Dany stood in silver armor and a blue robe, a pair of angelic wings gently fluttering behind her.
Like the wights, she walked slowly across the snow without sinking into it.
The howling wind roared, carrying powdery ice and snow that brushed past her armored skirt and hair.
"A bunch of trash unworthy of me drawing my sword!" Her voice was faint amid the shrieking northern wind.
But the next scene was clear for everyone to see.
The black dragon stepped on a pine trunk and leapt into the sky. At the same time, a golden-red fireball the size of a pineapple spewed from its jaws, floating before the Dragon Queen.
From the fireball shot out streams of blood-red serpents as thick as chopsticks, as if the fireball itself was made of writhing fire snakes.
"Ssshh Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Each serpent struck the wights' faces and chests, and in an instant, they ignited like tar-soaked logs. The running corpses burned into living torches, sending up plumes of white steam into the snowy air.
But where the black dragon landed seemed to be the epicenter of an earthquake, and ripples of vibration spread outward, awakening the wights buried in the snow.
They rose like clams beneath the retreating tide, heads popping up one after another as if someone had sprinkled salt over them.
Yet unlike clams, wights didn't just poke their heads out they crawled forth entirely, like dogs catching the scent of fresh meat, swarming madly toward the living.
The rangers at the cave entrance were ready to witness the Dragon Queen's slaughter of the undead, but suddenly she turned around. Holding the fireball in her left hand, wings beating lightly, her legs moved swiftly, barely leaving a mark in the snow. In a few steps, she passed her knights and slipped into a fissure in the rocky wall.
The rangers stared, dumbfounded.
"There's a magic barrier here that can repel evil spirits. Hurry inside," the Dragon Queen shouted to her knights.
No one knew if more White Walkers lurked beneath the snow. The deep drifts might block their icy spears, but if one happened to be directly underfoot, a sword could easily stab upward. It was far safer to retreat into the rocky crevice protected by magic.
The knights were only four or five meters from the entrance. With the Dragon Queen's fire-serpent magic clearing the way, they soon struggled out of the snow and gathered around her. One in front, one behind, one to the left, and one to the right. Rakharo stood guard with his bow drawn, keeping her safe at the center.
"I never thought the White Walkers were real," Garth said through chattering teeth, his face pale.
"You think I would lie?" Dany gave him a cool glance.
By now, the angelic wings behind her had faded away and vanished.
"Of course we believe you, Your Grace," said Ser Jorah evenly. "But hearing is one thing seeing them with our own eyes is another."
"The dead aren't as frightening as the living," said Belwas. "They have no weapons, no armor. One good strike and they fall apart. The one that grabbed my leg just now Ser Davos cut it once on the shoulder, and it shattered to pieces."
"If you didn't have that Valyrian steel blade, you might not be saying that," said Qhono grimly.
"Khaleesi, why are the dead gathering at the entrance but not coming in?" Rakharo asked, his voice trembling.
Outside, two meters from the cave mouth, stood a crowd of wights thousands of them, frozen in grotesque postures. They packed together like fans welcoming a superstar at an airport, mindless and dense, stretching across the snowy plain for hundreds of meters.
At least two to three thousand of them.
And that was not all. The hill had four sides, and these were only the wights from the nearby slopes. More were coming from all directions, an unending tide.
It looked disturbingly like a zombie siege.
"There's a warding spell inscribed into this hill identical to the one used along the Wall. Evil cannot enter," Dany said thoughtfully as she looked toward the ranger standing among the wights outside.
The ranger had extinguished his torch. Around him, the wights stood motionless, clawing at the air as if they were wooden carvings instead of corpses.
"Your Majesty, you should go inside," the ranger called back. "Once the scent of the living fades, the dead will retreat on their own."
"What's the matter with you? Why don't you come in? And why aren't the dead attacking you?" Ser Jorah demanded in a deep voice.
"He's dead too," came a voice from within the cave. "A Night's Watchman who's been dead for a very, very long time."
The voice was high and sweet like a child's, but carried the tone of an adult melodious, strange, and tinged with a sorrow that struck directly to the heart.
"A child?" Qhono asked in surprise, standing guard before his queen.
Indeed, it looked like a child barely a meter tall, reaching only to a knight's waist. Her limbs were slender, her cloak woven from leaves, her exposed skin dappled like that of a doe.
Her hair was a wild mix of brown, red, and gold, tangled with purple grapevines, green pine twigs, and withered red daisies like an artist had spilled an autumn palette over her head.
Dany's gaze was drawn at once to her eyes large, clear, and shimmering with interlaced gold and green. They were long and narrow like a cat's, gleaming like the finest gemstones.
This was no human.
"Seven above… a Child of the Forest," Dany murmured.
"Child of the Forest? The squirrel people?" Jorah felt dizzy, as if he'd stepped into one of Old Nan's tales.
"The maesters said the Children of the Forest were a myth made up by the First Men," said Garth in awe, staring at the small creature.
"The maesters also said White Walkers were just a tribe of sorcerers beyond the Wall. Does that look like a tribe to you?" Dany shot back dryly before stepping forward. "I am Daenerys Targaryen. Your greenseer, Brynden Rivers, invited me here."
"Yes," said the squirrel-like being, "I've come on Lord Brynden's behalf to welcome you."
"Your Grace, wait here. We'll go ahead and clear the way for you," several knights offered at once.
