The khalasar rode for three days after Viserys's arrival.
No one spoke openly of what had happened around the fire, but the air had changed. The riders whispered when Laena passed. Some watched her with curiosity.
Others with something closer to respect.
She had spoken of conquest.
And the khal had listened.
That alone made her dangerous.
⸻
Viserys did not like being ignored.
He rode behind the khal's circle with growing bitterness, surrounded by servants and slaves rather than warriors. Every time the Dothraki laughed, he assumed it was about him.
Perhaps sometimes it was.
Laena noticed the way his temper tightened like a drawn bowstring.
She knew her brother.
Viserys had always believed the world owed him obedience.
The grass sea did not care about princes.
⸻
The khalasar made camp beside a wide stretch of rolling hills. Horses were watered, fires lit, meat roasted.
Laena stood near the central fire when Qotho approached again.
The bloodrider studied her with less hostility than before.
"You ride well," he said in rough Common Tongue.
It was not praise.
It was acknowledgment.
Laena inclined her head slightly.
"You fight well."
That earned the faintest ghost of a grin from the scarred warrior.
But the moment shattered when shouting erupted behind them.
Viserys.
Again.
"I am your king!" he roared in Valyrian, shoving a young slave aside.
Several riders turned with visible irritation.
Viserys staggered toward the center of camp, half drunk on sour wine.
"Where are my ships?" he demanded. "Where is the army I was promised?"
Drogo did not rise from his place beside the fire.
He simply watched.
Viserys's gaze landed on Laena.
"You!" he spat. "You stand there dressed like some barbarian queen while my throne is stolen!"
He grabbed her arm.
The camp went silent.
Qotho's hand moved toward his arakh.
Drogo's eyes hardened.
Laena slowly looked down at her brother's hand gripping her.
Then back at his face.
"Let go," she said quietly.
Viserys laughed bitterly.
"You forget who you are speaking to."
"No," she replied calmly. "You do."
She twisted her arm sharply, breaking his grip with practiced ease.
Gasps rippled through the watching riders.
Viserys stumbled backward in shock.
"You dare touch the blood of the dragon?" he snarled.
YOU ARE READING
Savage Blood
FanfictionA warrior does not give up what she loves, she finds the love in what she does. ...
