The third day of jousting saw a different format, as the field of thirty-two jousters were made aware of the rules. It was decreed that any knight who should break at least three lances in the course of the joust should receive parole to joust against those who had managed that same feat, for the right to challenge the last knight left undefeated. After the first round of jousting, sixteen jousters were left, some which had managed the feat of breaking three lances and guaranteeing their place in the final. The jousting began well, with Ethos Mertyns, squire to the Stormbreaker, refusing for several passes to fall before the famed knight Ser Gueren Waters. Yet in the end he was overthrown. A most notable result followed when Ser Doran Dondarrion, the famed Black Bolt of the Dornish Marches, met Prince Cadan Martell only to fall before him; but he had broken three lances, and received the parole. Ser Sarmion Baratheon met and defeated Seth Blackwood, and Ser Anders Dondarrion defeated the knight Ser Janden Melcolm who had fallen in second place in the first day of jousting.
Following this, Ser Axell Farman met with Ser Bryon Waynwood in the lists, only for the westerman to be defeated by the valelord. Ser Endros Buckler, who had defeated Olyvar the Green Oak in the lists in the first day’s jousting, met Ser Aidan Dayne. The Knight of the Twilight had defeated him after his defeat of the Kingsguard knight, and here he had a chance to have his revenge only to find that it was not to be as the Dornishman promptly knocked him from the saddle. Another Dornishman, Ser Corrent Gargalen proved too determined an opponent for Ser Bonifer Buckwell, who was defeated. In the last match of the round, Ser Dagur Saltcliffe faced Ser Jossart Vaith, who was tenacious in refusing to yield, but was ultimately thrown from the saddle by the Iron Serpent’s lance.
The next round of jousting followd, with the Stormbreaker overthrowing Ser Doran’s brother, Ser Anders, and then Ser Gueren Waters sending the Dornish prince to the ground. Prince Cadan had managed to break three lances, however, and was paroled to fight with his compatriots. The knight from Starfall in turn overthrew Ser Bryon Waynwood, while the Iron Serpent defeated Ser Corrent Gargalen ... but not before Gargalen broke his third lance, and won a chance to joust again thanks to the parole.
This left the Stormbreaker to joust against Ser Gueren Waters, one of the finest jousters of the crownlands—second only, some would say, to the Dragonknight himself. Yet fortune was with Baratheon, and Ser Gueren fell before him. But the contest which was on the lips of the spectators long after it was done came next, and none would soon forget it: Ser Aidan and Ser Dagur, men who had crossed swords in Dorne, faced each other in the lists at lass. Seven lances were broken in the course of five tilts, and it was in that last tilt that at last the Iron Serpent was overthrown. Ser Aidan’s contest against the Stormbreaker was anticlimactic, as Ser Sarmion fell more easily to the knight, leaving him the only knight to remain undefeated. Ser Sarmion raged at again being defeated by the famed young knight, and raged yet more when a knight, Ser Janden Melcolm, mocked his performance. Ser Sarmion attempted to challenge him to single combat then and there, but Ser William Waxley intervened and Ser Sarmion returned to the parole contest.
The parole contest followed, where the Black Bolt fell after nearly unhorsing the Iron Serpent in the first pass andSer Gueren shattered another lance to drive Ser Corrent from the saddle. It was then that insult was added to injury, for the weakened Prince Cadan Martell—still feeling the ill-effects of the unhorsing Ser Elmer Crakehall meted out two days before—refused to forfeit despite the Stormbreaker’s thirst for vengeance… and despite all odds, Prince Cadan managed to unhorse the giant Baratheon knight. When the king had to then decide who would avoid jousting an extra time, he determined that Ser Dagur’s great battle against the Knight of the Twilight won him reprieve, only for Prince Cadan to finally succumb to exhaustion and give up the field to Ser Gueren. It was thus that those two great knights met, but Ser Gueren—charged with zeal to win before the eyes of his king, his peers, and his family—defeated him.
Thus the field was set for a great battle between the undefeated Aidan Dayne and the puissant Gueren Waters, but perhaps Ser Aidan’s long rest before resuming proved his undoing, or perhaps his steed’s flagging energies did. Regardless, Ser Gueren overthrew him in the first pass, breaking his tenth lance of the day to great acclaim. Receiving the king’s reward, he named his lady wife, Jeyna Sunderland, the queen of love and beauty.