Chapter 135

Chapter 135 Tourney

  Duke Eddard immediately said to his wife:

  "You will leave in a moment, and when you return to Winterfell, immediately send a letter to Helman Tallhart and Galbart Glover in my name, ordering them eachto lead a hundred archers to garrison Moat Cailin, and these two hundred archers will be enough to prevent any army from going north through the 'Neck'.

  In addition, Order the Earl Manderly to speed up the maintenance of the fortifications of White Harbor to ensure that the defenders will be sufficient.

  Also, from from now on, you must pay special attention to Theon Greyjoy, if war breaks out, I will need his father's Iron Fleet."

"War breaks out?" Catelyn face showed fear, "Ned, Is the situation going to be this bad?"

  "It might not be that bad, but we have to make preparations early."

  "Okay." Catelyn breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn't help reminding again, "You must be careful in King's Landing!"

  " Don't worry, I'll pretend nothing happened."

  "Okay." Catelyn suddenly remembered something, and said, "Actually, I planned to take a detour to the Eagle's Nest City when I returned. She still doesn't want to come to King's Landing ?"

  "Yes." Duke Ned was also a little helpless, "Duke Renly went to invite her personally, but she refused to come."

  "Okay, I'll go and see her and try to persuade her "

  "No." Duke Eddard immediately refused, "You can't say anything about your coming to King's Landing, and I need you to return to Winterfell as soon as possible. Leave Lysa to me , his Majesty has already tried it several times , so we can't keep procrastinating like this."

  "You will go? That's fine. But, as the hand of the king, if you leave King's Landing, won't it affect the Kingdom affairs?"

"It should be fine to leave for a while." Duke Ned , In fact also had some headaches, "There is no much options . It's a pity that I really don't have anyone I can trust in King's Landing, otherwise he could help share some burden ."

  Those gray-green eyes naturally appeared in Caitlin's mind: "Petyr can be trusted."

  "Petyr Baelish?" Duke Ned frowned subconsciously.

  "Ned, I know you don't like him, because he used to like me... However, those are old things. And after all, he is my father's adopted son, and he was single-handedly picked up by Duke Jon Arryn as confidant, you can try to ask him to help you."

  Duke Ned was silent for a moment, and finally nodded: "Okay."

  Afterwards, the two left the room, Catelyn refused her husband to see him off, in order to avoid attracting attention.

  After watching his wife leave, Duke Ned looked at Petyr beside him, and said,

  "Lord Petyr, thank you for settling Catelyn this time, and for the news you provided."

  "You're welcome."

  Duke Ned hesitated and then he said, "I'm going to personally go to the Eagle's Nest City to persuade Lady Lysa to come to King's Landing. During my absence, you will be in charge of the Imperial Council. And the tournament..."

"I will organise it beautifully, and it will never disappoint your expectations." Petyr said confidently, and then he changed the topic, "However, if you follow the originally scheduled date, you may not be able to come back to participate in time, do you want to postpone tourney ?"

  "No. Just go ahead as planned."

  "But it's a tourney for you after all..."

  " This is a tourney for the king." Duke Ned emphasized, " I never asked for it."

  "Okay!." Petyr shrugged.

  Duke Ned sighed, and said: "Also, what happened tonight..."

  "Keep it secret."

  ——————————

  The bright morning light dyed the world golden, and there was no cloud in the sky.

  Natalie Dayne sat in the carriage of the Tyrell family and went to the tournament with Lady Margaery .

  Lifting the curtain embroidered with golden roses, Natalie saw that hundreds of tents had been set up on the river bank, and thousands of civilians flocked to watch the competition.

  Of course, there are knights in shining armor, riding tall horses, and holding bright banners.

  "Just like the song!" Natalie blushed with excitement, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

  "Yes." Margaery took the arm of the little girl beside her and said with a smile, "And they will also become the protagonists in the ballad."

After arriving at the venue, the two of them, led by the guards, went to the house specially arranged for the Tyrell family.

All around were nobles from the Reach. When they saw Natalie with the star and long sword emblem embroidered on her chest, they all showed meaningful smiles.

  It's a pity that Natalie didn't understand what was behind their smiles, so she foolishly pulled to sit down by Margaret, completely oblivious to the angry and hostile gazes of the Dorne nobles next door to her.

  Margaery leaned close to Natalie's ear and introduced to her the families represented by the various flags fluttering on the field. Natalie remembered it carefully at first, but soon became dizzy.

  "That knight is so strong!" Natalie exclaimed, pointing at a big man who looked like a giant in armor.

  "That's Ser Gregor Clegane, nicknamed 'The Mountain', a vassal of the Lannister family in the Westland."

  "Oh, who is that big bald head?" Natalie saw a bald head in a red robe, couldn't help giggling.

  "That's Thoros, the warrior monk of Myr. During the last suppression of the Iron Islands rebellion, this man was the first to charge into Pike City with a flaming longsword."

