CHAPTER 21: JAIME

Jaime, Brienne, and Ser Cleos ride south through devastated countryside, passing a corpse-choked Maidenpool. Jaime taunts Brienne and recalls his bond with Cersei, privately resolving to return Sansa to her family. Ignoring Cleos’s caution, they take the Duskendale road to make speed toward King’s Landing.

Archers ambush them near a stone wall. Cleos is unhorsed and dragged; Brienne takes arrows but charges and scatters the bowmen with Jaime’s urging. They find Cleos mortally crushed and shot. Jaime seizes Cleos’s sword and attacks Brienne, forcing a prolonged, brutal duel that ranges into the woods and a brook. Despite Jaime’s skill, captivity and chains sap him, and Brienne’s strength turns the tide; she disarms and nearly drowns him to force a yield.

The Brave Companions appear—Rorge, Urswyck the Faithful, Timeon, and others of mixed origins—and surround them. They mock Brienne and threaten rape. Urswyck reveals they now serve Roose Bolton and the King in the North, not the Lannisters. Both captives are beaten and bound; Jaime warns Brienne of likely assault and tries to bribe Urswyck with promises of Lannister gold and “sapphires” from Tarth, but Urswyck rejects the offer, citing Jaime’s dishonor.

At a sacked sept, they are brought before Vargo Hoat, who dismisses Brienne’s pleas and orders her silenced. Jaime again offers ransom, but Vargo declares he will send Tywin a “message” first. Jaime is forced down; a fool cavorts on his back while a fat Dothraki raises an arakh. The blade flashes down, and Jaime screams, signaling imminent mutilation.