Chapter 177

The council chamber of the Eyrie was long and austere, its walls of white marble veined with blue radiating a cold that discouraged intimacy. Tonight the chamber blazed with light. Fifty torches burned brightly in their brackets along the walls.

Domeric sat upon the high seat in formal black, the badge of the Hand of the King upon his breast. About him stood guards, servants and the greater lords of the Vale. Word of Lady Lysa’s death must have reached them upon the road; the host led by Lord Yohn Royce of Runestone had arrived earlier than Domeric had expected.

Seated first upon Domeric’s left was Lord Yohn Royce of Runestone, called Bronze Yohn. He wore a suit of ancestral bronze armour older than memory, its surface worked with magical runes said to protect the wearer from harm. Lord Yohn was a tall man, his face lined, his hair grey, his brows heavy and his large hands powerful. At present he commanded the highest standing of any living lord in the Vale, second only to the late Lord Arryn.