Summary: A Storm of Swords

The tale moves for­ward from the pre­vi­ous vol­ume, show­cas­ing the inten­si­fy­ing War of Five Kings in Wes­t­eros, Daen­erys’s ris­ing influ­ence in the East­ern lands, and the loom­ing threat of the Oth­ers — an almost unbeat­able ghost­ly army. The nar­ra­tive unfolds through the view­points of 12 char­ac­ters, with 10 of them act­ing as the main sto­ry­tellers. These accounts hap­pen simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, with the nar­ra­tive shift­ing between their per­spec­tives. At the out­set of the book, Chett, a Night’s Watch mem­ber, mulls over the idea of assas­si­nat­ing his supe­ri­ors and aban­don­ing his duties. How­ev­er, his schemes are dis­rupt­ed by a mas­sive assault on the Wall, instill­ing fear of the first suc­cess­ful breach in years.

Mean­while, Tyri­on Lan­nis­ter recu­per­ates in King’s Land­ing fol­low­ing severe wounds sus­tained in a major bat­tle. He grap­ples with earn­ing his fam­i­ly’s approval, main­tains a covert affair with a dis­guised pros­ti­tute named Shae, and reluc­tant­ly weds the young Sansa Stark for polit­i­cal gains. Unex­pect­ed­ly, King Jof­frey is poi­soned at his own wed­ding, lead­ing to Tyri­on being wrong­ly accused and sen­tenced to death. Just before his exe­cu­tion, his broth­er Jaime res­cues him, unrav­el­ing a dark truth about Tyri­on’s for­mer mar­riage. In a fit of rage, Tyri­on kills his father and his treach­er­ous lover, Shae. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, Sansa Stark is impli­cat­ed in Jof­frey’s mur­der, and escapes with the aid of a knight, only to be coerced into a polit­i­cal­ly dri­ven engage­ment with her frail cousin under the guid­ance of the cun­ning Petyr Baelish.

Else­where, Arya Stark gets cap­tured by ban­dits, and then flees, only to be abduct­ed once more. Wit­ness­ing her broth­er Rob­b’s bru­tal mur­der, she breaks free from her cap­tor and boards a ship to Braavos. Jon Snow, anoth­er Stark, pre­tends to side with the wildlings, ini­ti­ates a romance with Ygritte, defends the Wall against inva­sion, and even­tu­al­ly gets elect­ed as the Lord Com­man­der of the Night’s Watch. Mean­while, Bran Stark, accom­pa­nied by his care­tak­ers, unveils a grow­ing super­nat­ur­al pow­er and cross­es the Wall. In the East, Daen­erys Tar­garyen acquires, lib­er­ates, and turns a slave army against their for­mer mas­ters on her quest to reclaim the throne. Fol­low­ing a tri­umphant takeover of Meereen, she dis­cov­ers betray­al from her clos­est advi­sors and opts to stay and rule the city as its queen.

Prologue

Chett, a dis­con­tent­ed mem­ber of the Night’s Watch, plots to elim­i­nate his supe­ri­ors and desert his post. Pre­vi­ous­ly con­demned to the Watch for killing a woman who reject­ed him, Chett now feels worn out by the labor and harsh cli­mate at the ancient fortress, the Fist of the First Men. Sens­ing an immi­nent attack, he plans to desert along with oth­ers, with his spe­cif­ic task being to assas­si­nate Samwell Tar­ly, the clum­sy raven-keep­er. How­ev­er, their scheme is inter­rupt­ed by three horn blasts, sig­nal­ing an assault by the long-unseen spec­tral beings known as the Oth­ers, prompt­ing the Night’s Watch to pre­pare for bat­tle and effec­tive­ly foil Chet­t’s plan.

Chapter 1

Jaime Lan­nis­ter finds him­self con­fined on a ves­sel, slat­ed to be trad­ed for Sansa and Arya Stark. Accom­pa­nied by guards Bri­enne, an aspir­ing knight, and Ser Cleos, Jaime, who is chained and unable to escape, con­tin­u­ous­ly ridicules Bri­enne for her mas­cu­line appear­ance. Stum­bling upon a mas­sacre of peas­ants, they choose to bury the deceased but are inter­rupt­ed by a war­ship led by Ser Robyn Ryger, seek­ing to return Jaime to the Starks. Jaime and his com­pan­ions man­age to evade capture.

Chapter 2

Cate­lyn Stark, after releas­ing Jaime under the con­di­tion that he will return her daugh­ters upon reach­ing King’s Land­ing, is deemed a trai­tor and con­fined by her own fam­i­ly mem­bers who dis­ap­prove of the arrange­ment. While car­ing for her ail­ing father, his con­stant mut­ter­ing of the word “Tan­sy” leaves her per­plexed. It is revealed that her broth­er Edmure had con­spired to recap­ture Jaime, under­min­ing her agree­ment, and leav­ing Cate­lyn anx­ious about her daugh­ters’ fate.

Chapter 3

Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie, hav­ing escaped Har­ren­hal, jour­ney through open wood­lands, vul­ner­a­ble to ambush­es and abduc­tions. Dis­agree­ments arise among them regard­ing their route. Arya has a vivid dream where she elim­i­nates mem­bers of the Brave Com­pan­ions, mer­ce­nar­ies who may be trail­ing them. The young Arya, at twelve years old, main­tains a list of peo­ple she seeks to avenge for past injus­tices against her fam­i­ly and com­rades, rel­ish­ing in this dream.

Chapter 4

Tyri­on, the diminu­tive defend­er of the Lan­nis­ter house dur­ing the grand Black­wa­ter con­flict, suf­fers severe wounds. His vis­age bears a ghast­ly scar, with his body bat­tered. As he recu­per­ates, he feels scru­ti­nized in his own res­i­dence, fre­quent­ly inquir­ing about updates on the war. Con­fronting his indif­fer­ent father Tywin, Tyri­on seeks recog­ni­tion for his val­or and strate­gic con­tri­bu­tions. How­ev­er, Tywin belit­tles Tyri­on, chastis­ing him for his rela­tions with pros­ti­tutes and vague­ly promis­ing him a reward.

Chapter 5

Hav­ing nar­row­ly sur­vived the Black­wa­ter Bat­tle, Ser Davos finds him­self strand­ed on a small island, grave­ly injured. He had sworn loy­al­ty to Stan­nis Baratheon, the new ruler of the Sev­en King­doms. How­ev­er, due to tac­ti­cal mis­takes, their naval fleet was dec­i­mat­ed, result­ing in Davos’s sons meet­ing grue­some fates by drown­ing or burn­ing in a wild­fire. Ini­tial­ly antic­i­pat­ing his own demise, Davos is unex­pect­ed­ly res­cued by a pass­ing ves­sel, whose crew also pledges alle­giance to King Stannis.

Chapter 6

Pre­vi­ous­ly betrothed to the ruth­less King Jof­frey Baratheon, Sansa now wit­ness­es Jof­frey set to wed Mar­gaery Tyrell due to strate­gic maneu­vers. Sansa attends a meal with Mar­gaery and the Tyrells, feel­ing anx­ious in the pres­ence of the for­mi­da­ble Olen­na Red­wyne, known as the “Queen of Thorns.” Dur­ing the meal, Olen­na directs the jester to sing loud­er, enabling them to con­verse pri­vate­ly and with­out being over­heard. Sansa con­fess­es the vio­lent and ruth­less nature of Joffrey.

Chapter 7

Qhorin Half­hand instructs Jon Snow, before his demise, to gath­er intel­li­gence on the wildlings by pre­tend­ing to switch sides. Accom­pa­nied by Ygritte, a cap­tive wildling, Jon reach­es the vast wildling camp where he encoun­ters Mance Ray­der. Ray­der, a for­mer Night’s Watch mem­ber, now resides with the wildlings or “Free Folk.” Jon’s motives are
inter­ro­gat­ed by the wildlings. Jon employs his base­born sta­tus to jus­ti­fy his betray­al and asserts that he was mal­treat­ed by the Starks.

Chapter 8

As the Bale­ri­on sails on, Daen­erys, advised by her coun­selors Ser Jorah and Arstan White­beard, aims to reach Astapor. Her objec­tive is to gath­er a loy­al army to reclaim the Sev­en King­doms, the realm her pre­de­ces­sors were com­pelled to aban­don. Ser Jorah, skep­ti­cal of White­beard due to his refined demeanor and elo­quent speech, warns Daen­erys about poten­tial spies and assas­sins. Fur­ther­more, he pri­vate­ly pro­pos­es to Daen­erys the idea of acquir­ing an army of Unsul­lied, renowned eunuch slave war­riors. Unex­pect­ed­ly, Ser Jorah shares a kiss with Daen­erys, leav­ing her sur­prised and bewildered.

