17. A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 729-761

Bran

Ser Rodrik Cassel has returned to Winterfell to train more men, but Bran, who watches the training with Maester Luwin, is not impressed with the way things are going. And he is, of course, depressed by his inability to fight. So he tells the maester about the dream he has had: A crow with three eyes has flown into his bedroom and told him to go down into the crypt; there he met his father and talked with him. He had been particularly bothered by how sad his father seemed. That morning, he had asked Hodor to take him down to the crypts, but Hodor was frightened to go down into them.

Maester Luwin tries to reassure Bran that his father isn't in the crypts, and that he won't be for many years. He is a prisoner in King's Landing, he says, so he can't possibly be there. Bran insists that he wants to go see for himself, so Luwin asks Osha to carry Bran. Luwin goes, too, as does Summer. But at a certain point the wolf balks and will go no farther, even when Bran, in Osha's arms, continues. Bran tells Osha what he knows about the lords buried there, and mentions that his father's brother, Brandon, and sister, Lyanna, are there too, represented by statues even those are supposed to be reserved for lords only.

Art Parkinson as Rickon Stark

They reach the place reserved for Eddard Stark's tomb, which is where Bran had dreamed of seeing him. Luwin assures him that his father isn't there, but when he reaches inside the empty tomb, something springs out and sinks its teeth into Luwin's hand. Bran screams for Summer, who comes and attacks. The attacker turns out to be Shaggydog. Bran's little brother Rickon emerges from the tomb and calls off Shaggydog. 

"You let my father be," Rickon says to Luwin. Bran tells Rickon that their father isn't there, but Rickon insists that he is, that like Bran he saw him in his dreams. "He's coming home now, like he promised." Luwin is clearly puzzled that the two boys should have had the same dreams. And although he resists Bran's suggestion that he and Rickon and their wolves should go to the maester's tower to wait for their father's return, he finally gives in.

There Osha dresses Luwin's bite wounds, and the maester tells them about the legends of the children of the forest, the people of the Dawn Age before the arrival of the First Men. Luwin tells the boys that the children are all gone now, but Osha insists that they still exist north of the Wall. Luwin dismisses this notion as superstition, but as he continues with his story, suddenly first Summer and then Shaggydog start to howl. When the wolves stop howling, a raven arrives. It has dried blood on its wings.

Bran starts to shiver while Luwin reads the letter the bird has carried. "What is it?" he asks, holding Rickon tightly. Osha says, "You know what it is, boy." Luwin turns to them with tears in his eyes and says, "we shall need to find a stonecarver who knew his likeness well...."

Sansa

The torment of what she had witnessed has not left Sansa when Joffrey appears in her room and orders her to appear in court that afternoon. "If you won't rise and dress yourself, my Hound will do it for you," he tells her. Sandor Clegane picks her up from her bed and pushes her toward her wardrobe, though he does so "almost gently."

Sansa backed away from them. "I did as the queen asked, I wrote the letters, I wrote what she told me. You promised you'd be merciful. Please, let me go home. I won't do any treason, I'll be good, I swear it. I don't have traitor's blood, I don't. I only want to go home."

But Joffrey insists that his mother still wants her to marry him, so she has to stay. When she says she doesn't want to marry him because he chopped off her father's head, he replies, "I never promised to spare him, only that I'd be merciful, and I was. If he hadn't been your father, I would have had him torn or flayed, but I gave him a clean death." And when she says she hates him, he replies, "My mother tells me that it isn't fitting that a king should strike his wife," so he has Ser Merwyn Trant do it for him. When she recovers from the blow, she says she will do what he wants.

Bathed and dressed, she appears in the balcony for the court session in which Joffrey dispatches various pleas with arrogance and cruelty. When it's over she finds him waiting for her at the foot of the stairs. He orders her to walk with him. "I'll get you with child as soon as you're able," he tells her. "If the first one is stupid, I'll chop off your head and find a smarter wife."

When she sees that they are going to the battlements, she backs off and refuses to accompany him, but he bullies her into it. "He can make me look at the heads, she told herself, but he can't make me see them." When they reach her father's head, Joffrey orders Sandor Clegane to turn it so she can see the face. "The severed head had been dipped in tar to preserve it longer. Sansa looked at it calmly, not seeing it at all. It did not really look like Lord Eddard, she thought; it did not even look real."

Joffrey is disappointed at her lack of reaction, and takes her to see the other heads. There are two empty spikes that, he tells her, he is saving for Stannis and Renly Baratheon. Then he points out the head of Septa Mordane. To Sansa it doesn't even look like a woman. "Why did you kill her?" she asks, and he says she was a traitor. "Joffrey looked pouty; somehow she was upsetting him."

Then he says that Robb is a traitor too. "Your brother defeated my uncle Jaime. My mother says it was treachery and defeat. She wept when she heard." So he says for his name day he's going to raise and army and kill her brother. "That's what I'll give you, Lady Sansa. Your brother's head." She replies, "Maybe my brother will give me your head." So he has Ser Merwyn hit her again.

As they reach the edge of the parapet, she thinks of pushing him to his death seventy or eighty feet below. "It wouldn't even matter if she went over with him. It wouldn't matter at all." Then Sandor Clegane kneels before her, between her and Joffrey, and dabs at the blood from her split lip. "The moment was gone."

Daenerys

She dreams feverishly of dragons, of her brother Viserys, of Khal Drogo, of her brother Rhaegar. And when she awakes, they find her crawling toward the dragon's eggs. Ser Jorah takes her back to bed, and she struggles to get up again. Her maids and her guard Jhogo are there, and Mirri Maz Duur gives her something to drink that puts her to sleep again. She wakes again and asks for the dragon's eggs, then drifts off.

The third time she wakes, she is holding one of the eggs. She realizes that her fever has gone, and calls for water and dates to eat. She asks for Ser Jorah, and for a warm bath, and for Mirri Maz Duur. And then she remembers Khal Drogo. The maid Irri tells her, "The khal lives," but Daenerys senses that something is not right. Then she asks for her child, wondering why she hadn't thought of him until now. The terrified maid tells her that the baby died.

When Jorah and Mirri Maz Duur arrive, they find her standing over the other dragon eggs in the chest. She asks Jorah to touch one of the eggs and tell her what he feels. He says, "Shell, hard as rock.... Scales.... Cold stone." She seems to be the only one who feels the heat in them. Then she asks him about the child, and he is embarrassed and stammers, "They say the child was...." Finally Mirri Maz Duur completes the statement: "Monstrous." He was deformed and stank of the grave, she says, "He had been dead for years." Daenerys counters that he had been "alive and strong when Ser Jorah carried me into the tent." Mirri Maz Duur insists, "Death was in that tent, Khaleesi."

Ser Jorah had killed her son, Dany knew. He had done what he did for love and loyalty, yet he had carried her into a place no living man should go and fed her baby to the darkness. He knew it too; the grey face, the hollow eyes, the limp. "The shadows have touched you too, Ser Jorah," she told him. The knight made no reply. Dany turned to the godswife, "You warned me that only death could pay for life. I thought you meant the horse." 

Mirri Maz Duur replies, "That was a lie you told yourself." Daenerys asks to see Khal Drogo: "Show me what I have bought with my son's life." Outside she finds an abandoned camp, with only a few people too infirm to move with the khalasar, and the servants who have sworn loyalty. The weak and blind Khal Drogo is lying on the ground. "This is not life, for one who was as Drogo was," she tells Mirri Maz Duur, and demands, "When will he be as he was?"

"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east," said Mirri Maz Duur. "When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child. Then will he return, and not before." 

Daenerys tells Jorah and the others to leave her alone with Mirri Maz Duur. She turns on the woman in fury: "You knew what I was buying, and you knew the price, and yet you let me pay it." It was revenge for the destruction wrought on her people, she replies: "The stallion who mounts the world will burn no cities now. His khalasar shall trample no nations into dust." Daenerys says she saved the woman's life, but Mirri Maz Duur replies, "Look to your khal and see what life is worth, when all the rest is gone." Daenerys calls for her guards and has Mirri Maz Duur bound hand and foot.

She has Khal Drogo taken to her tent, where she bathes him, then she takes him outside, "for the Dothraki believed that all things of importance in a man's life must be done beneath the open sky." She does what she can to rouse him, "Yet Drogo did not feel, or speak, or rise." So she goes into tent for a soft silk cushion, "knelt, kissed Drogo on the lips, and pressed the cushion down over his face." 

16. A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 665-728

Daenerys

The Dothraki have won a battle against the Lhazareen, a sheepherding tribe whom the Dothraki detest: "The grass of the Dothraki sea was not made for sheep." Ser Jorah tells Daenerys that Drogo slew two khals in the fighting, and suffered only "A few cuts ... nothing of consequence."

Daenerys comes across a young girl being gang-raped by Dothraki, and tells Ser Jorah to make them stop, and orders her guards, Jhogo and Qaro, to help him: "I want no rape." They are baffled by the order, even Jorah, who tells her "This is how it has always been." But Daenerys insists, and when they call off the rapists, "The riders looked at her with cold black eyes. One spat. The others scattered to their mounts, muttering." Ser Jorah pulls the man who is in the act of raping the girl off of her, and when he draws a knife, Aggo kills him with an arrow through the throat. Daenerys tells Doreah to look after the girl. As they ride through the conquered town, they come across more women being raped, and each time Daenerys claims the woman as her slave.

