JON
19琼恩
The courtyard rang to the song of swords.
刀剑铿锵响彻广场。
Under black wool, boiled leather, and mail,
sweat trickled icily down Jon’s chest as he pressed the attack. Grenn stumbled
backward, defending himself clumsily. When he raised his sword, Jon went
underneath it with a sweeping blow that crunched against the back of the other
boy’s leg and sent him staggering. Grenn’s downcut was answered by an overhand
that dented his helm. When he tried a sideswing, Jon swept aside his blade and
slammed a mailed forearm into his chest. Grenn lost his footing and sat down
hard in the snow. Jon knocked his sword from his fingers with a slash to his
wrist that brought a cry of pain.
琼恩穿着黑羊毛衫，外罩皮革背心和锁子甲，内里汗如雨下。他向前进逼，葛兰脚步不稳地后退，笨拙地举剑格挡。他刚举剑，琼恩便猛力一挥攻他下盘，击中他的脚，打得他步伐踉跄。葛兰向下还击，头上却挨了一记过肩砍，将他的头盔打凹。他又使出一记侧劈，结果琼恩拨开他的剑，然后用戴了护腕的手肘撞击他的腹部。葛兰重心不稳，狠狠地跌坐在雪地里。琼恩跟上砍中他的腕关节，痛得他惨叫一声丢下剑。
“Enough!” Ser
Alliser Thorne had a voice with an edge like Valyrian steel.
“够了！”艾里沙·索恩爵士的话音如瓦雷利亚刀锋裂空。
Grenn cradled his hand. “The bastard broke
my wrist.”
葛兰揉着手道：“这野种把我手腕打脱臼了。”
“The bastard
hamstrung you, opened your empty skull, and cut off your hand. Or would have,
if these blades had an edge. It’s fortunate for you that the Watch needs
stableboys as well as rangers.” Ser Alliser gestured at Jeren and Toad. “Get
the Aurochs on his feet, he has funeral arrangements to make.”
“假如用的真剑，野种早已挑断你的腿筋，劈开你的脑袋瓜子，砍断你的双手了。算你走运，我们守夜人需要的不只是游骑兵，也需要马房小弟。”艾里沙爵士朝杰伦和陶德挥手道：“把这头笨牛扶起来，他可以准备办丧事了。”
Jon took off his helm as the other boys
were pulling Grenn to his feet. The frosty morning air felt good on his face.
He leaned on his sword, drew a deep breath, and allowed himself a moment to
savor the victory.
其他的男孩搀扶葛兰起身，琼恩脱下头盔，结霜的晨气吹在脸上，感觉很舒服。他拄剑而立，深吸一口气，容许自己短暂地享受胜利的喜悦。
“That is a
longsword, not an old man’s cane,” Ser Alliser said sharply. “Are your legs
hurting, Lord Snow?”
“那是剑，不是老人的拐杖。”艾里沙爵士尖锐地说，“雪诺大人，您可是脚痛？”
Jon hated that name, a mockery that Ser
Alliser had hung on him the first day he came to practice. The boys had picked
it up, and now he heard it everywhere. He slid the longsword back into its
scabbard. “No,” he replied.
琼恩恨透了这个绰号，打从他练剑的第一天起，艾里沙爵士便这么叫他。其他男孩子有样学样，现在人人都这么称呼他了。他将长剑回鞘。“不是。”
Thorne strode toward him, crisp black
leathers whispering faintly as he moved. He was a compact man of fifty years,
spare and hard, with grey in his black hair and eyes like chips of onyx. “The
truth now,” he commanded.
索恩大跨步朝他走来，脆硬的黑皮革发出悉悉窣窣的声响。他约莫五十岁，体格结实，精瘦而严峻，一头黑发已有些灰白，而那双眼睛却如玛瑙般炯炯有神。“那是怎么回事？”他质问。
“I’m tired,” Jon
admitted. His arm burned from the weight of the longsword, and he was starting
to feel his bruises now that the fight was done.
“我累了。”琼恩承认。他的臂膀因为不断挥剑而感到酸麻，如今打斗结束，刚留下的擦伤也开始痛了起来。
“What you are is
weak.”
“这叫软弱。”
“I won.”
“可我赢了。”
“No. The Aurochs
lost.”
“不。是笨牛他输了。”
One of the other boys sniggered. Jon knew
better than to reply. He had beaten everyone that Ser Alliser had sent against
him, yet it gained him nothing. The master-at-arms served up only derision.
Thorne hated him, Jon had decided; of course, he hated the other boys even
worse.
一个旁观的男孩在偷偷窃笑。琼恩很清楚自己绝不能顶嘴。虽然他击败了每一个艾里沙爵士派来对付他的对手，却还是得不到应有的待遇。教头的嘴边只有嘲笑和讥讽。索恩一定是讨厌他，琼恩暗自认为；不过话说回来，索恩更讨厌其他男孩。
“That will be
all,” Thorne told them. “I can only stomach so much ineptitude in any one day.
If the Others ever come for us, I pray they have archers, because you lot are
fit for nothing more than arrow fodder.”
“今天就到此为止。”索恩告诉他们。“我对饭桶可没什么耐性。假如哪天异鬼真打过来，我倒希望他们带上弓箭，因为你们只配当靶子。”
Jon followed the rest back to the armory,
walking alone. He often walked alone here. There were almost twenty in the
group he trained with, yet not one he could call a friend. Most were two or
three years his senior, yet not one was half the fighter Robb had been at
fourteen. Dareon was quick but afraid of being hit. Pyp used his sword like a
dagger, Jeren was weak as a girl, Grenn slow and clumsy. Halder’s blows were
brutally hard but he ran right into your attacks. The more time he spent with
them, the more Jon despised them.
琼恩跟着其他人返回兵器库，孤零零地走在中间。他一直都孤零零的。一起受训的小队约有二十人，却没有一个称得上是朋友。多数人长他两三岁，打起来却连十四岁罗柏的一半都比不上。戴利恩动作敏捷，但很怕挨打；派普老把剑当匕首来使；杰伦弱得像个女孩子；葛兰迟钝又笨拙；霍德攻势虽猛，可总是没头没脑。琼恩越是和这些人交手，就越鄙视他们。
Inside, Jon hung sword and scabbard from a
hook in the stone wall, ignoring the others around him. Methodically, he began
to strip off his mail, leather, and sweat-soaked woolens. Chunks of coal burned
in iron braziers at either end of the long room, but Jon found himself
shivering. The chill was always with him here. In a few years he would forget
what it felt like to be warm.
