Chapter Ten

Astapor. Esso.

Once my business in Pentos had been finished with, at least for a time, I'd left the selling of the guns and ammo to underlings since it was important for me to be able to delegate certain tasks as I could only focus on so much. My underlings would set up the pillboxes and ensure that the ammo dumps were built outside of the city. They would also collect the payments, gold would be sent up to the cruiser and slaves would be sent to Ameros to help with the setting up of the Sanctuary City.

This left me free to travel to Astapor for the next part of my plan, which was to acquire an army of Unsullied who along with some Guardsmen who the Lord-General could spare and navy armsmen, would form a new Imperial regiment that I would use to conquer the Stepstones. Those islands were infested with pirates and raiders, so I would need disciplined troops to help remove those parasites.

Soon after arriving, I discovered that that the free people of Astapor, those who profited from the toils of the slaves, preferred nightly revelries and debauchery, not that odd given the heat of the day and once the so-called Good Masters had gotten over the shock of someone turning up in a flying machine I'd been made a guest of honour. This made it easy for me to move around the city as no one wished to turn me away.

As I meandered through the party, drawing attention simply due to my physical appearances. I looked to be from the Northern lands of Westeros, plus I was wearing my mostly black outfit, as such I was exotic enough to be a curiosity that drew the eye of many, and would have been a topic of conversation even if I hadn't arrived in a flying machine. Add to this my battle-harem and I couldn't go anywhere without someone staring. Not that I minded as this made business easier.

I caught the attention of women in particular when they could be sent admiring at me when I bothered to glance in their direction. Sadly there weren't many women here for me to talk to, at least not ones already sitting in some guy's lap or kneeling at his feet. From what I could overhear most of the party guests were old men jockeying for position and power. The rest were slaves and perhaps young wives or consorts. Not all of them looked like slaves, they were too well fed and they wore fine clothes, but you could see in their eyes when they dared to look up at me that they had been broken.

Mere moments after getting some wine I was approached by a slaver, and since I was wearing armour and carrying a sword on my hip, he correctly assumed I was a warlord or something like that, and started talking about the Unsullied, who were of interest to me. I didn't even have to ask about them, and this was good because I didn't wish to appear too eager to purchase them as that would only drive up the price.

"If you wish to buy Unsullied, you will get no better deal than the Good Master Kraznys mo Nakloz" a local man advised me "You must allow me to arrange a meeting for you. The other Good Masters will try to swindle you, try to give you less for more".

In all of human history had there ever been a merchant or anyone who worked for a merchant who didn't claim that they were the only honest dealer and that their competitors were untrustworthy?

"Only Master Nakloz will trade with you in good faith" I was told

The name meant nothing to me. I only carried for the quality of his product.

"And why would this Good Master be any better than any other?" I asked.

In my view, this man was doing an incredibly poor job of hiding his sycophancy,

"Well because Master Nakloz is honest and fair, of course," he said.

While in Pentos I'd been finalising the deal with Magister Illyro, who had been understandably worried that Khal Drogo would take offence if he didn't get this exotic bribe so I'd reached out with my psyker powers, using my ability to call upon the powers of the warp that I was only now starting to experiment with, and tried to make them leave, to will it. I must have done something they'd packed up and left, heading east. They couldn't have learned that their city was under attack, not with the distances involved, and I had been thinking about when trying to influence the Dothraki.

How my psyker powers worked I didn't know, it was all knew to me, and I didn't any frame of reference that would help me, yet I seemed to be able to make things happen as when I focused on the man before me I compelled him to speak the truth without ever saying a word. This had to be some sort of psychic power.

"The Good Master Kraznys mo Nakloz is young, younger than any of the other Good Masters. He is untested but he is also very ambitious. He has yet to make a sale of Unsullied, and thus he is not held in the same esteem as his father who over saw the training of the Unsullied, we're as his son does not care much for his work. A sale of Unsullied to someone such as yourself would increase his reputation and allow him to stand on equal footing with the other Good Masters".

That explained some of what I was curious about.

"Now, tell me what you stand to gain from finding a buyer for the Good Master's Unsullied?" I asked.

There was no way he wanted to tell me these things, but he did

"The higher he rises, the higher I rise. The lower he falls, the lower I fall" the slaver explained to me "His success is my success".

So this Kraznys mo Nakloz needed to make a sale and wasn't experienced in his trade. That was good to know.

"Assure him that I have no intention of leaving Astapor without an army of Unsullied," I told the man before me "The only factor he need worry about is setting a fair price".

If needs be I'd do what Dany did in the show and just take the slaves.