Chapter 21 Chapter 20 Jon

The clanging of swords resounded across the square. Jon was wearing a black wool sweater over a leather waistcoat and chain mail, sweat dripping from the inside.He pressed forward, and Glenn stepped back unsteadily, clumsily raising his sword to block.As soon as he raised his sword, Jon slammed him across the groin, hitting his foot and sending him stumbling.Glenn returned the blow down, only to receive a blow to the head and over the shoulder, denting his helmet.He threw another side slash, and Jon parried his sword away and struck him in the stomach with a braced elbow.Glenn's center of gravity was unstable, and he fell hard into the snow.Jon followed and slashed his wrist, causing him to drop his sword with a scream of pain.

"Enough!" Ser Alliser Thorne's voice cracked like Valyrian blades. Grant rubbed his hands and said, "This bastard dislocated my wrist." "If you used a real sword, the bastard would have snapped your hamstrings, split your head, and cut off your hands. Luckily for you, our night watchmen need not only rangers, but also stable boys." " Sir Alliser waved to Jaylen and Todd: "Help this stupid cow up, he can prepare for the funeral." The other boys helped Grenn to his feet, and Jon took off his helm, feeling good with the frosty morning air on his face.He stood leaning on his sword, took a deep breath, and allowed himself a brief moment to enjoy the joy of victory.

"That's a sword, not an old man's stick," said Ser Alliser sharply. "You have a sore foot, Lord Snow?" Jon hated the nickname, Ser Alliser had called him that from the first day he practiced the sword.The other boys followed suit, and everyone called him that now.He sheathed the sword. "no." Thorne strode towards him with big strides, the brittle black leather made a rustling sound.He was about fifty years old, solidly built, lean and severe, with graying black hair and eyes as bright as onyx. "What's that about?" he demanded. "I'm tired," Jon admitted.His arm was numb from the constant swinging of the sword, and now that the fight was over, the fresh scrape was starting to ache.

"It's called weakness." "But I won." "No. It was a stupid cow who lost." A boy watching secretly snickered.Jon knew very well that he must not talk back.Although he defeated every opponent Ser Alliser sent against him, he still didn't get his due.There was only ridicule and sarcasm on the lips of the instructor.Thorne must hate him, Jon thought to himself; but then Thorne hated the other boys more. "That's all for today," Thorne told them. "I don't have much patience for scumbags. If the White Walkers do come over one day, I hope they bring bows and arrows, because you are only worthy of being targets."

Jon followed the others back to the armory, walking alone in the middle.He was alone all the time.There are about 20 people in the training team together, but none of them can be called friends.Most of them were two or three years older than him, and they couldn't fight half as well as Robb at fourteen.Dareon was quick, but afraid of being beaten; Pip always used his sword as a dagger;The more Jon fought these people, the more he despised them. Inside, Jon hung the sheathed sword back on the hook on the stone wall, deliberately ignoring the others.He methodically undid his armor, leather jacket, and sweaty woolen sweater.Coals burned in iron braziers at either end of the long room, but Jon couldn't help shaking.Here, the chill always follows him, presumably after a few years he will forget the taste of warmth.

He put on his daily coarse black clothes, and the sense of burnout suddenly hit him like a mountain and a sea.He found a bench and sat down, fumbling with his fingers to fasten his cloak.It's so cold, he thought, recalling the halls of Winterfell, where hot springs flowed through the ramparts all year round, like blood flowing through a human body.There is no warmth in Castle Black, only cold walls, and even colder people. No one but Tyrion Lannister had ever mentioned to him what the Night's Watch looked like.The dwarf had told him the truth on their way north, but by then it was too late.Jon couldn't help but wonder if his father knew the real situation of the defenders on the Wall.He must know that, thinking of this made his heart ache even more.

Even his uncle abandoned him in this cold and desolate place at the end of the world.The mild-mannered Benjen Stark he had known was a different man here.He was Chief Ranger, spending time with Lord Commander Mormont, Maester Aemon, and other high officials, leaving Jon to the curmudgeon Ser Alliser Thorne. Three days after they arrived at the Wall, Jon heard that Benjen Stark would lead six of his men into the Haunted Forest.That night, he found his uncle in the wooden hall of the castle and begged him to take him with him.Bunyan turned him down bluntly. "This ain't Winterfell," he told him as he sliced ​​through his meat with a knife and fork. "On the Wall, if you want to be treated like that, you have to prove what you're capable of. Jon, aren't you Ranger, you're just a kid who still smells like summer."

