Ranking all 11 sample chapters from The Winds of Winter
By John Fallon
8. “Alayne I”
Posing as Alayne Stone, Sansa’s sample chapter from The Winds of Winter is the first time we’ve returned to her point of view since A Feast for Crows. Aligned with Petyr Baelish, she has the power of the Lady of the Eyrie and is preparing to marry a suitor to solidify their control over the Vale.
To create an excuse to meet her betrothed, Sansa and Littlefinger cook up a scheme to hold a tourney to determine who will serve in Lord Robert Arryn’s personal guard, named the Brotherhood of Winged Knights. At the tourney, she meets the newly-knighted Harrold Hardyng, who has powerful connections. Although he treats Alayne poorly for her bastard name, Sansa knows she must win him over. At the behest of Lord Petyr Baelish, she attempts to charm Harrold, known also as Harry the Heir, during a feast held that evening, and he begins to fall for her.
This exciting development is the beginnings of the plan Baelish laid out earlier in A Feast for Crows, when Sansa first embraces her role as “Alayne Stone:”
"When Robert dies, Harry the Heir becomes Lord Harrold, Defender of the Vale and Lord of the Eyrie. Jon Arryn’s bannermen will never love me, nor our silly, shaking Robert, but they will love their Young Falcon… and when they come together for his wedding, and you come out… clad in a maiden’s cloak of white and grey with a direwolf emblazoned on the back… why, every knight in the Vale will pledge his sword to win you back your birthright. So those are your gifts from me, my sweet Sansa… Harry, the Eyrie, and Winterfell."
Sansa is in the great game now.