Zaro personally witnessed how the dwarf, relying on the Dragon Queen's trust, used his eloquence and cunning words to deceive everyone, keeping secrets from above and below, and in the end fulfilled their agreement. The Queen actually agreed on the spot, allowing Zaro to use five hundred thousand gold coins to redeem seventy captives of his choice.
Zaro had only brought five hundred thousand gold coins, intending to ransom Wendello, Piero, and that group of the most noble wyvern knights.
To his surprise, he ended up achieving far more than expected. Not only were all the wyvern knights redeemed, but over thirty Toros nobles were freed as well.
As payment to Tyrion, Zaro also provided a five-hundred-thousand–gold–coin bearer's note from the Iron Bank, along with five top-tier bedslaves.
The Dragon Queen did not release the captives unconditionally. In addition to the ransom, she required all captives to swear a sacred oath: for the next ten years, they must not participate in any battle against her.
The Queen wished Zaro to remain in Astapor for several days, but Zaro knew his own situation well. A month earlier, his household had already commissioned several of the world's top assassin guilds to kill the Queen's only living relative and most trusted minister.
Who knew where those assassins were at this moment?
If, while he lingered as a guest in Slaver's Bay, the Queen's nephew was assassinated—leaving her without kin, perhaps even without an heir—then no matter how deep his old ties with her ran, he would not escape the fate of being scorched by dragonfire.
Thus, the following afternoon, Zaro hastily departed with the seventy weary captives. They first sailed to New York on the Isle of the Free Maiden, where they would await the arrival of the New Ghis wyvern knight order.
On the seashore pier, Tyrion and the Dragon Queen watched Zaro's sails vanish into the horizon.
"Tyrion, did Zaro ask you about Galss?" Dany asked.
During their reminiscing, Zaro had made roundabout inquiries about Lys, the Prince of Lys, Lady Hightower, and so forth. She had found it baffling, even stunned a few times.
Now, however, Dany recalled that her own White Knight also bore the name Hightower, and there was only one Lady Hightower in Lys: Liness Hightower, the ex-wife of Mormont.
Still, she could not figure out what Zaro was up to.
It was no wonder Dany was confused. Who would imagine that Zaro suspected Liness of being her spy?
Well, the relationship between the Great Bear and Galss was rather complicated. Their first meeting in Slaver's Bay had been so awkward that even Dany herself wanted to set the record straight beforehand.
"He asked," Tyrion nodded, then speculated. "Last time in Meereen, you ambushed Banny, making the coalition think they had a traitor in their midst.
Zaro likely suspects Prince Trigg of Lys, since after all, Trigg is married into House Hightower."
The dwarf had always been clever. Zaro's questioning was subtle, but Tyrion still managed to deduce the truth.
"I see. That could be useful," Dany mused, nodding thoughtfully.
Tyrion then asked with some doubt, "Your Grace, I've heard of the reputation of the Whip of Du Gu. But no matter how formidable Hightower's whipcraft may be, it can only be used for torture, not to guarantee a spy's loyalty.
No matter what those wyvern knights promised earlier, once they return to New Ghis and Matarys, once they again become proud and honored wyvern knights, they will never willingly continue spying for you."
Tyrion was never a fool. Even if Dany had not said it outright, he could guess that among the captives Zaro took away were her spies.
And most likely, one or several of them were wyvern knights.
If she could use spies to fully grasp the movements of the enemy's wyvern legion, then the outcomes of the third and fourth dragon wars would inevitably mirror the first and second: the Dragon Queen's sweeping victory, with the coalition losing both lives and dragons.
The Queen had arranged for him to receive Zaro and had even let herself be "bribed" just to dispel the coalition's suspicion. If she had directly agreed to release the captives, the coalition would not have been fooled.
The real problem was this: how could the Dragon Queen ensure her spies' loyalty?
As one of her trusted ministers, Tyrion knew many secrets. For example, upon receiving Zaro's letter announcing his upcoming mission to Astapor, the Dragon Queen had immediately ordered all thirty-six wyvern knights removed from the labor camp and thrown into the dungeons for interrogation by Du Gu's Whip, Hightower.