Jon argued foolishly: "I'll be fifteen by my name day next year," he said, "and soon to be a man." Benyan Stark frowned and said: "Before Sir Alliser judged you to be a man of the Night Watch, you were just a kid, you can only be a kid. If you think that you can rely on your identity as a Stark family It would be a big mistake to sit back and enjoy it. When we were sworn into the army, we were cut off from all family background. Take your father, although he will always have a place in my heart, but these are my brothers and sisters now." He took The dagger gesticulated twice towards the people around him, pointing at these weather-beaten soldiers in black.

At dawn the next day, Jon got up to watch his uncle go.One of my uncle's tall and ugly rangers was saddling and singing obscene tunes, his breath steaming in the morning air.Benjen Stark was all smiles to him, but not to his nephew. "Jon, how many times do you want me to say that? You can't go, we'll find time to talk when I get back." Jon watched his uncle lead the horse into the tunnel and headed north, and he couldn't help but think of what Tyrion Lannister told him on the King's Road, and the image of Benjen Stark lying on the snow appeared in his mind one after another. , blood-stained scene.The thought turned his stomach.What have I become?

Then he found Ghost in his lonely bedroom, burying his face deep in his thick white fur. Since he is doomed to be lonely, he will turn loneliness into strength.There was no godswood at Castle Black, just a small sept and drunken monks, but Jon really didn't have the heart to pray to the gods, new or old.He thought in his heart that if the gods really existed, they must be as cruel and ruthless as the severe winter here. He misses his real brothers: little Rickon with the twinkle in his eyes when he craved something sweet; Robb, his closest rival and best friend and playmate; Whatever Jon and Robb were doing, he wanted to have a hand in it.He misses his two younger sisters, too, even Sansa, who would only call him "my half-brother" since she learned the meaning of "illegitimate child."As for Arya...he missed her even more than Robb, the skinny little thing with worn-out knees and wild hair, or ripped clothes, with a brutish temper.Arya, like him, is forever out of place...but she always has a way of making Jon smile.At this moment, Jon is willing to give everything, just to be able to reunite with her for a while, to play with her messy hair, to watch her make faces, and to hear her say the same sentence with his own heart.

