Chapter Summaries

As the Earl of Blackmont lay dying, he formally placed Blackmont’s lands under Lora Blackmont’s rule and warned her against hoping to marry Titus Peake. Lora declared that she would not yield to Ashara Dayne in the contest to become the Countess of Starpike.

• The Earl of Blackmont summoned Lora and reflected on how she had changed since he stopped her from pursuing Titus Peake three years earlier.
• The Earl named Lora ruler of Blackmont and told her to rely on Steward Winston while she secured her authority.
• Lora announced that she intended to withdraw support from the mountain tribes and end their raids on the Marches.
• The Earl objected to her plan and warned her that Ashara Dayne had a better chance of marrying Titus Peake.
• Lora insisted that she could give Titus everything Ashara could and vowed not to lose to her.

Titus Peake prepared to use the Red Mountain bandits’ raids as a pretext to gain control of Prince’s Pass and strike at Dorne. He summoned the Marcher lords to muster at Nightsong and rallied his officers for war, while Lora wondered whether his speech’s opening declaration was meant for her.

• Lora left her dying father after their conversation about her choices and the transfer of power.
• Titus wrote affectionate letters to Lora Blackmont and Ashara Dayne, then considered Ashara’s plan to send Gerold Dayne to Starpike as his squire.
• Titus reviewed reports of raids across the Marches and summoned the region’s lords to bring their troops to Nightsong within a fortnight.
• Titus addressed his commanders in the blue-and-white square, declaring his love of war and calling for bloodshed in return for the atrocities committed in the Marches.
• Lora wondered whether Titus’s opening declaration of love was directed at her.

Titus rallied his officers and prepared for war while using bounties and safe routes to weaken the Red Mountain tribes and expand his control. As Stormlands lords gathered beneath Nightsong, House Manwoody remained a wary obstacle to the coming campaign.

• Titus gave a fiery speech to his officers, who pledged loyalty and shouted for victory before the war of vengeance.
• Titus issued a bounty decree paying one Golden Hand for each head of a young or able-bodied male native of the Red Mountains.
• Titus opened three safe routes for Red Mountain tribespeople willing to accept his rule, offering protection, land, and work in the Marches.
• Franklyn Forrester and Dagos Manwoody increased their surveillance of the northern pass as they noticed unusual movements in Titus's territory.
• Bounty hunters began streaming into the Red Mountains, while Stormlands lords assembled beneath Nightsong.

Titus Peake gathered the Stormlands lords and their forces at Nightsong to prepare for a campaign against the Dornish nobles responsible for raiding the marches. He reassured his allies that the war would not target all of Dorne, then rallied them to attack the Prince’s Pass and declared that the Dornish Marches would now strike back.

• Bryce Caron welcomed the Stormlands earls and Cavron of Fawn Hall to Nightsong, where their forces assembled into a coalition of seventy-five hundred men.
• Titus Peake arrived with troops from his Dornish Marches corps, Horn Hill, and Glenvale, while Rosso Brune led the Survey Corps into the mountains.
• Titus feasted with the assembled lords at Nightsong, and Arstan Selmy asked about the campaign’s plans and questioned the justification for invading Dorne.
• Titus argued that the army would punish the Dornish rebels who had raided the marches, not wage war against all of Dorne, and promised a Grand Maester would defend his case.
• The Stormlands lords raised their cups to the campaign as Titus vowed to crush the Prince’s Pass and declared that the Dornish Marches would strike back.

Titus Peake led a twelve-thousand-strong allied army south through the Prince's Pass, while Dagos Manwoody learned that Kingsgrave was in its path and urgently sought reinforcements. Elsewhere, Ser Rosso Brune, Drillmaster Iomine, and Roland Storm advanced stealthily through the Red Mountains on a mission to cross the pass behind enemy lines.

• Titus Peake marched the allied army south through the Prince's Pass, with Stormlands troops at the vanguard and Titus's Garrison Corps in the center.
• A scout told Dagos Manwoody that Titus's army was approaching Kingsgrave, and Dagos ordered Myss Manwoody to gather every available defender.
• Dagos wrote to House Fowler at Skyreach, asking for help defending Kingsgrave from the advancing army.
• Ser Rosso Brune led Drillmaster Iomine, Roland Storm, and an elite squad through the Red Mountains to cross the pass behind enemy lines.

Rosso Brune, Roland Storm, and their allies attacked Kingsgrave from the rear and front, overwhelming Dagos Manwoody’s defenses. Roland killed Dagos inside the city as Kingsgrave’s fall became inevitable.

