Yet now, at the first sign of trouble, she had flown over on the purple drake through the fierce weather to aid the Watch in their hour of greatest need when the king could not. Even if they had twenty thousand more swords here, they would not manage to kill as much as a single dragonrider. Let's not forget that they couldn't even feed twenty thousand more mouths! And he might be mistaken, but the dragon seemed to have grown considerably since his arrival here nine days ago.