At this moment, Little White had already flown like a kite, luring five wyverns with arrows pierced through their bellies fifteen kilometers
At this moment, Little White had already flown like a kite, luring five wyverns with arrows pierced through their bellies fifteen kilometers to the east.
"Come back quickly, save Little Green!"
Dany called out to Big Black, urging him to abandon his pursuit of the old green dragon carrying Balerion's aura, and return to help her rescue Little Green.
Big Black didn't turn back immediately. He still had one more opponent to deal with: a gray-green wyvern that had rushed in close.
Though smaller in size, Big Black was incredibly fast. Just before colliding, he suddenly pulled his body upward, soaring over Steve's wyvern's head.
"Crack—boom!" A bolt of black lightning tore across the sky.
As he passed over the wyvern's head, Big Black suddenly whipped his tail down like an axe, like a bladed whip. It struck the wyvern's neck, cutting its rider, Steve, clean in half, while also shattering the wyvern's bones and leaving it howling in agony.
Then, Big Black effortlessly circled behind the wyvern, which was tumbling toward the sea with a twisted neck. His pale golden eyes flashed with a bloodthirsty light, and he dove down like an arrow.
"Bang!"
He landed on the wyvern's back, clutching its two wing bones with his claws. Opening his jaws wide, he began savagely tearing at the back of its neck.
Scales and flesh ripped apart, scattering into the sea. Blood poured like water bursting from a broken pipe.
"Hisss—roaaar—" The wyvern wailed in misery, unable to break free.
"Big Black, don't—" Dany tried to urge him to keep it alive.
With a violent pull, Big Black's claws flared with divine power. "Rip—"
Like a child tearing apart hardened parchment, the wyvern's massive wings—larger than Big Black's own body—were ripped clean off.
"Trash! And you dare challenge a god?!"
With shreds of flesh dangling from his mouth and hot blood dripping down his lips, Big Black let out a savage roar that echoed in all directions.
Dany was dumbfounded. This wasn't something she had taught him to do, nor was it something she had ever taught him to say.
What Big Black did now came entirely from instinct.
She could feel the volcanic fury erupting within him, the terrifying wrath of a demon dragon—the rage of being insulted.
"You damned brat, hurry up and save your brother!" The Mother of Dragons snapped out of her daze and began scolding furiously.
"Idiot, fool! What's so impressive about tearing off its wings? Wouldn't it be better to make it yours? The one you just crippled was still my dragon! Wyverns are dragons too!"
Big Black's rage drained away like water through a broken dam. Spitting out the torn flesh—he never ate raw meat—he drooped his head and slunk away toward the docks.
When he tilted sideways past the tower of the city wall, Dany leapt gracefully from the rooftop like a swallow, landing lightly on his back.
By the time they reached the black tower of House Valorys, Little Green was being pinned down and bitten on the thigh by a gray-white wyvern.
Little Green fought back with fire, breathing flames onto its foe's rump and wings.
The two dragons were entangled in a bloody, chaotic mess.
Another wyvern had been struck in the eye by Unsullied soldiers lying in ambush nearby, seizing the moment to strike true.
The ballistae could have easily killed the wyverns—they were already within the encirclement—but the Unsullied had been holding back for fear of hitting their allies.
Now, seeing Little Green losing ground, they had no choice but to take risks: carefully avoiding Little Green's vital spots while aiming for the wyvern's.
Still, several holes were shot through Little Green's wing membrane.
"Roar—Submit!" Big Black charged forward, roaring, and unleashed dragonflame.
With Dany present, the flames turned into golden chains of light that wrapped precisely around the wyvern's wings, legs, and neck, sizzling as they burned.
Little Green was freed, retreating on injured legs to the side.
"Submit, or die!" Big Black roared again.
"Gaaah—" The wyvern continued to struggle desperately.
Seeing the milky, jade-like eyes clouded with dullness, Dany's heart stirred. Big Black synchronized with the second soul ring, activating Soul Strike.
"Whistle—"
A storm of spirit energy easily swept into the wyvern's mindscape.
"Roar—" A miniature red dragon appeared, radiating an ancient, time-worn aura, tinged with divine pressure. It let out a roar that shook Dany and Big Black to their very cores.