Chapter 9

Dis­guised, Bran Stark trav­els with his com­pan­ions Meera, Jojen, and Hodor, fac­ing con­tin­u­ous dan­ger due to his iden­ti­ty. With his warn­ing abil­i­ties, Bran can inhab­it oth­er beings, espe­cial­ly his dire wolf, Sum­mer. He enjoys the free­dom of move­ment through Sum­mer’s form, hunt­ing, and feast­ing with a pack of wolves. How­ev­er, his rever­ie is inter­rupt­ed, and he is com­pelled to con­sume their mea­ger pro­vi­sions. Jojen warns Bran against exces­sive indul­gence in his warn­ing pow­ers, cau­tion­ing that he might lose his human essence. Amid delib­er­a­tions on their next des­ti­na­tion, Bran mourns the loss of loved ones, yearn­ing to wit­ness a crow, express­ing his long­ing “to take flight.”

Chapter 10

Arriv­ing at the port, Davos encoun­ters his com­rade Sal­lad­hor Saan, a pirate who fought along­side King Stan­nis in the Bat­tle of the Black­wa­ter. He attrib­ut­es their defeat to the priest­ess Melisan­dre, who wields sig­nif­i­cant influ­ence over Stan­nis and views him as the proph­e­sied hero Azor Ahai. Ini­tial­ly warn­ing Davos of the dan­gers of seek­ing ret­ri­bu­tion, Sal­lad­hor even­tu­al­ly sev­ers ties with him. Moti­vat­ed by the desire to elim­i­nate Melisan­dre, Davos makes his way to the cas­tle. How­ev­er, instead of achiev­ing his aim, he is appre­hend­ed and impris­oned in a dungeon.

Chapter 11

Bri­enne, Ser Cleos, and Jaime seek refuge and sus­te­nance at the Inn of the Kneel­ing Man. The inn now has new, dubi­ous own­ers since the orig­i­nal ones per­ished. They learn that upcom­ing war­fare will obstruct the rivers with debris. After pro­longed nego­ti­a­tions, Bri­enne con­sents to pro­cure three hors­es at an inflat­ed price. Despite Jaime’s con­tin­u­ous mock­ery, label­ing her as fool­ish and unat­trac­tive, she main­tains her com­po­sure owing to her pledge to Cate­lyn to safe­guard him. Dis­re­gard­ing the innkeep­er’s sug­gest­ed path, they opt for the oppo­site direc­tion, sus­pect­ing deception.

Chapter 12

Feel­ing estranged, Tyri­on seeks coun­sel from Varys, a eunuch serv­ing as the chief spy of the roy­al court. He implores Varys to arrange a clan­des­tine meet­ing with his para­mour, Shae, now employed as a maid in the Lan­nis­ter house­hold. Despite the risks involved, Varys orga­nizes the encounter. Tyri­on’s inten­tion is to per­suade Shae to relo­cate for safe­ty, but they end up being inti­mate, and Shae dis­miss­es his appre­hen­sions. Depart­ing from their covert ren­dezvous, Tyri­on expe­ri­ences unease. Sub­se­quent­ly, when Symon Sil­ver Tongue attempts to black­mail Tyri­on over his affair with Shae, Tyri­on pro­pos­es that Bronn, a sell­sword, elim­i­nate Symon and dis­pose of his body in a butcher’s shop.

Chapter 13

Jon wit­ness­es the vast Free Folk army. Pres­sured to dis­close infor­ma­tion about the Wall and his com­rades in the Night’s Watch dur­ing his meet­ing with Mance Ray­der, Jon begins to doubt the effi­ca­cy of his strat­e­gy. The cus­toms of the Free Folk catch him off guard. When his motives are ques­tioned, Ygritte inter­venes, declar­ing they are engaged in a roman­tic rela­tion­ship. This paci­fies the wildlings but exac­er­bates Jon’s dis­com­fort. Despite hav­ing sworn celiba­cy upon join­ing the Watch, Ygritte per­suades him to share inti­ma­cy, inten­si­fy­ing Jon’s inter­nal conflict.

Chapter 14

Sansa dons a new gown for the upcom­ing wed­ding of King Jof­frey. She seizes a moment to cau­tion Mar­gaery about Jof­frey’s abu­sive and tyran­ni­cal nature, but her advice goes unheed­ed. Sansa resigns her­self to mar­ry­ing Mar­gaery’s crip­pled broth­er, Ser Willas Tyrell, con­vinc­ing her­self it is a suit­able match. This news unset­tles Ser Don­tos Hol­lard, a knight, who oppos­es the union, claim­ing that the Tyrells are sole­ly inter­est­ed in Sansa’s inher­i­tance. Nonethe­less, Sansa remains deter­mined to make the mar­riage work.

Chapter 15

Arya is dev­as­tat­ed upon dis­cov­er­ing Har­win’s dis­loy­al­ty to the Stark fam­i­ly. He is now affil­i­at­ed with the Broth­er­hood With­out Bor­ders, a fac­tion of out­lawed for­mer knights who once served the Starks. Stripped of their roy­al sup­port, they are now fugi­tives. As they jour­ney, Arya learns that their des­ti­na­tion is not River­run to reunite with her kin but to Beric Don­dar­rion, their leader. She attempts to escape but is appre­hend­ed and com­pelled to pro­ceed towards Beric’s whereabouts.

Chapter 16

After the Oth­ers dec­i­mate the Fist of the First Men, Samwell and a few sur­viv­ing com­pan­ions are forced to seek safe­ty in the snowy wilder­ness. Bur­dened by fatigue and despair, Samwell con­tem­plates suc­cumb­ing to his weari­ness but is urged on by his com­rades. Their will to sur­vive is test­ed when they are ambushed by an Oth­er, or a “wight.” Despite his fear, Samwell musters the courage to use his obsid­i­an blade against the wight. Pre­vi­ous­ly con­sid­ered invin­ci­ble unless faced with fire, these undead crea­tures are best­ed by Samwell’s obsid­i­an weapon, oblit­er­at­ing the wight. Embold­ened by this suc­cess, Samwell and his com­pan­ions press on in their ardu­ous jour­ney towards Cras­ter’s Keep.

Chapter 17

Tyri­on is includ­ed in a famil­ial delib­er­a­tion regard­ing the allo­ca­tion of spoils of war. Every­one receives lands and rich­es, except Tyri­on, who is appoint­ed as the new mas­ter of the coin—a role he detests, fear­ing it sig­ni­fies his fam­i­ly’s impend­ing finan­cial col­lapse. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, Tywin orches­trates the mar­riage of his daugh­ter, Cer­sei, to Willas Tyrell. Cer­sei is repelled by this prospect, pri­mar­i­ly due to her clan­des­tine affair with her twin, Jaime. Tywin dis­re­gards her objec­tions. In a sur­pris­ing twist, Tywin instructs Tyri­on to wed Sansa, leav­ing Tyri­on dumbfounded.

Chapter 18

Rickard Karstark is brought before Robb and Cate­lyn along with his fol­low­ers. Hav­ing lost two sons to Jaime Lan­nis­ter, he sought vengeance by slay­ing two cap­tive Lan­nis­ter allies, who were mere chil­dren. He jus­ti­fies it as ret­ri­bu­tion, but Robb accus­es him of betray­al, advo­cat­ing for his exe­cu­tion. While allies neglect to react, a heart­bro­ken Robb ques­tions if he can res­cue his rule and ulti­mate­ly decap­i­tates Karstark. Cate­lyn talks with Jeyne, stress­ing Rob­b’s neces­si­ty for a successor.

Chapter 19

Jaime and Bri­enne fall into an ambush on the path by ban­dits, lead­ing to the demise of Ser Cleos. Fol­low­ing a clash with the attack­ers, the duo find them­selves in a dis­pute that evolves into a sword duel. Bri­en­ne’s mar­tial prowess aston­ish­es Jaime, and they end up wrestling on the ground. Their scuf­fle is inter­rupt­ed by a fresh wave of ban­dits, the Bloody Mum­mers, also iden­ti­fied as the Brave Com­pan­ions, under the lead­er­ship of Var­go Hoat. The sit­u­a­tion wors­ens when, fol­low­ing an exchange of obscen­i­ties, the Bloody Mum­mers sev­er Jaime’s right hand.

