"May the Old and New Gods bless you, Your Grace. Smash those bastards," Lord Elwood Meadows said. News of the Ironborn's ravages had provoked outrage, especially since the Reach also had a blood feud with the Ironborn. He was a young man, only twenty.
Green Valley was the ancestral seat of House Meadows in the Reach. It stood beside the Blueburn River, but close to the Stormlands.
Balerion roared above Storm's End, his cries making the horses tremble.
Lord Meadows gazed at the dragon in awe. The last time a dragon had ravaged Storm's End had been at the beginning of the Dance of the Dragons, when the old dragon Vhagar had killed a young dragon and his kinsman, Prince Lucerys. From then on, the world had called Aemond One-Eye a kinslayer.
Gendry entered Storm's End, the ancient, renowned castle of House Baratheon, whose history could be traced back even further to House Durrandon.
The outer wall of Storm's End was a marvel of immense thickness: forty feet at its narrowest point and eighty feet on the seaward side. It consisted of inner and outer layers of massive stones, with sand and rubble between them.
"It's a dragon."
"It's a magic dragon." The soldiers patrolling Storm's End's thick outer wall tightened their grips on their spears as they fearfully watched the dragon in the sky. His roars sent shivers through them.
Storm's End had only one enormous drum tower, with no windows on its seaward face. That single tower housed the castle's granary, barracks, feast hall, and noble quarters.
Gendry entered the round hall of Storm's End. Upon its dais stood the ancient throne of the Storm King.
The throne was still topped with a stag ornament: two branching golden antlers.
Golden banners also hung on either side of the