Jaehaerys had been told months ago that there were hardly ever prisoners at the Wall. It was simpler for the few men of the Watch to kill their enemies then and there rather than have to house and clothe and feed them. Besides, any prisoners they did take usually ended up in the ice cells, and those more often than not finished whatever job the black brothers had started.
But exceptions had been made for the wildling girl who Jaehaerys' still couldn't name. His uncle Aelor had rode in issuing orders that a proper room be found somewhere to hold the girl, and Ser Jaremy Rykker—who once had been the squire of the Targaryen prince of war—had been intelligent enough to insist it be far away from where any men were camped, particularly men of the Night's Watch. The Grey Keep was an old building, and in the heyday of the Night's Watch had housed over a thousand brothers at a time. Now, though, it was nearly in ruins, no longer utilized as a barracks but instead a store room. It was there that an old officer chamber had been appropriated for the wildling, and there she had remained for months.
Until today, when grey-green eyes were staring at him defiantly from a chair across from his small work desk.
Ser Borran stood directly behind the wildling girl, his hand on his dagger, ready to unsheathe it and slit the girl's neck if she made a move for Jaehaerys. The Wolf Prince thought that was rather unlikely, firstly because she was chained to the chair and secondly because Ghost sat directly beside him, staring at the wildling with his red eyes. Her eyes kept flickering to the albino, as if she expected Jaehaerys to order him to leap the table and rip her throat out. Jaehaerys let her think it.
He had needed time to catch his breath. Her clothing was worn thin, and though she had been appropriated a tub for a bath rather frequently her hair was slightly matted, her already pale skin gone paler. Yet still, she was beautiful.
He finally found his voice after the silence had gone on for well over a minute. "What is your name?"
The redheaded wildling glared across the table at him, and for a moment the Prince thought she wouldn't say anything. But suddenly she began speaking, her tone a sweet dulcet even when dripping with anger and contempt. "I recognize you, y'know, even without that hunk of steel you southerners wear over you're fuckin heads. You're the one I was going to gut before the demon jumped in."
Whatever he had been expecting her to say, it wasn't that. "I….how?"
"The way you hold yourself, like the whole fucking world is yours to control. I bet you're one of those dragon cunts, aren't ya, the ones who lord it over millions of people. I thought you were s'posed to have silver hair and be able to shit fire, not look like some green boy."
Ser Borran spoke sharply. Jaehaerys imagined the man held a grudge; he was still limping from the arrow the redhead had shot into his knee. "You'll speak with more respect, girl."
The wildling tried to turn around, though the chains pinning her wrists to the chair stopped her form getting too far. "Or what, you'll throw me back in the shithole you dumped me in after the demon did this?" She twitched her right hand, and Jaehaerys winced at the mostly healed nubs where her index finger was missing and her middle finger was removed from just below the second knuckle. "Please, do me the favor and finish what you started!"
"Peace, Ser Borran," Jaehaerys said, stopping the Kingsguard from raising a hand to the girl, who whirled back around to him.
"Why, afraid he'll damage your whore more than the silver-haired fuck already did?"
It took Jaehaerys a long moment to realize what the wildling girl seemed to believe she was here for. He was instantly both horrified and embarrassed, blood running to his cheeks. The girl saw it, and leaped upon it relentlessly, tone mockingly sweet and sensual. "What's the matter, never done it before? None of those kneelers down south would have you so you figure to use a captive at your mercy?"
Jaehaerys unsuccessfully fought the deepening blush. "That is not what you are here for, my lady."
That seemed to throw her for a slight loop, as her face lost its vicious smile. "It's not?"
Being the one with the upper hand—slight as it was—helped Jaehaerys regain a bit of his equilibrium. "No, it is not. Now if you'll kindly let me speak more than one sentence at a time, I'll explain it to you." He quickly threw the note he had received the night before on the table between them, still stained crimson with Lucas Flowers' blood. He somehow doubted this wildling would be able to keep her mouth shut too long, and he knew she'd speak if it meant spiting him. "I received this from Mance Rayder. It was delivered pinned to one of my scout's chest while his entrails bloodied the snow beneath him."
The girl made no move to look at the note on the table, and Jaehaerys suddenly wondered if she had ever been taught to read. The Prince quickly spoke again in case she hadn't, the differences in their life stations no more clear than in that moment. "He wants to talk, claiming there is something North of the Wall that will do far worse to us all than he did to my scout."
