Ⅲ 冰雨的风暴 Chapter64 琼恩
JON
他梦见自己回到临冬城的墓窖，在石制国王的宝座之间跛行。国王们用灰色的花岗石眼睛凝望他，灰色的花岗石手指紧握着膝盖上平躺的生锈长剑的剑柄。你不是史塔克家的人，他听到国王们透过厚重的花岗岩低吼，这里没有你的位置，快快离开。他走进更深沉的黑暗中。“父亲？”他喊，“布兰？瑞肯？”无人回应。一阵冷风从后颈掠过。“叔叔，”他喊，“班扬叔叔？父亲？求求你，父亲，帮帮我。”墓窖之上传来鼓声。人们在大厅里欢宴，但我不受欢迎。我不是史塔克家的人，这里没有我的位置。拐杖滑落，他跪倒在地。墓窖变得更加黑暗。角落里有光亮浮现。“耶哥蕊特？”他低语，“求求你，原谅我。”不过那只是一只冰原狼，灰蒙以至于白，血迹斑斑，黑暗中闪动的金黄大眼睛里流露悲伤……
He dreamt he was back in Winterfell, limping past the stone kings on their thrones. Their grey granite eyes turned to follow him as he passed, and their grey granite fingers tightened on the hilts of the rusted swords upon their laps. You are no Stark, he could hear them mutter, in heavy granite voices. There is no place for you here. Go away. He walked deeper into the darkness. “Father?” he called. “Bran? Rickon?” No one answered. A chill wind was blowing on his neck. “Uncle?” he called. “Uncle Benjen? Father? Please, Father, help me.” Up above he heard drums. They are feasting in the Great Hall, but I am not welcome there. I am no Stark, and this is not my place. His crutch slipped and he fell to his knees. The crypts were growing darker. A light has gone out somewhere. “Ygritte?” he whispered. “Forgive me. Please.” But it was only a direwolf, grey and ghastly, spotted with blood, his golden eyes shining sadly through the dark …
黑暗的房间，身下的硬床。他在自己的床上清醒过来，这是熊老的卧室下方属于侍从的房间。按理他应该做得好梦，但尽管盖上层层毛皮，仍然觉得冷。北行途中，白灵睡在身边，寒夜中散发暖意：在荒野里，则有耶哥蕊特的陪伴。他们都不在了。他亲手火葬了耶格蕊特，记得那是她的愿望，白灵呢……你在那儿？你也死了吗，就是那梦中墓窖里染血的狼？但梦中的狼乃是灰色，并非雪白。灰色，布兰的狼。瑟恩人在后冠镇附近猎杀了他？如果真是这样，布兰可说失去了生命中最珍贵的东西。
The cell was dark, the bed hard beneath him. His own bed, he remembered, his own bed in his steward’s cell beneath the Old Bear’s chambers. By rights it should have brought him sweeter dreams. Even beneath the furs, he was cold. Ghost had shared his cell before the ranging, warming it against the chill of night. And in the wild, Ygritte had slept beside him. Both gone now. He had burned Ygritte himself, as he knew she would have wanted, and Ghost … Where are you? Was he dead as well, was that what his dream had meant, the bloody wolf in the crypts? But the wolf in the dream had been grey, not white. Grey, like Bran’s wolf. Had the Thenns hunted him down and killed him after Queenscrown? If so, Bran was lost to him for good and all.
当号角响起时，琼恩正努力挣脱纷乱的思绪。
Jon was trying to make sense of that when the horn blew.
冬之号角，他心想，仍然沉浸在噩梦带来的混沌中。曼斯没找到乔曼的号角，所以这绝不可能。第二声号角接踵而至，跟第一声一样绵长高亢。必须立即起床登上长城，他意识到，但做起来好难……
The Horn of Winter, he thought, still confused from sleep. But Mance never found Joramun’s horn, so that couldn’t be. A second blast followed, as long and deep as the first. Jon had to get up and go to the Wall, he knew, but it was so hard …
琼恩推开毛皮坐起来，腿上的疼痛已近麻木，应该可以站立。为抵御寒冷，他合衣而眠，所以现在只需穿鞋、罩上皮甲和盔甲及斗篷。号角再次响起，两声绵长呼唤，他把长爪挂在背上，拄着拐杖蹒跚地走下楼梯。
He shoved aside his furs and sat. The pain in his leg seemed duller, nothing he could not stand. He had slept in his breeches and tunic and smallclothes, for the added warmth, so he had only to pull on his boots and don leather and mail and cloak. The horn blew again, two long blasts, so he slung Longclaw over one shoulder, found his crutch, and hobbled down the steps.
外面一团漆黑，阴暗的天幕下充斥刺骨的寒意。黑衣弟兄们正从堡垒和塔楼中蜂拥而出，一边系剑带一边走向长城。琼恩寻找派普和葛兰，但徒劳无功。也许正是他们中的一位吹响了号角。曼斯，他认定，曼斯终于来了。很好，我们将与他大战一场，然后就可以安心休息。不论生死，都可以安心休息了。
It was the black of night outside, bitter cold and overcast. His brothers were spilling out of towers and keeps, buckling their swordbelts and walking toward the Wall. Jon looked for Pyp and Grenn, but could not find them. Perhaps one of them was the sentry blowing the horn. It is Mance, he thought. He has come at last. That was good. We will fight a battle, and then we’ll rest. Alive or dead, we’ll rest.
原有的楼梯已化为长城下一片焦木碎冰的宽广瓦砾场，人们只能靠绞盘牵引铁笼登上长城。不过笼子一次只能装十人，琼恩到达时刚好升上去了，必须等它再回来。其他人和他一起等：纱丁、穆利、省靴、木桶，还有长兔牙的金发大个子哈里士，人称“马儿”，因为他曾是鼹鼠镇的马倌，他也是镇上少数几个留在黑城堡的人之一。余人纷纷逃回田地和小屋，逃回到那些位于地下的妓院听天由命。只有马儿梦想穿上黑衣，真是个兔牙大笨蛋。妓女泽也在，上次战斗中她的十字弓用得很出色。诺伊还留下三个孤儿，他们的父亲为保卫阶梯而牺牲。三个都很小——一个九岁，一个八岁，还有一个五岁——没人愿意关照。
Where the stair had been, only an immense tangle of charred wood and broken ice remained below the Wall. The winch raised them up now, but the cage was only big enough for ten men at a time, and it was already on its way up by the time Jon arrived. He would need to wait for its return. Others waited with him; Satin, Mully, Spare Boot, Kegs, big blond Hareth with his buck teeth. Everyone called him Horse. He had been a stablehand in Mole’s Town, one of the few moles who had stayed at Castle Black. The rest had run back to their fields and hovels, or their beds in the underground brothel. Horse wanted to take the black, though, the great buck-toothed fool. Zei remained as well, the whore who’d proved so handy with a crossbow, and Noye had kept three orphan boys whose father had died on the steps. They were young—nine and eight and five—but no one else seemed to want them.
