A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Tyrion IV
The Red Viper of Dorne arrives for the wedding with a paramour, a hundred spears, and sixteen years of questions about his sister Elia.
The chapter retold
The Red Viper of Dorne arrives in King's Landing for Joffrey's wedding trailing exactly the kind of entrance Tyrion expected and feared: a paramour, Ellaria Sand, on his arm; a hundred Dornish spears at his back; and sixteen years of unspoken accusation about what happened to his sister Elia Martell during the Sack of King's Landing riding along with the baggage. Oberyn makes no secret that he has come north for more than a royal marriage, and Tyrion ÔÇö tasked with managing every other awkward wedding arrangement in the city ÔÇö now has to manage a man whose grievance against House Lannister predates his own birth.
The chapter sets Dorne's long memory against the capital's short one: everyone else at court has moved on from Robert's Rebellion as ancient history, and Oberyn's arrival is a reminder that for the people who actually lost family in it, nothing has been settled, only postponed. His presence at the wedding festivities to come is now a live threat the reader can feel ticking under every scene that follows.
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.