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

Tyrion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daenerys

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

26. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 894-926

Tyrion

He is informed that he will be tried and judged by Mace Tyrell, Oberyn Martell, and his own father, but he can also choose a trial by combat. But Ser Kevan, his uncle, informs Tyrion that Cersei has named Gregor Clegane as her champion, which causes him to have second thoughts about that option. Bronn had succeeded as his champion at the Eyrie, but probably won't be persuaded to go against the Mountain.

In the meantime, he is under house arrest, which makes locating witnesses on his behalf somewhat difficult. He will be allowed access to his squire, Podrick, however. So when Podrick arrives Tyrion sends him in search of Bronn. Podrick is so long in returning, that Tyrion turns his mind to other things, such as figuring out who did poison Joffrey. He decides that it must have been Sansa, though he can't imagine who her accomplice might be in locating the poison, and sends word to his uncle that she should be found.

Podrick finally returns the next day with Bronn, who reveals that he is to marry Lollys, Lady Tanda's daughter, who is pregnant from being raped during the riots. When Tyrion points out to Bronn that Lollys is not the heir to Stokeworth, since she has a married elder sister, Falyse, Bronn point out that Falyse has been married for ten years without giving birth. Besides, Falyse could always die before Lady Tanda does. "Tyrion wondered whether Cersei had any notion of the sort of serpent she'd given Lady Tanda to suckle." Bronn turns down the offer to fight Gregor Clegane: "Either the Mountain spills my guts, or I kill him and lose Stokeworth. I sell my sword, I don't give it away."

When Bronn leaves, Podrick tells Tyrion he's sorry. But Tyrion replies, "Why? Is it your fault that Bronn's an insolent black-hearted rogue? He's always been an insolent black-hearted rogue. That's what I liked about him."

The day of the trial arrives, and Tyrion is ushered to the packed Throne Room. The first witness against him is Ser Balon Swann, who testifies about Tyrion's bravery at the battle of the Blackwater, and says, "I will not believe he did this thing," which surprises Tyrion. But Ser Balon also recalls that Tyrion "knocked the king to the ground and began kicking him" on the day of the riot. And Meryn Trant follows Balon to the stand to recall the same incident, as well as the time Tyrion stopped Joffrey's humiliation of Sansa, reminding him of "what had happened to Aerys Tergaryen. And that when Ser Boros Blount defended the king, Tyrion "threatened to have him killed." Ser Boros confirms the story.

The three Kettleblacks testify next, recalling Tyrion's threats to Cersei. "He said he would wait for a day when she was happy, and make her joy turn to ashes in her mouth," Osney testifies, without mentioning that Tyrion was protesting the whipping of Alayaya. Ser Osmund claims that Joffrey had told him to guard him against Tyrion, "for my uncle loves me not. He means to be king in my place." Tyrion can't restrain himself and shouts, "Liar!" but is admonished by his father. Cersei begs him to put Tyrion in chains, but is turned down.

On the second day, the maesters who conducted the autopsy say they found no sign of choking on the pigeon pie and that Joffrey was killed by poison. Grand Maester Pycelle is shown a number of poisons and tells the court that Tyrion had stolen them from his chambers when he had Pycelle imprisoned. Tyrion asks if any of them caused the kind of choking that Joffrey experienced, and Pycelle admits that they don't, and that you need a poison known as "the strangler." Tyrion asks if any of it was found, and Pycelle replies no, "You used it all to kill the noblest child the gods ever put on this good earth." The characterization so infuriates Tyrion that he blurts out, "Joffrey was cruel and stupid, but I did not kill him." Once again, Tywin warns him to keep quiet. Then there is a parade of witnesses to what happened at the wedding, including the detail of Tyrion emptying the chalice onto the floor after Joffrey began choking.

