Tyrion and Illyrio are travelling by litter along an ancient Valyrian tarmac Roman road. They have good food on board. Tyrion is being sent to Volantis to wait for Dany's presumed arrival.
Viserys apparently tried to get into Dany's bed before her wedding. Did we know that already? Tyrion tries to figure out why Illyrio is so interested in helping her but his proferred motives are suspect. I had thought he would be annoyed about her selling his ships, but he seems pretty impressed with her.
We get a bit of Illyrio/Varys backstory. Seems like they got started handling stolen goods before Varys figured out that the real money was in information. Tyrion is pretty amazed that Varys has been plotting for Dany to return all this time. I need to go back an re-read a much earlier chapter where Ned and Robert were arguing about whether to assasinate here and see if Varys had anything to say then.
I'm still a bit vague about why Dany would want to work with Tyrion, but Illyrio thinks the fact he killed Tywin will sway her.
It seems as if it is Illyrio who has hired the Golden Company for Dany, not prince Quentin as previously assumed. Interesting. They'll be keen to help her re-take Westeros apparently because they or their ancestors were exiled from there originally so they think of it as home.
Tyrion is to meet and work with someone called Griff, who Illyrio trusts. Tyrion continues to obsess about Tysha.
