As Ygritte was dragged away by Jon, a look of discontent on her face, the hall grew noisy once again.

Some cursed Jon for being bewitched by lust, others cursed the wildling woman for her arrogance. But there was no doubt that Mance Rayder’s massive attack plan and their own limited numbers left every brother of the Night’s Watch feeling tense and uneasy. Those with sharper minds had already begun discussing various possible countermeasures.

Aegor watched the wildling woman leave, sighed, then turned to Mormont and shook his head slightly.

What he had said just now to save face had somewhat curbed the arrogance of the wildling woman, but this verbal sparring was ultimately meaningless. “Time is on the side of the Night’s Watch” might be true, but only if the Watch could hold out until then. And in truth, only the White Walkers themselves likely knew when they would become powerful enough to approach the Wall. Whether the outcome was “the wildlings breaking through the Wall and wiping out the Night’s Watch” or “the Night’s Watch holding out until the wildlings were all turned into wights,” either possibility was something Aegor did not want to see.

—

“Lord Commander, what I just said to the wildling woman was purely speculation to save face. In reality, we have no hope of stopping Mance Rayder’s planned assault.”

“We must immediately evacuate all residents of the Gift to the strongholds for protection,” Maester Aemon said slowly. “We are already critically short on manpower. If we allow the wildlings to slaughter the residents or force them to flee south, the situation will only grow worse. We must not let another Mole’s Town tragedy happen.”

“I will make arrangements for that as soon as possible. Does anyone have suggestions or ideas?”

“Castle Black and the Shadow Tower must both be fortified with walls,” the Master of Arms said gravely. Traditionally, no walls were ever built around Night’s Watch strongholds. This was a rule written into the Legion’s charter. But the era when wildlings dared not assault the Watch’s fortresses was long past, and the time for change had come.

“This…” Mormont hesitated for a few seconds, then finally nodded. “Put it on the agenda. Repair or demolish the abandoned and damaged towers of Castle Black, and use the extra bricks and stone to construct a wall.”

…

…

The First Ranger turned and said, “We must resume patrols atop the Wall as much as possible, to prevent wildlings from scaling it and attacking us from both sides. Once we lose the advantage of height, we’ll have nothing left.”

“The path atop the Wall hasn’t been cleared of snow or repaved in years. It’s impassable. If the wildlings want to launch a two-pronged attack from up there, they’d have to clear a path first. I doubt they have the time.”

“The road atop the Wall is difficult, yes. But do you think it would be hard for those lunatics who dared to climb seven hundred feet up to walk across it without a proper road?”

“Fine, fine, you’re right.” The Master of Arms grew irritated. “I want to resume patrols too, but where do we find the men? To patrol, we’d first have to clear the path, then assign fixed patrols. All of this takes manpower. If we assign too many, our strongholds will be left weak. If we assign too few… what happens if they run into wildlings who have already climbed the Wall?”

“In the end, it all comes back to manpower,” Aegor interrupted, addressing the debate seriously. “All of these are just stopgap measures if we can’t solve the shortage. I don’t know if you’ve realized this, but the wildlings now have the means to scout us from the air using birds. They can see everything we do. Any military deployment we make can be observed. Any weakness we have becomes a fatal one. After the wildling woman revealed Mance Rayder’s plan today, this war of offense and defense has become a battle with both sides’ cards laid out. To win in a contest with no secrets, beyond luck, we must be stronger than the enemy… or at least not far weaker.”

“We must seek outside help,” Mormont said, taking a deep breath. “Otherwise, we’ll have only two paths: destruction or negotiation with Mance.”

“Negotiation is an option, but the problem is we have no way to guarantee the wildlings won’t turn on us the moment they cross the Wall,” Jeremy reminded. “To them, we’re hopeless ‘kneelers.’ Unless there’s a blade at their throats, they’ll never accept our laws or system. Like that wildling girl today… we see them as savages, but in her eyes, sparing our lives may already be the greatest mercy.”

“If we can’t suppress the wildlings’ arrogance, there won’t be any ‘negotiation’ at all,” Aegor said. “With an imbalance of power, all we can do is plead for peace. We must first find a way to shatter Mance Rayder’s reputation. As for seeking outside help…”

“You’ve spent many years in the south. Don’t you have any contacts? Mercenaries, perhaps?”

