The Sworn Sword

Greetings fellow acolytes. Welcome to another episode of The Westerosi Primer. My name is Liz. If you’re new to this podcast, welcome! I hope you enjoy this journey of all things Westeros. And in this episode, I’ll be talking about The Tales of Dunk and Egg. In this case it is the second of the three released stories titled “The Sworn Sword.”

Before I continue, I’d like to remind listeners that I have a survey asking everyone for their opinions on what they’d like me to talk about in a future season of the podcast. I explained the choices in the first episode. You can head to the website at thewesterosiprimer.com or the link in the show notes to participate in the survey. This survey will be active until February 22 and I’ll announce the results on February 25. There is also a fun poll I created last season asking listeners who they think is the best and the worst king of the Targaryen dynasty. I’d be curious what you listeners think. With that bit of housekeeping done, let’s get to the episode!

Just as a quick background on the Tales of Dunk and Egg. These were stories written for anthologies over the course of many years. As I mentioned in the previous episode, the first story George wrote was released in 1998 as part of an anthology titled “Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy.” In this episode I’ll be talking about “The Sworn Sword,” which was published in 2013 as a part of “Legends II: New Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy.” And the third story, which I’ll talk about in episode 4 is “The Mystery Knight.” That story was part of the anthology “Warriors” in 2010. “Warriors” was co-edited by George R.R. Martin. Just so you know I’ll be repeating some of this info again in the next episode just in case new listeners check out this podcast for the first time.

Now that you know a bit about the publishing history of the novellas, let’s get into the basic plot. The second half of the episode I’ll share some more interesting information not directly revealed in the novella. As a reminder, this episode is not only spoiling the novella, but it’s technically spoiling the second season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms whenever they start filming it. If you don’t want to be spoiled, feel free to skip this one and maybe come back again in the future. With that disclaimer taken care of, let’s see what Dunk and Egg are up to this time.

The novella opens with Dunk and Egg riding on a road. They see two dead men in an iron cage. Egg and Dunk speculate why these men were locked up in that cage. Ultimately it doesn’t matter because regardless of why you die in such a way, you died. No one stumbling on your corpse knows who you are and why you died. No songs are written about you and no one tells your tales. I think this is something that comes up quite a bit in the tales over all. Most people will live and die with not many people knowing much about you. Because when you’re a commoner you don’t get talked about much in history or in legends. That’s how most people live and die.

Egg is riding on a mule named Maester, which was actually a gift from his brother Aemon. And in case you listeners didn’t catch that, this is the same blind Aemon we meet in Game of Thrones at The Wall. It’s mentioned in a later part of the novella that Dunk and Egg did wind up in Oldtown before the start of this story and met up with Aemon at the Citadel. That’s likely when they got Maester. At some point in that time period, Chestnut died which is why Egg is riding Maester when he’s not being used to haul things around.

It's noted in the story about how time has passed since the previous story. Egg is now 10 years old. There are references to a disease back in spring, which is a reference to a terrible epidemic called the Great Spring Sickness. This is something I discussed last season in episodes 2.15 and 2.16. This disease devastated Westeros as many people died, including members of House Targaryen. Daeron II died from the disease along with Baelor’s two sons, Valarr and Matarys. Neither of these two Targaryens had descendants so the next in line was Aerys Targaryen.

As I discussed in episode 2.16, these deaths not only meant the new king was Aerys, but the surviving members of House Targaryen got elevated in the order of succession. Also Aerys was the one who selected Brynden Rivers as Hand of the King. If you don’t know who Brynden Rivers is, you might know him as Bloodraven. If you still don’t know either of those names, you really need to listen to Season 2 of this podcast. I talked about him in multiple episodes starting with Episode 2.14, which is about Aegon IV. Due to the length of this episode, I won’t rehash all of that information explaining who he is.

You might be wondering why did I just talk about all of that. It’s because this gives you perspective as to what’s happening in Westeros during the course of this novella. After the chaos of the epidemic cleared, things were still very uneasy in Westeros. The Targaryens don’t have an easy time, which again I discussed in those episodes last season that I mentioned.

