32. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 1098-1128

Sansa

She is in the lofty and strange Eyrie, pretending to be Alayne Stone. It is a lonely place, with her only usual company her aunt, her elderly maid, and "the Lord Robert, eight going on three." Marillion is there, too, and he is still putting the moves on her, singing songs addressed to Sansa, to Lysa's irritation: "Her aunt was far from pleased. Lady Lysa doted on Marillion, and had banished two serving girls and even a page for telling lies about him." (Marillion swings both ways?) Littlefinger is often away, dealing with troubles in the Vale.

She gets up and opens the shutters to discover that it is snowing. She remembers happier times when it would snow at Winterfell, and gets up and dresses warmly. In the garden she starts to make snowballs, remembering a snowball fight with Arya, but there is no one to fight with. She decides to make a snow castle, and "before very long Sansa knew it was Winterfell."

Her maid calls down to ask if she wants breakfast, but Sansa says no. Lysa looks down briefly from her balcony, and Maester Colemon watches her for a while from the rookery. She is trying to build a bridge that will stay up when Littlefinger appears and tells her to pack the snow around a stick for support. He recognizes it as Winterfell, and says he used to dream of it. "In my dreams it was ever a dark place, and cold." Sansa replies that it was warm, heated by the hot springs, and that "inside the glass gardens it was always like the hottest day of summer."

She sets out to make the glass roof over the gardens, and he shows her how to create the frame from twigs. He pauses for a moment to observe that she is smiling, perhaps for the first time since her deliverance from King's Landing. Playfully, she tosses some snow at him. He says, "I told you that nothing could please me more than to help you with your castle. I fear that was a lie as well. Something else would please me more." He pulls her to him and kisses her.

She pulls away from him and protests for the sake of Lysa, but he persists: "I think you might be even more beautiful than your mother was your age." He reminds her of the drunken Marillion. But then they are interrupted by Lord Robert, who is carrying "the threadbare cloth doll he carried everywhere." When she tells him it is Winterfell, "The great castle of the north," Robert pretends to be a giant and, swinging the doll, knocks down parts of it. Sansa appeals to him to stop, and grabs the doll, ripping off its head.

Robert wails, and then begins to have a seizure, collapsing on the castle and knocking it to pieces. Littlefinger grabs the boy's wrists and shouts for the maester. Soon a crowd of servants, trained by Lysa to respond to any sound that indicates the boy is upset, arrives and the maester gives him some dreamwine and has him taken to the maester's chambers for a leeching. Sansa says she didn't mean to rip the doll, but Robert protests, "She killed him! I hate her! She's a bastard and I hate her!"

"My lord husband," Sansa thinks as he is led away. Then she angrily sticks the doll's head on a broken branch and puts it "atop the shattered gatehouse of her snow castle." Littlefinger laughs, and she leaves him there to return to her chambers. She hopes Lysa will banish her from the Eyrie, and vows to tell her that she doesn't want to marry Robert.

Late in the afternoon, Lysa sends Marillion to summon her. He tells her he is composing a song about "a baseborn girl so beautiful she bewitched every man who laid eyes upon her." She lets him accompany her to the High Hall, where he bars the doors and leaves the guards outside. Lysa is sitting on the dais, but Robert isn't there. Sansa curtsies to her, and Lysa says, "I saw what you did." Sansa says she didn't mean to rip the doll apart, but Lysa informs her that that's not what she saw: "I saw you kissing him."

"He kissed me," Sansa replies, but Lysa insists, "You threw yourself at him." Sansa persists in her defense, but Lysa won't hear it: "They all tried to take him from me. My lord father, my husand, your mother ... Catelyn most of all. She liked to kiss my Petyr too, oh yes she did." Sansa backs away and says, "My mother?" But Lysa rants on about how Catelyn tried to win Littlefinger, asking, "But you remember none of it, do you? ... Do you?" Sansa is confused, and protests that she wasn't born, and wonders if Lysa is "drunk, or mad?" Lysa rambles on about giving her virginity to Littlefinger. "He told me he loved me then, but he called me Cat, just before he fell back to sleep." Sansa is terrified, and asks if she may leave, but Lysa says no.

Then she tells Sansa that she was forced to marry Jon Arryn, who took her even though he knew she wasn't a virgin. She and Littlefinger, she says, "made a baby together, a precious little baby.... When they stole him from me, I made a promise to myself that I would never let it happen again." They wanted to send Robert to Dragonstone, she says, or to marry him to Cersei, but she prevented it. Sansa says what she thinks Lysa wants to hear: "I swear, I won't every kiss him again, or ... entice him." But Lysa takes this as a confession, and seizes Sansa by the wrist, calling out to command Marillion to sing a song, "The False and the Fair."

As he sings, Lysa drags Sansa toward "a white weirwood door set in the marble wall" and held in place by bronze bars. Sansa recognizes it as the Moon Door. Lysa commands her to raise the bars, and Sansa goes along, hoping that if she obeys Lysa will come to her senses. When the bars are removed, the wind blows the door open with a bang. Lysa begins to push her toward the door, and when they reach the opening tells her to look down. "There was nothing in front of her but empty air, and a waycastle six hundred feet below clinging to the side of the mountain."

Marillion continues to sing as Sansa struggles with Lysa at the door. Finally, Sansa grabs her aunt's hair as they teeter on the brink. Lysa shrieks, "Let go of my hair!" Outside, the guards have heard the disturbance and bang on the door, and Marillion stops singing. Then Littlefinger enters from the unguarded back way, and asks what Lysa is doing. Lysa grabs Sansa's hair and says, "She kissed you.... I was teaching her a lesson, that was all." Littlefinger says, "I think she understands now. Isn't that so, Alayne?" Sansa sobs that she does.

Lysa says that Sansa doesn't belong her, and Littlefinger assures her that they'll send her away. "Let her up, now. Let her away from the door." But Lysa cries, "NO!" grasping Sansa tighter.

Tears ran down her aunt's puffy red face. "I gave you my maiden's gift. I would have given you a son too, but they murdered him with moon tea, with tansy and mint and wormwood, a spoon of honey and a drop of pennyroyal. It wasn't me, I never knew, I only drank what Father gave me...."

So the tansy that Lord Hoster talked about in his final delirium was not a woman, as Catelyn thought, but an abortifacient.

Littlefinger moves closer, trying to quiet Lysa. "We don't want Alayne to know more than she should, do we? Or Marillion?" But Lysa refuses to let go of Sansa's hair. "I saw you kissing in the snow. She's just like her mother. Catelyn kissed you in the godswood, but she never meant it, she never wanted you." Littlefinger comes closer. "There's no cause for all these tears," he says, and the word reminds Lysa of the poison, the tears of Lys, that she says Littlefinger told her to put in Jon Arryn's wine. She wrote to Catelyn to say the Lannisters did it, just as he suggested. "We're together now, we're together after so long, so very long, why would you want to kiss herrrrrr?"

Littlefinger assures her that they will be together now, forever. Lysa asks, "Truly?" And Littlefinger replies, "Truly. Now unhand the girl and come give me a kiss." Lysa lets go of Sansa, who crawls away from the Moon Door and grasps a pillar firmly. Littlefinger lets Lysa hold him for a moment, then puts his hands on her arms and assures her, "I've only loved one woman, I promise you." Lysa wants him to swear it: "Only one?"

"Only Cat," he says, and pushes her out the Moon Door. Marillion gasps in surprise. Then Littlefinger goes to Sansa, sees that she's all right, and tells her, "Run let my guards in, then. Quick now, there's no time to lose. This singer's killed my lady wife."

Epilogue

Merrett Frey has come to ransom his nephew, Petry, known as Petyr Pimple. He had volunteered for the task, despite the derision of his father, Lord Walder. Merrett is waiting for the old man,who is almost ninety-two, to die, though when he thinks about it, he's not sure if his successor, whoever that may be among his many prodigy, will be better. It was Lord Walder who ordered the massacre of the Red Wedding, but the plot had been laid by Lame Lothar, along with Roose Bolton, even "down to which songs would be played." So there is likely to be a bloodbath among the sons when Lord Walder dies. Merrett himself is ninth in line of succession, and possessed of no particular skills or luck. After being beaned by a mace in a tourney, he has suffered from crippling headaches.

