Chapter 第十三章 布兰
BRAN
乌鸦不同寻常的尖叫声令布兰打了一个哆嗦。我差不多已经长大成人了，他不得不提醒自己。我现在必须鼓起勇气。
Something about the way the raven screamed sent a shiver running up Bran’s spine. I am almost a man grown, he had to remind himself. I have to be brave now.
但空气变得刺骨的冰冷，充满了恐惧的气息。就连夏天也感到了害怕。它的颈毛全都竖立起来。山丘投下的影子正在缓缓地伸展着，把一切都笼罩在黑暗之下。所有的树都被落在上面厚重的积雪压得弯低扭曲。看上去根本不像是树。树根都埋在结冻的雪堆之下，山上杂乱生长的树木，在寒风的摇动之下，如同巨人，怪兽和各种奇形怪状的生物。“他们就在附近。”
But the air was sharp and cold and full of fear. Even Summer was afraid. The fur on his neck was bristling. Shadows stretched against the hillside, black and hungry. All the trees were bowed and twisted by the weight of ice they carried. Some hardly looked like trees at all. Buried from root to crown in frozen snow, they huddled on the hill like giants, monstrous and misshapen creatures hunched against the icy wind. “They are here.”
游骑兵拔出了他的剑。
The ranger drew his longsword.
“哪里？”梅拉的嗓音透着紧张。
“Where?” Meera’s voice was hushed.
“应该很近。但我不清楚在哪。就在某个地方。”
“Close. I don’t know. Somewhere.”
乌鸦又尖叫起来。“阿多，”阿多嘟哝着。他掖着双手。褐色的胡梢上面挂着冰晶，嘴唇上面的胡子上冻着一团鼻涕，在夕阳的照射下闪着红色的微光。
The raven shrieked again. “Hodor,” whispered Hodor. He had his hands tucked up beneath his armpits. Icicles hung from the brown briar of his beard, and his mustache was a lump of frozen snot, glittering redly in the light of sunset.
“那些狼也靠近了，”布兰警告他们。“一直跟随着我们的那些狼。当我们处在下风时夏天能闻出它们。”
“Those wolves are close as well,” Bran warned them. “The ones that have been following us. Summer can smell them whenever we’re downwind.”
“那些狼在我们面临的危险中最无关紧要。”冷手说。“我们必须向上爬。这里马上就要黑下来了。你们最好在夜色降临之前钻到里面去。你们的体温会吸引他们。”他朝西打量了一下，透过树林可以看到昏暗的落日余晖，仿佛遥远的一处火堆的光亮。
“Wolves are the least of our woes,” said Coldhands. “We have to climb. It will be dark soon. You would do well to be inside before night comes. Your warmth will draw them.” He glanced to the west, where the light of the setting sun could be seen dimly through the trees, like the glow of a distant fire.
“钻进洞里是唯一的出路吗？”梅拉问道。
“Is this the only way in?” asked Meera.
“后门在北面三里格处，从一个沉洞下面穿过去。”
“The back door is three leagues north, down a sinkhole.”
这就是他给出的回答。然而就连阿多也不能背着沉重的布兰爬进一个沉洞，让玖健走上三里格就更是不切实际了。
That was all he had to say. Not even Hodor could climb down into a sinkhole with Bran heavy on his back, and Jojen could no more walk three leagues than run a thousand.
梅拉抬眼望着山顶。“从山上翻过去看起来更容易。”
Meera eyed the hill above. “The way looks clear.”
“只是看上去。”游骑兵嗓音低沉地说。“你能感觉得到这寒冷吗？这里有些东西。他们究竟在何处？”
“Looks,” the ranger muttered darkly. “Can you feel the cold? There’s something here. Where are they?”
“躲在洞里吗？”梅拉提示。
“Inside the cave?” suggested Meera.
“那个山洞有魔法守护。他们无法进入。”游骑兵用他的剑指点着。“你能看到那里的入口。在半山腰，鱼梁木树林中，岩壁上的那个裂口。”
“The cave is warded. They cannot pass.” The ranger used his sword to point. “You can see the entrance there. Halfway up, between the weirwoods, that cleft in the rock.”
“我看到了。”布兰说。乌鸦在那里飞进飞出。
“I see it,” said Bran. Ravens were flying in and out.
阿多挪动了一下肩上的背筐。“阿多。”
Hodor shifted his weight. “Hodor.”
“交错的岩石，我只看到了这些，”梅拉说。
“A fold in the rock, that’s all I see,” said Meera.
“那边有条小路。开始有些陡峭和崎岖，有条小溪穿过那些岩石。如果你们能抵达那里，你们就安全了。”
“There’s a passage there. Steep and twisty at first, a runnel through the rock. If you can reach it, you’ll be safe.”
“你怎么办？”
“What about you?”
“那山洞有魔法守护。”
“The cave is warded.”
梅拉打量了一下山坡上的那个峭壁。“从这到那里要有一千多码。”
Meera studied the cleft in the hillside. “It can’t be more than a thousand yards from here to there.”
没有那么远，布兰想，但那全是上坡路。那座山坡陡峭而且长满了灌木。雪三天前就停了，但一直没有融化。那些树下面的地上铺着厚厚的白雪，上面没有任何踩动过的痕迹。“那边没人，”布兰鼓足勇气说。“看看那些雪。那里没有足迹。”
No, thought Bran, but all those yards are upward. The hill was steep and thickly wooded. The snow had stopped three days ago, but none of it had melted. Beneath the trees, the ground was blanketed in white, still pristine and unbroken. “No one’s here,” said Bran, bravely. “Look at the snow. There are no footprints.”