But back to the story. Dunk and Egg are on a dry road. They are heading to a place called Standfast. They’re delivering wine, but it’s not as much wine as they were supposed to get. That’s because there’s a terrible drought happening with crops failing in many areas. There are people who like to blame Bloodraven for causing a curse in the form of the plague and then a drought. This alleged curse is because of his behavior. If you’re confused about why people think that way, you’d have to listen to those episodes from last season to understand.

Egg is still bald and dressed like he’s a stable boy. It only makes sense because there would be a lot of problems if it’s known a prince was wandering around with a hedge knight. The drought caused people to leave the lands they were on for better prospects. Which also means there’s a lot of banditry by a mix of desperate people and people who just don’t care and want to take advantage of people weaker than them.

Once Dunk and Egg arrive at Standfast, we meet the small household. The two people we really need to be concerned about is Ser Eustace Osgrey who is the lord. We get this over the course of the novella, but the Osgreys used to be important lords during the time before the Targaryens arrived. Over the next 200-something years, the Osgreys drop in status. They went from owning more than one castle to just a small tower holdfast. Adding to the misery, Ser Eustace is the only member of his family left. His wife is dead. His three sons and only daughter are also dead. The sons died during the Blackfyre Rebellion and his daughter died during the Spring Sickness. Now some of you listeners might be wondering, “what is the Blackfyre rebellion?” At the risk of repeating myself, this is something I discussed extensively in Season 2. This is something that comes up a lot in the episodes I already referred to.

The other notable character at Standfast is Ser Bennis the brown. He’s the only knight aside from Dunk serving Osgrey. He was an acquaintance of Ser Arlan’s and remembered Dunk as a squire. He’s also a total asshole. There’s just no other way for me to describe or explain this character. He’s brash, rude, and thinks he’s better than just about everyone. He’s not above badmouthing his boss. He’s also rude to Dunk and Egg even though Dunk is big enough to beat up the guy. You listeners shouldn’t be surprised Bennis is the one who creates the problems in this novella, which I’ll get to in a bit.

For some more context, we learn that Osgrey’s closet neighbor is a woman only referred to as the Red Widow. She’s the mistress of a keep called Coldmoat. Her real name is Rohanne Webber. As a side note, you have all probably noticed that a lot of characters have really unique names and unique spellings. Unfortunately not all names have guides on how they are pronounced. I’ve tried my best. For this episode, I’m going to pronounce her name as Rohanne, which rhymes with Joanne. I’m assuming whenever they adapt this novella, we’ll get a more official pronunciation, but this is what I’m going with for now.

Why is Rohanne Webber referred to as the Red Widow? Dunk and Egg hear all sorts of gossip about her and Bennis is eager to share all the sordid stuff. This woman has been married 4 times and all of the husbands are dead. Rumors range from she poisoned them to she’s a witch who sacrificed her husbands and their children for power. It’s unsavory and all suspicious. I’m not going to lie. I was skeptical of this part of the story. It’s not because I’m a woman and I hate it when women get depicted as maneaters. I just think that we need some more evidence of someone’s behavior first. And with George’s world? Rumor is just as likely to be made up propaganda as it could be fact.

Dunk and Bennis talk about the state of things. The drought has made it hard for everyone. Out of idle curiosity Dunk follows the flow of a stream that runs through Osgrey’s land. Not more than a couple of weeks ago, the stream still had some water flowing and now it’s dried. Bennis reluctantly follows where the two discover peasants in a work crew. They were given orders by their Lady via her maester to build the dam and divert the water. They have irrigation channels to supply water to the farmers on her land.

Dunk and Bennis are unhappy about this as Osgrey also has smallfolk dependent on him. The stream flows through his land and they are denying him access. A scuffle ensues where Bennis actually slashes a laborer in the face. The workers state they’re going to tell their lady about this and be prepared for the consequences. Dunk is frustrated because he knows she’s going to demand Osgrey repay her somehow for attacking her people. Bennis doesn’t care because he argues they’re defending their lord’s rights and she should be the one to apologize to Osgrey for the water.

Bennis and Dunk explain the situation to Osgrey. Osgrey knows they must prepare for a fight. Dunk isn’t pleased about this. And he shouldn’t be. It’s pretty obvious that Osgrey won’t win in a battle. Lady Webber has way more resources including peasant levies that can be called up to supplement her trained soldiers. If we’re being honest even without the peasant levies, her trained men vastly outnumber Osgrey. Dunk and Bennis are his only knights. Osgrey only has three small farming villages under his control. Dunk wonders what if they went to their mutual liege lord for mediation.

