Below is an exclusive excerpt from George R.R.
This section is set during the famed Dance of Dragons the Targaryen civil war.
Though the westermen outnumbered their foes, the riverlords knew the ground.
Doug Wheatley
(Lord Piper himself knighted the man afterward, dubbing him Longleaf the Lionslayer.)
The ranks of the riverlords shattered, and the westermen came swarming across the Red Fork by the thousands.
Courted by both claimants to the Iron Throne, the Red Kraken had made his choice.
Bantam
The attackers expected to find the beast near death.
Thrice he rose, and thrice fell back to earth.
Mootons men swarmed him with swords and spears and axes, dealing him many grievous wounds .
yet each blow only seemed to enrage him further.
The number of the dead reached threescore before the survivors fled.
Amongst the slain was Walys Mooton, Lord of Maidenpool.
Nor were there tracks, as surely there would have been had the dragon dragged himself away.
Sunfyre the Golden had taken wing again, it seemed .
but to where, no living man could say.
Meanwhile, Prince Daemon Targaryen himself hastened south on the wings of his dragon, Caraxes.
High above the city the queen and her prince consort came together, circling over Aegons High Hill.
Rioting broke out in Flea Bottom.
Dozens died before the gold cloaks could restore the peace.
When Orwyle hastened back to his chambers, however, he found four gold cloaks waiting for him.
One man muffled his cries as the others beat and bound him.
With a bag pulled over his head, the Grand Maester was escorted down to the black cells.
Queen Alicents riders got no farther than the gates, where more gold cloaks took them into custody.
When Hightower denounced him as a turncloak, Ser Luthor laughed.
Daemon gave us these cloaks, he said, and theyre gold no matter how you turn them.
For all the vaunted strength of its walls, Kings Landing fell in less than a day.
One by one the dragons made their descent.
Sheepstealer lighted atop Visenyas Hill, Silverwing and Vermithor on the Hill of Rhaenys, outside the Dragonpit.
Prince Daemon circled the towers of the Red Keep before bringing Caraxes down in the outer ward.
The master of whisperers had somehow contrived to disappear).
But Queen Rhaenyra rejected the proposal with scorn.
Do you mistake me for Mushroom?
We both know how this council would rule.
Then she bade her stepmother choose: yield or burn.
The rats play when the cat is gone, but my son Aemond will return with fire and blood.
Aegon II had fled.
There was no way to spirit away the Iron Throne, however.
Nor would Queen Rhaenyra sleep until she claimed her fathers seat.
Septon Eustace tells us that the ceremony went on all through that night.
It was well past dawn when Rhaenyra Targaryen rose and made her descent.
From the book FIRE & BLOOD by George R. R. Martin.
Copyright 2018 by George R. R. Martin.
Reprinted by arrangement with Bantam, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