进到室内，琼恩把入鞘的剑挂回石墙的钩子上，刻意不理睬其他人。他有条不紊地解下盔甲、皮衣和汗湿的羊毛衫。长长的房间两端，铁火盆里的煤炭熊熊燃烧，但琼恩仍止不住发抖。此地，寒意总是如影随形，想必数年之后他便会忘记温暖的滋味。
The weariness came on him suddenly, as he
donned the roughspun blacks that were their everyday wear. He sat on a bench,
his fingers fumbling with the fastenings on his cloak. So cold, he thought,
remembering the warm halls of Winterfell, where the hot waters ran through the
walls like blood through a man’s body. There was scant warmth to be found in
Castle Black; the walls were cold here, and the people colder.
他穿上日常的粗布黑衣，倦怠感突然排山倒海般朝他袭来。他找条板凳坐下，手指摸索着系上斗篷。好冷啊，他一边想，一边回忆起临冬城的厅堂，那里有温泉终年流贯壁垒之间，仿如人体内流淌的血液。黑城堡里没有暖意，只有冰冷的墙壁，和更加冷漠的人。
No one had told him the Night’s Watch would
be like this; no one except Tyrion Lannister. The dwarf had given him the truth
on the road north, but by then it had been too late. Jon wondered if his father
had known what the Wall would be like. He must have, he thought; that only made
it hurt the worse.
除了提利昂·兰尼斯特，没人对他提过守夜人部队竟是这副光景。那侏儒在他们北上途中把事情真相告诉了他，但那时已经太迟了。琼恩不禁怀疑父亲知不知道长城守军的真正情形。他一定知道，想到这里他更觉心痛。
Even his uncle had abandoned him in this
cold place at the end of the world. Up here, the genial Benjen Stark he had
known became a different person. He was First Ranger, and he spent his days and
nights with Lord Commander Mormont and Maester Aemon and the other high
officers, while Jon was given over to the less than tender charge of Ser
Alliser Thorne.
就连叔叔，竟也这么把他遗弃在这世界尽头的冰冷寒荒。他原先所认识的那个个性温和的班扬·史塔克，到这里完全变了个人。他是首席游骑兵，整日与莫尔蒙总司令，伊蒙学士和其他高级官员为伍，而将琼恩丢给坏脾气的艾里沙·索恩爵士。
Three days after their arrival, Jon had
heard that Benjen Stark was to lead a half-dozen men on a ranging into the
haunted forest. That night he sought out his uncle in the great timbered common
hall and pleaded to go with him. Benjen refused him curtly. “This is not
Winterfell,” he told him as he cut his meat with fork and dagger. “On the Wall,
a man gets only what he earns. You’re no ranger, Jon, only a green boy with the
smell of summer still on you.”
他们抵达长城三天后，琼恩听说班扬·史塔克将率领六名手下深入鬼影森林巡察。当天夜里，他在城堡的木造大厅中找到叔叔，央求他带自己一道去。班扬直截了当地回绝了他。“这可不是临冬城，”他边用刀叉切肉边对他说，“在长城守军里，想得到什么样的待遇，就得证明自己有什么样的本事。琼恩，你还不是游骑兵，你只是个稚气未脱，身上还残留着夏天气味的小鬼。”
Stupidly, Jon argued. “I’ll be fifteen on
my name day,” he said. “Almost a man grown.”
琼恩愚蠢地争辩：“到明年命名日我就满十五岁，”他说，“很快就要长大成人了。”
Benjen Stark frowned. “A boy you are, and a
boy you’ll remain until Ser Alliser says you are fit to be a man of the Night’s
Watch. If you thought your Stark blood would win you easy favors, you were
wrong. We put aside our old families when we swear our vows. Your father will
always have a place in my heart, but these are my brothers now.” He gestured
with his dagger at the men around them, all the hard cold men in black.
班扬·史塔克皱眉道：“在艾里沙爵士判定你成为守夜人部队的汉子之前，你都只是个小鬼，只能是个小鬼。假如你以为仗着自己史塔克家人的身份，就可以坐享其成，那就大错而特错。我们宣誓入伍时，早已断绝一切身家背景。拿你父亲来说，虽然他会永远在我心中占据一席之地，但如今这些人才是我的手足兄弟。”他拿匕首朝身边的人比划两下，指指这些饱经风霜的黑衣战士。
Jon rose at dawn the next day to watch his
uncle leave. One of his rangers, a big ugly man, sang a bawdy song as he
saddled his garron, his breath steaming in the cold morning air. Ben Stark
smiled at that, but he had no smile for his nephew. “How often must I tell you
no, Jon? We’ll speak when I return.”
翌日拂晓，琼恩起身目送他叔叔离去。叔叔手下一名高大而丑陋的游骑兵一边装配马鞍，一边高唱歌词猥亵的曲子，吐出的气息在清晨的冷气里蒸腾。班扬·史塔克对他是满脸笑容，对自己侄子却没好气。“琼恩，你要我说多少遍？你不能去，等我回来我们再找时间谈谈。”
As he watched his uncle lead his horse into
the tunnel, Jon had remembered the things that Tyrion Lannister told him on the
kingsroad, and in his mind’s eye he saw Ben Stark lying dead, his blood red on
the snow. The thought made him sick. What was he becoming?
琼恩看着叔叔牵马走进隧道，向北而去，不禁想起提利昂·兰尼斯特在国王大道上告诉过他的事，脑海里接连浮现出班扬·史塔克倒卧雪地，血迹斑斑的情景。这个念头令他反胃。我究竟成了个什么人？
Afterward he sought out Ghost in the
loneliness of his cell, and buried his face in his thick white fur.
之后他在孤单的卧室里找到白灵，把脸深深地埋进他厚厚的白毛皮。
If he must be alone, he would make solitude
his armor. Castle Black had no godswood, only a small sept and a drunken
septon, but Jon could not find it in him to pray to any gods, old or new. If
they were real, he thought, they were as cruel and implacable as winter.
既然他注定孤单，他便要化寂寞为力量。黑城堡没有神木林，只有一间小小的圣堂和醉醺醺的修士，但琼恩实在无心向神明祷告，管他是新神还是旧神。他心里认为，倘若诸神真的存在，想必也是和这里的严冬一样残酷无情罢。
He missed his true brothers: little Rickon,
bright eyes shining as he begged for a sweet; Robb, his rival and best friend
and constant companion; Bran, stubborn and curious, always wanting to follow
and join in whatever Jon and Robb were doing. He missed the girls too, even
Sansa, who never called him anything but “my half brother” since she was old
enough to understand what bastard meant. And Arya?.?.?.?he missed her even more
than Robb, skinny little thing that she was, all scraped knees and tangled hair
and torn clothes, so fierce and willful. Arya never seemed to fit, no more than
he had?.?.?.?yet she could always make Jon smile. He would give anything to be
with her now, to muss up her hair once more and watch her make a face, to hear
her finish a sentence with him.
