Chapter 27 Chapter 26 Jon

It's dark tonight, there's no moonlight, but the sky is rare and clear. "I'm going up the mountain to find Ghost," he told the Thenns at the mouth of the cave, and they grunted and let him pass. So many stars, he counted, as he trudged along the hillside, through pine and cedar and ash.Maester Luwin had taught him astrology in his boyhood at Winterfell: he knew the names of the zodiac houses and the rulers of each; Luna and Dawn Excalibur are old friends, and can share with Ygritte, some can't.When we look up at the same starry sky, what we see is different.She called the crown seat "the cradle", the horse seat the "horned throne", and the red wandering star corresponding to the blacksmith in the mouth of the monks was called the "thief star".When the thief star enters the moon and woman, it is the auspicious time for a man to steal a woman, Ygritte insists so. "The night you stole me, the thief star in the sky was particularly bright."

"I didn't intend to steal you," he said. "I didn't even know you were a woman until the blade was in your throat." "Whether you want to kill someone or not, as long as you do it, the result will be fine," Ygritte said stubbornly.Jon had never met such a stubborn person, except perhaps his little sister Arya.Is it still my sister?He wondered, was she ever my sister?He has never been a real Stark family, as the illegitimate son of Duke Eddard, with no father and no mother, he has no place in Winterfell like Theon Greyjoy.Even that he had lost, when he took the oath of the Night's Watch he had given up his old family for a new one, and now Jon Snow was without those new brethren.

As expected, he found Ghost at the top of the mountain.The white wolf never howled, but somehow liked high places very much.At this moment, he squatted on his hind legs, his breath turned into a rising white mist, and his red eyes absorbed the light of the stars. "Are you naming them, too?" Jon asked, kneeling beside the direwolf, scratching the thick white fur on his neck. "Hare? Doe? Wolfwoman?" Ghost turned to lick his face, his rough tongue rubbing the bloody scab on Jon's cheek where the eagle's claws had scratched it.That bird scarred us both, he thought. "Ghost," he said quietly, "we're going tomorrow. There's no stairs, no cranes, no cages, no way for you to get over it. So we have to part, you understand?"

In the darkness, the red eyes of the direwolf stared back at him.He arched Jon's neck, still as always, his breath hot.The wilds called Jon a warg, and if that was true, he was a useless warg.He doesn't know how to get into a wolf, like Auriel and his eagle.Once in the past, Jon had dreamed that he was Ghost, looking down into the Milky River Valley, where Mance Rayder was gathering his men, and that dream had finally come true.But from then on, he no longer dreams, and can only speak with his mouth. "You can't follow me anymore," Jon said, holding the direwolf's head in both hands, looking deeply into those red eyes. "You have to go to Castle Black, do you understand? Castle Black. Can you find it? The way home? Just follow the Ice Wall, east to winter and east, in the direction of the sun, and you'll be there, when Black The castle will recognize you, too, and be warned." He had thought of writing a letter, which Ghost would carry, but he had no ink, no parchment, not even a quill, and the danger of discovery was too great. "I will meet you again at Castle Black, but you must go first. Let us hunt alone for a while. Go alone."

The direwolf broke free from Jon's grasp, pricked up his ears, and suddenly hopped away, striding through a tangled clump of bushes, leaping over a fallen dead tree, and down the hill like a white shadow in the woods.Was he going to Castle Black?Jon wondered, or go after the hare?He wishes he knew.I'm afraid I end up being as bad a wolf as I am a Night's Watch and a spy. The cold wind sighed in the woods, swirling the smell of pine needles and tugging at his faded black clothes.The dark Great Wall towers in the south, like a huge shadow, blocking the stars.From the undulating terrain here, he judged that they were between the Shadow Tower and Castle Black, probably closer to the former.For days, the team had been heading south between deep lakes that stretched like fingers along the bottom of narrow valleys, flanked by rocky ridges and competing pine-covered hills.This terrain slows down speed, but provides the best cover for those looking to approach the Wall quietly.

