The Hedge Knight — Dunk X

The blow that seemed nothing was everything: Baelor Breakspear dies of a broken skull. Maekar comes to Dunk with a question and an offer, Aerion goes to Lys, and a hedge knight rides for Dorne with a prince polishing his kettle helm.

The chapter retold

The blow that seemed like nothing was everything. Baelor Breakspear, Prince of Dragonstone and Hand of the King, dies of a broken skull — killed by his own brother in a hedge knight's quarrel over a puppeteer's fingers — and the realm's best hope for a peaceful future dies with him, the succession left to run through sickly Valarr. Dunk is left to carry, for the rest of his life, the question of whether his hand and his foot were worth one great man's death.

Out of the ruin comes the offer the whole novella has been building toward. Prince Maekar, carrying his brother's death in his own hand, comes to Dunk not for vengeance but with a proposal: take Aegon as your squire and show him the realm his brothers will never trouble to see. Aerion is packed off to Lys and Daeron to his wine, and a hedge knight of no house rides south for Dorne with a prince of the blood polishing his kettle helm — the road, and the saga proper, begun at last.

This movement: The Trial of Seven

• Aerion names the old Andal way: seven against seven. Dunk must find six men willing to bleed for a hedge knight — or lose the hand and foot that touched a prince.
• Steffon Fossoway sells his sworn help to Aerion for advancement; the Laughing Storm knights his cousin Raymun at dawn to stand in his stead — the first green apple.
• One short at the horn, until Baelor Breakspear takes up a plain shield: 'It seems my helm is dusty.'
• Beesbury dies; Hardyng is carried in broken and fights anyway; Aerion yields to Dunk's bare hands — and Maekar's mace finds his brother's helm in the press.
• Baelor Breakspear dies of the blow days later. Maekar gives his son to the hedge knight's keeping, and Dunk and Egg take the road to Dorne.

The fallen — spoilers

• Baelor Breakspear — The Hand of the King, dead of his brother's mace in a hedge knight's quarrel.
• Ser Humfrey Hardyng — Died of his wounds from the trial, unbowed to the last.