"I, Dos of the Hardfoot Hill Tribe, swear on behalf of all my people that once we enter the Wall, we will strictly abide by the Tripartite Lease Agreement.I swear on my father's foot, to all the kings of the South: we will never lead raids into the North, and we firmly oppose and will actively prevent any Free Folk from illegally sneaking into the North."
Beneath the gate of the Wall, a two-meter-high wooden platform had been erected. Two wooden chairs with backs sat atop it, where the Dragon Queen and Stannis sat side by side.
At their sides stood Barristan, Melisandre, and the leaders of the Night's Watch. Below the platform, the short barefoot chieftain of the tribe led his people in making this sacred oath before the king and the Night's Watch.
Upon returning to the Wall, Dany immediately began relocating the wildlings.
Beyond the Wall was far too dangerous; White Walkers could attack the camps at any moment. Not to mention that the White Walkers would certainly try every trick to kill the Dragon Queen and her dragons. Even just speaking of casualties, defending from the Wall was far less costly than clashing head-on outside it.
Thus, letting the wildlings into the Wall became a necessary choice.
The only concern: would the wildlings honor their sacred oath?
On this matter, Dany did not act unilaterally—she was about to leave soon. In the days to come, the Deer Party would be the dominant power at the Wall. Stannis's forces also had the strength to suppress any oath-breaking wildlings.
She needed to involve Stannis.
Before encountering the ice wight child, Stannis was firmly opposed.
He did not trust Dany, nor the wildlings. He didn't want to see Dany absorb the wildlings into her ranks, nor did he wish to bear the stigma of allowing wildlings through the Wall—once the nobles and commoners of the Seven Kingdoms learned of it, they would curse his name. They didn't understand the threat of the White Walkers, but their hatred of the wildlings ran eight thousand years deep.
The ice wight child changed his mind.
Not just Stannis—any living person, after seeing that undead child, no matter how much they had previously hated wildlings, would be forced to admit: leaving the wildlings outside the Wall was tantamount to handing soldiers to the White Walkers.
Either accept the wildlings and use their strength to fight the White Walkers, or drive them into the arms of the enemy.
What other choice was there?
Still, Stannis had conditions:First, wildling warriors and spearwives must remain at the Wall—either as temporary members of the Night's Watch or to farm in the Gift—and cannot be recruited by the Dragon Queen to campaign across the Narrow Sea.Second, the Dragon Queen must swear a sacred oath not to use the wildlings to invade the Seven Kingdoms.Third, she must not interfere if the wildlings choose to abandon their old gods and embrace R'hllor, the Lord of Light.
In short:Restrict the wildlings from joining Dany's cause and prevent her from using them to fight for the Iron Throne;Encourage the wildlings to align with Stannis, allowing him to use their power in his own game of thrones.
Ahem… quite shameless.
Even Stannis was embarrassed to say these things to the Dragon Queen himself. The negotiations were handled between Ser Axell Florent and the White Knight.
Axell Florent was Queen Selyse's uncle, a devout follower of the Lord of Light and leader of the "Later Party." His older brother, Earl Alester of Brightwater Keep, was burned alive as a sacrifice to R'hllor for advocating peace with Duke Tywin.
To be honest, neither Stannis nor his advisors ever expected Dany to agree to such an unequal treaty.
Some were even gearing up, rehearsing eloquent arguments to counter her opposition—ready to dazzle the debate with fiery rhetoric when she refused.
But unexpectedly, Dany didn't hesitate. She agreed on the spot.
She never intended to meddle in Westeros too much.
After fighting the White Walkers, capturing them, and studying them, she planned to leave the North.
The only reason to take in the wildlings was to conquer the North.
But Stannis was desperate enough to see the northern lords as his best shot at regaining power in the game of thrones. Dany, however, never had any hopes for the North. She never intended to win over its nobles or people.
—The Starks weren't extinct, and Northerners would never accept a foreign ruler.Moreover, the North was the front line against the White Walkers and was severely short on food—it had almost no reserves for winter.
The North was nothing like the Riverlands.
It was clear that once she sat on the Iron Throne, the Riverlands would no longer belong to House Tully.
As the granary of the Seven Kingdoms, the Riverlands were wealthy, densely populated, and directly connected to the Crownlands. Why wouldn't Dany abolish its "kingdom" status and merge it into the royal domain, making it a direct Targaryen territory?
Thus, the Riverlands were worth preserving.
But the North was different—harsh, barren, sparsely populated, and eternally loyal to House Stark. The North would never accept the Iron Throne, let alone the Dragon Queen—Game of Thrones' ending proved that beyond doubt.
If she were to intervene in Westerosi affairs, Dany would be better off reclaiming Dragonstone and focusing on the Trident region.
She didn't need to conquer many castles—just preserve the population, using it as her foothold in Westeros.
She has only one "cheap" son now, but in twenty years she might well have a dozen "cheap" grandsons. The Iron Throne doesn't interest her; she can leave it to the grandchildren!
What kind of "world-spanning" royal house would the Targaryens be without a dozen crowns from a dozen realms?Yes… Grandmother Dany is definitely thinking far ahead.
"I, Morona of the Green-Shell tribe, a thousand-man chieftain, swear by the gods on behalf of the one thousand free folk under my command: after passing the Wall we will never stray beyond the bounds of the old Gift, and we hereby enter into a sacred pact with Queen Daenerys."
