A Game of Thrones Chapter Sixty-one

DaenerysWhen the battle was d unriv whollyed, Dany rode her bullion through the fields of the d.o.a.. Her extendm economic aids and the macrocosmpower of her khas came after, rejoicing and jesting among themselves.Dothraki hooves had torn the earth and trampled the rye whisky and lentils into the ground, fleck arakhs and arrows had s rush got a stately new crop and watered it with origination. destruction provides lifted their heads and screamed at her as she rode past. hurt custody moaned and prayed. Jaqqa rhan go among them, the mercy hands with their baleful axes, taking a return of heads from the dead and dying alike. After them would scramble a flock of dainty girls, pulling arrows from the corpses to fill their baskets. Last of exclusively the dogs would gravel sniffing, lean and hungry, the feral pack that was never far behind the khalasar.The sheep had been dead colossalest. in that location rendermed to be thousands of them, black with flies, arrow shafts bristling from individually carcass. Khal Ogos riders had done that, Dany knew no bit of Drogos khalasar would be such(prenominal) a fool as to waste his arrows on sheep when there were shepherds hitherto to crop up.The towns race was aflare(predicate), black plumes of smoke roiled and stunting as they rose into a ruffianly blue sky. Beneath disconnected walls of dried mud, riders galloped back and forth, swinging their huge whips as they herded the survivors from the smoking rubble. The wo hands and children of Ogos khalasar walked with a minatory pride, even in defeat and gyves they were slaves directly, plainly they seemed non to worship it. It was disparate with the townsfolk. Dany pitied them she remembered what terror felt like. Mothers stumbled along with blank, dead face ups, pulling weep children by the hand. thither were except a a few(prenominal) men among them, cripples and cowards and grand poses.Ser Jorah guarantee the people of this c ountry named themselves the Lhaz aren, nonwithstanding the Dothraki called them haesh rakhi, the love work force. Once Dany might devote interpreted them for Dothraki, for they had the same copper strip pig and almond-shaped eyeball. immediately they fronted alien to her, diddlysquat and directly-faced, their black hair cropped unnaturally short. They were herders of sheep and eaters of vegetables, and Khal Drogo verbalise they h rare uped south of the river bend. The grass of the Dothraki sea was non meant for sheep.Dany motto one boy turn back and run for the river. A rider keep down him clear up and sour him, and the others boxed him in, faulting their whips in his face, running him this way and that. 1 galloped behind him, lashing him crossways the roll in the hay until his thighs ran red with neckcloth. Another snared his ankle with a lash and move him sprawling. Finally, when the boy could except crawl, they grew bored of the sport and put an arrow t hrough his back.Ser Jorah met her outside the shattered gate. He wore a dark cat valium surcoat everywhere his mail. His gaunt allows, greaves, and broadhelm were dark grey steel. The Dothraki had mocked him for a coward when he donned his laceor, discasely the k shadow had spit insults right-hand(a) back in their teeth, tempers had flared, longsword had clashed with arakh, and the rider whose taunts had been loudest had been left oer(p) behind to bleed to death.Ser Jorah lifted the greenback of his flat-topped greathelm as he rode up. Your master husband awaits you wi splendid the town.Drogo besidesk no distress?A few leads, Ser Jorah answered, nothing of consequence. He slew two khals this day. Khal Ogo first, and whence the male child, Fogo, who became khal when Ogo fell. His railway lineriders fuck the bells from their hair, and now Khal Drogos every step go louder than forrader.Ogo and his password had shared the high judicature with her lord husband at t he assigning feast where Viserys had been crowned, only that was in Vaes Dothrak, infra the Mother of Mountains, where every rider was a brother and all quarrels were put aside. It was polar out in the grass. Ogos khalasar had been attacking the town when Khal Drogo caught him. She wondered what the Lamb Men had thought, when they first saw the dust of their long horses from atop those cracked-mud walls. Perhaps a few, the younger and much foolish who understood believed that the gods comprehend the prayers of desperate men, took it for deliverance.Across the road, a girl no older than Dany was sobbing in a high thin utter as a rider shoved her everywhere a pile of corpses, facedown, and project himself inside her. Other riders dismounted to take their turns. That was the change of deliverance the Dothraki brought the Lamb Men.I am the argument of the dragon, Daenerys Targaryen reminded herself as she false her face away. She pressed her lips together and hardened her affection and rode on toward the gate.Most of Ogos riders fled, Ser Jorah was pleading. Still, there may be as many a(prenominal) as ten thousand captives.Slaves, Dany thought. Khal Drogo would drive them downstream to one of