They find Khal Drogo beside a pile of human heads. She is distressed to find that his wounds are more severe than Jorah had told her: He has an arrow through one arm, and "his left nipple was gone, and a flap of bloody flesh and skin dangled from his chest like a wet rag." He assures her it's only a scratch. Then a warrior rides up and complains that Daenerys "has taken his spoils, a daughter of the lambs who was his to mount." Drogo asks what she has done, and when she explains tells her, "These women are our slaves now, to do with as we please." So let them take the conquered women as wives, she says, which draws the scorn of Qotho, "the cruelest of the bloodriders":  "Does the horse breed with the sheep?" She retorts: "The dragon feeds on horse and sheep alike." Drogo smiles and rules in Daenerys's favor, but when he reaches out for her he grimaces in pain.

She calls for the healers, but is told that they have been sent to tend to wounded riders. Drogo insists that the wounds aren't serious, but she can see for herself, and tells Jhogo to find the eunuchs who tend to the wounded. Then one of the women she has saved from being raped speaks up and says she can tend to him. But Qotho protests, "The khal needs no help from women who lie with sheep," and tells Aggo to cut out her tongue. Daenerys intervenes, and asks the women's name. She is Mirri Maz Duir, she says. Haggo calls her a maegi, "a woman who lay with demons and practiced the blackest of sorceries." She insists that she's a healer, and claims that she had been trained by a maester from the Seven Kingdoms.

Mia Soteriou as Mirri Maz Duur

Drogo agrees to let her remove the arrow and sew up the wound, and they go to the temple of the Lhazareen. She removes the arrow and stitches the wound after applying ointments, then covers the wound with a poultice of leaves and binds it with lambskin. She tells Drogo to say the prayers she gives him for ten days and ten nights, and that "There will be fever, and itching, and a great scar when the healing is done."

Daenerys asks Mirri Maz Duur to tend to her when she is ready to deliver.

Tyrion

Tywin informs Tyrion that Robb has succeeded in coming to terms with Frey and that his army is no more than a day away from them. Moreover, he has decided to put Tyrion and his force of mountain men in the vanguard when the armies come to battle. "Either his lord father had a new respect for Tyrion's abilities, or he'd decided to rid himself of his embarrassing get for good. Tyrion had the gloomy feeling he knew which." But he decides to face the music and say, "I'll lead your van."

His father says he isn't giving Tyrion command of his forces. Gregor Clegane will lead them. Tyrion leaves in anger and goes to his tent where Bronn has found a girl for him, "slim, dark-haired, no more than eighteen by the look of her." She says her name is Shae.

It had been nigh on a year since he'd lain with a woman, since before he had set out for Winterfell in company with his brother and King Robert. He could well die on the morrow or the day after, and if he did, he would sooner go to his grave thinking of Shae than of his lord father, Lysa Arryn, or the Lady Catelyn Stark. 

Sibel Kekilli as Shae

After she falls asleep, Tyrion goes outside and sees Bronn, who tells him he took Shae from a knight, who didn't want to give her up but was persuaded by Tyrion's name and Bronn's dirk at his throat. "I seem too recall saying find me a whore, not make me an enemy," Tyrion says, telling Bronn he hopes the knight isn't next to him in the battle. Bronn says he'll be next to him in the battle, and Tyrion says, "See that I survive this battle, and you can name your reward." He returns to the tent where Shae sees to it that he goes to sleep smiling.

He is awakened by the sound of trumpets and Shae shaking him. As he is struggling into his armor, Bronn appears and says that Robb's army surprised them by moving down the kingsroad at night and are less than a mile away. When he is armored, Shae says, "M'lord looks fearsome." He replies, "M'lord looks like a dwarf in mismatched armor," but he thanks her. When he hears the sound of the enemy's drums, he thinks about the last time he saw Robb, at Winterfell, and remembers "how the direwolves had come at him out of the shadows." He wonders if Robb brought them to war. "The thought made him uneasy."

Ser Gregor is mounted on the biggest horse he had ever seen, and Bronn says, "Always follow a big man into battle.... They make such splendid targets." Ser Gregor orders him to take the left and hold the river. "The left of the left. To turn their flank, the Starks would need horses that could run on water." He orders his clansmen to protect the river, and they raise a cry of "Halfman!" in his honor. He looks at his soldiers and compares the disorganized rabble to the "mailed fist of knights and heavy lancers" on the right flank. "'Crow food,' Bronn muttered." Robb's army appears over the hilltop, and the battle begins.

Tyrion leads his clansmen into the battle, but they soon charge past him, leaving him in their dust. He sees Ser Gregor's horse cut out from under him, but the Mountain is on his feet, wielding his greatsword. Shagga and the other clansmen fight viciously, but Tyrion is soon surrounded by the enemy. A spear lodges in his shield, and Tyrion hacks at the man's shield with his axe, then leaves him and pursues another man, whom he cuts down from behind. He feels the shock of impact in his arm. He is attacked by another man and leaves him dead. He receives a blow in the elbow that fills him with pain, and then is knocked from his horse. The knight asks him if he yields. Tyrion has no weapon, but when the horse the man is riding rears, he charges headfirst at the animal, piercing its belly with the spike on his helmet. The knight is trapped underneath the horse, with his arm twisted. He yields, and gives Tyrion his sword.

Bronn rides up and observes that the spike on Tyrion's helmet is missing. "I haven't lost it," Tyrion says. "I know just where it is." They go in search of Tyrion's horse, and when they find it the watch Tywin and his knights ride by. They find many of the clansmen dead and Shagga riddled with arrows, but not dead. Chella daughter of Cheyk rides up and shows them the four ears she had cut off of men. "Of the three hundred clansmen who had ridden to battle behind Tyrion Lannister, perhaps half had survived."

Leaving Bronn in charge of the knight he has captured, Tyrion goes to see his father. His uncle says, "Your wild men fought well." But Tyrion is more interested in his father's reaction: "'Did that surprise you, Father?' he asked. 'Did it upset your plans? We were supposed to be butchered, were we not?'" Tywin says that he put the "least disciplined" on the left with Tyrion to set a trap for Robb, "a green boy, more like to be brave than wise." The assumption was that if the left collapsed, they'd put their forces there and Ser Kevan's forces would wheel and trap them there. Tyrion says that he didn't inform him of this plan, and Tywin replies, "I am not inclined to trust my plans to a man who consorts with sellswords and savages."

His savages ruined the plan, Tyrion observes, but Tywin says, "a victory is a victory." He observes that Tyrion is wounded, but as Tyrion is asking for medical help, "Unless you relish the notion of having a one-armed dwarf for a son...." they are interrupted by the arrival of Ser Addam Marbrand, who brings the news that they have taken some of Robb's commanders, but that Robb has eluded them: "They say he crossed at the Twins with the great part of his horse, riding hard for Riverrun." Robb has outsmarted them. Tyrion "would have laughed, if he hadn't hurt so much."

Catelyn

Catelyn waits anxiously for news from the battle, sounds of which she can hear in the distance, and once she sees Jaime Lannister leading his troops. She even hears Robb's voice shouting, "To me! To me!" But then it grows silent until dawn, when she hears Grey Wolf howl.

Finally Robb appears, riding a different horse from the one he had set out on. His shield has been hacked and gouged, but he seems unharmed. And then a mob of men appears, led by Theon and the Greatjon, who are dragging Jaime Lannister between them. They throw him down in front of her, and he says, "I would offer you my sword, but I seem to have mislaid it."  It's not his sword she wants, she tells him, but her father, her brother, her daughters, and her husband.

Theon urges Robb to kill Jaime, but Robb says, "He's more use alive than dead." Catelyn tells them to put him in irons. Then she tells Robb, "You may have lopped the head off the snake, but three quarters of the body is still coiled around my father's castle. We have won a battle, not a war." Theon exults in the battle anyway, but Catelyn points out that they haven't taken Lord Tywin. "Until you do, this war is far from done."

Daenerys

Khal Drogo has grown worse: The burning and itching from the poultice Mirri Maz Duur had applied to his wound bothered him so much that he ripped it off. Finally, he falls from his horse, and Daenerys calls a halt to their march. Drogo's bloodriders resist her order, but she stands firm and calls for Mirri Maz Duur to tend to Drogo.

A tent is erected for Drogo, and Daenerys begins to face the truth of the situation: "A khal who could not ride could not rule, and Drogo had fallen from his horse." Ser Jorah confirms what she fears: "Your khal is good as dead, Princess." But Daenerys stubbornly refuses to admit defeat. Jorah urges her to leave before he dies: Even though she is carrying Drogo's child, the Dothraki will not follow a woman or an infant, and there will be a struggle for leadership. The winner will kill the baby: "Better to kill the child than to risk his fury when he grows to manhood." Drogo's bloodriders will take her to the crones, the widows of the other khals, and they will die with Drogo.

Daenery's continues to resist Jorah's advice, and when Mirri Maz Duur arrives, she sets her to work on a cure. Qotho protests, and threatens to kill Daenerys, but Jorah draws his sword to protect her: "The princess is still your khaleesi." Only while Drogo is alive, Qotho says. "When he dies, she is nothing." Qotho and his fellow bloodrider leave the tent, and Daenerys tells Jorah to put on his armor and keep watch.

After they leave, Mirri Maz Duur tells Daenerys that Drogo is "beyond a healer's skills," and that by removing the poultice he prevented it from healing him. He will be dead by morning. Daenerys pleads with her: Is there anything, some magic, that could save him? Mirri Maz Duur says there is "bloodmagic" that could work: "Only death may pay for life." Daenerys orders her to do it.

Mirri Maz Duur commands Drogo's horse to be brought to her, and she slits its throat, letting the blood spill into the bath where Drogo has been placed. She orders everyone, including Daenerys, to leave the tent: "Once I begin to sing, no one must enter the tent. My song will wake powers old and dark. The dead will dance here this night. No living man must look on them."

Outside, Daenerys waits with Jorah, who is angry with her. On the curtain walls of the tent they see shadows of figures dancing with Mirri Maz Duur inside. The Dothraki are frightened, and Cohollo, the bloodrider who had always been kind to Daenerys, spits in her face. Qotho heads for the tent, and Jorah tries to prevent him from entering. He is wounded, but finally kills Qotho. Daenerys's guards kill Haggo and Cohollo.

