31. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 1062-1097

Tyrion

There is a rattling of keys at his cell door and he thinks that the time has come. But it's Jaime, whom he hasn't seen since his brother returned, gaunt and mutilated. Tyrion's shock at the sight of him turns into "hysterical laughter," for which he apologizes: "Jaime, I am so sorry, but ... gods be good, look at the two of us. Handless and Noseless, the Lannister boys."

After some fraternal banter, Jaime tells him that he's to be beheaded tomorrow. But now it's 3 a.m. and Jaime has come to rescue him, with the help of Varys, who has provided a potion to put the guards to sleep. "Varys has agents in the Free Cities who will see that you do not lack for funds," Jaime says. Cersei will send agents after him, no doubt, and Tyrion should probably take a different name. This makes Tyrion comment that "when the Faceless Men come to kill me, I'll say, 'No, you have the wrong man, I'm a different dwarf with a hideous facial scar.'"

When Tyrion thanks him, Jaime says he owed it to him. He's reluctant to say why, but when Tyrion presses him on the nature of the debt, Jaime confesses that Tyrion's first wife, Tysha, was not a whore. She was in fact the daughter of a crofter. Their father had objected that she was lowborn, and that she had only married Tyrion for his money: "he said that you required a sharp lesson. That you would learn from it, and thank me later...."

Remembering how Tysha was raped by the guards, Tyrion is infuriated by Jaime's "I never knew he would do that. You must believe me." He snarls back, "Why should I believe you about anything, ever? She was my wife!" And he slaps Jaime backhanded, as hard as he can. Cursing Jaime and Cersei and their father, he walks away, but is forced to stop and let Jaime open the gates for him. "Give me the keys and go," he says. "I will find Varys on my own." Then he turns and asks Jaime if he can fight with his left hand. "Rather less well than you," Jaime replies. Tyrion says, "Good. Then we will be well matched if we should ever meet again. The cripple and the dwarf."

But Jaime has one more question for Tyrion: Did he kill Joffrey? His brother's doubt eats at Tyrion, who tells him, "Joffrey would have been a worse king than Aerys ever was. He stole his father's dagger and gave it to a footpad to slit the throat of Brandon Stark, did you know that?" Jaime admits that he had guessed as much, but still wants to know the answer to his question.

"You poor stupid blind crippled fool. Must I spell every little thing out for you? Very well. Cersei is a lying whore, she's been fucking Lancel and Osmund Kettleblack and probably Moon Boy for all I know. And I am the monster they all say I am. Yes, I killed your vile son."

Jaime turns and walks away, and Tyrion goes to find Varys. When he does, he tells the eunuch he should kill him for not helping him before the trial, but Varys points out that he would never find his way out of the tunnels. So Tyrion asks what has become of Sansa, and Varys is forced to confess that he has found no trace of her, and that Ser Dontos has disappeared as well. (Given Varys's powers as a spy, it's more likely that he is in on Littlefinger's plot.)

Tyrion must descend deeper into the dungeons, Varys tells him., and Tyrion thinks, "I arrived here a King's Hand, riding through the gates at the head of my own sworn me, ... and I leave like a rat scuttling through the dark, holding hands with a spider." Finally they reach a place with a mosaic of a three-headed dragon on the floor, and Tyrion recalls that Shae had described it to him once. They are, he realizes, under the Tower of the Hand. He sees a ladder, and realizes that it must lead to the Hand's bedroom. He insists on knowing the way, and Varys reluctantly tells him. Tyrion begins to climb.

When he reaches the top, he can hear the guards talking about his coming execution, and realizes how Varys's "little birds" gain their information. Finally he reaches the entrance to the Hand's chamber and discovers that it is through the fireplace. As he enters the room, a woman calls out, "M'lord?" It is Shae, who begins to apologize when she sees him: "I never meant those things I said, the queen made me. Please. Your father frightens me so." She is wearing his father's chain of office, the linked golden hands. He asks her whether she ever really enjoyed being with him, and when she answers, "More than anything ... my giant of Lannister," he thinks, "That was the worst thing you could have said, sweetling." He strangles her with the chain.

Then he takes Lord Tywin's dagger from the bedside table and a crossbow that was hanging on the wall. He slips into the hallway and goes to the privy, where he knows his father must be. Tywin betrays no surprise or fear when Tyrion opens the door, but tries to persuade him to put down the crossbow and go with him to his chambers, where he will arrange for Tyrion to take the black instead of being executed. Tyrion declines, but asks his father what he did with Tysha.

Tywin says he doesn't really know. "I suppose the steward sent her on her way. I never thought to ask." Tyrion asks where that would be, and when his father answers, "Wherever whores go," he fires the crossbow. At first incredulous that Tyrion has shot him, Tywin gasps, "You ... you are no ... no son of mine."

"Now that's where you're wrong, Father. Why, I believe I'm you writ small. Do me a kindness now, and die quickly. I have a ship to catch."

Samwell

Stannis is losing patience with the process of choosing a Lord Commander. "I have captives to dispose of, a realm to order, a war to fight," he tells the assembled Night's Watch. Janos Slynt tries to wheedle Stannis into endorsing his candidacy, but Stannis is having none of it, recalling Slynt's reputation for corruption. But what Stannis really wants is for the black brothers to cede their control of the Gift to him, and they are shocked by the request. And further shocked when he says he wants all of the abandoned castles along the Wall for his garrisons, leaving them only Eastwatch, Castle Black, and the Shadow Tower. "Garrison them as you always have, but I must take the others for my garrisons if we are to hold the Wall."

Melisandre proclaims that Stannis is the return of Azor Ahai, "the warrior of fire. In him the prophecies are fulfilled. The red comet blazed across the sky to herald his coming, and he bears Lightbringer, the red sword of heroes." Sam notices that Stannis looks "desperately uncomfortable" with this proclamation, but he doesn't contradict it. Then he dismisses the brothers, all except for Maester Aemon and Sam.

As uneasy as Sam usually is in Stannis's presence, he becomes more so when Stannis singles him out as "the one that killed the creature in the snow," and Melisandre calls him "Sam the Slayer." When Sam confirms that the dagger that killed the Other was dragonglass, Stannis says, "On Dragonstone, where I had my seat, there is much of this obsidian to be seen in the old tunnels beneath the mountain." He has ordered his castellan to begin mining it. Sam mentions that the dragonglass shattered when he tried to use it on the wights, and Melisandre says, "Necromancy animates these wights, yet they are still only dead flesh. Steel and fire will serve for them. The ones you call the Others are something more." Stannis calls them "Demons made of snow and ice and cold.... the ancient enemy."

Stannis also asks about their passage through the Black Gate at the Nightfort, which he plans to make his seat. Sam tells him that it would only open for a member of the Night's Watch, and Stannis says Sam will show him the gate. Sam is not even certain that it's still there. Then Maester Aemon asks if he can see the sword Lightbringer, with Sam serving as his eyes. Stannis agrees.

"It glows," said Sam in a hushed voice. "As if it were on fire. There are no flames, but the steel is yellow and red and orange, all flashing and glimmering, like sunshine on water, but prettier. I wish you could see it, Maester."

The maester assures Sam that he has seen it as "A sword full of sunlight." When Stannis sheathes it, it is as if the room grows dark, even though the sun is shining through the windows.

When Sam and Maester Aemon return to the maester's quarters, Aemon comments that he felt no heat from the sword. Sam says, "The air around it was shimmering, the way it does above a hot brazier." But the scabbard is wood and leather, the maester says, having heard it when the sword was drawn, and Sam confirms that it wasn't burnt or blackened. When the maester tells Sam he has no need of him until the time for voting, Sam brings up the danger of Janos Slynt's winning. Maester Aemon says that his position prevents him from favoring one contender over another, but he hints that Sam is under no such obligation. So Sam summons up his reserve of bravery and decides to try to sway the voting.

He goes first to Cotter Pyke, because he is "the scarier of the two commanders," and Sam wants to face him before his courage weakens. Pyke thinks Sam is doing the maester's bidding, and Sam doesn't disabuse him of the notion, but he insists that there's no way he will give up his candidacy in favor of Ser Denys Mallister, though he doesn't really want the job. "I fight best with a deck beneath me, not a horse, and Castle Black is too far from the sea. But I'll be buggered with a red-hot sword before I turn the Night's Watch over to that preening eagle from the Shadow Tower."

So Sam goes to Ser Denys, who is courtly and elegant, and also falls under the impression that Sam is speaking for Maester Aemon. But he also refuses to consider his chief rival: "No, loath as I am to disappoint Maester Aemon, I could not in honor stand aside for Pyke of Eastwatch," whom he regards as ill-bred. As for the other candidates, he also considers them inferior, describing Janos Slynt as "venal and corrupt."

And then Sam introduces another possibility: "Lord Commander Mormont trusted him. So did Donal Noye and Qhorin Halfhand. Though he's not as highly born as you, he comes from old blood. He was castle-born and castle-raised, and he learned sword and lance from a knight and letters from a maester of the Citadel. His father was a lord, and his brother a king." Ser Denys recognizes that Sam is talking about Jon Snow, and says, "He is very young, but ... mayhaps." And then Sam slips in a lie: If they don't reach a decision tonight, he says, Stannis will name Cotter Pyke.

When he leaves Ser Denys, Sam is struck by the audacity of what he has just done, and has a moment of terror. But then he realizes how foolish his fear is: "How could he be so frightened of Cotter Pyke and Ser Denys Mallister, when he had seen a raven eating Small Paul's face?" So he returns to Pyke and drops the hint about voting for Jon, and the lie that Stannis plans to name Ser Denys if the vote doesn't succeed.

Jon

Stannis's offer to make him Lord of Winterfell has kept him awake all night, and now he gets a clout on the head from the trainee with whom he is sparring. It makes him remember when he was a little boy sparring with Robb. They had pretended to be famous heroes, but one time Jon had proclaimed himself Lord of Winterfell, and Robb replied, "You can't be Lord of Winterfell, you're bastard-born. My lady mother says you can't ever be the Lord of Winterfell." The memory so enrages him suddenly that he goes berserk on his opponent and has to be pulled off of him by two other trainees.

