Chapter 第七十一章 丹妮莉丝（十）
DAENERYS
在一片绿色草海中，山丘宛如一座石岛。
The hill was a stony island in a sea of green.
丹妮花了半个上午的时间才从上面爬了下来。当她到达山底的时候已经喘不过气了。她全身肌肉酸痛，并且感觉像是有了发烧的前兆。岩石也擦破了她的双手。不过这样要比以前好多了，她挑出一个烂掉的水泡一边心想。她的皮肤变得粉红而又娇嫩，一丝淡淡的乳白色液体从她碎裂的手掌中渗漏出来，但是她烫伤的部位在逐渐愈合。
It took Dany half the morning to climb down. By the time she reached the bottom she was winded. Her muscles ached, and she felt as if she had the beginnings of a fever. The rocks had scraped her hands raw. They are better than they were, though, she decided as she picked at a broken blister. Her skin was pink and tender, and a pale milky fluid was leaking from her cracked palms, but her burns were healing.
在下面看上去山丘显得更为庞大。丹妮已经习惯地把这座山丘称之为龙石，一个和自己出生时所在城堡一样的名字。虽然对于龙石岛她毫无记忆，但她并不大可能会忘记这座龙石山。矮树丛和多刺的灌木丛覆盖了龙石山的低山坡；高处只见一排参差不齐的裸露岩石以险峻之势直指天空。就在那儿，在那破碎的巨砾、锋利的山脊以及针状的尖顶之中，卓耿在一个很浅的山洞里筑起了自己的巢穴。他已经在那住了好一段时间了，第一眼见到山丘的时候丹妮便意识到。空气中充斥着灰烬的味道，视线之内所有岩石和树木均被烧成焦黑色，地上散落着燃尽的碎骨，而这也正是他的家。
The hill loomed larger down here. Dany had taken to calling it Dragonstone, after the ancient citadel where she’d been born. She had no memories of that Dragonstone, but she would not soon forget this one. Scrub grass and thorny bushes covered its lower slopes; higher up a jagged tangle of bare rock thrust steep and sudden into the sky. There, amidst broken boulders, razor-sharp ridges, and needle spires, Drogon made his lair inside a shallow cave. He had dwelt there for some time, Dany had realized when she first saw the hill. The air smelled of ash, every rock and tree in sight was scorched and blackened, the ground strewn with burned and broken bones, yet it had been home to him.
丹妮明白家的诱惑有多大。
Dany knew the lure of home.
就在两天前，她在岩石的尖顶攀爬时发现了一条指南的水源，在落日的余晖下闪烁着一丝微光。一条小溪，丹妮心想。虽然细小，但是会把她带到稍微大一点的溪流，然后随后流入某条河流，而在世界这边所有的河流都是斯卡扎单河的分支。一旦找到斯卡扎单河，她只需要顺流而下便能回到奴隶湾。
Two days ago, climbing on a spire of rock, she had spied water to the south, a slender thread that glittered briefly as the sun was going down. A stream, Dany decided. Small, but it would lead her to a larger stream, and that stream would flow into some little river, and all the rivers in this part of the world were vassals of the Skahazadhan. Once she found the Skahazadhan she need only follow it downstream to Slaver’s Bay.
当然了，她宁愿骑在龙翼上飞回弥林。可是卓耿似乎并没有这个意思。
She would sooner have returned to Meereen on dragon’s wings, to be sure. But that was a desire Drogon did not seem to share.
古瓦雷利亚的龙骑士靠的是强大的咒语和带法力的号角来控制自己的坐骑。而丹妮莉丝用的是一个词和一条鞭子。骑在龙背上，她常有种再次初学骑乘的感觉。当她鞭打自己银母马的右肋时，母马便向左奔去，因为马匹的第一本能是远离危险。而当她的鞭子落在卓耿的右侧时，他却转向右方，因为龙的天性便是进攻。然而，有时她鞭打哪里似乎都没有关系，有些时候他会按照自己的意愿载着她飞行。要是他不愿意，无论用鞭子或者语言都无法让卓耿转向。鞭子对他造成的愤怒远比伤害要多，她已经意识到；他的龙鳞已经变得比牛角还要坚硬。
The dragonlords of old Valyria had controlled their mounts with binding spells and sorcerous horns. Daenerys made do with a word and a whip. Mounted on the dragon’s back, she oft felt as if she were learning to ride all over again. When she whipped her silver mare on her right flank the mare went left, for a horse’s first instinct is to flee from danger. When she laid the whip across Drogon’s right side he veered right, for a dragon’s first instinct is always to attack. Sometimes it did not seem to matter where she struck him, though; sometimes he went where he would and took her with him. Neither whip nor words could turn Drogon if he did not wish to be turned. The whip annoyed him more than it hurt him, she had come to see; his scales had grown harder than horn.
