Davos is our look-in on Stannis’ storyline, so it makes sense to think that he’ll just spend the rest of the book by his side and update us on the situation in the North, but now that Stannis is actually in the North he doesn’t necessarily need Davos as a POV character any more. GRRM has said that the Battles of Ice and Fire both take place early in the book, and he’s also said that it’ll be over 1000 pages. This would mean that Davos reunites with Stannis early on in the story. It makes narrative sense – to send Davos to Skagos and have him return empty-handed or die there would be utterly pointless and a waste of valuable pages. I don’t think there’s any option that he won’t return Rickon. i.e: by the time Davos is out of Skagos with Rickon, the Battle of Winterfell is likely shaping up. That was the cliffhanger during A Dance with Dragons, and as there is still a considerable amount of the book left after Davos’ last chapter, it’s easy to assume that his TWOW storyline will take place concurrent with events during ADWD. We know that in The Winds of Winter, Davos will arrive in Skagos to retrieve Rickon Stark and return him to Winterfell. I know that most of you are already formulating snarky responses to the title, but hear me out.