Recaps

King Jaehaerys gave Cold Night to Daemon and Dark Sister to Rhaenyra, while Danyla declared her ambition to carve out a kingdom of her own. As the royal gathering continued, Corlys warned Rhaenys that the calm across the realm might conceal a coming storm, and tensions between Houses Bracken and Blackwood resurfaced.

• King Jaehaerys explained why Daemon received Cold Night rather than Valyrian Steel Armor, and Danyla urged him to give Dark Sister to Rhaenyra.
• Danyla told King Jaehaerys she intended to forge her own path and build a kingdom, and he asked whether Herb had made medicine that could help his health.
• King Jaehaerys gave Dark Sister to Rhaenyra, who accepted the sword and promised to defend the royal house.
• Corlys complained to Rhaenys that the king had overlooked her and Laenor, but Rhaenys said she valued family over the Iron Throne.
• Corlys warned that House Hightower's decline did not mean the Church and Citadel were under royal control, and said a calm sea could foretell a storm.
• Earl Bracken insulted House Frey, and the chapter recounted the enduring feud between Houses Bracken and Blackwood.

After Jaehaerys bestowed Blackfyre and Black Flame Armor on Viserys, rival lords began plotting against his supporters while Danyla strengthened her household and watched their movements. As the nobles departed King’s Landing, an alliance formed around a plan to strike House Frey, with wider trouble looming for Viserys’s branch of the family.

• Jaehaerys gave Rhaenyra Dark Sister, then bestowed Blackfyre and Black Flame Armor on Viserys, signaling that he was the likely heir.
• Boremund and Borros nearly objected to Viserys’s elevation but fell silent when they saw Daemon holding Cold Night.
• Lord Frey offered Danyla two hundred elite troops, which she accepted and placed under Harold’s command.
• Danyla learned that Velaryon supporters had recruited Houses Reyne and Tuck to attack House Frey.
• Bennard stayed in King’s Landing and accepted Danyla’s recommendation to serve as Viserys’s cupbearer.
• Samwell prepared the Cremation Tower’s defenses and sent three ships from Holy Flame Island as a secret alliance plotted against House Frey and Viserys’s family.

Danyla investigated the forces gathering against House Frey and suspected a religious struggle involving the Seven and the Old Gods. King Jaehaerys then summoned her and asked her to travel to Braavos as his envoy.

• Harold defeated Walda in a training duel, and she vowed to beat him within a year.
• Shirei revealed that Harold had a son and a daughter with silver hair and purple eyes, and Dorea Sand identified their mother as Vera.
• Danyla ordered Dorea Sand's people to investigate King's Landing's nobles and reviewed reports about Earl Reyne's allies, including House Brune, the Church, and the Citadel.
• Danyla connected the plot against her supporters to tensions between followers of the Seven and the Old Gods, and wondered whether the Three-Eyed Crow was involved.
• Ser Ryan summoned Danyla to King Jaehaerys, who asked her to go to Braavos as his envoy.

King Jaehaerys ordered Danyla to leave Westeros for Braavos while he dealt with the growing conflict, and she assembled a fleet for the voyage. Just as she was about to sail, Saewan arrived on Seasmoke and pledged his loyalty to her, while House Frey and Earl Blackwood traveled north amid the threat from Reyne and Brune.

• King Jaehaerys insisted that Danyla leave Westeros for Braavos, kept Harold in his service, and told her to sail from Dragonstone with her dragons and female soldiers.
• Danyla sailed to Dragonstone and assembled a fleet carrying trade goods, leaving Myracis and the other dragons on Holy Flame Island.
• Seasmoke arrived at Holy Flame Harbor with Saewan, who offered Danyla his loyalty and presented her with a dragon egg.
• Lord Frey led House Frey's forces and Earl Blackwood north along the Kingsroad to avoid a needless clash with Reyne and Brune.
• Earl Blackwood sent word for his family to muster at Lord Harroway's Town in case Reyne and Brune attacked.

