Chapter 36 Chapter Thirty-Six Samwell

The Cinnamon Wind is a swan ship from Tallwood in the Summer Isles, where the people are dark, the women are flamboyant, and even the gods are queer.At the moment they were in the scorching South Sea of ​​Dorne, and there were no monks to lead the eulogy, so the task fell to Samwell Tarly. The afternoon was very hot, and there was no wind, but Sam put on his black clothes anyway. "He's a nice guy," he began... and as soon as the words came out, he knew he was wrong. "No. He was a great man. A maester of the Citadel, he wore a choker and took an oath in his youth, and later joined the Night's Watch, and did his duty as he always did. He was named after an ancient hero who died young. However, although he lived a long time, his life was equally great. His wisdom, nobility and kindness are unmatched. During his service at the Great Wall, he assisted more than ten commanders-in-chief and gave loyal advice from beginning to end. He He also gave advice to kings, and he had a chance to become king himself, but when people gave him the crown, he gave it to his younger brother. How many people can do this?" Sam felt tears welling up in his eyes, I know I can't hold on anymore. "He is of the blood of the dragon, but his flame has been extinguished. He is Aemon Targaryen, and his watch shall not cease until death, at Uth."

"His watch will not end until he dies, and Yu Si will end." Gilly whispered after him while shaking the baby in her arms.Koja Mo spoke first in the Common Tongue of Westeros and then in the Summer Islands for her father, Chong, and the rest of the assembled crew.Sam hung his head and wept aloud, trembling with grief.Gilly stood beside him and let him lean on her shoulder.There were tears in her eyes too. The air was moist and warm, strangely calm, and the Laurel Wind was floating in the deep blue sea far from land. "Black Sam spoke well," Chong said, "and now, let's drink to his life." He said something in Summer Islands, and a barrel of spiced rum was wheeled onto the quarterdeck Open it, and the crew on duty drink a cup to commemorate the blind old dragon.Although the crew had known him for a short time, the people of the Summer Islands respected the elders and had the custom of holding grand ceremonies for the dead.

Sam has never had rum.The wine is odd and easy to drink; it's sweet on the palate, but has a strong aftertaste that burns the tongue.He was tired, extremely tired, every muscle was aching, even some places where he thought he had no flesh.His knees were stiff and his hands were covered with fresh blisters and skin sticky where old ones had burst.Yet rum and sorrow seemed to take possession of his whole soul. "Take the Maestro to Oldtown and the Magi may save him," he told Gilly as they sipped rum on the tall forecastle of the Laurelwind. "The physicians in the Academy City are the best in the Seven Kingdoms. I thought... I hoped..."

In Braavos, Aemon's recovery seemed hopeful.Chong's talk about dragons almost brought the old man back to normal.That night, he ate up all the food Sam had set up. "No one thought it was a girl," he said. "The prophecy spoke of a prince, not a princess. I thought it was Rhaegar... On the day he was born, smoke rose from the burning Summerhall, and the salt came from the water shed for the dead. Tears. He believed as much as I did when he was a child, but later thought his son had fulfilled the prophecy, because he was sure that on the night he planted Aegon, a comet appeared over King's Landing, and that was the so-called 'star' Weeping blood'. We are all fools, self-righteous fools! The error is precisely in the interpretation of the prophecy. We forgot Bath's reminder that dragons have no gender, neither male nor female, ever changing, wavering like flames. Language Her limitations have misled us for a millennium. Daenerys was truly born in the land of smoke and salt, and her dragons prove who she is." Just talking about her brightens his spirits. "I must go to her. Must. Oh, if only I were ten years younger."

The old man was so determined that he even walked on the steps of the Laurel Wind with his own legs.The trip was arranged by Sam, and Chong saved his life from the water, but the feathered cloak was also ruined, and Sam gave the burly first officer his sword and scabbard as compensation.All they had left was the books they had brought from the cellars at Castle Black.Sam handed them over sullenly, and asked if there was any problem. He said, "These are supposed to be given to Xuecheng." After the first mate translated the words, the captain laughed. "Kuhuru Mo said the men in gray would still get the books in the end," Chong told him, "but they would have to buy them from Kuhuru Mo. For the books they didn't have, maesters were willing to pay silver coins, or even red Yellow gold."

The captain also wanted Aemon's necklace, but Sam refused.He explained that surrendering the necklace was the greatest shame of a maester, and Chong repeated it three times before Kuhuru Mo accepted.When the deal was done, Sam was left with shoes, black robes, and underwear, plus the battered horn Jon Snow had found on the Fist of the First Men.I have no choice, he told himself, we cannot stay in Braavos, and there is no other way of paying for the journey but stealing and begging.Besides, even if it cost three times as much, he would be willing to get Maester Aemon safely to Oldtown. However, there were frequent wind and rain on the way to the south, and every storm was a physical and mental devastation to the old man.In Pentos, he asks Sam to take him up on deck and paint a picture of the city, but that's the last time he leaves the captain's bed.Shortly thereafter, he became delirious again.When the Cinnamon Wind bypassed the Weeping Blood Tower and entered Tylosi Harbor, Aemon no longer said that he wanted to find a ship to go east, but instead mentioned the old town and the doctors of the Academy City.