In fact, right after the Battle of Toros, Hightower had already interrogated the captives once, and they confessed everything down to the color of their wives' undergarments.
This time, Hightower went even further, unleashing his unmatched whip skills on nearly every wyvern knight.
Tyrion had seen with his own eyes how several knights were beaten senseless, their minds shattered.
At first, he had not understood. But after receiving the Queen's order to join her in a staged act, he immediately realized: Hightower's torment of the wyvern knights was meant to break their spirits and force them to serve as her spies.
But still, it made no sense.
Even the firmest men, when faced with a devil's tail, would submit, swearing sincerely to infiltrate the coalition as spies.
Yet once they left Slaver's Bay, even the weakest men would shift from fear to hatred, hatred without end.
Naturally, they would break the sacred oath not to fight the Dragon Queen for ten years.
If he could think of this, surely the Queen must have as well.
Therefore, if she insisted on this plan, she must have some other way to guarantee their loyalty.
Tyrion was very curious. What had the Queen done?
"I have a spell called the Oath of Absolute Loyalty. Anyone under its effect will deliver complete devotion to me. Would you like to try it?" Dany cast him a strange look.
Twisting one's will was indeed akin to an "Oath of Absolute Loyalty."
But back in the North, even in her transcendent state, Dany had sensed the traces of the green seers in the sea of consciousness.
Her whispers were no more subtle than the green seers' will-twisting, and Lamb Egg was surely stronger than Dany had been at the Wall.
Thus, she dared not use "Dany's Whisper" on wyvern knights.
In fact, the whispers of evil gods had little effect even on demigods, unless the whisper came from a true god. Such whispers only worked on beings weaker in strength and will, useless against equals, and certainly not against stronger opponents.
She had Hightower torment those knights solely to break them mentally—once their spirits collapsed, they would not notice when she entered their consciousness to mark them.
She did not need to twist their will, only to place a mark on their souls.
The soul-mark she had learned from Queshi, however, she dared not use. Lamb Egg could probably detect it, and might even strike her directly through the fragment left in the spy.
Just as Dany herself had once used a shard of Queshi's soul to unleash the True Dragon's Roar on a Shadowbinder.
But none of this could be explained to the Imp—unless he truly had lost his wits enough to volunteer for an "Oath of Absolute Loyalty."
Tyrion tilted his melon-shaped head at Dany and grinned. "Your Grace, I can promise you that this Oath of Absolute Loyalty would only have side effects on me.
If loyalty could be measured in numbers, the oath could give a person one hundred points of devotion to you.
But my loyalty to you is already ten thousand points. Reducing ten thousand to a mere hundred would be a huge loss!"
"Heh. And is your ten thousand loyalty points positive or negative?" Dany sneered.
"Positive, of course—genuinely, absolutely positive!" Tyrion declared, puffing out his chest proudly.
Then he stopped asking the Dragon Queen about her methods of controlling spies and shifted the topic.
"Your Majesty, I think it's fair to say I've rendered great service this time. I don't want a single copper of that five hundred thousand Gold Sun Treasury Note. I only ask for those five bed-slaves. Of course, they are no longer slaves now, but couldn't you at least let me keep them for a year or so?"
"You dare say such things in front of me!" Dany narrowed her eyes, as if knives were flashing through the slits.
"If not a year, then just a month?" Tyrion pleaded bitterly. "After the greyscale incident, when I went to the Grand Temple of Grace, even the Red Priestess only talked of love with me and wouldn't so much as touch me."
"Enough!"
Dany's expression twisted as though she had swallowed a fly. She cut him off with a wave of her hand.
"Go find the Green Priestess and have her arrange for the Red Priestess to resume her dealings with you.
If those five slaves refuse to turn to honest lives, hand them over to the Green Priestess for instruction. Whatever you wish to do, take it up with her!"