无论黑龙每天飞的再怎么远，到了傍晚他也会凭着本能回到在龙石山的家。这里是他的家，不是我的。她的家在弥林，在她丈夫和情人那。那里才是属于她的地方，是的。
And no matter how far the dragon flew each day, come nightfall some instinct drew him home to Dragonstone. His home, not mine. Her home was back in Meereen, with her husband and her lover. That was where she belonged, surely.
继续走下去。如果回头我就完了。
Keep walking. If I look back I am lost.
天高云淡，回忆并辔而行。长草中疾驰而过的马匹有如蝼蚁。而那一轮银月却仿佛触手可及。明亮湛蓝的溪水从山下淌过，在阳光下泛起粼粼波光。我还能见到这样的景色吗？在卓耿的背上她才感到完整。在天空中飞翔时，全世界的苦难都无法触及她。叫她如何抛弃这一切呢？
Memories walked with her. Clouds seen from above. Horses small as ants thundering through the grass. A silver moon, almost close enough to touch. Rivers running bright and blue below, glimmering in the sun. Will I ever see such sights again? On Drogon’s back she felt whole. Up in the sky the woes of this world could not touch her. How could she abandon that?
然而，是时候了。一个女孩也许可以一辈子花在玩耍上，但是她已经是一个成年女人，一个女王，一个妻子，一个上千人的母亲。她的子女们需要她。卓耿曾在鞭子下屈服，她也必须如此。她必须重新戴上皇冠，回到自己的乌木长凳和她高贵的丈夫怀中。
It was time, though. A girl might spend her life at play, but she was a woman grown, a queen, a wife, a mother to thousands. Her children had need of her. Drogon had bent before the whip, and so must she. She had to don her crown again and return to her ebon bench and the arms of her noble husband.
回到希兹达赫身旁，接受他那不温不火的吻。
Hizdahr, of the tepid kisses.
今天早上的阳光猛烈，蓝天万里无云。这很不错。丹妮的衣服连碎布都算不上，根本无法起到保暖的作用。在飞出弥林的颠簸途中她的一只凉鞋从脚上滑了下去，她把另外一只留在了卓耿的巢穴里，只能穿一只鞋子还不如光脚行走。她的托卡徽章和面纱都遗弃在了角斗场内，她的亚麻束腰内衣也经不起多斯拉克海洋上炎热白昼和严寒夜晚的煎熬。衣上汗水、长草和泥土已经到处都是，丹妮从褶边撕下了一条布来包扎自己的胫骨。我看起来一定衣衫褴褛，还很饥饿，她想，但如果天气保持暖和的话，我就不会冻死。
The sun was hot this morning, the sky blue and cloudless. That was good. Dany’s clothes were hardly more than rags, and offered little in the way of warmth. One of her sandals had slipped off during her wild flight from Meereen and she had left the other up by Drogon’s cave, preferring to go barefoot rather than half-shod. Her tokar and veils she had abandoned in the pit, and her linen undertunic had never been made to withstand the hot days and cold nights of the Dothraki sea. Sweat and grass and dirt had stained it, and Dany had torn a strip off the hem to make a bandage for her shin. I must look a ragged thing, and starved, she thought, but if the days stay warm, I will not freeze.
她在龙石山的旅居是孤单的，而大部分时间也都在疼痛和饥饿中度过……但尽管如此，她仍然有一种奇特的快乐感。一点点疼痛，一个空腹，还有夜晚的寒颤……当你能够翱翔，这些又算得了什么？再来一次我也愿意。
Hers had been a lonely sojourn, and for most of it she had been hurt and hungry … yet despite it all she had been strangely happy here. A few aches, an empty belly, chills by night … what does it matter when you can fly? I would do it all again.
