After a long day of training recruits, avoiding Dorian, and staying out of the king’s notice, Chaol heads for his rooms and discovers that two guards are missing from their posts outside the Great Hall. The remaining guards admit that Aedion Ashryver invited the missing men to a party in Rifthold and falsely claimed Chaol had approved it.

Chaol punishes the two remaining guards with a month of double duty in the freezing gardens for failing to report the abandoned posts. Instead of sleeping, Chaol goes into the city to retrieve the deserters and confront Aedion.

At the tavern Aedion has rented out, Chaol finds nobles, courtesans or courtiers, musicians, drinking, gambling, and many drunken men. Chaol locates the missing guards and several others playing cards with women in their laps, then sends them back to the castle to face discipline later.

Chaol searches the tavern for Aedion, following conflicting reports from bedrooms to the cellar and back to the main room. Each lead proves false, and Chaol realizes Aedion has already left his own party, apparently with a courtesan.

Before returning to the castle, Chaol learns that Aedion’s legion, the Bane, will soon arrive in Rifthold and intends to bring even greater debauchery, with Chaol’s guards invited. Fearing the chaos will distract his men and draw the king’s attention to Chaol’s own movements, Chaol decides he must find leverage over Aedion and attend the next party to secure it.