21. A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 587-627

The Princess in the Tower

Arianne has been returned to Sunspear by Hotah, though Darkstar has escaped. She is kept in the Spear Tower, near the top, and although she is imprisoned, her surroundings are comfortable. She mourns the death of Arys and the mutilation of Myrcella's face, and wonders who had betrayed them.

She expects to be summoned by her father, but days, then weeks pass without hearing from Prince Doran. She asks one of her maids to smuggle a letter to Garin, and when she agrees, Arianne begins plotting to get messages to others who might help her. But when she gives the letter to her, the girl disappears and doesn't return. Her attempts to communicate with the others who wait on her fail.

Finally, so many days pass that she loses count of them. And then one morning she is awakened by Areo Hota, who tells her that Doran is ready to see her. She is taken to his solar, where he is sitting at a cyvasse table. He had ordered one put in her chambers, he says, and when she protests that she has no one to play the game with, he tells her that she should play it with herself: "Sometimes it is best to study a game before you attempt to play it." He is not really talking about cyvasse.

He asks why she did it, and she replies, "For the honor of our House," and chides him for his "meekness." She asks if he has caught Ser Gerold, and he tells her no. "You were a fool to make him part of this. Darkstar is the most dangerous man in Dorne. You and he have done us all harm." She asks, hesitantly about Myrcella, and is told that she is alive, "though Darkstar did his best.

"All eyes were on your white knight so no one seems quite certain just what happened, but it would appear that her horse shied away from his at the last instant, else he would have taken off the top of the girl's skull. As it is, the slash opened her cheek down to the bone and sliced off her right ear. Maester Caleotte was able to save her life, but no poultice nor potion will ever restore her face. She was my ward, Arianne. Betrothed to your own brother and under my protection. You have dishonored all of us." 

When she protests that it was the result of Hotah's interfering with her plot, he replies, "you would have crowned Myrcella queen, to raise a rebellion against her brother. Instead of an ear, she would have lost her life."  He explains to her the impossible odds against her plan's succeeding. He will not tell her who informed against her, and he tells her he could execute her friends for treason, though he won't. He has sent them all to various places instead.

"You and your cousins wanted war. You may get your wish. Another Kingsguard knight creeps toward Sunspear even as we speak. Ser Balon Swann is bringing me the Mountain's head." And when he gets there, he will of course want to see Myrcella and his sworn brother, Ser Arys. He could explain away Arys's death as an accident of some sort, but short of killing Myrcella there is no way to keep her from telling the truth. "No lie will save Dorne from the queen's wroth if her daughter should perish whilst in my care."

And then she argues with him about the succession, which she accuses him of trying to deprive her in favor of her brother Quentyn. She tells him she read his letter to Quentyn: "'One day you will sit where I sit and rule all Dorne,' you wrote him." He admits that he did plan for Quentyn to rule Dorne: "I had other plans for you." She bitterly lists the unsuitable marriages that had been proposed for her, including Gyles Rosby and Walder Frey. But he tells her he knew she would refuse them: "I dared not bring you any man you might accept. You were promised, Arianne."

She doesn't believe him, but he tells her that the secret was so great that he kept it even from her, for fear she would tell one of her friends. When she demands to know whom she has been betrothed to all these years, he says, "It makes no matter. He is dead." She assumes he must have been an old man, and asks what he died of. Doran replies, "It was a pot of molten gold."  He doesn't utter the name Viserys Targaryen.

He promises that she will succeed him. "Your brother Quentyn has a harder road to walk." She is fed up with his secrets, however, and says, "Tell me the rest, Father ... or else name Quentyn your heir and send for Hotah and his axe, and let me die beside my cousins." He replies that he has no intention of harming his brother's children: The older Sand Snakes, Obara, Nym, and Tyene are still in custody, but "lack for nothing but their freedom," and the younger ones are at the Water Gardens.

As for Quentyn, he has gone "on a long and perilous voyage, with an uncertain welcome at its end. He has gone to bring us back our heart's desire." And what is that, she asks.

"Vengeance." His voice was soft, as if he were afraid that someone might be listening. "Justice." Prince Doran pressed the onyx dragon into her palm with his swollen, gouty fingers, and whispered,  "Fire and blood."

