Summary: A Game of Thrones

The tale takes place over a year on a make-believe land­mass, main­ly sur­round­ing Wes­t­eros. King Robert offers Ned Stark the post of the King’s Hand after the mys­te­ri­ous demise of the pre­vi­ous Hand, Jon Arryn. The roy­al par­ty, led by Queen Cer­sei Lan­nis­ter, arrives at Win­ter­fell, the Stark strong­hold, where Ned’s wife, Cate­lyn, receives a hint sug­gest­ing the involve­ment of the Lan­nis­ters in Jon Arryn’s death. Mean­while, Ned’s son Bran wit­ness­es Cer­sei in a pri­vate moment with her broth­er Jaime, lead­ing Jaime to shove Bran off a tall tow­er. As Bran lies comatose, Ned and Jon, Ned’s ille­git­i­mate off­spring, jour­ney in sep­a­rate direc­tions — Ned to King’s Land­ing with King Robert and Jon to the Wall, a mas­sive bar­ri­er guard­ing Wes­t­eros from threats in the north­ern wilder­ness. Across the sea, Daen­erys Tar­garyen, a descen­dant of the fall­en Tar­garyen dynasty, weds the Dothra­ki war­lord Khal Dro­go and is gift­ed mes­mer­iz­ing drag­on eggs for her nuptials.

While Ned trav­els to the cap­i­tal, Jof­frey, Robert, and Cer­sei’s off­spring, clash­es with Arya, Ned’s daugh­ter. Arya’s pet dire wolf, part of the Stark chil­dren’s col­lec­tion of large wolf pups, injures Jof­frey dur­ing the scuf­fle. Cer­sei demands the dire wolf’s life, but as it has fled, Ned is com­pelled to put to death Sansa’s (anoth­er Stark daugh­ter) wolf instead. An assas­si­na­tion attempt on the uncon­scious Bran fails just as Ned arrives at King’s Land­ing, where he dis­cov­ers Cate­lyn has covert­ly come to inves­ti­gate fur­ther into the attempt on Bran’s life and Jon Arryn’s mur­der. On the oth­er side of the Wall, Jon and the Night’s Watch con­front eerie beings and van­ish­ing men. To the east, Daen­erys becomes increas­ing­ly infat­u­at­ed with her drag­on eggs, while her broth­er Vis­erys aspires to reclaim the throne with Khal Dro­go’s army.

Back in King’s Land­ing, Ned delves into Jon Arryn’s demise and the legit­i­ma­cy of King Robert’s off­spring, while Robert schemes to elim­i­nate the preg­nant Daen­erys fear­ing her poten­tial claim to the throne. Ned resigns as Hand, only to be rein­stat­ed after being assault­ed by Jaime for appre­hend­ing Tyri­on Lan­nis­ter, sus­pect­ing his involve­ment in the attempt on Bran. As Ned uncov­ers the real­i­ty of Cer­sei and Jaime’s inces­tu­ous affair and Jof­frey’s true lin­eage, Robert is mor­tal­ly wound­ed dur­ing a hunt and des­ig­nates Ned as the Act­ing King. Nev­er­the­less, Cer­sei arrests Ned for trea­son and Sansa Stark becomes a cap­tive in King’s Land­ing. In the ensu­ing clash between Tywin Lan­nis­ter and the Starks, Jaime Lan­nis­ter is cap­tured. After Ned’s pub­lic exe­cu­tion, Arya flees from the cap­i­tal. On the east­ern land­mass, Khal Dro­go suc­cumbs to a lethal injury and Daen­erys hatch­es three drag­ons from her wed­ding gift eggs in a funer­al pyre.

preface

The nar­ra­tive com­mences with Way­mar, Will, and Gared, part of the Night’s Watch, hunt­ing a few wildlings, the sav­ages resid­ing north of the colos­sal wall safe­guard­ing the Sev­en King­doms. As the prime scout, Will chances upon the motion­less bod­ies of the wildlings. Despite recent mild weath­er, he spec­u­lates they per­ished from the cold. A sense of unease descends on Will and Gared, prompt­ing Gared to sug­gest ignit­ing a fire. Yet, Way­mar, with his proud demeanor, com­mands them to press on. Upon reach­ing the loca­tion where Will found the bod­ies, they dis­cov­er it desert­ed. Sud­den­ly, Way­mar is attacked by ghost­ly white crea­tures, the Oth­ers. Dur­ing a con­fronta­tion with one of the beings, Way­mar meets his demise. As Will descends from a tree where he hid, he is stran­gled by Way­mar, who inex­plic­a­bly revives.

Chapter 1

Bran wit­ness­es the exe­cu­tion of a desert­er named Gared by his father, Ned Stark, the ruler of Win­ter­fell. Gared fled from the Night’s Watch after his com­rades Will and Way­mar were slain. Dur­ing this event, Robb Stark prais­es Gared’s brav­ery in death, while Jon Snow, Ned’s ille­git­i­mate off­spring, argues he was fright­ened. Ned then edu­cates Bran that true val­or is feel­ing fear yet con­fronting it. He also stress­es that the ones pass­ing the death sen­tence should car­ry it out them­selves. Return­ing to Win­ter­fell, they stum­ble upon a deceased dire­wolf with five sur­viv­ing pups. On the verge of being euth­a­nized by Ned’s men, Jon points out the pups cor­re­spond in num­ber and gen­der to Ned’s legit­i­mate off­spring, sug­gest­ing it’s fate for the Starks to keep them. Upon leav­ing, Jon dis­cov­ers a sixth, albi­no pup which he opts to retain for himself.

Chapter 2

Cate­lyn ven­tures into Win­ter­fel­l’s sacred woods, the godswood, to locate Ned. She con­tem­plates the Stark fam­i­ly mot­to, “Win­ter Is Com­ing.” Ned, engrossed in pol­ish­ing his sword, Ice, remarks that Gared was con­sumed by fear. Cate­lyn informs Ned about the demise of Jon Arryn, the pre­vi­ous King’s Hand, plung­ing Ned into pro­found sor­row, as Jon served as a father fig­ure to him and Robert. Ned bright­ens at the news of Robert, his child­hood com­pan­ion and the cur­rent king, vis­it­ing Win­ter­fell. How­ev­er, Ned har­bors ani­mos­i­ty towards Robert’s wife, Cer­sei, and her kins­folk, the Lan­nis­ters. Dur­ing the clash with the Tar­garyens, the pri­or rulers, the Lan­nis­ters only sided with Robert when his vic­to­ry was near­ly certain.

Chapter 3

On the east­ern shore of Wes­t­eros, beyond the Nar­row Sea, Vis­erys pre­pares his sis­ter, Daen­erys, for a feast in the city of Pen­tos. This feast is intend­ed for her to meet Dro­go, the Dothra­ki chief­tain she is com­pelled to wed by her broth­er. Vis­erys and Daen­erys are the final descen­dants of the Tar­garyen roy­al­ty. Their flight to Pen­tos was trig­gered by the defeat of the Tar­garyen forces by Ned and Robert. Daen­erys rem­i­nisces about her child­hood in a siz­able house with a red door sit­u­at­ed in the Braavosi Isles. Fol­low­ing their depar­ture, the sib­lings led a nomadic life, shift­ing from one bene­fac­tor to anoth­er. Over the past year, they found refuge in the lav­ish abode of mer­chant Illyrio. Daen­erys longs to return home, but the pre­cise loca­tion of ‘home’ eludes her. Vis­erys asserts that Wes­t­eros is their true home. Vis­erys’ scheme involves mar­ry­ing Daen­erys to Dro­go in hopes of uti­liz­ing Dro­go’s for­mi­da­ble army to reclaim Westeros.

Chapter 4

Robert jour­neys to Win­ter­fell and heads direct­ly to the crypts with Ned. They pay trib­ute to Ned’s late sis­ter, Lyan­na, who was betrothed to Robert but was abduct­ed and dis­hon­ored by Rhae­gar Tar­garyen. This event incit­ed Robert’s Rebel­lion against the mad king, Aerys Tar­garyen. Robert can­not for­get his hand in Rhae­gar’s demise at the Tri­dent Riv­er, while Ned recalls Lyan­na’s pass­ing due to ill­ness. Reflect­ing on their youth, Robert con­fides in Ned his dis­dain for the role of king. He implores Ned to assume the posi­tion of Hand of the King, as expect­ed, but also pro­pos­es a union between Sansa, Ned’s eleven-year-old daugh­ter, and Joff, Robert’s twelve-year-old son, catch­ing the atten­tion. Caught off guard. Despite being hes­i­tant about tak­ing on the Hand’s role, Ned is inter­est­ed in pon­der­ing the offers a bit longer.

Chapter 5

At the cel­e­bra­tion for Robert, Jon dis­cuss­es his wish to become a mem­ber of the Night’s Watch, the pro­tec­tors of the north­ern Wall, with his uncle Ben­jen Stark. How­ev­er, Ben­jen feels Jon is too young. Feel­ing embar­rassed, intox­i­cat­ed, and dis­tressed about his ille­git­i­mate sta­tus in the noble Stark fam­i­ly, Jon storms off and encoun­ters Tyri­on, the dwarf. Jon is angered when Tyri­on labels him as ille­git­i­mate. Tyri­on, known as “The Imp” through­out his life, advis­es Jon not to be both­ered by titles, and to see his ille­git­i­mate sta­tus as a form of shield. As Tyri­on walks away, his shad­ow looms as tall as a king to Jon.

