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Jon

Jon was showing Dareon how best to deliver a sidestroke when the new recruit entered the practice yard "Your feet should be farther apart," he urged "You don’t want to lose your balance That’s good Now pivot as you deliver the stroke, get all your weight behind the blade"

Dareon broke off and lifted his visor "Seven gods," he murmured "Would you look at this, Jon"

Jon turned Through the eye slit of his hel in the door of the arhed twenty stone The fur collar of his embroidered surcoat was lost beneath his chins Pale eyes reat round ers wiped themselves on the velvet of his doublet "Theythey told ," he said to no one in particular

"A lordling," Pyp observed to Jon "Southron, doed that he could tell what you were and where you’d been born just fro huntsman had been worked in scarlet thread upon the breast of the fat boy’s fur-triil Ser Alliser Thorne looked over his new charge and said, "It would seem they have run short of poachers and thieves down south Now they send us pigs to man the Wall Is fur and velvet your notion of armor, my Lord of Ham?"

It was soon revealed that the new recruit had brought his own armor with him; padded doublet, boiled leather, reat wood-and-leather shield blazoned with the sa huntsman he wore on his surcoat As none of it was black, however, Ser Alliser insisted that he reequip hiirth required Donal Noye to take apart a mail hauberk and refit it with leather panels at the sides To get a helm over his head the arhtly around his legs and under his arms that he could scarcely move Dressed for battle, the new boy looked like an overcooked sausage about to burst its skin "Let us hope you are not as inept as you look," Ser Alliser said "Halder, see what Ser Piggy can do"

Jon Snoinced Halder had been born in a quarry and apprenticed as a stonemason He was sixteen, tall and muscular, and his bloere as hard as any Jon had ever felt "This will be uglier than a whore’s ass," Pyp ht lasted less than a round, his whole body shaking as blood leaked through his shattered helers "I yield," he shrilled "No more, I yield, don’t hit

Even then, Ser Alliser would not call an end "On your feet, Ser Piggy," he called "Pick up your sword" When the boy continued to cling to the ground, Thorne gestured to Halder "Hit him with the flat of your blade until he finds his feet" Halder delivered a tentative smack to his foe’s upraised cheeks "You can hit harder than that," Thorne taunted Halder took hold of his longsith both hands and brought it down so hard the blow split leather, even on the flat The new boy screeched in pain

Jon Snow took a step forward Pyp laid a mailed hand on his arlance at Ser Alliser Thorne

"On your feet," Thorne repeated The fat boy struggled to rise, slipped, and fell heavily again "Ser Piggy is starting to grasp the notion," Ser Alliser observed "Again"

Halder lifted the sword for another blow "Cut us off a ha

Jon shook off Pyp’s hand "Halder, enough"

Halder looked to Ser Alliser

"The Bastard speaks and the peasants tremble," the master-at-arms said in that sharp, cold voice of his "I remind you that I am the master-at-arms here, Lord Snow"

"Look at hi Thorne as best he could "There’s no honor in beating a fallen foe He yielded" He knelt beside the fat boy

Halder lowered his sword "He yielded," he echoed

Ser Alliser’s onyx eyes were fixed on Jon Snow "It would seem our Bastard is in love," he said as Jon helped the fat boy to his feet "Show sword He dared defy Ser Alliser only to a point, and he feared he ell beyond it now

Thorne smiled "The Bastard wishes to defend his lady love, so we shall make an exercise of it Rat, Pimple, help our Stone Head here" Rast and Albett ht to be sufficient to et past the Bastard"

"Stay behind me," Jon said to the fat boy Ser Alliser had often sent two foes against hio to sleep bruised and bloody tonight He braced himself for the assault

Suddenly Pyp was beside him "Three to till make for better sport," the small boy said cheerfully He dropped his visor and slid out his sword Before Jon could even think to protest, Grenn had stepped up to rown deathly quiet Jon could feel Ser Alliser’s eyes "Why are you waiting?" he asked Rast and the others in a voice gone deceptively soft, but it was Jon who ot his sword up in ti with every blow, keeping the older boy on the heels Know your foe, Ser Rodrik had taught hi but short of patience, with no taste for defense Frustrate him, and he would leave hi of steel echoed through the yard as the others joined battle around hie cut at his head, the shock of iether He slammed a sidestroke into Halder’s ribs, and was rewarded with a ht Jon on the shoulder Chainmail crunched, and pain flared up his neck, but for an instant Halder was unbalanced Jon cut his left leg from under him, and he fell with a curse and a crash