“那些白色的游荡者在雪地上行走的很飘忽，”游骑兵说。“你发现不了他们留下的足迹。”一只乌鸦从上面落在他的肩上。只剩下十来只黑色的大鸟仍然陪伴着他们。其余的都沿路失散了；每天黎明他们动身时，都要少上几只乌鸦。“来，”那只鸟呱噪着。“来，来。”
“The white walkers go lightly on the snow,” the ranger said. “You’ll find no prints to mark their passage.” A raven descended from above to settle on his shoulder. Only a dozen of the big black birds remained with them. The rest had vanished along the way; every dawn when they arose, there had been fewer of them. “Come,” the bird squawked. “Come, come.”
三眼乌鸦，布兰想。绿先知。“那不算太远，”他说。“爬上一小段路，我们就安全啦。或许我们还能生堆火。”除了游骑兵，他们全都又冷又湿又饿，而玖健·黎德太虚弱了，没有搀扶根本无法走路。
The three-eyed crow, thought Bran. The greenseer. “It’s not so far,” he said. “A little climb, and we’ll be safe. Maybe we can have a fire.” All of them were cold and wet and hungry, except the ranger, and Jojen Reed was too weak to walk unaided.
“你们走吧。”梅拉·黎德在她的弟弟身旁弯下了腰。他拄着一根橡树枝，双眼紧闭，像落叶般不停地颤抖着。他兜帽和围巾之下小小的面孔毫无血色，就像周围的积雪一样苍白，但当他呼气时，依旧从鼻孔中微弱地喷出热气。梅拉已经背了他整整一天。进食和烤烤火会让他重新振作起来，布兰试图说服自己，但他不确信是否果真如此。“我没法背着他爬上去，山坡太陡了。”梅拉说道。“阿多，你带布兰去那个山洞吧。”
“You go.” Meera Reed bent down beside her brother. He was settled in the bole of an oak, eyes closed, shivering violently. What little of his face could be seen beneath his hood and scarf was as colorless as the surrounding snow, but breath still puffed faintly from his nostrils whenever he exhaled. Meera had been carrying him all day. Food and fire will set him right again, Bran tried to tell himself, though he wasn’t sure it would. “I can’t fight and carry Jojen both, the climb’s too steep,” Meera was saying. “Hodor, you take Bran up to that cave.”
“阿多。”阿多拍了一下手。
“Hodor.” Hodor clapped his hands together.
“玖健只是需要进食了，”布兰不安地说。从那只麋鹿跌倒三次，最终没能在站起来时，已经过去十二天了，冷手跪在它旁边的雪堆中，在割开它的喉咙时用一种陌生的语言低声祈祷。当鲜血喷涌而出时，布兰像个小女孩一样哭起来。他从未像在那一刻深深地感受到自己像个残废，当梅拉·黎德和冷手动手屠宰那只驮着他们走了那么远的英勇的牲畜时，他只能无助地观望着。他告诉自己不去动那些肉，忍饥挨饿也要好过享用自己的朋友，但最终他还是吃了两次，一次是自己，一次是在夏天躯体里。那只麋鹿已经变得十分憔悴消瘦，游骑兵从它身上割下的肉排还是支撑了他们七天，直到在一个旧石堡中的火堆上他们烤食了最后一块。
“Jojen just needs to eat,” Bran said, miserably. It had been twelve days since the elk had collapsed for the third and final time, since Coldhands had knelt beside it in the snowbank and murmured a blessing in some strange tongue as he slit its throat. Bran wept like a little girl when the bright blood came rushing out. He had never felt more like a cripple than he did then, watching helplessly as Meera Reed and Coldhands butchered the brave beast who had carried them so far. He told himself he would not eat, that it was better to go hungry than to feast upon a friend, but in the end he’d eaten twice, once in his own skin and once in Summer’s. As gaunt and starved as the elk had been, the steaks the ranger carved from him had sustained them for seven days, until they finished the last of them huddled over a fire in the ruins of an old hillfort.
“他的确需要进食，”梅拉表示赞同，一边梳理着她弟弟的眉毛。“我们都需要，但这里没有食物。走吧。”
“He needs to eat,” Meera agreed, smoothing her brother’s brow. “We all do, but there’s no food here. Go.”
布兰忍不住流出了一滴眼泪，感觉到它冻在了脸颊上。冷手推了一把阿多。“光亮正在减弱。就算他们现不在这里，也很快就要来了。走吧。”
Bran blinked back a tear and felt it freeze upon his cheek. Coldhands took Hodor by the arm. “The light is fading. If they’re not here now, they will be soon. Come.”
默不作声，阿多拍打掉腿上的积雪，背着布兰趟过雪堆向上走去。冷手尾随在他们身后，漆黑的手中握着他的剑。夏天跟着过来了。有些地方的积雪要没过它，每当那只大冰原狼在踩穿薄薄的冰壳，跌进雪中之后，就不得不停下来抖落身上的积雪。在他们攀登的时候，布兰在他的篮子中费力地扭身过去看着梅拉，她一只手搀扶着他的弟弟。他对她来讲太沉了。她半饥半饱，也没有原来的力气了。她用另外一只手拄着她的捕蛙矛，把矛尖插进雪里支撑着。梅拉开始挣扎着向山坡上爬去，半拖半背着她的弟弟，当阿多从两棵树中间穿过时，布兰望不见他们了。
Wordless for once, Hodor slapped the snow off his legs, and plowed upward through the snowdrifts with Bran upon his back. Coldhands stalked beside them, his blade in a black hand. Summer came after. In some places the snow was higher than he was, and the big direwolf had to stop and shake it off after plunging through the thin crust. As they climbed, Bran turned awkwardly in his basket to watch as Meera slid an arm beneath her brother to lift him to his feet. He’s too heavy for her. She’s half-starved, she’s not as strong as she was. She clutched her frog spear in her other hand, jabbing the tines into the snow for a little more support. Meera had just begun to struggle up the hill, half-dragging and half-carrying her little brother, when Hodor passed between two trees, and Bran lost sight of them.
