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And Thoren Smallwood wanted to attack.
索伦·斯莫伍德居然还想主动出击，
Sweet Donnel Hill was squire to Ser Mallador Locke, and the night before last Smallwood had come to Locke’s tent.
“美女”唐纳·希山是马拉多·洛克爵士的侍从，他说前天晚上斯莫伍德去了洛克的帐篷。
Ser Mallador had been of the same mind as old Ser Ottyn Wythers, urging a retreat on the Wall,
马拉多从前和奥廷·威勒斯老爵士想法一致，力主退兵，
but Smallwood wanted to convince him otherwise.
但斯莫伍德竭力游说。
“This King-beyond-the-Wall will never look for us so far north,”
“塞外之王不知我们的方位如此靠北，”
Sweet Donnel reported him saying.
美女唐纳复述，
“And this great host of his is a shambling horde, full of useless mouths who won’t know what end of a sword to hold.
“他的队伍固然庞大，但不过是些乌合之众，只好浪费粮食，许多人连长剑握哪头都不知道。
One blow will take all the fight out of them and send them howling back to their hovels for another fifty years.”
一次突袭就足以让他们嚎叫着滚回茅屋里，再待个五十年。”
Three hundred against thirty thousand.
三百对三万，
Chett called that rank madness, and what was madder still was that Ser Mallador had been persuaded,
齐特只能称其为疯狂，更疯狂的是马拉多爵士居然动了心，
and the two of them together were on the point of persuading the Old Bear.
还随斯莫伍德一起晋见熊老，同声附和。
“If we wait too long, this chance may be lost, never to come again,”
“若我们犹豫不决，机会就随之而逝，再也等不到了，”
Smallwood was saying to anyone who would listen.
斯莫伍德对每个人反复解释。
Against that, Ser Ottyn Wythers said,
为反驳他，奥廷·威勒斯声称，
“We are the shield that guards the realms of men.
“我们是守护王国的坚盾，
You do not throw away your shield for no good purpose,”
不能盲目地扔下盾牌。”
but to that Thoren Smallwood said,
索伦·斯莫伍德则回击，
“In a swordfight, a man’s surest defense is the swift stroke that slays his foe, not cringing behind a shield.”
“最好的防守是迅捷地干掉敌人，而非缩在盾牌后面。”
Neither Smallwood nor Wythers had the command, though.
但无论斯莫伍德还是威勒斯都没有决定权，决定权属于总司令，
Lord Mormont did, and Mormont was waiting for his other scouts,
莫尔蒙要等其他两队斥候返回后再作决定，
for Jarman Buckwell and the men who’d climbed the Giant’s Stair,
其中包括攀登巨人梯的贾曼·布克威尔，
and for Qhorin Halfhand and Jon Snow, who’d gone to probe the Skirling Pass.
以及侦查风声峡的断掌科林和琼恩·雪诺。
Buckwell and the Halfhand were late in returning, though.
毫无疑问，布克威尔和科林都遇到了麻烦，
Dead, most like.
多半是死了。
Chett pictured Jon Snow lying blue and frozen on some bleak mountaintop with a wildling spear up his bastard’s arse.
齐特在脑海中描绘出一幅图画：琼恩·雪诺孤零零地冻在荒凉的山头上，一支野人的长矛穿透了杂种的屁股。
The thought made him smile.
想到这里，他笑了。
I hope they killed his bloody wolf as well.
希望他们把那头该死的狼也宰掉。
“There’s no bear here,” he decided abruptly.
“这里没熊，”他突然下了结论，
“Just an old print, that’s all.
“不过是条过时痕迹，没意思。
Back to the Fist.”
我们回去。”
The dogs almost yanked him off his feet, as eager to get back as he was.
狗们慌不可奈地拉拽，想走的心情比他还急，
Maybe they thought they were going to get fed.
或许以为回去就会开饭吧，
Chett had to laugh.