Danyla questioned Saewan about his allegiance, and he insisted that a dream had led him to protect her. In the Riverlands, Lord Frey and Earl Blackwood learned that enemy forces were gathering around Lord Harroway's Town and decided to retreat to High Heart after Blackwood's soldiers arrived.

• Danyla challenged Saewan to explain why he had revealed himself and claimed Seasmoke, and he said he wanted to stay by her side and protect her.
• Saewan described dreaming of a vast red Great Dragon with a weirwood growing from its head, which Danyla connected to the Three-Eyed Crow's control of the Sea Dragon.
• Dorea Sand reported that seven or eight hundred enemy soldiers were lying in ambush across the Trident and that at least two thousand Mountain Clans were in the distant mountains.
• Dorea Sand reported that more than fifteen hundred House Brune soldiers were following the Red Fork, while hostile houses were roaming the Three Forks near Riverrun.
• Lord Frey rejected Earl Blackwood's plan to fight immediately and decided they would wait for Blackwood's soldiers before retreating together to High Heart.

Lord Frey and Earl Blackwood prepared an ambush for House Brune’s army in the reed beds near Lord Harroway’s Town. Lord Frey’s flaming-arrow attack set the reeds ablaze, scattering Brune’s horses and throwing its soldiers into chaos.

• Dorea Sand reported that House Blackwood had reached town, House Brune was approaching, and Earl Reyne had made no new moves across the river.
• Lord Frey and Earl Blackwood joined forces, bought lamp oil, and prepared a firebreak and an ambush in the reed beds.
• Zors Brune and Harold Brune led House Brune’s 1,500 soldiers to the outskirts of town and halted to rest among the reeds.
• Lord Frey’s men secretly positioned oil-soaked dry grass behind and ahead of the Brune army while Dorea Sand tracked their movements.
• Lord Frey ordered his archers to fire flaming arrows, igniting the reeds and sending Brune’s horses fleeing as smoke and flames engulfed the soldiers.

House Frey and House Blackwood trapped House Brune’s army in burning reed beds and cut down its soldiers with arrows and crossbows. As Earl Brune prepared to cross the river with Earl Reyne and Earl Peake, the surviving Brune force was reduced to a few hundred men but its warriors still held their shield wall against Blackwood’s mounted attacks.

• Earl Blackwood ordered two hundred House Blackwood longbowmen to fire on House Brune’s soldiers as flames and smoke engulfed them.
• Harold Brune rallied the survivors, ordered them to cover their mouths with wet clothes, and formed a shield wall around House Brune’s direct descendants.
• House Frey’s crossbowmen blocked both ends of the main road and killed Brune soldiers attempting to escape through the flames.
• After the reed beds burned out, Earl Blackwood’s forces attacked the survivors, while House Frey captured over a hundred Brune Bloodsteeds.
• Earl Brune, reassured that no Great Dragons had appeared, asked Earl Reyne and Earl Peake to cross the river and join the battle.
• House Brune’s force collapsed to four or five hundred men, but its hundred warriors held their shield wall against several charges by House Blackwood’s mounted warriors.

House Blackwood and House Frey ambushed House Brune in the burning reed beds, killing and capturing hundreds before withdrawing as Earl Reyne approached. House Brune’s survivors regrouped under Erryk Brune after Harold Brune was killed.

• House Brune’s elite soldiers resisted House Blackwood’s repeated charges while House Frey’s crossbowmen killed more Brune soldiers from hiding, and Zos Brune escaped with an escort.
• Lord Frey’s forces seized House Brune’s baggage, captured about two hundred guards, and gathered discarded armor as Dorea Sand reported that Earl Reyne was crossing the river.
• Lord Frey persuaded Earl Blackwood to withdraw, despite Blackwood’s wish to attack Earl Reyne’s approaching forces.
• Harold Brune rallied the Brune soldiers but was killed by an arrow from Earl Blackwood, who did not realize whom he had shot.
• Erryk Brune took command of the survivors, and the final count showed that House Brune had lost more than five hundred men killed and two hundred captured.

Erryk Brune sought treatment for his wounded soldiers in Lord Harroway's Town, while Viscount Roote refused aid and condemned House Brune's unauthorized war. Earl Brune pursued Lord Frey’s retreating force, then his exhausted men stopped in a village, where the villagers hid their families and valuables as the soldiers consumed their food.

