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danger is coming
the lordling seemed not to hear him , he studied the deepening twilight in that half bored, half - distracted way he had, Will had rideen 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 nnothing out' Will had been ahunter before he joined the Night's Watch , Weill,a pacher in truth,Mallister freeriders had caught him red-handed in the Miallisters;s own woods,skinning one of the Maillisters;s own bucks,and it had been a choice of putting on the black or losing a hand.No one could move through the woods as selent as Will, and it had not taken the black brethers long to discover his talent."The camp is two miles farther on , over that ridge, hard beside a stream I got close as I dared , There;s eight of them , men and women both, No children I could see, they put uo alean to against the rock, The snow;s pretty wel vocered it now, but I could strill make it out , no fire butning , but the firepit was strill plain as day, No one moving,I watched a long time , No loving man ever lay so strill"
"did you see any blood?"
"no"
"Did you see any weapons?"
"some swords , a few bows, one man had an axe, heavt-looking, double - bladed, a cruel piece of iireon,It was on the ground beside him, right by his hand"
"did you make onte 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 sellping:
"threre;s oone woman up an ironwood, half hid in the branches a far eyes I tiik care she never saw me. when I got closer,I saw that she wasn;t moving neither;"
"you have a chill?"
:some:
the young knoght turned back to his grizzled man at arms.freost fallen leaves whispered past them, and Royce;s destrier moved rest lessluy :what do you think might have kolled there men, Gared Cold?:
"I saw men freeze last winter , and the one before, when I ws half a boy, everyone talks of the north, but the real enemy is the cold, it sreals up on you quieter than Will, and at first you shiver and your teeth chatter and you stamp your frrt and fream of mulled wine and nice hot fires, It burns,it does , Nothing burns like the cold but onlu for a while Then it gets indede you and starts to fill you up , and agter a while you don;t have the strength to giht it , It;s easier just to sit down or go to sleep, they say you don;t feel any pain toward the end , firest you go weak and drowsy and everthing starts to fade, and then , it;s like sinking in=to as ea of warm milk,peacefil like"
"such eloquence , Gared ,I never suspected you had it in you I have had the cold in me too, lording"pulled back his hood, giving Ser a good long look at the stumps where his ears had been two ears , three toes, and the little fingger off mu left hand i got off light , we found mu brother frozen at this watch , with a smile on this face
you ought to dress more warmly
glared at the lording , the scars around his ear holes flushed red with anger where maester Aemon had cout the ears away we will see how warm you can dress when the winter comes , he pulled up hois hood and hunched over his garron silent and sullen if said it was the cold haave you drewn any watches this past week? yes , thre never was sa week when he did not draw a dozen bolldy watches, what was the man driving at ?
and how did you find the wall?
weeping , he saw ot clear enough , now that the lording had pointed it out they couldn't have froze, not if the wall was weeping , it wasn;t cold enough bright lad , we have had a frw light frosts this past week , and a quick flurry of snow now and then ,m bnut surelyu no cold fierce enough to kill eight grown men, men clad in fur and leather, let me remind you, with shelter near at hand , and the means of making fire, the knight;s mile was cocksyre will lead us there i would see these dead men for myself
and then there was nothing to be done for it , the way carefully through the under growth, al oght snow had fallen the night before, and there were stones nad roots and hidden sinks luing just under it;s creust watting for the careless and the unwaru, came next, his great black destrier snorting impatientlu , the warhorse was the wrong mount for ranging , but try and tell that to the lordling , 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 hruise , then faded to black , the starts began to come out , a half moon rose , will was grateful for theloight, wecan make a beeter pace than this, surel, not with this horse , fear had made him insolent perhaps mu lord would care to takr the lead?
why are you stopping best go the rest of the way on foot , it;s just over that brige staring offinto the distance , his face reflective a cold wind whispered threoug the trwes , his freat sable cloak stirred behind like something half alive
this is somehing wrong here
