12. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 306-331

The Lost Lord

Griff/Connington is pacing the deck of the Shy Maid, which has docked in the riverfront at Volantis. He is waiting for Haldon, whom he has sent into the city to buy horses, and worries that he made a mistake by doing so. Haldon had shown poor judgment when he lost Tyrion in Selhorys -- not that Tyrion's disappearance bothers him much: "If the gods were good, Lannister's severed head was halfway back to King's Landing by now, but more like the dwarf was hale and whole and somewhere close, stinking drunk and plotting some new infamy."

He is planning to make contact with the Golden Company and to introduce Prince Aegon to them, though Lemore is uneasy, arguing that sellswords can't be trusted. "If Hugor's head was worth a lord's honors," she says, "how much will Cersei Lannister pay for the rightful heir to the Iron Throne?" They have abandoned the plan to keep Aegon's identity secret until they meet Daenerys because it seems that she doesn't plan to move west, at least for a while.

Haldon returns with the horses, which don't please Connington, but he grudgingly accepts that they were the best to be had. In any case, the ride is only three miles. He gives the best one to Aegon and he and Haldon ride out to meet the Golden Company. They are met first by a captain, Franklyn Flowers, who already knows Connington and Haldon. Connington holds off in revealing Aegon's identity, introducing him as his squire. Flowers takes him to the captain-general, Harry Strickland.


As they ride, Connington wonders if any of the men they pass recognize him. "Even the men who'd ridden with him might not recognize the exile lord Jon Connington of the fiery red beard in the lined, clean-shaved face and dyed blue hair of the sellsword Griff." He had ridden with the company for five years, and if he had stayed with it he might be commanding it instead of Strickland.

Flowers introduces him to the other members of the group of officers meeting with Strickland, who doesn't rise to greet Connington: He is soaking his feet in salt water to soothe the toes he blistered on their march. He says of Aegon, "And this must be your son." Connington wonders if he knows the truth, but reveals the secret to the group: "My lords, I give you Aegon Targaryen, firstborn son of Rhaegar, Prince of Dragonstone, by Princess Elia of Dorne ... soon, with your help, to be Aegon, the Sixth of His Name, King of Andals, the Rhoyne, and the First Men, and Lord of the Seven Kingdoms."

There is silence, and Connington realizes that they all know the secret already. The Golden Company was restless, and there were other lucrative offers to be had, including one from the Yunkishmen to attack Daenerys at Meereen. Strickland had told them he would consider the proposal, especially since Daenerys had made no move westward.

"She is in Meereen and we are here, where the Volantenes grow daily more unhappy with our presence. We came to raise up a king and queen who would lead us home to Westeros, but this Targaryen girl seems more intent on planting olive trees than in reclaiming her brother's throne. Meanwhile, her foes gather."

One of the officers, Tristan Rivers, says, "If Daenerys will not come to us, we must go to Daenerys." They begin to argue about how -- by sea or land -- and whether they should make the move.

Finally Aegon speaks up, and comes out with the plan Tyrion had proposed to him: "Why should I go running to my aunt as if I were a beggar? My claim is better than her own. Let her come to me ... in Westeros?" Franklyn Flowers endorses the idea: "Sail west, not east. Leave the little queen to her olives and seat Prince Aegon upon the Iron Throne. The boy has stones, give him that." But Strickland objects that they need the marriage. Without Daenerys, "the lords will only mock his claim and brand him a fraud and a pretender."

Connington realizes that Strickland doesn't really want to fight. So he argues that the triarchs of Volantis would be happy to get rid of them, and perhaps might even help them find the ships to sail to Westeros: "No city wants an army on its doorstep." Another officer observes that "Cersei's attentions will be fixed upon Meereen and this other queen. She knows nothing of our prince. Once we land and raise our banners, many and more will flock to join us."

Strickland continues to argue against the idea, but Connington says, "Dorne will join us, must join us. Prince Aegon is Elia's son as well as Rhaegar's." Aegon speaks up again and carries the day: "One by one, the men of the Golden Company rose, knelt, and laid their swords at the feet of his young prince." Strickland is the last to do so.

Connington says that Aegon's true identity must be concealed until they reach Westeros, and sends Haldon back to the Shy Maid for Lemore and Duck and Illyrio's chests, gold and armor. When he is alone he removes the glove on his right hand. "The nail on his middle finger had turned as black as jet, he saw, and the grey had crept up almost to the first knuckle. The tip of his ring finger had begun to darken too, and when he touched it with the point of his dagger, he felt nothing." But he persuades himself that he still has time to see Aegon crowned.

The Windblown

Rumors are flying that Daenerys is moving to attack Yunkai, and they have reached the company of sellswords known as the Windblown. Among their numbers is Quentyn Martell. "In Dorne Quentyn Martell had been a prince, in Volantis a merchant's man, but on the shores of Slaver's Bay he was only Frog, squire to the big bald Dornish knight the sellswords called Greenguts." For thirty years, the Windblown had been led by a Pentoshi called the Tattered Prince because he wore a ragged cloak made up of many scraps of cloth. No one knew his real name or origins.

Quentyn had protested being cast as a squire, but Gerris Drinkwater insisted that the best way to do it was to keep Quentyn under the protection of Ser Archibald Yronwood, now known as Greenguts, who is the best fighter of the three. In truth, Quentyn is getting cold feet about the project to marry him off to Daenerys, because the more he hears about her the more it frightens him. There are stories about her sexual insatiability and her murderous character, and Quentyn is aware that her father, King Aerys, was mad. And he has just been through the hell that Astapor has become.

