Outside his bedchamber a flight of steps descended to a larger room furnished with a scarred pinewood table and a dozen oak-and-leather chairs. With Stannis in the Kings Tower and the Lord Commanders Tower burned to a shell, Jon had established himself in Donal Noyes modest rooms behind the armory. In time, no doubt, he would need larger quarters, but for the moment these would serve whilst he accustomed himself to command.
The grant that the king had presented him for signature was on the table beneath a silver drinking cup that had once been Donal Noyes. The one-armed smith had left few personal effects: the cup, six pennies and a copper star, a niello brooch with a broken clasp, a musty brocade doublet that bore the stag of Storms End. His treasures were his tools, and the swords and knives he made. His life was at the forge. Jon moved the cup aside and read the parchment once again. If I put my seal to this, I will forever be remembered as the lord commander who gave away the Wall, he thought, but if I should refuse
Stannis Baratheon was proving to be a prickly guest, and a restless one. He had ridden down the kingsroad almost as far as Queenscrown, prowled through the empty hovels of Moles Town, inspected the ruined forts at Queensgate and Oakenshield. Each night he walked atop the Wall with Lady Melisandre, and during the days he visited the stockades, picking captives out for the red woman to question. He does not like to be balked. This would not be a pleasant morning, Jon feared.
From the armory came a clatter of shields and swords, as the latest lot of boys and raw recruits armed themselves. He could hear the voice of Iron Emmett telling them to be quick about it. Cotter Pyke had not been pleased to lose him, but the young ranger had a gift for training men. He loves to fight, and hell teach his boys to love it too. Or so he hoped.
Jons cloak hung on a peg by the door, his sword belt on another. He donned them both and made his way to the armory. The rug where Ghost slept was empty, he saw. Two guardsmen stood inside the doors, clad in black cloaks and iron halfhelms, spears in their hands. Will mlord be wanting a tail? asked Garse.
I think I can find the Kings Tower by myself. Jon hated having guards trailing after him everywhere he went. It made him feel like a mother duck leading a procession of ducklings.
Iron Emmetts lads were well at it in the yard, blunted swords slamming into shields and ringing against one another. Jon stopped to watch a moment as Horse pressed Hop-Robin back toward the well. Horse had the makings of a good fighter, he decided. He was strong and getting stronger, and his instincts were sound. Hop-Robin was another tale. His clubfoot was bad enough, but he was afraid of getting hit as well. Perhaps we can make a steward of him. The fight ended abruptly, with Hop-Robin on the ground.
Well fought, Jon said to Horse, but you drop your shield too low when pressing an attack. You will want to correct that, or it is like to get you killed.
Yes, mlord. Ill keep it higher next time. Horse pulled Hop-Robin to his feet, and the smaller boy made a clumsy bow.
A few of Stanniss knights were sparring on the far side of the yard. Kings men in one corner and queens men in another, Jon did not fail to note, but only a few. Its too cold for most of them. As he strode past them, a booming voice called after him. BOY! YOU THERE! BOY!
Boy was not the worst of the things that Jon Snow had been called since being chosen lord commander. He ignored it.
Snow, the voice insisted, Lord Commander.
This time he stopped. Ser?
The knight overtopped him by six inches. A man who bears Valyrian steel should use it for more than scratching his arse.
Jon had seen this one about the castlea knight of great renown, to hear him tell it. During the battle beneath the Wall, Ser Godry Farring had slain a fleeing giant, pounding after him on horseback and driving a lance through his back, then dismounting to hack off the creatures pitiful small head. The queens men had taken to calling him Godry the Giantslayer.
Jon remembered Ygritte, crying. I am the last of the giants. I use Longclaw when I must, ser.
How well, though? Ser Godry drew his own blade. Show us. I promise not to hurt you, lad.
How kind of you. Some other time, ser. I fear that I have other duties just now.
You fear. I see that. Ser Godry grinned at his friends. He fears, he repeated, for the slow ones.
You will excuse me. Jon showed them his back.