• Erryk Brune led the wounded to Lord Harroway's Town, but Viscount Roote refused them entry and warned that House Brune had defied King Jaehaerys's decree.
• Erryk took the wounded to the town's sept, where septons bandaged them despite limited supplies and some soldiers developed fevers from infected burns.
• Earl Brune arrived, saw his troops' condition, and set out with Earl Reyne and Earl Peake to pursue Lord Frey and his men.
• Dorea Sand monitored the pursuers as they failed to find Lord Frey and stopped for the night in a village belonging to House Nutt.
• The village elder secretly ordered his grandson to hide the women, children, and valuables, while Earl Brune's soldiers ate nearly all the villagers' surplus food.

Earl Brune’s party left a village after taking its food and recruiting Albert as a stable boy, and the Mountain Clans then ravaged Lord Harroway’s Town and attacked the village. As the villagers faced defeat, cavalry of the Vale arrived.

• The village head served Earl Brune and his companions the village’s food and wine, while Albert won Brune’s favor and agreed to serve as his stable boy.
• Earl Brune and his party departed as his surviving soldiers resumed their march, leaving armor behind in the reed beds.
• Several thousand Mountain Clans arrived at Lord Harroway’s Town, looted it, killed the wounded and the people burying bodies, and assaulted the Silent Sisters.
• The Mountain Clans reached the village, slaughtered its able-bodied defenders, and attacked the young women.
• As the Mountain Clans surged into the village, cavalry of the Vale raced toward them.

Danyla visited Runestone and discovered that House Royce’s bronze armor drained power from those who touched or wore it. After tracing the armor’s history, she learned it was made with blood-sacrifice magic and began inscribing runes on her own Valyria Armor.

• Danyla arrived at Runestone and was warmly welcomed by Princess Rhea Royce, whom she found far more striking than Daemon had claimed.
• Rhea showed Danyla House Royce’s bronze armor, and Danyla felt it strip power from her, making the Flame Rune between her brows grow hot.
• Rhea told Danyla that she had felt the same draining effect and suspected it was connected to the bad ends suffered by many Royce armor-wearers.
• Danyla visited Runestone’s godswood and used the weirwood’s memories to discover that the armor’s runes were forged through blood-sacrifice magic and drained its wearers’ energy.
• Danyla returned to her room and began branding ancient runes onto her Valyria Armor with a fire seed.

Danyla completed the runes on her Valyria Armor and discovered that it absorbed magic from dragonfire. Meanwhile, Lord Frey and Earl Blackwood neared High Heart as a group of Reach nobles formed a secret organization to kill dragons, and Danyla dreamed of several places burning.

• Danyla had Hognara and her siblings breathe dragonfire onto her armor while she inscribed its runes, then found that the finished armor absorbed the flames’ magic.
• Lord Frey and Earl Blackwood reached a camp near High Heart after evading enemy cordons, and Dorea Sand and her sisters rested after days of scouting.
• Lord Frey and Earl Blackwood discussed the Poor Fellows’ return and suspected that dragon worship and fear of dragons were driving the unrest.
• At Acorn Hall, Earl Smallwood and twelve Reach nobles founded the Thirteen Acorns Organization, whose stated goal was to slay dragons.
• Septon Eustace declared that the Seven would bring the Targaryen dragons’ doom, and the assembled nobles chanted that only a great dragon could kill a great dragon.
• Danyla dreamed that Dragonstone, King’s Landing, and High Heart were engulfed in flames.

Earl Royce pursued the Mountain Clans across the Riverlands, defeating them and helping the villages they had attacked. After the survivors fled into wooded hills, his cavalry encountered a band of Poor Fellows, who surrendered after a brief battle.