That evening, Tyrion's uncle, Ser Kevan, tells him, "If you were to admit your guilt before the throne and repent of your crime, your father would withhold the sword. You would be permitted to take the black." Tyrion recalls that "Those were the same terms Cersei offered Eddard Stark. We all know how that ended." But Kevan reminds him that Lord Tywin was not involved in that betrayal, which Tyrion has to admit. He tells his uncle he will think about the offer, and spends the night trying to decide whether to trust his father. He is aware of the consequences of confessing: "They will call me kinslayer till the end of my days. For a thousand years or more, if I am remembered at all, it will be as the monstrous dwarf who poisoned his young nephew at his wedding feast."

The next day, Varys is called to testify. He tells of Tyrion's scheme to separate Joffrey from the protection of Sandor Clegane, and of his talking with Bronn about "the benefits of having Tommen as king." Varys has notes on all of Tyrion's movements and threats that confirm Tyrion's malice toward Joffrey. The weight of the evidence is seriously prejudicial, particularly as it is so meticulously documented. At the end of it Tywin asks Cersei if all the witnesses have been produced, and she tells him there is one more. Tyrion feels a kind of gratitude that it's almost over: "After this farce of a trial, execution will almost come as a relief."

That night, Prince Oberyn pays him a surprise visit. He tells Tyrion that Cersei "needs another husband, and who better than a prince of Dorne? Ellaria believes I should accept. Just the thought of Cersei in our bed makes her wet, the randy wench." Of course, Cersei won't consent unless he agrees to convict Tyrion. But he has no love for Cersei.

"To be sure, I have much to thank your sister for. If not for her accusation at the feast, it might well be you judging me instead of me judging you." The prince's eyes were dark with amusement. "Who knows more of poison than the Red Viper of Dorne, after all? Who has better reason to want to keep the Tyrells far from the crown? And with Joffrey in his grave, by Dornish law the Iron Throne should pass next to his sister Myrcella, who as it happens is betrothed to mine own nephew, thanks to you."

Dornish law doesn't apply in King's Landing, Oberyn admits, but that doesn't mean that civil war couldn't result from the claim. When Tyrion says that his father would never support Myrcella over Tommen, Oberyn replies, "Your father ... may not live forever." And Tyrion remembers that Oberyn suspects Tywin of having ordered the rape and murder of Elia, Oberyn's sister: "He wants the head that spoke the words, not just the hand that swung the sword."

Tyrion presses the point: "It was Ser Gregor Clegane who smashed Prince Aegon's head against a wall and raped your sister Elia with his blood and brains still on his hands." But when Oberyn asks if Tywin gave the order, Tyrion can't bring himself to admit it. Oberyn recognizes it as "a very feeble lie," but says he might be able to save Tyrion. He is only one of the three judges, Tyrion says. How could Oberyn save him?

"Not as your judge. As your champion."

Jaime

He has moved into the Lord Commander's quarters, and is spending his days at Tyrion's trial. Tyrion has given no sign that he has seen him, and perhaps hasn't even recognized him. Cersei has kept her distance since the day they had sex in the sept, so Jaime is estranged from his whole family.

He has at his side an enormous book formally known as The Book of the Brothers, but usually called the White Book. It is a history of the Kingsguard, into which each member records his deeds. The records need updating, and Jaime decides he will take care of that once he learns to write with his left hand. He reads through the entry for Ser Barristan Selmy, and observes that his own entry is slender in comparison.

But he sets aside the book when the other members of the Kingsguard arrive, starting with Ser Osmund Kettleblack. There are six of them in all present, with Ser Arys Oakheart away in Dorne. In addition to Ser Osmund, there are Ser Boros Blount, Ser Meryn Trant, Ser Balon Swann, and Ser Loras Tyrell.

Jaime had served with Meryn Trant and Boros Blount for years, adequate fighters, but Trant was sly and cruel, and Blount a bag of growly air. Ser Balon Swann was better suited to his cloak, and of course the Knight of Flowers was supposedly all a knight should be. The fifth man was a stranger to him, this Osmund Kettleblack. 