"It was a hundred leagues from Astapor to Yunkai by the old Ghiscari coast road, and another fifty from Yunkai to Meereen." But the journey is slowed by the presence of Yunkish lords hoping to return to their city, including one enormously fat man known as the Yellow Whale, who travels with a retinue of grotesque slaves. There is a Girl General with an army of muscular, near-naked soldiers, a very short man known as the Little Pigeon whose troops are all at least seven feet tall and who march on stilts that make them even taller, and a pair of brothers the sellswords have dubbed the Clanker Lords because their troops are chained together in groups of ten. "In the time it took the Windblown to ride three miles, the Yunkai'i had fallen two-and-a-half miles behind."

The plan is now for Quentyn, Drinkwater, and Yronwood to turn cloaks and join Daenerys's forces at the soonest opportunity, which Gerris expects to be after they take Yunkai. The lands they are passing through now belong to the Yunkai'i, but north of the city is "no-man's-land," he tells Quentyn, who worries that Yronwood has made too many friends among the Windblown to take deserting them lightly. And if they're caught, the Tattered Prince is likely to torture them to death to make an example.

Two days later, they are summoned to the Tattered Prince's tent where they find other Westerosi gathered. The Tattered Prince informs them that the surviving Astapori, "hundreds of them, maybe thousands, all starved and sick," have been fleeing the destroyed city. Their orders are to drive them back to the city or else north to Meereen. "If the dragon queen wants to take them in, she's welcome to them. Half of them have the bloody flux, and even the healthy ones are mouths to feed." But if they encounter the Second Sons or the Stormcrows they are to turn their cloaks and join them -- exactly what Quentyn and the others had been planning to do. The Tattered Prince has realized that the Yunkai'i "do not inspire confidence," and wants the Windblown to stay on the winning side and share the spoils.

They will be commanded by a warrior woman known ironically as Pretty Meris; the Tattered Prince thinks Daenerys "may be more accepting of another woman." The Westerosi have been chosen for this mission because they speak Daenerys's language and worship her gods. They are to say that their motive is the wrongs they have suffered under the Tattered Prince. The Dornish contingent is to say they think he lied to them. "Every one of you has ample reason for wanting to abandon me. And Daenerys Targaryen knows that sellswords are a fickle lot." They are to leave immediately. 

11. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 276-305

Tyrion

Griff fished Tyrion out of the river, and Septa Lemore revived him. He awakes under a blanket smelling of vinegar, which Lemore claims helps prevent greyscale. Haldon gives him a knife and tells him to prick his toes and fingers; if he doesn't feel pain, he may have greyscale. He should also look for patches of grey skin: "If you see such signs," Haldon tells him, "do not hesitate. Better to lose a toe than a foot."

Tyrion passes the test, but Haldon tells him because he swallowed so much water he may be "turning to stone from inside out, starting with your heart and lungs." When they sit down to eat some broth, Tyrion notices that Haldon the table between them. But when Septa Lemore appears, she hugs him.

They have docked at the town of Selhorys, and Yandry and Ysilla have gone ashore for provisions. Young Griff, or rather Prince Aegon, has been told he has to remain on the Shy Maid for his own safety: Dothraki horsemen have been spotted as they sailed downriver from the Sorrows. They have also seen warships. Selhorys is on the eastern bank of the river, and therefore more vulnerable to Dothraki raiders.

Lemore is no longer dressed as a septa, and Tyrion wonders what she really is. She explains that the septa's robes identify her as from Westeros, and she doesn't want to attract too much attention. Tyrion invites the prince to play cyvasse, and gives him pointers on the game, telling him, "Your father knew the dangers of being overbold." Aegon asks if Tyrion knew Rhaegar, and Tyrion says he glimpsed him one or twice, but was only ten when he was killed. He comments that Lord Connington must have been a truly good friend of Rhaegar's to risk his life protecting his son, after Rhaegar's father confiscated Connington's lands and sent him into exile. If he hadn't done so, Connington "might have been on hand when my father sacked King's Landing, to save Prince Rhaegar's precious little son from getting his royal brains dashed out against a wall."

Aegon explains that he had been substituted for "some tanner's son from Pisswater Bend whose mother died birthing him." Varys had bought the baby from the tanner "for a jug of Arbor gold. He had other sons but had never tasted Arbor gold. Varys gave the Pisswater boy to my lady mother and carried me away." Tyrion knows the rest: that Varys smuggled the infant Aegon to Pentos and put him in custody of Illyrio, who then gave him to Connington to raise. He says the singers will love making songs about it if Daenerys agrees to take Aegon as her consort.

Aegon says, "She will. She must." But Tyrion cautions him that "must" isn't "a word queens like to hear." Daenerys, he says, "is the widow of a Dothraki khal, a mother dragons and sacker of cities, Aegon the Conqueror with teats. She may not prove as willing as you wish." Daenerys is strong and fierce, he says.

"Now, how do you suppose this queen will react when you turn up with your begging bowl in hand and say, 'Good morrow to you, Auntie. I am your nephew, Aegon, returned from the dead. I've been hiding on a poleboat all my life, but now I've washed the blue dye from my hair and I'd like a dragon, please ... and oh, did I mention, my claim to the Iron Throne is stronger than your own?'"