A stone thrown by someone in the crowd strikes Daenerys in the shoulder, but as the crowd begins to leave, she feels the pangs of labor begin. Jorah comes to her and shouts for her maids to fetch a midwife. "They will not come," he is told. "They say she is accursed." The maids tell Jorah that Mirri Maz Duur knows how to tend to childbirth. Daenerys tries to tell Jorah not to take her into the tent, but she's unable to speak, and he carries her in.

Arya

Dirty and ragged, Arya has taken to the streets of King's Landing to survive, snaring pigeons and taking them to the "pot-shops," a kind of soup kitchen. The pastries on a pushcart tempt her, but its owner warns her, "The gold cloaks know how to deal with thieving little gutter rats, that they do."

She has kept her distance from the castle, but rumors on the street have made her aware that all may not be well for her father. She knows that King Robert is dead, but not much else for sure. And though she has tried to leave the city, all the gates are carefully guarded: No one is being allowed to leave.

Her clothes and the silver bracelet she had hoped to sell were all stolen from her. She still has her wooden practice sword and Needle. At the wharf she has discovered that the ship she and Sansa were supposed to leave on is still there. She sees guardsmen wearing the colors of Winterfell and the Starks, but she takes a closer look and recognizes that they are strangers -- she is familiar with all of her father's men.

Bells begin to ring out and people start to hurry as they hear the sound. It's a "summoning" bell, someone says, and she catches up with a boy who tells her the gold cloaks are taking the Hand to the sept: "They'll be taking his head off." Four guardsmen that she recognizes ride past, and someone else says, "--the King's Hand, Lord Stark. They're carrying him up to Baelor's Sept." Arya is swept along by the crowd, and when she reaches the throng in front of the temple she looks for a way to see over the crowd. Finally she climbs up onto the plinth that supports the statue of Baelor the Blessed.

Lord Eddard stood on the High Septon's pulpit outside the doors of the sept, supported between two of the gold cloaks.... He was not standing so much as being held up; the cast over his leg was grey and rotten.... Clustered around the doors of the sept, in front of the raised marble pulpit, were a knot of knights and high lords. Joffrey was prominent among them.... His queen mother stood beside him in a black mourning gown slashed with crimson, a veil of black diamonds in her hair. Arya recognized the Hound, wearing a snowy white cloak over his dark grey armor, with four of the Kingsguard around him.... And there in the midst was Sansa.... Arya scowled, wondering what her sister was doing here, why she looked so happy. 

Her father begins to speak: "I come before you to confess my treason in the sight of gods and men." He goes on to proclaim Joffrey as "the one true heir to the Iron Throne, and by the grace of all the gods, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm." A stone comes out of the crowd and hits him in the face.

The High Septon acknowledges Ned's confession, and then asks Joffrey what is to be done with the traitor. Joffrey begins, "My mother bids me let Lord Eddard take the black, and Lady Sansa has begged mercy for her father." He looks at Sansa and smiles, then continues, "But they have the soft hearts of women. So long as I am your king, treason shall never go unpunished. Ser Ilyn, bring me his head!"

Sansa falls to her knees, screaming, as Ser Ilyn Payne comes forward with a sword. Arya leaps into the crowd and draws Needle. She sees Ser Ilyn raise the sword and recognizes it as Ice, her father's own sword. Then a hand reaches out and grabs her. She drops Needle, and a voice snarls, "Don't look!" He makes her look at him, and calls her "boy" several times. Then she recognizes him as Yoren, the member of the Night's Watch who had visited her father. He hands her Needle, then carries her away.

14. A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 583-627

Daenerys

Khal Drogo and Daenerys are arguing over her desire to return to the Seven Kingdoms and regain the Iron Throne for the Targaryens. Like most Dothraki, he hates the sea, and when she says, "It was prophesied that the stallion [who mounts the world] will ride to the ends of the earth," he replies, "The earth ends at the black salt sea.... No horse can cross the poison water." She argues that ships can carry them across, but to no avail. Telling her he doesn't want to hear any more about "wooden horses and iron chairs," he goes off hunting.

She calls for Ser Jorah and asks for his help in persuading Drogo, but he knows how stubborn the khal can be. He counsels patience: "Do not make your brother's mistake. We will go home. I promise you." To cheer her up, he proposes that they go to the Western Market to see if Illyrio has sent any letters. When they arrive, he leaves her to explore the market while he meets with the captain who delivers Illyrio's messages.

Elyes Gobel as Jhogo.

After wandering for most of the morning, she and her retinue come across a wine merchant, who offers her a taste of her a taste of his wine. When he discovers her identity, he presents her a cask of a special wine. But as she is about to have the cask sent back to the litter on which she has been traveling, Ser Jorah suddenly appears and orders the wineseller to open the cask. When the merchant refuses, Jorah threatens him and the man gives in, opens the cask and pours a cup of it. "You taste it first," Jorah orders the merchant. When he refuses, Daenerys says, "You will drink." The merchant throws the cask at her and runs away, but her guard, Jhogo, lashes out with his whip and captures the merchant. Jorah explains that he didn't know the wine was poisoned until the merchant refused to drink, but Illyrio's letter had warned him the the king has put a price on her head.

When they return home, Daenerys tells Jorah to light a brazier, and when it's hot she takes one of the dragon's eggs and places it in the coals. She waits until the fire has burned down, disappointed that nothing has happened. "A thousand thousand years ago they had been alive, but now they were only pretty rocks. They could not make a dragon. A dragon was air and fire. Living flesh, not dead stone."

When Khal Drogo returns from the hunt, Daenerys tells him about the threat to her life. Drogo rewards Jorah with a horse, and tells Daenerys that he will see to it that their son sits on "this iron chair his mother's father sat in. I will give him Seven Kingdoms." Two days later, the khalasar leaves'; the wineseller, naked and on foot, is chained behind Daenerys's horse for as long as he can keep up the pace.

Catelyn

My son is leading a host to war, she thought, still only half believing it. She was desperately afraid for him, and for Winterfell, yet she could not deny feeling a certain pride as well.

Accompanied by her uncle, Brynden Tully, aka the Blackfish, Catelyn arrives at the army's encampment at the ruins of Moat Cailin, once a stronghold of the First Men. She finds Robb meeting with his generals, including the Greatjon. He calls out to her as she enters, but she tries to restrain herself in front of his men. They pay their respects to her, and she explains that when her ship landed she had heard of the war and came directly to his camp. She sent Ser Rodrik to Winterfell to aid Maester Luwin.

When someone asks about Tyrion, she says, "The gods saw fit to free him, with some help from my fool of a sister." Left alone with Robb, she asks why, at fifteen, he is leading an army when there are older and more experienced men to do so. He replies, "They are not Starks." Then he asks if she is sending him back to Winterfell, and she admits that she can't do that now. He asks if she has heard about Ned, and she says yes, then asks about his sisters. He gives her the letter that Sansa had sent, and when she reads it she says, "This is Cersei's letter, not your sister's." He points out that she doesn't mention Arya. "Catelyn did not want to think what that might mean, not now, not here."

He confesses that he is afraid of what the Lannisters will do to Sansa and his father. She says that they want him to think their lives are in danger.

"What I do know is that you have no choice. If you go to King's Landing and swear fealty, you will never be allowed to leave. If you turn your tail and retreat to Winterfell, your lords will lose all respect for you. Some may even go over to the Lannisters. Then the queen, with that much less to fear, can do as she likes with her prisoners. Our best hope, our only true hope, is that you can defeat the foe in the field."

He tells her that the men his father had sent to deal with Gregor Clegane had been defeated soundly. "Lord Tywin has closed off the kingsroad, it's said, and now he's marching north toward Harrenhal, burning as he goes." Now, he says, they have to march south to confront him. But he's not sure what to do. She tells him that he has to be certain, "or go home and take up that wooden sword again.... Make no mistake, Robb -- these are your bannermen, not your friends. You named yourself battle commander. Command."

So he goes to the map and shows her the strategy he has planned. She's impressed -- "Ned taught him well." He will command the cavalry, which also reminds her of his father: "Ned would always take the more dangerous task himself." As for the other forces, she tells him that he wants someone with "cold cunning," and he decides on Roose Bolton because he "scares me."

When he offers to give her an escort back to Winterfell, she tells him she's not going. "My father may be dying behind the walls of Riverrun. My brother is surrounded by foes. I must go to them."

Tyrion

Tyrion, Bronn, and the host of mountain clansmen have arrived at the crossroads. A scout has reported that the Lannister army is there, twenty thousand strong. When Tyrion shows himself to one of the captains, Ser Flement Brax, he is greeted with astonishment, not only that he is still alive, but that he's apparently followed by a horde of brigands. He asks where his father is, and is directed to the very inn where Catelyn took him prisoner.

He finds his father in the common room with his uncle, Ser Kevan Lannister, Tywin's only surviving brother. "Whenever his father's eyes were on him, he became uncomfortably aware of all his deformities and shortcomings." And his father remains true to form, commenting, "Your brother Jaime would never have meekly submitted to capture at the hands of a woman."

Kevan and Tywin fill him in on the progress of the war, including the capture of Catelyn's brother, Edmure, and the siege of Riverrun, where her father is dying. Tywin assures him, "Unless the Starks and the Arryns come forth to oppose us, this war is as good as won." Tyrion says he has nothing to fear from the Arryns, but the Starks are another matter. But Tywin assures him that 'The Stark boy is a child."

