Chapter Summaries

Lushen disguised himself and his three soldiers to infiltrate Hek's bandit camp and seize its leader, believing Hek had captured people trying to surrender. The bandits revealed that Hek was actually helping them surrender and that a different group was refusing, leaving Lushen demanding to know who they were.

• Roslyn told Suleiman that Hek had captured people trying to surrender and that Lushen had charged up the mountain with three soldiers, so Suleiman rode north with twelve cavalrymen and ordered Roslyn to bring fifty soldiers.
• Lushen and his three soldiers disguised themselves as ragged outlaws and entered Hek's camp, where they quickly overpowered Hek and his second-in-command.
• Lushen held Hek at knifepoint and warned the bandits that Suleiman's army was coming, demanding that they surrender.
• The bandits insisted they were preparing to surrender and explained that Hek had gathered them to lead them down the mountain.
• Lushen realized he had misunderstood the situation and demanded to know who was actually refusing to surrender.

Lushen persuaded Hek and his men to help him infiltrate the Mountain Brotherhood, where they killed Mad Dog, captured the mysterious messenger, and seized the camp. Wounded but triumphant, Lushen presented Mad Dog’s head to Suleiman and declared that he had not let him down.

• Lushen offered Hek and his men a chance to earn private land by helping him defeat the Mountain Brotherhood, and they agreed to join him.
• Lushen noticed that Mad Dog deferred to a well-dressed messenger, suggesting the man was behind the Brotherhood’s refusal to surrender.
• Lushen and his soldiers attacked Mad Dog while Hek captured the messenger and freed the prisoners, who helped create a commotion and force the bandits to surrender.
• Lushen and Hek displayed Mad Dog’s head and convinced the Brotherhood’s men that Suleiman’s army had surrounded the valley.
• Suleiman arrived as Lushen led more than thirty captured men out of the valley and presented Mad Dog’s head to him.

After Suleiman’s forces defeated the mountain robbers, he personally treated Lushen’s wounds and heard how Lushen had rescued them through a clever attack. Suleiman praised Lushen and rewarded Hek and his former robbers, appointing Hek as Lushen’s deputy.

• Suleiman arrived after the battle, ordered care for the wounded, and personally bandaged Lushen.
• Roslyn established a defensive camp while the badly wounded soldier and more than twenty prisoners were sent down the mountain.
• Lushen recounted how he had entered the robbers’ stronghold and rescued Suleiman’s group.
• Suleiman praised Lushen’s courage and cunning in front of the camp.
• Suleiman granted land to Hek’s brothers and appointed Hek as Lushen’s deputy and one of his officers.

Suleiman interrogated a captured messenger and learned that House Legg of Willow Town had organized bandits to raid his lands and cause chaos. With the messenger offering to lead them to the hideout and help open its gate, Suleiman decided to deal with the enemy immediately.

• Suleiman ordered his soldiers to search the captured messenger, then threatened him with torture when the search found nothing.
• Suleiman described brutal punishments until the messenger broke and confessed that House Legg had organized a bandit alliance to raid his lands.
• The messenger revealed that about seventy bandits remained and offered to guide Suleiman to their hideout and help trick them into opening the gate.
• Suleiman ordered the soldiers to bandage the messenger and told Lushen and Roslyn they would settle the matter without descending the mountains.

Suleiman’s soldiers used a frightened messenger to infiltrate and slaughter two bandit camps. At Offshore Cliff, the third group saw through the messenger’s lie and confronted the approaching force.

• Suleiman’s soldiers forced the messenger to open the first bandit camp’s gate, then killed its occupants in a surprise attack.
• The soldiers repeated the ruse at the second stronghold and slaughtered the bandits there.
• Suleiman ordered Roslyn to equip the middle soldiers with shields before they approached Offshore Cliff’s narrow path.
• Roslyn sent the messenger to claim that Mad Dog was coming to join the bandits with his wealth.
• A powerful bandit leader appeared above the gate and demanded to know who the messenger had brought, noting that Mad Dog’s camp was burning.

