Chapter 8 Chapter 7 Jon

The world is gray, and the smell of pine and moss, with a hint of chill, floats in the wind.A pale mist rose from the black earth, and the riders trudged through broken stone and tangled wood, down the valley toward the warm fires scattered like pearls.There were many fires, so many that Jon could not count them. Hundreds of thousands of bonfires formed a flickering light, and with the frozen white milk river, it looked like two rivers.This situation made him open and close the five fingers of his right hand involuntarily. They rode down the ridge without raising or blowing their flags, and there was silence, only the distant murmur of the river, the clattering of horses' hoofs, and the clanking of Rattleshirt's bone armor.Somewhere overhead, an eagle spread its giant gray-blue wings, looking down at the men, dogs, horses, and white direwolves below.

The horse's hooves kicked the gravel, and the stones rolled down the slope, and Jon saw Ghost turn his head to search for the sudden sound.He followed them at a distance all day, as was his habit, and when the moon rose over the sentinel trees, he would run away with his bloodshot eyes wide open.As always, the Rattleshirt hounds snarled and barked at him, but the direwolf didn't care.Six nights ago, after they had set up camp, the largest hound tried to sneak up on him from behind, but Ghost was faster than him, and the dog fled, battered and battered.Since then, the dogs have always kept a distance from him.

Jon Snow's horse neighed softly, but strokes and soft words soon brought it back to calm.It would be nice if my own fears could calm down so easily.He was in black, the black of the Night's Watch, and yet he rode among the enemies.I followed them, these wildlings.Ygritte wore Qhorin Halfhand's cloak, Ronle took his mail, his gloves were taken by the big spearwife Ravenler, and some archer got his boots.Short, homely-looking Rick "The Spear" won Qhorin's helmet, but it didn't fit his narrow head, so he gave it to Ygritte.Rattleshirt pocketed Colin's bones next to Eben's bloodstained head, and it was with these rangers that Jon had followed them to the Windsound Pass.Dead, they're all dead, and the whole world knows I'm dead too.

Ygritte rode behind him, Rick the Spear ahead of him.The King of Bones asked the two to watch over him. "If you let the crows fly away, I'll boil your bones," he warned the two guards as he set off, grinning smugly under crooked teeth through the giant's skull used as a helmet. Ygritte scolded him: "Do you want this person? If you do, stop talking nonsense, we know how to do it ourselves." They are the true free folk, Jon discovers, and Rattleshirt can lead them, but not over them. The wildling leader turned to stare at him viciously, "Crow, you can fool other people, but you can't fool Mance. He can see through your disguise at a glance. Then, I will use your wolf's skin as a cloak, Then slit open your soft belly and sew a weasel in."

Jon opened and closed his sword hand, burning fingers under the glove.Rick Lance laughed beside him and said, "It's snowing so heavily, where are you going to find a weasel?" The night before, after a long day of riding, they had found a bowl-shaped rocky beach on top of an unnamed high mountain, and camped there.Snowflakes flew, and people huddled around the fire, and Jon watched the blowing snow fall over the campfire and melt quickly.Despite his layers of wool, fur, and leather armor, he felt cold to the bone.After the meal, Ygritte sat beside him, her hood pulled up, her palms tucked into her sleeves for warmth, "Mance will accept you as soon as he hears what you did to Halfhand."

"accept me?" The girl smiled lightly: "I accept you as one of us. Do you think you are the first crow to fly away from the Great Wall? I know, you long to fly freely from the bottom of your heart." "I'm free to join," he said slowly, "and free to leave?" "Of course." She smiled warmly, but her teeth were a little crooked, "and we have the freedom to hunt you. Freedom is a dangerous thing, but everyone craves it." She put the palm on the sleeve on his knee. "You don't understand anything." Yes, I don't understand yet, Jon thought, but I'll see and listen and learn, and then I'll run back to the Wall when I find out.The wildlings regarded him as an oath-breaker, but at heart he was still a man of the Night's Watch, carrying out the final mission that Qhorin Halfhand had given him.His last entrustment before I kill him.

