If the North was frozen earth swept by bitter winds, and the Riverlands a watery realm threaded with rivers, then the Reach was an endless expanse of green fields.
Grass covered every inch of land, with white wildflowers scattered among it like stars.
A breeze passed, sending waves through the grass.
An all-white carriage, drawn by two Andal Horses with coats as white as snow, traveled along a road through those green fields, surrounded by House Tyrell guards in gleaming armor and fine livery.
Margaery Tyrell lowered the carriage curtain.
Compared with the tangled court affairs and noisy streets of King's Landing, she truly preferred the Reach.
But her duty to her family would not allow her to linger and enjoy its peace.
She leaned against a soft velvet cushion, her thoughts returning to the scene a few days earlier, when she had tried to persuade her father and grandmother just after returning to Highgarden.
She had explained the situation in King's Landing in detail to her father, Lord Mace Tyrell, and her grandmother, Lady Olenna Redwyne, telling them plainly that the dragon Aegon Targaryen possessed was nothing like an ordinary dragon.
She had seen that Three-Headed Dragon with her own eyes and felt the shadow that blotted out the sky.
She had told her father and grandmother that the dragon was closer to a god.
And Aegon's determination to establish his new order could not be stopped.
She had told her father that Highgarden now had only two paths before it.
They could commit themselves wholeheartedly to Aegon's service. With House Tyrell's strength and influence in the Reach, willingly submitting might earn them a respectable role in the new order and allow them to retain their titles and lands.
Or they could persist in their stubbornness... and face certain