A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Arya IX
Rain, mud and a swollen river: the Twins rise out of the storm, wedding torches burning, and something in the music makes even the Hound's skin crawl.
The chapter retold
The Twins rise out of a driving storm at last, wedding torches burning along its walls and towers, and Arya Stark finally has her destination in sight after a book's worth of detours ÔÇö close enough, riding with the Hound, to see the castle where her mother and brother are supposedly celebrating a peace bought with Edmure Tully's marriage to a Frey bride.
Something about the scene unsettles even Sandor Clegane, a man not given to nerves: music drifting from the hall carries a wrongness neither he nor Arya can name yet, an atmosphere the chapter builds through suggestion rather than statement. The unease is the book's last warning shot before the storm breaking over the Twins turns out to be the least dangerous thing happening inside its walls that night.
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.