Throwing the ice sword felt great for a moment.
But without the sword, how could the wight possibly be a match for the fully armed White Knight?Let alone with the red-haired woman and the ice direwolf helping out on the side.
The old knight slashed and stabbed with his sword, the red-haired woman launched sneaky arrows, and the ice direwolf, controlled by Jon, bit at the wight's calves.In just two exchanges, the desperate wight had its limbs shattered and collapsed to the ground.
The white dragon stirred up a cloud of dust as it landed heavily on the hill. Before Dany could even dismount, the White Knight approached with a grave expression, cradling the baby in his arms.
"This child is... strange," he said.
Dany, curious, took the fur-wrapped bundle. One glance down and her expression turned to shock.
The baby's fair skin had taken on a grayish-blue hue, its sparse hair had turned into white icy strands, and its eyes—those blinking eyes—glowed with a soft blue light like stars, filled with an unnatural calmness and cold.
Has it really turned?That shouldn't be possible... Isn't the Night King the only one who can turn someone into a wight?
Dany's doubts only grew.
Jon walked over and took a look, groaning with a troubled expression, "Seven hells... it's a wight baby!"
"Kill it, it's a monster!" Ygritte pulled out her dragonglass dagger and lunged forward.
Dany stepped back, dodging the attack, still staring down at the wight baby's eyes.
With almost no resistance, she saw deep within those eyes countless ice-blue and milky-white runes assembling, forming a flower of icy flame—a bizarre reverse spiral vortex.
It bore some resemblance to the dragonflame-shaped foundation of her own meditation, only it was composed of ice-blue and deathly white, and in a reverse spiral.
"Jon, control your woman," she said.
"She's not—" Jon began to deny it, but when he met the furious glare of the red-haired woman, he swallowed the rest of his words.
"This place isn't safe. We need to leave."Cradling the wight baby, Dany mounted Little White's back and immediately took off.
From the little wight, she had glimpsed the true form of the wight's fundamental meditation method. And this strange little creature's consciousness seemed to be connected to some unknown presence.
The Night King?
Dany wasn't sure.
But she knew—she knew—that the fact she had uncovered the wights' secret meditation might already be known to the wights themselves.
Yeah, that was a bit of a mouthful.
The meditation foundation granted by the greenseers—rooted in spiritual rings—perfectly complemented the essence of the wights'. This made Dany wonder if the greenseers and wights shared the same source of magic.
The Old Gods had no priests or church, but in ancient times, skinchangers were considered blessed by the gods, serving as priest-like figures among the First Men. The greenseers were essentially unnamed high priests.
Whether wildlings or the red priestess Melisandre, all had said that wights were the "servants" of the god of cold.
But wasn't the god of cold also one of the Old Gods?The Old Gods weren't a single deity, but a collective term for ancient nature deities. The Drowned God worshipped by the Ironborn, and the Storm God revered by the Three Sisters, all fell under the Old Gods.
In theory, even R'hllor, the Lord of Light, could be considered an Old God.
Dany speculated that the greenseers were to the Old Gods what the wights were to the god of cold.
Just as the greenseers could control thousands of ravens to observe the world and communicate with thousands of people over great distances—
Wights were the ravens of the Others, and the Others were the ravens of the Night King. The Night King, too, could communicate with the outside world through the wights.
At this moment, for example, perhaps the Night King was observing Dany through the little monster's eyes, even indirectly making eye contact with her.
If the Night King realized she had deciphered the wights' fundamental meditation method...
Then maybe hundreds of wights were already on their way to surround her.
Never mind hundreds—even if just a dozen wights were lurking in the woods, Dany would have to flee immediately.
The white dragon carried Dany and her wight prisoner into the sky. Meanwhile, Big Black descended and, using the ropes tied to his claws, lifted Jon, Barristan, and the red-haired woman away from the sea of fire. The hilltop hadn't yet burned, but it was surrounded by flames—definitely not a place to linger.
