seats. Peddlers are everywhere, selling food, but Hizdahr has taken charge of their refreshments, which include a bowl of honeyed locusts. These are a particular favorite of Strong Belwas, who begins eating them by the handful. Hizdahr urges her to try some: "They are rolled in spice before the honey, so they are sweet and hot at once," but Daenerys decides to have some figs and dates instead.

Hizdahr rises and addresses the crowd, urging them to show their love for Daenerys. They respond with a chant of "Mhysa, Mhysa, Mhysa," the word for "Mother." She is embarrassed by the adulation, but acknowledges it, then takes her seat. They are in the shade, but the day is very hot, and she calls on Jhiqui to bring her some water.

The first fight ends with one man cutting out the heart of his victim and taking a bite out of it, reminding Daenerys of how she once ate a stallion's heart when she was pregnant. It had not prevented her losing the child to Mirri Maz Duur's treachery. She remembers the prophecy of three treasons: "She was the first, Jorah the second, Brown Ben Plumm the third. Was she done with betrayals?"

When the crowd screams its approval of another kill, Strong Belwas proclaims it "Bad fighting, good dying." He has finished off the honeyed locusts. Daenerys has forbidden contests between children, but she is upset when a sixteen-year-old boy is killed. She wishes she had forbidden contests of women, too, but the women fighters had insisted on showing that they could fight as well as men. She also wanted to ban the "comic combats where cripples, dwarfs, and crones had at one another with cleavers, torches, and hammers," but Hizdahr had persuaded her that people enjoy these too much and "that without such frolics, the cripples, dwarfs, and crones would starve." There are battles between animals as well, and Hizdahr assures her that the meat is used to make a stew for the poor.

The first comic battle of the day features a pair of dwarfs, one riding a dog, the other a pig. Daenerys tries to look amused at their combat, but then Hizdahr assures her it will get better when they loose the lions on the dwarfs. Startled, she asks how they are supposed to fight lions with wooden swords. Hizdahr replies, "Badly," and explains that the dwarfs aren't expecting it. "I forbid it," Daenerys says.

"You swore to me that the fighters would be grown men who had freely consented to risk their lives for gold and honor. These dwarfs did not consent to battle lions with wooden swords. You will stop it. Now."

Reluctantly, Hizdahr calls the pitmaster over and says, "No lions." The crowd is not pleased when the dwarfs are allowed to leave, so Hizdahr has Barsena Blackhair, a woman fighter, brought on, which brings cheers from the crowd. She fights a boar, but loses, and the smell as the boar rips into Barsena's entrails nauseates Daenerys. She asks Barristan to take her home. Hizdahr pleads with her to stay, and suddenly Strong Belwas is looking ill, too. He says he ate too many locusts, and calls for milk.

Then a shadow passes across the scene, and everyone looks at the sky. It is Drogon, who descends on the pit and roasts the boar with a blast of flame. Then he lands and begins to eat both the boar and Barsena. The crowd begins to panic and leave, climbing out of the arena, though many others remain seated. Then a man with a spear runs into the arena and jumps onto Drogon's back, driving the spear into the dragon's neck. "Dany and Drogon screamed as one." The dragon shakes off the man and tears his arm from the shoulder, as Hizdahr calls out for the other spearmen to attack.


Barristan grabs Daenerys and urges her to look away from what is happening. Instead, she twists away from him, leaps into the pit, and runs toward Drogon. The dragon is making short work of the spearmen as Daenerys calls out his name. He snaps at her, barely missing her, and she falls over the body of the pitmaster. Drogon roars at her and she feels the intense heat of his breath. She hears Ser Barristan nearby, calling out, trying to distract the dragon.


She grasps the pitmaster's whip, and telling herself not to show fear, lashes out at Drogon, screaming "No!" He hisses fire at her again, but she ducks. Then he folds his wings and stretches out on his belly. She jumps onto the dragon's back and wrenches out the spear that is still stuck in him. Then he unfolds his wings and starts to fly, as she urges him to go higher.


Jon


Tormund Giantsbane and Jon Snow negotiate, with a lot of cursing and bellowing on Tormund's part, and a lot of quiet persistence on Jon's. In the end, quiet persistence wins out and Tormund says, "Done then, and may the gods forgive me," then sticks out his hand for a bone-crushing handshake. In three days' time Tormund and his followers are to join the other wildlings on the south side of the Wall.


When they go outside, Jon whistles for Ghost, who appears with Val beside him. Jon tells her that he has prepared a room for her in Hardin's Tower, since Queen Selyse has taken over her old rooms in the King's Tower. She will have the giant Wun Wun as a protector, since he sleeps in the entry hall. As they pass among Tormund's people, he notices signs of illness and starvation, which only arouses his concern about what has happened to the people who went to Hardhome with Mother Mole.


He tells Val that he now has to sell the terms of his agreement with Tormund to his own people, starting with Selyse. She suggests that she come with him, and he agrees, warning her that she will have to kneel and show seriousness when they go before the queen. She says she will behave, and when they are shown into Selyse's chamber, she kneels alongside Jon. He informs the queen that they have come to terms with Tormund and that his people, about four thousand of them, plus two hundred giants and eighty mammoths, will be relocating south of the Wall.


Selyse says that they "must first acknowledge Stannis as their king and R'hllor as their god," but Jon tells her that those terms were not included in the agreement, which the queen responds to frostily. When she says they must be made to do so, Val informs her that not only do the free folk not kneel, but that they will rebel if forced to do so. Selyse replies, "You are insolent. I suppose that is only to be expected of a wildling. We must find you a husband who can teach you courtesy." Jon says he is sorry that his negotiations displease her, and asks her leave to go, which she grants.


Outside, Val observes that Princess Shireen, who had been in the room when they first arrived is afflicted with what the wildlings call the "grey death." Jon replies that greyscale is not fatal when contracted in childhood, but Val insists, "The grey death sleeps, only to wake again. The child is not clean!" She wants Dalla's child, whom she refers to as "the monster," removed from the tower. Jon says he'll try to arrange it and she persists, "Do. You owe me a debt, Jon Snow."


When she has gone, Jon rides in the winch cage to the top of the Wall. He is joined there by Flint, Norrey, Bowen Marsh, Othell Yarwyck, and Septon Cellador, who is drunk as usual. He tells them of the agreement and gets the usual objections, many of them centering on the Weeper, the wildling who had killed many of the men of the Watch. Jon reminds them that if the Weeper takes the black, his crimes must be forgiven, and that he is well acquainted with their common enemy, the Others. He tells them that they will be housed in the Watch's abandoned castles along the Wall. He doesn't tell them about the arrangement he has made with the Iron Bank for funds, but says that the agreement includes the surrendering of all wealth possessed by the wildlings.