Chapter 6

After the feast, Luwin deliv­ers a mes­sage from Lysa, Cate­lyn’s rel­a­tive. The note accus­es the Lan­nis­ters of being involved in the death of Lysa’s hus­band, Jon Arryn. Despite his ini­tial reluc­tance to take up the Hand’s role, Ned is con­vinced by Cate­lyn and Luwin that he must assume the posi­tion to pro­tect Robert and seek jus­tice for Jon Arryn’s demise. Ned gives his approval, though with some hes­i­tance. As Cate­lyn and the roy­al court in King’s Land­ing would not wel­come Jon, Ned allows him to join the Night’s Watch. Jon, fathered by Ned with anoth­er woman after mar­ry­ing Cate­lyn, has caused endur­ing bit­ter­ness. Cate­lyn holds a grudge as Ned opt­ed to raise Jon in Win­ter­fell rather than leav­ing him with his moth­er; she believes Ned’s sense of pro­pri­ety influ­enced his deci­sion to raise Jon.

Chapter 7

Arya, Sansa, and Princess Myr­cel­la are learn­ing sewing under the guid­ance of Sep­ta Mor­dane. In a tense exchange, Sansa insults Jon by refer­ring to him as ille­git­i­mate, upset­ting Arya. Arya is hurt when her mediocre needle­work is exposed to Sep­ta Mor­dane, prompt­ing her to leave the room in frus­tra­tion. She finds com­fort in the pres­ence of her dire wolf, Nymeria, named after a his­tor­i­cal war­rior queen. Sansa’s dire wolf is appro­pri­ate­ly named Lady. Arya and Nymeria encounter Jon and his dire­wolf, Ghost, observ­ing Robb and Joff spar under the super­vi­sion of Rodrik and the Hound in the court­yard. Arya would rather be study­ing sword fight­ing than sewing. Robb man­ages to out­shine Joff in their prac­tice match, anger­ing Joff. He demands a real sword fight instead of a train­ing ses­sion. Rodrik denies his request, lead­ing Joff to insult Rodrik and Robb before storm­ing off from the train­ing grounds.

Chapter 8

Before set­ting off on a trip to King’s Land­ing with his father, Bran decides to explore the nooks and cran­nies of Win­ter­fell for the final time. He is skilled at scal­ing the castle’s tow­ers, feed­ing crows from the top, and uncov­er­ing the fortress’s hid­den secrets. As he climbs the First Keep, he over­hears Jaime and Cer­sei’s con­ver­sa­tion. They are dis­cussing Ned’s inten­tions behind assum­ing the Hand’s posi­tion. They sus­pect that Ned could be a threat to them, and fear that he or Lysa Arryn might accuse them of Jon Arryn’s death. Bran con­tin­ues to eaves­drop and catch­es them in an inti­mate moment. Upon notic­ing Bran, Jaime push­es him out of the window.

Chapter 9

After spend­ing four days in Win­ter­fel­l’s library study­ing war­fare and sea­son­al changes, Tyri­on cross­es paths with Joff and the Hound. Annoyed by the con­stant howl­ing of the dire wolves, Joff receives a slap from Tyri­on, who then instructs the haughty prince to con­vey his sym­pa­thies to the Starks for Bran’s con­di­tion. Dur­ing break­fast, Tyri­on rem­i­nisces on Jaime’s past acts of kind­ness towards him, the only per­son who treat­ed him with respect and friend­ship. Cer­sei express­es her appre­hen­sion about the dire­wolves to which Tyri­on responds, sens­ing an unusu­al con­nec­tion between Bran and his wolf that could be keep­ing the boy alive. He reveals to Jaime, Cer­sei, Myr­cel­la, and Tom­men that Bran might recov­er, pon­der­ing the impli­ca­tions that the boy’s awak­en­ing might bring. When Jaime ques­tions Tyri­on’s loy­al­ties, he replies with a grin, con­firm­ing his loy­al­ty to his family.

Chapter 10

As the roy­al group pre­pares to leave Win­ter­fell for King’s Land­ing two weeks after Bran’s fall, Jon pre­pares for his jour­ney north to the Wall. Cate­lyn has been by Bran’s side con­stant­ly since he fell into a coma. Despite her ani­mos­i­ty, Jon dares to bid farewell to Bran, and Cate­lyn bit­ter­ly wish­es that it was Jon who had fall­en from the tow­er. Jon shares a part­ing embrace with Robb before seek­ing out Arya, to whom he gifts a part­ing present — a sword spe­cial­ly craft­ed for her. The sword’s light­ness and slim­ness inspire Arya to name it Nee­dle, play­ful­ly allud­ing to her aver­sion to sewing. Jon imparts his ini­tial les­son to Arya: always strike ene­mies with the sharp end of the sword.

Chapter 11

In the city of Pen­tos, Jorah Mor­mont swears alle­giance to Vis­erys dur­ing Daen­erys’ wed­ding to Dro­go. Vis­erys eager­ly antic­i­pates Dro­go rec­i­p­ro­cat­ing with a mil­i­tary force, aim­ing to reclaim the Iron Throne of Wes­t­eros. Daen­erys tries to con­ceal her fear on her wed­ding night. The Dothra­ki tra­di­tions of feast­ing, drink­ing, danc­ing, and pub­lic dis­plays of affec­tion are in full view. Vis­erys presents Daen­erys with three hand­maids from Illyrio, while Jorah gifts her books from Wes­t­eros and Illyrio bestows upon her three ancient drag­on eggs. Despite her trep­i­da­tion, the eggs hold immea­sur­able worth. Dro­go’s gift to his bride is a splen­did sil­ver horse. As the new­ly­weds pre­pare to depart at dusk, Vis­erys instructs Daen­erys to sat­is­fy Dro­go. Dur­ing their con­sum­ma­tion, Daen­erys dis­cov­ers Dro­go’s unex­pect­ed tenderness.

Chapter 12

En route to King’s Land­ing, Robert informs Ned of Daen­erys’ wed­ding news from Jorah, a fugi­tive turned spy seek­ing a par­don. Jorah had unlaw­ful­ly sold poach­ers into slav­ery and evad­ed Ned’s pun­ish­ment five years ago. Robert intends to elim­i­nate Daen­erys and Vis­erys as ret­ri­bu­tion for their fam­i­ly’s past actions, a plan that Ned oppos­es. Robert recounts the inci­dents of Lyan­na’s abduc­tion by Rhae­gar Tar­garyen, the for­mer king’s broth­er, and the mur­der of Bran­don, Ned’s old­er broth­er, by Aerys. Robert’s con­cern is the Tar­garyen heirs amass­ing a Dothra­ki force to cross the Nar­row Sea when they come of age. Ned, on the con­trary, argues that the Dothra­ki would­n’t sail, and the immi­nent threat lies in the Lan­nis­ters’ deceit, remind­ing Robert of their betray­al of King Aerys Targaryen.

Chapter 13

Head­ing north towards the Wall, Tyri­on’s group merges with Yoren’s par­ty, a mem­ber of the Night’s Watch, which includes two con­vict­ed rapists opt­ing for ser­vice with the Watch over impris­on­ment. When Jon inquires about Tyri­on’s exten­sive read­ing habits, Tyri­on reveals its impor­tance giv­en his dwarfism. Con­strains him to intel­li­gence as his lone pro­tec­tion. He reveals his youth­ful fan­tasies regard­ing his father, Tywin, and the death of his sis­ter, Cer­sei. Tyri­on dis­cuss­es the real­i­ty of the Night’s Watch with Jon as a haven for soci­ety’s rejects, in con­trast to Jon’s ide­al­ized nobil­i­ty. Despite ini­tial oppo­si­tion, Jon even­tu­al­ly agrees with Tyri­on’s view­point. Tyri­on applauds Jon’s will­ing­ness to acknowl­edge harsh real­i­ties, stat­ing, “Most men pre­fer to reject a dif­fi­cult truth rather than con­front it.”

Chapter 14

As Robb sug­gests assum­ing Win­ter­fel­l’s duties, a fire cap­tures his atten­tion, leav­ing Cate­lyn alone with Bran. An armed intrud­er arrives, to kill Bran. Cate­lyn fierce­ly defends her son, even grab­bing the attack­er’s blade, until Bran’s dire­wolf inter­venes and kills the assailant. Upon awak­en­ing with ban­daged hands, Cate­lyn feels remorse for her sin­gu­lar focus on Bran. She con­nects var­i­ous clues — Bran’s climb­ing skills, Jaime’s absence dur­ing Bran’s fall, and the assas­s­in’s expen­sive weapon. She deduces that the Lan­nis­ters pushed Bran from the tow­er and attempt­ed to mur­der him because he dis­cov­ered some­thing he was­n’t sup­posed to. This real­iza­tion prompts her and Rodrik to jour­ney to King’s Land­ing to alert Ned.

