A Clash of Kings ÔÇö Tyrion IX
Myrcella sails for Dorne and the city's rage boils over: the mob tears the High Septon apart, nearly takes Sansa, and the Hound earns his pay.
The chapter retold
Myrcella sails for Dorne to seal the betrothal Tyrion arranged chapters ago, and the city she leaves behind erupts the moment sheÔÇÖs gone. Starving, furious, and out of patience with a court that feasts while Flea Bottom goes hungry, a mob turns on the High Septon during a procession and tears him apart with bare hands ÔÇö the closest thing KingÔÇÖs Landing has to a spiritual authority, destroyed by the very people his prayers failed to feed.
The riot nearly claims Sansa too, caught in the open when the crowd turns feral, and itÔÇÖs the Hound ÔÇö grim, efficient, uninterested in praise ÔÇö who cuts a path through the mob and earns his pay in blood rather than ceremony. The chapter is the clearest picture yet of how close KingÔÇÖs Landing sits to total collapse: not armies at the gates but its own starving population, one procession away from tearing the city apart from the inside.
This movement: The March on the City
- Stannis's fleet and host converge on King's Landing; Tyrion counts chain links and wildfire pots.
- Robb wins the Crag in the west while his cause rots behind him; Catelyn frees the Kingslayer for two girls' lives.
- Arya spends her third death to buy Harrenhal's gate ÔÇö the man offers more, and Jaqen gives her a coin and a phrase.
- Jon, taken in the Frostfangs, kills the Halfhand at his order and kneels to Mance Rayder with clean hands and a black heart.
The fallen ÔÇö spoilers
- The High Septon ÔÇö Torn apart by the starving mob his prayers had failed to feed.