Brienne arrives at the gates of Duskendale and queues up to wait for the gates to open at dawn. As she waits, she asks others assembled outside the gate if they have seen Sansa without success. As dawn breaks, she looks around her at the people waiting to enter. Most are farmers, but there are also a pair of wealthy townsmen and a skinny boy on a pirbald horse. At the gate, the guards bar her way at first, but let her pass when they see she is a woman. She remarks that she means to repaint her shield, and one of the guards tells her that his sister does such work. In the market square just inside the gate, hawkers are selling leftover arms and armor from the battle between the Northmen and Randyll Tarly for cheap prices. Brienne rides to the house of the guardsman's sister and gives her the shield for repainting, describing a design she recalled from her father's armory,1 as she dare not carry her own arms while people still believe she killed Renly. The woman agrees to do the job, but it will not be done until the next day and she suggests Brienne take a room at the Seven Swords across the street.
After securing a room and bathing, Brienne walks to the Dun Fort to inquire after the lord of the town. The guard informs her that Lord Renfred is at Maidenpool with Lord Randyll and that Ser Rufus Leek serves as castellan in his absence. Brienne is brought before Ser Rufus and presents her warrant from Tommen. Rufus cannot read and fetches a maester. The maester is annoyed, as many have come looking after Dontos since his house is from Duskendale. Dontos was the last of his house due to the Defiance of Duskendale, but he has never returned since that time. He says that she should look elsewhere. On the way back to the castle, Brienne is dejected at her failure. She thinks that Sansa would not have fled to strangers and would flee to someplace she knew. She thinks back to her interrogation of Brella in King's Landing, who told her that Sansa often prayed in the godswood and that she probably returned to the North where her gods are. Brienne cannot begin to guess which Stark bannerman she may have run to and wonders if she would have fled to relatives instead. She thinks this could mean the Wall, Riverrun, or the Vale, but cannot decide which one. As she ponders, she gets lost and takes a wrong turn. She starts back the way she came and collides with a boy. The boy, who looks familiar to Brienne, mutters an apology and runs off. Brienne realizes it is the boy she saw at the gate that morning.
The inn is crowded when she returns, but a dwarf holy brother gives up his seat for her. Brienne mentions the brothers she saw headed for King's Landing, and he reveals that hundreds of sparrows are on there way to the city. Brienne asks the dwarf if he has seen Sansa or Dontos, and the brother reveals he saw a fool in Maidenpool.2 He says the man was in an establishment called the Stinking Goose looking for passage for three across the Narrow Sea. Brienne wonders if the third could be Tyrion.3 A few days later, a man named Nimble Dick was in the same establishment boasting that he had "fooled a fool." Brienne buys the dwarf dinner and ponders what he told her. She is leery of going to Maidenpool with Lord Randyll there, but decides it is the best course of action. That night, she dreams of Renly's death, but his face becomes that of Jaime. The next morning, the guardsman's sister comes bearing the repainted shield, which includes a tree and a falling star.1 As she leaves town, she sees the common grave where the Northmen who attacked Duskendale were buried and says a silent prayer for Robb and Catelyn and swears she will find Catelyn's daughters. More than an hour outside of town, Brienne comes to a fork in the road and the ruins of a castle. The right-hand fork leads to Crackclaw Point, while the left-hand fork is the road to Maidenpool. The ruined castle once belonged to House Hollard. As a storm is developing, she decides to take refuge in the ruin. As she begins searching for wood for a fire, she hears a rider approach. She can tell the rider is a small man, and fears it is Ser Shadrich. She is surprised when the rider turns out to be a boy, specifically the boy she bumped into at Duskendale. As he turns down a road, she realizes he was at Rosby as well and must be following her. She decides to follow him, and sneaks up behind him to give his horse a whack with her tourney sword. The boy falls and lands in the mud. He identifies himself as Podrick Payne and states that he was following her because Brella told him she was looking for Sansa. He figures Sansa will lead him to Tyrion. He still considers himself Tyrion's squire and is dejected that he was left behind.
