The stone men were not brought into the city.
After being wrapped in oiled paper by the prisoners, they were transported onto a sea vessel.
The ship immediately departed the harbor, sailing fifty kilometers west and dropping the stone men off at a desolate, rocky beach on the Astapor Peninsula.
There, the Unsullied quickly constructed a fully enclosed compound using bricks and timber.
A quarantine site for greyscale.
Later, a virology research institute was also established within the pyramid—its sole researcher being Dany herself.
But before beginning her research, she had to first observe the virus's behavior and determine whether it could be destroyed by high temperatures.
More precisely, she needed to confirm that she wasn't susceptible to infection.
After handing over control of the dock to Grey Worm, Dany immediately flew Little Green to Khyzai and Meereen, personally issuing orders to seal off their harbors.
Khyzai housed nearly twenty thousand members of the "Wings of Liberty," while Meereen had fifteen thousand elite guards—more than capable of swiftly executing the Dragon Queen's commands.
Under her orders, soldiers donned leather gloves, iron helmets, and face masks, conducted thorough inspections of every vessel, and declared that Slaver's Bay would suspend all maritime trade as of that moment.
"Industrial and artisanal production in Slaver's Bay will not be halted—I'll purchase all the goods myself."
Dany made this announcement to the citizens of both cities.
Even though much of her gold had already been used to pre-purchase grain, she was far from broke.
Not to mention the millions of gold dragons confiscated by the Earl of Broken Chains during the trial of the "Sons of the Harpy," Dany's Great Pyramid still held mountains of silver and piles of jewels.
As for copper coins…
The Dragon Queen controlled the minting of currency, and Slaver's Bay held the world's largest copper reserves—there was no shortage of coins.
Trade in Meereen and Khyzai was less prosperous than in Astapor, so the quarantine inspections were completed by around sunset.
After the sudden raids, no stone men were found on the docks or aboard merchant vessels.
But that didn't necessarily mean Khyzai and Meereen were safe, because according to the information extracted from Hattar's interrogation, the spies planted by the allied forces had not all departed at the same time.
The Sadlands along the Rhoyne River were the homeland of the stone men.
It's said that greyscale didn't exist in the world originally.
Two thousand years ago, when three hundred Valyrian dragons clashed with 250,000 Rhoynar warriors, the Mother Rhoyne summoned a great flood that drowned the Rhoynar's most splendid and prosperous cities—along with all the Valyrians inside.
Whether any dragons drowned is unknown, but the Valyrians had vast cavalry regiments, and they were completely wiped out.
Since then, the festival capital became the fog-shrouded Sadlands, and the forbidden river magic of the Mother Rhoyne brought a water-borne curse to the world—greyscale.
Greyscale had relatively low transmissibility.
Villages along the Rhoyne Plains reported greyscale patients every year, every month, even daily—much like how deformed mutants were born in the Lands of Long Summer after the cataclysm.
These patients were either burned to death or, in cases where their families couldn't bear to kill them, sent to the Sadlands.
Every year, the Valyrians would dispatch fleets to deliver large quantities of food to the Sadlands upriver.
Yes, even before full petrification, the afflicted still needed to eat.
For instance, Tyrion and Clinton ate just as much as they normally did each day.
That's why it was easy for the Valyrians to round up thirty stone men in the Sadlands.
If necessary, they could have found even more.
Hundreds—thousands, even.
The captured stone men were loaded onto ships, floated downstream, and secretly transported to Volantis.
They never docked. Under cover of night, the stone men were split into three groups and hidden among cargo ships, which then sailed separately to Slaver's Bay.
The fleets were divided into three parts. Even the spies carrying out the mission didn't know who their fellow agents were, or which ship carried the stone men.
They only knew their assigned task: escort the stone men to Meereen, Khyzai, and Astapor respectively.
In other words, the Dragon Queen had no way of knowing whether the spies bound for Meereen and Khyzai had completed their missions.
Perhaps the stone men had already been dumped into public wells within the cities, and the spies had fled long ago. Or perhaps their ships were still adrift, en route to Meereen and Khyzai.
Naturally, Dany hoped for the latter—but…
By the time the dock inspections concluded, it was already evening, yet Dany didn't rest. She stayed up all night organizing a citywide sweep by her soldiers.
Fortunately, not a single greyscale patient was found in Khyzai.
Unfortunately, in Meereen's commercial district, eighty-seven infected individuals were discovered. According to the census, that's nearly a 3% infection rate.
Some of the patients had even noticed their symptoms three days earlier, but they all chose to hide it, fearing they'd be burned alive.
And this wasn't the final tally.
It was foreseeable that in the coming days, more residents would exhibit signs of greyscale, with infection rates continuing to rise.
There was no doubt—Meereen had been compromised!
Ironically, because the Earl of Broken Chains had arrested eighty thousand people and thrown them into labor camps outside the city, Meereen had fallen into panic and economic decline. So, despite the high infection rate, the total number of infected wasn't as large as it might have been.
Most of those infected were Ghiscari—small and mid-sized merchants who had migrated from Khyzai to Meereen.
The wealthy households and noble Ghis families on the commercial streets had long since been thrown into prison. The most prosperous avenues now lay deserted—no merchants, no customers.
Unfortunately, the stone men had been released into the public wells located in those very same bustling districts.
The following morning.
Outside Meereen, in a secluded estate.
The Dragon Queen sat astride her dragon, addressing the 87 despairing patients in the courtyard. "Do not fear, do not panic. In the name of your queen, I swear—you are my people. I will neither abandon nor give up on a single one of you."
