It is never dark in her chambers and the fire must never go out. Melisandre looks into the fire and prays for a vision. She is looking for Stannis and for the girl on a dying horse. She sees a white wood face and a boy with a wolf’s face, memories of her past and the wildwoods. She sees Jon Snow, both wolf and man, and she sees him surrounded by enemies.

Melisandre has kept Devan with her even though he’d rather have gone with Stannis but she thinks Davos has lost enough sons. She needs Jon Snow for something but so far he is immune to her charms. She believes he should have moved into Stannis/Mormont’s chambers, she tells Devan she will have breakfast and asks him to send her Rattleshirt.

She uses powders for her effects and conceals them in her robes. Her supplies are low and she can’t get the ingredients to make more, but she thinks her true magic is stronger than it used to be.

Rattleshirt arrives. She sees shadows all around him. He has put aside his shirt of bones so she tells him it protects him. The ruby he wears in a black iron fetter around his wrist gives him a glamour and Melisandre says he needs the shirt as well. She wants to send him after the girl on the dying horse. She tells him what she just saw in her vision and he says the place is Long Lake.

A horn blows. Only the once, meaning rangers returning. Melisandre leaves Rattleshirt in her chambers and goes to see who has come back. She goes through the Wall gate with two guards. They’re effectively useless but it’s all about the show. On the other side of the Wall there are three eight foot spears with three rangers’ heads on them. Bowen Marsh says they should never have sent the rangers out. Jon orders them taken down and asks Melisandre to walk back with him. He asks if she knows anything of the other six. She has seen an attack on the Wall and says it is Eastwatch, but she’s not certain, what she sees in a vision is not real and has more in common with dreams.

Melisandre asks Jon to come to her chambers. She thinks Jon and Stannis have a lot in common. Rattlesnake is still there and Melisandre tells Jon he’s going after the girl. Jon objects on the basis that Rattleshirt is a rapist and brutal killer. So Melisandre reveals that Rattleshirt is actually Mance Rayder and that she burned the real Rattleshirt.

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What is she up to? She’s trying to reel Jon in. Beware enemies who pretend to be friends, indeed. Who is the girl? I don’t think it could be either Sansa or Arya. Sansa is in the Vale with Littlefinger and Arya is in Braavos. Neither of them is wearing grey and riding north on a dying horse. Who else might it be? Or maybe it’s in the future and it will be Sansa? Not that she seems in a hurry to get away from Littlefinger.

Also, it’s interesting to have some confirmation that Melisandre is as much a fake as the others.

Jon is sending out rangers and includes Alliser Thorne in the group. Thorne thinks that Jon’s looking for an excuse to kill him, but it has more to do with his lack of experienced men.

Jon missing sparring so he challenges some trainees and is obviously miles better than them. Then Rattleshirt challenges him and they have a good old set to. Rattleshirt seems physically different to Jon but he dismisses it as an effect of the armour.

Later on, he can’t sleep so goes out walking with Ghost. Melisandre sneaks up on him and he thinks that she’s Ygritte to start with. She tells him Arya will come on a dying horse and that three of his rangers will die. She says he and Ghost have power and that she and Jon should make power together.

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Melisandre clearly glamoured herself to look like Ygritte. That’s creepy.

The knight is taking Tyrion to Volantis, which has three parts. Old Volantis is poor and run down. Volantis east of the river is richer, more inhabited and pretty strictly Volantian. They pass the red priest, Bernello, who is calling Daenerys Azor Ahai reborn and saying that when she comes west the slaves should rise up to support her.

They stop to buy some gloves, put Tyrion in chains, and to sell the horse. Then they cross the longbridge to Volantis west of the river, where traders from all over the world come to do business. The knight heads for the Merchant House where he takes a room. He leaves Tyrion chained up. When he comes back he has food and ale.

The next day they go to have an audience with the Widow of the Waterfront, Vogarro’s whore, to whom the knight gives the gloves. She tells them things. He asks for a passage east. She tells them the Golden Company is going west to Westeros and asks why they want to go east. The knight says he’s taking Tyrion to Daenerys. Tyrion is overjoyed. The arrangements are agreed.

Asha is back at Deepwood Motte. After the Kingsmoot, she fled. Euron Crow’s Eye married her to Erik Ironmaker and left the Iron Islands in his care while he went off in search of a dragon queen.

Ramsay Bolton has sent her a message that he has taken Moat Cailin. It is written in the blood of ironmen comes with a strip of Theon’s skin and a promise to send her more. Asha burns the skin. She knows that Deepwood Motte will be hard to defend. She doesn’t have many men and the walls are made of wood. But she doesn’t know where else she can go. Asha contemplates going to the Wall.

