Disclaimer: I don't own Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire
Alyssa I Targaryen
Book : The Long Night
Chapter 6: The Wall breached
Beta:
Scarcely a week after the Battle of Castle Black, Ser Davos Seaworth was on the galley, the Blackbird, which along with the two other smaller galleys, the Storm Crow and Talon of the Night's Watch fleet were out in the Bay of Seals providing as much support as they could for the section of the Wall that the castle of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea defended with their hastily installed catapults and their arsenal of Wildfire explosives as it was attacked by a horde of wights. They probably would not have managed such a maneuver if Queen Alyssa had not used her magic to inform Cotter Pyke who commanded the castle that the enemy was coming but even with the forewarning and their preparations, the battle still looked hopeless.
It was difficult to fight such despair when looking at the hordes of undead that covered the northern foot of the Wall like a carpet of rotting flesh. One that was already forming into veritable mountains at the base of the Wall as the wights piled up on top of each other in a bid to climb the towering formation of ice whilst others still tried to force their way through the castle's gate through the Wall. All in all, it was a sight that left the Night's Watch Brother barely able to suppress a shudder.
Just how many did they kill to create an army that big? The Onion Knight thought even as he shouted commands at the crew to keep the ship steady so the catapult crews could have a more better shot. Thank the gods the rumored dragon wight isn't here at least.
"Ser Davos!" Someone shouted urgently. "Dragon! Incoming dragon!"
Nine hells! I jinxed us didn't I? Davos thought even as he spun in the direction his Brother, a former sailor from the Lannisport fleet that had been forced to take the Black to escape execution in the Queen's trails after the War of the Four Sovereigns, pointed and saw to his dismay a cream colored dragon with tattered wings and a gaping wound in its chest all of which in addition to its eyes glowed with an unnatural blue light. That was terrifying enough but on its back rode a figure that Davos' instincts told him could only be the Night King and that was enough to almost freeze the blood in his veins.
A fear that only grew as the undead dragon flew towards the Wall heedless of the projectiles shot its way, which Davos saw were being deflected away from it by a nearly invisible swirling nimbus of frigid looking air that quickly formed around it. Thus protected, it flew right up to the Wall and unleashed its dragonfire against the ice. The effect was almost immediate and a whole section of the Wall closest to the Bay of Seals collapsed, sending hundreds of men atop it to their deaths. With many more following shortly after as massive chunks of ice fell onto the castle below.
"We're doomed!" Someone said and Davos would have agreed if not for a swirling portal of black appearing just south of the battlefield from which flew out the three living dragons.
"No, not yet." Davos said with a forced grin before he raised his voice so he could be heard by everyone on the Blackbird. "Keep to your tasks! We still have a battle to fight!"
Alyssa had been using her Scrying spell to attempt to track the Night King ever since the Battle of Castle Black but the leader of the Others seemed to know this and had been deliberately making it difficult on her. Through whatever magic he possessed, he made it impossible for her to simply use his position as a reference and pull skyward to locate him, forcing her to try and decipher his position based on whatever landmarks he passed in her limited visions. Sadly, he was also very careful to avoid any such landmarks.
He could however only keep such a game on for so long and today Alyssa had finally met with success. Though discovering he was flying on the back of an undead Viserion as he prepared to assault Eastwatch-by-the-Sea was not exactly good news either. Nevertheless it was progress and so Alyssa had hastily used Message to contact the castle's commander to inform him of the imminent attack before preparing a response.
"Aunt Dany, are you sure you're ready for this?" Alyssa asked her Aunt as the final preparations for the relief force was completed
"I am," her Aunt reassured her. "I will not let the Night King continuing desecrating Viserion's body. I will cleanse it of the Others' foul magic and give my son the rest he deserves."
"Good," Alyssa nodded, pleased that her Aunt's grief had been reforged into anger. "Hold onto that anger when we face the Night King. We'll need it."
Aunt Dany just nodded.
"Your graces," Prince Oberyn said as he walked up with Ser Garlan Tyrell. The latter had freshly arrived with another batch of Reach knights and would be commanding the relief forces. "The relief force is ready."
