A Dance With Dragons

peace for us with gold, or convinced the other highborn that our marriage is in their best interests.”
    “If he is not the Harpy, he knows him. I can find the truth of that easy enough. Give me your leave to put Hizdahr to the question, and I will bring you a confession.”
    “No,” she said. “I do not trust these confessions. You’ve brought me too many of them, all of them worthless.”
    “Your Radiance—”
    “ No, I said.”
    The Shavepate’s scowl turned his ugly face even uglier. “A mistake. The Great Master Hizdahr plays Your Worship for a fool. Do you want a serpent in your bed?”
    I want Daario in my bed, but I sent him away for the sake of you and yours. “You may continue to watch Hizdahr zo Loraq, but no harm is to come to him. Is that understood?”
    “I am not deaf, Magnificence. I will obey.” Skahaz drew a parchment scroll from his sleeve. “Your Worship should have a look at this. A list of all the Meereenese ships in the blockade, with their captains. Great Masters all.”
    Dany studied the scroll. All the ruling families of Meereen were named: Hazkar, Merreq, Quazzar, Zhak, Rhazdar, Ghazeen, Pahl, even Reznak and Loraq. “What am I to do with a list of names?”
    “Every man on that list has kin within the city. Sons and brothers, wives and daughters, mothers and fathers. Let my Brazen Beasts seize them. Their lives will win you back those ships.”
    “If I send the Brazen Beasts into the pyramids, it will mean open war inside the city. I have to trust in Hizdahr. I have to hope for peace.” Dany held the parchment above a candle and watched the names go up in flame, while Skahaz glowered at her.
    Afterward, Ser Barristan told her that her brother Rhaegar would have been proud of her. Dany remembered the words Ser Jorah had spoken at Astapor: Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died.
    When she descended to the purple marble hall, she found it almost empty. “Are there no petitioners today?” Dany asked Reznak mo Reznak. “No one who craves justice or silver for a sheep?”
    “No, Your Worship. The city is afraid.”
    “There is nothing to fear.”
    But there was much and more to fear as she learned that evening. As her young hostages Miklaz and Kezmya were laying out a simple supper of autumn greens and ginger soup for her, Irri came to tell her that Galazza Galare had returned, with three Blue Graces from the temple. “Grey Worm is come as well, Khaleesi. They beg words with you, most urgently.”
    “Bring them to my hall. And summon Reznak and Skahaz. Did the Green Grace say what this was about?”
    “Astapor,” said Irri.
    Grey Worm began the tale. “He came out of the morning mists, a rider on a pale horse, dying. His mare was staggering as she approached the city gates, her sides pink with blood and lather, her eyes rolling with terror. Her rider called out, ‘ She is burning, she is burning, ’ and fell from the saddle. This one was sent for, and gave orders that the rider be brought to the Blue Graces. When your servants carried him inside the gates, he cried out again, ‘ She is burning. ’ Under his tokar he was a skeleton, all bones and fevered flesh.”
    One of the Blue Graces took up the tale from there. “The Unsullied brought this man to the temple, where we stripped him and bathed him in cool water. His clothes were soiled, and my sisters found half an arrow in his thigh. Though he had broken off the shaft, the head remained inside him, and the wound had mortified, filling him with poisons. He died within the hour, still crying out that she was burning.”
    “ ‘She is burning,’ ” Daenerys repeated. “Who is she ?”
    “Astapor, Your Radiance,” said another of the Blue Graces. “He said it, once. He said ‘ Astapor is burning.’ ”
    “It might have been his fever talking.”
    “Your Radiance speaks wisely,” said Galazza Galare, “but Ezzara saw something else.”
    The Blue Grace called Ezzara folded her hands. “My queen,” she murmured, “his fever was not brought on by the arrow. He had soiled himself, not once but many times. The stains reached to his knees, and there was dried blood amongst his excrement.”
    “His horse was bleeding, Grey Worm said.”
    “This thing is true, Your Grace,” the eunuch confirmed. “The pale mare was bloody from his spur.”
    “That may be so, Your Radiance,” said Ezzara, “but this blood was mingled with his stool. It stained his