Game of Thrones: Holy Flame King

  Chapter 184 City Breakdown

  The church in the middle of the night was silent.

  Earl Jorn's body was wrapped in the banner of the Royce family and placed in front of the statue of the Virgin.

  Samwell was on the night watch, and with him was Sir Robert Royce, the second son of the Earl.

   "A father was cautious all his life."

   After an unknown amount of time, Sir Robert suddenly said softly.

   "I can tell." Samwell changed his posture and moved his numb left leg.

   "But unfortunately, after all, I couldn't escape the curse of [Time]." Sir Robert's side face was hidden in the darkness, and his expression at this time could not be seen clearly.

  Samwell didn't know how to answer this, and after a while, he borrowed a sentence from Earl Jorn before he died:

   "Time washes away everything."

  Sir Robert fell into silence, and just when Samwell thought he didn't want to talk anymore, he suddenly spoke again:

   "The Royce family has inherited seven sets of bronze armor."

  Samwell's expression moved, and he immediately thought of the fantasy that appeared in front of him when he just put on the [Time] armor.

   At that time, he did see seven figures in the godswood forest.

   "These bronze armor..." Samwell asked tentatively, "Is there any story?"

"They all have an extremely ancient history." Sir Robert's voice became distant and deep, "It is said that as early as eight thousand years ago, or even earlier, an ancestor of the Royce family became the Night Watchman Legion commander in chief.

  His name has long been forgotten, and it is said that he had six brothers. The seven of them are the most outstanding rangers on the Great Wall, and they are also heroes who resist the invasion of evil.

At that time, the Night Watchman Legion was not like it is now. It was a garbage shelter. At that time, the most outstanding and most pious warriors from the Seven Kingdoms gathered on the Great Wall of Impossibility. They were willing to sacrifice their all to resist the evil invasion beyond the Great Wall .

  It's a pity that the seven brothers of the Royce family turned against each other for a woman, and dueled under the ancient heart tree. In the end, six of them died, and only one survived. "

   "Woman?" Samwell couldn't help but think of the ice beauty in the vision who was like a snow-white sculpture.

   "Yes. A woman, it is said that she is extremely beautiful, but also extremely cold, as pale as the moon, but also as beautiful as the moon. She has a breathtaking charm."

   "What happened later? The only Royce who survived, he married that woman?"

   "Yes, but he was cursed by the gods for killing his relatives, and soon died. And that woman also disappeared on the Great Wall, as if she had never appeared before."

   "Is she a wildling from beyond the Great Wall?"

   "No idea. Everything about her is a mystery."

  Samwell rubbed his chin, always feeling that this story was inexplicably familiar, and it should hide some unknown secrets.

  The Royce family takes "We Remember" as their motto, so they should know a lot of ancient secrets.

  Before Earl Jorn saw something wrong with the eyes of the giant sword [Dawn] behind Samwell, and he probably knew something.

   It seemed that Samwell's intentions were not enough, and Sir Robert added: "If you want to know more, you can ask my brother. He is the heir of Runestone City and knows more than me."

  Samwell nodded. He remembered that the eldest son of the Royce family should be named Anda. He met him once in the martial arts tournament in King's Landing before, but the two didn't fight each other.

   "The bronze armor of the Royce family has never been handed over to outsiders." Sir Robert spoke again.

  Samwell shrugged: "When the battle is over, if the Royce family wants to return the armor, I will have no objection."

"No, Father has already promised you. So, as long as you kill the Red Viper, the [Time] armor will be yours." In the darkness, Sir Robert's eyes fixed on the armor on Samwell, "I just hope you Can make good use of this armor."

"I will."

  The two fell into silence again.

   After an unknown amount of time, Samwell suddenly remembered something and asked:

   "This time Earl Jorn commanded the army of the valley to conquer Dorne, what is the attitude of the Eagle's Nest City?"

"The attitude of the Eagle's Nest is very strange." Sir Robert's tone was full of doubts and a little resentment, "In fact, after receiving the war order from the Iron Throne, my father has been waiting for the young Duke of the Eagle's Nest to be recruited. Order. But it has not waited.

  This war is for Duke Jon Arryn's revenge, and the Eagle's Nest City is not active at all, which is really incomprehensible.

  Father couldn't wait for the call-up order for a long time, so he had to go to the Eagle's Nest City in person, but was kicked out by Lady Lysa, and he didn't even see the face of the young Duke.

  In the end, it was the nobles of the valley called by the father himself, who formed an army and went south. "

  Samwell was not surprised when he heard it. In the original book, Lady Lysa basically had this kind of escapism attitude. In the "War of the Five Kings", she has always refused to send troops to participate in the war.

  Although it was an escape this time, fortunately, it failed to prevent the valley nobles from leading their troops southward on their own.

