Hello! Here is a new chapter of Wizard´s mistake. Hope you like it!
"I wonder how Griff managed the news…"
"Better than Robb, I think. Gods, he surely thinks I´m a deserter" said Jon, covering his mouth with his hand after doing this, being accompanied by his wolf. The animal seemed to be as miserable as his master, neither of them having been in the sea before and not finding their seafood. Dany was near them, handing them some spiced wine. She had heard somewhere that this helped with nausea and this seemed to be the right moment to use it. At least they had lots of that from Illyrio.
After being practically kicked out of Xaro´s mansion (and marriage rejection number twenty-seven that day and both of his nephews refusing to sleep with him) the Targaryens decided to make their way to Astapor on ship. On the port, there was an attempted murder on Daenerys. A sorrowful man tried to kill the princess with a manticore, but was stopped by a mysterious white bearded man who called himself Arstan. The same man that was now travelling with them, after promising to protect them.
"If he has half the brain, he won´t" answered Aegon, a little bit of jealousy sipping into his voice. It was no mystery to anyone that the boy king felt a tiny bit (probably a lot) of envy towards Jon´s cousins for growing up with him in Winterfell. The Young Griff had always wanted a sibling. He spent hours wondering how it would have been had Rhaenys survived the sack of King´s Landing. Hell, he even asked the Old Griff once if he could have a little brother! And just now he finds out he already had one, just that he was living thousands of miles away in an icy wasteland. "Why would he think something like that? I mean… you said you were as close as brothers."
"Well… my… Lady Stark didn´t really like me" he confessed, remembering the hateful glares his step mother… aunt gave him before joining the Night´s Watch. Something he shouldn´t be mentioning to his other family, he reminded himself, as those dragons could do more than roast a lady. "Anyway, that´s in the past. We should be worrying about the future now" he pushed his cup away. "What are you going to do once we reach Astapor? Because I have no desire to become a slave."
"Fear not, I have a plan" Daenerys said, easily taking the lead. This gave Jon some hopes, even with his aunt denying his wish to know what those plans were. After all, he could really complain. His live improved greatly since knowing his newest relatives.
A few more days after the begin of their journey in the Balerion, the younger male´s nausea started to fade. Finally, he dared to join his brother and company in their daily spars, first only seeing and then with his sword. And he must say that fighting on a ship was more difficult than it looked. The damn thing moved from one side to the other, making him lose his balance more time than he cared to admit. Arstan tried to soothe his insecurities, explaining him that even the best swordsmen could lose their foot in an environment like the open sea, but that didn´t lessen Jon´s embarrassment. Or Aegon´s, for a fact. The oldest Targaryen was decent with a sword on earth, but nearly complete rubbish on a ship. And Belwas never lost a moment to remind him that.
"Are you going to explain us what the hell are we going to do once we reach a damn port?" asked the boy king in a bad humour, after a particularly bad day of loses against the former pit fighter and ancient knight. "I don´t want to be a joy killer, but we are reaching port tomorrow and unless we think of something fast…"
"I´m going to buy an army of Unsullied" answered the silver haired woman, making all the males around her shut up. Irri and Jhiqui, not particularly interested, simply continued passing the food to each of the ship´s passengers. Finally, someone woke up from the enchantment enough time to talk.
"Are you crazy?" Aegon murmured, not knowing what else to say.
"No" she answered, matter of factly. "I have grown up with histories about the merits of the Unsullied as soldiers, of the their great strength and endurance, of their… reputation as the best soldiers that ever graced the earth. With an army like that, we surely are going to win over the Lannisters."
"Yes, me too, but have you ever heard about the price their masters ask for just one?" Jon watched his family members argue with mild interest. In Winterfell, the arguments are held in private, in the family´s chambers or the lord´s solar, but on this ship apparently nothing can be kept as the walls were too thin for that. And it would be a lie if the dragonwolf said that he didn´t enjoy hearing them argue.
"I think you are forgetting, dear aunt, that the price of a sole Unsullied soldier is so colossal that only someone like Illyrio would be able to afford it." Griff said, growling a bit at the statement. "We aren´t exactly rich, Daenerys. The gold one would…"
"Who said I would pay with gold? We have something much more valuable than gold to negotiate with" she looked at the three dragons, playing under the careful watch of a snow white direwolf. The animals looked very relaxed, as if they didn´t have a care in the world. She frowned after a second. She loathed having to restore to using one of her children as a bait, but there was no other way.
