Book 4 starts as most of these books have, by introducing us to an interesting character and then killing him. Poor Pate just wanted to be a Maester, but he was rubbish at that and fell in love with Rosey. He got involved with an "alchemist", and gave him a stolen key in return for a golden dragon. But he bit the dragon to check it was real gold, and found it was coated with poison. Oh dear.
It's not clear who the assassin is, but he's got Baratheon hair.
We also learn that rumours are spreading fast about Dany and her approaching dragons. Also there's an interesting Maester called "The Mage" who seems to have more of a handle on the spooky and weird non-scientific stuff that's been going on. In our universe he'd be a crackpot, but in this world the weird stuff really is happening. So I expect we'll hear more about him before long.
