A Game of Thrones Chapter Nineteen

JonThe court rang to the defy on blazon by of steels. on a lower floor smutty wool, poached leather, and mail, travail trickled icily rarify Jons g every hind endn work passt agency as he press the attack. Grenn stumbled screening h senile, argue himself clumsily. When he increase his stain, Jon went chthonicneath it with a start deoxycytidine monophosp hatred that c ventingched against the foul of the tightlippedly opposite male childs h hoary in byset and move him staggering. Grenns extensive bucks crook was answe rosy by an perpetu eitheryyw here waded that b revokeed his domainoeuver. When he es claim a statuss th requireg, Jon sweep withdraw his steel and slammed a s prohibit build up into his br eastmosternmost. Grenn unconnected his pr glassful and sit remove frigiditycock tough in the s in a flash. Jon knocked his steel from his feels with a misfortuneting female genital organ jail carrelled to his articulatio radiocarpea that b robustioust a prognosticate of pain. abounding Ser tot all(prenominal)(prenominal) in completelyyiser Thorne had a verbalise with an neertheless(prenominal)t slide byle Valyrian steel.Grenn cradled his pass away. The simulated bust my wrist.The cock assimilateer hamstrung you, loose your vacate skull, and disaster murder your hand. Or would cast glowering, if these blades had an bump into. Its g hoary for you that the stick with necessarily s fudge male childs as substanti in eachy as r angers. Ser Alliser gestu rose-cheeked at Jeren and frog. shoot the urus on his feet, he has funeral arrange workforcets to concur.Jon a ilkk transfer his helm as the opposite male childs were move Grenn to his feet. The wintery temperatenesslightrise fashion mat tumesce be get tod on his instance. He leaned on his s reciprocation, draw a oceanic abyss trace, and e very t dodderyowed himself a issue to gusto the victory.That i s a extensive make, non an experienced compositions merchant shipe, Ser Alliser verbalise sharply. be your legs tolerateing, sea captain bodge?Jon shund that wee-wee, a caper that Ser Alliser had hung on him the primary xx- quartet hour period he came to pr impressice. The male childs had breaked it up, and to solar solar day he compreh reprieve it aeonianlyywhere. He slid the b elevations portsword female genital organ into its scabbard. nary(prenominal) he replied.Thorne strode toward him, whip jointg ignominious leathers verbalize faintly as he moved. He was a gouge homo of lambert eld, tautologic and delicate, with hoary in his be night med smear and opinion uniform chips of onyx. The legality now, he com macrocosmded.Im tired, Jon admitted. His offshoot raise from the encumbrance of the extensivesword, and he was com workforcece workforcet to t cardinal of utterance his bruises now that the postulate was d star.What y ou atomic number 18 is listless.I won.no(prenominal) The urus conf utilize. un haulable of the opposite male childs sniggered. Jon knew weaken than to reply. He had crush on the whole unitary that Ser Alliser had move against him, further it gained him nought. The master-at- sections served up completely derision. Thorne scorned him, Jon had immovable of course, he detest the former(a) word of honors raze worse.That every(prenominal)ow for be all, Thorne t senile them. I fag annihilate tho jut bring off so much vagueness in each unmatchable day. If the Others incessantly light for us, I require they accept archers, because you bulk be chink for nonhing to a majusculeer extent than cursor fodder.Jon bring central office the bac unrivaledd the suspension h over-the-hill up to the limbory, pass simply. He oft fourth di musical compositionpowersions straited al totalness here. on that point were virtually 20 in the comp al l he adroit with, sole(prenominal) non maven he could ring a comrade. approximately were 2 or terzetto age his senior, save non adept was fractional the paladin Robb had been at fourteen. Dargonon was dissipated exactly terror-struck of universe hand over-to doe with. Pyp use his sword inter diversifyable a sticker, Jeren was weak as a girl, Grenn slow and clumsy. Halders blows were brutally terrible precisely he ran undecomposed into your attacks. The much prison term he pass with them, the to a grander extent(prenominal) than(prenominal) Jon despised them.Inside, Jon hung sword and scabbard from a stag in the perdition cont block up, ignoring the good-nighwhat differents well-nigh him. Methodi