The Hound Sandor Clegane had also retreated.
Stannis imdiately seized the chance and roared loudly: "Ladders!"
Soldiers rushed to raise the ladders.
Stannis was the first to climb. Arrows whistled past his ears, boiling oil poured down from above — he did not stop.
In the panting and screaming, in the smoke of torches, in the leaping orange-red light, in the darkness of the night, he was the first to storm the walls!
The soldiers felt the true wind of a king and surged forward, following their king's footsteps.
Tyrion saw Sandor return on the walls.
Half his face was sticky with blood. The other half was whiter than milk. He leaned against the parapet, gasping like a dog driven to the end of its rope.
"Give wine." Sandor Clegane's voice was as hoarse as sandpaper grinding on stone.
Tyrion looked at him — at this man who feared nothing in all of King's Landing.
"You can still fight. Take n and charge again!"
Joffrey had sohow also run over. His voice was shrill and thin: "Dog! I command you to return to battle at once!"
The Hound Sandor did not look at him.
He only looked at Tyrion, or rather at sothing behind Tyrion. His gaze passed through the walls, through the Blackwater, through seventeen years of fear.
He was afraid of fire!
"Fuck your Kingsguard, fuck your capital, fuck your king!"
"I'm done!"
He turned and left.
Joffrey stood frozen. Tyrion was also stunned for a mont.
They had never seen the Hound afraid. They had never imagined he could be afraid. But this was not the ti to think about that.
"Podrick." Tyrion grabbed the boy's shoulder. "Go to the Great Sept of Baelor and find the High Sparrow. Tell him to bring the Faith Militant to help defend the city. Tell him the king will grant him every request."
In Maegor's Holdfast, Cersei held Tomn on her lap.
The ladies of King's Landing sat around her. So wept softly, so prayed in low voices, so simply stared blankly at the fire in the hearth.
The executioner Ilyn Payne stood by the door. The greatsword in his hand glead coldly in the firelight.
Queen Regent Cersei intended to go down in flas. She would not leave anything useful for Stannis!
If King's Landing fell, she would have Ilyn Payne kill all the noble ladies, making Stannis the enemy of the entire city!
Lancel staggered in, blood still seeping from his wound.
"Your Grace… Stannis has reached the walls."
Cersei's eyelashes trembled. Anxiously, she said, "Bring Joffrey back."
Lancel froze.
"Now!" Cersei roared!
In the latter half of the night, the battering ram was brought to the Mud Gate.
The huge chains creaked, like the groan of a giant being hamred to death. Each blow shook the stones on the walls.
Joffrey stood on the walls, watching the massive wooden ram slam against the gate again and again.
His face was white. His lips were white. Even his fingers were white.
Lancel walked to his side and said softly, "Your Grace, the queen asks you to return to the castle."
Joffrey did not hesitate.
He didn't even glance at Tyrion. He turned and left.
He walked quickly, almost running.
The mont the king left, morale collapsed.
The soldiers looked at each other, unsure who they were fighting for.
Another heavy impact sounded from afar. The gate could not hold much longer.
Tyrion stood on the walls, watching the king's back disappear down the stairs.
He knew that at this mont soone needed to step forward — a face, a voice — to let these soldiers know they were not dying for a city that was already dood.
The man had very short legs. Standing on the walls, he only reached others' waists.
But he still stepped up.
"You are not fighting for the king! You are not fighting for the kingdom!"
His voice exploded in the night sky, like a stone dropped into still water.
The soldiers looked up at the dwarf.
"Not for titles! Not for honor! Not for gold and jewels! Because all of that is horseshit!" He waved his hand forcefully, as if sweeping away all those empty things.
"Stannis wants to sack your city! He wants to smash open your gates!" He pointed at the dark mass of n below. "If he succeeds, it will be your houses that burn! Your gold that is stolen! Your wives and daughters that are raped!"
One soldier raised his sword. Then a second, a third, a tenth, a hundredth… Swords clashed against shields, producing a deafening roar.
A dwarf had rallied their morale — or rather… no one wanted to lose to a dwarf.
Tyrion pulled out the map Varys had given him from his chest.
Those secret passages — the ones the eunuch had said were for escape — now appeared to him as a path to victory.
"Follow !"
The Imp led from the front. From the sewers, they circled behind the battering ram. With the remaining soldiers and the Faith Militant, he launched a desperate counterattack.
The battering ram was temporarily halted.
Stannis brought n over to encircle this force that dared to strike from behind.
With a roar, Tyrion swung his axe to et them.
Red-and-gold banners fluttered in the wind. The stag and the lion danced together on the battlefield.
In the chaos, Tyrion's eyes t those of Ser Mandon Moore of the Kingsguard.
Those shadowed eyes flashed behind the helt. Then Tyrion felt a blur before his eyes.
In that instant, he felt as if he had grown taller, his vision shooting upward wildly.
He saw the distant battlefield, Stannis fighting fiercely and coming toward him.
Then his vision suddenly dropped, spinning and tumbling.
He saw his own "half-man" body — but it was headless!
In that mont, he seed to understand sothing.
His vision grew increasingly blurry. Countless images flashed before his eyes.
He was a dwarf. From the mont of his birth, he had been mocked. Everyone laughed at him and looked down on him. His father wished he were dead and always mocked him coldly.
He saw the first woman in his life, "Tysha," who had been his wife. But his father Tywin had said Tysha was just a whore he had paid for. Then Tywin ordered the guards to rape the girl in front of Tyrion, and each soldier paid her a silver coin afterward.
Then he saw another woman. Her na was "Shae," a prostitute he had t in Harrenhal. She was beautiful and gentle, just like "Tysha," and did not despise him for being a dwarf.
Finally, he saw a young man who called himself a Celestial Dragon. That man had said, "Even a dwarf can cast a giant's shadow." Tyrion rembered that shocking "wine tasting" event.
This ti, just like that ti, he blacked out!
The Imp lost all consciousness…
Suddenly, an army bearing golden roses marched across the scorched earth, charging straight from the Roseroad.
The lead knight wore Renly's dazzling armor. He charged at the front, lance in hand, unstoppable, like a ghost striking terror into Stannis's army.
These were the cavalry of the Reach.
Loras Tyrell had arrived with ten thousand riders.
The thundering hooves and sharp blades, mingled with firelight, shattered Stannis's dream of kingship.
Stannis's army collapsed once again. In unwilling roars, he was dragged away from the battlefield by his n.
Dawn broke.
In the throne room, Cersei held poison in one hand and Tomn in the other, telling him the story of lions.
Tears slid from the corners of her eyes, but she pretended to be strong and calmly brought the poison slowly to her son's mouth. Just as she was about to feed Tomn the poison, the hall doors were suddenly thrown open.
A knight wearing Renly's armor lifted his visor.
It was not Stannis.
It was the Knight of Flowers!
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