Chapter 15

While en route to King’s Land­ing, Arya bold­ly rejects an invi­ta­tion to join the roy­al car­riage. Sansa, frus­trat­ed by their stark dif­fer­ences, pon­ders their shared parent­age. As Cer­sei can­cels their car­riage meet­ing, Sansa joins Joff for a horse ride. Act­ing as poten­tial betrothed, there is a hint of romance between Sansa and Joff. They vis­it the bat­tle­ground where Robert defeat­ed Rhae­gar Tar­garyen. At the site, they encounter Arya and a butcher’s appren­tice play-fight­ing with sticks. Joff men­ac­ing­ly draws his actu­al sword against the appren­tice. Arya retal­i­ates, defend­ing her com­pan­ion. Joff turns his aggres­sion towards Arya, but her dire­wolf leaps in, sav­age­ly bit­ing Joff. Arya throws Jof­f’s sword into the Tri­dent Riv­er, and all three — the butcher’s appren­tice, Arya, and her dire­wolf — flee in sep­a­rate directions.

Chapter 16

Joff accus­es Arya and the local butcher’s appren­tice of attack­ing him with­out cause. Arya dis­putes this, call­ing him a liar. Sansa, posi­tioned as the third wit­ness, strug­gles between her affec­tion for Joff and her com­mit­ment to hon­esty, ulti­mate­ly claim­ing for­get­ful­ness. King Robert resolves the con­flict by order­ing Ned to dis­ci­pline Arya him­self. How­ev­er, Cer­sei insists on exe­cut­ing Arya’s dire wolf. With Arya’s wolf, Nymeria, miss­ing, the deci­sion falls on Sansa’s wolf, Lady, to bear the con­se­quences. Ned chal­lenges Robert to per­son­al­ly car­ry out the unjust exe­cu­tion, but Robert leaves the room in silence. Sub­se­quent­ly, Ned feels com­pelled to exe­cute Lady him­self. Short­ly after Lady’s demise, the Hound arrives with the butcher’s appren­tice’s corpse.

Chapter 17

In a dream, Bran is soar­ing through the sky while a three-eyed crow guides him on fly­ing. He observes Cate­lyn and Rodrik sail­ing south into an unknown storm from above. He spots Ned, Sansa, and Arya in King’s Land­ing, the Free Cities across the nar­row sea, and Jon at the Wall. Sansa weeps night­ly, enveloped in dark­ness along with Arya. Bran peers beyond the Wall and sees the world’s edge. The crow enlight­ens him on the need to sur­vive, cau­tion­ing him about the impend­ing win­ter. He must learn to fly or face doom. Halt­ing his descent by extend­ing his arms, Bran abrupt­ly awak­ens from his coma when the crow pecks his face. His dire wolf jumps onto the bed, and real­iz­ing he can’t feel his legs, Bran names the wolf ‘Sum­mer.’

Chapter 18

Cate­lyn and Rodrik have reached King’s Land­ing, stay­ing incog­ni­to at an inn. Rodrik departs to track down the own­er of the drag­on bone dag­ger used in Bran’s assas­si­na­tion attempt. While he inves­ti­gates in the Red Keep, Cate­lyn is sum­moned to Littlefinger’s tow­er by two City Watch guards. The king’s spy­mas­ter, Varys, is aware of her pres­ence and the dag­ger. Lit­tlefin­ger, who over­sees the king’s finances, con­fess­es to own­ing the dag­ger pre­vi­ous­ly but los­ing it to Tyri­on in a bet. Accord­ing to him, he backed Jaime in a joust against Loras Tyrell, but Tyri­on sup­port­ed Loras, who unex­pect­ed­ly emerged victorious.

Chapter 19

In the icy north, Jon is refin­ing his skills with novice recruits at the Wall. Thorne, Cas­tle Black­’s armory head, pits sev­er­al inex­pe­ri­enced recruits against Jon, all of whom are defeat­ed. Jon faces back­lash from the recruits, accus­ing him of show­ing off dur­ing train­ing. Noye steps in but rep­ri­mands Jon for bul­ly­ing due to his advanced train­ing, as the recruits are mere com­mon­ers. He advis­es Jon to rec­on­cile with them. Dur­ing sup­per, Com­man­der Mor­mont sum­mons Jon and informs him of his broth­er Bran’s sur­vival. Pleased by the news, Jon offers to help train Grenn. Thorne, over­hear­ing this, takes offense at the impli­ca­tion that Jon might be a supe­ri­or trainer.

Chapter 20

Ned is called to his first coun­cil meet­ing as the Hand of the King upon his arrival in King’s Land­ing. Key coun­cil mem­bers, includ­ing Lit­tlefin­ger, Ren­ly, Varys, and Pycelle, are present, but the king, Robert, is absent. Ned learns that despite inher­it­ing a wealthy trea­sury from Aerys Tar­garyen, Robert’s realm is now six mil­lion gold pieces in debt, half of which is owed to House Lan­nis­ter. Uncon­cerned, Robert plans an extrav­a­gant tour­na­ment in hon­or of Ned’s new role. Dis­gust­ed, Ned adjourns the meet­ing. Sub­se­quent­ly, Lit­tlefin­ger escorts Ned to one of his broth­els, where they find Cate­lyn hid­ing. She divulges details about the attempt on Bran’s life. Lit­tlefin­ger advis­es them to over­look the event as accus­ing the Lan­nis­ters would con­sti­tute trea­son. He hints that Robert might have been unaware of the mur­der plot or chose to ignore it. Deter­mined to uncov­er the truth behind the assaults on Bran and Jon Arryn, Ned sends Cate­lyn back to Win­ter­fell, trust­ing Robert to deliv­er justice.

Chapter 21

Dur­ing a meal at the Wall, Tyri­on taunts Thorne. Com­man­der Mor­mont sug­gests that Tyri­on’s wit would be ben­e­fi­cial at the Wall. Aemon refers to Tyri­on as a giant, leav­ing Tyri­on speech­less. After the meal, Mor­mont con­fers with Tyri­on regard­ing the miss­ing men Way­mar and Ben­jen, and the sud­den deser­tion of Gared. He express­es appre­hen­sion over the impend­ing harsh win­ter and requests Tyri­on to per­suade Robert to send addi­tion­al man­pow­er to sup­port the under­manned Watch. Lat­er, Tyri­on ascends the Wal­l’s sum­mit, encoun­ter­ing Jon. Jon seeks Tyri­on’s aid for his inca­pac­i­tat­ed broth­er. Tyri­on pledges to assist as best he can, cit­ing his bond with his own sib­ling. They seal their friend­ship with a handshake.

Chapter 22

Ned, after anoth­er con­fronta­tion with the coun­cil, reach­es the Tow­er of the Hand late for din­ner. He requests qui­et from the argu­ing Sansa and Arya, before prompt­ly depart­ing. Arya also desires to leave but is stopped by Sep­ta Mor­dane. Nev­er­the­less, she hur­ried­ly exits. Lat­er, Ned finds Arya in her room, prac­tic­ing with her sword, Nee­dle. He con­soles her about the butcher’s boy’s death, rec­og­niz­ing that he knew about her false tale con­cern­ing Nymeri­a’s depar­ture. Arya dis­clos­es that she and Jory had to scare away Nymeria with stones. Ned con­firms that her untruth was jus­ti­fied and noble. He empha­sizes the need for sis­ter­ly sol­i­dar­i­ty, empha­siz­ing that they must pro­tect each oth­er from dan­gers in King’s Land­ing. He then arranges for Arya to receive sword train­ing from Syrio Forel.

Chapter 23

Daen­erys, accom­pa­nied by Khal Dro­go’s kha­lasar, cross­es the grassy expanse of the Dothra­ki Sea towards Vaes Dothrak. She instructs the entire group to stop so she can explore the sur­round­ings alone. Short­ly, Vis­erys con­fronts her angri­ly for com­mand­ing him. This marks the first time Daen­erys stands up against her broth­er and push­es him away. A Dothra­ki horse­man inter­venes using a whip to con­trol Vis­erys, caus­ing Daen­erys to see her broth­er in a piti­ful light. Vis­erys looks to his loy­al knight, Jorah, to harm Daen­erys, but Jorah stands by her instead. Daen­erys lat­er ques­tions Jorah about whether the com­mon peo­ple in Wes­t­eros desire Vis­erys’s return. Jorah informs her that the gen­er­al pop­u­lace is indif­fer­ent “if the high lords play their game of thrones, as long as they are left in peace.” In response to her query about his own desires, he admits he longs for home just as she does. Sub­se­quent­ly, Khal Dro­go real­izes that Daen­erys is pregnant.

Chapter 24

Bran, con­fined to his bed, lis­tens to Old Nan’s sto­ry of an ancient, unstop­pable win­ter where the Oth­ers invad­ed Wes­t­eros. Before the tale can con­tin­ue, Luwin inter­rupts, and Hodor escorts Bran down­stairs. There, he encoun­ters Robb in a con­fronta­tion with Tyri­on, who has a drawn sword. Despite the hos­til­i­ty between Robb and the dire­wolves, Tyri­on presents Bran with a spe­cial­ly designed sad­dle to enable him to ride despite his hand­i­cap. Dur­ing din­ner, Yoren informs Robb about Ben­jen’s mys­te­ri­ous dis­ap­pear­ance. Robb dis­miss­es the news, while Bran express­es hope that the myth­i­cal chil­dren of the for­est will come to Ben­jen’s aid. Luwin, how­ev­er, informs Bran that these chil­dren dis­ap­peared thou­sands of years ago. Yoren adds that the truth beyond the Wall remains uncer­tain to all.

