Barristan Selmy: Appearances & Meaningful Mentions

16 AGOT Sansa I: Selmy is introduced when he and Renly arrive as honor guard for Robert.

When she got closer, she saw two knights kneeling before the queen, in armor so fine and gorgeous that it made her blink.

One knight wore an intricate suit of white-enameled scale, brilliant as a field of new-fallen snow, with silver chasings and clasps that glittered in the sun. When he removed his helm, Sansa saw that he was an old man with hair as pale as his armor, yet he seemed strong and graceful for all that. From his shoulders hung the pure white cloak of the Kingsguard. 144

The older man in white spoke to Sansa gently. “Oft-times Ser Ilyn frightens me as well, sweet lady. He has a fearsome aspect.”

“As well he should,” The queen had descended from the wheelhouse. The spectators parted to make way for her. “If the wicked do not fear the King's Justice, you have put the wrong man in the office.”

Sansa finally found her words. “Then surely you have chosen the right on, Your Grace,” she said, and a gale of laughter erupted all around her.

COMPLETE QUOTE 146-148

17 AGOT Eddard III: At Arya's trial “old Ser Barristan was grave” 155

“Where is the direwolf?” Cersei Lannister asked when her husband was gone. Beside her, Prince Joffrey was smiling.

“The beast is chained up outside the gatehouse, Your Grace, Ser Barristan Selmy answered reluctantly. 158

21 AGOT Eddard IV 4 Little Council: Selmy does not attend Ned's first council meeting:

“Perhaps we'd best wait for Ser Barristan and the king to join us,” Ned suggested.

Renly Baratheon laughed aloud. “If we wait for my brother to grace us with his royal presence, it could be a long sit.” 193

31 AGOT Eddard VII: Barristan Selmy stood vigil for Ser Hugh of the Vale and answers Ned's questions about the boy who had been Jon Arryn's squire. They walk to Robert's tent and Ser Barristan enlists Ned's help in discouraging Robert from fighting in the melee. Barristan tells Ned he might be the only man Robert wouldn't kill.

Robert rages at Selmy and tells him “Get out before I kill you.” but does not rage at Ned. 305-309

34 AGOT Eddard VIII: Ned reminds Robert how he spared Ser Barristan Selmy after the Trident and Selmy sides with Ned against sending an assassin for Daenerys. 352-353

“Mercy is never a mistake, Lord Renly,” Ned replied. “On the Trident, Ser Barristan here cut down a dozen good men, Robert's friends and mine. When they brought him to us, grievously wounded and near death, Roose Bolton urged us to cut his throat, but your brother said, “I will not kill a man for loyalty, nor for fighting well,” and sent his own maester to tend Ser Barristan's wounds. He gave the king a long cool look. “Would that man were here today.

Robert had shame enough to blush. “It was not the same,” he complained. “Ser Barristan was a knight of the Kingsguard.” 352-353

Ser Barristan Selmy raised his pale blue eyes from the table and said, “Your Grace, there is honor in facing an enemy on the battlefield, but none in killing him in his mother's womb. Forgive me, but I must stand with Lord Eddard.” 353

50 AGOT Eddard XIV: Barristan Selmy asks to be excused from council to attend the young king, is shocked when Cersei tears up Robert's letter, and hesitates to seize Ned.

Ser Barristan Selmy was the first to answer the summons, immaculate in white cloak and enameled scales. “My lords,” he said, “my place is beside the young king now. Pray give me leave to attend him.”

“Your place is here, Ser Barristan, “Ned told him. 525

Ser Barristan accompanies the small council to the throne room. When Cersei tears up Robert's letter naming Ned Protector of the Realm, Selmy says:

“Those were the king's words,” Ser Barristan said, shocked. 528

“Ser, Barristan, seize this traitor.”

The Lord Commander of the Kingsguard hesitated. In the blink of an eye he was surrounded by Stark guardsmen, bare steel in their mailed fists.

