He was not

wrong, Varamyr thought, shivering. Haggon taught me much and more. He taught me

how to hunt and fish, how to butcher a carcass and bone a fish, how to find my

way through the woods. And he taught me the way of the warg and the secrets of

the skinchanger, though my gift was stronger than his own.他没错，瓦拉米尔想到，颤抖着。哈根教给我许多。他教会我如何狩猎和捕鱼，如何屠宰猎物和剔除鱼骨，如何发现穿越森林的道路。他还教会我狼灵之道和易形者的秘密，不过我的天赋比他要高。

Years later he

had tried to find his parents, to tell them that their Lump had become the

great Varamyr Sixskins, but both of them were dead and burned. Gone into the

trees and streams, gone into the rocks and earth. Gone to dirt and ashes. That

was what the woods witch told his mother, the day Bump died. Lump did not want

to be a clod of earth. The boy had dreamed of a day when bards would sing of

his deeds and pretty girls would kiss him. When I am grown I will be the

King-Beyond-the-Wall, Lump had promised himself. He never had, but he had come

close. Varamyr Sixskins was a name men feared. He rode to battle on the back of

a snow bear thirteen feet tall, kept three wolves and a shadowcat in thrall,

and sat at the right hand of Mance Rayder. It was Mance who brought me to this

place. I should not have listened. I should have slipped inside my bear and

torn him to pieces.多年之后，他曾试图寻找他的双亲，告诉他们，他们的拉普已经变成了伟大的“六形人”瓦拉米尔，但他们早已经死了并且火化了。散落到树林和溪流间，散落在岩石和大地中，变成了泥土和灰烬。班普死的那天，那个森林女巫究竟对他母亲说了些什么。拉普不想成为一个凡人。这个男孩梦想自己的事迹能被游吟诗人传唱，少女们都渴望他的亲吻。拉普暗自发誓，当我长大后将成为塞外之王。他没能做到，但很接近了。“六形人”瓦拉米尔是个令人恐惧的名人。他骑着一个十三尺高的雪熊作战，还有三只狼和一只影子山猫听从他的指挥，他是曼斯·雷德的左膀右臂。是曼斯把我带到这里的，我不该听他的。我应该附身我的熊身上把他撕成碎片。

Before Mance,

Varamyr Sixskins had been a lord of sorts. He lived alone in a hall of moss and

mud and hewn logs that had once been Haggon’s, attended by his beasts. A dozen

villages did him homage in bread and salt and cider, offering him fruit from

their orchards and vegetables from their gardens. His meat he got himself.

Whenever he desired a woman he sent his shadowcat to stalk her, and whatever

girl he’d cast his eye upon would follow meekly to his bed. Some came weeping,

aye, but still they came. Varamyr gave them his seed, took a hank of their hair

to remember them by, and sent them back. From time to time, some village hero

would come with spear in hand to slay the beastling and save a sister or a

lover or a daughter. Those he killed, but he never harmed the women. Some he

even blessed with children. Runts. Small, puny things, like Lump, and not one

with the gift.在跟随曼斯之前，“六形人”瓦拉米尔是一大群家伙的首领。他居住在一个由苔藓，粘土和原木搭建，曾经属于哈根的大厅里，由他的野兽负责警卫。一些效忠他的村民向他供奉面包，盐和苹果酒，向他提供来自他们的果园的水果和花园的蔬菜。肉他自己搞。什么时候他需要一个女人了，他就派他的影子山猫带她回来，凡是他看得上眼的姑娘都会乖乖地上他的床。是的，有的是哭着来的，不过她们仍然要来。瓦拉米尔把他的种子播给她们，留下一把头发以作纪念，然后送她们回去。时不时会来个拿着长矛的英雄，想要干掉那个畜生，解救他的姐妹，情人，或许女儿。那些家伙都被他干掉了，但他从未伤害过女人。有些给他生下了孩子。矮小，软弱的东西，没有一个继承了他的天赋。

Fear drove him

to his feet, reeling. Holding his side to staunch the seep of blood from his

wound, Varamyr lurched to the door and swept aside the ragged skin that covered

it to face a wall of white. Snow. No wonder it had grown so dark and smoky

inside. The falling snow had buried the hut.恐惧驱使着他扭动着，竭力保持伤口不再往外渗血，瓦拉米尔挪到了门口，掀起蒙在门上面的那块烂皮，面前是堵白色的墙壁。雪，毫无疑问是它令屋里变得如此黑暗和空气混浊。雪已经把窝棚掩埋了。

