The Mountain of Ice and Fire

“You killed people to save people?” Mountain said quietly.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Old Boli’s voice was weak. It wasn’t that he was feeling guilty, but that he was physically exhausted.

“Why do you say that?” Mountain glanced at Queen Hoen, who was sobbing.

“Your Majesty, King Hoen and the Thirteen are about to declare war on you. The Dragon Hunter Ballista I created can block one dragon without any problems. It can defend itself against two dragons, but we are powerless against four dragons, especially if the dragons' strategy is a surprise attack at night. Once the war starts, Qarth will inevitably face destruction by dragonfire.”

“No, you are wrong, Boli,” Mountain said calmly. “Whether Qarth is destroyed or becomes more prosperous is not up to you, but up to me. If I were going to destroy Qarth, I would not have come. Look now, Qarth is mine, and I will do everything I can to protect it, not destroy it.”

“If King Hoen, the Thirteen, the Tourmaline Brotherhood, and the Ancient Guild of Spicers refuse to submit, what will Your Majesty do?”

“Master Boli, you are the god of Qarth. If you want to persuade King Hoen to submit, he will definitely submit.” Queen Hoen stopped crying and lightly wiped away the tears with a white handkerchief.

Lady Celia said, “Your Majesty, my husband, Earl Hoster, has no intention of starting a war. His position is to seek peace.”

“Oh!” Mountain nodded.

Queen Janei Westerling was calm and composed: “Lady Celia, what about the other business magnates? Are they for war or for peace?”

Mountain said, “Perhaps the person most qualified to answer this question is Lord Haji Moar, the leader of the Thirteen. Lord Haji, among the Thirteen, who is for war? Who is for peace?”

Haji Moar looked gloomy: “Your Majesty, the Tourmaline Brotherhood is for war, the Ancient Guild of Spicers is for peace, and the Thirteen are neutral.”

“What about King Hoen?”

“The King makes decisions based on everyone’s will. If more people are for war, then we go to war; if more people are for peace, then we seek peace.”

“So, are more people for war or for peace?”

“Fewer people are for war, but those who are for war have the upper hand because those who are for peace are considered cowards.”

Mountain nodded: “Lord Haji, I believe what you say. If Master Boli of the House of the Undying is for peace, will the warmongers make concessions?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. We all follow Master Boli’s guidance.”

Boli glared at Haji Moar: “Haji, you are lying!”

“Master Boli, I have followed your guidance all my life, as have King Hoen, the Thirteen, the Tourmaline Brotherhood, and the Ancient Guild of Spicers. You told me that as long as we join forces to kill King Hoen, the Thirteen, the Tourmaline Brotherhood, and the leaders of the Ancient Guild of Spicers, I would gain the power and wealth of the Thirteen, you would control the power and wealth of the Tourmaline Brotherhood and the Ancient Guild of Spicers, and at the same time, you would enter the royal palace, disguise yourself as King Hoen, get Queen Hoen, enjoy wealth and glory, and defile the court.”

Old Boli’s breathing stopped!

Queen Hoen’s face was pale, and her lips trembled slightly.

The tens of thousands of Qartheen people were in disbelief, and the crowd fell into a rare, suffocating silence.

Mountain remained unmoved.

Haji Moar’s condition for defecting was that Mountain would guarantee the safety and inheritance rights of his children and promise that his family would continue to have the same trade channels and wealth as before.

In terms of magic, Mountain was not as good as Boli, but in terms of scheming, Boli was not as good as Mountain.

Kyu!

A dragon’s roar.

Everyone looked up and saw a golden-red dragon flying from the edge of the high wall into the sky, its wings spread out like a golden-red cloud.

After that, the black dragon Drogon, the bronze dragon Rhaegal, and the white dragon Viserion appeared one by one, like three guards of the giant dragon.

The four dragons circled in the sky, their ferocious heads, textured scales, terrifying claws, and wings so large that they seemed to cover the entire city…

The dragons shocked the whole city, making it impossible to breathe.

People saw these four dragons up close for the first time, one of which was so huge that it looked like a moving mountain.

The magical creatures at the top of the world’s highest food chain: dragons!

One adult dragon, three increasingly powerful young dragons.

Kyu kyu kyu!

A crisp dragon roar sounded again, and three small dragons appeared from a distance and quickly flew over people’s heads. The scales on the three small dragons looked very similar to those of Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion.

