THE MERCHANT’S MAN

Quentyn Martell and Gerris Drinkwater inspect the smuggler ship Adventure, whose stench and captain’s eagerness convince Quentyn it’s a trap. Though the master boasts of speed, his quick acceptance and the war in Slaver’s Bay suggest he intends to rob, enslave, or murder them once at sea.

They return through sweltering Volantis, reflecting on twenty fruitless days seeking passage to Meereen as sellsword companies flock east. Quentyn recalls a corsair attack off the Disputed Lands that killed Willam Wells, Cletus Yronwood, and Maester Kedry, losses that stripped them of friends, protection, and crucial language skills.

As they traverse crowded wharves, temples, and markets, Quentyn contrasts Gerris’s swagger with his own caution, measures Volantis’s slave-marked society, and notes political tensions: Yunkai hires companies like the Windblown while New Ghis aligns with them. He weighs the demon road overland but deems it too slow given rival hunters Daenerys might face.

At the Merchant’s House, Windblown recruiters jeer and threaten the dragon queen. Inside, they rejoin Ser Archibald Yronwood, who favors the demon road. Quentyn insists on a ship for speed, but rejects Adventure as a likely betrayal.

Cornered by time, loss, and danger, Gerris proposes a new approach—risky and dishonorable yet faster—which Quentyn urges him to reveal, committing them more firmly to reaching Daenerys despite mounting peril.