He thought his luck had changed when Roose Bolton chose his daughter, Fat Walda, for a wife, but his father soon disabused him of that notion: Bolton had chosen her because of her weight, because the promised dowry was his bride's weight in silver and not because Bolton liked the prospect of a connection with "Merrett Muttonhead." Even at the Red Wedding, he had been assigned the task of getting the Greatjon too drunk to fight, and he had failed at that.

But now if he could bring back Petyr Pimple, it might put him in favor with Petyr's father, Ser Ryman, the heir apparent to the Twins. The meeting with the outlaws holding Petyr has been set for Oldstones. He hears music and follows the sound to find a man we recognize as Tom Sevenstrings, playing on a woodharp. Then a harsh voice asks if he has brought the gold, and Merrett finds himself surrounded by outlaws. With them is a woman in a hooded cloak. The speaker, "a big bearded man with crooked green teeth and a broken nose," repeats his question, and Merrett tells him it's in his saddlebag and he'll produce it when he sees Petyr. But another of the outlaws simply steps forward, reaches in the saddlebag, and finds the money.

Panicked that they will take the money and keep Petyr too, Merrett asks which one of the men is Beric Dondarrion, thinking that because he had been a lord before he was an outlaw, Dondarrion "might still be a man of honor." A couple of the men claim to be Dondarrion, and then begin to quarrel over which of them really is. So he asks for his nephew -- "actually more a great half-nephew, but there was no need to go into that" -- and says he'll be gone. A man in a yellow cloak says he's in the godswood and he'll take Merrett to him.

"Petyr Pimple was hanging from the limb of an oak, a  noose tight around his long thin neck." Merrett protests that he wasn't supposed to be killed, and that he had kept his end of the bargain, but suddenly finds a noose around his own neck. "You'd never dare hang a Frey," he says, and the man in the yellow cloak replies, "That other one, the pimply boy, he said the same thing." Merrett says his father will pay more to ransom him, but Sevenstrings says Lord Walder isn't the kind to be fooled twice: "Next time he'll send a hundred swords instead of a hundred dragons, I fear." Then he offers to let Merrett go if he'll tell them where they can find Sandor Clegane.

Merrett has no idea, so the singer tells Lem to go ahead with the hanging. Merrett pleads, "I have children," and the one-eyed outlaw replies, "That Young Wolf never will." Merrett protests that Robb had shamed them with his marriage.

"It was vengeance, we had a right to our vengeance. It was war. Aegon, we called him Jinglebell, a poor lackwit never hurt anyone, Lady Stark cut his throat.... Stark's direwolf killed four of our wolfhounds and tore the kennelmaster's arm off his shoulder, even after we'd filled him full of quarrels..."

Lem, the man in the yellow cloak, says, "So you sewed his head on Robb Stark's neck after both o' them were dead." Merrett says it was his father's idea. "All I did was drink. You wouldn't kill a man for drinking." He remembers hearing that Beric Dondarrion always lets a man have a trial. "I only drank some wine ... you have no witness."

But they do, the singer says, and the woman comes forward and lowers his hood. Merrett can't believe what he's seeing: "No. No, I saw her die. She was dead for a day and night before they stripped her naked and threw her body in the river. Raymund opened her throat from ear to ear. She was dead."

The gash in Catelyn's neck is hidden by her cloak, but her flesh is soft and "the color of curdled milk." She has lost half of her hair and what remains is white, and her face is "shredded skin and black blood where she had raked herself with her nails." Her eyes are full of hatred.  Lem says she can't speak because the cut in her throat went too deep. He asks her if he took part in it, and she nods. Merrett is hoist in the air, "kicking and twisting, up and up and up."

27. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 927-959

Sansa

She is on board the Merling King, and has "been sick for most of the voyage ... sick with terror, sick with fever, or seasick." She has dreamed of Joffrey clawing at his throat, and of Tyrion, who, she tells Littlefinger, didn't kill Joffrey. Littlefinger says that he may not have killed Joffrey, but Tyrion had been married before and "when he grew bored with her, he made a gift of her to his father's guardsmen."

They near the Fingers, and Littlefinger tells her they will be going ashore. The ship is going on to Braavos, and they will stay at Littlefinger's "ancestral home" before leaving for the Eyrie, where he is to marry Lysa Arryn. This is all news to Sansa, who had hoped that she was going to Winterfell. But he reminds her that Winterfell has been destroyed and that she has no family left.

Sansa barely knows her aunt Lysa, but she assumes that she will treat her kindly in memory of Catelyn. "And the Vale of Arryn was beautiful, all the songs said so. Perhaps it would not be so terrible to stay here for a while." But the tower and the bleak and rocky setting where they land for their stay is not pleasant, as Littlefinger acknowledges when one of the servants tells him about their dinner: "Ah, cold salt mutton. I must be home. When I break my fast on gulls' eggs and seaweed soup, I'll be certain of it."

They make their way across a strand that is slick with seaweed and covered with sheep droppings. When they are settled, he tells her that she must conceal her identity: "If Sansa Stark should be seen in the Vale, the eunuch will know within a moon's turn, and that would create unfortunate ... complications." So she must pretend to be his illegitimate daughter, Alayne Stone, whose "mother was a gentlewoman of Braavos, daughter of a merchant prince." Sansa is embarrassed at being thought a bastard, but agrees to go along with it as a kind of game.

Sansa had decided that Ser Dontos must have killed Joffrey, but Littlefinger is amused at the idea. "No, all Dontos had to do was lead you from the castle ... and make certain you wore your silver hair net." He also reveals that he has operatives at work in the castle, and calls over his servant, an old man named Oswell. He is the father of three sons, he says, and all of a sudden Sansa realizes that he's a Kettleblack. Tyrion had dismissed Cersei's guards and sent Bronn to hire sellswords. When Littlefinger got word of it, he introduced Bronn to the Kettleblack brothers.

Sansa remembers that Ser Osmund had been near Joffrey that night, and jumps to a conclusion: "So one of the Kettleblacks put the poison in Joff's cup?" But Littlefinger says they are too untrustworthy to enlist in a plot. Sansa is stymied in her attempts to identify the poisoner, until Littlefinger says, "I will wager that at some point during the evening someone told you that your hair net was crooked and straightened it for you." The Queen of Thorns, Sansa remembers in surprise. "You cannot mean ... she wanted to take me to Highgarden, to marry me to her grandson...."

Willas Tyrell would have bored Sansa, Littlefinger says. When he went to Highgarden to negotiate the marriage of Margaery and Joffrey, the Queen of Thorns kept asking questions about the king. Littlefinger praised Joffrey, but let his servants tell the Tyrells' servants the truth about him. He also planted the idea of Loras Tyrell's joining the Kingsguard, which appealed to Mace Tyrell. "Lady Olenna was not about to let Joff harm her precious darling granddaughter," but her son wanted Margaery to marry a king. The king didn't have to be Joffrey, however. "We shall have another wedding soon, wait and see. Margaery will marry Tommen."

The intricacy of the plot astonishes Sansa, but she's grateful to be away from King's Landing. Finally, after eight days, Lysa arrives with her retinue, which includes a septon "and a handsome singer with a wisp of a mustache and long sandy curls" -- Marillion, who had come to the Eyrie with Tyrion and stayed on. Sansa is surprised at how homely Lysa is, and how much older than Catelyn she looks. Sansa curtsies deeply when she is presented to her, but "Lysa Arryn did not seem greatly pleased to see her," and is put out to learn that she's Littlefinger's bastard. But uppermost in her mind is marrying him, so she arranges for the wedding to take place immediately.

Lysa is so eager to be bedded by Littlefinger that she warns him, "after all these years of silence and whisperings, I mean to scream when you love me. I am going to scream so loud they'll hear me in the Eyrie!" And so she does. Sansa goes outside to escape the noises from the bridal chamber, and when she returns everyone in the tower is drunk, including Marillion, who introduces himself and then makes a serious pass at her. She fends him off as well as she can, but to no avail. She is in serious difficulty when Ser Lothar Brune, who had come to the tower with Littlefinger, appears and draws a dagger, telling Marillion to go, and giving him a cut to make the point. He tells her, "Lord Petyr said watch out for you."

