Ned Stark Lives! Part 2

by cbstevp

What would have happened in Westeros if Ned Stark had lived? The story continues, taking us to the Wall, Slaver's Bay, and of course the war between Stannis and the Lannisters. But winter has come, the Others are at the Wall, and the feared long night of myth is about to engulf Westeros and maybe even the whole world.

37. Chapter 37 Samwell

Ned Stark Lives! Part 2 Chapter 37 - Samwell

"I can't," Samwell Tarly said again to Jon Snow, his breath frosty in the cold air. "Give it to Val. She can use it properly."

"If I give it to her she will ask questions and I'll have to tell them everything," Jon replied from his horse as he rode beside Sam. They were on a forest trail in the Wolfswood, in front of the rest of their party, with Bran and Hodor behind them, the Reeds close behind them, and Val bringing up the rear with the two pack horses laden with supplies. Ghost and Summer bounced along the snowy path to the sides, as if they were guarding their flanks.

They weren't an hour from Winterfell when Jon told Sam to take Longclaw, his Valyrian steel sword that had the ability to cut down wights and Others.

"I've got Lightbringer. I don't need two special swords," Jon had told him.

"You still don't know what Lightbringer can do," Sam reminded him. "Oh, we know it can make fancy light and it gives off heat, but what can it do against the wights and Others?"

"I…I don't know," Jon said and it was clear he hadn't thought of that yet. "But it must have special abilities? Mustn't it?"

Sam shrugged in his heavy furs. "Could be. But until we know for certain, best you keep both swords since you are a better swordsman than me."

"Aye, I suppose so," Jon answered. Then Jon grinned and Sam felt good when he saw that grin. "So, speaking of swords, how went it with Gilly?"

Sam flushed and stammered. "It…it…I should not speak of it."

"That bad, was it?" Jon teased.

"No! I mean…it was fine. More than fine."

"Oh. That's good Sam. I'm glad for you."

"Thanks," Sam replied. In fact, he had been terrified but Gilly had put him at ease and had done all that needed to be done and helped him out of his clothing and lay with him and kissed his fears away and then climbed on top of him. As he entered her she shuddered and moaned and it wasn't too long before Sam was done. Twice more they did that and each time was better and finally they just lay there under the fur covers.

Gilly had snuggled up to him and whispered to him in the darkness. "You are a good man, Sam Tarly."

Man. A word his father had never used of him. Now he had proved it beyond doubt. He had stood his watch on the Wall. He had killed things so foul and evil they would make most men run in terror. And now he had lain down with a beautiful woman and wanted only one thing in the world.

"Can…can you be my woman?" he asked her in a quiet voice.

She sighed. "I already am."

"Oh," he replied and then that made him ponder some more. "Does that mean…are we married?" He knew little of the wildling ways and how they married.

"No," she answered quietly. "But I will marry you if you want."

Sam gulped and felt his heart beat faster. "I want."

"Aye, I want too," Gilly sighed as she kissed his lips.

Then Sam remembered what he was. "But I can't."

Silence and then she spoke and he could hear the heartbreak in her words. "I know."

"I'm sorry," was all he could say and he truly was.

They were silent for a long moment and then she spoke a question he was surprised she had not asked already. "Why did you join the Watch?"

And so in the darkness he told his story and when he was done she held him tight. "Are all fathers as cruel as ours?" she asked.

"No…not all," he replied and as he said these words he thought of the one man he knew who was a father and was not cruel, and Jon was lucky to have had him as a father and not had Sam or Gilly's. Sam's own father would have liked Jon, for he was a real man, but Sam's father also would not like having any bastards under his roof. As for Gilly's father, if Jon had been born to one of his 'wives' he would have been taken out to leave in the snow for the Others soon after he was born.

When the morning had finally come and Sam and Gilly dressed she gave him one more kiss. "When you are out there, remember this night," she had said to him. "Remember it, and remember that many more such nights can be yours if you want."

"Gilly…I am a man of the Night's Watch."

"Just remember," she had said. "It will keep you warm and give you something to look forward to." She did not say 'live for' but Sam took it to mean that as well.

"Sam?" Jon said to him and Sam snapped back to reality, the cold reality of where they were, the reality of the terror that lay ahead.

"Oh? Oh, hello. Sorry, was thinking on Gilly, that's all."

"Aye, I can understand." Jon took a look behind him and Sam knew what he was thinking.

"And how was your night?" Sam asked him.

"Heard about that, did you?"

"All the wildling women were talking about it."

"Suppose they were."

Jon said nothing more and Sam let him be. He was sure Jon was struggling with his feelings for Val, more so as he had loved a woman and not too long ago she had died. Sam had never met Ygritte but from all he had learned about her, she had captured Jon's heart the way Gilly had already captured his own.

So on they rode, keeping a sharp eye out for wights and Others, but no enemies they met that day. The sun was not long in the sun on these winter days in the North and Jon kept them moving even as the noon hour passed and they all felt the need for food. Hodor kept saying what he always said and Bran spoke up.

"He's hungry. So am I."

"I could use a bite or two," Meera Reed added.

"We will eat when we make camp," Jon told them over his shoulder. "We must travel as much as we can in the daylight."

"Aye," said Val from the rear. "We don't want to be on these horses when night comes."

Soon after they came on a small stream, the water frozen and they moved along it for some time. Then Jon halted them and pointed through the trees.

"The mill where Ramsey Snow did his killing and let Theon Greyjoy escape."

Sam peered closely and could see the mill wheel, frozen in place in the ice covered stream, and he could also see the small house next to it. He had heard the story of what had happened here. "A place we could stay for the night?" he suggested hopefully. He did not want to sleep in the tents they had brought if possible.

Jon thought for a moment and then nodded. "Let's have a look first."

Jon, Val, and Meera dismounted and cautiously crossed the frozen stream, looked over the mill and house and then beckoned the others forward. "We will make camp here tonight," Jon told them and Sam could see all were happy they would have a place to stay inside for the night.

They tied the horses up to some trees on the side of the house away from the wind and gave them some of the fodder they had brought along. Sam knew it would not be enough and hopefully the horses would be able to dig down through the snow and find food as they moved along.

The house was stone cold and empty of all except the few bits of furniture the dead miller and his widow had owned, a table, two chairs, and a big bed.

"Bran shall have the bed," Jon declared.

Hodor had just set Bran down on a chair by the bedroom doorway and he could see the bed in the open door. "It's big enough for two or three," Bran said

"Hodor," said the big stable boy.

"Even for Hodor and me," Bran said next.

"All right but if he rolls over you in the night best be able to push him off yourself," Jon told him and they all had a small laugh.

"Time for a fire," Sam said and as he moved to the hearth Jon grabbed his arm.

"Best not, the smoke might attract wights and Others."

"How soon you forget, Lord Snow," Val admonished him with a bit of grin on her face. "They're afraid of fire. We haven't seen one in many days now. It's cold and a warm meal will make us all feel better."

"Yes, please," said Jojen Reed and he seemed more frozen than the rest, to Sam's eyes anyway.