Dany flew straight back to the base of the Wall, leaving the wight baby and the captured Other in the care of Centurion Var of the camp. Then she mounted the white dragon again and returned to the Haunted Forest.
Compared to the Amazon or the forest fires in Australia, the dragonflame wildfire in the Haunted Forest was hardly worth mentioning.
The fire only burned where the dragonflame had directly struck. Thick smoke billowed up, but the flames struggled to spread. Winter had come—beyond the Wall, the trees, the land, even the air were too cold and damp. Many places were still covered in thick snow.
Because the fire was fierce but didn't spread far, quite a few wildlings hiding in the forest had come out to watch the spectacle.
The wights, while fleeing, had twisted and turned constantly, but their overall direction had been northward. After more than an hour of chaos, they had veered over ten kilometers from the vanguard's position.
When Dany, riding her dragon, finally found Jon and the others along a barren ridge, they were in the middle of a conversation with a group of wildlings.
Not just a couple of wildlings, but a whole tribe of six to seven hundred, families and all.
Barristan waved to the sky, signaling that there was no danger, and only then did Little White descend.
"So it's you all!"As the white dragon landed, Dany looked at the group of wildlings staring back at her with complicated expressions and couldn't help but laugh."No wonder you're called Hardfoot folk—in just one afternoon and night, you managed to trek twenty or thirty kilometers through this icy forest, all the way from the Wall to the heart of the Haunted Forest."
Four to five hundred wildlings, all short in stature and barefoot—the Hardfoot tribe.
Young and old, male and female, adults and children—their torsos and legs were tightly wrapped in animal hides, but their dark feet were bare in the freezing snow, the skin tough like boiled leather.
Yes, the Westerosi version of hobbits—bootlegged, savage, and hardened by the cold.
"Dragon Queen..."The clan leader at the front wore a conflicted expression, his lips parted, but he couldn't form a complete sentence.
"I remember you—Lord Doss of the Hill Tribe."Dany sat high on the dragon's back, looking down at the weathered, middle-aged, short-statured wildling."Where is the Mountain Clan chief?"
The Hardfoot folk had two main clans, living on the so-called "Backbone Beyond the Wall"—the Frostfangs. They were named plainly: the Hill and the Mountain clans.
Both chieftains had attended the previous three-way summit, and Dany still remembered the Hardfoot folk, who had only existed in legends before.
The Hill Chieftain clutched the weirwood spear he had planted into the ground and said nervously, "We got separated. They may have followed the Weepers westward toward the Milk River."
"They're planning to storm the Shadow Tower?" Dany asked with a frown.
"Mm."
At this moment, the Wall had three fortresses: the Black Castle in the middle, Eastwatch-by-the-Sea to the east, and the Shadow Tower to the west.
The fortresses on both ends bordered the sea. The Wall at Eastwatch extended one or two hundred meters directly into the sea, while the Shadow Tower marked the mouth of the Milkwater River.
The Milkwater flowed from beyond the Wall, past the Shadow Tower, and into the western sea— the Bay of Ice.
Therefore, if one wanted to cross the sea and bypass the Wall, the Shadow Tower was the best option.
There was no need to enter the open sea—just a few rafts could cross the calm mouth of the Milkwater. But in truth, this was a luxury even wildlings couldn't afford, as the Night's Watch held naval supremacy, and the Shadow Tower commanded a proper fleet.
Most wildlings couldn't even forge bronze, let alone build a fleet capable of crossing a river. Their productivity was far too low.
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Fighting a fleet and sentry towers with flimsy rafts would be more dangerous than climbing the Wall.
Of course, the wildlings were now desperate. If they were unafraid of sacrifice, they could build two to three thousand rafts and, even at the cost of losing half or more, still potentially reach the southern shore.
"Daddy, is that a dragon?" A small Thenn child crept up to the hill, both curious and afraid as she stared at Little White.
