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00:00:30Every girl in the north dreams of her binding day. None of them dream of the cage.
00:00:35My people used to be the best dragon callers alive. We have not called one in a hundred years.
00:00:39A sky people with no dragons is just prey, so my father sells the only thing he has left. Me.
00:00:58Sky bound.
00:01:00I came for what is promised.
00:01:12You belong to me now.
00:01:21Get up and dress. The Blackclaw warlord rides for our gate at dusk, and you will be waiting at the
00:01:27binding altar to take him as your husband.
00:01:29A husband? You have kept me behind these walls my whole life. I have never even spoken to a man
00:01:33who is not my guard.
00:01:34You will speak to this one tonight, and bear his children after.
00:01:38Ravec of the Blackclaw. His dragons are the only thing between us and the Froskin. He wants you for them.
00:01:43So my blood buys your dragons, and you call it a treaty.
00:01:47I am trading one girl to keep ten thousand people alive. Say no. And the Blackclaw rides south, the Froskin
00:01:53come down off that ridge, and everyone in this keep is dead by spring.
00:01:56I am not the answer to your problems. Find another way.
00:02:00Then walk out that door and tell ten thousand people yourself!
00:02:03I will not be sold to a Blackclaw warlord to pay for your war. Find another way.
00:02:07Cassia, you will not shame me in front of the whole keep.
00:02:28So, this is the Dragonless Princess. They are selling me. They told me the North had nothing left worth taking.
00:02:35They were wrong.
00:02:36Let go of me. I have not been given to you yet.
00:02:39You were mine. The day your father ran out of options. Tonight is just the part with witnesses.
00:02:44Soft hand.
00:02:47A whole people who forgot how to hold their own beasts. No wonder the Froskin are sharpening their knives.
00:02:52We were calling dragons out of the sky while your horde was still eating its dead.
00:02:56Do not lecture me on what we lost.
00:02:58They told me you were timid. Timid does not survive my keep. Your wrist, little queen.
00:03:10What is this?
00:03:11My cuff and yours came out of the same iron. After tonight, there is no one making it.
00:03:16The North gave you away, little queen. I keep what the North gives.
00:03:21You are shaking. Good. A dragon can smell a coward. And a coward it will not carry. Be afraid, but
00:03:29do not be a coward.
00:03:30My hands shake because your hand is on me. Do not mistake it for anything you would want to feel.
00:03:35Give it time. You will stop hating me when you realize I am the only one keeping your people alive.
00:03:40You can lock iron on me, but you cannot make me want it.
00:03:58Every one of them lives or dies on what I say next.
00:04:01No one walks out of a door with all of that on the other side of it.
00:04:12I will take you. Not for my father. For her. And every one of them out there on the ice.
00:04:18You give your word standing up like an equal. On your knees. You will thank the warlord for saving this
00:04:25keep with your worthless hands.
00:04:30She kneels to me. Not for you. And not because you put her there.
00:04:38She is mine now, old man. Remember that the next time you raise your hand to her.
00:04:42They call him a monster. Right now he is the only wall between me and a war that eats children.
00:04:49And tonight I will not just touch you. I will ruin you. And you will ask me for more.
00:05:00They say the Blackcloth do not bed their brides. They break them. And his dragons sleep at the foot of
00:05:05bed and watch.
00:05:06Enough. She will be presentable. She will be obedient. And she will hold that alliance together.
00:05:14That is the end of it.
00:05:16Leave us. I will have a moment with my bride.
00:05:20Custom keeps the warlord and the bride apart until the altar.
00:05:23I do not ask twice. Tonight everyone will say I forced a scared girl into this.
00:05:29I want them to look at you and see something different.
00:05:32I want them to see you chose me. Not that your father sold you.
00:05:41It is too tight.
00:05:43It is meant to be uncomfortable. Every Blackclaw bride wears one so nobody asks who she belongs to.
00:05:49Only I take it off.
00:05:51Wear it to the altar. Let them all see it before you say my name.
00:05:55Beelime!
00:06:02Not that I am.
00:06:08It is too…
00:06:13Not that I am.
00:06:15Not that I am.
00:06:15You don't know why I am.
00:06:16Not that I am.
00:06:17Not that I am.
00:06:18Not that I am.
00:06:19Not that I am.
00:06:32You are bleeding
00:06:33Froskin blood, not mine
00:06:37Their scout will not report what he saw
00:06:41What happens tonight is yours to give
00:06:43I do not take it
00:06:46Do you take each other
00:06:47Through war and peace
00:06:50Until the end
00:06:51Say the words
00:06:52Loud enough for the whole north to hear
00:06:54By sky and by iron
00:06:57I bind my life to his
00:06:58Whatever comes for him
00:07:00Gets through me first
00:07:03Our people do not deserve death
00:07:06I am doing this for her
00:07:07For all the innocents in the north
00:07:09I am not doing this for him
00:07:12Then seal it
00:07:18No one has ever kissed you
00:07:20I can tell
00:07:21Tonight gives me everything
00:07:23But I am taking this right now
00:07:24In front of all of them
00:07:35I always believed our fathers would give you to me
00:07:38Then a southern brute rides in and takes you in an afternoon
00:07:41Let go of me
00:07:46A skybound altar makes a wife
00:07:49The black claw need more than words
00:07:52Bring him in
00:07:57The proving
00:07:58He puts her in front of the dragon
00:08:00Everyone watches to see if it bows or bites
00:08:02No one from the north has ever passed it
00:08:04It will not bow to a sky girl with no gift in her blood
00:08:07He is going to get her killed in front of her own mother
00:08:09Do not pull back and do not look away
00:08:11It smells fear and it smells lies
00:08:13Show it neither
00:08:16You will burn my arm off
00:08:18Then we will both find out what you are made of
00:08:35The beast knows its queen
00:08:38Let the north remember it
00:08:47I am a person Ravec
00:08:49Not something you show off to your men
00:08:52You humiliated me out there
00:09:00Hello, little queen
00:09:06Lothra, you should not be in here
00:09:07Skybound blood should stay with skybound blood
00:09:09Our fathers meant you for me
00:09:11And one southern treaty does not unwrite it
00:09:13I am only here for what was promised first
00:09:15The binding is sealed, Lothra
00:09:17Lay one finger on me
00:09:18And you are not insulting Agur
00:09:19Insulting the whole black claw horde
00:09:21Think hard about what that buys you
00:09:22He is drunk in the feast hall
00:09:24With black claw girls in his lap
00:09:26By the time he remembers he has a wife
00:09:28I will already have made you mine
00:09:29The warlord is in his cups
00:09:31And you are all alone, girl
00:09:33One sound out of you
00:09:35And I will tell them you invited me in
00:09:38Ravec!