Chapter 25

Ned ques­tions Pycelle about the mys­te­ri­ous death of Jon Arryn. He learns that Jon was engrossed in a lin­eage book of noble hous­es before his pass­ing and his final words were “The seed is strong.” He shares his sus­pi­cion of Jon being poi­soned, vis­i­bly unset­tling Pycelle. Pycelle denies any wrong­do­ing, but Ned is wary, espe­cial­ly since Pycelle had Maester Cole­mon removed dur­ing Jon’s treat­ment. Ned pon­ders where Pycelle’s true loy­al­ty lies with. As he leaves Pycelle’s cham­bers, Ned talks with Arya, rem­i­nisc­ing about a poignant moment they shared with Sansa upon learn­ing of Bran’s sur­vival. Lat­er, Lit­tlefin­ger vis­its Ned’s cham­bers, sug­gest­ing four addi­tion­al indi­vid­u­als for Ned to inves­ti­gate. While look­ing out the win­dow, he iden­ti­fies the spies Varys and Cer­sei had plant­ed to mon­i­tor him. Grate­ful, Ned admits he was mis­tak­en to doubt Lit­tlefin­ger’s motives. Lit­tlefin­ger responds by stat­ing that this skep­ti­cism is the smartest thing Ned has done since arriv­ing in the capital.

Chapter 26

Sam Tar­ly arrives at the Wall and is imme­di­ate­ly ordered to spar with Halder under Thorne’s com­mand. Due to his size and fear, Sam is eas­i­ly defeat­ed, and even after yield­ing, Thorne insists on con­tin­u­ing the pun­ish­ment. Jon steps in, lead­ing to a scuf­fle in which Jon, Pyp, and Grenn over­come Halder, Rast, and Albett. Sam’s admis­sion of his fear earns Jon’s respect for his hon­esty. Sam lat­er con­fides in Jon that he joined the Night’s Watch because his father threat­ened to kill him if he stayed home, want­i­ng his younger son to inher­it. Jon then shares a recur­ring dream of wan­der­ing through an emp­ty Win­ter­fell to its crypts. Jon lat­er con­vinces the oth­ers to go easy on Sam dur­ing train­ing, acknowl­edg­ing his lack of com­bat skills.

Chapter 27

As the Hand’s tour­na­ment is about to begin, Ned is unhap­py as he oppos­es such events and their impact on King’s Land­ing. Despite the unrest in the town and the deaths, Pycelle and Lit­tlefin­ger argue that the tour­na­ment ben­e­fits the city’s econ­o­my. Ned has been study­ing an ancient book, The Lin­eages, and His­to­ries of the Great Hous­es of the Sev­en King­doms, that fas­ci­nat­ed Jon Arryn. He tries to ques­tion Jon Arryn’s for­mer squire, Hugh, for more infor­ma­tion but faces resis­tance. Sur­pris­ing­ly, Ned dis­cov­ers that Jon Arryn and Robert’s broth­er Stan­nis had once vis­it­ed a broth­el, prompt­ing him to instruct Jory to find its where­abouts. In the mean­time, Ned meets Gendry, a black­smith’s appren­tice whom Jon Arryn had tak­en an inter­est in. Gendry is unaware of his parent­age, except that his moth­er was blonde. Notic­ing Gendry’s dark hair and facial fea­tures, Ned reach­es a shock­ing con­clu­sion — Gendry is Robert’s ille­git­i­mate son.

Chapter 28

Cate­lyn and Rodrik dis­creet­ly trav­el north on the kings road, stop­ping at the Inn at the Cross­roads, near Cate­lyn’s child­hood home, River­run. Dur­ing a meal, Tyri­on enters and rec­og­nizes Cate­lyn, thanks to Mar­il­lion, a both­er­some singer who points him toward her. He iden­ti­fies her as Lady Stark, sur­pris­ing every­one present. In response, Cate­lyn address­es the crowd, iden­ti­fy­ing those loy­al to House Tul­ly and demand­ing their alle­giance. After receiv­ing their affir­ma­tion, she accus­es Tyri­on of attempt­ing to kill Bran. She com­mands those faith­ful to her house to cap­ture him and take him to Win­ter­fell to face the king’s justice.

Section 29

Sansa immers­es her­self in the live­ly spec­ta­cle of the Hand’s tour­na­ment. Gre­gor kills Jon Arryn’s for­mer squire, Hugh, dur­ing a joust. Sansa remains undaunt­ed. Dur­ing the feast that night, Robert gets exces­sive­ly drunk and loud­ly announces to Cer­sei his intent to par­take in the melee the fol­low­ing day. Jof­f’s cour­te­ous demeanor cap­ti­vates Sansa through­out the ban­quet. How­ev­er, right after Robert’s out­burst, Joff aban­dons her and instructs the Hound to escort her back to her quar­ters. Dur­ing their walk, the Hound unset­tles Sansa with his blunt hon­esty. He reveals that Gre­gor inten­tion­al­ly killed Hugh and also recounts the tale of his facial scars: his broth­er had pressed his face into burn­ing coals dur­ing their youth.

Chapter 30

Ned for­feits his impor­tant advan­tage, Hugh, in unrav­el­ing Jon Arryn’s demise enig­ma. Alarmed about Robert’s Lan­nis­ter atten­dants, Ned, accom­pa­nied by Bar­ris­tan, con­vinces the rotund Robert to abstain from engag­ing in the melee, remind­ing him of his king­ly posi­tion. Robert admits his weari­ness from his reign, but con­cerns for the realm under Joff and Cer­sei’s gov­er­nance pre­vent him from resign­ing the throne. In the midst of the joust­ing semi­fi­nals, Loras achieves tri­umph over Gre­gor, who reacts aggres­sive­ly. How­ev­er, Loras is shield­ed by the Hound until Robert steps in. Sub­se­quent­ly, Varys, dis­guised, encoun­ters Ned. He reas­sures Ned of his faith after observ­ing his alle­giance to the king­dom. He cau­tions Ned about the Lan­nis­ters’ con­spir­a­cy against Robert, incrim­i­nates Hugh in Jon Arryn’s slay­ing, and dis­clos­es Jon Arryn was slain for delv­ing into Robert’s off­spring’s matters.

Chapter 31

Hav­ing been appre­hend­ed by Cate­lyn, Tyri­on is cur­rent­ly en route to the Eyrie with her ret­inue. In his endeav­or to estab­lish his inno­cence, he informs Cate­lyn that he would not have been impru­dent enough to fur­nish an assas­sin with his own dag­ger and that Lit­tlefin­ger is a noto­ri­ous deceiv­er. Their dia­logue is inter­rupt­ed when moun­tain clans­men launch an assault on them. Cate­lyn reluc­tant­ly arms Tyri­on and his com­pan­ions, extract­ing a promise to sur­ren­der their weapons post the clash’s con­clu­sion. The ensu­ing bat­tle claims numer­ous lives. Amidst the tur­moil, Tyri­on man­ages to clum­si­ly res­cue Cate­lyn’s life. Upon return­ing to the road, Tyri­on catch­es up with Cate­lyn and asserts that irre­spec­tive of her belief in his nar­ra­tive, he could not have con­ceiv­ably won the dag­ger in a wager as he nev­er bets against his own kin.

Chapter 32

Arya, engrossed in train­ing with Syrio, is stum­bled upon by Prince Tom­men and Princess Myr­cel­la. She flees before they rec­og­nize her, ulti­mate­ly wind­ing up in the con­vo­lut­ed pas­sage­ways beneath the citadel. She over­hears two indi­vid­u­als con­vers­ing. One, armored, con­veys urgency due to the esca­lat­ing dis­cord between the wolf and lion, with addi­tion­al fac­tions enter­ing the fray. The oth­er, with a bifur­cat­ed beard, advo­cates for more time, posit­ing that Dro­go will not act until the birth of Daen­erys’ son. He pro­pos­es delay­ing the con­flict, pos­si­bly lever­ag­ing the armored man’s “mag­ic”, and hints at elim­i­nat­ing Ned to buy time. Fol­low­ing her escape from the tun­nels, Arya appris­es her father of the dia­logue, but he does not heed her seriously.

chapter 33

Amidst a fer­vid debate with the coun­cil, Ned vehe­ment­ly oppos­es Robert’s scheme to slay a preg­nant Daen­erys, intel acquired by Varys through Jorah. Except Ned and Bar­ris­tan, the remain­der of the coun­cil con­verges on the pro­pos­al. Pycelle argues that to avert a forth­com­ing war, Daen­erys’ demise is imper­a­tive. Both Ren­ly and Varys posit diverse method­olo­gies for exe­cut­ing the plan. Incensed by the coun­cil’s res­o­lu­tion, Ned resigns from his post and exits the meet­ing abrupt­ly, advis­ing Robert to exe­cute his plan per­son­al­ly. Sub­se­quent­ly, Lit­tlefin­ger acquaints Ned with the coun­cil’s inten­tion to grant lord­ship to any­one who elim­i­nates the Tar­garyens. Lit­tlefin­ger fur­ther dis­clos­es that he can lead Ned to the broth­el Jon Arryn fre­quent­ed if he remains in King’s Land­ing, an inquiry Ned and his com­rades are eager to pursue.

