Chapter Summaries

Nissa ordered the fishfolk and summoned sea beasts to disperse after King Ghidorah slaughtered them, repaying her debt to Tormund despite the heavy losses. She withdrew with her daughter and forbade her people from approaching the surface until the Dragon King left, leaving her daughter’s question about Tormund unanswered.

• Nissa watched King Ghidorah descend and destroy the fishfolk and sea beasts while Redd observed the attack from his back.
• Nissa blew her ancestral conch, ordering the surviving fishfolk and sea beasts to flee into the depths.
• Nissa told her daughter that the attack had not been worth the lives lost, but that her debt to Tormund was paid.
• Nissa saw King Ghidorah searching the sea, then returned to the depths with her daughter and ordered the fishfolk to avoid the surface until he left.
• Nissa’s daughter asked what they should do about Tormund.

After the battle, Redd ordered the Fleet to count casualties, repair its ships, and depart for Lys in an hour while King Ghidorah watched the sea. The surviving sailors then struggled to clean the fishmen's foul, persistent blood, and Douglas ordered the soaked planks torn out and thrown overboard.

• Nissa swam away into the deep sea with her people, carrying the glowing white conch and never looking back.
• King Ghidorah glanced toward distant reefs, then Redd ordered Douglas to count casualties, repair the ships, and prepare to leave in an hour.
• Redd told King Ghidorah to watch the sea as the Fleet regrouped and the battle's wreckage floated on the surface.
• The sailors discovered that the fishmen's blood clumped on the deck, resisted scrubbing, soaked into the planks, and gave off a revolting stench.
• Douglas ordered the sailors to pry up every blood-soaked plank and throw it into the sea despite the Fleet's shortage of spare wood.

Redd discovered that the Fishmen’s blood grew blacker and more poisonous after exposure to sunlight, killing fish around the fleet. He ordered the ships to continue toward Lys and planned to bring the bloodstained planks as a warning to the city.

• Douglas saw dead fish rise around planks stained with the Fishmen’s blood and realized the blood had poisoned them.
• Redd inspected the ship and observed that the blood darkened, grew more toxic, and caused nearby fish to die and decay rapidly.
• Redd praised Douglas for removing blood-soaked sections and ordered the fleet to count casualties, repair or tow ships, and depart for Lys in an hour.
• Redd ordered the black-stained planks kept as a greeting gift for Lys, so its people would see what their allies had left behind.
• Redd confirmed that fifteen of the fleet’s more than twenty warships could still sail and set course for Lys after the fog cleared.

Douglas warned Redd that Lys’s narrow sea channels were a deadly trap and urged him to attack from the north, but Redd insisted the fleet enter through the main channel. Douglas gave the order despite fearing for his sailors, leaving the fleet approaching the channel with King Ghidorah floating behind it.

• Douglas studied Lys’s island fortifications and warned Redd that the channels could trap the fleet under attack from both sides.
• Douglas urged Redd to circle north and land on the undefended side, but Redd calmly refused to reconsider.
• Douglas realized Redd would not heed his advice and reluctantly accepted the order to enter through the main channel.
• Douglas ordered every ship to proceed single file behind the flagship and snapped at an adjutant who questioned the route.
• Douglas watched the channel draw near, feared the dangers ahead, and glanced back at the sleeping King Ghidorah as the sailors continued their work.

Redd led his fleet toward Lys, where Daemon’s ships waited in a narrow channel, intending to draw his enemies into battle. As the fleet advanced toward the city, Redd assessed Lys’s formidable wall defenses.

• Douglas spotted Daemon’s fleet blocking the channel and ordered Redd’s ships to prepare for battle.
• Redd chose to charge into the channel, expecting Daemon to see the apparent advantage and fight rather than flee.
• Douglas ordered the fleet to sail at full speed and urged the crew to stay close to Redd as they advanced.
• Redd examined Lys’s walls and noticed oversized ballistae equipped with massive bolts.

Lysene ballistae opened fire on Redd’s approaching fleet, destroying the vanguard warship and badly damaging several others. Survivors struggled in the bloody water as the bombardment continued.

• The Lysene commander ordered the wall crews to fire on the fleet.
• More than a dozen giant bolts struck the fleet’s leading warship, smashing through its deck, hull, mast, and crew.
• The vanguard ship was dismantled within moments, and its wreckage and casualties spread across the bloodied sea.
• Survivors swam toward the ships behind them, calling for help.
• Ballista bolts pierced another ship, punched through the deck of a second, and smashed the rudder of a third.

Douglas pushed his fleet toward Lys City despite devastating ballista fire, ordering the ships to keep advancing rather than become easy targets. The flagship and a few surviving ships closed to within three hundred paces as the city’s commander redirected the ballistae to target Douglas’s ship.