00:09:41Where is your frightened little northern bride?
00:09:44She does not even want you
00:09:45Come remind yourself
00:09:49What real women are
00:09:52I called for Ravec
00:09:53I do not even know why
00:09:55He is not my husband
00:09:56He is my warden
00:09:57But he is the only one I called
00:09:59In here
00:10:00No one will find us
00:10:02No!
00:10:03Ravec!
00:10:05Ravec!
00:10:05Help me!
00:10:13Ravec!
00:10:14Please!
00:10:17He is not coming for you
00:10:18You should thank me
00:10:20When I take you
00:10:22I will at least be gentle
00:10:24Which is more than that animal would ever give you
00:10:31You think the warlord cares what becomes of you tonight
00:10:34He will never love a skybound girl
00:10:37He will feed you to his dragon for this
00:10:39My father commands the king's own guard
00:10:41No southern dog can touch me in this keep
00:10:44And no one is coming down that corridor
00:10:47For a skybound bride
00:10:51You little skybound bitch
00:11:10What is mine I keep
00:11:12What touches it I burn
00:11:22You put a hand
00:11:24On what belongs to a warlord
00:11:28Did you think the dragons would not smell it on you?
00:11:39You all came to watch a binding
00:11:41Watch this
00:11:42Instead
00:11:43Look at her
00:11:44The North handed me their last real dragoncaller
00:11:47From tonight she is one of mine
00:11:49We do not touch our own women like that
00:11:51We do not go after another man's wife
00:11:54And we do not lie to the man whose dragons are keeping your North standing
00:12:06What are you doing?
00:12:10He reached for a warlord's wife
00:12:12He will carry the answer on his face
00:12:15Where the whole North can read it
00:12:31What is mine I keep?
00:12:34The whole North can watch what touching it costs
00:12:39That dragon keeps looking at me like it knows something I do not
00:12:43And honestly at this point
00:12:44And honestly at this point
00:12:44So do I
00:12:49So this is where it happens
00:12:50Get it over with
00:12:52Look at the roost little queen
00:12:53That is where it happens
00:12:54Not here
00:12:55A Blacklaw wedding is not sealed in a bed
00:12:57It is sealed in fire
00:13:00At dawn everyone watches the warlord walk through his own dragon's breath
00:13:03If it is real the dragon holds
00:13:06If it is not he burns in front of everyone and she goes free
00:13:10You are going to walk in dragon fire to prove you own me
00:13:13I am going to walk into dragon fire to prove this is real
00:13:17What you do with that is up to you
00:13:19A whole dying kingdom
00:13:22And the only thing in it worth burning for is you
00:13:24Do not say that
00:13:25You do not get to say that
00:13:27You bought me
00:13:28You may own this cluff on my wrist
00:13:30You will never own the rest of me
00:13:33I will not love you
00:13:38He's going to ravage me now
00:13:40I don't want to lose it like this
00:13:45I do not know what came over me
00:13:48I will take only what you give me tonight
00:13:50Sleep little queen
00:13:51At dawn you watch what your husband walks into for you
00:13:55He's sparing my virginity
00:13:57For now
00:14:40Judge me old friend
00:14:41The claim is true
00:14:43Raven
00:14:44Raven no
00:15:06You walked into it for me
00:15:09You would have burned to ash
00:15:11A binding is sealed
00:15:12The horde has seen it
00:15:13That is all that happened here
00:15:15Now you come to me
00:15:17To my bed
00:15:17I will try to be patient
00:15:20I will not beg
00:15:21But I also will not love
00:15:39So he actually did it
00:15:41Walked into the fire for you
00:15:44I honestly did not think you would
00:15:46Not for some scared little northern girl
00:15:49I do not know you
00:15:50Give your name before you speak to me like I am livestock
00:15:57Drusilla
00:15:59My father rides at the warlord's right hand
00:16:01The strongest warrior in this horde
00:16:03And before your father sold you north
00:16:05I was the one in Ravik's bed
00:16:07So I know things about him that you do not
00:16:11You do not know how to keep a warlord little northern bird
00:16:15I had him before you wore that cuff
00:16:18And I will have him after
00:16:19Ask anyone in this keep whose furs he slept in last winter
00:16:49First night here
00:16:50And my wife will not eat
00:16:52Is this a northern thing
00:16:54Or are you actually trying to starve yourself
00:16:57Starving myself?
