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 动身启程
set forth 刺痛
hearth 炉边
consort with 结交
horn 角
sire 生产
第一章布兰
晨色清冷，带着一丝寂寥，隐然暗示夏日将尽。为数二十人的队伍于破晓时分轻骑启程，布兰策马置身其间，满心焦虑又兴奋难耐。这是他年纪总算够大，可和父兄同往刑场，观睹国王律法的执行。这是夏天的第九年，布兰七岁。
死囚已被领至小丘上的庄园外，罗柏认为他是个誓死效忠"塞外之王"曼斯·雷德的野人。布兰回想起老奶妈在火炉边说过的故事，不禁浑身冒起了鸡皮疙瘩。
她说野人生性凶残蛮狠，个个都是贩卖奴隶、杀人放火的偷盗之徒。他们与巨人族、食尸鬼狼狈为奸，趁黑夜诱拐童女，还以磨亮的兽角啜饮鲜血。他们的女人则相传在远古的"长夜"里与异鬼苟合，繁衍半人半鬼的恐怖后代。
然而眼前这个老人削瘦枯槁，比罗柏高不了多少，手脚紧缚身后，静待国王意旨发落。他在酷寒中因冻疮失去了双耳和一根手指。而他全身衣着漆黑，与守夜人弟兄们的制服没有两样，只不过衣衫褴褛，脓疮四溢。
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