他想念自己真正的兄弟：小瑞肯想吃甜食时眼瞳闪闪发亮的神情；罗柏是他最旗鼓相当的对手，也是他最要好的朋友和玩伴；固执又充满好奇心的布兰，不论琼恩和罗柏做些什么，他总想插一脚。他也想念两个妹妹，甚至包括那个自从懂得“私生子”的意思之后，就只肯以“我的同父异母哥哥”来称呼他的珊莎。至于艾莉亚……这个老是磨破膝盖，满头乱发，不然就是钩破衣服，一股牛脾气的瘦巴巴小东西，他想念她的程度甚至超过罗柏。艾莉亚和他一样，永远与环境格格不入……但她总有办法让琼恩会心一笑。此时琼恩愿意付出一切，只换取能和她重聚片刻，再拨弄她的乱发，再看她扮起鬼脸，再听她和自己心有灵犀地说出同一句话。
“You broke my
wrist, bastard boy.”
“小杂种，你把我弄脱臼了。”
Jon lifted his eyes at the sullen voice.
Grenn loomed over him, thick of neck and red of face, with three of his friends
behind him. He knew Todder, a short ugly boy with an unpleasant voice. The
recruits all called him Toad. The other two were the ones Yoren had brought
north with them, Jon remembered, rapers taken down in the Fingers. He’d
forgotten their names. He hardly ever spoke to them, if he could help it. They
were brutes and bullies, without a thimble of honor between them.
琼恩抬眼朝那充满怒意的声源望去。葛兰脸红脖子粗地高高站在他面前，身后还有三个跟班。他认出生得既矮且丑，还有副难听嗓音的陶德，新兵们都叫他癞哈蟆。琼恩想起另外两个家伙是五指半岛地方逮着的强奸犯，被尤伦带到北方来的，不过他忘记名字了。他想尽办法不和他们说话，他们全都是生性残忍的恶霸，从不知荣誉为何物。
Jon stood up. “I’ll break the other one for
you if you ask nicely.” Grenn was sixteen and a head taller than Jon. All four
of them were bigger than he was, but they did not scare him. He’d beaten every
one of them in the yard.
琼恩霍地起身。“你如果好好求我，我很乐意帮你把另一只手也打断。”葛兰今年十六岁，整整比琼恩高出一头。他们个头都比他大，但吓不了他。他在校场上早就教训过每一个人。
“Maybe we’ll break
you,” one of the rapers said.
“说不定断手的是你哦。”其中一名强奸犯道。
“Try.” Jon reached
back for his sword, but one of them grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his
back.
“有种你便试试。”琼恩伸手拿剑，但对方中的一人抓住他的手，扭到背后。
“You make us look bad,”
complained Toad.
“你老让我们难看。”癞哈蟆抱怨。
“You looked bad
before I ever met you,” Jon told him. The boy who had his arm jerked upward on
him, hard. Pain lanced through him, but Jon would not cry out.
“咱们没打照面以前，你们就够难看啦。”琼恩告诉他们。抓住他手的男孩用力往后一拧，剧痛立刻直穿脑际，但琼恩依旧不吭一声。
Toad stepped close. “The little lordling
has a mouth on him,” he said. He had pig eyes, small and shiny. “Is that your
mommy’s mouth, bastard? What was she, some whore? Tell us her name. Maybe I had
her a time or two.” He laughed.
癞哈蟆向前逼近几步。“咱们小少爷生了张碎嘴，”他说。他生得一双小而亮的猪眼睛。“小杂种，是不是你娘传给你的啊？她是做什么来着的，敢情是个婊子？告诉我她花名叫啥，搞不好老子干过她几回嘞。”他咧嘴笑道。
Jon twisted like an eel and slammed a heel
down across the instep of the boy holding him. There was a sudden cry of pain,
and he was free. He flew at Toad, knocked him backward over a bench, and landed
on his chest with both hands on his throat, slamming his head against the
packed earth.
琼恩像条鳗鱼般地用力一扭，后脚跟朝抓住他的男孩胯下狠狠踢去。身后传来一声惨叫，然后他便挣脱了。他朝癞哈蟆扑过去，一拳把他打得翻过长板凳，他穷追不舍，跳上对方胸膛，两手掐紧脖子，使劲往地面撞。
The two from the Fingers pulled him off,
throwing him roughly to the ground. Grenn began to kick at him. Jon was rolling
away from the blows when a booming voice cut through the gloom of the armory.
“STOP THIS! NOW!”
两个五指半岛来的家伙拉开他，粗暴地把他摔倒在地，葛兰开始踢他。琼恩正要滚离他们的拳打脚踢，只听一个宏钟般的声音划过兵器库的阴霾：“通通给我住手！马上停手！”
Jon pulled himself to his feet. Donal Noye
stood glowering at them. “The yard is for fighting,” the armorer said. “Keep
your quarrels out of my armory, or I’ll make them my quarrels. You won’t like
that.”
琼恩爬起来，唐纳·诺伊怒视着他们，“要打架到场子里去打，”武器师傅说，“别把你们的恩怨带进我的兵器库，否则别怪我插手。相信我，你们不会喜欢的。”
Toad sat on the floor, gingerly feeling the
back of his head. His fingers came away bloody. “He tried to kill me.”
癞哈蟆坐在地上，小心翼翼摸摸后脑勺，只见手指上全是血。“他想杀我。”
“ ’S true. I saw
it,” one of the rapers put in.
“是真的，俺亲眼看到的。”其中一名强奸犯说。
“He broke my
wrist,” Grenn said again, holding it out to Noye for inspection.
“他把我的手给打断了。”葛兰边说边举起手给诺伊看。
The armorer gave the offered wrist the
briefest of glances. “A bruise. Perhaps a sprain. Maester Aemon will give you a
salve. Go with him, Todder, that head wants looking after. The rest of you,
return to your cells. Not you, Snow. You stay.”
武器师傅瞟了他手腕一眼，“我看只是擦伤，顶多扭到，伊蒙师傅那里有的是好膏药。陶德，你跟他一块去，头上的伤注意一下。其他人回营去。雪诺留下。”
Jon sat heavily on the long wooden bench as
the others left, oblivious to the looks they gave him, the silent promises of
future retribution. His arm was throbbing.
琼恩重重地坐回长板凳，不理睬其他人离去时的眼神，那眼神仿佛在向他保证事情没这么容易解决。他的手一阵抽痛。
“The Watch has
need of every man it can get,” Donal Noye said when they were alone. “Even men
like Toad. You won’t win any honors killing him.”
“守夜人需要每一份力量，”待他人都离开后，唐纳·诺伊道，“甚至像是癞哈蟆这种人。杀了他，你也没什么光荣可言。”
Jon’s anger flared. “He said my mother
was...”
琼恩怒火中烧。“他说我妈是——”
“...a whore. I
heard him. What of it?”
“——是个婊子。我听到了。那又如何？”
“Lord Eddard Stark
was not a man to sleep with whores,” Jon said icily. “His honor...”