Chapter 34

Cate­lyn, Tyri­on, and a few sur­viv­ing com­pan­ions arrive at the Eyrie’s Bloody Gate. She takes note of the dynam­ic between Tyri­on and Bronn, a coura­geous yet ruth­less indi­vid­ual of dubi­ous alle­giance. Her uncle Bryn­den briefs her on Lysa’s bur­geon­ing para­noia. Despite reach­ing the Eyrie dur­ing the night, Lysa man­dates Cate­lyn to prompt­ly ascend the treach­er­ous path to the cas­tle, com­prised of sev­en tow­er­ing, nar­row tow­ers carved into a moun­tain. Upon reach­ing the strong­hold at day­break, she is met with Lysa’s fury for bring­ing a Lan­nis­ter with­out advance notice. Lysa’s over­pro­tec­tive nature towards her six-year-old son Robert, who still suck­les, appalls Cate­lyn. She unfa­vor­ably com­pares him to her three-year-old son Rick­on, who she per­ceives as con­sid­er­ably more mature.

Chapter 35

Dur­ing his vis­it to a broth­el fre­quent­ed by Jon Arryn before his demise, Ned uncov­ers anoth­er ille­git­i­mate prog­e­ny of Robert’s with ebony locks. Lit­tlefin­ger dis­clos­es to Ned that Robert fathered numer­ous ille­git­i­mate off­spring and alleges that Cer­sei orches­trat­ed the demise of sev­er­al of them. This trig­gers Ned to ques­tion the dras­tic shift in Robert’s demeanor. On their return jour­ney, Ned is inter­cept­ed by Jaime and his ret­inue regard­ing Tyri­on’s appre­hen­sion. Endeav­or­ing to shield his spouse, Ned false­ly asserts that Tyri­on’s cap­ture was at his behest. The alter­ca­tion esca­lates as Jaime unsheaths his sword, yet Ned warns that any harm to him will pre­cip­i­tate Tyri­on’s demise by Cate­lyn’s hands. Jaime orders for Ned to be spared but instructs his twen­ty sol­diers to dis­patch Ned’s three com­pan­ions. Amidst the resul­tant scuf­fle, Ned’s steed col­laps­es upon him, result­ing in a frac­tured leg.

Chapter 36

The horde tra­vers­es under­neath the bronze equines mark­ing Vaes Dothrak’s gate­way. Daen­erys is antic­i­pat­ed to con­fer with the Dothra­ki elder woman, the dosh Kaleen, for prog­nos­ti­ca­tions regard­ing her unborn infant. Jorah admits to Daen­erys his new­found rev­er­ence for Dothra­ki fight­ers and his dis­dain for Ned who exiled him. In the evening, Daen­erys presents Vis­erys, her irri­ta­ble sib­ling, with a set of opu­lent gar­ments fash­ioned by her atten­dants. In response, he harsh­ly rejects the ges­ture and injures Daen­erys. She retal­i­ates by strik­ing him with a bronze chain, cau­tion­ing him to exhib­it def­er­ence before Dro­go exacts his pun­ish­ment. She con­cludes the day rem­i­nisc­ing about home.

Chapter 37

Bran, uti­liz­ing Tyri­on’s spe­cial­ized sad­dle, ven­tures beyond Win­ter­fel­l’s bor­ders in the com­pa­ny of Robb and a few oth­ers from Win­ter­fell. He learns from Robb about Jaime’s assault on Ned. Robb and Theon con­tem­plate ral­ly­ing their allies to pre­pare for a poten­tial con­flict. Sub­se­quent­ly, Robb departs to locate their dire­wolves after Theon and the oth­er men lag behind, leav­ing Bran iso­lat­ed. Abrupt­ly, Bran is stum­bled upon by six wildlings who aim to plun­der and poten­tial­ly harm him. Robb and the dire­wolves arrive just in time to shield Bran. A scuf­fle ensues, result­ing in a wildling appre­hend­ing Bran. Theon inter­venes, dis­patch­ing the wildling with an arrow from the rear. Luwin advis­es Robb to spare Osha, the sole sur­viv­ing wildling.

Chapter 38

Tyri­on endures tor­ment by Mord, his cap­tor, in an ele­vat­ed, open-aired cell in the Eyrie, where a soli­tary mis­step could pro­pel him down a six-hun­dred-foot precipice. He con­tem­plates Lysa’s accu­sa­tions of him slay­ing Jon Arryn and attempt­ing to harm Bran, scru­ti­niz­ing the verac­i­ty and method­olo­gies involved, and con­jec­tur­ing a third plau­si­ble assas­sin in Bran’s case. Tyri­on also per­ceives his cap­tiv­i­ty as a poten­tial­ly advan­ta­geous cir­cum­stance for his fam­i­ly, albeit he doubts they will rec­og­nize it owing to their hubris.

In a twist of fate, he suc­cess­ful­ly per­suades Mord to con­vey a mes­sage to Lysa about his desire to con­fess his wrong­do­ings. Instead of men­tion­ing mur­der, he acknowl­edges com­mit­ting less­er trans­gres­sions like engag­ing in pros­ti­tu­tion and demands a tri­al by com­bat. Bronn steps up to defend Tyri­on, while Lysa selects Ser Vardis to advo­cate for the prosecution.

Chapter 39

Ned awak­ens six days after frac­tur­ing his leg. Jaime is nowhere to be found in the city. Dur­ing a vis­it from Robert and Cer­sei, Ned asserts Cate­lyn’s inno­cence, assert­ing she act­ed upon his com­mands. Cer­sei accus­es Ned of being drunk at a broth­el and pro­vok­ing Jaime, but Ned rebuts by claim­ing he was vis­it­ing Robert’s ille­git­i­mate child. When Ned requests per­mis­sion to pur­sue Jaime, Robert refus­es. Ned becomes frus­trat­ed by the king’s fail­ure to deliv­er jus­tice. Cer­sei taunts Robert, insin­u­at­ing she could rule bet­ter, prompt­ing Robert to strike her. As Cer­sei exits, Robert laments to Ned that it seems Rhae­gar emerged vic­to­ri­ous in the war. Robert rein­states Ned as his Hand.

Chapter 40

Cate­lyn learns of Tywin Lan­nis­ter’s mil­i­tary prepa­ra­tions at Cast­er­ly Rock, while her allies, the Tullys, are also for­ti­fy­ing their posi­tions. She tries to dis­suade her sis­ter from pro­ceed­ing with Tyri­on’s tri­al by com­bat, reflect­ing on her sis­ter’s changed and irk­some atti­tude. Cate­lyn pon­ders the strate­gic advan­tage of hold­ing Tyri­on cap­tive and pon­ders who among the Lan­nis­ters was respon­si­ble for Jon Arryn’s mur­der. In the ensu­ing duel, Bronn, swift and light­ly armored, out­match­es the heav­i­ly armored Vardis. Despite Lysa’s desire to exe­cute Tyri­on, he invokes the Arryn mot­to: “As High as Hon­or.” Tyri­on is released from the Eyrie, but with no escort, rais­ing doubts about his sur­vival against the moun­tain clans.

Chapter 41

New recruits are set to join the Wall, sig­nal­ing Jon and his com­pan­ions’ ascent to full-fledged black broth­ers of the Night’s Watch. Con­cern aris­es when Sam’s pro­mo­tion is miss­ing, lead­ing Jon to wor­ry that Thorne may use the new­com­ers to harm Sam. Jon, pro­tec­tive of Sam, implores Aemon to con­sid­er pro­mot­ing Sam to a stew­ard’s role. Draw­ing a com­par­i­son between the Night’s Watch and Aemon’s mas­ter’s chain, Jon high­lights the need for a diverse group of men in the Night’s Watch. He under­scores Sam’s lit­er­a­cy and numer­i­cal acu­men, deem­ing him a valu­able addi­tion to Aemon’s ranks.

Chapter 42

While trav­el­ing from the Eyrie, Bronn pro­pos­es a strat­e­gy of mov­ing swift­ly at night and lay­ing low dur­ing the day to evade the moun­tain clans. Tyri­on, how­ev­er, opts for a dif­fer­ent approach, choos­ing to face the clans head-on. He prais­es Bronn for his clev­er­ness and skill despite his low social sta­tus and mer­ce­nary loy­al­ties. Reflect­ing on Mord’s sur­prise when Tyri­on reward­ed him for deliv­er­ing the mes­sage to Lysa, Tyri­on recounts a child­hood anec­dote, recall­ing a moment of his father Tywin’s sever­i­ty. He reit­er­ates the Lan­nis­ter mot­to of always set­tling their debts with a hint of bit­ter­ness. When the moun­tain clans appear to threat­en Tyri­on and Bronn, Tyri­on con­vinces them to join their cause, offer­ing not just mon­e­tary rewards but con­trol over the entire Vale of Arryn.

Chapter 43

With Robert away hunt­ing, Ned, back in the role of the Hand, assumes the king’s respon­si­bil­i­ties from the Iron Throne. The icon­ic Iron Throne, made by melt­ing the swords of defeat­ed foes by Aegon the Con­queror, serves as a reminder that a king’s reign should nev­er be easy. Ned learns of vio­lent acts near River­run, attrib­uted to armed men resem­bling Gre­gor and his Lan­nis­ter sol­diers. While the coun­cil hes­i­tates to con­front the Lan­nis­ters, Ned sen­tences Gre­gor and his men to death for their deeds, despite not being present due to his injuries. Loras offers to enforce the decree, but Ned declines, sus­pect­ing Loras’s motives lean more towards vengeance than justice.

