Chapter 49 Chapter 49: Daenerys

Dany was full of expectations, thinking that the Hall of Immortality would be the most glorious building in the City of Glory, but she didn't expect to see an ancient gray ruin when she got out of the car. The hall was long and low, without towers or windows, and coiled like a huge stone snake in the black bark forest.The trees of the forest had dark blue leaves from which the magic drink that the Qarthites called "Water of Nightshade" was made.There are no other buildings nearby.Black tiles covered the roof of the great hall, many of which were fallen or broken, and the plaster between the stones was mostly dry and crumbling.She finally understood why Xaro Xhoan Daxos called it the Temple of Dust, and even Drogon was upset.The black dragon hissed and screamed, and smoke seeped from between its sharp teeth.

"Blood of my blood," said Jhogo in Dothraki, "this is an evil place, haunted by ghosts and witches. It sucks the bright morning sun, so let's go before it sucks us .” Ser Jorah Mormont stepped forward. "They live in such a place, what power can they have?" "Obey the wise words of those who love you most," said Xaro Xhoan Daxos lazily in the coach. "Witches are difficult monsters who feed on dust and shadow. All they can offer you is nothing, because they have nothing left." Aggo put one hand on the arakh. "Kalixi, it is said that there are many people entering the Temple of Dust, but few can come out."

"Yes," Jhogo agreed. "We are the blood of your blood," Aggo said, "swear to live and die with you, fight side by side, and protect you from danger. Please let us enter this dark place with you." "There are places where even the khal must go alone," Dany said. "Take me then," Ser Jorah advised, "don't risk too much—" "Queen Daenerys must enter alone, that's the only way." The wizard Baiya Puli walked out of the forest.has he been thereDany thought suspiciously. "If she turns around at this moment, the door of wisdom will be closed to her forever."

"My yacht awaits now," cried Xaro Xhoan Daxos. "Give up your folly, most obstinate queen. My flute player will soothe your restless mind with his music. Soul, my little singer, whose voice will make you sigh and melt you." Ser Jorah Mormont gave the merchant a sour look. "My lord, don't forget Mirri Maz Duur." "I won't forget," said Dany, suddenly determined. "I remember her being wise. And she herself was a little witch." Haiya Puli smiled faintly. "The child speaks wisely like an old woman. Come, take my hand, and let me show you the way."

"I'm not a child." But Dany took his hand anyway. The Black Forest was darker than she had imagined, and the road was longer than she had imagined.The main road leads directly to the gate of the palace from the street, but Baiya Puli quickly walked into the side road. She asked why, and the wizard said: "The road to the front gate has no exits. Listen to me, Your Majesty. The Palace of Immortality is not for mortals." Jian. If you cherish your soul, please follow my advice and be extra careful." "I'll do as you say," Dany promised. "After you go in, you will find that there are four doors in the room. Besides the entrance, there are three other doors. Please go to the right, and always choose the first door on the right. When you encounter stairs, climb up, never down, And never go through any other door than the first one on the right."

"Take the door on the right," Dany repeated. "I see. When I leave, do the opposite?" "It's absolutely impossible," Haiya Puli said.Comes and goes the same, always up, always take the door on the right.Other doors may open of their own accord, and you'll see many disturbing things: some beautiful, some terrifying, some surprising, some terrifying.All kinds of images and sounds either existed in the past, or have not yet come, or will not even happen.The masters and servants of the rooms will speak to you as you pass by, and you may answer or ignore them as you please, but you must not enter any room until you have reached the audience room.

"I see." "When you finally come to the room of the Immortals, please be patient. Our short lives are as small to them as moths. Just listen and take every word to heart." So they came to the door—a huge oval mouth set into a wall in the shape of a human face—and there was waiting at the door the shortest dwarf Dany had ever seen, no taller than she was. knees, his face is wrinkled and huddled, and his nose is ridiculously high.He was wearing gorgeous purple and blue attire, and he was holding a silver plate in his little pink hand, on which was a slender crystal cup filled with thick blue liquid.This is the water of night shadows, the wizard's wine. "Drink," Haiya Puli urged.