“And now the treason moves from words to deeds,” Cersei said. “Do you think Ser Barristan stands alone, my lord?” With an ominous rasp of metal on metal, the Hound drew his longsword. The knights of the Kingsguard and twenty Lannister guardsmen in crimson cloaks moved to support him. 528

58 AGOT Sansa V: Joffrey dismisses Ser Barristan from the Kingsguard. 622-624

137 ACOK 64 Daenerys V: Arstan Whitebeard saves Daenerys from the Sorrowful Man's manticore, introduces Strong Belwas and takes her to the ships Illyrio has hired to take her back to Pentos. 880-884

152 ASOS 9 Daenerys I: Arstan Whitebeard answers Dany's questions about her family and about dragons. 109-112

167 ASOS 24 Daenerys II: Arstan Whitebeard begs Daenerys not to buy Unsullied but hire sellswords instead.

“Tell her that these have been standing here for a day and a night, with no food or water. Tell her that they will stand until they drop if I should command it, and when nin hundred and ninety-nine have collapsed to die upon the bricks, the last will stand there still, and never move until his own death claims him Such is their courage. Tell her that.”

“I call that madness, not courage,” said Arstan Whitebeard, when the solemn little scribe was done. He tapped the end of his hardwood staff against the bricks, tap, tap, as if to tell his displeasure. The old man had not wanted to sail to Astapor; nor did he favor buying this slave army. 313-314

“Sheep are obedient,” said Arstan when the words had been translated. He had some Valyrian as well, though not as much as Dany, but like her was feigning ignorance. 314

“I have heard that in the Sunset Kingdoms men take solemn vows to keep chaste and father no children, but live only for their duty. Is it not so?

“It is,” Arstan said, when the question was put. “There are many such orders. The maesters of the Citadel, the septons and septas who serve the Seven, the silent sisters of the dead, the Kingsguard and the Night's Watch...”

“Poor things,” growled the slaver, after the translation. “Men were not made to live thus. Their days are a torment of temptation, any fool must see, and no doubt most succumb to their baser selves. Not so our Unsullied. They are wed to their swords in a way that your Sworn Brothers cannot hope to match. No woman can ever tempt them, nor any man.”

His girl conveyed the essence of his speech, more politely. “There are other ways to tempt men, besides the flesh,” Arstan Whitebeard objected, when she was done. 317

“The name disks are thrown in an empty cask at duty's end, and each dawn plucked up again at random.”

“More madness,” said Arstan, when he heard. “How can any man possibly remember a new name every day?”

“Those who cannot are culled in training, along with those who cannot run all day in full pack, scale a mountain in the black of night, walk across a bed of coals or slay an infant.” 318

“My queen,” said Arstan, “there have been no slaves in the Seven Kingdoms for thousands of years. The old gods and the new alike hold slavery to be an abomination. Evil. If you should land in Westeros at the head of a slave army, many good men will oppose you for n other reason than that. You will do great harm to your cause, and to the honor of your House.”

“Yet I must have some army,” Dany said. “The boy Joffrey will not give me the Iron Throne for asking politely.”

“When the day comes that you raise your banners, half of Westeros will be with you,” Whitebeard promised. “Your brother Rhaegar is still remembered with great love.”

“And my father?” Dany said

The old man hesitated before saying, “King Aerys is also remembered. He gave the realm many years of peae. Your Grace, you have no need of slaves. Magister Illyrio can keep you safe while your dragons grow, and send secret envoys across the narrow sea on your behalf, to sound out the high lords for your cause.”

“Those same high lords who abandoned my father to the Kingslayer and bent the knee to Robert the Usurper?”

“Even those who bent their knees may yearn in their hearts for the return of the dragons.” 320

“Bricks and blood built Astapor,” Whitebeard murmured at her side, “and bricks and blood her people.”

“What is that?” Dany aked him, curious.

“An old rhyme a maester taught me, when I was a boy, I never knew how true it was. The bricks of Astapor are red with the blood of the slaves who make them.”

“I can well believe that,” said Dany.

“Then leave this place before your heart turns to brick as well. Sail this very night, on the evening tide.”

Would that I could, thought Dany. “When I leave Astapor it must be with an army, Ser Jorah says.”

“Ser Jorah was a slaver himself, Your Grace,” the old man reminded her. “There are sellswords in Pentosand Myr and Tyrosh you can hire. A man who kills for coin has no honor, but at least they are no slaves. Find your army there, I beg you.”