• Earl Royce led a thousand Vale cavalrymen to catch the Mountain Clans looting a village and routed them, leaving only a dozen or so alive.
• Earl Royce ordered his men to bury the dead, help the surviving villagers rebuild, give them captured weapons, and leave them one hundred Silver Stags.
• Dorea Sand and her companions sent Earl Royce reports, and his cavalry killed nearly two thousand clansmen and rescued at least ten villages over the following days.
• The remaining Mountain Clans fled into wooded hills, and Earl Royce met a band of Poor Fellows while pursuing them.
• The Poor Fellows attacked the Vale cavalry, but surrendered after Earl Royce's men killed more than a hundred of them.

Earl Royce led the Vale forces toward Riverrun while arguing that they should rescue Lord Frey and the Earl of House Blackwood, whom Princess Danyla’s secret intelligence had helped protect. Meanwhile, the Green-Eyed Dwarf tried to recruit Borros, Laena, Laenor, and the Lannisters into a plot against Danyla, offering access to Great Dragons in exchange for a blood contract.

• Earl Royce sent two hundred cavalrymen to escort the captured Poor Fellows to Riverrun, and he rejected the other Vale earls’ suggestion to retreat to the Trident.
• Earl Royce urged the Vale earls to support Princess Danyla and rescue Lord Frey and the Earl of House Blackwood from the Riverlands.
• Tens of thousands of Poor Fellows gathered across the southern kingdoms and streamed toward High Heart, prompting nobles to send ravens to King’s Landing.
• At Golden Tooth, the Green-Eyed Dwarf offered Borros, Laena, and Laenor a chance to bond with three Great Dragons if they signed a Children of the Forest nature contract.
• Borros and Laena agreed to consider harming Danyla after bonding with a dragon, while Laenor voiced reluctance.
• The Green-Eyed Dwarf told Jason Lannister and Tyland Lannister that Danyla and Rhaenyra would not marry out of the royal family, but the brothers rejected his claims about prophecy.

Jason Lannister and other Westerosi nobles signed the Green-Eyed Dwarf’s contract to bond with three great dragons, while an army set out toward the Riverlands. Danyla’s forces prepared defenses at High Heart as Poor Fellows gathered, and Danyla left Runestone aboard Dreamfyre for the Bay of Ice.

• Tyland Lannister warned Jason that the contract targeted the Lannister heir, but the nobles signed it after the Green-Eyed Dwarf promised them dragons and a share of victory.
• The Green-Eyed Dwarf led two or three thousand men from Golden Tooth toward the Riverlands, where Tyland noticed large numbers of Poor Fellows heading toward High Heart.
• Harold supervised dragonstone fortifications at High Heart with soldiers, workers, and Prince Daemon, while Daemon imprisoned Poor Fellows who gathered nearby.
• King Jaehaerys expanded the Dragonpit with paid volunteer labor, and Viserys and Rhaenyra helped oversee the work.
• After suffering nightmares and feeling unwell at Runestone, Danyla left the Holy Flame Fleet there and rode Dreamfyre toward the Bay of Ice to bring Little Balerion and the others.

Danyla returned to the Cisland Peninsula, where the dragons had grown stronger and the settlement had expanded into a trading and industrial hub. After helping forge enough Valyrian steel for fifteen hundred sets of equipment, she decided to use five hundred sets to outfit cavalry.

• Danyla flew through the night to Cisland on Dreamfyre, whose strength and endurance had greatly improved.
• Little Balerion, Grey Ghost, Vhagar, and the other dragons greeted Danyla, and she saw how much they had grown and how their hunting had strengthened them.
• Medrick expanded Cisland’s trade with northern lords and oversaw an underground fortress equipped with hot-spring heating, furnaces, and workshops.
• Danyla and Master Ohn smelted the two sea dragon skeletons with existing Valyrian steel, creating enough material for fifteen hundred sets of equipment.
• Danyla and Master Ohn decided to forge five hundred sets of cavalry equipment, including armor and weapons, with bronze runes to protect riders and horses.

Medrick developed Hot Springs Falls Village and expanded farming and trade across the Cisland Peninsula. Danyla approved plans for more settlements and a fortress near the Wall, while Medrick warned that their ambitions stretched their people and resources thin.