Aegon gets angry at Tyrion's words. "I have a gift for angering princes," Tyrion thinks, remembering Joffrey. Aegon says he trusts Lord Connington to help him claim Daenerys as his bride, but Tyrion warns him, "Trust no one, my prince." He suggests a different approach from the one Connington and his other advisers had been planning: "I would go west instead of east. Land in Dorne and raise my banners. The Seven Kingdoms will never be more ripe for conquest than they are right now." Tommen is a boy, the north is full of rival factions, the riverlands are in ruins, and winter is about to bring famine. "Westeros is torn and bleeding, and I do not doubt that even now my sweet sister is binding up the wounds ... with salt." Cersei is busily undoing all the alliances that Tywin had created.

He advises Aegon to land and gather all the disaffected lords to him, but to be quick about it. "Be certain you reach Westeros before my sister falls and someone more competent takes her place." Aegon objects that they need Daenerys and her dragons to win, but Tyrion explains that all he need to do is build up support "until Daenerys arrives to join her strength to yours." And she'll do that, he says, when she hears that he's alive and fighting to "reclaim the Iron Throne for House Targaryen, hard-pressed on every side.... You are the last of her line, and this Mother of Dragons, this Breaker of Chains, is above all a rescuer" who frees slaves. When she arrives in Westeros she will recognize him as her equal.

At this point, Tyrion moves a piece and announces that he has won the game. Aegon says he advised him against making the move that just won for Tyrion. "I lied," Tyrion says. "Trust no one. And keep your dragon close." Angrily, Aegon knocks over the board and commands Tyrion to pick up the pieces. Tyrion complies, thinking, "He may well be a Targaryen after all."

Yandry and Ysilla return to the boat with supplies and news: Daenerys is under siege in Meereen, and Volantis is going to join the war against her. When Griff hears this, he dispatches Haldon to gather more information, and Haldon takes Tyrion with him. As they move through the streets, a man grabs Tyrion around the neck and quickly rubs his head. Haldon, who speaks the language, asks the man why and tells Tyrion it's because rubbing a dwarf's head is good luck.

In the busy market square, a red priest is preaching, and Haldon listens to him. He tells Tyrion that the priest is calling for war, but on the side of Daenerys. The high priest of R'hllor, Benerro, has proclaimed Daenerys "the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy.... She is Azor Ahai returned." Tyrion thinks of Thoros of Myr, the only red priest he has known, and tells Haldon, "Give me priests who are fat and corrupt and cynical, ... the sort who like to sit on soft satin cushions, nibble sweetmeats, and diddle little boys. It's the ones who believe in gods who make the trouble."

Haldon takes Tyrion into an inn, where two men are playing cyvasse. He boasts, "My dwarf plays better cyvasse than both of you combined." Tyrion plays along, pointing out a bad move by one of the players. He's right, and the other player quickly wins. The winner then challenges Tyrion to a game. Haldon knows him as the customs officer in Selhorys, Qavo Nogarys.

As they are setting up their pieces, Haldon asks if there will be a war, and Qavo says that the Yunkai'i who call themselves the Wise Masters are preparing for it. They have gained the support of one of the triarchs in Volantis, Nyessos. Qavo says the stories are that Daenerys is a bloodthirsty monster, a sorceress who feeds babies to her dragons, and that she is sexually insatiable who possesses the souls of her lovers. Of course, her real sin is her attempt to end the slave trade. "The Old Blood cannot suffer that. Poor men hate her too. Even the vilest beggar stands higher than a slave. This dragon queen would rob him of that consolation."

Qavo says that although the priests of R'hllor are preaching against the attack on Daenerys, she will be greatly outnumbered, even with three dragons. Then he wins the game and takes Tyrion's silver. Outside, Tyrion persuades Haldon to let him find a whore, and Haldon agrees to wait for him in a tavern by the gate to the town. In the brothel he finds a woman and gets drunk. As he's coming down the stairs afterward, he loses his balance and falls, but he manages to turn the fall into a cartwheel, attracting attention from the patrons in the bar.

"'Imp,' a deep voice said, behind him." Tyrion sees a burly, hairy man with a whore on his lap at a table in a dark corner. Tyrion introduces himself as Hugor Hill, but the man knows who he is, and says he intends to deliver him to the queen. 

Daenerys

The Green Grace, Galazza Galare, comes to dine with Daenerys, attended by a dozen of the young priestesses, the White Graces. Galazza remarks on how tired Daenerys looks, and she admits that the attacks on the city are weighing on her. They talk about the hostages Daenerys has taken from the wealthy citizens of Meereen, two of whom are waiting on their table. Skahaz has been urging her to kill some of the children to deter the attacks of the Sons of the Harpy, but Daenerys has refused. The priestess approves of her mercy, and says it has earned her gratitude in the city.

Then the priestess gets to the point of her visit: She urges Daenerys to marry Hizdahr zo Loraq. He comes of distinguished ancestors, she says, which carries weight among the Meereenese. Their offspring will dispel her enemies. But Daenerys remembers the prophecy of Mirri Maz Duur, that she will remain barren until "the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, when the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves." Still, if a marriage could  stop the killing, it would be worth it.