They descended to the bottom of the slope, and in front of them was a small stream that flowed down the mountain into the milk river. It seemed to be motionless, reflecting the light, but there was a sound of water flowing under the solid ice.Rattleshirt led them across the stream, breaking the thin ice on the water. As they approached the camp, Mance Rayder's scouts leaned over.Jon glanced at them: eight horsemen, men and women, all in furs and leathers, carrying spears or fire-tempered lances, but armed only with a few helms and a few pieces of battered armor.The leader of the other party was a bit special, fat, with watery eyes, full head of blond hair, and a huge and sharp steel sickle.This is the cryr, he immediately realized.The Black Brothers talk about him a lot.Like Rattleshirt, Harma the Doghead, and Afyn the Ravenhunter, he was a notorious raider.

"The Lord of Bones," called the Weeper, eyeing Jon and his wolf, "who is that, just that?" "A fleeing crow," said Rattleshirt, who liked to be called the Lord of Bones, whose clanking bone armor was his pride. "He was afraid I'd crush him like a bone with a broken hand." He lifted the bag of spoils and waved it in front of the wildling scouts. "It was the boy who killed Qhorin Halfhand," Rick the Lance said, "with his wolf." "He killed Auriel," Rattleshirt said. "This kid is a wolf spirit." The big spearwife Rui Wenle cut in, "His wolf bit off a broken hand and a leg."

The Weeper gave Jon another look through his rosy, wet eyes. "Is that so? Oh, he has the qualities of a wolf, I see. Take him to Mance! Let him do it." He turned his horse, He left in the dust, and his men followed him closely. They marched in single file through the camp in the valley of the Milk River, and the wind was wet and heavy.Ghost followed Jon, his scent the herald announcing their arrival.In a short while, all the dogs of the savages came together, growling and barking.Langer yelled at them to be quiet, but it didn't work. "They don't like your mates," Rick the Spear said to Jon.

"A dog on one side and a wolf on the other," said Jon. "They are not of the same kind." Just as I am not of your kind.But I have to put these aside for the time being, to fulfill the responsibility that Colin gave him when I shared the campfire with Halfhand for the last time-disguise as an oath-breaker, and find out the secrets that the wildlings dug in the cold and desolate Frostfang . "Some power," Qhorin Halfhand asserted to the Old Bear, but he died before finding out the truth, not even knowing if Mance Rayder had dug "it." Bonfires line the river, dotted with carts, carts and sledges.The savages hastily set up countless tents with animal skins and sheep felts, and some people built nests on the big rocks or slept under the cars.Jon saw the man tempering the point of a long wooden spear by the fire, and throwing the spear at the same time; the other two bearded boys in leather armor beat each other with clubs, jumped over the campfire and chased each other, shouting constantly. ; a dozen women sat in a circle, feathering bows and arrows.

