Disclaimer: I don't own Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire
Alyssa I Targaryen
Book : The Long Night
Chapter 9: Battle of Last Hearth
Beta:
A day after having destroyed the threat of the Three-eyed Raven and the Children of the Forest, Alyssa found herself in Last Hearth discussing the situation faced by the castle with Lord Umber, Missandei, Grey Worm and the new leader of the Dothraki, one of her late Aunt's former bloodriders Rakharo.
"Once again, you have my sympathies for your lost." Alyssa said to her late Aunt's loyal followers.
"It is your lost also is it not?" Grey Worm said looking at her sternly. "She was your Aunt."
"She was," Alyssa agreed, looking away to hide the slight upwelling of tears the mere thought of her loss brought to her eyes. "But she was your Queen, who led you through much blood and tears. I imagine your grief far surpasses my own."
"Grief can wait," Rakharo said with a dark look. "Revenge first."
The other followers of her Aunt nodded their agreement.
"Very well," Alyssa said with her own nod. "What is the situation?"
"Despite our best efforts," Missandei said after looking for and receiving permission from her comrades to speak on their behalf. "The evacuation of the region of the region has been slow going. We have also suffered multiple attacks from the Others. This despite accounts from survivors suggesting that the Others have lost the ability to seemingly teleport through unnatural blizzards though they still seemed capable of conjuring them. Though only on the least well defended of our parties."
"Now that I've dealt with the Children of the Forest and their magical support, he is being more cautious. He's no longer seeking direct confrontation against high value targets like he had been previously, he's switched to replenishing his army." Alyssa noted with a frown.
"With the bodies of my people," Lord Umber said with a ferocious growl. "We must make him pay for that."
"We will," Alyssa assured the large man. "Have we been able to track them down now that they can no longer teleport?"
"While the loss of the enemy's ability to teleport has undeniably been a great improvement as it made spotting the enemy possible, the conjured blizzards still make pinning them hard as once caught inside them our men's ability to see and their mobility plummet while the enemy is not likewise hindered."
"He's also split off smaller bands," Rakharo added in surprisingly fluent Common Tongue. "Raiding villages or refugee convoys. Like you say, Queen, he is replenishing his army by slaying the vulnerable."
"What are your thoughts on him attacking Last Hearth itself?" Alyssa asked. "Would he risk it?"
"Considering his ability to rebuild his army even from practically nothing and at high speed, I would risk it." Grey Worm said with a contemplative frown. "Once he has a large enough force, he will strike. The chance to raise those sheltering in the castle and to raid its armory are prizes that will draw him in?"
"The armory?" Alyssa blinking in surprise.
"He's been putting his wights in armor." Lord Umber reported. "Even the former smallfolk. The abominations are very weak to dragonglass but it needs to make contact with their flesh, armor reduces the chance of that."
"Nine Hells! He's adapting!?" Loras, her Queensguard shadow for the day, exclaimed.
"He's not an unthinking beast. Of course, he is." Alyssa told him tiredly. "Though this is a worrying development. Has he been making armor for the wights?"
"No. It's just been salvage." Missandei reported. "At least as far as we can tell from the reports."
"That's a relief," Alyssa said with a sigh. "Alright, seeing as the evacuation is unlikely to be complete before the Night King decides to attack the castle."
She looked to Lord Umber for confirmation of this and he nodded.
"Then," Alyssa continued. "We can only fortify it and prepare for his assault. Once he does, we will evacuate the civilians and stage a fighting retreat. Since we know the Night King is going to attack then we should use the opportunity to bleed his forces a little. With the Eastwatch breach secured and the countryside almost emptied of smallfolk, his ability to reinforce his army is limited for the moment so let's whittle it down as much as possible."
"How many men will we have?" Grey Worm asked, his brow furrowed as if he was already planning the battle out in his head.
"I've brought ten thousand with me from Castle Black."
"We have another ten thousand," Rakharo said with a frown. "And Lord Umber has about two thousand men."
"Against a hundred thousand or more wights," Lord Umber said with a bitter laugh. "We'll be outnumbered almost five to one!"
