Chapter 49 Chapter 48: Jon

The mare was exhausted, but Jon could not let her rest.He had to get to the Wall before the Magnar.If the horse had a saddle, he could sleep on it, but it doesn't, and it's hard enough to keep it from falling off when it's just awake.The leg hurt more and more, there was no time for it to heal, and every time I got on the horse it tore it again. He climbed up the hill and saw the brown, rutted King's Road stretching northward, through hills and plains, and patted the mare's neck with relief, "Now just follow the road, good girl, soon The Great Wall is gone." His legs had grown stiff as wood, and the fever had left him so dazed that he twice turned in the wrong direction.

We are almost at the Great Wall.He pictured his friends drinking warm wine in the hall.Hobb tended the kettle, Donal Noye forged iron at the forge, and Maester Aemon lived in the nest beneath the crow's nest.Where's the old bear? Sam, Grenn, sad Eddie, Dyvan with his dentures...Jon can only hope that someone escapes the Fist of the First Men. He always thought of Ygritte, too.He remembered the smell of her hair, the warmth of her body...and the look on her face as she cut the old man's throat.You shouldn't love her, a voice whispered.You shouldn't have left her, another voice insisted.He wondered if his father was in the same dilemma when he left his mother and returned to Lady Caitlin.He swears his allegiance to Lady Stark, and I swear my allegiance to the Night's Watch.

The fever was so bad that he nearly rode through Mole's Village without knowing where he was.Most of the village is hidden underground, and under the light of the waning moon, only a few simple huts can be seen.The brothel is a small room about the size of a toilet, and the red lanterns creak in the wind, like bloodshot eyeballs peeking out in the dark.Jon dismounted in the adjoining stable, almost falling to the ground, but he woke the two boys immediately. "I want a vigorous horse, complete with saddle and bun," he told them in an undeniable tone.The two quickly prepared the mount for him, and brought a bag of wine and half a loaf of black bread. "Wake up the villagers," he said, "and warn them. The wildlings are past the Wall. Pack up and go to Castle Black." He gritted his teeth, climbed on the black horse they had given him, and rode northward.

The stars in the eastern sky gradually faded, and the Great Wall appeared in front of me, towering above the trees and morning mist.White moonlight shone on the ice.He pushed his horse along the muddy and slippery road until he could see Castle Black's wooden keeps and stone towers strewn across the snow like broken toys, beneath the great wall of ice.The dawn is shining, and the Great Wall of Desperation is shining with pink and purple brilliance. When riding past the outlying buildings, there were no sentries to interrogate them, and no one stepped forward to stop them.Castle Black looked as deserted as Greyguard, with fragile brown weeds growing between the cracks in the stones in the courtyard, the roofs of the Flint Barracks were covered with fresh snow, and the snow piled high on the north wall of Harding's Tower - Joan Eun lived there before becoming Xiong Lao's affairs officer.The surface of the conning tower is covered with black spots, which are the traces left by the thick smoke overflowing the windows.After the fire, Mormont moved to the King's Tower, but there was no light there either.From the bottom up, he couldn't tell if there was a sentry walking on the top of the seven hundred-foot-high city wall, at least there was no one on the stairs to the south of the wall, the zigzag stairs were like a huge wooden lightning bolt.

There was smoke from the chimney of the armory though, a tiny wisp barely visible in the gray northern sky, but enough for him.Jon dismounted and limped towards it.Hot air gushed out of the open door, like the breath of summer.Inside the house, the one-armed Donal Noye was fanning the bellows to fan the fire. He raised his head when he heard the voice, "Jon Snow?" "Yes." Jon couldn't help smiling, through the fever and the fatigue and the broken leg, through the Magnar and the old man and Ygritte and Mance Rayder.Go home feeling good.It was good to see Noye's big belly and rolled up sleeves, his black stubbled chin.

The blacksmith let go of the bellows, "Your face..." He almost forgot his own face. "A skinchanger tried to gouge out my eyes." Noye frowned. "Scarred or not, I thought I'd never see that face again. I heard you went off to Mance Rayder." Jon grabbed the door to stay on his feet. "Who said this?" "Jarman Buckwell. He returned two weeks ago, and his scouts said they saw you riding with the wildlings, wearing a sheepskin cloak." Noye stared at him. "I found the last sentence to be true." "It's all true," Jon admitted, "in practical terms."

"Then should I take off the sword and kill you, huh?" "No. I am following orders, Qhorin Halfhand's last orders. Noye, where are the guards?" "They're on the Wall, resisting your wildling friends." "Yes, but where is the man?" "It's everywhere. Dog-headed Harma appeared in Deep Lake Residence, Rattleshirt appeared in Changche Building, Weepers appeared in Icescar City, and there are wildlings along the Great Wall... It makes us restless, they will be near the Queen's Gate for a while Climbing, and smashing the walls of Fort Grayguard for a while, or gathering troops at Eastwatch... However, whenever the men in black appeared, they ran away immediately, and resumed their activities elsewhere the next day."

