00:00Captains, I would have the warlock alone.
00:02My lord, we were mapping the Frostkin raids on the northern passes.
00:04This is no audience for a southern feast and a bride playing serving girl.
00:08The Frostkin take the passes because the north has no dragons to hold them.
00:12I was born in that north, Captain.
00:14You map my home. I will stand here while you do it.
00:18Five blades drawn and a roost full of dragons.
00:20Her hand did not shake once.
00:25Every girl in the north dreams of her binding day.
00:28None of them dream of the cage.
00:29My people used to be the best dragon callers alive.
00:32We have not called one in a hundred years.
00:34A sky people with no dragons is just prey.
00:36So my father sells the only thing he has left.
00:38Me.
00:43Skybound.
00:44I came for what is promised.
00:53You belong to me now.
00:55Raybeck of the Blackclaw.
00:57His dragons are the only thing between us and the Frostkin.
00:59He wants you for them.
01:00So my blood buys your dragons and you call it a treaty.
01:04I am trading one girl to keep ten thousand people alive.
01:07Say no.
01:08And the Blackclaw rides south.
01:09The Frostkin come down off that ridge and everyone in this keep is dead by spring.
01:12I am not the answer to your problems.
01:14Find another way.
01:15Then walk out that door and tell ten thousand people yourself.
01:18I will not be sold to a Blackclaw warlord to pay for your war.
01:21Find another way.
01:22Cassia.
01:23You will not shame me in front of the whole keep.
01:40So, this is the Dragonless Princess.
01:42They are selling me.
01:43They told me the North had nothing left worth taking.
01:46They were wrong.
01:47Let go of me.
01:48I have not been given to you yet.
01:50You were mine.
01:51The day your father ran out of options.
01:53Tonight is just the part with witnesses.
01:54Soft hair.
01:57I hold people who forgot how to hold their own beasts.
02:00I wonder the Frostkin are sharpening their knives.
02:01We were calling dragons out of the sky while your horde was still eating its dead.
02:05Do not lecture me on what we lost.
02:07They told me you were timid.
02:09Timid does not survive my keep.
02:11Your wrist, little queen.
02:18What is this?
02:19My cuff and yours came out of the same iron.
02:21After tonight, there is no one making it.
02:23The North gave you away, little queen.
02:25I keep what the North gives.
02:28You are shaking.
02:30Good.
02:31A dragon can smell a coward, and a coward it will not carry.
02:34Be afraid, but do not be a coward.
02:36My hands shake because your hand is on me.
02:38Do not mistake it for anything you would want to feel.
02:40Give it time.
02:41You will stop hating me when you realize I am the only one keeping your people alive.
02:45You can lock iron on me, but you cannot make me want it.
03:01Every one of them lives or dies on what I say next.
03:05No one walks out of a door with all of that on the other side of it.
03:14I will take you.
03:16Not for my father.
03:17For her.
03:18And every one of them out there on the ice.
03:20You give your word standing up like an equal.
03:22On your knees.
03:24You will thank the warlord for saving this keep with your worthless hand.
03:30She kneels to me.
03:32Not for you.
03:32And not because you put her there.
03:38She is mine now, old man.
03:39Remember that the next time you raise your hand to her.
03:41They call him a monster.
03:43Right now he is the only wall between me and a war that eats children.
03:48And tonight I will not just touch you.
03:50I will ruin you.
03:52And you will ask me for more.
03:57They say the Blackcloth do not bed their brides.
03:59They break them.
04:00And his dragons sleep at the foot of bed and watch.
04:02Enough.
04:03She will be presentable.
04:04She will be obedient.
04:06And she will hold that alliance together.
04:09That is the end of it.
04:11Leave us.
04:13I will have a moment with my bride.
04:15Custom keeps the warlord and the bride apart until the altar.
04:18I do not ask twice.
04:20Tonight everyone will say I forced a scared girl into this.
04:23I want them to look at you and see something different.
04:26I want them to see you chose me.
04:27Not that your father sold you.
04:34It is too tight.
04:36It is meant to be uncomfortable.
04:37Every Blackcloth bride wears one so nobody asks who she belongs to.
