A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Daenerys VI
Meereen falls from within: sewers, slave revolt, and a queen's arithmetic ÔÇö one hundred sixty-three masters nailed to posts, a child for a child.
The chapter retold
Daenerys Targaryen takes Meereen not by siege but from within ÔÇö sewer tunnels smuggling agents into the city to arm the slaves already primed by rumor and Astapor's example, a coordinated uprising that breaks the Great Masters' hold on their own capital in a single violent night. By morning the city that had mocked her advance with a champion in lacquered armor belongs to her, its ruling caste either dead, fled or captured.
Her justice, once the city falls, is exact and merciless: one hundred sixty-three Great Masters are nailed to posts along the road leading into Meereen, crucified in numbers matching the slave children the masters themselves had displayed as a warning to Dany's advancing army ÔÇö a child for a child, an arithmetic of atrocity answered with equal atrocity, and Daenerys makes no apology for the equivalence.
The chapter is the book's most direct confrontation with the cost of Dany's liberation campaign: freeing slaves has been, until now, mostly a triumphant story; ruling the city she has freed them into requires decisions that curdle triumph into something closer to horror, even when the victims arguably deserve it. It is the first clear sign that conquering is easier than governing, a lesson the book will spend the rest of Daenerys's arc making her learn the hard way.
This movement: The Purple Wedding and the Trial
- Joffrey chokes at his own wedding feast, purple as his namesake; Sansa vanishes with a fool and a hairnet lighter by one stone.
- Tyrion stands trial for kingslaying; Shae's testimony cuts deepest; he demands trial by combat.
- Oberyn Martell fights the Mountain for a confession ÔÇö and wins everything but the ending.
- Petyr Baelish sails Sansa to the Vale as his "daughter Alayne"; Lysa marries him inside a week.