Chapter 319 Sphinx (Puzzle)
The mist from the Mead River grew thicker, rising from the river and creeping up the street corners, over the cracked bluestone floors, covering broken sewer pipes with a heavy velvet jacket, and hanging low over the Greyjoy banners that fluttered in the wind around the sea monsters that live in the ocean are rampant in the streets of Oldtown. Just a few days ago, iron creatures could be seen almost everywhere.
But it seems that the Iron Races have disappeared from the face of the earth at this moment. People can’t see the Iron Races patrolling the streets without any scruples today.
Surprisingly, the residents of the old town were not plundered by the iron race. Although the shops were closed and the doors of the houses were locked, no one was harmed.
The common people habitually looked through the windows to observe the Iron Race bandits who often patrolled the streets, but at this time, there were only a few old town residents walking on the streets.
Some daring merchants also opened their shop curtains, holding a few silver deer in their mouths, and moving their hands around the mercenaries' chain mail. Others thought they were pickpockets.
But people who have lived here for a long time know that the price has not been negotiated yet. When the mercenaries see the Iron Race entering the city, if they have no intention of leaving the city in time, they will definitely think of raising the hiring fee.
The throat-piercing and pungent smoke rose from the distance, and the residents of the old town who lived here could identify the direction of the smoke at a glance.
That is the direction of the Citadel's towers.
Laressa took the longbow from the closet and skillfully removed the leather sheath that wrapped the bow, revealing a longbow as black as night.
Anyone familiar with bow making can tell at a glance that this is not an ordinary longbow, but is made of rare dragon bones. It is very light but has great potential energy when the string is stretched.
He put the dragon bone bow on his back, stretched his head into the closet, took out a box, and pulled out a slightly small recurve bow. The craftsmanship of the Dornish people was fully reflected on it. The material was made of bent animal horns and the common olive wood in Dorne. The golden and red spear and sun emblem was shining brightly as soon as it was taken out of the box.
"Crack!" The glass shattered. Laresa held her breath, strung the recurve bow, put three arrows on it, and moved cautiously, leaning forward towards the door.
The sound of broken glass like bells could be heard everywhere, but no screams were heard. Could it be that the scholars were so frightened that they blocked their throats?
Laressa moved closer to the door, huddled in the dark corner behind it, and stared at the nearby window.
Through the glittering windows, there were still soldiers resisting on the walls of the inner city of the Maesters' Towers. The banners of House Hightower still accounted for the majority, but the heavy armor of the Oldtown garrison seemed unable to withstand the nimble machetes of the Ironborn Reavers and the flying axes that attacked from the darkness from time to time. The banners were falling one by one, like grass trampled by an army of knights.
The black spots of the arrows were visible to the naked eye, and a bunch of arrows even fell on the shed under the house here, making crackling sounds.
Laresa did not hesitate or continue to stare out the window. Instead, she glanced at the approaching sunlight and rushed out of the room. Her movements were nimble and silent. Her obsidian skin made her look like a black cat in the night. No one could detect her whereabouts.
The spiral staircase turned the Bachelor's Tower upside down. Pots and pans discarded everywhere could be seen, and the air was filled with the smell of urine from old bachelors.
Laresa thought as she walked, thinking that it was a wise choice for Hightower to build the family castle and the towers of the maesters together. This made the army that invaded Oldtown unwilling to further offend the inner city due to concerns about tradition and the maesters. Originally, the Ironmen stopped after occupying the port and the numerous streets of Oldtown, and he thought the Ironmen also understood the reason, but he did not expect that only a few days later, the army would be lined up under them, with axes and arrows flying continuously.
The arrogant Old Town garrison suffered a setback in the outer city, and from time to time on the towering walls of the inner city they would look up at the sky, keeping a close eye on the changes in the clouds.
"Roar!~" The dragon's roar only frightened the civilians on the ground in the distant sky, but the dragon flame never fell.
Laresa lifted the movable wooden board at her feet and looked at the corridor deep into the city wall. The long corridor was dripping with water. Few scholars entered here. Although the doctors knew this place, they found it dirty and wet and seldom passed by. Only apprentices who had just started their labor work often wandered around here.
Assistant bachelors, bachelor apprentices doing odd jobs, some cooks, and craftsmen who were renovating the library in the academy garden gathered here.
The Citadel has built many such escape tunnels, leading directly to the Great Library. They are usually sealed with iron doors, and the keys are in the hands of the doctor. But at the moment, there is no doctor here, and the iron doors are sealed all year round, so even if one uses all his strength, he cannot push them open at all.