齐特又忍不住笑了。
He hadn’t fed them for three days now, to turn them mean and hungry.
他已把猎狗饿了三天，目的就是要让它们因饥饿而疯狂。
Tonight, before slipping off into the dark, he’d turn them loose among the horse lines,
今晚，遁入黑暗之前，他将在马群前把它们放掉，
after Sweet Donnel Hill and Clubfoot Karl cut the tethers.
而美女唐纳·希山和畸足卡尔会砍断马缰。
They’ll have snarling hounds and panicked horses all over the Fist, running through fires, jumping the ringwall, and trampling down tents.
整个拳峰将布满咆哮的猎狗和恐慌的坐骑，冲撞营火，跳跃环墙，踏平营帐。
With all the confusion, it might be hours before anyone noticed that fourteen brothers were missing.
在混乱的掩护下，十四个兄弟的失踪要很久才能发现。
Lark had wanted to bring in twice that number, but what could you expect from some stupid fishbreath Sisterman?
拉克想将密谋集团扩大一倍——你能指望这个浑身臭鱼味的傻瓜有什么好主意？
Whisper a word in the wrong ear and before you knew it you’d be short a head.
找错一个人，没弄明白怎么回事就脑袋搬家了。
No, fourteen was a good number, enough to do what needed doing but not so many that they couldn’t keep the secret.
不，十四是个好数字，既保证人手充足，又保证守秘。
Chett had recruited most of them himself.
其中大多数人由齐特亲自挑选招募，
Small Paul was one of his;
小保罗就是成果之一——
the strongest man on the Wall, even if he was slower than a dead snail.
他身为长城上最壮的人，虽然动作比僵死的蜗牛还慢，
He’d once broken a wildling’s back with a hug.
却能活生生抱碎野人的脊梁。
They had Dirk as well, named for his favorite weapon, and the little grey man the brothers called Softfoot,
短刃也加入进来，他得名于自己拿手的武器。还有被弟兄们称作软足的灰色小个子，
who’d raped a hundred women in his youth, and liked to boast how none had ever seen nor heard him until he shoved it up inside them.
年轻时干过上百个女人，常吹嘘说在那话儿插进去之前她们根本没发觉他的到来。
The plan was Chett’s.
计划由齐特制订，
He was the clever one;
这是聪明人的差事。
he’d been steward to old Maester Aemon for four good years before that bastard Jon Snow had done him out so his job could be handed to his fat pig of a friend.
他在老师傅伊蒙身边干过整整四年呢，之后才被杂种琼恩·雪诺用他的肥猪朋友顶掉。
When he killed Sam Tarly tonight, he planned to whisper,
今夜，宰掉山姆威尔·塔利以前，他打算在猪头爵士耳边低语一句：
“Give my love to Lord Snow,”
“替我向雪诺大人致意，”
right in his ear before he sliced Ser Piggy’s throat open to let the blood come bubbling out through all those layers of suet.
跟着才割他的喉咙，让血从层层脂肪里喷出。
Chett knew the ravens, so he wouldn’t have no trouble there, no more than he would with Tarly.
齐特熟悉乌鸦，不会惹出不必要的麻烦，他也了解塔利，
One touch of the knife and that craven would piss his pants and start blubbering for his life.
只须匕首轻轻一捅，这胆小鬼就会尿湿裤子哭着求饶。
Let him beg, it won’t do him no good.
让他求饶，没用。
After he opened his throat, he’d open the cages and shoo the birds away, so no messages reached the Wall.
割了他喉咙，再打开笼子放走乌鸦，确保讯息不会送回长城。
Softfoot and Small Paul would kill the Old Bear, Dirk would do Blane,
与此同时，软足和小保罗合力对付熊老，短刃负责班恩，
and Lark and his cousins would silence Bannen and old Dywen, to keep them from sniffing after their trail.
拉克和他表哥们的目标是巴棱和戴文，以杜绝可能的追踪。
