Northern Conqueror

Chapter 42: Eastwatch

Chapter 42: Eastwatch

"What do you call it again?" Tom asked sat across the fire from Theon.

"Winter Squall," Theon said after a moment of hesitation.

"What's that mean?" asked Tormund.

"Squall? It's a sudden gust of wind. Usually during a storm," said Theon.

Tormund nodded. "I thought it was what women do when you get 'em going."

Some of the others chuckled. "And what about you?" Jaime asked with a nod toward Tormund. "What do you call your valyrian steel?"

Tormund grinned, tapping the top of his axe. "When I was a runt my father told me the best axes were made from clips of a giant's nail, so that's what I've called this."

"Giant's Nail?" Thoros asked skeptically. "Not particularly fearsome."

"Better than his Prick," Bronn said with a laugh.

"How would you know?" Arya asked arching her brow, earning a few laughs.

Tormund nearly rolled off the log he sat on. "It's what I called this one," he said tapping the short cleaver-like sword in the scabbard hanging from his belt. He turned to Roger Ryswell, the long faced heir sitting up as Tormund asked, "And you? What's on your waist?"

"Redmane," Roger said tapping the black horse head pommel with garnet eyes.

"What about you?" Arya called out to Sandor, sat against a tree behind Beric and Jon.

Glancing at her he sighed and called back, "Gravedigger." It felt appropriate since his was the largest one Gendry had made with a wide blade and tip not unlike a spade. Sansa had requested it as a kind of payment for his care for her and Arya.

"King Jon," Willam said looking up from the fire, "do you think we'll make it in time?"

"I don't know," he admitted grimly. "If they keep pace then no, we won't, but they move slow and might want to wait until they're all there before they move in."

"Even if we do get there in time," Jaime said with a sigh, "it's not as if we can hold off the entire wight army ourselves. Not while I'm missing my good hand."

A few of the men chuckled while Jon shook his head. "The Wall should be able to hold them off. We just need to be there in case they find some way through it."

That final night before they reached the Wall they barely slept, though felt relief to see it still standing. Jon had Rhaegal go hunt and the dragon hadn't returned when they rose with the sun and made their last approach for Eastwatch. Arriving with the sun at it's peak they felt a deep chill stretching from beyond the wall.

Free folk and men of the watch hurried out to greet them. "They arrived three days ago but haven't moved," one of the men told them as they made their way the to the top of the Wall.

Below they saw the snowy earth blocked out by dark figures packed together facing the wall while the rest were hidden by the trees behind them. There must have been thousands lined up, standing still and waiting until suddenly they began to shift.

It started in the trees, the bodies moving, parting as mounted men rode to the front of the line atop rotting horses. A line of four White Walkers came to a stop at the front of the line, just far enough that nothing short of an arrow launched by a giant could him them, and Wun Wun was still in the Gift. At the center was the Night King who not only had a curved version of the White Walker's long hilted ice blades on his back but a long ice spear holstered in his saddle.