• Medrick’s workers grew improved staple crops and pasture grass, using hot springs and dragon dung to enrich the soil around the Cisland Peninsula.
• Medrick established Hot Springs Falls Village, where insulated homes, hot water, heated kitchens, and a sheltered dock helped settlers prosper.
• Danyla gave high-yield seeds to Bear Island, and Earl Mormo traded for more seeds and pasture grass after seeing their success.
• Medrick arranged to establish four more villages and build a military fortress near the Milkwater and the Wall’s Shadow Tower to guard against Wildling raids.
• Danyla approved the plans and proposed bringing the Free Folk south of the Wall, while Medrick cautioned that Cisland’s development and their other commitments strained their resources.

Danyla planned Cisland’s development and prepared for threats from the White Walkers, while violence erupted across the realm as Earl Royce was shot, Oldtown faced an Iron Islands attack, and forces converged at Riverrun. The chapter left Oldtown under siege and the Poor Fellows’ escort facing Borros and Tyland Lannister’s forces.

• Danyla warned Medrick that the White Walkers were real enemies and planned for Cisland to become a northern production and trade hub.
• Danyla moved five young Lizard-Lions to the swamps near Moat Cailin and killed more than a dozen adult Lizard-Lions to protect them.
• An unknown archer shot Earl Royce as he warned the assembled nobles against private wars.
• Iron Islands longships approached Oldtown, and Rouge placed the city under martial law as its defenses prepared for an attack.
• Forces led by Laena’s siblings, Borros, and Tyland Lannister met the Vale cavalry escorting the Poor Fellows at Riverrun.

Earl Royce was killed by a hidden arrow, triggering a bloody battle between the Vale cavalry and the Reach alliance, Poor Fellows, and Mountain Clans. Rhaenyra arrived on Syrax, and Harold’s forces joined the fighting, turning the tide against the besieging forces.

• An unknown archer shot Earl Royce through the throat, and Earl Redfort led the Vale cavalry in a furious charge against the Thirteen Acorns Alliance.
• The Vale cavalry shattered the Reach forces, and Earl Redfort killed Richard Rodden, Jon Roxton, and Roger Crane while Maester Ollie and Brother Eustace were trampled to death.
• The Poor Fellows and surviving Mountain Clans joined the battle, surrounding the Vale cavalry and inflicting heavy casualties.
• Rhaenyra arrived at High Heart on Syrax and ordered the combatants to stop, but most ignored her and some moved against the dragon.
• Harold led the Gold Cloaks, Dragon Guards, House Blackwood soldiers, and House Frey soldiers into the fight, while Rhaenyra and Syrax unleashed Dragonfire on the Poor Fellows and Mountain Clans.
• Harold’s arrival and Rhaenyra’s attack turned the tide of the battle.

Harold and Rhaenyra helped crush the forces gathered against Danyla at High Heart, while Daemon urged them to kill the prisoners. In the Mountains of the Moon, hooded dwarfs awakened three ancient dragons, leaving a new threat loose near the Mountain Clan villages.

• Harold led the Dragon Guards in a charge that broke the Vale warriors out of their encirclement, then helped defeat the Thirteen Acorns Alliance and slaughter the Mountain Clans and Poor Fellows.
• Rhaenyra used Syrax to rain dragonfire on the battlefield, chanting Funeral Rite prayers that strengthened the dragon's fire and magic.
• The Reach soldiers surrendered, and Harold's men took the remaining stragglers prisoner before gathering the dead and discarded weapons into a pit for cremation.
• Rhaenyra cremated the corpses with Syrax, while Daemon returned and suggested throwing the prisoners into the fire pit; Harold retained supreme command at High Heart.
• Hooded dwarfs chanted outside a cavern in the Mountains of the Moon, awakening three ancient dragons that devoured livestock before the dwarfs fled.

Vale knights clashed with the Poor Fellows outside Riverrun, and Borros Baratheon led the Stormlands soldiers into the fight despite Tyland Lannister’s warnings. The surviving Vale cavalry fled after suffering heavy losses, while their leaders threatened Borros with the Vale’s wrath.

