Samwell
It has been long since Samwell Tarly had been happy, truly happy. He couldn't remember a time when he was so happy like he was now. They had said the news to him sometime before and Sam couldn't contain his overwhelming joy after hearing it. He was selected into the Night's Watch. He is going to be a brother of the Night's Watch now. With Edd and Pyp and Grenn and all the others. Edd had worked for it more than he had so he must be the first one to know it and Sam was searching for his friend to say about the good news.
He found him in the common hall. Edd was breaking his fast on applecakes and blood sausage. Sam Tarly plopped himself down on the bench beside him. "I've been summoned to the yard," he whispered excitedly. "They're passing me out of training. I'm to be made a brother with the rest of you. Can you believe it?"
"No, truly?" Edd cocked his eyebrows at him.
"Truly. I'm to assist Maester Aemon with the library and the birds. He needs someone who can read and write letters."
"You'll do well at that," Edd said with a smile.
Sam smiled back at him. "Thank you," he said to Edd. "If it wasn't for you I don't think I'd be here."
Edd patted on his back. "We're brothers remember," Edd told him. "And brothers are supposed to take care of each other."
Samwell Tarly nodded. He briefly wondered what his brother Dickon was doing now, probably spending his time in the yard. Sam loved his brother as much as any man could love his brother but he remembered Benjen Stark's words again. He looked at Edd, he is his brother now. Him and all the others of the Night's Watch, even Ser Alliser Thorne.
He glanced around the room anxiously. None of the other recruits who had passed the trained was there except the two of them. "Is it time to go?" he asked Edd. "I shouldn't be late, they might change their minds."
"I think we should go then," Edd chuckled and they left the hall.
Sam was fairly bouncing as they crossed the weed-strewn courtyard. He felt the urge to dance in joy but then thought against it. Men of the Night's Watch don't dance. The day was warm and sunny. Rivulets of water trickled down the sides of the Wall, so the ice seemed to sparkle and shine.
In the yard, the training dummies and the arrow marks had been taken away to make place for the benches where the other recruits who'd passed the training sat. Pyp's mouth dropped open when he caught sight of Sam, and Toad poked Grenn in the ribs, but no one dared say a word. A raised wooden alter was made up for the high officers of the Night's Watch.
The high officers arrived in a body; Maester Aemon leaning on Clydas, Ser Alliser cold-eyed and grim, Lord Commander Mormont resplendent in a black wool doublet with silvered bearclaw fastenings. Behind them came the senior members of the three orders: red-faced Bowen Marsh the Lord Steward, First Builder Othell Yarwyck, and lastly came the First ranger, Benjen Stark.
Mormont stood on the wooden altar, the a fringe of white hair covering his broad receeding head. "You came to us outlaws," he began, "poachers, rapers, debtors, killers, and thieves. You came to us children. You came to us alone, in chains, with neither friends nor honor. You came to us rich, and you came to us poor. Some of you bear the names of proud houses. Others have only bastards' names, or no names at all. It makes no matter. All that is past now. On the Wall, we are all one house.
"At evenfall, as the sun sets and we face the gathering night, you shall take your vows. From that moment, you will be a Sworn Brother of the Night's Watch. Your crimes will be washed away, your debts forgiven. So too you must wash away your former loyalties, put aside your grudges, forget old wrongs and old loves alike. Here you begin anew.
"A man of the Night's Watch lives his life for the realm. Not for a king, nor a lord, nor the honor of this house or that house, neither for gold nor glory nor a woman's love, but for the realm, and all the people in it. A man of the Night's Watch takes no wife and fathers no sons. Our wife is duty. Our mistress is honor. And you are the only sons we shall ever know.
"You have learned the words of the vow. Think carefully before you say them, for once you have taken the black, there is no turning back. The penalty for desertion is death." The Old Bear paused for a moment before he said, "Are there any among you who wish to leave our company? If so, go now, and no one shall think the less of you."
No one moved.
"Well and good," said Mormont. "You may take your vows in the sept at evenfall, before Septon Celladar and the first of your order. Do any of you keep to the old gods?"
None stood. Sam had nothing to do with the Old Gods. He had been named in the light of the Seven at the sept on Horn Hill, as his father was, and his father before him, and all the Tarlys for a thousand years.
"Good then," Mormont said. Sam looked to Edd as he waited for the next part eagerly. "We have placed each of you in an order, as befits our need and your own strengths and skills." Bowen Marsh stepped forward and handed him a paper. The Lord Commander unrolled it and began to read. "Halder, to the builders," he began. Halder gave a stiff nod of approval. "Grenn, to the rangers." Grenn shared a smile with Edd as he left the bench. "Albett, to the builders. Pypar, to the rangers. Samwell, to the stewards." Sam sagged with relief, mopping at his brow with, the back of his hands. He had been named at last, there is no turning back now. "Matthar, to the rangers. Dareon, to the stewards. Todder, to the rangers. And Eddison Tollet, to the stewards."