山坡变得更加陡峭了。冰碛在阿多的靴下崩碎。有一次他脚下的一块岩石松动了，他向后仰了过去，险些要翻滚下去。游骑兵伸手抓住了他，挽救了他们。“阿多，“阿多说。每阵狂风都会把白白的细雪卷到空中，在晚霞的映射下像玻璃一样闪光。乌鸦绕着他们拍打着翅膀。一只向前飞去，消失在了山洞中。现在还剩下八十码了，布兰想，这根本不算远。
The hill grew steeper. Drifts of snow cracked under Hodor’s boots. Once a rock moved beneath his foot and he slid backwards, and almost went tumbling back down the hill. The ranger caught him by the arm and saved him. “Hodor,” said Hodor. Every gust of wind filled the air with fine white powder that shone like glass in the last light of day. Ravens flapped around them. One flew ahead and vanished inside the cave. Only eighty yards now, Bran thought, that’s not far at all.
在一块未被踩动过的白雪堆积而成的陡坡脚下，夏天突然停了下来。那只冰原狼扭过头，在空气中嗅着，然后咆哮起来。它的毛全都竖立起来，它开始掉头向后跑。
Summer stopped suddenly, at the bottom of a steep stretch of unbroken white snow. The direwolf turned his head, sniffed the air, then snarled. Fur bristling, he began to back away.
“阿多，停下。”布兰说。“阿多，等等。”这有点不对劲。夏天闻出来，他也就闻出来了。有不好的东西。有东西在附近。“阿多，不，后退。”
“Hodor, stop,” said Bran. “Hodor. Wait.” Something was wrong. Summer smelled it, and so did he. Something bad. Something close. “Hodor, no, go back.”
冷手仍在攀登，阿多也想要跟上。“阿多，阿多，阿多，”他大声地抱怨着，压过了布兰的抗议声。他的呼吸变得困难。空气中充满了白色的薄雾。他迈出一步，接着又一步。雪几乎有齐腰深，斜坡非常陡峭。阿多向前倾斜着身子，双手扒着岩石和树干攀登着。又是一步，再一步。阿多扰动的积雪滑下了山坡，在身后形成了一场小小的雪崩。
Coldhands was still climbing, and Hodor wanted to keep up. “Hodor, hodor, hodor,” he grumbled loudly, to drown out Bran’s complaints. His breathing had grown labored. Pale mist filled the air. He took a step, then another. The snow was almost waist deep and the slope was very steep. Hodor was leaning forward, grasping at rocks and trees with his hands as he climbed. Another step. Another. The snow Hodor disturbed slid downhill, starting a small avalanche behind them.
还差六十码。布兰斜过身去为了更好地观望那个山洞。然而他看到了另外的东西。“一堆火！”在鱼梁木丛林的缝隙中有亮光在闪动着，一道红色的光芒划破了周围的黑暗。“看，那边有人——”
Sixty yards. Bran craned himself sideways to better see the cave. Then he saw something else. “A fire!” In the little cleft between the weirwood trees was a flickering glow, a ruddy light calling through the gathering gloom. “Look, someone—”
阿多发出了尖叫。他扭动挣扎着摔倒了。
Hodor screamed. He twisted, stumbled, fell.
当这大个子马僮猛烈地翻滚时，布兰感觉整个世界在他周围旋转。突然的一记碾压令他上不来气。他的嘴里充满了鲜血，而阿多仍在不停扭动和翻转着，挤压着他身下的这个残废男孩。
Bran felt the world slide sideways as the big stableboy spun violently around. A jarring impact drove the breath from him. His mouth was full of blood and Hodor was thrashing and rolling, crushing the crippled boy beneath him.
有什么东西抓住了他的腿。刹那间布兰认为或许是树根缠住了他的脚踝……但那树根移动了。一只手，他看见，接着那个尸鬼其它的部位猛地从积雪下显现出来。
Something has hold of his leg. For half a heartbeat Bran thought maybe a root had gotten tangled round his ankle … until the root moved. A hand, he saw, as the rest of the wight came bursting from beneath the snow.
阿多踢打着它，用一只盖满了雪的脚猛地踹在那东西的脸上，但那个尸鬼看上去毫不在乎。他们两个撕打起来，拳来脚往，顺着山坡向下滑着。当他们翻滚的时候，积雪灌进了布兰的嘴和鼻子里，接着他又马上翻到了上面。有东西敲打着他的脑袋，一块石头或者碎冰，要不就是尸鬼的拳头，他也说不清楚，接着他发现自己被从篮子中甩了出来，四肢摊开躺在山坡上，呕吐着嘴里的灌进去的雪，他的手套上满是他从阿多头上扯下的头发。
Hodor kicked at it, slamming a snow-covered heel full into the thing’s face, but the dead man did not even seem to feel it. Then the two of them were grappling, punching and clawing at each other, sliding down the hill. Snow filled Bran’s mouth and nose as they rolled over, but in a half a heartbeat he was rolling up again. Something slammed against his head, a rock or a chunk of ice or a dead man’s fist, he could not tell, and he found himself out of his basket, sprawled across the hillside, spitting snow, his gloved hand full of hair that he’d torn from Hodor’s head.
在他的周围，尸鬼们纷纷出积雪下拱了出来。
All around him, wights were rising from beneath the snow.
两个，三个，四个。布兰数不清了。他们从激起的雪雾中蜂拥而出。有些穿着黑披风，有些披着破破烂烂的皮毛，有些什么都没穿。他们全都有着苍白的皮肤和漆黑的手掌。他们的双眼像淡蓝色的星星一样闪着光芒。
Two, three, four. Bran lost count. They surged up violently amidst sudden clouds of snow. Some wore black cloaks, some ragged skins, some nothing. All of them had pale flesh and black hands. Their eyes glowed like pale blue stars.
