Fire & Blood ÔÇö The Dance of the Dragons ÔÇö The Short, Sad Reign of Aegon II
Rhaenyra, sold by the garrison of Dragonstone, is given to Sunfyre in front of her son: the king watches his sister eaten, and thinks it justice. It buys him half a year. Second Tumbleton kills a Betrayer and the young Prince Daeron; Addam of Hull dies proving a bastard's honor at Second Tumbleton; and with the Wolf of the North marching south and no dragons left worth the name, Aegon II drinks poisoned wine poured by his own council. 'Let there be an end,' the lords agreed ÔÇö and made one.
The chapter retold
The section's title is the whole judgment: a reign measured in months and misery, purchased at a price that ruins the man who pays it. Rhaenyra, driven from King's Landing, flees to Dragonstone and into a trap, sold by her own garrison to Aegon II ÔÇö who has her brought to the yard where the dying Sunfyre still lives and orders the dragon to eat her before her son's eyes. Even Aegon's council calls it a blunder: a martyrdom instead of a punishment, the last image the Dance will leave the realm to argue over for three hundred years. It buys the king exactly half a year.
That half-year is only more dying. Second Tumbleton kills the Betrayer Hugh Hammer and the young Prince Daeron the Daring, the best of Alicent's sons, burned with his blue Tessarion; Addam of Hull dies there too, proving with his life that dragonseed is not treason's seed. And with Cregan Stark's northmen two days from the city and no dragons left worth the name, Aegon II is poisoned in his own litter by the very lords who crowned him ÔÇö 'let there be an end,' they agreed, the least mysterious murder in the whole history, and the plainest statement that the peace required the winner gone as surely as the loser.
This movement: The Boy King's Peace
- Dragonstone's own garrison sells the queen; Sunfyre is fed, and Aegon II calls it justice while the realm calls it horror.
- Second Tumbleton and the Kingsroad spend the last dragons and the last armies; the Betrayers get traitors' ends.
- With Cregan Stark's northmen two days out, Aegon II's own lords pour the wine: 'Let there be an end.'
- The Hour of the Wolf: six days of northern justice, a boy king crowned and wed to his rival's daughter, and a peace made of graves.
The fallen ÔÇö spoilers
- Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen ÔÇö Fed to Sunfyre in Dragonstone's yard before her son's eyes ÔÇö the Half-Year Queen, first and last of her name.
- Prince Daeron Targaryen ÔÇö Daeron the Daring, the best of Alicent's sons, dead in the fires of Second Tumbleton with Tessarion.
- Hugh Hammer ÔÇö The Betrayer who dreamed of a crown ÔÇö knifed at Tumbleton before Vermithor could make him one.
- Ulf the White ÔÇö The other Betrayer, poisoned in his sleep for treasons past counting.
- Ser Addam Velaryon ÔÇö Born of Hull, legitimized by the queen ÔÇö died at Second Tumbleton proving that dragonseed is not treason's seed.
- King Aegon II Targaryen ÔÇö Poisoned in his litter by his own lords with the northmen two days from the city. He outlived his sister by half a year and his dynasty's dragons by less.