Arrows for my brethren, Jon thought. Arrows for my father's people. Arrows for Winterfell and Deepwood Motte and Last Hearth. Arrows for the North. But it's not all war scenes in front of us.He saw dancing girls too, heard babies crying, and a little boy wrapped in furs ran past the horses, panting from play.Sheep and goats roam free, cattle forage the riverbanks, the smell of lamb wafts from the fire, and a whole boar is smoked on a skewer. Rattleshirt dismounted when he came to a clearing surrounded by tall, green soldier pines. "Camp here," he told Lonle, Ravenler, and the others. "Feed the horses, the dogs, and yourselves. Ygritte, Spear, take the crows away, and let Mance be well." Look, then we'll peel him." They walked the rest of the way, past more campfires and more tents, with Ghost still at their heels.Jon had never seen so many wildlings.He wondered if anyone had ever seen so many wildlings.The encampment was endless, no, not one encampment, but hundreds, each vulnerable.Since they are scattered in several leagues, there is no defense at all. There are no pits, no sharpened stakes, and only a few small teams of scouts patrolling around.Every team, clan, and village set up their camps wherever they liked, regardless of others.This is the free people.If his brethren seized their chance, many here would have paid with their lives for their freedom.They were numerous, but lacked the discipline of the Night's Watch.Strict discipline, nine out of ten battles, his father had taught him. The king's tent was very eye-catching, twice as big as the largest tent he had seen just now, and the sound of music came from inside the tent.Although it is made of animal skins like other tents, the material is pure white plush of snow bears.The top of the tent is surrounded by giant antlers, which must have been plucked from the heads of the giant moose that roamed the Seven Kingdoms in the days of the First Men. It was not until this point that they came across the guards; two guards stood at the door of the tent, with spears and round leather shields strapped to their arms.Seeing Ghost, one of the guards lowered his spear, "No wild beasts." "Ghost, stop," Jon ordered.The direwolf sat down obediently. "Like this one, Spear." Rattleshirt opened the tent door and gestured for Jon and Ygritte to enter. The tent was hot and full of smoke.Baskets containing burning charcoal were placed at the four corners, emitting a dim red light, and the ground was covered with thick animal skins as a carpet.Coming here in black, waiting for the chameleon who claimed to be the king beyond the Wall to deal with him, Jon felt extremely lonely.After his eyes adjusted to the cloud of red smoke, he realized that there were six people inside, but no one paid him any attention.A swarthy young man was sharing a corner of mead with a pretty blonde; a pregnant woman stood by a brazier grilling a bunch of chicks; a gray-haired man in a ragged red and black cloak sat cross-legged on a pillow, Playing the harp and singing: The wives of the Dornishmen are fair as the sun, Her kisses are warmer than Yangchun; The swords of the Dornishmen are of black iron, Their kisses are terrifying. Jon had heard the ballad before, but here—in the fur tents beyond the Wall, miles and miles away from the red hills and warm winds of Dorne—it sounded strange. Rattleshirt pulled down his yellowed skullhelm and waited for the singing to end.After taking off the bone armor and leather armor, he is actually very thin and ordinary, with a knobby chin, a short beard, flat and sallow cheeks, a thin line of eyes, eyebrows across the forehead, and a few thin tufts of hair on the pointed bald head. black hair. Dornish wives sing when they bathe, A tone as sweet as a peach; The swords of the Dornishmen have their own songs, Sharp and cold as a leech. A short but very stout man was sitting on a stool by the brazier, eating a skewer of roast chicken with relish.Hot grease trickled down his chin and into his snow-white beard, and he laughed merrily.On his massive arms were heavy gold bands engraved with runes, and he wore heavy black ring mail - the kind that could only be obtained from dead rangers.A few feet away, another tall and thin man was frowning at the map, wearing a leather shirt sewn with bronze scales, and a two-handed giant sword with a leather scabbard across his back.The man was straight as a spear, long sinewy, clean-shaven, but bald, with a strong straight nose and deep-set gray eyes.If he had ears, he would be considered handsome, but unfortunately he doesn't have one.Jon didn't know if it was the frost or the war, but without them the man's head was a little off-balance, narrow and pointed. Both Whitebeard and Baldhead were fighters, Jon knew at a glance, and both were far more powerful than Rattleshirt.He did not know which of them Mance Rayder was. He fell to the ground and the darkness echoed, The taste of blood the tongue tastes. His brothers knelt and prayed for him, And he laughed