Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen Daenerys

The Dothraki called the comet "Sirak Quea", which means "the star that weeps blood".The old men whispered it was a bad omen, but Daenerys Targaryen had seen the star the night Khal Drogo was cremated, and her dragon had awakened then.This is the envoy of the return of the real dragon. She looked up at the night sky full of emotion and told herself that this is the guiding star sent by the gods in the sky. However, when she said what she was planning, the maid Doria said fearfully, "Kalisi, there is a wasteland of red earth. Everyone on horseback knows that it is a desolate and terrifying place."

"The direction pointed by the comet is the way we are going." Dany insisted... But in fact, they have only this way to go. She dared not go north, because that would lead to the vast grasslands known as the "Dothraki Sea", and the first khalasar they encountered would devour her shattered troops, and all warriors would be killed , the rest will become slaves.The land of the "goat people" south of the river was also out of the question. Her team was too weak to resist even the less warlike peoples, and the Lazarin had no reason to treat them well.She considered going down the river southeast, to the ports of Meereen, Yunkai, and Astapor.But Rakharo warns: Bono's khalasar is heading in that direction, driving thousands of slaves to sell in the pustular slave markets along the coast of Slaver's Bay. "Why am I afraid of Bono?" Dany asked back. "He used to be Drogo's Kou, and he was always kind to me."

"It is Ponoko who is kind to you," said Ser Jorah Mormont. "Khal Ponoko will kill you. It was he who first deserted Drogo, and ten thousand warriors followed him, and you only A hundred people." No, Dany thought, I only have four warriors, and the rest are old women and children and children without braids. "I have dragons," she pointed out. "They're just hatching," Ser Jorah said. "One swing of the arakh's cutlass kills them all. Bono would probably keep them for himself. Dragon eggs are worth more than rubies, and living dragons are worth more. All There are only three in the world, Your Majesty, anyone who sees them will salivate."

"They're mine," she said forcefully.By her faith and desire, through the deaths of her husband, her unborn son, and the witch Mirri Maz Duur, they had just come into the world.Dany herself walked into the fire when they were born, and they sucked from her swollen breasts. "As long as I live, no one can take them away." "If you meet Khal Pono, I'm afraid you won't live long yourself. Nor with Khal Jaco, or anyone else. You can't walk with them." Mormont was appointed by Dany to be the first "Queensguard"... and since his opinion matches the omen, her direction is clear.So she called her people together and rode on the silver horse.Her hair had been burned in Drogo's funeral pyre, so the maid dressed her in the pelt of the Hraka, the white lion Drogo hunted in the Dothraki A hood, covering her bald head, and a lion's skin became a natural cape, hanging from her shoulders to her back.The cream-colored dragon nestled beside her, its black claws digging deep into the lion's mane, its tail wrapped around her arm.Ser Jorah, as usual, rode on either side of the horse.

"We follow my comet," Dany said to her khalasar.Once an order is issued, there is no longer any objection.They had been Drogo's people, and they were hers now.They called her the Unburnt and the Mother of Dragons, and her words were their law. They rode at night and hid in tents during the day to avoid the scorching sun.It didn't take long for Dany to realize that Doria was right, that this place really was barren.They had to leave dead and dying horses along the way, because Bono and Jacco and the others had taken Drogo's best cattle, leaving only Dany's old, sick, lame, weak and ill-tempered brutes.The same goes for those who stayed behind.They're not strong, she told herself, so I have to show strength, without fear, without weakness, without doubt.No matter how scared I was, I had to appear as Drogo's Khaleesi to them.She felt much older than her fourteen years, and if she had been a child, those years were over.

On the third day, someone fell down.An old man with blind blue eyes and missing teeth, fell off his horse from exhaustion, unable to get up, and died an hour later.Blood flies swarmed the corpse, spreading his doom to the world. "His hour has come," the maid Irri announced. "No one should outlive his own teeth." The others agreed.Dany told them to kill a weak and dying horse, so that the dead man could ride into the land of night. Two nights later, another baby girl died.Her mother's wailing of pain continued all day long, and there was nothing anyone could do.The poor boy was too young to ride a horse.She cannot enter the endless black grasslands of the kingdom of night, she must be reincarnated.

