Chapter Summaries

Aermir traveled to Oldtown to meet Ned and negotiate with Jon Arryn, but Septon Orwen and a hostile crowd tried to block his way. Aermir intimidated them with his armed escort and forced Orwen to flee, then proceeded toward the castle.

• Aermir spent two weeks observing the Vale army while Ned traveled to Oldtown to mediate between Aermir and Jon Arryn.
• Aermir refused the Locke commander’s bread and salt and insisted that his two hundred guards accompany him to the castle, though only twenty were allowed inside.
• Aermir encountered Septon Orwen and a mob gathered to protest the Old Gods and the Druid.
• Aermir drew Red Rain and ordered his soldiers to advance, frightening the crowd into retreat.
• Aermir threatened Septon Orwen, cut his cheek, and sent him fleeing from the square.

Eddard Stark failed to mediate between Aermir and Andrew Locke over Aermir’s claim to the Three Sisters, while the North prepared for a conflict it might not avoid. As Yohn Royce fortified Longsister, Aermir’s familiars slaughtered the weakened island lords at sea, and Aermir’s fleet seized their damaged ships.

• Eddard Stark urged Aermir and Andrew Locke to settle the dispute peacefully, but Aermir insisted on taking all five islands and accused Andrew of ignoring attacks by the lords of the Paps and Pebble.
• Andrew Locke fell silent after learning that the island lords had attacked Aermir’s men, while Eddard failed to change Aermir’s resolve.
• Eddard Stark recognized that Northern houses and the Skagosi had pledged forces to Aermir and decided that if peace failed, he would want the North to win.
• Yohn Royce prepared Longsister’s defenses, training archers, building barricades, and keeping twenty warships on alert.
• Wannian and Jilim led an army of rats against the starving survivors at sea; Wannian killed Lord Pryor, and the rats overwhelmed the ships.
• Aermir’s warships arrived after the massacre and captured the damaged vessels to be repaired at Sweetsister.

Aermir planned a covert landing on Longsister’s eastern coast and a campaign that would preserve his own soldiers by drawing the North’s lords into the vanguard later. After a coastal scout spotted his fleet and lit a beacon, Aermir redirected the ships to the first beach and ordered Bo and Erebus to contain the outpost.

• Aermir studied the map of Longsister and explained that his forces would land on the eastern coast while the Vale’s defenses were concentrated in the west.
• Aermir told Harrick to keep the North’s lords’ troops out of early skirmishes, expecting them to take the vanguard later when the main force approached.
• Aermir explained to Jory Flint and Harrick that his soldiers were far more capable than the Northmen, so he would not risk his own men to protect their allies from early losses.
• Boer told Aermir that a hidden coastal scout had spotted the fleet with a Myrish far-eye and lit a beacon.
• Aermir ordered Bo to take Jilim to the outpost, where Bo and Erebus would blockade its inhabitants and prevent any messenger from escaping.
• After learning that about 500 people were at the outpost, Aermir ordered Caygan to turn the ship around and land on the first beach.

Aermir launched a surprise invasion of Longsister with a smaller force than planned and began by breaching a stronghold, then divided his army to seize the island’s eastern and southern defenses. Bo and Erebus prevented the defenders from sending warnings, allowing the Northmen to advance with little organized resistance.

• Aermir brought 7,000 men to Longsister after leaving troops behind to suppress unrest, and changed his plan after discovering a small stronghold.
• Lord Carlton watched the Northmen land while his depleted forces left him with only 500 reserve soldiers, and he sent urgent requests for aid to Lord Torrent.
• Bo killed the messenger with her Dive Bomb spell after she and Erebus were ordered to stop all birds and messengers from leaving the castle.
• Aermir blasted open the stronghold’s gates and let the 200 sword saints defeat its 500 defenders so his troops could gain combat experience.
• Aermir split his forces, sending Jory east to capture castles and strongholds while he led the southern advance, which met little resistance.

Aermir's forces advanced while Bo and Erebus prevented the Three Sisters from learning of the invasion. Rep recounted how the Three Sisters' whalers killed seven members of his pod and how he retaliated by creating a whirlpool that destroyed their boats.

• Yohn Royce and his advisers discussed how to fight Emre the Druid's killer whales and decided to gather experienced whalers.
• Bo and Erebus intercepted messengers and ravens, keeping Yohn Royce's forces unaware of their wider predicament.
• Rep and his pod attacked 35 fishing boats, but nets and spears killed several killer whales; Rep tore openings in the nets to help the survivors escape.
• After losing seven members of his pod, Rep pursued 25 celebrating boats and released his magic into the water to create a whirlpool.
• The whirlpool smashed the boats together, leaving most of their crews dead or adrift among the wreckage.

