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The woman who had tried to flee was short and slight. She wore the standard robes of a Silent Sister, with everything but her eyes wrapped tightly beneath gray cloth and a black veil.
"Remove her disguise," Robb ordered.
Several Wolfguard stepped forward at once. They tore away the woman's veil and outer robes, then forced her head up.
The face beneath was not Westerosi.
Her skin was dark, her cheekbones sharp, and the shape of her skull was strangely long and pointed, as if it had been bound and shaped that way since childhood.
Several nurses from Volantis gasped.
Talisa's expression changed as well. "Jogos Nhai."
"You know her?" Robb asked.
"No, Your Grace. I only know what she is." Talisa looked at the captive, then lowered her voice. "The Jogos Nhai live on the plains north of Yi Ti. Their children bind their heads while the bones are still soft, so the skull grows into that shape. They are rare in Volantis and almost never seen in Westeros."
The woman lowered her head and said nothing.
Robb glanced at Bloodwind.
The giant direwolf's pale eyes remained fixed on Talisa for several breaths. Through the pact, Robb felt only a steady heartbeat and normal breathing from her.
Talisa had not lied.
"Treat the wound in her leg. Do not let her die," Robb said. "Crey, seal Ashemark. House the Silent Sisters and the nurses comfortably, but no one leaves. No one sends a raven. No one approaches them without my order."
"Yes, Your Grace."
"As for her..." Robb looked at the captive. "Bring her to the dungeon. I want to question her myself."
Talisa stepped forward. "Your Grace, the wounded still need care."
"They will be brought to you," Robb said. "Sterilize the rooms, prepare your tools, and do what you came here to do."
Talisa wanted to say more, but Bloodwind's low growl swallowed the words in her throat.
Before long, the Jogos Nhai woman was taken into Ashemark's dungeon.
Robb did not have a taste for torturing women with the cruelties he remembered from his previous life. He also did not need to. Bloodwind lay beside him, and the cold light in the direwolf's eyes was enough to break most men before the first knife was raised.
The woman lasted less than half an hour.
Her name was Zamma. She was a Moon Singer of the Jogos Nhai, and she had been chosen because the moon had favored her since childhood. When she was young, she had been sent across the world to the temple of the Moon Singers in Braavos.
Some time ago, the Moon Emissary of the temple had summoned several Moon Singers who specialized in the Love Song and sent them west to spread the faith.
Zamma had received a separate task. Her group had traveled first to Volantis, then left her there. A month later, five Volantene guards secretly helped her follow Talisa Maegyr to Westeros. She disguised herself as a Silent Sister and entered Ashemark with the Volantene nurses.
The nurses themselves had come openly. The Silent Sisters had invited them to exchange methods and consider whether a branch could be established here.
Zamma's hidden task was simple: when Talisa met the target chosen by the diviner, she would use the Love Song to lay a blessing on both of them.
Robb listened to the confession without interrupting.
When Zamma finished, he asked three questions.
"Where are the five guards?"
"Among the drivers and attendants who came with the nurses."
"Who told you the target?"
"Diviner Perri. He said the first king Talisa Maegyr met in Westeros would be the one."
"Remove the Love Song."
Zamma shook her head in terror. "I cannot, Your Grace. I swear it by the moon, by all the gods you name, and by the life in my body. The blessing cannot be removed by me."
Robb narrowed his eyes.
Zamma hurried on. "It is harmless. Truly harmless. In Braavos, the Sealord and wealthy merchants pay the Moon Singers for this blessing. It increases the bond between two people. It increases the chance of children. The more they resist, the more their minds turn toward each other. It ends only when they lie together."
Robb froze the wound in her leg to stop the bleeding while she spoke.
The more Zamma explained, the colder his expression became.
The original Robb Stark had not simply fallen into Talisa's arms by chance.
The trap had been prepared long before he understood it.
If the Red Wedding in the original fate had not come so soon, this scheme from Volantis and Braavos might have become another net around the North.
Even with supernatural power in his hands, carelessness still invited traps.
"If I take another woman to bed, will the blessing end?" Robb asked.
Zamma shook her head. "No. Only Talisa."
Robb leaned back and let out a slow breath.
He remembered an article from his previous life. Love, it had said, could be reduced to a storm of reactions inside the body: desire, attachment, habit, memory, the sweetness of reward and the pain of withdrawal. Magic or no magic, the Love Song seemed to push those reactions in the same direction.
