The Mountain of Ice and Fire
#846 - The Prime Minister Returns and the People Love Him
Clang!
A dragon's roar echoed through the skies of King's Landing.
A massive dragon appeared high in the sky, its golden-red scales shimmering in the sunlight.
The people of King's Landing all looked up, and then they saw four dragons.
One giant dragon, three smaller ones.
There was a figure on the back of the giant dragon, and everyone knew who it was!
As for the other three dragons, only the white dragon had a figure on its back; the other two had no dragon riders.
The people were both surprised and delighted.
The Mountain and Prince Arianne Martell had gone to sea to pursue Daenerys and her fleet, and they had brought back two dragons.
Everyone knew where those two dragons came from and who they belonged to.
Could it be that the Mountain had killed Daenerys and captured her two dragons?!
For the moment, it seemed that this was the only explanation.
Cheers erupted first from the city walls.
The soldiers of the city watch shouted.
The commander of the city watch, Rafford Spicer, personally blew the first horn.
The sound of horns soon echoed throughout the city.
The Blackwater Rush harbor also resounded with naval horns.
In Flea Bottom Square, Cobbler's Square, the Rainbow Pool Square of the Great Sept of Baelor, and the King's training grounds, people unable to contain their joy danced and sang songs unsuitable for children.
When the giant dragon flew lower, whistles and cheers erupted throughout the city.
The invincible Mountain had returned!
A total of four dragons.
This was a symbol of the kingdom's prosperity and a cornerstone.
Anyone who violated guest right deserved the harshest punishment.
And the Mountain had done it again.
*
The Red Keep, the Tower of the Hand.
The Clegane soldiers all looked up at the sky together.
Smiles appeared on everyone's faces, and joy flowed in their eyes.
Double happiness!
The Mountain had returned victorious, and in the Tower of the Hand, Little Mountain had been born.
The little one was too big, causing his mother a lot of suffering.
But finally, with the round-the-clock vigil of Lady Dorea Quentina, there were thrills but no danger, and mother and child were safe.
No one knew better than Lady Dorea how to deliver a baby and help Lady Jeyne.
Dorea Quentina held the child, revealing a mouthful of black teeth.
She pointed to the sky, letting the child see the dragon and the man in the sky.
Lady Melisandre, dressed in red robes, with bright eyes and white teeth, had a heart-shaped ruby shining on her neck, setting off her beautiful oval face and skin so tender it seemed water would drip from it.
She stood beside Lady Dorea, her beautiful eyes looking at the child, her pupils seeming to have two balls of flame burning within them.
"Did the Mountain kill Daenerys?" a voice asked.
The voice came from a lithe girl in chainmail: Arya Stark.
"The Mountain will not kill Daenerys," Melisandre replied.
This was a judgment based on wisdom, not a definitive answer obtained from looking at the flames.
Melisandre's flame prophecy was like an open-book exam; she only needed to open the book and find the answer on the page.
"Your flames didn't see the scene of the Mountain killing Daenerys?" Arya continued to ask.
"Since we returned from the sea, I haven't looked at the flames.
I have been taking care of Little Mountain and his mother with Lady Dorea," Melisandre said lightly.
She wasn't worried about the Mountain.
As long as the Mountain wasn't reckless, he could at least retreat safely.
Sheepstealer was the only true dragon in this world, and she was invincible.
"The Mountain didn't kill Daenerys, he just brought back her dragons?"
"Daenerys may have been taken prisoner by the Mountain.
She may be with her captured soldiers, coming to King's Landing by ship."
Several dragon roars sounded in the low air.
Sheepstealer folded her wings with the three dragons and landed in the Dragonpit on the opposite Rhaenys' Hill.
The Dragonpit was a building built by the Targaryen family specifically for keeping dragons.
It was a huge building built on the top of the hill.
Five dragons were once imprisoned here and killed by thousands of rioters.
Now the roof of the Dragonpit was gone, and the dilapidated ruins of the building were covered with black, liquid-like rocks and uneven ground.
The marks of countless swords and axes striking the walls and stones remained.
The Mountain and Arianne landed in the Dragonpit.
Four dragons, the Red Keep's godswood could not easily accommodate.
In the 299th year of Aegon's Conquest, the Mountain led his legions to defeat the Westerlands army stationed here by Tywin Lannister in the Dragonpit on Rhaenys' Hill.
Soon, a team of elite cavalry rushed out of the godswood of the Red Keep, all in helmets and armor, with longswords at their waists, longbows on their backs, and two javelins on their horses.
These were the Mountain's elite Clegane cavalry, led by Sweetmouth Raff Clegane, Executioner Dunsen Clegane, and Artist Polliver Clegane.