"You must tell them, Sam," he said, "and tell the Doctors, make sure they understand. My contemporaries have been dead for fifty years, and the others don't know me. My letter . . . in Oldtown, Must be dismissed as old-fashioned gibberish. I can't convince them, you can. Tell them, Sam... Tell them about the Wall... Tell them about wights and walking white walkers, creeping cold..." "I will," promised Sam, "and I will support your point, sir. Let's do it together, both of us." "No," said the old man, "you must go. Tell them. The prophecy...my brother's dream...Lady Melisandre misread the omen. Stannis...Stannis did have a bit of the Dragon King's blood. Yes, his brothers had them too. Leyla, Egg's youngest daughter, from whom they got their dragon's blood...she was their grandmother...loved calling me Uncle Maester when I was a kid. Hope...Maybe it's just a subjective wish...We deceive ourselves when we want to believe in something. Especially Melisandre, she is so wrong. The sword is wrong, she should know...There is light but no heat... Empty magic... that sword is wrong, the false light will lead us deeper into the darkness. Sam, Daenerys is our hope, go to the Citadel and tell them, let them figure it out, a maester must be sent Go to her, help her, teach her, protect her. All these years I've lingered, waiting, watching, and when the dawn comes I'm too old. I'm dying, Sam." Out of the blind white eyes. "For an aging person like me, death should be nothing to fear, but I am afraid. Am I stupid? Since I have been in the dark all the time, why am I still afraid of the dark? However, I can't help but think, waiting for the last ray of warmth Out of the body, what next? Feasting in the golden palace of the Father, as the monks say? Shall I see Egg again, find Daeron still healthy and happy, and hear my sisters sing to their children? Or Are the horse lords right? Will I ride forever in the night sky on a flaming horse? Or must I return to this sad world? Who knows? Who has seen the truth beyond the wall of death? Only the corpses ghosts, and we know what they are. We do."

Sam was speechless and could only try his best to comfort the old man.Then Gilly came in and sang him a song she'd learned from Cassett's wife, which she didn't understand at all.But the song made the old man smile and put him to sleep. Those were his last sober days.Later on, the old man curled up under a pile of furs in the captain's cabin, far more asleep than awake.He would mutter to himself in his sleep, and when he woke up he would call Sam, insisting on entrusting him with something, but by the time Sam arrived, he had forgotten what to say.Even if I remember, my words are incoherent.He mentioned dreams without saying whose dreams, glass candles that didn't burn, and eggs that couldn't hatch.He said that the sphinx was the puzzle, not the puzzler, and God knows what that meant.He wants Sam to read a book written by Brother Bath, whose writings were burned during the reign of the blessed King Baelor.Once he woke up crying. "The dragon has three heads," he lamented, "but I am too old and too weak to be one of them. I should be with her and guide her, but my body is too weak for it."

Maester Aemon could not remember Sam's name half the time the Cinnamon Wind sailed through the Stepstones.Sometimes he took Sam for some dead brother. "He's too weak for a long trip," Sam told Gilly upstairs on the front floor, continuing to sip his rum. "Jon should have seen that. Aemon was a hundred and two years old, and he should never have been sent to sea. Had he stayed at Castle Black, he might have lived another ten years." "Maybe she'll burn him. The girl in red." Even though it was thousands of miles away from the Great Wall and blocked by Guanshan, Gilly was reluctant to say the name of Mrs. Melisandre. "She will honor her fire with the blood of the king. Val knows it. Lord Snow knows it too, and that's why I'm taking Dana's baby and keeping my own instead. Maester Aemon lay asleep on board the ship." , but if you stay, you will be burned alive by her."

He'll still be burned, Sam thought wretchedly, only this time I'll do it.House Targaryen always delivered their dead to the flames, but Kuhuru Mor would not allow cremation aboard the Cinnamon Wind, so Aemon's body was stuffed in a cask of dark belly rum to preserve until the ship reached Oldtown . "He asked me the night before he died if he could hold the baby," Gilly continued. Hands over his face, pulling his lips. I thought it would hurt him, but it just made the old man laugh." She stroked Sam's hand. "We can name the little one 'The Bachelor', if you will. Of course, when he grows up, not now."

