Chapter Summaries

Lingor explained Westeros's coinage to Raegon and Alarion, then used two debased Gold Dragons to negotiate for armor and shields at Storm's End. The chapter ended with a silver-haired man leading a caravan to a spot beside the Red Fork.

• Lingor, Raegon, and Alarion earned one hundred and twenty Silver Stags escorting a merchant, and Alarion found two debased Gold Dragons on bandits he killed.
• Lingor explained the values of Westeros's currencies and regretted overpaying for horses.
• Lingor took Raegon to a smith to buy two breastplates and three shields while Alarion guarded their camp.
• The smith accepted the two Gold Dragons for two ready-made breastplates and offered to paint the shields at no extra charge.
• By the Red Fork, a silver-haired man raised his hand as someone told him they had reached the place.

A silver-haired Valyrian sought the place where Vhagar had fallen, hoping to find a dragon, but abandoned the search and considered a sea route toward the Stepstones. Meanwhile, Lingor, Rhaegen, and Aelaryon commissioned decorated shields, and the smith guessed Lingor was connected to House Tarly.

• The silver-haired traveler recalled how Forrest Frey earned respect and honor for his deeds in the Riverlands war.
• His servant reported that local smallfolk no longer remembered where Vhagar had fallen, so the traveler gave up searching for the site.
• The traveler learned that Silver Fleet inspections had eased near the Stepstones and began considering a bold plan for the sea route.
• Lingor bought inexpensive armor and discussed shield designs with Rhaegen and Aelaryon.
• The smith accepted their designs and promised the shields in about three days, privately guessing that Lingor was a Tarly.

Duke Borros prepared the Stormlands for a campaign to seize the Stepstones, while Lingor chose to continue his journey north instead of joining the war. In King's Landing, Lonzell believed Lingor would fulfill the Green Men's promise beneath a Weirwood tree.

• Borros reviewed the Stormlands' troop preparations and accepted a loan from the Rogare Bank in exchange for supporting Lys's war against Myr.
• Lingor told Aelarion and Raegon that they would travel north rather than join the Stepstones campaign, and Aelarion understood their mission was to protect Lingor as he completed his journey.
• Lingor and his companions left Storm's End, unnoticed by the crowds but mourned by the smith who had hoped to profit from their custom.
• Diana asked Lonzell to protect Lingor if danger arose, and Lonzell reassured her that their son would not be in danger.
• Lonzell recalled seeing Lingor beneath a Weirwood tree in Melisandre's flames and hoped the Green Men's promise would satisfy Lingor.

Lingor and his companions entered the Kingswood and were ambushed by Robin’s remaining Greencloaks Brotherhood. The youths slaughtered the bandits, while “Hyena” Kane watched from the shadows, wondering who they were.

• Lingor, Raegon, and Aelaryon traveled through the Kingswood and prepared fresh game and mushrooms for camp.
• Aelaryon sensed danger, and Raegon shielded Lingor from a crossbow bolt with his back shield.
• Robin ordered his remaining Greencloaks Brotherhood to attack the three youths and seize their horses and weapons.
• Aelaryon killed the little Giant with his warhammer, and Lingor and his companions cut down Robin and the other bandits.
• “Hyena” Kane watched the fight and was surprised by how practiced the three youths were at killing.

Lingor and his companions killed the Greencloak Brotherhood, and Lingor realized his sword was the Valyrian steel blade Star-Singer. The hedge knights who had watched them revealed they were bound for Harrenhal and asked to travel with them, leaving Lingor to consider their request.

• Lingor, Rhaegar, and Alerion slaughtered the Greencloak Brotherhood, while Kane, Jaime, and Albin watched from the woods.
• Lingor recognized faint gem settings on his sword and realized it was Star-Singer, which Daniella had given him.
• Kane and the other hedge knights emerged, and Lingor recognized them from their earlier meeting in the Stormlands.
• Kane introduced himself as Kane Mudd, and Lingor recognized the ancient name and the crown on Kane's shield.
• Jaime told Rhaegar that they were traveling to the Harrenhal tourney and asked whether they could accompany him and his attendants; Lingor considered the request.

Lingor accepted three wandering knights into his company after securing their obedience and regional knowledge, then led the group toward the Riverlands. At Harrenhal, Duke Kermit Tully and the assembled lords considered Prince Viserys’s plan to choose a new lord for the castle through a tourney, while Benjicot Blackwood suspected the royal family meant to disrupt the Riverlands’ postwar order.