She was a tiny girl, not even a meter tall, wrapped in goatskin. Her cheeks were ruddy and wind-chapped, her black eyes blinking rapidly, and her little bare feet stood directly on the snow.
"Your daughter?" Dany patted herself down for a while, seemingly finding nothing, and then, with a sigh, took the short dagger from the sharkskin sheath at her waist and tossed it over.
"Here, play with this."
"Oh, thank you." Doss hurriedly caught the dagger and handed it to the little fuzzy head peeking out from behind him.
Dany had taken a Valyrian steel dagger from Slaver's Bay, but it had been lost in Lys. Later, she bought another with a few gold dragons on the Long Bridge of Volantis. Then, outside King's Landing, she met Bronn and gave the jeweled dagger to his "cheap son" Tyrion Tanner.
After arriving at the Wall, she had blacksmith Donnel forge another. She hadn't used it for two days before giving it to this little wildling.
"You don't seem to be heading west," Dany remarked.
"Sigh… you have a dragon. Forcing a crossing at the Milkwater is suicide. I plan to lead my people east, to Hardhome," said the hill tribe chief with a sigh.
Hardhome was located on a peninsula 200 kilometers north of Eastwatch, near a deepwater harbor.
"Why go there?"
"Hardhome is close to the sea. We can catch fish, seals, and walruses to fill our bellies," said the hill chief.
"That is a way to survive, but the White Walkers are becoming increasingly rampant. How long can you last?"
"Well…" The Thenn hesitated for a moment, then asked tentatively, "Is the 'Tripartite Lease Agreement' still valid?"
"Heh," Dany chuckled. "Targaryens keep their word. As long as I live, my promise will always stand."
"Then why didn't you help us yesterday?" A round-faced middle-aged woman walked over with a spear, glaring at Dany and Little White with hostility. She said loudly to the hill chief, "Are you stupid? You'd trust the word of a southern king?"
"Mother…" The round-faced little girl stepped back in fright, staring at the woman. The dagger slipped from her hand and fell to the ground.
"This is not your place to speak. Step aside!" the Thenn chief snapped at the woman in a low, angry voice.
Dany looked at the woman curiously and asked, "Who are you?"
"Apologies, Dragon Queen. This is my wife, Lari," the Thenn chief said awkwardly.
"As for what happened yesterday morning, let me explain."
Seeing the wet, bright eyes of the short Thenns under their cloaks, Dany couldn't stay angry. She sighed and said slowly:
"Just as you free folk have many tribes constantly fighting each other, the southern people have many kings. The Seven Kingdoms do not mean just seven kings. Stannis and I are just two among them.
Before Mance Rayder became King-Beyond-the-Wall, you fought the Night's Watch for years, with blood feuds as deep as the sea. Stannis and I are in a similar situation.
There is no universally acknowledged 'King Within the Wall' in the south yet. The kingdoms remain hostile and at odds with each other.
At its core, the 'Tripartite Agreement' is only a pact between the free folk and House Targaryen.
If the agreement is signed, it means the free folk are no longer enemies. I then have a reason to protect you.
But without that contract, without a sacred oath, you are still wildlings invading the Wall, and any king of the south has the right to wage war against you."
"In that case, we absolutely must not approach the Wall," declared the hill chief's wife loudly. "The kings of the Seven Kingdoms are fighting each other. If we rashly side with one, we'll be hated by the others.
Just like yesterday—R'hllor's followers didn't want us to become a part of House Targaryen's strength, so they attacked our camp despite the ongoing negotiations.
Until a true 'King Within the Wall' rises, we shouldn't negotiate with any king."
At these words, not only Dany and her group, but even the Thenns looked at the round-faced woman in shock and suspicion.
The Thenn chief was stunned. "Lari, why are you saying these things all of a sudden? Who told you all this?"
Even I don't have that kind of political insight...
Jon stepped forward and looked at the round-faced woman, frowning. "I think I've seen you somewhere before… but I've never heard of a Thenn woman named Lari. Who are you?"
(End of chapter)
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