Chapter 40: Part XLNotes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Disclaimer: I own nothing, just borrowing for a while.
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"Here are some words of wisdom for you to consider, 'When you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds soon follow', with your balls currently being the ones in question. You need to recognise your lack of options here because you either swallow some pride and meet our conditions or you stay this side of the wall and try to negotiate with the Night King instead. You may wish to consider the dire nature of your current circumstances and reassesses your position while I pour myself some wine."
Lord Tyrion Lannister to Mance Rayder
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Craster's Keep – Beyond the Wall – 299 AC
"Ever since we set out from Castle Black you've been complaining about the cold and now there's somewhere warm you could be you're outside" Lord Beric Dondarrion observed as he found his squire inspecting the items of cargo which had been left on the carts instead of being brought straight in.
Edric 'Ned' Dayne looked up from the sack of oats for the horses which he had been inspecting. "I couldn't stand it in there any longer" he replied. "That man…" he continued before trailing off.
"Yes he's just about the most odious individual I've enter had the misfortune to meet" Dondarrion sympathised, "but according to the Rangers he's always been a useful ally to the Night's Watch and those are hard to come by on this side of the Wall."
"With his own daughters" Edric said with visible distaste. "I mean I've heard the things people say about Wildlings, that there's nothing they won't feed upon or fornicate with, but you just assume it's exaggeration. I mean I did" the boy muttered. "If it wasn't for Guest Right I'd…"
"You'd what, Lad?" a voice from the dark interjected. "Run him through with your fancy sword?" it asked as a figure came into view.
"Checking the perimeter Greenspear?" Dondarrion asked the man, recognising him as one of the handful of Rangers who had accompanied the small reconnaissance party beyond the wall. You had admit, their training and experience, not to mention the all-black clothing, made them damn sneaky fellows at night, the Marcher Lord had to admit.
Garrett Greenspear laughed. "Only if 'checking the perimeter' is some fancy southern way of saying I was out getting a breath of fresh air and taking a piss while I was at it, My Lord" he replied. "I can't say any of us much like the fucker lad, but it's just something you have to accept because there's an awful lot of the Watch that were only saved from starving or freezing because of Craster" he told the young squire. "And don't go thinking that the Wildling's like him much neither, and for the same reason, they don't fuck their daughters any more than we do."
"They don't?" Edric queried in surprise.
"Nah. Fact is they value taking a wife from as far away as possible, less people up here so inbreeding would be a problem if they didn't" the Ranger told him, not explain how Wildling's obtained wives from other clans. "They don't fuck their sisters neither of course, which is one reason why they used to mock us for kneeling to the Targaryens who did" he said. "Way I see it, you should hate the Wildlings for what they actually do, not the things folks that have never even talked to one just say they do" he advised. "I hate them they want to get over the wall to steal our women and loot and pillage our homes" he gave his thoughts on the matter. "Also they keep trying to kill me so there's that I suppose" he added after a moments extra consideration.
Edric frowned. "But if the Wildling's don't do what Craster does why does he do it?" he wanted to know.
The Ranger laughed again. "According to the Wildling's it's because his father was a man of the Night's Watch" he replied. "They like to make us sound like monsters too" he told the boy.
Dondarrion shivered. "Temperature's still dropping. We should head back inside" he suggested. "We all need to get some sleep before setting out for the Shadow Tower tomorrow."
"The longer I'm out here the more chance there is that Craster's…" Edric began then paused, "wives will be asleep when I go back in."
"Why does that matter?" Dondarrion asked, confused.
"Because they keep fussing over me" Edric told him. "Didn't you notice?"
"You're likely the only lad under four-and-ten years old they've seen in an age" Greenspear theorised. "The Night's Watch recruits boys your age but we don't usually send them beyond the wall until they're closer to full-grown and fully trained and not many Wildlings call on Craster, they say he's got black blood and a heavy soul."
"Which now has me wondering why a man with more than a dozen wives and that many daughters doesn't have any sons" Dondarrion wondered aloud.
"If you're the superstitious sort you'll believe the tales that he sacrifices his sons to the Cold Gods that live up here so they'll leave him be" Greenspear told him. "I've also heard it said that he sells the poor little sods to Tyroshi slavers who do business north of the Wall but who knows for sure?"
"Shouldn't someone ask?" Edric reasonably suggested.
"Anyone that does gets thrown out on his arse and with winter on its way we need Craster more than ever so we don't press the issue" Greenspear replied with a shrug. "Like I said before, none of us like the fucker, it's just how it is" he said glumly.
"Pragmatism Ned" Dondarrion told his squire. "Choosing behind right and wrong is easy. Choosing the lesser of two evils is difficult."
Another man joined them coming from the door to the keep. "Is there a meeting I wasn't informed about?" Ser Damion Lannister asked the trio. Like Dondarrion he was one of those dispatched north months ago to investigate tales of Wights and White Walkers and then later found himself investigating rather more convincing tales of an army of Wildlings.
"No, Ser Damion we're just getting a breath of fresh air" Dondarrion replied.
"Or taking a piss" Greenspear added for himself.
"Both sound good" the knight from the Westerlands replied. "If it wasn't so bloody cold I'd sleep out here."
"Not finding Craster's hospitality to your liking?" Greenspear asked wryly.
