A Game of Thrones ÔÇö Bran V

Bran rides Dancer into the wolfswood at last ÔÇö into wildlings and deserters with knives; Robb and Theon save him, and Osha is taken captive.

The chapter retold

Bran, restless in his new life as a boy who can no longer walk but can, thanks to Tyrion's saddle, still ride, takes his horse Dancer out into the wolfswood ÔÇö farther than he should have gone alone. He runs into wildlings and Night's Watch deserters armed with knives, men with nothing left to lose and no reason to spare a crippled lord's son, and for a dangerous stretch it looks as though the saddle's gift of mobility has simply delivered Bran to a worse fate than falling ever did. Robb and Theon arrive in time to save him, cutting down the deserter Stiv with an arrow through the back, and in the aftermath the party takes a wildling woman, Osha, captive rather than killing her outright.

The chapter proves the double edge of Bran's new independence ÔÇö the very freedom the saddle bought him is what puts him in danger in the first place, since a boy on horseback can now wander further than anyone watching him expects. Osha's capture also quietly opens a new thread: a wildling brought inside Winterfell's walls, with firsthand knowledge of what's actually happening beyond the Wall, planted in the household at the exact moment the Starks most need someone who's seen the things Old Nan only tells stories about.

This movement: The Eyrie and the Heart

• In the Eyrie's sky cells Tyrion confesses to everything but the crime ÔÇö and buys a trial by combat. Bronn fights; Ser Vardis falls.
• Robert orders Daenerys killed; Ned throws down the Hand's badge; Jaime's men kill Jory in the street.
• In Vaes Dothrak, Dany eats the stallion's heart; Viserys draws steel in the sacred city and is crowned in gold.
• Robert, dying breaths away from a boar, restores the badge and rides to hunt.

The fallen ÔÇö spoilers

• Stiv ÔÇö A Night's Watch deserter, Theon's arrow through his back at Bran's throat.