A Game of Thrones Chapter Twenty-one

Tyrion Are you sure that you should leave us so soon?† the Lord Commander asked him. â€Å"Past certain, Lord Mormont,† Tyrion answered. â€Å"My sibling Jaime will be thinking about what has happened to me. He may conclude that you have persuaded me to take the black.† â€Å"Would that I could.† Mormont got a crab hook and broke it in his clench hand. Old as he seemed to be, the Lord Commander despite everything had the quality of a bear. â€Å"You're a craftiness man, Tyrion. We have need of men of your sort on the Wall.† Tyrion smiled. â€Å"Then I will scour the Seven Kingdoms for smaller people and boat them all to you, Lord Mormont.† As they giggled, he sucked the meat from a crab leg and went after another. The crabs had shown up from Eastwatch just toward the beginning of today, stuffed in a barrel of day off, they were delicious. Ser Alliser Thorne was the main man at table who didn't to such an extent as start grinning. â€Å"Lannister derides us.† â€Å"Only you, Ser Alliser,† Tyrion said. This time the chuckling round the table had an anxious, unsure quality to it. Thorne's bruised eyes fixed on Tyrion with detesting. â€Å"You have a striking tongue for somebody who is not exactly a large portion of a man. Maybe you and I should visit the yard together.† â€Å"Why?† asked Tyrion. â€Å"The crabs are here.† The comment brought more roars from the others. Ser Alliser stood up, his mouth a tight line. â€Å"Come and make your japes with steel in your hand.† Tyrion took a gander at his correct hand. â€Å"Why, I have steel in my grasp, Ser Alliser, despite the fact that it seems, by all accounts, to be a crab fork. Will we duel?† He jumped up on his seat and started jabbing at Thorne's chest with the minuscule fork. Thunders of chuckling occupied the pinnacle room. Bits of crab flew from the Lord Commander's mouth as he heaved and stifle. Indeed, even his raven participate, cawing noisily from over the window. â€Å"Duel! Duel! Duel!† Ser Alliser Thorne strolled from the room so solidly it looked just as he had a knife up his butt. Mormont was all the while panting for breath. Tyrion beat him on the back. â€Å"To the victor goes the spoils,† he got out. â€Å"I guarantee a lot of the crabs.† At long last the Lord Commander recouped himself. â€Å"You are an underhanded man, to incite our Ser Alliser so,† he chastened. Tyrion situated himself and took a taste of wine. â€Å"If a man paints an objective on his chest, he ought to expect that sometime somebody will free a bolt at him. I have seen dead men with more diversion than your Ser Alliser.† â€Å"Not so,† protested the Lord Steward, Bowen Marsh, a man as round and red as a pomegranate. â€Å"You should hear the funny names he gives the fellows he trains.† Tyrion had heard a couple of those comical names. â€Å"I'll bet the chaps have a couple of names for him as well,† he said. â€Å"Chip the ice off your eyes, my great rulers. Ser Alliser Thorne ought to sludge out your corrals, not boring your young warriors.† â€Å"The Watch has no lack of stableboys,† Lord Mormont protested. â€Å"That is by all accounts all they send us nowadays. Helpers and sneak cheats and rapers. Ser Alliser is a blessed knight, one of only a handful not many to take the dark since I have been Lord Commander. He battled valiantly at King's Landing.† â€Å"On an inappropriate side,† Ser Jaremy Rykker remarked dryly. â€Å"I should know, I was there on the parapets alongside him. Tywin Lannister gave us a wonderful decision. Take the dark, or see our heads on spikes before evenfall. No offense expected, Tyrion.† â€Å"None taken, Ser Jaremy. My dad is attached to spiked heads, particularly those of individuals who have irritated him in some style. What's more, a face as honorable as yours, well, most likely he saw you improving the city divider over the King's Gate. I figure you would have turned striking upward there.† â€Å"Thank you,† Ser Jaremy answered with a harsh grin. Ruler Commander Mormont made a sound as if to speak. â€Å"Sometimes I dread Ser Alliser saw you valid, Tyrion. You do ridicule us and our respectable reason here.† Tyrion shrugged. â€Å"We all should be ridiculed every now and then, Lord Mormont, in case we begin to pay attention to ourselves as well. More wine, please.† He held out his cup. As Rykker filled it for him, Bowen Marsh stated, â€Å"You have an extraordinary hunger for a little man.† â€Å"Oh, I imagine that Lord Tyrion is a serious enormous man,† Maester Aemon said from the most distant finish of the table. He talked delicately, yet the high officials of the Night's Watch all fell calm, the better to hear what the antiquated needed to state. â€Å"I think he is a monster come among us, here toward the finish of the world.† Tyrion addressed tenderly, â€Å"I've been called numerous things, my ruler, yet goliath is only occasionally one of them.† â€Å"Nonetheless,† Maester Aemon said as his blurred, milk-white eyes moved to Tyrion's face, â€Å"I think it is true.