Tyrion is surprised by the news of Robert Baratheon's death and the ascension to the throne of Joffrey. He thinks, "The realm would be a much different place with Cersei ruling in place of her husband." Tywin offers him a command if he wants it, and as Tyrion is telling him that he needs weapons for his army of brigands, Shagga and the other clansmen burst into the common room, followed by Bronn.

"They followed me home, Father," Tyrion explained. "May I keep them? They don't eat much." 

(An irresistible joke, but one that seems a little too modern for the context.) Tywin keeps his composure and asks Tyrion to "acquaint us with our ... honored guests." Tyrion does the introductions, which include describing Shagga as "the one who looks like Casterly Rock with hair." Tywin greets them with dignity, "Even in the west, we know the prowess of the warrior clans of the Mountains of the Moon," but just as he's getting to the matter of what they want, he's interrupted by a messenger saying that "the Stark host is moving down the causeway."

This pleases Tywin. "The sooner the Starks are broken, the sooner I shall be free to deal with Stannis Baratheon." He asks the clansmen to join him and he will see to it that they are rewarded. But Ulf son of Umar asks, "Why should we need the father's promise when we have the son's." Tywin suavely replies that they don't need to join his forces, but adds, "The men of the winterlands are made of iron and ice, and even my boldest knights fear to face them." Tyrion is impressed with his father's challenge to the clansmen, and sure enough they take him up on it. But he's less happy with their insistence that he join them: "He has bought his breath with promises. Until we hold the steel he has pledged us, his life is ours."

Sansa

Joffrey is holding his first court session and Sansa is attending. But no one wants to be associated with the traitor's daughter, so they don't acknowledge her greetings to them, and she is surprised at how many people she knew are missing. But she tells herself that Joffrey and the queen love her, so it will all be okay. One of the first things Joffrey orders is for Pycelle to read the list of people who are expected to swear fealty to him or being considered traitors. At the end of the long list come the names of her family. When she hears Arya's name she thinks "it must mean her sister had fled on the galley, she must be safe at Winterfell by now."

Tywin Lannister is appointed Hand, and Cersei is named to the small council. Janos Slynt, the commander of the City Watch, is made a lord and given "the ancient seat of Harrenhal," and is named to the small council as well. There is a buzz of anger at this from other lords as the commoner is elevated to the honor.

Dominic Carter as Janos Slynt

And in a final shocker, Barristan Selmy is removed as the commander of the Kingsguard, a position that has traditionally been an appointment for life. Joffrey says, "You let my father die.... You're too old to protect anybody." Cersei speaks up to say that Jaime Lannister will take his position. Barristan is outraged: "The false knight who profaned his blade with the king he had sworn to defend." He refuses the offer of land from Tywin Lannister, removes his cloak and breastplate, and take out his sword and throws it at the foot of the throne, then departs. After he has left Joffrey orders him seized, and Janos Slynt says he will take care of it.

Then Joffrey has his mother make the announcement that "The king and council have determined that no man in the Seven Kingdoms is more fit to guard and protect His Grace than his sworn shield, Sandor Clegane." The Hound accepts, but refuses to take vows as a knight.

When the herald asks anyone who has business before the king to step forward, Sansa nervously makes her move. Joffrey smiles at her, which reassures her: "He does love me, he does." So she comes forward to the foot of the throne and asks mercy for her father. The queen says she is disappointed "What did I tell you about traitor's blood?" Grand Maester Pycelle says that her father "has committed grave and terrible crimes." Varys comments that she's "only a babe" and doesn't know what she's doing. But Joffrey tells them to let her speak.

She goes on to say that her father loved King Robert and didn't want to be the Hand, and that somebody must have lied to him. Joffrey says, "He said I wasn't the king. Why did he say that?" Sansa says that his broken leg must have been hurting him so much, and that Maester Pycelle was giving him milk of the poppy, which must have clouded his mind. Joffrey turns to his mother, who says, "If Lord Eddard were to confess his crime, ... we would know he had repented his folly."

Joffrey stands up and asks if she has any more to say, so Sansa pleads, "as you love me, you do me this kindness, my prince." Joffrey says her words have moved him, but, "He has to confess and say that I'm the king, or there will be no mercy for him." Sansa assures him that her father will do that.

11. A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 462-500

Eddard

In the king's absence it is Ned's duty, as the Hand, to sit on the extremely uncomfortable and even dangerous Iron Throne, "an ironwork monstrosity of spikes and jagged edges and grotesquely twisted metal." It was "a chair that could kill a man, and had, if the stories could be believed." He is attended by Grand Maester Pycelle, Varys, and Littlefinger, and he is listening to a group of villagers who say they were set upon by Lannister men who raped and murdered, and destroyed their villages, crops, and livestock.

The west had been a tinderbox since Catelyn had seized Tyrion Lannister. Both Riverrun and Casterly Rock had called their banners, and armies were massing in the pass below the Golden Tooth. 

The men who attacked the villages wore no insignia on their armor, however, so they can't be positively identified as Lannisters, but one man testifies that their leader was gigantic: "Big as an ox he was, and a voice like stone breaking." The description fits Gregor Clegane, who "stood bannerman to Lord Tywin Lannister."

As Ned ponders this revelation, he notices that Sansa is in the gallery with Septa Mordane, and is angry that she has come here to listen to such evidence. He hears that Edmure Tully, Catelyn's brother, is planning retaliation, and realizes that Edmure may be falling into a trap set by Tywin Lannister to divide the forces against him. Lord Hoster Tully, the father of Edmure and Catelyn, has held his off by sending this delegation to the king. Ned is grateful for this: "Should Riverrun strike back, Cersei and her father would insist that it had been the Tullys who broke the king's peace, not the Lannisters."

When he decides that he must send men to confront Gregor Clegane, the Knight of Flowers steps forth. "Out of his armor, Ser Loras Tyrell looked even younger than his sixteen years." He volunteers to fight Clegane, but Ned chooses four other men, and sends them, each with twenty of his men plus twenty of his own guards. And he issues a proclamation in the king's name, charging them to "bring the king's justice to the false knight Gregor Clegane, and to all those who shared in his crimes," and pronouncing his death sentence. When Tyrell protests at not being included, Ned says, "No one doubts your valor, Ser Loras, but we are about justice here, and what you seek is vengeance."

Afterward, Varys suggests that "a man who has the Lannisters for his enemies would do well to make the Tyrells his friends," and that Ned may have made an enemy by not sending Ser Ilyn Payne, the king's executioner. Ned observes that the Paynes are bannermen to the Lannisters: "I thought it best to choose men who owed Lord Tywin no fealty." But Varys says he had noticed the expression on Ser Ilyn's face, and "he did not look pleased."

Sansa

Ned's decision not to send Ser Loras sparks discussion even between Sansa and her friend Jeyne Poole, but Sansa's mind is mostly on her betrothed, Prince Joffrey, who is off on the hunt with the king. And at the breakfast table the next morning she gets in a fight with Arya that ends with Arya throwing an orange at her and Septa Mordane sending them both to their rooms.

Later in the day Ned summons both of them to his room, where he is reading the book on the genealogy of families. He tells them that he is sending them to Winterfell immediately. They both protest, Sansa because of her betrothal and Arya because of her lessons with Syrio Forel. Ned tells Sansa, "This match with Joffrey was a terrible mistake," causing her to protest bitterly. "I'll give him a son with golden hair," she says, who'll be "as brave as the wolf and as proud as the lion," the emblems of the Stark and the Lannister families. Arya chimes in, "Not if Joffrey's his father.... He's a liar and a craven and anyhow he's a stag, not a lion." The stag is the emblem of the Baratheons, which causes Sansa to scream at her sister, "He is not! He's not the least bit like that old drunken king."

That comment causes Ned to look at her and mutter, "out of the mouths of babes...." But he tells them that he's sending them back by sea, and that if Syrio Forel agrees, he can go with them. He warns them to say nothing about this to anyone. Sansa returns to her room furious.

Eddard

Grand Maester Pycelle tells Ned that Tywin Lannister is angry about the party sent to deal with Gregor Clegane, but Ned dismisses this news and returns to his thoughts.

Someday, when Sansa was grown, he would have to tell her how she had made it all come clear for him. He's not the least bit like that old drunken king, she had declared, angry and unknown, and the simple truth of it had twisted inside him, cold as death. This was the sword that killed Jon Arryn, Ned thought then, and it will kill Robert as well, a slower death but full as certain.

Littlefinger enters with news that mercenaries are hurrying to the employ of Tywin Lannister, which is not unexpected. Ned asks for news of the king, and Littlefinger tells him that the white hart they were hunting had been found killed by wolves, but that Robert had heard about a giant boar deeper in the woods and had gone in pursuit of it. The Hound and Prince Joffrey had returned to the palace. On his way out, Littlefield notices the genealogy book and comments on it. Ned thinks about telling him what he has discovered in it, but he just comments that "Jon Arryn was studying this volume when he was taken sick."

Ned is saving his discovery for the king's return. He worries about the king's vengeance and thinks that "He must find some way to save the children.... He will kill them all, Ned realized." He summons Tomard, the head of the household guard now that Jory is dead and Alyn has gone on the expedition against Gregor Clegane. Tomard is "portly," and Ned's children call him Fat Tom, which makes Ned uneasy. He tells Tomard to double the guard on the Tower of the Hand, and to take him to the godswood, the place of worship set aside for those like Ned who still practice the old religion. There, he gives Tomard a message to take to Cersei Lannister.

It is sunset when Cersei arrives, and he tells her, "I know the truth Jon Arryn died for."

He touches the bruise on her face and asks if Robert had ever done that to her before. She says he has never hit her on the face before, or "Jaime would have killed him... My brother is worth a hundred of your friend." He replies, "Your brother? ... Or your lover?" She calmly replies, "Both." She is candid about their relationship, pointing out that "The Targaryens wed brother to sister for three hundred years, to keep the bloodlines pure."

