She awoke slowly, as though climbing out of a deep, black lake. It took her a few moments to remember where she was and what had happened, but it came back. She gasped, and grabbed at her chest, and the stabbing pain that greeted her touch made her feel more alive. She opened her eyes, looking down at the clean white bandage on her chest, the familiar walls of her tent around her. But the smell of burning was on the air, and Viserys was not by her side.

"Viserys?" she called, sounding small and scared.

"Blood of my blood!" a voice answered immediately, the rough, familiar sound of the dothraki words soothing. She turned to see Aggo clambering out of a chair towards her. He knelt at her side and took her hand. "Khaleesi, I knew you would live!"

"Where is my brother?" Dany asked, struggling with the words, her chest aching with every syllable. "Where is Viserys?"

Aggo frowned. "He ran almost mad when you would not wake up. He waited by your side for three days, and had the Unsullied continue getting the gold and wealth out of Pentos. He took all the fat merchantmen prisoner, all the richest of them. On the third day that you didn't wake, he began killing them. Now one is killed every hour, and he kills them himself, with Rakharo's arakh that you gave him. He is there now."

Dany felt icy cold. Viserys relied on her for sanity, for reason – was his gone now?

"And the dragons?" she asked, forcing herself to sound calm. "What of my children?"

"The white and the green burned half of the city before your brother left you to call them off. He only did that so that he could have them burn the people he had taken prisoner."

"And Drogon?" As Dany said her beloved son's name, the walls of the tent shook with a slow breath. "Drogon?" she called again, and a low growl answered her.

"He is coiled around the tent, blood of my blood," Aggo explained. "He has not left your side, not even once to feed. At first, he burned anyone who tried to approach you. But when Jhogo and I tried, he let us come, though your brother almost killed us. We had to wrestle him to the ground before he would let the healers through."

"Take me to the door," Dany said, forcing her legs towards the edge of her bed.

Aggo looked concerned. "Khaleesi, is that wise? You are maimed."

"A khal who cannot ride is no khal," Dany snapped. "It is known. So I can walk, or I am no khaleesi."

Aggo shouted, and a servant appeared. "Fetch Rakharo and Jhogo, slave," he growled. "Tell them the Khaleesi wakes."

"And food," Dany said faintly. "Have someone bring me food."

The servant vanished again, and Drogon growled again. Dany heard him shift, and the door of the tent blew in and out with his breath as he placed his head there.

"I'm coming, sweet one," she called softly in the common tongue, as Aggo came and supported her. He half-carried her towards the door, when she pulled away from him and pushed through, collapsing painfully against Drogon's snout. Drogon hissed anxiously, making a rattling noise in the back of his throat that Dany had always thought of as him trying to croon. "I love you too," she whispered. "Help me up, Drogon. I can't – I can't do it, but I must ride. I have to get to Viserys."

Drogon rattled his throat again and slowly drew his nose backwards, forcing Dany to stumble after him, leaning all of her weight on him. He brought his tail round and carefully keeping the spiked tip of it away from her, he used the thinnest part to lift Dany up onto his muzzle. She crouched their awkwardly, facing his baleful red eyes, her chest aching unbearably. "Thank – thank you," she gasped. "T-take me to Viserys, Drogon my darling, my beautiful son. Viserys."

"Be careful, khaleesi!" Aggo called up, and then shouted for his horse. Drogon reared his head into the air, his eyes on Dany to make sure she did not slip or fall. Then he rose and began a slow, careful, ungainly walk around the outskirts of the camp. Dany heard Rhaegal shriek in greeting, but did not move her eyes from Drogon's, knowing she would fall if she did.

She heard shouts and screams soon and turned slowly so that she was facing forwards. Huge piles of bodies were heaped on the outskirts of camp. Rhaegal lay idly sprawled over one, spearing corpses with the tip of her tail, flicking them into the air and roasting them there, then snapping them into her mouth. Flies crawled everywhere, and the smell made Dany gag. Out on the plain between Pentos and the camp, huge groups of prisoners milled about, walled in by Unsullied. Viserion was crouched near the smallest group, his neck arched over Viserys' small figure as he wielded a flashing arakh, heads rolling in the dust at his feet.

