Once you have stepped on one step, you can climb another step. She stopped when she reached the fourth, which was just the middle of the seven, and on top of it stood a large chunk of wood opposite the throne, the top of which was hollowed out. The little girl knelt down on her knees, bowed her head slightly, put her head behind the top hole, and knelt still.

A figure suddenly stepped out of the darkness on the right side of the throne, striding towards the steps where the little girl knelt quietly. He wears a white mask, a tunic white woollen robe, and wields a shining steel sword five feet long. He didn't speak, he didn't hesitate, and immediately put his sword together and swung it above the little girl's neck. The drums paused.

As the blade reached its highest point, a black-clad figure leapt out from the left side of the throne and leaped down the stairs, blocking the priest's sword-wielding arms with its thinner arms. The blade of the longsword glittered in midair. The little girl's white nape is bare, and her black hair is parted from the nape of her neck in two strands. Two black and white figures, who are faceless and dancers, face each other for a moment above the little girl who is still on her knees.

There was silence all around.

Vanessa woke up from her dream, her heart pounding. Oh, it's okay, it's just a dream.

"Miss Ilia?" Reina's voice rang out at the window, followed by a slight sound as he jumped into the room, "You're shouting her name." ”

"I dreamed that she was sacrificed to the darkness." Vanessa raised her hand to touch the corner of her forehead, her sideburns covered with sweat.

"She died contented," Reiner sat down beside the princess's bed, as quiet as the moonlight at the moment, "without the slightest pain." ”

"Brant's poisoning has disturbed me for a long time," Vanessa snuggled up in the archer's arms, "and I always felt that Yiqiē was not as simple as we thought. ”

"Sir Donald has already checked the people who had the most frequent contact with Brandt that day, and I believe we will have an answer in the near future."

"It's useless to tell me about my instincts," Vanessa struggled to remember the appearance of the hall in her dream, "Someone is using royal blood to create dark weapons. I don't know who is behind this qiē, but one thing I know for sure is that if we don't stop it, Brandt will be in danger again. Not only him, but all the crown princes of the six countries. "For some reason, the princess's thoughts at this moment also include that mountain dwarf." Perhaps," the princess sat up straight, "this is the miracle that the Wrath of Kings wants to show me?" She struggled to get out of bed and draw the temple in her mind, but was stopped by Reina.

"You've had no rest for a day and a night," Reiner pressed Vanessa's shoulder, "Fight and solve the puzzle aside, or we'll lose a good queen." ”

Vanessa smiled palely and shook her head, "Although Brant has recovered to normal in the past few days, I always feel that something is wrong, the other party's plan should not be destroyed so lightly, and now, the army is getting closer and closer to Winterfell, and my feelings are becoming more and more agitated, you say, could this be another trap cast by Ivan?" The princess's nails sank deep into Reina's arm, "He wants to take away my country, he wants to control him, he's crazy!" ”

"No, no, shh-" Reina put his arm around the princess's shoulders and kept comforting her, "with me, he won't hurt you in the slightest." ”

"You know what," Vanessa looked up at the moonlit archer, "at that moment, I thought you would deliberately miss, after all, Brant's deposit zài would hold that knot between us forever." But you don't. You saved him for me, you are the most trustworthy person for me, if you are not here, I don't know who else to rely on, I racked my brains to deal with my sister, my father, and the world, but as long as you are there, there is always hope in my life full of sunshine, as long as this hope is not extinguished, I can continue to hold on......"

Vanessa's words were not finished, and her lips were pressed by Reina's and she was speechless.

If a month ago, Vanessa would have resisted desperately, not dying, but now, at this moment, the sun-like aura emanating from Reina's body dispelled the haze of days, and she pushed herself towards him, hugging this ray of sunshine tightly, lest he slip through his fingers, and their tongues twisted together, as if two sweet wax droplets fused together, unwilling to separate.

Day after day, along the coast, by day, by night, until at last the trees thinned and rolling hills, winding streams, and sun-drenched fields appeared. On the plains, the skeletons of several burned-out manors stood like charred rotten teeth. After another day of walking, Vanessa faintly saw the tower of the Halberd Castle towering over the blue lake.

She remembered that in the wet nurse's story, a castle built of fear, Heron the Black mixed the blood of babies with mud - whenever she said this, the old nurse would always keep her voice down, and the children would have to lean over to hear it—but Ivan's curse followed him, through the huge stone wall, and a poisonous rain of blood fell from the sky, poisoning Heron and all his sons. The princess bit her lip as she drove the light forward. It wouldn't be long, she told herself, that the towers were only miles away.

But they had walked all day that day, and most of the next day, until they finally reached the edge of Sir Donald's barracks, a town in ruins to the west of the castle. From a distance, the Halberd Castle can be misleading, as it is so huge. The massive walls rose from the edge of the lake, steep and abrupt as a mountain cliff, and the battlements were lined with ballistas made of wood and iron, which looked as small as insects. The gate tower of the Halberd Castle is the size of the main fortress of Neverwinter, and the stone walls are cracked and faded, which is very terrifying. Outside the walls, only the tops of the five towers could be seen, the shortest of which was a half as tall as Neverwinter's tallest tower, but they didn't stand tall like normal towers, and Vanessa felt them look like the old man's rough crooked fingers, groping for the clouds that drifted by. She remembered how Nurse Weimar had told her how the stone walls had melted like candles, and the rain of blood had flowed down the steps and windows, glowing with a dark, hot red light towards Heron's hideout. For now, the princess believed every word in the story, and the towers were stranger and deformed, rough and cracked.

(l~1`x*>+``+