Chapter 第十五章 戴弗斯

DAVOS

“接生婆梅丽”号随着夜晚的潮水偷偷地驶入白港，她满是补丁的旧帆在每一阵风中都泛起涟漪。

The Merry Midwife stole into White Harbor on the evening tide, her patched sail rippling with every gust of wind.

她是一条老坷克船，即使是新船的时候，她都称不上漂亮。她的船艏物是一个抓住倒悬婴孩腿的接生婆，不过这个妇人的脸与婴孩的屁股都已遭虫蛀。她的船身棕褐色漆层已经斑驳脱落，旧帆也灰白褴褛。除非是疑心她为何仍然浮着，没人会多看一眼。“接生婆梅丽”号在白港也被人熟知，因为她经年往返于白港和姐妹群岛之间从事些卑微的贸易。

She was an old cog, and even in her youth no one had ever called her pretty. Her figurehead showed a laughing woman holding an infant by one foot, but the woman’s cheeks and the babe’s bottom were both pocked by wormholes. Uncounted layers of drab brown paint covered her hull; her sails were grey and tattered. She was not a ship to draw a second glance, unless it was to wonder how she stayed afloat. The Merry Midwife was known in White Harbor too. For years she had plied a humble trade between there and Sisterton.

戴佛斯？席渥斯驾驶‘赛拉’号和他的船队时，没有想到会以这种方式来到白港，当时一切看起来都如此简单。史坦尼斯国王派出的渡鸦没有带来白港的加盟，所以陛下此次特意派遣戴佛斯作为特使亲自与曼德勒大人商谈。为了展现力量，本来按计划是由戴佛斯驾驶‘赛拉’的瓦雷利亚船队，后面再跟上萨拉多？桑恩的里斯船队，每一个船体都刷上彩色条纹：黑色和黄色，粉色和蓝色，绿色和白色，紫色和金色。里斯人喜欢鲜亮的色调，而萨拉多是其中最鲜艳的一个，‘壮丽的’萨拉多，戴佛斯想，然而风暴把这一切都吞噬了。

It was not the sort of arrival that Davos Seaworth had anticipated when he’d set sail with Salla and his fleet. All this had seemed simpler then. The ravens had not brought King Stannis the allegiance of White Harbor, so His Grace would send an envoy to treat with Lord Manderly in person. As a show of strength, Davos would arrive aboard Salla’s galleas Valyrian, with the rest of the Lysene fleet behind her. Every hull was striped: black and yellow, pink and blue, green and white, purple and gold. The Lyseni loved bright hues, and Salladhor Saan was the most colorful of all. Salladhor the Splendid, Davos thought, but the storms wrote an end to all of that.

但是，戴佛斯把自己走私到了这个城市，就像他二十年前所做的一样。不过他知道是什么让他能站在这儿，是作为一般水手的审慎本能，而不是作为首相大人。

Instead he would smuggle himself into the city, as he might have done twenty years before. Until he knew how matters stood here, it was more prudent to play the common sailor, not the lord.

白港的白色石墙耸立在他们面前，东岸白刃河直插入河口湾。城市的防御工事与戴佛斯上次来相比有了明显加强，那是在六年前。分成内港和外港的码头又加固了一道长石墙，高三十尺，长差不多一里，每间隔一百码都有塔楼。海豹岩也有烟冒出来，以前那里只是废墟。这可能是好事也可能是坏事，取决于文曼大人站在谁的一边。

White Harbor’s walls of whitewashed stone rose before them, on the eastern shore where the White Knife plunged into the firth. Some of the city’s defenses had been strengthened since the last time Davos had been here, half a dozen years before. The jetty that divided the inner and outer harbors had been fortified with a long stone wall, thirty feet tall and almost a mile long, with towers every hundred yards. There was smoke rising from Seal Rock as well, where once there had been only ruins. That could be good or bad, depending on what side Lord Wyman chooses.

戴佛斯一直喜欢这个城市，自从他作为Cobblecat号上船舱服务生第一次来到白港。尽管白港比旧镇和君临要小，但它更干净、有序，又宽又直的鹅卵石街道不会让人迷路。房屋都是白色石头建造，黑灰色石板铺成陡斜坡屋顶。Roro Uhoris，Cobblecat号上的古怪老船长，曾声称凭气味就能分辨出各个港口。城市就像女人，他坚持认为，每一个都有自己独一无二的气味。旧镇是绚丽的带香味的贵妇；兰尼斯港是头发里有烟熏味的挤奶女仆，鲜嫩简朴；君临臭的像从不洗澡的妓女；而白港的气味像小渔家女，又咸又辣。“她闻起来像美人鱼，”Roro说，“有海的味道。”

Davos had always been fond of this city, since first he’d come here as a cabin boy on Cobblecat. Though small compared to Oldtown and King’s Landing, it was clean and well-ordered, with wide straight cobbled streets that made it easy for a man to find his way. The houses were built of whitewashed stone, with steeply pitched roofs of dark grey slate. Roro Uhoris, the Cobblecat’s cranky old master, used to claim that he could tell one port from another just by the way they smelled. Cities were like women, he insisted; each one had its own unique scent. Oldtown was as flowery as a perfumed dowager. Lannisport was a milkmaid, fresh and earthy, with woodsmoke in her hair. King’s Landing reeked like some unwashed whore. But White Harbor’s scent was sharp and salty, and a little fishy too. “She smells the way a mermaid ought to smell,” Roro said. “She smells of the sea.”