He asks about Bran, and she admits, "He saw us." And all three of her children, she says, are Jaime's. Ned now realizes the significance of what Jon Arryn said his deathbed: "The seed is strong." In the genealogy he had read that all of the Baratheons had black hair, and that even when a Lannister male married a Baratheon woman, all of their four children had black hair. All of the bastards Ned had been able to track down had black hair.  "No matter how far back Ned searched in the brittle, yellowed pages, always the found the gold yielding before the coal." When he asks why she had never borne a child of the king's, she tells him that Robert had made her pregnant once, but she had an abortion. "I hae not let him inside me for years. I know other ways to pleasure him."

"What did he do to make you hate him so?" he asks. And she replies that on their wedding night he whispered the name Lyanna. When he says that she knows what he must do -- that is, tell the king -- she puts her hand on his thigh, then touches his face and his hair. "Be kind to me, Ned. I swear to you, you shall never regret it." But he rejects the attempt to seduce him, asking, "Did you make the same offer to Jon Arryn?" She slaps him, and when he says he will treat the slap "as a badge of honor," she scoffs and the idea of his honor. He has a bastard of his own, she says. "Tell me, my honorable Lord Eddard, how are you any different from Robert, or me, or Jaime?" He replies, "I do not kill children."

He then tells her that he is going to tell Robert, and advises her to take her children and leave the country. "Robert's wrath will follow you, to the back of beyond, if need be." She reminds him of how he found Jaime sitting on the Iron Throne when King's Landing fell, and made him yield it to Robert. He should have take it for himself, she says. "Such a sad mistake." He admits to mistakes, but says "that was not one of them."

"Oh, but it was, my lord," Cersei insisted. "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."

Daenerys

The heart of a stallion would make her son strong and swift and fearless, or so the Dothraki believed, but only if the mother could eat it all. If she choked on the blood or retched up the flesh, the omens were less favorable; the child might be stillborn, or come forth weak, deformed, or female.

So Daenerys chows down on a raw horse heart, and there is much celebration. The crones of the dosh khaleen, who are the widows of khals, read the omens and proclaim, "The prince is riding, and he shall be the stallion who mounts the world." The oldest of the crones asks for the child's name, and Daenerys answers, "He shall be called Rhaego."

As she walks away from the ritual with Khal Drogo, he asks, using the Common Tongue of the Seven Kingdoms, which she has been teaching him, "What is meaning, name Rhaego?" She says that her brother was Rhaegar and that Ser Jorah has said "that he was the last of the dragons." They ride to the lake called the Womb of the World, where she bathes in the waters and has sex with Drogo. Then they return to Khal Drogo's hall for a feast.

She looks for her brother in the hall, but he isn't there. So when she spots Ser Jorah Mormont, she calls him to her table. He tells her that he saw Viserys that morning, going to the Western Market for wine, "and he has some thought to recruit men for his army from the sellswords who guard the caravans." She observes that he doesn't have any gold to buy them with, but Jorah tells her he planned to take the dragon's eggs "until I warned him that I'd cut off his hand if he so much as touched them." Daenerys had not even suspected that they were so valuable. She has also clung to the idea that her brother is "my true king.... He is all I have." Jorah corrects her: "You belong to the Dothraki now. In your womb rides the stallion who mounts the world."

Doreah whispers to her, "your brother...." A drunken Viserys has entered the hall and is headed her way. She tells Jorah to stop him, to tell him he can have the dragon's eggs.

"Where is my sister?" Viserys shouted, his voice thick with wine. "I've come for her feast. How dare you presume to eat without me? No one eats before the king. Where is she? The whore can't hide from the dragon."

Jorah's attempt to stop Viserys fails, but Khal Drogo rises and says something in Dothraki that Jorah interprets for him: Drogo has ordered him to go sit with the "lowest of the low" in the hall. The insult draws laughter and shouts from five thousand Dothraki. Daenerys is unable to hear what her brother shouts back, but in his attempt to control Viserys, Jorah knocks him to the floor. Viserys draws a sword, which is forbidden in the sacred city. Daenerys knows what this means, though he doesn't, and she tries to persuade him to put down the sword and come sit by her. But instead Viserys points the sword at Daenerys's belly and vows that unless he gets the crown promised him, "I'll cut the bastard out."

Her handmaid Jhiqui is too terrified to translate what Viserys has said, so Daenerys makes the attempt with the little Dothraki she has learned. When she has finished, "Khal Drogo spoke a few brusque sentences in Dothraki, and she knew he understood." She tells Viserys, "He says you shall have a splendid golden crown that men shall tremble to behold."

Viserys lowers his sword and smiles. Khal Drogo comes to her and she puts an arm around his waist as his bloodriders seize Viserys. Drogo takes off his belt, which has medallions of pure gold. He orders the cooks to remove a stew pot from the fire and dump the stew, then he throws the belt into the pot and has it returned to the flames.When the gold has melted, Drogo picks up the pot using a pair of thick horsehair mittens. Ser Jorah tells Daenerys to look away, but she refuses. And as the contents of the pot spill over his head, "He was no dragon, Dany thought, curiously calm. Fire cannot kill a dragon."

6. A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 215-271

Arya

When talk about the tournament in Ned's honor arises at dinner, Sansa is excited and asks if she will be allowed to attend. Arya, however, proclaims, "I don't care about their stupid tourney." She doesn't add that her objection is that "Prince Joffrey would be there, and she hated Prince Joffrey." The girls begin to quarrel until their father silences them.

Her stay at the palace has been unhappy. She misses her brothers and she had been forced to drive away Nymeria by throwing rocks at her after the attack on Joffrey. "She had no one left but Sansa, and Sansa wouldn't even talk to her unless Father made her." She sits at table growing more and more miserable until she finally gets up and starts to leave. Septa Mordane calls her back, and Arya remembers her manners and asks if she may be excused. "'You may not,' the septa said. 'You have scarcely touched your food. You will sit down and clean your plate.'"

Susan Brown as Septa Mordane

"You clean it!" Arya replies and heads for the door. She races to her room and bolts the door. She opens a chest and digs out Needle, the sword Jon had given her. Septa Mordane has pursued her to her room and pound on the door demanding to be admitted, but Arya defies her. The septa leaves, vowing to tell her father.

Arya goes to the window, carrying Needle, and dreams of escaping, finding Nymeria and returning to Winterfell or even going to join Jon at the Wall. But her father knocks at the door and asks her to open it. He has come alone, and seems "to be more sad than angry." Then he asks, "Whose sword is that?" She realizes that she is carrying Needle, which until now was a secret between her and Jon. He asks to see the sword and recognizes the maker's mark.

"My nine-year-old daughter is being armed from my own forge, and I know nothing of it. The Hand of the King is expected to rule the Seven Kingdoms, yet it seems I cannot even rule my own household. How is it that you come to own a sword. Arya? Where did you get this?"

She doesn't betray Jon, and remains silent. He gives up trying to find out, but wonders what Septa Mordane would say if she found Arya playing with swords. "'I wasn't playing,' Arya insisted. 'I hate Septa Mordane.'" Ned replies that he and her mother had put the septa in charge of "the impossible task of making you a lady," which Arya immediately says she doesn't want to be. He threatens to break the sword, and when Arya says, "Needle wouldn't break," he learns that the sword has a name.

Ned says that Arya has what his father called "the wolf blood," and adds that his brother Brandon and his sister, Lyanna, also had it. "Lyanna might have carried a sword, if my lord father had allowed it. You remind me of her sometimes. You even look like her." This surprises Arya, because Lyanna was beautiful, which "was not a thing that was ever said of Arya." He asks her if she knows how to use a sword, and she tells him that she had asked Mycah to practice with her, which brings back the painful memory of the slaughtered butcher's boy, and she begins to cry. "It was my fault, it was me ..."

Ned hugs her and assures her that it wasn't her fault. "That murder lies at the Hound's door, him and the cruel woman he serves." He also lets her know he has guessed that Nymeria didn't just run away, and she confesses that she had to drive the wolf off by throwing rocks at her. "The queen would have killed her."

Then he says he has something to tell her, asking her to recall the family words, "Winter is coming," and their sigil, the direwolf. She was born in the long summer, he says, "but now the winter is truly coming."

"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Summer is the time for squabbles. In winter, we must protect one another, keep each other warm, share our strengths. So if you must hate, Arya, hate those who would truly do us harm. Septa Mordane is a good woman, and Sansa ... Sansa is your sister. You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hears. You need her, as she needs you ... and I need both of you, gods help me."

She says she doesn't really hate Sansa. ("It was only half a lie.") He tells her, "It is time to begin growing up," and hands Needle back to her, "hilt first," warning her, "Try not to stab your sister, whatever the provocation."

Three days later, she is summoned to the Small Hall where a man steps forth with two wooden swords and says, "You are late, boy." He is her "dancing master," he says. When he calls her "boy" again she corrects him. "'Boy, girl,' Syrio Forel said. 'You are a sword, that is all.'" And her lessons begin.

Miltos Yeromelou as Syrio Forel

Daenerys

The Dothraki caravan has reached the top of a ridge from which Ser Jorah shows Daenerys, "The Dothraki sea," the vast prairie that spreads out to the horizon. Behind them the rest of the party is arriving, including her brother. "Viserys still struggled with the short stirrups and the flat saddle. Her brother was miserable out here. He ought never to have come." Magister Illyrio had advised him against it, but Viserys insists on remaining with Khal Drogo until he receives the crown he has been promised.

She tells Ser Jorah to command the others to halt, and he observes that she is "learning to talk like a queen." She corrects him: "A khaleesi." Then she turns her horse and gallops down the ridge into the plains. "All her life Viserys had told her she was a princess, but not until she rode the silver had Daenerys Targaryen ever felt like one."

