"We've reached Dragonstone," Melisandre, the red priestess, said to everyone.
Dragonstone appeared in their sight like a ship upon the vast ocean, pale gray steam rising constantly from the geothermal vents of Dragonmont behind the castle.
Sheer cliffs surrounded Dragonstone, with towering Dragonmont in the center and the strange black castle at the mountain's foot.
Melisandre knew this place all too well. It was where the Lord of Light had once guided the red priestess, yet she had found no answer to what she sought.
"The path created by the Undetermined One is even harder to predict than Azor Ahai's. This time, I will not be mistaken," the red priestess thought.
The three dragons stretched out across the deck like great serpents, their wings creaking as they suddenly unfurled, and the dragons flew into the sky once more.
Balerion, Vhagar, and Viserion.
Margaery Tyrell, dressed in a green gown, with brown hair, brown eyes, and an elegant figure, looked at the dragons again and again. At first she had been afraid, but now she felt even more astonished.
The dragons' necks and tails, their horned heads, their burning eyes. Every part of them felt wondrous.
Dragon eggs were priceless treasures, let alone living, breathing dragons.
"So this is Dragonstone?" Sansa Stark, in a pearl-white gown, said in surprise.
Sansa naturally had a distinctive beauty, with autumn auburn hair and a delicate, lovely face that made her look more like a Tully.
"Yes, Sansa, Margaery," Daenerys Targaryen replied to her two young companions. She wore a purple gown and a slender golden crown.
Though King's Landing had more of a capital's noise and splendor, she still preferred Dragonstone.
The mountains grew higher and higher, the sails sang, and the drums kept beating. After a while, the harbor appeared before them.
Ser Axel Florent, the temporary castellan of Dragonstone, was waiting for them there, a flowered fox sigil upon his chest. They had arrived at the harbor.
"Dragonstone is at your command, Your Grace Gendry," Ser Axel Florent said, kneeling.
"Thank you, Ser Axel." Gendry had Ser Axel rise, then personally presented him with a fine war sword, a longsword adorned with gems and gold from the royal armory.
"To serve Your Grace Gendry is my boundless honor," Axel said, deeply moved.
For second sons, once they could not inherit the family estate, most chose to serve their elder brothers or seek another path upward. It was much the same as being divided off from the family.
Compared with Brightwater Keep, Axel had a deeper attachment to Dragonstone.
Rewards and punishments were the two blades of power. Though King Robert had been buried in debt, he had also been deeply loved for his generosity.
The party made its way from the docks toward the castle. The streets near the harbor were crowded with soldiers, sailors, and commoners, making the place very lively. Most had come to see the dragons and the Dragon Princess, for dragons had once been the pride of Dragonstone.
"Tooooooot."
A loud horn sounded, and the heralds shouted the names of those who had come. Their ringing voices instantly drowned out the murmurs of the bustling crowd.
Two hundred elite Gold Cloak cavalrymen led the procession, escorting the King and Queen. Golden triangular banners hung from the Longspears of the riders, fluttering in the wind.
"Welcome His Grace King Gendry I, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, King of Myr, Lys, the Disputed Lands, and the Stepstones, Commander of the Wolf Pack, Dragonlord Storm."
"Welcome His Grace's Queen, the light of the Seven Kingdoms, Your Grace Daenerys."
"Welcome the King and Queen."
"Long live the Storm! Long live the True Dragon!"
"Welcome the King! Welcome the Queen!"
Shouts of glory rang across the land, and the crowd immediately joined in with applause, wave after wave.
The dragons circled in the sky, moving from far to near, from high to low.
The horses became somewhat frightened, afraid of the dragons' roars and the scent of fire.
"True dragons."
"True dragons."
Even though the people of Dragonstone had long known of the dragons' birth and had seen them with their own eyes, the sight of them circling overhead still stirred their hearts.
"My pride." Daenerys looked at the dragons in the sky. They were her children, and King Gendry's children as well. They were the dragons' father and mother.