When Varamyr

pushed at it, the snow crumbled and gave way, still soft and wet. Outside, the

night was white as death; pale thin clouds danced attendance on a silver moon,

while a thousand stars watched coldly. He could see the humped shapes of other

huts buried beneath drifts of snow, and beyond them the pale shadow of a

weirwood armored in ice. To the south and west the hills were a vast white

wilderness where nothing moved except the blowing snow. “Thistle,” Varamyr

called feebly, wondering how far she could have gone. “Thistle. Woman. Where are you?”当瓦拉米尔推动它时，雪崩塌了，依旧松软和潮湿。外面，夜色如死亡般苍白；银色的月亮在暗淡的薄云中穿行，繁星闪烁着冰冷的光芒。他能看到其他被积雪掩埋的窝棚，投下驼峰形状的影子，一棵鱼梁木被冰冻成奇形怪状的枝条在那上面留下暗淡的阴影。山的南边和西边是广阔的白色荒野，除了滚动的雪看不到任何移动的东西。“希斯尔，”瓦拉米尔虚弱的呼喊，猜想她究竟走了多远。“希斯尔，娘们，你在哪？？？”

Far away, a wolf

gave howl.远处，一只狼回应了声嚎叫。

A shiver went

through Varamyr. He knew that howl as well as Lump had once known his mother’s

voice. One Eye. He was the oldest of his three, the biggest, the fiercest.

Stalker was leaner, quicker, younger, Sly more cunning, but both went in fear

of One Eye. The old wolf was fearless, relentless, savage.瓦拉米尔打了个冷颤。他熟悉这嚎叫就像拉普熟悉他妈妈的嗓音。“独眼”，三个当中的老大，体型最大，最凶猛。“猎手”更好学，机灵和年轻。“淘气”更狡猾，但它俩都害怕“独眼”。那只老狼，无畏，冷酷和狂野。

Varamyr had lost

control of his other beasts in the agony of the eagle’s death. His shadowcat

had raced into the woods, whilst his snow bear turned her claws on those around

her, ripping apart four men before falling to a spear. She would have slain

Varamyr had he come within her reach. The bear hated him, had raged each time

he wore her skin or climbed upon her back.瓦拉米尔在鹰死的时候挣扎中失去了对其它野兽的操控。他的影子山猫跑进森林，当时他的雪熊正朝周围挥动着它的巨爪，在被一只长矛放翻之前，她把四个人撕成了碎片。她更想收拾的是瓦拉米尔。那只熊恨他，每次他附身在她身上或者骑在她后背上时她都怒不可遏。

His wolves,

though …但是，他的狼们…

My brothers. My

pack. Many a cold night he had slept with his wolves, their shaggy bodies piled

up around him to help keep him warm. When I die they will feast upon my flesh

and leave only bones to greet the thaw come spring. The thought was queerly

comforting. His wolves had often foraged for him as they roamed; it seemed only

fitting that he should feed them in the end. He might well begin his second

life tearing at the warm dead flesh of his own corpse.我的兄弟，我的伙伴。多少个冬夜他和他的狼相依而眠，他们毛发蓬松的身体包裹着他，令他感到温暖。当我死掉，它们会享受我的血肉，仅留下骨头去迎接春天的融雪。这个想法有些奇妙的令人欣慰。他的狼们在游荡时通常会为他带回猎物，所以最终把自己喂给它们也挺合适。在他尸体上的血肉被撕裂时，开始他第二次生命可能不错。

Dogs were the

easiest beasts to bond with; they lived so close to men that they were almost

human. Slipping into a dog’s skin was like putting on an old boot, its leather

softened by wear. As a boot was shaped to accept a foot, a dog was shaped to

accept a collar, even a collar no human eye could see. Wolves were harder. A

man might befriend a wolf, even break a wolf, but no man could truly tame a

wolf. “Wolves and women wed for life,” Haggon often said. “You take one, that’s

a marriage. The wolf is part of you from that day on, and you’re part of him. Both of you will change.”狗是最容易驯服的野兽，它们同人那么亲近以至于它们差不多就是人了。附身在狗上就如同套上一双旧靴子，毛皮松软很容易就穿上了。就像靴子称脚，狗同项圈也很般配，就算不是人眼能看到那种项圈。狼有些困难，一个人可以亲近一只狼，甚至驯服一只狼，但没人能真正信赖一只狼。“狼和女人都要用生命去结合。”哈根经常说。“你上了一个，那就是一次结合，从那以后狼就有了你的一部分，你同样也有了一部分的它。你俩都将改变。”

