The King of Winters

Chapter-135

Jaehaerys

Weary, Jaehaerys took another step. He was cold and tired and his feet had lost all warmth and his legs their strength. But somehow his feet moved again. One and then the other. Somehow he took a step, and then another, as the cold air hurt his face and lungs.

When he looked down he could see that the snow had risen up to his knees now. His boots had been black of the Night's Watch, but the snow had caked around them.

It had not stopped snowing, Jaehaerys thought as he trudged through the snow. It would not. The last he seemed to remember they hadn't gotten anywhere past his shins. The drifts were up past his knees now, and a crust covered his lower legs like a pair of white greaves. His steps were dragging, lurching. The heavy pack was not helping in anyway at all. Jaehaerys had offered to carry it for a while when Samwell Tarly had struggled to keep up with them while carrying the pack. It had made him look like some monstrous hunchback and Jaehaerys couldn't help but pity the boy when his huge legs gave out and tumbled down face first into the snow. It had taken all of them to get Samwell Tarly back up to his feet, and an ample amount of time that they couldn't lose. So Jaehaerys had offered to carry the pack for awhile. But he never thought that it would be so heavy. Maybe he should have let Gwayne Chyttering take over when he had asked. In his need to not show any weakness Jaehaerys had denied him and the denial hung heavy on his shoulders.

Every fourth or fifth step he had to reach down and tug at his swordbelt. Just to make sure that he had his sword there. The scabbard and the sword weighed him down even further. But Jaehaerys would rather lose his arms than his sword here, not now, not after he'd seen what he had seen. He had his sword and two knives; one of the dragonglass daggers that Qhorin Halfhand had found at the fist and the steel one he had brought with him from the Donal Noye's armoury. All that weight dragged heavy, but he was not ready to lose them for anything.

The others were stumbling as well. He could see that. Gwayne was still close enough that Jaehaerys could make out his cloak and he could hear Sam lumbering behind him. But he could not see the others. Grenn had stayed by their side for a while but he had moved past them. And he could see nothing of Blane or any of his Shadow Tower men. The others from Castle Black had left them behind it seemed, Kedge Whiteye, Dywen, Garth Greyfeather and Garth of Oldtown, Aethan, Goady, Eddison Tollett and Small Paul. They were no more than two dozen, all battered and bruised and scattered away from their fellow brothers.

Regardless he did not make haste in his desperation. There were other things to worry about apart from the snow and cold. There were rocks beneath the snow, and the roots of trees, and sometimes deep holes in the frozen ground. Black Bernarr had stepped in one and broken his ankle three days past. Blane, the officer from Shadow Tower who commanded their small party had put Bernarr on the last horse they had after that.

Grunting, Jaehaerys took another step. It felt more like he was a draft horse pulling his load, just moving forward and forward. He wanted to stop at times. He had been a prince once. But it seemed to him that it was another lifetime. When he had been a prince, he had a castle and warm bed to sleep beside a fire, and all the bite that he wanted to eat brought to him at his bed. And on the back of Viserion he had felt immortal. He could soar through the skies and fly to and fro from King's Landing like riding from Winterfell to the Winter Town. If only he still had his dragon with him now, he could save all of them and they could be having Three Fingered Hobb's three meat stew before long.

But he did not have his dragon here, nor his father and it was foolish to be wishful. It was time that he learned to walk on his own like Maester Aemon adviced him. He might not have chosen this path but he could very well walk through it alone and make it out alive. Jae knew that it was the only way. He couldn't stop now. They all knew that, the few who were left.