Dany gave Jon a long, searching look and said solemnly, "If Wildling Saigon is in charge of Karhold, then I can more or less guess what happened over there."
Jon's expression darkened, so grim it looked like water might drip from his face.
He had almost guessed it as well.
Lord Eel glanced at the Dragon Queen, then at the King in the North, and asked in confusion, "If they didn't drive back the White Walkers, then what did Saigon do?"
Dany turned to Jon. "Does Saigon have a son?"
Jon replied hoarsely, "When we were at the Wall, Liya was already pregnant. Judging by the time, she should be close to giving birth."
"What does that have to do with Saigon's son?" Lord Eel had only just asked when he suddenly thought of the origin of the White Walkers. The color drained from his plump face in an instant, turning deathly pale, like a dead fish.
"Wights are revived from human corpses, but White Walkers are transformed from human infant boys. When you think about it, the enemies in this catastrophe all come from humanity itself."
At this point, Jon forced out an awkward smile that was both bitter and dry. "How ironic. We're still thinking about how to protect the North and protect all of mankind, while someone has already surrendered to the White Walkers without any resistance at all."
"I'm afraid they didn't really have a choice. What normal person would willingly sacrifice their own son to the White Walkers?"
Thinking of how Hearthfire Castle had been almost completely swept aside, Dany found herself gaining a small measure of understanding for Karhold's decision.
Of course, understanding did not mean approval.
"We should give Karhold a—"
Dany's expression hardened as she prepared to propose executing those in charge at Karhold, but her words cut off halfway.
Because she saw the flickering, uncertain looks in the eyes of the Northern nobles.
It was a strange expression, a mixture of relief, delight, and shame.
"You're not thinking of copying them, are you?"
Dany's gaze was sharp as lightning as she swept it coldly across the room, directly exposing the tiny thought that had only just begun to sprout in their minds.
"No, no!" the earls said almost in unison, scrambling to deny it. Afterward, they exchanged glances with one another, and the atmosphere in the room grew even more awkward.
"You'd better not harbor such foolish ideas. Humans and White Walkers cannot coexist. It's a fight to the death, with no retreat."
"Your Majesty, you misunderstand us. We swear to fight the White Walkers to the very end!" The earls spoke righteously, pounding their chests as they made loud guarantees.
On the second floor of the guest castle, standing on the balcony and watching the Northern lords whisper among themselves as they left the training ground, Dany said calmly, "Your subordinates are no longer reliable."
Jon's face twisted into an exaggerated grin. "Maybe that's a good thing."
Dany spun around abruptly and raised her voice. "A good thing? Have the White Walkers gnawed on your brain?"
"Your Majesty, I've been thinking about something lately," Jon lowered his eyes, hiding his dark, unreadable gaze. "During the last Long Night, there was no Wall, no Night's Watch, no Winterfell, no unified Seven Kingdoms. Even the Starks were only one of the Northern lords, and the North itself wasn't unified.
"Under such unfavorable conditions, how did Westeros endure a Long Night that lasted an entire generation?"
The current state of the Seven Kingdoms was already bad enough, but the last time could only have been worse. This time, even Hearthfire Castle, which could be considered upper-middle strength among human strongholds, failed to last two hours. Last time, how did so many noble houses survive?
The Seven Kingdoms had many noble families with histories stretching back eight thousand years, such as the Starks, the Lannisters, the Boltons, the Greenhand lineage, and hundreds of others. Their family histories were as long as the history of Westeros itself.
So here was the question: how did they survive the last Long Night?
By sealing their castle gates?
Had Hearthfire Castle invited the enemy inside?
The cruelty of the historical truth sent a chill down Dany's spine.
"Azor Ahai forged the sword to slay the White Walkers again and again. Each time he failed, he was chased like a dog by White Walkers riding ice spiders.
"He failed countless times and escaped death countless times, only for the people he saved to cower in their castles, worshipping the White Walkers?"
Dany laughed bitterly. "When the Long Night finally ended, the hero did not become king. Instead, he was exiled from the world he had saved and returned to the savage, dark East to continue battling the monsters in the shadows.
"When everything was over and peace returned, the magical power that had saved the world was envied, rejected, and destroyed by humanity.
"Skinchangers became monsters. Witches could be seized and burned alive by any noble at will. Then they deluded themselves into building a so-called 'real world.'
"Now that the Long Night has returned, the cowardice and pettiness carved into their very genes has awakened the nobles' 'advanced survival experience of their ancestors.' Once again, they shut their doors, sacrificing their own flesh and blood to the White Walkers while quietly waiting for the next savior to arrive.
"Perhaps, when the food they hoarded at home is finally exhausted, they'll crouch beside dim hearths, banging on empty iron pots and loudly cursing the savior for being useless, for failing to end the Long Night before they finished eating their bread?"
Jon's expression changed several times. He looked at the Dragon Queen with concern and said pointedly, "Maybe a hero doesn't care about the opinions of those he saves. He becomes a hero simply because he is born great."
With the Battle of Winterfell approaching, the heroine must not be driven into darkness by the nobles' depravity. We're still counting on you to save our lives.
Jon was deeply worried.
Dany broke into a smile. "Do you think Stannis is born great? In this Long Night, he's the first hero."
Jon's mouth twitched. "Even heroes need urging and motivation. Why don't you go to the Vale and encourage him a little, Your Majesty?"
"I can't go," Dany refused.
"Why?" Jiong asked, pulling a long face.
"If I rush over to find him like this, it will give people the impression that I have ulterior motives, dragging him into a pit. That would be bad."
