Chapter 第五十七章 提利昂（十一）
TYRION
治疗师嘟囔着些客套话进了帐篷，但只消一闻那污浊的空气再一瞥耶赞·祖·喀高兹便住口了，“苍白母马，”那人对糖果说。
The healer entered the tent murmuring pleasantries, but one sniff of the foul air and a glance at Yezzan zo Qaggaz put an end to that. “The pale mare,” the man told Sweets.
还真让人惊讶，提利昂想。谁能猜到呢？除了任何有着整个鼻子的人加上我这个有半个的。耶赞的高烧真的是“高烧”，不时的他会在自己的秽物里不好意思的扭动一下。他的粪便已经变成掺着血丝的棕色黏泥了……而擦他那黄屁股的任务就落到了尤罗和佩妮的肩上。就算有人帮，他们的主人也不可能抬得动他自己的体重；他用尽了他那衰弱的力量才翻到一边。
What a surprise, Tyrion thought. Who could have guessed? Aside from any man with a nose and me with half of one. Yezzan was burning with fever, squirming fitfully in a pool of his own excrement. His shit had turned to brown slime streaked with blood … and it fell to Yollo and Penny to wipe his yellow bottom clean. Even with assistance, their master could not lift his own weight; it took all his failing strength to roll onto one side.
“我的技术在这帮不上什么忙，”治疗师称。“高贵的耶赞的生命掌握在神灵手中。若可以的话，你们尽量让他凉快些。据说那有点用。还有，给他喝水。”受苍白母马折磨的人总是口干舌燥，喝掉数以加仑的水却全部从肠子里合着粪便排出。“干净新鲜的水，只要他还能喝。”
“My arts will not avail here,” the healer announced. “The noble Yezzan’s life is in the hands of the gods. Keep him cool if you can. Some say that helps. Bring him water.” Those afflicted by the pale mare were always thirsty, drinking gallons between their shits. “Clean fresh water, as much as he will drink.”
“不要用河水，”糖果说。
“Not river water,” said Sweets.
“决不能用。”说完这些，治疗师就走了。
“By no means.” And with that, the healer fled.
我们也得走了，提利昂想。他是个戴着金项圈的奴隶，而每走一步，上面挂着的小铃铛就叮叮当当欢快地响个不停。其中一个耶赞的特别馈赠，无异于死刑执行令的荣誉。耶赞·祖·喀高兹喜欢让他的宠儿们留在身边，所以当他病了就轮到尤罗、佩妮和糖果以及他其他的宝贝们来照顾他。
We need to flee as well, thought Tyrion. He was a slave in a golden collar, with little bells that tinkled cheerfully with every step he took. One of Yezzan’s special treasures. An honor indistinguishable from a death warrant. Yezzan zo Qaggaz liked to keep his darlings close, so it had fallen to Yollo and Penny and Sweets and his other treasures to attend him when he grew sick.
可怜的老耶赞。板油大王不像一般主人那么糟。糖果在这点上说的没错。由于每夜在他的宴会上服务，所以提利昂很快发现耶赞是渊凯大人们中尊重与弥林和解的人中的领头人。其他大多数人只是在观望，等着瓦兰提斯的军队到来。一小部分想立刻攻城，唯恐瓦兰提斯人会抢走他们的荣誉还有洗劫城市的好东西。耶赞既没有参与这些，也不赞同雇佣剑士血胡子关于用投石机把人质扔进城的提议。
Poor old Yezzan. The lord of suet was not so bad as masters went. Sweets had been right about that. Serving at his nightly banquets, Tyrion had soon learned that Yezzan stood foremost amongst those Yunkish lords who favored honoring the peace with Meereen. Most of the others were only biding their time, waiting for the armies of Volantis to arrive. A few wanted to assault the city immediately, lest the Volantenes rob them of their glory and the best part of the plunder. Yezzan would have no part of that. Nor would he consent to returning Meereen’s hostages by way of trebuchet, as the sellsword Bloodbeard had proposed.
