Fatebringer | Viserys Targaryen

Chapter 25

The wildlings were upon them.

News came the next morning that they'd attacked Mole's Town, meaning that Castle Black was next on the list. On the ground, they didn't have many men. One-hundred-and-two brothers of the Night's watch, one hundred Starks, one hundred Karstarks, one hundred Boltons, one hundred Cerwyns, one hundred Umbers, and one hundred Mormonts paired with the few soldiers Daenerys and Ysira had brought along.

It was nowhere near enough for the one-hundred-thousand that Mance Rayder supposedly had, but it was difficult to spare men when they were defending each and every castle in the North and all their borders from any southern incursions while still farming every last bit of land they had left to create stocks for the coming winter.

The dragons offered a great advantage. In an open field and even with a forest to shield them, they were no match for fire. Burning them even slightly limited their movements. Burning them whole killed them entirely. The Wall would be lined with archers of all houses shooting arrows bathed in pitch and lit aflame towards the wildlings. Another army would be guarding the outside of Castle Black against any wildlings that came from the south. Those remaining would be within the castle offering reinforcements to those on the Wall, those outside the castle, and guarding the tunnel that had not been sealed.

The only problem was that the dragons were in no mood to cooperate. They'd taken to the skies to assess what would become their battlefield, soaring overhead in the hopes they'd see signs of a wildling camp on either side. The majority of everything was snow, fluffed over the tops of the trees and hiding any footprints they might've seen above. Each time they tried to make the dragons fly over the forest, they refused, barely even tiptoeing outside the edge of the Wall.

"He's fighting me," said Ysira impatiently as they landed on the ramparts, staring down at the forest, nearly concealed with thick clouds. "He doesn't want to go."

"Balerion is resisting, too," said Daenerys worriedly, releasing the reins. She caressed the back of the dragon's growing neck– even just today, they'd had to loosen the straps of the saddle to accommodate their growth. They'd ate a great deal of fish on the way to Dragonstone, at Dragonstone, and on their journey to White Harbor. "Kostilus, ñuha valītsos, iksan petitio ao. Īlon daor gaomagon bisa mijegon ao. Īlon jorrāelagon ao naejot sōvegon mirrī porro." (T: Please, my boy, I am begging you. We cannot do this without you. We need you to fly a little further.)

He growled, shaking his head as if to refuse. Ysira sighed, speaking to Meraxes and Balerion, "Issi ao lanta zūgagon hen skoros iksis hen konīr? Gaomagon ao pendagon iksi daor? Konīr kessa sagon daor morghe vali rȳ bisa vīlībāzma, mērī lī īlon ossēnagon. Se drēje vīlībagon iksis daor bisy. Istiti keligon bisa nābēmagon iā īlon daor maghagon hēnkirī se raegna contra se morghe. Iksā zaldrīzoti. Iksā tolī kraj mirros. Nyke iksin mundagon bona ao gōntan daor emagon uēpkta zaldrīzes naejot gūrēñagon hen." (T: Are you two afraid of what is out there? Do you think we are not? There will be no dead men at this battle, only those we kill. The real fight is not this one. We must stop this attack or we cannot unite the Realms against the dead. You are dragons. You are more powerful than anything. I lament you did not have another older dragon to learn from.)

She ran her hands against Meraxes's scales. "Kesan vāedagon naejot ao sir se vāedar nyke gūrēntan hen Rhāegār, se vāedar ziry gaomagon naejot dīnagon zȳhon riñar naejot ēdrugon. Iā vāedar nyke vāettan naejot aōha muña skori īles iā rūs isse ñuha nesh. Se vāedar ziry vāettan naejot ao skori īlē isse aōha drōma, iā vāedar ao ryptan skori īlē olvie byka. Ziry istin gīda ao se nyke spes kessa gaomagon sīr sir." (T: I will sing to you now the song I learned from Rhaegar, the song he used to put his children to sleep. A song I sang to your mother when she was a babe in my arms. The song she sang to you when you were in your eggs, a song you heard when you were very little. It once calmed you and I hope it will do so now.)