When he got back to camp, Stannis summoned Davos to his tent. "I have a job for you."
"I…" Davos licked his lips. "I am yours to command. What would you have me do?"
"Nothing you have not done before. Only land a boat beneath Storm's End, unseen, in the black of night. Can you do that?"
"Yes. Tonight?"
Stannis gave a curt nod. "You will need a small boat. Not Black Betha. No one must know what you do."
"My… my liege, I've never killed anyone before…"
"I don't want you to kill Ser Courtney Penrose," Stannis said. Davos relaxed. "I just want you to take Melisandre up there so she can kill him."
Davos wanted to protest, yet when he opened his mouth, the words would not come. He remembered how Melisandre had killed Maester Cresson back at Dragonstone.
FLASHBACK
Davos had been sitting with the other knights and captains and lords in the great hall of Dragonstone. They were going over battle plans when the old maester came danubing in and saw another man sitting in his place.
"Maester Pylos," Cresson had said. "You… you did not wake me."
"You are too ill and too confused to be of use to me, old man," Stannis said. "Pylos will counsel me henceforth. Already he works with the ravens, since you can no longer climb to the rookery. I will not have you kill yourself in my service."
Davos looked at Cresson. Davos knew he'd be upset if Stannis said those things to him, but Cresson merely blinked. All he said was, "As you command, my lord, but… but I am hungry. Might not I have a place at your table?"
Ser Davos rose from his bench. "I should be honored if the maester would sit here beside me, your grace."
"As you will." Stannis turned away to say something to Melisandre, who had seated herself at his right hand, in the place of high honor.
The court jester, Fiddleford McGucket, was capering about as the maester made his slow way around the table to Davos. Perhaps once McGucket was a good fool, but now he had lost his wits and was incoherent as often as not. Only the king's daughter Shireen payed any attention to him or cared about him at all. "It's always summer under the sea," he sang. "I know, I know, oh, oh, oh."
Davos moved aside to make room on the bench for Cresson. "We all should be in motley tonight," he said gloomily as Cresson seated himself, "for this is fool's business we're about. The red woman has seen victory in her flames, so Stannis means to press his claim, no matter what the numbers."
Cresson stood back up again. "Lord Stannis."
Stannis turned, but it was his wife Selyse who replied. "King Stannis. You forget yourself, Maester."
"He is old, his mind wanders," the king told her gruffly. "What is it, Cresson? Speak your mind."
"If you intend to sail, you need to make common cause with the Griffins and Pewtershmidts."
"I make common cause with no one," Stannis said. "The Griffins seek to steal half my kingdom."
"Even so, you cannot hope to triumph without allies."
"He has an ally," Lady Selyse said. "R'hllor, the Lord of Light, the god of flame and shadow."
"Gods make uncertain allies at best," Cresson insisted, "and that one has no power here."
"You think not?" The ruby around Melisandre's neck caught the light as she turned her head, and for an instant it seemed to glow as bright as the comet in the sky. "If you will speak such folly, Maester, you ought to wear the fool's headdress again."
Old Man McGucket danced over to Cresson and placed his jester hat on the maester's head. "The stones crack open," he sang. "The water burns."
"Mayhap I have been a fool," Cresson said. He raised a goblet. "Lady Melisandre, will you share a cup of wine with me? A cup in honor of your god, the Lord of Light? A cup to toast his power?"
The red priestess studied him. "If you wish."
But Davos saw Cresson drop some poison in the cup. He clutched Cresson's arm. "What are you doin'?" he whispered.
"A thing that must be done," Maester Cresson answered, "for the sake of the realm, and the soul of my lord." He shook off Davos's hand.
Cresson walked up to Melisandre at the head of the table. She took the cup from his hands and drank long and deep. There was only half a swallow of wine remaining when she offered it back to him. "And now you."
Cresson had no choice but to drink the remaining liquid in the glass. Instantly he started to cough, a cough that became a terrible thin whistle. He sank to his knees. But Melisandre was unaffected by the poison, despite having had way more than him. "He does have power here, my lord," she said as the ruby at her throat glowed.
As Cresson collapsed onto the floor, McGucket began to sing, "The triangle comes to dance, my lord, the triangle comes to play. The triangle comes to dance, my lord, the triangle comes to stay."
END OF FLASHBACK
Now Davos was rowing Melisandre through the secret passage beneath Storm's End. The little boat slowed and swirled. The sound of their breathing echoed until it seemed to surround them. Davos had not expected the blackness. The last time he was here, torches had burned all along the tunnel, and the eyes of starving men had peered down through the holes in the ceiling. The portcullis was somewhere ahead, he knew. Davos used the oars to slow them, and they drifted against it almost gently.
"This is as far as we go, unless you have a man inside to lift the gate for us." His whisper scurried across the lapping water like a line of mice on soft pink feet.
"Have we passed within the walls?" she asked.
"Yes. Beneath. But we can go no farther. The portcullis goes all the way to the bottom. And the bars are too closely spaced for even a child to squeeze through."
There was no answer but a soft rustling. Davos looked back at Melisandre. She had taken off her clothes! She was naked, and she looked like she was pregnant. That couldn't be. Her belly hadn't been so big a moment ago.
A shadow came out of her vagina. And it had Stannis's face!
The Shadow Monster floated between the bars of the portcullis and up into the castle. "Okay, we can go now," Melisandre said.
Next morning, it was learned that Ser Courtney Penrose had died. Davos wondered if Renly had died the same way.
Needless to say, Ser Courtney's lieutenant, Lord Elwood Meadows, immediately gave up the castle, and Edric Storm.