等待期间，克莱达斯送来温酒，三指哈布则分发大块黑面包。琼恩拿上一块啃起来。
As they waited for the cage to come back, Clydas brought them cups of hot mulled wine, while Three-Finger Hobb passed out chunks of black bread. Jon took a heel from him and gnawed on it.
“这是曼斯·雷德吗？”纱丁紧张地问。
“Is it Mance Rayder?” Satin asked anxiously.
“希望如此。”黑暗中有比野人更可怕的存在。琼恩忆起身处先民拳峰的雪地时野人王所说的话：当死人出没，环墙、木桩和宝剑都变得毫无意义。人是无法跟死者作战的，琼恩·雪诺，没有谁比我更清楚。光想想，就让琼恩感觉寒风都变得更加刺骨。
“We can hope so.” There were worse things than wildlings in the dark. Jon remembered the words the wildling king had spoken on the Fist of the First Men, as they stood amidst that pink snow. When the dead walk, walls and stakes and swords mean nothing. You cannot fight the dead, Jon Snow. No man knows that half so well as me. Just thinking of it made the wind seem a little colder.
还好笼子就在此刻叮当响着下到地面，于长长的铁索尾端摇摆，大家静静挤进去关上门。
Finally the cage came clanking back down, swaying at the end of the long chain, and they crowded in silently and shut the door.
穆利将传唤铃的绳索拉了三下。很快铁笼便开始上升，起初颠簸不已，不久渐趋平稳。无人说话。到得顶上，铁笼平移，人们一个接一个地跳出来，马儿伸手帮了琼恩一把。冷风如重拳来袭，令他不由自主地牙齿打颤。
Mully yanked the bell rope three times. A moment later they began to rise, by fits and starts at first, then more smoothly. No one spoke. At the top the cage swung sideways and they clambered out one by one. Horse gave Jon a hand down onto the ice. The cold hit him in the teeth like a fist.
长城之巅，弟兄们用比人还高的杆子撑起一列钢盆，里面生起熊熊大火。风似利剑，戳搅焰苗，可怖的橙光不断摇曳。束束箭支、弩支、长矛及弩炮箭准备就绪。岩石堆了十尺之高，装沥青和灯油的大木桶在旁边排好。除人手之外，波文·马尔锡每一样都给黑城堡留下了充足的供应。风抽打着城垛上那些手执长矛的稻草哨兵的黑斗篷。“希望别是他们中的一位吹响了号角。”琼恩跛行在唐纳·诺伊身边评论。
A line of fires burned along the top of the Wall, contained in iron baskets on poles taller than a man. The cold knife of the wind stirred and swirled the flames, so the lurid orange light was always shifting. Bundles of quarrels, arrows, spears, and scorpion bolts stood ready on every hand. Rocks were piled ten feet high, big wooden barrels of pitch and lamp oil lined up beside them. Bowen Marsh had left Castle Black well supplied in everything save men. The wind was whipping at the black cloaks of the scarecrow sentinels who stood along the ramparts, spears in hand. “I hope it wasn’t one of them who blew the horn,” Jon said to Donal Noye when he limped up beside him.
“你听到了吗？”诺伊问。
“Did you hear that?” Noye asked.
风声，马嘶，还有别的。“一只长毛象，”琼恩说，“那是一只长毛象。”
There was the wind, and horses, and something else. “A mammoth,” Jon said. “That was a mammoth.”
武器师傅扁平的大鼻旁呼气结霜。长城以北为无垠黑暗，势若汪洋，但琼恩能辨认出远方森林里点点闪烁移动的红星。这是曼斯，就跟太阳升起一样明显。异鬼不会点火。
The armorer’s breath was frosting as it blew from his broad, flat nose. North of the Wall was a sea of darkness that seemed to stretch forever. Jon could make out the faint red glimmer of distant fires moving through the wood. It was Mance, certain as sunrise. The Others did not light torches.
“我们看不见，该怎么打？”马儿问。
“How do we fight them if we can’t see them?” Horse asked.
唐纳·诺伊走向波文·马尔锡修复的那两台巨大投石机。“让它带给我们光明！”他咆哮。
Donal Noye turned toward the two great trebuchets that Bowen Marsh had restored to working order. “Give me light!” he roared.
沥青桶被迅速塞入投石机，接着用火把点燃。风动火势，气焰狂暴。“放！”诺伊大吼。随着平衡臂下落，投掷臂“砰”的一声砸在横木上，燃烧的沥青桶便在暗夜中翻滚飞出，散发着奇异的摇曳光芒，照亮途经的地面。琼恩在微光中瞥见长毛象们沉重的脚步，一闪而过。有十来头，也许更多。木桶砸在地面爆裂。敌方阵营传出低沉的喇叭，还有一个巨人用古语咆哮，他的声音如来自远古的轰雷，让琼恩脊梁震颤。
Barrels of pitch were loaded hastily into the slings and set afire with a torch. The wind fanned the flames to a brisk red fury. “NOW!” Noye bellowed. The counterweights plunged downward, the throwing arms rose to thud against the padded crossbars. The burning pitch went tumbling through the darkness, casting an eerie flickering light upon the ground below. Jon caught a glimpse of mammoths moving ponderously through the half-light, and just as quickly lost them again. A dozen, maybe more. The barrels struck the earth and burst. They heard a deep bass trumpeting, and a giant roared something in the Old Tongue, his voice an ancient thunder that sent shivers up Jon’s spine.
“继续！”诺伊呼叫，投石机再次装填，接着又是两只燃烧着的沥青桶噼啪着穿过黑暗落入敌军之中。这次一桶沥青击中一棵死树，并将其点燃。不止十来头，琼恩发现，足有一百头。
“Again!” Noye shouted, and the trebuchets were loaded once more. Two more barrels of burning pitch went crackling through the gloom to come crashing down amongst the foe. This time one of them struck a dead tree, enveloping it in flame. Not a dozen mammoths, Jon saw, a hundred.
他缓缓走近城墙边缘。小心，他提醒自己，这里实在太高。哨兵红埃林再度吹起号角：喔喔喔喔喔呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜，喔喔喔喔喔喔呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜呜。这次野人们回应了，不是用一只号角回应，而是十来只同时奏响，夹杂许多笛声和鼓声。我们终于来了，对方宣告，我们要摧毁你们的城墙，抢掠你们的土地，占有你们的女人。风声呼嚎，投石机吱吱作响，发出砰然的重击，送木桶飞入夜空。在巨人和长毛象身后，琼恩看到野人们手执斧头和弓箭涌向长城。二十？二百？二万？黑暗中一切都无从分辨。这是盲人之间的战斗，唯一的区别是曼斯比我们多出上千倍的人可供牺牲。
He stepped to the edge of the precipice. Careful, he reminded himself, it is a long way down. Red Alyn sounded his sentry’s horn once more, Aaaaahoooooooooooooooooooooooooo, aaaaahoooooooooooooooooooo. And now the wildlings answered, not with one horn but with a dozen, and with drums and pipes as well. We are come, they seemed to say, we are come to break your Wall, to take your lands and steal your daughters. The wind howled, the trebuchets creaked and thumped, the barrels flew. Behind the giants and the mammoths, Jon saw men advancing on the Wall with bows and axes. Were there twenty or twenty thousand? In the dark there was no way to tell. This is a battle of blind men, but Mance has a few thousand more of them than we do.
