The air on the upper balconies of the Great Pyramid of Meereen was usually cool before sunrise. Caspian stood by the polished stone balustrade, watching the horizon where the sun was just beginning to stain the clouds above Slaver's Bay with red. He wore a studded leather doublet beneath his plate armor of dark steel. Behind him, Valery's footsteps sounded light, almost imperceptible on the flagstones, though the slight rustle of her silk gown betrayed her presence before she made her usual bow.
"You shouldn't be awake at this hour, my Khal," the witch said in a soft voice, modulated with that terrifying calm only she possessed. She stepped forward a couple of paces, maintaining a respectful distance, though her dark eyes gleamed. "The Undying Horde is very close to Yunkai."
Caspian did not turn right away. He kept his eyes fixed on the city awakening below—on the flat rooftops where freedmen were beginning to hang fabrics, and on the Dothraki patrols riding through the avenues, the whinnying of their mounts echoing against the stone walls.
"I know where my men are, Valery," the king replied, turning around slowly. His gaze settled on her, evaluating her with precision, noticing the small dark stain on the edge of her right sleeve cuff. "I sent you to the cellar of the Plaza of the Three Graces to locate the nest. I explicitly told you to mark the entrance so the Endermen could clear the place at dusk. However, reports from the guard at the lower gate say you went down alone... and now there is a room impassable due to a tide of the dead."
Valery did not bow her head. Nor did she show the slightest trace of guilt or nervousness. She adjusted the silver cord fastening her gown and looked at him with that fervor bordering on the dangerous.
"They said things they shouldn't have, my king," she replied. "They gathered underground like crippled rats, planning ambushes against the guard posts, offering coins for the hands of the women who serve your table. One of them... a fat man in a bronze mask who smelled of rancid wine, swore he would tear out your entrails in front of the crowd before the moon ended."
A faint, bitter, and weary smile crossed Caspian's lips. He walked over to the carved wooden table where his water pitcher rested and poured himself a glass.
"They are enemies, Valery. Enemies usually say those things when they are cornered in the dark," the Khal said before taking a long drink. There was no anger in his tone, not even a reprimand. He knew exactly what kind of creature stood before him, and demanding patience from a predator when she smelled the blood of those who threatened his throne was a waste of time. "I am not going to punish you for acting ahead of time. They were traitors, conspirators who would have ended up with a piece of steel in the back from my men sooner or later. You saved me the trouble of judging them in the main plaza. But next time, let me know. My men have spent hours cleaning the blood off the walls."
Valery smiled, a small, ice-cold curve of her lips that barely altered her porcelain face.
"It will not happen again without your permission, my King," she said, bowing her head. From her belt, she extracted the silver medallion bearing the figure of the Harpy that she had torn from the cell leader and placed it with a metallic clink onto the wooden table. "The nest at the Plaza of the Three Graces is extinct. The other groups in the city have scattered like smoke after seeing what was left in that cellar. Meereen is calm... at least for today."
"Good," Caspian concluded, picking up the medallion to weigh it in his palm for a second before throwing it into a bowl of trash. "Because today I am not staying here. Yunkai must fall before the sun reaches its zenith."
The roar that shook the foundations of the pyramid ten minutes later was not human.
Endaxia waited on the great stone platform of the upper courtyard, her deep, brilliant bronze scales reflecting the first rays of the morning like polished gold. The massive creature beat her wings with enough force to raise gusts of wind that made the banners of Xandar hanging from the walls tremble. A few meters away—imposing, gigantic, a mass of shadows and ancient fire—Balerion roared at the open sky. The Black Dread shook his massive neck, making the chains securing his saddle clatter like bronze shields clashing in battle.
Aerea was already mounted on Balerion. The young Targaryen wore her Valyrian steel armor, the reins held firmly in her gloved hands, her silver hair blowing wildly in the drafts created by the dragon. Her chin was held high, her eyes fixed on the south, radiant with a pride that only those who claimed to control such beasts could savor.
Caspian climbed the ladder to Endaxia's saddle with agility, settling into the riding seat reinforced with steel straps. He looked toward Aerea and nodded to her.