He comes to his senses and apologizes, then retreats to the armory by himself. But there he remembers Lady Catelyn's habitual coldness toward him. He tries to soak away the physical pain in a hot stone tub, but that reminds him of the hot pools in the godswood at Winterfell.

The weirwood was the heart of Winterfell, Lord Eddard always said ... but to save the castle, Jon would have to tear that heart up by its ancient roots, and feed it to the red woman's hungry fire god. I have no right, he thought. Winterfell belongs to the old gods.

And then he hears voices: Alliser Thorne and Bowen Marsh, discussing with Othell Yarwyck whom Tywin Lannister would prefer as Lord Commander, with Thorne putting in his plea for Slynt. He sits up in the bath, alerting them to his presence, then dries, dresses, and leaves. He realizes that the possibility is strong that Thorne will persuade others to decide for Slynt, "And what does that leave me, if not Winterfell?" He sits down to ponder his dilemma, realizing how deeply he had always wanted Winterfell, and imagining himself with Val, raising Mance's son and Gilly's there.

And then he senses a hunger: "It was food he needed, prey, a red deer that stank of fear or a great elk proud and defiant. He needed to kill and fill his belly with fresh meat and hot dark blood. His mouth began to water with the thought." Suddenly he realizes what is happening, as Ghost appears out of the woods, "leaner than he had been, but bigger as well," and races toward him. "When he reached Jon he leapt,and they wrestled amidst brown grass and long shadows as the stars came out above them."

He looks into the direwolf's eyes, and finds the answer to his dilemma.

He takes Ghost with him to the hall, thinking that they will but eat, but he finds the turmoil of electioneering going on instead. "His brothers crowded the benches and the tables, but more were standing and shouting than were sitting, and no one was eating. There was no food." He is puzzled, but then Pyp spots him and ghost, and gives out a shrill whistle. The hall grows quiet as Jon and the wolf enter.

Thorne breaks the silence: "The turncloak graces us with his presence at last." And Slynt says, "Look! The beast that tore the life from Halfhand. A warg walks among us, brothers, A WARG! This ... this creature is not fit to lead us!  This beastling is not fit to live!" Ghost bares his teeth, but Jon just asks what's going on. Maester Aemon is the one who tells him that his name has been put forth for Lord Commander."

Jon thinks it's a joke, and asks who nominated him. Dolorous Edd confesses to having done it. But Slynt sputters more of his outrage as both Cotter Pyke and Ser Denys Mallister speak up to say that Jon's candidacy is legitimate. Ser Alliser jumps on a table and calls for quiet, saying that Stannis has posted men at the doors to keep them there until they choose. He says that Othell Yarwyck, whom he and Bowen Marsh had been lobbying to vote for Slynt earlier, has something to say.

Yarwyck announces that he is withdrawing his candidacy, and was going to say they should vote for Slynt, which gets a hearty endorsement on Thorne's part. But now, he says, "I don't recall why I thought Slynt would be such a good choice," especially since Stannis had expressed his distaste for him. So he shrugs and says, "Pick who you want, just so it's not me." Slynt turns purple.

There is a call for the kettle, a big black pot into which the voting tokens are deposited by the voters. Sam and Clydas haul it out, but when the lid is removed a huge raven flies out of it. Sam shouts, "I know that bird! That's Lord Mormont's raven!" The raven flies to the table near Jon and caws, "Snow, snow, snow," then perches on Jon's shoulder. Ser Alliser speaks up to claim that Sam had trained the raven to do that trick. "They all say snow, go up to the rookery and her for yourselves. Mormont's bird had more words than that." Whereupon the raven asks Jon for corn, and when it doesn't get any, says "Kettle? Kettle? Kettle?"

The voting takes place, and when the results are announce, Jon is surrounded by friends. Cotter Pyke says, "if you muck this up, I'm going to rip your liver out and eat it with onions." Ser Denys says, more graciously, "Do not make me die regretful. Your uncle was a great man. Your lord father and his father as well. I shall expect full as much of you." The raven screams "Supper," and it is brought in. Pyp asks Sam how he got the raven to do the trick, and Sam says he didn't do it. "When it flew out of the kettle I almost wet myself."

Jon has a swallow of wine. "But only one. The Wall was his, the night was dark, and he had a king to face."

28. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 960-995

Tyrion

He is becoming used to the idea of taking the black, but it's the thought of confessing, especially to something he didn't do, that stands in his way. "He almost wished he had done it, since it seemed he must suffer for it anyway."

He follows the gold cloaks to the trial and is confronted with the last witness: Shae. She testifies that Tyrion and Sansa plotted it, that he was going to kill Cersei and his father next, so he could be Hand for Tommen, whom he would kill and seize the throne. When Prince Oberyn asks how she knows this, she says, "On the morning of the wedding, he dragged me down where they keep the dragon skulls and fucked me there with the monsters all around. And when I cried, he said I ought to be more grateful, that it wasn't every girl who got to be the king's whore."

Ser Oswald Kettleblack laughs when Shae says that Tyrion made her call him "My giant ... my giant of Lannister," and the laughter spreads to the entire courtroom. "I saved this vile city and all your worthless lives," Tyrion thinks bitterly. Everyone is laughing except his father, who shouts, "MY LORDS!" in an attempt to silence them, and raises his hand, finally gaining quiet. Tyrion then speaks up: "Get this lying whore out of my sight ... and I will give you my confession."

The gold cloaks escort Shae from the room, and Tyrion wonders whether it is shame or fear that he sees on her face, and what Cersei had promised her for her testimony. Then he turns to the judges and asks if they expect him to confess his guilt. He has a different confession to make:

"Of Joffrey's death I am innocent. I am guilty of a more monstrous crime." He took a step toward his father. "I was born. I lived. I am guilty of being a dwarf, I confess it. And no matter how many times my good father forgave me, I have persisted in my infamy."

Tywin dismisses the confession as irrelevant and asks if he has anything to say in his defense. 

"Nothing but this: I did not do it. Yet now I wish I had.... I wish I had enough poison for you all. You make me sorry that I am not the monster you would have me be, but there it is. I am innocent, but I will get no justice here. You leave me no choice but to appeal to the gods. I demand a trial by battle."

Tywin is astonished and angered by the decision, but Cersei is delighted, and announces that Gregor Clegane will be Joffrey's champion. When Mace Tyrell asks Tyrion if he has one, Prince Oberyn of Dorne rises and says that he will stand for Tyrion: "The dwarf has quite convinced me." The court erupts in a tumult.

Back in his cell, Tyrion gloats that he has at least thwarted his father's plans, and that the combat will inflame the tensions between Dorne and Highgarden. "It was almost worth dying to know all the trouble he'd made." He sleeps well and has a hearty breakfast, then goes to see Prince Oberyn, who is donning his armor. To Tyrion's surprise, the Red Viper intends to fight the Mountain with only a spear. Oberyn invites Tyrion to return with him to Dorne afterward, and makes the clear implication that he intends to incite a rebellion against the Lannisters. Tyrion wonders if he really could "take up arms against Tommen, against his own father? Cersei would spit blood. It might be worth it for that alone."

Oberyn now reminds Tyrion of his early story of his visit to Casterly Rock when Tyrion was an infant. His mother and Tyrion's had been friends, and Tyrion's mother had plans "to betroth Jaime to my sister, or Cersei to me. Perhaps both." But Tyrion's mother had died when Oberyn and Elia were on their way to Casterly Rock, and Tywin had refused the marriage, telling their mother that Cersei would marry Prince Rhaegar, and offering Tyrion instead of Jaime as a husband for Elia. When Elia, and not Cersei, married Rhaegar, Oberyn says, Tywin took it as an insult. And his revenge was the murder of Elia. Today, Oberyn says, she and her children will be revenged.

An enormous crowd has gathered to watch the combat. At the sight of the eight-foot-tall Gregor Clegane, Oberyn's mistress, Ellaria Sand, says, "You are going to fight that?" But Oberyn confidently says, "I am going to kill that." Tyrion has doubts when he sees how lightly armored Oberyn is, and can only hope that he can use it to his advantage: "Dance around him until he's so tired he can hardly lift his arm, then put him on his back."

Finally they face off, and Oberyn calls out to the Mountain, "Have they told you who I am?" And when he proclaims, "Princess Elia was my sister." But Clegane only answers, "Who?" "'Elia Martell, Princess of Dorne,' the Red Viper hissed. 'You raped her. You murdered her. You killed her children.'" And he begins to chant: "You raped her. You murdered her. You killed her children." Ser Gregor's sword is six feet long, but Oberyn's spear is two feet longer, enough to keep Clegane at a distance as Oberyn jabs at the joins in his armor.

Finally Oberyn's taunt gets on Clegane's nerves and he bellows "SHUT UP!" and charges. There are spectators behind Oberyn, and one of them is cut to pieces when the momentum of Clegane's charge carries him and his sword too close. Spectators push and shove to get away. Oberyn keeps up his taunt: "You raped her. You murdered her. You killed her children. Now say her name." The Mountain is covered with the spectator's blood, and grumbles, "You talk too much.... You make my head hurt."

Then the sun comes out from behind the clouds and Clegane moves to put it at his back. But Oberyn uses his shield to reflect the sun into Clegane's eyes and drives his spear into a gap in the Mountain's heavy armor. "Elia. Say it! Elia of Dorne!" he cries as he circles Clegane. Tyrion thinks that Clegane is about to fall when one knee buckles, and when Oberyn makes another spear thrust through the back of Clegane's knee, he does, collapsing face first, then rolling onto his back.

Oberyn turns and screams out his sister's name as he drives the spear down into the fallen Mountain and vaults over him. The shaft of the spear snaps, and Clegane is pinned to the ground with blood spreading all around him. But Oberyn is not finished with Clegane, and insists, "Say the name!" He has picked up Clegane's sword and puts his foot on his enemy's chest. But then Clegane grabs Oberyn and pulls him down.

Tyrion saw with horror that the Mountain had wrapped one huge arm around the prince, drawing him tight against his chest, like a lover. "Elia of Dorne," they all heard Ser Gregor say, when they were close enough to kiss. His deep voice boomed within the helm. "I killed her screaming whelp." He thrust his free hand into Oberyn's unprotected face, pushing steel fingers into his eyes. "Then I raped her." Clegane slammed his fist into the Dornishman's mouth, making splinters of his teeth.. "Then I smashed her fucking head in. Like this."

