Selhorys

Selhorys is a walled town on the eastern bank of the Rhoyne, ruled from Old Volantis, that serves as a crucial waypoint for Tyrion Lannister and Haldon Halfmaester during their journey downriver with Griff and Young Griff. Though still accounted a mere town, its towers and domes are visible beyond a sandstone wall, and its riverfront is crowded with shops, stalls, storehouses, and a Volantene river galley discharging soldiers. The town's position on the eastern bank makes it more vulnerable to Dothraki raids than its sister towns across the river, and the triarchs fear an attack upon it, a fear that proves well-founded when riders are glimpsed moving south along the river's eastern shore.

Intelligence and the Red Priest

In Selhorys, Tyrion and Haldon gather critical intelligence about the wider war. At the red temple, a priest in scarlet robes harangues a crowd, calling on the Volantenes to go to war on the side of right as soldiers of the Lord of Light. Haldon translates: the priest declares that Nyessos and Malaquo have turned away from the light, their hearts darkened by the yellow harpies from the east, and that the dragons have come to carry Daenerys to glory. Benerro, the High Priest of the red temple in Volantis, has sent forth the word that her coming is the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy: from smoke and salt was she born to make the world anew, she is Azor Ahai returned, and her triumph over darkness will bring a summer that will never end. Tyrion, reflecting on the only red priest he has known—Thoros of Myr, a portly, genial roisterer—remarks, "Give me priests who are fat and corrupt and cynical… It's the ones who believe in gods who make the trouble."

The Cyvasse Game and the Yunkish War

Haldon leads Tyrion to the Riverman, a big stone inn fronting on the square, where they meet Qavo Nogarys, the customs officer of Selhorys. Over a game of cyvasse, Qavo reveals that the Yunkish envoy has come with chests of gold and gems and two hundred slaves, and that the triarch Nyessos has been bought. The city thirsts for war, he says, and the red priests would be wise to hold their tongues, for Benerro's rantings will only bring a savage wrath down upon his head. Tyrion learns that Daenerys Targaryen has three dragons against thrice three thousand enemies, and that the legions of New Ghis, the Tolosi, the Elyrians, and even the Dothraki will fight beside the Yunkai'i. The dwarf also hears that the Golden Company marches east, a piece of information that will later prove crucial to his understanding of Griff's plans.

The Brothel and Capture

After the cyvasse game, Tyrion, seeking a woman and information, visits a brothel in Selhorys. The whores there are slaves, their bondage indicated by tears tattooed beneath their right eyes. He chooses a red-haired Westerosi girl who speaks not a word of the Common Tongue, and after a brief, shame-filled encounter, he asks her if she knows a woman named Tysha or where whores go. She does not answer. As he is leaving, a burly knight with a black bear on his surcoat confronts him. The knight, Ser Jorah Mormont, declares, "You're mine, Hugor," and draws his blade. Tyrion, drunk and unable to outrun or outfight him, spreads his hands and asks what the knight means to do with him. "Deliver you," the knight replies, "to the queen." Tyrion initially believes this means Cersei, but the knight's true destination is Meereen and Daenerys Targaryen, a revelation that turns Tyrion's world upside down and sets him on a path to the dragon queen.