Jon swallowed a groan. "It's an illusion. Mance's purpose is to distract us, can't you see that?" And Bowen Marsh was right in his arms. "The portal is here. Attacks will be directed at this." Noy walked across the room. "You have blood all over your legs." Jon looked down dully.Sure enough, the wound opened again. "Arrow wound..." "Arrows of the wildlings." This was not a question.Noye had only one arm, but it was muscular enough to support Jon's weight.He put his arm under Jon's armpit. "You are as pale as milk, and you are burning hot. I will take you to Maester Aemon."

"There is no time. The savages crossed the Great Wall and arrived at Houguan Town. They are going to open the gate here." "How many?" Noye half-dragged Jon to the door. "One hundred and twenty men, well armed by savage standards. Most in bronze armor, a few in steel. How many brothers are left here?" "More than forty," Donal Noye said, "all of them are old, weak, sick, and boys who are still in training." "After Marsh leaves, who will you designate as the acting city lord?" The weapon master couldn't help laughing. "Sir Wenton, gods bless him, he's the last knight in the city. The problem is, Staw seems to have forgotten his burden, and no one is in a hurry to remind him. I think it's up to me now—the The most intractable disability in the world—responsibility.”

That's not bad.The one-armed weapon master is tenacious and experienced.And Sir Vinton... Everyone agreed that he had been a good soldier, but after eighty years as a Ranger he had lost both his strength and his wits.Once he fell asleep over dinner and nearly drowned in pea soup. "Where's your wolf?" Noy asked as they walked across the yard. "Bai Ling... had to stay before he overcame the wall. I hope he can find his way back by himself." "Sorry, boy. No sign of him." They limped to the schoolboy's dwelling, the long wooden fortress beneath the crow's nest.The weapon master kicked the door, "Clydas!"