“My brother visited Pentos, Myr, Braavos, near all the Free Cities. The magisters and archons fed him wine and promises, but his soul was starved to death. A man cannot sup from the beggar's bowl all his life and stay a man. I had my taste in Qarth, that was enough. I will not come to Pentos bowl in hand.”

“Better to come a beggar than a slaver,” Arstan said.

“There speaks one who has been neither.” Dany's nostrils flared. “Do you know what it is like to be sold, squire? I do. My brother sold me to Khal Drogo for the promise of a golden crown. Well, rogo crowned him in gold, though not as he had wished, and I... my sun-and-stars made a queen of me, but if he had been a different man, it might have been much otherwise. Do you think I have forgotten how it felt to be afraid?”

Whitebeard bowed his head. “Your Grace, I did not mean to give offense.”

“Only lies offend me, never honest cousel,” Dany patted Arstan's hand to reassure him. “I have a dragon's temper, that's all. You must not let it frighten you.”

“I shall try and remember.” Whitebeard smiled.

He has a good face and great strength to him, Dany thought. She could not understand why Ser Jorah mistrusted the man so. Could he be jealous that I have found another man to talk to? 323-324

171 ASOS 28 Daenerys III: Arstan Whitebeard warns Daenerys a dragon is worth more than any army. 370-372

Whitebeard stared in shocked disbelief. His hand trembled where it grasped the staff. “No.” He went to one knee before her. “Your Grace, I beg you, win your throne with dragons, not slaves. You must not do this thing--”

“You must not presume to instruct me. Ser Jorah, remove Whitebeard from my presence.”

Mormont seized the old man roughly by an elbow, yanked him back to his feet, and marched him out onto the terrace. 370

Arstan Whitebeard held his tongue as well, when Dany swept by him on the terrace. He followed her down the steps in silence, but she could hear his hardwood staff tap tapping on the red bricks as they went. She did not blame him for his fury. It was a wretched thing she did. The Mother of Dragons had sold her strongest child. Even the thought made her ill.

Yet down in the plaza of Pride, standing on the hot red bricks between the slavers' pyramid and the barracks of the eunuchs, Dany turned on the old man, “Whitebeard,” she said, “I want your counsel, and you should never fear to speak your mind with me...when weare alone. But never question me in front of strangers. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Your Grace,” he said unhappily.

“I am not a child,” she told him. “I am a queen.”

“Yet even queens can err. The Astapori have cheated you, Your Grace. A dragon is worth more than any army. Aegon proved that three hundred years ago on the Field of Fire.”

“I know what Aegon proved. I mean to prove a few things of my own.” 371-372

186 ASOS 43 Daenerys IV:

Barristan warns Dany about Mero:

But when Mero was gone, Arstan Whitebeard said, “That one has an evil reputation, even in Westeros. Do not be misled by his manner, Your Grace. He will drink three toasts to your health tonight, and rape you on the morrow.” 578

Dany asks Arstan of Rhaegar's tournament victories and they discuss the tourney of Harrenhal. 585-587

"Viserys said that our brother won many tourneys."

Arstan bowed his white head respectfully. "It is not meet for me to deny His Grace's words..."

"But?" said Dany sharply. "Tell me. I command it."

"Prince Rhaegar's prowess was unquestioned, but he seldom entered the lists. He never loved the song of swords the way Robert did, or Jaime Lannister. It was something he had to do, a task the world had set him. He did it well, for he did everything well. That was his nature. But he took no joy in it. Men said that he loved his harp much better than his lance."

"He won some tourneys, surely," said Dany, disappointed.

"When he was young, His Grace rode brilliantly in a toyrney at Storm's End, defeating Lord Steffon Baratheon, Lord Jason Mallister, the Red viper of Dorne, and a mystery knight who turned out to be the infamous Simon Toyne, chief of the kingswood outlaws. He broke twelve lances against Ser Arthur Dayne that day."

"Was he the champion, then?"

"No, Your Grace. That honor went to another knight of the Kingsguard, who unhorsed Prince Rhaegar in the final tilt."

Dany did not want to hear about Rhaegar being unhorsed. "But what tourneys did my brother win?"

"Your Grace." The old man hesitated. "He won the greatest tourney of them all."