Still, they are unconvinced that the words of "godless savages," as Cellador puts it, can be trusted. Jon tells them that he has insisted on hostages, a hundred boys ages eight through sixteen, including the sons of chiefs and captains. And he reminds him that he is Eddard Stark's son, who knows the ways of northmen and wildlings. But Bowen Marsh speaks up:

"The lord commander must pardon my bluntness, but I have no softer way to say this. What you propose is nothing less than treason. For eight thousand years the men of the Night's Watch have stood upon the Wall and fought these wildlings. Now you mean to let them pass, to shelter them in our castles, to feed them and clothe them and teach them how to fight. Lord Snow, must I remind you?  You swore an oath." 

Jon needs no reminding, and he repeats the oath verbatim. The wildlings are men, he says, and they swore to guard "the realms of men." Marsh starts to reply, but remains silent as Jon turns away. Then Jon reminds them that winter is coming and with it the white walkers. They must be stopped at the Wall, and he has done what he can do to try to stop them. He gives them orders for handling the influx of wildlings and they agree, but he remembers Melisandre's words: "'Ice,' she said, 'and daggers in the dark. Blood frozen red and hard, and naked steel.'"

24. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 632-660

Jaime

Jaime is making his way to Raventree, the besieged castle that is one of the last holdouts of Robb Stark's short-lived kingdom. If he can end this siege he can make his way back to King's Landing and deal with Cersei, whose call for help he has ignored. He goes to meet with Lord Jonos Bracken, who has been attempting to starve the castle into submission, but walks in on him in flagrante with a camp follower.

Once she is sent on her way and Bracken has dressed himself, Jaime talks with him about proposing terms of surrender to Lord Blackwood. Bracken wants to make sure that he takes a share of the lands now belonging to Blackwood. Bracken had been loyal to Robb Stark until the Red Wedding, when he switched allegiance to Tommen, so Jaime is not inclined to be terribly generous. Still he promises Bracken some of the lands he wants.

Under a flag of truce, Jaime goes to meet Lord Tytos Blackwood and arranges the terms of surrender. Blackwood agrees to all of them, but when it comes to naming a hostage he resists parting with his daughter, Bethany. Jaime finally agrees to take his "bookish" son Hoster, "a gangling, gawky boy" about sixteen. When he returns to Bracken with Hoster, the lord calls the boy a "weakling" and says "any one of my girls could snap him like a rotten twig." So Jaime takes the opportunity to order Bracken to send one of his daughters to King's Landing to serve the queen.

He summons Hoster to ride alongside him, and hears a good deal of the local history from the boy, whose interest in books reminds him of Tyrion until he remembers what his brother had done. The Brackens and Blackwoods have been fighting and intermarrying for centuries, and Jaime tells Hoster of his father's advice: "Never wound a foe when you can kill him. Dead men don't claim vengeance." But when Hoster asks if that's why the Lannisters killed all the Starks, Jaime has to admit that not all of the Starks are dead, including the one, Sansa, whom he had sent Brienne to find.

They camp at Pennytree, where the villagers have all taken refuge in the holdfast. Rather than force them out, Jaime tells his men to take shelter in the houses but not to steal anything. He is contemplating the tree that gives the town its name -- an ancient oak with hundreds of copper pennies nailed to it -- when  a scout arrives with none other than Brienne, who had asked to see him.

Jaime is startled by her face, and the fact that she looks ten years older. She tells him that she has found Sansa and that she's a day's ride away. "I can take you to her, ser ... but you will need to come alone. Elsewise, the Hound will kill her."

Jon

Melisandre is praying to R'hllor, with Queen Selyse and the queen's men in attendance, though Jon notices that many of the men are obviously not devout followers of the Lord of Light. He suspects that Stannis had a hand in selecting them. Alys Karstark is being married to Sigorn, the Magnar of Thenn. Alys's uncle, Cregan, had pursued her with four men, one of whom died in the fight they started. The living ones are now imprisoned in ice cells in the Wall.

Jon offers to have Satin show the queen the way to the wedding feast, but Ser Malegorn, one of the queen's men, steps up to say he will escort Selyse, intimating his contempt for the former male prostitute. As the royal party makes its way, the fool Patchface chants nonsense. Melisandre tells Jon that she has seen Patchface in her flames and considers him dangerous. Jon asks if she has seen Stannis, but she says whenever she tries, all she sees is snow. But she also tells Jon, "I see your face every time I look into the flames. The danger that I warned you of grows very close now."

Jon continues to doubt Melisandre's visions, and he reminds her that she was mistaken about the "grey girl on a dying horse, fleeing from a marriage" -- she turned out to be Alys, not Arya. But Melisandre insists, "The vision was a true one. It was my reading that was false. I am as mortal as you, Jon Snow. All mortals err." She urges him to keep Ghost close beside him.

Jon goes to the ice cell where Cregan Karstark is imprisoned and tells him that Alys is married. Cregan protests that she was promised to him by his father, Arnolf, but Jon insists that Arnolf is not the rightful Lord of Karhold. If Alys's brother, Harrion, is dead, then she is the heir, and she has married Sigorn. "A wildling. A filthy, murdering wildling," Cregan protests. Nevertheless, Jon says, Sigorn commands two hundred Thenns, and two of Cregan's men have admitted that Arnolf Karstark had conspired with Ramsay Bolton. "Yield the castle. Lady Alys will pardon the women who betrayed her and allow the men to take the black." Cregan says he will never do that.

Jon goes to the wedding feast, but it only reminds him of how low the supplies at Castle Black are becoming. He talks with Alys about the situation at Karhold, where supplies are also running low, and suggests that she send the old men and the boys to the Wall rather than have them die alone in the snow. Clydas arrives with a letter brought by a raven from Eastwatch to say that the rescue mission has set off for Hardhome and that Ser Glendon Hewett is in charge at Eastwatch. Jon worries about this: Hewett was friends with Alliser Thorne and had been "a crony of sorts with Janos Slynt."

When Alys gets up to dance with Sigorn, Ser Axell Florent sits down beside Jon to press once again the idea of marrying Val. His coarseness angers Jon and they exchange words. But then the sound of a horn is heard. It is followed by a second, and Jon realizes that Val has completed her mission to Tormund Giantsbane.

22. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 579-604

Jon

As if he didn't have enough to deal with, Queen Selyse descends upon Jon with her retinue, so he meets her with a company of Night's Watch: "It would never do to come before this queen without a retinue of his own, if half of what they said about her was true. She might mistake him for a stableboy and hand him the reins of her horse." Even so, when he kneels before her she asks to see the lord commander, and he has to inform her, "My brothers chose me for that honor. I am Jon Snow."

She introduces him to Axell Florent, whose reputation has preceded him -- unfortunately. But more importantly, she brings with her Tycho Nestoris, of the Iron Bank of Braavos, who has come there to meet with Stannis. She asks to be taken to Melisandre, and Jon obliges. But on the way they encounter the giant, Wun Wun, who startles the queen's party but bows politely before her. "Even kneeling, he loomed over them." Selyse is unimpressed and asks, "Lord Snow, what is this bestial creature doing on our side of the Wall?" She doesn't like it when Jon says, "Wun Wun is a guest of the Night's Watch, as you are."