But passion alone could not keep two people together to old age. A couple had to know how to satisfy each other, endure each other, and survive the ordinary years as well as the bright ones.
After asking Zamma a few more casual questions about Braavos, Robb ordered two Wolfguard to escort her to treatment.
Night slowly fell.
When Robb and Bloodwind were eating supper in the inner keep's hall, Crey arrived still stained with blood.
"You have worked hard. Come, eat with me," Robb said, pointing at the long table covered with meat, fruit, and bread. "We can talk while we eat."
Crey knew Robb's temperament and had eaten with him before. He wiped his hands quickly with a towel a maid brought over, sat farther down the table from Robb, tore into the food, and began his report.
"Your Grace, the five Volantene guards resisted when we arrested them. One was killed on the spot. Two more failed to survive the questioning. Only two are left. I have compared what they said with a great deal of other intelligence, and most of it holds together."
"I trust your judgment," Robb said, biting into a roasted leg of lamb. "Go on."
"They were not ordinary Volantene guards. I found tiger tattoos on them. They are elite fighters of the Tiger Party."
"The Tiger Party?"
"Yes, Your Grace. Volantis has no king. It is ruled by three triarchs elected by the people. Each triarch serves only one year, but any triarch may seek reelection without limit. Those three are the highest men in Volantis.
"According to the prisoners, while a triarch remains in office, his feet may not touch the ground. When they travel, they ride in elephant-drawn cars.
"The triarchs are divided between two factions: the Tiger Party and the Elephant Party.
"This also touches on Talisa, whom Your Grace asked me to investigate. Her full name is Talisa Maegyr. The name Maegyr is almost unknown in Westeros, but in Volantis it is famous.
"One of Volantis's long-serving triarchs is Malaquo Maegyr, a triarch of the Tiger Party."
Robb swallowed his mouthful of lamb. "And what is Talisa to him?"
"Only one of his many granddaughters. She received no special favor from him. Before she followed the Volantene nurses to Westeros, she lived an ordinary life in Volantis."
"I see. Continue."
"For the past three hundred years, Volantis has usually been ruled by one Tiger triarch and two Elephant triarchs. But after the news from Astapor arrived, the city's politics changed.
"Before they left, the guards heard that Queen Daenerys Targaryen, who has three dragons, had gained command of the Unsullied in Astapor, killed the Good Masters, and freed all the slaves.
"Then she marched toward Yunkai, supposedly to free the slaves there as well.
"Volantis has always been a slave city. This made the city feel threatened. At present, most of Volantis wants war against that queen, and the next election may well create two Tiger triarchs and only one Elephant triarch."
Robb listened as if Crey were telling him a story to season the meal. Between bites, he asked, "And what does that have to do with sending men to Westeros?"
"Because the faith of the Lord of Light is widespread in Volantis. Benerro, the High Priest of the red temple, has been loudly proclaiming that Queen Daenerys Targaryen is the reborn hero of ancient prophecy, the one who will save the world from darkness.
"He calls on the people of Volantis to stand with her against the darkness. He also warns that if Volantis opposes Queen Daenerys, disaster will be its end.
"Because of him, a voice calling for surrender and submission has appeared among all the cries for war.
"At a Tiger Party council, Triarch Malaquo told the party that if they secured his reelection, he would solve the problem. After meeting Diviner Perri of the Moon Singers' temple, those elite Tiger Party fighters were ordered to escort Zamma to Westeros."
Crey finished the report without pausing, took a cup of wine from the table, and drank deeply.
"The Elephant Party and Tiger Party. The red temple and the temple of the Moon Singers." Robb threw the lamb bone onto the table and fell into thought. "So the Tiger Party and the Moon Singers have joined forces. That is how Talisa had the chance to meet a Jogos Nhai woman.
"But what do they want from me?"
Arya was still in the House of Black and White in Braavos.
Now Volantis had pushed its troubles across the sea to him as well.
Daenerys, with three dragons, was freeing slaves, expanding her territory, and growing stronger by the day.
'I need to bring the Seven Kingdoms under control as soon as possible. Only then can I stand against her in the future.'
'And there is the army of the Others beyond the Wall. I wonder how Jon is doing.'
'So many problems waiting for me. Exhausting.'
Then another thought surfaced.
'I wonder if Talisa is resting. Perhaps I should go see her.'
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