• Lingor agreed to take Albin, Kane, and Jaim along on the condition that they obey his orders, and Raegon and Elaeryon warned them to keep pace.
• Lingor and his company bypassed King's Landing, crossed the Blackwater Rush, and headed for the Riverlands.
• The Riverlands lords gathered at Harrenhal to discuss Prince Viserys’s plan to hold a tourney and appoint a new lord of the castle.
• Duke Kermit Tully questioned why the royal family wanted to grant Harrenhal anew, while Benjicot Blackwood suspected Viserys intended to interfere with the Riverlands’ postwar order.

Duke Kermit explained that the Harrenhal tourney was meant to select a new lord, while the Riverlands lords would have to provide the money and men for it. Benjicot recognized that Viserys intended to use Harrenhal to tighten royal control over the Riverlands, leaving Forrest Frey uncertain about pursuing the title.

• Duke Kermit told the Riverlands lords that they were responsible for funding and staffing the Harrenhal tourney, and said the Tully family would cover its costs.
• Count Vance questioned the missing ninety thousand Gold Dragons, and Kermit explained that the royal treasury would reimburse the funds after the tourney.
• Forrest Frey asked Benjicot for advice about Lady Sabis's plan to bid for Harrenhal.
• Benjicot told Forrest that Viserys intended to make the Riverlands more obedient and that Harrenhal was likely reserved for someone chosen by the royal court.
• After Forrest left, Benjicot reflected on the tourney's prize: the title of Count of Harrenhal and Commander of the Gods Eye.

Lingor arrived at Harrenhal and entered the tourney with Raegen, Elaeryon, and Albin, while signs of political intrigue gathered around the castle. As night fell, Lingor sensed a dragon arriving overhead.

• Lingor saw Harrenhal aflame in a fleeting vision, and Raegen and Elaeryon noticed his unease.
• In King's Landing, Lonzell sensed that Lingor had reached Harrenhal and told Valar he expected his son to learn a lesson there.
• Lingor decided to enter the tourney without aiming for the championship and recognized Lucas Roxton's banner among the Crownlands knights.
• Albin asked Lingor to vouch for him, and Lingor agreed; Raegen and Elaeryon also registered as knights.
• Lingor's party pitched their tents, and as night fell Lingor looked up when a dragon arrived.

Viserys arrived at Harrenhal on Igaras to oversee the tournament, while Lingor and Raegon worried about being recognized and planned to yield to Lucas Rosetan. At the opening ceremony, Viserys offered the champion Harrenhal and the title of Commander of the Gods Eye, shocking Lingor and the Riverlands lords.

• Viserys flew Igaras to Harrenhal, where the gathered knights and lords watched the dragon land.
• Viserys greeted Kermit, Benjicot, Forrest, and Petyr, then announced that he would preside over the tournament.
• Lingor told Raegon that they could compete in disguise, and instructed him to let Lucas win if they faced him.
• Old James panicked at the sight of Igaras and fled camp while Kane Mood watched him silently.
• Viserys assured Lucas that he would win the tournament because the Crownlands knights were under Lucas's direction and the Riverlands lords were Targaryen vassals.
• At the opening ceremony, Viserys promised the champion three thousand Gold Dragons, the title of Count of Harrenhal, and the title of Commander of the Gods Eye.

Lingor explained how the royal appointment of a Commander of the Gods Eye could weaken the Tullys’ authority over the Riverlands, leaving the Riverlords displeased and Lingor wary of Viserys’s intentions. At the tourney, Ser Lucas dominated the lists, while Igaras drew Viserys’s attention to something unexpected.

• Lingor explained to Raegon and Ellarion that the Commander of the Gods Eye could let the crown influence the Riverlords and diminish the Governor of the Trident’s power.
• Lingor noticed that Duke Kermit, Marquis Frey, Count Benjicot, and Count Bracken looked displeased, but decided to wait and see what happened.
• Lingor, Raegon, and Ellarion each won one tourney bout before withdrawing to watch from the sidelines.
• Ser Lucas unhorsed seventeen knights in succession, including Ser Oscar Tully, and rode around looking for another challenger.
• Igaras nudged Viserys after seeming to notice something, and Viserys asked what was wrong.

After Lucas Rosstan won the Harrenhal tourney, Viserys made him Lord of Harrenhal and Commander of the Gods Eye, prompting lords across the realm to weigh the move’s implications. In King’s Landing, Lonzell and his allies suspected Viserys would seek control of Oldtown, while Lingor’s real trial approached.

• Viserys suspected that Igaras had sensed Sheepstealer and worried that Aegon would struggle to tame a dragon.
• Lucas Rosstan won the Harrenhal tourney, became Lord of Harrenhal and Commander of the Gods Eye, and swore fealty to Viserys and Duke Kermit.
• Duke Borros welcomed the appointment as a sign that the royal family supported the Stormlands’ campaign in the Stepstones, while Duke Cregan and the Westerlands showed little interest.
• Duke Leonette Tyrell and his advisers guessed that Viserys might take over Oldtown, and Count Redwyne warned that King’s Landing would not let the Hightowers rise again.
• Rey and Lonzell suspected Viserys planned to take over Oldtown, and Lonzell said Lingor had left Harrenhal and was approaching his real trial.