When she heard Lothar's voice, Sansa had at first thought it was Sandor Clegane's. That night, she sleeps badly and dreams of her wedding night, in which Tyrion and the Hound are merged into a single person. The next morning, she is summoned to speak with her aunt -- Littlefinger has told Lysa who Sansa really is. Lysa tells her she looks like Catelyn, but when Sansa thanks her she is informed that it wasn't a compliment. "If truth be told, you look too much like Catelyn. Something must be done. We shall darken your hair before we bring you back to the Eyrie, I think."

Then Lysa tells her that she loathed Jon Arryn and was always in love with Littlefinger, but her father forbade his marrying her. She asks about her marriage to Tyrion and is glad to hear that it was never consummated. She assures Sansa that Tyrion will soon be dead and asks, "How would you like to marry your cousin, the Lord Robert." Sansa knows that Robert is a sickly boy, but politely says, "I ... can scarcely wait to meet him, my lady. But he is still a child, is he not."

Lysa says that Robert "is eight. And not robust." But she adds, "The seed is strong, my lord husband said before he died. His last words.... I see no reason why you should not be wed as soon as we know that your Lannister husband is dead. A secret wedding, to be sure." He likes to be read to, and to play games, "but you must always let him win."

Jon

They have relocated to the top of the Wall, leaving Castle Black to Maester Aemon and a handful of old or ill men unfit for the work of defense. Jon catches a few hours rest when he can in the warming shed.  The wildlings are regrouping and rebuilding, in the meantime firing arrows when they can. The Watch has a telescope, and Jon can identify some of the people he had known, including Dalla, who is immensely pregnant.

The wildlings are building a turtle, a kind of upside-down ship covered with mammoth hide, so they can approach the Wall. The Watch has run out of oil and pitch, and their supply of arrows is running low as well. There are no fletchers to make any more, and when Jon sent to Mole Town for help, the news came back that the village had been deserted. Jon wonders if it is time for them to leave as well.

Word comes that the turtle is on the move, and Jon has the warhorn blown to alert everyone. If the turtle manages to breach the gate, it will come down to hand-to-hand combat in the narrow tunnel far below. Jon knows that the men are waiting for his orders, and he sends some to the catapults and the scorpions, and tells the rest to ready their bows with fire arrows, though he knows they won't be much use against the turtle. Sure enough, their fire gutters out in the wet mammoth hide. One of the trebuchets is still out of order, and the wildlings have devised a route out of reach of the working one.

The only thing they can do now is try to crush the turtle when it arrives at the Wall. They have prepared barrels full of rocks and water which has frozen solid overnight. They roll them to the edge of the Wall and line them up above the gate. Jon leans out so far over the edge that he almost tips over, but Pyp catches him in time. Finally, they roll the barrel over, hear it bounce off the side of the Wall and then crash into the turtle. The men inside the turtle begin to scatter. They roll the next one over. "By the time they were done, the front of Mance's turtle was a crushed and splintered ruin, and wildlings were spilling out the other end and scrambling for their camp." They were safe for another day.

Jon goes down to Castle Black to get some sleep, and when he wakes four men are standing over him with a lantern. They order him to get up and go with them. They are dressed in the black of the Night's Watch, so he obeys, and when they get to the Lord Commander's solar he finds Maester Aemon with Ser Alliser Thorne and some other brothers. Thorne says, "Here's the turncloak now, my lord. Ned Stark's bastard, of Winterfell."

Jon protests that he is no turncloak, but the man seated behind the Old Bear's table says, "We shall see." When Thorne says, "Lord Snow, he likes to call himself," Jon protests that it was Thorne who started calling him that. He remembers that Mormont had sent Thorne to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, so he assumes that the others are from that castle and asks how many men they have brought to defend the Wall.

"It's me who'll ask the questions," the jowly man replied. "You've been charged with oathbreaking, cowardice, and desertion, Jon Snow. Do you deny that you abandoned your brothers to die on the Fist of the First Men and joined the wildling Mance Rayder, this self-styled King-beyond-the-Wall?"

Maester Aemon speaks up to say that he and Donal Noye had heard Jon's story and were satisfied that his explanations were true, but the man behind the table insists on hearing them for himself. So Jon begins his story of the mission with Qhorin Halfhand again, only to be interrupted by mockery from Ser Alliser Thorne. When Jon talks back to Thorne's insults, the man behind the desk tells him he is to address Thorne as ser, and himself as "m'lord." He is Janos Slynt, he tells Jon, and he is commander at Castle Black until Bowen  Marsh returns. He adds, "I will not suffer to hear an anointed knight like the good Ser Alliser mocked by a traitor's bastard." And then he asks Jon if he denies having slept with a wildling woman.

Jon will not dishonor the memory of Ygritte by denying it, and protests when Ser Alliser calls her an "unwashed whore." When Slynt says, "You admit to being an oathbreaker, then," Jon can only admit that he had broken his vows with Ygritte, as half of the Watch had done with the whores of Mole's Town. And he continues to protest that he never turned his cloak and had escaped the wildlings at the first opportunity.

Slynt then orders "the other prisoner" to be brought in. Jon doesn't recognize him at first, but it's Rattleshirt, who says that Jon is the one who killed Qhorin Halfhand. Slynt asks Jon if he is going to claim that Halfhand ordered Jon to kill him, and Jon can only reply, "He told me to do whatever they asked of me." Slynt and Thorne express their contempt for his answer, and they reject his further account of the situation in which he and Halfhand had found themselves. To prove his loyalty, Jon removes the glove and displays the hand he burned saving Mormont from the wight.

Septon Cellador now adds to the case against Jon by mentioning that he "refused to say his vows properly in the sept" but instead took them "before a heart tree. His father's gods, he said, but they are wildling gods as well." But Maester Aemon steps up to defend Jon:

"My lords, when Donal Noye was slain, it was this young man Jon Snow who took the Wall and held it, against all the fury of the north. He has proved himself valiant, loyal, and resourceful. Were it not for him, you would have found Mance Rayder sitting here when you arrived, Lord Slynt." 

But Slynt will have none of it. Jon's father died a traitor, and Jon will be hanged. He orders him taken to an ice cell. But when Ser Alliser seizes him, Jon grabs him by the throat and almost throttles him before the others can intervene. Thorne says, "You see for yourselves, brothers. The boy is a wildling."

10. A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 424-461

Eddard 

Ned wakes from a dream of an old battle to find his steward, Vayon Poole, standing over him. He has been unconscious for six days and seven nights, Poole tells him, since Maester Pycelle gave him "milk of the poppy" for the pain of his broken leg. Poole tells him that the king has asked to see him as soon as he wakes up. In the meantime, Jaime Lannister has returned to Casterly Rock and the news has spread further about Catelyn's abduction of Tyrion.

The king and the queen are there to see him, but Cersei's words are not designed to ease his discomfort: "A man in your place should count himself fortunate  that his head is still on his shoulders." Robert snaps at her to be quiet, but he admits he's not happy about Catelyn's actions. He wants her to release Tyrion immediately and Ned to make peace with Jaime. Ned protests that three of his men "were butchered bfore my eyes, because Jaime Lannister wished to chasten me. Am I to forget that?" Cersei has it that "Lord Stark was returning drunk from a brothel. His men attacked Jaime and his guards, even as his wife attacked Tyrion on the kingsroad." Robert tells him that Littlefinger "admits you were returning from some whorehouse."

Ned retorts that he went there to see Robert's daughter. "Her mother has named her Barra. She looks like that first girl you fathered, when we were boys together in the Vale." Cersei's expression betrays nothing at this news, but she tells the king, "This man dishonors you with every breath he takes, and yet you stand there meekly, asking if his leg pains him and would he like some wine." Robert sends "a vicious backhand blow to the side of the head. She stumbled against the table and fell hard, yet Cersei Lannister did not cry out." She says of the bruise, "I shall wear this as a badge of honor." Robert calls for a guard and has her escorted back to her room.

When she is gone, Robert expresses his contempt for her, tells Ned that he is going hunting the next morning, and forbids him to resign as Hand, threatening to make Jaime Lannister Hand instead. Ned reluctantly agrees.

Catelyn

Ser Rodrik brings Catelyn the news that Tywin Lannister is massing his troops and that her brother, Edmure, is preparing to defend the land ruled by the Tullys. There is no news of how her father, Lord Hoster, is handling matters, which makes Catelyn worry that he is sick and has handed over matters to her brother.

Meanwhile, plans are going forth for the trial by combat, and Catelyn reflects on the change in her sister: "The shy girl she had known at Riverrun had grown into a woman who was by turns proud, fearful, cruel, dreamy, reckless, timid, stubborn, vain, and above all, inconstant."

