"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.
His icy gaze turned upward, easily finding Jon atop the wall, Jon recognizing the icy crown spikes atop his head. Keeping his gaze on Jon, the Night King dismounted, finally breaking it to glance toward the Bay of Seals.
Jon glanced to the water when he saw the Night King and walk straight toward the shore. Reaching the edge, the Night King stared out at the water as Jon's widened. "Go now," he told the others, stepping back as they watched the Night King take a knee. "Go now!"
The moment his hand touched the water it solidified, the sheet of ice stretching across the bay.
By the time Jon and the others had reached the docks of Eastwatch the ice had frozen the water around them, leaving a clear path that continued to grow. Those gathered watched as the Night King pulled his hand from the water and waited for a wight to begin walking toward him, taking their first step on the ice. After it's third step another wight stepped onto the ice, and then five more.
As wights made their way onto the ice it wasn't long before a pair of White Walkers joined them, and eventually the Night King stepped onto the ice, turning to meet Jon's gaze.
Once the Night King took his first step toward the docks, Jon leapt off the edge to the ice below, catching himself and taking a breath as he got to his feet. The others followed or went around to the shore.
Wights charged across the ice, as Bronn looked to the others. "Are we actually fuckin'doing this?"
His answer was the Night King reaching back to draw his sword as the wights charged them.
"Kill him and we could end this now," Jon called out. He unsheathed Longclaw and began an anthem of drawn steel as he roared and charged across the frozen bay.
Longclaw slashed through a wight that leapt at Jon, keeping his pace running toward the White Walkers. The others followed close behind, valyrian steel and dragonglass causing the reanimated corpses to crumple and fall away.
They followed their unwavering king as he cut through undead soldiers, parrying blows and slicing through torsos to leave broken corpses in his wake. Arya was the closest to him, weaving between undead men, her Thread slipping through them with ease, stopping any who dared try to attack Jon's back.
Sandor's greatsword sent sets of wights clattering to the ground, cutting through three at a time before swinging down to crush the skull and chest of another. Beric and Thoros' flaming blades ignited those they cut while Jorah deftly kept on Jon's left guarding his king and found Jaime there to pierce the skull of one he'd missed with Widow's Wail. Theon grit his teeth as he parried a strike from a wight and drove Winter Squall into the wight's collar, it's body crumbling around the blade.
Tormund let out a yell as his axe slammed into the chest of a wight, throwing its body back while it fell apart, scattering bones across the ice. His eyes met the icy blue death of a White Walker and he laughed. "Come on, fucker!"
Arya saw Jon cut through a wight to find the Night King before him. Dashing forward he met the curved blade with a rising slash. The Night King was unmoving as Jon glared into his eyes, pressing against the blade not to try and push through it but to keep him from moving his own. Arya spotted one of the walkers moving toward Jon, but before she could reach him Tormund let out a roar and swung his axe at the white bearded walker, who caught it against his own blade. Sandor let out a yell as he swung Gravedigger through a wight in a rising slash that the other White Walker deflected.
The wights around them seemed to double, coming in faster as the rest of the men joined them. She saw one of the Lannister men be run through with a sword only for Jaime to swiftly stab the wight that killed him and slash Widow's Wail through the killed man's chest in hopes of keeping him from rising again. He didn't, but Arya suspected it was only because the White Walkers were busy.
Tormund was pushed back by the White Walker he clashed with, but Jorah appeared behind him, pressing his shoulder into Tormund's back to keep him steady while thrusting Mother's Might through a wight's chest. He'd given his sword, Prick, to one of the other free folk who was using it with a hammer in his off hand to smash through skulls.
He managed to swing his axe again, forcing the White Walker to lock blades with Tormund, leaving him clear for Jorah to move around and swing Mother's Mother straight into the White Walker's side as hard as he could. The creature's eyes widened before it shattered, spraying across the frozen lake.
Sandor let out a roar as Theon and Roger Ryswell dashed forward to stab at the White Walker he faced, forcing the scraggly haired walker to swiftly deflect their blows. That left him open for Sandor to raise his greatsword overhead and bring it down on the walker, shattering his body when the blade cracked his skull.
Jon was stood alone with the Night King, who broke their bind by taking a pair of steps back. The moment he could he slashed at Jon's left arm, but the strike was parried, so he went for his right leg and found Longclaw there as well.
While others fought off waves of wights, Jon met the Night King blow for blow, Longclaw catching his curved blade every time. However every time Jon thrust or slashed at him, the Night King deflected or dodges his strikes, forcing Jon back on the defense.
Arya kept her eyes on him, trying to find an opening to run in and stick Thread through the Night King's chest, but the wights kept coming, forcing them away from him and Jon. It was like he was separating them from the others, blocking their path with wights.
Jon had just managed to parry one of the Night King's strikes when he grunted and thrust Longclaw straight toward his heart. He wasn't surprised to see the Night King step back, turning slightly to let the blade pass in front of his chest. He'd already prepared to turn, swinging the blade into him and hopefully cutting through his armor, but then the Night King grabbed Longclaw.
