He called out the names one by one. “Toad5. Stone Head. Aurochs. Lover. Pimple6. Monkey. SerLoon.” Last, he looked at Jon. “And the Bastard7.”
Pyp let fly a whoop8 and thrust his sword into the air. Ser Alliser fixed9 him with a reptile10 stare.
“They will call you men of Night’s Watch now, but you are bigger fools than the Mummer’sMonkey here if you believe that. You are boys still, green and stinking11 of summer, and when thewinter comes you will die like flies.” And with that, Ser Alliser Thorne took his leave of them.
The other boys gathered round the eight who had been named, laughing and cursing and offeringcongratulations. Halder smacked12 Toad on the butt13 with the flat of his sword and shouted, “Toad, ofthe Night’s Watch!” Yelling that a black brother needed a horse, Pyp leapt onto Grenn’s shoulders,and they tumbled to the ground, rolling and punching and hooting14. Dareon dashed inside the armoryand returned with a skin of sour red. As they passed the wine from hand to hand, grinning like fools,Jon noticed Samwell Tarly standing15 by himself beneath a bare dead tree in the corner of the yard. Jonoffered him the skin. “A swallow of wine?”
Sam shook his head. “No thank you, Jon.”
“Are you well?”
“Very well, truly,” the fat boy lied. “I am so happy for you all.” His round face quivered as heforced a smile. “You will be First Ranger16 someday, just as your uncle was.”
“Is,” Jon corrected. He would not accept that Benjen Stark17 was dead. Before he could say more,Halder cried, “Here, you planning to drink that all yourself?” Pyp snatched the skin from his hand anddanced away, laughing. While Grenn seized his arm, Pyp gave the skin a squeeze, and a thin streamof red squirted Jon in the face. Halder howled in protest at the waste of good wine. Jon sputtered18 andstruggled. Matthar and Jeren climbed the wall and began pelting19 them all with snowballs.
By the time he wrenched20 free, with snow in his hair and wine stains on his surcoat, Samwell Tarlyhad gone.
That night, Three-Finger Hobb cooked the boys a special meal to mark the occasion. When Jonarrived at the common hall, the Lord Steward21 himself led him to the bench near the fire. The oldermen clapped him on the arm in passing. The eight soon-to-be brothers feasted on rack of lamb bakedin a crust of garlic and herbs, garnished22 with sprigs of mint, and surrounded by mashed23 yellow turnipsswimming in butter. “From the Lord Commander’s own table,” Bowen Marsh25 told them. There weresalads of spinach26 and chickpeas and turnip24 greens, and afterward27 bowls of iced blueberries and sweetcream.
“Do you think they’ll keep us together?” Pyp wondered as they gorged28 themselves happily.
Toad made a face. “I hope not. I’m sick of looking at those ears of yours.”
“Ho,” said Pyp. “Listen to the crow call the raven29 black. You’re certain to be a ranger, Toad.
They’ll want you as far from the castle as they can. If Mance Rayder attacks, lift your visor and showyour face, and he’ll run off screaming.”
Everyone laughed but Grenn. “I hope I’m a ranger.” I’m a ranger.”
“You and everyone else,” said Matthar. Every man who wore the black walked the Wall, andevery man was expected to take up steel in its defense30, but the rangers31 were the true fighting heart ofthe Night’s Watch. It was they who dared ride beyond the Wall, sweeping32 through the haunted forestand the icy mountain heights west of the Shadow Tower, fighting Wildlings and giants and monstroussnow bears.
“Not everyone,” said Halder. “It’s the builders for me. What use would rangers be if the Wall felldown?”
The order of builders provided the masons and carpenters to repair keeps and towers, the miners todig tunnels and crush stone for roads and footpaths33, the woodsmen to clear away new growthwherever the forest pressed too close to the Wall. Once, it was said, they had quarried34 immenseblocks of ice from frozen lakes deep in the haunted forest, dragging them south on sledges35 so the Wallmight be raised ever higher. Those days were centuries gone, however; now, it was all they could doto ride the Wall from Eastwatch to the Shadow Tower, watching for cracks or signs of melt andmaking what repairs they could.
“The Old Bear’s no fool,” Dareon observed. “You’re certain to be a builder, and Jon’s certain tobe a ranger. He’s the best sword and the best rider among us, and his uncle was the First before he …”
His voice trailed off awkwardly as he realized what he had almost said.
