DAENERYS — Chapter 53

On a blistering morning, Daenerys prepares to attend the reopening of Daznak’s Pit despite misgivings. Barristan warns about unreliable Brazen Beasts; Daenerys insists on trust. He reports Meris’s claim that the Tattered Prince meant to join Daenerys for the price of Pentos; Daenerys refuses to promise Illyrio’s city. The royal procession advances amid uneasy crowds and a suspicious street blockage that Hizdahr dismisses.

In the royal box, Daenerys endures a succession of brutal matches. Khrazz kills a Summer Islander and eats his heart; the Spotted Cat slaughters a giant opponent; a Lysene youth dies. Daenerys’s limited reforms exclude children and reduce follies, though a dwarf joust proceeds. When Hizdahr proposes loosing lions on the dwarfs, Daenerys forbids it, and Barsena Blackhair is brought on to face a massive boar.

Barsena initially evades and wounds the boar but is gored and disemboweled. Overcome by heat and horror, Daenerys resolves to leave, as Strong Belwas grows ill after gorging on honeyed locusts. Before she can depart, Drogon appears over the pit, incinerates the boar, and feeds on both carcasses, terrifying the crowd. A spearman attacks Drogon, wounding him; Hizdahr orders the dragon killed as more spearmen charge.

Daenerys leaps into the pit, calling to Drogon as he mauls and burns attackers. Confronted at close quarters, she refuses to flee, seizes the fallen pitmaster’s barbed whip, and lashes the dragon while shouting him down. Drogon, injured and enraged, finally folds his wings under her command. Daenerys vaults onto his back, wrenches out the half-melted spear, and urges him aloft.

With the crowd stampeding from the stands, Daenerys clings to Drogon as he beats his great black wings. Whip in hand, she drives him higher, leaving Daznak’s Pit and Meereen behind as they take to the sky.