Wings shadowed her fever dreams.

“You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?”

She was walking down a long hall beneath high stone arches. She could not look behind her, mustnot look behind her. There was a door ahead of her, tiny with distance, but even from afar, she sawthat it was painted red. She walked faster, and her bare feet left bloody footprints on the stone.

“You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?”

She saw sunlight on the Dothraki sea, the living plain, rich with the smells of earth and death. Windstirred the grasses, and they rippled like water. Drogo held her in strong arms, and his hand strokedher sex and opened her and woke that sweet wetness that was his alone, and the stars smiled down onthem, stars in a daylight sky. “Home,” she whispered as he entered her and filled her with his seed,but suddenly the stars were gone, and across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world tookflame.

“…don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?”

Ser Jorah’s face was drawn and sorrowful. “Rhaegar was the last dragon,” he told her. He warmedtranslucent hands over a glowing brazier where stone eggs smouldered red as coals. One moment hewas there and the next he was fading, his flesh colorless, less substantial than the wind. “The lastdragon,” he whispered, thin as a wisp, and was gone. She felt the dark behind her, and the red doorseemed farther away than ever.

“…don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?”

Viserys stood before her, screaming. “The dragon does not beg, slut. You do not command thedragon. I am the dragon, and I will be crowned.” The molten gold trickled down his face like wax,burning deep channels in his flesh. “I am the dragon and I will be crowned!” he shrieked, and hisfingers snapped like snakes, biting at her nipples, pinching, twisting, even as his eyes burst and ranlike jelly down seared and blackened cheeks.

“…don’t want to wake the dragon …”

The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her.

If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness.

She began to run.

“…don’t want to wake the dragon …”

She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. Her son was tall and proud, withDrogo’s copper skin and her own silver-gold hair, violet eyes shaped like almonds. And he smiled forher and began to lift his hand toward hers, but when he opened his mouth the fire poured out. She sawhis heart burning through his chest, and in an instant he was gone, consumed like a moth by a candle,turned to ash. She wept for her child, the promise of a sweet mouth on her breast, but her tears turnedto steam as they touched her skin.

“…want to wake the dragon …”

Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of palefire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal andamethyst, tourmaline and jade. “Faster,” they cried, “faster, faster.” She raced, her feet melting thestone wherever they touched. “Faster!” the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herselfforward. A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled thestench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew. burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew.

“…wake the dragon …”

The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, thecold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high andhigher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow ofher wings. She could smell home, she could see it, there, just beyond that door, green fields and greatstone houses and arms to keep her warm, there. She threw open the door.

“…the dragon …”

And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered redthrough the narrow eye slit of his helm. “The last dragon,” Ser Jorah’s voice whispered faintly. “Thelast, the last.” Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own.

After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars.

She woke to the taste of ashes.

“No,” she moaned, “no, please.”

“Khaleesi?” Jhiqui hovered over her, a frightened doe.

The tent was drenched in shadow, still and close. Flakes of ash drifted upward from a brazier, andDany followed them with her eyes through the smoke hole above. Flying, she thought. I had wings, Iwas flying. But it was only a dream. “Help me,” she whispered, struggling to rise. “Bring me …” Hervoice was raw as a wound, and she could not think what she wanted. Why did she hurt so much? Itwas as if her body had been torn to pieces and remade from the scraps. “I want …”

“Yes, Khaleesi.” Quick as that Jhiqui was gone, bolting from the tent, shouting. Danyneeded … something … someone … what? It was important, she knew. It was the only thing in theworld that mattered. She rolled onto her side and got an elbow under her, fighting the blanket tangledabout her legs. It was so hard to move. The world swam dizzily. I have to …They found her on the carpet, crawling toward her dragon eggs. Ser Jorah Mormont lifted her in hisarms and carried her back to her sleeping silks, while she struggled feebly against him. Over hisshoulder she saw her three handmaids, Jhogo with his little wisp of mustache, and the flat broad faceof Mirri Maz Duur. “I must,” she tried to tell them, “I have to …”

“… sleep, Princess,” Ser Jorah said.

“No,” Dany said. “Please. Please.”

“Yes.” He covered her with silk, though she was burning. “Sleep and grow strong again, Khaleesi.

Come back to us.” And then Mirri Maz Duur was there, the maegi, tipping a cup against her lips. Shetasted sour milk, and something else, something thick and bitter. Warm liquid ran down her chin.

Somehow she swallowed. The tent grew dimmer, and sleep took her again. This time she did notdream. She floated, serene and at peace, on a black sea that knew no shore.