Yohn Royce realized the Druid had cut off communications across the island and ordered his forces to march, while Aermir prepared to draw the Vale’s army into a valley ambush. The chapter ended with Aermir assigning Dick the Fletcher and Ser Anguy to strike the enemy troops waiting on the hillsides.

• Yohn Royce read the survivors’ report of the whirlpool attack, which had destroyed 35 fishing boats and killed around 400 fishermen-soldiers.
• Yohn Royce learned that half the island’s castles and strongholds had stopped reporting, concluded the Druid’s forces were already on the island, and ordered an immediate march and scouting effort.
• Aermir took the male members of noble families on the island, sent those who chose black to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, and arranged marriages between female heirs and loyal Northern nobles.
• Aermir prepared to face the enemy’s main force, used Osric as his double in runic armor, and joined his army with Jory Flint’s troops.
• Aermir spotted the Vale’s ambush near the valley road and ordered Dick the Fletcher and Ser Anguy to lead their rangers along narrow trails to attack the waiting troops once the battle began.

Aermir ambushed Yohn Royce’s Vale army in a narrow valley and used his rangers, familiars, and powerful spells to devastate the soldiers. With his mana nearly spent, he unleashed Heart of Winter, leaving the surviving Vale troops freezing on the battlefield.

• Yohn Royce’s advisers discussed the approaching army, but they did not realize Bo and Erebus could scout from far above.
• Aermir led his army through the valley, used fog to conceal the ambush, and positioned his rangers and rocks along the slopes.
• Aermir’s forces attacked the Vale soldiers with arrows and falling boulders, then the rangers killed roughly a thousand Vale archers as the armies clashed.
• Aermir summoned familiars and an elemental, then used roots and poison gas to slaughter more of the Vale army while Yohn Royce tried to rally his troops.
• Aermir summoned three bears and retreated toward his rangers, whose arrows had reduced the Vale army to less than half its original strength.
• Aermir cast North Wind: Heart of Winter, covering the battlefield in unnatural cold that numbed the Vale soldiers and began causing frostbite.

Aermir defeated the Vale forces, treated the wounded, and secured the surrender of the remaining lords on the island. After Lord Raynard Blackthorn attempted to kill him, Aermir spared him from immediate execution and ordered his men to take him away.

• Aermir killed Yohn Royce after defeating the Vale army and ordered compensation for his own fallen soldiers.
• Aermir directed his forces to treat captured Valemen, release commoners, and conquer Pebble before negotiating.
• Aermir discovered that repeated healing rituals could cause organ failure, while Bo reported that most surviving Valemen would not fight again.
• Cedric Harloban and Alaric agreed to surrender, and Aermir promised mercy if the lords laid down their weapons.
• Raynard Blackthorn attacked Aermir with a dagger, but Aermir caught the blade and ordered his men to take Raynard away.

Aermir’s forces conquered the Three Sisters, prompting Jon Arryn to abandon hopes of retaking them and reinforce Pebble and the Paps. Aermir launched a surprise night attack on Pebble, where the battle began with his magic breaking the Vale defenders’ line.

• Aermir spread news of his victory on the Three Sisters and identified islanders who still supported House Arryn.
• Jon Arryn and his lords rejected an offensive through the Riverlands and chose to reinforce Pebble and the Paps instead.
• Aermir secretly sailed toward Pebble with five thousand northern warriors while the Vale commanders believed he was still on Longsister.
• Aermir sent Bo and Erebus to scout Pebble and map its terrain before his troops landed under cover of darkness.
• Aermir used Incoinfra-Dwellers Below to entangle two thousand Vale reinforcements, while Harrick of the Iron Giants and the northern troops attacked.
• Ser Reynard Stonegate tried to rally the defenders as Jory Flint led the knights’ flank, but Aermir’s spells disrupted their lines.

Aermir tested his new bombardment spells against Stonehold, burning buildings and freezing its defenders while trying to spare the smallfolk. After a week, the castle remained standing but its garrison was exhausted, and Aermir concluded he needed stronger spells to destroy fortifications.

• The defenders retreated to Stonehold, where Ser Reynard took command after Lord Pryor's death and rejected Aermir's demand to surrender.
• Aermir used Bo and Earth Shards to drive townspeople toward the keep, then bombarded Stonehold with Rain of Fire, burning its wooden buildings.
• The next day, Aermir lured defenders out with a feigned assault and cast Ice Fog over the castle, freezing many soldiers.
• Aermir alternated the two spells for a week, killing fifteen hundred of the four thousand defenders while Ser Reynard and his knights rallied the survivors.
• Aermir finished his experiments and decided that Rain of Fire and Ice Fog could not destroy fortifications, so he needed more destructive bombardment spells.

