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The sun was going dohen she called them back to carry his body to the pyre The Dothraki watched in silence as Jhogo and Aggo bore him from the tent Dany walked behind them They laid him down on his cushions and silks, his head toward the Mother of Mountains far to the northeast
"Oil," she coht forth the jars and poured the the silks and the brush and the bundles of dry grass, until the oil trickled froin her voice made theo will have no use for dragon’s eggs in the night lands Better to sell them in Asshai Sell one and we can buy a ship to take us back to the Free Cities Sell all three and you will be a wealthy woiven to me to sell," Dany told his around her sun-and-stars The black beside his heart, under his arreen beside his head, his braid coiled around it The creas When she kissed him for the last time, Dany could taste the sweetness of the oil on his lips
As she cli her "You are odswife said hoarsely
"Is it so far froi and bind her to the pyre"
"To themy queen, no, hear me"
"Do as I say" Still he hesitated, until her anger flared "You swore to obey ht coodswife did not cry out as they dragged her to Khal Drogo’s pyre and staked her down amidst his treasures Dany poured the oil over the woman’s head herself "I thank you, Mirri Maz Duur," she said, "for the lessons you have taught me"
"You will not hear me scream," Mirri responded as the oil dripped fro
"I will," Dany said, "but it is not your screams I want, only your life I remember what you told me Only death can pay for life" Mirri Maz Duur opened her mouth, but made no reply As she stepped away, Dany saw that the contei’s flat black eyes; in its place was so to be done but watch the sun and look for the first star
When a horselord dies, his horse is slain with hiht lands The bodies are burned beneath the open sky, and the khal rises on his fiery steed to take his place a the stars The hter his star will shine in the darkness
Jhogo spied it first "There," he said in a hushed voice Dany looked and saw it, low in the east The first star was a coon’s tail She could not have asked for a stronger sign
Dany took the torch fros The oil took the fire at once, the brush and dried grass a heartbeat later Tiny fla over the oil and leaping fro heat puffed at her face, soft and sudden as a lover’s breath, but in seconds it had grown too hot to bear Dany stepped backward The wood crackled, louder and louder Mirri Maz Duur began to sing in a shrill, ululating voice The fla each other up the platform The dusk shimmered as the air itself sees spit and crack The fires swept over Mirri Maz Duur Her song grew louder, shrillerthen she gasped, again and again, and her song becaony
And now the flao, and now they were all around hi took fire, and for an instant the khal was clad in wisps of floating orange silk and tendrils of curling sreasy Dany’s lips parted and she found herself holding her breath Part of her wanted to go to hi for his forgiveness and take hi the flesh from their bones until they were as one, forever
She could s flesh, no different than horseflesh roasting in a firepit The pyre roared in the deepening dusk like so out the fainter sound of Mirri Maz Duur’s screaues of flarew thicker, the Dothraki backed away, coughing Huge orange gouts of fire unfurled their banners in that hellish wind, the logs hissing and cracking, glowing cinders rising on the smoke to float away into the dark like so reat red wings, driving the Dothraki back, driving off even Moron, and the fire was in her
She had sensed the truth of it long ago, Dany thought as she took a step closer to the conflagration, but the brazier had not been hot enough The flames writhed before her like the wo and spinning their yellow and orange and crimson veils, fearsome to behold, yet lovely, so lovely, alive with heat Dany opened her ar, too, she thought Mirri Maz Duur had fallen silent The godswife thought her a child, but children grow, and children learn
Another step, and Dany could feel the heat of the sand on the soles of her feet, even through her sandals Sweat ran down her thighs and between her breasts and in rivulets over her cheeks, where tears had once run Ser Jorah was shouting behind her, but he did not matter anymore, only the fire s she had ever seen, each one a sorcerer robed in yellow and orange and scarlet, swirling long sreat yellow serpents and unicorns made of pale blue flaht birds and flowering trees, each rey stallion li mane a nimbus of blue flame Yes, my love, my sun-and-stars, yes, un to sround The painted leather burst into sudden flame as she skipped closer to the fire, her breasts bare to the blaze, strea froht, now, and for an instant she glio before her,lash in his hand He s
She heard a crack, the sound of shattering stone The platforan to shift and collapse in upon itself Bits of burning wood slid down at her, and Dany was showered with ash and cinders And so, to land at her feet; a chunk of curved rock, pale and veined with gold, broken and sh the firefall Dany heard women shriek and children cry out in wonder
Only death can pay for life
And there came a second crack, loud and sharp as thunder, and the smoke stirred and whirled around her and the pyre shifted, the logs exploding as the fire touched their secret hearts She heard the screahtened horses, and the voices of the Dothraki raised in shouts of fear and terror, and Ser Jorah calling her naood knight, do not fear for hter of dragons, bride of dragons, ons, don’t you see? Don’t you SEE? With a belch of flame and smoke that reached thirty feet into the sky, the pyre collapsed and came down around her Unafraid, Dany stepped forward into the firestor to her children
The third crack was as loud and sharp as the breaking of the world
When the fire died at last and the ground becah to walk upon, Ser Jorah Mors and bits of glowing ember and the burnt bones of man and woman and stallion She was naked, covered with soot, her clothes turned to ash, her beautiful hair all crisped awayyet she was unhurt
The creareen-and-bronze at the right Her arms cradled them close The black-and-scarlet beast was draped across her shoulders, its long sinuous neck coiled under her chin When it saw Jorah, it raised its head and looked at hiht fell to his knees The o was the first to lay his arakh at her feet "Blood ofearth "Blood of o echo "Blood of my blood," Rakharo shouted
And after them came her handmaids, and then the others, all the Dothraki, men and women and children, and Dany had only to look at their eyes to know that they were hers now, today and too’s
As Daenerys Targaryen rose to her feet, her black hissed, pale s from its mouth and nostrils The other two pulled away from her breasts and added their voices to the call, translucent wings unfolding and stirring the air, and for the first tiht caons
THE END