In the hall where the combat is to take place, Lysa is surrounded by her knights. "Most of them still hoped to wed her, bed her, and rule the Vale of Arryn by her side. From what Catelyn had seen during her stay at the Eyrie, it was a vain hope." She tries to dissuade Lysa from going through with the trial. "Alive, the Imp has value. Dead, he is only food for crows." And, she adds, suppose his champion should defeat hers.

Lysa's knights assure Catelyn that Ser Vardis will prevail. Catelyn has her doubts, however. She has seen Bronn fight. But Lysa will not be persuaded: "'Lord Robert wants to see him fly,' she said, as if that settled the matter." When Tyrion is brought forth, Lord Robert says, "The bad little man.... Mother, can I make him fly? I want to see him fly." Lysa promises him that he will.

The champions appear. "Ser Vardis Egen was steel from head to heel, encased in heavy plate armor over mail and padded surcoat.... Bronn was so lightly armored he looked almost naked beside the knight." But he is taller and has a longer reach, Catelyn observes, "and Bronn was fifteen years younger, if she was any judge."

There is some ceremony before the fight begins, which only makes Lord Robert more petulant. The combatants kneel, and afterward Ser Vardis is so encumbered by his armor that he has to be helped to his feet. He is given "a triangular shield almost four feet tall, heavy oak dotted with iron studs," but when Bronn is offered a similar shield he declines it. The sword Ser Vardis is handed was made for Jon Arryn, Lysa boasts. Catelyn observes that the knight "might have been more comfortable with his own sword," but she doesn't tell her sister that. Lord Robert keeps urging, "Make them fight," and when finally the time has come, he screams out the order, "Fight!"

Bronn's tactic is to wear the armored Ser Vardis out, enraging the crowd, which calls him a coward. Ser Rodrik, however, explains to Catelyn what Bronn is doing. She remembers the duel between Brandon Stark and Littlefinger, when the latter challenged him for her hand. It was a brutal mismatch that ended with Littlefinger being seriously wounded. Because her father forbade her seeing him, it was Lysa who nursed Littlefinger back to health. She did not see him again until her secret return to King's Landing. Littlefinger also nursed a grievance against her brother Edmure, who had been Brandon's second in the duel.

Her mind comes back to the duel at hand, and she notices that Ser Vardis is unable to lay a blow on Bronn, but Bronn has already put a dent in the knight's armor. The fight has taken them to the vicinity of a marble statue of a weeping woman meant to be Alyssa Arryn, a legendary ancestor whose tears for her dead husband and children are supposed to be the source of a waterfall near the castle. Bronn ducks behind the statue just as Vardis lunges, so the sword hits the statue instead. Lord Robert whines that they're "not fighting good," and Lysa assures him that they will: "The sellsword can't run all day."

Bronn lands more blows on the knight's armor and he hacks chips off of the shield. He ducks a blow from the knight's sword, and Vardis crashes into the statue. He is having trouble keeping the agile Bronn in his sights: the slit in his visor limits his vision. From behind, Bronn lands a blow on Vardis's sword arm, which begins to bleed. Vardis is moving slower and his breaths are audible. Lysa is oblivious to this, however, and orders him, "Finish him now, my baby is getting tired."

Vardis seems to respond to her command, and charges at Bronn, who almost loses his footing and has to grab the statue to regain his balance. Vardis drops his shield and uses both hands to raise his sword, but the blow misses Bronn and hits the statue, breaking the sword. Bronn shoves the statue and it topples onto the knight. Then Bronn moves in for the kill.

Lord Robert asks if it's over. "No, Catelyn wanted to tell him, it's only now beginning." But Lysa says, "Yes," and when the boy asks, "Can I make the little man fly now?" Tyrion speaks up. "'Not this little man,' he said. 'This little man is going down in the turnip hoist, thank you very much," meaning the basket that hoists provisions from below. Lord Robert is furious at his mother. "You promised I could make him fly." But Lysa remains true to her word and sets Tyrion free, giving them the horses and supplies they need as well, once they reach the high road.

Catelyn realizes what this means as "Lysa allowed herself a faint, satisfied smile. It was another sort of death sentence," exposing them to the same sort of attacks they had encountered on the way to the Vale of Arryn.

Jon 

Ser Alliser Thorne has assembled the trainees in the yard for an announcement: Five new boys are on their way to the Wall for training, so he has decided to send eight of Jon's group to the Lord Commander for assignment to their duties as men of the Night's Watch. He calls out their names, and the last one he mentions is "the Bastard." But he says they aren't really fit yet, "and when winter comes you will die like flies."

The promoted boys celebrate, but then "Jon noticed Samwell Tarly standing by himself beneath a bare dead tree in the corner of the yard." When he goes to offer Sam a drink from the wineskin being passed around, Sam declines. He says he is happy for Jon and the others, but when Jon is swept up again in the horseplay of the celebrating boys, Sam disappears.

At dinner they talk about what they hope their assignments will be. Most want to be rangers, but others want to be builders, tasked with maintenance of the Wall. They agree that Jon will be a ranger, since his uncle Benjen, whom Jon is still unwilling to believe is dead, was First Ranger. But Jon is upset because Sam is not at dinner. He has realized what is likely to happen to his friend: With him and the other boys who have protected him gone, Sam will be exposed to the sadism of the master-at-arms.

Jon goes back to his quarters to fetch Ghost, then saddles a horse and rides away from Castle Black on the road leading south. He lets Ghost run free and hunt while he reflects on the fact that the road leads to Winterfell and to the places beyond that he has never seen. "The world was down that road ... and he was here." He hasn't sworn his vow to the Night's Watch yet, so he could still just keep riding down the road to Winterfell and his brothers. But he corrects himself: They are his half-brothers, and Catelyn Stark will not be pleased to see  him return. So he turns and goes back to Castle Black, followed by Ghost, whose muzzle is red with blood from whatever he has killed.

When he gets back to the castle, Jon goes and asks to see Maester Aemon. The two stewards, Clydas and Chett, tell him that the maester is asleep and can't be disturbed, but Jon gets his foot in the door and insists that it is important. So they let him in reluctantly and tell him to make a fire in the library. When Maester Aemon enters, Jon apologizes for waking him, but the maester tells him he wasn't asleep and is curious why he has "a midnight visitor." Jon tells him that he has come "To ask that Samwell Tarly be taken from training and accepted as a brother of the Night's Watch." Aemon says that training is under the purview of Ser Alliser Thorne, but Jon argues that the Lord Commander listens to the maester, "And the wounded and the sick of the Night's Watch are in your charge" -- and Sam will be both if he doesn't get the maester's help.

He explains that Sam is completely incompetent as a fighter, and "If Ser Alliser makes him fight, it's only a matter of time before he's hurt or killed." Chett argues that "The Wall is no place for the weak," and the maester should just leave it in the hands of the master-at-arms who will "make a man of him or kill him, as the gods will." Jon says, "That's stupid." And he tells how Maester Luwin once explained that the chain a maester wears around his neck is made up of a variety of metals, each of which symbolizes a different kind of learning. "A chain needs all sorts of metals, and a land needs all sorts of people.... The Night's Watch needs all sorts too. Why else have rangers and stewards and builders?" No one can make Same into a warrior, so why not make him a steward? 

Chett protests that the work of stewards is hard, that they have to hunt and farm, cook and make clothing and fetch supplies from the south. Aemon asks if Sam is a hunter or a farmer or a butcher, and Jon is forced to answer no. But he argues, "He can do sums, and he knows how to read and write. I know Chett can't read, and Clydas has weak eyes. Same read every book in his father's library." He's good with animals, too. "The Night's Watch needs every man. Why kill one, to no end?"

The maester says, "Your mind is as deft as your blade, it would seem." And he tells Jon he'll think about it.

Tyrion

Tyrion and Bronn have reached the high road and are preparing to camp for the night. But when Tyrion starts gathering firewood, Bronn is astonished: "A fire will bring the clansmen down on us from miles around. I mean to survive this journey, Lannister." He argues that they should ride fast by night and hide during the day. But Tyrion observes, "Riding hard and fast by night is a sure way to tumble down a mountain and crack your skull." And as their journey to the Vale demonstrated, the horses tend to die if ridden that way. Besides, "I think the clans will find us no matter what we do."

