The Rhoyne Docks, Volantis
"Don't run, Arya!" Catelyn shouted, but her voice was immediately swallowed by the roar of the crowd at the harbour.
She tightened her grip on Eddard's arm as she stared around with trepidation at the absolute madness surrounding her.
Never in all her years had she seen so many people gathered in one place.
The docks of White Harbour had bustled during the summer months, and King's Landing had also seemed impossibly crowded when she had first visited as a young woman, but both of them paled in comparison to the spectacle unfolding around them.
The harbour here seemed capable of swallowing whole fleets without any congestion.
Galleys from Lys floated beside heavy merchant cogs from Pentos. Great Summer Island swan ships rested beside squat Ibbenese whalers.
There were ships with striped sails, ships painted brilliant reds and blues, and some were adorned with golden figures of strange gods.
Volantis did not simply seem like a city... it was a world unto itself.
Thousands upon thousands of people surged across the sprawling docks like ants on sugar.
Sailors screamed from ship decks, porters strained beneath mountains of cargo, and all colours of merchants argued in half a dozen languages in all directions.
Beggars threaded through the crowds seeking alms. Priests clad in red robes stood on makeshift pedestals, preaching to anyone who would listen.
The sheer noise was overwhelming their senses without even mentioning the various smells.
Spices, incense, fish, roasting meats, exotic perfumes, sweat, strange oils, ununmerable flowers she could not even name, and a hundred other scents blended together until the very air seemed alive.
But unlike her anxious self, her girls seemed very much unconcerned.
Arya stood at the front of their procession, staring at the harbour with open fascination in her eyes, and behind her stood Sansa and Daenerys, and those two at least had the sense to stay close to the guards surrounding them.
Though judging from the way their eyes darted towards every excited thing moving in their sight, even they were tempted to wander.
"Are we really going to be fine?" Catelyn whispered in a nervous voice, "If one of them got lost in all this..." She gestured helplessly at the crowd around them, suppressing a shudder as she could not even imagine what she would do in such a situation.
"We will be fine," Eddard said as he patted her hand reassuringly and followed her gaze to look at the girls, and added, in a low voice, "...probably,"
"That is not very reassuring," she elbowed him with a faint look of annoyance on her face as he simply chuckled.
"I imagine it is only this crowded because we are at the Harbour," The man continued hastily as her eyes narrowed dangerously, "Surely, once we move further into the city, the crowd should loosen up,"
"Do not put too much hope on that, My Lord," Merchant Sam supplied as he came up behind them. He had been directing the sailors to unload all their trunks and supplies from the ship, and then having them loaded into carts, until now, and was finally free to join them. "There is hardly a place in the city of Volantis which one could call uncrowded, at least while the sun is still out,"
Catelyn stared dumbfoundedly at that, "You mean the entire city is like this?"
"Not quite. But most of the districts in there come close." The Merchant answered with a chuckle as he pointed towards the city in the distance, "You need to understand, My lady, that this is the largest Free city in Essos, you could probably fit all the people of King's Landing, Oldtown, and Lannisport combined in here and still have plenty of room to spare, so yes, there are a lot of people here."
"That... does not make me feel any better," Catelyn murmured as she looked around nervously at the sea of the crowd as if expecting one of them to jump out at any moment and rob them.
"We should move to the city gates then?" Eddard coughed as he announced out loud, "Before someone here decides that it's better we head back the way we came," he whispered discreetly to Merchant Sam while jerking his head towards Catelyn with a meaningful look in his eyes.
"I heard that," Lady Stark growled in a low voice as Eddard flinched and hurried towards the three. "Let us move, girls!" he shouted as he began to usher them towards the city with the rest of their party following closely behind, including their guards, their maids, the nanny, and the sailors dragging their luggage on the cart.
The closer they got to the city, the more they were amazed by this absolute behemoth of a city.
Buildings stretched endlessly in every direction.
Some rose three or four stories high, painted in brilliant shades of blue, red, yellow, and green. Massive manses occupied entire city blocks. Temples towered above neighbouring structures, their domes and spires gleaming beneath the afternoon sun.
The Free Cities were wealthier than Westeros; that much they had already learned during their travels through Lys, Tyrosh, and Myr, but Volantis... seemed determined to prove that point beyond all doubt.
"What... is that?" Arya asked in an awestruck voice as she pointed towards the distance, and the rest of the family followed her eyes and were similarly amazed by the sight in front of them.