“城门！”派普惊呼，“他们的目标是城门！”
“The gate!” Pyp cried out. “They’re at the GATE!”
从理论上说，长城过于庞大，几乎无法攻克：它高得让一切云梯和攻城塔都无能为力，厚到使任何攻城锤望之兴叹。没有投石机能掷出破坏墙面的巨石，而若试图火攻，融雪很快就会熄灭火焰。诚然，你可以爬过去，像掠袭者在灰卫堡附近干的那样，但前提是行动者必须强壮、稳健、手脚灵便，即便这样，也可能落得贾尔的下场，摔下来被一棵树刺穿。对大队人马而言，必须攻打城门，别无他法。
The Wall was too big to be stormed by any conventional means; too high for ladders or siege towers, too thick for battering rams. No catapult could throw a stone large enough to breach it, and if you tried to set it on fire, the icemelt would quench the flames. You could climb over, as the raiders did near Greyguard, but only if you were strong and fit and sure-handed, and even then you might end up like Jarl, impaled on a tree. They must take the gate, or they cannot pass.
然而，所谓城门只是冰墙中弯曲狭窄的隧道，可谓七大王国最小的门，内里只能下马单列行进。通道内有三道拦路铁栏，每道都上锁并捆绑铁链，头顶还有杀人洞加以保卫。最外层的门是九寸厚的镶钉老橡木板，同样难以击破。不过曼斯有长毛象，他提醒自己，还有巨人。
But the gate was a crooked tunnel through the ice, smaller than any castle gate in the Seven Kingdoms, so narrow that rangers must lead their garrons through single file. Three iron grates closed the inner passage, each locked and chained and protected by a murder hole. The outer door was old oak, nine inches thick and studded with iron, not easy to break through. But Mance has mammoths, he reminded himself, and giants as well.
“下面冷着咧，”诺伊说，“给他们洗洗热水澡，小子们？”一打灯油罐子正排列在城墙边，派普跑上前用火把将它们通通点燃，接着呆子欧文将其一个接一个地推倒。罐子喷吐着旋转的淡白火舌，凌空坠落，当最后一个也摔下去之后，葛兰踢开沥青桶的木楔，让沥青沿墙辘辘地流淌。下方的声音变成惨叫与尖嘶，对他们而言，却是甜美的乐曲。
“Must be cold down there,” said Noye. “What say we warm them up, lads?” A dozen jars of lamp oil had been lined up on the precipice. Pyp ran down the line with a torch, setting them alight. Owen the Oaf followed, shoving them over the edge one by one. Tongues of pale yellow fire swirled around the jars as they plunged downward. When the last was gone, Grenn kicked loose the chocks on a barrel of pitch and sent it rumbling and rolling over the edge as well. The sounds below changed to shouts and screams, sweet music to their ears.
然而鼓声仍如波浪一般传来，投石机抖动、出击，皮风笛的声音回荡在夜空，仿佛烈鸟的歌唱。塞勒达修士同样在唱圣歌，但声音因喝多了酒而显得粗浊颤抖：
Yet still the drums beat on, the trebuchets shuddered and thumped, and the sound of skinpipes came wafting through the night like the songs of strange fierce birds. Septon Cellador began to sing as well, his voice tremulous and thick with wine.
温柔的圣母，慈悲的源泉，
Gentle Mother, font of mercy,
保佑您的儿子穿越鏖战，
save our sons from war, we pray,
止住流矢，抵挡刀剑，
stay the swords and stay the arrows,
让他们看见美好的……
let them know …
唐纳·诺伊焦躁地围着他转，“谁敢放下刀剑，我就一脚把他踢下长城去……别停啊！修士。弓箭手！该死，弓箭手在哪儿？”
Donal Noye rounded on him. “Any man here stays his sword, I’ll chuck his puckered arse right off this Wall … starting with you, Septon. Archers! Do we have any bloody archers?”
“这儿。”纱丁说。
“Here,” said Satin.
“还有这儿，”穆利答道，“不过我找不到目标……黑得跟猪肚子里一样。敌人到底在哪里？”
“And here,” said Mully. “But how can I find a target? It’s black as the inside of a pig’s belly. Where are they?”
诺伊指向北方，“不停放箭，也许可以碰巧射到一些，至少能骚扰对方。”他望着围绕在身边的这些被火光照亮的脸庞。“我需要两名弓手和两名矛手来一起守隧道，以防他们击碎城门闯进来。”十多个人走上前，武器师傅挑出四个。“琼恩，在我回来之前，长城是你的了。”
Noye pointed north. “Loose enough arrows, might be you’ll find a few. At least you’ll make them fretful.” He looked around the ring of firelit faces. “I need two bows and two spears to help me hold the tunnel if they break the gate.” More than ten stepped forward, and the smith picked his four. “Jon, you have the Wall till I return.”
半晌间，琼恩以为自己听错了。诺伊竟让他指挥长城上的防御？“大人？”
For a moment Jon thought he had misheard. It had sounded as if Noye were leaving him in command. “My lord?”
“大人？我只是一名铁匠。”“我说过，长城是你的了。”
“Lord? I’m a blacksmith. I said, the Wall is yours.”
这里有比我年长的人，琼恩想辩解，比我优秀的人。我还像夏天的青草一样软弱，况且身上有伤，还被指控开小差。嘴里干得发苦，“是。”他勉强答应。
There are older men, Jon wanted to say, better men. I am still as green as summer grass. I’m wounded, and I stand accused of desertion. His mouth had gone bone dry. “Aye,” he managed.