Bronn threatens to take Tyrion's horse and go on without him, taking his chances by having an extra mount. "Make no mistake, dwarf. I fought for you, but I do not love you." To which Tyrion replies, "It was your blade I needed, ... not your love." He had taken a chance that Bronn would come to his aid because he knew the mercenary does things for gold. He took Catelyn's side in the abduction because he figured he'd get paid. So when the challenge came for the trial by combat, "I was counting on your being smart enough to know where your best interest lay. Happily for me, you did." Then he adds, "What do you want, Bronn? Gold? Land? Women? Keep me alive, and you'll have it." And if he dies, Tyrion says, "I'll have one mourner whose grief is sincere.... The gold ends when I do."

Bronn goes in search of food and comes back with a goat, which they roast and eat. Bronn asks where they'll go if they survive the journey, and Tyrion says either to Casterly Rock or to King's Landing. "I have some questions that want answering concerning a certain dagger." After dinner, Tyrion observes, "Our friends are taking their sweet time," and Bronn suggests that they're being so open about their presence in the territory of the hill people that maybe they think it's a trap. Tyrion begins to whistle a tune, "The Seasons of My Love." He tells Bronn, "The first girl I ever bedded used to sing it, and I've never been able to put it out of my head."

When he was thirteen, he was out with Jaime one night and rescued a girl being attacked by two men. As Jaime pursued them, he watched over the girl who said she was the daughter of a crofter who had died. He took her to an inn where Tyrion lost his virginity. They located "a drunken septon" who married them, and he set the girl up in a cottage, where they were man and wife for a fortnight. Then the septon sobered up and told Tyrion's father, who made Jaime tell him the truth: "The girl was a whore, you see. Jaime arranged the whole affair, the road, the outlaws, all of it. He thought it was time I had a woman." So Lord Tywin made Tyrion watch as his guards had sex with the girl, each of them paying her in silver. Then Tywin made Tyrion go last. "And he gave me a gold coin to pay her because I was a Lannister, and worth more."

Bronn says, "I would have killed the man who did that to me." Tyrion says, "You may get that chance one day. Remember what I told you. A Lannister always pays his debts." Then he says he'll try to get some sleep. "Wake me if we're about to die."

And Bronn does, waking Tyrion from a dream in which he is the jailer and his father is the prisoner in a sky cell. Shadowy figures are creeping up on them, and Tyrion invites them to share their fire and some of their goat. A voice replies that it's their mountain and their goat. A man who calls himself Gunthor son of Gurn of the Stone Crows steps into the light, followed by Shagga son of Dolf, and others who call out their names. "I am Tyrion son of Tywin of the Clan Lannister, the Lions of the Rock," Tyrion replies, and offers to pay them for the goat. Gunthor replies that since they have them surrounded, everything Tyrion and Bronn have is already theirs, "You have nothing to give us but your lives. How would you like to die, Tyrion son of Tywin?"

"In my own bed, with a belly full of wine, and a maiden's mouth around my cock, at the age of eighty," he replied. 

They laugh, and Gunthor orders his men to kill Bron and take Tyrion so "He can milk the goats and make the mothers laugh." Bronn leaps to his feet, but Tyrion restrains him, telling Gunthor, "If the Stone Crows will see us safely through these mountains, my lord father will shower you with gold." And he stands his ground when they threaten him, after he says of their weapons, "My father's smiths shit better steel." Gunthor stills the others: "What would you give us for your lives, Tyrion son of Tywin? Swords? Lances? Mail?"

Tyrion replies that he'll give them more than that: "I will give you the Vale of Arryn."

9. A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 378-423

Eddard 

Ned has been to the brothel that Littlefinger identified for him, and now has to listen to his ribald chatter as they return to the castle. He has found the prostitute with whom Robert sired another bastard, a girl the mother named Barra, and agreed with her that the infant looks like Robert. He had "touched the baby's fine, dark hair. It flowed through his fingers like black silk. Robert's firstborn had had the same fine hair, he seemed to recall." He thinks of Jon Snow's resemblance to himself.

As they ride back, he asks Littlefinger what he knows about Robert's bastards, and Littlefinger admits that there have been a lot of them, including twins born at Casterly Rock after Robert visited there for a tournament. "Cersei had the babes killed, and sold the mother to a passing slaver. Too much an affront to Lannister pride, that close to home." And he asks why Jon Arryn took "a sudden interest in the King's baseborn children. Lannister says he assumes Robert wanted to see that they were provided for. Ned isn't convinced that's the reason.

Suddenly Jory calls out in alarm, and they are surrounded by soldiers. When Littlefinger says, "This is the Hand of the King," Jaime Lannister moves through the group and says, "He was the Hand of the King." He tells Ned that he is looking for Tyrion. "'Your brother has been taken at my command, to answer for his crimes,' Ned Stark said." Jaime draws his sword and says that Ned should do the same, then tells Littlefinger to leave if he doesn't want to get his clothes bloody. Littlefinger does so, promising Ned that he'll bring the City Watch.

There are twenty of Lannister's men, all on foot except Jaime, and only Ned and three of his men, all of them on horses. Ned assumes that they could get free by charging, but decides to meet Jaime's challenge: "'Kill me,' he warned the Kingslayer, 'and Catelyn will most certainly slay Tyrion.'" Jaime says that he doubts that "The noble Catelyn Tully of Riverrun [would] murder a hostage," but he tells the captain of his men to "see that no harm comes to Lord Stark." Then he adds that he wouldn't want Ned "to leave hear entirely unchastened, so ... kill his men."

In the fight that follows Ned watches Jory cut down, and Ned's horse slips and falls. He feels "a moment of blinding pain" and sees "the splintered bone poking through his calf" before he faints. "When he opened his eyes again, Lord Eddard Stark was alone with his dead.... Littlefinger and the City Watch found him there in the street, cradling Jory Cassel's body in his arms."

Daenerys

They arrive at Vaes Dothrak with Khal Drogo and his bloodriders in the lead, followed by Daenerys, Jorah Mormont, and her brother, Viserys, who has been allowed to ride on a horse again. After a day of walking, Viserys had been given a cart to ride in. "In his stubborn ignorance, he had not even known he was being mocked; the carts were for eunuchs, cripples, women giving birth, the very young and the very old." Daenerys asked Ser Jorah not to tell him the truth.

Viserys continues to scorn everything he sees as they move through the city, and constantly refers to the Dothraki as "savages," though Daenerys tells him he shouldn't.

"The dragon speaks as he likes," Viserys said ... in the Common Tongue. He glanced over his shoulder at Aggo and Rakharo, riding behind them, and favored them with a mocking smile. "See, the savages lack the wit to understand the speech of civilized men." 

He continues to complain that Khal Drogo hasn't given him the army or the golden crown that he was promised. Jorah tells Daenerys that it would have been better if Viserys had stayed behind in Pentos. "You do not demand a gift, not of a khal. You do not demand anything of a khal." Jorah also comments that even if Viserys were to get his army, he would be unable to conquer the Seven Kingdoms, which leads Daenerys to ask, "What ... what if it were not Viserys?" What if someone else led the Dothraki against the Seven Kingdoms?  Jorah ponders the question and suggests that the kind of warfare the Dothraki wage is different from the kind the lords of the Seven Kingdoms are used to, and that the Dothraki are used to open warfare rather than besieging castles. Robert Baratheon, he says, might be "rash enough to meet a Dothraki horde in the open field, but not the men around him, such as "His brother Stannis, Lord Tywin Lannister, Eddard Stark...." He spits at the mention of Ned, whom he hates.

Their conversation takes a different turn when they enter Vaes Dothrak through the Western Market. She is helped down from her horse by Cohollo, one of Khal Drogo's three bloodriders -- men who are treated like the Khal's brothers, and according to ancient tradition are expected to die with the Khal when he dies. Daenerys likes Cohollo, but the others "frightened her; Haggo, huge and silent, often glowered as if he had forgotten who she was, and Qotho had cruel eyes and quick hands that liked to hurt.

