Chapter 217: Riss Encounters an Old Acquaintance

Leaving the city gates, they rode hard for over ten miles. In a small grove, Dany once again mounted Little White.

After flying westward for another half an hour, the two dragons landed in a marsh near the Rhoyne River. The White Knight took off his leather boots, rolled up his silk trousers, and waded through the foul-smelling mud, retrieving two massive sacks from the lush green reeds.

One sack contained iron armor and swords, soaked by water, with its lower half covered in a thick layer of black, foul-smelling mud. The other sack, stacked on top of it, held books and a dragon egg, which remained dry.

"Wow, what a haul!" Dany whistled excitedly as she rummaged through the armor.

As soon as she touched the helmet, a strange stench assaulted her nose. It was like pork bought from the supermarket in the middle of summer, forgotten outside the fridge overnight.

"Ugh, Maracho's armor is way too big—I definitely can't wear it." Dany immediately discarded the helmet onto the grass in disgust.

Barristan, treating it like a treasured artifact, picked up the helmet and wiped off the mud with his hand. "Burn it with dragonfire. I'll wear it!"

Seeing the eager anticipation on his face, Dany nodded silently. "Alright, that works."

The armor was of no use to her, so she began searching for a longsword that suited her.

"To reduce weight, I threw away all the scabbards," Barristan said, helping her pick a sword. It was three fingers wide and had a blade length of 1.2 meters. "I remember this one is called 'Clear Sky.' It weighs around seven jin (about 3.5 kg) and is 1.5 meters in total length. A bit light for me, but just right for Your Grace."

"Hmm, not bad. The sword is fine, and the name is decent." Dany swung it a few times, finding the balance slightly off. "The center of gravity isn't right—the hilt needs a bit more weight."

"I've already considered that," Barristan said, taking out a coil of gold thread from his backpack. "I bought this from the blacksmith's shop this morning. I'll wrap it around for you."

After inspecting the weapons, Dany cradled the crimson dragon egg in her arms, carefully sensing the faint life force within it—like a single candle flame flickering in the vast darkness.

"This dragon egg belongs to House Targaryen. How did it end up out in the world?"

"I don't know. After the Dance of the Dragons, nearly all the dragons perished, but dozens of dragon eggs remained. Every king since has tried hatching them with wildfire, but all failed—the eggs cracked and were destroyed.

Just the fire at Summerhall forty years ago alone cost us seven dragon eggs.

Maybe someone took advantage of the chaos and concealed the true number of lost eggs," Barristan speculated as he tightened the golden threads around the sword hilt.

"No, this isn't an egg from the Dance of the Dragons era. That Braavosi man personally said it was from 250 years ago," Dany shook her head, denying his guess.

"That's too far back—I have no idea. You could visit Oldtown and ask the maesters. They study Targaryen history," the White Knight suggested.

Dany and Barristan's original route was: Astapor → Volantis (2500 km) → Dorne (2000 km) → Oldtown (2000 km) → King's Landing (1700 km) → Riverlands (800 km).

Of course, these were straight-line distances. Dany could fly her dragon directly, but others—whether by ship or horseback—would have to take a much longer route.

"The situation has changed. Oldtown isn't as safe as we previously thought," Dany said grimly, recounting the story of the dragon-slaying crossbows.

"Because of Margaery Tyrell? That's impossible," Barristan looked puzzled. Even with his limited political insight, he understood that Highgarden had no reason to go to such extremes over a widowed queen.

Yes, "Little Rose" Margaery was quite a peculiar case in Game of Thrones.

During the War of the Five Kings, Renly Baratheon married Margaery Tyrell to secure Highgarden's support. However, just days after their wedding, Renly was killed by his older brother Stannis, leaving Margaery widowed.

The alliance between the Baratheons and the Tyrells collapsed, but thanks to Tywin's efforts, the Tyrells switched sides and allied with the Lannisters. As part of this new alliance, Cersei's son Joffrey became engaged to the young widow Margaery.

Then, on the day of their wedding, Joffrey was poisoned—by the Tyrells, no less—making Margaery a widow for the second time.

At this point in the story, she was likely married to Joffrey's younger brother, Tommen. But Tommen was only nine years old.

Thus, Little Rose earned herself the infamous title of "The Virgin Queen."

"We still need to go to the Citadel," Barristan said after a moment of thought. "Your Grace, we have two objectives in Westeros: to gather intelligence on the Seven Kingdoms' current situation and to help Ser Mormont learn the fate of Bear Island."

No, neither of those matter to me. Leaving Slaver's Bay and giving the Butcher Earl enough time to purge the Ghiscari nobles from Meereen—that's my real goal.

Causing a scene in Volantis, then appearing in Westeros just once more—a perfect alibi. The Queen is away on official business, and everything was "Maester Lai's" doing.

That way, even if "Maester Lai" carried out a full-scale massacre of the Ghiscari and stirred up universal outrage, Dany would merely have to hold a grand public trial and then tearfully execute her own "Ma Su."

Of course, she couldn't tell the old knight any of this. She still wanted to be seen as a righteous and benevolent queen.

"There's no doubt that Oldtown is the center of the maesters, where news from all over the Seven Kingdoms converges. At worst, Your Grace can disguise yourself and hide your identity," Barristan continued.

"Can I pretend to be a Shadowbinder?" Dany asked.