但是两天内却变数颇多。两天前保姆还精神矍铄身体安康，耶赞还没听到苍白母马催命般的蹄声，瓦兰提斯的舰队还在两天的航程之外。但是现在……
But much and more can change in two days. Two days ago Nurse had been hale and healthy. Two days ago Yezzan had not heard the pale mare’s ghostly hoofbeats. Two days ago the fleets of Old Volantis had been two days farther off. And now …
“耶赞是不是要死了？”佩妮用的是那种“请告诉我不是这样”的声音问。
“Is Yezzan going to die?” Penny asked, in that please-say-it-is-not-so voice of hers.
“我们都会死。”
“We are all going to die.”
“我的意思是说，随着时间的流逝。”
“Of the flux, I meant.”
糖果给了他俩一个绝望的眼神。“耶赞不能死。”两性人轻轻抚摸着他们巨大主人的眉毛，将被汗水浸湿的头发捋到后面。渊凯人呻吟一声，又是一股黄色的浊水从双腿间的喷涌。他的床铺又脏又臭，但他们去没办法移动他。
Sweets gave them both a desperate look. “Yezzan must not die.” The hermaphrodite stroked the brow of their gargantuan master, pushing back his sweat-damp hair. The Yunkishman moaned, and another flood of brown water gushed down his legs. His bedding was stained and stinking, but they had no way to move him.
“有些主人在他们临死前会给他们的奴隶自由，”佩妮说。
“Some masters free their slaves when they die,” said Penny.
糖果发出一声恐怖的神经质的笑声。“只有那些最爱。他们把这些人从苦难的世界中解放，伴着他们亲爱的主人进坟墓，在死后继续为他们服务。”
Sweets tittered. It was a ghastly sound. “Only favorites. They free them from the woes of the world, to accompany their beloved master to the grave and serve him in the afterlife.”
糖果应该知道。他会是第一个被割了喉咙的。
Sweets should know. His will be the first throat slit.
山羊男孩说。“银女王——”
The goat boy spoke up. “The silver queen—”
“——死了，”糖果坚称。“忘掉她吧！那条龙把她带过河，她在多斯拉克海里淹死了。”
“—is dead,” insisted Sweets. “Forget her! The dragon took her across the river. She’s drowned in that Dothraki sea.”
“你在草里淹不死，”山羊男孩说。
“You can’t drown in grass,” the goat boy said.
“若我们自由的话，”佩妮说，“我们就能找到女王。或者至少能去找到她。”
“If we were free,” said Penny, “we could find the queen. Or go search for her, at least.”
你骑着狗，我驾着猪，穿过茫茫多斯拉克海，追逐一条龙。提利昂抓着伤疤以防笑出声。“这条与众不同的龙已经发展出一种明显的烤猪肉的嗜好，而烤侏儒则两倍有趣于前者。”
You on your dog and me on my sow, chasing a dragon across the Dothraki sea. Tyrion scratched his scar to keep from laughing. “This particular dragon has already evinced a fondness for roast pork. And roast dwarf is twice as tasty.”
“我说的只是愿景，”佩妮惆怅地说。“我们可以乘帆远行。只要战争结束，到时候就会有船了。”
“It was just a wish,” said Penny wistfully. “We could sail away. There are ships again, now that the war is over.”
是么？提利昂怀疑。羊皮纸上的确签订了停战协议，但是战争可不是在羊皮纸上打的。
Is it? Tyrion was inclined to doubt that. Parchments had been signed, but wars were not fought on parchments.
“我们可以乘船去魁斯，”佩妮继续说。“那儿的街道是用翡翠铺的，我哥哥总这么说。而城墙是世界几大奇迹之一。要是我们能在魁斯表演，到时候金银就会像下雨一样抛向我们。”
“We could sail to Qarth,” Penny went on. “The streets are paved with jade there, my brother always said. The city walls are one of the wonders of the world. When we perform in Qarth, gold and silver will rain down on us, you’ll see.”
“外面的有些船就是魁斯人的，”提利昂提醒她。“洛马斯·朗斯垂德就见证过魁斯的城墙。我看他的书就够了。我已经到过我想要的足够远的东边。”
“Some of those ships out on the bay are Qartheen,” Tyrion reminded her. “Lomas Longstrider saw the walls of Qarth. His books suffice for me. I have gone as far east as I intend to go.”
