Dawn broke over the tundra. Gorion was among the first awake and stood at the prow of the Plunderer, looking out at their prey. The deck trembled as the Wolf joined him, looking out over the herd.
"Still there, jarl."
"So I see. Go wake your men."
The Crabsclaw was carefully lowered to the ground in a snowdrift and unmoored from the Silence. The Ironborn were put to work as the marauders and Thenn climbed aboard the longship.
Branches cut from the surrounding pines were thrown in until they blanketed the bottom of the pit two feet deep. An Ironborn walked up to Gorion.
"Think that's enough, captain?"
"Only one way to tell."
Gorion gave the man a good shove into the pit to the appreciative laughter of the crews. He looked down to see that the sailor's fall had been cushioned by the springy branches, and was among those laughing.
"Deep enough for me. Get the shovels!"
Earth extracted from the pit the previous day was thrown back in until the pit was half-full, the rest used to cover the logs pinning down the chains. The cauldrons used for the Doomdrinking now melted snow and were overturned in the pit as the earth fell in. Soon the pit was full of sucking mud.
The Silence drifted slowly over the tundra, dropping off groups of men and lengths of timber in a long truncated oval that encompassed the herd, stopping just short of the pit. The marauders assembled the timber into pyres and headed back to the pit, one man remaining stationed at each pyre with flint, lamp oil, and a horn.
As the ships reached the apex of their trajectory, the Wolf brought the Silence to a halt.
"Are you ready, Thenn?"
Thrravr looked the Wolf in the eye and nodded.
"For the Dark Gods."
The Silence dropped off the Thenn upwind from the herd before completing its flight. Each savage carried a pair of unlit torches. The mammoths looked up as the smell of men reached them and moved slightly closer to the pit.
At last the Silence returned to the pit and was anchored to a tree. The Wolf made his way down to the ground, the marauders and Ironborn taking position well away from the pit. The giant nodded at a horn-blower before standing at the pit's edge. The Ironborn produced a long, mournful note, the signal heard and relayed by the marauders at the pyres.
The Thenn heard the signal and went into action.
"Now!"
The Wildlings spread into a long line and lit their torches, advancing on the mammoths at a sedate pace with the wind at their backs.
The herd reacted slowly to the threat, but when the Thenn started yelling and waving their torches, instinct took over. The mammoths started to spread out, but the marauders lit the pyres before joining the Thenn, leaving the herd trapped between three lines of flame. Only one way remained open for their escape.
As the approach of the panicked mammoths became audible, Gorion stole a glance at the Wolf. The giant showed no sign of fear despite being directly in the path of the herd, and if anything seemed to be enjoying himself. Then he took a deep breath and made trumpeting sounds that were answered in the distance. The herd approached, an unstoppable mass of muscle and fur, with only the Wolf standing between them and the advancing line of fire.
"Spears!"
The Ironborn hoisted up their spears, ready to throw at a moment's notice. The mammoths were now close enough that their eyes were visible, rolling madly.
The largest mammoth in the herd trumpeted, a sound repeated and amplified from the Wolf's throat. The beast changed course, now headed straight for the pit, and swung its head, evidently intending to bowl the giant over.
The Wolf crouched and leaped, not to the side but upwards, wrapping arms and legs around its tusk. The surprised mammoth trumpeted again and veered to the left, but it was too late, momentum had carried it over the ledge and into the mud pit. It fell in with a mighty splash just as the rest of the herd thundered past, the Wolf jumping onto the ground.
The hunters hurled their spears at the passing mammoths. Screams filled the air as incautious warriors were trampled underfoot, sent flying by sweeping trunks and tusks or shoved aside, but the mammoths also bellowed and collapsed as spears struck joints and bone through fur and flesh.
The herd continued on, but four mammoths and a calf bellowed impotently as the Wolf's warriors swarmed over them, hacking and thrusting.
The mammoth in the pit continued to bellow and thrash, unable to escape the sucking mud. The Wolf's voice carried over the agonized screaming of the massive beasts.
"To work now! Leave not a scrap of meat on their bones, let the wolves of these lands find their own food!"
The hunters set to work, although the Serpent's worshippers took their time, violating and desecrating the calf before it finally died. The other mammoths were finished off and butchered throughout the day, the meat packed with snow into large crates and stored in the Crabsclaw with much cursing and sweating. By evening the hunters had taken all they could from the carcasses and the mammoth in the pit had ceased to struggle, its trunk twitching feebly.
