Shireen knew it wasn't right to rummage through someone else's bag, but her curiosity got the better of her. With Zhuogeng's permission, she opened the bag and first saw a bundle of hay, then a gray-white flint, and at the bottom, a small pile of gold and silver coins.
"Can you make fire?" Shireen asked, holding up the flint in surprise.
Zhuogeng nodded.
"Strange, I've never seen these coins before. Can you even spend money?"
Zhuogeng made a gesture of stuffing something into his mouth with his wing.
"To buy food?" Shireen's eyes widened. With so many gold and silver coins, he could buy so much delicious food!
"Oh, right! I'm Shireen Baratheon. What's your name?" Shireen suddenly realized she'd forgotten to introduce herself.
"It's a pity you can't speak..." she asked, then answered her own question with a sigh.
Seeing Shireen put the flint back in the bag, Zhuogeng hung it around his neck and moved toward the window. He was leaving.
"Are you leaving already?" Shireen asked, her voice tinged with disappointment.
Zhuogeng raised his wing and waved. Shireen blinked, pouted, and pleaded, "Can I touch you?"
When Zhuogeng nodded, Shireen carefully reached out and stroked his exquisite scales, then his crimson wings, before feeling completely satisfied.
Zhuogeng glanced at Shireen, flapped his wings, and soared upward. Shireen stood on tiptoe, stretching her small head out of the window to get one last look at him.
She soon realized Zhuogeng hadn't flown away. Instead, he was heading toward a higher structure on the castle—a Bell Tower. She frowned slightly, wondering what he was up to.
As he reached a certain height, Zhuogeng spotted a large, open terrace on the Bell Tower. His heart filled with anticipation.
He hid behind a protruding stone platform and listened for a while, but heard nothing. Approaching the terrace, he peeked inside. The spacious room, supported by several pillars, contained a large wooden table at its center, covered with various carvings. No one was present.
He flew into the room, checked outside the door, and then turned to examine the table's map. It depicted mountains, rivers, and plains, marked with place names and a scale along the edge.
The carvings on the table—wolves, lions, deer, and dragons—represented the emblems of the great houses. The entire map felt more vivid than any modern sandbox model.
Zhuogeng first located Dragonstone. Looking at its surroundings, he realized the island he'd seen earlier was Tidehead Island. He then found King's Landing, southwest of Dragonstone, bordering Blackwater Bay.
He mentally cross-referenced the major cities and regions, verifying them against his memories.
As a dragon, Zhuogeng inherited not only his ancestors' talent for devouring, but also their knowledge of language and writing. His powerful mind and exceptional memory allowed him to memorize the entire map in less than ten minutes.
Just as he was about to analyze the map's scale to strengthen his memory, he heard footsteps approaching from outside the room. He quickly flew out and concealed himself on the side of the balcony.
"I thought I heard something just now," a seductive woman in a crimson robe said as she entered the room, her gaze fixed on the now-still deer-shaped carving. She walked toward the edge of the balcony as she spoke.
"What could be here? Just seabirds!" a male voice replied casually.
The woman remained uneasy. She peered over the edge of the balcony, saw nothing, and returned to the wooden table.
"Your Majesty, I must go out for a while. I will return to serve you then," the seductive woman said again.
"What? Are you abandoning me to find a new master?" the male voice demanded, tinged with anger and resentment.
*Could it be Stannis and the Red Priestess Melisandre, Aunt Mei?* Zhuogeng analyzed the conversation, trying to identify the speakers.
"You are the one chosen by the Lord of Light. How could I abandon you? Your current strength is insufficient to win this war. I'm going to find a way to increase your power. When I return, it will be time for you to rally your forces! Then, the lands marked on this map will be yours to rule."
Stannis glared at the Red Priestess, trying to gauge her sincerity. She met his gaze with a slight, serene smile. Defeated, he lowered his head and kissed her smooth cheek, taking a deep breath as if trying to imprint her scent in the deepest recesses of his memory.
Silence fell, broken only by the sound of footsteps slowly fading away.
Zhuogeng knew the Red Priestess would never abandon Stannis. Her recent outing was likely to find King Robert's bastard, drain the power of his "love" and blood to fuel her curse, and use leeches to curse the three false kings.
A sensuous yet bizarre scene was about to unfold, one Zhuogeng would not witness this time.
He had no intention of studying the map further. Flying over Westeros would naturally familiarize him with the terrain, and seeing it firsthand would make the details stick better than rote memorization.
With the map etched in his mind, Zhuogeng dug his claws into the castle wall and launched himself into the air, soaring toward King's Landing.
*Thump-thump-thump!*
The Red Priestess burst into the room the moment Zhuogeng took flight, rushing to the balcony and looking up at the dragon shrinking into a black dot in the distance.
"What is it?" Stannis, who had followed her in, asked with a frown, puzzled.
"I was right. It entered this place." The Red Priestess's expression darkened slightly.
"It was just a seabird," Stannis thought the Red Priestess was being overly cautious.
"That wasn't an ordinary seabird. Seabirds aren't that fast, and I saw a shimmering red light on it," the Red Priestess explained.
"Could it be an Other?" Stannis knew a bit about them.
"Perhaps. I need to receive a revelation."
Knowing the Red Priestess was about to burn more people alive, Stannis ordered his guards, "Bring a Dark Slave to the square." Dark Slave was a derogatory term for the Red Priestess's opponents.
"One isn't enough. I felt its extraordinary nature in the red light. Bring three Dark Slaves," the Red Priestess said, her eyes narrowing as she continued to ponder the meaning of the crimson glow.
A few minutes later, in a clearing near the beach in Dragonstone's square, three severely wounded soldiers were bound to crosses, with pyres of firewood stacked at their feet.
The Red Priestess stood before the crosses, her expression solemn. After scanning the three men, she lowered her head and closed her eyes, murmuring a few words before signaling the torch-bearing soldiers to ignite the pyres.
Flames surged upward, quickly engulfing the men. Their agonized screams echoed across the beach, and the surrounding soldiers averted their eyes, unable to bear the sight.
Stannis stood impassively, the Red Priestess ignoring the soldiers' agonized screams as she stared intently at the three blazing flames, silently chanting her incantation.
The faster she chanted, the less any anomaly appeared in the flames. Just as the Red Priestess began to despair of the ritual's failure, a massive, grotesque black dragon's head suddenly roared from the fire, lunging to bite her.
"Ah!" The Red Priestess cried out, staggering back several steps. A gush of blood erupted from her mouth as she collapsed to the ground.
Stannis, who had been observing the ritual nearby, rushed forward to support her.
"It... it's a dragon! The Black Dragon!" she gasped before losing consciousness.
At the same moment, Zhuogeng, who was flying toward King's Landing, suddenly sensed a probing presence. He slowed his flight, scanning the skies in every direction, but found nothing.
"Strange," he muttered to himself, then resumed his rapid flight.
-----------------------
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(End of Chapter)