Lessa is shoveling ashes from the hearth when an agitated messenger arrives with the news that Fax is on his way, with dragonmen. The Warder does not believe this, and sends the man on his way, striking him for his foolishness. Then a guard officer appears corroborating the story. Lessa began to think, she must contrive a situation where Fax would be so humiliated as to renounce his claim to the Hold in the presence of the dragonriders, so that she could stake her claim. One of the Warder's women arrives dismayed at the poor state of the rooms.