“艾德·史塔克公爵才不是会去逛窑子的人，”琼恩冷冷地说，“他的荣誉——”
“...did not
prevent him from fathering a bastard. Did it?”
“——免不了他在外面生出个私生子，不是么？”
Jon was cold with rage. “Can I go?”
琼恩气得浑身发冷。“我可以走了吗？”
“You go when I
tell you to go.”
“我说可以你才可以。”
Jon stared sullenly at the smoke rising
from the brazier, until Noye took him under the chin, thick fingers twisting
his head around. “Look at me when I’m talking to you, boy.”
琼恩恨恨地盯着火盆升起的白烟，直到诺伊伸出粗壮的手托住他下巴，把他的头粗暴地扭过来。“小子，我跟你说话的时候看着我。”
Jon looked. The armorer had a chest like a
keg of ale and a gut to match. His nose was flat and broad, and he always
seemed in need of a shave. The left sleeve of his black wool tunic was fastened
at the shoulder with a silver pin in the shape of a longsword. “Words won’t
make your mother a whore. She was what she was, and nothing Toad says can
change that. You know, we have men on the Wall whose mothers were whores.”
于是琼恩看着他。武器师傅的胸膛宽阔得像个酒桶，肚子更是大得惊人。他的鼻子又宽又扁，那一脸胡子好似从来没刮。他的黑羊毛外衣左襟用一个长剑形状的别针系在肩头。“光嘴巴上说说，你妈也不会变成婊子。她是什么样的人，就是什么样的人，和癞哈蟆怎么说有何干系。话说回来，咱们部队里还真有些人的娘是婊子。”
Not my mother, Jon thought stubbornly. He
knew nothing of his mother; Eddard Stark would not talk of her. Yet he dreamed
of her at times, so often that he could almost see her face. In his dreams, she
was beautiful, and highborn, and her eyes were kind.
我妈可不是，琼恩倔强地暗想。他对自己的母亲一无所知，艾德·史塔克绝口不提关于她的事情。但他经常梦见她，次数频繁到他几乎可以拼凑出她的容貌。梦中的她出身高贵，美丽动人，眼神慈蔼。
“You think you had
it hard, being a high lord’s bastard?” the armorer went on. “That boy Jeren is
a septon’s get, and Cotter Pyke is the baseborn son of a tavern wench. Now he
commands Eastwatch by the Sea.”
“你以为自己是大贵族的私生子，就觉得特别难受？”武器师傅继续下去，“告诉你，杰伦那家伙是个六根不净的教士的野种。卡特·派克是个酒馆女侍的儿子，结果现在人家是东海望守备队长。”
“I don’t care,”
Jon said. “I don’t care about them and I don’t care about you or Thorne or
Benjen Stark or any of it. I hate it here. It’s too?.?.?.? it’s cold.”
“我不在乎，”琼恩道，“我才不管他们怎样，我也不管你或索恩或班扬·史塔克或是谁谁谁怎么样。我恨死这地方了。这里……这里好冷。”
“Yes. Cold and
hard and mean, that’s the Wall, and the men who walk it. Not like the stories
your wet nurse told you. Well, piss on the stories and piss on your wet nurse.
This is the way it is, and you’re here for life, same as the rest of us.”
“是啊，又冷又苦又险恶，这就是长城的景况，也是这里守军的写照。绝不像你奶妈所说的睡前故事。哼，去他的睡前故事，去你的奶妈罢，事情就是这样子，而你一辈子都跟我们其他人一起，注定要待在这儿了。”
“Life,” Jon
repeated bitterly. The armorer could talk about life. He’d had one. He’d only
taken the black after he’d lost an arm at the siege of Storm’s End. Before that
he’d smithed for Stannis Baratheon, the king’s brother. He’d seen the Seven
Kingdoms from one end to the other; he’d feasted and wenched and fought in a
hundred battles. They said it was Donal Noye who’d forged King Robert’s
warhammer, the one that crushed the life from Rhaegar Targaryen on the Trident.
He’d done all the things that Jon would never do, and then when he was old, well
past thirty, he’d taken a glancing blow from an axe and the wound had festered
until the whole arm had to come off. Only then, crippled, had Donal Noye come
to the Wall, when his life was all but over.
“一辈子。”琼恩苦涩地重复。武器师傅可以拿一辈子来大做文章，因为他见过世面，经历过大风大浪。他是在风息堡之围中失去了一条胳膊后才加入黑衫军的，在那之前他是国王的大弟史坦尼斯·拜拉席恩的铁匠。他足迹遍布七国，吃过山珍海味，尝过女人的甜美，打过不知几百场大小战役。据说劳勃国王在三叉戟河上杀死雷加·坦格利安那把战锤，正是唐纳·诺伊所铸造。他已经做过琼恩永远也不可能做到的事，等到年过三十，却因一记轻微的斧伤发炎溃烂，最后不得不截掉整只手。也就是在他成了残废，这辈子的幸运已经结束的时候，唐纳·诺伊才来到长城。
“Yes, life,” Noye
said. “A long life or a short one, it’s up to you, Snow. The road you’re
walking, one of your brothers will slit your throat for you one night.”
“是啊，雪诺，一辈子。”诺伊道，“或长或短，操之你手。照你现在这种态度，早晚会有弟兄半夜割了你喉咙。”
“They’re not my
brothers,” Jon snapped. “They hate me because I’m better than they are.”
“他们才不是我弟兄，”琼恩驳斥，“他们恨我，因为我比他们优秀。”
“No. They hate you
because you act like you’re better than they are. They look at you and see a
castle-bred bastard who thinks he’s a lordling.” The armorer leaned close.
“You’re no lordling. Remember that. You’re a Snow, not a Stark. You’re a
bastard and a bully.”
“错了，他们恨的是你高高在上的优越感。他们眼中的你，是个城里来的、自以为是小少爷的杂种。”武器匠靠近来，“记住，你不是什么大人少爷，你姓的是雪诺，不是史塔克。而现在，你不但是私生子，还是个恶霸。”
“A bully?” Jon
almost choked on the word. The accusation was so unjust it took his breath
away. “They were the ones who came after me. Four of them.”
“恶霸？”琼恩差点说不出话。这指控实在太不公平，气得他喘不过气来。“是他们四个先来找我麻烦。”
“Four that you’ve
humiliated in the yard. Four who are probably afraid of you. I’ve watched you
fight. It’s not training with you. Put a good edge on your sword, and they’d be
dead meat; you know it, I know it, they know it. You leave them nothing. You
shame them. Does that make you proud?”