Gendry and Daenerys smiled as they slowly advanced, generous in showing warmth and kindness to the fishermen, soldiers, and minor nobles of Dragonstone.
Clop, clop, clop.
Hooves sounded.
Gendry rode his black steed, while Daenerys rode her little silver horse.
Mounted on fine horses, young and full of life, they possessed peerless grace. Handsome, beautiful, and vigorous.
Margaery looked at Gendry beneath the sun. He seemed like an unmatched towering citadel, the finest warrior of the Seven Kingdoms.
Princess Daenerys's two companions also displayed their beauty, gentle and lovely Margaery, and red-haired, blue-eyed Sansa. Yet their beauty seemed more like a foil to Daenerys.
The cheers did not fade for a long while, rising and falling like waves.
"Into the castle!" Gendry tightened his reins. At his side were the fearless white knight Ser Barristan Selmy, Anguy the Archer, Lothor Brune, Robar Royce, Harrold Hardyng, Guyard Morrigen, and other attendants. Dacey and Brienne of Tarth rode on the other side.
Sandor "the Hound," the Dragonkeeper responsible for watching the dragons, was also mixed into the crowd. This work was quite easy for him, since dragons caused less trouble than people.
Gendry looked over Dragonstone's terrain. From the docks to Dragonstone Castle, the road sloped upward.
Dragonstone Castle was also easy to defend and hard to attack, and it possessed ancient Valyrian technology.
Gendry and Daenerys arrived before the gates of Dragonstone Castle. The iron-studded gates stood wide open, and golden banners flew above the walls.
Crossbowmen among the gargoyle sculptures saluted the royal couple. Across Dragonstone, fierce stone figures numbered in the thousands.
The fierce stone statues throughout Dragonstone Castle filled Sansa and Margaery with some fear.
"So Dragonstone really does reek of sorcery," Sansa thought. She had only ever read of such things in books.
In truth, many castles carried traces of sorcery and magic. The famous ones included Harrenhal, Storm's End, Dragonstone Castle, and others.
But Dragonstone Castle's magic and technology came from Valyria. It was something brought from across the sea.
Gendry and the others entered the castle together. Afterward, they dined in the courtyard near the gardens of Dragonstone rather than in the Chamber of the Painted Table, which was too solemn.
Aegon's Garden was filled with the rich fragrance of pine, with tall black groves rising on all sides. There were wild roses and towering thickets of thorns as well, and cranberries grew in the muddy ground.
The food on Dragonstone was naturally lighter than in King's Landing. Oatmeal mixed with honey and milk, the main dishes mostly fish stew, along with eel pie, peppered starfish, fried fish, and roasted kid.
The dragons rested not far from them, their food still the usual live goats.
The King and Queen sat in the highest seats, draped in golden quartered cloaks. Sweet sunlight filled the garden and fell across the young people.
"It is not as beautiful as Highgarden's gardens, but it flows with the scent of power," Margaery thought.
Sansa Stark settled in as best she could. She had guessed a little of the reason: the future war in the North would be even more brutal, so her parents had found her a better and more honorable position.
The young people talked and laughed together. Fine food and a beautiful scene were enough to ease the heart.
"I must trouble Lady Margaery and Lady Sansa to accompany my Queen for a stroll through the garden. I still have some matters of war to handle," Gendry said, turning slightly.
Margaery smiled sweetly. "It is my honor, Your Grace."
"It is our honor."
Gendry kissed Daenerys's fingers, then turned and walked into the garden path. Ser Barristan and the red priestess followed the King as he left.
Gendry followed the red priestess toward the secret passage inside Dragonstone Castle.
Gendry crossed through Dragonstone Castle until he reached the Stone Drum, the castle's main keep. The world-famous Chamber of the Painted Table sat at the top of the Stone Drum, a round room.
A high arched stone bridge connected the Stone Drum to the dungeon tower in the air.
Gendry, the red priestess, and Ser Barristan walked across the arched bridge. A young King in gold, a red priestess, and an old knight in white.
"Fire makes people tremble," the red priestess said to Gendry.