He begins by pointing out that all five of them were present at the wedding feast, but Joffrey is dead anyway. He observes that this makes Tyrell angry and Balon ashamed, but the other three betray no emotion. And then he asks if Tyrion poisoned Joffrey. It is Meryn Trant who says he must have been the one to poison the wine, and Ser Boros says that spilling it demonstrates Tyrion's guilt. But Ser Balon says the dais was full of people, and that everyone was looking at the doves that flew from the pie. "No one was watching the wine cup."

It's the Knight of Flowers who speaks up to accuse Sansa, "who had reason to want Margaery dead, as well as the king." And she fled afterward. This gives Jaime some hope that Tyrion might be innocent, and he thinks about consulting Varys to find out how Sansa might have escaped. But for now his task is to manage the Kingsguard in protecting Tommen. The first thing he does is to order Ser Boros to "taste everything Tommen eats or drinks." Ser Boros is furious at the idea: "I am no food taster! I am a knight of the Kingsguard!"

But Joffrey knows how Boros yielded Tommen to Bronn. Cersei had stripped him of his white cloak because of it, but Tywin had restored it. He tells Boros that he "will find carrots and pease less threatening than" Bronn. "You should have died before you let Tommen be taken." Boros retorts, "As you died protecting Aerys, ser?" As a "cripple," Boros says, Jaime should be the one to taste the food. He reaches for his sword, and Jaime tells him to go ahead and draw it, "and we shall see how your two hands fare against my one." Boros spits at Jaime's feet and walks out -- to Jaime's relief, knowing that he is still no match for any of them with his left hand.

Then he turns to Ser Osmund and says he doesn't know him and asks where he served. Osmund's answer reveals that he had been a sellsword, and even the source of his knighthood -- "Ser Robert ... Stone. He's dead now, my lord" -- is questionable. Jaime wonders, "What was Cersei thinking when she gave this one a white cloak?" Jaime reflects that at least Kettleblack knows how to fight, so he tells him to go.

Next it's Meryn Trant's turn, and Jaime questions his role in helping Joffrey abuse Sansa. He asks him to point out in the White Book "where it is in our vows that we swear to beat women and children." Trant replies that he was just following the king's orders, and Jaime tells him to obey the Queen Regent, the King's Hand, and the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard from now own. Tommen "is eight. Our first duty is to protect him, which includes protecting him from himself.... If Tommen wants you to saddle his horse, obey him. If he tells you to kill his horse, come to me." He dismisses Ser Meryn.

Then he tells Ser Balon that he has seen him fight and "The Kingsguard is honored by your presence." Balon warily thanks him, and Jaime continues, "but Varys tells me that your brother rode with Renly and then Stannis, whilst your lord father chose not to call his banners at all and remained behind the walls of Stonehelm all through the fighting." Balon replies that his father is an old man, "Well past forty. His fighting days are done." As for his brother, he was wounded in the battle and afterward pledged fealty to Joffrey with the other captives. But Jaime says it's not his brother he's concerned with but Balon. What will he do if his brother joins with another usurper and Balon has to defend the king against him. Balon assures him, "that will never happen." But it happened to Jaime himself, he reminds Balon. Embarrassed, Balon says, "On my sword, on my honor, on my father's name, I swear ... I shall not do as you did."

The answer pleases and amuses Jaime, who tells Balon to return to his duties and tell his brother "to add a weathervane to his shield." This leaves only the Knight of Flowers. There is a spell of measuring up against each other: both had been called to the guard as young men, Loras at seventeen, Jaime at fifteen, and both had distinguished mentors. "He's me, Jaime realized suddenly. I am speaking to myself, as I was, all cocksure arrogance and empty chivalry. This is what it does to you, to be too good too young." Then he reminds Loras that a member of the Kingsguard has no secrets from the Lord Commander and asks who was wearing Renly's armor in the Battle of the Blackwater. Loras hesitates before admitting that it was his brother, Garlan, and that the idea was Littlefinger's.

