A Game of Thrones Reread - Part 21

Welcome back to South of the Wall. Sorry for the long wait between rereads. I really need to figure out a schedule I can keep and stick to it. Until then, enjoy the irregular reread posts!

This recap may get a little long, as there is a three or four page conversation that I find to be one of the most intriguing portions of the whole novel. Of course, it's overheard by a young girl chasing cats, so she doesn't understand the importance of the conversation.

Standard Spoiler Warning: This post may, and probably will, contain spoilers for all published books through A Feast For Crows.

ARYA

Summary

Arya was catching cats. Catching cats was difficult, and Arya had the scratches and scrapes to prove it. But she had caught every cat in the Red Keep and brought them to Syrio Forel, every cat except the black tomcat with one ear. She finally had the cat cornered, and was able to grab it without getting scratched. As she started to celebrate she was noticed by Princess Myrcella, Prince Tommen, and some Lannister guards. They didn't realize it was Arya, and thought she was a commoner boy that sneaked into the castle. Arya ran and was able to avoid the guards by jumping through a window and running through the winding passages of the castle.

Arya found herself in a dark room, and she thought to herself she would stay there until she counted to ten thousand, then it would be safe to leave. As she counted her eyes adjusted to the dark and she saw she was surrounded by monsters. Arya closed her eyes and thought of what Syrio had taught her. She opened her eyes again and the monsters were still there, but her fear was gone. She was surrounded by massive skulls with teeth like swords. Arya walked into the next room, and it was in complete darkness, there was no light at all for her eyes to adjust to.

A water dancer sees with all her senses.

She followed the wall across the room, when she heard voices. She stopped and saw that she stood at the edge of a well, and voices were drifting up from it. There was a spiral staircase wrapped around the curving walls of the well, and two men, one carrying a torch, were ascending the stairs. Arya hid in the darkness and listened. One voice was saying that "he" had found one bastard, and the rest will come soon. The other man asked what he would do, and the first voice said it didn't know, that they had already tried to kill "his" son, and that the lion and the wolf will soon be at each other's throats. The second voice said it was too soon for war, and that they must delay. The first voice said there was nothing to do. The second voice said the princess was with child and the khal will not bestir himself until the child is born. The voices were now at the top of the stairs, and one of them pushed the wall, causing a wall to descend cutting the well off from the rest of the hall.

"If he does not bestir himself soon, it may be too late," the stout man in the steel cap said. "This is no longer a game for two players, if ever it was. Stannis Baratheon and Lysa Arryn have fled beyond my reach, and the whispers say they are gathering swords around them. The Knight of Flowers writes Highgarden, urging his lord father to send his sister to court. The girl is a maid of fourteen, sweet and beautiful and tractable, and Lord Renly and Ser Loras intend that Robert should bed her, wed her, and make a new queen. Littlefinger . . . the gods only know what game Littlefinger is playing. Yet Lord Stark's the one who troubles my sleep. He has the bastard, he has the book, and soon enough he'll have the truth. And now his wife has abducted Tyrion Lannister, thanks to Littlefinger's meddling. Lord Tywin will take that for an outrage, and Jaime has a queer affection for the Imp. If the Lannisters move north, that will bring the Tullys in as well. Delay, you say. Make haste, I reply. Even the finest of jugglers cannot keep a hundred balls in the air forever."

Their voices drifted away as they walked away from Arya. She followed them at a distance, eventually losing them. Blind again, she continued following the passage with one hand against the wall, picturing that Nymeria was walking alongside her. She eventually found her way to a sewer entering into a river, miles from the Red Keep. When she made her way back the gates were closed and the guards took her for a street urchin. Once she convinced them of who she was, she was taken to her father.

Her father was not pleased she was outside of the castle. Arya tried to explain what she had oveheard, but now it was jumbled in her head and it sounded like nonsense. Her father thought she was telling stories, but she insisted that it was real, and they talked about killing the Hand. They were interrupted by the arrival of a member of the Night's Watch. It was Yoren, who wanted to speak to her father alone. Her father sent her away, and she asked the guard, Desmond, how many guards her father had. He told her fifty, and she said they wouldn't let anything happen to her father. Desmond told her that her father would come to no harm.

"The Lannisters have more than fifty men," Arya pointed out.

"So they do, but every northerner is worth ten of these southron swords, so you can sleep easy."

My Thoughts

Okay, I think you all know what I'm going to focus on, so let's get the other stuff out of the way first. Poor Desmond, those are some famous last words there. And Ned, couldn't you see some sense in what Arya was saying? The bastard and the book? Not ringing any bells??? Just listen to her for a minute! Gah.