• Rosso Brune’s detachment surprised the weak rear defenses of Kingsgrave while Titus’s army attacked the front gates.
• Roland Storm led the Nightsong soldiers over the rear wall, and Rosso Brune climbed up and killed Ser Myss Manwoody.
• Dagos Manwoody sent a squad to reinforce the rear, further weakening Kingsgrave’s front defenses as Blackhaven’s javelin throwers suppressed the battlements and Harvest Hall’s fighters stormed the wall.
• Kingsgrave’s front line collapsed, and Dagos fled toward his family residence with his remaining guards.
• Roland Storm confronted Dagos, overwhelmed him in combat, and drove his greatsword through Dagos’s heart.

After Kingsgrave fell, Titus learned that House Manwoody had hidden Aegon the Conqueror’s lost Valyrian steel crown and ordered Wenda to keep it secret. He rewarded the Marcher forces and knighted Roland Storm, while Kingsgrave burned and House Manwoody’s rule ended.

• Roland Storm killed Dagos Manwoody, and Kingsgrave fell to the Marcher forces.
• Titus ordered House Manwoody’s wealth seized and Kingsgrave burned to punish the family and clear the Prince’s Pass.
• Wenda showed Titus the black Valyrian steel crown of Aegon the Conqueror, lost when Daeron I died in Dorne.
• Titus ordered Wenda to safeguard the crown and keep its discovery secret.
• Titus distributed rewards for the siege and knighted Roland Storm for taking the walls and killing Dagos Manwoody.

Titus Peake advanced south through Prince’s Pass and began besieging House Fowler’s Skyreach after his cavalry destroyed its scouts. As his trebuchets bombarded the castle, Sunspear intervened and sent a visitor to Skyreach.

• Titus located the Tower of Joy near Prince’s Pass and decided to establish a Knight of the Tower of Joy to guard the pass.
• Franklyn Forrester watched Titus’s cavalry slaughter House Fowler’s scouts outside Skyreach and sent a plea for reinforcements to Princess Elia in Sunspear.
• Titus led his army of more than ten thousand south and arrived at Skyreach, where Franklyn’s defenders prepared to hold the castle.
• Titus rejected Skyreach’s refusal to surrender and ordered his trebuchets to bombard its walls.
• King’s Landing and Sunspear intervened in Titus’s campaign, and Sunspear sent a visitor to Skyreach.

Titus Peake suspended his assault on Skyreach after receiving a conciliatory letter from the Princess of Dorne, who sent Doran and Oberyn Martell to mediate. Doran agreed that Skyreach owed compensation, while Oberyn noticed Titus’s hostility and the chapter left their meeting poised to continue.

• Titus replied to Jon Arryn that the Dornish Marches had suffered crimes and that Skyreach would have to pay a price before he agreed to a truce.
• The Princess of Dorne praised Titus as a peacemaker and announced that Doran and Oberyn Martell were traveling to the Prince’s Pass to address the dispute.
• Titus suspended his aerial strikes on Skyreach while the Martell brothers made their way to his camp with a small escort.
• Doran heard Titus’s account, agreed that the Dornish Marches deserved compensation, and offered to speak with Earl Forrester at Skyreach.
• Oberyn noticed a trace of killing intent from Titus, then said he had accompanied Doran merely to look around.

Oberyn Martell challenged Titus’s reputation, prompting Titus to set conditions for withdrawing his army and then meet Oberyn in a duel. The fight began with Oberyn’s rapid spear attack, which Titus evaded and blocked, leaving their contest unresolved.

• Oberyn Martell questioned Titus’s claims of being the Seven Kingdoms’ finest commander and swordsman, provoking Titus to accept a chance to test him.
• Titus demanded one hundred thousand Gold Dragons in reparations and that House Fowler surrender its titles over the Prince’s Pass; Doran Martell hesitated over the territorial demand.
• Titus invited Oberyn to spar, and the two faced each other before the gathered Dornish Marches lords and their followers.
• Oberyn lunged at Titus with a fast, carefully aimed spear thrust, but Titus stepped clear and intercepted the spear shaft with Heartsbane.
• Oberyn spun and swept his spear toward Titus’s lower body.

Titus defeated Oberyn in their sparring match, breaking seven spears with precise strikes from Heartsbane and thoroughly overcoming the Red Viper’s spearwork. Doran stopped the contest, and Oberyn accepted that he had lost as Titus approached him.