As Selyse and her company depart in a huff, Jon halts the banker, who agrees to talk with Jon in his solar. Tycho explains that he has come to Stannis about the debts that the Iron Throne has refused to pay. If Stannis is less obdurate about the debts, the bank might consider dealing with him. Jon tells Tycho that Stannis is away, marching on the Boltons, but he can supply horses and provisions to get him to Deepwood Motte and from there to go in search of Stannis, though he thinks to himself, "And you may well find his head upon a spike."

But Jon also wants a favor from the bank. He would like to borrow the three ships Tycho has at his disposal as well as enough gold to see the Watch through till spring. They haggle for an hour over the terms, helped along by the wine that Satin, Jon's steward, brings them. "By the time Jon Snow signed the parchment the Braavosi drew up, both of them were half-drunk and quite unhappy. Jon thought that a good sign." He intends to use the ships to rescue the people Mother Mole has led to Hardhome.

He conducts Tycho to the mess hall, where Ser Axell joins them and asks Jon about "this wildling princess His Grace King Stannis wrote of." Jon has persistently tried to correct the error of calling Val a princess, but to no avail. He also doesn't want to reveal that she has gone on a diplomatic errand for him. When Jon persists in keeping Val's whereabouts secret, though he knows that rumors of her departure have leaked out, Axell gets huffy: "My lord, have you forgotten who I am?" He can speak to the queen and "have this wildling girl delivered naked to the hall for our inspection." Jon says he doubts that the queen would violate the rules of hospitality in that way and takes his leave.

Back in his solar he reads over the agreement he had made with Tycho, regretting its necessity -- "when the choice is debt or death, best borrow" -- and wondering how the Iron Bank will deal with the reluctance of Cersei to repay: "When princes failed to repay the Iron Bank, new princes sprang up from nowhere and took their thrones. As poor plump Tommen may be about to learn," Jon thinks.

He dozes off in his chair, and is awakened by the news, "A girl's been found." He thinks of Val at first, but then remembers Melisandre's vision of a girl, supposedly Arya, riding a dying horse toward the Wall. She has been taken to Maester Aemon's chambers, and as he walks there he wonders what he can do to save her if it does prove to be Arya.

For a moment he thinks it is his sister, but she is almost as old as he is. And she soon reveals herself to be Alys Karstark, fleeing from a marriage to her cousin Cregan. He remembers meeting her some ten years ago at Winterfell with her father, whom Robb had beheaded for killing prisoners. She asks if there is a blood feud between her and Jon, but he assures her that when a man joins the Watch he puts all feuds behind him. She is glad to hear this because she has no one else to turn to "but the last son of Eddard Stark." Although she is the rightful heir to the family castle, Karstark, a marriage would deny her that right.

Jon tells her that he has nothing to offer her in the way of support, but he will write to Stannis requesting that he protect her. But she laughs bitterly and says, "Stannis will be dead before he gets your message." Arnolf Karstark is headed to Winterfell to support Roose Bolton. "Lord Stannis is marching to a slaughter." She kneels and begs Jon to protect her.

The Blind Girl

As for the real Arya Stark, she is better off than either Alys or the faux Arya, Jeyne Poole, except that she's blind. She still dreams wolf dreams, and she still recites her prayer for the deaths of her tormentors (most of whom are in fact already dead). And she still serves in the temple in Braavos, having learned to rely on her remaining sense: "Hear, smell, taste, feel, she reminded herself. There are many ways to know the world for those who cannot see."

She can even sense the presence of the kindly man by scent: "Men had a different smell than women, and there was a hint of orange in the air" from the orange peels he likes to chew. He asks her his usual question, "And who are you this morning?" And she replies with her usual answer, "No one," to which he says, "A lie." She is "that blind beggar girl." She has taken the name Beth, from a girl she once knew at Winterfell.

Then he asks if she would like her sight back. Perhaps tomorrow, she replies. "Not today." He asks where she went begging last night, and she tells him, "The Inn of the Green Eel." And he asks another usual question: "what three new things do you know that you did not know when last you left us." She replies with the scraps of gossip she has heard, but thinks, "It is snowing in the riverlands, in Westeros," which she has learned through her wolf dreams. "But he would have asked her how she knew that, and she did not think that he would like her answer."

She goes about her daily chores, using a stick to aid her. Every evening the waif brings her a cup of a bitter potion to drink, and Arya asks how long she will be blind. The waif's reply is, "Until darkness is as sweet to you as light, ... or until you ask us for your eyes. Ask and you shall see." But she holds off asking because she knows she will be sent away then. The waif has taken charge of her training since she became blind, and has trained her in poisons and potions and in the language of Braavos. She has lost her accent, but the kindly man wants her to learn High Valyrian and the languages of Lys and Pentos, too.

She also plays the lying game with the waif, learning to detect a lie by the sound of the words when it is spoken to her. Her training with Syrio Forel has helped her keep her balance when she encounters unfamiliar terrain. But she has endured cuts and bruises and burns while moving around the temple and the city, though many fewer now than when she started. One of her duties is to find the dead people in the temple on the mornings after they had drunk from the pool that puts an end to their lives. She helps lay out the bodies, and to sort through the coins and possessions of the dead.

One day she is doing this when she hears the door open behind her. She calls out, "Who is there?" but the answer, in a "deep, harsh, cold" voice is "No one." Then she feels movement and reaches out for her stick, holding it up to protect her face. There is a blow of wood on wood that almost knocks the stick out of her hand. She slashes back with her stick but misses, and the voice taunts her, "Are you blind?" She listens and when she hears a sound strikes out and makes contact. The voice says, "Good." The battle continues, and she receives more blows and makes fewer hits.

When it's over she returns to her task with the bodies, remembering when she was Cat, selling fish on the street. She liked that life the best, but after she killed Dareon, the singer who had deserted Samwell and Maester Aemon, the kindly man and the waif had given her the potion that blinded her.

The kindly man had told her that they would have taken her eyes from her anyway, to help her to learn to use her other senses, but not for half a year. Blind acolytes were common in the House of Black and White, but few as young as she. The girl was not sorry, though. Dareon had been a deserter from the Night's Watch; he had deserved to die.

But the kindly man disagreed that she had the right to take a life. In the temple, he explained, "We are but death's instruments, not death himself. When you slew the singer, you took god's powers on yourself. We kill men, but we do not presume to judge them. Do you understand?" She said yes, but thought no. And he told her she was lying. "And that is why you must now walk in darkness until you see the way. Unless you wish to leave us. You need only ask, and you may have your eyes back." So she didn't ask.

In the evening she goes out to beg, and before she does, the waif disguises her by making her ugly. She had never cared for being pretty, even though her mother and her sister had urged her to try. "But they were all dead now, even Arya, everyone but her half-brother, Jon. Some nights she heard talk of him, in the taverns and brothels of the Ragman's Harbor. The Black Bastard of the Wall, one man had called him." She knows her way to the various places where she begs, and tonight goes to a tavern called Pynto's. The cats at Pynto's recognize her from when she was Cat of the Canals.

