Mance made a huge mistake, and neither Dany nor the Night's Watch noticed it at the time.
In the morning, the major wildling magnars held a three-party meeting with the Night's Watch and Dany. By noon, Mance was working hard to promote the Tripartite Lease Agreement among the wildlings, under the premise of ensuring his own safety.
Whether it was Dany's regal presence, her personal charisma, the tempting promises she made, or simply because they, like Mance, possessed enough wisdom and rationality to recognize the sincerity behind the Queen and her proposed treaty—Tormund, Snow, and many other magnars ended up supporting the signing of the Agreement.
As a result, Mance's efforts at promotion were quite successful.
At least a quarter of the wildlings were swayed on the spot. Another quarter were firmly opposed, while the remaining half stood in bewilderment, planning to follow the majority's lead.
Thus, Mance made a decision of "free choice": the free folk could choose whether to accept the Dragon Queen's terms and head south to winter, or rely on their own ability to cross the Wall and raid the North.
His intentions were entirely well-meaning—splitting the wildlings beyond the Wall to weed out the unruly raiders and help more of them survive.
This was also highly beneficial for both the Queen and the Night's Watch. Those who crossed the Wall would be "obedient subjects," easier to manage and less likely to provoke future conflicts with the Northerners.
Therefore, when Tormund brought this "amended clause" to the city gates and presented it to Dany and the Night's Watch, they immediately agreed.
Then Jon and Barristan, representing the Night's Watch and House Targaryen respectively, took a sheepskin scroll to the wildling camp.
The scroll contained the full Tripartite Lease Agreement: two formal clauses, and one amendment proposed by Mance—that wildlings could freely choose to become "South-of-the-Wall wildlings" in batches, and that both the Dragon Queen and the Night's Watch must abide by the first two clauses of the Agreement, treating all wildlings equally.
—This was Mance's effort to ease hostility between the wildlings and southerners. At the wildlings' leader assembly at noon, he had promised them: "All by choice. Those who stay beyond the Wall and can't make it through can return to sign a contract with the Dragon Queen."
In simple terms, the third amended clause of the Agreement turned a "one-time surrender with dignity" into "immigration." Signing the Agreement now resembled applying for an immigration visa rather than a surrender.
Dany thought: Transporting nearly 100,000 people across the Narrow Sea all at once would require far too many ships and a massive undertaking. If the wildlings came in batches and she sent them off in batches, it would be much easier.
The Night's Watch thought: Receiving tens of thousands of wildlings at once would be unmanageable for a few hundred black brothers. It would be better to tame them in batches and deal with problems as they arise under control.
Mance thought: Rather than endless arguments or even inciting internal conflict among the wildlings, it was better to split them up—those who wanted to live could live; the die-hards could die. First, a divided wildling population would ease southern fears about him and the wildlings—after all, only wildlings united under the King-beyond-the-Wall posed a threat. Scattered wildling tribes were never considered dangerous by southern lords. Second, he genuinely couldn't think of any other path to survival besides surrendering to the Dragon Queen—she had dragons, after all!
But none of the three considered what the shrewd commoners among the wildlings might think.
All wildlings were shrewd.
These shrewd folk thought: I don't know the Dragon Queen. Sure, the big shots trust her, but I'd rather wait for others to "immigrate" first. I've got enough food for a few more months, and there are still over three months until late autumn ends. Once the first batch of "immigrants" settle in the South, I'll decide whether to go. After all, it's my life—we only get one. If life after "immigration" turns out worse than now, then whether I go early or late, the Queen's terms remain the same.
So on the open ground of the wildling camp, Jon, Barristan, and Mance stood behind a wooden table, waiting for the wildling tribes to step forward and sign the scroll—and ended up looking like fools.
In the setting sun, the three of them stared blankly at the wildlings. Hundreds, even thousands, surrounded them. Blue, gray, black, and brown eyes blinked at them like innocent little stars, gazing stupidly at the trio.
Barristan shot a reproachful glance at Mance: You don't even know how to arrange a few plants? And you call yourself the King-beyond-the-Wall?
Seemingly understanding the old knight's look, Mance rubbed his nose awkwardly and said, "Tormund, you've been the most enthusiastic all along and always supported the Tripartite Lease Agreement. Come sign it!"
Tormund returned an innocent look and replied, "I've got four sons and a daughter—a whole big family—and a few thousand clanfolk in Red Hall..."
Barristan snapped angrily, "Her Grace and the Night's Watch have both guaranteed your safety! And Her Grace swore before you all, to the Seven and all the Old Gods, that the Tripartite Lease Agreement is a sacred vow. You should understand the meaning of a sacred vow."
"Yes, we understand the sacred vow and guest right." The skinchanger stood atop a white bear and mocked loudly, "Robb Stark, King in the North, broke a sacred vow. The southern lords trampled guest right at the Red Wedding. The Night's Watch killed their host at Craster's Keep.
Heh, kings, lords, and crows—they're all untrustworthy scum. Why should we believe any of you?"
Mance looked at the skinchanger with a blank expression and said in a deep voice, "Two days ago, when we launched a full-scale assault on the Wall, that woman flew over our heads on a dragon. She could have easily burned our tents, our people, our livestock, our food.
