A Feast for Dragons

grinned at the knight’s
obvious discomfit. “Did you truly expect me to believe you were about the
queen’s business in that whorehouse? Defending her from half a world away? Or
could it be that you were running, that your dragon queen sent you from her
side? But why would she … oh, wait, you were
spying
on her.” Tyrion made a clucking sound. “You hope to buy your way back into her
favor by presenting her with me. An ill-considered scheme, I’d say. One might
even say an act of drunken desperation. Perhaps if I were Jaime … but
Jaime killed her father, I only killed my own. You think Daenerys will execute
me and pardon you, but the reverse is just as likely. Maybe you
should
hop up on that pig, Ser Jorah. Put on a suit of iron motley, like Florian the—”
    The blow the big knight gave him cracked his head around and
knocked him sideways, so hard that his head bounced off the deck. Blood filled
his mouth as he staggered back onto one knee. He spat out a broken tooth.
Growing
prettier every day, but I do believe I poked a wound
. “Did the dwarf
say something to offend you, ser?” Tyrion asked innocently, wiping bubbles of
blood off his broken lip with the back of his hand.
    “I am sick of your mouth, dwarf,” said Mormont. “You still
have a few teeth left. If you want to keep them, stay away from me for the rest
of this voyage.”
    “That could be difficult. We share a cabin.”
    “You can find somewhere else to sleep. Down in the hold, up
on deck, it makes no matter. Just keep out of my sight.”
    Tyrion pulled himself back to his feet. “As you wish,” he
answered, through a mouthful of blood, but the big knight was already gone, his
boots pounding on the deckboards.
    Below, in the galley, Tyrion was rinsing out his mouth with
rum and water and wincing at the sting when Penny found him. “I heard what
happened. Oh, are you hurt?”
    He shrugged. “A bit of blood and a broken tooth.”
But
I believe I hurt him more
. “And him a knight. Sad to say, I would not
count on Ser Jorah should we need protection.”
    “What did you do? Oh, your lip is bleeding.” She slipped a
square from her sleeve and dabbed at it. “What did you say?”
    “A few truths Ser Bezoar did not care to hear.”
    “You mustn’t mock him. Don’t you know
anything?
You can’t talk that way to a big person. They can
hurt
you. Ser
Jorah could have tossed you in the sea. The sailors would have laughed to see
you drown. You have to be careful around big people. Be jolly and playful with
them, keep them smiling, make them laugh, that’s what my father always said.
Didn’t your father ever tell you how to act with big people?”
    “My father called them smallfolk,” said Tyrion, “and he was
not what you’d call a jolly man.” He took another sip of watered rum, sloshed
it around his mouth, spat it out. “Still, I take your point. I have a deal to
learn about being a dwarf. Perhaps you will be good enough to teach me, in
between the jousting and the pig-riding.”
    “I will, m’lord. Gladly. But … what were these
truths? Why did Ser Jorah hit you so hard?”
    “Why, for love. The same reason that I stewed that singer.”
He thought of Shae and the look in her eyes as he tightened the chain about her
throat, twisting it in his fist. A chain of golden hands.
For hands of
gold are always gold, but a woman’s hands are warm
. “Are you a maid,
Penny?”
    She blushed. “Yes. Of course. Who would have—”
    “Stay that way. Love is madness, and lust is poison. Keep
your maidenhead. You’ll be happier for it, and you’re less like to find
yourself in some dingy brothel on the Rhoyne with a whore who looks a bit like
your lost love.”
Or chasing across half the world, hoping to find
wherever whores go
. “Ser Jorah dreams of rescuing his dragon queen and
basking in her gratitude, but I know a thing or two about the gratitude of
kings, and I’d sooner have a palace in Valyria.” He broke off suddenly. “Did
you feel that? The ship moved.”
    “It did.” Penny’s face lit up with joy. “We’re moving again.
The wind …” She rushed to the door. “I want to see. Come, I’ll race you
up.” Off she went.
    She is young
, Tyrion had to remind himself, as
Penny scrambled from the galley and up the steep wooden steps as fast as her
short legs would allow.
Almost a child
. Still, it tickled him
to see her excitement. He followed her topside.
    The sail had come to life again, billowing, emptying,