A Dance with Dragons

How it opens

Tyrion Lannister drinks his way across the narrow sea in a small ship's cabin, then is sealed in a wine cask when the ship comes to port and tipped out in the cellar of Magister Illyrio Mopatis in Pentos. Over supper Illyrio offers him a dish of mushrooms, eats them himself when Tyrion refuses, and tells him they have work to do. In Meereen, Queen Daenerys Targaryen is woken in the night to see the body of Stalwart Shield, the first of her soldiers killed by the Sons of the Harpy. She spends the day hearing petitions, and at its end a man spills a sack of burnt bones before her and says the black one came down from the sky.

Who you meet early

• Tyrion LannisterTyrion Lannister has fled King's Landing after killing his father, Lord Tywin, with a crossbow. He wakes in Pentos as the guest of Illyrio Mopatis, and Illyrio tells him the queen has offered a lordship for his head.
• Illyrio MopatisIllyrio Mopatis, a magister of Pentos, was once host to Viserys and Daenerys. Now he takes Tyrion into his manse as a friend of a friend across the water, and warns him not to stray beyond the walls.
• Daenerys TargaryenDaenerys Targaryen rules Meereen as its queen from the Great Pyramid, and her three dragons are growing wild. The Sons of the Harpy murder her freedmen by night.
• Barristan SelmySer Barristan Selmy serves Daenerys in Meereen as the lord commander of her Queensguard. He is training the sons of slaves to fight as knights for her.
• Grey WormGrey Worm is the captain of the Unsullied who serve Daenerys in Meereen. By her command his men walk the streets in pairs by night.
• Skahaz mo KandaqSkahaz mo Kandaq, called the Shavepate, shaved his head to put old Meereen behind him and accept the new. He tells Daenerys that blood must pay for blood.
• Hizdahr zo LoraqHizdahr zo Loraq is a wealthy Meereenese nobleman who owns most of the fighting pits in Meereen. Daenerys has refused his petition to reopen them five times, and refuses it again.