Other beasts

were best left alone, the hunter had declared. Cats were vain and cruel, always

ready to turn on you. Elk and deer were prey; wear their skins too long, and

even the bravest man became a coward. Bears, boars, badgers, weasels … Haggon

did not hold with such. “Some skins you never want to wear, boy. You won’t like

what you’d become.” Birds were the worst, to hear him tell it. “Men were not

meant to leave the earth. Spend too much time in the clouds and you never want

to come back down again. I know skinchangers who’ve tried hawks, owls, ravens. Even in their own skins, they sit

moony, staring up at the bloody blue.”其它的野兽最好不要碰，猎手曾经提过。猫自负而残忍，总打算摆脱掉你。麋鹿是弱者，附身在它们上面太久的话，勇士也会变懦夫。熊，野猪，獾，黄鼠狼…哈根也没试过。“有些是你绝不会想附身的，小子，你不会喜欢变成那个样子。”据他说，鸟是最糟糕的。“人不应该离开大地。在云上面呆久了你就不再想下来了。我知道有些易形者尝试过鹰，猫头鹰，乌鸦。就算回到本身后，他们也精神恍惚，盯着那倒霉的蓝天看个没完。”

Not all

skinchangers felt the same, however. Once, when Lump was ten, Haggon had taken

him to a gathering of such. The wargs were the most numerous in that company,

the wolf-brothers, but the boy had found the others stranger and more

fascinating. Borroq looked so much like his boar that all he lacked was tusks,

Orell had his eagle, Briar her shadowcat (the moment he saw them, Lump wanted a

shadowcat of his own), the goat woman Grisella …但不是所有的易形者感受都相同。有一次，在拉普十岁的时候，哈根带他参加一个集会。那次集会里有最著名的狼灵，“狼兄弟”，但男孩发现其它更陌生而迷人的东西。博洛克看起来和他的野猪如此相像，除了没有长着獠牙，奥雷尔有只鹰，布莱和她的影子山猫（在看到她们那一刻，拉普就想拥有自己的影子山猫），那个山羊女格雷塞拉…

None of them had

been as strong as Varamyr Sixskins, though, not even Haggon, tall and grim with

his hands as hard as stone. The hunter died weeping after Varamyr took Greyskin

from him, driving him out to claim the beast for his own. No second life for you,

old man. Varamyr Threeskins, he’d called himself back then. Greyskin made four, though the old wolf

was frail and almost toothless and soon followed Haggon into death.但他们都没有“六形人”瓦拉米尔强大，甚至哈根，那个高个，双手如岩石般坚硬的家伙也没有。当瓦拉米尔把“灰皮”从他身边带走，把他赶开，宣布那头野兽归自己所有之后，猎手抽泣着死去。你没第二条命啦，老家伙。“三形人”瓦拉米尔，在赶走他之后，“灰皮”成了第四个，尽管那只老狼那么虚弱，牙都要掉光了，而且很快就随哈根而去了。

Varamyr could

take any beast he wanted, bend them to his will, make their flesh his own. Dog

or wolf, bear or badger …瓦拉米尔可以附上任何他想要的野兽，令它们屈服于自己的意志，令它们的躯体归属于自己。狗或狼，熊或獾…

Thistle, he

thought.包括希斯尔，他想到。

Haggon would

call it an abomination, the blackest sin of all, but Haggon was dead, devoured,

and burned. Mance would have cursed him as well, but Mance was slain or

captured. No one will ever know. I will be Thistle the spearwife, and Varamyr Sixskins

will be dead. His gift would perish with his body, he expected. He would lose

his wolves, and live out the rest of his days as some scrawny, warty woman … but he would live. If she comes back. If I am

still strong enough to take her.哈根称它为禁忌，最堕落的罪过，但哈根死了，被吞噬和焚烧了。曼斯同样诅咒过他，但曼斯被杀掉或俘虏了。不再会有人知道，我将成为希斯尔，矛妇，“六形人”瓦拉米尔将不再存在了。希望他的天赋能随着他的躯壳一起腐烂掉。他将失去他的狼，作为一名枯瘦，满身疙瘩的女人渡过余生…但他能活下去。只要她回来，只要我仍能够附身上她。

