Chapter Summaries

Titus reflected on Aerys II’s ambitions and Tywin Lannister’s record, concluding that the king’s ideas had merit but lacked support from the great houses. As the jousting reached its fourth day, Titus, Rhaegar, and Brandon Stark continued winning, while the mystery knight remained missing.

• Robert Baratheon complained to Titus that he had missed the chance to compete, while Titus judged Aerys II less mad than he had expected.
• Titus considered how Tywin’s policies favored the nobility and certain cities, while Aerys’s ambitious plans depended on support from powerful lords who were alienated from the crown.
• Rhaegar returned from searching for the Knight of the Laughing Tree with only the knight’s painted shield.
• On the fourth day of the joust, Rhaegar defeated Rosso Brune, while Brandon Stark defeated Prince Lewyn Martell and Oberyn Martell.
• Titus continued unhorsing each opponent, and Rhaegar added Yohn Royce, Oswell Whent, and Jon Darry to his list of victories.

The Harrenhal melee began with Robert Baratheon overwhelming his opponents with his warhammer. As the contest narrowed to a handful of fighters, Robert and Eddard Stark faced a coordinated attack from seven riders.

• Rhaegar Targaryen narrowly defeated Brandon Stark in the joust, and the Earl of Starpike profited from his bets.
• Titus watched Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark compete in the seven-sided team melee.
• Robert charged through the opposing teams, knocking numerous knights from their horses with his hammer.
• Seven remaining riders united against Robert, Eddard, and Andrew Tarth.
• Andrew Tarth fought two riders at once and brought them down, while Eddard led two others in circles and Robert continued fighting on foot.

Robert Baratheon defeated Ser “Black Raven” and won the melee, then saluted King Aerys as champion. On the final day of the Harrenhal tourney, four contenders remained to decide the champion of the jousting contests.

• Robert battered down the “Fire Steed” and then fought Ser “Black Raven,” defeating him with twin blows from his maces.
• Ser Andrew Tarth and Eddard Stark withdrew, leaving Robert as the melee’s sole victor.
• Titus congratulated Robert, pleased that Robert’s victory had secured Titus a major gambling win.
• On the tourney’s final day, the remaining shields represented Titus Peake, Barristan Selmy, Arthur Dayne, and Rhaegar Targaryen.
• The four remaining knights prepared to compete for the jousting championship.

Titus Peake faced Barristan Selmy in the first semifinal at Harrenhal, where the two jousters fought to a standstill. After six even passes, their seventh clash struck both men hard, and Titus prepared to charge again.

• Titus Peake defeated Jason Mallister in the previous round and advanced to the semifinal against Barristan Selmy.
• Paxter Redwyne visited Titus to offer encouragement, while Princess Elia Martell teased Ashara Dayne about Titus.
• Titus entered the lists in his Berserker Armor, and he and Barristan began their joust.
• Titus and Barristan exchanged six passes without either gaining the upper hand.
• On the seventh pass, both knights struck each other's breastplates, and Titus felt the impact as he turned his horse for another charge.

At the Harrenhal tourney, King Aerys II awarded Earl Titus’s semifinal to Barristan Selmy, while Prince Rhaegar Targaryen defeated Arthur Dayne and then Barristan to win the jousting championship. The chapter ended with Titus applauding Rhaegar’s victory after making a fortune from the tourney.

• King Aerys II declared Barristan Selmy the winner over Earl Titus, prompting an uproar among the spectators.
• Barristan told Titus that he knew Titus had not truly lost and offered to share the honor of presenting the Queen of Love and Beauty’s crown to Ashara Dayne.
• Rhaegar Targaryen defeated Arthur Dayne by two flags in the second semifinal.
• Rhaegar faced Barristan in the final and took a narrow lead after six broken lances.
• On the seventh pass, Rhaegar struck Barristan’s shoulder armor while absorbing his attack, winning the championship.
• Titus applauded Rhaegar’s victory, having already earned a fortune from the tourney bets.

Prince Rhaegar won the Harrenhal tournament and named Lyanna Stark Queen of Love and Beauty, presenting her with a crown of Winter Roses instead of choosing his wife, Elia Martell. His choice stunned the watching crowd as the chapter ended.