"You bastard, you dislocated me." Jon looked up at the source of the angry voice.Glenn blushed and stood tall in front of him with a thick neck, and there were three followers behind him.He recognized Todd, who was short and ugly with a bad voice, and the recruits called him Toad.Jon remembered that the other two were rapists caught in the Fingers and brought north by Yoren, though he forgot their names.He tried hard not to speak to them, they were all cruel bullies who never knew honor. Jon jumped to his feet. "If you beg me, I'll be happy to break the other hand for you." Glenn was sixteen years old this year, taller than Jon by a whole head.They were all bigger than him, but they couldn't scare him.He had already taught everyone a lesson on the school grounds. "Maybe it was you who lost your hand." One of the rapists said. "Try if you can." Jon reached for his sword, but one of the opponents grabbed his hand and twisted it behind his back. "You always make us look bad." Toad complained. "You were ugly enough before we met," Jon told them.The boy who was holding his hand twisted back hard, and the pain shot through his head instantly, but Jon still didn't say a word. Toad approached a few steps forward. "Our young master has a broken mouth," he said.He was born with a pair of small and bright pig eyes. "Little bastard, did your mother pass it on to you? What does she do, is she a whore? Tell me what her nickname is, maybe I have fucked her a few times." He grinned road. Jon twisted like an eel, kicking hard with his back heel at the crotch of the boy who grabbed him.There was a scream behind him, and he broke free.He threw himself on Toad, knocked him over the bench with a blow, and in pursuit, jumped up on his chest, clutching his neck with both hands, and slammed into the ground with all his might. Two guys from Five Fingers pulled him away and threw him roughly to the ground, and Grant started kicking him.Jon was about to roll away from their punches and kicks when a bell-like voice cut through the haze of the armory: "Stop it all! Stop it now!" Jon got up, and Donal Noye glared at them. "Go fight in the ring," said the weapons master. "Don't bring your grievances into my armory, or blame me for meddling. Believe me, you won't like it." Toad sat on the ground, carefully touching the back of his head, only to see blood on his fingers. "He wants to kill me." "It's true, I saw it with my own eyes," said one of the rapists. "He broke my hand," Grant said, holding up his hand for Noye to see. The weapon master glanced at his wrist, "I think it's just a scrape, or a sprain at most. Master Aemon has plenty of good plasters. Todd, you go with him, and pay attention to the wound on the head. The others go back to camp. Jon Snow stays." Jon slumped back on the bench, ignoring the eyes of the others as they left, as if reassuring him that things weren't going to be so easy.His hand throbbed. "The night watchman needs every strength," Donna Noye said after everyone left, "even someone like Toad. Kill him, and you have no honor to speak of." Jon was furious. "He said my mother was—" "—was a bitch. I heard it. So what?" "Lord Eddard Stark is not a brothel-goer," said Jon coldly. "His honor—" "—It's inevitable that he will have an illegitimate child outside, isn't it?" Jon went cold with rage. "can I go now?" "I said yes, you can." Jon stared bitterly at the white smoke rising from the brazier until Noye put a thick hand under his chin and turned his head roughly. "Boy, look at me when I talk to you." So Jon looked at him.The weapon master's chest was as broad as a wine barrel, and his stomach was astonishingly large.His nose was broad and flat, and he looked as if he had never shaved.His black wool coat was fastened at the shoulder with a longsword-shaped brooch on the left side. "Just talking about it, your mother won't become a bitch. She is what she is, and she is what she is, and it has nothing to do with what the toad says. After all, there are some people in our army His mother is a bitch." Not my mother, Jon thought stubbornly.He knew nothing of his own mother, and Eddard Stark never spoke of her.But he dreams of her so often that he can almost make out what she looks like.In the dream, she was of noble birth, beautiful and charming, with kind eyes. "You think you are the illegitimate son of a great nobleman, and you feel particularly uncomfortable?" the weapon master continued, "I tell you, that fellow Jaylen is the bastard of a six-rooted priest. Carter Parker is the son of a tavern maid, and it turns out Now he is the captain of the East Sea Watch." "I don't care," Jon said, "I don't care what they are, and I don't care what you or Thorne or Benjen Stark or whoever is. I hate this place. It's... cold in here .” "Yeah, it's cold, bitter, and sinister. This is what the Great Wall looks like, and it's also a portrayal of the defenders here. It's not like the bedtime stories your nanny told you. Hmph, go to his bedtime stories, go to your nanny." , that's the way it is, and you've been with the rest of us all your life, and you're meant to be here." "Forever," Jon repeated bitterly.A weapon master can spend his whole life making a big fuss, because he has seen the world and experienced great storms.He joined the Blackshirts after losing an arm at the Siege of Storm's End, and before that he was the