- How are you? - I entered the cabin of our noble guest without knocking. Oberyn looked the same as he had four hours ago. Bad.
- Fine. Leave me alone.
- He sniffled and wrapped himself even tighter in furs. The young prince's body was not prepared for such trials. Almost two hours of beating on the waves, albeit the warmest, but still morning sea. Frozen, humiliated and beaten. Not every aristocrat can endure that.
- You knew you were asking for it. - I said, coming closer to him and handing him a flask of fortified and undiluted wine. He needed to warm up, otherwise a cold in this world, as in ours, is seemingly easy to treat, but people still die.
- Some captains in my place would have simply handed you over to the Ironwoods for a reward or thrown you into the sea, saying that you had drunk yourself to death and drowned upon arrival in Volantis. And they would not have even made any claims against them.
Why act like an arrogant and spoiled creature if you are not at all like that? Lord Quorgyl's methods of upbringing were known even in the Citadel. He would not have produced the person you are trying to seem. After my words, silence fell on Edward's cabin, where the prince had been placed due to the lack of appropriate apartments. We were both silent, each thinking about his own.
Oberyn sat quietly on the bed, staring at the floor without blinking. Only his occasionally tensing fists indicated that his thoughts were actively working, showing that the Dornishman's thoughts were not of the most rosy kind. Meanwhile, I was thinking more about what I would do in Volantis.
We will arrive there in three days, and in the week remaining before the start of the triarch elections, we must sell all our goods. It will not be easy, because I am not the only smart one who brought exclusive goods from the North, but I had two advantages - the bear, whose appearance alone attracts attention, and my eloquence, which I hope I have not lost during these two years of study.
- Have you been to the Citadel?
- The Dornishman finally asked, apparently having finished his introspection and seizing on my slip of the tongue. It is clear that he will not open his soul to me, and I am not particularly eager to be his personal psychologist. So the change of topic did not cause irritation.
- Yes. I studied there for two years. I left a couple of months ago and decided to become a free trader, in the service of myself.
- Just straight up and became a trader? Of course, I do not understand much about money and its extraction. Still, I spent most of my life just wasting them, but is it possible to just go and become a merchant with three ships worthy of nobles?
- As you can see, it is possible.
- But where did the money come from?
- From where most of your kind are taken.
- Really from good gentlemen paying a handsome boy? And you refused me, although I would not have spared the money for you.
- Go to Hell! You earned it yourself...
- Of course, of course... So one word led to another, and a very interesting conversation began between us.
***
Volantis… Heir to Valyria…
One of the nine great Free Cities, and the oldest and largest of them. Situated at the mouth of the great River Rhoyne in southwestern Essos, the city was impressive in appearance alone. In the past, it was a centre of trade between the Valyrians and the Rhoynar, and after the Doom of Valyria, it attempted to subjugate the other Free Cities by force and recreate the majestic Valyrian Freehold.
But it suffered a cruel defeat after a century of war, later called the Bloody Age. However, the city still controls vast tracts of land on the fertile Rhoyne and beyond, such as the Orange Coast, home to some of the most delicious fruits in the world, the banks of the River Volena, which provide the city with wheat and cattle, and the famous backwaters of the River Selora, where such a rare crop as rice is grown. And one cannot forget the smaller vassal cities of Volon Theris, Valisar and Seloris.
"Though, considering the number of these cities… each one is the size of King's Landing. But that's not surprising. When you can have the Dothraki visiting you every day, you'll want to live within the safety of the city walls."
So Volantis is the richest and most powerful of the nine Free Cities, surpassing in sheer strength even Braavos, which prefers to work with money and diplomacy rather than fleets and military force.
"At last we have arrived," I said, standing on the bow of the ship and looking at one of the nine man-made wonders of the world, the Long Bridge of Volantis. They say it was built because the high tides and strong currents of the Rhoyne made it difficult to cross the river properly.
So Triarch Vhalaso the Generous, ruler during the early Bloody Age, ordered the bridge built across the river. Because of these same tides and currents, as well as the width of the river, reaching almost a thousand yards, the construction became a nearly impossible task. Having taken more than forty years and requiring millions of investments, it completely paid for itself.
They say that Vhalaso himself, who did not live to see the end of construction only a few years ago, was buried in the main supporting pillar of the bridge. After the construction was completed, no other bridge in this world can compare with the Long Bridge, except for the Bridge of Dreams in the ruins of the Rhoynar Sorrows.
According to the builders, it is strong enough to withstand the weight of a thousand elephants, and looking at the hundreds of houses growing out of the building like mushrooms, I am inclined to believe it.
- Why are you so happy? - Oberyn's cheerful voice distracted me from my thoughts and purely professional assessment of the pros and cons of the architectural solutions used in the construction of this miracle.
- Are you waiting impatiently for me to run off into the sunset, once again making your life boring and dull? With the Dornish prince, after a memorable conversation and a good fight that followed, I established a rather warm relationship.
Although I lost in the training fight, the lack of experience and the prince's better training took their toll, but the Dornishman did not escape unscathed, once taking a blunted axe blade to the ribs. Still,Despite my training and good genetics, I was a mediocre warrior.
That tournament in Lannisport was won by the element of surprise and the uniqueness of my fighting style. Against a man who had trained as much as I had and had seen me spar with the Highlanders, I lost, though not without a draw. So the remaining days were spent in sparring, interrupted only by drinking the ship's supply of wine and dragging Oberyn away from the few women I had on board. "People are right when they say that if the Dornish don't fight, they fuck, and if they don't fuck, they fight." I thought and still answered my passenger.
"She wasn't boring before you either. I hope I won't see your mug here again once you leave us." "Nooo... Don't get your hopes up." The black-haired man smiled even wider and, looking around at the docks that had already come into view, whistled. And following his gaze, I understood the reason. There, the arriving sailors were met by representatives of the oldest profession in the world. Dressed in the most revealing dresses and painted with the brightest makeup, they cheerfully called out to the arriving sailors who hadn't seen a woman for a long time.
"Until you and I have visited all the brothels of Volantis and had the most gorgeous local whores, I won't leave you alone." "But..." "And don't go on about your work. You'll have time to sell your stuff, and if not, I'll be happy to buy it myself. Your furs are worthwhile, after all.
- Oberyn said, grabbing me by the neck with his hand and winking at a passing boat, where a representative of the local nobility was sitting - a beautiful, white-haired Volantean woman, blushing a little from the attention shown to her. He was right. Soon we would dock at the Volantis docks and such a wonderful process as trade would begin. I had waited too long for this. It was time to relax.