"We can rush in more troops by Gate," Alyssa offered. "But I doubt we'll get any more than another fifteen to twenty thousand. The attacks on the Wall have continued unabated and most of our men are still needed there."
"What about the Southron kingdoms?" Missandei asked. "They have only sent a small part of their forces to the Wall have they not?"
That had been a sore point for Alyssa. The inability to just rally all her armies and march to the Wall. Sure, contingents from all the Kingdoms and Houses had marched North in its defense but between the continuing occupation of the Iron Islands and simple war weariness in the wake of the War of the Four Sovereigns, most of the Realm's fighting men had remained home.
"I've sent word to have them mobilize more men but it is slow going." Alyssa confessed. "Between supporting the efforts at the Wall and deployments here in the North, there are simply not enough Gate capable mages to go around. As a result, they have to mobilize the conventional way and that means months at least before significant reinforcements will arrive."
"Then we have only one option," Grey Worm said with a resigned frown.
"Yes, we must fortify Last Hearth for a siege."
To that end, an hour later found the entire group had moved to one of the towers of Last Hearth's curtain walls and Alyssa was raising both her hands over the flat, cleared land that surrounded the castle.
"Control Earth!" She incanted, activating her newest spell and causing four concentric ditches to form. The innermost becoming a moat for the existing walls while the others did the same for the walls of decreasing height she had created out of the earth that she excavated to build them in the first place.
"There," Alyssa said as she swayed a little from the exertion. The spell being a lot harder without the support of her Tome of Magic. Thankfully, she had anticipated this and she unabashedly sat down on a prepared stool while she regained some of her strength. "Now including the curtain walls and the keep we have five layers of defense. That should be enough to stage an effective fighting retreat when the Night King strikes."
"Do we have enough Wildfire to fill all those ditches?" Lord Umber asked, not hiding his awe at the feat of magic that Alyssa had just performed.
"We'll have to mix in some pitch but we should have enough to set them all alight," Alyssa reassured him. "I took how much we needed to do so into account when I created them."
"Most impressive," Grey Worm complimented.
"Thank you," Alyssa said genuinely. "I don't know if we have enough dragonglass to put dragonglass studded wooden spikes in front of the ditches though."
"We don't," Missandei told her apologetically. "Not all four. But if we use all of the reserve at hand and what we can Gate in from Castle Black we might have enough for one line of spikes in front of the innermost ditch."
"That'll have to be enough," Alyssa said with a resigned sigh. "Get it done."
"Yes, your grace." The former scribe said. "But before that might I ask why though the new walls have rooms for gates, there are no causeways over the ditches?"
"Those are what drawbridges are for."
"Ah! Ingenious!" The young Naathi girl said with an enthusiastic clap of her hands.
"Thank you," Alyssa said with a smile. "Let's get started on finishing these fortifications shall we? We don't know when the Night King will decide he's had enough stalling."
"At once!" Everyone chorused and rushed off to get to work, leaving Alyssa to finish catching her breath in peace.
"Are you alright, your grace?" Loras asked worriedly.
Alyssa considered the matter for a moment before shrugging.
"I'm tired and grieving." Alyssa confessed. "But what's new? I was much the same during the War of the Four Sovereigns and I managed. I will do the same here."
"Do not push yourself too hard, your grace. There are many who need you and await your triumphant return." Loras reminded sternly.
Alyssa nodded and stood, the exhaustion caused by her spell having faded.
"I will try, Loras." She told him stubbornly. "But thank you for the reminder."
The Lord Commander of her Queensguard frowned but nodded his acceptance. They both knew that was the best that she could offer.
"Your guess?" Alyssa asked as she, Loras and her Queensguard watched the Army of the Dead march towards Last Hearth a day later from the same tower she used as a vantage point when creating its new outer fortifications.
"More than a hundred thousand." Loras noted with a frown as he looked through a Myrish eye at the still distant army. Its advanced construction allowing him to make some sense of the approaching enemy even through the unnatural blizzard they had conjured to obscure their advance. "Maybe a hundred and twenty thousand."
More than one person in the tower sucked in an uneasy breath at that estimate.
"He's been busy." Ygritte commented. "Must've raided all the remaining villages in the region to get his army up to that size by my guess."