她依然如此，戴佛斯想，但是他也能闻到从海豹岩渐渐飘远的泥煤烟味。那块海石耸立在外港入口处，巨大的灰绿色石体冲出水面五十尺高，顶上戴着一圈风化石头的‘冠冕’，孤立和被遗弃了数百年的先民的环形堡垒。但现在没有被遗弃，戴佛斯能看到直立巨石后面的scorpions 和spitfires，十字弓手们在它们之间窥视着，站在那里肯定又冷又湿。以前每次来这里，都能看到海豹躺在破碎的岩石下面晒太阳，每次Cobblecat 从白港起航前，‘瞎眼私生子’总是让他数它们。“海豹越多，”Roro说，“我们的航程就越有好运气。”现在没有一只海豹，烟和士兵们吓跑了它们。聪明点儿的人会因此而多加小心。如果当时我有这种感觉，我会驾驶‘赛垃’号离开。他本该改道回南方见Marya和他的儿子们。我为了给国王服务已经失去了四个儿子，第五个儿子是国王的侍从。我应该有珍惜还活着的两个儿子的权利。我已经太长时间没见到他们了。

She still does, thought Davos, but he could smell the peat smoke drifting off Seal Rock too. The sea stone dominated the approaches to the outer harbor, a massive grey-green upthrust looming fifty feet above the waters. Its top was crowned with a circle of weathered stones, a ringfort of the First Men that had stood desolate and abandoned for hundreds of years. It was not abandoned now. Davos could see scorpions and spitfires behind the standing stones, and crossbowmen peering between them. It must be cold up there, and wet. On all his previous visits, seals could be seen basking on the broken rocks below. The Blind Bastard always made him count them whenever the Cobblecat set sail from White Harbor; the more seals there were, Roro said, the more luck they would have on their voyage. There were no seals now. The smoke and the soldiers had frightened them away. A wiser man would see a caution in that. If I had a thimble full of sense, I would have gone with Salla. He could have made his way back south, to Marya and their sons. I have lost four sons in the king’s service, and my fifth serves as his squire. I should have the right to cherish the two boys who still remain. It has been too long since I saw them.

在东海望，黑衣兄弟们告诉他：白港的曼德勒和恐怖堡的波顿之间没有友谊，铁王座提拔卢斯？波顿作为北境守护，作为理性的选择文曼？曼德勒应该宣誓效忠史坦尼斯。白港不能独自存活，它需要一个同盟，一个保护者。文曼大人需要史坦尼斯国王，就和史坦尼斯国王需要他一样。在东海望看来似乎是这样。

At Eastwatch, the black brothers told him there was no love between the Manderlys of White Harbor and the Boltons of the Dreadfort. The Iron Throne had raised Roose Bolton up to Warden of the North, so it stood to reason that Wyman Manderly should declare for Stannis. White Harbor cannot stand alone. The city needs an ally, a protector. Lord Wyman needs King Stannis as much as Stannis needs him. Or so it seemed at Eastwatch.

姐妹群岛已经让他逐渐失去这些希望。要是波内尔大人说的是真的，如果曼德勒想联合波顿和佛雷的力量…不，他不能总想这些。他用不了多久就会知道真相，他祈祷自己没有来的太迟。

Sisterton had undermined those hopes. If Lord Borrell told it true, if the Manderlys meant to join their strength to the Boltons and the Freys … no, he would not dwell on that. He would know the truth soon enough. He prayed he had not come too late.

当“接生婆梅丽”号拉下船帆，他注意到防护石墙遮住了内港。外港更大，但是内港提供更好的停泊位，两边分别被城墙和森然耸立的狼舍围墙防护起来，现在又多了道防护石墙。在东海望，科特？派克告诉戴佛斯，文曼大人正在建造战船。现在可能已经有一堆战船隐藏在这些墙后面，等待着一声令下就离港出海。

That jetty wall conceals the inner harbor, he realized, as the Merry Midwife was pulling down her sail. The outer harbor was larger, but the inner harbor offered better anchorage, sheltered by the city wall on one side and the looming mass of the Wolf’s Den on another, and now by the jetty wall as well. At Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, Cotter Pyke told Davos that Lord Wyman was building war galleys. There could have been a score of ships concealed behind those walls, waiting only a command to put to sea.

厚厚的白石城墙后面，新城堡挺立在山岗上，骄傲而苍白。戴佛斯也能看到雪诺家族的穹形屋顶，上面站立着七神的高大雕像。曼德勒家族带着北方的神，从‘the Reach’迁来白港。白港也有自己的神木林，如今只是关在狼舍破碎的黑墙后面的一堆乱糟糟的树根、树枝和石头，古老的要塞被用作监狱。不过大多数时候是修士们管理这里。

Behind the city’s thick white walls, the New Castle rose proud and pale upon its hill. Davos could see the domed roof of the Sept of the Snows as well, surmounted by tall statues of the Seven. The Manderlys had brought the Faith north with them when they were driven from the Reach. White Harbor had its godswood too, a brooding tangle of root and branch and stone locked away behind the crumbling black walls of the Wolf’s Den, an ancient fortress that served only as a prison now. But for the most part the septons ruled here.

曼德勒家族的男人鱼旗帜随处可见，在新城堡的塔楼上、海怪门上、城墙上随风飘舞。在东海望，北方人坚持认为白港不会背弃与临冬城的同盟，然而戴佛斯没有看到半点儿史塔克家冰原狼的迹象。这里也没有狮子的迹象，文曼大人还没有向托曼国王宣誓效忠，或许他只是想提高筹码。

The merman of House Manderly was everywhere in evidence, flying from the towers of the New Castle, above the Seal Gate, and along the city walls. At Eastwatch, the northmen insisted that White Harbor would never abandon its allegiance to Winterfell, but Davos saw no sign of the direwolf of Stark. There are no lions either. Lord Wyman cannot have declared for Tommen yet, or he would have raised his standard.

靠近码头，‘小飞轮’船四处云集。一堆杂乱的小船沿着鱼市泊着，正在卸它们打捞的鱼获。他也看到三条河船，打造成瘦长的船体，足以应付白刃河的激流和岩石。然而，最让他敢兴趣的是适于出海远航的舰船：一对像“接生婆梅丽”号一样破旧的土黄色大帆船；“风暴舞者”号贸易舰船；“勇敢学士”号和“Plenty号角”号坷克船；一艘来自布拉佛斯的帆船，紫色的船壳和船帆…

The dockside wharves were swarming. A clutter of small boats were tied up along the fish market, off-loading their catches. He saw three river runners too, long lean boats built tough to brave the swift currents and rocky shoots of the White Knife. It was the seagoing vessels that interested him most, however; a pair of carracks as drab and tattered as the Merry Midwife, the trading galley Storm Dancer, the cogs Brave Magister and Horn of Plenty, a galleas from Braavos marked by her purple hull and sails …

…再靠外是一艘战船。

… and there beyond, the warship.

