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The North, Castle Black at the Wall.
When Jon had fought the risen wight to save Lord Commander Jeor, the Lord Commander's Tower had burned. Since then, the King's Tower had become the residence of the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.
Inside the tower, Jon fastened the black cloak of his new office around his shoulders and buckled Longclaw, the Valyrian steel sword with a wolf's-head pommel, at his waist.
After stroking Ghost for a while, grateful beyond words to have his direwolf with him again, Jon pushed open the door to his chamber.
"Good morning, Lord Commander!"
Olly, the small boy Jon had newly appointed as his personal steward, greeted him with a sincere smile.
Olly had once been a farmer's boy from a village near the New Gift.
After wildlings, including Ygritte and Tormund, killed everyone in his village, Olly had been the lone survivor. He had run to Castle Black with the warning, and the brothers had taken him in.
"Morning, Olly. Are they ready?"
"Yes. Everyone is waiting by the inner gate of the tunnel.
"But Lord Commander, we already held Castle Black. Why must you risk yourself by going to negotiate with those cruel wildlings?"
Olly nodded as he answered, then asked the question, plainly worried.
"Olly, you have not seen what I have seen. The true war is not the war between us and the wildlings. It is the war between the living and the dead."
Jon raised his gloved right hand and patted Olly on the shoulder. Then he walked past the boy and left those words behind him.
Olly did not understand the last sentence. But he did understand that Jon did not want the wildlings as enemies, and the worry on his face slowly darkened into something else.
With three thousand new soldiers from Winterfell added to the garrison, Castle Black's defenses were stronger than they had been in a very long time. When Jon brought Ghost and Olly to the inner gate at the base of the Wall, many brothers were already waiting there, including Sam, Dolorous Edd, Grenn, and Ser Alliser.
Jory, Owen, and the officers from Winterfell stood among them as well.
The battle for Castle Black had been different in this life.
More than a month earlier, after Jory and Owen received Robb's order from Highgarden through Winterfell, they had immediately marched for Castle Black with three thousand new soldiers.
They had hurried as hard as men could hurry and reached the Wall before the wildlings launched their full assault.
Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall, had meant to trap Castle Black between his own host from the north and Tormund's force climbing over the Wall from the south.
But when the great fire rose beyond the Wall and the full attack began, Tormund's southern force was too small. Under Jory's command, five hundred Winterfell recruits drove them back before they even reached the walls of Castle Black.
To the north, Castle Black had the Wall itself, a natural barrier beyond compare, and more than enough men to hold it.
Even with a hundred thousand wildlings, giants, and mammoths, Mance could not truly threaten Castle Black.
In the end, what should have been a strike from both sides became a deadlocked standoff.
After the danger of the wildling assault passed, the brothers led by Ser Alliser pressed urgently for the next Lord Commander to be chosen.
This time, however, their calculations failed. Jon had the support of Maester Aemon, Sam, and others. More importantly, Jory saw him almost as a nephew, and Jory had the Winterfell army behind him.
The most important thing was the raven that suddenly arrived at Castle Black from King's Landing.
The letter said that Tywin Lannister had confessed his treason and been executed, and that His Grace Robb Stark, lawful heir to the Iron Throne, would soon be crowned.
Who was Robb Stark? Jon Snow's brother.
If Jon became Lord Commander, would Castle Black still lack men, weapons, grain, and every other resource as it did now?
So yesterday, with more than two thirds of the Night's Watch behind him, Jon became the nine hundred and ninety-eighth Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.
"Open the inner gate."
Jon nodded to the men watching him with all sorts of complicated expressions and gave the order.
Then he left Longclaw with Sam, ordered Ghost to remain where he was, and turned without looking back into the darkness of the tunnel.
The gates ground open.
As the outer gate at the base of the Wall opened, Jon walked alone into the frozen world beyond.
Crows covered the snow, feasting freely on the corpses of wildlings, giants, and mammoths outside the Wall.
Jon glanced uneasily at the bodies scattered around him and wondered when they would stand again.
But burning the dead was not his purpose today. He did not stop. He walked into the remains of the forest that had survived the great fire.
Branches rustled.
As soon as Jon neared the trees, wildling scouts revealed themselves and aimed their bows at him.
"I came to talk!" Jon shouted, raising both hands. "I want to see Mance!"
Several wildlings carrying battered swords and axes came forward at once. They forced him down and searched him. Only after confirming that he carried no hidden weapon did they take him toward the heart of the forest.
At the center of the woods lay a broad clearing covered in snow. Perhaps to keep out the cold, the wildlings had pitched their thick tents close together, one beside another.
"Not only wearing the black cloak, but Lord Commander now?"
Mance Rayder sat on a crude wooden stool in his larger tent. He looked Jon up and down, then spoke with a weary sadness in his voice.
"I suppose it makes sense. You slipped into our camp alone and brought back such important intelligence. That must count as a great service.
"Jon Snow, I had hoped you meant your oath when you swore yourself to us."
"Qhorin Halfhand made me kill him so I could earn your trust and learn what you knew.
"Yes, I was loyal then. Loyal to Qhorin, and to the vows of the Night's Watch."
Jon answered Mance firmly.
"Oh? Loyal to all vows?"
Jon understood what Mance meant. His head turned slightly aside, and he fell silent.
"On the day the great fire rose, did you see her inside Castle Black?"
Seeing Jon's reaction, Mance deliberately brought up Ygritte.