"Probably," Alyssa nodded.
"Thanks to the Northern lords unexpectedly enthusiastic response, we managed to bring our own numbers up to forty eight thousand but that's still more than two to one odds." Brienne said with a frown. "Can we hold them off?"
"We expected to be outnumbered." Loras said stowing the far eye away.
"Which is why we will have to rely on the new fortifications," Alyssa said gesturing to the earthen walls and ditches she'd created, the latter of which were now filled with pitch and Wildfire and in the process of being lit. "Hopefully they can negate our numerical disadvantage somewhat."
"Aye," Ser Wendel said in agreement. "We'll need to hold out at least until the remainder of the thousands of smallfolk inside Last Hearth are evacuated."
Glancing towards the interior of the castle for a moment, Alyssa saw that thankfully said smallfolk were moving as fast as they could through the large Gate she had opened for them the moment the Night King and his army were spotted. Already most of them were gone, leaving only the castle's servants to be evacuated and even they were streaming in from across the castle carrying as much as they could lift in terms of supplies or what they might want to deny the Night King with them.
"Boulders!" Ygritte shouted suddenly, cutting off any further observation or conversation.
Alyssa spun back towards the Army of the Dead and saw that her Free Folk Queensguard was indeed correct. The Night King had indeed began the assault. This first volley of boulders were not however aimed at the defenders directly but rather at the outermost ditch.
"He's attempting to fill it!" Alyssa realized. "We can't let him. We need to get onto Ghost now!"
Putting words into action, she quickly mounted the tower's battlements and leapt off. Her Queensguard familiar with the maneuver by now dutifully followed and were unsurprised as Alyssa's Levitate spell caught them and they floated safely down into the howdah on Ghost's back. Her dragon who had been waiting patiently for her all this time at the base of the tower held still as they landed and hastily began securing themselves even as his eagerness for battle flooded their bond.
Soon, my friend. Soon. Alyssa sent her familiar reassuringly as she finished strapping herself into her throne.
"All ready?" Alyssa asked as she finished and upon receiving affirmative responses from everyone she turned to Ghost. "Fly!"
With a powerful beat of his wings and a push from his hind limbs, Ghost was airborne and joined the already circling Drogon and Rhaegal. He roared at the other two eager dragons and they quickly formed up around him. Drogon on his right and Rhaegal on his left and they flew towards the undead army.
The wights were being showered with barrages of Wildfire explosives and flaming pitch from the defender's siege weapons, forcing them to spread out to avoid the ignition of one highly flammable wight leading to the consumption of entire blocks of its equally flammable fellows. This created gaps in their horde that the skilled Dothraki and other cavalry rode through, cutting down and thinning the enemy numbers as much as possible. It was risky business though and soon as the main force of the wights entered the field their sheer numbers would force the horsemen off the field entirely.
That was not however Alyssa's concern at the moment however. She had to trust Rakharo and the other cavalry commanders knew what they were doing. She had her own part to play in this battle.
"Mage Armor! Mage Armor! Mage Armor!" Alyssa cast on all three dragons just as they closed on the leading elements of the enemy.
Now, what are you going to do Night King? You know your ice spears cannot puncture my Mage Armor. Alyssa thought as the three living dragons closed on the first cluster of boulder slinging wight giants. All of whom were equipped in crude armor from head to toe now.
Not that it'll protect them from our dragons.
They had barely unleashed their dragonfire, in the face of which the boulder slingers did not even flinch not even as they were incinerated, when the Night King unveiled his latest counter to the living dragons in the form of a barrage of massive javelins thrown their way. Acting on instinct, all three dragons evaded the attack.
Those things are whole trees! Alyssa noted as the wight giants hurling the oversized projectiles readied another volley. Hells! Even if the Mage Armor would absorb most of the power of the impact, the force of something that big scoring a hit would be enough to knock even Ghost out of the sky!
"Evade them!" Alyssa shouted into the speaking horn she rarely used but had been built into the arm of her throne regardless as she processed the thought, sending her voice blasting through the skies at all three dragons.
They dutifully did so, only to find themselves further embattled as the Night King flew in on Viserion. The undead dragon immediately breathing streams of dragonfire at them in a bid to force them into the line of fire of the javelin throwers.
