The climate gradually grew milder, and the strong winds encountered while flying on the dragon's back were no longer bone-chillingly cold. This finally allowed Daenerys to sit upright in the saddle and look down at the ground from above, instead of having to press her body tightly against the dragon's back to avoid losing too much heat.
She had received Aegor's plea for help over a week ago. The letter reported that the Western Expeditionary Army's logistics route was being harassed, that the Reachmen's will to resist was stronger than expected, but that the army was still steadily advancing toward Highgarden, among other information.
At that time, Daenerys, as queen, was swamped with the vast amount of state affairs involved in governing the Seven Kingdoms, specifically, the five kingdoms excluding the Vale and the Reach. The news that the loose "Anti-Dragon Mother Alliance" across the Narrow Sea had suddenly regained confidence with the support and backing of Braavos only made matters worse... And Aegor's tone in the plea for help was not particularly urgent, so she merely ordered Grey Worm to organize reinforcements and try to open up the logistics route, while she herself remained in the capital to oversee the realm's governance.
The situation changed the day before yesterday, when King's Landing received a second plea for help from the central Western Expeditionary Army. This time, the content was a clear and serious request for her to personally join the battle on her dragon. Not wanting to lose the war, and even less willing to lose her Hand, she immediately put aside her other affairs and rushed to the front line with her two dragons, preparing to join this potentially difficult decisive battle.
Unlike when she had gone north to fight the White Walkers, that time, she had a clear destination, Queenscrown, and could reach it simply by flying along the kingsroad, making it difficult to get lost. This time, however, Aegor's Western Expeditionary Army was somewhere in the vast Reach plains, and she did not know where.
She first flew west along the Rose Road to New Barrel Town, the last castle along the route that Aegor had explicitly mentioned capturing in his battle report. There, Daenerys confirmed Aegor's whereabouts from the castle's lord, who had remained behind. To avoid the battlefield the Reachmen had prepared, he had left the main road there and turned south, crossing the Mander to the other side.
The strategy for finding the Western Expeditionary Army's whereabouts was then clear: fly south to find the Mander, then follow the river downstream. She would surely catch up with the troops.
But reality was not that simple.
The Reach plains had abundant rainfall and a developed water system, with rivers crisscrossing everywhere, some straight, some winding, some intersecting, not marked on maps but truly existing. Daenerys now knew that "the Mander is a large river flowing from east to west, with a slow current and a wide surface." This information was true, but far too vague. There were bodies of water flowing from east to west all over the Reach, and as for a slow current and a wide surface... how slow? How wide?
Although even with quantitative data, a dragonrider might not be able to accurately estimate or correctly judge from the sky, any data, no matter how rough, would still be better than being completely blind with no basis for reference.
Daenerys had never set foot on the land of the Reach in her life. She had no concept of what the main water network of the Reach plains should look like from above. One had to know that there were not just the two extremes of large rivers and small rivers in the world. There were countless medium and large rivers in between, and after flying over one river after another, large and small and of every kind, Daenerys quickly grew worried that she would get lost and overshoot her target.
She lowered her altitude to observe the signs of marching, but the spring rain and wildly growing vegetation quickly erased the Western Expeditionary Army's past tracks. In the end, Daenerys chose a method that was not very safe but absolutely foolproof: every time she flew over a river of some size, she would look for people, land, and ask how far it was to the Mander.
The not-yet-unified Reach was enemy territory, and every landing and interaction meant unpredictable risks. Fortunately, the deterrent power of the two giant dragons was sufficient, and she was lucky enough not to encounter Reachmen soldiers with bows and arrows. Daenerys relied on this clumsy method of repeatedly landing and taking off, stumbling her way to the location of the Mander, and then followed the south bank westward, finally reaching the battlefield, only slightly late, or perhaps billions of years late?
...
Daenerys increased her altitude to avoid the potential threat of scorpions. The roar of cannons sounded intermittently far below, and plumes of smoke rose and dispersed, covering most of the west side of the battlefield. The outcome did not seem to have been decided yet, which made Daenerys feel slightly relieved, but after circling twice and roughly observing the battlefield, she fell into new confusion.
The battlefield below the dragon's belly presented a distorted, broken, and incomplete circle, with troops on both the north and south banks of the river. The battlefield on the south bank was wide and full, forming a large, bloated semi-ellipse, while the troops on the north bank formed a thin layer, distributed parallel to the riverbank. The Mander was right in the middle of these two battlefields, one large and one small, one thick and one thin. From above, the sparkling river surface looked like a sharp blade, horizontally slicing a tomato, flat on top and round on the bottom, near its top, dividing it unevenly into two.
The shape of the battlefield was not worth discussing. What confused her was that she could not see the battle lines clearly.
On this wide battlefield, cut in two by the Mander, there were signs of fighting everywhere, with countless soldiers tangled together, impossible to separate. The situation on the south bank was easier to understand. The Reachmen must have relied on their numerical superiority to extend their battle lines and achieve an attack from three sides, while Aegor countered by positioning his army with the river at their backs, fighting with no retreat...
But the relatively smaller line of troops on the north bank of the river, were they the vanguard of her own Western Expeditionary Army retreating north across the river, or were they fresh forces preparing to join the battle to the south? If it was the latter, which side were they on?
Being unable to distinguish friend from foe seemed foolish, but the fact was that the emblems on the main battle flags of both sides were the "three-headed red dragon." To emphasize their Targaryen bloodline and the legitimacy of their rule, neither Daenerys nor Aegon were willing to change their emblem for the convenience of distinguishing friend from foe, not even a minimal change like in the Blackfyre Rebellion, where only the color was changed.
Daenerys controlled the black dragon to turn around, preparing to carefully observe the smaller, secondary flags. As long as she could identify the troops of the Reach, the Westerlands, or Dornish nobles, then the distinction between friend and foe would naturally become clear.
Upon closer inspection, she immediately discovered details she had missed during her initial rough scan of the battlefield: on the surface of the Mander, which cut the battlefield north and south, there were a large number of shallow-draft warships with their sails lowered!
On the ground battlefield, the allegiance of the infantry lines required careful observation to confirm, but it was an undeniable fact that her side had no navy participating in this Western Expedition to the Reach. Since there were warships on the water, it was clear which side the troops on the north bank belonged to.
The Western Expeditionary Army was actually being surrounded on all four sides by the Reachmen and Aegon!
This thought sent a chill down Daenerys's spine. Her not entirely professional but considerably rich practical command experience told her instinctively that there was no chance of winning such a battle, yet what she saw and heard before her completely contradicted that instinct. The Western Expeditionary Army, trapped in this massive encirclement, was not only not being quickly defeated and annihilated, but was actually showing signs of winning. The fierce fighting to the east, south, and north was still ongoing, but to the west, the front line where the infantry of both sides were most concentrated, the vast, countless attacking army was already showing signs of genuine chaos and defeat, and the surrounded Western Expeditionary Army was slowly but steadily breaking out!
After a moment of astonishment, Daenerys decided to join the battle.
The western front no longer needed her help, and to the east and south, the enemy and friendly forces were squeezed together, making it highly likely that dragonflame would cause friendly casualties... Only on the warships on the northern river and on the opposite bank could there be absolutely no friendly troops!
After a brief but clear analysis, she patted the dragon's back, and with a loud, high-pitched dragon roar, she plunged down toward the Mander with the black and green dragons.
(To be continued.)