A Game of Thrones(0) - PROLOGUE

"We should start back", Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them.

"The wildings are dead".

"Do the dead frighten you"? Ser Waymar Royce asked with just the hint of a smile.
Gared did not rise to the bait. He was an old man, past fifty, and he had seen the lordlings(['lɔːdlɪŋ]小贵族) come and go. "Dead is dead", he said. "We have no business with the dead".

"Are they dead"? Royce asked softly. "What proof have we"?

"Will saw them", Gared said. "If he says they are dead, that's proof enough for me".

Will had known they would drag him into the quarrel sooner or later. He wished it had been later rather than sooner. "My mother told me that dead men sing no songs", he put in.

"My wet nurse(奶妈) said the same thing, Will", Royce replied. "Never believe anything you hear at a woman's tit(山雀). There are things to be learned even from the dead". His voice echoed, too loud in the twilit(['twaɪlɪt]微明的) forest.

"We have a long ride before us", Gared pointed out. "Eight days, maybe nine. And night is falling".

Ser Waymar Royce glanced at the sky with disinterest. "It does that every day about this time. Are you unmanned by the dark, Gared"?

Will could see the tightness around Gared’s mouth, the barely suppressed anger in his eyes under the thick black hood([hʊd]兜帽) of his cloak. Gared had spent forty years in the Night’s Watch, man and boy, and he was not accustomed to being made light of. Yet it was more than that. Under the wounded pride, Will could sense something else in the older man. You could taste it; a nervous tension(张力；紧张) that came perilous(['pɛrələs]危险的) close to fear.

Will shared his unease. He had been four years on the Wall. The first time he had been sent beyond, all the old soties had come rushing back, and his bowels had turned to water. He had laughed about it afterward. He was a veteran(['vɛtərən]老兵) of a hundred rangings by now, and the endless dark wilderness that the southron(['sʌðərən]南部人) called the haunted(['hɔntɪd]) forest had no more terrors for him.

Until tonight. Something was different tonight. There was an edge to this darkness that made his hackles(['hæklz]狗颈部的毛) rise. Nine days they had been riding, north and northwest and then north again, farther and farther from the Wall, hard on the track of a band of Wildling raiders. Each day had been worse than the day that had come before it. Today was the worst of all. A cold wind was blowing out of the north, and it made the trees rustle(['rʌs(ə)l] 发出沙沙声) like living things. All day, Will had felt as though something were watching him, something cold and implacable([ɪm'plækəb(ə)l]不能缓和的) that loved him not. Gared had felt it too. Will wanted nothing so much as to ride hellbent(['helbent]拼命的) for the safety of the Wall, but that was not a feeling to share with your commander.

Especially not a commander like this one.

Ser Waymar Royce was the youngest son of an ancient house(家族；议会) with too many heirs(继承人). Hes was a handsome youth of eighteen, grey-eyed and graceful and slender(细长的；苗条的) as a knife. Mounted(骑上的) on his huge black destrier(['dɛstrɪr]军马), the knight towered(高耸云霄的) above Will and Gared on their smaller garrons(['ɡærən]矮小结实的载重马). He wore black leather boots, black woolen pants, black moleskin(['molskɪn]鼹鼠皮) gloves, and a fine supple(['sʌpl]柔软的) coat of gleaming(微光；闪光) black ringmail(链甲) over layers of black wool and boiled leather. Ser Waymar had been a Sworn(发过誓的) Brother of the Night's Watch for less than half a year, but no one could say he had not prepared for his vocation. At least insofar(在…的范围) as his wardrobe(行头) was concerned.

His cloak was his crowning(['kraʊnɪŋ]最高的；无比的) glory; sable(['seɪb(ə)l] 黑貂皮), thick and black and soft as sin(罪孽). "Bet he killed them all himself, he did", Gared told the barracks(['bærəks]兵营) over wine, "twisted their little heads off, our mighty(强有力的) warrior". They had all shared the laugh.

It is hard to take orders from a man you laughed at in your cups, Will reflected as he sat shivering atop(在…的顶上) his garron. Gared must have felt the same.