Yes, for the Wildling Raiders, he thought.to them.for me. On the other side of the Great Wall are the Seven Kingdoms, everything he wants to protect.He swore an oath, determined to give his life and glory, and he deserved to stand guard there, and he deserved to blow the horn to remind his brothers to arm.Although he had no horn at the moment, it was not difficult to steal one from the wildlings, but what was the use?No one heard it, the Wall was a hundred leagues long, and the Night's Watch was sadly small.With the exception of three forts, the rest was so neglected that there might not be a single brother within forty miles along the way.Of course, there was Jon, if he was one...

I should have killed Mance Rayder on the Fist of the First Men, even if it cost me my life.If it were Colin Halfhand, he would have made a decisive decision, but unfortunately I was hesitant and missed the opportunity.The day after that, he rode off with Stirmagnar, Jarl, and a hundred other select Thenns and raiders.He comforted himself: I was just waiting for the opportunity, and when the opportunity came, I would sneak away and ride to Castle Black.But the opportunity never came.At night they often rested in deserted wildling villages, and Styr always sent a dozen of his Thenns to guard the horses.Jarl watched him suspiciously.And worst of all, Ygritte was there, day and night.

Two hearts beat as one, and Mance Rayder's words echoed bitterly in his head.Jon had seldom been so confused.I had no choice, he told himself the first time he let her crawl into his bed, and if I said no, she'd think I was a chameleon too.No matter what you are asked to do, you are not allowed to disobey... I am just following the orders of the Halfhand and playing a role. Of course his body didn't defy it, but responded eagerly, lips pressed together, fingers sliding into the other's buckskin shirt, finding the tits.When she lifted her lower body to rub against him through her clothes, her words hardened immediately.My oath, he tried to gather his mind, recalling the weirwood grove when he swore the oath, nine big white trees surrounded by a circle, nine faces staring and listening to the center of the circle.But her fingers were undoing his belt, her tongue was in his mouth, her hands slid into his trousers and pulled it out.He would never see the weirwood again, only her.She bit his neck and he arched her neck, burying his nose in his thick red hair.Lucky, he thought to himself, being born with a kiss of fire is a symbol of luck. "Does it feel good?" she whispered, guiding him in.She was wet underneath and obviously not a virgin, but Jon didn't care.His vows, her chastity, it doesn't matter, only the heat, only her lips, only her fingers holding his nipple. "It's sweet, isn't it?" she asked again. "Not so fast, oh, slow down, yes, that's it. There it is, it's there, yes, dear, dear. You don't understand anything, Jon Snow , but I can teach you. Now push harder. Yeah—”

A role, he reminded himself afterwards, I was just playing a role.Had to do it once to prove I broke my vow so she would trust me.There will be no second time.I am still a man of the Night's Watch, and still Eddard Stark's son.I just perform my duties and obey the chief's entrustment. However, the process was so sweet that he couldn't let it go.Ygritte fell asleep beside him, her head resting on his chest.Sweet, dangerously sweet.He thought again of the weirwoods, and the oaths he had sworn before them.It's just one time, you have to do it once.Even the father made mistakes, forgot the marriage and gave birth to an illegitimate child.Jon promised himself that it would never happen again.

But it happened twice more that night, and a fourth time in the morning when she woke up and found him still hard.The savages had already got up and prepared, and of course noticed the movement under the pile of furs.Jarl urges them to hurry or throw water on them.We were like a pair of dogs in heat, Jon thought afterward, and that's what I did?I am a man of the Night's Watch, insisted a small voice, but it grew fainter each night, and when Ygritte kissed his ear or bit his neck he could not hear it at all.Is it the same with the father?Was he as weak as I was when he sullied his honor and that of his mother, he wondered?