Tyrion vomits up his breakfast and is taken to the condemned cell.

Daenerys

Meereen has been taken, and Daenerys is ensconced atop the tallest of its pyramids, feeling like a lonely god. The entrance through the sewers had worked, as had devising battering rams from the wood of the ships. The streets of the city were piled high with dead when she made her entrance. She had then rounded up one hundred sixty-three of the city's leaders and "had them nailed to wooden posts around the plaza, each man pointing at the next." But although she tells herself "I did it for the children," she feels rather sickened by the act.

She meets with her bloodriders and her sellswords and with Grey Worm, the leader of the Unsullied, but she finds "herself wondering which of them would betray her next."

The dragon has three heads. There are two men in the world who I can trust, if I can find them. I will not be alone then. We will be three against the world, like Aegon and his sisters.

But she has learned that conquest and rule are not easy. She had left Astapor in charge of a council made up of "a healer, a scholar, and a priest," but an envoy from that city tells her that they have been charged with plotting to restore the slave masters to power and their heads were chopped off. The man they have chosen to rule them is a former slave who was a butcher. He now proposes to marry Daenerys and to join in war against Yunkai. "All my victories turn to dross in my hands, she thought. Whatever I do, all I make is death and horror."

Now, if she continues her march, not only will the cities she has conquered degenerate, but those who follow her on the campaign will experience hardship, starvation, and danger. She recalls Ser Jorah's warnings to that effect and tries to put him out of her mind. And another surprise comes  when she learns that many of the slaves she has liberated now want to sell themselves to a slaver who has appeared. They were leading comfortable lives as house slaves and now face uncertainty. So Daenerys gives in and says if they want to reenslave themselves they may do so, "But they may not sell their children, nor a man his wife." And on Missandei's advice she claims a tenth of the price for herself.

She now realizes that she needs the counsel of Ser Jorah and Ser Barristan, and has them brought to her. The latter enters proudly, and he has shaved off his beard, which makes him look much younger. But Ser Jorah is obviously weighed down with guilt for his deceptions. She tells them that when she sent them on their mission in the sewers, she was hoping she'd never see them again. "It seemed a fitting end for liars, to drown in slavers' filth." But she acknowledges that not only had they succeeded in helping take the city, but each of them had earlier saved her life.

She first asks Barristan to explain why, after serving as protector of her father, he abandoned Viserys and served Robert Baratheon. Barristan says that Robert was "a good knight" and "chivalrous, brave," whereas Viserys was not only just a boy, but he "oft seemed to be his father's son, in ways that Rhaegar never did." She protests the epithet "the Mad King" that Barristan reminds her was applied to her father, but Barristan stands his ground: "Why ask for truth ... if you close your ears to it." As for his deception, he not only wanted to conceal his identity from the Lannisters, but he also wanted to watch her to make sure that she was worth pledging his sword to, that she was not, in a word, "mad." Her father wasn't the first Targaryen demonstrate signs of madness, and he says her grandfather told him "that madness and greatness are two sides of the same coin. Every time a new Targaryen is born, he said, the gods toss the coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land."

Daenerys is taken aback to realize that Barristan knew her grandfather, and she realizes that he has the kind of wisdom and knowledge of Westeros that she needs. And he says that she is "the trueborn heir of Westeros," and that he will serve her however she needs him. She agrees and accepts his vows. Then she turns to Ser Jorah, knowing that this will be harder to deal with. He reminds her that he has constantly warned her against her enemies, but she retorts, "You warned me against everyone except yourself.... Trust no one but Jorah Mormont, you said ... and all the time you were the Spider's creature!" He insists that he had stopped sending reports after one at Qarth, but this isn't enough: "Dany had been hoping it had ended much earlier."

And then she realizes something: Jorah was the one who had reported to them that she was pregnant with Drogo's child. And Barristan supports her: "I was there when the eunuch told the council, and Robert decreed that Her Grace and her child must die." Jorah tries to defend himself, but ends up begging her forgiveness. She refuses, and he says, "I have loved you." This only reminds her of the prophecy: "Three treasons will you know. Once for blood and once for gold land once for love." And she banishes him, trying to control herself and not cry.

She returns to her quarters and tries to read, but her mind is torn. "I shouldn't have banished him. I should have kept him, or I should have killed him." She could still call him back or she could send Daario to kill him. She goes out on her terrace, where two of her dragons are, but the third, Viserion, is flying off in the far distance, hunting. On the terrace, Ser Barristan approaches her. She tells him to give her some peace, but he insists that "A knight of the Kingsguard is in the king's presence day and night." And he thought she might have more questions for him. She does, but the time is not right for the one question -- her father's madness -- uppermost in her mind, and she sends him away.

That night she sleeps with Irri, who gives her some release, though she tries to pretend that she is lying with Drogo and his face keeps turning into that of Daario. After falling asleep and being awakened by nightmares, she goes out looks over the sleeping city. Missandei wakens and joins her as the dawn comes. As she hears the city begins to awake, she makes a decision.

Later that morning she calls her captains together and tells them they are going to stay in Meereen. When Barristan says, "Meereen is not Westeros, Your Grace," she replies, "But how can I rule seven kingdoms if I cannot rule a single city?" She wants to take time for the people she has freed "to heal and learn. My dragons need time to grow and test their wings. And I need the same."

When Rakharo asks what she is going to do, she replies, "Stay.... Rule. And be a queen."

23. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 755-808

Bran

He has seen the deaths of Robb and Grey Wind in a dream when he was one with Summer, and he is trying not to think about it. He hasn't told Jojen or Meera either.

They have reached the Nightfort at the Wall, which Bran remembers as the scene of some of the scariest stories told by Old Nan. Maester Luwin had cautioned him not to put too much credence in her stories, but when he asked his uncle Benjen about them, he said only that the Nightfort had been abandoned by the Watch for two hundred years.

The place is full of noises that Bran doesn't like. "Even Summer was not at ease here. Bran slipped inside his skin, just for an instant, to get the smell of the place. He did not like that either." Still Jojen had had a green dream about the place, and was determined to check it out, even though there was no gate through the Wall there. It had been sealed when the Watch abandoned it.

Bran has argued that they should have followed Jon, whom he saw through Summer's eyes when the wolf attacked the wildlings and Jon escaped. "We should have found the kingsroad and gone to Castle Black." But Jojen insisted that that course was too dangerous. Summer had almost been killed during the attack on the wildlings: When an arrow struck the wolf, the pain had been so great that Bran was driven out of Summer's skin, and it had returned every time Bran tried to become the wolf again. He was afraid Summer was dying, but the wolf finally returned with an arrow in his leg that Meera drew and treated with some herbs. Summer still limped, but less each day.

Meera suggests that they should try another castle, but Bran points out that the only ones whose gates haven't been sealed are Castle Black and the two at the extreme ends of the Wall, Eastwatch and the Shadow Tower. So Meera proposes to climb to the top of the Wall and see if she can spot anything from there. The prospect of climbing the Wall only makes Bran regret his paralysis more.

Meera's climb is made easier by the steps that the Watch had carved into the Wall's side at the Nightfort, though the ice makes them treacherous and there are times when she has to get down on hands and knees to make the ascent. When she reaches the top and disappears from view, Jojen suggests that they explore the Nightfort.

It is full of rats, running through the cellars and tunnels. It was the oldest and largest of the castles at the Wall, and they spend half a day exploring the crumbling towers. "Sometimes Summer would hear sounds that Bran seemed deaf to, or bare his teeth at nothing, the fur on the back of his neck bristling," but none of the ghosts of Old Nan's stories made an appearance.

Meera returns as the sun is setting, and tells them that she saw the haunted forest and the hills beyond. "I even saw an eagle circling. I think he saw me too. I waved at him." But there is no way down the other side of the wall, and certainly no way for Bran to make it over. She asks Jojen again if he is certain this is the place he saw in his dream, and he assures her that there is a gate there. But the only one Bran knows of is blocked by rubble and ice.

As it gets dark, they decide to bed down in the ruins of the kitchens, an octagon with a broken dome and a weirwood growing up through the floor. "It was a queer kind of tree, skinnier than any other weirwood that Bran had ever seen and faceless as well, but it made him feel as if the old gods were with him here, at least." But he remembers Old Nan's stories about the Rat Cook who baked a prince in a pie.

Next to the weirwood there is a well, twelve feet in diameter, with steps going down the side into its depths. They can't see any water at the bottom. Hodor says his name into the well and is startled by the way the echo reverberates, then picks up a broken piece of slate from the floor and drops it in. Bran calls out for him not to do that, but too late. "You might have hurt something, or ... or woken something up."

Far, far, far below, they heard the sound as the stone found water. It wasn't a splash, not truly. It was more a gulp, as if whatever was below had opened a quivering gelid mouth to swallow Hodor's stone. Faint echoes traveled up the well, and for a moment Bran thought he heard something moving, thrashing about in the water. 

They cook and eat a fish that Meera had caught in the last stream they had crossed, then bed down for the night. Bran is unable to sleep, but makes himself close his eyes. Then he hears a noise that starts as a scuffling sound and then becomes footsteps. He doesn't want to wake Meera or Jojen because he thinks it might just be his imagination, stirred by memories of Old Nan's stories. But the sounds get louder and he realizes that they are coming from the well. And as they get louder he hears "a high thin whimpering sound, like someone in pain, and heavy muffled breathing."

Finally he drags himself across the floor and wakes Meera, who hears the sound too. She grabs her frog spear and her net and moves toward the well. Jojen and Hodor are still asleep, and Bran doesn't want Meera to fight the thing alone, and Summer is far away. He slips his consciousness into Hodor and tries to stand and grab Hodor's longsword. But the thing in the well starts to scream, and Bran loses control of Hodor and finds himself back on the floor.

The thing is caught in Meera's net and she is stabbing at it with her frog spear. The thing falls and calls out, "No, no, don't, please, DON'T...." In response to Meera's question, "'I'm SAM,' the black thing sobbed. 'Sam, Sam, I'm Sam, let me out, you stabbed me...." Jojen has fed the fire and the flames illuminate the room, revealing Sam Tarly struggling in the net, and Gilly and the crying baby bundled up, emerging from the well.

