A Feast for Crows ÔÇö Jaime V
Jaime ends the siege of Riverrun with a threat he prays he'll never keep ÔÇö Edmure's unborn child by trebuchet; the castle yields, and the Blackfish swims free.
The chapter retold
Jaime ends the siege of Riverrun not with an assault but with a threat he privately prays he will never have to make good on: he tells the defenders that unless the castle yields, Edmure Tully's unborn child ÔÇö Edmure himself a Frey hostage, forced into a marriage that produced the pregnancy ÔÇö will be flung over the walls by trebuchet. Faced with the horror of it, Riverrun yields. But in the confusion of the surrender, the Blackfish slips away entirely, escaping the castle and vanishing from the story's reach rather than being captured or killed.
The chapter is a study in the uses and costs of reputation-as-weapon: Jaime's bluff (and it is very possibly a bluff, though he never has to find out) succeeds precisely because his name carries enough weight that no one dares call it. It ends the siege bloodlessly by the letter, while leaving Jaime visibly disturbed by what he was willing to threaten to get there ÔÇö a moral compromise that sits uneasily against the more honorable version of himself he's been trying to build since losing his hand. The Blackfish's escape denies everyone a tidy ending and leaves one of the riverlands' most dangerous old soldiers loose and unaccounted for.
This movement: The Queenmaker
- Arianne Martell steals Myrcella to crown her by Dornish law; Ser Arys Oakheart dies for it and Myrcella loses an ear.
- Doran reveals the game beneath the stillness: Dorne has been wedding itself to the dragons for years.
- Cersei springs her trap on Margaery with a perjured singer ÔÇö and the Faith takes the little queen.
- In the Vale, Alayne Stone keeps Sweetrobin dosed while Littlefinger collects the Lords Declarant like debts.