"Dammit!" Alyssa cursed as she used Meteor Swarm to send blazing orbs of fire plummeting down from the sky to smite the boulder throwing wight giants. It was not enough however. The blasted wight giants substituting for artillery were simply too spread out and even her most spread out area of effect spell couldn't wipe them all out, not even with ample support from her own artillery. They needed the dragons!
"Good shot!" Ygritte complimented Ser Wendel as one of the javelin throwers collapsed from a dragonglass arrow to the eye. It was indeed a remarkable shot for the all damned wight giants were so thoroughly armored that the only weakness was the comparatively tiny eye slits of their helmets.
"Thank you," Ser Wendel shouted back politely as Ghost's jinxing out of the way of one of the javelins threw off his latest shot. "Your grace, some help please."
"Flame Strike!" Alyssa cast, consuming the nearest pair of javelin throwers in fire. It bought Ghost some breathing room and he strafed a group of boulder slingers before being forced back by another javelin volley.
"Where are the other dragons?" Alyssa shouted as she found herself unable to spot Drogon and Rhaegal.
"Above!" Brienne shouted in reply. "They are being held back by the Night King."
A quick glance higher in the sky confirmed the warrior lady's assessment. Rhaegal and Drogon were engaged in an aerial dance against their undead brother as they flew around with sinuous grace and breathed torrents of dragonfire at each other. Though neither side seemed to have managed to gain any advantage over the other, the mere fact that the Night King had managed to tie down two of their most powerful assets was a victory in itself.
"Dammit!" Alyssa cursed under breath. She could trying to call one of the two dragons away from the fight but she doubted they would obey and even if they did it would be unwise. Even working together they were barely able to keep up with the undead Viserion, drawing one of them away might well spell doom for the other and they simply could not stomach such a loss.
Perhaps she should join them, but if she did then who would draw the javelin thrower's fire? And who would destroy the boulder slingers or support their troops? Was killing the Night King worth that risk?
Without certainty on the last question, she simply could not risk it.
We'll just have to manage this without them somehow. Alyssa concluded as she used a Firestorm to cremate a group of boulder slingers and javelin throwers that had been forced too close together by their evasion of friendly artillery fire even as Ghost burned another squad of boulder slingers ahead of them with a breath of his dragonfire.
Despite their best efforts however a quick glance back towards Last Hearth told her that the enemy was gaining the advantage. Already whole sections in the outer ditch had been filled in by the boulder slingers' projectiles, creating makeshift causeways that allowed their fellow undead to cross and easily overwhelm the set of low walls on the other side.
"Dammit!"
Alyssa's angry frustration at the seeming fruitlessness of her efforts was shared by Greatjon Umber as he held the gate to the last set of new walls. Despite sending hundreds of men to reinforce the first two walls, they had fallen one after another.
This whole defense is supposed to whittle down the enemy army but by my reckoning we're the ones being worn down. The Lord Umber thought as he and his men covered the frantic retreat back from the second set of walls.
"I miss my greatsword," he joked, clutching the war hammer with a head that had dragonglass shard sticking out of the hammer end and similar shards lining the spiked one that he was using today instead.
He might be in low spirits but his men need not know that and a bit of levity was exactly what they needed in the face of the disaster that seemed to be unfolding around them. The few chuckles he got from his men told him he had succeeded somewhat at least and he was glad for that.
"Stuff it, Greatjon." Lady Maege Mormont with whom he was sharing command of the last gate told him with a look in her eyes that told him she knew what he was doing. "We have more important things to worry about than your poor taste in weapons."
"You're only saying that because the mace you're using isn't much different from your usual one." The Greatjon observed. He was right too. Beyond the new bits of dragonglass studded to its head, it wasn't any different from the one the She-Bear was famous for.
The Lady of Bear Island looked ready to continue their little distraction for the men but before she could, her daughter Dacey ran towards them with a handful of her men.
"Mother! Raise the drawbridge!" The younger Lady Mormont shouted as her men began to race across.
