AFfC 38: Jaime 635

Jaime is brutally awesome in this chapter. First he goes to see Brynden Blackfish Tully, who is unmoved by the threat to Edmure on the gallows and will not take Jaime's word for anything on account of the whole Kingslayer oath-breaking reputation. He knows his situation is desperate but is prepared to die rather than yield.

Jaime then calls a council of his men to decide the best way to attack the castle. There's an interesting idea about feigning an attack in order to put an arrow in Brynden but this is seen as dishonorable and an argument breaks out between Freys and another lord whose son is held hostage by Freys, and the whole thing is a bit of a shambles.

So Jaime outmaneuvers everyone. He takes Ilyn Payne to see Edmure on the gallows and we think he is going to chop off his head. But the drunken Ryman Frey comes to object. Jaime dismisses Ryman and releases Edmure. And he makes a clever bargain: I'll let you back into Riverrun where you outrank Brynden. Then you can yield the castle since he won't. This works because Edmure has so much to lose. He has a wife and a child on the way. He could live at Casterley Rock as a hostage in comfort and his child could become a squire and his immediate family will be well cared for. Or he could try to keep the castle but Jaime will ultimately win it at great cost and destroy everything Edmure lost. He has to make terrible threats because that way Edmure will have no choice but to acquiesce.

In any logical universe this ploy should work. But GRRM has a way of making surprises, so we will see.

By the way, at one point an un-named someone calls after Jaime as he makes his way through the Frey camp and he ignores it. I wonder if we will see events from that person's perspective in the next book.

AFfC 37: Brienne 617

There are outlaw corpses hanging everywhere. These are the bad outlaws who raided Saltpans and I am assuming they have been hung there by good outlaws led by Beric. "These are just the sort of fellows who are most improved by death," observes Ser Hyle.

Brienne and party arrive at the Inn at the crossroads, which is now a sort of orphanage. Septon Meribald provides food from his donkey for all the orphans. Brienne is planning to depart in some new direction with Pod before the others awake.

Brienne notices Gendry, now a follower of the Lord of Light and presumably Beric, who looks a lot like Renly and even more like Robert. She is about to tell him this when some of the bad outlaws turn up, including Biter and someone else Brienne recognises. She kills the leader but is set upon by Biter who overwhelms her and does her serious injury. During this fight I am wondering where Gendry has got to, with all his talk of being a knight. I forgot about Ser Hyle, who also turns up too late. It was an exciting fight, not least because you never know if the good guys will win.

But sadly Brienne is now added to the list of ambiguously probably about to die characters. And what is the deal with Biter's tongue?

Also what is it with inns? They seem pretty dangerous. Seemingly every time we visit an inn (usually the one at the crossroads or else the one where Lem took Arya) we learn that the previous innkeeper has been massacred, or else a fight of some sort breaks out. Who would be an innkeeper in Westeros? It seems even more dangerous than being a knight.

AFfC 36: Cersei 597

Aurane Waters comes to tell Cersei that Dragonstone is taken. They were about to take it anyway by digging a tunnel under the walls, when Loras came along waving his sword about and got thousands of men killed. Then he got boiling oil poured over himself and is now at death's door. Yet another character is ambiguously dying off-screen; I suppose they can't all live. Cersei takes great pleasure in telling Maergery all this.

She cares rather too much about getting one over on Maergery, and rather not enough about the Septon turning up with 6 armed men complaining about the brothels. Cersei wants to keep the brothels open for the tax revenue and trade benefits. Before long the Faith is going to be using this sort of thing as an excuse to depose her. And they'll have the power to do it, too.

Meanwhile there are more dwarves heads to look at and no real news about Tyrion, though the rumour that he is hiding out in the Riverlands on a haunted hill sounds vaguely plausible. Jalabhar Xho wants men to retake Red Flower Vale, wherever that is. The Guild of Alchemists wants to try to hatch dragons' eggs from Dragonstone. Cersei has the idea of setting up her own bank. Tommen is getting bolshy about being king so Cersei has him whip the whipping boy. Lady Tanda had died leaving Bronn the heir of her castle. Qyburn is still torturing Falyse.

Cersei dreams about the prophecy she got from the witch, who Pycelle says was a Meagi. Dany has had trouble with them, so we know it is serious. She correctly predicted that the Cersei's children would not be Robert's children, and also that Cersei would be replaced by a younger queen and killed. Will it be Maergery as Cersei thinks or will it be Dany? In any case, Cersei is cooking up some new scheme to get rid of Maergery involving Boros Blount and Osney Kettleblack.

AFfC 35: Samwell 586

Sam and Gilly are on board the Cinnamon Wind. Maester Aemon is dead. Before he died he rambled a lot but also figured out that Dany must be the prophesied chosen one who will save the world, not Stannis. He was able to figure that out because Sam brought Xhondo to him, and Xhondo had seen Dany and her dragons. And also because he had detected that there was something not quite right about Stannis' glowing-but-cold sword. Aemon thought Melisandre was mistaken, but I think she's evil and deceptive. Aemon wanted Sam to warn the Archmeisters when he gets to Oldtown.

Aemon says the sphinx was the riddle, not the riddler. Probably that is hugely important but indecipherable, as these things often go.

Sam lets Gilly show him a good time, then gets ridiculously guilty about it. Good grief, Sam, vows of chastity are not meant to be taken seriously, sort yourself out! The captain's daughter, Kojja Mo sorts him out instead. "All of you Westerosi make a shame of loving. There is no shame in loving. If your septons say there is, your seven gods must be demons." Then Gilly tells him that what happens at sea stays at sea. Good times, Sam my boy!

