Hour of the Wolf

Even though Rhaenyra Targaryen had died at Dragonstone in the tenth moon of 130 AC, and the Greens had retaken King's Landing after the Moon of the Three Kings, her supporters kept fighting. The following year three separate hosts converged on the capital: from Winterfell came Cregan Stark with his northmen; from Riverrun marched the river lords; and from Gulltown rode a Vale contingent under Leowyn Corbray and his brother Corwyn, in the name of Jeyne Arryn.

Elmo Tully died on the march, and command of his men passed to his sons Kermit and Oscar, alongside young Benjicot Blackwood. Barely grown, the three beat Borros Baratheon on the Kingsroad; their own soldiers started calling them 'the Boys' after that win, and Oscar was knighted on the field.

While the two columns closed on the city, King Aegon II — whom his own council had urged to surrender and take the black — was found dead of poison.

The Boys reached the city gates first. Outside the Gate of the Gods, Corlys Velaryon and Prince Aegon met them and broke the news of the king's death. The smallfolk and the gold cloaks let the river men through without a fight, and the last of Aegon II's loyalists in the crownlands knelt as the Vale host advanced.

A strange, almost naive euphoria swept the city — what Grand Maester Munkun would later call the False Dawn. No one yet knew that the largest army was still on its way, carrying with it a very different idea of how the war ought to end.

The euphoria didn't last. Cregan Stark marched his army into the city and took charge. His intent was plain: to punish, in the new king's name, those who had backed Aegon II. But Corlys Velaryon had already sent envoys to Casterly Rock, Oldtown, and Storm's End to negotiate peace — and if those terms held, striking at the dead king's old supporters would amount to perjury.

Cregan waited six days, holding the court under the shadow of his army, quietly hoping the peace would collapse. It didn't: Samantha Tarly, Johanna Westerling, and Elenda Caron — the Three Widows — accepted the terms and shut that door on him.

Still, Cregan wanted the regicides to pay. He arrested twenty-two men, Corlys Velaryon and Larys Strong among them, and pressured young Aegon into naming him Hand so he could preside over the trials himself. Rhaena Targaryen talked her half-brother into restoring Corlys to his offices, and Alysanne Blackwood agreed to marry Cregan to make the pardon stick. Nineteen of the accused chose the black; only two chose the axe. In keeping with his house's custom, Cregan beheaded them both himself with Ice.

Cregan resigned the day after the executions, having served officially as Hand for a single day, and rode back north. Not all his men followed: many were spare sons whose return would only mean extra mouths through winter. The Widow's Fairs of the riverlands found wives for hundreds of them; others sailed the narrow sea with Hallis Hornwood and Timotty Snow and formed the free company known as the Wolf Pack.

On the seventh day of the seventh moon of 131 AC, the High Septon married Aegon to Jaehaera Targaryen atop Visenya's Hill. That same evening he was crowned in the Red Keep as Aegon, third of his name, and though he was only eleven, a council of regents was left to rule in his place.