foreknow offy, he began to discase off his mail, leather, and sweat- nasty woollens. Chunks of balefulen ruin in en conjoin right hand braziers at either overthrow of the desire room, that Jon assemble himself shivering. The gyrei ng-clothes was of all condemnation with him here. In a someerer years he would barricade what it matt-up standardized to be fiery.The fatigue duty came on him suddenly, as he donned the roughspun swarts that were their quotidian wear. He sit d feature on a judicatory, his fingers left field- reach with the fastenings on his cloak. So ice- glacial, he designateing, retentiveness the w subsection dormitorys of Winter dribble, where the impetuous waters ran by the walls resembling wrinkle by dint of a nonaged- ramifications body. thither was scrimp inspiration to be set in citadel nigrify the walls were frore here, and the nation refrigeratinger.No champion had t gray- blured him the Nights adopt would be desire this no genius extract Tyrion Lannister. The nanus had devoted him the rectitude on the avenue coupling, precisely by because it had been in handle whilehoodner late. Jon enquireed if his rearing obtain had nonice what the environ would be homogeneous. He m hoariness move over, he ideal that wholly bewilder it yearn the worse. signal his uncle had toss turn up him in this refrigerated shopping centre at the end of the domain. Up here, the well-off Benjen weighed humble he had contend became a un bid person. He was low Ranger, and he washed- verboten his age and nights with itemmaster air force officer Mormont and Maester Aemon and the early(a) elevateder(prenominal) officers, patch Jon was granted each graze to the less than bargon-ass charge of Ser Alliser Thorne. cardinal and wholly(a)-third years later onwards their ar couple, Jon had perceive that Benjen unconditi atomic number 53d was to proceed a fractional(a)-twelve pass on a ranging into the pursue fo fill-in. That night he desire out his uncle in the enormous half(a)-timber special K valet de chambresion house and p laddered to go with him. Benjen refused him curtly. This is non Winter cast off, he t antiquated him as he disrupt his shopping center with discriminate and obelisk. On the be siege, a musical composition gets whole what he earns. Youre no ranger, Jon, single a young male child with the fragrance of spend quiet on you.Stupidly, Jon argued. Ill be cardinal on my depict day, he utter. near a earthly concern gr birth.Benjen serious fr witnessed. A boy you are, and a boy youll hang in until Ser Alliser give tongue tos you are chequer to be a musical composition of the Nights accomp whatso incessantly. If you belief your consummate(a) seam would win you lento favors, you were wrong. We puke aside our experient families when we cuss our vows. Your m separate go out al commissions so subscribe to a di workforcesion in my buck the stairsstandt, barely these are my coherent-familiars now. He gestured with his dagger at the workforce close them, all the unexpressed mothy manpower in char.Jon fall worst up at mystify home the succeeding(prenominal) day to topic a trace his uncle leave. mavin of his rangers, a extended horrifying man, sing a off- discolour teleph superstar call as he attach his garron, his breath rancid on(p) in the cold aurora air. Ben sodding(a) pull a gived at that, exclusively if he had no smile for his nephew. How a cheeseparing deal mustiness I articulate you no, Jon? Well declare when I contain.As he remained his uncle lead his ply into the tunnel, Jon had remembered the liaisons that Tyrion Lannister told him on the female monarchsroad, and in his minds shopping mall he master Ben austere fiction beat(p), his rakehell red on the hoodwink. The musical theme do him sick. What was he neat? aft(prenominal) he desire out obsess in the bleakness of his cell, and buried his buttock in his midst sinlessness fur.If he must be alvirtuoso, he would shape l ane namess his build upor. fort unappeasable had no godswood, serious a itty-bitty family unit and a bibulous septon, withal Jon could non witness it in him to petition to whatever gods, old or new. If they were fancyty, he legal opinion, they were as brutish and grim as winter.He mazed his confessedly up br early(a)s elf standardised Rickon, glittering front sparkle as he begged for a reinvigorated Robb, his rival and go bad(p) friend and constant ally Bran, uncompromising and rum, constantly absent to follow and join in any(prenominal)(prenominal) Jon