The day for the new recruits to take their oaths had arrived. Jon took Pyp, Grenn, Edd and Sam to one side and told them they would not be swearing oaths. Instead, they would go on a mission with Jon. Sam wasn't particularly comfortable with this idea. His father would be angry about him not taking the black like he promised, but he was now under Ned Stark's protection and outside of the reach of his father. The five of them, alongside Ghost, watched on as the senior command of the Night's Watch arrived together; Maester Aemon, leaning on Clydas, Lord Commander Mormont, wore a black woollen doublet with silvered bear's claw fastenings. Behind them were the highest officers of the members of the three orders: Bowen Marsh, the Lord Steward, First Builder Othell Yarwyck, and Benjen Stark, who commanded the rangers.
Lord Commander Mormont stood above the men in the yard and gave out what Sam presumed must have been a well-practised speech.. "You came to us: outlaws, poachers, rapers, debtors, killers, and thieves. You came to us children. You came to us alone, in chains, with neither friends nor honour. 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 doesn't matter. All that is past now. On the Wall, we are all one house," he said. "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," he continued. "A man of the Night's Watch lives his life for the realm. Not for a king, nor a lord, nor the honour 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 on duty. Our mistress is honoured. 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." He 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." The yard remained silent. No one moved. "Well and good," said Mormont. "You may take your vows here at evenfall, before Septon Celladar and the first of your order. Do any of you keep to the old gods?"
When nobody responded, Mormont continued with his speech. "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, which Sam suspected was a list. Lord Commander Mormont unrolled it and read out the names and their assigned orders. "Halder, to the builders," he said. "Matthar, to the rangers. Dareon, to the stewards. Todder, to the rangers..." he continued. Once he finished, he rolled up the paper. "Your firsts will instruct you in your duties. May all the gods preserve you, brothers." He gave the men a half-bow and left.
"So, what do we do now?" Sam asked Jon.
Jon frowned, as if there was something he wasn't telling him. "I don't know. I'd hoped Maester Aemon might have you help him while we finished our preparations for the trip. The Lord Commander knows of my wishes."
"Samwell," came the voice of Bowen Marsh, as if he'd read Jon's mind. "Would you assist Maester Aemon in the rookery and library?" he asked.
"Of course." Sam said excitedly. The mere thought of being able to assist a Maester was almost like a dream. The books and knowledge of a man of the age of the blind Maester must be incredible.
Before Sam could say anything, Ghost distracted him by running off, down the steps, across the courtyard and towards the entrance to the tunnel, which ran under the wall. When paced up and down, Jon ran after him.
"What is it, boy?" Jon bent down on one knee, as Ghost scrabbled on the ground, as silent as ever. Jon looked down the tunnel, and then turned to Sam. "Stay here!" he said. "I need to speak with the Lord Commander." Jon got up and ran off towards the quarters of the Old Bear.
"I'll just stay here." Sam shrugged as Pyp, Grenn, and Edd approached.
"What's up with him?" Pyp looked down at Ghost. "Never seen him behave like that."
"Probably got the shits. If he's been eatin' leftovers from the kitchens, he'll definitely have the shits." Edd sighed. "Maybe he wants to spread it north of the wall. Better than goin' near the latrines.'' he grimaced.
"I think you're right about him wanting to go north." Sam agreed. "He is a direwolf. They are of the north."
Moments later, Jon arrived back with Benjen Stark and the Lord Commander behind. "What have you found, boy?" Jon asked. "Show us." Ghost looked up at his master before running down to the other end of the tunnel, where he then scrabbled at the gate.
"We best saddle up some horses, bring Chett and some hounds to find out what the beast is trying to tell us," the Old Bear said as they headed towards the stables, where the stable hand had already got four horses ready. Sam wasn't sure if the orders included him, but he followed the rest, anyway. He was curious to see the other side of the wall, albeit a little scared. The stable lad took one look at Sam and frowned.
"I can ride well, you know. Just because I'm fat doesn't mean I can't ride a horse." Sam protested. The stable hand shrugged and brought a garron over for him. Sam mounted his horse and joined the others.
"With me!" Lord Commander Mormont said, grabbing a torch and lighting it in the brazier before setting off down the tunnel.
"The wildlings … they wouldn't … they'd never dare come this close to the Wall. Would they?" Sam asked nobody in particular.
"Not usually this close." Benjen replied as they trotted underneath the wall itself.
When they reached the end of the tunnel, Benjen waved his torch and the gate to the north rose in front of them. Ghost stood beside Jon, his body rigid, until Jon put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. Then Ghost ran straight out of the tunnel and jumped about in the virgin snow for a moment, before waiting for his master to join him. Ghost's head lifted, nose in the air, sniffing and tasting whatever had alerted him, all the time awaiting his orders. "Go on, boy, what is it you want to show us?" Jon said, and in the blink of an eye, the white direwolf was off, racing across the snowy field and vanishing into the trees.
