Strengthening the defenses

The same process unfolded once more.

Golden light gathered between his brows, and another drop of scorching dragon blood, imbued with the power of an ancient covenant, seeped out and silently sank into the dark Dragon Egg.

The suffocating pressure in the room slowly dissipated.

The four Dragon Eggs lay quietly after absorbing the dragon blood. A faint, soft sheen seemed to flow over their shells, as though slumbering beasts had received their first spark of life.

Janice held her breath throughout, her purple eyes following the path of every drop of dragon blood.

When the last trace of golden light vanished into the depths of the black-and-red egg's shell, she hurried forward and bent down, her silver hair almost brushing the pale purple egg that belonged to her.

Her fingertips hovered above its cool shell as she studied every inch of its patterns, as though trying to catch the slightest stir within.

"Is that it?" she asked softly, a hint of anticipation in her voice as she looked eagerly at Liu Qian.

Liu Qian nodded, his gaze resting on the four Dragon Eggs.

The lifeless stillness of the Dragon Egg Fossils had faded, replaced by a subdued yet powerful pulse of life, as though molten lava lay beneath their stone shells, ready to erupt.

"When will they hatch?" Jelena approached, her voice carrying a rare note of urgency.

As a descendant of House Belerys, one of the dragonlord bloodlines, she yearned for the birth of young dragons with an obsession rooted deep in her blood. She could hardly wait to see them.

Liu Qian shook his head, brushing his fingertips over the increasingly hot shells. "Hard to say. Perhaps a few months."

He felt the faint pulses beneath the shells, slow but steady.

"That long...?"

Jelena murmured to herself.

Liu Qian carefully placed the Dragon Eggs on the heavy wooden table beneath the stone window.

Outside stood a sheer cliff, with waves endlessly battering the black reefs below.

Cool moonlight spilled through the window onto the four eggs. Pale purple, silver-white, blood-red, and black-and-red, each glimmered with its own inner light, like sleeping stars.

"From now on, the Dragon Spirit Guardians must keep this place under strict guard. No one is to enter," Liu Qian said solemnly.

Janice frowned. "What if they hatch while we're away?"

Liu Qian considered that. "When I go out, I'll have Dragon Spirit Guardians stay inside the room. If anything happens with the eggs, they'll report to us immediately."

They did not intend to name the four young dragons yet, since they had not hatched.

Once the three finished discussing the Dragon Eggs, they went their separate ways.

As Liu Qian stepped out of the sea cave, he heard coordinated but somewhat awkward shouts from the harbor, interspersed with Jorah Mormont's harsh reprimands.

Upon seeing Liu Qian, the knight from Bear Island stopped training the soldiers and approached from Fan-Shaped Bay with heavy steps, his expression as dark as an overcast sky.

After pledging his allegiance and being released that day, Jorah had gone straight to Lynesse.

At first, he had worried that Liu Qian would break his promise, but seeing Lynesse unharmed had set his mind at ease.

Her circumstances, however, remained a thorn in his heart.

Born into the nobility of the Reach, Lynesse had grown accustomed to luxury and pleasure. Now she was housed in a crude stone chamber with only a lowly slave to attend her. All her former splendor and dignity were gone, leaving her shrouded in fear and despair.

During her days in Torturer's Deep, every day had felt like a year. She lived in constant anxiety, afraid that the pirate leader here might force himself on her one day. Sorrow covered her beautiful face, and her former vitality had vanished.

Seeing Lynesse in that state tore at Jorah's heart, hurting him more than the unhealed wound in his chest.

Jorah's arrival had become Lynesse's only lifeline.

They told each other what they had endured over the past few days.

Jorah still remembered how, before he left, Lynesse had desperately begged him to take her away from this pirate den.

But he knew that Liu Qian intended to use Lynesse to compel his loyalty and would never let her go.

Still, to comfort his poor wife, Jorah had fallen back into his usual slavish devotion.

He solemnly promised Lynesse that he would soon get her out of this pirate den.

Yet even to his own ears, the words sounded weak and hollow.

At the sight of Jorah's face, etched with suppressed resentment, a nearly imperceptible chill flickered in Liu Qian's eyes.

"Ser Jorah," he began, "what do you think of those men as soldiers?"

Liu Qian had assigned Jorah to train the surrendered pirates in batches, but had given him no authority to deploy them.

That greatly irritated Jorah, though there was nothing he could do.

Even if he could order these pirates to kill Liu Qian, they would be no match for the Dragon Spirit Guardians at his side, armed with Valyrian weapons.

Jorah's jaw tightened, his voice stiff. "Abysmal. A pack of slippery brigands who think of nothing but plundering and running away. No discipline, no understanding of battle formations."

He paused, then added with a touch of pride and indignation, "I could put several of them down myself."

"That is precisely why," Liu Qian said evenly, "I must trouble you to train them into warriors who can draw blood with their blades."

Jorah's throat bobbed. In the end, he merely gave a heavy, reluctant nod of his weather-beaten head. "I will."

He turned toward the noisy harbor, his back broad as a bear's, yet weighed down by stifled frustration.

Liu Qian watched him leave, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He had never trusted Jorah in the slightest.

In the original story, the man had been deeply self-centered and blinded by love.

First, he had fallen in love with Lynesse and squandered his fortune to please her, leaving his family and subjects to pay the price.

Later, he had fallen in love with Daenerys, repeatedly insisting on his loyalty while doing everything he could to drive Barristan and the others away from Dany's side, without caring whether that would put her in danger.

A man who did nothing but fawn over women and act impulsively without thinking would never be truly loyal to Liu Qian.

Liu Qian had taken him into his service for several reasons. Training the pirates was only one of them.

He turned away from the harbor and summoned Jelena. Together, they climbed the steep walkway to the clifftop above Torturer's Deep.

The biting sea wind struck their faces, carrying the salty tang of the ocean.

Hundreds of feet below, deep blue waters spread like boundless silk, crashing against a jagged reef-lined shore.

Facing into the wind, Liu Qian raised his voice above its roar. "Jelena, why do you think we were able to capture Torturer's Deep that day?"

Jelena's silver hair fluttered in the wind. After a brief silence, she spoke clearly and calmly. "We succeeded that night because Crab Claw underestimated us. He thought he could lure us into Torturer's Deep and wipe us out in one stroke. Without magic or the Dragon Spirit Guardians, he might well have succeeded. If he had kept us outside instead of letting us in, terrain this treacherous would have made Torturer's Deep impossible to take unless you transformed into a dragon."

"Exactly." Liu Qian nodded, his sharp gaze sweeping over the reefs and currents below that formed a natural barrier. "That tells us we must never underestimate these pirates. They've dominated the Stepstones for so many years; they must each have their own strengths. Our magic power is limited right now, so we need to be all the more cautious."

He pointed at the dark shapes barely visible beneath the distant sea. "Without Rollo, those submerged reefs alone would have given us plenty of trouble."

He turned to Jelena and issued his orders. "Over the coming days, I need you to oversee the Dragon Spirit Guardians and some of the pirates as they stretch iron chains between the surrounding reefs. Block any gaps someone might force their way through, and leave only one entrance.

"We also need to rebuild the chain gate at Crackwater Channel. Those defenses are far too crude. We'll build a stone archway there, fitted with a heavy gate, preferably with heavy ballistae mounted on top. It must become a true lock on that choke point. If anyone attacks, we can shelter behind the archway and return fire..."

Jelena listened intently, her purple eyes reflecting the sea and sky as she committed every detail to memory.

When Liu Qian finished, she replied simply, "Understood."

Then she turned and swiftly descended the walkway to carry out his orders.