Jon and Robb, holding torches high, led the way into the dungeon with my lord and Benjen. Theon, bored, followed behind the group, carrying House Stark's ancestral valyrian steel sword ice.
Maester Luwin hurried to catch up.
"my lord, the Night's Watch deserter Gared insists that Others attacked his patrol. I think I should record this and write to Maester Aemon at Castle Black, and also to the Conclave at The Citadel. Such research is quite valuable."
These past few days, Maester Luwin had been incredibly busy. Jon Snow, who displayed a gift for dream prophecies, had become Maester Luwin's primary subject for recording and research.
Now that First Ranger Benjen of the Night's Watch was interrogating the Night's Watch deserter, there was a possibility of detailed oral accounts of Others. Maester Luwin naturally didn't want to miss such a good opportunity to record information about a strange race.
In the dungeon, the Night's Watch deserter Gared was covered in grime, wearing shackles and leg irons. He huddled on a pile of dirty straw, next to an overflowing latrine. The air was filled with the smell of excrement, urine, and mold.
Theon, disgusted, covered his nose and mouth, "It smells too damn bad in here."
Upon seeing Benjen, Gared immediately burst into tears, "Benjen, you're finally here. I know a Night's Watch deserter cannot escape death. I'd rather die by the hands of my Brothers of the Night's Watch."
Benjen said helplessly, "Gared, what exactly happened?"
Gared sighed, "That day, that fool Waymar Royce took Will and me to track a group of wildlings."
"Will and I both felt the cold and the smell of death in the air. We strongly urged Waymar Royce to return to Castle Black immediately, but the young lord seemed determined to claim a wildling's head on his first patrol. He insisted on pursuing them, and eventually, we encountered a kind of ice-skinned, blue-eyed monster. Yes, it was an Other."
Theon let out a rough, cackling laugh like a pheasant, "Haha! This coward is making excuses for himself. Others? There are no Others in this world. Why don't you say dragons attacked you?"
The torch in Jon Snow's hand licked at the darkness. "Books record that eight thousand years ago, when the Long Night descended, Others came south with the cold, or rather, the cold came because of the Others."
"Dragons are extinct. There are no more dragons in the world now, but can you deny that dragons ever existed?"
House Targaryen was the last Dragonrider family in the world. The last dragon died during the reign of King Aegon III, the Dragonbane, barely a century and a half ago.
To this day, songs and stories of Dragonriders like Aegon the Conqueror, Queen Visenya, Queen Rhaenys, and Prince Daemon are widely circulated throughout Westeros. They and their dragons Balerion, Vhagar, Meraxes, Caraxes, and others, are almost household names in Westeros.
Theon was unconvinced. "Dragons and Others are two different things. If you don't believe me, you can ask Maester Luwin."
Maester Luwin waved his quill. He flattened a parchment on a wooden board. "Yes, House Targaryen's dragons only died out a few hundred years ago, but the Others disappeared eight thousand years ago. The Conclave at The Citadel once held a debate about the Others, and some maesters will tell you that the Others never existed at all."
Eddard's shadow loomed over the crouching Night's Watch deserter Gared. my lord said coldly, "Gared, since you insist that Others killed Ser Waymar Royce and Ranger Will of the patrol, then what exactly do Others look like? Are they dead men?"
The memory made Gared tremble. He stammered, "Others are not dead men; dead men are wights. Others are tall and slender, their skin like flowing milk, covered in a layer of frost. They stare with deep blue eyes. I remember the first glance of their gaze, those deep blue eyes were heartbreakingly beautiful, like deep blue stars in a cold, desolate night."
Maester Luwin wrote furiously, recording every word Gared spoke.
Benjen said calmly, "I didn't expect you, a brute, to be quite poetic! Since you saw the Others with your own eyes, why did they kill your companions but spare only you?"
Gared lowered his head in shame: "Because I was in charge of guarding the horses at the time."
Everyone immediately understood Gared's implication: when the Others attacked, Gared deserted, fleeing the slaughter on horseback, abandoning his officer Ser Waymar Royce and his Ranger brother Will.
At that moment, he was a complete coward and a deserter.
my lord looked at Gared with contempt. "What weapons do Others use? Do they have mounts and armor?"
Gared blew his nose. "I didn't see the Others' mounts. They wore a kind of armor, it seemed to be ice armor, or perhaps crystal armor. There seemed to be some kind of runes engraved on it, but because the distance was a bit far, I couldn't see the runes clearly. The armor was like a calm, frozen pond."
Rustle, rustle, Maester Luwin bent his head and wrote furiously.
Gared suddenly widened his eyes. "As for their longswords, they were a kind of longsword like milky white glass, or perhaps ivory-colored, emitting an eerie blue glow. It seemed to be made of crystal, or perhaps ice. That kind of sword seemed to change color according to the surrounding light and environment."
my lord was not convinced. "How powerful are these weapons? Your patrol consisted of three men. You of the Night's Watch are the shield that guards the realms of men, the light of dawn. Did you not even have a chance to draw your swords before the Others?"