"Will my lips turn blue?" "A glass will only sharpen your eyes and ears so that you can feel the truth and wisdom unfolding before you." Dany raised her glass to her lips.The first sip tasted like rotten flesh mixed with ink, disgusting, but when she swallowed it, it came alive inside her.Tendrils spread across his chest like flames around his heart, and his tongue tasted like honey and anise and cream, like mother's milk and Drogo's semen, like red meat and warm blood and molten gold .It tasted of everything she knew and none of them... and the glass was empty.

"You may go in now," said the wizard.Dany put the cup back on the servant's tray and went inside. She found herself entering a stone hall with doors on each of the four walls.She stepped through the door on the right without hesitation.The second room is exactly the same as the first room.She chose the door on the right again, and when she opened it, she saw another stone room with four doors.I am in witchcraft. The fourth room was not square but oval, and the walls were no longer stone but worm-eaten planks.It has six outlets instead of four.Dany chose the one on the far right as usual, and entered a long, dark corridor.The ceiling is high, and to the right is a row of smoking torches, glowing orange, but all the doors are to the left.Drogon spread his broad black wings, stirring the stale air.It flew twenty feet, and suddenly fell down with a "bang".Dany strode after her.

The moldy rug underfoot had once been rich and rich, the gold pattern of the fabric faintly visible, shimmering intermittently between dull grays and mottled greens.The ragged carpet absorbed the sound of her footsteps, but not other sounds.Dany heard a sound within the walls, a small, fussy scratching that reminded her of a mouse.Drogon heard it too, and his head turned to the sound, and when it stopped, he let out an annoyed squeal.An even more disturbing sound came from behind some closed doors, one of which was knocked and shaken, as if someone was about to break through the door, and the piercing sound of a flute came from behind the other, upon hearing this, the dragon went crazy wagging tail.Danny ran quickly.

