CHAPTER 142

“Aye, and strike somewhere else. The Others take all such cowards¹. They would never dare, no more than the Bastard² of Bolton, if our main strength were not a thousand leagues south.” Ser Rodrik looked at Bran. “What else did the lad tell you?”  “He said the water would flow over our walls. He saw Alebelly drowned, and Mikken and Septon Chayle too.”  Ser Rodrik frowned. “Well, should it happen that I need to ride against these raiders myself, I shan’t take Alebelly, then. He didn’t see me drowned, did he? No? Good.”  It heartened Bran to hear that. Maybe they won’t drown, then, he thought. If they stay away from the sea.  Meera thought so too, later that night when she and Jojen met Bran in his room to play a three-sided game of tiles³, but her brother shook his head. “The things I see in green dreams can’t be changed.”  That made his sister angry. “Why would the gods send a warning if we can’t heed⁴ it and change what’s to come?”  “I don’t know,” Jojen said sadly.  “If you were Alebelly, you’d probably jump into the well to have done with it! He should fight, and Bran should too.”  “Me?” Bran felt suddenly afraid. “What should I fight? Am I going to drown too?”  Meera looked at him guiltily. “I shouldn’t have said.”  He could tell that she was hiding something. “Did you see me in a green dream?” he asked Jojen nervously⁵. “Was I drowned?”  “Not drowned.” Jojen spoke⁶ as if every word pained him. “I dreamed of the man who came today, the one they call Reek⁷. You and your brother lay dead at his feet, and he was skinning off your faces with a long red blade.”  Meera rose to her feet. “If I went to the dungeon⁸, I could drive a spear right through his heart. How could he murder Bran if he was dead?”  “The gaolers will stop you,” Joien said. “The guards. And if you tell them why you want him dead, they’ll never believe.”  “I have guards too,” Bran reminded them. “Alebelly and Poxy Tym and Hayhead and the rest.”  Jojen’s mossy eyes were full of pity. “They won’t be able to stop him, Bran. I couldn’t see why, but I saw the end of it. I saw you and Rickon in your crypts, down in the dark with all the dead kings and their stone wolves.”   No, Bran thought. No. “If I went away... to Greywater, or to the crow, someplace far where they couldn’t find me...”  “It will not matter. The dream was green, Bran, and the green dreams do not lie.”

1 cowards   

胆小鬼，懦夫( coward的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Cowards are not made of the same metal as heroes. 懦夫与英雄本质不同。
• All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. 所有其他寡头政治家，即使那些同我们相象的人，也都是些懦夫和伪君子。 来自英汉文学

2 bastard   

n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子

参考例句：

• He was never concerned about being born a bastard.他从不介意自己是私生子。
• There was supposed to be no way to get at the bastard.据说没有办法买通那个混蛋。

3 tiles   

n.瓦片，瓷砖( tile的名词复数 )；扁平的小棋子

参考例句：

• The wind dislodged one or two tiles from the roof. 大风从屋顶上刮下了一两片瓦来。
• On both slopes of the roof there are broken tiles. 屋顶的两面斜面都有破瓦片。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 heed   

v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心

参考例句：

• You must take heed of what he has told.你要注意他所告诉的事。
• For the first time he had to pay heed to his appearance.这是他第一次非得注意自己的外表不可了。

5 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 reek   

v.发出臭气；n.恶臭

参考例句：

• Where there's reek,there's heat.哪里有恶臭，哪里必发热。
• That reek is from the fox.那股恶臭是狐狸发出的。

8 dungeon   

n.地牢，土牢

参考例句：

• They were driven into a dark dungeon.他们被人驱赶进入一个黑暗的地牢。
• He was just set free from a dungeon a few days ago.几天前，他刚从土牢里被放出来。