Another step, and Dany could feel the heat of the sand on the soles of her feet, even through her sandals. Sweat ran down her thighs and between her breasts and in rivulets over her cheeks, where tears had once run. Ser Jorah was shouting behind her, but he did not matter anymore, only the fire mattered. The flames were so beautiful, the loveliest things she had ever seen, each one a sorcerer robed in yellow and orange and scarlet, swirling long smoky cloaks. She saw crimson firelions and great yellow serpents and unicorns made of pale blue flame; she saw fish and foxes and monsters, wolves and bright birds and flowering trees, each more beautiful than the last. She saw a horse, a great grey stallion limned in smoke, its flowing mane a nimbus of blue flame. Yes, my love, my sun-and-stars, yes, mount now, ride now.

Her vest had begun to smolder, so Dany shrugged it off and let it fall to the ground. The painted leather burst into sudden flame as she skipped closer to the fire, her breasts bare to the blaze, streams of milk flowing from her red and swollen nipples. Now, she thought, now, and for an instant she glimpsed Khal Drogo before her, mounted on his smoky stallion, a flaming lash in his hand. He smiled, and the whip snaked down at the pyre, hissing.

She heard a crack, the sound of shattering stone. The platform of wood and brush and grass began to shift and collapse in upon itself. Bits of burning wood slid down at her, and Dany was showered with ash and cinders. And something else came crashing down, bouncing and rolling, to land at her feet; a chunk of curved rock, pale and veined with gold, broken and smoking. The roaring filled the world, yet dimly through the firefall Dany heard women shriek and children cry out in wonder.

Only death can pay for life.

And there came a second crack, loud and sharp as thunder, and the smoke stirred and whirled around her and the pyre shifted, the logs exploding as the fire touched their secret hearts. She heard the screams of frightened horses, and the voices of the Dothraki raised in shouts of fear and terror, and Ser Jorah calling her name and cursing. No, she wanted to shout to him, no, my good knight, do not fear for me. The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don’t you see? Don’t you SEE? With a belch of flame and smoke that reached thirty feet into the sky, the pyre collapsed and came down around her. Unafraid, Dany stepped forward into the firestorm, calling to her children.

The third crack was as loud and sharp as the breaking of the world.

When the fire died at last and the ground became cool enough to walk upon, Ser Jorah Mormont found her amidst the ashes, surrounded by blackened logs and bits of glowing ember and the burnt bones of man and woman and stallion. She was naked, covered with soot, her clothes turned to ash, her beautiful hair all crisped away . . . yet she was unhurt.

The cream-and-gold dragon was suckling at her left breast, the green-and-bronze at the right. Her arms cradled them close. The black-and-scarlet beast was draped across her shoulders, its long sinuous neck coiled under her chin. When it saw Jorah, it raised its head and looked at him with eyes as red as coals.

Wordless, the knight fell to his knees. The men of her khas came up behind him. Jhogo was the first to lay his arakh at her feet. “Blood of my blood,” he murmured, pushing his face to the smoking earth. “Blood of my blood,” she heard Aggo echo. “Blood of my blood,” Rakharo shouted.

And after them came her handmaids, and then the others, all the Dothraki, men and women and children, and Dany had only to look at their eyes to know that they were hers now, today and tomorrow and forever, hers as they had never been Drogo’s.

As Daenerys Targaryen rose to her feet, her black hissed, pale smoke venting from its mouth and nostrils. The other two pulled away from her breasts and added their voices to the call, translucent wings unfolding and stirring the air, and for the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons.

APPENDIX—The Houses

HOUSE BARATHEON

The youngest of the Great Houses, born during the Wars of Conquest. Its founder, Orys Baratheon, was rumored to be Aegon the Dragon’s bastard brother. Orys rose through the ranks to become one of Aegon’s fiercest commanders. When he defeated and slew Argilac the Arrogant, the last Storm King, Aegon rewarded him with Argilac’s castle, lands, and daughter. Orys took the girl to bride, and adopted the banner, honors, and words of her line. The Baratheon sigil is a crowned stag, black, on a golden field. Their words are Ours is the Fury.

KING ROBERT BARATHEON, the First of His Name,

—his wife, QUEEN CERSEI, of House Lannister,

—their children:

—PRINCE JOFFREY, heir to the Iron Throne, twelve,

—PRINCESS MYRCELLA, a girl of eight,

—PRINCE TOMMEN, a boy of seven,

—his brothers:

—STANNIS BARATHEON, Lord of Dragonstone,

—his wife, LADY SELYSE of House Florent,

—their daughter, SHIREEN, a girl of nine,

—RENLY BARATHEON, Lord of Storm’s End,

—his small council:

—GRAND MAESTER PYCELLE,

—LORD PETYR BAELISH, called LITTLEFINGER, master of coin,

—LORD STANNIS BARATHEON, master of ships,

—LORD RENLY BARATHEON, master of laws,

—SER BARRISTAN SELMY, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard,

—VARYS, a eunuch, called the Spider, master of whisperers,

—his court and retainers:

—SER ILYN PAYNE, the King’s Justice, a headsman,

—SANDOR CLEGANE, called the Hound, sworn shield to Prince Joffrey,

—JANOS SLYNT, a commoner, commander of the City Watch of King’s Landing,

—JALABAR XHO, an exile prince from the Summer Isles,

—MOON BOY, a jester and fool,

—LANCEL and TYREK LANNISTER, squires to the king, the queen’s cousins,

—SER ARON SANTAGAR, master-at-arms,

—his Kingsguard:

—SER BARRISTAN SELMY, Lord Commander,

—SER JAIME LANNISTER, called the Kingslayer,

—SER BOROS BLOUNT,

—SER MERYN TRANT,

—SER ARYS OAKHEART,

—SER PRESTON GREENFIELD,

—SER MANDON MOORE,

The principal houses sworn to Storm’s End are Selmy, Wylde, Trant, Penrose, Errol, Estermont, Tarth, Swann, Dondarrion, Caron.

The principal houses sworn to Dragonstone are Celtigar, Velaryon, Seaworth, Bar Emmon, and Sunglass.

HOUSE STARK

The Starks trace their descent from Brandon the Builder and the ancient Kings of Winter. For thousands of years they ruled from Winterfell as Kings in the North, until Torrhen Stark, the King Who Knelt, chose to swear fealty to Aegon the Dragon rather than give battle. Their blazon is a grey direwolf on an ice-white field. The Stark words are Winter Is Coming.

EDDARD STARK, Lord of Winterfell, Warden of the North,

—his wife, LADY CATELYN, of House Tully,

—their children:

—ROBB, the heir to Winterfell, fourteen years of age,

—SANSA, the eldest daughter, eleven,

—ARYA, the younger daughter, a girl of nine,

—BRANDON, called Bran, seven,

—RICKON, a boy of three,

—his bastard son, JON SNOW, a boy of fourteen,

—his ward, THEON GREYJOY, heir to the Iron Islands,

—his siblings:

—{BRANDON}, his elder brother, murdered by the command of Aerys II Targaryen,

—{LYANNA}, his younger sister, died in the mountains of Dorne,

—BENJEN, his younger brother, a man of the Night’s Watch,