The next morning when she tells the kindly man the three things she has learned, she says the Sealord had seized a slave ship called the Goodheart, which was carrying hundreds of slaves. "They were wildlings from Westeros, from a place called Hardhome," she says, and they had been taken by two slave ships. On the way back they had run into storms, and the Goodheart had put in to Braavos for repairs. The other ship may have made it to Lys, and if so there may be more slavers sent to Hardhome.

The kindly man asks what is the third thing she has learned, and she tells him she knows he's the one who has been hitting her when she lays out the corpses. She gives him a rap on the knuckles with her stick. He asks "how would a blind girl know that?" She thinks, "I saw you," but says, "I gave you three. I don't need to give you four."

That evening when the waif gives her the potion it is different. And in the morning she sees "a tallow candle burning where no candle had been the night before, its uncertain flame swaying back and forth like a whore at the Happy Port. She had never seen anything so beautiful."

22. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 722-754

Davos

Salladhor Saan has brought the news to Stannis:

"The Red Wedding, the smallfolk are calling it. They swear Lord Frey had the boy's head hacked off, sewed the head of his direwolf in its place, and nailed a crown about his ears. His lady mother was slain as well, and thrown naked in the river."

Davos is shocked at the violation of the code of hospitality: "At a wedding.... As he sat at his slayer's board, a guest beneath his roof. Those Freys are cursed." Ser Axell Florent and Queen Selyse piously invoke the name of R'hllor, but Stannis observes, "This sounds more like Walder Frey's handiwork than any god's."

Melisandre claims to have seen in her flames the rising of more kings to take the place of Balon Greyjoy and Robb Stark. "You must show the realm a sign," she urges. "A sign that proves your power!" But Stannis scoffs at the idea of his having any power at all: He has "thirteen hundred men on Dragonstone, another three hundred at Storm's End." The only fleet he has at hand belongs to Salladhor Saan, and he has no money to hire mercenaries.

But what he does have, the queen and Ser Axell remind him, is the bastard son of Robert Baratheon. Melisandre presses the point: "Give me the boy for R'hllor ... and the ancient prophecy shall be fulfilled. Your dragon shall awaken and spread his stony wings. The kingdom shall be yours." Davos holds his tongue as Ser Axell and the queen kneel before him, claiming that burning the boy will bring the stone dragon to life and even break the curse of barrenness that has made the queen unable to bear Stannis a son.

Stannis begins to waver when Melisandre says, "From his king's blood and his untainted fire, a dragon shall be born." He really would like to see a dragon. He remembers going with Robert to Aerys Targaryeon's court, where the dragon skulls were displayed. Stannis had been about four and Robert five or six, and they "agreed afterward that the king had been as noble as the dragons were fearsome." Later, however, their father told them that the man on the throne that day wasn't Aerys, who had cut himself on the protruding blades of the Iron Throne, "so his hand had taken his place. It was Tywin Lannister who'd so impressed us."

Still, he thinks about how impressed people would be if he could show them his dragon. Then Davos ventures forth to say, "I know little of dragons and less of gods ... but the queen spoke of curses. No man is as cursed as the kinslayer, in the eyes of gods and men." Melisandre protests that there are no gods apart from "R'hllor and the Other, whose name must not be spoken." Davos persists in asking her why she needs Edric Storm (he shrewdly repeats the name, knowing that as long as they think of him as a person they'll be more reluctant to kill him).

"Only death can pay for life, my lord," Melisandre replies. "A great gift requires a great sacrifice." The greatness resides in the king's blood in his veins, and she reminds him that the blood in the leeches that Stannis burned has already taken effect. But Davos says, "Robb Stark was murdered by Lord Walder of the Crossing, and we have heard that Balon Greyjoy fell from a bridge. Who did your leeches kill?" And Stannis points out that she's still short a king. Melisandre replies:

"To be sure, Your Grace. One king might die by chance, even two ... but three? If Joffrey should die in the midst of all his power, surrounded by his armies and his Kingsguard, would not that show the power of the Lord at work?"

"It might," Stannis agrees. "Or not," Davos adds, hoping he hasn't gone too far, and remembering the murderous shadow that Melisandre gave birth to.

Stannis dismisses them, but Davos stays behind to plead the case for sparing Edric Storm's life. But Stannis is torn between his need of Melisandre's help and his skepticism about her powers. The glowing sword she gave him, Lightbringer, didn't help him on the Blackwater, but he would really like a dragon. And he tells Davos he, too, has seen things in the flames: "a king, a crown of fire on his brows, burning ... burning, Davos. His own crown consumed the flesh and turned him into ash."

"If Joffrey should die ... what is the life of one bastard boy against a kingdom?" he asks. And Davos replies, "Everything." Stannis glares at him and sends him away, "before you talk yourself back into the dungeon."

Outside, Davos smells the sea and wishes he could sail away on it. He looks at the gargoyles and grotesques on the buildings, and the dragon figures carved everywhere. Even the buildings are designed in the shape of dragons. He wonders, "What if they were real dragons, somehow turned to stone?" He finds Salladhor Saan standing there, and asks if he's still angry with him for quashing Ser Axell's plan to invade Claw Isle. Salladhor says he has forgiven but not forgotten. He also says that he has heard that Davos is unpopular at court and is finding new friends elsewhere.

Davos has indeed been doing that, seeking out people who are not followers of Melisandre's religion and gaining their confidence. Salladhor tells him to be careful: "You are grown so very great now, yet the higher a man climbs the farther he has to fall." As he leaves Salladhor, Davos reflects on the truth in his statement. He is on his way to see Maester Pylos, who is teaching him to read, a skill that he is certain the king's Hand should have mastered. He arrives to find his own son, Devan, the Princess Shireen, and Edric Storm finishing up their lesson with Pylos. Edric has been reading about his father's battles, and recounts them with pride.

For his own lesson, Davos is reading from the letters that have been sent to the king. "His first duty was to help his king rule, and for that he must needs understand the words the ravens brought." There are no new letters, so Pylos gives him an old one. It turns out to be addressed to the "five kings," and to be about the attack by the King beyond the Wall and his wildlings. "We fear Mormont slain with all his strength," he reads, haltingly at first.

When he realizes what he's reading, he asks if Stannis has seen the letter. Pylos tells him that he took it to Lord Alester when he was still the Hand, but he declined to send a reply: "'His Grace lacks the men to fight his own battles, he has none to waste on wildlings,' he said to me." Davos remembers his own visit to the Wall at Eastwatch, and the wildlings he had met who, he tells Pylos, "seemed men like any other men, some fair, some foul." Burt something about the letter bothers him:

If Melisandre knew of this letter.... What was it she had said? One whose name may not be spoken is marshaling his power, Davos Seaworth. Soon comes the cold, and the night that never ends.... And Stannis had seen a vision in the flames, a ring of torches in the snow with terror all around.