We really see Arya growing into her abilities. She is now skillful enough to capture every cat in the castle, even the ornery black cat (which we will talk about again in a later post!). I didn't put any of it in the summary, but I really like all of the sayings Syrio taught her: quiet as a shadow, light as a feather, swift as a deer. We also have several more instances of Arya being "blind" and dealing with it well. She is taught by Syrio to use all of her senses when she is in darkness (and also instinctively reaches out to Nymeria!). Lots of setup and foreshadowing for when Arya loses her eyesight. What do you all think - is Arya's blindness permanent? I keep waffling on whether I think it is or not.

All right, now the big thing. So Arya overhears Varys talking with Magister Illyrio, although she doesn't recognize Varys nor does she know who Illyrio is. Even four books into the series, I'm not 100% sure on what exactly they're talking about, so I'm going to break it down.

They're beginning their discussion with Ned finding the bastard, so clearly Varys and Illyrio know that Ned will soon discover that the king's children are not, in truth, the king's children, but the bastard offspring of a twincestuous liaison between the queen and her brother. So Varys and Illyrio already know this, and they don't want Ned to find out. Varys talks about the debacle that was the attempt to kill Bran, and rightly guess that if Ned discovers the truth it will mean war between the Starks and Lannisters. Illyrio says it is too soon, so he wants war and strife, just not yet. Illyrio even suggests to Varys that they kill Ned to prevent the war. They also discuss the princess being pregnant and the khal not moving until the prince is born. So this seems clear to me that Varys and Illyrio have every intention of plunging the kingdoms into war, so that Daenerys can come in with Drogo and retake the land. So Varys is pro-Targaryen, and perhaps Illyrio isn't solely acting for his own personal best interest after all. Or maybe he is, I'm sure it would be very beneficial to him to have a new monarch owe him.

So that seems (more or less) straightforward. They say that this is no longer a game for "two players" as Lysa and Stannis are now out of King's Landing and consolidating their own power. So they are the new players, but who were the original two players? Varys and Illyrio? Or the Baratheons and Targaryens? We also get confirmation that Ser Loras and Renly are trying to set up Robert with Margaery Tyrell, in order to oust the Lannisters from their position of power and influence. Lysa and Stannis are beyond Varys' network, so he isn't completely sure what they are up to. It isn't really clear whether Varys/Illyrio are happy or not regarding Lysa's, Stannis', and Renly's actions, other than to comment that there are now "too many balls in the air." Varys can manipulate events, but now there are too many variables for him to accurately predict an outcome.

It is also here that we learn that Varys, who knows about the goings on (in a broad sense) in the Eyrie, on Dragonstone, and even at the Inn at the Crossroads, has no clue what Littlefinger is doing. Varys knows that Catelyn captured Tyrion based on Littlefinger's erroneous information, but he doesn't know why Littlefinger does this. I still have no clue why Littlefinger did this, other than just to sow chaos giving him the opportunity to gain more power. From his non-involvement with Varys/Illyrio I believe that Littlefinger is not part of the "reestablish the Targaryen" plot. I cannot wait for us to see the action in Pentos in Dance with Dragons to figure out just what Illyrio's role in all this is. And where did he get those dragon eggs anyway?

Last bit, which I'll quote here:

"What I can do, I will," the one with the torch said softly. "I must have gold, and another fifty birds."

 "So many?" . . . "The ones you need are hard to find . . . so young, to know their letters . . . perhaps older . . . not die so easy . . . "

 "No. The younger are safer . . . treat them gently . . ."

". . . if they kept their tongues . . ."

". . . the risk . . ." 

 So what the hell was that all about? Varys' network is often referred to his birds, and based on Illyrio's reply, I think Varys is asking for children to use as spies. Apparently he wants very young children, but ones that can read and write (probably hard to come by, even in the Free Cities). Illyrio's comment about "not dying so easy?" No clue. Why are the young spies dying? Isn't the point that nobody knows the kid is spying? What is killing them? Illyrio then says "if they kept their tongues" - is this literal? Do they mean figuratively if the kids keep quiet, or does it mean that Illyrio/Varys has the tongues cut out of the kids so they can't talk? Varys seems to know the ins and outs of the all the secret passageways of the Red Keep, so does he have an army of mute children running through the Keep spying for him, and sending him notes? Let me know if any of you have any better theories!

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I tried to keep the summary short on that one, because I knew I'd have a lot of thoughts on this chapter. Next chapter Ned gets fired as Hand of the king, and he takes his family and heads back to Winterfell where they all live happily ever after. See you all then!