"Fat Dossim is my father!" said young Dossim, who once risked his life to help his father win votes in the Valyrian elections for Archon. In the port city of Tolos, he bravely slipped past the Unsullied guards to meet the Dragon Queen face-to-face and pleaded that the seizure of merchant ships was unnecessary.
The Dragon Queen humbly listened and accepted his advice. She agreed to let the merchants redeem both men and ships with ransom money, and under Fat Dossim's personal guarantee, even released several Valyrian merchants of notable background ahead of schedule.
However, the Dragon Queen also made one condition: she would not accept gold as payment. The ransom could instead be paid in high-value items such as Valyrian steel blades, enchanted relics, or practical goods like grain and cloth.
It's often said that in prosperous times, antiques reign supreme, while in chaos, gold is king. Yet in this bizarre world—one that has developed for over ten thousand years without depleting its stores of gold—gold had lost much of its worth.
Well, if this were the Great Celestial Empire, no matter how much gold was mined, it would never be enough for the tombs of nobles and officials.
After the Battle of Tolos, the Dragon Queen had captured over a thousand great sea vessels.
Together, the captured merchants and sailors numbered more than fifty thousand.
Some of these prisoners were sent to Free Maiden Isle to build New York Town; others were dispatched to Astapor to plant sweet potatoes, and still more were assigned to the newly established frontier outpost—Old Ghis.
Once the ransom arrived from New Ghis, Dany kept her word. Upon receiving shipments of goods and Valyrian steel weapons, she immediately released the prisoners and their ships, even returning part of the seized cargo—specialties of the three cities of Slaver's Bay, such as refined sugar, brandy, and Dragon Paper.
Among them, Dragon Paper gradually replaced bronze ware, sugar, and liquor, becoming the foremost industry of Slaver's Bay.
It wasn't just the allied supply fleets running the New Ghis–Tolos route who benefited. Even merchant lords from Jade Sea and the Summer Sea began scrambling to reach Astapor, eager to carve out a share of the trade.
When Astapor eventually declared a war-readiness lockdown, those merchants shifted tactics—transforming themselves into "VIP clients," or middlemen traders.
These were, in fact, the same minor merchants led by Fat Dossim who once served the Ghiscar Alliance—only to be captured by the Dragon Queen during the Battle of Poplar Slope.
They had, as people joked, "stood right behind the Dragon's tailwind" and taken off.
Over a thousand seafaring vessels and tens of thousands of men, all laden with goods, streamed constantly into New Ghis, reviving the harbor that had once been laid to waste by the Wildfire General's bombardments.
Now, they no longer feared the Wildfire General.
Though "the Regretful Guest" had shamefully failed his mission, allowing both the Wildfire General and Prince Aegon to survive, New Ghis now hosted its own Wyvern Legion.
Twenty shadow and swamp dragons formed a mixed unit, backed by two thousand dragon-slaying ballistae—an impenetrable fortress of firepower. Even if the Dragon Queen herself came, it would make no difference.
"There's no doubt about it—Daenerys has abandoned her southern campaign. That so-called 'Southern Conqueror,' Hattar of Demon's Tail, is nothing but a grand joke."
More than a month after the assassination attempt on Aegon, New Ghis convened its full council once again after nearly two months of calm. Prince Tregar spoke first.
Second Fleet Captain Sanetti nodded in agreement. "According to intelligence from our spies, Slaver's Bay is now on full defensive footing. The Wyvern riders have been divided into three units—one raids merchant ships crossing the Maiden Strait, one patrols the three cities, and one remains stationed in Meereen.
"Even Old Ghis, which we assumed would become the bridgehead for an assault on New Ghis, has only been developed into a small outpost with a few hundred guards. Even Ilys Se Tigar's First Fleet has been recalled to New York Town."
Everyone nodded in approval.
The intelligence was accurate—they had even sent men to infiltrate the Old Ghis watchtower themselves this time. Not like the last "genuine mix-up," when they merely observed from miles away through spyglasses.
The fact that Old Ghis had not been expanded beyond a small fishing village proved that the Dragon Queen had abandoned plans for a direct landing on New Ghis.
"General Grazdan, what do you think?" asked Xaro.
All eyes turned toward him, full of expectation and respect. In recent months, after several heavy setbacks, the war god's doctrine of "fortify first, fight slow" had deeply taken root in everyone's hearts.
"Daenerys neither has the time nor the energy to launch a sudden strike on New Ghis," declared War God Yunkai solemnly.
"The Allied Army of one hundred thousand infantry and cavalry has already departed from Mantarys. Their vanguard of light cavalry has even reached Bhorash—only six hundred kilometers from Meereen.
"It's predictable that the battle for Meereen will erupt within three months.
"Moreover, my fellow cavalry commanders and I are already prepared. Tonight, we'll mount our wyverns and depart for Tolos, the Dothraki Sea, and the Black Mountain Town of Lhazar.
"Three armies will strike by sea, land, air, and river—fourfold encirclement of Meereen.
"Daenerys must devote her full strength there. She has no time or troops to waste on New Ghis.
"Even if she takes it, how would she hold it?"
"True enough. Looks like New Ghis can finally rest easy."
Xaro nodded, then sighed regretfully as he added, "But there's word that Aegon and the Wildfire General both survived."
"How could they still be alive? Did the Regretful Guest miss his mark?" Tregar exclaimed.
"No," Xaro shook his head. "Both were wounded, but only Aegon was poisoned—and it just so happened that Daenerys knew the antidote."
"For gods' sake!" Tregar slammed his hand on the table. "A killer guild with a thousand-year legacy, and not even one proprietary poison? How embarrassing!"
"Calm down," said Sanetti, the Second Fleet Captain, soothingly. "There's always a second chance. A whole wave of assassins is already on their way to Astapor."