"Hodor." Hodor said and Sam swore he heard a bit of 'I'm cold, too' in his tone. He wondered how Bran often correctly interpreted what Hodor wanted and Sam could sense it was in his tone, facial expressions, and the way his body stood.

"Suit yourselves," Jon told them. He stood in the doorway. "I'm going to scout around. Kept a bowl of food hot for me."

He left them and was soon gone. Darkness was on them quickly as Hodor and Sam and Meera gathered branches nearby the house for the fire. Val had her flint and tinder out and soon a nice fire was burning, the heat of it slowly entering their bodies and souls and making them feel more human again.

Sam got to work on supper with Meera and Jojen's help as Val stood by the door, looking out a small window in the wall. As Sam cut some dried meat and put it in a pot Meera peeled potatoes and Jojen and Bran cut carrots and onions at the table. Hodor sat cross legged in front of the fire, adding branches and poking it with a long stick, smiling as he did so.

"Where are they?" Jojen asked Bran and Sam stared at them, confused. Bran looked at Jojen and shook his head.

"I don't know. I can't just do it wherever I want."

"You will learn," Jojen told him. Then he turned and looked at Sam. "You know, don't you?"

"Know what? If you mean that Bran and Jon are wargs, then yes."

"Don't say that word," Val said quickly from her perch by the window.

"Warg?" Meera asked. "Why not? They are what they are."

Val snorted. "Wargs we have plenty of in the real north. You all saw Sixskins at Winterfell. If not for the beasts he keeps at his sides someone would have killed him long ago. Shunned and banished they are in my lands, if not killed outright by their own family once they find out what they are. If we meet any of my folk do not use that word, do not speak of it at all. I know what Jon Snow and his kin are. Many in Winterfell whispered how little Arya saved Lord Robb from the shadow of death. It is not natural."

"It is part of the way of the world," Jojen replied.

Val glared at him. "Don't argue with me, boy. These are my lands, my people we are going to, if any of them still live. You listen to me or I will send you back where you came from right now."

"Stop it, please," Bran said in a somewhat commanding tone. "Jojen, she is right. We don't know where we are going and who we will meet."

"Yes," Meera added. "We should be careful what we say."

They were quiet for a bit after that as the food preparation continued. Finally, the pot was ready and Sam added some salt and put it on the hook attached to an iron rod that was fixed across the inside of the hearth. The pot hung over the fire but not directly in it.

"Supper will be ready soon," he said and he felt his stomach rumble. At the table Meera began stacking pieces of hard bread while Sam got their wooden bowls and spoons and mugs from a bag. A small keg of ale they had as well but that would not last long and soon they would be drinking only water.

Hodor went outside to get more wood and Sam joined him. Jon was standing by the stream looking across it and into the forest. By his side were Ghost and Summer.

"How goes it?" Sam asked him.

"They are skittish," Jon said, nodding to the direwolves. "They sense…something."

Sam looked out into the forest and stared but in the darkness all he could see were trees and snow. There was no moonlight and the sky was cloudy in most parts. "I see nothing."

"That's what worries me," Jon replied. "Many days we have not seen them. Where are they?

"Not here, thank the gods. Supper will be ready soon," Sam told him and then went back into the house with Hodor, both carrying more wood.

Sam was just bending over the stew pot and stirring it when Jojen asked a question that startled Sam. "Why does Jon have two swords?" Jojen asked and Sam almost knocked the pot over.

"Two is better than one," said Val. "Though with Longclaw he only needs the one."

"Two is still better than one," Sam said in agreement. They all had weapons except Bran. Meera had her long bronze dagger, trident, net, and bow and arrows. Jojen had a long knife as well, and a short spear, though Sam did not know if he could use them well or not. Val had her long spear and a short sword at her side, and a dagger in her belt, while Sam had his sword, dagger, and dragonglass dagger. Jon of course had Lightbringer at his side and Longclaw strapped to his back. All had some sort of armor, leather, ring mail, or chain mail, all except Bran.

No more was said of Jon's two swords. Soon the smell of cooking stew made all of their mouths water. They ate and felt better and soon Jon came in and Val went out to stand guard.

"What's out there, Lord Snow?" she asked as she prepared to leave. She called him 'Lord Snow' with a slight mocking tone in her voice.

"Nothing. Not a sound, not an animal, not a person…nothing."

"Better than something we don't want to see," she said and she grabbed her spear from where it rested on the wall and pulled her fur lined hood over her long blond hair and went out into the cold.

Jon ate in silence, dipping his hard bread in the steaming gravy to make it softer. Sam poured him a cup of ale from the small cask they had and then sat on the floor next to Hodor and the Reeds by the hearth.

"Why do you have two swords?" Bran asked his brother across the table. They were cousins now, Sam remembered, not brothers any more, cousins, though Bran did not know it. None of them knew.

"Two is better than one," Jon said as he swallowed some stew and Sam smiled.

"Can we see your new sword?" Jojen asked, looking at Jon's sword belted at his side, Lightbringer. How did he know it was new? In fact, it wasn't new at all. It was eight thousand years old.

Jon seemed about to reply when suddenly the door opened and Val was there. "We have visitors," she said quickly and turned around and went back out without explaining or waiting for them. Sam's heart quailed as he stood. Jon was up in an instant and then he took out Longclaw and thrust it at Sam.

"Take it, Sam."

Sam did not hesitate this time and took the Valyrian blade as Jon turned back to Hodor and the Reeds. "Stay here. Kill anything that comes in that's not us."

Sam stepped outside with Jon. He was afraid again, he could not help it. He held Longclaw so tight he thought the pommel might snap. Sam looked for their enemies but all he saw was Val standing there in the dark looking across the stream and towards the trail that went along the stream. Summer and Ghost were by her side, growling low.

"Come out! I saw you, I heard you!" Val was shouting.

"Are you shouting at wights?" asked Jon in amazement as he joined them. His hand was on the hilt of Lightbringer but he did not take it out yet.

"Not wights," Val told them. "People."

Slowly someone was walking toward them out of the forest on the far side of the frozen stream, first one, then two, finally four people, two adults and two children, bundled up.

"In the name of the gods," said a quavering voice. "Help us."

It was a man, tall and thin, and as he stepped towards them he fell forward on the ice of the stream. "Papa!" shouted a girl's voice and a small figure ran forward to the man and two others joined her, and they looked like a small boy and an older woman. Ghost and Summer went to go after them but Jon held them with a shouted command.

"Stay!" he said and the two direwolves remained by his side. "Get them inside," Jon ordered and in a short time all were inside the small house, the man, the girl, the small boy, and a very old woman, who seemed stronger and in better shape than the rest. The man they put in the empty chair and he slumped and was barely alive it seem. The others sat on the floor and they gave them what food they could spare and the people thank them and the gods and ate. Summer and Ghost remained outside.

"My son, he is," the old woman explained, nodding to man in the chair. "He carried his sick wife most of the way."

"Our mother," said the girl, her voice on the edge of tears. "She died two days ago."

"Did you burn her?" Jojen asked and the girl sniffed and the old woman gave him a sharp look.