之后，琼恩·雪诺觉得自己如在梦中。他的弓箭手们站在稻草哨兵中间，用半僵硬的手臂驱动长弓和十字弓，向看不见的敌人倾泻无数飞矢。不时有支野人的箭射上来回应。他派人使用较小的弹石器，把巨人拳头般大小、参差不齐的石子散射入空。黑暗吞噬了它们，就如人们咽下一把干果。长毛象阴沉地叫唤，陌生的声调复述陌生的语言。塞勒达修士祈祷黎明到来的声音吵闹中充满酒意，琼恩几乎想一脚把他踢下去。底下，一只长毛象垂死呻吟，另一只着了火，在森林里横冲直撞，践踏人和树。寒风愈加刺骨，哈布乘笼子上来，捎带杯杯洋葱肉汤，欧文和克莱达斯负责把它们端到弓箭手们身边，好让他们在放箭间隙时喝上一口。泽也操起十字弓参战。一小时接一小时的装填和发射让右边那座投石机的绳索开始松弛，前面的平衡臂猛然断裂，同时扳倒后方的投掷臂，让它摔在地上砸成了碎片。左边的投石机继续发射，不过野人们很快学会了如何避开它的杀伤范围。
Afterward it would seem to Jon Snow as if he’d dreamt that night. Side by side with the straw soldiers, with longbows or crossbows clutched in half-frozen hands, his archers launched a hundred flights of arrows against men they never saw. From time to time a wildling arrow came flying back in answer. He sent men to the smaller catapults and filled the air with jagged rocks the size of a giant’s fist, but the darkness swallowed them as a man might swallow a handful of nuts. Mammoths trumpeted in the gloom, strange voices called out in stranger tongues, and Septon Cellador prayed so loudly and drunkenly for the dawn to come that Jon was tempted to chuck him over the edge himself. They heard a mammoth dying at their feet and saw another lurch burning through the woods, trampling down men and trees alike. The wind blew cold and colder. Hobb rode up the chain with cups of onion broth, and Owen and Clydas served them to the archers where they stood, so they could gulp them down between arrows. Zei took a place among them with her crossbow. Hours of repeated jars and shocks knocked something loose on the right-hand trebuchet, and its counterweight came crashing free, suddenly and catastrophically, wrenching the throwing arm sideways with a splintering crash. The left-hand trebuchet kept throwing, but the wildlings had quickly learned to shun the place where its loads were landing.
我们需要二十座投石机，而不只是两座，并且它们应当装在撬板和绞盘上以便移动。这是无用的妄想。不如再增加一千名战士，外加三条龙。
We should have twenty trebuchets, not two, and they should be mounted on sledges and turntables so we could move them. It was a futile thought. He might as well wish for another thousand men, and maybe a dragon or three.
唐纳·诺伊没有回来，下去保卫那条黑冷隧道的几个人都没有回来。长城是我的了，每当筋疲力尽时，琼恩便这样自我提醒。他自己也拿起一把长弓，只觉手指麻木僵硬，几乎冻结。高烧又回来了，腿脚不由自主地发抖，疼痛如白热的匕首，贯穿全身。再放一箭，就可以安心休息了，他告诉自己，不下五十次地告诉自己，再放一箭。可每当他射完箭，那三名鼹鼠村孤儿中的一位就会立即跑来递上新的。再放一箭，就可以安心休息了。很快黎明就会到来。
Donal Noye did not return, nor any of them who’d gone down with him to hold that black cold tunnel. The Wall is mine, Jon reminded himself whenever he felt his strength flagging. He had taken up a longbow himself, and his fingers felt crabbed and stiff, half-frozen. His fever was back as well, and his leg would tremble uncontrollably, sending a white-hot knife of pain right through him. One more arrow, and I’ll rest, he told himself, half a hundred times. Just one more. Whenever his quiver was empty, one of the orphaned moles would bring him another. One more quiver, and I’m done. It couldn’t be long until the dawn.
但当黎明最终降临时，却没有人反应过来。世界仍为黑暗，慢慢褪成为灰，某种形态隐隐约约地在阴暗的天边浮现。琼恩弯腰凝视东方天际大块大块的厚重云团。还在做梦吗？他看到云团下的光亮，搭上另一支箭。
When morning came, none of them quite realized it at first. The world was still dark, but the black had turned to grey and shapes were beginning to emerge half-seen from the gloom. Jon lowered his bow to stare at the mass of heavy clouds that covered the eastern sky. He could see a glow behind them, but perhaps he was only dreaming. He notched another arrow.
这时升起的太阳破云冲出，光芒如柄柄白色长枪照射在战地。看到这片位于长城和森林之间半里长的沙场时，琼恩不由自主地屏住了呼吸。只半个夜晚，这里就成了一片充满焦黑草梗、散落沥青、粉碎石子和无数尸体的废土。烧焦长毛象的尸体引来大群乌鸦，还有战死的巨人，但在他们后面……
Then the rising sun broke through to send pale lances of light across the battleground. Jon found himself holding his breath as he looked out over the half-mile swath of cleared land that lay between the Wall and the edge of the forest. In half a night they had turned it into a wasteland of blackened grass, bubbling pitch, shattered stone, and corpses. The carcass of the burned mammoth was already drawing crows. There were giants dead on the ground as well, but behind them …
左边有人发出呻吟，接着塞勒达修士喃喃道，“圣母慈悲，噢，噢，噢，噢，圣母慈悲……”
Someone moaned to his left, and he heard Septon Cellador say, “Mother have mercy, oh. Oh, oh, oh, Mother have mercy.”
在那片森林底下，集结了全世界的野人：骑兵与巨人，狼灵和易形者，山上的蛮族，咸海的水手，大冰川的食人部落，脸染成各种颜色的穴居人，冰封海岸的狗拉战车，脚板如煮沸皮革的硬足民……所有这些形色怪异的野人都被曼斯聚集起来攻打长城。这不是你们的土地，琼恩想对他们叫喊，这里没有你们的位置，快离开。他似乎听到“巨人克星”托蒙德的嘲笑。“你什么都不懂，琼恩·雪诺。”耶哥蕊特也在说。他下意识地弯曲用剑的手，五指开开合合，尽管身在高处完全用不上剑。
Beneath the trees were all the wildlings in the world; raiders and giants, wargs and skinchangers, mountain men, salt sea sailors, ice river cannibals, cave dwellers with dyed faces, dog chariots from the Frozen Shore, Hornfoot men with their soles like boiled leather, all the queer wild folk Mance had gathered to break the Wall. This is not your land, Jon wanted to shout at them. There is no place for you here. Go away. He could hear Tormund Giantsbane laughing at that. “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” Ygritte would have said. He flexed his sword hand, opening and closing the fingers, though he knew full well that swords would not come into it up here.
躯体已冻得僵硬，内里发着高烧，手中的长弓突然沉重万分。和马格拿的战斗无关紧要，他明白了，而昨晚的战斗甚至连无关紧要都说不上，仅仅是一场侦查，一把企图在黑暗中攻敌不备的匕首。真正的战斗现在才刚刚开始。
He was chilled and feverish, and suddenly the weight of the longbow was too much. The battle with the Magnar had been nothing, he realized, and the night fight less than nothing, only a probe, a dagger in the dark to try and catch them unprepared. The real battle was only now beginning.
“我不知道他们有这么多。”纱丁说。
“I never knew there would be so many,” Satin said.
