Free Cities

He tells them of this deal and offers to pay them handsomely.

Tattooed men of Volantis, lean riders of the Disputed Lands, and tribesmen from the fringes of the Free Cities.

Not enough to replace what was lost, but enough to breathe strength back into the battered host.

slowly the battered army of the north begins to rebuild as bands of northmen also trickle in but the strangest one is a scarred man with a burned face who emerges days after the red wedding sandor clegane rides into riverrun a mud-spattered shadow with a small girl at his side Arya Stark.

We'll see throughout this analysis how she travels from place to place, gathering an ever-growing following of people from diverse backgrounds, but always pining for the house with the red door, which stands as a metaphor for her lost childhood.

And let's delve deeper into Dani's frame of mind during these nomadic years in the Free Cities.

She'd never met her father, who'd gone mad later in his life, and her mother had apparently died birthing her.

After Willem Darry died, Viserys effectively became her parent.

The usurpation of House Targaryen has taken such a toll on him that he's based his entire self-concept around reclaiming what he feels he's entitled to.

Dany thinks that that's all he lived for.

And putting our Viserys pity goggles on for a moment, he was raised as royalty, had to flee to Dragonstone, lost his mother, fled again to a strange place, then lost his safe harbor in Braavos and had to travel around the Free Cities as the Beggar King, burdened with the care of his little sister when he himself essentially was still a child.

While nobody's going to excuse the way he treats Danny, George has laid the groundwork to explain why Viserys is so single-minded about taking Westeros, to the extent that he doesn't blink at selling off his 13-year-old sister.

The court is full.

Stormlords, Reachmen, Tyrells, and sellswords from the Free Cities.

I was the first to stand against Tywin.

The only Baratheon who did not draw sword against you or your people.

I'm going anywhere.

I'd have went to the Free Cities.

[laughs]

I don't give a fuck.

He was like, "Yeah, we can actually go across the Narrow Sea-"

Yeah

... "to the Free Cities-"

Yeah

While Ser Davos monitors the sea lanes for any suspicious activity, they don't realize the Braavosi had already acted.

Ships from the Free Cities sail into the harbor of King's Landing as always, but many of them bring more than precious stones or animal pelts.

They bring sellswords, and some disguised as sailors and others secretly transported into the city.

And in the dead of night, the Tyrell men clad in the cloaks of the City Watch admit a column of sellswords into the shadowed belly of the Red Keep.

Though she's dissatisfied, Arianne promises to keep the secret of Aemond's parentage for now.

However, she does ask to be able to send a letter to Winterfell letting Aemond know that she is interested in him when Oberyn takes him to the Free Cities.

Doran agrees, provided he can review the contents.

One person she does tell is Nymeria Sand, since she trusts the other girl to maintain secrecy.

His eyes widen as he caresses her face, then carefully, then carefully secrets it in his pocket.

So, back to Sunspear? No.

You and I are going to, uh, take a tour of the Free Cities.

There's some things that must be done there.