Two days before the city of yronwood fell, inside a vast, brightly lit cave.
Dornish lords wearing bright yellow robes sat around a long, narrow stone table.
The narrow stone table was filled with fine wine and delicious food, indicating from the abundance that these Dornish lords hiding in the cave would not lack food supplies for some time.
The beautiful but haggard Alexandra gently sipped the wine in her glass, her eyes following a Dornish lord who stood up.
The Dornish lord paced to the front of the stone table and dropped a small piece of parchment, the size of a little finger, into a wooden box placed in front of a middle-aged scholar.
This was a banquet, but it was an election banquet to decide the overall power in dorne.
To be honest, Alexandra had not taken Coleanne's faction seriously before.
To show her magnanimity and resolve internal conflict, she even imitated Jaehaerys I and held this election banquet.
Because she was very confident that the vast majority of lords would side with her.
But something unexpected happened yesterday; Hobart Hightower returned with a large army.
After losing Prince Corren and half of the Martell Family soldiers, Ser Hobart, who possessed a Hightower army of nearly ten thousand, held considerable sway.
Although Ser Hobart was not qualified to participate in the election banquet, in the current situation, he could completely influence the choices of some Dornish lords.
Just in case, Alexandra specifically visited Ser Hobart last night,
and offered to choose him as king consort if he was willing to support her.
But this marriage proposal was directly rejected by him!
It was understandable when Jacaerys rejected her back then, especially since the current reality proved that Alexandra was indeed reaching too high.
But Ser Hobart was fat and ugly, and would turn sixty next year, and he actually rejected her too.
Alexandra, whose confidence was severely shaken, slammed the door shut and left; after calming down, she immediately visited a circle of Dornish lords loyal to her and made many empty promises.
As she thought, Alexandra's eyes drifted to her sister Coleanne diagonally across the table, who was chatting and laughing with Ser Hobart.
One night's time, surely nothing major could go wrong!
The election voting quickly ended, and the middle-aged scholar opened the wooden box and began sorting the ballots inside.
Clink, clank!
More than ten minutes later, the middle-aged scholar stood up amidst the sound of rattling chains and spread his hands.
In his left and right hands were piles of parchment, but the quantities were clearly quite different.
Seeing this, Alexandra's lips curved into a smile; the result was already obvious.
"A total of twenty lords participated in this vote; three lords cast blank ballots.
Of the remaining seventeen votes, five lords supported Alexandra Martell, and twelve lords supported Coleanne Martell.
The result is clear: Coleanne Martell will become the new Princess of dorne!"
Crack!
As soon as the middle-aged scholar finished announcing the results, Alexandra, her face ashen, smashed the wine glass in her hand onto the floor.
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!
Did you read the names wrong, or miscount the votes!"
Hearing Alexandra's questioning, the middle-aged scholar looked helpless and extended his hands towards her, replying, "Princess Alexandra, I checked several times.
If you don't believe me, you can check them yourself."
Alexandra immediately stepped forward to examine the ballots upon hearing this.
After flipping through the ballots for a while, she crumpled them into a ball and casually threw them on the ground.
"Hahaha, let this farce end here!
Our Dornish inheritance law does not distinguish between male and female, but is inherited by the eldest child.
Prepare yourselves, I will be officially crowned Princess of dorne tomorrow, no, this afternoon."
"Alexandra Martell, are you trying to break the rules now?"
Seeing Alexandra immediately renege and deny the result, Ser Hobart stood up and said sternly,
"I originally intended to spare you some face, but since you insist, I will speak plainly.
Before we parted ways with Prince Corren in Skyreach, he specifically instructed me that your character was too frivolous and recklessly impulsive.
Ascending the throne would inevitably lead to repeated mistakes, plunging all of dorne into peril.
Therefore, he wished for Coleanne to inherit the throne and for me to act as her regent."
As soon as Ser Hobart finished speaking, the Dornish lords by the stone table exchanged glances and shook their heads slightly.
With their relationship now fractured, Ser Hobart also revealed his true intentions.
"Lies, you are lying!
Father would never say such a thing, and certainly wouldn't make you regent of dorne."
"Hmph, the sworn shields who escaped from Skyreach can all testify.
If you don't believe the people of my House Hightower, you can also question the Martell Family sworn shields."
At this point, Alexandra unexpectedly calmed down.
She knew in her heart that Ser Hobart must have made thorough preparations, and she had lost this round.
Huff!
Alexandra took a deep breath and continued to speak as calmly as possible: "I apologize, I lost my composure just now.
Coleanne did win this election, and the throne should be inherited by her."
As soon as she finished speaking, Alexandra turned and left the large cave.
Splash!
After Alexandra left, the twelve Dornish lords who supported Coleanne immediately offered loud congratulations.
