The Queen's Hand

The Queen's Hand is the title Barristan Selmy assumes in the wake of Daenerys Targaryen's flight from Daznak's Pit, a role that forces the aging knight to step far beyond the boundaries of the Kingsguard oath he has kept for most of his life. With the queen vanished on Drogon's back and her consort Hizdahr zo Loraq imprisoned on suspicion of poisoning, Selmy becomes the de facto ruler of Meereen, a city he never wanted to govern and whose customs he barely understands. The title itself is a makeshift invention, a response to a power vacuum that threatens to tear the city apart from within and without.

The Weight of Command

Selmy's assumption of authority is marked by a profound sense of inadequacy. He confesses to himself that he was not made for this, recalling that other Kingsguard had served as Hand before him but that he feels as lost and confused as they might have been. His first act is to convene a council of the city's fractious factions—freedmen captains, Unsullied commanders, Dothraki bloodriders, and even the pit fighters who had once served Hizdahr. He insists on a round table where men may sit and talk as peers, a symbolic rejection of the hierarchical thrones Hizdahr had installed. Yet the council is riven by suspicion and bloodlust. Skahaz mo Kandaq, the Shavepate, urges him to execute the children of the Great Masters as hostages, a proposal Selmy flatly refuses, declaring that he will not suffer the murder of children. This moral stand, however principled, leaves him politically isolated, dependent on the loyalty of men he does not fully trust.

The Breaking of the Peace

The fragile peace that Daenerys had purchased with her marriage shatters when the Yunkish envoys present the severed head of Admiral Groleo, one of the hostages given as surety. Selmy watches Hizdahr freeze in the face of this provocation, unable to summon the steel that the moment demands. The old knight realizes that the king is either complicit in the plot or too weak to resist it. When the Yunkish lords demand the destruction of the dragons as a condition for peace, Selmy knows that war is inevitable. He begins to prepare for battle, stockpiling sheep in the fighting pits to lure the dragons away from the city and ordering the construction of a beacon atop the Great Pyramid that will signal the attack. The Green Grace returns from her embassy with the Yunkish refusal: no amount of gold will buy back the hostages, only the blood of dragons can set them free. Selmy's response is quiet but final: "Fire and blood."

The Death of the Prince

Amidst these preparations, Selmy must also contend with the aftermath of Quentyn Martell's disastrous attempt to steal the dragons. The Dornish prince lies dying in the queen's own bed, his body hideously burned, his flesh sloughing away. Selmy visits him in his final hours, and when the prince dies just before dawn, the old knight covers his face and promises to return his bones to Dorne. He interrogates the surviving Dornish knights, Gerris Drinkwater and Archibald Yronwood, learning the full extent of the folly: Quentyn had promised the Tattered Prince the city of Pentos in exchange for help stealing the dragons. Selmy sees an opportunity in this disaster, sending the two Dornishmen back to the Windblown camp with a message offering to pay the Tattered Prince's price if he delivers the hostages unharmed. It is a gambit born of desperation, a recognition that he cannot win this war by conventional means.

The Final Reckoning

As the Yunkish trebuchets begin to hurl corpses over Meereen's walls, spreading the pale mare among the defenders, Selmy knows that time has run out. He orders the beacon lit, signaling the attack that will either break the siege or destroy the city. The old knight stands on the terrace of the Great Pyramid, watching the distant fires, and reflects on the kings he has served and failed: Aerys, Robert, and now Daenerys. He wonders if she is dead, if her body lies unmourned in the tall grasses of the Dothraki sea. But he refuses to believe it. He saw her riding the dragon, and he clings to that image as the only hope left. The Queen's Hand is not a title he wanted, but it is the role he must play until his queen returns or he dies trying to hold her city for her.