Chapter 20

The Broth­er­hood With­out Bor­ders tra­vers­es rav­aged set­tle­ments before reach­ing Acorn Hall, Lady Small­wood’s res­i­dence, serv­ing as their tem­po­rary refuge. Ini­tial­ly resis­tant, Arya even­tu­al­ly warms up to Lady Small­wood’s kind ges­tures, notably a new set of gar­ments. They inquire about Lord Beric, a man rumored to have encoun­tered his demise mul­ti­ple times through var­i­ous means, from hang­ing to a blade in the eye. Arya learns that her moth­er released Jaime, though the motives remain unclear.

Chapter 21

Daen­erys encoun­ters the traf­fick­er of slaves, Kraznys mo Nakloz. Through an inter­preter, Kraznys elab­o­rates on the bru­tal upbring­ing and train­ing of the slave war­riors known as the Unsul­lied. Select­ed at five years old, they under­go rig­or­ous train­ing, and only one in three sur­vive. The Unsul­lied are cas­trat­ed and endure min­i­mal pain. Daen­erys express­es her abhor­rence towards slav­ery, and White­beard tries to dis­suade her from pur­chas­ing slaves. Nev­er­the­less, Daen­erys real­izes she needs an army, irre­spec­tive of the eth­i­cal impli­ca­tions. The con­ver­sa­tion with Ser Jorah continues.

Chapter 22

Bran embarks on a demand­ing trek towards the Wall with his com­pan­ions. The unfor­giv­ing ter­rain ham­pers their progress. Meera recounts to Bran the tale of the mys­te­ri­ous Knight of the Laugh­ing Tree, though Jojen mis­tak­en­ly assumes Bran is famil­iar with the nar­ra­tive. This enig­mat­ic knight appears at a tour­na­ment, best­ing a series of cru­el oppo­nents. Instead of seek­ing ran­som, he instructs the defeat­ed knights to instill hon­or­able con­duct in their squires. Bran also dreams hope­ful­ly of the leg­endary Isle of Faces, the habi­tat of the mag­i­cal Chil­dren of the For­est. He believes they might ful­fill his wish to regain the abil­i­ty to walk.

Chapter 23

Melisan­dre vis­its Davos in his prison cell, out­lin­ing the cos­mic con­flict between her god, R’hllor, and his malev­o­lent coun­ter­part, whose name is for­bid­den to speak. Lat­er, a noble­man, Lord Alester Flo­rent, is thrown into the same dun­geon for attempt­ing to rec­on­cile with the Lan­nis­ter clan. He engages Davos in a con­ver­sa­tion about the recent events while Davos reaf­firms his alle­giance to Stan­nis. Despair over­whelms Alester, lead­ing him to break down in tears.

Chapter 24

On a serene night, Jon com­mands his dire­wolf, Ghost, to return to the Wall. He then con­vers­es with Styr, a promi­nent wildling fight­er, pro­vid­ing fur­ther insights into the work­ings of the Wall, includ­ing the sen­try rota­tions and their num­bers. Upon reunit­ing with Ygritte, he finds her in a cav­ern. She recounts the leg­end of Gen­del, a wildling who pur­port­ed­ly tun­neled beneath the Wall and dis­ap­peared. Ygritte com­mends Jon’s close com­bat abilities.

Chapter 25

Daen­erys astounds every­one by propos­ing to pur­chase all the Unsul­lied, the slave war­riors, from Kraznys mo Nakloz. Fol­low­ing a pro­tract­ed nego­ti­a­tion, she sur­pris­es all by offer­ing to exchange Dro­gon, one of her drag­ons, along­side a sub­stan­tial sum of wealth. Mis­sandei, the slave girl act­ing as a trans­la­tor between Daen­erys and Kraznys, reveals in pri­vate that she has three broth­ers among the Unsul­lied. The night before the trans­ac­tion, Daen­erys is vis­it­ed by an ethe­re­al female fig­ure who con­veys a cryp­tic mes­sage: “To go north, you must go south.” She van­ish­es with­out fur­ther expla­na­tion. The next day, Daen­erys con­cludes the pur­chase of the Unsul­lied in the Plaza of Pride. How­ev­er, post the deal, she com­mands Dro­gon to set Kraznys ablaze and directs the Unsul­lied to revolt against their for­mer mas­ters. The slaves stage an upris­ing, chant­i­ng “Dracarys!” or “Free­dom!”

Chapter 26

Sansa, clad in her bridal attire, is tak­en aback when Cer­sei reveals her intend­ed hus­band is Tyri­on, a rev­e­la­tion that repels her. The wed­ding tran­spires, yet nei­ther Tyri­on nor Sansa dis­plays enthu­si­asm for it. The cel­e­bra­tion wit­ness­es Jof­frey and Mar­gaery lead­ing the dance, with Jof­frey also danc­ing with Sansa and threat­en­ing her. After the fes­tiv­i­ties, Sansa and Tyri­on retire to their pri­vate cham­bers. Amidst copi­ous alco­hol and dis­com­fort, Tyri­on assures Sansa he will not coerce her into con­sum­mat­ing their mar­riage with­out her consent.

Chapter 27

In Stoney Sept, Arya wit­ness­es the harsh truths of war and the demise of cap­tives con­fined in cages. She tries to offer them water, but Anguy, a mem­ber of the Broth­er­hood, ends their lives using a cross­bow. They arrive at a pub­lic house, also dou­bling as a broth­el, where Arya encoun­ters Bel­la, a cheer­ful pros­ti­tute. She pon­ders flee­ing but dis­miss­es the notion. Dur­ing the night, anoth­er cap­tive is intro­duced, iden­ti­fied as a Lan­nis­ter. Upon rec­og­niz­ing San­dor Cle­gane, also known as the Hound, Arya is elat­ed to learn of his capture.

Chapter 28

Jon observes the wildlings, led by a war­rior named Jarl, attempt­ing to scale the Wall. It proves to be a daunt­ing task due to the tow­er­ing height of the Wall. As they near the sum­mit, a fis­sure emerges in the wall. A large chunk of the frozen struc­ture detach­es, result­ing in the demise of the entire climb­ing par­ty. Jon recalls a com­mon say­ing: “The Wall defends itself.” Ygritte is con­sumed with sor­row. The wildlings remain with­out the Horn of Win­ter, a leg­endary item believed to pos­sess the pow­er to demol­ish the Wall.

Chapter 29

Bri­enne and Jaime, bound and cap­tive, endure numer­ous days of threats and hard­ship. Bri­enne con­sis­tent­ly urges a despon­dent Jaime to per­se­vere. They are even­tu­al­ly brought to the grand fortress of Har­ren­hal, where Lord Bolton takes charge of them. Jaime dis­cov­ers that the Freys have turned against the Starks. Lord Bolton express­es dis­plea­sure at Var­go Hoat’s harsh treat­ment of Bri­enne and Jaime. Despite dis­arm­ing Bri­enne, they receive decent accom­mo­da­tions, with Jaime even receiv­ing med­ical care from Greet­ings, Grand Maester Qyburn.

Chapter 30

As the mas­ter of coin, Tyri­on grap­ples with the destruc­tive after­math of the con­flicts. His vex­a­tion inten­si­fies due to his duties and his indif­fer­ent spouse, Sansa. To address the poten­tial extor­tion by Symon Sil­ver Tongue con­cern­ing Shae, Tyri­on opts to con­front the sit­u­a­tion. He sug­gests that Symon should depart for the Free Cities, but ends up deceiv­ing him by offer­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty to per­form at Joffrey’s wed­ding. In real­i­ty, he instructs Bronn to elim­i­nate Symon and con­ceal his remains. Dur­ing a meet­ing with his father, Tywin, Tyri­on wit­ness­es the intro­duc­tion of two new swords for Jof­frey and Jaime, forged from the scarce Valyr­i­an steel. Tyri­on is left puz­zled about the ori­gin of the mate­r­i­al used for craft­ing. As the sword­smith leaves, he express­es his dis­ap­point­ment at not receiv­ing a sword. Tywin rebukes Tyri­on for fail­ing to ful­fill his mar­i­tal oblig­a­tions and dis­clos­es that Willas Tyrell reject­ed a union pro­pos­al for Cer­sei. Their dia­logue gets inter­rupt­ed by Maester Pycelle, who reports a poten­tial vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty at the Wall. Tywin dis­re­gards the warn­ing, deem­ing it a con­cern for the North to address.

