Pentos

[Deleted]

"All right," the sailor said, perking up a bit. Weird knights with coin weren't so bad; at least these seemed fastidiously polite.

"See that house up on the hill, overlooking the bay?" He pointed. There was nothing but a crumbling ruin.

"Must be old," Alliser mused. "Is it a part of Pentos' noble history?"

The sailor snorted. "Er, no. It burned to its skeleton a few years ago, and before that was as pristine and beautiful and shining new as you could imagine. Rich couple owned it. Then a fire came and destroyed everything. There is still one servant up there, tending to the ruins. Apparently the old man hears the ghosts and speaks to them. Mad, I tell you."

He paused. "They say the fire was caused by magic. It was a complete freak fire in the middle of the night, but nobody caused it from the outside. The guards swore they saw something strange in the garden. A child entering a flaming bonfire, weird words being spoken...and then the fire spread. They said that they heard terrible screams, and saw the child emerge from the fire with some lizards on it."

[Horas]

"We should speak to this servant," Mim says, "Sometimes even the maddest men have wisdom to share."

[Deleted]

"You are correct, Ser Mim," Alliser said. He nodded to the sailor. "May the blessings of the Father Above be upon you, my good man."

"Whatever," the sailor said, clearly finished with them. "You can believe those stories if you like. If I tell you about the fairy queen, will I get another copper?"

Alliser maintained a dignified silence and rode on. However, it was rather hard to look dignified when you rode a cow.

[Erik]

Erik, Dacey on his arm, walk through the city. Erik leans down to ask her, "So, what shall we do? The city is at our fingertips."

[Deleted]

"That temple over there. The palace. The bars and taverns. Everything," Dacey said, drinking everything in with her eyes. "Or somewhere where you can show off your axe," she grinned.

[Erik]

"I can show off the axe, as well as you, anywhere." Erik tells her, "But a tavern sounds fine, I could use a meal. Pick one, then."

[Deleted]

Dacey looked around as she walked, and then saw a handsome inn on the bay, with a mermaid reclining over the door. "That one!" she said, pointing to The Mermaid. "It looks old and fine."

[Deleted]

Back on the streets, Dacey somehow managed to navigate to the city's bazaars as if she was born and brought up in Pentos. Erik was astonished at how determined she could be about things if she really wanted them. She found people who knew the Common Tongue, or if they didn't, she mimed very expressively.

In the bazaars, Dacey examined bolts of sandsilk, astonished at the low prices. "In King's Landing they charge a bloody great tax on this stuff, and it's not nearly as good in quality, or in variety," she told Erik. "Yet this woman still thinks she can rip me off. She must think I'm some stupid Westerosi who has never set foot abroad."

[Erik]

"Yes, how dare she only be half right?" Erik answers, then shrugs. "So haggle better. Threaten her if you need to, they don't like that."

[Deleted]

"Don't worry about me," Dacey grinned, a gleam coming into her eye. She gave him a pinch for his teasing. She began bargaining hard with the woman. Dacey spoke the Common Tongue, while the Pentoshi woman haggled with her in the Common Tongue and cursed at her in Pentoshi.

"This is not worth forty silvers," Dacey said, indicating a bolt of rich red Qartheen silk. "That man over there is selling Qartheen silk for thirty two. And she is selling it for thirty five."

"Their silk is nothing like mine," the woman insisted in broken Common Tongue. "Go and buy their silk if you like! It's nothing like mine!"

The woman was wrong, but she had crimson Qartheen silk, which was a rare dye. "You think I was born yesterday?" Dacey shot back. "Sell it to me for thirty, or my lord will open you cunt to throat."

The woman hesitated. "Thirty five."

"Thirty two."

"Fine," the woman said. She handed over the bolt of silk, and Dacey took it happily, and continued her shopping. Soon she came across a pair of snakeskin sandals that she just had to have, and then a belt studded with moonstones. Next were two bolts of Myrish lace, costly and rare in Westeros, but sold at extraordinarily reasonable prices in the Free Cities.

They paused in their shopping to sample crab cakes, which was sold at stalls throughout the bazaar. Pentos was famous for a type of crab, known as Prince's Bay crab, that had succulent and tender meat with a distinct taste. They were a delicacy in other parts of the world, and the Prince of Pentos had imposed strict laws on who could fish for them, because poachers were so common. The crab cakes were hot, cooked with lemon juice, garlic, black pepper, red onions and other fiery spices. There was chilled beer to wash it down.

[Erik]

Erik, carrying Dacey's newest acquisitions, somehow manages to keep them in his arms and eat simultaneously. "You know," He says to her, "You needn't do all your shopping in one day. And I wouldn't mind finding a place to sit down - or lie down."

[Deleted]

"My poor sweet lord," Dacey said, finishing her beer and kissing him. "Braving the hot sun and endless shopping for me. Come, shall we go back to the Mermaid?"

[Erik]

"Sounds just fine." Erik begins to put an arm around her, before remembering it's laden with fabrics and clothes. "Shall we get a room?"

[Deleted]

Dacey helped him carry some of the shopping, and they began walking back to the inn on the bay. "A room sounds good," she grinned.

[The Smith]

A small robed man, with a scraf wrapped around his head stands on the street selling paintings of baby Dragons.