Osgrey dismisses this notion. He explains that Lord Rowan’s sister is married to one of Lady Webber’s relatives. Lord Rowan would be more likely to support her over him just for that reason alone. Osgrey orders Dunk and Bennis to gather able bodied men and start training them. Dunk isn’t hopeful about this, but he knows they don’t have a choice now.

Dunk, Bennis, and Egg travel to the villages for the recruiting. Egg is annoyed and slightly confused about having to help train villagers. This is one of those life lessons that Dunk had told Maekar he wanted to teach Egg about. Dunk points out that whenever conflict happens, villagers are forced to fight whether they want to or not. They have to be taught what to do because most commoners are famers and laborers. They’re not like Egg who was trained since very young how to use wooden training swords and the like. Also they don’t have much choice in the matter.

Dunk and Bennis make the rounds to the three villages. Ultimately only 8 people show up. Egg has finally understood that this whole situation is pretty unfair. It’s explained in the narration that most of men who lived in these three villages died or were badly injured during the Blackfyre Rebellion. And now the able bodied men left are expected to fight for their lord yet again over a stream. And this is the fact of life that Egg realizes. Egg reminds Dunk that he “could use his boot.” Dunk says no.

And you might be wondering what is the deal with Egg’s boot. Well it’s not so much the boot itself but what Egg is hiding in his boot. He’s hiding a ring that his father gave him. The ring isn’t just special because it’s some fancy ring that would be worth money. It’s got an insignia representing Maekar Targaryen on it. It’s a valuable ring because it can be used to invoke Prince Maekar’s status and name. It’s meant to be used in important situations where Egg needs to prove his identity for example. Of course it’s equally dangerous exactly because it’s Maekar’s ring. After all, why would this random bald kid have such a thing. It’s a double edged sword.

Dunk and Bennis try to train the men, but anyone with a brain can tell it’s ultimately useless. At any given time a fight could break out and these men are the bottom of the barrel in terms of foot soldiers. There’s a reason why these men are still around. They’re either barely old enough to fight, too old, or just barely physically fit. This is the reason why Dunk would have a nightmare about everyone being killed in battle. Or at least it’s a metaphorical omen where he sees Ser Arlan and Prince Baelor complaining to him about not remembering or mourning them.

Dunk wakes up the next day and talks to Ser Eustace again. Neither of them are fools and they know there’s no hope of victory if actual combat breaks out between them and Lady Webber’s forces. Like I said earlier, she wouldn’t even have to call peasant levies. Just the soldiers she already has in her castle would crush them in just minutes. Eustace knows perfectly well the reality of the situation. He’s basically got nothing left but his scrap of land and his pride. It takes a bit, but Eustace makes a concession that Dunk can try to talk things out with her on his behalf.

Ser Eustace tries to explain a bit more about the relationship between him and Lady Webber. We find out that years earlier, Ser Eustace and her father Lord Wyman Webber were friends. In fact the youngest son Addam Osgrey became a squire in Lord Webber’s household. Addam and Rohanne were close in age and had a crush on each other. Ser Eustace tried to arrange a match between the two, but Lord Wyman said no. The reason is debatable and left to reader’s interpretation. Ser Eustace suspected Wyman probably thought the Osgreys were too low for Rohanne. This is based on the fact he heard Wyman laughing with Ser Inchfield his castellan after the rejection. Not long after that, Wyman arranged for Rohanne to marry a different squire serving him when she was 10.

The novella then moves to a pretty funny conversation between Dunk and Egg as he tries to figure out how in the world do you speak to a lady. Like an actual lady since he’s a commoner with very limited interaction with nobles. Even then most of the time they’re men so Dunk has some ideas how to speak to them. But women? We get some hints at what happened in Dorne during this conversation. Dunk got reminded that Egg had to step in when Dunk made a mess and almost got them in trouble with Lady Vaith.

Some other interesting things happen in this conversation. Egg and Dunk discuss the various rumors about Lady Webber, which I talked about earlier. Egg speculates about the possibility Lady Webber is a witch because he knows witchcraft is a thing. Egg also mentions that Lady Shiera Seastar was also supposedly a witch. Egg’s sister Rhae tried to slip him a love potion to make sure he marries her instead of their sister Daella. Egg expresses his disgust not so much the incest, but you know… ew girls. Egg considers joining the Kingsguard.

