A Dance With Dragons

castle.”
    “Not for running tales. She’s wanted for her teats, not for her tongue. I’ll have more milk from her, and fewer messages. ”
    “Castle Black needs no useless mouths,” Jon agreed. “I am sending Gilly south on the next ship out of Eastwatch.”
    Melisandre touched the ruby at her neck. “Gilly is giving suck to Dalla’s son as well as her own. It seems cruel of you to part our little prince from his milk brother, my lord.”
    Careful now, careful. “Mother’s milk is all they share. Gilly’s son is larger and more robust. He kicks the prince and pinches him, and shoves him from the breast. Craster was his father, a cruel man and greedy, and blood tells.”
    The king was confused. “I thought the wet nurse was this man Craster’s daughter ?”
    “Wife and daughter both, Your Grace. Craster married all his daughters. Gilly’s boy was the fruit of their union.”
    “Her own father got this child on her?” Stannis sounded shocked. “We are well rid of her, then. I will not suffer such abominations here. This is not King’s Landing.”
    “I can find another wet nurse. If there’s none amongst the wildlings, I will send to the mountain clans. Until such time, goat’s milk should suffice for the boy, if it please Your Grace.”
    “Poor fare for a prince … but better than whore’s milk, aye.” Stannis drummed his fingers on the map. “If we may return to the matter of these forts …”
    “Your Grace,” said Jon, with chilly courtesy, “I have housed your men and fed them, at dire cost to our winter stores. I have clothed them so they would not freeze.”
    Stannis was not appeased. “Aye, you’ve shared your salt pork and porridge, and you’ve thrown us some black rags to keep us warm. Rags the wildlings would have taken off your corpses if I had not come north.”
    Jon ignored that. “I have given you fodder for your horses, and once the stair is done I will lend you builders to restore the Nightfort. I have even agreed to allow you to settle wildlings on the Gift, which was given to the Night’s Watch in perpetuity.”
    “You offer me empty lands and desolations, yet deny me the castles I require to reward my lords and bannermen.”
    “The Night’s Watch built those castles …”
    “And the Night’s Watch abandoned them.”
    “… to defend the Wall,” Jon finished stubbornly, “not as seats for southron lords. The stones of those forts are mortared with the blood and bones of my brothers, long dead. I cannot give them to you.”
    “Cannot or will not?” The cords in the king’s neck stood out sharp as swords. “I offered you a name.”
    “I have a name, Your Grace.”
    “Snow. Was ever a name more ill-omened?” Stannis touched his sword hilt. “Just who do you imagine that you are?”
    “The watcher on the walls. The sword in the darkness.”
    “Don’t prate your words at me.” Stannis drew the blade he called Lightbringer. “ Here is your sword in the darkness.” Light rippled up and down the blade, now red, now yellow, now orange, painting the king’s face in harsh, bright hues. “Even a green boy should be able to see that. Are you blind?”
    “No, Sire. I agree these castles must be garrisoned—”
    “The boy commander agrees. How fortunate.”
    “—by the Night’s Watch.”
    “ You do not have the men. ”
    “Then give me men, Sire. I will provide officers for each of the abandoned forts, seasoned commanders who know the Wall and the lands beyond, and how best to survive the coming winter. In return for all we’ve given you, grant me the men to fill out the garrisons. Men-at-arms, cross-bowmen, raw boys. I will even take your wounded and infirm.”
    Stannis stared at him incredulously, then gave a bark of laughter. “You are bold enough, Snow, I grant you that, but you’re mad if you think my men will take the black.”
    “They can wear any color cloak they choose, so long as they obey my officers as they would your own.”
    The king was unmoved. “I have knights and lords in my service, scions of noble Houses old in honor. They cannot be expected to serve under poachers, peasants, and murderers.”
    Or bastards, Sire? “Your own Hand is a smuggler.”
    “ Was a smuggler. I shortened his fingers for that. They tell me that you are the nine-hundred-ninety-eighth man to command the Night’s Watch, Lord Snow. What do you think the nine-hundred-ninety-ninth might say about these castles? The sight of your head on a spike might