Of the five Dornish lords who supported Alexandra, three hesitated briefly before joining the congratulatory group.
The other two got up and chased after Alexandra in the direction she had left.
Ser Hobart watched the backs of the two departing Dornish lords, a hint of coldness flashing in his eyes.
However, the most urgent task now was to first crown Coleanne and officially confirm his position as regent.
The two Dornish lords chased into the cave corridor and found Alexandra waiting quietly for them.
Seeing only two people, there was a slight disappointment in her eyes, but she did not show it on her face.
"Thank you, two lords, for being willing to continue following me; please return quickly and prepare yourselves."
The two Dornish lords immediately frowned upon hearing this, and one of them said in a low voice, "Princess, our troops are simply too few.
Ser Hobart and Coleanne have many sworn shields around them; I fear the probability of success is very small."
"Heh heh, I am not that foolish. I am telling you to prepare to leave.
When Coleanne holds her coronation ceremony, we will act.
As for Ser Hobart and the others, I will leave them to the dragons!"
...
Hellgate Keep is the ancestral castle of the Uller family; it is located southeast of the Red Mountains, situated on the upper reaches of the Sulfur River.
The only trace of this Uller family in the previous life's TV show was that a sexy and seductive bastard daughter would be born later.
She would become the lover of 'The Red Viper' Oberyn Martell, bearing him three even more beautiful bastard daughters.
Today, Lord Uller waited on the training ground with all his family and mid-to-high-level military officers.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Accompanied by the sound of dragon wings tearing through the air, the sky above Hellgate Keep suddenly darkened.
Thousands of eyes in Hellgate Keep looked up at the sky and immediately gasped.
Seven dragons, large and small, hovered above their heads, their terrifying might causing some timid people's legs to go weak and lose control of their bladder.
Everyone understood that these seven dragons needed only to casually breathe a few bursts of Dracarys, and Hellgate Keep would turn into a fiery hell.
Plop!
Lord Uller, who was incredibly grateful for his choice, immediately knelt on both knees and then repeatedly kowtowed to the dragons.
Seeing their lord take the lead, the others did not hesitate at all and immediately followed suit, kneeling and kowtowing.
Thud!
Suddenly, a figure fell from the sky, hitting the training ground of Hellgate Keep heavily.
The ground of Hellgate Keep, located in a desert region, was covered in dust, and the powerful impact carried by the figure directly kicked up a large plume of dust.
Crunch, crunch, crunch!
Accompanied by the sound of footsteps treading on sand, the figure that had crashed from high altitude to the ground actually walked slowly out of the dust.
Miniature portraits of the new king had already been spread throughout the Seven Kingdoms by ravens, and Lord Uller and the others recognized the person at a glance.
"Greetings, King Jacaerys Targaryen I!"
A chorus like a mountain roaring and a sea surging rose, and thousands of Hellgate Keep commoners kowtowed madly again.
Unlike the kowtowing to the dragons just now, they were now sincerely kowtowing to Jacaerys, the new king who was like a god.
After all, in the perception of ordinary people, it is impossible for a fragile human body to jump off a dragon's back unharmed.
To be able to ride such a huge dragon and possess a powerful body not belonging to humans, what could it be but a god?
Jacaerys was very satisfied with the attitude of Lord Uller and the commoners of Hellgate Keep.
Lord Uller had already earned merit by reporting, and coupled with the recent successive blood sacrifices of several large cities, this small castle with at most three or four thousand people was not worth the trouble.
So he directly removed Hellgate Keep from the blood sacrifice list in his mind.
Those who follow me prosper, those who oppose me perish!
Jacaerys conversed with the trembling Lord Uller for a while and roughly learned where Alexandra was hiding.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Due to concerns that Alexandra and the others might move again, Jacaerys did not delay excessively and immediately rode his dragon towards the north of Hellgate Keep.
Hellgate Mountain was a barren mountain with almost no vegetation, and it was also the source of the Sulfur River.
If it weren't for Lord Uller learning from some Sunspear commoners who had privately escaped, and personally seeing the disguised Alexandra a few days ago,
he would not have believed that tens of thousands of Sunspear commoners had unknowingly hidden here.
Moreover, how could such a large cave have appeared out of thin air in that somewhat familiar Hellgate Mountain?
Actually, this matter involves the famous Warrior Queen, Nymeria.
When she led a large army to encircle and suppress the King of the Sulfur River, Lucifer Dryland, she accidentally discovered Hellgate Mountain, which had been hollowed out by the Dryland family.
Later, the Dryland family perished, and most of the people who knew about it died.
Nymeria's king consort, the first Prince of Dorne, Mors Martell, passed down this secret cave as a retreat for the Martell Family.
Actually, Jacaerys had been thinking about whether this could be a trap, as Alexandra had been hidden for so long, and now her whereabouts were revealed so easily.
