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God-Emperor of Essos and beyond (DISCONTINUED) by Paperpuscher 101
 Harry Potter & A song of Ice and Fire Xover Rated: M, English, Adventure & Fantasy, Harry P., Words: 337k+, Favs: 4k+, Follows: 4k+, Published: Jan 7, 2017 Updated: Jun 25, 2018 1,146Chapter 5: Flying cities, Dothraki and Lharzeen
Bellatrix, Andromeda, Marcella and Narcissa all came back with their objectives achieved.
All in all approximately ten-thousand ex-slaves were now citizens of Chroyane. It seemed in Volantis, Tyrosh, Lys and Myr were more slaves to purchase than in Qohor with it being no port city and only a Dothraki Horde to provide them with it from time to time in a four year span. Khal Zekko was the name of their leader Harry thought to remember. That wasn't important though, important was that they now had all the people to build up a proper city while they restored and improved the ruins.
In the beginning the former slaves and craftsmen were understandably uncomfortable around them, due to their power and its first demonstration in form of the Inferi, but in time when no harm came to them it was slowly accepted. Seeing that they got a new chance at life most accepted to live and work in their city. Not for money at the moment, but food, which should last about a year in total to consume from what they had stored. In an emergency they even could multiply it.
In this year Harry and his wives didn't sat idle. In the beginning of the year of transport they had to prepare the city for it, which was a difficult bit of magic. Not to mention costly in aspect of magical expense.
After enough buildings were restored to house all of the inhabitants Harry, Andromeda, Bellatrix, Narcissa and Marcella walked towards the main-stone of the ward scheme. On the way towards it Andromeda asked with a thoughtful expression. "How do you think we should transport the city?"
At the looks she received the middle Black elaborated. "I mean we can't just simply transport it per portkey now can we?" it was said amused, but at the same time seriously as if she couldn't decide if she wanted to try or not.
Shaking her head Marcella was equally amused. "No, that would work maybe, but it also would rip the city apart upon arrival. Together with all of the people living here."
Ever faithful Bellatrix gave Harry her typical worshipful gaze and said with a fanatical confidence normal for her. "I am sure Mas... Harry has a solution to it." she corrected herself as she saw his own reprimanding gaze in response to her wanting to still address him as Master. It was sort of ok when he didn't saw her as a wife, but a companion. Now that it changed he wouldn't stand for it. It was a work in progress and she only did it a few times since they mentioned the situation all five of them were in.
Still, an embarrassed blush coloured his cheeks at not only Bellatrix's but also Andromeda's, Narcissa's and Marcella's confidence in his abilities, still unaccustomed to being seen as competent. When he got it under control a second later he responded.
"Well I thought that we could use the still present ambient magic in this city to use a few low-level charms on a massive scale."
"Which charms would that be?" inquired a now curious Narcissa. While she wasn't as reverent of her husband as Bellatrix she none the less had as much faith in him to accomplish this not really easy task of magic.
Before Harry could explain Narcissa's interrupted as her own proverbial light-bulb went of in her head. "You want to use the magic still present from the ghosts and curse to power feather-light and levitation-charms?" it was said with a good amount of incredulity. And with good reason the city could contain a million people and was therefore not small. To lift something like this high in the air was a monumental feat and not something accomplished alone.
Harry nodded smiling. "Yes." pointing to the carvings that were prepared around the main-stone he explained. "The power and ritual circles I drew around the ward stone will gather the ambient magic, increase it in potency and feed it to the spells that we will place on the city."
Next he walked to the prepared ritual circles. The ward-stone stood in the middle of a pentagram that would give stability to it through the number five, that also stood for overcoming obstacles. Both necessary for this kind of undertaking. At every point of the pentagram was another circle with a crystal in it. One for each of them to support the ward and channel their power, fuelling the Ritual.
Narcissa stopped short at seeing the runes the circles consisted of. "You do know, that it is designed so that we need a sacrifice for it to work?" in hindsight it was obvious. Something of this magnitude wasn't done with a few simple spells, but with a complex ritual, much power drawn from an outside source as well as a sacrifice to strengthen the effects.
This time smiling a bitter-sweet smile he said. "You catch on quick Cissy. It boggles my mind how Lucius couldn't see your intellect besides your beauty!" after Narcissa's blushed he added more sombre. "But, yes, it is indeed a sacrifice needed."
"What are we sacrificing?" asked Andromeda as she like the rest walked into position in the ritual circle. It briefly came into her mind that he would sacrifice their bond, but it took no hold and was washed away a second later. From the months they were now together he gave no indication that it bothered him. More the opposite with how he took all four of them each morning and evening.