Kane Mudd revealed himself as a Faceless Man and recruited Old James into a scheme tied to Lingor and Albin’s bloodlines. As Lingor’s party continued north, a group of Targaryens sailed from Oldtown toward Grey Dread Isle to recruit a dragonless Targaryen for their own plans.

• Kane Mudd confronted Old James, told him that Lingor was the son of Prince Lonzell Varezes, and offered him a new identity and a lordship in exchange for guiding Lingor through the Neck.
• Kane revealed that Albin Rivers was actually Albin Justman, descended from Benedict Justman, and explained that his bloodline would help Prince Lonzell when Lingor went north.
• Kane showed Old James his shifting face and revealed that he was one of the Faceless Men, then ordered James to return and guide Prince Lingor.
• Lingor’s party left Harrenhal and traveled for more than half a month until they reached the end of the Trident plains and the King’s Road.
• A group of silver-haired Targaryens departed Oldtown for Grey Dread Isle to recruit a Targaryen who had been denied his dragon, or otherwise pursue their plan for dragon blood.

Lingor’s party was ambushed by Vale Wildlings after Kane and Jame betrayed them, leaving Rhaegor poisoned and unconscious. Lingor realized the Kane they knew was an impostor, identified him as Brother Saech, and demanded the antidote.

• Lingor and his companions traveled through the dangerous Neck, where Albin’s horse sank into the marsh and was devoured by lizard-lions.
• Wildlings ambushed the party after Kane led them into a dead end and Jame lured Rhaegor away; poisoned arrows struck Rhaegor.
• Lingor killed the Wildling chieftain and other attackers while Elarion dragged the wounded Kane back and Albin followed.
• Lingor realized Kane and Jame’s betrayal had been arranged by someone who knew their route, and understood that the guide was not really Kane Mudd.
• Lingor confronted the impostor, recognized him as Brother Saech, and demanded the medicine that could stop Rhaegor’s poison.

Lingor learned that Saech’s attack had been staged with the crannogmen and that Rhaegon would recover from the sleep-tree sap. He rewarded his companions, made Albin a sworn knight, and discovered Albin’s newly revealed Justman ancestry as Brandon Reed arrived.

• Jojen Kary explained that Saech had used nonlethal sleep-tree sap and that Brandon Reed had sent him to meet Lingor.
• Lingor arranged care for Rhaegon, forgave Jojen’s role in the attack, and decided Saech should face consequences while his friends received rewards.
• Lingor offered Albin a place as a sworn knight of House Valaerys, and Albin accepted and swore loyalty.
• Saech revealed that Albin’s father descended from the Justmans, giving Albin the name Albin Justman.
• Brandon Reed and a maester arrived by boat to treat Rhaegon.

Lingor learned that his father had sent him north to witness the realm’s troubles and investigate the Haunted Forest, then reached the New Gift as northern forces prepared to face a starving Wildling army. The story ended as Starsong and another dragon’s roar heralded a dragon’s arrival over the battlefield.

• Brandon Reed treated Raegon, explained Lonzell’s mission for Lingor, and agreed to send a letter to King’s Landing about the attack.
• Sache of the Faceless Men revealed that Lonzell had promised Old James a new identity and a small castle, then took James’s body away.
• Raegon woke and warned Lingor about the trap, and Lingor embraced him in relief.
• Lonzell sent Starsong north and said the dragons would punish the Vale’s mountain Wildlings, while Valar prepared to inform Rey, Danila, and Rhaena about the war.
• Lingor learned at Barrowton that Cregan Stark and Jason Lannister were preparing to stop a Wildling army of fifty thousand, then met Cregan at the New Gift with the northern forces.
• As the Wildlings came into view, the warriors heard a dragon’s roar and looked up at the darkening sky.

Lingor and Stargazer joined the Northern army’s battle against Sergen and Syllas’s Wildlings, and Dragonfire shattered the Wildling host. As the survivors fled across the mountains and plains, Lingor vowed to learn what lay beyond the Wall.

• Lord Umber urged Duke Cregan to begin the charge, while Lingor told him Stargazer would soon land.
• Stargazer landed, and Commander-in-Chief Jason and the Northern soldiers took heart as the Wildlings wavered at the sight of the dragon.
• Syllas rallied the Wildlings to advance, and Lingor climbed aboard Stargazer as Duke Cregan prepared the army.
• Lingor ordered Stargazer to burn the Giants first, and its Dragonfire ignited the Giants, mammoths, and Wildling ranks.
• Sergen died in the flames as Northern and Night’s Watch cavalry charged, turning the battle into a massacre.
• Lingor spoke with the badly burned Syllas, then had Stargazer burn him to ash before flying over the fleeing Wildlings.

