Where the Cockleswhent fed the Mander stood another small keep, Cider Hall. Above its ramparts flew the apple of House Fossoway, a noble house married into Gardener. Indeed, it was hard not to hear about Lord Everan’s exploits. This made seizing Cider Hall all the more enticing of a

Prince Erich and his host had arrived beneath the walls after a brief two-day march from Longtable, so close were they in proximity. As was customary by now the Storm Prince sent forth a rider bearing the seven-colored Banner of Parlay and the same message.

“Defenders of Cider Hall! The Storm Prince Erich of House Durrandon calls upon you to join your comrades of Footly and Meadows: lay down your arms! No harm need be done to your house or your lands. The Storm King advances up the Mander with a host of forty thousand men, and our allies' hosts besides our own close in around the Reach from the south, the east, the north, and the west!

“House Gardener has failed you, and no more good Fossoway men need die to defend them! Gwayne Gardener is a murderer, and his Princes are cravens who hide in Bitterbridge, Horn Hill, and Highgarden! Word of a siege here will not bring you help, any more than it has brought help to Lord Merryweather’s beleaguered men.

“I ask again, in the name of the Prince of the Stormlands, for you to lay down your arms and be granted the honors of war.”