琼恩是知道的，他见过这帮野人，但不是眼下的状态，不是排成战斗队列。行军途中，野人的队伍散开若干里格，像许多庞大臃肿的昆虫，从未聚在一起，而现在……
Jon had. He had seen them before, but not like this, not drawn up in battle array. On the march the wildling column had sprawled over long leagues like some enormous worm, but you never saw all of it at once. But now …
“他们来了。”有人嘶哑地喊道。
“Here they come,” someone said in a hoarse voice.
队列正中是长毛象，上百只长毛象，手握棍棒、大槌或巨石斧的巨人骑在它们背上。更多巨人跑在旁边，推一棵装上木轮的大树干，树干前端磨砺成尖。撞锤，他阴沉地想。如果下面的城门还健在的话，用那东西轻轻几碰就会让它粉碎。在巨人们两侧，浪涛般汹涌而来的是身穿煮沸皮甲、手执用火淬硬的长枪的骑兵，大群弓箭手，以及成千上万挥舞长矛、弹弓、棍棒和皮革盾牌的步兵。来自冰封海岸的骨制战车“哗哗”响着在两翼推进，彪悍的大白狗牵引它们越过岩石与树根。这便是北野洪荒的愤怒啊，听着皮风笛的尖啸、听着野狗们的咆哮、听着长毛象粗重的鼻音、听着自由民吹口哨和叫喊声、听着巨人们用古语发出怒吼，琼恩不由得感慨。敌人的战鼓在冰墙中引起回音，仿佛内部有闷雷翻滚。
Mammoths centered the wildling line, he saw, a hundred or more with giants on their backs clutching mauls and huge stone axes. More giants loped beside them, pushing along a tree trunk on great wooden wheels, its end sharpened to a point. A ram, he thought bleakly. If the gate still stood below, a few kisses from that thing would soon turn it into splinters. On either side of the giants came a wave of horsemen in boiled leather harness with fire-hardened lances, a mass of running archers, hundreds of foot with spears, slings, clubs, and leathern shields. The bone chariots from the Frozen Shore clattered forward on the flanks, bouncing over rocks and roots behind teams of huge white dogs. The fury of the wild, Jon thought as he listened to the skirl of skins, to the dogs barking and baying, the mammoths trumpeting, the free folk whistling and screaming, the giants roaring in the Old Tongue. Their drums echoed off the ice like rolling thunder.
他可以感受四周人们的绝望。“他们一定有十万人。”纱丁嚎叫。“我们该怎么办？怎样阻止他们？”
He could feel the despair all around him. “There must be a hundred thousand,” Satin wailed. “How can we stop so many?”
“长城将阻止他们。”琼恩听见自己说。他转向大家，提高声调，“长城将阻止他们，长城会保护自己。”空洞的言辞，但他必须尽可能地重复，越多越好，因为这是弟兄们渴望听到的话。“曼斯想用人数来吓唬我们。他认为我们都是笨蛋吗？”他扯开嗓门叫喊，忘掉了自己的腿，每个人都静静倾听。“战车、骑兵、外加步行的蠢货……对长城上的我们而言有什么可怕呢？你们见过能爬墙的长毛象吗？”他笑了，派普、欧文和其他六七人也跟着笑了。“他们什么都不是，比这些稻草哨兵还不如。他们够不到我们，伤不了我们，吓不倒我们！对不对？”
“The Wall will stop them,” Jon heard himself say. He turned and said it again, louder. “The Wall will stop them. The Wall defends itself.” Hollow words, but he needed to say them, almost as much as his brothers needed to hear them. “Mance wants to unman us with his numbers. Does he think we’re stupid?” He was shouting now, his leg forgotten, and every man was listening. “The chariots, the horsemen, all those fools on foot … what are they going to do to us up here? Any of you ever see a mammoth climb a wall?” He laughed, and Pyp and Owen and half a dozen more laughed with him. “They’re nothing, they’re less use than our straw brothers here, they can’t reach us, they can’t hurt us, and they don’t frighten us, do they?”
“对！”葛兰高喊。
“NO!” Grenn shouted.
“他们在绝境长城底下，而我们踩在他们上面，”琼恩道，“守住城门，他们便不能通过。他们将永不能通过长城！！”人们不约而同地高声呐喊，吼出同样的词句，回应琼恩，一边挥舞手中的利刃和长弓，脸颊因激动而变得通红。琼恩发现木桶胳膊上挂着号角。“兄弟，”他告诉木桶，“吹响战争的信号。”
“They’re down there and we’re up here,” Jon said, “and so long as we hold the gate they cannot pass. They cannot pass!” They were all shouting then, roaring his own words back at him, waving swords and longbows in the air as their cheeks flushed red. Jon saw Kegs standing there with a warhorn slung beneath his arm. “Brother,” he told him, “sound for battle.”
木桶咧嘴一笑，将号角举到唇边，吹出代表野人来袭的两声绵长号角。其他号角也纷纷跟进，直到长城本身都发起抖来，强烈而低沉的回响淹没了所有声音。
Grinning, Kegs lifted the horn to his lips, and blew the two long blasts that meant wildlings. Other horns took up the call until the Wall itself seemed to shudder, and the echo of those great deep-throated moans drowned all other sound.
“弓箭手，”余音消逝后，琼恩下令，“瞄准推撞锤的巨人，该死，每个人都瞄准好，听我口令发射，绝不准先动。巨人和他们的撞锤！下场浓密的箭雨，但首先等待对方进入射程。谁浪费一支箭，就给我爬下城墙去捡，听明白了吗？”
“Archers,” Jon said when the horns had died away, “you’ll aim for the giants with that ram, every bloody one of you. Loose at my command, not before. THE GIANTS AND THE RAM. I want arrows raining on them with every step, but we’ll wait till they’re in range. Any man who wastes an arrow will need to climb down and fetch it back, do you hear me?”
“明白，”呆子欧文高喊，“我明白，雪诺大人。”
“I do,” shouted Owen the Oaf. “I hear you, Lord Snow.”
琼恩哈哈大笑，笑得像酒鬼、像疯子，但部下跟他一起笑。现在，两翼的战车和急驰的骑兵开始突出于中央，野人们还没冲过这半里路的三分之一，阵线已乱。“给投石机装上铁蒺藜，”琼恩说，“欧文，木桶，把弹石器旋到中央角度。弩炮装填火矛，得令即发。”他指指鼹鼠村的几个小孩，“你，你，还有你，拿好火把等着。”
Jon laughed, laughed like a drunk or a madman, and his men laughed with him. The chariots and the racing horsemen on the flanks were well ahead of the center now, he saw. The wildlings had not crossed a third of the half mile, yet their battle line was dissolving. “Load the trebuchet with caltrops,” Jon said. “Owen, Kegs, angle the catapults toward the center. Scorpions, load with fire spears and loose at my command.” He pointed at the Mole’s Town boys. “You, you, and you, stand by with torches.”