他们其中三个扑向了那个游骑兵。布兰看见冷手劈开了一个尸鬼的脸。但那东西仍然向前扑去，把他逼进了另外一个尸鬼的怀中。又有两个追逐着阿多，拖着沉重笨拙的脚步走下山坡。梅拉正向这里攀爬着，布兰茫然无助地意识到。他拍打着积雪，大声发出警告。
Three of them descended on the ranger. Bran saw Coldhands slash one across the face. The thing kept right on coming, driving him back into the arms of another. Two more were going after Hodor, lumbering clumsily down the slope. Meera was going to climb right into this, Bran realized, with a sick sense of helpless terror. He smashed the snow and shouted out a warning.
有东西抓住了他。
Something grabbed hold of him.
他的呼喊变成了尖叫。布兰抓起一个雪团掷向了它，但那个尸鬼连眼都没眨一下。一只漆黑的手掌摸索着他的面孔，另一在放在了他的肚子上。它的手指如同钢铁一般。他要把我的肠子扯出来。
That was when his shout became a scream. Bran filled a fist with snow and threw it, but the wight did not so much as blink. A black hand fumbled at his face, another at his belly. Its fingers felt like iron. He’s going to pull my guts out.
但突然之间，夏天扑进了他们当中。布兰看见皮肤像块破布一样被扯开，听到骨头的碎裂声。他看见一只齐腕撕落的手掌，手指在无力地抽动着，衣袖是褪了色的黑色粗布。黑色，他想到，他穿的是黑色，他是守夜人中的一员。夏天把胳膊扔到一旁，转过身去，把它的牙齿深深地咬进那个尸鬼颏下的脖子里。当这只庞大的灰狼猛地挣脱时，它从那团灰白色的腐肉中扯下了差不多整个喉咙。
But suddenly Summer was between them. Bran glimpsed skin tear like cheap cloth, heard the splintering of bone. He saw a hand and wrist rip loose, pale fingers wriggling, the sleeve faded black roughspun. Black, he thought, he’s wearing black, he was one of the Watch. Summer flung the arm aside, twisted, and sank his teeth into the dead man’s neck under the chin. When the big grey wolf wrenched free, he took most of the creature’s throat out in an explosion of pale rotten meat.
那个断掉的手掌仍在蠕动着。布兰从它旁边滚开。他肚子贴着地，在雪地上爬行着，他盯着山坡上面白雪覆盖幽暗的树林，橙色的光芒正在其中跃动。
The severed hand was still moving. Bran rolled away from it. On his belly, clawing at the snow, he glimpsed the trees above, pale and snow-cloaked, the orange glow between.
还有五十码。如果他拖着自己爬过这五十码，他们就不能抓住他了。当他扒着树根和岩石向火光爬去时，融化的雪水渗进了手套。还差一点，就差一点。然后你就能在火堆旁歇息了。
Fifty yards. If he could drag himself fifty yards, they could not get him. Damp seeped through his gloves as he clutched at roots and rocks, crawling toward the light. A little farther, just a little farther. Then you can rest beside the fire.
此时落日最后的余晖已经在树林中消散了。夜色降临了。冷手不停地劈砍他周围围成一圈的尸鬼。夏天正在撕扯着他扑倒的一只尸鬼，叼着它的脸。没人理会布兰。他向高处爬起，无用的双腿在身后拖拽着。如果我能到达那个山洞……
The last light had vanished from amongst the trees by then. Night had fallen. Coldhands was hacking and cutting at the circle of dead men that surrounded him. Summer was tearing at the one that he’d brought down, its face between his teeth. No one was paying any mind to Bran. He crawled a little higher, dragging his useless legs behind him. If I can reach that cave …
“阿——多”山坡下面某处传来一声呜咽声。
“Hoooodor” came a whimper, from somewhere down below.
突然之间他不再是布兰了，那个残废的男孩仍在雪地中爬行，而他成为半山腰中的阿多，尸鬼正抓着他的眼睛。怒吼着，他脚步踉跄地晃动着，使劲把那东西甩到一边。它跌倒了，但又要重新爬起来。布兰从阿多的腰带中抽出他的长剑。潜在体内的他能听见阿多依旧呜咽着，但他现在是一个手执铁剑，满怀愤怒的七尺壮汉了。他举起剑用它砍倒那个尸鬼，当剑锋切开湿漉漉的毛料，生锈的盔甲和腐烂的皮革，深深地砍进下面的血肉和骨头中时大声咕哝着。“阿多！”他愤怒地吼叫着，又劈了一下。这次他把那个尸鬼的头颅从脖子上削了下来，这令他狂喜了片刻……直到一双死人的手摸索着伸向他的喉咙。
And suddenly he was not Bran, the broken boy crawling through the snow, suddenly he was Hodor halfway down the hill, with the wight raking at his eyes. Roaring, he came lurching to his feet, throwing the thing violently aside. It went to one knee, began to rise again. Bran ripped Hodor’s longsword from his belt. Deep inside he could hear poor Hodor whimpering still, but outside he was seven feet of fury with old iron in his hand. He raised the sword and brought it down upon the dead man, grunting as the blade sheared through wet wool and rusted mail and rotted leather, biting deep into the bones and flesh beneath. “HODOR!” he bellowed, and slashed again. This time he took the wight’s head off at the neck, and for half a moment he exulted … until a pair of dead hands came groping blindly for his throat.
