36

Chapter 36 – Tumbling Down

The Wall, the North…

The winds had died down somewhat, enough for the men of the Nights Watch to resume their vigil at the top of the wall as they nervously chartered the progress of its collapse. Jorah Mormont and Kinvara rode up to the gate of the tunnel and they saw for themselves the cracks that were now easily visible and nearly at the base of the Wall. It made the unlikely pair frown in worry at what the damage meant for the Wall's defence. They did not have to announce themselves as men on watch had seen them from the top of the wall and sent word down to the men in Castle Black. The cold winds did not bother Jorah that much as he waited for the gate to be raised and the warming charms that Kinvara had placed on her robes kept her quite comfortable. But when the gate finally did open, the sight of who greeted them took all of the breath and words from Jorah as he was faced with a man who shared the same eyes as he but with a weathered face and more wrinkles than he remembered.

"Jorah, I had heard you were dead." Joer Mormont said without expression, Jorah's heart sank as he saw no sign that his father was in anyway pleased to see him or happy that he was alive. Jorah could have kicked himself at his naïve hope that his father might have changed his feelings towards him given what he had done. Brought shame to House Mormont by indulging in slavery, mired his family in debt, left his aunt and her children to deal with the mess he had created after bringing the high class whore Lynesse Hightower into their lives and running away rather than face the consequences of his actions. His past regrets now facing him in the form of the man that he had respected most, his father.

"Lord Commander." Jorah said not able to address the man as his father, not with Jeor giving him a face of stone in return. Anger or even hatred might have been better than the mask his father was giving him but there was a bigger matter than his issues with his father to deal with so he cut to the chase and said what he needed to say. "The Night King and his army are marching on the Wall and Castle Black, they will be here in a matter of days. The Long Night is nearly upon us again."

Jeor and the men at his side paled at the words but somehow did not seem surprised, their eyes turned to Kinvara and suspicion was clearly visible in their eyes but Jorah did not have to speak as Kinvara did instead.

"My lord commander, your son has been my protector for some time and has been doing his best to gain us all time by ambushing the Walkers and their dead servants. He has become very adept at fighting them and would be a key asset in the coming battle. For myself meanwhile I have the gift of magic and am devoted to the defeat of the ancient enemy. Any abilities I possess will be placed in your service." She said with a slight bow which made Jeor narrow his eyes, not sure if he should trust this woman…but with what was coming how could he refuse her help.

Jeor turned around and with a nod gestured for them to follow him back down the tunnel.

They followed, knowing that preparations had to be made.

-x-

Castle Black, the North…

The castle was just as grim and unwelcoming as it had been the last time Jorah had seen it. There were certainly more men around now after the recent Northern Civil War and Jorah conceded that more manpower was going useful in trying to defend the Wall from the Night Walkers although he thought grimly it was not going to matter in the end.

All of whom he noted were currently listening to Kinvara as she outlined the best ways to combat the White Walkers and wights. Many of course were staring at her impressive figure but Kinvara was ignoring them as she gave them the knowledge that might well save their lives.

"The wights will be more what you face when they come to the Wall, as controlled corpses they feel no pain and need no rest to keep on fighting so they will keep coming at you in wave after wave with no thought of self-preservation. If they have no arms, then they will attack you with their teeth." Kinvara said making many of the men look even more scared than they already were before she continued speaking. "But if any of you are thinking of running away or begging for your life forget it, the White Walkers are not interested in political power, land or wealth as you know it. Their only true purpose to kill anything that lives and rule over a lifeless wasteland. No matter how far you run they will never stop chasing you, but they can be killed." She said making some of them look like they were going to wet their breeches but they all leaned in to listen to the next part with renewed interest.

"There are two weapons that you can use against a wight; dragonglass and fire. Either will kill a wight stone dead although fire will be quicker and easily to make. If neither of these are available to you then the only other way to kill a wight is to remove its head with whatever weapon you can find. Anything else will mean the end of you and as for the Walkers themselves, beware for they are twice as strong and twice as fast as you but with a dragonglass blade in your hand, even a nick can shatter them like crystal."

Jorah nearly smiled as the men swallowed every word she said with a focus that was absolute. With all of the Night King's army converging on Castle Black's section of the Wall they would need every advantage that they could get.

