A Game of Thrones — Daenerys VIII
Drogo falls from his horse; Daenerys bids Mirri Maz Duur work bloodmagic in the tent, Qotho defies her — and her labor begins too soon.
The chapter retold
Drogo, weakened past the point where even his own strength can compensate, falls from his horse during the ride — an event so far outside a khal's expected invincibility that it visibly shakes the whole khalasar's confidence in him. Desperate, Daenerys turns to Mirri Maz Duur and asks her to work blood magic to save him, a request the godswife accepts with an eagerness that should probably worry Daenerys more than it does. Qotho, one of Drogo's own bloodriders, tries to stop the ritual by force, certain no good can come of Dothraki business being handled by a captured Lhazareen witch — and dies for his defiance at Jorah Mormont's blade, cut down guarding the tent's entrance he was trying to bar. In the chaos and the screaming coming from inside the tent where Mirri works her magic, Daenerys's own labor begins, weeks before it should.
The chapter is the book piling consequence on consequence with unusual speed — Drogo's fall makes the desperate bargain necessary, the bargain triggers Qotho's fatal resistance, and the ritual's disturbance, whatever exactly it does inside that tent, seems to trigger Daenerys's premature labor in the same breath. Every choice made here is made out of love and desperation rather than malice, which is exactly what makes the chapter so unsettling — nothing about Daenerys's reasoning is wrong, and yet everything about the situation is visibly, badly going wrong around her regardless.
This movement: The Green Fork and the Whispering Wood
- Tywin's van tramples Tyrion's hill tribes on the Green Fork — a battle Robb never meant to win.
- The real blow lands in the Whispering Wood: Jaime Lannister taken, his host shattered under Riverrun's walls.
- Ned trades a false confession for his daughters' safety; Joffrey trades Ned's head for eternity's contempt.
- Khal Drogo takes a wound in Lhazar; Mirri Maz Duur's blood magic costs Dany her son and her sun-and-stars.
The fallen — spoilers
- Qotho — Drogo's bloodrider, cut down by Ser Jorah at the tent's mouth.