Post by The Smith on Nov 7, 2008 1:45:04 GMT -5
Lord Commander Jaymes Farman sat astride his black courser, his blacks standing out in sharp contrast to the whiteness of the snow that blanketed the forest around him. Even though it had been summer for more than a decade, this far north snow was not uncommon despite the season, and, after all, it was always cold on the Wall. Jaymes had never thought of snow with the same fear and mistrust that most southerners viewed the element. To him, snow represented information, for he knew through many years of experience that freshly fallen snow was the easiest medium to track anyone, man or beast, through.
Nearly a hundred black brothers had left the Wall with him when he rode south; a third had come from each of Castle Black, Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, and Shadow Tower, so he did not leave his own base under defended. Three moons ago fifty of Castle Black’s sworn brothers had vanished in the night, and it was discovered that the mass exodus had been ring-led by none other than the former Lord Evergreen, who’d been sent to the wall only a few years after Jaymes himself.
He knew the man by reputation only, before he got to the Wall, as a respected assassin ad petty criminal in King’s Landing, who Jaymes himself had hired to acquire him a Valyrian Steel blade. He’d heard nothing from the man he sent to King’s Landing, nor the gold he’d sent with the messenger, and he later learned that Evergreen had betrayed Jaymes’ envoy, had him killed, and stolen the payment for the assassination. Jaymes had to restrain himself from killing Evergreen outright when the man came to the Wall, and by the time Jaymes had become Lord Commander, Evergreen had been around too long to simply have him killed.
Now the deserter would pay for his crimes however. Even if, in the eyes of gods and men, his past crimes had been wiped clean when he said his vows at the Wall, desertion meant death to the men of the Night’s Watch, and Jaymes Farman was nothing if not an expedient enforcer of justice. Forty black brothers rode with Jaymes, while the other fifty rode with First Ranger Cracker, whom Jaymes had ordered to hunt down the deserters. Neither force was strong enough to obliterate Evergreen’s band of bandits if they were found, and as such all men were under orders to strictly observe, and to simply find the location of Evergreen and his men, so an assault could be launched.
The Lord Commander had tracked a small group of men through the forests of Brandon’s Gift, assuming they were part of Evergreen’s band. His prey was woodscrafty, concealing their trails with skills that were obviously due to their training on the Wall, but Jaymes had been a skilled tracker all his life and since being sent to the Wall had only honed his skills in that department. He led his men quietly through the woods, making slow progress through the silence until a crossbow twanged and all the men heard a soft thud.
Jaymes’ head snapped around and he saw a in tattered furs and worn blacks transfixed to a tree, a bolt protruding from his throat. “Gods above, excellent shot Gared,” Jaymes said softly, flashing the man a smile. “That was obviously their sentry, which means we should be able to take them unawares.” Jaymes spoke quietly to his men, and then fell silent, directing them into their various formations with silent hand gestures that he had invented and taught to the men of the Watch during his time in Castle Black.
An hour later three men were trussed and bound tightly, and slung over the back of three horses for transport back to the point where Ranger Cracker was to join his men with the Lord Commander’s. The black brothers had come upon the three men silently, surrounding them while they slept since their dead sentry could deliver no warning, and all three had surrendered without a fight, when they awoke to see two score spears pointed at them.
Lord Commander Farman sat near a campfire, amid a small army of his sworn brothers. He’d met with the First Ranger and those men, joining the two forces into nearly a hundred black brothers from all three castles. One of the captives had caught a chill and died along the way, but Jaymes still had two deserters to interrogate before he could hunt down Evergreen and cut his throat. The two men were tied to a tree near him, while sentries stood over them. All the black brothers itched to kill the two men, who everyone knew to be deserters, but none defied the Lord Commander’s order that the captives remain unharmed.
Jaymes delicately drew his long dagger from a sheathe in his boot, and laid it on the edge of the fire, so that the blade was wreathed with flames but the hilt remained unburned. “You are both deserters from the Night’s Watch. You have deserted your posts and abandoned the vows you spoke before the eyes of gods and men, for which the punishment is death. There is no escaping your fate, however I tell you now that your deaths will be far more excruciating than you would wish for, unless you give me the information I desire.” Jaymes paused for a moment, and turned the dagger over to evenly distribute the heat. The castle-forged steel had already begun to glow a yellowish orange, taking on the hue of the flames and embers that surrounded it. The former Night’s Watchmen shook their heads defiantly, in unison, and Jaymes sighed disappointedly.
