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Ser Jorah snorted "Can you wake the dead, girl? Your brother Rhaegar was the last dragon, and he died on the Trident Viserys is less than the shadow of a snake"

His blunt words startled her It sees she had always believed were suddenly called into question "Youyou swore hiirl," Ser Jorah said "And if your brother is the shadow of a snake, what does that make his servants?" His voice was bitter

"He is still the true king He is"

Jorah pulled up his horse and looked at her "Truth now Would you want to see Viserys sit a throne?"

Dany thought about that "He would not be a very good king, would he?"

"There have been worsebut not ave his heels to his ain

Dany rode close beside hi for hion banners and praying for Viserys to return from across the narrow sea to free them"

"The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends," Ser Jorah told her "It is no aave a shrug "They never are"

Dany rode along quietly for a tiainst everything that Viserys had ever told her to think that the people could care so little whether a true king or a usurper reigned over theht on Jorah’s words, theof truth

"What do you pray for, Ser Jorah?" she asked hiing

"I pray for ho it

Ser Jorah laughed "Look around you then, Khaleesi"

But it was not the plains Dany saw then It was King’s Landing and the great Red Keep that Aegon the Conqueror had built It was Dragonstone where she had been born In her hts, a fire blazing in everyIn her mind’s eye, all the doors were red

"My brother will never take back the Seven Kingdo time, she realized She had known it all her life Only she had never let herself say the words, even in a whisper, but now she said them for Jorah Morave her alook "You think not"

"He could not lead an arave hiht who follows him reviles him as less than a snake The Dothraki make mock of his weakness He will never take us hoht smiled

"I am no child," she told him fiercely Her heels pressed into the sides of her allop Faster and faster she raced, leaving Jorah and Irri and the others far behind, the ind in her hair and the setting sun red on her face By the time she reached the khalasar, it was dusk

The slaves had erected her tent by the shore of a spring-fed pool She could hear rough voices frohter, when the rasses today By the ti them, every man, woman, and child in the camp would know him for a walker There were no secrets in the khalasar

Dany gave the silver over to the slaves for groo and entered her tent It was cool and dim beneath the silk As she let the door flap close behind her, Dany saw a finger of dusty red light reach out to touch her dragon’s eggs across the tent For an instant a thousand droplets of scarlet flaone

Stone, she told herself They are only stone, even Illyrio said so, the dragons are all dead She put her palently across the curve of the shell The stone arm Almost hot "The sun," Dany whispered "The sun warmed them as they rode"

She commanded her handmaids to prepare her a bath Doreah built a fire outside the tent, while Irri and Jhiqui fetched the big copper tub--another bride gift--from the packhorses and carried water fro, Irri helped her into it and clion?" she asked as Irri scrubbed her back and Jhiqui sluiced sand froons had come from the east, from the ShadowLands beyond Asshai and the islands of the JadeSea Perhaps soe and wild

"Dragons are gone, Khaleesi," Irri said

"Dead," agreed Jhiqui "Long and long ago"

Viserys had told her that the last Targaryen dragons had died no on III, as called the Dragonbane That did not seeo to Dany "Everywhere?" she said, disappointed "Even in the east?" Magic had died in the hen the Doo Suons could hold it back, but Dany had always heard that the east was different It was said that manticores prowled the islands of the JadeSea, that basilisks infested the jungles of Yi Ti, that spellsingers, warlocks, and aeromancers practiced their arts openly in Asshai, while shadowbinders and bloodht Why shouldn’t there be dragons too?

"No dragon," Irri said "Brave on terrible evil beasts It is known"

"It is known," agreed Jhiqui

"A trader froons came from the moon," blond Doreah said as she ware with Dany, Dothraki girls taken as slaves when Drogo destroyed their father’s khalasar Doreah was older, alister Illyrio had found her in a pleasure house in Lys

Silvery-wet hair tumbled across her eyes as Dany turned her head, curious "The , Khaleesi," the Lysene girl said "Once there were two moons in the sky, but one wandered too close to the sun and cracked froons poured forth, and drank the fire of the sun That is why dragons breathe flame One day the other moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return"

The two Dothraki girls giggled and laughed "You are foolish strawhead slave," Irri said "Moon is no egg Moon is god, woman wife of sun It is known"

"It is known," Jhiqui agreed

Dany’s skin was flushed and pink when she climbed from the tub Jhiqui laid her down to oil her body and scrape the dirt from her pores Afterward Irri sprinkled her with spiceflower and cinnamon While Doreah brushed her hair until it shone like spun silver, she thought about the ons

Her supper was a si of honeyed wine to wash it down "Doreah, stay and eat with me," Dany coirl had hair the color of honey, and eyes like the summer sky

She lowered those eyes when they were alone "You honor me, Khaleesi," she said, but it was no honor, only service Long after the

That night, when Khal Drogo ca for him He stood in the door of her tent and looked at her with surprise She rose slowly and opened her sleeping silks and let theo outside, my lord," she told his of importance in a man’s life o followed her out into thesoftly A few yards frorass, and it was there that Dany drew him down When he tried to turn her over, she put a hand on his chest "No," she said "This night I would look on your face"

There is no privacy in the heart of the khalasar Dany felt the eyes on her as she undressed his that Doreah had told her to do It was nothing to her Was she not khaleesi? His were the only eyes thatthere that she had never seen before She rode him as fiercely as ever she had ridden her silver, and when the o called out her name

They were on the far side of the Dothraki sea when Jhiqui brushed the soft swell of Dany’s stoers and said, "Khaleesi, you are with child"

"I know," Dany told her

It was her fourteenth name day