"No, we buried her in the snow," said the woman. Sam gave a look to Val and she just shrugged but neither said anything. Hopefully they would not see their mother again as a wight.

"I'm sorry," Jon said to them and Sam could see the pain in his friend's eyes. Hodor added some more wood to the fire and the room seemed a little brighter and warmer, but not much.

Sam helped the man eat and as he ate a little bit he seemed to come back to life and then he insisted the old woman take his chair. "Mother…sit, please," he said and he sat on the floor by his children by the fire.

As they ate they told their story. "From the Last Hearth lands, Umber lands" said the old woman. "Been on the road for more than half a moon's turn now. All our food gone more than three days ago. The castle is falling, people told us when they came to our village. Demons is coming. You best run south. So we did. Almost two hundred people were together from different villages."

"Where's the rest?" Sam asked, already suspecting the answer. He felt ashamed, ashamed that he was a man of the Night's Watch and could not stop this from happening and ashamed he had a role in bringing down the Wall. He looked at Jon and he saw what he felt in Jon's eyes.

"Dead, or gone other ways," she told them. "We lost track. Some froze, some starved, some the demons got, and some men turned back to fight them and we never saw them again. Winterfell, I told the rest, go to Winterfell. Lord Umber's there, people said, Lord Stark is there with an army. We were on the Kingsroad but the demons were there, too."

"Where?" Jon asked intently.

"Half a day back the way we came," said the man, his voice getting stronger as he ate and warmed up. "Why we went off the road. We passed through an empty village and found no food so we kept going. You're the first people we seen in many days."

"All the village people are in Winterfell," Val told them. "There's an army there, maybe about five thousand now. Lord Stark is there and Lord Umber as well, though he is very ill."

"That is grave news," said the old woman. "We…we also have grave news. People said Lord Umber's son…Smalljon folks call him…said he would not give up the castle and stayed till the end, fighting what he could not kill."

"Gods," Jon cursed.

"You best stay here for the night and then go on to Winterfell in the morning." Bran told the people.

"Is it close?" the girl asked.

"You are almost there," Meera replied. "Another half a day walk, along the path by the stream."

"Thank the gods," the old woman said. "And thank you…good gods!" she stopped and looked across the table at Bran closely, turned and looked at big Hodor standing in the corner, and then back to Bran. "You're Brandon Stark!"

She left her chair and got down on her knees as did the man and the boy and girl.

"No, no," Bran said. "Please, get up, please."

They rose and hesitated and Bran told them to sit and relax and so they all sat again.

"I'm sorry, my lord, we did not know," said the man.

Val made a scoffing sound. "Kneebenders," she mumbled.

"What's that?" the old woman said and she gave Val a dark look. "I know what you are now. Wildling."

"Free folk!" Val shot back. "We don't bruise our knees where I come from."

"Stop it!" Jon said loudly as Hodor said what he always said, in a way that he seemed pained by the arguing. "Aye, she is a wildling. This is Bran Stark. I am Jon Snow and…"

"Jon Snow? Commander of the Night's Watch?" the man asked from the floor.

"The same," Jon said reluctantly and Sam suddenly felt as if this was not good.

The man slowly got to his feet again. He was taller than Jon but even under his furs Sam could see he was thinner and he could barely stand up. "You…bastard," the man said in a weak voice as tears rolled down his face. "People know. They know you lot let the Wall fall and those things get through."

Jon was growing angry and Sam knew that was bad as well. "It's not his fault," Sam was saying suddenly, defending his friend. "It was an accident. We didn't mean for the Wall to fall."

"My wife is dead because of this accident," said the man, his voice hollow now. "So are many other people. You were to protect us. You were to man the Wall!"

"They did!" Val shouted at him. "So did the free folk and Stark's men and your men! But all the people in the world could not have stopped them."

"Sit down, Will," ordered the old woman in a harsh tone to her son. "Sit down before these good people drag you to Winterfell in chains. They gave us food and shelter. They did not take your wife. They are trying to protect us, protect your children."

The man was still staring at Jon, tears coursing down his whiskered cheeks. Then the boy stood up and took his hand. "Sit, Father," the boy said in a pleading tone and finally the man sat down next to his children who both hugged him tight. He stared at the fire, stony faced, his wet cheeks glistening in the reddish light.

"You must forgive us, my lords," the old woman said in an apologetic manner. "It has been hard."

"For all of us," Bran told her. "They attacked Winterfell as well. We lost many people."

"I'm sorry to hear that dreadful news, my lord," said the woman in a dejected tone. "Are they still at Winterfell?

"Not for more than a week now, we have not seen them," Jon told her. Now his look and tone became suspicious. "How do you know my brother?"

"Forgive me, my lords, but…the whole North knows of the Stark children and their direwolves. Those two outside were no dogs or normal wolves, I know that much. We have heard of Brandon Stark's accident as well, and how a giant of a man is his legs now." She looked to Hodor, who smiled and spoke, "Hodor."

"There is nothing to forgive," Bran told her.

"You are too kind, my lord," said the old woman. She hesitated a moment and then Bran nodded to her.

"Speak freely," Bran said and Sam could see Jon did not like this.

The old woman spoke again. "My lords… Are you returning to Winterfell on the morrow? We need protection and…"

Val bristled and interrupted her. "Enough with the questions."

"We are going north," Sam suddenly found himself speaking. "Jon and I are going to right the wrong we did. We are going to fight the Others and defeat them."

There was a long silence in the small house, the only sound the whistling of the wind outside and the crackling of the fire. Then the man named Will spoke. "You will die."

"You have said too much, Slayer," Val told Sam with a threatening look. She then glared at their guests. "No more questions. Eat your food, sleep, and be on your way to Winterfell in the morning and thank the gods we don't send you all out into the cold now."

"We won't do that," Bran said hurriedly and Val glared at him and then grabbed her spear and went outside, letting in a blast of cold air that made those still inside shiver.

"She can't be trusted, my lords," said the woman. "Her kind raided our lands since I was a babe."

"She can be trusted," Jon said to the old woman, in his commander's voice Sam knew too well. "Now do as she says or I will send you on your way now."

After that it was quiet in the little house. Hodor took Bran to the bed and stayed with him, and the Reeds went in as well and curled up on the floor by the big bed. The family found places on the floor in the main room to lie down, huddled together, keeping close to the fire and soon were sleeping. Jon and Sam sat on the chairs and spoke in low voices.

"Sam, you need to learn to be quiet," Jon said, not in an angry way, but Sam still felt he was being scolded and knew he deserved it.

"Sorry," Sam replied, feeling ashamed, more so as it came from his friend. Still, he felt he had to explain himself. "But they were blaming us. I thought they ought to know we are trying to make this right."

"We tell no one we meet anything from now on."

"As you wish."

Val came back after a while and it was Sam's turn on guard. It was cold and he was scared but he still had Longclaw with him, with its belt and scabbard now as well, strapped to his back, with his own sword by his side. Finally he had a Valyrian steel sword, something he expected one day but not in such a way. All his boyhood he had been told one day he would wear Heartsbane, his family's great Valyrian steel sword, passed from father to son for many generations. But that day would never come now.

