meant saying goodbye to his past. Jon could no longer avenge his father, Eddard. Yet Janos, who was on good terms with Alliser, now served as one of the Night's Watch's leaders.
The thought that these two would be the ones to judge him for deserting to the Wildlings gave Jon a headache.
Enduring the pain, he dressed and went to a large hall where Maester Aemon, Alliser, and Janos were already waiting at a long table.
"Lord Jon, do you admit to killing Colin the Broken Hand and defecting to the Wildlings, swearing fealty to King Mance?" Alliser asked, using his usual mocking title for Jon as he entered.
"I did kill Colin, but that was his request while he was mortally wounded," Jon defended himself. "Only by killing him would Mance believe I had truly defected to the Wildlings."
"Who can prove Colin ordered you to kill him?" Janos asked from the side.
Jon hesitated before replying, "No one can. It was just the two of us."
"Very well. Then why didn't you stay with Mance? Why did you secretly cross The Wall and return to Castle Black?" Alliser glanced at Maester Aemon, who was listening intently, eager to hear how Jon would further defend himself.
"Whether you believe me or not," Jon declared, "King Mance has united all the wildling tribes beyond The Wall and is preparing to attack. His lieutenants, Tormund and the Thenns, are already inside The Wall—likely meeting as we speak—to coordinate a pincer attack with Mance's main force."
"Mance has amassed an army of a hundred thousand wildlings," Jon continued. "Our meager numbers can't possibly hold them back. Once they breach The Wall, they'll swarm across the lands like locusts, and the Northern Army won't be able to stop their migration."
The three men behind the long table stared at Jon in stunned silence. Alliser, despite his long-standing prejudice, found himself unable to doubt the bastard son of Duke Eddard.
The boy was Eddard's son through and through—driven by a sense of justice that had made him despise the Night's Watch Legion for its mix of criminals and social outcasts.
This long-festering animosity fueled Alliser's desire to keep pressuring Jon. "How can you be so sure," he sneered, "that Mance would trust you, a former Night's Watch brother, with such critical information?"
"Because I killed Colin the Broken Hand, told them the Night's Watch knew Craster's secret but did nothing, and... and I slept with a wildling woman..." Jon gritted his teeth as he answered, the image of Craster giving his newborn baby to the White Walkers still flashing through his mind.
After hearing Jon's words, Maester Aemon, who had been tilting his head slightly to listen, suddenly turned to look at Alliser. Janos also looked at Alliser at the same time, wanting to confirm if what Jon said was true.
Alliser's expression immediately turned sour. He lowered his eyes unnaturally and changed the subject. "So you're saying you broke the Night's Watch oath against marriage?"
"If that counts as breaking the oath, then the Night's Watch would have ceased to exist long ago!" Maester Aemon turned back, no longer looking at Alliser, and spoke while staring straight ahead.
Alliser, feeling guilty, did not reply. However, Janos was very concerned about the news of the White Walkers, as this concerned his life and death. He asked, "Are the White Walkers truly immortal? How many of them are there?"
"They can be killed with a dragonglass dagger or a Valyrian steel weapon. Their exact number is probably around ten thousand or several tens of thousand. Because they can resurrect corpses, their numbers are constantly increasing, so it's uncertain exactly how many there are now," Jon said after a moment's hesitation, glancing at the man who had betrayed his father.
Janos had heard rumors of the White Walkers ever since he arrived at the Wall. At first, he dismissed them as lies spun by the Night's Watch to aggrandize their own importance.
Only later did he realize that this was no bedtime story told to frighten disobedient children. The White Walkers were real.
He had planned to use his status as the former Lord Commander of the City Watch to lord it over the Night's Watch. He never dreamed that so soon after his arrival, he would face a Wildling assault on the Wall, let alone the even more terrifying army of White Walkers that would follow. He was already contemplating a way to flee the Wall.
Yet he knew that any noble who discovered a deserter of the Night's Watch had the right to capture them. The time was not yet ripe for escape.
"Maester Aemon, what do you think we should do with Jon?" Alliser asked the old man beside him.
"Now is not the time to be dealing with Jon," Aemon replied, his voice halting. "Our duty as Night's Watchmen is to find ways to resist the Wildlings and defeat the White Walkers."
No one dared to object to the words of the century-old, silver-haired Targaryen, a man of immense prestige.
Jon was allowed to move freely. Aemon summoned Sam, instructing him to feed the raven and prepare ink and parchment. He needed to send word to the great houses once more, pleading for aid.
***
Eight days later, the Great Pyramid of Meereen loomed in the distance. The guards and grooms were both relieved and reluctant; their ten-day, uneventful escort mission was coming to an end, but these past few days had become an unforgettable journey of a lifetime for them.
Clambering out of the carriage to gaze at the towering pyramid ahead, Shireen's eyes widened in excitement. She had never imagined that a small city in Slaver's Bay could boast such a magnificent pyramid.
Tyrion and Shae also stepped out of the carriage, looking at the city built atop a massive hill in the distance. This would be their new home.
As they neared the city gates of Meereen, the carriage suddenly came to a halt. The guard informed Tyrion that the gates were closed and they could not enter.
Hearing the report, Tyrion frowned slightly. *Closing the gates in broad daylight? That seems unusual.* Beside him, Drogon, who had been boredly watching Shireen read, also looked surprised. Meereen had never closed its gates during the day before.
Before Tyrion could even step out of the carriage, Drogon lifted the window curtain and flew out. He glanced at the main gate, which was indeed closed. Outside, a crowd of Meereenese residents and merchants waited to enter.
No matter what was happening inside the city, Drogon would never wait outside. He flew over the gatehouse and hissed twice at the Unsullied guarding the walls.
The Unsullied had already seen Drogon emerge from a carriage outside the city. When the officer in charge saw Drogon fly above the gatehouse without entering, he immediately understood his meaning and ordered the soldiers to open the gates.
The Queen's orders were that the gates must not be opened under any special circumstances. But with Drogon present, the Queen would never blame him, even if he opened the gates to let a carriage in.
As the gates swung open, the residents gathered outside did not rush in. They had also seen Drogon with the two carriages. Moreover, since it was Drogon who had caused the gates to open, they naturally dared not compete with him to enter.
After Drogon led the two carriages inside, the residents and merchants slowly followed through the gates. The guards then closed them once more.
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