Chapter Summaries

Daeren learned that Volantis had hidden two Young Dragons and decided to invade the city while ordering Varys to help Lansono escape. Varys revealed his Blackfyre ancestry and asked Daeren to spare the young descendant he had secretly helped protect.

• Varys delivered Lansono’s letter, which reported that Volantis had moved its two hidden Young Dragons and that Lansono’s informants had been exposed.
• Daeren ordered Varys’s Little Birds to help Lansono escape and announced that he would lead troops to punish Volantis.
• Varys told Daeren how he had been mutilated as a boy and revealed that he was descended from the Blackfyres.
• Varys admitted that Illyrio’s young son carried Blackfyre blood through a female line and asked Daeren to spare him.
• Daeren listened to Varys’s request and said he would consider it seriously.

Daeren uncovered political betrayals in Volantis, accepted the Junimos’ request to settle on the Valyrian Peninsula, and ordered a search for a mysterious change in Westeros’s western regions. In Volantis, Lansono continued spying in disguise as the city’s Archons secured reelection amid signs of factional conflict.

• Daeren tested Varys’s loyalty by asking him to bring Young Bronn to court, then concluded that Palachiro had turned against the Iron Throne after reading about Lansono’s danger.
• Prince Reoton praised his son Griffin, learned that Volantis’s dragons had been exposed, and arranged extra Unsullied guards for the boy.
• Apple told Daeren that the Junimos refused to settle in the war-ravaged Disputed Lands and instead wanted to move to the Valyrian Peninsula; Daeren accepted a quest promising the deed to Grandpa’s Farm.
• Apple warned Daeren that a special change was happening in the west, so Daeren ordered Varys to investigate The Reach and The Westerlands and hurried to a Small Council meeting about the attack on Volantis.
• Lansono, disguised as a beggar, passed a note to a Tiger Party soldier and continued gathering information, while Malacho, Nessiso, and Dolfas announced their reelection as Archons in Volantis.

Aelios exposed suspicions about the Young Dragons during Volantis's council, forcing Nessiso to let representatives inspect the Red Dragon while rallying the nobles to counterattack the Iron Throne on the Orange Coast. Meanwhile, Lansono escaped Tiger Party soldiers with help from Daario and Thoros, who offered him safe passage in exchange for favors, including a chance for Daario to meet Dragonking Daeren.

• Aelios confronted Belissio and accused Nessiso of hiding the Young Dragons, prompting nobles to demand proof that the dragons were being kept safely and had not been secretly tamed.
• Nessiso agreed to let representatives from several great houses, including Farandos, see the Red Dragon, then returned the council to Volantis's plans for a counterattack.
• Nessiso persuaded the nobles to support an attack on the Iron Throne forces occupying the Orange Coast, citing aid promised by Pentos, Qohor, Braavos, and Slaver's Bay.
• Tiger Party soldiers hunted Lansono across the Long Bridge after he infiltrated the Black Wall council and learned of Volantis's plans; Daario and Thoros hid him in a brothel.
• Daario and Thoros offered to help Lansono leave Volantis in exchange for favors, including money for Thoros to rebuild the Stormcrows and a meeting for Daario with Dragonking Daeren.

Lansono and Thoros fled Volantis as Daeren led a fleet toward the city, but an enormous silver dragon appeared over Blackwater Bay and landed on Dragonstone. Daeren recognized it as Silverwing, a dragon believed lost for generations, and hurried back to investigate.

• Lansono and Thoros escaped Volantis by boat while Daario caused a riot, but Tiger Party longships pursued them and Thoros drew his wildfire-coated sword to fight.
• Daeren sailed from King's Landing with Lannis and Redwyne ships for the campaign against Volantis, leaving Jaeherys to hold the capital and assigning other fleets to guard the Valyrian Peninsula.
• Daeren spotted two silver-fir leaves pointing back toward King's Landing, and Corax sensed a dragon approaching from that direction.
• A colossal silver-gray dragon appeared above Blackwater Bay, circled Dragonstone, and landed there as the fleet watched in shock.
• Daeren recognized the dragon as Silverwing from family records and recalled that it had vanished after the Dance of the Dragons, then urged Corax toward Dragonstone.

A colossal silver dragon identified as Silverwing returned to Westeros and drew the attention of King's Landing and Daeren. Daeren failed to bond with her but welcomed her to Dragonstone, while clues on her saddle suggested she had spent time among people during her long absence.

• Rhaella, Daenerys, and the other women saw a silver dragon fly over King's Landing, and Rhaella sent Shayani to ask her great-uncle about it.
• Varys received reports that the silver dragon was more than 610 feet long and had flown toward Blackwater Bay, so he decided to go to Dragonstone.
• Daeren approached Silverwing at the foot of Dragon Mountain and recognized her by name, calming her after she threatened him with fire.
• Daeren and Silverwing felt a bloodline resonance, but he failed to establish a bond; Silverwing then lowered her guard and rested again.
• Daeren climbed onto Silverwing's saddle and found that its worn leather and rope ladder suggested someone had maintained or replaced it during her disappearance.
• Daeren decided Silverwing could stay on Dragonstone and wondered where she had been for the past 160 years.