眼前所见像一把刀击碎了他所有希望。那艘战船黑金色船壳，船头雕饰是一头高举单爪的狮子。她的船尾字母是——兰尼斯特，飘扬的旗帜下面是铁王座上男孩国王的军队。一年前他还不认识字，但是每当他回到龙石岛派洛斯学士就教他一些字母。然而这一次，识字没带给他什么乐趣。戴佛斯曾经祈祷摧毁‘塞拉’号的船队的那场风暴也摧毁兰尼斯特的战舰，然而诸神不够仁慈。佛雷家的船也在这儿，他需要去面对他们。

The sight of her sent a knife through his hopes. Her hull was black and gold, her figurehead a lion with an upraised paw. Lionstar, read the letters on her stern, beneath a fluttering banner that bore the arms of the boy king on the Iron Throne. A year ago, he would not have been able to read them, but Maester Pylos had taught him some of the letters back on Dragonstone. For once, the reading gave him little pleasure. Davos had been praying that the galley had been lost in the same storms that had ravaged Salla’s fleet, but the gods had not been so kind. The Freys were here, and he would need to face them.

“接生婆梅丽”号系在外港风化的木头水上平台的最远端，很好地远离兰尼斯特的船。当船员们快速的打好桩放下跳板，船长漫步到戴佛斯面前。Casso Mogat是来自狭海的杂种，出身是伊班的捕鲸人在姐妹群岛上了一个妓女。他只有五尺身高，浑身长毛，头发胡子染成苔藓绿色，这让他看起来像是长在黄靴子上的一节树桩。虽然其貌不扬，但他是个好水手，尽管对船员们过于严苛了点儿。“你要去多长时间？”

The Merry Midwife tied up to the end of a weathered wooden pier in the outer harbor, well away from Lionstar. As her crew made her fast to the pilings and lowered a gangplank, her captain sauntered up to Davos. Casso Mogat was a mongrel of the narrow sea, fathered on a Sisterton whore by an Ibbenese whaler. Only five feet tall and very hirsute, he dyed his hair and whiskers a mossy green. It made him look like a tree stump in yellow boots. Despite his appearance, he seemed a good sailor, though a hard master to his crew. “How long will you be gone?”

“至少一天。或许更长。”戴佛斯发现大人们总是喜欢让别人等，他怀疑他们是故意让别人焦急，来证明自己的权力。

“A day at least. It may be longer.” Davos had found that lords liked to keep you waiting. They did it to make you anxious, he suspected, and to demonstrate their power.

“‘接生婆梅丽’号会在这儿停留三天。不会再长。他们会催我回姐妹群岛。”

“The Midwife will linger here three days. No longer. They will look for me back in Sisterton.”

“如果事情顺利，我可能明天就会回来。”

“If things go well, I could be back by the morrow.”

“要是事情不顺利呢？”

“And if these things go badly?”

我可能不会再回来。“你不必等我。”

I may not be back at all. “You need not wait for me.”

当他从跳板上下来时，一对海关人员正在上船，但是没人多看他一眼。他们是来见船长并检查货物，从不关心普通水手以及少数看起来像戴佛斯一样普通的人。他中等身高，世故的农夫面孔饱经风吹日晒，灰白胡须和灰棕色头发。他的着装也是平平：旧靴子，棕色马裤，蓝色外套，未染色的羊毛皮斗篷用木头扣子扣紧。他戴了一副盐污的皮手套，遮挡许多年前被史坦尼斯国王砍短的粗短手指。戴佛斯看起来根本不像个大人，更不用说是国王之手。一切都很好直到他知道这里的情况之后。

A pair of customs men were clambering aboard as he went down the gangplank, but neither gave him so much as a glance. They were there to see the captain and inspect the hold; common seamen did not concern them, and few men looked as common as Davos. He was of middling height, his shrewd peasant’s face weathered by wind and sun, his grizzled beard and brown hair well salted with grey. His garb was plain as well: old boots, brown breeches and blue tunic, a woolen mantle of undyed wool, fastened with a wooden clasp. He wore a pair of salt-stained leather gloves to hide the stubby fingers of the hand that Stannis had shortened, so many years ago. Davos hardly looked a lord, much less a King’s Hand. That was all to the good until he knew how matters stood here.

他一路沿着码头走，穿过鱼市。“勇敢学士”号正在往船上装蜂蜜酒，酒桶stood four high沿着水上平台。他瞥见在一个酒桶后面，三个水手在掷骰子。再往前，渔妇们正在喊着兜售当天的鱼获，一个男孩正在敲着鼓点为在一圈河船中间跳舞的破旧‘老熊’打着拍子。两个长矛兵在海豹门站岗，胸前佩戴着曼德勒家族徽章，但是他们太专注于跟一个码头区妓女打情骂俏，对戴佛斯的接近并没在意。门是开着的，吊闸门升起，他加入人流从大门穿过。

He made his way along the wharf and through the fish market. The Brave Magister was taking on some mead. The casks stood four high along the pier. Behind one stack he glimpsed three sailors throwing dice. Farther on the fishwives were crying the day’s catch, and a boy was beating time on a drum as a shabby old bear danced in a circle for a ring of river runners. Two spearmen had been posted at the Seal Gate, with the badge of House Manderly upon their breasts, but they were too intent on flirting with a dockside whore to pay Davos any mind. The gate was open, the portcullis raised. He joined the traffic passing through.