Pylos notices his behavior and asks if he is ill. "I am frightened, Maester, he might have said." But instead he asks Pylos for another letter. This one, he tells the maester, is "Too ... troubling."

Jon

The smoke of burning Mole's Town is visible from Castle Black, so they have been alerted that Styr and his wildlings are approaching. Jon is still in pain from his leg, but Maester Aemon has given him a crutch. Donal Noye has taken charge of the preparations to defend the castle, which lies open to the south, and Jon is ready to do whatever he can.

His thoughts turn inevitably to Ygritte, but he has to force them down: "Ygritte, stay away. Go south and raid, go hide in one of those roundtowers you liked so well. You'll find nothing here but death."

They have mounted black-clad scarecrows everywhere: decoys to make the wildlings think their forces are ten times more numerous than they are. There are six on top of the King's Tower with Jon, as well as two living brothers-in-black, Deaf Dick Follard and a boy who had been raised in an Oldtown brothel whom they called Satin. The tower is next to the Wall at the foot of the wooden stairs that zigzag up its side.

Jon remembers his Uncle Benjen telling him that the reason Castle Black is undefended on its southern side is that the Night's Watch is pledged to be neutral in any internal disputes. Its sole task is to defend attacks from the north, which is what the Wall is for. But no one seems to have anticipated that the foes might cross the Wall and then attack from the south. "We are caught between the hammer and the anvil," Jon realizes. So the plan is to move all essentials to the top of the Wall and to concentrate on defending the gate. A rampart of barrels of nails, salted meat, timbers, bales of grain and of cloth and so on is built ten feet high around the entrance to the gate and the foot of the stairway up the side of the Wall.

Villagers from Mole's Town are either climbing the stairs or being hauled up by the lift to the top of the Wall. The garrison itself consists of "old men, cripples, and green boys," and some of them still don't trust Jon because of his time with Mance Rayder: "They still think me a turncloak. That was a bitter draft to drink, but Jon could not blame them. He was a bastard, after all. Everyone knew that bastards were wanton and treacherous by nature, having been born of lust and deceit." He also has some enemies he made earlier, such as Rast, whom he threatened with having his throat torn out by Ghost because he wouldn't stop tormenting Samwell Tarly.

In addition to members of the garrison, Donal Noye is also trying to whip some of the villagers into shape to defend the castle, outfitting them with weaponry and armor. The women and children have been given tasks carrying water and tending fires.

The day passes without an attack, but when night falls the horns blow, signaling the approach of the wildlings. He and Satin and Deaf Dick take their positions, bows and arrows at the ready. He sees dark shapes slipping around below, but waits until they are close enough for a sure shot. Their arrows begin to hit the mark as the moonlight makes the wildlings increasingly visible. They are close enough that Jon can recognize some of his former companions, but what he really wants is a good shot at Styr, the Magnar of Thenn.

The wildlings have set fire to the common hall, and then Deaf Dick call's Jon's attention to the roof of the armory, where two wildlings have climbed, one with a torch. Deaf Dick aims his crossbow but misses. And then he is struck by an arrow from below and plunges a hundred feet to the ground. Jon looks down at the body and sees, not ten feet from it, Ygritte. He raises his bow and aims, but can't bring himself to release the arrow.

The stables are on fire, and the movements of the wildlings through the buildings is clearly visible. Jon limps over to Satin and they go to the north parapet, looking down on the gate and the makeshift barricade. The Thenns are attacking the barricade, and are an easy target. Jon realizes that he is out of arrows, so he goes to fetch more. As he does so, the trap door to the roof opens. Jon reaches for Longclaw and kills the first man through the opening with a blow to the head. He calls for Satin, who kills the next man with an arrow. Then they fetch a kettle of boiling oil and pour it down on the Thenns below. Jon shuts the trap door and puts the kettle on top of it.

They go back to the parapet where the battle has begun to turn in favor of the wildlings. The citizens of Mole's Town begin to flee, and the brothers are outnumbered. The gate has been taken, and no one has fallen back into the tunnels to defend it. The Thenns begin to climb the stairs, and although Jon and Satin manage to kill a few, there are too many of them. The brothers defending the fourth landing are cut down and the archers on the fifth landing begin to retreat.


Jon tells Satin to fetch the torches, and as he is bringing them, Jon sees Styr on the barricade, calling to the half-dozen Thenns following him. A horn sounds from the ninth landing of the stair, where Donal Noye is standing. Jon lights a fire arrow from a torch and shoots it at "the casks and kegs and sacks" at the foot of the stairs. They are full of lard, oil, and combustible wood. Fire arrows are coming from above, setting the steps aflame. The wildlings have no way to go. And then the heat from the fire melts the ice on the side of the Wall, "and the whole lower third of the stair broke off, along with several tons of ice. That was the last that Jon Snow saw of Styr, the Magnar of Thenn."

Satin helps Jon, who is crippled by pain, down the tower steps, past the bodies on them. He walks through the destroyed buildings and past the bodies of wildlings, some of whom he recognizes. He finds Ygritte with an arrow in her chest, but he knows from the feathers that it wasn't one of his. Her eyes open when he kneels beside her. He tells her that Maester Aemon will treat her wound and give her something for the pain.

"You're not going to die, Ygritte," he assures her. "You're not." And she says, "You know nothing, Jon Snow."

1. A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 1-51

Prologue

A big red comet in the sky is freaking everyone out. Even Maester Cressen, who is Stannis Baratheon's maester on Dragonstone. Cressen knows it's a perfectly common astronomical phenomenon, but he can't help feeling uneasy because everyone seems to think it's an omen of some sort. And now a message from the Citadel has been delivered by a white raven announcing the end of summer.

As he's worrying about these things, Pylos, a young man who will replace the octogenarian Cressen as maester some day, enters to announce that Lady Shireen, Stannis's daughter, has come to see the white raven. She is accompanied by her fool, Patchface, who has on "a mock helm fashioned from an old tin bucket, with a rack of deer antlers strapped to the crown and hung with cowbells." Shireen, who is ten, is a homely girl disfigured by a skin disorder called "greyscale," that has left patches of mottled dead skin on one cheek and down her neck.

Shireen is troubled by the comet because she has heard that it is "dragonsbreath. If the dragons are breathing, doesn't that mean they are coming to life?" He assures her that the comet is just "A star with a tail, lost in the heavens," and that it will be gone soon. But when she asks about the white raven, he tells her that it is indeed a sign that summer is ending -- "Ten years, two turns, and sixteen days it lasted, the longest summer in living memory." They should hope for a good autumn harvest so they can stock up for the winter.

Pylos enters with the bird, "white as snow and larger than any hawk, with the bright black eyes that meant it was no mere albino, but a truebred white raven of the Citadel." Patchface begins to sing a song, "The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord.... The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord." Shireen asks Cressen to make the fool stop singing the song, which he does all the time. "It makes me scared." But Cressen is unable to do that.

