The Dragon-Tongue Knights hit Bitterbridge like wolves among sheep.
Black armor and silvered blades turned cavalry into chopped meat and infantry into a bloody rout. In minutes, half the thousand-man army was dead. The rest scattered.
Stannis circled Lord Caswell's body. One arrow had punched clean through the man's chest.
"Confirm the identity," he ordered.
A knight dragged over a tavern boy. "That's him! Lord Caswell!"
Stannis nodded once. "Take the head. Burn the rest later. We keep the castle."
The keep fell in under an hour. Every Caswell man was beheaded. Every woman and child was hanged from the battlements.
Stannis stared at the bodies, then turned away. "No fire. The prince will want the castle intact."
By nightfall the entire Caswell line was gone. Only the smell of burning corpses remained.
---
King's Landing.
Tywin set down his quill. "Three hundred gem knights? When did the crown raise three hundred gem knights?"
Sandor Clegane stood silent.
Tywin stared at the report. Daeron had built something far stronger than anyone realized.
Three hundred fully trained gem-sequence knights could break any second-tier lord in a single day.
The boy had been preparing for this all along.
Tywin dipped his pen again. "Better a strong crown than a weak one," he muttered. "As long as I keep my place."
---
Daeron sat on the balcony painting a map of the Reach.
A red X already marked Bitterbridge. Dotted lines now ran to New Barrel and Longtable.
Davos reported in. "Stannis is riding for New Barrel. The Fossoways and Merryweathers have raised their banners."
Daeron kept painting. "Spread the news. Let every lord in the realm see what happens when they test the crown."
Arthur Dayne watched over his shoulder. "Prince, I've been working on a new technique. Not full life-force projection, but a breathing method that multiplies a normal strike five to ten times."
Daeron looked up, interested. "Show me."
The Sword of the Morning demonstrated. Daeron copied the breathing pattern at once.
If Arthur Dayne had refined something new on top of the system, it was worth learning.
---
Highgarden.
Olenna Tyrell stared at the raven scroll. "The entire Caswell family? Gone in one night?"
She had wanted to weaken her bannermen, not erase them.
Now Bitterbridge was gone. New Barrel, Longtable, and Starpike would be next.
She had planned to let the crown punish Caswell and Merryweather while she quietly protected Fossoway and a few others.
Daeron had burned the board instead.
"Grandmother, don't do anything rash," Willas warned.
Olenna set the scroll down. "I'm going to King's Landing. I'll beg mercy for the ones I can still save. Someone has to keep this family from looking like fools."
---
Starpike.
Lord Titus Peake paced his solar, sweating.
Bitterbridge was ashes. His own castle was next.
He had joined the plot, but he had been smart enough to stay quiet and wait. Now the wait was over.
Randyll Tarly was marching from Horn Hill with his army.
"Randyll bloody Tarly?" Peake's voice cracked. "The man who slaughtered half the Stormlands?"
A squire burst in. "My lord, Tarly's scouts are already in the valley!"
Peake grabbed a quill with shaking hands.
He had lost too many times already. Three castles reduced to one. He would not lose the last one.
He began writing fast.
"I was wrong," he muttered. "I was wrong. I'll beg forgiveness. I'll give them everything."