Chapter 31

Deep with­in Craster’s Keep, Samwell’s com­pan­ion Gilly gives birth while the mem­bers of the Night’s Watch recu­per­ate from their jour­ney. Despite Cras­ter’s stern demeanor and numer­ous wives, includ­ing Gilly, he pro­vides basic lodg­ing for the Watch­men. Samwell, feel­ing unwor­thy, is hailed as a hero, bestowed the title of “Slay­er” for van­quish­ing an Oth­er. Com­man­der Mor­mont press­es Samwell for details on the inci­dent and stress­es the urgency of acquir­ing more obsid­i­an weapons. Sub­se­quent­ly, a revolt ensues when the Watch­men request addi­tion­al pro­vi­sions from Cras­ter, result­ing in mul­ti­ple casu­al­ties, includ­ing Cras­ter and Mor­mont. With his final breath, Mor­mont instructs Samwell to con­vey his new­found knowl­edge back to the Wall. Samwell pledges to safe­guard Gilly and her infant as they escape the Keep together.

Chapter 32

Arya and the Broth­er­hood ren­dezvous with Thoros of Myr at a clan­des­tine refuge. They inter­ro­gate their cap­tive, San­dor, who rebuffs all alle­ga­tions. A spon­ta­neous tri­al ensues, with the Broth­er­hood accus­ing San­dor of numer­ous bru­tal deeds and killings, to which he remains apa­thet­ic. Beric Don­dar­rion, unable to ascer­tain San­dor’s cul­pa­bil­i­ty, opts for a tri­al by com­bat. In a fierce and fiery duel, San­dor emerges vic­to­ri­ous, slay­ing Beric and seem­ing­ly vin­di­cat­ing him­self. How­ev­er, post-bat­tle, San­dor con­fess­es his wrong­do­ings despite already being par­doned. Unex­pect­ed­ly, Beric reemerges, wound­ed yet alive, unveil­ing a his­to­ry of mul­ti­ple resurrections.

Chapter 33

Fol­low­ing the pass­ing of Cate­lyn’s father, his body is set ablaze on a cer­e­mo­ni­al ves­sel, intend­ed to be ignit­ed by a flam­ing arrow. Although tasked to shoot the arrow, Cate­lyn’s broth­er Edmure fails on his ini­tial attempt. Short­ly there­after, Lothar Frey approach­es with a propo­si­tion to rene­go­ti­ate an alle­giance between the Starks and Freys. In a pri­vate exchange, Robb informs Cate­lyn about Sansa’s unfor­tu­nate mar­riage to Tyri­on. Cate­lyn sug­gests sur­ren­der­ing to the Lan­nis­ters in exchange for clemen­cy, a propo­si­tion prompt­ly turned down by Robb. Upon recon­nect­ing with Lothar, he sug­gests Edmure mar­ry his 16-year-old daugh­ter, Roslin. Despite ini­tial unease about mar­ry­ing a stranger, Edmure ulti­mate­ly agrees.

Chapter 34

Davos is sum­moned from his con­fine­ment to a gath­er­ing with King Stan­nis and Melisan­dre in the Cham­ber of the Paint­ed Table. Ser Axell, a knight loy­al to Stan­nis, pro­pos­es a plan to seize Claw Isle as a demon­stra­tion of pow­er and ret­ri­bu­tion against trai­tors. Davos oppos­es the strat­e­gy, lead­ing Stan­nis to dis­miss Axell. Stan­nis then ques­tions Davos regard­ing his inten­tions towards Melisan­dre and asserts that she played no part in the Bat­tle of Black­wa­ter. He appoints Davos as the Hand, a posi­tion Davos doubts his capa­bil­i­ties to ful­fill. The event con­cludes with Melisan­dre proph­esy­ing about their adver­saries through fire-reading.

Chapter 35

Jaime and Bri­enne share an uneasy bath, dur­ing which Jaime dis­clos­es the true motive behind King Aerys’ demise — to avert the monarch from incin­er­at­ing the city and its inhab­i­tants with wild­fire. This rev­e­la­tion catch­es Bri­enne off guard. Sub­se­quent­ly, Jaime faints in the bath but swift­ly recu­per­ates. Lat­er, dur­ing a din­ner with Lord Bolton, a pact is struck where Bolton requests Jaime not to blame him for the loss of his hand in exchange for facil­i­tat­ing his return to the Lan­nis­ters. Addi­tion­al­ly, Bolton dis­rupts Bri­en­ne’s plans for a pris­on­er exchange by expos­ing Sansa and Tyri­on’s mar­i­tal bond.

at an elder­ly gen­tle­man, demand­ing Jon to per­form his exe­cu­tion. Con­front­ed with hes­i­ta­tion, Jon is charged by the Free Folk of treach­ery with Ygritte. In response, Ygritte ter­mi­nates the life of the elder­ly gen­tle­man. Seiz­ing the tumul­tuous moment, Jon assaults a few Free Folk and suc­ceeds in lib­er­at­ing him­self, albeit with a leg injury hin­der­ing his swift­ness. He embarks towards the Wall, torn between con­flict­ing allegiances.

Chapter 40

Daen­erys arrives at Yunkai, a city she plans to con­quer with her for­mi­da­ble army. She holds dis­cus­sions with three groups: the lead­ers of the Storm­crows, the chief of the Sec­ond Sons mer­ce­nary band, and a del­e­gate from Yunkai. She grants the mer­ce­nar­ies until sun­rise to switch sides, while the Yunkai are giv­en a three-day dead­line to release their slaves and sur­ren­der. Daen­erys also arranges for a sur­prise night­time attack. How­ev­er, the scheme is foiled when Daario Naharis, a leader of the Storm­crows, appears at her camp, bear­ing the heads of his com­rades. He pledges alle­giance and the sup­port of his fac­tion to Daen­erys. Sub­se­quent­ly, the sur­prise attack com­mences. While remain­ing at the camp, Daen­erys ques­tions White­beard about Rhae­gar, her late broth­er. Her forces emerge vic­to­ri­ous, and she ven­tures into Yunkai where the new­ly eman­ci­pat­ed slaves view her as a mater­nal fig­ure and cheer her on.

Chapter 41

The Broth­er­hood With­out Ban­ners set­tles for the night. Thoros and Beric con­verse by the fire while Arya eaves­drops in secret. An elder­ly diminu­tive woman joins them, shar­ing her visions and pre­mo­ni­tions, allud­ing to some­thing con­cern­ing the Twin’s cas­tle and a wed­ding. She encoun­ters a young fel­low named Ned who dis­clos­es that he is the “milk broth­er” of Jon Snow, nursed by the same woman, Wyl­la. Ned reveals his true iden­ti­ty as Edric Dayne, a noble, and recounts the tale of his Aunt Ashara Dayne’s ill-fat­ed affec­tion for Arya’s father Eddard, which led to her demise. Lat­er, Thoros imparts a prophe­cy to Arya, pre­dict­ing the incin­er­a­tion of River­run cas­tle by the Lan­nis­ters. Arya endeav­ors to flee but is appre­hend­ed by San­dor who whisks her away from the sanc­tu­ary of the Broth­er­hood assembly.

Chapter 42

Jaime, accom­pa­nied by Steelshanks Wal­ton and a siz­able con­tin­gent, jour­neys towards the Lan­nis­ter strong­hold, feel­ing unset­tled about his miss­ing limb. After imbib­ing dreamwine, he under­goes a pro­found night­mare involv­ing sig­nif­i­cant fig­ures from his past, includ­ing Bri­enne. Con­cerned for Bri­enne, Jaime per­suades Steel shanks to turn back to Har­ren­hal to res­cue her. Upon their return, they find Var­go Hoat com­pelling Bri­enne to face a bear armed only with a blunt­ed sword. Hoat’s ear bears the marks of Bri­en­ne’s defen­sive act when he tried to assault her, and she bit him. Jaime leaps into the pit to aid Bri­enne, and ulti­mate­ly, the bear is slain by Steelshanks’ men. Rec­og­niz­ing the fruit­less­ness of the con­flict, Hoat per­mits them to depart unharmed. Bri­enne ques­tions Jaime’s rea­sons for return­ing to save her, to which he admits that he envi­sioned her in his dream.