Loras goes on to say that he will defend King Tommen, but that Renly "was the king that should have been. He was the best of them." Jaime admires Ser Loras's loyalty, but he has a duty left for him: Brienne. Loras insists that she won her place in the Rainbow Guard with a trick. Jaime reminds Loras of the trick he used by riding "a mare in heat against a foe mounted on a bad-tempered stallion." But Loras insists that Brienne killed Renly. "Or let him die." Which brings them back to Joffrey's death: "There were five of you at the wedding feast.... How could Joffrey die? Unless you were part of it." When Loras says there was nothing they could have done, Jaime tells him that's exactly what Brienne said of Renly's death. "Show me how you'd fight a shadow. I should like to see that."

Ser Loras insists that Brienne's flight with Catelyn Stark is evidence of her guilt. But he admits that there is no way a sword could have pierced Renly's armor. "If not her, though ... how could it be a shadow?" Jaime tells him to go to Brienne in her cell, ask her questions and listen to her answers. "All I ask is that you judge her fairly, on your honor as a knight." He dismisses Loras, but the knight turns at the door and says, "if she's innocent, then Robar and Emmon...." But he can't finish the sentence, and Jaime is left to think, "The Knight of Flowers had been so mad with grief for Renly that he had cut down two of his own Sworn Brothers, but it had never occurred to Jaime to do the same with the five who had failed Joffrey."

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

Bran

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daenerys

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tyrion

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

Sansa

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I know about bad dreams," Tyrion replies.

15. A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 503-529

Jaime

Jaime finds himself sharing a tub in the Harrenhal bathhouse with Brienne, who is none too happy about it, of course. When she angrily gets out of the tub, he is surprised that the sight of her naked arouses him, but he also apologizes for insulting her. "I'm a maimed man, and bitter. Forgive me, wench. You protected me as well as any man could have, and better than most." But she misinterprets this sign of humility from him as mockery, and fails to accept the apology, angering him again. "Are you as thick as a castle wall? That was an apology. I am tired of fighting with you. What say we make a truce?"

"Truces are built on trust," she says, but before she can throw the epithet "Kingslayer" back at him, he protests that they don't call Robert Baratheon "oathbreaker": "He tore the realm apart, yet I am the one with shit for honor." He proceeds to tell her the reason why he killed Aerys Targaryeon.

"His Grace commanded his alchemists to place caches of wildfire all over King's Landing. Beneath Baelor's Sept and the hovels of Flea Bottom, under stables and storehouses, at all seven gates, even in the cellars of the Red Keep itself. Everything was done in the utmost secrecy by a handful of master pyromancers." 

Aerys even named his favorite pyromancer, Rossart, his Hand. When Rhaegar was defeated at the Trident, Aerys began his preparations. Jaime had become the member of the Kingsguard kept closest to the throne because Aerys wanted to keep his eye on him. "The traitors want my city, I heard him tell Rossart, but I'll give them naught but ashes. Let Robert be king over charred bones and cooked meat.... Aerys meant to have the greatest funeral pyre of all," though Jaime suspected that Aerys really believed the fire would turn him into a dragon.

Rhaegar's defeat brought Tywin Lannister into the rebellion on the side of Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark. Aerys sent a message to Jaime to bring him Tywin's head, and the messenger told him that Aerys was in conference with Rossart. Jaime realized that Aerys knew he was defeated, and was planning to put his final plan into action. So when he encountered Rossart, "dressed as a common man-at-arms, hurrying to a postern gate" to make his escape before the burning of the city, Jaime killed him, and then killed Aerys, "before he could find someone else to carry his message to the pyromancers."

Brienne asks, "If this is true, how is it no one knows?" Jaime responds sarcastically, "The knights of the Kingsguard are sworn to keep the king's secrets. Would you have me break my oath?" Besides, he says, "Do you think the noble Lord of Winterfell wanted to hear my feeble explanations? Such an honorable man. He only had to look at me to judge me guilty." His pride was wounded by Ned Stark's contempt, so he refused to provide an explanation. He now stands and starts to climb out of the tub, but he strikes his stump on the edge of the tub and faints from the pain.

