Anyway, so far so good. Golden Company have landed a fair number of their ships in the right place. Ancestral home retaken nice and easy on account of the surprise and the fact that the owner of the place, Ronnet Connington, is off fighting with Jaime in the Riverlands. Communication lines cut off so no-one knows Jon's arrived yet. Men have been sent to nearby castles like Crow's Nest and Rain House to capture those. Other ships are straggling in. Some turn up at other places like Eastermont, another island. Word will probably get around, which might explain Kevan Lannister's reports of free companies landing a few chapters back, assuming the timelines are a bit muddled up.
Jon Connington worries about his past: how he failed Mad King Aerys by searching for Robert Baratheon instead of burning the town down and killing everyone like Tywin Lannister would have done. Come on Jon, sometimes things just happen. Don't berate yourself too much. Our choices are half chance.
There is a cache of intelligence documents at Griffin's Roost. They're very well informed. They know:
- Cersei and Margaery are fighting over Tommen
- Mace Tyrell has stopped trying to capture Storm's End (is he back at King's Landing? I forget).
- Lannisters are weakend, depending on treacherous Boltons and Freys in the North and Riverlands.
- "No-one ever seems to mention the vale." What *is* Littlefinger up to right now?
- Doran Martell's son is betrothed to Myrcell, suggesting they are working with Lannisters. But hedging their bets because they have armies hanging around waiting ominously.
There's a strategic debate about what to do next, the upshot of which is that Connington realises again that Harry Strickland is mostly worried about avoiding blisters, and decides to attack Storm's End. Griff Jr a.k.a the very much not dashed-against-a-wall as a baby Prince Aegon Targaryen turns up and says cool, but he's leading the battle. Oh boy!