Chapter 43

Robb, accom­pa­nied by Edmure, Cate­lyn, and their 3,500 fol­low­ers, jour­neys to the Twins for Edmure’s mar­riage to Roslin, leav­ing Jeyne behind. Con­front­ed with dif­fi­cul­ties due to inclement weath­er and a chal­leng­ing riv­er cross­ing, Cate­lyn implores Robb to des­ig­nate an heir until Jeyne con­ceives. Robb con­tem­plates Jon Snow for this role, but Cate­lyn dis­agrees, cast­ing doubt on Jon’s reli­a­bil­i­ty. Their dis­pute cul­mi­nates in Robb storm­ing off. In the ensu­ing days, Robb focus­es on for­mu­lat­ing bat­tle strate­gies, aim­ing to regain the sup­port of the Freys. Cate­lyn’s offer of assis­tance is met with a dis­mis­sive “stay safe,” a sen­ti­ment she finds belittling.

Chapter 44

Samwell and Gilly arrive at the desert­ed White­tree vil­lage. Gilly, fatigued from recent child­birth, rides on horse­back while Samwell walks. They estab­lish a makeshift camp, enveloped by weari­ness and despon­den­cy. Samwell fills the air with a soft melody, a song per­pet­u­al­ly dis­ap­proved by his severe father. Sud­den­ly, they are assailed by the rean­i­mat­ed form of Small Paul, a for­mer mem­ber of the Night’s Watch, revived as a wight. Samwell endeav­ors to fend him off with an obsid­i­an blade, which shat­ters against Small Paul’s armor. Even­tu­al­ly, Samwell suc­ceeds in set­ting him aflame, only to find Gilly besieged by more wights out­side. Abrupt­ly, a stranger mount­ed on a grand elk beck­ons Sam. As he and Gilly join the rid­er, Samwell observes the man’s black, frost­bit­ten hands.

Chapter 45

San­dor, accom­pa­nied by Arya as a cap­tive, embarks on a dis­tant jour­ney, reach­ing a riv­er that Arya believes is the Black­wa­ter Rush. San­dor secures the ser­vices of a fer­ry­man, employ­ing coer­cion to com­pen­sate for his lack of funds. When their boat col­lides with a sub­merged tree, a fer­ry­man is swept away by the swift cur­rent, seem­ing­ly des­tined for per­il. The fer­ry­man receives a worth­less IOU from San­dor, spark­ing a dis­pute with Arya. San­dor then dis­clos­es that the riv­er is not the Black­wa­ter but the Tri­dent. Con­trary to Arya’s assump­tion of head­ing towards the Lan­nis­ters, San­dor intends to trans­port her to the Twins to nego­ti­ate her return to the Starks.

Chapter 46

Jon tra­vers­es his way back to the Wall, cau­tion­ing the denizens of Mole’s Town about the immi­nent inva­sion of Free Folk. Upon arrival, Don­al Noye, the black­smith, is the first to iden­ti­fy him. Despite rumors of defec­tion cir­cu­lat­ing, Jon elu­ci­dates his mis­sion assigned by Qhorin Half­hand. He receives med­ical care from Maester Aemon and is briefed about Com­man­der Mor­mon­t’s demise at Cras­ter’s Keep. He imparts his intel­li­gence but also admits to breach­ing his oath through his rela­tion­ship with Ygritte. He learns that Win­ter­fell has been rav­aged, and Bran and Rick­on are pre­sumed deceased. How­ev­er, Jon refus­es to accept this as he recent­ly encoun­tered Bran’s dire wolf, who rec­og­nized him.

Chapter 47

Robb and his entourage reach the Twins, where Cate­lyn warns him of Walder, a man prone to tak­ing offense eas­i­ly. The Frey lords are per­turbed when Rob­b’s dire­wolf, Grey Wind, snarls at them. It is dis­closed that the vast gath­er­ing of Rob­b’s vas­sals can­not be accom­mo­dat­ed with­in the cas­tle, lead­ing them to be direct­ed to three feast­ing tents out­side. Walder presents his numer­ous daugh­ters to the Starks, many of whom are unat­trac­tive, and some he fails to even rec­og­nize. How­ev­er, when Roslin, Walder’s daugh­ter, is intro­duced, her beau­ty catch­es Edmure off guard, and he eager­ly antic­i­pates their impend­ing nup­tials pri­vate­ly. A meet­ing with Lord Bolton expos­es a piece of skin belong­ing to Theon Greyjoy, accused of slay­ing Bran and Rick­on. Talks ensue regard­ing Greyjoy’s fate, ulti­mate­ly decid­ing to retain him as a pris­on­er. War strate­gies are delib­er­at­ed among Robb, Cate­lyn, and Lord Bolton, plot­ting to advance fol­low­ing Edmure’s union with Roslin.

Chapter 48

Cle­gane nears the Twins, inform­ing a knight that he is trans­port­ing pre­served pork for the nup­tials. This allows him and Arya to enter the near­by areas. Mind­ful of the risk of being appre­hend­ed by the Starks and Freys if he enters the cas­tle, Cle­gane opts to remain out­side while the cer­e­mo­ny unfolds. The music com­ing from the cas­tle is remark­ably loud. Arya looks through the jubi­lant crowd for a famil­iar face, but can­not find one.

Chapter 49

As the wed­ding cel­e­bra­tion pro­gress­es with live­ly music, Cate­lyn observes Edmure and Roslin’s evi­dent har­mo­ny, despite her dis­sat­is­fac­tion with the ordi­nary feast. Rob­b’s anger is sparked by Grey Wolf’s exclu­sion from the event, which Walder attrib­ut­es to the dire wolf’s ini­tial aggres­sive behav­ior. With Walder’s atten­tion dis­tract­ed, the wed­ding begins, end­ing with the new­ly mar­ried cou­ple being spir­it­ed away to ful­fill their vows amidst wide­spread cheers. How­ev­er, a chill­ing sus­pi­cion haunts Cate­lyn. The mer­ri­ment takes a hor­ri­fy­ing turn as the musi­cians reveal cross­bows and launch a dead­ly attack on the assem­bly. Amidst the chaos, Robb is wound­ed. In a des­per­ate move, Cate­lyn grabs a blade and Jin­gle­bell the jester, a child of the Freys, threat­ens his life for their release. Unex­pect­ed­ly, an assailant pierces Rob­b’s heart. In a final act, Cate­lyn slits Jin­gle­bel­l’s throat before meet­ing her own trag­ic demise.

Chapter 50

Arya sens­es immi­nent dan­ger out­side the wed­ding venue. Sud­den­ly, vio­lence erupts with­in the fes­ti­val tents, with the Freys mas­sacring Stark’s sup­port­ers. As Arya tries to hur­ry to the cas­tle to res­cue her moth­er and broth­er, Cle­gane ren­ders her uncon­scious with his axe.

Chapter 51

Tyri­on and Sansa share anoth­er tense meal togeth­er. When Sansa decides to depart for her reli­gious tra­di­tion, Tyri­on offers to escort her, but she declines. Tyri­on then meets with Tywin, Jof­frey, and Cer­sei who inform him of Robb, Cate­lyn, and their allies’ demise. A seri­ous dis­agree­ment emerges between Tyri­on and Jof­frey, with Tyri­on sub­tly hint­ing at a threat to Joffrey’s life. Jof­frey’s dis­re­spect­ful response to Tywin leads to both him and Cer­sei being dis­missed. Alone, Tyri­on deduces that Tywin had a hand in orches­trat­ing the Freys’ mas­sacre. Their dis­cus­sion shifts towards address­ing Oberyn Martel­l’s demand for Gre­gor Cle­gane’s demise. Tywin schemes to deceive Oberyn by blam­ing anoth­er for the demise of his sis­ter and her chil­dren, but Tyri­on doubts this strat­e­gy. They also dis­cuss Tywin’s pact with Walder Frey to elim­i­nate the Starks, high­light­ing the strate­gic advan­tage their demise offers the Lannisters.

Chapter 52

Davos and King Stan­nis come across the after­math of the Red Wed­ding and the dev­as­tat­ing blow to the Starks. Stan­nis pon­ders his sub­se­quent moves, reject­ing Melisan­dre’s coun­sel until she sug­gests a sac­ri­fice — Robert Baratheon’s ille­git­i­mate son Edric Storm — to appease the deity R’h­llor for their suc­cess in the war. Despite Davos’s pleas for Edric’s preser­va­tion, Stan­nis remains firm. Con­ver­sa­tions with Sal­lad­hor Saan dis­close Davos’s clan­des­tine efforts to gar­ner sup­port against Melisan­dre. Lat­er, dur­ing a read­ing ses­sion with Maester Pylos, Davos reads a let­ter from the Wall about an impend­ing wildling onslaught, a mat­ter he urges Pylos to with­hold from Stannis.