But even if it was a trap, how could it not also be a clue?
Furthermore, he wanted to see what kind of trap could confine the seven dragons he had brought!
As soon as he flew near a conspicuous yellow boulder on the mountainside of Hellgate Mountain, which Lord Uller had mentioned, Jacaerys ordered the dragons to breathe Dracarys without a word.
Except for sunfyre, the other six dragons immediately opened their mouths and sprayed various colors of Dracarys towards the yellow boulder and the surrounding area.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Crack, crack!
The yellow boulder shattered into stone fragments of various sizes under the extremely high temperature and powerful impact of the various colors of Dracarys.
As the yellow boulder shattered and collapsed, a cave entrance behind it, nearly half the height of the boulder, appeared before Jacaerys and the others.
There were originally a dozen Hightower family soldiers guarding the cave entrance, but they were affected by the high temperature of the Dracarys and the impact force of the falling rocks, and were now lying on the ground, their life or death unknown.
Hmm?
Jacaerys suddenly noticed that the yellow boulder burned by the Dracarys was emitting a pale blue flame, while also giving off thick smoke.
The river where Hellgate Keep was located was called the Sulfur River, and the source of the river was in this mountain.
Could it be... that this Hellgate Mountain is a mine containing abundant sulfur, and that yellow boulder is a naturally exposed sulfur ore?
This also explained why there was water flowing out of the mountain, but no vegetation grew.
After making a judgment in his mind, Jacaerys recalled the chemical knowledge he had not yet forgotten.
The gas from burning sulfur is sulfur dioxide, which in his previous life's daily life served as a bleaching agent, disinfectant, and even a food additive.
Of course, that was in trace amounts, and sulfur dioxide in such high concentration could already be called poisonous gas!
"Ela, use magic to draw as much of this thick smoke as possible into that cave!"
Turning his head to instruct Ela behind him, Jacaerys then mentally commanded Womax to increase the intensity of its Dracarys.
The extremely high temperature black Dracarys directly ignited this area of the mountain, and pale blue flames emitting thick smoke rose one after another.
Wind is a natural phenomenon that flows from high pressure to low pressure.
For Ela, the air mage, creating low pressure was much simpler than drawing out oxygen or increasing oxygen concentration.
When she finished casting her spell, the thick smoke that was originally rising aimlessly towards the sky seemed to be controlled by an invisible force,
and poured into the cave all at once.
Cough, cough, cough!
Closest to the cave entrance were the Hightower soldiers who had been specially replaced by Ser Hobart after Alexandra's escape.
As soon as they came into contact with the thick poisonous smoke, they immediately started coughing violently.
At the same time, their eyes, irritated by the poisonous smoke, constantly teared up, and their throats felt intense pain.
Sulfur dioxide is soluble; when absorbed by the moist mucous membrane surface, it turns into sulfurous acid and sulfuric acid.
Some Hightower soldiers who couldn't bear it tried to escape out of the cave, but the high-temperature Dracarys outside the cave made it impossible for them to approach the entrance.
There was no other way; everyone could only flee in panic deeper into the cave.
The Hightower soldiers at the back, due to breathing the poisonous smoke for a long time, their laryngeal mucous membranes began to become congested and swollen, making it difficult for them to breathe and causing them to suffocate.
These Hightower soldiers naturally didn't understand emergency methods like cricothyrotomy (puncturing the trachea).
They were seen one by one with pale faces, purple lips, clutching their throats and struggling on the ground.
After a short while, they stopped moving, becoming corpses with distorted and terrifying expressions.
As the poisonous smoke spread, the huge cave in Hellgate Mountain, which could accommodate tens of thousands of people, immediately descended into chaos.
Some Dornish lords tried to block the poisonous smoke in their small caves, but regardless of the sealing issue,
even if they did block the poisonous smoke, without air circulation, they would ultimately not escape death.
The Dryland family, who excavated this huge cave, certainly wouldn't have dug only one entrance and exit.
After all, if the entrance was blocked, wouldn't they be unable to escape even with wings?
Tap, tap, tap!
Ser Hobart, accompanied by Coleanne and the Quell siblings, fled towards another hidden exit of the cave, surrounded by groups of Hightower soldiers.
This exit was located on the back of Hellgate Mountain and was also blocked by a large rock.
Whoosh, whoosh!
But just as Ser Hobart and the others laboriously moved the rock and escaped from the cave, the sound of dragon wings tearing through the air came from the sky,
and a colorful dragon silhouette circling in the sky descended.
Ser Hobart looked at the familiar colorful dragon silhouette, gritted his teeth, and ordered his Hightower soldiers to attack.
He had a deep blood feud with Jacaerys and would never surrender!
There will be another chapter in a while.