04:41Only I take it off.
04:43Wear it to the altar.
04:44Let them all see it before you say my name.
05:19You are bleeding.
05:20Frost in blood. Not mine.
05:24Their scout will not report what he saw
05:27What happens tonight is yours to give
05:29I do not take it
05:32Do you take each other
05:33Through war and peace
05:35Until the end
05:36Say the words
05:37Loud enough for the whole north to hear
05:40By sky and by iron
05:41I bind my life to his
05:43Whatever comes for him gets through me first
05:48Our people do not deserve death
05:50I am doing this for her
05:51For all the innocents in the north
05:53I am not doing this for him
05:56Then seal it
06:01No one has ever kissed you
06:03I can tell
06:04Tonight gives me everything
06:05But I am taking this right now
06:07In front of all of them
06:15I always believed our fathers would give you to me
06:17Then a southern brute rides in
06:19And takes you in an afternoon
06:20Let go of me
06:25A skybound altar makes a wife
06:28The black claw need more than words
06:30Bring him in
06:35The proving
06:36He puts her in front of the dragon
06:38Everyone watches to see if it bows or bites
06:40No one from the north has ever passed it
06:41It will not bow to a sky girl with no gift in her blood
06:44He is going to get her killed in front of her own mother
06:45Do not pull back and do not look away
06:47It smells fear and it smells lies
06:50Show it neither
06:53You will burn my arm off
06:54Then we will both find out what you are made of
06:57Then we will both find out what you are made of
07:24You humiliated me out there
07:31Hello little queen
07:36Lothra you should not be in here
07:38Skybound blood should stay with skybound blood
07:39Our fathers meant you for me
07:41And one southern treaty does not unwrite it
07:43I am only here for what was promised first
07:45The binding is sealed Lothra
07:46Lay one finger on me
07:47And you are not insulting a girl
07:48Insulting the whole black claw horde
07:50Think hard about what that buys you
07:51He is drunk in the feast hall
07:53With black claw girls in his lap
07:54By the time he remembers he has a wife
07:56I will already have made you mine
07:58The warlord is in his cups
07:59And you are all alone girl
08:01One sound out of you
08:02And I will tell them you invited me in
08:05Raybeck!
08:09Where is your frightened little northern bride?
08:11She does not even want you
08:12Come remind yourself
08:16What real women are
08:18I called for Raybeck
08:19I do not even know why
08:21He is not my husband
08:21He is my warden
08:22But he is the only one I called
08:24In here
08:25No one will find us
08:27No!
08:28Raybeck!
08:30Raybeck!
08:30Help me!
08:37Raybeck!
08:38Please!
08:39He is not coming for you
08:41You should thank me
08:42When I take you
08:44I will at least be gentle
08:46Which is more than that animal
08:48Would ever give you
08:52You think the warlord cares
08:54What becomes of you tonight
08:55He will never love a skybound girl
08:58He will feed you to his dragon for this
09:00My father commands the king's own guard
09:02No southern dog can touch me in this keep
09:04And no one is coming down that corridor
09:06For a skybound bride
09:11You little skybound bitch
09:28What is mine I keep
09:29What touches it I burn
09:38You put a hand
09:39On what belongs to a warlord
09:43Did you think the dragons would not smell it on you?
09:53You all came to watch a binding
09:54Watch this instead
09:56Look at her
09:57The north handed me their last real dragon caller
10:00From tonight she is one of mine
10:02We do not touch our own women like that
10:04We do not go after another man's wife
10:06And we do not lie to the man whose dragons are keeping your north standing
10:17What are you doing?
10:21He reached for a warlord's wife
10:23He will carry the answer on his face
10:26Where the whole north can read it
10:40What is mine I keep
10:43The whole north can watch what touching it costs
10:48That dragon keeps looking at me like it knows something I do not
10:51And honestly at this point
10:52So do I
10:55So this is where it happens
10:56Get it over with
10:57Look at the roost little queen
10:59That is where it happens
10:59Not here
11:01A Blacklaw wedding is more sealed than a bed
11:03It is sealed in fire
11:05At dawn everyone watches the warlord walk through his own dragon's breath
11:09If it is real
11:10The dragon holds
11:11If it is not
11:11He burns in front of everyone
11:13And she goes free
11:14You are going to walk in dragon fire
11:16To prove you own me?