[mid-roll]

Next day, Dunk and Egg head off to Coldmoat. Eustace escorts them to the border of their lands. There’s a conversation about the Blackfyre Rebellion. Dunk thinks about how Ser Arlan fought on behalf of King Daeron though at the time Ser Arlan’s squire was his nephew. The nephew died during the rebellion and then later Dunk was picked to be Ser Arlan’s new squire. Ser Eustace sadly reminisces about the infamous Battle of the Redgrass Field. He recalls how Daemon Blackfyre and two of his sons died in that battle when they nearly won. This was the decisive battle that ultimately crushed the rebellion since Daemon was the reason for the Rebellion. He was killed by Bloodraven. Incidentally, this is something I discussed in more detail in Episode 2.15.

The Osgreys once owned Coldmoat, but at some point they lost it and it was given to House Webber. It’s not even Lady Webber who is the most difficult person to speak to but her castellan Ser Lucas Inchfield. Ser Lucas Inchfield is a man who is older and about the same size as Dunk both in height and build. Lucas is just as aggressive as he looks. He’s certainly eager to punish Bennis for what he did. Ser Lucas is also not overly interested in helping Dunk meet Lady Rohanne and none of the various household members are either. They basically make fun of Dunk with how they interact with him. That is until a really attractive redhead approaches. It’s then we discover this beautiful redhead is the infamous Rohanne Webber.

We find out that actually Rohanne has had a pretty difficult life despite her background. She’s only 25 years old and she’s a widow 4 times. Every time she was more or less forced to marry. We find out her first marriage was when she was 10 years old and her husband was a 12 year old squire in her household. The boy died during the Blackfyre Rebellion. Then when she was 13 she was forced to marry a 55 year old man who died a few months later from illness. Unfortunately the marriage was consummated because she gave birth to a boy at age 14, but the baby died not long after that. At some point after that she married her third husband who choked on a chicken bone. And then her last husband died during the Great Spring sickness. This honestly makes those rumors about her sound all the worse. She had a daughter that didn’t live long either, though it’s not clear if the girl was her third or fourth husband’s child.

Dunk reflects on the fact that he and Egg were very lucky and avoided the epidemic because they had been in Dorne the entire time. Dorne had very early on closed their borders to outsiders after word spread about the disease. Otherwise there was a chance he or Egg, or both, could have died too.

We also find out that the big reason why she was married so many times was because her father. He was determined for her to have a son who would inherit. Her father’s will is honestly screwing her over. He wanted her to marry Lucas Inchfield to get that grandson, but she refused for obvious reasons. I mean what young woman would want to marry a bullying brute like Ser Lucas anyway.

That’s why the will was changed so that Rohanne had to marry within 2 years after her father died or else everything would go to her cousin, who incidentally is married to the sister of their liege lord, Lord Rowan. Interestingly Lord Wyman Webber had charged Ser Lucas to scare off any unworthy suitors, which the knight conveniently interprets as scaring off every potential suitor. It’s pretty obvious that he took a more loose interpretation of his lord’s order to make sure no one else can steal his chance to become a lord and marry a beautiful woman like Rohanne. Rohanne did have a few new potential suitors including Gerold Lannister.

Interestingly there’s hints of flirtation and interest between Rohanne and Dunk, but even Dunk knows nothing can come of it. He’s an uneducated commoner of unknown parentage and she’s a noble lady. She even offers Dunk the opportunity to join her service since he’s young and strong.  But of course Dunk is a loyal, steadfast man, which actually makes Rohanne like him more.

Then they get to the heart of the matter. She argues that one of her people was assaulted and the person responsible needs to be punished. She’s willing to end hostilities if Bennis is surrendered to her for punishment. Rohanne thinks Dunk’s loyalty is wasted on Ser Eustace. Dunk knows perfectly well that will never happen. Bennis will either just run or fight. Osgrey will resist being ordered around out of pride.

The next point of contention is about the dam. Dunk tries to defend Osgrey’s rights to the water. Rohanne argues she has the rights to the water. In fact she has actual documentation, which Egg quietly confirms, that Daeron had given her family land usage rights to a lot of land. That include a large portion of the river that feeds the stream at the heart of the dispute. Despite the fact Osgrey needs that water, she has the right to divert the water for her own use.

