DAVOS — Chapter 20

Davos, held under guard in White Harbor, is escorted by Ser Marlon Manderly into the Merman’s Court, where Lord Wyman Manderly presides amid a conspicuous Frey contingent. Weak and pallid, Wyman allows his kin and maester to press Davos, who refuses to kneel as Stannis’s Hand. Freys immediately challenge him, lying about the Red Wedding, and Ser Jared Frey tries to provoke a duel.

Davos asserts Tommen’s bastardy and Stannis’s claim, but Maester Theomore demands proof and Lady Leona, fearful for her captive husband Wylis, condemns Davos as treasonous. Ser Marlon undermines Stannis’s strength with pointed questions about allies and numbers, while Theomore dismisses Stannis’s holds as untenable. The court laughs off threats of wildlings and ironborn and fixates on White Harbor’s offered pardons and matches from Lannister-Bolton-Frey allies.

Pressed, Davos abandons argument for a call to vengeance for the Red Wedding and the Stark dead. Wylla Manderly, Wyman’s willful granddaughter, boldly invokes ancient oaths to the Starks and denounces the Freys, but is silenced and dragged from the hall. Rhaegar Frey counters with claims of Tommen’s legitimacy and promises Arya Stark’s marriage to Ramsay Bolton will restore lawful order, while others mutter about Ramsay’s cruelty.

Wyman outwardly agrees with Rhaegar, castigates Robb Stark as a faithless cause of grief, and rejects Stannis as a false king backed by a false god. Citing fear for his son and loyalty to the Iron Throne, he declares Davos a smuggler and spy. The audience ends with Wyman ordering Ser Marlon to take Davos to the Wolf’s Den to remove his head and hands, displaying them as proof, seemingly ending Stannis’s embassy in White Harbor.