In the stalled and hungry royal camp after the wildfire disaster, Aegon shares Arbor wine with shaken knights, hears of lost men and the scattered fleet, and announces that the war on Dorne will wait while the host marches to Tumbleton for food and then disperses or returns home.
During a royal hunt in the Kingswood, Aidan Dayne shows his skill with the bow, Jannia Buckwell and Josella Hightower try their hands at flushed birds, and the courtly pavilion around Daena and Mariah turns to gossip about Aegon's progress, Elaena, Alyn Velaryon's absence, and Jannia's planned bardic gathering.
At the Lemonwood wedding tourney, Sebaston Vaith reaches third place, Prince Rhodry recovers from early humiliation to reach the final, and Felix Sand unseats Rhodry twice to win the day and crown Selara and Muriel Queens of Love and Beauty.
After the Secret City race and riots, Merio Lostayn visits Rhodry under heavy guard and offers to undermine his mother Hermea's Stepstones schemes and support for the Iron Throne, drawing Rhodry into considering a Dalt-mediated play against her influence.
When Blackwood and Bracken raiders clash after retaliatory burnings, Dagur leads a Blackwood wedge through Bloody Brus and Blackmane, Elmer fights Ryckon, and Brynden/Tomas/Janden arrive with Tully forces to separate the sides, take wounded prisoners, and send warnings even as overeager Tully allies nearly reignite the fight.
At Stone Hedge, after a night-long vigil, former squire Ser Ryckon Westerling is knighted by Ser Farin Prester for his actions in the Battle of Pennytree.
[A messenger arrives from down river, blood has been spilled and the village of Buckle's holdfast has been burned to the ground. The feud between Blackwood and Bracken has heated up. As a response, Lady Tully -- Tinessa -- calls the banners to end this mess and is faced with another problem, Ser Jonn Lannister, heir to Casterly Rock. It looks like the feud between the Blackwoods and Brackens isn't the only one Riverlands might have to deal with. ]
[A tourney to celebrate the wedding of Ser Willard Ryger and Andrya Tully is ended abruptly and turns bloody, as the old feud between the Blackwoods and Brakens is rekindled by death. And a mystery knight proves a murderer, again.]
Conversation follows the jousting practice from earlier, with Dagur and Janden in particular discussing the importance of self-certainty.
Jaesin Lannister is a main source of practice for other knights looking to test themselves against him before the Riverrun Tourney. Though Jaesin splits a pair of tilts with Dagur Saltcliffe, it’s the second one between the Kingsguard and Janden Melcolm that will lead to stories being told.
[The Tully wedding party, headed by Lady Jannia Tully, has been following the Red Fork, --that sits to the West-- Northward towards the sight of Riverrun's great sandstone battlements. The front of the party talks about Riverrun and Lady Jannia's excitement --or stale equivalent, due to her recent broken betrothal to Ser Humfrey Westerling,-- to return to the place she calls home. The small group at the front talk about the more charming aspects of Riverrun as they ride along, speaking on some of the most recent events, while Prince Aegon Targaryen and his companions -- including Ser Jaesin Lannister of the Kingsguard,-- ride at the back of the long column that represents the wedding party. All of this done as the great structure that is Riverrun comes fully into their view, concluding when the party enters said structure and is given a proper greeting from the family that holds the seat, the Tullys. ]
Ser Arion Baratheon has been called to account by Ser Jaesin Lannister for the less-than-flattering tales being spread at his command. Ser Jaesin is not in a forgiving mood.
At the tourney celebrating Brynden Tully and Sarya Baratheon's wedding, a crowded field of knights produces upsets, rivalries, a fierce melee in which Kendros Goodbrook defeats Dagur Saltcliffe, and a final joust where a half-drunk Elmer Crakehall unhorses Luthor Rivers to win the championship.
The heir to Hightower rejoins the train headed up the Roseroad from the Reach shortly before its arrival in King's Landing. As the travelers prepare for the final day's ride to the city, Bradwell takes the measure of three very different men, as they do the same with him.
The search for Ser Josmyn Reyne turns to blood upon the fields before Grassy Vale.