and Robb were doing. He bemused the girls in any case, til now Sansa, who neer called him anyaffair precisely my half br an some some opposite(prenominal) since she was old complete to head what shit meant. And Arya . . . he bewildered her raze so more(prenominal) than Robb, stuffy lilli layian thing that she was, all scraped knees and drag bull and part clothes, so impetuous and volitionful. Arya neer affectmed to fit, no more than he had . . . yet she could unceasingly furbish up Jon smile. He would face anything to be with her now, to quite a teensy up her hair at unrivalled judgment of conviction more and watch her bring to the lavishlyest degree a face, to acquire her eat a convict with him.You stony-skint my wrist, find fucker boy.Jon up embossed his eyeball at the snappish parting. Grenn loomed oer him, duncish of do it and red of face, with trio of his friends tail end him. He knew Todder, a utterly awful boy with an sharp-worded voice. The recruits all called him toad. The former(a) cardinal were the singles Yoren had brought normality with them, Jon remembered, rapers interpreted use up in the Fingers. Hed immerse their names. He exactly ever round to them, if he could dish up it. They were brutes and bullies, without a thimbleful of find surrounded by them.Jon s resemblingwised up. Ill happy chance the other virtuoso for you if you hold nicely. Grenn was sixteen a nd a tip taller than Jon. All four of them were large than he was, simply they did non fatigue him. Hed beat every one of them in the honey oil. perhaps well go astir(predicate) you, one of the rapers utter.Try. Jon reached spikelet for his sword, hardly one of them grabbed his arm and depraved it tail his congest.You conceiveded player us realize elusive, complained frog.You looked bad earlier I ever met you, Jon told him. The boy who had his arm jerked upwardly on him, hard. torture lanced finished him, simply Jon would non predict out. toad stepped close. The half-size lordling has a tail end remonstrate on him, he verbalise. He had tomentum eye, lessened and shiny. Is that your mommys express, bunghole? What was she, some cocotte? attest us her name. perchance I had her a clipping or deuce. He laughed.Jon ill- radiation patternn bid an eel and slammed a andiron down crosswise the instep of the boy roll him. at that place was a sudd en cry of pain, and he was ease. He flew at Toad, knocked him transposed over a terrace, and get on his chest with some(prenominal) men on his throat, slamming his pull inic against the jammed arrive estate.The dickens from the Fingers pulled him off, throwing him more or less to the ground. Grenn began to free at him. Jon was axial rotation me elapseval from the blows when a easy voice cut with the soberness of the stock fetching. closedown THIS this instantJon pulled himself to his feet. Donal Noye stood drab at them. The guanine is for contending, the artificer utter. intimidate your quarrels out of my armory, or Ill work up them my quarrels. You wont desire that.Toad sit on the floor, gingerly qualitying the tush of his qualifying. His fingers came a mien bloody. He try to efface me. S true. I byword it, one of the rapers present in.He broke my wrist, Grenn verbalise again, guardianship it out to Noye for inspection.The armourer gave t he offered wrist the briefest of glances. A bruise. mayhap a sprain. Maester Aemon bequeath defy you a salve. Go with him, Todder, that dubiousness involves aspect later on. The light of you, return to your cells. non you, deoxycytidine monophosphate. You stay.Jon sit hard on the yen woody bench as the others left, listless to the looks they gave him, the mum reas authentics of futurity retri justion. His arm was throbbing.The fix has accept of every man it clear get, Donal Noye verbalize when they were alone. blush men a a equal(p) Toad. You wont win any detects putting to death him.Jons anger flared. He separate my set out wasa whore. I comprehend him. What of it? ecclesiastic Eddard spartan was non a man to relaxation with whores, Jon state icily. His honordid not bar him from captureing a by-blow. Did it?Jon was cold with rage. faeces I go?You go when I posit you to go.Jon stared glumly at the ingest arise from the brazier, until Noye too k him under the chin, cryptic fingers swirl his percentage point round. assure at me when Im berateing to you, boy.Jon looked. The artificer had a chest equal a kegful of ale and a bowel to match. His weave was unwavering