A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

trained as
well, or they will lay my kingdom waste.
For all her Targaryen blood, Dany
had not the least idea of how to train a dragon.
    Ser Jorah Mormont came to her as the sun was going down. “The Pureborn refused
you?”
    â€œAs you said they would. Come, sit, give me your counsel.” Dany drew him down
to the cushions beside her, and Jhiqui brought them a bowl of purple olives and
onions drowned in wine.
    â€œYou will get no help in this city,
Khaleesi.
” Ser Jorah took an
onion between thumb and forefinger. “Each day I am more convinced of that than
the day before. The Pureborn see no farther than the walls of Qarth, and
Xaro . . .”
    â€œHe asked me to marry him again.”
    â€œYes, and I know why.” When the knight frowned, his heavy black brows joined
together above his deep-set eyes.
    â€œHe dreams of me, day and night.” She laughed.
    â€œForgive me, my queen, but it is your dragons he dreams of.”
    â€œXaro assures me that in Qarth, man and woman each retain their own
property after they are wed. The dragons are mine.” She smiled as Drogon came
hopping and flapping across the marble floor to crawl up on the cushion beside
her.
    â€œHe tells it true as far as it goes, but there’s one thing he failed to
mention. The Qartheen have a curious wedding custom, my queen. On the day of
their union, a wife may ask a token of love from her husband. Whatsoever she
desires of his worldly goods, he must grant. And he may ask the same of her.
One thing only may be asked, but whatever is named may not be
denied.”
    â€œOne thing,” she repeated. “And it may not be denied?”
    â€œWith one dragon, Xaro Xhoan Daxos would rule this city, but one ship will
further our cause but little.”
    Dany nibbled at an onion and reflected ruefully on the faithlessness of men.
“We passed through the bazaar on our way back from the Hall of a Thousand
Thrones,” she told Ser Jorah. “Quaithe was there.” She told him of the
firemage and the fiery ladder, and what the woman in the red mask had told
her.
    â€œI would be glad to leave this city, if truth be told,” the knight said when
she was done. “But not for Asshai.”
    â€œWhere, then?”
    â€œEast,” he said.
    â€œI am half a world away from my kingdom even here. If I go any farther east I
may never find my way home to Westeros.”
    â€œIf you go west, you risk your life.”
    â€œHouse Targaryen has friends in the Free Cities,” she

reminded him. “Truer friends than Xaro or the Pureborn.”
    â€œIf you mean Illyrio Mopatis, I wonder. For sufficient gold, Illyrio would
sell you as quickly as he would a slave.”
    â€œMy brother and I were guests in Illyrio’s manse for half a year. If he meant
to sell us, he could have done it then.”
    â€œHe did sell you,” Ser Jorah said. “To Khal Drogo.”
    Dany flushed. He had the truth of it, but she did not like the sharpness with
which he put it. “Illyrio protected us from the Usurper’s knives, and he
believed in my brother’s cause.”
    â€œIllyrio believes in no cause but Illyrio. Gluttons are greedy men as a rule,
and magisters are devious. Illyrio Mopatis is both. What do you truly know of
him?”
    â€œI know that he gave me my dragon eggs.”
    He snorted. “If he’d known they were like to hatch, he’d would have sat on
them himself.”
    That made her smile despite herself. “Oh, I have no doubt of that, ser. I know
Illyrio better than you think. I was a child when I left his manse in Pentos to
wed my sun-and-stars, but I was neither deaf nor blind. And I am no child
now.”
    â€œEven if Illyrio is the friend you think him,” the knight said stubbornly,
“he is not powerful enough to enthrone you by himself, no more than he could
your brother.”
    â€œHe is rich,” she said. “Not so rich as Xaro, perhaps, but rich enough to
hire ships for me, and men as well.”
    â€œSellswords have their uses,” Ser Jorah admitted, “but you will not win your
father’s throne with sweepings from the Free

Cities. Nothing knits a broken realm together so quick as an invading army on
its soil.”
    â€œI am their rightful queen,” Dany protested.
    â€œYou are a stranger who means to land on their shores with an army of
outlanders who