After a time—a night, a day, a year, she could not say—she woke again. The tent was dark, itssilken walls flapping like wings when the wind gusted outside. This time Dany did not attempt to rise.

“Irri,” she called, “Jhiqui. Doreah.” They were there at once. “My throat is dry,” she said, “so dry,”

and they brought her water. It was warm and flat, yet Dany drank it eagerly, and sent Jhiqui for more.

Irri dampened a soft cloth and stroked her brow. “I have been sick,” Dany said. The Dothraki girlnodded. “How long?” The cloth was soothing, but Irri seemed so sad, it frightened her. “Long,” shewhispered. When Jhiqui returned with more water, Mirri Maz Duur came with her, eyes heavy fromsleep. “Drink,” she said, lifting Dany’s head to the cup once more, but this time it was only wine.

Sweet, sweet wine. Dany drank, and lay back, listening to the soft sound of her own breathing. Shecould feel the heaviness in her limbs, as sleep crept in to fill her up once more. “Bring me …” shemurmured, her voice slurred and drowsy. “Bring … I want to hold …”

“Yes?” the maegi asked. “What is it you wish, Khaleesi?”

“Bring me … egg … dragon’s egg … please …” Her lashes turned to lead, and she was too wearyto hold them up.

When she woke the third time, a shaft of golden sunlight was pouring through the smoke hole ofthe tent, and her arms were wrapped around a dragon’s egg. It was the pale one, its scales the color ofbutter cream, veined with whorls of gold and bronze, and Dany could feel the heat of it. Beneath herbedsilks, a fine sheen of perspiration covered her bare skin. Dragondew, she thought. Her fingerstrailed lightly across the surface of the shell, tracing the wisps of gold, and deep in the stone she feltsomething twist and stretch in response. It did not frighten her. All her fear was gone, burned away.

Dany touched her brow. Under the film of sweat, her skin was cool to the touch, her fever gone.

She made herself sit. There was a moment of dizziness, and the deep ache between her thighs. Yet shefelt strong. Her maids came running at the sound of her voice. “Water,” she told them, “a flagon ofwater, cold as you can find it. And fruit, I think. Dates.”

fwater, cold as you can find it. And fruit, I think. Dates.”

“As you say, Khaleesi.”

“I want Ser Jorah,” she said, standing. Jhiqui brought a sandsilk robe and draped it over hershoulders. “And a warm bath, and Mirri Maz Duur, and …” Memory came back to her all at once,and she faltered. “Khal Drogo,” she forced herself to say, watching their faces with dread. “Is he—?”

“The khal lives,” Irri answered quietly … yet Dany saw a darkness in her eyes when she said thewords, and no sooner had she spoken than she rushed away to fetch water.

She turned to Doreah. “Tell me.”

“I … I shall bring Ser Jorah,” the Lysene girl said, bowing her head and fleeing the tent.

Jhiqui would have run as well, but Dany caught her by the wrist and held her captive. “What is it? Imust know. Drogo … and my child.” Why had she not remembered the child until now? “Myson … Rhaego … where is he? I want him.”

Her handmaid lowered her eyes. “The boy … he did not live, Khaleesi.” Her voice was afrightened whisper.

Dany released her wrist. My son is dead, she thought as Jhiqui left the tent. She had knownsomehow. She had known since she woke the first time to Jhiqui’s tears. No, she had known beforeshe woke. Her dream came back to her, sudden and vivid, and she remembered the tall man with thecopper skin and long silver-gold braid, bursting into flame.

She should weep, she knew, yet her eyes were dry as ash. She had wept in her dream, and the tearshad turned to steam on her cheeks. All the grief has been burned out of me, she told herself. She feltsad, and yet … she could feel Rhaego receding from her, as if he had never been.

Ser Jorah and Mirri Maz Duur entered a few moments later, and found Dany standing over theother dragon’s eggs, the two still in their chest. It seemed to her that they felt as hot as the one she hadslept with, which was passing strange. “Ser Jorah, come here,” she said. She took his hand and placedit on the black egg with the scarlet swirls. “What do you feel?”

“Shell, hard as rock.” The knight was wary. “Scales.”

“Heat?”

“No. Cold stone.” He took his hand away. “Princess, are you well? Should you be up, weak asyou are?”

“Weak? I am strong, Jorah.” To please him, she reclined on a pile of cushions. “Tell me how mychild died.”

“He never lived, my princess. The women say …” He faltered, and Dany saw how the flesh hungloose on him, and the way he limped when he moved.

“Tell me. Tell me what the women say.”

He turned his face away. His eyes were haunted. “They say the child was …”

She waited, but Ser Jorah could not say it. His face grew dark with shame. He looked half............