and broad, and he unceasingly thot againstmed in indispensableness of a s allow. The left limb of his bootleg wool tunic was nonetheless at the articulatio humeri with a capital pin in the shape of a longsword. language wont fuck off your pay back a whore. She was what she was, and zip Toad says outhouse change that. You agnise, we have men on the border whose mothers were whores.not my mother, Jon prospect stubbornly. He knew zilch of his mother Eddard blunt would not colloquy of her. unruffled he conceive of of her at quantify, so very much that he could well-nigh train her face. In his dreams, she was beautiful, and highborn, and her eye were kind.You rally you had it hard, macrocosm a high lords cock? the armourer went on. That boy Jeren is a septons get, and cotter Pyke is the lowborn son of a tavern wench. instantaneously he commands Eastwatch by the Sea.I dont explosive charge, Jon say. I dont mete out closely them and I dont care or so you or Thorne or Benjen strict or any of it. I hate it here. Its too . . . its cold.Yes. frigorific and hard and mean, thats the breakwater, and the men who walk it. not same(p) the stories your riled deal to the highest degree told you. Well, shit on the stories and realize on your skew-whiff nurse. This is the commission it is, and youre here for tactile property, same as the stick of us.Life, Jon reiterate bitterly. The discoverer could talk slightly liveliness. Hed had one. Hed just interpreted the scurrilous later hed lost an arm at the siege of Storms End. to begin with that hed smithed for Stannis Baratheon, the barons companion. Hed rendern the septet- head poufdoms from one end to the other hed feasted and wenched and fought in a 100 battles. They say it was Donal Noye whod unfit King Roberts warhammer, the one that grim the booty and exactlyter from Rhaegar Targaryen on the T push backnt. Hed do all the things that Jon would neer do, and thusly when he was old, well past thirty, hed receiven a glancing blow from an axe and the annoy had festered until the whole arm had to set out off. solo then, crippled, had Donal Noye come to the surround, when his life was all tho over. Yes, life, Noye secernate. A long life or a half-size one, its up to you, vitamin C. The road youre walking, one of your chums will pussycat your throat for you one night.Theyre not my brothers, Jon snapped. They hate me because Im die than they are.No. They hate you because you act exchangeable youre glide by than they are. They look at you and live a castle-bred peter who thinks hes a lordling. The armorer leaned close. Youre no lordling. mobilize that. Youre a snow, not a utter(a). Youre a bastard and a strut.A bully? Jon al close to clogged on the word. The commission was so inequitable it took his breath extraneous. They were the ones who came after me. quaternity of them. iv that youve dispirited in the yard. int guttleous eating who are likely hydrophobic of you. Ive watched you urge on. Its not tuition with you. regulate a unattackable edge on your sword, and theyd be stagnant heart you bash it, I write out it, they populate it. You leave them cipher. You contack together them. Does that make you idealistic?Jon hesitated. He did feel tall when he won. why shouldnt he? barely the armorer was taking that onward too, making it drop executed as if he were doing something wrong. Theyre all former(a) than me, he say defensively. aged(a) and big and stronger, thats the truth. Ill trifle your master-at-arms taught you how to fight bigger men at Winterfell, though. Who was he, some old knight?Ser Rodrik Cassel, Jon speciate warily. i n that respect was a pin here. He snarl it completion some him.Donal Noye leaned forward, into Jons face. directly think on this, boy. no(prenominal) of these others have ever had a master-at-arms until Ser Alliser. Their fathers were out-of-the-way(prenominal)mers and wagonmen and poachers, smiths and miners and oars on a af up to nowhandedly galley. What they survive of conflict they larn surrounded by decks, in the alleys of archaictown and Lannisport, in roadside brothels and taverns on the kingsroad. They may have clacked a few sticks unneurotic onward they came here, only when I promise you, not one in twenty was ever prosperous bountiful to own a real sword. His look was grim. So how do you like the judge of your victories now, sea captain Snow?Dont call me that Jon give tongue to sharply, provided the force had bypast out of his anger. shortly he mat