14.

Just when Dany lost all hope, they find a city.

Her outriders assured her it would take no more than an hour to reach it. Dany wanted to believe there was an actual city. It would finally put an end to this hellish road she and her people were traveling. They lost too many of their own.

She glanced around, hoping everyone could make it long enough to reach this city. Ser Jorah's face was grey with exhaustion, but kept up. Her handmaidens and bloodriders looked the same way. When her eyes went to Jon, her eyes widened in concern. He walked so slow he was falling behind everyone else. Without a second thought, Dany turned her silver around and trotted over to him.

"Can you make it?" she asked, but the answer was plain on his face. He was pale and could hardly keep his eyes open. "Jon, take my hand."

"I can make it," Jon insisted, his voice hoarse.

"I won't lose anyone else in this desert. Now take my hand."

Clasping her hand, Jon hoisted himself up and joined her on the saddle. Dany ignored the weight of his body behind her and focused on reaching the city. When the city came before them, its walls and towers shimmering white behind a veil of heat, it looked so beautiful that Dany feared it was a mirage.

"Do you know what place this might be?" she asked Ser Jorah.

"No, my queen. I have never traveled this far east," he answered, shaking his head.

As much as Dany wanted to enter the heavenly city and rest, she needed to make certain this place was safe. Turning to her bloodriders, Dany said, "Blood of my blood, go ahead of us and learn the name of this city, and what manner of welcome we should expect."

She nearly jumped when Jon pressed closer to her, his weight on her back almost encompassing. Dany glanced over her shoulder, wondering what he was doing. Oh no, she thought. She shook his arm, but he made no sound. At least he was breathing. Ignoring her quickening heartbeat, Dany secured his arms around her waist to keep him from falling over.

Her riders returned far quicker than she expected. "This city is dead, Khaleesi. Nameless and godless we found it, the gates broken, only wind and flies moving through the streets," Rakharo reported.

Jhiqui shuddered. "When the gods are gone, the evil ghosts feast by night. Such places are best shunned. It is known."

"It is known," Irri agreed.

"Not to me." Dany led her khalasar towards the city, trotting her horse beneath the shattered arch of an ancient gate and down a silent street. Dany could scarcely look around the crumbling city when Jon could be dying. First Drogo and Rhaego, then Doreah. She couldn't lose Jon too.

They made camp before the remnants of a gutted palace, on a windswept plaza where grass grew between the paving stones. Sitting in the shade, Dany had Jon rest on his back with his head on her lap. He hadn't woken up when Rakharo and Aggo were moving him. That concerned her, but she needed to focus on the others. Dany sent out men to search the ruins. One scarred old man returned quickly, grinning and hands overflowing with figs. They were small and withered, yet everyone grabbed for them. She was relieved there was a prospect of food here, but what she wanted was water for Jon. Thankfully, Jhogo discovered a well where the water was pure and cold.

Yet when they mentioned bones and skulls of the unburied dead, Irri couldn't hide her wariness. "Ghosts," she muttered. "Terrible ghosts. We must not stay here, Khaleesi. This is their place."

"The only ghost here is Jon's direwolf. That and my dragons are more powerful than ghosts." And figs are more important. "Go with Jhiqui and find some clean sand for a bath."

Ghost sat near Dany and Jon, watching everyone bustle around with his red eyes. Even when he was a pup, the wolf still unsettled everyone. Now they seemed to prefer him to her dragons. Tentatively, Dany reached to pet the hair between Ghost's ears. He glanced at her, but didn't snarl or bite her hand off. She took that as a sign that he might like her.

When Dany noticed Irri and Jhiqui heading to her tent with pots of white sand, she gingerly moved Jon to lean against the shaded wall. She pressed two fingers to his throat, feeling for a pulse. Despite her relief to find one, Dany hesitated to leave him alone. She looked at Ghost. He'll be fine, she told herself and went inside her tent. Across the tent, Rhaegal unfolded green wings to flap and flutter half a foot before thumping to the carpet. When he landed, he lashed his tail and raised his head to scream in fury.

If I had wings, I would want to fly too, Dany thought. She couldn't wait to ride upon dragonback, though that could take some time before her dragons were big enough.

"Ser Jorah awaits your pleasure," Irri told her, interrupting her daydreaming.

"Send him in," Dany commanded, wrapping herself in the lionskin Drogo gifted her. It was enormous enough to hide her nakedness.

"I've brought you a peach." Ser Jorah knelt to hand her the fruit. It was small enough that she could hide it in her palm, and overripe as well. When she took her first bite, however, the burst of sweetness on her tongue almost brought tears to her eyes. She savored every mouthful while listening to him recount where he found the fruit.

