"Long live the Storm!"
"Long live the Storm!"
"May the Warrior light your path."
"Favored by fate!"
"Now that is the son of the late King."
As Gendry's horse passed, the people of King's Landing cheered and paid him homage.
The people shouted his name, lifted their children for his blessing, and scattered flower petals around his horse's hooves. Once the grain routes into King's Landing were reopened, the lords first shipped in a portion of food. The people immediately transformed into Gendry's most loyal subjects, instantly forgetting that it had been Gendry's siege that plunged King's Landing into suffering. They looked nothing like the violent, lawless mob of only a few days ago.
Besides, they still loved the memory of King Robert, young, handsome, and fearless. Later, they had projected that affection onto Renly, and now they were naturally willing to give that same love to Robert's son. Renly's looks had once been praised as unmatched, and Gendry was simply taller and stronger besides.
Gendry waved to the crowd. His golden cloak fluttered in the wind, revealing beneath it a studded tunic woven in gold, black, and red, making him look especially striking. A massive broadsword was slung diagonally across his back.
The company of gold-cloaked, black-armored knights pressed forward at speed, heading straight for the Dragonpit on Rhaenys's Hill. Apart from them, another band of knights had already set out. Lothor had taken another group to Flea Bottom to find the most skilled rat-catcher. Lothor's men did not make a great show of it, nor did they move too cautiously. They only needed to act naturally, and Varys would understand.
King's Landing had three high hills. The Red Keep on Aegon's High Hill represented royal power, the Great Sept of Baelor on Visenya's Hill represented the power of the faith, and the Dragonpit on Rhaenys's Hill represented the might of dragons, and the power of arms. But after the dragons vanished, the Dragonpit declined day by day, until cheap whores were bringing clients there. Since the war worsened, and after some fool of a customer drank wildfire and burned to death, the place had become almost deserted.
"We're here," Ser Barristan said.
The enormous ruins of the Dragonpit before them were daunting. The party climbed up the hill. The Dragonpit's dome had collapsed inward, leaving behind a ruin blackened by fire.
The bronze gates at the center of the Dragonpit had been closed for over a century. The largest bronze gate was wide enough for forty knights to ride through side by side. The gates of bronze and steel were so sturdy that no one had managed to steal them even now. The smaller doors, made of oak and steel, had been smashed during the riots in King's Landing, and others were stolen afterward.
"This way," Ser Barristan said. He guided Gendry and the others to a side entrance that had long since lost its oak door. They could enter through the passage beyond it.
"Wait a moment, Ser Barristan. I have heard wildfire was once stored here. We should send soldiers in to search it again first," Lord Randyll Tarly suggested.
"Very well." Ser Barristan nodded.
Randyll waved a hand, and his attendant knights led some men into the Dragonpit first, while the others waited outside.
Gendry knew that King's Landing's wildfire had most likely been used up. The Old Gate and the Blackwater Rush had already seen a massive wildfire explosion. Besides, Gendry still had the red priestess as a magical trump card at his side, but there was no harm in caution.
Melisandre looked around the Dragonpit with interest. This was her first time here.
"Do you sense anything?" Gendry asked the red priestess.
The hooded red priestess shook her head. The ruby at her throat flashed once, then lost its glow. "The dragons have been gone too long. There is no trace of magical fluctuation."
Lord Randyll Tarly glanced at the delicate chin visible beneath the red priestess's hood. With Randyll's sharpness, he naturally guessed she was the priestess who had once served Great Lord Stannis, but he chose not to notice. After all, to Gendry, the red priestess seemed only an advisor. Gendry's wars relied on blood and fire, on war and the Storm. Randyll was no stranger to such auspicious ornaments.
"Speaking of which, King Aerys buried a great deal of wildfire. From the look of it, he meant to bury the whole of King's Landing. But back then, the Kingslayer killed some pyromancers and the Mad King, and no one else knew where it was stored," Gendry said. "I have already sent pyromancers and others to search every part of King's Landing, and try to gather all the wildfire."
"So that happened back then..." It was the first time Randyll had considered the matter.