Suddenly, he realized there was something up the hill behind him, it couldn't be Ghost, the direwolves wouldn't make such a noise.Jon drew Longclaw smoothly, and it turned out to be just a Thenn, a huge man with a bronze helmet. "Snow." The other party said, "Come on. Magnar wants it." The Thenns use the ancient language and don't know much about the common language. Jon didn't care what the Magnar wanted, but it was no use arguing with a man who could barely understand him, so he let him down the hill. The entrance of the cave is a crack between the rocks, which is vaguely covered by a soldier pine and only allows a horse to pass through.It was facing north, so even if there happened to be a patrol passing by tonight on the Wall, you couldn't see the fire inside, just the mountains and pine forests, and the cold starlight shining on the half-frozen lake.Mance Rayder had it all planned out. Entering the crack in the rock, and walking down a passage about twenty feet, there is an open space as spacious as the Great Hall of Winterfell.A bonfire burned among the stone pillars, and the smoke blackened the ceiling of the cave.The horses were tied along the rock wall and leaned against the edge of the shallow pool.There was a hole in the center of the clearing, leading to the cavern below, which was perhaps larger than the space above, it was dark to say.Jon could hear the soft murmur of the subterranean river. Jarl was with Magnar, and Mance made them share command.Jon noticed that Styr wasn't too happy about it.Mance Rayder called the dark-skinned young man Val's "pet", and Val is the sister of Mance's queen Dana, so in terms of identity, Jarl is the brother of the king beyond the wall, Mag Na is reluctant and has to share power with him.But he brought a hundred Thenns, five times as many as Jarl had, and usually went alone.In any case, Jon knew that it would be the young man who would lead them over the Ice Wall. Although Jarl was not yet twenty years old, he had been on the raid for eight years. People have crossed the Great Wall more than a dozen times, and recently formed their own team. Magna went straight to the point, "Jarr warned me that there would be crows patrolling it. Tell me everything you know about the patrols." Tell me, Jon noticed, not tell us, though Jarl is standing nearby.He wanted to refuse this rude question, but if he showed any disloyalty, he would be executed by Sty, and Ygritte would suffer. "Each patrol consisted of four men, two rangers, and two artisans," he said. "The artisans patched cracks along the way, watching for signs of melting, and the rangers scouted out the enemy. They rode mules." "Mule?" The earless man frowned. "Mule is slow." "Slow, but steady on the ice. Patrols usually ride on the Wall, and except around Castle Black, the roads on the Ice Wall haven't been paved for years. Mules were brought up at Eastwatch, yes Trained for this task." "Usually ride on the Great Wall? Not every time?" "No. One out of every four patrols walk along the base looking for signs of cracks or digging." Magna nodded, "Even in the distant Thenn, we also know the tunnel of Ice Axe Arsen." Jon had heard the story.The ice ax Arsen dug through half of the ice wall, but was discovered by the rangers of the Long Night Fort at this moment. They didn't bother to stop them, but blocked Arsen's back path with ice, snow and rocks.The melancholy Eddie once said that if you put your ear against the Great Wall, you can still hear the sound of digging inside. "When does the patrol start? How often?" Jon shrugged. "It has been changing. It is said that the former Lord Commander Koggle sent a team from Castle Black to Eastwatch by the sea every three days, and sent a team from Castle Black to the Shadow Tower every two days. The number of people is large, and in the era of Lord Commander Mormont, the number of patrols and the date of departure have been changing, which is unpredictable. Sometimes the old bear will even send a large army to live in the abandoned castle for two weeks to a month." This is the uncle's idea. , Jon knew, in order to confuse the enemy. "Is there anyone guarding Shimenzhai?" Jael asked, "Where is Greyguard Fort?" We're somewhere in between, right?Jon tried not to show it. "When I left the Wall, only Eastwatch, Castle Black, and the Shadow Tower had guards. I can't tell what Bowen Marsh and Ser Denys have done since." "How many crows are left in the castle?" Sidi asked. "Five hundred at Castle Black, two hundred at the Shadow Tower, maybe three hundred at Eastwatch." Jon added three hundred to the total.It would be great if there were so many... Jael was not fooled. "He's lying," he told Styr, "or counting the crow that died on the Fist of the First Men." "Raven," warned the Magnar, "don't take me for Mance Rayder, and if you lie to me, your tongue will be cut off." "I'm not a crow, and I'm not lying." Jon opened and closed his sword hand. Thenn's Magnar looked at Jon with cold gray eyes. "We'll know the exact number soon," he said after a moment. "Go ahead. I'll send for you if there are