A Clash of Kings — Tyrion III

Tyrion feeds three councillors three different marriage plots — Myrcella to Dorne among them — and waits to see which secret walks to Cersei.

The chapter retold

Tyrion works three marriage plots at once, feeding a different secret to three different small council members to see which one turns up in Cersei’s mouth — a piece of tradecraft borrowed straight from Varys’s playbook. Among the seeded lies is a real plan taking shape underneath the test: Myrcella betrothed to Dorne, a match that could bring Prince Doran Martell’s spears and grievances onto the crown’s side of the war.

The chapter is Tyrion at his most enjoyably devious, running a leak test on his own council the way a locksmith tests a lock, and it pays off precisely as intended — someone in that room is talking to Cersei, and the false trail narrows the suspects fast. It’s also the first real move in a Dornish alliance that will matter far beyond the marriage itself, trading a beloved little princess for an army the crown badly needs.

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.