The priestess has brought Hizdahr with her, so Daenerys summons him. He claims that their marriage would put an end to strife in the city, and when she asks why he would want to help her do that, says, "Is it so strange that I would want to protect my own people, as you protect your freedmen? Meereen cannot endure another war, Your Radiance." She observes that he has said nothing about loving her, and he asks, "What is love? Desire?" Who wouldn't desire a woman as beautiful as she? Besides, she has brought new life to Meereen, which was a crumbling city of desiccated old rulers before she arrived. "Custom and caution had an iron grip upon us till you awakened us with fire and blood. A new time has come, and new things are possible. Marry me."

She tells him to kiss her, but she feels nothing when he does. "I do not love you," she tells him. He says she may learn to do so, but she doubts it, especially when Daario is still around. Finally she proposes that if ninety days and nights pass without a murder, she will consider that he is "worthy of a throne." He accepts the challenge and tells her to have her seneschal prepare for a wedding on the ninety-first day. She remembers the warning: "Beware the perfumed seneschal," and wonders if Reznak is in cahoots with Hizdahr and has set a trap for her.

When he leaves, Barristan appears. She tries to get him to say whether he approves of the marriage, but he is distant and evasive on the subject. She tells him, "Marriage or carnage, those are my choices. A wedding or a war." But he proposes a third choice: Return to Westeros and take the Iron Throne. Marrying Hizdahr would be an obstacle to that.

"She wanted Westeros as much as he did, but first she must heal Meereen." Hizdahr may fail to bring about the peace, but when Barristan asks what she will do if he doesn't fail, she says she will do her duty. She asks if her brother Rhaegar married for love or duty, and he hesitates in his answer, finally saying that "the prince was very fond of" Elia. But he adds that there was no fondness in the marriage of her father and mother, "and the realm paid dearly for that." They married, he tells her, because of the prophecy of a woods witch that a prince "would be born of their line." This is news to Daenerys.

And now Barristan has more news: Daario Naharis has returned while she was meeting with the priestess. She tells him to send Daario to her "at once," dismisses him for the evening, and sends for Irri, Jhiqui, and Missandei to help her get ready for him. "She always felt a little foolish when she was with Daario. Gawky and girlish and slow-witted." They talk of his fighting and of the troubles in the city. He suggests bringing out her dragons, but she doesn't want to talk about them: "Farmers still came to her court with burned bones, complaining of missing sheep, though Drogon had not returned to the city." In their confinement, Viserion and Rhaegal are growing more restless, and one day they heated the iron doors to their pit red hot.

She tells him of the plan to marry Hizdahr, and of the ninety days she has given him to keep the peace. Daario says he'll take care of the problem in nine days by killing her enemies. She tells herself he is "Fickle, faithless, brutal. He will never be more than he is. He will never be the stuff of kings." She is shocked when he proposes staging a wedding and then murdering all the assembled guests from the Meereenese nobility. And when he says, "Most queens have no purpose but to warm some king's bed and pop out sons for him. If that's the sort of queen you mean to be, best marry Hizdahr."

She gets angry at his insolence and dismisses him, then calls for Barristan and says she wants the Stormcrows sent out into the field again. As for Daario, he is to report to Barristan. "Give him every honor that is due him and see that his men are well paid, but on no account admit him to my presence." But she is restless that night, filled with longing for Daario, but tormented by the idea of the "butcher queen" that he would like her to be.

But then she thought of Drogon far away, and the dragons in the pit. There is blood on my hands too, and on my heart. We are not so different, Daario and I. We are both monsters.

9. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 232-252

Tyrion

The Shy Maid is enveloped in a thick fog and is moving downstream cautiously through the stretch of the Rhoyne known as the Sorrows. Ysilla says the fog "stinks of sorcery," and Tyrion doesn't disagree. Haldon Halfmaester warns against even breathing the fog because of "Garin's Curse," which Tyrion scoffs at: "Garin's Curse is only greyscale," a calcification of the skin that usually afflicts children, such as Stannis's daughter. But there is a severer and fatal form of the disease, as well as a swift-acting version known as the grey plague.

They tell one another various creepy stories about the stone men and the Shrouded Lord, until something disturbs the surface of the river. Young Griff, who is wielding one of the poles to push the boat away from submerged obstacles, tells them "cheerfully" that it was only a turtle. (Martin seems to slip here: He refers to Young Griff as "the prince," anticipating the revelation that comes a few pages later.)  Tyrion briefly observes something: "A half-seen shape flapped by overhead, pale leathery wings beating at the fog." But it is gone before he can get a better look. Then they encounter a boat going upstream, and there is an exchange between Yandry and someone on the other boat about Volantis, which is preparing for war between rival factions.

Tyrion and Griff have been getting on each other's nerves: When Tyrion makes one wisecrack too many, Griff tells him to shut up. Tyrion, who still has the poisonous mushrooms he found at Illyrio's, is tempted to slip them into Griff's food, though he has noted that Griff seldom eats very much. They come upon the ruins of a vast castle that Tyrion recognizes from his reading as "The Palace of Love." Haldon says that was the Rhoynar name for it, "but for a thousand years this has been the Palace of Sorrow. Then Young Griff calls out that there is a light ahead, and as they grow nearer to it the light becomes three beacons.