野人的弓箭手边进边射，模式单调，总是先向前猛冲，停下，发射，随后再猛冲十码。飞箭的数量如此惊人，以至于天空完全被其笼罩，但可悲的是全部无害的坠落。彻头彻尾的浪费，琼恩心想，他们的确欠缺经验与纪律。自由民那些较小的、以兽角和木头做的弓本远逊于守夜人军团的高大紫衫木长弓，况且还射的是头顶七百尺的目标。“让他们射，”琼恩说，“等着。保持镇静。”人们的斗篷在身后拍打。“风正迎面吹，会影响射程。等着。”近了，更近了。皮风笛啸叫，鼓声如雷霆，野人们的箭在空中“嗖嗖”划过，随即下坠。
The wildling archers shot as they advanced; they would dash forward, stop, loose, then run another ten yards. There were so many that the air was constantly full of arrows, all falling woefully short. A waste, Jon thought. Their want of discipline is showing. The smaller horn-and-wood bows of the free folk were outranged by the great yew longbows of the Night’s Watch, and the wildlings were trying to shoot at men seven hundred feet above them. “Let them shoot,” Jon said. “Wait. Hold.” Their cloaks were flapping behind them. “The wind is in our faces, it will cost us range. Wait.” Closer, closer. The skins wailed, the drums thundered, the wildling arrows fluttered and fell.
“拉弓。”琼恩举起自己的弓，将箭拉到耳边。纱丁照办，还有葛兰、呆子欧文、省靴、黑杰克布尔威、艾隆与艾蒙克。泽也把十字弓放到肩上。琼恩注视着撞锤慢慢逼近，长毛象和巨人们笨拙地跑在旁边。从这儿看下去，他们如此渺小，几乎可用一只手捏碎。我有这样大的手就好了。他们穿越杀戮战场，轰隆碾过死去的长毛象，惊起成百乌鸦。近了，更近了，直到……
“DRAW.” Jon lifted his own bow and pulled the arrow to his ear. Satin did the same, and Grenn, Owen the Oaf, Spare Boot, Black Jack Bulwer, Arron and Emrick. Zei hoisted her crossbow to her shoulder. Jon was watching the ram come on and on, the mammoths and giants lumbering forward on either side. They were so small he could have crushed them all in one hand, it seemed. If only my hand was big enough. Through the killing ground they came. A hundred crows rose from the carcass of the dead mammoth as the wildlings thundered past to either side of them. Closer and closer, until …
“放！！”
“LOOSE!”
黑色的羽箭发出嘶声，如插翅膀的毒蛇，飞了下去。琼恩未待查看战果，便迅速搭上第二支。“搭箭！拉弓！放！”他又尽快搭上第三支，“搭箭！拉弓！放！”一次紧接着另一次。他朝投石机叫喊，然后听到吱吱的响声和砰然的重击，百余铁蒺藜散射破空。“弹石器，”他喊，“弩炮，弓箭手，自由射击。”这时野人们的箭击中了长城，钉在他们脚下一百尺的地方。又一位巨人蹒跚着逃跑。搭箭，拉弓，放。一头长毛象转头撞向身边的同伴，把巨人从背上摔下来。搭箭，拉弓，放。他看见撞锤倒下，推它的巨人非死即伤。“用火箭，”他呼喝，“烧掉撞锤。”受伤长毛象的尖叫及巨人的怒吼中混杂有鼓声和笛声，交织成可怕的乐章，不过他的弓箭手们不受干扰、毫不停歇地瞄准发射，似乎都成了死去的迪克·佛拉德那样的聋子。是的，这些人也许曾为世间渣滓，而今却都是守夜人的汉子，够了。这就是为什么他们永不能通过长城。
The black arrows hissed downward, like snakes on feathered wings. Jon did not wait to see where they struck. He reached for a second arrow as soon as the first left his bow. “NOTCH. DRAW. LOOSE.” As soon as the arrow flew he found another. “NOTCH. DRAW. LOOSE.” Again, and then again. Jon shouted for the trebuchet, and heard the creak and heavy thud as a hundred spiked steel caltrops went spinning through the air. “Catapults,” he called, “scorpions. Bowmen, loose at will.” Wildling arrows were striking the Wall now, a hundred feet below them. A second giant spun and staggered. Notch, draw, loose. A mammoth veered into another beside it, spilling giants on the ground. Notch, draw, loose. The ram was down and done, he saw, the giants who’d pushed it dead or dying. “Fire arrows,” he shouted. “I want that ram burning.” The screams of wounded mammoths and the booming cries of giants mingled with the drums and pipes to make an awful music, yet still his archers drew and loosed, as if they’d all gone as deaf as dead Dick Follard. They might be the dregs of the order, but they were men of the Night’s Watch, or near enough as made no matter. That’s why they shall not pass.
一只长毛象陷入狂暴，撞翻无数野人，踩死若干弓箭手。琼恩拉开长弓，照准这只野兽毛茸茸的背部补了一箭，以驱动它奔逃。东西两面，野人的侧翼毫无阻碍地到达长城，但战车只能于城下无益地打转，骑兵们同样在奇丽的冰壁面前漫无目的地来回。“城门！”有人在喊，似乎是省靴，“长毛象冲向城门！”
One of the mammoths was running berserk, smashing wildlings with his trunk and crushing archers underfoot. Jon pulled back his bow once more, and launched another arrow at the beast’s shaggy back to urge him on. To east and west, the flanks of the wildling host had reached the Wall unopposed. The chariots drew in or turned while the horsemen milled aimlessly beneath the looming cliff of ice. “At the gate!” a shout came. Spare Boot, maybe. “Mammoth at the gate!”
“火，”琼恩咆哮，“葛兰，派普。”
“Fire,” Jon barked. “Grenn, Pyp.”
葛兰摔开长弓，用尽全身力气将一桶油从堆放的地方搬下来滚到城墙边，派普把密封的塞子锤开，塞入一大段布条，并用火把点燃。之后，他俩协力将桶推下去。桶下坠了约一百尺，撞上长城，随即爆裂，在空中撒满碎木和燃油。葛兰滚来第二桶，木桶也滚来一桶，派普将其分别点着。“打中了！”纱丁高喊，他的头伸出如此之远，琼恩几乎肯定他会摔下去，“打中了，打中了，打中了！”下方传来烈焰的怒号。一个全身浴火的巨人蹒跚着闯入视野，绊倒在地疯狂打滚。
Grenn thrust his bow aside, wrestled a barrel of oil onto its side, and rolled it to the edge of the Wall, where Pyp hammered out the plug that sealed it, stuffed in a twist of cloth, and set it alight with a torch. They shoved it over together. A hundred feet below it struck the Wall and burst, filling the air with shattered staves and burning oil. Grenn was rolling a second barrel to the precipice by then, and Kegs had one as well. Pyp lit them both. “Got him!” Satin shouted, his head sticking out so far that Jon was certain he was about to fall. “Got him, got him, GOT him!” He could hear the roar of fire. A flaming giant lurched into view, stumbling and rolling on the ground.
