GOT: I Plunder Skills — Chapter 381 - Declaring War on Both Sides
"How unruly?"
Tyrion carried his wine cup over and leaned against the railing beside Lynn, following his gaze down.
"How else? A pack of fools who spent their whole lives treating people like livestock suddenly find their whip doesn't crack the way it used to. Naturally, they're looking for a bigger one."
He took a sip and continued.
"The Wise Masters of Yunkai and those who call themselves the Great Masters of Meereen have been growing very close lately. My spies in both cities say they're conscripting slaves at a frantic pace, building new armies. The numbers are significant , over a hundred thousand, by most accounts."
Jorah Mormont stepped forward from where he'd been standing in silence.
"It's not only the armies, my lord. They're spreading word that Astapor is a city of rebellion, that we're invaders sent by Westeros. They've also joined forces to blockade our trade routes to Volantis and Pentos." He paused. "It hasn't amounted to much. But it's irritating."
Lynn listened to all of it without a flicker of surprise.
He turned and looked at Daenerys.
Her beautiful face was twisted with contempt.
"They are irredeemable maggots! I said before we should make an example of them!" She caught Lynn's eye and let the rest of it die in her throat. With Lynn gone, she hadn't dared act unilaterally. She was afraid that a decision made in anger would undo everything he had built.
Lynn turned his attention to the one person who had said nothing throughout , the Unsullied commander standing motionless at the edge of the group.
"Grey Worm."
"My lord."
Grey Worm stepped forward.
"Do you want to fight?"
No expression crossed Grey Worm's face. But his voice carried something that couldn't quite be held back.
"Unsullied are born for battle." A beat. "We have waited for you... a long time."
Lynn smiled.
That was exactly what he needed to hear.
"Over a hundred thousand."
He turned back to Tyrion.
"Sounds like trouble."
Tyrion thought he was being consulted. He straightened immediately.
"Trouble, yes, but manageable! My suggestion , we concentrate our strength and hit Yunkai first. Those Wise Masters are merchants at heart, every one of them. Hit them hard enough and they'll be the first to fold. Once Yunkai breaks, the Meereenese are isolated, and then we can, "
"Too slow."
Lynn shook his head.
He walked to the edge of the pyramid and spread his arms, letting the wind off Slaver's Bay wash over him.
"Westeros is still waiting to be conquered. I don't have time to play politics with a pack of clowns."
Tyrion blinked. "Then... what exactly are you—"
Lynn didn't answer.
He turned and looked at Grey Worm.
"Grey Worm."
"Here."
"Assemble the army."
The wine cup hit the stone with a sharp clatter. Tyrion stared, eyes wide.
"You — you're going to declare war on both city-states at once?!"
Jorah's face went hard. "My lord, that's an enormous risk. Yunkai and Meereen combined field well over two hundred thousand men. We're elite, but we'd be massively outnumbered."
Daenerys grabbed Lynn's arm without thinking.
"Lynn..."
He patted her hand. Easy. Calm.
Then he turned back to Tyrion, who looked as though he'd been turned to stone.
"Disadvantage?"
Lynn smiled. There was something in it , a trace of pity , that Tyrion couldn't quite read.
"Tyrion. Those slaves they just dragged out of the fields, the ones holding wooden sticks and rusted iron spears , do you think that's an army?"
He let the question hang.
"And those bloated masters who can barely heft a sword? Do you think those are commanders?"
"No."
He shook his head.
"That's a herd of pigs waiting to be slaughtered. And I simply don't want my soldiers wasting time in a slaughterhouse."
Tyrion's mouth was open. Nothing came out.
The sheer, absolute certainty of the man , that cold contempt for everything standing against him, as if none of it amounted to even a footnote , had struck him completely dumb.
Insane. This man is completely, irredeemably insane.
And yet every single word he said made it impossible to argue.
Lynn was already done with him.
He turned back to Grey Worm and kept going.
"After Yunkai falls , every last one of those Wise Masters, every single one of them, I want hanged from the Harpy statues in their own city."
A pause.
"With their own entrails."
"As for Meereen..."
Lynn let the silence hold for a moment. Something cold and deliberate settled over his face.
"Burn it."
"Light the Great Masters' pyramids one by one."
"I want everyone in Slaver's Bay to see exactly what happens to those who defy me."
"I want that fire burning so high it becomes their eternal nightmare."
Something ignited in Grey Worm's chest.
This was not slaughter.
This was judgment. The most just and most complete reckoning those slave masters had ever earned for a lifetime of crimes.
"As you command!"
Grey Worm dropped to one knee. The impact rang out across the stone.
"The Unsullied will deliver their cities to you!"
He was back on his feet in the same breath. No hesitation. He turned and walked down the pyramid without another word.
His army was waiting.
Tyrion and Jorah stood in silence, still caught somewhere in the wake of what they'd just witnessed.
Daenerys watched Lynn's profile, her violet eyes bright and full.
This was the man she loved.
A true conqueror.
Then, from somewhere far below ,
"Wooooo—!!"
A horn call. Ancient, low, and vast. It rolled out from the base of the pyramid and broke across Astapor like a wave.
A second. A third.
On the training ground, the Unsullied , who had stood like carved stone since before anyone could remember , moved.
As one, they raised their spears and drove them into the ground, striking the flat of their kite shields in a single, unified beat.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
A hundred thousand men. One sound.
It hit the earth like a giant's heartbeat, and the ground itself answered.
A black tide began to pour from the training ground, flowing toward the city's gates and beyond , slow at first, then faster, unstoppable, a flood that had finally found its direction.
➤ Next: Assembling the Army