It was a good thing that the master of the bond could grant or deny them the ability to get pregnant. After all it wouldn't do for a pureblood to impregnate the witch, more often than not muggleborn, and through this give her the chance at freedom or magic forbid plant his seed in a inferior creature.
Though Harry would give it to them in a heartbeat, but all four of them denied. The reason was that they wanted to have as good a position in this world as possible, before taking that step. Not to mention that they now had more time than before where they had been quite old and even out of the childbearing age. Shaking out of her daydream she was right on time as Harry began to clarify what would be sacrificed.
"I thought we would sacrifice an ability of ours!" stated Harry as everything was ready for the ritual to begin.
Upon seeing the looks that said 'get on with it' he elaborated. "Our Animagus forms would be best in my opinion." they could sacrifice other things as well. Ranging from senses like tasting sweet, sour, bitter things etc. Body parts, things of emotional value or the best thing. Something that contains much magic, preferably a magical ability with a strong emotional attachment. Like their Animagus forms.
For Harry it was a strong link to his father and godfather and for his wives a link to him. None the less it was the only thing strong enough for it to work. Otherwise they would have to build up a city of their own near the Red Waste instead of using a perfectly good one for free. The work already invested would go to waste as well.
Clearly reluctant to give up such a powerful ability Marcella tried to persuade him not to do it. "Why would we give up something so powerful. The healing tears our forms give us alone are enough to keep them."
Now Narcissa chimed in. "I agree that the tears are useful, but it takes too long to get them and not in that a great quantity. We have a small barrel full of them from over the years and on top of it other methods to aid us."
"I agree with Cissy." commented Bellatrix. "This world from the looks of things hasn't seen magic in a long time and the tears are mostly used for magical venoms or diseases, something which apparently does not exist here."
Seeing that she had the attention she looked to Harry, but he nodded encouragingly, so she continued. "Our forms are too noticeable and distinctive. Give the enemy an enormous target while we ourselves have no ranged attacks, expect from the water we can shoot. Though that has to be refilled after one use. The only thing going for it is the flight, but that we can do without it, at only a marginal loss in speed." That was only the tactical side and not relevant for the ritual which concentrated on the emotional bond and power from the offered ability alone.
Silence hung in the air after Bellatrix's explanation. How her sister-wives could still be shocked at her intellect surprised Harry, but he put the blame on Voldemort and her parents.
He broke the silence by saying with a grin towards Bella. "I couldn't have said it better myself." Which elected a still strange thing to see from Bella. A shy smile and timid mannerism. Next Harry asked. "Everybody ready?" They nodded and began with everything in position.
As soon as Harry gave the command all five of them concentrated on the part of their magic that was responsible for the Animagus transformation. Unlike all the other times it wasn't turned inward but outwards. Towards the crystals that stood before each of them.
A good ten minutes later and the magic was stored in the crystals, separated from them and ready to be sacrificed. Once the whole runes and circles were illuminated with an ethereal glow of a soft pink colour all five poured a steady stream of magical power into the process. Slowly the colour changed from pink to an aquamarine blue similar to the colouring of the scales their forms possess. Indicating that the sacrifice has been made and was indeed enough.
The light grew in intensity, so that Harry had to close his eyes due to the blinding brightness. Still with closed eyes every one channelled more magic into the ritual.
Another few minutes later a loud rumbling could be heard. Peaking through his eyelids Harry saw that his wives also just now opened their eyes. Looking around he noticed a transparent spheric shield surround the city, bordering roughly where the ward-stones stood.
The next thing he knew was that a massive tremor tore through the city as if an earthquake was happening. Slowly, very slowly the city ripped itself out of the ground, fissures spreading out and forming a circle around the city with the ward-stones acting as a border. It took another few hours until Chroyane was sufficiently high into the air. While it rose all the water of the canals drained from them and flowed down on the ground and back into the river Rhyone.
"It was a good thing... we warned the people or... we would've probably caused a massive panic." wheezed Marcella amused as she saw the dumbfounded looks of the people nearby. Not that it was reserved for them only, she herself was just as awed by their feat of magic. Something not seen in this world or in their old for many millennia.
Bellatrix asked after catching her breath from the exhausting ritual. "How do we direct the city though?" Another deep breath later. "It isn't as if we can constantly... spend ridiculous amounts of magic... to do so." still pride was evident in her voice at having achieved such a feat with her sisters and husband.
Harry chuckled as he himself laid on his back, gazing at the now seemingly touchable sky. "Well, then it is good I... incorporated a system into the ritual-circles... that allows us to do just that. Directing the city I mean." still the whole city now hung in the air via a levitation and feather-light charm.
