The Old Palace was extremely simple—perhaps the most, uh, plain and unadorned royal palace Dany had ever seen.
Two towers stood tall, with a four-meter-high gray hall between them. And that was it.
"You see, the tower on the left, slender in structure with a ten-meter-long gilded iron spike at the top," the White Knight pointed out the window, introducing the scene. "That's the Spear Tower, representing House Martell's spear.
The one on the right, a delicate tower with a golden dome and a hall with stained-glass walls at the top, is the Sun Tower, representing the sun of Rhoynar.
The great hall in the middle is the banquet hall, where Prince Martell officially hosts his guests."
At this moment, they had entered a wooden tavern opposite the Old Palace, sitting by a window on the second floor. While sipping orange juice, a specialty of Dorne, they observed the Old Palace across the way.
The reason it was called the Old Palace was that Maron Martell had built a new palace—Water Gardens—15 kilometers west of Sunspear when he married Daenerys Targaryen.
Well, the Daenerys from 130 years ago.
It was hard to say whether the previous generations of Targaryens were just too incompetent or if the Dornish had truly mastered the art of "guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines" to a godlike level.
While the other six kingdoms had long submitted to House Targaryen, Dorne rebelled today, rebelled tomorrow, and kept resisting from the time of Aegon the Conqueror 300 years ago until the reign of Baelor the Blessed 150 years ago. For nearly two centuries, Dorne continuously opposed the Targaryens.
Despite having the smallest population and the most barren resources, not to mention the Targaryens still had dragons (since dragons hadn't gone extinct yet in the early dynasty), the Dornish nearly bled the Targaryens dry.
Not to mention the number of Targaryens who died at the hands of the Dornish—even one of the famed Seven Great Dragons, Meraxes, perished on this land.
To be honest, when Dany first read about the history of conquering Dorne, her first thought was, "Here's another case of 'Three Thousand Unsullied Defending Qohor.'"
She just couldn't understand it. Yes, Dorne had a harsh environment. Yes, it was full of sand and complex hilly terrain. Yes, the Dornish were unruly. But for those very reasons, there wasn't much habitable land either!
Forget everything else—just taking Sunspear alone (which had fallen into Targaryen hands multiple times), blockading the Greenblood River's shipping route, and then sending dragons to burn the crops and orchards along the riverbanks… wait ten or twenty years and see how many Dornish would be left.
Among the Seven Kingdoms, Dorne had the smallest population—fewer than 500,000—and most were concentrated along the Greenblood River. If nothing else, controlling the Greenblood alone should have been enough to crush Dorne.
And yet, much like those three thousand Unsullied, the Dornish seemed to have cheats enabled. Or perhaps the Targaryens and the other six kingdoms had all been collectively hit with a "foolishness" debuff. After nearly two centuries of war, they still couldn't win and had to resort to marriage alliances to end the conflict.
If it were up to Dany to deal with the Dornish, she was confident she could keep casualties under a thousand. One dragon would be enough.
No need to bother with castles—just systematically destroy crops, factories, docks, and ships. It wouldn't matter whether the Dornish submitted or not; she'd simply ensure that within 20 years, Dorne was bombed back to the Stone Age.
If given 50 years, she could even erase Dornish civilization, reducing them to a people who couldn't even write their own names—nothing more than a tribe of primitive savages.
Alright, that was a bit of a tangent.
Dany wasn't the first "Daenerys" in House Targaryen. A century ago, after exhausting all other options, the Targaryens were forced into a humiliating marriage alliance with House Martell.
They exchanged princesses—you take my princess, I take yours. And the princess married into House Martell was named "Daenerys."
Essentially, "Daenerys" was just a variation of "Daenys." In fact, even "Daenys the Dreamer" might not have been the first of her name. Who knew how many "Dany" ancestors the Targaryens had produced in their 6,000 years in Valyria?
"Do you want to meet Prince Martell?" the White Knight asked in a low voice.
"What for?"
"He may not be the most loyal ally of House Targaryen, but he certainly shares a common enemy with you," Barristan slowly exhaled a name. "Tywin Lannister."
"Tywin is dead."
"I don't think Prince Martell is so easily satisfied," the White Knight replied.
"You heard it yourself on the way here—his brother, Oberyn, died at the hands of the Mountain, yet the prince locked up the Sand Snakes who rioted, choosing instead to keep the peace," Dany said, spreading her hands.
Speaking of Oberyn Martell, one couldn't help but sigh: The fate of spearmen is truly tragic!
Under the judicial system of the Faith of the Seven, there was one tradition that Dany found particularly absurd—trial by combat.
Any accused criminal, as long as they steadfastly denied their crime during the trial—even if there was overwhelming evidence against them—could challenge the accuser to trial by combat.
For example, if Wang Wu raped Zhang San's wife, and afterward, the village chief led the villagers to capture Wang Wu for a public trial, Wang Wu could still argue, "The man who was on top of Zhang San's wife wasn't me—he just looked a lot like me. If you don't believe me, let's settle this with a trial by combat. The Seven Gods will prove my innocence."
Zhang San, infuriated to the point of bursting, would then have no choice but to duel Wang Wu.
If Zhang San won, Wang Wu would be convicted and executed. But if Zhang San lost, not only would he die, but Wang Wu would also be completely absolved of his crime.
Of course, if the village chief is absolutely certain that Wang Wu is a violent criminal, he can reject his request for a trial by combat. Alternatively, he could help Zhang San find a formidable champion to defeat Wang Wu outright.
However, looking at the history of Westeros, noble lords and members of the royal family have rarely intervened to stop trial by combat.
Hmm, only great lords and members of the royal family have the authority to forbid it—they are essentially the "village chiefs" of Wang Wu and Zhang San's village.
