Mother Of Dragons

Chapter 21

Dany arranged the cushions one last time in the front room before crawling into her little nest, a woven blanket across her lap as she sorted through a small carved wooden box full of trinkets and jewelry, all of them bridegifts, for something special to wear. She would go out today on her silver and see the city, and she wanted to look pretty when she rode up to Drogo and his bloodriders at their camp where they were drinking and gambling on horses.

She found it a bit funny yet thought provoking that the way a Khal stayed a Khal was to be amongst the men day in and day out, playing. Well, it was playing as grown men, truly, but still playing. She felt that ruling the Seven Kingdoms would not be the same as it was in Vaes Dothrak. Her father had been just forty, but what little she knew of him suggested a man that looked much older than that. Was it the madness that aged him, or the weight of his crown? Did ruling make him the Scab King, the Mad King, the man who burned men alive in the throne room for the entire court to see?

Rhaego wiggled and poked at her, and she patted her side where he was kicking. She wondered if he could feel her the same way she could feel him. Just thinking about him made her smile. Soon, little dragon, soon. I can't wait to hold you in my arms, to see your little face.

Appropriately adorned, she laced up her new pants and pulled a top over her head. Irri left her hair mostly loose, with only two braids pulling it back from her face. Rhakaro waited outside for her, the silver mare already saddled and waiting. Irri gave her a leg up, and then mounted her own horse, saddle free, and rode behind her to the marketplace.

There were two distinct areas of the market, Dany found. One seemed to hold mainly Dothraki wares, woven grass mats and screens, spits full of roasting horse meat attended by women with small children running around, and some trinkets and jewelry, but nothing she hadn't already become familiar with. The other area held just a few traders left from the last caravan, and their goods were mostly gone. Sighing with disappointment, she turned the silver around and asked Irri, "When will there be another caravan?"

"Not for some weeks, Khaleesi," Irri answered.

"Where should we go before to the men's camp?" Dany asked, smiling at the group of small children playing in the trees. A little girl peeked out from behind a tree, looking right at her, and Dany waved. The little girl's eyes grew big, and she ducked behind the tree again. One day, Rhaego will play in these trees, she thought. It brought a quiet joy to her heart, imagining a little dark haired boy with violet eyes, running and laughing with other children his age.

"Up the hill, and over to the south," Irri answered, pointing. "You can see all of Vaes Dothrak from there. We may see the wild horses, too."

Dany nodded and nudged her silver into a trot, but soon slowed down to a walk again, Rhaego making anything faster a little too uncomfortable in her hips and back. She didn't realize how much he'd grown in just the past week, but now that she could feel him with a hand on her belly, it amazed her. She wondered if it truly was the stallion heart that had done it, made him so strong that he had been only a weak fluttering one day, and such a kicker the next.

Once to the top of the hill, she dismounted and waited for Irri. A hot breeze coursed through the grass, sending up rustling whispers around her, and she closed her eyes to enjoy the peaceful sounds. A cricket played its bright and happy song not too far away from her grazing mare, and a bird called in the distance. Opening her eyes, she looked down the hill and could see the whole valley spread out before her, the green grass in harmony with the blueness of the lake that reflected the sky. She watched a group of dark objects moving away from the water, seeing the sacred herd of horses. They're moving quickly. Something has spooked them.

Irri came up the hill just then, and followed Daenerys' pointing finger. "What's chasing them?" Dany asked quickly.

Irri watched for a moment, before turning back to Dany. "Get on your horse, Khaleesi. We have to go back to the city, now."