10. A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 404-430

Theon

In an attack on a village, Theon's men have captured a former ally of his, Benfred Tallhart, who spits in Theon's face and denounces him as a traitor to Robb. Theon's Uncle Aeron insists that this is a mortal insult and that Tallhart must die. But when Theon orders Tallhart beheaded, Aeron insists it must be done in accordance with the worship of the Drowned God: Tallhart must be drowned in salt water. So Theon acquiesces and Tallhart is hauled off to the shore.

The village has been destroyed, the men killed, the young women claimed as "salt wives" -- i.e., concubines -- and the old and ugly women raped and killed, unless they have useful skills as servants.

His thrice-damned sister was sailing her Black Wind north even now, sure to win a castle of her own. Lord Balon had let no word of the hosting escape the Iron Islands, and Theon's bloody work along the Stony Shore would be put down to sea raiders out for plunder. The northmen would not realize their true peril, not until the hammers fell on Deepwood Motte and Moat Cailin. 

But Theon is determined not to let Asha, his sister, get all the glory. So he takes Dagmer Cleftjaw aside and tries to win him over. He calls these raids on villages "child's business" and "no work for Lord Balon's best man." He knows that his father's men are suspicious of him because he has been away for ten years with the Starks, but he insists to Dagmer, "I am a Greyjoy, and I mean to be my father's heir. How can I do that unless I prove myself with some great deed." But, he tells Dagmer, he needs his help "to do a deed that the harpers will sing of for a thousand years."

He wants Dagmer to take his men and march to Torrhen's Square, the seat of the Tallharts, which will be defended by a small garrison because most of the men have gone to fight for Robb. There, they will mount a siege. Dagmer protests, "That is not the Old Way. Have you forgotten? Ironmen fight with swords and axes, not by flinging rocks. There is no glory in starving out a foeman." But Theon explains this is only a distraction: When they see the siege towers being built, the Tallharts will send a raven to Winterfell. Theon assumes that Ser Rodrik Cassel will withdraw some of his men from Winterfell "and ride to Tallhart's aid. It is his duty. Ser Rodrik is nothing if not dutiful."

But Dagmer protests, "Any force he summons will be larger than mine.... You set us a battle we cannot hope to win, Theon. This Torrhen's Square will never fall." Theon replies, "It's not Torrhen's Square I mean to take." Which sounds like he plans to bring the sea to Winterfell.


Arya

Tywin Lannister is on the move, and Harrenhal is bustling with activity. Weese has Arya on the move too, running errands, carrying messages, and sometimes even letting her outside the walls of the castle. She thinks of making a break for it somehow, but Weese has threatened to cut off the feet of anyone who dares attempt to escape. He doesn't know she can read, so she often reads the messages she is given, though they are usually nothing but orders to send carts to this place or another.

She looks for Jaqen H'ghar, since he has promised to kill two more people for her, but he is hard to find in all the confusion. One of the guards tells her that he will be staying at Harrenhal with Ser Amory, who has been named castellan, charged with holding the castle in Tywin's absence. The creepy Bloody Mummers will also be staying. Gregor Clegane will be going with Tywin, however, which means that he and others of the men on her list will be out of her reach "unless she could find Jaqen and have him kill one of them before they left."

Weese sends her to the armory to tell one of the armorers that Ser Lyonel needs a new sword, and she sees Gendry there. He pulls her aside and tells her that Hot Pie had overheard her cry out "Winterfell," during the fighting back at the holdfast. He says he covered up for her by telling Hot Pie that he heard her yell "Go to hell!" and that she should say the same if he asks her. She says she will, though she thinks for a moment that she ought to tell Jaqen to kill Hot Pie.

As she returns with the sword, she feels its weight and it reminds her of how she felt when she was practicing with Syrio Forel. She thinks of telling the stablehands that she was sent to fetch a horse for Ser Lyonel, then of riding out with horse and sword, but she remembers Weese's threat. When she returns to him with the sword he complains about how long she had taken and slaps her with the back of his hand. Then he sends her off on another errand, threatening to beat her if she's too slow this time.

On her way, she encounters the noseless Rorge, who makes obscene jokes about her. She tells him she's looking for Jaqen, and his reaction makes her realize that Rorge is afraid of Jaqen. He tells her Jaqen is in the bathhouse. She finds him there and whispers "Weese" in his ear.

That evening at dinner, Weese calls her over, grabs her throat, and slaps her twice, backhanded, just for looking at him. When she trips and tears her dress, he tells her to mend it before she goes to sleep. As she sews up the tear, she recites the names on her list with every stitch, and wonders how much longer Weese will be on the list. But it is Weese who kicks her awake in the morning, and at breakfast he threatens that they will only have to work harder while Lord Tywin is away.

