Chapter Summaries

The black stone’s unsealing coincided with the Red Comet’s arrival, and a black-and-red dragon hatched in Liu Qian’s cavern by consuming the vitality of its twin egg. Across Westeros, the comet heralded another hatching and stirred Young Griff’s ambitions, while a mysterious figure in the Hidden Sea reacted to its red light.

• The Red Comet appeared over Conqueror's Holdfast as Liu Qian wondered whether unsealing the black stone had restored magic and caused its arrival.
• A black-and-red dragon hatchling broke from one of the two matching eggs in Liu Qian’s cavern, while the other egg withered into stone fragments.
• At Summerhall, Stannis’s soldiers uncovered the cracked silver-gray dragon egg, and an infant cry sounded from inside as the Red Comet appeared overhead.
• Young Griff hailed the comet as a divine sign for his conquest, and his soldiers and some Dothraki chanted his name.
• In the Hidden Sea, a yellow-robed figure stirred beneath a black stone, surfaced to see the waters stained red, laughed, and returned to the depths.

Liu Qian witnessed a black-and-red dragon egg hatch after the black stone’s seal was broken, named the hatchling Gloomember, and entrusted it to Chai Yi’s care. With magic power no longer scarce but his bloodline growth stalled, he turned to preparations for a campaign against Volantis.

• Liu Qian’s dragon egg hatched as the black stone released a tide of magic power, while Illyrio’s similar egg crumbled into lifeless fragments.
• Qyburn proposed that blood magic and possibly souls were involved in dragon egg hatching and asked to study the fragments.
• Daenerys and the other ladies gathered around the hatchling, and Liu Qian named it Gloomember.
• Liu Qian considered how increased magic power could support his plans to raise his dragon-blood purity and possibly venture beyond the Wall.
• Chai Yi declined to claim Gloomember as her mount, but accepted responsibility for caring for it, and the hatchling settled into her arms.
• Liu Qian left to prepare a campaign against Volantis because the city had plundered migrants from Yidi.

Liu Qian camped near Volantis with his elite cavalry and dragons, intending to use the campaign to harden his troops and seize the city’s wealth. In Volantis, Malaquo Maegor Ya persuaded the magistrates to authorize a preemptive attack, leaving the city’s forces to assemble for battle.

• Liu Qian brought twenty thousand elite cavalry and the Dragon Spirit Guardians to the borderlands, while Janice and Duskwraith remained at Conqueror's Holdfast.
• Malaquo Maegor Ya accused Nysso Visama and Dofas Pennymen of underestimating Liu Qian’s threat and urged them to approve an attack.
• Malaquo claimed that over a hundred Scorpions could bring down Liu Qian’s dragons, persuading the two Elephant Party magistrates to support his plan.
• Malaquo secured authorization to lead ten thousand Tiger Cloaks and levy thirty thousand from the Slave Army, while Moroqao brought twenty thousand Dothraki Screamers.
• Malaquo headed to muster his forces, confident that victory would strengthen the Tiger Party in the next magistrate election.

Liu Qian’s army faced a coalition of Volantene Tiger Cloaks, slave soldiers, and Dothraki, whose Scorpions wounded Blooddance and threatened Silverfall. Liu Qian revealed his Golden Great Dragon form and shattered the coalition’s forces, leaving Volantis’s defeat certain.

• Malaquo Maegor Ya ordered more than a hundred Scorpions to fire on Blooddance and Silverfall, wounding Blooddance and frightening Jelena.
• Liu Qian ordered Blooddance and Silverfall into the clouds as the coalition celebrated and advanced.
• Liu Qian transformed into a Golden Great Dragon, swept away the Scorpion array with Dragonfire, and attacked the Volantene formations.
• The coalition broke under Liu Qian’s assault, and Rowan led the Three Daughters’ cavalry into the collapsing lines.
• Malaquo Maegor Ya watched his army disintegrate and realized Volantis had been defeated.

After defeating Volantis’s army, Golden Dragon Liu Qian destroyed the Magistrates and broke the city’s resistance. As the city fell, High Priest Benerro sent Moqorro away to find the Prince That Was Promised and prepared the Fiery Hand to defend the Red God Temple.

• Malaquo Maegor Ya warned Nysso Visama and Dofas Pennymen that the army had been destroyed and that the Scorpions could not harm the Golden Great Dragon.
• Golden Dragon Liu Qian broke through the Magistrates’ Palace roof, revealed that he was the Eastern invader transformed, and incinerated the three Magistrates.
• Liu Qian attacked remaining strongholds from the sky, while Volantis’s defenders abandoned their weapons or fled as resistance collapsed.
• High Priest Benerro told Moqorro to find the Prince That Was Promised and guide him against the Long Night.
• Moqorro left through the temple’s secret passage with five loyal Fiery Hand members, while Benerro went to meet the nine hundred and ninety-five warriors guarding the temple.