"Which was that?" Dany demanded.

"The tourney Lord Whent staged at Harrenhal beside the God's Eye, in the year of the false spring. A notable event. Besides the jousting, there was a melee in the old style fought between seven teams of knights, as well as archery and axe-throwing, a horse race, a tournament of singers, a mummer show, and many feasts and frolics. Lord When was as openhanded as he was rich. The lavish purses he proclaimed drew hundreds of challengers. Even your royal father came to Harrenhal, when he had not left the Red Keep for long years. The greatest lords and mightiest champions of the Seven Kingdoms rode in that tourney, and the Prince of Dragonstone bested them all. "

"But that was the tourney when he crowned Lyanna Stark as queen of love and beauty!" said Dany. "Princess Elia was there, his wife, and yet my brother gave the crown to the Stark girl, and later stole her away from her betrothed. How could he do that? Did the Dornish woman treat him so ill?"

"It is not for such as me to say what might have been in your brother's heart, Your Grace. The Princess Elia was a good and gracious lady, though her health was ever delicate. COMPLETE QUOTE 585-587

Selmy had affection for Robert:

"What of the Usurper? Did he play sad songs as well?"

Arstan chuckled. "Robert? Robert liked songs that made him laugh, the bawdier the better. He only sang when he was drunk, and then it was like to be 'A Cask of Ale' or 'Fifty-Four Tuns' or 'The Bear and the Maiden Fair.' Robert was much--" 587

201 ASOS 58 Daenerys V: After Whitebeard saves Daenerys from Mero, Jorah calls out him for not being who he pretends. Arstan reveals himself to be Ser Barristan Selmy of the Kingsguard, then reveals Jorah as an informer to Varys.

Barristan councils to address the Meereenese hero:

“Let the fool ride back and forth and shout until his horse goes lame. He does us no harm.”

“He does,” Arstan Whitebeard insisted. “Wars are not won with swords and spears alone, ser. Two hosts of equal strength may come together, but one will break and run whilst the other stands. This hero builds courage in the hearts of his own men and plants the seeds of doubt in ours.”

Ser Jorah snorted. “And if our champion were to lose, what sort of seed would that plant?”

“A man who fears battle wins no victories, ser.”

“We're not speaking of battle. Meereen's gates will not open if that fool falls. Why risk a life for naught?”

“For honor, I would say.” 775

“This challenge must be met,” Arstan said again.

“It will be,” Dany said, as the hero tucked his penis away again. “Tell Strong Belwas I have need of him.” 777

Arstan defends Daenerys from Mero:

Arstan Whitebeard leapt from his horse and stood over her, the salt wind riffling through his snowy hair, both hands on his tall hardwood staff.

"Grandfather," Mero said, "run off before I break your stick in two and bugger you with--"

The old man feinted with one end of the staff, pulled it back, and whipped the other end about faster than Dany would have believed. The Titan's Bastard staggered back into the surf, spitting blood and broken teeth from the ruin of his mouth. Whitebeard put Dany behind him. Mero slashed at his face. The old man jerked back, cat-quick. The staff thumped Mero's ribs, sending him reeling. Arstan splashed sideways, parried a looping cut, danced away from a second, checked a third mid-swing. The moves were so fast she could hardly follow. Missandei was pulling Dany to her feet when she heard a crack. She thought Arstan's staff had snapped until she saw the jagged bone jutting from Mero's calf. As he fell, the Titan's Bastard twisted and lunged, sending his point straight at the old man's chest. Whitebeard swepy the blade aside almost contemptuously and smashed the other end of his staff against the man's temple. Mero went sprawling, blood bubbling from his mouth as the waves washed over him. A moment later, the freedmen washed over him too, knives and stones and angry fists and falling in a frenzy.

Dany turned away, sickened. She was more frightened now than when it had been happening. He would have killed me.

"Your Grace." Arstan knelt. "I am an old man, and shamed. he should never have gotten close enough to seize you. I was lax. I did not know him without his beard and hair." 788

Jorah calls out Arstan for not being who he pretends:

Ser Jorah gave the old man a long look. “A squire with a stick slew Mero of Braavos, is that the way of it?”