The air seemed to still as Jon met the Night King's gaze, his icy lips twitching into a slight smile. He turned his gaze from Jon to his hand on Longclaw and Jon followed, his eyes widening as he watched ice stretch across the blade.
Jon sucked in a breath as he heard Arya yell his name and saw the Night King raise his sword. He'd been ready to leap back when he saw the curved blade coming down, but it wasn't aimed at him.
In a single slash the Night King cleaved through Longclaw, leaving Jon with barely half the blade. That moment of shock was short lived as the Night King turned his hand and spun toward Jon, driving Longclaw's top half into his right shoulder.
Stumbling back with a pained yell, Jon raised his broken bastard sword and managed to block the Night King's sword, but it only made his shoulder hurt more. He stumbled back again as the Night King raised his sword, but when he brought it down it wasn't Jon's blood that soaked the blade but that of Thoros of Myr.
The Red Priest winced as he met the Night King's eyes, letting out a bitter snort before he muttered a prayer and drove his flaming sword into his own chest. His yell seemed to grow as his body burst into flames. The Night King narrowed his eyes and stepped back as the flames stretched out from the red priest's body.
With a grunt Jon grabbed the broken blade in his shoulder and tore it free, holding it in his gloved hand like a dagger, driving it into the eye of a wight that attacked him. However he didn't notice the White Walker that rushed around the fire to attack him until it was too late.
The frozen man thrust his sword toward Jon's chest only to find it pushed aside by a rippled steel dagger, passing far from the king. His unearthly blue eyes met Arya's as she told him, "Not today." With that she thrust Thread forward, straight into the White Walker's throat, making him choke for a split second before shattering.
Looking at them all the Night King turned and began walking back to the shore, holding out his hand as some of the wights seemed to part, letting a large undead Ram make its way toward them.
"We drove him back," Theon said slashing through a wight.
Watching the Night King tear the horn from the ram's head, Tormund shook his head, "I don't think it's that easy."
Without stopping his return to shore, the Night King held the horn up and pressed his nail into the surface, swiftly carving runes across it. The moment he set foot on shore, the Night King mounted his undead steed before turning back to where he saw Jon and the others battling wights and put the horn to his lips.
What started as a normal blow of a horn fell deeper and deeper, becoming a warbling unearthly screech. Blue drained from the sky as the air seemed to chill and though the sun remained it seemed no brighter than the moon, leaving only the cosmic void to replace the azure sky. When the horn fell silent in the still of the new night they heard the cracks.
Jon looked to the Night King, who slumped slightly as two other White Walkers approached him on horseback, placing a hand on his shoulders and guiding his horse back to the trees. His gaze then turned to the Wall as the cracks grew louder and became visible across the thick ice. The first part fell off the very tip of the wall, falling hundreds of feet before crashing through the ice.
"Run!" Jon ordered, slashing his broken sword through a wight. "Off the ice!"
While they all ran for the shore the wights continued to fight. The remaining White Walker went after Jon, but was stopped by Jaime and Theon, both of them dashing past Jon to thrust their swords into frozen man's abdomen, shattering him.
Jon paused to thrust the broken tip of Longclaw into a wight who grabbed Jaime, wincing as he brought the broken bottom half into another's side as it clawed at Jon. Another chunk of the Wall fell, breaking another piece of the bay as cracks began to stretch through the ice below them.
Arya had taken point, weaving through wights as fast as she could to clear a path for Jon, but glancing back she saw even with Beric, Jorah, Jaime, Theon, Tormund and Sandor around him they pushed past and had started to swarm Jon. He tried to fight them off with his broken half weapons, but for each he destroyed two more took their place, clinging to him until three charged between the others and brought axes down on the ice.
Arya screamed as she watched the mass of wights covering Jon drop into the bay. The others seemed frozen in place before another chunk of the Wall fell, splashing them all with water. Tormund took a breath and roared, charging straight into a wight running toward Arya, slashing through it hard enough the wight's bones flew meters away.
"Go!" Tormund yelled.
Arya shook her head and turned, yelling with every thrust or slash of Thread that left a wight lifeless. They managed to return to the shore with three quarters of those who had gone on the ice. While most continued to run away from the wall, Arya turned to look back at the hole in the ice where her brother had been. She tried to be no one, but her eyes were flooded with tears, her heart beating so erratically she was trembling.
She felt lost until she heard Rhaegal's roar.
They all looked up to see the green and bronze dragon speeding overhead and dive toward the bay, blowing a stream of fire to melt the ice before water exploded around his body and he was diving.
Jaime grabbed Arya's shoulder, pulling her until she followed the others in running from the crumbling Wall, avoiding the horses fleeing the massive misty cloud of dust, ice and snow as chunks fell to earth and shattered. After they'd run for a moment Arya glanced back when she heard another explosion of water and watched Rhaegal pierce the cloud, roaring while she spotted a small dark body hanging on his back.
Watching Rhaegal speed toward the southern horizon Arya looked to the others. "Let's gather the horses we can and make for the roads," she ordered, pushing aside her relief. "We're falling back to Winterfell."
With a final glance from the massive cloud stretched across the wake of the Wall to the dimmed sun beginning his descent through an obsidian sky she could only think there was no denying it.
The Long Night had arrived.