冰与火之歌系列之《权力的游戏》第109期:第八章 布兰(9)

He knew two ways to get there. You could climb straight up the side of the tower itself,  他知道两种登上塔顶的途径，一是直接从残塔外围爬上去，

but the stones were loose, the mortar¹ that held them together long gone to ash, and Bran never liked to put his full weight on them. 但是由于当年刷的泥浆早已干燥风化，砖石容易松落，因此布兰爬的时候不太敢把重心放在上面。

The best way was to start from the godswood, shinny up the tall sentinel, and cross over the armory² and the guards hall,  最好的方法还是从神木林出发，爬上高高的哨兵树，

leaping roof to roof, barefoot so the guards wouldn’t hear you overhead.  从武器库的屋顶跳到守卫室的屋顶，其间光着脚以免守卫听见，

That brought you up to the blind side of the First Keep, the oldest part of the castle, a squat³ round fortress⁴ that was taller than it looked.  如此便可顺利抵达城中最古老的首堡后方。那是座低矮的圆形堡垒，其实它比乍看上去要高得多。

Only rats and spiders lived there now but the old stones still made for good climbing.  如今堡内虽只有老鼠和蜘蛛，但当年建筑的古老石块仍旧提供了攀爬的最佳场所。

You could go straight up to where the gargoyles⁶ leaned out blindly over empty space, and swing from gargoyle⁵ to gargoyle, hand over hand, around to the north side.  你甚至可以直接爬到眼神空洞的石像鬼雕像驻守的空旷高台，两手勾紧，从这个石像鬼悬荡到那个石像鬼，随后抵达城楼北端。

From there, if you really stretched, you could reach out and pull yourself over to the broken tower where it leaned close.  接着，只要全力伸展，便可够到倾斜的残塔。

The last part was the scramble⁷ up the blackened stones to the eyrie, no more than ten feet, and then the crows would come round to see if you’d brought any corn. 最后的部分只是翻越焦黑的乱石堆登上养鹰楼，爬不到十尺，乌鸦群便会竞相迎接，看你有没有带玉米粒给它们了。

Bran was moving from gargoyle to gargoyle with the ease of long practice when he heard the voices.  这天布兰一如往常，驾轻就熟地在石像鬼雕像间荡来荡去，不料却听到说话的声音。

He was so startled he almost lost his grip. The First Keep had been empty all his life. 他吓得差点松手，首堡向来是个人迹罕至的地方呀！

I do not like it, a woman was saying.  "我不喜欢这样，"有个女人的声音说。

There was a row of windows beneath him, and the voice was drifting out of the last window on this side. You should be the Hand. 布兰下方有一排窗户，声音是从最后一扇窗里传出来的，"当首相的该是你才对。"

 

1 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

2 armory   

n.纹章，兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Nuclear weapons will play a less prominent part in NATO's armory in the future.核武器将来在北约的军械中会起较次要的作用。
• Every March the Armory Show sets up shop in New York.每年三月，军械博览会都会在纽约设置展场。

3 squat   

v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的

参考例句：

• For this exercise you need to get into a squat.在这次练习中你需要蹲下来。
• He is a squat man.他是一个矮胖的男人。

4 fortress   

n.堡垒，防御工事

参考例句：

• They made an attempt on a fortress.他们试图夺取这一要塞。
• The soldier scaled the wall of the fortress by turret.士兵通过塔车攀登上了要塞的城墙。

5 gargoyle   

n.笕嘴

参考例句：

• His face was the gargoyle of the devil,it was not human,it was not sane.他的脸简直就像魔鬼模样的屋檐滴水嘴。
• The little gargoyle is just a stuffed toy,but it looks so strange.小小的滴水嘴兽只是一个填充毛绒玩具，但它看起来这么奇怪的事。

6 gargoyles   

n.怪兽状滴水嘴( gargoyle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Week of Gargoyle: Double growth for Gargoyle and O idia Gargoyles. 石像鬼周：石像鬼产量加倍。 来自互联网
• Fixed a problem that caused Gargoyles to become stuck in Stone Form. 修正了石像鬼在石像形态卡住的问题。 来自互联网

7 scramble   

v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料

参考例句：

• He broke his leg in his scramble down the wall.他爬墙摔断了腿。
• It was a long scramble to the top of the hill.到山顶须要爬登一段长路。