DAENERYS
丹妮莉絲
Her Dothraki scouts had told her how it was, but Dany wanted to see for herself.
多斯拉克斥候已匯報過情況,但她想親自看看。
Ser Jorah Mormont rode with her through a birchwood forest and up a slanting sandstone ridge.
于是喬拉·莫爾蒙爵士隨她騎過白樺樹林,上到一道砂巖斜坡。
“Near enough,”
“太近了。”
he warned her at the crest.
他在山頂警告她。
Dany reined in her mare and looked across the fields, to where the Yunkish host lay athwart her path.
丹妮拉韁勒馬,望向原野上橫亙于道路的淵凱軍團。
Whitebeard had been teaching her how best to count the numbers of a foe.
白胡子教過她如何準確估算人數。
“Five thousand,” she said after a moment.
“五千。”觀察片刻之后,她道。
“I’d say so.” Ser Jorah pointed.
“我也這么認為。”喬拉邊說邊指,
“Those are sellswords on the flanks.
“兩翼是傭兵,
Lances and mounted bowmen, with swords and axes for the close work.
裝備長槍和弓箭,并配有劍斧用于近戰。
The Second Sons on the left wing, the Stormcrows to the right.
左翼次子團,右翼暴鴉團,
About five hundred men apiece. See the banners?”
各約五百人,看到那些旗幟了嗎?”
Yunkai’s harpy grasped a whip and iron collar in her talons instead of a length of chain.
淵凱的鷹身女妖爪里抓的是鞭子和鐵項圈,而非一段鎖鏈。
But the sellswords flew their own standards beneath those of the city they served:
但傭兵有自己的旗幟,在他們所效力的城市徽記下飛揚:
on the right four crows between crossed thunderbolts, on the left a broken sword.
右面是嵌在兩道交叉閃電間的四只烏鴉,左面是一把斷劍。
“The Yunkai’s hold the center themselves,” Dany noted.
“淵凱人自守中路,”丹妮說,
Their officers looked indistinguishable from Astapor’s at a distance;
從遠觀之,他們的軍官跟阿斯塔波人沒有區別,
tall bright helms and cloaks sewn with flashing copper disks.
高聳明亮的頭盔,披風上縫有許多閃亮銅盤,
“Are those slave soldiers they lead?”
“帶的是奴兵?”
“In large part.
“大部分是,
But not the equal of Unsullied.
但不能跟無垢者相提并論。
Yunkai is known for training bed slaves, not warriors.”
淵凱以訓練床上奴隸聞名,對戰技并不在行。”
“What say you?
“你怎么說?
Can we defeat this army?”
我們能不能擊敗這支軍隊?”
“Easily,” Ser Jorah said.
“輕而易舉。”喬拉爵士回答。
“But not bloodlessly.”
“但也需要流血。”
Blood aplenty had soaked into the bricks of Astapor the day that city fell, though little of it belonged to her or hers.
攻取阿斯塔波那天,大量鮮血滲入那座紅磚之城的磚塊里,盡管其中很少是屬于她和她子民的。
“We might win a battle here, but at such cost we cannot take the city.”
“我們或能在這里贏得一場戰斗,但付出的代價也許會讓我們無力攻取城市。”
“That is ever a risk, Khaleesi.
“風險總是存在,卡麗熙。
Astapor was complacent and vulnerable.
阿斯塔波外表驕傲內里脆弱,
Yunkai is forewarned.”
淵凱卻預先得到了警告。”
Dany considered.
丹妮思考片刻。
The slaver host seemed small compared to her own numbers, but the sellswords were ahorse.
對方的奴隸軍團比自己的部隊人數少很多,但傭兵都有馬,
She’d ridden too long with Dothraki not to have a healthy respect for what mounted warriors could do to foot.
她曾跟多斯拉克人馳騁疆場,完全清楚馬上戰士對步卒的影響。
The Unsullied could withstand their charge, but my freedmen will be slaughtered.
無垢者可以抵擋沖擊,但我的自由民會被屠殺。
“The slavers like to talk,” she said.
“奴隸販子們樂于談判,”她說,
“Send word that I will hear them this evening in my tent.
“傳話過去,就說今晚我接見他們,
And invite the captains of the sellsword companies to call on me as well.
同時也邀請傭兵隊長們造訪——
But not together.
但不要一起來,
The Stormcrows at midday, the Second Sons two hours later.”
暴鴉團安排在正午,次子團晚兩個小時。”
“As you wish,” Ser Jorah said.
“如您所愿,”喬拉爵士道,
“But if they do not come—”
“但若他們不肯——”
“They’ll come.
“會來的。
They will be curious to see the dragons and hear what I might have to say,
他們會好奇地看看龍,并聽聽我的說法,
and the clever ones will see it for a chance to gauge my strength.”
聰明人會把這當作衡量我實力的機會。”
She wheeled her silver mare about.
她圈轉銀色母馬。
“I’ll await them in my pavilion.”
“我在帳篷里等。”
Slate skies and brisk winds saw Dany back to her host.
丹妮回到營地時天灰蒙蒙的,刮起了大風。
The deep ditch that would encircle her camp was already half dug,
圍繞營地的壕溝已開挖了一半,林子里都是無垢者,
and the woods were full of Unsullied lopping branches off birch trees to sharpen into stakes.
正從白樺樹上砍下枝杈,削成尖樁。
The eunuchs could not sleep in an unfortified camp, or so Grey Worm insisted.
這批戰士太監不會在未經設防的營地里休息,至少灰蟲子如此堅持。
He was there watching the work.
此刻他監督著工程進展,
Dany halted a moment to speak with him.
丹妮稍作停留與其交談,
“Yunkai has girded up her loins for battle.”
“淵凱人準備開戰了。”
“This is good, Your Grace.
“很好,陛下,
These ones thirst for blood.”
小人們渴望著流血。”
When she had commanded the Unsullied to choose officers from amongst themselves,
她令無垢者自己選出軍官,
Grey Worm had been their overwhelming choice for the highest rank.
于是灰蟲子以壓倒性優勢被推舉出來。
Dany had put Ser Jorah over him to train him for command,
丹妮指定喬拉爵士為他的上司,教他如何指揮,
and the exile knight said that so far the young eunuch was hard but fair,
被放逐的騎士報告說迄今為止,這年輕的太監尚令人滿意,
quick to learn, tireless, and utterly unrelenting in his attention to detail.
反應迅速,不知疲倦,并對一切細節孜孜不倦。
“The Wise Masters have assembled a slave army to meet us.”
“賢主大人們集結起一支奴隸大軍來會我們。”
“A slave in Yunkai learns the way of seven sighs and the sixteen seats of pleasure, Your Grace.
“淵凱的奴隸學的是歡場中七大氣息與十六方體位,陛下,
The Unsullied learn the way of the three spears.
無垢者學的則是三種長矛的使用之道。
Your Grey Worm hopes to show you.”
小人灰蟲子希望能展示給您看。”
One of the first things Dany had done after the fall of Astapor was abolish the custom of giving the Unsullied new slave names every day.
攻取阿斯塔波之后,丹妮首先做的事情之一便是廢除無垢者每天被賦予一個新名的慣例。
Most of those born free had returned to their birth names;
生為自由民的人多半用回誕生時的名字——
those who still remembered them, at least.
至少那些仍記得自己名字的人是如此。