Accompanying them were the three adopted sons who had been rescued by the dragon with the Mountain a few days ago: Anguy Clegane, Comm Warner, and Landon Garner.
Anguy had been poisoned the most deeply.
Although Melisandre had given him timely detoxification on the spot, his face was still pale after several days, showing his physical weakness.
The Mountain's five hundred personal guards were still at sea, with Daenerys' surrendered fleet.
The Mountain's Red Smoke Beast ran at the front of the team, like a red smoke, flying to the top of Rhaenys' Hill.
Behind the Clegane cavalry were two hundred-man teams of Clegane stewards, led by Chief Steward Mark Clegane.
These two hundred-man teams drove dozens of goats and carts carrying all kinds of animal meat to the Dragonpit.
Raising dragons was something no one but very wealthy nobles could even think about.
Sheepstealer's appetite—the Mountain arranged hundreds of people to serve her—the Mountain opened up a special pasture for her under the misty mountains deep in the Mountains of the Moon; in the Westerlands, the hill tribes of Castamere and Tarbeck Hall raised many livestock, including Sheepstealer's favorite goats; in King's Landing, a professional hundred-man team was always waiting for the arrival of the giant dragon, for one purpose only: to fill her belly.
And today, four dragons had returned, the Red Keep's godswood could not accommodate them, so the leader of the Clegane Legion's stewards, Mark Clegane, personally led the team to set off.
On the River Road, the commander of the city watch, Rafford Spicer, dressed in brocade and gold robes, led his hundred-man cavalry to the Dragonpit to welcome the Mountain.
The Mountain returned with dragons, and there were two more dragons, which made tens of thousands of soldiers in the city excited.
In the Royal Navy harbor, ships full of naval warriors stood densely on the decks, looking up to the top of Rhaenys' Hill in the city.
Whether they were navy, infantry, or cavalry legions, they all looked forward to Lord Mountain bringing them great joy of victory and exciting battles.
The jesters, vaudeville actors, moonboys, wandering singers, and troubadours in the palace had rich material for creation again.
*
Riding the Red Smoke Beast, the Mountain came down from the top of Rhaenys' Hill surrounded by the Clegane generals and the officers of the King's Landing city watch.
The dragon rider Princess Arianne Martell, who was as bright as clouds and rosy clouds, also added a lot of scenery to him.
In an era of fierce folk customs and the prevalence of Qing people, a Qing person with status and status can better demonstrate his ability and excellence, making the common people and soldiers more convinced and talk about it with relish.
This may be the evil in human nature!
And this evil, on the contrary, brings people endless topics and happiness.
Along the way, more and more people came out when they heard the news on both sides of the street.
At the entrance of the buildings, on the balconies, and on the roofs on both sides of the street, stood many happy people.
"Lord Hand, we saw you bring back two little dragons," a bare-chested man shouted from his balcony.
"Yes, those are Daenerys' two dragons.
The black dragon is her mount, and the bronze dragon is another dragon rider's mount."
"Lord Mountain, did you kill them all?" a teenager shouted from the roof, clenching his fists.
"I killed a small half, subdued a large half, and the rest followed their Queen and surrendered."
A blonde woman ran out of her room, stood on the street, holding a bowl filled with wine in her hand, and a well-behaved, cute little girl with big eyes held the woman's hem, looking timidly at the oncoming cavalry team.
The Mountain rode the Red Smoke Beast slowly.
"Lord Hand, you certainly don't remember me.
I am a refugee from the Stormlands.
You once gave me three gold dragons, allowing me to open a bakery at this crossroads.
With your words, no one on the whole street dared to bully our mother and daughter anymore.
I heard that the Hand, the King, and the Queens all have their own tasters.
Do you dare to drink my wine?"
The Mountain laughed and leaned over to take the wine bowl.
A man in the crowd shouted: "Lord Hand, are you really not afraid that there is poison in the wine?
The incestuous Cersei and the Warhammer King Robert never dared to eat any of our food."
"I'm only afraid that there is no poison in the wine!" the Mountain said.
He picked up the bowl, drank the wine in one gulp, and frowned, "The wine is weak.
Obviously, the poison is not strong enough!"
The generals and the people laughed together.
"Little girl, what's your name?" the Mountain asked the naive little girl who was timidly holding the woman's hem.
The little girl was afraid and hid behind the woman.
The woman smiled and said, "Lord Hand, she doesn't have a name yet."
"Oh, then call her Julie Clegane, that's my eldest daughter's name.
I bestow it upon her."