Instead she goes to bed. Qarl the Maid follows her. After they’ve shagged, he falls asleep but she can’t. Asha goes to eat in the kitchen and finds Tris Botley waiting for her. He wants her, loves her, but she doesn’t feel the same about him. He suggests they take to the sea and become merchants. She reminds him of her long-term relationship with Qarl.

Then there is an alarm from the walls. Five northmen have tried to sneak in to open the gate. Asha decides she doesn’t want to die defending this place and her band escape out the south door while the northmen are breaking down the north door. They are caught in the woods and are overwhelmed but not without taking far more than their number. Asha takes a head wound and the last things she sees are flaming hearts and black stags.

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So, it was Stannis at the gates. He’s obviously won the mountain clans to his side. Good, maybe he’ll be able to give the Boltons a fight.

Wouldn’t it be nice for Daenerys if she could have someone like Qarl? It is interesting to contrast Asha, Cersei and Dany for their use of sex as a political tool, and the impact it has on their personal lives. In many ways, Asha seems to handle it best, but the different environments the three women find themselves in may simply mean that Asha finds it easiest. After all, her relationship with Qarl was formed on her ship, which in many ways is a little bubble.

And I so don’t believe Asha is dead. Martin, you’ve done this quiet a lot at this point!

Quentyn and friends have just fought in the seige of Astapor and are marching north to Yunkai with the rest of the Yunkish army. They are looking for a chance to get away to Meereen. Quentyn feels uneasy because he thinks that it is dishonourable to break the contract he made with the Windblown.

The seige of Astapor was his first experience of fighting and he didn’t like it much. It’s not because he is a coward but because he found it cruel, wasteful and wrong. And they were fighting freed slaves who didn’t have the training to fight back. It was more of a slaughter than a battle.

The Yunkish forces are bizarre and impractical; naked fighting studs, tall men on stilts, grotesqueries and other strange ideas made flesh.

Quentyn and his companions are discussing how and when to betray the Windblown when they are summoned to the tent of the captain-general, the Tattered Prince. He tells them he’s sending his Westerosi north towards Meereen and that they should join the Stormcrows or the Second Sons.

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Quentyn Martell is growing on me. He seems like a nice, serious young man, able to do what needs to done, but sensitive to the consequences of his actions. He’s perhaps a little on the dull side, but very worthy. Maybe he wouldn’t be such a bad choice as a husband for Daenerys.

The Golden Company is camped north of Volantis at Volon Therys. Griff takes Aegon and Haldon to meet with them. Twelve years ago he faked his own death to look after Aegon. The man who was Captain-General of the Golden Company was in on the plan but the new one isn’t. Illyrio broke their contract with Myr to send them here for Aegon.

They find Harry Strickland in his tent surrounded by his chiefs. Illyrio’s plan was that Daenerys would be coming west and they would meet her there but Daenerys isn’t coming west, they don’t know why and they can’t get to her. Aegon proposes Tyrion’s plan of going west without her and her dragons. After some debate, the Company agrees.

Jon Connington goes to his own tent after sending Haldon to get Rolly, Lemore and the chests. He takes off his glove and examines his greyscale, which he got saving Tyrion, whom he had begun to trust but now believes has escaped.

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Well now, there’s a twist. I don’t want Aegon to conquer Westeros, that’s for Dany. So this little meet up isn’t going to happen and Aegon and company are off to Westeros.

It’s sad that Griff has greyscale. Plus also, Griff is Jon Connington. I’m not wholly sure what that means yet.

Daenerys is meeting with the Green Grace. The Sons of the Harpy are still brutally killing freedmen but has harmed her hostage children. Galazzea says if she marries Hizdahr zo Loraq then it might stop. She asks what a man can do that she cannot. The Grace says taking a husband with Ghiscari blood will make the Meereenese accept her more. She has Hizdahr waiting below. Daenerys agrees to see him. She asks what he has to offer. Can he quiet the streets for her? He makes promises. She asks why he would want to be her King. He gives the honest answer that Meereen cannot bear another war. Daenerys asks him to kiss her but does not respond to him.

Finally, she gives him a quest. He has ninety days to end the killings and if he does, she will marry him.

Ser Barristan Selmy thinks she should abandon Meereen and go to Westeros. He tells her Daario is back. She wants to see him. He is aggressive and says he will kill all the Meereenese nobles. He is cruel and hard and selfish. Daenerys might be attracted to him but knows she could not wed him. She decides that all his reports will go to Selmy from now on.

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Oh, what to do? Daenerys doesn’t know just how many suitors she has. I think the Green Grace is involved with the Sons of the Harpies and Hizdahr clearly can’t be trusted. Daario is clearly a very sexy man and it’s a shame Dany can’t have him, but he seems like a dick and I think he would try to take advantage of the situation.