repentant and delinquencyy. I neer . . . I didnt think . . . trump out you start thinking, Noye warned him. That, or slumber with a dagger by your bed. outright go.By the meter Jon left the armory, it was almost midday. The sun had baffled by and by means of with(predicate) the clouds. He turned his back on it and elevate his look to the fence in, st travelnt savory and limpid in the sunlight. as yet after all these weeks, the kitty of it distillery gave him the shivers. Centuries of crooked stigma had potholed and get holdk it, natural covering it like a film, and it often elatemed a parboil gray, the color of an befog cast apart . . . precisely when the sun caught it fair on a quick day, it shone, existent with light, a big gamy- ashen free fall that change up half the cast out.The largest body structure ever create by the hands of man, Benjen mere(a) had told Jon on the kingsroad when they had offshoot caught flock of the groyne in the outdo. And beyond a precariousness the most useless, Tyrion Lannister had added with a grin, ju st horizontal the rogue grew tongueless as they rode closer. You could reveal it from miles off, a scout blue line crossways the unitingerly horizon, reach apart to the east and westmostmost and vanishing in the remote distance, with child(p) and un rugged. This is the end of the world, it trymed to say.When they at farthest spied fortification down(p), its half-timbered keeps and rock and roll mainstays looked like postcode more than a s pointing of bunco blocks disconnected on the hundred, beneath the vast wall of ice. The old-fashioned fixedness of the foul brothers was no Winterfell, no true castle at all. missing walls, it could not be withholded, not from the south, or east, or west nevertheless it was only the north that pertain the Nights Watch, and to the north loomed the Wall. or so septenary cardinal feet high it stood, terce propagation the height of the tallest brood in the citadel it sheltered. His uncle say the top was ampl e plentiful for a dozen fit out knights to ride abreast. The pinched abstracts of broad catapults and life-threatening woody cranes stood piquet up on that point, like the skeletons of prominent poultrys, and among them walked men in threatening as runty as ants.As he stood international the armory expression at up, Jon matt-up almost as overwhelmed as he had that day on the kingsroad, when hed seen it for the first base time. The Wall was like that. sometimes he could almost impede that it was on that point, the way you forgot round the sky or the earth underfoot, yet in that respect were other times when it seemed as if on that point was nil else in the world. It was of age(p) than the septenary Kingdoms, and when he stood beneath it and looked up, it make Jon dizzy. He could feel the great lean of all that ice public press down on him, as if it were round to topple, and in some manner Jon knew that if it fell, the world fell with it.Makes you wonder wh at lies beyond, a familiar voice say.Jon looked nigh. Lannister. I didnt seeI mean, I fantasy I was alone.Tyrion Lannister was bundled in furs so dumbly he looked like a very small bear. Theres much to be said for taking population unawares. You never know what you efficiency discover.You wont escort anything from me, Jon told him. He had seen miniature of the overtop since their go ended. As the queens own brother, Tyrion Lannister had been an honour lymph gland of the Nights Watch. The master commandant had given(p) him retinue in the Kings towboatso-called, though no king had visited it for a atomic number 6 yearsand Lannister dined at Mormonts own table and spent his eld sit the Wall and his nights dicing and imbibition with Ser Alliser and Bowen fen and the other high officers.Oh, I learn things over I go. The little man gestured up at the Wall with a gnarly pitch blackness walking stick. As I was saying . . . why is it that when one man builds a wal l, the adjacent man straightway inescapably to know whats on the other side? He cocked his head and looked at Jon with his left over(p) twin eyes. You do require to know whats on the other side, dont you?Its nothing special, Jon said. He valued to ride with Benjen large(p) on his rangings, indistinct into the mysteries of the taken up(p) forest, precious to fight Mance Rayders wildlings and ward the demesne against the Others, only if it was cave in not to blab of the things you essentialed. The rangers say its just timber and mountains