"This should be the place where fire is strongest in the Seven Kingdoms." Gendry felt the temperature slowly rising.
"Not merely in the Seven Kingdoms. In the known world, apart from the ruins of Valyria and the Fourteen Flames."
The three entered Dragonstone's black cells. Though the black cells were somewhat damp, since Dragonstone was near the sea, they were usually warm.
"Hot." Gendry pressed his hand against the black wall of the first level of the black cells and felt the warmth.
The red priestess led them farther down, to the second level, then the third.
The smooth stone passages beneath Dragonstone were usually warm. The farther down they went, the warmer it became.
They passed through hidden ladders and corridors, continuing deeper, turning east and west. It felt as if they were climbing upward at an angle and then descending again.
Gendry followed Melisandre for a very, very long time. The secret passage from Dragonstone toward the center of Dragonmont was simply too absurd, and wholly unsuitable for human feet.
"Your Grace, this path can go as far as the heart of Dragonmont. But forgive me, everything there is fire and lava," the red priestess said with a touch of apology.
Gendry felt a searing pressure in the air. It pressed against his breath, and sulfur filled his nose. The red gem at the red priestess's throat was glowing.
The red priestess pointed to the light at the very end of the path, where the temperature had risen to an extreme. The heart of Dragonmont.
Ser Barristan was already struggling to endure it, and the red priestess could not endure it for long either.
"The red priestess is not completely immune to harm. She is simply pretending nothing is wrong," Gendry thought.
"Let's go back, Lady Melisandre," Gendry said. He had already seen the scarlet glow at the end of the secret passage. They had walked very far.
Gendry saw lava and flame like a glimpse of hell, endless heat and scorching air, and the bubbling pops of fire blisters bursting.
"Yes, Your Grace," the red priestess replied, as though granted a pardon.
The "Firebinder" ring on Gendry's hand was like a fish in water. The rich, dense fire element seemed to attract the Pyromancer like swarms of fireflies.
"A little fire," Gendry thought, feeling the ring and the fire element leap with joy. But even he could not stay for long in the tunnel and beside the mouth of lava.
"Strange. Cough, cough." Ser Barristan inhaled the burning air and complained, "This secret passage does not lead outside. What use is it leading deep into Dragonmont? A man would be poisoned to death or roasted alive."
The red priestess also shook her head. "Perhaps it was a creation of the Dragonlords before Valyria. They mastered fire."
The air near the heart of the volcano held far too many harmful substances and far too much heat, greatly damaging the human body.
It was like a container. A bottle could not hold the waters of the sea. The water would burst it apart.
Gendry needed to raise the limits of his own vessel as a "Pyromancer," taking in fire while shielding himself from harmful substances and high heat.
"I still need tempering." As a Pyromancer, he could command fire and absorb fire, but he could not be greedy.
Gendry believed that only when a Pyromancer's power reached a certain height could one stroll here at ease.
"Dragons plus runes. That is what has real promise," Gendry thought. The flame in his hand could change into the shape of a shield, with runes shifting across it.
Gendry not only used himself as a vessel for runes, he had also carved the "Bronze Shield" runes onto the dragons' bodies. A dragon's body was also a kind of vessel.
Crow's Eye's Dragon Horn and Kraken were no ordinary threats, and their suppressive power over the young dragons would be even greater. To guard against the unexpected, the more rune protection they had, the better.
The Storm knew Crow's Eye's hidden cards, but Crow's Eye did not know that Gendry was also a mage, a Pyromancer. That vital gap in information was what Gendry intended to use to take Crow's Eye's head.
"But Storm's End can isolate magic. If I can obtain Storm's End's runes as well, I can use the two kinds of runes to cut off the Dragon Horn."
From the standpoint of safety, Gendry could turtle inside Storm's End.
After all, that castle already had woven runes. If he hid the dragons there, they would be safe for the time being.
But in war, taking the initiative was Gendry's style. The first battle was the decisive battle. He would deal with the Kraken, Crow's Eye, first.
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