Liu Qian took control of Volantis, punished the nobles responsible for attacking the migrant fleet, and sent forces to secure the surrounding region. A report of Stone Men near the Sorrows infected his soldiers with Greyscale, prompting him to consider investigating in person.

• Liu Qian demanded that Benerro and the Fiery Hand disarm, but the priests chose to burn themselves alive inside the Red God Temple.
• Liu Qian secured Volantis as Hal's fleet blockaded the harbor and the Volantene Fleet surrendered.
• Liu Qian ordered the execution of nobles involved in the raid on the migrant fleet and had their relatives imprisoned and their property confiscated.
• Liu Qian sent Jelena and Silverfall upriver to take towns, while Hal's fleet cleared pirate strongholds along the Orange Coast.
• Hal reported that Stone Men near the Sorrows had attacked his river flotilla and infected more than a dozen soldiers with Greyscale, leading Liu Qian to consider investigating himself.

Stannis weighed whether to use Melisandre’s shadow magic against Aegon’s invading forces while Davos urged him to stop risking his health. The chapter ended with a Golden Company spy receiving details about Bronzegate’s defenses, Orys’s weakness, and Melisandre’s magic.

• The Stormlands lords debated whether Aegon was truly Rhaegar’s son and reaffirmed their loyalty to Stannis, while examining his hatchling dragon, Orys.
• Stannis told Melisandre that Aegon’s army of Dothraki and Golden Company mercenaries required the Lord of Light’s power, and Melisandre proposed using shadow magic again.
• Davos confronted Stannis and warned that relying on Melisandre’s power endangered his health and undermined his claim to rule.
• Stannis shoved Davos aside but abandoned his trip to Melisandre and went away to think.
• Ser Raymond Connington passed a secret message to a guard, who delivered it to a Golden Company spy with details of troop deployments, noble divisions, Orys’s weakness, and Melisandre’s shadow magic.

After waking on Skagos, Jon learned that the Starks had suffered devastating losses and agreed to lead Liu Qian’s army against the Boltons. Jon landed in the North with twenty thousand soldiers and rode toward House Manderly’s knights to seek Earl Wyman’s support.

• Morio Tumitis told Jon that Eddard had been executed, Robb and Catelyn had been murdered at the Red Wedding, and the Boltons held Winterfell.
• Morio offered Jon command of fifteen thousand Dothraki Screamers and five thousand Slave Soldiers to reclaim Winterfell, and told him Ramsay Bolton planned to marry Arya Stark.
• After recovering on Skagos, Jon sailed south with the army and landed on a secluded beach in the North.
• Jon saw House Manderly’s knights watching the fleet from nearby hills and rode toward them to seek Earl Wyman’s support.

Liu Qian and Jelena flew into the Sorrows to investigate Chroyane and encountered the Shrouded Lord, who commanded the river against them. As magical bone arrows attacked, the Shrouded Lord unleashed a storm that threatened to throw their dragons from the sky.

• Liu Qian told Jelena that the Sorrows were where Prince Garin’s water magic had destroyed more than a hundred Great Dragons.
• Liu Qian and Jelena flew Blooddance and Silverfall over Chroyane’s ruins, where Stone Men gathered and watched them.
• Liu Qian spotted the Shrouded Lord standing atop the Palace of Love ruins as Stone Men archers fired bone arrows at the dragons.
• Liu Qian recognized magical power in the arrows and prepared to attack the archers for their dragon spirits.
• The Shrouded Lord stirred the Rhoyne into violent waterspouts and hurricane winds that battered Blooddance and Silverfall.

Liu Qian sent Jelena and the dragons out of the cursed Sorrows before fighting through the Stone Men and confronting the Shrouded Lord. When he pierced the Shrouded Lord’s chest, the Rhoyne erupted with renewed fury and ancient armored corpses rose from its waters.

• Liu Qian ordered Jelena to escape the Sorrows with Silverfall, then sent Blooddance away and remained behind alone.
• Stone Men swarmed Liu Qian, who cut them down with his Valyrian steel sword and burned many with Dragonfire Breath, gaining Dragon Spirit.
• The Shrouded Lord charged Liu Qian and resisted his Dragonfire with gray-white mist, then fought him with powerful blows.
• Liu Qian dodged the Shrouded Lord’s attacks and struck his chest with his sword, drawing a burst of mist from the wound.
• The Rhoyne grew more violent, and ancient corpses in broken armor rose from the river, their bodies covered in stone.