"Fruit and water and shade," Dany said, licking the stickiness from her lips. "The gods were good to bring us this place."

"We should rest here until we are stronger," the knight suggested. "The red lands are not kind to the weak."

"My handmaids say there are ghosts here."

"There are ghosts everywhere," Ser Jorah said quietly. "We carry them with us wherever we go."

Yes, she thought. Viserys, Khal Drogo, Rhaego. She wished things had gone differently with all of them. "Tell me the name of your ghost, Jorah. You know all of mine."

He hesitated. "Her name was Lynesse."

"Your wife?"

"My second wife."

It hurts him to speak of her, Dany thought, but she was curious and didn't know much about his life. "Is that all you would say of her?" The lion pelt slid off one shoulder, and she tugged it back into place. "Was she beautiful?"

"Very beautiful." His eyes lingered on her shoulder, but he returned his gaze to her face he told her of how he met and wedded Lynesse Hightower. He wore her favor in a tourney held outside of Lannisport and won the champion's laurel. Ser Jorah then crowned Lynesse queen of love and beauty and asked for her hand in marriage the same night, yet they were only happy for a fortnight. Lynesse was unhappy on Bear Island and Ser Jorah did everything he could to make her smile, even things that shamed him to speak of.

"In the end it cost me all. When I heard that Eddard Stark was coming to Bear Island, I was so lost to honor that rather than stay and face his judgement, I took her with me into exile. Noting mattered but our love, I told myself. We fled to Lys, where I sold my ship for gold to keep us."

Grief etched his voice, and Dany cursed herself for her curiosity. "Did she die there?" she asked gently.

"Only to me," he said, then explained to her that Lynesse had moved into the manse of a merchant prince named Tregar Ormollen to become his chief concubine.

Dany's jaw slackened, shocked. "Do you hate her?"

"Almost as much as I love her," Ser Jorah answered. He sighed and stood. "Pray excuse me, my queen. I find I am very tired."

"What did she look like, your Lady Lynesse?" Dany couldn't help but ask.

Ser Jorah smiled. "Why, she looked a bit like you, Daenerys." He bowed low. "Sleep well, my queen."

His words echoed in her head. She looked like me. Did that mean…? No. He couldn't have loved her as he loved Lynesse. He was her knight and she was his queen. Thoughts of kissing him came unbidden. It felt wrong. When Dany closed her eyes, his face changed to Drogo's. He was the only man she'd ever been with, and perhaps the last. If there was any man, he'd have to be closer to her age, dark of hair and eye. He could not control her.

No man would ever do so again.

"Jon…"

His back was pressed against a cool wall, not the warm desert ground. Someone was shaking him. Not roughly, but enough to stir him out of his sleep.

"Jon," someone said again.

Jon opened his eyes, blinking them repeatedly for his vision to clear. When it finally did, he was staring into the eyes of a beautiful girl. Compared to the other girls he'd seen, she was the sun. She was the stars, she was—

"Daenerys," he realized, sitting up straighter. The sudden movement made his head spin.

"I brought you water." Daenerys put the rim of the cup to his lips, tilting it so he'd drink. Water never tasted so good in his life. Thank the old gods, he thought, swallowing until there was none left.

"Thank you," Jon said, grateful.

"I was worried. You passed out on the way here," she said, moving to sit beside him.

"Here?" he repeated.

Daenerys gestured around them. "The gods were good. They led us to this city. We've found food and water and shade."

Jon looked around. The city was deserted from the looks of it, with crumbling white walls and rubble where houses had fallen in. Camp was made near the remains of a palace. He doubted there was a godswood, but if there was one, he would have prayed his thanks before it immediately.

"I did not mean to sleep for so long," Jon apologized, turning back to her. "I should have helped made camp."

"You were passed out. Walking instead of riding a horse and that coupled with not drinking water…" Daenerys shook her head. "You could have died, Jon."

"I passed out?"

"Not long after you sat on my horse."

He smiled a little. "I did not mean to worry you, Your Grace."

She called for Jhiqui who was passing by. "You are my friend, Jon. Of course I worry."

"What have I missed?" Jon questioned, accepting a fig from Jhiqui. Daenerys explained that she sent her bloodriders in search of other cities. Rakharo went south, Aggo southwest, and Jhogo the comet on southeast. "I should have gone with them."

Daenerys tilted her head at him. "And pass out again in the red waste? No. The gods gifted us with this city to rest and that is what we shall do."

"As the queen commands." Jon smiled around his fig, then laughed when Daenerys nudged him playfully. She was right. They survived the red waste. Might as well enjoy the peace they found.

A/N: I'll be honest. This fic is harder to write than Alone with the Wolves. School and writer's block are rampant, but thank Wonder Woman for inspiring me to get this chapter out. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.