A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Jaime IV
Maimed and fevered, Jaime is dragged to Harrenhal behind the Goat; Qyburn saves the arm, and spite does the rest ÔÇö he will live, if only to be avenged.
The chapter retold
Maimed, fevered and half out of his mind, Jaime Lannister is dragged in Vargo Hoat's train to Harrenhal, the stump of his sword hand rotting faster than his captors care to notice. Qyburn ÔÇö a maester stripped of his chain for experiments the Citadel would not sanction ÔÇö takes an interest in keeping him alive that has nothing to do with mercy and everything to do with curiosity, and between competent care and sheer spite, Jaime survives the infection that should have killed him.
What pulls him back from the edge is not hope so much as its opposite: a determination to live precisely so he can be avenged on everyone who let this happen to him, starting with Vargo Hoat. The chapter marks the low point of Jaime's physical ordeal and, in the same breath, the beginning of his slow reconstruction ÔÇö a man forced to discover what he is worth without the sword hand that used to answer every question about his identity for him.
This movement: The Bear, the Wall, the Bath
- In Harrenhal's bathhouse Jaime tells Brienne the truth of the Mad King and faints in her arms; later he turns back for her and jumps into a bear pit.
- Jon climbs the Wall with the free folk and breaks from them at Queenscrown, arrows in his leg.
- Dany takes Yunkai by night; the Second Sons change sides for a captain named Daario.
- Sam kills his second impossible thing rumor-wise; the Watch's remnants choose a fat man's courage at Craster's.