He reflects on Patchface's arrival on Dragonstone. He had survived a shipwreck that had drowned Lord Steffon Baratheon and his wife, the parents of Robert, Stannis, and Renly Baratheon. Steffon had written to say that they had found a wonderfully amusing fool that they were bringing with them, but when Patchface washed ashore two days after the shipwreck he "was someone else, broken in body and mind, hardly capable of speech, much less of wit." He was identifiable as the fool Steffon had written about only because of the tattoo that covered his face, "patterned in squares of red and green motley."

Pylos returns now to tell Cressen that Ser Davos has arrived and is meeting with Stannis -- "the king," Pylos calls him, because Stannis has laid claim to the throne once held by his brother Robert. Cressen is surprised that no one has told him, so he excuses himself and makes his way to the meeting. As he makes his way up the many steps, he stops to catch his breath and meets Ser Davos Seaworth on his way down.  "Before Lord Stannis had knighted him, he had been the most notorious and elusive smuggler in all the seven kingdoms. He is known as "Shorthand" and "the Onion Knight." Davos was knighted for his part in breaking the siege of Storm's End, the castle that Stannis had defended for almost a year. The smuggler had arrived with a cargo of onions and salt fish, which kept the inhabitants of the castle alive until Eddard Stark and his army could end the siege. But though Davos was knighted, Stannis also punished him for his career as a smuggler by lopping off the final joints of every finger except the thumb on Davos's left hand. Davos "took for his banner a black ship on a pale grey field -- with an onion on its sails.

Davos has been on a mission to raise support for Stannis's claim to the throne, but he hasn't succeeded. He also brings news of those who have joined in support of Renly Baratheon's rival claim to the throne. Renly has created his own Kingsguard, who traditionally wear white; but Renly has had his seven men each take a different color and calls it "the Rainbow Guard." Cressen reflects that "It was just the sort of notion that would appeal to Renly Baratheon," who "Even as a boy ... had loved bright colors and rich fabrics."

Davos tells Cressen that he has advised Stannis not to march on King's Landing with the meager force he has assembled, but adds, "My fingers will grow back before that man bends to sense." Cressen agrees, and ascends the stairs to second Davos's advice. Stannis, however, is in no mood to hear Cressen's advice. He is brooding over the injustices done to him by his brother Robert, because he made Stannis Lord of Dragonstone and gave their younger brother, Renly, Storm's End, which "belonged to House Baratheon for three hundred years; by rights it should have passed to me when Robert took the Iron Throne." Cressen suggests that Robert wanted someone older and wiser than Renly to rule Dragonstone, which had been the seat of the Targaryens whom Robert dethroned. This doesn't mollify Stannis one bit.

Cressen suggests that rather than turning his anger against Renly, he should try to make an alliance with him against the Lannisters, who are the real power behind the throne now held by Joffrey, Robert Baratheon's son. Stannis stubbornly refuses to have any dealings with Renly as long as his brother calls himself a king. So Cressen tries another tack: an alliance with Robb Stark, who has "all the power of Winterfell and Riverrun behind him." But Stannis dismisses Robb as "A green boy ... and another false king." Nor is he persuaded by the idea of helping Robb avenge his father's murder. He is filled with spite because Robert preferred Eddard Stark over him when he named a successor to Jon Arryn as Hand. Cressen tries again: What about an alliance with Lady Arryn by betrothing Shireen to her son? Even though Jon Arryn's heir "is weak and sickly," Stannis finally thinks this might be worth a try.

Unfortunately, Lady Selyse, Stannis's wife, who enters at the moment, doesn't think much of the idea. All of these people -- Lady Arryn, Renly, the Starks -- owe Stannis allegiance, she argues. "It would not be fitting to plead and bargain with them for what is rightfully yours by the grace of god." Cressen observes that she said "god," not "gods." For Lady Selyse belongs to a new monotheistic religion.

There is no love between Stannis and Selyse: "he did his duty in the marriage bed once or twice a year, but took no joy in it, and the sons he had once hoped for had never come." But she promises the support of her family, House Florent. Stannis is dubious about this. And then she proclaims that her god, "the Lord of Light," will bless his cause, and points to the comet as a sign, "blazoned on the sky. Red it is, the red of flame, red for the fiery heart of the true god." She assures him that if Renly were out of the way, he would have the support of the troops of Storm's End. Cressen is alarmed at what she is proposing: "Fratricide ... my lord, this is evil, unthinkable ... please, listen to me." But she tells Stannis, "Melisandre has gazed into the flame and seen [Renly] dead."

Stunned, Cressen returns to his chambers and reflects on the power of this Melisandre, "The red woman, the servants had named her, afraid to speak her name." She was "sorceress, shadowbinder, and priestess to R'hllor, the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Flame and Shadow." He renews his determination that her "madness must not be allowed to spread beyond Dragonstone." So he finds his supply of a poison, "made from a certain plant that grew only on the islands of the Jade Sea, half a world away." It causes the muscles of the throat to constrict, choking the victim to death. That night, Melisandre would be feasting with Stannis and his followers.

So Cressen goes to the feast, which is anything but festive: "there was no loud laughter, no raucous shouting such as marred the dignity of other men's feastrs; Lord Stannis did not permit such." But as Cressen enters, Patchface collides with him, knocking him to the floor. Someone helps Cressen stand, and he is surprised to find that it is Melisandre.

As ever, she wore red head to heel, a long loose gown of flowing silk as bright as fire, with dagged sleeves and deep slashes in the bodice that showed glimpses of a darker bloodred fabric beneath. Around her throat was a red gold choker tighter than any maester's chain, ornamented with a single great ruby. Her hair was not the orange or strawberry color of common red-haired men but a deep burnished copper that shone in the light of the torches. Even her eyes were red ... but her skin was smooth and white, unblemished, pale as cream.... Many called her beautiful. She was not beautiful. She was red, and terrible, and red.

She picks up Patchface's helmet from where it has fallen and puts it on his head. People laugh at him, but he summons his dignity and gives the bucket back to Patchface. Then he discovers that Pylos has taken his usual place at the table. Pylos blushes and tells him that Stannis had sent for him instead, saying that Cressen needed to rest. Stannis speaks up and tells him that Pylos will be his counselor from now on: "You are too ill and too confused to be of use to me, old man."

Ser Davos rises and offers Cressen a place beside him at the table, and Stannis agrees, then turns his attention to Melisandre, sitting by him. Cressen realizes that she is too far away for him to slip the poison into her drink. Davos tells Cressen, "The red woman has seen victory in her flames, so Stannis means to press his claim. Before she's done we're all like to see what Patchface saw, I fear -- the bottom of the sea." Cressen is determined to get Stannis's attention, so he calls out, "Lord Stannis." But Lady Selyse corrects him: "King Stannis. You forget yourself, Maester." But Stannis asks what he wants. Cressen again urges him to make an alliance with Robb Stark and Lady Arryn, but Stannis cuts him off. Lady Selyse says that Stannis has an ally: "R'hllor, the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Flame and Shadow."

