Summary

After Tywin Lannister’s demise, the young king, at just 13, made a series of new appointments. But Unwin Peake, one of his seven regents, undid his choices and instead selected his own men and appointed himself the King’s Hand and Protector of the Realm. Unwin was a cruel and harsh hand, treating the king and queen like hostages and executing many prisoners in spectacles. While the city was in his grasp, the rest of the realm was still being assaulted by famines and attacks from the Iron Born, and the sea was congested with a battle the free cities were waging against one another. Unwin sent Alyn Velaryon, Baela’ husband, to sea, and he fought an entire fleet without permission and won the hearts of the smallfolk, who saw him as a hero. In retaliation...