Northern Conqueror

Chapter 35: Tested Steel

Chapter 35: Tested Steel

Arya pushed Jon and groaned while he laughed. "You'd better take me next time," she demanded.

Sansa frowned, looking like she wanted to worry but it was pointless since he was clearly unharmed. "Were you afraid?"

Jon flashed her a smile. "A little. I'll have to look into a saddle."

"It would help," Daenerys admitted, thinking back to when Drogon was shot by the scorpion bolt. "If they didn't have to worry about turning too fast and dislodging us they could move more naturally."

"I can figure something out," Tyrion assured.

"I'm not very good with leather, but I'll go what I can," Gendry offered.

"Worry about these first," Jon said motioning to the daggers laid across the table before them all.

Screeching drew their eyes to the wight brought to the center of the room where Theon, Gray Worm and a Dothraki named Dirgo pushed it to the ground. Dirgo swiftly cut off the wight's hand with his arakh, leaving it animated on the ground.

Jon picked up as many of the daggers as he could and walked toward Theon, who pressed his boot on the wrist of the wight's severed hand, holding it in place. Taking the darkest dagger with unsteady, large ripples, he knelt and stabbed it into the palm, which remained twitching.

Gendry gave a firm nod, checking it off in his mind as Jon set the dagger aside and picked up another. The second dug into the hand, which flinched and scraped at the floor when it was removed. Jon placed the dagger with the first and took another pale gray one and jabbed it into the hand, watching as it went still.

The others all gasped as he withdrew the dagger and the hand remained unmoving. With a glance to Theon, Jon grabbed the hand and picked it up, daring it to move and attack him.

When it didn't, Tyrion laughed and smacked Gendry on the back of his leg. "Good work!"

Gendry was beaming, Arya clutching his hand and giving him a proud smile.

Jon set the dagger aside, separate from the others while Dirgo severed and held down the other hand. They did this again and again, picking off body parts and testing daggers on them until they'd gone through each one and stilled the wight with a stab to the head.

"You know which ones to start with," Jon said as he set the daggers on the table.

The others blinked in confusion while Gendry nodded. "They'll take more time, but I'll start as soon as I can."

"What do we do with these?" Arya asked looking at the daggers, separated into one that had worked and the failures.

"You can reforge them, right?" asked Jon.

Gendry looked them over. "There's enough for a longsword."

"We'll make a sword for the Lord Commander. Edd needs to be able to defend them. We'll send it along with some dragonglass weapons."

*~*~*

Sansa bit back a laugh at how Arya huffed when she tried to follow Jon and Gendry to the forge only to come back minutes later and throw herself into the chair across from her. "They threw me out. I was the one who as with him when he made all those daggers. Why am I the one getting thrown out just so Jon can help him?"

"Maybe they don't want Gendry wasting valuable time kissing you between hammer strikes."

Arya scoffed, looking away. "He doesn't do that."