Chapter 127: Intensified Training
More than two hundred nautical miles from Eastwatch-by-the-Sea at the Wall, a fleet of over eighty ships was slowly sailing north toward Eastwatch.
This fleet belonged to Stannis Baratheon, the father of Shireen.
When Stannis learned that Shireen had been sent away from Dragonstone, he did not blame Davos Seaworth, the Onion Knight.
Instead, deep down, he felt a trace of gratitude.
Davos had spared him from having to make a painful decision.
After the Red Priestess Melisandre saw a vision of a black dragon in the flames, she ordered Stannis to gather as much information about dragons as possible.
Only then did they learn that, far away in Slaver's Bay, a descendant of House Targaryen had hatched three dragons, one of which was a black dragon.
After receiving this news, Melisandre once again urged Stannis to burn the dark servants and seek answers in the flames.
This time, however, she dared not peer directly at the black dragon again.
Instead, she informed the Lord of Light about the dragon's birth and about the backlash she had suffered when she tried to glimpse it before.
She received a response from the flames.
The Lord of Light commanded her to confront the black dragon.
Melisandre had never expected that the threat posed by the black dragon would appear even greater than that of the White Walkers, servants of the Great Other.
When she relayed this divine message to Stannis, however, he refused to sail across the Narrow Sea and launch a campaign thousands of miles away in Slaver's Bay.
Of the three "false kings," only Joffrey and Balon had died.
Robb Stark had escaped death.
Because of this, Stannis no longer fully trusted the Lord of Light that Melisandre worshipped.
Instead, he followed the advice of Davos Seaworth.
A true king, Davos had told him, should do what a king must do.
So Stannis chose to sail north to the Wall to help the Night's Watch fight the White Walkers.
After the disastrous battle at King's Landing, Stannis's forces were severely depleted.
At the same time, he was also considering another possibility—
recruiting the wildlings into his army.
Melisandre had no choice but to continue following Stannis, hoping he would eventually change his mind and once again devote himself fully to the Lord of Light.
---
Meanwhile, far away in Meereen…
Inside a chamber of the Great Pyramid, Daenerys was reviewing reports about Meereen's agricultural progress submitted by Tyrion.
Suddenly, her handmaid Jhiqui burst into the room in a panic.
"Khaleesi! The Unsullied are using a ballista to train Rhaegal and Viserion! You must come quickly!"
"What?! Where?"
At the mention of dragons being shot at with a ballista, Daenerys instantly tensed.
She leapt up from her seat.
"On the barren land south of the city," Jhiqui said as she hurried out with her. "Drogon is there too."
"Drogon is really using a ballista to train them?"
Only then did Daenerys realize that Drogon's earlier thought had not been a joke.
He had truly intended to use the ballistae taken from Ghis to train the dragons.
But what if Rhaegal or Viserion were actually hit?
And the ones operating the weapons were the Unsullied—soldiers known for their rigid discipline but not exactly for flexible thinking.
The more Daenerys thought about it, the more frightened she became.
She quickly ordered horses prepared and rode south with Jhiqui toward the place where the two dragons were circling in the sky.
---
High above the training ground, Viserion flapped his wings nervously, staring down at the long ballista mounted on the ground below.
Moments earlier, he had been circling freely through the sky when suddenly—
Whoosh!
A thick bolt shot past him, narrowly missing his body.
The sudden attack had startled him badly.
He had been about to swoop down and burn the strange weapon that had attacked him when he saw Boss (Drogon) standing beside it on the ground, watching him calmly.
Only then did Viserion understand why he had been attacked.
He hadn't expected that this time Boss wouldn't personally train them.
Instead—
he was using ballistae.
During the defense of Yunkai, Viserion had once been struck by a thrown spear.
Although that had been because of carelessness, it had still taught him just how dangerous such long weapons could be.
As he waited nervously in the sky, he suddenly spotted a dark dot racing toward him.
Startled, he flapped his wings hard and twisted his body sideways, barely dodging the incoming bolt.
Watching the massive arrow whistle past him, Viserion glanced at Drogon nearby.
Only then did he feel a little reassured.
The bolt that had just flown past him didn't seem quite as fast as he had expected.
In fact, it almost felt slower than the speed Drogon usually used when ambushing them during training.
After dodging the first bolt, Viserion's confidence grew. His wings no longer beat as stiffly as before as he hovered in the air, waiting for the next shot.
He had just dodged the second bolt when Daenerys arrived on horseback beside the ballista.
Viserion instinctively prepared to fly down toward her, but suddenly he felt a sharp killing intent from Drogon about fifty meters away.
He glanced timidly at Drogon and immediately stayed where he was, not daring to move.
Looking up at the sky and seeing the two silhouettes—one large, one small—hovering above, Daenerys finally relaxed a little.
Although they were using a ballista to train Viserion, with Drogon watching nearby, even if Viserion failed to dodge a bolt, Drogon would surely intervene before he was seriously injured.
When Daenerys rode up anxiously to where the ballista stood, the two Unsullied soldiers operating it glanced nervously at her and stopped aiming at Viserion.
They knew perfectly well that using a ballista to train Rhaegal and Viserion had not been approved by their queen. If she became angry, punishment would surely follow.
But when Drogon had grabbed the ballista and signaled them to follow him out of the city earlier, they had not dared refuse.
What they had not expected was that, once outside the city, Drogon would order them to fire the ballista at the dragons.
The first shot had been intentionally aimed wide, yet even that had made them break out in cold sweat.
They had only recently learned how to operate the ballista. If they accidentally struck the golden dragon—
—if they killed or seriously injured it—
Queen Daenerys would surely have them executed.
They did not fear death.
But they did not wish to die for injuring their queen's dragon.
Fortunately, the worst had not happened.
Ever since the real firing began, the black dragon Drogon had remained nearby, watching over the golden dragon from a distance.
They had already witnessed Drogon's terrifying speed and defense after his transformation.
With Drogon guarding the sky, they finally dared to operate the ballista with some confidence.
Seeing that Drogon was standing guard, Daenerys gradually calmed down as well. She decided to watch how Viserion performed under this training.
After waiting nearly a minute without another shot being fired, she realized the Unsullied were simply too afraid of her presence to continue shooting.
Daenerys naturally understood that this entire training session had been arranged by Drogon.
She had no intention of blaming the soldiers.
After giving them a brief order, the three Unsullied finally resumed turning the ballista and aiming it at Viserion in the sky.
Hearing the ballista mechanism begin turning again, Viserion immediately focused, preparing to dodge the incoming bolt.
Whoosh!
The massive bolt launched down the rail.
At that moment, Daenerys's heart tightened.
Even with Drogon guarding nearby, a ballista was still the most dangerous weapon ever devised against dragons. And Viserion had not yet fully grown.
She could not help worrying that he might be injured.
But this time, having already gained experience dodging the first two shots, Viserion merely tilted one wing slightly and easily avoided the speeding bolt.
Daenerys clapped happily from the ground together with Jhiqui, cheering and praising Viserion.
Watching from the air, Drogon nodded slightly in approval.
All the effort he had spent training them was clearly not wasted.
With his high-speed training methods, as long as Viserion didn't become careless like he had during the defense of Yunkai, he should be able to avoid ballista attacks with enough caution.
Moreover, both dragons were still young. Their strength and speed were far from their future peak.
To achieve this level already was no small accomplishment.
After testing Viserion several more times while he hovered almost motionless, Drogon changed the training method.
He ordered Viserion to circle directly above the ballista in a deliberately reckless pattern, flying back and forth across its firing range—
ready at any moment to dodge the next incoming bolt.