They couldn't really make that change permanent per se. Sure, the thing would now float as long as they wanted with the charms changing the properties of the giant rock, but it wasn't a permanent thing.
Permanent meaning that no counter like the finite and finite Incantatem were able to cancel them. One such spell and all of the city would fall out of the sky. Though, they needed the effects able to be annulled or the city would float there forever with permanent charms, something they didn't want. Much like the permanent sticking charm the portrait of Walburga Black was affixed with in number 12 Grimmauld Place. One had to rip out the wall to remove the thing.
Permanent charms were more like enchantments in the way that often times only the enchanter knew how to unravel the thing. Bellatrix could have made the spells permanent, but that would've increased the cost again, so normal had to do. The group was lucky that there seemed to be no one with the knowledge to get the city crashing down. At least they hoped so. On the plus side was that the mist still surrounded the city and served as a cover in form of a cloud.
With the task finished the day was made into one of recuperating from the exhaustion. The next months though, were spent repairing the rest of the former glorious city of festivals with the help of the freed slaves.
The ex-slaves furnished the homes that were repaired by Harry, Andromeda, Bellatrix, Narcissa and Marcella as well as other locations. Under it the Palace of Love formerly Palace of Sorrow and the Bridge of Dreams that now hung a few hundred metres horizontally into the air. The Palace was in one word humongous. The size was four times the one of the Red keep in King's Landing, built on an island vastness and connected by bridges. Though, water was absent now between the islands, for it rushed back into the river Rhyone as the city rose into the sky.
It was a work of art and splendour. At least that was what Marcella said once she had devoured books on architectural masterpieces of this world that were stolen from the citadel.
Other than repairing the buildings for housing, the towers, the library, palace and various more places they too found treasures of some kind. The library especially had held interesting knowledge they would need in the future.
It was another typical sunny day for an Essosi summer in this area, as the city began to make its way through the sky over the painted mountains. The restoration effort was going marvellous with everybody helping. The food was holding out and it seemed that Harry's calculations were correct, but if not the group could always apparate to a city and buy more anyway or simply multiply it.
"What are we repairing today? Boring buildings for housing again?" whined Marcella, or when you wanted to believe her she rather demanded the answer in a cute way.
'To be fair the city is pretty large, even for our magical capabilities of repair.' mused Harry in his head as they finished dressing in casual clothing for the day. Simple trousers, boots out of deer leather and a white, loose shirt made out of cotton.
He nodded his head and heard her groan in response. "Well, for Andromeda and Narcissa it is they need to help the others." Harry agreed elaborative and had Marcella's perking up as well as Bellatrix's insane puppy dog eyes, so he continued. " You, Bellatrix and I are going to repair the library near the gigantic marketplace."
Marcella and Bella pumped their hands in the air. "Yeah, no more boring and tedious repairing of houses." cheered Marcella while Bella was busy kissing Harry in her appreciation. Not many knew it but aside from the fanatical worship of Harry the eldest Black also had other interests. The biggest two were fighting and reading. Though she didn't read as much as Hermione had, but more than the rest of their group did.
"I look for any intact books you two may find interesting." the messy haired man said grinning to Narcissa and Andromeda as the group made their way out. In response he just got two radiant smiles and kisses before they made their own way in the opposite direction to the Palace of Love. A good many things were to be altered in it. Harry had no intention to live in the monstrous thing like the previous King, prince or whatever did.
So, it was to be split into parts. One would be an orphanage, another a hospital and the last a school, but for the last part no one had an actual idea as of yet.
Skipping ahead on the paved street Bellatrix and Marcella marvelled at how fast the city was being put back together. In just two months most of the rubble was cleared and again wholly present in the various buildings. Towers and pillars stood strait again and domes as well as roofs were complete once more. While they were at repairing the buildings Harry, Andromeda, Bella, Cissy and Marcella also fused the stones together, so that it looked as if all was carved out of a single rock.
The paintings on the walls too were back in place with swirls, waves, some pictures on the bigger more important buildings and other intricate work mostly in the colours of blue, white silver, gold, black with a bit green thrown in on the white marble walls.
Their destination for the day was located in the biggest tower, easily as high and wide as the Astronomy tower of Hogwarts. Which was fortunate, because the water that flooded into the city had only reached the lowest level of it. Leaving most of it and the books within unscathed from the ravages of the rot that the flood of water brought with it.
"This thing looks run-down!" exclaimed Marcella sighing as she looked at the big tower. The thing was tilted to the side, nearly collapsing. The wooden door was nearly no more, like all wood in the rest of the city.
