Jon Snow is reading a letter written by Maester Aemon and addressed to King Tommen. The letter explains that Stannis has arrived to defend the Wall, but that the Night’s Watch, as always, takes no part in the wars of the Seven Kingdoms. The letter also pleads for the throne to send additional recruits to take the black. Jon has not signed the letter. Dolorous Edd Tollett enters the room and tells Jon that Gilly is waiting outside. Jon tells Gilly that only she can save Dalla’s boy from Melisandre’s flames; she is to switch her own babe for Dalla’s, and travel far from the Wall with Sam and Maester Aemon to Oldtown. If she refuses, Jon promises to kill her baby if Melisandre burns Dalla’s boy to work some spell requiring king’s blood. Gilly rushes out and minutes later Samwell Tarly arrives. Jon hands Sam Maester Aemon’s letter. Jon is loath to ask the Lannisters for help. Sam counsels Jon to sign the letter. A paper shield is better than none, he explains. Should the Lannisters defeat Stannis, the letter may be the Watch’s only hope. Jon signs and seals the letter, and dispatches it to Maester Aemon.
Jon asks Sam what he has learnt of the Others from the books contained in the vault. The oldest histories in existence were written after the Andals came to Westeros, Sam explains, hence everything known about the Age of Heroes and the Dawn Age and the Long Night comes from accounts set down by septons thousands of years later. Consequently, information concerning the White Walkers is scant and unreliable: he has learnt that the children of the forest used to give the Night’s Watch a hundred obsidian daggers every year, during the Age of Heroes; that the Others come when it is cold, hide from the light of the sun, and ride the corpses of dead animals; some accounts speak of giant ice spiders; men who fall in battle against the Others must be burned; the Others are vulnerable to Valyrian steel.
Jon asks Sam what he has learnt of the Others from the books contained in the vault. The oldest histories in existence were written after the Andals came to Westeros, Sam explains, hence everything known about the Age of Heroes and the Dawn Age and the Long Night comes from accounts set down by septons thousands of years later. Consequently, information concerning the White Walkers is scant and unreliable: he has learnt that the children of the forest used to give the Night’s Watch a hundred obsidian daggers every year, during the Age of Heroes; that the Others come when it is cold, hide from the light of the sun, and ride the corpses of dead animals; some accounts speak of giant ice spiders; men who fall in battle against the Others must be burned; the Others are vulnerable to Valyrian steel.
When Sam finishes recounting what he has learnt in the vaults, Jon informs him he is to travel with Gilly and Maester Aemon to Oldtown. First, they will travel afoot to Eastwatch, and from there sail to Braavos. In Braavos he must arrange his own passage to Oldtown. Sam is to claim Gilly’s babe as his bastard, and send her and the child to Horn Hill, elsewise Aemon will find her a servant’s place at the Citadel. Lastly, Sam is to train to become Castle Black’s new maester. Jon dismisses Sam despite his protests. After Sam has left Jon recalls the counsel Maester Aemon provided him the night before: kill the boy within you, let the man be born.
Jon makes his rounds of Castle Black. Kedge Whiteye has the Wall when Jon makes his ascent. Kedge is forty, his left eye blind, and his right eye mean. He informs Jon that a pair of knights went riding south along the kingsroad – Horpe and Massey, Jon finds out later, both queen’s men and high in the king’s councils. Recalling that Davos Seaworth and Salladhor Saan have set sail for White Harbor to treat with Lord Manderly, Jon assumes that the two knights travelling south are also acting as envoys.
The next day Jon wakes early to see off Sam, Gilly, and Maester Aemon, as they depart for Eastwatch. Aemon tell Jon he has left him a book, the Jade Compendium, written by the Volantene adventurer Colloquo – he has marked a passage for Jon to read. He wishes them a swift, safe voyage, and tells Sam to take care of Gilly and Aemon and the child.
Jon returns to the armory, where Bedwyck is waiting for him. The men call him Giant – at five feet tall, he is the smallest man in the Night’s Watch. Jon tells him that he is putting a garrison of thirty men in Icemark and assigning him command: twenty men from the Watch and ten from Stannis. Bedwyck is taken back by the news, but accepts the position. Later, Janos Slynt reports to Jon in the armory. Slynt was born a butcher’s son. He was captain of the Iron Gate when Manly Stokeworth died, and Jon Arryn raised him up, putting the defense of King’s Landing into his hands. In view of his experience, Jon decides to grant command of Greyguard to Slynt. Janos refuses the command and storms out of the armory.
The next morning Jon finds Slynt breaking his fast in the common room. Jon announces that he is giving Slynt one last chance to drop his spoon and report to the stables to depart for Greyguard. Again, Slynt refuses, and calls Jon a bastard with the mark of the beast upon him. Jon instructs Iron Emmett to take Slynt to the Wall and hang him. Edd and Emmett take hold of Slynt and drag him outside. Jon calls out for the men to stop. Slynt will not be hung, Jon says – he will execute the man himself. Edd and Emmett pin Slynt’s head to the chopping block, as Jon unsheathes Longclaw. Stannis stands watching on the steps of the King’s Tower, surrounded by his knights. Longclaw descends and Slynt’s head goes rolling across the muddy ground. Jon glances at Stannis and for an instance their eyes meet. The king nods and goes back inside his tower.
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