blacksmith to the king's elder brother, Stannis Baratheon.He has traveled all over the seven countries, tasted the delicacies of mountains and seas, tasted the sweetness of women, and fought hundreds of battles.It is said that it was Donal Noye who forged King Robert's warhammer, which killed Rhaegar Targaryen on the Trident.He'd done things Jon would never do, and by the time he was past thirty, he'd festered from a minor ax wound and had to have his whole hand amputated.That is, when he was crippled and the luck of this life was over, Donal Noye came to the Wall. "Yes, Xue Nuo, for a lifetime." Noy said, "Long or short, it's up to you. With your current attitude, sooner or later, a brother will cut your throat in the middle of the night." "They're not my brothers," Jon retorted. "They hate me because I'm better than them." "Wrong, what they hate is your sense of superiority. In their eyes, you are a bastard from the city who thinks he is a young master." The weaponsmith approached, "Remember, you are not a young master, your surname is It was Jon, not Stark. And now, you are not only a bastard, but a bully." "Bully?" Jon was almost at a loss for words.The accusation was so unfair that he couldn't breathe. "It was the four of them who came to trouble me first." "The four of them have been humiliated by you in the arena, maybe they are afraid of you to death. I have seen you practice swords, and it is not practice to make gestures with you. If you use real swords, they have died several times. You know it, I know it, they know it. Don't you think you're proud of humiliating them without mercy?" Jon hesitated.He was really proud when he won, shouldn't he?The weapon master wanted to deprive him of even such a little bit of joy, and it made him feel as if he had done something wrong. "They're all older than me," he said defensively. "They're older and stronger than you. But I'll bet the master at Winterfell taught you how to deal with people bigger than yourself. Who is he, some old knight?" "Ser Rodrik Cassel," Jon answered cautiously.He felt that there was something in the other party's words. Donal Noye leaned forward, almost touching Jon's face. "Son, come to think of it, none of the men here had any formal training before they met Ser Alliser. Their fathers were farmers, wagoners, and poachers, blacksmiths, miners, or oarsmen. Their fighting skills Learned it from the decks, the back alleys of Oldtown and Lannisport, or the whorehouses and taverns along the King's Road. They may have played sticks with each other, but I assure you, not many of them could afford them Real sword." He had a cold expression on his face, "So, Master Xue Nuo, tell me, is it really fun to defeat these people?" "Don't call me that!" Jon said excitedly.But his anger had run out, and suddenly he felt nothing but shame and guilt. "I don't know... I thought..." "Think about it," Noye reminded him. "Otherwise, I'm going to sleep with the dagger on my pillow. All right, you can go back." It was nearly noon when Jon left the armory.The sun parted the clouds and revealed its face.He turned his back to the sun, raised his gaze to the Great Wall, and watched the city wall shining with crystal blue light in the sun.Although he has lived here for several weeks, whenever his eyes touch this scene, he still can't help but tremble all over.Countless generations of wind, sand and sludge have left imprints on the city wall, like a covering film, so that the city wall sometimes turns light gray, like a hazy sky... But when the sky shines directly on a sunny day, the Great Wall seems to be shining like life Shiny, like a blue and white cliff that cuts across the sky. When they saw the Great Wall on the King's Road, Benjen Stark told Jon that it was the largest structure ever built by man. "And without a doubt the most useless," Tyrion Lannister added with a grin.However, as the distance gradually narrowed, even the little devil fell silent.A few miles away, you can clearly see this gray-blue straight line across the northern horizon, extending uninterrupted to both east and west sides until it disappears into the distance, as if to declare: this is the end of the world. When they finally spied Castle Black, its timbered keeps and stone towers look ed like nothing more than a handful of toy blocks scattered on the snow, benea th the vast wall of ice.The ancient stronghold of the blackshirts was nowhere near Winterfell, not even a proper castle.It has no walls and cannot resist attacks from east, west, and south. The only thing the Night Watchmen care about is the north, and the Great Wall towering north of Castle Black is the Great Wall.Nearly seven hundred feet high, the Wall was three times as tall as the tallest tower on the keep it sheltered.Uncle said the walls were wide enough for twelve armored knights to ride abreast.Huge ballistas and monster-like trebuchets guard the city walls, and the black-clothed soldiers walking on them are as small as ants. Now standing outside the armory and looking up, Jon feels no less awe than when he first saw him on the King's Road that day.The Great Wall is like this, sometimes you will forget its existence, just as you are used to the sky above your head and the ground under your feet, and don't care, but sometimes it seems to be the only real existence in the world.It was older than the Seven