A Clash of Kings — Bran IV

Word comes that Torrhen's Square is besieged; Ser Rodrik strips Winterfell's garrison to answer it — precisely as the ironmen intended.

The chapter retold

Word reaches Winterfell that Torrhen’s Square is under siege, and Ser Rodrik Cassel — Winterfell’s master-at-arms, holding the castle in all but name while Robb wars in the south — does the only thing honor allows: he strips the garrison down to answer the call, marching out with most of the men who might otherwise have defended Bran and Rickon.

It is, the chapter makes clear without saying so outright, precisely the trap the ironborn intended. Winterfell’s strength is being drawn away one honorable decision at a time, each individually correct and the sum of them catastrophic. Bran, left presiding over an emptying castle, has no way to see the shape of the trap closing — only that fewer and fewer familiar faces remain behind the walls with him.

This movement: Kings in Every Corner

• Stannis besieges Storm's End; the brothers parley with a peach between them and part as dead men.
• Catelyn watches a shadow with Stannis's face open Renly's throat inside his own pavilion.
• Tyrion trades princess Myrcella's hand to Dorne and ships Cersei's spies to the black cells.
• At Winterfell, Bran dreams with wolf's teeth; the Reeds of Greywater come to teach him what it means.