It's Bran who recognizes that Sam is wearing the black of the Night's Watch. Sam confirms it: "I'm a crow, please. Let me out of this." Bran asks, "Are you the three-eyed crow?" although he can't quite believe it. Sam says he doesn't think so, and Meera tells him to stop struggling with the net and she'll untangle him. Jojen asks Gilly who she is and where she comes from. She says, "From Craster's," and asks Jojen, "Are you the one?"

Gilly explains that Coldhands had said Sam wasn't "The one he was sent to find," and Sam, now untangling from the net and trying to catch his breath, says that he said there would be people in the castle. "I didn't know you'd throw a net on me or stab me in the stomach." He asks if he is bleeding, and Meera checks and says he's wearing mail. "I never got near your skin."

Bran asks if Sam is "really a brother of the Night's Watch," and Sam says he's only a steward who took care of the ravens, but lost them. "I got us lost too. I couldn't even find the Wall. It's a hundred leagues long and seven hundred feet high, and I couldn't find it!" Jojen asks how he got through the wall, and Sam says there's a gate: "A hidden gate, as old as the Wall itself. The Black Gate, he called it." The gate is at the bottom of the well, but it will open only for a member of the Night's Watch who has sworn his vow.

Jojen asks who "he" is, "This ... Coldhands?" Gilly explains that that wasn't really his name, just what she and Sam called him. "His hands were cold as ice, but he saved us from the dead men, him and his ravens, and he brought us here on his elk." Much confusion about the elk and the ravens ensues, but Sam finally clarifies that the man is waiting for them, and that he can't come through the Wall himself. And Jojen clarifies that it's Bran who is the one the man is waiting for.

Sam suddenly realizes that Bran is "Jon Snow's brother. The one who fell...." Jojen tries to deny it, but Bran just tells Sam to keep it secret. Sam tells him that Jon "was the best friend I ever had," but he has disappeared. Bran replies that Summer had seen Jon with some wildlings, but he escaped and probably went to Castle Black.

Summer appears then, frightening Gilly, but Bran reassures her. Sam is not afraid, because he knows that the Starks have wolves, and he has met Ghost. He pulls off a glove and lets Summer lick his fingers, which makes Bran decide that they should all go through the Black Gate with Sam.

Gilly stays behind with the baby as the others make the descent. As they get lower into the well, Bran can see the Black Gate, except it isn't black: "It was white weirwood, and there was a face on it." They reach the gate and Bran thinks of the face, "If a man could live for a thousand years and never die but just grow older, his face might come to look like that."

When Sam stands before it, the face opens its eyes, which are white and blind. It asks, "Who are you?" and Sam replies with the words of the oath of the Watch. The mouth of the door opens and admits them. As Hodor goes through with Bran on his back, he fails to duck enough: "The door's upper lip brushed softly against the top of Bran's head, and a drop of water fell on him and ran slowly down his nose. It was strangely warm, and salty as a tear."

Daenerys

They have moved on to a third city, Meereen, which is "as large as Astapor and Yunkai combined. The city's hero rides out in front of it, daring them to attack, and Daenerys's bloodriders are ready to take him on. She forbids it, however, saying that their place is at her side. Ser Jorah agrees with her: "Let the fool ride back and forth and shout until his horse goes lame. He does us no harm."

But Arstan Whitebeard is of another mind: "This hero builds courage in the hearts of his own men and plants the seeds of doubt in ours." Daenerys tells Arstan and Jorah to stop squabbling. She's aware of some problems: Though she has more than eighty thousand followers after the fall of the first two cities, less than a fourth of them are soldiers. "The rest ... well, Ser Jorah called them mouths with feet, and soon they would be starving." The Meereen had burned the fields in expectation of their arrival, leaving them with nothing to forage upon.

And they had done something that troubles her more: "they had nailed a slave child up on every milepost along the coast road from Yunkai, nailed them up still living with their entrails hanging out and one arm always outstretched to point the way to Meereen." The atrocity had made her the more determined to conquer the city.

Brown Ben Plumm, the new commander of the Second Sons, who had joined forces with her at Yunkai, says the champion of Meereen is Oznak zo Pahl, whose uncle is the richest man in the city. Daario Naharis now volunteers to take care of Oznak, but she holds him back. Instead, she sends for Strong Belwas, who had once been a slave in the fighting pits of Meereen. If he wins, it will embarrass Meereen, and if he loses it will not be such a great triumph. Besides, "Belwas was the man she could most easily spare."

Belwas dallies with Oznak, but in the end he is holding the champion's head aloft. Dario delights in the victory, but Ser Jorah calls it "without meaning.... We will not win Meereen by killing its defenders one at a time." Daenerys agrees, and turns her attention to ways to conquer the city. Ser Jorah says he hasn't seen any weaknesses in the landward walls, so she asks about attacking it by river or sea. They only have three ships, however.

Ser Jorah now offers a suggestion that he knows Daenerys will not like: "I say, let this city be. You cannot free every slave in the world, Khaleesi. Your war is in Westeros." They should simply pass the city by and march westward to Pentos, biding their time until the dragons are large enough to be useful in warfare. Even her bloodriders see the sense in the plan: Rakharo says, "when cowards hide and burn the food and fodder, great khals must seek for braver foes."

But Daenerys remembers the children mounted as signposts, and is unwilling to leave them unavenged. Finally, Brown Ben Plumm has an idea: They can attack the city through the sewers. He escaped from Meereen that way, though he has never forgotten the smell and is not about to volunteer to go back through them the other way.

She decides that she needs to think about it some more and sends them away. But what she really thinks about is Daario, who has captured her fancy by bringing her a flower every night when he made his report. "And Daario Naharis made her laugh, which Ser Jorah never did." The restlessness he stirs in her makes her have Missandei bring her her horse to go out riding. She is accompanied by Missandei and by Arstan, for whom she feels no sexual attraction.

They ride through the camps taking notice of the drilling of the Unsullied and of the freedmen, some of whom call her "Mother" and reach out to touch her. Then a tall man in ragged clothes grabs her wrist and pulls her from her saddle. He pulls out his sword and she recognizes Mero, the former captain of the Second Sons. She cries for help, but Mero cuts down the freedman who steps forward.

Then Arstan leaps from his horse, wielding his hardwood staff. He knocks Mero down and with moves too fast for her to follow, parries Mero's sword strikes until he breaks Mero's leg and then knocks him unconscious. Freedmen gather around the fallen man and attack him with knives and stones.

Arstan kneels and apologizes for being so slow to recognize Mero, who had shaved his beard and hair. They return to her tent, where Ser Jorah arrives with news of his reconnoiter along the river wall. But she scolds him for not letting her know that Mero had escaped, and tells him that Arstan killed him. She wants Arstan to be knighted, but to her surprise both men object. Arstan tells her that he "was a knight in Westeros." He hasn't lied to her, but he has withheld the truth. And then Ser Jorah recognizes him: "Mero shaved his beard, but you grew one, didn't you? No wonder you looked so bloody familiar." He tells Daenerys,

"I saw him perhaps a dozen times ... from afar most often, standing with his brothers or riding in some tourney. But every man in the Seven Kingdoms knew Barristan the Bold." He laid the point of his sword against the old man's neck. "Khaleesi, before you kneels Ser Barristan Selmy, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, who betrayed your House to serve the Usurper Robert Baratheon." 

Daenerys demands the full truth from Arstan, now Barristan, and he tells her that Jorah is correct. "I might be serving in King's Landing still if the vile boy upon the Iron Throne had not cast me aside, it shames me to admit." But Joffrey's conduct opened his eyes: "That was when I knew I must find my true king, and die in his service--" Jorah offers to provide that death now, but Barristan continues, saying that he had fought against Robert Baratheon at the Triden, at the time when Mormont was on Robert's side.

He disguised himself after leaving Westeros because Varys's spies were watching Viserys closely. And they are still watching her: "since the day you wed Khal Drogo, there has been an informer by your side selling your secrets, trading whispers to the Spider for gold and promises." When Daenerys turns to look at Mormont, Ser Jorah admits it, but he says, "it was only at the start, before I came to know you ... before I came to love...." She interrupts him furiously, and her dragons start emitting smoke and fire. "I should say the word and burn the two of them," she thinks. But instead she orders both Barristan and Ser Jorah out.

When she calms down a little, she thinks about how both of them had saved her life. And she decides what to do with them.

Tyrion

Tyrion has told Sansa about the deaths of Robb and Catelyn, and was surprised at the stoic way she received the news until he heard her sobbing by herself later: "Even her tears she hoards to herself." Now he sneaks down into the cellars where the dragon skulls are kept and Shae is waiting for hm. He has hired Shae to be one of Sansa's maids, but he still has to contrive to meet her in secret.

Sansa

She wakes from a dream that she was back in Winterfell with Lady and her family was safe and sound. Now she faces the reality, "All of them are dead but me. She was alone in the world now." Shae and Brella prepare her bath. The wedding is at noon in the Great Sept of Baelor and the feast, with seventy-seven courses, in the evening. But first she has to breakfast with the queen.

Tyrion arrives with Podrick Payne as she is dressing, and goes in to change too. Sansa braces herself for the ordeal and they go down to breakfast, where presents are presented to the groom. Joffrey receives them all graciously until Tyrion presents their gift: "a huge old book called Lives of Four Kings, bound in leather and gorgeously illuminated." Joffrey leafs through it and then pushes it across the table: "My father had no time for books.... If you read less, Uncle Imp, perhaps lady Sansa would have a baby in her belly by now." The court laughs because Joffrey laughs. Sansa worries that Tyrion will say something to anger the king, but he simply drinks another cup of wine.

Mace Tyrell presents Joffrey with a three-foot-tall golden chalice with seven sides, each ornamented with a different gemstone representing the seven great houses, including a pearl direwolf for House Stark. Joffrey remarks that they'll need to chip the wolf off, and Sansa pretends not to hear. The last gift is from Lord Tywin: a longsword. Joffrey decides that he will name it Widow's Wail, and he takes the sword and hacks the book Tyrion had given him to pieces. Ser Garlan Tyrell observes that there were only four copies of the book in existence. "Now there are three," Joffrey replies, and says, "You and Lady Sansa owe me a better present, Uncle Imp. This one is all chopped to pieces."