"'Gods make uncertain allies at best,' the old man insisted, 'and that one has no power here.'" Melisandre and Selyse react sharply to this blasphemy: "If you will speak such folly, Maester, you ought to wear your crown again," Melisandre says, and Selyse commands him to put on Patchface's helmet again. Stannis commands Patchface to hand it over. "The maester sat silent while the fool put the antlered bucket on his brow." Then he sees Davos's half-full cup of wine and slips a bit of the poison in it. He proposes that Melisandre share the cup with him, and she accepts.

Melisandre takes the cup and drinks from it until there was only "half a swallow" remaining in it. Cressen finishes the wine, and Melisandre says, "He does have power here, my lord.... And fire cleanses." Cressen begins to choke. "As he sank to his knees, still he shook his head, denying her, denying her power, denying her magic, denying her god."

Arya 

Yoren has cut Arya's hair until "her scalp was nothing but tufts and stubble." He tells her that from now until they get to Winterfell, her name is Arry and she's a boy. He warns her that she'll be traveling with "bad company" -- thirty boys and men bound for the Wall. "Lord Eddard gave me pick o' the dungeons, and I didn't find no little lordlings down there." He advises her to pee in the woods. "That'll be the hardest part, the pissing, so don't drink no more'n you need."

The disguise helps her get out of the city. The guards at the gate "were looking for a highborn girl, daughter of the King's Hand, not for a skinny boy with his hair chopped off." But from Arya's point of view, the hardest part was not the pissing but the threats she gets from Lommy Greenhands and Hot Pie, orphaned street boys that Yoren has recruited with promises of food. The others came from the dungeons, and the worst are three that Yoren keeps in shackles. She is the smallest and skinniest of the lot, so Lommy and Hot Pie decide to bully her, and when they see Needle they are determined to take it away from her.

Arya has a defender in a boy with "shaggy black hair" whom Lommy calls "the Bull, on account of this horned helm he had that he polished all the time but never wore. Lommy didn't dare mock the Bull. He was older, and big for his age, with a broad chest and strong-looking arms." But Arya has her wooden practice sword with her, too, and when Lommy and Hot Pie start to make their attempt to take Needle away from her, she decks Hot Pie, then turns on Lommy. The Bull gives her a warning that Hot Pie is behind her with a large rock, so she turns on him again. "By the time Yoren pulled her off him, Hot Pie was sprawled out on the ground with his breeches brown and smelly, crying as Arya whapped him over and over and over."

Yoren drags Arya off into a thicket where the others can't see her and has her pull down her breeches. He "laid the wood against the back of her bare thighs" as she screams. Then more quietly he tells her how he happened to be there to rescue her when her father was executed:

"It wasn't supposed to happen like it did. I was set to leave, wagons bought and loaded, and a man comes with a boy for me, and a purse of coin, and a message, never mind who it's from. Lord Eddard's to take the black, he says to me, wait, he'll be going with you. Why d'you think I was there? Only something went queer." 

It was Joffrey, she says to him. "Someone should kill him!" Yoren replies, "Someone will, but it won't be me, nor you neither." He gives her some sourleaf to chew to ease the pain, but for several days she is too sore to ride a donkey. Hot Pie is in worse shape and has to ride in the back of a wagon. Lommy wasn't hurt, but he keeps his distance from Arya. "When at last she slept, she dreamed of home. The kingsroad wound its way past Winterfell on its way to the Wall, and Yoren had promised he'd leave her there with no one any wiser about who she'd been."

Sansa

Joffrey, who is turning thirteen, is celebrating his name day with a tournament. Sansa is wearing a gown with long sleeves to cover the bruises left there when Joffrey had been told that Robb had been proclaimed King of the North. He sent Ser Boros to beat her. Joffrey uses five of his six guards to do the beatings; only Sandor Clegane, the Hound, is never called on for that task.

The tourney is a shabby affair compared to the one Robert had staged in honor of Sansa's father. She learns from Ser Arys, who is one of the kinder guards, that Cersei will not be there because she's meeting with the council. "Sansa always felt safer when Cersei was there to restrain her son." She remains on her guard with Joffrey, who tells her the latest news: that Viserys Targaryen is been killed by having molten gold poured over his head. "It's almost as good as if some wolf killed your traitor brother. Maybe I'll feed him to the wolves after I've caught him."

The jousts are not very impressive. In the second one, Ser Balon Swann goes against Morros of House Slynt, the son of Janos Slynt, the former head of the City Watch who had been made a knight for his help in getting Joffrey the throne. Sansa hopes that Morros will be killed: "When Joffrey proclaimed her father's deth, it had been Janos Slynt who seized Lord Eddard's severed head by the hair and raised it high for king and crowd to behold, while Sansa wept and screamed." But Morros only makes a fool of himself by getting his foot caught in the stirrup and being dragged along by his horse.

Sansa notes with anxiety that Joffrey is getting bored. "When Joffrey Baratheon's mood darkened, any chance word might set off one of his rages." And in the next match, one of the combatants is so drunk that he appears at the lists chasing his horse. He is wearing only his breastplate and helmet. "His legs were pale and skinny, and his manhood flopped about obscenely as he chased after his horse." Then he gives up and sits down. "'I lose,' he shouted. 'Fetch me some wine.'"

Joffrey stands up and orders a cask of wine brought from the cellars. "I'll see him drowned in it." Shocked, Sansa says, "No, you can't." Which causes Joffrey to turn to her and demand, "Did you say I can't? Did you?" But Sansa quickly improvises that it would be bad luck for Joffrey to kill someone on his name day. This doesn't persuade Joffrey, who threatens, "I ought to drown you with him, if you care for him so much." But the Hound comes to Sansa's rescue: "The girl speaks truly.... What a man sows on his name day, he reaps throughout the year." So Joffrey says, "I'll have him killed on the morrow, the fool." Which Sansa seizes on to suggest that he ought to make him into a fool. "He doesn't deserve the mercy of a quick death." Joffrey likes the idea and tells the man, "From this day on, you're my new fool. You can sleep with Moon Boy and dress in motley."

Joffrey then cancels the rest of the tilts, but his little brother, Tommen, who was supposed to ride against a straw man, protests. And his sister, Myrcella, says that their mother, the queen, had agreed that he could do it. Joffrey gives in and lets Tommen, who is eight, ride his pony against "a child-sized leather warrior stuffed with straw and mounted on a pivot, with a shield in one hand and a padded mace in the other." Tommen hits the quintain, but it spins around and the mace knocks him off his pony. Joffrey laughs louder than anyone, but Sansa, "possessed of a queer giddy courage," urges him to go see about his brother.

