To be honest, after hearing the Dragon Queen's words, the old cripple was still deeply moved.
The legends were indeed true. Every time a Targaryen was born, the gods would toss a coin to decide whether they would be great or mad.
The old cripple had lived through the era of the Mad King and knew just how mad he had been. Now, seeing the Mad King's daughter being so "saintly," he could not help but feel overwhelmed with emotion.
"Your Majesty, your actions move me deeply, but I do not agree with them."
The old cripple decided to make the Dragon Queen understand that excessive saintliness would only lead to even worse outcomes.
"You must understand that the total amount of food is fixed. If I eat one more piece of bread, the children will have one less piece in the future.
Perhaps you have enough food now, enough for all of us to eat our fill, but what about three years from now? Five years from now?
The War of the Five Kings crippled far more than just the North. The Riverlands, the Westerlands, the Crownlands, the Stormlands, and the Reach all had poor harvests.
The last Long Night lasted a generation. Even if this one lasts only five years, it is foreseeable that the Seven Kingdoms will inevitably face a massive famine in the near future.
Saving a useless bunch of old men like us today, people who can no longer even hold a knife, is nothing but an illusory, petty kindness. Before the Long Night ends, we will starve to death anyway. Ensuring that all of humanity survives in the future and ultimately endures the Long Night, that is true great compassion!"
The old cripple spoke earnestly and persuasively, almost moving himself to tears.
He never expected himself to have such enlightenment. Truly, seeing the worthy makes one aspire to be like them. He had never possessed such lofty ideals before, simply because he had never met a great and benevolent monarch. Now he had.
"Go back, go back. I have a way to deal with the famine. Stop worrying needlessly. Even an old dog can still guard the gate at night. You are not that old yet. There will always be work suited to you. Who knows, you might even live to see the next summer."
The Dragon Queen did not appreciate his words, nor could she understand his so-called great enlightenment. She merely waved her hand impatiently, driving him back into the city.
"Ah, ah, ah, Your Majesty, don't shout, don't call the children over. That would make things very ugly!" the old cripple cried out repeatedly.
That very night, the stables at the northwest corner of Hearth Castle suddenly erupted in a raging blaze.
The fire broke out without warning, and the flames spread rapidly.
Dany had arranged for three dragons to take turns circling above the castle, guarding against the possibility that the Night King might lead his army to assassinate her directly.
As a result, she received news of the fire immediately.
But when she arrived, all she saw were the stables packed full of elderly people, men and women alike. More than a hundred of them, all advanced in age.
They had been forcibly driven back by the Dragon Queen that afternoon, yet that night they gathered together again, drenched themselves in oil, and set themselves on fire.
"Don't save me. I can't be saved anyway."
Dany entered the burning stable with a grim expression. As she forced back the raging flames, the old cripple's eyeballs were nearly melted by the fire, yet he still sensed her arrival.
"Let us die with dignity!
An old man eating bread made from the last of the wheat meant for children, how shameful is that?
If we die, at least we can make one final contribution for the children who are still alive.
Sigh, I was young once too. Over the past few decades, every winter I have seen elderly people go out hunting.
There is never enough food. Someone has to starve to death. If someone must die, let it be us old folks!"
He was completely dazed, his words disjointed, yet he kept expressing the same meaning: do not care about us, this is our best ending.
Dany stood among the half-charred "bodies." The flames raged wildly yet could not draw near her, but the stench of burnt flesh and the agonized groans before death tormented her deeply.
After a long while, she closed her eyes and unleashed a soul-calming strike. All the wailing elderly people fell unconscious, and then the great fire surged like a flood breaching a dam, instantly filling the entire stable.
The next morning, Great Bear arrived at Hearth Castle with forty wyverns.
Great Bear, Garth, and Qloben had ridden wyverns with her to the Wall, but while she was repairing it, the three of them, along with seven wyvern riders led by Pockmarked Richard, had departed.
Black Castle could not afford the daily food consumption of ten wyverns.
Wyverns were, after all, legendary creatures. Even ravens could survive the wind and snow of the North, so there was no reason wyverns would freeze to death.