Something tells me Daenerys is going to be getting a lot of unexpected company before long.

Alayne

It is moving day at the Eyrie, and Robert Arryn is determined not to go. He has thrown his chamber pot at Maester Colemon, so Sansa/Alayne is very carefully entering his room. If she can't persuade him to go, Ser Lothor Brune is going to have to carry him by force, which is likely to throw him into one of his fits. She tells him, "It's beautiful outside, Sweetrobin. The sun is shining bright, a perfect day for going down the mountain. The mules are waiting down at Sky with Mya."

But the mules are "smelly" and one of them tried to bite him once and he isn't going. "No one can hurt me so long as I stay here. The Eyrie is impregnable." She knows he's afraid, especially after his mother's fall, and the way down is "perilous enough to daunt anyone." But winter is coming and the Eyrie "would soon be inaccessible as well, and the way down grew more hazardous every day." Only a few servants remain, enough to get Lord Robert down safely.

She promises to tell him stories and give him lemon cakes when they have made the descent, but he demands, "a hundred lemon cakes and five tales!" She thinks, "I'd like to give you a hundred spankings and five slaps. You would not dare behave like this if Petyr were here." But she continues to sweet talk him into making the descent, and he agrees. While the servants are bathing and dressing him, she confers with Maester Colemon, who suggests that Robert could be drugged with milk of the poppy and lashed to the back of a mule. But she insists, "The Lord of the Eyrie cannot descend from his mountain tied up like a sack of barleycorn." Littlefinger, who has already made the descent and is on the other side of the Vale at a wedding, has warned her that "the full extent of Robert's frailty and cowardice" mustn't get widely known.

She tells Colemon to give Lord Robert a cup of sweetmilk to prevent his seizures, but the maester is reluctant: too many doses of sweetsleep apparently are harmful. Colemon also worries about the feast that is to be held at the end of the journey because Robert dislikes noise and strangers and music. She insists, however, "Music soothes him.... It's singing he can't abide, since Marillion killed his mother."

She goes to the winch room, where the huge buckets are being prepared to lower them the first six hundred feet down the mountain. Ser Lothor tells her that Lady Myranda Royce, Lord Nestor's daughter, will be accompanying them from Sky, the destination of the buckets. Alayne wonders why she would come so far up the mountain only to turn around and descend it. She has been warned by Littlefinger that Myranda is "shrewder than her father. Guard your tongue around her." But Robert likes Myranda, so that's a plus.

Mya Stone, who guides the mules, is also in the winch room, and she urges Alayne to hurry Robert up. "It's getting colder, can't you feel it? We need to get below Snow before the sun goes down.... If he bathes much longer, we'll be trapped up here all winter with nothing to eat but each other." Fortunately, he arrives shortly after that, though when Mya asks him to ride down with her, he says, "I want Alayne. You smell all stinky, like a mule."

As they are being lowered, "For a moment she found herself wondering how long it had taken her aunt to fall that distance, and what her last thought had been as the mountain rushed up to meet her." But she puts that out of her mind when the descending bucket bumps against the side of the mountain and Robert clings to her in fright.

Myranda is there to meet them, and she flatters Robert into a good mood. She asks Alayne how old she is, and Alayne tells her she is fourteen. "She had decided that Alayne Stone should be older than Sansa Stark." When Mya Stone arrives, she starts getting the mules ready for the single-file descent to the next level. It takes half an hour to get ready, and by the time they depart Robert is whining, "It's too cold. We should go back and wait till it's warmer."

While they can still ride side-by-side, Myranda gives Alayne the news: "Riverrun has yielded, but Dragonstone and Storm's End still hold for Lord Stannis." And there's a new High Septon, "and the Night's Watch has a boy commander, some bastard son of Eddard Stark's." Alayne blurts out, "Jon Snow?" but Myranda doesn't seem to take note of Alayne's surprise at hearing about the only brother she thinks she has left. And she reminds herself that Alayne Stone doesn't have any brothers, "baseborn or otherwise." Myranda is full of other gossip: She had been married, but her husband died while they were having sex, and she had once slept with Marillion. "Despite herself, Alayne found herself warming to the older girl. She had not had a friend to gossip with since poor Jeyne Poole."