00:17:00Skybound children went hungry all winter so I could eat
00:17:03I do not waste food
00:17:07I do not even know what half of this is
00:17:09You have never put southern meat in your mouth
00:17:11My father never let his daughters pass the inner wall
00:17:16We ate what the kitchens cooked
00:17:17And the kitchens cook north
00:17:23Open
00:17:25No wife of mine goes hungry at my own fire
00:17:32There
00:17:34The north did not crumble
00:17:37Your color is up wife
00:17:38I am warm from the fire
00:17:39The fire is behind you
00:17:41I am the one in front
00:18:01He walked into dragon fire in front of everyone to keep my people safe
00:18:04Whatever else he is
00:18:05He did that
00:18:06I can say thank you for that much
00:18:08Even if it kills me
00:18:15We just got married and he is already doing this
00:18:18I knew it
00:18:19I knew exactly what he was
00:18:25Cassia
00:18:26Stop
00:18:27Not one more step
00:18:34Sit
00:18:36Run from her in tears
00:18:37And by morning the whole keep says
00:18:39The north broke in a week
00:18:58Blackclaw law does not let a warlord settle a woman's war
00:19:02This is between the two of you wife
00:19:06Settle it
00:19:07Or sit there and watch it settle itself
00:19:09I warned you the first night little bird
00:19:14He needed a treaty
00:19:16Not a wife
00:19:17You cannot even hold his eyes
00:19:19I have held the rest of him for years
00:19:21Are you truly going to let her do this Ravec?
00:19:24She is in your seat little queen
00:19:26And weeping
00:19:28Has never moved a blackclaw off anything
00:19:39Watch northern girl
00:19:42This is how you hold a man like him
00:19:45He wants me to break and beg him to stop
00:19:47I will choke on my own tongue
00:19:49Before I give that woman the satisfaction
00:19:52Well wife
00:19:54The seat is still yours if you want it
00:20:14Your beast is as ill-mannered as your bride
00:20:18Ravec
00:20:19Call it off and let me finish what I came up to do
00:20:23Eyes on me Cassia
00:20:25Watch what you keep handing another woman
00:20:27Because you are too proud to take it yourself
00:20:30Enough games
00:20:33Let me give him the rest
00:20:35Where the little bird can watch
00:20:37And learn her place
00:20:39Stop
00:20:40That is enough
00:20:42The seat is mine
00:20:44And so is the man
00:20:46Move
00:20:48You heard the queen
00:20:50Off
00:20:50I will say this once
00:20:53I am Cassia
00:20:54Ravec's wife
00:20:55Stay away from him
00:20:57Or find out what happens to women who do not
00:21:01He does not want you
00:21:03Your own father sold you off like a lame mask no other man would take
00:21:21He keeps you because you tease and never give
00:21:24The day he tires of your weeping
00:21:25He throws you back over the wall to your dying little kingdom dragon or no dragon
00:21:29Say one more word about my people and I will give you a matching mark on the other side
00:21:35Your people are already dead little bird
00:21:38They simply have not lain down yet
00:21:41A dragonless treaty playing at warlord's wife
00:21:44He will tire of you
00:21:47And I will still be here
00:21:49And your north will still be ash
00:21:51Under our boots
00:21:56You raised this hand at a black claw queen
00:21:58Be glad I only gave it back to you
00:22:01He hit her for touching me
00:22:02Not because she was embarrassing him
00:22:04For touching me
00:22:05I am still thinking about that
00:22:18The black claw do not kill women
00:22:20Be glad
00:22:22Get out of my keep
00:22:24And hope I forget your father's name by morning
00:22:35Come to the war map then
00:22:36Queen
00:22:38The whole horde should see where the queen stands
00:22:41Have you lost your mind?
00:22:43You let that woman paw at you while I sat caged behind your dragons
00:22:47And now you call me to your map as if nothing happened on it
00:22:50Drusilla's father holds my eastern passes so I let her games go on too long
00:22:54Today you ended them for me in front of the whole horde
00:22:57They saw their queen show her teeth
00:22:59I will not pretend I am sorry they did
00:23:01You needed her father's spears so I paid for them in shame in front of your whole horde
00:23:06You know nothing of what shame does to a northern woman
00:23:09I know it could fire where there were only tears
00:23:11An hour ago you could not hold my eyes
00:23:13Now you have struck a warrior's daughter and bared your teeth at me on my own terrace
00:23:18I want you exactly this way in my bed
00:23:20You are exactly the monster they warned me about when I was little
00:23:30You want a dead bride?
00:23:32Say so
00:23:33A blade is faster than a slow death in this frozen pit as a thing you bought
00:23:37Cassia, put it down
00:23:39Why?
