A Deadly Predicament

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"What?"

"What?!"

Two voices rang out at the same time. One carried doubt. The other was filled with shock.

Young Royce glanced strangely at Aeg, whose face looked as if he had seen a ghost.

"What did you see?" Waymar asked. "Tell me exactly. Leave nothing out."

"The camp is two miles away," Will said. "Over a low snowy ridge, beside a stream. The fire's gone out. Only a heap of embers left, still smoking. The wildlings are lying beside it, scattered every which way. I counted eight, about what we expected, but I didn't see any children."

He swallowed.

"None of them moved. Not even the one up in the tree. I crept as close as I dared and watched for a long while. I saw no blood, but living people don't lie that still."

"Living people don't let their fire go out at all," Gared said. "It's grown much colder these past two days. Could they have frozen to death because they weren't prepared for it?"

"Maybe," Will said, shivering as if to prove the point. "My lord, what do we do now?"

"If you're cold, put on more clothes," young Royce said with a dismissive snort. "When we set out nine days ago, the Wall was weeping. This past week we've had some frost and the occasional snow, but it has not been cold enough to freeze an entire nest of wildlings—not when they had warm furs, sheltered ground, and a fire."

* * *

As Aeg listened to the other three men discuss the situation, a chill seeped inch by inch into his bones.

'How is this happening?'

Inwardly, he cursed every Royce who had ever lived.

Even with the worst memory in the world, the scene was too familiar to mistake. He was standing at the very beginning of the story he knew. On his first patrol command, that damned Waymar Royce had led them straight into the Others.

The only difference from the original was that this time, Aeg was here too.

"If the wildlings are already dead," Gared said with a frown, unease creeping into his voice, "we should turn back."

"Are dead men frightening you?" Waymar asked, turning back with a faint, contemptuous smile and speaking a line Aeg almost remembered.

"Dead men don't frighten me," Aeg said.

He realized he could no longer remain silent and pretend he did not exist. This was now a matter of life and death. If Waymar Royce led them to investigate the site where the wildlings had been slaughtered, they would run straight into the Others. He did not believe for a second that adding himself to the original party of three would be enough to deal with the monsters that had nearly destroyed humanity thousands of years ago.

"What frightens me is whatever killed those wildlings."

"Something that can kill wildlings is not necessarily able to kill men of the Night's Watch," the young knight said confidently.

His surprise showed. Aeg rarely voiced an opinion in front of the others.

"Besides, are you certain they're dead? Where is the proof?"

"Will may not be a warrior, but he doesn't lie," Gared said, his face darkening as he looked at the others. "If he saw it, I believe him. We were ordered to investigate the wildlings' movements. We've done that. They won't trouble us anymore..."

"Do you think the commander won't ask how they died?" Waymar cut in sharply. "Mount up. Take me to see."

Gared's expression showed his anger, but in the end he said nothing. He turned and walked toward his horse.

"I'm not going," Aeg said.

This time, he could not simply drift along with the others. His life was on the line.

"Call me a coward if you want. Call me craven. I am frightened. These past few days, I've felt as if something terrible and full of malice has been watching us. That thing must have killed the wildlings. We are no match for it."

"I've felt it too," Will said quickly.

Will had never been a man of strong opinions, but once someone else took the lead, he hurried to back him up.

"Darkness is falling," Gared said.

He looked at Aeg with some confusion. As a veteran, Gared could occasionally challenge this officer who had been dropped over their heads. But where had this young man, who almost never clashed with anyone, found the nerve to openly disobey?

"We can investigate tomorrow."

"Interesting. Men of the Night's Watch, afraid of the dark?" Waymar's expression twisted slightly. He was used to Gared arguing with him, but this was the first time all three men had opposed him at once. That only stirred his stubbornness further.

"My mind is made up. Now mount your horses and ride to the camp. I will not say it a third time."

"No."

Aeg knew by instinct that no silver tongue would convince the stubborn young knight before him. Still, despair pushed him into one last effort. He looked to Gared, hoping for support from the old ranger.

Unfortunately, Gared only met his eyes for a moment, then gave a slight shake of the head, warning him not to keep butting heads with their officer.

"I have a strong feeling," Aeg said, "that if I go there now, there is a very good chance I will die."

"I put no faith in premonitions," Waymar said, narrowing his eyes. "If you insist on refusing, then run. But before you go, hand over your weapon. You may not take a horse. If you're confident you can make it back on foot, I won't stop you. Go on."

Aeg held his stare as the young knight's hand settled on the hilt of his sword. For a moment, neither man looked away.

In the end, he yielded.

Leaving would make him a deserter on the spot, with no place left for him in Westeros. They were also more than a hundred miles from the Wall. Ranger training did include wilderness survival, but theory and practice were two different things. Even if beasts and the Others left him alone, hunger, cold, or a wrong turn could kill him easily enough.

As for fighting back...

Even if Will and Gared stood aside, his limited real combat experience meant he could never defeat the young noble, a man several years younger who had trained under his family's swordmaster since childhood.

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