Conceal the dragon?
There is no need to conceal it from these members of the Nights Watch.
Even if I wanted to hide it, I couldn't.
The only variable is Tyrion.
When the final layer of animal hide was removed.
A dragon egg, entirely ice-blue, its surface covered with fine scale patterns, lay quietly in Linn's palm, looking like a work of art carved from ice and stars.
It appeared in everyone's line of sight.
The entire courtyard instantly fell into an eerie silence.
The wind stopped.
The snow seemed to stop as well.
Everyone's eyes were fixed intently on the dragon egg in Linn's hand.
Their mouths involuntarily dropped open, yet no sound escaped their throats.
Even their breathing seemed frozen by the bone-chilling coldness.
What is that?
That perfect oval shape, the dragon scale patterns covering its surface.
That ancient aura emanating from a magical creature, which they could feel even from dozens of steps away... "A drag... dragon egg?"
A member of the Nights Watch squeezed out those two words in a trembling, almost dreamlike voice.
Boom!
These two words, like a spark dropped into boiling oil, instantly ignited the entire courtyard!
"Oh gods! It's a dragon egg!"
"I'm not mistaken, am I? Is that really a dragon egg?"
"By the old gods! Lord Linn actually found a dragon egg!"
"A miracle! This is absolutely a miracle!"
Gasps, chatter, and sharp intakes of breath rose and fell, merging into a massive wave of sound that threatened to overturn Castle Black.
All the Nights Watch men surged forward frantically, heedless of everything else.
Everyone wanted to see it more clearly.
They wanted to witness this magnificent magical creature with their own eyes!
Toren and his Northern Guardsmen reacted swiftly, immediately forming a solid human wall to block the excited crowd.
Tyrion, stuck at the back of the crowd, was scratching his ears and cheeks in frustration.
He desperately stood on his tiptoes but could only see countless black backs.
"Damn it, can't you Northern giants leave a gap for me?"
As he was complaining, he suddenly felt his body lighten, and he was lifted up by a pair of strong arms.
It was Jon Snow.
"Need a better view, Lord Lannister?"
Jon had a hint of mischief in his smile.
"Be careful, Lord Snow,"
Tyrion's mouth was sharp, but his mismatched eyes had already focused past the crowd, locking onto the dragon egg in Linn's hand.
"If you drop me, my father will buy this broken wall and tear it down inch by inch."
But the moment he clearly saw the egg, all his witty remarks were caught in his throat.
It really was a dragon egg!
Tyrion felt the blood rushing backward through his veins.
A dragon.
Not a cold skull hanging on the walls of The Red Keep, nor faded writing in history books.
But a living... possibility!
What were his father's gold mines, or the Lannister armies, in the face of true dragonfire?
From today onward, the rules of this game seemed about to be completely rewritten.
He had originally intended to send a raven to tell his father immediately, but he suddenly remembered what Linn had told him.
His wife... He decided that he would not tell the Lannister family this news until Linn revealed the truth.
Besides, it was just an egg; even if it hatched, it would need time to grow.
"Fake! This must be fake!"
The shrill scream of Alliser Thorne pierced the fervent atmosphere.
The sneer on his face had frozen, replaced by a twisted madness.
He pointed at Linn and roared hysterically:
"Dragons have been extinct for hundreds of years! How could there possibly be a dragon egg! He's a liar! You've all been deceived by him! That's just a carved stone!"
He clung to this like a last straw, trying to use his voice to salvage his pitiful authority.
However, this time, no one paid him any attention.
All eyes were focused on a frail, trembling figure.
Maester Aemon.
This old maester, a centenarian of vast knowledge and Targaryen blood.
Supported by two Nights Watch men, he walked step by step toward Linn.
The crowd automatically parted a path for him.
His blind eyes "looked" toward the dragon egg in Linn's hand.
He extended his wrinkled, branch-like hands, his voice trembling with an age that time itself could not smooth away:
"May I... may I touch it?"
Linn nodded, and realizing Aemon could not see, he added, "Yes," before carefully handing the dragon egg over.
Maester Aemon used his rough fingertips to stroke the ice-blue shell with immense reverence and tenderness.
From the perfect curve, to the fine dragon scale patterns, and then to that... warm, faint pulse that was truly there, as if from life itself.
His fingertips felt it.
Beneath the icy stillness, a warm, faint, yet incredibly resilient heartbeat was pulsing!
"Buzz..."
As if sensing the shared bloodline, the ice-blue dragon egg emitted an extremely faint hum!
A visible pale blue halo flashed across the surface of the shell!
"Ah!"
Maester Aemon's body shook violently, as if he had been struck by lightning.
Two streams of cloudy tears could no longer be held back.
They rolled down his wrinkled cheeks.
He let go of the egg, and his entire body, as if drained of all strength, slumped backward.
Fortunately, he was caught by the Nights Watch men behind him.
"It's real..."
"It's real..."
"It's alive! This little one is alive!"
Maester Aemon looked up and sighed deeply, his voice filled with unspeakable excitement and sorrow.
"The prince that was promised... the ender of the Long Night..."
He murmured incoherently, and a nearly frantic light shone in his cloudy eyes.
"It's... Linn?"
Aemon fell into contemplation, seemingly pondering something.
Maester Aemon's reaction was the most irrefutable evidence!
The courtyard fell into dead silence once more.
Everyone looked at Linn with the gaze one reserves for a deity.
Alliser Thorne's face had completely drained of color.
He looked at Linn, at the dragon egg, and at the frantic Maester Aemon.
He felt the world spinning around him.
It was over.
Everything was over.
Jeor Mormont, the lord commander of the Nights Watch, also stood rooted to the spot.
His mind, too, was a blank.
A dragon egg.
Linn had actually brought back a living dragon egg!
He recalled the words Linn had spoken in his study before departing.
"The key to fighting the Others is hidden there!"
So, this was the key?
Using dragonfire against the ice?
Using life against death?
The Old Bear's body trembled slightly with excitement.
He looked at Linn, and his eyes, usually dominated by worry and exhaustion, burst forth with unprecedented light!
Hope!
At this desperate moment, when the Wall was about to crumble and the Long Night was imminent, he saw the single thread of hope!
And the one who brought all this was the young man standing before him!
He knew he did not possess the ability to end the Long Night.
The future, perhaps, belonged only to this young man!
Mormont took a deep breath, forcibly calming his tumultuous emotions.
He quickly walked up to Linn.
He did not speak.
He simply performed a deep breast-fist salute to Linn in front of everyone.
A lord commander performing such a great salute to his subordinate!
This had never happened in the thousands of years of the Nights Watch's history!
"lord commander! What are you doing!"
Linn was startled and quickly stepped forward, trying to help him up.
But Mormont stubbornly maintained his bowed posture.
"Linn."
Mormont's voice held an unconcealable catch.
"From this day forward, you are no longer my subordinate."
He slowly straightened up, his sharp and wise eyes filled with unprecedented solemnity and trust.
"You are the future of the Nights Watch."
"You are the sole hope of the entire North, and even the entire Seven Kingdoms, against the Long Night!"
"I, Jeor Mormont, swear here before the old gods and the new!"
"As long as I draw breath, every resource and every man of the Nights Watch shall be at your disposal!"
"Your will is my will!"
"Your command is the highest order at Castle Black!"