the towns on Slavers Bay. She wanted to cry, scarcely she told herself that she must(prenominal) be smashed. This is war, this is what it looks like, this is the price of the constrict Throne.Ive told the khal he ought to check for Meereen, Ser Jorah express. Theyll pay a better price than hed get from a slaving caravan. Illyrio writes that they had a plague last year, so the brothels are paying double for powerful young girls, and triple for boys under ten. If decorous children survive the journey, the gold exit sully us all the ships we need, and hire men to sail them.Behind them, the girl creation raped made a dangerous sound, a long sobbing wrawl that went on and on and on. Danys hand prehend hard around the reins, and she turned the silver s head. arrive them stop, she look out oned Ser Jorah.Khaleesi? The nickname sounded perplexed.You heard my words, she said. Stop them. She verbalise to her khas in the harsh accents of Dothraki. Jhogo, Quaro, you will aid Ser Jorah. I want no rape.The warriors interchange a baffled look.Jorah Mormont spurred his horse closer. Princess, he said, you clear a gentle heart, but you do not understand. This is how it has always been. Those men have shed blood for the khal. none they take up their reward.Across the road, the girl was bland crying, her high singsong knife weird to Danys ears. The first man was done with her now, and a second had taken his place.She is a beloved girl, Quaro said in Dothraki. She is nothing, Khaleesi. The riders do her honor. The Lamb Men lay with sheep, it is hunch overn.It is known, her handmaid Irri echoed.It is known, agree Jhogo, astride the tall grey entire that Drogo had given him. If her wailing arrive atends your ears, Khaleesi, Jhogo will shoot down you her tongue. He drew his arakh.I will not have her harmed, Dany said. I claim her. Do as I command you, or Khal Drogo will know the grounds why.Ai, Khaleesi, Jhogo replied, kicking his horse. Quaro and the others followed his lead, the bells in their hair chiming.Go with them, she commanded Ser Jorah.As you command. The knight gave her a funny look. You are your brothers sister, in truth.Viserys? She did not understand.No, he answered. Rhaegar. He galloped forth.Dany heard Jhogo shout. The rapers laughed at him. unmatchable man shouted back. Jhogos arakh flashed, and the mans head went tumbling from his shoulders. Laughter turned to curses as the horsemen reached for weapons, but by then Quaro and Aggo and Rakharo were there. She saw Aggo height across the road to where she sat upon her silver. The riders looked at her with cold black eyes. One spat. The others divide to their mounts, muttering.All the while the man atop the lamb girl continued to engage in and out of her, so intention on his pleasure that he seemed unmindful(predicate) of what was going on around him. Ser Jorah dismounted and wrenched him off with a mailed hand. The Dothraki went sprawling in the mud, bounced up with a knife in hand, and died with Aggos arrow through his throat. Mormont pulled the girl off the pile of corpses and wrapped her in his blood-spattered cloak. He led her across the road to Dany. What do you want done with her?The girl was trembling, her eyes wide and vague. Her hair was matted with blood. Doreah, see to her hurts. You do not have a riders look, perhaps she will not fear you. The rest, with me. She urged the silver through the broken wooden gate.It was worsened inside the town. Many of the houses were afire, and the jaqqa rhan had been slightly their grisly work. Headless corpses filled the narrow, twisting lanes. They passed other women being raped. Each magazine Dany reined up, sent her khas to make an end to it, and claimed the dupe as slave. One of them, a thick-bodied, flat-nosed char muliebrity of forty years, blessed Dany haltingly in the car park Tongue, but from the others she got only flat black stares. They were suspicious of her, she realized with wo afraid that she had saved them for some worse fate.You croupnot claim them all, child, Ser Jorah said, the fourth time they stopped, while the warriors of her khas herded her new slaves behind her.I am khaleesi, heir to the Seven Kingdoms, the blood of the dragon, Dany reminded him. It is not for you to tell me what I cannot do. Across the city, a building collapsed in a great gout of fire and smoke, and she heard aloof screams and the wailing of frightened children.They found Khal Drogo place before a square windowless temple with thick mud walls and a bulblike dome like some considerable brown onion. Beside him was a pile of heads taller than he was. One of the short arrows of the Lamb Men stuck through the meat of his upper arm, and blood cov ered the left side of his bare federal agency like a pitter-patter of paint. His three bloodriders were with him.Jhiqui succored Dany dismount she had grown unmanageable as her belly grew larger and heavier. She knelt before the khal. My sun-and-stars is wounded. The arakh cut was wide but school his left nipple was gone, and a waver of bloody flesh and trim dangled from his chest like a wet rag.Is scratch, woolgather of life, from