The Wolf returned to the Silence and guided the three ships over the pit. The logs were rolled away and the chains hauled up, trapping the mammoth in a web of metal. The chains were connected to the ships, and with a horrible squelch the mammoth was pulled free, weakly kicking its legs to no effect.
The three ships and their cargo floated to the mastless Crabsclaw, where it was securely tied down and the ship moored again to the other three. When the Silence lifted off again, taking the Crabsclaw with it, the mammoth was sheltered to the left and right by the hulls of the Plunderer and the Wavetalon. Armed Ironborn stood fore and aft of the prize, knowing that the brunt of the daemons' assault would fall on them, but also that it was an opportunity to catch the eye of the gods.
The Silence's prow roared, the ships disappeared into the hole between worlds, and then nothing was left of the marauders' passage save pile of bones, a pit and felled trees.
The Silence emerged above the courtyard of Harrenhal as night was falling, the Crabclaw's keel scraping the muddy ground. Thenn, marauders and Ironborn cheered as they felt the wind on their faces after the harrowing journey.
Akkarulf, standing with his back to a locked door, looked up at the commotion.
"Teron! Stand guard, I need to meet the yarrl."
"Right you are."
Teron took Akkarulf's place before the storeroom where the warpstone had been locked up, his Nehekharan halberd scraping the ground.
Though cut and bleeding from innumerable wounds, the captured mammoth was still alive, and barely responded to the marauders detaching it from the Crabsclaw and to the Silence. The longship stayed in place until the Crabsclaw had been secured by lengths of timber and lifted off again, the mammoth dangling helplessly as a mouse in the grip of a monstrous eagle.
Akkarulf ran to the courtyard just as the Silence deposited the mammoth in a palisade made from logs not yet used in rebuilding the Seafang. As per the Wolf's instructions, each was the thickness of a man's chest . The ropes were unmoored from the ship and attached to the palisade.
The Silence was still aloft but descending, the Plunderer and Wavetalon gently landing on the ground. The Wolf descended from a rope as marauders started emptying the ships under Gorion's direction. Akkarulf waited for him to land before speaking.
"Welcome back, yarrl! Good hunting?"
"Very good indeed. Any news?"
Akkarulf nodded.
"They put up the skull four days after you left, yarrl. I sent the message as you asked, we have two days left."
"Good, good. And the rest?"
Smirking smugly, Akkarulf pointed at Teron and the door he guarded on the far side of the courtyard. The Ironborn stepped smartly away from the door, opening it as the Wolf approached. The chests of warpstone were stacked in the middle of the empty room, a pale green light flickering out from some of them.
Akkarulf watched the Wolf closely as he recounted the plan.
"I sent the Deathbound. A few to mingle with the camp and claim they were there to help guard the stones, the rest to set the other side of the camp on fire. When that happened, they attacked the guards and took the stone away."
The Wolf nodded, looking genuinely impressed. Akkarulf continued.
"And we only lost one man in the bargain."
The Wolf's expression faltered, and he looked sharply at Akkarulf.
"But you brought his body back, I hope?"
A gnawing and all-too-familiar apprehension settled itself in Akkarulf's stomach.
"Well... no, yarrl. That way they'll think it's one of their own who betrayed them."
The look the Wolf gave him could have made women barren.
"Sven came up with that, didn't he."
The contempt in the Wolf's voice struck Akkarulf as though he'd been slapped. Instinctively he spoke up.
"I told him that, I told him they'd fight each other instead of us! But we have the stone, and that's what matters, isn't it?"
Even as he spoke, Akkarulf hated himself for how desperate he must sound, eager to avoid punishment by casting responsibility on the sorcerer. Even if it was true.
But to his surprise, the Wolf sighed wearily.
"You did as I asked, yes. But now we've lost the element of surprise, they'll know to look for the Flame of Mutation, or rather for those easterners who hide their shoulders from inspection. If there is need for subterfuge and treachery again, I won't be able to use them."
The Wolf sighed again.
"Nothing for it. Did you at least prevent Sven or the vermin from getting at them?"
"Yes, yarrl. I've stood guard before the door ever since they were brought in."
"Good. That at least I can trust you to do."
Akkarulf said nothing, although one of his fists balled up of its own accord. The Wolf grabbed one of the chests in one hand.
"A shame these couldn't be used for their intended purpose... but a man with no hands can still herd sheep."
The Wolf looked at Teron critically.
"Come along, Serpentsbane, that toothpick of yours should prove useful."
The Wolf and Teron went towards the cellars, the giant hoisting the heavy chest as though it weighed no more than a feather. Akkarulf noted the Wolf had not said anything about relieving him of guard duty, and slumped against the door. Another long night lay ahead.