Chapter Summaries

Leyton Hightower suffered from an unexplained, relentless hunger and ate a meal that did not satisfy him before falling asleep. After learning that Leyton and Moroia had barely eaten for ten days, Baelor Hightower went to investigate and heard his father speak as he stepped onto the forbidden stairs.

• Leyton Hightower felt ravenously hungry, ate the cold meal left outside his room, and found that it did not ease his hunger.
• A maid told Baelor Hightower that meals sent to Leyton and Moroia had been left uneaten over the past ten days.
• Baelor went to the stairs leading to the tower's summit, called for his father, and received no reply.
• Baelor stepped onto the dusty tenth stair, and Leyton's voice suddenly demanded to know who had given him permission to come up.

Baelor Hightower found his father, Earl Leyton Hightower, shrouded in darkness and grew fearful after noticing blood on his robe. Meanwhile, Margaery Tyrell remained stranded by rain with Darean, and the two discussed who might replace Jon Arryn as Hand of the King.

• Baelor found Leyton at the top of the tower and asked whether Moroia was well; Leyton assured him she was fine and told him to have all the tower's children return.
• Leyton told Baelor to leave, and Baelor noticed dried blood on his father's robe before fleeing the dark tower in fear.
• Margaery and Darean were forced back to their wooden lodgings when a sudden storm interrupted their tour of the territory.
• Margaery realized the Hightowers had prepared for her visit and that the servants chosen to attend her knew nothing important.
• Margaery asked Darean who might succeed Jon Arryn as Hand, and she predicted that the direwolf would head south if the eagle could no longer fly.

Darean told Margaery that her father should become Hand of the King because House Tyrell could provide Robert with wealth, food, and troops, angering her with his suggestion that she marry Joffrey. Meanwhile, three Hightowers disappeared from the Hightower, and Guncer learned that witnesses had seen their father summon them away.

• Darean explained to Margaery that Robert needed a Hand who could supply his desires and protect him from House Lannister, making her father a suitable choice.
• Darean suggested that Margaery marry Joffrey and that her father serve as Hand, prompting her to demand he take back his words.
• Guncer told Baelor that three Hightowers had vanished from the Hightower despite an extensive search.
• A guard reported that witnesses had seen the missing Hightowers being summoned away by their father.

Baelor learned that the missing Hightower relatives had last been seen with his father and warned Guncer to put the family’s interests above their rivalry. In New Land Town, Marwyn brought Darean a troubling letter, and Darean discovered that the Book of Strange Script had updated.

• Guncer told Baelor that the missing collateral family members had last been seen going to see their father.
• Baelor connected the disappearances with Moroia and the smell of blood, then told Guncer he would sacrifice himself if danger threatened House Hightower.
• The narration explained that Leyton Hightower’s studies had exposed him to necromancy as magic returned to the world.
• Marwyn received a letter, read it, and hurried to find Darean.
• Darean read the letter and felt the familiar burning sensation as the Book of Strange Script updated.

Darean received a sealed letter from Baelor warning him to stay away from the Hightower while Baelor and Guncer investigated strange events there. With Leyton Hightower possibly implicated in a kinslaying, Darean gathered his steward to decide how to protect the family and manage their forces.

• Darean read Baelor's letter, which described strange events at the Hightower and urged him not to obey Leyton's summons.
• Marwyn reasoned that the reported smell of blood suggested someone had died at the top of the Hightower, where Darean's sister Moroia had stayed with Leyton.
• Darean decided to keep Clyson uninformed and called for a meeting with Marwyn and the steward to discuss their next steps.
• The steward arrived in alarm after reading the letter, and Darean told him he would trust Baelor until he received a direct order from Leyton.
• Darean asked the steward to help decide whether to continue construction, deploy their troops, contact Sunflower Hall, and respond to the crisis.

Darean refused to send House Hightower’s troops back to Oldtown before confirming the report of a crisis, and questioned why Garth’s seal was missing from the letter. At a Hightower reserve warehouse, Garth witnessed a mauled man rise and attack, only for the laborer he killed to show the same black-veined eyes.