Chapter 44

Sansa and Jeyne engage in a debate over Ned’s deci­sion not to dis­patch Loras to deal with Gre­gor. At din­ner, Arya sug­gests that the Hound and Jaime are as deserv­ing of ret­ri­bu­tion as Gre­gor, but Sansa dis­agrees. Jus­ti­fy­ing the Hound’s actions as pro­tect­ing Joff when he killed the butcher’s boy, Sansa and Arya’s dis­agree­ment esca­lates, lead­ing to their dis­missal to their cham­bers. Arya attempts to apol­o­gize lat­er, but Sansa rebuffs her. Ned reveals his inten­tion to send the girls back to Win­ter­fell for safe­ty, empha­siz­ing the need to keep the plans con­fi­den­tial. Sansa’s objec­tions about her impend­ing mar­riage to Joff are over­rid­den by Ned, who deems the match a mis­take. Anoth­er argu­ment ensues between Sansa and Arya, prompt­ing Sansa to declare that Joff bears no resem­blance to his intox­i­cat­ed father, lead­ing Ned to acknowl­edge the truth in her statement.

Chapter 45

Ned grap­ples with the dilem­ma of expos­ing the truth about Jof­f’s lin­eage, fear­ing Robert’s reac­tion. Despite this, he is res­olute in safe­guard­ing Cer­sei and her chil­dren from harm. Orga­niz­ing a clan­des­tine meet­ing with Cer­sei in the godswood, Ned dis­clos­es his dis­cov­ery — the secret that led to Jon Arryn’s mur­der: Joff, Myr­cel­la, and Tom­men are Jaime’s prog­e­ny, not Robert’s. Cer­sei con­firms Jaime’s parent­age and their attempt to kill Bran. Ned urges Cer­sei to flee with her chil­dren before Robert learns the truth, yet she refus­es and chas­tis­es Ned for not seiz­ing the Iron Throne dur­ing the Tar­garyen rebel­lion. She cold­ly warns Ned, “When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die.”

Chapter 46

At Vaes Dothrak, the Dothra­ki seers pre­dict that Daen­erys’ unborn child, to be named Rhaego, will be known as “the stal­lion who mounts the world.” Jorah informs Daen­erys that he pre­vent­ed her broth­er Vis­erys from steal­ing one of her drag­on eggs. Vis­erys dis­rupts Dro­go’s cel­e­bra­tion in a drunk­en state, demand­ing the sol­diers Dro­go promised to help reclaim his throne. He men­aces Daen­erys with a sword, a grave vio­la­tion of Vaes Dothrak’s pro­hi­bi­tion against shed­ding blood. Daen­erys and Jorah implore him to sheathe his sword. Dro­go assures Vis­erys he will receive his crown and orders his men to pour molten gold over Vis­erys’s head, lead­ing to his demise. Daen­erys reflects that Vis­erys could not have been a true drag­on, as real drag­ons are imper­vi­ous to fire.

Chapter 47

Robert, mor­tal­ly wound­ed by a boar, des­ig­nates Ned as regent in his will until “his heir” reach­es matu­ri­ty. Ned refrains from spec­i­fy­ing Jof­frey, keep­ing the truth silent, regard­ing his lin­eage. Varys dis­clos­es that Robert’s ser­vant, a Lan­nis­ter, was account­able for the king’s ine­bri­at­ed con­di­tion. Ned declines Ren­ly’s sug­ges­tion to con­front Cer­sei imme­di­ate­ly and shares his find­ings with Lit­tlefin­ger, who is already aware of the queen’s off­spring. Lit­tlefin­ger cau­tions Ned about the impli­ca­tions of seat­ing Stan­nis, the final Baratheon sib­ling, on the throne, fore­see­ing exten­sive tur­moil. Nev­er­the­less, Ned remains res­olute in his choice to back Stan­nis, enlist­ing Lit­tlefin­ger’s aid in procur­ing the City Watch’s alle­giance to guar­an­tee their safe­ty when they face Cer­sei. Lit­tlefin­ger con­sents to pro­vide his support.

Chapter 48

Sam, Jon, and their com­rades are elat­ed about their approach­ing advance­ments. They ascer­tain their roles as con­struc­tors, stew­ards, or scouts. Despite Jon’s skill in bat­tle, he is assigned to aid Com­man­der Mor­mont, leav­ing him infu­ri­at­ed and hold­ing Thorne account­able for this per­ceived offense. Sam assists Jon in com­pre­hend­ing that his ser­vice to the Com­man­der is, in fact, a step toward lead­er­ship. The two com­pan­ions jour­ney to the weir­wood grove, past the Wall, to pledge their alle­giance to the Night’s Watch. Unlike most indi­vid­u­als from the south, Jon ven­er­ates the ancient deities, a cus­tom­ary prac­tice in the north. While Sam is raised wor­ship­ing the Sev­en deities, he opts to pay homage to the ancient gods before mak­ing his vow. After com­plet­ing their pledges, Ghost returns with a detached hand in his jaws.

Chapter 49

On the day of Robert’s demise, Ned con­venes a coun­cil meet­ing in his cham­bers where he dis­cov­ers that Ren­ly has fled the city. Robert’s tes­ta­ment, des­ig­nat­ing Ned as Lord Regent and Defend­er of the Realm, is recit­ed by Bar­ris­tan. The coun­cil is then sum­moned to the throne cham­ber by Joff, who asserts his claim to the throne. Ned dis­putes this by pro­vid­ing Cer­sei with Robert’s will, but she dis­miss­es it by tear­ing it apart. Ned endeav­ors to have Cer­sei and Joff oust­ed from the throne cham­ber with the assis­tance of the City Watch, but Joff revers­es the sit­u­a­tion and exe­cutes Ned’s men instead. Ulti­mate­ly, Lit­tlefin­ger dou­ble-cross­es Ned, hold­ing a blade to Ned and remind­ing him of his pre­vi­ous cau­tion against plac­ing trust in him.

Chapter 50

Arya under­goes train­ing with Syrio, who deceives her by launch­ing an attack from a dif­fer­ent direc­tion than he announces. He edu­cates her on the impor­tance of tru­ly per­ceiv­ing and rec­og­niz­ing decep­tion. When a mem­ber of the Kings­guard and five Lan­nis­ter sol­diers arrive for Arya, Syrio advis­es her to be wary of their motives, as her father would not assign Lan­nis­ters for her safe­guard­ing. To pro­tect Arya, Syrio uses his wood­en prac­tice sword to fend off the sol­diers, grant­i­ng Arya the oppor­tu­ni­ty to escape. Main­tain­ing her com­po­sure, she retrieves her attire and sword, Nee­dle, from her cham­bers. She is inter­cept­ed by a youth in the sta­bles while attempt­ing to flee. Upon his attempt to appre­hend her, Arya defends her­self by stab­bing him and then escapes through the castle’s sub­ter­ranean passages.

Chapter 51

Cer­sei seizes Ned while Sansa lan­guish­es locked in her cham­ber for three days. When she is even­tu­al­ly sum­moned by Cer­sei before the coun­cil, she dis­cov­ers that her father is accused of trea­son. Cer­sei express­es appre­ci­a­tion towards Sansa for uncov­er­ing Ned’s secre­tive plan of send­ing her and Arya back to Win­ter­fell. Intent on prov­ing her alle­giance and pre­serv­ing her betrothal to Joff, Sansa con­sents to inscribe four mis­sives. The con­tents of these mis­sives, dic­tat­ed by Cer­sei, allege Ned’s dis­loy­al­ty and demand Sansa’s fam­i­ly to swear feal­ty to Joff in King’s Land­ing. It’s only lat­er that Sansa real­izes her neglect in fail­ing to inquire about Arya’s well-being.

chapter 52

Jon, Sam, and Com­man­der Mor­mon­t’s squad chance upon a corpse with a hand torn off by Ghost. A team mem­ber esti­mates it has been deceased for no more than a day. Sam observes pecu­liar­i­ties about the bod­ies: there’s an absence of blood or decom­po­si­tion and their eyes are a chill­ing blue. Mor­mont orders for the bod­ies to be trans­port­ed to the Wall for fur­ther exam­i­na­tion. Sub­se­quent­ly, Jon learns about Ned’s pur­port­ed betray­al. Mor­mont antic­i­pates Jon’s emo­tion­al response. Jon los­es his cool when Thorne insults him, lead­ing to a clash. For this, Mor­mont penal­izes Jon, con­fis­cat­ing his weapon­ry and con­fin­ing him to a cell. That evening, Jon dis­cov­ers his cell unlocked and the guards slain. He encoun­ters one of the corpses dis­cov­ered, now revived and mak­ing its way into Mor­mon­t’s quar­ters. Jon and Ghost engage in com­bat with this undead being, over­pow­er­ing it and set­ting it ablaze with drapes.

chapter 53

Robb Stark has ini­ti­at­ed the accu­mu­la­tion of forces at Win­ter­fell. They are inun­dat­ed with nar­ra­tives, both gen­uine and fic­ti­tious, about the events in King’s Land­ing. A let­ter from Sansa reach­es Robb and Bran, denounc­ing their father as a trai­tor and omit­ting any men­tion of Arya. Bran con­tem­plates Sansa’s loss of her dire­wolf and the curse of Starks jour­ney­ing south and nev­er return­ing. Osha, their cap­tive, cau­tions Bran about the gen­uine per­il lurk­ing in the north­ern region beyond the Wall, where giants and the Oth­ers roam. As Robb departs Win­ter­fell, he appoints Bran as the Lord of Win­ter­fell until his or their father’s comeback.