They reach the most dangerous part of the passage, a narrow path, about a yard wide and eight yards long with a sheer drop on either side, and Robert begins to shake. They have to lead the mules across, and Mya goes first. But when she steps out onto the path, the wind lifts her cloak and she staggers for a moment until she gets her balance. So Alayne takes Robert's hand and tells him she's frightened and he must help her get across. The ruse works, though by the time they reach the other side, he has begun to shake and she has to hold him until he calms. Over the meal that awaits them, Myranda says, "So you're brave as well as beautiful."

Stone is the largest of the three waycastles on the descent, and snow has begun to fall by the time they leave it. Myranda suggests that they turn back and spend the night there, but Mya says they could get five feet of snow by then, so they should keep going. Fortunately, the last part of the journey is easier, and Robert falls asleep in the saddle.

When they get there, one of Littlefinger's guards tells her that her "father" has arrived and is waiting for her. She finds him drinking with three knights, who excuse themselves so she and Littlefinger can talk privately. She gives him a polite, daughterly kiss, but when they have gone, "He pulled her closer, caught her face between his hands, and kissed her for a long time." He tells her that Cersei is making a mess of things. "I always anticipated that she would beggar the realm and destroy herself, but I never expected she would do it quite so fast."

Then he tells her, "I have made a marriage contract for you." She protests that she is already married to Tyrion, but he says, "This is only a betrothal. The marriage must needs wait until Cersei is done and Sansa's safely widowed. And you must meet the boy and win his approval." She has been promised to Harrold Hardyng, one of Lady Waynwood's sons. Alayne is confused until Littlefinger lays out a complicated genealogy for her, the upshot of which is that Harrold Hardyng is the heir to Lord Robert Arryn. She says, "If Robert were to die...."

Petyr arched an eyebrow. "When Robert dies. Our poor brave Sweetrobin is such a sickly boy, it is only a matter of time. When Robert dies, Harry the Heir becomes Lord Harrold, Defender of the Vale and Lord of the Eyrie. Jon Arryn's bannermen will never love me, nor our silly, shaking Robert, but they will love their Young Falcon ... and when they come together for his wedding, and you come in with your long auburn hair, clad in a maiden's cloak of white and grey with a direwolf emblazoned on the back ... why every knight in the Vale will pledge his sword to win you back your birthright. So those are your gifts from me, my sweet Sansa ... Harry, the Eyrie, and Winterfell. That's worth another kiss now, don't you think?"

12. A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 312-343

Arya

Each night she repeats her list of people she wants dead, and one night the "kindly man" overhears it and asks her about it. After hedging for a bit she admits that it's the names of the people she would like to kill, and he asks her if that's why she came to the House of Black and White. If so, he tells her, she has "come to the wrong place."

She hasn't learned the kindly man's name, or that of the waif who, like her, lives underneath the temple. There is a cook named Umma, for whom Arya works, but Arya can't understand her when she speaks, and three acolytes and two serving men, but they're not given to communication. The kindly man is the only one who speaks the Common Tongue, and each day he asks her, "Who are you?"

"No one," she would answer, she who had been Arya of House Stark, Arya Underfoot, Arya Horseface. She had been Arry and Weasel too, and Squab and Salty, Nan the cupbearer, a grey mouse, a sheep, the ghost of Harrenhal ... but not for true, not in her heart of hearts. In there she was Arya of Winterfell, the daughter of Lord Eddard Stark and Lady Catelyn, who had once had brothers named Robb and Bran and Rickon, a sister named Sansa, a direwolf called Nymeria, a half brother named Jon Snow. In there she was someone ... but that was not the answer he wanted.

There are no services in the temple, but visitors come every day, and very occasionally someone would ask to see a priest and would be shown to either the kindly man or the waif. She is allowed free run of the building, except for the lowest level, which only the priests could enter. She works for the cook, and for the first time in a long while goes to sleep with a full stomach. In her conversations with the kindly man she is constantly reminded that she is being evasive, but he allows her to keep her secrets if she wishes. But if she stays in the temple, she must serve: "Valar dohaeris is how we say it here" -- all men must serve. And she must obey: "If you cannot obey, you must depart."