00:23:40She was right
00:23:40You do not care if I live or die here
00:23:43So I will spare us both the rest of it
00:23:50Look at my side
00:23:53I walked through dragon fire to take you
00:23:56A man does not burn for a thing he regrets buying
00:23:59I walked into that beast fire in front of the whole horde
00:24:01So your people could sleep knowing the binding was true
00:24:04You think I burned for your father's alliance
00:24:06I burned for you
00:24:08Give me the knife, little queen
00:24:09I burned for you once
00:24:10I will walk back into that fire every dawn they ask
00:24:14Before I let you do that to yourself
00:24:31Do not touch me
00:24:33The binding fire is barely cold
00:24:35And you let that woman drape herself across your war terrace
00:24:38You bar your door to me every night
00:24:41Tell me what a man owes a wife who bolts her door
00:24:44I do not want you bedding other women
00:24:47But you will not bed me
00:24:48I am a warlord, little queen
00:24:50I fight all day
00:24:51At night I need a woman
00:24:52If that is not you, it will be someone else
00:24:54Then perhaps I will find some southern boy
00:24:56And let him have me where you can watch
00:24:58And we will see how the great warlord likes it
00:25:01I would feed him to my dragons one piece at a time
00:25:06And put the leash in your hand
00:25:12Then do it, Ravec
00:25:15Take me now and be done
00:25:17So I can hate you honestly
00:25:19Go on
00:25:20You will not get gentle from me
00:25:22Gentlemen do not survive the frozen waste
00:25:24But I swore at the binding fire
00:25:26That you come to me on your own feet or not at all
00:25:28And my horde has watched me keep harder oaths than that
00:25:31Though the horde will sing about your hand at that woman's mouth for a year
00:25:34Keep the jealousy
00:25:36I do not want Drusilla
00:25:37Then why parade her in front of me at all
00:25:39If you do not want her?
00:25:41I told you I do not do love
00:25:43But I want you
00:25:44Only you
00:25:45More than I know what to do with
00:25:46I told myself I would never feel anything for him
00:25:50I came all the way down here telling myself that
00:25:52I am such a liar
00:25:55All that fury at Drusilla
00:25:58And now you are breathing hard with my hands
00:26:01On you
00:26:02Tell me to stop then
00:26:12No
00:26:12Not on the same stones where she just stood
00:26:15I will not take a place that woman warmed an hour ago
00:26:23Then I wait
00:26:25I told you I could be patient
00:26:27You will learn how patient a warlord can be
00:26:29When he has decided a thing is his
00:26:40That beast has never bowed its head to anyone but me
00:26:43Three times now it has left my side to come to you
00:26:46Lift your hand, Cassia
00:26:47Slow
00:26:49Let me see what the North forgot how to do
00:27:12A hatchling
00:27:13Born on my roost three nights ago
00:27:16Same night that big one came to you
00:27:18I want to see something
00:27:19Do not move
00:27:22It hates me
00:27:23Take it back to its roost before it bites one of us
00:27:25Baby this young does not trust anyone except
00:27:27Who hatched it
00:27:30Not even me
00:27:33Hold still
00:27:34Open your hand
00:27:35Do not reach
00:27:36Let it come to you
00:27:49It stopped
00:27:51Why did it stop?
00:27:53A hundred years the North has not called a beast
00:27:55And a three-night wilt crawls into her hand like she hatched it herself
00:27:59The skybound never lost the blood
00:28:01They lost the teachers
00:28:02And no one alive has thought to teach her but me
00:28:06Keep it then
00:28:07It shows
00:28:08Feed it raw meat
00:28:09And keep it off my firks
00:28:20My wife at the hearth
00:28:22I did not take you for a woman who knew which end of a fire to stand at little queen
00:28:26Council so early
00:28:28The bread is not even out of the oven
00:28:29I do not eat in the morning
00:28:31I have a council on the terrace
00:28:32Go to the markets
00:28:34Buy whatever northern women buy
00:28:37You think a string of beads is the whole of what a woman wants?
00:28:52Council waits
00:28:53Keep the keep standing until I am back, wife
00:29:23This I baked with my own hands, husband
00:29:25And I am not carrying it back down those stairs
00:29:29Eat
00:29:31Captains
00:29:33I would have the warlock alone
00:29:35My lord, we were mapping the Frostkin raids on the northern passes
00:29:37This is no audience for a southern feast and a bride playing serving girl
00:29:41The Frostkin take the passes
00:29:43Because the North has no dragons to hold them
00:29:46I was born in that north, Captain
00:29:48You map my home
00:29:49I will stand here while you do it
00:29:52Five blades drawn
00:29:53And a roost full of dragons
00:29:55Her hand did not shake once
00:30:09You broke a council of war
00:30:12Little queen
00:30:13How will you make it worth the captains?
00:30:16I just sent away hungry
00:30:19There is something I want
00:30:21I do not quite know how to ask a warlord for it
00:30:23No honey and no games
00:30:25Ask it straight and I will answer it straight
00:30:28The passes your captains were mapping
00:30:32Brira is still behind them
00:30:33She is 17 and I left her there
00:30:35Fly me north one day
00:30:37Long enough to put this in her hands and see that she is safe
00:30:40Is that all?
00:30:42No
00:30:42You cannot cage me in the south forever
00:30:44She is 17, she is my sister
00:30:46She is the only thing back there I still care about
00:30:49You came south so your people would not die
00:30:51I have heard nothing of your family
00:30:53Your sister
00:30:54The passes are burning
00:30:55And I am not flying my wife into a frost in war for a wooden bird
00:31:24Priya
00:31:25You are real
00:31:27You are actually standing in my room
00:31:29How are you here?
00:31:31I thought I would not see you again before midwinter, if ever
00:31:35How did you cross the whole north to the south in a single day?
00:31:40I said I would not take you into danger
00:31:42I never said I would not bring her to you
00:31:44I sent someone at dawn before you even showed up with that bread
00:31:48You flew through burning passes
00:31:50To pull a skybound girl out of a war
00:31:54Why would the monster of the south do that?