Dar Salim as Qotho

That night, Khal Drogo and his bloodriders go up the Mother of Mountains to thank the gods for a safe return, and Daenerys has her handmaidens prepare a meal for Viserys, to whom she is giving some gifts. She sends Doreah to fetch him, but he comes back enraged, dragging Doreah by the arm and calling her a whore because she had told him Daenerys "commanded" him to join her for supper. "'No one commands the dragon,' Viserys snarled. 'I am your king! I should have sent you back her head!'" Daenerys tries to placate him with her gifts, Dothraki garments that she has had specially made for him, but he scorns them as "Dothraki rags."

Roxanne McKee as Doreah

When Viserys says, "Do you think that big belly will protect you if you wake the dragon?" and grabs her roughly and painfully, she reaches out for the ornate belt she had planned to give him, and lashes out with it, cutting his cheek with one of the bronze medallions on it. "Leave me now, before I summon my khas to drag you out. And pray that Khal Drogo does not hear of this, or he will cut open your belly and feed you your own entrails." He leaves, clutching his bleeding cheek, threatening, "When I come into my kingdom, you will rue this day, slut."

She tells her servants that she isn't hungry and to share the food they have prepared among them, then asks for one of the dragon's eggs. She lies down and holds it to her stomach, feeling "the child move within her ... as if he were reaching out, brother to brother, blood to blood.

Bran

Bran goes out riding on the horse named Dancer that has been specially trained for the saddle designed for him according to Tyrion's specs. He is accompanied by Robb and Theon Greyjoy, a stableman named Joseth who is master of horse, and four guards. Maester Luwin brings up the rear, riding on a donkey. Bran's wolf, Summer, and Robb's Grey Wind, run alongside. As Bran grows more used to the saddle, he wants to ride faster, and soon they are moving at a gallop.

As they reach the woods, the wolves disappear into it. Bran mentioned that Summer had been howling the night before, and Robb says that Grey Wind was restless as well. Robb takes Bran aside and tells him that a bird had arrived from King's Landing with the news that "Jory Cassel is dead. And Wyl and Heward as well, Murdered by the Kingslayer." As Bran absorbs the news, Robb tells him the worst: His father has broken his leg and is unconscious. "Theon thinks I should call the banners," i.e., summon their supporters for retaliation. Bran knows that only the Lord of Winterfell can summon the banners, but Greyjoy says if Bran's father dies, Robb will be the lord. "'He won't die!' Bran screamed at him."

Bran says he's cold and wants to go back now, but Robb says they need to find the wolves first. They travel ahead of the others into the forest and reach a stream where they used to fish with Jory, which causes Bran to start to cry. When they cross the stream they hear a howl that Bran identifies as Summer. It's followed soon by a howl from Grey Wind, and Robb says the wolves have made a kill. He goes to find them, leaving Bran alone, expecting Greyjoy and the others to join them soon.

Bran hears the leaves rustle and turns, expecting to see the others, but instead it's a group of four men and two women, dressed in rags. Two of the men are dressed in black, which Bran realizes must be the remnants of the Night's Watch uniforms. He remembers the deserter his father executed, and his father's warning, "No man is more dangerous" than a deserter. One of the men demands the silver pin that fastens Bran's cloak at the shoulders, one of the women says they'll take the horse. She tells him to get down, but when he says he can't the other woman notices that he's strapped onto the horse. She suggests taking him hostage.

One of the men cuts the strap around Bran's thigh, and in doing so cuts Bran's leg. He doesn't feel the wound, but sees the blood begin to flow. Just then Robb appears, with the carcass of an elk across the back of his horse. He says, "Put down your steel now, and I promise you shall have a quick and painless death," but they mock him, pointing out he's outnumbered, six to one. Then Robb whistles and the two wolves appear from the forest.

Natalia Tena as Osha

They do battle, the wolves attacking as Robb fights with the larger of the two women, whom one of the men called Osha. She is standing in midstream and wielding a spear, but Robb's longsword gets the better of her. The wolves dispatch the others, but the big man known as Stiv cuts the strap around Bran's chest. Bran falls into the water, but Stiv grabs him and puts his dagger to Bran's throat, telling Robb to call off the wolves, "or the cripple boy dies now!" Osha rises from where she fell in the stream and Stiv orders her to kill the wolves. She refuses to go anywhere near them. So Stiv orders Robb to kill the wolves or he'll kill Bran.

Suddenly an arrow pierces Stiv's chest and he releases his hold on the dagger and on Bran. The guardsmen appear from the woods and Osha begins to beg for her life. Maester Luwin goes to examine Bran's wound, and Joseth goes behind a tree to vomit when he sees Summer feeding on the corpse of one of the attackers. Robb berates Greyjoy for taking such a chance with the arrow he shot Stiv with, and the guardsmen for being so far behind. "Bran had never seen him so angry."

Osha continues to plead for her life. Greyjoy suggests giving her to the wolves. Bran speaks up and says, "She said they should keep me alive so they could take me to Mance Rayder." Maester Luwin suggest that they question her, so they take her back to Winterfell.

Tyrion

Behind: Ciaran Bermingham as Mord

Tyrion is being held in a cell, "miserably small, even for a dwarf," that has only three walls. Where the fourth would be is open air and a six-hundred-foot drop to the rocks below. Moreover, the floor of the cell slopes toward the opening, so that Tyrion is afraid to fall asleep because he might roll over the edge. The sadistic guard, Mord, brings his dinner, but holds "the plate out at arm's length, over the edge where the cell ended and the sky began," telling him to come get it, then drops the plate.

Tyrion is berating himself for not holding his tongue when he was brought before Lysa and her son. The boy had asked, "Is he the bad man?" and when his mother said he was, had giggled and said, "He's so small." And when Lysa accused him of killing her husband, Tyrion retorted sarcastically, "Oh, did I kill him too?" He was in a bad mood because he had been unable to make the final climb to the Eyrie and Bronn had carried him. So when he threatened reprisals from his brother Jaime if he is harmed, Lysa asked, "Can you fly, Tyrion Lannister? ... Does a dwarf have wings? If not, you would be wiser to swallow the next threat that comes to mind." Tyrion still can't resist: "I made no threats.... That was a promise." This only provokes the boy to scream, "You can't hurt us," and Lysa to maintain the Eyrie is impregnable. "Still, Tyrion had been unableto silence himself. 'Not impregnable,' he said, 'merely inconvenient.'"

When Robert says, "You're a liar. Mother, I want to see him fly," and two guards lift Tyrion up by the arms, Catelyn finally intervenes and reminds her sister that Tyrion is her prisoner. So Tyrion is sent to the sky cells.

Shivering and starving in his cell, Tyrion wonders if his brother and sister "had sent the footpad to silence the Stark boy, and whether they had truly conspired at the death of Lord Arryn." The latter, if it was murder, "was deftly and subtly done." But the attack on Bran "struck him as unbelievably clumsy." He has a suspicion that he is being framed for the attack, that "someone was using him as a catspaw. Tyrion Lannister hated being used." So he begins to devise a plan to get out of the cell. He bribes Mord with a promise of gold if he'll take a message to Lady Arryn saying that he wants to confess his crimes.

Brendan McCormack as Vardis Egen

Ser Vardis Egen, who had been captain of Jon Arryn's household guard, comes to the cell with the queen's response to Tyrion's message: She wants to see him. He is taken to the High Hall, where there is a gathering of the lords of the Vale, as well as Ser Rodrik Cassel, Marillion, Bronn, and Catelyn. She says, "You wish to confess your crimes, we are told." Her sister says, "The sky cells always break them. The gods can see them there, and there is no darkness to hide in." Catelyn only observes, "He does not look broken to me." But Lysa tells him to proceed with his confession.

Tyrion confesses to gambling, whoring, to wishing his father and his sister were dead, and to mistreating his servants, but not to murdering Jon Arryn or hiring someone to attack Bran. "Those crimes I cannot confess, I fear. I know nothing of any murders." Lysa is furious and orders him sent back to "a smaller cell, with a floor more sharply sloped." But Tyrion stands his ground and demands a trial. So Lysa shows him what his fate will be if he is found guilty: She has the Moon Door opened. Beyond the heavily barred door there is only "the emptiness of the night sky," and the howling wind it admits blows out some of the torches in the hall.

Catelyn advises against the trial, but Lysa ignores her: "My son will listen to whatever you care to say, and ou shall hear his judgment. Then you may leave ... by one door or the other."

She looked so pleased with herself, Tyrion thought, and small wonder. How could a trial threaten her, when her weakling son was the lord judge? Tyrion glanced at her Moon Door. Mother, I want to see him fly! the boy had said. How many men had the snot-nosed little wretch sent through that door already?

