After a moment of hesitation, Jeni unfolded a roll of parchment painted with a map of Meereen, spreading it across the table. Her slender jade-like finger traced the red line circling the map. "This is the approximate direction of the tunnel."
"Why does it loop such a long way around?" God of War Kaiyuan frowned.
The allied army had set up camp at the northern gate of Meereen. The tunnel began beneath the camp, traveled east for nearly five kilometers, then turned south and burrowed under the riverbed. It continued digging to the northeast of Meereen for roughly fifteen kilometers, before twisting like an earthworm searching for its mother. Only then did it barely approach the outer southern walls of Meereen, still over two hundred meters away from the city wall.
The camp was only ten kilometers north of Meereen, yet instead of digging in a straight line, the tunnel took a wide detour and ended up at the city's southern side.
The dwarf stood on tiptoe and carefully recorded the lines drawn on the map.
He felt the same confusion as everyone else.
Suddenly, he remembered what he had seen when leaving Meereen days earlier: the vast rice fields north of the city.
Even now, with winter fully set in, the ground north of Meereen remained soft and wet. Wherever cavalry passed, deep hoofprints formed and shallow water welled up inside them.
Channels crisscrossed everywhere near the fields, and lakes of all sizes dotted the landscape.
While crossing one of those channels, he had even deliberately let himself fall into the water and then caught a chill, which had left his voice hoarse.
"So that's it. The dragon-worms must avoid underground rivers. The land north of Meereen is lower, so water gathers naturally even without irrigation from the river. That is why the Ghiscari grow rice to the north."
"And the southern side is higher ground, filled with low rolling hills, which are more suitable for wheat and soybeans."
The dwarf slapped his palms together as sudden understanding dawned.
Jeni, the God of War, the triangular-faced man, and even the dwarf's "new father," all turned suspicious gazes toward him.
Damn it. I slipped. I'm not the wise little devil. I'm the foolish fourth prince of Elephant Island.
With that thought, the dwarf instinctively lifted his chin, tilted his gaze upward at a forty-five degree angle, and revealed the most exaggeratedly self-satisfied smile imaginable.
"Good job, Leo. You finally figured it out!" The new father's doubt dissolved into delight.
"Uncle, I have always been intelligent. I simply have lacked the chance to demonstrate my brilliance!" The dwarf's smugness intensified. "Why not let me lead tomorrow? I want to be the first into Meereen. I want to challenge Daenerys to single combat!"
The doubt in the eyes of the God of War and the triangular-faced man turned to faint contempt. Even a fool occasionally says something useful.
"Ahem." The Long-nosed King waved awkwardly. "Do not be ridiculous. You are my lieutenant. You stay by my side."
God of War Kaiyuan ignored the dwarf and pointed north toward Meereen. "Since the tunnel already reached the southern gate, why not keep digging along the foundation of the wall all the way to the north? The Great Pyramid is on the northern side."
"I wanted to keep digging."
"What do you mean?" Grazdan asked, confused.
"The dragon-worms only reached the southern side last night, and the battle began this morning."
The God of War suddenly understood and sighed. "As expected, Daenerys already guessed there were dragon-worms underground and has been monitoring the situation by some method."
"She must have sensed the worms approaching Meereen, which is why she chose today to start the decisive battle."
"That appears to be the case," Jeni said helplessly.
"How did she monitor underground?" Triangular Face asked curiously.
Bury water jars!
The dwarf remembered overhearing Daenerys speak to Aemon while he lay on the operating table. She wanted to select the citizens with the keenest hearing from among the millions and place underground listening stations around Meereen.
And burying water jars was only one of her passive methods.
She had been mapping Meereen's subterranean water system, locating areas where dragon-worms were most likely to dig—the driest patches with the least groundwater.
Based on the likely direction of tunneling, she would dig deep pits, hoping to break into the burrows. If not, she buried water jars in them, placing her best listeners on constant watch.
Even without the dwarf's message, she could approximate the direction of the tunnel.
At first, she had indeed planned, as the God of War feared, to counter their plot with her own—divert the river to flood the tunnel.
But recently the dragon-worms had suffered three major disasters while digging.
Meereen straddled a river and sat near the sea. The underground water table was too rich. While tunneling toward the city, the worms accidentally punched through an underground river, causing water to gush back and freeze or drown five of them.
Five fully grown dragon-worms. Their desperate struggles made such noise that Daenerys, rushing to listen herself, was terrified.
"Is this Godzilla or a dragon-worm?!" Her face had gone white at the time.
So she chose not to risk it anymore and launched the decisive battle before the dragon-worms reached the city's foundations.
In truth, although the allied forces were the ones besieging her, she had held the initiative from the beginning.
Sigh. I am clearly not her sole support after all. Who knows how many preparations she made for this battle.
The dwarf felt a bit dejected. It seemed he still could not play a decisive role for the Dragon Queen.
Unlike the War of the Five Kings, when he had served as Hand in King's Landing, standing alone against a collapsing world.
Even as the unnamed but real chief councillor by Aegon's side, he had felt proud and indispensable.
Aegon relied on him and trusted him. Every major and minor plan passed through his hands, and he spared no effort in helping Aegon build the incomparably glorious True Dragon Alliance from nothing.
Sigh, if not for that woman Sansa meddling in politics from the harem, he would have moved into the Hand of the King's Tower in the Red Keep by now.
(Well, the Hand's Tower was burned down with wildfire by his bitch of a sister, so there is no Hand's Tower in the Red Keep anymore.)