still questions." Jon bowed his head stiffly, turned and left.If all the savages were like Sidi, it would be easy.The Thenns, unlike the other free folk, call themselves descendants of the First Men and are ruled with an iron fist by the Magnar.Styr's territory is narrow, just a valley in the mountains, hidden in the far north of the Frostfang, surrounded by troglodytes, hordemen, giants, and cannibal tribes of the Great Glacier.According to Ygritte, the Thenns were fierce fighters, and the Magnar was godlike to them—Jon had no doubts about that, and unlike Jarl, Hamar, or Rattleshirt's squad, Styr His subordinates were absolutely obedient to him, and no doubt this iron discipline was why Mance had chosen him to assault the Wall. He passed the crowd of Thenn, sitting around their campfires on their bronze round helmets.Where did Ygritte go?He found her luggage with his own, but the girl herself was nowhere to be seen. "She went that way with a torch," said Grigg the Goat, pointing to the back of the cave. Jon walked in the direction pointed, through a maze of stone pillars and stalagmites, and came to a dark cave.She can't be here, he thought, when he heard her laugh.So he walked in the direction of the sound, but ten steps away was a dead end, with a wall of rose and white flowstone in front of him.Confused, he turned and turned back along the road, only halfway to discover a black hole under a protruding wet stone.Kneeling to listen, he heard the faint sound of water, "Ygritte?" "Here I am," she promised, and there was a faint echo in the cave. Jon had to climb a dozen steps before reaching the open space.When I stood up again, it took a while for my eyes to adjust.There is only the torch brought by Ygritte in the cave, and there is no other light source.She was standing by a small waterfall, and water ran from clefts in the rocks into wide black pools.Orange and yellow flames danced on the pale green water. "What are you doing here?" he asked her. "I heard the sound of water, and I wanted to see how deep the cave was." She pointed with the torch. "Look, there's a passage going down there. I followed it a hundred paces, and then turned back." "Go to the end?" "You don't understand anything, Jon Snow. It goes down, down. There are a thousand caves in this mountain, and they all lead down to your Wall. You know the Gorney Pass, don't you?" " "Gorny," said Jon, "Gorny was King Beyond the Wall." "Yes," Ygritte said, "Three thousand years ago, he and his brother Gendel led the free folk through these caves, and the Night's Watch knew nothing about it. It's a pity that when he came out, he was killed by Winterfell." attack by wolves." "It was a great battle," Jon remembered. "Gorny slew the King in the North, but his son took up his father's banner and his father's crown, and fell Gorny in turn." "The sound of the sword awakened the crows in the castle, and they rode out in black to attack the free folk." "Yes, there is the King of the North in the south, the troops of the Umber family in the east, and the Night Watchman in the north. Gendel also died in battle." "You don't understand anything, Jon Snow. Gendel didn't die. He killed the crows and led his men back north. The wolves howled and followed closely, but failed to catch up. It's a pity that Gendel Del isn't as familiar with caves as Gonny is, and he took a wrong turn." She swung the torch back and forth, and the shadows moved with it. "As a result, I went deeper and deeper, and I wanted to go back the same way, but there were always stones in front of me, and I couldn't see the sky. Soon the torches began to go out, one after another, until finally there was only darkness. No one saw it again Gendel and his men, but in the stillness of the night you can hear their descendants weeping at the bottom of the mountain. They are still finding their way home. You listen? Do you hear me?" Jon heard only the splashing of water and the slight crackling of flames. "The passage leading to the Great Wall has never been found?" "Some have searched, and have gone too deep and come across Gendel's children. They are always hungry." She smiled, thrusting the torch into a crevice, and walked toward him. "What good is there in the dark but flesh?" she whispered, biting his neck. Jon arched her hair, her nose full of her scent. "You sound like Old Nan, like she did when she told Bran her monster stories." Ygritte tapped him on the shoulder, "You call me an old woman?" "You are older than me." "Yes, and wiser. You don't know anything, Jon Snow." She pushed him away and took off her rabbit-skin vest. "What are you doing?" "I'll show you how old I am." She unbuttoned her buckskin shirt, threw it aside, and pulled out a three-layer wool undershirt. "I want you to keep an eye on me." "we can not--" "We can!" She stood on one leg and pulled off one boot, letting her breasts bounce, then switched to the other leg and took off the other boot.There are big pink circles around her nipples. "What are you staring at? Take it off," said Ygritte, pulling down her sheepskin trousers. "You want