里面是一个铺鹅卵石的广场，中心有个喷泉，一个石头男人鱼雕像从水中升起，从脚到头有二十码高。他卷毛的绿色胡须上覆盖了一层白色地衣，手中三叉戟的其中一个叉在戴佛斯出生前就断掉了，然而不知怎的仍然让他印象深刻。当地人都称呼它为——老鱼脚，这个广场据说是以某位死去的领主来命名的，但是没有人那么叫，只称作是鱼脚广场。

Inside was a cobbled square with a fountain at its center. A stone merman rose from its waters, twenty feet tall from tail to crown. His curly beard was green and white with lichen, and one of the prongs of his trident had broken off before Davos had been born, yet somehow he still managed to impress. Old Fishfoot was what the locals called him. The square was named for some dead lord, but no one ever called it anything but Fishfoot Yard.

今天午后的鱼脚广场非常热闹。一个妇女正在鱼脚喷泉洗内衣，然后挂在三叉戟上晾干。不法小贩的石柱廊的拱门下面，抄书吏和钱币兑换商正忙着业务，边上围着一个禁忌巫师，一个药草女和一个拙劣的杂耍艺人。一个男人推着手推车在卖苹果，一个女人在卖抹上剁碎洋葱的青鱼。脚下到处是鸡和小孩。戴佛斯以前来的时候，老铸币厂的巨大铁橡木门总是关着，但是今天开门了。戴佛斯瞥了一眼里面，看到数百的女人、儿童和老人在堆着毛皮的地板上挤作一团，也有人在生起点点炊火。

The Yard was teeming this afternoon. A woman was washing her smallclothes in Fishfoot’s fountain and hanging them off his trident to dry. Beneath the arches of the peddler’s colonnade the scribes and money changers had set up for business, along with a hedge wizard, an herb woman, and a very bad juggler. A man was selling apples from a barrow, and a woman was offering herring with chopped onions. Chickens and children were everywhere underfoot. The huge oak-and-iron doors of the Old Mint had always been closed when Davos had been in Fishfoot Yard before, but today they stood open. Inside he glimpsed hundreds of women, children, and old men, huddled on the floor on piles of furs. Some had little cookfires going.

戴佛斯在石柱廊停下脚步，花半便士买了一个苹果。“那些人住在老铸币厂？”他问苹果贩。

Davos stopped beneath the colonnade and traded a halfpenny for an apple. “Are people living in the Old Mint?” he asked the apple seller.

“他们是因为没其他地方可住。他们多数是从白刃河上游来的，也有Hornwood的人。跟着波顿的私生子到处乱跑，他们都想进城。我不知道大人到底想要他们干什么，很多人出现的时候只有背上穿件破布。”

“Them as have no other place to live. Smallfolk from up the White Knife, most o’ them. Hornwood’s people too. With that Bastard o’ Bolton running loose, they all want to be inside the walls. I don’t know what his lordship means to do with all o’ them. Most turned up with no more’n the rags on their backs.”

戴佛斯感到一阵深深的负罪感。他们来到这里是想寻求庇护，到一个未被战争影响到的城市，然而我来这里却是要把他们拖入战争。他咬了一口苹果，也为这感到愧疚。“他们吃什么？”

Davos felt a pang of guilt. They came here for refuge, to a city untouched by the fighting, and here I turn up to drag them back into the war. He took a bite of the apple and felt guilty about that as well. “How do they eat?”

苹果贩耸肩，“有人去乞讨，有人去偷盗，许多年轻女孩从事那种交易，当她们无路可走的时候都会选择的那种交易。每一个身高五尺的男孩都可以在大人的营房里找到一个位置，只要他能举起一根长矛。”

The apple seller shrugged. “Some beg. Some steal. Lots o’ young girls taking up the trade, the way girls always do when it’s all they got to sell. Any boy stands five feet tall can find a place in his lordship’s barracks, long as he can hold a spear.”

他正在训练战士，那么，这可能是好事…或者是坏事，取决于…苹果又干又粉，但是戴佛斯又咬了一口，“文曼大人想要加入私生子？”

He’s raising men, then. That might be good … or bad, depending. The apple was dry and mealy, but Davos made himself take another bite. “Does Lord Wyman mean to join the Bastard?”

“好啊，”苹果贩说，“下次大人出来路过这儿想买苹果吃的时候，我一定问问他。”

“Well,” said the apple seller, “the next time his lordship comes down here hunkering for an apple, I’ll be sure and ask him.”

“我听说他的女儿要嫁给一个佛雷。”

“I heard his daughter was to wed some Frey.”

“是他的孙女。我也听说了。不过大人忘了邀请我去参加她们的婚礼。那个，你吃完了吗？我要把剩下的收回来，它们的果核是好的。”

“His granddaughter. I heard that too, but his lordship forgot t’ invite me to the wedding. Here, you going to finish that? I’ll take the rest back. Them seeds is good.”

戴佛斯把吃剩下的苹果抛给他。一个坏苹果，但是花费半便士知道了曼德勒正在训练战士还是值得的。

Davos tossed him back the core. A bad apple, but it was worth half a penny to learn that Manderly is raising men. He made his way around Old Fishfoot, past where a young girl was selling cups of fresh milk from her nanny goat. He was remembering more of the city now that he was here. Down past where Old Fishfoot’s trident pointed was an alley where they sold fried cod, crisp and golden brown outside and flaky white within. Over there was a brothel, cleaner than most, where a sailor could enjoy a woman without fear of being robbed or killed. Off the other way, in one of those houses that clung to the walls of the Wolf’s Den like barnacles to an old hull, there used to be a brewhouse where they made a black beer so thick and tasty that a cask of it could fetch as much as Arbor gold in Braavos and the Port of Ibben, provided the locals left the brewer any to sell.