"Don't fall behind, Caspian!" the girl shouted over the roar of the wind, letting out a clean, wild laugh. "Balerion is hungry, and the ants look even smaller from up here!"
"Try not to burn the fields before we arrive, Aerea!" Caspian called back, securing the buckles across his chest. "We need the city intact!"
Endaxia spread her wings with a dull creak of taut membranes and launched herself into the sky. The abyss of the pyramid fell away in a second as the dragon gained height rapidly, cutting through the warm morning air. Beside her, a colossal shadow eclipsed the sunlight as Balerion rose with a heavy beat of wings that rattled the glass of the palaces below.
Two gigantic shadows crossed the sky of Meereen, leaving behind the domes of the conquered city to head south like darts of bronze and black.
~~~~~~~
On the walls of Yunkai, the morning heat was stifling, yet the soldiers guarding the ramparts felt their sweat freeze on their skin.
The guards, dressed in faded yellow robes and armed with spears whose wood was pitted by moths, did not look toward the sea. They looked north, toward the red dirt road winding between the dry hills.
First came the sound. A dull, constant thrum, like the beating of a giant heart beneath the earth. The tin plates in the sentries' quarters began to vibrate on the wooden tables. Then came the dust cloud. A dense, gigantic cloud, over three kilometers wide, rose against the blue sky, swallowing the horizon line.
"By the gods of Ghis...!" a veteran sentry stammered, dropping his spear against the flagstones of the parapet. "Look at that... look at that..."
From within the dust cloud emerged the vanguard. They were not the disorganized ranks of mercenaries Yunkai usually hired with silver coins. It was the Great Undying Horde.
The earth trembled beneath the hooves of over half a million Dothraki riders. The howls of the warriors from the sea of grass, the clash of their steel arakhs against saddlebows, and the snapping of banners bearing the emblem of the King of Xandar formed a terrifying spectacle that made the double walls of the Yellow City look like mere toys of clay.
At the peak of the Great Yellow Pyramid, the twelve Wise Masters were gathered once more around the large marble window. None had slept. Their faces, exhausted and marked by panic, reflected the agony of the past hours. The words of the witch Sara still echoed in the chamber like a cursed refrain.
"We can still close the bronze gates," Snotah said, though his voice was nothing more than a high-pitched, trembling squeak as he wiped sweat from his double chin with his silk sleeve. "We have... we have the water reserves. The walls are high. The Dothraki do not know how to scale stone..."
"Are you blind, Snotah?" Grazdan mo Eraz snapped at him, pointing a trembling finger toward the outer horizon. "It isn't just Dothraki. It's the dragons and those witches, and that woman... the witch... she told us we would not find a battle."
"It was a trick," Snotah insisted, looking frantically around for support among the other masters. "An Asshai'i illusionist! No woman plunges her hand into burning coal without burning herself... it was a ploy to paralyze us..."
Before he could finish his sentence, a gigantic shadow darkened the hall.
The sunlight vanished all at once. The air inside the pyramid seemed to compress, charging with static electricity that made the hairs on the arms of everyone present stand on end. A deafening roar, capable of shattering a mortal man's eardrums, thundered directly above the building's dome.
Five men collapsed to the floor at the same time. Looking out the window in restrained horror, they saw it.
Endaxia spiraled down over the central plaza of Yunkai, her wings casting a heavy shadow over the statues of the Harpy. But she did not come alone. Behind her, cutting through the clouds like a monster born from the darkest myths of the ancient world, Balerion glided barely fifty meters above the walls. The backdraft from his wings knocked three sentries off the parapets, sending them to the ground before they could scream.
The Black Dread opened his jaws. A blast of black fire, veined with threads of glowing red, shot into the open sky, illuminating the entire city with an infernal glare that turned the morning into a scorching noon. The heat was so intense that the air itself seemed to catch fire.
"The dragons...!" the oldest master shrieked, crawling on his knees away from the window. "They are the beasts of Valyria! They are going to turn the city to dust!"
Endaxia landed smoothly on the expanse before the wall gates, while Balerion landed a few meters behind her, making the ground crunch beneath the weight of his massive talons.
