Fire blazed in Maester Aemon's room.
The corpse named Jaffer Flowers was finally reduced to a heap of charred bones beneath the consuming flames.
Those uncanny blue eyes had lost their glow completely.
Only when the flames gradually died did the nauseating stench of burned flesh begin to fade.
But the fear gripping every member of the Night's Watch only thickened, like the fog in the Haunted Forest.
"My lord was right..."
A young guard stared at the blackened remains on the floor, his voice trembling.
He was a member of Torrhen's squad, one of the men who had carried out Lynn's plan.
"Only fire... only fire works!"
His words immediately struck a chord.
"I slashed it several times with my sword, but it did nothing! It couldn't seem to feel pain. It didn't care about its wounds at all!"
Another guard who had taken part in the fight added, still shaken.
"Exactly! That thing was too strong! It nearly grabbed me!"
"Thank goodness we listened to my lord and prepared torches and oil beforehand!"
Torrhen and his soldiers took turns recounting the terrifying scene.
Their voices were full of relief at having survived, along with heartfelt admiration for Lynn.
Had Lord Lynn not made preparations, had they not strictly followed his orders to use fire...
What lay here tonight would not have been a pile of charred bones, but their own corpses!
The surrounding men of the Night's Watch listened in silence.
Their expressions kept shifting.
Their initial doubt had turned to shock, and now to awe.
The way they looked at Lynn had changed as well.
They had once despised this young man as a deserter. Although he had subdued them through force, they had still thought of him as one.
Now, in their eyes, Lynn seemed cloaked