A Clash of Kings ÔÇö Jon I
The great ranging: two hundred brothers ride north from Castle Black into a wood emptied of wildlings, Sam struggling behind with his ravens.
The chapter retold
Jon rides north with the largest ranging the NightÔÇÖs Watch has mounted in living memory ÔÇö two hundred brothers under the Old Bear, headed into a haunted forest that has gone eerily, wrongly quiet. Villages that should hold wildling clans stand empty; game is scarce; the woods feel watched rather than wild. Sam Tarly, more scholar than soldier, struggles along behind with his ravens and his books, a walking argument for why the Watch needs more than swords.
The chapter sets the seasonÔÇÖs northern engine running: something has emptied the haunted forest of the people who normally live there, and nobody riding with Mormont yet has a name for what did it. JonÔÇÖs position ÔÇö bastard, direwolf-owner, favorite of a Lord Commander who trusts him more than tradition allows ÔÇö keeps drawing attention he doesnÔÇÖt want, and the emptiness ahead of the column is the first hard evidence that the booksÔÇÖ old ghost stories have started walking.
This movement: The Comet
- A red comet splits the sky; five would-be kings each read their crown in it.
- On Dragonstone, Maester Cressen tries to poison the red priestess and drinks first; Stannis proclaims Joffrey a bastard born of incest.
- Tyrion takes the Hand's chair with Bronn at his back and starts removing his sister's men.
- Beyond the Wall, the Old Bear leads three hundred swords north into silence.