• Prince Rhaegar defeated his opponents, including four Kingsguard, to win the Harrenhal jousting tournament.
• King Aerys recalled his resentment toward Tywin Lannister and watched his victorious son without pride.
• Rhaegar remembered his marriage to Elia, their children Rhaenys and Aegon, and the prophecy that the dragon must have three heads.
• Rhaegar rode past Elia and placed a frost-blue crown of Winter Roses on Lyanna Stark's lap.

At the Harrenhal tournament, Rhaegar crowned Lyanna Stark Queen of Love and Beauty, provoking anger among the Starks, Dornish, and Robert Baratheon. After the tournament ended, Titus met Ashara in the Godswood and reunited with her affectionately.

• Rhaegar crowned Lyanna Stark Queen of Love and Beauty, prompting Brandon and Eddard Stark, Princess Elia's Dornish relatives, and Robert Baratheon to react with anger.
• Titus restrained Robert and urged him to think of Lyanna and Eddard, and Robert calmed himself before leaving the viewing stand.
• The tournament at Harrenhal concluded, and the guests and commoners departed.
• Titus told Paxter Redwyne, Alester Florent, and Alyn Cuy that he would travel overland to Earl Harroway's Town and return south by boat.
• Titus met Ashara beneath the Heart Tree, and she embraced him and asked for a reward after his tournament performance.

Titus and Ashara met secretly in the godswood, where Ashara asked whether they could ever openly unite and Titus promised to find a way. After giving her Orphan-Maker as a token, Titus returned to his quarters and listened to Wenda warn him against Ashara.

• Titus and Ashara discussed Princess Elia and criticized Prince Rhaegar for crowning his betrothed, Lady Daena, as queen of love and beauty.
• Ashara asked Titus whether they could ever truly be together, and he promised to find a solution that would unite Starpike and Starfall.
• Ashara said she had to leave before her maid Wylla came looking for her, and Titus gave her Orphan-Maker as a keepsake.
• Titus returned to his quarters, where Wenda chastised him for meeting Ashara secretly and warned him that she might bewitch him.

Titus led House Peake’s reduced party from Harrenhal to Gulltown to buy supplies for his growing forces. He left Gulltown after spending heavily on armor, while the realm’s long peace gave way to the coming threat of war.

• Titus sent a letter to Starpike with news of recent developments and instructions to send men east to meet his party.
• Titus and his companions traveled through Darry lands and Earl Harroway’s town, then crossed the Trident and sailed from Saltpans toward Gulltown.
• Ser Andrew Tarth led the party in singing on the voyage, and Gulltown came into view as they entered its harbor.
• Titus inspected Gulltown’s walls and defenses, then ordered armor from the city’s three leading smithies.
• Titus bought several hundred suits of plate armor, half-plate, and mail, spreading word of House Peake’s wealth through Gulltown.

Titus and his party sailed to Tarth, admired the Sapphire Isle, and visited Earl Selwyn Tarth at Evenfall Hall. After they were shown to their guest rooms, shouting threw the hall into turmoil, leaving the mystery of the sapphires and Nadia unresolved.

• Titus's heavily armed party sailed from King's Landing aboard the Storm Dancer and Black Beth, celebrating his sixteenth Name Day at sea.
• Captain Moreo Tumitis brought the ships to Tarth, where Titus admired the island's scenery and learned about its history and legends.
• Titus and his companions accompanied Andrew Tarth to Evenfall Hall and met his brother, Earl Selwyn Tarth.
• A maid named Nadia led Titus and the others to their guest rooms, where shouting soon erupted and threw Evenfall Hall into turmoil.

Titus saved young Galladon Tarth after he drowned in a lake, and Galladon led the company to the legendary sword Lady of Justice. At the feast, Earl Selwyn thanked Titus and began to make a request.