The woman was overjoyed and immediately pulled the little girl to kneel and kowtow to the Mountain to thank him.
The Mountain helped the mother and daughter up and said softly to the little girl, "Julie, would you like to come to the Hand's mansion to be a little maid for the Hand's wife?
Hmm?!".
The little girl's big eyes showed obvious fear.
She didn't dare to answer and looked down at the ground.
The woman, however, was already so excited that she was incoherent, thanking the Hand and the Seven Gods non-stop.
The Mountain jumped off the Red Smoke Beast, picked up the little girl, and got back on his horse: "Julie's mother, come with me.
The Hand's mansion lacks a servant to serve Lady Jeyne."
"...Lord Hand, I, I, I, my bakery..."
Happiness came too suddenly, and the woman didn't know what she was saying.
"Smash it!" the Mountain said.
Sweetmouth Raff, Executioner Dunsen, and Artist Polliver immediately jumped off their horses.
They were experts in this kind of bad deed and were extremely skilled.
"No, no, no, don't.
I'll go with you, Lord...I'll go, I'll go..." The woman was so excited and happy that she was about to faint.
The Mountain laughed: "If you dare to refuse me, I'll let you see the evil of the Seven Kingdoms' worst villain.
Sweetmouth, what are you doing, get on your horses.
Commander Rafford, find someone to run this bakery and put up the Julie Clegane sign."
"Yes, Lord Hand."
The common people on both sides of the street burst into cheers.
The Mountain's actions towards Julie's little girl and her mother moved them very much and warmed their hearts.
Since the 298th year of Aegon's Conquest, when the Mountain brought wheat flour and black bread from Harrenhal to the people of the city and countless refugees, the people of the city and the refugees had been filled with a sense of closeness to the Mountain.
But the most moved person was the Mountain's horse soldier, Thomman.
He was Julie's biological father.
After Julie died, the Mountain never said a word of remembrance, nor did he hold any ceremony.
Now he knew that Julie Clegane had always been in the Mountain's heart.
The Mountain had hidden that father-daughter relationship.
The Mountain was a big man, a military general, extremely mighty and invincible.
Usually, in front of the soldiers, no one could see into his heart.
According to Littlefinger's 'malicious' analysis after the decisive battle in Winterfell, he believed that Julie Clegane was killed by Bran Stark!
Old horse soldier Thomman knew that Julie loved the Mountain far more than he loved her biological father, but he never felt jealous.
*
On the city wall of the high Red Keep's bronze gate, the blacksmith King Gendry saw from afar that his father was riding the Red Smoke Beast and slowly leading the generals through the street.
Along the way, the people's cheers and love for the Mountain flowed through the city like a tide.
Gendry had lived in King's Landing for more than ten years and had never seen a Hand who was so loved by the ordinary people.
What about the Mountain's bad reputation?
Why aren't these common people afraid of the Mountain?
On the contrary, it is the nobles who are truly afraid of the Mountain.
"Your Majesty, Lord Hand has returned victoriously.
He came through the city all the way.
What did you see?" a voice said with a sly smile.
Gendry did not answer the strange question raised by this voice.
This voice was thin, and the last question had a teasing flavor, making the blacksmith King very uncomfortable.
"My advice to Your Majesty will not be wrong," the voice said again with a smile.
Gendry hummed and strode down the city wall.
The captain of the guard, Bronn, led the royal guards and immediately followed.
Beside the steps under the city wall, two white-robed knights guarded on the left and right.
The owner of that sly voice chuckled.
This person was of course Littlefinger.
The King was followed by three courtiers: Minister of Intelligence Bernie Clegane, Minister of Finance Petyr Baelish, and Grand Maester Qyburn.
The three courtiers were all Mountain's men.
"Lord Petyr, your words just now may have the opposite effect," Grand Maester Qyburn said slowly as he turned and went down the city wall, wanting to follow behind the King to greet Lord Hand at the gate of the Red Keep.
"No," Littlefinger followed Grand Maester unhurriedly.
Bernie Clegane walked at the end.
"Are you so sure?
I can see the blacksmith King's unhappiness."
"He is unhappy with me as a person.
In the King's heart, he hates my smile, but he knows that what I say is right."
"Has he already agreed to that matter you mentioned?
Did you convince him?"
"He didn't agree verbally, but he has already agreed in his heart."
"Are you sure?" Grand Maester Qyburn stopped, turned to look at Littlefinger, and he was very serious.
Littlefinger revealed a mischievous smile and shrugged. His smile was silent, carrying a confident and assured meaning, as if victory was already in his grasp. "I! Am! Sure!" He said slowly, emphasizing each word.
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