"After what happened in Qarth, do assassins even dare try again?" Xaro asked doubtfully.
"The Dragon Queen's vengeance terrified all the major assassin organizations," Sanetti sneered. "But many assassins work alone. For them, one word—'poverty'—is ten thousand times scarier than a dragon.
"As long as you can pay, they'll dare to kill Death himself.
"These desperadoes need money—and we just happen to have plenty.
"If we play our cards right, gold can be just as deadly as dragons."
"Well said, well said!" The council members murmured in admiration.
They were indeed shrewd schemers—but fate seldom follows a schemer's design.
The closer the enemy drew to Meereen's gates, the more determined Dany became to strike at New Ghis.
Her reasoning was simple: before the Allied forces completed their encirclement, she needed to weaken them as much as possible.
She wouldn't just fight in the south at New Ghis—she would also strike the Dothraki horsemen to the north, the slave-hunting fleets sailing westward from the Jade Sea along the Lhazar River, and the one hundred thousand allied troops approaching from the west.
If she didn't destroy them separately before they united, would she simply wait to be cornered—allowing them to trap her from sea, land, air, and river?
In fact, on the very night after War God Yunkai's departure, Daenerys decided to launch Operation Cargo Ship—
The maritime version of the Trojan Horse.
Tyrion wanted to rescue Captain Jack, so Daenerys went along with it and let Jack unwittingly become her spy. When "VIP client" Fat Dothym's son sought to save the captured sea merchants, Daenerys again took advantage of the situation and hid two thousand "Queen's Dragon Guards" among the forty to fifty thousand sailors and over a thousand ships.
New Ghis was about eight kilometers long and two kilometers wide, a very narrow island with limited docks along its port—few berths where ships could anchor.
As the central logistics hub of the allied forces, it was crowded with thousands of vessels from hundreds of city-states across the world.
Fortunately, the large island of Ghiscene to the north was shaped like a crab, extending two massive pincers that enclosed the small island of New Ghis at its center. The waters near the harbor were calm and spacious, wide enough to accommodate tens of thousands of ships floating in place.
Daenerys had once passed by New Ghis on her voyage from Qarth to Slaver's Bay, anchoring for a short while in the outer harbor.
At that time, even seeing a few hundred large ships gathered there had shocked her with the sheer scale of maritime trade in this world.
But tonight, the dark sea shimmered with scattered moonlight stretching for over ten kilometers, and more than two thousand ships lay upon it.
Beneath the city walls of New Ghis stood a small, old, and shabby tile-roofed house in the slums.
In the left-side bedroom, two guards wearing chainmail beneath plain gray robes lay paralyzed by the doorway, unable to move.
A man and a woman knelt beside the bed, on a Myrish carpet patterned with violet flowers.
Daenys held a small crossbow in her right hand and toyed nimbly with a short Valyrian steel dagger in her left. Her voice was rough as she said, "Relax. Your guards aren't dead.
But if you don't cooperate, you will be."
She wore a black hood that concealed her face, and her voice was disguised.
The Dragon Queen had instructed her little assassin to keep her identity hidden as much as possible.
Terror and confusion flashed in Tregar's eyes, gleaming as clearly as the sweat rolling down his cheeks in the dim candlelight.
"You… how did you find this place?" he asked hoarsely.
From the outside, the house looked simple, but inside it was lavish—a residence he'd prepared specifically to avoid bombardment from the Wildfire General.
He had seven or eight similar houses and switched between them almost daily. His guards were few but discreet, prioritizing safety and secrecy.
And yet, the Dragon Queen's assassin had slipped in without a sound.
"Your wife brought me in," Daenys said.
Facing her husband's furious, disbelieving glare, Lynesse—wearing nothing to cover herself—shook her head frantically. "I didn't! This is the first time I've seen him!"
"You go on wild shopping sprees through every major shop in New Ghis," Daenys lied smoothly. "All I had to do was follow you."
In truth, her shapeshifter had already mapped every anti-dragon ballista emplacement and every residence of the allied commanders. There had been no need to follow anyone.
But Prince Tregar believed her instantly—because that was exactly the sort of thing his wife would do.
He glared fiercely at the spendthrift woman who had cost him so much, then sighed in resignation. "You didn't kill me right away… What do you want?"
"The Queen demands your allegiance."
"My allegiance?" Tregar's mouth fell open in disbelief. "I'm a slaver!"
"Surrender or die," Daenys said coldly.
Tregar lowered his head, eyes darting. "I surrender."
"Swear it."
Tregar raised his hand and swore before the gods.
Daenys picked up a silk ribbon from the bed and tossed it onto the floor. "Tie up your wife."
Lynesse covered her ample chest in alarm. "What are you going to do? I know who you are—even with the hood, I recognize you.You're Tyrion the Kinslayer, the dwarf who serves the Dragon Queen! You're the only one who uses a crossbow—who are you trying to fool?
And I know what you want to do to me, but let me tell you, my father is—"
"Shut up!" Tregar roared, yanking his wife's arm aside. Then, forcing a flattering smile toward the "dwarf," he said, "Whatever you want, my lord. I'll help tie her."
Lynesse stopped struggling, half resisting and half yielding, her movements a mix of shyness and annoyance.
Tregar, disturbingly practiced, tied his wife into a… rather creative position.
Daenys nearly lost control and shouted in her real voice.
The little assassin left the bedside, walked into the small study beside the bedroom, then turned and called out to the dazed Tregar, "Come here!"
"Me?" Tregar pointed at himself.
"Who else?" the assassin said, shaking the crossbow.
"I didn't think you were that kind of person," Lynesse said bitterly to the "dwarf."
(End of Chapter)
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