A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

you. Now stop wasting my

time. We ride at first light, or have you forgotten?”
    Smallwood pushed to his feet. “As my lord commands.” On the way out, he
frowned at Jon, as if it were somehow his fault.
    â€œFirst Ranger!” The Old Bear’s eyes lighted on Sam. “I’d sooner name
you
First Ranger. He has the effrontery to tell me to my face that
I’m too old to ride with him. Do I look old to you, boy?” The hair that had
retreated from Mormont’s spotted scalp had regrouped beneath his chin in a
shaggy grey beard that covered much of his chest. He thumped it hard. “Do I
look
frail
?”
    Sam opened his mouth, gave a little squeak. The Old Bear terrified him. “No,
my lord,” Jon offered quickly. “You look strong as
a . . . a . . .”
    â€œDon’t cozen me, Snow, you know I won’t have it. Let me have a look at these
maps.” Mormont pawed through them brusquely, giving each no more than a glance
and a grunt. “Was this all you could find?”
    â€œI . . . m-m-my lord,” Sam stammered,
“there . . . there were more,
b-b-but . . . the
dis-disorder . . .”
    â€œThese are old,” Mormont complained, and his raven echoed him with a sharp
cry of
“Old, old.”
    â€œThe villages may come and go, but the hills and rivers will be in the same
places,” Jon pointed out.
    â€œTrue enough. Have you chosen your ravens yet, Tarly?”
    â€œM-m-maester Aemon m-means to p-pick them come evenfall, after
the f-f-feeding.”
    â€œI’ll have his best. Smart birds, and strong.”
    â€œStrong,”
his own bird said, preening.
“Strong,
strong.”
    â€œIf it happens that we’re all butchered out there, I mean for my successor to
know where and how we died.”
    Talk of butchery reduced Samwell Tarly to speechlessness. Mormont leaned
forward. “Tarly, when I was a lad half your age, my lady mother told me that
if I stood about with my mouth open, a weasel was like to mistake it for his
lair and run down my throat. If you have something to say, say it. Otherwise,
beware of weasels.” He waved a brusque dismissal. “Off with you, I’m too busy
for folly. No doubt the maester has some work you can do.”
    Sam swallowed, stepped back, and scurried out so quickly he almost tripped over
the rushes.
    â€œIs that boy as big a fool as he seems?” the Lord Commander asked when he’d
gone.
“Fool,”
the raven complained. Mormont did not wait for Jon to
answer. “His lord father stands high in King Renly’s councils, and I had half
a notion to dispatch him . . . no, best not. Renly is not like
to heed a quaking fat boy. I’ll send Ser Arnell. He’s a deal steadier, and his
mother was one of the green-apple Fossoways.”
    â€œIf it please my lord, what would you have of King Renly?”
    â€œThe same things I’d have of all of them, lad. Men, horses, swords, armor,
grain, cheese, wine, wool, nails . . . the Night’s Watch is not
proud, we take what is offered.” His fingers drummed against the rough-hewn
planks of the table. “If the winds have been kind, Ser Alliser should reach
King’s Landing by the turn of the moon, but whether this boy Joffrey will pay
him any heed, I do

not know. House Lannister has never been a friend to the Watch.”
    â€œThorne has the wight’s hand to show them.” A grisly pale thing with black
fingers, it was, that twitched and stirred in its jar as if it were still
alive.
    â€œWould that we had another hand to send to Renly.”
    â€œDywen says you can find anything beyond the Wall.”
    â€œAye, Dywen says. And the last time he went ranging, he says he saw a bear
fifteen feet tall.” Mormont snorted. “My sister is said to have taken a bear
for her lover. I’d believe
that
before I’d believe one fifteen feet
tall. Though in a world where dead come walking . . . ah, even
so, a man must believe his eyes. I have seen the dead walk. I’ve not seen any
giant bears.” He gave Jon a long, searching look. “But we were speaking of
hands. How is yours?”
    â€œBetter.” Jon peeled off his moleskin glove and showed him. Scars covered his
arm halfway to the elbow, and the mottled pink flesh still felt tight and
tender, but