“他们四个人在场子里都被你羞辱过，说不定怕你怕得要死。我看过你练剑，跟你比划那不叫练习，要是你使的真剑，他们已经死上好几回了。你很清楚，我很清楚，他们也很清楚。你完全不留情面地羞辱他们，难道你觉得这样很值得骄傲？”
Jon hesitated. He did feel proud when he
won. Why shouldn’t he? But the armorer was taking that away too, making it
sound as if he were doing something wrong. “They’re all older than me,” he said
defensively.
琼恩迟疑了。他打赢的时候的确颇感骄傲，难道他不应该么？武器师傅连这么一点点喜悦也要剥夺，还让他觉得自己好像做错了什么。“他们年纪都比我大。”他防卫性地说。
“Older and bigger
and stronger, that’s the truth. I’ll wager your master-at-arms taught you how
to fight bigger men at Winterfell, though. Who was he, some old knight?”
“他们是比你年长，也比你高壮。不过我敢打赌临冬城的教头一定教过你如何对付比自己高大的人。他是谁，某位老骑士？”
“Ser Rodrik
Cassel,” Jon said warily. There was a trap here. He felt it closing around him.
“是罗德利克·凯索爵士。”琼恩小心答道。他觉得对方话中有话。
Donal Noye leaned forward, into Jon’s face.
“Now think on this, boy. None of these others have ever had a master-at-arms
until Ser Alliser. Their fathers were farmers and wagonmen and poachers, smiths
and miners and oars on a trading galley. What they know of fighting they
learned between decks, in the alleys of Oldtown and Lannisport, in wayside
brothels and taverns on the kingsroad. They may have clacked a few sticks
together before they came here, but I promise you, not one in twenty was ever
rich enough to own a real sword.” His look was grim. “So how do you like the
taste of your victories now, Lord Snow?”
唐纳·诺伊向前靠，几乎要贴上琼恩的脸。“小子，你想想罢，这儿的人在遇上艾里沙爵士以前没一个受过正式训练。他们的父亲是农民、车夫还有盗猎者，是铁匠、矿工或船上的桨手。他们的打架技巧是从甲板上、旧镇和兰尼斯港的暗巷里，或从国王大道路边的妓院、酒馆中学来的。他们或许相互耍耍棍子，但我跟你保证，里面没几个买得起真剑。”他一脸冷酷的表情，“所以雪诺大人，你倒是告诉我，打赢这些人真的很爽么？”
“Don’t call me
that!” Jon said sharply, but the force had gone out of his anger. Suddenly he
felt ashamed and guilty. “I never?.?.?.? I didn’t think?.?.?.?”
“不要这样叫我！”琼恩激动地说。但他的怒意已没了力气，突然间只觉得惭愧和罪恶。“我不知道……我以为……”
“Best you start
thinking,” Noye warned him. “That, or sleep with a dagger by your bed. Now go.”
“好好想一想，”诺伊提醒他。“不然就准备枕着匕首睡觉。行了，你回去吧。”
By the time Jon left the armory, it was
almost midday. The sun had broken through the clouds. He turned his back on it
and lifted his eyes to the Wall, blazing blue and crystalline in the sunlight.
Even after all these weeks, the sight of it still gave him the shivers.
Centuries of windblown dirt had pocked and scoured it, covering it like a film,
and it often seemed a pale grey, the color of an overcast sky?.?.?.?but when
the sun caught it fair on a bright day, it shone, alive with light, a colossal
blue-white cliff that filled up half the sky.
琼恩离开武器库时，已近中午。太阳拨开云层，露出脸来。他转身背向阳光，将视线抬至长城，看着城墙在阳光下闪着晶莹的蓝光。虽然已经在此生活了好几个星期，可每当他目光触及这番景象，依旧不禁浑身颤抖。无数世代的风沙污泥，早在城墙留下印痕，宛如一层覆盖的膜，以至于城墙有时成了浅灰，犹如阴霾天际……但当晴日里天光直射，长城又仿佛有生命般闪闪发亮，如同一道横断半天的蓝白绝壁。
The largest structure ever built by the
hands of man, Benjen Stark had told Jon on the kingsroad when they had first
caught sight of the Wall in the distance. “And beyond a doubt the most
useless,” Tyrion Lannister had added with a grin, but even the Imp grew silent
as they rode closer. You could see it from miles off, a pale blue line across
the northern horizon, stretching away to the east and west and vanishing in the
far distance, immense and unbroken. This is the end of the world, it seemed to
say.
当初他们在国王大道上遥遥望见长城时，班扬·史塔克告诉琼恩这是人类所造最庞大的建筑物。“毫无疑问也是最没用的。”听完后，提利昂·兰尼斯特嘻笑着加上一句。然而随着距离渐渐拉近，连小恶魔也沉默下来。几里之外便可清楚地看到这条横亘北方地平线的灰蓝直线，毫不间断地向东西两边延展，直到消失于远方，好像在宣告：这里便是世界尽头。
When they finally spied Castle Black, its
timbered keeps and stone towers looked like nothing more than a handful of toy
blocks scattered on the snow, beneath the vast wall of ice. The ancient
stronghold of the black brothers was no Winterfell, no true castle at all.
Lacking walls, it could not be defended, not from the south, or east, or west;
but it was only the north that concerned the Night’s Watch, and to the north
loomed the Wall. Almost seven hundred feet high it stood, three times the
height of the tallest tower in the stronghold it sheltered. His uncle said the
top was wide enough for a dozen armored knights to ride abreast. The gaunt
outlines of huge catapults and monstrous wooden cranes stood sentry up there,
like the skeletons of great birds, and among them walked men in black as small
as ants.
待他们终于见到黑城堡，却发现那不过是这面广大冰墙下的木造城楼和石砌高塔，看起来简直就像散布雪地的玩具积木。黑衫军的古老堡垒远不如临冬城，甚至称不上是座像样的城堡。它没有城墙，无法抵御来自东西南三方面的攻击，守夜人部队惟一关心的只有北方，而高耸在黑堡北边的正是绝境长城。长城高近七百尺，足足是它所庇护的要塞上最高的塔楼的三倍。叔叔说城墙之宽，足以让十二名全副武装的骑士并肩共骑。巨大的弩炮和怪兽般的投石机守卫着城墙，行走其上的黑衣军渺小如同蝼蚁。
As he stood outside the armory looking up,
Jon felt almost as overwhelmed as he had that day on the kingsroad, when he’d
seen it for the first time. The Wall was like that. Sometimes he could almost
forget that it was there, the way you forgot about the sky or the earth
underfoot, but there were other times when it seemed as if there was nothing
else in the world. It was older than the Seven Kingdoms, and when he stood
beneath it and looked up, it made Jon dizzy. He could feel the great weight of
all that ice pressing down on him, as if it were about to topple, and somehow
Jon knew that if it fell, the world fell with it.
