Chapter Summaries

Danyla welcomed Walda, Maggie, and Maggie’s sister after their months-long search for her, then revealed a gift of large cats and learned that Walda and Shirei had become wargs. The chapter ended with Danyla’s allies gathered around her, several of them able to skinchange into animals.

• Danyla embraced Walda and thanked her and Bear Island’s people for searching through the Long Night, and she arranged grain seeds and farming help for the island.
• Danyla welcomed Maggie and her sister, appointed them personal guards alongside Walda, and led them to her rooms for a gift.
• Danyla found seven maids waiting with large cats, while Walda’s sable startled the cats and revealed how much it had grown.
• Danyla discovered that Walda could warg into Sable, which had helped them avoid danger during their search.
• Shirei told Danyla that she could warg into King Jaehaerys’s giant steppe eagle, while Dorea Sand and the others could control cats and birds.

Danyla inspected new armor for her female guards, while Maggie clashed with Harold and boasted about her strength. The chapter ended with Dorea reporting that Earl Reyne and House Peake planned to ambush House Frey because Urrax had injured Reyne in a sensitive place.

• Danyla learned that Shirei had strong True Dragon blood and potential for Dragonriding, and that she studied alongside Margaery.
• Margaery and Harold brought Danyla fifty new suits of armor made with Valyrian steel chain mail and Lizard-Lion hide.
• Walda, Maggie, and Meya tried on the armor, and Maggie threatened Harold after catching him laughing at her remarks.
• Meya made Maggie apologize to Danyla, who warned that Harold might make her martial arts lessons difficult.
• Dorea told Danyla that Earl Reyne planned to join House Peake in ambushing House Frey, explaining that Urrax had injured Reyne in a vital part.

Oggian built a dwarf troupe in the Red Keep that used its secret passages and performances to gather intelligence across the Seven Kingdoms. Its network discovered why Earl Tuck had agreed to join Earl Reyne’s plot against House Frey, leaving the alliance’s motives exposed.

• Harold used information from Dorea Sand and the other skinchangers to map and repair the Red Keep’s secret passages, with children from the Almshouse helping in the narrow tunnels.
• Oggian recruited dwarfs as court fools and housed them in the Red Keep, where they trained for performances while secretly spying on officials and noble households.
• With Danyla’s funding, the dwarfs formed a theater troupe that expanded its intelligence network through the Seven Kingdoms.
• Dorea Sand’s birds uncovered Earl Reyne and Earl Tuck’s plan to join forces against House Frey.
• The dwarf network learned that Earl Tuck had accepted Earl Reyne’s offer because piracy, lost ships, and winter had brought House Tuck close to bankruptcy.

At the Twin Princesses’ Name Day celebration, the nobles gathered as Danyla’s growing influence reshaped the Red Keep and the balance of power across the Seven Kingdoms. Viserys reunited with Earl Lyonel Strong, whose family had come to settle in King’s Landing, while Rhaenyra met Harwin and Larys again.

• The nobles celebrated the end of the Long Night and winter as Danyla’s people and forces strengthened her influence in the Red Keep and beyond.
• King Jaehaerys watched the gathered great lords maneuver and judged that House Targaryen’s strength made them no threat.
• Viserys and Aemma presented the Twin Princesses to the guests, while Rhaenyra tried to fulfill her duties and come to terms with her feelings toward Danyla.
• Earl Lyonel Strong arrived with his family, and Viserys warmly welcomed his childhood friend and offered him a place in the Tower of the Hand.
• Rhaenyra spoke with Harwin Strong, who reassured her that his broken arm had healed, and met his younger brother Larys.

Rhaenyra met Harwin Strong’s siblings and felt an uncanny reaction to their wet nurse, Alys Rivers, before Danyla arrived with her newly equipped Female Soldiers. Danyla’s growing wealth and military power unsettled the nobles, while King Jaehaerys gave Daemon the sword Cold Night as a badge of his garrison command.

• Rhaenyra greeted Harwin Strong, his siblings Lily and Jilly, and their wet nurse Alys Rivers, whose presence stirred an intense sensation in her.
• Danyla arrived at the Godswood with her Female Soldiers and displayed their armor and Valyrian steel imitation swords to King Jaehaerys and the nobles.
• The nobles worried that Danyla’s new weapons, wealth, and holdings at Oldtown and Sunhouse Castle were making House Targaryen too powerful.
• Daemon asked King Jaehaerys and Danyla for Valyrian equipment, and Jaehaerys granted him Cold Night to carry as Commander of the King's Landing Garrison.
• Danyla warned Daemon that Cold Night belonged to the garrison command, then teased him by naming herself, Jaehaerys, and Viserys as the only people who could remove him.

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.