"The dragons?" Aegon commented, lifting himself from his chair. "Daenerys, there is no way I´m letting you do this. Those dragons are our secret weapon, our best chance to claim what is ours once and for all. You can´t just give one away, not even for an army of cockles stone soldiers."
"Who said I was going to hand one of my children over?" she answered. And not for the first time, the girl cursed her poverty to Seven hells. All her life, she hadn´t had a copper to her name. Of course, she had the title of princess, but what good fancy titles are when they didn´t come along with money? They were simply useless. "What I am going to do is presenting myself as princess Daenerys Targaryen, a possible costumer, and demand they sell me an army in exchange for Drogon."
"Drogon is not going to like it" commented Jon, fearing the reaction the black dragon will have to that particular situation. "Anyway, do you really think they are going to sell you their precious soldiers without a price of gold?"
"Dragons are more valuable than gold and those greedy masters will surely want to put a hand on my baby boy if they have the opportunity" she smiled at them. "Don´t worry, I´m not going to really give them Drogon. Once I am the new owner of the Unsullied, they are going to find out exactly how good slaves dragons are." She giggled a bit. "I already want to see their faces when their newest pet turns on them"
"Don´t know, most of the nobility of the free cities know that the Targaryens are little more than beggars without a copper. And that´s not even the beginning." Aegon pondered on that. If he accepted, they would have at their disposition one of the most powerful armies on the world. If the plan failed, the consequences… he just didn´t want to imagine being reduced to slavery.
"And now dragons, don´t forget the dragons" she added calling for her own. "But for this to work, I need you to help me in a way you will probably don´t like" Aegon peered at her with curiosity. "I need them to believe I´m the sole owner of the dragons and for that, dear nephews, the rest of the world must think you don´t exist."
"It´s fine by me" said Jon, not wanting to be recognized as a Targaryen just yet. It has been a bitter pill to swallow that the man he thought was his father was really his uncle and he still have many emotional complications to add a new name and new relations. For now he was content to call Dany his aunt and Aegon his brother. And learning a few words in High Valyrian to control his dragon. One step at the time.
"Connington will probably murder me if I out myself before he deems it safe" he said, crossing his arms. "Well, I guess we have our voicer. Now… how are we going to deal with the good masters of Astapor?"
"First, offering them Drogon. Now, dragons are incredibly rare and valuable, so I will have the right to demand as many Unsullied as I want. I will demand all of them, even the ones that are still in training. That way we will find ourselves with an army of undefeatable soldiers and they with nothing at all." She rubbed her hands. "Once I have control of all of them, I will order them to kill the Good Masters and we will have Astapor for ourselves."
"So you are not only planning to get an army, but to conquer a city. A good plan... or it would be if it didn´t endanger us all" the woman raised an eyebrow. "Just think about it. Once you are gone from the ship, there will be nothing stopping them from turning the rest of the ship´s inhabitants into slaves. And, if we go with you, what makes you think they will hear you out and not just deem your offer a bad business and reject you? Or worse, enslave us all when negotiations fail?"
"Then we will have to bring the dragons out. And about the enslavement, we have to have some protection, no? I need to be a Targaryen for this folly, but you two can have a shield." The two looked at her not comprehending. "Westerosi nobility is the best shield I can think about."
"What?"
"Just think about it, what else can make the Good Masters think two times before putting a hand on any of you? If they touch someone of a high enough status from the Sunset Kingdom, the might of it will rain on them and they won´t want that. A Westerosi invasion will be the end not just of Astapor, but of the whole Slaver Cities and their wicked commerce."
"Dany, that would only work with members of a Great House!"
"Are you not members of Great Houses?" she smiled at them, making a sign for her handmaidens to come. Irri and Jhiqui came forward, handing her nephews bundles of clothes. With a doubt, Aegon unwrapped them and was presented with an orange cloak with the sun and shield of the Martells from Sunspear. He turned to Jon, who was at now holding a light cloak with the grey direwolf of house Stark. "What the…"
"It´s pretty, both of them" commented the princess, smiling to herself. "I would have made it Ghost, but for the act to work we needed to present you as a trueborn Stark and that was supposed to be the kind of things your cousins would wear."