糖果用一块湿毛巾轻拭耶赞因为高烧而出汗的脸。“耶赞必须活下去。要么我们得跟他一起死。苍白母马不会夺走每个骑手。主人会康复的。”
Sweets dabbed at Yezzan’s fevered face with a damp cloth. “Yezzan must live. Or we all die with him. The pale mare does not carry off every rider. The master will recover.”
这是赤裸裸的谎言。若耶赞活到明天那得叫奇迹。在提利昂看来，板油大王从Sothoryos带来的可怕的疾病，暂不表到底是哪种，都在要他的命。这只是加速了他的死亡。一种仁慈，真的。但是这可不是侏儒为他自己祈求的那种。“治疗师说他需要干净的水。我们去办就好。”
That was a bald-faced lie. It would be a wonder if Yezzan lived another day. The lord of suet was already dying from whatever hideous disease he had brought back from Sothoryos, it seemed to Tyrion. This would just hasten his end. A mercy, really. But not the sort the dwarf craved for himself. “The healer said he needs fresh water. We will see to that.”
“你真是太好了。”糖果的声音听起来麻木的很。不光是害怕被割喉；在耶赞的宝贝里，她似乎真的喜欢他们的巨型主人。
“That is good of you.” Sweets sounded numb. It was more than just fear of having her throat cut; alone amongst Yezzan’s treasures, she actually seemed fond of their immense master.
“佩妮，跟我来。”提利昂掀开账帘带着她走进弥林的炎热早晨。空气潮湿沉闷，但是与充满了耶赞华丽行宫的汗水、粪便和疾病构成的迷瘴比起来也不失为一种令人欣喜的解脱。
“Penny, come with me.” Tyrion opened the tent flap and ushered her out into the heat of a Meereenese morning. The air was muggy and oppressive, yet still a welcome relief from the miasma of sweat, shit, and sickness that filled the inside of Yezzan’s palatial pavilion.
“水会帮助主人的，”佩妮说。“治疗师是这么说的，一定是这样。甜美新鲜的水源。”
“Water will help the master,” Penny said. “That’s what the healer said, it must be so. Sweet fresh water.”
“甜美新鲜的水源可没帮保姆什么忙。”可怜的老保姆。昨夜黄昏耶赞的士兵把他的尸体扔到了尸体货车上，又是一个苍白母马的牺牲品。在每小时都在死人的情况下，没有人会为又一个死人而难过，尤其是向保姆这种让人鄙视的角色。督察的痉挛一开始，耶赞的其他奴隶便拒绝靠近他，于是只剩下提利昂为他保暖，喂他喝水。掺水的葡萄酒和柠檬蜜还有一些上好的加了蘑菇条的热狗尾烫。喝下它吧，保姆，从你屁眼里喷出的粪水需要换换了。而保姆最后的话是，“不。”而他听到的最后的话是，“兰尼斯特有债必还。”
“Sweet fresh water didn’t help Nurse.” Poor old Nurse. Yezzan’s soldiers had tossed him onto the corpse wagon last night at dusk, another victim of the pale mare. When men are dying every hour, no one looks too hard at one more dead man, especially one as well despised as Nurse. Yezzan’s other slaves had refused to go near the overseer once the cramps began, so it was left to Tyrion to keep him warm and bring him drinks. Watered wine and lemonsweet and some nice hot dogtail soup, with slivers of mushroom in the broth. Drink it down, Nursey, that shitwater squirting from your arse needs to be replaced. The last word Nurse ever said was, “No.” The last words he ever heard were, “A Lannister always pays his debts.”
提利昂一直对佩妮隐藏真相，但是她得知道他们的主人会如何映像事态发展。“若耶赞能活着看到明天的阳光，我绝对大吃一惊。”
Tyrion had kept the truth of that from Penny, but she needed to understand how things stood with their master. “If Yezzan lives to see the sunrise, I’ll be stunned.”
她紧抓住他是手臂。“那我们会怎么样？”
She clutched his arm. “What will happen to us?”