他绕着老鱼脚广场走，走过一个带着只母山羊用杯子卖鲜羊奶的年轻女孩。他唤起了更多的关于这个城市的记忆。从‘老鱼脚’的三叉戟所指的方向向下走有一条小巷，那里有个卖鲜脆煎鳕鱼的，鱼片外皮金黄内里雪白。正上方有一家妓院，比多数要干净，在那里水手可以安心地享受女人而不用担心被抢劫或杀死。沿着另一条路向下，紧挨着狼舍的石墙是看起来像barnacle的古老外壳的房子，其中一间曾经是个酿造房，那里酿造的一种黑啤酒，非常浓稠而且口感好，在布拉佛斯和伊班港甚至能换到等量的Arbor金，如果本地人能留给酿酒人这种酒拿出去卖的话。

It was wine he wanted, though—sour, dark, and dismal. He strolled across the yard and down a flight of steps, to a winesink called the Lazy Eel, underneath a warehouse full of sheepskins. Back in his smuggling days, the Eel had been renowned for offering the oldest whores and vilest wine in White Harbor, along with meat pies full of lard and gristle that were inedible on their best days and poisonous on their worst. With fare like that, most locals shunned the place, leaving it for sailors who did not know any better. You never saw a city guardsman down in the Lazy Eel, or a customs officer.

他想喝酒，尽管——酸，黑，让人忧郁。他漫步穿过广场走下一段台阶，满是羊皮制品的货栈下面是一家叫做“疯狂鳗鱼”的酒馆。仿佛又回到以前走私的日子，这个酒馆以提供白港最老的妓女和最差的酒著名，除此之外肉派用的是不适合食用甚至是有毒的猪油和软骨。因此，本地人大多都不来这里，除非是不知道更好酒馆的水手们。在“疯狂鳗鱼”酒馆，你从来不会见到城市守卫和收税官员。

Some things never change. Inside the Eel, time stood still. The barrel-vaulted ceiling was stained black with soot, the floor was hard-packed earth, the air smelled of smoke and spoiled meat and stale vomit. The fat tallow candles on the tables gave off more smoke than light, and the wine that Davos ordered looked more brown than red in the gloom. Four whores were seated near the door, drinking. One gave him a hopeful smile as he entered. When Davos shook his head, the woman said something that made her companions laugh. After that none of them paid him any mind.

有些事情从来不会改变。“疯狂鳗鱼”酒馆里，时光依旧。筒形屋顶被煤烟熏成黑色，地板是硬邦邦的泥土地，空气中弥漫着烟、坏肉和呕吐物的味道。桌上的牛油蜡烛发出的烟比光还多，戴佛斯点的酒在昏暗的灯光下呈现棕褐色而不是红色。四个妓女做在门口喝酒，他进来时其中一个满怀希望的看了他一眼，看到他摇头，那个妓女说了句什么让她的同伴哈哈大笑，之后她们再也对他没有丝毫兴趣。

Aside from the whores and the proprietor, Davos had the Eel to himself. The cellar was large, full of nooks and shadowed alcoves where a man could be alone. He took his wine to one of them and sat with his back to a wall to wait.

从妓女们和酒馆老板身边走过，戴佛斯走进“疯狂鳗鱼”酒馆。里面很大，有很多没人打扰的角落和壁龛暗影处，他带着他的酒走到其中一个位置，背靠着墙壁坐下等待。

Before long, he found himself staring at the hearth. The red woman could see the future in the fire, but all that Davos Seaworth ever saw were the shadows of the past: the burning ships, the fiery chain, the green shadows flashing across the belly of the clouds, the Red Keep brooding over all. Davos was a simple man, raised up by chance and war and Stannis. He did not understand why the gods would take four lads as young and strong as his sons, yet spare their weary father. Some nights he thought he had been left to rescue Edric Storm … but by now King Robert’s bastard boy was safe in the Stepstones, yet Davos still remained. Do the gods have some other task for me? he wondered. If so, White Harbor may be some part of it. He tried the wine, then poured half his cup onto the floor beside his foot.

不久，他发现自己正在盯着壁炉看，红衣女人能从火中看到未来，然而戴佛斯？席渥斯能看到的只有过去的阴影：燃烧的战船，火红的铁链，闪电划过云团的绿色暗影，brooding over all的红堡。戴佛斯是个简单的人，靠机会、战争和史坦尼斯崛起。他无法理解诸神为什么要带走四个年轻强壮的儿子，却留下他们疲倦的老父亲。有些夜里，他想到诸神留下自己是为了救护艾德里克？风暴…但是现在，劳勃国王的私生子男孩安全地待在石阶列岛，而我仍在奔波。是诸神还有其他任务给我？他想知道，如果是的话，白港或许就是任务之一。他尝试着喝这酒，然后剩下半杯泼到脚边的地板上。

As dusk fell outside, the benches at the Eel began to fill with sailors. Davos called to the proprietor for another cup. When he brought it, he brought him a candle too. “You want food?” the man asked. “We got meat pies.”

当外面黄昏降临，“疯狂鳗鱼”酒馆的长凳上坐满了水手。戴佛斯招呼老板再来一杯，老板端着酒杯过来，还带来一根蜡烛，“你想吃点什么？”男人问，“我们有肉派。”

“What kind of meat is in them?”

“什么肉做的？”

“The usual kind. It’s good.”

“通常那种，是好肉。”

The whores laughed. “It’s grey, he means,” one said.

妓女们大笑。“他的意思是灰肉”，一个妓女说。“闭上你的臭嘴。你才吃灰肉！”

“Shut your bloody yap. You eat them.”

“各种屎我都吃，不代表我喜欢屎。”

“I eat all kinds o’ shit. Don’t mean I like it.”

老板一走开，戴佛斯就吹熄了蜡烛，坐回到阴影里。水手们是世界上最会流言蜚语的人，当他们几杯酒灌肚，即使是最便宜的酒。他要做的只是去听。

Davos blew the candle out as soon as the proprietor moved off, and sat back in the shadows. Seamen were the worst gossips in the world when the wine was flowing, even wine as cheap as this. All he need do was listen.

