Brienne, Pod and Hyle Hunt travel back to Maidenpool with the heads of the Brave Companions. Sam's dad is mildly impressed but tells Brienne to stop all that nonsense and put on a dress. But she wants to go off and find the Hound, who she thinks has Sansa. The Hound is supposedly with Lord Beric, and some new woman called Stoneheart, who is probably the resurrected Catelyn Stark. Ser Hyle must have taken a liking to Brienne, because he quits Tarly's service to go with her on her quest, which she obviously allows in the paragraph immediately after then one where she dramatically tells him he can't come.
They travel with a poor barefoot itinerant preacher, Septon Meribald, who turns out to be rather awesome. He knows his way around, he knows about giant packs of wolves roaming around led by Arya's wolf, he might be able to find Beric and company, and he poignantly narrates the plight of men broken by being taken from their villages to fight for lords. Of course his tale turns out to be autobiographical. He fought in The War of the Ninepenny Kings, which probably turns up in one of the novellas or short stories I haven't read yet.
