* THE CONQUEST OF SLAVER'S BAY*
Meereen stank.
Not of incense now, not of perfume and rot as it had when Daenerys first took it. It stank of blood drying in sun, of bodies still under bricks, of fear.
The wind off the bay was hot.
Daenerys Targaryen stood in the upper terrace of the Great Pyramid, her hands on stone still warm from Drogon's fire. Below her the city was a map of fires. Her Unsullied held the lower pyramids. Her freedmen held the gates. But in the high places, in the small pyramids, yellow harpy faces still spat arrows.
Aegon stood beside her. He had not moved since midday. His dragon lay behind them on the terrace, too large for it. Its tail hung over the edge, thirty feet down. When it breathed, the air shimmered.
Daenerys looked at him — at Aegon, not the dragon. Silver hair, same as hers, but his eyes were darker. He was looking at nothing.
"Barristan says Yunkai has yielded," she said. "Astapor is ash, we burned it clean. Only Meereen holds out. Three days more and the city is ours."
Aegon blinked. Inside his head, cold letters burned.
> *[SYSTEM - SLAVER'S BAY CONQUEST]*
> *Duration: 6 Months*
> *Astapor: CONQUERED ✓*
> *Yunkai: CONQUERED ✓*
> *Meereen: 78% - Great Pyramid resistance remains*
> *New Ghis: NOT CONQUERED*
> *Volantis Fleet (Outbound): NOT DESTROYED - ETA 29 days*
> *Qarth Trade Interdiction: NOT BROKEN*
> *Hold all locations for 6 months to complete.*
> *Failure: All dragon bonds severed for 1 year. Fire lost.*
> *Reward: Dragon Purification - Drogon*
Six places. Not three. The System wanted the whole bay, not just the three cities. New Ghis. Volantis. Qarth.
He finally spoke, voice low. "We haven't conquered it. We've only taken two."
Daenerys frowned. "Two is enough. No one holds Slaver's Bay fully, not even Old Ghis did."
"We must," Aegon said. "If we don't hold it, they will come back. Volantis is already coming. Two hundred sails. New Ghis arms them. Qarth pays them."
"How do you know that?" Ser Barristan said from the doorway, old and wary. He had come up without sound. "Our scouts saw nothing."
Aegon did not answer that. He couldn't say System.
"I saw the ravens," he lied. "In the rookery. Volantis seals."
Barristan looked at Daenerys, then at Aegon. He did not trust this boy who stood on dragonback without saddle, who carried a red sword that never dulled. But Daenerys trusted him, and her dragons let his dragons sleep beside them, so Barristan held his tongue.
Aegon stepped to the edge. His dragon rose without command, four feet pressing cracks into the pyramid stone, wings tucked.
Daenerys watched how he mounted — no chains, no whip, one hand on a scaled shoulder, one foot on foreleg, then standing upright. Like a man on a hill.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"To finish Meereen," Aegon said. "Tonight. Then New Ghis. Then we wait for Volantis in the bay and burn them before they land."
He looked down at her, and for a moment he wasn't a boy. He was a king counting.
"Six months, Dany. If we hold the bay six months — Astapor, Yunkai, Meereen, New Ghis, and break Volantis and Qarth — the bay will never be slaves again. Truly free."
Daenerys put her hand on Drogon's head. Drogon snapped at air, restless.
"Six months," she repeated. "You ask much."
"Freedom costs much," Aegon said.
Then his dragon leapt — not like Drogon leapt, with a screech and wing-beat — but like a lion leaps, all four legs pushing, wings opening only after it was already falling, and then it was gone into the smoke over Meereen, and fire bloomed below where the Harpy still held.
Barristan came to stand beside Daenerys.
"Your Grace," he whispered. "That boy — what is he?"
Daenerys smiled, silver in the black smoke.
"My nephew," she said. "My family. My last dragon."
And far above, Aegon's dragon roared, and all six dragons in Meereen — three hers, three his — roared back.