Messenger ravens could be seen flying in every direction as warnings were sent around the North. They would have little time to prepare but some warning however brief was better than none, Jorah walked to the solar of the Lord Commander in time to see a man that he recalled was named Eddison his father's steward walking out with a grim look on his face. One that was mirrored on the faces of every man here and as Jorah entered the damp and largely bare room he looked at his father sitting at his desk looking at maps and lists of whatever weapons and materials that they had on hand to fight with. Jorah was struck by how old his father looked, he had already had white hair when they parted company years ago but now there were so many lines around his mouth and eyes that he appeared positively ancient, the sight made a lump form in Jorah's throat wondering how much older they had all become but his father with the same willpower he had always had asked when he looked up.

"Is there something you need?" The tone of his voice was nearly as sharp as their family's blade Longclaw which lay on the chair to the side. Jorah however had the same strength of will as his father and came straight to the point.

"The North will never be able to rally fast enough to aid us in this battle, we have to focus on what we can do here to thin out their ranks." Jorah said and Jeor looked at him with so much anger that he appeared more like the bear their house had chosen as its symbol than a man.

"DO YOU THINK I AM DULL IN THE HEAD?!" Jeor yelled, slamming his fists down hard on the desk as he got quickly to his feet. Jorah held his ground by not backing away or flinching but did nothing to stop his father from ranting. "EVEN IF IT GIVES THEM ONLY A DAY OR SO, THEY WILL BE MORE PREPARED THAN IF I SAID NOTHING. HOLDING THEM HERE IS IMPOSSIBLE BUT WE CAN AT LEAST GIVE THE REST OF WESTEROS TIME TO PREPARE!"

Jorah was silent as he and his father stared into each other's eyes, identical in every way. Jeor did not speak anymore but the anger stayed visible in his eyes. Jorah waited a moment before he dared speak, saying what he needed to say and knowing exactly the reaction he would get.

"I am sorry father, I know you are under great stress right now but if we are going to die then we should nothing unsaid. I failed you and I failed our house, I indulged in a crime that was an affront to every free person in the world and brought shame to our family. All for the sake of a high class whore and I ran rather than face the law like a man should. I understand why you hate me so." Jorah said with sadness as he considered what he might have done differently if he had to make those decisions again. The beauty of the Hightower had blinded him into doing a lot of things that he knew were wrong but he had not been able to stop himself.

Jeor's face remained angry for a moment before he sat down again and sighed, Jorah was surprised at this but more so at what he said.

"I know…my son. While some of the things you did are understandable, the betrayal of our family is the one thing that I cannot truly forgive. It was a large debt that you left hanging over your aunt and her children that was nearly enough to break our house if House Stark had not intervened on our behalf. The ruin you and that southern bitch nearly wrought on our family." Jeor said suddenly sounding as old as he looked. Jorah felt guiltier than ever as he saw the weight of the years descend on his father. Jeor then lifted his head and said with some of his strength returning.

"But I might feel better if the son I remember fought at my side once more against our enemy. Made his stand here and now, will he be there?" Jeor asked with a tiny glimmer of hope in his eyes that nearly brought a tear to Jorah who felt a great relief that there was something else in his father's heart for him other than hate. He stood straighter and taller and placed a hand on his sword's hilt.

"He will be there, it would be a…honour." The two Mormont men looked at each other as father and son for the first time in untold years.

-x-

The night fell quickly as the Walkers and their army of the dead finally reached the Wall. The men that had dared man the catapults on the top of the Wall were nearly frozen to human statues as they looked out at the forest that was only scant miles from the wall when they saw for the first time just what they would be facing.

Almost like a tide in the ocean, a mass of black figures came out of the forest in front of them. Their breath caught in their throat as they saw the numbers arrayed against them and just what the Night King had brought under his control.

Wights of course made the largest part of his army but they were so varied that in no way could it be called organised as they milled around like insects. Humans of course were present in the largest numbers who were so varied in appearance in was astonishing; slavers from Essos, wildlings and even Night's Watch Rangers stood shoulder to shoulder with dead snow bears, wolves, dogs, shadowcats, mammoths, trolls and giants. The Walkers themselves remained firmly behind their army sat upon dead horses, content it seemed to let their army of the dead do the work for them a fact that actually made the men of the Night's Watch scoff seeing it as cowardice. The one attribute that the entire army of the dead shared with their masters was the disturbing blue eyes which scared the men of the Night's Watch more than they dared admit. The man commanding the Catapults and archers on the top of the Wall swallowed as nerves tightened inside him before he gave his orders.