Kingdoms, and Jon always felt dizzy whenever he stood under the walls and looked up.He could feel the majestic and thick ice layer pressing down on him, as if the city wall collapsed to bury him.Jon vaguely knew that if the Great Wall really fell one day, the whole world would collapse accordingly. "What's beyond the wall is really unpredictable, right?" said a familiar voice. Jon turned his head. "Lannister. I didn't see—I mean, I thought I was the only one here." Tyrion Lannister was covered in fur like a bear. "There are many benefits to being caught off guard, and you never know what you're going to learn." "What can you learn from me?" Jon told him.He had seen little of the dwarf since their journey was over.As the queen's younger brother, Tyrion Lannister was naturally treated like an honored guest.Lord Lord Mormont let him live in the King's Tower - to put it nicely, no king had lived in it for a hundred years - and dined at his table.Lannisters rode on the Wall by day and drank and gambled with Ser Alliser, Bowen Marsh, and other high-ranking officials at night. "Well, I learned from wherever I went." The dwarf pointed at the Great Wall with a rough black cane, "I often say... how the predecessors worked so hard to build the city wall, and the descendants immediately want to know What's on the other side of the wall?" He tilted his head, looking at Jon with those oddly sized eyes. "You are no exception, are you?" "I don't see anything special," Jon said.He really wanted to go hunting with Benyan Stark, go deep into the Haunted Forest, and fight against Mance Rayder's wildlings to protect the kingdom from the invasion of the strange ghosts, but what he wanted in his heart was better not to say Came out well. "The rangers say that beyond the walls there are only woods and mountains and frozen lakes, a land of ice and snow." "There are wicked spirits, too," said Tyrion. "Don't forget, Lord Snow. Otherwise, why do you make such a fuss?" "Don't call me Lord Snow." The dwarf raised an eyebrow. "Do I like being called a little devil? Once people find out that nicknames can kill you, they will follow you. Since they like to give you nicknames, you can accept them openly, and you'd better pretend to be happy." If you're in it, then they won't be able to hurt you again." He raised his crutch and pointed forward. "Hey, come with me. They're supposed to be making that nasty soup in the hall by now, and I'm trying to get some hot." Jon was hungry too, so he walked beside the Lannister, slowing down to match the dwarf's clumsy, odd posture.The wind picked up, and they could hear the creaking of the wooden houses around them.In the distance, a thick, forgotten window banged repeatedly.A mound of snow slid from the roof and fell beside them with a muffled crash. "Didn't see your wolf," Lannister said as they walked. "I tethered him over at the old stable when I was training. They keep the horses in the east stables now, so they don't get in his way. The rest of the time he stays with me and I sleep in Harding Tower." "The tower with the battlements down, isn't it? The square below the tower is rubble and crooked, like our noble King Robert when he's drunk. I thought those towers It will be discarded.” Jon shrugged and said, "Anyway, no one cares where you sleep. These old castles are almost deserted, so you can sleep wherever you like." Castle Black once had as many as five thousand warriors who were fully armed, equipped with pommel horses and servants. .Today, only one-tenth of the number remains, and the buildings have been reduced to desolate ruins. Tyrion Lannister's laugh steamed in the cold air. "Then I'll ask your dad to grab a few more stonemasons before your tower collapses." Jon could hear the sarcasm in the words, but couldn't deny that it was the truth.The Night's Watch built nineteen majestic fortresses along the Wall, and now only three remain: the towering Eastwatch on the gray, windswept shore, the Shadow Tower standing resolutely in the mountains on the edge of the Wall, and Castle Black. is in between, at the end of the King's Road.The other fortresses, long forgotten, are now lonely ghost towns, with cold winds blowing through black windows and ghosts of the dead haunting them. "I'm better off alone," Jon said stubbornly. "The others are afraid of Ghost." "They're clever," Lannister said.He then changed the subject, "Recently everyone is talking about your uncle, has he been out for too long?" Jon turned his head away as he recalled the vision of his disappointment, the vision of Benjen Stark lying on the snow.The dwarf was very observant, and he didn't want him to see the evil in his eyes. "He said he'd be back in time for my name day," he admitted.His name day had quietly come and gone two weeks earlier. "They're looking for Ser Waymar Royce, whose father was Lord Arryn's vassal. Uncle Benjen said they'd search as far as the Shadow Tower, all the way into the mountains." "I hear quite a few good rangers have gone missing lately," Lannister said as they climbed the stairs to the hall, and he opened the door, grinning. "Perhaps Gulingjingguai is particularly hungry this year." Entering the hall, although the fire is raging, it still feels spacious and cold.Crows perched on the high wooden ceiling, squawking overhead.Jon took a bowl of broth and a large loaf of brown bread from the