Summary: A Clash of Kings

The Sev­en King­doms in Wes­t­eros find them­selves amidst a harsh inter­nal strug­gle. Young Joff Lan­nis­ter sits on the throne while Stan­nis and Ren­ly Baratheon com­pete for the crown. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, Robb Stark asserts his sov­er­eign­ty as the King of the North. Sep­a­rate­ly, the Night’s Watch sets out from the Wall to inves­ti­gate the dis­ap­pear­ance of the wildlings in the vast wilder­ness to the north. Over the sea, Daen­erys Tar­garyen leads a small group of Dothra­ki fol­low­ers in a jour­ney to gath­er wealth and forces to reclaim the Iron Throne. These inter­twined events form the essence of the nar­ra­tive. Robb Stark endeav­ors to cre­ate an alliance with the Greyjoys, yet his emis­sary and for­mer broth­er, Theon Greyjoy, deceives him, lead­ing to an assault on the North­ern shore­line. In Win­ter­fell, young Bran Stark grap­ples with his new­found duties, seek­ing com­fort in dreams where he embod­ies his dire­wolf, Sum­mer. Theon takes com­mand of Win­ter­fell, trig­ger­ing a sequence of events that leave Win­ter­fell in ruins and Bran, along with his new allies, the Reeds, flee­ing to the Wall. Mean­while, Stan­nis Baratheon lays claim to the Iron Throne with the sup­port of Melisan­dre, a red priest­ess, result­ing in con­flicts and super­nat­ur­al events, com­pelling Cate­lyn Stark to medi­ate for peace amid tur­moil and death.

Tyri­on Lan­nis­ter arrives in King’s Land­ing to serve as the Hand of the King, accom­pa­nied by his para­mour, Shae. He goes against his kin, par­tic­u­lar­ly his sib­ling Cer­sei, and takes mea­sures to for­ti­fy the city while pur­su­ing jus­tice. His strate­gic prowess comes into play when Stan­nis launch­es a full-scale assault on the city, lead­ing to an unfore­seen tri­umph for the Lan­nis­ters. Amidst the tur­moil, Arya Stark, dis­guised as a boy, embarks on a haz­ardous jour­ney north­wards, befriend­ing Gendry, Hot Pie, and Lom­my Green­hands. Her brav­ery and resource­ful­ness prove cru­cial when they are cap­tured and tak­en to Har­ren­hal. Mean­while, a group from the Night’s Watch ven­tures into the north­ern wood­lands, encoun­ter­ing the wildlings. Final­ly, Daen­erys Tar­garyen, nav­i­gat­ing chal­lenges in for­eign lands, per­sists in her quest to reclaim the Iron Throne, guid­ed by visions and the bur­geon­ing pow­er of her dragons.

chapter 1

Pon­der­ing the poten­tial impli­ca­tions of a crim­son comet, Drag­on­stone’s maester, Cressen, recalls the raven’s her­ald of the end of a decade-long sum­mer. His mus­ings are dis­rupt­ed by his aide, Pylos, who intro­duces Shireen, the daugh­ter of King Stan­nis Baratheon, and her fool, Patch­es. On his way to the king’s cham­bers, he encoun­ters Davos, a for­mer smug­gler now knight­ed by Stan­nis. Davos informs him of the lords’ refusal to pledge alle­giance to Stan­nis, many favor­ing Ren­ly, Stan­nis’s younger broth­er who also lays claim to the throne. Cressen urges Stan­nis to unite with either Ren­ly or Robb Stark, the King in the North, against the Lan­nis­ters in King’s Land­ing. Stan­nis rebuffs this proposal.

chapter 2

The arrival of Queen Sel­yse pro­vides a dif­fer­ent view­point; she advo­cates for Stan­nis to inde­pen­dent­ly con­quer King’s Land­ing and pro­pos­es assas­si­nat­ing Ren­ly. Despite Cressen’s protests, he is brushed aside. He iden­ti­fies Melisan­dre, an Asshai priest­ess, and her uncon­ven­tion­al beliefs as the root of Stan­nis’s trou­bles and decides to poi­son her. At a feast, Stan­nis announces Pylos will replace Cressen. Despite Stan­nis’s rejec­tion and Melisan­dre’s asser­tion that the Lord of Light is the sole ally Stan­nis needs, Cressen per­sists in his plea for an alliance. Coerced by Melisan­dre and Sel­yse to wear Patch­es’s fool’s crown, Cressen covert­ly poi­sons the wine he offers to Melisan­dre. She drinks and returns the cup to Cressen. After she remains unharmed, Cressen con­sumes the poi­soned wine and perishes.

chapter 3

Dis­guised as a boy named Arry, Arya Stark trav­els north from King’s Land­ing with recruits bound for the Night’s Watch at the Wall. Yoren, the chief recruiter, has pledged to escort Arya back to her fam­i­ly home, Win­ter­fell. When Lom­my and Hot Pie, two fel­low recruits, try to steal Arya’s sword, Nee­dle, she fights back, lead­ing Yoren to step in and scold her. He reminds Arya that Hot Pie is not her adver­sary and cau­tions her against alien­at­ing her com­pan­ions. In the still­ness of the night, Arya is haunt­ed by her father’s death ordered by King Jof­frey, inten­si­fy­ing her yearn­ing for home.

chapter 4

Wit­ness­ing the cel­e­bra­tion tour­na­ment for King Joffrey’s name day is Sansa Stark. Jof­frey informs her of Vis­erys’s demise, the last scion of King Aerys, in a dis­tant land and mus­es about ways to elim­i­nate Sansa’s rebel­lious broth­er Robb. The King grows vexed when the tour­na­ment knights fail to impress. Ser Don­tos, one of the knights, appear­ing intox­i­cat­ed, incites Joffrey’s demand for his exe­cu­tion. Sansa con­vinces Jof­frey to spare Ser Don­tos’s life by propos­ing he be turned into a fool. The fes­tiv­i­ty is dis­rupt­ed by the sud­den arrival of Tyri­on Lan­nis­ter, Joffrey’s uncle, and his band of fierce war­riors return­ing from com­bat. Tyri­on address­es Sansa with more kind­ness than Jof­frey, yet she remains wary of him due to his Lan­nis­ter lineage.

chapter 5

Hand­ing a let­ter to Cer­sei, his sis­ter and the Queen Regent, Tyri­on reveals a mis­sive from their father, Tywin Lan­nis­ter. The mis­sive instructs the coun­cil to bestow upon Tyri­on the pow­ers of the Hand of the King until Tywin’s return to King’s Land­ing. Cer­sei express­es dis­plea­sure as she had antic­i­pat­ed Tywin lead­ing his forces to the city to safe­guard their con­trol over the throne. Tyri­on assures her of his com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing her and work­ing towards lib­er­at­ing their cap­tive broth­er Jaime, held by Robb Stark. Cer­sei men­tions hold­ing Sansa Stark as a cap­tive and false­ly claim­ing to have Arya, who is actu­al­ly miss­ing and pre­sumed deceased.

Head­ing in the adverse direc­tion, they pause at a near­by inn where they are regaled with tales of con­flicts and untamed beasts. Yoren instructs Arya to remain out­side due to her inter­rup­tion, lead­ing to her engag­ing in dia­logue with a group of chained felons. While a cou­ple of them try to intim­i­date her, the third, Jaqen H’ghar, is ami­able. She also encoun­ters a youth known as the Bull. Nev­er­the­less, their tran­quil inter­lude is dis­rupt­ed by the arrival of gold cloaks, the city watch­ers of King’s Land­ing, on the queen’s orders to appre­hend a lad bound for the Wall. Arya wor­ries she is their tar­get, but they are seek­ing the Bull, actu­al­ly named Gendry. Yoren and his com­pan­ions suc­cess­ful­ly repel them, but they real­ize they must swift­ly depart to avoid the inevitable return of the gold cloaks.

chapter 6

Jon Snow and Samwell Tar­ly, mem­bers of the Night’s Watch, ready them­selves for their inau­gur­al jour­ney beyond the Wall under the lead­er­ship of Jeor Mor­mont, also known as the Old Bear. Their objec­tive is to locate Ben­jen Stark, Jon’s uncle and the First Ranger of the Watch, who has been miss­ing for a pro­longed peri­od. Jon is trou­bled by his half-broth­er Rob­b’s con­flicts with the Lan­nis­ters, despite his Night’s Watch alle­giance bar­ring him from inter­ven­ing in the pol­i­tics of the Sev­en King­doms. Assist­ing the Old Bear, Jon dis­cov­ers that requests have been dis­patched to the con­tenders for the throne for addi­tion­al man­pow­er and sup­port for the Night’s Watch. The Old Bear dis­clos­es to Jon that Aemon, the Watch’s maester, could have ascend­ed to king­ship and inquires about Jon’s thoughts on Rob­b’s new role. Jon con­fess­es his con­cerns but reaf­firms his ded­i­ca­tion to the Watch.