chapter 54

Daen­erys pro­pos­es to Dro­go the con­cept of voy­ag­ing to Wes­t­eros fol­low­ing the birth of their child. Dis­miss­ing the notion of cross­ing the “poi­son water” of the Nar­row Sea, Dro­go, believ­ing the world ter­mi­nates at the ocean, refutes the idea. Daen­erys seeks Jorah’s assis­tance in per­suad­ing Dro­go. Jorah coun­sels her to exer­cise patience to avoid repli­cat­ing Vis­erys’s ear­li­er mis­steps. While Dro­go is out hunt­ing, Daen­erys and Jorah vis­it the West­ern Mar­ket. Jorah inter­venes just as Daen­erys is about to sam­ple some wine, sus­pect­ing the ven­dor, who declines to drink it him­self, to be an assas­sin. The ven­dor is appre­hend­ed, and lat­er, Jorah shares with Daen­erys a mis­sive from Illyrio to Vis­erys. The mis­sive reveals a boun­ty for any­one who can elim­i­nate the Tar­garyen off­spring. Upon learn­ing of the assas­si­na­tion plot, Dro­go reeval­u­ates his stance and con­sents to wage war on Westeros.

chapter 55

Cate­lyn voy­ages from the Eyrie to Moat Cailin, where her son Rob­b’s troops are con­gre­gat­ed. Anx­ious for Rob­b’s well-being but com­pre­hend­ing his neces­si­ty to demon­strate strong lead­er­ship, she arrives. The roy­al forces dis­patched by Ned to inter­cept Gre­gor and his troops have been van­quished by Tywin. Rob­b’s strate­gic plan involves split­ting his forces to the south of the Neck. The infantry will pro­ceed south to face off against Tywin, while the cav­al­ry will cross the Green Fork of the Tri­dent Riv­er to relieve Jaime’s siege at River­run. Robb intends to lead the cav­al­ry and entrust the infantry to the auda­cious Greatjon. How­ev­er, Cate­lyn advis­es against this deci­sion, high­light­ing that fear­less­ness is not always a virtue. Mulling over this advice, Robb opts to appoint the shrewd and strate­gic Roose Bolton as the leader of the infantry.

chapter 56

Arriv­ing at the Inn at the Cross­roads behind sched­ule, Tyri­on encoun­ters his father Tywin, who is lead­ing his army from the Inn. Tywin holds Tyri­on account­able for the approach­ing con­flict, a result of Cate­lyn tak­ing Tyri­on cap­tive, which led Tywin to defend the hon­or of the Lan­nis­ter fam­i­ly. Tywin intends to assign a small group to Tyri­on to deal with the remain­ing forces deployed by Ned against Gre­gor. Tyri­on, with a touch of irony, high­lights his father’s lack of con­fi­dence and express­es his pref­er­ence for the moun­tain clans over Tywin’s sol­diers. Tywin suc­ceeds in con­vinc­ing the clans­men to sup­port Tyri­on in the bat­tle, using care­ful­ly cho­sen praises.

chapter 57

Cap­tured by Cer­sei, Sansa con­vinces her­self that Cer­sei loves her and she will still mar­ry Joff. Dur­ing a roy­al assem­bly, Joff demands loy­al­ty from all Wes­t­eros hous­es, includ­ing the Starks, or else they will be labeled trai­tors. Despite a life­time oath, Bar­ris­tan, the aging Kings­guard Com­man­der, is dis­missed by Cer­sei, which dev­as­tates him. He points out how Jaime, his replace­ment, broke the Kings­guard’s vows by killing Aerys. In frus­tra­tion, Bar­ris­tan dis­cards his equip­ment and weapon. Joff appoints the Hound to the Kings­guard, to which the Hound agrees but refus­es knight­hood. Once the roy­al mat­ters are set­tled, Sansa pleads for mer­cy for her father from Joff, who agrees on the con­di­tion that Ned con­fess­es his betrayal.

chapter 58

Impris­oned in the Red Keep­’s filthy dun­geon, Ned reproach­es him­self for the loss of his men, the dan­ger to his fam­i­ly, and his role as Robert’s Hand. He imag­ines Robert rep­ri­mand­ing him for his stub­born hon­or and pride. Varys vis­its Ned to pro­vide updates on the Starks, hint­ing that Cer­sei might have poi­soned Robert lead­ing to his demise. Varys ques­tions why the inno­cent suf­fer in the pow­er strug­gles of the nobil­i­ty. He clar­i­fies that his alle­giance lies not with Cer­sei or Lit­tlefin­ger but with the realm, aim­ing for peace. Giv­ing Ned a choice as he leaves his cell, Varys out­lines that Ned can stick to his loy­al­ty to Robert, deny­ing Jof­f’s legit­i­ma­cy and risk­ing Sansa and his own death, or for Sansa’s sake, false­ly con­fess to a crime he did not commit.

chapter 59

Rob­b’s cav­al­ry arrives at the Green Fork of the Tri­dent and must pass through the Twins, the paired cas­tles ruled by Walder Frey. Cate­lyn informs Robb that tra­di­tion­al­ly the Freys demand a toll from any­one cross­ing their bridge. Thus, Cate­lyn nego­ti­ates with the elder­ly Lord Frey on behalf of Robb for pas­sage rights. Lord Frey, known for his delayed deci­sions dur­ing dis­putes and his dis­dain for Tywin, grants pas­sage to the Starks. How­ev­er, his terms include the Starks accept­ing two Frey chil­dren as wards, one becom­ing Rob­b’s squire, one to mar­ry Arya and anoth­er for Rob­b’s wife. Despite the unfa­vor­able mar­riage terms, Robb agrees.

chapter 60

As a token of appre­ci­a­tion for sav­ing his life, Com­man­der Mor­mont gifts Jon with Long­claw, a fam­i­ly heir­loom dat­ing back five cen­turies. The sword’s pre­vi­ous own­er was the exiled Jorah Mor­mont. Jon is sum­moned by Aemon for a con­ver­sa­tion. Aemon explains to Jon about the Night’s Watch vow of celiba­cy, empha­siz­ing how love can com­pro­mise duty and hon­or. Aemon sens­es Jon’s inner con­flict between loy­al­ty to the Watch and affec­tion for his fam­i­ly, aware of Jon’s desire to assist Ned and Robb. Aemon reveals his true iden­ti­ty as Aemon Tar­garyen and recounts his own temp­ta­tions to aban­don the Wall to aid his doomed fam­i­ly. Instead of guid­ing Jon’s deci­sion, Aemon under­scores the price of hon­or to him.

chapter 61

Nav­i­gat­ing through the ruins of the Lamb Men’s vil­lage, Daen­erys finds that Dro­go and his war­riors had inter­vened in a con­flict between the vil­lage and a rival khal, emerg­ing vic­to­ri­ous and cap­tur­ing numer­ous slaves. These slaves could be trad­ed to finance their jour­ney to Wes­t­eros. Wit­ness­ing the bru­tal­i­ty towards the fall­en vil­lagers, Daen­erys com­mands her men to stop harm­ing the women, a deed that earns her a com­par­i­son to Rhae­gar from Jorah. When Daen­erys dis­cov­ers Dro­go injured from bat­tle, she faces resis­tance from his war­riors who dis­ap­prove of her inter­ven­tion with their spoils. How­ev­er, Dro­go sup­ports her deci­sion. A heal­er named Mir­ri, saved by Daen­erys, offers to use her knowl­edge to heal Dro­go, despite sus­pi­cion from the Dothra­ki of her being a witch. Daen­erys per­suades Dro­go to let Mir­ri per­form the healing.

chapter 62

Tywin equips Tyri­on’s moun­tain clan con­tin­gent and posi­tions them at the fore­front of the left flank for the immi­nent bat­tle. Tyri­on is dis­pleased upon learn­ing that he is to fight under Gre­gor’s com­mand. Dur­ing the bat­tle, Tyri­on’s group per­forms valiant­ly, although suf­fer­ing sig­nif­i­cant loss­es. Tyri­on real­izes that Tywin intend­ed for his unit to be eas­i­ly defeat­ed as part of his strat­e­gy. Tywin’s plan was to entice Rob­b’s forces for­ward with an appar­ent easy win, only to sur­prise them with a sud­den attack. Tywin con­fess­es this scheme after the bat­tle, believ­ing that Robb would pri­or­i­tize brav­ery over pru­dence. How­ev­er, news arrives via a mes­sen­ger that Robb did not par­tic­i­pate in the fight but instead is rush­ing to break the siege at Riverrun.

chapter 63

Out­smart­ing Jaime in bat­tle despite hav­ing a small­er army, Robb uses Jaime’s impa­tience against him, ambush­ing him when he’s iso­lat­ed from his troops. Robb’s tac­tics result in Jaime’s cap­ture along with three oth­er Lan­nis­ters. Despite their loss­es, they man­age to kill ten of Jaime’s sol­diers for every Stark lost, as point­ed out by Theon. Although Theon sug­gests exe­cut­ing Jaime prompt­ly, Robb rec­og­nizes the strate­gic val­ue of keep­ing him as a cap­tive. Mean­while, Tywin’s con­sid­er­able forces are posi­tioned at the Tri­dent Riv­er, and Cer­sei holds Ned cap­tive. Addi­tion­al­ly, Jaime’s forces con­tin­ue to besiege River­run despite his imprisonment.

