A Dance with Dragons ÔÇö Areo I

Ser Balon Swann brings the Mountain's skull to Sunspear; Doran smiles at the gift, deflects a summons ÔÇö and sends his Sand Snakes to King's Landing, each with a task.

The chapter retold

Ser Balon Swann of the Kingsguard arrives at Sunspear bearing, as ransom for his own failures elsewhere, the skull of Ser Gregor Clegane ÔÇö grim proof that the Mountain who murdered Oberyn Martell is finally, definitively dead. Prince Doran receives the grisly gift with courtly warmth, deflects the crownÔÇÖs none-too-subtle demand that Myrcella Baratheon be sent home to KingÔÇÖs Landing, and reveals, once Swann is safely gone, the piece nobody in the capital saw coming: he has already dispatched his brotherÔÇÖs vengeful daughters, the Sand Snakes, to the capital, each with her own private task.

The chapter, filtered through DoranÔÇÖs stone-faced captain of guards Areo Hotah, finally lets the reader see what years of DoranÔÇÖs apparent passivity have actually been covering ÔÇö a plan patient enough to wait out a war, precise enough to weaponize his own niecesÔÇÖ grief without ever raising his own voice. DoranÔÇÖs smile over the MountainÔÇÖs skull is the tell: DorneÔÇÖs revenge for Oberyn was never abandoned, only delayed until the pieces were exactly where he wanted them.

This movement: The Winterfell Knot

• Winterfell fills with Bolton banners and murdered guests; someone is killing Freys in the dark and the walls whisper 'Theon'.
• Abel the bard and his washerwomen ÔÇö spearwives ÔÇö recruit a broken creature to steal 'Arya' out of the castle.
• Theon remembers his name jumping from the battlements with a weeping girl in his arms, into the snow.
• Jon lets the free folk through the Wall by the thousand and lends Val, loans wildlings, and writes letters lords burn.