"Catapults, load barrels. Archers, draw!" The men nervously loaded the barrels of oil that they had stockpiled onto the launchers while the archers notched their bows with arrows although they did not know what damaged that they could hope to achieve with them. The next set of orders however did make sense of the decision. "LAUNCH BARRELS, ARCHERS IGNITE ARROWS AND LOOSE!"

The catapults sent the barrels of oil high into the sky and the men watched with keen interest as they fell to earth and splattered the wights with the flammable substance not that they took any notice. The archers on the wall then did as they were told and lit their arrows on fire before firing them at the areas where the oil barrels had struck. The moment the arrows landed, the oil was ignited in a fantastic burst of flame that consumed any of the wights that had been covered in the sticky substance or were close enough to the fire that it leapt to them. Seeing the initial success of the tactic, the men on top of the Wall cheered and their commander called out to his men, eager to keep the momentum going.

"LOAD MORE BARRELS, ARCHERS AND CATAPULTS LOOSE!" He yelled out and more barrels were being loaded as fast as the men could and launched at the mass of wights while archers launched their arrows towards the enemy to thin out their numbers as much as possible. One thing that did unsettle the men however, the way that the wights just seemed to stand there even as they burned and made no noise at all as the fire consumed them. Some of them had seen battle before and had heard men burning to death so the silence was more disturbing to them than if they had been screaming out. However they appreciated that the tactic was at least thinning out the enemy lines somewhat with forty or fifty wights being cleared out in each wave.

The thought briefly crossed all of their minds that they might actually be able to hold the Walkers here and prevent them crossing the wall at all, it was a strange thing given that they all knew that the Wall was going to break soon and they were outnumbered to an absolutely ridiculous degree but for that brief, glorious moment they actually thought that they might be able to hold the Walkers and their wights back and end this war before it even started.

-x-

The Night King sat on his dead horse watching the humans as they threw barrels of oil and set his wights on fire. He was unimpressed to say the least, was this the best they could do he thought to himself? Throwing oil at his soldiers in the hope that it might make him scared enough to run away. He could almost sense their terror at the sight of his army and he had not even brought the ice dragons to this battle. He would use them later to sow chaos and dread amongst the humans, fear was the strongest impulse in them and he would take full advantage of it. Beside he concluded the Night's Watch themselves would replenish his numbers once he had breached their accursed wall and there would be many more soldiers beyond that for his army.

Everything that lived would serve him soon enough, for all eternity.

With that decision he pulled a large horn from his belt. It was old and feared by all of the wildlings due to its magical powers, once a human king had blown it and woken the giants and had earned it the name the Horn of Winter. Fitting the Night King thought that now he would use it to finish the job that decay had started on the wall and open the route south so he could finish the conquest that he and his people had started so many thousands of years ago.

Moving the horn to his pale lips he summoned breath and with an almighty exhale, forced all of the air that he could into the horn.

The strange thing was that the horn seemed to make no noise at all, instead it was like a breeze had collided with the wall and the men on the top barely felt it at all. Animals like hounds, ravens and horses all whined as if in pain while Kinvara however who was standing with the men in Castle Black for when the tunnel was breached screamed out as if gripped by the greatest horror you could imagine. Jorah rushed to her side as the men looked on in surprise and alarm and held her in his arms. He looked into her terrified eyes and asked desperately.

"What is it? What is wrong?"

"It all comes tumbling down." She said in a voice that was barely a whisper, her words chilling him and Jeor to the bone.

-x-

The Wall itself seemed fine in the immediate aftermath of the horn being blown, standing tall as it always had for thousands of years. The men on the top did not even stop firing their barrels and flaming arrows into the wights who kept falling into ash as the magic that held them up was undone by fire.