Tyrion says, "Perhaps a knife, sire. To match your sword. A dagger of the same fine Valyrian steel ... with a dragonbone hilt, say?" He is describing the dagger used in the attempt on Bran Stark's life, and he gets a "sharp look" from Joffrey, who says he would prefer "a gold hit with rubies in it. Dragonbone is too plain."

As Tyrion and Sansa are walking to the wedding, they meet up with Prince Oberyn and his mistress, Ellaria. Shae has told Sansa that Ellaria "was almost a whore when he found her, m'lady ... and now she's near a princess." Oberyn and Tyrion talk about the book Joffrey has destroyed. Oberyn thinks that the book was too kind to King Viserys, who "poisoned his own nephew to gain the throne and then did nothing once he had it."

When they reach their litter, Tyrion asks Sansa to draw the curtains. She protests that the day is lovely, but he says that the citizens are likely to throw things at them if they see him. She says she is sorry for Joffrey's destruction of the book, but perhaps the dagger would please him better. Tyrion says, "Joff quarreled with your brother Robb at Winterfell. Tell me, was there ill feeling between Bran and His Grace as well?" She doesn't think so, but he presses on: "Sansa, do you know what happened to Bran at Winterfell?" She says only that he fell, and "He was always climbing things." He starts to talk about Catelyn's accusation that Tyrion had tried to have Bran killed. "She accused me falsely. I never harmed your brother Bran. And I mean no harm to you." But she can't figure out why he is talking to her about these things, and when he says, "You have never asked me how Robb died, or your lady mother," she says she "would sooner not know. It would give me bad dreams."

"I know about bad dreams," Tyrion replies.

5. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 146-187

Jaime

From the river, Jaime spots an inn and points it out to Brienne and Ser Cleos, who remembers stopping there once. It appears to be deserted, but they pull up to its dock to see if there is any food left in it, and possibly to shelter there for the night. Cleos identifies it as "the Inn of the Kneeling Man," built on "the very spot where the last King in the North knelt before Aegon the Conqueror to offer his submission."

Then they hear the whinny of a horse from the stable, but when Jaime opens the door of the inn he is confronted by "a chunky boy of fifteen" aiming a crossbow at him. Jaime says that if the boy shoots him, Ser Cleos will kill him before he can reload, and Brienne assures him that they have money to pay for food and drink if they have any. A man comes up from the cellar and says they have horsemeat to sell.

The man says he found the innkeeper dead and buried him out back, so he and his wife moved in. The boy showed up and they took him in after their own sons died. The boy's mother was killed by the Bloody Mummers. As he feeds them, he asks where they are headed and calls them fools when Jaime says they're going to King's Landing. "Last I heard, King Stannis was outside the city walls. They say he has a hundred thousand men and a magic sword." Brienne tells him that she plans to sail down the Trident to the sea, then go overland by way of Duskendale and Rosby to avoid the worst of the fighting. But the man tells them that the river has been blocked by sunken boats thirty miles downriver and outlaws have been attacking anyone who tries to go that way. Also, "the lightning lord," Beric Dondarrion, has been ranging through the area, accompanied by Thoros of Myr, "the red wizard." And Roose Bolton has been controlling the fords to the rivers.

He advises them to go overland from the inn, avoiding the roads and sheltering in the woods at night. Brienne says they would need horses, and Jaime mentions that he heard one in the stables. He says they're not for sale, but agrees to show them anyway. There is a big plow horse, a gelding with only one eye, and a grey palfrey. Brienne offers him three gold pieces for them, and throws in their skiff when he shows reluctance.

Although the man offers them beds for the night, and Ser Cleos is eager to take him up on it, Brienne insists that they ride on, and Jaime agrees, having sensed that the "innkeeper" can't be trusted. He also points out that he can't ride with his feet shackled, so Brienne strikes them off. He tries to persuade her to remove the wrist chains as well, but she ignores him. As they start to ride off, their host tells them to avoid the road that leads to Ser Warren's towerhouse and to follow the path through the woods. Brienne says that they will do that.

She takes the plow horse, and gives the palfrey to Cleos, leaving the one-eyed gelding for Jaime, preventing him from riding away from them. When they reach the fork in the road, Brienne takes the one to the towerhouse rather than the one through the woods that the man had recommended. Jaime is surprised that she made the same decision he would have, and thinks, "Well, she may be ugly but she's not entirely stupid." When Cleos protests, she tells him that the man was much too interested in what route they would take, so he may have been directing them into a trap.

When they reach the towerhouse, they give it a wide berth, riding through the fields and returning to the road only when it was well behind them. They find a place to stop for the night, and Brienne offers to take the first watch. Ser Cleos falls asleep immediately but Jaime stays awake with her. He asks if she has any brothers and sisters, and she replies, "No. I was my father's only s--child." He laughs at the fact that she almost said "son," and says, "You make a queer sort of daughter, to be sure."

Wordless, she turned away from him, her knuckles tight on her sword hilt. What a wretched creature this one is. She reminded him of Tyrion in some queer way, though at first blush two people could scarcely be any more dissimilar. Perhaps it was that thought of his brother that made him say, "I did not intend to give offense, Brienne. Forgive me."

She rejects the apology: "Your crimes are past forgiving, Kingslayer." He asks why she keeps throwing that epithet at him, and she asks why he put on the Kingsguard's white cloak if he meant to dishonor it. He replies that he was only fifteen, an answer she rejects. He thinks, "You would not like the truth," which is that he had joined the Kingsguard because he was in love with his sister. Their father had brought her to court to marry her off; meanwhile, he had served as a squire. When he visited her at King's Landing, she told him that their father was planning to have him marry Lysa Tully, but there was an opening in the Kingsguard and "if Jaime took the white, he could be near her always." It would mean giving up his right to inherit Casterly Rock, too. They spent a night of passionate lovemaking in an inn, and he was so intoxicated by it that he agreed. She said she would take care of persuading King Aerys to choose him: Their father would never consent to it, but if the king chose him there was nothing Lord Tywin could do to oppose him. A month later, he was summoned to take his vows. His father was furious, since this meant that the alliance with the Tullys wouldn't happen. But he prevented Jaime and Cersei from being together by resigning as Hand and taking her back to Casterly Rock with him. Jaime was left to guard the mad King Aerys.

In response to Brienne's charge that he dishonored his vow to guard the king, he says, "You are not old enough to have known Aerys Targaryen...." She says that she knows he "was mad and cruel," but that doesn't invalidate his oath to protect the king. Jaime retorts, "We're both kingslayers here, if what I've heard is true." She denies that she killed Renly, and when she tells about the shadow that slew him, he mocks the story: "When they found me standing over my dead king, I never thought to say, 'No, no, it wasn't me, it was a shadow, a terrible cold shadow.'" He hopes to provoke her into attacking him: "A step closer, and I'll snatch that dagger from her sheath and bury it up her womb." But she refuses to take the bait, but further provocations about her wish to be a man only increase her loathing for him, and she walks away, leaving him alone.

He hopes to dream about Cersei, but his mind turns to the murder of Aerys Targaryen. Jaime had killed Rossart, the last of Aerys's Hands, before entering the throne room to confront the king, who "lost control of his bowels" when he realized that Jaime had murdered Rossart and was now about to kill him. Jaime thinks, "Queer that they never ask who killed Rossart ... but of course, he was no one, lowborn, hand for a fortnight, just another mad fancy of the Mad King." Several of his father's knights had entered to see the end of the king's murder, so Jaime had no way of escaping or denying it, but they weren't surprised: "Jaime had been Lord Tywin's son long before he had been named to the Kingsguard." Jaime had sat down on the Iron Throne and waited "to see who would come to claim the kingdom. As it happened, it had been Eddard Stark."

He dreams of fighting with the dead, "gowned in swirling green flames, ... but for every one he struck down two more arose to take his place." Brienne wakes him and they ride on before dawn.

Tyrion

Varys is surprised to find Tyrion waiting for him in his own quarters. Tyrion has searched Varys's room for secrets and passageways, but found nothing. He asks Varys if it's true that Grand Maester Pycelle, whom he had imprisoned, has been reinstated on the small council, and Varys says it is: The archmaesters of Oldtown had insisted on it because only their Conclave can discharge a Grand Maester.  The Conclave had met and chosen a new Grand Maester, "a Tyrell of Highgarden. When I told your lord father he acted at once" and reinstated Pycelle. Tyrion observes, "better a Lannister toad than a Tyrell toad, no?" On the other hand, Varys points out, Ser Boros Blount is being restored to the Kingsguard after "Cersei had stripped Ser Boros of his white cloak for failing to die in the defense of Prince Tommen when Bronn had seized the boy on the Rosby road," so one of Cersei's enemies has also regained power.

Varys wonders if Tyrion's visit has anything to do with his inquiries into the relationship of his would-be assassin, Ser Mandon Moore, and Cersei. Tyrion admits that Bronn has been unable to turn up anything about Ser Mandon except that he "seems to have been quite friendless." Varys agrees, "Lord Arryn brought him to King's Landing and Robert gave him his white cloak, but neither loved him much, I fear." Even his brothers in the Kingsguard found him cold and aloof, devoted to duty. Varys adds, "'And he died as a knight of the Kingsguard ought, with sword in hand, defending one of the king's own blood.' The eunuch gave him a slimy smile and watched him sharply."

Tyrion is disappointed not to find "a link to Cersei, some sign that Ser Mandon had been his sister's catspaw," so he changes the subject. He wants Varys to bring Shae to him. Varys replies, "The dear sweet child. It would be such a shame if your father hanged her." Tyrion isn't surprised that Varys knows about Lord Tywin's threat, but says that he wants "to see her one last time before I send her away." He says that he suspects that he's being watched, and Vary confirms that "The Kettleblacks report frequently to your sweet sister." He adds that Cersei has been flirting with Ser Osmund to secure his loyalty. Tyrion has other enemies as well, including Janos Slynt's sons and Littlefinger, who has spies in the brothels: "Should you be so unwise as to visit any of them, he will know at once, and your lord father soon thereafter." And of course, Varys adds, he's spying on Tyrion too.