• Titus broke Oberyn’s first spear, then waited as Oberyn took a replacement and began the serious bout.
• Titus repeatedly anticipated Oberyn’s attacks, broke his spears, and taunted him as the Red Viper tried different tactics.
• Oberyn’s confidence faded as Titus broke his fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh spears, while Doran watched in alarm.
• Doran ended the sparring match, and Oberyn discarded his broken spear, recognizing Titus’s superior skill and control.
• Doran called the seven broken spears the will of the Seven, and Areo stepped in front of him as Titus approached.

Doran Martell persuaded Franklyn Forrester to accept reparations and cede land after Titus Peake defeated Oberyn, but Franklyn refused to send his young twin daughters to Titus. Titus changed the condition so Jenny and Jennelyn would go to Starfall to learn etiquette, and House Fowler’s peace settlement was completed.

• Doran promised Titus he would help secure House Fowler’s submission, then went with Areo Hotah to Skyreach to negotiate with Franklyn Forrester.
• Doran told Franklyn that Skyreach could not win the siege, had little support from other Dornish lords, and risked ruin if it kept resisting.
• Franklyn accepted the reparations and land cession but refused Titus’s demand that his twin heirs serve as cupbearers.
• Titus agreed that Jenny and Jennelyn could be sent to Starfall to learn etiquette under Countess Ashara, and Franklyn accepted the revised condition.
• Franklyn paid one hundred thousand Gold Dragons in gold and silver, while Captain Wenda counted the coins at Titus’s command tent.

After securing Prince’s Pass and releasing Prince Lewyn Martell, Titus celebrated with Wenda while news of his victory reached King’s Landing. Jon Arryn convened the Small Council to decide how the crown should respond, and Grand Maester Pycelle interrupted Stannis’s criticism of Titus’s conduct.

• Titus distributed compensation from the campaign’s spoils to the lords whose lands had been raided, while securing control of Prince’s Pass through an agreement with Skyreach.
• Titus released Prince Lewyn Martell, and Doran Martell and Oberyn left to meet him.
• Titus rejected Wenda’s suggestion to rename the pass and insisted that it remain Prince’s Pass because it was now his territory.
• Jon Arryn received news that Titus and Doran had taken Skyreach and brought Prince’s Pass under their control, then called a Small Council meeting.
• Hoster Tully defended Titus’s campaign as a justified retaliation, while Stannis Baratheon criticized the burning of Kingswood and slaughter of the Manwoodys.
• Grand Maester Pycelle interrupted Stannis, declaring that he was mistaken.

At the Small Council, Grand Maester Pycelle defended Titus Peake’s conquest of the Prince’s Pass with dubious historical claims, while Jon Arryn raised concerns about Peake’s growing power. The council ultimately recognized Titus’s control of the pass, leaving him poised to add it to his title as Warden of the Dornish Marches.

• Stannis questioned the treatment of House Manwoody, but Pycelle rebuked him and argued that Titus had acted lawfully.
• Varys privately mourned Earl Dagos Manwoody and considered recruiting surviving Manwoody orphans into his Little Birds.
• Jon Arryn objected that Titus’s annexation of the Prince’s Pass had gone too far and insulted Dorne.
• Pycelle cited historical records to claim the Prince’s Pass had once belonged to House Peake, leaving the council unable to answer his argument.
• Jon Arryn refrained from challenging Titus’s authority, and the Small Council voted to recognize the Warden of the Dornish Marches’ control of the Prince’s Pass.

Doran and Oberyn realized that Titus Peake and Ashara Dayne could form an alliance threatening House Martell, so they planned to court House Blackmont as a counterweight. Titus returned north after securing the Prince’s Pass, while Wenda woke to find him gone.

• Doran and Oberyn discussed Titus’s proposal involving Ashara Dayne and suspected that Titus and Ashara might marry, creating a powerful Peake-Dayne alliance.
• Oberyn proposed courting House Blackmont to counter the Peakes and Daynes, and Doran agreed that Blackmont was a promising ally.
• Titus led the Dornish Marches army north and left Roland Storm to guard the middle of the Prince’s Pass.
• Titus returned to the Dornish Marches, where he and Wenda spent their last night together during the campaign.
• Wenda woke, found Titus’s side of the bed empty, and draped an orange blanket bearing the Three Castles sigil over herself.