Summer and Ghost were no where to be seen and Sam guessed they were off hunting. He checked the horses and they were fine, tough wildling horses who knew the cold well. The night air was crisp and the sky dark. He stamped his feet to keep warm and soon moved to where the wooden millhouse was and stood where he could keep out of the wind. He leaned on the wall and stayed there for a while. The smell of the smoke from the fire in the house came to his nose and he liked it. The smell made him feel a little bit warmer but not by much.

A sudden sound startled Sam but it was only Summer coming from the woods nearby. The big direwolf had a rabbit in its jaws and he stopped nearby Sam and ate the rabbit. Sam's stomach felt queasy watching this. Steam rose off the rabbit's dead body as its final internal heat escaped into the cold night air. Summer's muzzle and teeth were red with blood.

A while later Summer had finished and went over by the house, near where the stone chimney was and lay down nearby it, enjoying what warmth came off of the stones. The moon came out as the clouds parted and Sam could see it was nearly a full moon, maybe in a few days it would be as big as it would get. Sam stepped back from the moonlight into a place where he was in shadows. He leaned on the wall again and dreamt of warmth and good food and the smell and taste and feel of Gilly.

He was mad for her and he could not help it. Was it love? Maybe. Run away with her, his heart told him that night he had lain with her, but he was a man of the Watch on a mission and his head told him not to be so stupid and he knew he should not do anything so foolish. He closed his eyes for a moment and thought on what it would be like to be with Gilly and her baby, a small house somewhere, a bit of land to grow food, a stream to catch fish in, a life where no one said it's your turn to take the watch, or bullied him, or called him Piggy or Slayer. He just wanted to be left…

"Sam?" came a voice into his dreams. It was Meera.

"Over here, by the mill," he softly called to her and she came over. She was short and thin and hardly a woman though he had heard Bran say she had counted sixteen name days. She was pretty and had very green eyes that made her even prettier. He did not know much of these crannog people, but they seemed nice enough and were fiercely loyal to Bran.

Meera leaned against the wall beside him. "You can go back in. I will take the watch."

"I will stay until your eyes get used to the night," he said. It was one of the first lessons he had learned on the Wall, wait until your relief's eyes are accustomed to the night.

He wanted to ask her something since they had first set out and so now he did. "Can your brother see the future?"

"Yes…and no. It's not like he knows exactly what will happen. But he gets his visions and he knows things, and the things he sees always come to pass."

"Coldhands said Bran must go north to save us. Does Jojen think so, too?"

"He only knows Bran cannot be free until he meets the three eyed crow."

"I still don't understand all that." He had heard bits and pieces of this at Winterfell before they left but was confused by it all.

"It's complicated. First…" But she stopped, and suddenly her trident came up in her left hand and her right hand went to her long bronze knife. "Listen," she whispered and Sam did so.

He could not hear it at first but then he saw it, coming along the path by the stream, moving slowly, shuffling along, a thing that should not be moving, a dead person with blue eyes, a wight.

"How many?" Sam asked, his voice almost a croak as the fear came on him once more.

"I see just one," Meera answered calmly. The wight moved toward the house, stopped, turned and looked right them. It peered their way for a long moment but it seemed like it could not see them. It was dressed in clothing frozen stiff but in fine repair, with no holes or rents. It was a man in life, short and squat, and it had an axe in its hand.

Meera raised her trident as if to throw it but Sam grabbed her arm and held up Longclaw. Just as he was about to step out of the shadows there came a wild growl, and as Summer leaped from the side of the house at the wight, Sam and Meera charged forward.

Summer had knocked the thing on its back, his teeth gasping its rotten hand with the axe as Sam swung Longclaw down and cut the wight's head off in one blow. It's body sizzled and caught fire from the power of Longclaw. Then from behind them came an inhuman screech.

It was an Other. And with it were more wights, coming across the icy stream.

"WIGHTS!" Sam shouted at the top of his lungs and then he and Meera backed up toward the house just as the door burst open. Val was first out with her long spear and a flaming stick in hand. Jon was right behind her and Hodor and the tall man came next, each with flaming wood in their hands as well.

There must have been a score of wights and one Other, on foot as well. They advanced toward the humans with a variety of weapons. With shouts and battle cries Sam and his friends joined the battle. Meera threw her trident into one wight's face and it merely pulled it out and threw it to the ground, but not before Meera's throwing net was entangling the wight. Sam parried a blow from a heavy longsword and then dug Longclaw into his adversary's guts and in moments it sizzled and fell to the ground on fire.

A third wight was skewered by Val's spear and Hodor thrust a flaming stick in its face. Just as it caught fire Sam suddenly felt as if night had turned into day. The light was so bright he shielded his eyes and all around him there were gasps and cries of wonder. And a screech, a screech so loud and deafening that Sam felt sick to his stomach. It was a screech they must have heard from the Wall to the Arbor.

It was the Other, and it was looking at Jon and Jon was holding Lightbringer and it was so blinding Sam could not tell where the sword ended and Jon's arm began. He was advancing on the Other. And then a strange thing happened.

The Other ran.

It turned and with lithe steps it ran, down the stream bank and across the ice as if it were floating across the ice and then up the other side and through the trees in mere moments. It moved so fast Sam could not understand how anything could move on ice and snow like that.

The wights seemed to falter after that. They turned to flee as well but they were slower, and they did not get far. As Jon advanced with Lightbringer out in front of him the wights nearby caught fire just from the nearby heat of the blade. And when Jon slash at one it seem to turn to ash at almost the instant the blade touched it. In moments all the wights were nothing but piles of ash in the snow. Then the snow began to melt as well and soon it was gone and there was the ground and the grass that had been underneath. All became dark again except for the light from the flaming sticks as Jon put away Lightbringer.

"Gods," gasped Will from behind them where he was blocking the door to the miller's house. Val was staring at Jon, her mouth agape, too stunned to speak. Meera was looking at him as well and she was smiling.

"HODOR! HODOR!HODOR!" shouted Hodor and held his longsword and flaming stick up high in a victory pose and he smiled a toothy grin.

"The man with the flaming sword," said a voice from the doorway of the house. It was Jojen.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked him.

"Before we left our homes Jojen had another vision," Meera told them. " He saw a man with a flaming sword fighting something…"

"What? Fighting what?" Jon asked eagerly.

"Something I could not see," Jojen explained. "It was all in shadow, and I could not make out any form."

"Enough talk," said Val in a commanding tone. "Jojen, Meera, inside, Hodor and…you, man…"

"Will," he told her.

"You as well…inside, now."

They moved and did as she asked and closed the door behind them. Val kicked a pile of ash that was once a wight. The wind stirred and started to scatter the ashes.

"Gods," she said and then in two steps she was face to face with Jon, looking at him intently. "You have something to tell me?"

"No, I don't," he replied sharply, not moving away from her face which was so close they could have kissed and for a moment Sam thought they actually would.

Val kept looking at Jon but spoke to Sam. "Tell me, Slayer, tell me what it is."

Sam shook his head. "Only Jon can tell you."