“他有继承人。侄子们。”有四个这样的家伙从渊凯跟他一起来以便指挥奴隶士兵。其中一个死了，在一次坦格里安雇佣剑士发起的突袭中身亡。其他三个多半会分割黄巨人的奴隶。而是不是有哪个会和耶赞有同样的爱好，喜欢残废、怪胎和怪异的东西就远不能确定了。“他们其中的一个也许会继承我们。或者我们会再回到拍卖场上。”
“He has heirs. Nephews.” Four such had come with Yezzan from Yunkai to command his slave soldiers. One was dead, slain by Targaryen sellswords during a sortie. The other three would divide the yellow enormity’s slaves amongst them, like as not. Whether any of the nephews shared Yezzan’s fondness for cripples, freaks, and grotesques was far less certain. “One of them may inherit us. Or we could end up back on the auction block.”
“不。”她的眼睁大了。“不要那样，求求你了。”
“No.” Her eyes got big. “Not that. Please.”
“那种前景我也不喜欢。”
“It is not a prospect I relish either.”
几码之外，六个耶赞的奴隶士兵正蹲在灰土里，丢着骨头并且传着一个酒囊。其中有一个士官叫伤疤，他是个脑袋光滑的像石头而肩膀壮如公牛的火爆脾气的畜生。也和一头公牛一样聪明，提利昂想起来。
A few yards away, six of Yezzan’s slave soldiers were squatting in the dust, throwing the bones and passing a wineskin from hand to hand. One was the serjeant called Scar, a black-tempered brute with a head as smooth as stone and the shoulders of an ox. Clever as an ox too, Tyrion recalled.
他摇摆着走向他们。“伤疤，”他大喊，“高贵的耶赞需要心想安静的水。带上两个人尽量多的提桶。还有，麻利点。”
He waddled toward them. “Scar,” he barked out, “the noble Yezzan has need of fresh, clean water. Take two men and bring back as many pails as you can carry. And be quick about it.”
士兵们停下了游戏。伤疤站起来，眉毛一挑。“你说了啥，侏儒？你以为你是谁？”
The soldiers broke off their game. Scar rose to his feet, brow beetling. “What did you say, dwarf? Who do you think you are?”
“你知道我是谁。尤罗，我们主人的其中一个宝贝。现在照我说的做。”
“You know who I am. Yollo. One of our lord’s treasures. Now do as I told you.”
士兵们笑起来。“去啊，伤疤，”其中一个嘲笑道，“还要麻利点。耶赞的猴子给你发令了。”
The soldiers laughed. “Go on, Scar,” one mocked, “and be quick about it. Yezzan’s monkey gave you a command.”
“轮不上你告诉士兵去做什么，”伤疤说。
“You do not tell soldiers what to do,” Scar said.
“士兵？”提利昂假装不懂。“奴隶，我就看到这个。你的脖子上和我一样带着个项圈。”
“Soldiers?” Tyrion affected puzzlement. “Slaves, is what I see. You wear a collar round your neck the same as me.”
伤疤野蛮的给他反手一击，将他打倒在地摔破了嘴唇。“耶赞的项圈。不是你的。”
The savage backhand blow Scar dealt him knocked him to the ground and broke his lip. “Yezzan’s collar. Not yours.”
提利昂用手背擦了擦他嘴唇裂口流出的血。他试着爬起来是，一条腿没站稳，结果又跪倒在地。靠佩妮的扶持他才站起来。“糖果说主人需要水。”他用能装出来的最好的哀求口气说。
Tyrion wiped the blood from his split lip with the back of his hand. When he tried to rise, one leg went out from under him, and he stumbled back onto his knees. He needed Penny’s help to regain his feet. “Sweets said the master must have water,” he said in his best whine.
“糖果还能自己操自己呢。他天生就是干这个的料。我们也不会听从那个怪胎的差遣。”
“Sweets can go fuck himself. He’s made for it. We don’t take commands from that freak neither.”
是不会，提利昂想。就算在奴隶中也分三六九等，提利昂渐渐发现。双性人长久以来一直是他们主人的特别宠物，放纵她优待她，而高贵的耶赞的其他奴隶便会因此而憎恨她。
No, thought Tyrion. Even amongst slaves there were lords and peasants, as he had been quick to learn. The hermaphrodite had long been their master’s special pet, indulged and favored, and the noble Yezzan’s other slaves hated him for it.