Suleiman’s men were driven back by Bryn the Smith’s deadly archery while trying to approach the bandit camp at Offshore Cliff. After learning about Bryn’s past and the rival bands in the camp, Suleiman began planning a way to turn the bandits against one another.

• Bryn shot Roslyn in the arm and led the defenders’ arrow barrage, forcing Roslyn and his soldiers to retreat from the narrow mountain path.
• Suleiman questioned the captured messenger, who identified the archer as Bryn, a former smith from the Vale whose family had been killed by a noble.
• The messenger explained that Bryn led fewer than ten men who sought revenge on nobles, while more than forty other bandits belonged to two rival bands.
• Lushen offered to lead an assault, but Suleiman studied the sand table and considered how Bryn’s hatred of nobles and the rival bandits’ pursuit of profit could be used against the camp.
• Suleiman knocked over the stones representing the camp and its bands as he settled on a plan.

Roslyn tried to persuade the besieged bandits to surrender, but Smith Bryn rejected negotiation and kept the leaders from acting. Suleiman’s forces then wore down the defenders with constant feints and nighttime harassment, leaving Thorn and Broken Tooth ready to defy Bryn.

• Roslyn brought the captured House Legg envoy within bowshot of the cliff and declared that the envoy’s promises were false, offering forgiveness if the bandits surrendered.
• As Thorn began to accept Roslyn’s offer, Smith Bryn shot arrows at the shieldmen and said the nobles would hang the bandits if they split up.
• Thorn and Broken Tooth resented Bryn’s decision, while he prepared his nine subordinates for trouble from the other bandits.
• Suleiman’s soldiers exhausted the defenders with repeated false alarms, sudden approaches, and nighttime noises around the cliff.
• Thorn and Broken Tooth demanded that Bryn either fight or negotiate, but he refused to trust the nobles and told them to try negotiating without his men.
• Bandits from all three sides gathered with hands on their weapons as the confrontation with Bryn escalated.

Suleiman brought the bandits’ relatives to Offshore Cliff and offered forgiveness to those who surrendered, breaking the resolve of many men. Bryn let them leave and fought Thorn and Broken Tooth’s men, while Suleiman signaled his soldiers to attack as the camp gate opened.

• Hek brought the relatives of the bandits to Offshore Cliff, where Roslyn announced Suleiman’s offer of forgiveness for anyone who came home.
• The families’ pleas drove Toke and more than a dozen other bandits to break down and ask to leave, while Bryn’s companions urged him to open the gate.
• Colin said he would surrender to protect his father, and Bryn ordered that the bandits be allowed to go.
• Thorn and Broken Tooth tried to stop the men from leaving, but Bryn defended them and fought their followers.
• A bandit opened the camp gate, and Suleiman signaled his soldiers to charge toward Offshore Cliff.

Suleiman’s soldiers overwhelmed the bandit camp, and Roslyn stopped their slaughter once they had taken control. Suleiman offered Bryn the Smith a chance to surrender, but Bryn refused to kneel and asked only for death, while pleading for his nine brothers and the bandits they had protected to be spared.

• Suleiman’s soldiers broke through the gate and massacred the bandits until Roslyn ordered them to stop.
• Bryn and his nine brothers defended their families and a group of would-be surrendering bandits as soldiers surrounded them.
• Suleiman approached Bryn and offered to forgive his resistance if he laid down his weapon and knelt.
• Bryn refused to kneel to another noble and explained how his former lord had betrayed him and his family.
• Bryn asked Suleiman to spare his brothers and the bandits they had sheltered, then requested death for himself.

Suleiman executed Thorn and Broken Tooth, then let Bryn and his men leave despite Bryn refusing his offer and the first Lion Sword. Bryn returned that night seeking to trust Suleiman, who accepted him and his eight warriors without demanding a knee or oath.

• Thorn and Broken Tooth begged Suleiman to spare them and blamed Bryn, but Suleiman ordered them beheaded and their heads sent to military towns.
• Suleiman told Bryn and his nine men they could leave and offered Bryn the first Lion Sword, but Bryn refused the gift.
• Bryn had Colin and the bandits under his protection surrender, then left with eight brothers while Suleiman let them pass.
• Bryn and his eight brothers returned to Suleiman's camp that night, and Bryn asked if he could trust Suleiman's promise.
• Suleiman stopped Bryn from kneeling and told him he would trust Bryn because Bryn had chosen to return.