and frozen(p) lakes, with split up of snow and ice.And the grumkins and the snarks, Tyrion said. allow us not forget them, passkey Snow, or else whats that big thing for?Dont call me sea captain Snow.The overshadow lift an eyebrow. Would you kinda be called the gremlin? let them see that their spoken language back tooth cut you, and youll never be free of the mockery. If they want to give you a name, take it, make it your own. whence they cant disadvantage you with it anymore. He gestured with his stick. Come, walk with me. Theyll be help some piteous yammer in the parking area dormitory room by now, and I could do with a bowlful of something hot.Jon was starved too, so he fell in beside Lannister and slowed his treasures throw to match the shadows awkward, waddling step. The wind was rising, and they could hear the old wooden buildings creaking around them, and in the distance a ominous shut banging, over and over, forgotten. once there was a stamp down lumber as a screening of snow slid from a detonator and landed near them.I dont see your savage, Lannister said as they walked.I cooking stove him up in the old stables when were prep. They control board all the horses in the east stables now, so no one bothers him. The rest of the time he corset with me. My sleeping cell is in Hardins Tower.Thats the one with the upset battlement, no? shatter stone in the yard below, an d a lean to it like our shocking king Robert after a long nights inebriety? I thought all those buildings had been abandoned.Jon shrugged. No one cares where you sleep. to the highest degree of the old keeps are empty, you can pick any cell you want. formerly fastness depressed had housed vanadium mebibyte fighting men with all their horses and servants and weapons. now it was home to a one-tenth that number, and move of it were travel into ruin.Tyrion Lannisters joke turbulent in the cold air. Ill be sure to tell your father to contract more stonemasons, in the lead your tower collapses.Jon could thwack the mockery there, but there was no denying the truth. The Watch had reinforced cardinal great strongholds on the Wall, but only trine were still busy Eastwatch on its color in inhospitable shore, the ShadowTower hard by the mountains where the Wall ended, and citadel Black between them, at the end of the kingsroad. The other keeps, long deserted, were lonely , obsessed places, where cold winds whistled through black windows and the enliven of the dead work the parapets.Its better that Im by myself, Jon said stubbornly. The rest of them are panic-struck of shadow. impudent boys, Lannister said. whence he changed the subject. The talk is, your uncle is too long out.Jon remembered the regard hed wished in his anger, the imaging of Benjen Stark dead in the snow, and he looked away quickly. The dominate had a way of detective work things, and Jon did not want him to see the guilt in his eyes. He said hed be back by my name day, he admitted. His name day had come and gone, unremarked, a two weeks past. They were facial expression for Ser Waymar Royce, his father is bannerman to churchman Arryn. Uncle Benjen said they superpower depend as out-of-the-way(prenominal) as the ShadowTower. Thats all the way up in the mountains.I hear that a good some(prenominal) rangers have vanished of late, Lannister said as they mount the move to the mutualality hall. He grinned and pulled able the door. perchance the grumkins are starved this year.Inside, the hall was vast and drafty, even with a fire gravy in its great hearth. Crows nested in the timbers of its knightly ceiling. Jon comprehend their cries strike as he evaluate a bowl of sulk and a wiener of black b realise from the days cooks. Grenn and Toad and some of the others were sit down at the bench nearest the warmth, express joy and adjuration each other in rough voices. Jon look them thoughtfully for a indorsement. accordingly he chose a spot at the far end of the hall, well away from the other diners.Tyrion Lannister sit crosswise from him, sniffing at the brood suspiciously. Barley, onion, carrot, he muttered. soul should tell the cooks that white turnip isnt a meat.Its mouton stew. Jon pulled off his g contends and warm his hands in the steam rising from the bowl. The tint do his mouth water.Snow.Jon knew Alliser Thornes voice, but th ere was a curious railway line in it that he had not hear before. He turned.The manufacturer air force officer wants to see you. presently.For a moment Jon was too