A wave of

dizziness washed over Varamyr. He found himself upon his knees, his hands

buried in a snowdrift. He scooped up a fistful of snow and filled his mouth

with it, rubbing it through his beard and against his cracked lips, sucking

down the moisture. The water was so cold that he could barely bring himself to

swallow, and he realized once again how hot he was.一阵眩晕袭来，瓦拉米尔发现自己跪了下来，他的双手插进了一个雪堆。他捧起一把雪，把它放到嘴边，用它摩擦自己的胡子和干裂的嘴唇，吸进潮气。雪水如此冰冷，他几乎不敢下咽，他又一次认识到他仍发着高烧。

The snowmelt

only made him hungrier. It was food his belly craved, not water. The snow had

stopped falling, but the wind was rising, filling the air with crystal,

slashing at his face as he struggled through the drifts, the wound in his side

opening and closing again. His breath made a ragged white cloud. When he

reached the weirwood tree, he found a fallen branch just long enough to use as

a crutch. Leaning heavily upon it, he staggered toward the nearest hut. Perhaps

the villagers had forgotten something when they fled … a sack of apples, some dried meat, anything

to keep him alive until Thistle returned.融雪水只是让他更加饥饿。他肚子渴望的是食物，不是水。雪已经停了，但起风了，把冰晶卷到空中，扑打在脸上令他感觉像在挣扎着穿过激流，他的伤口一张一合。他的呼吸生成了一块白雾。当他挪到那颗鱼梁木，他发现一根断枝，长度刚好用来当拐杖。拄着它，他朝最近的窝棚挪去。或许他们离开时会落下什么东西…一袋苹果，一些干肉，任何能让他坚持到希斯尔回来的东西。

He was almost

there when his crutch snapped beneath his weight, and his legs went out from

under him.他就快要到那了的时候，拐杖承受不住他的重量了，他的双腿也支撑不住了。

How long he

sprawled there with his blood reddening the snow Varamyr could not have said.

The snow will bury me. It would be a peaceful death. They say you feel warm

near the end, warm and sleepy. It would be good to feel warm again, though it

made him sad to think that he would never see the green lands, the warm lands

beyond the Wall that Mance used to sing about. “The world beyond the Wall is

not for our kind,” Haggon used to say. “The free folk fear skinchangers, but

they honor us as well. South of the Wall, the kneelers hunt us down and butcher

us like pigs.”瓦拉米尔已经不清楚他在那躺了多久，雪已经被鲜血染红了。雪会把我掩埋，这是个安静的死法。他们说临终的时候会感到暖和，温暖而昏昏欲睡。能再次感到暖和应该不错，尽管想到再没机会看到绿地让他觉得悲伤，曼斯经常唱到的长城那边温暖的绿地。“长城那边的世界不是为我们准备的，”哈根常说。“自由民害怕易形者，但他们尊重我们。长城南边，南方佬会捕杀我们，把我们像猪一样屠宰。”

You warned me,

Varamyr thought, but it was you who showed me Eastwatch too. He could not have

been more than ten. Haggon traded a dozen strings of amber and a sled piled

high with pelts for six skins of wine, a block of salt, and a copper kettle.

Eastwatch was a better place to trade than Castle Black; that was where the

ships came, laden with goods from the fabled lands beyond the sea. The crows

knew Haggon as a hunter and a friend to the Night’s Watch, and welcomed the

news he brought of life beyond their Wall. Some knew him for a skinchanger too,

but no one spoke of that. It was there at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea that the boy he’d been first began to dream of the warm south.你警告过我，瓦拉米尔想到，但在东海望我看到你说不完全正确。哈根用几条琥珀串和堆满一雪橇毛皮去交换六袋葡萄酒，一堆盐和一把铜壶。东海望和黑城堡比起来是个不错的交易地点；船来到那儿，卸下那些来自天涯海角的货物。乌鸦们认识哈根，知道他是个猎手和守夜人的朋友，很愿意倾听他在塞外生活中新鲜故事。有些人知道他是个易形者，但都避而不谈。就是在东海望，在那海边，男孩第一次梦想到温暖的南方。

Varamyr could

feel the snowflakes melting on his brow. This is not so bad as burning. Let me

sleep and never wake, let me begin my second life. His wolves were close now. He

could feel them. He would leave this feeble flesh behind, become one with them,

hunting the night and howling at the moon. The warg would become a true wolf.