"'Maester' is not a name. You may call him Aemon." Gilly thought about it. "Dana bore him on the battlefield, surrounded by swords. That's what he should be called. 'Son of the Battlefield' Aemon or 'Song of Steel' Aemon." My grown-up dad would love the name too.Warrior's name.The boy was Mance Rayder's son, Craster's grandson as well, and he would never be so cowardly as Sam. "Okay. That's it." "Not until he's two years old," she promised, "not before." "Where's the child?" Sam remembered.Overwhelmed by rum and grief, it took him so long to realize that Gilly wasn't carrying the baby. "Koja is watching him. I'll ask her to take care of the baby for a while." "Oh." Koja Mo was the captain's daughter, taller than Sam, as thin as a spear, and her skin was black and smooth, like polished black jade.She was the leader of the ship's red archers, and a double-curved heartwood bow could shoot four hundred yards when drawn.When the Stepstones were attacked by pirates, Koja shot and killed a dozen people, and all of Sam's arrows fell into the water.Aside from her own bow, Koja loved bouncing Dana's son on her lap and singing to him in Summer Islands.In fact, the Savage Prince became the darling of all the female crew members, and Gilly seemed comfortable entrusting him to them, whereas she had never trusted a man. "Koja is kind," said Sam. "I was afraid of her at first," said Gilly. "She was so black, and her teeth were so big and white, that I thought she was an orc or a monster, but she wasn't. She was kind. I liked her." "I know you like her." The only man Gilly has known for most of her life is the murderous Custer, and otherwise her world is full of women.Men scare her, women don't, Sam realized.He can understand.Back in Horn Hill he had been more happy with girls, too.The sisters were kind to him, and although the other girls laughed at him sometimes, it was better than the beatings that the boys in the castle beat him up with.Even now, on the Laurel Wind, Sam was more at ease with Koja Mo than with her father.Of course, it's possible that she could speak the Common Tongue while her father didn't. "I like you too, Sam," said Gilly softly, "and I like this wine. It's like fire." Yes, Sam thought, this is wine for dragons.The glass was empty, and he went to the barrel to fill it.The sun, low in the west, swelled to three times its usual size, and the reddish light painted Gilly's face with a blush.They drank to Koja Moe, and to Dana's son, and to Jilly's kid who was left on the Wall.Afterwards, for no reason, he had to drink two more cups for Aemon of House Targaryen. "May the Father judge him justly," Sam said, sniffling.After Maester Aemon's two cups, the sun had almost set, and there was only a thin red line on the western horizon, shimmering like a whip in the sky.Gilly said the wine made the ship spin, so Sam helped her down the steps to the women's quarters in the bow. There was a lamp hanging over the cabin door, and he bumped into it as he went in. "Oh," he called, and Gilly said, "does it hurt? Let me see." She came closer... ...kiss him on the mouth. Sam found himself responding to her kisses.I swore it, he thought, but her hands were tugging at his black coat, untying his belt.He managed to move his mouth away, taking a moment to say, "No," but Gilly said, "Yes," and put his own in Sam's mouth again.The Cinnamon Wind whirled around, and he tasted the rum on the tip of Gilly's tongue, and the next thing he was touching Gilly's bare breasts.I swore, Sam thought again, but a nipple was already between his lips.He sucked on the firm pink nipples, and the milk overflowed his mouth, so sweet and delicious mingled with the rum.What's the difference between me and Dareon?Sam thought, but it felt so good he couldn't stop.Suddenly, his cock sticks out, sticking up from his pants like a fat pink mast.It stood there, looking silly, and he almost laughed, but Gilly pushed him onto her bunk, her skirt up her thighs, and lay on top of him, whimpering softly.It's better than her nipples.She's so wet, he thought and gasped.I didn't know a woman could be so wet underneath. "I'm your wife now," she whispered, rising and falling on him.Sam groaned, thinking, no, no, you can't be my wife, I swore, I swore, but the only thing that came out of my mouth was, "Yes." Later, she fell asleep with her arms around him, her face on his chest.Sam wants to sleep too, but he's more intoxicated with rum and mother's milk and Gilly.He knew he should sneak back to his hammock in the men's cabin, but she was curled up next to him, and he couldn't move. Others came in too, men and women, and he listened to them kissing and laughing and making love.This is how the Summer Islanders mourn their dead.They respond to death with life.Sam had read that adage somewhere long ago, and he wondered if Gilly knew it, if Koja Moe had ordered her to do what happened today. He breathed in the fragrance of her hair and stared at the dangling lamp above his head.Not even an old woman can guide me out of this predicament.Better to sneak out and jump into the sea.If I drown, no one will hold me accountable for breaking my oath and doing something shameful.Gilly could have found a good man, too, instead of some fat coward. He awoke the next morning in his own hammock in the men's cabin.Chong shouted loudly and the wind picked up. "It's windy," the chief mate kept shouting, "wake