"A stick," Dany confirmed, "but no longer a squire. Ser Jorah, it's my wish that Arstan be knighted."

"No."

The loud refusal was surprise enough. Stranger still, it came from both men at once.

Ser Jorah drew his sword. "The Titan's Bastard was a nasty piece of work. And good at killing. Who are you, old man?"

"A better knight than you, ser," Arstan said coldly

Knight? Dany was confused. "You said you were a squire."

"I was, Your Grace." He dropped to one knee. "I squired for Lord Swann in my youth, and at Magister Illyrio's behest I have served Strong Belwas as well. But during the years between, I was a knight in Westeros. I have told you no lies, my queen. Yet there are truths I have withheld, and for that and all my other sins I can only beg youe forgiveness."

"What truths have you withheld?" Dany did not like this. "You will tell me. Now."

He bowed his head. "At Qarth, when you asked my name, I said I was called Arstan. That must was true. Many men called me by that name while Belwas and I were making our way East to find you. But it is not my true name."

She was more confused than angry. He has played me false, just as Jorah warned me, yet he saved my life just now.

Ser Jorah flushed red. "Mero shaved his beard, but you grew one, didn't you. No wonder you looked so bloody familiar..."

"You know him?" Dany asked the exile knight, lost.

"I saw him perhaps a dozen times...from afar most often, standing with his brothers or riding in some tourney. but every man in the Seven Kingdoms knew Barristan the Bold." He laid the point of his sword against the old man's neck. "Khaleesi, before you kneels Ser Barristan Selmy, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, who betrayed your house to serve the Usurper Robert Baratheon."

The old knight did not so much as blink. "The crow calls the raven black, and you speak of betrayal."

"Why are you here?" Dany demanded of him. "If Robert sent you to kill me, why did you save my life?" He served the Usurper. he betrayed Rhaegar's memory, and abandoned Viserys to live and die in exile. Yet if he wanted me dead, he need only have stood aside..."I want the whole truth now, on your honor as a knight. Are you the Usurper's man, or mine?"

"Yours, if you will have me." Ser Barristan had tears in his eyes. "I took Robert's pardon, aye. I served him in Kingsguard and council. Served with the Kingslayer and others near as bad, who soiled the white cloak I wore. Nothing will excuse that. I might be serving in King's Landing still if the vile boy upon the Iron Throne had not cast me aside, it shames me to admit. But when he took the cloak the White Bull had draped about my shoulders, and sent men to kill me that selfsame day, it was as though he'd ripped a caul off my eyes. That was when I knew I must find my true king, and die in his service--"

"I can grant that wish," Ser Jorah said darkly.

"Quiet," said Dany. "I'll hear him out."

"It may be that I must die a traitor's death," Ser Barristan said. "If so, I should not die alne. Before I took Robert's pardon I fought against him on the Trident. You were on the other side of the battle, Mormont, were you not?" He did not wait for an answer. "Your Grace, I am sorry I misled you. It was the only way to keep the Lannisters from learning that I had joined you. You are watched, as your brother was. Lord Varys reported every move Viserys made, for years. Whilst I sat on the small council, I heard a hundred such reports. And since the day you wed Khal Drogo, there has been an informer by your side selling your secrets, trading whispers to the Spider for gold and promises."

He cannot mean... "You are mistaken." Dany looked at Jorah Mormont. "Tell him he's mistaken. There's no informer. Ser Jorah, tell him. We crossed the Dothraki sea together, and the red waste..." Her heart fluttered like a bird in a trap. "Tell him, Jorah. Tell him how he got it wrong." 789-791

215 ASOS 72 Daenerys VI: Dany forgives Barristan and takes him into service but exiles Jorah 985-988

Barristan offers to answer Dany's questions about her family and history:

“Your Grace?”

She turned to find Ser Barristan behind her. “What more would you have of me, ser? I spared you, I took you into my service, now give me some peace.”

"Forgive me, Your Grace. It was only... now that you know who I am..." The old man hesitated. "A knight of the Kingsguard is in the king's presence day and night. or that reason, our vows require us to protect his secrets as we would his life. But your father's secrets by rights belong to you now, along with his throne, and... I though perhaps you might have questions for me."