She turned and glared at Sam. "You fools! Secrets will doom us all. Tell me now. The rest saw it, they will tell Bran. That man, he will tell the people in Winterfell. They…"

"People in Winterfell know," Jon answered her. "The right people know."

"The Others know now, too," Sam said and Jon looked at him sharply.

"What do you mean, Sam?"

"That one…it knew, I can just feel it. It knew to run away. It will tell the rest."

"Gods, tell me!" Val said. "What is it? What kind of magic does this sword have? What is it?"

"It's Lightbringer," said a voice behind them and it was Bran being carried by Hodor, with the rest behind him, coming back outside. "Isn't it…Jon?"

Jon said nothing for a long moment and then nodded slightly. "Aye…it is."

Val was just staring at Jon and then looked to Bran. "I…I don't understand."

Jon was looking at Bran. "We will explain it all in the morning. Now everyone get to sleep. I will stand the watch. Now…back inside…please"

Bran was looking at Jon in a strange way and Sam knew he had many questions but he obeyed and told Hodor to carry him inside. Soon only Val, Sam, and Jon were outside, alone again.

"What is it?" Val asked looking at the weapon that was hanging from Jon's belt. This time her voice was actually tender. "What has happened to you Jon?" She didn't call him Lord Snow in her mocking way, Sam noticed.

Jon was looking to the woods again and from behind him Val tried to reach out to him, to touch his arm, but she stopped as he spoke. "I will tell everyone all when that family leaves in the morning."

Val looked like she wanted to say more but just nodded and went into the house.

At that moment Ghost returned with a rabbit of his own. Summer growled at him but Ghost did not share his meal. Jon rubbed his direwolf's fur. "Where were you? You missed the fight." Then he looked up at Sam. "So now we know."

"Pretty…impressive."

Jon grinned. "Aye," but then his grin faltered. "In the morning I must tell Bran the truth."

"You could lie…a bit."

"No, that I won't do. Val is right. No more secrets."

Sam kicked another pile of wight ash. "Why now? Why did they come here?"

"They followed that family, maybe," Jon guessed. But in truth they did not know any more about why their enemies did what they did.

Morning came with no more trouble. They fed the family and themselves, and then Sam and Jon escorted them across the stream and put them on the path the right way to Winterfell. The old woman was nervous.

"So close…could you not…I mean, its not far…and we have no weapons…not like yours. My lords."

Soon all of Winterfell would know about Jon and Lightbringer for certain, Sam thought.

"You will be safe," Jon assured her. "But move fast, you don't want to be out here at night."

"May the gods look on you with favor, my lords," the old woman said and soon they were going along the path. The man, Will, turned back one more time and looked at Jon. "I am sorry for what I said last night. I…I was not right in the head."

"Not to worry," Jon told him.

Will hesitated, then spoke once more. "When I was a boy my father told me a tale about a prince who had a sword called Lightbringer."

"Aye, I have heard the same tale."

Will grinned slightly. "May the gods protect you, my lord." And then he turned and started after his family.

"They will be trouble," Sam said as they watched the family leave. "They will tell everyone in Winterfell what they saw and heard."

"They will," Jon replied. "But there is naught we can do about it so let us not waste our wind on talking on it."

After that came the hard part. They huddled around the fire in the house. Bran and the Reeds and Val and Hodor listened as Jon and Sam spoke and explained about finding the sword Lightbringer.

Meera was staring at Jon with wide eyes. "This tale, my father told it often. The Prince that was Promised. But...no, it can't be you."

"The prophecy says the prince comes from the blood of the dragon," added Jojen. "Many think this means the prince comes from the Targaryen line."

"So?" Val said in puzzlement. "What does it matter? Jon has the sword. It doesn't mean he is this prince."

"It does," Bran told her. "If Gendry could not bring out the power of the sword when he held it in the crypts, and Jon can, it must mean something."

Val still looked skeptical and so Jon told her to take out his sword. Val gave him a mischievous look and Jon blushed a bit but then she grasped the hilt, and drew out Lightbringer. The rest of them seemed to recoil a bit and Hodor even had his hands up to shield his eyes but no light came.

"Hodor?"

"See?" Bran said to Jon as Val returned the sword to its scabbard. "This means you are the Prince that was Promised!" Then his face paled a bit. He was staring at Jon across the table where they two of them sat. "Jon…who was your mother?"

"Not a Targaryen," Jon told him and Sam could see the pain in his friend's eyes once more.

Bran was confused. "I don't understand. If your father was Eddard Stark then your mother must be a Targaryen."

Jon gulped and then spoke softly. "Eddard Stark is not my father, Bran. Lyanna Stark was my mother. My father was…"

But Bran supplied the answer, his eyes wide and shining now. "Rhaegar Targaryen. So… you are not my brother?"

Jon could only nod. The rest were silent as the two stared across the table at each other. "Who else knows?" Bran asked at last, his words coming in a choked voice.

"Arya since she was with us when we found the sword. Gendry and Sam were there as well. Maester Aemon guessed some of it before I even knew. Father has always known, of course." He looked at Jojen and Meera now. "Your father has always known as well since he was with Lord Stark when I was born. But that is another long tale for later." He turned back to Bran. "So those people know...and now…so does your mother." That shocked Bran, Sam could see, and Jon rushed on. "I only found out myself about a moon's turn ago. Your mother just learned this morning before we left."

Then Val asked the question he was sure the others wanted to know. "Why all the lies?"

So Jon explained that, swiftly, and swore them all to secrecy. When he was done he began giving orders. "I know this is a shock, especially to Bran. But day is on us and we still have a duty to do. We must ride. Any questions can wait till we are on the way once more."

Once on the way again they followed a new path through the Wolfswood. All day Bran rode with Jon, and the two talked in low voices Sam could not hear as he rode in front and Summer and Ghost bounded ahead of them. From time to time, Jon or Bran would reach out and find their pet and scout the way ahead. No more wights they saw that day or the next three days. Finally, they came to the low hills that signaled they were getting near the hill people's lands that lay south of the Wall.

More than once they found themselves more than a bit lost. The trails were hidden under snow, and the sun hardly came out at all. Some days it snowed lightly but thankfully there were no storms. Jon and Val argued over which way to go at least twice a day. She knew these lands no more than the rest did.

"Maybe we should go to the Kingsroad?" Sam suggested.

"No," Jon said firmly. "Wights and Others will be there."

"Should that bother us so much now?" Sam asked. "I mean…that Other ran from you."

"One Other ran," Jon replied. "What if there are fifty Others and five hundred wights?"

Sam gulped. "We stay off the Kingsroad."

"Aye," Jon said and no one mentioned the Kingsroad again.

The next day they were lost again and Jon decided to lead them up a small bare snow covered hill to try to get their bearings. It was late in the afternoon, a cloudy cold day. Then, just as they came out of a tall stand of trees and onto the hill's lower slopes, the sun peaked out of the clouds, almost kissing the horizon.

"West," Sam said with a grin as he pointed at the setting sun. "So that way is north."