chapter 7

Cate­lyn Stark, sit­u­at­ed at River­run, is per­turbed by her son Rob­b’s recent appoint­ment as King in the North, despite his ten­der age of fif­teen. Robb assigns Ser Cleos Frey, a cap­tive and a rel­a­tive of Tywin Lan­nis­ter, to deliv­er peace con­di­tions to Cer­sei in King’s Land­ing. He pro­pos­es strin­gent terms, but Cate­lyn notes that some of Rob­b’s fol­low­ers oppose peace with the Lan­nis­ters. This reluc­tance stems from the Lan­nis­ters’ bru­tal treat­ment of the civil­ian pop­u­lace in the river­lands, caus­ing many of Rob­b’s allied lords to return to safe­guard their lands and peo­ple. Cate­lyn reproach­es Robb for sug­gest­ing such uncom­pro­mis­ing peace terms and holds him account­able for fail­ing to pro­tect his cap­tive sis­ters in King’s Land­ing. She also voic­es skep­ti­cism regard­ing Rob­b’s deci­sion to dis­patch Theon Greyjoy, a Stark ward, back to the Iron Islands to per­suade his father, Balon Greyjoy, to align with the Starks. How­ev­er, Robb dis­re­gards her concerns.

chapter 8

Dur­ing a meal with Tyri­on, Janos Slynt, the soon-to-be for­mer city watch com­man­der, pro­pos­es Allar Deem as his replace­ment. Nonethe­less, Tyri­on advo­cates for Ser Jace­lyn Bywa­ter for the posi­tion, cit­ing Allar’s involve­ment in the slay­ing of a moth­er and her infant. Janos evades dis­cus­sions con­cern­ing the orches­tra­tor of the killings. Incensed by Janos’ involve­ment in the Eddard Stark affair, Tyri­on dis­clos­es his new assign­ment at the Night’s Watch to him. A furi­ous Janos tries to storm out but is detained by Ser Jace­lyn Bywa­ter. Varys enters the scene, and Tyri­on com­pre­hends that Varys was cog­nizant of Cer­sei’s direc­tive for Allar to elim­i­nate Robert’s ille­git­i­mate child. They delib­er­ate on Tyrion’s strat­e­gy to address Jof­frey’s errat­ic behav­ior and dis­cuss the impact of aggres­sion, pub­lic per­cep­tion, and authority.

chapter 9

The group en route to the Wall encoun­ters dif­fi­cul­ties in procur­ing suf­fi­cient sus­te­nance. They chance upon a ruined vil­lage with only a young girl and a grave­ly injured woman sur­viv­ing. While they bring both along, the injured woman does not sur­vive. One night, dur­ing a late excur­sion out­side the camp, Arya glimpses a wolf. Reflect­ing at the camp, Yoren regrets his deci­sion to opt for a land route to the Wall, con­sid­er­ing a sea voy­age would have been safer.

chapter 10

At Drag­on­stone, Davos wit­ness­es the destruc­tion of the old gods’ sym­bols in a blaze on Stannis’s orders, while Melisan­dre wor­ships the Lord of Light. Davos con­tem­plates how Stan­nis ele­vat­ed him from a smug­gler to a knight. Stan­nis retrieves a sword from the fiery con­fla­gra­tion, and Melisan­dre and Sel­yse believe it ful­fills a prophe­cy regard­ing a flam­ing blade. Sub­se­quent­ly, Davos engages in a dis­cus­sion with Sal­lad­hor Saan. Sal­lad­hor, anoth­er smug­gler, informs Davos about King’s Land­ing’s vul­ner­a­ble defens­es and Ren­ly’s march with his forces towards the city. He also recounts the tale of the leg­endary fiery sword, known as Light­bringer. Davos meets with Stan­nis, who is dis­patch­ing copies of a let­ter to all Wes­t­erosi lords. The let­ter pro­claims him as Robert’s right­ful heir and impli­cates Jof­frey as the prod­uct of an illic­it union between Cer­sei and Jaime. Davos points out Stan­nis lacks con­crete evi­dence to sub­stan­ti­ate that Jaime is Jof­frey’s father, but Stan­nis men­tions that Edric Storm, anoth­er of Robert’s ille­git­i­mate off­spring, resides in Storm’s End, a fortress held by Ren­ly’s sup­port­ers. Stan­nis believes that if peo­ple laid eyes on Edric, they would real­ize he is Robert’s prog­e­ny, dis­cred­it­ing Jof­frey’s claim. Inquir­ing about Stan­nis’s aban­don­ment of the old gods, Davos learns that Stan­nis is reliant on Melisan­dre’s super­nat­ur­al prowess to secure the throne.

chapter 11

Theon Greyjoy embarks on a voy­age back to Pyke, his ances­tral abode that he depart­ed from a decade ago upon becom­ing a Stark ward fol­low­ing his father’s failed rebel­lion against King Robert. Theon has been roman­ti­cal­ly involved with the ship cap­tain’s daugh­ter, but as they near Pyke, he ter­mi­nates their rela­tion­ship, cit­ing his impend­ing role as a monarch hin­der­ing their togeth­er­ness. Observ­ing his father’s loy­al­ist war­ships in the har­bor, he ques­tions his father’s inten­tions. On land, his iden­ti­ty remains unrec­og­nized until his uncle Aeron, a priest, acknowl­edges him. Aeron ques­tions Theon’s loy­al­ty, insin­u­at­ing a poten­tial Stark alle­giance, but Theon vehe­ment­ly upholds his feal­ty to the Drowned God. He asserts his claim to Pyke and the Iron Islands con­fi­dent­ly, although Aeron reminds him of his sis­ter Asha’s exis­tence, pos­si­bly viewed as more loy­al, dub­bing him a Stark. With­in the cas­tle, Theon treats the ser­vants harsh­ly, per­ceiv­ing them as lack­ing def­er­ence towards him. Upon meet­ing his father, Balon, Theon faces attire crit­i­cism and accu­sa­tions of grow­ing fee­ble due to asso­ci­a­tion with the Starks. Balon har­bors resent­ment towards the Starks for defeat­ing him in his rebel­lion and caus­ing the demise of Theon’s elder sib­lings. Theon presents Robb’s mis­sive to Balon, propos­ing an alliance where Balon would be crowned ruler of the Iron Islands in return. Theon declares the idea as his own and express­es his eager­ness to lead an assault on Cast­er­ly Rock, the Lan­nis­ter strong­hold. Reject­ing the propo­si­tion, Balon incin­er­ates the let­ter, unveil­ing his plan to claim a crown force­ful­ly by tar­get­ing a vul­ner­a­ble region of Westeros.

chapter 12

Far from Wes­t­eros, Daen­erys Tar­garyen, the only sur­viv­ing mem­ber of the oust­ed King Robert, guides the rem­nants of her kha­lasar through a des­o­late expanse, bear­ing three­drag­ons orig­i­nat­ing from her late husband’s funer­al pyre, from which she emerged unscathed. The size of her group has sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduced due to fatal­i­ties and aban­don­ment, and the sur­viv­ing mem­bers are bare­ly sur­viv­ing when they chance upon an aban­doned city. Daen­erys’ coun­selor in exile from Wes­t­eros, Ser Jorah Mor­mont, is unable to rec­og­nize the city, but they decide to estab­lish a camp. Daen­erys sends out three scouts to explore near­by civ­i­liza­tions. Only one returns, accom­pa­nied by three indi­vid­u­als from Qarth who express a desire to meet Daen­erys and her drag­ons. The oth­er scouts find nothing.

chapter 13

Jon and the Night’s Watch troop tra­verse sev­er­al desert­ed wildling set­tle­ments, sit­u­at­ed north of the Wall. The res­i­dents appear to have van­ished, with no signs of any con­flict. The Old Bear decides to con­tin­ue their north­ern jour­ney, aim­ing to ren­dezvous with anoth­er Night’s Watch con­tin­gent and unrav­el the mys­tery behind the sud­den emptiness.

