A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

Ser Alliser said, displeasure in every word. “I am sent to
tell you that we found two rangers, long missing. They were dead, yet when we
brought the corpses back to the Wall they rose again in the night. One slew Ser
Jaremy Rykker, while the second tried to murder the Lord Commander.”
    Distantly, Tyrion heard someone snigger.
Does he mean to mock me with this
folly?
He shifted uneasily and glanced down at Varys, Littlefinger, and
Pycelle, wondering if one of them had a role in this. A dwarf enjoyed at best a
tenuous hold on dignity. Once the court and kingdom started to laugh at him, he
was doomed. And yet . . . and yet . . .
    Tyrion remembered a cold night under the stars when he’d

stood beside the boy Jon Snow and a great white wolf atop the Wall at the end
of the world, gazing out at the trackless dark beyond. He had
felt—what?
—something,
to be sure, a dread that had cut
like that frigid northern wind. A wolf had howled off in the night, and the
sound had sent a shiver through him.
    Don’t be a fool,
he told himself.
A wolf, a wind, a dark forest,
it meant nothing. And yet . . .
He had come to have a
liking for old Jeor Mormont during his time at Castle Black. “I trust that the
Old Bear survived this attack?”
    â€œHe did.”
    â€œAnd that your brothers killed these, ah, dead men?”
    â€œWe did.”
    â€œYou’re certain that they are dead this time?” Tyrion asked mildly. When
Bronn choked on a snort of laughter, he knew how he must proceed. “Truly truly
dead?”
    â€œThey were dead the first time,” Ser Alliser snapped. “Pale and cold, with
black hands and feet. I brought Jared’s hand, torn from his corpse by the
bastard’s wolf.”
    Littlefinger stirred. “And where is this charming token?”
    Ser Alliser frowned uncomfortably. “It . . . rotted to pieces
while I waited, unheard. There’s naught left to show but bones.”
    Titters echoed through the hall. “Lord Baelish,” Tyrion called down to
Littlefinger, “buy our brave Ser Alliser a hundred spades to take back to the
Wall with him.”
    â€œSpades?” Ser Alliser narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
    â€œIf you
bury
your dead, they won’t come walking,” Tyrion

told him, and the court laughed openly. “Spades will end your troubles, with
some strong backs to wield them. Ser Jacelyn, see that the good brother has his
pick of the city dungeons.”
    Ser Jacelyn Bywater said, “As you will, my lord, but the cells are near empty.
Yoren took all the likely men.”
    â€œArrest some more, then,” Tyrion told him. “Or spread the word that there’s
bread and turnips on the Wall, and they’ll go of their own accord.” The city
had too many mouths to feed, and the Night’s Watch a perpetual need of men. At
Tyrion’s signal, the herald cried an end, and the hall began to
empty.
    Ser Alliser Thorne was not so easily dismissed. He was waiting at the foot of
the Iron Throne when Tyrion descended. “Do you think I sailed all the way from
Eastwatch-by-the-Sea to be mocked by the likes of you?” he fumed, blocking the
way. “This is no jape. I saw it with my own eyes. I tell you, the dead
walk.”
    â€œYou should try to kill them more thoroughly.” Tyrion pushed past. Ser
Alliser made to grab his sleeve, but Preston Greenfield thrust him back. “No
closer, ser.”
    Thorne knew better than to challenge a knight of the Kingsguard. “You are a
fool, Imp,” he shouted at Tyrion’s back.
    The dwarf turned to face him. “Me? Truly? Then why were they laughing at you,
I wonder?” He smiled wanly. “You came for men, did you not?”
    â€œThe cold winds are rising. The Wall must be held.”
    â€œAnd to hold it you need men, which I’ve given you . . . as
you might have noted, if your ears heard anything but insults. Take

them, thank me, and
begone before I’m forced to take a crab fork to you again.
Give my warm regards to Lord Mormont . . . and to Jon Snow as
well.” Bronn seized Ser Alliser by the elbow and marched him forcefully from
the hall.
    Grand Maester Pycelle had already scuttled off, but Varys and Littlefinger had
watched it all, start to finish. “I grow ever more admiring of you, my lord,”
confessed the eunuch. “You