Following him on horseback, they entered the forest, which differed from any forest Sam knew. Of course he was from the Reach, and woods surrounded his home of Horn Hill; where the sun shone down through the canopy, dancing sunlight, shading the mossy ground. The haunted forest was still a forest, and yet it felt very different. Mayhap this was the reason it was called the Haunted Forest, because it felt haunted. As if a ghost would jump out at you any moment. Strange, Sam mused, they were looking for an actual Ghost, albeit not the spectral kind which haunted people, although when fully grown, he would be fully capable of hunting people. Sam swallowed, trying not to think of the grotesque images and keeping his mind on where they were going. The trees close to one another and shut out the light of the sinking sun. The problem was that now they had ridden past the end of the world, every shadow seemed darker, and every sound loud and ominous, adding to the overall ambience of spookiness. Every now and again, the leaves rustled on the trees, making Sam jump a little, as if a ghostly figure was about to lay a finger on his shoulder. He didn't like this place. He wanted to go back to Castle Black, but he had a job to do, which was to support Jon. Once their mission finished, he would have a better life than that of a man of the Night's Watch, therefore he continued to plough on, following the trail Ghost left behind.
The sun was sinking below the trees and the Wall was at their backs, when they reached a small clearing in the deep of the wood where nine weirwoods grew in a rough circle. Having never seen a weirwood tree before, Sam stared at them in awe. They didn't have weirwoods in Horn Hill. As much as their beauty astounded him, the faces carved into the trunks unnerved him. He was uncomfortable with the sight of the red sap running from what looked like eyes, as if crying tears of blood.
"Can you see him, Jon?" Benjen asked. "It's getting dark, and there's something not right in the air."
Before Jon had the chance to reply, Ghost was back, standing between two weirwoods; he held something in his jaws.
"What's that?" asked Benjen.
"To me, Ghost." Jon said, kneeling to the ground. "Bring it here." The direwolf trotted to him. As soon as Sam saw what it was, he drew a sharp intake of breath.
San was not the only one disconcerted with the direwolf's discovery. "That's a hand," said Grenn.
Ghost showed them where to find the body which belonged to the hand, only to find another body next to it. Jon seemed the least surprised of anyone, almost as if he'd been expecting something like this, a fact which not only confused Sam, but scared him a little. He had noticed Jon had this knack of just knowing things that he really shouldn't know. Another strange quirk of Jon's was his appearance and mannerisms seemed off. If he couldn't see his face, he'd have thought Jon to be much older; the boy had old eyes, a continuous haunted look in them as if he'd seen things no man should see. Now Sam wondered if he'd known something like this would happen. After all, Jon was a northerner, and he'd read northerners sometimes had weird powers of greensight and were skin changers; Sam had a strange feeling Jon was one of those two, or both. He shuddered at the thought, then he ran. Sam cowered beneath the trees, but Jon followed him.
"I can't look," he whispered miserably.
"You must look," Jon told him, his voice low enough so the others couldn't hear.
"Yes, but … I'm a coward, Jon." Jon put a hand on Sam's shoulder.
"No one will hurt you, Sam. Come with me and look. The dead can't hurt you." Sam gave a nod, although there was something in Jon's voice which betrayed his confident words. Slowly, Sam got up and made his way to the bodies.
"Othor," he heard the Lord Commander say as he approached. "beyond a doubt. Gods have mercy,"
Sam was now standing with the group, staring down at the dead. Something felt off, and he couldn't explain what it was.
"And this one here was Jafer Flowers. My Lord, less the hand the wolf tore off." Benjen Stark turned the corpse on to his back with his foot. The dead white face, with bright blue eyes, stared up at the grey overcast sky.
"They were Ser Alliser's men, both of them." Jon nodded.
"Any sign of Ser Alliser?" the Old Bear asked.
"Just these two, My Lord. Been dead awhile, I'd say." Jon frowned.
"Two of our brothers butchered almost within sight of the Wall, yet your rangers heard nothing, saw nothing. Is this what the Night's Watch has fallen to? Do we still sweep these woods?" the Lord Commander asked Benjen.
"Yes we do, my lord." said Benjen.
"Do we still mount watches?"
"Of course."
"This man was wearing a hunting horn." Sam saw it as Mormont pointed at Othor. "Must I suppose he died without sounding it? Or have your rangers all gone deaf as well as blind?"
"No horn was blown, my lord. The rangers would have heard it." Benjen said.
The Old Bear grunted. "Yes. Well. Be as it may, tell me how they died."
Benjen Stark squatted down beside the one called Jafer Flowers, grasping the head by the little hair which was left on the scalp of the corpse, which came out in lumps between his fingers. Benjen must have noticed something as he shoved the face to one side. The corpse had a gash in the side of its neck, crusted with dried blood. Only a few tendons attached the head to the neck. "This was done with an axe." he looked up to Mormont, who also knelt down.