"Thank you, Prince Oberyn." Alyssa said formally and earning an annoyed look from Elia's father for the formality of her tone. "Then I leave Castle Black and Elia in your hands."
The Red Viper looked ready to quip back but Aunt Dany clearing her throat meaningfully had him reconsidering.
"I'll keep them safe," he replied instead though he shot her Aunt an unhappy look.
"Ser Garlan, I trust you remember the advice the Free Folk and the Night's Watch Brothers told you about fitting the wights and the Others on the open field?" Alyssa asked Margey's brother.
"Don't let them mob you. Retreat if you are about to be overwhelmed. Use fire to force them to spread out, that'll leave them vulnerable to cavalry. In general use fire a lot." The knight said, rattling off some of the advice he'd received. "I think I know what to do, your grace."
"Good. Remember to heed it in battle." Alyssa told him sternly. "It might mean life or undeath for your men."
Garlan shuddered and nodded.
"I will, your grace." The knight said with a solemn nod.
"Then let us fly, Niece." Aunt Dany said as she turned to mount Drogon. "We have a castle to relieve."
Alyssa nodded and turned to Ghost.
"Levitate." She incanted as she floated up to the howdah on his back even as he sent her a burst of eagerness for the coming battle that she returned.
"All ready?" She asked her Queensguard, excepting Nymeria who was staying behind in Castle Black with Elia for this mission, and the band of archers that Ser Wendel had selected out of the best bowman available to accompany them as she strapped herself into the throne of the platform.
"We await your command, your grace." Loras replied from where he was strapped into his fighting position and clutched his bow.
Alyssa nodded and began working her magic.
"Mage Armor. Mage Armor. Mage Armor." She cast, covering Ghost, Drogon and Rhaegal in protective magic before she sent a command to her dragon to take to the air.
With a beat of his mighty wings and a push of his powerful legs, they were airborne and were soon joined by her Aunt's two surviving sons. They circled Castle Black once so that Drogon and Rhaegal could form up on either side of Ghost before Alyssa cast her next spell.
"Gate." She cast, opening a portal just south of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.
Without the need for prompting from her, Ghost flew through the portal and they exited to a scene of horror. A whole section of the Wall had come down, with massive chunks of its ice having landed right on top of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea itself and allowing thousands of wights to pour over the gap this created in their defenses. Worse yet though was the Viserion with the Night King riding him was actively using his dragonfire to widen the breach in the Wall.
Not on my watch! Alyssa thought even as Ghost flew to attack the undead dragon and she readied a spell.
"Fireball!" She casts sending a streak of flame flying across the distance at Viserion. She would have preferred using a more powerful Flame Strike but the Night King, perhaps deliberately, was hovering over the castle at the moment and she feared the spell's pillar of flame would hurt her men down below.
Her frustration just grew when the explosion of flame from her spell occurred prematurely as it hit the sphere of swirling winds that surrounded the undead dragon and its rider.
"He's developed counters." Alyssa hissed in anger as Ghost swerved to the side to evade a stream of unnatural blue flame that Viserion spat at them whilst returning with a stream of his own mixed freezing and burning flame.
The undead dragon easily evaded Ghost's stream but could not do the same for those unleashed upon it by its living brothers as they flew at it from the sides while it had been distracted by Ghost. Its protective sphere of swirling winds kept it safe however and it shot out of the firestorm created and immediately made a run of it as it flew west.
Aunt Dany pursued ordering Rhaegal and Drogon to breathe streams of dragonfire at Viserion even as he led them away. Alyssa paused in joining them however as she turned to survey the battlefield below.
The relief forces below had quickly spreading out into a ring around the all but fallen Eastwatch-by-the-Sea and the giants in their ranks were hastily building fortifications from the materials they'd brought with them and packed snow. All the while, archers with flaming arrows and hastily deployed siege machines, many of them still hooked to the mammoths that had dragged them through the Gate portal, used their fiery projectiles to force the horde to spread out. This allowed cavalry units made up of Dothraki screamers and Westerosi knights to ride through the mobs of wights thinning their numbers even further and covered the retreat of survivors from the castle.