姬琪和伊莉会在金字塔顶层等待她回归弥林，她告诉自己。还有她可爱的抄书员弥桑黛以及她的那些侍童们。他们会为她献上食物，而她也能沐浴在柿子树下的水池里。能洗洗干净的感觉一定很不错。丹妮不需要镜子也知道自己有多脏。
Jhiqui and Irri would be waiting atop her pyramid back in Meereen, she told herself. Her sweet scribe Missandei as well, and all her little pages. They would bring her food, and she could bathe in the pool beneath the persimmon tree. It would be good to feel clean again. Dany did not need a glass to know that she was filthy.
而且她也很饥饿。有一天早上她在南山坡下发现了一些野生洋葱，后来又发现了一颗长满淡红色叶子的蔬菜，看起来像是某种卷心菜的变种。是什么都不要紧，因为她吃了之后并没有身体不适。除此之外，她还从卓耿巢穴外涌泉形成的小池塘里抓到了一条鱼。她尽力靠龙吃剩的东西来填肚子，吃那些烧焦的骨头和大块的焦肉，咬起来一半是炭一半是生的。她知道自己需要更多食物。某天她赤足把一个裂掉的羊头骨踢了出去，一直顺着山丘的边缘滚了下去。当她看着它顺着斜坡翻滚进草海时，她意识到自己必须跟着走。
She was hungry too. One morning she had found some wild onions growing halfway down the south slope, and later that same day a leafy reddish vegetable that might have been some queer sort of cabbage. Whatever it was, it had not made her sick. Aside from that, and one fish that she had caught in the spring-fed pool outside of Drogon’s cave, she had survived as best she could on the dragon’s leavings, on burned bones and chunks of smoking meat, half-charred and half-raw. She needed more, she knew. One day she kicked at a cracked sheep’s skull with the side of a bare foot and sent it bouncing over the edge of the hill. And as she watched it tumble down the steep slope toward the sea of grass, she realized she must follow.
丹妮踏着轻快的脚步从高草丛处出发。她的脚趾感受着土地的温暖。周围的草和她一样高。当我骑着银马，和我的日和星一并走在卡拉萨最前面的时候，这些草并没有这么高。她边走边用角斗场主之鞭轻拍自己的大腿。那条鞭子，和背上的碎布，就是她从弥林带出来的全部。
Dany set off through the tall grass at a brisk pace. The earth felt warm between her toes. The grass was as tall as she was. It never seemed so high when I was mounted on my silver, riding beside my sun-and-stars at the head of his khalasar. As she walked, she tapped her thigh with the pitmaster’s whip. That, and the rags on her back, were all she had taken from Meereen.
她穿行在绿色的国度中，然而长草丛已不复记忆中夏日的浓密碧绿。即使在这里，也能够感受到秋天的气息，而冬天也即将降临。草丛的颜色比起她印象中要更为黯淡，一片片濒临变黄的病怏怏的绿。不久之后它们就会变成褐色。这片草原正在向死亡靠拢。
Though she walked through a green kingdom, it was not the deep rich green of summer. Even here autumn made its presence felt, and winter would not be far behind. The grass was paler than she remembered, a wan and sickly green on the verge of going yellow. After that would come brown. The grass was dying.
丹妮莉丝。坦格利安对多斯拉克海并不陌生，一望无垠的草海，从科霍尔的森林一直延伸到圣母山和世界的子宫湖。她初次见到这片草海时还是个小女孩，刚嫁给卡奥卓戈，向着维斯？多斯拉克前进，准备将自己引见给多希卡林。草原无限延伸的景象美得让她窒息。那时的天空很蓝，草原一片苍郁，而我也心怀希冀。那时乔拉爵士也在她身边，她的粗野的大熊。伊莉、姬琪和多莉娅会照顾她，在夜晚她的日和星会抱着她入睡，他的孩子在她的体内成长。雷戈，我给他取名为雷戈，多希卡林说他会成为骑着世界的骏马。这是她最开心的记忆，甚至连在布拉佛斯红屋子的朦胧记忆也无法比拟。
Daenerys Targaryen was no stranger to the Dothraki sea, the great ocean of grass that stretched from the forest of Qohor to the Mother of Mountains and the Womb of the World. She had seen it first when she was still a girl, newly wed to Khal Drogo and on her way to Vaes Dothrak to be presented to the crones of the dosh khaleen. The sight of all that grass stretching out before her had taken her breath away. The sky was blue, the grass was green, and I was full of hope. Ser Jorah had been with her then, her gruff old bear. She’d had Irri and Jhiqui and Doreah to care for her, her sun-and-stars to hold her in the night, his child growing inside her. Rhaego. I was going to name him Rhaego, and the dosh khaleen said he would be the Stallion Who Mounts the World. Not since those half-remembered days in Braavos when she lived in the house with the red door had she been as happy.