chapter 14

Under the guid­ance of Yoren, the group reach­es the God’s Eye lake in search of boats to fer­ry them to Har­ren­hal. They come across an aban­doned vil­lage but find no boats. They opt to spend the night in the small fort in the vil­lage, known as a hold­fast. Their peace­ful rest is inter­rupt­ed by the arrival of a raid­ing par­ty from House Lan­nis­ter led by Ser Armory Lorch. Despite Yoren’s refusal to grant them entry, Lorch’s par­ty launch­es an assault. Arya and her com­pan­ions fight back, man­ag­ing to elim­i­nate some attack­ers, but the Lan­nis­ter sol­diers breach the hold­fast and set it ablaze. Yoren instructs Arya to gath­er as many young boys as pos­si­ble and hide in a secret com­part­ment in the barn. Arya leads the fright­ened girl they res­cued ear­li­er from the vil­lage, along with Lom­my, Hot Pie, and Gendry, to safe­ty. Before dis­ap­pear­ing through the con­cealed door­way, she frees Jaqen H’ghar and two oth­er captives.

chapter 15

Cer­sei insists on destroy­ing Stan­nis’s let­ters reveal­ing Jof­frey’s ille­git­i­mate ori­gins, but Tyri­on points out that the rumor is already wide­spread. He pro­pos­es lever­ag­ing Stan­nis’s new­found reli­gion to their ben­e­fit. Lit­tlefin­ger sug­gests spread­ing a false­hood that Patch­es, the fool, is the real father of Stan­nis’s child. Accom­pa­nied by his squire Podrick Payne, Tyri­on meets with the city’s black­smiths, instruct­ing them to cre­ate a large iron chain with­out dis­clos­ing its pur­pose. Tyri­on then vis­its a broth­el run by Chataya. A pros­ti­tute named Alayaya escorts him to a hid­den tun­nel where Varys is wait­ing. They nav­i­gate through the tun­nel, end­ing up in a sta­ble where Tyri­on can mount a horse to reach Shae’s undis­closed loca­tion. Tyri­on ques­tions Varys about whether he informed Stan­nis about Jof­frey’s true lin­eage. Varys denies any involve­ment, hint­ing that Lit­tlefin­ger could be the source of the rumor.

chapter 16

Bran plays host to var­i­ous North­ern allies at Win­ter­fell, loy­al to House Stark. Assist­ed by Hodor, a men­tal­ly dis­abled sta­ble­hand who car­ries him to the court­yard to observe the young men train­ing in com­bat, Bran becomes angered when the Frey boys mock Hodor. Maester Luwin inter­venes, remind­ing Bran of his duties to their adult guests. Tran­si­tion­ing to the great hall with Luwin and Ser Rodrik Cas­sel, the mas­ter-at-arms of Win­ter­fell, Bran lis­tens to the con­cerns of the vis­it­ing lords and ladies. Lady Donel­la Horn­wood, wid­owed due to the Lan­nis­ter con­flict, dis­clos­es that Ram­say Bolton, the ille­git­i­mate son of Roose Bolton, accom­pa­nied by his omi­nous asso­ciate Reek, is amass­ing forces near her lands at the Dread­fort. Rodrik sug­gests remar­riage for her safe­ty, while Luwin empha­sizes the dan­ger she faces. Bran’s idea of legit­imiz­ing Ram­say Bolton is dis­missed. Sub­se­quent­ly, Bran and Hodor head to the godswood, where they encounter Osha, a Wildling serv­ing Win­ter­fell, bathing. She inquires about his wolf dreams, but he denies hav­ing any.

chapter 17

Tyri­on directs Grand Maester Pycelle to send two let­ters to Prince Doran Martell of Dorne, dis­creet­ly pock­et­ing a potion in the process. Despite Pycelle’s attempts to inquire about the con­tents of the mis­sives, Tyri­on remains tight-lipped. Bronn, his depend­able sell­sword, updates him on the city’s dete­ri­o­rat­ing state due to food short­ages and the numer­ous roy­al sub­jects seek­ing favors from Tyri­on. He then con­fronts Cer­sei, who laments the city’s fee­ble defens­es and urges him to request mil­i­tary aid from Tywin. Tyri­on declines, con­tem­plat­ing the loom­ing threat of Stan­nis and Ren­ly forg­ing an alliance. In his cham­bers, Tyri­on dis­cuss­es with Lit­tlefin­ger his scheme to betroth Cer­sei’s daugh­ter, Myr­cel­la, to the son of Lysa Arryn, the late Cate­lyn Stark’s sis­ter, in exchange for Lysa’s sup­port against Stan­nis and Ren­ly. In return, Tyri­on promis­es to ele­vate Lit­tlefin­ger to the Lord of Har­ren­hal, to which he agrees. Tyri­on then arranges a meet­ing with Varys, dis­clos­ing his plans to offer Doran Martell a seat on the roy­al coun­cil for his alle­giance and even sug­gests send­ing Cersei’s youngest son, Tom­men, to dwell with the Martells. Tyri­on instructs Varys to keep these machi­na­tions con­cealed from Cersei.

chapter 18

Sansa receives an anony­mous mes­sage instruct­ing her to vis­it the godswood at night if she wish­es to return home. Despite her appre­hen­sion of a poten­tial trap, she decides to go. In the godswood, she encoun­ters Don­tos, the knight whose life she saved from Jof­frey’s fury. Grate­ful for her inter­ven­tion, Don­tos promis­es to become a true knight and vows to assist Sansa in her jour­ney home­ward. On her way back to her cham­ber, she cross­es paths with San­dor Cle­gane, the Hound, Jof­frey’s chief body­guard. The Hound ques­tions her motive for vis­it­ing the godswood. While return­ing to her quar­ters, Ser Boros Blount of the Kings­guard informs them about a minor upris­ing out­side the cas­tle. The Hound, refer­ring to Sansa as a lit­tle bird, omi­nous­ly hints at mak­ing her sing for him someday.

chapter 19

Arya, Gendry, an injured Lom­my, Hot Pie, and Weasel, an orphaned girl, jour­ney north­ward. Arya spots a pop­u­lat­ed fish­ing vil­lage from a van­tage point atop a tree. Lom­my sug­gests sur­ren­der­ing to the vil­lagers, but Gendry decides that he and Arya should scout ahead. In the for­est, Gendry admits to know­ing Arya’s true gen­der, and she reveals her real iden­ti­ty. They part ways upon reach­ing the vil­lage, where Gendry is cap­tured. Arya returns to their camp and per­suades Hot Pie to aid in Gendry’s res­cue. How­ev­er, as they near the vil­lage, Hot Pie capit­u­lates to a sol­dier, and they are appre­hend­ed by Gre­gor Cle­gane, the Hound’s broth­er and a bru­tal raider in ser­vice of the Lan­nis­ters. Cle­gane com­pels Arya and Hot Pie to lead them to their camp, result­ing in Lom­my’s demise. Weasel man­ages to escape into the woods.

chapter 20

Tyri­on descends into a cel­lar to inspect the stock of wild­fire, an almost indomitable flam­ma­ble sub­stance, and orders the pro­duc­tion of 10,000 jars. He then con­venes a meet­ing with Jace­lyn and Cleos Frey to delib­er­ate on Robb Stark’s peace terms. Con­tem­plat­ing his own coun­ter­pro­pos­als that could appease the Starks while bol­ster­ing the Lan­nis­ters’ position.strength. In his cham­bers, he meets an angry Cer­sei ques­tion­ing his choice to send Myr­cel­la to Doran Martell for pro­tec­tion. Tyri­on reas­sures her about their father Tywin’s meth­ods of retain­ing most of his sol­diers at Har­ren­hal, as this posi­tion is impreg­nable to Rob­b’s assault. He also high­lights that over time, Rob­b’s forces are dimin­ish­ing. Pre­sent­ing Robb’s peace terms, he con­firms the effi­ca­cy of their plan. Fur­ther­more, Tyri­on comes to the real­iza­tion that he has pin­point­ed the infor­mant among the trio of roy­al advi­sors who has been shar­ing details with Cersei.

chapter 21

Bran over­sees a ban­quet for north­ern lords at Win­ter­fell. Coun­sel­lors Luwin and Rodrik com­mend his guid­ance. Bran con­tem­plates the stark dis­par­i­ty between this occa­sion and the pri­or feast held for King Robert. The Reed sib­lings, Meera and Jojen, from the Neck­’s marsh­es, pledge their alle­giance to Win­ter­fell, their father hav­ing once res­cued Eddard Stark’s life. That very night, Bran encoun­ters a vivid dream where he embod­ies his dire­wolf, Sum­mer. In the dream, Meera and Jojen approach him and Shag­gy­dog in the godswood. Meera dis­plays fear while Jojen remains assured of his sur­vival. Jojen remarks on Shag­gy­dog’s trep­i­da­tion and Sum­mer’s latent pow­er. As Jojen caress­es Sum­mer, Bran’s dream tran­si­tions, and he feels the sen­sa­tion of descending.