Dunk then wonders why King Daeron would have taken away Osgrey’s right to access the water. She reveals to him that Ser Eustace really didn’t tell him the whole truth. Part of the reason why Ser Eustace is in his situation is his own fault. Ser Eustace was actually a supporter of Daemon Blackfyre and he dragged his three sons to fight for Daemon, which led to their deaths. As punishment for supporting the wrong side, he had to surrender his only child as a hostage. It was the deaths of their sons and giving up their daughter that caused his wife to commit suicide. The daughter wound up becoming a septa and was still in King’s Landing when the Spring Sickness happened.

On Ser Eustace’s advice, Dunk mentions the name of Addam Osgrey to her and she slaps him for it.  She tells him to leave or she’ll have him tossed into the river in a tied up sack. As Dunk is escorted out he learns the reason for her anger at Addam’s name. She blames Ser Eustace for getting Addam killed and in a sense he did get his son killed when the boy was only 12.

On the way back to Standfast, Egg further explains the document they were shown. The grant gave the Webbers a lot of rights to particular areas bordering the two territories. However the condition is that this extra right is only for a limited time. If Eustace dies without a son to inherit, the land would be reverted to the Crown since no lord would control it. After that hunting rights and some of the land usage would go to the Crown to grant permission.

We do get an interesting conversation about Ser Eustace’s situation. Given how little he has now, Eustace really only has his modest tower, small plots of land, and his personal ghosts left to him. He’s lucky he didn’t get executed for treason though one would question whether he’s actually better off.  Egg recalls how he was a cupbearer and would hear many debates in the Small Council chamber about how to treat the rebels who didn’t die or flee Westeros. Bloodraven pushed for harsher punishments including execution to prevent further rebellion. Baelor countered that offering the chance to surrender and some degree of clemency would cause more people to give up and end the fighting sooner. Though Egg is confused why someone like Eustace would side with Daemon.

Observant readers, like Dunk, can easily guess why Eustace chose the side he did. Dunk reports back to Eustace about the results of the meeting. Dunk also gets confirmation about the truth from Eustace. Egg also is confused and tries to understand Eustace’s choice. The most obvious reason is because if he backed the right contender for the throne, he’d get rewarded. Possibly getting Coldmoat back from the Webbers.

However the real reason was because Eustace genuinely believed Daemon should be the king. He calls Daemon the true embodiment of a king being a great warrior and knight. He resents Daeron for being lacking in everything a king should be. He’s of the belief a king should be a knight and prepared to fight and defend the kingdom. Not soft and only being around scholarly types. He also resents the fact so many Dornish people are at court and Daeron traded off his sister Daenerys to Dorne when Daemon apparently loved her. Egg certainly has his opinions about all this considering he’s the grandson of the man Osgrey is insulting, but he’s smart enough to not be too openly opinionated about this.

If you listeners are people who didn’t understand the backstory about what I just talked about, you’ll just have to listen to Season 2 where this is all explained. Dunk and Egg decide they should just leave the next day since it’s so late at night. They’re awakened by the shouts of a forest fire near the estate. Fortunately the immediate area near Standfast wasn’t affected, but it gave them a scare. It’s assumed someone on Lady Webber’s side started it.

Then there’s a big confrontation when her forces approach Standfast. It’s clear the only way to settle this is with the sword. Dunk basically calls for a parley and Rohanne decides to humor him. She does offer a personal apology for slapping him yesterday. She knows he didn’t mean to hurt her as he was genuinely ignorant of the messy history.

She reminds him that as long as she gets Bennis they’ll turn back and end this. Dunk emphasizes that will never happen and she should remove the dam. Dunk sticks to his vows of honor. He also tells Egg to bring them what’s in his boot and shows her Maekar’s ring. She warns him that if he persists, their side will die including him. Dunk tells her if she chooses to attack, he’ll just send Egg off and make his last stand. She points out Egg could still get killed in the craziness. He challenges her on how she’s not going to take a chance on harming Egg now that she’s catching on to who Egg is. Ultimately the only solution to this battle of wills is a trial by combat.