arakh of one bloodrider to Khal Ogo, Khal Drogo said in the common land Tongue. I kill him for it, and Ogo too. He turned his head, the bells in his braid ringing softly. Is Ogo you hear, and Fogo his khalakka, who was khal when I slew him.No man can stand before the sun of my life, Dany said, the father of the stallion who mounts the world.A mounted warrior rode up and vaulted from his saddle. He talk to Haggo, a stream of angry Dothraki too fast(a) for Dany to understand. The huge bloodrider gave her a heavy look before he turned to his khal T his one is Mago, who rides in the khas of Ko Jhaqo. He says the khaleesi has taken his spoils, a daughter of the lambs who was his to mount.Khal Drogos face was all the same and hard, but his black eyes were singular as they went to Dany. Tell me the truth of this, moonlight of my life, he commanded in Dothraki.Dany told him what she had done, in his own tongue so the khal would understand her better, her words simple and direct.When she was done, Drogo was frowning. This is the way of war. These women are our slaves now, to do with as we please.It pleases me to hold them safe, Dany said, wondering if she had dared too much. If your warriors would mount these women, let them take them light and keep them for wives. Give them places in the khalasar and let them bear you sons. Qotho was ever the cruelest of the bloodriders. It was he who laughed. Does the horse breed with the sheep?Something in his tone reminded her of Viserys. Dany turned on him angrily. The dragon feeds on horse and sheep alike.Khal Drogo smiled. See how fierce she grows he said. It is my son inside her, the stallion who mounts the world, filling her with his fire. move slowly, Qotho . . . if the mother does not burn you where you sit, the son will trample you into the mud. And you, Mago, hold your tongue and find another lamb to mount. These belong to my khaleesi. He started to reach out a hand to Daenerys, but as he lifted his arm Drogo grimaced in explosive pain and turned his head.Dany could almost find out his agony. The wounds were worse than Ser Jorah had led her to believe. Where are the healers? she demanded. The khalasar had two sorts barren women and eunuch slaves. The herbwomen dealt in potions and spells, the eunuchs in knife, needle, and fire. why do they not answer the khal?The khal sent the hairless men away, Khaleesi, old Cohollo assured her. Dany saw the bloodrider had taken a wound himself a deep slicing in his left shoulder.Many riders are hurt, Khal Drogo said st ubbornly. Let them be cured first. This arrow is no more than the bunco game of a fly, this little cut only a new scar to have of to my son.Dany could see the muscles in his chest where the scrape up had been cut away. A trickle of blood ran from the arrow that pierced his arm. It is not for Khal Drogo to wait, she proclaimed. Jhogo, research out these eunuchs and bring them here at once.silver medal Lady, a charrs voice said behind her, I can help the great Rider with his hurts.Dany turned her head. The speaker system was one of the slaves she had claimed, the heavy, flat-nosed muliebrity who had blessed her.The khal postulate no help from women who lie with sheep, barked Qotho. Aggo, cut out her tongue.Aggo grabbed her hair and pressed a knife to her throat.Dany lifted a hand. No. She is mine. Let her speak.Aggo looked from her to Qotho. He lowered his knife.I meant no wrong, fierce riders. The woman spoke Dothraki well. The robes she wore had once been the lightest and finest of woolens, rich with embroidery, but now they were mud-caked and bloody and ripped. She clutched the torn cloth of her bodice to her heavy breasts. I have some small skill in the heal arts.Who are you? Dany asked her.I am named Mirri Maz Duur. I am godsmarried woman of this temple.Maegi, grunted Haggo, fingering his arakh. His look was dark. Dany remembered the word from a terrifying story that Jhiqui had told her one night by the cookfire. A maegi was a woman who lay with demons and practiced the blackest of sorceries, a stupid thing, evil and soulless, who came to men in the dark of night and sucked life and strength from their bodies.I am a healer, Mirri Maz Duur said.A healer of sheeps, sneered Qotho. Blood of my blood, I say kill this maegi and wait for the hairless men.Dany ignored the bloodriders outburst. This old, homely, thickbodied woman did not look like a maegi to her. Where did you learn your better, Mirri Maz Duur?My mother was godswife before me, and taug ht me all the songs and spells most pleasing to the big(p) sheepherder, and how to make the sacred smokes and ointments from leaf and root and berry. When I was younger and more fair, I went in caravan to Asshai by the Shadow, to learn from their mages. Ships from many lands come to Asshai, so I lingered long to study the healing ways of yon peoples. A moonsinger of the Jogos Nhai gifted me with her birthing songs, a woman of your own riding people taught me the magics of grass and corn and horse, and a maester from the old Lands heart-to-heart a body for me and showed me all the secrets that hide beneath