他听到的消息大部分在姐妹群岛已经知道，从高德瑞奇大人还有“鲸鱼肚”的居民那里。泰温？兰尼斯特死了，被他的侏儒儿子杀死，他的尸体三天后才发现，已经严重发臭，甚至都没人敢进去“贝勒”的Great Sept；鹰巢城夫人被一个歌手谋杀，现在“小指头”大人控制了谷地，但是青铜约恩？罗伊斯发誓要让他下台；巴隆？格雷乔伊也死了，他的兄弟们正在为“海石王座”而开战；桑铎？克里冈变成亡命之徒，正在三叉戟河流域掠夺和杀人；密尔、里斯和泰洛西卷入另一场战争，奴隶反叛的风暴正在东大陆风行。

Most of what he heard he’d learned in Sisterton, from Lord Godric or the denizens of the Belly of the Whale. Tywin Lannister was dead, butchered by his dwarf son; his corpse had stunk so badly that no one had been able to enter the Great Sept of Baelor for days afterward; the Lady of the Eyrie had been murdered by a singer; Littlefinger ruled the Vale now, but Bronze Yohn Royce had sworn to bring him down; Balon Greyjoy had died as well, and his brothers were fighting for the Seastone Chair; Sandor Clegane had turned outlaw and was plundering and killing in the lands along the Trident; Myr and Lys and Tyrosh were embroiled in another war; a slave revolt was raging in the east.

其他一些消息更让他感兴趣。罗贝特。格洛佛也在白港，他试图召集士兵但收效甚微。曼德勒大人对他的请求置若罔闻，有消息称他如是说——白港厌烦战争。这是个坏消息。Ryswells和Dustins在热浪河意外地得到铁民，并把铁民的头领付之一炬。这个消息更糟。还有波顿的私生子的骑兵正在南下要袭击卡林湾，Hother Umber加入了他们。“妓餍自己，”刚在白刃河从船上卸完兽皮和木料的河民声称，“带着300长矛兵和100弓箭手。也有一些Hornwood人和Cerwyns人加入了他们。”

Other tidings were of greater interest. Robett Glover was in the city and had been trying to raise men, with little success. Lord Manderly had turned a deaf ear to his pleas. White Harbor was weary of war, he was reported to have said. That was bad. The Ryswells and the Dustins had surprised the ironmen on the Fever River and put their longships to the torch. That was worse. And now the Bastard of Bolton was riding south with Hother Umber to join them for an attack on Moat Cailin. “The Whoresbane his own self,” claimed a riverman who’d just brought a load of hides and timber down the White Knife, “with three hundred spearmen and a hundred archers. Some Hornwood men have joined them, and Cerwyns too.” That was worst of all.

“文曼大人最好是派些人去参战，如果他知道什么是对他最有利的话，”坐在桌子末端的老男人说，“卢斯大人，现在已经是北境守护了，白港的荣誉必定会响应他的号召。”

“Lord Wyman best send some men to fight if he knows what’s good for him,” said the old fellow at the end of the table. “Lord Roose, he’s the Warden now. White Harbor’s honor bound to answer his summons.”

“波顿大人知道什么是白港的荣誉？”‘鳗鱼’老板一边给他们的杯子添酒一边说。

“What did any Bolton ever know o’ honor?” said the Eel’s proprietor as he filled their cups with more brown wine.

“文曼大人哪都去不了。他太肥胖了。”

“Lord Wyman won’t go no place. He’s too bloody fat.”

“我听说他最近身体不舒服。他们说，他能做的只有睡觉和哭泣。多数日子里，他都病的起不来床了。”

“I heard how he was ailing. All he does is sleep and weep, they say. He’s too sick to get out o’ his bed most days.”

“你的意思是，太胖了。”

“Too fat, you mean.”

“胖和瘦都没有关系，”‘鳗鱼’老板说，“是因为‘狮子’抓住了他的儿子。”

“Fat or thin’s got naught to do with it,” said the Eel’s proprietor. “The lions got his son.”

没有人谈论史坦尼斯，甚至没有人知道他的陛下来到北方帮忙保卫长城。在东海望，野人、类人、巨人就是被谈论的全部，但是这里的人们似乎一点儿也想不起它们。

No one spoke of King Stannis. No one even seemed to know that His Grace had come north to help defend the Wall. Wildlings and wights and giants had been all the talk at Eastwatch, but here no one seemed to be giving them so much as a thought.

戴佛斯往火光里倾身，“我认为是佛雷杀了他的儿子。这是我们在姐妹群岛听说的。”

Davos leaned into the firelight. “I thought the Freys killed his son. That’s what we heard in Sisterton.”

“他们杀了文德尔爵士，”老板说，“他的骨头就安置在雪诺氏族，围了一圈蜡烛，如果你想去看看的话。然而，威里斯爵士，他仍然是个俘虏。”

“They killed Ser Wendel,” said the proprietor. “His bones are resting in the Snowy Sept with candles all around them, if you want to have a look. Ser Wylis, though, he’s still a captive.”

情况变得越来越糟。他知道文曼大人有两个儿子，但是他认为他们都死了。如果铁王座有一个人质…戴佛斯自己也是有七个儿子的父亲，在黑水河上失去了四个。他知道自己为了保护剩下的三个儿子，无论诸神还是别人要求他做什么都在所不惜。史蒂芬和史坦尼斯远离战场数千里格之外是安全的，但是戴冯在黑城堡做国王的侍从。史坦尼斯国王的统治大业的成功与失败就看白港了。

Worse and worse. He had known that Lord Wyman had two sons, but he’d thought that both of them were dead. If the Iron Throne has a hostage … Davos had fathered seven sons himself, and lost four on the Blackwater. He knew he would do whatever gods or men required of him to protect the other three. Steffon and Stannis were thousands of leagues from the fighting and safe from harm, but Devan was at Castle Black, a squire to the king. The king whose cause may rise or fall with White Harbor.

此时，他的酒伴们正在讨论龙。“你肯定是疯了，”‘风暴舞者’号的一个浆手说，“乞丐国王早就死去好几年了，一个多斯拉拉克马王砍下了他的头。”

His fellow drinkers were talking about dragons now. “You’re bloody mad,” said an oarsman off Storm Dancer. “The Beggar King’s been dead for years. Some Dothraki horselord cut his head off.”