Aermir captured Pebble after giving its defenders a chance to surrender, while the Vale lords’ argument over resistance ended in a deadly civil fight. He then misled Jon Arryn into sending troops toward the Paps as he prepared another plan for them.

• Aermir threatened Stonehold with further attacks unless its people surrendered by nightfall, then flew back to his army.
• Ser Reynard opposed surrender, but Ser Alden Pryor killed him, and the ensuing battle left the House Arryn loyalists dead.
• Aermir took control of Pebble, sending male nobles to the Wall or executing them and marrying female nobles to his subordinates.
• After learning that Aermir had invaded Pebble, Jon Arryn ordered troops toward the Paps and decided to send ten thousand men there.
• Aermir watched Jon’s council through a brown rat and planned to use the troops’ movement to his advantage.

Tywin studied reports about the Druid and concluded that his ability to command animals might make him more dangerous than his magic. As the Vale’s defenders waited on the Paps for the Northern army, its expected arrival had not occurred.

• Tywin reviewed Gerion’s report that he had befriended Jorah Glover and learned that the wargs were accepting him.
• After reading reports about Stonehold and the Druid’s movements, Tywin suspected he could command many animals and create an information blockade.
• Gerion spoke with Jorah at the Temple of the Old Gods, where Jorah said he could control three wolves, a brown bear, and an eagle but remained loyal to the Druid.
• Gerold Grafton assembled a force of eighteen thousand on the Paps to prepare for the Druid’s invasion.
• Two weeks after the warning, Gerold and his advisers waited anxiously for the Northern army, which had still not arrived.

Lord Grafton worried as his ravens and sailors failed to return, while Aermir moved ahead with a plan to destabilize the Vale. In a two-year-earlier encounter, Aermir tried to win the Moon Brothers to his cause by demonstrating his power.

• Lord Grafton sent ravens and trusted sailors to find out why the northern army had not reached the Paps, but none returned.
• Lord Grafton remained at his post, fearing the Druid’s orcas and the fate of the army trapped on the islands.
• Aermir left his commanders to hold the Paps and flew over the Vale, preparing to begin the next stage of his plan.
• Two years earlier, Aermir approached the Moon Brothers, hoping to unite the Mountain Clans against the Vale and support the resurgence of the First Men.
• Aermir drove back the Moon Brothers with wind, fire, and lightning, then claimed the Old Gods had sent him; the tribe stopped attacking and questioned whether he had come to help them.

Two years earlier, Aermir arrived among the Moon Brothers and demanded that Omer unite the mountain clans into an army against the men of the Vale. After demonstrating his power and summoning a host of creatures, he left Omer and Kur confronted with the scale of his strength.

• Omer met Aermir in the village square after the druid’s arrival and heard him claim the Old Gods had sent him to aid their followers.
• Aermir told Omer he wanted a united army of mountain clans to reclaim their ancestral lands from the men of the Vale.
• Ulf charged Aermir after he insulted Omer, but Aermir caught Ulf’s bronze axe, threw him aside, and healed his own broken hand.
• Aermir summoned Berus, enlarged him, and challenged the Moon Brothers to fight the giant dog.
• Kur summoned a bear and a wolf, but Aermir answered by summoning several familiars, an earth elemental, and his Wildfire Spirit, leaving Kur stunned.

Aermir confronted the Burned Men and Painted Dogs, whose chiefs refused to submit and fought him with their warriors. After Aermir killed Torrhen, Kayla, and many of their fighters, the surviving clans surrendered, and he prepared to train and arm them for war against the Vale.

• Aermir approached the Burned Men, where Torrhen defied him and revealed a bronze Valyrian greataxe that could dispel magic.
• Kayla arrived with 200 Painted Dogs and refused Aermir's demand that the clan submit.
• Torrhen charged Aermir while Kayla's warriors fought Berus and Aermir's other familiars battled the Burned Men.
• Aermir used Bark Armor, a Spore Field, and his Wildfire Spirit to kill Torrhen, then burned roughly 200 warriors with combined fire spells.
• After Kayla, Torrhen, and 200 warriors died, the surviving Burned Men and Painted Dogs submitted to Aermir.
• Aermir planned to train and arm the clans for the conflicts ahead, intending to use them against the Vale.