11:17I am going to walk into dragon fire
11:19To prove this is real
11:20What you do with that is up to you
11:23A whole dying kingdom
11:25And the only thing in it worth burning for is you
11:27Do not say that
11:28You do not get to say that
11:30You bought me
11:31You may own this cluff on my wrist
11:33You will never own the rest of me
11:35I will not love you
11:39He is going to ravage me now
11:42I do not want to lose it like this
11:46I do not know what came over me
11:48I will take only what you give me tonight
11:50Sleep little queen
11:51At dawn you watch what your husband walks into for you
11:56He is sparing my virginity
11:57For now
12:18Judge me old friend
12:19The claim is true
12:22Rayback
12:23Rayback no
12:42You walked into it
12:44For me
12:45You would have burned to ash
12:46A binding is sealed
12:47The horde has seen it
12:49That is all that happened here
12:50Now you come to me
12:52To my bed
12:52I will try to be patient
12:55I will not beg
12:56But I also will not love
13:12So he actually did it
13:14Walked into the fire for you
13:17I honestly did not think you would
13:19Not for some scared little northern girl
13:21I do not know you
13:22Give your name before you speak to me
13:24Like I am livestock
13:29Drusilla
13:30My father rides at the warlord's right hand
13:32The strongest warrior in this horde
13:34And before your father sold you north
13:36I was the one in Ravik's bed
13:37So I know things about him that you do not
13:42You do not know how to keep a warlord
13:44Little northern bird
13:45I had him before you wore that cuff
13:47And I will have him after
13:48Ask anyone in this keep
13:50Whose furs he slept in last winter
14:14First night here
14:15And my wife will not eat
14:17Is this a northern thing
14:19Or are you actually trying to starve yourself
14:22Starving myself?
14:24Skybound children went hungry all winter
14:26So I could eat
14:27I do not waste food
14:31I do not even know what half of this is
14:33You have never put southern meat in your mouth
14:35My father never let his daughters
14:37Pass the inner wall
14:39We ate what the kitchens cooked
14:40And the kitchens cook north
14:45Open
14:47No wife of mine goes hungry at my own fire
14:54There
14:55The north did not crumble
14:58Your color is up, wife
14:59I am warm from the fire
15:00The fire is behind you
15:01I am the one in front
15:18He walked into dragon fire in front of everyone
15:20To keep my people safe
15:21Whatever else he is
15:22He did that
15:23I can say thank you for that much
15:25Even if it kills me
15:31We just got married
15:32And he is already doing this
15:34I knew it
15:35I knew exactly what he was
15:40Cassia
15:41Stop
15:42Not one more step
15:49Sit
15:50Run from her in tears
15:52And by morning the whole keep says
15:53The north broke in a week
16:07Blacklaw law does not let a warlord settle a woman's war
16:11This is between the two of you, wife
16:14Settle it
16:15Or sit there and watch it settle itself
16:19I warned you the first night, little bird
16:22He needed a treaty
16:23Not a wife
16:24You cannot even hold his eyes
16:26I have held the rest of him for years
16:29Are you truly going to let her do this, Ravec?
16:31She is in your seat, little queen
16:33And weeping
16:34Has never moved a black claw off anything
16:44Watch, northern girl
16:47This is how you hold a man like him
16:50He wants me to break and beg him to stop
16:52I will choke on my own tongue
16:54Before I give that woman the satisfaction
16:56Well, wife
16:58The seat is still yours if you want it
17:16Your beast is as ill-mannered as your bride
17:19Ravec
17:20Call it off and let me finish what I came up up to do
17:23Eyes on me, Cassia
17:25Watch what you keep handing another woman
17:27Because you are too proud to take it yourself
17:30Enough games
17:33Let me give him the rest
17:34Where the little bird can watch and learn her place
17:38Stop!
17:40That is enough!
17:41The seat is mine
17:42And so is the man
17:44Move!
