ADwD 29: Davos 445

Of course it was all a trick! Manderley, who it turns out is a thoroughly decent bloke, just had to make everyone *think* he wanted Davos dead to trick the Freys and make sure he got his son back. In reality he hates the Freys and their wedding butchery. Poor old Davos thinks he's going to be beheaded and get his hands chopped off, hopefully in that order, and it turns out there is a grand conspiracy. He might have guessed, though, given his dungeon had an en suite and the food was decent.

Anyway, Robett Glover (formerly of Deepwood Motte, now taken from Asha by Stannis) and Wyman Manderley are now plotting to build a navy and help out Stannis, as long as Davos brings Rickon to him. Because Rickon is now the true heir of Winterfell (apart from Bran). And Manderley has a boy who saw Rickon and knows something of where he's gone. Wherever it is, Davos doesn't want to go there because there are cannibals, apparently. But go he will. And Manderley is going to Winterfell to do whatever Ramsay Bolton wants him to, for now, to keep up the charade.

Incidentally we learn in this chapter a little bit more about how awful Ramsay is. He really is not a very nice man. Fake Arya really needs to get away from him, as does everyone else near him.

ADwD 19: Davos 282

Davos has been held prisoner at Manderley's castle in White Harbour for over two weeks. His ride home has long since sailed.

Manderley finally agrees to see him. Davos tries to appeal to Manderley's sense of honour to stick with supporting Stannis because he is Robert Baratheon's true heir, but Manderley knows a losing side when he sees one. The Freys try to claim that Robb caused the red wedding by turning into a wolf. Manderley knows this is nonsense but is going along with it anyway. Being on the winning side is more importance than truth!

Manderley's daughter Wyllis can see through all this and calls him out on it. She is young enough to be honest. But it doesn't do any good.

Manderley gets annoyed and sends Davos off to be beheaded as a traitor. It doesn't look like he is going to miraculously suvive after all.

ADwD 15: Davos 223

Davos has rocked up in White Harbour to convince Manderley to fight for Stannis. He was supposed to have a fleet of ships with him; instead he's ended up going down the less impressive pretending-to-be-a-common-sailor approach.

White Harbour seems like a pretty wealthy town. Its houses are made of stone. The Lannister ship Lionstar is in dock. I can't find any previous mention of this ship.

Davos plays the computer-RPG-game game of talking to random people. He learns that people are worried about the Bastard of Bolton, and that Manderley is recruiting for his army. He visits an inn with such bad food and wine that customs officials won't go in. There he learns all the latest news, including that one of Manderley's sons is still alive and held hostage by Lannisters. it all looks pretty hopeless for getting Manderley to fight Lannisters. Except obviously he's going to come to some agreement with Manderley to fake his own death to trick them into giving Manderley's son back. That would fit in with what we know from the preivous book.

He also hears rumours of Dany from a sailor on the Sloe-eyed Maid. He knows what happened to that ship. I had to search all the way back to ACoK to find reference to it: Back when Dany was planning to head straight back to Westeros she and Xaro were searching for ships and it was a ship that was too small for her needs, which differs from the captain's steward's version of the captain refusing because he was worried about dragons burning his sails. Anyway, at this point Davos is better informed than Cersei.

ADwD 9: Davos 141

As far as I know, Lord Manderley is going to kill Davos to get his son back, but that hasn't happened yet. Davos arrives by boat on the island of Sweetsister, having been abandoned by Salladhor Saan who is fed up because half his ships have sunk in storms in service to Stannis who does not pay his bills.

It's a bit of a dump: the lord's castle has a leaky roof and he can't afford proper lighting. Davos just wants to be sent on his way to White Harbor to have a chat with Manderley about maybe helping Stannis, but Lord Godric doesn't want to be seen to be helping Stannis. They come up with the rather obvious idea of just not mentioning that Davos was ever there.

During this conversation we learn that Stannis is pretty desperate at this point for someone, *anyone*, to bend their knee. Preferably someone with some gold. Godric also reckons Manderley's son is already dead, killed by Freys, but I seem to remember jaime rescuing him from Harenhall. Despite this, Wyman and Freys are making marriage pacts, which doesn't make much sense on the face of it. In general, if while reading ASoIaF I notice I am confused, it is a sign that I do not have complete information. Either I've forgotten it, or misread it, or GRRM hasn't told me yet.

Oh, we also learn that Jon Snow's mum is the daughter of a fisherman who gave him a lift from Sweetsister to the Eyrie to visit Jon Arryn, who he's named after. So there's that mystery solved, then. It's not the most earth-shattering revelation, though.

ASoS 63: Davos 857

Davos has decided the time has come to act. He and a small band of followers he has been cultivating kidnap Edric Storm and send him off on one of Salladhor Saan's ships, to protect him against Melisandre's plans to sacrifice him to bring dragons to life.

He tells Davos he thinks Melisandre is correct that Joffrey is dead. Now that three kings have died, that's surely all the proof of her abilities Stannis should need. So he is now ready to sacrifice Edric. Davos tells him what he has done, but points out that it's not treason since he vowed to protect the king's people. Stannis says he'd better have a good explanation, or else he's going to lose his head. Davos starts to read a letter.

I'm betting that once he finished reading this letter either he is going to die or Melisandre is. Because unless this letter has some juicy gossip on her, it doesn't look good for him.