Not all doors are closed.I don't look, Dany told herself, but the temptation is too strong. In one room, a beautiful woman was lying naked on the ground with her limbs spread out.Four little figures were lying on top of her, with mouse-like pointed faces and little pink hands, like the servants of Nightshade Water.One of them was pumping between her ass, the other was crushing her breasts, tearing and chewing her nipples in her wet, rosy mouth. Further on, she saw a feast of dead bodies.The participants were the brutally massacred corpses, slumped over toppled chairs and smashed overhead tables, in pools of coagulating blood.Some lost arms and legs, others lost their heads.Bloody cups, wooden spoons, roast duck, and bread were clutched in unowned hands.On the throne above sits a dead man with a wolf's head, wearing an iron crown and holding a leg of lamb, like a king holding a scepter.His eyes followed Dany, as if silently accusing. She fled from him, then stopped at the next door.I recognize this door, she thought.She remembered the huge wooden beams with lifelike animal faces carved on them, and the lemon tree outside the window!The sight in front of her made her both longing and heartbroken.It was the house with the red door. It had been her home in Braavos.At this moment, old Sir William came out heavily on crutches. "Little princess, you are back," his voice was hoarse and kind, "come here," he said, "come to me, my lady, you are home and safe." Reaching out, soft as old leather, Dany wanted to grab it, hold it, and kiss it like it was the greatest desire in her life.So she moved forward slowly, and then suddenly it occurred to her: He's dead, he's dead, kind and big old man, he died a long time ago.She backed away and ran away. The long corridor stretches forward and continues, with endless doors on the left and only torches on the right.She ran through countless doors, some closed and some open, wooden and iron, some carved finely, some plain, some with handles, others with locks or knockers.Drogon beat her back with his wings, urging her on.Dany ran until she was out of breath. Finally, a pair of massive bronze doors appear on the left, grander than all the others.As she approached, the door opened automatically, and she couldn't help but stop and watch.Inside the door is the largest stone palace she has ever seen in her life. There are many dead dragon heads hanging on the high wall, looking down coldly.A tall, prickly throne sat an old man in rich clothes, with dark eyes and silver-gray hair. "Let me reign in charred bones and roasted flesh," he said to a man below, "make me Lord of Ashes." Drogon screamed, claws digging into silk and skin, but the king on the throne was deaf, and Dan Ni moved on. When she stopped again, her first thought was: That's Viserys!But on closer inspection, it turns out not to be.The man had his brother's hair, but was taller, and his eyes were indigo, not lavender. "Call him Aegon," he said to the woman nursing the newborn on the great wooden bed. "Isn't that the best name for a king?" "Would you write a song for him?" the woman asked. "He already has a song," the man replied. "He is the prince in the prophecy, and his song is the song of ice and fire." He raised his head as he spoke, and his eyes met Dany, as if he saw her outside the door. "And one more," he said, and she did not know whether he was addressing her or the woman on the bed, "a dragon has three heads." He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and plucked the silver strings lightly with his fingers.Melancholic and sweet music fills the room as men, wives and babies recede like morning mist.The music lingered, urging her to leave quickly. After walking for another hour, the corridor finally came to an end, and there was a steep stone staircase leading down to the darkness.Dany looked behind her. Every door, open or closed, was on her left.At the same time, she was horrified to realize that the torches were going out one by one.Only twenty were left burning.Up to thirty.While watching, another one went out.The silent darkness approached step by step along the corridor.She listened intently, it seemed that there was something else slowly walking along the faded carpet with heavy steps.She was filled with fear.She can't turn back, staying here is full of dangers, but how can she move forward?There is no door on the right, and the stairs go down, not up. As she stood thinking, another torch went out, and the faint sound of footsteps grew louder.Drogon stretched his snakelike neck and opened his mouth to scream, smoke rising from between his teeth.It also heard.Dany looked again at the blank wall on the right, but still found nothing.Could there be a hidden door, or an invisible door that I can't see?Another torch goes out.Another one.The first door on the right, he said always take the first door on the right.The first door on the right... It suddenly occurred to her...it was the last door on the left! She slams into it.Inside the door is another small room with four doors.She went through the right door, right, right, right, right, right, right, until dizzy and out of breath. When she stopped again, she found herself in a dank stone room... On the opposite side was an oval door, shaped like an open mouth, and Haiya Puli was standing outside the door on the grass under the shade of a tree. "Did you finish talking with the Immortal so soon?" he asked in disbelief when he saw