Take Tyrion, for example, during the "Purple Wedding." He was accused of regicide and kin-slaying (poisoning his nephew Joffrey), crimes so heinous that he deserved to be executed a thousand times over.
Queen Cersei loathed this "Little Devil." When all the evidence pointed against Tyrion, he demanded a trial by combat, and despite her hatred, Cersei had no choice but to allow it—after all, she was only the Queen Regent.
Tyrion originally intended to choose the mercenary Bronn as his champion. They were old acquaintances—back at the Eyrie, Bronn had voluntarily fought for the "Imp" against Lysa Arryn's knight.
But Cersei had chosen Gregor Clegane, the Mountain, as her champion—the man considered the strongest knight in the Seven Kingdoms at the time (Ser Barristan was old, Ser Arthur Dayne was long dead, and it was an era of declining knightly prowess). Moreover, she offered Bronn an irresistible deal—if he refused to fight for Tyrion, she would arrange his marriage to the daughter of House Stokeworth, ensuring his rise in status.
Hmm, this already deviates from the "Game of Thrones" storyline that Daenerys remembers.
In the end, it was Oberyn Martell, the "Red Viper," who fought on Tyrion's behalf—the younger brother of Prince Doran Martell of Dorne and the brother of Daenerys' late sister-in-law, Elia Martell.
The Mountain had raped and killed the Dornish princess and then brutally murdered her children. Oberyn sought vengeance for his sister, nephew, and niece.
He nearly succeeded—except he was too talkative and had "E-rank luck"—what else would you expect from a spear wielder?
Here, the events align once again with the "Game of Thrones" storyline. The Mountain, already poisoned and lying on the ground awaiting death, suddenly grabbed Oberyn's leg, pulled him down, and crushed his skull with his bare hands.
That kind of grip strength—he wouldn't even need a nutcracker to open walnuts.
Logically, with his sister, nephew, and now younger brother all murdered by the Lannisters (the Mountain was Tywin's loyal hound and fought on Cersei's behalf), any man with a shred of backbone would have declared war in retaliation.
After all, this was Doran Martell we're talking about!
The Martells had once stood their ground against the Targaryens—how fierce were they back then?
Not even an army of a hundred thousand could break them, nor could dragonfire burn them into submission. The men and women of Dorne were all warriors. Yet under Doran's rule, they had become cowards, retreating into their shells like turtles.
So Daenerys didn't even need to investigate—at that moment, all of Sunspear's streets and alleys were buzzing with criticism of their prince's cowardly inaction.
Oberyn had been deeply loved by the people of Dorne, and when news of his death arrived, the entire city of Sunspear erupted in fury. A rebellion could have formed instantly without any need for mobilization.
During that time, Oberyn's daughters were especially active, publicly declaring their intent to avenge their father.
Dornish bastards bear the surname Sand, and since Oberyn was called the "Red Viper," his numerous daughters became collectively known as the Sand Snakes.
Strangely enough, Oberyn had fathered at least eight daughters—but not a single son.
However, before the Sand Snakes could stir up much trouble, Prince Doran suddenly took action, locking up several of his rebellious nieces in one swift move. Sunspear immediately fell into silence.
Well, not total silence—behind closed doors, more and more people whispered that "the prince's spine is as useless as his legs." So much so that Daenerys only had to take a short walk through the city before overhearing seven or eight different conversations about it.
To be honest, she was both disappointed and shocked.
The reason she lingered in Dorne was because, according to the "Game of Thrones" storyline, the Sand Snakes should have already successfully rebelled at this point. They had poisoned Cersei's daughter, Princess Myrcella, assassinated the "weak and spineless" Prince Doran, and were preparing to march against the Iron Throne.
This kind of major event was reason enough for Daenerys to stay in Sunspear for a while.
This wasn't the first time the storyline had diverged from her memories. She was disappointed but could accept it. However, this incident led her to an important realization—Prince Doran's control over Sunspear and Dorne was far stronger than she had anticipated.
Despite countless people secretly resenting Doran's policy of appeasement, Sunspear remained politically stable, economically prosperous, and its people lived in peace. There wasn't even a hint of unrest, let alone full-blown rebellion.
Daenerys had to admit—Doran might not have the courage to seize opportunities, but he wasn't a coward. He had simply chosen the most secure path for his people and for Dorne.
—No matter how skilled the Dornish were at guerrilla warfare, their strength was limited. They were excellent at defense but terrible at offense. Once they left the familiar terrain of Dorne, they were no different from any other soldiers.
If they couldn't even break through the Reach or the Stormlands, how could they possibly march on King's Landing?
Hmm, Dorne was nearly 2,000 kilometers from the capital, with parts of the Reach and the Stormlands standing in the way.
Because of this, Daenerys had little interest in Barristan's suggestion.
"We should rest—"
She abruptly stopped speaking. Raising her head, a flicker of red flashed through her violet eyes, and she was momentarily dazed. Shaking her head, she lowered her voice and said, "Do you feel that? We're being watched."
Barristan remained composed as he stood up and casually called out to a nearby waiter, "One order of peppered chicken, please."
With just that single sentence and a few casual movements, he had already surveyed the entire area. A few ravens flew past the window, but nothing seemed amiss.
"No one is watching us. Are you sure you're not mistaken?" the old knight asked after sitting back down, puzzled.
"This—" Daenerys stood up, openly scanning her surroundings, even peering out into the street. She found nothing.
It was close to 2 PM—long past lunchtime. The second floor of the inn wasn't empty, but it was far from crowded. Only a few merchants in silk robes were murmuring about business deals.
"Finish eating. We leave immediately." Daenerys frowned.
(End of chapter)
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