士兵们习惯于听命于他们的主人和督察。但是保姆死了而耶赞病到没法指定一个接替者。至于那三个侄子，这些勇敢的自由人一听到苍白母马的蹄声就忽然想起别处还有紧要工作去做。
The soldiers were accustomed to taking their commands from their masters and their overseer. But Nurse was dead and Yezzan too sick to name a successor. As for the three nephews, those brave free men had remembered urgent business elsewhere at the first sound of the pale mare’s hooves.
“水……水，”提利昂战战兢兢地说。“治疗师说河水不行。要干净新鲜的井水。”
“The w-water,” said Tyrion, cringing. “Not river water, the healer said. Clean, fresh well water.”
伤疤咕噜着说。“你去办，而且麻利点。”
Scar grunted. “You go for it. And be quick about it.”
“我们？”提利昂和佩妮交换了一个无望的眼神。“水很沉。我们又不像你那么强壮。我们……我们可以用那辆骡车么？”
“Us?” Tyrion exchanged a hopeless glance with Penny. “Water’s heavy. We’re not so strong as you. Can we … can we take the mule cart?”
“用你的腿。”
“Take your legs.”
“那我们得来回很多几次。”
“We’ll need to make a dozen trips.”
“来回一百次吧。对我来说屎都不如。”
“Make a hundred trips. It’s no shit to me.”
“只有我们两个……我们弄不来主人需要的所有水。”
“Just the two of us … we won’t be able to carry all the water that the master needs.”
“带上你的熊，”伤疤说。“那家伙就提水在行了。”
“Take your bear,” suggested Scar. “Fetching water is about all that one is good for.”
提利昂退回去。“如您所说，主人。”
Tyrion backed away. “As you say, master.”
伤疤咧嘴笑开了花。主人。哦，他喜欢那样。“莫格，拿来钥匙。你装满桶就给我立刻回来，侏儒。你知道那些试图逃走的奴隶都有什么下场。”
Scar grinned. Master. Oh, he liked that. “Morgo, bring the keys. You fill the pails and come right back, dwarf. You know what happens to slaves who try to escape.”
“去拿桶，”提利昂告诉佩妮。他自己随那个叫莫格的人去接被关在笼子里的乔拉·莫尔蒙爵士。
“Bring the pails,” Tyrion told Penny. He went off with the man Morgo to fetch Ser Jorah Mormont from his cage.
骑士一直以来对奴役适应不良。当要他扮作熊去强抢良家淑女的时候，他总是一副闷闷不乐不合作的姿态，缓缓挪着死一般的步子，根本就是屈尊才加入他们的表演的德行。虽然他没有试图逃跑的迹象，也没有对他的捕获者暴力相向，但是他从事忽略他们的命令或者回之以低声咒骂。如此这般的言行一点也不会取悦保姆，于是他将这种不愉快以将莫尔蒙囚禁在铁笼里并在每天太阳落入奴隶湾之后让他吃棍子发泄。骑士默不作声的接受痛殴；唯一的声音只有打他的奴隶发出的低声咒骂还有棍子重击乔拉爵士布满淤青与伤痕的身体发出的闷响。
The knight had not adapted well to bondage. When called upon to play the bear and carry off the maiden fair, he had been sullen and uncooperative, shuffling lifelessly through his paces when he deigned to take part in their mummery at all. Though he had not attempted escape, nor offered violence to his captors, he would ignore their commands oft as not or reply with muttered curses. None of this had amused Nurse, who made his displeasure clear by confining Mormont in an iron cage and having him beaten every evening as the sun sank into Slaver’s Bay. The knight absorbed the beatings silently; the only sounds were the muttered curses of the slaves who beat him and the dull thuds of their clubs pounding against Ser Jorah’s bruised and battered flesh.
