Orwyle's escape and recapture

Grand Maester Orwyle’s escape and recapture turned a failed journey to the Wall into an unexpected reprieve: after vanishing from the ship meant to carry him north, he was found living under another name in a brothel. Though the regents reaffirmed his death sentence, Tyland Lannister confined him rather than executing him, giving Orwyle time to write a history that would become an important source for later generations.

Escape from the Northbound Ship

Ser Medrick Manderly had agreed to take men condemned to the Night’s Watch aboard his galley, the North Star, as far as White Harbor; from there, they were to travel overland to Castle Black. On the morning the ship was to sail, a count revealed that one prisoner was missing. Grand Maester Orwyle had changed his mind about taking the black. He bribed a guard to release his fetters, changed into beggar’s rags, and disappeared into the city’s stews.

Ser Medrick did not delay the departure to search for him. Instead, he sentenced the guard who had freed Orwyle to take the fugitive’s place, and the North Star put to sea. Orwyle’s escape thus left another man bound for the Wall in his stead.

Life as Old Wyl and Recapture

Orwyle resurfaced in Mother’s, a brothel near the lower end of the Street of Silk. Shorn of his hair, beard, and chain of office, and calling himself Old Wyl, he earned his bread by sweeping and scrubbing, inspecting patrons for pox, and preparing moon tea and potions of tansy and pennyroyal for the women working there to end unwanted pregnancies. His former office and identity remained concealed while he performed this practical work among the brothel’s “daughters.”

What brought him to notice was not his disguise but his decision to teach some of the younger girls to read. When one of his pupils demonstrated her new skill to a serjeant in the Gold Cloaks, the guardsman grew suspicious and took the old man in for questioning. His identity emerged, ending his life under the name Old Wyl and returning him to the authorities who had sentenced him.

Sentence and Confinement

Desertion from the Night’s Watch was punishable by death, and although Orwyle had not yet sworn vows, many still considered him an oathbreaker. The regents agreed that the original death sentence pronounced by Lord Stark should stand; there was no question of allowing Orwyle to take ship for the Wall again. Tyland Lannister did not dispute the sentence, but noted that the office of King’s Justice was vacant and that, being blind, he was poorly suited to wield the sword himself.

Using that practical obstacle as his pretext, Tyland confined Orwyle in a tower cell until a suitable headsman could be found. The cell was large and airy, and some considered it far too comfortable for a condemned man. Orwyle was also given quill, ink, and parchment, and spent the best part of two years writing confessions and a lengthy history of the reigns of Viserys I and Aegon II. That history later proved an invaluable source for the account known as the True Telling. His attempted flight therefore ended not at the Wall or beneath an executioner’s sword, but in a period of confinement that allowed him to leave behind a written record.