Chapter 437: The Queen and the Commander
Queenscrown's inner keep and outer town combined were barely one-fortieth the size of King's Landing. Viewed from the air, the entire vista of the town was visible at a single glance. From a great distance, Daenerys, riding atop her dragon, noticed that this capital of the Gift, standing in the center of the snowy plains, was emitting faint trails of smoke... Not only was its color much darker, but its footprint seemed a circle larger than before.
As she flew closer to observe, she quickly understood the source of these minor changes.
The once-orderly residential areas, which usually appeared as a gray-and-white grid due to snow on the rooftops, were now charred black. Though the fires had long been extinguished, wisps of white smoke still rose from the ruins, looking as if she had sleepwalked through the night and torched the place with her three dragons... The scene outside the walls was even more striking: the once-pristine white snow had been churned into a filthy, chaotic mess of crisscrossing footprints and sled tracks. Dozens of large mounds, scattered about like piles of coal, flickered with fire and smoke as large groups of workers moved back and forth, tossing in fuel. Lowering her altitude, Dany was shocked to find that these burning piles were not coal, but remains of various types and shapes—and the people entering and exiting the town to "add to the fire" weren't throwing in wood, but corpses!
There were humans and animals, some whole and others mangled, and even giants that required several people working together with a cart to transport... Caught between the urgency of pursuing the remaining Others and the fear that these new bodies might inexplicably resurrect as wights, while also being occupied with rescuing the wounded and rebuilding, Queenscrown could not afford a grand, solemn funeral for the fallen as it might have in a different story. They could only categorize the dead into simple piles for cremation, burying the ashes of their comrades in a unified location outside the walls... leaving the establishment of a formal martyrs' cemetery for a later date.
Just these few dozen piles currently burning accounted for at least tens of thousands of bodies, and corpses and debris were still being funneled out of the main gates. What kind of epic battle had taken place here to produce, in less than two days of her absence, more corpses than all the wars she had seen in her life combined?
Daenerys did not know that of these tens of thousands of remains, only a few thousand were the direct result of the garrison's blades—the rest were the work of dragonsteel bombs. Seeing the terrifying, post-apocalyptic state of the town where she had stayed only two days ago, her heart was a knot of tension and conflict: she was shocked by the combat power of the Night's Watch and overjoyed that the living seemed to have won... but more than anything, she felt an irrepressible surge of unease. Had she arrived too late and made the trip for nothing, missing the appointment she had made with Egger and losing the chance to win over this strongest follower from the prophecies?
After circling the battlefield once to observe, the Queen noticed the troops assembling outside the East Gate. Guessing the man she sought was likely there, she guided Drogon into a low dive, found a clear space next to Egger amidst the gale kicked up by the black dragon's wings, and landed gently and steadily.
Seeing the dragons for the second time, the soldiers and citizens of Queenscrown were not terrified but stared with fervent curiosity at the beasts and the Queen, held back from swarming them only by the constraints of discipline. Egger sheathed his sword and ran toward the dragon with his guards, reaching the Queen just as she dismounted.
"Your Majesty, given the great distance, that you were still able to arrive at the first possible moment... on behalf of all the soldiers of the Night's Watch and the residents of the Gift, I express my deepest gratitude!"
"You are too kind... Lord Commander. I must apologize for my ill-timed departure; it was an absence on the eve of battle that could have been avoided." Daenerys gave a slight, reserved nod, though she felt a secret sense of relief at the undisguised excitement in his tone. "I hope I have not arrived too late?"
"No, you have arrived at exactly the right time." Even if Egger suspected the enemy had seized the moment of the dragon's departure to strike, he would never say it directly. "The soldiers and citizens of the Wall and Queenscrown fought as one to repel the initial waves of the dead. Now, the remaining enemy, seeing no hope of defeating the Watch, has bypassed the prepared Gift and is heading straight for the defenseless North. I am preparing to lead a pursuit personally. This campaign was meant to be incredibly perilous, but with you and your three dragons joining the fight, victory is no longer in doubt—it is a certainty!"
"Excellent... I mean, I am glad I was not too late." Daenerys breathed a sigh of relief, masking her expression. She was about to say, Then what are we waiting for? Let's go, but she paused, a thought of caution crossing her mind. "Then, Lord Commander, does our previous agreement still stand?"
"It stands," Egger replied without hesitation. Once, he had arrogantly believed his meticulously crafted defenses were impregnable and that he could defeat the Others with or without the dragons; he had only sought Daenerys's help because he wanted a way to move beyond the Gift. But now, the ferocity of the enemy's assault had slapped him in the face. Egger had to admit it: he truly needed Daenerys's dragons to ensure victory. "Your Majesty fights for the Night's Watch with your dragons, and in the future, we shall fight for you. We swear to return the Iron Throne to its rightful Queen!"