But Tyrion has another card to play: "I demand trial by combat."

The request causes laughter throughout the hall. But Lysa admits that he has the right to ask for it. Suddenly there is a clamor of men volunteering to be the champion of Lysa's cause. "Tyrion found it disheartening to realize so many strangers were eager to kill him. Perhaps this had not been such a clever plan after all." Lysa chooses Vardis Egen, her husband's "good right hand," to be her champion. But he protests that Tyrion is "A dwarf, half my size and lame in the legs. It would be shameful to slaughter such a man and call it justice." So Tyrion seizes the opportunity and claims the right to choose his own champion, and names his brother Jaime.

But Lysa stands her ground this time and says, "Your precious Kingslayer is hundreds of leagues from here," and the combat will take place tomorrow. Now Tyrion wonders "if it had all been a colossal blunder." But from the rear of the hall Bronn speaks up: "I'll stand for the dwarf."

8. A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 324-377

Tyrion 

Tyrion's horse is being butchered because the party that abducted him from the inn is running out of food. He had protested, "You're making a sad mistake, Lady Stark. I had no part in any attack on your son." But Catelyn had held up her hand, showing the wounds she suffered when she grabbed the blade of the dagger during the assault on Bran. "His dagger left these scars," she said. "The blade he sent to open my son's throat." That was enough to turn the crowd against him. His men were not enough to hold them off, and as a member of the Night's Watch, Yoren was prohibited from taking part in "quarrels of the realm."


Catelyn had saved him from being killed there, announcing, "We are taking him back to Winterfell." Ser Rodrik told the crowd to remain quiet about the events, which Tyrion knew was impossible: "the word would begin to spread the instant they were gone." He was confident that supporters of the Lannisters would soon be on their trail. Then a hood was pulled over his eyes and he was put on a horse. They were joined by the singer, Marillion, who saw an opportunity to chronicle these events in song.


But after a long ride, when they stopped for a rest and the hood was removed, Tyrion realized that Catelyn had outwitted him: They were taking the eastern road, not the one to Winterfell. They were going to the castle of Jon Arryn's widow, and Catelyn's sister, Lysa.


The journey is difficult, and Tyrion's is the third horse they've had to slaughter. He argues against going further, pointing out that if he dies, Catelyn will have no advantage in taking him hostage. He repeats his claim of innocence in the attack on Bran: "'it was not my dagger,' he insisted. 'How many times must I swear to that? Lady Stark, whatever you may believe of me, I am not a stupid man. Only a fool would arm a common footpad with his own blade." He sees "a flicker of doubt in her eyes," but she asks him why Littlefinger would lie about such a thing.


"Lying comes as easily as breathing to a man like Littlefinger," he says. "You ought to know that, you of all people." She asks what he means, and he replies, "Why, every man at court has heard him tell how he took your maidenhead, my lady." She proclaims that a lie, Marillion is shocked, and Kurlecket, one of the men who joined them at the inn, threatens to cut out his tongue. Petyr Baelish loved her, she says, and wanted to marry her. "You are truly an evil man, Lannister."

"And you are truly a fool, Lady Stark. Littlefinger has never loved anyone but Littlefinger, and I promise you that it is not your hand that he boasts of, it's those ripe breasts of yours, and that sweet mouth, and the heat between your legs."

Kurlecket repeats his threat to kill Tyrion, but Catelyn says, "Let him talk." So he asks her what Littlefinger said when he told her the dagger was Tyrion's.  She says that Littlefinger claimed Tyrion won it from him on a bet on the joust between Jaime Lannister and the Knight of Flowers on Prince Joffrey's name day.


But the conversation is interrupted by a lookout's cry of "Riders!" They are being attacked by one of the mountain clans, who owe no allegiance to any of the great houses. Catelyn orders the men to mount up and to guard the prisoners, but Tyrion urges her to arm him and his servants. "You will need every sword." She realizes he is right: To lose one man guarding the three prisoners would put them at a disadvantage. Bronn, one of the "sellswords" (il.e. mercenaries) who had joined up with Catelyn at the inn, gives Tyrion a double-bladed axe. Tyrion protests that he's never fought with an axe, but Bronn says, "Pretend you're splitting logs."

Jerome Flynn as Bronn

"'Logs don't bleed,' Tyrion said to no one in particular," then he looks for a hiding place and finds Marillion behind a rock. He kicks the singer until he moves over. The battle rages on. Then Marillion shrieks as a horse jumps over them, then the rider turns and comes toward them. Tyrion swings the axe and cuts the horse's throat. The horse and the rider collapse on top of Marillion, and Tyrion kills the rider. As Marillion tries to grope his way out from under the dead horse, Tyrion steps on the singer's hand and feels "a satisfying crunch."


Tyrion dodges his way through the confusion of the battle, and when he comes across Kurlecket's body he takes the dead man's dagger. Then he hears Catelyn scream and finds her trapped by three men. He takes down the first one with an axe blow behind the knee, then as the second attacks he ducks, lashes out with the axe, and as the man stumbles, Catelyn moves in with a dagger and cuts his throat. The third man rides away.


The battle is over, and they discover that nine of the mountain men are dead, but only three of theirs, including one of Tyrion's servants. Catelyn wants to stay and bury their dead, but is persuaded not to do so, for fear of another attack. As they get ready to ride on, one of the men starts to take away Tyrion's weapons, the dirk and the axe, but Catelyn says to let him keep them. Tyrion thanks her, but she says, "I trust you no more than I did before."


As they ride on, Tyrion returns to the question of the dagger that Littlefinger claims Tyrion won from him by betting that the Knight of Flowers would unhorse Jaime Lannister: "there is a serious flaw in Littlefinger's fable. Whatever you may believe of me, Lady Stark, I promise you this -- I never bet against my family."


Arya

Arya is catching cats, an exercise prescribed by Syrio to develop stealth, cunning, and quickness. And her chief prey is a one-eared black tomcat. She has chased him around the castle, "in and out of strange buildings until Arya didn't know where she was." Finally, she has him cornered and has just grabbed him when a voice says, "What's he doing with that cat?"

At the end of the alley stood a girl with a mass of golden curls, dressed as pretty as a doll in blue satin. Beside her was a plump little blond boy with a prancing stag sewn in pearls across the front of his doublet and a miniature sword at his belt. Princess Myrcella and Prince Tommen, Arya thought.

When they continue to refer to her as a boy, "A ragged dirty smelly boy," she realizes that she hasn't been recognized and makes her escape. The septa with them calls for a guardsman who gives pursuit. When she eludes him, she doesn't know where she is, but she finds herself in a room with monsters -- huge skulls with sharp teeth that we recognize as the Targaryen dragon skulls that King Robert had stored in the cellars. Finding a door, she opens it just enough to slip through into a dark hall. "If the room with the monsters had been dark, the hall was the blackest pit in the seven hells." But she summons up the things that Syrio has taught her, such as Fear cuts deeper than swords, and keeps her head as she feels her way through the dark.


When she begins to see a faint flickering light, she is on the edge of "a great black well, a shaft twenty feet across plunging deep into the earth." She begins to hear voices coming from the pit, and soon can make out the shadows of two men, one of them carrying a torch. They are climbing some steps out of the shaft. One of the men says something about finding a bastard, and then as they grow closer he says, "The fools tried to kill his son" and "I warn you, the wolf and the lion will soon be at each other's throats." The other man speaks with "the liquid accents of the Free Cities," and he says, "What good is war now? We are not ready." The first man says, "Do you take me for a wizard?" and the man with the accent says, "No less."


As they emerge from the shaft, Arya hides in the shadows. The first man, who carries the torch, has "A round scarred face and a stubble of dark beard showed under his steel cap.... It seemed to Arya there was something oddly familiar about him." The man with the accent says, "If one Hand can die, why not a second?" He has a "forked yellow beard" and is hugely fat but light on his feet, and his fingers are covered with rings that glitter in the torchlight. Arya has never seen him before. He says to the first man, "The princess is with child. The khal will not bestir himself until his son is born."


The man with the torch pushes something and a huge slab of rock slides out of the ceiling and fills the space where the well had been. He says, "Stannis Baratheon and Lysa Arryn have fled beyond my reach, and the whispers say they are gathering swords around them." And that the Knight of Flowers has a fourteen-year-old sister that he and Lord Renly want to marry the king and become the queen. And that Arya's father "has the bastard, he has the book,, and soon enough he'll have the truth. And now his wife has abducted Tyrion Lannister, thanks to Littlefinger."