但是所有欢乐的回忆都在红色荒野化为灰烬。她的日和星从马上摔了下来，巫魔女弥丽？马兹？笃尔谋杀了她肚子里的雷戈，而丹妮也用双手扼杀了空壳卡奥卓戈的生命。随后卓戈的卡拉萨也烟消云散。波诺？寇自称卡奥并带走了不少骑兵和奴隶。贾科随后也如法炮制并带走了更多人。他的血盟卫马戈强暴并杀死了埃萝叶，一个丹妮莉丝曾从他手下救过的女孩。要不是她的龙在卡奥卓戈火葬的火焰和浓烟中诞生，恐怕丹妮已经被带回维斯？多斯拉克和多希卡林的老妪们度过余生了。
But in the Red Waste, all her joy had turned to ashes. Her sun-and-stars had fallen from his horse, the maegi Mirri Maz Duur had murdered Rhaego in her womb, and Dany had smothered the empty shell of Khal Drogo with her own two hands. Afterward Drogo’s great khalasar had shattered. Ko Pono named himself Khal Pono and took many riders with him, and many slaves as well. Ko Jhaqo named himself Khal Jhaqo and rode off with even more. Mago, his bloodrider, raped and murdered Eroeh, a girl Daenerys had once saved from him. Only the birth of her dragons amidst the fire and smoke of Khal Drogo’s funeral pyre had spared Dany herself from being dragged back to Vaes Dothrak to live out the remainder of her days amongst the crones of the dosh khaleen.
火焰吞噬了我的头发，但丝毫没有伤到其他地方。在达兹纳克的角斗场情况也一样。这点她还是能想起来的，虽然之后的事情只是一片迷雾。太多的人，尖叫着，推挤着。她想起了马儿们在嘶叫，还有从翻倒手推车上洒了一地的甜瓜。有一支长矛从下面飞了过来，随后是许多支十字弓箭。有一支离丹妮如此的近，她能感受到它从脸颊旁擦过。剩下的箭从卓耿的鳞片上飞掠而过，有的藏匿在其中，有的穿过了他翅膀的薄膜。她记起来黑龙在她身下扭动着，在她不顾一切想要靠在他长鳞的背上所产生的撞击下而颤栗。他的伤口在冒烟。丹妮目睹其中一支箭突然变成火焰。另外一支在龙翼的拍打下脱落下来。她看到肆虐的人们被烈火完全笼罩，他们把手举得高高的，像是在跳某种疯狂的仪式舞。一个穿戴绿色托卡的女人伸出手揪住了一个哭泣的孩子，把他拉到自己的手臂之下防止被烈焰吞噬。虽然丹妮能够清晰地看到徽章的颜色，却无法看到女人的脸庞。人群在从她身边踏过，混乱地扭作一团。有的人着了火。
The fire burned away my hair, but elsewise it did not touch me. It had been the same in Daznak’s Pit. That much she could recall, though much of what followed was a haze. So many people, screaming and shoving. She remembered rearing horses, a food cart spilling melons as it overturned. From below a spear came flying, followed by a flight of crossbow bolts. One passed so close that Dany felt it brush her cheek. Others skittered off Drogon’s scales, lodged between them, or tore through the membrane of his wings. She remembered the dragon twisting beneath her, shuddering at the impacts, as she tried desperately to cling to his scaled back. The wounds were smoking. Dany saw one of the bolts burst into sudden flame. Another fell away, shaken loose by the beating of his wings. Below, she saw men whirling, wreathed in flame, hands up in the air as if caught in the throes of some mad dance. A woman in a green tokar reached for a weeping child, pulling him down into her arms to shield him from the flames. Dany saw the color vividly, but not the woman’s face. People were stepping on her as they lay tangled on the bricks. Some were on fire.