"Mormont said as we should track them, and we did", Gared said. "They're dead. They shan't trouble us no more. There's hard riding before us. I don't like this weather. If it snows, we could be a fortnight getting back, and snow's the best we can hope for. Ever seen an ice storm, my lord"?

The lording seemed not to hear him. He studied the deepening twilight(['twaɪlaɪt]黎明，黄昏) in that half-bored, half-distracted(思想不集中的) way he had. Will had ridden with the knight long enough to understand that it was best not to interrupt him when he looked like that. "Tell me again what you saw, Will. All the details. Leave nothing out".

Will had been a hunter before he joined the Night's Watch. Well, a poacher(['pəʊtʃə]偷猎者) in truth. Mallister freeriders had caught him red-handed in the Mallisters' own woods, skinning one of the Mallisters' own bucks(公鹿), and it had been a choice of putting on the black or losing a hand. No one could move throught(穿过；吞吐量) the woods as silent as Will, and it had not taken the black brothers long to discover his talent.

"The camp is two miles farther on, over that ridge(山脊), hard beside a stream", Will said. "I got close as I dared. There's eight of them, men and women both. No children I could see. They put up a lean-to against the rock. The snow's pretty well covered it now, but I could still make it out. No fire burning, but the firepit(火塘) was still plain as day. No one moving. I watched a long time. No living man ever lay so still."

"Did you see any blood?"

"Well, no", Will admitted.

"Did you see any weapons?"

"Some swords, a few bows. One man had an axe. Heavy-looking, double-bladed, a cruel piece of iron. It was on the ground beside him, right by his hand."

"Did you make note of the position of the bodies?"

Will shrugged. "A couple are sitting up against the rock. Most of them on the ground. Fallen, like."

"Or sleeping," Royce suggested.
"Fallen," Will insisted. "There's one woman up an ironwood, half-hid in the branches. A far-eyes." He smiled thinly. "I took care she never saw me. When I got closer, I saw that she was't moving neither." Despite himself, he shivered.

"You have a chill?" Royce asked.

"Some," Will muttered. "The wind, m'lord."

The young knight turned back to his grizzled（['grɪz(ə)ld]头发斑白的） man-at-arms（士兵）. Frost-fallen leaves whispered（低声的；耳语的） past them, and Royce's destrier moved restlessly. "What do you think might have killed these men, Gared?" Ser Waymar asked casually. He adjusted the drape(窗帘；褶裥) of his long sable cloak.

"It was the cold," Gared said with iron certainty. "I saw men freeze last winter, and the one before, when I was half a boy. Everyone talks about snows forty foot deep, and how the ice wind comes howling out of the north, but the real enemy is the cold. It steals up on you quieter than Will, and at first you shiver and your teeth chatter and you stamp your feet and dream of mulled([mʌld]加糖的，香料热饮的) wine and nice hot fires. It burns, it does. Nothing burns like the cold. But only for a while. Then it gets inside you and starts to fill you up, and after a while you don't have the strength to fight it. It's easier just to sit down or go to sleep. They say you don't feel any pain toward the end. First you go weak and drowsy(['draʊzi]昏昏欲睡的), and everything starts to fade, and then it's like sinking into a sea of warm milk. Peaceful, like."

"Such eloquence, Gared," Ser Waymar observed. "I never suspected you had it in you."

"I've had the cold in me too, lordling." Gared pulled back his hood, giving Ser Waymar a good long look at the stumps(树桩；残余部分) where his ears had been. “Two ears, three toes, and the little finger off my left hand. I got off light. We found my brother frozen at his watch, with a smile on his face.”

Ser Waymar shrugged. “You ought dress more warmly, Gared.”

Gared glared at the lordling, the scars around his ear holes flushed red with anger where Maester Aemon had cut the ears away. “We’ll see how warm you can dress when the winter comes.” He pulled up his hood and hunched(缩成一团的) over his garron, silent and sullen(愠怒的).

“If Gared said it was the cold…” Will began.

“Have you drawn any watches this past week, Will?”

“Yes, m’lord.” There never was a week when he did not draw a dozen bloody watches. What was the man driving at?”

“And how did you find the Wall?”

“Weeping(滴水的),” Will said, frowning. He saw it clear enough, now that the lordling had pointed it out.