"A flaming longsword? Lord Caesar also has one. Natalie turned her little head and searched among the crowd, "Why didn't i see him?"

"He 's there." Margery pointed to a double-headed eagle flag in the northwest corner of the arena with sharp eyes.

  Natalie looked quickly, and sure enough, she saw Samwell wearing the armor with the help of his attendants.

  It was a snow-white plate armor, similar in style to that worn by the Kingsguard, but his helmet was shaped like eagle wings, and he wore a sky blue cloak trimmed with silver piping behind him.

  Natalie really wanted to say hello to Samwell, but unfortunately they were too far apart to hear her shouting.

  Samwell also didn't notice Natalie and the others. At this time, he was ambitious to win the Jousting champion reward of the tournament.

  That's 40,000 golden dragons!

  Moreover, the jousting is actually very suitable for Samwell to play to his strength, and it also conceals his fatal weakness - lack of agility.

  So he felt that he still had hope of winning the prize.

  While thinking about it, the jousting competition begun.

  The cheers suddenly grew louder. Amidst the rumble of Horse's, knights held lance's in the field, colliding passionately, attracting bursts of applause.

  Soon, it was his turn to make his first appearance.

  Samwell found out that his opponent this round was Lord Renly Baratheon.

  The king's younger brother is very popular, and he attracted thunderous cheers as soon as he appeared on the stage.

  Comparable Samwell looked much poorer.

  Only the nobles of the Reach cheered for on.

  Samwell saw Natalie who jumped the tallest and Margaery who smiled the most beautifully in the crowd, so he urged his horse to walk over.

  "beautiful ladies, I don't know if I am honored to be blessed by you."

  Natalie blushed, looking at the wooden lance stretched out in front of her, just about to take off the hair tie and wrap it around, but suddenly froze . That's right—

  The little girl hesitated when she remembered the tragic end of the two knights who had accepted her blessing.

  On the other hand, Margaery generously took out her handkerchief, tied it on the tip of his Lance , and said with a smile,

  "Come on! My knight!"

  At this time, Natalie woke up from the dream, and quickly tied her hair Wrap and sent her blessings.

  Samwell leaned over his horse to express his thanks, and then rode back to the field.

  "Lord Caesar, can he win?" Natalie couldn't help asking, clasping her hands over her heart.

  The corners of Margaery's mouth turned up, and she said proudly, "Sam is a knight who can lead seven hundred cavalry to defeat tens of thousands of Dornishmen, but Lord Renly...he has never been on a battlefield."

"Yes!"

  Natalie let go of her worry, but still secretly prayed to the gods in her heart.

  Seeing the two knights on the field start to speed up, Natalie's heart rose to her throat. She didn't dare to watch the final collision before, but this time, her purple eyes opened wide.

  Boom!

  Amid the loud crash, the wooden lance shattered, and Duke Renly flew back from his horse. His head landed with a loud bang, causing the entire audience to gasp.

  Fortunately, the quality of Duke Renly's helmet was strong enough, and he finally climbed up unsteadily, but an antler on his helmet was broken.

  The whole audience burst into warm cheers.

  Lord Renly bowed gracefully to the audience, as if the cheers were all about him.

  Afterwards, he picked up the broken antler on the ground and handed it to Samwell:

  "Baron Caesar, this is the trophy you deserve!"

  This gesture immediately aroused another burst of cheers.

  It has to be said that this king's younger brother is really good at showing off, no wonder his popularity is so high.

  Samwell curled his lips secretly, he didn't really like this kind of person in his heart, but when he found out that the antler was actually made of gold, he immediately put on a smiling face:

  "Thank you Lord Renly, you are a respectable opponent!"

  The tournament continued.

  Samwell rode five more times, beating two knights of the Vale, a knight of the Stormlands, a knight of the Westlands, and once knocking off his horse, an old acquaintance, Horas Redwyne.

  The eldest son of Arbor Island, whose injuries have not fully healed, actually insisted on coming to the competition,

I really don't know what he was thinking.

  Although all the Jousting Lance's are made of wooden lances, it cannot be said that there is no danger at all.

  For example, Sir Gregor Clegane, "The Mountain" from the Westland, created an extremely bloody scene.

  I saw that when he was facing a Vale knight, his lance was upturned and hit the opponent's throat armor. Because of the excessive force, the lance pierced through the throat, and the Vale knight was killed on the spot.

  Death provoked waves of exclamations and cries.

  Natalie hugged Margaery tightly, buried her head in her arms, and didn't dare to look any further.

  The dark red blood flowed out, soaking the cloak of the Vale knight, and dyed the crescent crest on it blood red.

  The servants ran into the field quickly, carried the corpse away, and turned the soil with a shovel to cover up the blood.

  Everything was back to normal again, as if nothing had happened.

  The tournament continued.

[END]