And if it comes to that, she wondered, will thirty be enough? Will six thousand be enough?
到了生死关头,她心想,这三十人够吗?这里的六千人够吗?
A bird called faintly in the distance, a high sharp trill that felt like an icy hand on Catelyn's neck. Another bird answered; a third, a fourth. She knew their call well enough, from her years at Winterfell. Snow shrikes. Sometimes you saw them in the deep of winter, when the godswood was white and still. They were northern birds.
远处传来一声微弱的鸟鸣,那是一种高亢而尖锐的颤音,有如一只冰冷的手,划过凯特琳颈背。又一只鸟颤鸣应和,接着是第三只、第四只。这是雪伯劳的呼唤,在临冬城的这么多年,她早已非常熟悉。凛冬深雪之时,当神木林白茫茫一片,寂静无声,便能看到它们的踪迹。它们是北方的鸟。
They are coming, Catelyn thought.
他们来了,凯特琳心想。
They're coming, my lady, Hal Mollen whispered. He was always a man for stating the obvious. "Gods be with us."
“夫人,他们来了。”哈尔·莫兰悄声道。他总爱重复人尽皆知的事实。“愿诸神与我们同在。”
She nodded as the woods grew still around them. In the quiet she could hear them, far off yet moving closer; the tread of many horses, the rattle of swords and spears and armor, the murmur of human voices, with here a laugh, and there a curse.
她点点头。周围的树林安静下来,四下寂然之中,她可以听见他们的声音,距离虽远,却在迅速逼近:万马奔腾之声,枪剑铠甲交击,战士喃喃自语,笑骂声此起彼落。
Eons seemed to come and go. The sounds grew louder. She heard more laughter, a shouted command, splashing as they crossed and recrossed the little stream. A horse snorted. A man swore. And then at last she saw him... only for an instant, framed between the branches of the trees as she looked down at the valley floor, yet she knew it was him.
亿万年的光阴仿佛来了又去,声音越变越大,她听见更多笑闹,有人发号施令,渡溪时水花飞扬。一匹马在哼气。某个男人在咒骂。最后她看到他了……虽然只是一刹那,虽然只是透过林间细缝望向谷底,但她深知必是他无疑。