“They couldn’t have frozen. No if the Wall was weeping. It wasn’t cold enough.”

Royce nodded. “Bright lad(小伙子). We’ve had a few light frosts this past week, and a quick flurry(慌张；飓风) snow now and then, but surely no cold fierce(猛烈的) enough to kill eight grown men. Men clad([klæd]覆盖的) in fur and leather, let me remind you, with shelter near at hand, and means of making fire.” The knight’s smile was cocksure(确信的；独断的). “will, lead us there. I would see these dead men for myself.”

And then there was nothing to be done for it. The order had been given, and honor bound them to obey.

Will went in front, his shaggy little garron picking the way carefully through the undergrowth. A light snow had fallen the night before, and there were stones and roots and hidden sinks lying just under its crust(地壳；外壳), waiting for the careless and the unwary([ʌn'wɛri]粗心的；不警惕的). Ser Waymar Royce came next, his great black destrier snorting(喷着气弄响鼻子) impatiently. The warhorse was the wrong mount for ranging, but tries and tell that to the lordling. Gared brought up the rear. The old man-at-arms muttered to himself as he rode.

Twilight deepened. The cloudless sky turned a deep purple, the color of an old bruise(挫伤；青肿), then faded to black. The stars began to come out. A half-moon rose. Will was grateful for the light.

“We can make a better pace than this, surely,”  Royce said when the moon was full risen.

“Not with this horse,” Will said. Fear had made him insolent(['ɪnsələnt]无礼的；傲慢的). “Perhaps my lord would care to take the lead?”

Ser Waymar Royce did not deign(屈尊) to reply.

Somewhere off in the wood a wolf howled.

Will pulled his garron over beneath an ancient gnarled([nɑːld]多节的；粗糙的) ironwood and dismounted.

“Why are you stopping?” Ser Waymar asked.

“Best go the rest of the way on foot, m’lord. It’s just over that ridge.”

Royce paused a moment, staring off into the distance, his face reflective(沉思的). A cold wind whispered through the trees. His great sable cloak stirred(搅动) behind like something half-alive.

“There’s something wrong here,” Gared muttered.

The young knight gave him a disdainful(轻蔑的) smile. “Is there?”

“Can’t you feel it?” Gared asked. “Listen to the darkness.”

Will could feel it. Four years in the Night’s Watch, and he had never been so afraid. What was it?

“Wind. Trees rustling. A wolf. Which sound is it that unmans you so, Gared?” When Gared did not answer, Royce slid(滑落) gracefully from his saddle. He tied the destrier securely to a low-hanging limb(分支；枝干), well away from the other horses, and drew his longsword from its sheath([ʃiθ]护套；叶鞘). Jewels glittered(闪光；闪烁) in its hilt(刀把，柄), and the moonlight ran down(使…变弱；停止) the shining steel. It was a splendid weapon, castle(城堡；象棋中的车)-forged, and new-made from the look of it. Will doubted it had ever been swung in anger.

“The trees press close here,” Will warned. “That sword will tangle(缠结；乱作一团) you up, m’lord. Better a knife.”

“If I need instruction, I will ask for it,” the young lord said. “Gared, stay here. Guard the horsed.”

Gared dismounted. “We need a fire. I’ll see to it.”

“How big a fool are you, old man? If there are enemies in this wood, a fire is the last thing we want.”

“There’s some enemies a fire will keep away,” Gared said. “Bears and direwolves and … and other things …”

Ser Waymar’s mouth became a hard line. “No fire.”

Gared’s hood shadowed his face, but Will could see the hard glitter(闪光；闪烁) in his eyes as he stared at the knight. For a moment he was afraid the older man would go for his sword. It was a short, ugly thing, its grip(紧握；柄) discolored by sweat, its edge nicked(刻痕的) from hard use, but Will would not have given an iron bob(轻敲；悬挂的饰品) for the lordling’s life if Gared pulled it from its scabbard(['skæbəd]鞘；枪套).

Finally Gared looked down. “No fire,” he muttered, low under his breath.

Royce took it for acquiescence(['ækwɪ'ɛsns]默许；默从) and turn away. “Lead on,” he said to Will.