17:46You heard the queen
17:48Off!
17:49I will say this once
17:50I am Cassia, Ravec's wife
17:52Stay away from him
17:54Or find out what happens to women who do not
17:58He does not want you
18:00Your own father sold you off like a lame mark no other man would take
18:16He keeps you because you tease and never give
18:18The day he tires of your weeping he throws you back over the wall to your dying little kingdom dragon
18:23or no dragon
18:23Say one more word about my people
18:26And I will give you a matching mark on the other side
18:28Your people are already dead, little bird
18:31They simply have not lain down yet
18:34A dragonless treaty playing at warlord's wife
18:37He will tire of you
18:39And I will still be here
18:41And your north will still be ash
18:43Under our boots
18:48You raised this hand at a Black Claw queen
18:50Be glad I only gave it back to you
18:52He hit her for touching me
18:53Not because she was embarrassing him
18:55For touching me
18:56I am still thinking about that
19:06The Black Claw do not kill women
19:08Be glad
19:10Get out of my keep
19:12And hope I forget your father's name by morning
19:21Come to the war map then
19:23Queen
19:25The whole horde should see where the queen stands
19:27Have you lost your mind?
19:29You let that woman paw at you while I sat caged behind your dragons
19:33And now you call me to your map as if nothing happened on it
19:35Drusilla's father holds my eastern passes so I let her games go on too long
19:39Today you ended them for me in front of the whole horde
19:42They saw their queen show her teeth
19:43I will not pretend I am sorry they did
19:46You needed her father's spears so I paid for them in shame in front of your whole horde
19:50You know nothing of what shame does to a northern woman
19:52I know it could fire where there were only tears
19:54An hour ago you could not hold my eyes
19:56Now you have struck a warrior's daughter and bared your teeth at me on my own terrace
20:01I want you exactly this way in my bed
20:03You are exactly the monster they warned me about when I was little
20:11You want a dead bride?
20:12Say so
20:13A blade is faster than a slow death in this frozen pit as a thing you bought
20:17Cassia
20:18Put it down
20:19Why?
20:19She was right
20:20You do not care if I live or die here
20:22So I will spare us both the rest of it
20:29Look at my side
20:32I walked through dragon fire to take you
20:34A man does not burn for a thing he regrets buying
20:37I walked into that beast fire in front of the whole horde
20:39So your people could sleep knowing the binding was true
20:42You think I burned for your father's alliance?
20:44I burned for you
20:45Give me the knife little queen
20:46I burned for you once
20:47I will walk back into that fire every dawn they ask
20:50Before I let you do that to yourself
21:04Do not touch me
21:06The binding fire is barely cold
21:08And you let that woman drape herself across your war terrace
21:11You bar your door to me every night
21:14Tell me what a man owes a wife who bolts her door
21:17I do not want you bedding other women
21:19But you will not bed me
21:20I am a warlord little queen
21:22I fight all day
21:23At night I need a woman
21:24If that is not you it will be someone else
21:26Then perhaps I will find some southern boy
21:28And let him have me where you can watch
21:29And we will see how the great warlord likes it
21:32I would feed him to my dragons one piece at a time
21:37And put the leash in your hand
21:42Then do it Ravek
21:44Take me now and be done
21:46So I can hate you honestly
21:48Go on
21:49You will not get gentle from me
21:50Gentlemen do not survive the frozen waste
21:52But I swore at the binding fire
21:54That you come to me on your own feet or not at all
21:57And my horde has watched me keep harder oaths than that
21:59Though the horde will sing about your hand at that woman's mouth for a year
22:02Keep the jealousy
22:03I do not want Drusilla
22:05Then why parade her in front of me at all
22:06If you do not want her
22:08I told you
22:08I do not do love
22:09But I want you
22:11Only you
22:12More than I know what to do with
22:13I told myself I would never feel anything for him
22:16I came all the way down here telling myself that
22:18I am such a liar
22:21All that fury at Drusilla
22:23And now you are breathing hard with my hands
22:26On you
22:27Tell me to stop then
22:34What happens next is all on real short
22:37Is
22:37It
22:37Oh
Comments