Questions? She had a hundred questions, a thousand, ten thousand. Why couldn't she think of one? "Was my father truly mad?" she blurted out. Why do I ask that? "Viserys said this talk of madness was a ploy of the Usurper's..."

"Viserys was a child, and the queen sheltered him as much as she could. Your father always had a little madness in him, I now believe. Yet he was charming and generous as well, so his lapses were forgiven. His reign began with such promise...but as the years passed, the lapses grew more frequent, until..."

Dany stopped him. "Do I want to hear this now?"

Ser Barristan considered a moment. "Perhaps not. Not now."

"Not now," she agreed. "One day. One day you must tell me all. The good and the bad. There is some good to be said of my father, surely?"

"There is, Your Grace. Of him, and those who came before him. Your grandfather Jaeherys and his brother, their father Aegon, your mother...and Rhaegar. him most of all."

"I wish I could have known him." Her voice was wistful.

"I wish he could have known you," the old knight said. "When you are ready, I will tell you all." 992

274 ADWD 3 Daenerys I: “Selmy was training knights for her, teaching the sons of slavers to fight with lance and longsword in the Westerosi fashion” 38

283 ADWD 12 Daenerys II 23: Barristan tells how he escaped King's Landing 170-171

“It has been so long,” she had said to Ser Barristan, just yesrerday. “What if Daario has betrayed me and gone over to my enemies?” Three treasons you will know. “What if he met another woman, some princess of the Lhazarene?”

The old knight neither liked nor trusted Daario, she knew. Even so, he had answered gallantly. “There is no woman more lovely than Your Grace. Only a blind man could believe otherwise, and Daario Naharis was not blind.”

No, she thought. His eyes are a deep blue, almost purple, and his gold tooth gleams when he smiles for me.

Ser Barristan was sure he would return, though. Dany could only pray that he was right. 165

As an alternative to opening the fighting pits, Ser Barristan recommends a tourney:

“his orphans could ride at rings and fight a melee with blunted weapons, he said, a suggestion Dany knew was hopeless.” 168

Barristan tells how he escaped King's Landing:

Ser Barristan escorted her back up to her chambers. “Tell me a tale, ser,” Dany said as they climbed. “Some tale of valor with a happy ending.” She felt in need of happy endings. “Tell me how you escaped from the Usurper.”

COMPLETE QUOTE 170-171

288 ADWD 17 Daenerys III: Barristan hopes Dany will accept Xaro's ships and sail for Westeros. 232-233, 236

She turned her back upon the night, to where Barristan Selmy stood silent in the shadows. "My brother once told me a Westerosi riddle. Who listens to everything yet hears nothing?"

"A knight of the Kingsguard." Selmy's voice was solemn.

"You heard Xaro make his offer?"

"I did, Your Grace." The old knight took pains not to look at her bare breast as he spoke to her.

Ser Jorah would not turn his eyes away. He loved me as a woman, where Ser Barristan loves me only as his queen. Mormont had been an informer, reporting to her enemies in Westeros, yet he had given her good counsel, too. "What do you think of it? Of him?"

"Of him, little and less. These ships, though... Your Grace, with these ships we might be home before year's end.

Barristan begs Dany to sail to Westeros. 236

“Those left behind in Meereen would envy them their easy deaths,” moaned Reznak

"Where is your courage?" Ser Barristan lashed out. "Her Grace freed you from your chains. It is for you to sharpen your swords and defend your own freedom when she leaves."

"Brave words, from one who means to sail into the sunset," Symon Stripeback snarled back. "Will you look back at our dying?"

302 ADWD 31 Daenerys V: Dany asks Barristan about his knights in training. They are not ready yet. As to Yunkai, Barristan would meet them in the field. 445-446

“How fare your orphans, ser?”

The old knight smiled. “Well, Your Grace. It is good of you to ask.” The boys were his pride. “Four or five have the makings of knights. Perhaps as many as a dozen.”

“One would be enough if he were as true as you.” The day might come soon when she would have need of every knight.

“Will they joust for me?” I should like that. Viserys had told her stories of the tourneys he had witnessed in the Seven Kingdoms, but Dany had never seen a joust herself.

“They are not ready, Your Grace. When they are, they will be pleased to demonstrate their prowess..”