Grenn was standing his ground as Jon had taught hi Albett more than he cared for, but Pyp was hard-pressed Rast had two years and forty pounds on hi the raper’s heluard, knocked him down, and leveled a blade at his throat By then Jon hadtords, Albett backed away "I yield," he shouted

Ser Alliser Thorne surveyed the scene with disgust "The h for today" He walked away The session was at an end

Dareon helped Halder to his feet The quarryman’s son wrenched off his helht I finally had you, Snow"

"For an instant, you did," Jon replied Under hisHe sheathed his sword and tried to rerit his teeth

"Let orget and lifted it off gently "Did he hurt you?"

"I’ve been bruised before" He touched his shoulder and winced The yard was e around them

Blood matted the fat boy’s hair where Halder had split his helm asunder "My name is Samwell Tarly, of Horn" He stopped and licked his lips "I mean, I was of Horn Hill, until Ileft I’ve come to take the black My father is Lord Randyll, a bannerarden I used to be his heir, only" His voice trailed off

"I’m Jon Snow, Ned Stark’s bastard, of Winterfell"

Samwell Tarly nodded "Iif you want, you can call me Sam My mother calls me Sam"

"You can call him Lord Snow," Pyp said as he came up to join them "You don’t want to knohat his mother calls him"

"These two are Grenn and Pypar," Jon said

"Grenn’s the ugly one," Pyp said

Grenn scowled "You’re uglier than me At least I don’t have ears like a bat"

"My thanks to all of you," the fat boy said gravely

"Why didn’t you get up and fight?" Grenn demanded

"I wanted to, truly I justI couldn’t I didn’t want hiround "II fear I’m a coward My lord father always said so"

Grenn looked thunderstruck Even Pyp had no words to say to that, and Pyp had words for everything What sort of man would proclaim himself a coward?

Sahts on their faces His eyes htened animals "II’m sorry," he said "I don’t mean toto be like I am" He walked heavily toward the armory

Jon called after him "You were hurt," he said "Tomorrow you’ll do better"

Sam looked mournfully back over one shoulder "No I won’t," he said, blinking back tears "I never do better"

When he was gone, Grenn frowned "Nobody likes cravens," he said uncomfortably "I e hadn’t helped him What if they think we’re craven too?"

"You’re too stupid to be craven," Pyp told him

"I am not," Grenn said

"Yes you are If a bear attacked you in the woods, you’d be too stupid to run away"

"I would not," Grenn insisted "I’d run away faster than you" He stopped suddenly, scowling when he saw Pyp’s grin and realized what he’d just said His thick neck flushed a dark red Jon left the up his sword, and stripped off his battered armor

Life at Castle Black followed certain patterns; the s were for swordplay, the afternoons for work The black brothers set new recruits to many different tasks, to learn where their skills lay Jon cherished the rare afternoons when he was sent out with Ghost ranging at his side to bring back game for the Lord Coave a dozen to Donal Noye in the ar the whetstone while the one-ar the bellows as Noye haes, stood at guard, mucked out stables, fletched arrows, assisted Maester Aemon with his birds or Bowen Marsh with his counts and inventories

That afternoon, the watch coe with four barrels of fresh-crushed stone, to scatter gravel over the icy footpaths atop the Wall It was lonely and boring work, even with Ghost along for company, but Jon found he did not mind On a clear day you could see half the world fro He could think here, and he found hi of Samwell Tarlyand, oddly, of Tyrion Lannister He wondered what Tyrion would have made of the fat boy Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it, the dwarf had told hi The world was full of cravens who pretended to be heroes; it took a queer sort of courage to admit to cowardice as Samwell Tarly had

His sore shoulder o slowly It was late afternoon before Jon finished graveling the paths He lingered on high to watch the sun go down, turning the western sky the color of blood Finally, as dusk was settling over the north, Jon rolled the enaled the winchmeal was almost done by the tiroup of the black brothers were dicing over mulled wine near the fire His friends were at the bench nearest the all, laughing Pyp was in theears was a born liar with a hundred different voices, and he did not tell his tales soone moment and a swineherd the next When he turned into an alehouse girl or a virgin princess, he used a high falsetto voice that reduced thehter, and his eunuchs were always eerily accurate caricatures of Ser Alliser Jon took as much pleasure froht he turned away and went instead to the end of the bench, where Saet