然后一切都开始消散，周围的声音越来越弱，人群开始缩小，长矛和弓箭也随着卓耿的爬升而向后脱落。爬升，爬升，还在爬升，金字塔和角斗场也已经都在身下，他也没有把她从背上甩下。他的羽翼自由地舒张，享受着经阳光照晒过后砖墙上冒出来的热气。如果我从上面摔下去而死，这也值了。她当时这么想。
Then all of that had faded, the sounds dwindling, the people shrinking, the spears and arrows falling back beneath them as Drogon clawed his way into the sky. Up and up and up he’d borne her, high above the pyramids and pits, his wings outstretched to catch the warm air rising from the city’s sun baked bricks. If I fall and die, it will still have been worth it, she had thought.
他们往北飞去，飞过了河流，卓耿和他那负着伤的翅膀带着她滑行于云层间，云层的移动彷如幽灵军队一般瞬间驶向后方。丹妮瞥见了奴隶湾的海岸以及穿过了沙漠和废墟，沿着海岸线行进的古瓦雷利安大道，直到它的尽头至于西边。是回家的路。很快的，下面除了在风中泛起涟漪的绿色海洋之外，便什么也看不见了。
North they flew, beyond the river, Drogon gliding on torn and tattered wings through clouds that whipped by like the banners of some ghostly army. Dany glimpsed the shores of Slaver’s Bay and the old Valyrian road that ran beside it through sand and desolation until it vanished in the west. The road home. Then there was nothing beneath them but grass rippling in the wind.
第一次在天上翱翔，时间似乎过了千年。有时候她真的有这种感觉。
Was that first flight a thousand years ago? Sometimes it seemed as if it must be.
随着太阳逐渐升高，温度也同样在上升，没过多久她的头已经开始嗡嗡作响。丹妮的头发正在重新长出来，但速度并不快。“我需要一顶帽子”，她大声说。在龙石山上她曾试图给自己用野草的茎秆编一顶，就象以前和卓戈在一起时，她看到那些多斯拉克妇女们做的那样。但不知是因为用的草种类不对，还是单纯缺乏必要的技能，她编的帽子总是会在手里散落开来。再试一次，她对自己说。下一次你会做得更好。你是真龙血脉，你一定能编出一顶帽子的。她试了又试，但是最后一次尝试的结果仍然不比第一次的实验品好多少。
The sun grew hotter as it rose, and before long her head was pounding. Dany’s hair was growing out again, but slowly. “I need a hat,” she said aloud. Up on Dragonstone she had tried to make one for herself, weaving stalks of grass together as she had seen Dothraki women do during her time with Drogo, but either she was using the wrong sort of grass or she simply lacked the necessary skill. Her hats all fell to pieces in her hands. Try again, she told herself. You will do better the next time. You are the blood of the dragon, you can make a hat. She tried and tried, but her last attempt had been no more successful than her first.
当丹妮找到在山上瞥见的那条小溪时已经是下午了。这是一条十分不显眼的小溪，涓涓缓缓潺延，微弱得比她手臂还要窄……而她每在龙石山上多待一天，手臂也比之前要细小一圈。丹妮用手掌掬起一瓢清水，往脸上拂去。当她把手比作成杯状放入水中，手指的关节与小溪底部的泥土相碰触，发出了嘎吱的声音。虽然她想要更冰凉清澈的水……但是现实并非如此，如果要把希望放在空想上，她最想要的是救援。
It was afternoon by the time Dany found the stream she had glimpsed atop the hill. It was a rill, a rivulet, a trickle, no wider than her arm … and her arm had grown thinner every day she spent on Dragonstone. Dany scooped up a handful of water and splashed it on her face. When she cupped her hands, her knuckles squished in the mud at the bottom of the stream. She might have wished for colder, clearer water … but no, if she were going to pin her hopes on wishes, she would wish for rescue.
但她依然希望有人前来寻找她。也许巴利斯坦爵士会来；这是她的第一个女王侍卫，他发誓用自己的生命保护她。她的血盟卫对多斯拉克海也不陌生，而他们的性命与她的更是牢牢地束在一起。她的丈夫，希兹达赫？佐？洛拉克，或许也会派遣搜寻队。还有达里奥……丹妮在脑海里想象他驰骋于绿色高草中，骑着马冲她而去，微笑着，金牙在落日的最后一缕余晖下闪耀着璀璨的光芒。
She still clung to the hope that someone would come after her. Ser Barristan might come seeking her; he was the first of her Queensguard, sworn to defend her life with his own. And her bloodriders were no strangers to the Dothraki sea, and their lives were bound to her own. Her husband, the noble Hizdahr zo Loraq, might dispatch searchers. And Daario … Dany pictured him riding toward her through the tall grass, smiling, his golden tooth gleaming with the last light of the setting sun.
