A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Arya VIII
Under storm-swollen skies the Hound drives hard for the Twins, racing her uncle's wedding with Arya on his saddle and no good plan at the end of the road.
The chapter retold
Under skies heavy with the coming storm, Sandor Clegane drives hard for the Twins with Arya Stark on his saddle, racing a wedding he has heard about only in fragments and hoping to arrive in time to trade her to her family before anyone else claims the opportunity first. He has no real plan beyond speed ÔÇö no allies at the Twins, no guarantee Catelyn Stark will even be willing to deal with the Hound of King's Landing ÔÇö just distance to cover and weather working against him the whole way.
Arya, for her part, rides with the strange vertigo of being close to a family she has not seen in what feels like a lifetime and still not trusting the man delivering her to them. The chapter is pure momentum, the book tightening its pacing as two of its major threads ÔÇö Arya's road and the northern host's return through the Twins ÔÇö race toward the same fixed point on the map without either party understanding what waits there.
This movement: The Red Wedding
- Edmure weds Roslin Frey under the Twins' roof; the bread and salt are eaten; the music is wrong.
- Crossbows from the gallery, tent canvas cut over the feast outside, Grey Wind penned and shot.
- Robb dies with Roose Bolton's steel in his heart: "Jaime Lannister sends his regards."
- Catelyn opens her own face with her nails, and a Frey opens her throat. The North dies at a wedding.