Elia
Thus far, adventure had not been all that Elia sand could have hoped for.
Exotic vistas had been…not completely absent, but there hadn't really been much time to appreciate any of them, as they were shuffled quickly from ship to stinking ship. And now, when they were stuck in Volantis, she wasn't allowed out of the equally stinking inn. She'd had to hide during the action, she hadn't really seen much of anything, she had to squire for father, and romance had been conspicuous by its absence.
It was enough to make her miss Obella. Not because she loved her sister that much – okay, that was mean, she did love Obella really, but you'd never hear her say it out loud – but because she couldn't help but think that a lot of her problems stemmed from being the youngest sand snake here. It made them all treat her like she was a baby or something, even Tyene and Sarella. That was why they had made her hide during the fight with the pirates. Sorry 'protect mother'. Which was another word for hiding in Elia's opinion. That was why she wasn't allowed to leave this inn because it was dangerous, even though there were plenty of suspicious looking characters in the inn itself and so she had no idea why this place was supposed to be such a sanctuary.
And as for boys…she'd be lucky if she could get some kissing in before Obara pulled the poor boy's balls off with her bare hands. Or Tyene poisoned him.
It was only because she was the youngest. They didn't realise that she wasn't a baby. She was Lady Lance, the best tilt in all of Dorne, in all of the Seven Kingdoms! She could take care of herself! She was much stronger than Sarella was, but Sarella got to dress up like a man and run away to the Citadel and nobody cared. Father would never have let her do something like that.
Well, with any luck things would change once they got to Meereen. Meereen was supposed to be a huge city, even bigger than King's Landing, and besides that it was about to be put under attack, which meant that the whole place would be overrun with chaos. If the others wouldn't let her have any fun, then she'd slip away and find some fun for herself.
A few days ago, she would have added: if they ever got to Meereen, because there were times when that would have seemed as likely as a bunch of dragons hatching from out of the moon. But now, after watching Obara stomp up and down in a bad temper, after watching Tyene flatter and charm to no effect, Mother had decided to take matters into her own hands and go see the Widow of the Waterfront.
They said, and one thing that Elia had had plenty of time to do stuck in the inn was to listen to the things that 'they' said, that the Widow of the Waterfront could do anything. From the other things they said she sounded a bit like Mother, or maybe a bit like Mother crossed with Obara: that she had been a whore, but had married a great Volantene lord, or whatever they called them here, who had died and left her all of his money. She had used that money to buy up property, and so made even more money, which she used to trade favours with people. Or something like that, Elia didn't quite understand that part. People didn't pay her for things, but she didn't lose all her money either. Maybe the property made so much that she could afford to give heaps of gold away or trade it for influence like a Lannister.
Hopefully not like a Lannister, because Lannisters were wankers.
Another thing Elia didn't understand was why Father hadn't gone to see the Widow earlier. She was only upstairs after all, and if anyone could get them to Meereen, she could. But he had been against it, and he wouldn't really say why. He just wouldn't hear of talking to her.
Nobody else but Mother would have dared to go and see her, after the way that Father had ruled it out. Obara, Nym, Tyene, Sarella, oh they all talked so bold (well, Obara, Nym and Tyene talked so bold, Sarella talked about books), but none of them would have had the nerve to defy Father. They were all afraid of him. Obara would have called it obedience, but to Elia's way of thinking obedience was another way of saying that you were too scared to do what you wanted.
Which applied to her a bit, but not as much as them.
Still, Mother wasn't obedient. Mother was going to what had to be done. Mother was going to go and see the Widow, and Elia was coming with her.
She wasn't sure what to expect, as she followed Mother in through the door to the Widow's chamber. Someone a bit like Mother, she supposed, to be a great lord's paramour. Or someone who looked like a bit of a slut, like Tyene.
What she actually saw, sitting hunched over a table in the middle of the room, half in shadow from the lack of candles, made her recoil a little in horror. The Widow of the Waterfront was old. Older than Prince Uncle old and even harder to look at without flinching. Her back was stooped and hunched, her skin was so wrinkled it was…there were teardrops cut into her face that Elia could see clearly despite the wrinkling everywhere. Her hair was almost gone, Elia could see the top her head through the win white wisps that remained. Her eyes were bright and black like the eyes of a beetle, her teeth were almost all gone, it was horrible.
I'd rather die than live to look like that.
The Widow, who had been so still she might almost have been asleep, looked up, and sniggered. "Does the sight of me disgust you, child? Do I terrify you with the thought of what you might become?"
"No," Elia lied. "And I'm not a child, I'm nearly fourteen!"
The Widow laughed, a high pitched sound that was almost a cackle. "When you are my age, child, everyone younger than your father will seem a child to you." Her rheumy eyes glanced towards Mother. "Sit down, woman."
The Widow's chamber was austere, and dark. Perhaps the Widow looked even worse in better light. Mother crossed the room gracefully, and without a word. The light from the few candles glistened off the golden bangles on her wrists. She smoothed her skirt a little with her hands as she sat down.
"My lady," Mother murmured. "Thank you for agreeing to see me."
"I see everyone who wishes to see me," the Widow replied. "Not everyone leaves satisfied, but everyone leaves with an answer. Now, tell me why you have decided to terrify your daughter with the sight of an old woman such as I?"
"I seek passage to Meereen, for myself and six others," Mother said.
"Passage to Meereen," the Widow repeated. "That should not be so difficult, there are many slave ships headed that way."