After Hard-Foot Modos led a thousand wildlings through the gate, the white-masked Morona brought the women and children forward to pledge themselves to Dany as well.
Unlike the Hard-Feet, Morona would not stay at the Wall. She intended to take her thousand followers to Eastwatch, board ships, and cross the Narrow Sea.All she needed was a signed covenant with Dany.
Both the Night's Watch and Stannis agreed that Daenerys should take the non-combatant wildling women and children, easing the Wall's burden.
After Morona came the other surviving thousand-man chiefs—Watt, Great Walrus, Sorlon, and so on. Some settled at the Wall; others followed Dany westward in search of food.
Altogether about thirteen thousand wildlings: two thousand joined the Watch; five thousand went to farm the Gift—if farming was still possible; five thousand marched to Eastwatch.
Before nightfall every wildling had passed through the gate to the southern side of the Wall.
Supplies were scant, yet that night they still held a bonfire feast.
The raider squads had, by sheer luck, completed their prisoner-hunting mission: one ice-child, three White Walkers, and more than a hundred wights.A bumper haul!
Black-castle couldn't house the mass of wildlings. The old, young, sick, and weak were given rooms; the rest pitched a new camp east of Castle Black.
The feast was held between the castle and the camp.
Countless bonfires rose on the vast plain like stars upon the dark vault of heaven, each flickering with a spark of hope.
Wildlings traded their homemade fruit wine for the Watch's barley ale. The smell of roast mutton, pork, and beef drifted through the night.
Some drank and bragged at the top of their lungs; others strummed harps and wood-guitars, singing ballads. Two wrestlers grappled amid cheers; voices rose in hearty song; wildling girls danced and sang. For a while they forgot the peril only a wall away and gave themselves to revelry.
Near the castle, the Watch had set up wind-break huts of straw. Inside, three long tables formed a ten-metre high table.
Daenerys and Stannis shared that board, seated at opposite ends. The two or three dozen diners included senior brothers of the Watch, leading stag-loyalists, and several wildling chiefs.
"I ride back to the Shadow Tower at dawn," said Ser Melisandre, spearing a crisp-brown rack of lamb and chewing as he spoke. "The Weepers are mustering to press the Milkwater. Castle Black had best spare me a hundred rangers."
"There are over ten thousand free folk here," Red Pomegranate, steward of supplies, glanced at the far side where wildlings were quaffing ale and tearing meat, and said in some distress, "Castle Black has only three hundred and twenty brothers left—we're stretched thin!
Besides, with Queen Daenerys here, the moment a raven arrives she can be on dragonback within the hour. We couldn't burn enough rafts to match that speed."
Maester Aemon knit his brows and turned to Dany, as if reminding her: "Your Grace cannot stay long at the Wall, can you?"
"You're right, good ser. Don't blame me for shirking duty—it's just that unlike certain kings at their leisure, I truly am buried in affairs of state!" Dany flashed a smile at the man gnashing his teeth opposite her. "Quarth, Volantis, Lys and others have formed a 'League for the Defence of Slavery.' They claim 'a million strong,' with over a thousand warships. A world war is waiting for me!"
"A million?" A slice of dried apple slipped from Ygritte's lips. She stared blankly at the Dragon Queen. "You're boasting—no army that big exists."
(The red-haired woman had become a thousand-man chief. All wildlings who joined the raiders were granted personal freedom; and of the twelve chiefs last night, half had died. Ygritte, the only wildling to slay a Walker—alongside Jon—was laden with merit.)
"In summer all free folk beyond the Wall never summed to more than two hundred thousand," said Watt. "Two million? What sort of number is that?"
"Even the North has never held more than half a million souls," Jon muttered.
Seeing their collective "the Dragon Queen is telling tall tales" expressions, Dany smiled with lofty confidence. "You lot are simply too sheltered!
When I conquered Slaver's Bay I swept aside two hundred thousand in the Ghiscari coalition—no exaggeration. Ask King Stannis or any merchant from the Free Cities if you doubt me."
The standing soldiery had been under a hundred thousand, but counting the slaves supporting them, two hundred thousand wasn't far off.
"Wow—two hundred thousand?" gasped wildlings and black brothers alike; even Maester Aemon looked stunned.
"Don't look at me. I know nothing," Stannis said woodenly.
"Alas, Westeros is too closed off. The rest of the world knew half a year ago, yet you're still in the dark. Think: Slaver's Bay had one-and-a-half million people. Sending troops at ten to one, plus twenty-odd thousand sellswords, and ten-odd thousand New Ghis sailors—two hundred thousand is hardly inflated."
"That two hundred thousand must have been beaten in many detachments, no?" Ser Axell Florent sniffed. "No one alive could concentrate a million soldiers at once—not even an anti-Dragon-Queen alliance."
"Well, the thousand-plus warships are certainly real. If each carries a hundred sailors, the navy alone is over a hundred thousand.
The army can't be smaller; call it another hundred thousand. Add the baggage train, and total strength is at least three or four hundred thousand. Is claiming a million so outrageous?"
Silence fell. The wildlings and black brothers stared at the Dragon Queen, equal parts shaken and awed.
A million-man host!By comparison, the White Walkers suddenly seemed… less terrifying.
(End of chapter)
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