"What did you expect? A fully functioning tower without a mark on it after more than a thousand years of disrepair?" asked Bellatrix sarcastically with an eye-roll and crossed arms under her bust. The eldest Black knew that Marcella by now had enough of repairing the city. Hell, she herself wasn't too keen on it either but it was necessary.
Giving the tower a once over she mused in her head 'Should take a few hours when the interior and books aren't too damaged.'
"Of course not!" replied the Italian woman. "One can hope though." She muttered sighing once more with slightly slumped shoulders. All this work was nothing in comparison to the war they fought, but she wanted this over and done with, a nice cosy mansion for themselves where she could finally relax for a little longer.
"When we are finished with this thing then I demand a similar vacation like we did in Volantis!" Marcella demanded with a pout.
With a raised eye-brow as they made their way inside and repaired all on the way, letting the various things fly and mend themselves together Harry commented. "That was not so long ago, wasn't it?" a few Reparo spells later and the ground floor was fully functioning again, but without books. These were washed away from the now receded water. "And as far as I remember we did little else than have Sex most of the day, be it indoors or outdoors and explore Volantis a bit."
"Exactly!" exclaimed Marcella as they now made their way a floor higher, while repairing the winding staircase in a few places. While Bellatrix nodded in agreement as she remembered the naughty things he did to her and she to him. With a happy grin and blush gracing her features as well as a giggle escaping her mouth.
"What do you mean with that? I like it as much as the next guy, but we shag each morning and evening for a few hours. I thought it enough." said Harry a bit confused as the group arrived at the first floor and began to put it all back together.
'Am I not enough?' the last Potter worriedly asked himself. He shook that thought out of his head as Marcella continued. The giggle of Bella was ignored.
Looking at her husband and having an inclining as to what Harry was thinking from her substantial amount of experience with men, she reassured him. "You're quite enough and leave us so deliciously exhausted and satisfied each day, that isn't the problem. The four of us just have so much time to catch up to in that department it seems not enough."
Satisfied with the explanation the messy haired man let loose a sigh of relief and replied happily. "Well, I still have that time-turner. So are eighteen hours enough for you?" as he spoke the two women perked up and grinned lazily at him. At the prospect of that the two woman doubled their efforts to faster finish the repairs. From then on the three worked their way higher and higher, floor after floor was repaired and inspected as to what knowledge it contained.
Arriving at the last level a glaringly obvious thing was different. Shortly after the group climbed the final step a big steel door belonging to a massive vault greeted them. No keyhole was there, only a circular embedding was present.
"It appears like someone wanted to keep whatever is behind this protected." remarked Marcella as her hand brushed over the door and circle embedded in it. Upon closer inspection she mused. "Looks like a complex locking mechanism." The next moment with her hand still over the mechanism and a silent Alohomora later the door clicked open, after the old gears worked and groaned in the walls as the door creaked slowly open.
Harry pulled the door further open and with a flourish hand gesture invited the two of his wives inside. "After you, my fair ladies." smiling up at them he received giggles and delighted laughter.
"Thank you kind Ser. How very generous of you." retorted Bellatrix with a gracious curtsy followed by Marcella, who both then entered into the vault. Closely followed by himself. Though all of them stopped short to marvel at what was within. Sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the circular room laid a single tome of medium thickness and height. It was richly decorated and in good condition despite its presumed age of nearly a thousand years or more.
"Oh, it looks like it contains something special." said Bellatrix exited at the apparently wonderful find.
Once opened Marcella, who looked over her sister-wife's shoulders, uttered amused. "If you count a book that contains nothing as special, then sure."
After all pages were turned Harry commented. "Well, we are obviously missing something here." it didn't look like there was something else in the room. No hidden passages or compartments containing books or artefacts of value. Only a richly decorated book with nothing in it.
'As far as we know' the raven haired wizard amended silently in his thoughts.
"Obviously." agreed Marcella demurely as she herself poured over the book's pages again, searching for a clue on how to entice its secrets from the stubbornly empty sheets. Another few minutes went by until she finally admitted. "But I have no idea what." even the revealing spell Aparecium yielded no results.
Shaking his head Harry proposed "Well we can stand here all day brooding over it, but it won't solve it. Let's repair the tower fully and then we can try to solve this."
After Bella and Marcella gave their consent to the proposal all three repaired the towers roof as well as things that went overlooked the first time.