Which, though?瓦拉米尔能感觉得到雪在他的额头融化。就这么死去不算坏。就让我长眠不醒，开始我第二次生命吧。他的狼们现在接近了，他能感觉得到。他将抛下这僵硬的躯壳，成为它们中的一员，在夜幕下狩猎，在满月时仰天长嚎，狼灵将变成真正的狼，那么，那只好呢？

Not Sly. Haggon

would have called it abomination, but Varamyr had often slipped inside her skin

as she was being mounted by One Eye. He did not want to spend his new life as a

bitch, though, not unless he had no other choice. Stalker might suit him

better, the younger male … though One Eye was larger and fiercer, and it was One Eye who took

Sly whenever she went into heat.“淘气”不行，尽管哈根称之为禁忌，但瓦拉米尔还是好几次在“独眼”骑着她时，溜进了她的体内。他可不愿他的新生作为一只母狼度过，除非没有其它的选择了。“猎手”可能更适合他，那只年轻的公狼…尽管“独眼”更高大而凶猛，但它只有一只眼睛，骑在“淘气”身上时，她一点都不兴奋。

“They say you forget,” Haggon had told him, a few weeks before his

own death. “When the man’s flesh dies, his spirit lives on inside the beast,

but every day his memory fades, and the beast becomes a little less a warg, a little

more a wolf, until nothing of the man is left and only the beast remains.”“你忘了他们说过的话，”哈根教导过他，就在他死的几天前。“当人的躯壳死掉，他的灵魂将寄生在野兽体内，但他的记忆会逐渐模糊，而那野兽将越来越不再像狼灵，更像一只狼了，直到人的那部分完全消失，彻底成为一只狼。”

Varamyr knew the

truth of that. When he claimed the eagle that had been Orell’s, he could feel

the other skinchanger raging at his presence. Orell had been slain by the

turncloak crow Jon Snow, and his hate for his killer had been so strong that

Varamyr found himself hating the beastling boy as well. He had known what Snow

was the moment he saw that great white direwolf stalking silent at his side.

One skinchanger can always sense another. Mance should have let me take the

direwolf. There would be a second life worthy of a king. He could have done it,

he did not doubt. The gift was strong in Snow, but the youth was untaught,

still fighting his nature when he should have gloried in it.瓦拉米尔知道这是真的。当他附身在那只曾属于奥雷尔的鹰上时，他能感受到那个易形者的暴怒，仿佛他仍然活着。奥雷尔是被那个变色龙，琼恩·雪诺杀害的，他对仇人的愤怒如此强烈，以至于瓦拉米尔发现自己也同样憎恨那个讨厌的小子。当他看到那只悄无声息跟着雪诺巨大的白色冰原狼时，他就认出了雪诺是个易形者。易形者间总是心有灵犀。曼斯应该把那只冰原狼交给我附身，那会是如同国王般的新生。毫无疑问，他能做到。雪诺的天赋非常强大，但这个年轻没有接受过教导，而且还对这个本应感到自豪的本能有所抵触。

Varamyr could

see the weirwood’s red eyes staring down at him from the white trunk. The gods

are weighing me. A shiver went through him. He had done bad things, terrible

things. He had stolen, killed, raped. He had gorged on human flesh and lapped

the blood of dying men as it gushed red and hot from their torn throats. He had

stalked foes through the woods, fallen on them as they slept, clawed their

entrails from their bellies and scattered them across the muddy earth. How

sweet their meat had tasted. “That was the beast, not me,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “That was the gift you gave me.”瓦拉米尔能看鱼梁木白色树干上的红眼睛正盯着他。神正在审判我。他打了个寒颤。他干过坏事，非常糟糕的事。他是个小偷，杀手，强奸犯。他饱餐过人肉，从垂死的人身上舔食鲜血，那些鲜血从破碎的喉咙不断的涌出来。他在丛林中追踪那些足迹，趁他们熟睡时偷袭，把他们的肠子从肚子里拖出来，在泥泞的地上撕扯成碎片。他们的肉尝起来多么甜美。“都是畜生干的，不是我，”他用嘶哑的声音说。“那是你赐给我的天赋。”

