A Feast for Dragons

Hardin’s Tower, not the queen’s.
And Wun Wun sleeps in the entry hall.”
    “A giant as protector? Even Dalla could not boast of that.”
    Tormund’s wildlings watched them pass, peering out from
tents and lean-tos beneath leafless trees. For every man of fighting age, Jon
saw three women and as many children, gaunt-faced things with hollow cheeks and
staring eyes. When Mance Rayder had led the free folk down upon the Wall, his
followers drove large herds of sheep and goats and swine before them, but now
the only animals to be seen were the mammoths. If not for the ferocity of the
giants, those would have been slaughtered too, he did not doubt. There was a
lot of meat on a mammoth’s bones.
    Jon saw signs of sickness too. That disquieted him more than
he could say. If Tormund’s band were starved and sick, what of the thousands
who had followed Mother Mole to Hardhome?
Cotter Pyke should reach them
soon. If the winds were kind, his fleet might well be on its way back to
Eastwatch even now, with as many of the free folk as he could cram aboard
.
    “How did you fare with Tormund?” asked Val.
    “Ask me a year from now. The hard part still awaits me. The
part where I convince mine own to eat this meal I’ve cooked for them. None of
them are going to like the taste, I fear.”
    “Let me help.”
    “You have. You brought me Tormund.”
    “I can do more.”
    Why not?
thought Jon.
They are all
convinced she is a princess
. Val looked the part and rode as if she
had been born on horseback.
A warrior princess
, he decided,
not
some willowy creature who sits up in a tower, brushing her hair and waiting for
some knight to rescue her
. “I must inform the queen of this
agreement,” he said. “You are welcome to come meet her, if you can find it in
yourself to bend a knee.” It would never do to offend Her Grace before he even
opened his mouth.
    “May I laugh when I kneel?”
    “You may not. This is no game. A river of blood runs between
our peoples, old and deep and red. Stannis Baratheon is one of the few who
favors admitting wildlings to the realm. I need his queen’s support for what
I’ve done.”
    Val’s playful smile died. “You have my word, Lord Snow. I
will be a proper wildling princess for your queen.”
    She is not my queen
, he might have said.
If
truth be told, the day of her departure cannot come too fast for me. And if the
gods are good, she will take Melisandre with her
.
    They rode the rest of the way in silence, Ghost loping at
their heels. Mormont’s raven followed them as far as the gate, then flapped upward
as the rest of them dismounted. Horse went ahead with a brand to light the way
through the icy tunnel.
    A small crowd of black brothers was waiting by the gate when
Jon and his companions emerged south of the Wall. Ulmer of the Kingswood was
amongst them, and it was the old archer who came forward to speak for the rest.
“If it please m’lord, the lads were wondering. Will it be peace, m’lord? Or
blood and iron?”
    “Peace,” Jon Snow replied. “Three days hence, Tormund
Giantsbane will lead his people through the Wall. As friends, not foes. Some
may even swell our ranks, as brothers. It will be for us to make them welcome.
Now back to your duties.” Jon handed the reins of his horse to Satin. “I must
see Queen Selyse.” Her Grace would take it as a slight if he did not come to
her at once. “Afterward I will have letters to write. Bring parchment, quills,
and a pot of maester’s black to my chambers. Then summon Marsh, Yarwyck, Septon
Cellador, Clydas.” Cellador would be half-drunk, and Clydas was a poor substitute
for a real maester, but they were what he had.
Till Sam returns
.
“The northmen too. Flint and Norrey. Leathers, you should be there as well.”
    “Hobb is baking onion pies,” said Satin. “Shall I request
that they all join you for supper?”
    Jon considered. “No. Ask them to join me atop the Wall at
sunset.” He turned to Val. “My lady. With me, if you please.”
    “The crow commands, the captive must obey.” Her tone was
playful. “This queen of yours must be fierce if the legs of grown men give out
beneath them when they meet her. Should I have dressed in mail instead of wool
and fur? These clothes were given to me by Dalla, I would sooner not get
bloodstains all over them.”
    “If words drew blood, you might have cause to fear. I think
your clothes are safe enough, my lady.”
    They made their way toward the King’s Tower,