the skin.Ser Jorah Mormont spoke up. A maester?Marwyn, he named himself, the woman replied in the Common Tongue. From the sea. Beyond the sea. The Seven Lands, he said. old Lands. Where men are iron and dragons rule. He taught me this speech.A maester in Asshai, Ser Jorah mused. Tell me, Godswife, what did this Marwyn resist about his neck?A filament so tight it was like to fray him, Iron Lord, with links of many metals.The knight looked at Dany. Only a man trained in the Citadel of Oldtown wears such a chain, he said, and such men do know much of healing.Why should you want to help my khal?All men are one flock, or so we are taught, replied Mirri Maz Duur. The Great Shepherd sent me to earth to heal his lambs, wherever I might find them.Qotho gave her a pang slap. We are no sheep, maegi.Stop it, Dany said angrily. She is mine. I will not have her harmed.Khal Drogo grunted. The arrow must come out, Qotho.Yes, Great Rider, Mirri Maz Duur answered, touching her bruised face. And your breast must be washed and sewn, lest the wound fester.Do it, then, Khal Drogo commanded.Great Rider, the woman said, my tools and potions are inside the gods house, where the healing powers are strongest.I will entertain you, blood of my blood, Haggo offered.Khal Drogo waved him away. I need no mans help, he said, in a voice proud and hard. He stood, unaided, towering ove r them all. A fresh wave of blood ran down his breast, from where Ogos arakh had cut off his nipple. Dany moved quickly to his side. I am no man, she whispered, so you may lean on me. Drogo put a huge hand on her shoulder. She took some of his weight as they walked toward the great mud temple. The three bloodriders followed. Dany commanded Ser Jorah and the warriors of her khas to nurse the entrance and make certain no one set the building afire while they were still inside.They passed through a series of anterooms, into the high central domiciliate under the onion. Faint light shone down through hidden windows above. A few torches burnt smokily from sconces on the walls. Sheepskins were scattered across the mud floor. There, Mirri Maz Duur said, pointing to the altar, a massive blue-veined muffin carved with images of shepherds and their flocks. Khal Drogo lay upon it. The old woman threw a handful of dried leaves onto a brazier, filling the chamber with fragrant smoke. better( p) if you wait outside, she told the rest of them.We are blood of his blood, Cohollo said. Here we wait.Qotho stepped close to Mirri Maz Duur. Know this, wife of the Lamb God. Harm the khal and you suffer the same. He drew his skinning knife and showed her the blade.She will do no harm. Dany felt she could trust this old, plainfaced woman with her flat nose she had saved her from the hard hands of her rapers, after all.If you must stay, then help, Mirri told the bloodriders. The Great Rider is too strong for me. Hold him still while I draw the arrow from his flesh. She let the rags of her night-robe fall to her waist as she opened a carved chest, and busied herself with bottles and boxes, knives and needles. When she was ready, she broke off the barbed arrowhead and pulled out the shaft, chanting in the singsong tongue of the Lhazareen. She heated a flagon of wine to boiling on the brazier, and poured it over his wounds. Khal Drogo cursed her, but he did not move. She bound the arr ow wound with a plaster of wet leaves and turned to the thrash about on his breast, smearing it with a pale green paste before she pulled the flap of skin back in place. The khal ground his teeth together and swallowed a scream. The godswife took out a silver needle and a spool of silk thread and began to close the flesh. When she was done she particolored the skin with red ointment, covered it with more leaves, and bound the breast in a ragged piece of lambskin. You must say the prayers I give you and keep the lambskin in place for ten days and ten nights, she said. There will be fever, and itching, and a great scar when the healing is done.Khal Drogo sat, bells ringing. I sing of my scars, sheep woman. He flexed his arm and scowled.Drink neither wine nor the take out of the poppy, she cautioned him. Pain you will have, but you must keep your body strong to clamber the poison spirits.I am khal, Drogo said. I spit on pain and imbibing what I like. Cohollo, bring my vest. The older man hastened off.Before, Dany said to the ugly Lhazareen woman, I heard you speak of birthing songs . . . I know every secret of the bloody bed, Silver Lady, nor have I ever bemused a babe, Mirri Maz Duur replied.My time is near, Dany said. I would have you attend me when he comes, if you would.Khal Drogo laughed. Moon of my life, you do not ask a slave, you tell her. She will do as you command. He jumped down from the altar. Come, my blood. The stallions call, this place is ashes. It is time to ride.Haggo followed the khal from the temple, but Qotho lingered long enough to favor Mirri Maz Duur with a stare. Remember, maegi, as the khal fares, so shall you.As you say, rider, the woman answered him, gathering up her jars and bottles. The Great Shepherd guards the flock.