A Dance With Dragons

Tyrion Lannister, having killed his father, ends up in the Free City of Pentos in the house of Illyrio Mopatis, a plotting man who hopes to bring one or more of the Targaryens back to power in Westeros. Tyrion uses an assumed name, “Yollo.” He is unsure if the Illyrio means to help him or kill him. The magister suggests that rather than countering Cersei or overthrowing Stannis Baratheon for revenge, Tyrion should ally himself with Daenerys Targaryen, daughter of “Mad” Aerys II Targaryen, the last Targaryen king in Westeros. Rumors are that Daenerys has three dragons, and Illyrio has a plan that will marry Daenerys to another claimant to the throne. Tyrion is not well. He drinks alcohol to excess and obsesses about his last conversation with his father. When Tyrion asked Tywin what he did with the commoner young woman Tyrion married as a young man, his father responded, “Wherever whores go” (18). Tyrion killed his father for those words and many other cruelties over the years. Now that Tyrion has avenged himself, he doesn’t know what to do with himself.

Daenerys is the ruler of Meereen on Slaver’s Bay in Essos. She dresses in a tokar, the elaborate dress favored by the nobility in Meereen, because it is expected of her, but she isn’t happy about it. She contends with the Sons of the Harpy, a rebellious order opposed to her rule; frequent requests from handsome noble Hizdahr zo Loraq to re-open Meereen’s famed and lucrative slave fighting pits; and requests for reimbursements for sheep her wild dragon Drogon has killed.

Jon Snow, the son born of wedlock to Eddard (Ned) Stark and an unknown woman, has strategized his way to being lord commander of the Night’s Watch, the force tasked with protecting the Wall, the structure that separates Westeros from threats north of the Wall. His challenge now is Stannis Baratheon, one of the claimants to the throne since the death of King Robert Baratheon, father of Tommen Baratheon, the boy king currently sitting on the throne with the help of the Lannister side of his family. Stannis wants to take some of the castles of the Night’s Watch, but Jon refuses his request because it would violate the neutrality the Night’s Watch is sworn to uphold. Stannis’s ally Lady Melisandre, a priestess of the fire god R’hllor, tells Jon she has a premonition of a threat to him. She tells him to keep his direwolf Ghost with him at all times.

North of the Wall, Bran (Brandon), Meara, Jojen, and Hodor continue on their way to find the last greenseer, the closest thing to a prophet the old gods have. While warging in his direwolf Summer, Bran discovers that Coldhands, their mysterious guide, has killed brothers of the Night’s Watch, claiming they are enemies. They realize he is undead but have no choice but to follow him.

Tyrion travels with Illyrio toward Meereen to engage in some business to do with Daenerys. He learns that beyond the Dothraki, Daenerys has the support of the Golden Company, a legendary army of mercenaries with many exiled Westerosi in its ranks. He begins to wonder why she has support from so many different allies. Illyrio is probably in it for the money, and the mercenaries want to end their exile and return to Westeros. Tyrion is in it for revenge. He hopes she will bring down the Lannisters, especially his sister Cersei, who has put a bounty on his head for killing their father.

Prince of Dorne Quentyn Martell is making his way to Daenerys as well. He and his Dornish companions are stuck in a port in Volantis. Pirates waylaid their ship as they crossed the Narrow Sea from Westeros. Quentyn is both nervous and eager to meet Daenerys. His mission is to convince Daenerys to marry him and gain an ally for Dorne, which has always been one of the more rebellious states of Westeros. He and his men seem doomed to fail since rumors of war make it hard to secure any ships.

Jon creates a “paper shield” (113)—a letter to King’s Landing proclaiming that the Night’s Watch is neutral in the war of kings. In truth, he intends to ally with Stannis because he needs help to defend the Wall from the Others and to protect wildlings from the harsh winter. He sends his maester Aemon (a Targaryen by birth) and the son of King-Beyond-the-Wall Mance Rayder away as well. If they stay, he suspects Melisandre will burn them because king’s blood makes her magic more potent. Jon is shrewd: He switches Mance’s baby with the baby of Gilly, a wildling girl, then dispatches Gilly, Mance’s son, Aemon, and Sam Tarly to Oldtown, where Sam will become a maester and learn all he can about the Others. Jon decides to incorporate Night’s Watchmen and wildlings into garrisons to hold two more castles along the Wall against the Others. Janos Slynt, long a rival of Jon and prone to taunting Jon for his circumstances of birth, refuses to obey Jon’s order to go to one of these castles. Jon executes him personally using Longclaw, his own steel blade, just as Eddard Stark did when he had to execute a man. Jon finds the decision hard, but he knows he must do as Aemon advised and “[k]ill the boy and let the man be born” (117) if he wants to lead. Stannis approves of this action.

Tyrion and Illyrio rendezvous with Griff, Young Griff, and two other men. “Griff” is the exiled Jon Connington, Lord of Griffin’s Roost in Storm’s End, Westeros, and disgraced member of the Golden Company. Tyrion soon realizes that Young Griff is supposedly Aegon Targaryen, the only son of Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell, both of whom died during Robert’s Rebellion, the revolt that ended the Targaryen dynasty. Tyrion is skeptical about the boy’s identity, especially since he knows that Varys, the old spymaster in Westeros, is involved with the boy. Tyrion assumes an identity as Hugor Hill, but Griff guesses who he is. Tyrion convinces the Griffs and their crew to carry him with them because what he knows is valuable. Still, Tyrion knows he is in danger considering he is a kinslayer and one of the Lannisters, people who helped bring down the Targaryens.

in Winterfell, Davos Seaworth arrives in Sisterton, some distance from White Harbor in Winterfell. He comes on shore by boat after the ship carrying him wrecks and the captain is unwilling to wait around for him—hardly an impressive start to his diplomatic mission. The lord knows Davos is an old smuggler and pirate who stole from Sisterton itself. Davos feels out of his depth when the lord reminds of him of his past, and Davos wishes once again that he still had his “luck” (232), the bag of knucklebones from the fingers Stannis removed as punishment for his piracy. The lord of Sisterton is inclined to have Davos executed and has little respect for Davos because he knows he comes from common people (he calls him “the onion knight” [145]). The lord at Sisterton frees Davos after Davos argues that siding with the Lannisters is no sure thing; Tommen is just a child, and Stannis has already won battles. Davos learns that Tywin Lannister, the power behind the throne, is dead because Tyrion killed him. He sees an opening for Stannis to take King’s Landing now that Tywin is gone. Davos heads for White Harbor.

As a show of R’hllor’s and Stannis’s power, Melisandre burns a man who appears to be Mance Rayder (but is not) and the Horn of Joramun, which is rumored to be capable of bringing down the Wall with its sound. Stannis shows his sword Lightbringer, which flashes with an uncanny red light. He commands any wildling who wants to pass through the Wall to Westeros to bend the knee and accept R’hllor as their god. Most accept kneeling over death on the other side of the Wall with the Others and winter. Few in the Night’s Watch are pleased with Jon’s choice to let the wildlings pass through the Wall, and Stannis is also displeased that Jon will not simply hand over the castles that belong to the Night’s Watch. Jon accepts that no matter what he does, powerful people and his brothers will see him as being in the wrong.