• A guard told Titus that Galladon had drowned, and Titus hurried to the hall to find Selwyn Tarth grieving over his son.
• Titus used back blows and CPR to revive Galladon, who woke and said he had seen a sword beneath the lake.
• Galladon led Selwyn, Titus, and the others to a sun-and-moon carving on the lakeshore, and Oswin recovered a gleaming greatsword from the lake.
• Selwyn identified the sword as the lost Lady of Justice and held a feast to thank Titus for saving Galladon and helping House Tarth recover it.
• Selwyn raised his cup to Titus and began making a presumptuous request.

Earl Selwyn asked Titus to take Gawen Tarth as his cupbearer, strengthening the ties between their houses. Titus and his fleet reached Stonehelm, where he began unloading cargo and spoke with Wenda about House Swann’s history.

• Selwyn asked Titus to take Gawen as his cupbearer, and Titus agreed to teach the boy.
• Two days later, Titus’s ships sailed from Tarth with Gawen aboard, and Titus placed the boy in Bowen’s care.
• Titus’s fleet rounded Cape Wrath and reached Stonehelm, the seat of House Swann.
• Titus ordered Parker to unload and count the iron armor, sent Bowen to seek House Peake’s people, and went ashore with Wenda.
• Titus and Wenda discussed Stonehelm’s strategic history and House Swann’s notable figures as they examined the harbor’s swan carvings.

Titus and his companions traveled west from Stonehelm, passed the ruins of Summerhall, and returned safely to Starpike. There, Titus questioned Ser Duncan and Ser Robinson about the castle and the recruits, while learning more about Duncan’s fearsome reputation and his Wickwood fief.

• Titus told Wenda about Janna Swann and Ser Byron Swann as they traveled from Stonehelm with Captain Gino’s company.
• The company passed Summerhall, and Titus recalled the tragedy that killed Aegon V, Duncan the Tall, and Duncan the Small while attempting to hatch dragons.
• Titus considered whether any dragon eggs might have survived the fire and wondered whether Rhaegar visited the ruins.
• Titus met his former squire, Earl Bryce, at Nightsong, spent the night there, and returned safely to Starpike.
• Titus summoned Ser Duncan and Ser Robinson to ask about the castle’s condition and the recruits’ training, and the chapter described Duncan’s reputation as the flying devil of Wickwood.

Titus accelerated the Peake army’s training and rearmament while the realm mistook a brief spell of warmth for spring. He recognized that winter would return by year’s end, in a season later called the False Spring.

• Titus gave Ser Duncan two months to make the recruits combat-ready and assigned him command of a thousand men.
• Titus planned to promote Gino to lead the First Battalion and outfitted the Peake army with improved armor and equipment.
• Robert asked Jon Arryn to let him return to Storm’s End, but Jon delayed him by promising to knight him the following year.
• Robert wrote to Titus about his troubles, and Titus urged him to keep training and promised a surprise if he improved.
• Titus judged that the unusual warmth would last only another month or two before winter returned.

After Rhaegar took Lyanna Stark away from the shores of the Gods Eye, news of the abduction spread across Westeros, enraging Robert and unsettling the Kingsguard. The chapter leaves the kingdom facing the consequences of the Crown Prince’s actions.

• Captain Wenda told Titus that his agents in King's Landing had learned Rhaegar left through the Old City Gate with two Kingsguard and close friends.
• Titus learned that Jamie had contacted a Royal Fleet captain through Master Tob about retiring warships.
• Rhaegar met Lyanna near Harrenhal and took her away, prompting Titus to reflect that the year 281 AC had ended.
• Robert reacted furiously to the report at the Eyrie, while Eddard and Jon Arryn heard that Brandon Stark had gone to confront Rhaegar in King's Landing.
• Barristan Selmy, Prince Lewyn Martell, and Jon Darry discussed the absent Kingsguard as Barristan began to fear the consequences of Rhaegar's actions.

The chapter recounts how Aerys II’s madness turned Brandon Stark’s attempt to challenge Rhaegar into the execution of Brandon and his father, Rickard. It leaves Cersei, Viserys, and Catelyn imagining the personal happiness they might have had as the tragedy unfolds.

