A Time for Wolves

Jon III

As Commander of the Night's Watch, Jon had many responsibilities to take care of and many decisions to make, especially now that the Watch was changing somuch as a consequence of the deal he had made with Stannis. Jon had noticed that they would need a new maester, because even though Aemon was still alive, he was old, blind and weak, and he could use another maester's help. That was why he had sent Sam to the citadel. Jon had expected him to be glad about the news, because his friend loved reading and he would probably be better in Oldtown than in the Wall, but Sam had seemed distressed by Jon's order instead.

He had also sent Gilly with him, because Sam intended to introduce her to his family as his lover. He also planned to tell them that her baby was his, so that the Tarly family would accept the mother and the child both and let them stay in their house. He wanted the unnamed baby boy to be raised in Horn Hill as his bastard. But Jon did not let Gilly take her baby. He told her she should take Mance Rayder's son instead, and say he was hers. The idea was to move the King-Beyond-the-Wall's baby away from Melisandre, keeping him safe from her fires and sacrifices for R'hllor. Gilly had agreed to take the other baby, despite all the pain this decision had caused her, and they had set off.

He had also sent Aemon with them, although his health was frail. The Citadel was warm, and a better place than the Wall to stay during winter. Besides, maybe he knew some of the maesters, because he was one of them, and he could tell them of the situation and the dangers the Watch must face, getting them to believe him and send help. They were in need of resources to survive the winter and useful weapons and information for their war. And of course, they also needed more men to defend the Wall.

Jon was very interested in the new recruits' training. Most of them were commoners, and they had never used a sword in their lives. Only one of them seemed to have had fencing classes before getting to the Wall, according to Iron Emmett, and he was only a boy. Jon was curious about that child who had never taken off his helm in his presence. He wondered if Gendry had a reason to hide his face. Maybe he had a scar he was ashamed of, or he might have had greyscale, he thought. But he never asked him, in order not to embarrass him.

Jon estimated that the new recruits would be ready to say their vows in little more than a moon's turn. He was already trying to place each of them in an order. They were nine men (because, though Gendry was just a ten-year-old boy, they were all men in the Watch.) Most of them seemed to fit in best in the orders of stewards and builders, but those were the orders that had more men. The Night's Watch needed rangers, now that many of them had died or gone missing. They also needed wandering crows, to bring more sworn brothers.

These matters, together with the increasing threat of the Others, and the strains between the wildlings, black brothers and Stannis's men worried Lord Commander Stark. The war in the Seven Kingdoms had ceased to interest him when his brother Robb was murdered, because he had no family left outside the Wall. Save for his sisters, but both of them were missing. The dream he had had about Arya had aroused his hopes to see them again, but he did not want to delude himself with vain illusions. He was going to fight for Stannis, but only because it was his duty to Westeros.

His days were almost always the same: he broke his fast alone in his chambers, he spent his mornings supervising the men of Castle Black as they performed their different tasks, and he practiced his swordplay and had meetings with Stannis and his loyal bannermen in the evenings. Some of Stannis's knights had gone on a journey through the North to recruit lords for Stannis's cause, and men for the Night's Watch. If the gods were good, they would be more successful than the last wandering crows.

After one of those meetings with Stannis, in which the king told him about the different letters the northern lords had sent him, he went to the godswood with Ghost to reflect on what had been said in the meeting. Houses Umber and Mormont had declared for Stannis as soon as they learned that Jon had accepted him as his king. They wanted to remain loyal to the Starks, and Jon was the only one left. The Karstarks were on their side too, possibly because they had no other choice. But what Stannis wanted most was White Harbor's loyalty. In order to get it he had sent Lord Davos Seaworth to speak with Lord Manderly. King Stannis was worried because he had received no word from his loyal envoy. If they could not get White Harbor, winning the war would be very difficult.

As he rode to the weirwoods of the Old Gods, he wondered how the war would end, and when. Would Stannis win? Would he see Winterfell again? Would everything go back to normal? Would there be peace in the future? Would there be summer children who played snowball fights without being able to imagine a real fight? Or would the Lannisters win? If they did, would there ever be another Stark in Winterfell? Would the war last all winter? And when would be the time to deal with the Others?