“Mercenaries? Ha…” Aegor chuckled. “You must be joking, Lord Commander. You don’t know how expensive they are. The Logistics Department does have business in King’s Landing and is doing fairly well. But affording mercenaries—enough to fight one hundred thousand wildlings? Absolutely impossible. Besides, there’s war in the south. Anyone who can fight is already there, looking for work. Prices will be even higher. What we need now are cheap helpers, preferably free.”

A cheap helper, preferably free—how could such a thing even exist?

When Aegor said that, he hadn’t thought of anyone specific. But half a second later, someone did come to mind. “Did Robb Stark recruit soldiers from the mountain clans when he marched south?”

Mountain clan tribes!

Everyone who heard him turned toward him, some wearing expressions that said, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“He did. Every clan sent warriors to follow Robb south. The leaders of these clans all know Lord Eddard Stark. They respectfully call him ‘Ned,’ the leader of the North. When they heard it was his command, and that they’d be heading south to ‘rob the richest nobles in the Seven Kingdoms,’ they responded with great enthusiasm.”

That hope was quickly dashed again, but Mormont’s expression brightened. “Wait, yes, they sent warriors south with Robb, but those mountain clans are different from the other northern lords’ people—they don’t farm.”

No farming. What did that mean?

Aegor paused for a second, then understood. “Not farming means the so-called ‘autumn harvest season’ doesn’t apply to them. They sent warriors with Robb, but those left behind might still be able to support us!”

“Exactly!” the Chief Steward exclaimed, slamming the table. “The lifestyle of these mountain clans is no different from the wildlings. The only difference is that they’ve been tamed by the rulers of the North over thousands of years. They’re fierce, and both men and women can fight. If we can persuade them to leave the mountains and help defend the Wall, it would relieve much of our manpower burden!”

Though the idea came from Aegor, he knew little about the mountain clans and urgently needed someone to explain.

…

The Night’s Watch had long exchanged resources and necessities with the mountain clans and were very familiar with them. After a bit of discussion, Aegor gained a basic understanding of these “friendly barbarians” south of the Wall.

If, as Tyrion Lannister once said, the wildlings were “those unfortunate enough to be north of the Wall when it was built,” then the mountain clans were those lucky enough to be south.

These tribes living in the mountains north of the Wolfswood shared nearly identical culture and customs with the Free Folk. They worshipped the old gods and were naturally fierce. There were nearly forty clans of various sizes. Among them, the Flint clan and the Norrey clan lived closest to the Gift and were often attacked by wildling raiders crossing the Gorge. They were well known for their close ties to the Night’s Watch.

Poor, aggressive, and obsessed with honor—they were the perfect reinforcements.

“How many of them are there?”

“Hard to say. No one has ever counted. Altogether, maybe twenty to thirty thousand. That’s total population. In reality, the farther tribes are from the Wall, the harder it will be to persuade them… But even if we can get one or two thousand, it would be enough to change everything!”

“Thousands!”

“There might even be women among them!”

“All you ever think about is women!”

…

“Excellent! It seems today’s meeting was not in vain. We’ve found a viable path forward.” Mormont’s face finally showed a trace of relief. He coughed to silence the excited murmurs in the hall. “Please discuss the details among your departments. We won’t go into them here. I’ll now assign tasks…”

The hall fell quiet. All eyes turned to the commander.

“The top of the Wall and surrounding strongholds must be guarded at all times. This will be the duty of the Rangers. The construction of walls around Castle Black and the Shadow Tower falls to the craftsmen. Also, Chief Steward, send people to relocate the surviving residents of the Gift to the three main strongholds and resettle them properly. Chief Logistics Officer, since you often deal with people, you’ll be responsible for visiting the mountain tribes west of the Gift and requesting their support.”

The Old Bear looked around the room, then turned toward James and his remaining guards. “Lastly, I’ll be transferring twenty Rangers from Castle Black to Eastwatch to begin naval training, so the warships donated by Lord Manderly of White Harbor can be put to use. As for the Ranger vacancies, Andrew Tars… this new group of recruits is of decent quality. Train them quickly and add them to the Rangers. All duties begin today. Now… this meeting is adjourned!”

(To be continued.)

***

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