บท 14: Chapter 13(b)

Both Orin and Caspian spent the next two days aboard the ship just eating the food that had been left over from the crew and putting on a little bit of the weight that they had lost.

Orin was already extremely small for his age so Caspian ensured he ate more as he still had more growing to do.

Naturally the small boy had been astonished to see the four dragons that his new master had brought back and couldn't stop staring at them. He proclaimed that the blue and red ones were female and the white and purple ones were male though how he knew that Caspian had no idea.

Once Orin had decided on their sex, he proclaimed to Caspian that they must name them as all dragons had to have names.

Caspian knew that dragons were even more sacred to the Essosi as they had come from Essos in the shadow lands beyond Asshai and the Jade Sea.

Trying to remember his lessons about the dead Targaryen dragons a few names came to mind as he and Orin sat in the belly of the ship in the hold with a candle lit.

The dragons were sitting on the table eating a few pieces of meat that Orin had cooked in the fire for them.

Caspian truthfully didn't know that dragons didn't eat raw meat until his new servant pointed out to him that dragons had to have their meat burned first before consuming it.

"Who told you all this?" he asked but Orin wouldn't say. All managed to get out of him on the subject was that he had once been sold to a man who was obsessed with the idea of dragons. Deciding to put that to the side for now, Caspian focused then on naming the dragons as it seemed important to do so.

He remembered quite a lot about the dragons from the history books, but Caspian wanted to separate from naming custom of dragons. Then Caspian smiled knowing a good name for the first dragon.

"This one," he said touching the blue she dragon gently on the back. "She will be called Naelarion. Naela for short."

Orin smiled looking oddly pleased. "That's a good name my lord. What about the other ones?"

Caspian slowly took in the three dragons who all seemed to have stilled in their feasting and were now looking at him with unfathomable expressions on their faces.

The one gaze that seemed to strike him most of all was the white one whose eyes were nearly completely white as if he were blind. If Caspian looked close enough he could see the slight discoloration at the center of his eye however that was the pupil which seemed strangely focused. Wanting to honour his slain brother, Caspian named next.

"This white one," he said. "will be called Edrion."

Orin nodded eagerly. "And the others?"

Caspian nodded to the red dragon, the names coming on thick and fast now. "The one with the ruby scales will be called Veneys. And the purple one will be called Zergyx."

As he said each of their names, the dragons stilled as if they understood him and all turned their heads toward Caspian as if acknowledging them.

"And now," Caspian said getting to his feet. "We need to go into the city Orin, we've been aboard the ship for too long. If anyone has been watching the ship they would have seen no activity aboard it for two days and that might make them think it's abandoned and ripe for the taking. You said that the captain was on his way to Astapor to sell his spices yes?"

"Yes my lord," Orin said. "He bore spices from Qarth on this ship. I heard the sailor saying that they were expensive."

"Good," Caspian said sharply. "Thank we can sell some of them and perhaps earn our passage out of here."

"Where are we going my lord?" Orin asked eagerly.

Caspian smirked at the small boy. "To Westeros. I have a score to settle."

It turned out that getting to Astapor and getting to the merchant area of the city wasn't as hard as Caspian thought it would be.

But in order to enter the city they had to walk across the enormous Walk of Punishment and see those slaves dying in the heat as they stood chained to their wooden crosses with no water and food until they slowly died.

Though Caspian found he couldn't keep his eyes from the poor souls on their crosses as he had never seen something so horrific before, Orin averted his eyes and looked at the ground the whole time.

Finally Caspian spoke up. "Do you know this place well Orin?"

"Yes my lord," the boy mumbled so low that the former prince barely heard him. "I was born here."

"You were?" Caspian asked raising an eyebrow. "Why didn't you tell me so before?"

The boy wouldn't meet his eyes. "Bad memories."

That was all he would say on the matter and Caspian decided he wouldn't push him for whatever memories he had of this place they had obviously been dark and violent.

Caspian had hidden the four dragons in a small covered basket with a chain attacked to the top so it might be slung over someone's shoulder by a chain. It had been aboard the ship in the bowels of its belly but what its purpose had been, the prince had no idea.

It served his needs now to carry Naelarion, Veneys, Zergyx and Edrion without someone seeing them. He and Orin had discovered aboard the ship that there were also textiles that were being brought to Astapor to sell.

Caspian knew he would need to buy clothes before long as he knew he hadn't bathed in gods knew how long and the only means he had had for washing himself had been the water that he had swam in.

The last thing he had wanted to do was draw attention to himself so he had taken one of the knives and cut his hair as best as he could. It had grown longer and wilder since he had been ship wrecked and he wondered if anyone from Westeros might recognize him now if they saw him in his present state.

He and Orin had found several long cloaks in the captain's cabin and were now wearing them with the hoods up. He and the boy had taken several bags of the spices and placed them in another basket which Orin was now carrying while Caspian kept the dragons in the basket about his shoulder.

He didn't want to take the chance and leave them aboard the ship where someone else might board it and find them. As far as he was concerned, the four tiny creatures were never leaving his side. Now that they had hatched, the strange connection Caspian had had to them when they were still in their eggs had intensified ten fold. It seems like he could tell where they were and small bit of their feeling. Caspian did not know for sure, but Targaryen were said to have bonded with their dragons.

But for now these small dragons were his to protect and Caspian counted them as one of the few good things that had happened to him since Edric died.

And he wanted to protect them at all costs.

As he and Orin slowly made their way into the city, one of the few things Caspian took in besides the slaves were the abundance of the statues of the harpies everywhere. He knew that all of the free cities in slavers bay paid homage to the old gods of Ghis but this was a little overdone.

