Chapter 27: Unsullied
(1,400 words)
- Qyburn POV -
- Astapor - Slavers Bay - Essos - 280 A.D -
I had already arrived in Astapor with the fleet, on Milord's orders, and was content to carry out the orders of the man who put me out of my misery and made me what I am.
Make no mistake, I am not a fanatic nor do I have absolute fanatical loyalty to Percival. I know what he is like, his true nature. Someone who would sacrifice his son to achieve his goals as he did once before. But that doesn't really matter to me as long as he is good to me, in exchange for my good service of course. I'm not going to ask for a good and dignified treatment being a useless person. Nor do I seek his friendship, but as long as Percival does not betray me, I will never think of doing anything like that to him, and I would even give my life for him as thanks for all he has done for me. Unlike him, I have my honor and principles in terms of loyalty.
I trust him, and I know he trusts me. I want to maintain our healthy relationship for as long as it lasts, which I hope will be long, for under him I have achieved greater things than all the Masters of our time, and I intend to achieve greater things than all the Masters of history.
To stand above those old men and show them my greatness at Milord's side is what I desire. I know he will name me Grand Master the day I ascend to the Iron Throne, and I wait patiently for that moment. I just have to do my best to serve him.
"We have arrived my Lord," said one of my subordinates to my right. His name was Davos Seaworth and he was very capable, and also counted as part of the army, which was quite... Interesting.
Our military forces were divided as follows: Speaking of units, not necessarily infantry, but people. Milord had a personal guard of about 300 people. Then, I in my 150 ships that I carried, I had 4,500 soldiers, not counting obviously the sailors who operated each ship. 30 soldiers per ship for the moment which would later increase to 130 with the Unsullied, the maximum capacity of these ships was 150 people, so the 130 had to leave room for non-military personnel. That gave us a total of 4,800 soldiers, but in Braavos, there were 17,500 more soldiers available, since Milord gave great importance to the military force. This led to a strong development of agriculture in Braavos, to feed these soldiers who normally would do nothing more than patrolling the city, which made our city the safest in the world. But the thing is that in total, Milord had a force of approximately 22,000 soldiers. All slightly above average, with a group of 300 very competent soldiers who were his personal guard.
On the navy side, we had a fleet of 200 ships, which was practically enough to mobilize all our troops. Our fleet was probably superior to that of House Lannister, but inferior to that of House Redwyne and House Greyjoy. Although we had a secret weapon on our ships, that was a black powder that explodes on contact with fire, a powder that Milord called gunpowder.
This powder was extremely dangerous and potent, almost more so than Valyrian Fire itself. So Milord had to do something to prevent other forces from producing this.
It is true that it would be something difficult to imitate, since the alchemy guilds in Westeros were very backward, and had no one capable in them. But it was different in cities more open to all kinds of disciplines like Tyrosh or Myr. They could sooner or later, with perhaps years of work, decipher the recipe, and that would be a problem. So, with Milord's great talent for magic, he put a curse on the dust by sacrificing 100 virgins. Anyone attempting to decipher the components of this black substance would suffer a maddliciton that would render them incapable of communicating their findings or producing the substance. This would range from the simplest and most basic finding to the most complex.
Although this did not mean that it could not be used if it is stolen directly from where Milord and his loyal slaves create it. Which is an underground factory in Braavos. Under the Lord's fortress, a giant fortress under construction in the city of Braavos. In the style of the castles of the great lords of Westeros.
But this dust assured us two things. The greatest strength in naval battles, and the greatest efficiency in sieges. For, there is no wall capable of resisting these explosions. My Lord is truly a genius.
After finishing my reflections, I got off the ship at the ports of Astapor. The city was quite depressing, and the reason is clear. This was not one of the beautiful Free Cities of Essos, which were basically the land of opportunity for lost people.
This was Slavers Bay, where they came as slaves all those who failed in their journey through the Free Cities to be captured by pirates or by the same nobles of those cities. Astapor, Mereen and Yunkai. The decadence of Essos, which would be the lowest of the continent if the lands of the Dothraki savages did not exist. Vaes Dothraki is called their terriotrium if I'm not mistaken.
"What business do you have with our great Astapor and the benevolent master Thessius Pilate?" the translator said to me next to the slave master who came to attend us.
"My name is Qyburn and I come on behalf of the great Percival Bolton, Lord of Braavos. I come to buy Unsullied" I said with a smile, while I began to release a poison of illusions. I had to lengthen the conversation for it to take effect.
Milord's orders were simple, I had to come and ask for all the Unsullied in exchange for a dragon. And he had made a sculpture, or mock-up as he called it, of a nearly perfect baby dragon, only it wasn't moving but standing still. That was what the poison was for.
"How many are you looking for?" the translator asked me.
"All of them," I told him. And his eyes widened in surprise as the slave master laughed.
"And what do you offer in return?"
"A dragon," I said, and the master's laughter stopped as he looked at me with a serious expression.
After that we talked more about the negotiation, and the total Unsullied for sale was 16,000, as there were 1,000 units being trained that were also included. So in front of the square my men brought a cage with the sculpture inside. The guards in the vicinity looked at us in confusion, as well as one or another teacher, but Thessius Pilate had a big smile on his face. So I passed him a dragon held with a chain, and took the scepter of the Unsullied to begin the speech that Milord told me. In High Valyrian.
"My name is Qybur, and I am a servant of Milord Percival Bolton, Lord of Bravos! Braavos is a free city, and you now under his command are free men just the same! Slavery is not well seen in Milord's eyes! Do you wish to follow him as free men!?" I shouted as I threw the object to control him to the ground. I had doubts with this plan, but I trusted Milord. And my answer was given to me as they all clashed their spear points to the ground. "Finish with the masters who enslaved you! And the soldiers who serve these masters throw their weapons to the ground and you will be accepted into Milord's forces!" I shouted and everyone began to move as the masters screamed in panic. 3,000 of the 4,500 soldiers from my ships also invaded the city, only they went to plunder the treasures and riches. There was some pretty interesting stuff.
At the end of the day, I returned to Braavos with 4,500 of the original soldiers, plus 16,000 Unsullied and 1,500 private soldiers from the grandmasters of Astapor. Now Milord had an army of 39,500 soldiers plus the odd ship we stole. With 16,000 soldiers stronger than any other. Only the Golden Company could compete with skill, but their numbers did not exceed 10,000 men. My Lord will be very pleased and happy with my achievements.