Chapter 53

Mole’s Town is set ablaze by the wildlings, yet Jon finds solace in hav­ing fore­warned the Night’s Watch. He is trou­bled by the aban­don­ment of the Watch by the Sev­en King­doms and is anx­ious about his crew’s readi­ness. He is also con­cerned about the wildlings’ south­ern attack strat­e­gy. Dur­ing a lengthy and bru­tal noc­tur­nal clash, a stair­case col­laps­es, result­ing in the demise of the wildling leader, Styr. Sev­er­al of Jon’s com­rades are either slain or wound­ed in the skir­mish. Jon encoun­ters Ygritte, wound­ed by an arrow, and wit­ness­es her pass­ing in his arms.

Chapter 54

Bran and his com­pan­ions nav­i­gate through Night­fort, an aban­doned fortress on the Wall, haunt­ed by its dark his­to­ry. It emerges that Bran’s dire wolf, Sum­mer, may have been hurt in a clash with the wildlings due to Bran con­trol­ling the wolf’s mind. The group’s explo­ration with­in the keep yields no sig­nif­i­cant dis­cov­er­ies. When Meera tries to scale a wall, Bran rem­i­nisces about his past climb­ing expe­ri­ences. After Hodor drops a stone into the abyss, which lands on a damp sur­face lat­er, they decide to stay put. As they pre­pare to rest, Bran sens­es a pres­ence in the dark­ness but fails to con­nect with Hodor­’s mind. When the fig­ure appears, Meera stabs it, only to real­ize it’s Samwell, shak­en but unhurt. Samwell, accom­pa­nied by Gilly, reveals that Cold­hands saved them. Con­cealed with­in the struc­ture is the Black Gate, an ancient pas­sage in the Wall. They soon real­ize Sum­mer the dire­wolf is still alive. They all ven­ture deep into the Night­fort’s depths until they encounter a mys­ti­cal door that only opens when Samwell recites his Night’s Watch vow.

Chapter 55

Daen­erys and her troops reach Meereen, where a lone war­rior, Oznak zo Pahl, emerges from the city to chal­lenge in sin­gle com­bat. Daen­erys appoints the for­mer glad­i­a­tor, Strong Bel­was, to face Oznak, who man­ages to tri­umph and decap­i­tate him despite being on foot against a mount­ed oppo­nent. Daen­erys grap­ples with the dilem­ma of how to pen­e­trate the heav­i­ly for­ti­fied city until she dis­cov­ers an under­ground pas­sage that runs beneath the walls. While con­tem­plat­ing her options in her camp, an assas­sin, iden­ti­fied as Mero, the mer­ce­nary leader from Yunkai, con­fronts her. He is slain in a duel by White­beard, sav­ing Daen­erys’ life. Upon Ser Jorah’s return from scout­ing, Daen­erys express­es her frus­tra­tion that he had not alert­ed her to Mero’s escape from the pri­or encounter. How­ev­er, when she insists on dub­bing White­beard a knight, he reveals that he already holds knight­hood, and his true iden­ti­ty is Bar­ris­tan Selmy. Addi­tion­al­ly, Bar­ris­tan con­fess­es to hav­ing served her father but also betray­ing him. He admits that Ser Jorah was spy­ing on Daen­erys for the Iron Throne, which Jorah reluc­tant­ly acknowl­edges. Feel­ing betrayed and dis­ori­ent­ed, Daen­erys dis­miss­es them both.

Chapter 56

Tyri­on reveals the Red Wed­ding details to Sansa, yet her emo­tions remain veiled from him. In the dead of night, he slips away from their shared cham­ber to ren­dezvous with Shae covert­ly. Con­cerned for her wel­fare and frus­trat­ed by his lim­it­ed resources to sup­port her, he con­tem­plates that mar­ry­ing her off to Ser Tal­lad, a notably tow­er­ing knight in King’s Land­ing, might be the most viable course of action.

Chapter 57

Sansa Stark feels despon­dent at Jof­frey’s lav­ish wed­ding, believ­ing her kin are no more. She and Tyri­on Lan­nis­ter are in atten­dance as Jof­frey weds Mar­gaery Tyrell. Jof­frey, unim­pressed by the rich past present from Tyri­on is reck­less­ly dec­i­mat­ed with his fresh Valyr­i­an steel blade bestowed by Tywin, dubbed Wid­ow’s Wail. In a pri­vate instance, Tyri­on endeav­ors to con­verse with Sansa about their lin­eages, only to encounter eva­sive replies. Sansa rebuffs Tyri­on’s effort to pro­vide details about the Red Wed­ding, shun­ning any men­tion of the down­fall of Robb and Catelyn.

Chapter 58

Observ­ing the nup­tials pas­sive­ly, Tyri­on immers­es him­self in wine and sug­gests to Sansa a poten­tial relo­ca­tion to Cast­er­ly Rock, which she hes­i­tant­ly con­tem­plates. They retire to their cham­bers where Shae desires to par­tic­i­pate in the fes­tiv­i­ties, only to be declined by Sansa. Amidst the extrav­a­gant 77-course ban­quet, Tyri­on silent­ly resents the exces­sive affair. Jof­frey insti­gates a dwarfish joust­ing per­for­mance, irk­ing Tyri­on, and lead­ing to a ver­bal alter­ca­tion. The dis­cour­te­ous king hurls wine at Tyri­on and con­vinces him to refill the cup repeat­ed­ly. The ten­sion eas­es momen­tar­i­ly when Tywin instructs Jof­frey to slice the dove-adorned wed­ding pie. Jof­frey sum­mons Ser Ilyn Payne for his sword, rec­og­nized by Sansa as her father’s reforged weapon, Ice. Despite Tyri­on’s attempt to depart with Sansa, Jof­frey com­pels them to stay. Jof­frey plunges into the pie but short­ly there­after suc­cumbs, chok­ing. As he breathes his last, Cer­sei cries out that he has been poi­soned. The cas­tle guards appre­hend Tyri­on promptly.

Chapter 59

Upon wit­ness­ing Jof­frey choke dur­ing the feast, Sansa seizes the moment to make her escape. Con­tent with the demise of the king, she scru­ti­nizes her hair­net to find a miss­ing amethyst gem. Rec­ol­lect­ing Ser Don­tos’s asser­tions about the enchant­ed hair­net aid­ing in her eva­sion, she sens­es a deep­er plot unfold­ing. Sud­den­ly, Don­tos emerges and assists her in slip­ping out of the strong­hold, guid­ing her through a con­cealed stair­case in the out­er for­ti­fi­ca­tion. Board­ing a ves­sel, she spots Petyr Bael­ish. Upon Don­tos’s plea for his reward for deliv­er­ing Sansa, Petyr orders his demise by cross­bow bolts. Peter jus­ti­fies his actions, claim­ing Don­tos, a cov­etous drunk­ard, would have imper­iled their plan. He admits to con­coct­ing the dwarf joust­ing scheme and reas­sures Sansa of her safe­ty under his wing.

Chapter 60

Jaime is en route to King’s Land­ing when he hears of Jof­frey’s pass­ing and the cir­cu­lat­ing alle­ga­tions of mur­der. Bri­enne hes­i­tates about her sub­se­quent actions, giv­en Jaime’s well-being and Cate­lyn’s death. Upon arrival at King’s Land­ing, Jaime dis­cerns the city’s apa­thy towards both Jof­frey’s demise and his own return. At the fortress, a North­ern­er, Ser Loras accus­es Bri­enne of the slay­ing of King Ren­ly Baratheon, despite ear­li­er rev­e­la­tions impli­cat­ing Melisan­dre and Stan­nis. Appre­hen­sive for Bri­enne, Jaime uti­lizes his influ­ence to have her detained. In the sept, he encoun­ters Cer­sei mourn­ing over Jof­frey, their hid­den off­spring. Cer­sei is firm in her belief that Tyri­on is respon­si­ble for Jof­frey’s demise. The sib­lings engage in an intense con­fronta­tion in the sept, beside Jof­frey’s corpse. Jaime’s procla­ma­tion of affec­tion catch­es Cer­sei off guard, prompt­ing her to dis­miss him. Sub­se­quent­ly, Jaime faces his father Tywin, who insists on his trans­fer to Cast­er­ly Rock to over­see young Tom­men, Jof­frey’s heir. Tywin pro­pos­es Mar­gaery as Jaime’s bride, but Jaime con­tra­dicts his father’s wish­es, express­ing his desire to lead the Kings­guard. Reluc­tant­ly, Tywin concedes.