But it has taken time. During the long ride she has been saddle sore, but Khal Drogo has taken no account of that when he comes to the tent at night and takes "her from behind, Dothraki fashion." Daenerys is grateful, however, that he can't see her tears that way. She has dreamed again about the dragon, but in the dream she opens her arms to its flames and lets them cleanse her. The next day she touches one of the supposedly petrified dragon eggs and is surprised to find it "strangely warm beneath her fingers." After that she began to heal and to toughen and to become used to the long rides, and to notice the beauty of the land through which they are riding. "She began to find pleasure even in her nights, and if she still cried out when Drogo took her, it was not always in pain." 

Now she pauses after her ride and Viserys comes up, furious at being ordered about by her and by the Dothraki garb she has adopted. "Viserys was soiled and stained in city silks and ringmail." But when he screams at her and grabs her, suddenly there is a Crack, and a whip wraps around Viserys's neck and pulls him to the ground. The Dothraki with the whip asks her something, and Daenerys's maid, Irri, says, "Jhogo asks if you would have him dead, Khaleesi." She says no. Ser Jorah says he warned Viserys what would happen but he didn't listen.

"I know you did," Dany replied, watching Viserys. He lay on the ground, sucking in air noisily, red-faced and sobbing. He was a pitiful thing. Why had she never seen that before? There was a hollow place inside her where her fear had been.

Then she orders Ser Jorah to take Viserys's horse. "Let my brother walk behind us back to the khalasar." Ser Jorah hesitates only a moment and says, "He shall walk, Khaleesi." Later she realizes the significance of what she has done and asks Ser Jorah, "I woke the dragon, didn't I." He replies, "Can you wake the dead, girl? Your brother Rhaegar was the last dragon, and he died on the Trident. Viserys is less than the shadow of a snake." When she says that Viserys would not be a very good king, Ser Jorah replies, "There have been worse ... but not many." She worries, however, that there are people back in their homeland who are praying for his return, as Magister Illyrio has told them.

"The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends," Ser Jorah told her. "It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace." He gave a shrug. "They never are."

And now she realizes that Viserys's great plan to retake the Seven Kingdoms would never succeed.

In her tent she touches one of the stone eggs. "The stone was warm. Almost hot." She tells herself that it had been warmed by the sun. She talks to her maids about dragons, and they assure her they are all dead. Doreah tells her a legend that the dragons came from the moon.

"Once there were two moons in the sky, but one wandered too close to the sun and cracked from the heat. A thousand thousand dragons poured forth, and drank the fire of the sun. That is why dragons breathe flame. One day the other moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return."

That night, when Khal Drogo comes to her tent she tells him they must go outside, "for the Dothraki believed that all things of importance in a man's life must be done beneath the open sky." And when Drogo goes to take her from behind she tells him they must do it face to face. "She rode him as fiercely as ever she had ridden her silver, and when the moment of his pleasure came, Khal Drogo called out her name." Some time after, on her fourteenth name day, she knows she is pregnant.

Bran

From a window Bran watches Rickon playing with the wolves, including Summer, who "was silver and smoke, with eyes of yellow gold that saw all there was to see.... Bran thought he was the smartest of the litter." But he is miserable because of his inability to run with the wolves himself. He is eight now, and considers himself "too old to cry," but he is angry because he remembers what the crow told him in his delirium, and considers it a lie: "The crow had tricked him into flying, but when he woke up he was broken and the world was changed."

He is watched over by Old Nan, who has been a family retainer since the days of his grandfather, and has told generations of Starks her stories. Her own children were born at Winterfell, but the only remaining one is Hodor, "the simpleminded giant who worked in the stables." Now he tells her he hates her stories, but he admits that he likes the scary ones.

Margaret John as Old Nan

"Oh, my sweet summer child," Old Nan said quietly, "what do you know of fear? Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children are born and lie and die all in the darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods."

She tells him of a winter that lasted for a generation when "the Others came for the first time.... They were cold things, dead things, that hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun, and every creature with hot blood in its veins.... So as cold and death filled the earth, the last hero determined to seek out the children [of the forest], in the hopes that their ancient magics could win back what the armies of men had lost."

Kristian Nairn as Hodor

But the story is interrupted by the arrival of Maester Luwin, accompanied by Hodor. Luwin says that they have a visitor, Tyrion Lannister, and that Bran is needed. Hodor -- whose real name is Walder, but who can say only word, "Hodor" -- is there to carry Bran downstairs. Robb is there with Theon Greyjoy and Hallis Mollin, plus four strangers. Robb is sitting in his father's chair and has an unsheathed sword across his lap. "Even Bran knew what it meant to greet a guest with an unsheathed sword." And Tyrion has taken offense: "Your bastard brother has all your father's graces, it would seem."

Bran says "Jon," when he hears this, and Tyrion turns to look at him. "So it is true, the boy lives. I could scarce believe it. You Starks are hard to kill." Robb says, "You Lannisters had best remember this," and tells Hodor to bring Bran closer. Tyrion studies Bran for a while, then asks if he likes to ride. "With the right horse and the right saddle, even a cripple can ride." When Bran protests that he isn't a cripple, Tyrion replies, "Then I am not a dwarf.... My father will rejoice to hear it." Then he shows them a sketch of a saddle adapted for Bran's use. "It is not terribly unlike my own saddles," he says. 

Robb is suspicious, but Tyrion says, "Your brother Jon asked it of me. And I have a tender spot in my heart for cripples and bastards and broken things." Suddenly the door opens and Rickon enters with the three direwolves, who attack Tyrion until Bran calls off Summer, Robb restrains Grey Wind, and Rickon summons Shaggydog. Tyrion recovers and says, "How interesting," and Robb says, "I don't know why they did that." Then he offers Tyrion the hospitality of Winterfell, which Tyrion declines: "Spare me your false courtesies, boy. You do not love me and you do not want me here." He will stay at an inn, he says, and leaves.

Bran is told that he can sup with the members of the Night's Watch who accompanied Tyrion and will stay at Winterfell, so he returns to his room where he falls asleep. He dreams of climbing again, and finds himself among the gargoyles of the tower from which he fell. They come to life and threaten him, and he says, "I didn't hear.... I didn't, I didn't," before he wakes up and finds Hodor there to get him ready to go to the Great Hall.

Francis Magee as Yoren

Yoren, the senior member of the group of Night's Watch, is seated between Robb and Maester Luwin. When Jon is mentioned, he says only "Ser Allister's bane," which draws a laugh from the others. But they grow serious and silent when Robb asks about Benjen. Yoren tells them that he's gone, and "Most like he's dead." Robb protests: "He rose from the bench and laid his hand on the hilt of his sword. 'Do you hear me? My uncle is not dead!'"  And Bran, remembering Old Nan's stories, chimes in, "The children will help him.... The children of the forest!" Maester Luwin tells him, "Bran, the children of the forest have been dead and gone for thousands of years. All that's left of them are the faces in the trees." But Yoren says, "Up there, a man can't always tell what's alive and what's dead."

Robb carries his brother back to his room and tells him they'll find a horse for him. "And afterward, we'll ride north to see the Wall. We won't even tell Jon we're coming, we'll just be there one day, you and me. It will be an adventure." But then Bran hears his brother sob. It is dark, and he can't see Robb's tears, but he reaches out and the brothers join hands.

Eddard

The weather is sweltering in King's Landing, where Ned is meeting with Grand Maester Pycelle and talking about the death of Jon Arryn. Pycelle says that Lord Arryn had been troubled by the health of his son and his wife's reluctance to let the boy out of her sight. The day before Arryn fell ill, he was "as hale and healthy as ever," but the next day he was "too sick to rise from bed." Pycelle had dismissed Maester Colemon, who had been treating Arryn with purges that Pycelle feared might kill him. This caused a rift between Pycelle and Lysa, who blames Pycelle for her husband's death. Just before he died, Pycelle says, "he whispered something to the king and his lady wife, a blessing for his son. The seed is strong, he said."

Ned presses Pycelle on whether Lord Arryn's death was really the result of an illness, saying, "His wife thought otherwise." Pycelle comments, "Since her last still birth, she has seen enemies in every shadow, and the death of her lord husband left her shattered and lost." But could it have been poison, Ned finally asks him directly. Pycelle says that Arryn "displayed none of the signs," and questions who might have a motive. Ned says, "I have heard it said that poison is a woman's weapon." Pycelle concurs: "Women, cravens ... and eunuchs," turning the suspicions toward Varys.

Ned thanks him for his time, but as one last thing asks if he could see the book that Pycelle had loaned Lord Arryn before he died. Pycelle agrees, but says it was only "a ponderous tome by Grand Maester Malleon on the lineages of the great houses." Still, he'll have it sent to him. And then, just as he is leaving, Ned asks if the queen was at Lord Arryn's deathbed. No, Pycelle says, she had gone to Casterly Rock with her father.

As he is returning to his room, he finds Arya doing some balancing exercises suggested by something Syrio has told her. They talk about Bran and his future. Ned says that he could still "be the lord of a great holdfast and sit on the king's council. He might raise castles like Brandon the Builder, or sail a ship across the Sunset Sea, or enter your mother's Faith and become the High Septon." Arya then asks if she could do those things. He tells her she "will marry a king and rule his castle" and her sons will do those things. She says, "No, ... that's Sansa," and goes back to her balancing exercises.

Back in his room, he is told that Littlefinger wants to see him. Littlefinger says he has been fulfilling his promises to Catelyn to look into the death of Jon Arryn, and suggests that he question the servants of the Hand that have remained behind, including his squire, Ser Hugh of the Vale, whom the king knighted after Lord Arryn's death. Ned says he'll send for him.