• Darean argued that moving the army would expose the family’s crisis and leave New Land Town vulnerable, while Maester Marwyn supported him.
• Darean noticed that Garth’s seal was missing from the letter and wondered why his powerful elder brother had not endorsed it.
• At a reserve warehouse east of Oldtown, Garth oversaw the inventory and shipment of supplies bound for New Land Town.
• Two guards brought in a badly mauled man, who suddenly attacked and bit a laborer in the courtyard.
• Garth hurled a wine bottle to save a guard, who cut down the attacker and finally beheaded him.
• Garth went to inspect the scene and saw that the dead laborer’s eyes had turned black-veined too.

Garth contained the first living corpses at the warehouse, but two days later an army of the dead surrounded the castle. He recognized signs of necromancy and ordered that the Hightower be warned, unaware that Oldtown was already in danger.

• Garth ordered a guard to behead the transformed worker, then had the corpses burned and sent knights to investigate where the first man had been found.
• After two peaceful days, living corpses surrounded the castle, and Garth’s soldiers shut the gates and held the walls.
• The corpses withdrew into the forest after an unseen command, and Garth noticed that arrows through their heads had killed some of them.
• Garth recognized the dead as villagers from nearby settlements and suspected that necromancy had caused the attacks.
• Garth ordered his men to contact the Hightower and stop the threat from spreading, but Oldtown was already in danger.

Darean learned that magic was causing a crisis near Oldtown and sent men to monitor the city as the Book of Strange Script tasked him with cleansing its corruption. In Highgarden, Olenna summoned the bannermen to prepare for trouble, while Baelor’s letter revealed that Oldtown had fallen into chaos and Garth was badly wounded.

• Darean ordered Marwyn to stay in contact with Oldtown and sent twenty men under Clyson there to investigate the crisis.
• Olenna Redwyne learned that reports of attacks were spreading south of Highgarden and that Oldtown had stopped replying to ravens.
• Olenna ordered Garlan to summon nearby bannermen under the pretext of celebrating Mace Tyrell’s birthday, saying she would cover their losses.
• Gray ravens flew from Highgarden as Olenna’s bannermen were summoned.
• Baelor’s letter reached New Land Town, reporting that he could not control Morlin’s troops or summon the bannermen, and warning Darean to kill anyone with black, bloodshot pupils.
• Baelor reported that Garth had been badly wounded by the attackers and that the maesters could not help him, leaving Darean to decide what to do.

Garth Hightower and his guards rode for Oldtown to warn House Hightower, but a destroyed bridge and an ambush led by the undead Dawn Hightower trapped them in the woods. Garth broke through with only eight survivors, leaving the dead watching from the streambank.

• Garth persuaded the warehouse garrison to hold their position and rode toward Oldtown with his fifty guards.
• Garth's party found the bridge destroyed and encountered the undead Dawn Hightower on a wounded warhorse.
• Dawn awakened eight hundred hidden corpses, which surrounded Garth and his men in the woods.
• Garth ordered his soldiers to charge through the enemy line and urged any survivor to reach the Hightower with the warning.
• Garth escaped across the stream with only eight people beside him, gravely wounded as the dead watched from the bank.

Darean mobilized troops to secure support from Three Towers as signs of trouble in Oldtown grew, while Margaery Tyrell misread his actions and was placed under guard. He reached Three Towers and asked Earl Tommen Costayne for a private meeting about urgent business.

• Darean told Gerold Hightower he planned to seek Three Towers' support and ordered Gerold to guard New Land Town and report any news from Oldtown.
• Margaery Tyrell confronted Darean about his troop mobilization, and Darean ordered Clyson to escort her to her room and keep watch over her.
• Darean rode north with two hundred men, reaching Three Towers at noon on the second day.
• Earl Tommen Costayne welcomed Darean at the castle gates and offered to host a feast.
• Darean told Tommen he had come on urgent business that could not be put in a letter, and Tommen led him to a private room.