Tyrion lit the sconces one by one as he made his way down the stairs. Jon and Dany followed. The dank, musty smell was almost overpowering. When Dany trailed her fingers along the wall, they came away damp. She tripped on the edge of a stair and nearly lost her footing, but Jon steadied her. This close, Dany was suddenly aware of how solid and strong he was. She caught the scent of leather and pine.
"All right?" Jon whispered. Dany felt a slight, pleasant shiver.
"Yes, I'm fine. Let's – let's not keep Tyrion waiting." She picked up her pace, unsettled by the inclination she'd had to stay in Jon's arms. She wanted to control the process of tempting him – not cling to him like a green girl. They rounded a corner. Dany pawed at a cobweb stuck in her hair and flicked it away. "Well, I think we can rest assured no one's been this way before."
"Maybe we'll get lucky," Tyrion said. "I found a cache of wildfire under King's Landing. Searching for weapons of mass destruction in dim, mysterious places is becoming a bit of a disturbing hobby for me."
The spiral of steps ended at an ancient door, made of dark wood, with a fearsome dragon knocker.
"Funny that you have to put your hand in the dragon's mouth to get to the hoard of treasure," Tyron said. He heaved the door open and Dany pushed through, thrusting her torch forward eagerly.
Piles of sparkling shards of black glass extended at least a hundred feet in the distance. Dany couldn't make out the other side of the cave. It seemed a wealth of riches to her.
Jon picked up a small piece and turned it over in his hands.
"Will it be enough?" Dany knew Jon had risked men's lives to save a few scraps of the glass.
Jon sighed. "It will have to be, or we'll all die."
"Remind me to teach you a thing or two about speech making," Dany said drily.
Tyrion cleared his throat. "Yes, usually there's more 'let this be the last great stand of men', or some such. Our queen excels at it, I'm told."
Jon shrugged. "Given a few speeches in my time. I'm not much good at them, it's true. But I know the Long Night is coming and the dead come with it. We have to try to stop them, all of us, together. And even then it might not be enough." He swallowed. "This enemy brings the storm."
Dany felt the walls of the room closing in. The haunted look in Jon's eyes and the way he gripped the glass shook her. Here was a man who'd seen the army of the dead.
But Dany had overcome each and every obstacle in her life, one by one, through grit and determination and strength. Strength, above all else, khaleesi. When she encountered a challenge, her blood rose to meet it. She became sharp and focused and ready to fight. And when she fought, she won. This would be no different, she decided.
"I was born here on Dragonstone in the midst of the worst storm in memory, Jon. The lightning struck and the thunder crashed for days and the waves dashed the Targaryen fleet to pieces." Dany closed her eyes briefly, remembering the tales Viserys had told her of the destruction, the men bleeding to death on the rocks. "But it could not kill me."
"Daenerys Stormborn," Jon murmured, almost too low to hear, and although he did not look at her, she thought she heard a note of admiration in his tone.
"You told me, at Hardhome, that a White Walker mocked you."
"He wanted to break our spirit, show us how easily he could raise a hundred thousand undead after we'd crawled back to our boats."
"An enemy who tried to convince you that you could not survive the storm."
Jon slipped the glass into his pocket. "He might be right." He sounded exhausted.
Dany needed him to rally. "He was not. You've come to join forces with mine. The threat in the North has never faced the likes of us. We'll take these weapons, and my dragons, and we will be the storm, Jon, that beats back the army of the dead."
She held out her arm, and Jon clasped it. His grasp was warm and firm. She saw determination in his eyes that mirrored her own. "Aye. We'll be the storm." And for the first time, Dany felt as if another dragon, with strength and fire to match her own, might stand by her side.