"Well... Oldtown isn't just the seat of the maesters—it was also the location of the Faith of the Seven's High Sept before Aegon's Conquest. A Shadowbinder appearing there would probably draw even more attention," the old man said hesitantly.

"Alright then—hair dye, brow shaping, lipstick."

This world also has hair-dyeing technology. Dyes extracted from plants can be applied to the surface of hair like paint, forming a coating that can be washed off with soapberry water, restoring the original hair color. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage—it makes it easy for others to notice that you've dyed your hair.

Next, the two took kraft paper from their backpacks and wrapped up books and swords, especially the books, as they were going to be buried underground and couldn't afford to get wet.

They found a relatively dry high ground, dug a pit, and buried the wrapped items, covering them with a layer of scattered turf to make the spot less conspicuous.

Hmm, the dragon egg was not buried. Dany kept it in her backpack, intending to carry it with her and hatch it as soon as possible.

After all, the Long Night was approaching, and she didn't have much time left to grow stronger. One more dragon meant one more source of power.

Then, the two dragons, Black and White, acted together. Dragonfire heated the Valyrian steel armor until it glowed red, but it did not melt.

Using a sword, they picked up the helmet, gorget, breastplate, and bracers one by one and tossed them into the water.

"Sizzle—sizzle—sizzle—"

After a burst of white smoke, the once matte, smoky black armor became patchy, with some areas darker and others grayish, resembling a crude piece of work from a third-rate street blacksmith.

"Heh, the heat was uneven, so there's a color difference," Dany chuckled.

"Just perfect for disguise," the knight responded excitedly, taking off his chainmail and beginning to put on the armor. Dany stepped forward to help him.

After all this back-and-forth, it was already past noon. They grabbed some roasted meat for a quick meal, then mounted the dragons once more and flew straight west.

It was quite a coincidence—Yunkai, Volantis, Lys, Sunspear, and Oldtown were almost on the same latitude, so the two dragons just had to keep flying west.

This time, they didn't need to cross the dangerous Demon Road. The dragons maintained a steady speed, gliding at an altitude of 6,000 meters at around 200 kilometers per hour.

Two hours later, they left the land behind and entered the Summer Sea. For several hours, they saw nothing but an endless expanse of blue sky and ocean.

By evening, a bustling island came into Black's view. The shimmering red sea surface was dotted with hundreds of anchored sailboats. Dany immediately ordered the dragons to descend.

Lys, once a Valyrian colony, also had sky towers built for dragons to land.

Hmm, but Lys had joined the allied forces—it was Dany's enemy.

So...

Dany hesitated to strike. Starting from the docks, there was an exquisite pleasure garden that looked like a palace—a place where bed slaves solicited clients, commonly known as a brothel.

"Forget it, we'll only rob the nobles in the sky tower and leave the commoners alone," she muttered. With that, White descended onto an empty platform below.

The black tower, nestled within a golden rose garden, stood 30 meters tall, with a 400-square-meter platform on top—half the size of the one in Meereen.

It had no glass dome and was completely deserted. Under the dim sky, the two dragons landed lightly, their arrival unnoticed.

Whitebeard was the first to jump down from Black, his iron boots landing with a crisp "thud" against the black stone platform.

"Who—who's up there? Hank, did you hear that? There's noise on the top platform."

"Come on, let's go check."

The voices of alert guards echoed from the stairwell.

The old knight acted as if he hadn't heard them. Drawing his longsword, he casually called out to Dany on White's back, "I'll go down first. Once I've cleared out the enemies, I'll inform Your Grace."

It seemed robbing had become second nature to him.

The first time they seized a black tower from House Belerion of Oros, the old knight had been hesitant and kept refusing. But now, he didn't even wait for Dany's orders—he skillfully jumped down from Black, quietly slipped into the stairwell, and expertly dealt with the palace guards.

Not long after, the dying cries of the sentries echoed from below. Barristan peeked out from the stairwell, his tone somewhat odd. "Your Grace, you should come take a look—there's an unexpected situation."

"What kind of situation?" Dany tilted her body, sliding down from White's wing as if she were on a slide.

She couldn't help but feel nostalgic.

A year and a half ago, when her two little dragons had just hatched, she would carry the three tiny creatures in a basket every morning to the wasteland to practice flying.

Each time she tossed them into the air, she was so gentle, afraid she might break their fragile, nearly transparent wing bones.

Now, their thick, blanket-like wings could easily bear her weight—over a hundred pounds, including her chainmail and backpack.

With mixed emotions, Dany descended the stairs and entered a magnificent palace.

The Myrish carpet was embroidered with colorful flowers and nude maidens. By the entrance stood two towering porcelain vases, as tall as a person. Behind a low couch was a purplewood screen from the Summer Isles, depicting a sea full of billowing sails.

The sunset filtered through the stained-glass mosaic window, casting a glowing crown-shaped reflection into the air.

Compared to the pyramid palaces of Slaver's Bay, this place was no less extravagant—if anything, its artistry and finesse surpassed them.

Amid such splendor, the two corpses sprawled on the carpet were a jarring sight.

Even more out of place were the three men and one woman kneeling nearby.

Two delicate, bare-skinned young men, one with golden hair and the other with violet locks.

A naked woman with long golden hair and milky-white skin.

And a blue-robed youth, clutching his wounded wrist and groaning softly. At his feet lay a gleaming longsword, snapped in two, along with a broken hand crossbow.

"What's going on?" Dany asked.

"Familiar faces," Barristan said awkwardly.

(End of Chapter)

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