Isn't that exactly what you're doing?
Jon said with a wooden expression, "Then please arrange for a wyvern to take me to the Vale."
Whether or not the Dragon Queen was dragging Er Lu into a pit, he was certainly hoping the savior would fill the unprecedented, enormous pit that was Winterfell.
Because the Dragon Queen had made it clear that she did not want to be a "hero."
In the end, Jon still failed to board the wyvern Dany had arranged.
When Sansa learned that Jon was going to the Vale, she immediately perked up and said that she also needed to make a trip to the Vale and could conveniently give Jon a ride.
Not only she and Jon, but even Rickon and Shaggydog were taken to the Vale as well.
"Robert is ill. I'm sending Rickon to keep him company," Sansa explained in response to Jiong's puzzled look.
Robert Arryn and Rickon Stark were cousins and about the same age, so it made sense for them to be playmates.
Dany left together with the three of them, but she was not heading to the Vale.
"I want to tell you, and tell everyone, that humans and the Others are irreconcilable enemies. Everyone must make a choice. There is no gray, only black or white. Once you make a choice, you must bear the price of that choice!"
Under the gloomy gazes of the assembled nobles, the Dragon Queen led forty wyverns into the air, flying straight northeast for fifteen hundred kilometers toward Karhold.
By the time they reached Karhold, it was around eight in the evening.
However, the long night had already arrived. In the south, one could still faintly see a hazy glow of daylight, but in the North, the boundary between day and night had blurred.
Eight in the evening was no different from eight in the morning.
Well, there was still a difference. At this moment, the castle below had sunk completely into darkness. The people inside had entered their slumber, and only seven or eight watchtowers along the walls spilled dim red light outward.
"Whoosh." The howling north wind in the sky seemed even more violent, though it only gusted for a moment.
Without the sentries in the watchtowers noticing anything at all, forty Unsullied in sky-blue fur cloaks and silver-white armor had already lined up neatly in the training grounds before the castle.
Boom. Dragonfire erupted, and the sky was lit up in an instant.
"Ah, what is that?"
"Woooo."
The watchtower guards were startled. Horns sounded, and the sleeping castle was roused.
"Dragons, dragons. The Dragon Queen is here!" As the dragonfire twisted and coiled like threads into a white-hot fireball the size of a washbasin, the people in the castle finally saw the shadows in the sky: three gigantic dragons, and the armored female rider on the back of the black dragon.
"Hiss-ga." The great black dragon roared and shouted, "Winterfell has received Karhold's request for aid. Where is Sigorn Thenn? Where is Maester Dali?"
"Your Majesty, I am Sigorn!" Someone immediately shouted from a third-floor balcony of the castle.
"Ah!" The crowd exclaimed as a pair of enormous wings of fire sprang from behind the Dragon Queen. She leapt forward, drifting down lightly from an altitude of five hundred meters, like a feather.
Above her head still hovered a massive fireball.
Seeing this incomprehensible scene, all the Thenn guards who had been gripping sword hilts and crossbows let go in dejection.
They once again recalled the fear of being dominated by the Dragon Queen beneath the Wall.
Even Sigorn put aside the airs of the Count of Karhold. Before the Dragon Queen drifted down in front of the Unsullied formation, he hurriedly donned his armor and jogged out of the castle with a dozen or so guards.
"Your Majesty, thank you for coming to Karhold's aid," Thenn said as he approached the Dragon Queen, dropping to one knee and performing a standard knightly salute.
He was a short, thin young man with narrow gray eyes and a severely receding hairline, wearing bronze greaves and a leather tunic studded with bronze scales.
Dany looked at him, trying hard to recall, but she could not remember the appearance of Styd, whom she had killed.
Before coming, she had inquired into Sigorn's background and knew that she had slain his father, Styd.
Unfortunately, Dany did not remember it at all.
"Sigorn, where are the Others?" Dany did not tell him to rise. She only asked coldly.
"Your Majesty, the Others have withdrawn," Sigorn replied with lowered eyes.
"I'm afraid not," Dany shook her head, stepped forward, and sneered. "They did not enter the city, but they have taken up residence in your heart."
Clatter. Sigorn's expression changed, and the Thenn guards behind him all grabbed their sword hilts in unison.
"Heh." Dany seemed utterly unaware and strode forward another step.
"Your Majesty, I had no choice!" Sigorn's expression shifted several times. He waved his hand backward to stop his underlings' foolish move, then changed from kneeling on one knee to kneeling on both legs in a posture of confession.
"The raven left less than a quarter of an hour ago, and the Others were already on the walls, just like you now, standing before my castle gates.
There were ten of them in total, riding ice spiders, climbing walls and vaulting fences as if walking on flat ground. There was no way to stop them at all!"
By the end, the new count's voice was choking with sobs.
"They demanded my child. If I refused, the entire castle, along with more than ten thousand townsfolk below, would be slaughtered. The child would not be spared either. I had no choice."
"You are lying." With a sharp clang, Dany drew the great sword from her back. The icy blade pressed against Sigorn's neck. "Hearth Home has already been bathed in blood by the Others. Do the Others know that House Umber has no infants, while your house does?"
"I…" Sigorn was about to argue, but when he raised his head, his vision blurred. He seemed to see a gigantic dragon fly out from the purple eyes behind the knight-queen's visor. The boundless pressure nearly made him collapse to the ground.
He hurriedly lowered his head, trembling as he begged, "Spare me, Your Majesty. I, I had no choice. The wights were endless, and everyone in the castle is my kin. I had to save them!"
(End of chapter)
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