这些人中只有达里奥成为了人质送到渊凯人手中，从而确保渊凯的统帅不会受到任何伤害。达里奥、赫洛、乔戈、格里奥，以及希兹达赫的三个家属。到现在为止，她所有的人质都肯定被释放了。可是……
Only Daario had been given to the Yunkai’i, a hostage to ensure no harm came to the Yunkish captains. Daario and Hero, Jhogo and Groleo, and three of Hizdahr’s kin. By now, surely, all of her hostages would have been released. But …
她不知道达里奥的刀刃是否还挂在墙上，在她的床边等待着他回来领取。“我把我的宝贝们留给你了，”他说过。“替我保存好，吾爱。”她不确定渊凯人是否知道，达里奥对她来说意味着什么。送走人质当天下午她曾问过巴利斯坦爵士。“他们一定听过那段谈话。” 他回复道。“纳哈里斯甚至还大肆宣扬陛下对他……特别的……赞赏……请您原谅我，可是谦虚并不是这个队长的美德之一。他对自己最自豪的是……他的剑术。”
She wondered if her captain’s blades still hung upon the wall beside her bed, waiting for Daario to return and claim them. “I will leave my girls with you,” he had said. “Keep them safe for me, beloved.” And she wondered how much the Yunkai’i knew about what her captain meant to her. She had asked Ser Barristan that question the afternoon the hostages went forth. “They will have heard the talk,” he had replied. “Naharis may even have boasted of Your Grace’s … of your great … regard … for him. If you will forgive my saying so, modesty is not one of the captain’s virtues. He takes great pride in his … his swordsmanship.”
你其实想说，他最自豪的是和我同床共枕吧。可惜达里奥才没有笨到在敌人面前吹捧这一点。然而这都不重要了。现在渊凯人一定都退兵返乡了。这才是她做这一切的目的。为了和平。
He boasts of bedding me, you mean. But Daario would not have been so foolish as to make such a boast amongst her enemies. It makes no matter. By now the Yunkai’i will be marching home. That was why she had done all that she had done. For peace.
她转身看自己走过的路，龙石山彷如一个攥紧的拳头在草海上凸现出来。它离我好近。我已经走了好几个小时，但它仍然看起来触手可及。现在回去还来得及。卓耿巢穴外的涌泉池内还有小鱼。她在那的第一天就抓到了一条，回去的话也许能抓到更多。那儿还会有残留的焦骨，上面夹杂着小块的肉，那些卓耿的剩饭。
She turned back the way she’d come, to where Dragonstone rose above the grasslands like a clenched fist. It looks so close. I’ve been walking for hours, yet it still looks as if I could reach out and touch it. It was not too late to go back. There were fish in the spring-fed pool by Drogon’s cave. She had caught one her first day there, she might catch more. And there would be scraps, charred bones with bits of flesh still on them, the remnants of Drogon’s kills.
不，丹妮对自己说。如果我回头，一切就完了。也许她能够在龙石山上活上个好几年，在岩石上享受阳光的沐浴，白天的时候骑乘在卓耿身上，到了傍晚以啃食他的剩饭充饥，望着草原由金色变成橘红，但是，这样的生活并不是她与生俱来的。于是她再次转过身来，背对着远处的山丘，闭上耳朵，任由那飞翔与自由之歌在风中、在坚石缭绕的山脊间消散。那条小溪由东南向南流淌而去，起码在她看来是这样的。把我带到河边，这是我唯一的请求。带我到河边，剩下的路由我自己来走。
No, Dany told herself. If I look back I am lost. She might live for years amongst the sunbaked rocks of Dragonstone, riding Drogon by day and gnawing at his leavings every evenfall as the great grass sea turned from gold to orange, but that was not the life she had been born to. So once again she turned her back upon the distant hill and closed her ears to the song of flight and freedom that the wind sang as it played amongst the hill’s stony ridges. The stream was trickling south by southeast, as near as she could tell. She followed it. Take me to the river, that is all I ask of you. Take me to the river, and I will do the rest.
