A Clash of Kings — Davos II

Davos rows Melisandre beneath Storm's End; in the dark under the castle she births a shadow, and Ser Cortnay Penrose falls from a tower onto nothing.

The chapter retold

Davos rows Melisandre beneath Storm’s End under cover of darkness, uneasy about the errand and unable to refuse his king’s red priestess anything. In a hidden cave carved into the rock beneath the castle, she gives birth — the only word for it — to a shadow with Stannis’s face, a thing conceived of fire and royal blood and set loose to do what an army outside the walls could not.

Ser Cortnay Penrose, castellan of Storm’s End, has held the castle against every threat and refused Stannis’s demand to yield a boy hostage even under siege; he is found broken at the base of a tower by morning, fallen from a height no man pushed him from. It’s one of the book’s most quietly horrifying scenes — Davos, decent and superstitious in equal measure, becomes an unwilling accessory to murder by magic, and the chapter makes plain that Melisandre’s power is not confined to omens and prophecy. It kills, directly, when asked.

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 — 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 — spoilers

• Ser Cortnay Penrose — Castellan of Storm's End, who refused to yield a boy — found broken beneath the walls he kept.