布兰向后退去，真该死，梅拉·黎德在那里，正把她的捕蛙矛深深地插进了那个尸鬼的后背。“阿多，”布兰又喊叫起来，在山坡冲着她挥手。“阿多，阿多”玖健在他被她放下的地方无力地扭动着。布兰奔向他，抛下那把长剑，把那个男孩搂在阿多的怀中，踉踉跄跄地向后退。“阿多！”他痛苦地咆哮着。
Bran backed away, bleeding, and Meera Reed was there, driving her frog spear deep into the wight’s back. “Hodor,” Bran roared again, waving her uphill. “Hodor, hodor.” Jojen was twisting feebly where she’d laid him down. Bran went to him, dropped the longsword, gathered the boy into Hodor’s arm, and lurched back to his feet. “HODOR!” he bellowed.
梅拉带路向山上退去，当那些尸鬼靠近时就对着它们猛刺。没法伤害到那些东西，但它们移动得缓慢而笨拙。“阿多，”阿多每迈出一步都会说。“阿多，阿多。”他猜想如果他突然对梅拉说他爱她，那她会作何感想。
Meera led the way back up the hill, jabbing at the wights when they came near. The things could not be hurt, but they were slow and clumsy. “Hodor,” Hodor said with every step. “Hodor, hodor.” He wondered what Meera would think if he should suddenly tell her that he loved her.
在他们上面，明亮的火焰正在雪地上跳动着。
Up above them, flaming figures were dancing in the snow.
尸鬼，布兰意识到。有人在焚烧尸鬼。
The wights, Bran realized. Someone set the wights on fire.
夏天绕着离得最近的某个人留下的庞大躯壳一边跳动着，一边吼叫着，撕咬着，尸鬼裹在火焰当中的。夏天不该靠得那么近，他在干什么？接着他看到了自己的身体，脸朝下爬在了雪中。夏天正竭力把那东西从他身边赶开。如果它把我杀掉会怎样？从此我就成为阿多了？还是会进到夏天的体内？或者我干脆就是死掉？
Summer was snarling and snapping as he danced around the closest, a great ruin of a man wreathed in swirling flame. He shouldn’t get so close, what is he doing? Then he saw himself, sprawled facedown in the snow. Summer was trying to drive the thing away from him. What will happen if it kills me? the boy wondered. Will I be Hodor for good or all? Will I go back into Summer’s skin? Or will I just be dead?
他觉得天旋地转。白色的树木，黑色的天空，红色的火焰，所有的东西都在摇晃，翻滚，旋转着。他感觉自己跌跌撞撞地走着。他能听到阿多的吼叫声，“阿多阿多阿多阿多。阿多阿多阿多阿多。阿多阿多阿多阿多阿多。”一团乌云般的乌鸦从山洞中涌出来，接着他看见一个矮小的女孩手举着火把，左冲右撞地奔了过来。起初布兰以为那是他的姐姐艾莉亚……真是发疯，他原本清楚地知道他的二姐远在千里之外，或许早已去世了。可是出现在那里的就是她，总是闹个不休，一个瘦骨嶙峋的家伙，衣衫凌乱，野性十足，头发支楞着。泪水从布兰的眼中涌出，然后在冻在那里。
The world moved dizzily around him. White trees, black sky, red flames, everything was whirling, shifting, spinning. He felt himself stumbling. He could hear Hodor screaming, “Hodor hodor hodor hodor. Hodor hodor hodor hodor. Hodor hodor hodor hodor hodor.” A cloud of ravens was pouring from the cave, and he saw a little girl with a torch in hand, darting this way and that. For a moment Bran thought it was his sister Arya … madly, for he knew his little sister was a thousand leagues away, or dead. And yet there she was, whirling, a scrawny thing, ragged, wild, her hair atangle. Tears filled Hodor’s eyes and froze there.
周围的一切都在翻滚，接着布兰发觉自己回到了自己的躯体内，正半埋在积雪中。在高耸的白雪覆盖着的树木衬托之下，那只燃烧着的尸鬼正向他缓缓逼近，它那是那些赤裸的尸鬼中的一只，布兰看见。紧接着最近的一棵树上覆盖着的积雪被震落了，全部砸在了自己的头上。
Everything turned inside out and upside down, and Bran found himself back inside his own skin, half-buried in the snow. The burning wight loomed over him, etched tall against the trees in their snowy shrouds. It was one of the naked ones, Bran saw, in the instant before the nearest tree shook off the snow that covered it and dropped it all down upon his head.
当他再次恢复知觉时，他正躺在黑石地面上的一张松针铺成的床上。山洞。我在山洞里。他的嘴里仍留有咬破舌头流出的鲜血的味道，一个火堆正在他的右边燃烧着，热气拂过他的脸庞，他从未感觉如此舒适。夏天也在这里，围着他一边打转一边嗅着，阿多浑身湿透地呆在一旁。梅拉把玖健的头枕在自己的大腿上轻轻摇晃。而那个长的像艾莉亚的家伙在旁边监视着他们，紧攥着她的火把。
The next he knew, he was lying on a bed of pine needles beneath a dark stone roof. The cave. I’m in the cave. His mouth still tasted of blood where he’d bitten his tongue, but a fire was burning to his right, the heat washing over his face, and he had never felt anything so good. Summer was there, sniffing round him, and Hodor, soaking wet. Meera cradled Jojen’s head in her lap. And the Arya thing stood over them, clutching her torch.
“那些雪，”布兰说，“它落在我身上。把我埋了起来。”
“The snow,” Bran said. “It fell on me. Buried me.”
“盖住了你。我把你拖了出来。”梅拉向那个女孩点头示意，“正是她拯救了我们大家。那火把……火焰杀了他们。”
“Hid you. I pulled you out.” Meera nodded at the girl. “It was her who saved us, though. The torch … fire kills them.”
“火焰焚烧了他们。火焰总爱吞噬一切。”
“Fire burns them. Fire is always hungry.”