chapter 22

Cate­lyn, accom­pa­nied by a guard, trav­els south­ward towards Ren­ly, despite her pref­er­ence to stay at River­run with her ail­ing father. Unbe­knownst to her, Robb plans for Edmure to guard River­run while he com­mands his troops in bat­tle. Upon arriv­ing at Ren­ly’s grand encamp­ment, they dis­cov­er a tour­na­ment in progress. Ren­ly, with his new­ly mar­ried wife Mar­gaery, the daugh­ter of the influ­en­tial south­ern lord Mace Tyrell, observes as an uniden­ti­fied knight defeats Ser Loras Tyrell, the famed Knight of Flow­ers. The tri­umphant knight turns out to be a woman, Bri­enne of Tarth, who asks to join Ren­ly’s Rain­bow Guard as her reward. Extend­ing a warm wel­come to Cate­lyn, Ren­ly ensures she is lux­u­ri­ous­ly accom­mo­dat­ed in capa­cious and sump­tu­ous cham­bers. Cate­lyn can­not help but observe the youth­ful demeanor of Ren­ly and his sol­diers. Ren­ly and Cate­lyn con­verse as they walk togeth­er, dur­ing which Ren­ly dis­clos­es to her that Eddard could have seized the throne if not for his unwa­ver­ing loy­al­ty to Robert. Sur­vey­ing Ren­ly’s vast­ly supe­ri­or army, Ren­ly sug­gests that Robb should yield to him. Their dia­logue is inter­rupt­ed by a mes­sen­ger deliv­er­ing news of Ren­ly’s forces under siege by Stan­nis at Stor­m’s End.

chapter 23

Jon and his Night’s Watch com­rades arrive at Cras­ter’s Keep, a dete­ri­o­rat­ed abode ruled by a harsh elder, Cras­ter, and his numer­ous daugh­ters, who also serve as his spous­es. A preg­nant daughter/spouse implores Jon to res­cue her, but he denies her plea. She dis­clos­es that if her infant is male, Cras­ter will offer it to the ‘icy gods’, lead­ing Jon to infer that she is refer­ring to the undead Oth­ers. Cras­ter informs The Old Bear about Mance Ray­der, a self-pro­claimed King-beyond-the-Wall who is amass­ing troops in the far north­ern moun­tains to invade the Sev­en King­doms. With the armies of the Sev­en King­doms pre­oc­cu­pied with inter­nal dis­putes, The Old Bear asserts that it falls to the Night’s Watch to con­front Mance’s threat.

chapter 24

Theon is admir­ing his new war­ship when he engages in con­ver­sa­tion with a charm­ing woman named Esgred, pur­port­ed­ly the wife of a ship­builder. She accom­pa­nies him back to the strong­hold, and dur­ing their jour­ney, Theon observes the locals treat­ing him with new­found rev­er­ence. Ener­gized, he boasts about his impend­ing rule over the Iron Islands, and dis­re­gards his sup­pos­ed­ly unat­trac­tive, mas­cu­line sis­ter Asha as incon­se­quen­tial. Upon their arrival, the cas­tle staff address­es Esgred as Lady Asha, star­tling Theon. She admits that her con­cealed iden­ti­ty was to observe him incog­ni­to, leav­ing Theon fum­ing and humil­i­at­ed. Dur­ing din­ner, Asha fur­ther mocks him by dis­play­ing her skill with an axe and cau­tion­ing him that his soft­ened demeanor would cost him fol­low­ers. A meet­ing is con­vened by Balon with Theon, Asha, and his advi­sors in atten­dance. Theon shares his views but is dis­missed by Balon. Balon directs Theon to lead a small force for a coastal raid, while Asha and his broth­er Vic­tar­i­on will lead larg­er forces for a full-scale north­ern inva­sion, aim­ing to seize Rob­b’s territories.

chapter 25

Tyri­on informs Cer­sei about the impend­ing clash between Stan­nis and Ren­ly at Stor­m’s End and covert­ly adds a sub­stance to her wine. Sub­se­quent­ly, Cer­sei falls ill and is con­fined to her cham­ber. The next day at court, Tyri­on assigns Ser Cleos Frey to trans­port Eddard­’s remains and unat­tain­able peace terms to Robb. He instructs Vylarr, the leader of Cer­sei’s guards, to accom­pa­ny Cleos on his jour­ney. Con­cur­rent­ly, Ser Allis­er Thorne from the Night’s Watch arrives and recounts his encounter with the undead Oth­ers at the Wall. Despite mock­ery from the court towards Allis­er’s account and Tyri­on’s appar­ent lack of inter­est, he per­mits Allis­er to recruit pris­on­ers from the dun­geons to serve at the Wall.

chapter 26

Arya is held cap­tive by Gre­gor Cle­gane and his Lan­nis­ter ret­inue, wit­ness­ing fel­low cap­tives being inter­ro­gat­ed, tor­tured, and killed. Cle­gane is intent on extract­ing infor­ma­tion about Beric Don­dar­rion and his rebel fight­ers, but none pro­vide any valu­able details. Arya mem­o­rizes the names of her cap­tors and adver­saries, recit­ing them each evening. Under Gre­gor’s com­mand, they are tak­en to Har­ren­hal to serve Tywin Lan­nis­ter and his troops. Now known as Weasel, Arya is assigned tasks in the kitchen of the sup­pos­ed­ly haunt­ed castle.

chapter 27

Daen­erys, along with her fol­low­ers, arrives at the mag­nif­i­cent city of Qarth. She takes up res­i­dence in the lav­ish res­i­dence of a wealthy trad­er, Xaro Xhoan Dax­os. Mean­while, Jorah departs to the har­bor and returns with a sea cap­tain for Daen­erys. The cap­tain informs her about Robert Baratheon’s demise and the ensu­ing tur­moil in the Sev­en King­doms. In response, Daen­erys declares her intent to reclaim her ances­tral seat uti­liz­ing her dragons.

chapter 28

Jojen and Meera Reed con­tin­ue resid­ing in Win­ter­fell after every­one else has depart­ed. Ram­say Bolton coerces Lady Horn­wood into mar­riage, lead­ing to her cas­tle being tak­en over by Lord Man­der­ly under the guise of pro­tect­ing it. This prompts Rodrik to inter­vene. The Reeds pro­pose that Bran should depart Win­ter­fell. Jojen asserts he pos­sess­es green­sight, the abil­i­ty to fore­see future events in dreams, and in one such dream sees Bran depict­ed as a chained, winged wolf that he and Meera are des­tined to free. He believes that Bran har­bors unique abil­i­ties wait­ing to be unlocked and shares a pro­found con­nec­tion with Sum­mer. Bran’s fury ignites at this sug­ges­tion, and Sum­mer lunges at Jojen, only to be fright­ened away by Hodor. Luwin express­es doubt about the exis­tence­of green dreams, sus­pect­ing that any sor­cery once exist­ing in the world has now dis­si­pat­ed. Meera reveals anoth­er of Jojen’s visions con­cern­ing the Freys to Bran. He strug­gles to grasp it, but Meera assures him that he will com­pre­hend it in time. This instills uncer­tain­ty in Bran regard­ing Luwin’s perspective.

chapter 29

Ser Lan­cel Lan­nis­ter, a rel­a­tive of Tyri­on and Cer­sei who serves as Cer­sei’s close advi­sor, approach­es Tyri­on to demand Pycelle’s release at Cer­sei’s request. Tyri­on rebuffs him, high­light­ing Lancel’s roman­tic ties to Cer­sei and his poten­tial involve­ment in Robert’s death. Lan­cel agrees to spy on Cer­sei for Tyri­on’s con­fi­den­tial­i­ty. Secret­ly, Tyri­on sneaks off to meet Shae.

chapter 30

Arya’s duties at Har­ren­hal involve chores and serv­ing Weese. She gath­ers var­i­ous rumors about noble affairs and war devel­op­ments. The Brave Com­pan­ions, a group of mer­ce­nar­ies in Tywin’s employ, arrive at the strong­hold. She learns that Robb and his forces are sta­tioned at River­run. Ser Amory Lorch makes an entrance, accom­pa­nied by Jaqen H’ghar and two oth­er pris­on­ers whom Arya had freed. Jaqen, in exchange for his life, pledges to dis­pose of any three indi­vid­u­als cho­sen by Arya. Upon hear­ing Chiswyck, a mem­ber of Gre­gor Clegane’s crew, brag­ging about an assault, she des­ig­nates him to Jaqen, lead­ing to Chiswyck plum­met­ing to his demise from the cas­tle walls. The inhab­i­tants attribute his death to Har­ren­hal’s phan­tom, but Arya believes she embod­ies that specter.