   After all, "Littlefinger" is dead, and Lady Lysa probably doesn't have the guts to stop those Vale nobles who want to avenge Duke Jon Arryn.

  Samwell suddenly thought, with the death of Duke Jon Arryn and "Littlefinger" dead, the Valley has actually become a power vacuum.

   Lady Lysa, that stupid woman, is naturally not capable of ruling the Vale, and neither is her young son, who is not expected to live long.

   And Lord Jon Arryn left no other heirs.

  The heir in line of the Aylin family, if Samwell remembers correctly, is actually a knight of the Hatton family, and this person's inheritance rights come from the matriarchal line.

  However, Hatton is only a small family, but its lord, the Waywood family in Iron Oak City is quite powerful. If the young Lord Robert Arryn dies unfortunately, the Waywood family will most likely use the heir of the Hatton family to get their hands on the authority of the Vale.

  But as one of the most powerful vassals in the valley, the Royce family may not necessarily watch a Hatton become the Duke of the Eagle's Nest City and the guardian of the valley.

  In short, it is estimated that there will be a lot of fighting in the valley in the future.

   Both of them were immersed in their own thoughts, stopped talking, and waited until dawn.

  Samwell got up from the ground, moved his stiff body, and heard Sir Robert beside him say:

   "Master Caesar, now you are the commander, and you should preside over the daily morning prayer."

"good."

  Samwell gathered everyone together and began to pray to the statue of the warrior, praying that he would bestow courage and strength.

  At this moment, Samwell felt that he had also become extremely devout.

   They need the protection of the gods too much.

  The current situation is so bad that even Samwell has no confidence.

  He didn't know how many days he could survive the Dornish attack.

   I don't know when the Iron Throne army outside will be able to attack the city.

   At this time, perhaps only a miracle can save them.

  Unfortunately, the miracle never appeared.

  Time passed day by day, and Samwell had already forgotten what day it was. It seemed to be the eighteenth day? Or day 20?

   There are fewer and fewer comrades in arms. From the initial three hundred and forty people to now, there are only more than forty living people left, and only a dozen of them can still stand.

  The whole church is filled with the smell of death.

   "Why don't you surrender?" Sir Robert limped to Samwell's side and whispered.

   "If I could surrender, I would have voted." Samwell couldn't help but swear in a low voice, "The Red Viper even killed his own daughter. Do you think he will let us go if he surrenders?"

  Ser Robert fell silent.

  In fact, he has realized this a long time ago. The fact that this battle has been fought until now is actually because they know that surrendering to the Dornish people is a dead end, so they desperately resist.

  But... in this situation, if you don't surrender, how can you continue to fight?

   I'm afraid the Dornishmen will charge again, and the church will fall.

  However, the strange thing is that this last wave of shock has not arrived for a long time.

  From morning to night, Samwell and Robert stood at the window looking to the north, and suddenly realized something.

   "The Dornishmen are about to fail!" Sir Robert cheered after sweeping away the decline.

  Samwell is now manipulating the Falcon hovering over the north city gate, witnessing with his own eyes that the Iron Throne army has finally reached the top of the city again!

   This time, is it really coming in?

  With the lessons learned from the past, he didn't even dare to be happy too early, for fear that it would be an empty joy.

   Fortunately, there were no surprises in the progress of the matter this time. The Dornishmen retreated steadily, and the city walls and gates fell one after another.

  When he saw the city gate slowly opening and a large army rushing in, Samwell was finally convinced—

  The city is broken!

   "We are victorious! We are saved!"

  He excitedly told the good news to the rest of the soldiers, and finally there was some laughter in the church that was shrouded in despair all day long.

  But before they were happy, a bad news came.

   "My lord, the Dornishmen are here!"

   "How many came?"

   "A lot! I'm afraid there are six or seven hundred people! The leader should be the Red Viper!"

   "Damn it!" After Samwell got the information, he hurriedly climbed up to the second floor again and looked out the window. Sure enough, he saw that the Dornishmen outside had already blocked the water around the sanctuary and were making final preparations before the attack.

   "It seems that the Red Viper did not intend to let us go before leaving." Sir Robert smiled sadly, as if he was ready to sacrifice.

  Samwell said nothing, returned to the hall with a heavy face, and summoned everyone.

  His eyes slowly swept across the faces of everyone, and said:

"You also know that Tianji City has been breached, but the Dornish people don't intend to let us go, this is their last madness. I don't want to lie to you, the temple should not be able to defend, so we must breakout."

   "How to break out?"

   "Of course, we should charge out on horseback. As long as we can break through the encirclement and join the army at the north gate, we will be saved."

   "But we have no horses," Ser Robert reminded.

   "Aren't there the last six horses?"

   "Not enough for so many people to ride..."

   "Then let six people rush out." As soon as Samwell finished speaking, everyone's expressions changed.

   These are the last six chances for survival.

  (end of this chapter)