The wildlings eyes got wide, and for the first time her voice held no scorn or anger. "He's right."
Jaehaerys nodded. "Aye, the men of the Watch reported as much. I don't know if I believe it or not, but they've told me enough to know I may want to hear what your King has to say."
The intelligence in her grey-green eyes was clearly an accurate representation of her mind. "You want me to set this meeting up with Mance."
Jaehaerys nodded. "Yes, I do."
She eyed him curiously. "I climbed this bloody thing to get away from what I was running from. What makes you think I'll go back?"
"Because if you do, it might well save your people."
"We're the Free Folk."
Jaehaerys cut off whatever bullshit excuse she was about to give, because they both knew she would accept. "And you're free to go back and try to save them." They locked eyes for a moment, and Jaehaerys took her silence for the yes it was. "Ser Jaremy Rykker and Lord Commander Mormont have selected the site we agree to, and it is the only site we agree to. Your King may bring ten men. I'll bring the same number. If more than that arrives we'll turn and ride without hearing a single word. He is to send a rider back under a white flag to inform us whether he agrees to our terms or not. That is the only offer he will receive; if he refuses, he can bash his armies against the Wall for as long as he wants, but our men will hold against all he throws at me. I imagine he knows that."
He laid a rolled piece of parchment on the table; if Mance Rayder could write he imagined the man could read. "All of it is listed there. Deliver it to your King. If he is truly concerned for the threat you claim is behind him, he is unlikely to refuse."
Jaehaerys waved his hand, and Ser Borran dutifully released the girl's hands from her bonds. She rubbed her wrists, her movements with her right hand ginger and careful, before taking the parchment. "When."
"Now. A horse and several fur cloaks and provisions are awaiting you. Ser Borran will escort you."
Jaehaerys watcher her hips move as she rose to her feet and began to follow the white-cloaked knight. His eyes snapped back to hers when she abruptly turned around. "Who do I say this message is from?"
"Jaehaerys Targaryen."
She nodded knowingly. "I knew you were one of those dragon cunts." She hesitated just a moment. "I'm Ygritte."
He ran the name through his mind long after she had followed Ser Borran out the door.
Jaehaerys decided he'd never heard a prettier one.
The King-Beyond-the-Wall had accepted, as they knew he would.
He wasn't much to look at, at least not physically. In truth he looked rather unremarkable middle-aged man, brown eyes peering out of a sharp face framed by long hair that was mostly gray. He was of middling height, a touch broad through the shoulders but lean of stomach. He bore no banner, and dressed in simple ringmail and breeches, covered in a cloak of black wool and red silk. He wore no helm or crown, and the men and women walking around him walked in no particular order that Jaehaerys could see.
Yet still, any man could look upon Mance Rayder and see he was in charge in the way he carried his head held high and his shoulders back. Jaehaerys wondered if that was what Ygritte had seen in him that allowed her to guess he was a Prince.
The meeting was taking place half a day north of the Wall, in a natural clearing. The ride had been hard through deep, deep snow, but the horses had managed well enough. Men carried only that which was on them, avoiding the need to pull wagons along through the treacherous white. Three hundred hardened soldiers awaited Jaehaerys and his party only the blow of a horn away, and the Wolf Prince supposed Mance had additional forces waiting as well. The men around Jaehaerys were on high alert, ready for any kind of treachery the wildlings might throw at them. The Prince doubted Rayder would have arrived if he intended to dishonor their parlay, and as he had told the men the night Lucas Flowers' was returned Jaehaerys was only one man. His death would ultimately men little to the defense of the Wall, whereas his willingness to listen to what Rayder had to say might mean a whole hell of a lot.
But in any case, Ghost and Grey Wind flanked the line of ten horsemen, ears perked. Jaehaerys had no doubt the disturbingly smart direwolves would detect any type of treachery.
Lord Commander Mormont grunted as the wildlings grew close. The Old Bear had a hatred for wildlings that outdated his service to the Night's Watch—the Mormonts of Bear Island had been fighting their incursions for years—but he had insisted he come along with Prince Jaehaerys for the parlay. While Jaehaerys worried the prejudice he clearly bore Rayder and his men might alter his judgement, the Lord Commander had willingly followed Jaehaerys' commands thus far, no matter his likely distrust of the Prince's youth. Ser Jaremy Rykker was the only other member of the Night's Watch present, and his face was scrunched in the same distaste as Mormont's.