chapter 31

Cate­lyn encoun­ters Ren­ly and Stan­nis at Stor­m’s End, attempt­ing to dis­suade them from clash­ing, but both remain adamant. Stan­nis dis­clos­es to Cate­lyn the sus­pi­cions about Jof­frey’s parent­age, a claim she con­sid­ers plau­si­ble. A fiery exchange occurs between Ren­ly and Stan­nis, fol­lowed by prepa­ra­tions for bat­tle the next day. Cate­lyn seeks solace in a near­by sept for prayers.

chapter 32

In a sept near Ren­ly’s encamp­ment, Cate­lyn con­tem­plates the illic­it ori­gins of Jof­frey, deduc­ing that both Eddard and Bran might have stum­bled upon this hid­den truth. She presents her mus­ings to Ren­ly, propos­ing a halt to the immi­nent con­flict and a grand sum­mit involv­ing Robb and Stan­nis to expose the truth. Ren­ly dis­miss­es her sug­ges­tion. As he read­ies him­self for bat­tle in his tent, a shad­ow swift­ly enters and kills him. Upon the dis­cov­ery of the scene, Ren­ly’s advi­sors point fin­gers at Bri­enne for the deed. Cate­lyn steps in, attribut­ing Ren­ly’s demise to Stan­nis’s dark mag­ic. Sub­se­quent­ly, Cate­lyn and Bri­enne make their escape.

chapter 33

The par­ty paus­es at an ancient hill fortress known as the Fist of the First Men. Ghost, the dire­wolf, notably avoids the for­ti­fied area. Prompt­ed by Ghost’s pecu­liar behav­ior, Jon ven­tures into the woods where Ghost uncov­ers a sack. Inside, they dis­cov­er blades and arrow­heads fash­ioned from drag­on­glass, metic­u­lous­ly wrapped in a Night’s Watch ranger’s cloak.

chapter 34

Luwin informs Bran and the Frey off­spring of Rob­b’s vic­to­ry over Stafford Lan­nis­ter, result­ing in their uncle’s demise due to bat­tle injuries. Nev­er­the­less, they exhib­it no sor­row. Jojen’s prophet­ic dream unfolds, cap­ti­vat­ing Bran, who seeks fur­ther rev­e­la­tions. Jojen imparts a vision of Win­ter­fell being engulfed by the sea. He also dis­clos­es to Bran his dis­tinct tal­ent as a skin­chang­er. Rodrik returns to Win­ter­fell with Ram­say Bolton’s cap­tive, Reek, in tow. Ram­say, respon­si­ble for Lady Horn­wood’s star­va­tion fol­low­ing their mar­riage, now meets his end at Rodrik’s men’s hands. Rodrik plans to exe­cute Reek but requires his tes­ti­mo­ny against Ram­say’s atroc­i­ties. An impend­ing civ­il war in the north fills him with dread. Jojen imparts anoth­er dream to Bran, envi­sion­ing Reek peel­ing off the faces of Bran and Rick­on and encoun­ter­ing them in the crypts of Winterfell.

chapter 35

Varys brings news of Ren­ly’s demise to the roy­al coun­cil, mud­dled by var­i­ous spec­u­la­tions sur­round­ing the cir­cum­stances of his death. He reveals that Ren­ly’s forces have large­ly shift­ed alle­giance to Stan­nis, except for the influ­en­tial Tyrell fac­tion. Tyri­on pro­pos­es a union between Jof­frey and Mar­gaery Tyrell, Ren­ly’s wid­ow, to secure the Tyrells’ sup­port. The respon­si­bil­i­ty of bro­ker­ing this alliance with the Tyrells falls to Lit­tlefin­ger. Cer­sei unex­pect­ed­ly dis­plays warmth towards Tyri­on, express­ing appre­ci­a­tion for his endeav­ors, leav­ing him apprehensive.

chapter 36

Theon, accom­pa­nied by his crew, pil­lages a coastal town. A van­quished adver­sary warns him of Rob­b’s ret­ri­bu­tion for his betray­al. Observ­ing his men bick­er over plun­der, Theon slays one to assert his dom­i­nance. He con­fides in his trust­ed cap­tain, Dag­mer Cleft­jaw, about a change in their tac­tics, involv­ing a sur­prise attack on the inland strong­holds. Dag­mer receives the order to lay siege to Torrhen’s Square, a move Theon believes will com­pel Rodrik to vacate Win­ter­fell for its defense. He hints at his inten­tions to seize con­trol of Winterfell.

chapter 37

Tywin Lan­nis­ter pre­pares his troops to depart from Har­ren­hal, leav­ing Amory Lorch and his sol­diers sta­tioned behind. Arya learns of var­i­ous sto­ries about Rob­b’s rumored mys­ti­cal abil­i­ties. When Weese strikes Arya, she retal­i­ates by offer­ing his name to Jaqen for exe­cu­tion. How­ev­er, upon wit­ness­ing Tywin and his forces’ depar­ture, she regrets not instruct­ing Jaqen to elim­i­nate them instead. In her quest to find Jaqen to rec­ti­fy her request, she stum­bles upon Weese’s life­less body, his neck grue­some­ly mauled by his own hound.

chapter 38

Daen­erys endeav­ors to sway the Pure­born, Qarth’s rul­ing coun­cil, to endorse her inva­sion of Wes­t­eros but faces rejec­tion. She appeals to Xaros for ships, only to be rebuffed, with a pro­pos­al of mar­riage instead. A witch informs Daen­erys that she and her drag­ons are rekin­dling mag­ic across the world and advis­es her to seek answers in Asshai. Jorah advis­es her to depart the city, empha­siz­ing the need to gain favor with Wes­t­erosi nobil­i­ty to claim the Iron Throne.

chapter 39

Myr­cel­la is sent to Braavos for safe­ty before head­ing to the Martells in Dorne, with Tyri­on bid­ding her farewell. On their return to the palace, a hos­tile mob taunts Tyri­on, Cer­sei, Jof­frey, Sansa, and the roy­al ret­inue. In an attempt to quell the unrest, Jof­frey dis­patch­es the Hound into the crowd, spark­ing a swift descent into chaos and vio­lence. As they are besieged, they fight their way back­head­ing to the fortress, albeit not every­one reach­es there. Tyri­on rebukes Jof­frey for insti­gat­ing the ani­mos­i­ty and orders the Kings­guard to ven­ture into the metrop­o­lis to locate Sansa. In the midst of a spread­ing con­fla­gra­tion in the city, the Hound returns, escort­ing Sansa along. As night­fall descends, they uncov­er that the mob had slain the High Sep­ton and cru­el­ly attacked Lady Tanda’s off­spring. Jace­lyn Bywa­ter noti­fies Tyri­on that pub­lic sen­ti­ment is shift­ing against the Lan­nis­ters, par­tic­u­lar­ly Tyri­on. Bronn pro­pos­es to Tyri­on that the sce­nario might ame­lio­rate if Tom­men ascend­ed as king instead of Jof­frey. Tyri­on dis­miss­es the notion with sig­nif­i­cant vexation.

chapter 40

Davos wit­ness­es a nego­ti­a­tion between Stan­nis and Ser Cort­nay Pen­rose, the resis­tant pos­ses­sor of Storm’s End. Stan­nis demands the relin­quish­ment of the strong­hold and Edric Storm, Robert’s illic­it son, but Pen­rose accus­es Stannis’s adher­ents of betray­al and pro­pos­es a one-on-one duel to resolve the dead­lock. His pro­pos­al gets rebuffed by Stan­nis and the nego­ti­a­tion clos­es. Davos voic­es his appre­hen­sions to Stan­nis about the alle­giance of his sup­port­ers, as most of them were Ren­ly’s par­ti­sans just days ago. Stan­nis appears to grasp his point. He also con­fides in Davos about a night­mare he expe­ri­enced when Ren­ly passed away and his sor­row over his broth­er’s demise. Despite Davos’s pro­pos­al to assault King’s Land­ing, Stan­nis declines, fear­ing it might depict him as fee­ble. Stan­nis dis­clos­es to Davos that Melisan­dre has fore­told Pen­rose’s demise, which Davos is doubt­ful of, con­tend­ing that her prophe­cies only mate­ri­al­ize because Stan­nis acts on them. Stan­nis entrusts Davos with smug­gling Melisan­dre into Storm’s End that same evening. While exe­cut­ing his orders, Davos accus­es Melisan­dre of deceit­ful­ness and attrib­ut­es to her the blame for Cressen and Renly’s deaths. In response, she main­tains her deeds are right­eous as she serves the Lord of Light. As Davos escorts her to a cav­ern beneath the cas­tle, Melisan­dre dis­cards her cloak, reveal­ing her gravid con­di­tion, and remark­ably gives birth to a shad­owy being that Davos iden­ti­fies with dread before it dis­si­pates into the fortress.