Tyrion laughs, and though he knows he can't trust Varys, the eunuch already knows enough about Shae that if he wanted to inform his father he could do so. So he arranges for Shae to be brought to him in the only place in the castle that he knows to be safe: Varys's own quarters.

They make passionate love, but Tyrion is forced to tell her it will be the last time. She seems to ignore his fear, telling him that she isn't afraid of his father. She asks if she can have her jewels and silks again, and how much longer she has to say with Lollys now that he's well. "'Have you been listening?' Tyrion said. 'You can stay with Lollys if you like, but it would be best if you left the city.'" She persists, however, asking if she can go to the king's wedding feast, about which she's heard from the singer Symon. Tyrion is alerted by this, and worries about the singer: "One careless word in the wrong ear,, and Shae would hang." She proposes to dress up like a lady, and says, "No one would know I wasn't."

She arouses him again, and after they make love another time, she continues to plead with him and he continues to insist, "it is not safe."

For a time she said nothing at all. Tyrion tried to speak of other things, but he met a wall of sullen courtesy as icy and unyielding as the Wall he'd once walked in the north. Gods be good, he thought wearily as he watched the candle burn down and begin to gutter, how could I let this happen again, after Tysha? Am I as great a fool as my father thinks? Gladly would he have given her the promise she wanted, and gladly walked her back to his own bedchamber on his arm to let her dress in the silks and velvets she loved so much. Had the choice been his, she could have sat beside him at Joffrey's wedding feast, and danced with all the bears she liked. But he could not see her hang. 

When the candle burns out, he lights another and looks for secret entrances and exits. She tells him that there are steps under the bed, which rises up when Varys touches a certain spot. He gets ready to leave, telling her to wait for Varys, and she tells him that she knows she can't go to the wedding feast, but she wants to stay. "I like being a whore for you, Tyrion. Just keep me, my lion, and keep me safe."

He says that he will, but silently berates himself: "Why did you say that? You came here to send her away!" He returns to his room and sends Podrick to fetch Bronn, who, when he arrives, is annoyed at having been called away from Chataya's brothel. He tells Bronn to find "a singer who calls himself Symon Silver Tongue." He wants to tell Bronn to kill him, but instead says, "Find him before someone else does."

Arya

Arya and Hot Pie are digging up carrots and cabbages from an abandoned garden, and Gendry is sleeping when she hears someone singing. As the song grows louder, Hot Pie says they have to hide. There's no safe place nearby, so she tells Hot Pie to wake Gendry and take the horses behind the remaining wall of the ruined cottage. She'll hide behind a tree, and she draws her sword.

Unfortunately, as the singer gets nearer, one of the horses whickers, and the singer stops. "Did you hear that?" a voice asks, then a second voice answer and then a third. Arya can't see them, but she hears one of them say he could fire some arrows over the wall and see if anyone comes out from behind it. So Arya steps out and says, "Don't," showing them her sword. The singer is a small man about fifty, and with him is a man who looks like a soldier wearing a hooded yellow cloak and a younger man, red-haired, with a bow and a row of arrows stuck in the ground before him.

The singer addresses her as "Boy," and tells her to put her sword away. "Anguy here could put three shafts through you before you could hope to reach us." She denies that and adds, "I'm a girl." She tells them to keep on walking down the road and she won't kill them, which makes Anguy, the archer, laugh. "Lem, she won't kill us, did you hear?" Lem is the one with the yellow cloak. The singer says this is "No place for a little girl to be wandering alone."

Gendry, riding his horse from behind the wall, says "She's not alone." Hot Pie is behind him, leading her horse. The singer asks where they stole the horses, and Arya says, "They're ours." The singer asks their names, and Hot Pie blurts his out, making the singer say, "It's not every day I meet a lad with such a tasty name. And what would your friends be called, Mutton Chop and Squab?" Gendry asks why they should give their names when they haven't told them theirs. The singer says he is "Tom of Sevenstreams, but Tom Sevenstrings is what they call me, or Tom o' Sevens. This great lout with the brown teeth is Lem, short for Lemoncloak. It's yellow, you see, and Lem's a sour sort. And young fellow me lad over there is Anguy, or Archer as we like to call him."

Arya doesn't want to give her name, so she says, "Squab, if you want," and Gendry says, "I'm the Bull." Tom Sevenstrings observes that they escaped from Lord Bolton's kitchen: "You bear his sigil on your chest, little one." Arya realizes that she has forgotten this. When Hot Pie says they were at Harrenhal before Bolton came, Tom asks if they are "lion cubs" -- i.e., Lannister supporters. Hot Pie says, "We're nobody's men. Whose men are you?" Anguy replies, "We're king's men," and when Arya asks, "Which king," Lem says, "King Robert."

Gendry, who doesn't know that he's Robert's bastard, says, "That old drunk? ... He's dead, some boar killed him, everyone knows that." Arya doesn't believe that they're any king's men. "They looked like outlaws, all tattered and ragged," and they have no horses. Hot Pie, to Arya's fury, blurts out, "We're looking for Riverrun." She tells him to shut up, but the damage is done. Tom says it's a long way, but "There's an inn not far ahead kept by some friends of ours. We could share some ale and a bite of bread, instead of fighting one another."

Arya doesn't trust him, but the thought of food is irresistible. Gendry wants to know what sort of friends these are. Tom tells him the innkeep is named Sharna, and she has a husband "and an orphan boy they took in." We have been there before. He tells them to bring along the vegetables they "stole from Old Pate's garden." He buried Old Pate himself, he says, and they have "no wish to bury you, I swear it on my harp. Archer, show her." And before Arya knows it, Anguy has sent an arrow whizzing past her and into the tree she had been hiding behind and has notched and drawn a second one. "She'd thought she understood what Syrio meant by quick as a snake and smooth as summer silk, but now she knew she hadn't." She realizes now that they have no choice but to trust the three of them.

Arya gets on her horse and tells Hot Pie to bring the carrots and cabbages, and they ride along behind the three on foot. Along the way, Anguy kills a duck, which they take with them, and Hot Pie joins in with Tom in singing. When they reach the inn, Arya notices the skiff docked in front and suggests to Gendry that they could take it and sail up the river to Riverrun. Gendry is skeptical about the idea. When they stable the horses, Gendry volunteers to stay and watch them, even though Tom says they'll be safe.

Sharna greets them crossly, and calls her husband up from the cellar to give him the duck to hang for a few days. They'll eat rabbit, she says, and Arya offers the carrots and cabbages. She has the boy bring them ale while she goes off to cook. The husband comes in to say that there are horses in the stable, and Tom says they're "better horses than the three you gave away." He replies that he sold them and got a skiff in the bargain. "Anyways, you lot were supposed to get them back."

Arya thinks, "I knew they were outlaws." Lem says, "They never came our way," but the husband insists that he sent them in their direction. (Jaime and Brienne had been right in not taking his advice.) They argue among themselves for a while, and then Tom offers to buy their horses. Arya realizes that they can take the horses if they want, so she offers to trade them for the "boat outside. But only if you can show us how to work it." The offer provokes general laughter until Gendry bursts in to say there are soldiers coming down the river road. Hot Pie jumps up in alarm and spills his ale.

But Sharna tells them not to worry. "Whatever harm's been done you, it's over and it's done and you're with king's men now. We'll keep you safe as best we can." Arya reaches for her sword, but Lem grabs her wrist. She grabs the tankard and swings it at his face, breaking his nose and blinding him with the ale, but not so much that he can't grab her when she starts to run. Tom pulls a dagger and stops Gendry from coming to her aid.

The door opens and a huge, bearded Tyrioshi enters, followed by two crossbowmen helping a wounded man, then others, including "a spearman in a lion-crested helm, an older man with a limp, a Braavosi sellsword...." And then Arya recognizes Harwin, "Hullen's son, who used to lead her pony around the yard, ride at quintain with Jon and Robb, and drink too much at feast days." She weeps at seeing him, and says, "Harwin, it's me!" He doesn't recognize her at first, and is confused by the sigil on her doublet: "who are you, some serving boy to Lord Leech?" She insists, "You have to know me! You used to lead my pony when I was little."

His eyes went wide, "Gods be good," he said in a choked voice. "Arya Underfoot? Lem, let go of her." 


"She broke my nose." Lem dumped her unceremoniously to the floor. "Who in seven hells is she supposed to be?" 


"The Hand's daughter." Harwin went to one knee before her. "Arya Stark, of Winterfell." 

15. A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 564-588

Sansa

King's Landing is filled with smoke from both Tyrion's firing of the waterfront and Stannis's burning of the kingswood on the other side of the Blackwater Rush.  Sansa has gone to the godswood to meet Ser Dontos, who assures her that he has spoken to someone about hiring a ship "when the time is right." Sansa observes that there couldn't be a better time than now, before the fighting has started, but Dontos points out that the city is "more heavily guarded than ever," and that the only ships to be seen are warships.

Stannis himself has not arrived yet, but the first of his men have been there for two days. Sansa has heard that there are five thousand of them and that by the time Stannis arrives with the rest there will be ten times as many of them as Joffrey commands. Like everyone she is afraid, and she is more than a little disgusted that her only friend is this drunken knight-turned-fool. She shies away when he tries to kiss her, and returns to the castle.

But her room only arouses claustrophobia, so she goes out and climbs to the top of the tower where she can see the fire, the soldiers preparing for battle, and the three great trebuchets waiting to repel the attack. She suddenly feels a sharp pain, and almost falls, but Sandor Clegane emerges from the shadows and grabs her arm. When she tells him to let go, he asks if she thinks she has wings, and tells her she'll wind up a cripple like Bran. She says she wasn't going to fall and that he startled her, but he tells her she's still afraid of him. "The little bird still can't bear to look at me, can she? ... You were glad enough to see my face when mob had you, though. Remember?"

She does remember, and forces herself to look him in the face. His scars don't repel her so much as his eyes. "She had never seen eyes so full of anger." She tries to express her thanks for his bravery, but he denies that he was brave. The mob feared him, he says, and that was his advantage. She asks if he likes scaring people, and he says he likes killing them. "Killing is the sweetest thing there is." Drawing his sword, he says, "Here's your truth. Your precious father found that out on Baelor's steps." And he mocks her father and evokes his execution for her.