Then Littlefinger beckons him to the window, and points out the people who are spying on him. "Is everyone someone's informer in this cursed city?" Ned asks. Littlefinger asks if there is "a man in your service that you trust utterly and completely?" and when Ned says yes, he replies, "The wiser answer was no, my lord." But he suggests that he send "this paragon of yours" to talk to Ser Hugh instead of going himself, which would attract the notice of Varys.

Jon

A new recruit arrives for the Night's Watch, a pale, fat boy who says, "They ... they told me I was to come here ... for training." Ser Alliser looks at him and says, "It would seem they have run short of poachers and thieves down south. Now they send us pigs to man the Wall. Is fur and velvet your notion of armor, my Lord of Ham?" When the recruit changes into his armor, Ser Alliser orders Halder, a tall, muscular sixteen-year-old to "see what Ser Piggy can do."

It takes Halder only a minute to have the boy "on the ground, his whole body shaking as blood leaked through his shattered helm and between his pudgy fingers." But Ser Alliser continues to urge Halder on, even after the boy says, "I yield." Then Jon steps forward and says, "Halder, enough," defying the master-at-arms once again. But Ser Alliser persists, ordering two more boys, Rast and Albett (known as "Rat" and "Pimple") to join with Halder. "Three of you ought to be sufficient to make Lady Piggy squeal. All you need do is get past the Bastard." Jon tells the fat boy to stay behind him, but suddenly he is joined by Pyp and Grenn to hold off the other three. They prevail, and the master-at-arms withdraws in disgust.

John Bradley-West as Samwell Tarly

The fat boy introduces himself as Samwell Tarly. "I fear I'm a coward," he tells them. "My lord father always said so." Jon finds himself thinking about Tyrion: "Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it, the dwarf had told him, grinning. The world was full of cravens who pretended to be heroes; it took a queer sort of courage to admit to cowardice as Samwell Tarly had."

That evening, Jon finds Samwell dining alone and joins him. They go outside, where Samwell admits that he doesn't want to go up on the Wall because he's afraid of heights. Jon says, "I don't understand. If you are truly so craven, why are you here? Why would a coward want to join the Night's Watch?" Samwell sits down on the ground and begins to cry.

It was Ghost who knew what to do. Silent as shadow, the pale direwolf moved closer and began to like the warm tears off Samwell Tarly's face. The fat boy cried out, startled ... and somehow, in a heartbeat, his sobs turned to laughter.

Jon joins in the laughter, and tells Samwell how he and Robb had found the direwolf pups, and how he dreams about being back at Winterfell and finding it empty. "he had never told anyone of the dream, and he did not understand why he was telling Sam now, yet somehow it felt good to talk of it." Then Samwell tells him how he managed to find himself on the Wall.

He was the eldest son of Lord Randall Tarly, "heir to rich lands, a strong keep, and a storied two-handed greatsword," but he had grown up "plump, soft, and awkward." He loved music and books, but couldn't stand the sight of blood. "A dozen masters-at-arms came and went at Horn Hill, trying to turn Samwell into the knight his father wanted," but with no success. He was bullied and beaten and abused by them. Finally, his mother gave birth to a second son, and the boy turned out to be the kind of son his father wanted. Samwell was left alone until he turned fifteen. Then his father disowned him, giving him a choice between taking the black or dying: "we shall have a hunt, and somewhere in these woods your horse will stumble, and you will be thrown from the saddle to die ... or so I will tell our mother."

They are silent for a while, and then Jon suggests they go back to the hall and have some hot cider or mulled wine and listen to some of the others sing. Samwell is afraid the others won't want him there, and then he says, "He's going to make me fight again on the morrow, isn't he?" Jon says yes, and Samwell says he'd better try to get some sleep. So Jon goes to the hall, where he hatches a plan with the others. Pyp and Grenn and even Halder agree to it. Rast holds out, but during the night they go to Rast's cell, where Pyp and Grenn hold Rast down and Ghost jumps onto Rast's chest and gives him a nip on the throat, "just enough to draw blood. 'Remember, we know where you sleep,' Jon said softly."

From then on, no one hurt Samwell in the training sessions. "Ser Alliser raged and threatened and called them all cravens and women and worse, yet Sam remained unhurt." And gradually he becomes part of the group. He tells Jon that he knows he arranged it all, and says, "I've never had a friend before." Jon says they're not friends, they're brothers. After Sam leaves, he thinks,

Robb and Bran and Rickon were his father's sons, and he loved them still, yet Jon knew that he had never truly been one of them. Catelyn Stark had seen to that.... Castle Black was his life now, and his brothers were Sam and Grenn and Halder and Pyp and the other cast-outs who wore the black of the Night's Watch.

3. A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 68-108

Arya 

Arya is embroidering something, a task for which she has no skill or taste: Her "septa," which seems to be a word for "governess," says she "has the hands of a blacksmith." The others, including Sansa and Princess Myrcella, are doing fine work. They are gossiping about the pending betrothal of Sansa and Prince Joffrey, and when Arya says, "Jon says he looks like a girl," Sansa retorts, "He gets jealous because he's a bastard." Arya insists that Jon is their brother, attracting the attention of Septa Mordane, who inspects their stitches. Arya's, of course, won't do. Arya starts to cry and heads for the door, only to be called back by the septa, who tells her that Catelyn will hear of her misbehavior, and that she has embarrassed them before the princess. Arya bows to the princess, but continues her exit. When Septa Mordane asks where she's going, Arya retorts, "'I have to go shoe a horse," and takes "a brief satisfaction in the shock on the septa's face."

She hurries downstairs, where her wolf is waiting for her. Arya has named her Nymeria, "after the warrior queen of the Rhoyne, who had led her people across the narrow sea. That had been a great scandal too. Sansa, of course, had named her pup 'Lady.'" She goes to watch the boys practicing their fighting skills in the yard, hoping that she will see "Robb put gallant Prince Joffrey flat on his back." She goes to a window of the covered bridge overlooking the yard, and finds Jon already there, accompanied by Ghost. She is disappointed that the combatants are only Bran and Prince Tommen, who are heavily padded and carefully watched over by Ser Rodrik Cassel, the master-at-arms.

Arya and Jon "had always been close. Jon had their father's face, as she did. They were the only ones." She asks why he isn't down with the fighters, and he tells her, "Bastards are not allowed to damage young princes." She thinks this is unfair. She also thinks that she could fight as well as Bran does, but Jon tells her she's too skinny. Jon points out that on his surcoat Prince Joffrey is wearing a heraldic shield in which the arms "were divided down the middle; on one side was the crowned stag of the royal House, on the other the lion of Lannister." He takes it as evidence of the pride of the Lannisters, that they aren't content to wear just the arms of royalty.

The men call a halt to the battle between Bran and Tommen when the latter falls down and is unable to get up because he is so heavily padded. Ser Rodrik suggests that Robb and Joffrey fight again, but they protest about having to fight with "play" swords. Joffrey insists he wants "Live steel," but the master-at-arms protests that it's too dangerous. He "will permit tourney swords, with blunted edges." Then Sandor Clegane protests that Ser Rodrik doesn't have the authority to tell the prince what he can fight with. The master-at-arms insists he does, and will not permit them to fight with anything but tourney swords. Joffrey mocks Robb, and Robb curses at him, but Joffrey coolly exits, saying to Tommen, "Leave the children to their frolics." The Lannisters laugh and Robb curses some more, but Theon Greyjoy keeps hold of him until the Lannisters leave.

Jon tells Arya that she'd better go back to her room, or Septa Mordane will have her "sewing all through the winter. When the spring thaw comes, they will find your body with a needle still locked tight between your frozen fingers." Arya says she hates needlework, and it's not fair that she has to do it. "'Nothing is fair,' Jon said." She returns to her room to find not only Septa Mordane but also her mother.

Bran 

The men leave for a hunt, "even the queen's funny little brother," and Bran remains with Jon, who is not allowed on the hunt, and the women and children. He is excited about the coming journey to the castle at King's Landing, and imagines the day when he will be a knight and a member of the Kingsguard, who "wore white armor and had no wives or children, but lived to serve the king." The actual members of the Kingsguard who accompanied King Robert didn't look particularly heroic, except for Ser Jaime Lannister.

Bran spends the morning trying to train his wolf, who is still unnamed because none of the ones he can think of sound right. Then he decides to go climbing. When he climbs a tree that gives him access to the roof of the armory, his wolf begins to howl, which sends "a strange chill" through Bran. His mother, who said he "could climb before he could walk," has tried to discourage him, but he loves scaling the walls and crossing the rooftops of the vast and rambling castle. "It made him feel like he was lord of the castle, in a way even Robb would never know." It also taught him the secrets of the way the castle was put together, and ways to get around it that no one else knew.

Once he promised his mother he wouldn't climb for a fortnight, but it made him so miserable that he slipped out at night and did it anyway. Then he felt guilty and confessed, so his father made him spend the night alone in the godswood as penance. But when they went to look for him in the morning they found him asleep in the top of a tree, which made his father laugh and tell him just to try not to let his mother see him climbing.

He particularly loved the broken tower, which was once the tallest watchtower in Winterfell, but had been struck by lightning, so the upper third collapsed. So he sets out for it by going from rooftop to rooftop until he reaches the oldest part of the castle, the First Keep, which is uninhabited. It has a row of gargoyles on which Bran can swing from one to another, and he is making his way along them when he hears voices coming from the First Keep.

A woman is saying, "You should be the First Hand," and a man replies that it's too much work. Bran is afraid to swing by the window of the room they're in, so he can't help listening as the woman says that the problem is that the king will listen to Ned Stark. She's afraid that Ned will prove to be their enemy, and that Lysa Arryn, Catelyn's sister, will accuse them of something. Bran "was not sure what he was hearing, but he knew it was not meant for his ears." Then the woman says,

"What happens when Robert dies and Joff takes the throne? And the sooner that comes to pass, the safer we'll all be. My husband grows restless every day. Having Stark beside him will only make him worse. He's still in love with the sister, the insipid little dead sixteen-year-old. How long before he decides to put me aside for some new Lyanna?"

