“And we’ll be free to kill you.
“而我们也有猎杀你的自由。
It’s dangerous being free, but most come to like the taste o’ it.”
自由是危险的事物,但人人都渴求它的滋味。”
She put her gloved hand on his leg, just above the knee.
她把罩着袖子的手掌放在他膝盖上。
“You’ll see.”
“你什么都不懂。”
I will, thought Jon.
是的,我还不懂,琼恩心想,
I will see, and hear, and learn, and when I have I will carry the word back to the Wall.
但我会去看、去听、去学,探明底细就奔回长城。
The wildlings had taken him for an oathbreaker,
野人们把他当背誓者,
but in his heart he was still a man of the Night’s Watch, doing the last duty that Qhorin Halfhand had laid on him.
可他在心底仍是守夜人的汉子,执行着断掌科林交给他的最后使命。
Before I killed him.
在我杀他之前,他的最后托付。
At the bottom of the slope they came upon a little stream flowing down from the foothills to join the Milkwater.
他们下到斜坡底部,面前是一条流下山峦注入乳河的小溪,
It looked all stones and glass, though they could hear the sound of water running beneath the frozen surface.
看似纹丝不动,反射光芒,但坚冰下传来水流的响声。
Rattleshirt led them across, shattering the thin crust of ice.
叮当衫带他们渡过溪流,踏碎水面的薄冰。
Mance Rayder’s outriders closed in as they emerged.
接近营地时,曼斯·雷德的斥候靠过来。
Jon took their measure with a glance:
琼恩瞥了他们一眼:
eight riders, men and women both, clad in fur and boiled leather, with here and there a helm or bit of mail.
八个骑兵,有男有女,全穿着毛皮和皮衣,手执长矛或用火淬过的枪,但只装备了几顶头盔和几幅破烂的盔甲。
They were armed with spears and fire-hardened lances, all but their leader, a fleshy blond man with watery eyes who bore a great curved scythe of sharpened steel.
对方首领有些特别,胖呼呼的,水汪汪的眼睛,满头金发,提一柄巨大而锋利的钢铁镰刀。
The Weeper, he knew at once.
这是哭泣者,他立时反应过来。
The black brothers told tales of this one.
黑衣兄弟们经常谈论他。
Like Rattleshirt and Harma Dogshead and Alfyn Crowkiller, he was a known raider.
和叮当衫、“狗头”哈犸和“猎鸦”阿夫因一样,他是出了名的掠袭者。
“The Lord o’ Bones,”
“骸骨之王,”
the Weeper said when he saw them.
哭泣者招呼道,
He eyed Jon and his wolf.
一边打量着琼恩和他的狼,
“Who’s this, then?”
“那是谁,就那个?”
“A crow come over,”
“一只逃来的乌鸦,”
said Rattleshirt, who preferred to be called the Lord of Bones, for the clattering armor he wore.
叮当衫说,他喜欢被人称为骸骨之王,那件叮当作响的骨甲是他的骄傲,
“He was afraid I’d take his bones as well as Halfhand’s.”
“他怕我像趴断掌的骨头一样趴了他。”
He shook his sack of trophies at the other wildlings.
他提起那袋战利品,在野人斥候们面前摇晃。
“He slew Qhorin Halfhand,” said Longspear Ryk.
“是这小子杀了断掌科林,”长矛里克说,
“Him and that wolf o’ his.”
“他和他的狼。”
“And did for Orell too,” said Rattleshirt.
“他把欧瑞尔干掉了,”叮当衫说。
“The lad’s a warg, or close enough,”
“这小子是个狼灵。”
put in Ragwyle, the big spearwife.
大个子矛妇芮温勒插进来,
“His wolf took a piece o’ Halfhand’s leg.”
“他的狼咬下断掌一截小腿呢。”
The Weeper’s red rheumy eyes gave Jon another look.
哭泣者用那对红润潮湿的眼睛又瞄了琼恩一眼,
“Aye? Well, he has a wolfish cast to him, now as I look close.
“是吗?哦,他有狼的特质,我瞧见了。
Bring him to Mance, might be he’ll keep him.”
带他到曼斯那儿去!由他发落。”
He wheeled his horse around and galloped off, his riders hard behind him.
他调转马头,决尘而去,他的手下紧跟着他。
The wind was blowing wet and heavy as they crossed the valley of the Milkwater and rode singlefile through the river camp.
他们排成单列,在乳河河谷的营地里穿行,寒风又湿又重。
Ghost kept close to Jon, but the scent of him went before them like a herald,
白灵紧随琼恩,他的气味如同传令官,宣告了他们的到来。
and soon there were wildling dogs all around them, growling and barking.
不一会儿,野人们的狗全部聚集而至,咆哮、吠叫。
Lenyl screamed at them to be quiet, but they paid him no heed.
朗尔嚷着让它们安静,但不起作用。
“They don’t much care for that beast o’ yours,”
“他们不喜欢你的伙伴呢,”
Longspear Ryk said to Jon.
长矛里克对琼恩说。
“They’re dogs and he’s a wolf,” said Jon.
“一边是狗,一边是狼,”琼恩说,
“They know he’s not their kind.”
“它们不是同类。”
No more than I am yours.
就像我不是你们的同类。
But he had his duty to be mindful of, the task Qhorin Halfhand had laid upon him as they shared that final fire—to play the part of turncloak,
但我必须暂时抛开这些,去履行责任,最后一次和断掌分享营火时科林交给他的责任——伪装成背誓者,
and find whatever it was that the wildlings had been seeking in the bleak cold wilderness of the Frostfangs.
去找出野人们在阴冷荒芜的霜雪之牙挖掘的秘密。
“Some power,”
“某种力量,”
Qhorin had named it to the Old Bear, but he had died before learning what it was, or whether Mance Rayder had found it with his digging.
断掌科林对熊老断言,可他在找出真相之前就死了,甚至不知道曼斯·雷德是否挖到了“它”。
There were cookfires all along the river, amongst wayns and carts and sleds.
沿河都是篝火,点缀在板车、推车和雪橇旁。
Many of the wildlings had thrown up tents, of hide and skin and felted wool.
野人们用兽皮和羊毡匆匆搭起无数帐篷,
Others sheltered behind rocks in crude lean-tos, or slept beneath their wagons.
也有些人就着大岩石建个窝,或睡在车子下面。
At one fire Jon saw a man hardening the points of long wooden spears and tossing them in a pile.
琼恩看见男人在火堆旁淬着长木矛的尖头,一边还掷矛试手;
Elsewhere two bearded youths in boiled leather were sparring with staffs, leaping at each other over the flames, grunting each time one landed a blow.
另两位穿皮甲留胡须的少年用棍棒互相击打,跳过篝火追逐对方,口中呼喝不断;
A dozen women sat nearby in a circle, fletching arrows.
十来个女人坐成圆圈,给弓箭上羽毛。
Arrows for my brothers, Jon thought.
这是为我的弟兄们准备的箭,琼恩心想,
Arrows for my father’s folk, for the people of Winterfell and Deepwood Motte and the Last Hearth.
为我父亲的人民准备的箭,为临冬城、深林堡和最后壁炉城准备的箭,
Arrows for the north.
为北境而准备的箭。
But not all he saw was warlike.
可眼前并不都是战争气象。
He saw women dancing as well, and heard a baby crying, and a little boy ran in front of his garron, all bundled up in fur and breathless from play.
他也看见跳舞的姑娘,听到婴孩的哭闹,一个裹着毛皮的小男孩从马前跑过,因为嬉闹而气喘吁吁。