Blood of Dragons

They say that dark wings bring dark words. Now it seems that even white wings may herald black wings to come. The realm has scarcely had time to mourn one tragedy before another has followed, even as autumn has given way to winter.

The first befell at Crackclaw Point, an unexpected, unlooked-for tragedy. Forces gathered by Ser Dermett Corbray, the Warden of Crackclaw Point, had moved to restore the king’s peace following the feud between the two branches of House Brune and their allies. Matters had come to a head with the death of Ser Lothar Brune, disputes over the succession at Brownhollow, and accusations of kinslaying that had further fed the quarrel. Knights and men from the crownlands and beyond had answered the Warden’s call, marching under the royal banner.

Among them, unexpectedly, was Ser Oscar Tully and a troop of Tully men. The famous knight, who had earned his spurs in the Dance of the Dragons and had led the Stormbreakers into the disputed lands and beyond, had been eager to take part in the fighting after years of quiet. Yet in the last battle, fought in the bogs, Ser Oscar met his fate. In the confusion of a charge, he was thrown from his horse, breaking his neck. Those who gathered about him found that there was nothing to be done. It is said that an aged knight, Ser Karlan, who had fought on the opposite side in the Dance, covered Ser Oscar’s body with the king’s banner before he was carried from the field.

Ser Donnel Brune was also slain in the fighting, while Lord Clarence of Dyre Den and Ser Osney of Brownhollow were taken. At the judgment which followed, Lady Beranda’s sworn testimony left the charge that Osney had murdered his father unproven, but the Warden nevertheless condemned him to the Wall. His brother Harys has succeeded him at Brownhollow. Lord Clarence was ordered to remain in his hall unless summoned, his son Ser Yorrald to accompany the Warden to the capital, and the Caves and Hardys to pay a toll for their part in the devastation, with the amount left to the King’s Counter, Lord Farin Prester. The burned halls, hamlets, and slaughtered livestock would be dearly missed in the moons to come.

The eleventh day of this moon, the Conclave’s white ravens reached King’s Landing, bearing the same announcement being carried to seats throughout the Seven Kingdoms on white wings: winter was come. At the recent Hightower wedding celebrations, winter had been made to yield before the beauty and bounty of spring in a pageant at the king’s command, but now it forced its way forward… and with a vengeance.

Only three days later, on the fourteenth day of this moon, more ravens arrived from Oldtown. But their wings were black, and they brought word of a disaster that had taken place ten days earlier, on the fourth day of the moon.

Lord Lyonel Hightower’s magnificent wedding train had nearly completed its return to Oldtown. Following the brief detention of his ships at Planky Town, he had sailed onward and visited Lord Redwyne before resuming the voyage home. Then a ferocious storm swept in from the Summer Sea, Oldtown itself nearly in sight as the ships beat their way up the Whispering Sound.

The flagship, the four-hundred-oared Pride of Oldtown, and her escorts were caught in it, scattered and battered apart. Several lesser vessels were lost, but the true disaster was the foundering of the Pride of Oldtown, and by all accounts that have come, nearly all aboard drowned with it.

Lord Lyonel and his heir, Ser Bradwell Hightower, are among those reported dead, together with many knights, lords, and ladies of the Reach who had accompanied the wedding train. Among those named in the first reports are the famous Ser Dareon the Daring of House Costayne and his lady wife, Lord Lyonel’s own niece Maella; Lord Olys Grimm and his lady, Lady Amyria; and Lyonel’s cousin, Ser Stafford Hightower, with his wife Sybell and their children, Ser Harlen and Carellen. The full reckoning has yet to arrive.

With both his grandfather and father lost, Jon Hightower is now Lord of Oldtown. Whether he knows it yet remains a question. He and his new bride, Lady Lysa Tully, had taken the road to Riverrun in the company of her kin, accompanied by Jon’s grandmother, Lady Samantha, who had chosen to travel with her grandson under a guard of honor led by Ser Ryam Greyjoy. Their journey had already been interrupted by news of Ser Oscar’s death, when Lord Kermit rode to recover the body of his beloved brother, who had fought at his side at the Muddy Mess. Whether news of this second tragedy has yet reached the travelers is unknown. Lady Samantha, now the Dowager Lady of Oldtown, has lost her husband and eldest son together.

Yet much remains unknown of the disaster. The ravens have brought word of the dead and the missing, but the full tale must await the slower passage of ships and riders, bearing the accounts of those few who survived to tell it.