"Next!" he screamed as Dany drew closer. A merchant, richly dressed in cloth-of-gold was thrown into the dirt at his feet. Viserys loomed over him, his hair unkempt and matted with dried blood, his face dirty and tearstained, his eyes wild. "Why isn't she waking, Pentoshi?" he howled at the man. "Did the bastard use poison? Did he? Answer me!" He slashed at the merchant's shoulder, laying the man's arm open to the bone. When the man only shook and pleaded, Viserys wailed with a mixture of fury and despair and beheaded him. "Next!" he shouted again.

"Viserys," Dany called, though she didn't know how she found the strength to speak.

Her brother swung to face her, his face twisted in a mask of fury, his eyes a fiery purple in his bloodless, skull-like visage. "She is dead! Who dares to speak to me in her voice? Viserion will burn you, burn you!"

Drogon lowered his head and Dany slid to the ground gracelessly, nearly falling. "Its me, I'm alive," she said quietly, swaying on her feet.

Viserys' expression changed, from fury to hope to fury once more. "You lie!" he spat, but his voice shook.

"Viserys, please," Dany took a faltering step forward. "Stop this madness."

Her brother reared away from her. "Madness! Madness! My father was mad, his father was mad! I am mad, now she is gone! Everywhere I turn I long to see her, to be haunted by her – I look for her in everything! But she is not here, she is not here! Fire and blood, fire and blood, all that remains! She is gone, but I will burn the world for her! The world will bleed for her!"

Dany stumbled and fell to her knees. "Viserys."

Drogon snarled and Viserion snapped his teeth together, his wings flaring. Drogon reared to his hind legs and roared, a sound that had all the Pentoshi prostrate on the ground in terror.

Viserys lurched towards Dany. "Is it – Daenerys, is it you?"

Dany nodded, too weak to raise her head. Viserys ran the last few steps and threw himself to his knees, dragging her painfully into his arms. "Dany! Oh gods, oh gods, sister, Dany, my queen, my love! I thought you were gone, I thought you were dead, I thought I was dead, I thought I would die, Dany, Daenerys, sister! You came back to me, you came back!"

"Of course I did," Dany said faintly. "Don't be a fool. Be…be calm, Viserys."

Viserys held her tighter to him, kissing her face, her lips, her eyes, her hair. "You came back, oh Dany, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You killed…all these people?" Dany whispered, feeling black crowding at the edges of her vision. "You promised to be…merciful…Viserys…"

"Water!" Viserys shouted, taking her weight. "Get water! Fetch me the healers! Move, dogs!"

"I love you," Dany said, drawing strength from his eyes, fixed so desperately on her. "I won't faint."

"I'm sorry," Viserys whispered brokenly, his eyes drinking her in, clutching her to him like a drowning man clutching at a rope thrown to him. "I didn't mean to kill them, but when you wouldn't wake, I thought you were going to die – gods, Dany, how could I exist without you? How could the world exist without you?" Tears crowded suddenly in his eyes and spilled unbidden over his cheeks, carving new tracks of clean pale skin through the grime on his face.

"You would have burned the world if I died?" Dany knew she should be repelled, but she only felt tenderer towards Viserys.

"Of course," Viserys looked shocked that she had to ask. "If you die – how can the world continue to exist? What right has it to exist?" He swallowed painfully. "But – you idiot girl! What were you thinking? Why would you step in front of a knife meant for me?"

"For the same reason you burned Pentos," Dany said. "I love you…even though…you're a fool…a mad fool…"

Viserys' sobered, looked sadder. "I am, aren't I? If you're not with me – I just seem…to lose my reason…if I don't have you beside me, part of me, the good part, just – goes."

"I might not always be here…" Dany sighed. "You have to learn to keep that good part without me."

Viserys tightened his hold on her. "Liar. You will always be here. I won't let you die."