On an emotional level, Daenerys wanted to believe the man in black before her, to believe that after she helped him win this war, he would follow through on his oath of loyalty. However, a life filled with hardship and betrayal made her hesitate. Looking back, she realized that every conversation and agreement between her and Egger had occurred in private, between just the two of them. With no written contract or neutral witnesses to bind him, if she flew thousands of miles on an empty stomach to help, only for Egger to use her and her dragons like tools and discard them afterward—stalling or flatly denying the deal once the war was over—what could she do to force him to keep his word besides burning him with dragonfire?
This man, if he could not be made her own, would be her greatest threat!
Should she make him sign a document here? That would be both foolish and awkward, and its binding power wouldn't put her at ease... After a split second of thought, Daenerys made a bold, spontaneous decision: "I trust you, Lord Commander. But since you confirm the agreement is still valid, and I have arrived as promised, it would not be overstepping to ask you to fulfill a portion of that promise ahead of time. To kneel and swear your fealty to me, here and now, in front of all these witnesses... that shouldn't be too much to ask, should it?"
Egger's body stiffened as a strong, instinctive wave of revulsion surged in his heart.
The Queen raising such a demand at this critical juncture carried a heavy scent of opportunism... and it triggered a deep resistance within the true him.
Before he crossed over, Egger, like any other normal modern person, took it as a given that kneeling for any reason other than a ritual or a proposal was shameful—it was superstition, humiliation, a manifestation of servility and inequality... Even after four years as a traveler in this world, Egger had never voluntarily bent his knee to any living soul! How could he now kneel to a woman of another world who had neither birthed nor raised him, and who was ten years his junior?
But logic snatched him back from the reflex in an instant.
In this world where the feudal lord system had not yet collapsed and the gods seemed very real, Daenerys's demand for his submission carried no intent of humiliation or slight, nor did it raise the price of their original agreement. Given their prior arrangement, it was perfectly reasonable—even wise self-protection. Once he swore fealty before these thousands of people as she requested, no matter what his internal plans were, to later break that oath would mean facing immense moral pressure from all sides, internal and external, as his public persona collapsed.
The Queen wanted to increase the cost of his betrayal to ensure he was chained to her chariot!
Clever, though ill-timed. There were thousands of freefolk present who despised kneelers, as well as Beric Dondarrion—who was legally sworn to Stannis—plus Northern soldiers and various minor lords and guards from Dragonstone and the Crownlands who had followed Melisandre. Once he gritted his teeth and swore, the current crisis would be passed, but other problems would soon sprout like mushrooms after a rain.
Despite this, after his mind whirled through a thousand calculations in a second, Egger realized with resignation: he couldn't explain these complications to Daenerys, and hesitating even a few seconds longer might be judged as having a guilty conscience. Problems? Those were his problems, not the Queen's. Solving them was his duty and responsibility as a new vassal! As for the crowded audience? Daenerys's emphasis on here and now and in public was precisely because she wanted this scene to be witnessed and spread by as many people from all over the Seven Kingdoms as possible, leaving him with no way to retreat.
Two seconds after the Queen made her request, Egger, who appeared to the others to have merely blinked, regained his look of steady determination.
Daenerys's sudden move had indeed caught him off guard, but in this life, things rarely go exactly according to plan. Since hesitation couldn't change the situation, he would waste no more thought on it!
He nodded, signaling the guards to quiet the soldiers still clamoring about the Queen and the dragons. Then, he redrew the sword he had just sheathed and, slowly but without hesitation, sank to one knee, resting the blade flat across his thigh.
"In the name of all the gods, both old and new, I, Egger West, swear my fealty to Her Majesty the Queen." He bowed his head, speaking slowly but steadily, struggling to suppress the note of reluctance in his voice. "I swear to fight for your safety and honor, to fight for your lawful rights, and to fight for your noble ideals, until my death."
...
Daenerys had accepted oaths of fealty from countless people, but none had ever filled her with such relief and joy as this one. She knew this might cause some resentment in Egger, but her intuition told her that this man, and the Night's Watch and Gift forces he represented... were worth it.
As for the rift in their relationship caused by forcing him to declare his stance early? She would find other ways to mend that later!
With deep satisfaction, she stepped toward Egger and placed a hand on his shoulder to show her closeness and esteem, improvising a vow in return.
"In the name of Queen Daenerys Targaryen, first of her name, I swear that you shall always have a place within my court, at my table, and in my small council. I shall always listen to your counsel, value your suggestions, and never fail to reward your talent and loyal service."
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