But there was a prerequisite: they had to be supplied with large quantities of fresh meat.
Once they were full, they would not feel cold.
But the colder it got, the faster they grew hungry.
This was the problem.
Barristan was currently transporting the Unsullied and volunteer forces to Dragonstone, and the more than thirty wyverns served as transport aircraft.
After Dany arrived at Hearth Castle and decided to save the people, she sent word to Dragonstone, ordering the wyvern legion to come first and evacuate this group.
In any case, Barristan's volunteer forces were nearly finished being transported, so the wyvern legion's workload was not heavy.
"Your Majesty, this is a tradition of the North."
From the moment the stables caught fire the previous night, the Dragon Queen had not returned to Hearth Castle. Instead, she sat cross-legged alone atop the gate tower, seemingly lost in thought.
After learning the cause of the incident, Great Bear and the others worried that the queen had suffered a heavy blow. Led by Edd Amber, they came to the gate tower.
Upon seeing the Dragon Queen, they were filled with uncertainty.
The tower had no walls. Aside from its circular dome, it was open on all sides. Wind and snow poured straight in, piling snow across the floor. Yet the Dragon Queen herself was spotless, and within a single step around her the area was clean and dry, as if the wind and snow were alive and deliberately avoided her.
"Your Majesty?" Great Bear called out cautiously.
"A tradition that deserves to be devoured by the Others," Dany said as she ended her meditative state, opened her eyes, and glanced at the few who had approached. "The North must carry out comprehensive reforms. Its current productive capacity and modes of production are far too primitive, barely any different from those of the First Men who crossed the Narrow Sea ten thousand years ago."
"Turn it into rural communes like those in Slaver's Bay?" Great Bear asked thoughtfully, nodding. "Once the Long Night ends, we could arrange for Northern nobles to go to Slaver's Bay to study for a few years."
"I fear that by the time the Long Night ends, there will not be many noble houses left in the North," Garth Hightower said gravely. "Hearth Castle is not an isolated case. I suspect that Karhold, Deepwood Motte, and other castles closer to the far north have all been attacked by the Others."
"Should we go take a look at Karhold? It's right next to Seal Bay," Edmure Amber said worriedly.
"Let's leave first. I'll go have a look," Dany said as she stood up.
Karhold of House Karstark was only five to six hundred kilometers from Hearthkeep. A round trip by dragon would take roughly three to four hours.
She did not go there in person. She only had Little White make a detour in an arc toward the southeast.
In fact, Karhold could no longer be called "Karhold of House Karstark."
The current lord of Karhold was House Thenn.
Back when Dany watched the Game of Thrones television series, she only felt that the male lead Jon was a bit "know nothing," somewhat simple and foolish, and did not think he was particularly skilled in political maneuvering.
She was wrong.
Or rather, the television series portrayed Jon as a fool.
The real Jon not only had a keen political instinct, but was also naturally adept at the arts of power.
For example, at Castle Black he cleverly orchestrated the execution of Janos Slynt (Chapter 431) to avenge his father.
For example, he cleaned up Robb's mess and completely eliminated the hidden danger posed by House Karstark.
Rickard Karstark, who was beheaded by Robb, had three sons and one daughter. The eldest son, Harrion, was captured by the Lannisters. The second son, Eddard, and the third son, Torrhen, died fighting for Robb. Only the daughter, Alys, remained at home.
Rickard also had an uncle named Arnolf. Arnolf had two sons and three grandsons.
Arnolf secretly pledged allegiance to the Boltons, but deliberately brought his second son and three grandsons to serve under King Stannis as spies.
Arnolf's eldest son, Cregan, in order to legitimately become the Lord of Karhold, planned to forcibly marry his niece Alys.
Alys refused and fled to the Wall to seek out Jon. Cregan believed this was an internal Karstark family matter, chased her all the way to the Wall, and demanded that Jon hand her over.
Jon arrested him, locked him in the ice cells beneath the Wall, and he eventually froze to death (ps).
From Alys, Jon also learned of Arnolf's identity as a spy and then informed King Stannis.