Laresa glanced around quickly, searching for a familiar face.
Morand, whose face was still red as he hadn't drunk for a while, Aman, who had a narrow and pointed nose and tightly grasped the four maester chains hanging around his neck with both hands, Rooney, who was short and fat with tears in his eyes, and Leo Tyrell, who was shivering with cold in a green and gold striped satin robe. The luxurious shawl he often wore was gone.
"Where is Pete?" Laresa asked in a low voice as she distributed the rations in her pocket to everyone.
"Maybe they have already fled on the sellsword's ship," Leo Tyrell said in annoyance, pounding the ground. "What's wrong with the Hightower family? They haven't fulfilled their duty to defend Highgarden and the king. My father has no whereabouts either. I..."
As he was speaking, this nobleman who usually looked arrogant and domineering suddenly began to tremble all over and sob uncontrollably.
Laresa reached out, tore off a piece of dry biscuit, and stuffed it into Tyrell's sobbing mouth.
The crying stopped immediately. Before Leo could change his expression to one of astonishment, Laresa's low voice came:
"I'll give you bread this time, but I'll give you a blade the next time. If your cry disturbs the cruel and ruthless Ironborn, I'll break your throat first, even if we both become prisoners or lose our heads."
Tyrell's mask was finally changed, but it showed more fear. He looked at the silent people around him and nodded quickly.
"Where is Pete?" Laresa asked again.
Morand seemed more awake. He waved his hand and said, "I saw him walking towards the library."
Laresa looked at the closed iron door and asked, "The right way?"
"No," Moreland shook his head, "it's the escalator corridor where the doctors walked."
Laressa turned her head and looked at the corridor she had walked through before. A faint light seeped in from the side and above, and she calculated the distance in her mind.
He carried the bow on his back and walked over quickly, but still without making any sound. He climbed up holding the ladder with one hand in front and one behind, quietly pushed open the wooden board, and looked around with his eyes. After making sure that there was no one, he quickly stood up, strode to the window, and looked towards the inner city wall.
He didn't know what was going on in the outer city, but he knew that Earl Hightower was not in his castle in the inner city at the moment, but was living in a towering tower or the port building in the port town.
The soldiers of the Old Town garrison were still desperately resisting the fierce attack of the Ironborn, and the inner city walls were already congested like a knot.
Laresa lowered her head. The oak and iron-inlaid gate of the inner city was only supported by brackets. The moat, which had not been maintained for many years, was just a shallow beach. For the Iron Races who were very good at swimming, it was like walking on the ground. Dozens of corpses of the Old Town garrison were blocking the way. Rows of spearmen from the garrison behind kept thrusting their spears in and out through the gaps. Blood was gushing everywhere, and bloody holes kept appearing on the Iron Races' bodies.
Laresa knew the man who led the Oldtown garrison, Leo Tyrell's father, the commander of the Oldtown garrison - Moryn Tyrell, and the uncle of Mace, Duke of Highgarden.
He was obviously injured, with a long bloody scar on his back.
Laresa didn't care about that. After realizing that the Ironborn were still fighting with the Oldtown garrison, she stood up and ran towards the Great Library.
He deliberately avoided the running and panicking crowd and walked along the wall. Someone deliberately stopped him, but he threatened them with a dagger and they retreated.
Laresa tiptoed up, climbed over the bookshelves and inkstones that were in the way, grabbed the escalator, jumped up, pushed open the revolving wooden frame from the corner, and walked into the escalator corridor where doctors often walked.
The noise was left behind, as if walking alone into a silent cave, with only the throbbing sound of one's own blood vessels and slight breathing.
The structure of the top of the tower contains countless bookshelves. Even on such a long rainy day, it remains dry here. Countless books and even rare collections are quietly placed somewhere here.
The Great Library, from the dome of the Doctoral Tower to the base of the tower.
All the books hidden here are banned books and rare copies, and only doctors can enter.
The heavy iron door was open at this moment. Laresa held her breath and went in.
A pool of blood, thick blood slowly flowed on the ground.
In front of a bookshelf, Dr. Wargrave lay on the ground, breathless.
Laresa reached out to grab the bow, but felt a cold touch on the skin of her neck.
"No"
The voice was familiar yet strange, it was Pate's voice.
"You killed Dr. Wargrave?" Laresa knew she had no chance of turning the tables, so she had to ask the question, hoping to divert Pete's attention.
