The wine was sweet on the Tattered Prince's tongue, but sweeter still was the sight of Daenerys Targaryen in silver moonlight.
Nights were warm in Meereen, and a sultry breeze blew into the dragon queen's chamber atop the Great Pyramid through the open screen by the balcony, bringing a fine patina of sweat to the Tattered Prince's skin. Daenerys wore a shift of violet silk that matched her eyes but hid little from the Tattered Prince's, clinging to the swells of her breasts and allowing the barest suggestion of her nipples to show through. The Prince forced his eyes up to the queen's face. He saw the famous beauty of the Targaryens there, but youth and vulnerability too. Her city was under siege by her enemies, after all. That was why he was there.
'You were telling me of Pentos, captain,' she prompted him.
Pentos. If the Tattered Prince closed his eyes he could still see the sunlight on the golden domes of the city. It made his heart ache with longing.
'Yes, my queen. Pentos is where I was born, into the nobility of the forty families. My family was rich and influential, but Pentos is ruled by magisters who choose our prince from among the forty. A few years ago I was chosen to be prince.'
'A great honour, surely,' said Daenerys.
'Indeed. The prince has few duties, but on the first day of the new year he must deflower two maidens: the maiden of the fields and the maiden of the sea. This is to ensure fertility continues to nourish Pentos, from its orchards and its waters.'
'That must have been an...enjoyable duty,' Daenerys remarked, with just the slightest quirk of her eyebrow.
'It was.' The Tattered Prince smiled as he remembered cavorting with the naked maidens in the pleasure garden. It was the best of his memories from his home city.
'And yet now you are here in the Great Pyramid of Meereen, half a world from Pentos, offering me the services of your mercenary company in exchange for terms you have yet to divulge.' Daenerys scrutinised him over the rim of her crystal wine cup, the dark liquid slipping between her lips. 'There must be a story to tell.'
'The greatest woe of my life.'
The Tattered Prince held the queen's gaze as he reclined back in his chair. 'The Prince of Pentos is purely a ceremonial position,' he began.
'He is chosen by the magisters, and by the magisters he can be undone. The spring after I lay with the maidens, the fishermen's nets were full but the harvest from the orchards was paltry and blighted. The magisters came to my palace and discovered the maiden of the seas with a swelling belly but the maiden of the fields as flat-stomached as they day I first lay with her. Alas, I had taken her flower but then turned her over and ploughed a different field. I fled the city that day and founded the Windblown, to chase our fortunes wherever the wind carried us.'
'So you exchanged your home city for your freedom,' said Daenerys. 'You took a terrible risk.'
'I did, but risks are nothing to a man like me.'
Daenerys set her goblet down carefully. 'You have certainly lived an interesting life, and my people and I have need of your prowess now. This city is surrounded by its enemies, and if your Windblown do not defect then we will all be destroyed. You can name your price.'
'As tempting as Meereen's gold might be, I had something else in mind. My Windblown will join with your forces. All I ask in return, is one night with you.'
Colour rose in Daenerys's cheeks. She could feel her blood quicken in her veins, carrying the wine to her head and making her dizzy. Her body reacted to thoughts of the Tattered Prince's desire. Had this been his goal all along, Daenerys wondered? Loathe as she was to admit it, she was not in a position to refuse. If she gave him what he wanted then her city, her people, all the thousands of slaves she had freed from their chains, would live. If she refused her Unsullied and freedmen would be butchered in the streets, her women raped and chained once more.
I am sparing them that fate