Castle Black seemed a bleak and forlorn place in the pale dawn light. My command, Jon Snow reflected ruefully, as much a ruin as it is a stronghold. The Lord Commanders Tower was a shell, the Common Hall a pile of blackened timbers, and Hardins Tower looked as if the next gust of wind would knock it overthough it had looked that way for years. Behind them rose the Wall: immense, forbidding, frigid, acrawl with builders pushing up a new switchback stair to join the remnants of the old. They worked from dawn to dusk. Without the stair, there was no way to reach the top of the Wall save by winch. That would not serve if the wildlings should attack again.
Above the Kings Tower the great golden battle standard of House Baratheon cracked like a whip from the roof where Jon Snow had prowled with bow in hand not long ago, slaying Thenns and free folk beside Satin and Deaf Dick Follard. Two queens men stood shivering on the steps, their hands tucked up into their armpits and their spears leaning against the door. Those cloth gloves will never serve, Jon told them. See Bowen Marsh on the morrow, and hell give you each a pair of leather gloves lined with fur.
We will, mlord, and thank you, said the older guard.
Thats if our bloody hands arent froze off, the younger added, his breath a pale mist. I used to think that it got cold up in the Dornish Marches. What did I know?
Nothing, thought Jon Snow, the same as me.
Halfway up the winding steps, he came upon Samwell Tarly, headed down. Are you coming from the king? Jon asked him.
Maester Aemon sent me with a letter.
I see. Some lords trusted their maesters to read their letters and convey the contents, but Stannis insisted on breaking the seals himself. How did Stannis take it?
Not happily, by his face. Sam dropped his voice to a whisper. I am not supposed to speak of it.
Then dont. Jon wondered which of his fathers bannermen had refused King Stannis homage this time. He was quick enough to spread the word when Karhold declared for him. How are you and your longbow getting on?
I found a good book about archery. Sam frowned. Doing it is harder than reading about it, though. I get blisters.
Keep at it. We may need your bow on the Wall if the Others turn up some dark night.
Oh, I hope not.
More guards stood outside the kings solar. No arms are allowed in His Graces presence, my lord, their serjeant said. Ill need that sword. Your knives as well. It would do no good to protest, Jon knew. He handed them his weaponry.
Within the solar the air was warm. Lady Melisandre was seated near the fire, her ruby glimmering against the pale skin of her throat. Ygritte had been kissed by fire; the red priestess was fire, and her hair was blood and flame. Stannis stood behind the rough-hewn table where the Old Bear had once been wont to sit and take his meals. Covering the table was a large map of the north, painted on a ragged piece of hide. A tallow candle weighed down one end of it, a steel gauntlet the other.
The king wore lambswool breeches and a quilted doublet, yet somehow he looked as stiff and uncomfortable as if he had been clad in plate and mail. His skin was pale leather, his beard cropped so short that it might have been painted on. A fringe about his temples was all that remained of his black hair. In his hand was a parchment with a broken seal of dark green wax.
Jon took a knee. The king frowned at him, and rattled the parchment angrily. Rise. Tell me, who is Lyanna Mormont?
One of Lady Maeges daughters, Sire. The youngest. She was named for my lord fathers sister.
To curry your lord fathers favor, I dont doubt. I know how that game is played. How old is this wretched girl child?
Jon had to think a moment. Ten. Or near enough to make no matter. Might I know how she has offended Your Grace?
Stannis read from the letter. Bear Island knows no king but the King in the North, whose name is STARK. A girl of ten, you say, and she presumes to scold her lawful king. His close-cropped beard lay like a shadow over his hollow cheeks. See that you keep these tidings to yourself, Lord Snow. Karhold is with me, that is all the men need know. I will not have your brothers trading tales of how this child spat on me.
As you command, Sire. Maege Mormont had ridden south with Robb, Jon knew. Her eldest daughter had joined the Young Wolfs host as well. Even if both of them had died, however, Lady Maege had other daughters, some with children of their own. Had they gone with Robb as well? Surely Lady Maege would have left at least one of the older girls behind as castellan. He did not understand why Lyanna should be writing Stannis, and could not help but wonder if the girls answer might have been different if the letter had been sealed with a direwolf instead of a crowned stag, and signed by Jon Stark, Lord of Winterfell. It is too late for such misgivings. You made your choice.