As Tywin and his men leave that morning, Arya watches from a window in the Wailing Tower. The procession concludes with Gregor Clegane with Polliver riding beside him, wearing Gendry's helmet. Arya thinks that she has ordered the wrong men killed. It should be those two instead of Chiswyck and Weese. And she should have told him to kill Lord Tywin. She decides to find Jaqen and change her order, but as she hears the portcullis being lowered there is "a shriek of pain and fear."

Weese was sprawled across the cobbles, his throat a red ruin, eyes gaping sightlessly up at a bank of grey cloud. His ugly spotted dog stood on his chest, lapping at the blood pulsing from his neck, and every so often ripping a mouthful of flesh out of the dead man's face.

Someone brings a crossbow and kills the dog. Arya sees Jaqen leaning against the tower; "he lifted a hand to his face and laid two fingers casually against his cheek."

Catelyn

When they reach Riverrun, Catelyn hears of Robb's victory, but also that Lord Tywin is on his way and will reach them in three or four days. Brienne asks Catelyn to let her leave -- she means to return to Storm's End and kill Stannis. Catelyn argues that she would be riding into certain death, and that to do so would serve on purpose. Brienne says that she doesn't understand how she feels about Renly's death.

"You're wrong," Catelyn said sharply. "Every morning, when I wake, I remember that Ned is gone. I have no skill with swords, but that does not mean that I do not dream of riding to King's Landing and wrapping my hands around Cersei Lannister's white throat and squeezing until her face turns black."

Brienne asks if Catelyn would ever make peace with Stannis, knowing that he killed Renly, and Catelyn admits that she doesn't know. But she urges Brienne to "fight ... but for the living, not the dead. Renly's enemies are Robb's enemies as well."


To Catelyn's surprise, Brienne asks to serve her, saying that Catelyn has "a kind of woman's courage." She asks only that, if the opportunity comes, Catelyn will not hold her back from killing Stannis. Catelyn remembers Stannis's threat against Robb and says, "When the time comes, I will not hold you back." Brienne kneels, unsheathing the longsword she took from Renly's body and laying it at Catelyn's feet, then vows, "I am yours, my lady." And Catelyn vows "that you shall always have a place by my hearth and meat and mead at my table, and pledge to ask no service of you that might bring you into dishonor."


Catelyn's brother, Edmure, is at the castle, and he tells her that ravens have come from Storm's End with word that Ser Cortnay Penrose still holds the castle, though "Stannis has him surrounded by land and sea. He offers his allegiance to whatsoever king will break the siege." Penrose also says that he is afraid for "the boy," whom Brienne identifies as Robert Baratheon's bastard, Edric Storm. Catelyn wonders why Penrose would risk so much "for a baseborn boy whose blood is not even his own." Edmure says he hasn't sent an answer to Penrose because they have nothing to offer him.


Edmure and the others at Riverrun are eager to hear an account of Renly's death, but Catelyn prefers not to talk about it in the open, so she changes the subject to the bodies they found hanging from the battlements of the castle. Edmure says that they came with Ser Cleos when he delivered Cersei's response to Robb's peace offer. Catelyn is shocked that they should kill envoys, but Edmure explains that they were assassins posing as envoys -- the ones Tyrion had sought out and included in the guard. They had tried to free Jaime Lannister. One of them killed two guards, another picked the lock to Jaime's cell, and the mummer imitated Edmure's voice to command the guards to open the gate.

This was the Imp's work, Catelyn suspected; it stank of the same sort of cunning he had displayed at the Eyrie. Once, she would have named Tyrion the least dangerous of the Lannisters. Now she was not so certain.

They plot was foiled only by accident. Edmure had been returning to the castle just before dawn and the mummer's deception was revealed. Jaime had a sword, and killed two men and seriously wounded a third. After he was recaptured, he was put in the dungeon and chained to the wall. Cleos Frey is still under suspicion for his part in the escape attempt, and is in the cell Jaime formerly occupied in the tower.


Robb has told them to send Catelyn to the Twins, the castles of Lord Walder Frey, to help him choose a bride from the Frey daughters, but Catelyn "had no intention of leaving Riverrun and her dying father to pick Robb's wife for him." Edmure wants to fight Tywin, but Catelyn argues that he has only half as many men as Lannister does. He outlines his plan to get reinforcements from the Tallharts and Roose Bolton's army at the Twins. He has told Bolton to take Harrenhal. Catelyn is deeply skeptical about her brother's plan, and wishes that Robb hadn't taken her uncle Brynden, who "was the veteran of half a hundred battles; Edmure was the veteran of one, and that one lost." But she swallows her misgivings and goes to see her father.