Then there was a deep rumble that stopped all of the men in their tracks, the ice beneath their feet seemingly vibrating. They all looked around for the source of the shaking but they could not see a thing but one thing was certain, the vibration was getting harsher making it near impossible for the men to stay on their feet. Some that were close to the edges of the Wall fell to their deaths as they lost their footing while others clung to whatever they could. But it was all for nothing as the cracks accelerated and plunged into the foundations of the Wall, the cracks expanded outward until an enormous section of the Wall was held in place by nothing but the most delicate balance.

That balance was broken only seconds later as the cold wind impacted again on the Wall but this time instead of holding strong it collapse like a piece of broken glass. The men on the top of the wall could only scream as the ice beneath their feet gave way and they were sent plunging towards the ground below. The men in Castle Black looked on in terror as a section of the Wall gave way right in front of them and left their castle more exposed that it had been in its entire history.

Jeor and Jorah looked on with eyes that had an identical hard glint in them, knowing that now they were about to face the full might of the wights and it was scaring them both more than they could ever admit. Seeing the mass of wights charging towards them like an approaching storm they drew their swords and called out.

"FOR THE WATCH!"

The men that were able to speak repeated their words while many were too terrified to speak and more than a few looked ready to flee but they all drew their weapons knowing that there would be no escape from this battle.

-x-

The Wights charged forward exactly as everyone thought they would, the men shook as they met the unstoppable charge head on a weak shield wall was the only defence against the oncoming wights that the men had. It held by the barest of margins, allowing some men to swing their axes and swords to try out what Kinvara had told them and sever the heads of the wights. The disturbing sight of the desecrated corpses of people just like them scared most of the men into freezing but a few managed to rally their courage and strike back.

Jorah swung his sword and took the head of a large wildling clean off, causing the rest of its body to fall like a puppet with its strings cut. Seeing this some of the men regained enough of their senses to attack themselves, swinging over the shield wall wildly in an attempt to get some of the wights. The men holding the shields straining with all their might and weight to hold the line against the army of the dead narrowly avoiding death from their own allies who were attacking like mad men.

Jorah with Orphanmaker in hand was swinging as hard and as fast as he could, but no matter how many he killed, seven more would take its place. His arms were already starting to ache and with a mounting sense of fear he honestly thought to himself that it would never end, a statement that he deeply regretted as three hulking forms emerged, stamping down on the other wights as they made their way forward. The men including Jorah all looked up to see three giants with fatal wounds and glowing blue eyes moving towards them. Jorah was only saved from their swing when it came by the sacrifice of the shield bearers who were all knocked clear aside as waves of new wights came up behind the dead giants ready to charge. Jorah and the men at his side just looked ahead in resignation that they were about to die when suddenly a fierce orange light emerged from behind them.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" A female voice screamed and Jorah looked around to see Kinvara struggling to hold a ball of fire in her hands. He did not hesitate to get out of her way nor did the other men.

Kinvara with sweat rolling off of her forehead then used all of her concentration to unleash the fire elemental magic that she had called on. She felt herself becoming slightly faint as she focused all of its barely restrained heat and power towards the wights. Upon contact they were instantly reduced to ash including the three giants. Her fire rushed forward and cleared out the wights in the section of the collapsed wall, many of the men behind her cheering like mad men as she single handed held the wights back.

All but one, a steward formerly from House Frey who had already been shaking at the sight of the wights but the power of the magical fire was the last straw that pushed him over the edge.

"IT IS THE END OF THE WORLD! DEMONS FROM THE SEVEN HELLS ARE HERE TO KILL US ALL! RUN!" The weasel of a man ran towards the castle gates, wanting to get as far away from here as he could but on the way he stumbled right into Kinvara. She fell back and her head collided with a bundle of wood knocking her out cold, her fire vanishing in an instant with the last victim being not a wight or a walker but the hapless and cowardly steward who was incinerated on the spot.

Jorah and the other men looked on in horror as Eddison Tollett his father's personal steward rushed forward and desperately tried to revive Kinvara but it was no good. The sorceress was out cold and would be for some time, certainly in no shape to carry on using her magical fire. Jeor immediately took control of the situation and called out to his steward.

