Despite his reservations and a wait-and-see attitude regarding the new Commander's methods and political stance, Denys Mallister had to admit: Aegor's title of "White Walker Slayer" ought to be changed to "White Walker Bane."
It seemed he had truly predicted every move the enemy would make.
For hundreds of years, the Night's Watch had focused its defenses on the Wall, yet Aegor insisted on opening mountain paths south of the Great Gorge to establish a new defensive line. In the end, the enemy did attack by crossing the Great Gorge.
Since its founding, the Night's Watch had never built walls around its fortresses, as a symbol of having no ambition toward the Seven Kingdoms. But Aegor broke with tradition and ordered each fortress to prepare for independent defense without relying on the Wall. Now the White Walkers had indeed bypassed the Wall to strike.
A year ago, when the Night's Watch accepted the Free Folk, nearly half the Watch opposed it. But after taking office, Aegor preferred to hide in Crown Town and continue the policy rather than back down. In the end, he proved he could sustain the people of the New Gift and make them a valuable force in war.
As he reflected, Denys's reason told him that Aegor hadn't predicted every enemy move, but had instead considered every possible strategy they might take, then arranged countermeasures and notified everyone in advance.
Even with all his caution, Denys had to admit he couldn't have done better. To serve such a strong and brilliant Commander at the twilight of his life, he not only acknowledged his own defeat but even felt fortunate to have made the right choice.
---
Everything was written in the defense plan. Denys's duty now was simply to execute it faithfully. Shadow Tower was tasked with protecting the easternmost quarter of the Great Gorge. The moment beacon fires lit the sky, the gates of the fortress opened at once. Under soldier supervision, the eastern half of the path allowed Grey Area citizens living outside the walls to enter for shelter, while the western half was used for the reserve force to transport supplies and personnel to the Great Gorge frontline.
A reserve of over four hundred men departed from Shadow Tower toward Gorge Lookout, until they encountered another reserve unit coming from the other side. With the Great Gorge defense line under full assault, their task was to support the entire sector, not just a single point. Along the way, wherever they found combat, the reserves would leave behind half a squad, a crate of Wildfire, and several bundles of arrows. Though small in quantity, these contributions had enormous tactical and psychological value.
The defenders in the eastern Great Gorge weren't more numerous, braver, or better trained than those in the west. But knowing they had support behind them and would not be abandoned gave them the strength to hold on longer. On average, they inflicted greater losses on the wights.
Only when word came that the western section had fallen and the front-line commanders agreed it was no longer meaningful to hold their ground, did the reserve forces begin a coordinated retreat from both ends of the line, using the center as the dividing point. After several small but dangerous battles, they managed to withdraw most of the defenders safely into the fortress.
Only Westwatch-by-the-Bridge, which had only a single tower, was abandoned outright. Shadow Tower, having completed its preparations, sealed its gates after the last civilian entered and quietly awaited the enemy's next move.
The defenders who withdrew into Gorge Lookout, however, were not so lucky. The fire from their battle was visible from the top of the Wall, halfway across the Great Gorge. Their blood and sacrifice served as the final warning and gave the Gift precious time to prepare. The evacuation and final arrangements along the length of the Wall were now complete. Denys ran breathlessly along the walls of the fortress he had commanded for decades, checking preparations, calming recruits, and giving orders for defense. For hours, soldiers atop the Sentinel Tower kept their eyes westward, watching the once-blazing Great Gorge fade into darkness, yet still seeing no sign of the enemy.
Not until after midnight, when even hot meals had been served and some wondered whether the enemy had bypassed Shadow Tower altogether to strike elsewhere or head directly south, did they finally appear.
...
Without forest cover or rugged terrain to hide them, the corpse tide's arrival was striking. Even the thick snow could not suppress the tremor of tens of thousands of undead marching. First came the thunderous rumble of footsteps, then the sea of corpses poured out of the western mountains like black ink soaking into white parchment, spreading across the snowy fields toward Shadow Tower.
How many were there? Ten thousand? Fifty thousand? More? No one could say. The mass was so dense and vast that no individual form could be seen. At a certain point, the human brain simply failed to comprehend numbers. From the darkness, the defenders could only describe the view this way: from the visible edge of the field to the distant horizon of mountains and forest, it was all black, endless.
The "ink" did not surge straight toward the fortress but flowed southward, steering away from the Wall, until the entire wilderness around Shadow Tower, save for the Wall side, was engulfed. Only then did the attack begin.
If the Great Gorge defenders were like a dam holding back a flood, then Shadow Tower was a lone reef battered from all sides. Though the enemy's numbers were the same, Great Gorge defenders only faced attacks from one direction, while Shadow Tower had to repel enemies from every direction, covering over 270 degrees.
The wights did not rest. They did not eat. They made no demands, issued no challenges, and gave no warning. The Night King was even more decisive than Jaime Lannister in his "strike first, talk later" approach. Under the command of a dozen White Walkers, tens of thousands of wights launched their assault the moment the encirclement was complete.
Horn blasts sounded over and over. Alerts and requests for aid were sent through every available method: horns, beacon fires, ravens, and messenger riders galloping along the top of the Wall like electrical impulses. The signal raced toward the other seventeen fortresses along the Ice Wall and to Crown Town.