Will threaded(穿过；穿线于) their way through a thicket(灌木丛；丛林), then started up the slope(斜坡；倾斜) to the low ridge where he had found his vantage(优势；有利情况) point under a sentinel(哨兵) tree. Under the thin crust(地壳；外壳) of snow, the ground was damp and muddy, slick(光滑的；华而不实的) footing, with rocks and hidden roots to trip you up. Will made no sound as he climbed. Behind him, he heard the soft metallic slither(滑动；滑行) of the lordling’s ringmail, the rustle of leaves, and muttered curses as reaching branches grabbed(攫取；捕获) at his longsword and tugged(用力拉；拖拽) on his splendid sable cloak.

The great sentinel was right there at the top of the ridge, where Will had known it would be, its lowest branches a bare foot off the ground. Will slid in underneath, flat(使变平) on his belly in the snow and the mud, and looked down on the empty clearing below.

His heart stopped in his chest. For a moment he dared not breathe. Moonlight shone down on the clearing, the ashes of the firepit, the snow-covered lean-to(披屋), the great rock, the little half-frozen stream. Everything was just as it had been a few hours ago.

They were gone. All the bodies were gone.

“Gods!” he heard behind him. A sword slashed at a branch as Ser Waymar Royce gained the ridge. He stood there beside the sentinel, longsword in hand, his cloak billowing(像巨浪般汹涌；翻腾) behind him as the wind came up, outline nobly against the stars for all to see.

“Get down!” Will whispered urgently. “Something’s wrong.”

Royce did not move. He looked down at the empty clearing and laughed. “Your dead men seem to have moved camp, Will.”

Will’s voice abandoned him. He groped(摸索；探索) for words that did not come. It was not possible. His eyes swept back and forth over the abandoned campsite, stopped on the axe. A huge double-bladed battleaxe, still lying where he had seen it last, untouched. A valuable weapon …

“On your feet, Will,” Ser Waymar commanded. “There’s no one here. I won’t have you hiding under a bush.”

Reluctantly, Will obeyed.

Ser Waymar looked him over with open disapproval. “I am not going back to Castle Black a failure on my first ranging(巡逻). We will find these men.” He glanced around. “Up the tree. Be quick about it. Look for a fire.”

Will turned away, wordless. There was no use to argue. The wind was moving. It cut right through him. He went to the tree, a vaulting(['vɔltɪŋ]拱顶结构；跳跃) grey-green sentinel, and began to climb. Soon his hands were sticky with sap([sæp]树液；精力), and he was lost among the needles. Fear filled his gut like a meal he could not digest. He whispered a prayer to the nameless gods of the wood, and slipped his dirk(短剑，匕首) free of its sheath. He put it between his teeth to keep both hands free for climbing. The taste of cold iron in his mouth gave him comfort.

Down below, the lordling called out suddenly, “Who goes there?” Will heard uncertainty in the challenge. He stopped climbing; he listened; he watched.

The woods gave answer: the rustle of leaves, the icy rush of the stream, a distant hoot([hut]鸣响；嘲骂声) of a snow owl.

The others made no sound.

Will saw movement from the corner of his eye. Pale shapes gliding(['ɡlaɪdɪŋ]滑翔；消逝) through the wood. He turned his head, glimpsed a white shadow in the darkness. Then it was gone. Branches stirred gently in the wind, scratching at one another with wooden fingers. Will opened his mouth to call down a warning, and the words seemed to freeze in his throat. Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps it had only been a bird, a reflection on the snow, some trick of the moonlight. What had he seen, after all?

“Will, where are you?” Ser Waymar called up. “Can you see anything?” He was turning in a slow circle, suddenly wary(['wɛri]谨慎的；机警的), his sword in hand. He must have felt them, as Will felt them. There was nothing to see. “Answer me! Why is it so cold?”

It was cold. Shivering, Will clung more tightly to his perch. His face pressed hard against the trunk of the sentinel. He could feel the sweet, sticky sap on his cheek.

A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt([gɔːnt]荒凉的；枯瘦的) and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled(有斑纹的) with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took.

Will heard the breath go out of Ser Waymar Royce in a long hiss. “Come no farther,” the lordling warned. His voice cracked like a boy’s. He threw the long sable cloak back over his shoulders, to free his arms for battle, and took his sword in both hands. The wind had stopped. It was very cold.

