Viserys held out his hand, and Rhaenys walked over and placed hers in his palm. He clasped it firmly and led her toward the dragons waiting outside the gate.
The cold winds of the North continued to blow, but as they walked side by side, Rhaenys no longer felt cold.
The fairly clear sky in the distance suddenly turned gray, leaden clouds hanging low as though heralding another snowstorm.
Under the eyes of every man of the Night's Watch at the Shadow Tower, Viserys and Rhaenys mounted their dragons once more.
King Ghidorah spread his enormous wings first, raised all three heads, and unleashed an earth-shaking roar. The powerful gusts stirred up by his takeoff nearly knocked the onlookers off their feet, while his roar made them instinctively cover their ears.
Rhaenys followed close behind on Meleys, whose red scales looked like a mass of solidified flame in the dim daylight.
The remaining dragons soon took flight as well. Together, they swept over the towering Wall below and flew east toward Castle Black.
Bitter winds swept through the skies above the North, but by now, the riders on the dragons' backs had long since grown accustomed to them.
Viserys glanced back at the Shadow Tower shrinking below and the Great Canyon beyond the Wall that they had just left, where countless lives and stories lay buried. Then he turned forward again, his gaze resolute.
Next stop, Castle Black.
Hundreds of thousands of Wildlings who had come south to make a living had now gathered in the Gift south of Castle Black. From what Viserys had seen firsthand, the relationships and situation there remained complicated, rife with betrayal and maneuvering at every turn. Ygritte truly had her work cut out for her, and he had seen all her efforts during this