With everything finished in the tower the group made their way out of it to restore as much as they could of other houses for the rest of the day. The magical improvements would come later in all the buildings that would need them. Every house would get better structural integrity and fire-proofing through the main ward-stone as well as an arrow shield and better defence against sieges once the city safely arrives at its destination. The poison sea was chosen.
The reasons were that once it was placed at the shore that it had a good position of defence with the Bridge of Dreams serving as the connection to the land. On top of it the group could purify the salt-water of the Poison Sea into freshwater and store the obtained salt in containers. With that two precious resources were already secured. Fresh water and salt which was incredibly expensive in this type of era.
The next four months the repairing of the city was finished and all was properly furnished with things the wood and glass-workers made. The moment everything was in order the people Harry and Bella tutored in carving runes went to work in applying them all over the houses in specific patterns and chains. Vanishing runes were used for the privy's, Fire runes for heating the water in the bathhouses as well as runes for transfiguring air into flammable gas for the stoves. All runes were activated and deactivated with a touch upon an activation rune separate from the cluster, though in case of the vanishing one it was enough that the feces touched it.
The library would become expanded and filled with the many tomes and books they acquired from the citadel in Oldtown and from home.
Their own private library was filled with all their folios, books, tomes and grimoires on magical subjects. Of course, they were sorted per subject and afterwards the Fidelius was applied with Bellatrix as the secret keeper so that for the moment only they had access to it. The level of space expansion alone was enormous. After all one level had to contain several libraries worth of knowledge. Even when some books were present twice or even thrice in some cases.
With only nearly a year passed and approximately another month to go the group was positively surprised that the city needed a little less than a year to be completely restored. Other than repairing buildings a few were also added.
Warehouses were erected near the Bridge of Dreams, where the harbour would be placed most likely. These were also expanded and charmed with stasis charms to keep the stored food fresh, that was to be shipped, traded etc. The same ones also were applied on other granaries purely to store food for the city alone. Other than that a forge of considerable size was rebuild and all craftsmen took residence in the now repaired district for them, that bordered near the marketplace and trade district.
All streets were perfectly smooth now, but that was easier accomplished than the rest when you only had to transfigure the earth into a flat , now that all buildings were repaired, the stones fused together and the streets smooth and flat, the city looked as if it was perfectly chiselled out of a single mountain. The downside was that only one percent of the city was inhabited. That would hopefully changed one day.
Harry taught smiths together with Horor to increase the numbers of them, but he mostly taught interested people how to make jewellery. As well as teaching cooks as much of his recipes as the ingredients present in the city could manage.
Bellatrix normally took care of the people who wanted to learn working with runes, Narcissa educated Healers, Andromeda the seamstresses and Marcella took to teaching people and mostly children how to read, write and count with the help of a few educated ex-slaves.
Other than that things for the crops, vegetables and fruits were prepared to process them. Harry build distilleries, fermentation facilities for coffee, cheese and other milk products, a small chocolate factory where all the sweets would later be produced and a few looms for Andromeda as well as tools for crafting shoes. The rest would've to be built in the surrounding lands after they arrived. Like mills, butteries and the like to process some foods.
In the beginning of the last month of the journey something happened to disrupt the routine everyone had themselves worked in.
Looking through a Myrish spy glass made by the glass-makers from Myr Marcella, like everyday now, looked for something interesting from atop of one of the many towers. Either finding something to explore or some kind of event was her goal.
Like Fate would have it her wish was to be granted today. Looking over the plane grasslands with a few sheep herds here and there managed by villages the former Mrs. Zabini saw a huge dust cloud making its way to one of these villages.
'It sure is a good thing the spy glass is charmed to look through the mist.' Marcella thought as she observed the cloud getting nearer and nearer to the settlement.
"What is that?" she mused out loud. A sandstorm was out of the question the Red Waste was too far away for that, not to mention that the dessert not even contained sand. Only dry, red and cracked earth. After a while of observing the cloud was near enough to make out what it is.
'A Dothraki Horde!' Marcella didn't know what to think of it. She knew that these savages would plunder, murder and rape their way through this village and the next, as well as enslave all who were left alive.
'Cowards! All of them.' she thought enraged. All these barbarians did was ride their horses, kill defenceless people and enslave them. Nothing was done to better themselves in any way. The only good point was that merchants were left alone in the Great Grasslands.
'Though that is probably only the case because they need these merchants to get other things than slaves and horses.' the Italian woman thought disgusted. With a growl she stood up from her position, put the spy glass back in her enchanted mokeskin-pouch and apparated to where she knew Harry and the others were.