“I hope that day comes quickly.” 435

Barristan would meet the Yukai'i in the field:

“You mean to take the field?” The Shavepate's voice was thick with disbelief. “That would be folly. Our walls are taller and thicker than the walls of Astapor, and our defenders are more valiant. The Yunkai'i will not take this city easily.“

Ser Barristan disagreed. “I do not think we should allow them to invest us. Theirs is a patchwork host at best. These slavers are no soldiers. If we take them unawares...”

When Daenerys finally turned away, Ser Barristan stood near her, wrapped in his white cloak against the chill of evening. “Can we make a fight of this?” she asked him.

"men can always fight, Your Grace. Ask rather if we can win. Dying is easy, but victory comes hard. Your freedmen are half-trained and unblooded. Your sellswords once served your foes, and once a man turns his cloak he will not scruple to turn it again. You have two dragons who cannot be controlled, and a third that may be lost to you. Beyond these walls your only friends are the Lhazarene, who have no taste for war. "

"My walls are strong, though."

"No stronger than when we sat outside them. And the Sons of the Harpy are inside the walls with us. So are the Great Masters, both those you did not kill and the sons of those you did."

"I know." The queen sighed. "What do you counsel, ser?"

"Battle," said Ser Barristan. "Meereen is overcrowded and full of hungry mouths, and you have too many enemies within. We cannot long withstand a siege, I fear. Let me meet the foe as he comes north, on ground of my own choosing."

"Meet the foe," she echoed, "with the freedmen you've called half-trained and unblooded."

"We were all unblooded once, Your Grace. The Unsullied will help stiffen them. If I had five hundred knights..."

"Or five. And if I give you the Unsullied, I will have no one but the Brazen Beasts to hold Meereen."

315 ADWD 44 Daenerys VII: Dany asks Ser Barristan who her parents would have wed, had they been free to follow their hearts. 631-632

On the day that [Daario] returned from his latest sortie, he had tossed the head of a Yunkish lord at her feet and kissed her for all the world to see, until Ser Barristan Selmy pulled the two of them apart. Ser Grandfather had been so wroth that Dany feared blood might be shed. 620

“It is ser, is it not? Daario tells me that you are a knight.”

“If it please Your Grace, we are all three knights.”

Dany glanced at Daario and saw anger flash across his face. He did not know. “I have need of knights,” she said.

Ser Barristan's suspicions had awakened. “Knighthood is easily claimed this far from Westeros. Are you prepared to defend that boast with sword or lance?”

“If need be,” said Gerrold, “though I will not claim that any of us is the equal of Barristan the Bold.” 625

“Tell me,” Dany said, as the procession turned toward the Temple of the Graces, “if my father and my mother had been free to follow their hearts, whom would they have wed?” COMPLETE QUOTE 631-632

322 ADWD 51 Daenerys VIII: Dany asks about assassinating Brown Ben Plumm and about dealing with the Yunkish sellsword companies to see if any would come over. Selmy says Dany could marry Quentyn Martell. 729-731

“Ser Barristan?” she said softly

The white knight appeared at once. “Your Grace.”

“How much did you hear?”

“Enough. He was not wrong. Never trust a sellsword.”

Or a queen, thought Dany. “Is there some man in the Second Sons who might be persuaded to...remove...Brown Ben?”

"As Daario Neharis once removed the otherr captains of the Stormcrows?" The old knight looked uncomfortable. "Perhaps. I would not know, Your Grace."

No, she thought, you are too honest and honorable. "If not, the Yunkai'i employ three other companies."

"Rogues and cutthroats, scumof a hundred battlefields," Ser Barristan warned, "with captains full as treacherous as Plumm."

"I am only a young girl and know little of such hings, but it seems to me that we want them to be treacherous. Once, you'll recall, I convinced the Second Sons and Stormcrows to join us.

"If Your Grace wishes a privvy word with Gylo Rhegan or the Tattered Prince, I could bring them to your apartments.

"This is not the time. Too many eyes, too many ears. Their absence would be noted even if you could separate them discreetly from the Yunkai'i. We must find some quieter way of reaching out to them...not tonight, but soon."

