Shashank_bhatt
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Chapter 70
🕑 Added 2025-10-28 10:52:35 +0000 UTC[At the Lannister camp, Tywin is presiding over lunch/war meeting.]
"Oh, do continue. Didn't mean to interrupt."
"I do hope your savages are going to be of some use, otherwise we've wasted good steel on them."
"The great hairy one insisted he must have two battleaxes. Heavy black steel, double-sided."
"Shagga likes axes."
"When the battle commences, you and your wildlings will be in the vanguard."
Jaime stumbled forward in his seat, his jaw gaping.
"The Vanguard?! Is Father trying to get you killed?!"
"The possibility of that being the case is high" Tyrion bemused with a cup of wine in hand.
"Your father puts some trust in you, act on it and show him your worth" Joanna muttered and rolled her eyes.
"Do I look like someone who can fight to you, Mother?" Tyrion rolled his eyes.
"Then use that head of yours and make sure you survive the fight and bring glory to your name" Joanna snapped, "instead of complaining you should be thinking about how you can use that head of yours, which I am told is as sharp as any. Do you want your father's approval? Do that and he will acknowledge you."
"Acknowledgement! I don't need that from that man!" Tyrion snorted, emptying his cup twice after.
"The vanguard? Me and the tribesmen on the front lines?"
"They do seem rather ferocious."
"Ferocious? Last night a Moon Brother stabbed a Stone Crow over a sausage. Three Stone Crows seized the Moon Brother and opened his throat. Bronn managed to keep Shagga from chopping off the dead man's cock, which was fortunate, but even still, Ulf is demanding blood money, which Shagga and Gunthor refuse to pay."
"Ferocious" Jaime parroted his uncle Kevan's words. "Indisciplined but ferocious. Mother is right, Father is testing you."
"He wouldn't test you like that."
"He would. He has many times" Jaime smiled. "I'm simply a good sword to not die in them."
"And I was half a knife!"
"Use your head Tyrion. Mother isn't wrong about that either."
Tyrion emptied his cup twice more.
"When soldiers lack discipline, the fault lies with their commander."
"Surely there are ways to have me killed that would be less detrimental to the war effort."
"There'll be no more discussion on the matter."
"It appears I'm not hungry after all. Excuse me, my lords."
___________________________
[Back across the Narrow Sea. Drogo is mumbling incoherently in Dothraki inside a tent, Daenerys by his side.]
"He's going to die" Gendry observed.
"Not your first time seeing a man die?" Varys asked.
"I was born in the slums of King's Landing. People die all the time there" the bastard muttered.
"Come. He's very strong. No one understands how strong he is."
[Jorah removes an herbal treatment from Drogo's wound, revealing it has become infected.]
"He will die tonight, Khaleesi."
"He can't. He can't. I won't let him."
"That is quite some genuine worry you show for him" Doran mused.
"That is not me, it won't be" Daenerys stated. Her future self had gone through some things that made her into that. Things Daenerys had not gone through. That was a different person entirely.
"That is still you. What you are seeing is that you care deeply for people you deem to be close to you. Not a bad trait to have, Daenerys" Rhaegar whispered to her.
"That is not me!" Daenerys glared at her brother a moment before looking away. But he wasn't wrong, she did care deeply.
"Even a queen doesn't have that power. We must go quickly. I've heard there's a good port in Asshai."
"I won't leave him."
"He's already gone, Khaleesi."
"Even if he dies, why would I run? I am Khaleesi and my my son will be khal after Drogo."
"I'm afraid that is not how things work amongst the Dothraki, Princess," Varys said with an apologetic smile. "Only the strongest rule amongst them. The Khal dies, there will be a fight and whoever survives will be the next Khal. Your son would probably be killed in the womb and you will be made a breeding mule for the new Khal."
"That's Barbaric!" Sansa Stark said in shock, while Daenerys stared in horror.
"The Dothraki are a barbaric people" Varys lowered his head.
"All the more reason to get Daenerys away from Viserys before that boy gets her married off to that brute" Rhaegar said, his eyes blazing with fire.
"This isn't Westeros, where men honour blood. Here they only honor strength. There will be fighting after Drogo dies. Whoever wins that fight will be the new khal. He won't want any rivals. Your boy will be plucked from your breast and given to the dogs."
"I won't leave him."
"Not the time to be stubborn" Rhaegar muttered in worry.
[Mirri Maz Duur enters the tent and bows to Daenerys. Qotho comes to check on Drogo too, with a few other bloodriders at the entrance.]
"The wound has festered."
"You did this, witch."
[Qotho pulls a dagger out of its sheath.]
"Stop it! I don't want her hurt."
"No? No? You don't want her hurt? Pray we don't hurt you, too. You let this witch put her hands on our Khal."
"And already they turn on you" Elia sighed.
"Rein in your tongue. She is still your Khaleesi."
"Only while the blood of my blood lives. When he dies, she is nothing."
"I have never been nothing. I am the blood of the dragon."
"I don't think that matters much to these savages," Jon Snow pointed out.
"That doesn't matter much to anyone outside of Westeros in the way it matters to us Westerosi" Jon Arryn explained, "there are many in Essos who would want her dead because of it, many who descend from the people that were enslaved by Valyrians."
"So the Targaryens aren't well-liked by the majority in either Essos or Westeros then?" Robb asked.
"You could say that" Jon Arryn nodded.
"The dragons are all dead, Khaleesi."
[Qotho and the other Dothraki leave.]
"I think you should wear your armour tonight, ser."
"I think you're right."
[Jorah leaves the tent.]
"You've saved me once more."
"And now you must save him."
"He's beyond the healer's skills. All I can do is ease his path."
"Save him and I will free you. I swear it. You must know a way. Some some magic."
"Princess..." Varys called out but Daenerys interrupted him by shouting back "I know alight! I know"
"There is a spell. Some would say death is cleaner."
"Do it. Save him."
"There is a price."
"You'll have gold, whatever you want."
"It's not a matter of gold. This is blood magic. Only death pays for life."
"My death?"
"No, not your death, Khaleesi. Bring me his horse."
[Daenerys signals to Irri, who leaves to find the horse. We cut to the horse being taken by a rope into the tent.]
"Khaleesi, do not do this thing. Let me kill this witch."
"Kill her and you kill your khal."
"This is blood magic. It is forbidden."
"I am your Khaleesi. I tell you what is forbidden."
"Careful with your words, Princess. You might start sounding like your brother and father" Oberyn warned with a sly sharp smile.
"I am nothing like them and I will never be like them!" Daenerys glared at the man.
[Mirri Maz Duur starts an incantation]
"You must go, lady. Once I begin to sing, no one must enter the tent. The dead will dance here tonight."
[Daenerys caresses Drogo's forehand as she moves to leave.]
"No one will enter."
[Mirri Maz Duur slits the horse's throat. Blood spills all over Drogo's chest and Daenerys' face.]
"Bring him back to me."
[Daenerys leaves the tent as the horse collapses to the ground, dead. Jorah comes to her.]
"What have you done?"
"I have to save him."
"We could have been 10 miles away from here by now, on the way to Asshai. You would have been safe."
"This must not be."