and sang: "Brother, brother, my doom has come, The Dornishmen took my body, It doesn't matter, mortals are mortal, I tasted the Dornishman's wife! " As the last tune of "The Dornish Man's Wife" faded away, the bald, earless man looked up from the map, glaring at Rattleshirt, Ygritte, and Jon between them. "Who is this?" he said. "A crow?" "Yes, the bastard killed Auriel," said Rattleshirt, "and he's still a bloody wolf." "Then what did you bring it for? Just chop it up." "He has defected," Ygritte explained. "He killed Qhorin Halfhand himself." "Just because of this kid?" After hearing this, the earless man was a little annoyed, "Halfhand is my prey. Crow, do you have a name?" "My name is Jon Snow, Your Majesty." I wonder if I should kneel before the "King Beyond the Wall". "Your Majesty?" the earless man looked at the thick white beard, "Look, he thought I was the king." The fat, bearded man laughed so hard that chicken nuggets flew everywhere, and he wiped his mouth with his giant hand. "He must be a boy without eyes! Are there any kings without ears? Hell, the crown would fall straight down his neck! Haha!" He grinned at Jon, wiping his fingers on his breeches. "Shut up, crow. Turn your head, the person you are looking for is behind." Jon turned his head away. The singer stood up. "I am Mance Rayder," he said, putting down his harp, "and you are Ned Stark's bastard son, Snow of Winterfell." Jon was so startled that he couldn't speak for a long time, before he managed to regain his composure after a long time: "You... how do you know..." "I'll tell that story later," said Mance Rayder. "Did you like what I sang, boy?" "You sing very well. Besides, I've heard that song before." "'Never mind, mortals are mortal,'" whispered the King-beyond-the-Wall, "'but I have tasted a Dornishman's wife.' Tell me, our Lord of Bones speaks the truth? You killed my old friend Severe palm?" "Yes." Though not by me alone. "The Shadow Tower will no longer be as formidable as it used to be," the king said sadly, "Colin was my opponent, but he was also my brother, so... I should be grateful to you, Jon Snow No? Or should I curse you?" He gave Jon a mocking smile. The King Beyond the Wall doesn't look like a king, not even a wild man.He was of medium height, slender, with a pointed face, shrewd brown eyes, and long brown hair--though it was now mostly gray.He had no crown on his head, no rings of gold on his arms, no chains around his neck, in short, no adornment at all.He was dressed in wool and leather, and the only thing that stood out from him was a tattered black wool cloak with several long rips stitched together with faded red silk. "You should be grateful that I killed your rival," said Jon at last, "and curse me for killing your friend." "Haha!" cried the man with the white beard, "well said!" "Agreed." Mance Rayder gestured Jon to approach, "If you want to join, you have to get to know us first. The person you mistakenly thought was me is called Sty, and it's the Magnar of Thenn—the Magnar is here The old saying means 'lord'" Mance turned to the white-bearded, earless man and stared at Jon coldly, "this fierce chicken devourer is my loyal Tormund, that woman—" Tormund refused, "Wait a minute, if you reported Sty's title, you should also mention mine." Mance Rayder smiled. "As you wish. Jon Snow, before you is Tormund Giantsbane, Blowhard, Trumpeter, and Icebreaker. He is also Tormund Thunderfist, Husband of the Snow Bear, Mead of the Red Hall King, father of all living beings and spokesman of the gods." "That's about the same." Tormund said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Jon Snow. Although I don't look down on Starks, I am interested in wolf spirits." "That fine woman at the brazier," continued Mance Rayder, "is Dana." The pregnant woman smiled shyly. "You must treat her like a queen, she is pregnant with my child." He turned to the remaining two. "This beauty is her sister Val, and the young man beside Val is her new pet." "I'm not someone else's pet," Jarl said fiercely and darkly. "Val is not a man (Note 1)," Whitebeard Tormund snorted, "you can find out, boy, Mance is right." "You know us already, Jon Snow," said Mance Rayder. "This is the King Beyond the Wall and his court. Now it is your turn. Where are you from?" "I come from Winterfell," he said, "from Castle Black this time." "Why did you leave your home and come up the Milk River?" He didn't wait for Jon to answer, looking at Rattleshirt. "How many of them are there?" "Five. Killed three, caught this kid, and one went up the mountain, and couldn't be tracked by horseback." Red's gaze met Jon again. "There are only five of you? Is there anyone hiding?" "No, we are four plus Halfhand, and Colin can hold twenty." The King Beyond the Wall laughed, "That's right, that's what everyone said. There's one more question...the newbies in Castle Black are following a group of Rangers from the Shadow Tower, and why?" Jon had already prepared his speech: "The Lord Commander sent me