After the Wildlings were defeated, Lingor traveled beyond the Wall and learned that Duke Cregan and Lord Commander Jason believed the ancient warnings about the Long Night. Lingor renewed the Stark alliance through a future marriage between their bloodlines, then dreamed of the threat in the north and heard that the repayment would come in fifteen years.

• Starlight’s Dragonfire routed the Wildlings and crushed their Giants, and Duke Cregan executed their leaders while sending the remaining captives to mines and logging camps.
• Lingor traveled into the Haunted Forest with Duke Cregan, Lord Commander Jason, Rhaegon, and their men, where Rhaegon killed a shadowcat.
• Lingor asked Duke Cregan and Lord Commander Jason about A Song of Ice and Fire, and Cregan described his dream of the Wall falling and the dead marching south.
• Lord Commander Jason pledged that his descendants would remember the danger and support the Night’s Watch if the legends proved true.
• Lingor and Duke Cregan renewed the covenant of ice and fire by agreeing that Lingor’s descendants would marry into House Stark.
• Lingor dreamed of a Weirwood, the Heart of Winter, and blue-eyed figures, while a three-eyed crow told him that their repayment would arrive in fifteen years.

Viserys established himself as Prince of Oldtown, crushed the pirates and smugglers with help from the Redwyne fleet and Prince Lingor’s Starsong, and began rebuilding the city with Rogare Bank’s support. Meanwhile, the dragons destroyed the Burned Men’s final stronghold, ending the mountain Wildlings’ resistance in the Vale.

• Viserys wrote to King Aegon about Oldtown’s corruption, the defeat of the pirates, and his plans to revive the city and its revenues.
• Prince Lingor rode Starsong into the final naval battle and burned the pirate fleet, then refused Viserys’s offer of hospitality and returned toward the Borderlands.
• House Rogare arrived in Oldtown, helped keep order, and opened Rogare Bank to finance Viserys’s reconstruction.
• Duke Joffrey Arryn’s forces drove the mountain Wildlings back to their last fortress, where Count Joffrey Velaryon waited with Tyraxes for reinforcements.
• Vomysor, Silverwing, Shadowmare, and Dawn burned the fortress and its defenders, ending the mountain Wildlings’ resistance.

The realm prospered through years of peace as the Targaryen and Valaerys families grew, dragons hatched, and the Stepstones war finally ended in Borros’s victory. By 156 AC, the long summer had brought the kingdom to the height of its prosperity, and Aegon was remembered as the Peace King.

• In 142 AC, Lingor returned to King's Landing, then went to govern Silvercrown City, while Viserys revitalized Oldtown and Maelor discovered a foreign tavern on Grey Dread Isle.
• Borros Baratheon invaded the Stepstones but suffered repeated defeats against Rhaecharino, while King Aegon and Queen Samantha began their family and new dragons hatched for both houses.
• Borros’s campaign against the pirates dragged on for years, but Alyn killed Ferle Greyjoy, and the Silver Fleet later helped Valar defeat Vel Sparro and seize Tyrosh.
• Lonzell mourned the death of Lynn Valtaken, while the royal and Valaerys families welcomed children and arranged Daeron and Jannie’s betrothal.
• In 152 AC, Borros captured Bloodstone and conquered the Stepstones, while Rhaecharino fled and the Valaerys family began rebuilding Tyrosh.
• In 155 and 156 AC, new children and dragons were born, bringing the Valaerys and Targaryen dragons to seventeen and eighteen respectively as the realm entered an age of great prosperity.

In 160 AC, the Valaerys family prepared for King Aegon and Viserys to visit while Dan Valaerys made another attempt to tame the violent dragon Senzolos. The chapter ended as Senzolos emerged to face Dan in the Dragonpit.

• King Aegon and Viserys arranged a visit to King's Landing, and Rhaegon Kaun asked Hegen Dagarion to keep Prince Aegon away from the princesses and prevent him from fathering more bastards.
• Hegen reassured Rhaegon that his people and Lord Sage would watch Prince Aegon.
• The Valaerys dragonriders gathered in the Dragonpit to support Dan Valaerys and Valenna Valaerys as Dan attempted to tame Senzolos.
• Rey took Valar's wine away, while Lonzell and Rey reflected that Valar's declining health could not be reversed.
• Dan released Valenna's hand, called to Senzolos in High Valyrian, and watched the giant dragon emerge and regard him with contempt.