The Hedge Knight — Dunk VIII

In his cell Dunk learns the price of striking a dragon: a hand and a foot. Aerion demands a trial of seven. Dunk begs the meadow for champions; Steffon Fossoway sells his promise to the prince, and his cousin Raymun is knighted at dawn to stand in his place.

The chapter retold

In his cell Dunk learns the price the law sets on his fists: a hand and a foot, the parts that struck the prince. Aerion, not content to see him merely maimed, demands a trial of seven — the old Andal way, seven champions a side — which means Dunk must find six men willing to fight and perhaps die for a hedge knight nobody has heard of. The chapter is a bleak accounting of what a promise is worth once it is called in: Raymun Fossoway shames his cousin Steffon into pledging aid, Steffon sells the pledge to Aerion by morning for the promise of advancement, and Raymun is knighted at dawn to stand in the traitor's place — the first green apple of a branch that will outlast the rotten red one.

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.