Like the last few months she found Harry trying to solve the riddle posed by the book they found in the vault of the library. Until now nothing came of it. Its pages remaining blank and reaveling no information. Every spell they tried yielded no results as well as every other method. Despite the thing having no curses, charms, jinxes or hexes place upon it. It seemed it was only a blank book, nothing more.
"Harry we have a problem. There is a Dothraki Horde approaching!" shouted Marcella as she just appeared in the room, startling everybody in it.
The sudden movement near her caused Andromeda to whirl around and spill her water-glass near the book the group tried to decrypt, though nothing got on it.
"Dammit Marcella. Don't startle me like that." cursed Andromeda and shortly after looked at the mess she made. Before she could attempt to work up steam Narcissa intervened.
"What do you mean a Dothraki Horde is approaching? I don't think their horses learned to fly or that these savages suddenly have Abraxaner, Thestrale or other flying horses." exclaimed the only blonde of the group while vanishing the small pool of water.
Ignoring the miffed Andromeda and the question of Narcissa she turned to Harry who was more amused than anything and explained. "No, they don't have flying horses, but they are about to pillage a small village nearby."
Instantly all the anger, amusement and other emotion fled the room as the words left her mouth. Sure, they could leave the people to their fate, but it would work against their goal to abolish slavery in the end.
"Ok then lets put our armour on and look what we can do about these idiots." Harry said without any emotion on his face to see. Inside however it was a raging storm of anger at these wild savages preying on the weak, mostly peaceful Lharzeen.
In every book Harry read about these Dothraki they were described as savages who would trample nations in the dust and burn cities, just because it struck their fancy. Not because it was necessary to survive and not because they were threatened. No, the reason was apparently that these dumb shits wanted to leave behind an endless plane of grass. Nothing else. How these idiots could live when they only were eating Horseflesh, blood pies, sweetgrass stew and drinking milk from the mares was anyone's guess. However it wasn't something Harry would tolerate.
Shaking his head to banish thoughts about his opponents he put on his armour. In well practised motions the raven-haired man put first the Basilisk hide on. After it the plate armour and over that the robe and the belt with his weapon and pouch attached. The rings and amulet were never taken off.
Looking around and seeing that his wives too were ready he asked. "Should we use the Inferi? It isn't as if we need them any longer." the undead served their purpose long ago and now only stood guard without another use. They couldn't be used for labour either. Only simple commands like attack, guard or rather protect could be executed.
"Sure why not?" Narcissa shrugged her shoulders. It wasn't important to her.
In her opinion all male Dothraki were rapists anyway, could go to hell for all she cared and deserved to be ripped apart by undead. Seeing the displeased faces of her sister-wives she knew that they were of the same opinion. In short order they apparated to the Bridge of Dreams and waited for the Inferi to arrive. Other troops weren't available to them. At the moment no trained warrior was in the city besides themselves.
Approximately ten minutes later and all of the roughly five hundred undead were at their side. Everyone of them conjured two long ropes and wrapped each around fifty undead each. Marcella cast the portus charm on each rope and on a stick for themselves. All groups of undead vanished shortly after with them not far behind.
The group arrived between the rapidly approaching horde and the small village of approximately hundred huts made of straw and some wood. All the villagers hid inside their homes that offered not much protection and some sought out shelter in a wooden temple with a lamb statue on top of it. Having accessed the situation and seen the formation of the enemy Harry gave his orders.
"Harden the grass to spikes on the ground, that should stop the Horses." shortly after the ground at the entrance to the village was well protected against cavalry with grass hard and sharp as blades. Not to mention, that it would stop the enemy horses as well as the men on foot and not impair the combat ability of the Inferi, who couldn't feel pain. At least in the two hundred square meters in front of the village.
The next command shortly after the first was. "Get the groups of Inferi to form wedges, force open the horde and cast the corpse-exploding curse on them."
Every Inferi was equipped with a gladius and shield. As well as a mail shirt to prevent them from being hacked into pieces from the beginning. The corpse-exploding curse was one of the few pure dark curses. It could only be used on the dead obviously. Though, with a bit of good spell work it could be delayed for ten minutes. More time wasn't needed, because the enemy had only a small Khalasar with two-thousand screamers. Probably an upstart Khal who wanted to prove himself with the slaughter of pacifists.
The screaming of the savages got louder as well as the trampling of hoofs, running in their direction. The enemy was roughly eight-hundred meters away from what Harry could see. Luckily, all of the Inferi now formed a perfect line in front of the small village.
Wedge beside Wedge formation strode forward with the command to kill as many of the Dothraki as possible before the curse took effect and blasted them apart. It was a good thing that the Dothraki fought with no discipline or strategy and that this group wasn't one of the bigger ones. Otherwise their own troops would be too few.