The gods made no

reply. His breath hung pale and misty in the air. He could feel ice forming in

his beard. Varamyr Sixskins closed his eyes.神灵没有回应。他的呼吸在空气中凝成白雾。他能感到胡子已经开始结冰了。“六形人”瓦拉米尔合上了他的双眼。

He dreamt an old

dream of a hovel by the sea, three dogs whimpering, a woman’s tears.他又回想起那段遥远的记忆，海边的小屋，三只狂吠的狗，一个女人的眼泪。

Bump. She weeps

for Bump, but she never wept for me.班普。她是为班普而哭，她从来没有为我落泪过。

Lump had been

born a month before his proper time, and he was sick so often that no one

expected him to live. His mother waited until he was almost four to give him a

proper name, and by then it was too late. The whole village had taken to

calling him Lump, the name his sister Meha had given him when he was still in

their mother’s belly. Meha had given Bump his name as well, but Lump’s little

brother had been born in his proper time, big and red and robust, sucking

greedily at Mother’s teats. She was going to name him after Father. Bump died,

though. He died when he was two and I was six, three days before his nameday.拉普早产了一个月，他总是病怏怏的，没人希望他继续活着。他母亲直到他快四岁时才给他起名，已经太迟了。村里的人都叫他拉普，这是他还在他妈的肚子里时，姐姐给他起的名字。梅阿给班普也起了名字，班普的出生很顺利，惹人喜爱，粉红而健壮，吸吮着妈妈乳头里的奶水。她打算让他继承父亲的名字。但班普死了，在我四岁，他两岁的时候死了，离命名日还差三天。

“Your little one is with the gods now,” the woods witch told his

mother, as she wept. “He’ll never hurt again, never hunger, never cry. The gods

have taken him down into the earth, into the trees. The gods are all around us,

in the rocks and streams, in the birds and beasts. Your Bump has gone to join

them. He’ll be the world

and all that’s in it.”“你的小儿子现在正陪伴着神灵，”那个森林女巫对着哭泣的母亲说。“他不再会受到伤害，不再饥饿，不在哭泣。神灵把他带回大地，带回森林。神灵守护着我们，在岩石和溪流里，在飞鸟和走兽中。你的班普已经加入了他们。他会成为笼罩一切的那个世界。”

The old woman’s

words had gone through Lump like a knife. Bump sees. He is watching me. He

knows. Lump could not hide from him, could not slip behind his mother’s skirts

or run off with the dogs to escape his father’s fury. The dogs. Loptail, Sniff,

the Growler. They were good dogs. They were my friends.那个老女人的话，像把小刀一样划过拉普。班普在看，他在盯着我。拉普没法躲开他，溜到他妈妈的裙子后面或者和狗们一起逃离父亲的怒火，都没有用。那些狗，“断尾巴”，“抽鼻子”和“绕圈儿”，它们都是好狗，它们是我的朋友。

When his father

found the dogs sniffing round Bump’s body, he had no way of knowing which had

done it, so he took his axe to all three. His hands shook so badly that it took

two blows to silence Sniff and four to put the Growler down. The smell of blood

hung heavy in the air, and the sounds the dying dogs had made were terrible to

hear, yet Loptail still came when father called him. He was the oldest dog, and

his training overcame his terror. By the time Lump slipped inside his skin it

was too late.当他父亲发现这些狗在班普尸体旁猛嗅时，他无法断定是那只狗干的，因此他用斧子把三只全都宰了。他的手抖的那么厉害，以至于劈了两下子才让“抽鼻子”安静，四下才放倒“绕圈儿”。空气中浓浓的血味，狗临死前得惨叫听起来如此恐怖，但当他父亲叫到它的名字时，“断尾巴”还是靠了过去。他是最老的狗，他的训练压倒了他的恐惧。当拉普溜进他身体时已经太迟了。

No, Father,

please, he tried to say, but dogs cannot speak the tongues of men, so all that

emerged was a piteous whine. The axe crashed into the middle of the old dog’s

skull, and inside the hovel the boy let out a scream. That was how they knew.

Two days later, his father dragged him into the woods. He brought his axe, so

Lump thought he meant to put him down the same way he had done the dogs.