† For the first time ever, Tyrion Lannister wound up speechless. He could just bow his head cordially and state, â€Å"You are excessively kind, Maester Aemon.† The visually impaired man grinned. He was a minuscule thing, wrinkled and bare, contracted underneath the heaviness of a hundred years so his maester's neckline with its connections of numerous metals hung free about his throat. â€Å"I have been called numerous things, my lord,† he stated, â€Å"but kind is only here and there one of them.† This time Tyrion himself drove the giggling. A lot later, when the genuine business of eating was done and the others had left, Mormont offered Tyrion a seat adjacent to the fire and some reflected on spirits so solid they carried tears to his eyes. â€Å"The kingsroad can be hazardous this far north,† the Lord Commander let him know as they drank. â€Å"I have Jyck and Morrec,† Tyrion stated, â€Å"and Yoren is riding south again.† â€Å"Yoren is just one man. The Watch will accompany you to the extent Winterfell,† Mormont declared in a tone that brooked no contention. â€Å"Three men ought to be sufficient.† â€Å"If you demand, my lord,† Tyrion said. â€Å"You may send youthful Snow. He would be happy for an opportunity to see his brothers.† Mormont glared through his thick dark facial hair. â€Å"Snow? Gracious, the Stark knave. I think not. The youthful ones need to overlook the lives they abandoned them, the siblings and moms what not. A visit home would just work up emotions best took off alone. I know these things. My own blood kinfolk . . . my sister Maege rules BearIsland now, since my child's shame. I have nieces I have never seen.† He took a swallow. â€Å"Besides, Jon Snow is just a kid. You will have three in number blades, to keep you safe.† â€Å"I am moved by your anxiety, Lord Mormont.† The solid beverage was making Tyrion dizzy, yet not all that alcoholic that he didn't understand that the Old Bear needed something from him. â€Å"I trust I can reimburse your kindness.† â€Å"You can,† Mormont said gruffly. â€Å"Your sister sits adjacent to the lord. Your sibling is an incredible knight, and your dad the most impressive master in the Seven Kingdoms. Address them for us. Let them know of our need here. You have seen with your own eyes, my ruler. The Night's Watch is passing on. Our quality is not exactly a thousand at this point. 600 here, 200 in the ShadowTower, considerably less at Eastwatch, and a meager third of those battling men. The Wall is a hundred alliances in length. Think on that. Should an assault come, I have three men to guard every mile of wall.† â€Å"Three and a third,† Tyrion said with a yawn. Mormont barely appeared to hear him. The elderly person warmed his hands before the fire. â€Å"I sent Benjen Stark to look after Yohn Royce's child, lost on his initially going. The Royce kid was green as summer grass, yet he demanded the respect of his own order, saying it was his due as a knight. I didn't wish to affront his ruler father, so I yielded. I sent him out with two men I esteemed tantamount to any in the Watch. More bonehead I.† â€Å"Fool,† the raven concurred. Tyrion looked up. The fowl looked down at him with those beady bruised eyes, unsettling its wings. â€Å"Fool,† it called once more. Without a doubt old Mormont would misunderstand it in the event that he choked the animal. A pity. The Lord Commander failed to acknowledge the aggravating winged animal. â€Å"Gared was close as old as I am and longer on the Wall,† he went on, â€Å"yet it would appear he renounced himself and fled. I ought to never have trusted it, not of him, yet Lord Eddard sent me his head from Winterfell. Of Royce, there is no word. One miscreant and two men lost, and now Ben Stark also has gone missing.† He moaned profoundly. â€Å"Who am I to send looking after him? In two years I will be seventy. Excessively old and excessively tired for the weight I bear, yet in the event that I put it down, who will get it? Alliser Thorne? Bowen Marsh? I would need to be as visually impaired as Maester Aemon not to perceive what they are. The Night's Watch has become a multitude of dreary young men and tired elderly people men. Aside from the men at my table this evening, I have maybe twenty who can peruse, and significantly less who can think, or plan, or lead. When the Watch spent its s ummers building, and each Lord Commander raised the Wall higher than he discovered it. Presently it is everything we can do to remain alive.† He was in lethal sincere, Tyrion figured it out. He felt faintly humiliated for the elderly person. Ruler Mormont had spent a decent piece of his life on the Wall, and he expected to accept if those years were to have any importance. â€Å"I guarantee, the ruler will know about your need,† Tyrion said gravely, â€Å"and I will address my dad and my sibling Jaime as well.† And he would. Tyrion Lannister was on the up and up. He left the rest inferred; that King Robert would overlook him, Lord Tywin would inquire as to whether he had lost his mind, and Jaime would just snicker. â€Å"You are a youngster, Tyrion,† Mormont said. â