A eunuch and slaver-mark of Lys, sold north as a boy to a sorcerer who cut him for a ritual and threw the rest of him into the sea; he survived and made his way to King's Landing by routes the chronicles never recorded. Aerys II raised him to Master of Whisperers as his madness deepened, Robert Baratheon kept him for the same office without much liking him, and the Lannister boy on the throne after Robert keeps him still. He is called the Spider for his web of little birds, children with cut tongues who carry secrets to him from every kitchen and brothel and barracks in the realm; he claims no master save the one he has not yet named.