Forage is hard to find in the red wasteland, and drinking water is scarce.It was a dry and desolate land of low hills and wind-worn, barren fields.They crossed bone-dry riverbeds where the horses fed on tough, brown-yellow devil grass that grew in clusters under rocks and under dead trees.Dany sent scouts forward, but they found neither wells nor springs, only shallow, stagnant pools of bitter water, exposed to the scorching sun.And the deeper you go into the wilderness, the smaller the pool you find, and the longer the distance between the pools.If there were gods in this vast wilderness of rock and sand and red earth, they would be stern and merciless, turning a blind eye to prayers for rain.

The wine was the first to be drunk, and not long after that, the fermented mare's milk, which the horse kings loved to win the honey wine, also ran out, followed by bread and jerky.Since the hunters sent out could not find prey, they had to live on the meat of dead horses.Death followed one after another, weak children, wrinkled old women, sick people, mentally retarded and daredevils... all were killed by the cruel earth.Doria was gaunt, her eye sockets sunken, her silky blond hair turning straw-like. Dany was hungry and thirsty like anyone else.Her milk was dry and her nipples were chapped and bleeding.She became thinner day by day, until she finally looked like a stubby stick, but what she was worried about was the three little dragons.Her father was killed before she was born, as was her brave brother Rhaegar; Way loved her, but she was terminally ill when she was a child; later, her brother Viserys, Khal Drogo, her sun and stars, and her unborn son were all taken by the gods.I will never let them take my dragon, Dany swears, never.

Once upon a time in Pentos, in Magister Illyrio's mansion, she had seen kittens stalking the walls, scrawny, and her dragons were like them now... but with their wings spread, their wingspan was the length of their body Each wing is three times as long, each wing is a translucent delicate skin, colorful, tightly stretched between the long thin bones.If you look closely, you will find that the body of the young dragon is basically composed of neck, tail and wings.How small they are, she thought, as she hand-fed them.In fact, it should be said to be "trying" to feed, because the dragon refuses to eat.They neighed and snorted at the sight of the blood-red slabs of horsemeat, and refused to eat... Then Dany remembered what Viserys had said when she was a child.

Only dragons and humans enjoy cooked food, he said. So she ordered the maid to burn the meat, and the little dragons rushed to grab it like a snake.Since then, as long as the meat is burnt, they will swallow several times their body weight every day, and finally grow stronger.Dany marveled at their smooth scales, and the dragon scales gave off heat, especially on cold nights, as if they were smoking all over. Every evening, when Kalasar set off from camp, she would pick a dragonrider to carry on her shoulders.The other two were locked in a wooden cage that hung between Irri and Jiki's mounts.The two of them followed close behind, and Dany would never let them out of her sight, and that was the only way to calm them down.

