A Clash of Kings — Daenerys III
The Thirteen refuse ships, the Pureborn refuse audience; Xaro offers marriage for a dragon, and Daenerys decides to ask the Undying instead.
The chapter retold
In Qarth, Daenerys’s patience with the city’s endless hospitality runs out. The Thirteen refuse her ships, the Pureborn refuse her an audience worth having, and Xaro Xhoan Daxos finally names his price plainly — marriage, in exchange for the wealth and support she needs. Daenerys, unwilling to trade herself for anything twice in one lifetime, declines and turns instead toward the House of the Undying and the warlocks who have been circling her since she arrived.
It’s a chapter about Daenerys running out of easy options and choosing the strange, dangerous one over the merely humiliating one — Qarth’s polite refusals have taught her that charm and dragons aren’t, by themselves, currency enough in this city. Asking the Undying for answers is a gamble with no good precedent, and she takes it anyway, which tells you as much about her by this point in the book as any battle would.
This movement: The Kraken in the Godswood
- Theon takes Winterfell with thirty men while its strength bleeds south; Ser Rodrik's rescue is betrayed by Reek.
- Bran and Rickon vanish; two miller's boys hang tarred above the gate in their place.
- A bread riot nearly eats the court; the High Septon is torn apart in the streets.
- In Qarth, the warlocks invite Dany to the House of the Undying; she walks out through fire with Drogon screaming.