A Clash of Kings — Daenerys I
The khalasar staggers across the red waste, dying by inches; Doreah dies of the wasting, and three riders return from the east with word of Qarth.
The chapter retold
Deep in the red waste, Daenerys’s khalasar is dying by inches — no fresh horses, no game, a bloodriders’ honor guard reduced to a starving remnant of the army she led out of Vaes Dothrak. Doreah, the Lysene handmaid who taught her the arts of the bedchamber back when Daenerys was a girl sold into marriage, succumbs to the wasting sickness, and Daenerys holds her as she goes — one more piece of the old life burned away.
Relief arrives in the form of three riders returning from the east with word of a city called Qarth, greatest that ever was or ever will be, wealthy enough to outfit an army and curious enough about dragons to receive her. Doreah’s death marks the true bottom of Daenerys’s desert crossing — from here the road only leads toward power, but the chapter is careful to make clear what that power has already cost in bodies left behind in sand.
This movement: Wolves and Krakens
- Theon comes home to Pyke and finds his father plotting war on the North — and his sister Asha commanding the ships he wanted.
- Renly weds Margaery Tyrell and parades a hundred thousand swords through the Reach at tourney pace.
- Dany leads her khalasar out of the red waste to the gates of Qarth, three dragons her only argument.
- Yoren's column is broken at a lakeside holdfast; Arya frees Jaqen H'ghar from a burning barn.
The fallen — spoilers
- Doreah — The Lysene handmaid, dead of the red waste; Daenerys held her as she went.