Lord Hoster Tully doesn't know who she is: He thinks she is Lysa. He mutters to her about "That stripling ... wretched boy" and about Lysa's marriage to Jon Arryn. When the maester gives her father a sleeping potion, he tells her that he won't live much longer and that they should send for Brynden and for her sister. Catelyn knows that Lysa won't come, but agrees to write to her. "She wondered who Lysa's 'wretched stripling' had been," and why her father had been so opposed to him.


When she goes to her chambers, she finds "two women clad in grey, their faces cowled save for their eyes," and she realizes that they are there with Ned's body. She is told that Cleos Frey had brought his bones from King's Landing, and she asks to see them. But when she views the skeleton, she is surprised to see that the sword he has with him is not Ice. It was not returned with him, she is told.


After ordering that the bones be taken to Winterfell, she spends the night sitting up with them.

8. A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 341-371

Arya

Being a servant in the Wailing Tower at Harrenhal has the advantages of a dry place to sleep, soap and water, and bread and barley stew every day. Hot Pie, in the kitchens, has better food. Gendry has been sent to work in the forge. Arya's job is primarily to clean, but occasionally Weese has her run messages, bring water and food, and serve at table in the Barracks Hall. As for the ghosts of Harrenhal, she doesn't fear them, and figures that it is the sound of the wind through the cracks in the stone walls that make people believe in them. She is more afraid of the living: Weese, and Gregor Clegane, and Tywin Lannister. Weese has been added to her list of enemies that she mentions in her nightly prayers.

Harrenhal has "turned her into a mouse, scurrying about trying to avoid notice. "And as lords and ladies never notice the little grey mice under their feet, Arya heard all sorts of secrets just by keeping her ears open as she went about her duties." She hears that Stannis and Renly have declared themselves king in opposition to Joffrey, and "Even Lannister men questioned how long Joffrey would hold the Iron Throne," given that he is "ruled by a eunuch, a dwarf, and a woman."

One day a sinister group known as "the Bloody Mummers" arrives, though Weese warns her not to have anything to do with them, and explains that "They're sellswords, Weasel girl. Call themselves the Brave Companions," and "they'll hurt you bad" if you call them the Bloody Mummers.  Arya overhears one of them saying that "a northern army under Roose Bolton had occupied the ruby ford of the Trident" but won't cross until "the Young Wolf marches from Riverrun with his wild northmen and all them wolves." This is the first time Arya has heard that her brother is at Riverrun, which is nearer to Harrenhal than Winterfell is. She begins to think about escaping, perhaps with the help of some of the captives now housed in the Tower of Dread. They are being held for ransom.

One day Ser Amory Lorch arrives at the castle, and Arya is surprised to find among the men with him the three chained prisoners whom she saved by tossing them the axe when Lorch burned the holdfast. They seem to have joined up with Lorch's raiders. Rorge has a helmet that conceals his missing nose, and Biter has been further disfigured by the burns he suffered. The only one who looks her way is Jaqen H'ghar, and she isn't sure if he recognizes her. But that night she is awakened by him when he puts his hand over her mouth and whispers that he wants to talk.

"A man pays his debts," he says. "A man owes three." And she realizes that he is offering to repay her for saving him and the others. "Three lives you shall have of me. No more, no less. Three and we are done." He is offering to kill three people on his list, and she has to choose. She thinks of Joffrey and Cersei, of course, but they are too far away, and Gregor Clegane is out foraging with Raff and Chiswyck and the Tickler. But Amory Lorch and Weese are there.

Then Gregor and his men return, and Arya is sent by Weese to see if they have clothes that need mending. She enters without being noticed, and overhears Chiswyck telling a story about a woman Clegane raped and how the others followed his example. Horrified, she forgets to ask the men about the clothes, and Weese canes her until she bleeds. Two nights later, she sees Jaqen H'ghar when she is serving at table in the Barracks Hall and whispers "Chiswyck" in his ear. Three days later, she hears a woman in the kitchen say, "One of the Mountain's men fell off a wallwalk last night and broke his fool neck.... Some are saying it was Harren's ghost flung him down."

"She had killed Chiswyck with a whisper, and she would kill two more before she was through. I'm the ghost in Harrenhal, she thought."

Catelyn

She and Ser Wendel Manderly have gone with Renly and the troops to Storm's End, where she will try to fulfill her mission of bringing about a truce between Renly and Stannis, and to persuade them to join forces with Robb. Stannis rides out for the parlay accompanied by Melisandre. Catelyn meets with Stannis before Renly joins them, and he expresses his determination to win over the lords who now support Renly. "This one will never bend, she thought, yet she must try nonetheless."