In this case it was sufficient and with the trap in place it couldn't go much wrong. On top of it the scouts they probably sent ahead only saw a defenceless village and now they there was a unexpected force to meet them.
While their troops marched towards the enemy and prepared for a clash Harry and his wives readied themselves for the warriors who would somehow break through, if at all. The air grew tense, but the typical dread before a battle was absent from Harry and his wives.
They had fought for so long that it was more of an anticipation coupled with cold and hard determination than anything else.
The next moment and a blink of an eye later the Inferi met the Dothraki inside the razor sharp grass field. The horses recoiled from the pain and fell over shortly, when the ones behind them crashed into them, pushing the bodies deeper into the sharp blades of grass. After that the Inferi were already attacking the downed warriors, who couldn't really fight while constantly being injured when they so much as made a step.
Harry watched on dispassionately while the Inferi made short work of all they encountered, pushing into the lines of the enemy in wedge formation resulted in much chaos in the ranks of the uncoordinated Dothraki horde.
Here and there an Inferi would fall due to being overwhelmed, but stand up shortly after. Not a single screamer arrived at their position, yet.
Every advantage was on their side. The Dothraki had no armour which made It incredible easy for their armoured Inferi, who could take much more damage than a normal human anyway. Together with the literal field-advantage it was more of a slaughter than a battle. Combined with the spells the group of five cast here or there the horde stood no chance. Curses like Sectumsempra, Expulso, Depulso, Diffindo, Bombarda as well as Reducto made short work of the savages.
Ten minutes were over faster than expected and so the Inferi exploded abruptly with the force of a Confrigo curse, killing everything in radius of two meters. Seeing that there were five hundred of such explosions it left not much standing.
The only survivors were the few odd screamers at the far back who no longer screamed a battle cry, but rather the word Maegi as they fled with their tale firmly tucked between their legs. The group didn't even need to use their mental link to coordinate their attacks or warn each other from danger.
"That was disappointing." commented Andromeda dryly as she put her unused weapon back at her side.
Bellatrix replied pouting, while sheathing her own weapons. "Yeah, but what can you expect from a band of savages without tactic, armour or anything else really." it was a big difference to the muggles they fought on earth. At least these had the technological advantage in form of jets, guns, explosives and so forth.
Summoning back the few arrows she used Narcissa remarked. "Well, we had every advantage that one could think of." it wasn't necessary to mention that the moment they would get living soldiers that spells affecting a wide area, be it transfiguration or other, couldn't be used anymore due to danger of friendly fire.
Harry's only words after they had returned the grass to normal and turned around were. "Let's go home." though just as he turned around he saw that pretty much all of the village stood there with open mouths, astonished expressions on their faces and wide eyes. Some with fear, others with gratitude and some even with awe in said eyes.
Harry's somewhat lame response was a simple wave of the hand in greeting in mute shook. Even after all this time he couldn't really work with crowds he was unprepared for.
The only one stepping forward was a heavyset, flat-nosed woman. Like all of these people she had black hair, copper skin, almond-shaped eyes as well as being more squat. She wore only a rag that looked repaired one time too many and her hair was cropped short. She looked about twenty years old, give or take a few years. The tongue in which she greeted them had a soft sing-song quality to it. Much sweeter than the harsh words the Dothraki exclaimed while being slaughtered. "Greetings. My name is Mirri Maz Duur and I thank you for saving us from the attack on our settlement."
Before Harry could answer Marcella beat him to it. "It was no Problem, but why didn't you defend yourself? Your numbers were nearly equal to them." she had expected at least some help from them. In the end it was probably better or she and her lovers couldn't have used their full repertoire.
Shaking her head Mirri answered with a sage like quality. "We Lharzeen are no martial people and the Great Shepherd preaches against violence in all its forms. He send you though to save us from this Dothraki raid."
"Right." commented Bellatrix sceptical and somewhat amused at the same time. Before she could form any scathing remark she received a mental message from Harry to be nice. Crossing her arms she didn't go further.
While Narcissa, Andromeda and Marcella snickered, having also gotten the message Harry ignored them and said. "That is good to know I suppose, but if you have no further need of us then we will be on our way." turning to leave he and prepared to apparate back up to the city.
A bit confused at the weird reactions from these people Mirri Maz Duur exclaimed before they could leave. "Wait!" running towards them which left her a bit winded together with all the running she did to get to the Temple of the Great Shepherd.
Stopping short Harry again turned and asked with a raised eye-brow. "Yes?" musing all the while in his head what the plump woman wanted.
