Tyrion shares wine with Lord Janos, whom he has gotten quite drunk. Lord Janos had given Tyrion a list of six men to replace him as head of the city watch and now tells Tyrion that Allar Deem would be the best man for the job. Tyrion says he was considering Ser Jacelyn Bywater, the commander of the Mud Gate for the last three years who was knighted for valor by King Robert during Greyjoy's Rebellion. He is not on the list because Janos thinks him too rigid and honorable and because he is a cripple who lost a hand at Pyke, the reason for his knighthood. Tyrion points out that Allar is not well liked and asks about an incident in a brothel. Apparently, Allar was sent to kill a baby at a brothel and ended up killing the mother too when she resisted. Tyrion asks who gave the order, but Janos will not tell. Tyrion next turns to the subject of Eddard and how he ended up being executed, and Janos says he had to obey the king. Tyrion insults him and tells him that his eldest son1 will be Lord Slynt now and will be given lands some place on which to build a keep, with Harrenhal going to someone else. His other two sons2 will be fostered out as squires. Tyrion then informs Janos that he will be sailing on the Summer's Dream in the morning, bound for Eastwatch and the Night's Watch. Janos walks out defiantly, only to be confronted by Ser Jacelyn, the new commander of the city watch. Ser Jacelyn has Lord Janos escorted away, and Tyrion gives him the list containing the names of the six people Janos recommended to replace him as commander and tells Jacelyn to ship them north too. He says that Allar should be lost at sea.3
Varys enters; Tyrion and Varys planned this together, and Ser Jacelyn was Varys's recommendation for the new city watch commander. Tyrion rounds on Varys angrily for not telling him that Cersei ordered the baby killed, as she is the only logical person that would have done so. She did it because the baby was Robert's.4 He is also annoyed that Varys did not prevent it, and Varys says that he got another boy out of the city.5 Varys mentions that the girls mother still dearly loved Robert, but Tyrion thinks of Tysha and Shae and wonders if a whore can truly love anyone. He has set Shae up in a townhouse, but she is restive. She says she wants to see him more, but she seems more interested in being at court.
Varys and Tyrion go over other tidbits that Varys has learned. The captain of the White Hart plans to defect to Stannis and Ser Horas and Ser Hobber have bribed a guard to get them out of the castle and then set sail on a Pentoshi ship called Moonrunner. The city watch will deal with them both. Timett killed the son of a wine seller just that evening for cheating as well. There are also many prophets in the streets preaching about the comet. Finally, Ser Balon made a joke about the proliferation of king's at a dinner party held by Lady Tanda, but Tyrion is not interested in punishing treasonable table talk. After Varys leaves, Tyrion ponders Cersei's response to his actions, but he is confident that he is well protected now that he controls the city watch along with his clansmen and a growing force of sellswords Bronn is recruiting. Bronn himself arrives and reports on his recruiting. He questions each candidate to learn where they fought and how well they lie and then has a sparring match with them. Still feeling disgusted by the muder of Robert's bastard, Tyrion asks Bronn if he would kill a baby without question. Bronn replies that he would not; he would ask how much first.