The stewards? For a moment Sam could not believe what he had heard. Lord Commander Mormont must have read it wrong. Edd was the best swordsman and the best rider they'd got. It made no sense to make him as steward. But Edd had taken it so calmly. He stayed there in his place unmoving and if he was surprised or sad or angry he never showed it on his face.
The Old Bear rolled up the paper. "Your firsts will instruct you in your duties. May all the gods preserve you, brothers." The Lord Commander favored them with a half bow, and took his leave. Ser Alliser went with him.
"Rangers with me," Benjen Stark called when they were gone. Pyp and Grenn were staring at Edd as he got slowly to his feet. Matt and Toad fell in beside them, and they followed Benjen Stark from the yard.
"Builders," announced lantern-jawed Othell Yarwyck. Halder and Albett trailed out after him.
Maester Aemon's blind eyes were raised toward the sun he could not see. Only Edd and Dareon remained on the benches with him.
Lord Steward Bowen Marsh rubbed his plump hands together. "Samwell, you will assist Maester Aemon in the rookery and library. Chett is going to the kennels, to help with the hounds. You shall have his cell, so as to be close to the maester night and day. I trust you will take good care of him. He is very old and very precious to us.
"Dareon, I am told that you sang at many a high lord's table and shared their meat and mead. We are sending you to Eastwatch. It may be your palate will be some help to Cotter Pyke when merchant galleys come trading. We are paying too dear for salt beef and pickled fish, and the quality of the olive oil we're getting has been frightful, Present yourself to Borcas when you arrive, he will keep you busy between ships."
Marsh turned his smile on Edd then. "Lord Commander Mormont has requested you for his personal steward, Tollet. You'll sleep in a cell beneath his chambers, in the Lord Commander's tower."
"Alright," Edd said with a hint of humor. "I think I should serve the Lord Commander's meals, help him fasten his clothes, fetch hot water for his bath then."
"Certainly." Marsh looked at Edd. "And you will run his messages, keep a fire burning in his chambers, change his sheets and blankets daily, and do all else that the Lord Commander might require of you."
When Edd left the yard, Dareon and Sam went with him. The Wall shining in the sun, the melting ice creeping down its side in a hundred thin fingers. He wanted to make sure that Edd is alright about it. Edd had been there for him whenever he needed and it is right for him to be with him now. He moved to Edd.
"Edd," he said excitedly, trying to lift up the mood. "Wait. Don't you see what they're doing?"
"I know what they're doing," Edd said as he walked. "I'm being assigned as a steward."
Dareon gave him a look. "The stewards are fine for the likes of you and me, Sam, but not for him."
"It's not like that Dareon," Edd said never stopping. He continued on his way and Sam desperately tried to keep up with him.
"There is no shame in being a steward," Sam said.
"You are the personal steward of the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch," Sam reminded him. "You'll be with him day and night. Yes, you'll pour his wine and see that his bed linen is fresh, but you'll also take his letters, attend him at meetings, squire for him in battle. You'll be as close to him as his shadow. You'll know everything, be a part of everything . . . and the Lord Steward said Mormont asked for you himself!
"When I was little, my father used to insist that I attend him in the audience chamber whenever he held court. When he rode to Highgarden to bend his knee to Lord Tyrell, he made me come. Later, though, he started to take Dickon and leave me at home, and he no longer cared whether I sat through his audiences, so long as Dickon was there. He wanted his heir at his side, don't you see? To watch and listen and learn from all he did. I'll wager that's why Lord Mormont requested you. What else could it be? He wants to groom you for command!"
There was a faint surprise in Edd's face now and a smile graced his lips too.
"Thank you, Sam," he said at last.
"We're brothers remember," Sam reminded him. "And brothers take care of each other."
They said their vows in the Sept before the Seven at evenfall, when the sun was down. Everyone in Castle Black had come to witness them become as the men of the Night's Watch. Lord Commander Mormont, Benjen Stark, Maester Aemon, Bowen Marsh, Othell Yarwyck, the armorer Donal Noye and all the others were there. Septon Celladar was swinging a censer, filling the air with fragrant incense that reminded Sam of the sept in Horn once the septon seemed sober. All of them knelt before the altar of the Seven.
They said the words together, as the last light faded in the west and grey day became black night.
"Hear my words, and bear witness to my vow," they recited, their voices filling the candle lit sept. "Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."
The sept fell silent. "You knelt as boys," Lord Commander Mormont intoned solemnly. "Rise now as men of the Night's Watch."
Sam took Edd's hand and came back to his feet. The other brothers gathered round to offer smiles and congratulations. And Samwell Tarly joined himself with the House of Night's Watch with all those men as his brothers.