The King of Winters

Chapter 34

Once they swore their vow, his friends would be assigned to their posts as the men of the Night's Watch. Rangers, builders, stewards, they would be assigned accordingly. Every man who wore the black walked the Wall, and every man was expected to take up steel in its defense, but the rangers were the true fighting heart of the Night's Watch. It was they who dared ride beyond the Wall, sweeping through the haunted forest and the icy mountain heights west of the Shadow Tower, fighting wildlings and giants and monstrous snow bears. 

The order of builders provided the masons and carpenters to repair keeps and towers, the miners to dig tunnels and crush stone for roads and footpaths, the woodsmen to clear away new growth wherever the forest pressed too close to the Wall. Once, it was said, they had quarried immense blocks of ice from frozen lakes deep in the haunted forest, dragging them south on sledges so the Wall might be raised ever higher. Those days were centuries gone, however; now, it was all they could do to ride the Wall from Eastwatch to the Shadow Tower, watching for cracks or signs of melt and making what repairs they could.

Sam would've given anything to join them. He would be content with any post but no he would get no post. He had no hope to pass on the training under the eyes of Ser Alliser. He would stay a recruit until he was old as Maester Aemon. 

Sam left straight for his cell and stayed there until nightfall. He never went to the common hall for the feast Three-finger Hobb would've made for the passing recruits. His belly showed its complaint but Sam was strong in his decision as to not cry in front of all those men. He saw the distant glow of lamplight from the Lord Commander's Tower and wondered if Lord Commander Mormont could help him in any way but he knew the answer already. The recruits were given under the command of Ser Alliser Thorne and it was his word which matters the most.

He was about to go to sleep when a knock came. Sam rubbed the tears off his eyes and opened the door. "Edd?" Sam asked, surprised to see him there. 

"Come, Sam," Edd turned and walked away from him. 

"Where are we going?" Sam asked. 

Edd turned and looked at him over his shoulder. "To an outside stroll." He didn't wait for a reply and continued in his path. Sam scurried off behind him. Sam continued to ask him questions but Edd kept quiet all the way. Edd brought him to the rookery. Sam understood at once where he had brought him.

Maester Aemon's apartments were in a stout wooden keep below the rookery. Aged and frail, the maester shared his chambers with two of the younger stewards, who tended to his needs and helped him in his duties. The brothers joked that he had been given the two ugliest men in the Night's Watch; being blind, he was spared having to look at them. Clydas was short, bald, and chinless, with small pink eyes like a mole. Chett had a wen on his neck the size of a pigeon's egg, and a face red with boils and pimples. Perhaps that was why he always seemed so angry. 

It was Chett who answered Edd's knock. "I need to speak to Maester Aemon," Edd told him. 

Chett eyed him and Edd. "The maester is abed, as you should be. Come back on the morrow and maybe he'll see you." 

He began to shut the door.Edd jammed it open with his boot. "I need to speak to him now. The morning will be too late." 

Chett scowled. "The maester is not accustomed to being woken in the night. Do you know how old he is?" 

"Old enough to treat visitors with more courtesy than you," Edd said. "Give him my pardons. I would not disturb his rest if it were not important." 

"And if I refuse?" 

Edd had his boot wedged solidly in the door. "I can stand here all night if I must." 

The black brother made a disgusted noise and opened the door to admit them. "Wait in the library. There's wood. Start a fire. I won't have the maester catching a chill on account of you two."