“Benjen Stark is still First Ranger,” Jon Snow told him, toying with his bowl of blueberries. Therest might have given up all hope of his uncle’s safe return, but not him. He pushed away the berries,scarcely touched, and rose from the bench.
“Aren’t you going to eat those?” Toad asked.
“They’re yours.” Jon had hardly tasted Hobb’s great feast. “I could not eat another bite.” He tookhis cloak from its hook near the door and shouldered his way out.
Pyp followed him. “Jon, what is it?”
“Sam,” he admitted. “He was not at table tonight.”
“It’s not like him to miss a meal,” Pyp said thoughtfully. “Do you suppose he’s taken ill?”
“He’s frightened. We’re leaving him.” He remembered the day he had left Winterfell, all thebittersweet farewells; Bran lying broken, Robb with snow in his hair, Arya raining kisses on him afterhe’d given her Needle. “Once we say our words, we’ll all have duties to attend to. Some of us may besent away, to Eastwatch or the Shadow Tower. Sam will remain in training, with the likes of Rast andCuger and these new boys who are coming up the kingsroad. Gods only know what they’ll be like,but you can bet Ser Alliser will send them against him, first chance he gets.”
Pyp made a grimace36. “You did all you could.”
“All we could wasn’t enough,” Jon said.
A deep restlessness was on him as he went back to Hardin’s Tower for Ghost. The direwolf walkedbeside him to the stables. Some of the more skittish37 horses kicked at their stalls and laid back theirears as they entered. Jon saddled his mare38, mounted, and rode out from Castle Black, south across themoonlit night. Ghost raced ahead of him, flying over the ground, gone in the blink of an eye. Jon lethim go. A wolf needed to hunt.
He had no destination in mind. He wanted only to ride. He followed the creek39 for a time, listeningto the icy trickle40 of water over rock, then cut across the fields to the kingsroad. It stretched out beforehim, narrow and stony41 and pocked with weeds, a road of no particular promise, yet the sight of itfilled Jon Snow with a vast longing42. Winterfell was down that road, and beyond it Riverrun andKing’s Landing and the Eyrie and so many other places; Casterly Rock, the Isles43 of Faces, the redmountains of Dorne, the hundred islands of Braavos in the sea, the smoking ruins of old Valyria. Allthe places that Jon would never see. The world was down that road … and he was here.
Once he swore his vow44, the Wall would be his home until he was old as Maester Aemon. “I havenot sworn yet,” he muttered. He was no outlaw45, bound to take the black or pay the penalty for hiscrimes. He had come here freely, and he might leave freely … until he said the words. He need onlyride on, and he could leave it all behind. By the time the moon was full again, he would be back inWinterfell with his brothers.
Your half brothers, a voice inside reminded him. And Lady Stark, who will not welcome you. Therewas no place for him in Winterfell, no place in King’s Landing either. Even his own mother had nothad a place for him. The thought of her made him sad. He wondered who she had been, what she had looked like, why his father had left her. Because she was a whore or an adulteress, fool. Somethingdark and dishonorable, or else why was Lord Eddard too ashamed to speak of her?
Because she was a whore or an adulteress, fool. Somethingdark and dishonorable, or else why was Lord Eddard too ashamed to speak of her?
Jon Snow turned away from the kingsroad to look behind him. The fires of Castle Black werehidden behind a hill, but the Wall was there, pale beneath the moon, vast and cold, running fromhorizon to horizon.
He wheeled his horse around and started for home.
Ghost returned as he crested46 a rise and saw the distant glow of lamplight from the LordCommander’s Tower. The direwolf’s muzzle47 was red with blood as he trotted48 beside the horse. Jonfound himself thinking of Samwell Tarly again on the ride back. By the time he reached the stables,he knew what he must do.
Maester Aemon’s apartments were in a stout49 wooden keep below the rookery. Aged50 and frail51, themaester shared his chambers52 with two of the younger stewards53, who tended to his needs and helpedhim in his duties. The brothers joked that he had been given the two ugliest men in the Night’s Watch;being blind, he was spared having to look at them. Clydas was short, bald, and chinless, with smallpink eyes like a mole54. Chett had a wen on his neck the size of a pigeon’s egg, and a face red withboils and pimples55. Perhaps that was why he always seemed so angry.
It was Chett who answered Jon’s knock. “I need to speak to Maester Aemon,” Jon told him.
