A Clash of Kings Chapter 53 Summary

How It All Goes Down

Sansa IV

  • Sansa meets Ser Dontos in the godswood and asks him to take her away from King's Landing before the fighting starts.
  • Dontos says he has talked to a man who will hire a swift ship, but the time must be right. He and she have decidedly different opinions on what time qualifies as right.
  • Sansa returns to her tower and heads up top. Looking across the soon to be besieged city, she feels the urge to fall, but the Hound prevents her.
  • She apologizes for not thanking him for her rescue, but he says he did not need courage to fight off those rats.
  • When Sansa asks why he is so harsh, the Hound informs her of his survival of the fittest worldview.
  • That night, Sansa has a nightmare about the riot and wakes up to the realization that she has had her period.
  • She tries to burn the mattress and sheets to remove the evidence, but it proves fruitless as she is still bleeding when they pull her away from the fire.
  • Cersei has Sansa invited to her solar for breakfast.
  • The Queen Regent opens up to Sansa about womanhood and childbirth, and she confides that Robert was not there when Joffrey was born.
  • Sansa may not love the king, Cersei asserts, but she will love his children.