Jon knew the gods would not answer him, but he wanted to ask all the same. However, when he got there, he realized that there was someone sitting in front of the trees. He was a boy and he was dressed in black, so Jon supposed he was the new recruit.

The child must have heard his footsteps, because he turned his head to glance at him. Gendry was wearing a hooded cloak and a scarf, so the only feature of his face Jon could see was his eyes, and the hood's shadow made it difficult to see even that. The boy hastened to rise and mutter a greeting to his Lord Commander. Jon wondered if his presence had made the boy anxious, or if he was scared of the direwolf. He asked Gendry if he could sit by his side and pray too, and the child nodded silently. After he sat down, Ghost approached him and started sniffing at Gendry intently. Jon was about to call his wolf to him, but then Gendry started petting Ghost lightly, and the direwolf sat by his side, almost as relaxed and trusting as if Jon was the one touching its fur.

"Ghost is a direwolf, Gendry. They are dangerous animals. Aren't you afraid?" Jon asked him frowning, surprised by his wolf's unusual behavior, but even more shocked by the recruit's lack of fear. The boy just shrugged, as if he did not know what to answer.

"Do you believe in the Old Gods, Gendry?" Jon was curious about the reason why the boy had gone to the godswood, and he thought that would be a good explanation.

"Yes, I do. But they never listen to me" he answered, with a hint of sadness.

Now it was Jon who did not know what to say. They were silent for some time, until Gendry decided to explain himself.

"I was actually born in the North, but my family moved to King's Landing after the war started. That's why I believe in the Old Gods. But if they listened to the prayers and actually cared about them, they wouldn't let a ten-year-old boy be orphaned and homeless. Do they listen to you?" Gendry asked.

"I don't know. My father was executed as a traitor, even though I know that the only dishonorable thing he did in his life was bringing me to the world. My older brother died betrayed, while he was trying to avenge our father and free our sisters. A man who had grown up with us murdered our little brothers and took our castle. I know nothing about my sisters, and I think they are probably dead too. I don't know why the gods let the good and innocent die, while the guilty traitors live."

"Traitors die too, Jon. All men must die." Jon nodded, surprised by the solemnity with which the boy said such a baleful sentence.

"Jon, do you think there could be women in the Night's Watch?" the boy asked.

"Women?" Jon was puzzled. There had never been women in the Night's Watch.

"Yes. The wildlings let their women fight and learn to defend themselves. Why doesn't the Watch accept women? A strong woman could easily defeat the old and cripple men that now make up the Night's Watch, and the Watch needs strength, if we're going to fight with the white walkers." Gendry had started talking calmly, but now he sped up his speech, desperate to convince Jon. "You are the Lord Commander, you made the Night's Watch intervene in the wars of the Seven Kingdoms, and you even allowed the men of the Watch to get married. You can surely change this too…"

"I suppose I can, but I think we have had too many changes already. I don't need to give my sworn brothers any more reasons to think I'm against everything the Night's Watch stands for."

Gendry quit trying to convince him and he left soon after that, leaving Jon alone with Ghost. He wondered how the Watch would be if it accepted women, and what kind of women would join it. Maybe some wildling spearwives, and many beggars looking for food and a place to sleep in, and maybe one or two young girls eager to fight and who refused to behave like 'ladies'. He thought of Arya, and the thought brought a warm smile to his face.

He stayed there for a time, alone and in silence, looking at the weirwoods, whose red leaves had started to fall months before and were now almost bared. He asked the gods if he would ever see Arya again. He had had no word of her since their father had been arrested, and she was probably dead. However, there was no way he could know it for sure, and the dream he had had that night made him wonder even more about it. If she had survived, she was a lost and orphan eleven-year-old girl who had nowhere to go. And Jon was the only family she had left.

"Please, if Arya is still alive, send her to me. Remind her that she has in the Wall a brother who loves her, and who would do everything he can to keep her safe," he prayed.

A sudden gust shook the weirwood branches, and some leaves fell off. One of them touched down beside him, just where Gendry had been seated minutes before. Jon shivered, suddenly noticing how cold and dark it had gotten. He supposed that the blow might be the gods' answer, telling him they had heard him. But he felt stupid, talking to the trees, and trying to find an answer where there was none. Frustrated, he rose and started the way back to Castle Black.