“The maester is abed, as you should be. Come back on the morrow and maybe he’ll see you.” Hebegan to shut the door.
Jon jammed it open with his boot. “I need to speak to him now. The morning will be too late.”
Chett scowled56. “The maester is not accustomed to being woken in the night. Do you know how oldhe is?”
“Old enough to treat visitors with more courtesy than you,” Jon said. “Give him my pardons. Iwould not disturb his rest if it were not important.”
“And if I refuse?”
Jon had his boot wedged solidly in the door. “I can stand here all night if I must.”
The black brother made a disgusted noise and opened the door to admit him. “Wait in the library.
There’s wood. Start a fire. I won’t have the maester catching58 a chill on account of you.”
Jon had the logs crackling merrily by the time Chett led in Maester Aemon. The old man was cladin his bed robe, but around his throat was the chain collar of his order. A maester did not remove iteven to sleep. “The chair beside the fire would be pleasant,” he said when he felt the warmth on hisface. When he was settled comfortably, Chett covered his legs with a fur and went to stand by thedoor.
“I am sorry to have woken you, Maester,” Jon Snow said.
“You did not wake me,” Maester Aemon replied. “I find I need less sleep as I grow older, and Iam grown very old. I often spend half the night with ghosts, remembering times fifty years past as ifthey were yesterday. The mystery of a midnight visitor is a welcome diversion. So tell me, Jon Snow,why have you come calling at this strange hour?”
“To ask that Samwell Tarly be taken from training and accepted as a brother of the Night’sWatch.”
“This is no concern of Maester Aemon,” Chett complained.
“Our Lord Commander has given the training of recruits into the hands of Ser Alliser Thorne,” themaester said gently. “Only he may say when a boy is ready to swear his vow, as you surely know.
Why then come to me?”
“The Lord Commander listens to you,” Jon told him. “And the wounded and the sick of theNight’s Watch are in your charge.”
“And is your friend Samwell wounded or sick?”
“He will be,” Jon promised, “unless you help.”
He told them all of it, even the part where he’d set Ghost at Rast’s throat. Maester Aemon listenedsilently, blind eyes fixed on the fire, but Chett’s face darkened with each word. “Without us to keephim safe, Sam will have no chance,” Jon finished. “He’s hopeless with a sword. My sister Arya couldtear him apart, and she’s not yet ten. If Ser Alliser makes him fight, it’s only a matter of time beforehe’s hurt or killed.”
Chett could stand no more. “I’ve seen this fat boy in the common hall,” he said. “He is a pig, and ahopeless craven as well, if what you say is true.”
“Maybe it is so,” Maester Aemon said. “Tell me, Chett, what would you have us do with such aboy?”
“Leave him where he is,” Chett said. “The Wall is no place for the weak. Let him train until he isready, no matter how many years that takes. Ser Alliser shall make a man of him or kill him, as thegods will.”
“That’s stupid,” Jon said. He took a deep breath to gather his thoughts. “I remember once I askedMaester Luwin why he wore a chain around his throat.”
Maester Aemon touched his own collar lightly, his bony, wrinkled finger stroking the heavy metallinks. “Go on.”
“He told me that a maester’s collar is made of chain to remind him that he is sworn to serve,” Jonsaid, remembering. “I asked why each link was a different metal. A silver chain would look muchfiner with his grey robes, I said. Maester Luwin laughed. A maester forges his chain with study, hetold me. The different metals are each a different kind of learning, gold for the study of money andaccounts, silver for healing, iron for warcraft. And he said there were other meanings as well. Thecollar is supposed to remind a maester of the realm he serves, isn’t that so? Lords are gold and knightssteel, but two links can’t make a chain. You also need silver and iron and lead, tin and copper59 andbronze and all the rest, and those are farmers and smiths and merchants and the like. A chain needs allsorts of metals, and a land needs all sorts of people.”
Maester Aemon smiled. “And so?”
“The Night’s Watch needs all sorts too. Why else have rangers and stewards and builders? LordRandyll couldn’t make Sam a warrior60, and Ser Alliser won’t either. You can’t hammer tin into iron,no matter how hard you beat it, but that doesn’t mean tin is useless. Why shouldn’t Sam be asteward?”
Chett gave an angry scowl57. “I’m a steward. You think it’s easy work, fit for cowards? The order ofstewards keeps the Watch alive. We hunt and farm, tend the horses, milk the cows, gather firewood,cook the meals. Who do you think makes your clothing? Who brings up supplies from the south? Thestewards.”
