CHAPTER 44: JAIME

Jaime leaves Harrenhal with Steelshanks Walton’s escort and Qyburn, nominally bound for King’s Landing by Roose Bolton’s orders. On the road, Jaime reflects on his investiture into the Kingsguard and Aerys’s motives, broods over his missing hand, and learns from Qyburn that Brienne’s ransom is being refused by Vargo Hoat, who still believes in Tarth’s sapphires.

That night, Jaime endures a vivid fever dream beneath Casterly Rock, where ghostly figures of Rhaegar and former Kingsguard condemn his broken oaths as his flaming sword gutters out, leaving only Brienne’s light. He wakes shaken, rejects more sleep, and abruptly orders Steelshanks to turn back to Harrenhal, coercing him by threatening to malign Bolton before Tywin and promising gold.

At Harrenhal, they find the Bloody Mummers amused by Brienne’s forced combat with a bear, armed only with a blunted tourney sword and dressed in torn pink satin. Jaime demands her release; Vargo Hoat refuses. Jaime vaults into the pit to shield Brienne, distracting the bear until Steelshanks’s crossbowmen kill it, forcing the Mummers to back down.

Under the northmen’s aim and Jaime’s promise of ransom, Hoat grudgingly frees them. As they ride away, Steelshanks rages at the risk Jaime took, while Brienne asks why he returned. Jaime, discarding cruelty, simply tells her he dreamed of her, signaling a turning point in his loyalties and identity.