Sam saw an axe on the dead man's belt. "It looks to be a Castle Black forged axe."
"Well, if it wasn't Jafer's, then whose axe was it?" Mormont asked.
"Othor's axe is missing," Jon said, who was staring at the second body, his lips tightly pressed together.
Othor had been a big ugly man, in both life and death. His dead flesh was as white as snow. Black, hardened blood covered the mortal wounds across his breast and groin and throat. His eyes were still open, staring up at the sky, blue as sapphires.
"The wildlings have axes too," said Benjen, although Sam had a strange feeling he didn't mean what he said, as if he was going through the motions by blaming the wildlings.
Mormont rounded on him. "So you believe this is Mance Rayder's work? This close to the Wall?" Lord Commander Mormont asked. "If Ser Alliser Thorne had come under a wildling attack this close to Castle Black, he would have returned for more men, and brought me back their heads."
"Unless he is dead as well," Benjen insisted. "It has been half a year since Ser Alliser left. The forest is vast. The wildlings could have fallen on him anywhere. These corpses are still fresh. They cannot have been dead for more than a day. Mayhaps they were on their way back to warn us."
"No," Samwell said nervously.
"Let him speak, Lord Commander." Jon said.
Mormont's eyes flicked from Sam to Jon and back again. "If the lad has something to say, I'll hear him out."
"My lord, it can't be a day … look … the blood …"
"Yes?" Mormont growled impatiently. "Blood, what of it?"
"You … you can see where Ghost, Jon's direwolf... where he tore that man's hand off, and yet … the stump hasn't bled. My father used to make me watch him dress animals sometimes." Sam shook his head. "After a fresh kill, the blood would still flow, my lords. It is only later it clots." Sam felt as though he was going to be sick. "This man, look at the wrist, it's all … crusty and dry"
"If they'd been dead much longer than a day, they'd be ripe by now. They don't even smell." Edd said.
Pyp leaned forward. "Sam has the truth of it. There's no corpse stink."
"They … they aren't rotting." Sam pointed his finger. "Look, there are no maggots or worms or anything. They've been lying here in the woods, but animals have not chewed or eaten them, only Ghost. Nothing will go near them. They're..."
"Untouched," Jon said. "And Ghost is different. The dogs and the horses won't go near them." The rangers exchanged glances; they could see it was true, every man of them. Mormont frowned, glancing from the corpses to the dogs.
"Chett, bring the hounds closer." Chett tried, but most of the dogs just whimpered and either planted their feet or tried to run the other way.
"This is all wrong," Sam Tarly said earnestly. "There are bloodstains on their clothes, and their flesh is dry and hard, but there's no blood to be found on the ground, or anywhere." Sam took a deep breath. "With those wounds, there should be blood all over. Shouldn't there?"
"Might be they didn't die here. Mayhap someone brought 'em and left 'em for us. A warning maybe." Benjen said. "I wasn't close with the man, but if my memory serves me well, Othor did not have blue eyes Neither did Flowers,"
Jon squatted beside Ghost. "We need to burn the bodies," he said.
The Old Bear gave a stubborn shake of his head. "Not yet. I want Maester Aemon to have a look at them. We'll bring them back to the Wall."
Some commands are more easily given than obeyed. Neither the horses nor the dogs wanted to go near the dead bodies, sensing something was wrong with them. Sam didn't like it. Clearly, Pyp, Edd, Grenn and Chett felt the same. However, the Lord Commander, Benjen Stark and Jon, all seemed almost resigned to the strangeness of the discovery. The only reasoning Sam could find was their northern upbringing, which, according to Jon, included many tales of what lay beyond the Wall. Jon had mentioned how his Old Nan had described the others, as he called them. These men fit the description in its entirety. If they truly were wights or whitewalkers; he wasn't entirely sure he knew the difference between them, then Sam couldn't understand why they were so calm about it. "Cold and dead." Jon had described them. "They hated fire, Valyrian steel and dragonglass, and every living creature with blood running through its veins. They fed on the living and raised the dead to add to their army. Nobody was safe, kings, servants, women, children and septons alike," or so Jon had told him. Sam just hoped they were all tales to frighten children and certainly not the dead men they had in their possession.
When he first glimpsed the Wall looming above the tops of an ancient gnarled oak, Sam sighed with relief. However, the relief was short-lived as Lord Commander Mormont startled him by suddenly reining up and turning in his saddle. "Tarly," he barked, "come here." Nervously, he approached, convinced he was in trouble. "You're fat, but you're not stupid, boy," the Old Bear said gruffly. "You did well back there. And you, Snow." Sam blushed a deep red. Rarely was he ever praised, and never from someone who could almost be akin to a fatherly figure. He was so embarrassed, he couldn't think of anything to say, nor could Jon.
Jon smiled. "Thank you, Lord Commander." he turned to Sam. "I think we need some ale."