The wolves of Castle Black - Book 2 - GoT

Make them proud

"We held them off." Sam said as him and Ylina followed Jon through the courtyard where all the brothers who weren't too hurt were helping piling up the bodies of the fallen.

"For one night." Jon responded.

"This is a great victory."

"A great victory?" Jon scoffed. "Mance was testing our defenses. He almost made it through. And he has more giants. He has more mammoths. He has 1,000 times as many men. They'll hit us again tonight. Maybe we can hold them off for a day or two, but we'll never beat them."

At that Ylina sighed, closing her coat tighter around her form as she followed Jon through the snowy ground of Castle Black, all the while ignoring the dead bodies around her and the blood probably sticking to her boots.

"Well, where are you going, then?" Ylina asked.

"Going to find Mance." Jon answered, causing Ylina to stop dead in her tracks clearly surprised.

"To fi— You can't do that." Sam told his best friend. "No one gave you any orders."

At that, Jon finally stopped walking, turning around so he was facing Sam now.

"Who's left to give orders?" Jon asked. "The wildling army's only an army because of Mance. He united a hundred warrior tribes. Without Mance, they lose their leader. They lose their purpose. They go back to fighting each other. Scatter back to their homes."

As Jon turned back around to walk away, his words finally started to make sense to Ylina and she gasped, jogging slightly to catch up with her brother, standing beside him as they walked toward one of the gates together.

"Without Mance?" She asked. "You're going to kill him?"

"I'm gonna try." Jon answered simply, as Ylina shook her head in disbelief.

"They'll never let you within 100 yards of him." Sam said, fully agreeing with Ylina once more. "And even if they did, even if you managed to kill him..."

"They'll kill me?" Jon scoffed again. "If I don't go, they'll kill me anyway. They'll kill the rest of us, too."

"They won't just kill you, Jon." Ylina sighed, as she tried to talk some sense into her brother. "They'll boil you. They'll flay you. They'll make it last days."

At that, Jon stopped walking and turned to Ylina again. She noticed how Jon frowned at her, sad, afraid, confused. But when her light grey eyes met his darker ones, she saw nothing but sheer determination shining through. That was when she knew that, no matter how much she tried to argue, there was not a chance of her convincing Jon not to go. He had already made up his mind.

"You're right." He admitted, placing a hand over Ylina's hurt cheek and sighing when she winced. "It's a bad plan. What's your plan, little sister?"

Ylina felt her mouth opening, but no sound escaped her lips. When Jon saw the distress on her expression, he smiled gently, offering his arm for his sister to take as he asked Sam to grab them a torch. Sam hesitated, looking to Ylina for some kind of confirmation and when she sighed and nodded slowly, he obeyed.

Together, the three of them made their way down the corridor that would take them to the northern gate. As Ylina kept a hand on Jon's arm and Sam walked beside them with a torch in hands, they noticed a few bodies laying in front of them. Walking closer, Ylina saw, for the first time in her life a giant. She gasped, but not because of the huge thing laying motionless on the ground. Her hard intake of breath came only when she recognized one of the brothers dead in front of her.

Letting go of Ylina, Jon walked toward Grenn and crouched down beside him, sighing heavily as he gently used his fingertips to close his green eyes, that were still wide open.