After a while, a hunched little black farmer looked out and saw Jon, and his little pink eyes widened. "Let this kid lie down, I'll call the bachelor." A fire was burning in the fireplace, and the air in the room was stifling.The heat made Jon drowsy.Noye told him to lie on his back, and he immediately closed his eyes to stop the world from spinning.From the crow's nest above came the whining and screeching of crows. "Snow," said a crow, "Snow, Snow, Snow." Sam taught it, Jon remembered.Has Samwell Tarly returned safely? Was it only Ur, he wondered? It didn't take long for Sister Aemon to come over.He walked slowly, holding Clydas's arm with a mottled hand, moving in slow, cautious steps, and on his thin neck hung a heavy necklace of gold, silver, iron, lead , tin and other metals. "Jon Snow," he said, "when you are better you must tell me all you have seen and heard. Donal, put a kettle of wine on the fire, and my iron tools, and burn them It's red and hot. Clydas, I need your sharp and fine dagger." The maester was over a hundred years old, thin and frail, with bald hair and blind eyes.But even though his cloudy eyes were blind, his mind was as clear as ever. "The wildlings are coming here," Jon told him, and Clydas slashed open his breeches, and old and new blood coagulated under the thick black cloth. "From the south. We climbed over the Wall . . . " Maester Aemon leaned in and sniffed Jon's rough bandages as Clydas cut open them. "us?" "I'm with them. Qhorin Halfhand ordered me to join them." Jon flinched as the maester's finger poked at the wound, probing it. "Then's Magna hurts so much." He gritted his teeth, "Where's Old Bear?" "Jon... this is sad news that Lord Commander Mormont was murdered at Craster Keep, at the hands of his sworn brethren." "Brother...one of our own?" Aemon's words hurt a hundred times more than his fingers.Jon remembered the last time he saw the Old Bear, the Lord Commander standing in front of the tent, the crow perched on his shoulder, hoarsely calling "Corn."Mormont dead? He had been worried ever since he saw the battle scene on the Fist of the First Men, and now it hit harder. "Who? Who attacked him?" "Gals of Oldtown, Oro 'Handless', Shortblade . Donal Noye turned the maester's knife over the fire. "A dozen loyal men returned, including Melancholy Eddie, the Giant, and your friend Stupid Bull. It was from them that we heard what happened." Just a dozen? Two hundred brothers had left Castle Black with Lord Lord Mormont, two hundred of the best of the Night's Watch. "Does this mean that Marsh is the commander-in-chief?..."Old Pomegranate" is a kind and hardworking chief of the general affairs, but unfortunately, he is not suitable for leading troops to fight. "For now, until we choose one," said Maester Aemon. "Clydas, bring me my vial." Pick one. With Qhorin Halfhand and Jeremy Lake dead, and Benjen Stark still missing, who else? It certainly couldn't be Bowen Marsh or Ser Winton Stow.Did Thoron Smallwood or Ser Odin Wellers survive the Fist of the First Men? No, it would have been Cotter Pyke, or Ser Denys Mallister.But which one to choose? The Commanders of the Shadow Tower and Eastwatch are both good men, but very different from each other: Ser Dennis is modest, cavalier, and older; while young Pike is bastard and rough-spoken. , not afraid of making mistakes, but also aggressive.The bad thing is that the two are at odds with each other, and Boss Xiong separates them far away, at the two ends of the Great Wall.Jon knew that the Mallisters had a deep-rooted distrust of the ironborn. A stab of pain brought him back to his wounds.Xuetu squeezed his hand, "Clydas is going to get the poppy milk." He tried to sit up. "I do not need--" "You need to," said Aemon firmly, "and it will hurt." Donal Noye crossed the room, pushed Jon back, and lay on his back. "Don't move, or I'll tie you up." Even with only one arm, the blacksmith fiddled with him like a child.Clydas returned with a green bottle, and a round stone goblet.Maester Aemon filled it up. "Drink it." Jon bit his lip when struggling just now, and now the blood was mixed with the thick white liquid, and he managed to keep from vomiting. Clydas brought a basin of warm water, and Maester Aemon washed the pus and blood from the wound.Even the slightest touch made Jon want to scream, despite his gentle movements. "The men of the Magnar are well-disciplined and wear bronze armor," he told them.Talking can distract him from thinking about his legs. "Magna is the lord of Skagos," Noy said. "When I first came to the Great Wall, there were people from Skagos at East China Sea Watch. I remember hearing them mention him." "Jon used the word in its ancient sense, I think," Maester Aemon said. "Not a house name, but a title in the old language." "It means lord," Jon agreed. "Styr is the Magnar of a place called Thenn, far north of the Frostfang. He has a hundred men with him, and two Ten raiders who are almost as familiar with the Grant as we are. It is important that Mance did not find the Horn, the Horn of Winter, for which he dug along the Milk River." Priest Aemon paused, the scrubbing cloth in his hand. "The Horn of Winter is an ancient legend. The King Beyond the Wall believes this thing exists?" "They all believed it," said Jon. "Ygritte said they opened a hundred tombs...the tombs of kings and heroes, all over the Milky Valley, but never..." "Who is Ygritte?" Donal Noye asked sharply. "A freefolk woman." How would he explain Ygritte to them? A warm, intelligent, lovely woman who could kiss and slit your throat. "She's with Sty, but no... she's young, just a girl, a real wildling, actually, but she's..." Because an old man kindled a fire and killed him.His tongue felt thick and clumsy, and the milk of the poppy clouded his mind. "I broke my vows for her. I don't want to, but..." No.Shouldn't love her.Shouldn't have left her... "I'm not strong enough. Halfhand ordered me to march with them, eat with them, fight with them...I can't refuse, I..." Head was stuffed with wet wool. Senior Aemon sniffed Jon's wound again, and then put the blood-stained cloth back into the basin, "Donal, please bring me the hot dagger, and hold him down so that he doesn't move." I will not scream, Jon told himself when he saw the red-hot knife, but he failed to keep that vow.Donal Noye pressed him tight, and Clydas guided the maester's