这个男人只剩下一个空壳了，在第一次看到大个子的骑士遭到痛殴时提利昂想，我早该管住舌头让扎哈李娜带走他。那也许对他来说还是个好点的命运。
The man is a shell, Tyrion thought, the first time he saw the big knight beaten. I should have held my tongue and let Zahrina have him. It might have been a kinder fate than this.
莫尔蒙从哪个狭小的笼子里出来时弯腰驼背只能眯着眼睛看东西，他两眼都有淤青，而后背上结满了干裂的血痂。他的脸上也满是淤青肿胀不堪，看起来几乎没个人样。除了一小块肮脏的破黄布遮羞，他几乎一丝不挂。“你去帮他们提水，”莫格告诉他。
Mormont emerged from the cramped confines of the cage bent and squinting, with both eyes blackened and his back crusty with dried blood. His face was so bruised and swollen that he hardly looked human. He was naked except for a breechclout, a filthy bit of yellow rag. “You’re to help them carry water,” Morgo told him.
乔拉爵士只是阴郁的看了一眼作为回答。我想，有些人宁愿死得自由也不愿活作奴隶。提利昂不会受那种苦恼的折磨，真是谢天谢地，但是若是莫尔蒙杀了莫格，其他奴隶可不会受此感召。“来吧，”他说，趁骑士还没做出什么勇敢的蠢事。他一瘸一拐的走开，希望莫尔蒙会跟上。
Ser Jorah’s only reply was a sullen stare. Some men would sooner die free than live a slave, I suppose. Tyrion was not stricken with that affliction himself, thankfully, but if Mormont murdered Morgo, the other slaves might not draw that distinction. “Come,” he said, before the knight did something brave and stupid. He waddled off and hoped Mormont would follow.
神灵总算仁慈了一把。莫尔蒙跟来了。
The gods were good for once. Mormont followed.
佩妮两个桶，提利昂两个桶，乔拉爵士四格桶，一边两个。最近的水井再老泼妇（那个投石机）的西南方向，于是他们便直接向那个防线走去，而每走一步都伴着项圈铃的欢快响声。没人注意他们，他们只是为主任提水的奴隶。套着项圈还是有些好处的，尤其是刻着耶赞·祖·喀高兹的金项圈。那些小铃铛的叮当作响向每个长耳朵的人宣称着其价值。一个奴隶就和他的主人一样重要；耶赞是黄城里最富有的人，为这场战争带来了600名奴隶士兵，虽然他的确看戏来像是一坨巨型黄色鼻涕虫闻起来又是一股尿骚。他们的项圈给了他们在营地范围内任何地方穿行的权利。
Two pails for Penny, two for Tyrion, and four for Ser Jorah, two in either hand. The nearest well was south and west of the Harridan, so they set off in that direction, the bells on their collars ringing merrily with every step. No one paid them any mind. They were just slaves fetching water for their master. Wearing a collar conferred certain advantages, particularly a gilded collar inscribed with the name of Yezzan zo Qaggaz. The chime of those little bells proclaimed their value to anyone with ears. A slave was only as important as his master; Yezzan was the richest man in the Yellow City and had brought six hundred slave soldiers to the war, even if he did look like a monstrous yellow slug and smell of piss. Their collars gave them leave to go anywhere they might wish within the camp.
直到耶赞死亡。
Until Yezzan dies.
克兰克的大人们让他们的奴隶士兵在最近的校场操练。他们操着长矛在沙子上齐步行进与整队时捆绑他们的锁链发出了刺耳的金属交鸣声。其他地方一组组奴隶在投石机和蝎子之下用沙石搭造斜坡，以使它们垂直指向天空，要是黑龙回来的话能好好的保护营地。看着他们费力的将巨大的机械搬上斜坡时挥汗如雨不停咒骂让侏儒笑出来。十字弓也很显眼。除了自己每个人看起来都抓了一个，跨上挂着一捆颤动的箭。
The Clanker Lords had their slave soldiers drilling in the nearest field. The clatter of the chains that bound them made a harsh metallic music as they marched across the sand in lockstep and formed up with their long spears. Elsewhere teams of slaves were raising ramps of stone and sand beneath their mangonels and scorpions, angling them upward at the sky, the better to defend the camp should the black dragon return. It made the dwarf smile to see them sweating and cursing as they wrestled the heavy machines onto the inclines. Crossbows were much in evidence as well. Every other man seemed to be clutching one, with a quiverfull of bolts hanging from his hip.
