As far as the eye could see, everything was covered in silver.
The hull, deck, mast, everything was coated in a layer of frost. The sea, the people who had fallen into the water, and the debris blown by the wind, everything was frozen. Even the howling cold wind seemed to have spent itself in the strange storm just now, dwindling to a gentle breeze.
The great slab of ice they had been trying to tow away a moment earlier was now the only thing that looked remotely normal, at least it was flat. Everywhere else, the surface of the ocean had frozen into ripples. The wind had first whipped the sea into waves, then the temperature plunged and the water froze in the bitter cold, leaving behind the peculiar and rare scene before them.
Yohn felt as if he stood in the center of an enormous white blanket wrinkled into ridges. Only, a blanket was softer than ice, and could never trap a ship in place.
The flagship of the icebreaking fleet, the Mermaid, where he stood, had likely avoided capsizing because its heading was trimmed early and the ship was heavy enough. It only listed slightly and sat locked in the ice, like a snow-sculpted ship set into a white marble tabletop. The other ships were not so fortunate. The Blackbird stood upright in the ice, like a candle shoved in at an angle, its lower half already frozen in place. The Eel lay upside down, with the upper third of her hull sealed in ice. As for the Claw and Stormcrow, the two open oared warships had both capsized with their crews and were frozen in the ice, likely without a single survivor, including the soldiers who had not reached the ships in time and gotten below decks.
Dozens of figures lay scattered in a narrow strip hundreds of meters long from north to south. Some were frozen into the ice, some had been blown and smashed down onto distant ice ridges. None could move. They were the first victims of this sudden disaster, the first sacrifices in this grand song of ice and fire.
With a single gust, half the hundred-odd men of the icebreaking team were gone. Only those who had hidden in cabins and shut the doors when the wind struck survived both the gale and the sudden cold that could freeze seawater in an instant.
Behind him came sounds of movement. Other survivors on the same ship stumbled out from below decks, clutching their heads and staring blankly at a world transformed, as if they had seen a ghost.
"Do not just stand there!" Yohn snapped back to himself and shouted to focus their minds. "This storm was strange, likely the White Walkers' work. The enemy may already be crossing the ice. We do not have much time. Clear every cabin at once. Pull everyone out, breathing or not."
After a flurry of activity, nine corpses were found aboard the Mermaid, victims of bad luck during the storm, struck by flying furniture, doors not shut fully and the cold snap freezing them to death, and other grim causes. Six severely wounded who could no longer move, several men missing, and twenty-three lucky survivors with mostly minor injuries were also found.
After testing and confirming the ice was thick enough to bear weight without fear of breaking through, Yohn began issuing orders and assignments. Those who could move freely were split into three tasks. Two men were to drag together those dead who were not frozen in the ice and burn them as best they could. Six lightly wounded were each assigned a severely wounded man, to drag them on makeshift sleds back to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea at once. The remaining fifteen, with the Lord, took tools and moved toward the other two sailing ships where survivors might still be found, to rescue their brothers.
Rescuing the Blackbird, standing upright in the ice, went smoothly. Most survivors could climb out on their own, and even in the stern cabin that was frozen in, there were men alive. They were lucky. The seawater froze so quickly under the cold snap that it did not have time to flood through the door gaps and drown anyone. The rescuers only needed to chip the ice and smash the jammed door to pull them free.
Each time a group of badly injured men was brought out, Yohn assigned the same number of lightly wounded to haul them back to Eastwatch. After dozens of minutes of hard work, all survivors on the Blackbird were out.
The Eel, capsized and sealed, stumped them. The cabin opening lay entirely under the ice, and the only way in was to chisel through the hull. But this brand-new warship, a gift to the Wall from White Harbor, had thick, sturdy timbers, and a thin glaze of ice made the wood colder and harder still. It would not break easily.
...
With the small amount of Wildfire carried on the ships, the burning of the bodies proceeded grudgingly. The rescue bogged down at the overturned coffin of the Eel. Dusk deepened, and tension and fear spread. Each time someone thought of wights crossing the ice, the nerves of the exhausted men chiseling in turns tightened. The strain reached its limit and finally snapped when tremors on the ice beneath their feet grew unmistakable.
"My Lord, in a moment we will be swallowed by the wight tide. The brothers in the ship are safe for now. Let us go."
"Aye. If the White Walkers catch us here, Eastwatch will have dozens more enemies. For the sake of the Seven Kingdoms, we should not play heroes."
"Hand the tools to the brothers inside and let them try their luck. We cannot take more losses. My Lord, there is still time to return to Eastwatch now."
"Damn it..." Staring at a hull already half-chiseled, one more ten minutes from breaking through, Yohn gritted his teeth and thought. He had led men in battle. In a fight for life and death, trapped brothers should be cut free and taken, or given a swift end. How could he leave them for the White Walkers? He drew several deep breaths and steeled himself. "No. Hold a little longer. There are more than a dozen brothers inside. You two with nothing to do, take horns and go north to keep watch. If you see the dead, blow at once, then we retreat."
The two he named stood rooted, staring at each other. Neither took a step. Neither wanted to take that risk to save the men still trapped inside.
"Go, quickly! Just blow the horn. You do not need to stop them."