"No" he answered giving back the cloak. "NO, no, no, no, no, no…"
-A day later-
"How is it that she always managed to ensnare us in her plans?" asked Jon, walking alongside Aegon. He was currently dressed in the finery Daenerys prepared for him with her handmaidens, just like his brother, and not feeling happy about it. He knew that he always wanted to be Stark, but not this way! "I look bloody ridiculous"
"Hey, for this mummer´s farce to work, we need to play our parts. Do you understand, ROBB?" answered the boy king, feeling exactly the same way as him. part of Dany´s plan was to fake she had the support of two of Westeros Great Houses as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, just to make the offer a little bit more appealing for the Good Masters. And the support will be shown with the physical presence of two ambassadors of those noble houses, prince Quentyn Martell and Lord Robb Stark.
"Please don´t call me like that. It´s shameful enough to use his name like this, I don´t want to hear you call me by my brother´s name" a jealous grunt came out of Aegon, who still couldn´t get over the fact that Robb Stark managed to be Jon´s older brother. "And who is going to believe us? Robb is more Tully than Stark, we don´t look anything alike. And you have never seen Dorne in your live."
"Well, I hope that the histories Lord Connington told me about my mother´s homeland are enough for me to impersonate my cousin, prince Quentyn Martell."
"Me too, your Grace"
"Don´t call me like that" Aegon continued behind Dany and her servant girls towards the place Good Master Kraznys was waiting for them. At first sight, the three Targaryens had the same thought: what a big man. Seriously, the guy looked like it had eaten a complete whale! And those teats… he had bigger teats than Daenerys and she was very well gifted. Near him were some servants, including a dark skinned girl whose face doesn´t show any emotion. "Let´s hope this works out, because it´s our only chance."
"Right" they shut up as Daenerys began to talk.
"Are you the Good Master Kraznys mo Nakloz of Astapor?" she asked in the common tongue, her expression as cold as ice. This was the man that owned the biggest training pit for slaves in the city, he deserved no pleasantries.
"Ivestragon se līve qilōni iksan" Jon was a novice to High Valyrian, but even he detected the insult in the master´s work. And even if he didn´t, the expression on the faces of his relatives would have told him everything. "Se ivestragon zirȳla bona nyke ryptan hen zirȳla"
"My master welcomes you to this city" the dark skinned girl translated, obviously editing the insults master Kraznys sent at the silver haired princess. It seemed to be an ability the girl acquired with years serving under the walrus and with a good reason. The man barely seemed able to form a sentence without adding an insult to it. All their transaction passed with the two older ones trying not to answer their insult. Even the show the master gave them cutting an Unsullied´s nipple was laced with annoyance and a healthy amount of anger. One that they couldn´t wait to vent.
"It´s unbelievable from that man!" Aegon finally exploded on the boat, banging his fists on the table. The rest of the retinue looked also annoyed out of their minds. "I knew those masters could be prepotent idiots, but that man spend nearly all the day staring at your teats. And every time he opened his mouth…"
"Hummmm… I´m a novice at High Valyrian, so… can you translate exactly what did he said?"
"Oh, not much, between calling our aunt a whore and making japes at her very gifted bosom and pretty nipples, he made hundredths of sexual propositions to her and her pretty boy toys" Jon felt the need to puke. It was disturbing enough when Xaro tried to get him into his bed, but Kraznys was completely new level of disturbing. "At least we had his attention. And he gifted us his translator… what is his name?"
"Missandei" Daenerys said, bringing the girl to the front. She has been a gift from the master to command her Unsullied army until they learn the common tongue. What the good master didn´t know was that three people in total in her retinue knew High Valyrian in some level and all of them wanted to use it against the masters for various reasons. "Tell us, girl, are the masters planning something against us?"
"Right now, they don´t think of you a problem and don´t particularly care if you conquer or not the Sunset Kingdom´s Throne. After all, everything is going to happen far away from them" she said dutifully, bowing in respect. The woman was her new master and the boys were her allies. She better show respect. "And about the intelligence they might have about you, they didn´t even know you speak High Valyrian, so they don´t have much. They will give you the Unsullied in exchange of the dragon as planned."
"Just that I don´t plan to exchange one of my children for their slave soldiers" she stared at the other two, leaving Missandei astonished. Did that girl really think she could against the masters without an army. "And one more thing" she made a more dignified expression. "Missandei, iksā dāez hae jaelā, aōha glaesagon iksis aōhon arlī naejot aōha homeland lo ao ao umbagon lēda īlva, emilā se possition hen iā handmaiden syt Daenērys hen Targārien Lentor, hae sȳrī hae se mēre hen ñuha interpreter isse se dāez cities."
