Winning the Game of Thrones: The Host of Characters and their Agendas by Valerie Frankel

his gifts as “Dragon’s eggs, from the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai.” He adds, “The eons have turned them to stone, yet still they burn bright with beauty” (I:104). This is the land where the red priests originate and Bran has a vision of the country:
     
He lifted his eyes and saw clear across the narrow sea, to the Free Cities and the green Dothraki sea and beyond, to Vaes Dothrak under its mountain, to the fabled lands of the Jade Sea, to Asshai by the Shadow, where dragons stirred beneath the sunrise. (I:136-137)
 
    He may be seeing the past, or dragons may still exist, along with magic.
    Dragon eggs appear to be like Valyrian steel weapons – hideously expensive, limited in numbers, but only somewhat rare in the east, more so in the west. Many fans wonder if Illyrio instead snuck the last few Targaryen eggs out of King’s Landing. However, the scene where they’re described in “The Mystery Knight” makes this unlikely as Egg (Aegon) Targaryen (great-grandfather of Daenerys) speaks to Ser Duncan the Tall:
     
“I’d show you mine, ser, but it’s at Summerhall.”
“Yours? Your dragon’s egg?” Dunk frowned down at the boy, wondering if it was some jape. “Where did it come from?”
“From a dragon, ser. They put it in my cradle.”
“Do you want a clout on the ear? There are no dragons.”
“No, but there are eggs. The last one left a clutch of five, and they have more on Dragonstone, old ones from before the Dance. My brothers all have them too. Aerion’s looks like it’s made of gold and silver, with veins of fire running through it. Mine is white and green, all swirly.” [12]
 
    Daenerys’s eggs look noticeably different:
     
One egg was a deep green, with burnished bronze flecks that came and went depending on how Daenerys turned it. Another was pale cream streaked with gold. The last was black, as black as a midnight sea, yet alive with scarlet ripples and swirls” (I:104).
 
    And certainly, it would be easier to come across dragon eggs in Asshai. At the same time, the reference to ancient eggs waiting on Dragonstone may come to be important. The next section discusses why Illyrio may have chosen to give them to her.
     

    Illyrio Mopatis and Varys the Spider
    Contains mild spoilers concerning the introduction of a book five character.
    The pair is hatching a complex scheme: It’s revealed when Arya overhears them while “catching cats” in King’s Landing that Illyrio and Varys have been collaborating for some time, though their goal remains unclear. Varys insists that he wants the good of the realm; however, his actions support a more specific agenda. As a eunuch, he appears to have less personal motivations than many – he has no family ties or grudges in Westeros, unlike almost every other character. Several characters comment that it’s impossible to tell what he wants. Illyrio arranges Daenerys and Drogo’s marriage, but he too is a shadowy figure. Neither man is a point of view character, so every single thing they say could be a lie (though probably not the conspiracy discussion they share in the first book). Even judging them by their actions is problematic.
    Oddly, the two strongest possibilities are that Illyrio and Varys want a non-magical, non-Targaryen puppet king who will let them rule however they like through him or that the pair has realized the Others are coming, and only real Targaryens with dragon magic can save the realm.
    Varys was born a slave in Lys (according to Pycelle anyway). In the Free Cities, he traveled with a group of performers, who taught him much about disguises. However, a sorcerer of some sort offered the players a great deal of money for him and castrated him in a dark ritual; since then Varys has hated magic. (Varys tells Tyrion this in the second book. Tyrion notes that Varys’ voice “was different somehow” during the telling, suggesting Varys is unusually telling the truth.) On the show, Varys