时间过的很慢。小溪蜿蜒曲折，丹妮一直跟在后面，时不时用鞭子扫一扫大腿打发时间，试图不去想自己走了多远，头有多疼，或者是肚子有多空。抬起脚，往前走一步，再走一步，接着走下一步。她还有什么选择吗？
The hours passed slowly. The stream bent this way and that, and Dany followed, beating time upon her leg with the whip, trying not to think about how far she had to go, or the pounding in her head, or her empty belly. Take one step. Take the next. Another step. Another. What else could she do?
草海十分平静。风吹过的时候，草秆之间的触动发出阵阵叹息，它们的窃窃私语只有神灵才能听得懂。小溪偶尔流经一块石头时，便会汨汨作响地从旁边绕过。泥土从她脚趾间挤出，发出细微的咯吱声。昆虫围绕着她嗡嗡而叫，那些懒蜻蜓、发亮的绿蜂还有咬人的蚊蚋小得几乎看不见。当它们停在她手臂上时，她便心不在焉地拍打它们。有一次她撞见了一只老鼠正在小溪中饮水，她的出现令它突然奔窜于草茎中，消失于高高的草海当中。有时她还能听到鸟儿们的歌声。那音乐让她的肚子咕咕作响，但她没有任何网去捕捉这些小鸟，到目前为止，她也没有见过一个鸟巢。我曾经渴望飞翔，她心想，现在这个愿望实现了，而我却渴望偷蛋。她不由地大笑。“人疯神更狂，”她对着草海说道，后者发出了低语声，似乎在表示赞同。
It was quiet on her sea. When the wind blew the grass would sigh as the stalks brushed against each other, whispering in a tongue that only gods could understand. Now and again the little stream would gurgle where it flowed around a stone. Mud squished between her toes. Insects buzzed around her, lazy dragonflies and glistening green wasps and stinging midges almost too small to see. She swatted at them absently when they landed on her arms. Once she came upon a rat drinking from the stream, but it fled when she appeared, scurrying between the stalks to vanish in the high grass. Sometimes she heard birds singing. The sound made her belly rumble, but she had no nets to snare them with, and so far she had not come on any nests. Once I dreamed of flying, she thought, and now I’ve flown, and dream of stealing eggs. That made her laugh. “Men are mad and gods are madder,” she told the grass, and the grass murmured its agreement.
当天她一共三次见到了卓耿的影子。有一次他距离远得看上去像一头老鹰，滑翔于遥远的云层间，但是丹妮已经能够认出他的样子了，即便他仅有斑点般大小。第二次他从太阳下飞过，黑色的翅膀伸展开来，然后全世界都仿佛陷入了一片晦暗。还有一次他正好走她头上飞过，他们的距离是那么的近，丹妮甚至听到了翅膀拍打的声音。有那么一瞬间丹妮以为他在追捕自己，可是他却继续往前飞去，丝毫没有留意到她的存在，然后突然消失在东边。还好，她心想。
Thrice that day she caught sight of Drogon. Once he was so far off that he might have been an eagle, slipping in and out of distant clouds, but Dany knew the look of him by now, even when he was no more than a speck. The second time he passed before the sun, his black wings spread, and the world darkened. The last time he flew right above her, so close she could hear the sound of his wings. For half a heartbeat Dany thought that he was hunting her, but he flew on without taking any notice of her and vanished somewhere in the east. Just as well, she thought.
傍晚在不知不觉中降临。随着金色余晖浮现于遥远的龙石山尖顶上，丹妮绊倒在一座低矮的石墙旁，周围杂草丛生，残破不堪。也许这是一座寺庙的某个部分，或者某个村子领主的大厅残余。而在石墙前面，更多的废墟映入眼帘——一口古老的井，还有一圈圈小茅屋压出的草印，虽然它们已不复存在。它们应该是用泥土和草茎搭起来的，她判断，但是长期的风雨也已经将其冲刷成一片残迹。在日落之前丹妮一共发现了八个茅屋废墟，不过在更遥远的草海中，一定埋藏着更多。
Evening took her almost unawares. As the sun was gilding the distant spires of Dragonstone, Dany stumbled onto a low stone wall, overgrown and broken. Perhaps it had been part of a temple, or the hall of the village lord. More ruins lay beyond it—an old well, and some circles in the grass that marked the sites where hovels had once stood. They had been built of mud and straw, she judged, but long years of wind and rain had worn them away to nothing. Dany found eight before the sun went down, but there might have been more farther out, hidden in the grass.