chapter 41

Renowned Night’s Watch leader, Qhorin Half­hand, arrives at the Fist with his cohorts. He informs the Old Bear of Mance Ray­der’s sub­stan­tial force gath­er­ing in the Frost­fangs. Qhorin dis­clos­es that Mance is quest­ing for an occult pow­er or secret con­cealed with­in the moun­tains. This sor­cery will grant the wildlings the capa­bil­i­ty to tra­verse through or beneath the Wall, enabling them to assail the Sev­en King­doms. He selects Jon to accom­pa­ny him on an inves­tiga­tive expe­di­tion in the mountains.

chapter 42

Cer­sei arranges for her youngest off­spring, Tom­men, to be evac­u­at­ed from the city for pre­cau­tion­ary grounds. How­ev­er, Tyri­on inter­pos­es, instruct­ing Jace­lyn and his war­riors to seclude Tom­men in Ros­by cas­tle. Tyri­on vis­its his para­mour, Shae, in a broth­el, enter­ing sur­rep­ti­tious­ly but fail­ing to ensure his entry goes unno­ticed. In Shae’s cham­ber, Varys deliv­ers tid­ings to Tyri­on regard­ing the demise of Cort­nay Pen­rose and Stannis’s seizure of Stor­m’s End, lay­ing the ground­work for his encroach­ment on King’s Land­ing. Anx­ious for Shae’s wel­fare, Tyri­on and Varys devise a scheme to install her as a hand­maid to Lady Tan­da’s off­spring with­in the fortress’s walls. Varys shares his sus­pi­cion with Tyri­on that Cort­nay may have been a vic­tim of sor­cery, a notion that Tyri­on finds chal­leng­ing to accept.

chapter 43

While dream­ing, Bran under­goes life through his dire­wolf, Sum­mer. He per­ceives intrud­ers at Win­ter­fell but finds him­self ensnared along­side Shag­gy­dog, inca­pable of defend­ing their abode. Upon awak­en­ing, Bran com­pre­hends that he is a warg, just as Jojen had proph­e­sied. With most of Win­ter­fel­l’s defend­ers absent at Tor­rhen’s Square, Win­ter­fell suc­cumbs effort­less­ly to an attack. A man infil­trates into Bran’s cham­ber, dis­clos­ing him­self to be Theon who pro­claims he’s wrest­ed con­trol of Win­ter­fell. Jojen’s pre­scient dream about sea maraud­ers over­tak­ing Win­ter­fell comes to fruition. To safe­guard his kin, Bran relin­quish­es com­mand of Win­ter­fell to Theon. Theon then asserts that his sire now gov­erns the north by virtue of con­quest. Theon’s cap­tive, Reek, vows alle­giance to Theon for his free­dom, and Osha sim­i­lar­ly aligns her­self with Theon, request­ing to be rein­stat­ed as a com­bat­ant. Theon accedes to their terms.

chapter 44

The Brave Com­pan­ions detain men loy­al to Roose Bolton at Har­ren­hal. Arya, dis­guised, con­fides in Gendry their neces­si­ty to lib­er­ate these cap­tives and flee, but he declines. Arya hones her mar­tial skills with a makeshift wood­en blade. Jaqen approach­es her, cog­nizant of her true iden­ti­ty, and she implores his aid in her scheme. Jaqen, how­ev­er, reminds her that he owes her only one more exis­tence. Arya then des­ig­nates him as her final tar­get, caus­ing him to pause and con­sent to assist her plan if she rescinds his name. He instructs her to pre­pare a scald­ing broth. The cap­tives Arya had pre­vi­ous­ly aid­ed, sup­port her in trans­fer­ring the broth to the cells. They assail the guards, employ­ing the broth as a weapon, and dis­patch them. Jaqen purges his blood­ied blade on Arya’s attire. Fol­low­ing the tri­umphant release of the north­men, Arya releas­es Jaqen from his oblig­a­tion. He informs her that his time is up and dis­clos­es his apti­tude to trans­form his coun­te­nance entire­ly. He invites Arya to voy­age across the nar­row sea with him and learn his craft, but she asserts she must return to Win­ter­fell. Jaqen bestows upon Arya an atyp­i­cal coin, instruct­ing her to offer it to any Braavosi and utter “valar morghulis” if she ever wish­es to recon­nect with him. He then van­ish­es. Roose Bolton mate­ri­al­izes at Har­ren­hal to seize con­trol over it and his sol­diers. He des­ig­nates Arya, who intro­duces her­self as Nan, his per­son­al attendant.

chapter 45

Daen­erys vis­its Pyat Pree, a magi­cian dwelling in the eerie, crum­bling House of the Undy­ing Ones. He instructs her to ven­ture solo and fol­low the right-hand pas­sage­ways. Once inside, she encoun­ters an assort­ment of pecu­liar cham­bers show­cas­ing ele­ments of her past and bizarre, gris­ly scenes. Even­tu­al­ly, Daen­erys finds her­self encir­cled by sor­cer­ers reveal­ing dire visions. Her drag­on, Dro­gon, repels them using fiery breath, facil­i­tat­ing her escape. Upon exit­ing, Pree endeav­ors to stab Daen­erys. Nev­er­the­less, Jorah and her sen­tinels effec­tive­ly sub­due him.

chapter 46

Tyri­on instructs his clans­men to unset­tle Stan­nis’s troops. King’s Land­ing is a flur­ry, mak­ing prepa­ra­tions for the immi­nent bat­tle. To impede Stan­nis’s sol­diers from scal­ing the city walls, Tyri­on com­mands the struc­tures near the walls to be incin­er­at­ed. Theon’s annex­a­tion of Win­ter­fell should grat­i­fy Tyri­on as it could divert Robb north­wards, but the idea of Win­ter­fell being in hands oth­er than the Starks’ dis­pleas­es him. The alchemists apprise him they have man­aged to con­coct more wild­fire than antic­i­pat­ed due to the inten­si­fied sor­cery. Jace­lyn returns to King’s Land­ing and reports the suc­cess­ful exe­cu­tion of the plot to abduct and safe­guard Tom­men to Tyrion.

chapter 47

Theon dis­cov­ers that Bran, Rick­on, Jojen, Meera, Hodor, Osha, and the dire­wolves have suc­cess­ful­ly escaped Win­ter­fell overnight. Despite his attempts, none of Win­ter­fel­l’s inhab­i­tants divulge their loca­tion. In his pur­suit of the fugi­tives, Theon is accom­pa­nied by Reek, Luwin, the Freys, sev­er­al oth­ers, and the cas­tle hounds. Fol­low­ing clues in the form of foot­prints and scents, they track the escapees into the wolfs­wood. Luwin appeals to Theon for clemen­cy upon locat­ing the fugi­tives. Although Theon acqui­esces, he can­not help but ques­tion whether this dis­play might under­mine his authority.

chapter 48

Jon, accom­pa­nied by Night’s Watch ranger Stones­nake, ascends a moun­tain to reach a seclud­ed wildling camp. They stealth­ily elim­i­nate two wildlings, leav­ing only a sur­ren­der­ing woman named Ygritte. Despite Stones­nake’s dis­ap­proval, Jon choos­es to spare Ygritte. She dis­clos­es the pres­ence of a large group of wildlings in the Frost­fangs but remains tight-lipped about the pur­pose. Ygritte nar­rates a sto­ry con­cern­ing a pre­vi­ous King-Beyond-The-Wall, Bael the Bard, hint­ing at a con­nec­tion to the cur­rent Starks. Jon is left puz­zled by her rev­e­la­tion. At dawn, Qhorin and their com­pan­ions join them. Qhorin directs Jon to exe­cute Ygritte, lead­ing the oth­ers away. Just as Jon reluc­tant­ly pre­pares to car­ry out the order, he decides to release Ygritte at the last moment.

chapter 49

Don­tos informs Sansa about arrange­ments being made for her escape. Lat­er, she encoun­ters the Hound, who crit­i­cizes her roman­ti­cized notions of knights. The next day, Sansa real­izes the onset of her men­stru­a­tion. Con­cerned that Jof­frey might now seek to enforce his mar­i­tal priv­i­leges, she endeav­ors to dis­pose of her stained sheets, but is dis­cov­ered by the maids. Sansa con­vers­es with Cer­sei, who edu­cates her on the chal­lenges of wom­an­hood, depict­ing it as a tumul­tuous and intri­cate phase. She also cau­tions Sansa about the per­ils of love.

