The Hedge Knight — Dunk IX

The trial of seven, before gods and men: Baelor Breakspear takes up a plain shield to make Dunk's seven. Ser Humfrey Beesbury dies in the press; Aerion yields under Dunk's bare hands — and across the field, Maekar's mace glances off his brother's helm.

The chapter retold

The trial of seven, before the eyes of gods and men, and Dunk's ragged company is a man short at the horn until the Prince of Dragonstone himself takes up a plain shield and remarks that his helm seems dusty — Baelor Breakspear, the best man in the realm, standing for a hedge knight against his own kin. What follows is not a joust but a brawl in the mud: lances shatter, the melee closes, and men who came for honor begin dying for it. Young Ser Humfrey Beesbury is killed in the press, and Dunk, driven to the edge of his strength, finally beats the yield out of Aerion with his bare hands.

The trial is won — and the victory is poisoned in the same moment it is earned. Somewhere in the confusion of the melee, Prince Maekar's mace glances off his own brother Baelor's helm, a blow that looks like nothing and lands like everything. The chapter ends with the Hand of the King still upright in his saddle and the reader already dreading the next page.

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

• Ser Humfrey Beesbury — Slain in the trial of seven, standing for a hedge knight's honor.