Chapter 230: The Wall
The vast northern lands gradually gave way to desolation.
Rhaegar rode his dragon, and the dragon group looked down upon the earth. The roads gradually narrowed, human habitation became sparse, hills turned into mountains, and farmlands became deep forests. Sometimes, Rhaegar could even hear the howling of wolves, but when the dragon roared, all other sounds fell silent.
"What a cold place!" Rhaegar thought, feeling the swirling cold wind as his dragon flew. The Targaryen dynasty ruled vast lands from the Arbor to the Wall in the far north, but the least hospitable places were Dorne in the south and the North. General Winter was as terrifying as General Summer. If House Stark hadn't been adaptable back then and had resisted to the end like Dorne, the Iron Throne would have had to pay a considerable price to conquer the North. The harsh climate itself was an enemy to conquer.
"How do those free folk survive?" Rhaegar wondered. Beyond the Wall, in the bitter cold, there were free folk who called themselves such, and it was said their population was not small. He didn't know how they had multiplied to this day. The free folk's living space was slowly being compressed, making them even more eager to move south.
Rhaegar's entourage also included Barristan, and his two attendants, Myles and Jon. The others were temporarily waiting in Winterfell. The environment here was simply too harsh to accommodate too many people. Lord Rickard had found them a guide, a Night's Watch brother named Yoren, who looked quite sinister. He traveled the Kingsroad, recruiting black brothers for the Night's Watch, and had even saved Arya Stark many years later in the original timeline. In the North, he was somewhat popular. In the South, he could only dig people out of cellars and dungeons.
"Those walking on the ground are much more exhausted than I am!" Rhaegar also needed to consider the pace of those below him and his followers. With the dragon, the prey it hunted—bears, wild boars, or other large animals—Rhaegar would wait for his retainers to share. The farther north they went, the more desolate it became, so provisions and dry rations had to be sufficient.
"Prince Rhaegar is truly a strange prince. It has been many years since the Wall hosted a king or a member of the royal family, except for the Good Queen!" said Yoren, speaking from the heart. He saw the dragon's shadow in the sky. The dragon group soared across the heavens, their figures out of place in the North.
"Prince Rhaegar is a giant among dragonlords, which is why he is willing to come to the end of the world," Myles proudly declared.
"But I heard that after the Good Queen, the Night's Watch had two black brothers with dragon's blood a few years ago!" Ser Barristan the Bold asked.
"Glorious White Sword, are you referring to Lord Brynden Rivers and Maester Aemon? Visiting us and willingly becoming a black brother are not the same. Lord Brynden and Maester Aemon came to the Wall together back in the reign of the Old King. Lord Brynden later even became our Lord Commander. He disappeared during a ranging beyond the Wall in 252 AC. As for Maester Aemon, he is still alive and has served multiple Lord Commanders. However, you are mistaken on one point, Ser Barristan. No matter how noble they were before coming to the Wall, whether they were kings' sons or brothers, or how much dragon's blood they had, once they came to the Wall, they had to abandon worldly glory. From the day they swore their vows, they had only one family: us, the black brothers!" Yoren corrected Barristan, his figure seeming to grow taller.
"The Night's Watch made the right choice sending you to gather black brothers and oversee recruitment!" Barristan praised. Although Yoren was plain-looking, he was a sincere man of the Night's Watch.
"My lord, the hardest part of being a black brother is perseverance. Especially when many men come here, they don't yet understand the weight of love, kinship, and warm weather. I've seen some black brothers run away; vows are easy to make, but difficult to keep. In this regard, I greatly admire Maester Aemon and Lord Brynden; they both stood firm upon the Wall," Yoren sighed.
"I hope Prince Rhaegar can speak up for us. The Wall has always been here, but the Night's Watch's situation is getting worse!" This was one of Yoren's hopes. "The Good Queen once secured some land for us. I hope Prince Rhaegar can help us solve the manpower problem."
Barristan remained silent. It was somewhat difficult to make the important figures in the warm South care about these strange things in the North, especially since the Night's Watch had almost become a dumping ground for undesirables.
The dragon group let out impatient roars in the sky. The closer they got to the North, the more restless they became. Fortunately, because of Rhaegar's Runic Fire, the dragon group was much more resistant to cold than ordinary dragons and could withstand the magical winds and frost, but dragons ultimately disliked the cold.
The Wall had arrived!
Rhaegar saw the Wall, towering against the sky. The Wall stretched three hundred miles, with its highest point nearly seven hundred feet tall. It was built of ice, snow, and giant stones. The original Wall should have been shorter and built through magic. Subsequent Lord Commanders undertook massive construction projects during summer, continuously raising the Wall higher. But those days were long past. Currently, the Night's Watch numbered less than a thousand men, with no strength left to heighten the Wall, and they were hardly a formidable armed force.
"It's truly magnificent, so tall! Without traces of magic, this Wall couldn't have been built," Rhaegar thought. Depending on the angle of view and light, the Wall would appear grey or blue. It spanned the horizon as if proclaiming that this was the end of the known world. Rhaegar felt there were runes within it as well, which he would explore later.
The dragon group landed at Castle Black. Castle Black was merely a wooden keep and stone towers beneath the vast ice wall of the Wall. It had no outer walls, only needing to concern itself with enemies arriving from the north.
The high-ranking officers of the Night's Watch enthusiastically came out to greet them: Lord Commander Qorgyle, the First Ranger, the First Builder, and others.
Rhaegar's gaze swept over them with a smile, finally spotting Maester Aemon at the back of the crowd. He was extremely old, but fortunately not yet completely blind, though his eyesight was failing. He was a small, thin old man, his face covered in wrinkles and his head completely bald. Having endured the burden of long years, the various metals of his maester's chain hung loosely around his throat.
"You are Aegon's great-grandson, Rhaegar?" the old maester asked.
The old maester scrutinized Rhaegar: tall, silver-haired, purple-eyed, a magnificent and dangerous dragonlord. The old maester felt as if he had returned to his youth, seeing his own brothers who were fond of swordsmanship and full of confidence. His vows required him to set aside family affection and yield to the responsibilities of the Night's Watch. Although he had adhered to them faithfully, deep down there were still traces of House Targaryen.
"It is I!" Rhaegar nodded.
They had crossed through storms and bitter years to meet here. The old maester and Rhaegar occasionally exchanged ravens, but since Brynden Rivers's disappearance, he had not seen a living Targaryen in a very long time.
"You are good!" the old maester said, trembling slightly.
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