Tyrion agreed on the surface but secretly decided to delay obeying her orders.
Back in Westeros, he had already heard of the famed bed-slaves of Yunkai, known across a thousand leagues. The Violet Priestess was said to be a privilege only the Valyrian Dragonlords could enjoy.
Yet after braving countless perils to reach Slaver's Bay and becoming the queen's councillor, he found there were no bed-slaves left.
The Dragon Queen was better than Saint Baelor at least. Baelor had shut down every brothel in King's Landing and banished all the prostitutes. The Dragon Queen had shown some sense by preserving the Red Priestess order, though the bed-slaves and the Yunkai Violet Priestess had completely become history.
Perhaps the five Violet Priestesses left behind by Xaro were his last chance.
So instead of seeking the Green Priestess, he wandered around the city for most of the day. When dusk fell, he quietly returned to the docks and slipped into the Great White Shark Inn—the same place Xaro's entourage had lodged during their stay in Astapor.
Xaro himself, of course, stayed in the grand guest chambers of the Great Pyramid, but his attendants remained at the inn. After all, most of them were his loyal slaves, not the sort one parades before the queen.
The five top-ranked bed-slaves, who doubled as bodyguards, were also kept there.
Tyrion had already made arrangements with the innkeeper, so getting the key to their chamber was easy.
The thought of five peerless beauties waiting inside left even a veteran like Tyrion trembling as he pushed the door open, his face flushed, throat dry, and hands shaking.
The hall was empty, but water could be heard running in the bath.
Not exactly a novice anymore, Tyrion still felt as if he might have a nosebleed at the sound.
"Five of them… perhaps too much to handle." He hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and pulled out a small ebony box. Opening it, he pinched out a bean-sized pill.
A strong medicinal fragrance filled the air.
He swallowed it down in one gulp.
Whether it was the drug's potency or simply his imagination, he instantly felt an endless surge of energy.
"Darlings, the Wildfire General has arrived!"
Bent over, howling like a beast, he stormed into the bath and yanked the curtain aside.
Xaro was gay.
Xaro was gay.
Xaro was absolutely gay.
Before a woman as radiant and noble as the Dragon Queen, Tyrion had remained unmoved—even disgusted—proving just how gay he was.
So, Xaro had not been lying. His bed-slaves truly were his bodyguards.
"Awooooooo—!"
Half the street could hear the Wildfire General's anguished scream.
The innkeeper, however, had been warned in advance. Knowing what was going on, he blocked anyone who rushed over, thinking to help.
"Just a misunderstanding, everyone, just a misunderstanding!" the innkeeper kept saying.
The next day, the Wildfire General did not appear at the council meeting, nor did he report for work—whether to raid pirates in New York Town or to supervise wildfire production outside the city.
On the third day, the Wildfire General was still absent.
Busy at her forge, fashioning armor for herself, the Dragon Queen was finally alerted.
Tyrion's dragon, Tessa, was also nowhere to be seen.
Had he fled?
Entering dragon-dream state to sense Tessa's location, Dany's expression turned strange. She told old Aemon and the others that the Wildfire General was likely on the western shore, about five kilometers from the city.
Aegon volunteered to search for Tyrion, and Dany gave her consent.
The sea breeze blew damp and salty, tousling Tyrion's disheveled golden hair. He sat facing the waves on a black reef the size of a wagon, wrapped in a green cloak, motionless as if carved from wood.
"Tyrion?" Aegon approached, then froze in shock. The dwarf's once-lively eyes were dull as dead fish, his scarred face pale as the dragon paper Dany had invented.
"What happened to you?" Aegon asked with concern. "The other night you suddenly ran out of the inn and vanished. We've been worried sick."
Then, with a glint of envy in his eyes, Aegon lowered his voice.
"I heard there were five top-tier bed-slaves. Did you exhaust yourself?"
"You really aren't fair. You said you'd be my mentor, yet you went alone…" Aegon muttered, grumbling on.
Suddenly, Tyrion burst into tears.
(End of Chapter)
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