Fire & Blood ÔÇö The Dance of the Dragons ÔÇö The Hour of the Wolf

Cregan Stark comes south too late for the war and just in time for the reckoning: for six days the Wolf of the North rules King's Landing in all but name, trying poisoners and turncloaks, taking heads where the new king's councillors would take pardons. Aegon the Younger ÔÇö Rhaenyra's son, Aegon the Third ÔÇö is crowned and wed to Aegon II's daughter Jaehaera, joining the broken halves. The dragons are done: a boy king who flinches from them, a realm of graves, and a peace made of exhaustion. The Dance is over. What it was for, the maesters still argue.

The chapter retold

The war ends and the reckoning begins in the same breath. Cregan Stark arrives too late to fight and just in time to judge, and for six days the Wolf of the North holds King's Landing in all but name ÔÇö the Hour of the Wolf ÔÇö trying poisoners and turncloaks and taking the heads that the new king's councillors would rather have pardoned, including clever Larys Strong, last of his house, who refuses the Wall with a shrug. It is the closest thing to justice the Dance produces, and it lasts less than a week before being folded back into the ordinary business of a realm desperate to stop bleeding.

Peace, when it comes, is made of exhaustion rather than reconciliation. Aegon the Third, Rhaenyra's surviving son, is crowned and wed to Aegon II's daughter Jaehaera, the two poisoned halves of one family stitched together over a boy king who flinches from the very creatures his house conquered the world on. The dragons dwindle to a handful of sickly hatchlings and then, within his reign, to none ÔÇö the true legacy of the Dance, a dynasty that burned its own foundations so thoroughly that every Targaryen who follows, down to Aerys and Daenerys, inherits a throne with no dragons under it and only a name and the memory of fear to hold it up. What the whole thing was for, Fire & Blood admits, the maesters are still arguing.

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

• Lord Larys Strong ÔÇö The Clubfoot, last of his house ÔÇö beheaded in the Hour of the Wolf, refusing the Wall with a shrug.
• Ser Gyles Belgrave ÔÇö Kingsguard to Aegon II, who chose the block over the black: a knight who could not outlive the king he failed.