Liu Qian transformed into a golden dragon and destroyed the undead and Stone Men in the Sorrows, ending Prince Garin’s ancient curse. Afterward, he reunited with Jelena, who embraced and kissed him.

• Liu Qian unleashed dragonfire on the Valyria Legion’s undead, then used Wildfire to burn the ruins, Stone Men, and the riverbed where the corpses emerged.
• After hours of burning, the Rhoyne settled, the undead stopped appearing, and the curse and mist over the Sorrows began to fade.
• Liu Qian learned that the Shrouded Lord had yielded 5,000 Dragon Spirit and the other dead had yielded over eighty thousand, raising his Bloodline Purity from 22% to 31%.
• Liu Qian left the ruins and found Blooddance and Jelena waiting outside the Sorrows.
• Jelena rushed into Liu Qian’s arms and kissed him, while Blooddance and Silverfall watched before turning toward the sunset.

Golden Company spies infiltrated Bronzegate and opened its western side gate to Aegon’s forces. The defenders discovered the breach as countless figures surged toward the city.

• Stannis heard that Storm’s End was running low on supplies and faced heavy losses against Aegon’s Dothraki, while his dragon Orys was still too small to help.
• Rorik and Galvin guarded Bronzegate’s western side gate during the night watch.
• Marko, Togg, and Leo, Golden Company spies placed inside Bronzegate by Rolly Duckfield, began their plan to open the gate.
• Marko and Togg silently killed the guards, lifted the gate bar, and signaled the advance party outside.
• Rorik heard the gates creaking open, and Galvin saw dark figures pushing inside as countless attackers advanced from beyond the city.

Stannis’s attempt to create a Shadow Assassin was interrupted when the Dothraki captured Bronzegate, and he fled after losing Orys and the dragon egg. In Dorne, Doran sent Arianne to investigate whether Aegon Targaryen was genuine.

• Stannis went to Melisandre to create a Shadow Assassin, but Dothraki forces attacked Bronzegate after traitors opened the gate.
• Davos urged Stannis to evacuate, while Golden Company agents tried to steal Orys and the dragon egg.
• Orys escaped by flying away after breathing dragonfire on an agent, and the surviving agent fled with the reddish-brown Dragon Egg Fossil.
• Stannis learned that Orys had escaped and the egg had been stolen, then fled Bronzegate with Stormlands nobles as the Dothraki closed in.
• Doran asked Arianne and Quentyn what they thought of Aegon Targaryen VI, who had landed with fifty thousand Dothraki and the Golden Company.
• Doran ordered Arianne to meet Aegon and determine whether he was a true dragon, while Quentyn was told to remain in Dorne.

Young Griff's forces captured Bronzegate, and he ordered them to return to Storm's End while claiming the dragon egg and seeking the silver dragon. In White Harbor, Jon Snow secured Wyman Manderly's support for a march on Winterfell, but Bartimus's doubts about Jon and Liu Qian led him to write a letter.

• Young Griff's forces captured Bronzegate in a surprise attack, taking Tyrion Lannister and several Stormlands nobles prisoner.
• Rolly Duckfield presented Young Griff with a dragon egg seized from Stannis, and Jon Connington suggested sacrificing Edric Storm to hatch it.
• Young Griff ordered a search for the silver dragon and sent his army back toward Storm's End, while Tyrion was taken to a cell.
• Jon Snow asked Wyman Manderly for support against the Boltons, and Bartimus accused him of bringing a foreign army into the North and questioned whether he was truly a Stark.
• Wyman Manderly agreed to support Jon's cause, and Bartimus later wrote a letter after struggling with his suspicions.

Waymar Royce sought Liu Qian’s help against the Lannister atrocities in the Vale, pledged his loyalty, and learned Liu Qian planned to marry seven women before invading the Seven Kingdoms. Meanwhile, starvation drove Storm’s End’s garrison to open a gate to Young Griff’s forces, and the castle fell.

• Waymar Royce begged Liu Qian to avenge the massacres at Runestone and Gulltown and received ten thousand former Volantis slave soldiers and ten thousand Dothraki cavalry.
• Waymar pledged his absolute loyalty to Liu Qian, who accepted his allegiance and asked him to stay for a wedding in ten days.
• Liu Qian told Waymar he planned to marry Jelena Baelor Lys, Janice Baelor Lys, Daenerys Targaryen, Chai Yi, Ynys Yronwood, Myrcella Baratheon, and Sansa Stark before landing in the Seven Kingdoms.
• As hunger and despair consumed Storm’s End, several guards decided to surrender the castle to Young Griff’s forces.
• The guards killed their comrade at the side gate and opened it before dawn, allowing Golden Company soldiers to enter and capture Storm’s End.

