Eagle Byzantium

"Don't try to scare me. I can tell where Anna will be from her documents. I just think Anna will use the strategy of making a feint to the east and attacking in the west." Alexius angrily shook off the queen's hand, and then ordered all the warriors and eunuchs to block all the passages of this palace and not let anyone in or out.

The festive bells of the Holy Apostles Church continued to ring, echoing the emperor's confused mind. He stood with his hands on his waist, thinking in front of Irene, who was full of smug pleasure, and finally stopped his eyes on Dido, who was trembling. "My dearest daughter, now tell your dearest father - that is your sister, where did she go just now?" Alexius changed to a gentle tone, and kept approaching Dido, saying.

"You're at it again, Alexios Komnenos. Do you still want Dido to be like Anna in the future?"

"I have never done anything to let my daughter down. It was you who sacrificed her happiness for your stupid Doukas!"

"So what, Komnenos? I didn't expect that I would take revenge on you in this way today. Yes, maybe you know where Anna's destination is, but the walls of this imperial capital are too long and too big, and you don't have time, and you don't know how Anna escaped. When you find Anna's trace, she has already gone far away."

Alexios angrily stretched his hands to Irene's neck, with the screams of his little daughter, as if he would kill his first wife. "You crazy witch, you are harming my daughter. I know where she will go. You want to send her to the barbarian's stinking bed. Anna is a princess from the Purple Palace! If the current situation cannot be handled, it will be the most terrible shame and scandal for the Komnenos and Ducas families." "I only listen to Anna and I respect her ideas. She can go wherever she wants. Did you really think that my mother and I didn't leave any back-up plans or make any contingency plans after the coup might fail? Alexios, you have been deceived by your self-righteous cleverness. Anna and I have been performing the most brilliant drama after the disastrous defeat!" But the queen was not moved at all. Her heart had long turned to ashes. "Barbarian, even the tall barbarian, I saw that he looked at Anna with gentle eyes. Yes, I can see people's eyes. But when I was twelve years old, I could clearly see that the way you stared at me was just like a hunter looking at a prey, but still fell into the trap ridiculously." Then, the queen climbed a few steps on the couch and forced Alexios's panicked expression, "Hahahaha. This expression is very good, I like it very much, this is your retribution, this is your retribution!" The queen kept shouting this sentence heartbreakingly.

The emperor left her. Then seeing Dido's eyes, constantly looking towards the direction of the terrace, Alexios walked through the arch again. The surroundings were still dim, and the shadows of the buildings and mountains were all blurry. The sun had not yet shone here.

The emperor, who kept walking in distress, began to look around with eagle-like eyes, and he suddenly remembered. When the pilgrims began to attack the imperial capital from Sarabria, Anna on the top of the city had said to him. "The mountains to the northwest of the palace are not protected by walls. Will the enemy break in from there?"

"Damn it!" The emperor looked at the mountains over there. The Blachna Monastery, which enshrines the veil and shrine of the Virgin Mary, is on top of them. Because of the terrain, there are indeed no walls here. There are only towers that echo each other and are built independently, surrounding the monastery like a group of stars surrounding the moon.

A flash of light in the crack of the wall dazzled Alexius' eyes. He walked over quickly. It was the golden crown that Anna had dropped. Perhaps because it was too heavy, he picked it up and then looked up along the wall: there was a ladder leading directly to the top of the palace, and there was a small reservoir on top...

Mikhail, the chief guard, who obeyed the emperor's order, quickly climbed up the ladder to the top of the wind, and then Mikhail leaned down with an unbelievable look on his face, "Your Majesty, please come up and take a look in person."

Alexius, who was standing on it, couldn't help but burst into tears. He now knew how Anna disappeared: above the reservoir was a high aqueduct that had been preserved from ancient times and is still used today. It twisted and turned like a giant snake, flying over steep mountains and cliffs, winding to the side of the Shrine of the Virgin Mary Monastery, and also to the Sarabria River outside the city, which was also the place Anna and Gawain had agreed on in advance.

"Anna, Anna!" The emperor cried out in agony, his voice echoing among the mountains, "Mikhail, chase for me, chase for me... I want Anna to be intact." After saying this, Alexius seemed to have aged ten years in an instant, sitting dejectedly in the cold wind, repeatedly chattering, "Children are the greatest poison to their fathers." Mikhail, wearing a leather coat, climbed up the elevated aqueduct with two other palace guards. Because of the deep snow a few days ago, this place was already filled with snow and ice. Soon Mikhail saw Anna's small footprints, extending along the stone trough that looked like a narrow river to the undulating distance, "Lord..." Even Mikhail said this with a trembling voice, and then faced the whistling wind, lined up with the other two, holding the trough, and staggered to chase after it.

Anna's black hair was fluttering in the wind, and her cheeks were purple from the cold. The heavy dress covered her petite body, but because it had the effect of keeping out the cold, she couldn't throw it away like a crown. She raised the hem and tied it. On the belt, a white silk dandy patch She stretched her legs and swayed in the wind. She used her hands and feet together, trembling all over. She had been crawling here for almost an hour. After crossing the spire of the monastery, she knew that she was about to leave the city. The deep canyon below continued to follow her. Movement and vision, while shaking dangerously.

This was an agreement between her and Gawain, and she believed that Da Manzi knew it, because on that day, the other party personally assured her twice in the courtyard, "Please be sure to trust me now and in the future."

If Gawain didn't come and wait there, all she could do was probably die. There was no way back. Even if her father is still willing to forgive her, he can only lock her in a monastery and slowly wither in boundless regret.

In front of her eyes, the twists and turns of the aqueduct once again turned into the tumbling giant snake, which symbolized her independence. "So what? Anna, if you don't do it, you will regret it for the rest of your life. Just like the ancient dictators." As Caesar said, the dice have been thrown and the final outcome will be victory or defeat. Let the decision be left in the hands of God. The great barbarian Gawain once said to me that he would make me the empress of Rome, but if I continue to stay in the palace, this will be just a ridiculous and foolish idea. I don’t want to be like my mother in the future, being ridiculed, manipulated and manipulated.”

"Uh ah ah." Anna's hands were bleeding, and the heat drifted away, and then quickly froze in the knife-like cold air, but she gritted her teeth and continued bravely, with a still expression on her face. A faint smile appeared, "Seeing me taking such risks, all barbarians will feel ashamed. You must wait for me, you must wait for me, Gawain..." (To be continued~^~)