People come to the House of Black and White who are ready to die. They pray for however long they wish and then drink from the pool and lie down behind the effigy of whichever god they choose, never to wake. Their bodies are taken to the lowest level, but Arya doesn't know what happens to them there. Once while she was eating, she had a frightening thought and looked closely at the piece of meat on her for. "The kingly man saw the horror on her face. 'It is pork, child,' he told her, 'only pork.'"

She has kept a few things with her: a silver fork, a hat, and a pair of fingerless gloves the sailors on the Titan's Daughter had given her, her dagger and boots and belt and the clothes she had been wearing when she arrived at the temple, and Needle. She is practicing with the sword one day when the kindly man walks by her cell and tells her that she must get rid of her things. They belong to Arya of House Stark, he tells her. "There is no place for them here. There is no place for her. Hers is too proud a name, and we have no room for pride. We are servants here." If she can't become a servant of Him of Many Faces, she must leave. He tells her there is a ship sailing for Westeros tomorrow, and if she wishes she can get on it. But she replies, "I'll go if you don't want me, but I won't go there."

Challenged to renounce things, she can't sleep, and in the middle of the night she gathers them up, puts on her old clothes and slips outside for the first time since she came to the temple. At the edge of the canal she looks at the silver fork and thinks, "It's not my fork. It was salty that he gave it to." She tosses it into the water, and then throws the floppy hat and the gloves in after it. She looks at the handful of coins in her pouch and tosses them in, too. Then she throws in her boots and her dagger and swordbelt and takes off the rest of her clothes and tosses them in.

All she has left is Needle, and she tries to persuade herself to throw it in, too. But "Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa.... Needle was Jon Snow's smile." She had lost it and regained it. "The gods wanted me to have it." As she climbs the steps from the canal, she feels a loose stone underfoot. She works it loose and places the sword and its sheath behind the stone, then puts the stone back in place. She counts the steps so she'll know how to find it if she ever needs it again.

The next night the kindly man tells her the story of the founding of the temple, and arranges for the waif to tutor her in the language of Braavos. She becomes a novice in the House of Black and White. But she finds learning the language as tedious as she found sewing. They also play "the lying game," in which one asks questions of the other and tries to tell which answers are false and which are true. "The waif always seemed to know. Arya had to guess. Most of the time she guessed wrong." When, in response to Arya's question, the waif tells her that she is thirty-six years old, Arya pronounces this a lie, but the kindly man tells her otherwise: "The one you call waif is a woman grown who has spent her life serving Him of Many Faces." When Arya asks if she will come to look like her, he tells her "not unless you wish it. It is the poisons that have made her as you see her." Arya realizes that every evening the waif pours a flask into the black pool in the center of the temple.

Other men who are servants of the Many-Faced God visit the temple from time to time, and one evening Umma sends Arya to serve at the table for the visitors. The kindly man says she must stand very still at the table and "It would be best if you were blind and deaf as well. You may hear things, but you must let them pass in one ear and out the other. Do not listen." Arya obeys, but the talk is in the language of Braavos and she understood very little of it anyway.

The next day she asks the kindly man if the men were priests and if those were their real faces, but he replies only "What do you think, child?" She thinks that they weren't, and then asks if Jaqen H'ghar is a priest and if he will be coming back. But the kindly man professes not to know the name. She says she asked him "how he changed his face, and he said it was no harder than taking a new name, if you knew the way." She asks the kindly man if he will show her how to change her face, and he tells her to stick out her tongue and puff up her cheeks. "There. Your face is changed." But she tells him she meant by using magic. He replies, "All sorcery comes at a cost, child. Years of prayer and sacrifice and study are required to work a perfect glamor." He tells her to "practice making faces" and learn to "rule" her face. The next day she finds a mirror and begins to practice.

Soon she joins the acolytes in washing corpses. And for several months, "She served, washed the dead, made faces at the mirrors, learned the Braavosi tongue, and tried to remember that she was no one." But one day the kindly man sends for her and says that her accent is terrible, and that the only way she will learn to speak the language is by living among the people and speaking it "every day from dawn to dusk." She is to leave the temple and "find a fishmonger named Brusco" who needs "a girl to push his barrow and sell his cockles, clams, and mussels to the sailors off the ships." She will need a name, and they decide she will be Cat, the daughter of an oarmaster on a galley named Nymeria.