Seeing that they still looked ashen, their eyes dim and lifeless, unmoved by her words of comfort, Dany sighed and added:
"Krazz's spy hasn't been caught yet, and I still need time to study the disease, so I can't spend too much time in Meereen. But from today onward, I will come here every three days to have lunch with you."
And Dany kept her word. That very afternoon, a long wooden table was set up in the hall, and she shared a meal with the patients suffering from greyscale.
The food wasn't lavish: golden-brown roasted baguettes, beef and potato stew, vegetable salad, boiled eggs, and milk.
Watching the Dragon Queen slurp down a bowl of meat stew, two arm-length loaves of bread, three boiled eggs, and a large cup of milk, the Ghis patients—though unsure why—suddenly felt a deep sense of comfort and warmth.
Becoming one of the Dragon Queen's people didn't seem so bad after all.
That's what they thought.
After lunch, Dany didn't immediately return to Astapor.
Neither Krazz nor Astapor was dealing with the outbreak. Her current focus should have been Meereen.
Yet Meereen's governor, Cleon, had just been dismissed by her and was still recovering in Astapor—from a whipping. The commander of the Queensguard, Jon Botley, had gone to a meeting in Astapor and was still on his way back.
Meereen felt... rather empty.
Atop the Great Pyramid, in the rooftop garden.
Beside the swimming pool.
Under the pale blue pool water, two pairs of equally long, toned legs stirred up gentle splashes.
They belonged to Dany and the red-haired knight, Lyla Umber.
They were the only ones in the garden. Having stayed up all night, they hadn't slept or bathed. Now they were lying by the pool, completely naked, chatting leisurely.
"Your Grace, the best way to prevent greyscale is to immediately dispose of the infected. They're all Ghiscari anyway—might as well follow custom: kill them and burn the bodies," Lyla said solemnly.
She hadn't accompanied the queen to the quarantine estate for lunch earlier.
Now, upon learning that the Dragon Queen had dined with the patients, she was both shocked and anxious.
"There's no need to go to such extremes. Strict quarantine will do. If we start executing people, others may begin to hide their illness—or worse, seek revenge on society. You wouldn't want a greyscale-infected lunatic jumping you on the street and sinking their teeth into your ankle, would you?"
Lyla lifted her long, well-shaped legs out of the water, playfully wiggling her toes. "I've been wearing armor and iron boots lately—he couldn't bite through even if he tried."
Dany lazily draped a wet silk scarf over her face. "There are always people who aren't armored. Besides, greyscale isn't entirely incurable. I have the Sorcerer's Lens, and I know Stannis's daughter carries antibodies. Maester Aemon's medical skills are... well, good enough.
"In short, as long as someone is one of my people, no matter their race or origin, I will do everything I can to save them. Isn't that what a queen is supposed to do?"
"Splash!" Lyla dipped her feet back into the water. The ripples brushed against Dany's silver hair, floating like seaweed in the pool.
"But you shouldn't put yourself in danger," the red-haired knight said with a sigh.
"It's not really a risk. Greyscale isn't like the pale mare—it doesn't spread without contact. And as soon as I got back, I roasted myself with dragonfire from head to toe. Any virus that touched me is already dead."
Thinking of the time when the Dragon Queen had scorched herself with fire, Lyla fell silent.
Even she didn't believe that greyscale's curse could survive dragonfire.
After a long pause, Dany said, "I was originally planning to make you the governor of Meereen, but things have changed. My brother's son, Aegon, has arrived. Did you know?"
"Prince Aegon? I saw the letter you wrote to Jon," Lyla nodded, then asked, "What about him? Are you sure he's the real one? Jon and I both think the whole baby swap story sounds too fantastical—too fake."
"All the evidence supports his identity," Dany said, her heart stirring. "Hmm... perhaps I could use the Sorcerer's Lens to test his blood."
Hearing the implication in Dany's voice, Lyla was startled. "You're thinking of making the prince the governor of Meereen? But the infected haven't all been located yet, the ten stone men are still missing, and Meereen will inevitably become a battlefield. Isn't it too dangerous?"
"That depends on his courage. I won't force him. He wants to fight for the Iron Throne, doesn't he? Meereen is surely safer than Westeros," Dany replied indifferently.
"You're really considering giving up the throne? His identity still isn't fully confirmed—and even if it is, he's your nephew, not your son," Lyla said with a frown.
"Ending the Long Night is my priority—that won't change. So, the Iron Throne doesn't necessarily have to be mine."
If Aegon truly had the courage to fight the White Walkers at the Wall, then why wouldn't his aunt Dany let him challenge the Night King first?
If Aegon managed to defeat the Night King, she would seriously consider supporting him for the Iron Throne.
Now that the Iron Throne had been devalued into a pile of dung, she had no desire to claim it.
Truth be told, the most valuable power in Westeros now was the Faith of the Seven.
Dany had long harbored a vague idea: the Seven might be false gods, but their faith was real. A demigod could harness the power of belief. Drogon was surely a demigod-dragon already—if so, could he not seize control of the faith?
If that plan succeeded, it would be a huge win for her.
And if the theory proved wrong?
Well, the High Sparrow was already over sixty. Could he outlast her?
Even if he escaped the seduction of the whores and died a natural death, in twenty years or less, wouldn't the Faith of the Seven be hers anyway?
Dany stood up, water droplets rolling down her fair, curvaceous body.
While drying her hair, she said, "Lyla, seal off all the public wells in the city. If residents need water, they can fetch it from the nearby pyramids. I must return to Astapor and see if my dear nephew can survive the coming storm."
Each pyramid had its own well exclusive to the Great Masters, and the outer ones were all guarded. No spy could sneak in to poison them.
(End of chapter)
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