The Night's Watch deserter Gared forced a bitter smile. "my lord, people say the Night's Watch guards The Wall to resist the goblins and ghouls of stories and songs, to keep Others, Children of the Forest, giants, and Wargs all from entering. But for thousands of years, the Night's Watch's only opponents have been wildlings."
"Even the Night's Watch has forgotten the existence of Others. So, when Others truly appeared suddenly in the Haunted Forest, overcoming fear and drawing a sword to fight them required extraordinary courage."
Everyone was silent.
The Night's Watch deserter Gared stood up. "I am ashamed. I have been a Ranger for over thirty years, yet before the Others, I could only tuck my tail between my legs and flee in disarray like a beaten dog. Will's stealth and reconnaissance skills were top-notch in the Night's Watch; he was one of the Night's Watch's most excellent scouts. Only a very few, like Stone Snake and Ser Alliser Thorne, could compare to Will, but Will didn't even have a chance to draw his sword."
"Instead, it was that noble lord, Ser Waymar Royce, who led us into the Others' death trap. I saw him wounded by an Other, and he found courage from somewhere. The blood of the first men flows in House Royce, and perhaps Ser Waymar Royce felt the power of the old gods. In any case, he brandished his longsword, shouting to fight for King Robert, and faced the Other."
"My Ranger brothers and I used to sit in the hall at Castle Black, eating Thrice-Cooked Habb's mutton stew, and mock Waymar Royce as a superficial noble lord. I was wrong. When the Others attacked, I was proven a coward, and he, like a man of the Night's Watch, fought to the death."
When Ser Waymar Royce went to serve at The Wall, his father Bronze Yohn personally escorted him. Ser Waymar Royce stayed in Winterfell for a few days, and Sansa, Jeyne Poole, and others were all enamored with the handsome Waymar Royce.
Jon, Robb, and Theon had all sparred with Waymar Royce in the Training Yard. Ser Rodrik Cassel believed Waymar Royce was mediocre and arrogant.
Robb and Jon both disliked Waymar Royce, but Theon and Waymar Royce got along reasonably well.
Everyone recalled Waymar Royce, filled with emotion. Benjen said, "Waymar Royce was indeed not likable, but he died fighting for the Night's Watch and the realm. He proved himself worthy of the Night's Watch's oath. Now he is dead, sleeping eternally in the Haunted Forest."
"He came among us from Stony Sept in the Vale, and now he is dead, his watch has ended. He can finally rest in peace."
No, Jon wanted to tell Uncle Benjen that Ser Waymar Royce had already been turned into a wight by the Others, and in the future he might even become a wight, a servant of the Others, threatening the realm. However, such a warning was too alarmist, so Jon at least held back for now, waiting for the right moment.
Maester Luwin stopped writing. "Gared, perhaps you can describe the Others' weapons in detail."
Gared said excitedly, "I tell you, whether the Others' weapons are ice crystal or ice, the Night's Watch's steel longswords are completely unable to contend with them. When steel collided with the Others' longswords, it produced a piercing screech that went through your ears. The Others' longswords emitted a shower of ice-needle-like fragments, which could have been crystal fragments or ice fragments."
"I saw from afar an Other's longsword strike Waymar Royce, biting through his armor, piercing his leather, deep into his bones and flesh, yet what flowed out was deep blue blood. The Others' weapons seemed sharper than any other weapon, and deadly cold."
my lord and Benjen exchanged skeptical glances.
my lord, Jon, Robb, Theon, Maester Luwin, and others filed out of the dungeon, once again bathed in the cool sunlight.
The howl of a Direwolf came. Benjen said, "Brother, do you think Gared's words are credible?"
my lord snorted lightly. "I think Gared can tell stories to Old Nan. Others are a very good excuse. A deserter cannot escape death; he naturally has to fabricate lies. Do you really believe Others exist?"
Benjen frowned. As First Ranger of the Night's Watch, he had seen many wildlings and their corpses, and had heard many strange stories passed down through generations of the Night's Watch around campfires. At least the part about the Others felt quite real.
"We can't prove Others exist, nor can we prove they don't. Perhaps I'll encounter them on my next patrol."
Jon immediately had a bad feeling. "Uncle, please don't patrol. Since there might be Others Beyond the Wall, the Night's Watch should stop patrolling and guard The Wall."
Benjen let out a hearty laugh. "A Ranger's duty is to find danger, Jon. Not every Ranger gets the chance to fight Others. All men must die, and we would rather die like warriors than be deserters."
Maester Luwin stroked the valyrian steel link on his chain. "Gared's oral account of Others today will certainly cause a sensation at The Citadel."