Alayne

Sansa, too, has changed identities, and has begun to think of herself as Alayne Stone, the illegitimate daughter of Lord Petyr Baelish, the better to keep up the life-saving masquerade. But now the Lords Declarant of the Vale have gathered to challenge Littlefinger's role as Lord Protector, and she is called on to maintain the role before a hostile group. Her hair has been died brown to hide Sansa Stark's distinctive auburn.

She goes in to breakfast with Lord Robert, who is whining because he has porridge and not the eggs and bacon he wants. But the presence of the Lords Declarant at the foot of the mountain has made it difficult for Mya Stone to bring them up from below. He also complains that he has heard Marillion singing in the night, and she tries to persuade him that it's impossible. She tells him that Marillion had felt so sorry for killing Lysa that "he walked into the sky. Alayne had not seen the body, no more than Robert had, but she did not doubt the fact of the singer's death." But Robert is having none of it, and he flings a spoon of porridge across the room, saying, "The lord wants eggs!"

Littlefinger enters at that point and proclaims, "The lord shall eat porridge and be thankful for it." Maester Colemon is with him and tells Robert that he needs to eat to build up his strength for the meeting with the bannermen. But Robert doesn't want to see them: "If they come, I'll make them fly." Littlefinger agrees that he would like for that to happen, but he "promised them safe conduct." There will be eight in all: the six Lords Declarant plus Lord Nestor Royce and Ser Lyn Corbray. Alayne is startled at the last, having heard from the guards that "Lyn Corbray was more dangerous than all six of the Lords Declarant put together."

Littlefinger admits that Corbray is not particularly well-disposed toward him: "He wanted Lysa's hand for himself." And Robert chimes in by saying he doesn't like Ser Lyn and to "send him back down." Littlefinger will not give in, and asks a serving woman to bring Robert another spoon so he can eat his porridge. Robert says, "Let my porridge fly!" and flings the whole bowl of it, hitting Maester Colemon and covering him with the contents. And then Robert falls into one of his fits, kicking Alayne in the stomach and knocking the wind out of her. Littlefinger orders a guardsman to take Robert away and leech him.

When Robert and the maester have gone, Littlefinger asks Alayne for a kiss, so she gives him "a quick dry peck upon the cheek" that he pronounces "dutiful." He gives her some instruction to relay to the cook, and tells her to change her clothes: "The Lords Declarant will not be pleased by the sight of my bastard daughter prancing about in my dead wife's clothes." She expresses her concern about the presence at the meeting of Bronze Yohn Royce, who had visited Winterfell and had also seen "Sansa Stark again at King's Landing, during the Hand's tourney." He assures her that Royce would have seen her as only one face in a thousand and won't remember her.

Alayne tends to her duties and after bathing and changing clothes is ready to meet the guests. When she meets Bronze Yohn Royce, he asks, "Do I know you, girl?" but Lord Nestor identifies her as "the Lord Protector's natural daughter." Lyn Corbray says, "Littlefinger's little finger has been busy." Lady Waynwood asks how old she is, and Alayne stammers "Four-fourteen," having decided to make Alayne a year older than Sansa. She adds that she is "no child, but a maiden flowered," which occasions a risqué reference to being "deflowered" from Lord Hunter and a "ripe for plucking" from Corbray. Lady Wynwood rebukes him: "The girl is young and gently bred, and has suffered enough horrors. Mind your tongue, ser." Corbray bristles at this, and Lady Wynwood suggests that Alayne take them to her father. "The sooner we are done with this, the better."

Littlefinger meets with them in his solar, where he says he has read their document and wishes they had asked him to sign it too. They are surprised by this, but he goes on, "As for these false friends and evil counselors, by all means let us root them out." The document has been designed as an attack on Littlefinger, but he has turned the tables on them. Symond Templeton speaks up: "We will have you gone," and Bronze Yohn says that Lord Robert will remain in the Vale, and he will "raise him up to be a knight that Jon Arryn would be proud of." Lady Waynwood says, "We speak with one voice here."

Littlefinger counters by saying that Robert loves Alayne and that he has asked two lords to send their sons to be raised with Robert. "My late wife seemed to think this was my proper seat," and that she had named him Lord Protector. Nestor Royce speaks up to say that Lysa Arryn "chose Lord Littlefinger, and entrusted her son to his care." And Littlefinger presses the point that Robert "is not a robust child, as all of you know well. The journey would tax him sorely. As his stepfather and Lord Protector, I cannot permit it."