She asks why he is "always so hateful," and he mocks her romantic view of knighthood. Laying his blade along her throat, he says, "So long as I have this, ... there's no man on earth I need fear." She thinks, "Except your brother," but she knows better than to say it aloud. Doesn't he fear the soldiers across the river, she asks, and he replies, "All this burning.... Only cowards fight with fire." She asks if he isn't afraid of being sent to hell by the gods, and he scorns the gods: "Tell me, little bird, what kind of god makes a monster like the Imp, or a halfwit like Lady Tanda's daughter? If there are gods, they made ... the weak for the strong to play with."

She backs away and says, "You're awful." He replies, "I'm honest. It's the world that's awful," and tells her to "fly away, little bird." She leaves, telling herself that he's wrong, that there are gods and true knights. But in her bed she dreams of the riot and that she is being stabbed in the belly and cut to shreds. When she wakes, she realizes that she is menstruating for the first time.

Panic sets in when she realizes that this means she is marriageable, and she tries to burn her bedclothes to hide the evidence. But smoke fills the room, and her maid discovers her. She is taken to the queen, and to cover up her real reason she claims that she was frightened by the blood. She tells Cersei that she thought becoming a woman would be "less messy, and more magical." Cersei responds, "A woman's life is nine parts mess to one part magic, you'll learn that soon enough."

When Sansa tells her that she realizes she is "now fit to be wedded and bedded ... and to bear children for the king," Cersei observes that it is "A prospect that no longer entices you as it once did," and admits to her that "Joffrey has always been difficult." It took her a day and a half to deliver him, she says, and she screamed so loudly that she thought Robert, who was away hunting, could hear her. Sansa is surprised that Cersei's husband was away, but Cersei says, "When they told Jaime he was not allowed in the birthing room, he smiled and asked which of them proposed to keep him out."

When she assures Sansa that she may not love Joffrey but she will love his children, Sansa assures her, "I love his Grace with all my heart." But Cersei tells her to learn some new lies. She recalls that Joffrey always cried when Robert picked him up, whereas his bastards "always gurgled at him happily." She adds, "Robert wanted to be loved. My brother Tyrion has the same disease." And she gives Sansa some "womanly wisdom": "Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same."

Jon

They are moving through the Skirling Pass, with Ghost at Jon's side responding uneasily to sounds only he can hear. They reach the highest point of the pass and begin their descent into the Milkwater valley. When they pause to rest, Jon tells Qhorin about the story Ygritte had told him of Bael the Bard. Qhorin says he knows it, that Mance Rayder used to sing the song to them when he was a member of the Night's Watch. Jon learns now that Qhorin and Rayder used to be friends and brothers, and asks why Rayder deserted. Qhorin tells him that there are various stories, but he really thinks it was because "He loved the wild better than the Wall." Rayder had been born a wildling and had been brought to the Wall when he was a child.

Qhorin also warns Jon, "Only fools like Thoren Smallwood despise the wildlings. They are as brave as we, Jon. As strong, as quick, as clever. But they have no discipline." And when he says that Rayder "never learned to obey," Jon says, "No more than me." Qhorin is not surprised then to learn that Jon had let Ygritte go. "If I had needed her dead, I would have left her with Ebben, or done the thing myself." He hadn't commanded Jon to kill her, but left it up to him. "To lead men you must know them, Jon Snow. I know more of you now than I did this morning."

When he goes to sleep that night, Jon summons Ghost to sleep beside him, but the wolf only looks at him and then leaves. Jon assumes that he wants to hunt, but during the night he dreams of direwolves the way Bran does: "There were five of them when there should have been six, and they were scattered, each apart from the others." He is one of them, and he howls for the others. A voice behind him calls "Jon!" but when he turns around there is only a weirwood there, growing from a sapling into a tree as he watches. He walks around it until he finds the face. "The weirwood had his brother's face. Had his brother always had three eyes?" He hears the voice say, "Not always.... Not before the crow."

He smells "wolf and tree and boy," but also other smells, including a terrible one: "Death, he knew. He was smelling death." But the voice tells him not to be afraid, and that he needs to open his eyes. "And the tree reached down and touched him." Suddenly he is looking down on the valley in an autumn afternoon. One end of it is plugged with "A vast blue-white wall.... Then he realized he was looking at a river of ice several thousand feet high. Under that glittering cold cliff was a great lake, its deep cobalt waters reflecting the snowcapped peaks that ringed it." Below it were thousands of people, some of them training for war. He also sees "a shaggy lumbering beast with a snake for a nose and tusks larger than those of the greatest boar that had ever lived." And it is being ridden by a huge thing "too thick in the leg and hips to be a man."

Then he hears the sound of wings and a shadow plummets from the sky with a scream. He wakes, shouting "Ghost!" and calling for the wolf. "He could still feel the talons, the pain." His cry brings the others and he tells them about his dream. Qhorin and the others take it seriously. "'Skinchanger?' said Ebben grimly, looking at the Halfhand. Does he mean the eagle? Jon wondered. Or me?"

They set out again, but without Ghost, who hasn't returned. It is growing dark when Squire Dalbridge points out an eagle perched above them, watching. Then Jon spots a patch of white, and when it moves he spurs his horse toward it. It is Ghost, who has been wounded by the eagle. They wash and dress the wound, and when they are done it is dark. Qhorin says they need to retreat. "Eagles have sharper eyes than men. We are seen. So now we run."

They ride all night, and just before dawn they near the place where they had killed the wildlings. They leave Squire Dalbridge there with his longbow and a plentiful supply of arrows. "He's staying to die, Jon realized." When dawn breaks they spot the eagle flying high above them, and hear the sound of a hunting horn. "'And now they come,' said Qhorin."

Tyrion

Our first hint of what may have happened to Bran and Rickon comes when Tyrion is on his way to see Cersei and Varys brings him "A report from the north." He reads it and asks Varys, "Both of them?" Varys replies, "I fear so, my lord," and observes that they were "so young and innocent." When Tyrion gives the letter to Cersei, he says, "I trust you're pleased.... You wanted the boy dead, I believe." She replies that it was Jaime who threw Bran from the window, and that "This was Greyjoy's work, I had nothing to do with it." Tyrion replies that he hopes "Lady Catelyn believes that," which makes Cersei realize that Bran's death could lead to Jaime's. They had better take good care of Sansa, he tells her.

They talk of other things as they dine, including the fact that there has been no news from Littlefinger. She says Varys has told her that Tyrion plans to remove Sandor Clegane from guarding Joffrey. Tyrion is annoyed by the eunuch's telling her that, but he says he needs him "for more important duties." Cersei considers nothing more important than guarding her son, but Tyrion argues that Ser Osmund and Meryn Trant will be sufficient. He needs the Hound and Balon Swann to lead sorties to defend the city. Joffrey will be part of the battle, too -- not "in the thick of the fighting, but he needs to be seen. Men fight more fiercely for a king who shares their peril than one who hides behind his mother's skirts."

She protests that Joffrey is only thirteen, but Tyrion says, "Remember Jaime at thirteen? If you want the boy to be his father's son, let him play the part." He'll be well-armored and well-guarded and if it looks like the city will fall, he'll be "escorted back to the Red Keep at once." She asks him if the city will fall and he tells her no, though he thinks, "if it does, pray that we can hold the Red Keep long enough for our lord father to march to our relief."

When dessert arrives, she says, "I hope you like blackberry tarts," which provokes him to say, "I love all sorts of tarts." She says she knows that, and adds that the reason Varys is so dangerous is that "He doesn't have a cock." Neither does she, he retorts, and thinks, "And don't you just hate that, Cersei?" But he notices a smile on her face that he doesn't like. And he finds out why when she proclaims, "I have your little whore." He affects calm, but wonders how she found Shae, and what she plans to do with her. She tells him no harm will come to her as long as nothing happens to Joffrey or Tommen. "If Joff should be killed, however, or if Tommen should fall into the hands of our enemies, your little cunt will die more painfully than you can possibly imagine."

He is surprised that she believes he would kill his nephew, and promises her that he has nothing of the sort in mind. "Gods be good, Cersei, they're my own blood!" He thinks that in his place Jaime would kill her for making such an accusation, but he knows he can't do that, and thinks, "If I fail this test, I had as lief seek out the nearest grotesquerie." He says that for all he knows she has killed the girl already. She meets the challenge and goes to the door and orders, "Bring in my brother's whore."

The brothers Osney and Osfryd Kettleblack bring her in, bruised and bloody, with her hands tied and a gag in her mouth. Tyrion wants to laugh when he realizes what has happened, but he keeps calm and adopts his father's tone and voice. He says, "Whatever happens to her happens to Tommen as well, and that includes the beatings and rapes." Cersei is taken aback: "You would not dare." He replies, "Dare? I'll do it myself."

When Cersei tries to slap him, he grabs her wrist and twists her arm behind her back, then threatens to break her arm with Osfryd steps forward. He shoves Cersei to the floor and orders the Kettleblacks to untie the woman and remove her gag. He massages her fingers until the circulation returns to her hands and says he is sorry they hurt her. Alayaya bends and kisses his forehead, leaving a trace of blood from her broken lips. Then he turns to Cersei.

"I have never liked you, Cersei, but you were my own sister, so I never did you harm. You've ended that. I will hurt you for this. I don't know how yet, but give me time. A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in hour mouth, and you'll know the debt is paid."

She orders him out and he leaves, realizing that he had put Alayaya in danger when he started using the secret tunnel from her brothel to Shae's residence. In his room, Shae is waiting for him. "How could he tell her that another woman had taken the beating meant for her and might well die in her place should some mischance of battle fell Joffrey?" He asks her to show him the secret entrance, but she says Varys had made her wear a hood, and all she could see was a floor with a mosaic of red and black tiles that depicted a dragon.

He goes around the room, trying various loose stones and sconces to see if any of them will trigger the entrance, but nothing works. And when they try to make love, he can't achieve an erection, so he lies awake in the night while she sleeps.