to see me, and I want to see you. You don't know anything, Jon Snow." "I understand, I want you," he heard himself say, all oaths, all honors forgotten.She stood before him naked, as she had been born, and his lips were as hard as the surrounding rock.He's done it with her dozens of times, but it's all under the fur because there are people around.He had never seen her so beautiful.Her legs were thin but muscular, and the red pubic hair between her legs was brighter than the color of her hair.Will you be luckier?He pulls her closer. "I love the way you smell," he said, "love your red hair, and I love your mouth and the way you kiss me. I love your smile, and your nipples." He kisses them, one, the other . "I love your slender legs and what's between them." He knelt down and kissed her private parts, lightly kissing the hump at first, and then Ygritte spread the legs further apart so he could see the pink inside, He kissed there too, tasted her.She let out a small cry. "If you love me so much, why are you still wearing clothes?" she asked softly. "You don't understand anything, Jon Snow. What—er, oh, oh oh—" Afterwards, Ygritte was almost a little shy, or that was shy to her. "The one you did," she said as they lay together in the pile of clothes, "with your... mouth." She hesitated for a moment. "Is that... the relationship between the master and wife in the south?" "I don't think so." No one had ever told Jon what was going on between the lord and their lady. "I just...wanted to kiss you there, that's all. You seem to like it." "Yeah. I... I kind of like it. No one taught you?" "No one," he admitted, "I have only you." "Virgin," she scoffed, "you're a virgin." He pinched the nipple closest to him playfully. "I was originally a man of the night watchman." Originally, he heard himself say.What now?Who is it now?He didn't want to think about it. "Are you a virgin?" Ygritte propped herself up on one elbow. "I am nineteen, a spearwife born of the kiss of fire. How can I be a virgin?" "Who is he?" "The boy I met at a party five years ago. He came over with his brothers to do business. He had red hair like mine, and I thought he'd be lucky, but he was a jerk. He came back to steal I broke my arm with a spear and never tried it again, not once!" "It's not a spear." Jon was relieved.He liked spears, and Rick was unassuming and friendly to him. She punched him, "Dirty! Will you sleep with your sister?" "The spear is not your brother." "He's from my village. You don't know anything, Jon Snow. Real men steal women from afar to strengthen their tribe. A woman who sleeps with her brother or father or kin is cursed to give birth to sickly children." children, even monsters." "Caster will marry his own daughter," Jon pointed out. She punched him again. "Caster is more like you than us. His father was a crow who stole a woman from Whitetree, but flew back to the Wall after taking her. She went to Castle Black to find him once, to show the crow His son, but the brethren in black blew their horns and drove her away. Custer was bleeding black and heavy with the curse." She ran her fingers lightly across his belly. "I'm afraid you will do the same, fly back to the Great Wall and never look back. After you stole me, you didn't know what to do." Jon sat up. "Ygritte, I didn't steal from you." "Of course you stole me. You jumped off the hill and killed Auriel, and I had a short knife at my throat before I could pick up my longaxe. I thought you'd want me, or kill me, or both. Do it, but you didn't do anything. I told you the story of the bard Bell, how he plucked the winter snow rose from Winterfell, thinking you would understand and come and pluck me, but you didn't. You know nothing, Jon Snow." She smiled shyly at him. "But you may be learning." For a long time, the light wavered around her.Jon looked around. "We'd better go up, the torches are dying out." "Are crows so afraid of Gendel's offspring?" she grinned. "It's a short way up and I'm not done with you, Jon Snow." go up. "Can you..." she said hesitantly. "What?" he asked, and the torch began to falter. "Do it again," Ygritte blurted out. "Use your mouth... the kiss of the noble lord, I... I know, you like it too." When the torch burned out, Jon Snow was no longer worried. But his guilt has returned, albeit much weaker than before.If it was a mistake, he wondered, why did the gods make it so good? After that, it was pitch black inside the cave.There was only a dim light in the passage to the great cave above, where a score of fires were burning.They tried to get dressed in the dark, and immediately bumped into each other.Ygritte fell into the pool, screaming at the freezing water.When Jon laughed, she pulled him down too.They wrestled and splashed in the dark, and then she was in his arms again, and it turned out they weren't over yet. "Jon Snow," she told him as he planted the seed inside her, "don't move, darling. I like you in me, I like it. Let's not go back to Sty and Jarl Go. Let us go further in, to find the children of Gendel. Don't leave this cave, Jon Snow, never leave."