"Let's mark a tree, and start to…" Jon began to say but before he could continue there came a terrible squealing from the rear of the party. Sam turned in time to see a blur of snow as something was running away from them with Summer and Ghost in hot pursuit. Meanwhile Val was cursing and getting off her horse. Then she yelled in what Sam took was glee and she threw her long heavy spear at something else that was struggling in the snow.

Sam and Jon and the Reeds scampered off their mounts and turned to see what all the commotion was. Val was running in the knee deep snow after something and then Meera had her bow unslung and was notching an arrow. She took aim and let loose and then came another squeal.

It was a boar, and now it had Val's spear and an arrow sticking out of it and was leaving a trail of blood behind. Val caught up to the beast and with her short sword soon dispatched it.

"Fresh meat," Val said in delight but Jon only cursed.

"Pack horse is down," he said and Sam looked and saw it was true. One of the two pack horses was flopping in the snow, making painful noises. When they got to it Sam saw it had a broken rear leg. Nearby was a hole and Sam and Jon examined it closely.

"Looks like the boar's den," Jon guessed. "The horse stepped into it and spooked the boar."

"Its young ones, as well," Jojen said as he and his sister came up to them. He pointed and they saw Summer and Ghost each down the hill both eating on something and the snow turning red around them. They each had a little boar piglet in their mouths and were feasting.

"What do we do?" Sam asked Jon. He felt queasy in the stomach as he watched the doings around him. He had been hunting with his father as a boy and had shamed himself and his family when he vomited all over a deer his father had killed. The sight of blood had sickened him ever since. He had seen more blood in the last few months than in all his life but he was still not used to it.

"We make camp here, back in the trees," Jon told him. "Gut the boar and cook it. The horse…," he paused and then stood and pulled out his dagger. He stooped by the horse's neck. "Sorry," he said and in one swift slice he opened the horse's neck blood vessels. In moments its blood had soaked the snow around it into a crimson hue and it was soon dead. By this time Hodor and Bran and come back as well, and Hodor was off his horse while Bran remained strapped on his.

"Hodor," Bran said. "Help them cut some meat off the dead horse."

The big stable boy took out a long knife he had and he and Meera began cutting slabs of flesh from the horse's hindquarters.

"Jojen, Sam, get the horses into the trees and start making camp," Jon ordered. Sam moved to get his own and Jon and Val's horse and was already moving towards the trees when he heard Jon's angry voice behind him.

"Jojen! Help Sam!" Jon yelled at him. The crannog boy was just standing there, looking at the dead horse. It was not the first time they had to be sharp with Jojen about lending a hand and Jon was growing tired of it, Sam knew.

"Leave him be," Bran said sharply. "He's thinking on the horse."

"And the boars," Jojen said. "They are gone now…but where did they go?"

"Soon in our stomachs, little man," Val said from where she was bent over the mother boar, her dagger and hands bloody. "Now do what Lord Snow says or you'll feel the flat of my sword."

Meera looked over at her with anger in her eyes. "Touch him and you'll feel my blade as well."

Val laughed. "Big sister protecting little brother? Well, tell his little lordship that all pitches in or they don't eat."

Meera looked at her brother. "Take the horses to the trees and tie them and start setting up the tents."

Jojen said nothing but just started taking the reins of his and his sister's and Hodor's horses and led them off into the tall stand of trees, with Bran following behind. Sam was glad to be away from the dead animals and started to take the tents off the horses and he and Jojen began to sent up the three tents they had between the trees.

In a short time they had the tents up and the boar carcass on a spit hanging over a big fire. The tents were pitched close to the fire to help shield it from the wind and to give them warmth in the night. As night fell they ate the boar, all sitting around the fire, with Summer and Ghost outside the camp, eating the remains of the horse.

"We'll stay here one day and salt that horse meat," Jon told them as they sat around the fire, each of them with grease dripping off their hands and chins, mouths full of crisp boar meat. "Hang it in the trees away from camp so no bears or wolves come on us unawares."

"What about the supplies the horse was carrying?" Sam asked their leader.

"We must put it on the other horses. Tomorrow …" He stopped talking and seemed to be listening. "Someone is out there."

They all immediately dropped their food and picked up their weapons and stood up, except Bran that is. After a few moments Meera pointed with her notched bow and whispered. "There, through the trees…one man."

Coming toward them was a big man, tall and wide, dressed in furs and leather, with a long spear for a weapon and a dagger in his belt, and small sack at his side that looked empty. He was coming from the west as far as Sam could tell. His long beard was black and crusted with snow. His nose was crooked as if it had been broken at one point. He had bushy eyebrows and dark brown eyes.

"Hello, strangers," the man said in a deep voice as he came near and stopped. "Tis a cold night and a man sure could use some fire and food."

"Aye," Jon answered. "But a man will give us his name first and the reason he is in these woods."

"His name is Angus Norrey and these are his kin's hills and woods so I think I will be askin' you lot who you are and why you are here."

Sam could feel the tension in the air and held his breath waiting to see what would happen.

"Tell me, Angus Norrey, who is the Lord of Winterfell?" Jon asked next.

Norrey snorted. "Lord Eddard Stark, everyone in the North knows that. My father feasted with Lord Rickard Stark and his sons in our log hall more than twenty years past when Eddard Stark was just a young sapling and I was a boy."

Jon seemed to relax. "I am Jon. Come and sit by our fire and share our food and we will tell you our story, as much as needs be."

Angus Norrey came into their circle and sat by the fire. They cut him some meat and gave him hard bread and some of the last of their ale. He ate like a man who had not had food for days and as he ate they all gave their names, but only first names, not last, until it came to Bran and he unwittingly said "Bran Stark."

"Stark?" Norrey said in surprise. "Brandon Stark? Lord Stark's son and…." he turned his gaze to Jon. "Jon… Snow?…his bastard. You wear all black. You're a man of the Watch. The last commander of the Night's Watch, we had heard."

"All true," Jon told him a bit reluctantly. "Angus…you ask our reason for being here. I cannot tell you it, only know it is good. We ask you not to tell anyone you saw us, nor ask us our purpose to be in your lands."

"Aye, I can keep quiet," Norrey replied. He ate some more, then wiped his mouth with back of his hand. "But there are few left who could listen, so it matters not. These are dangerous times…my lords. Demons have come south, worse than her lot." As he said this he nodded across the fire to Val. "Aye, I know a wildling when I see one."

Val bristled. "Free folk! And my lot are on your side now. Tell him, Lord Snow."

"It's true," Jon told Norrey. "The Watch made a pact with the wildlings."

Norrey shook his head. "Never thought the day would come. Course, never thought the Wall would fall and them demons run loose either."

"It was an accident!" Sam said, unable to control himself anymore.

"Sam…" Jon said in a wary and weary tone. He looked back to Norrey. "We are of the Watch, Sam and I. The Wall fell…it fell. What happened to your people?"

Angus Norrey shook his head sadly. "Most are dead or fled south. Villages are empty now. I was out hunting when it happened. Looking for this boar we are now eating, I reckon. Knew it was here somewhere, but its den was covered in snow. Went back to my village and there was a fight while I was gone. Houses burnt, blood on the snow, pieces of bodies here and there. But the people were gone. No dead bodies even. Now I know what became of them all. Blue eyes they have now. My father and my brother and his family and my wife and two young ones."

