Yesterday, when Aegon came with Marwyn to report the "Shield Islands Incident," Marwyn still knew nothing and relied entirely on Aegon—who had been informed by Varys—to explain the situation.
Yet after only a single day, he now spoke as if he had personally visited Euron's camp. He even revealed many secrets that not even the old Rose knew.
"Archmaester Kelvin told me," Marwyn paused for a moment and said, "he was originally the maester of House Chester of Green Shield Isle. After Count Chester was killed by the ironborn, Archmaester Kelvin began serving Euron."
Dany glanced at Maester Pylos beside her, unsure what to say.
Dragonstone had changed hands three times in a short period, yet Maester Pylos remained firmly in place at the rookery.
Kelvin was the same. No matter who ruled the island, he continued running the rookery, even openly sharing Euron's secrets with other maesters.
Euron was mad, but he had not killed the maesters. Why?
Because he could not live without them.
Euron surely wanted to conceal his secrets, yet despite all his precautions, they were casually exposed by his own maester.
It truly was ironic.
Maesters knew medicine, understood letters, managed castles, calculated taxes, raised ravens, tended the rookery, and sent messages.Even the ironborn, who still clung to ancient traditions of burning, killing, and plundering, suffered from "maester dependency."
Just as humans cannot live without wheat and rice, and modern people cannot live without smartphones and computers, the nobles of Westeros cannot live without their maesters.
The maesters' vast hidden influence and intelligence networks would not vanish even if the Citadel fell into ruin. They had long since become a part of the Westerosi continent itself.
If Westeros were compared to a person, the maesters would be its nervous system.
"Let Lady Olenna seek out Aegon. I don't need her allegiance. The strength of Highgarden means nothing to me, but it is a tremendous help to Aegon.
Aegon has a winged dragon. If he drops several hundred pounds of wildfire from the sky, that giant octopus will burn to death."
Dany still refused to send aid to Highgarden.
In truth, the old Rose had already sent a raven to Storm's End before Dany even mentioned it.
Or rather, aside from Dany on Dragonstone, Aegon at Storm's End, Randyll Tarly in King's Landing, and Littlefinger in the Vale all received Olenna's plea for help.
Seeking aid from Dany, Aegon, and Randyll made sense. Dany and Aegon had dragons, and Randyll himself was in King's Landing and could seize the chance to lead the forces of the Reach to take down Cersei.
But Olenna asking Littlefinger for help was especially interesting.
The old woman had also planted spies beside him, so she was the first to learn of Sansa and Aegon's secret engagement—Aegon only publicly announced his ambitions and the "True Dragon Alliance" after the Riverlands incident.
Olenna threatened Littlefinger: if he failed to persuade Aegon to rescue Highgarden, she would expose his role in poisoning Joffrey.
Do you still remember Emperor Joffrey's "Purple Wedding"?
The benevolent, righteous, virtuous, and wise Emperor Joffrey was very much not to the old Rose's liking.
First, Joffrey was the second generation of a mad king. Madmen were difficult to control and far less manageable than Tommen.
Second, Olenna was, after all, the real grandmother of the little Rose. For her granddaughter's happiness, she did not want her marrying the son of a mad king—Olenna herself had also fought for the happiness of her own marriage (ps).
Littlefinger, meanwhile, needed greater chaos. The two therefore joined hands and staged the Purple Wedding, poisoning the emperor whom "Dany wanted to live another five hundred years."
Now, the old Rose used this matter to threaten Littlefinger, forcing him to convince Aegon to rescue Highgarden.
Against the Dragon Queen, Olenna fired arrows in the dark, hoping one might hit. Her real target was Aegon. News from Slaver's Bay had not yet arrived, so the old woman had no clear understanding of the difference between a winged dragon and a true dragon. She simply assumed that Aegon's dragon "Black Death Balerion" was as fierce as the original Balerion.
But how could this threaten Littlefinger?
Littlefinger had already sided with Aegon. Cersei hated him to death. Killing Joffrey only made her hate him more.
Olenna's intended target for her accusation was not Cersei, but Tyrion.