cook.Grant, Toad, and the others sat on the bench nearest the fire, laughing and cursing at each other roughly.Jon watched them thoughtfully for a moment, then took a seat in the corner of the hall, away from the others. Tyrion Lannister sat across from him, sniffing the soup suspiciously. "Barley, onions, carrots," he muttered, "do these cooks know that turnips can't be used as meat?" "This is mutton bisque." Jon took off his gloves and reached into the hot steam overflowing from the soup bowl to warm himself.His saliva drooled when he smelled the meat. "Snow." Jon recognized Alliser Thorne's voice, but there was a tone in it that he hadn't heard before, and he turned his head. "My lord commander wants to see you. Go now." For a moment Jon was too scared to move.Why did the commander-in-chief want to see him?Did they have news about Bunyan? He speculated wildly that he must be dead, and his imagination came true. "Is it my uncle's business?" He blurted out, "Did he come back safely?" "My lord commander is not used to waiting for others." Alliser replied, "And I am not used to listening to the bastard asking questions after giving orders." Tyrion Lannister jumped down from the bench, stood up and said, "Enough, Thorne, you scared him." "Lannister, mind your own business, you have no right to speak here." "It's different in the imperial court." The dwarf smiled, "I only need to say a few words, and you will be a lonely old man for the rest of your life, don't even think about training the little boy. Tell Xue Nuo why Xiong always wants him? It's not about his uncle?" "No." Alliser said, "It's a completely different matter. A raven flew from Winterfell this morning, bringing news of his brother." He corrected, "It should be his half-brother. " "Bran," Jon gasped, struggling to his feet. "Something happened to Bran." Tyrion Lannister put a hand on his arm. "Jon," he said, "I'm really sorry." Jon barely heard him.He pushed Tyrion's hand away, strode across the hall, and ran when he reached the door.He dashed through the snow all the way to the Commander's Bastion.The guard let him pass, and he ran to the top of the tower in two steps in three steps.By the time he rushed to the commander-in-chief, Jon was already sweating profusely and out of breath. "Bran," he said, "what did the letter say about Bran?" Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Jeor Mormont, was a grumpy old man with a gray beard and a big bald head.He was feeding corn kernels to a crow that was sitting on his hand. "I heard you can read." He waved the crow away, and it flapped to the window, then squatted down and watched as Mormont drew a rolled-up paper from his waist and handed it to Jon. "Corn," it called harshly, "corn, corn." Jon's fingers traced the outline of the direwolf on the unpacked pewter mark.He recognized it as Robb's handwriting, but as he read it, the letter itself swirled vaguely, and he realized he was crying.Through tears, he pieced together the meaning of the letter and raised his head. "He's awake," he said. "The gods brought him back to life." "But crippled too," said Mormont. "I'm sorry, boy. Read the letter." He turned his gaze back to the letter, but it didn't matter what was written on it.Nothing matters anymore.Bran survived. "My brother survived!" he told Mormont.The Commander-in-Chief shook his head, picked up a handful of corn, and whistled.The crow immediately flew onto his shoulder and cried, "Alive! Alive!" Jon was all smiles, running down the stairs with Robb's letter in his hand. "My brother survived!" he told the guards.They look at each other.He ran back into the hall to find that Tyrion Lannister had just finished eating.He grabbed the little man by the armpit and carried him in mid-air in a circle. "Bran survived!" he yelled.Lannister looked surprised.Jon put him down and thrust the letter into his hand. "Here, read it yourself." The others gathered and looked at him curiously.Jon saw Grenn standing a few feet away, one hand wrapped in a thick woolen bandage.He looked anxious and disturbed, not vicious at all.So Jon walked towards him, and Grenn immediately backed away when he saw this, and at the same time raised his hand and said, "Little bastard, stay away from me." Jon smiled and said: "I'm sorry for making your wrist like this. Robb used the same move against me before, although it was a wooden sword, but the seven hells, it hurts. I miss yours." The injury must be more serious. Well, if you want, I will teach you how to restrain this move another day." Ser Alliser Thorne heard the words. "Hey, Lord Snow is trying to steal my seat now." He sneered, "I think teaching wolves to do magic is easier than teaching these stupid cows." "I'll bet you, Ser Alliser," said Jon. "I'd love to see Ghost do his magic." Jon heard Grenn gasp in horror.There was a dead silence all around. Then Tyrion Lannister burst into a belly laugh.The three brothers in black at the adjacent dining table also laughed.The laughter spread so quickly that even the chefs couldn't help but join in.The birds on the beams were startled by the laughter, and finally Grenn giggled too. Only Ser Alliser didn't take his eyes off Jon from beginning to end.When the laughter faded away, he looked gloomy and clenched his right hand into a fist. "Lord Snow, you have made a grave mistake," he said at last, speaking to his enemies.