"TAKE A HORSE, GET HER AND YOURSELF TO WINTERFELL! WARN LORD STARK…THE WALL AND THE NIGHT'S WATCH HAVE FALLEN!" He shouted knowing full well without her they had no hope of even holding their ground for a short space of time. All they could do now was warn the North and try to destroy as much of the Night King's army as they could. Eddison was reluctant to leave the rest of his sworn brothers to such a hopeless battle without standing at their sides but he did his duty and grabbed one of the few horses they had and with Kinvara balanced precariously on the saddle he rode his horse out of the gates of the castle south. Everyone watched him go before turning back to the chasm that had opened and saw that already more wights of all descriptions were pouring into the breach, straight at them.

Drawing whatever weapons they could they grimly held their ground, Jeor rallied his men by starting to repeat the oath that all of them had taken when they joined the Watch, even Jorah who was not a member of the Watch spoke in tandem with the rest.

"Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am a sword in the darkness. I am the watcher of the walls. I am the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honour to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."

-x-

On the other side of the now broken Wall, the Night's King watched satisfied although feeling was a strange notion for him as his servants now charged straight into the castle of the humans. The fire that had stopped them had surprised him at first but he was glad now to see it gone. Not as powerful as the humans at the tree had demonstrated but enough perhaps to endanger a large portion of his army. He turned to one of his brothers and gestured forward for them to go and join in the attack. There was still lingering magic in the air and he did not want for it to interfere with his servants. His brother nodded and rode his undead horse forward into the thick of battle.

-x-

Inside Castle Black the fighting was up-close and personal as the wights poured into Castle Black. The men inside were struggling their hardest to hold against them but for everyone alive, there was at least three wights with more arriving all the time. The men of the Nights Watch fought their hardest but with every moment that passed more of them were dying.

A trio of former Vale Knights were swarmed by dozens of wights that used their rotting and broken teeth to maul them to death with minutes, a Riverland man formerly of House Frey was being thrown around by a snow bear with one eye like a ragdoll before the creature tore his head clean from his shoulders. A troll that had only one arm which was stupid enough when it was alive had not improved in death and was now lumbering around mindlessly and squashing anything in its path under foot. A tall and well-muscled Iron Born that had once served Balon Greyjoy before being forced to join the Watch was using his double sided battle-axe to clear the wights of their heads, laughing like a madman as he took down one after another until he confronted with a pack of wight wolves that seemed to retain some of their pack mentality and surrounded him before they lunged in from different angles. He cried out in pain and desperately tried to force the wolves to let go as they locked their jaws around his legs and arms but nothing would force the wolves to let go and he was swiftly torn to pieces.

Similar sights were happening all around them as they struggled to take as many wights with them as they could. But the wights without any sense of self-preservation did not care if they lived or died and charged them in wave after wave that overwhelmed the Night's Watch with pure numbers.

Jeor was using whatever strength remained to him as he swung Longclaw left and right with the skill of so many years, killing more wights than nearly everyone. Acting as though the desperate fight was a dance and moving like water to cut down as many as he could. The men were inspired by their leader if they had a chance to see it. The rampant snow bear that was cutting its way through the human men turned itself towards Jeor who smiled grimly before angling his sword carefully as the bear charged. At the last moment he sidestepped as the bear passed and sent it careening into a pile of kindling. While stupid half dead creature struggled to free itself from the mess it had created, Jeor with one might slash, severed the creature's head from its body.

However one man was killing just as many wights as Jeor and more again, his own son Jorah who was almost exactly like his father, moving fluidly between each kill with his sword moving through the neck of one wight after another. Except he was years younger than his father, faster with greater strength that came with a more active lifestyle. Jorah caught sight a pair of shadowcats trying to catch old Denys Mallister behind and without missing a beat he grabbed an axe from a fallen Night's Watch ranger and threw it at one of the shadowcats. It sailed through the air and caught one in the gut, not enough to end its miserable half existence but enough to send it back a step, allowing Denys to react in time to dodge the lunging swipe of the other cat before cutting its head clean off. The sole surviving shadowcat, now with an axe still lodged in its chest turned to charge again, Denys looking deep into those unnatural blue eyes while readying his sword. It charged but before it reached him Jorah got close enough to swing his sword through the creature's neck.