up, get up and work, Sam in black. It's windy." What Chong lacked in vocabulary, he made up for in volume.Sam jumped out of bed, but immediately regretted it.He had a splitting headache, a blister had popped on his palm during the night, and he felt sick. However, regardless of these, Sam can only struggle to put on black again.He found them on the floor under the hammock, wet and crumpled.He sniffed to see how it stinks, and he smelled salty sea and tar, damp and moldy canvas, fruit, fish, and dark-bellied rum, strange spices and exotic woods, plus his own strong smell of sweat.The smell of Gilly was on it too, the crisp smell of her hair, and the sweetness of her milk, which made him happy to wear them.But he desperately longed for a pair of dry and warm socks, and his toes were already moldy. A chest of books would not be enough to cover four people's travel expenses from Braavos to Oldtown.The Cinnamon Wind was short of men, however, so Kuhuru Mo agreed to take them along, so long as they worked along the way.Sam protested that Maester Aemon was too weak for the baby, and Gilly was afraid of the sea. Chong laughed. "Black Sam is fat and fat. Black Sam can do four men's work." To be honest, Sam was so clumsy that he doubted he could do his job well alone, but he did try his best.He scrubbed and smoothed decks with stones; he hauled anchor chains, coiled ropes, and hunted mice;Gilly often comes to help him.She was better at handling the rope than Sam, but she still sometimes closed her eyes when she saw the open water. Gilly, Sam thought, what am I going to do with Gilly? It was a long, sweltering day with endless headaches.Sam immersed himself in the ropes, the canvas, and the other tasks that the Shon had assigned him, trying not to take his eyes off the rum cask that held Maester Aemon's body...or Gilly.After what he had done last night, he couldn't face the Savage girl at this moment.She went on deck and he went down.She went to the front, and he went to the stern.She smiled at him and he turned his head away, feeling awful.I should have jumped into the sea while she was asleep, he thought. I've always been a coward, but never an oath-breaker. If Maester Aemon was alive, Sam could ask him for advice.If Jon Snow was on board, or even Pyp and Grenn, he could go find them.But now only Chong.Chong couldn't understand what I said.Even if he could understand, he would only encourage me to "fuck" her again. "Dry" is the first lingua franca vocabulary of Chongxue, and he likes this word the most. Luckily, the Cinnamon Wind was big enough—he could hardly escape Gilly on board the Blackbird—the giant ships from the Summer Isles known in the Seven Kingdoms as "Swan Ships" because they had The billowing white sails and the prows are mostly birds.Moreover, they are big and big, but they can ride the waves with unique elegance.With a strong wind, the Laurel Wind could run faster than any rower, but without it there was nothing she could do. She offers many hiding places for a coward. At the end of his duty, Sam was finally caught.He was climbing down a flight of stairs when Chong grabbed his collar. "Sam in black, follow Chong." He dragged Sam across the deck and threw him at Koja Mo's feet. In the far north, there is a looming horizon.Koja pointed there, "That's Dorne, the land of deserts, rocks, and scorpions, unstoppable for hundreds of leagues. If you want, you can swim there, and then walk to Oldtown. You need to go deep in the desert, climb Up the mountains, and swim across the rapids. Otherwise, you'll find Gilly." "You don't understand. Last night we..." "...Hail the dead, and honor the gods of heaven who made you. Takaha did the same. I was pregnant with him, or I would have been with him. You Westeros are ashamed of love. Love is nothing Shame on you. If your monks preach like this, it only proves that your seven gods are devils. The Summer Islanders are reasonable. Our gods gave us thighs so we can run, noses so we can smell, give us Our hands so we can touch and feel. What kind of crazy and cruel god would give a man eyes and tell him he must keep them closed forever, never to see anything good in the world? Unless it's a monster, a demon from the dark." Kou Ja put her hand between Sam's legs. "The gods gave you this for a reason, for... what do you call it in Westeros?" "Do it." Chong reminded enthusiastically. "Yes, do. For pleasure, for having children, there's no shame in it." Sam backed away from her. "No, I swore. No wife, no children. I swore." "She knows your vows. She's a child in some ways, but she's not blind. She knows why you're wearing black, why you're going to Oldtown, and she knows she can't keep you. She just needs You stay with her for a little while, that's all. She lost her father and her husband, her mother and her sisters, her home, her whole world, and you and the baby. You either go to her, Or swim across." Sam looked hopelessly at the misty coastline in the distance.He knew he could never swim that far. So he went to Gilly. "What we do... If I could have a wife, I'd rather have you than any princess or noble maiden, but I can't, I'm a raven, I've sworn it. Qing Li, I follow Jon into the woods, Make an oath before the heart tree." "Those trees watch us," Gilly whispered, wiping tears from her cheeks. "In the forest, they know everything...but there are no trees here. Only water, Sam. Only water."