"Aegon's dragon was named after an ancient Valyrian god," she told her bloodriders one morning, after a night's journey. Nyss's is Melaxes, and Aegon himself rides the 'Black Death' Balerion. It is said that the breath exhaled by Vagarhar is so hot that it can melt the knight's armor and roast the person inside the armor alive. Lathis swallows man and horse in one gulp, and as for Balerion... its flames are as black as night as its scales, and the shadows of its wings can cover a bustling town." The Dothraki warrior looked at the newly hatched dragon with some anxiety.The largest of them was all black, with scarlet stripes interspersed on its black scales, echoing the color of its wings and horns. "Khaleesh," Argo whispered, "that's Balerion, reincarnated." "Blood of my blood, it may be as you say," said Dany solemnly, "but he is born again, and he shall have a new name. I will name them after those the gods took from them. The green one Only Rhaego, for my brave brother died by the Green Fork. The white and gold one was named Viserion, for Viserys was cruel and weak and cowardly, but he was my brother after all. He The dragon will grant his wish." "And the black one?" Ser Jorah Mormont asked. "The black one," she said, "is called Drogon." Although Xiaolong is getting stronger day by day, her khalasar is shrinking constantly.The land became more and more desolate, even the devil weed was gradually scarce, and the horses fell one by one, forcing some of her people to go on foot.Doria fell ill with a fever, which rapidly deteriorated.Her lips and hands were blistered with blood, and her hair fell out in great quantities, until one evening she had no strength to mount a horse.Jhogo said they must leave her, or tie her to the saddle.Yet Dany remembered that night, in the Dothraki Sea, it had been the Lysian girl who had taught her the secrets of sex and had made Drogo and her sympathetic.So she opened her waterskin to feed Doria, wiped her forehead with a damp cloth, and held her trembling hands until she died before allowing the khalasar to move on. No one was seen along the way.The Dothraki began to fear the Whispers, thinking that the comet was taking them to an unnamed purgatory.One morning, when they were camped among the black, wind-swept stones, Dany went to Ser Jorah. "Have we lost our way?" she asked. "Is there any end to this wasteland?" "Yes." He replied wearily, "Your Majesty, I have seen maps drawn by merchants. Although few merchants pass through this place, there are indeed great kingdoms and cities full of wonders in the far east, such as Yidi , Qarth, Asshai by the shadows..." "Can we make it there alive?" "I dare not hide it from you, the difficulty of this road is beyond imagination." The knight's face was gray, obviously exhausted.He had never fully healed from the hip wound he had suffered the night of his duel with Khal Drogo's bloodriders, and she found him frowning in pain every time he mounted, and riding weak. "Continuing on may lead to ruin... but I am sure that if I turn back, it will all be over." Dany kissed him lightly on the cheek, and it was heartening to see him smile.Even for him, I must be strong, she thought heavily, he is just a knight, but I am the blood of a real dragon. The next pool they found was boiling hot and stinks of sulfur, but their waterskins were empty and they had no choice.The Dothraki hold water in jars and drink it when it cools down.It didn't make the stench any less, but water was water, and they were thirsty.Dany looked hopelessly at the distant horizon.Their number has been reduced by one-third, but the red wasteland is still boundless.Was this comet born to mock me?She looked up at the scars in the sky, and she thought to herself, have I traveled half the world to see the rebirth of dragons, only to end up with them in the scorching desert?She doesn't believe it. In the early morning of the next day, they came to a chapped red soil plain. They were about to set up camp, but the scouts galloped back on horseback. "Khalishi! There's a city ahead!" they yelled. "White as the moon, as beautiful as a maiden. Only an hour's ride away!" "Take me to see," she said. When the city finally appeared, its white walls and towers shining behind a curtain of air, it was so beautiful that Dany thought it could only be a mirage. "What is this place?" she asked Ser Jorah. The exiled knight shook his head weakly, "Your Majesty, I don't know, I have never been to such a place to the east." The white walls in the distance symbolize rest and safety. They can heal and recuperate. Dany wants nothing more than to run forward at this moment, but she turns to the bloodriders and says, "Blood of my blood, please Come forward and ask what the city is called, and how we shall be received." "Yes, Khaleesi!" Aggo said. The bloodriders were back in a moment, and Rakharo dismounted. On his medal belt hung the gift of the bloodriders Dany had given him: an arakh. "It's a dead city, Khaleesi. It's nameless, its gates are broken, and nothing but wind and flies move through its streets." Ji Qi said tremblingly: "Once the gods leave, the evil spirits will go out to hunt at night. It is best to avoid such places, as everyone knows." "Everyone knows." Yili agreed. "I don't know." Dany clamped her horse's belly, and ran through the broken arches of the ancient city and along the silent streets.Ser Jorah and her bloodrider followed close behind, and the rest of the Dothraki followed slowly. I don't know how long this city has been abandoned, but the pure white city wall that looks so beautiful