It was a natural gesture Dany had brought them precisely for her protection. Yet at that moment, she changed her mind.
"No. We'll go in together," she said, her eyes fixed on the being's clear, spring-like gaze.
She did not trust Brynden Rivers, but for some reason, she trusted this creature before her completely trusted that she would not lead them into a trap.
She couldn't explain why, but upon seeing the Child of the Forest, her whole body felt at ease.
The small being seemed to sense her hesitation and said softly, "You carry the Mother's presence."
A sudden realization flashed through Dany's mind she thought of the weirwood.
The greenseer was merely the priest of the Children; the ancient heart tree was their true Mother.
Now the girl began to chant the Song of the Wind, and Dany understood. She nodded, feeling a strange kinship as she looked at the Child of the Forest.
Lords may betray their kings, but never will a true believer betray the Mother.
The passage within the stone wall was narrow and winding, flanked by dark rocks on both sides. From above hung pale white roots of weirwood trees, which, under the glow of Dragonflame's fireball, looked like cold white serpents coiling across the cave ceiling.
Dany felt that their group was descending deeper underground. The cave was eerie and oppressive, yet the further they went, the warmer it became.
In the silence of the cave, the only sounds were the soft rustle of cloaks brushing against the stone walls and the metallic clatter of armor and iron boots. Curiosity got the better of Dany, and she started a conversation with the squirrel-man.
"What's your name?" she asked.
The squirrel-man hesitated before replying, "My true name is too long. You may call me Leaf. I've roamed the continent for hundreds of years and have borne many names. 'Leaf' is the one the new Three-Eyed Raven gave me."
"Hundreds of years?" Jorah gasped.
"I've seen the Black Dread, Balerion, and witnessed the rise and fall of House Targaryen across generations. Now, I see the Dragon Queen's 'Big Black' and the new Targaryen queen herself," Leaf said.
"Seven hells, you're practically a living history of Westeros," the old bear murmured.
The Dothraki and the fat eunuch also looked stunned.
Dany glanced at her embarrassed followers and said coolly, "Ser Mormont, have you forgotten the Crab King? That creature lived for tens of thousands of years."
"Uh…" The old bear's cheek muscles twitched, and he fell silent.
"Her Majesty has met the Crab King?" Now it was Leaf's turn to be shocked.
"That wretch tried to steal my Valyrian steel, so I had him steamed," Dany said with a casual wave, her expression indifferent.
"But "
The squirrel-man's deep, lake-green eyes, aged by centuries of wisdom, widened in disbelief and horror.
"But the Crab King ruled over the River Rhoyne!" she said.
"That's ancient history from tens of thousands of years ago. Besides, my Drogon is half-divine you didn't notice?" Dany replied.
Leaf fell silent.
"What about that ranger?" Dany asked again.
"The new Three-Eyed Raven calls him 'Coldhands.' You must have seen for yourself this place is far from the Wall, and the journey here is both long and perilous.
"When Lord Brynden came to this refuge, he was accompanied by a guard."
"Have you heard of the Raven's Tooth Guard, the Duke Bloodraven's elite?" Leaf asked.
In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei had the White Ear Army, Yuan Shao had the Vanguard Deadmen, Cao Cao commanded the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, Lü Bu had the Camp of the Trapped, and Gongsun Zan led the White Horse Volunteers.They were all elite special forces of their age, unmatched in loyalty and martial prowess.
In the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, there was a similar unit Bloodraven's 300 longbowmen, the Raven's Tooth Guard.
The Raven's Tooth Guard!To say nothing of the rest their minimum effective range was four hundred meters. (Don't accuse me of exaggerating; blame that fat man Martin.)
Even modern snipers couldn't do better.
During the First Blackfyre Rebellion, Brynden led his three hundred Raven's Tooth archers head-on against Daemon Blackfyre.
From a distance of three hundred meters, they managed to slay the steel-armored Daemon and both his sons.
To this day, Dany couldn't understand how the Raven's Tooth Guard had managed it.
A single perfect shot through the visor slit, straight to the face?She couldn't do it, nor could any of her Dothraki riders.
She doubted even snipers could. After all, besides plate armor, most knights carried iron shields. Once you shot one man, the rest would raise their shields to protect their heads.
At three hundred meters no, even at fifty so long as the plate armor was well-forged, a knight was nearly immune to arrows.
Leaf continued, "When Bloodraven was exiled to the Wall, every surviving member of the Raven's Tooth Guard battle-hardened and undefeated voluntarily took the black.
"When Brynden traveled across the frozen wastes to his final refuge, the last captain of the Raven's Tooth Guard followed him all the way.
"Unfortunately, the refuge was hated by the White Walkers. Countless wights watched it ceaselessly, and in the end, the last captain of the Raven's Tooth Guard was slain by them."
"How did he regain his humanity?" Dany asked curiously.
"That is a difficult question," Leaf said. "You'd have to ask the Three-Eyed Raven."
"Then this 'last refuge' is it this cave? And who does it shelter?"
As Dany spoke, she looked around. Without realizing how much time had passed, they had crossed several tunnels and arrived at a vast cavern.
It was as spacious as a basketball court, its floor covered in a dense network of weirwood roots thick and thin, pale and soft, slick with moisture, twisting together like a nest of serpents coiled at the bottom of a pit.
(End of Chapter)
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