BRAN
The morning had dawned clear and cold, with a crispness that hinted at the end of summer. They set forth at daybreak to see a man beheaded, twenty in all, and Bran rode among them, nervous with excitement. This was the first time he had been deemed old enough to go with his lord father and his brothers to see the king’s justice done. It was the ninth year of summer, and the seventh of Bran’s life.
The man had been taken outside a small holdfast in the hills. Robb thought he was a wildling, his sword sworn to Mance Rayder, the King-beyond-the-Wall. It made Bran’s skin prickle to think of it.
He remembered the hearth tales Old Nan told them. The wildlings were cruel men, she said, slavers and slayers and thieves. They consorted with giants and ghouls, stole girl children in the dead of night, and drank blood from polished horns. And their women lay with the Others in the Long Night to sire terrible half-human children.
But the man they found bound hand and foot to the holdfast wall awaiting the king’s justice was old and scrawny, not much taller than Robb. He had lost both ears and a finger to frostbite, and he dressed all in black, the same as a brother of the Night’s Watch, except that his furs were ragged and greasy.
Crispness 清新
set forth 動身啟程
set forth 刺痛
hearth 爐邊
consort with 結交
horn 角
sire 生產
第一章布蘭
晨色清冷，帶著一絲寂寥，隱然暗示夏日將盡。為數二十人的隊伍於破曉時分輕騎啟程，布蘭策馬置身其間，滿心焦慮又興奮難耐。這是他年紀總算夠大，可和父兄同往刑場，觀睹國王律法的執行。這是夏天的第九年，布蘭七歲。
死囚已被領至小丘上的莊園外，羅柏認為他是個誓死效忠"塞外之王"曼斯·雷德的野人。布蘭回想起老奶媽在火爐邊說過的故事，不禁渾身冒起了雞皮疙瘩。
她說野人生性兇殘蠻狠，個個都是販賣奴隸、殺人放火的偷盜之徒。他們與巨人族、食屍鬼狼狽為奸，趁黑夜誘拐童女，還以磨亮的獸角啜飲鮮血。他們的女人則相傳在遠古的"長夜"裡與異鬼苟合，繁衍半人半鬼的恐怖後代。
然而眼前這個老人削瘦枯槁，比羅柏高不了多少，手腳緊縛身後，靜待國王意旨發落。他在酷寒中因凍瘡失去了雙耳和一根手指。而他全身衣著漆黑，與守夜人弟兄們的制服沒有兩樣，只不過衣衫襤褸，膿瘡四溢。
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