A Clash of Kings

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, graphic violence, physical abuse, rape, and child abuse.

Hoping to obtain a fleet, Daenerys seeks an audience with the Pureborn, Qarth’s noblemen. None of them take her pleas seriously. Xaro consoles her and proposes marriage.

Riding through the city on a palanquin, they are stopped by the sideshow of a fire mage, who conjures a spectacular ladder of flames. Quaithe suddenly appears to tell Daenerys that the fire mage’s powers have only recently grown with her arrival because she is the Mother of Dragons. Quiathe urges Daenerys to leave Qarth for Asshai, another city, where she will find “truth.” Daenerys’s men are cautious of the shadows in Asshai.

Daenerys consults Jorah, who tells her that Xaro is using the marriage ritual to obtain one of the dragons and cement his power over the city. Jorah discourages Daenerys from hiring a foreign army to conquer Westeros, as it will unite all the noble houses against her. Left with no other option, she turns to Pyat Pree.