hand.Jon didn't move, just pounded his fist on the table, once and again.The pain was so severe that he felt small, weak and helpless, like a child whimpering in the dark.Ygritte, he thought, the stench of scorched flesh filling his nostrils, his own screams echoing in his ears, Ygritte, I can't help it, I'm in trouble... The pain began to subside, but then the steel returned Touched, and he fainted. Opening his eyes, he found himself wrapped in thick woolen cloth and moving.I can't move my whole body, but it doesn't matter.He dreamed that Ygritte was there, tending him with tender hands.Finally, he closed his eyes and fell asleep. The next time you wake up, it will be less comfortable.The room was dark, and under the blanket, the pain came back again, and the leg was throbbing, and when he moved a little, it seemed that the hot knife was still there.Jon struggled in agony, trying to see if his leg was still there, gasping for breath and choking back his scream, clenching his fists. "Jon?" A candle appeared above it, and a familiar face looked down at him, big ears, "You can't move." "Pip?" Jon held out his hand, and the boy grabbed it and squeezed it. "I thought you were with..." "...Leaving with Mr. Pomegranate? No, he thinks I'm too young and immature. By the way, Glenn is also here." "I'm here." Grant walked to the other side of the bed, "I fell asleep just now." Jon's throat was dry. "Water," he gasped.Grenn brought water to his lips. "I have been to the Fist of the First Men," After swallowing a few mouthfuls, he continued, "Blood, dead horse...Noy said that a dozen people came back...Who are they all?" "Devon's back. Giant, Melancholic Eddie, 'Beauty' Donna Hill, Ulma, 'Left Hand' Lou, 'Greyfeather' Garth, and four or five more, plus me." "Where's Sam?" Grant looked away. "He killed a White Walker, Jon, I saw it. He stabbed it with a dragonglass dagger you made... We call him Sam the Killer, and he hates it." "Killer" Sam.Joan couldn't think of anyone less warrior than Sam Tarly. "How is he?" "We left him," Glenn said sadly. "I shook him, yelled at him, even slapped him. The giant tried to pull him up, but he was too heavy—remember how he curled up and lay Whimpering on the ground? In Craster's Fort, he didn't even whimper, totally stupid. Shortblade and Oro pry open walls for food, two gals fight, some other guys are raping Craster's wives Melancholy Eddie thinks that the Dagger gang will not let all the brothers go, lest their deeds be spread, and there are twice as many rioters as us... so Sam is left with the old bear. He won't move, Jon." You are his brethren, he almost said, how shall he be left among wild men and murderers? "He may be alive," said Piper, "and he may ride out tomorrow and surprise us all." "Yeah, showing up with the head of Mance Rayder." Grant tried to sound cheerful. "Sam the Killer!" Jon tried to sit up again.Like the first time, this was a mistake.He yelled and fell down. "Glenn, wake Maester Aemon," said Piper, "and tell him that Jon needs more Milk of the Poppy." Yes, Jon thought. "No," he said, "Magna..." "We know," said Pyp, "that the guards on the Wall have been told to keep an eye out for the south, and that Donal Noye has sent some men to Windwing Heights to watch the Kingsroad. Maester Aemon has also released birds to Eastwatch and Shadow tower." Maester Aemon staggered to the bed, putting a hand on Grenn's shoulder. "Jon, don't be so hard on yourself. It's good to wake up, but you must give yourself time to heal your wounds. We wash with boiling wine first, then apply nettle cream, mustard seeds and bread mold. The key is to rest... " "I can't rest." Jon struggled to sit up despite the pain. "Mance is coming... Thousands of wildlings, and giants, mammoths... Is the message sent to Winterfell? To the king?" Sweat dripped from his brow, and he closed his eyes. Grant gave Pip an odd look. "he does not know." "Jon," said Maester Aemon, "much has happened while you were away, and little of it has been good. Balon Greyjoy crowned himself again, and sent his longships against the North, and the king was like Weeds are growing everywhere, and we sent letters to each of them for help, but no one came. Their armies were eager to fight each other, and we were far away and forgotten. As for Winterfell... Jon, be strong... Winterfell is gone... ..." "Not here?" Jon stared at Aemon's pale eyes and wrinkled face, "but my brothers are at Winterfell! Bran and Rickon..." The maester stroked his forehead. "I am very sorry, Jon. After Theon Greyjoy took Winterfell in his father's name, he executed your brothers. When your father's men tried to take it back, he set the castle ablaze. " "Your brothers have been avenged," Grenn said, "Bolton's son killed all the ironborn, and it is said that he punished Theon Greyjoy for his evil deed by skinning him inch by inch. " "I'm sorry, Jon," Pip squeezed his shoulder, "we're all sorry." Jon never liked Theon Greyjoy, but he had been his father's adopted son.There was another cramping pain in his leg, and he found himself lying on his back again. "Impossible, there is a misunderstanding," he insisted. "In Backcrown, I saw a direwolf, a gray direwolf... gray... it knew me." If Bran died, his Will a part live in the wolf, as Auriel lives in the eagle? "Drink this." Grant brought the cup to his lips.Jon drank it, his mind full of the laughter of the wolf and the eagle and his brothers.The face above begins to fade and blur.They cannot die.Theon wouldn't do that.Winterfell... gray granite walls, oak and steel gates, crows on the ruined tower, steam from the hot springs in the Godswood, and the stone statue of the king on the throne... How could Winterfell be gone? He began to dream, and in the dream he was home again, splashing in the hot springs, with his father's face carved into a huge white weirwood above his head.Ygritte was beside him, laughing at him as she undressed until she was naked as when she was born.She wanted to kiss him, but he couldn't take it, kissing with his father watching.He is the blood of Winterfell, the man of the Night's Watch.I will never have any illegitimate children, he told her, I don't want to.I do not want. "You know nothing, Jon Snow," she whispered, and the skin melted in the hot water, and the flesh fell from it, until at last only the skull and bones remained, and the pool was churning thick with blood.