AFfC 34: Cat of the Canals 569

Arya seems pretty happy selling seafood for Brusco and even has something of a family life in his house. Once a month she visits the temple to give intelligence to the Kindly Man. She meets a sailor whose captain was killed by Salladhor Saan, last seen helping Stannis and Davos, as I remember. She seems to know all the whores in Braavos because they are good customers. The best brothel is Happy Port, where she goes to sell oysters and bumps in to Dareon, with whom she is not impressed for abandoning his vows to the Night's Watch. He is singing about a princess who jumped from a tower because her prince died. I think that sounds like her dad's mistress, Jon Snow's mother. Or possibly I am confused. I remember Arya being told about this by one of Beric's men. GRRM mentions his boots. Dareon mentions Lord Snow being in charge of the watch. Arya doesn't seem to react, but the next thing we know she is delivering boots to Brusco along with the day's profits. It is clear she has killed Dareon. Brutal!

She vistits the temple and chats with The Waif, a mysterious girl who teaches her about poisons. This girl was born the heir of an ancient house but had an evil stepmother who wanted her dead. It is probably possible to identify her from this information but I have not managed it.

Arya tells the kindly man about killing Dareon. He thinks these are the actions of Arya Stark, not the "no one" she is supposed to be now, so he poisons her milk, naturally. I'm assuming the blindness will be temporary.

AFfC 33: Jaime 550

Jaime arrives at Riverrun. He meets up with his cousin Daven, who seems like a thoroughly reasonable and capable chap. In particular he's a bit surprised at being the Warden of the West and admits to not being entirely qualified. The seige of Riverrun is ongoing. Inside are Catelun's uncle Brynden Blackfish and Robb's widow Jeyne Westerling. Outside is Edmure, who has been removed by the Freys and is made to stand on a gallows all day to try and get Brynden to come out. But Brynden doesn't give in to the demands of hostage takers! Jaime remembers visiting Riverrun as a boy and admiring Brynden for fighting the Ninepenny Kings, which I think is the war Septon Meribald fought in. It goes to show how times change, but everything is really the same.

Men keep being found hung in the woods and there is debate about whether it is Lord Beric Dondarrion or else Northmen who are still loyal to Starks and Tullys.

Raff the Sweetling is here, playing about with some half-naked girls in the river. I wonder if he will come to a sticky end, somehow: a lot of Arya's prayers come true.

Jaime seems to be getting better at fighting left-handed, but he's not that good yet.

Jaime's aunt Genna turns up. She's married to the useless Ser Emmon Frey, who is technically the lord of Riverrun now. But Genna is formidable and awesome in a similar way to Grandmother Tyrell whose name escapes me: cantankerous and outspoken. She is concerned that Riverrun will be problematic to hold as long as the Tully house lives on, since there will always be a chance Tullys will go to war to win it back. A lot depends on the births of sons. This is probably why Kevan chose Darry for Lancel, because the Darry line has died out.

Genna is properly concerned about Cersei letting the Grand Septon take up arms. She remembers the history: Warrior's Sons and Poor Fellows rose up against Maegor, who put bounties on them. Maegor died and the next king, Jaehaerys said he would pardon them if they would lay down their swords, which seemed to do the trick. Now Cersei has given them their swords back. Genna is suspicious that Kevan refused the offer of being Hand. Jaime thinks it might be because Kevan knows about Jaime and Cersei. She also gives us some insight into Tywin. He stood up for her as a 10 year old boy when she was betrothed at 7 to Frey. She is worried that Tyrion is not still around, since she recognises that he is the one who inherited Tywin's talents, when even Tywin did not see it. Neither Jaime or Cersei are so skilled. I wonder if she will later play some part, perhaps rehabilitating Tyrion to save house Lannister after Cersei destroys it.

AFfC 32: Cersei 534

Oh how Cersei is becoming the archetypical evil queen. At one point she even cackles with laughter.

Word has reached Kings Landing of the capture of the Shield Islands by Ironmen with a bazillion ships! I don't think it was quite that many, but whatever. It's a problem. The trouble is Cersei does not want to release troops and ships from besieging Dragonstone and Storm's End in order to defend The Reach and Highgarden. The Tyrells are anxious about this. In the end Loras the Flower Knight says he will go and end the seige at Storm's End himself to release the ships and troops. Cersei thinks this silly gallantry will probably be the end of Loras and she thinks this is wonderful. Oh dear.

She also doesn't believe the intelligence about the Ironmen's strategy of sailing far from the coast, preferring to think Willas Tyrell is stupid because crippled and did not man his watchtowers. This we know to be not true. More evidence of Cersei's foolishness.

She also thinks Stannis is working with the Ironmen. Again, not true. Cersei is becoming increasingly detached from reality. She has no clue about naval warfare, thinking some fishing boats and river boats can attack the Ironmen. And little care for strategy, being happy for the Tyrell forces to lose battles or drown in the sea.

She is ignoring Pycelle's advice. He thinks giving the Septon an army is madness. She thinks he's just babbling about old dead history.

There is some scheme involving Qyburn and armor that is too heavy for a normal man. Is he making some kind of Frankenstein's monster with all his vivisection?

Speaking of which, it turns out Balman Selmy, who she asked to get rid of Bronn, challenged Bronn to single combat and lost. Now lady Felyse is here, and is injured and traumatised and might just spill the beans that killing Bronn was Cersei's idea. So naturally Cersei hands her over to Qyburn for some vivisection.

Stupid and evil. Come to think of it, Cersei is probably going to do well in Westeros.

Oh, and Cersei has exactly one friend, Lady Merryweather. So she plays around with her feelings by getting intimate and then rejects her advances and pretends nothing happened. Something else to go wrong later, then.