"The dragon soul from a Dragonhorn? No… just a fragment of a spiritual imprint. The opponent must be a demigod."
Dany was stunned. How had they managed to control wyverns with just a spirit imprint?
Acting on instinct, she opened her mouth and swooped forward. Like a person swallowing a shrimp whole, she gulped the little red dragon down in one bite.
In the realm of the spirit sea, size was determined by the weight and strength of one's soul.
The next moment, she and Big Black withdrew from the wyvern's spiritual sea and returned to her own.
The miniature red dragon inside her lost its brilliance. Like a real dragon collapsing into a toy made of building blocks, it began to fall apart piece by piece.
"Crack, crack—" The blocks tumbled into a pile of runes.
Valyrian runes.
Dany recognized them all, quickly memorizing what she could, though she retained only a third.
In reality, the wyvern's eyes cleared, and it stopped struggling. It crouched low before Big Black, whimpering in submission.
It had yielded, willingly and completely.
Excited, Dany urged, "Head south! My other five wyverns are trying to escape!"
One day later.
Fifteen hundred great ships raised their anchors and sails, spreading across the blue sea like a patterned blanket being dragged southeastward by the hands of the gods.
Onboard were food, iron, gold, cloth, and other spoils looted from Tolos, along with seventy thousand Tolos slaves, forty-five thousand sailors and merchants serving the allied forces, and twenty thousand captured mercenaries.
When the fleet finally departed, only twenty thousand ordinary Valyrian-blooded freemen remained in Tolos.
From the beginning, the first stage of the campaign against Tolos was never about occupying the city.
Tolos lay too close to Mantarys—barely two hundred kilometers away—conveniently connected by the Valyrian Road.
Swift horses could cover the distance in half a day; if it were wyverns, it would be even faster, only an hour's flight.
But Toros was far too distant from Dany's main camp—600 kilometers from Astapor, 700 from Kyzan, and 900 from Meereen—making reinforcements extremely difficult.
Thus, Toros had never been Dany's first choice for a decisive battle.
The main purpose of this campaign had been to probe the enemy's hidden strength, which was accomplished. The secondary purpose was to seize allied supplies, and that too was achieved perfectly.
With both objectives fulfilled, Dany naturally had to leave.
However, while Toros itself could not be occupied, the slaves within the city had to be freed. That was Dany's duty as the "Breaker of Chains" and "Mhysa of the Slaves."
There were two kinds of captives. The first were dragonriders and the nobles of Toros. Even old acquaintances, such as Prince Wendro of Qarth, received no special treatment. Dany handed him straight to the "Lonely Whip" to be interrogated for all intelligence related to wyverns and Martharis.
Hmm, the horse-girl handmaiden Jiqi quietly told the Lonely Whip that Wendro had embezzled 777 gold auris from the Khaleesi, and the Khaleesi was not pleased.
As for the second kind of captives—the mercenaries—not a single one escaped; all were taken away.
Until ransom was paid and the war was over, they would have to work honestly in Slaver's Bay, farming the land and doing hard labor.
The same fate awaited the sea merchants and sailors who had served the coalition.
Forty-five thousand crewmen, thirteen hundred ships—together they were practically the lifeline that kept the allied army of hundreds of thousands supplied.
Sailors who had been slaves would be restored to freedom, given houses, fields, and wives in Slaver's Bay. Freedmen sailors, however, were treated as prisoners, the same as the mercenaries.
As for the merchants—
"Let me go! I demand to see the Dragon Queen! My father is Fat Dossym!"
The prisoners and seized goods were all loaded onto ships bound for Astapor. Ten thousand soldiers of the Free Wings and two thousand Unsullied also departed from Toros, but Dany remained behind in the city.
She, along with a group of advisors, one thousand Unsullied, and Ser Garth the White's second fleet, stayed temporarily in Toros.
The Crab's first fleet had sailed south to New Ghis.
The governor's palace had been burned down, so Dany was staying for the moment in an inn by the docks.
"Unless your father's a Targaryen." Tyrion's mocking voice carried through.
"Let him in," Dany said, stepping away from the map table and giving orders to the Unsullied at the door.
In the courtyard, a young man in a blue velvet high-collared shirt, shackled, struggled as two Unsullied forced him to the ground. Standing cheerfully to the side was the Wildfire General, clad all in green—helm, armor, and cloak.