12. A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 469-497

Jon

A horn is heard in the night, and it signals the arrival of some brothers from the Shadow Tower, some of whom are wounded. Jon recognizes their leader, Qhorin Halfhand, even though he has never seen him before. He earned his name when he lost all but the thumb and forefinger of one hand fending off a wildling with an axe. He had then thrust the hand into the face of the wildling, using the spurting blood to blind him and then killing him. Halfhand recognizes Jon, too, because he looks so much like his father.

Halfhand tells Mormont that they had an encounter with a wildling named Alfyn Crowkiller, who was leading a scouting party at the Wall. They lost four men and a dozen were wounded, but the casualties on the enemy side were heavier and included Crowkiller. Even so, Jon wonders, "why does Qhorin sound so grave, after such a victory?"

Outside, Jon hears some grumbling from the men, who think the mission is useless and are even considering mutiny. He examines the new dagger he has fashioned from the dragonglass he found buried in the ranger's cloak. He made a hilt from wood and bound it with twine to improve the grip. The blade was brittle, but sharper than steel. He had also made daggers for Grenn and Mormont, and had given the horn to Sam along with a spearhead and some arrowheads. Mormont has no idea who buried the cloak, though he admits it's possible that Benjen Stark did so for some reason.

When he returns to Mormont's tent, he hears Halfhand talking about what they have learned from prisoners they captured about Mance Rayder and his plans, and Mormont saying that the Wall must be alerted, as well as the king -- or rather the kings, "The true and false alike. If they would claim the realm, let them defend it." Halfhand also says that Rayder's forces plan to break through the wall, possibly using sorcery: "He is seeking something in the high cold places. He is searching for something he needs."  He advocates sending out scouts:

"I would send fifteen men, in three parties of five. One to probe the Milkwater, one the Skirling Pass, one to climb the Giant's Stair. Jarman Buckwell, Thoren Smallwood, and myself to command. To learn what waits in these mountains." 

Mormont tells Halfhand to choose his men, and he chooses Jon.

Tyrion

Lancel tells Tyrion that Cersei is planning to send Tommen, disguised as a page, to the castle at Rosby to protect him from not only the mob but also Tyrion. That night, Tyrion sends a message to Jacelyn Bywater, telling him to intercept the detail moving Tommen and convey the boy to the castle himself, effectively transferring him from Cersei's hands to his own. Bronn, who is to carry the message to Bywater, suggests that he could do the job himself, but Tyrion doesn't really trust him: "Ser Jacelyn's gold cloaks would defend the boy; Bronn's sellswords were more apt to sell him to his enemies."

Then he asks Bronn to accompany him to the secret passage at Chataya's, but on the way he decides to skip the passage and go directly to Shae's. The streets are deserted because of the curfew that has been imposed. He finds Shae being serenaded by a singer known as Simon Silver Tongue, who greets him as "My lord Hand." Tyrion is angry that this stranger knows where Shae lives and that Tyrion visits her at night.

After making love to Shae he goes down to the garden, but she interrupts the moment of peace he has there by bringing Varys to him, disguised as "one of the begging brothers, ... in filthy patched robes, his bare feet crusty with dirt.... The smell of him would have gagged a rat." Tyrion doesn't recognize Varys at first, but Shae has seen right through his disguise. "A whore learns to see the man, not his garb, or she turns up dead in an alley," she tells him.

Varys has brought news that Cortnay Penrose is dead and Stannis has taken Storm's End. Realizing that Stannis will turn his attention to King's Landing now, he fears for Shae's safety. He tells her he might be able to move her into the castle, but she'd have to pose as a scullery maid in the kitchens. Shae is not happy about the plan and asks why he can't just take her into his own quarters. He tells her, "I was expressly forbidden to take you to court.  When she mocks him for his fear of his father, he slaps her: "Damn you. Never mock me. Not you." She apologizes, but half-heartedly. He thinks, "I never meant to strike you. Gods be good, am I turning into Cersei."

And then he tells her the story of his marriage, at thirteen, to a girl who turned out to be a whore Jaime had hired for him. And he promises, "Once we're done with Stannis, you'll have another manse, and silks as soft as your hands." She says her hands won't be soft after scouring pots, but he assures her that he'll love them still: "they'll remind me how brave you were." So she accepts the plan.

Varys is waiting for him in the stables, and he tells the eunuch about his plan for Shae. Varys warns him that the kitchen is full of gossips and spies, and she will be catnip for the boys and men who work there. He suggests another plan: The maid to Lady Tanda's daughter, Lollys, has been stealing from her, and if he tells Lady Tanda the girl will be sacked so she'll need a new maid. Moreover, Lollys never leaves her room since she was raped, "so Shae will be out of sight ... but conveniently close, should you have need of comfort." Moreover, Varys knows a secret passage that leads to Tyrion's chambers, which surprises Tyrion.

As they ride, he asks how Cortnay Penrose died. Varys says the story is that Penrose "threw himself from a tower." Tyrion doesn't believe it, and Varys admits that there is no evidence that anyone broke into Penrose's chamber. Finally Varys asks if Tyrion believes "in the old powers." "Magic, you mean?" Tyrion scoffs at the idea "that Ser Cortnay was magicked to his death." Varys then decides to tell Tyrion about how he became a eunuch.

He "was an orphan boy apprenticed to a traveling folly" that performed "in all the Free Cities and from time to time in Oldtown and King's Landing." One day in Myr, a man came to the show and afterward bought Varys from his master. Varys was afraid he had been sold to the man for sex, but instead the man drugged Varys with something "that made me powerless to move or speak, yet did nothing to dull my senses." He then sliced off Varys's genitals while chanting. "I watched him burn my manly parts on a brazier. The flames turned blue, and I heard a voice answer his call, though I did not understand the words they spoke." Varys was then cast out on the streets where he learned to live as a thief, and discovered when he was older "that often the contents of a man's letters are more valuable than the contents of his purse."

"Yet I still dream of that night, my lord. Not of the sorcerer, nor his blade, nor even the way my manhood shriveled as it burned. I dream of the voice. The voice from the flames. Was it a god, a demon, some conjurer's trick? I could not tell you, and I know all the tricks. All I can say for a certainty is that he called it, and it answered, and since that day I have hated magic and all those who practice it. If Lord Stannis is one such, I mean to see him dead."

Tyrion is silent for a while after Varys ends his story, and then says, "I'm sorry." Varys says he knows Tyrion still doesn't believe him, that he thinks Varys imagined the voice because of the drugs and the pain. Tyrion admits that he remains a skeptic, though he believes "there once were dragons. I've seen their skulls, after all."

They talk of other things: There has been no news from Lord Tywin or from Littlefinger. And then Tyrion begins to laugh, puzzling Varys. Tyrion has been overcome by the irony of the situation:

"Storm's End is fallen and Stannis is coming with fire and steel and the gods alone know what dark powers, and the good folk don't have Jaime to protect them, nor Robert nor Renly nor Rhaegar nor their precious Knight of Flowers. Only me, the one they hate." He laughed again. "The dwarf, the evil counselor, the twisted little monkey demon. I'm all that stands between them and chaos."

Catelyn

Edmure rides off to defend Riverrun against the Lannister forces. Brienne is miserable at not being allowed to go and fight, but the castle needs someone to defend it, and the garrison is weak and untrained. The castle is also full of women and children who have taken refuge within the walls. When Brienne asks Catelyn what they should do, Catelyn replies, "Our duty." And then she thinks bitterly of how she has always done her duty, agreeing to marry Brandon Stark and then his brother Ned after Brandon was killed. "I did so gladly, though I never saw Ned's face until our wedding day. I gave my maidenhood to this solemn stranger and sent him off to his war and his king and the woman who bore him his bastard because I always did my duty." But now she isn't really sure what her duty consists of.

Outside, someone is singing of the glory of battle, and Brienne complains, "Fighting is better than this waiting.... You don't feel so helpless when you fight." And when Catelyn points out that you can die in battle, Brienne remarks, "As ladies die in childbed. No one sings songs about them." Catelyn responds that "Children are a battle of a different sort." You want to keep all of them safe. "And who would keep you safe, my lady?" Brienne asks. The men would, Catelyn replies, but now they are all gone off, so "I suppose you must fill their place, Brienne." Brienne vows that she will try.

Later that day, word comes of Penrose's death and Storm's End falling into Stannis's hands. Catelyn wishes that news of this could be sent to Robb, and Maester Vyman suggests that a raven be sent to Ashemark with orders to send a rider to Robb. Catelyn observes that there is no news about what happened to Robert's bastard, who was being guarded by Penrose, and she wonders why Stannis wanted him so much. She asks what the boy looked like, and Brienne tells her, "He is seven or eight, comely, with black hair and bright blue eyes. Visitors oft thought him Lord Renly's own son." Catelyn realizes that Stannis plans "to parade his brother's bastard before the realm, so men might see Robert in his face and wonder why there is no such likeness in Joffrey." She thinks about her own children, who resembled the Tullys more than they did the Starks. Only Arya and Jon Snow resembled their father, and she wonders again who Jon's mother was.

Word comes that Lannister forces have been sighted across the river, and from the battlements they watch the attempts of the Lannisters to cross and the defensive forces to drive them back. Brienne provides a commentary on what is happening over the next day, when the enemy is successfully driven back several times. Catelyn decides to question Ser Cleos Frey, who had brought Cersei's response to Robb's peace terms and the team whose plot to free Jaime had been foiled. She has wine sent to him before they meet to loosen his tongue.

She asks him if he saw her daughters, and he stammers a yes that persuades her he is lying. Then he admits he saw Sansa, but says nothing about Arya. He also tells her that Cersei was not in court when the terms were delivered, and that Tyrion was the one who proclaimed them. She thinks again of how clever Tyrion is, wondering how he survived on the road after Lysa released him. She also observes that he had no part in Ned's execution, and remembers how he came to her defense when they were attacked by the mountain clans. She wishes she could trust him. But then she remembers the dagger that was used in the attack on Bran, and although he persistently denied having any part in the attack, even when he was locked in the sky cells at the Eyrie, she is still convinced that he was lying.

Five days later, word comes that the Lannisters have been repelled at every attempt to cross the river, and that they are marching southeast. That night there is celebration in the castle, but Catelyn is studying maps. "The gods had granted them victory after victory.... But if we are winning, why am I so afraid?"