"Raise the bridge!" The She-Bear echoed even as Lady Dacey was still running across the hastily assembled thing, the Mormont ancestral Valyrian steel sword Longclaw that the Night's Watch had returned to the family after its last owner Jeor had died clutched firmly in hand.
"The men in the second ring?" Greatjon asked the exhausted looking young woman grimly, already knowing the answer.
She shook her head between gasps as she tried to catch her breath. "Those still alive are holding back the enemy as long as they can."
Greatjon nodded grimly.
Suddenly something leapt onto the top of the half raised drawbridge and the Greatjon looked up to see an Other riding a giant ice spider. This seemed to make him a target and said monstrous arachnid leapt once more, this time directly at the Umber himself.
Most men in his situation would panic but Lord Jon "the Greatjon" Umber was not most men. Without a hint of fear or hesitation, he swung his war hammer into it with all his formidable strength and sent the creature flying into the now fully raised drawbridge where it shattered like glass. Its rider though had leapt off before this with an uncanny grace to land between Greatjon and the two Ladies Mormont.
Both warrior women lived up their own fearsome reputations and reacted immediately. Lady Maege swung her mace at it, but it ducked and stabbed at her with its thin crystal sword only for it to be parried by Lady Dacey
Trying to take advantage of its preoccupation with the ladies, Greatjon charged at its back bringing down his war hammer in a powerful overhead swing. To his consternation however, in another show of its absurd graceful agility the Other spun out of the way. Lady Dacey tried to stab it with Longclaw as it did but it parried the blow and bent its body in an inhuman way to avoid her mother's followup swing of her mace.
Its agility was not without limits however and before it could recover from its latest evasion, Greatjon caught it across the ribs with his warhammer. The blow sent it flying but more importantly, the dragonglass must have found some chink in its armor and did exactly as the Queen said it would. The damned monster was still midair when its body just exploded into icy chunks that rained down on the stunned defenders.
"So that's an Other?" Lady Dacey asked, as they all caught their breath after that exhausting fight.
"It would appear so," Her mother replied. "Damned tough things aren't they?"
"Tough but killable." The Greatjon said with a nod. "And the latter all that's important."
"Agreed." The two Mormont women said together.
"Enough of a break," Greatjon said as the sound of something battering at the gate suddenly resounded all around them. "There's more fighting to be done before this day is done."
The two women nodded and dispersed, shouting orders at their men to reorganize them in the gate's defense. The Greatjon nodded and turned to do the same. He would not let Last Hearth fall this day, not without fighting to his last breath first.
"Anyone sees anymore javelin throwers?" Alyssa shouted as she Queensguard as they torched what she hoped was the last of the aforementioned wight giants on the field.
A chorus of negatives were her reply and Alyssa smiled. Time to take the fight to the Night King.
With that thought in mind, she unleashed one last Meteor Swarm on the Army of the Dead targeting the handful of boulder slingers that remained even as responding to her eagerness Ghost flew up to confront the Night King. Something he announced with great enthusiasm by breathing a river of his dragonfire at Viserion.
The Night King seemed caught off guard by their sudden joining of the fight and did not evade the fire blast and it washed over him and his undead mount. Sadly the sphere of swirling cold winds that was his magical armor deflected the attack and he swerved out of the way. Drogon was waiting however and raked him with a stream of his own dragonfire that by the reduced speeds of the nimbus around Viserion stripped the barrier of much of its strength. Capitalizing on it, Rhaegal swooped down on his undead brother from behind and forcing his way through the barrier to tear deeply into his back with his claws. He even tried to bring his mouth to bear to unleash his dragonfire but the Night King reacted quickly and slapped his snout with supernatural strength, knocking him off.
"Mage Armor!" Alyssa cast quickly as the last iteration of the spell on Rhaegal shattered from the Night King's blow, just in time to save him from an ice spear thrown his way from the leader of the Others as he tumbled in the air.
Seeing his brother was shaken and still trying to regain his bearings, Drogon flew in between Rhaegal and the Night King breathing a burst of dragonfire to force him back. Wary of the flames now that his magical barrier had failed, the Night King had Viserion jinx away.
"Rhaegal, fall back!" She shouted through her shouting horn at the still disorientated green dragon. "Drogon, keep him safe!"
