The wolves of Castle Black - Book 2 - GoT

Foray to Craster's Keep

Maester Aemon had allowed Ylina to bring Embar to the library with her, now that Gilly wasn't around to look after the boy when she was away. The old man had taken quite a liking to the boy and, while Ylina would work with the books and papers, Maester Aemon would allow Embar to wobble around the corridors of books and, every once in a while, pick him up and let him babble away with him.

Ylina was happy her son was safe now, and happy with the unlikely friend he had made out of the Maester, but she was even happier knowing that Maester Aemon would, often times, spend the whole afternoon telling stories to Embar, playing with him to the best of his abilities, making him laugh and tiring him enough so that, when he would finally ask the girl to escort him back to his chambers to rest, it wouldn't take Ylina much more than a few more minutes playing with her son until he was tired enough to fall asleep.

And that was exactly what happened that night. After taking Maester Aemon to his chambers, Ylina had finally managed to put Embar to sleep in his basket, placing him near to fire to keep him warm as she went through all the amazing documents they had over there. The agreement they had was that Ylina had to translate as many books as she could during her afternoons, but being the history lover she was, she found it hard to leave the library. So, instead of using her free periods of time to be cooked up in her chambers, she would use it to learn some new things or deepen her own knowledge on the history of the Seven Kingdoms.

As she found a copy of the letters that Bran, the Builder himself had written, she heard footsteps coming in her direction and hushed voices talking to one another. She saw the dim light of a candle lighting up the corridor that ended in the library as two shadows approached. Ylina debated whether she should worry or not, but as soon as he heard one of the men talking, she relaxed.

"Lina?" Jon asked, as soon as he stepped foot in the library. She smiled gently at him as he placed the candle he had brought with him down in a table. "I thought you were in your chambers by now."

"Lost track of time in here, I suppose." She shrugged. "Now, may I be of service, Lord Snow?"

Jon scoffed at the mockery, rolling her eyes at the way his sister used the nickname Lord Commander Thorne had given him out of spite just to provoke him since she knew it bothered him.

"Well, my lady..." Jon answered, causing Ylina to giggle. He smiled. As much as Ylina was slowly coming back to being the girl she used to be, it was clear to Jon she still was sad and hurting inside. "We came for a map. Of the North of the Wall, no wider than 100 miles."

Ylina nodded, turning around to go fetch Jon what he needed since, by now, she already knew where everything was around there. While she looked for the map, she could hear Sam's weak voice as he discussed with Jon, most likely resuming the conversation they were already having on their way there.

"I should never have taken her away." He said.

"She wasn't safe here." Jon countered.

"She's not safe out there. I should have known. You told us there were wildlings south of the Wall. If they're raiding the smaller villages, Mole's Town could be next."

"Castle Black could be next."

"I should go back for Gilly."

Ylina picked up the map the boys needed and gave it to Jon. He gave her a nod as a thank you and opened the map in the table in front of them.

"We have orders." He said, as Sam scoffed lightly. "No one's to leave the castle."

When Embar started to fuss in his basket, Ylina walked to him and picked him up, placing him on her hip, with his head laying against her chest as she placed a fur blanket over his back.