The man with the accent calls the other "a true sorcerer." But the torchbearer says, "I must have gold, and another fifty birds." And as they walk away she can only hear snatches of their conversation. She follows them at a distance, but eventually loses sight of them, and finds herself  "knee-deep in foul-smelling water." Eventually, she reaches the end of the sewer where it flows into the river. She strips and tries to wash the stink from her body and clothes, then makes her way back to the castle, where she has to plead for admittance.


Two guards escort her to her father's rooms, where he tells her half his guard has been searching for her and Septa Mordane is praying for her return. She begins to spill out her story, about monsters and two men who "were talking about killing you" and about a bastard, which she takes to be Jon, and a book. She sees the one he has been reading and asks if that's it. "The fat one said the princess was with child. The one in the steel cap, he had the torch, he said that they had to hurry. I think he was a wizard."


Ned tries to persuade her they were mummers -- "There must be a dozen troupes in King's landing right now." He turns his attention to the scratches on her arms, and says he needs to talk to Syrio Forel about her training. But he is interrupted by a steward who says "there's a black brother here begging audience. He says the matter is urgent." He admits Yoren, who takes Arya for Ned's son, to her indignation, and she begins to ask him about Jon and her brothers. Ned apologizes for Arya's eagerness and asks if his brother Benjen had sent him.


No one sent him, Yoren says. He is there to recruit men for the Wall. But he is there because of the incident at the inn. He wants to speak to Ned in private, so Ned has the steward, Desmond, take Arya to her room.


Eddard

The council is meeting about the news that Daenerys Targaryen is pregnant. Robert wants her dead, and Ned is arguing against it. But in the end, only Ser Barristan Selmy agrees that killing a child and possibly provoking a war would be dishonorable. The argument ends with Ned resigning as Hand.


Returning to his chambers, Ned tells his steward, Vayon Poole, to prepare for a return to Winterfell. Poole tells him it will take a fortnight to get everything ready for the journey, but Ned says the king is so angry with him that they may not have that long. Among his concerns is "the business with Catelyn and the dwarf that Yoren had warned him of last night.... Robert might not care a fig for Tyrion Lannister, but it would touch on his pride, and there was no telling what the queen might do."


So he proposes to leave now with Arya and Sansa and a few guardsmen, and let the rest follow. Then he thinks of returning to Winterfell by sea. As he's pondering all this, Littlefinger is announced. Ned greets him coldly, but Littlefinger chatters on about the council's discussion of the ways to kill Daenerys. They decided to "make a lord of whoever does in the Targaryen girl," instead of hiring a killer from the Faceless Men. Littlefinger claims that he came up with the idea and that by doing so he may have saved Daenerys's life: A sellsword will probably "make a botch of it, and afterward the Dothraki will be on their guard. If we'd sent a Faceless Man after her, she'd be as good as buried." Ned is annoyed at Littlefinger's amusement at murder, but he replies, "It's not murder I find amusing, Lord Stark, it's you. You rule like a man dancing on rotten ice. I daresay you will make a noble splash. I believe I heard the first crack this morning."


But then Littlefinger plays his high card: "if perchance you're still here come evenfall, I'd be pleased to take you to this brothel your man Jory has been searching for so ineffectually."


Catelyn

They are making the arduous climb into the mountains toward the castle of the Arryns, and Catelyn is reflecting on her hostage.

The little man was more cunning than she liked. When they had entered the mountains, he had been her captive, bound and helpless. What was he now? Her captive still, yet he rode along with a dirk through his belt and an axe strapped to his saddle, wearing the shadowskin cloak he'd won dicing with the singer and the chainmail hauberk he'd taken off Chiggen's corpse.... Could I be wrong? Catelyn wondered, not for the first time. Could he be innocent after all, of Bran and Jon Arryn and all the rest? And if he was, what did that make her? Six men had died to bring him here.

But she stifles her doubts and rides on. They reach the Bloody Gate, a portal into Arryn lands, and a knight rides out to challenge them. He turns out to be Catelyn's uncle, Brynden Tully, who gives them entrance to the Vale of Arryn. He tells them that they can be at the mountain by nightfall, but the ascent to the Eyrie will take another day. Ser Rodrik, who was wounded, can't travel farther, so Catelyn says that her uncle will take her and Tyrion the rest of the way while the others stay behind and gather their strength. But Marillion speaks up and says he wants to go so he can write the end to the story he plans to sing. And Bronn wants to come too. Catelyn isn't happy about this, even though Bronn has shown courage and strength, because "she had seen him riding beside Lannister far too often, talking in low voices and laughing at some private joke." But she agrees that the singer and the sellsword can come with them.

Along the way, Brynden confides his worries about Lysa and her son, describing the latter as "Six years old, sickly, and prone to weep if you take his dolls away. Jon Arryn's trueborn son, by all the gods, yet there are some who say he is too weak to sit his father's seat." As for Lysa, he tells Catelyn she will find her sister changed. "Two babes stillborn, twice as many miscarriages, Lord Arryn's death.... Catelyn, the gods gave Lysa only the one child, and he is all your sister lives for now." He also expresses doubt that bringing Tyrion to Lysa was a good idea.

As they reach the base of the mountain from which the Eyrie rises, Tyrion comments. "The Arryns must not be overfond of company. If you're planning to make us climb that mountain in the dark, I'd rather you kill me here." Brynden tells them that there are "three waycastles, Stone and Snow and Sky," that guard the path to the Eyrie. Mules will take them as far as Sky and beyond that they go on foot, or a basket can be let down for them.

They plan to spend the night and make the ascent the next morning, but word arrives that Lysa wants to see Catelyn at once. Brynden protests that a night ascent is "an invitation to a broken neck," but a girl of seventeen or eighteen speaks up and says that she can safely guide Catelyn. Her name is Mya Stone, which troubles Catelyn because Stone is a surname given to bastards in the Vale, "as Snow was in the north.... Catelyn had nothing against this girl, but suddenly she could not help but think of Ned's bastard on the Wall, and the thought made her angry and guilty, both at once." But she agrees, and leaving Tyrion, Marillion, and Bronn for the night, she begins the ascent with Mya.

All goes well until they reach the point at which the mules have to be led across a pathway twenty feet long and three feet wide, with a sheer drop on either side. Catelyn panics, but Mya tells her to close her eyes and carefully leads her, "blind and trembling," across the pathway. They reach the waycastle called Sky as dawn is breaking, and the final ascent involves something "more like a stone ladder than proper steps," as Mya describes it. Catelyn remembers the basket option and chooses it.


Finally, she is in the Eyrie and is taken to see Lysa. She hasn't seen her sister for five years, and they haven't been kind to Lysa, who was two years younger than Catelyn but looked older. "She had the blue eyes of the Tullys, but here were pale and watery, never still. Her small mouth had turned petulant." Lysa greets her sister with a show of affection, but when she dismisses the attendants, she snaps, "Have you taken leave of your senses? ... To bring him here, without a word of permission, without so much as a warning, to drag us into your quarrels with the Lannisters...."


Catelyn is astonished at this outburst, but at that moment the boy, Robert Arryn, enters, "a painfully thin child, small for his age and sickly all this days." Lysa introduces him to his aunt Catelyn, and gushes, "Isn't he beautiful? And strong too, don't you believe the things you hear. Jon knew. The seed is strong, he told me. His last words." Catelyn tries to return to the topic of the Lannisters, but when she says, "Ned thinks it may come to war," Lysa snaps at her to be quiet: "You're scaring the boy." And then, "She opened her robe and drew out a pale, heavy breast, tipped with red. The boy grabbed for it eagerly, buried his face against her chest, and began to suck."


Catelyn is reminded of "three-year-old Rickon, half the age of this boy and five times as fierce." She tries to bring up the topic of the Lannisters again, but Lysa covers the boy's ears. Then she asks, "what am I to do with this Imp you have brought me?" The boy asks, "Is he a bad man?" And when his mother says he is, "'Make him fly,' Robert said eagerly." She responds, "Perhaps we will.... Perhaps that is just what we will do."

Lino Facioli as Robert Arryn and Kate Dickie as Lysa Arryn