A Dance with Dragons ÔÇö Reek II
Reek rides to Moat Cailin under a peace banner to talk the ironmen out of an unwinnable ruin; Ramsay flays the garrison anyway, and Lord Bolton comes home to the North.
The chapter retold
Ramsay sends Reek to Moat Cailin under a peace banner to talk the last starving ironborn holdouts into surrender ÔÇö a task Theon, or whatÔÇÖs left of him, can still perform because he remembers exactly how desperate men reason. He succeeds, more or less: the garrison lays down arms on the promise of safe passage. Ramsay flays them anyway, banner and word be damned, and rides north to formally hand the North back to his father, Lord Roose Bolton, who returns to Winterfell to claim, in cold legal language, what his son took in blood.
The chapter shows exactly what RamsayÔÇÖs tools are for and exactly what they cost: ReekÔÇÖs remaining usefulness lies in the fact that broken men are excellent liars because theyÔÇÖve stopped believing promises mean anything themselves, and Ramsay exploits that with total indifference to the garrisonÔÇÖs trust. Roose BoltonÔÇÖs arrival reframes the horror in political terms ÔÇö House Bolton no longer needs to hide its methods, because it has already won the North on paper, and paper, this book keeps insisting, is worth exactly as much as the sword standing behind it.
This movement: Kings at the Wall
- Stannis takes the mountain clans and Deepwood Motte, gathering the North that hates the Boltons.
- Davos is sent to White Harbor to win fat Lord Manderly ÔÇö and is reported executed, head and hands tarred.
- In the crypts of Winterfell, the Boltons stage a wedding: 'Arya Stark' ÔÇö Jeyne Poole in a stolen name ÔÇö given to Ramsay.
- Melisandre reads her fires at the Wall: snow, a wooden face, a girl on a dying horse. Jon listens with half an ear.