A dark, colossal structure dominated their vision on the horizon. It rose hundreds of feet into the air, stretching farther than their eyes could follow, with massive towers crowning its height every hundred meters.
"That is the famous Black Wall, Lady Arya," Merchant Sam said with a smile on his face, as Arya's face instinctively scrunched up at being called a lady, "Said to be built by Valyrian dragonlords before the Doom using fused dragonstones, the wall surrounds Old Volantis and has protected the noble families in this city for centuries."
"It is so big," Sansa whispered with a look of awe on her face, unable to understand how humans could build something this tall and intimidating, "Is it bigger than the Wall in the North, Father?"
Having heard about the Wall her whole life, the girl had always wondered what it would look like. Sadly, though, as a girl, she was bound to never be able to travel to that place, even if it was situated in the North, but now, in this other continent, she had finally seen something that she could compare it to.
"Of course not." Eddard denied immediately, "The wall is much, much bigger than this, almost four times as high, I would say," he muttered with certainty in his voice, "Though I admit this one can hold a lot more men on top of it,"
"It is said to be wide enough that it can hold six four-horse chariots abreast on it, My Lord," Merchant Sam supplied as their company began moving away from the Port area and towards the city proper.
"Look! Look! The bridge!" Arya suddenly jumped up and pointed towards the long structure that passed over the mighty river Rhoyne and connected the Old Volantis to the new one, "There are houses with people living on it!" she exclaimed excitedly as if unable to believe her own eyes.
The girl was not exaggerating at all, as not only could they see houses on the bridge, but in fact, it was more than that, as there were whole markets, and even an entire neighbourhood situated on it with a wide street left in between for carriages and people to pass through.
"Who would have known we would ever get to see such strange wonders in our lives," Eddard murmured in an amazed voice, and Catelyn subconsciously nodded her head in agreement.
"Come, come, one and all! The finest Silk in Essos is here and nowhere else!"
"Fresh fruit so sweet and sour you will forget your wife!! Red, blue, green, we have all kinds, hurry in before it disappears."
One moment, they were still surrounded by sailors and fishmongers, and in the next, the voices of various merchants descended upon them as they entered a bustling market.
"The truest Summer Island wine in Essos is here!"
"Daggers! Swords! Spears! And Armours! If you want to survive the seas, then you need our weapons!"
"Beautiful and cheap young Slaves!! Male and Female."
The party of Northerners abruptly stopped as the last words hit them all like a slap.
They turned their heads, and the sight that entered their eyes immediately made their stomachs churn.
Pens and raised wooden platforms lined the storefront beneath brightly colored awnings.
Merchants stood atop them, shouting prices and virtues as though they were hawking cattle.
"Strong enough to row for ten years!"
"A trained scribe reads three tongues!"
"Untouched! Fifteen years old and untouched!"
The words carried easily over the noise of the crowd.
Men had their arms and shoulders prodded to test their muscles.
Women had their jaws forced open so buyers could inspect their teeth.
A fat merchant pinched a young girl's cheek and turned her head from side to side while a prospective buyer examined her as one might examine a mare before purchase.
The young girl looked older than Arya, and seeing her go through this... made something in Eddard die.
"Gods be good," Jory Cassel muttered with a nauseous look on his face, "They're selling children here."
"I think... we should move on," Merchant Sam said in a strained voice as he carefully watched the varied reaction of the Stark family as if afraid that they would do something impulsive. "It's not good for us to stand in the middle of the road and hold up traffic," he said with a forced smile on his face.
Eddard looked quite for a few moments before he nodded with a grim face as he pushed the back of the three girls, standing dumbstruck in front of him, "Let's go."
Having travelled through Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh, they had already been exposed to some of these cruel practices, the people of Essos considered a part of their daily lives, but at least until now, it had been somewhat subtle, with hardly anyone having collars around their necks, as most carried the designation of servants, at least outwardly.
But now... it was completely blatant.
All around them, everywhere they looked, they saw hundreds of slaves, men, women, and children with bronze collars wrapped around their necks, and tattoos marked on their faces to let everyone know that they were property; some were sweeping the streets, some carried cargo, some served food, and some bore heavy palanquins on their backs.
In the North, and even in Westeros, slavery had been abolished for thousands of years.
The very idea of owning and selling another human being was abhorrent, yet here it was part of daily life.
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