Nearby fortresses like Sentinel Tower, Stone Door Fortress, and Nightfort had already made preparations, placing spare weapons and reserve troops atop the Wall in advance. No one could guarantee the enemy wouldn't bypass Shadow Tower and strike elsewhere. Concentrated defense efforts couldn't be executed prematurely, so it wasn't until news of the attack was confirmed that the mobile troops, who had endured hours of wind and cold, began their march along the flat supply roads atop the Wall toward the embattled fortress.
...
"Light the fires!"
"Light the fires!"
"Burn them to death!"
Shadow Tower, managed for years, had far more complete defenses than the hastily built Great Gorge line. A snow-cleared buffer zone stretched outside its tall stone walls, densely packed with wooden stakes embedded with Dragonglass tips. A trench had been dug in front and filled with non-volatile asphalt.
Denys Mallister, now over seventy, was far more composed than any other commander of the Night's Watch. He strictly forbade his men from wasting even a single drop of precious supplies before the wights entered the "clearing zone" within thirty meters of the walls. But the moment they did, on his order, rockets and Wildfire pots rained down. The green flame ignited the asphalt and wood almost instantly, and within seconds, a massive fire barrier several meters wide roared outside Shadow Tower, visible for miles.
Any wight that approached had to first endure the trial of flame.
But the fire only stalled the tide for a moment. This was a flat approach, not the cliffs of the Great Gorge. Even the weakest wights could cross ten or twenty meters in seconds. The White Walkers didn't bother to guide them individually. They sacrificed wights by the thousands, charging through the inferno in overwhelming numbers.
Undead bodies pressed forward, crushing stakes, filling trenches, and dousing flames with their corpses. Countless wights perished, but more with burning flesh emerged from the fire and reached the base of the wall.
Wights feared fire not out of pain or instinct, but because the corpse oil carrying the cold god's power would burn away, severing their link to the White Walkers. But the oil was not highly flammable like gasoline or even Wildfire. The Night's Watch had long stored Wildfire and had acquired King Aerys's full stockpile from the Alchemists' Guild in King's Landing, but even that was not enough to coat the entire battlefield. Wildfire was used only as an accelerant. The main fuels were wood and asphalt, which burned long but not hot enough to kill instantly.
The wights were not afraid of death. They only had one goal: reach the wall.
With a dull crash, the wights slammed into the stone walls, climbing over one another in a frenzy. The stone wall, already iced over by the defenders, offered no handholds. The wights did not form human ladders or towers. They simply trampled one another, turning fallen comrades into steps as they clawed their way upward.
Wave after wave. Group after group. The tide climbed the wall. Arrows flew, but it soon became clear this was a losing game. Each fallen wight became a stable foothold. The more they killed, the higher the mountain of the dead grew.
No one needed Denys Mallister's orders. They all knew what had to be done.
The old Wildfire, long solidified into a gel for transport, had never been suitable for bombs. But now it would be used. The aged stores from Aerys's era were cracked open. Cans of green, sticky gel were dumped over the walls. Torches followed. Green fire erupted like a volcano, engulfing the climbing dead in a wave of searing flame.
Snow posed no obstacle here. The firestorm devoured everything. Screams echoed. Black smoke billowed. Organs burst. Flesh and bone turned to ash. The mountain of corpses at the wall's base shrank and collapsed.
The defenders cheered. As long as reinforcements arrived with more Wildfire, not even the dead could breach Shadow Tower before dawn.
But now a new problem emerged. The fire burned too hot. The heat scorched the men on the wall and obscured their vision.
...
"Move all flammable and explosive materials away from the flames. Be careful of burns. Have the kitchen send more water to the walls!" Denys ran through the yard, barking orders. He didn't blame the men. This was part of the plan, after all. Better to burn the tower than lose it.
Still, the gate was wood. Thick and sturdy, yes, but it wouldn't hold forever against Wildfire heat.
"Drag chevaux de frise to block the gate. Pile up flagstones from the training ground. Tear down buildings if needed. Start with the barracks, no one's sleeping tonight!"
Despite his age, Denys still had stamina. He stood near the fortress gate, calmly issuing commands, his voice loud enough for the men above to hear. Thanks to flawless execution of the plan, Shadow Tower now held nearly three thousand people. Even excluding the weak and elderly, and not counting Free Folk spearmaidens, over a thousand fighters remained. That might not be enough to defend ten miles of gorge, but it was enough to fully man the three walls of Shadow Tower, with plenty left for logistics and reserves.
Denys assigned the youngest to carry water, the women to haul supplies with carts, and those with healing experience to tend to the wounded. Behind the wooden gate, non-flammable debris was stacked high as backup cover.
Just as everyone had found their task and the entire fortress, save the infants, was working, a sudden cry rang out from the walls flanking the gate.
"Gods, Woolly Mammoths!"
"Giants! There are giants!"
"Shoot! Shoot now!"
"Why aren't the arrows working?"
"Their hides are too thick! Use the bombs!"
"No, save the bombs for the White Walkers!" Denys shouted in fury, but his voice was drowned by chaos. He beckoned a soldier to carry the order up the wall, but before the man could take a step, an earth-shaking boom came from the gate. It sounded as if the gods themselves had struck it with their hammers, and the entire fortress trembled. Even the ground seemed to shake.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
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