chapter 50

Qhorin reveals to Jon the remark­able back­ground of Mance Ray­der, a for­mer respect­ed Night’s Watch ranger, advis­ing Jon not to under­es­ti­mate the wildlings. He is aware that Jon chose to release Ygritte. That night, Jon dreams of embody­ing a dire­wolf and wit­ness­ing the exten­sive assem­bly led by Mance. His rever­ie is inter­rupt­ed by an eagle assault, which he recounts upon wak­ing. His com­rades begin to ques­tion Jon’s poten­tial as a warg. While con­tin­u­ing their jour­ney, they notice an eagle seem­ing­ly spy­ing on them. They sub­se­quent­ly find Ghost, Jon’s dire­wolf, wound­ed from an eagle attack. Real­iz­ing they have been dis­cov­ered, Qhorin orders a retreat. Squire Dal­bridge, a mem­ber of the group, opts to remain behind to secure a pass. They hear a dis­tant wildling horn sounding.

chapter 51

Tyri­on is per­turbed by reports of Theon’s alleged slaugh­ter of Bran and Rick­on Stark. He insists to Cer­sei that Jof­frey must par­tic­i­pate in the immi­nent con­flict against Stan­nis, despite her incli­na­tion to shield him with­in the castle’s walls. Cer­sei accus­es Tyri­on of har­bor­ing schemes to harm Jof­frey and Tom­men, reveal­ing she has appre­hend­ed Shae. How­ev­er, the cap­tive is not Shae but a woman from a local broth­el. Tyri­on con­ceals his relief and issues a veiled threat of ret­ri­bu­tion towards Cer­sei. Sub­se­quent­ly, he with­draws to his cham­bers where the authen­tic Shae awaits.

chapter 52

Cate­lyn divulges to Bri­enne the grim fate suf­fered by Bran and Rick­on at the hands of Theon, lead­ing to Rodrik’s cam­paign to reclaim Win­ter­fell. Express­ing con­cern for the defense­less Sansa and Arya, she vows Rob­b’s reprisal for his broth­ers. Con­fronting Jaime Lan­nis­ter, they engage in a truth­ful exchange. Jaime reveals his pater­ni­ty of Jof­frey and his role in Bran’s injury but denies com­plic­i­ty in the assas­si­na­tion attempt with Tyri­on’s blade. Acknowl­edg­ing his sin­cer­i­ty, Cate­lyn real­izes she was mis­led by Lit­tlefin­ger. Cate­lyn briefs Jaime on recent events, and he dis­clos­es the har­row­ing details of Aerys Tar­garyen’s exe­cu­tions of Eddard­’s kin – the very king Jaime dis­patched. Jest­ing­ly men­tion­ing Jon Snow, Eddard­’s ille­git­i­mate son, incites Cate­lyn to demand Bri­en­ne’s sword.

chapter 53

Theon is tor­ment­ed by visions of Bran and Rick­on’s demise, fac­ing con­tempt from the Win­ter­fell denizens. Some of his sol­diers meet mys­te­ri­ous deaths. His sis­ter, Asha, arrives with a scant twen­ty sol­diers, insuf­fi­cient to defend the strong­hold against Rodrik. She berates Theon for his actions against chil­dren. Theon endeav­ors to ratio­nal­ize his deci­sions, though he wres­tles with inter­nal con­flict. Half of Asha’s con­tin­gent departs with her. Reek sug­gests gar­ner­ing addi­tion­al troops for the castle’s defense, an idea Theon reluc­tant­ly agrees to despite his reser­va­tions. That night, Theon dreams of the deceased and of Robb and Grey Wind pur­su­ing him. Upon wak­ing, he per­ceives a lack of belong­ing at Win­ter­fell. Sur­vey­ing the mount­ed heads, once tarred, por­tray­als of Bran and Rick­on are unrec­og­niz­able, reveal­ing them to be the miller’s boys.

chapter 54

Pre­ced­ing his depar­ture to observe the con­flict, Jof­frey demands Sansa bestow a kiss on his new sword. The castle’s sept accom­mo­dates a gath­er­ing of the city’s noble­women. Sansa notices Ser Ilyn Payne, the heads­man, wield­ing her father’s sword. Cer­sei elu­ci­dates that Ilyn’s pres­ence serves as a pre­cau­tion against betray­al, insin­u­at­ing a poten­tial rebel­lion even among her per­son­al guards. Sansa coun­ters this asser­tion by affirm­ing that true knights should not harm women, prompt­ing Cer­sei to sug­gest they await the arrival of such gal­lant knights.

chapter 55

Davos steers his ship towards the heart of King’s Land­ing, ques­tion­ing the bat­tle strat­e­gy devised by Stan­nis’s strate­gists. He observes the impos­ing winch tow­ers intend­ed to manip­u­late an under­wa­ter chain at the river’s entry. Sur­mis­ing the Lan­nis­ters’ tac­tic to entrap Stan­nis’s fleet in the riv­er, Davos puz­zles over the absence of their finest ves­sels. Chaos ensues as ves­sels col­lide, arrows rain down, and boul­ders are flung from the castle’s cat­a­pults. The Lan­nis­ters unleash wild­fire, set­ting ablaze the ships. Ini­tial­ly, it appears Stan­nis’s forces hold the advan­tage until a col­li­sion occurs between one of their ves­sels and a Lan­nis­ter ship laden with wild­fire jars. The resul­tant explo­sion engulfs the fleet in flames, hor­ri­fy­ing Davos as the chain ris­es, ensnar­ing the ships amidst a sea of fire.

chapter 56

Observ­ing from the fortress, Tyri­on wit­ness­es the wild­fire engulf­ing both friend­ly and hos­tile ships. Stan­nis’s troops man­age to breach the riv­er, com­menc­ing a ground skir­mish in King’s Land­ing. Jof­frey advances towards the cat­a­pults, ready to hurl trai­tors at Stan­nis’s forces. Task­ing Ser Osmund Ket­tle­black, a mem­ber of the Kings­guard, with safe­guard­ing Jof­frey, Tyri­on then has­tens to the King’s Gate besieged by Stan­nis’s men along with them

an assault­ing weapon. He directs the Hound to lead a charge against them, but the Hound’s fear of the flames leads him to decline. Unde­terred, Tyri­on resolves to take charge of the attack him­self, per­suad­ing his troops to fol­low his lead.

chapter 57

As the bat­tle unfolds out­side, women con­gre­gate in the Queen’s Ball­room. Cer­sei cau­tions Sansa about the seri­ous per­il they face if Stan­nis’s sol­diers reach them before order is restored—sexual vio­lence, tor­ment, and demise. Despite the com­mon­ers’ pleas for pro­tec­tion, Cer­sei dis­miss­es them. Dis­re­gard­ing Tyri­on’s orders, she insists on Jof­frey’s return to the castle’s safe­ty. Cer­sei dis­clos­es to Sansa that Ilyn’s true mis­sion is to exe­cute them before falling into Stan­nis’s grasp.

chapter 58

Tyri­on leads his army into bat­tle against Stan­nis’s forces amidst the sur­round­ing dis­or­der of fire and dev­as­ta­tion. He feels the rush of com­bat adren­a­line, akin to how Jaime had described it. With Tyri­on in com­mand, the Lan­nis­ter sol­diers begin to regroup, where­as Stan­nis’s troops man­age to cross the riv­er using anchored boats. Amidst the chaos, Tyri­on is thrown off his steed and bewil­dered by the dual con­flicts unfold­ing. Unex­pect­ed­ly, Kings­guard Ser Man­don Moore turns on Tyri­on, slic­ing his face in an appar­ent attempt on his life. How­ev­er, Man­don is swift­ly swept away into the riv­er. Amidst this tur­moil, Tyri­on hears his squire, Podrick Payne, giv­ing him reassurance.

chapter 59

Lan­cel informs Cer­sei that Jof­frey’s retreat has dis­heart­ened the troops. The bat­tle cir­cum­stances are per­plex­ing, with Stan­nis’s men seem­ing­ly clash­ing against both the Lan­nis­ters and them­selves. Despite Lancel’s objec­tions, Cer­sei insists on fetch­ing Jof­frey back inside the cas­tle. She departs in a huff. Sansa offers solace to the wound­ed Lan­cel and oth­er women. Upon return­ing to her cham­bers, she encoun­ters the Hound. He indi­cates his tenure there is over, men­tion­ing he could safe­guard her if she joins him. Plac­ing his blade against Sansa’s neck, he instructs her to sing. Ini­ti­at­ing a song while gen­tly caress­ing his tear-stained coun­te­nance. The Hound departs, leav­ing behind his Kings­guard cloak. Short­ly after, Don­tos arrives and pro­claims the city’s sal­va­tion, accred­it­ing Tywin Lan­nis­ter, Mace Tyrell, and their immense army for over­pow­er­ing Stan­nis from the rear. Don­tos men­tions that the army was led by the appari­tion of Renly.

