Tyrion is buried beneath a pile of musty skins, atop a heap of old sacks that serve him as a bed. He is aboard the Shy Maid, lodging atop the roof of its cabin with a coil of hempen rope for a pillow. He dresses and descends to the afterdeck, where Griff is sitting beside an iron brazier. The sellsword keeps the night watch by himself. I would kill for a cup of wine, Tyrion mutters. Since boarding, Griff has prohibited Tyrion from touching a drink. As the first pale light of day appears on the horizon, Griff rises and heads below deck. The deck is yours, he tells Tyrion.
Septa Lemore emerges in her white robes, cinched at the waist with a woven belt of seven colors. She walks to the prow of the boat. It is her custom to bathe nude in the river each morning. Tyrion notices stretch marks on her belly that could only have come from childbirth. Yandry and Ysilla appear next and go about their business, feeding woodchips into the brazier and kneading the dough for the morning biscuits. Yandry and his wife are Greenblood born, a pair of Dornish orphans come home to Mother Rhoyne. The smell of biscuits and bacon lures Duck up from the hold. Young Griff follows, stumbling up onto the deck for breakfast. The poleboat moves downstream.
Young Griff and Duck spar on the afterdeck with blunted long swords, while the rest of the morning company looks on. Young Griff lands more blows, though Duck’s are harder. Slamming a shoulder into Duck, the boy launches his sparring partner into the river. Tyrion tosses Duck a line and with Yandry’s assistance hauls the large man aboard. Ducks should swim better than that, Tyrion quips. Duck responds by grabbing Tyrion by the collar and tossing him headlong into the river. Young Griff fishes Tyrion out of the water. Back on deck, Tyrion performs a cartwheel to the crew’s amusement. His uncle had taught him tumbling when he was six or seven, but he had quickly abandoned the pastime following a scolding from his father.
After changing into dry clothes, Tyrion finds his quill and parchment. Griff has commanded him to set down all he knows of dragonlore. Tyrion recalls the books he has read on the topic of dragons. Galendro’s history of Valyria, The Fires of the Freehold, is an excellent source of information, but no complete copy is known to Westeros. Septon Barth’s Dragons, Wyrms, and Wyverns: Their Unnatural History is another key text. Barth had been a blacksmith’s son who rose to be King’s Hand during the reign of Jaehaerys the Conciliator. Suspecting that the author was a sorcerer, Baelor the Blessed had ordered all Barth’s writing destroyed when he came to the Iron Throne. Only fragments of the Unnatural History remain. The only copy of the anonymous blood-soaked tome sometimes called Blood and Fire and sometimes The Death of Dragons is supposedly hidden in a locked vault beneath the Citadel.
Haldon appears at Tyrion’s side and invites him to join him for Young Griff’s lesson. The lesson begins with languages. Young Griff speaks the Common Tongue, and is fluent in High Valyrian, the low dialects of Pentos, Tyrosh, Myr, and Lys, and the trade talk of sailors; he is now learning Volantene and Meereenese. Geometry follows languages, and afterwards history. Haldon asks Young Griff to describe the difference between a tiger and an elephant. After the Doom, the Volantene considered themselves the heirs of the Freehold and the rightful rulers of the world, but were divided as to how to rule. The Old Blood favored the sword, while the merchants and moneylenders advocated trade; the tigers and the elephants, respectively. The tigers held sway for almost a century. They conquered Lys and Myr and ruled the three cities for two generations. The tigers’ rule ended, however, when they tried to conquer Tyrosh. Pentos allied with Tyrosh, along with the Westerosi Storm King. Braavos provided a Lyseni exile with a hundred warships, Aegon Targaryen flew forth from Dragonstone on the Black Dread, and Myr and Lys rose up in rebellion. The war left the Disputed Lands a waste, and freed Lys and Myr. Volantis found herself broken, bankrupt, and depopulated. Rule passed to the elephants, who have held sway ever since for three hundred years. The current triarchs of Volantis are Malaquo, a tiger, and Nyessos and Doniphos, both elephants.
After the lesson, Haldon sets up the cyvasse table to play with Tyrion. Tyrion proposes a wager: the loser must reveal a secret. Three hours later Tyrion emerges back on deck; Haldon is still below, having taken to bed in some discomfort (presumably, he has lost the game). The boat is drifting between the ruins of Ny Sar, once the site of Nymeria’s palace. Ahead, something ripples in the water. An enormous horned turtle breaches the surface of the water. It roars louder than any war horn Tyrion has ever heard. Duck, Young Griff, and the rest of the crew hoot and holler. We are blessed, Ysilla cries aloud – tears stream down her face. It was him, cries Yandry, the Old Man of the River. Tyrion grins with approval: Gods and wonders always appear, to attend the birth of kings.
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