Renly arrives accompanied by Brienne, though her armor gives no indication of her sex. Catelyn continues her plea: "Let us hope there will be no battle. We three share a common foe who would destroy us all." But Stannis insists, "The Iron Throne is mine by rights. All those who deny that are my foes." And Renly says, "The whole of the realm denies it, brother." She persists in trying to make them see that while they are feuding, Tywin is at Harrenhal with a force of twenty thousand, Jaime's followers are regrouping, and another Lannister army is forming at Casterly Rock, while Cersei and her son are defending King's Landing. "You each name yourself king, yet the kingdom bleeds, and no one lifts a sword to defend it but my son."

But Stannis and Renly continue to quarrel until Catelyn interrupts again to assert that neither of them has a claim to the throne as long as Robert's son is alive. "Prince Joffrey is his rightful heir, and Tommen after him ... and we are all traitors, however good our reasons." But Stannis plays his trump card: Joffrey isn't Robert's son, or Tommen, and Myrcella isn't his daughter. "All three of them are abominations born of incest." Catelyn, who hasn't received Stannis's letter, is astonished: "Would even Cersei be so mad?" she thinks.

But Renly doesn't believe the story, and challenges Stannis to prove it true. Stannis says that he had voiced his suspicions to Jon Arryn and not to Robert because he didn't want to be accused of plotting to change the succession: "I believed Robert would be more disposed to listen if the charges came from Lord Arryn, whom he loved." And he asserts that Cersei had Jon Arryn poisoned when he confronted her with the accusation. Catelyn remembers Lysa Arryn's letter to her accusing the queen of killing her husband, and her later accusation that Tyrion did it.

Renly then says that Stannis can have Storm's End if he wants it, but he's not giving up his challenge to the throne. Stannis retorts that it isn't Renly's to give, and Renly says to Catelyn, "he refuses my castle, he even shunned my wedding...." Stannis retorts that Renly's wedding was a "farce," and that a year ago Renly was trying to make Margaery "one of Robert's whores" -- a plot to supplant Cersei as queen. Renly replies that it doesn't matter now. "The boar got Robert and I got Margaery. You'll be pleased to know she came to me a maid." Stannis says, "In your bed she's like to die that way." (The homosexuality of Renly has only been hinted at in the novels; it was made explicit in the HBO adaptation.) Renly says he expects to father a son within the year, and mocks Stannis not only for having no sons but also throws back at him the scurrilous rumor concocted by Littlefinger that the fool Patchface is the father of Stannis's daughter by his ugly wife.

Stannis is naturally enraged, and he draws his sword, which "gleamed strangely bright in the wan sunlight, now red, now yellow, now blazing white. The air around it seemed to shimmer, as if from heat. Catelyn's horse whinnied and backed away a step, but Brienne moved between the brothers, her own blade in hand." Catelyn thinks, "Cersei Lannister is laughing herself breathless." (As indeed she had, when Tyrion brought her the news that the Baratheon brothers had turned against each other.)

Stannis back off a little and says he doesn't "wish to sully Lightbringer with a brother's blood," but he will give Renly until dawn to acknowledge his claim, and if he does he'll give him Storm's End and name him his heir until he fathers a son of his own. "Otherwise, I shall destroy you." Renly mocks him, and points to the banners of his troops and names the houses that are following him, which even include House Florent, Stannis's wife's family. Stannis replies, "'We shall see, brother.' Some of the light seemed to go out of the world when Stannis slid his sword back into its scabbard. 'Come the dawn, we shall see.'" He rides off with the red priestess behind him.

Catelyn felt very tired. It had all been for nothing. The Baratheon brothers would drown each other in blood while her son faced the Lannisters alone, and nothing she could say or do would stop it. It is past time I went back to Riverrun to close my father's eyes, she thought. That much at least I can do. I may be a poor envoy, but I am a good mourner, gods save me.

But when she asks Renly's permission for her to return to Riverrun he denies it. He wants her to witness the battle so she can tell Robb about it.

Sansa 

Sandor Clegane has come to take Sansa to see the king, who has ordered her presence because he is angry about something, so she takes special care to dress to please him. She asks the Hound what she's done to offend Joffrey, but he says, "Not you. Your kingly brother." She replies, "Robb's a traitor," but Clegane only snorts at the words, which he knows to be insincere.