00:31:59That is what husbands do
00:32:00And soon you will do what wives do
00:32:10He sent a dragon to bring my sister here before I even ask
00:32:14He is never going to admit what that means
00:32:19Neither am I
00:32:20Not yet
00:32:22Now, one night
00:32:23Tell me everything about the south he says I cannot see
00:32:35You are out of the passes and you are safe
00:32:38Ask me for anything you want
00:32:39The warlord all but owns the south
00:32:41The night market under the black moon
00:32:43The one the warlord's people throw past the walls
00:32:46With the fire dancers
00:32:47And the caged sky plane hatchlings
00:32:49I want to dance
00:32:50No
00:32:51I am not allowed past the keep without Ravec
00:32:54Not among strange southern men
00:32:58You said whatever I want
00:33:00I am going
00:33:01If you are too frightened of your husband, sister
00:33:03That is your trouble
00:33:04Coming or not
00:33:13He said not past the keep
00:33:14He did not say anything about the street right outside the keep
00:33:17Technically
00:33:24Shall I hold them back, my lord?
00:33:25No
00:33:27Follow
00:33:28Keep your distance
00:33:29Wren, Tobin are my wife the whole night
00:33:31One southern hand on her
00:33:32You take the hand
00:33:50Sky and stone, look at all of it
00:33:56Dance with me, sister
00:34:02Wren, hand off me
00:34:03We are dancing
00:34:04Nothing more
00:34:05The warlord does not know his wife is past the walls
00:34:08I have to send word up
00:34:12Want it back?
00:34:14You will have to reach down a married woman's dress for it
00:34:18We both know what Ravec does to men who put a hand where it does not belong
00:34:29For about five minutes, I completely forgot I was sold to a warlord
00:34:32It was the best five minutes I have had in weeks
00:34:42Running down the road
00:34:42I can't wait
00:34:42I can't wait
00:34:43I can't wait
00:34:44You heads up
00:34:45I can't wait
00:34:46You jealous of the people
00:34:47Of the people
00:34:56Wait
00:34:57Then back
00:34:58You
00:34:58Ye
00:34:59Je
00:34:59suppose
00:35:01You
00:35:01You
00:35:01Whatever
00:35:04You
00:35:05And
00:35:09My wife, dancing among strange men under a black moon.
00:35:12You have been a bold little queen tonight.
00:35:14Brea wanted the fire dancers.
00:35:16I was not going to send a girl of 17 into a horde market alone.
00:35:20I know. I have had eyes on you both since the first drum.
00:35:24Half the market watched my wife dance tonight,
00:35:26and not one of them will ever know what that costs to touch.
00:35:29Dance with me.
00:35:33Warlords do not dance.
00:35:34You try and bed me, but you won't try and dance with me?
00:35:37One dance, Ravek. Please.
00:36:20The black moon is up, and the wine is winning.
00:36:23Ren takes you and Brea up before the crowd turns ugly.
00:36:27There is a man down here I still have to see.
00:36:29We just arrived. Stay, then. Watch over us yourself.
00:36:32I have a horde to run, not a festival to enjoy.
00:36:35Listen to me, little queen.
00:36:36When some drunk man puts his hands on you tonight,
00:36:39do not come crying to me to deal with it.
00:37:08Years rotting in the southern wars on the warlord's order.
00:37:10Years rotting in the southern wars on the warlord's order.
00:37:10And my first night home, he hands me a market full of pretty things.
00:37:14Let us find some trouble.
00:37:15Careful, my lord. The warlord hold this market.
00:37:17And the oath you two swore did not survive your exile.
00:37:20He does not know you have come back.
00:37:23Ravek holds this market, so I do as I please in it.
00:37:26And tonight it pleases me to have her.
00:37:31Find the moment and put those two guards to sleep.
00:37:34The night is young, and my sworn brother owes me a homecoming.
00:37:39An empty cup at the warlord's own festival.
00:37:41He would whip that stallkeeper for it.
00:37:44Biced wine for the lady.
00:37:45On me.
00:37:47You know the warlord?
00:37:48He and I swore the shield oath together before he ever wore the talk.
00:37:52Stay where you are.
00:37:53The wine will find you faster than you found it.
00:37:57I should not.
00:37:58My husband is somewhere about.
00:38:00One second I want him gone, and the next I am looking for him in a crowd.
00:38:04I need to pick one.
00:38:10One cup.
00:38:11It cannot hurt.
00:38:12Let me only tell my sister where I am.
00:38:14Of course.
00:38:15Tell her you are in good hands.
00:38:17My sworn brother casts me out, then leaves his sweet northern wife unguarded at his own market.
00:38:23By dawn she will not even remember my face.
00:38:39Drink up, Cassia.
00:39:06Off her.
00:39:08Now.
00:39:10I let you keep breathing.
00:39:12When the horde dragged you out of this keep, you crawl back and touch what is mine.
00:39:17Brother.
00:39:18I did not know she was yours.
00:39:20She looked like any other girl at the market.
00:39:21I swear it.
00:39:24My guards are poisoned and my wife can barely stand up.
00:39:27You knew exactly who she was.
00:39:29You picked her.
00:39:31Stay with her.
00:39:33When this starts, turn her face away.
00:39:37What did he give her?
00:39:38Something he is going to tell me right now.