Aermir unified the mountain clans, established weirwood travel between distant trees, and spent two years bringing prosperity and weapons to the Moon Brothers and other clans. He gave the clans unstable enchanted weapons under a false warning about the Old Gods and prepared reliable equipment for their chiefs and elite warriors as they readied for battle.

• Aermir and the mountain clan chiefs sealed their alliance by planting a weirwood sapling and sacrificing prisoners, which Aermir used to grow and connect the tree to the weirwood network.
• Aermir used his new Tingtonite spell to travel from the Mountains of the Moon to Moat Cailin, then discovered the spell's limits through months of experimentation.
• Over two years, Aermir supplied the mountain clans with food, steel arms, armor, and 2,000 unstable enchanted weapons and suits of armor.
• Aermir told the clan chiefs that the enchanted weapons would turn against warriors whose faith in the Old Gods faltered, and Dolf accepted them on behalf of the Stone Crows.
• Aermir explained that the unstable weapons were for ordinary warriors and set aside reliable weapons and armor for the chiefs and their elite guards.

Aermir united the Mountain Clans and secretly prepared them to seize territory in the Vale while disguising his support as the will of the Old Gods. The clans attacked from four directions, and Redan killed Ser Aric Donniger after the Moon Brothers and Painted Dogs ambushed House Donniger’s forces.

• Aermir rallied the Mountain Clans, divided their army into four divisions, and sent Kur and Vilan to scout separate routes into the Vale.
• Aermir planned to destabilize the Vale, secretly aid the clans with magic, and seize supplies while burning what they could not carry.
• The Mountain Clans launched their coordinated attack, and Aermir joined the fighting after enhancing two hundred elite warriors.
• Ulf led the Moon Brothers’ ambush against House Donniger’s troops, luring them into a narrow trail where the Painted Dogs attacked from both flanks.
• Redan fought Ser Aric Donniger with enchanted weapons, shattered his shield, and killed him, causing the Vale’s troops to scatter.

Aermir cut off communication in the Vale of Arryn and used deceptive tactics to turn the Vale houses against the mountain clans. At the river crossing, Omer defeated Ser Beric Hardyng but suffered a mortal wound in the duel.

• Aermir blocked ravens and messengers from leaving the Vale while his familiars hunted them down.
• Lady Elara Lynderly and her advisers received Lord Waynwood’s call to unite against the mountain clans and sent ravens to House Hunter and House Upcliff.
• Aermir positioned his troops near the castles of House Hunter and House Upcliff, hiding most of his force in a forest as bait.
• Tormund of the Burned Men led attacks against House Egen, while Lady Alys Egen defended the hillside with her archers.
• Omer lured Ser Beric Hardyng’s cavalry toward a river that Aermir had dammed with earth magic, and the released flood scattered the Vale troops.
• Omer killed Ser Beric in single combat but collapsed from a dagger wound in his neck before Aermir could reach him.

Aermir prepared a hidden force in a cave while Aron Lynderly and Yarick Waynwood argued over how to attack the mountain tribes. After news of defeats elsewhere forced Aron to advance, Yarick pushed for a cavalry detachment to outflank the enemy through the forest.

• Aermir honored Chief Omer and flew to the mountain army, confident the Vale forces were approaching a trap built around the tribes’ fortified camp.
• Aron Lynderly suspected the unusual camp concealed a larger scheme, but a messenger’s report of defeats at House Egen and House Donniger compelled him to attack.
• Aermir used magic to conceal the cave entrance and erase evidence of his hidden troops, so the Vale scouts searched the forest and found nothing.
• Yarick Waynwood refused to take the vanguard and insisted on using cavalry to outflank the mountain tribes through the forest.
• Aron remained uneasy about the forest but gave way to Yarick’s plan.

Yarick’s forces used Aermir’s concealed earth traps and the mountain clans’ enchanted gear to break the Vale army’s charge. Tormund killed Eddrick Hunter, while Aron wondered how Aermir had hidden the traps and saw that the battlefield remained under his control.

• Yarick waited for House Hunter and House Elesham to attack, planning to strike when the fighting was fiercest.
• Eddrick Hunter and Jareck Elesham sent their forces against the mountain clans, and Aermir’s concealed holes threw the Vale cavalry into confusion.
• Yarick sent his cavalry toward the forest as mountain clan archers and detachments pressed the disordered Valemen.
• Tormund the Bull fought Eddrick Hunter, broke his shield and arm, and killed him with his warhammer.
• Aron questioned how Aermir had hidden the holes, while Aermir stood ready to reshape the ground and conceal them again.