Daeren reunited with the ancient dragon Silverwing on Dragonstone and watched her reclaim a lair by blasting open a cave in Dragon Mountain. Varys reported that Silverwing had crossed the ocean from an undiscovered continent, leaving Daeren to consider the land she had roamed for 160 years.

• Tyrion and Varys followed Daeren to Dragonstone, where the Dragon Guard seized and restrained them for entering without permission.
• Daeren released the two ministers and showed them Silverwing, whose size astonished them and appeared to surpass Balerion’s.
• Daeren fed Silverwing several large fish while she searched Dragon Mountain for her old lair.
• Silverwing flew to a collapsed cave, melted open its entrance with dragonflame, and settled inside.
• Varys told Daeren that reports traced Silverwing’s journey from overseas across the Summer Sea, confirming she had come from an undiscovered continent.

While living with Mith in the dangerous Land of the Long Summer, Rhaegar questioned whether his expedition was on the right path and fell into a series of dreams in which Daeren repeatedly shot him. After waking in the cave, he learned that a vast swarm of monsters was approaching, and a roar sounded overhead.

• Rhaegar herded sheep, ate dried meat and Goat Milk, and mapped the Land of the Long Summer while reflecting on the expedition’s hardships.
• Rhaegar dreamed he was sixteen in King's Landing, where Daeren shot him with a Weirwood Longbow.
• Rhaegar woke in several different periods of his life, and Daeren shot him in each dream before he returned to the cave.
• Mith woke Rhaegar in the cave and warned that a large swarm of monsters was approaching.
• Rhaegar took Truth outside, saw the monsters surging toward them, and ordered everyone into the cave as a roar echoed overhead.

Rhaegar watched a silver dragon attack monsters with unnatural scarlet fire, while Silverwing’s return to Dragonstone delayed Daeren’s war preparations and drew his family and the maesters’ attention. Daeren ordered the maesters confined to the Dragonpit, and Rhaenys’s newly hatched dragon left her younger siblings eager to see it.

• Rhaegar and his companions saw a silver dragon burn monsters with scarlet dragonfire that continued burning in the wet grass.
• The silver dragon noticed Rhaegar but turned to kill and eat an Armored Fire-Breathing Dragon instead.
• Silverwing ate thirty-seven sheep on Dragonstone as Daenerys approached and touched her wing, while Scholar Aemon and Tyrion watched.
• Scholar Aemon advised Daeren to keep Varys under control, consider his family’s welfare, and raise the children carefully.
• Daeren saw that Rhaenys’s Dragon Egg had hatched into a yellow Young Dragon and warned Aegon and Visenya not to frighten it.
• After Tyrion reported that maesters wanted to study Silverwing, Daeren ordered them locked in the Dragonpit until he remembered to release them.

Daeren and Scholar Aemon agreed that Volantis held the complete Binding Spell and should be conquered, while Daeren ordered Tyrion to deal with the Citadel scholars. At the Orange Coast, Viserys faced a massive Volantene invasion and reluctantly agreed to Stannis's plan to fight despite being vastly outnumbered.

• Scholar Aemon urged Daeren to imprison the Citadel scholars in the Dragonpit and warned that Volantis's dragons threatened House Targaryen's uniqueness.
• Daeren discussed the Binding Spell with Scholar Aemon, and they concluded that Volantis might hold its complete version and should be taken.
• Victarion reunited Lusris with the Valeryon fleet and explained that the Iron Fleet would rotate its forces while Count Mofford headed toward the Orange Coast.
• A northern soldier reported that Volantis had gathered a hundred thousand troops near Vylos Town and was advancing on the Orange Coast, with a Slaver's Bay fleet also approaching.
• Viserys panicked over the invading forces, but Stannis proposed defending the high ground with the Dragon Tongue Knights, Viserys's dragon, and northern troops.
• Viserys agreed to trust Stannis's plan and threatened him if they lost.

Malacho led Volantis’s hundred-thousand-strong army and Khal Barbo’s Dothraki toward the Orange Coast, where they planned to kill a Targaryen dragon. On Dragonstone, Daeren heard Silverwing’s lonely roar and approached her, but she grew angry when he tried to touch her.