若有人真会想起来问他的话，提利昂会告诉它们别担心。若非那些长铁蝎子箭碰巧扎中了眼，女王的宠物怪物可是不会那么轻易被这种玩具射下来的。龙不是那么轻易会被杀死的。用这种东西给它瘙痒只会引来龙之怒。
If anyone had thought to ask him, Tyrion could have told them not to bother. Unless one of those long iron scorpion bolts chanced to find an eye, the queen’s pet monster was not like to be brought down by such toys. Dragons are not so easy to kill as that. Tickle him with these and you’ll only make him angry.
眼睛才是龙最脆弱的部分。眼睛，还有隐藏在后面的大脑。不是某些古老传说里说的下腹。那块地方就像龙的背脊和侧肋一样坚不可摧，当然还有下咽。那些说法完全愚不可及。这些自诩为屠龙者的家伙们大概到时候得用矛尖灭火了。“死亡出自龙口，”巴斯修士在他的《非自然历史》里写道，“死亡却不会侵入那里。”
The eyes were where a dragon was most vulnerable. The eyes, and the brain behind them. Not the underbelly, as certain old tales would have it. The scales there were just as tough as those along a dragon’s back and flanks. And not down the gullet either. That was madness. These would-be dragonslayers might as well try to quench a fire with a spear thrust. “Death comes out of the dragon’s mouth,” Septon Barth had written in his Unnatural History, “but death does not go in that way.”
继续走，在带着用马毛羽冠装饰的半盔的士官们大声用无法理解的方言喊出指令的同时，两个新吉斯的兵团正提盾对峙。用肉眼便能看出吉斯人比渊凯奴隶士兵更可怕，但提利昂还是慢慢生出点疑惑。军团士兵的确全副武装纪律严明如无垢者……但是太监们除此种生活别无所望，而吉斯人则是服役三年的自由公民。
Farther on, two legions from New Ghis were facing off shield wall to shield wall whilst serjeants in iron halfhelms with horsehair crests screamed commands in their own incomprehensible dialect. To the naked eye the Ghiscari looked more formidable than the Yunkish slave soldiers, but Tyrion nursed doubts. The legionaries might be armed and organized in the same manner as Unsullied … but the eunuchs knew no other life, whereas the Ghiscari were free citizens who served for three-year terms.
排队打水的人延伸了四分之一里。
The line at the well stretched back a quarter mile.
在弥林周边一天行程里只有很少的井，因此汲水的人总是得排很长时间。大多数渊凯军队从Skahazadhan河取饮用水，但是即使没有治疗师的警告，提利昂也知道这个注意糟糕至极。聪明点的人去公厕上游的地方取水，即便如此他们依旧取的是来自城邦下游的水。
There were only a handful of wells within a day’s march of Meereen, so the wait was always long. Most of the Yunkish host drew their drinking water from the Skahazadhan, which Tyrion had known was a very bad idea even before the healer’s warning. The clever ones took care to stay upstream of the latrines, but they were still downstream of the city.
但事实上在城市周围一天里程的范围内依然能找到干净的井，这只是证明丹尼莉丝·坦格里安在对待这个围城战略时依旧是个天真的小女孩。她本应该向每口井投毒的。接着所有的渊凯人都得从河里取水，看看那样他们的围攻还能支持多久。这才是他那父亲大人会做的事，提利昂毫不怀疑。
The fact that there were any good wells at all within a day’s march of the city only went to prove that Daenerys Targaryen was still an innocent where siegecraft was concerned. She should have poisoned every well. Then all the Yunkishmen would be drinking from the river. See how long their siege lasts then. That was what his lord father would have done, Tyrion did not doubt.
