The Age of Daenerys Targaryen

Part 74: The flight home

The day before the negotiators headed home, Jon and Daenerys officially announced their engagement. There was a small ceremony that Kinvara held in the Red Temple and then a celebration in the Palace of the Sealord. Sansa, Tyrion, Sam, Bronn, Podrick, Illyrio, Asha, Belo Aenolis and also Rhaegar were present, the latter staying in the background.

"I hope you know what you are getting yourself into", Asha said to the Empress when the two talked a little apart from the others. "This might be the first time ever that a woman has married the man who stuck a knife in her heart. If I were you, I could never have forgiven him."

"He wanted to protect his family", said Daenerys. "It may sound strange, but if he didn't, he wouldn't be the same man I fell in love with."

"Hhm", said the Ironborn. "And in the process he also killed his unborn sons. Of which he knew nothing, admittedly."

"Exactly", nodded Dany. "He didn't know about it. Hopefully you will come to Volantis for the wedding?"

"Gladly", replied the Queen of the Iron Islands and toasted her with her wine cup.

Finally it was time to leave. While everyone else was returning home by ship, Daenerys and Jon would fly to Volantis on Drogon's back.

At a respectful distance from the dragon, Jon said goodbye to his sister, Sam and Tyrion, while the Empress was already in the saddle and waiting. Then he went to Drogon and climbed onto his back to sit behind Daenerys and use the leather slings attached to the saddle to tie his legs.

Ghost had been put in a wooden transport box that was carefully tied to the saddle and additionally secured with a net.

Jon waved one last time to his sister and his friends, then the dragon rose into the air and flew south, where he soon disappeared out of sight behind the mountains.

After a stopover in the mountainous wilderness, they reached Norvos. Martial law still prevailed in the city. General Wynosha acted as Imperial military governor here. She welcomed the Empress and Jon to the palace of the late First Magister and was pleased to note that the peace negotiations had been successful. When asked about her companion, Daenerys only replied that he was a friend and left it at that. She and Jon had decided not to let anyone know who he were on the way to Volantis in order to avoid complications.

They had dinner with the general and spent the night in the palace before continuing their journey the next morning. Jon remembered Major Pasha mentioning to him that Wynosha had beaten up a soldier who was trying to do violence to Pasha. Wynosha was lean rather than strong, but there was something about her that only an idiot would provoke her.

If the woman was concerned that Daenerys was without a bodyguard and accompanied by a stranger, she didn't show it, except that she occasionally glared at Jon suspiciously during dinner. Had she known who he was...

From Norvos they followed the Noyne south, which united with the Rhoyne at the ruined city of Ny Sar. The further south they got, the more clearly the traces of the war became visible: burned fields and orchards, as well as destroyed villages and cities. Some areas were just brown wasteland without a patch of green in them, where no stone stood on top of another. Dany explained to Jon that after the defeat of Ar Noy, the Alliance had pursued a scorched earth policy to make it harder for the Imperials to advance. Vain. The well-organized supply lines of the Imperial Army worked perfectly. Only the population suffered.

On the further way they took several breaks, during which Ghost was allowed to get out of the box. It was pretty exhausting, however, to get the direwolf to go back into the box.

They stopped briefly in Selhorys, Valysar and Volon Therys and Daenerys informed the people there about the peace treaty. Jon found that all three cities were larger than King's Landing, albeit smaller than Braavos.

Now they were approaching the Imperial Capital. Here the country was spared from war. Golden fields, criss-crossed by irrigation ditches, stretched for miles on both sides of the Rhoyne, as well as vineyards and orchards. Villages and windmills completed the idyllic picture.

Finally the sea appeared on the horizon - and Volantis. Jon thought they would be there in a few minutes, but he was wrong. It was another hour or so. The sheer size of the city had led him to believe they were closer to Volantis than they actually were. The area of the capital of the New Valyrian Empire was larger than the lands of some lords in Westeros.

As Drogon neared the mighty outer walls, two blue dragons rose from the black inner wall in the city center and flew towards the newcomers. They were smaller than Daenerys' dragon, but Jon saw a rider on each of them.

Daenerys laughed and waved to them. The blue dragons flew close to Drogon and circled him. The great dragon greeted them with a scream. Now the riders were close enough for Jon to see that they were two black-haired boys, about seven years old and clearly twins: they both looked like Jon when he was a boy.