Chapter Summaries

Walter Haigh and Gyles Leger marched on Duskold Town, but their soldiers rallied behind Suleiman instead of attacking. Walter was knocked unconscious as his attempted rebellion collapsed.

• Walter Haigh mustered House Haigh's forces and told them the enemy was in Duskold Town, then rode out to fight Suleiman.
• Suleiman ordered his forces and allied Riverlands armies to assemble outside Duskold Town while Rosso Brune's thousand men formed up at the gates.
• Walter Haigh and Gyles Leger advanced with nearly five thousand troops as Arwood Halton's army followed at a distance, and crowds gathered along the road cheering for Suleiman.
• Walter Haigh ordered his army to advance, but the soldiers hesitated, then joined Rosso Brune in shouting, "Long live Suleiman!"
• Walter Haigh ordered his cavalry to charge, but a horn sounded and the riders turned back to steady the ranks and denounce him as a traitor.
• An angry soldier accused Walter Haigh of betraying them and struck him, knocking him from his horse and rendering him unconscious.

Bronn watched House Mooton’s army erupt into demands to relieve Duskold Town after Walter He An, Gyles Leger, and Arwood Halton rebelled. William Mooton ordered his army to crush the rebellion, but the opposing soldiers laid down their weapons and reconciled, while Suleiman observed the bloodless end from Brownfort.

• Bronn heard reports that Walter He An, Gyles Leger, and Arwood Halton had mobilized, and rumors spread that they were rebelling against Suleiman.
• Scouts reported that the rebel armies were converging on Duskold Town, prompting William Mooton’s soldiers to demand immediate reinforcements.
• William Mooton learned that Valion Roote and Quincy Cox had been contacted by the rebels while he had been excluded, and he ordered his army to muster and crush the rebellion.
• Outside Duskold Town, soldiers from the opposing armies dropped their weapons, joined one another, and ended the conflict without a battle; Arwood Halton watched as Walter He An was helped up and Gyles Leger fled.
• Suleiman watched the armies reunite from Brownfort, and Taicho Nestoris remarked that a young Riverlands stood tall in Westeros.

Suleiman used a banquet and a fabricated list of Riverlords who had considered supporting Walter He An to frighten them, then burned the ledger and presented himself as merciful. As the lords celebrated his clemency, Rosso Brune slipped out after exchanging a silent signal with Suleiman.

• Suleiman told Taicho Nestoris that the Riverlords would understand his plans at a feast in Brownfort.
• William Mooton bragged about his loyalty while the Riverlords celebrated, and Rosso Brune reported that Walter He An and Gyles Leger had been captured.
• Rosso Brune presented a supposed record of the Riverlords’ replies to Walter He An, and Suleiman asked William Mooton how the suspected lords should be punished.
• William Mooton urged Suleiman to strip the lords of their titles and execute them, but Suleiman dismissed the ledger as a fabrication and burned it.
• The Riverlords praised Suleiman’s mercy, while Taicho Nestoris noticed Suleiman signal Rosso Brune, who quietly left the hall.

Outside Duskendale, Rosso Brune revealed four hundred thousand Gold Dragons as Suleiman’s promised spoils, stirring the Riverlands soldiers into a frenzy of loyalty. At Brownfort, Suleiman told the gathered lords that he would relocate their fiefs to the Crownlands to prevent further bloodshed.

• Rosso Brune assembled the Riverlands troops outside Duskendale and opened chests containing four hundred thousand Gold Dragons.
• Rosso Brune declared the gold was Suleiman’s promised share of the spoils, and the soldiers roared their support for Suleiman.
• At Brownfort, Suleiman told the lords that the Riverlands were ravaged and filled with armed Peasant Militias and rogue soldiers.
• Suleiman said he would relocate the lords’ fiefs to the Crownlands to prevent conflict and further bloodshed.

Suleiman presented the Riverlands lords with a plan to relocate loyal houses to seized Crownlands territory, offering them larger holdings and revealing that defeated western houses had already agreed to surrender their lands. As the lords began claiming land on a map, the roar of tens of thousands of supporters outside showed the scale of Suleiman’s power, and Jonos Bracken condemned the gathering as a feast that had opened Westeros’s eyes.

• Suleiman rejected Jonos Bracken’s request to let lords choose whether to relocate and declared that he would prevent civil war over land disputes.
• Suleiman offered loyal eastern Riverlands houses two or three times more fertile land in the Crownlands and revealed an agreement that made defeated western houses give up their lands and castles.
• Suleiman named House Deddings first to choose land, and Dain Deddings marked Duskendale and its surrounding lands on the map.
• William Mooton, Lymond Guburk, and other lesser lords claimed Crownlands holdings, while many great lords stayed seated and doubted Suleiman would force them to move.
• Tens of thousands outside Brownfort roared their support for Suleiman, and Jonos Bracken returned to the hall and denounced the gathering.

At a banquet in Brownfort, Suleiman revealed how he would resettle Riverlands lords in the Crownlands, and Arwood Halton realized the plan was designed to make the nobles dependent on Suleiman. The lords began claiming new lands, while Suleiman proclaimed that his authority came from his soldiers and the Riverlands, who answered with cheers.

• Arwood Halton challenged Suleiman’s plan, warning that Crownlands peasant militias would resist the Riverlands lords as outsiders.
• Suleiman said he would offer two hundred thousand Gold Dragons to ransom castles, suppress holdouts if needed, and urge the lords to grant land and lighter taxes to local farmers.
• Arwood Halton and the other lords understood that Suleiman had engineered the war and relocation to uproot them from the Riverlands and make them dependent on him.
• Jonos Bracken claimed the Kingswood and surrounding lands for House Bracken, prompting the Riverlands lords to scramble over the Crownlands map.
• Suleiman addressed the soldiers from Brownfort’s balcony, declared himself their friend and leader, and proclaimed that his power was bound to the Riverlands.
• The soldiers raised their swords and shields and roared, “Long live the Riverlands!”