• The Lys City wall crews fired another volley of ballista bolts at Douglas’s fleet, while Douglas ordered the flagship’s shield bearers to protect the deck.
• Ballista bolts struck and damaged multiple ships, sinking or disabling several as their crews struggled in the scarlet sea.
• Douglas told his fleet to keep advancing, noting that ships which hesitated or turned became the ballista crews’ easiest targets.
• With fewer than ten of his fifteen ships still sailing normally, Douglas ordered the rowers to go at full speed.
• The Lys City commander, unsettled by the fleet’s continued advance, ordered the ballista crews to aim at Douglas’s flagship.

Douglas’s fleet tried to retreat after the city’s ballistae slaughtered the leading ships, but Redd ordered it to advance again. As the fleet sailed toward the walls, Redd told King Ghidorah to wait because it was not time to act yet.

• Douglas saw the fleet fall into chaos as ships collided while attempting to retreat from the ballistae.
• Douglas asked Redd whether they should keep advancing, and Redd quietly ordered, “Continue.”
• Douglas ordered the fleet to regroup around the flagship and sail forward at full speed.
• Redd watched the city walls approach and told King Ghidorah to wait while he watched the sky beyond the city.

Redd and King Ghidorah protected Douglas’s flagship by destroying the wall’s ballista bolts with Gravity Beams, then turned the defense into a rout. With the wall abandoned, Douglas ordered the fleet to sail forward.

• The wall’s first volley of five ballista bolts vanished when King Ghidorah’s right head fired a Gravity Beam.
• Redd told King Ghidorah to let the defenders fire another volley, and the frightened commander ordered every ballista to attack the flagship.
• King Ghidorah’s three heads fired Gravity Beams that erased the incoming bolts and roared a warning at the wall.
• The commander called for retreat as the soldiers and ballista crews fled the wall.
• Douglas laughed with relief and ordered the flagship to advance through the wreckage, followed by the surviving warships.

Redd held King Ghidorah above Lys while Douglas’s fleet landed, giving the city’s defenders time to see the invasion unfold. Douglas led his soldiers toward the city to find Daemon, the Black-Robed Men, and the Magistrate.

• Redd told King Ghidorah to wait while Douglas brought the fleet ashore, intending to make Lys witness the landing.
• Douglas ordered his troops to avoid looting, fires, and harm to civilians, while telling them to kill anyone who attacked them.
• Douglas led the first landing party onto the docks, and several hundred soldiers assembled as more ships arrived.
• Douglas divided the soldiers into three columns and ordered them to find Daemon and the Black-Robed Men.
• Douglas led the central column toward the Magistrate’s palace as King Ghidorah swept low over the advancing troops and looked toward the city.

Redd and Douglas’s forces advanced through Lys as King Ghidorah flew toward the Magistrate’s residence. There, Mynander confronted the Black-Robed Men, who said they had to choose whether to run or fight.

• Redd directed King Ghidorah toward the Magistrate’s residence while the city’s residents hid from the advancing forces.
• Douglas’s column stopped after a militiaman shot a crossbow bolt at them from a rooftop.
• Douglas’s soldiers wounded and captured the militiaman, then continued through the city at a faster pace.
• Douglas saw King Ghidorah circling above the Magistrate’s residence and urged his soldiers to hurry toward Redd.
• Mynander warned the Black-Robed Men that the dragon was approaching, and their leader said they had to choose whether to run or fight.

As Redd and King Ghidorah approached the white palace, the Citadel’s hidden weapons team prepared hand cannons and a small cannon to fight them. The chapter left the weapons ready and their elderly leader watching the approaching golden figure, regretting that the Citadel’s final safeguard had to be used.

• Mynander told the black-robed leader that Daemon was at the harbor overseeing the battle, and the leader called him an idiot before signaling his men.
• Redd spotted the black-robed figures in the palace and told King Ghidorah to wait for Douglas to surround the place before they went to meet them.
• The black-robed men opened their cases and assembled at least twenty hand cannons and a small cannon.
• The Citadel’s hidden weapons specialists loaded the small cannon with black powder, a sabot, an iron ball, and a fuse.
• The elderly leader watched King Ghidorah approach and said the weapons were never supposed to be used.

The Citadel’s black-robed leader prepared hand cannons and a cannon to confront Redd and King Ghidorah as they approached Lys, while Daemon watched from the harbor and waited for an opening. Daemon’s resentment over Lys’s Dragon-killing ballistae remained restrained by the danger they posed to his own Dragon.

• The black-robed leader learned that Daemon and his Dragon were waiting for Redd and King Ghidorah to engage, then ordered the Citadel’s weapons readied.
• The Black-Robed Men loaded twenty hand cannons and aimed a small cannon at King Ghidorah as the Dragon circled above Lys.
• Daemon watched King Ghidorah from an abandoned harbor warehouse while his smaller red Dragon waited nearby.
• Daemon recalled how Lys’s ballistae had outraged him and considered burning the Magistrate’s palace, but he had held back because the weapons could kill his Dragon.

Daemon explained his plan with Tormund to separate Redd from King Ghidorah and kill Redd while his dragon was occupied. The plan left no room for failure, and Daemon’s own dragon trembled at the thought of facing the golden beast.