Caspian dismounted calmly, adjusting the hilt of his sword at his belt. Aerea descended from Balerion a second later, keeping her hand rested on the scales of the great beast's neck as it continued to vent dense columns of smoke from its nostrils.
Approaching from the gates, waiting as if she were a hostess in her own home, was Sara. The witch wore the same dark green silk gown—clean, spotless, without a single speck of dust despite the military display surrounding her.
Caspian walked toward her, his firm footsteps echoing over the cobblestones.
"Sara," the Khal greeted her, stopping two meters away. "I see the city still stands."
"My King," the woman said, performing an elegant and unhurried bow. "Just as you ordered, I presented myself before the Wise Masters at the peak of their pyramid. I showed them the truth of what awaits them if they persist in their arrogance. I delivered your message to them, word for word."
Caspian looked up toward the top of the wall, where the tiny figures of soldiers could be glimpsed in terror behind the battlements.
"And what was their answer?" Caspian asked in a neutral tone. "Did you have to burn any of them to make them understand?"
"It was not necessary, my king," Sara replied with a serene smile. "I made it clear to them that the tide of steel was already on its way. I told them they would not find a battle, but a slaughter if they chose not to surrender. Now... the decision is entirely theirs. Either they open the gates and submit to the law of Xandar, or they allow the Horde to turn this city into dead ashes."
Aerea listened to her words and looked at Caspian, raising an eyebrow impatiently.
"Balerion is ready, Caspian," the young Targaryen said, taking a step forward. "A single blast at the main gate and the Horde can enter without even drawing their arakhs. We don't have to wait for these slave merchants to overthink it."
"We will wait five minutes," Caspian answered, his gaze fixed on the heights of the pyramid. "I did not come to Yunkai to rule over a graveyard if I can avoid it. The city is more useful intact."
Up above, in the hall of the Great Pyramid, the scene was a chaos of despair.
Snotah was on his knees before Grazdan mo Eraz, clutching the hem of his robe with trembling hands.
"Open the gates, Grazdan!" Snotah pleaded, tears mixing with the sweat on his face. "Look at them! The black dragon is right on the wall! If that thing breathes fire, not even the dust of our families will remain. I beg you by the gods, open the gates!"
Grazdan mo Eraz looked at the other ten men. Every single one of them had faces distorted by panic. The old master who had previously spoken of fighting to the death could not even stand; he lay seated against the wall, breathing with difficulty as he listened to the distant huffing from Balerion's nostrils.
"The witch did not lie..." Grazdan whispered, his voice broken by humiliation. "This is not a war."
The grand master stood up clumsily. He straightened his disheveled headpiece with awkward fingers and walked out to the balcony overlooking the pyramid's inner courtyard, where the city guard officers waited for orders with drawn scimitars.
"Open the gates!" Grazdan shouted with all his strength, a raw voice that echoed throughout the stone compound. "Open the gates immediately! Surrender the city to the King of Xandar!"
The officers did not hesitate. The order spread like wildfire through the inner corridors until it reached the servants and soldiers guarding the main entrances.
Below, the heavy thud of iron bolts sliding back shattered the silence of the plaza.
The gigantic bronze doors of the Yellow City, which had remained closed against armies and conquerors for centuries, began to swing open slowly on their stone hinges. The sound of heavy metal dragging announced the end of an era for Yunkai.
Caspian watched as the bronze leaves parted wide, revealing the city's grand central avenue, where thousands of unarmed inhabitants and soldiers looked on in horror at the figure of the Khal, his two dragons, and the immense horde waiting outside.
Aerea let out a sigh of disappointment, though she relaxed her stance and patted Balerion's side to calm the monster, which let out one last puff of gray smoke.
"It seems your witches have a special talent for convincing cowards," Aerea commented, looking at Sara with a mix of curiosity.
"They have the right talent," Caspian replied, taking his first steps toward the open gates of Yunkai.
Sara fell into step beside him, walking alongside the king as the first columns of the Horde began to march in perfect formation into the city, marking the rhythm of conquest with the dull thud of horse hooves upon the conquered land.
Yunkai had fallen without a single arrow being fired. The Khal's tide had just swallowed another pearl of Slaver's Bay.