Leyton Hightower stood alone at the window on the Hightower's top floor.
Outside, smoke still lingered over Oldtown.
The fire in the square had gone out, but the charred corpse-Mace Tyrell-still hung from the stake. No one dared take it down.
The clamor of the riots gradually subsided.
Not because order had returned, but because the mob had grown tired and hungry and stopped to rest.
But Leyton knew this was merely the calm before the storm.
They would stir again.
Once they did, they would discover that their bellies were still empty, that they were still poor, and that burning the Tyrell lord had changed nothing.
They would need a new target.
And the Hightower stood right there.
He turned and looked at the letter on his desk.
It was the appointment Tywin Lannister had sent, bearing Tommen I's seal and formally naming him Warden of the South.
Mace was dead.
His son-in-law, the Lord of Highgarden and head of House Tyrell, had died in the streets of Oldtown, burned alive by a mob of fanatical septons and rioters.
And while it happened, Leyton Hightower, Mace's father-in-law and the ruler of Oldtown, had hidden inside the Hightower without so much as stepping outside.
House Tyrell would never forgive him.
Whatever reasons he offered, however he explained himself, the fact remained: Mace had died on his lands, and he had done nothing.
There was no turning back now.
Leyton closed his eyes and drew a deep breath.
When he opened them again, the hesitation had vanished from his aged eyes, leaving only cold resolve.
Since that was how things stood, he would see this through to the bitter end.
He went to the door, pulled open the heavy Oak Door, and told the attendant outside, "Summon the earls to the