每当他们换到另一个位置，他们项圈上的铃铛就大肆叮当作响。真是欢快的声音，搞得我想拿把勺子挖出什么人的眼球。现在格里夫、鸭子还有半学士哈尔顿该同他们的小王子到维斯特洛伊的。我本该和他们一起……但是不行，我得去找个妓女。弑亲者远远不够，我得找条阴道还有葡萄酒来缝合我的创伤，而在这儿，我身处世界错误的一端，戴着无时无刻不宣告我的到来的缀着小金铃的奴隶项圈。若是跳的恰好，大概我能让他们响起“卡斯特梅的雨季”呢。
Every time they shuffled forward another place, the bells on their collars tinkled brightly. Such a happy sound, it makes me want to scoop out someone’s eyeballs with a spoon. By now Griff and Duck and Haldon Halfmaester should be in Westeros with their young prince. I should be with them … but no, I had to have a whore. Kinslaying was not enough, I needed cunt and wine to seal my ruin, and here I am on the wrong side of the world, wearing a slave collar with little golden bells to announce my coming. If I dance just right, maybe I can ring “The Rains of Castamere.”
没什么地方比井边能更好的听到新鲜资讯和流言蜚语。“我知道我看见了什么，”随着提利昂和佩妮正在队伍里缓缓移动时，一个戴着腐朽铁项圈的老奴正言，“我看着那条龙撕掉手臂大腿，将人一撕为二，再把它们烤得只剩骨灰和焦骨。人们开始逃难，试图逃出斗兽场，我是来看表演的，哦，看在吉斯所有神灵的份上，我是看见了。我穿着紫衣站在上面，所以我不认为龙会找我麻烦。”
There was no better place to hear the latest news and rumors than around the well. “I know what I saw,” an old slave in a rusted iron collar was saying, as Tyrion and Penny shuffled along in the queue, “and I saw that dragon ripping off arms and legs, tearing men in half, burning them down to ash and bones. People started running, trying to get out of that pit, but I come to see a show, and by all the gods of Ghis, I saw one. I was up in the purple, so I didn’t think the dragon was like to trouble me.”
“女王爬上龙脊背飞走了，”一个褐色皮肤的高个女人坚称。
“The queen climbed onto the dragon’s back and flew away,” insisted a tall brown woman.
“她试图爬上去，”一个老人说，“但她抓不住，十字弓箭伤到了龙，而它正中女王那可爱的粉红乳头的中央，我是这么听说的。她死在阴沟里，被一辆马车给碾碎了。我认识个女孩，她认识个男人见证了女王的死亡。”
“She tried,” said the old man, “but she couldn’t hold on. The crossbows wounded the dragon, and the queen was struck right between her sweet pink teats, I hear. That was when she fell. She died in the gutter, crushed beneath a wagon’s wheels. I know a girl who knows a man who saw her die.”
在这伙人中间，理智告诉他沉默才是聪明的选择，但是提利昂依旧不自禁问出来。“尸体还没被发现，”他说。
In this company, silence was the better part of wisdom, but Tyrion could not help himself. “No corpse was found,” he said.
老人皱了皱眉。“你又知道些什么？”
The old man frowned. “What would you know about it?”
“他们在那儿，”褐皮肤的女人说。“是他们，那对骑士秀的侏儒，为女王表演长枪比武。”
“They were there,” said the brown woman. “It’s them, the jousting dwarfs, the ones who tilted for the queen.”
老人低头乜了一眼他们，似乎才开到他们。“你们是那对骑猪的侏儒。”
The old man squinted down as if seeing him and Penny for the first time. “You’re the ones who rode the pigs.”
我们臭名远扬了。提利昂大致的鞠了个宫廷式的躬，克制住指出其中有只猪其实是条狗的冲动。“我骑的那头母猪事实上是我老姐。我们有一样的鼻子，你看，不是么？一个巫师对她施了一个咒，但是若你给她一个大大的湿吻，她会变回个大美女。但遗憾的是，一旦你认识了她，就想再吻她一次，结果又将她变回一头猪。”
Our notoriety precedes us. Tyrion sketched a courtly bow, and refrained from pointing out that one of the pigs was really a dog. “The sow I ride is actually my sister. We have the same nose, could you tell? A wizard cast a spell on her, but if you give her a big wet kiss, she will turn into a beautiful woman. The pity is, once you get to know her, you’ll want to kiss her again to turn her back.”