But she didn't. The dragon unleashed its terrifying flame, but it scorched only the muddy ground, snow piles, and soldier trees in the forest.
Had she chosen to go on a killing spree, she could have broken our ranks and resolved Westeros' wildling invasion crisis with ease.
But she didn't. She chose to negotiate instead—chose the most complicated, time-consuming, exhausting, and costly path to help us survive the winter and avoid the White Walkers."
"I believe her actions can be called 'benevolence'. Valamyr, what kind of person do you think she is?"
"A soft-hearted, cowardly woman!" The skinchanger burst into laughter.
When Mance saw many wildlings nodding in agreement, he couldn't help but sorrowfully ponder again: Are the Free Folk beyond the Wall truly a civilization destined for elimination?
Barristan's lips twitched. The Dragon Queen's enemies had made many comments about her, but never had they associated her with being "cowardly" or "soft-hearted".
"Ghiscari, Valyrians, Lyseni, Qartheen... most people in the world would laugh their heads off hearing what you just said," he said coldly to the shapeshifter.
Mance said, "Valamyr, at least you admit she's 'soft-hearted.' A soft-hearted person wouldn't deceive you into crossing the Wall just to have a dragon eat you, right?"
"Hmph, Mance, have you forgotten? For the Free Folk, being bound or enslaved is far more terrifying than death," the skinchanger retorted.
"That's because you've never known the true horror of hunger and cold. You've never had to worry about food or drink. But we all know the existing supplies can't feed all the wildlings…" At this point, Mance suddenly stopped, as some wildling raiders began looking at him with eyes full of suspicion and malice.
"Do as you please, it's all voluntary," he said, throwing out the words before leaning back into his chair in silence.
As darkness fell, no wildling tribe volunteered to be the test subjects, and Tormund grew anxious. He pulled several clan leaders aside for a discussion.
In the end, they selected a group of widows—women who had lost their husbands but still had young children to care for—and orphans under the age of ten from their tribes. Together, they formed a group of about a thousand called the "Widows and Orphans Unit."
These people were a complete burden on the wildling tribes, so their sacrifice wasn't much of a concern. Similarly, the Night's Watch could accept them without worry.
Ten spearwives holding children represented the group and pressed bloody handprints onto the Tripartite Lease Agreement.
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Yes, they cut open their thumbs with knives and left marks on the snow-white parchment, alongside the signatures of Dany and more than a dozen senior Night's Watch officers.
A sacred contract was sealed.
That night, the "Inner Wildlings" left the Free Folk's camp. The spearwives pushed sleds and followed behind the Night's Watch toward the base of the Wall.
The sleds were piled with moldy furs, tattered tents, filthy sleeping bags, a few meat bones, a small bag of barley, and one or more toddlers crawling about.
Hundreds of ragged boys and girls with blank expressions held hands, stretching the line into a long procession.
"Woooo—" This time, as the wildlings approached, only a single blast of the horn sounded from atop the Wall, signaling the return of Night's Watch brothers.
However, not all of the "Inner Wildlings" were allowed to enter the Wall.
Some chose to lease themselves to the Night's Watch. Others were willing to lease the Night's Watch lands to farm. Still, some placed their trust in the Queen who rode a fire-breathing dragon.
The taller boys were chosen by the Night's Watch to become new recruits or to run errands. Orphan girls, unable to farm and forbidden to stay in Castle Black, had no choice but to follow the "King of the Inner Wildlings" across the Narrow Sea to make a living.
Indeed, wildlings who pledged to Dany were not allowed into the Wall. They would travel east along the Wall until they reached Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, 250 kilometers away.
With nearly 140,000 wildlings in total, it was inevitable that at least 100,000 would follow Dany across the sea — a prospect the Night's Watch eagerly welcomed.
The Night's Watch was too few in number to manage 100,000 wildlings.
Human hearts are unpredictable. If the wildlings were allowed inside the Wall and suddenly changed their minds, refusing to risk crossing the sea and instead turned to raid the North — Dany would be forced into a bloody massacre. Yet even then, she couldn't possibly kill them all.
If tens of thousands of survivors stormed into the North, she would go from hero to eternal villain in Westerosi history.
But "eternal villain" didn't scare Dany in the slightest — after all, the history books would be written by her.
What she didn't want, however, was to be a failure.
The best solution was not to test the hearts and nature of men — not to give the wildlings any chance to rebel. Keep them outside the Wall, and they'd never grow disloyal.
That's why, after securing Essos residency, the wildlings set up camp at the base of the Wall. By afternoon, wildlings had begun cutting down trees and hauling timber to construct a second wildling camp — the camp of the "Inner Wildlings."
They would live in the new camp until the number of migrants reached 5,000, at which point they would set off eastward together.
The Night's Watch worked through most of the night, accepting 147 boys as junior Night's Watch members and 183 spearwives with children.
The spearwives would take their children to the granted lands to farm and hunt.
The next morning, Jon and Barristan returned to the wildling camp and stationed themselves behind a table, acting as immigration officers.
But they had only just sat down when a sharp war horn suddenly blared from the east.
(End of Chapter)
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