Pate simply replied, "He was unlucky and just happened to be in the way."
"Who are you? You're not Pate."
"Nobody."
Faceless! Laresa had a bad feeling and immediately gave up all thoughts of counterattacking.
"I won't get in your way." Laresa steadied her breath and said to Pete.
"Yes, someone knows," Pate let go of Laresa, and the cold touch on her neck immediately dissipated. The physical premonition of the stranger approaching finally ended, "I know you, and not only that, you will help me on my way."
"The Sphinx is the puzzle itself." Pate faced the bookshelves deep inside, where there was a bookshelf that had turned to ashes.
Laresa followed his gaze and knew what was in the bookshelf that had turned to ashes: books about Valyria, dragons, dragon eggs, Targaryens, and blood magic.
Knowledge is sometimes a sharp weapon and a treasure that everyone in the known world wants to obtain.
Pete looked at him and took out the dragon egg. The surface of the dragon egg was as black as night.
"Use their own spear to attack their shield," Pate muttered to himself, "It has been a long time since I have seen the ashes covering the sky and the fire burning the mountain walls like Hardhome."
"The Curse of Hardhome?" Laresa immediately thought of it. "No, you can't. This is a great city. You can't."
"The Valyrian Freehold is, in a sense, also a great city. No, it's a group of great cities." Pate's response was understated. In his eyes, death was not the source of fear. On the contrary, it was the beginning of relief.
A natural disaster or a man-made disaster in Valyria? Laresa thought.
"The Citadel represents balance," Laresa organized her words. "It is like Asshai, located in the west and the east respectively. If the Faceless Men destroy it, it will lose balance and its safety net, the safety net of magic, especially the safety net of blood magic. The blood witches of Valyria, the blood witches who blaspheme death, will explore this kind of magic endlessly."
Pat remained silent for a long time.
"Who told you that?"
Laresa knew that lying would be full of loopholes, so she told the truth, but not the whole truth. He had secrets. He was the Sphinx, so of course he had secrets.
"Master Marwyn told me. He said this was the secret told to him by the weirwoods and the crows. This was the tacit agreement of the gods and the design of the known world."
Pete put down the heavy package on his shoulder and took out the complicated instrument, which was filled with boiling liquid.
How did he get the wildfire? Laresa thought.
“Is this the dilemma faced by someone’s predecessors when they were in the middle of life and death?” Pate said, “Really,” his expression became painful, and even tears fell, “It’s really painful.”
He took out the dragon egg, put it in the package and handed it over.
"King's Landing, someone wants you to deliver this to King's Landing. If you can see the king, please meet him and tell him that all mortals must die (valar morghulis), and give this to him." Pate took a coin from his waist and put it in Laresa's hand.
The sound of the Iron Race's fighting was getting closer. Pate looked at the half-open iron door and said, "Since someone is here, he still needs to solve a problem. Even if he fails, I hope you can keep your promise. Let's go!"
Laresa didn't know what he was trying to solve, but she could tell it was a killer's mission.
He nodded, put on his bag, and left the great library in the dome following the familiar route in his mind.
Laresa decided not to go back to the secret passage, but chose to leave, leaving through the windowsill and buildings where it would be difficult to be discovered.
"Boom!" The human wall at the distant city gate collapsed, iron races rushed in like the tentacles of a sea monster, seawater gushed out of the sewer pipes, and the old town garrison was defeated and killed. Laresa saw that Sir Morin, who was injured in the back, had his head cut off by the iron race and hung on the top of the city.
Laresa was extremely anxious about the fate of the Citadel, but there was nothing she could do at the moment. Hightower had lost everything, and it was possible that he had done it on purpose. He could do nothing about it, and neither could his father far away in Dorne, nor could Prince Doran. This meant that they were completely unable to help the Citadel, which had only made empty promises.
The Greyjoy banner rushed in, and Lareesa could see that it was not the usual banner of the Greyjoys, but the personal banner of Euron Greyjoy, the banner he had flown aboard the Silence.
He touched the dragon egg in the package and felt the protruding edges and corners on its surface. At this moment, Oldtown gathered all the conditions required for blood magic, flesh and blood, dragon flame (even wildfire), sea monsters, glass candles, witches, and hosts like Euron.
Once the ritual was initiated, the tragedy that had occurred in Hardhome and the Valyrian Freehold might very well be repeated in the Citadel.
It's ok to destroy the old town, but the school city must not be destroyed.
