Davos first appears in 1998's "A Clash of Kings" and later in "A Storm of Swords" (2000) and "A Dance with Dragons" (2011), serving as Stannis Baratheon's most trusted counselor. Davos comes from humble means and was a successful smuggler, who slipped through Targaryen loyalists' blockade to bring a shipful of much-needed supplies to Stannis and his starving forces defending the castle Storm's End during Robert's Rebellion. As appreciation for saving his men, Stannis raised him up as a knight and a vassal lord, but personally cut off the fingertips of Davos' left hand to punish for the criminal career of smuggling. Davos considers the treatments fair, and is stubbornly loyal to Stannis, but fears the growing influence of the red priestess Melisandre. He forms a close fatherly relationship with Stannis' disfigured daughter Shireen.