But Bronze Yohn will not give in, and proclaims, "We shall have Lord Robert." And then Lyn Corbray says, "All this talk makes me ill. Littlefinger will talk you out of your smallclothes if you listen long enough. The only way to settle his sort is with steel," and he draws his sword. But Bronze Yohn bellows, "Put up your steel, ser! Are you a Corbray or a Frey? We are guests here." Lady Wynwood pronounces it "unseemly," and the others align themselves against Corbray. He storms out, saying they should have called themselves "the Six Old Women."

The others begin to express their apologies to Littlefinger, but he coldly says, "You brought him here. I would be well within my rights to call my guards and have all of you arrested."

Petyr sounded as angry as she had ever heard him. "I have read your declaration and heard your demands. Now hear mine. Remove your armies from this mountain. Go home and leave my son in peace. Misrule there has been, I will not deny it, but that was Lysa's work, not mine. Grant me but a year, and with Lord Nestor's help I promise that none of you shall have any cause for grievance.... It was not me who bared steel at a parley. You write of defending Lord Robert even as you deny him food. That must end." 

Alayne watches as the Lords Declarant begin to back down. Finally, Bronze Yohn says, "I like it not, but it would seem you have your year. Best use it well, my lord. Not all of us are fooled." A feast follows at which Lord Robert makes an appearance and behaves himself well, though Bronze Yohn and Lyn Corbray have already left.

Alayne lies awake in bed, wondering how Littlefinger had managed to make them turn such an about-face. Finally, she gets up and goes to his solar, where he is writing a letter. She asks, "What will happen in a year?"

He tells her that one or both of the oldest lords may die, and Lord Hunter will be murdered by his brothers. Lord Belmore can be bought off, and he can make friends with Templeton. Bronze Yohn by himself is not a real threat. As for Lyn Corbray, he will remain an enemy.

Then she realizes that Corbray is actually a part of Littlefinger's plot and asks how he will reward him for playing the role of enemy. He laughs at her acuteness: "With gold and boys and promises, of course. Ser Lyn is a man of simple tastes, my sweetling. All he likes is gold and boys and killing.

6. A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin, pp. 145-171

Sansa

Marillion, in one of the sky cells, is keeping everyone awake at night by singing, and she begs Littlefinger to make him stop. He assures Sansa that he promised the minstrel that he could sing, but it won't last much longer, because Lord Nestor Royce is ascending to the Eyrie tomorrow to investigate the supposed murder of Lysa Arryn by Marillion. Littlefinger has persuaded the singer to go along with the story.

Sansa is nervous about the possibility that Marillion will turn on them nevertheless, fearing that "if Lord Nestor looks in my eyes and sees how scared I am" he will suspect her. But Littlefinger tells her to "tell Lord Nestor the same tale that you told Lord Robert," Lysa's son. The problem is that Sansa (rightly) doesn't trust Littlefinger, even though he saved her from being pushed out the Moon Door by Lysa:

He saved Alayne, his daughter, a voice within her whispered. But she was Sansa too ... and sometimes it seemed to her that the Lord Protector was two people as well. He was Petyr, her protector, warm and funny and gentle ... but he was also Littlefinger, the lord she'd known at King's Landing, smiling slyly and stroking his beard as he whispered in Queen Cersei's ear. And Littlefinger was no friend of hers. When Joff had her beaten, the Imp defended her, not Littlefinger. When the mob sought to rape her, the Hound carried her to safety, not Littlefinger. When the Lannisters wed her to Tyrion against her will, Ser Garlan the Gallant gave her comfort, not Littlefinger. Littlefinger never lifted so much as his little finger for her.

But on the other hand, he was the one who got her away from King's Landing, and she has no place to go and no one to turn to but him. So she resigns herself to lying, especially about Marillion, who had tried to rape her.