"She who goes to bed in the cabin of a slaver often wakes up in the slave hold," Mother said softly.
The Widow chuckled. "Ah, so you do not wish to risk a slave ship. That is very wise of you. And I can see that, in those circumstances, finding a vessel might be more difficult. But still…there is always the demon road."
"That road is perilous."
"Is not going to Meereen perilous, in these times of war?" the Widow replied. She leaned forward, and Elia thought she could hear the old crone's crooked back creaking as she did so. Her beetle-like eyes gleamed. "Why do you want to take your sweet daughter to Meereen, and put her at such risk of death, or an injury to that pretty face?"
"I can take care of myself," Elia declared, half proudly and half defensively.
The old hag laughed. "Oh, sweet girl, brave girl…nobody can take care of themselves in this world, certainly no woman; not alone, anyway."
"I'm not alone," Elia replied.
"No, there are seven of you all together, you have said," the crone said. She chuckled. "Seven heroes for your seven gods of Westeros, perhaps? A fortunate coincidence, no?"
There used to be eight of us, Elia thought, but did not say. She hadn't known Daemon well, but he had been a comely sight, and a brave man.
"Can you help us, my lady?" Mother asked.
"Can I help you?" the Widow chuckled. "The wrong question. Could I do this thing, yes, I could. Will I…the answer to that is not so simple. What do you want in Meereen?"
Mother hesitated.
"I do not deal with liars and deceivers," the Widow snapped, her voice becoming hard. "Tell me the truth or else leave now and find a ship somewhere else."
Mother frowned. "We seek the dragon queen."
"The dragon queen may be dead by the time you reach Meereen, and all her power broken."
"I pray that is not the case."
"Many pray that that is not the case, though probably not for the same reason as you," the Widow said. "So tell me more: what does Ellaria Sand, paramour to Prince Oberyn Nymeros Martell, want with the Targaryen queen who was driven from your country when she was but a babe?"
Mother's eyes widened. "You-"
The old crone laughed. "You come into my house and you believe that I am ignorant of your names and the names of your companions. You are Ellaria Sand and that is your daughter Elia standing in the doorway looking at me with the especial disgust the young reserve for the sight of the old. Downstairs are your lover's daughters Obara, Tyene and Sarella. Obara is in a bad temper, Sarella is attempting to placate her, and Tyene is in a mocking mood. Your lover Prince Oberyn has gone with Nymeria to see his lover in the Old City in the hope that she can help him. He does not know that you are here and he would not approve if he did. He does not like me, ever since he first came to this city when he was half a boy still. Would you like to know why that is?"
"Does it matter?" Ellaria asked.
"No, probably not," the Widow confessed. "But it amused me to frustrate him, proud and puffed up highborn as he was, and I just Vogarro's whore, after all. Perhaps it would amuse me still."
"So you will not help us?" Ellaria said.
"I did not say that. You have not yet answered my question. What do you want with the dragon queen?"
"Vengeance," Ellaria said. "Justice. Fire and Blood."
"Words are wind."
"What could I give you but words?"
"You could tell me that you mean to take her away from this land back to your Westeros to crown her queen upon your Iron Throne."
Ellaria sighed. "If you knew the answer then why did you ask me?"
"I wanted to hear it from your own lips," the Widow said. "Or hear you try to lie to me. Why should I help you in such a venture?"
"Why should you not?"
"Because Daenaerys Targaryen is doing good work here in Essos, liberating the slaves. Slaver's Bay has deserved to burn for many years, and now at last one has come to do the burning. And why should she stop at Slaver's Bay? Why not turn west, to Mantarys, to Tolos, to New Ghis…to Volantis? Why should I help you prevent all of that, and take her away to Westeros. That sounds like something the Ghiscari would want, not I."
"Without Daenaerys and her dragons-"
"You cannot fight against the Iron Throne? What is that to me?"
"The Lannisters killed Princess Elia and her children, we must-"
"Oh, so one pampered princess, who never worked a day in her life, is dead and that cries out for vengeance," the Widow spat. "Who will avenge the slaves killed every day by the cruelty and indifference of the Masters? No one, but the dragon queen."
"Then you will not help us?" Ellaria murmured.
"I will not find you a ship," the Widow declared. "Daenaerys is ours. Our fire, our blood, our…our Mhysa. I will not help you take her away from us. Not now, at any road."
"What do you mean?"
"Visions have been seen in the flames," the Widow said. "Amongst them a dragon, trapped in a great pyramid, surrounded by shadows with knives in their hands…and a brood of snakes defending her. It seems you have some part to play in our salvation yet."
"And yet you will not help us reach the dragon to defend her?" Elia said.
"You would reach her too fast by sea, and take her away before her work is done," the Widow said. "Besides, you are but seven and only five of you can fight. You have a part but it is not yet. So, I have taken the liberty of summoning the Band of the Serpent to Volantis, on the promise of a contract from your lover Prince Oberyn."
"The Band of the-"
"Yes, the Free Company that your Prince founded in his last sojourn in her land. Doubtless he will be overjoyed to see them again. Or perhaps not, that would be more entertaining," the Widow said, with a chuckle. "They will escort you to Meereen via the demon road."
"The demon road-"
"Is perilous, true, but do you not trust Oberyn's mercenaries?"
"Why force this path upon us?"
"To delay you," the Widow admitted. "We are not princes or princesses, but we too deserve justice, no? We, too, have need of Fire and Blood."