Ser Borran had obviously come along, and of course Robb Stark, Jaehaerys wanting both the additional senses of Robb's direwolf and the presence of the heir to the North, in case the unforeseeable agreement was to happen. Five other of the strongest fighters at Castle Black accompanied them, and his retinue was rounded out by his cousin Aemon. He wouldn't be much help if it came to a fight, but quiet Aemon had beaten against Jaehaerys' will, wishing to be there to see what could well be a legendary meeting.
Or a horribly doomed one. Either way, Jaehaerys was certain Aemon would write every facet of it down.
Rayder's retinue was a conglomeration of men and women unlike anything Jaehaerys had seen, growing in differences as they neared. Ygritte was among the number, grey-green eyes on Jaehaerys from the beginning. A big wildling with a mane and beard of red walked closest to Mance, and another man in armor made entirely of human bone was on the opposite side. An ugly, squat woman with the head of a dog on a spear was present, as well as a disturbingly beautiful blonde-haired woman in all white fur. A tall, bald man with an axe the size of Jaehaerys was also there, and the Prince recognized his characteristics as that of a Thenn, the cannibalistic wildlings of the far north. The others were variations of massive beards and fur, most wearing trophies on their bodies.
But one thing stood out to Jaehaerys more than the rest.
There were only eight of them.
The two sides eyed each other coldly as the wildling party came to a stop fifteen feet in front of Jaehaerys, the southerner's peering down from their horses and the true northerners glaring up from the ground.
Rayder spoke first, eyes on Jaehaerys. "Ygritte here told me you didn't look much like a Targaryen. Seems to me she was right. You must be the half-Stark one."
Lord Commander Mormont had told Jaehaerys months ago that Rayder had once been a brother of the Night's Watch, serving at the Shadow Tower under Ser Denys Mallister. He had abandoned the Watch less than a decade earlier, so it was of no surprise to Jaehaerys that Rayder had an idea of southern politics. Still, he couldn't afford to show any weakness to Rayder, neither in resolve or character. "My name is Jaehaerys Targaryen, Prince of the Iron Throne. You're Mance Rayder, King Beyond the Wall."
Rayder nodded. "Aye, that's what they call me."
Jaehaerys gestured towards the eight men and women surrounding him. "I believe the terms were ten men apiece."
Rayder smiled a tiny smile. "Aye, and I've brought them. I only figured I'd give you a fair warning before the last two arrive."
Jaehaerys felt the urge to grasp the hilt of his sword, eyeing Rayder untrustingly. "Fair warning of what?"
The-King-Beyond-the-WallThe-King-Beyond-the-Wall's smile grew. "Hold on tightly to your horses." He gestured to the squat woman, who raised her spear with the impaled dog head and waved it too and fro.
Ghost and Grey Wind both bristled, growling low, as a giant snowbear emerged from the trees on the wildling side of the clearing, trotting towards the line with a man atop its back. The horses instantly tried to balk, his cousin's ignoring his rider's attempts to control him and slinging from side to side. Two of the fighters rushed to assist him, keeping his animal from throwing Aemon to the ground, but the heir to the Golden Tooth looked green in the face already. That slowly turned to white as another figure, almost human except for its immense size.
A giant. That is a giant. Gods be good, they truly exist.
The figure stomped towards them at a slower pace than the unnerving bear, which would stand nearly as tall as the giant if it stood on its hind paws. The immensity of the creature was nearly unbelievable even when it was staring him in the face, and as Jaehaerys noted with no small amount of discomfort the giant was staring straight at him as he approached. Robb barked a command at Grey Wind when the direwolf snarled as the bear came to a stop, the small man atop it eyeing both the grey and white wolf with an odd interest, considering he already sat atop the massive bear.
Jaehaerys snapped a similar staying command to Ghost, his own albino wolf lowering down and baring its teeth at the bear, who watched the whole ordeal as if nothing was out of the ordinary. The giant soon came to a stop, towering over everything present, looking as if one swing of his mighty arm could take out the entire line of Jaehaerys and his men.