Maester Aemon was gentler. “Is your friend a hunter?”
“He hates hunting,” Jon had to admit.
“Can he plow61 a field?” the maester asked. “Can he drive a wagon62 or sail a ship? Could he butchera cow?”
“No.”
Chett gave a nasty laugh. “I’ve seen what happens to soft lordlings when they’re put to work. Setthem to churning butter and their hands blister63 and bleed. Give them an axe64 to split logs, and they cutoff their own foot.”
“I know one thing Sam could do better than anyone.”
“Yes?” Maester Aemon prompted.
Jon glanced warily65 at Chett, standing beside the door, his boils red and angry. “He could help you,”
he said quickly. “He can do sums, and he knows how to read and write. I know Chett can’t read, andClydas has weak eyes. Sam read every book in his father’s library. He’d be good with the ravens66 too.
Animals seem to like him. Ghost took to him straight off. There’s a lot he could do, besides fighting.
The Night’s Watch needs every man. Why kill one, to no end? Make use of him instead.”
Maester Aemon closed his eyes, and for a brief moment Jon was afraid that he had gone to sleep.
Finally he said, “Maester Luwin taught you well, Jon Snow. Your mind is as deft67 as your blade, itwould seem.”
“Does that mean …?”
“It means I shall think on what you have said,” the maester told him firmly. “And now, I believe Iam ready to sleep. Chett, show our young brother to the door.”
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1
manure
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| n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥 | |
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shovels
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| n.铲子( shovel的名词复数 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份v.铲子( shovel的第三人称单数 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份 | |
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herding
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| 中畜群 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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toad
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| n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆 | |
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pimple
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| n.丘疹，面泡，青春豆 | |
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bastard
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| n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子 | |
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whoop
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| n.大叫，呐喊，喘息声；v.叫喊，喘息 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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reptile
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| n.爬行动物；两栖动物 | |
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stinking
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| adj.臭的，烂醉的，讨厌的v.散发出恶臭( stink的现在分词 )；发臭味；名声臭；糟透 | |
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smacked
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| 拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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hooting
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| （使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 )； 倒好儿； 倒彩 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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ranger
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| n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员 | |
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stark
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| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
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sputtered
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| v.唾沫飞溅( sputter的过去式和过去分词 )；发劈啪声；喷出；飞溅出 | |
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pelting
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| 微不足道的，无价值的，盛怒的 | |
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wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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garnished
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| v.给（上餐桌的食物）加装饰( garnish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mashed
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| a.捣烂的 | |
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turnip
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| n.萝卜，芜菁 | |
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marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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spinach
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| n.菠菜 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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gorged
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| v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 )；作呕 | |
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raven
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| n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的 | |
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defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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rangers
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| 护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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footpaths
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| 人行小径，人行道( footpath的名词复数 ) | |
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quarried
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| v.从采石场采得( quarry的过去式和过去分词 )；从（书本等中）努力发掘（资料等）；在采石场采石 | |
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sledges
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| n.雪橇，雪车( sledge的名词复数 )v.乘雪橇( sledge的第三人称单数 )；用雪橇运载 | |
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grimace
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| v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭 | |
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skittish
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| adj.易激动的，轻佻的 | |
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mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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trickle
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| vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散 | |
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stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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outlaw
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| n.歹徒，亡命之徒；vt.宣布…为不合法 | |
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crested
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| adj.有顶饰的，有纹章的，有冠毛的v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的过去式和过去分词 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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muzzle
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| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
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trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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stewards
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| （轮船、飞机等的）乘务员( steward的名词复数 )； （俱乐部、旅馆、工会等的）管理员； （大型活动的）组织者； （私人家中的）管家 | |
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54
mole
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| n.胎块；痣；克分子 | |
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pimples
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| n.丘疹，粉刺，小脓疱( pimple的名词复数 ) | |
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scowled
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scowl
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| vi.(at)生气地皱眉，沉下脸，怒视；n.怒容 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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61
plow
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| n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough | |
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62
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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63
blister
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| n.水疱；(油漆等的)气泡；v.(使)起泡 | |
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64
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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65
warily
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| adv.留心地 | |
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66
ravens
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| n.低质煤；渡鸦( raven的名词复数 ) | |
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67
deft
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| adj.灵巧的，熟练的（a deft hand 能手） | |
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