But in Slaver's Bay, at the Dragon Queen's side, he was always assigned to do strange jobs. He developed wildfire, rode dragons to drop bombs, conducted aerial piracy against allied supply ships, and now he was even playing an "Faceless Man" in the allied camp. This…
This was not the treatment a chief minister ought to receive!
Amid his dejection, the dwarf was also unwilling to accept it.
Yet when he touched his big nose, all the resentment and disappointment in his heart turned into helplessness. His undercover mission this time had failed. Although there were irresistible factors, given the Dragon Queen's temperament, she would most likely punish him.
So, he had to earn merit!
"It must be a spy," the dwarf declared with absolute certainty, shouting thief while pointing at others. "There is a spy for Daenerys in the tunnels. The spy keeps reporting the tunneling progress to her, which is why we have today's decisive battle."
"Don't talk nonsense!" the Long-Nosed King angrily interrupted the bastard. "Only you, me, and Lady Jeyne enter and leave the tunnels. Who is the spy?"
"I haven't been out of the tunnels before," the dwarf quickly said.
"Damn it, are you saying it's me…" The Long-Nosed King glanced around and seemed to notice everyone looking at him with suspicion. His big nose flushed red with anger.
This stupid bastard!
"There is no spy." With a single sentence, Jeyne swept away the strange atmosphere and said calmly, "There's nothing wrong with the Long-Nosed King, and there's nothing wrong with Leo either. The problem isn't with us. It must be that Daenerys has some special means."
"Yes, yes, yes!" The Long-Nosed King wiped the hot sweat from his forehead and agreed repeatedly.
After an awkward moment of mutual staring, the triangular-faced Sibellio asked in confusion, "Are dragon worms really that demanding about their geographical environment?"
Jeyne said helplessly, "Dragon worms like to operate in volcanoes. They're actually not suited for fighting on plains. Cold underground water is like poison to them."
"Then how did they cross the sea?" the dwarf asked curiously.
"Dragon worms can't swim, right? I once saw in an ancient book that dragon worms almost die on contact with water."
At this, the War God of Kayun looked at Jeyne with a hint of reproach. "There should be a tunnel between the Land of Long Summer and Meereen. Priestess, you should have revealed this secret earlier. Letting the logistics teams use the secret passage could have reduced a lot of unnecessary losses."
"There is no tunnel," Jeyne shook her head. "Beneath the Smoking Sea is a volcano, still under high-level magical radiation. Hundreds of years have passed, and the dragon worms that once could only burrow through earth have evolved the ability to move freely in high-temperature seawater."
The dwarf's heart stirred, and he said eagerly, "I've heard there are many sea monsters in the Smoking Sea. Our navy just suffered a defeat. Maybe we could subdue some sea monsters to fill out the fleet?"
"The sea monsters in the Smoking Sea are also mutated species under magical radiation. They are indeed numerous.
"But to dragons, sea monsters are just food.
"Other than filling Daenerys's dragons' stomachs, they won't be of the slightest help."
"That really is…"
Thinking of how he and Aegon had once been scared out of their wits by Euron's sea monsters, the dwarf felt both embarrassed and dejected.
"Since dragon worms can cross the sea, why are they still afraid of groundwater?" the War God of Kayun asked in confusion.
"What do you think I built the magic energy towers for? Just to suppress information transmission in the Dragonstone magical network?" Jeyne said calmly.
"The magic towers can help dragon worms cross the sea?" the dwarf asked in shock.
"If you send a person who has just eaten his fill and a hungry person, both naked, into icy wilderness, who freezes to death first?"
"The one who's full can even hold out until the next bout of hunger," the dwarf said thoughtfully.
Jeyne nodded. "Before leaving the Smoking Sea, I used the magic towers to replenish each dragon worm with a massive amount of fire magic.
"Fortunately, the Smoking Sea is right next to Slaver's Bay, so the dragon worms swam ashore before their magic power was exhausted."
"There's one more thing. Have you noticed?" After a pause, Jeyne continued. "The temperature now is much lower than it was a month ago. Low temperatures and icy water are the greatest enemies of dragon worms."
"That's strange!" Grazdan stroked the beard on his chin and said in confusion. "I've lived in Slaver's Bay for most of my life and have never encountered such a cold winter.
"In fact, the three cities of Slaver's Bay have never had winters.
"In past years at this time, even if the north was covered in flying snow, we would still be wearing silk clothes and sandals here."
"I've heard the Long Night is coming. Could it be true?" the dwarf asked uneasily.
"The Long Night…" Grazdan turned to Jeyne. "My lady, what do you think?"
What was there to think? Even the Sheep Egg had never experienced the Long Night!
Valyria rose six thousand years ago, which meant that when the Sheep Egg was born, the Long Night had already ended two thousand years earlier.
"The Long Night has nothing to do with us," Jeyne said ambiguously.
The Sheep Egg, of course, knew that the first Long Night was real and was certain that the second Long Night would eventually arrive. But sealed beneath the Smoking Sea, it had not sensed any abnormality from beyond the Wall at all.
Besides, as Jeyne said, what the hell did the Long Night have to do with the remnants of Valyria?
The Land of Long Summer where they now lived was already shrouded in a layer of high-level radiation fog, never seeing sunlight all day long. The environment was ten times harsher than the Long Night.
Jeyne emphasized, "Our target now is Daenerys! Tomorrow morning, even at the cost of losing several dragon worms, I will break through Meereen's southern and northern gates.
"The elephant troops will enter the southern city along the worm tunnels. One hundred and fifty thousand troops will enter from the north gate. Attacking from both north and south, we will surely take Meereen!"
"Attacking from both north and south, we will surely take Meereen!" the dwarf shouted, his face flushed red as he pumped his fist.
(End of chapter)
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