A gigantic black bird flew over city after city, leaving what seemed to be a trail of embers behind, which naturally generated chaos and fear among the people. With a length of sixty meters and a wingspan of one hundred meters, the bird was simply a living nightmare in the eyes of the people.
Cadmus did not care about this; he was quite happy riding Mitra. It had been a long time since he had done something like this, and when he did, it was at night. It was the first time he had ridden Mitra during the day, and he had to admit, it was a completely different experience.
Looking at the beautiful bird below him, Cadmus smiled and looked at the surroundings. The speed was dizzying; cities, forests, mountains, and rivers all seemed like a blur when looked at closely. Unlike a dragon, the Phoenix was truly fast, reaching 60% of the speed of sound.
(Note: 204 meters per second (m/s).)
"It seems I've arrived." Suddenly, seeing a city appearing on the horizon, Cadmus spoke in a calm tone.
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Duskendale.
Originally home to House Darklyn, but after the events of Duskendale, where Aerys II Targaryen was held hostage by Denys Darklyn, House Darklyn was destroyed by Aerys and the Hand of the King, Tywin Lannister.
After being destroyed, Duskendale came to be owned by House Rykker. The current Lord of Duskendale was Renfred Rykker.
In the city's largest inn, called Seven Sword, a man with olive skin, black hair, and dark eyes looked from a hidden angle through the window. Seeing the street full of zombies and ghouls, the man's face became solemn.
After carefully closing the window blind to avoid making a sound, the man looked at the room he was in. Five women were present. All had similar origins to the man: olive skin and black hair.
In particular, the man wore yellow noble clothes, and the other woman wore a flowing dress and jewelry on her fingers, neck, and earlobes.
"Uncle, how is the situation?" Arianne asked in an extremely low tone, full of worry. If it weren't for the silence hanging in the air, it would have been difficult to even hear what she had just said.
"I only see zombies and ghouls everywhere, hundreds or thousands; the city has practically been taken over." Oberyn replied in a heavy and solemn tone. He could not believe that a simple stop to resupply the ship would end in the situation they were currently in.
The face of Arianne, the Heiress of Sunspear, instantly darkened. Not to mention them, a group of six people, even an army of ten thousand men would not be enough to face an entire city infested with zombies and ghouls.
"The longer it takes, the more ghouls and zombies will be generated, which will make the situation extremely dangerous. Not that it isn't already." Arianne said in a solemn tone. Looking at her uncle, she asked, "Has King's Landing received the raven?"
They had sent a raven to King's Landing just over a day ago. Logically, the raven should have arrived in less than two hours in King's Landing, as the distance between King's Landing and Duskendale was short.
"The king is holding a tournament in Harrenhal; it will take a while for King's Landing to contact the king, and it will take even more time for the army to be ready to march towards the city." Oberyn said in a calm tone. As a veteran general and warrior, he knew better than anyone how time-consuming it was to mobilize a large army. Logistics were terribly slow, and without logistics, the army could not be mobilized.
"To relieve your stress, let's visit every brothel in King's Landing; let's try every prostitute, whether woman or man." Ellaria Sand, Oberyn's lover and mother of his four daughters, whispered sweetly in his ear while her hand firmly held his private parts. Oberyn knew she was a typical Dornish woman, as wonderfully seductive in bed as she was deadly with a dagger.
"You really know how to cheer a man up, my love." Oberyn spoke with a smile, leaning down to claim his lover's lips, who completely surrendered to the kiss.
"Wait until we get to King's Landing; we are still in this cursed city, uncle." Oberyn's niece, the Princess of Dorne, Arianne Martell, spoke, resting her head on her hand while smiling sensually. She wore almost transparent blue clothes and many glittering jewels adorned her beautiful body.
"Can't we just kill them all? They don't seem very strong." Obara, Oberyn's eldest bastard daughter and leader of the Sand Snakes, spoke. She was tall and had a strong body, with a voice not as delicate and strong as a man's, but a little more feminine.
"Don't be an idiot; there are thousands, if not tens of thousands. We will run out of strength after killing three or four." Nymeria, the second eldest daughter, replied with an elegant smile on her red lips. Although she looked like a virtuous lady from a noble house, one never knew if she was hiding a dagger in her hands until it was too late.
"Humph!" Obara snorted, looking at her sister with displeasure.
"Don't fight; my ears are calloused from all your fights on this trip." Tyene, the third daughter of the Red Viper, spoke with a sweet and silky voice. Small and delicate, with blonde hair and bright blue eyes, her appearance was deceiving about her skill with poisons. Oberyn's third daughter was as deadly as her sisters; her delicacy perfectly concealed her mastery of poison, which she manipulated with deadly skill.
"However, Lord Renfred not mobilizing his own soldiers to prevent the spread of the zombies is suspicious." Rolling her eyes at the three women, Arianne said with a tone still confused and incredulous at the slowness with which the Lord of House Rykker was acting.
The man practically watched his city being consumed and dying. Even if the city were saved later, it would be nothing more than a dead city, and the power that House Rykker had would cease to exist, just like House Darklyn.
"It's very likely that Renfred is dead or taken hostage." Tyene commented with a sigh. No lord would be foolish enough to watch his own city die and do nothing, so it was likely that he was dead or taken hostage by the perpetrators.
A silence hung in the air with her words; this was what everyone was thinking. There was no way Renfred would stand idly by in the face of his city's destruction.
Suddenly, a loud noise in the inn drastically changed the faces of the people inside the room. A man's screams could be heard downstairs. The most frightening thing was that after the man's scream, grotesque, loud, and high-pitched roars sounded from outside, followed by the desperate sound of something colliding heavily with the door. With each knock, the doors trembled and opened slightly, revealing a horrible monster smelling of decaying corpses.
"Shit!" Oberyn cursed under his breath and quickly began to place the room's furniture against the door. He did the whole process making the least noise possible. All the women helped; there was only everyone's breathing in the room as the furniture piled up against the door.
After finishing, Oberyn sighed with relief but did not relax; his spear was already in his hands. Although using a spear in a small space was disadvantageous, he was facing ghouls and zombies, beings that could infect a person with poison and diseases.
Suddenly, the man's scream sounded again, but this time, full of pain and despair, attracting more and more monsters drawn by the sound, who entered the inn. Oberyn knew the man was dead; screaming loudly in that place was a death sentence.
Frightening everyone in the room, the furniture barricade trembled a few times, and growls sounded behind the door. Arianne could even hear the monster's breathing, the smell of decaying corpses entering the room, making everyone hold their breath in disgust.
Then, a loud sound echoed and reverberated throughout the city. The sound strangely resembled a bird flapping its wings. However, this should be impossible, as there was no bird in the world that could be so large that an entire city could hear its wings flapping.
The sound attracted all the Zombies and Ghouls, causing the creatures to go outside and look at the sky with curious and hungry expressions.
A gigantic creature flew over the city, covering the city with a colossal shadow.
Oberyn and Arianne opened the blinds and looked at the sky in complete shock and disbelief.
Then, a male voice echoed throughout the city.
"I am Cadmus Peverell, Lord of Harrenhal and Court Wizard to King Rhaegar I Targaryen."
"From this moment on, all survivors must remain indoors and not leave."
Oberyn and Arianne looked at each other and saw each other's surprise. When did the court have a mage? However, they soon put those thoughts aside with the terrifying scene.
"Fiend Fayre."
The sound echoed like a decree from the gods.
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Read my other books:
Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos (500,000 words written).
Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.
Game Of Thrones: The King's Court Wizard