from a distance has only recently been discovered to be ruins.The narrow alleys in the city are intricate, and the buildings are leaning against each other. Their fronts have no windows and no features. Looking around, they are pale.Everything is white, as if the inhabitants of this place have no concept of color.They walked through the sun-baked ruins of crumbling houses, with faded burn marks everywhere.Passing a place where six lanes met, Dany saw an empty marble pedestal.It appears the Dothraki have been there, and perhaps the lost statue is in Vaes Dothraki at this moment, among the other stolen gods.Perhaps she herself often rode by without knowing it.Over her shoulder, Viserion hissed. They camped in the ruins of a long-destroyed palace, the palace square was ravaged by wind and sand, and devil grass grew between the road stones.Dani sent people to search for the ruins, some people were reluctant, but still took the order... Not long after, an old man with a scar on his body jumped up and down, with a smile on his face and a hug in his arms. with a bunch of figs.Although the fruit is small and a little shrunken, her people greedily stretch out their hands to snatch it, push each other, stuff the fruit into their mouths, and chew it contentedly. The rest of the searchers reported one after another, and they found the orchard in the secret garden of the deep palace.Ago took her to a courtyard full of vines, with small green grapes hanging from the vines.Jhogo found a well with cold and clean water.Among other things, they found bones, unburied skeletons, pale and battered. "Ghosts," Irri murmured, "this is a terrible ghost! Khaleesi, we can't stay here, this is their place." "I'm not afraid of ghosts, my dragon is stronger than ghosts." The important thing is that there are figs here. "You and Jiqi go and find some clean sand for me. I want to take a bath. Stop talking stupid things." Dany returned to her tent in the shade, and while the horse meat was roasting over the brazier, she considered her plans for the future.There is plenty of food and water here, and there is grass to restore the horses' strength.How nice would it be to wake up every day in a place like this, lingering in the shade of the garden, eating figs and sipping cool water? When Irri and Jiki brought back some bottles of white sand, Dany undressed and let them wipe her body. "Kalixi, your hair is slowly growing back." Jiki said, brushing the sand on her back.Dany ran her hand over the top of her head, feeling the short new growth.Dothraki men wear their long hair in shiny braids and never trim it unless they are defeated.Maybe I should do the same, she thought, to remind everyone that Drogo's power is with me.Khal Drogo had never had a haircut in his life, and few could. On the other side of the tent, Lei Ge spread out his green wings, flapped his wings and flew up half a foot, and then fell to the carpet.As soon as it hit the ground, it flicked its tail angrily and raised its head to scream.If I had wings, I'd like to fly too, Dany thought.The ancient Targaryen royal family often rode a dragon to go to the battlefield.She tried to imagine what it would be like to soar through the sky on the back of a dragon.It should be like standing on the top of a mountain, only better than that, with the whole world stretching beneath your feet.If I fly high enough, I can see the Seven Kingdoms and reach out and touch a comet. Irri interrupts her daydream to tell her that Ser Jorah Mormont is out to see her. "Call him in," Dany ordered, her skin still stinging from the sand.She was clad in a lion's skin, and Hraka was much larger than Dany, so that the fur covered all that needed to be covered. "I brought you a peach," Ser Jorah said, kneeling.The peaches were small enough to fit in her palm, and a little overripe, but she almost screamed at the sweet flesh after she took a bite.She ate slowly, bite by bite, chewing slowly.Ser Jorah explained that it was picked in a garden near the western wall. "There is fruit here, well water, and shade," said Dany, whose cheeks were covered with sticky peach juice. "It is good that the gods brought us here." "We should recuperate here," the knight suggested, "the weak will not live long in the red wasteland." "My maid says there are ghosts here." "Spirits are everywhere," Ser Jorah said softly. "Wherever they go, they stick with them." Yes, she thought, Viserys, Khal Drogo, my son Rhaegal, they are with me all the time. "Jorah, you know my ghosts well, but what about yours?" His face was very calm, "Her name is Linice." "Is it your wife?" "My second wife." It hurt him to speak of her, Dany could see, but she wanted to know the truth. "That's all?" The lion skin slipped from one of her shoulders, and she stretched out her hand to hold it. "Is she pretty?" "Very beautiful." Ser Jorah looked up from her shoulders to her face. "The first time I saw her, I thought she was a goddess descended, a 'maiden' in the world, but my origin is far less noble than her. She The youngest daughter of Lord Leighton Hightower of Oldtown, and her great-uncle the White Bull who commanded your father's Kingsguard. The Hightowers have a long history, great wealth, and great pride." "They are loyal," said Dany. "I recall, Viserys said, that the Hightowers were the few subjects who remained loyal to my father." "That's right." He agreed. "Your father asked for a marriage for you?" "No," he said, "our marriage... Your Majesty, it's a long and boring story, so I'd better not talk about it." "Anyway, I have nothing to do," she