The arrow sliced through the cold air of Queenscrown, whooshing past the target by a hair's breadth and burying itself in the accumulated snow on the ground. If the first to miss the target loses, the winner and loser were decided. As for whether Theon's shot was destined to miss or deviated because of interference in the final moment of aiming, it became an eternal mystery.
This unexpectedly exciting peak duel held everyone's attention so completely that when Theon missed the shot, all the spectators first let out disappointed boos before starting to panic at the sudden sound of horns and alarm bells.
However, after a moment of panic, everyone immediately fell into confusion.
Because neither the horn blast nor the alarm bell conformed to Queenscrown's communication rules, and no one knew what was happening.
First, there was the single blast of a horn.
A single horn blast along the Wall signifies the return of rangers from patrolling Beyond the Wall, but this is Queenscrown. There is no Ice Wall hundreds of feet high obstructing communication. When patrolmen return to the city, the guards on the city wall can see and identify them immediately, making a horn blast unnecessary. Therefore, horn blasts here only have two meanings, two blasts and three blasts. Since the Free Folk no longer exist, two blasts naturally represent a rebellion by the New Gift people, and three blasts represent an attack by White Walkers.
Of course, it could also be interpreted this way, the person raising the alarm only had time to blow the horn once before being killed.
But what about the bell? In Queenscrown, the number of bell rings and the pattern of intervals represent different meanings, opening and closing the city gates, starting and ending work, meal times or curfew, assembling for battle readiness. Even the most urgent emergency requiring continuous ringing would have a certain frequency and pauses.
But now, the bell is ringing urgently, "clang, clang, clang," without stopping. What does this mean?
The person blowing the horn and the person ringing the bell do not belong to the same department and would not be together. When both methods of conveying information are abnormal, what could have happened?
Although equally confused, Aegor dared not be careless. Without time to think further, he quickly started assigning tasks based on the worst-case scenario, an attack by White Walkers. Evacuate the spectators gathered on the field, arrange for men to take soldiers to the major outer city gates. If the enemy had not yet arrived, quickly organize people to move refugees outside the walls inside. And if the great enemy was already upon them, then they could only make a difficult choice, close the city gates, and leave the unfortunate souls who could not get in outside.
But, never mind the airtight Wall, Great Canyon defense line, which has soldiers guarding every mile. Queenscrown itself has a patrol and alert network extending more than ten miles outwards. Unless the White Walkers sailed around the fleet at Ice Canyon Port and Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, landed in the North, and then attacked from the south along the King's Road, how could they possibly bypass this flawless double protection and suddenly appear outside Queenscrown?
"Master, Master, Master." Arya, who had rushed back to Aegor's side, shook his arm and shouted, "Quickly put away Lightbringer, and, give me a few, I can help too."
"Acrylic, go collect all the Lightbringer and bring them back. As for you, stop having wild thoughts." Aegor pulled away Arya's hand gripping his arm and pushed her towards the nearest North soldier. "Take your Little Princess back to the inner keep, keep a close eye on her, do not let her run around."
"No. Let go of me."
"Hey, look." Myrcella pointed to the sky in surprise. "Is that a dragon?"
A dragon? Aegor turned his head to look in the direction the Little Princess pointed. Indeed, in the gray sky, a huge black shadow appeared in the sky a hundred meters high, rapidly approaching and passing over his head. Its wings and tail were clearly discernible. What else could it be but a dragon?
The flying giant beast circled and lowered its altitude towards the competition field. A sound that was probably a light hiss to it, but to the crowd, it was like muffled thunder rolling.
No wonder the sounds of both the horn and the bell were so chaotic.
Aegor was suddenly relieved. It was not the patrolmen and guards who had made a mistake, but rather that he had considered every possibility in the emergency plan and communication rules designed for the Gift, but had failed to tell them how to issue an alarm when a dragon is seen flying towards Queenscrown.
The patrolling and alerting soldiers saw the dragon, but neither dared to relay a false alarm nor could they do nothing, so they each used their own methods to temporarily find a way to warn the others in the city.
And it was not just one dragon that came. Soon, two other slightly lighter-colored figures also appeared above the Black Dragon. Perhaps to make up for Aegor's regret of not seeing a dragon when he last visited Dragonstone, Daenerys had brought all three dragons at once. Among them, the Black Dragon she was riding flew lower and lower, while the other two slightly smaller ones flew up and down high in the sky, playing. More people in the field discovered the existence of these large winged monsters. The timid ones pushed and shoved, running towards the edge of the field, while the brave ones stood still, looking up at the miraculous scene, wondering if this was another event arranged by Aegor.
Fortunately, the arena was not a closed building, agile people could climb over the wall to escape. With the Logistics Department soldiers doing their best to maintain order, the spectators on the scene finally avoided any stampede. The culprit that caused the commotion circled above the arena several times, probably to confirm that there was nothing below that could threaten it, such as dragon-hunting ballistae. Finally, the Black Dragon chose to land in the center of the most open target range, settling on a small hill.
Arya, who was being forcibly dragged away by her own guards, did not forget to remind Aegor at the last moment. "Master, do not forget, that is, that is the Mad King's daughter."
Aegor waved at her. "I know, hurry and go down with them, you definitely do not want to be friends with her."
The script of Melisandre's fellow sorcerer, Moqorro, had taken effect. This Dragon Queen had actually come to Queenscrown for that non-existent The Prince, Part Two. Aegor was somewhat mentally prepared for this, but he had not expected Daenerys to pick such a day.
"Go collect everyone's bows." Aegor roared at Jarman Buckwell, the current Commander of the Crownland Guard. "Move all troops not employed by the Logistics Department away from the field. Without my order, no one is to make a move."
To dare to come alone to the North, which she had never visited before, she is a tough, a tough woman. Aegor both admired the Dragon Queen's courage and disapproved of her excessive boldness. Queenscrown was full of people with mixed intentions at this moment, the Night's Watch were neutral, but, theoretically, Beric Dondarrion and his party should be direct vassals of King Stannis, and the Mountain Clans are nominally subjects of the Stark family, not to mention the small group of Winterfell soldiers left here to look after Arya.
Why did Arya emphasize that she was the Mad King's daughter?
Because the Deposed King War began because Aerys Targaryen burned her grandfather and great-uncle to death. This is a true blood feud.
If this recognized last Targaryen could be killed, no matter how many dragons she had, the war would be over. How would the always just King Stannis reward such a brave killer?
Within this small town, there were thousands of people who had reason to attack Daenerys. If someone tried to attack her and the situation got out of control, whether they succeeded was secondary. Enraging any of her three dragons and provoking one of them to unleash dragonflame would spell the end of everything. All of Queenscrown's preparations were made to face the Night King. There were no dragon-hunting ballistae, and the city walls and warehouses were full of highly flammable dangerous goods like Wildfire, Dragon Crystal Bombs, and powder, and there was no fire brigade.
A series of miscellaneous orders were issued, and the panic had subsided. Seeing that the area was mostly cleared, Aegor tidied his appearance, took a few of his most trusted guards, and walked towards the Black Dragon that had landed on a small hill in the field, the Queen's mount.
(To be continued.)