"Your Grace, is this boy truly an acquaintance of yours?" the dwarf asked in surprise.
"My father is Fat Dossym! He has a Supreme VIP Client Card for Slaver's Bay! That entitles me to an audience with the Queen!" the youth shouted.
Dany immediately lost any inclination to exchange pleasantries with the son of an old associate. With a look of disdain, she waved her hand. "Forget it. Send him away. I still have to eat lunch."
"What use is a Supreme VIP Card?" Tyrion asked curiously at the doorway.
"It grants exemption from the misfortunes of being a prisoner of war. Merchants who hold such cards, even if they served enemies of Slaver's Bay, can walk away unharmed when captured by me. They may even receive compensation to cover their losses. Of course, an audience with the Queen is also a privilege." Dany smiled.
The very fact that the youth had reached the gates of her courtyard already proved he had escaped punishment thanks to his special status.
Other sea merchants, meanwhile, were being packed onto ships for Astapor.
"Well, that's certainly…" Tyrion's mouth twitched. "You are very confident. Aren't you afraid your own wares will end up sustaining the enemy?"
What he really wanted to say was: You're quite the odd one!
"You should instead ask what the requirements are for obtaining a Supreme VIP Card." Dany's smile was faint.
In this land of Slaver's Bay, where iron ore was scarce, she had managed in just two short years to forge over ten thousand suits of steel plate armor, twenty thousand iron plows, and three hundred thousand blades—including kitchen knives and hatchets. And on whom had she relied?
The youth struggled again, refusing to leave, his voice pleading: "Your Grace, give me a moment, I have something important to say."
"What do you wish to say?" Dany raised a hand, halting the Unsullied.
Fat Dossym's son, ignoring the dust on his clothes and his disheveled hair, hurried over to make his report. "Your Grace, I asked to see you last night, but your Unsullied blocked me. I told them I had a Supreme VIP Card."
"Your father has the card, not you. Speak business, I'm busy," the Dragon Queen said impatiently.
"Are you planning to send the merchants to labor camps to farm?" he asked.
Dany nodded.
"Your Grace, I beg a favor. Could you spare those merchants? And those thousand ships—they're of no use to you. Why not return them as well?" Little Dossym smiled ingratiatingly.
"Quite bold of you." Dany's tone was cool.
Little Dossym's thin face flushed red with embarrassment. "Your Grace, merchants are frail, they eat much and do little. Better to exchange them for money. In my father's name I guarantee not a single copper will be withheld from the ransom due."
"What will your father gain in return?" Dany asked curiously.
Rubbing his hands, Little Dossym replied, both proud and sheepish, "My father intends to run for the position of Archon. Most of those sea merchants are from Volantis, and they hold votes."
"Archon of Volantis?" Dany's expression turned strange.
Fat Dossym had been born a slave!
"Yes."
"Then is your father with the Tiger Party or the Elephant Party?" Dany asked again.
"The Tigers. In recent years, the Tigers' hardline stance toward Slaver's Bay has made them more likely to win votes," Little Dossym answered earnestly.
Tyrion's mouth twitched again.
But Dany, after only a moment's thought, nodded. "That makes sense. I'll give your father some face. The merchants shall be freed. Once we reach Astapor, as soon as the ransom is paid, both men and ships will be released."
"Heh heh, thank you, Your Grace! Thank you, Your Grace! Heh heh!"
Little Dossym had not expected the Dragon Queen to be so reasonable, and his excitement was barely contained.
After he left, Tyrion stroked his chin, thoughtful. "Your next target is New Ghis, isn't it?"
"What do you think I'll do?" Dany asked with a smile.
Tyrion grinned knowingly. "Once the merchants are freed, they'll have no choice but to head for New Ghis. Just like how you hid scorpions in the ship's hold to ambush Martharis' wyvern squadron, you'll gradually release batches of sea merchants. Once the Ghiscari drop their guard, you'll slip in a few troop transports to seize New Ghis' harbor."
"An interesting idea." Dany's eyes glinted strangely as she nodded.
"By the way," Tyrion added, "I've always wondered—how did you know Martharis had wyverns?"
(End of Chapter)
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