如今站在兵器库外向上看去，琼恩感受的震慑丝毫不亚于当日在国王大道上初见之时。绝境长城就是如此，有时你会忘记其存在，一如你对头顶长空和脚下大地司空见惯，不以为意，但有时又仿佛是举世间惟一真切的存在。它比七大王国还要古老，每当琼恩站在城墙下抬头仰望，总是头晕目眩。他可以感觉到雄浑繁厚的冰层向他重压而来，仿佛城墙崩塌要将他掩埋。琼恩隐约知道，倘若哪天长城真的陷落，整个世界必将随之瓦解。
“Makes you wonder
what lies beyond,” a familiar voice said.
“墙外是什么，真叫人猜不透，对吧？”一个熟悉的声音道。
Jon looked around. “Lannister. I didn’t
see, I mean, I thought I was alone.”
琼恩转过头。“兰尼斯特。我没看到——我的意思是说，我以为这儿只有我一个人。”
Tyrion Lannister was bundled in furs so
thickly he looked like a very small bear. “There’s much to be said for taking
people unawares. You never know what you might learn.”
提利昂·兰尼斯特全身裹满毛皮，活像只小熊。“乘人不备好处多多，你永远也不知道会学到些什么。”
“You won’t learn
anything from me,” Jon told him. He had seen little of the dwarf since their
journey ended. As the queen’s own brother, Tyrion Lannister had been an honored
guest of the Night’s Watch. The Lord Commander had given him rooms in the
King’s Tower, so-called, though no king had visited it for a hundred years, and
Lannister dined at Mormont’s own table and spent his days riding the Wall and
his nights dicing and drinking with Ser Alliser and Bowen Marsh and the other
high officers.
“从我这儿你能学到什么？”琼恩告诉他。自他们的旅途结束之后，他便很少看到这侏儒。提利昂·兰尼斯特既是王后的弟弟，自然受到贵客般的款待。莫尔蒙总司令让他住在国王塔——说得好听，其实已有一百年没国王住过了——和他同桌用餐。兰尼斯特白天在长城上骑马，晚上则与艾里沙爵士、波文·马尔锡和其他高阶官员饮酒赌博。
“Oh, I learn
things everywhere I go.” The little man gestured up at the Wall with a gnarled
black walking stick. “As I was saying?.?.?.?why is it that when one man builds
a wall, the next man immediately needs to know what’s on the other side?” He
cocked his head and looked at Jon with his curious mismatched eyes. “You do
want to know what’s on the other side, don’t you?”
“唉，我走到哪儿学到哪儿。”这矮子用一根粗糙的黑拐杖指着长城，“我常说……怎么前人千辛万苦才把城墙盖好，后人立刻便想知道墙的另一面有什么？”他歪着头，用那双大小不一的古怪眼睛看着琼恩。“你也不例外，对不？”
“It’s nothing
special,” Jon said. He wanted to ride with Benjen Stark on his rangings, deep
into the mysteries of the haunted forest, wanted to fight Mance Rayder’s
wildlings and ward the realm against the Others, but it was better not to speak
of the things you wanted. “The rangers say it’s just woods and mountains and
frozen lakes, with lots of snow and ice.”
“我看没什么特别。”琼恩道。他好想跟随班扬·史塔克一同出外巡猎，深入鬼影森林，好想与曼斯·雷德的野人交锋，守护王国免于异鬼侵袭，但自己心里想要什么，还是别说出来的好。“游骑兵说墙外不过就是树林、山脉和结冻的湖泊，一片冰天雪地。”
“And the grumkins
and the snarks,” Tyrion said. “Let us not forget them, Lord Snow, or else
what’s that big thing for?”
“还有害人的古灵精怪呐，”提利昂说，“可别忘了，雪诺大人。否则大伙儿干嘛这么大动干戈？”
“Don’t call me
Lord Snow.”
“不要叫我雪诺大人。”
The dwarf lifted an eyebrow. “Would you
rather be called the Imp? Let them see that their words can cut you, and you’ll
never be free of the mockery. If they want to give you a name, take it, make it
your own. Then they can’t hurt you with it anymore.” He gestured with his
stick. “Come, walk with me. They’ll be serving some vile stew in the common
hall by now, and I could do with a bowl of something hot.”
侏儒扬扬眉毛。“难道我喜欢被人叫小恶魔？一旦别人发现绰号对你的杀伤力，这绰号就跟定你啦。既然他们爱给你起绰号，你就大大方方地接受，最好还装出乐在其中的样子，那他们就再也伤不了你了。”他举起拐杖指指前方。“哪，跟我走走。他们这会儿应该在大厅里弄那难吃的汤了，我正想喝点热的。”
Jon was hungry too, so he fell in beside
Lannister and slowed his pace to match the dwarf’s awkward, waddling steps. The
wind was rising, and they could hear the old wooden buildings creaking around
them, and in the distance a heavy shutter banging, over and over, forgotten.
Once there was a muffled thump as a blanket of snow slid from a roof and landed
near them.
琼恩也饿了，所以他走在兰尼斯特身边，刻意放慢脚步以配合侏儒笨拙而古怪的姿势。风势渐大，他们可以听见周围木屋嘎吱作响。远处，一道被遗忘的厚重窗户反复噼砰。一堆雪从屋顶滑下，落在他们身边，发出低沉的撞击。
“I don’t see your
wolf,” Lannister said as they walked.
“没见你的狼呢。”兰尼斯特边走边说。
“I chain him up in
the old stables when we’re training. They board all the horses in the east stables
now, so no one bothers him. The rest of the time he stays with me. My sleeping
cell is in Hardin’s Tower.”
“训练的时候，我把它拴在旧马房那边。他们现在把马都关在东边的马厩，所以不会碍着他。其他时候他都跟着我，我睡在哈丁塔。”
“That’s the one
with the broken battlement, no? Shattered stone in the yard below, and a lean
to it like our noble king Robert after a long night’s drinking? I thought all
those buildings had been abandoned.”
“就那座连城垛都塌掉的塔，是吗？那塔下面的广场都是碎石头，整个还歪歪斜斜，跟咱们高贵的劳勃国王酒醉后一个德行。我以为那些塔早就废弃不用了。”
Jon shrugged. “No one cares where you
sleep. Most of the old keeps are empty, you can pick any cell you want.” Once
Castle Black had housed five thousand fighting men with all their horses and
servants and weapons. Now it was home to a tenth that number, and parts of it
were falling into ruin.
琼恩耸耸肩道，“反正没人管你睡哪儿。这些古堡几乎都荒废了，爱睡哪里随便你。”黑城堡曾经拥有多达五千名全副武装、鞍马齐备、仆从如云的战士。如今却只剩十分之一的数量，建筑也纷纷沦为荒颓废墟。
Tyrion Lannister’s laughter steamed in the
cold air. “I’ll be sure to tell your father to arrest more stonemasons, before
your tower collapses.”