"Nyke mazōregon se proposition, ñuha dārilaros" of course the girl accepted. At her eleven years, Missandei lived as a slave most of her years. There was nothing she desired more than her freedom. Unless… "Master…"
"Please, call me Dany. And if that´s too much for you, you can call Daenerys" the little girl frowned. She wasn´t accustomed to call anyone by their names except her fellow slaves. And the silver haired girl in front of her was far from a slave. "Or, is there some other way you wanted to call me that is not master? Don´t take it wrong, but it´s uncomfortable to be called the same as that horrible walrus and his prickly friends."
"Princess, maybe? Or Khaleessi?" offered Jon, passing a hand through his dark locks. Everyone in the room focussed on him. It was not often that he decided to talk without being talked to first, so they were surprised. "What? You are a princess and Lady Catelyn always told me I have to call my…" he stopped himself before saying his betters, as Lady Stark always reminded him of. "The high lords by their titles" he looked at the girl. "What do you say, Missandei?"
"If the princess thinks it´s okay for me to call her by her title, then I have no objections. The same with Khaleessi" the Naathi answered, suddenly more interested in the brunette before her than the other. It was obvious from his careful choice of words that he suffered mistreatment at some point of his live. Not nearly as bad as a slave, but she could notice the signs. Anyway, that could be left for other day. Now she has more urgent matters. "What are you planning to do with the Unsullied, Khaleessi? I would rather prefer if they came out of it alive."
"Do you personally know some of them?"
"Two of them used to be my brothers" answered the girl, a little bit of sadness leaking into her voice. "We were born in the island of Naathi, but were stolen at a young age by pirates and sold to Kraznys. He usually only buys young boys to be turned into Unsullied, but he noticed my ability to learn languages and decided to buy me too. That way we were able to stay close… at least as close as one can be with stone men."
"Are they all still alive?"
"Two of them are as alive as stone men can be" Missandei said, remembering Mossador and Marselen as they were before the slavers came into their lives. In Naath everything seemed so perfect despite their family´s poverty… a golden childhood without doubts. "The third didn´t resist the training and was used to feed the beasts of the master´s pits."
"Beasts?"
"Yes, the pits of Meereen are famous for their fights of men against men and beasts" the dark skinned girl said, shivering a little bit. Once she was forced to attend along with her master to one of those horrible spectacles and it was something she wanted to forget. "Sometimes the good masters sell the failed Unsullied´s bodies to the Great Masters as food for their beasts. To recover their inversion, as they said."
"What a despicable commerce" said Aegon, joining the conversation. He was rightfully outraged, as were the rest of the Targaryens. "More of a reason to give those slavers what they deserved"
"And they will" said Dany, putting a hand on Missandei´s shoulders. "Because they forgot one simple thing…"
-Another day-
"A dragon is no slave. Drogon, dracarys!" with this command, the black dragon burner his new owner to ashes in front of his companions. The good masters started to scream at the Unsullied to kill her, but the soldiers didn´t listen. They were Daenerys now and answered only to her. "Unsullied, ossēnagon tolvie vala wearing iā tokar!"
Aegon and Jon smiled, getting into their dragons. Along with the Unsullied, they slaughtered the masters and take the city. Dany then announced the freedom of all slaves and the crowds cheered at the Breakers of Chains and Myhisa. Cheering at the resurrected House Targaryen.
And the history continues. Now our dear dragon trio is going to turn their eyes towards Meereen, but... will Jon Connington find them first? Will Brynden Tully´s knights do something about Jon in Essos? And the Martells? Will Quentyn appear to propose to Dany despite the circunstances? And what about the Starks? By the way, the phrases I used in high valyrian:
Ivestragon se līve qilōni iksan: Tell the whore who I am
Se ivestragon zirȳla bona nyke ryptan hen zirȳla: and tell her what I heard of her
Missandei, iksā dāez sir. Gaomagon hae jaelā, aōha glaesagon iksis aōhon sir. Jikagon arlī naejot aōha homeland lo ao jaelagon. Lo ao umbagon lēda īlva, emilā se possition hen iā handmaiden syt Daenērys hen Targārien Lentor, hae sȳrī hae se mēre hen ñuha interpreter isse se dāez cities: Missandei, you are free now. Do as you want, your live is yours now. go back to your homeland if you want. If you remain with us, you will have the possition of handmaiden for Daenerys of the house targaryen, as well as the one of my interpreter in free cities.
Nyke mazōregon se proposition, ñuha dārilaros: I accept the proposition, my lady.
Well, that´s all for now. Hope you liked it! Review!
