A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Bran I

Northward through the wolfswood, Bran learns to wear Summer's skin without losing his own; Jojen warns him the wolf must never be the boy's whole world.

The chapter retold

North through the wolfswood with Hodor, Osha, his brother Rickon and the Reed siblings for company, Bran Stark practices the hardest skill his broken body has ever asked of him: slipping fully into Summer's mind without losing track of the boy waiting behind his own eyes. The direwolf's senses are a relief after months of paralysis ÔÇö running, smelling, being whole ÔÇö and that relief is exactly what worries Jojen Reed, whose green dreams have shown him what happens to wargs who forget to come back. He warns Bran in the plainest terms he has: the wolf cannot become the boy's entire world, no matter how much kinder it feels than the one he was born into.

The warning matters more than travelogue this early in the book, because it names the danger Bran will keep testing for the rest of the series ÔÇö the seduction of a stronger, freer body over a weaker true one. The party's actual destination is still only a rumor even to themselves: somewhere north, past the Wall, a three-eyed crow that might explain what Bran is becoming.

This movement: Wolves at the Crossing

• Brienne rows the Kingslayer downriver under a flag of lies; the banter starts sharpening into respect.
• Robb returns to Riverrun with a Westerling bride and a broken treaty; the Freys go home cold.
• Beyond the Wall, the survivors of the Fist stagger to Craster's; Sam earns the name Slayer with a dragonglass dagger.
• Dany sails for Astapor, where an army that feels nothing is sold by men who feel less.