New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤 ✦ Their officer was determined to make a name for himself, so the other three rangers had no choice but to suffer for it.
Will had been a poacher before taking the black, and he was very good at moving quietly and reading tracks.
Before long, he had worked out the size and condition of the group ahead of them: roughly ten people, men and women, old and young.
Most likely a wildling family.
To the people of the Seven Kingdoms, wildlings had a reputation for being fierce and savage.
In many parts of the North, adults even used them to frighten children.
Men of the Night’s Watch, who dealt with wildlings often, did not buy into that.
The black brothers knew perfectly well that so-called wildlings were, at heart, farmers who paid no taxes, owed no service, and called that “freedom.” The Watch was different.
Believe it or not, even in decline, the Night’s Watch remained one of the largest standing forces on the continent.
In modern terms, its men were professional soldiers.
In this age of feudal lords, nobles who wanted to wage war first had to call their vassals.
Those vassals then gathered men.
The “soldiers” put down their hoes, picked up weapons, and assembled under the command of knights.
That was how an army formed.
The Night’s Watch was not like that.
It had only one task: defending the Wall.
It existed in a constant state of war.
Its food and supplies came largely from taxes and labor rendered by the people of the Gift, donations from northern houses, and the work of its own stewards.
Even in peaceful times, it remained a permanent military order rather than a feudal host raised only for war.
The quality of its recruits had fallen, but an army that trained every day still counted as elite in a backward world like this.
The rangers were the fighting arm of that standing force.
Compared with builders and stewards, who served in support roles, they barely bothered with chores like washing clothes or cooking.
Their lives consisted almost entirely of training and ranging.
Compared with wildlings armed with clubs and stone axes—people who spent most of their lives simply surviving—the average ranger held a clear advantage.
Exceptional warriors existed among them, but few would challenge trained, well-equipped rangers without overwhelming numbers or a well-laid ambush.
At the very least, the small group Aeg’s patrol had found did not dare.
The wildlings had first moved slowly west along a route parallel to the Wall.
Once they realized four rangers were tracking them, the wildlings turned north and fled in earnest.
Since this was Ser Waymar Royce’s first command, he naturally refused to let them go.
With one group ahead and the other close behind, the pursuit became a grueling race through ice and snow.
* * * By day, Aeg and the other three men kept close to the wildlings’ trail.
By night, they wrapped themselves in thick blankets and rested as much as they could.
Their horses gave them the advantage, allowing them to cling to their quarry.
They followed north for three days, turned northwest, then after two more days turned north again.
Thanks to the lack of storms or heavy snow, Will never lost the trail.
“Nine days, my lord,” Gared said.
“Is nine days so long?” “No,” Gared answered evenly.
“But we brought only a dozen days’ worth of rations.
Even if we stretch them, they’ll last twenty at most.
And we still need to get back.
If we keep going, the second half of the return trip…” “I heard Ser Thorne say,” Waymar replied, a trace of mockery in his voice, “that last winter a ranging party took one month’s supplies beyond the Wall and lasted six months.
How did they manage that?” Will and Aeg exchanged an awkward glance and looked away.
Waymar’s sarcasm might have had some bite, but he had chosen the wrong target.
“If my lord wants to know how we managed it, I can explain,” Gared said.
The old ranger had disliked this pampered noble from the start, and he was not about to miss a chance to strike back.
“I was on that ranging.
After the food ran out, we ate horsemeat and dog meat.
Then we dug up roots, raided mouse nests, and hunted anything that could move.
Near the end, when there was truly nothing left to eat, our commander ordered us to carry our brothers’ bodies with us.
Fortunately, it never came to that.
We pushed through the storm and reached Craster’s Keep, then survived long enough to return to the Wall with help from that daughter-fucking wildling.” Gared watched with open satisfaction as panic flickered across Waymar’s face.
“If my lord wants to try the same, I can only promise to do everything I can to bring us all home alive.
But the Lord Commander once warned us not to go asking Craster for help with fewer than ten men.
And roots and horsemeat don’t sit well in the stomach.” The young noble’s expression shifted several times.
Aeg thought the youngest patrol leader among them would fly into a rage from embarrassment.
Instead, Waymar calmed down quickly.
Miraculously, he even gave ground.
“Very well.
No matter what happens, we end the pursuit tomorrow.
But today we go on the offensive.
We’ll try to take one or two of them alive.
Whether we succeed or not, we leave for home tomorrow.” “Go on the offensive?” Will could no longer hold his tongue.
“But…
First Ranger Benjen told us to investigate why the wildlings appeared and where they were going.
He didn’t tell us to…” “In these nine days, what have you learned?” Waymar cut him off.
“Chasing them for another nine would tell us less than capturing one live wildling and questioning him.
Gared, what do you think?” Gared could use his age and veteran status to trade barbs with the young noble, but Waymar was still both a noble and his commanding officer.
In the end, the old ranger could not disobey.
He twisted his mouth and answered unwillingly, “As my lord commands.” Waymar smiled with contempt.
To Aeg, he looked pleased to see their resentment yield to obedience.
Then he turned to Will.
“You.
Scout ahead.
Come back and report the situation.
Then we will decide how to proceed.” ✦ ✦ ✦ Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.