提利昂·兰尼斯特的笑在冷空气里蒸腾。“那我就请你老爸务必在你那座塔垮塌之前，多抓几个石匠过来。”
Jon could taste the mockery there, but
there was no denying the truth. The Watch had built nineteen great strongholds
along the Wall, but only three were still occupied: Eastwatch on its grey
windswept shore, the Shadow Tower hard by the mountains where the Wall ended,
and Castle Black between them, at the end of the kingsroad. The other keeps,
long deserted, were lonely, haunted places, where cold winds whistled through
black windows and the spirits of the dead manned the parapets.
琼恩听得出话中的嘲弄意味，却无法否认那是事实。守夜人一共沿长城建了十九座雄伟要塞，如今只剩三座仍有部队驻守：高耸的东海望在强风吹拂的灰暗海滨，影子塔坚毅地伫立于长城边陲的群山之中，黑城堡则位于两者之间，地处国王大道尽头。其他堡垒早已被人遗忘，现在都成了孤独的鬼城，冷风飕飕吹过黑窗，死者幽灵游荡其中。
“It’s better that
I’m by myself,” Jon said stubbornly. “The rest of them are scared of Ghost.”
“我一个人住比较好，”琼恩固执地说，“其他人很怕白灵。”
“Wise boys,”
Lannister said. Then he changed the subject. “The talk is, your uncle is too
long away.”
“他们倒聪明。”兰尼斯特说。他随即转变话题，“最近大家都在议论你叔叔，他是不是出去太久了？”
Jon remembered the wish he’d wished in his
anger, the vision of Benjen Stark dead in the snow, and he looked away quickly.
The dwarf had a way of sensing things, and Jon did not want him to see the
guilt in his eyes. “He said he’d be back by my name day,” he admitted. His name
day had come and gone, unremarked, a fortnight past. “They were looking for Ser
Waymar Royce, his father is bannerman to Lord Arryn. Uncle Benjen said they
might search as far as the Shadow Tower. That’s all the way up in the
mountains.”
琼恩忆起自己失望之下的幻想，那幅班扬·史塔克倒卧雪地的景象，立刻撇过头去。侏儒很擅察言观色，他可不想让他瞧见自己眼中的罪恶。“他说会赶在我命名日前回来。”他坦承。他的命名日早在两周前便已悄无声息地来了又去。“他们是去找威玛·罗伊斯爵士，此人的父亲是艾林公爵的封臣。班扬叔叔说他们会一直搜索到影子塔，一路深入群山。”
“I hear that a
good many rangers have vanished of late,” Lannister said as they mounted the
steps to the common hall. He grinned and pulled open the door. “Perhaps the
grumkins are hungry this year.”
“听说近来有不少游骑兵好手失踪。”他们一边登上大厅的阶梯，兰尼斯特一边说，他嘻嘻笑着打开门。“也许古灵精怪今年特别饿罢。”
Inside, the hall was immense and drafty,
even with a fire roaring in its great hearth. Crows nested in the timbers of
its lofty ceiling. Jon heard their cries overhead as he accepted a bowl of stew
and a heel of black bread from the day’s cooks. Grenn and Toad and some of the
others were seated at the bench nearest the warmth, laughing and cursing each
other in rough voices. Jon eyed them thoughtfully for a moment. Then he chose a
spot at the far end of the hall, well away from the other diners.
进入厅堂，虽然炉火熊熊，仍旧感觉地方宽敞，寒气逼人。乌鸦栖息于高敞的木天花板上，在众人头顶嘎嘎叫着。琼恩从厨子手中接过一碗肉汤和大块黑面包。葛兰、癞哈蟆和其他几人坐在最靠近火炉的长凳上，彼此粗声笑闹咒骂。琼恩若有所思地看了他们一会，然后在大厅的角落挑了个位子坐下，远远离开其他人。
Tyrion Lannister sat across from him,
sniffing at the stew suspiciously. “Barley, onion, carrot,” he muttered.
“Someone should tell the cooks that turnip isn’t a meat.”
提利昂·兰尼斯特坐在他对面，一脸狐疑地嗅着浓汤。“大麦、洋葱、胡萝卜，”他喃喃念道，“这些煮饭的到底知不知道芜箐不能当肉啊？”
“It’s mutton
stew.” Jon pulled off his gloves and warmed his hands in the steam rising from
the bowl. The smell made his mouth water.
“这是羊肉浓汤耶。”琼恩脱下手套，探手到汤碗溢出的热气里取暖。闻到肉香他口水都流了下来。
“Snow.”
“雪诺。”
Jon knew Alliser Thorne’s voice, but there
was a curious note in it that he had not heard before. He turned.
琼恩认得艾里沙·索恩的声音，但这回话中却有种他从前没听过的语气，他转过头。
“The Lord
Commander wants to see you. Now.”
“司令大人要见你。现在就去。”
For a moment Jon was too frightened to
move. Why would the Lord Commander want to see him? They had heard something
about Benjen, he thought wildly, he was dead, the vision had come true. “Is it
my uncle?” he blurted. “Is he returned safe?”
一时之间琼恩吓得不敢动弹。为什么总司令要见他？难道他们有了班扬的消息，他胡乱揣测，一定是他死了，他的想像果然成真。“是我叔叔的事吗？”他冲口而问，“他平安回来了吗？”
“The Lord
Commander is not accustomed to waiting,” was Ser Alliser’s reply. “And I am not
accustomed to having my commands questioned by bastards.”
“司令大人平素可不习惯等人。”艾里沙这么回答，“而我更不习惯下了命令还要听野种问东问西。”
Tyrion Lannister swung off the bench and
rose. “Stop it, Thorne. You’re frightening the boy.”
提利昂·兰尼斯特霍地跳下长凳，站起身道：“够了，索恩，你吓着他了。”
“Keep out of
matters that don’t concern you, Lannister. You have no place here.”
“兰尼斯特，你少管闲事，你没资格在这儿说话。”
“I have a place at
court, though,” the dwarf said, smiling. “A word in the right ear, and you’ll
die a sour old man before you get another boy to train. Now tell Snow why the
Old Bear needs to see him. Is there news of his uncle?”
“在朝廷里就不一样喽。”侏儒微笑，“我只消几句，你下半辈子就准备当个孤苦老人，别想再训练小毛头了。快告诉雪诺熊老找他干嘛，到底是不是他叔叔的事？”
“No,” Ser Alliser
said. “This is another matter entirely. A bird arrived this morning from
Winterfell, with a message that concerns his brother.” He corrected himself.
“His half brother.”
“不是。”艾里沙道，“完全两码子事。今天早上有信鸦从临冬城飞来，带来他弟弟的消息。”他更正道，“应该说是他同父异母的弟弟。”
“Bran,” Jon
breathed, scrambling to his feet. “Something’s happened to Bran.”