Griff identifies it as "The Bridge of Dream." It is inhabited by "stone men," people afflicted with the mortal version of greyscale, which spreads from the extremities throughout the body, eventually causing blindness, madness, and, when it reaches the inner organs, death. Griff warns that the stone men are usually weak and harmless, but can become aggressive when madness sets in. "On no account let them touch you."

As they grow closer to the bridge, Griff orders Young Griff to take Septa Lemore to her cabin. Young Griff argues that he wants to stay, and points out that "Haldor is staying, and Ysilla. Even Hugor." Tyrion says, "I'm less than half of Haldon, and no one gives a mummer's fart whether I live or die." But then he adds, pointedly, "You, though ... you are everything," which angers Griff. The argument is interrupted by a wail that comes from the bridge, and they nearly crash into it.

Once they are clear, Young Griff grabs Tyrion's arm and asks what he means, "Why am I everything?" Tyrion replies that if Young Griff is lost, "this whole enterprise is undone, and all those years of feverish plotting by the cheesemonger and the eunuch will have been for naught ... isn't that so." Young Griff says to his supposed father, "He knows who I am." And Tyrion thinks, "If I did not know before, I would now."

Tyrion takes his torch and shines it in Young Griff's face for a better look. He says that anyone might wonder why the son of a sellsword need instruction in the faith from "a soiled septa" and lessons in history and languages from a failed maester. "I must admit, you have noble features for a dead boy." Tyrion says his father "wrapped your corpse in a crimson cloak and laid you down beside your sister at the foot of the Iron Throne, his gift to the new king." Young Griff is confused until Tyrion reveals that his father was Tywin Lannister.

"Men will tell you that I am a kingslayer, a kinslayer, and a liar, and all of that is true ... but then, we are a company of liars, are we not? Take your feigned father, Griff, is it?" The dwarf sniggered. "You should thank the gods that Varys the Spider is part of this plot of yours. Griff would not have fooled the cockless wonder for an instant, no more than it did me.... Who better to raise Prince Rhaegar's infant son than Prince Rhaegar's dear friend Jon Connington, once Lord of Griffin's Roost and Hand of the King?"

Griff, or Connington, tells him, "Be quiet."

But Tyrion is in the grip of something like déjà vu:  They seem to be sailing past places they have already passed. And when the light ahead turns into three lights again and the Bridge of Dream once again come into view, they all realizes something is wrong. The current takes them toward the bridge again, and Yandry shoves the boat away, through a curtain of moss that dangles from the bridge. Then there is a crash behind Tyrion and the boat tilts, almost throwing him into the river.

Two stone men have leaped to the boat, one landing on the roof of the cabin, the other near the tiller. Duck knocks one of them off the boat with his pole, and the stone man sinks. Griff drives the other back with a torch and his sword, and Duck and Haldon come to Griff's aid. Griff's sword cuts off the stone man's arm, and Yandry and Duck drive the creature overboard as they get clear of the bridge.

But then they see that a third stone man is on board. He reaches out of Young Griff, who freezes at the sight of him. Tyrion knocks the boy down, and jumps over him, thrusting his torch into the creature's face and driving him backward. They are at the edge of the deck when the stone man suddenly grabs the torch out of Tyrion's hand and throws it overboard. There is a cry behind him of "The prince! Protect the boy!" Tyrion's only option is to throw himself at the stone man, who falls backward from the deck into the river, taking Tyrion with him.

As he sinks, Tyrion thinks, "I'll haunt the Seven Kingdoms.... They would not love me living, so let them dread me dead."

Davos


Wyman Manderly has agreed to see him, but Davos has been under house arrest for several weeks before he finally is ushered into his presence in a crowded hall. "Gods be good, though Davos, when he saw Lord Wyman's face, this man looks half a corpse." He is also enormously fat.


Davos requests a private audience with Lord Wyman, but it is denied. "Stannis may have enemies in this hall," he says. "I do not." Davos points out the half-dozen Freys in the room: "Not even the men who slew your son?" One of the Freys steps forward and claims that the events at the Red Wedding have been misrepresented, that Robb Stark "changed into a beast before our eyes and tore out the throat of my cousin Jinglebell, a harmless simpleton. He would have slain my lord father too, if Ser Wendel had not put himself in the way."


Davos is astonished at the claim that Wendel Manderly was killed by Robb Stark, and when the man continues in his story to assert Robb's attendants all changed into wolves and attack the company, Davos asks his name. On learning it, he says, "Jared of House Frey, I name you liar." Ser Jared draws his sword, but Lord Wyman commands him to put it away.


The Lady Leona, Wyman's daughter-in-law, wife of the son held hostage at Harrenhal, urges him to send Davos away for fear of angering Cersei. Wyman assures her, "The Iron Thron shall have no cause to doubt us." But Davos has decided to be defiant, and calls Tommen "a usurper" and proclaims himself "the Hand of Stannis Baratheon, the First of His Name, the trueborn King of Westeros." Maester Theomore, who is in attendance on Lord Wyman, opines that Tommen, as "the issue of Robert's body," has prior claim over Stannis, to which Wyman assents. But Davos goes further, calling Tommen "bastard-born" and "sired by the Kingslayer, in defiance of all the laws of gods and men."