那不是艾莉亚的嗓音，不是一个孩子该有的嗓音。那是一个妇女的嗓音，高亢而甜美，带着一种他从未听过的陌生的节奏，一缕令他心碎的忧伤。布兰眯起双眼更仔细地打量着她。她是个女孩，但比艾莉亚要矮小，一件树叶穿成的披风下面是像雌鹿一样带着斑点的皮肤。她的眼睛大得出奇，清澈透亮，金黄和碧绿色，眯缝起来像是一只猫的双眼。没人有那样的眼睛。她顶着一头乱糟糟的褐色，红色和金黄色的头发，上面插着藤蔓，嫩枝和枯萎的花朵。
That was not Arya’s voice, nor any child’s. It was a woman’s voice, high and sweet, with a strange music in it like none that he had ever heard and a sadness that he thought might break his heart. Bran squinted, to see her better. It was a girl, but smaller than Arya, her skin dappled like a doe’s beneath a cloak of leaves. Her eyes were queer—large and liquid, gold and green, slitted like a cat’s eyes. No one has eyes like that. Her hair was a tangle of brown and red and gold, autumn colors, with vines and twigs and withered flowers woven through it.
“你是谁？”梅拉·黎德问道。
“Who are you?” Meera Reed was asking.
布兰知道。“她是个孩子。森林之子。”他浑身颤抖，更多的是因为惊讶而不是寒冷。他们身处在一个老奶妈的传说之中。
Bran knew. “She’s a child. A child of the forest.” He shivered, as much from wonderment as cold. They had fallen into one of Old Nan’s tales.
“先民称呼我们为孩子，”那个小个子女人说。“巨人们称我们为woh dak nag gran[*1]，松鼠人，因为我们小巧，灵活而且喜爱树林，但我们不是松鼠，不是孩子。我们的名字在原语[*2]当中指的是歌颂大地之人。在你们的古语出现之前，我们已经歌唱了上万年。”
“The First Men named us children,” the little woman said. “The giants called us woh dak nag gran, the squirrel people, because we were small and quick and fond of trees, but we are no squirrels, no children. Our name in the True Tongue means those who sing the song of earth. Before your Old Tongue was ever spoken, we had sung our songs ten thousand years.”
梅拉说，“你正用通用语说话。”
Meera said, “You speak the Common Tongue now.”
“为了他。那个男孩布兰。我出生在巨龙时代，在人类的世界中游历了两百年，观察，倾听和学习。我想继续游历下去，但我的双腿酸痛，我的心脏也疲倦了，所以我转身回家了。”
“For him. The Bran boy. I was born in the time of the dragon, and for two hundred years I walked the world of men, to watch and listen and learn. I might be walking still, but my legs were sore and my heart was weary, so I turned my feet for home.”
“两百年？”梅拉说。
“Two hundred years?” said Meera.
那个孩子笑了。“人类，他们都是孩子。”
The child smiled. “Men, they are the children.”
“你有名字吗？”布兰问。
“Do you have a name?” asked Bran.
“当我需要一个时。”她把火把挥向山洞后墙上面的那道幽暗的裂缝。“我们要向下走。你们现在必须跟上我。”
“When I am needing one.” She waved her torch toward the black crack in the back wall of the cave. “Our way is down. You must come with me now.”
布兰又颤抖起来。“那个游骑兵……”
Bran shivered again. “The ranger …”
“他过不来。”
“He cannot come.”
“他们会杀了他。”
“They’ll kill him.”
“不会。他们早就已经杀过他了。快来。下面更暖和些，在那里没人会伤害你们。他正在等着你。”
“No. They killed him long ago. Come now. It is warmer down deep, and no one will hurt you there. He is waiting for you.”
“三眼乌鸦？”梅拉问道。
“The three-eyed crow?” asked Meera.
“绿先知。”接着她转身离去，而他们没有别的选择只能跟随。梅拉帮助布兰爬上阿多的后背，他的筐已经差不多被压碎了而且被融雪弄得十分潮湿。接着她扶起他的弟弟又搀着他前行。他的眼睛睁开了。“怎么啦？”他说。“梅拉？我们在哪里？”当他看到火堆时，他笑了起来。“我作了一个奇怪的梦。”
“The greenseer.” And with that she was off, and they had no choice but to follow. Meera helped Bran back up onto Hodor’s back, though his basket was half-crushed and wet from melting snow. Then she slipped an arm around her brother and shouldered him back onto his feet once more. His eyes opened. “What?” he said. “Meera? Where are we?” When he saw the fire, he smiled. “I had the strangest dream.”
那条路狭窄而崎岖，而且十分低矮，阿多不得不蹲下身子。布兰也尽力俯低，尽管如此，他的头顶很快就不断地刮蹭和碰撞在洞顶上。每次撞击都带下一些碎土，流进他的眼里和头发中，有一次他的眼眶撞在了一条粗粗的从隧洞山壁伸出来的树根上，那上面还悬挂着根须和蛛网。
The way was cramped and twisty, and so low that Hodor soon was crouching. Bran hunched down as best he could, but even so, the top of his head was soon scraping and bumping against the ceiling. Loose dirt crumbled at each touch and dribbled down into his eyes and hair, and once he smacked his brow on a thick white root growing from the tunnel wall, with tendrils hanging from it and spiderwebs between its fingers.
那个孩子手握着火把走在最前面，她那件树叶穿成的披风在她身后沙沙作响，但这段路七扭八歪的，布兰很快就看不到了她的身影。只剩下道路两边墙壁反射过来的光亮。他们走了一小段路之后，山洞分岔了，但左边的那条岔路就像沥青一样漆黑，因此阿多知道应该跟着移动的火把走右边的岔路。
The child went in front with the torch in hand, her cloak of leaves whispering behind her, but the passage turned so much that Bran soon lost sight of her. Then the only light was what was reflected off the passage walls. After they had gone down a little, the cave divided, but the left branch was dark as pitch, so even Hodor knew to follow the moving torch to the right.