Instead he’d given him to

Haggon.不，父亲，不要。他试图叫喊，但狗发不出人的声音，听上去就是一声哀鸣。斧子劈在了老狗脑壳的正中间，小屋里的男孩发出了尖叫。这令他们都明白了。两天之后，父亲拖着他进了树林。他带着他的斧头，拉普以为他想要像收拾那些狗一样对付自己。可结果是他把他送给了哈根。

Varamyr woke

suddenly, violently, his whole body shaking. “Get up,” a voice was screaming,

“get up, we have to go. There are hundreds of them.” The snow had covered him

with a stiff white blanket. So cold. When he tried to move, he found that his

hand was frozen to the ground. He left some skin behind when he tore it loose. “Get up,” she screamed again, “they’re coming.”瓦拉米尔突然醒来，他整个身体给猛烈地摇晃着。“起来，”一个声音在吼着，“快起来，我们得赶紧逃，那里有成百的那些家伙。”雪已经盖住了他，像张僵硬的白色毯子。好冷，当他试图移动时，发现他的手被冻住了地上。他扯下来的时候留了些皮在那里。“起来，”她又吼了声，“他们来了。”

Thistle had

returned to him. She had him by the shoulders and was shaking him, shouting in

his face. Varamyr could smell her breath and feel the warmth of it upon cheeks

gone numb with cold. Now, he thought, do it now, or die.希斯尔回来了，她抓住他的肩膀抖动着他，对着他的脸大吼。瓦拉米尔能闻到她呼出的味道，冻木的脸也能感觉到它的温暖。现在，他想，要么马上下手，要么死。

He summoned all

the strength still in him, leapt out of his own skin, and forced himself inside

her.他调动体内残存的全部力量，跳出自己的身躯，像她身体里挤过去。

Thistle arched her

back and screamed.希斯尔弓起后背，发出嘶吼。

Abomination. Was

that her, or him, or Haggon? He never knew. His old flesh fell back into the

snowdrift as her fingers loosened. The spear-wife twisted violently, shrieking.

His shadowcat used to fight him wildly, and the snow bear had gone half-mad for

a time, snapping at trees and rocks and empty air, but this was worse. “Get

out, get out!” he heard her own mouth shouting. Her body staggered, fell, and

rose again, her hands flailed, her legs jerked this way and that in some

grotesque dance as his spirit and her own fought for the flesh. She sucked down

a mouthful of the frigid air, and Varamyr had half a heartbeat to glory in the

taste of it and the strength of this young body before her teeth snapped

together and filled his mouth with blood. She raised her hands to his face. He

tried to push them down again, but the hands would not obey, and she was

clawing at his eyes. Abomination, he remembered, drowning in blood and pain and

madness. When he tried to scream, she spat their tongue out.

禁忌。是她，还是他，或者哈根？他不清楚。他原来的躯体因为她手指的松开跌回雪堆里。这矛妇剧烈地扭动，尖叫着。他的影子山猫也曾狂野的挣扎过，那只雪熊在当时差点半疯，拼命地扑打树木，岩石和空气。但这次是最糟糕的。“滚开，滚开！”他能听到她的嘴在叫喊。她的身体要摇晃，跌倒又爬起，她的双手乱舞，双腿抽搐，像在跳着某个怪诞的舞步，他和她奋力争夺这个躯体。她吞下一大口冰冷的空气，在她牙咬紧之前，瓦拉米尔有那么一刹那欣喜地感受到了那个味道和这个年轻躯体的活力，接着他嘴里灌满了鲜血。她把双手伸向了他的脸颊。他试图让它们放下，可双手并不听从，她抠出了他的眼珠。禁忌，他记得，浸泡在鲜血，痛苦和疯狂中。当他想张嘴嚎叫时，她吐掉了他们的舌头。

The white world

turned and fell away. For a moment it was as if he were inside the weirwood,

gazing out through carved red eyes as a dying man twitched feebly on the ground

and a madwoman danced blind and bloody underneath the moon, weeping red tears

and ripping at her clothes. Then both were gone and he was rising, melting, his

spirit borne on some cold wind. He was in the snow and in the clouds, he was a

sparrow, a squirrel, an oak. A horned owl flew silently between his trees,

hunting a hare; Varamyr was inside the owl, inside the hare, inside the trees.