"Garlan has things in hand, your grace." Loras opined as Ghost helped out the men below with a strafing run that devastated an entire flank of the wight army and bought enough time for a quick marching company of sellsword spearmen to finish setting up a shield wall.
Alyssa agreed. Most of the wights were still bottled up inside the ruins of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea and probably being held back by its valiant defenders and while hundreds were spilling out into the field, her cavalry were hunting the small groups down. If things proceed as it was going so far, she was confident her men would be able to contain this breach even if the castle was likely a lost cause.
"Ghost, follow Aunt Dany." Alyssa shouted at her friend, more for the sake of her retinue than his since she simultaneously sent the message through their link. "We'll leave this to Garland."
Ghost roared his displeasure at this but nevertheless pulled up from yet another strafing run against the wight hordes below and turned to fly after Aunt Dany and the Night King. The aerial battle between them having already moved a considerable distance westward by this point.
Calm, Ghost. Alyssa sent soothingly. Remember if we kill the Night King then we might just end this war. If not, at the very least eliminating Viserion will deprive him of a powerful asset.
Ghost growled his unhappy understanding and began beating his wings hard as he strove to catch up with the other dragons.
"He's pulling away!" Dany shouted in dismay as the sun began to set. "Drogon, Rhaegal, Alys we can't let him!"
Drogon and Rhaegal roared their agreement but despite their enthusiasm Dany could hear the sound of exhaustion in their voices. A slight tremble that betrayed how tired a full day of flying and fighting had left them.
Aunt Dany, it's me Alys. Her Niece's voice said into her mind thanks to her Message spell. I'm sorry, but we can't keep this up. Ghost is exhausted and so are my men and I. We need to rest.
Dany hated to admit it, but she was beyond tired herself. And hungry and thirsty as well. She had been so dogged in her pursuit of the Night King and Viserion that she had not eaten or drunk anything since she had heard the news of the attack on Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.
But Viserion-
Is a wight now and thus has undead endurance. We cannot hunt him down like this.
Dany growled in frustration but her Niece was right.
Very well. Dany sent back reluctantly. What should we do? We can't just let the Night King fly along the Wall with impunity.
I don't think we have a choice. Alys sent back sounding tired. I'll create a Gate back to Castle Black. We'll come up with something there.
Perhaps sensing his pursuers were about to give up, the Night King suddenly veered north but not before having Viserion use his dragonfire to blast apart a small breach in the Wall as he did. Something he'd done occasionally as he had led them on the frustrating chase along the length of the Wall.
And these breaches? Dany sent back as she shouted at Rhaegal to not pursue the Night King over the Wall.
I've contacted the commanders of the nearest castles. They'll send men to secure them. They aren't much of a threat, not without an army waiting on the other side. If we act quickly we can seal them.
Fine! Let's head back to Castle Black.
Thank you for listening, Aunt Dany. Alys sent back even as a familiar Gate portal opened a short distance ahead and they all flew through it.
Even as the two Queens headed back to Castle Black for some rest, the situation at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea was turning desperate.
Cotter Pyke had never been a handsome man and years as a Brother of the Night's Watch had not helped in that regard. The commander of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea was a lean, hard and wiry man with small, close-set eyes, a broken nose, a pox ravaged face, a widow's peak and a sparse, rough beard. Not that he cared for his looks especially not now that he and the remnants of his men were holed up in the castle's keep with an entire mob of wights outside banging desperately to get in.
It was a foregone conclusion that this was how things would end up. Cotter had no illusions about that after the Wall had come crashing down and crushed much of the castle, letting swarms of wights through in the process. He had, by dint of sheer luck, survived by being in the keep when it happened and the sturdy building had managed to avoid being hit by anything larger than a small boulder of ice which it withstood easily enough.
