The Wall had been weeping for days, sending trickles of water down to the base hundreds of feet below them. This is as warm as it's ever like to get this far up north, Jaime thought. This will be my summer till the end of my days. He could deal with the biting cold of winter, but the rays of sunshine on his face made him feel strangely melancholy.

Lord Commander Qorgyle had stayed down below, so it was just him, First Ranger Mormont, young Edd Tollet, and the wolf pup with his guards on top of the Wall. He could see the heart trees in the distance, a small red dot in the endless white desert. Just thinking of it made him shudder. Damn you Northerners and your bloody trees. Why can't you take your vows before the Seven like everyone else?

"As a boy I always dreamed of joining the Night's Watch," the Stark said, laughing. "To ride beyond the Wall and fight the beasts and monsters living in the ice. Oh how glorious I thought it would be."

He still looks half a boy, Jaime thought, quickly turning his head so the young wolf could not see his face. No older than twenty, but here he is, Lord of Winterfell in all but name, Warden of the North, and married to that Dornish beauty half the realm wants to bed. What was her name again? Even Cersei had found the woman intriguing with her dark hair and her purple eyes, he remembered.

"Do you still, my lord?" Edd asked, ignoring the disapproving look Mormont shot him. "Dream of joining the Night's Watch?" Sometimes Jaime wondered if the whores of Mole's Town had ever heard Edd's true story, but he doubted the man was any more forthcoming with them than he was with his black brothers. Can't fault him for that. Sometimes it's best people don't know what you came here for.

Benjen Stark looked up at the blue sky and then down at the endless white stretching all the way to the horizon. "On a day like this, how could I not?" He turned around, a sparkle in his bright blue eyes. "I was born a third son. That black coat was mine by rights. It would have been, if it hadn't been for the Rebellion. And who knows, maybe it will be one day, when Aegon is grown and my brother returns to Winterfell."

I doubt your brother will live long enough to return north, Jaime thought. The realm was falling apart if the rumors circulating among the men of the Night's Watch could be believed. There'll be another rebellion soon enough, and I won't be shedding any tears when they come for dear Ned's head. He still remembered those cold gray eyes fixing him, judging him.

"You'll be disappointed when you return to us as a black brother, my lord," Edd interrupted his thoughts. "There are no beasts and monsters beyond the Wall. Just snow and ice. You will find lots of that though."

The wolf pup turned around, pointing south. "No monsters? Tell that to the men living in the Gift. To them, the wildlings are monsters who come to kill them, steal their grain and take their women."

"There are hardly any men left," Mormont remarked, breaking his long silence.

The young Stark nodded. "Aye, my lord. I mean to change that. The land will be settled again. I've spoken with the Lord Commander."

Jaime looked at Mormont. The man likes this none. And little wonder. It is his job to keep the wildlings at bay. No man likes to admit failure.

But the First Ranger surprised him. "It's not just the Gift that's causing us trouble," he said. "We've been losing men beyond the Wall. They disappear during ranges never to return. I used to think it was the cold driving them mad, but summer is upon us, yet it keeps happening."

The young Stark frowned. "That is strange. How many?"

"About one or two in a moon's turn," Jeor Mormont said. "The last disappeared when we took the new recruits to take their vows before the heart trees just a day ago."

"Do you reckon they were taken by wildlings?"

No. Just thinking of it made the hair stand up on Jaime's back. There were no wildlings anywhere near. Just those damned weirwood trees. But he could hardly tell the Stark that a tree with a carved face had been luring away the men of the Night's Watch. "I was with them," he said. "There were no wildlings nearby. They know better than to come so close to Castle Black, much less in bright daylight."

"Then what do you think happened?" Benjen asked.

The question caught Jaime off guard. "You're asking the opinion of an oathbreaker and a kingslayer. And a Lannister to boot. Lannisters lie. Has no one told you that, my lord?"

That seemed to startle the wolf pup. "You are at the Wall now. Whatever crimes you may have committed are a thing of the past."

Are they? Jaime shook his head, suddenly feeling tired. "I don't know what happened. One moment he was there, and the next he was gone. We traced his footprints for a mile and a half to a cave, but that was all we could find."

"Let us go back down," the First Ranger said. "The Lord Commander will be waiting for you, Lord Stark. There is much we still have to talk about, it would seem."

It was dark by the time the lift had taken them back down and the wolf pup said his farewell. For half a heartbeat, Jaime almost expected the man to ask him to join them. But all the Stark said was "We should speak again," before heading off with Mormont towards the Lord Commander's Keep.

The Common Hall was empty at this time of the day, looking almost as bleak as the turnip stew in his bowl. Jaime ate his dinner in silence until someone tapped him on the shoulder. Uncle Kevan.

Ser Kevan handed him a cup of ale. He looked even more tired than usual. His haggard face was more than Jaime could take. Oh, the lions of the Wall... What a sorry lot we are, indeed. He got up, taking his bowl and pushing the ale aside. "It is late. I should go."

"You won't even sit and share a tankard of ale with your own blood?"

"I'm a brother of the Night's Watch now," Jaime said. "I have no family. Neither do you, brother."

It was meant as a jest, but his uncle glared at him. "Ned Stark would have let your father live if it hadn't been for you and your insufferable arrogance," he said suddenly. "He would be here with us. Lord Varys said it right. Oftentimes the son must pay for the sins of the father, but it is a rare thing that the father would have to pay for the sins of the son."

"My father did plenty of sinning himself," Jaime countered. "You of all people should know that. You were never shy to kill at his behest. Go find me a Reyne or a Tarbeck at the Wall, uncle." Father was younger than me when he killed them all. Somehow that thought unsettled him more than he could say.

The slap in his face burned and made his head ring. Jaime had to sit down not to lose balance. Ser Kevan was only half the man he used to be, but he was still strong and had put his full force into the strike. "Your father only ever did what he had to," he said. "To make sure our house was respected."

And look what a splendid job he did, Jaime thought, trying to push his father from his mind. But as always, the voice nagging at him in his head was persistent. He ruled the Seven Kingdoms when he was my age, and here I am in this frozen wasteland, chasing wildlings and cleaning latrines.

He raised his jug, spilling beer onto the coarse wooden table. "Well, here's to his legacy, a brother and a son freezing their balls off at the Wall." He drained the tankard in one go, slamming it down.

At least father never killed a king, he thought as he walked away, leaving Ser Kevan behind. That honor is mine and mine alone.