(End of this chapter)
The mist from the Mead River grew thicker, rising from the river and creeping up the street corners, over the cracked bluestone floors, covering broken sewer pipes with a heavy velvet jacket, and hanging low over the Greyjoy banners that fluttered in the wind around the sea monsters that live in the ocean are rampant in the streets of Oldtown. Just a few days ago, iron creatures could be seen almost everywhere.
But it seems that the Iron Races have disappeared from the face of the earth at this moment. People can’t see the Iron Races patrolling the streets without any scruples today.
Surprisingly, the residents of the old town were not plundered by the iron race. Although the shops were closed and the doors of the houses were locked, no one was harmed.
The common people habitually looked through the windows to observe the Iron Race bandits who often patrolled the streets, but at this time, there were only a few old town residents walking on the streets.
Some daring merchants also opened their shop curtains, holding a few silver deer in their mouths, and moving their hands around the mercenaries' chain mail. Others thought they were pickpockets.
But people who have lived here for a long time know that the price has not been negotiated yet. When the mercenaries see the Iron Race entering the city, if they have no intention of leaving the city in time, they will definitely think of raising the hiring fee.
The throat-piercing and pungent smoke rose from the distance, and the residents of the old town who lived here could identify the direction of the smoke at a glance.
That is the direction of the Citadel's towers.
Laressa took the longbow from the closet and skillfully removed the leather sheath that wrapped the bow, revealing a longbow as black as night.
Anyone familiar with bow making can tell at a glance that this is not an ordinary longbow, but is made of rare dragon bones. It is very light but has great potential energy when the string is stretched.
He put the dragon bone bow on his back, stretched his head into the closet, took out a box, and pulled out a slightly small recurve bow. The craftsmanship of the Dornish people was fully reflected on it. The material was made of bent animal horns and the common olive wood in Dorne. The golden and red spear and sun emblem was shining brightly as soon as it was taken out of the box.
"Crack!" The glass shattered. Laresa held her breath, strung the recurve bow, put three arrows on it, and moved cautiously, leaning forward towards the door.
The sound of broken glass like bells could be heard everywhere, but no screams were heard. Could it be that the scholars were so frightened that they blocked their throats?
Laressa moved closer to the door, huddled in the dark corner behind it, and stared at the nearby window.
Through the glittering windows, there were still soldiers resisting on the walls of the inner city of the Maesters' Towers. The banners of House Hightower still accounted for the majority, but the heavy armor of the Oldtown garrison seemed unable to withstand the nimble machetes of the Ironborn Reavers and the flying axes that attacked from the darkness from time to time. The banners were falling one by one, like grass trampled by an army of knights.
The black spots of the arrows were visible to the naked eye, and a bunch of arrows even fell on the shed under the house here, making crackling sounds.
Laresa did not hesitate or continue to stare out the window. Instead, she glanced at the approaching sunlight and rushed out of the room. Her movements were nimble and silent. Her obsidian skin made her look like a black cat in the night. No one could detect her whereabouts.
The spiral staircase turned the Bachelor's Tower upside down. Pots and pans discarded everywhere could be seen, and the air was filled with the smell of urine from old bachelors.
Laresa thought as she walked, thinking that it was a wise choice for Hightower to build the family castle and the towers of the maesters together. This made the army that invaded Oldtown unwilling to further offend the inner city due to concerns about tradition and the maesters. Originally, the Ironmen stopped after occupying the port and the numerous streets of Oldtown, and he thought the Ironmen also understood the reason, but he did not expect that only a few days later, the army would be lined up under them, with axes and arrows flying continuously.
The arrogant Old Town garrison suffered a setback in the outer city, and from time to time on the towering walls of the inner city they would look up at the sky, keeping a close eye on the changes in the clouds.
"Roar!~" The dragon's roar only frightened the civilians on the ground in the distant sky, but the dragon flame never fell.
Laresa lifted the movable wooden board at her feet and looked at the corridor deep into the city wall. The long corridor was dripping with water. Few scholars entered here. Although the doctors knew this place, they found it dirty and wet and seldom passed by. Only apprentices who had just started their labor work often wandered around here.
Assistant bachelors, bachelor apprentices doing odd jobs, some cooks, and craftsmen who were renovating the library in the academy garden gathered here.
The Citadel has built many such escape tunnels, leading directly to the Great Library. They are usually sealed with iron doors, and the keys are in the hands of the doctor. But at the moment, there is no doctor here, and the iron doors are sealed all year round, so even if one uses all his strength, he cannot push them open at all.
