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Jon

You are as hopeless as any boys I have ever trained," Ser Alliser Thorne announced when they had all assembled in the yard "Your hands were made for manure shovels, not for swords, and if it were up to ht I was told that Gueren is sroad One or two may even be worth the price of piss To ht of you on to the Lord Commander to do with as he will" He called out the names one by one "Toad Stone Head Aurochs Lover Pimple Monkey Ser Loon" Last, he looked at Jon "And the Bastard"

Pyp let fly a whoop and thrust his sword into the air Ser Alliser fixed hiht’s Watch now, but you are bigger fools than the Mummer’s Monkey here if you believe that You are boys still, green and stinking of summer, and when the winter comes you will die like flies" And with that, Ser Alliser Thorne took his leave of theht who had been naratulations Halder smacked Toad on the butt with the flat of his sword and shouted, "Toad, of the Night’s Watch!" Yelling that a black brother needed a horse, Pyp leapt onto Grenn’s shoulders, and they tu Dareon dashed inside the armory and returned with a skin of sour red As they passed the wine fro like fools, Jon noticed Sa by himself beneath a bare dead tree in the corner of the yard Jon offered him the skin "A sine?"

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 he forced a ser someday, just as your uncle was"

"Is," Jon corrected He would not accept that Benjen Stark was dead Before he could sayto drink that all yourself?" Pyp snatched the skin fro While Grenn seized his arave the skin a squeeze, and a thin stream of red squirted Jon in the face Haider howled in protest at the waste of good wine Jon sputtered and struggled Matthar and Jeren cli them all with snowballs

By the time he wrenched free, with snow in his hair and wine stains on his surcoat, Saer Hobb cooked the boys a special meal to mark the occasion When Jon arrived at the common hall, the Lord Steward himself led him to the bench near the fire The older ht soon-to-be brothers feasted on rack of las ofin butter "From the Lord Commander’s own table," Bowen Marsh told thereens, and afterward bowls of iced blueberries and sweet creaether?" Pyp wondered as they gorged themselves happily

Toadat those ears of yours"

"Ho," said Pyp "Listen to the crow call the raven 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 show your face, and he’ll run off screahed but Grenn "I hope I’er"

"You and everyone else," said Matthar Every man ore the black walked the Wall, and every ers were the true fighting heart of the Night’s Watch It was they who dared ride beyond the Wall, sweeping through the haunted forest and the icy s and giants and monstrous snow bears

"Not everyone," said Halder "It’s the builders for ers be if the Wall fell down?"

The order of builders provided the masons and carpenters to repair keeps and towers, thetunnels and crush stone for roads and footpaths, the woodsroherever the forest pressed too close to the Wall Once, it was said, they had quarried immense blocks of ice fro theher Those days were centuries gone, however; now, it was all they could do to ride the Wall frons ofwhat repairs they could

"The Old Bear’s no fool," Dareon observed "You’re certain to be a builder, and Jon’s certain to be a ranger He’s the best sword and the best rider a us, and his uncle was the First before he" His voice trailed off aardly as he realized what he had aler," Jon Snow told hiiven up all hope of his uncle’s safe return, but not him He pushed away the berries, scarcely touched, and rose fro to eat those?" Toad asked

"They’re yours" Jon had hardly tasted Hobb’s great feast "I could not eat another bite" He took his cloak from its hook near the door and shouldered his way out

Pyp followed him "Jon, what is it?"

"Saht"

"It’s not like hihtfully "Do you suppose he’s taken ill?"

"He’s frightened We’re leaving him" He remembered the day he had left Winterfell, all the bittersweet farewells; Bran lying broken, Robb with snow in his hair, Arya raining kisses on hiiven her Needle "Once we say our words, we’ll all have duties to attend to Some of us may be sent away, to Eastwatch or the Shadoer Saer and these new boys who are cosroad Gods only knohat they’ll be like, but you can bet Ser Alliser will send theets"

Pyp rimace "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 direalked beside him to the stables Some of the more skittish horses kicked at their stalls and laid back their ears as they entered Jon saddled his mare, mounted, and rode out froht Ghost raced ahead of hione in the blink of an eye Jon let hio A wolf needed to hunt

He had no destination in mind He wanted only to ride He followed the creek for a ti to the icy trickle of water over rock, then cut across the fields to the kingsroad It stretched out before him, narrow and stony and pocked eeds, a road of no particular pro Winterfell was down that road, and beyond it Riverrun and King’s Landing and the Eyrie and so many other places; Casterly Rock, the Isle of Faces, the red mountains of Dorne, the hundred islands of Braavos in the sea, the s ruins of old Valyria All the places that Jon would never see The world was down that roadand he was here

Once he swore his vow, the Wall would be his home until he was old as Maester Aemon "I have not sworn yet," he muttered He was no outlaw, bound to take the black or pay the penalty for his criht leave freelyuntil he said the words He need only ride on, and he could leave it all behind By the tiain, he would be back in Winterfell with his brothers

Your half brothers, a voice inside reminded him And Lady Stark, ill not welcome you There was no place for hi either Even his own ht 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 So dark and dishonorable, or else as Lord Eddard too ashamed to speak of her?

Jon Snow turned away frosroad to look behind him The fires of Castle Black were hidden behind a hill, but the Wall was there, pale beneath thefrom horizon to horizon

He wheeled his horse around and started for home

Ghost returned as he crested a rise and saw the distant glow of laht from the Lord Commander’s Tower The direwolf s muzzle was red with blood as he trotted beside the horse Jon found hiain on the ride back By the time he reached the stables, he knehat he must do

Maester Aemon’s aparted and frail, the er stewards, who tended to his needs and helped hiiven the two ugliestblind, he was spared having to look at them Clydas was short, bald, and chinless, with small pink eyes like a eon’s egg, and a face red with boils and piry

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 Coan to shut the door