• Malacho confronted Khal Barbo about the Dothraki plundering Volantis’s land, but Khal Barbo said Pentos had requested his support and dismissed Malacho’s complaints.
• Malacho explained that Volantis planned to use its hundred thousand soldiers to kill the young Targaryen Prince’s dragon and force the Iron Throne into a ceasefire.
• Malacho described the Dothraki Planting Method, in which warriors planted a Special Crop’s roots in their bellies and consumed the rest to gain a spirit and new abilities.
• Daeren returned from fishing on Dragonstone and recalled that Tyrion had pursued the fleet while Rhaella and Scholar Aemon remained behind.
• Daeren heard Silverwing roar sorrowfully and went to Dragon Mountain to check on her.
• Silverwing briefly tolerated Daeren after recognizing their Blood and Fire Are One resonance, but raised her head angrily when he reached for her again.

Daeren rode Silverwing through dragonflame and persuaded her to fly with him toward Volantis, while Scholar Aemon urged Rhaella to mend her relationship with her son. Two days later, as Volantis's hundred thousand troops faced the Iron Throne garrison, Viserys refused to flee and prepared to fight at the front.

• Daeren climbed onto Silverwing, flew over Blackwater Bay, and emerged unharmed after riding through her dragonflame.
• Rhaella watched Daeren fly Silverwing, and Scholar Aemon spoke with her about the misunderstanding between her and her son.
• Daeren fed Silverwing, persuaded her to take off again, and headed toward Volantis; Corax followed them into the sky.
• Two days later, Viserys, Ned, Stannis, and Duke Roose surveyed Volantis's assembled army and discussed their poor odds.
• Stannis urged Viserys to escape by dragon, but Viserys refused and declared that he would ride Alex at the front of the battle.

As the hundred-thousand-strong enemy army advanced on the Orange Coast, Viserys rode Alex into battle and used dragonfire to disrupt the Dothraki charge. Roose’s Northern cavalry struck the scattered vanguard while Ned held his position, and Viserys kept guiding Alex to support Roose as the larger battle continued.

• Stannis assigned Ned to hold the high slope with Northern infantry and ordered Roose to attack with cavalry while the army prepared its anti-dragon weapons.
• Fifty thousand Dothraki ignored Malacho’s orders and charged ahead, led at the front by Qotho’s Khas.
• Viserys overcame his fear, mounted Alex, and flew toward the Dothraki, where two blasts of dragonfire killed riders and threw the vanguard into chaos.
• Roose led the Northern cavalry downhill into Qotho’s disordered Khas and killed a Dothraki rider in the clash.
• Ned refused Karstark’s request to join the fighting, holding back to preserve the position and give Stannis’s Dragon Tongue Knights an opportunity.
• Viserys circled above Roose’s troops and directed Alex to breathe dragonfire wherever the Northern cavalry charged.

Roose led The North's cavalry through the Dothraki and into the Volantis vanguard while Alex was wounded by an arrow and nearly crashed. After Khal Barbo ordered a retreat, Stannis and the Dragon Tongue Knights joined the attack, leaving Malacho's army surrounded and on the verge of defeat.

• Roose chose to press through the Dothraki instead of turning back, and Alex's dragonflame helped The North's cavalry charge into the enemy ranks.
• Khal Barbo shot Alex's wing with his Dragonbone Bow, but Alex recovered from his fall and Khal Barbo ordered the Dothraki to retreat.
• Roose led The North's cavalry into the Volantis vanguard, killed its commander, and broke its shield wall.
• Stannis released the eight hundred Dragon Tongue Knights, and Eddard and Count Karstark led their troops down the slope.
• Viserys rallied the wounded Alex, who returned to the fight and burned Volantis's wings while the Dragon Tongue Knights broke through the army.
• Malacho ordered a retreat as cavalry broke into the Volantis center from both sides.

The Iron Throne army defeated the Volantene allies after the Dothraki fled, then Stannis ordered a night raid to exploit the enemy’s disarray. As the raid set the allied army’s granary ablaze, Qotho revealed that Khal Barbo’s son Drogo had been captured.

• Malacho fled the battlefield while Domeric pursued him, broke through his guards, and forced his adjutant to cover the retreat.
• Stannis and Roose assessed the victory, and Stannis praised Domeric for nearly killing Malacho before ordering a night raid.
• Viserys mourned Alex’s injured wing while the young dragon ate, and Stannis noted that Viserys had helped turn the battle into a victory.
• Malacho berated his officers, and Qotho told him that the captured Khalakka was Drogo and asked for help securing his release.
• Iron Throne soldiers launched a night raid and set the allied army’s granary on fire, sending Malacho rushing out to fight the flames and raiders.

Stannis, Roose, and Eddard struggled to hold the Orange Coast against Volantis until Daeren arrived on the enormous silver dragon Silverwing. Malacho dismissed warnings about the dragon and advanced with a hundred-thousand-strong army, only to face Daeren and Silverwing as the battle began.