00:39:58not this one you do not need to see this close your eyes the powder what was in the cup
00:40:06dreamleaf just under a killing dose she wakes by morning and remembers nothing i was only going
00:40:13to take her for a few hours he drugged my wife to take her you all heard him say it
00:40:21you poured it yourself you held her up while you waited for his work we swore the shield oath
00:40:28i shield over your back yours over mine you do not kill your sworn brother you broke the oath
00:40:34when you touched what is mine iron holds fire proves the horde remembers
00:40:56there was a man a cup of spiced wine
00:41:02i told him my husband was somewhere about and then the floor came up at me he is dealt with
00:41:06he will not bother you again ever
00:41:10you left me at that stall you told me some drunk would put his hands on me and i should
00:41:15not come
00:41:15crying to you i did i rode off and left my gate open for the one man down here who
00:41:21hates me most
00:41:21that is my fault not yours who was he to you you said his name like it cost you something
00:41:30my sworn brother once i exiled him years ago for what he did to women in my villages
00:41:36i should have killed him then the shield oath talked me out of it
00:41:42you paid for that mercy tonight drink slow i am not leaving this room tonight you are gentler
00:41:48with me half as asleep than you ever let the horde see tell one of them that and i will
00:41:52deny it to your
00:42:01your people never torture you because they forgot how themselves so i am teaching you on mine
00:42:06put your hand out
00:42:25it wants nothing to do with me nothing down here does it can smell that you are scared
00:42:31a sky fang will not bow to something that is afraid of it stop asking for its permission
00:42:38you have ridden them since before you could walk i have a week of being laughed at by your
00:42:43warriors then give them something else to talk about
00:42:48do not reach for it let it come to you find what the two of you have in common and
00:42:53hold on to that
00:43:00i feel heat a heartbeat follow it push into it
00:43:14this one already chose you once in front of everyone start with the easy one
00:43:25it came to me i did not pull it
00:43:28it just came it is not a leash it is not a spur it is a line between you pull
00:43:35too hard and it breaks
00:43:36hold it and it holds you back
00:43:40my whole life the elders told me our blood went cold that the dragons closed the door on us and
00:43:45we're never coming back so why is it opening for me here on your dragons your blood never went cold
00:43:51your people just lost the ones who knew how to teach it a gift no one uses goes to sleep
00:43:57i am waking it up a hundred years of my people dying
00:44:01just because no one taught them a hundred years your kings married for armies when they should
00:44:06have been marrying for dragon callers
00:44:12yours finally did even if he did not know it
00:44:22no hand on yours today just you and it hold the thread and do not let it pull you off
00:44:27it
00:44:31i am not asking i am the one voice you have not listened to yet come hear me out
00:44:51a hundred years in the north raised no one who could do that i bought you for a deal i
00:44:55had no idea i
00:44:56was getting the last caller alive you did not buy this you taught it those are different things
00:45:02i am not letting you forget that
00:45:12my father's banner is coming home and i am leading it three winters is a long time
00:45:18for a woman to sleep alone your father's banner is welcome under my roof stand
00:45:28so this is the northern bride they say she showed up not knowing how to dress herself
00:45:32and that she cannot walk past a sky fawn without holding someone's hand people say a lot of things
00:45:38in this keep most of them are already out of date
00:45:47he turns away the second the border needs him he'll keep doing that let me show you around while he
00:45:53is
00:45:53busy the hot springs at dusk just us women at dusk then i can find it on my own
00:46:02come alone the springs are no place for guards
00:46:25come in little queen let us all get a look at what the warlord traded a whole kingdom for
00:46:30i came for a bath not a show move over or get out lay a hand on me and he
00:46:37takes it you saw what
00:46:38he did to his own sworn brother on the das his one brother touched something he wanted for himself
00:46:42that is different ravek is at his war table and he cannot hear you this water is for black claw
00:46:48women
00:46:48and a treaty in address is not one of us take it off her
00:47:00he will know about this before you even get back down there tell him tell him his little northern
00:47:05treaty stood naked on the rocks and could not call a single bird to help her
00:47:21who's hands
00:47:25rayback it was just women being women i was in your furs for three winters she has not been there
00:47:31a single night and everyone knows it the whole keep watched my fire skyfin bowed to her this morning
00:47:39and you stripped the last dragon caller alive on a rock for fun
00:47:43i am a war captain's daughter you cannot cast me out over a treaty bribe you put hands on my
00:47:50queen
00:47:50in front of half the horde the horde remembers your father stays you leave at first light and you do
00:47:56not come back if i see your face here again my dragons will not wait for permission
00:48:17out there she said i was a treaty in a borrowed ground
00:48:23for a moment on those rocks i believed her she said it because it is the cruelest thing she could
00:48:28reach for not because it is true then tell me a true thing you have bled for me killed for
00:48:34me
00:48:34walked into your own dragon's fire for me and i still do not know the man who did it
00:48:38my father's own captain put hands on my mother in front of the whole hall
00:48:42so i opened his throat at the high table i was still a boy
00:48:51he laughed when i drew the knife the horde follows what it fears i learned that before i learned to
00:48:56shave everyone who has ever gotten close to me wanted something from me the dragons the land or me dead
00:49:02so i stopped letting people close it was easier i came here with nothing no dragon no army nothing
00:49:08at all i came because i had no other choice and somewhere in the middle of it i stopped just
00:49:14getting through each day that is the first time anyone has put a hand on that mark and not pulled
00:49:18it
00:49:18back
00:49:25at dawn after the binding i walked into my own dragon's fire to seal the claim and came out burned
00:49:30down my
00:49:31whole left side i swore in that fire i would not take you until you came to me wanting
00:49:38it and the horde let a warlord wait they watched my dragon bow past me to you instead they have
00:49:43been
00:49:43afraid of my wife ever since so am i a little afraid of what i have nowhere in the wide
00:49:51world
00:49:52but the keep of the man who bought me afraid i signed a deal and ended up with someone i
00:49:57would burn
00:49:57everything down for that was not the plan i do not like wanting things i cannot control
00:50:03then stop trying to rule it you have bled for me put your cloak on me and waited at a
00:50:10fire that no one
00:50:11else in your horde would you have done everything except the one thing you keep saying no to
00:50:18you say it plain i am done guessing at what you want
00:50:36why did you bring me here this is where they held me down i know what happened in this water
00:50:41after
00:50:42tonight this is the place you chose me they do not get to keep it last chance to push me
00:50:47away after
00:50:48this there is no deal between us anymore just this i have been turning away from you for months i
00:50:55am
00:50:55done with that do not make me ask twice ask me then out loud i want to hear you actually
00:51:01say it
00:51:01please please i want you all of you not just the warlord now
00:51:20say it the thing you will not say in your hall mine not the treaties not the north's mine
00:51:40so the sky would know where i was wherever you took me she said a skybound girl should never be
00:51:47somewhere a bird cannot find her she was right by summer every sky thing alive will know exactly
00:51:55where you are a few weeks ago a man like you would have frightened me out of my skin
00:52:01now i cannot find the part of me that was afraid
00:52:26what is it
00:52:27what is it just say it stop trying to protect me from it
00:52:31froskin banners on the northern passes borin coming straight for the border
00:52:36he thinks the north has no dragons and that i have gone soft
00:52:40is he wrong about the second part he is wrong about what it makes me
00:52:48get up little queen it is time everyone met you before borin does
00:53:06is
00:53:14is
00:53:15is
00:53:29is
00:53:31is
00:53:35No chain, no caller.
