Guided by the dragons' dragonfire, three thousand troops of the Oldtown Garrison split into four columns under Mungo, Garth, Roland, Arthur, and Allyrion, storming into High Hermitage through its shattered gates.
Since the dragons had already wiped out almost all resistance in the city, the four columns met virtually no opposition as they pushed straight into High Hermitage's nearly ruined Main Keep.
Rather than attacking a city, the three thousand garrison troops had really come to collect spoils and take prisoners.
By the next day, when the rain and wind had ceased and sunlight shone on High Hermitage once more, all that remained in the half-ruined city were towering heaps of spoils and prisoners squatting all over the ground.
The dragons' main targets during the previous night's attack had been the defenders and the wealthy residents along the main streets, so ordinary commoners had suffered little harm.
Thus, faced with the fall of their city and the deaths of its people, the ordinary commoners showed only fear and anxiety about the future. They displayed none of the unbending Dornish spirit or determination to take their enemies down with them that outsiders expected.
After all, the people of the Honeywine basin were very different from the Dornish. Besides, under noble rule, these commoners' lives would not change much. They hardly cared who ruled over them.
After all the principal valuables had been loaded aboard the Holy Flame Fleet and taken back to Oldtown, the garrison troops distributed some basic supplies to the commoners on Danyla's orders.
Danyla had now sealed off the entire Honeywine basin, and High Hermitage had fallen. Without proper arrangements and care, many of these people would become refugees, and they might well starve to death or meet with other misfortunes.
Danyla had adopted a policy of conciliation