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Jon

There were tilad he was a bastard As he filled his wine cup once ht be one of them

He settled back in his place on the bench aer squires and drank The sweet, fruity taste of suht a smile to his lips

The Great Hall of Winterfell was hazy with smoke and heavy with the srey stone walls were draped with banners White, gold, cri, the lion of Lannister A singer was playing the high harp and reciting a ballad, but down at this end of the hall his voice could scarcely be heard above the roar of the fire, the clangor of pewter plates and cups, and the low mutter of a hundred drunken conversations

It was the fourth hour of the welco Jon’s brothers and sisters had been seated with the royal children, beneath the raised platfor and queen In honor of the occasion, his lord father would doubtless perlass of wine, but no more than that Down here on the benches, there was no one to stop Jon drinking asthat he had a ht of the youths around hilass They were fine co, tales of battle and bedding and the hunt He was certain that his co He had sated his curiosity about the visitors when they made their entrance The procession had passed not a foot frootten a good long look at the the queen She was as beautiful as olden hair, its ereen of her eyes His father helped her up the steps to the dais and led her to her seat, but the queen never so h her s Robert hireat disappointment to Jon His father had talked of him often: the peerless Robert Baratheon, deiant a princes Jon saw only a fat h his silks He walked like a man half in his cups

After the ith all the dignity a three-year-old could e hirey wool trimmed hite, the Stark colors He had the Princess Myrcella on his arht, her hair a cascade of golden curls under a jeweled net Jon noticed the shy looks she gave Robb as they passed between the tables and the timid way she smiled at him He decided she was insipid Robb didn’t even have the sense to realize how stupid she was; he was grinning like a fool

His half sisters escorted the royal princes Arya was paired with pluer than hers Sansa, two years older, drew the crown prince, Joffrey Baratheon He elve, younger than Jon or Robb, but taller than either, to Jon’s vast dismay Prince Joffrey had his sister’s hair and his le of blond curls dripped down past his golden choker and high velvet collar Sansa looked radiant as she walked beside him, but Jon did not like Joffrey’s pouty lips or the bored, disdainful way he looked at Winterfell’s Great Hall

He was more interested in the pair that came behind him: the queen’s brothers, the Lannisters of Casterly Rock The Lion and the I which hich Ser Jaiolden, with flashing green eyes and a sh black boots, a black satin cloak On the breast of his tunic, the lion of his House was e its defiance They called hislayer" behind his back

Jon found it hard to look away froht to himself as thealong half-hidden by his brother’s side Tyrion Lannister, the youngest of Lord Tywin’s brood and by far the ugliest All that the gods had given to Cersei and Jaime, they had denied Tyrion He was a dwarf, half his brother’s height, struggling to keep pace on stunted legs His head was too large for his body, with a brute’s squashed-in face beneath a swollen shelf of brow One green eye and one black one peered out from under a lank fall of hair so blond it seemed white Jon watched hih lords to enter were his uncle, Benjen Stark of the Night’s Watch, and his father’s ward, young Theon Greyjoy Benjen gave Jon a warnored hi new in that After all had been seated, toasts werebegan

Jon had started drinking then, and he had not stopped

So beneath the table Jon saw red eyes staring up at hiain?" he asked There was still half a honeyed chicken in the center of the table Jon reached out to tear off a leg, then had a better idea He knifed the bird whole and let the carcass slide to the floor between his legs Ghost ripped into it in savage silence His brothers and sisters had not been per their wolves to the banquet, but there were more curs than Jon could count at this end of the hall, and no one had said a word about his pup He told himself he was fortunate in that too

His eyes stung Jon rubbed at theulp of wine and watched his direwolf devour the chicken

Dogs irls One of theht a scent of the chicken She stopped and edged under the bench to get a share Jon watched the confrontation The bitch growled low in her throat andwith those hot red eyes The bitch snapped an angry challenge She was three times the size of the direwolf pup Ghost did nothis fangs The bitch tensed, barked again, then thought better of this fight She turned and slunk aith one last defiant snap to save her pride Ghost went back to his rinned and reached under the table to ruffle the shaggy white fur The direwolf looked up at hi

"Is this one of the direwolves I’ve heard so much of?" a familiar voice asked close at hand

Jon looked up happily as his uncle Ben put a hand on his head and ruffled his hair much as Jon had ruffled the wolf’s "Yes," he said "His name is Ghost"

One of the squires interrupted the bawdy story he’d been telling to make room at the table for their lord’s brother Benjen Stark straddled the bench with long legs and took the wine cup out of Jon’s hand "Su so sweet How many cups have you had, Jon?"

Jon shed "As I feared Ah, well I believe I was younger than you the first tied a roasted onion, dripping broith gravy, from a nearby trencher and bit into it It crunched

His uncle was sharp-featured and gaunt as a hter in his blue-grey eyes He dressed in black, as befitted a ht it was rich black velvet, with high leather boots and a wide belt with a silver buckle A heavy silver chain was looped round his neck Benjen watched Ghost with amusement as he ate his onion "A very quiet wolf," he observed

"He’s not like the others," Jon said "He never makes a sound That’s why I named him Ghost That, and because he’s white The others are all dark, grey or black"

"There are still direwolves beyond the Wall We hear the look "Don’t you usually eat at table with your brothers?"

"Most tiht Lady Stark thought itthelanced over his shoulder at the raised table at the far end of the hall "My brother does not seeht"

Jon had noticed that too A bastard had to learn to notice things, to read the truth that people hid behind their eyes His father was observing all the courtesies, but there was tightness in hi out over the hall with hooded eyes, seeing nothing Two seats away, the king had been drinking heavily all night His broad face was flushed behind his great black beard He hed loudly at every jest, and attacked each dish like a starving man, but beside him the queen seery too," Jon told his uncle in a low, quiet voice "Father took the king down to the crypts this afternoon The queen didn’t want hi look "You don’t miss much, do you, Jon? We could use a man like you on the Wall"

Jon swelled with pride "Robb is a stronger lance than I am, but I’m the better sword, and Hullen says I sit a horse as well as anyone in the castle"

"Notable achieveo back to the Wall," Jon said in a sudden rush "Father will give o if you ask him, I knoill"

Uncle Benjen studied his face carefully "The Wall is a hard place for a boy, Jon"

"I arown," Jon protested "I will turn fifteen on row up faster than other children"

"That’s true enough," Benjen said with a doard twist of his mouth He took Jon’s cup from the table, filled it fresh fro s

"Daeren Targaryen was only fourteen when he conquered Dorne," Jon said The Young Dragon was one of his heroes

"A conquest that lasted a su lost ten thousandto hold it Soa his hteen when he died Or have you forgotten that part?"

"I forget nothing," Jon boasted The as ht, to ht’s Watch, Uncle"

He had thought on it long and hard, lying abed at night while his brothers slept around hireat armies as the Warden of the North Bran and Rickon would be Robb’s bannermen and rule holdfasts in his name His sisters Arya and Sansa would o south as mistress of castles of their own But what place could a bastard hope to earn?

"You don’t knohat you’re asking, Jon The Night’s Watch is a sworn brotherhood We have no families None of us will ever father sons Our wife is duty Our mistress is honor"

"A bastard can have honor too," Jon said "I am ready to swear your oath"

"You are a boy of fourteen," Benjen said "Not a man, not yet Until you have knoo up"

"I don’t care about that!" Jon said hotly