Page 64 (1/2)

Daenerys

The flies circled Khal Drogo slowly, their wings buzzing, a low thru that filled Dany with dread

The sun was high and pitiless Heat shimmered in waves off the stony outcrops of low hills A thin finger of sweat trickled slowly between Dany’s swollen breasts The only sounds were the steady clop of their horses’ hooves, the rhytho’s hair, and the distant voices behind them

Dany watched the flies

They were as large as bees, gross, purplish, glistening The Dothraki called thenant pools, sucked blood fros in the dead and dying Drogo hated them Whenever one ca snake to close around it She had never seen hih to hear its frantic buzzing Then his fingers would tighten, and when he opened his hand again, the fly would be only a red smear on his palm

Now one crept across the rury flick of its tail to brush it away The others flitted about Drogo, closer and closer The khal did not react His eyes were fixed on distant brown hills, the reins loose in his hands Beneath his painted vest, a plaster of fig leaves and caked blue mud covered the wound on his breast The herbwomen had made it for him Mirri Maz Duur’s poultice had itched and burned, and he had torn it off six days ago, cursing her for a , and the herbwo it heavily these past three days; when it was not poppy wine, it was fermented mare’s milk or pepper beer

Yet he scarcely touched his food, and he thrashed and groaned in the night Dany could see hon his face had beco like a stallion, yet even that did not stir Drogo’s interest as it had Everyher eyes found fresh lines of pain on his face when he woke fro her afraid Since they had mounted up at dawn, he had said not a word When she spoke, she got no answer but a grunt, and not even that much since midday

One of the bloodflies landed on the bare skin of the khal’s shoulder Another, circling, touched down on his neck and crept up toward his , as his stallion kept onward at a steady walking pace

Dany pressed her heels into her silver and rode closer "My lord," she said softly "Drogo My sun-and-stars"

He did not see mustache and settled on his cheek, in the crease beside his nose Dany gasped, "Drogo" Clumsily she reached over and touched his aro reeled in the saddle, tilted slowly, and fell heavily from his horse The flies scattered for a heartbeat, and then circled back to settle on hi up Heedless of her belly for once, she scrarass beneath hio cried out in pain as Dany knelt beside him His breath rattled harshly in his throat, and he looked at her without recognition "My horse," he gasped Dany brushed the flies off his chest, sers

The khal’s bloodriders had been following just behind thealloped up Cohollo vaulted from his horse "Blood of my blood," he said as he dropped to his knees The other two kept to theirin Dany’s arms "Must ride Ride No"

"He fell fro down His broad face was impassive, but his voice was leaden

"You h today We will cao looked around them The land was brown and sere, inhospitable "This is no caround"

"It is not for a woman to bid us halt," said Qotho, "not even a khaleesi"

"We cao commanded the halt If any ask why, say to them thatup the slaves, they must put up the khal’s tent at once Qotho--"

"You do not command me, Khaleesi," Qotho said

"Find Mirri Maz Duur," she told hi the other La her to lared down at her, his eyes hard as flint "The i" He spat "This I will not do"

"You will," Dany said, "or when Drogo wakes, he will hear why you defied me"

Furious, Qotho wheeled his stallion around and galloped off in angerbut Dany kneould return with Mirri Maz Duur, however little he o’s tent beneath a jagged outcrop of black rock whose shadow gave some relief fro under the sandsilk as Irri and Doreah helped Dany walk Drogo inside Thick patterned carpets had been laid down over the ground, and pillows scattered in the corners Eroeh, the tiirl Dany had rescued outside the mud walls of the Lao out on a woven ue "No, no" It was all he said, all he see

Doreah unhooked his s, while Jhiqui knelt by his feet to undo the laces of his riding sandals Irri wanted to leave the tent flaps open to let in the breeze, but Dany forbade it She would not have any see Drogo this way, in delirium and weakness When her khas cauard "Ado "No one"

Eroeh stared fearfully at Drogo where he lay "He dies," she whispered

Dany slapped her "The khal cannot die He is the father of the stallion who mounts the world His hair has never been cut He still wears the bells his father gave him"

"Khaleesi, " Jhiqui said, "he fell fro, her eyes full of sudden tears, Dany turned away from them He fell from his horse! It was so, she had seen it, and the bloodriders, and no doubt her handmaids and the men of her khas as well And how many more? They could not keep it secret, and Dany knehat that o had fallen from his horse

"We must bathe him," she said stubbornly She ht at once Doreah, Eroeh, find water, cool water, he’s so hot" He was a fire in human skin

The slaves set up the heavy copper tub in the corner of the tent When Doreah brought the first jar of water, Dany wet a length of silk to lay across Drogo’s brow, over the burning skin His eyes looked at her, but he did not see When his lips opened, no words escaped them, only a moan "Where is Mirri Maz Duur?" she demanded, her patience rubbed raith fear

"Qotho will find her," Irri said

Her handmaids filled the tub with tepid water that stank of sulfur, sweetening it with jars of bitter oil and handfuls of crushedprepared, Dany knelt aardly beside her lord husband, her belly great with their child within She undid his braid with anxious fingers, as she had on the night he’d taken her for the first time, beneath the stars His bells she laid aside carefully, one by one He would want theain when he ell, she told herself