“所以，是他们告诉我们，”老男人说，“然而，他们也可能是在说谎。他死在离我们半个世界之远的地方，如果他根本没死，谁会去说？如果一个国王想要我死，或许我会满足他的要求，然后装作一具尸体。我们没人见过尸体。”

“So they tell us,” said the old fellow. “Might be they’re lying, though. He died half a world away, if he died at all. Who’s to say? If a king wanted me dead, might be I’d oblige him and pretend to be a corpse. None of us has ever seen his body.”

“我也从没见过乔佛里的尸体，还有罗柏的，”‘鳗鱼’老板咆哮着说，“或许他们也都还活着，或许这些年来，‘受神爱护的’贝勒只是让他打个小盹。”

“I never saw Joffrey’s corpse, nor Robert’s,” growled the Eel’s proprietor. “Maybe they’re all alive as well. Maybe Baelor the Blessed’s just been having him a little nap all these years.”

老男人做个鬼脸，“韦塞里斯王子不是唯一的龙，不是吗？我们能确定他们杀死了雷加王子的儿子？那个婴儿，他也是龙。”

The old fellow made a face. “Prince Viserys weren’t the only dragon, were he? Are we sure they killed Prince Rhaegar’s son? A babe, he was.”

“还有其他的龙王子？”一个妓女问，她刚才说肉是灰的。

“Wasn’t there some princess too?” asked a whore. She was the same one who’d said the meat was grey.

“两个，”老男人说，“一个是雷加的儿子，另一个是他的妹妹。”

“Two,” said the old fellow. “One was Rhaegar’s daughter, t’other was his sister.”

“丹娜，”那个河民说，“那个妹妹，龙石岛的丹娜。还是叫妲菈？”

“Daena,” said the riverman. “That was the sister. Daena of Dragonstone. Or was it Daera?”

“丹娜是老国王贝勒的妻子，”浆手说，“我曾经在以她命名的船上做浆手。丹娜公主。”

“Daena was old King Baelor’s wife,” said the oarsman. “I rowed on a ship named for her once. The Princess Daena.”

“如果她是国王的妻子，那她就是皇后。”

“If she was a king’s wife, she’d be a queen.”

“贝勒从来没有过皇后。他是圣人。”

“Baelor never had a queen. He was holy.”

“不要说他从没娶自己的妹妹，”那个妓女说，“他只是没和她上床而已。人们选他当国王之后，他就把她锁进一个塔里，他的其他姐妹也是如此，三个姐妹。”

“Don’t mean he never wed his sister,” said the whore. “He just never bedded her, is all. When they made him king, he locked her up in a tower. His other sisters too. There was three.”

“丹妮拉，”老板大声说，“这才是她的名字，疯王的女儿，我的意思是，不是贝勒的妻子。”

“Daenela,” the proprietor said loudly. “That was her name. The Mad King’s daughter, I mean, not Baelor’s bloody wife.”

“丹尼莉丝，”戴佛斯说，“她以此命名，是为了纪念戴伦二世统治时期与多恩王子结婚的丹尼莉丝。”

“Daenerys,” Davos said. “She was named for the Daenerys who wed the Prince of Dorne during the reign of Daeron the Second. I don’t know what became of her.”

“我知道，”最先谈到龙的那个男人说，他是布拉佛斯浆手穿着深色羊毛夹克，“我们南下到达潘托斯时，泊在一艘叫做‘独眼少女’号商船旁边，我跟他们船长的服务生喝酒。他告诉我一个有趣的传言，是关于某个身材修长的小女孩，她在魁尔斯上船想为自己和三只龙预定返回维斯特洛的舱位，她有着银色的头发和紫色的眼睛。‘我亲自带她去见的船长，’那个服务生跟我发誓，‘但是船长没有答应，丁香和藏红花利润更大，船长告诉我，而且香料不会纵火烧你的船。’”

“I do,” said the man who’d started all the talk of dragons, a Braavosi oarsman in a somber woolen jack. “When we were down to Pentos we moored beside a trader called the Sloe-Eyed Maid, and I got to drinking with her captain’s steward. He told me a pretty tale about some slip of a girl who come aboard in Qarth, to try and book passage back to Westeros for her and three dragons. Silver hair she had, and purple eyes. ‘I took her to the captain my own self,’ this steward swore to me, ‘but he wasn’t having none of that. There’s more profit in cloves and saffron, he tells me, and spices won’t set fire to your sails.’ ”

笑声差点儿掀翻了屋顶。戴佛斯没有笑，他知道‘独眼少女’号随后发生了什么。诸神让一个男人航行在外行过大半个世界，当他几乎快要到家的时候，却让给他去追逐浮光掠影，这真是太残酷了。那个船长比我有种，他想，当他就要回到自己家门的时候。一次向东的航程，一个直到他生命的最后几天也可以像个领主一样富有的男人。年轻的时候，戴佛斯就梦想着自己开始这样的航程，但是岁月飞转就像绕烛火飞行的蛾子，莫名奇妙地时间从没走上正确的轨道。总有一天，他告诉自己。总有一天，当战争结束史坦尼斯国王登上铁王座，再也不需要洋葱爵士的时候，我会带着戴冯，还有斯蒂芬和史坦尼，如果他们够大。我们去看这些龙，去游遍全世界的奇观。

Laughter swept the cellar. Davos did not join in. He knew what had befallen the Sloe-Eyed Maid. The gods were cruel to let a man sail across half the world, then send him chasing a false light when he was almost home. That captain was a bolder man than me, he thought, as he made his way to the door. One voyage to the east, and a man could live as rich as a lord until the end of his days. When he’d been younger, Davos had dreamed of making such voyages himself, but the years went dancing by like moths around a flame, and somehow the time had never been quite right. One day, he told himself. One day when the war is done and King Stannis sits the Iron Throne and has no more need of onion knights. I’ll take Devan with me. Steff and Stanny too if they’re old enough. We’ll see these dragons and all the wonders of the world.

