The once-worn and cracked horn, its brass covered in a layer of green patina, flickered with dark red and icy blue runes in the hands of the Night King. It radiated sacred majesty, filled with a pressure that weighed upon the soul.
This was the true Horn of Winter.The legendary "Horn of Joramun," said to awaken the giants beneath the earth and bring the Wall crashing down.
In the old tales, Mance Rayder transformed into a daring grave-robber, leading a band of treasure hunters through Frostfang Mountain (the place beyond the Wall most prized by feng shui masters), yet he never found Joramun's tomb.
Perhaps he lacked Hu Bayi's techniques and Little Brother's rich "archaeological knowledge." Even if he did open the tomb, Mance Rayder likely would not have recognized the skeleton inside.
In the end, Mance found a fierce and imposing "Giant's Horn" from the tomb of the Giant King.
The Giant's Horn looked formidable, but it was nothing more than a polished lump of goat droppings.
When the wildlings negotiated with the Dragon Queen, Mance even used the horn to threaten her.We wildlings have a trump card. Do not force me into a corner. If you do, I will blow down the Wall and perish together with you southerners.
The Dragon Queen crossed her arms and raised her chin slightly. With thick scorn in her eyes, she laughed coldly.Go ahead and blow it. I will stand right here while you do. Let us see whether your bragging can really bring down the Wall.
Mance wilted.
Later, just as Daenerys was about to secure the loyalty of over one hundred thousand wildlings, the master cherry-picker Stannis suddenly appeared with a thousand horsemen and snatched away her victory.
That enormous horn became Melisandre's spoil of war, then was burned and offered as a sacrifice to R'hllor.
The Horn of Winter was so rarely mentioned that even the old northern nursemaids barely spoke of it.It was a myth passed down only among the wildlings beyond the Wall.
Yes, the free folk always believed it existed. Otherwise Mance Rayder would not have gone to such effort to search for it.
But south of the Wall, not even northerners believed there was a horn that could blow down the Wall.
So from beginning to end, Dany never paid the Horn of Winter any mind.
To say the Game of Thrones ending misled Daenerys by not showing the horn breaking the Wall would also be incorrect.
She had watched the entire creation of the Wall by Brandon the Builder from beginning to completion. No one ever placed a backdoor into its ancient warding spells. The Horn of Winter never appeared at all.
If even Brandon the Builder left no contingency, from where would the wildlings get a horn powerful enough to bring down the Wall?
Not only did Daenerys dismiss the Horn of Winter, Jon, Melisandre, Maester Pylos the historian, and even every Night's Watchman upon the Wall all believed no horn could shatter it.
Yet now they were collectively proven wrong.The horn had appeared.
It had shown up several years earlier, but no one had sounded it.Or more accurately, it never fell into the hands of Daenerys or Melisandre.
Those capable of seeing its strangeness never laid eyes on it, while the one carrying it was a mere muggle, unable to recognize its nature.
After storing away the horn, the Night King raised his hand toward the enormous breach where the Wall had collapsed.
A faint rustling rose.
A dense mass of wights surged forward like the clone army from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones: a vast block of troops, silent yet rapidly advancing.
It looked like a silent ocean spilling south of the Wall, gray waves rolling over the tall mounds left by the toppled stones.
It also resembled a god upending a bottle of dark gray ink speckled with pale blue stars, the ink spreading at terrifying speed across the frozen land of the North.
Eastwatch and the little fishing village behind it were the first Westerosi settlements to be swallowed by the corpse tide.
Lights winked out in a thick white haze.The dying screams of men and women, of the elderly and children, faded into the dark storm, and moments later they opened eyes gleaming blue and joined the ranks of the wight army.
"How could this be? How could this happen? How could the Wall fall…"Woolma, drenched to the bone and his wrinkled face frozen black-blue by the cold, knelt on the deck of a longship and muttered blankly.
Glacial blocks and stones sliding into the sea created waves that slowly calmed.The Seal Bay fleet gradually hauled up more than a dozen black-cloaked brothers from the icy waters, Woolma among them.
The moment the first crack appeared in the Wall, Woolma, a ranger with thirty years of experience, sensed the danger.
Just like the countless perils he had faced in the Haunted Forest, he sought survival immediately.He ran east and leapt into the Seal Bay.
Not only did he jump himself, he shouted for every brother of the Night's Watch to follow him.
"I jump, you jump!"
Many did leap.But as they threw themselves blindly into the sea, they forgot they were wearing heavy steel armor.
A lump of iron splashing into deep water has only one fate.
Their end was even worse than Jack and Rose.
"Sob… Jamie, Jamie, do not die… please…"Beside Woolma, a tall young man named Tom clutched his companion and wailed.
Skinny Jamie and Tall Tom were not qualified to wear steel armor.They only wore standard wool cloaks and leather jerkins, which ironically saved their lives.
But Skinny Jamie's luck ran out.When he surfaced, a door-sized block of ice struck him full in the face and knocked him beneath the waves.
By the time Tom found him and dragged him onto the deck, the Skinny one had only a single breath left.
"Little sister, my little sister," the Skinny Monkey murmured plaintively, his eyes gradually dimming.
"Wuwu, your sister is my sister too. As long as I'm alive, aside from the money I need to go to Mole Village, I'll send all my wages to your sister," Tall Tom said through tears.
"Thank you." The light in the Skinny Monkey's eyes went out, then flared brilliantly, his eyes shining even brighter than when he had been alive.