When he comes to, Brienne is standing there with the guards and Qyburn, who says that Lord Bolton expects Jaime at dinner. Brienne says she will help him finish washing and dressing. The clothes that have been brought for her are ill-fitting, the only women's clothes in the castle that are large enough. Jaime observes that her neck and shoulders are thicker than his, and she looks terrible in pink. "A dozen cruel japes leaped into his head, but for once he kept them there. Best not to make her angry; he was no match for her one-handed."

He is still weak, and she helps him walk to the vast empty hall where Bolton is waiting for them at a table. He tells Jaime that "Edmure Tully has offered a thousand golden dragons for your recapture." Jaime says that Cersei will pay ten thousand. Bolton replies that Lord Karstark had offered his daughter in marriage for Jaime's head, but fortunately for Jaime, he has already married Lady Walda Frey -- "Fat Walda. My lord of Frey offered me my bride's weight in silver for a dowry, so I chose accordingly."

Brienne says that she has heard Bolton is giving Harrenhal to Vargo Hoat. He says yes, and that he is leaving soon to attend the wedding of Edmure Tully to Roslin Frey. Jaime hasn't heard about Robb's marriage, nor has Brienne, who expresses surprise that Robb would break his promise to marry a Frey. "Jaime almost felt sorry for Robb Stark. He won the war on the battlefield and lost it in a bedchamber, poor fool."

Bolton adds that Elmar Frey is upset because this means he won't marry Arya Stark. Brienne asks if there has been news of Arya, and Bolton says that she has been found and he means "to see her safely returned to the north." Brienne says that Tyrion had promised that Arya and Sansa would be returned in exchange for Jaime, but Bolton only laughs and tells her, "Lannisters lie." Jaime takes offense, but the only weapon he has is the cheese knife, which he threatens to put through Bolton's eye. Bolton replies, "In the north, we hold the laws of hospitality sacred still." But Jaime points out that he's not a guest, he's a prisoner.

Brienne insists that they must be freed so she can continue on her mission to take Jaime to be exchanged for Sansa and Arya, but Bolton says, "The raven that came from Riverrun told of an escape, not an exchange. And if you helped this captive slip his bonds, you are guilty of treason, my lady." Brienne rises in protest: "I serve Lady Stark." But Bolton replies, "And I the King in the North. Or the King who Lost the North, as some now call him. Who never wished to trade Ser Jaime back to the Lannisters." Then he urges her to sit, telling her, "I hope to send Ser Jaime on, just as you and Lady Stark desire."

However, he says, Vargo Hoat's amputation of Jaime's hand presents a problem. Hoat "meant to remove your sword as a threat, gain himself a grisly token to send to your father, and diminish your value to me." Since Hoat is Bolton's man, Bolton is incriminated in the mutilation. Jaime assures Bolton that if he'll send him to Cersei, he'll "sing as sweet a song as you could want, of how gently you treated me." He'd put it in writing, he says, if he had a hand to write with. But Bolton says he'll trust his word, which causes Jaime to reflect, "There's something I don't often hear."

Bolton says Jaime will leave as soon as Qyburn says he's well enough to travel, and that his captain, Walton Steelshanks will get him to King's Landing. Brienne says she will take charge of the girls when they are released, but Bolton says she needn't bother with them anymore: Sansa is married to Tyrion. Jaime will be on his way, he says, but "It would be unconscionable of me to deprive Lord Vargo of both his prizes.... Were I you, my lady, I should worry less about Starks and rather more about sapphires."

Tyrion

His father has sent him out to meet the contingent of Dornishmen who are arriving for the wedding. As they approach, Tyrion observes that "Nine of the greatest lords of Dorne were coming up the kingsroad, them or their heirs, and somehow Tyrion did not think they had come all this way just to see the dancing bear." But the leader of their company is not Prince Doran, as expected, but his brother Prince Oberyn Martell, who is fiercer and fitter than Doran, which leads Tyrion to think that trouble is brewing. And when he introduces the others in his company, one of them is "Ellaria Sand, mine own paramour." Tyrion thinks, "His paramour, and bastard-born. Cersei will pitch a holy fit if he wants her at the wedding.... Did Prince Doran mean to provoke a quarrel?"

