"Soon," Viserys replied. "At our current speed, we should reach the Wall in another hour or so. Hang in there, Rhaenys."
Rhaenys nodded and said nothing more. She sat on Meleys's back, her violet eyes fixed on the gray sky ahead, her thoughts drifting somewhere unknown.
The Shadow Tower stood at the western end of the Wall. The castle looked far more primitive than Castle Black, its main tower only five stories high, built of rough stone.
Against the Wall's towering ice, however, the tower looked low and squat, its roof blanketed in thick snow.
The Shadow Tower's southern outer wall was also built from rough, gray-black stones of uneven sizes, with frozen earth and moss filling the gaps. It looked somewhat sturdier than Castle Black's wooden walls.
But the Night's Watch saw no need to guard against threats from the south, so it had long been neglected. Time had now eaten pits into it, and in many places, stones had loosened and fallen, forming little heaps at its base.
As for the wooden outbuildings and storehouses, they were all crowded beneath the main tower. Several had already collapsed, and no one had repaired those either.
These buildings leaned crookedly against one another, creaking in the bitter wind.
Besides, the Night's Watch was already desperately short of men. Fewer than two hundred Black Brothers garrisoned the Shadow Tower, and more than half were support personnel-craftsmen, cooks, and newly arrived criminals with little combat experience.
As these men worked in the Shadow Tower's courtyard, their faces always wore blank or numb expressions. Their movements were sluggish, as though the bitter cold of the North had frozen their very souls.
Even counting everyone, fewer than eighty could actually take up swords and fight. Yet many of them wore rusted armor and carried