to practice under Halfhand, so I joined the patrol." Steelmagna frowned, "You mean, patrolling...the crows will come to the Wind Sound Gap to patrol?" "Villages have been abandoned," Jon said truthfully, "as if all the free folk had suddenly disappeared." "Ah . . . gone," said Mance Rayder, "and not only the free folk. Who told you we were here, Jon Snow?" Tormund snorted, "You don't have to ask, it must be Custer, otherwise just treat me as a shy girl. I told you, Mance, that thing's head should be chopped off." The king shot the elder angrily. "One day, Tormund, you'll have to learn to think before you speak. Of course I know it's Craster. My purpose is to examine Jon." "Haha," Tormund spat, "well, I'll shut up!" He grinned at Jon. "Look, boy, that's why he can be king and I can't. I drink too much and fight wars." strong, and sings louder than him, and is three times his size, but Mance is cunning than I am. You know, he used to be a crow, ha ha, a crafty bird." "I want to speak to the boy alone, Lord of Bones," Mance Rayder said to Rattleshirt. "And the others, go." "What, I want to go too?" Tormund said. "No, you're an exception," said Mance. "No! I don't eat where I'm not welcome," Tormund stood up. "My chicken and I better go." He grabbed another skewer and stuffed it into the seam in the lining of his cloak pocket, said "Ha!" as farewell, and licked his fingers and walked out of the tent.Everyone followed him, except the woman Dana. "Sit wherever you want," Red said after the people had left. "Are you hungry? Tormund still has two birds." "I am honored to eat your food, Your Majesty, thank you." "Your Majesty?" the king laughed. "No one hears that title from the lips of the free folk. Most of them call me Mance directly, and a few call me Lord Mance. Horn mead?" "With pleasure," Jon said. Dana cut up the crispy chicken and gave them both half while the king drank the mead.Jon took off his gloves and helped feed with his fingers, sucking every morsel off the bone as he was so hungry. "Tormund is right," said Mance Rayder, as he tore the bread, "that the black raven is a scheming bird... and I was a raven before you were born, Jon Snow, So be careful, don't play tricks on me." "As you say, ma-Mance." The king couldn't help laughing, "Your Majesty Mance! Why not? Well, I promise to tell a story and tell you why I know you. Do you understand?" Jon shook his head. "Did Rattleshirt announce?" "Birds? We don't have trained crows. No, I remember your face because I've seen it before. Twice." It doesn't make sense.Jon thought hard, and finally figured it out. "When you were a brother of the Night's Watch..." "Very correct! Yes, that was the first time. You were a child back then, and I was dressed in black as one of the twelve guards of the former commander Kogel, escorting him to visit your father in Winterfell I came across you and your brother Robb, walking on the inner wall around the courtyard. It snowed the night before, and you two made a big pile on the gate, waiting for some unlucky ghost to pass beneath." "I remember!" Jon said with a surprised smile.A young black brother roaming the walls, yes... "You swore you wouldn't expose us." "And I kept my vow. At least, I kept this one." "We poured snow on Fat Tom, the dullest bodyguard my father ever had." Tom chased them all about the yard till their cheeks were as red as ripe apples. "But you said you met me twice, when was the other time?" "When King Robert came to Winterfell to appoint your father Hand," said the King Beyond the Wall softly. Jon's eyes widened in disbelief, "How is that possible?" "That's true. When your father knew the king was on his way, he wrote to his brother Bunyan on the Wall to come to the feast. There's more to the black brothers and the free folk than you know. Much more, so the news reached me quickly too. I couldn't resist the temptation. Your uncle never saw me, so I don't worry about him, and I don't think your father remembers a little bird that flew by all those years ago. Raven. I was going to see Robert with my own eyes, King to King, and to know more about your Uncle Bunyan. He was Chief Ranger then, and the bane of my people. So I mounted my fastest horse, Just go away." "But," Jon objected, "the Wall..." "The Great Wall can stop an army, but it can't stop a single man. I took a pipa and a bag of silver deer, climbed the ice wall near the Changche Building, crossed the new land, and went south for a few leagues to buy horses. I traveled day and night. , and Robert took the heavy wheel of the palace so that his queen could travel comfortably, so at last I overtook me about a day's ride south of Winterfell, and I joined the royal party. You know, Free riders and hedge knights often come to the royal family, hoping to stay in the royal service, and my lute makes me easy to accept," he continued to smile, "I can play all the obscene tunes on and off the Great Wall. You Also, the night your father entertained Robert, I drank with a bunch of