A breath of air entered the tent as Aggo poked his head through the silk "Khaleesi, " he said, "the Andal is cos leave to enter"

"The Andal" hat the Dothraki called Ser Jorah "Yes," she said, rising cluht He would knohat to do if anyone did

Ser Jorah Morh the door flap and waited a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dimness In the fierce heat of the south, he wore loose trousers ofsandals that laced up to his knee His scabbard hung from a twisted horsehair belt Under a bleached white vest, he was bare-chested, skin reddened by the sun "Talk goes from mouth to ear, all over the khalasar," he said "It is said Khal Drogo fell from his horse"

"Help him," Dany pleaded "For the love you say you bear ht knelt beside her He looked at Drogo long and hard, and then at Dany "Send your ht with fear, Dany irls from the tent

When they were alone, Ser Jorah drew his dagger Deftly, with a delicacy surprising in such a big an to scrape away the black leaves and dried blue o’s chest The plaster had caked hard as the mud walls of the Lamb Men, and like those walls it cracked easily Ser Jorah broke the dry mud with his knife, pried the chunks from the flesh, peeled off the leaves one by one A foul, sweet smell rose from the wound, so thick it almost choked her The leaves were crusted with blood and pus, Drogo’s breast black and glistening with corruption

"No," Dany whispered as tears ran down her cheeks "No, please, gods hearsome unseen enemy Black blood ran slow and thick froood as dead, Princess"

"No, he can’t die, he e callused hand in her own sht between theave a bitter laugh "Khaleesi or queen, that command is beyond your power Save your tears, child Weep for hirief We o, and quickly, before he dies"

Dany was lost "Go? Where should we go?"

"Asshai, I would say It lies far to the south, at the end of the knoorld, yet reat port We will find a ship to take us back to Pentos It will be a hard journey, make no mistake Do you trust your khas? Will they coo commanded them to keep me safe," Dany replied uncertainly, "but if he dies" She touched the swell of her belly "I don’t understand Why should we flee? I ao’s heir He will be khal after Drogo"

Ser Jorah frowned "Princess, hear o’s strength hat they bowed to, and only that When he is gone, Jhaqo and Pono and the other kos will fight for his place, and this khalasar will devour itself The winner ant no more rivals The boy will be taken froive hied herself "But why?" she cried plaintively "Why should they kill a little baby?"

"He is Drogo’s son, and the crones say he will be the stallion who mounts the world It was prophesied Better to kill the child than to risk his fury when he grows to manhood"

The child kicked inside her, as if he had heard Dany remembered the story Viserys had told her, of what the Usurper’s dogs had done to Rhaegar’s children His son had been a babe as well, yet they had ripped hiainst a wall That was the way of men "They must not hurt my son!" she cried "I will order o’s bloodriders will--"

Ser Jorah held her by the shoulders "A bloodrider dies with his khal You know that, child They will take you to Vaes Dothrak, to the crones, that is the last duty they owe hio in the night lands"

Dany did not want to go back to Vaes Dothrak and live the rest of her life aht spoke the truth Drogo had been more than her sun-and-stars; he had been the shield that kept her safe "I will not leave hiain "I will not"

A stirring at the tent flaplow Days on theand haggard, with blistered and bleeding feet and hollows under her eyes Behind her caodswife’s chest between theo’s wound, the chest slipped froers and crashed to the floor of the tent, and Qotho swore an oath so foul it seared the air

Mirri Maz Duur studied Drogo, her face still and dead "The wound has festered"

"This is your work, o laid his fist across Mirri’s cheek with a round Then he kicked her where she lay

"Stop it!" Dany screa, "Kicks are too i Take her outside We will stake her to the earth, to be thes will use her as well Weasels will tear out her entrails and carrion crows feast upon her eyes The flies off the river shall lay their eggs in her wo iron-hard fingers into the soft, wobbly flesh under the godswife’s arm and hauled her to her feet

"No," Dany said "I will not have her harmed"

Qotho’s lips skinned back from his crooked brown teeth in a terrible mockery of a smile "No? You say me no? Better you should pray that we do not stake you out beside your i You did this, as much as the other"

Ser Jorah stepped between theue, bloodrider The princess is still your khaleesi "

"Only while the blood-of-ht "When he dies, she is nothing"

Dany felt a tightness inside her "Before I was khaleesi, I was the blood of the dragon Ser Jorah, suo For nowKhaleesi " Haggo followed hi

"That one ood, Princess," Mormont said "The Dothraki say a man and his bloodriders share one life, and Qotho sees it ending A dead man is beyond fear"

"No one has died," Dany said "Ser Jorah, I o don your arhtened than she dared adht bowed "As you say" He strode from the tent

Dany turned back to Mirri Maz Duur The woman’s eyes ary "So you have saved me once more"

"And now you must save him," Dany said "Please"

"You do not ask a slave," Mirri replied sharply, "you tell her" She went to Drogo burning on hisat his wound "Ask or tell, it makes no matter He is beyond a healer’s skills" The khal’s eyes were closed She opened one with her fingers "He has been dulling the hurt with milk of the poppy"