路边晃动阴影看上去像是墙壁也在跟着移动。布兰看见一只白色的巨蛇在他身边滑过，吓得心脏砰砰直跳。他猜测他们是不是粗心地闯进了一个白蛇或者巨型尸虫的巢穴，柔软，苍白，黏糊糊的。尸虫有牙齿。
The way the shadows shifted made it seem as if the walls were moving too. Bran saw great white snakes slithering in and out of the earth around him, and his heart thumped in fear. He wondered if they had blundered into a nest of milk snakes or giant grave worms, soft and pale and squishy. Grave worms have teeth.
阿多也看见了它们。“阿多。”他呜咽着，勉强地继续前行。但当那个女孩停下来等他们跟上时，火焰停止了跳动，布兰发觉那些蛇原来不过是白色的树根，和他之前撞上的一样。“那是鱼梁木的树根，”他说。“记得神木林中的心树吗，阿多？那些长着红色叶子的白色树木。一棵树可不会伤害到你。”
Hodor saw them too. “Hodor,” he whimpered, reluctant to go on. But when the girl child stopped to let them catch her, the torchlight steadied, and Bran realized that the snakes were only white roots like the one he’d hit his head on. “It’s weirwood roots,” he said. “Remember the heart tree in the godswood, Hodor? The white tree with the red leaves? A tree can’t hurt you.”
“阿多。”阿多快步向前，紧紧跟随上那个孩子和她的火把，向地底深处走去。他们穿好一条岔路，然后又是一条，接着他们走进一个带着回声的洞穴，像临冬城大厅一般宽阔，石牙从洞顶悬挂下来，地上伸出来的还要更多些。那个披着树叶披风的孩子迂回地穿过它们当中的一条小径。她不时地停下来，不耐烦地挥舞着火把。走这边，它好像在催促，这边，这边，快点。
“Hodor.” Hodor plunged ahead, hurrying after the child and her torch, deeper into the earth. They passed another branching, and another, then came into an echoing cavern as large as the great hall of Winterfell, with stone teeth hanging from its ceiling and more poking up through its floor. The child in the leafy cloak wove a path through them. From time to time she stopped and waved her torch at them impatiently. This way, it seemed to say, this way, this way, faster.
在那之后走过了更多的斜坡，更多的洞穴，布兰听到有水滴落在他右边的某个地方。当他朝那里望去时，他看到有眼睛在回望着他们，眯缝起来闪动着光芒的眼睛，反射着火把的光亮。更多的孩子，他告诉自己，那女孩不是唯一的，他回想起老奶妈讲过的关于詹德尔子孙的传说。
There were more side passages after that, more chambers, and Bran heard dripping water somewhere to his right. When he looked off that way, he saw eyes looking back at them, slitted eyes that glowed bright, reflecting back the torchlight. More children, he told himself, the girl is not the only one, but Old Nan’s tale of Gendel’s children came back to him as well.
树根到处都是，从土壤和岩石中拱了出来，彼此纠缠起来封住了某些路段。所有的颜色都已消失，布兰突然意识到，世界只剩下了黑色的土壤和白色的树根。临冬城的心树有着粗如巨人大腿般的树根，但这里的还要更粗一些。而布兰从未见过这么多的树根。这上面一定长着一片鱼梁木树林。
The roots were everywhere, twisting through earth and stone, closing off some passages and holding up the roofs of others. All the color is gone, Bran realized suddenly. The world was black soil and white wood. The heart tree at Winterfell had roots as thick around as a giant’s legs, but these were even thicker. And Bran had never seen so many of them. There must be a whole grove of weirwoods growing up above us.
光亮又缩小了。她也在缩小，那个不是一个孩子的孩子只要想就能移动得很迅速。当阿多在她身后紧紧跟随时，有东西在他脚下吱嘎作响。他停下是如此的突然，梅拉和玖健险些撞在他的背上。
The light dwindled again. Small as she was, the child-who-was-not-a-child moved quickly when she wanted. As Hodor thumped after her, something crunched beneath his feet. His halt was so sudden that Meera and Jojen almost slammed into his back.
“骨头，”布兰说道。“那是骨头。”地面上散落着鸟和野兽的骨头。但那里还有其它的骨头，大一些肯定是来自巨人而那些小一点的可能是来自那些孩子。在他们的两边，岩壁的凹陷处里，有颅骨俯视着他们。布兰看到一只熊和一只狼的颅骨，十来个人的颅骨和差不多少的巨人头骨。其余的都比较小，骨架的结构有些奇怪。森林之子。树根从颅骨里伸展出来，缠绕着它们。有几个上面栖息着乌鸦，在他们经过时用明亮漆黑的双眼打量着他们。
“Bones,” said Bran. “It’s bones.” The floor of the passage was littered with the bones of birds and beasts. But there were other bones as well, big ones that must have come from giants and small ones that could have been from children. On either side of them, in niches carved from the stone, skulls looked down on them. Bran saw a bear skull and a wolf skull, half a dozen human skulls and near as many giants. All the rest were small, queerly formed. Children of the forest. The roots had grown in and around and through them, every one. A few had ravens perched atop them, watching them pass with bright black eyes.
他们暗淡的旅程最后的部分变得非常陡峭。阿多坐下用屁股垫着向下滑去，冲过一堆哗啦作响的碎骨，松散的泥土和卵石。那个女孩正站在一条宽阔的裂缝上面一道天然形成的桥梁的一端等待着他们。在幽深的桥梁下面，布兰听到流水冲刷的声响。一条地下河。
The last part of their dark journey was the steepest. Hodor made the final descent on his arse, bumping and sliding downward in a clatter of broken bones, loose dirt, and pebbles. The girl child was waiting for them, standing on one end of a natural bridge above a yawning chasm. Down below in the darkness, Bran heard the sound of rushing water. An underground river.