Two score ravens were sent out, the king complained, yet we get no response but silence and defiance. Homage is the duty every leal subject owes his king. Yet your fathers bannermen all turn their back on me, save the Karstarks. Is Arnolf Karstark the only man of honor in the north?
Arnolf Karstark was the late Lord Rickards uncle. He had been made the castellan of Karhold when his nephew and his sons went south with Robb, and he had been the first to respond to King Stanniss call for homage, with a raven declaring his allegiance. The Karstarks have no other choice, Jon might have said. Rickard Karstark had betrayed the direwolf and spilled the blood of lions. The stag was Karholds only hope. In times as confused as these, even men of honor must wonder where their duty lies. Your Grace is not the only king in the realm demanding homage.
Lady Melisandre stirred. Tell me, Lord Snowwhere were these other kings when the wild people stormed your Wall?
A thousand leagues away and deaf to our need, Jon replied. I have not forgotten that, my lady. Nor will I. But my fathers bannermen have wives and children to protect, and smallfolk who will die should they choose wrongly. His Grace asks much of them. Give them time, and you will have your answers.
Answers such as this? Stannis crushed Lyannas letter in his fist.
Even in the north men fear the wroth of Tywin Lannister. Boltons make bad enemies as well. It is not happenstance that put a flayed man on their banners. The north rode with Robb, bled with him, died for him. They have supped on grief and death, and now you come to offer them another serving. Do you blame them if they hang back? Forgive me, Your Grace, but some will look at you and see only another doomed pretender.
If His Grace is doomed, your realm is doomed as well, said Lady Melisandre. Remember that, Lord Snow. It is the one true king of Westeros who stands before you.
Jon kept his face a mask. As you say, my lady.
Stannis snorted. You spend your words as if every one were a golden dragon. I wonder, how much gold do you have laid by?
Gold? Are those the dragons the red woman means to wake? Dragons made of gold? Such taxes as we collect are paid in kind, Your Grace. The Watch is rich in turnips but poor in coin.
Turnips are not like to appease Salladhor Saan. I require gold or silver.
For that, you need White Harbor. The city cannot compare to Oldtown or Kings Landing, but it is still a thriving port. Lord Manderly is the richest of my lord fathers bannermen.
Lord Too-Fat-to-Sit-a-Horse. The letter that Lord Wyman Manderly had sent back from White Harbor had spoken of his age and infirmity, and little more. Stannis had commanded Jon not to speak of that one either.
Perhaps his lordship would fancy a wildling wife, said Lady Melisandre. Is this fat man married, Lord Snow?
His lady wife is long dead. Lord Wyman has two grown sons, and grandchildren by the elder. And he is too fat to sit a horse, thirty stone at least. Val would never have him.
Just once you might try to give me an answer that would please me, Lord Snow, the king grumbled.
I would hope the truth would please you, Sire. Your men call Val a princess, but to the free folk she is only the sister of their kings dead wife. If you force her to marry a man she does not want, she is like to slit his throat on their wedding night. Even if she accepts her husband, that does not mean the wildlings will follow him, or you. The only man who can bind them to your cause is Mance Rayder.
I know that, Stannis said, unhappily. I have spent hours speaking with the man. He knows much and more of our true enemy, and there is cunning in him, Ill grant you. Even if he were to renounce his kingship, though, the man remains an oathbreaker. Suffer one deserter to live, and you encourage others to desert. No. Laws should be made of iron, not of pudding. Mance Rayders life is forfeit by every law of the Seven Kingdoms.
The law ends at the Wall, Your Grace. You could make good use of Mance.
I mean to. Ill burn him, and the north will see how I deal with turncloaks and traitors. I have other men to lead the wildlings. And I have Rayders son, do not forget. Once the father dies, his whelp will be the King-Beyond-the-Wall.
Your Grace is mistaken. You know nothing, Jon Snow, Ygritte used to say, but he had learned. The babe is no more a prince than Val is a princess. You do not become King-Beyond-the-Wall because your father was.
Good, said Stannis, for I will suffer no other kings in Westeros. Have you signed the grant?