chapter 64

Dro­go’s injuries dete­ri­o­rate to the extent that he falls from his horse. Daen­erys stops the kha­lasar, hop­ing for Dro­go’s recov­ery. How­ev­er, his inabil­i­ty to ride begins to under­mine the khalasar’s faith in him as a leader. Jorah explains to Daen­erys that Dro­go’s pow­er was the sole rea­son for the kha­lasar’s respect for him. He warns Daen­erys that her unborn child would be at risk if Dro­go dies, propos­ing she flee instead. Instead, Daen­erys seeks help from Mir­ri, ask­ing her to use blood mag­ic to save Dro­go. Mir­ri agrees but warns Daen­erys that the heal­ing will come at a cost—the life of Drogo’s horse. After send­ing every­one out of the tent, cau­tion­ing that her incan­ta­tions could raise the dead, Daen­erys begins to go into labor while Jorah and her atten­dants fend off Drogo’s blood­rid­ers, who oppose Mir­ri’s actions. The ensu­ing strife caus­es most indi­vid­u­als to scatter,Mirri remained as the sin­gu­lar mid­wife avail­able for Daen­erys, with Jorah defy­ing the cau­tion­ary advice and ush­er­ing a pained Daen­erys into the tent as her labor escalated.

Chapter 65

Avoid­ing cap­ture in King’s Land­ing since her father’s appre­hen­sion, Arya felt drawn to the Great Sept of Baelor by the tolling bell and whis­pers regard­ing her rel­a­tives. Ned, her father, stood before the mass­es atop the Sept, con­fess­ing trea­son against the King, Jof­frey. Despite the high priest’s coun­sel for Jof­frey to par­don Ned, Jof­frey issued the order for his exe­cu­tion. This sud­den decree spurred Varys and Cer­sei to try to inter­vene. Armed with Nee­dle, Arya endeav­ored to push through the crowd to save her father, but Yoren halt­ed her progress. As Ilyn, the King’s Jus­tice, car­ried out Ned’s exe­cu­tion with his renowned blade, Ice, Yoren whisked Arya away. In seclu­sion, he returned Nee­dle to her, sheared her locks, and instruct­ed her to pose as a boy.

Chapter 66

Bran recount­ed a dream to Luwin where a three-eyed crow led him to Win­ter­fel­l’s sub­ter­ranean crypts, where he spot­ted Ned. Accom­pa­nied by Osha, Bran and Luwin explored the tombs, con­vers­ing about the past rulers of Win­ter­fell, known as the Kings of Win­ter. Upon arriv­ing at Ned’s vacant grave, Rick­on’s dire­wolf, Shag­gy­dog, mate­ri­al­ized and nipped Luwin’s hand. Rick­on dis­closed hav­ing a sim­i­lar dream to Bran’s. Luwin enlight­ened the boys on the his­to­ry of the North, the ancient humans, the for­est dwellers, and the Andals from his tow­er. A raven deliv­ered a mis­sive, hint­ing at impend­ing trou­ble on its jour­ney to Win­ter­fell. Rick­on, Osha, and Bran sensed the news of Ned’s demise before Luwin could even read the letter.

Chapter 67

Sansa griev­ed in her cham­ber in the Red Keep as Jof­frey insist­ed on her pres­ence at court that day. He boast­ed about spar­ing Ned from fur­ther agony before his exe­cu­tion, pro­vok­ing Sansa’s loathing. An enraged Jof­frey com­mand­ed Meryn to strike her due to her out­burst. Dur­ing court pro­ceed­ings, Jof­frey’s rul­ings illus­trat­ed his cru­el­ty and bias. Sub­se­quent­ly, he com­pelled Sansa to wit­ness the mount­ed heads of those exe­cut­ed for trea­son, her father among them. A despon­dent Sansa hint­ed at the poten­tial retal­i­a­tion from Robb, earn­ing anoth­er blow from Meryn. Con­tem­plat­ing push­ing Jof­frey from the cas­tle walls, Sansa’s inten­tion was halt­ed by the time­ly inter­ven­tion of the Hound, who cleaned her blood­ied visage.

Chapter 68

After emerg­ing from a fever-induced slum­ber, Daen­erys regained aware­ness. Her hand­maid­ens apprised her of her pro­longed uncon­scious­ness. Moved by a stone drag­on egg, she sensed an unusu­al warmth ema­nat­ing from it, a sen­sa­tion not mir­rored by Jorah. News of Dro­go’s men for­sak­ing him came to her, with two declar­ing them­selves khals. Mir­ri relayed the dis­tress­ing news of her still­born son, resem­bling a grotesque crea­ture. Mock­ing Daen­erys, Mir­ri high­light­ed the dire reper­cus­sions of blood mag­ic, which claimed more lives beyond Dro­go’s horse. Despite Dro­go’s per­sis­tence, he remained devoid of men­tal or phys­i­cal fac­ul­ties. Enraged, Daen­erys con­front­ed Mir­ri, who rebuffed any oblig­a­tion owed to her fol­low­ing the harm inflict­ed by Dro­go’s men. Daen­erys’ endeav­or to revive Dro­go end­ed in futil­i­ty, lead­ing her to suf­fo­cate him with a cushion.

Chapter 69

Tywin was alert­ed to Jaime’s cap­ture. Lis­ten­ing to his allies recount Rob­b’s tri­umph over Jaime and the recap­ture of River­run, Tyri­on dis­missed sug­ges­tions of peace nego­ti­a­tions with the Starks, com­pre­hend­ing that the Lan­nis­ters’ slay­ing of Ned ren­dered peace unat­tain­able and bar­gain­ing for Jaime’s life ardu­ous. Tywin divulged news of Ren­ly’s mar­riage to Mar­gaery Tyrell and his pur­suit for the throne. The loom­ing threat of Stan­nis against King’s Land­ing, espe­cial­ly if it col­lid­ed with Ren­ly’s forces, was acknowl­edged. Regret­ting Cer­sei and Jof­frey’s inad­e­qua­cies, Tywin, sur­pris­ing­ly, appoint­ed Tyri­on to gov­ern King’s Land­ing. This deci­sion left Tyri­on torn between feel­ing hon­ored and repulsed by his father’s readi­ness to accept Jaime’s demise.

Chapter 70

Jon embarked from the Wall under the shroud of dark­ness, eager to aid Robb. His depar­ture caught Sam’s atten­tion, who unsuc­cess­ful­ly tried to dis­suade him. Joined by his com­rades dur­ing a respite, they urged him to retrace his steps, under­scor­ing his sworn duty to the Night’s Watch. Com­man­der Mor­mont was aware of Jon’s fleet­ing attempt the fol­low­ing morn­ing. Stress­ing that their affec­tions could be their down­fall, Mor­mont restored Long­claw, Jon’s sword, to him, which Jon had left behind. Mor­mont believed Jon and Ghost’s arrival at the Wall was pre­de­ter­mined, espe­cial­ly against the back­drop of the impend­ing win­ter and recent encounter with the undead. He dis­closed his inten­tion to ven­ture beyond the Wall in search of Benjen.

Chapter 71

After tri­umph­ing over the remain­ing Lan­nis­ter forces at River­run, Cate­lyn stum­bled upon Robb and his men in prayer at the River­run godswood. Robb, Cate­lyn, and their com­pa­tri­ots delib­er­at­ed on their next moves. With Ned no more and Ren­ly vying for the throne, their mil­i­tary, led in part by Roose Bolton, was regain­ing strength after the bat­tle. Mean­while, Tywin’s forces were en route to Har­ren­hal. A heat­ed dis­course ensued on the legit­i­ma­cy of Ren­ly’s or Jof­frey’s claims to the throne. Although Cate­lyn ardent­ly advo­cat­ed for peace, her sen­ti­ments faced resis­tance from the lords until the Greatjon defi­ant­ly reject­ed both Ren­ly and Jof­frey, pro­claim­ing Robb as the King in the North. Unan­i­mous­ly endorsed, a King of Win­ter was declared for the first time in three centuries.

Chapter 72

Daen­erys instruct­ed her atten­dants to pre­pare a pyre for the depart­ed Dro­go. Grant­i­ng her fol­low­ers free­dom from servi­tude, she extend­ed the choice to remain with her vol­un­tar­i­ly, promis­ing rewards. Equip­ping three ser­vants with weapons, she des­ig­nat­ed them as her blood­rid­ers. Ini­tial­ly hes­i­tant, they expressed reser­va­tions about serv­ing a woman. In con­trast, Jorah pledged his alle­giance to Daen­erys, becom­ing her first Queens­guard. Plead­ing against Daen­erys’ immo­la­tion on Dro­go’s pyre, Jorah’s fears were allayed as Daen­erys affirmed her intent to sur­vive. Plac­ing her drag­on eggs in the infer­no, she ignit­ed the pyre and ven­tured inside. Emerg­ing unscathed after the blaze extin­guished, she unveiled three live drag­ons, herald­ing the resur­gence of drag­ons into the realm after cen­turies. Those fol­low­ers elect­ing to remain knelt in deference.