外面大风猛刮，照亮院子的油灯火苗一阵颤抖。太阳落山后，天更冷了，但是戴佛斯记起东海望，那里的夜晚，寒风尖叫着从长城吹下，如刀般穿破最暖和的斗篷让人血管里的血液结冰。比较来说，白港就像温暖的浴缸。

Outside the wind was gusting, making the flames shiver in the oil lamps that lit the yard. It had grown colder since the sun went down, but Davos remembered Eastwatch, and how the wind would come screaming off the Wall at night, knifing through even the warmest cloak to freeze a man’s blood right in his veins. White Harbor was a warm bath by comparison.

这里也有其他地方传来的声音充斥着他的耳朵：一家七鳃鳗派著称的旅店，一家酒馆里羊毛商和海关官员们正在对饮，一个伶人的大厅正在进行着几个便士就可以观看的下流表演。戴佛斯觉得他听到的消息已经够多，但是我来的太晚了，以前的本能让他又摸向自己的胸口，那里曾经挂着保存他的指节的小皮袋。什么也没有。自从他在黑水河的大火里失去他的船和儿子，他也失去了自己的运气。

There were other places he might get his ears filled: an inn famous for its lamprey pies, the alehouse where the wool factors and the customs men did their drinking, a mummer’s hall where bawdy entertainments could be had for a few pennies. But Davos felt that he had heard enough. I’ve come too late. Old instinct made him reach for his chest, where once he’d kept his fingerbones in a little sack on a leather thong. There was nothing there. He had lost his luck in the fires of the Blackwater, when he’d lost his ship and sons.

我现在必须做什么呢？他紧了紧斗篷，我去爬上那座小山，直接走到新城堡的门前，去做无意义的请求？回到姐妹群岛？自己回家去找Marya和儿子们？买一匹马沿国王大道北上告诉史坦尼斯：他在白港没有朋友，也没有希望？

What must I do now? He pulled his mantle tighter. Do I climb the hill and present myself at the gates of the New Castle, to make a futile plea? Return to Sisterton? Make my way back to Marya and my boys? Buy a horse and ride the kingsroad, to tell Stannis that he has no friends in White Harbor, and no hope?

舰队起航前的夜晚，赛丽丝皇后曾经宴请‘塞拉’船队和它的船长们。科特？派克也加入了他们，还有其他四位守夜人的高官，希琳公主也被允许参加。当鲑鱼端上来时，作为娱乐，Axell Florent爵士讲述了把猿猴当作宠物的坦格利安幼年王子的故事。这个王子喜欢给那个猿猴穿上他死去儿子的衣服装扮成小孩，Axell爵士宣称，久而久之他甚至提出要和那猴子结婚。大人们总是放不下自尊，但是那次他们放下来了。“他甚至给它穿丝绸和天鹅绒，猴子就是猴子，”Axell爵士说，“一个聪明的王子应该知道，你不能让一个猴子去做人的事情。”后党的人大笑，也有些人对着戴佛斯咧嘴笑。我不是猴子，他当时想，我和你一样是领主，而且是比你更好的人。但是这段记忆仍然让他刺痛。

Queen Selyse had feasted Salla and his captains, the night before the fleet had set sail. Cotter Pyke had joined them, and four other high officers of the Night’s Watch. Princess Shireen had been allowed to attend as well. As the salmon was being served, Ser Axell Florent had entertained the table with the tale of a Targaryen princeling who kept an ape as a pet. This prince liked to dress the creature in his dead son’s clothes and pretend he was a child, Ser Axell claimed, and from time to time he would propose marriages for him. The lords so honored always declined politely, but of course they did decline. “Even dressed in silk and velvet, an ape remains an ape,” Ser Axell said. “A wiser prince would have known that you cannot send an ape to do a man’s work.” The queen’s men laughed, and several grinned at Davos. I am no ape, he’d thought. I am as much a lord as you, and a better man. But the memory still stung.

海豹门因为夜晚已经关闭了，戴佛斯无法再回到“接生婆梅拉”号，直到天亮以前，他要在这儿过夜，他盯着拿着残破三叉戟的‘老鱼脚’。我经历大雨、沉船、风暴才来到这里，不做完我要做的事我不能回去，无论事情看起来多么无望。他失去了他的手指和运气，但是他不是穿天鹅绒的猴子，他是国王之手。

The Seal Gate had been closed for the night. Davos would not be able to return to the Merry Midwife till dawn. He was here for the night. He gazed up at Old Fishfoot with his broken trident. I have come through rain and wrack and storm. I will not go back without doing what I came for, no matter how hopeless it may seem. He might have lost his fingers and his luck, but he was no ape in velvet. He was a King’s Hand.

城堡楼梯是带台阶的街道，一条宽阔的白石路从水边的‘狼舍’连接了小山上的新城堡。‘大理石美人鱼’照亮了戴佛斯爬升的路，燃烧着的海豹油碗托在它们的臂弯里。爬到路的顶端，他转身看他身后，从这里他能看到海港，外港和内港。防护墙后面，内港里挤满了战船，戴佛斯数到了二十三。文曼大人是一个胖人，不过，他似乎不是一个游手好闲的人。

Castle Stair was a street with steps, a broad white stone way that led up from the Wolf’s Den by the water to the New Castle on its hill. Marble mermaids lit the way as Davos climbed, bowls of burning whale oil cradled in their arms. When he reached the top, he turned to look behind him. From here he could see down into the harbors. Both of them. Behind the jetty wall, the inner harbor was crowded with war galleys. Davos counted twenty-three. Lord Wyman was a fat man, but not an idle one, it seemed.

新城堡的正门已经关闭，但是当他大喊开门之后，一扇后门打开了，一个护卫出来问他有什么事。戴佛斯把黑金色的缎带给他，上面有国王的印章。“我需要马上见到曼德勒大人，”他说，“我有事和他谈，单独谈。”

The gates of the New Castle had been closed, but a postern opened when he shouted, and a guard emerged to ask his business. Davos showed him the black and gold ribbon that bore the royal seals. “I need to see Lord Manderly at once,” he said. “My business is with him, and him alone.”