Lord Nestor arrives in the afternoon, and after greeting him, Sansa is sent by Littlefinger to fetch little Lord Robert. The meeting is being held in the High Hall, which Sansa hasn't entered since Lysa's death. She "could hear the wind rattling at the Moon Door. I must not look at it, she told herself, else I'll start to shake as badly as Robert." When Lord Nestor asks about his mother, Robert says, "Marillion hurt my mother. He threw her out the Moon Door." And when asked if he saw it happen, he says, "Alayne saw it.... And my lord stepfather." Lord Nestor looks at her, and she tries to keep from shaking. Littlefinger says, "She still has nightmares of that day. Small wonder if she cannot bear to speak of it."

But she does speak of it, telling him that she was with Lysa "when Marillion ... pushed her." Robert interrupts to say, "He killed my mother. I want him to fly!" and begins to have a seizure. When it ends, Littlefinger says he should be taken to bed and bled, and Maester Colemon accompanies him. Lord Nestor says he had never liked Marillion and advised Lysa to get rid of him, and others accompanying him recalled that he sang songs that mocked them. Littlefinger says, "I should have been with her, but I never dreamt ... if I had not insisted ... it was I who killed her."

Sansa is surprised by this statement, not realizing that Littlefinger is claiming guilt to remove suspicion from himself. And succeeding: Lord Nestor's son, Albar Royce, says, "No, my lord, you must not blame yourself." His father asks for Marillion to be brought before him, and soon the jailer, Mord, appears with Marillion. "White silk gloves covered his hands, while a white silk bandage spared the lords the sight of his eyes." He falls to one knee and begs forgiveness, saying, "If I had eyes I should weep." He says he loved Lysa so much that when he found that she was pregnant with Lord Petyr's child, "a ... a madness seized me."

Sansa stares at Marillion's hands. One of the maids had said that Mord had chopped off three of his fingers, but the gloves make it impossible to tell. She wonders if the story is true. Marillion says that Littlefinger had let him keep his harp and his tongue. "Lady Lysa dearly loved my singing...." Lord Nestor orders him taken away: "It sickens me to look at him." Mord complies, and when he speaks, Sansa is surprised to see that the jailer has teeth made of gold. (Tyrion had promised to reward him.) Littlefinger says he has been too gentle with him: "If truth be told, I pity him. He killed for love." Lord Nestor says, "No man lingers long in the sky cells. The blue will call to him."

Littlefinger has Lord Nestor's retinue shown to their rooms, but invites him to have a cup of wine in his solar, and asks Sansa to serve. Lord Nestor tells him that his cousin, Bronze Yohn Royce, wants to question Marillion too, and others may accompany him. "My cousin means to remove you as Lord Protector," Nestor says. Littlefinger says he accepts that fact and can't stop him. Then he opens a chest and takes out a document that he says Lysa wanted Lord Nestor to have. It proclaims House Royce the hereditary Keepers of the Gates of the Moon, and Sansa is startled to see tears come to Nestor's eyes. Littlefinger tells him it's "a token of the love my lady bore you." Nestor observes that the signature is Littlefinger's, though the seal is that of House Arryn. "Lysa was murdered before the document could be presented for her signature," Littlefinger tells him, "so I signed as Lord Protector."

After a good deal of wine, Lord Nestor goes off to bed, and Littlefinger asks Sansa if she understands what happened. "You gave Lord Nestor the Gates of the Moon to be certain of his support," she says. He did, he says, and he did it because Nestor is aware that he is considered inferior to his cousin, Bronze Yohn. "He wants to believe that Lysa valued him above all her other bannermen," especially Bronze Yohn. She observes that Lord Robert could have signed and sealed it, but that he did, as Lord Protector, and when prompted by Littlefinger she says he did it because if he's removed as Lord Protector.... "...Lord Nestor's claim to the Gates will suddenly be called into question." He compliments her on seeing his plan, though it's "no more than I'd expect of mine own daughter."

Sansa is proud of herself for figuring it out, but still bothered by posing as Alayne. He tells her that they must keep up the fiction even in private, lest they be overheard by a servant or a guardsman. "I am tempted to say this is no game we play, daughter, but of course it is. The game of thrones." She says that Oswell Kettleblack knows the truth, because he rowed her from King's Landing when she escaped. He adds that his captain of guards, Ser Lothor Brune, does too, but both have been in his service for a long time and each of them keeps watch on the other. "Trust no one, I once told Eddard Stark, but he would not listen."