said, "just tell me." "Yes, my queen." Ser Jorah frowned. "My hometown...you must know this before you can understand the rest. Bear Island is beautiful, but it is remote. Old oaks and towering ancient pines, flowering hawthorn groves, gray stones covered with moss, small rivers running through steep hills, the water flows cleanly. The halls of the Mormont family are built of huge garden logs, surrounded by hedges. Except for a few tenants , my people live by the sea and fish for a living. Khaleesi, Bear Island is located in the far north, and the winter there is more severe than you can imagine." "However, I am used to living on Bear Island. I have never been short of women. I have relations with many fisherwomen and peasant girls, both before and after marriage. I married very early, and the bride was chosen by my father. She was The Glover girl from Deepwood Moor. We were married...about ten years. In order to give birth to my successor, she had three miscarriages, and she never recovered from the last one, and died soon after." Dany took his hand lightly, squeezing his fingers. "I feel sorry for you, really." Ser Jorah nodded, "Not long after, my father joined the Blackshirt Army, and I became the lord of Bear Island. Many people came to propose marriage. Before I made a final decision, King Balon Greyjoy raised his army Against the 'Usurper', Ned Stark summoned his vassals to aid his friend Robert. The final battle took place at the gates of Pike, when Robert's trebuchet smashed open a line in King Balon's wall After the opening, a monk from Myr rushed in first, and I did not fall behind. For this reason, I am knighted." "To celebrate the victory, Robert issued a decree to hold a tourney outside Lannisport. It was there that I met Linice. She was only half my age, and she came from Oldtown with her father to watch her brother fight. .I couldn’t take my eyes off her. On the spur of the moment, I begged her to give me a token so that I could fight for her. I never dreamed that she would agree, but she agreed.” "Kalixi, my martial arts are not inferior to anyone, but we northerners have never been good at martial arts competitions. It's just that I, with the token of Linnis tied on my arm, have completely changed. One after another, I I have returned with great victories, Lord Jason Mallister, and Jon Royce 'Bronze'. Ser Ryman Frey and his brother Ser Hosteen, River Lord Ann, 'Strong Pig', even Ser Boros Braun of the Kingsguard, were all defeated by me. In the last match, I fought against Jaime Lannister nine times. In the end, King Robert awarded me the crown of victory. I put the crown of love and beauty on Linice, and I was completely immersed in wine and glory. I was drunk, and I went to propose marriage to her father that night. I originally I was worried that I would be rejected mercilessly, but Lord Layton agreed to the marriage. So we got married in Lannisport, and in the two weeks after marriage, I was the happiest man in the world." "Only two weeks?" Dany asked.Even Drogo and I have had a longer blissful time together than he, ah, my Drogo, my sun and stars. "It takes exactly two weeks to get back to Bear Island by boat from Lannisport. Linice is so disappointed in my old home, it's too cold, too wet, too remote, and my town is just a long wooden hall. We don't have masquerade parties, There were no pantomime shows and no lavish dinners. It took years for a singer to come and sing, and there was not even a goldsmith on the island. Every meal was a torment for her, because my chef cooked Soup, of which I know quite little, and Linice soon tires of fish and venison." "I live to see her happy, so I hired a new cook all the way from Oldtown, and a harper from Lannisport. Goldsmiths, jewelers, dressers, I'll do whatever she wants. Complete, but not enough. Bear Island is rich in wild bears and timber, but other resources are quite scarce. I built a big ship and sailed with her to Lannisport and Oldtown. Dabraforth, where I borrowed a great sum. I won her laughter and heart by being the champion of the tourney, so I continued to participate in the tourney for her, but the magic was gone, and I never won again But every time I lose, it means the loss of a war horse and a set of armor, and I have to spend money to redeem it or replace it with a new one. I really can’t bear the expense, and finally insist on going home, but after returning home It went from bad to worse. I couldn't pay the cook and the harpist, and Linice was furious when she heard that I meant to pawn her jewels." "Then... I did a lot of things I'd be ashamed of, all for money, to keep Lynes' jewels, the harper, and the cook. Finally, I lost everything. When I heard that Ed Star Ke was rushing to Bear Island, and he had completely lost his sense of honor. He didn't dare to stay and accept the sanctions, so he took her into exile overseas. I told myself: As long as we really love each other, nothing matters. We fled to Rees, and I was in the local Sell ​​the big ship and get gold to live on." His tone was sad, and Dany really didn't want to push him to continue, but she wanted to know the end result. "Is that where she died?" she asked softly. "It was for me," he said. "In less than half a year I ran out of gold and had to become a mercenary. While I was fighting the Braavosi on the banks of the Lorne, Linice moved into It is said that she is now his most favored concubine, and even his wife is afraid of her." Dany was horrified. "Do you hate her?" "Love and hate," Ser Jorah answered. "Your Majesty, please let me go. I am very tired." She