00:53:38Bring it down and no one on this wall will ever call you dragonless again.
00:53:52I am the last of the north that can hear you.
00:53:55Come down.
00:54:10Every dragon on this roof knows her now.
00:54:12The whole horde can see it.
00:54:30The north finally sent me something worth riding for.
00:54:35Thor, Thor, Thor, Thor!
00:54:43Boren crossed the Gree Pass at dawn.
00:54:45Three hundred lances, two frost sky widths.
00:54:47He is moving for the neck.
00:54:49He wants the neck before the Thor.
00:54:51If he takes it, the whole north ride's divided and he can pick us apart.
00:54:56I ride.
00:54:57You stay.
00:54:58And Boren, he will take the neck and then he will ride south for you.
00:55:03While I am out there, you run the keep.
00:55:04You do not cross the outer wall.
00:55:06The dragons will know.
00:55:08If Boren takes you, I will not stop until there is nothing left of him.
00:55:13You do not want to see what that looks like.
00:55:18Do not push the dragons.
00:55:20They will come to you, but they cannot carry you yet.
00:55:49He told you to stay.
00:55:54He told the cuff to hold me.
00:55:59I am not testing them.
00:56:02I am asking.
00:56:04What are you doing?
00:56:06He said the harness is not a chain.
00:56:09A real caller does not tell the dragon to obey.
00:56:11She asks it to choose.
00:56:19There are two of them out there now.
00:56:21I know.
00:56:40Open the gate.
00:56:41The warlord's order, my lady.
00:56:43The inner face...
00:56:44The warlord's order was for the cuff.
00:56:46He did not give an order.
00:56:49To the gate.
00:57:03He is going to be furious.
00:57:04He is going to be alive for it.
00:57:07That is what matters.
00:57:08Last time I crossed a gate without his permission, he took my horse.
00:57:12He will not take yours.
00:57:14How do you know?
00:57:15Because you are doing this for me.
00:57:17He will know that.
00:57:25There are froskin scouts in these hills.
00:57:28Revak's outriders cleared them two days ago, but Boring will have sent more.
00:57:33He knows we left the keep.
00:57:34Somebody at that gate will send a bird.
00:57:36Then we ride faster than the bird.
00:57:43It is not flying.
00:57:47It is circling.
00:57:49Is that bad?
00:57:51It circles when it is watching something it cannot reach yet.
00:58:01Something on the left ridge.
00:58:03I do not see.
00:58:05I do not see.
00:58:26The warlord of the Blackclow is two hours north of here running our false trail.
00:58:30He is very fast and he is going the wrong direction.
00:58:33Lay down.
00:58:33Tell Boring he sent a captain to take a princess and he should have sent a warlord.
00:58:39We have two frost sky fangs in these hills, cold and loaded.
00:58:44Call yours off or we loose them.
00:58:46Call yours off or we loose them.
00:59:16Call yours off or we loose them.
00:59:20Bren and Tobin were two hours behind us.
00:59:22They will have found the gate guards.
00:59:23They will go north and find Ravek before they come south for me.
00:59:26That was the plan.
00:59:28That was always the plan.
00:59:30I am not bait by accident.
00:59:33Ravak cannot reach Boring without riding into those dragons.
00:59:36Boring needs leverage to hold him back.
00:59:39I am the leverage.
00:59:40While he has me, Ravak has to stop.
00:59:45You walked out of the keep to get captured.
00:59:49I walked out because he rode into a trap.
00:59:52Boring's fake trail.
00:59:53The move at the neck, all of it was to pull him forward.
00:59:56If I stay in the keep, he charges through and dies.
00:59:59If I am here, he stops.
01:00:02I need him to think.
01:00:12I have heard two things about the new Black Clo wife.
01:00:15That she is very beautiful and that no skybound has called a dragon in a hundred years.
01:00:20I see both are true.
01:00:22The second one will not be true much longer.