As for the plot to save Edric, can Salladhor Saan be trusted? I don't think so. I think Melisandre gets a lot of her information from him. Though she did seem surprised that Davos had made Edric disappear, it could all have been an act. After all, as Sansa pointed out, in this series it's *all* lies!

ASoS 54: Davos 722

Davos is shocked that the Freys would murder their wedding guests. It is clearly very shocking to everyone. Melisandre wants to sacrifice Edric Storm to make a stone dragon come to life. So that's what it's for. Some from a leech is enough to kill someone, but to make a dragon come to life you need a whole boy king. Stannis and Davos aren't up for murder, though, for now at least. Davos is even skeptical that the deaths of Robb and Greyjoy aren't just coincidence. Joffrey is still alive, but for how long? Are we going to have another fun wedding?

Davos has been making friends with people who still worship the seven gods, and Salladhor Saan is onto him. He keeps reaching for his bag of fingers, which must be a bit of a tell. Davos doesn't think he's worthy of being the hand but Saan can see what Stannis gets from Davos: some no nonsense plain speaking is very useful to a king.

Davos is learning to read and finds out about the problems up at the wall. But neither he nor Stannis will do anything about it. Will it just be a few wildlings, or something worse?

ASoS 36: Davos 488

Davos is fetched from his cell by Ser Axell (whose own brother Alester is also in the cell, but gets no sympathy from Axell).

Axell also thinks Davos is a traitor. He wants Davos to approve the dodgy plans he's been making with Saan (who I've said all along is a bad-un) and recommend to Stannis that he be made Hand. Or else.

Davos can't be anything but honest to his beloved king Stannis, though. He comes close to being a little too honest with a dig about Stannis' disloyalty to Aerys, who was legitimately king before Robert. But Stannis appreciates the honesty. Sensible man. He also seems to have the measure of Axell and agrees that his plan is no good.

It's a wonder, then, that he doesn't see through this Melisandre and her tricks. At least GRRM is doing a good job of making them look like cheap fortune-teller tricks. Look into the fire and tell me what you see? Really? Is she channelling Madame Trelawney? Can she also bend spoons? Then again she does seem to be able to make people die, so there's that. And the vision in the fire did rather look like the Watch on that hill. Westeros is a confusing place for a skeptic.

Anyway Stannis makes Davos the Hand. I'm not quite sure why, given that he clearly had the power to get Davos out of the dungeon, he didn't do that before. But an honest Hand ought to be a good asset. So good decision, Stannis.

And now more spells, powered by either Stannis' blood or Robert's bastard Edric Storm's (he's got the blood of a king too, see). Seems like Melisandre is going to make Joffrey, and Robb die, which will be quite an upset (and Balon Greyjoy, which will be more of a footnote). Cripes.

ASoS 25: Davos 344

Davos has been locked in a cell by the red woman but at least he is warm and his jailers seem pleasant enough, and the food is decent. Sanitation could be improved but, hell, for a jail, 3 out of 5 stars.

The red woman comes to visit and voices a theory similar to thoughts I have had before: all this war is really a war between gods. Red woman says there are only two gods, good and evil, and hers is the good one. I'm not so sure about that; neither is Davos. Also she thinks Stannis is Azor Ahai ("who will be born again out of smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone") but she obviously hasn't met Dany.

Lord Alester Florent is Davos' new cellmate. He's in for writing a letter of surrender on Stannis' behalf. He was caught after sending the letter via Salladhor Saan post, and *still* Davos thinks Saan is loyal and that the red woman gets her knowledge from supernatural powers.

ASoS 10: Davos 133

Davos is coughing up blood. That's probably not good. He ought to see a Maester about that. Instead he tries to visit Stannis but has to visit Salladhor Saan first. He tells Salladhor he plans to kill Melisandre. Salladhor says he should get well first but Davos isn't having any of it and goes to see Stannis anyway.

Stannis apparently doesn't see people any more. Instead Davos gets arrested by Melisandre's men. She seems to know all about Davos's plan. Did she hear it from Salladhor already? Or does she have her own version of Varys?

Now it seems as if Melisandre is basically Wormtounge  to Stannis's Theoden. Where is Gandalf?

ASoS 5: Davos 67

Davos survived the green fire and Tyrion's chain after falling off his ship by swimming under the water. He ended up washed up on a rocky outcrop. He was ready to give up on life, since his sons are all dead as far as he knows, and he spends most of the chapter in various states of nearly dying. Then he decided that Melisandre and her weird magic and her god are probably to blame for all this bad luck. Now he has a purpose, presumably to kill her. A passing ship comes to the rescue, and luckily for him it is crewed by men loyal to Stannis.

ACoK 58: Davos 740

Stannis is sailing all 200 of his ships into the river by Kings Landing. Davos is commanding one in the second row. He's a bit worried about the strategy of sailing up the river. It's at this point that I realise what Tyrion's chain is for. Seems like a perfect way to trap some ships in a river while raining wildfire down on them.

And no, I'm not clever for figuring it out, it's just that GRRM does seem good at setting out the logic of the strategy. This is not a book where the plot is driven solely by characters making stupid mistakes and self-destructive decisions (though there is some of that). A lot of the plot does seem to be driven by the logic of strategies at play.

Anyway, Davos figures it out about two paragraphs after I do, and sure enough the chain comes up, the ships burn from wildfire hurled at them with trebuchets, and Davos is plunged into the water and swept downstream towards the chain and a lot of burning ships. Cue ad break.

ACoK 42: Davos 546

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.