Dunk is obviously the champion for Ser Eustace. Ser Lucas fights and arrogantly demands Rohanne marry him once he kills Dunk. Rohanne basically replies her father really didn’t know what sort of man Lucas is when he picked him to be her next husband. The trial ends with Lucas dead and Dunk nearly drowning to death.

Dunk wakes a few days later slowly recovering from his many injuries and near drowning. He finds out that while he was unconscious, Rohanne and Eustace have a proper conversation and eventually resolved their differences. In fact their solution to their problems is to marry each other. Eustace gets to live out his days in Coldmoat and she gets to keep her inheritance per her father’s will. Even though Dunk logically knows there’s no chance with Rohanne and they barely know each other, he still has a huge crush on her. This turn of events makes things more awkward for him and he wants to leave.

Dunk has earned the respect of both Rohanne and Eustace. They try to persuade him to stay. Aside from the fact he’s still recovering, they want to keep a strong, honorable knight like him around. Dunk is pretty insistent on leaving as soon as he’s okay enough to ride on his horse again. Rohanne tries one last time to convince him and even tells him to take some gifts at the very least. He doesn’t explicitly say it, but it’s pretty obvious why he wants to leave. She has to accept this. She gives him a lock of her hair and one pretty passionate kiss before he leaves. And off Dunk and Egg go to their next adventure.

[mid-roll]

Before I close out this episode, just a few things left to talk about. I’m sure some of you new to this podcast might be annoyed about how I’m not explaining the backstory of some things. As I’ve said already, there is lore and explanations I did a few episodes ago. I highly recommend you listen to them so you can catch up. It’s worth it. If you listen to my past episodes you’ll save yourself the confusion as things move forward.

One small thing is Dorne. We only get small hints at what happened during the time between this novella and the last one. We never see what Dunk and Egg did while in Dorne. One major fact is they were there for months because as I discussed in Season 2, the Great Spring Sickness lasted for a few months. Dorne managed to avoid illness, which tells us the two protagonists spent a decent amount of time there. It’s also interesting that there is a mention of Lady Vaith.

Book readers have speculated about Lady Vaith as being Casella Vaith. This is mainly due to the point in time the events take place. And some of you might wonder who is Casella Vaith. Back in episode 2.14, I mentioned Casella as being one of Aegon IV’s many mistresses. She was described as being naïve and somewhat delusional in believing that Aegon loved her and would bring her back to King’s Landing. So it’s theorized that the slightly crazy Lady Vaith is her. George hasn’t confirmed this, but it’s quite possible given the time period. It’s possible this could be an older Casella Vaith.

Finally I have to talk about Rohanne Webber. Whoever they cast to play her in the highly likely season 2 of the show, will need have real chemistry with Peter. You read between the lines in the novella to tell that there’s an attraction between them, but alas it can never be. This tension won’t work if the actor they pick doesn’t click with him on screen. It is a twist of fate they can never be together, but it would have changed the course of history if they had. Why? Well it’s because of what happens to Rohanne after the novella.

The novella takes place in AC 211. At some point afterwards, she remarries for the 6th and final time. She married Gerold Lannister who I mentioned earlier in the episode. Gerold was a younger brother of Tybolt Lannister. I’d need to do a whole episode to explain things further, but Gerold eventually became Lord Lannister in AC 213. It’s not clear when Ser Eustace died, but eventually he did and clearly Gerold wrote to Rohanne again.

They eventually married and had their first children, twins named Tion and Tywald in AC 220. They were followed by two more sons named Tytos and Jason. In fact I discussed this in more depth in episode 2.17. But one interesting fact to repeat in this episode is that eventually Jason would become the father of Johanna Lannister and Tytos would become the father of Tywin Lannister. And as we know Johanna would marry her cousin Tywin and have three children: Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion. Yes, things would have been very different if Rohanne had married Dunk instead. We unfortunately aren’t told when or how Rohanne dies. We only know that when Tion married his wife, Ellyn Reyne in AC 235, Gerold was a widower and she was acting as the Lady of the Rock.

And that just about covers the second novella in the Tales of Dunk and Egg. If you’re interested in finding out more for yourself, feel free to go to the full show notes where I will have links. Though be aware there will be spoilers to the novellas and the TV series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

Thank you for listening and tune in to the next episode where I’ll talk about the third novella, The Mystery Knight.