Chapter 185

The roadsides were packed with the folk of King’s Landing who had come to welcome the returning host. Domeric sat a tall warhorse in his customary black armour and cloak of black satin strewn with stars. The long column passed through the Gate of the Gods and made its way toward the Red Keep.

When Domeric had set out for the Vale he had taken only a thousand men. Upon his return he brought more than four thousand. Three thousand of them were highlanders of the mountain clans. In the name of the Lord of the Eyrie he had granted them Eastvale and the lands about it—the very ground they had seized. In exchange the highland clans promised peace to the Vale, swore themselves to Domeric, and sent three thousand warriors to fight for him.

When he departed he had all but emptied the Eyrie. With the tacit consent of the Vale lords he brought away great stores of arms and armour, together with the wealth House Arryn had gathered over the years. Lady Lysa was dead; Baron Nestor Royce, High Steward of the Vale, had died in trial by combat. No one remained in the Eyrie with authority to speak. Young Lord Robin Arryn himself had been brought back to King’s Landing. In the name of Joffrey Baratheon, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, Domeric took the boy as a royal ward. The Lord of the Vale had to be kept firmly in hand.