Having escaped death for a little longer, he had hurried to rally what survivors in the castle as he could and organize some kind of holding action. He knew defending the ruins long term would be impossible but at least holding them back so that the relief force the Queen had said she was sending had time to form up properly so they could put up a proper fight, that he could do. And he had. Through hard fighting he and his men had bought his countrymen as much time as he could. He didn't know how long exactly, time having lost meaning as he fought in the narrow confines of the ruined castle and the wormways that were found in all the Night's Watch castles.
"The wights have mainly moved on," Maester Harmune informed him as they took a break from defending the doors in the dubious safety of the center of the keep's hall. "It appears they have lost interest in us now that they've gotten us surrounded."
"Looks like," Cotter spat. "They are smarter than they look."
"I think it more likely any intelligence can be attributed to the Others controlling them." The Maester said.
"Don't care," Cotter said with a shrug. "How is our last farewell?"
"The men have been quite enthusiastic." Harmune said with some amusement. "Though they are sampling it as much as they have been spreading it around."
"So long as there's enough for what we have planned, they are welcome to it. If they want to die as a lush then so be it."
"Indeed," the Maester agreed.
"So are they done?"
"Oh, yes. Can't you smell it?" Harmune asked and Cotter could. The smell of alcohol was thick in the air all around them. "They await your order."
Cotter nodded and climbed up onto the nearest table.
"Brothers, it's time to die." The Night's Watch commander said with a grim smile. "Light it!"
All around him, men, both Night's Watch Brother and not but all his Brothers in this moment, overturned the various candles, braziers and torches onto the alcohol soaked floor causing the whole place to catch fire. The courage of some broke at this moment as the flames began to consume them and they howled in agony and desperately tried to put out the flames. It was futile though, as they had been very thorough indeed in emptying the castle's ample stores of alcohol throughout the hall.
There were however a group that seemed to ignore the pain of being burned alive however and with Cotter Pyke as their leader they instead repeated the vows by which they had sworn to live by and for which they now gave their lives.
"Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."
It was with the words of their oath on their lips that the Night's Watch Brothers of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea died, defiantly burning themselves alive to deny the Army of the Dead their bodies.
The situation was not much better outside the ruined castle.
"Retreat!" Garlan shouted as loudly as he could as his men began pulling back through the dozens of Gate portals that the Red Priests of R'hllor and other magic users under his command who had pledged themselves to the cause of the living and had studied Queen Alyssa's magic had created. "Back through the portals!"
For most of the day, they had been holding out well enough. Especially with most of the wights focused on taking the remains of the castle but about two hours after the Queens' dragons left in pursuit of the Night King, the tide turned. Garlan would never know what caused it but the wights abruptly changed tactics and abandoning their costly attempt to take the wrecked castle they instead began spilling out of the ruins and towards the hastily constructed fortifications that his men had built. Amazingly, despite their makeshift nature they had held for hours. But they ultimately were no castle walls and could not withstand the undead tide anywhere near as long. Thus near the end of the day they began to fail.
With his lines collapsing, Garlan simply had no choice but to order a retreat. He was not however just going to leave without giving the Others a parting gift.
"Are the Wildfire caches ready?" Garlan asked the leader of the Alchemists assigned to his command.
"They are, my lord." The madman said with a grin. "The fire mages await your command."
Garland surveyed the situation. His men were fighting an effective retreat, pulling back in an orderly manner with walls of spears keeping the enemy at bay as they shrunk their lines whilst archers with fire arrows and teams manning the remaining mammoth sled mounted catapults used ample flames and Wildfire to force the wights to spread out into more manageable formations. More importantly however, the wights had completely overrun all the areas where he'd had the Alchemists set caches of Wildfire.
"Give them the order." Garlan told the man. "Set them alight!"
"With pleasure, my lord." The Alchemist said as he raised a finger at the nearest cache. "Fire bolt!"
A small mote of flame shot from his pointing finger, a far cry from the bolts of screeching white flame Garlan knew Queen Alyssa was capable of with the same spell but it didn't need to be. Shooting over the heads of his men and hundreds of wights, the small arrow of magical flame struck true and ignited the Wildfire cache in a massive explosion that decimated the deep ranks of the wights. Worse for the undead and their inhuman masters, this was only the first of dozens of such explosions that ripped through their army and thinning it substantially.