In 287 AC, Titus Peake taught his squires Galladon Tarth and Gerold Dayne by analyzing a Corbray knight’s attempts to reclaim Lady Forlorn. The challenger’s worsening performance made clear that he was not worthy to take the ancestral sword from Titus.

• Two years after the Pass War, a knight from House Corbray arrived at Starpike to challenge Titus Peake for Lady Forlorn.
• Titus easily dodged the knight’s attacks while explaining his habits, tactics, and weaknesses to Galladon Tarth and Gerold Dayne.
• The chapter described how Galladon’s sunny nature had drawn the guarded Gerold into becoming his partner in Starpike’s pranks.
• After half an hour, the Corbray knight lost his composure under Titus’s scrutiny and realized he could not reclaim Lady Forlorn.

Titus defeated a House Corbray knight who came to reclaim Lady Forlorn, then convened the landed knights of Starpike to discuss the Dornish Marches’ development. The meeting began with Titus serving them a new wine, Lafite from the year 285 Conquest, and asking for their opinions.

• Titus disarmed the injured Corbray knight, cut his neck, and told him to return when House Corbray produced a more capable swordsman.
• Titus told Gawen Tarth to have the Corbray knight’s wound treated and escort him out, while Gerold Dayne caught Titus’s sword and returned Orphan-Maker to him.
• Gerold told Titus that all twenty-three landed-knight representatives were waiting in the front hall for the meeting.
• Titus entered the hall, received the knights’ greetings, and began the meeting after confirming that no one had arrived late.
• Titus had servants pour the knights Lafite from the year 285 Conquest and asked them to taste it and suggest improvements.

Titus announced that House Peake would take local governance away from its landed knights and replace it with appointed officials, while compensating the knights with fixed stipends and military roles. The representatives did not dare openly resist, and the reforms moved forward as several knights voiced support.

• Titus hosted a tasting of Lafite, and the knights praised the wine as the meeting's atmosphere eased.
• Titus announced that Starpike would replace the landed knights' local authority with appointed administrators, revenue officers, and constables, while preserving their private property and replacing fief income with stipends.
• The knight representatives protested that the reforms broke tradition and would undermine local order, but Titus silenced them and warned them not to challenge House Peake's authority.
• Titus explained the new officials' duties and said that constables would be selected for merit rather than inherit their posts.
• When Titus asked who supported or opposed the decision, no one openly opposed him; several older knights requested a delay, but Titus rejected their plea, and some representatives then voiced support.

Titus used a banquet to announce that the Military Police Corps would be expanded and that knights whose fiefs had been reclaimed would be reassigned, while outlining a gradual plan to strengthen House Peake’s direct rule. After two years of military, administrative, and settlement reforms, his territory had grown more secure and prosperous, but he still needed more trained officials, laborers, artisans, and steady revenue to sustain its development.

• Titus toasted the knights and announced that Aegon Leywell’s Military Police Corps would expand from one hundred to two hundred full members, with twice as many mounted squires, and that displaced knights could apply for priority admission or serve in other posts.
• Titus planned to use the Military Police Corps to enforce criminal law and investigate local officials, while intending to test the system in Starpike before gradually extending it to other regions.
• Titus summoned Aegon to the East Study and gave him instructions, while the chapter described the Peake Legion’s training stations, rotating regiments, and plans to develop a military settlement system.
• Rosso Brune’s Survey Corps and bounty hunters drove Wildling tribes out of the Red Mountains, and more Wildlings began registering at fortresses under Titus’s settlement policy.
• Titus resettled new subjects in protected zones, promoted terrace farming, and oversaw the growth of his domain to six cities, while pursuing harbor construction, road repairs, and stronger centralized control over knightly lands.

Titus traveled to the Red Mountains and inspected the thriving harbor he had built at the upper mouth of the Torrentine. The harbor’s gold-rush reputation, deliberately spread by Titus, had attracted settlers and prospectors, and he left convinced it was vital to his territories’ economic revival.

• Titus set out south with Dodge and Belwas, then joined Ser Rosso and the Survey Corps near the Red Mountains.
• Titus welcomed Dodge’s new ability to Skinchange into a vulture, which gave him an aerial scout while Wenda was away.
• Titus’s party passed through a fortified gorge and reached the bustling harbor district at the upper mouth of the Torrentine.
• Titus surveyed the harbor’s farms, town, fortress, docks, and shipyard, which had been built with settlers and laborers from several regions.
• Titus recalled how he had fabricated and spread stories of gold on the tidal flats, drawing prospectors and giving the settlement its name, Gold Mountain Harbor.