"If that is true, then Jaime Lannister's killing of the Mad King was indeed outrageous, though perhaps he meant well at the time. But he should never have continued wearing the white cloak," Ser Barristan said.
This was also the first time Ser Barristan had connected the wildfire with Jaime's kingslaying. No wonder Jaime had endured endless insults for betraying the Mad King, yet still regarded killing Aerys as a deed to be proud of. The true reason Jaime killed the Mad King had never been known to the world before. Even so, he had already stained the sacred white cloak. He killed the monarch he served, deceived the next monarch, and committed adultery with a woman.
"How many doors did this place originally have?" Anguy asked curiously.
"It is said that beneath the dome of the Dragonpit, forty great vaults were carved into Rhaenys's Hill, connected to one another in a ring. Heavy gates were set at both ends of each vault. The inner doors led to the central sand pit, while the outer doors led to the hillside. That means, apart from some twenty smaller doors, there was one great gate."
"It has been abandoned far too badly," Lord Randyll Tarly said. "Back then, the rising tiers of stone benches could seat eight thousand people, and cramming in tens of thousands would not have been impossible. Now it is nothing but a charred ruin."
"Dragons once lived here, but the dragons raised and bred in King's Landing never grew larger than Vhagar or Meraxes, let alone the Conqueror's monster, the Black Dread," Ser Barristan said.
Gendry nodded. He had considered this problem as well.
From the books he had read and the discussions he had heard, a dragon's lair seemed to belong high in the sky. At the very least, it should not be too confining. In the days of ancient Valyria, besides wild dragon lairs, the Valyrian Dragonlords might also have built tower-like structures for dragons to roost in. Whether towers or wild lairs, they were certainly not designed like the Dragonpit in King's Landing.
"All clear, Prince, my lords," one of Randyll's scouts said after coming out.
Only then did most of them enter together, passing through the corridor beyond the side gate.
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
Hooves struck the soot-blackened passage and sand as Gendry and the others moved toward the center of the Dragonpit.
The Dragonpit's structure was actually quite simple. Around the outside were passages sunk deep into the hill, while beneath the dome inside were the sand pit and stone benches. Because of this open space, the Dragonpit was also the place in King's Landing that could hold the most people. It was said that at its limit, it could fit a hundred thousand people, which was indeed impressive.
"A place like this truly does seem unsuitable for dragons to grow," Ser Barristan said.
"It is not a matter of seeming. It is certain," the red priestess said. "Dragons belong to the sky and to freedom. This is not Dragonstone, and King's Landing itself lacks the scent of flame and sulfur. I heard that the dragons were kept trapped between the dome and walls of the Dragonpit, bound by heavy iron chains."
When Gendry reached the center of the Dragonpit, he found only soot-blackened ruins. The first thing he saw was the dome that had collapsed through its middle. He also saw countless tons of blackened stones and rubble on the ground. Years ago, Bloodraven had used the Dragonpit as a crematorium, burning great numbers of corpses here during the plague. As for the stone benches, they had almost all been stolen, carried away by the people of King's Landing themselves.
"A great many stones are missing here," Ser Barristan said. "After the Dragonpit was abandoned, many people came here to carry off stones and rubble."
"A large number of dragons and men died here," Bronze Yohn said. He naturally knew these old events, since his family sword Lamentation had been lost at that time.
There is something very strange about this, Gendry thought. The riot back then, and those miraculous dragon slayers. They actually succeeded.
During the Dance of the Dragons, a mob incited by the prophet Shepherd attacked the Dragonpit in King's Landing and killed the four dragons housed within: Shrykos, who had originally belonged to Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen and had no rider after his death; Morghul, who belonged to Princess Jaehaera Targaryen; Tyraxes, who belonged to Prince Joffrey Velaryon; and Dreamfyre, who had originally belonged to Queen Helaena Targaryen and had no rider after her death. They also killed Syrax, who came afterward.
Gendry looked up at the sky, imagining how Dreamfyre had once broken free of her chains and wreaked havoc inside the Dragonpit. Yet Dreamfyre was still struck in the eye by a crossbow bolt, and after burning hundreds upon hundreds of people to death, she had no choice but to crash into the dome.
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