A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle

plucked at his beard, frowning. “How?”
    â€œHow else? Sorcery.” Qhorin bit the egg in half. “Why else would Mance
choose to gather his strength in the Frostfangs? Bleak and hard they are, and a
long weary march from the Wall.”
    â€œI’d hoped he chose the mountains to hide his muster from the eyes of my
rangers.”
    â€œPerhaps,” said Qhorin, finishing the egg, “but there is more, I think. He
is seeking something in the high cold places. He is searching for something he
needs.”
    â€œSomething?” Mormont’s raven lifted its head and screamed. The sound
was sharp as a knife in the closeness of the tent.
    â€œSome power. What it is, our captive could not say. He was questioned perhaps
too sharply, and died with much unsaid. I doubt he knew in any
case.”
    Jon could hear the wind outside. It made a high thin sound as it shivered
through the stones of the ringwall and tugged at the tent ropes. Mormont rubbed
his mouth thoughtfully. “Some power,” he repeated. “I must know.”
    â€œThen you must send scouts into the mountains.”
    â€œI am loath to risk more men.”
    â€œWe can only die. Why else do we don these black cloaks, but to die in defense
of the realm? I would send fifteen men, in three parties of five. One to probe
the Milkwater, one the Skirling Pass, one to climb the Giant’s Stair. Jarman
Buckwell, Thoren Smallwood, and myself to command. To learn what waits in those
mountains.”
    â€œWaits,”
the raven cried.
“Waits.”
    Lord Commander Mormont sighed deep in his chest. “I see no other choice,” he
conceded, “but if you do not return . . .”
    â€œSomeone will come down out of the Frostfangs, my lord,” the ranger said.
“If us, all well and good. If not, it will be Mance Rayder, and you sit square
in his path. He cannot march south and leave you behind, to follow and harry
his rear. He must attack. This is a strong place.”
    â€œNot that strong,” said Mormont.
    â€œBelike we shall all die, then. Our dying will buy time for our brothers
on the Wall. Time to garrison the empty castles and freeze shut the gates, time
to summon lords and kings to their aid, time to hone their axes and repair
their catapults. Our lives will be coin well spent.”
    â€œDie,”
the raven muttered, pacing along Mormont’s shoulders.
“Die, die, die, die.”
The Old Bear sat slumped and silent, as if
the burden of speech had grown too heavy for him to bear. But at last he said,
“May the gods forgive me. Choose your men.”
    Qhorin Halfhand turned his head. His eyes met Jon’s, and held them for a long
moment. “Very well. I choose Jon Snow.”
    Mormont blinked. “He is hardly more than a boy. And my steward besides. Not
even a ranger.”
    â€œTollett can care for you as well, my lord.” Qhorin lifted his maimed,
two-fingered hand. “The old gods are still strong beyond the Wall. The gods of
the First Men . . . and the Starks.”
    Mormont looked at Jon. “What is your will in this?”
    â€œTo go,” he said at once.
    The old man smiled sadly. “I thought it might be.”
    Dawn had broken when Jon stepped from the tent beside Qhorin Halfhand. The wind
swirled around them, stirring their black cloaks and sending a scatter of red
cinders flying from the fire.
    â€œWe ride at noon,” the ranger told him. “Best find that wolf of
yours.”

TYRION
    T he queen intends to send Prince Tommen away.” They knelt alone in the
hushed dimness of the sept, surrounded by shadows and flickering candles, but
even so Lancel kept his voice low. “Lord Gyles will take him to Rosby, and
conceal him there in the guise of a page. They plan to darken his hair and tell
everyone that he is the son of a hedge knight.”
    â€œIs it the mob she fears? Or me?”
    â€œBoth,” said Lancel.
    â€œAh.” Tyrion had known nothing of this ploy. Had Varys’s little birds
failed him for once? Even spiders must nod, he
supposed . . . or was the eunuch playing a deeper and more
subtle game than he knew? “You have my thanks, ser.”
    â€œWill you grant me the boon I asked of you?”
    â€œPerhaps.” Lancel wanted his own command in the next battle. A splendid way
to die before he finished growing that mustache, but young