Olenna did not know Tyrion already knew he had been framed.
Littlefinger, however, suspected Tyrion had long known he had framed him.
Littlefinger had never met Tyrion in person, yet he had spoken with Aegon many times. Aegon's attitude, tone, and the unintentional slips made Littlefinger guess how many of his secrets had been exposed.
Thus, when Olenna threatened him, Littlefinger simply ignored her.
However, Aegon and Tyrion were not fools. After receiving Olenna's plea, they began seriously discussing whether they should take the risk—even without Littlefinger's persuasion.
As Dany said, Highgarden's allegiance meant little to her, but to Aegon it was practically the final golden cudgel that could break the camel's back.
Its weight was tremendous.
"The power of the Vale's faction is too great and occupies an oversized share of the 'True Dragon Alliance.' Bringing Highgarden into the alliance is necessary to maintain balance.
More importantly, Euron stands with Cersei. Sooner or later, we will face him," Tyrion said calmly, helping Aegon make the best choice.
Aegon was decisive and immediately made up his mind: they would rescue Highgarden.
As for the origin of Euron's sea monster, we must go back two years.
At that time, he posed as Ethan Hunt and completed an impossible mission: stealing dragon eggs and a dragon horn from atop the Great Pyramid.
Of the two dragon eggs he stole, he kept one for himself and gave the other to the New Ghis Iron Legion.
The reason the Ghiscari did not betray him and seize his dragon egg and horn was because Euron knew the sea route into the Valyrian ruins.
To explore the ruins, New Ghis prepared ten longships and one battalion of the Iron Legion—one thousand soldiers.
There were also two thousand slave sailors.
To this day, New Ghis has never seen the expedition return.
They never will.
Except for Euron's own mute servants, the entire Iron Legion and all the sailors were sacrificed to the Storm God.
Euron's reward was a sea monster from the Smoking Sea.
The newly acquired sea monster was not very large, with tentacles only a dozen meters long and a body the size of a great elephant. In modern times, people would probably mistake it for a colossal squid.
On the long journey from the Smoking Sea back to the Iron Islands, Euron plundered ship after ship, offering the souls and blood of their crews to the Storm God and feeding their corpses to the sea monster. Only then did it start growing larger and larger, until its tentacles reached twenty meters long by the time of the Shield Islands incident.
After the sacrifice of the Arbor fleet and several thousand Reach soldiers at the Shield Islands, the sea monster evolved once more, becoming qualitatively stronger than before.
Wildfire was not guaranteed to work.
When Tyrion and Aegon arrived at Highgarden carrying wildfire bombs weighing over a hundred pounds each, they saw the same sight as a few days earlier. Half of the sea monster's body was submerged in the Mander, and a quarter of its dark red head, mottled with black spots, rose above the water. Three tentacles, covered in ballista wounds and charred scars, lashed against the massive stone walls like divine whips.
The scene looked like a brat furiously kicking the door of the wardrobe where his mother stored her luxury clothes.
Below the wall facing the river was a gatehouse for riverboats, with an iron grille submerged in the water to block entry.
The grille had already been twisted out of shape and was barely functional.
At first, the sea monster had shoved a tentacle into the gatehouse opening, pounding it violently like a pestle grinding herbs.
But above the gatehouse was a murder hole carved into the stone. Highgarden's defenders could pour scalding molten gold and flaming oil down into it. After taking a vicious beating, the sea monster no longer dared to extend its tentacles inside.
Aegon and Tyrion descended from the sky on their dragons, sending the despairing defenders in the city into hysterical cheers and the Ironborn outside into furious cries: "The dragons are here! The Mother of Dragons has betrayed her oath and come to join the civil war!"
Aegon's stealthy capture of Storm's End had caused a major uproar among the highborn of the Seven Kingdoms, but common folk knew very little about the event. Most assumed the Dragon Queen and the High Priest of Light had arrived.
Using the clouds as cover, Aegon and Tyrion approached Highgarden without wasting a moment. They dove sharply, delivering a lethal strike against the sea monster in what was almost a surprise attack.