He lifted the dagger in his gloved right hand, and approached the first prisoner. “Are you sure you will not tell me where your leader, the deserter called Rickard Evergreen, hides? I am no maester, but I can tell you that this blade is very, very hot, and it will not be pleasant if I need to acquaint you with it.” Nervousness showed through in the man’s eyes, and he shivered, though he still shook his head. “So be it,” Jaymes said with another sigh, and he pressed the red-hot blade against the man’s face. The deserter screamed, a sound that echoed through the forest.
He was tied securely, however, and though he tried to thrash and shake from the pain, he barely moved an inch under the Lord Commander’s blade. Jaymes drew the edge of the heated knife slowly around the man’s face, and the temperature of the steel caused his blood to sizzle as it started to seep from the cuts. The man’s screams still echoed, as Jaymes continued his gruesome work, until he was able to work the blade under the flap of skin he had opened. He shifted his position, as the deserter’s screams subsided into whimpers, and slid the blade further under the flap, moving it minutely and carefully to peel away the skin.
He stopped, and withdrew the knife from the man’s flesh, and wiped the blade on the snow before replacing it in the fire. “I have found that the skin comes off more easily and cleanly when I heat the blade of my knife,” he said conversationally as if he were commenting on the weather. He raised his voice slightly, so that he was sure the un-maimed prisoner could hear him over his companion’s whimpers, and continued. “I imagine that having one’s face flayed off is quite painful. If you tell me where I can find Evergreen,” his lip curled when he spoke the word, “then I will end your friend’s suffering here, and you will save yourself from his fate.”
The deserter had been watching his former Lord Commander with growing horror, and his eyes looked to be the size of dinner plates when Jaymes addressed him. He began to spill out information, as quickly as possible. Three times Jaymes informed the man that he was lying, and reached for his knife again, before the deserter decided to share his true knowledge. However on the third time, he vehemently insisted that he was telling the truth.
It turned out that he was telling the truth, but Jaymes only learned that several hours later, after having peeled the skin off of both the captive’s arms. The first man, who’s face was bleeding profusely, had died even before Jaymes had begun to torture the second man, and when the Lord Commander was finished he still cut both deserters’ throats and ordered their bodies nailed to trees, as testament to what happened to those who deserted the Night’s Watch.
The next morning the group of black brothers broke their camp, and began riding west, toward the mountains…
Lord Commander Jaymes Farman improves to Master Tracking
Lord Commander Jaymes Farman improves to Grandmaster Interrogation (Torturing)
Nearly a hundred black brothers had left the Wall with him when he rode south; a third had come from each of Castle Black, Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, and Shadow Tower, so he did not leave his own base under defended. Three moons ago fifty of Castle Black’s sworn brothers had vanished in the night, and it was discovered that the mass exodus had been ring-led by none other than the former Lord Evergreen, who’d been sent to the wall only a few years after Jaymes himself.
He knew the man by reputation only, before he got to the Wall, as a respected assassin ad petty criminal in King’s Landing, who Jaymes himself had hired to acquire him a Valyrian Steel blade. He’d heard nothing from the man he sent to King’s Landing, nor the gold he’d sent with the messenger, and he later learned that Evergreen had betrayed Jaymes’ envoy, had him killed, and stolen the payment for the assassination. Jaymes had to restrain himself from killing Evergreen outright when the man came to the Wall, and by the time Jaymes had become Lord Commander, Evergreen had been around too long to simply have him killed.
Now the deserter would pay for his crimes however. Even if, in the eyes of gods and men, his past crimes had been wiped clean when he said his vows at the Wall, desertion meant death to the men of the Night’s Watch, and Jaymes Farman was nothing if not an expedient enforcer of justice. Forty black brothers rode with Jaymes, while the other fifty rode with First Ranger Cracker, whom Jaymes had ordered to hunt down the deserters. Neither force was strong enough to obliterate Evergreen’s band of bandits if they were found, and as such all men were under orders to strictly observe, and to simply find the location of Evergreen and his men, so an assault could be launched.
The Lord Commander had tracked a small group of men through the forests of Brandon’s Gift, assuming they were part of Evergreen’s band. His prey was woodscrafty, concealing their trails with skills that were obviously due to their training on the Wall, but Jaymes had been a skilled tracker all his life and since being sent to the Wall had only honed his skills in that department. He led his men quietly through the woods, making slow progress through the silence until a crossbow twanged and all the men heard a soft thud.