Young Griff failed to hatch the dragon egg despite sacrificing Edric Storm and mutilating Tyrion, then accepted Ser Harry Strickland’s advice to target Duskendale. Arianne Martell arrived to assess him, became his lover, and sent Prince Doran a letter urging Dorne to support Young Griff.

• Young Griff burned Edric Storm on a pyre with the dragon egg, but the egg remained lifeless.
• Young Griff ordered Tyrion’s manhood cut off and burned as another offering, but the egg still did not hatch.
• Ser Harry Strickland urged Young Griff to attack Duskendale, and Young Griff accepted his advice.
• Arianne Martell arrived at Storm’s End and spoke with Young Griff about his plans and Dorne’s ties to the Targaryens.
• Young Griff and Arianne became lovers, and she wrote Prince Doran urging him to send troops in support of Young Griff.

Roose Bolton prepared to resist Jon Snow’s advance on Winterfell, while Ramsay used a captive girl posing as Arya Stark to torment Jon during the siege. Jon’s army surrounded the castle, but by the fifteenth day Ramsay’s escalating abuse drove Jon to break down.

• Roose Bolton learned that Jon Snow was marching on Winterfell with a large army and ordered forces led by Robin Flint, Harrion Tallhart, and Arnolf Karstark to attack White Harbor.
• Ramsay persuaded Roose to let him handle the captive Beth Cassel, whom the Boltons were presenting as Arya Stark.
• Jon’s army reached Winterfell, and Ser Marlo Manderly warned him that the Boltons’ lack of resistance seemed suspicious.
• Ramsay displayed the tortured captive on the walls and threatened to kill her unless Jon surrendered, but Jon ordered siege engines built and encircled Winterfell.
• During the siege, Ramsay repeatedly whipped and abused the captive, culminating in Bolton soldiers raping her publicly on the fifteenth day.
• Jon finally broke down as he heard the captive’s cries from Winterfell’s walls.

After White Harbor fell and their supplies were cut off, Jon Snow’s besieging army deteriorated while Ramsay Bolton tormented him with a supposed Arya. Jon charged to rescue the girl, but Ramsay’s trap left Jon mortally wounded and his army surrounded, forcing Marlon Manderly to order a retreat.

• A scout reported that Ser Bartimus had betrayed White Harbor to House Bolton’s allies, prompting Marlon Manderly to urge Jon to retreat toward the east coast.
• Jon refused to abandon Arya, while dwindling supplies, Dothraki desertions, and Ramsay’s daily torture spectacle wrecked the besieging army’s morale.
• On the thirtieth day, Jon ordered an assault, but Ramsay pushed the battered girl from Winterfell’s walls, and Jon rushed to her side.
• Jon realized the girl might not be Arya just as Bolton archers shot him with a hail of arrows.
• House Flint, House Tallhart, and House Karstark attacked from the flanks and rear as Ramsay led cavalry out of Winterfell, and the Dothraki scattered.
• With Jon gravely wounded and the army surrounded, Marlon Manderly ordered a breakout south while Ghost howled beside Jon’s body.

Prince Doran committed Dorne to supporting Aegon Targaryen, demanding that Arianne become queen and that Oberyn be rescued. He revealed that the young man raised as Quentyn was a substitute, while the real Quentyn was in Norvos preparing to lead its forces into Westeros.

• Doran decided to send a Dornish army to support Aegon if he married Arianne and promised to rescue Oberyn.
• Doran ordered Areo Hotah to activate the plan with Norvos and send its forces from Pentos to the Crownlands.
• Doran summoned the young man raised as Quentyn and told him that Arianne would become queen while Quentyn ruled Dorne.
• Doran revealed that the real Quentyn had been raised in Norvos and would lead its army, while the young man before him was a servant's son switched in as a decoy.
• The young man broke down as he understood that he had been used to protect the true heir.

Arianne and Young Griff sealed an alliance between Dorne and the Targaryen claimant, and their combined army marched to the ruins of King's Landing. Young Griff was crowned king beside Arianne, received Blackfyre, and ordered his forces north to continue the conquest.

• Arianne received Prince Doran's letter agreeing to send troops if she became queen, and Young Griff accepted the terms.
• The Dornish army joined Young Griff's forces, bringing their combined host to nearly eighty thousand soldiers.
• At the ruins of King's Landing, Young Griff blamed the Lannisters for destroying the city and called for their deaths.
• An old septon crowned Young Griff king and Arianne queen among the ruins.
• Harry Strickland presented Blackfyre to Young Griff, who raised the sword and ordered the army to march north.