这时，长毛象们猛地一下开始集体奔逃，它们从烟雾和火光中冲出，带着惊恐撞向身后的同胞，使得它们也加入崩溃的行列，而巨人和野人们争抢走避。不到半个心跳时间，阵线中央已彻底瓦解，两翼的骑兵眼看被抛下，也跟着逃跑，尽管自身还没流一滴血。战车也隆隆地返回，除了散播恐怖和制造噪音，它们一事无成。一旦队列冲乱，对方便不堪驱使，望着四散逃亡的野人，琼恩心想。战场上的鼓声已然全部沉寂。你喜欢这音乐吗，曼斯？你喜欢多恩人妻子的滋味吗？“有谁受伤？”他喝问。
Then suddenly the mammoths were fleeing, running from the smoke and flames and smashing into those behind them in their terror. Those went backward too, the giants and wildlings behind them scrambling to get out of their way. In half a heartbeat the whole center was collapsing. The horsemen on the flanks saw themselves being abandoned and decided to fall back as well, not one so much as blooded. Even the chariots rumbled off, having done nothing but look fearsome and make a lot of noise. When they break, they break hard, Jon Snow thought as he watched them reel away. The drums had all gone silent. How do you like that music, Mance? How do you like the taste of the Dornishman’s wife? “Do we have anyone hurt?” he asked.
“有个该死的家伙射中了我的脚，”省靴拔出箭支，在头上挥舞，“不过瞄的是木的那只！”
“The bloody buggers got my leg.” Spare Boot plucked the arrow out and waved it above his head. “The wooden one!”
粗鲁的欢呼在周围响起。泽抓住欧文，抱着他转圈，然后当着大家的面给了他一个湿润的长吻。她也试图亲吻琼恩，但他抓住她肩膀，温柔而坚定地推开。“不。”他说。我已经亲吻得太多。此刻他只觉疲乏得无法站立，大腿从膝盖到胯下的部分痛得昏天黑地，于是摸到拐杖，“派普，扶我登上笼子。葛兰，长城是你的了。”
A ragged cheer went up. Zei grabbed Owen by the hands, spun him around in a circle, and gave him a long wet kiss right there for all to see. She tried to kiss Jon too, but he held her by the shoulder and pushed her gently but firmly away. “No,” he said. I am done with kissing. Suddenly he was too weary to stand, and his leg was agony from knee to groin. He fumbled for his crutch. “Pyp, help me to the cage. Grenn, you have the Wall.”
“我的？”葛兰说。“他的？”派普道。很难分辨他们中谁更吃惊。“可是，”葛兰结结巴巴地说，“可——可是野人再攻来我该怎么办？”
“Me?” said Grenn. “Him?” said Pyp. It was hard to tell which of them was more horrified. “But,” Grenn stammered, “b-but what do I do if the wildlings attack again?”
“阻止他们。”琼恩告诉他。
“Stop them,” Jon told him.
乘笼子下降时，派普脱掉头盔，擦拭额间。“结霜的臭汗，能有比结霜的臭汗更脏的东西？”他微笑。“诸神在上，居然这么饿，我敢发誓自己可以吞下一整头牛！你认为哈布会把葛兰煮给我们吃吗？”当他看到琼恩的脸色时，笑容凝固了，“怎么？你的腿？”
As they rode down in the cage, Pyp took off his helm and wiped his brow. “Frozen sweat. Is there anything as disgusting as frozen sweat?” He laughed. “Gods, I don’t think I have ever been so hungry. I could eat an aurochs whole, I swear it. Do you think Hobb will cook up Grenn for us?” When he saw Jon’s face, his smile died. “What’s wrong? Is it your leg?”
“是的，我的腿。”琼恩应和。简单的回答都让他觉得吃力。
“My leg,” Jon agreed. Even the words were an effort.
“没伤到吧？我们干得漂亮。”
“Not the battle, though? We won the battle.”
“带我去城门。”琼恩严厉地说。我需要温暖的炉火，热腾的饭菜，舒适的床铺以及止痛的东西，他心想。但首先必须去隧道，查看唐纳·诺伊他们的状况。
“Ask me when I’ve seen the gate,” Jon said grimly. I want a fire, a hot meal, a warm bed, and something to make my leg stop hurting, he told himself. But first he had to check the tunnel and find what had become of Donal Noye.
与瑟恩人的战斗之后，人们花了整整一天来清理堆积在内门附近的碎冰和木梁。麻子佩特、木桶等工匠们激烈争论，是否该把残骸留下来，作为防御屏障。这意味着放弃隧道的防守，所以被诺伊坚决拒绝。他认定只要把人埋伏在杀人洞里，然后由弓手和矛手把守拦路铁栏，一小撮坚定的黑衣弟兄便足以抵挡上百倍的野人，让他们的尸体塞满隧道。他不打算让曼斯·雷德轻易通过冰壁，所以用上各种铲子、锄子和绳子，人们最后挪开破碎的阶梯，把内门挖了出来。
After the battle with the Thenns it had taken them almost a day to clear the ice and broken beams away from the inner gate. Spotted Pate and Kegs and some of the other builders had argued heatedly that they ought just leave the debris there, another obstacle for Mance. That would have meant abandoning the defense of the tunnel, though, and Noye was having none of it. With men in the murder holes and archers and spears behind each inner grate, a few determined brothers could hold off a hundred times as many wildlings and clog the way with corpses. He did not mean to give Mance Rayder free passage through the ice. So with pick and spade and ropes, they had moved the broken steps aside and dug back down to the gate.
琼恩站在冰凉的铁栏前，等待派普去向伊蒙学士索要备用钥匙。令他惊讶的是，伊蒙学士跟着派普一起回来，还有打灯笼的克莱达斯。“检查完毕后，马上跟我走，”派普开门时，老人告诉琼恩，“我必须给你换绷带，敷新药。你也需要更多安眠酒止疼。”
Jon waited by the cold iron bars while Pyp went to Maester Aemon for the spare key. Surprisingly, the maester himself returned with him, and Clydas with a lantern. “Come see me when we are done,” the old man told Jon while Pyp was fumbling with the chains. “I need to change your dressing and apply a fresh poultice, and you will want some more dreamwine for the pain.”
琼恩无力地点头。门终于打开，派普当先进入，接着是克莱达斯和他的灯笼，琼恩只能勉力跟上伊蒙学士。冰壁从四面八方压来，寒意直入骨髓，整个巨大的长城就在头顶，他们好像在冰龙的食道里漫游。隧道一弯接一弯。派普打开第二道铁栏，继续前进，再转弯，前方有光，透过冰层射来的苍白微光。糟了，琼恩立刻反应过来，糟透了。
Jon nodded weakly. The door swung open. Pyp led them in, followed by Clydas and the lantern. It was all Jon could do to keep up with Maester Aemon. The ice pressed close around them, and he could feel the cold seeping into his bones, the weight of the Wall above his head. It felt like walking down the gullet of an ice dragon. The tunnel took a twist, and then another. Pyp unlocked a second iron gate. They walked farther, turned again, and saw light ahead, faint and pale through the ice. That’s bad, Jon knew at once. That’s very bad.