One of the Freys calls this "treason," and Ser Jared demands to meet Davos "on the field of honor." But Davos retorts, "What would a Frey know of honor?" sending the Frey contingent into fury until Wyman halts them. Lady Leona continues to proclaim that the Manderlys are loyal to the throne, and Davos realizes that she is afraid that the Lannisters will kill her husband if Lord Wyman declares for Stannis. He realizes the predicament that the Manderlys are in, but reminds Wyman of his fealty to the Starks: "Lord Stark has fallen, but his war goes on."

Lady Leona now plays the religion card, pointing out Stannis's conversion to Lady Melisandre's faith. Davos counters that most of Stannis's followers, himself included, still worship the Seven. Wyman then asks what Stannis offers in return for his support. Davos thinks, "War and woe and the screams of burning men," but speaks as the Hand of the king, not as himself: "The chance to do your duty." The answer doesn't carry much weight, and Ser Marlon Manderly, Wyman's cousin, and Maester Theomore advance their substantial objections. Finally, Wyman decides to put an end to the interview, and asks Davos if he has anything else to say: "I grow weary of your face."

Davos admits that supporting Stannis means that more will die, but he blames it on the Lannisters' theft of the throne. "What does Stannis offer you? Vengeance. Vengeance for my sons and yours, for your husbands and your fathers and your brothers. Vengeance for your murdered lord, your murdered king, your butchered princes. Vengeance!" And the speech earns an enthusiastic "Yes" from the young girl standing behind Wyman's throne. She urges Wyman to support Stannis because "They killed Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn and King Robb."

Her older sister urges Lady Wylla Manderly to keep quiet, and reminds her that she will be married to a Frey. But Wylla insists she won't, and asks Maester Theomore to remember the old fealty of the Manderlys to the Starks. Theomore says this was true, but "House Stark has been extinguished." Wylla retorts, "That's because they killed them all!" Rhaegar Frey speaks up to say that "loyalty is a virtue" and that he hopes Wylla "will be as loyal to Little Walder when you are joined in wedlock." And to add that the Starks have been "extinguished only in the male line," and that Arya Stark is on her way to marry Ramsay Bolton. Wylla retorts, "Ramsay Snow," but Rhaegar says that Ramsay will be Lord of Winterfell.

Wylla replies, "He won't ever be my lord! He made Lady Hornwood marry him, then shut her in a dungeon and made her eat her fingers." There are murmurs of agreement with Wylla in the hall. But Rhaegar persists, turning the blame back on Robb Stark: "He was a vile dog and died like one." There is quiet in the hall until Lord Wyman, who "was looking down at Rhaegar as if he were a roach in need of a hard heel," suddenly nods agreement. Rhaegar seems to have won the day, and only Wylla voices disagreement with his pronouncement that the Iron Throne is Tommen's by rights.

Then Wyman turns to Davos and pronounces him a traitor and a smuggler, "come to steal my gold and blood. You would take my son's head. I think I should take yours instead. Guards! Seize this man!" He orders Davos's head and hands brought to him before he dines. "I shall not be able to eat a bite until I see this smuggler's head upon a spike, with an onion shoved between his lying teeth."

7. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 179-202

Tyrion

Griff has cut off Tyrion's wine, and he is suffering "sweats and shakes" after drinking himself into a stupor on the ship, at Illyrio's, and on the overland journey. He has taken to sleeping on the roof of the Shy Maid's cabin because the air is fresher than below, and Duck snores. He would like to bathe in the river, but doesn't want Septa Lemore to see him naked. She, on the contrary, has no compunction about slipping out of her robes and slipping into the water before the boat gets under way for the day.

Tyrion watches her, of course, and he notices that she has stretch marks that indicate she has borne at least one child. When she comes back on board and dries off, she asks him if he has seen the big ridgeback turtle -- the Rhoyne is alive with all kinds of turtles. But he has missed it: he was watching her.

As the boat's owners, Yandry and Ysilla, get under way, Young Griff comes on deck, and Ysilla serves them breakfast. Afterward, Duck and Young Griff spar with blunted longswords, and Tyrion notices how skilled the handsome young man is becoming, especially when he lands a blow that knocks Duck overboard. When Tyrion laughs, Duck throws him over. But Tyrion can swim, and when when Young Griff extends a pole to allow him to climb on board, Tyrion turns a cartwheel as well. He says he learned how when he was performing with a mummer's troupe, but in fact his uncle had taught him when Tyrion was six or seven. Tywin put a stop to it, however: "The gods made you a dwarf. Must you be a fool as well? You were born a lion, not a monkey." Now Tyrion is glad for the opportunity to pretend to be a traveling entertainer, and Septa Lemore has helped refashion his clothes into suits of motley.

Duck has also told Tyrion to write down everything he knows about dragons, about which he had read a great deal. He also aids Haldon the Halfmaester with the lessons in languages, geometry, and history that Haldon is giving Young Griff. Tyrion listens as the boy recites something of the history of Volantis, particularly the two rival factions, the tigers and the elephants, that have competed to rule the city. Afterward, Tyrion plays cyvasse with Haldon, and observes, "Languages, history, songs, sums ... a heady stew for some sellsword's son." Tyrion continues to hint about his suspicions of the true identities of Griff and Young Griff by suggesting that he and Haldon play the game for secrets.

The river widens when the Noyne flows into it, and Tyrion realizes that they are passing the ruins of Ny Sar and Nymeria's palace. A giant turtle surfaces near the boat and lets out a loud bellow. Ysilla is thrilled, and calls it a blessing. Yandry tells him and the others that it is "The Old Man of the River." And Tyrion thinks, "Gods and wonders always appear, to attend the birth of kings."