"The hospitality is fine, it's the host I find objectionable" Ser Damion replied. "If those who violate guest-right were not near as bad as kinslayers I'd…" he stopped mid-sentence and sighed. "But they are so I can't" he said ruefully.
Dondarrion knew that Ser Damion had a daughter of his own, full grown and married now but in the man's heart still his precious little girl, and he could only imagine what Ser Damion thought of Craster. Of course, Beric Dondarrion could also only imagine why Ser Damion ever considered naming his daughter 'Lanna' a good idea.
Honestly, who inflicts the name 'Lady Lanna Lannister' on their child?
"I'm going to find a tree to take a piss on" Ser Damion announced. "If I'm not back in a few minutes either the Wildling's have got me, a direwolf has eaten me, or I got too close and the end of my damn cock has frozen to the tree" he joked.
"If it's the latter don't bother calling for assistance because you're on your own with that problem, Ser Damion" Dondarrion joked in return as the knight wandered towards the forest edge. "We'll come back and collect you next summer."
Edric started laughing setting off the others. "Still wearing that undershirt Alys Karstark gave you?" Dondarrion asked his squire once the laughter died down.
"Yes. Underneath the itchy one" Edric replied happily. "At least I don't sweat enough up here to smell too ripe from not changing clothes too often."
"No I'll wager good money that's just you getting used to your own smell" Greenspear suggested confidently. "Alys Karstark?" he queried.
"Daughter of Lord Rickard Karstark, she made Edric here an undershirt because he wouldn't wear the one he already had" Dondarrion explained.
"It's itchy, it was either freeze or be itchy and I'd rather shiver than scratch" Edric explained his position. "Now I'm warmer and I'm not itchy" he continued happily.
"The girl sweet on him?" Greenspear asked, amused.
"I'm sure he'd like to think so" Dondarrion replied, smiling as Edric blushed with embarrassment.
"It's not like that. She was being nice" Edric protested. "Her father said that if one of his kin is ever in Dorne I can repay the favour by giving them clothes suitable for our weather" he told the Ranger. She was awfully pretty though, with long red hair and a nice smile, Edric thought to himself, wondering how she might look in a thin Dornish dress of fine silk that flowed more and didn't cover her up as much as northern fashions did.
"Halt! Who goes there!" Ser Damion's voice rang out loudly from the trees.
"Bollocks" Garrett Greenspear responded immediately, drawing his sword and heading towards where the outline of the westerlands knight was visible.
"Tell the others we have company and to arm themselves" Dondarrion ordered, Edric rushing to obey as the Storm Lord drew his own blade to join the Ranger and the Knight.
When Dondarrion reached the other two they could already see multiple figures approaching with a large man in front. "In the name of King Joffrey identify yourself" Ser Damion issued a formal challenge.
"I'm Jeor Mormont, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch" the figure announced themselves.
"Fucking hell. It is" Greenspear confirmed, recognising the voice and the man himself as he drew near.
"Is that you Garrett?" Mormont asked.
"Yes. Lord Commander" Greenspear confirmed.
"And the men with you?" the Lord Commander queried.
"I'm Beric Dondarrion, Lord of Blackhaven" the Marcher Lord introduced himself. "This is Ser Damion Lannister, we're here with a small party on behalf of the Lord Protector to investigate the situation north of the wall."
"The situation north of the wall is that it's fucked" Mormont told him flatly.
Dondarrion frowned. "I thought you were up in the Frostfangs with most of your men" he asked Mormont as the man reached them, leading perhaps two dozen others.
"These are most of my men, I left the rest dead at the Fist of the First Men but I suppose they might not be there anymore, they could be heading this way" Mormont stated confusingly, but at least earnestly. "We didn't manage to get a message off with the ravens. I was just hoping to get here to eat something and rest a while before heading back to the Wall to warn the Seven Kingdoms."
"Warn the Seven Kingdoms of what? Mance Rayder's wildling army? We've already moved thousands of men from throughout Westeros to help the Night's Watch guard the Wall against them" Ser Damion responded.
Mormont laughed humourlessly. "It's not Mance Rayder's army of living wildlings we need to fear, it's the army of dead ones we need to worry about" he said.
"Make sense man" Ser Damion insisted.
"White Walkers, dozens of them we saw, leading an army of Wights, tens of thousands strong" Mormont told them. "An army such as none have seen since before the Wall was raised."
Beric Dondarrion and Damion Lannister looked at each other. "If this is some kind of Night's Watch practical joke being played at the expense of us southerners we're not impressed" Ser Damion told him sternly.
"We don't jape of White Walkers up here" Garrett Greenspear told him glumly.
Notes:
Note from the Author:
Garrett Greenspear is a Ranger of the Night's Watch who didn't join the Great Ranging to the Frostfangs and therefore missed the Battle at the Fist of the First Men. When Jeor Mormont and his handful of survivors arrive at Craster's Keep they find a small expedition led by Beric Dondarrion and Ser Damion Lannister to investigate what is going on with Greenspear acting as their advisor and guide.
I imagined that poor thirteen-year old Edric would be subjected to an interesting time of it at Craster's Keep!
The Great Ranging had ravens with them to send messages back to Castle Black and the Shadow Tower but Sam was unable to get the warning out before the army of White Walkers and Wights overwhelmed the Rangers.
Things are really starting to happen now!