A few short breaths later she continued. "I wanted to know where it is you are going." Mirri herself had no idea why she asked that right now, but something compelled her to speak, before she could've thought better of it. 'Nothing to do about it now.' she thought somewhat expectant.
A little surprised by the question it took Harry a while to answer. "Well, our plan is to travel further east to the Poison Sea and build a city there." in the end he saw no harm in informing the woman about their plans.
'It isn't as she could so anything about it' soothed Harry as he heard the mental complains of his wives.
Now even more confused Mirri replied. "Why would you do that? It lies in the Red Waste, where nothing grows and the water of the Poison Sea is undrinkable." it seemed very unreasonable to settle in a land so hostile to life.
Harry's own reply was cryptic. "We have our methods." it may have been tried to bring it across a bit more ominous but the message was anything but, though he didn't really thought he would see this woman again in his entire life.
Now her eyes narrowed slightly and she couldn't decide if she was amused at his attempt to evade mentioning magic to her or about his trying and failing to sound ominous. "You don't really expect me to fall for such a cheap evasion."
She went for amused with a slight smile on her face, arms crossed before her and an eyebrow up as if to challenge him to try again. "I know you mean Magic." pointing behind her where the whole village still stood she went on. "Practically everybody here knows you are Maegi."
In hindsight it was quiet obvious that all of them couldn't have seen anything. Crossing her own arms Bellatrix narrowed her eyes and asked with a threatening undertone. "Yeah?! And what are you going to do about it?" thinking these people would look down on the so called Maegi just like the Dothraki apparently do. The eldest Black appeared calm, but was prepared to unleash her inner fury, if necessary.
Shaking her head the plump priestess of the Great Shepard answered. "Nothing. I myself am somewhat proficient at Magic, but I know that I couldn't even cast a single spell before you do."
Mirri Maz Duur wouldn't risk doing so. Not after she saw getting a horde of two-thousand Dothraki getting annihilated by magic the like she herself could only dream of having. "So you want to use your Magic to survive in the Red Waste." she pressed on, having never seen Maegi of this power before. She herself could only imagine what these five wanted to do there. The predatory and animalistic features of them didn't bothered her in the slightest. It only served to heightened her excitement.
Sighing in resignation at evading the subject Andromeda answered. "Yes, we plan to do just that. Why? Do you want to come with us?" from the amount of questions this woman seemed to have it seemed probable. It would make no difference.
'We certainly have enough space to accommodate one more person.' she mused in her mind.
"That sounds tempting, but I hoped that you would be open to the idea of this whole village and maybe more joining you. That way we maybe have a chance at escaping the constant raids from the Dothraki" Mirri said as calm as the ocean before a storm.
'I have no idea why I even said that. Only that it somehow came out of my mouth and seemed right without my own violation.' the lamb-woman thought.
Shrugging his shoulders Harry answered. "Why not? We have enough space to house more than hundred times the number of this village." seeing the somewhat dumbfounded look on Mirri's face Harry asked cheekily "So do you want to move in immediately?"
This only got him a hit on the head from Marcella who exclaimed. "Idiot, we have no room for animals." huffing she half mock-glared at him and half suppressed her laughter at his kicked puppy expression.
"Right, sorry." The raven-haired wizard agreed sheepishly scratching himself at the back of his head. "You and the people of this village can take as long as you like packing and then travelling to the Poison Sea. We ourselves will arrive probably in another moons turn."
Mirri Maz Duur could only nod hear head in reply. Never in her life had she seen such strange people. 'Though the armour of them alone indicates wealth the likes none of my people have ever seen.' she mused.
Before she could give a verbal reply the group was already in motion, turning on their heel all five of them disappeared with an nearly non-audible pop. Left alone Mirri Maz Duur walked back to the crowd and said towards one of her fellow healers in the service of the Great Shepherd. "Tell everyone that they are to prepare the sheep, other livestock and themselves for travel."
The only question she got from the young woman was. "Where are we going?" more wasn't necessary to ask, seeing that Mirri never steered their village wrong so far for as long as she was with them. The young healer had full confidence in her.
Looking the girl directly into her almond-shaped eyes Mirri replied with utter certainty and confidence. "To a better future." while pointing in the direction of the Poison Sea.
As she looked in the sky she could swear the cloud over them was moving too in that direction. As Mirri gazed further at the fluffy mass she thought she caught a glimpse of stone in it, but dismissed it as a trick her eyes played on her. As everyone prepared for a journey she couldn't help but fell giddy in the prospect of what was to come. Though it told one much about the Dothraki if a whole village and more was willing to travel through a land hostile against life to escape them.
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