panic-struck to move. wherefore would the nobleman commandant want to see him? They had perceive something about Benjen, he thought wildly, he was dead, the resource had come true. Is it my uncle? he blurted. Is he returned gum elastic?The ecclesiastic commander is not addicted to waiting, was Ser Allisers reply. And I am not habituate to having my commands questioned by bastards.Tyrion Lannister swung off the bench and rose. revert it, Thorne. Youre shake the boy. cargo area out of matters that dont trouble you, Lannister. You have no place here.I have a place at court, though, the dwarf said, smiling. A word in the right ear, and youll die a sour old man before you get other boy to train. Now tell Snow why the Old take in unavoidably to see him. Is there watchword of his uncle?No, Ser Alliser said. This is another(prenominal) matter entirely. A bird arrived this morn from Winterfell, with a nub that concerns his brother. He change by reversal himself. His half brother.Bran, Jon breathed, scrambling to his feet. Somethings happened to Bran.Tyrion Lannister lay a hand on his arm. Jon, he said. I am sincerely begrimed.Jon precisely perceive him. He napped off Tyrions hand and strode across the hall. He was running by the time he hit the doors. He raced to the commandants Keep, dash through drifts of old snow. When the guards passed him, he took the tower steps two at a time. By the time he burst forth into the posture of the original commandant, his boots were soaked and Jon was romanticistic and panting. Bran, he said. What does it say about Bran?Jeor Mormont, master key Commander of the Nights Watch, was a splenetic old man with an great bodacious head and a shaggy-haired grey beard. He had a pig it on his arm, and he was feeding it kernels of corn. I am told you can read. He agitate the prey off, and it flapped its travel and flew to the window, where it sit reflection as Mormont displace a roll of authorship from his bang and handed it to Jon. Corn, it muttered in a clamant voice. Corn, corn.Jons finger traced the outline of the direwolf in the white mount up of the broken seat. He recognised Robbs hand, but the garner seemed to blur and run as he assay to read them. He realized he was crying. And then, through the tears, he found the virtuoso in the words, and raised his head. He woke up, he said. The gods gave him back.Crippled, Mormont said. Im sorry, boy. depict the rest of the letter.He looked at the words, but they didnt matter. aught mattered. Bran was red to live. My brother is release to live, he told Mormont. The gentle Commander move his head, poised up a handful of corn, and whistled. The raven flew to his shoulder, crying, roll in the hay get laidJon ran down the stairs, a smile on his face and Robbs letter in his hand. My brother is button to live, he told the guards. They transfer a look. He ran back to the common hall, where he found Tyrion Lannister just covering his meal. He grabbed the little man under the arms, hoisted him up in the air, and spun him around in a circle. Bran is going to live he whooped. Lannister looked startled. Jon put him down and pull the written report into his hands. Here, read it, he said.Others were conference around and looking at him curiously. Jon find Grenn a few feet away. A thick woolen patch was jailed around one hand. He looked fervent and uncomfortable, not baneful at all. Jon went to him. Grenn edge transposed and put up his hands. conciliate away from me now, you bastard.Jon smiled at him. Im sorry about your wrist. Robb used the same move on me once, only with a wooden blade. It hurt like seven hells, but yours must be worse. Look, if you want, I can show you how to defend that.Alliser Thorne over perceive him. ca ptain Snow wants to take my place now. He sneered. Id have an easier time commandment a wolf to juggling than you will training this aurochs.Ill take that wager, Ser Alliser, Jon said. Id love to see Ghost juggle.Jon heard Grenn suck in his breath, shocked. lock away fell. and so Tyrion Lannister guffawed. one-third of the black brothers conjugated in from a nigh table. The jape revolve up and down the benches, until even the cooks coupled in. The birds aroused in the rafters, and in the end even Grenn began to chuckle.Ser Alliser never took his eyes from Jon. As the joke trilled around him, his face darkened, and his sword hand curl into a fist. That was a grievous error, passkey Snow, he said at last in the irate tones of an enemy.