"Speed up the retreat!" Garlan shouted. "I want us out of here before the enemy recovers!"
Heeding his orders and warning, his men scrambled to obey.
"So Eastwatch fell?" Alyssa asked Garlan tiredly an hour and a good meal on her part later inside her solar in the King's Tower at Castle Black.
"We held out as long as we could, your grace." Garlan told her apologetically. "But there were too many of them."
"But you managed to retreat with most of your army intact," Aunt Dany observed. "Well done, Ser Garland."
"Yes, very well done Garland." Alyssa said, too tired to maintain the fiction of formality with Margey's brother.
"Thank you, your graces." Ser Garland said offering them both a thankful bow.
"Oberyn, what is the situation with the other breaches?" Alyssa asked Elia's father, who had been coordinating the response to the other gaps in the Wall that the Night King had created.
"They are distractions," the Red Viper hissed. "I contacted the nearest castles using those mages who have learned the Message spell and had them rush forces to all of them to contain any possible attack by the wights through them but as far as I can tell there were none."
"So the chase along the Wall was purely to distract us from the battle at Eastwatch?" Aunt Dany said with a sigh. "The Night King tricked us?"
"It would appear so," Alyssa said as she rubbed at her eyes. "Still the possibility of him opening a second front by attacking through one of the other breaches or even creating a new one we do not know about means we cannot draw down forces along the Wall."
"He's tied us down." Grey Worm, the leader of Aunt Dany's Unsullied, concluded grimly.
"Yes," Alyssa agreed. "Worse, we have lost him. He's improved whatever magic he was using to limit the scope of my Scrying magic. I can no longer see him at all anymore."
"Have Tormund Giantsbane and Black Jack Bulwer's scouts reported back anything?" Aunt Dany asked.
The two leaders of the eastern section of the Wall had been at Greenguard overseeing its refortification when the Night King had attacked Eastwatch and due to a lack of a mage capable of the Gate spell on hand had been unable to reach the battlefield in time. They had however in the battle's aftermath taken charge of observing the movements, as best as they were able, of the Army of the Dead as it poured through the gap in the Wall it had created. Assisted in the endeavour by Ser Davos Seawatch and the surviving ships of the Watch and the Message capable mages that had been transported aboard via Gate.
The mages trained by my primers have proven invaluable, limited though their repertoires may be. Alyssa noted absently. I really should have trained more of them.
"Only the most basic reports," Prince Oberyn reported. "It seems the Army of the Dead marches south."
"That could mean anywhere." Jorah Mormont, Aunt Dany's advisor, broke his silence to observe.
"Perhaps," Alyssa noted. "But I reckon they are headed towards Last Hearth. It is the northernmost major holdfast outside of the castles of the Night's Watch."
"Whose defenders they have tied down like Grey Worm noted earlier." Aunt Dany said with a contemplative frown. "It makes sense. The Night King would want to take it and replenish his army. What do you think Grey Worm, Jorah?"
"It makes sense." Mormont said with a contemplative frown. "And even if it isn't, we should at least evacuate and reinforce it on the possibility."
"It would make a good base to hunt the Army of the Dead down in that region of the North." Grey Worm added.
"Very well," Alyssa said with a decisive nod. "Then contact all our forces and let them know to be on guard for the Night King. And I want plans of how to prepare Last Hearth for the coming of the Army of the Dead on my desk by tomorrow afternoon."
"Afternoon, your grace?" Oberyn asked, curiously.
"We are exhausted, Prince Oberyn." Aunt Dany told him. "My Niece and I will need more than just a night's sleep to fully recover."
"Undue hurry with the planning of something this important is also not a good thing." Alyssa added. "So please take your time, my lords."
"As you command, your grace." Garland said with a bow that Oberyn copied.
Alyssa nodded in return and stood to leave. Her bed was calling.
Done!
A short but hopefully entertaining chapter.
Not much to say about it so I'll just sign off here. Till next time doviđenja!