her. "So fast?" she asked suspiciously. "I walked for hours without finding them." "You must have turned the wrong corner. Come here, let me show you the way." Haiya Puli stretched out his hand. Dany hesitated.There's a door to her right, shut tight... "That's the wrong way," Haiya Puli said firmly, blue lips in serious denial. "Beware, the Immortals don't wait forever." "No, our short lives are as small as moths to them," Dany remembered. "Stubborn child, you will get lost and never get out again." She walks away from him, to the right. "No," Haiya screamed. "No, come here, come to me, come to me Lili-" His face collapsed inward, gradually turning into a pale maggot. Dany left him, entered a stairwell, and began to climb.Not long after, her legs ached, and she immediately thought that the Temple of Immortality seemed to have no towers. At the end of the stairs, there was a row of wide wooden doors half open on the right.They're made of ebony and weirwood, with black and white grain twisting and swirling in strange patterns.They're beautiful, but somehow creepy.I am the Dragonborn, Dany told herself, and she begged the warrior for courage, the Dothraki horse god for strength, and pushed herself forward. Behind the door is a hall with a group of gorgeously dressed wizards.Some wore luxurious robes of ermine, ruby ​​velvet, and gold cloth;There are also women among them, and the clothes are very beautiful.Bunches of sunlight slanted into the stained glass windows, and the most beautiful music in the world was played in the hall, even the air seemed to be alive because of it. A man in rich robes who looked like a king stood up and smiled at Dany. "Daenerys of the Targaryen family, welcome, please come to the eternal banquet, we are the immortals of Qarth." "We have been waiting for you for a long time," said the woman beside him, in rose and silver, with a flawless breast on the bare side of Qarth's custom. "We knew you would come," said the Sorcerer-King, "a thousand years ago, and we waited until now. The comet is our guide." "We share knowledge with you," said a warrior in shining emerald armor, "and teach you to use magical weapons. Come, come, you pass all the tests, just feast with us, countless Questions will eventually be answered." She takes a step forward.Drogon jumped from his shoulders, flew to the top of the ebony and weirwood door, and began to bite the carvings. "Naughty guy," a handsome young man said with a smile, "do you want me to teach you the mysterious dragon language? Come here, come here quickly." Doubt seized her.The door was so heavy that it took Dany all her strength to push it halfway.Behind the door is another door.The old and dark wooden door, full of cracks, is ordinary... but it is located on her right.The wizards called to her with a voice sweeter than singing, but she left them.Drogon flew back to her, and they passed through a narrow door into a dark room. A long stone table filled the room, upon which was suspended a human heart, rotted and swollen and bruised in color, but still alive.It was beating, and with each beating it gave a deep trill and scattered waves of dark blue light.The figures around the table were nothing more than blue shadows.They didn't move, speak, or turn their heads as Dany walked to the empty chair at the end of the table.There was no sound in the room except the slow, muffled beating of the rotting heart. ...Mother of Dragons... a voice, half whisper, half moan...Mother...Mother...Mother...Echoed in the gloom.There are male voices, female voices, and even a child's voice.The suspended heart continued to beat, sometimes shimmering and sometimes dark.In such a strange atmosphere, it was difficult for her to muster up the thoughts to speak, so she had to barely recite the practiced words: "I am Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros." Can they hear?Why are they not moving?Dany sat down with her hands on her knees. "Please give me advice, teach me with your wisdom to conquer death." Through the dim blue light, she made out the gaunt figure of an immortal to the right.This is a very old man with wrinkled face and no hair. His flesh is a plump bluish-purple color, and his lips and nails are bluer, almost black.Even the whites of his eyes were blue, and they stared straight at an old woman across the table, but seemed to turn a blind eye.The old woman's pale silk robe had rotted to her body, and one side of her shriveled breast was still naked in Qarthian fashion, revealing a pointed blue nipple as hard as leather. She is not breathing!Dany listened to the silence.None of them were breathing, they couldn't move, they couldn't see.Are the Immortals dead? A voice thinner than a mouse's whiskers softly answered... We live... Live... Live... Countless whispers echo... We know everything... Don't know... Don't know... Don't know... "I've come to seek the truth," Dani said. "In the corridor, the scenes I saw... are they real or illusory? Is it the past or the future? What do they mean?" ...a shadow within a shadow...a shape of tomorrow...drinking from a cup of ice...drinking from a cup of fire... ...Mother of Dragons...Son of Three... "Three?" She didn't understand. ...dragons have three heads... ghostly harmonies echoed in her head, but not a lip moved, not a breath stirred the still blue air...mother of dragons...stormborn...whispers turned into loops Singing... It is destined that you will light three flames... One for