She goes off to bed, and in the middle of the night is wakened by Lord Robert climbing in bed with her. He asks if she is his mother now. "'I suppose I am,' she said. If a lie was kindly meant, there was no harm in it."

The Kraken's Daughter

Asha Greyjoy has just arrived on Harlaw, and is at Ten Towers, the castle of her uncle Lord Rodrik Harlaw, her mother's elder brother. "Lord Rodrik was seldom seen without a book in hand, be it in the privy, on the deck of his Sea Song, or whilst holding audience." And Asha finds him now in the Book Tower, which is "the fattest of the ten." He loves "written words, which so many ironborn found unmanly and perverse."

She gets quickly to the point: "Was my father murdered?" Her mother believes he was, he says, but all he knows is what they have been told: "Balon fell to his death when a rope bridge broke beneath him. A storm was rising, and the bridge was swaying and twisting with each gust of wind." She notes that her uncle Euron's ship had been away for three years and that it had returned on the day her father died. He corrects her: "The day after, we had heard. Silence was still out to sea when Balon died, or so it is claimed. Even so, I will agree that Euron's return was ... timely, shall we say?"

She had asked Rodrik to summon the ships of houses loyal to her, but there are only a few in the harbor. He says the rest have gone to Old Wyk: "I thought you would have heard. Aeron Damphair has called a kingsmoot." The other priests of the Drowned God have joined him. She asks if Euron has gone along with it, but he says Euron "does not confide in me." Nor does he know if Victarion, Aeron and Euron's other brother, has gone to the kingsmoot.

"I shall not go to Old Wyk," he tells her. "Nor should you." But she says she doesn't want to miss the first kingsmoot in ... "Four thousand years," he says, citing an old history, though another historian has said it may be half that.

"This dream of kingship is a madness in our blood. I told your father so the first time he rose, and it is more true now than it was then. It's land we need, not crowns. With Stannis Baratheon and Tywin Lannister contending for the Iron Throne, we have a rare chance to improve our lot. Let us take one side or the other, help them to victory with our fleets, and claim the lands we need from a grateful king."

Asha says she'll consider it, "once I sit the Seastone Chair." Her uncle gives a discouraging sigh and warns her, "No woman has ever ruled the ironborn." But the more he tries to dissuade her, the stubborner Asha gets. She wants him to come to what she calls "my queensmoot," and tells him it will be living history. "I prefer my history dead," he says. "Dead history is writ in ink, the living sort in blood."

The conversation turns to Theon, and she says she isn't certain that he is dead. "We found parts of many bodies.... It seemed as though the northmen fought amongst themselves." He observes, "We had one king, then five. Now all I see are crows, squabbling over the corpse of Westeros." Once again, he pleads with her not to go to Old Wyk. If she stays, he says, he will name her heir to the Ten Towers. Ser Harras Harlaw will inherit the title of Lord of Harlaw, but he can rule from his castle at Grey Garden. "Do fealty to him for the castle and Ser Harras will protect you." But she persists: "It's my father's seat I want, not yours." He sends her away and turns to his book.

Outside, she is approached by a childhood boyfriend, Tristifer Botley, now Lord Botley. He tells her that Euron "has been buying friends at every hand" with the treasure he brought back in the Silence. And although Tristifer has the right to the title of Lord Botley, his uncle Germund calls himself by that name, with Euron's support. She promises to restore his lands when she takes the Seastone Chair. "He had not been the first boy she had ever kissed, but he was the first to undo the laces of her jerkin and slip a sweaty hand beneath to feel her budding breasts." He had been fostered at Pyke after Theon was taken hostage at Winterfell, but had been sent away when their maester "found them at their play."

She asks if he will come to the kingsmoot and support her, and he agrees, though Lord Blacktyde has said Euron will attack the people who attend. "I am your man forever, Asha. I would wed you. Your lady mother has given her consent." She tries to discourage him, but he swears that he has "never touched another woman." She tells him, "Go touch one ... or two, or ten. I have touched more men than I can count. Some with my lips, more with my axe." She tells him that she lost her virginity at sixteen and that he's "a sweet boy and always were, but I am no sweet girl."

When he pleads with her and seizes her arm, she pulls out her dirk and puts it at his throat. "I am your queen, not your wife. Remember that." And she leaves him "with a fat drop of blood slowly creeping down his neck."

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."

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