The two men did not share a glance as the second after they were defending themselves from another wave of wights that charged straight into the courtyard of Castle Black, which was quickly beginning to resemble a slaughter house with the bodies of both human and wight piling up all around. The men that lived were very quickly becoming outnumbered by the dead as yet more men were overwhelmed by the seemingly endless number of wights that came passing through the gap in the Wall. Then just as they thought it could not get any worst a creature on an undead horse rode into the yard. Jeor and his son had of course seen it's like before and knew it to be a White Walker and as if they needed any more proof, it easily grabbed Terrance Celtigar when the foolish young knight tried to charge it and crushed his skull like a piece of parchment. The sight made them all cringe, the sound was even worse but Jorah who had the experience of months hunting these creatures did not hesitate and swung his sword at the undead horse's leg, severing them at the knee.

The effect was immediate as the horse toppled over and the Walker moved quickly to get off before it found itself in a fight with Jorah who with great difficulty managed to hold his ground as the walker pressed forward, Jorah's feet dug themselves hard into the dirt as they slid backwards under the pressure of the Walker's attack. However while the Walker, confident of victory pressed forward without much thought Jorah stayed calm and thought on his surroundings and became aware of the fact that the ground was slick with blood and snow not to mention body parts. So with a firm grip of Orphanmaker, he ducked and rolled suddenly only narrowly avoiding the ice sear of the Walker which stumbled forward and Jorah pulled a dragonglass dagger (one of a stash he and Kinvara had found beyond the Wall) and threw it straight into the Walker's back.

The Walker which would have easily dodged the dagger if Jorah had thrown it at his front howled at the feeling of the dagger penetrating its back. The effect was immediate as the grey pallor of the body began to turn a bluish white, it struggled trying to stave off the inevitable but it soon fell to his knees and quickly evaporated into flakes of ice that blew away easily in the wind.

With that act a sudden silence fell over the yard as the wights seemed to stop still for a moment, as if for them time had stood still. Jeor and the rest of the survivors looked around in confusion but knowing it could not last and wanting to save what few men remained, Jeor gave his orders.

"Grab a barrel and spread oil around, now!" He called out to the four men that remained including his own son although the number stabbed at his heart. Less than an hour ago he had hundreds of Black Brothers here, now only he and three others remained not counting Jorah. None the less he, Jorah, Bowen Marsh, Cotter Pyke and Denys Mallister each grabbed a barrel of oil and threw it as far around the yard as they could and retreated to the open gate. Taking a lit torch, Jeor hesitated for a moment, not wanting to destroy the place that had been his home for so many years but there were too many wights to simply behead them and the last thing they needed was the bodies of all the dead Night's Watch brothers adding to the army of the dead.

So with much regret he threw the lit torch into a pool of oil which immediately caught fire, the surviving men dragged the sole horses remaining by the reins through the gates and with some effort pushed them closed behind them. The fire they saw was quickly taking hold and consuming the largely wooden castle.

The men all looked in sadness at the burning of the ancient castle but time was of the essence and in the light of the burning Castle Black, Jeor turned to his follow men and gave what might be the last orders he gave as Lord Commander of the Nights Watch.

"We must spread the word of what has happened here, our brothers at the other castles must be warned and the Umbers as they will feel the Walker's presence first. Myself and Jorah will ride to Last Hearth to inform them of what has happened, the rest of you go to our other brothers and get them to retreat south to defend the other castles in the North. Our own castles are unprotected now the Wall is breached. Good luck my brothers." He said taking their hands and shaking it in turn before they all went their separate ways.

-x-

Three Hours Later…

The fire burned intensely, stockpiles of oil, hay and wood keeping it going for hours. The wights inside combusting as they were touched by the fire while the bodies of the fallen Night's Watch were saved from being reanimated as slaves for the Night King's army as the fire consumed their bodies. The Night king was annoyed and in some ways amused at the actions of the surviving humans, the dead would not be useable as part of his army but if they thought that would stop him and his people in their crusade then they were going to be sorely disappointed. When his strange blue eyes finally saw the fire die down he led his army himself through the opening in the accursed wall that had kept them out for so long.

The dark clouds overhead heralded his and the army of the dead's arrival in the North as they marched south. Thousands and thousands of wights at the Night King's back stumbled after their master with the intent to end everything that lived.

His column was enormous; the battle had been less than a dent in his own forces and overhead seven ice dragons flew. Yes the Night King thought with something akin to pride. The Long Night had begun again and this time it would never end.