01:00:24The warlord tell you that?
01:00:25The warlord showed me.
01:00:28Ravek teaches his wife party tricks the way you teach a child.
01:00:31The calling is not a trick.
01:00:33A real caller is born that way and the North has not had one in a hundred years.
01:00:37You are a princess from a dying line in a dying kingdom and your husband knows it.
01:00:43He bought you to stop the skybound from hitting his border.
01:00:46That is it.
01:00:47Then why are you using me to stop him?
01:00:49A man who bought his wife just to hold a border does not ride two days ahead of his whole
01:00:54army when she goes missing.
01:00:56You know exactly what he is coming to do.
01:00:58You need me between you and him.
01:01:01Send him a message.
01:01:03He pulls back to his border.
01:01:05He ends the skybound alliance and you go home.
01:01:08Everyone walks away.
01:01:09And if I say no?
01:01:18Then I send him a different kind of message.
01:01:29Gateguard at the keep says she walked out four hours before we turn back.
01:01:33The Skyfling went with her.
01:01:34She was not taken, Lord.
01:01:36She walked through that gate by choice.
01:01:38I know.
01:01:40Then why?
01:01:41Because she knew Boren's fake trail would pull me north before I realized she was gone.
01:01:47She knew I would be two hours past her before I turned around.
01:01:51She did this so I would stop.
01:01:52My wife walked out of the keep and let herself get taken so I would not ride into those dragons
01:01:56without a plan.
01:01:57Is that good or bad, Lord?
01:02:01It is exactly what I would have done.
01:02:03Now we do what I do next.
01:02:16He is there.
01:02:20You see him?
01:02:22I see him.
01:02:24Lord Boren is about to talk to him.
01:02:26You stand here, where he can see you, and hear the terms.
01:02:36Ravec of the Black Claw!
01:02:38I have your wife, and I have two frost side things loaded and waiting.
01:02:43You have until the sun clears the ridge, to send your horde back and give me the neck, or I
01:02:48send back pieces.
01:02:50Do not.
01:02:51He will ride up that hill, then both those dragons, and he will not stop.
01:02:56That is the point.
01:02:58I need to know if he still will.
01:03:14Far enough!
01:03:15You see her?
01:03:17I see her.
01:03:18Then you know what this costs you.
01:03:21Dissolve the Skybound Alliance and pull back to your border.
01:03:24You have until midday.
01:03:26You brought two frost sky fangs into my passes, blocked my road, and took my wife.
01:03:32Midday is generous.
01:03:34Midday!
01:03:35Or I take the hand she let you hold!
01:03:59He is going to ride that camp apart.
01:04:02Not until he has a way through the frost sky fangs.
01:04:05He will wait for one.
01:04:07And if no way comes...
01:04:10Then I make one.
01:04:25Cassia!
01:04:25Be quiet.
01:04:39The frost sky fangs are chained on the east ledge.
01:04:42Two callers inside the upper camp.
01:04:44If you breach the gate, the callers loose.
01:04:46The dragons before you are through it.
01:04:49Take the callers first, and the frost sky flings.
01:04:51Go wild inside a camp full of our people.
01:04:54We do not breach the gate.
01:04:56We make Boren open it.
01:04:59Twelve riders.
01:05:00Ravine behind the east ledge.
01:05:02Wait until dark.
01:05:03Nobody makes a sound until I am inside.
01:05:05How do you get inside, Lord?
01:05:07He will not open that gate unless you give him what he wants.
01:05:10He will open it to watch me kneel.
01:05:17Lord, if it goes wrong in there...
01:05:19It will not go wrong.
01:05:20Pick your twelve.
01:05:40Weapons.
01:05:42Lord Boren will have the warlord's word spoken aloud in front of his captains.
01:05:46Not written.
01:05:47Spoken.
01:05:48Take me to him.
01:06:06He is counting the chains.
01:06:08He is counting the chains.
01:06:23Say it out loud.
01:06:25The Black Claw ends its deal with the Skybound.
01:06:29Pulls back south of the Gripass and gives me the neck.
01:06:33Say it!
01:06:34Do you know what the binding cost me?
01:06:36A burn across your ribs.
01:06:38I heard.
01:06:39I walked into that fire not knowing if my dragon would hold.
01:06:42I have been in plenty of battles.
01:06:44I always knew the odds going in.
01:06:47That fire, I had nothing.
01:06:48It is the only time I have ever been actually scared.
01:06:58I will not say those words.
01:07:03Get to the ledge!
01:07:23Run!
01:07:25Not.
01:07:25Yet.
01:07:42Whatever comes out of that tent, stay behind me.
01:08:08Why are you out of this?
01:08:16Cassia the caller is still I know he is not the only voice you know. I am here
01:08:23Leave him come to me
01:08:27Don't listen to her
01:08:41Come back
01:09:01That is not possible. Those dragons belong to a caller. They cannot just they could not before things change
01:09:08I knew she could do it
01:09:20You were going to kneel for him
01:09:23I was going to say the words and then tear the camp apart once you were clear
01:09:28The kneeling was just to get the gate open
01:09:30You told him the fire was the only thing that frightened you
01:09:35I lied
01:09:36You scared me
01:09:37Every day since the temple
01:09:39I could walk into that fire again. I could not lose you say the rest of it
01:09:42I love you
01:09:43I have loved you since you put your bare hand on that dragon and did not pull back
01:09:47Tell me you heard that
01:09:48I heard you
01:09:49You
01:09:50You
01:09:56You
01:10:00You
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