• Stannis and Roose returned from their failed night raids, and Eddard suggested Viserys use his dragon to burn Volantis's granary, but Viserys refused because Alex was injured.
• Silverwing appeared over the Orange Coast, and Stannis and Viserys went to greet Daeren, who praised Viserys for holding the line.
• Malacho learned a silver dragon had arrived, but he assumed Volantis could still defeat it and agreed with Khal Barbo to use the Dothraki as cavalry in exchange for rescuing Drogo.
• Malacho marched the allied army of one hundred thousand toward the Orange Coast with new anti-dragon weapons.
• Daeren rose above the slope on Silverwing, revealed the dragon's immense size to Malacho's army, and ordered Silverwing to unleash dragonflame.

Daeren and Silverwing devastated the Volantene and Dothraki armies on the Orange Coast, killing Khal Barbo and breaking both forces. Silverwing pursued the fleeing survivors toward Vylos Town, leaving tens of thousands dead and the battlefield in flames.

• Silverwing’s dragonfire annihilated the Volantene vanguard, while the blast wave knocked Malacho from his horse and broke his leg.
• Daeren ordered Silverwing to attack again, and her flames sent the Volantene and Dothraki forces into chaos.
• Malacho ordered the Scorpion Crossbows and Dragon-catching Ballistae deployed, while Khal Barbo forced his Bloodriders to charge despite their fear.
• Khal Barbo and his Bloodriders died in Silverwing’s dragonfire, and the army’s attempted weapons failed to injure the dragon.
• The Dothraki and Volantene troops fled, Malacho was trampled by retreating soldiers, and Silverwing pursued the armies toward Vylos Town, burning the land and killing tens of thousands.

After Volantis’s army was destroyed by Silverwing, Aelios planned to steal another dragon and considered Petyr’s suggestion to flee to Qohor. Daeren accepted Vylos Town’s surrender and learned that the captured Dothraki heir was Drogo.

• Aelios learned from Petyr that Palachiro was hidden in Meereen, then decided to steal one of Volantis’s dragons instead of fleeing immediately.
• Petyr proposed that Aelios settle in Qohor after the theft, while Aelios agreed to let Petyr liquidate assets and sell several printing workshops.
• Daeren arrived at Vylos Town on Silverwing, and the frightened defenders surrendered as he ordered the town’s officials to leave.
• Corax arrived and showed jealousy toward Silverwing, so Daeren embraced its head to reassure it.
• Stannis reported that Prince Viserys was pursuing the fleeing Dothraki, and Lord Roose presented the captured heir, who identified himself as Drogo.

Daeren defeated Drogo in a duel and forced him to swear fealty and pay tribute to the Iron Throne in exchange for his life. Drogo accepted, leaving him bound to Daeren rather than dead or serving among the Unsullied.

• Daeren learned that Drogo wanted to become the greatest khal and seek revenge, then answered his challenge to a duel.
• Daeren dodged Drogo’s powerful attacks and wounded him before overpowering him in a clash that broke Drogo’s arakh.
• After losing, Drogo offered his life, but Daeren pinned him and gave him the choice of swearing fealty or serving among the Unsullied.
• Drogo agreed to swear fealty and pay annual tribute to the Iron Throne.

Daeren released Drogo after defeating him, then ordered the immediate attack on Volantis. He arrived with Silverwing and two other dragons and began burning the Black Wall, killing Archon Nessiso as the city’s nobles tried to flee.

• Daeren let Drogo and more than two hundred Dothraki prisoners leave, and Drogo promised to return.
• Daeren ordered Stannis to free Vylos Town’s slaves, seize its slave masters, and execute most of its officials.
• Nessiso learned that Volantene nobles, including Fados, were selling their property and preparing to flee before Meereen’s fleet could arrive.
• Daeren flew Silverwing to Volantis and ordered an indiscriminate dragonfire attack on the city.
• Silverwing’s fire killed Nessiso near the Black Wall gate, and Daeren joined a red dragon and a green dragon in burning the Black Wall Nobles’ district.

Daeron crushed Volantis’s resistance, appointed Fados Pennymien its First Archon, and ordered him to abolish slavery under the Iron Throne. Daeron then flew off to search for the missing dragons, while Parachiro and Hizdahr faced the news of Volantis’s fall aboard the Slaver's Bay fleet.

• Daeron fed and mended Alex’s wing, then named Fados Pennymien First Archon of Volantis and ordered him to pacify the city and abolish slavery.
• Fados admitted that Nessiso had secretly moved the dragons and revealed that Parachiro Valeros had disappeared around the same time.
• Daeron sent Viserys with Fados to settle disputes in the West District, then flew out on Corax to patrol the sea and search for the missing dragons.
• Aboard the Meereen fleet sailing toward Volantis, Parachiro learned that the city had fallen and worried about his family.
• Hizdahr urged Parachiro to avoid a hopeless battle and reminded him that he had a dragon.