"As you command. Though I fear this is not a task for which I am well suited. In King's Landing work of this sort was left to Lord Littlefinger or the Spider. We old knights are simple men, only good for fighting." he patted his sword hilt.

Barristan goes on to recommend against contacting Bloodbeard and to suggest the Dornish path. Dany decides to take Quentyn to see the dragons to tell him to escape Meereen wile he can.

324 ADWD 53 Daenerys IX: Barristan reports the Tattered Prince's price: Pentos. 753-754

At the base of the Great Pyramid, Ser Barristan awaited them beside an ornate open palanquin, surrounded by Brazen Beasts. Ser Grandfather, Dany thought. Despite his age, he looked tall and handsome in the armor that she'd given him. "I would be happier if you had Unsullied guards about you today, Your Grace," the old knight said as Hizdahr went to greet his cousin. "Half of these Brazen Beasts are untried freedmen." And the other half are Meereenese of doubtful loyalty, he left unsaid. Selmy mistrusted all the Meereenese, even shavepates.

"And untried they shall remain unless we try them."

"A mask can hide many things, Your Grace. Is the man behind the owl mask the same owl who guarded you yesterday and the day before? How can we know?

"How should Meereen ever come to trust the Brazen Beasts if I do not? There are good brae men beneath those masks. I put my life into their hands." Dany smiled for him. "You fret too much, ser. I will have you beside me, what other protection do I need?

"I am one old man, Your Grace."

"Strong Belwas will be with me as well."

"As you say." Ser Barristan lowered his voice. "Your Grace. We set the woman Meris free, as you commanded. Before she went, she asked to speak with you. I met with her instead. She claims this Tattered Prince meant to bring the Windblown over to your cause from the beginning. That he sent her here to treat with you secretly, but the Dornishmen unmasked them and betrayed them before she could make her own approach."

Treachery on treachery, the queen thought wearily. Is there no end to it?

Barristan goes on to name the Tattered Prince's price: Pentos. 753-754

Ser Barristan drew his sword as the column ground to an abrupt halt between the pink-and-white pyramid of Pahl and the green-and-black pyramid of Naqqan.

Dany turned. "Why are we stopped?"

Hizdahr stood. "The way is blocked."

A palanquin lay overturned athwart their path. One of its bearers had collpased, overcome by the heat. "Help that man," Dany commanded. "Get him off the street before he's stepped on and give him food and water. He looks as though he has not eaten in a fortnight.

Ser Barristan glanced uneasily to left and right. Ghiscari faces were visible on the terraces, looking down with cool and unsympathetic eyes. “Your Grace, I do not like this halt. This may be some trap. The Sons of the Harpy--”

“--have been tamed,” declared Hizdahr zo Loraq. 755-756

Barristan would spare her the sight of Drogon's death, but constrains his queen:

Ser Barristan held her tightly. “Look away, Your Grace.”

“Let me go!” Dany twisted from his grasp. 764

327 ADWD 56 The Queensguard: At the Great Pyramid of Meereen, Ser Barristan Selmy assumes temporary command in Daenerys's absence. He tempers Skahaz and involves Grey Worm until officially relieved of duty by Reznak mo Reznak. Then, Barristan decides to join Skahaz.

331 ADWD 60 The Discarded Knight: The Yunkish Wise Masters toss Admiral Groleo's head before Hizdahr's court. They announce they require Daenerys's dragons destroyed and will keep her hostages until it's done. Selmy warns Quentyn to sail immediately.

339 ADWD 68 The Kingbreaker: Ser Barristan Selmy seizes Hizdahr for trial to realize the dragons are loose. Selmy recalls the tourney at Harrenhal and regrets he did not unhorse Rhaegar and name Ashara Dayne the queen of love and beauty.

342 ADWD 71 The Queen's Hand: Rhaegal has taken the black pyramid of Yezzan for his lair and the pyramid of Hazkar s a ruin. Luckily, the rain has put out the fires. After Quentyn dies, and Barristan holds a war council, Selmy sends the Dornish to hire the Windblown to free the three hostages. The Sons of the Harpy are killing again. The Green Grace demands Hizdahr released to stop the killings, suggesting she's the Harpy. The Yunkai'i begin throwing corpses carrying the flux over the walls.