The Hedge Knight ÔÇö Dunk VI
Ser Humfrey Hardyng unseats Aerion Brightflame fair and clean ÔÇö and Aerion answers by driving his lance through the neck of Hardyng's horse, leaving the champion crushed and broken-legged beneath the carcass.
The chapter retold
The tilting turns from sport to warning. Ser Humfrey Hardyng unhorses Aerion Brightflame fairly and cleanly, and Aerion ÔÇö unable to bear a fall ÔÇö answers by driving his lance through the neck of Hardyng's horse, leaving a champion of the realm crushed and broken-legged beneath the dying animal. The chapter states the Bright Flame's whole character in a single act of spite: a prince who believes he is a dragon in a man's skin and treats every reverse as an insult to be repaid in blood. The meadow's holiday mood curdles, and the reader understands, well before Dunk does, that this is a man around whom people get badly hurt.
This movement: The Tourney
- The champions hold the field; the Laughing Storm's bellow rolls over the meadow; Prince Baelor watches everything and says little.
- Aerion Brightflame, unhorsed fair by Ser Humfrey Hardyng, kills the champion's horse with a deliberate lance and leaves him broken beneath it.
- By torchlight the Bright Flame finds the puppet show, decides a wooden dragon is treason, and breaks Tanselle's fingers.
- A hedge knight of no name beats a prince of the blood into the mud ÔÇö and the stableboy's hood falls back on Aegon Targaryen's shaved head.