Bryn accepted Suleiman’s offer of help and pledged loyalty to him, joining the celebration after the victory. Suleiman then asked Bryn what rare resources or unusual things the Mountains of the Moon held, revealing his interest in controlling the range.

• Bryn questioned why Suleiman had agreed to help him take revenge, and Suleiman said another grudge would not burden him.
• Bryn accepted the Lion Sword from Suleiman and pledged his loyalty.
• Suleiman ordered a feast, and soldiers, bandits, and their families celebrated together.
• Roslyn approached Bryn, praised him, and toasted him; they put their fight on Offshore Cliff behind them.
• Suleiman led Bryn away from the feast and asked about unusual features and rare resources in the Mountains of the Moon.
• Bryn understood that Suleiman wanted to control the mountain range.

Suleiman learned that Bryn could guide him in taking control of the Mountains of the Moon, and the two toasted their plans for conquest and revenge. At the campfire, Will insisted he had seen a massive stone dragon with glowing ruby eyes, and Suleiman recognized the vision as real.

• Bryn told Suleiman about hidden mountain routes, supplies, shelters, and passes, and offered to guide him in securing the Riverlands side of the mountains.
• Suleiman praised Bryn, and they drank to conquering the High Mountains of the Moon and taking revenge.
• At the campfire, Will claimed he had seen a huge stone dragon in a cave, but his companions and the soldiers laughed at him.
• Will described the dragon's glowing stone eyes following him, and Suleiman saw a red eye turning in the flames and realized he had received another vision.

Suleiman heard Will claim he had found a living dragon made of stone in a cave and connected the tale to a vision he had experienced two months earlier. After Bryn mentioned the Wildlings’ Dragon-Body Mountain legend, Suleiman ordered him to take Will there.

• Will insisted that he had seen and touched a stone dragon whose eyes moved in the dark.
• Suleiman considered whether the creature could be Sheepstealer, an ancient dragon connected to the Vale.
• Bryn explained that Will’s sighting had happened about two months earlier, when the group was in Wildling territory.
• Bryn recalled the Wildlings’ legend of a cave called Dragon-Body Mountain.
• Suleiman recognized that the timing matched his vision during the burning of the Wildlings’ heads and told Bryn to take Will there.

Suleiman questioned the drunk Will about a stone dragon he claimed to have seen in a cave in the Mountains of the Moon, but Will’s uncertain memories left Suleiman unsure whether it was real. Suleiman chose not to launch a search, and Bryn took Will away after Will insisted that firelight had made the dragon’s green eyes look red.

• Suleiman questioned Will about the stone dragon’s appearance, and Will described its horns, enormous body, and glowing eyes.
• Bryn challenged Will’s story and scolded him for drinking, while Will admitted he could barely remember where the cave was or what color the dragon’s eyes had been.
• Suleiman warned Will to stop drinking and considered searching the dangerous Mountains of the Moon, but decided against acting on the unreliable account.
• As Bryn led Will away, Will claimed he remembered that firelight had made the dragon’s green eyes look red, and Bryn kicked him before Bra carried him into the woods.

King Robert Baratheon demanded that Thoros show him the future in the flames, and Thoros was unexpectedly drawn into a vision of black-flamed wolves surging from the Mountains of the Moon. The vision ended with the wolves passing through Thoros as they raced toward the plains, bent on slaughter, revenge, and return.

• Robert complained to Thoros that Jon had refused to let him lead the war against Balon Greyjoy and insisted that Stannis could not handle it.
• Robert challenged Thoros to reveal the kingdom's future in the fireplace flames, joking that he would shove Thoros into the fire if he failed.
• Thoros prayed to the Lord of Light and was pulled into a vision of fire.
• Thoros saw a torrent of black-flamed wolves emerge from the Mountains of the Moon and rush toward the plains.
• The wolves passed through Thoros's soul as he sensed their purpose was slaughter, revenge, and return.

