Stannis parleys with Cortnay Penrose, the castellan in charge of Storm’s End who won’t give up because even though he is besieged and outnumbered he won’t hand over Robert’s bastard son Edric Storm to Stannis. I have no idea what that is about.
Stannis is looking a bit old and haggard and has been having nightmares about murdering Renly, probably because he actually did murder him with Melisandre’s sorcery. We already know from Dany’s experiences that sorcery doesn’t come cheap, so it’s obviously this that’s taking its toll. Stannis does feel a bit guilty about dream-slaying his brother. He says, “I will go to my grave thinking of my brother’s peach.” Aw, how sweet!
Davos suggests going to attack King’s Landing straight away, since Tywin is distracted and heading for Lannisport. And we know (but Stannis probably doesn’t) that there aren’t many ships there, either, so it’s good advice. But Stannis isn’t going for it because leaving Storm’s End without winning would be a sign of weakness.
But not to worry, the woman in red Melisandre reckons the Lord of Light says Penrose won’t last the night, and with him dead the stripling Lord Meadows would be in charge of the castle and he’ll likely give in to Stannis.
Davos finds this all highly weird, and he’s right to worry: he ends up taking Melisandre to a secret tunnel under the castle where she… er... conjures a shadow assassin to slip through the portcullis and murder Penrose. Davos recognises Stannis’ shadow, too. Probably Stannis will look even more under the weather next time we see him.