Chapter 61

As Melisan­dre con­ducts the rit­u­al for Edric’s sac­ri­fice, Davos extri­cates him from his cham­ber. Maester Pylos facil­i­tates the escape, earn­ing Davos’s admi­ra­tion. He assists Edric in board­ing a ves­sel and flee­ing in the dark­ness, while Davos remains to con­front King Stan­nis. Dwell in antic­i­pa­tion, he con­tem­plates his mod­est desires and craves for a sim­pler liveli­hood. When queried by Stan­nis and Melisan­dre about Edric’s where­abouts, Davos divulges aid­ing the boy’s escape and accepts respon­si­bil­i­ty, cit­ing ser­vice to the crown. Faced with the threat of demise, he retrieves a mis­sive and pre­pares to read it aloud.

Chapter 62

Awak­en­ing, Jon per­ceives the vast wildling horde assem­bled for bat­tle beyond the Wall. Com­pre­hend­ing their plan to breach a gate at the base of the Wall, cre­at­ing a nar­row pas­sage, he real­izes the poten­tial threat of a wildling inva­sion upon suc­cess. Noye ven­tures off to guard the gate and tun­nel, leav­ing Jon aston­ished as he assumes com­mand. With the tide of bat­tle shift­ing, Jon ris­es as the leader of the Night’s Watch. Post-con­flict, he inspects the gate and stum­bles upon Noye and oth­ers slain, osten­si­bly in a skir­mish with a deceased giant. While rem­e­dy­ing the gate, Jon com­pre­hends his new­found posi­tion as the per­ma­nent over­seer of the Wall.

Chapter 63

Arya and San­dor tra­verse the coun­try­side, with San­dor antic­i­pat­ing a reward for Arya’s safe return. Encoun­ter­ing a severe­ly wound­ed archer, they grant him a swift, pain­less pass­ing. Arya implores San­dor to revis­it the Twins to inquire about sur­viv­ing Starks, but he declines. They reside in a small vil­lage for a fort­night. Ini­tial­ly con­tem­plat­ing set­tling there, San­dor is rec­og­nized by the locals, lead­ing to their request for his depar­ture. Arya sug­gests a jour­ney to the Wall to reunite with Jon, but San­dor rebuffs the idea.

Chapter 64

Tyri­on faces tri­al for Jof­frey’s demise, with no one step­ping for­ward to advo­cate for him. Sus­pect­ing Sansa’s involve­ment in the poi­son­ing, he con­tem­plates opt­ing for tri­al by com­bat, only to be dis­heart­ened upon learn­ing Cer­sei has select­ed the for­mi­da­ble Gre­gor Cle­gane as her cham­pi­on. Tyri­on’s aspi­ra­tions dwin­dle fur­ther after a dis­mal con­ver­sa­tion with Bronn, a sell­sword, due to unfa­vor­able odds and lack of an entic­ing offer. In the court­room, Tyri­on pro­claims his inno­cence, but his con­fi­dence fal­ters as wit­ness­es tes­ti­fy against him con­sec­u­tive­ly. His uncle, Ser Kevan, advis­es him to con­fess guilt and con­sid­er serv­ing in the Night’s Watch. Unex­pect­ed­ly, Prince Oberyn Martell vis­its Tyri­on, affirm­ing his belief in his inno­cence. Tyri­on divulges to Oberyn the heinous act com­mit­ted by Gre­gor against Oberyn’s sis­ter, Elia. This prompts Oberyn to vol­un­teer as Tyri­on’s cham­pi­on, pre­pared to con­front Gre­gor in the impend­ing tri­al by combat.

Chapter 65

Assum­ing his new­found posi­tion as Lord Com­man­der of the Kings­guard, Jaime set­tles in the White Sword Tow­er and delves into the White Book, a his­tor­i­cal account of his pre­de­ces­sors. Con­tem­plat­ing their achieve­ments, he expe­ri­ences a sense of dis­cour­age­ment and detach­ment. Orga­niz­ing a meet­ing with the Kings­guard mem­bers to dis­cuss their duties and rap­port, a heat­ed exchange erupts with Ser Loras. Loras asserts Bri­en­ne’s cul­pa­bil­i­ty in Ren­ly’s demise, to which Jaime coun­ters by insin­u­at­ing Loras might have played a role in Jof­frey’s pass­ing. Loras starts to ques­tion his cer­tain­ty regard­ing Bri­en­ne’s involve­ment. Upon Loras’s depar­ture, Jaime pon­ders acquir­ing a gold­en arti­fi­cial hand.

section 66

Sansa is sur­prised to dis­cov­er she is being tak­en to Petyr’s mod­est estate. Petyr reveals his inten­tion to mar­ry Sansa’s undis­closed aunt, Lady Lysa, and bestows upon Sansa the alias “Alayne” as she is want­ed by author­i­ties. She is man­dat­ed to mas­quer­ade as his ille­git­i­mate off­spring. Over a meal, Petyr unveils the scheme behind Jof­frey’s demise. Short­ly after, Lysa arrives, eager to wed Petyr instant­ly. Amid their nup­tial evening, Mar­il­lion, a bard, makes improp­er advances towards Sansa, but is hin­dered by a knight, Ser Lothor Brune. The fol­low­ing day, Lysa acknowl­edges that she rec­og­nizes Sansa’s true iden­ti­ty and pro­pos­es her fee­ble son, Robert, as Sansa’s poten­tial spouse once Tyri­on is exe­cut­ed for Jof­frey’s mur­der. Under coer­cion, Sansa acquiesces.

section 67

Jon, the com­man­der of the Night’s Watch, final­ly finds respite after ardu­ous con­fronta­tions. Upon awak­en­ing, he and his com­rades are con­front­ed with safe­guard­ing the Wall against a mov­ing for­ti­fi­ca­tion referred to as a “tur­tle.” They man­age to dis­man­tle this struc­ture and dis­perse the sol­diers with­in. When Jon drifts back to sleep, he is abrupt­ly accused of treach­ery by Ser Allis­er Thorne and Janos Slynt, lead­ing to his sub­se­quent arrest.

section 68

Tyri­on pon­ders con­fess­ing his cul­pa­bil­i­ty. He attends his tri­al and hears Shae false­ly incrim­i­nate him. Inter­rupt­ing her, he con­fess­es not to Jof­frey’s demise but to “being born a dwarf.” Pre­fer­ring a tri­al by com­bat, he selects Oberyn as his cham­pi­on. Before the duel, Oberyn divulges about his fra­ter­nal bond, imbibes, and boasts of opt­ing for a spear instead of a sword. Tyri­on notices his slip­pery hands and sus­pects a poi­soned spear. As the duel unfolds, Oberyn accus­es Gre­gor of var­i­ous crimes and inflicts sev­er­al minor injuries on him. Yet, due to Oberyn’s over­con­fi­dence, he suf­fers severe wounds and is ulti­mate­ly slain by Gre­gor. Con­se­quent­ly, Tyri­on los­es the tri­al and is impris­oned in the dim cells reserved for those await­ing the death sentence.

section 69

Jorah and Bar­ris­tan, for­mer­ly known as White­beard, sneak into the city through the sewage sys­tem and unlock the gates. This action enables Daen­erys’s troops to seize the city and lib­er­ate the enslaved pop­u­lace. How­ev­er, the tri­umph is taint­ed by the severe penal­ties imposed on Meereen’s inhab­i­tants. Reports of unrest in Yunkai and Astapor, where eman­ci­pat­ed slaves are re-enslav­ing them­selves, fur­ther damp­en the vic­to­ry. Bar­ris­tan con­fess­es his errors to Daen­erys, who par­dons him. Con­verse­ly, Jorah main­tains his inno­cence, yet Daen­erys expels him. Despite ini­tial inten­tions, Daen­erys opts to stay in Meereen and rule as its queen.

section 70

Jaime finds the admin­is­tra­tive duties of his posi­tion as the Lord Com­man­der of the Kings­guard tire­some. Encoun­ter­ing Steelshanks Wal­ton, who presents a girl claim­ing to be Arya Stark, Jaime reg­is­ters doubt. He express­es his affec­tion to Cer­sei and pro­pos­es mat­ri­mo­ny, elic­it­ing fear from her and spark­ing a heat­ed argu­ment. Sum­mon­ing Bri­enne, he bestows upon her the sword Tywin bestowed upon him, craft­ed from the steel of Ned Stark’s blade. Instruct­ing her to pro­tect Sansa with it wher­ev­er she may be, he sug­gests the name ‘Oath­keep­er’ for the sword before dis­miss­ing her. Jaime then con­tem­plates his des­tiny while reflect­ing on the White Book.