Freeriders on the bench at the end of the hall, and ate your father's roast and Mead. I've had a good look at the Kingslayer and the Imp...and Lord Eddard's children and the pups at their feet." "You're like Bael the bard," Jon said, remembering the story Ygritte told him on Frostfang, the night he nearly killed her. "I wish I could be like him. Ah, Bell's track record is exciting... I have no guts to steal one of your sisters. Bell writes his own ballads and they live on forever, and I'll only cover them better than I do A song composed by someone. Want more mead?" "No," said Jon, "if you are found... caught..." "Your father will not cut off my head," shrugged the king, "because I eat in his halls, protected by the right of guest. The law about guests is as old as the first men, and sacred as the heart tree." He turned to the cloth. The table covered with crumbs and chicken bones compared, "So, you are also a guest here, with my protection, you will not be harmed... At least, tonight. To be honest, Jon Snow, you Is it a coward who betrayed out of fear, or is there some other reason?" With or without guest rights, Jon Snow knew that he was walking on thin ice, and if he made a slight mistake, he would be doomed and die without a place to die.Weigh every word carefully, he told himself, delaying the showdown with a gulp of mead.When he put down the horn cup, he said: "You tell me your reason first, and then I will tell you." As Jon expected, Mance Rayder smiled, and the king was clearly a confident man. "I'll tell you how I quit my job, and I will." "Some say you are a crown, some say you are a woman, and some say you are born of wildling blood." "The blood of the wildlings is the blood of the First Men, and the blood of the First Men is the blood of the Starks. As for the crown, do you see it here?" "I saw a woman." He glanced at Dana. Mance hugged her, "No, my wife is innocent. I met her on the way back from your father's castle. Halfhand is a sculpture made of rotten wood. I am a man of flesh and blood, fascinated by the charm of women... and four Three-thirds of the brothers in black. Seriously, some of the men in black have fucked ten times as many women as the poor king. You'll have to guess, Jon Snow." Jon considered for a moment. "Halfhand said you like wildling music." "That's right, it's close to the answer, but it's not accurate yet." Mance Rayder stood up, unfastened the buckle of the cloak, and spread it on the table. "I am for this." "For a cloak?" "A black wool cloak of a sworn brother of the Night's Watch," said the King Beyond the Wall. "Once we were out on patrol and killed a beautiful giant deer. We were busy skinning it, but the smell of blood attracted a shadow bobcat from a nearby den. I drove it away, but the cloak was in the fight. Torn to shreds. Did you see that? Here, here, and here?" He giggled, "That bastard also tore my arms and my back, and I bled more than that deer The brothers were afraid that I would die before returning to the Shadow Tower to be treated by Maester Mullin, so they carried me to a wildling village, because it is said that there is an old witch who has some medical skills. Unfortunately, she is already dead. A daughter was left. It was she who washed my wounds and sewed them up, and fed me porridge and potions until I recovered. She sewed my broken cloak with bright red silk from Asshai, which her grandmother had taken from a Found in a wreck on a frozen shore. It was her greatest treasure, a gift from her." He threw his cloak back over his shoulders. "Back to the Shadow Tower, they gave me a new woolen cloak from the warehouse, an all black cloak, neat and crisp, with black breeches and black boots, black tunic and black mail. This A new cloak unfrayed, nicked, nipped...nor red. The Night's Watch must be in black, Ser Denys Mallister reminded me sternly, when I was amnesiac. And he said, your old The cloak can be burned." "I left the next morning...to a place where kissing is no longer a sin and people can freely choose their cloaks." He fastened the buckle and sat down again. "What about you, Jon Snow?" Jon took another gulp of mead.It seems that there is only one argument that can convince him. "You said you've been to Winterfell, and attended my father's dinner for King Robert." "Yes, I was there." "Then you should know. Prince Joffrey and Prince Tommen, Princess Myrcella, my brothers Robb and Bran and Rickon, my sisters Arya and Sansa, they walked through the central passage , all eyes on it, and the place to sit is only one seat below the dais of the king and duke." "how?" "Did you see where I sat, Mance?" He leaned forward. "Did you see where they threw the bastard?" Mance Rayder studied Jon's face for a long time. "I think I should get you a new cloak," said the king, holding out his hand. Note 1: This is a pun.English uses man to refer to people, and the last sentence is "I am no man's pet", but Tormund deliberately twisted this sentence into a man, and replied "And Val's no man".