Davos

He is sailing into White Harbor on an old boat called the Merry Midwife, disguised as a sailor. He notices that the banners flying from the New Castle include neither the Lannister lion nor the Stark direwolf, which gives him hope that Lord Wyman Manderly can be persuaded to Stannis's cause. But then he sees a warship called Lionstar, which is flying the arms of King Tommen. "The Freys were here, and he would need to face them."

The captain asks how long Davos will be in White Harbor, and tells him he will wait only three days. If it takes him longer, Davos tells him, he shouldn't wait. Davos makes his way into the city and is surprised at the crowds. A merchant tells him that they have taken refuge there: "With that Bastard o' Bolton running loose, they all want to be inside the walls." Davos also learns that Manderly is raising an army, but not whether it's because he intends to join forces with Bolton.

In a tavern he listens to the gossip, and learns that one of Manderly's sons, Ser Wylis, is still alive and a captive of the Freys. He also overhears gossip about dragons, and someone comes up with the name of Daenerys. Having heard enough, and feeling that his attempt to get Manderly to side with Stannis is futile, he goes outside, trying to decide whether to make his plea anyway. It is too late to return to the ship, so he climbs the hill and presents himself at the postern of the New Castle: "'I need to see Lord Manderly at once,' he said. 'My business is with him, and him alone.'"

5. A Dance With Dragons, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 112-147

Tyrion

Tyrion awakes to find luggage being unloaded and readied for transfer to the river part of his journey. He is introduced to Haldon, who is known as Halfmaester, and to Ser Rolly Duckfield, known as Duck. Illyrio calls Tyrion Yollo, but Tyrion knows that's a Pentoshi name, and it's clear he isn't from Pentos, so he says he's called Hugor Hill.

Leaving Illyrio behind, Tyrion and the two men ride cross-country. They ride all night, Tyrion seated in front of Duck on the horse, and reach the Rhoyne the following day. As they near the river they are hailed by a boy standing on the roof of the cabin of the Shy Maid, their riverboat. It is Young Griff, "a lithe and well-made youth, with a lanky build and a shock of dark blue hair. The dwarf put his age at fifteen, sixteen, or near enough to make no matter." Also on board are an older couple and "a handsome septa in a soft white robe."

But when Griff himself makes an appearance, Tyrion thinks, "This one will be trouble." Griff immediately demands an explanation for the dwarf's presence, and Haldon gives him a letter that Illyrio had sent. In the cabin, Griff reads the letter, which tells about Tyrion's killing Tywin. Tyrion notices that although Griff claims to be a sellsword, he can read, which most of the mercenaries can't. In response to Griff's surprise at Tywin Lannister's death, Tyrion says,

"Lord Tywin was sitting on a privy, so I put a crossbow bolt through his bowels to see if he really did shit gold. He didn't. A pity, I could have used some gold. I also slew my mother, somewhat earlier. Oh, and my nephew Joffrey, I poisoned him at his wedding feast and watched him choke to death.... I mean to add my brother and sister to the list before I'm done, if it please your queen." 

Griff asks why Daenerys "should welcome the service of a self-confessed kingslayer and betrayer," and Tyrion points out that the king he killed -- or rather, claims to have killed -- was sitting on her throne. He asks if he can see the letter, but Griff burns it instead.

Tyrion has already begun to figure out the true identity of Griff and Young Griff, but he only hints at his suspicions now. When Griff asks how he plans to serve Daenerys, Tyrion says he knows how Cersei thinks ("if you call it thinking"), that he understands how one can beat Jaime in battle, and that he is well-acquainted with the loyalties of Tommen's court. Griff tells him to hold his tongue, and Tyrion replies, "As you say, my lord." Griff replies that he isn't a lord, and Tyrion thinks, "Liar."

Griff agrees to take Tyrion as far as Volantis, and beyond if he proves "obedient and useful."

Davos

In the town of Sisterton, where he is seeking passage to White Harbor, Davos has been taken prisoner and is escorted to see Godric Borrell, Lord of Sweetsister. The fleet that Stannis dispatched has been wrecked and scattered by storms, enraging Salladhor Saan, whose fleet it was. Saan had sent Davos ashore in a small boat, then set out to regroup his fleet.

Godric brings Davos up to date on the news of Tywin Lannister's death, but refuses to let Davos send a raven to Stannis to inform him. "I'll not have it said that I gave Stannis aid and comfort." But he accepts Davos as a guest and has food brought for him. This pleases Davos, because "even robber lords and wreckers were bound by the ancient laws of hospitality." He is less pleased when Godric tells him that Lord Wyman Manderly, whom Stannis has dispatched Davos to see, tells him that Wyman intends to cast his lot with the Lannisters. A contingent of Freys is on their way to White Harbor to bring Lord Wyman the bones of his son, who was killed at the Red Wedding, in atonement. "Lord Wyman and Lord Walder have made a pact, and mean to seal it with a marriage."

White Harbor is essential to Stannis's plans: "If Winterfell was the heart of the north, White Harbor was its mouth." So Davos pleads for Godric's help in getting there to compete with the Freys. Godric is stubborn, so Davos begins to play on his doubts about the stability of Cersei's rule. "This child king will not prevail against" Stannis, Davos argues. Godric points out that Tommen has the wealth of Casterly Rock and the support of Highgarden and the Boltons and Freys, but he admits that "in this world only winter is certain. Ned Stark told my father that, here in this very hall."