派普说：“地上有血。”
Then Pyp said, “There’s blood on the floor.”
隧道最后二十尺是弟兄们战斗和阵亡的地方。最外层的老橡木门早被砍穿击破，连铰链也扭了下来，有个巨人爬进碎屑里。灯笼发出的阴郁红光照亮了毛骨悚然的战场。派普扭向一旁开始呕吐，琼恩则嫉妒起失明的伊蒙学士。
The last twenty feet of the tunnel was where they’d fought and died. The outer door of studded oak had been hacked and broken and finally torn off its hinges, and one of the giants had crawled in through the splinters. The lantern bathed the grisly scene in a sullen reddish light. Pyp turned aside to retch, and Jon found himself envying Maester Aemon his blindness.
诺伊和他的人在里面等待，就着一道和派普刚才打开的一模一样的沉重铁栏。两名十字弓手在巨人冲来时射出一打箭矢，两名矛手则透过栏栅戳刺。即使这样，仍未能阻止对方，他扭下麻子佩特的头颅，抓住铁栏，以惊人的力量将其完全扳开。破碎铁链的环节洒得到处都是。一个巨人。所有这些都是一个巨人完成的。
Noye and his men had been waiting within, behind a gate of heavy iron bars like the two Pyp had just unlocked. The two crossbows had gotten off a dozen quarrels as the giant struggled toward them. Then the spearmen must have come to the fore, stabbing through the bars. Still the giant found the strength to reach through, twist the head off Spotted Pate, seize the iron gate, and wrench the bars apart. Links of broken chain lay strewn across the floor. One giant. All this was the work of one giant.
“全部牺牲？”伊蒙学士轻声问。
“Are they all dead?” Maester Aemon asked softly.
“是的。唐纳是最后一个。”诺伊的剑足有一半深深没入巨人的咽喉。平日里，琼恩常惊叹于武器师傅的高壮，但如今被巨人魁伟的胳膊抱住的他就像个小孩。“巨人压碎了他的脊梁，我不知他们中谁先死。”他拿来灯笼，移上前去仔细观察。“玛格。”我是最后的巨人。他终于能感受到那种悲哀，但没有时间用来伤感。“这是‘强壮的玛格’，巨人的国王。”
“Yes. Donal was the last.” Noye’s sword was sunk deep in the giant’s throat, halfway to the hilt. The armorer had always seemed such a big man to Jon, but locked in the giant’s massive arms he looked almost like a child. “The giant crushed his spine. I don’t know who died first.” He took the lantern and moved forward for a better look. “Mag.” I am the last of the giants. He could feel the sadness there, but he had no time for sadness. “It was Mag the Mighty. The king of the giants.”
现在的他渴望阳光。隧道黑暗阴冷，血与死亡的臭气让人窒息。琼恩把灯笼还给克莱达斯，踩过尸体，穿越扭开的铁栏，向被击碎的大门走去，去看看门后的世界。
He needed sun then. It was too cold and dark inside the tunnel, and the stench of blood and death was suffocating. Jon gave the lantern back to Clydas, squeezed around the bodies and through the twisted bars, and walked toward the daylight to see what lay beyond the splintered door.
一个死去长毛象的巨大身躯把路挡住大半，他试图挤过去时斗篷被巨兽的獠牙勾住、扯拦。外面还躺着三个死巨人，覆盖在石头、烂泥和凝固沥青下的尸体已有一半烧焦。火焰融化长城的痕迹清晰可见，巨大的冰片因高热而蜕落，砸碎在焦土之上。抬头，抬头，可以看见火焰出发的地方。你在那儿无限高大，似乎伸手即可轻轻捏碎现在的你。
The huge carcass of a dead mammoth partially blocked the way. One of the beast’s tusks snagged his cloak and tore it as he edged past. Three more giants lay outside, half buried beneath stone and slush and hardened pitch. He could see where the fire had melted the Wall, where great sheets of ice had come sloughing off in the heat to shatter on the blackened ground. He looked up at where they’d come from. When you stand here it seems immense, as if it were about to crush you.
琼恩回到其他人身边，“必须尽可能地修复外门，并堵塞这段隧道，用上碎石、冰块，什么都行，反正要把第一和第二道铁栏之间封住。文顿爵士得负起指挥事务来，他是城里最后的骑士，赶快行动吧，我想在我们得到喘息之前，巨人就会回来。我们要告诉他……”
Jon went back inside to where the others waited. “We need to repair the outer gate as best we can and then block up this section of the tunnel. Rubble, chunks of ice, anything. All the way to the second gate, if we can. Ser Wynton will need to take command, he’s the last knight left, but he needs to move now, the giants will be back before we know it. We have to tell him—”
“把想法告诉他，”伊蒙学士异常轻柔地说，“他会微笑，点头，然后忘得一干二净。三十年前文顿·史陶爵士是总司令一职的有力候选人，或许可以干得很好。直到十年前他仍可以胜任。但从此之后就不行了。你同唐纳一样深知这点，琼恩。”
“Tell him what you will,” said Maester Aemon, gently. “He will smile, nod, and forget. Thirty years ago Ser Wynton Stout came within a dozen votes of being Lord Commander. He would have made a fine one. Ten years ago he would still have been capable. No longer. You know that as well as Donal did, Jon.”
这是事实。“那你来指挥，”琼恩告诉学士，“你把一生都奉献给了长城，人们会追随你。我们着手修门吧。”
It was true. “You give the order, then,” Jon told the maester. “You have been on the Wall your whole life, the men will follow you. We have to close the gate.”
“我是戴颈链发了誓的学士，职责就是服务，琼恩。我们学士付出谏言，而非命令。”
“I am a maester chained and sworn. My order serves, Jon. We give counsel, not commands.”
“总得有人——”
“Someone must—”
“你。你必须带领大家。”
“You. You must lead.”
“不……”
“No.”
“必须，琼恩。时间不会太长，只到守卫部队回来为止。记得吗？唐纳选择了你，‘断掌’科林也选择了你，莫尔蒙总司令则让你做他的事务官。你是临冬城的孩子班扬·史塔克的侄儿，除此之外没有别人。长城是你的了，琼恩·雪诺。”
“Yes, Jon. It need not be for long. Only until such time as the garrison returns. Donal chose you, and Qhorin Halfhand before him. Lord Commander Mormont made you his steward. You are a son of Winterfell, a nephew of Benjen Stark. It must be you or no one. The Wall is yours, Jon Snow.”
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