Sowing of the Seeds

After the Black Council's first meeting, the dragon count became plain: the Greens held four grown dragons against the Blacks' three, though the queen also had four young ones. At Dragonstone, though, several beasts still had no owner — Vermithor, Silverwing, and Seasmoke had carried riders before; Sheepstealer, Grey Ghost, and Cannibal had grown up wild. If someone could tame them, the balance would shift.

Rhaenyra was still weak from childbirth, and Prince Daemon was away at Harrenhal, so command of the island fell to Jacaerys, newly named Prince of Dragonstone, with Corlys Velaryon as his Hand. According to the fool Mushroom's testimony, it was he who raised the idea: Targaryen bastards and their descendants — the dragonseeds — carried Valyrian blood too, and that blood might be enough.

Jacaerys spread the word through Dragonstone: whoever tamed a dragon would receive land, riches, and knighthood, and their children would be born noble. In return, they would fight beside the prince against the man they called the usurper.

The call did not only draw dragonseeds: a score of knights from the queen's household stepped forward, along with squires, kitchen boys, sailors, soldiers, a couple of puppeteers, and even two maidens. Grand Maester Munkun recorded what happened over those days; others preferred to call it the Red Sowing, for what it cost.

Sixteen hopefuls died, and forty-eight came away burned or maimed. Ser Steffon Darklyn, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, burned to nothing trying to mount Seasmoke. Lord Gormon Massey, lord of Ballarroca, burned alive chasing Vermithor. Denys Argenta, who claimed to be a bastard son of King Maegor I, lost an arm to Sheepstealer and was later devoured, along with his own children, by Cannibal. The bastard Alyn de Casco never found Grey Ghost and came away badly burned after facing Sheepstealer, the wild dragon that killed more seeds than the three tame ones put together.

In the end, four beasts accepted a rider. Seasmoke was claimed by Addam de Casco, whom his mother said was fathered by Laenor Velaryon, the dragon's earlier rider. Vermithor fell to Hugh Hammer, a bastard son of a smith, and Silverwing to Ulf the White. The only one of the three wild dragons to accept a rider was Sheepstealer, tamed by a girl named Nettles, who won the beast's trust by feeding it sheep.

The four tamed dragons delivered at first on what Jacaerys had sought: they joined Queen Rhaenyra with a numerical edge over the Greens, and took part both in the Battle of the Gullet and in the Fall of King's Landing.

But the arrangement did not hold. Over time some of the new riders began looking after their own interests rather than the queen's cause, and Hugh Hammer and Ulf the White eventually switched sides. Seeing the danger her own riders could pose to the throne, Rhaenyra ordered Ser Addam Velaryon arrested and had Nettles killed, a decision that cost her the support of House Velaryon, of House Mooton, and of Prince Daemon himself, and that also turned Grand Maester Gerardys against her.

On Dragonstone, the Sowing had left whole households mourning brothers, sons, or fathers, and that resentment opened the door to betrayal when Aegon II came seeking refuge there: he found men willing to hand him the castle without anyone in King's Landing finding out. Rhaenyra, forced back to her family's ancestral seat, walked into her half-brother's trap.