“布兰，”琼恩倒抽一口气，挣扎着起来。“布兰出事了。”
Tyrion Lannister laid a hand on his arm.
“Jon,” he said. “I am truly sorry.”
提利昂·兰尼斯特伸手搁在他臂膀上。“琼恩，”他说，“我真的很遗憾。”
Jon scarcely heard him. He brushed off
Tyrion’s hand and strode across the hall. He was running by the time he hit the
doors. He raced to the Commander’s Keep, dashing through drifts of old snow.
When the guards passed him, he took the tower steps two at a time. By the time
he burst into the presence of the Lord Commander, his boots were soaked and Jon
was wild-eyed and panting. “Bran,” he said. “What does it say about Bran?”
琼恩几乎没听到他的话。他拨开提利昂的手，大跨步穿过厅堂，到门边时跑了起来。他一路冲过积雪，狂奔至司令官堡垒。守卫让他通过，他三步并作两步奔上塔顶。等冲到总司令官面前，琼恩已经满身大汗，喘不过气来。“布兰，”他说，“信上说布兰怎样了？”
Jeor Mormont, Lord Commander of the Night’s
Watch, was a gruff old man with an immense bald head and a shaggy grey beard.
He had a raven on his arm, and he was feeding it kernels of corn. “I am told
you can read.” He shook the raven off, and it flapped its wings and flew to the
window, where it sat watching as Mormont drew a roll of paper from his belt and
handed it to Jon. “Corn,” it muttered in a raucous voice. “Corn, corn.”
守夜人军团总司令杰奥·莫尔蒙是个坏脾气的老人，一把灰胡子，顶着个大光头。他正拿玉米粒喂食停在手上的乌鸦。“我听说你识字。”他把乌鸦挥开，它拍着翅膀飞到窗边，然后蹲坐下来看着莫尔蒙从腰际抽出一张卷好的纸交给琼恩。“玉米，”它刺耳地叫道，“玉米，玉米。”
Jon’s finger traced the outline of the
direwolf in the white wax of the broken seat. He recognized Robb’s hand, but
the letters seemed to blur and run as he tried to read them. He realized he was
crying. And then, through the tears, he found the sense in the words, and
raised his head. “He woke up,” he said. “The gods gave him back.”
琼恩的手指在已拆封的白蜡印记上摸索，顺着冰原狼的轮廓。他认出这是罗柏的字迹，但随着阅读，信本身却模糊旋转起来，他方才明白自己在哭。透过泪水，他拼凑出信上的意思，抬起头。“他醒了。”他说，“诸神让他活过来了。”
“Crippled,”
Mormont said. “I’m sorry, boy. Read the rest of the letter.”
“但也残废了。”莫尔蒙道，“小子，我很遗憾。把信读完罢。”
He looked at the words, but they didn’t
matter. Nothing mattered. Bran was going to live. “My brother is going to
live,” he told Mormont. The Lord Commander shook his head, gathered up a
fistful of corn, and whistled. The raven flew to his shoulder, crying, “Live!
Live!”
他把视线移回信上，但上面写什么已经不重要了。什么都不重要了。布兰活了下来。“我弟弟活下来了！”他告诉莫尔蒙。总司令摇摇头，拾起一把玉米，吹声口哨。乌鸦立即飞上他肩头，叫道：“活了！活了！”
Jon ran down the stairs, a smile on his
face and Robb’s letter in his hand. “My brother is going to live,” he told the
guards. They exchanged a look. He ran back to the common hall, where he found Tyrion
Lannister just finishing his meal. He grabbed the little man under the arms,
hoisted him up in the air, and spun him around in a circle. “Bran is going to
live!” he whooped. Lannister looked startled. Jon put him down and thrust the
paper into his hands. “Here, read it,” he said.
琼恩满脸笑容，手中握着罗柏的信奔下楼梯。“我弟弟活下来了！”他告诉守卫。他们互看一眼。他跑回厅堂，发现提利昂·兰尼斯特刚吃完东西。他一把抓住小个子的腋下，将他抱到半空转圈。“布兰活下来了！”他喊。兰尼斯特一脸惊讶的表情。琼恩放下他，把信塞到他手中。“这里，你自己读。”
Others were gathering around and looking at
him curiously. Jon noticed Grenn a few feet away. A thick woolen bandage was
wrapped around one hand. He looked anxious and uncomfortable, not menacing at
all. Jon went to him. Grenn edged backward and put up his hands. “Stay away
from me now, you bastard.”
其他人聚集过来，好奇地看着他。琼恩看到葛兰站在几尺之外，一只手上绑着厚厚的羊毛绷带。他看起来既焦虑又不安，一点都不凶恶。于是琼恩朝他走去，葛兰见状立即后退，同时举手说：“小杂种，你离我远点。”
Jon smiled at him. “I’m sorry about your
wrist. Robb used the same move on me once, only with a wooden blade. It hurt
like seven hells, but yours must be worse. Look, if you want, I can show you
how to defend that.”
琼恩微笑道：“把你手腕弄成这样，我很抱歉。以前罗柏也用同样的招式对付我，虽然用的是木剑，可七层地狱，真他妈的痛。我想你的伤势一定更严重。这样罢，如果你愿意，改天我来教你如何克制这招。”
Alliser Thorne overheard him. “Lord Snow
wants to take my place now.” He sneered. “I’d have an easier time teaching a
wolf to juggle than you will training this aurochs.”
艾里沙·索恩爵士听到了这句话。“哟，雪诺大人这下想抢我的位子啦。”他冷笑道，“我看教狼变魔术都比教这些笨牛容易。”
“I’ll take that
wager, Ser Alliser,” Jon said. “I’d love to see Ghost juggle.”
“艾里沙爵士，我就跟你赌。”琼恩说，“我倒是很想看白灵变魔术。”
Jon heard Grenn suck in his breath,
shocked. Silence fell.
琼恩听见葛兰吓得倒抽一口冷气。四周一片死寂。
Then Tyrion Lannister guffawed. Three of
the black brothers joined in from a nearby table. The laughter spread up and
down the benches, until even the cooks joined in. The birds stirred in the
rafters, and finally even Grenn began to chuckle.
接着提利昂·兰尼斯特捧腹大笑起来。邻近餐桌上三名黑衣弟兄也跟着笑。笑声快速散播，连厨师们也忍不住加入。梁木上的鸟群被笑声惊动，最后连葛兰也咯咯笑了起来。
Ser Alliser never took his eyes from Jon.
As the laughter rolled around him, his face darkened, and his sword hand curled
into a fist. “That was a
grievous error, Lord Snow,” he said at last in the acid tones of an enemy.只有艾里沙爵士从头至尾没有将视线从琼恩身上移开。待笑声渐止，他一脸阴沉，右手握拳。“雪诺大人，你犯了一个很严重的错误，”最后，他用对仇人的口吻说。