Deep below the frozen ground, earthworms burrowed blindly in the dark, and he

was them as well. I am the wood, and everything that’s in it, he thought,

exulting. A hundred ravens took to the air, cawing as they felt him pass. A

great elk trumpeted, unsettling the children clinging to his back. A sleeping

direwolf raised his head to snarl at empty air. Before their hearts could beat again

he had passed on, searching for his own, for One Eye, Sly, and Stalker, for his

pack. His wolves would save him, he told himself.白色的世界旋转并远离他。有那么一瞬间他好像身处鱼梁木之中，透过那只雕刻的红色眼睛，看到在月光之下，一个濒死的男人在地上虚弱地挣扎，一个疯狂的女人在盲目和血腥地舞动，流着血红的泪水并撕扯着她的衣服。然后他们全都消失了，他正漂浮，融化，他的灵魂被一阵冷风吹动。他一会儿钻到雪里，一会儿又飘到云上，他变成一只麻雀，一只松鼠，一棵橡树。一只长角的猫头鹰无声地划过他的枝条，正在追捕着野兔；瓦拉米尔忽而钻进猫头鹰，忽而进入野兔，忽而附在树上。在冻土之下，蚯蚓正在黑暗中盲目地拱着洞，我成了它们。我是树林，和它里面的一切，他狂喜的感到。成百只乌鸦飞到了空中，因为感觉到他的掠过而呱呱叫着。一只巨大的麋鹿嘶鸣着，不安的幼崽紧贴着它的后背。一只睡觉的冰原狼抬起了头，冲着虚空咆哮。没等它们的心再跳动一下，他就已经掠过了，搜寻着他的寄身，“独眼”，“淘气”，“猎手”，他的伙伴。他的狼会挽救他，他告诉自己。

That was his

last thought as a man.

这是他作为人的最后一个念头。

 True death came suddenly; he felt a shock ofcold, as if he had been plunged into the icy waters of a frozen lake. Then hefound himself rushing over moonlit snows with his packmates close behind him.Half the world was dark. One Eye, he knew. He bayed, and Sly and Stalker gaveecho. When they reached the crest the wolves paused. Thistle, he remembered,and a part of him grieved for what he had lost and another part for what he’ddone. Below, the world had turned to ice. Fingers of frost crept slowly up theweirwood, reaching out for each other. The empty village was no longer empty.Blue-eyed shadows walked amongst the mounds of snow. Some wore brown and somewore black and some were naked, their flesh gone white as snow. A wind wassighing through the hills, heavy with their scents: dead flesh, dry blood,skins that stank of mold and rot and urine. Sly gave a growl and bared herteeth, her ruff bristling. Not men. Not prey. Not these.

真正的死亡来得很突然；他感到一阵冰冷地冲击，就好像他被扔进一个结冻的湖里那冰冷的水中。然后他发现自己正和紧随在他后面的伙伴一起在月光照耀的雪地上奔驰。一半的世界是黑暗的。“独眼”，他知道，仰天长啸，“淘气”和“猎手”应和着。当他们到达山顶时，狼群停下了。希斯尔，他记得，他的一部分为他所失去的感到悲伤，另一部分为他所作的事情而难过。山下，世界变得冰冷，寒霜的手指缓慢的攀上了鱼梁木，一棵接着一棵。原本空旷的村子不再空旷了。蓝色眼睛的阴影在雪堆中穿行。有的穿着棕色衣服，有的穿着黑色，还有些赤裸着，他们的身体像雪一样苍白。一阵风吹过山丘，带着他们浓厚的气息：尸体，干涸的血液，烂泥塘和粪便般的恶臭。“淘气”发出一声嚎叫，呲出她的牙齿，她的颈毛直竖。不是人，不是掠袭者。不是这些。

The things below

moved, but did not live. One by one, they raised their heads toward the three

wolves on the hill. The last to look was the thing that had been Thistle. She wore

wool and fur and leather, and over that she wore a coat of hoarfrost that

crackled when she moved and glistened in the moonlight. Pale pink icicles hung

from her fingertips, ten long knives of frozen blood. And in the pits where her

eyes had been, a pale blue light was flickering, lending her coarse features an

eerie beauty they had never known in life.

下面那些家伙们在动，但不是活的。一个接一个，他们抬起了他们的头，望向山上的这三只狼。最后看过来的是曾是希斯尔的某个东西。她穿戴着羊毛，皮革和羽毛，那上面已经凝上了一层白霜，当她移动时纷纷碎裂脱落，在月光下闪烁着光芒。粉白色的冰锥挂在她的指尖，十只血液结成的小刀。在她的眼眶里，冰冷的蓝芒闪烁着，这为原本丑陋的她增添了一种他们之前从不知道的有些怪诞的美丽。

She sees me.

她看见我了。