"Gods," Sam said and his voice choked. "We're sorry."

Angus Norrey looked up at Sam and they could see the sadness in his eyes by the light of the fire. "Not your fault, lad. You didn't make them things."

"What did?" Bran asked.

Norrey shrugged. "My grandma said they was demons made of ice and snow made by something so foul she would never speak of it."

They were silent for a while, the only sound the crackling of the fire. Then came a howling sound from far away.

"Wolf pack," Norrey told them. "Seen them two days past. They had a deer down and so they had full bellies and let me be." Just then Summer howled back in return and Norrey gave a start. "Gods, what's that?"

"My direwolf," Bran said and then Norrey chuckled.

"Aye, we heard that tale as well. All the Stark children had direwolves for pets."

Summer padded into the firelight and Sam threw him a bone which the direwolf snatched up right away and then scampered behind a tent. Soon Ghost came along and he got a bone as well.

Jon leaned forward closer to Norrey. "Angus, you know these lands well?"

"Aye, well as any man who was raised here and hunted them all his life."

Jon took a glance over at his companions for one brief moment and then turned back to Norrey. "We need information and maybe…a guide."

Val snorted. "A guide? We just keep going north and we'll hit the Wall for certain."

"The Wall?" Norrey said in surprise. "But…I thought you were going south, maybe to Winterfell." His voice had a sense of hope in it, Sam thought.

"No," Jon told him. "We are going to the Wall, to the Nightfort and then…under it, or over it if necessary."

Norrey stared at Jon. "The Nightfort? What's there? Why go over the Wall?"

They all held their silence and finally Jon spoke. "We cannot tell you why we go. But we don't know these lands well. We could use a guide."

"He has no horse," Val said quickly before Norrey could answer. "He can't come."

"He can ride the other pack horse," Meera suggested.

"We don't have enough food," Val said next in a manner that said that settled it.

"We have more meat now," Bran told her.

Val bristled again. "He…he can't be trusted!"

Norrey scowled at her. "I am a man of the North and my word is my bond. My family is loyal to the Starks of Winterfell and if Lord Stark's sons need my help I will gladly give it and my life if need be. What say you to that, woman? And if you call me a liar I will gut you right here and now."

Val only grinned. "Good. You are no weakling. You can come. Do you know how to cure meat?"

Her changed attitude took Norrey aback. "Aye," he said after some hesitation.

She point to the pile of raw horse and boar meat left over. "Then get to it. No one eats unless they work. Slayer, find him the salt."

"Better to freeze it," Norrey replied. "Salt will take days to cure the meat with no sun in this cloudy weather."

Jon nodded. "Sounds like you know more than we do."

"Better put it up in a tree as well," Norrey said as he stood. "In some sacks if you have them."

Sam stood and helped Angus Norrey. He was glad they had a Northman who knew these woods. He seem trustworthy enough and Sam felt some guilt for the man's lost family. Sam got the sacks they needed and held them open gingerly as Norrey and Meera filled them with the meat. Then Norrey and Meera took them away from the camp and tied them up in a tree.

"I'll take the first watch," Jon said to the rest and soon they were moving to bed down for the night. Bran and Hodor shared one tent, while Val and the Reeds had another and Sam and Jon shared one. Everyone did guard duty each night except for Bran and Hodor. Bran could not because he could not walk and he was still just a boy, while Hodor could not speak any words except one and Jon felt his mind was more like a boy than a man, despite his great size and strength. Back at Winterfell Sam had once asked Jon why Hodor was the way he was and Jon could only shrug and say he was always like that.

Angus Norrey and Jon had a few more words before they settled down for the night. "I will take you as far as the Old Gift," he said in a low voice to Jon. "From there the Wall is but another fifty leagues. The land is flat and has plenty of fish and game in the rivers and woods."

It took eight days to make it through the hill lands. Norrey was an expert woodsman and knew the land well. They found more game and fish to supplement their dwindling rations. Norrey took them to empty villages and lone homes along the way and in every place the people were all gone. The homes were stone cold and empty of all except a few items left behind.

They bedded down for one more night in some crofter's abandoned home. Sam had the first guard and Norrey stayed up with him a bit, talking on many things. They sat by a small fire outside the home where the others now slept. A light snow was falling, the first time it had snowed in many days. Sam told Angus Norrey all the news they had from the south, about dead kings, and wars, and battles, news that was mostly unknown to Norrey.

Sam looked over at the home. "Where did they go?"

"All gone south or dead…or worse," Norrey answered.

"We saw no one going south," Sam replied to Norrey.

"Aye…maybe they took other paths or the Kingsroad."

"What will you do after we reach the Old Gift?" Sam asked him after a bit.

Norrey was silent for a long moment. "I…I know not," he finally said. "I have nothing left and no where to go."

"Then come with us!" Sam eagerly said. "We could use you." Norrey was big and strong and knew many ways of the lands they traveled in.

"But you don't tell what you are to do, Sam. I know not who you are really, where you are from, or why you are in my lands."

Sam hesitated and then spoke. "I…I am Sam Tarly of Horn Hill in the Reach. I am a Sworn Brother of the Night's Watch. I am going north of the Wall to…to complete a mission. What it is…I can't say."

Norrey grunted. "You're going to the Nightfort to go beyond the Wall, that much I know. You also told me Winterfell still stands and there is plenty of fighting men and food and shelter there, yet you lot go north. What a strange company you are. A crippled boy, a simple giant, two frog eaters, a wildling, two direwolves, and two men of the Watch. All going north of the Wall to do…what? Fight the demons all by yourselves?"

"If need be," said Jon's voice from the darkness. He stepped into the circle of light the fire made. "We cannot explain it all to you, but if you want to come with us we will not say no."

Norrey raised his bushy black eyebrows. "Never been to the Wall, let alone north of it."

"We have," Jon said. "We know how to fight the wights and Others. We mean to destroy them. All."

"Gods," Norrey said as he shook his head. "Are you mad? Seven people against all that?"

"Aye," Jon answered. "Eight if you join us. Then you can avenge your fallen kin."

The next morning they reached the end of the hills and came out into a flat expanse of land that was broken by frozen streams and small ponds and stands of trees here and there.

"The Old Gift," Norrey said to them. "There is an old village about six leagues to the east. Has a lake with a tower in it. I saw it once when I was a boy."

"I know this tower," Jon said. He did not say more but Sam knew it was where Jon had managed to get away from the Thenns and ride to Castle Black to warn them of the approaching attack.

"It's called Queenscrown," Sam said. "The Nightfort is directly north of it." He had been the keeper of maps at Castle Black and had studied all of the region of the Wall intently.

"I suppose this is where you say goodbye," Val said to Norrey. She had never warmed up to him like the rest had and always mistrusted anything he said.

"He's coming with us," Jon told her and Val scowled and turned away, riding her horse down into the snowy flatlands.