life, one for death, one for love... Her own heartbeat unknowingly coincides with the rhythm of the blue rotten heart floating in front of her... It is fated that you will ride three mounts... one for bed, one for terror, one for love... Their voices are getting louder, her heartbeat is getting slower and slower, even her breathing... Hit You are destined to experience three betrayals...one for blood, one for money, and one for love... "I don't…" Her voice was almost a whisper, as weak as their previous words.What's wrong with me? "I don't understand," she said, finally a little louder.Why is it so difficult to speak here? "Help me. Tell me." ...help her... whispered mockingly...tell her... Then, an indigo shudder appeared in the darkness.Viserys screamed in pain, and molten gold ran down his cheeks and filled his mouth.A tall hero with bronze skin and silver-blond hair stood under the banner of galloping horses, with a burning city behind him.Ruby-like drops of blood gushed out from the chest of the dying prince. He knelt down in the water and murmured a woman's name with his last breath...Mother of Dragons, Daughter of Death...The red sword was as dazzling as the setting sun. In the hands of a shadowless blue-eyed king.The crowd cheered around the cloth dragon fluttering from the flagpole.From a smoking tower the stone beast soared, spewing shadowy fire... Mother of Dragons, Slayer of Lies... Her silver horse trod across the meadows to a dark stream over a sea of ​​stars.A corpse stood at the prow, with gleaming eyes on a dead face and a sad smile on gray lips.A blue rose bloomed from the crack in the ice wall, exuding an incomparably sweet aura...Mother of Dragons, Bride of Fire... The images appeared faster and faster, one after the other, as if the air had come to life.Shadows circled and danced in the tent, erratic and frightening.A little girl ran barefoot to a mansion with a red door.Mirri Maz Duur screamed in the flames, and a dragon went in and out of her brow.The silver horse dragged a bloody naked male corpse, bouncing on the rough ground.A white lion runs through tall grass taller than a man.At the foot of the Virgin Mary, a group of naked old women came out of the big lake, knelt tremblingly in front of her, lowered their gray heads.Ten thousand slaves raised their bloody hands high, and she rode on a silver horse, galloping past like the wind. "Mother!" they cried, "Mother! Mother!" They crowded around her, touched her, tugged at her cloak and skirts, at her feet, at her legs, at her breasts.They loved her, they wanted her, they needed fire and life, so Dany gave herself up with her arms outstretched... At this moment, a pair of black wings suddenly slapped her on the head, an angry scream pierced the indigo air, and all the images disappeared immediately, retreating invisible.Dany's gasp turned to panic.The immortals surrounded her, like blue cold shadows, whispering softly while approaching her, pulling, stroking, and dragging her clothes with cold and dry hands, touching her body, and wrapping their fingers around her hair.All the strength in her limbs disappeared, she couldn't move, and even her heart stopped beating.She felt a hand reach up to her bare breast, rubbing and squeezing her nipple.Teeth pressed against the softness of her throat.A mouth attacked her eyes, licked, sucked, and bit... Then the indigo turns orange-red, and whispers turn to screams.Her heart was pounding, the hands and feet grabbing her disappeared suddenly, and a gust of hot air washed over her skin.The sudden bright light made Dany squint her eyes.There was the dragon above, spreading its wings, tearing at that hideous black heart, tearing the carrion to shreds.Its head jerked forward, and flames spewed from its mouth, bright and fiery.She heard the screams of the Immortals as they burned, their cries in languages ​​long lost, shrill high notes like thin paper.Their flesh crumbled like parchment, their bones like dead wood soaked in grease.They danced and were consumed by the flames; they staggered and writhed and twisted, holding aloft their flaming hands, fingers as bright as torches. Dany stood up and passed between them.They are as light as gas, but empty shells that shatter when touched.She walked to the door, and the whole house was in flames. "Drogon," she called, and he flew toward her through the flames. Outside the door was a long and dark passage, winding and stretching in front of her, and the only light source was the flickering orange fire behind her.Dany started running, looking for an exit, right, left, any door would do, but there was nothing but the ever-curving stone wall.The floor under her feet seemed to be slowly moving and rolling, trying to trap her.She stabilized her emotions and ran desperately, when suddenly a door appeared in front of her, like an open mouth. She fell into the sunlight, and the bright light made her falter.Haiya Puli was chattering in some unknown language, jumping around with her feet alternating.Dany looked back and saw smoke seeping like vines from the cracks in the ancient stone walls and black tile roof of the Temple of Dust. Howling and cursing, Baiya drew her dagger and flung herself at her, but Drogon leaped in his face, and she heard Jhogo's whip crack--the sweetest sound in the world.The dagger flew out, and in an instant, Rakalo knocked Haiya to the ground.Ser Jorah Mormont knelt in the cool green grass and put his arms around her shoulders.