After two hours of quiet contemplation in the Painted Table Chamber, Danyla began to feel drained, so she obediently followed her maid back to her room to sleep.
After forming a bond with Dreamfyre, Danyla had felt an extraordinary surge of vitality. She had grown much bolder, too.
Danyla's room was in a tower near the gardens of Dragonstone Castle. It had originally been nameless, but after moving in, she had named it the Holy Flame Tower.
The tower had an enormous dragon-claw brazier. In winter, its blazing fire kept Danyla's room wonderfully warm.
This meant that Danyla, who loved flowers and plants, could keep her room full of blossoms all year round. Their fragrance also successfully kept Dragonstone Castle's pungent sulfurous smell at bay.
Behind the tower lay a vast hillside, perfectly suited for a Great Dragon to land on. Dreamfyre liked to rest there during the day.
At night, she would go to sleep near the volcano on New Island. She had built a nest in a natural cave near its crater.
Ever since Danyla had rescued Dreamfyre from the Dragonpit in King's Landing, her appetite had improved considerably. She could eat more than a dozen roasted goats every day.
Danyla also occasionally rode Dreamfyre out to hunt over the Narrow Sea. On a good hunt, they could even catch whales, sharks, and other large sea creatures.
A single whale could not only fill Dreamfyre's belly, but also add several hundred gold coins to Danyla's private treasury.
The Holy Flame Tower was not large. Its three floors covered only a little over three hundred square meters in total.
The ground floor housed Danyla's kennels and the twelve knights who skinned the goats.
The second floor contained the reception room where Danyla received guests, along with her sitting room. Her instructor Bronn and her two sworn knights also had rooms there.
The third floor contained Danyla's bedroom, study, and the rooms of her four maids.
She currently had four ladies-in-waiting attending her personally. Their leader was sixteen-year-old Anne of House Stokeworth, a noble family from the king's own domains.
The other three were thirteen-year-old Rhaella of House Royce of Runestone in the Vale, twelve-year-old Jarelle, the second daughter of Earl Mooton of Maidenpool in the Riverlands, and ten-year-old Bethany, the eldest daughter of Earl Rosby in the Crownlands.
Under their attentive care, Danyla quickly washed up, then climbed into bed with her dragon egg in her arms.
This dragon egg had been with Danyla for many years. Since it had spent the entire day warming by the fire, it was still rather hot.
Apart from Danyla, no one else could really bear the dragon egg's current temperature.
In her sleep, Danyla's consciousness entered a fantastical place. She seemed to be among the clouds, but the mist around her looked more like burning fire.
Danyla felt weightless and drifted forward involuntarily. Suddenly, a huge mass of black-and-blue fire clouds blocked her path.
But when she looked closely, it was no cloud at all. It was a sky-spanning Great Dragon formed from flames—Dreamfyre!
Since she had already bonded with Dreamfyre, Danyla felt no fear before this Great Dragon that had form but no substance.
Dreamfyre lowered her enormous head and stared at Danyla for a while with pale golden eyes as large as basketballs, then crouched down.
Danyla climbed straight onto Dreamfyre's back and firmly patted her scales, which seemed to hover between solid and intangible. Dreamfyre understood at once. She excitedly opened her jaws as though giving a long roar, then took flight.
Though there was no sound, Danyla could clearly sense her delight. It was a wondrous feeling, as though their minds were in perfect harmony. Yes, that was exactly it.
Their emotions and minds seemed connected now. In that instant, Danyla felt her mental link with Dreamfyre grow clearer, as though the dragon were an extension of her own body.
Climb, Dreamfyre!
Danyla tried giving Dreamfyre a command in her mind. To her surprise, the dragon truly received it and swiftly gained altitude!
Danyla discovered that fire clouds filled this dreamscape, making it almost impossible to distinguish north from south, east from west, or even up from down.
Faster, Dreamfyre!
Dive, Dreamfyre!
Dragonfire, Dreamfyre!
This time, Dreamfyre breathed dragonfire of a different color from her flames in the waking world. Her normally orange-red dragonfire had become blue-black flames that burned far hotter.
The dragonfire seemed about to set the entire dreamscape ablaze. The surrounding temperature rose sharply, yet when that heat reached Danyla, it felt incredibly soothing. All the discomfort and exhaustion in her body seemed to vanish.
It felt magnificent-unrestrained, carefree, and exhilarating. This delight of the soul was even more thrilling than Danyla's first flight on dragonback.
They kept flying, and the exhilaration continued. Then an enormous green cloud of flame rapidly approached from afar.
Bigger than the red dragon-is that Vhagar?
The green dragon stopped a short distance away and came no closer, following at a leisurely pace.
How wondrous!
Soaring through this boundless dreamscape of fiery clouds, Danyla entered a state of utter ease and freedom.
Just then, a faint voice suddenly sounded in her mind. Yet it could not quite be called a voice. More precisely, it was a sensation.
As she slowly followed the direction of that sensation, it grew stronger and stronger.
Stop and descend, Dreamfyre.
She climbed down from the dragon's back. Before her stood a burning pink-and-white stone shaped like a dragon egg. The sensation was coming from it.
Danyla involuntarily reached out toward the large pink stone with her right hand. Suddenly, a shock wave struck the crown of her head like a thunderclap.
Danyla jolted awake and sprang up in bed, knocking the dragon egg beside her onto the floor.
Fortunately, a thick Myrish carpet covered the floor, and the dragon egg was sturdy enough not to break from the fall.
"Huh? Why does this dragon egg have so much more of a pink sheen?"
Thinking of the pink, egg-shaped stone in her dream, Danyla murmured,
"Could this dragon egg be about to hatch?"
She glanced outside and saw that it was still early, but she no longer felt sleepy. Her mind was exceptionally alert, and her body seemed full of strength.
"That really was a good dream."
"Your Highness, are you awake?"
Anne must have heard Danyla moving about, for she called to her from outside the door.
"Yes, Anna."
A moment later, Anna and Bethany entered together with washing supplies. After quickly washing up, Danyla changed into a midnight purple gown.
After all, there was a funeral today, and the color was fitting.
"Your Highness, Maester Tigris said there would be no morning lesson today. After breakfast, everyone will begin preparing to receive the king."
Danyla's sworn knight, Cameron Tarth, delivered the report respectfully.
Cameron was the second son of the Earl of Evenfall Hall on Tarth. Along with Harold Darklyn, he had been chosen by Danyla at the tournament celebrating the king's birthday the previous year and appointed as one of her sworn knights.
Danyla had also spent a hundred gold coins bribing Ser Clement, the drunken Kingsguard, to knight them.
Being knighted by a member of the Kingsguard was an honor in itself. Besides, once paid, Clement had been quite conscientious about his duties. While they were in King's Landing, he had even personally trained them for several months.
By now, Cameron and Harold were fairly capable fighters compared with others their age.
"All the members of the royal family and quite a few Great Lords should be coming today. Go and see to your work. I'll stay here on my own for a while."
After changing, Danyla gave these instructions to Anne and the others.
Once they had left, Danyla approached the silvery-white dragon egg with its pink sheen, warming by the fire in her bedroom, and gently stroked it.
"Was it you I saw in my dream?"
Through the dragon egg's rough scales, Danyla could actually feel a vigorous energy surging within.
"Perhaps I could give it a try!"
Danyla murmured, her eyes gleaming.
After breakfast, Danyla stopped Cameron and quietly gave him instructions in his ear. He first looked startled, then utterly puzzled, but finally bowed and said,
"As you command, my princess."
Afterward, Danyla led the castle's household to the gates to await the arrival of the king and his party.
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