They find Joffrey at the archery range, where he has just killed a cat with his crossbow. Ser Dontos is there, too, riding on his broomstick horse in his enforced guise of a fool. Sansa kneels before Joffrey, who tells her, "Stand up. You're here to answer for your brother's latest treasons." He orders Lancel to "tell her of this outrage." Lancel proclaims that, "Using vile sorcery," Robb led "an army of wargs" in an attack on Ser Stafford Lannister, butchering thousands of men while they slept, and "After the slaughter, the northmen feasted on the flesh of the slain."

Joffrey says he hasn't "forgotten how your monster savaged me." She protests that it was Arya's wolf, and that her own wolf didn't harm him, though he killed her anyway. "'No, your father did,' Joff said, 'but I killed your father.'" He boasts that he killed a man the night before who was part of the crowd begging for food. "I'd shoot you too, but if I do Mother says they'd kill my uncle Jaime," so instead he's going to punish her.

Ser Dontos intervenes and offers to beat her. He has a weapon whose head is a melon, so he rides on his broomstick around her and whacks her on the head with the melon until it bursts, covering her with its juice. She recognizes what Dontos is doing, trying to spare her from real punishment, and hopes that it makes Joffrey laugh. But he doesn't. He summons Ser Boros and Ser Meryn Trant, and tells them, "Leave her face.... I like her pretty." Boros punches her in the stomach, and she doubles over. Then he takes his sword and begins to beat her on the back of the thighs. She hears the Hound say, "Enough," but Joffrey says it isn't. He orders, "Boros, make her naked." Boros sticks his hand down her bodice and rips it, baring her breasts, then orders, "Beat her bloody."

"What is the meaning of this?" shouts Tyrion angrily. He is followed by Bronn and Timett. He calls for someone to give Sansa something to cover herself with, and Sandor Clegane tosses her his cloak. "'This girl's to be your queen,' the Imp told Joffrey. 'Have you no regard for her honor.'" Joffrey says he's punishing her and that "She has the blood of a wolf." Tyrion responds, "And you have the wits of a goose." When Joffrey says, "The king can do as he likes," Tyrion replies, "Aerys Targaryen did as he liked. Has your mother ever told you what happened to him?" Ser Boros protests that this is a threat against the king. Tyrion says, "Bronn, Timett, the next time Ser Boros opens his mouth, kill him.... Now that was a threat, ser. See the difference."

When Ser Boros grumbles, "The queen shall hear of this," Tyrion asks Joffrey, "shall we send for your mother?" Which of course is the last thing Joffrey wants to do. "Wanton brutality is no way to win your people's love ... or your queen's," Tyrion advises him. "Fear is better than love, Mother says," Joffrey replies, pointing at Sansa. Tyrion comments, "A pity Stannis and Renly aren't twelve-year-old girls as well," and orders Bronn and Timett to escort Sansa as they leave.

In the Tower of the Hand, servants bathe and dress Sansa and Maester Frenken tends to her wounds, then gives her a sleeping potion. When she wakes, she realizes that she has been put in Arya's old room. Tyrion comes to see her there and explains why Joffrey was so angry. "Six nights gone, your brother fell upon my uncle Stafford, encamped with his host at a village called Oxcross not three days ride from Casterly Rock. Your northerners won a crushing victory. We received word onlhy this morning."

Sansa mouths the usual words, "My brother is a vile traitor," which only makes Tyrion smile. He tells her that the northmen crept into the camp and cut the horse lines, then Robb sent his wolf in to frighten the horses, who panicked and trampled men in their pavilions and frightened the recruited foot soldiers away. Ser Stafford was killed by Rickard Karstark with a lance, and four more knights were killed, and more taken prisoners. When Sansa says, "there was no sorcery?" Tyrion says, "Sorcery is the sauce fools spoon over failure to hide the flavor of their own incompetence."

He asks how she feels about Joffrey now, and she proclaims, "My love for His Grace is greater than it has ever been." Tyrion laughs. "Well, someone has taught you to lie well." Then he tells her that he has no intention of making her marry Joffrey. She hesitates to respond, fearing that it's a trick, and says, "I only want to be loyal." He asks why she visits the godswood every day, and she thinks, "I pray for Robb's victory and Joffrey's death ... and for home. For Winterfell." But she says, "I pray for an end to the fighting." Tyrion says that will happen soon, when there's a battle between Robb and Tyrion's father, which "will settle the issue." He knows what she's hoping for, and warns her, "A battle is not a war, and my lord father is assuredly not my uncle Stafford. The next time you visit the godswood, pray that your brother has the wisdom to bend the knee. Once the north returns to the king's peace, I mean to send you home."

He then suggests that she stay there, and he'll give her some of his men as guards, but she protests, "the wildlings frighten me." "Me as well," he admits. She says she would rather return to her own room, and he agrees and escorts her there.