• Vale knights explained that they had arrested Poor Fellows who attacked them while they pursued Mountain Clan bandits.
• Tyland warned Jason that they were being used as pawns and urged House Lannister to stay out of the conflict.
• The Poor Fellows attacked the Vale cavalry, who charged through them and inflicted heavy casualties.
• The Green-Eyed Dwarf persuaded Borros to attack the Vale knights, and Borros led the Stormlands soldiers into battle.
• Duke Tully arrived and ordered the fighting to stop, but the combatants ignored him.
• The Vale knights cut a path through the Poor Fellows and escaped, threatening Borros with the Vale’s wrath.

Ironborn pirates attacked Oldtown, but Rouge, Danyla, and the Oldtown Garrison prepared the city’s defenses and shelters. The attackers suffered devastating losses to wildfire and ballista fire, while the Garrison held the watchtowers above the harbor.

• House Bulwer spotted the Ironborn fleet entering Whispering Bay and lit its beacon, prompting Oldtown’s Garrison and Rouge to raise the alarm.
• Rouge opened parts of Oldtown’s underground complex as a refuge, while Mungo and the other great houses mustered forces to answer the Hightower’s beacon.
• The Oldtown Garrison raised the harbor chain, evacuated smaller ships up the Honeywine, and moved cargo from the remaining large vessels into hidden underground warehouses.
• An Iron Islands fleet of more than a hundred vessels reached Oldtown and came under fire from flaming arrows and wildfire-filled ballista bolts.
• Ironborn crews landed beneath the watchtowers and tried to storm them, but the Garrison hurled wildfire jars down the cliffs and burned the attackers.

Verehos and the Ironborn besieging Oldtown turned to Rhodos’s sinister ritual after suffering heavy losses. Verehos blew a blood-activated black horn to summon the Drowned God’s Emissary and sleeping Son, and its eerie call spread across the bay and nearby settlements.

• Earl Drumm and other Ironborn nobles demanded that Verehos act after wildfire and flaming arrows devastated their ships.
• Verehos waited with Rhodos, the supposedly returned Priest King, who announced that Ironborn blood would awaken the Drowned God’s Son.
• Rhodos produced a black horn, and Verehos slit the throats of his salt wife and a mute slave to soak it in their blood.
• Golden runes appeared on the horn as it absorbed the blood, then faded after it was drained.
• Verehos blew the horn, and its unsettling call reached the Oldtown garrison and people as far away as Blackcrown and Three Towers.

As the eerie horn awakened dark forces across Oldtown, enormous Octopus Monsters attacked the Lookout Towers. The Garrison used wildfire and ballistae to burn and fatally wound several monsters, but more still approached.

• The horn blast darkened the skies and waters around Oldtown, while the Great Dragons woke beneath the Hightower and Amoros stayed behind to guard five Dragon Eggs.
• Enormous Octopus Monsters emerged from the sea and smashed the tops of the Lookout Towers, killing the guards stationed there.
• The Garrison recovered and hurled wildfire jars at the attacking tentacles, setting them ablaze and driving the monsters into a violent retreat.
• The monsters' thrashing waves threatened the ships, while more dark shapes appeared offshore and the tower squad leaders realized their wildfire supply was running low.
• The Garrison fired ballista bolts carrying wildfire jars, striking two Octopus Monsters in the head and setting them ablaze as the defenders cheered.

Jason and the Garrison soldiers used wildfire to kill several sea monsters, but a giant creature destroyed the watchtower and swept Jason into the sea. Aposos, Antheros, and Himolos fought the monsters while twenty more gathered outside Oldtown’s docks.

• Jason killed two sea monsters with wildfire-tipped bolts, then fired again and accidentally destroyed an Iron Islands ship and nearby longships.
• Jason hit a giant sea monster, which smashed the watchtower and hurled him into the sea as wildfire engulfed the cliff.
• Aposos arrived and attacked the giant sea monster with dragonfire, while Antheros burned and devoured another sea monster.
• Himolos crushed a fifty-meter sea monster’s head and carried its roasted body into the sky to eat.
• Aposos hauled the giant sea monster partly out of the water, but twenty other sea monsters gathered near Oldtown’s docks and devoured floating corpses.