这座石墙比其余废墟存活的都要久。虽然它甚至还没三尺高，充其量由两块建筑物的突起相遇而成，可它仍然能够提供遮蔽，再加上夜晚很快将至。丹妮缩进一个角落，扯下废墟周围的一些杂草，并给自己搭起了小窝。她全身疲乏，双脚上都起了新鲜的水泡，还有几个对称的印在通红的脚趾上。一定我走路的方式，她咯咯地笑着想。
The stone wall had endured better than the rest. Though it was nowhere more than three feet high, the angle where it met another, lower wall still offered some shelter from the elements, and night was coming on fast. Dany wedged herself into that corner, making a nest of sorts by tearing up handfuls of the grass that grew around the ruins. She was very tired, and fresh blisters had appeared on both her feet, including a matched set upon her pinky toes. It must be from the way I walk, she thought, giggling.
随着黑夜的降临，丹妮安顿了下来，并合上了眼睛，但她却一直睡不着。草原上的夜晚是寒冷的，土地如冰一样硬，自己的肚子也是空的。她不自觉地想起了弥林，想起了她的情人达里奥，她的丈夫希兹达赫，伊莉和姬琪，让人心疼的弥桑黛，巴利斯坦爵士，雷兹纳克还有剃头人斯卡哈日。他们会怕我已经死了吗？毕竟我骑在龙背上飞走。他们会不会觉得他吃了我？她想知道兹达赫是否还是国王。他的皇冠是从她那得到的，而他又能否在她缺席期间保住王位呢？他想让卓耿去死。我听到他说那句话了。“杀了它，”他尖叫道，“杀了这个野兽，”他的脸上充满了兽欲。壮汉贝沃斯当时跪在地上，边发抖边呕吐。毒药，一定是毒药。那些蜂蜜蝗虫。希兹达赫一直想让我尝尝，但是贝沃斯把它们都吃光了。她让希兹达赫成为了她的国王，带他上了自己的床，为了他再次开放角斗场，他没有理由想让她死。但还能有谁呢？雷兹纳克，这个洒满香水的总管？渊凯人？还是鹰身女妖之子？
As the world darkened, Dany settled in and closed her eyes, but sleep refused to come. The night was cold, the ground hard, her belly empty. She found herself thinking of Meereen, of Daario, her love, and Hizdahr, her husband, of Irri and Jhiqui and sweet Missandei, Ser Barristan and Reznak and Skahaz Shavepate. Do they fear me dead? I flew off on a dragon’s back. Will they think he ate me? She wondered if Hizdahr was still king. His crown had come from her, could he hold it in her absence? He wanted Drogon dead. I heard him. “Kill it,” he screamed, “kill the beast,” and the look upon his face was lustful. And Strong Belwas had been on his knees, heaving and shuddering. Poison. It had to be poison. The honeyed locusts. Hizdahr urged them on me, but Belwas ate them all. She had made Hizdahr her king, taken him into her bed, opened the fighting pits for him, he had no reason to want her dead. Yet who else could it have been? Reznak, her perfumed seneschal? The Yunkai’i? The Sons of the Harpy?
远方，一声狼嚎响起。这让她感到伤心而又孤单，但最主要还是饥饿。月亮从草海中爬上天空，丹妮终于在不知不觉中进入了不安宁的睡眠中。
Off in the distance, a wolf howled. The sound made her feel sad and lonely, but no less hungry. As the moon rose above the grasslands, Dany slipped at last into a restless sleep.
她进入了梦乡。所有的烦恼，所有的疼痛都烟消云散，她仿佛漂浮了起来，上升到云空中。她再一次飞了起来，盘旋着，欢笑着跳着飞翔之舞，群星在她周围旋转，在她耳边絮絮低语，道出秘密。“要去北方，你必须南行。要达西境，你必须往东。若要前进，你必须后退。若要光明，你必须通过阴影。”
She dreamed. All her cares fell away from her, and all her pains as well, and she seemed to float upward into the sky. She was flying once again, spinning, laughing, dancing, as the stars wheeled around her and whispered secrets in her ear. “To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward, you must go back. To touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.”
“魁蜥？”丹妮喊。“魁蜥，你在哪里？”
“Quaithe?” Dany called. “Where are you, Quaithe?”