"Jamie?" Tom touched his companion's frost-stiffened cheek and asked in confusion, "Why have your black eyes turned blue?"
"Blue?" Ulma felt a chill run down his back and snapped fully awake from his daze. "Careful!"
"Awooo!" His warning came too late. The Skinny Monkey seemed to awaken with the colossal strength of a vajra giant. He suddenly reached out, clamped down on Tom's right hand that was touching his cheek, then sat bolt upright. As Tom stared in confusion, he opened his mouth wide and, like lightning, bit into Tom's throat.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss." Warm blood sprayed over the Skinny Monkey's head and face. He paid no heed, gulping down the fresh blood, tearing at the muscles of the throat, chewing with force.
"What are you doing?" Tom's face was as pale as if dusted with lime. His chin rested weakly on the Skinny Monkey's shoulder as he murmured in bewilderment.
The light in his eyes gradually dimmed, and then—
Clang! The Skinny Monkey shoved his little companion away, his blue-glowing eyes turning toward Ulma.
He stopped gnawing on Tom, because Tom had become his little companion again.
Rip! Before Tom and Jamie could pounce on Ulma, a flash of black lightning suddenly streaked past.
Then the heads of the two corpses were torn from their necks. The headless bodies collapsed to the ground and lay still, never to move again.
"To hell with the Other King's backside!" A burly man in black armor with a shark emblem on his chest swung a bloodstained dragon-tooth blade and strode over from behind Tom and Jamie, laughing loudly. "At last we've confirmed some good news. The dragon-tooth blades invented by the Dragon Queen are indeed extraordinarily effective."
This was a longship of the Eastern Sea Watch Fleet.
Naturally, there were more than just Ulma, Tom, and Jamie aboard. Jamie's sudden attack and killing of Tom had already been an accident. The Night's Watch on the ship would not foolishly stand by and watch wights bite Ulma to death.
As for this burly man with the shark-head emblem,he came from the Three Sisters. He was the current head of House Tothren of Sweetsister, Count Alexander.
After the Dragon Queen launched the "United Front Against the Dead," the Night's Watch at the Wall could truly be said to have knights everywhere and counts as common as dogs.
Like Count Roland, who had sunk into the sea, Count Alexander had voluntarily handed his title to his eldest son. He himself brought warhorses, armor, provisions, weapons, and other supplies to the Wall, donned black, and became a proud man of the Night's Watch.
"It's over. It's all over," Ulma shook his head and sighed. "So what if dragon-tooth blades are highly effective against the Others?Now the Wall has collapsed. The Others are pouring into the North like a tidal wave. The North is finished. The Seven Kingdoms are finished."
Count Alexander leaned on the hilt of his blade, gazing at the endless tide of corpses crossing through the breached Wall defenses along the shore. He gave a bitter smile and sighed. "The collapse of the Wall is no longer something we can handle. Hurry to Dragonstone and summon the Dragon Queen!"
"The Dragon Queen." A glimmer of light slowly rose in Ulma's dim eyes.
Uh, not the light of becoming a wight, but the light of hope.
"Yes, hurry to Dragonstone and summon the Dragon Queen! She will surely turn the tide," he shouted.
"And the Child of Prophecy," a sailor behind Count Alexander reminded softly. "We have two saviors."
"Saviors." The graying beard beneath Ulma's lip trembled a few times.
"Stannis and Jon Stark must be notified as well. I only hope they can truly make a difference," he said uncertainly.
"Mother have mercy! Quick, retreat! The sea is starting to freeze!" A sailor's terrified shout came from a longship ahead.
Bang, boom! Bang, boom! Next came the sounds of ship-mounted catapults hurling jars of fire oil. The jars fell and exploded on the sea's surface, blooming into clusters of eerie green flames.
When Dragonstone had shipped dragonglass to the Wall, it had also sent more than a dozen alchemists, who made many wildfire bombs mixed with Tyrion oil for the Night's Watch.
Dany had worried that the Others would use ice to pierce ships and cross the bay, so the wildfire bombs were prepared specifically for the navy.
On the freezing sea surface, the green flames could still burn, melting the thin ice while also illuminating the surroundings for the sailors behind.
Dense white freezing fog poured through the breach in the Wall, howling southward and spreading east across the sea. The once turbulent, inky-black waters grew as quiet as a maiden within the frozen mist.
Visible to the naked eye, a layer of gray-white frost formed over the dark sea surface. The thin frost solidified within the freezing fog into deep, milky-white blocks of ice.
It was as if an ice queen named Elsa were slowly approaching. Before everyone's eyes, the sea was sealed in ice.
"Retreat! The Others are coming across the ice!" Count Alexander shouted in terror.
All the oarsmen took their positions and rowed with all their might to evade the advancing solid ice. At the same time, wildfire jars were thrown from the deck to burn the already frozen sea surface, blocking the fearless, pain-free army of corpses.
But the speed at which the ice spread seemed to exceed that of the oars.
It was also their own fault for getting too close to shore while trying to rescue people.
Splash, rumble! Another sudden change occurred. From the depths of the ocean behind them rose a thunderous tsunami, surging toward the coast.
Then, from the ship's hold, a mad song drifted out:"Down under the sea, mermaids drink starfish soup. All the servants are crabs, oh yes. I know, I know, oh oh oh~~~"
"Patchface?" Ulma exclaimed in shock and uncertainty.
(End of chapter)
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