Thoros experienced a terrifying vision of the Seven Kingdoms consumed by fire, followed by a man crowned king among obedient wolves. After Thoros told Robert it was a divine warning, Robert dismissed him, leaving Thoros shaken and newly fearful of the flames.

• Thoros saw black wolves emerge from destructive flames that burned the Seven Kingdoms, then witnessed dead nobles feasting as skeletons.
• Thoros saw a flame-made man crowned amid a pack of shadowy wolves before being thrown back into his body.
• Robert mocked Thoros's collapse, but Thoros warned him that he had seen the kingdom burn and called the vision a bad omen.
• Robert rejected Thoros's warning, blamed drunkenness, and left him alone in the room.
• Thoros felt the rune of the Lord of Light grow hot and wondered whether the vision had been sent by his god.

After returning to Lion's Den, Suleiman found that Evelyn had transformed Abyss Valley into a formidable cliffside fortress. He ordered the officials of the four Military Towns to establish a beacon network and prepare for rapid mobilization, laying the groundwork for a strike against House Legg.

• Suleiman returned to Lion's Den with Hek's men, Bryn's warriors, and surrendered bandits, and the newcomers marveled at the fortress Evelyn had built into Abyss Valley's cliffs.
• Suleiman asked Evelyn about Bronn and learned that the mercenary had disappeared after taking the money, but he set the matter aside to address more urgent plans.
• Suleiman summoned the officials of the four Military Towns and had Bryn show them a map marking Lion's Den and five beacon sites.
• Suleiman ordered the towns to build beacon towers, mobilize their residents when they saw smoke, and send forces to Lion's Den when a red beacon signaled war.
• Suleiman declared that any attacked fortress could raise a beacon and that all towns must answer, promising rewards for the fastest Military Fort and punishment for the slowest.

Suleiman announced decrees to establish new households, encourage settlement in the Mountains of the Moon, and support soldiers and their families after death or severe injury. Bryn called Suleiman a true nobleman, while Evelyn worried about the cost of the compensation.

• Suleiman decreed that eligible younger sons must leave their family homes and receive communal land, tools, seeds, and five years without taxes.
• Suleiman explained that he wanted independent families to settle and cultivate the Mountains of the Moon and defend their homes.
• Suleiman decreed that widows of fallen soldiers could remarry under a contract protecting their children or find paid work at the Military Fort.
• Suleiman promised ten Silver Stags and monthly support for the families of soldiers killed or severely disabled in battle, along with educational opportunities for their children.
• Evelyn silently considered the financial burden of the decrees, and Bryn knelt before Suleiman and called him a true nobleman.

Suleiman ordered every decree, tax, appointment, reward, and punishment to be carved on a Public Notice Board and read aloud, making officials executors of his laws. As the new boards went up in the four Military Towns, the people learned about land grants and support for soldiers’ families, leaving Elan with compensation and hope for her children.

• Suleiman ordered a Public Notice Board erected in every Military Town and required officials to publish and read aloud all laws and government decisions.
• Officials set up boards in the four Military Towns, and an official in South Canyon read Suleiman’s laws to the gathered crowd.
• The crowd reacted with excitement when it heard that men aged eighteen and older, except eldest sons, could form households and receive land to farm.
• The official read that families of soldiers killed in battle would receive ten Silver Stags and that widows who did not remarry could take paid work.
• Elan received ten Silver Stags for her fallen husband, and the military officer told the gathered women that Suleiman remembered those who died for him.

Lord Suleiman’s new laws offered land to second sons and support to war widows, changing the lives of Tam and Elan. Tam left home to clear mountain land, while Elan found paid work and compensation to support her children.

• The steward posted Lord Suleiman’s three laws on the Public Notice Board, including mountain land for second sons and compensation for families of soldiers killed in battle.
• Tam chose to leave his family and claim land in the Mountains of the Moon, and Nar gave him a Family Separation Decree and a pitchfork.
• Tam’s family and the people at the Military Fort saw him and other young settlers off as they set out for the mountains.
• Elan, whose husband had died in battle, refused to remarry and asked the steward for work so she could support her sons.
• The steward hired Elan as a Water Purification Worker, and she later wept with gratitude when she received her family’s compensation.