If we haven't guessed it before, we now know that the woman is Cersei. "Bran was suddenly very frightened," but he still wants to see who is talking. He climbs over the roof to the gargoyle above the window where the couple is talking, then hangs upside down from it and looks into the window. "Inside the room, a man and a woman were wrestling. They were both naked." He watches as they start to have sex, and when he recognizes the queen he apparently makes a noise, for she looks toward him and screams.

As she points him out to the man, Bran loses his grip on the gargoyle and falls, but manages to grab hold of the window ledge with one hand. He recognizes the faces that appear in the window as the queen and her twin brother, Jaime Lannister. "They looked as much alike as reflections in a mirror." Jaime hauls Bran onto the ledge and asks him how old he is. Bran tells him he's seven.

The man looked over at the woman. "The things I do for love," he said with loathing. He gave Bran a shove.

Tyrion

Bran's wolf is howling, making it difficult for Tyrion to concentrate on the book he is reading, "a hundred-year-old discourse on the changing of the seasons by a long-dead maester." He goes down the steps of the library tower, and hears Sandor Clegane below complaining, "The boy is a long time dying. I wish he would be quicker about it." Prince Joffrey complains that the wolf's howl kept him awake last night, and Clegane, who is known as "the Hound," offers to kill the wolf.

The notion seemed to delight the prince. "Send a dog to kill a dog!" he exclaimed. "Winterfell is so infested with wolves, the Starks would never miss one."

Tyrion steps into the yard and says to the prince, "The Starks can count past six. Unlike some princes I might name." The prince blushes, but Clegane pretends not to know where Tyrion's voice is coming from. Tyrion is used to the joke, and says "Down here," which provokes Clegane to acknowledge him as "The little lord Tyrion." Tyrion shrugs him off and tells Joffrey that he is obliged to pay his condolences to "Lord Eddard and his lady." When Joffrey protests that he doesn't care about Bran and he "cannot abide the wailing of women," Tyrion slaps him, and warns Joffrey that he will hit him again if he says another word. Joffrey says he's going to tell his mother, and Tyrion slaps him on the other cheek. Then he tells Joffrey exactly how he is to present himself to the Starks and offer his sympathies and aid.

Joffrey runs off, and Tyrion, ignoring Clegane's warning that Joffrey will remember the slaps, asks where his brother is. Clegan says he's with the queen. Tyrion finds them at breakfast and sits down, uninvited, at their table. Cersei "peered at him with the same expression of distaste she had worn since the day he was born." Jaime, on the other hand, had been the only Lannister, "During all the terrible long years of his childhood, [who] had ever shown him the smallest measure of affection or respect, and for that Tyrion was willing to forgive him most anything."

When Tommen asks if there is any news of Bran's condition, Tyrion says he had stopped by the sickroom last night and the maester said there was no change, which he thought was "a hopeful sign." When he comments that Bran "may yet live," Tyrion keeps his eye on his brother and sister: "The glance that passed between Jaime and Cersei lasted no more than a second, but he did not miss it." He adds that Bran's back is broken and his legs are shattered, so "he will never walk again." Cersei asks if it is likely that Bran will wake up, and Tyrion says that it seems to be the howling of his wolf that keeps the boy alive: When they chase it away or close the window, the boy seems to get worse. Cersei comments that the animals are dangerous and that she won't have any of them coming south with them. But Jaime says that she'll have a hard time stopping them. "They follow those girls everywhere."

When Tyrion asks if they are leaving soon, Cersei says, "Gods, don't tell me you are staying here?" Tyrion says, "Benjen Stark is returning to the Night's Watch with his brother's bastard. I have a mind to go with them and see this Wall we all have heard so much of." Jaime jokes that Tyrion is thinking of taking the black, but Tyrion assures him that he has no intention of remaining celibate: "No, I just want to stand on top of the Wall and piss off the edge of the world."

Cersei affects to be offended at Tyrion's coarseness and leaves with the children. Jaime suggests that Ned won't leave Winterfell with his son in this condition, but Tyrion says he will if Robert orders him to do so. Jaime suggests that Ned should put the boy out of his misery. "I would, if it were my son. It would be a mercy.... Even if the boy does life, he will be a cripple. Worse than a cripple. A grotesque. Give me a good clean death." Tyrion replies, "Speaking for the grotesques, ... I beg to differ. Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities." Then he says he would be interested to hear what Bran has to say if he wakes up. Jaime says he wonders whose side Tyrion is on.

Jon 

Jon goes to see Bran for the first time after the fall, having stayed away because Catelyn, who detests him, never leaves Bran's side. But since he is about to leave for the Wall, he feels obligated to see his half-brother again. Catelyn tries to send him away, and threatens to call the guards, but he defies her and goes to the bedside.

"Bran," he said, "I'm sorry I didn't come before. I was afraid." He could feel the tears rolling down his cheeks. Jon no longer cared. "Don't die, Bran. Please. We're waiting for you to wake up. Me and Robb and the girls, everyone...."

Catelyn makes no move, so he continues, telling Bran that he's leaving for the Wall, and then brushes away his tears and leans over and kisses Bran.

Catelyn says she prayed for Bran to stay with her at Winterfell, and that her prayers were answered -- an expression of the guilt she feels. Jon says, "It wasn't your fault," but she snaps, "I need none of your absolution, bastard." He squeezes Bran's hand and says goodbye, but at the door she calls his name, which she had never done. He turns and she looks him in the face, then says, "It should have been you." Then she begins to cry.

He goes down to the yard, where everyone is busy getting ready to leave. Robb tells him that Benjen is looking for him, and Jon says, "Soon." Robb asks if he saw Bran, and he nods. "He's not going to die," Robb says, and when he notices that Jon seems depressed, says, "My mother...." Jon tells her, "She was ... very kind." They hug farewells, and when Robb says Benjen wants Jon at the stables, he tells Robb he has one more farewell to make.

He goes to Arya's room, where she is being forced to repack everything because it wasn't "properly folded." She doesn't see the point of folding things that are "going to get messed up anyway." He has a present for her, and tells her to close the door. It's a sword that he has had specially made for her. He tells her, "Run, and ride, make yourself strong," and that in a city like King's Landing she should be able to find someone to practice swordsmanship with. Then he says the sword has a name: her favorite thing. She is puzzled for a minute, and then they say it together: "Needle!"

Daenerys 

Wedding day for Daenerys and Khal Drogo arrives. The ceremony and celebration takes place in a field outside Pentos. Viserys is still concerned that the Khal hasn't paid the price he asked for Daenerys: a crown. Illyrio assures him the Khal will hold up his end of the deal in his own time. First they will have to make a procession to Vaes Dothrak to present his queen to the people. But Viserys is impatient to raise the army to retake the throne.

Ser Jorah, who has become their companion, counsels patience with the Dothraki, but Viserys warns, "Guard your tongue, Mormont, or I'll have it out. I am no lesser man. I am the rightful Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. The dragon does not beg." But Daenerys thinks, though she doesn't say it to her brother, "There are no more dragons." But that night she has a terrifying dream in which Viserys is hitting her, and then he disappears and a dragon arises among "great columns of flame."

At the ceremony, Viserys is seated on a lower level than Khal Drogo and Daenerys, which also infuriates him, as does the fact that they are served first. Daenerys feels like crying, but is terrified at how Viserys and Khal Drogo will react. She feels terribly alone because there is no one to talk to: She doesn't know the Dothraki language and the khal doesn't know the languages she speaks. During the ceremony a warrior grabs one of the dancing girls and has sex with her in front of everyone. Illyrio has said, "The Dothraki mate like the animals in their herds. There is no privacy in a khalasar, and they do not understand sin or shame as we do."

Then two warriors fight over a girl, and the loser is disemboweled before her eyes. "As the loser died, the winner took hold of the nearest woman -- not even the one they had been quarreling over -- and had her there and then." Illyrio had warned them that at least three deaths were to be expected at a Dothraki wedding. "Her wedding must have  been especially blessed; before the day was over, a dozen men had died."

Daenerys grows more and more terrified as the day passes, and the only thing she can do to calm herself is to repeat silently, "I am the blood of the dragon." When the time comes for the gifts, Viserys presents her with three servant girls, telling her, "Irri will teach you riding, Jhiqui the Dothraki tongue, and Doreah will instruct you in the womanly arts of love." Ser Jorah gives her books, "histories and songs of the Seven Kingdoms." Magister Illyrio presents her with three petrified dragon eggs, "a magnificent gift, though she knew Illyrio could afford to be lavish. He had collected a fortune in horses and slaves for his part in selling her to Khal Drogo."

She is presented with three weapons by Khal Drogo's "bloodriders," and had been told that she was to refuse them as more fitting for a warrior than a woman, so they should be given to her husband. There are other gifts, including "a gown made from the skin of a thousand mice," before Khal Drogo gives her his gift, "a young filly, spirited and splendid." Drogo lifts her into the saddle, and she finds that the horse is swift and responsive. "And for the first time in hours, she forgot to be afraid. Or perhaps it was for the first time ever."

At the end of the ride, she finds a firepit in her path, and she lets the horse leap over it. She tells Illyrio, "Tell Khal Drogo that he has given me the wind," and when it's translated for him, "Dany saw her new husband smile for the first time."

But when the time comes for her to ride off with her husband, Viserys threatens, "Please him, sweet sister, or I swear, you will see the dragon wake as it has never woken before." But as it happens, the wedding night seems to go pretty well.