A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Dunk and Egg travel from Dorne via Oldtown on their way to the North. There, Lord Beron Stark is hiring knights to fight back against Ironborn raids on the coast. While traveling, they come across the head of a man who has been executed for treason. Egg remembers the man, a septon who, three days earlier, had been “preaching against Lord Bloodraven” (236). The beheaded body is rotting in a cage. Dunk remembers the rumors about the Hand of the King, Bloodraven (also known as Brynden Rivers), having “informers everywhere.”

Six days later, Dunk and Egg are feeling hungry. Hearing a sound on the trail behind them, they hide. A group of knights and lords ride by and spot the duo hiding in the forest. One of the knight’s sigils features three black castles on an orange field. This belongs to Lord Gormon Peake from Starpike, who is riding with Lord Alyn Cockshaw and Ser John the Fiddler, who claims to be a “vagabond hedge knight” (244). Peake and Cockshaw insult Dunk, but Ser John is more courteous. As the lords resume their journey, Ser John invites Dunk to join them at a nearby tourney being held to celebrate a wedding between Ambrose Butterwell and a Frey.