So it would seem, when Prince Oberyn addresses his contingent and says, "Ellaria, lords and ladies, sers, see how well King Joffrey loves us. His Grace has been so kind as to send his own Uncle Imp to bring us to his court." Tyrion pretends to be amused, and then introduces his own retinue, realizing that its members "were nowise near as distinguished nor formidable a company as those who accompanied Prince Oberyn, as both of them knew full well."

Tyrion is familiar with Prince Oberyn, who is known as the Red Viper of Dorne because when he was sixteen, he was found in bed with the wife of Lord Yronwood. They fought a duel in which each was blooded, but Lord Yronwood died of his wounds, and the rumor persists that Oberyn's sword was poisoned. Now he was past forty and "had traveled in the Free Cities, learning the poisoner's trade and perhaps arts darker still." He had also "studied at the Citadel, going so far as to forge six links of a maester's chain before he grew bored." And "it was said that he bedded men and women both, and had begotten bastard girls all over Dorne" -- but never a son. He had also crippled Willas Tyrell.

There is no man in the Seven Kingdoms who will be less welcome at a Tyrell wedding, thought Tyrion. To send Prince Oberyn to King's Landing while the city still hosted Mace Tyrell, two of his sons, and thousands of their men-at-arms was a provocation as dangerous as Prince Oberyn himself. A wrong word, an ill-timed jest, a look, that's all it will take, and our noble allies will be at one another's throats.

As they ride to the city, Oberyn tells Tyrion that they had met before. "Your brother and sister were eight or nine, as I recall, and you had just been born." He says that he was disappointed when he discovered that Tyrion was not the monster that he had been told to expect: The stories were that he had been born with a pig's tail, that his head was twice the size of his body, that he'd been born with a full head of black hair and a beard, that he had lion's claws and his teeth were so big he couldn't close his mouth, "and between your legs were a girl's privates as well as a boy's."

Tyrion maintains his composure and jokes about the rumors: "Life would be much simpler if men could fuck themselves, don't you agree?" It was Cersei who showed Tyrion to him, Oberyn says. "When I commented that you seemed a poor sort of monster, your sister said, 'He killed my mother,' and twisted your little cock so hard I thought she was like to pull it off." It was Jaime who made her stop tormenting him, but when she stopped she said, "Everyone says he's like to die soon. He shouldn't even have lived this long." Tyrion thinks, "My sweet sister," but wonders why Oberyn is telling him all of this.

They talk of other things, such as the tax Lord Tywin has imposed on the brothels -- "a penny for each, ah ... act," Tyrion explains. His father had thought it would "improve the morals of the city," but the chief result is that Tyrion has been blamed for the tax, which has become known as "the dwarf's penny." Then Oberyn asks, "when will the justice be served?" -- the punishment for the murder of his sister Elia and her children. Tyrion tries to say that they have been preoccupied with "Wars and weddings," but Oberyn insists "I did not come for some mummer's show of an inquiry. I came for justice for Elia and her children, and I will have it. Starting with this lummox Gregor Clegane ... but not, I think, ending there."

Tyrion thinks it time to point out that Oberyn has brought only three hundred men whereas the city numbers half a million, and there are five thousand gold cloaks and his father's twenty thousand guards, not to mention the troops of House Tyrell. He also mentions the prowess of Loras Tyrell, though Oberyn scoffs at it. And he advises Oberyn to visit Chataya's brothel, recommending that he keep Dancy or Marie "by your side at all times." When Oberyn asks why, Tyrion replies, "You want to die with a breast in your hand, you said."

Then Tyrion rides on ahead, hoping to be present when Prince Oberyn meets King Joffrey.