A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Davos IV
Three leeches fat with king's blood go into the fire: the usurper Robb Stark, the usurper Balon Greyjoy, the usurper Joffrey Baratheon.
The chapter retold
On Dragonstone, Melisandre performs a working with the theater of certainty: three leeches, gorged on the blood of Edric Storm, Robert Baratheon's bastard son, go into the fire one at a time, each one named for a king she calls usurper ÔÇö Robb Stark, Balon Greyjoy, Joffrey Baratheon. Sympathetic magic, she promises Stannis, tied to king's blood; three deaths bought without a sword drawn, if the god she serves is as real as she insists.
The scene is unnerving precisely because the book refuses to confirm or deny whether the ritual works, leaving Stannis ÔÇö and the reader ÔÇö caught between skepticism and the queasy possibility that Melisandre's fires really do reach that far. It also puts a price tag on Edric Storm's blood that the boy himself has no say in, foreshadowing the harder choice about him that Davos will spend later chapters trying to prevent.
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.