With war now imminent, nearly all the smiths had been sent to Dragonstone and the Wall. Since their arrival, they had worked without pause, forging a steady supply of iron weapons and dragonglass weapons for the coming war, spending all their strength before the furnaces.
The reason they had not put all those craftsmen to work making dragonglass weapons was that dragonglass was too brittle. Though useful against wights, it could snap after only a few uses, unlike iron weapons, which could withstand repeated hacking and slashing.
At least for now, no one could make dragonglass weapons that were both sturdy and sufficiently lethal. Those prepared in advance were therefore being saved for soldiers to use at the most critical moments, allowing them to kill wights with a single strike rather than wasting them in ordinary clashes. That made iron weapons important for holding the enemy at bay as well.
"Dany, when you get back, you can tell Arya that, apart from the smell, White Harbor's fish market is much cleaner than the one in King's Landing," Viserys said with some amusement. His voice was quiet, but held a hint of teasing now that they had escaped that fishy stench.
After all, the North was cold. Even if the fish and shrimp smelled, the odor should have been much weaker than in King's Landing. Yet White Harbor's fishy stench really was stronger than that of the Blackwater Rush, as though the entire fish market had been steeped in salt water and fish odor, leaving nowhere to escape it.
"Arya will say you're lying to her," Daenerys said cheerfully, laughter in her voice. "All she knows is that winter in White Harbor can freeze your eyelashes. She won't care about anything else."
"Then tell her that White Harbor really can freeze