He and Orin finally reached the merchant section of Astapor, an area that was near to the inner docks of the city where smaller boats could traverse and found a merchant there that was willing to buy the spices they were selling.

It appeared for all of his lack of ability to read and write, Orin knew how to haggle as he had watched the captain of the ship he had been on do it all the time. He and Caspian spent nearly an hour arguing over the price of the spices and in the end the merchant gave them their price most likely to get them out of there.

Caspian calmly put the pouch of coins the merchant handed over into the basket that Orin was holding and the two turned around from the corner they had been standing in where the merchant table was located to go.

And that was when he saw something odd.

Three people were standing near the edge of the dock conversing quietly. One was a man with pale blonde hair and deep tan which betrayed the fact that he must have been in Essos for several moons at least. He was wearing armor that was distinctly Westerosi and there was a sword at his waist.

The other was a female with pale silvery blonde hair dressed in a dark blue tunic. She was half a head shorter than Caspian and quite beautiful to behold prompting him to stop and admire her for a moment.

But then his attention turned to the other tall man in a brown cloak at her side and the breath caught in his throat as if he were choking.

The familiar salt and pepper hair and short beard were unmistakable of the man who had trained Caspian to be a warrior since he was five years old.

Ser Barristan Selmy?! What the bloody hell is he doing here?! He was still in King's Landing when Uncle Tyrion sent me to Storm's End!

Seeing his former instructor was such a relief to Caspian that his knees almost felt weak for a moment. And then it clued in who the young woman was.

He remembered his father ranting about the Targaryens in Essos to Ned Stark before he had died and how he had wanted to send an assassin after them to kill the girl and the boy.

Where is her brother? He wondered to himself. Surely Viserys Targaryen is here with her?

That didn't seem to be the case though and he blinked as he realized he was looking at Daenerys Targaryen herself, the woman bearing the name that his father had hated most in this world.

Well this is ironic isn't it?

Caspian took a small step towards the group, desiring very much to speak with Ser Barristan and learn what the news was from Westeros when the second odd thing happened.

A small child ran up to Daenerys and offered what looked like a ball to her. The Targaryen smiled at the child before taking the ball in hand.

The child backed up to slightly as if she wanted the young woman to play with her.

The Targaryen smiled at her again and moved the ball to her other hand and appeared about to throw it back to the child when the third odd thing happened.

The ball appeared to move in the Targaryen woman's hand as if it were alive and she dropped it with a cry. The man with the fair blonde hair darted forward as if to pull her back when all of a sudden, the child waved its hand and the three of them froze where they stood.

Caspian blinked in shock when he saw the obvious and rather overt display of the unnatural. The three of them, the Targaryen, Ser Barristan and the other man seemed incapable of moving even though Caspian saw from the darting of the eyes of the once Lord Commander of his father's guard that he was trying.

"Warlocks," he heard Orin whisper and looked down to see that the small boy was trembling with fear. Caspian darted his eyes back up to the scene before him and saw that the warlock had strode forward and pushed the Targaryen into a kneeling position by the strange ball that was still moving.

Only when the top of the ball itself came loose did Caspian see what was contained within it…and it made him swallow hard.

A scorpion about the size of his hand with six long legs emerged from within the ball and Caspian suddenly knew with terrible clarity what was about to happen. He could feel Orin trembling beside him and saw the terror on the little boys face. No one else seemed to notice what was happening however and Caspian suddenly felt the need to do something without knowing the bloody hell why.

The scorpion hissed and he knew the Targaryen had only seconds to live as she had been frozen by the warlocks magic. Her beautiful face was etched in shock and surprise and then terror when she saw the scorpion inches from her.

Caspian wasn't even aware that he was moving until he had shoved the basket with the dragons in it into Orin's arms with the muttered command to hold onto it. He drew the valyrian dagger that he had hidden in his cloak from the cave and darted as fast as he could towards the three of them.

In the back of his mind he knew this was foolish and he also knew that he was going to have to move with a blistering speed in order to best both the warlock and the scorpion.

And to do that he had to take them both out at the same time. So there was only one way to do that.

When he was halfway to them, Caspian dove to his side so he would slide along the deck. He shot one leg out and swept the feet of the warlock out from under it so it landed on the deck with a crash.

In the same motion Caspian came level with the scorpion and struck downward his blade just as it darted towards the Targaryen. His aim was true for he stabbed the creature right through its back causing it to hiss and screech as it writhed on the end of his knife.

He had just enough time to twist around when he heard the warlock beginning to recover from the shock of being upended and stabbed downward once more so the blade of his dagger with the scorpion attached was driven into the chest of the warlock up to the hilt above heart. The unearthly creature let out a scream and all of those on the deck including the merchants scattered.

He could hear gasps from the other three as the warlock burst into a shower of dust and ash that drifted away on the wind. The scorpion had dissolved into a pool of venom on the blade of his dagger.

He strode over to the edge of the dock and looked around in case there might be any more of the other creatures nearby but for now it seemed they were alone.

He heard one of the men behind him helping the Targaryen to her feet and muttering something under his breath about ruddy warlocks.

And then he heard the Targaryen herself addressing him.

"I owe you my life sir," she said.

"So it would seem," the rough voice of Ser Barristan continued. "I must thank you for saving our queen sir. Your quick thinking does you credit. Your fighting style is familiar. May I ask where you learned it from?"

Caspian smirked to himself before turning around and lowering his hood. "You should know Ser Barristan…you trained me yourself."