A low-altitude bombing run had a very high hit rate. The two wildfire bombs struck the sea monster's head and one of its tentacles.
"BOOM—BOOOM!"
Two blossoms of eerie green fire erupted across the sea monster's body. The massive blast of green flame tore one of its tentacles to shreds.
Even its tough, leather-like head was blown open, leaving a large hole oozing purplish-red blood.
"Aaaah—!" The sea monster spewed steam from its mouth like a shrieking whistle and sank into the river, wailing.
Wildfire could burn even on water, but it could not burn underwater. Since the strike had not killed it instantly, it would not burn to death.
Beneath the surface covered in vivid green flame, powerful currents surged. Silt churned, and the purple-red blood spreading under the green blaze made the river look even more uncanny.
"Ooooh—ooooh—!"
Before Tyrion and Aegon could succumb to frustration, a bleak, piercing horn blast suddenly echoed from beneath Highgarden's walls.
It sounded like thousands of souls screaming. The moment the horn sounded, Tyrion and Aegon felt as if their very bones were about to ignite. A scorching fire seemed to burn outward from within their bodies. At the same time, it felt as though ten thousand ghostly claws reached out from the depths of hell, seizing their souls and freezing their thoughts in place.
Tyrion's eyes filled with blood. Wisps of scorched white smoke seeped from his mouth, as though his organs were being roasted.
Aegon fared even worse. His eyes rolled back, and he passed out.
If the straps on the dragon saddle had not secured his body and legs, he would have fallen.
"Hiss—screech—!"
The two wyverns were the primary targets of the attack, yet they performed far better than the riders on their backs.
They shrieked once, then shook their heads and tails and fled into the distance.
Below, Euron stared wide-eyed, bewildered. Why had the Dragonbinder, which could control even dragons, only forced the wyverns to scream once? Could it be…
Alarmed and enraged, Euron inspected the glowing runes shimmering gold across the horn's surface. The runes lit up one after another, but several of them remained dark.
This was bad. His horn was damaged.
Having now mastered the meditation techniques of the great warlocks, Euron suddenly understood.
Euron was shocked. Tyrion and Aegon were also shocked.
"Life just keeps getting worse. I thought that after leaving Slaver's Bay, we'd be fighting normal wars again. Who knew Westeros would also be a battlefield of gods and demons?" the dwarf lamented repeatedly.
He was celebrating too early.
When the Long Night arrived, he would discover that Westeros was the true battleground of divine chaos.
"I thought you said the Dragonbinder was broken?" Aegon wiped the blood from beneath his nose, his face pale.
"It is broken. Our wyverns didn't lose control."
"What do we do now? Should we go to Highgarden? Highgarden has fire-oil bombs. We could coordinate a bombing run with the wyverns," Aegon asked.
Both of them had suffered injuries to their souls and needed rest. They had landed in an apple orchard fifty kilometers south of Highgarden.
(ps: When Olenna Redwyne was nine, she was betrothed to Daeron Targaryen — the younger brother of Prince Daeron the Drunken Dragonrider, and brother to Daenerys's grandfather — but Olenna had no interest in Daeron and pulled every trick she could to sabotage the marriage.
Daeron was sent to Highgarden as a page at the age of nine. Whether it was Olenna's scheming, a unique custom of the Reach, or something else entirely, no one can say.
In any case, Daeron eventually became gay. He also followed in his elder brother's footsteps — the legendary prince who broke off his own betrothal — and pursued freedom in marriage. He voluntarily annulled the engagement, fulfilling Olenna's wish.
The Redwynes would never dare break a marriage with House Targaryen. It was Daeron who requested the dissolution.
ps: The Smoking Sea is the stretch of ocean between the ruins of Valyria and the Lands of the Long Summer. Before the Doom, it had been dry land. The cataclysm split the Valyrian peninsula in half, seawater flooded the broken earth, and the Smoking Sea was formed.
It is extremely dangerous, filled with boiling waters, volcanoes, smoking reefs, and frequent appearances of demons and sea monsters not of the mortal world.
Euron found the sea monster there.)
(End of chapter)
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