A Song of Ice and Fire, #3
A Storm of Swords
by George R. R. Martin
Contents
PROLOGUE
Overview
Chett, embittered and vengeful, leads a plot to murder Lord Commander Mormont and other officers, loose the horses and ravens, and desert before the wildling host arrives. Mormont instead plans a preemptive ambush at dawn. A sudden heavy snowfall wrecks Chett’s scheme, and three horn blasts announce the Others, upending all plans and plunging the Watch into terror.
Summary
In bitter cold near the Fist of the First Men, Chett fails to make his hounds track a bear and broods over his hatred of Jon Snow and Samwell Tarly. He reviews a secret plan: fourteen brothers will murder Lord Commander Mormont and other key men, free the ravens and horses to sow chaos, and flee before the wildlings descend.
Reports confirm Mance Rayder’s people—women, children, herds, and fighters—are streaming down the Milkwater in vast numbers. Despite Ser Ottyn Wythers urging retreat, Thoren Smallwood sways Ser Mallador Locke and nearly the Old Bear to strike first. Mormont waits for overdue scouts, but finally assembles the Watch and declares a dawn raid to harry the wildling column in multiple ambushes.
Chett gauges his co-conspirators’ nerves while nursing plans to cut Sam’s throat and loose the ravens. Around the camp, Sam struggles with archery; Dolorous Edd and Grenn jape, and the men complain of unnatural silence in the woods. As night falls, Chett steels himself, sharpening his blade and rehearsing the killings set for third watch.
Then heavy snow begins, destroying Chett’s carefully laid escape: caches will be buried, tracks exposed, and horses endangered. Desperate, he decides at least to kill Sam, creeping to the raven cages where Sam sleeps. Before he can strike, a horn sounds once—returning brothers, Chett assumes—then twice for foes, rousing the camp to arms.
The horn sounds a third, prolonged time—an alarm not heard in hundreds of years. As ravens explode into frantic cries of “Snow,” Sam trembles and names the meaning; Chett chokes out the word “Others,” wets himself in terror, and the Night’s Watch braces for an inhuman threat that renders mutiny and wildling plans suddenly irrelevant.
Who Appears
- ChettFormer steward turned mutineer; orchestrates a plan to kill officers and flee, undone by snow and the Others’ approach.
- Jeor MormontLord Commander; rejects retreat, orders a dawn ambush against the wildlings; his raven ominously cries “Die.”
- Lark the SistermanChett’s co-conspirator; urges broader killings; plans to desert by sea after the mutiny.
- Small PaulImmense but simple; assigned to kill Mormont; fixates on feeding and keeping the Old Bear’s raven.
- Samwell TarlyTimid steward; struggles at archery; target of Chett’s intended murder; recognizes the three horn blasts.
- Thoren SmallwoodAggressive ranger; advocates striking the wildling column; helps sway command toward a dawn raid.
- Ser Mallador LockeOfficer who supports Smallwood’s offensive plan; leads men in reciting the Night’s Watch vow.
- Ser Ottyn WythersCautious officer advocating retreat to the Wall; potential successor if Mormont fell.
- Dolorous Edd (Edd Tollett)Sardonic brother; consoles Sam with bleak humor during archery practice.
- GrennBrother of the Watch; coaches Sam at archery and stands with him.
- Sweet Donnel HillChett’s charming co-conspirator; slated to cut horse tethers during the mutiny.
- DirkSilent conspirator; assigned to kill Blane during the planned murders.
- SoftfootStealthy, brutal conspirator; paired with Small Paul to kill Mormont.
- Kedge WhiteyeScout reporting the wildling host’s numbers, composition, and movement down the Milkwater.
- DywenOld forester; notes the uncanny silence of the woods near the Fist.
- BannenTracker whose skills worry the mutineers; target for silencing in Chett’s plan.