But before Tommen can ride again, the gates open to admit a column of riders, in the midst of which is Tyrion Lannister. Tommen and his sister run to greet their uncle, who advances to Joffrey and kneels. Then he turns to Sansa and says, "My lady, I am sorry for your losses. Truly, the gods are cruel." Sansa is puzzled and wonders if he's mocking her. Then he tells Joffrey he's sorry for his loss too. Joffrey asks, "What loss?" Tyrion replies, "Your royal father? A large fierce man with a black beard; you'll recall him if you try. He was king before you." In the awkward moment that follows, Sansa tells Tyrion, "I'm sorry my lady mother took you captive, my lord." Tyrion says, "A great many people are sorry for that, ... and before I am done, some may be a deal sorrier."

Tyrion asks where he might find Joffrey's mother, and Joffrey directs him to the council, telling him that Jaime has been captured and Sansa's "stupid brother is calling himself a king." Tyrion replies, "All sorts of people are calling themselves king these days." Joffrey leaves Sansa with Tyrion, who looks at her and asks, "Is it grief for your lord father that makes you so sad?" Sansa gives out her reflexive answer: Her father was a traitor. Her brother and her mother are traitors. "I am loyal to my beloved Joffrey." Tyrion isn't buying it for a moment: "No doubt. As loyal as a deer surrounded by wolves." Sansa whispers, "Lions," then looks about uneasily. Tyrion takes her hand: "I am only a little lion, child, and I vow, I shall not savage you." Then he takes his leave.

Sansa is surprised at his gentleness, but recalls that Joffrey and the queen had once been gentle to her. "They had repaid that love and trust with her father's head. Sansa would never make that mistake again."

Tyrion

Ser Mandon Moore, the member of the Kingsguard, is unwilling to admit Tyrion to the council chamber. Tyrion introduces him to his own guards, Timett son of Timett of the Burned Men, and Bronn. Tyrion shows him the letter from Lord Tywin and Ser Mandon admits Tyrion, but not his guards. 

When he enters, Cersei says the same thing Joffrey had said on seeing Tyrion: "You." Her tone is "equal parts disbelief and distaste." He presents her the letter from their father, which she reads and pronounces "absurd": Tywin has appointed Tyrion Hand of the King until Tywin himself can assume the duties. Cersei protests, "I ask for an army and my father sends me a dwarf. The king names the Hand, with the consent of council." She insists that Tywin can't name his own replacement without Joffrey's consent.

Tyrion asks the councilors to leave him alone with his sister, and they depart after an exchange of ironic courtesies between Tyrion and Littlefinger, whom Tyrion has not forgiven for the incident involving the dagger that Littlefinger claimed was Tyrion's. When they are alone, Cersei threatens to proclaim the letter a forgery and send Tyrion to the dungeon. Tyrion, realizing that he needs to handle his sister with care, points out that this might upset "our father. The one with the army." He realizes that her chief aim is to get Jaime freed, and suggests that they might use the Stark girls as bargaining chips. Then he learns that Sansa is the only one of the girls they hold, and that Arya has escaped. "Likely she's dead," Cersei says. "A great many people died that day."

Then Tyrion asks about the members of the council. "Father seems to have taken a dislike to them," he says, and thinks they're not advising her well. "He knows that your son's short reign has been a long parade of follies and disasters. That suggests that someone is giving Joffrey some very bad counsel." She admits that beheading Eddard Stark was a great blunder. The plan was to allow Ned to take the black, which might have allowed them to make peace with the Starks, "but Joff took it upon himself to give the mob a better show. What was I to do? He called for Lord Eddard's head in front of half the city. And Janos Slynt and Ser Ilyn went ahead blithely and shortened the man without a word from me!"

It was Sansa, she tells Tyrion, who revealed to her that Eddard "was plotting with Renly and he'd written to Lord Stannis, offering him the throne." This surprises Tyrion: "Sansa had always seemed such a sweet child, tender and courteous." Cersei explains that Sansa was "wet with love" for Joffrey -- until he cut her father's head off. Tyrion also asks about the dismissal of Ser Barristan Selmy from the Kingsguard. It was Varys, she says, who suggested to Joffrey that Barristan be made a scapegoat for Robert's death, so he had a position to use as a reward. But Tyrion points out that Barristan escaped and that he's a popular hero: "What do you imagine they'll think when they see Barristan the Bold riding beside Robb Stark or Stannis Baratheon?" Cersei admits she hadn't thought of that.

In the end, Cersei agrees to accept Tyrion as Hand, as long as he keeps her informed of his plans and does nothing without her consent. Tyrion agrees, though he's lying. And then he confronts her with what he knows: that she was sleeping with Jaime. She slaps him. He asks why, if she can sleep with one brother, why not the other. She slaps him. And he says he's joking: "I never understood what Jaime saw in you, apart from his own reflection. She slaps him. He warns her that if she keeps slapping him he might get angry, and he has some new friends that she might not like. He also learns from her that Robert was given especially potent wine to drink on the hunt. "The boar did the rest."

He takes his leave with a "parting request. Kindly make certain no harm comes to Sansa Stark. It would not do to lose both the daughters." As he leaves the castle, accompanied by Lannister guardsmen, he sees the heads mounted on the walls. He tells the captain of the guard that he wants them taken down. The captain replies that Joffrey has ordered that they remain there until the three empty spikes hold the heads of Robb Stark, Stannis and Renly Baratheon. Tyrion replies that Joffrey is thirteen years old, and says if they're not taken down tomorrow, "one of those spikes may have a different lodger." The captain gets the point and promises they'll be down tomorrow.

He notices the filthy and dangerous streets as they ride through the city, and the empty stores, and the vendor selling roasted rats. They reach the Broken Anvil inn, and he tells the guard to leave him there. Inside, he finds Chella daughter of Cheyk with Shae, accompanied by a plump man whom Tyrion doesn't recognize until he turns around. He is surprised to see that it's Varys. Chella has been showing Varys her necklace made of "no less than forty-six dried, wrinkled ears." He realizes that Varys is delivering a message: He has been able to find Shae. Tyrion wonders who has betrayed him.

Before he leaves, Varys gives Tyrion a riddle, but doesn't wait for an answer:

"In a room sit three great men, a king, a priest, and a rich man with his gold. Between them stands a sellsword, a little man of common birth and no great mind. Each of the great ones bids him slay the other two. 'Do it,' says the king, 'for I am you lawful ruler.' 'Do it,' says the priest, 'for I command you in the name of the gods.' 'Do it,' says the rich man, 'and all this gold shall be yours.' So tell me -- who lives and who dies?"

Tyrion goes upstairs with Shae who tells him he will miss her in his room in the Tower of the Hand. Tywin had ordered, "You will not take the whore to court," and Tyrion had defied him as much as he dared by bringing her to the city. After they make love, he has to remind herself that she's a whore, that she loves his money. She asks him what he will do as Hand of the King. He replies that it will be something Cersei doesn't expect: "I'll do ... justice."