All three dragons fired at once. Drogon's blast hit Verdauga right in the face, while Rhaegal and Viserion fired at the approaching soldiers. The stoats and weasels scrambled to avoid the flames.
Verdauga toppled to the floor. Gingivere and Tsarmina jumped down from their seats and ran to their father. Dany turned on her heels and ran, the dragons following.
As Dany and her dragons dashed through the halls of Kotir, the dragons were still breathing fire everywhere. Any soldiers they passed ducked to get out of the way. Finally, they made it outside, where a terrible sight awaited Dany. More of Verdauga's troops were out there slaughtering what remained of her khalasar. Jorah was still on his feet fighting, but her two remaining bloodriders had gone down.
Dany yelled "Dracarys!" again and the dragons breathed another fiery blast right above the soldiers' heads. The vermin bolted and scattered into the woods.
Dany ran to Jorah. "Are you all right?"
"I am, but no one else is. They've all been killed." Dany looked around and saw it was true.
"What will we do now?" she wondered.
"I don't know. Looks like it's just the two of us."
"You mean the five of us," Dany reminded him, indicating the dragons. "We've got to get out of here."
They took off into Mossflower, heading north.
Back inside, the Kotir animals had managed to put the fires out, and Verdauga was lying on his bed with Tsarmina, Gingivere, and a healer fox named Fortunata standing over him. Miraculously, Verdauga was still alive.
"Will he be okay?" Gingivere worried.
"As long as he gets proper medical attention," said Fortunata. "We'll have to rub salve on his burns every night until they heal."
"I hope he dies," said Tsarmina. "Then I can be the queen."
Gingivere gasped. "What a terrible thing to say!"
"What are we gonna do about that girl?" Fortunata asked.
"I plan to send the Gloomer after her," Tsarmina said.
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Lois and Hayley had stolen a pair of horses from Renly's camp as they fled. They felt they had gotten a good distance away now, so they stopped at a river to let their horses take a drink.
"That shadow looked just like Stannis," Hayley said.
"I dunno," said Lois. "I only saw a shadow in the shape of a man. It coulda been anybody." She took a breath. "We should be only one more day's ride away from my son Chris's camp."
"Do you plan to stay there long?" Hayley asked.
"I'm gonna tell Chris what happened, an' then go back to Winterfell. My son Stewie needs me."
"I'm going after Stannis," Hayley resolved. "I know Renly didn't play for my team, and he was married to somebody else anyway, but I loved him. Stannis will pay for killing him."
"Stannis is surrounded by a great army," Lois warned.
"I'm just as good a fighter as any of his guards," Hayley insisted. "If I had been a boy, I would have joined the Night's Watch. But they don't take girls. The funny thing is, my dad made my brother Steve join the Watch, even though he didn't want to. If only he was a girl and I was a boy, everything would have been perfect."
"If ya try to take on Stannis, you'll get yourself killed," Lois said. "Ya can't help Renly by followin' him into the grave. Why don't ya join up with Chris instead? Renly's enemies are his enemies too."
Hayley considered this. "Well, I don't know Chris at all… but I would be willing to serve you. In the short time I've known you, I can tell you have a woman's courage."
Lois agreed to this, and Hayley placed her sword down on the ground between them. She swore an oath of fealty to Lois before the old gods and the new. Lois took her hand and reciprocated the oath.
