A Clash of Kings

How it opens

Arya Stark leaves King's Landing with her hair chopped off, disguised as Arry the orphan boy among the men and boys the black brother Yoren is taking to the Wall. When the orphan Hot Pie tries to take her sword Needle, she beats him with her practice sword, and Yoren punishes her for it. In the Red Keep, Sansa Stark sits beside King Joffrey at his name day tourney and talks him out of drowning a drunken knight, Ser Dontos. Then the gates open and Tyrion Lannister, the queen's dwarf brother, rides in with sellswords and men in shabby skins.

Who you meet early

• Arya StarkArya Stark travels north disguised as Arry, an orphan boy, among the recruits Yoren is taking to the Wall. Her father has been beheaded, and Yoren has promised to leave her at Winterfell on the way.
• YorenYoren, a black brother of the Night's Watch, is taking thirty men and boys from King's Landing to the Wall. Some he found in the dungeons and some on the streets.
• Hot PieHot Pie is one of the orphan boys Yoren is taking to the Wall. His mother was a baker, and he boasts that he once kicked a boy to death.
• Sansa StarkSansa Stark is an unwilling guest of the queen in the Red Keep, still betrothed to King Joffrey after he presented her with her father's head. When word came that her brother Robb had been proclaimed King in the North, Joffrey had her beaten.
• Joffrey BaratheonJoffrey Baratheon is king in King's Landing and turns thirteen on the day of his name day tourney. Lord Eddard Stark died at his command, and Sansa Stark is still his betrothed.
• Sandor CleganeSandor Clegane, the Hound, wears the white cloak of the Kingsguard and stands guard behind King Joffrey, though he has never taken a knight's vows.
• Tyrion LannisterTyrion Lannister, the queen's dwarf brother, rides into the Red Keep with his right arm in a sling, which he says came from the battle on the Green Fork. His father Lord Tywin has sent him to court to rule and to curb King Joffrey.
• Arys OakheartSer Arys Oakheart of the Kingsguard escorts Sansa Stark to King Joffrey's name day tourney. He once objected when Joffrey commanded him to hit her, but he hit her in the end.