Daemon confronts Ormund Hightower in the Reach and, backed by Caraxes, Vermithor and Silverwing, forces his reluctant submission, taking the young Daeron Targaryen hostage and telling Rhaenyra they should execute him. In King's Landing, little goes as the new queen hopes. Corlys informs her that the treasury has been emptied, and the High Septon refuses to anoint her without proof of Aegon's death, warning her not to antagonize the Faith; Alicent's suggestion that they declare Aegon dead, which Rhaenyra accepts, does not move him. Corlys names Alyn his heir and asks Rhaenyra to legitimize both Alyn and Addam, and Daemon knights Addam, Hugh and Ulf, but Rhaenyra still does not legitimize Addam, drawing Corlys's anger over the parentage of her own children.
Hearing petitioners, she learns that the wealthy have starved the smallfolk, so she hosts a banquet for the city's nobility at which she serves them rats and has the City Watch raid their storehouses for hoarded food, then distributes it to the smallfolk with Mysaria. Daemon unsuccessfully urges her to seize the world with their dragons. When Alicent is finally allowed to see Daeron, she does not recognize him, and the boy admits that Ormund forced him to pose as the prince. A dragonkeeper then tells Rhaenyra that Ormund has seized the town of Tumbleton and is keeping a young dragon within its walls.