Chapter 264: Eyes Wide Open, Eyes Fast Shut
"No one broke the rules, my lord." Egger had long ago prepared his counter-strategy for this, so he was not flustered in the least. He replied without a moment's hesitation, "The Night's Watch did not participate in the war. The Gift sent men south, and while I accompanied them, I was the only man of the Watch present—and I swear I took part in no combat, nor did I so much as touch a weapon."
"Spare me the wordplay. The Gift is the domain of the Wall's defenders. The men you brought fight under the banner of the 'Gift Army'; anyone with eyes can see the Night's Watch is meddling. As for participating in combat, with your current status and position, is it not perfectly normal for you to refrain from joining the fray?"
"Please allow me to explain the sequence of events," Egger continued. "Because the Wall's defenders accepted the Wildlings, the population of the Gift exploded. Facing a severe food shortage, we had no choice but to seek support from the North. Not long ago, the Logistics Department organized a grain-collection party, intending to travel across the North to gather as much food as possible... As the party neared Glover lands, news suddenly reached us that Deepwood Motte had been occupied by a group of 'unidentified pirates'."
"'Unidentified pirates'? Is that what the Night's Watch calls Ironborn invaders? Interesting." Robb Stark's face twitched. He suddenly realized how Egger intended to smooth this over: just as King Robert called the League of the Just rebels, Egger wanted to give the Ironborn a definition that justified his actions, thereby legitimizing his use of force. "And then you 'coincidentally' retook Deepwood Motte and took a swarm of prisoners, only to discover after interrogation that these pirates were men of House Greyjoy—and because you didn't know they were Greyjoys beforehand, it doesn't count as interfering in the internal affairs of the Seven Kingdoms?"
"You could put it that way. In my homeland, there is a saying: 'The ignorant are not guilty.' But there is one more thing I must clarify—the Free Folk north of the Wall began a massive migration south to escape the Long Winter and the White Walkers, reaching the Wall a month ago. While attempting a large-scale crossing, they launched an assault on the gates. The Night's Watch was short-handed and struggled to hold them back, so we requested aid from the mountain clans. Thousands of clansmen answered the call and were stationed along the Wall." Egger coughed awkwardly as his ploy was seen through, holding up a finger. "And in my grain-collection party, there just happened to be a thousand clansmen warriors. The task of attacking Deepwood Motte was essentially carried out by them."
"What's your point? Weren't those mountain clansmen also brought here by you, the Lord Commander of Logistics?"
"The lands where the mountain clans live belong legally to the North. The clans were merely invited by the Night's Watch to be temporarily stationed along the Wall... to provide manpower support. They themselves have not taken the black; they have simply moved from the mountains to the Gift. Their fealty remains with House Stark," Egger answered. "As your subjects, seeing Deepwood Motte occupied by pirates, is it not perfectly logical for them to intervene out of righteous indignation? As for myself and the soldiers of the Night's Watch Logistics Security Force, we merely provided some... negligible military guidance and support out of friendship."
The mountain clans were indeed his subjects. Upon being reminded, Robb Stark realized this was true. These so-called clansmen were essentially Wildlings living south of the Wall... The rulers of the North had historically managed them through policies of wining and dining: granting clan chiefs status equivalent to Lords. As long as these chiefs acknowledged Stark rule, offered symbolic tributes of local rarities, and sent a few representatives to accompany the army during wartime, the Starks rarely interfered in their internal affairs.
Nominally, these clans held a status similar to House Umber or House Karstark, but their relationship with the Starks was far less tight-knit than that of the true landed Lords... Never before had a ruler of the North commanded or mobilized clansmen warriors on the scale Egger had. Robb Stark, who had hastily succeeded as Warden of the North after his father's death and had never personally traveled through the lands of the mountain clans, based his entire understanding of these nominal subjects on the oral accounts of his father, Eddard, and the veterans of his inner circle.
(Negligible military guidance and support? Without a complete command structure, these clansmen would likely have struggled even to maintain their formation during the march from their homes to Deepwood Motte, let alone taking it in a single battle and capturing Balon Greyjoy's daughter.)
Egger or his subordinates undoubtedly held total command. Robb understood this clearly in his heart, but he had to admit that the excuses the Night's Watchman had concocted were quite presentable. He stroked the short beard he had grown with intent, and his stern expression gradually relaxed. "I see."
Seeing this, Egger struck while the iron was hot. "So, to summarize the entire matter—Northmen spontaneously organized to drive out invaders, and I, a man of the Night's Watch, happened to appear in this place at the critical moment, was swept up in it, and acted as a 'campaigning crow' to receive the prisoners."
Robb looked up and stared at Egger seriously for a moment longer before finally being unable to keep a straight face; the corners of his mouth twitched. After a few months apart, this fellow's ability to spin tall tales had improved yet again.
The explanation sounded plausible enough, but it would only fool commoners... Anyone with even a modicum of critical thinking and access to information would see through it. Intuitively, Robb felt Egger's rule-breaking was improper, but emotionally, he couldn't bring himself to say much—the other six kingdoms could criticize Egger's misconduct all they liked, but as the beneficiary, what standing did he have to join their side?
"Fine, I will accept and acknowledge your version for now." Robb wasn't fooled; he knew Egger was forcing an explanation, but what of it? The North had benefited greatly from this breach of protocol by the Night's Watch. Now that they had a story to tell the outside world, it was enough. "I owe you a favor, but what you did was a violation of the rules after all. Do not go around boasting of this. I will announce to the world that it was the mountain clansmen who helped my North retake Deepwood Motte."
"Of course. My mission was merely to head south to purchase grain and supplies from the Northern lords. I know nothing of any other matters."
"Good." Robb was satisfied with the answer and nodded. One man told a lie with eyes wide open, while the other kept one eye shut to the lie... Thus, the most serious breach of Night's Watch protocol in thousands of years was brushed aside with a few words. "This place reeks of death. It seems I'll have to find a place to stay in the northern camp tonight. Let's leave it at that for today."
What? That was it? Egger was truly at a loss. He still had a mountain of things to discuss with Robb, having prepared a script and dug pits for the other man to jump into—yet the target had stopped right at the edge of the pit and refused to walk forward.
"But my lord, regarding the Ironborn prisoners and the surrendered soldiers, and the plan for settling the Free Folk..."
"The prisoners caught by the clansmen—the clansmen shall decide how to handle them. As for the surrendered soldiers, since they've asked to take the black, that is a matter for the Night's Watch." Robb turned to walk down from the wall, throwing back one final sentence: "I have many things to talk to you about properly—about Bran, about the Wildlings your Night's Watch let in... but today is not the time for it. Winning a battle to defend one's home is sweet, but I still have many matters to attend to. For today and tomorrow, the army will celebrate the victory at Moat Cailin, then disband and return to their respective homes. I shall return to Winterfell immediately. Since you must pass through Winterfell on your way back to the Wall, come and see me then."
Since the matter had been put that way, Egger obviously couldn't drag Robb back to finish the conversation. Having a few more days to prepare wouldn't be a bad thing. "Understood."
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