They were the three dragons hatched by the sheep stealer: Tyraxes, Knighthawk, and Lady.

Janei Westerling stood up, stretched out her hands, and said in High Valyrian, “Lady, come to mother.”

This was a mixed language of Dragon Tongue and Westerosi.

Knighthawk, Tyraxes, and Lady, who had grown up with Janei, could all understand their mother’s self-created language.

Lady listened obediently; she was a true lady.

Lady, with golden-red stripes in her white scales, let out a soft cry, flew down like a large bird, flapped her wings, stretched out her claws, and landed on her mother’s shoulder.

Her neck was very long, and her tail was also very long. Her tail wrapped around her mother’s neck as it had when she was a child, and her long neck turned around, and her dragon head gently touched her mother’s face.

Janei Westerling’s shoulders could no longer bear Lady’s excessive affection. Her growth was astonishingly fast, and her weight was also increasing at an alarming rate.

“Lady, come onto mother’s lap.” Janei was full of love, just like a mother to her daughter.

Freemen, nobles, wealthy merchants, courtiers… Except for the Unsullied soldiers guarding the high platform and the Dothraki cavalry phalanx, almost everyone’s eyes fell on the Queen and her beautiful little dragon.

After a long while, Lady obediently folded her wings and lay docilely at her mother’s feet. Then, the atmosphere of judgment and punishment slowly began to recover.

*

Mountain glanced at the courtiers, and then Quaithe took a step forward, her clear and penetrating voice resounding throughout the audience: “People of Qarth, the Undying Ones of the House of the Undying are not to be trusted. I know there is a saying in Qarth—in the House of the Undying, it is full of lies and bones. Believers, the night is dark and full of terrors, and only the Red God is the one true god.”

Quaithe stretched out her right hand, and five flames appeared out of thin air on the tips of the five fingers of her right hand.

Swoosh!

A flame drew a small tail flame and landed on the back of a court warlock, and the flame, like lamp oil, flowed down and wrapped the warlock in the blink of an eye. The little prince and princess who were standing with the warlock screamed. Several courtiers stepped forward, picked up the princess and prince, and jumped to the side.

Swoosh!

Another flame shot out like an arrow and landed on another court warlock. The flame exploded like magic, and the two warlocks let out heart-rending screams and quickly fell down. Strangely enough, the flame only wrapped around the warlocks and did not ignite the high platform.

Quaithe, wearing a wooden lacquer mask, walked out from among Asha, Jorah Mormont, Missandei, and others. On the fingertips of her right hand, there were still small candle-like flames jumping.

The two sparks just now were shot out by Quaithe and hit the two warlocks, but the magical power that made the flames explode and did not ignite the wooden boards under the warlocks came from the Grand Maester of the Alchemists' Guild of Westeros.

For the study of flames, the Grand Maester of the Alchemists' Guild is even more capable than Quaithe. Quaithe is good at shadow magic; wherever there is darkness and shadow, that is the world she can control.

The screams of the two warlocks stopped as the flames shrank.

Old Boli looked at Quaithe and widened his eyes: “Shadowbinder, we have no grudges against you.”

“Boli, Gregor Clegane is the God-favored Son of the Red God, the reincarnation of Lightbringer. In the season when winter is coming, the Others are awakening from the ice and snow and, led by the Night King, are about to sweep across our entire human race, turning all of us into wights. It was Clegane who drove the dragons to defeat the army of wights and kill the Night King. He has received the protection and blessing of the gods. My junior sister Melisandre has sworn allegiance to him, and I am also his courtier. You endanger His Majesty’s safety, so you are my enemy. You have violated His Majesty’s laws and must be arrested and judged. Evil warlocks must be eliminated in Qarth, and the Red God is the true god that people should believe in and pursue.”

Mountain said, “The night is dark and full of terrors. People of Qarth, you need to stay away from evil warlocks and believe in the Red God R'hllor. From now on, the worship of the Undying God will be banned in Qarth, and I will appoint Priestess Quaithe to be responsible for building a Red Temple in Qarth.”

Old Boli’s face turned pale in an instant, and the gray hair on his head turned white at a speed visible to the naked eye. His cheeks also quickly thinned, as if some invisible force was rapidly drawing away his life. In full view of the public, Boli’s body was shrinking, shriveling, his muscles and blood vessels disappearing, and his bones protruding. Finally, he turned into a skeleton covered in skin and bones.