Rhaegal whined but Drogon roared an affirmative and Alyssa urged Ghost mentally to pursue Viserion who even now was trying to flee the battlefield.
"Fire Bolt!" Alyssa cast, sending a flaming bolt at the fleeing Night King even as Ghost shot lances of dragonfire at him.
Sadly, Viserion proved agile enough to evade their efforts.
"Your grace! He's luring us away from the battlefield" Loras shouted warningly.
A look below told Alyssa that he was right.
I'll get you next time. Alyssa promised herself even as she sent a message to Ghost to abandon the chase and turn his attention to the wights below.
He growled his dissatisfaction, mirroring her own but did not argue as he turned from the pursuit to begin strafing the by now retreating wight armies. A task not made easy by the way they were scattering and the intensifying blizzard. He nevertheless made pass after pass over their retreating ranks, soon joined by Drogon and a recovered Rhaegal.
Their victory was pyrrhic though as a quick glance at Last Hearth revealed. The new walls she had built with her magic had completely fallen and the defenders had only barely held onto the castle's original outer walls. Even there however several large holes had been made in them from what looked liked direct strikes from boulders. Tens of thousands of loyal men had died today and there did not appear to be anything to show for it.
Hours later, Alyssa met with the Greatjon, Loras, Grey Worm, Missandei and Rakharo in Lord Umber's solar to discuss what to do next.
"Our plan failed." Alyssa said as they all took their seats. "We have gained nothing today but send our good men to their deaths."
"That is not necessarily true, your grace." Missandei said, her puzzled look a sharp contrast to the gloom that everyone else wore like a cloak. "We destroyed many of the Night King's wight giants in this battle. With the Wall secure once more, he cannot replenish those numbers and he cannot have many more of them."
"The girl is right, your grace." Loras told her sternly. "Our men did not die for nothing today."
"We almost put down at least sixty maybe as many as seventy five thousand wights." Grey Worm admitted hesitantly. "And since the Night King did not raise many of our dead during the battle, I imagine we have succeeded in whittling down his army as we planned."
"But at what cost?" Lord Umber said with a bitter little laugh. "Thousands of good men dead and my castle reduced to ruin."
"It is not quite as bad as that," Alyssa said comfortingly.
"Perhaps not, but it is badly damaged." Missandei said with a frown. "We can't deny that."
"What should we do with it?" Rakharo asked bluntly.
"We should abandon the castle." Grey Worm said dispassionately. "It is, as Missandei rightly says, badly damaged and we simply do not have the means to repair it at this time."
"I could use Earth Control to patch the walls." Alyssa suggested causing a hopeful look to enter into the haggard looking Greatjon's eyes. "But I must confess that while I can manipulate earth, I have yet to master the spell sufficiently to shape it into stone."
The Lord Umber let out a defeated sigh at that.
"That won't be good enough." He said with a sad shake of his head. "But even if you could repair the castle, your grace, the surrounding land has been emptied. My people have either been transported to safety south of the Neck or turned into wights, there is no longer any point in attempting to hold the castle."
"What about the last few villages?" Alyssa asked. "We weren't able to check in with all of them before the Night King attacked did we?"
"My riders have reported back." Rakharo said with a shake of his head, his drooping black mustachios swinging with the motion and the bells in his hair ringing softly in a mournful way. "No survivors."
"Which means the Night King found them and they are wights now," Missandei said with a frown.
Alyssa sucked in a breath and turned to the Greatjon with a look of compassionate understanding at the difficult position he found himself in.
"Are you sure about this Lord Umber? This is your House's ancestral seat since the Age of Heroes."
"I wouldn't have suggested it, your grace, if I wasn't sure."
Alyssa nodded and gave the order.
"Then let us begin the final evacuation from Last Hearth. I want it empty in two hours."
"Yes, your grace." All those present chorused.
Done!
Hope you guys like the little arms race that's going on between the Seven Kingdoms and the Others. Considering to one extent or another this happens in all wars, even if the innovations are purely tactical or strategic, I don't see why the Long Night should be any different. It also adds some flavor to the battles too of course and that's always a boon.
Well that's it for this chapter. Till next time hrazhesht!