let him go, but when he raised the tent, she couldn't help calling him, asking one last question: "What do you, Mrs. Lyness, look like?" Ser Jorah smiled sadly. "Well, she does resemble you, Daenerys." He bowed deeply. "Sleep well, my queen." Dany trembled all over, and hurriedly stretched out her hand to tighten the lion's skin.she looks like me?This explained her previous inexplicable premonition.He wanted me, it dawned on her, and he loved me as she loved her, not as a knight loves a queen but as a man loves a woman.She tried to picture herself lying in Ser Jorah's arms, kissing him, pleasuring him, letting him inside her, but in vain.Whenever she closes her eyes, he becomes Drogo. Khal Drogo was her sun and star, her first and perhaps last love.Who would want a wife like Mirri Maz Duur, the witch Mirri Maz Duur, who had sworn she would never have children again?And what man could be like Drogo who died with his braids uncut, and is now a khalasar of stars, galloping across the land of night? When Ser Jorah talked about Bear Island, she felt nostalgic in his words.He'll never get me, but someday I'll bring him home and his reputation, at least I can. No ghosts disturbed her lucid dreams that night.She dreamed of the night she and Drogo were married, and they were running side by side.But in the dream they were not riding horses, but dragons. The next morning, she summoned three bloodriders. "Blood of my blood," she said to them, "I need your help. Please choose three horses each, the strongest and healthiest, carry as much food and water as you can, and go out to explore the city. To the southwest, Rakharo goes due south, and Jhogo follows Sirak Quia to the southeast." "Kaleesi, what do you want us to find?" Jhogo asked. "Anything," Dany answered, "find other cities, living and dead. Find caravans and trails, find rivers and lakes and salt water oceans. Find out where the Wasteland ends, and beyond The scene. When I start again, I will never go forward blindly. I not only need to know the destination, but also know the shortcut to get there." So they took their orders and departed, the hairline bells jingling softly.Dany took her small group of followers and settled in what they called "Ves Torojo", which means "City of Dry Bones".Day and night, women gather fruit in the garden of the dead, while men tend the horses, mending saddles, stirrups and shoes.Children roamed the winding alleyways, unearthing ancient bronze coins and pieces of purple glass, as well as stone vases with snake-like handles.A woman was once bitten by a red scorpion, but no one died except her.The horse grew stronger, and Ser Jorah's wounds healed under Dany's own care. Rakharo returned first.According to his report, the red moor continued southwards, terminating in the barren cliffs of the poisonous waters.There are only billowing red sand, wind-eroded rocks, and spiky plants between the poisonous water and the land.He swore he had walked over the remains of a dragon whose black mouth was big enough for him to ride his horse through.Other than that, nothing was found. Then Dany gave him twelve strong men, and told them to dig up the grounds of the square and scoop out the earth that lay beneath.Since the devil grass can survive in the cracks between the stone slabs, other plants must be able to grow here after the stones are removed.They found a lot of wells, so there is no shortage of water, as long as the seeds are planted, the square can be renewed. The second one to come back was Argo.He swore that the southwest region was scorching sun and deserted.He found the ruins of the two cities, and compared with Ves Torojo, there was not much difference except that they were smaller.One of the cities was surrounded by rusted iron guns with skeletons hanging from the points, so he dared not venture into it, but he explored the other dead city carefully.He showed Dany an iron bracelet he found inside, set with a fiery opal as big as a thumb, natural and uncut.In addition, he also found some scrolls, but most of them were dry and fragile, so Ago didn't bring them back. Dany thanked him and put him in charge of repairing the gate.Since there were natural enemies who were able to cross the desert and destroy these cities in ancient times, they may come again. "If the enemy strikes, we must be ready," she declared. Jogo has not returned home for a long time, and Dani worries about his whereabouts every day.Just when everyone was in despair, he rode back from the southeast.The guards sent by Ago to defend the city were the first to see him and shouted immediately.Dany immediately went to the city herself.It was true that Jhogo was back, but he was not alone.Three strangely dressed strangers followed him, riding a hunchback taller than any horse. They stopped before the city gate and looked up at Dany on the city. "Blood of my blood!" cried Jhogo, "I went to the great city of Qarth, and these three returned with me, and they want to see you with their own eyes." Dany stared at the stranger below the city gate, "I'm here, you can see it for yourself...but please register your name first." The man with white skin and blue lips said in rough Dothraki, "I am the great wizard Haiya Puli." The bald man with the jeweled nose said in the Valyrian dialect of the Free Cities, "My name is Xaro Xhoan Daxos, and I am the Thirteenth of Qarth." In the Mandarin of the Seven Kingdoms, the woman wearing the wooden lacquer mask said: "I am Quexi of the Shadowlands, and we run to find the dragon." "It's far away," Daenerys Targaryen told them, "but it's near."