• Aerys II ordered Gerold Hightower to retrieve the Crown Prince, while Viserys wondered whether Rhaegar was unhappy in his marriage.
• Cersei recalled falling in love with Rhaegar and imagined that marrying him would have healed his heartbreak.
• Brandon Stark defeated Petyr Baelish in a duel for Catelyn Tully, then hurried to King’s Landing after hearing that Lyanna had been abducted.
• Aerys arrested Brandon and his companions, then executed several of their fathers and sons without trial.
• Rickard Stark demanded trial by combat, but Aerys burned him alive while Brandon watched and strangled himself trying to reach a sword.
• Aerys’s violence and laughter filled the throne room as he killed Rickard and Brandon.

After Aerys II killed Rickard Stark and Brandon Stark, he demanded that Jon Arryn surrender Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark. Jon refused and summoned the Vale’s nobles to the Gates of the Moon, where their divided loyalties became clear and the first council began.

• Aerys II burned Rickard Stark and Brandon Stark, then ordered Jon Arryn to hand over Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark.
• Jon Arryn rejected the king’s demand and sent ravens summoning his vassals to muster and discuss resistance.
• Several Vale houses pledged support, while House Grafton declared it would obey the king; other houses withheld their replies.
• More than half a month later, Jon Arryn gathered the responding nobles at the Gates of the Moon with Denys Arryn, Robert Baratheon, and Eddard Stark.
• Lady Anya Waynwood said she had visited House Malcor and House Hunter, whose leaders had made excuses for not attending.

At the Gates of the Moon, Duke Jon Arryn turned the Vale lords’ fear of Aerys II into support for Robert Baratheon’s claim to the Iron Throne. In King’s Landing, Aerys laughed off the rebellion and condemned House Baratheon’s betrayal.

• Lady Anya reported that Malcor Earl intended to support Lord Mark Grafton, while Horton Redfort said the ill Earl Corbray would send no troops.
• Earl Yohn Royce warned that Gulltown could muster at least ten thousand men, and Bennard Belmore urged the lords to delay war and negotiate.
• Steward Denys reported that as many as eighteen thousand troops had gathered at the Gates of the Moon.
• Duke Jon Arryn nominated Robert Baratheon as king, and Denys Arryn, Eddard, and the assembled lords acclaimed him as King Robert Baratheon, the First of His Name.
• After hearing that Robert had claimed the throne, Aerys II mocked the rebels and accused House Baratheon and its supporters of betraying the Targaryens.

As Aerys’s madness pushed the realm toward war, Robert prepared to lead the uprising while the Vale, North, and Riverlands forged an alliance. Titus Peake called the looming conflict the Usurper’s War and judged Robert’s side to have a strong chance of victory.

• Aerys ranted about burning his enemies as Qarlton Chelsted recalled how the Duskendale Defiance had worsened the king’s madness and left his advisers powerless.
• Robert declared himself ready for war, then left the Gates of the Moon to practice riding while Eddard Stark traveled north to summon Winterfell’s forces.
• Jon Arryn and Hoster Tully agreed that Eddard Stark would marry Catelyn Tully and Jon Arryn would marry Lysa Tully, bringing House Tully into the uprising.
• Titus Peake received news of the alliance and concluded that Robert’s side had a strong chance of winning the coming war.
• Titus Peake named the conflict the Usurper’s War.

Titus used his prediction of Gulltown’s fall to persuade Starpike’s officers and local military governors to support the rebels. Gulltown had fallen to Robert Baratheon, while the ten governors still doubted House Peake’s judgment about which side to choose.

• The rebel army marched through the Vale and reached Gulltown, where Mark Grafton called on the Shetts and Arryns to help defend the city.
• Mark Grafton recruited Lyn Corbray by knighting him, hoping to win House Corbray’s support and make use of Lady Forlorn’s symbolism.
• Robert Baratheon led the assault on Gulltown, killed Mark Grafton, and captured the city after House Malcor’s reinforcements were defeated.
• Titus gathered Starpike’s officers and ten local military governors, cited his prediction of Gulltown’s fall, and expressed confidence in the rebels.
• The ten military governors remained doubtful of House Peake’s judgment as Titus sought to align Starpike with the rebels.