Norrey hadn't said he was coming the night before but now he grunted an affirmative to Jon's comment. "Aye. I suppose a man of the North should see the Wall before he dies. Even if it kills him."

By late afternoon they reached the small village and the Queenscrown tower. It was deserted like every other place they had passed by. The water in the lake surrounding the tower was frozen solid and they easily walked out to the tower. They managed to get an old rusted door in the bottom floor open wide enough for them to pass through and up the inner stairway to the upper floors. From the very top of the tower they could see the land extending toward the northern horizon and Sam knew the Wall was just beyond their sight.

"A few days," Jon said from Sam's side when they were alone on top of the tower.

"And then what?"

"We find your black gate and go under the Wall and then we find Coldhands. After that…I know not."

"Jojen must know more than he is telling us," Sam said in frustration.

Jon shook his head. "He knows nothing. I've tried asking him. Bran has tried as well. He keeps talking about a three-eyed crow we must find. Then…he knows no more than we do."

"What if Coldhands isn't there? What if we can't find him?"

Jon had already seemed to have decided what to do. "We go to the Shadow Tower. We take what food and supplies we can find there and then we go home."

"To Winterfell?"

"Aye. If Coldhands cannot guide us than it is pointless to stay up here."

It took almost five more days to reach the Wall and as they came into sight of it Norrey and the Reeds seemed overwhelmed by its enormity. "How can men build such a thing?" Meera asked in awe as she stared up at the Wall.

"With time and hard work," Jon told her.

"Aye," Val added with a snort. "And a will to keep good people trapped on the other side of it."

Jon just shook his head. "Let it go, Val. We are all friends now, are we not?"

Val sighed. "Aye…maybe more than that for some." Sam thought she meant her and Jon but then she turned and looked at Sam. "Right, Slayer?" she said with a laugh and Sam blushed like he always did whenever he thought of Gilly.

They soon came into the region of the Nightfort. From here Sam became their guide, the only one who had ever been here. It was massive, much larger than Castle Black was, and it was falling to pieces, abandoned over two centuries ago Sam knew from his readings of the Watch's history. By the time Sam found the building and the room where he and Gilly and her babe had emerged from the underground passageway it was night time.

They made camp here and built a fire and cooked some of the remaining horse meat. Supplies were getting merger again and the last few days Jon had to ration the food so it would last longer. They had caught some fish along the way and one day Meera had shot two rabbits with her bow but Summer and Ghost were on them and had already eaten most of them before they could stop the direwolves.

Then Sam suddenly realized something. "We can't take the horses under the Wall."

Val laughed. "Lord Snow and I thought of that weeks ago in Winterfell, Slayer. We kill a few for the meat and set the rest loose."

"Why does she call you 'Slayer', Sam?" Norrey asked him later after they had some food.

"He was the first one in eight thousand years to kill an Other," Jon said with a touch of pride in his voice. "Killed two more since."

"You have killed more than that," Sam replied as he blushed a bit.

"How do you kill them?" Norrey asked eagerly.

"With this." Sam took out his dragonglass dagger and showed it to Norrey. "It's dragonglass, made in a volcano. Only this and Valyrian steel can kill the Others."

Long into the night they spoke on their battles and all that had happened at the Wall. They even confessed about blowing the horn that made the Wall collapse.

"This little horn took down the Wall at Castle Black?" Norrey asked in wonder as Sam showed him. Norrey did not blame them and said the gods meant it to happen and so it did. Sam felt somewhat better but not much. Long after they spoke on magic, and horns, and legends of the North.

"Keep the horn close by, Slayer," Val said later. "If the legends be true it can wake and command the giants as well."

"Just another story. No such thing as giants," Norrey said in a laughing manner. When no one shared his laugh he looked at them in a questioning way. "Is there?" And so they told him all they knew of giants and all went to sleep later that night than they expected.

The next morning Sam gave Angus Norrey the dragonglass dagger. He protested and said he should keep it or give it to Jon or Val.

"There is only one dagger I want…aye, more of a sword," Val said and after she said this she gave a look to Jon, who blushed. Sam wondered if Val and Jon had laid with each other since Winterfell. Maybe not because there was no place for them to be by themselves. But a few times they had been on guard together while Sam slept so he knew not for certain. Often Sam saw them looking at each other or talking in low whispers, smiling and sometimes teasing each other. And then there was that tenderness and the way she called him 'Jon' that night at the mill. What was happening between the two was also not lost on the rest but no one spoke of it directly.

Val took the dagger from Sam's hand and gave it to Norrey. "Tie it to the end of your spear," she advised.

He hesitated and looked at Sam. "How will you protect yourself?" Norrey asked.

"He has a Valyrian steel sword," Jon answered as he walked by. "Keep the dagger. Come, we must do what must be done and time is wasting."

The horses were tied up outside near what was once the stables for the castle. Over the last few weeks they had gotten to know their mounts well and they had served them well, making this more difficult. But they needed food now and so some horses had to die.

They first had to tie up Summer and Ghost so they would not interfere with the odious task. Jon and Norrey did the actually killing. "It's not right," Bran mumbled from Hodor's back as Jon killed the first horse, the second pack animal that Norrey had ridden. "They helped us."

"Now they will help us more," Meera said as Norrey killed another mount, the one Hodor had been riding.

"Hodor," he said in what seemed a sad moan.

Meera and Jojen shivered in the cold air as Jon and Norrey and Val starting carving up the horses. The cold seemed to affect the brother and sister more so than the rest. Sam was from further south than the Reeds' swampy homeland but he had been in the North with the Watch more than a year now and strangely enough the cold did not bother him so much anymore. All the others in their party were of the North and had lived with cold all their lives. Even Bran seemed less affected than the Reeds though he had not seen any winters before this one.

Bloody meat went into canvas sacks once more and after the two horses were killed and carved up they had enough meat for a good while, even with eight mouths to feed. Summer and Ghost were untied and feasted on the remains of the slaughtered horses. Then Jon and Norrey and Val set the rest of the horses loose through the castle's old gates and they went down the slope way from the castle and the Wall. They did not go far, and began to dig down through the snow to look for grass.

"Go south, it's warmer," Jojen called out to the horses but they ignored him. Sam wished he was a horse and could go south again. Gods, why didn't he stay with Gilly in Winterfell?

He knew why. He had to help his friends to destroy their enemies. What life could any of them have unless the Others were defeated? Jon was truly the Prince that was Promised and that gave Sam hope. Lightbringer had destroyed those wights by the mill with ease and that Other had run from it. Would the same happen if they came upon hundreds or thousands of their enemies? Could they kill all the Others? Or would they retreat like they had thousands of years ago, to await another time to come forth and kill without mercy?

But first things first. Someway, somehow they had to find Coldhands and had to learn the secret that awaited Bran and them.

It was time to go under the Wall. They filled their water skins from a nearby stream and shouldered their packs which had mostly food now. Sam took a torch and held it high as he entered the old well that led down under the Nightfort to the secret entrance, the black gate. The rest followed behind him in single file. What would wait for them beyond and what they would do to stop the Others only the gods knew for certain.