"No. My brother sent five thousand Winterfell soldiers to Castle Black. They could not break in. She should still be hiding somewhere near Castle Black."
Jon shook his head as he answered. He intentionally made his own strength sound greater than it truly was.
"Five thousand soldiers."
Mance repeated the number softly, then fixed his eyes on Jon.
"Then let us speak plainly. What did you come to discuss?"
"Yesterday, I received word that my brother, Robb Stark, has become the new king of the Seven Kingdoms.
"He has at least a hundred thousand seasoned soldiers under him, the men who helped him take the Iron Throne.
"A hundred thousand men with proper arms, men who have fought across half the realm.
"Mance, you know what that means. Enough blood has been spilled inside and outside Castle Black.
"End this and go home. You cannot take Castle Black."
Jon stared back at Mance with the same seriousness and made his offer in a sincere voice.
"Jon Snow, some of what you say is true. My people have spilled enough blood.
"But some of it is wrong.
"We did not come to conquer Castle Black. We only want a place behind the Wall.
"We both know winter is coming. The dead that come with it will drown every living thing beyond the Wall.
"Go home? We have no home left to return to."
Mance answered in a low voice, bitterness darkening his expression at the end.
"They will never let you pass behind the Wall."
Jon answered with certainty.
Mance heard the word he used. They, not we. His eyes moved briefly to either side.
Then he pointed toward a huge horn in the corner of the tent.
"Jon Snow, you know what I sent Ygritte and the others to look for in the graves of the Frostfangs.
"Aye. The Horn of Winter."
Jon turned sharply toward the great horn.
It was nearly eight feet long, black along its surface, and unknown runes had been worked into it in gold.
"'Blow the Horn of Winter, wake the giants beneath the earth, and the Wall shall fall.' Free folk have sung that song for thousands of years.
"Truth be told, unless I am driven to the last moment, I do not want to use it to bring down the Wall. Only the Wall can hold back the dead.
"But if they mean to drive more than a hundred thousand free folk to their deaths, then I will blow it loud enough for your royal brother to hear."
Mance had been watching Jon's expression. He chose the moment and spoke with absolute resolve.
"No. Impossible. I do not believe a single horn can bring down a Wall that has stood for more than eight thousand years."
Jon shook his head again and again, refusing to believe him.
"You did not believe in giants until you saw Wun Wun. You did not believe in the Others until you saw the dead rise.
"Jon Snow, your mouth says no, but your heart already believes.
"I was a crow once. I have heard that ancient spells were woven into the Wall. If magic built it, there must be a way to break that magic.
"This horn is that way."
Mance saw the doubt in Jon's face. After a slight pause, he continued.
"You and I both know the Gift around the Wall holds vast fields that no one tills. Even if all these free folk moved into it, they would not fill the land.
"Jon, I am asking you. Help us."
"If, and I mean if, I let you enter the Gift, what happens if your people harm Castle Black or the North?"
"If I could gather more than a hundred clans under one banner, I can bind them to rules.
"If what you fear truly happens, and I am still alive, I will deal with them myself.
"And if I die, your royal brother's hundred thousand soldiers can deal with them easily.
"Can they not?"
Jon glanced again at the huge horn in the corner of the tent.
Seeing it, Mance immediately added, "Once we pass through the Wall, I will give the Horn of Winter to you. You may destroy it then and make certain the Wall stands forever."
"This is not a decision I can make alone. I need to return and discuss it with everyone."
Jon clenched his teeth and answered.
"Good. But time is short. I hope you can answer quickly.
"At Hardhome on Storrold's Point, we still have many women, children, old folk, and sick waiting for us."
Mance nodded and revealed a little more of his own side's situation.
"I will do everything I can."
King's Landing, the main hall of the Great Sept of Baelor.
The main hall received little natural light, and the gilded candlesticks had been filled with candles. Will and the other Wolfguard had taken Gold Cloaks and sealed the hall inside and out.
More than a hundred high lords and leading nobles of Westeros waited in silence. Near the steps of the raised platform at the center stood Margaery, Crey, Brynden, and others.
On the platform, the new High Septon waited as well, holding a red-gold crown circled with direwolf designs.
The doors of the main hall opened.
Robb appeared at the entrance in a splendid king's robe, Bloodwind beside him in the size of a wolf pup.
Robb flicked the trailing hem of his robe back with one hand and stepped onto the red carpet in the sept. As he walked, every eye in the hall fixed on him.
His face calm, he climbed the platform and stood beside the new High Septon.
Seeing the new king finally take his place, the High Septon breathed out softly. He raised the red-gold crown in both hands above Robb's head and began.
"We now begin the coronation of the new king. In the sight of the Seven..."
"Wait."
Just as the High Septon began the prayer every king was meant to receive, Robb suddenly stopped him.
Everyone in the sept, the High Septon included, went still, unsure what unexpected thing this new king meant to do.
Robb reached out, took the red-gold crown from the High Septon's hands, and said with cold majesty, "My coronation needs no god to witness it."
Before anyone in the sept could react, he raised the crown above his own head with both hands.
Then he declared in a clear voice, "I, Robb of House Stark, First of My Name, today formally become King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, and ruler of the Seven Kingdoms."
When the words were done, Robb placed the red-gold crown upon his auburn hair, now streaked with white.
"Ah... long may His Grace reign!"
The new High Septon, stunned by Robb's act, suddenly recovered and broke the strange silence in the sept.
Hearing the blessing, the nobles in the hall came back to themselves and shouted in unison.
"Long may Robb the First reign!"
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