• Redd’s fleet attacked the waterway, and King Ghidorah destroyed the wall-mounted ballistae with its Gravity Beams.
• Tormund asked Daemon what they would do, and Daemon said they would wait for Redd and King Ghidorah to separate.
• Daemon revealed that Magistrate Mynander’s three hundred elite guards would engage Redd’s ground forces and sever communication with King Ghidorah.
• Daemon said the Citadel’s Black-Robed Men would use weapons to distract and enrage King Ghidorah while his hidden fleet cut off Lys and trapped Redd’s men in the harbor.
• Daemon planned for himself and Tormund to hold King Ghidorah off while Redd was killed, and said they would all die if the plan failed.
• Tormund remarked that Daemon’s dragon feared King Ghidorah, and Daemon confirmed it before comforting his frightened dragon.

Daemon prepared for the cannon’s attack as King Ghidorah descended toward the white palace. The cannonball grazed Ghidorah’s wing, and the wounded Dragon turned its fury toward the palace.

• Daemon told Mynander and Tormund not to disappoint him and ordered them to prepare.
• The cannon fired at King Ghidorah, which dodged and sent its Gravity Beam into the palace dome.
• The cannonball grazed Ghidorah’s right wingtip, tearing its membrane and drawing dark golden blood.
• Douglas saw Ghidorah was wounded and ordered his soldiers to hurry to support His Highness.
• King Ghidorah steadied itself and turned all three heads toward the palace, enraged that a human weapon had hurt it.

Redd discovered that the Citadel possessed hand cannons capable of injuring King Ghidorah and ordered him to capture their leader alive. The Citadel’s trained black-robed men fired a volley at King Ghidorah, but his golden energy sphere erased every projectile.

• King Ghidorah roared after a hand cannon struck him, while Redd recognized the weapon as belonging to the Citadel.
• Redd told King Ghidorah to destroy the cannon and spare the people behind the window so he could question their leader about the weapons.
• King Ghidorah blasted the wall above the window, burying the cannon in rubble while the black-robed leader survived.
• The leader directed the black-robed men to spread out and fire twenty hand cannons at King Ghidorah.
• King Ghidorah formed a golden sphere around himself that made every lead ball vanish, then located the black-robed men through the smoke.

Redd ordered King Ghidorah to destroy the Black-Robed Men’s hand cannons without killing them, while Douglas’s troops surrounded the white palace. Douglas entered the damaged palace with elite soldiers, preparing to confront whoever remained inside.

• Redd ordered King Ghidorah to disarm the Black-Robed Men and leave them alive.
• King Ghidorah destroyed the hand cannons with Gravity Beams, and the black-robed leader decided against using his poisoned silver bullet.
• Douglas ordered his troops to surround the palace and block every entrance and exit.
• Douglas kicked open the palace doors and entered the ruined entrance hall with a dozen elite soldiers.

Redd entered the ruined palace after King Ghidorah’s attack and found the Black-Robed Leader surrounded by Douglas’s soldiers. The leader remained calm as Redd approached, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• Douglas’s soldiers surrounded the Black-Robed Leader on the stairs amid the bodies of his dead subordinates.
• Douglas ordered the Black-Robed Leader to drop his weapons, but the leader stayed calm and looked toward the square.
• King Ghidorah descended over the square, and Redd leaped from the dragon’s back.
• Redd walked through the palace entrance as the soldiers made way for him.
• Redd entered the ruined hall and surveyed the dead, including black-robed men, white-robed men, and officials in fine silk.

Redd confronted the surviving Black-Robed Leader and recognized that he was waiting for an opportunity, while the leader refused to reveal the Citadel’s role. The leader remained wary of Redd’s disregard for political rules, especially after recalling the fate of the Free Cities.

• Redd questioned the Black-Robed Leader, who identified himself as a nameless maester who had left the Citadel.
• Redd examined the ruined weapons and pressed the leader about how long the Citadel had prepared them.
• Redd told the leader that his men and weapons were gone and challenged him to explain what he was waiting for.
• The Black-Robed Leader kept one hand on the concealed case holding a hand cannon and poisoned silver bullet, then refused to reveal what Redd wanted to know.
• The Black-Robed Leader considered how the Citadel could deny responsibility and feared Redd would ignore the usual rules, remembering Volantis as a warning.

The Black-Robed Leader confronted Redd in the palace, convinced that the destruction of Volantis showed how dangerous Redd was to the Seven Kingdoms. He fired a poisoned hand cannon at close range, but King Ghidorah destroyed the bullet with a precisely controlled Gravity Beam before it reached Redd.

• The Black-Robed Leader reflected on Volantis’s disappearance and waited for Redd to approach.
• Redd climbed the stairs despite Douglas’s anxious warning, and the Black-Robed Leader readied a poisoned hand cannon.
• The Black-Robed Leader remembered his youthful hopes at the Citadel and fired, saying, “For the Seven Kingdoms.”
• King Ghidorah thrust a head through the palace doorway and destroyed the bullet with a controlled Gravity Beam, leaving Redd unharmed.