The Age of Daenerys Targaryen

Teil 54: After the battle

After a brief discussion with her staff, Daenerys decided to pay a visit to the hospitals. Two men of the Imperial Guard and Kinvara accompanied her.

Night had fallen, but the work of those who had to tend the innumerable wounded was just beginning. The Empress had decreed that the injured of the Alliance should be treated as well as the soldiers of the Empire if possible. Fortunately, there were numerous healers among the prisoners. And so Imperial field physicians, red priests, septons, and maesters worked side by side to save as many lives as possible.

As soon as she approached the first of the large hospital tents, Daenerys got a foretaste of what to expect: a man came towards her with a wheelbarrow full of sawed-off limbs.

She spent the next few hours comforting the wounded. Amputations were performed in front of her eyes more than once. Dany could have asked not to do this in her presence, but she didn't want to disturb the doctors' work.

Finally the Empress came to a tent in which those were taken care of who were given little or no chance of survival. There were about fifty patients in it, both Imperials and Alliance soldiers.

Daenerys found Gendry Baratheon there too, motionless and with his eyes closed. The young Lord of Storm's End was looked after by a maester. Half a dozen crossbow bolts had hit him, and falling from his horse had broken several bones and ribs.

Dany also met Colonel Wynosha, the commander of the 13th Infantry Division, but the blond woman was unharmed. She crouched next to a young, dark-haired woman who had a severe injury to the side of her torso.

The woman rose immediately and stood to attention when she saw her Empress.

"Colonel Wynosha", said the Empress, "I would like to congratulate you on your achievements and thank you for your sacrifices. The 13th fought heroically today. The Empire will remember that, I promise you."

"Thank you, Your Imperial Majesty", Wynosha replied in a husky voice.

"That woman ... she's one of your soldiers, I suppose", said Dany.

The colonel nodded. "Corporal Pasha was by my side all through the war. Few are as loyal and brave as she are. We survived many dangers together, but now..."

"Should Corporal Pasha die, the Lord will welcome her as a heroine in the Hall of Light", Kinvara said.

"I would prefer her to survive, Your Holiness", said Wynosha.

"That is not in your hand, but in that of R'hllor", replied the high priestess, but not unfriendly.

One of the red priests who tended the injured cleared his throat.

"Your Imperial Majesty, these men and women here fought for you or stood against you, and they all made sacrifices. Perhaps you would like to give them consolation in their final hours."

Actually Daenerys would have preferred to go to sleep now, but she sensed that the clergyman was right. She owed something to those people who had bled in this war for which she was partly responsible.

Pasha and Gendry were unconscious, but several others were awake. A young squire from the Vale, for example, who was badly burned. Dany couldn't tell if it was from the wildfire or Drogon's flames.

The boy confused the empress with his mother. After an hour he died while Dany held his hand.

Wynosha was gone, but Kinvara stayed. Together, the High Priestess, the Empress and the other priests, septons and maesters did what they could to alleviate the suffering of the injured and to comfort them.

When the sun rose, only Lord Gendry and Corporal Pasha were alive. The maesters and clergy agreed that since they had survived until now, there might still be hope for the two.

Daenerys left the tent tired, but there was still a lot to do before she could sleep.

"Word will get around and it will be remembered that you spent that night with the dying", said Kinvara. "Maybe it will make some of your opponents think."

Grey Worm gave the Empress an initial estimate of the number of dead. According to this, about ten thousand Imperial soldiers were dead, fewer than Dany would have expected, although of course a number more were incapacitated.

The enemy's losses, however, amounted to about two hundred thousand dead and nearly one hundred thousand prisoners. Royce had escaped, but only a fraction of the survivors had gathered around him. The rest had simply fled, not to say deserted. The military power of the Alliance was broken.

Daenerys named Grey Worm, Colonel Rommo of the 7th Cavalry Division and Colonel Wynosha of the 13th Infantry Division as heroes of the Empire. Rommo and Wynosha were also raised to the rank of general. After that, Order of the Black Dragon was awarded bucket by bucket, and of course there were more promotions, but Dany left that matter to Grey Worm.

During the night the innumerable dead had been piled up in great piles. Burying them would have taken too long and there wasn't enough wood or oil to cremate them all. Wildfire was too valuable to use for anything like that. So Drogon had to burn the huge piles of corpses.

Daenerys then arranged for Sansa Stark to be brought to Volantis with a strong escort. She herself would move on to Qohor with most of her army. Without the protection of the Alliance army, the city could not hope to withstand the might of the Empire. Then Norvos, the capital of the Free Cities League, would be the next destination.

When the troops finally left, Dany lay down in her armored cart to rest. She bought this vehicle to make it more difficult for assassins to murder her in her sleep. Just now, after this devastating battle, many in the Alliance might be tempted to act desperately, despite the threat of retaliation from the Faceless Men.