“我们要过去吗？”当黎德姐弟俩也滑到他的身后时，布兰问道。从高处向下的俯视令他感到眩晕。如果阿多从那道狭窄的桥上滑落，他们会一直跌落下去。
“Do we have to cross?” Bran asked, as the Reeds came sliding down behind him. The prospect frightened him. If Hodor slipped on that narrow bridge, they would fall and fall.
“不用，男孩。”那个孩子说。“就在你身后。”她把火把举高一些，那光亮看上去像在跳跃变幻。刹那之间那火焰变成了橙色和黄色，令整个山洞都充满了红色的光芒；接着所有的颜色都黯淡下去，只留下了黑和白。梅拉在他们身后喘息着。阿多转过身去。
“No, boy,” the child said. “Behind you.” She lifted her torch higher, and the light seemed to shift and change. One moment the flames burned orange and yellow, filling the cavern with a ruddy glow; then all the colors faded, leaving only black and white. Behind them Meera gasped. Hodor turned.
在他们面前出现的是一位身着乌木装饰皮肤白皙的君主，宛如梦幻般地坐在纠缠成一团的树根当中，鱼梁木缠绕而成的宝座环绕着他枯瘦的躯体就像一位母亲搂抱着她的孩子。
Before them a pale lord in ebon finery sat dreaming in a tangled nest of roots, a woven weirwood throne that embraced his withered limbs as a mother does a child.
他的躯体如此枯瘦而且他的衣服如此破烂，以至于布兰最初以为把他当成了又一具尸体，一具支撑了太久的尸鬼以至于树根缠绕住了他，把他包裹起来了。除了从脖子延伸到脸颊上那块血红色的斑痕，这位骸骨之主的皮肤是如此的白皙。他的白发像根须一样精致而纤细，长长的一直拖到了地上。缠绕在他大腿上卷曲的树根像是木头刻成的蛇。有一支树根从他裤子上的破洞钻进了他大腿上干枯的血肉中，从他的肩膀冒了出来。一簇深红色的叶子从他的头骨中探了出来，额头上散落生长着灰色的蘑菇。还有一小块皮肤残留着，绷在他的脸上，紧绷绷和坚硬的就像块白色的皮革，但就是那也在崩裂，到处都有褐色和黄色的骨头从下面撑出来。
His body was so skeletal and his clothes so rotted that at first Bran took him for another corpse, a dead man propped up so long that the roots had grown over him, under him, and through him. What skin the corpse lord showed was white, save for a bloody blotch that crept up his neck onto his cheek. His white hair was fine and thin as root hair and long enough to brush against the earthen floor. Roots coiled around his legs like wooden serpents. One burrowed through his breeches into the desiccated flesh of his thigh, to emerge again from his shoulder. A spray of dark red leaves sprouted from his skull, and grey mushrooms spotted his brow. A little skin remained, stretched across his face, tight and hard as white leather, but even that was fraying, and here and there the brown and yellow bone beneath was poking through.
“您是三眼乌鸦吗？”布兰听见自己开口说话。三眼乌鸦应该有三只眼睛。他只有一只，而且还是红色的。布兰能感觉得到那只眼睛正打量着他，在火光的映射下就像血色的湖泊一样闪闪发光。他的另一只眼睛哪去了，一根细细的树根从空空的眼眶中伸展出来，挂在他的脸颊上，插到他的脖子中。
“Are you the three-eyed crow?” Bran heard himself say. A three-eyed crow should have three eyes. He has only one, and that one red. Bran could feel the eye staring at him, shining like a pool of blood in the torchlight. Where his other eye should have been, a thin white root grew from an empty socket, down his cheek, and into his neck.
“乌……鸦”那个白皙的君主嗓音干涩。他的嘴唇张得很慢，仿佛它们已经忘记怎么吐出一个词来了。“曾经是，对的。黑色的打扮，黑色的血。”他穿着的衣服已经腐烂脱落了，布满了霉斑和虫蛀，那它们曾经是黑色的。“我曾有很多化身，布兰。但现在我就是你看到的这幅样子，现在你该清楚为什么我不能去找你了吧……除非是在梦里。我观察了你很久，时刻都在观察着你。我看见了你的降生，还有在你之前你父亲大人的降生。我看到了你迈出的第一步，听见了你说出的第一句话，投身进你所做的第一个梦中。当你跌落时我正在一旁观望。现在你终于来找我了，布兰登·史塔克，尽管来的有些迟。”
“A … crow?” The pale lord’s voice was dry. His lips moved slowly, as if they had forgotten how to form words. “Once, aye. Black of garb and black of blood.” The clothes he wore were rotten and faded, spotted with moss and eaten through with worms, but once they had been black. “I have been many things, Bran. Now I am as you see me, and now you will understand why I could not come to you … except in dreams. I have watched you for a long time, watched you with a thousand eyes and one. I saw your birth, and that of your lord father before you. I saw your first step, heard your first word, was part of your first dream. I was watching when you fell. And now you are come to me at last, Brandon Stark, though the hour is late.”
“我到这里，”布兰说，“仅仅因为我残废了，我的意思是，您能……您能治愈我……我的大腿吗？
“I’m here,” Bran said, “only I’m broken. Will you … will you fix me … my legs, I mean?”
“不能，”那个白皙的君主说。“那超出了我的能力。”
“No,” said the pale lord. “That is beyond my powers.”
布兰的双眼涌出了泪水，我们艰难跋涉才来到这里。洞穴中回响着下面漆黑的河水流淌的声音。
Bran’s eyes filled with tears. We came such a long way. The chamber echoed to the sound of the black river.
“你再也不能行走了，布兰，”从那苍白的嘴唇吐出了他的承诺，“但你将会飞翔。”
“You will never walk again, Bran,” the pale lips promised, “but you will fly.”