chapter 60

Opt­ing to depart from Qarth, Daen­erys recounts her encoun­ters from the House of the Undy­ing Ones to Jorah. Their pur­suit of a ves­sel at the docks proves fruit­less, as all cap­tains reject them. Amidst this, Jorah is wary of a cor­pu­lent man and an aged indi­vid­ual tail­ing them, sus­pect­ing them to be assas­sins. A stranger bestows upon Daen­erys a jew­el cas­ket con­tain­ing a ven­omous man­ti­core. The elder­ly man, using his cane, deflects it, there­by res­cu­ing Daen­erys. Intro­duc­ing him­self as Arstan and the cor­pu­lent man as Bel­was, he dis­clos­es they are in the ser­vice of Mag­is­ter Illyrio, a wealthy mer­chant who pre­vi­ous­ly shel­tered Daen­erys and her kin. Arstan con­veys to Daen­erys the imper­a­tive need for her pres­ence in Wes­t­eros. They secure three ships, each chris­tened by Daen­erys in hon­or of her dragons.

chapter 61

While serv­ing under the severe Roose Bolton at Har­ren­hal, Arya learns dis­tress­ing tid­ings of Bran and Rick­on’s demise, prompt­ing her to pon­der her sense of belong­ing. Roose men­tions his intent to sur­ren­der the cas­tle to Var­go Hoat of the Brave Com­pan­ions and desires Arya to stay under Var­go’s ser­vice. Seek­ing solace, Arya seeks the godswood for con­tem­pla­tion, where she hears a lone wolf’s cry and con­strues her father’s voice assur­ing her of her wolfish lin­eage and her iden­ti­ty as Arya of Win­ter­fell, the North’s off­spring. Moti­vat­ed by a yearn­ing for lib­er­ty, Arya per­suades Gendry and Hot Pie to escape with her. She seizes a map from Roose, intim­i­dates a sta­ble­boy into prepar­ing three hors­es, and enlists Gendry to fetch swords from the black­smith. Upon sight­ing a sen­try, Arya takes charge, ensur­ing the boys that she will han­dle the sit­u­a­tion. Approach­ing the guard, assert­ing that Roose has instruct­ed her to reward him with a sil­ver coin for his loy­al­ty. Delib­er­ate­ly drop­ping the coin bestowed by Jaqen, as the guard stoops to retrieve it, she seizes the oppor­tu­ni­ty to slit his throat. Regain­ing pos­ses­sion of the coin, Arya and the boys make their flight.

chapter 62

The nobles of King’s Land­ing assem­ble in the throne cham­ber. Tywin is hailed as the City’s Sav­ior and named Hand of the King, to gov­ern until Jof­frey reach­es matu­ri­ty. Numer­ous knights once loy­al to Ren­ly now pledge alle­giance to Jof­frey. Ser Gar­lan Tyrell pro­pos­es a union between Jof­frey and Mar­gaery. Jof­frey pre­tends feal­ty to Sansa, but with Cer­sei and the High Sep­ton dis­re­gard­ing his betrothal, he con­sents to mar­ry Mar­gaery, solid­i­fy­ing the alliance between the Lan­nis­ters and the influ­en­tial Tyrells. Fol­low­ing Cer­sei’s coun­sel, Sansa con­ceals her joy and remains under the Lan­nis­ters’ ward at court. Lit­tlefin­ger, the archi­tect of the Tyrell coali­tion, is dubbed Lord Para­mount of the Tri­dent and bestowed with Har­ren­hal. Many of Stan­nis’s adher­ents also pledge loy­al­ty to Jof­frey, although some open­ly chal­lenge Jof­frey’s legit­i­ma­cy. Enraged, Jof­frey com­mands their exe­cu­tion and wounds him­self on the Iron Throne, prompt­ing for Cer­sei’s solace. At night, Don­tos warns Sansa that the Lan­nis­ters will nev­er release her and cau­tions her about Jof­frey’s poten­tial assault. He dis­clos­es a scheme to clan­des­tine­ly escort her out of the city dur­ing Jof­frey’s upcom­ing nup­tials. Entrust­ing Sansa with Asshai stones, Don­tos asserts their enchant­ed prop­er­ties will ensure her ret­ri­bu­tion and safe return.

chapter 63

Luwin advis­es Theon to yield Win­ter­fell to Rodrik, as his forces sig­nif­i­cant­ly out­num­ber Theon’s. Theon, with only sev­en­teen men, many of them los­ing faith in him, is sum­moned for a dis­cus­sion by Rodrik. Rodrik points out that Theon’s mea­ger group can­not defend the cas­tle against his larg­er army, and Rob­b’s arrival is immi­nent. Theon retal­i­ates by hold­ing Rodrik’s daugh­ter hostage, threat­en­ing to exe­cute her and oth­er inno­cents in Win­ter­fell unless Rodrik with­draws his troops.

chapter 64

Recu­per­at­ing from bat­tle wounds, Tyri­on is con­fined to bed in the strong­hold, trou­bled by dreams of fall­en sol­diers, a lav­ish vic­to­ry cel­e­bra­tion, and a past roman­tic liai­son. Upon wak­ing, he con­vinces the attend­ing heal­er to unwrap his wounds. Tyri­on grows sus­pi­cious of Cer­sei’s involve­ment in Man­don’s attack on his life dur­ing the skir­mish. He learns that the city’s res­cue was thanks to Tywin and the Tyrells. He sum­mons his atten­dant, Podrick. Tyri­on tasks Podrick with find­ing a more depend­able heal­er for his treat­ment and locat­ing Bronn. Podrick admits to dis­patch­ing Mandon.

but Tyri­on rec­om­mends him to stay hushed about it.

Chapter 65

Qhorin sends some of his men to inform the Old Bear of their predica­ment while he, Jon, and Stones­nake take a dif­fer­ent path to divert the wildlings’ focus. Stones­nake is dis­patched solo across the moun­tains to noti­fy the Old Bear about Jon’s vision and the revival of ancient pow­ers. Qhorin directs Jon to pre­tend loy­al­ty with the wildlings to uncov­er their schemes. Despite Jon’s hes­i­tance, he obeys the com­mand. Ulti­mate­ly, they are trapped by the wildlings and Jon sur­ren­ders. Ygritte, present among the wildlings, defends Jon. To prove his feal­ty to the wildlings, Jon is tasked with end­ing Qhor­in’s life. In their clash, Qhorin low­ers his defense, hand­ing Jon the oppor­tu­ni­ty to strike. Jon under­stands that Qhorin delib­er­ate­ly offered him­self up. Fol­low­ing this act, the wildlings embrace Jon, with Ygritte impart­ing to him news of Mance’s impend­ing assault on the Wall.

Chapter 66

Bran, expe­ri­enc­ing the world through Sum­mer’s eyes, wit­ness­es the flames engulf­ing Win­ter­fell. Meera pulls him back to the present in a pitch-black set­ting. Curi­ous about his time in Sum­mer, Jojen dis­clos­es that it last­ed three days and cau­tions him about the risks of pro­longed excur­sions in the wolf’s per­spec­tive. Bran now has the abil­i­ty to freely enter Sum­mer’s con­scious­ness. He express­es a desire to explore Win­ter­fell, and Osha illu­mi­nates their loca­tion in the Stark crypts beneath the fortress. Encoun­ter­ing an obstruc­tion at the exit, Hodor man­ages to push it open. Win­ter­fell lies in ruin and aban­don­ment, mir­ror­ing Bran’s vision. Arriv­ing there, Sum­mer and Shag­gy­dog join them. Tra­vers­ing the cas­tle, they deduce Theon’s forces must have been over­pow­ered. Fol­low­ing Sum­mer’s guid­ance, they find a grave­ly wound­ed Luwin in the godswood. Luwin appris­es them of the wide­spread tur­moil in the north and advis­es Osha to sep­a­rate Bran and Rick­on for their safe­ty. Request­ing Osha to end his suf­fer­ing, she com­plies reluc­tant­ly after send­ing the boys away. Gath­er­ing pro­vi­sions from the kitchens, they part ways, Osha and Rick­on head­ing in one direc­tion while Bran, Hodor, Jojen, Meera, and Sum­mer take anoth­er path. Bran inquires about vis­it­ing the Reeds’ abode, but Jojen con­firms their jour­ney directs them north­ward. Depart­ing, Bran reflects on the par­al­lels between his own con­di­tion and that of Win­ter­fell — both injured yet not com­plete­ly annihilated.