Jaymes’ head snapped around and he saw a in tattered furs and worn blacks transfixed to a tree, a bolt protruding from his throat. “Gods above, excellent shot Gared,” Jaymes said softly, flashing the man a smile. “That was obviously their sentry, which means we should be able to take them unawares.” Jaymes spoke quietly to his men, and then fell silent, directing them into their various formations with silent hand gestures that he had invented and taught to the men of the Watch during his time in Castle Black.
An hour later three men were trussed and bound tightly, and slung over the back of three horses for transport back to the point where Ranger Cracker was to join his men with the Lord Commander’s. The black brothers had come upon the three men silently, surrounding them while they slept since their dead sentry could deliver no warning, and all three had surrendered without a fight, when they awoke to see two score spears pointed at them.
Lord Commander Farman sat near a campfire, amid a small army of his sworn brothers. He’d met with the First Ranger and those men, joining the two forces into nearly a hundred black brothers from all three castles. One of the captives had caught a chill and died along the way, but Jaymes still had two deserters to interrogate before he could hunt down Evergreen and cut his throat. The two men were tied to a tree near him, while sentries stood over them. All the black brothers itched to kill the two men, who everyone knew to be deserters, but none defied the Lord Commander’s order that the captives remain unharmed.
Jaymes delicately drew his long dagger from a sheathe in his boot, and laid it on the edge of the fire, so that the blade was wreathed with flames but the hilt remained unburned. “You are both deserters from the Night’s Watch. You have deserted your posts and abandoned the vows you spoke before the eyes of gods and men, for which the punishment is death. There is no escaping your fate, however I tell you now that your deaths will be far more excruciating than you would wish for, unless you give me the information I desire.” Jaymes paused for a moment, and turned the dagger over to evenly distribute the heat. The castle-forged steel had already begun to glow a yellowish orange, taking on the hue of the flames and embers that surrounded it. The former Night’s Watchmen shook their heads defiantly, in unison, and Jaymes sighed disappointedly.
He lifted the dagger in his gloved right hand, and approached the first prisoner. “Are you sure you will not tell me where your leader, the deserter called Rickard Evergreen, hides? I am no maester, but I can tell you that this blade is very, very hot, and it will not be pleasant if I need to acquaint you with it.” Nervousness showed through in the man’s eyes, and he shivered, though he still shook his head. “So be it,” Jaymes said with another sigh, and he pressed the red-hot blade against the man’s face. The deserter screamed, a sound that echoed through the forest.
He was tied securely, however, and though he tried to thrash and shake from the pain, he barely moved an inch under the Lord Commander’s blade. Jaymes drew the edge of the heated knife slowly around the man’s face, and the temperature of the steel caused his blood to sizzle as it started to seep from the cuts. The man’s screams still echoed, as Jaymes continued his gruesome work, until he was able to work the blade under the flap of skin he had opened. He shifted his position, as the deserter’s screams subsided into whimpers, and slid the blade further under the flap, moving it minutely and carefully to peel away the skin.
He stopped, and withdrew the knife from the man’s flesh, and wiped the blade on the snow before replacing it in the fire. “I have found that the skin comes off more easily and cleanly when I heat the blade of my knife,” he said conversationally as if he were commenting on the weather. He raised his voice slightly, so that he was sure the un-maimed prisoner could hear him over his companion’s whimpers, and continued. “I imagine that having one’s face flayed off is quite painful. If you tell me where I can find Evergreen,” his lip curled when he spoke the word, “then I will end your friend’s suffering here, and you will save yourself from his fate.”
The deserter had been watching his former Lord Commander with growing horror, and his eyes looked to be the size of dinner plates when Jaymes addressed him. He began to spill out information, as quickly as possible. Three times Jaymes informed the man that he was lying, and reached for his knife again, before the deserter decided to share his true knowledge. However on the third time, he vehemently insisted that he was telling the truth.
It turned out that he was telling the truth, but Jaymes only learned that several hours later, after having peeled the skin off of both the captive’s arms. The first man, who’s face was bleeding profusely, had died even before Jaymes had begun to torture the second man, and when the Lord Commander was finished he still cut both deserters’ throats and ordered their bodies nailed to trees, as testament to what happened to those who deserted the Night’s Watch.
The next morning the group of black brothers broke their camp, and began riding west, toward the mountains…
Lord Commander Jaymes Farman improves to Master Tracking
Lord Commander Jaymes Farman improves to Grandmaster Interrogation (Torturing)