Given King Stannis's temperament, how could he tolerate betrayal?
All five Karstarks were executed.
Thus, House Karstark was left without any male heirs, with only Alys as the sole legitimate bloodline.
After that, Jon did something that was enough to enrage all the Northmen. He married Alys to the Magnar of Thenn (ps).
The Thenns were the only wildling tribe that understood bronze forging and had established laws and the concept of lordship.
Because of this, the Thenns were almost the strongest faction among the wildlings, possessing several thousand warriors.
However, this force did not belong to the Dragon Queen. On the contrary, the new Thenn leader was deeply hostile toward her, because she had killed the Thenn lord Styr.
On the day Dany first went to the Wall, she happened to encounter Castle Black being besieged by a wildling suicide force that had climbed over the Wall. The Thenn Magnar, Styr, was the leader of that force.
That man charged at the Dragon Queen with an axe and was smashed in half by a single sweep of Little White's tail.
Afterward, Styr's brother, Snore, died beneath King Stannis's iron hooves (ps), and Styr's son, Sigorn, became the new lord of the Thenns.
After all, it was the hatred of patricide. No matter how dominant or benevolent the Dragon Queen appeared, Sigorn was bound to harbor resentment toward her. Therefore, he and the Thenns did not go to Queen's Crown to become "the Dragon Queen's free folk of the Gift."
Jon and King Stannis both set their sights on the strength of the Thenns.
Jon married Alys Karstark to Sigorn, and King Stannis accepted Sigorn's fealty in his capacity as king.
Thus, Sigorn formally established "House Thenn." Its sigil was a white sun encircled by crimson flames. The Karstark sigil was a pure white sun. Aside from the color, the two were almost identical.
The meaning was obvious: to have the Thenns replace the Karstarks.
With the help of Sigorn's several thousand Thenn warriors, Alys easily reclaimed Karhold.
In name, Alys ruled Karhold as the heir of her captive brother Harrion. In reality, her husband Sigorn had already become the true master of Karhold, recognized by both Jon, King in the North, and King Stannis, King of the Seven Kingdoms.
At this point, the blood feud between House Karstark and House Stark was completely dissolved.
During the War of Conquest, Orys Baratheon, Aegon's bastard half-brother, married Argella Durrandon, daughter of the last Storm King and lord of Storm's End. The lordship of Storm's End thus passed from House Durrandon to House Baratheon.
House Thenn replacing House Karstark was almost a reenactment of history.
With House Karstark gone, no matter how deep the hatred, it was resolved.
And because the lord of Karhold had become the former wildling Sigorn Thenn, its fate differed from that of Hearthkeep.
"The only thing that could stop the Others was the Wall. Now that it has fallen, the North is finished.
Tens of thousands of wights are outside Karhold. Duke Stark and King Stannis cannot save us. They cannot even save themselves," Sigorn lamented.
Sigorn was a thin, short man, not handsome, with a prematurely receding hairline that made him look somewhat old, but he had always been very gentle with his wife.
Alys clutched the infant in her arms and cried, "But he's my child!"
"He's my son too, but we have no choice. The soldiers barely have any dragonglass weapons. In just two hours, there won't be a single living person left in Karhold.
No matter what, this poor child won't survive. If we hand him over, we can still protect tens of thousands of our people," Sigorn said, closing his eyes in pain.
"Are you sure the dead will leave?" Alys loosened her arms slightly.
"I'm sure. Beyond the Wall, this isn't a secret," Sigorn said, forcefully taking the child from his wife's hands, choking back sobs.
Alys grabbed the swaddling cloth and made one last desperate plea. "Wouldn't a commoner's child do?"
"It wants our child specifically. Our child has noble blood."
"Waaah," Alys covered her face with both hands. "Why is this happening? Why?"
Then, through Little White's vision, Dany saw a peaceful, tranquil Karhold, with cooking smoke curling into the air.
In a war of resistance and unity, the greatest enemy is not the invaders, but the option of "surrender."
Now, before the "United Front Against the Others" had even been fully established, its greatest enemy had already appeared.
(End of chapter)
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