section 71

Janos Slynt and Allis­er Thorne decide to charge Jon with the mis­sion of assas­si­nat­ing Mance Ray­der since they were unable to exe­cute him them­selves. In a pri­vate encounter, Mance unveils an enor­mous horn, alleged­ly the Horn of Win­ter, to Jon. Uncer­tain if this horn tru­ly has the pow­er to demol­ish the Wall as proph­e­sied, Jon hes­i­tates. Mance con­cedes that he can­not harm the Wall, acknowl­edg­ing its role as the sole bar­ri­er against the Oth­ers, and aims to guide the wildlings to safe­ty beyond it. Sud­den­ly, King Stan­nis’s army launch­es an assault on the wildling encamp­ment; Jon iden­ti­fies the assailants. Stan­nis emerges vic­to­ri­ous, van­quish­ing the wildling forces.

section 72

San­dor and Arya, at an inn, con­front Pol­liv­er and the Tick­ler, two under­lings of Gre­gor Cle­gane list­ed in Arya’s ros­ter of adver­saries. A con­fronta­tion unfolds, lead­ing San­dor to elim­i­nate Pol­liv­er. As he faces the Tick­ler, Arya clan­des­tine­ly ends his life along with the aid of the men. In the process, she reclaims her sword, Nee­dle. Fol­low­ing the tur­moil, a severe­ly wound­ed San­dor is inca­pac­i­tat­ed. He implores Arya to end his suf­fer­ing, but she opts to leave him to a lin­ger­ing demise. Jour­ney­ing to the coastal town of Salt­pans, she exchanges her horse for a tri­fling sum. Her aim is to secure pas­sage on a ship from Salt­pans, yet her ini­tial efforts are rebuffed. It is only when she presents the iron coin bestowed by Jaqen H’ghar in A Clash of Kings, utter­ing the phrase “Valar Mar­gulis,” that the cap­tain acknowl­edges her. Rec­og­niz­ing the coin and phrase, he per­mits her aboard his vessel.

section 73

Hav­ing sur­vived the com­bat, Gilly and Samwell are now safe with­in the Night’s Watch. Despite his weari­ness, Jon encoun­ters Samwell and reit­er­ates that he can­not wed Gilly or claim her child. Samwell endeav­ors to con­sole Jon, men­tion­ing that Janos will not ascend to the lead­er­ship of the Night’s Watch next, though Jon has already acknowl­edged the like­li­hood. The Night’s Watch mem­bers com­mence the elec­tion for their new leader, but no defin­i­tive out­come mate­ri­al­izes. Samwell’s com­pan­ions insin­u­ate that he could sway the elec­tion, but he feels too appre­hen­sive to intervene.

section 74

Melisan­dre inter­rupts Jon’s sword prac­tice to intro­duce him to King Stan­nis. Stan­nis reviews the trea­son charges against Jon and dis­miss­es them. He then unveils his aspi­ra­tion to gov­ern all of Wes­t­eros and pro­pos­es to des­ig­nate Jon as the Lord of Win­ter­fell. His plan involves orches­trat­ing a union between Jon and a wildling woman to unite their realms. Jon, tak­en aback, requests time for con­tem­pla­tion. Stan­nis grants this, albeit cau­tion­ing him about his quick temper.

section 75

Jaime vis­its Tyri­on’s incar­cer­a­tion. Ini­tial­ly assum­ing it to be a friend­ly vis­it, Tyri­on real­izes that Jaime has come to lib­er­ate him. Dur­ing their attempt­ed escape, Jaime reveals that he mis­led Tyri­on regard­ing Tysha, Tyrion’s first spouse. Act­ing on their father’s orders, Jaime mis­rep­re­sent­ed Tysha as a har­lot when in truth, she was a farmer’s daugh­ter. Due to Tyri­on’s mar­riage to Tysha, Tywin orches­trat­ed a har­row­ing ordeal for her in front of Tyri­on. Enraged by the truth, Tyri­on vows revenge against Jaime and false­ly pro­fess­es to slay Jof­frey, Jaime’s bio­log­i­cal son. With Varys, the eunuch’s guid­ance, Tyri­on nav­i­gates the cat­a­combs. How­ev­er, he paus­es at his father’s cham­ber. There, he encoun­ters Shae.

who declares her ever­last­ing affec­tion for him. In retal­i­a­tion, Tyri­on stran­gles her. After­ward, he grabs a cross­bow and encoun­ters Tywin in the restroom. When asked about Tysha, Tywin demon­strates con­ceit and unaware­ness. Infu­ri­at­ed, Tyri­on shoots Tywin with the cross­bow, lead­ing to his demise, and then flees.

episode 76

Samwell is part of a con­ver­sa­tion with King Stan­nis and Night’s Watch mem­bers. Stan­nis express­es his aver­sion towards Janos Slynt and declines to sup­port him for the posi­tion of Lord Com­man­der. He also seeks con­trol of the Gift, a region beneath the Wall, a propo­si­tion met with skep­ti­cism by the Watch­men. Melisan­dre asserts they are bat­tling dark­ness and declares Stan­nis as the reborn Azor Ahai. Stan­nis dis­miss­es every­one except Samwell and Maester Aemon, to dis­cuss Samwell’s encounter with the Oth­er and to exam­ine the Black Gate. Lat­er, Samwell and Maester Aemon delib­er­ate on the upcom­ing Lord Com­man­der elec­tions, with Samwell unsure of his stance. He then vis­its the poten­tial com­man­ders, Ser Pyke, and Ser Denys, sub­tly sug­gest­ing that Stan­nis would lend sup­port to the oth­er in case of a tie in votes. Rec­og­niz­ing their rival­ry, he inquires if they would con­sid­er back­ing Jon Snow.

episode 77

Dur­ing a prac­tice ses­sion, Jon los­es con­scious­ness and a child­hood mem­o­ry from Win­ter­fell emerges. He grap­ples with Stan­nis’s pro­pos­al. Unex­pect­ed­ly, Ghost, his wolf, appears, pro­vid­ing solace to Jon. Reflect­ing on the dire­wolves’ dis­cov­ery, Jon solid­i­fies his deci­sion regard­ing Stan­nis’s offer. At sup­per, he is sur­prised to learn he has been nom­i­nat­ed as the new Lord Com­man­der. Janos Slynt is incensed, lead­ing to a con­fronta­tion. The final count reveals Jon as the cho­sen leader of the Night’s Watch by a sig­nif­i­cant mar­gin. The men pledge their loy­al­ty and Jon assumes the role, real­iz­ing that Samwell orches­trat­ed the entire scheme.

episode 78

In Eyrie’s fortress, Mar­il­lion con­stant­ly irri­tates Sansa, while Lysa dis­re­gards her objec­tions. Alone and yearn­ing for her home, Sansa builds a snow ver­sion of Win­ter­fell. Observ­ing her, Petyr helps with the snow struc­ture and sur­pris­es Sansa with a kiss. Their inti­mate moment is inter­rupt­ed when young Robert destroys the snow cas­tle as ret­ri­bu­tion for Sansa ruin­ing his toy. Sub­se­quent­ly, Mar­il­lion brings Sansa before her aunt Lysa, who accus­es her of entic­ing Petyr. Despite Sansa’s denial of the accu­sa­tions, Lysa hys­ter­i­cal­ly tries to push her niece through the Moon Door, an entrance to a fatal drop. Petyr inter­venes, calm­ing Lysa who admits her jeal­ousy of her sis­ter, Cate­lyn, sus­pect­ed of being involved with Petyr. Petyr soothes her, advis­es her to release Sansa, and then star­tling­ly push­es Lysa to her death through the Moon Door, blam­ing Mar­il­lion for her demise.

conclusion

Mer­rett Frey ven­tures into the woods to nego­ti­ate with a band of kid­nap­pers and res­cue his rel­a­tive, Petyr Frey. Upon reach­ing there, he finds out Petyr has already been exe­cut­ed. The abduc­tors con­fis­cate his mon­ey and horse, fol­lowed by inter­ro­gat­ing him. Mer­rett asserts his inno­cence until a mute woman, iden­ti­fied by Mer­rett as Cate­lyn Stark, reveals her­self. Her ges­ture con­firms Mer­ret­t’s involve­ment in the Red Wed­ding slaugh­ter. Sub­se­quent­ly, he is hung from a tree.