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Beyond the Wall, the Frostfangs lay under deep snow.
An Other moved through the white silence on a dead horse. Behind him came wights, some newly raised, some old enough that their bones had been sleeping in the mountains since the age of forgotten kings.
The Frostfangs were a natural storehouse of the dead. Free folk had died there for thousands of years. Even the bones of ancient kings-beyond-the-Wall might be buried under that snow.
The Night King needed more soldiers.
Hardhome had not given him what it should have. Robb Stark had stolen too many living bodies from death.
A black shadow tore across the white.
Bloodwind struck the wight host like a falling hill.
The ice direwolf wore armor made from overlapping dragonglass blades, black scales linked by iron rings. The armor was meant as much for offense as protection. Its chest and sides were already broken in several places from the force of Bloodwind's charges, but every remaining blade cut wights apart when he passed.
Two black spears dropped from above and drove through the skulls of dead bears.
Robb stood on Bloodwind's head, wrapped in a warm black cloak. Ice hung sheathed at his side. A dragonglass dagger rested in his hand.
The Other commander saw him.
It drove its dead horse forward, leaped onto Bloodwind's broken chest armor, and caught the white fur with one hand. An ice spear formed in the other.
Robb dropped before it could strike.
The sheathed weight of Ice smashed the Other into the snow. Robb landed with a knee on its chest and drove the dragonglass dagger through its forehead.
The creature shattered into pale shards.
Blood pact essence +1
Robb exhaled.
Blood pact essence.
He had discovered it after hunting lone Others near the Wall. Bloodwind's Magic and Physique had both reached a hard limit at one hundred points. Ordinary blood pact points could not break that ceiling. Essence could.
After facing Drogon, Robb needed Bloodwind stronger.
The wights did not fall.
Robb's eyes sharpened.
Another commander was controlling them.
From Bloodwind's height, he saw a footprint appear in the snow where nothing stood.
An ice spear thrust out of empty air.
Robb deflected it with Ice.
The air around him shimmered.
One outline appeared, then another. Armored Others stepped out of the snowlight in semi-transparent forms. Their armor warped the light around them, making them nearly invisible until they moved.
An ambush.
Robb jumped back to Bloodwind's head.
"South."
Bloodwind turned.
Robb threw a barrel into the wights blocking the path. The barrel burst with explosive fruit and dragonglass shards. Black fragments tore through dead flesh and bone. One shard cut deep into an Other's ankle, making the creature stagger, but it did not die.
Dragonglass was no miracle charm. It still needed a killing wound.
Robb threw three more barrels.
The third burst sent a shard through an Other commander's forehead.
Blood pact essence +1
Bloodwind's legs swelled grotesquely as Robb forced more power through them. The remaining dragonglass armor cracked along the limbs. Muscles bunched, then released.
The ice direwolf shot south.
Spears flashed behind them and missed by inches. Snow exploded along Bloodwind's path. Robb kept low, guiding the monster through the one gap he had opened.
Only after the Frostfangs began to fall behind did he let out a breath.
He was glad he had not brought Jon.
The Night King knew now that Robb was hunting isolated Others. There would not be many chances like this again.
The question was where the Night King had gone.
The answer waited beneath the earth.
At the cave of the Three-Eyed Crow, children of the forest stood ready with spears, bows, and magic.
Cedar led them.
They had received the Crow's order and obeyed it, but none of them truly understood the plan. The dead approached in silence first, then with the faint, terrible sound of thousands of feet crossing snow and stone.
The Night King walked at their head.
The children lit fires with old magic.
For a few breaths, flame blocked the entrance.
Then the Night King raised one hand.
The fire shrank.
It thinned, flickered, and went out.
Cedar's face went pale.
The Night King looked beyond the cave mouth and saw a vision in the ice-bright air.
The Wall collapsing.
Behind him, a clean-robed figure stepped from the shadows.
The Three-Eyed Crow.
"That is the future our cooperation can bring," he said. "You want the lands south of the Wall. I want the man who stole the future at Hardhome."
The Night King turned his head.
The dead waited without breathing.
The Three-Eyed Crow smiled.
"Robb Stark."
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