This skeleton was extremely similar to the living dead skeleton in the House of the Undying.

Daenerys suddenly became alert. She had been to the House of the Undying and had seen the appearance of the Undying God worshipped by the Undying Ones. It was a living dead man, a skeleton man, a skeleton man without a heart. The skeleton man’s heart had been dug out and hung in the air. Every time it beat, it emitted a blue light.

“Master Quaithe,” Daenerys said, “burn him to death quickly.”

Old Boli stretched out his two hands towards his chest, tore open his chest like a sharp knife, and dug out a beating heart.

“This is the Wizard God worshipped by the Undying Ones,” Daenerys shouted. “He must be killed immediately.” She looked up at the sky, “Drogon, dragonfire!”

In the sky, the giant dragon Sheep Stealer and Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal had flown high in play and had flown to the edge of the white clouds.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh!

Five flames flew out and landed on Old Boli, and with a bang, the warlock robe on Old Boli burned and quickly turned to ashes, but Old Boli’s skeleton body was unscathed.

The heart emitted a blue light, and the blue light flew towards Quaithe, like a lightsaber.

Bang!

A wall of fire appeared out of thin air, blocking the blue light.

The Grand Maester took action, and the wall of fire swept over the blue light and quickly devoured it.

“Lady, dragonfire.” Janei shouted sharply.

Lady stretched her neck and, without getting up, sprayed a dragonfire at Boli, blocking a blue light that was rushing towards Mountain. The blue light disappeared instantly, like a wisp of thin mist under the scorching sun, a piece of white snow, which was instantly wiped out by the fierce sunlight, without a trace.

The remaining power of the dragonfire did not diminish and, like a fire snake, bit the beating heart in one bite. The heart beat even more violently, and the blue light could no longer be seen in the dragonfire.

Bang!

A fireball shot over and hit Old Boli’s body.

Lady’s second attack was a fireball.

The fireball exploded and instantly wrapped Old Boli, and a squeaking sound came from the flames, as if the flames were burning not a person, but a beast.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh!

Quaithe flicked flame after flame from her right hand and landed on the heart, helping the dragonfire burn.

The Grand Maester was also urging the power of fire magic from behind, making the dragonfire and Quaithe’s flames burn even more fiercely!

Clang!

With a muffled sound, the heart in Boli’s hand exploded and turned into blue light spots, which dissipated in the air and were quickly completely annihilated. Then, the old man also fell down, curled up in the flames, and finally turned into a small ball of fire.

In the end, a charred black object was left on the execution platform, only the size of a palm. When all the flames were extinguished, only a warped black object remained.

No matter how you looked at it, it could not be the appearance of a person after being burned, but more like a scorched little beast.

*

Tens of thousands of Qartheen people crowded the royal square, and the tall buildings and spires far and near were also full of people. Tens of thousands of people did not cheer or make any noise; people were silent in shock.

Mountain looked at Lord Haji Moar, whose face was covered in cold sweat, and nodded to the masked executioner.

Then, the herald shouted slogans, and two executioners stepped forward, grabbed Haji Moar, and brought him to the guillotine. Haji Moar looked back at Mountain, and a last trace of pleading flashed in his eyes. Mountain nodded to him, indicating that he would keep his promise.

A look of gratitude flashed in Haji Moar’s eyes. He was then pressed down by the executioner, and his head was pressed on the execution beam. The locking plate fell, locking Haji Moar’s neck and preventing him from moving again.

Mountain’s right hand fell, and the executioner cut the rope with a knife. The rope holding the heavy guillotine broke, and the guillotine fell quickly with a heavy rumbling sound, as if a shadow swept past. With a soft sound of “嚓”, Haji Moar’s head rolled down and fell into the basket below.

Blood spurted out, making the dark execution beam even darker.

Queen Hoen turned her head away.

The eldest prince gently patted his mother’s back.

The little prince had already been taken into the arms of a courtier, who covered his eyes.

The princess screamed, her eyes wide open, looking at the blood and heads.

Lady Celia knelt down and murmured, praying for her dead husband, Earl Hoster.

Young Sai Hoster knelt on one knee, placed his right fist on his heart, and paid tribute to Mountain.

In the crowd, the families of the Thirteen, the families of the Guildmaster of the Ancient Guild of Spicers and his assistants, and the families of the Tourmaline Brotherhood knelt down together, with their hands on their hearts, praying for the murdered family members, praying for the gods to let them rest in peace.