Laresa glanced around quickly, searching for a familiar face.
Morand, whose face was still red as he hadn't drunk for a while, Aman, who had a narrow and pointed nose and tightly grasped the four maester chains hanging around his neck with both hands, Rooney, who was short and fat with tears in his eyes, and Leo Tyrell, who was shivering with cold in a green and gold striped satin robe. The luxurious shawl he often wore was gone.
"Where is Pete?" Laresa asked in a low voice as she distributed the rations in her pocket to everyone.
"Maybe they have already fled on the sellsword's ship," Leo Tyrell said in annoyance, pounding the ground. "What's wrong with the Hightower family? They haven't fulfilled their duty to defend Highgarden and the king. My father has no whereabouts either. I..."
As he was speaking, this nobleman who usually looked arrogant and domineering suddenly began to tremble all over and sob uncontrollably.
Laresa reached out, tore off a piece of dry biscuit, and stuffed it into Tyrell's sobbing mouth.
The crying stopped immediately. Before Leo could change his expression to one of astonishment, Laresa's low voice came:
"I'll give you bread this time, but I'll give you a blade the next time. If your cry disturbs the cruel and ruthless Ironborn, I'll break your throat first, even if we both become prisoners or lose our heads."
Tyrell's mask was finally changed, but it showed more fear. He looked at the silent people around him and nodded quickly.
"Where is Pete?" Laresa asked again.
Morand seemed more awake. He waved his hand and said, "I saw him walking towards the library."
Laresa looked at the closed iron door and asked, "The right way?"
"No," Moreland shook his head, "it's the escalator corridor where the doctors walked."
Laressa turned her head and looked at the corridor she had walked through before. A faint light seeped in from the side and above, and she calculated the distance in her mind.
He carried the bow on his back and walked over quickly, but still without making any sound. He climbed up holding the ladder with one hand in front and one behind, quietly pushed open the wooden board, and looked around with his eyes. After making sure that there was no one, he quickly stood up, strode to the window, and looked towards the inner city wall.
He didn't know what was going on in the outer city, but he knew that Earl Hightower was not in his castle in the inner city at the moment, but was living in a towering tower or the port building in the port town.
The soldiers of the Old Town garrison were still desperately resisting the fierce attack of the Ironborn, and the inner city walls were already congested like a knot.
Laresa lowered her head. The oak and iron-inlaid gate of the inner city was only supported by brackets. The moat, which had not been maintained for many years, was just a shallow beach. For the Iron Races who were very good at swimming, it was like walking on the ground. Dozens of corpses of the Old Town garrison were blocking the way. Rows of spearmen from the garrison behind kept thrusting their spears in and out through the gaps. Blood was gushing everywhere, and bloody holes kept appearing on the Iron Races' bodies.
Laresa knew the man who led the Oldtown garrison, Leo Tyrell's father, the commander of the Oldtown garrison - Moryn Tyrell, and the uncle of Mace, Duke of Highgarden.
He was obviously injured, with a long bloody scar on his back.
Laresa didn't care about that. After realizing that the Ironborn were still fighting with the Oldtown garrison, she stood up and ran towards the Great Library.
He deliberately avoided the running and panicking crowd and walked along the wall. Someone deliberately stopped him, but he threatened them with a dagger and they retreated.
Laresa tiptoed up, climbed over the bookshelves and inkstones that were in the way, grabbed the escalator, jumped up, pushed open the revolving wooden frame from the corner, and walked into the escalator corridor where doctors often walked.
The noise was left behind, as if walking alone into a silent cave, with only the throbbing sound of one's own blood vessels and slight breathing.
The structure of the top of the tower contains countless bookshelves. Even on such a long rainy day, it remains dry here. Countless books and even rare collections are quietly placed somewhere here.
The Great Library, from the dome of the Doctoral Tower to the base of the tower.
All the books hidden here are banned books and rare copies, and only doctors can enter.
The heavy iron door was open at this moment. Laresa held her breath and went in.
A pool of blood, thick blood slowly flowed on the ground.
In front of a bookshelf, Dr. Wargrave lay on the ground, breathless.
Laresa reached out to grab the bow, but felt a cold touch on the skin of her neck.
"No"
The voice was familiar yet strange, it was Pate's voice.
"You killed Dr. Wargrave?" Laresa knew she had no chance of turning the tables, so she had to ask the question, hoping to divert Pete's attention.