The Prince realized it very well could.
"You see," Mance Rayder said, that same smile still in position, "All my men are here to see what it is you have to say."
Jaehaerys fought to regain his composure, tearing his eyes away from the awesome giant who could crush him like an insect and back to the unspectacular King. He wanted to show his power. Jaehaerys put a cool calmness in his voice that he certainly didn't feel. "The body of my scout sent your message clear enough. There is no need for these…exhibitions."
"Oh, but there you're wrong. I have to prove to you that I'm a threat to your Wall, because if I'm not why would you take me seriously? Sure, I have you outnumbered by thousands, but I'm on the wrong side of that Wall for them to be much good. I've sent hundreds of men to climb it, yet none of them have returned or drawn your men away."
Jaehaerys knew over twenty bands of wildlings, most of them small but several of them numbering over one hundred, had been caught trying to climb the Wall or slip around the Bay of Ice. All had been soundly defeated by the new garrisons manning all the old castles of the Watch, though he had no idea how Rayder would have any idea whether they had succeeded or not.
He couldn't ask, though, for Rayder wasn't finished. "Except for Ygritte, that is, and I figured her as lost for dead months ago. Yet she tells me you've held her all this time without harming a hair on her head, except for the fingers a man took from her when she was about to gut you. From what she said I take it it was one of your kinfolk who did it."
Jaehaerys didn't know what to say, so he simply nodded. "My uncle."
"Ah, the Dragon of Duskendale himself was at the Wall, eh? I wager he was one of the groups you lot had ride away, though, or I'd be dealing with him instead of you."
Jaehaerys narrowed his eyes. How does he know so much of what's happening south of the Wall? Ygritte had been imprisoned, first at the Nightfort and then Castle Black, and there was no way anyone had told her about the occurrences. The possibility of a turncoat among his men concerned him greatly, though he would have expected Rayder to utilize that better, something along the line of throwing open the gates or some such.
Still, Jaehaerys wouldn't give Mance the pleasure of knowing that Jaehaerys had no bloody clue how the King-Beyond-the-Wall knew so much. "Aye, my uncle is gone, though there is plenty enough men left to stop you if you attack the Wall." Jaehaerys leaned forward in his saddle. "But that isn't what you want to do, is it."
Mance stood to his full height, and there was no shame in his voice. "No, I don't want to attack your Wall. I want to take my people and hide behind it." He gestured towards Lord Commander Mormont, who had held his silence throughout the exchange. "Ask your Lord Commander here, and he'll tell you the same thing I will. There are…things this side of the Wall. Things you kneelers only hear about in stories and wives tales, and things my own people had nearly forgotten were real."
Mance Rayder took a step closer to Jaehaerys, staring up at the Prince with intent eyes. "But these wives tales are back. Entire villages have been wiped out, our own dead coming back to kill more of us. We have to burn our brothers, our fathers, our children, because if we don't they come back and slit our throats."
One of the guardsmen snorted, and Rayder turned to stare right at him. "Aye, that would have been my reaction a few years ago. But I've learned in the times since." He looked back at Jaehaerys. "I didn't want to be a King, odd as that might sound to you. I have a wife, and a child on the way. I could be as content as any many ever was with them. But my family is threatened by something I couldn't fight myself, so I began to gather the Free Folk. We've fought one another for thousands of years, but all of us here knew we had to stand together against the true enemy.
"Some of them look as normal as you, save for their pale skin and blue, blue eyes. Nothing stops them for good except fire, and they're growing in numbers. The more these storms grow the more of them come, and they don't care if who they're killing is a member of the Free Folk or a Crow or a Dragon Prince." Mance shrugged. "Now my people aren't cowards, and we'll fight anything that threatens us. But there is only so much the living can do against the dead, especially when I have women and children to feed. I want to hide them behind your Wall, for all of our sakes." His eyes tightened slightly. "But I'll bring it down if I have to."
This time several of the men scoffed. Jaehaerys did not, though he found the idea ridiculous. "And just how would you do that? You haven't been able to cross the Wall without your people dying, and I've got too many men on the other side for you to take it by force." The Prince glanced up into the unwavering stare of the giant. "Even with bears and big men on your side."
