A Clash of Kings — Catelyn I

At Riverrun the war council divides; Robb sends his mother — over her protests — as envoy to the newly crowned Renly.

The chapter retold

At Riverrun, the war council Robb assembled to fight one enemy discovers it now has to negotiate with several. Renly has crowned himself in the Reach with the largest host in Westeros at his back, and Catelyn — over her own strong objections — is the one Robb sends south to treat with him, mother standing in for son because a king cannot easily leave his own war to go flatter another man’s claim.

The chapter is where the War of Five Kings stops being metaphorical: Robb’s council must now think not just about Lannisters but about which of the rival kings might be worth an alliance, and Catelyn’s discomfort at being used as an envoy rather than consulted as a mother says something true about how thoroughly the war has swallowed her family’s normal shape. She goes because someone must, and because refusing has become a luxury the Starks can no longer afford.

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.