Pate simply replied, "He was unlucky and just happened to be in the way."
"Who are you? You're not Pate."
"Nobody."
Faceless! Laresa had a bad feeling and immediately gave up all thoughts of counterattacking.
"I won't get in your way." Laresa steadied her breath and said to Pete.
"Yes, someone knows," Pate let go of Laresa, and the cold touch on her neck immediately dissipated. The physical premonition of the stranger approaching finally ended, "I know you, and not only that, you will help me on my way."
"The Sphinx is the puzzle itself." Pate faced the bookshelves deep inside, where there was a bookshelf that had turned to ashes.
Laresa followed his gaze and knew what was in the bookshelf that had turned to ashes: books about Valyria, dragons, dragon eggs, Targaryens, and blood magic.
Knowledge is sometimes a sharp weapon and a treasure that everyone in the known world wants to obtain.
Pete looked at him and took out the dragon egg. The surface of the dragon egg was as black as night.
"Use their own spear to attack their shield," Pate muttered to himself, "It has been a long time since I have seen the ashes covering the sky and the fire burning the mountain walls like Hardhome."
"The Curse of Hardhome?" Laresa immediately thought of it. "No, you can't. This is a great city. You can't."
"The Valyrian Freehold is, in a sense, also a great city. No, it's a group of great cities." Pate's response was understated. In his eyes, death was not the source of fear. On the contrary, it was the beginning of relief.
A natural disaster or a man-made disaster in Valyria? Laresa thought.
"The Citadel represents balance," Laresa organized her words. "It is like Asshai, located in the west and the east respectively. If the Faceless Men destroy it, it will lose balance and its safety net, the safety net of magic, especially the safety net of blood magic. The blood witches of Valyria, the blood witches who blaspheme death, will explore this kind of magic endlessly."
Pat remained silent for a long time.
"Who told you that?"
Laresa knew that lying would be full of loopholes, so she told the truth, but not the whole truth. He had secrets. He was the Sphinx, so of course he had secrets.
"Master Marwyn told me. He said this was the secret told to him by the weirwoods and the crows. This was the tacit agreement of the gods and the design of the known world."
Pete put down the heavy package on his shoulder and took out the complicated instrument, which was filled with boiling liquid.
How did he get the wildfire? Laresa thought.
“Is this the dilemma faced by someone’s predecessors when they were in the middle of life and death?” Pate said, “Really,” his expression became painful, and even tears fell, “It’s really painful.”
He took out the dragon egg, put it in the package and handed it over.
"King's Landing, someone wants you to deliver this to King's Landing. If you can see the king, please meet him and tell him that all mortals must die (valar morghulis), and give this to him." Pate took a coin from his waist and put it in Laresa's hand.
The sound of the Iron Race's fighting was getting closer. Pate looked at the half-open iron door and said, "Since someone is here, he still needs to solve a problem. Even if he fails, I hope you can keep your promise. Let's go!"
Laresa didn't know what he was trying to solve, but she could tell it was a killer's mission.
He nodded, put on his bag, and left the great library in the dome following the familiar route in his mind.
Laresa decided not to go back to the secret passage, but chose to leave, leaving through the windowsill and buildings where it would be difficult to be discovered.
"Boom!" The human wall at the distant city gate collapsed, iron races rushed in like the tentacles of a sea monster, seawater gushed out of the sewer pipes, and the old town garrison was defeated and killed. Laresa saw that Sir Morin, who was injured in the back, had his head cut off by the iron race and hung on the top of the city.
Laresa was extremely anxious about the fate of the Citadel, but there was nothing she could do at the moment. Hightower had lost everything, and it was possible that he had done it on purpose. He could do nothing about it, and neither could his father far away in Dorne, nor could Prince Doran. This meant that they were completely unable to help the Citadel, which had only made empty promises.
The Greyjoy banner rushed in, and Lareesa could see that it was not the usual banner of the Greyjoys, but the personal banner of Euron Greyjoy, the banner he had flown aboard the Silence.
He touched the dragon egg in the package and felt the protruding edges and corners on its surface. At this moment, Oldtown gathered all the conditions required for blood magic, flesh and blood, dragon flame (even wildfire), sea monsters, glass candles, witches, and hosts like Euron.
Once the ritual was initiated, the tragedy that had occurred in Hardhome and the Valyrian Freehold might very well be repeated in the Citadel.
It's ok to destroy the old town, but the school city must not be destroyed.
(End of this chapter)