Whatever characteristics Mance Rayder might have, he took men laughing in his face very well. "There's more to the Wall than ice and stone, boy. Magic, old and powerful spells, were cast at her raising. I don't rightly care if you believe in it or not; scoff at me if you will, but you won't do any laughing when I bring that Wall down on your head. Ask your Lord Commander here about the Horn of Winter."
Jaehaerys looked to Mormont, who shook his head. "It's an old legend, talk of a horn that would bring the wall down if it were blown. Horseshit, if you ask me."
"No, Mormont. There you are wrong. I found it."
Contempt was clear in the Lord Commander's voice. "Oh really? And where was that?"
Mance reached into a pouch on his belt. "At the Fist of the First Men, near the Milkwater, buried in a sack full of this." He pulled a small, black stone from the pouch, tossing it lightly to Jaehaerys, who snatched it out of the air. Jaehaerys recognized it instantly as obsidian, nicknamed dragonglass. The stuff could be mined in bulk at Dragonstone, though Jaehaerys knew of no true use for the material aside from decoration. "I don't know much about whatever that stone is, but I'm willing to bet it has some significance your library might contain."
Mormont was unconvinced. "And you expect us to believe this horn of yours can actually bring the Wall down? Seven hundred feet of ice, brought down with a single toot."
"I don't care if you believe it or not, Mormont." He gestured to Jaehaerys. "I care if he does. I need that Wall as much as you do, but I won't let my people bleed because you mistrust us."
Aemon had silently sidled his horse to Jaehaerys' side, the black-hided stallion with his ears still pinned back from the constant presence of the bear. His cousin leaned close, observing the dragonglass, before speaking in his quiet down so softly that Jaehaerys doubted anyone other than the two of them could hear it. Jaehaerys was having enough trouble as it was. "Sam and I have read about obsidian, Jae. It's in several of the volumes in the Night's Watch library. Nothing says for a certainty exactly what it does, but it seems awfully important. We've been searching all the volumes for more but we haven't found anything yet. The Horn of Winter is mentioned as well, and the stories claim it will do just what Rayder is saying. It's obviously never been tested, but…"
Jaehaerys hunched over closer to him and whispered back. "What do you make of all this, Aemon."
His cousin shrugged. "I don't know if any of it is true. But I do know everything Mance has mentioned has been mentioned in the library. I don't know if there is truly another threat he's running from, but I don't know that there isn't, either."
Jaehaerys nodded, raising to sit straight up in the saddle again. "What is it you want, Rayder?"
Mance quirked an eyebrow. "I thought I made that clear. "I want to pass through your Wall."
"And do what once you're there? Raid and pillage without a Wall to stop you?"
"All I want to do is hide."
"Even if I believed you, I doubt all your men think the same. What's to stop them from pillaging once they're over there? Are you preparing to kneel and swear fealty to King Aegon?"
Mance's face became stony. "We don't kneel."
Jaehaerys nodded. "Aye, not when you're above the Wall, but all those south of it do. If I were to let you through, I'd expect you to do the same."
The-King-Beyond-the-WallThe-King-Beyond-the-Wall's face didn't flinch. "We don't kneel."
Jaehaerys shrugged. "Then you don't pass. You're the one claiming you need my Wall more than you need to destroy it."
Mance was quite a long moment. "Say we return back North, once the dead stay that way. What about then?"
"We both know most of your men won't have any intent of going back once they are south. It seems to me like your options are die North of the Wall, or kneel. Or, if you truly can, bring the Wall down." Jaehaerys leaned forward in the saddle. "And then die south of it." Jaehaerys straightened back up. "It seems to me that you need my Wall intact, because if it isn't we'll all just die anyhow. My offer is clear. Go, think on it. I'm not guaranteeing you passage, but I do guarantee you another parlay."
Jaehaerys reined his stallion back slightly. "I don't know if you mean anything you have told me, but I certainly know I meant what I said. If you and your chiefs truly care for you people, maybe you'll give me a better offer. Mine remains the same. If you wish to talk again, send another envoy under a flag of truce. I will parlay again."
Jaehaerys stole a quick glance at Ygritte, her grey-green eyes staring at him. "If what you say is true, we need each other. But you need me more than I need you. Try and convince your men of that. You know where I'll be."
As Jaehaerys turned and kicked his stallion into a gallop the other way, he wondered if he was about to get more war than even Aegon could have ever wanted.