A Feast for Dragons

as
clever as half the men at this table and wiser than all of them
. “I
have instructed the Green Grace to present the offer only when all of the
Yunkish commanders have assembled to hear it.”
    “They will refuse, even so,” insisted Symon Stripeback.
“They will say they want the dragons dead, the king restored.”
    “I pray that you are wrong.”
And fear that you are
right
.
    “Your gods are far away, Ser Grandfather,” said the Widower.
“I do not think they hear your prayers. And when the Yunkai’i send back the old
woman to spit in your eye, what then?”
    “Fire and blood,”
said Barristan Selmy,
softly, softly.
    For a long moment no one spoke. Then Strong Belwas slapped
his belly and said, “Better than liver and onions,” and Skahaz Shavepate stared
through the eyes of his wolf’s head mask and said, “You would break King
Hizdahr’s peace, old man?”
    “I would shatter it.” Once, long ago, a prince had named him
Barristan the Bold. A part of that boy was in him still. “We have built a
beacon atop the pyramid where once the Harpy stood. Dry wood soaked with oil,
covered to keep the rain off. Should the hour come, and I pray that it does
not, we will light that beacon. The flames will be your signal to pour out of
our gates and attack. Every man of you will have a part to play, so every man
must be in readiness at all times, day or night. We will destroy our foes or be
destroyed ourselves.” He raised a hand to signal to his waiting squires. “I
have had some maps prepared to show the dispositions of our foes, their camps
and siege lines and trebuchets. If we can break the slavers, their sellswords
will abandon them. I know you will have concerns and questions. Voice them
here. By the time we leave this table, all of us must be of a single mind, with
a single purpose.”
    “Best send down for some food and drink, then,” suggested
Symon Stripeback. “This will take a while.”
    It took the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon.
The captains and commanders argued over the maps like fishwives over a bucket
of crabs. Weak points and strong points, how to best employ their small company
of archers, whether the elephants should be used to break the Yunkish lines or
held in reserve, who should have the honor of leading the first advance,
whether their horse cavalry was best deployed on the flanks or in the vanguard.
    Ser Barristan let each man speak his mind. Tal Toraq thought
that they should march on Yunkai once they had broken through the lines; the
Yellow City would be almost undefended, so the Yunkai’i would have no choice
but to lift the siege and follow. The Spotted Cat proposed to challenge the
enemy to send forth a champion to face him in single combat. Strong Belwas
liked that notion but insisted he should fight, not the Cat. Camarron of the
Count put forth a scheme to seize the ships tied up along the riverfront and
use the Skahazadhan to bring three hundred pit fighters around the Yunkish
rear. Every man there agreed that the Unsullied were their best troops, but
none agreed on how they should be deployed. The Widower wanted to use the
eunuchs as an iron fist to smash through the heart of the Yunkish defenses.
Marselen felt they would be better placed at either end of the main battle
line, where they could beat back any attempt by the foe to turn their flanks.
Symon Stripeback wanted them split into three and divided amongst the three
companies of freedmen. His Free Brothers were brave and eager for the fight, he
claimed, but without the Unsullied to stiffen them he feared his unblooded
troops might not have the discipline to face battle-seasoned sellswords by
themselves. Grey Worm said only that the Unsullied would obey, whatever might
be asked of them.
    And when all that had been discussed, debated, and decided,
Symon Stripeback raised one final point. “As a slave in Yunkai I helped my
master bargain with the free companies and saw to the payment of their wages. I
know sellswords, and I know that the Yunkai’i cannot pay them near enough to
face dragonflame. So I ask you … if the peace should fail and this
battle should be joined, will the dragons come? Will they join the fight?”
    They will come
, Ser Barristan might have
said.
The noise will bring them, the shouts and screams, the scent of
blood. That will draw them to the battlefield, just as the roar from Daznak’s
Pit drew Drogon to the scarlet sands. But when they come, will they know one
side