The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent(透明的；半透明的), a shard(鞘翅；陶瓷碎片) of crystal so thin that it seemed almost to vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost-light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew it was sharper than any razor.

Ser Waymar met him bravely. “Dance with me then.” He lifted his sword high over his head, defiant. His hands trembled from the weight of it, or perhaps from the cold. Yet in that moment, Will thought, he was a boy no longer, but a man of the Night’s Watch.

The Other halted. Will saw its eyes; blue, deeper and bluer than any human eyes, a blue that burned like ice. They fixed on the longsword trembling on high, watched the moonlight running cold along the metal. For a heartbeat he dared to hope.

They emerged silently from the shadows, twins to the first.  Three of them … four … five … Ser Waymar may have felt the cold that came with them, but he never saw them, never heard them. Will had to call out. It was his duty. And his death, if he did. He shivered, and hugged the tree, and kept the silence.

The pale sword came shivering through the air.

Ser Waymar met it with steel. When the blades met, there was no ring of metal on metal; only a high, thin sound at the edge of hearing, like an animal screaming in pain. Royce checked a second blow, and a third, then fell back a step. Another flurry of blows, and he fell back again.

Behind him, to right, to left, all around him, the watchers stood patient, faceless, silent, the shifting patterns of their delicate armor(装甲；盔甲) making them all but invisible in the wood. Yet they made no move to interface.

Again and again the swords met, until Will wanted to cover his ears against the strange anguished(极度痛苦的) keening(['kinɪŋ]哭丧；哀恸) of their clash(碰撞声，铿锵声). Ser Waymar was painting from the effort now, his breath steaming in the moonlight. His blade was white with frost; the Other’s danced with pale blue light.

Then Royce’s parry(回避；挡开) came a beat too late. The pale sword bit through the ringmail beneath his arm. The young lord cried out in pain. Blood welled between the rings. It steamed(蒸发，散发) in the cold, and the droplets seemed red as fire where they touched the snow. Ser Waymar’s fingers brushed his side. His moleskin glove came away soaked with red.

The Other said something in a language that Will did not know; his voice was like the cracking of ice on a winter lake, and the words were mocking(嘲弄的).

Ser Waymar Royce found his fury. “For Robert!” he shouted, and he came up snarling, lifting the frost-covered longsword with both hands and swinging it around in a flat sidearm slash with all his weight behind it. The Other’s parry was almost lazy.

When the blades touched, the steel shattered.

A scream echoed through the forest night, and the longsword shivered into a hundred brittle pieces, the shards scattering like a rain of needles. Royce went to his knees, shrieking, and covered his eyes. Blood welled between his fingers.

The watchers moved forward together, as if some signal had been given. Swords rose and fell, all in a deathly silence. It was cold butchery. The pale blades sliced through ringmail as if it were silk. Will closed his eyes. Far beneath him, he heard their voices and laughter sharp as icicles.

When he found the courage to look again, a long time had passed, and the ridge below was empty.

He stayed in the tree, scarce daring to breathe, while the moon crept slowly across the black sky. Finally, his muscles cramping and his fingers numb with cold, he climbed down.

Royce’s body lay facedown in the snow, one arm outflung. The thick sable cloak had been slashed in a dozen places. Lying dead like that, you saw how young he was. A boy.

He found what was left of the sword a few feet away, the end splintered(分裂；裂成碎片) and twisted like a tree struck by lightning. Will knelt, looked around warily, and snatched it up. The broken sword would be his proof. Gared would know what to make of it, and if not him, then surely that old bear Mormont or Maester Aemon. Would Gared still be waiting with the horsed? He had to hurry.

Will rose. Ser Waymar Royce stood over him.

His fine clothes were a tatter(碎布；碎纸), his face a ruin. A shard([ʃɑrd]陶瓷碎片) from his sword transfixed the blind white pupil([ˈpjuːpl] 瞳孔) of his left eye.

The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw.

The broken sword fell from nerveless fingers. Will closed his eyes to pray. Long, elegant hands brushed his cheek, then tightened around his throat. They were gloved in the finest moleskin and sticky with blood, yet the touch was icy cold.