At the beginning of Robert's Rebellion, with a price on his head, Lord Eddard had been on his way home but was shipwrecked. A fisherman's daughter rescued him. "They say he left her with a bag of silver and a bastard in her belly. Jon Snow, she named him, after Arryn." Ned had made it to Sisterton and met with Godric's father, who saved him from being captured and beheaded.

Jon

Jon has tried to persuade Stannis not to execute Mance Rayder because of the King-Beyond-the-Wall's knowledge of the lands north of the wall and of the people who remain there. But Stannis and Melisandre are unmoved, and now she is presiding over his burning. He is placed in a cage over "a deep pit filled with logs, leaves, and kindling." When he sees this, he pleads, "This is not right. I'm not the king, they --" but a rope around his neck chokes off the words. The queen's men also bring out the Horn of Joramun, which was supposed to destroy the Wall.

Melisandre proclaims to the gathering, which includes a thousand captives in the stockade, "If the Wall falls, night falls as well, the long night that never ends. It must not happen, will not happen! The Lord of Light has seen his children in their peril and sent a champion to them, Azor Ahai reborn." She gestures toward Stannis.

The horn is set afire, and in the cage Mance Rayder "screamed incoherently of treachery and witchery, denying his kingship, denying his people, denying all that he had ever been." The wood in the pit catches fire and Mance's "screams become one long, wordless shriek of fear and pain." Jon notices that Val doesn't betray any emotion or look away. He gives an order and his men shoot arrows into Mance, cutting short his agony. Stannis looks displeased.

Then Melisandre commands the watchers, "Your false king brought you only death, despair, defeat ... but here stands the true king. BEHOLD HIS GLORY!" Stannis draws his sword, Lightbringer, which glows like "the sun made steel." He promises "food, land, and justice" to those who bend the knee to him, and orders the gates of the stockade opened. Queen's men hand each of the wildlings as they approach the fire pit a piece of weirwood: "A piece of the old gods to feed the new," Jon thinks.

A few people flee back toward the woods, but most come forward. "Behind them was only cold and death. Ahead was hope." Sigorn, the new Magnar of Thenn, is the first to kneel before Stnnnis, then Rattleshirt, who, Jon thinks, is "A small, malicious, treacherous man, as stupid as he is cruel." Others follow, and a deputation of Night's Watch show them the way through the Wall. But Jon wonders whether they will stay loyal to Stannis when Tormund Giantsbane and his followers arrive. Ser Alliser Thorne mutters his disapproval of this union with the wildlings.

Melisandre leads a chant of "One realm, one god, one king!" but Jon notices that Val doesn't join in the chant. Neither do the Night's Watch, who are sworn not to take part in political matters. A few wildlings, including four giants, remain at the stockade, and then disappear into the forest, leaving only corpses, which Jon orders burned. Bowen Marsh asks Jon if he really thinks the wildlings "will keep faith," and Jon admits that some will and some won't. "We have seen the face of our real foe, a dead white face with bright blue eyes. The free folk have seen that face as well. Stannis is not wrong in this. We must make common cause with the wildlings." But Marsh worries about letting "tens of thousands of half-starved savages through the Wall."

Marsh also warns Jon that there has been talk that he is "too friendly with Lord Stannis." Jon knows what he's been called: "A rebel and a turncloak, aye, and a bastard and a warg as well." He tells Marsh that Stannis helped them when they needed it, but Marsh worries that Stannis is a rebel and that they may have found themselves on the losing side. Jon says he isn't choosing any side, but that Tywin Lannister's death has changed things. He remembers his meeting with Tyrion, who had called him a friend, and finds it "hard to believe the little man had it in him to murder his own sire." He leaves Marsh to supervise the burning and tells him he will think about what he has said.

In the dining hall, Jon finds his old friends, Pyp and Grenn and Toad, making fun of Melisandre and her rituals, but he scolds them, remembering, "A lord may love the men that he commands, he could hear his lord father saying, but he cannot be a friend to them. One day he may need to sit in judgment on them, or send them forth to die." He goes outside, where he sees Val walking the battlements of the tower she is held in, and thinks of the choice Stannis had offered him: to become Lord of Winterfell and to take Val as his wife. "Instead he had chosen a black cloak and a wall of ice. Instead he had chosen honor. A bastard's sort of honor."

Ghost appears, and Jon tastes the hot blood in the wolf's mouth, but reminds himself, "I am a man, not a wolf." He goes to see Aemon's steward, Clydas, who talks to him about the cowardice Mance Rayder had shown. He drinks a cup of wine with Clydas and talks about Stannis brandishing Lightbringer. He had read about Azor Ahai in the book Maester Aemon left him, The Jade Compendium, and remembers Azor Ahai fighting a monster with Lightbringer, which made the creature's blood boil "and its body burst into flame." He wishes he could see how Stannis's sword performs in battle.

He returns to his room with Ghost, and reads a letter Ser Denys Mallister had written from the Shadow Tower asking for more men. He writes to Ser Denys and to Cotter Pyke, telling them that he is sending his friends Halder and Toad to the Shadow Tower and Grenn and Pyp to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. "This is my lot, he realized as he undressed, from now until the end of my days."