Yohn glared and barked at the disobedient pair, the authority he had forged over years as Lord of Runestone pushing them toward obedience. No one could have expected what happened next. With a dull thud, the commander of the icebreaking team toppled forward, tumbling off the hull and onto the ice. Blood from the back of his head spread across the ice and froze into a puddle of red crystal.
Qite, who had felled Yohn with one blow, tossed aside the bloody hammer. His boil-pocked face flushed with rage. He slid down the curve of the upturned hull, spat on the prone Yohn Royce, and snarled, "You old fool who does not know his place. You were exiled here for offending the Commander, and you dare throw your weight around over your brothers? Remember, he slipped and fell to his death. If anyone objects, step up and face me. If not, drop your gear and run."
The men trapped inside the ship heard the commotion and began to pound and shout. The dozen Night's Watch outside looked at each other with fear. Fear of the unknown and of death smothered courage and justice. No one spoke. Every survivor dropped his tools and ran southwest toward Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, across the frozen ripples.
---
The seaward fortress had fallen into chaos. The Wall jutted nearly a mile into the sea and had shielded the fortress from the worst of the gale. Even so, a careless sentry had been blown from the top of the Wall and smashed into the central yard, his brains scattered. The ocean had frozen to the horizon in an instant. That was enough for anyone to know something was terribly wrong. When the trebuchets on the Wall's crown hurled down a hundred-pound stone and failed to crack the ice, everyone understood. The decisive battle they had been "awaiting" for months had erupted suddenly at the most unexpected moment.
Three blasts sounded. New Gift folk living near the fortress flooded inside. Cotter Pyke bellowed commands like distant thunder, and men moved according to the plan. Anyone strong enough to heft a spear or swing an axe joined the defense. Wildfire and pitch were hauled from the storehouses to the walls. Dragonglass weapons were brought out and piled conspicuously in the training yard, then issued to each grouped warrior. Barricades sprang up under orders, seemingly random but cleverly effective, sawed firewood, sharpened stakes, and bags of grain.
With these arrangements, even if the enemy breached the walls, the Night's Watch could kindle fire barriers for desperate street fighting, to cover the defense of the broad zigzag wooden stairs used to ascend the Wall, buying time for the old and young to retreat up, and for the rearguard to destroy the stairs.
With officers at every level cooperating, Eastwatch-by-the-Sea quickly shifted to final combat readiness. In the confusion, one group stood helpless, the book-retrieval team that had arrived that day on Daenerys's orders.
They had planned to rest the night and set out at dawn for Crown Town to rejoin their Queen. No one expected to "happen" to meet a White Walker attack. The Unsullied and Free Company men were not in the defense plan, and in the chaos no one came to task them, so they assembled under their lord and waited in the yard.
Among them, the Red Priest Moqorro was the most bewildered.
Through the flames, he had learned from Melisandre that the plan had worked. The Queen had been drawn to the Gift and kept there, and his ship had reached the Wall that day. With both Daenerys and himself at the front, and prophecy bound to fulfill, why would the Lord of Light's foe strike early and force a final battle before his own strength had peaked?
Either that being had lost its reason and was collapsing because it knew it would lose, or something had happened somewhere in the world that he did not yet know, forcing the enemy to attack early at the cost of wasted magic.
He dismissed his attendants and worked a fire-vision alone before the brazier to contact Melisandre. The news hit like a thunderbolt. That afternoon, upon learning of Moqorro's arrival by ship, the Queen had suddenly chosen to return south. After a brief talk with the Night's Watch commander, she had left at once. She had already taken wing and left Crown Town when she realized something was wrong. Melisandre had not even had time to stop her.
R'hllor above. This Queen, how can she be so heedless?
Moqorro left the brazier, smoothed his agitation, set a calm face, then went out to find the raven-keeper who traveled with them. "Tie 'White Walkers attacking, need dragon support' to all the ravens. Release them, all of them. Now, at once."
The letters were ready. The ravens flapped south from the fortress. Well-trained little creatures with keen eyes and deep stamina, they could fly day and night, reaching ravenries in the Crownlands and Dragonstone within a day. Their wingbeats were followed by a short horn from the eastern wall. The last survivors of the icebreaking fleet had trudged back across the ice to Eastwatch and begged entry.
Cotter Pyke blocked the newcomers with his men and quickly saw that Royce was not among them. With the threat upon them, there was no time to ask after one missing lord. "Any more behind you? What did you see?"
"It is only us, dead men! The dead, the dead are less than a mile behind! Quick, quick, shut the gate!"
The Eastwatch commander waved the exhausted sailors away and turned to the fortress chief officer. "Where are the Dragonglass Bombs? The round ones from Crown Town two days past, bring them to me. And, and the few Valyrian steel arrows in my room, whatever Lightbringer nonsense, bring those too. Emett? Aen Emett! Pick me three of your best archers. Stay by me. If you see White Walkers, put them down."
"Coming. Coming."
"Oh my gods... Seven bless us."
As the final orders flew, whispers rose along the eastern wall, then tense shouts and trembling prayers merged into a single cry. Even in full darkness, the tide of wights was unmistakable coming off the sea. Against the white ice, the dense black mass could not be missed, and the rumbling of thousands upon thousands moving together shook the night.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
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